Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Inside/Outside


...and up/down, forward/back, here/there, past/future, me/you, them/us...

It seems odd to me that in an age where everything seems to have fragmented into a million conflicting pieces (the 20th and 21st centuries) was also the age that science discovered what the philosphers of antiquity already knew: that the Cosmos is one eternal and unbroken whole.

I would like to quote from Ken Wilber's No Boundary,pp.34-35, to begin what I hope will be some continuing information on this blog about the nature of reality, the transpersonal realms including the Imaginal, and the nature of spacetime as it is perceived in these various places: But the 17th century scientists didn't just resurrect the meta-boundary of number and measurement and then sophisticate it. They went one step further and produced (or rather, perfected) an entirely new boundary of their own. Incredible as it seems, they came up with a boundary on the meta-boundary. They introduced the meta-meta-boundary, better known as algebra.

Put simply, the first boundary produces a class. The meta-boundary produces a class of classes, called number. The third or meta-meta-boundary produces a class of classes of classes, called the variable. The variable is best known as that which is represented in formulas as "x," "y," or "z." And this variable works like this: just as a number can represent any thing, a variable can represent any number. Just as five can refer to any five things, "x" can refer to any number over a given range.

By using algebra, the early scientists could proceed not only to number and measure the elements, but also to search out abstract relations between those measurements, which could be expressed in theories, laws, and principles. And these laws seemed, in some sense, to "govern" or "control" all things and events marked off with the very first type of boundaries. The early scientists produced laws by the dozens: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Force is equal to mass times the acceleration of the en-forced body." The amount of work done on a body equals the force times the distance."

This new type of boundary, the meta-meta boundary, brought new knowledge, and, of course, explosive new technological and political power. Europe was rocked with an intellectual revolution the likes of which mankind had never seen. Just imagine: Adam could name the planets; Pythagoras could count them; but Newton could tell you how much they weighed.

Notice, then: this entire process of formulating scientific laws was based on three general types of boundaries, each building on its predecessor and each being more abstract and generalized. First, you draw a classifying boundary, so as to recognize different things and events. Second, you search among your classified elements for ones that can be measured. This meta-boundary allows you to shift quality to quantity, classes to classes of classes, elements to measurements. Third, you search for relationships between the numbers and measurements of the second step until you can invent an algebraic formula embracing them all. This meta-meta-boundary converts measurements to conclusions, numbers to principles. Each step, each new boundary, brings you a more generalized knowledge, and hence more power.


With this information from Ken Wilber, I think we can begin to see how scientists felt an ever-increasing need to break the world down into its constituent parts--indeed just to 'break' the world as one would 'break' a horse. The thing was, humanity wasn't becoming more civilized or moral in pace with these incredibly huge advances. Many tragedies happened because of this and continue to happen because of this. I wonder sometimes what the world would be like today if mankind didn't have such a strong urge to classify and 'break' things down into their individual components? I also wonder if the descriptions brought back to us from those who have had experiences with 'the other side'-or at least the denizens of these strange places-from UFO contact, to encounters with gnomes or nature-spirits, to entheogenic/meditative experiences etc. I wonder if these people are telling us of a world or level of reality that isn't so broken down? Or maybe more-so?(heaven help us if that is the case!) The image is of the 'radio active' galaxy Centaurus A. Thanks for your awesome comments and peace to anyone stopping by!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Bockscar Children


I was in third or fourth grade. when one of the best teachers I ever had the joy of knowing, Ms Hungerford, read this book to our class. I think this is probably when my obsession with reading and everything that comes with it started.


Here is a bit from Dennis Stillings about the theology of the atom bomb-I will explain why I am connecting these two disparate points of the line of my personal reality after it: The Trinity test was scheduled for 4:00 a.m. Monday, July 16, 1945, near Alamagordo, N.M., on the bleak desert plain known as the Journada del Muerto-the Journey of Death. On Sunday the 15th, toward mid-afternoon, thunder was heard. Wind and rain collapsed tents in the base camp, ten miles from ground zero. Mist enveloped the test tower, and storms were reported heading for it. Rumors were circulating about the possibility of the Bomb setting the atmosphere on fire. At 2:30 a.m. the storm reached ground zero and knocked out the principle searchlight, leaving the test area in pitch darkness. With the very tiniest tendency towards superstition, one might suspect that something miraculous was in the air. An ancient reader of signs and portents would have cancelled the whole operation on the basis of such events, clearly announcing the birth of forces hitherto unknown on earth. Participants noted a zombie-like alteration of consciousness at this point, as though ruled by a force demanding that they continue. Oppenheimer himself evinced this state quite clearly. The test was rescheduled for 5:30 a.m. Oppenheimer waited for the hour of the Trinity test, his face "white and lifeless" thinking, "I must remain conscious."


At the time of the explosion, 5:29:45 a.m., July 16, 1945, William L. Laurence of the New York Times, prone on his belly, thought of the Lord's command, "Let there be light!"...Kwiatkowsky, another of the Los Alamose self-admitted "science slaves," remarked, "I am sure that at the end of the world, in the last millisecond of the earth's existence, the last human will see what we saw."


Thus the Bomb imagery encompasses the light of the beginning and the fire at the end of the world. This "Death Light" represented one aspect of the Bomb phenomenon "where theoretical calculations had been off by a big factor. Much more light was produced than anticipated."



Again that was from "Theology of the Atom Bomb" by Dennis Stillings.
I have read an enormous amount of material in the last few weeks that makes me wonder if some of humanity's inventions change the very nature of time and the fabric of reality itself even. Things must have seemed rather spooky indeed to even the most hard-boiled scientists on that morning at the Trinity site. Of course, it could have been just a normal little 'ole storm combined with the enormity of what was about to be undertaken that produced some 'intense' psychological effects.


Two ideas came to mind when I read of the Trinity test. One-entertain for just a moment, that somehow, someone was trying to send a message back
in time and it didn't quite get through so all that happened was the 'storm' at the site. The reason for the 'message' would have been that people in the future were trying to avert the catastrophe of the Bomb ever being used--ever! Two- perhaps the 'supernatural' feeling at the site was a 'real' Super-natural feeling that implanted both in the physical reality at the site and in the very minds of the scientists as they were about to initiate for lack of a better word a "God Sequence" of events that ultimately leads to transcendence of three-dimensional physical reality for any species in the Universe that reaches the "nuclear" level.


Or-is the Bomb still the ultimate question mark of this day and age? A 'cipher-Buddha' posing a question for the world collective-the world Soviet if you will. Do you want to live or don't you? Lately I have been having some feelings-don't know if they mean anything or not -but when I have them they do indeed have a soul-reaching level of meaning for me.

Some of them seem to be intuitions hopefully 'Rigorous' Intuitions (wink) about subjects I have always been fascinated by-the biggy of these- the very nature of reality itself. Many times these feelings seem to be about a small, but significant fractal part of reality. Out of the 'blue' the other day, while looking over some old and new articles and my own notes, about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I remembered the sweetness of Ms H reading the tale of "The Boxcar Children" to us and how rapt/wrapped/en'raptured' up several of us kids had become as she expertly (she was one of these people that could turn the smallest thing into a song) told us the tale of a story told long ago. A lightning-flash shudder went through me when I thought of the name of the plane that dropped the last (and hopefully truly last -like in forever!) atom bomb (the "Fat Man") used in anger-"Bockscar." This was a pun on the nickname of the B-29 itself and the commander Captain Frederick C. Bock (although he wasn't on the Nagasaki mission itself) of the plane. It hit me right in the gut with a flood of meanings and associations- We Really Are The Bockscar Children! Even the 'nose art' of the airplane (this wasn't on at the time of the Nagasaki mission) suggests another flood of associations to me -one of them strangely enough being the 'LoGo' of a recent PreziDent-very recent actually! How about you? More to come! Links Bockscar Boxcar Children Trinity Dennis Stillings Tooth Marks Apple

Funny Or Die: Presidential Reunion



Sometimes I find that if I don't laugh I want to cry. Considering all that has gone on the last 30 or so years (and actually quite a bit longer if you are a conspiracy researcher), I have to 'change' the channel at times-and many times that means comedy. I 'hope' you can get some laughs out of this video starring Mr H and C himself! Dana Carvey has never been one of my favorite comedians, but I have always enjoyed his interpretation of 41! So go get some 'Malaise' Potato Chips and a cigar-don't worry about the cost -just put it on your 28% credit card!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Found It GreggerMan!


I need to go through my pics and delete some-or I need glasses!. This was in there all the time-didn't know if you had it or not-but thought it might make a nice addition if you didn't! I don't remember where I got it but I really like it!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

A Sort of Revelation


First off, I would like to wonder out loud now that OBL is dead (LOL) are the PTB preparing some newfangled 'meme' to keep the fear circulating throughout society like a diseased form of some new Tsunami of Terror. Don't fall for it if they do! The OBL thing this eve was yet another Dark Ritual brought to you by the Dark Ones. MayDay, MaYDaY O great Beltane Feast!

But here is what I wanted to actually post - the OBL stuff just happened as I was thinking about it. I think one of the greatest barriers to TRUE growth and spiritual change is FEAR-or- False Evidence Appearing Real. And I feel I have some true knowledge of this and I am not just posting stuff out of a book or something. In fact, I think it is the biggest 'rod' that the PTB use to control us-IOW-we are more 'Rod Acknowledgers' than 'Carrot Eaters'-although the visions of MaaTerial ThINGs also -obviously-greases the wheel that keeps our FAllen version or REALm of RealITY going. Hopefully we will soon grow a Pair and a Hare and become TRUE Cosmic Rabbits in the Year of the Rabbit and start making our own OZs and WEalds!!
Someone told me Tuesday Weld would gno something about this!!

OK --back to FEAR--those of us who have lived in FEAR of a great many things most of our lives --and here we are almost at the 'GONG/OOHHM MANI PADMI HUM' part ;-) --we have also inVESTed a lot in our various fears and terrors--almost as if we had a fucking bank account where we were savin up for something!! Well -you gno what?? -I think an equally large part of letting shitty stuff go where shitty stuff should go and the difficulty of it arises from the inVESTment factor. An inVESTment that no good inVESTitTURE can ever come from.

My advice -advice I am trying to live right now -find ways to start letting it GO-and make this THE priority in your life -I am not being hypocritical with this -and have started certain spiritual practices in EARNest the last 2-3 days (prayer, deep meditation-and THANKing the Creator of ALL of US for my LIFE-and I intend to add to these practices including FASTing which I don't recommend for everyone -but 24 hour fasts have helped me in the past) and intend to keep amping it up until I am a better person--notice I didn't say PURRfect as no one ever will be!
And I also hope to post stuff here and there about it with regards to this journey I am departing on.

Here/Hear are some things I need help/advice for. I need to undergo EGO DEATH--I gno -haha --just the smALL shIT right??? I NEED to LEGGO mY Eggo! If anyone stumbles by here that knows anything about this can you help me? I am in the Phoenix Metro area/arena. Even thought of doing a "Please Help" type of add on CL-don't know how that would work:-)!

OK-thats enuf for now -I will post this bit by Richard Grossinger from Waiting for the Martian Express (who is becoming a much-loved research source-I can't believe some of the stuff he was coming up with in the mid-70s up to late 80s when this book was published!) From pg 131: The validity of the metaphysical processes generating shamanic jaguars and condors is not affected by the existence of animal ones, and in fact there is an important synchronistic connection between the two that lies at the heart of a universe seamlessly producing creatures through flesh and archetype both. That was from 1987. Happy Beltane Everyone!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Poseidon's or Shiva's Trident? A Strange Dream!


Normally I don't remember my dreams at all-and if I do they are so non-sensical and mish-mashed they don't make any sense. But last night I had the most bizarre dream I have had in a King's Age (as they say-or used to anyway). I wonder if anyone could help me interpret this.
In the dream I was in a large group of people who were running (and screaming)from something. At first I had the sense that I was trying to see what the hell it was-but I kept on getting carried along in the flow of people. A bit later I got a look at what it was that was chasing us.
And what else would it be but a giant radio atenna (sarcasm/wtf!).
It was stooping down and picking up those unfortunate to get caught with its two 'hands'-then it used its 'hands' to place the victims on the 'middle pillar' or head if you will-to electrocute them and then tossed them aside!

My reaction at this point was to break down in hysterical laughter and I started saying "This is what we are running from!?" I said this to a really hunky, great-looking dude dressed like a Biblical prophet. He kept trying to tell me "WE'VE GOTTA KEEP GOING! DONT STOP NOW OR YOU WILL SURELY DIE!" And when he said this I just broke down into more hysterical laughter. Unfortunately-or fortunately rather??!! the dream ended here with me on the ground rolling in hysterics, apparently not at all impressed with our antenna-like pursuer-even though I had seen it electrocute people in the dream! I definitely had the feeling I had been laughing out-loud while I was dreaming and the right side of my body even hurt a bit upon waking up.

OK-Here is where things get strangerer! This antenna-tower in my dream had a very unique appearance. In fact-I was 'sure' it wouldn't be something even remotely in 'reality.' But when I got up today, I thought what the hell? I thought of doing web searches like "odd looking antenna towers" etc. I had just begun to search and I got a call from a friend. I explained the dream to him and what the three-pronged pursuer looked like. He said, "Thats a bizarre dream-but it almost sounds like the Mt.Sutro antenna you are talking about." He further explained that this is a famous San Francisco landmark and well-known. He visits San Francisco on "business" a lot.

Well I looked up the Mt Sutro Tower and what do ya know? That was the one from my dream! I could 'swear' on a stack of Bibles or something -anything that I had never seen this tower in my life until the dream. But who knows? Our brains work in weird ways-it just doesnt seem like something I would have forgotten. And what of the odd synch (perhaps) of getting a call from the one and only person I know who would know about the tower the very next day? I have never been to San Francisco.

The three-pronged atructure of the tower reminds me a lot of a Trident for some reason. I am trying to put a link in and it isn't letting me-AARRGH! I will come back in a bit and try again and add any more thoughts. Here is what San Francisco writer Herb Caen said about the tower which had a rough and unwelcome debut in the city: "I keep waiting for it to stalk down the hill and attack the Golden Gate Bridge." LOL! -it says my link is in-why isnt it publishing?
Sutro Press Coverage

Monday, April 25, 2011

Cycloptic Encyclopedia! Chapel Perilous



Robert Anton Wilson: "In researching occult conspiracies, one eventually faces a crossroad of mythic proportions (called Chapel Perilous in the trade). You come out the other side either stone paranoid or an agnostic; there is no third way. I came out agnostic.

Chapel Perilous, like the mysterious entity called "I": cannot be located in the space-time continuum; it is weightless, odorless, tasteless and undetectable by ordinary instruments. Indeed, like the Ego, it is even possible to deny that it is there. And yet, even more like the Ego, once you are inside it, there doesn't seem to be any way to ever get out again, until you suddenly discover that it has been brought into existence by thought and does not exist outside thought. Everything you fear is waiting with slavering jaws in Chapel Perilous, but if you are armed with the Wand of Intuition, the Cup of Sympathy, the Sword of Reason, and the Pentacle of Valor, you will find there (the legends say) the Medicine of Metals, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.

That's what the legends always say, and the language of myth is poetically precise. For instance, if you go into that realm without the Sword of Reason, you will lose your mind, but at the same time, if you take only the Sword of Reason without the Cup of Sympathy, you will lose your heart. Even more remarkably, if you approach without the Wand of Intuition, you can stand at the door for decades never realizing you have arrived. You might think you are just looking for a bus, or wandering from room to room looking for your cigarettes, watching a TV show, or reading a cryptic and ambiguous book. Chapel Perilous is tricky that way."

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Of Rabbit Holes and Ironies


Taking a small break from my so-called Encyclopedia project, I wanted to post a 'revelation' that came to me unbidden this evening while I was searching for more Bank of Credit and Commerce International stuff (among other juicy topics). BTW-I had no idea 2011 was the Chinese New Year (Lunar) of the Rabbit beginning 3 February 2011. Perhaps this is the year ALL of us go down the rabbit hole! First, let me post just a very small bit from Michael Grossinger's Waiting for the Martian Express from an essay he worked on way back in 1973-1975, called Third World Wipeout on page 45: "We live still in a Roman world. We retain, in archetype and urban structure, if not in coins and petroglyphs, the kin ties of Neolithic tribes, whose hierarchies bound the world in an equality no system has since restored. The proletariat is a joke beside the billions of acres of independent gatherers and smalltime farmers of the prior Earth. And our cities are now like cartoons amid the permafrost and coal-beds, the termitaries and wild birds. We are the last and most costumed guests at the Roman party. But we act like the saviors of mankind.

God knows, it is not our call to arms that exonerates us in the ledgers of a Third World creation myth; it is how humanely we do the number of being us while they do the number of being them. The liberals are still benighted enough to think we can help them by the positive power of our beliefs, or even our preference to be them, even our preference to help them before we help us. They know better. They simply want our cars and houses and mass-produced gadgets, our supermarkets and nightclubs. They don't want our piety or after dinner globalism.

Because we do not know enough. Because we will never know enough. And our attempts to seal this period of history with the same finality with which we have pretended to seal the Franks and the Huns are little more than big-city bravado. We lie in oblivion and whether what will cover us is Chinese or not will not matter. We sit in a hollow grandstand, and when it disappears it will take with it not just the mask of the falling metropolis but the shadows of our narcissistic gods.

We don't want it.
If we wanted it, we could have it. (Just like if we wanted marriage, we could have it; if we wanted utopia...) Why R.B. Fuller says: that, or oblivion-not realizing that he as well as us are the product of a choice made long ago"

My little contribution to the profound Prof. Michael Grossinger's thinking-and this is just a bit of thinking that reading his work started-I really don't even know how close to what he is trying to say it would be!
I had a thought this evening that WE had better hope the rabbit hole goes really freaking deep-so deep that it would appear as travelling through interstellar space-or maybe WE should start wanting IT and big-time! Why? Because THEY have all of the fucking guns, money, politicians, property, etc etc etc (most of the stuff that counts in meatspace reality anyway). So here is the shakeout I had from this: If the rabbit hole is only deep enough to where THEY want to pretty much control all of 3-D earthly reality-but nothing else-nothing to do with spirit or consciousness; that means WE are pretty much fucked for the things I listed above! BUT if the rabbit hole goes so deep that there is a spiritual element involved --a real SOUL level element--then 99.9% of us just might have a chance.

Sure that would mean they want the 'SOUL' part too, but it gives us an element of our own control, free will, destiny perhaps? The choice between serving God and others or serving whatever it is that THEY serve. I am also coming to believe more and more (I say this because I have been on this road of trying to understand reality and the world for quite a long time now) that what THEY do involves some sort of reality creation. I know it sounds crazy-but there it is. I also think that whatever WE do to combat their plans must involve reality creation and the archetypal/soul/spirit/imaginal level.

I was going to close this with a few lines from Corinthians-now of course I can't find it even though I highlighted the area! LOL-remember Ricardo Montalban and "real Corinthian leather"? Hope to be back to finish in a few minutes. I hope this post made sense-for some reason I felt a very pressing need to post this tonight-I even tried to ignore it but it wouldn't go away. If anyone reads this that is interested and doesn't understand please ask me!

Corinthians 2:11-15 11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man that is in him? So, too, no one has come to know the things of God except the spirit of God.12 Now we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been kindly given us by God.13 These things we also speak, not with words taught by human wisdom, but with those taught by [the] spirit, as we combine spiritual [matters]with spiritual [words].14 But a physical man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot get to know [them], because they are examined spiritually.15 However, the spiritual man examines indeed all things, but he himself is not examined by any man.

Oh- one last thought that I might expand on later-especially with regard to reality and how God and WE might create it: Whomever among you says that the Universe is the ultimate free lunch (many times using modern physics to do it) is talkin' trash-or is it trash talkin'? Well whatever-the idea that this so-called 'cosmic vacuum' allowed the Universe to be created because said vacuum is unstable, is simply folks playing semantic games. They are trying to 'cheaply' in my opinion, get around this rather huge philosophical problem, of a WE who are HERE AT ALL to talk about philosophical problems!

I think this apparent need in many modern scientists, many different types of people really, to get rid of infinity/eternity is similar/the same of an apparent need to get rid of God. I believe something akin to Hoyle's Steady State theory or 'Electric/Plasma' Universe theory will replace the so-called Big Bang theory. Just because our human minds when they are on 'normal' frequencies can't conceive of something, doesn't mean those somethings don't exist! And this includes what I believe to be the infinite/eternal nature of the Cosmos. But really this should have been another post-sorry!

Cycloptic Encyclopedia! BCCI



This is a biggy and will probably come up in some other posts.
I need a link with some more information to this HUGE scandal and the 'tentacles' it clasped around the globe!
Haha my alphabetization is already off- sigh- nobuddy's purrfect!

Cycloptic Encyclopedia! William Blake



I always loved this poem-hope ya'll do too! And,of course, am a huge W.Blake fan!
Actually I find it more than a 'poem' as maybe all of the great poems are-perhaps? a 'meditation' on something profound? In this case an almost Gnostic type pondering on the Creator and Creation!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Cycloptic Encyclopedia! Asian Contagion



If I truly had separate categories in my little encylopedia here this would be classified under conspiracy! Those who would presume to rule over have a large 'toolbox'--and one of their tools is a very large, stiff, hard (hurts like hell!) economic club! One of the things I would very much like to do when I feel like I can finally type anything of any length is to write some articles about how 'deep' down the rabbit hole this economic lance thrusts!
I would very highly recommend ordering the book "The Global Economic Crisis" edited by Profs Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall from Global Research. http://www.globalresearch.ca/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Asian_financial_crisis
ps-I have no clue why my links aren't working-will work on this!

Cycloptic Encyclopedia! Anton Antipov



Nothing I ever attempt to do would be complete without a gorgeous looking man or twenty of them! Anton is my absolute favorite 'monster'! Thanks Skeetchman for the Absolutely Awesome Anton video!

Cycloptic Encyclopedia! Able Archer



What things/events should I include in my encylcopedia of the good and bad in the world past, present and future? Topics can include just about anything-conspiracy, politics, philosophy, paranormal, fortean and ontology-just to name a few!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia

Monday, September 27, 2010

Spirals

Monday, September 6, 2010

In the News...

On 8 April 2006, a 300-year-old ledger bound in human skin was found lying in the street in the Headrow district of Leeds. Detectives later found out it had been stolen from a house in the city's Headingly area. In a practice called anthropodermic bibliophagy, it used to be a custom in the 18th and 19th centuries to bind accounts of murder trials in the killer's skin. Shropshire Star, 10 May 2006; FT212:11

A Filipino judge who worked in a suburb of Manila was fired and fined after claiming three magic dwarves assisted him in obtaining the powers of bilocation, healing, and prophecy. Judge Florentino Floro was 86ed after a three-year investigation. Floro believed the three duwendes-a Tagalog word for mystic dwarf-even had names: Armand, Luis, and Angel. Independent on Sunday, 7 May 2006; FT212:09

On 27 December 2004, the brightest explosion in our Milky Way galaxy since Kepler's surpernova in 1604 was observed. Amazingly, considering it was 50,000 light-years away, it was brighter than the Full Moon for a tenth of a second. A dense neutron star known as SGR-1806-20, is thought to have erupted after accreting material onto its surface through its huge gravitational field. Had the enormous amount of energy it released in X-rays and gamma-rays been within 10 light-years of Earth, it could have destroyed our atmosphere and killed all life on the planet. Times, 19 February 2005; FT 196:08

Alvaro Weyne, a Brazilian businessman, had come to the conclusion that the safest place to put about 15,000 dollars worth of cash and checks was in his office waste bin. He was correct-an office cleaner emptied the booty into a dumpster without giving it a second thought. Independent on Sunday, 5 September 2004; FT 196:10

A fight between the superheroes Spiderman, Batman and Superman, broke out at 12:30 in the morning on Christmas morning in Kent, UK (with a nod to Clark Kent perhaps?). The fight erupted when a burger van the superheroes were frequenting ran out of burgers. Sun, 30 December 2004; FT 196:10

Archaeologists digging at a site in Piotrowka, Poland, discovered a group of 11th century human skeletons buried face down, covered with heavy stones, and adorned with expensive jewellery. The archaeologists believed the burial customs were done to prevent the dead from rising from their graves. Perhaps this could be related to early vampire beliefs/scares? Sun (Dublin) Metro, 5 April 2007; FT 225:11

A 20-year-old burglar hopefully learned a lesson and earned a headache-from a garden gnome. 69-year-old Jean Collop woke up at 5am on 12 April 2005 to find an intruder on her roof in Wadebridge, Cornwall. The man was trying to get in through a window when Ms. Collop threw the gnome at him which then bounced off his head. Neighbours were on guard below when police arrived to find the young man still on the roof in a daze. Daily Express, Sun, 15 April 2006; FT 202:10

A (hopefully) very odd happening at a wedding in Croatia was reported in 2005. The bride and best man had stolen off to a washroom for a little illicit sex, when a friend of the groom walked in on them. This apparently caused the bride to go into what was termed a "muscle spasm" and uh....caused the pair to be in a "locked" position. Other guests came to either gawk at the couple or to try to pry them apart to no avail. The couple were taken to a hospital in Varazdin where the bride was given a muscle relaxant, freeing the best man. The wedding party continued--with the groom announcing that it would now celebrate his divorce. Irish Independent, 4 June, Sunday Mail, 5 June 2005; FT 202:11

Residents of the Indian village of Madanpura became concerned when a storm knocked down a tree--the reason--they believed a ghost lived in the tree and would now be homeless. Several villagers claimed that the ghost had come to them in a dream asking to be re-housed. The villagers organized a fund drive to pay for a new home for the revenant. Independent on Sunday, 9 July 2006; FT 215:09

Curtis Lofton ruined his spotless record as a teacher in Lower Paxton, Pennsylvania, when he was found outside his home, naked in the snow. A police officer asked him hif he was OK, to which he replied: "No, I am crazy, and I need a menthol cigarette." He then told the officer that he was Jesus Christ before hitting him on the head with a plastic trumpet. Mr. Lofton was charged with open lewdness, aggravated assault, cannabis possession, among other charges. No word if impersonating Jesus Christ is a misdeameanor or felony. Independent on Sunday, 8 January 2006; FT 214:11

I hadn't done one of these in a while and wanted to put something up for September--hope you enjoy!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Angels & Demons: Duality & Paranormal Phenomena




I mentioned the Neoplatonists in earlier articles. The Neoplatonists believed in the concept of a world-soul, which they also also acquired from Plato. They called this the Anima Mundi. This world-soul or Anima Mundi was the realm from which emerged the gods and daimons. The Anima Mundi is also equal to Dr. Carl Jung's collective unconscious and I also believe it is Dr. Huston Smith's Intermediate Plane or Dr. Henry Corbin's Imaginal Realm.

The Soul of the World, collective unconscious, or Imaginal Realm-whatever noun we choose to identify this magical place with-cannot be known directly. The daimons, myths, and gods that emanate from this realm are, in a sense, metaphors for one another. It is also useful, I believe, to imagine the Anima Mundi/Imaginal Realm as the beautiful, calm reflective surface of a crystal-clear mountain lake on an enchanting Autumn night. Using this imagery, picture that the images on the surface of our lake are actually empty-or not "really" on the lake-but the surface of our magical lake can reflect everything. Then I think we have a good metaphor/analogy for Jung's collective unconscious/Anima Mundi/Imaginal Realm.

In other words the gods, daimons, and myths of the Imaginal Realm are not in the Imaginal Realm etc.--they are the Imaginal Realm etc. One thing that using the placid surface of a lake for our analogy to the Imaginal Realm that may give a false impression of this place is the sense of calm and serenity it gives. In fact, it is a dynamic, tempestuous place that constantly branches into "our" world-its tendrils leaping into the physical plane, the mental plane (our thoughts/imagination) and our psycholgical complexes and dreams.

The philosophy of alchemy gives us one of the most refined embodiments of the Anima Mundi. Mercury (Mercurius) personified a dynamic, living spirit in the physical matter and also the unconscious itself. "The mythical figure of Proteus, a favorite image of the Renaissance, represented a combination of the sea image and the personification: as daimonic offspring of the sea-god Poseidon. Proteus is the shape-changer par excellence-always himself, yet always appearing as something else."

"When Jung spoke of images, he referred especially of course to those archetypal images we encounter as daimons and gods. We must not be misled by the word "images" into thinking of them as somehow unreal. We should, on the contrary, approach them as Jung approached daimons like his Philemon-"as if they were real people" to whom he "listened attentively." He did not, we notice, treat them as literally real, as we (mistakenly) treat hallucinations or (correctly) treat people in the street...He treated them as metaphorical beings, as if they were real people. And it is this metaphorical reality, as (if not more so than) literal reality-as real as Philemon-that he called psychic reality." Daimonic Reality, Patrick Harpur, pp. 47-48.

There are two benefits for thinking of the Anima Mundi instead of the collective unconscious as the prime metaphor for daimonic reality. The first is that the Anima Mundi evokes the notion of the soul, with all of its religious and mystical implications as opposed to psyche which has been denuded of these connections by almost everyone except Jung and a handful of other thinkers. The second benefit is that the Amima Mundi suggests a plane of being that is as much "out there" as it is "within us," as opposed to how the "unconscious" part of the collective unconscious suggests as area of being that can be reduced to psychological factors.

W.B. Yeats wrote: "If all our mental images no less than apparitions (and I see no reason to distinguish), are forms existing in the general vehicle of Anima Mundi, and mirrored in our particular vehicle, many crooked things are made straight." From the human standpoint, the soul is a microcosm which is also composed of a deep, abstruse collective level or world-soul where all of the separate, individual souls meet. From the world-soul/Anima Mundi's point of view it is a macrocosm, a complete impersonal world which has the ability to paradoxically be made known in a personal manner (duality again--microcosm/macrocos, personal/impersonal) as individual human souls. Jung realized that the deeper we dig into our souls, the unconscious unfolds-turning inside out: "At bottom the psyche is simply the world."

The word "animism" is used, by and large, in a derogatory manner by Western society towards traditional societies-all of which, even if they don't have an intellection for it, perceive Anima Mundi. This is because Western culture, long ago, denied any sense of anima in Nature thus taking soul out of it and debased Nature to dead matter reacting in accordance with sterile mechanical laws. To cultures which are animistic, Nature reveals herself in all her glory as thourougly daimon-haunted. These people recognize the sylphs of the air, the genii of forest and mountain, numina of trees and streams etc. The amazing variety of daimons associated with certain places also have their opposite numbers in places of habitation, such as ancestral spirits and the "kinder and gentler" household gods. To people in animistic cultures no part of mundane reality is without the sacralization of everyday living or without a daimon who has to be awarded its share unless one wants to invite misfortune and mishap into their lives.

Daimons also love to inhabit areas such as sacred graves, stone circles, tumuli, and holy wells. Perhaps the lights seen hovering over crop circles and tumuli (among other sacred sites), are analogous in some way to "modern" UFOs that are spotted over power generating stations, nuclear reactors, military bases and reservoirs. If this is the case we would have dualities with the ancient and modern: ghost/fairy lights (ancient) hovering over stone circles/tumuli (ancient). UFOs (modern) hovering over military bases/nuclear reactors (modern). The military bases, nuclear reactors and the like would play the part of our modern "sacred" technological sites which we worship, as animistic cultures worship at stone circles or sacred graves and the like.

Geographical locations where a high number of UFOs are seen are called "windows." Other Fortean phenomena also seem to favor certain locations or "windows" on occasion. A window is certainly a good name to describe an area where there is more permeability between daimonic and ordinary reality--the "daimonic" and "ordinary" being perhaps another duality that is essentially the flip sides of the same coin.

Daimons are famous for haunting "boundary" areas. The anthropolist Victor Turner called them liminal ("threshold") zones. These liminal zones and the daimons that haunt them occur in a wide variety of areas physical and mental-many of which can be thought of in the form of dualities: consciouness/unconsciousness, day/night, old/new (example: at the turn of the year) etc. Other liminal zones that daimons favor are crossroads, bridges, the bases of mountains, and shores. Mobile home parks and caravan sites are frequented by strange beings, UFOs and other Fortean phenomena more often than other areas where people make their homes-especially considering their usually smaller size. Could this be because they are often located in liminal (boundary/threshold) zones between city and country? Perhaps also because these areas are "home" and yet "not- home" to so many people? Could these examples also be yet more evidence of duality?--city/country, home/not- home? Whatever one thinks of the duality issue-one thing can be said for certain with regard to these quirky places: Many people know of a magical, enchanted place whether it is largely known or private where our so-called "laws" of space and time, matter and causality appear to be undermined; and for a time-usually brief we catch a glimpse of a hidden order of things.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Angels & Demons: Duality & Paranormal Phenomena

I think the daimons and the realities from where they have their origin have always been with humanity and quite possibly precede us. Plato and the people who arrived on the scene after him and tried to preserve (and expand on) his teachings have left us some of their thoughts about the daimonic/magical aspect of reality. In the Timaeus, Plato thought of the individual daimon as the element of pure reason in man-a kind of intelligent and wise spirit rudder to steer the ship of one's soul by. The philosophers we call Neoplatonists (they would have thought of themselves as Platonists) expanded on Plato's ideas about reality and daimons.

Wikipedia: "The philosophers called Neoplatonists did not found a school as much as attempt to preserve the teachings of Plato...The concept of the One was not as clearly defined in Plato's Timaeus (the good above the demiurge) as it later was by Plotinus' Enneads: however the passage in Plato's Republic (509c) in which the Sun is said to symbolize The Good (or the One) can be seen as ample justification for the late Platonist's view of the One-for here Plato calls The Good, "beyond essence," especially when this is placed alongside the range of attributes denied of the One in the Parmenides. The afterlife Socrates defines in Phaedo is also different from the afterlife of the person or soul in the Enneads. The soul returns to the Monad or One in Plotinus' works. This is the highest goal of existence, reflected in the process of henosis. In both the Enneads and Phaedo there are different afterlives: one could be reincarnated, one could receive punishment, or one could to to Hades to be with the heroes of old. This last one for Socrates was the highest ideal afterlife. This is in contrast to Neoplatonism's ideal afterlife of returning to the One or Monad. However, what is said in the Phaedrus (248c-249d) reconciles these two apparently conflicting views: for Socrates in this dialogue shows that a movement from life to life (including periods in Hades) is part of a much greater cycle that culminates in perfection and a divine life."

Plotinus is a very important person in Neoplatonism. Even though his teacher, Ammonius Saccas, was said to have founded Neoplatonism, it is Plotinus' Enneads that are the primary and classical document of Neoplatonism. To Plotinus, the individual daimon wasn't anthropomorphic, but instead, a living psychological principle that dwells within us and is transcendent to us. Here Plotinus appears to be in agreement with Dr. Carl Jung's later work-that there are beings (daimons), archetypes and a psyche beyond ourselves. Here is a bit of what Jung thought about his own personal daimon Philemon: "Philemon brought home to me the critical insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which have their own life...I held conversations with him and he said things which I had not consciously thought...He said I treated thoughts as if I generate them myself but in his view thoughts were like animals in the forest, or people in the room...It was he who taught me psychic objectivity, the reality of the psyche." Dr. Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp.208-209.

The Syrian Neoplatonist Iamblichus (d. 326 AD) also added greatly to the study of daimons, in fact, modern investigators of the paranormal could learn a lot from the distinctions he makes between "phasmata." "For instance, while phasmata of archangels are both "terrible and mild," their images "full of supernatural light," the phasmata of daimons are "various and dreadful." They appear at different times...in a different form, and appear at one time great, but at another small, yet are still recognized to be the phasmata of daemons." As we have seen, this could equally well describe their personifications. Their "operations" interestingly, "appear to be more rapid than they are in reality" (an observation which might be borne in mind by ufologists)." Patrick Harpur, Daimonic Reality, p.39.

Personal daimons, for the most part, prefer two different guises to appear in. They can manifest as glowing orbs of light or take on an angelic/wise-man/woman countenance. Napoleon's daimon both counseled and protected him--it could also be seen by him as a shining sphere, which he called his star, or would visit him as a dwarf dressed in red that would warn him of danger. I agree with Patrick Harpur that the two forms are different manifestations of each other--a duality--the star as an astral guide and a red-bedecked dwarf that warns to stay out of harm's way. The reports of personal daimons/guardian angels/spirit guides are hardly the only paranormal phenomena where the same principle seems to be at work, but taking on different forms that can often be looked at from the perspective of duality--one paranormal coin with two different faces, as I hope to show in upcoming posts. The second image is a drawing Carl Jung did himself of "Philemon."

All the best to anyone stopping by! Oh- that first image- that is a pic of me with my trusty dragon - his name is Mucho Caliente Breath;-)

Friday, August 6, 2010

Angels & Demons: Duality & Paranormal Phenomena


One of the best commenters in blogland, my friend Xdell at the Xspot , left a comment under the previous article that gave me the idea for the direction this series should go next. This is with regard to where paranormal phenomena come from, and how, and why they manifest as they do. Of course, there may not be much more than theorizing here, but I think we may be able to see some surprising patterns develop.

Here is one idea that I hope people who read this blog will at least entertain, even if they end up not agreeing completely, or at all with it. The more I have studied paranormal phenomena/Fortean phenomena over the years, the more convinced I have become that almost all-if not every one of them are produced by (a) human consciousness interacting with matter. (b) human consciousness interacting with non-human consciousness. (c) human consciousness interacting with both matter and non-human intelligence. Another way of saying this is that I think most, if not all, of these phenomena live through us. I also wonder if the human race is just as dependent on these other beings and levels of existence.

Here might-notice I said "might"-be some examples of a, b, and c above. Many of these phenomena may "overlap" categories: (a) noisy ghosts "poltergeists", crop circles, synchronicities, BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) sightings, UFO sightings. (b) NDEs (near death experiences), channeling (Jane Roberts with the "Seth" material for instance), automatic writing. (c) UFO trace evidence cases and contact with UFO "aliens," encounters with elementals, gnomes, fairies etc, and trace evidence left behind from these encounters (fairy rings, missing time etc. -very similar to modern UFO reports quite often), cattle mutilations, "intelligent" hauntings, crop circles.

As you can see, these examples are by no means a complete list. When dealing with paranormal/Fortean phenomena I don't think there will ever be an end to the "list." I mentioned that some of these phenomena would straddle categories-this is due to the way one looks at them. Crop circles, for instance, could they be caused by some natural, but as yet unexplained process? Could they be caused by human consciousness interacting in some way with physical matter? Or could they be caused by some non-human intelligence interacting with matter and human intelligence?

The reason I am not giving a "d" category of non-human intelligences only interacting with matter is that I am thinking that the very fact we humans observe a certain phenomenon-crop circles-for instance-means that we are in some way interacting with the phenomenon by simply just noticing it and trying to explain it. Some might consider this "cheating", but I think the reason I am doing this will become more evident as this series progresses.

I would also like to use Huston Smith's ideas about the "Primordial Tradition" from his book Forgotten Truth to represent the 4 levels of reality I will refer to in this series. In this book, Smith talks about the Great Chain of Being and how it begins with the Infinite level of Spirit (God Unmanifest, Godhead) and proceeds down, or "devolves" to the Terrestrial level (Body, physical reality). This can also be thought of as "devolution" from Absolute Unity, Infinity, Eternity, and Truth down to the state of Duality, Finiteness, Temporality, and Falsehood.

The very highest level of reality is the Noetic Absolute. This is the realm of the Godhead, Spirit, and the Infinite Source of all Creation. This level is the Alpha and the Omega of all existence. It is beyond human language to describe-this level of Spirit must be experienced to know it. It is also somewhat paradoxical, as it is beyond all form, but is "pregnant" with every form of existence.

The next level "down" is the level of the soul: God Manifest. Huston Smith calls this the Celestial plane. This is the plane of the knowable aspects of God. It is also the plane of the archetypes or "first forms." I believe many paranormal events have their origin at this level of reality.

The next level "down" is what Huston Smith refers to as the Intermediate level of existence. This is the level of the world in all its invisible aspects: Mind and the Vital Principle. This would also be the "astral" plane and the "Imaginal" level of reality. I think that quantity-wise, if not quality-wise, most forms of paranormal phenomena and experience originate with human minds/imaginations interacting with this Intermediate or Imaginal level of existence.

The final level is the most self-explanatory. This is what Smith calls the Terrestrial level, and is simply the level of our physical reality here on Earth. There is a "mirroring" of all of these levels of reality in human beings: Spirit= the level of the Infinite; Soul= the Celestial/Archetypal level; Mind= the Intermediate/Imaginal/Astral level; Body=the Terrestrial level. All these levels of reality are accessible to human beings-the only thing is not many experience the Celestial and Infinite levels.

I will close this post with a wonderful bit from Patrick Harpur's Daimonic Reality (pg. 35) that explains some more about the where and why of the beings (daimons) that inhabit these other levels of reality: "Daimons were essential to the Gnostic-Hermetic-Neoplatonic tradition of philosophy-which was more like psychology (in the Jungian sense) or a mystical discipline than the logical excercises that philosophy became. But the daimons of myth evolved into a sort more suited to these philosophies, whether angels, souls, archons, thrones, or powers- many of which later infiltrated Christianity. Ever flexible, the daimons changed their shape to suit the times, even becoming abstractions when necessary (the Neoplatonic henads for example) but preferring if possible to remain personified...Never quite divine nor quite human, the daimons erupted out of the Soul of the World. They were neither spiritual nor physical, but both. Neither were they, as Jung discovered, wholly inner nor wholly outer, but both." To be continued...

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Angels & Demons: Duality & Paranormal Phenomena

"This world of Imagination is the world of Eternity; it is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after the death of the Vegetated body. This World of Imagination is Infinite, and Eternal, whereas the world of Generation, or Vegetation, is Finite and Temporal. There Exist in that Eternal World the Permanent Realities of Every Thing which we see reflected in this Vegetable Glass of Nature. All Things are comprehended in their Eternal Forms in the divine body of the Saviour, the True Vine of Eternity. The Human Imagination..." William Blake A Vision of the Last Judgment

Consider: An encounter with a man whom my friend Terry Robinson wonders if he was actually an angel saves him from drowning. Another poet, and friend of mine, Stephen Morrissey has an excellent blog and series of poems, Dream Journeys that would fit right into this new series I am going to do here! There are also other poems of Stephen and Terry that these gentlemen kindly let me post here at My Favorite Monsters under the "poetry" label-and also by their names.

A young mother notices her 3 year old daughter has run off from the garden where she was playing. The mother looks around frantically and to her horror sees the young girl sitting on the nearby railroad tracks-a train is coming. "As she raced from the house screaming her daughter's name, she suddenly saw a striking figure, clothed in pure white, lifting Lisa off the tracks. While the train roared past, the glorious being stood by the track with an arm around the child...When the mother reached the daughter's side, Lisa was standing alone." Daimonic Reality by Patrick Harpur, pages 37-38.

And what of these incidents: "Or the Petropolis, Brazil, report of October 25, 1957, in which we are told that a girl dying from cancer was saved by a fantastic operation performed by two men who came from the sky. Or the case of "Dr X," the French doctor who observed two strange objects near his house in October 1968 and was subsequently cured of a large hematoma and of a form of paralysis." Dimensions, page 154 by Dr. Jacques Vallee.

And what on Earth are we to make of these encounters/incidents?: "Driving home in a company van the evening of March 17, 1978, Englishman Ken Edwards saw a strange figure on top of an embankment...It descended the steep hill at an impossible right angle to the ground, and before walking across the road and straight through a chain link fence as if it wasn't there, turned to face the van and shot narrow beams of light from its eyes into the cab. A power surge burned out all of the major components, Edwards' watch stopped, and he showed Hough [Peter Hough-a respected UFO researcher] marks on his hands that had been clutching the steering wheel which resembled sunburns. He soon began complaining of stomach pains, and was found to be riddled with cancer, and died at 42. Maybe he would have anyway, if he and something unknowable hadn't crossed paths, but like Barbara, his widow, told Hough, "A thing that can burn skin, stop watches and destroy an expensive radio might well be capable of harming a human being." Rigorous Intuition by Jeff Wells pages xiv and xv.

And this?: "Last July 20, Vince Weiguang Li delivered an Edmonton newspaper that carried a lengthy feature on the Wendigo, "a terrifying creature in native mythology that has a ravenous appetite for human flesh. It could take possession of people and turn them into cannabalistic monsters."

"Li abruptly quit his job and took a bus across the Canadian prarie, where he beheaded and cannabalized 20-year-old Tim McLean. "I just don't know what to think of it, quite frankly," says the pieces author, and Windigo expert, Nathan Carlson. He'd documented numerous cases of people believing they were "turning Windigo" who would beg to be killed "before they started eating people." At Li's first courthouse appearance, the only words he spoke was a soft, "Please kill me." also from Rigorous Intuition pg. xv

And this?: "On 16 November 1963 four young people were walking along a country road near Sandling Park, Hythe, Kent. Seventeen-year-old John Flaxton was the first to draw attention to a bright "star" which seemed to be moving over the woods at Slaybrook corner. The group grew alarmed when the "star" started to drop towards them. As they ran for safety they became aware of an oval-shaped golden light floating above an adjoining field. They stopped running-and the light stopped moving. They felt they were being watched."

"Up until now. the encounter is typical: the anomalous light heralds the advent of some visitation-a ring of fairies perhaps or a blond "spaceman" with a stirring message for mankind. Instead, "the glowing disappeared behind the trees, and the next thing the young people knew was that a dark figure was stumbling across the field towards them. It seemed to be completely black, human-sized but with no head [and]...to have wings of the kind associated with bats...The youngsters are convinced they saw a ghost. Mervyn Hutchinson, eighteen, said it was like a bat with webbed feet and no head." Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld by Patrick Harpur, page 44.

The 1963 sighting in England, that Patrick Harpur talks about, gave me a bit more of a pause than its very creepy nature would already suggest. It happened 6 days before the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Texas (or the 1963 coup d' etat for some of us conspiracy researchers!) "over the woods at Slaybrook corner," and involved an entity very reminiscent of Mothman . Now many people who believe in, and investigate such things believe the Mothman is an apparition that presages death, similar to the Black Dog or the White Lady. Maybe my ponderings on this case are "out of left field." However, I do believe in the reality of these (and thousands upon thousands) of other paranormal/Fortean phenomena. I also believe that human consciousness (at all of the levels of existence it can access) interacts like it is a web -spun within and without the threads and skeins of gross physical matter, and other, more subtler forms of matter which I definitely think exist too.

So I ask myself, "WTF is going on?" The first image is William Blake's The Ghost of a Flea, painted circa 1815-1820. The second image is one I saw on a discussion forum so I don't know who did it- another mystery! To be continued...

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The Dyatlov Pass Mystery



During the late evening of 1 February 1959 to the early morning of 2 February, something very strange happened to nine experienced skiers in the Ural Mountains of the Soviet Union. Whatever happened to these 7 men and 2 women, the consequences cost them their lives.

The investigation into their deaths seemed to show that the nine fled the camp they had set up in sudden terror. The group fled towards a thick forest about a kilometer and a half away (about 1 mile). They were in such a rush to flee, they didn't even try to open the tent, which was tied shut against the wind and snow-instead slashing the tent open wih their knives! When they dashed down the snowy slope towards the thick forest, they left behind such essentials as skis, food and warm coats. They didn't have a chance of surviving in the forest where bitterly cold temperatures hovered around -30 C (-22F).

The investigators at the time offered the explanation which didn't really explain anything, that "a compelling unknown force" caused the deaths of the group. The area-now known as "The Dyatlov Pass" in honor of the fallen group and their leader was then shut off to amateur sportsmen for "reasons of safety."

There would have been a tenth member in the group that fateful eve/morn had he not fallen ill and turned back-Yuri Yudin. "If I had a chance to ask God just one question, it would be: "What really happened to my friends that night?" says Yudin.

Yudin and his nine comrades had left on their journey on 23 January 1959. Their destination was Otorten Mountain in the northern Urals. Yudin and eight of the other members of the group were either students or graduates of the Ural Polytechnic Institute of Sverdlovsk (now called Ekaterinberg-the city where the Tsar and his family were executed on the orders of V.I. Lenin in 1918).

The members of the group who perished are as follows: Igor Dyatlov, 23, and leader of the group=well respected for his expertise in cross-country skiing and mountaineering; Georgy Kolvonishenko (24), Yuri Doroshenko (24), Zina Kolmogoreva (22), Rustem Slobodin (23), Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollet (24), Ludmila Dubinina (21), Alexandr Kolevatov (25) and Alexandr Zolotaryov, quite a bit older than the rest at 37.

Some silly rumours concerning Zolotaryov's involvement with the group began (as they will in these unexplained cases) saying he was either a "rather mysterious" or "unexplained" addition to the group. This was simply ridiculous. Zolotaryov had simply requested to go along because of his interest in the sport. Dyatlov had been initially reluctant to take him, but Zolotaryov had proven himself to be a very experienced sportsmen and came with a recommendatation from some of Dyatlov's own friends.

"Sports Tourism" had become very popular in the USSR after the years of austerity and privations caused by WWII and Stalin. Under Nikita Khrushchev's leadership, the USSR moved away from the extreme repression and terror under Stalin starting with Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" to the Twentieth Communist Party Congress of the Soviet Union in 1956. The Soviet Union was also experiencing great economic growth during the Khrushchev years (1955-1964), which allowed Soviet citizens to pursue other interests. Another reason sports tourism flourished was its apolitical nature.

Upon leaving on 23 January, the initial group of ten left for what was supposed to be a three-week journey. They travelled by train to Ivdel, arriving on 25 January. Then they went to Vizhay-the last inhabited settlement before the snow-covered wilderness between them and Otorten. On 28 January 1959, Yuri Yudin became ill and had to turn back, leaving the nine to proceed without him. This was the last time he saw his friends alive.

Events after Yudin's departure can only be reconstructed from the diaries and photographs left by the group, and the investigation into the incident. On 31 January the group reached the river Auspia, where they set up a base at the edge of the highland area, and left food and equipment there for the return journey. From here, they began climbing the pass towards Otorten on 1 February 1959.

For some reason-most likely bad weather conditions causing them to become disoriented-the found themselves on the slopes of the moutain Kholat Syakh, at a height of around 3600 feet (1100 meters). They pitched their tent here around 5 p.m. on 1 February, although if they had travelled just about another mile (1.5 km) down the moutain, they would have had some greater shelter from the bad weather in a forest.

The last diary entry made by the group indicated they were in good -even terrific spirits. The next day they planned to continue on to Otorten, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) to the north, before returning to their base camp.

What happened to the group during that tragic timeframe from the late evening of the first to the early morning of the second is of course, a complete mystery. There have been loads upon loads of unsubstantiated claims and rumours piled upon this case. Everything from alien creatures, secret military testing gone wrong, some members of the groups corpses were said to have a strange orange-tan color, revenge by an indigenous tribe called the Mansi for daring to intrude upon their sacred territory (there was not a shred of evidence to support this theory-absolutely no evidence of anyone besides the original members of the group was found), injuries on some of the corpses were said to be only explained by "high-pressure" concussion type events (simply untrue), high levels of radiation also was said to have been found on some of the bodies-radiation was detected-but it was low-level and explainable by natural forces, the Yeti or Almasty (abominable snowmen), there were even rumours that the party had somehow fallen prey to subterranean Russian gnomes-perhaps similar to Richard Shavers' "Deros"!

Apparently there were reports of mysterious "bright flying spheres" in the area around the general time (February-March 1959) of the tragic deaths. However, even if true, these lights can in no way be linked to this case with what we know about it. Perhaps a bit more should be said about the local indigenous people- the Mansi. When one or more investigators thought of the Mansi as suspects, they may have been thinking of an incident in the 1930s, when Mansi shamans reportedly drowned a female geologist for trespassing on land they considered sacred. However, even though both mountains related to the Dyatlov expedition were known to the Mansi, neither are considered a sacred or taboo site. There is the chilling coincidence that Otorten means "don't go there" in the Mansi language, and Kholat-Syakhl means, even more chillingly "Mountain of the Dead." These Mansi names are probably more related to practical warnings for the nomadic Mansi tan any sort of tribal mythology or curse.

Here are some observations from the Aquiziam site: (a) Ludmila Dubinina's tongue was not ripped out it was degraded through natural processes. (b) The radiation was inconsequential (c) The area was not sealed off to everyone-only amateur sports groups (d) The case was never classified (e) There are currently no records of any experiemental aircraft being tested in the area in 1959. (f) There is no evidence (now or then) that the area was used to test weapons. However, this doesn't rule out secret testing. (g) Photographs thought to be missile parts have turned out to be old radar units. (h) The "mysterious" envelope contained only general correspondence. (i) Photographs show that any discoloration of the bodies was wholly normal. (j) The injuries discovered are explainable and consistent with those that might be expected to occur in a group of desperate and clearly frightened people that had been stumbling around in dangerous conditions in the dark. (k) There is absolutely no evidence for crashed UFOs, Concussion Weapons, Mad Mansi, or Russian Death Squads. (l) All the physical evidence found at the time and subsequent analysis and testing indicates that there was no avalanche. However, at least one person involved with this case still believes that an avalanche was the cause.

And finally, from the Aquiziam site: "However, these now broadly accepted facts do not diminish the mystery-in a strange way they enhance it. As we have repeatedly said throughout these pages...Why did nine, experienced and sensible, ski-hikers abandon their tent in such a hurry and in weather conditions that were hostile and almost certain to lead to their deaths? What really happened that night?"




More here and here Infrasound was put forth as a possible explanation on the Aquiziam site (BTW-I would very much recommend going through all of Aquiziam's pages on this strange incident and the other links to get a "feel" for the case!) and I wonder if this is a good candidate? Infrasound is very-low frequency sound waves that can make the human brain think something supernatural is going on, i.e., produce terrifying and eerie feelings in people. However, I also have to wonder if a group such as these nine people would have been suggestible to this feeling? These were obviously no "Nervous Nellies" (like me- LOL). I will have to research infrasound further to see if this makes sense and will come back with a link for infrasound. All the best to anyone stopping by!

The first image is a picture made showing the original picture of the Dyatlov Party's tent with the area they went to when they fled in terror. The second image is of the Dyatlov group having fun-not at the final campsite. The third image is of the original search team. The last image is of 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov. OK- here is the link to infrasound information-I will try to find more on it!


Friday, July 23, 2010

Strangeness In Chile




In Jenny Randles 2001 book- Time Storms, on pages 17-18, she tells of a very strange and disturbing encounter of the unknown in 1977 in Putre, Chile:

"On 24 April 1977, a small unit of army conscripts was sent on a two day excercise into inhospitable territory above the small town of Putre, Chile. The intention was to harden the inexperienced troops for the rigours of military life. That night they camped on a windswept, arid plateau at Pampa Lluscuma, at a height of 12,000 feet. In charge of the raw recruits was Corporal Armando Valdes.

At 3:50 a.m., Pedro Rosales, the recruit on guard duty, saw something very odd. He called out to Valdes, who came immediately. What appeared to be two fuzzy, violet lights were descending from the mountains and heading their way. The ground below was filled with an eerie glow.

Unsure if these were flares being used in a mock attack, Valdes sprang quickly into action. He ordered some of the men to screen the camp fire light with blankets in the hope that they might escape detection in the dark. He told the others to secure and prepare their weapons whilst he went to investigate. He told them to crouch behind a nearby well, rifles posed. Then, uttering a plea to God to protect him-and with, they reported later, a conviction in his eyes- the corporal clambered over the well and headed into the darkness towards the purple glow.

Within seconds the inky night had swallowed him up. Moments later, the violet glow below them disappeared too. The conscripts fell into stunned silence before debating what to do next. They decided to wait and hope that their commander might return-which at 4:30 a.m. he duly did. But he approached them from behind- not from the direction in which he had just walked. Moreover, he was clearly less than well.

The startled soldiers saw him wandering as if in a trance, his voice uttering words that sounded like those of a sleepwalker. "You do not know who we are or where we come from," he said in a monotone, although he never consciously recalled saying this. He reached the camp site, looking barely able to stand, and collapsed on the ground apparently unconscious.

Having cared for him as best they could, the men waited for a cold dawn to rise over the mountains. It was then that they noticed several very strange things about their stricken leader. Although they had seen him shave only hours earlier, he was now sporting several days' growth of beard. His watch had stopped at about 4:30 a.m., the approximate time of his return to the camp, but the date display-which had to be wound on manually through twenty-four hours at a time to alter it-read 30 April. It was as if Valdes had lived through five days in fifteen minutes.

At about 7 a.m. the corporal regained consciousness, but he was still far from lucid. He appeared to be in a state of shock, with massive memory loss and no proper body coordination. The troops took the decision to abandon their excercise and get him to the nearest town, a difficult two-hour trek.

At Putre, the local schoolteacher, Pedro Araneda, was the closest to an expert on hand and he taped an interview with the still only semi-coherent officer and some of the men. This was to prove important, because when the Chilean military arrived they put a block on the tape's release and the military governor of Arica province ordered Valdes to keep silent about his experience. However, Araneda was eventually allowed to release the transcripts."

Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet had to approve a journalist's request to interview Valdes in 1983. Unfortunately, Valdes was only able to confirm the details of the original story. Valdes still had no memory of the missing 15 minutes (or 5 days depending on how one looks at the case). "They are a void in my mind," he commented. The massive time loss factor in this case reminds me of the Travis Walton case in Arizona in 1975. The last gentleman pictured is the MegaHandsome Anton Antipov-I don't know who the other one is- unfortunately;-). More here

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Heartwarming and Inspirational: 11 Year Old Helps Feed the Homeless



By Diane Herbst:

"It all began in third grade, when Katie Stagliano's (pictured above) 40-pound cabbage fed 275 homeless people. Now, Katie's six gardens have produced over 4,000 pounds of vegetables to feed the needy."

"When Katie Stagliano was in third grade, she planted a cabbage in her family's garden. When it grew to an astounding 40 pounds, she donated it to a soup kitchen, where it was made into meals for 275 people (with the help of ham and rice). "I thought, wow, with that one cabbage I helped feed that many people?" says Katie, now entering sixth grade. "I could do much more than that."

This story really "made my day" as we say in the USA sometimes! With regard to the post below- who do you think will win in the end (unless you think it will always be business as usual as many do) beautiful-souled folks like Katie? Or the very unpleasant and evil people represented by the global elite? Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! The hunkalicious guy is Nick Ayler!


More here

Monday, July 19, 2010

Ghosts of Regimes Now Past



One of the many features that I have always enjoyed enormously in Fortean Times magazine and the Fortean Times website is "Fortean Traveller." As you might guess, this feature involves the employees and correspondents of the magazine who go to many delightfully unique and bizarre locales around the world, and report back on their findings.

For the January 2009 issue, Mark Fernyhough visited a location not much removed in space from the "sceptre'd isle"- but one with a fascinating and unfortunately very bloody past. Berlin- more specifically the eastern part of the city.

The article, "The Ghosts of East Berlin" doesn't actually go into any "absolute" positives with regard to ghostly phenomena. However, the article is darkly atmospheric, interesting and brings up some wonderful thoughts and comparisons to other cities and their own hauntings. The article is very well worth the short time it will take you to read it!

The author visits the Friedhofspark Pappelallee, a graveyard established in 1847 which evolved to incorporate a children's playground, an intriguing juxtaposition of life and death. This cemetery is located in Prenzlauer Berg, which the author describes as "...a scenic refuge of flourishing bohemia where antiquarian booksellers, galleries and independent record shops quietly thrive in cobbled leafy streets." But for a lack of funds, the communist regime (1949-1989) would have razed and redeveloped the area because it was known to be a "notorious breeding ground of alternative viewpoints."

Mr. Fernyhough visits the "remains" fo the Palast der Republik, which he hilariously describes as havinb looked like "... a horrendously compelling work of 1970s futuristic architecture. Resembling a golden Borg ship straight out of Star Trek..."

Other spine-chilling locales inspected are the grounds of the former Communist state radio station headquarters and Sudwest Kirchof Stahnsdorf, one of Europe's largest graveyards. The author tells us "In the 1930s, during a chapter of typical Nazi distastefulness, 30,000 dead were dug up from the city's more central graveyards to make way for Albert Speer's grand 'North-South axis', part of the plan to transform Berlin into a new capital, Germania."

Mr. Fernyhough is also introduced to a former GDR U-Bahn (underground) driver named Detlef. Detlef reports that despite communist oppression, he has fond memories of the German Democratic Republic, telling his interviewer, "Passengers are less friendly these days and hardly acknowledge us drivers." The driver was almost killed in 1986 when the train in front of his caught fire under Alexanderplatz, saying, "We escaped in the nick of time through an emergency exit hole." This prompts Fernyhough to ask him if he has witnessed any ghosts or experienced any other odd phenomena in the tunnels-"We are greeted with dismissive laughter; he'd rather tell us about a couple on Bulowstrasse who make love with their curtains open."

Fernyhough ends his article with this insightful, and I think, poignant paragraph: "Such paranormal indifference regarding the U-Bahn compares poorly with London's own underground, in which virtually every station has a manifestation or ghostly tale associated with it. But then, in this city, half-remembered ghoulish anecdotes are not recquired. Here, fact is stranger, darker and more potent than any fictionally embellished nightmare. Indeed, the scope of the terror this place has endured in relativly recent history is almost unimaginable. Berlin's tragic past is a living entity, entwined in its conflicted architecture and constantly evolving landscape, and its resonance affects not only the personality of the city itself, but everybody and everything that dwells here."