Mysterious Experiences: A Study In Paranormal Phenomenology
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Introduction
Review Of Literature
Monster Mania I: The Loch Ness Monsters
Monster Mania II: Bigfoot
Monster Mania III: Vampires On The Wing
Mind Over Matter I: Psychic Powers
Mind Over Matter II: Poltergeists & Fires Of Unknown Origin
Spontaneous Combustion
Mind Over Matter III: Near Death Experiences & Apparitions
Miracles & Angels I: Mother Mary Of Fatima
Miracles & Angels II: The Fairy World
Mysterious Forces I: Stonehenge
Mysterious Forces II: Ley Lines And Earth Energy
Mysterious Forces III: Tesla, Fireballs, & Crop Circles
Vanishings & Vortices I: The Bermuda Triangle
Vanishings & Vortices II: Mayans, The Hollow Earth, & Croatoan
Discussion: Crisis Of Faith Or Religious Revival? You Decide
Written by Balthazar Seferiades
Introduction
"There is no such thing as a paranormal event. There are only events that do not fit into your current system of organizing reality."
& mdash;Lawrence LeShan, Alternate Realities (1976)
In the pages that follow, I propose to develop a paranormal branch of the metaphysical science known as phenomenology. What does this uncomfortably large word mean? Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia (1987) (which I highly recommend for its concise entries concerning philosophical schools of thought, an understanding of which will provide you with the intellectual background essential for success in this course), provides us with the following definition of "phenomenology: In philosophy and metaphysics, the description and classification of phenomena, or acts of perception, as the only objects of knowledge possessing ultimate reality." Therefore, in this course we will be describing and classifying experiences. We will leave conjecture about the objective reality of phenomena to the natural scientists, who care about such things. For phenomenologists, ideas have more substance than objects. Like George Berkeley, the eminent empiricist of the 18th century, we maintain, at least within the confines of this course, that material things are first and foremost ideas contained within our minds; and that the collective mind, or Divine Mind if you will, contains the world. Scientific theories can only be of use to us if they can help us organize experience into a coherent and predictable pattern.
In the pages that follow, we will examine and discuss some of the odd events that people have witnessed and attributed to divine or supernatural causes. We will review the evidence that points to the existence of things and worlds beyond the material realm. We will examine the experiences of those who exhibit or claim to possess powers beyond those of ordinary mortals. We will trace the history of ruins and ponder the fate of lost civilizations. To conclude this introduction to our subject I would like to quote from Jacques Vallee's book The Invisible College (1975): "Descriptive phenomenology attempts to communicate the quality and structure of experiences, be they clear and symbolically defined... or diffuse and even not symbolized. Its subject matter is any concrete phenomenon in experience." Advanced scholars ought to study the writings of 20th century philosopher Edmund Husserl, whose thought represents the most advanced stage of phenomenology yet developed.
Mysterious Experiences: Index >>
Review Of Literature
Perhaps the most well-known paranormal phenomenon of today, aside from UFOs, is the Loch Ness Monster. The Monsters Of Loch Ness (1976) by Roy Mackal, a respected scientist, establishes the existence of "large, unknown creatures" living in the waters of Loch Ness. These creatures have been "seen by the human eye and caught on film and tracked by sonar." Mackal concludes, after an exhaustive review of the data, that not one but several large members of an as yet unidentified animal species live in Loch Ness. According to the current theories of evolution and biology, these large aquatic "monsters" represent survivals of one or more species thought to be extinct for millions of years.
There Are Giants In The Earth (1974) by Michael Grumley recounts stories of the creature known in various climes as Bigfoot, Yeti, Sasquatch, and Mono Grande. Such stories can be traced back from present day sightings, through past centuries, and ultimately to accounts of giants in Biblical and Norse legends. Grumley presents evidence supporting the continuous existence of hominid giants in the Himalayas, the Andes Mountains of South America, and the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest. The book cover describes this work as "An evolutionary and legendary history of the Yeti, Mono Grande, and Sasquatch, three strains of hominid giants alive today."
Mystic Places (1987) by the Editors of Time-Life Books explores the mysteries of Atlantis, the Great Pyramid, Stonehenge, and the Hollow Earth. The editors also discuss the connection between ley lines, ghostly apparitions, and UFO sightings. Large photographs and illustrations make this a colorful book that will attune the readers imagination to these strange and mysterious phenomena.
Stonehenge (1979) by Bonnie Gaunt explores the subject of Britains megaliths from a frankly religious point of view. Gaunts work is planted firmly in the field of archeoastronomy, and links Stonehenge to the Great Pyramid by means of mathematical correspondences common to both. Gaunts work appears to be in substantial agreement with the pre-Victorian catastrophic schools of geology and archeology, and shows how the astronomical alignments of Stonehenge match up with key events in the Biblical history of ancient times.
The Invisible College (1975) by Jacques Vallee is subtitled, "What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influences on the Human Race." Vallee draws parallels between phenomena such as Uri Gellers UFO encounters, the Fatima miracles in Spain, and the Mormon revelations. The author links these phenomena together through the idea of a "psychic reality" beyond the world explored by modern science.
Invisible Residents (1970) by Ivan T. Sanderson is "a disquisition upon certain matters maritime, and the possibility of intelligent life under the waters of this earth." Of particular interest to us are his accounts of strange events that have occurred in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. Sanderson speculates on the reason for mysterious occurrences including "the time-speed incongruities experienced by flyers, and the disappearance—"without a trace—"air and water craft and of shipboard travelers in certain —˜lozenge-shaped areas around the world."
Between Two Worlds (1964) by Nandor Fodor contains an impressive collection of "Amazing True Case Histories of the Occult, the Mysterious, the Marvelous and the Supernatural." Fully documented accounts of eerie phenomena include "invisible bells, modern vampires, reincarnations, telepathic experiments, magic spells, dreams that reveal the future, hauntings and healings" which remain unexplained by science. In his day, Fodor was called "the worlds foremost psychic investigator." His case histories include data on demons, poltergeists, pyramid curses, and ghosts.
Cosmic Forces Of Mu, Volume II (1992) by Col. James Churchward argues convincingly in favor of the catastrophic school of geology, and offers scientific explanations for the disappearance of ancient civilizations such as Atlantis. Churchward mercilessly ridicules the uniformitarian theories which have dominated the subjects of archeology, anthropology, and geology since the 19th century. He shows how volcanic action formed the mountain ranges, and explains why cosmic catastrophes no longer cause continents to be submerged beneath the seas. This is only one of several books by Churchward concerning the lost continent of Mu.
Alternate Realities: The Search For The Full Human Being (1976) by Lawrence LeShan seeks to reconcile paranormal phenomena with theories of modern physics. The result is a division of "reality" as we know it into four "modes," and the ordinary sensory world is just one of these modes. LeShan also offers methods through which we might be able to switch between different modes of perception at will, thus allowing us to experience the other three "realities" directly. "With brilliant simplicity, Dr. LeShan demonstrates an everyday world in which there is not one reality, but a choice of realities for each of us."
The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology and Psychical Research (1991) offers alphabetized entries on all sorts of psychic phenomena including ESP, psychokinesis, mediums, and other well-known avenues of paranormal investigation. Investigators and famous psychics are also listed. For general reference and study this work has great value for the students of paranormal subjects.
Harpers Encyclopedia Of Mystical And Paranormal Experience (1991) by Rosemary Ellen Guiley has information on Near Death Experiences, hauntings, lost continents, healings, and a host of other paranormal subjects. This volume has a more empirical approach that perfectly suits the study of phenomenology.
Everything Is Under Control (1998) by Robert Anton Wilson concentrates on conspiracies and coverups but also includes information about paranormal experiences such as the Mothman sightings. Wilsons work makes for easy reading, and an ingenious system of cross referencing shows the many connections between different aspects of the paranormal world. This volume also lists websites, periodicals, and books on each of the weird subjects included in its pages.
Exploring The Psychic World (1967) by Fred Archer includes detailed accounts of the poltergeist phenomenon, as well as valuable information pertaining to ghosts and spirits.
Mysterious Realms (l992) by Joe Nickell and John F. Fischer has a thoroughly researched chapter on the crop circle phenomenon. This book also contains an excellent index of names and places associated with inexplicable events.
Mysterious Experiences: Index >>
Monster Mania I: The Loch Ness Monsters
As mentioned in the literary review section above, the most famous monster of modern times may well be the one swimming around in the waters of Loch Ness in Scotland. Rob Brezsny, a syndicated astrologer, mentions the beast in his most recent book Pronoia (2005). Brezsny informs us that "The odds that Elvis Presley will crash-land a UFO on the head of the Loch Ness monster are 14 million to one, according to a British betting agency." This ridiculous statement manages to tie together three distinct aspects of the paranormal, namely: ghosts, superhuman technology, and monsters. Of the three, monsters might be the most acceptable to modern science. Well, some monsters anyway. The Loch Ness monsters, particularly, have been so extensively documented that there can be little doubt about the fact that very large, probably prehistoric animals are swimming around in that lake. As Roy P. Mackal states in his book The Monsters Of Loch Ness (1976), "I conclude that a population of modest sized, piscivorous aquatic animals is inhabiting Loch Ness. This seems to be the most adequate and reasonable interpretation of the data, even perhaps a conservative assessment—conservative in the sense that it is a single, simple hypothesis in accord with established physical and zoological scientific principles." We are talking about a very reasonable case of a prehistoric animal surviving in an isolated place after being reduced almost to extinction millions of years ago. Though this might be highly unlikely in the minds of scientists and betting agencies, it certainly seems plausible and within the bounds of ordinary physical reality.
Just what kind of animal is the Loch Ness Monster? First of all, it ought to be understood that there simply must be more than one of these monsters. To quote from The Monsters Of Loch Ness (1976) again, "The data now available, such as observations at the surface of more than one animal, simultaneous observations at different locations around the loch, multiple sonar contacts, and basic zoological requirements, all make the idea of a ‘single' animal absurd." Observations of the animals' behavior seems inconsistent with that of mammals. Certain extinct species of reptiles, amphibians, and even eels, however, can all be correlated (with relative degrees of consistency) with the Loch Ness Monster data. The plesiosaur seems to be the most likely reptilian animal found to match the behavior and description of these Scottish beasts. As Mackal tells us in The Monsters Of Loch Ness (1976), "The most popular theory suggests that the loch monster is a form of plesiosaur... Several features fit the facts: flippers, hump, fish diet, 20 ft. length; furthermore, some forms are believed to swim at considerable speeds and to give birth to live young in the water. One major problem with this reptile proposal is that the plesiosaur has been extinct for 65 million years. Their fossil record stops at the Cretaceous period." Could scientists be mistaken about the date that certain animals became extinct? Previous experience informs us that scientists have been wrong about such things in the past. As Mackal says again in The Monsters Of Loch Ness (1976), "The coelacanth, a primitive fish believed extinct for 70 million years, was discovered off the coast of Africa; and neopilina, a small primitive mollusk believed extinct for 300 million years, turned up alive in 1957. Therefore, this gives the reasonableness of precedent to the claim that plesiosaurs, presumed extinct, might exist, perhaps in an evolved form, in Loch Ness."
The materialist school of biology, based on Darwin's famous book Origin Of Species, need not feel threatened by the existence of a few isolated plesiosaurs and coelacanths. Only the most fanatic of self-styled skeptics could be so bold as to dismiss out of hand the mountain of scientific data concerning the monsters of Loch Ness. Other monsters, however, might not be so amenable to being placed in an acceptable zoological category. Our next monster, most commonly known as Bigfoot, may be only slightly more threatening to the theories of modern biology than the fishy denizens of Scotland's famous Loch.
Mysterious Experiences: Index >>
Monster Mania II: Bigfoot
The hominid giants known variously as Sasquatch, Yeti, and Mono Grande have been seen in the wilderness by travelers and explorers for centuries. These giants reportedly exist on at least three continents, namely Asia, South America, and North America. They seem to prefer mountain abodes. Their continuing presence lends credence to legendary accounts of giants in the Bible, in Norse sagas, in the tales of King Arthur and Charlemagne, and elsewhere. The most famous Biblical reference to giants may be the one in Genesis: "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."
In There Are Giants In The Earth (1974) we read of Major L.A. Waddell, an English author who tells of his encounter with a creature he calls "gigantopithecus" during his travels in the Himalayas of Asia. Major Waddell discovered "a number of large footprints in the snow of northeast Sikkim. He writes, ‘These were alleged to be the trail of the hairy wild men who are believed to live amongst the eternal snows.' Woven through the folklore fabric of the entire Himalayan range, from the Karakoran to northern Burma, in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and Assam and in the tiny but glittering kingdom of Sikkim, there had always been stories of and legends that concerned enormous creatures, half man and half beast." When Colonel Howard-Bury made his 1921 attempt to ascend Mount Everest's northern face, the first time such a climb was attempted, he and his companions "were fortunate enough to see great dark spots moving across the snow valleys of the Lhapta-la Pass. The Tibetan porters were in no doubt as to the nature of the distant beasts; they were unquestionably members of the raced they called metoh-kangmi." This phrase, when translated into English, renders the term "abominable snowman." As the author of There Are Giants In The Earth (1974) continues to relate, "Such sightings were not new to the natives, and, when later in its ascent, at an elevation of 23,000 feet, the party overtook a path of enormous footprints, the bearers were not in the least surprised by either their size or their configuration." Apparently, only the Western mind has difficulty accepting the existence of giants in the inaccessible, mountainous regions of the world. Natives of the areas in question got used to the idea long ago.
Bernard Heuvelman coined the zoological term "Dinanthropoides nivalis" to scientifically categorize the Himalayan giant commonly known as the "Yeti." Heuvelman wrote a book about his Yeti theory, entitled On The Track Of Unknown Animals, which contains a detailed description of the hominid giants. This description, which could reasonably be applied to the Sasquatch and Mono Grande as well, can be found in There Are Giants In The Earth (1974). According to Heuvelman, the Yeti is "a large anthropoid ape, from five to eight feet tall, according to its age, sex, or geographic race, which lives in the rocky area at the limits of the plant line on the slopes of the whole Himalayan Range. It has plantigrade feet, and the very conspicuous big toe, unlike that of most monkeys, is not opposite to the other toes. It walks with its body leaning slightly forward; its arms are fairly long and reach down to its knees. It has a flat face, a high forehead, and the top of its skull is shaped like the nose of a shell; its prognathism is slight, but its thick jaws have developed considerably in height, hence the disproportionate size of its molars... It is covered with thick fur... It appears to be omnivorous; roots, bamboo shoots, fruit, lizards, birds, small rodents, and occasionally larger prey like yaks are all grist to its mill in such barren country. Its cerebral capacity should be about equal to, or even greater than, man's." The Sasquatch of North America and Mono Grande of South America probably occupy the same sort of barren slopes in their respective mountain ranges, and subsist on a similarly rough diet.
Accounts of Spanish explorers who encountered ape-men in the wilds of South America can be found dating back to at least the 17th century. One story, related in There Are Giants In The Earth (1974), tells of a Spanish gold hunter in the late 1600's who wrote that "his group had fought with and killed fourteen giant beasts, in a section of jungle near the Colombia-Panama border." Such stories abounded in the Andes and continued even until the 20th century. In There Are Giants In The Earth (1974) we read of another encounter in the Andes that occurred in 1920 with a beast "six feet tall, which walked erect, weighed possibly three hundred pounds, and was covered with long black hair." In Venezuela, also in 1920, a five-foot tall monkey with 32 teeth was killed and its body examined. There are no known New World monkeys with 32 teeth, and none of them reach a height of five feet, even in exceptional cases. Once again, the arbitrary rules of biology have been broken by individual encounters with reality.
Bigfoot became a film star in October of 1967, when the late Roger Patterson managed to capture the hairy beast on the film in his hand-held movie camera. The creature Patterson filmed stood nearly eight-feet-tall, weighed as much as 1,000 lb., and left 14 1/2 inch-long tracks. The filming took place near Bluff Creek in Northern California, an area which has since become the "hot center" of Sasquatch sightings in North America. According to Bigfoot hunter John Green, sixty different people have reported Sasquatch findings in the Bluff Creek area, including seventy sets of footprints and eight actual sightings. Green's book, The Apes Among Us (1978), might be a good place to find more information about this furry phenomenon.
With so much Sasquatch data available, including film footage, footprints, and as many as 750 sightings on record, it seems as though it would be difficult for scientists to deny the existence of this giant hominid. Why, then, is Bigfoot still considered a mystery at all? The reasons might be more philosophical than scientific. The existence of giants calls the very popular philosophy of Darwinism, which holds that "natural selection" leads to the "survival of the fittest," into serious question. After all, if the Sasquatch is larger, stronger, and potentially even brainier than the ordinary human, why didn't the giant variety of hominids take over? The disappearance of these giants would suggest that the strongest don't always win in their struggle against the weak, and that high intelligence might not always lead to victory in the survival game. Even more threatening to Darwinist dogma is the idea that the Sasquatch might be the same species of giant mentioned in Genesis, suggesting that the Creationists might have been right all along.
If you start to believe in Bigfoot, it doesn't take much imagination to begin believing in the giants of ancient times as well. Since Genesis tells us that these giants mated with human women, producing offspring of heroic proportions, it might prove fruitful to look for evidence of giants in tales of heroes like King Arthur. Arthur's bones, if they were found, might give us some important clues about this man of renown and his legendary strength. Is King Arthur's body buried at Glastonbury Abbey? This mystery has never been laid to rest, but a Welsh bard is said to have revealed the secret location of Arthur's grave, beneath Glastonbury Abbey, to King Henry II. A fire in 1184 A.D. gave monks an opportunity to search for the grave while the abbey was being rebuilt. According to The Atlas of Mysterious Places (1987), when the monks began to dig, "About 2m (aft) down they found a stone slab and lead cross inscribed hic iacet sepultus inclitus rex arturius in insula avalonia, ‘Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur in the Isle of Avalon.' About 2.7m (aft) below the slab was a coffin cut from a hollow log containing the bones of a 2.4m (8 ft) man with a damaged skull, as well as smaller bones identified as Guinevere's..." In order to win so many battles, Arthur would have had to be an exceptionally large, strong man. But what kind of man stands eight feet tall today? The answer comes to mind quickly enough if we let it: Bigfoot! So, maybe King Arthur was one of those half-man, half-giants mentioned in the Bible, and maybe evolution really is just a half-baked theory...
Before leaving this hairy subject behind, let's open up an even more mysterious can of worms and see if we don't blow materialist biology's proverbial lid right off into outer space. The mysterious question of the millennium is: does Bigfoot have anything to do with cattle mutilations? If so, he's gotten himself mixed up with some even more malevolent miscreants than anyone might have imagined. Let's examine the evidence, shall we? In Mysteries Of The World (1979), author Daniel Cohen tells us that "mysterious cattle mutilations" caused widespread panic in South Dakota and Nebraska during the summer and fall of 1974. Cohen writes that "cattle would be found dead for no obvious reason. Parts of their anatomy were missing." The odd butcherings were at first blamed on a "Satanist cult" supposedly active in the area. Then came eyewitness reports of "the Thing," a hairy ape-man wandering about in the region. According to Cohen, "Though no one actually said that he saw ‘the Thing' killing cattle, the connection seemed obvious enough: Bigfoot was roaming the range, killing cattle." We all gotta eat, right? However likely this explanation may seem on the surface, it leads to some rather chilling questions, because Bigfoot is not the only monster associated with cattle mutilations. The other beastly beef butchers, far from being mundane and acceptable to scientists as Sasquatches are, might not even belong in the realm of possibility as far as the Darwinists are concerned.
Mysterious Experiences: Index >>
Monster Mania III: Vampires On The Wing
Beginning in the 1970's and continuing with more frequency into the 1990's, a rash of reports concerning inexplicable animal slayings came out of such far-flung places as Texas, Mexico, and Chile. The killings usually involved small farm stock such as fowl, rabbits, and goats. Farmers were puzzled about what kind of creature would kill by draining the blood from its victims. Eyewitnesses eventually began spotting the creature, and the legend of the Chupacabra was born. The hungry "goat-sucker" was described as a chimpanzee-sized creature with gray skin, glowing red eyes, fangs, and wings. This description would seem to suggest that witnesses might have been describing an ordinary vampire bat, except that no ordinary bat would be able to kill goats. Could the Chupacabra be some sort of giant variety of vampire bat, analogous to the hominid giants discussed previously? If so, how big might these monster bats be capable of growing? Big enough, maybe, to fly over to the Dakotas and kill a few cattle? Stranger "Things" have been reported. Case in point: the Mothman, a flying butcher who might be called the great granddaddy of all Chupacabras.
Beginning in November of 1966 and continuing for 13 months thereafter, residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia were menaced by a flying monstrosity, nicknamed the Mothman. This seven-foot-tall humanoid with glowing red eyes and a ten foot wingspan displayed, among other odd habits, a penchant for mutilating and even eating animals such as large dogs and cattle. But wait: it gets weirder. Not content with behaving like an overgrown cross between Sasquatch and Chupacabra, Mothman has been credited with superhuman powers including flight at up to 100 mph, electronic interference, and "mind control." Reports of other weird phenomena coincided, spatially and temporally, with 70 recorded Mothman sightings. These additional phenomena included (you guessed it) cattle mutilations, more than 100 "UFO sightings," numerous appearances of the infamous "Men In Black," and three "close encounters" with beings described by the contactees as "extraterrestrials."
John Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies (1991), prefers to call these beings "ultra terrestrials." Keel's theory, described in Everything Is Under Control (1998), explains that these ultra terrestrials as beings "existing on the borderland of matter and energy, or reality and dream." Keel "regards them as mischievous, deceptive, often dangerous," and likely to drive you insane if you try too hard to stay in contact with them. In addition to personal encounters with Mothman, Keel was haunted by "a maelstrom of electronic and mechanical accidents," was plagued by mysterious phone calls from computer-like voices, and was contacted by "strange people" who communicated to him a series of prophecies. The major prophecies, as they appear in Everything Is Under Control (1998), were: "1. The Pope would be stabbed while visiting the Middle East. 2. Robert Kennedy was in danger, and the threat waited for him in a hotel kitchen. 3. There would be a nationwide power failure on December 24th at noon." As it turned out, these prophecies proved to be at least partly precognitive. The Pope was indeed stabbed the following year. However, he was visiting the island of Manila in the Philippines, not the Middle East. The second major prophecy was eerily accurate, predicting correctly that an assassin would kill Robert Kennedy in a hotel kitchen in 1968. The third prophecy predicted the wrong event at the right time. At exactly 12:00 noon on December 24th, a West Virginia bridge collapsed, killing over 100 people.
Without doubt, Mothman will be more difficult for scientists to swallow than either Bigfoot or Loch Nessie. Mothman catapults our study of the paranormal far past the mundane realm of evolutionary throwbacks with a taste for raw flesh, and into such far-out subjects as precognition, ultra terrestrials, and the sinister Men In Black. Each of these oddities will be examined in its proper place as the following pages unfold. First, let's explore the realm of prophecy in our next section on the mysterious powers of the mind.
Mysterious Experiences: Index >>
Mind Over Matter I: Psychic Powers
Scientists of the British Society for Psychical Research, led by J.B.. Rhine, long ago established the reality of Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP). In Alternate Realities (1976) we read that the researchers "spent decades in tightening their experimental designs" and found that "The evidence was completely solid that ESP did happen." What, exactly, is ESP? The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991) describes ESP as a "general term" that includes clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition, all of which are "modes of obtaining information about an event, object, or situation outside oneself without the use of any of the known sensory processes." Let's go over each of the three branches of ESP in turn.
Clairvoyance, a French word that means "clear-seeing," is defined in The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991) as "the faculty of getting information about physical objects or distant events of which no one else is aware. Psychics with clairvoyant powers might be able to perceive auras, converse with angels and fairies, or view happenings in faraway places by means of a crystal ball, just to name a few possibilities. Akin to this power is the faculty of clairaudience, which The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991) defines as "the paranormal hearing of sounds or voices, generally internal ones, through which information is sometimes obtained." The legendary "daemon" who told Socrates not to do certain things would be called a case of clairaudience in modern terms.
Telepathy, also called "mind reading," "thought reading," "mental telegraphy," and "thought transference," is defined in The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991) as "the communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another independently of the recognized channels of sense." Flashes of intuition concerning a close friend or relative can be classed as cases of telepathy when the other person later confirms the "impression." Telepathic communication might also be possible between the living and the dead. Ancient sorcerers used the term "necromancy" to describe this phenomenon.
Psychometry, also called "object reading," seems to combine elements of telepathy and clairvoyance. The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991) describes psychometry as the act of "using extrasensory perception of a physical object to gain information about events or people once associated with it." Such "information" might be impressed upon an object by the minds of those who once possessed it, and these "impressions" can later be read by means of psychometry. Telepathy would seem to be the form of ESP used in this case of object reading. However, it might be that an object receives impressions even in the absence of minds. In this case, clairvoyance would be needed to read all of the information contained in an object.
The term "remote viewing" may refer either to clairvoyance or to telepathy, and can also sometimes indicate the phenomenon known as "out-of-body experience." Remote viewing does not carry the technical implications of these other terms, and can thus be used to denote visual experiences which cannot be strictly classified as one kind of psychic phenomena or another.
The power of precognition allows someone to have information about things that have not yet come to pass. Theological researcher Rhea A. White has documented the fascinating connection between precognitive powers and saints or "holy people." Apparently, the ability to prophecy future events has a direct link with the ephemeral quality of holiness, or divine favor. This might explain why historical prophets like Joan of Arc had such deep religious convictions. The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991) defines precognition as "the prediction or knowledge of random future events" excluding "the possibility of interference from present evidence." By this definition, prophecies based on astrological calculations, like those of Michel Nostradamus, cannot be considered cases of precognition since they relied upon "present evidence" from the stars. Precognition can, however, take the form of a sixth sense that warns the psychic of immediate danger or immanent events. Cabalists who develop the ability to read signs of impending events by means of number encryption may be using a form of precognition. However, this too might be considered cheating, and the use of visible signs would force this skill into the category of clairvoyance, telepathy, or mere magick. Do prophecies received from ultraterrestrials or monsters like Mothman indicate the existence of precognition? What do you think?
The strangest and most disturbing of all psychic powers might be psychokinesis, or PK. The expression "mind over matter" derives mostly from this power, since PK apparently gives people the ability to move physical objects using nothing but their minds. Psychokinesis is defined in The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991) as "the direct influence of the mind on an external object without the intermediation of any known physical energy." This power has long been associated with poltergeist phenomena, and investigators like J.B. Rhine, Carrol B. Nash, and George W. Fisk have documented many cases of PK and poltergeists in the 20th century. Poltergeists and their powers will be discussed in the following section.
Modern science seems to have accepted the reality of ESP, but the philosophical implications of psychic powers have not yet sunk in to the general consciousness. Most people still seem stuck in the mechanistic view of the universe`envisioned by scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries. Author Lawrence LeShan, in his book Alternate Realities (1976), writes, "The person who denies the possibility of ESP on scientific grounds is, indeed, expressing the point of view of the best scientific thought of 1875." Starting in the early 20th century, a new branch of physics called "quantum theory" made discoveries that seem to support the existence of psychic abilities. In his book The Illuminati Papers (1997), author Robert Anton Wilson claims to have found "a single scientific explanation for all the weird events that parapsychologists have classified under such conflicting labels as ESP, direct brain perception, clairvoyance, distant viewing, psychokinesis, out of body experience, and cosmic consciousness (Illumination)." Wilson goes on to write that "all such mystical brain functions are aspects of one phenomenon: a subatomic but universal intelligence system that receives, integrates, and transmits information at a level much deeper than the sensory appearances of what we call space, time, and separateness."
The details of quantum theory can't be gone into in too much detail here, but even Einstein had to admit that we would need to have a "hidden variable" in order to explain the odd behavior of subatomic particles. This hidden variable implies a "subquantal level" below the observed behavior of the subatomic particles that quantum theory seeks to describe but cannot quite predict. This inability to deduce causes from effects in quantum mechanics is called the "collapse of the state vector," and elaborate theories have been constructed to explain this breakdown in the ability of science to know what will happen next. All of these theories seem to imply that, at the subquantal level, no distinction can be made between the observer and what is being observed. Therefore, space and time do not really exist except from our sensory point of view. Reality is nothing but a construct of our mammalian sense organs, an arbitrary division of phenomena into "inside" and "outside" that allows us to experience a "material world" that has no objective existence, but is in fact subject to control by the individual consciousness. This "hidden variable theory of consciousness," the idea that "our consciousness controls physical events through the laws of quantum mechanics," explains the existence of PK and other psychic powers. However, it also leads unfortunately to the overly simplistic idea that "you create your own reality," and leaves out the influence that one conscious mind can exert over other, weaker minds. As Einstein said, "God does not play dice with the universe." If mind creates reality, then the greatest Minds have the most power over that Creation.
In spite of the fact that materialist methods have been successfully applied to parapsychology, this science does not seem to occupy the forefront of scientific research. Why don't more corporations and governments fund the study and development of psychic powers? Why aren't more books published on these subjects with up to date research rather than just encyclopedias that rehash what we already know from other sources? Maybe the proponents of materialism do not want us to discover the flaws in their paradigm. As The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991) points out, "Dualism long ago was toppled in favor of a materialist view that mind is a function of processes of the brain and totally dependent on it. But the occurrence of paranormal events that seem to resist and baffle physical explanations may point to the existence of a nonphysical mental component interacting with, yet autonomous of, the brain and which, at certain times, has the ability to influence physical objects or become aware of other minds whose physical bodies may be either living or dead. Such events, if they in fact occur, collide with materialism and the impact could restore mind-body dualism to the attention of thinkers." If mind has power over matter, then it follows that a mental world could exist independently of the material world. Such an idea would help to explain many of the phenomena explored in the pages that follow.
Mysterious Experiences: Index >>
Mind Over Matter II: Poltergeists & Fires Of Unknown Origin
On the subject of poltergeists, Fred Archer writes in his book Exploring The Psychic World (1967) that "more independent testimony to the phenomena is on record than for any phase of psychic activity." Poltergeists manifest most often in the presence of a medium, which seems to suggest that the phenomena might be a kind of involuntary psychokinesis. The word "poltergeist" means "noisy spirit," so named due to their penchant for making a racket by whatever means are available. Even the most hardheaded skeptics often believe after being hit by a poltergeist's projectile. As Archer states in Exploring The Psychic World (1967), "The poltergeist is not to be intellectually intimidated. He takes the offensive and bludgeons the skeptic into belief. Often the poltergeist has no apparent purpose beyond the desire to make its presence felt. In other cases intelligible contact is established, usually by means of raps but occasionally by writing or by speech." Poltergeists are rarely malevolent and seem to have an extraordinary degree of control over their PK powers. To quote from Exploring The Psychic World (1967) on this point, "Objects may be smashed violently from a person's hand and the holder be unhurt. Stones may whiz at people with fearsome velocity yet strike as lightly as the proverbial feather. Fires may be started but localized in such a fashion that they do little damage." Note here, as an aside, that poltergeists are known to have the power to start fires. This may be important later when we go over the phenomenon known as spontaneous combustion. For now, suffice to say that although most poltergeists are "merely mischievous," some are, in the words of Fred Archer, "dangerously malefic."
To illustrate the poltergeist phenomenon, it might be useful to quote at length from an extremely well-documented account from the records of the Catholic Church. This will help us get an idea of how poltergeists behave, and also show how difficult this phenomenon would be to fake. The following story comes from Father Herbert Thurston's book Surprising Mystics, and concerns Christina of Stomeln, known to her own country as "St. Christina." In Exploring The Psychic World (1967) we read that "Christina, a thirteenth century mystic, is said to have had a vision of Christ when she was ten years of age. Five years later the devil appeared to her in the guise of St. Bartholomew..." After these events, Christina was beset by "poltergeistic manifestations" for which "there is sound priestly corroboration." One of the most disgustingly irrefutable phenomena to manifest in connection with Christina was the appearance of "filth", which today might be scientifically termed "ectoplasm." Of this we read in Exploring The Psychic World (1967): "At the height of the disturbances Christina herself, her clothes, her room and her visitors were again and again bespattered with indescribable filth. On different occasions no less than five Dominican monks shared this unpleasant experience..." This would suggest that Christina's poltergeist had the power of ectoplasy, which is, according to The Encyclopedia Of Parapsychology And Psychical Research (1991), "A term used by F.W.H. Myers to describe the alleged power of forming, outside the body of a physical medium, a concentration of what is said to be vital energy, or vitalized matter, called Ectoplasm." This ectoplasm is said to be "produced by the medium" and can even "form into visible, tangible phenomena known as Materializations." Once again, Christina could just as easily have been the agent of these materializations rather than the alleged poltergeist. However, even spookier things took place in the course of St. Christina's tribulations. Further on in Exploring The Psychic World (1967) we read, "Father Maurice, of Cologne, gives an account of more varied phenomena. Stones were thrown at Christina and others, her garments were set on fire, and priests were bitten. Most grotesque of all was the appearance of a skull, which was thrown about the room and from which came a voice speaking to Christina. The skull appears to have been physical, not just clairvoyantly seen." Ectoplasy could also explain the appearance of the skull, but how was it able to talk? Also, here we have documented cases of both PK (flying stones) and of poltergeist fires.
Modernists might not be satisfied with one account of poltergeists from the 13th century, so let's briefly examine a classic case of a noisy ghost from modern times. Imagine yourself transported back to Brazil in 1939, where a series of disturbances took place at the venerable mansion of Senior Cic de Ulhoa Canto, in a town called Itapara, in the State of Sao Paolo. Exploring The Psychic World (1967) tells us, "For forty days stones and household objects rained down on the family and the many visitors, who included a priest, a police inspector, a lawyer, several doctors and schoolmasters." The stones in question were "warm to the touch" as if they had recently been transported from hell. The household objects included "oranges, lemons, knives, and forks." Police inspector Aroldo Costa's official statement reads as follows: "The attorney general, Dr. Jose Carlos de Camargo Ferraz, was also present. He picked up the knife, put it into the cupboard, without forgetting to lock it. After some moments a metallic sound was heard again. It was the same knife, falling on the floor. It was put back in its place, but it fell out again. While this was going on in the kitchen, stones and fruits were simultaneously falling in various other apartments of the house." The inspector was not convinced at first of the reality of the phenomenon, and so, "in a joking tone, he said he would like to be given a more convincing demonstration: perhaps he could be hit on the head by a lemon." The attorney general mentioned by the inspector also made a statement, "claiming to have witnessed about a hundred incidents, including the lemon striking the inspector in the head." Ask and you shall receive.
Mysterious Experiences: Index >>
Spontaneous Combustion
Flying lemons, modern or not, might not be frightening to the entrenched materialists of the modern day. Fires of unknown origin are another kettle of fish altogether. Charles Dickens, the famous novelist, was convinced of the reality of spontaneous human combustion, in which people are consumed by fires that appear to come from nowhere and vanish in an equally inexplicable manner. This phenomenon found an ardent defender in more recent times in the person of Larry E. Arnold, who reported a 1966 case of spontaneous human combustion in the Fortean periodical Pursuit. Fate magazine later reprinted the same case in its pages. The event took place in Condersport, Pennsylvania, and the victim was a ninety-two-year-old named Dr. J. Irving Bentley. Mysteries Of The World (1979) tells us, "What little remained of Dr. Bentley was discovered by Don E. Gosnell, a gas company meter reader, in a scene very reminiscent of the discovery of Mr. Krook, described by Dickens. Part of Dr. Bentley's leg remained unburned, but that was about all. A hold had been burned right through the floor, and most of Dr. Bentley's ashes had fallen into the basement. The rest of the room was untouched by flame... The major puzzle, according to Arnold, was how Dr. Bentley's body could have been burned so completely without burning down the rest of the house, or at least causing a lot more damage. Arnold says that the body must have been consumed in a heat that could not be matched even in a crematorium." In the absence of any other explanation, Arnold concluded "that Dr. Bentley's fiery death was probably due to human spontaneous combustion." Arnold's theory on this phenomenon holds that periodic cases of "severe magnetic flux" can result in "mysterious fires." Arnold avers, "This raises the fascinating prospect of interrelations between human, terrestrial, and possibly cosmic energy patterns." Why do these magnetic anomalies choose humans as their destructive focus? And what produces these periods of magnetic disturbance? We will return to these points as we continue.
Arnold is not the only modern proponent of human spontaneous combustion. Charles Fort, the visionary writer on the paranormal from whose name the term "Fortean" has been derived, referred often to this phenomena in his books. Ivan Sanderson, another modern researcher, recorded "forty one separate cases of human spontaneous combustion, and cited many more in which animals inexplicably burst into flame," according to Mysteries Of The World (1979). Sanderson reported one case of spontaneous combustion that took place during July of 1951 in St. Petersburg, Florida, in which a sixty-seven-year-old woman was reduced from a 175 lb. flesh and blood woman to less than ten pounds of charred bones and ash. The papers and drapes that also occupied the same room where the fire took place were mysteriously undamaged. Fortean theorist Ronald J. Willis from the International Fortean Organization (INFO) attributes spontaneous human combustion to mysterious "fire beings" who incinerate individuals for inexplicable reasons of their own. Could these fire beings be rogue poltergeists whose power got out of hand? Or might they be something even more sinister? Speculative author Richard Shaver claimed in his writings that poltergeists, possession by demons, and spontaneous combustion could all be attributed to beings called "deros." Everything Is Under Control (1998) says that "Deros are evil dwarfs who live inside the earth and use super scientific mind machines to torture and torment the humans on the surface..." Maybe the Deros are responsible for the weird magnetic patterns that cause deadly fires of unknown origin. 13th century Deros might even have used their "mind machines" to torment and harass St. Christina, a virtuous figure whom they must have loathed. This may sound like the strangest explanation of all, but it might seem a bit more plausible by the time you're done reading this course.
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Mind Over Matter III: Near Death Experiences & Apparitions
The term Near Death Experience (NDE) was coined by American physician Raymond Moody in the 1970's. Moody, according to Harper's Encyclopedia Of Mystical & Paranormal Experience (1991), used the term "to describe the mystical-like phenomena experienced by individuals who appear to die and then return to life, or who come close to death." Moody's book, Life After Life (1975), prompted many people to come forward and recount their own NDE's. Various types of NDE's are listed in Harper's Encyclopedia Of Mystical & Paranormal Experience (1991), including "a sense of being dead, or an out of body experience in which they feel themselves to be floating above their bodies, looking down; cessation of pain and a feeling of bliss or peacefulness; traveling down a dark tunnel toward a light at the end; meeting nonphysical beings who glow, many of whom are dead friends and relatives; coming in contact with a guide or Supreme Being who takes them on a life review, during which their entire lives are put into perspective without rendering any negative judgment about past acts; and finally, a reluctant return to life."
Hundreds of books have been published on this subject, including statistical volumes of deathbed phenomena based on the testimony of doctors and nurses. Such works can be located in Terry K. Bradford's book entitled Near Death Experiences: An Annotated Bibliography (1990). In entry 605 of this book, describing a work called Deathbed Observations By Physicians And Nurses (1961) by Karlis Osis, we read, "In response to a questionnaire mailed to 10,000 physicians and nurses, 285 physicians and 355 nurses" reported witnessing some 35,000 patient deaths. In connection with these demises, the respondents reported 753 cases of "exaltations," 884 cases of "visions of heaven, hell, or ineffable beauty," and 1370 cases of "apparitions" seen by the dying patient. Of those who saw apparitions, 52% saw "the dead," 28% saw persons who were still living but physically absent, and 19% saw "religious figures." Doctors and nurses reported, "In a majority of cases patients saw the mission of apparitions as one of ‘taking' them." We might wish to note also that "Conditions detrimental to ESP appeared also detrimental to deathbed phenomena." The sheer volume of the data in this one book alone overwhelms the imagination. Bradford's bibliography lists hundreds more books on the subject of NDE's. Yet Harper's Encyclopedia Of Mystical & Paranormal Experience (1991) informs us that "the experience has not been scientifically proved." In light of the wealth of data available concerning NDE's, such lack of proof probably means that scientists are simply ignoring the phenomenon.
Since science refuses to touch NDE's, psychologists have instead taken charge of the subject in order to dismiss the phenomena as a universal hallucination, as if such an idea was not an obvious contradiction in terms. If everyone hallucinates the same thing, how are we to tell illusion from reality? Books like Dying To Live (1993) by Susan Blackmore, senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of the West of England, seem bent on pursuing the hallucination hypothesis no matter how much contradictory evidence must be refuted. However, Blackmore unwittingly lends credence to the reality of NDE's by revealing the fact that records of this phenomenon can be garnered from such far-flung sources as ancient Greece, Native American tales, and Lithuanian folklore. Blackmore also informs us that many other cultures have traditionally prepared people for life after death through the use of guidebooks such as the Egyptian Book Of The Dead and the Bardo Thodol (more commonly known as the Tibetan Book Of The Dead). Blackmore writes that these books of "special training techniques" are designed to "teach people what to expect of death, and the skills needed to prepare for it so that confusion will not overtake them when the time comes." If life after death is just a hallucination, why bother preparing for it? Would ancient sages have gone to all the trouble of writing guidebooks for the dead if they didn't have good reason to believe that people's minds continued to exist after their bodies ceased to breathe? It seems logical that elaborate books preparing people for the afterworld would not have been written unless someone knew that death was not the end. The most reasonable way to obtain such knowledge would be communication with the dead. Fortunately, the dead have shown great willingness to communicate with us, even if some of us don't believe in them.
Tales of ghosts can be found in every corner of the world and in every period of history. As Dr. Johnston, the "spokesman for English common sense and sanity" is quoted as saying in Exploring The Psychic World (1967), "There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not recounted and believed." This same book defines a "ghost" as: "a person's spirit which appears after death; a spirit like entity; the soul of man; anything shadowy or without substance; the third person of the Trinity." Ghostly apparitions come in many different guises, but can be roughly classed into three types of phenomena: hauntings, which have little or no volition; spirits, sometimes identifiable as formerly living persons; and "holy ghosts," or Angels.
The most common type of ghost is the "haunting," which may be associated with a certain spooky locale such as an abandoned house or lonely woodland. According to Harper's Encyclopedia Of Mystical And Paranormal Experience (1991), the inexplicable phenomena associated with hauntings "include apparitions, noises, smells, tactile sensations, extremes in temperature, movement of objects, and the like." Psychics are able to sense hauntings more often than those without paranormal sensibilities, suggesting that the phenomena could be classed as cases of retrocognition on the part of observers. Harper's Encyclopedia Of Mystical And Paranormal Experience (1991) informs us that "Retrocognition is a phenomenon of some hauntings and apparitions that seem to be continual replays of events, such as murders or suicides. Psychologist Gardner Murphy theorized that most ghosts are cases of retrocognition, in which an individual becomes momentarily displaced in time and can perceive scenes from the past." Retrocognitive hauntings might be likened to the psychic impressions that can be recovered from objects through psychometry. Intense events such as violent death would leave a very deep impression on the psychic substance of the place where the event occurred, causing sensitive people to recognize the place as "haunted" or perhaps involuntarily witness a ghostly replay of the event. Such psychic impressions might even be considered disturbances in the magnetic fields mentioned earlier in connection with spontaneous combustion. This would help to explain why hauntings often occur along ley lines, as will be shown later.
The spirit is a less common type of ghost that includes those with some sensible purpose, like a warning of immanent death or danger. The Banshee of Ireland, known in Southern Mexico as La Llorona, belongs in this class. According to Exploring The Psychic World (1967), the Banshee appears most often as "the figure of a woman in white, wailing outside the house before the passing of a member of the family." The spirits of deceased relatives have also been known to issue warnings: a story tells that the spirit of Napoleon's wife Josephine visited him during his exile on the island of St. Helena to warn him of his impending death. The ghost of Hamlet's father, who appeared in order to see murderers brought to justice, could serve as the archetypical example of an intelligent, purposeful spirit.
A third type of ghost has long been associated with religious revelations. These "holy ghosts" appear in the religious scriptures of India, China, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Rome. Barbaric tribal mythologies also tell of apparitions sent by the gods. Fred Archer asserts in Exploring The Psychic World (1967) that "The word religion itself means to be in touch with another order of existence, and the great faiths have each a foundation of psychic phenomena at their roots." Modern spirit visitations, such as those at Fatima in 1917, have been witnessed by thousands of people and may yet give rise to a new religion that will sweep away present belief systems as the Age of Aquarius continues to unfold.
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Miracles & Angels I: Mother Mary Of Fatima
"In the last analysis magic, religion, and science are nothing but theories of thought; and as science has supplanted its predecessors, so it may hereafter be itself superseded by some more perfect hypothesis, perhaps by some totally different way of looking at the phenomena—of registering the shadows on the screen—of which this generation can form no idea."
—Sir James Frazer, The Golden Bough
The modern era of religious revelation entered the mass consciousness in 1917, when 70,000 or more people witnessed a glowing apparition in the sky near Fatima, Portugal. This apparition was called "Mother Mary" by some, who perceived a Lady made of light, while others saw only a spinning disc of many colors descending from the sky. On at least one occasion, the apparition described itself to those who could hear its voice as "the Angel of Peace." This Angel appeared many times, first to a small group of young girls to whom She spoke directly. Later the Angel of Mary showed Herself before successively larger crowds and communicated prophetic messages to the girls and the boy who had first drawn attention to the phenomenon. She had first revealed herself to two girls: Lucia and Jacinta, and one boy: Francisco.
The reality of these inexplicable events was so indisputable that authorities of the Catholic Church felt compelled to admit the verity of the miracles in an official statement. Jacques Vallee recounts this statement in his book, The Invisible College (1975): "In its decision of 1930, arrived at after thirteen years of painstaking investigations by many scholars, the Church stated that: ‘The solar phenomenon of the 13th of October 1917, described in the press of the time, was most marvelous, and caused the greatest impression on those who had the happiness of witnessing it… This phenomenon, which no astronomical observatory has registered and which therefore was not natural, was witnessed by persons of all categories and of all social classes, believers and unbelievers, journalists of the principal Portuguese newspapers and even by persons some miles away: facts which annul any explanation of collective illusion.'" So much for the universal hallucination theory.
According to The Invisible College (1975), the visible events at Fatima included "luminous spheres," "strange colors," and "heat waves," all of which are physical phenomena "commonly associated with UFO's." The "psychic component of UFO sightings" was also present in the form of "healing and prophecy and a loss of ordinary consciousness on the part of witnesses," some of whom fell to their knees and began confessing their sins in the presence of the Angel. The "Mary" apparition also displayed precognitive powers. On July 13, 1917, before 4500 witnesses, the Angel communicated a prophecy to the young girls and boy with whom she had first made contact. The prophecy, recorded in The Invisible College (1975), reads as follows: "The war is going to end, but if people do not stop offending God another and worse one will begin during the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light know that this is the great sign that God is giving you that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, famine, and persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia... If they heed my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world." Note that Pius XI did indeed reign at the beginning of World War II in 1939. Even more surprising, and something that even Vallee could not have understood, is the Angel's allusion to the ongoing reconversion of Russia to Christianity. This development would seem to indicate that World War III might still be prevented if the Angel's prophecy continues to prove correct.
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Miracles & Angels II: The Fairy World
One of the advantages enjoyed by the empirical science of phenomenology over the various materialist scientific schools is that we, as phenomenologists, need not limit ourselves to the study of scientifically "proven" phenomena. On the contrary, we may freely concern ourselves with any and all experiential data that we may happen upon in the course of our investigations. Since we are not hidebound by materialism's foregone conclusions, we can admit the possibility that mind exists independently of matter. Therefore, purely mental experiences, that is, experiences with no physical component, can be used as empirical data, just as physical phenomena can. Such ephemeral experiences, in order to differentiate them from data derived from the senses, can be termed "noumena." Dora van Gelder, an early 20th century clairvoyant, has some brilliant insights on this point in her book The Real World Of Fairies (1984): "The psychophysical threshold which divides the noumenal world from the phenomenal owes its very existence to the fact that only certain octaves of vibration react upon our sensory mechanism in such a way as to produce the impressions of touch, sight, hearing, and the rest." In other words, our sense organs define the limits of what we call reality, just as quantum theory suggests. Dora goes on to explain that "the tangible, the visible, the audible constitute what we call the ‘real' world, but even the materialistic scientist knows better than than that- knows that this word thus applied has no validity, since it would be absurd to deny an equal reality to those other octaves of vibration with which the sense mechanism fails to establish relations." The discovery of invisible "vibrations," such as radio waves, shows that such "higher octaves" of reality can indeed be brought into relation with our senses through the use of the proper medium: in this case, a radio receiver. Dora concludes that "however unreal to us, the so-called transcendental world is as real as the physical world." In that case, you might ask, how can we make contact with this transcendental world? The answer lies within.
Dora van Gelder claimed to possess the ability to see and speak with both Angels and fairies through the use of clairvoyance, just as simply as you might decide to listen to music by turning on your radio. According to van Gelder, the power of clairvoyance has a physical basis in the pituitary gland, also known as the "third eye" located in the center of the forehead. Though this "eye" does not possess a fleshy opening, it can "open" in a more subtle sense and offer us a view of the transcendental world that clairvoyants see. The Real World Of Fairies (1984) informs us that "When it is necessary to look into that finer world in which the fairies and other kinds of living beings exist, it is only necessary to concentrate for a moment along that line of sight, and the sense responds much as if the eyes (but in this case a single eye) has opened." The phrase "line of sight" above refers to one in line with the center of the forehead, proceeding from the location of the "third eye." Those familiar with visualization techniques will probably find this opening of the third eye easy to accomplish.
A proximity to nature helps immensely in establishing contact with the fairy world, since, as it says in The Real World of Fairies (1984), "It is the love of nature which is the great bridge between the two kingdoms" of human and fairy. The garden, the forest, and the seashore are all excellent places to begin to practice seeing with the third eye and to get in touch with fairies. These ephemeral creatures are very closely tied to the elements of the natural world, and can be divided roughly into four groups along traditional elemental lines. Thus there are fire, air, water, and earth fairies. The earth fairies, also called gnomes, might well be the easiest ones to contact, since they remain stationary for a long time the way stones do. In The Real World Of Fairies (1984) we read, "All of these gnome-like fairies, having to do with rocks and earth depths, convey this feeling of being part of a most ancient order of things." It follows that gnomes would likely be found in the proximity of large stones or monoliths. In relation to this, Dora van Gelder mentions that stones sometimes display a "strange rudimentary mineral intelligence" that extends into both the "etheric" and "astral" realms. To clarify these terms, The Real World Of Fairies (1984) informs us that "The writer uses the term ‘etheric' for the kind of matter of which fairy bodies are made, and ‘astral' in reference to still subtler matter." Angels, being subtler than fairies, would seem to be made of astral material, and The Real World Of Fairies (1984) makes it clear that "Angels require a pure form of clairvoyance for observation, so fine is the material of which their bodies are made. Thus, while angels are almost never seen with the physical eyes, fairies can be seen in that way, especially out of the corner of the eye." This would explain why only the little girls at Fatima could see and speak to the "Angel of Mary," while others saw only the etheric phenomena associated with the Angel's presence. Children, being more "pure" than their elders, can naturally see deeper into the subtle realms than those corrupted by long contact with the world of sense.
The etheric realm seems to be the essentially same subtle vibrational or "magnetic" field contacted by means of psychometry and retrocognition. On this point, Dora goes on to explain in The Real World Of Fairies (1984), "The rock possesses its physical crystalline body, its etheric double and the beginning of emotion... The etheric double constitutes a counterpart in ‘ether' which normally occupies the same position in space as the rock, but is slightly extensible beyond this area; the astral body is slightly more extended in space." It is the etheric double, van Gelder asserts, which serves as the "register of experiences" that can be read by clairvoyants. Out-of-body experiences might then be explained as the separation of a human's etheric double from the physical body. Since the etheric realm corresponds closely with the physical, the ability to travel about in the ether might give psychics the ability to perform all of the clairvoyant feats known to parapsychology.
The ability of etheric doubles to record experiences also helps explain the phenomenon of retrocognition and hauntings. One such recorded experience, a dramatic escape that took place in the proximity of a large stone, is recounted in The Real World Of Fairies (1984): "This dramatic escape was evidently the one great fact in the rock's otherwise monotonous history, and it had impressed itself upon him with such force and clearness that when an attempt was made to penetrate his consciousness he at once reproduced the scene, just as a man who has passed through some tremendous experience cannot refrain from telling it, in season and out of season." Correlating the etheric nature of the fairy world with what we already have learned about apparitions, we can now classify hauntings as an intense type of etheric manifestation, while the relative rarity of spirit and angel contacts would suggest that they ought to be classed together as astral phenomena. Retrocognitive phenomena make considerably more sense in light of this analysis, as do the events at Fatima. Some of the strange events associated with the monoliths at Stonehenge, though much more dramatic than the story of the stone recounted above, will also be seen to fit into a slowly emerging pattern. Let us turn our attention now to the subject of the monoliths, and the eldritch energies associated with them.
Mysterious Experiences: Index >>
Mysterious Forces I: Stonehenge
Several hundred megalithic stone monuments exist today in Europe and Great Britain. Most of them are believed to have been built between 3500 and 1000 B.C. Stonehenge ranks first in fame among these monuments, and has long been a focal point for inexplicable phenomena. In her book, Stonehenge (1987), author Bonnie gaunt asserts that "Psychics have testified to unearthly experiences in the presence of the stones; and so have skeptics. Age-old folklore has endowed the stones with mystic powers to move of their own accord, to whisper, to impregnate the barren, to heal the sick, and to hex the wicked." What kind of subtle force could be responsible for these and other paranormal experiences associated with Stonehenge? Could disturbances in the etheric field cause such varied phenomena? More likely than not, our theory of the powers residing in the transcendental realms needs to be developed further.
No one knows for certain who built the Stonehenge monument, nor does anyone know precisely how the stones came to be erected on the barren Salisbury Plain in Southwest England where they now stand. Stonehenge (1987) draws our attention to the fact that, if ancient methods were used, "The number of men and man-hours that were required to find, transport, cut, dress, and erect those massive stones is indeed staggering to the imagination." However, tales of Stonehenge's construction do not mention crews of masons and beasts of burden. Instead, the stories predominantly identify levitation as the method by which the stones were erected. Some say that the devil levitated the stones; others attribute the flight of the megaliths to the magic of the sorcerer Merlin. Levitation has long been reported in the East as one of the mysterious powers, or siddhis, associated with extended periods of yoga and meditation practice. Group chanting has also been reputed to effect levitation in some cases. Recent discoveries in relation to the phenomenon known as "vortices," most notably with regard to the little known "Hutchison effect," makes the levitation hypothesis even more plausible. More on this later.
The tale of Merlin and the "Giant's Dance," as Stonehenge once was called, appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History Of The Kings Of Britain (1136). Details concerning this work can be found in Mystic Places (1987), as can the following quote about Britain's famous conjurer: "According to Merlin, a vanished race of Irish giants had carried the magical stones from distant Africa. Water poured over the stones acquired healing properties, and the giants treated their battle wounds with confections of herbs mixed with the magical waters." If Merlin knew of the giants, then some of them might have contributed to the lineage of his contemporaries. The story of the giant bones discovered in the tomb marked with King Arthur's name in the Bigfoot section above ought to be re-examined in light of these "Irish giants." The healing properties acquired by water poured over the "magical" stones might be attributed to some sort of magnetic or etheric effect. Let us continue to pursue the origins of this mysterious force.
"Earth energy" is another name for the magical power associated with the megaliths of Britain, and the existence of this energy has been experimentally verified by at least one Stonehenge visitor. His story also appears in Mystic Places (1987): "The visitor had brought with him an antenna bent into an ankh, an ancient Egyptian cross with a loop at the top. Grasping the two-foot-long wire by the loop, he pointed the other end at the giant stones. The result, as he reported later, was both startling and painful: a burning jolt of power surged up his arm, hurling him to the ground and knocking him unconscious. When he came to he found that his arm was paralyzed; it took six months for him to regain its full use." This experience should serve as a warning to us all: earth energy exists, and as in the case of fire, playing with it could prove dangerous. Such a shocking degree of force surpasses anything previously mentioned with regard to etheric fields. However, it may be that the ether serves as a conduit for earth energy, much in the way that water can conduct electricity. To explore this idea further we must now move on to the next item on our list of paranormal phenomena: ley lines.
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Mysterious Forces II: Ley Lines And Earth Energy
Ley lines, also called leys, were first drawn to the attention of the modern masses by Alfred Watkins in 1921. Watkins noted the curious alignments of various historic sites, such as cathedrals and ancient monuments, that seemed to suggest a network of lines drawn along the surface of the land. He published his ideas about ley line networks in a book entitled The Old Straight Track (1925). Occultist Dion Fortune, some ten years later, revived the allegedly ancient idea of leys as "lines of power" in her novel The Goat Foot God (1971). According to Mystic Places (1987), some modern researchers now "believe that leys are located along channels of geophysical power. They suspect that ancient people sensed a pulsating energy coursing through the earth and built their monuments at sites where the energy was strongest." The spots where leys intersect are called "nodes," and researchers theorize that the concentration of earth energy near these points may be powerful enough to trigger psychic phenomena. Indeed, cases of retrocognition, spontaneous levitation, and UFO sightings have all been reported, and are said to occur more frequently, along ley lines.
According to one of the most advanced ley line theories, detailed in Mystic Places (1987), Stonehenge stands atop one of the major "nodes" where two of the most prominent leys intersect. The giant stones of this monument theoretically may function "as a sort of storage battery or sending-and-receiving station tied into a mysterious power grid." If high concentrations of earth energy do indeed trigger paranormal events, the existence of so much power at Stonehenge could explain why UFO's have been reported so often in the vicinity of the megaliths. The most notable UFO sighting occurred at Stonehenge in October of 1977, when an entire squadron of "spacecraft" was filmed in flight above the monument. Magnetic interference also occurred during this event, causing compasses, televisions, and searchlights to malfunction. These effects suggest that earth energy, when and if it manifests in connection to the UFO phenomenon, may occupy the same region of the energy spectrum as television (Ultra High Frequency or Very High Frequency). It should be noted here that the "Angel" sightings at Fatima bore a striking resemblance to UFO phenomena. It seems reasonable to speculate that the alleged "spacecraft" sighted over Stonehenge may actually be manifestations emanating from the "transcendental world" of etheric and astral material written of by Dora van Gelder. Just as electricity can be transformed into radio and TV transmissions, so geophysical energy may be capable of being transformed into what we perceive as paranormal or psychic phenomena. Though he may not have foreseen these developments, Nicola Tesla's experiments with electricity have now become intricately interwoven with the mysterious effects of earth energy.
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Mysterious Forces III: Tesla, Fireballs, & Crop Circles
In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed Nicola Tesla as the first inventor of the radio. The review of Margaret Cheney's book, Tesla: Man Out Of Time (1981), states that "In every step of progress in electrical power engineering, as well as in radio, we can trace the spark of thought back to Nicola Tesla." One of Tesla's dreams, in his own words, was "to transmit power, in unlimited amounts, to any terrestrial distance..." This feat was possible, Tesla believed, because of a phenomenon he discovered, which he described as "standing waves." With regard to these oddly immobile "waves," Tesla wrote: "Impossible as it seemed, this planet, despite its vast extent, behaved like a conductor of limited dimensions." Tesla believed that this conducting ability of the earth would allow electrical energy to be broadcast around the world without a significant loss of power. Tesla believed that his oscillator experiments actually accomplished this broadcast power effect. How can this be explained? Tesla: Man Out Of Time (1981) tells us that "Tesla visualized the Earth as an extremely large container holding an electrical fluid which resonance caused to be formed into a series of waves frozen in position." This "electrical fluid" sounds eerily similar to Dora van Gelder's etheric material. Standing waves could be compared to the intense psychic impressions that result in apparently permanent zones where retrocognition or "haunting" occurs; only in this case, an electrical oscillator produces the effect instead of a dramatic event involving the death of a sentient being. The implications of this speculative line are too spooky to explore further.
If Tesla was right about the results of his electrical experiments, then his use of the giant oscillator set up a continuous state of "electrical resonance" in the Earth's "ionosphere," the effect of which was to make energy available anywhere on the planet. This energy can be tapped, according to Tesla: Man Out Of Time (1981), "with a simple piece of equipment. This would include the elements of a radio tuning unit, a ground connection, and a metal rod the height of a house." Such an apparatus would allegedly allow anyone to access an unlimited supply of free household electricity.
Another fascinating phenomenon associated with Tesla's electrical experiments is "ball lightning," also known as "fireballs." Tesla considered fireballs a nuisance, but nevertheless he pursued the effect until he felt that he could reproduce it at will. Modern scientists have so far failed to equal Tesla's fireball creation feat, though cases of ball lightning continue to occur at random. Ball lightning, according to Tesla: Man Out Of Time (1981), "is a phenomenon that has fascinated and baffled scientists from ancient times to the present." Recent theories suggest that fireballs could be responsible for the mysterious phenomena known as "crop circles."
Beginning in the 1950's and spreading elsewhere with increasing frequency into the 80's and beyond, strange circular impressions appeared overnight in the grain fields of farmers who had no idea what caused the phenomenon. The circles showed surprising symmetry that might even suggest an intentional design. According to Everything Is Under Control (1998), in some cases "orange lights in the sky are allegedly seen just before the circles appear." The appearance of these lights would seem to support the scientific explanation of the phenomenon offered by physics professor and meteorologist Terence Meaden. Meaden's theory, as detailed in Mysterious Realms (1992), holds that the circles are produced by a "plasma vortex phenomenon" defined as a "spinning mass of air" mixed with "electrically charged matter." Mysterious Realms (1992) goes on to say that crop circle evidence "suggests that the spinning wind has entered the ionized state known as plasma, and that the vortices are to become plasma balls akin to ball lightning in appearance except that they are much bigger and longer lived." Now we have a positive connection between crop circles, fireballs, and "vortices," a phenomenon that will be explored more thoroughly in the next chapter. Unfortunately, no one has yet told us what causes a "plasma vortex" to spontaneously appear. A clue to this mystery might be found in a book called Circular Evidence (1989), by Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews. The authors of this book claim that crop circles are somehow linked to the UFO phenomenon. Maybe the long lasting fireballs associated with plasma vortices look like UFO's... or maybe intelligent beings from invisible worlds have a penchant for manifesting in grain fields. The mystery continues.
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Vanishings & Vortices I: The Bermuda Triangle
Also known more melodramatically as the "devil's triangle," the "points" of the Bermuda Triangle lie in the vicinities of Bermuda, Miami, and Puerto Rico. Strange events have been recorded in this region since the time of Christopher Columbus, who observed compass malfunctions and a mysterious light or flame that flew past his ship and disappeared into the sea. The area's fame began in 1872 when the Mary Celeste, a brigantine of 103-foot length, was found abandoned some 400 miles off its course with no trace of the crew aboard and with no apparent cause for them to have fled the ship. Spooky tales abounded about this disappearance, which some authors ascribed to "strange vortices" that dragged the crew down into a subterranean world known as the "hollow Earth." More inexplicable than any other single event, however, was the disappearance in 1945 of "Flight 19," a squadron of five U.S. Navy bombers that flew into the Bermuda Triangle region and vanished without a trace. More information about these and other odd events associated with the Triangle can be found in Everything Is Under Control (1998), as well as in the writings of author Charles Berlitz.
Inexplicable phenomena continue to occur in the Bermuda Triangle and elsewhere in the world, so much so that a writer named Gian J. Quasar has recently published what could well be an even more ambitious book than any before written on the subject. This book, entitled Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004), states, "Continuing encounters by pilots and shipmasters, for one or more terrible moments, with unexplained forces involving electronic drains, radio dead spots, power blackouts, and spontaneous compass malfunction, are contributing to the area's growing reputation as a unique place on this globe." Some theorists, not surprisingly, suggest that the region serves as a gateway for UFO's, equipped with "electromagnetic propulsion systems," to enter the Earth dimension. These UFO's, we are told, are responsible for magnetic and electrical anomalies as well as the mysterious disappearances of ships, planes, and people. Other theories, expounded upon at length in Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004) speculate, "that time itself may warp and send ships and planes to other dimensions." Among these, one popular theory suggests that the destructive machines built by the inhabitants of ancient Atlantis are still functioning beneath the ocean near Bermuda. This theory is supported by continuing aerial surveys which, according to Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004), "reveal surprisingly geometric and apparently manmade ruins below the surface of the ocean." The followers of the "sleeping prophet" Edgar Cayce claim that these underwater ruins offer verification of his prophecies. Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004) further informs us concerning Cayce that, "According to his prophecies, given far in advance of the space age or the Bermuda Triangle concept, evidence for its advanced electromagnetic power sources, the abuse of which disturbed the magnetic and gravitational fields and sent it to the bottom thousands of years ago, would be found in the Bahamas." Cayce predicted that "Poseidia," a portion of ancient Atlantis, would "rise again" around 1968, and stone walls were indeed discovered near the island of Bimini in that year. This clear case of precognition in association with a region where vortices are alleged to be capable of warping time adds a whole new dimension to the concept "paranormal."
Believe it or not, scientists have begun to make discoveries that explain and even partially reproduce many of the strange phenomena associated with the Bermuda Triangle. Dr. J. Manson Valentine believes that General Relativity prefigured the idea that gravity distorts time. His ideas, as they relate to the Bermuda Triangle and its phenomena, are presented in Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004), and include the idea that, "Places characterized both by concentrations of disappearances and by the persistence of unexplained electromagnetic (EM) field anomalies... may contain transient magnetic vortices capable of warping gravity locally and in turn even time or space itself." Dr. Irwin A. Moon, director of the Moody Institute of Science, begins to sound suspiciously like a clairvoyant himself when he states in Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004) that an "undetectable spectrum" of "electromagnetic frequencies" could exist, and that therefore, "It is within the realm of scientific possibility that there could be two worlds, coexistent, occupying the same part of space at the same moment of time, each world just as real as the other..." Vanishings could thus be explained by translation of matter from one world to the other. Science has just begun to admit the possibility of the transcendental worlds of which psychics and sorcerers have always been aware.
The "vile vortices" made popular by writers like Richard B. Shaver, Raymond Bernard, and Ivan Sanderson, the same vortices blamed for crop circles and time warps, have been at least partially reproduced by the most advanced scientists and inventors of the present day. Dr. Evgeny Podkletnov, a Russian scientist working in 1996 at Tampere University in Finland, seems to have accidentally discovered a means of nullifying gravity. He constructed, for some purpose unrelated to antigravity, a ring shaped superconductor device cooled by liquid hydrogen. Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004) relates, "When the ring was made to spin at 5,000 rpm, objects suspended over the device lost a percentage of their weight. When Dr. Podkletnov tested the area directly above the device, even to the top floor of the building, he discovered a circular funnel 12 inches in diameter of less gravity that went through all floors and perhaps then extended upward into space." Wilbert B. Smith, a Canadian physicist, discovered a counterpart to this type of antigravity "funnel," according to Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004), in naturally occurring "funnels measuring about 1,000 feet in diameter, extending from the ocean surface to very high altitudes, wherein the magnetic and gravitational readings gave indication of less attraction to the Earth." Even more mysterious than mere antigravity, however, are the effects of the device invented by lay scientist John Hutchison.
During an independent study of Nicola Tesla's "longitudinal wavelengths" in 1979, John Hutchison invented a device that consisted of paraphernalia including radio transmitters, Van de Graff generators, and Tesla coils. The antigravity effects of this device, including the levitation of a bronze cylinder weighing 19 lb. to a height of eighty feet, have been recorded on video and witnessed by scientifically trained observers. According to Into The Bermuda Triangle (2004), additional effects of the device include the sudden appearance and disappearance of objects, "corona manifestations" described as "exotic lights," the warping of metal without apparent heat, the "fusion" of distinct substances such as wood and metal, and the "invisibility of metallic objects." All of these effects could be produced using "110 volts of AC;" in other words, ordinary household electricity. Hutchison's equipment was seized by Canadian officials in 1990, and again in 2000, when the inventor himself was arrested at his home. With the help of German and U.S. sources, this daring inventor was nevertheless able to continue his experiments with the mysterious "Hutchison effect." These inexplicable powers, wielded by a layman armed only with a few replicable devices and a knowledge of Tesla's methods, amply illustrate the inadequacy of current scientific theories to explain the vast range of phenomena associated with vortices.
Clearly, forces which no one really understands are now within the grasp of human technological expertise. Sooner than we think, we may find ourselves in the same position as the ancient Atlanteans, in control of machines whose powers we cannot comprehend. These powers may destroy us, or merely cause our civilization to vanish without a trace. Then again, the continuing development of mystical consciousness may save us from the fate of our Atlantean predecessors. Higher consciousness may succeed where science has failed. If vortices really do open gateways into a transcendental world or alternate dimension, it would seem likely that someone has found a way to voluntarily enter this mysterious Otherworld. A study of disappearances could benefit us in our own search for the key to these otherworldly mysteries.
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Vanishings & Vortices II: Mayans, The Hollow Earth, & Croatoan
The real reasons for the decline and fall of Mayan civilization will probably never be known. Since Spanish conquerors burned all but a few of the Mayan codices in which the history of this ancient people was recorded, all we have left are the ruins and the imaginary conjectures of speculative historians. The Mayans were brilliant mathematicians, astronomers, and architects. They built cities of splendor and beauty equal to Karnak and Ninevah. Yet, without any discernible motive, they abandoned their early cities completely by 900 A.D. and moved away to construct others. A clue to the reason for this abandonment might be found in the rise of the quasi-mystical leader Quetzalcoatl, or "Plumed Serpent," whom the Mayans called Kukulcan. Around 1200 A.D. this leader conquered the Mayan city of Chichen Itza and made war upon the League of Mayapan, named for the principal city-state in the alliance that formed to oppose Quetzalcoatl's advance. The wars between the Yucatan city-states lasted for some three centuries, until the sack of Mayapan in 1441 plunged the region into chaos. Outbreaks of disease and continuing violence so weakened the Mayans that they were easily overrun by the invading Spaniards between 1527 and 1535. Details of these historical events can be found in Eric Thompson's book, The Rise And Fall Of The Mayas (1956). Students of early Mexico's history may remember that the mythical Queztalcoatl, an albino warlord believed to possess godlike powers, had vowed to return and conquer Mexico. The superstitious Aztecs saw the arrival of the Spanish as the fulfillment of this prophecy, a delusion which contributed greatly to their downfall. The key to the Mayan's abandonment of their early cities might also, therefore, be found in their religious beliefs. It could be that the Mayans foresaw, with astronomical calculations, the eventual demise of their civilization, but were unable to prevent it even after relocating their cities. The magical powers attributed to their nemesis Queztalcoatl may have sealed the Mayans' fate, while the Plumed Serpent himself escaped into the Otherworld known to the Aztecs as Aztlan. (Atlantis?)
Tales concerning the Incas relate how some of them were able to elude the Spanish conquerors by retreating, along with their treasure, into secret tunnels beneath the earth. The existence of such tunnels would help to explain how the Incan leader Manco was able to wage a 36 year guerrilla war against Pizarro's Spaniards. The still undiscovered city of Vilcabamba was reputed to be the base for Manco's army of 100,000. Though many have searched for the legendary city, only the relatively small ruins of Machu Picchu and Espiritu Pampa have been discovered. Perhaps Vilcabamba can only be reached through some sort of gateway into the Otherworld. Then again, it could be that Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett's legendary city of "Z," which he discovered in some unknown part of the Brazilian jungle in the 1920s, was actually Vilcabamba. In the book Vanishings (1990), "Z" is described as a city which could be entered through a "massive stone portal," beyond which lay "a lost city of wide avenues, statuary, temples, and other buildings, all constructed in a style like that of ancient Greece." Unfortunately, the secret of "Z"s location disappeared with Fawcett when he departed on his final expedition to the city in 1925, never to return. Could Fawcett have stumbled upon an Otherworldly city that could only be reached by means of the mysterious stone portal?
Many mysterious phenomena observed by travelers near the North Pole have contributed to the idea that a gateway exists there leading into a subterranean region known as the Hollow Earth. Among these strange phenomena are the aurora borealis or "northern lights," said by Hollow Earth enthusiasts to be light from that region's ever-shining sun. The northerly migration of animals in the region, warm winds allegedly blowing from the north, and the return of conspicuously well fed animals from supposedly barren arctic regions have all contributed to this belief. Recorded accounts of the polar flights conducted by U.S. Navy aviator Richard E. Bardo in 1926, 1947, and 1955 have been abridged, some claim, in order to hide his descriptions of the vast continents and interior spaces he discovered beyond the poles. According to Mystic Places (1987), the writers Ray Palmer and Raymond Bernard "shared a belief that someone was conspiring to keep Bardo's real findings secret. They found confirming evidence in Bardo's phrases about ‘the country beyond' and ‘the enchanted continent in the sky.' And they claimed to have discovered other radio messages that told of iceless land and lakes, mountains covered with trees, and even a monstrous animal resembling the mammoth of antiquity moving through allegedly polar underbrush." Strangely enough, a wooly mammoth was indeed found in Siberia in 1864, long after the animals had supposedly become extinct. Some claim that such mammoths, which have been found since 1864 as well, come from the Hollow Earth. However, in light of monsters like the coelacanth, Loch Nessie, and Bigfoot, a few wooly mammoths need not be explained by such an elaborate theory.
More mystical minded authors such as Julius Evil, author of Revolt Against The Modern World (1995), have suggested that the Hollow Earth may be an invisible, otherworldly place. Evil tells of the legendary homeland of the Hyperborean, situated in the "Far North," which can be found "neither by ship nor by marching feet." This land is located at the center or "axis" of the world, in a place elevated "above the interplay of earthly forces." Evil links this conception of the Hollow Earth with tales of Atlantis in Revolt Against The Modern World (1995): "Thus, the legend of the subterranean people or of the subterranean kingdom is often the counterpart of the legend of the sunken land, island, or city; this legend is found among several populations. When impiety began to run rampant in the earth, survivors of previous eras moved to an ‘underground' location (in other words, they acquired an ‘invisible' existence) that is often situated in the mountains... These beings continue to exist on those mountain peaks until a new manifestation is made possible for them as the end of the cycle of decadence approaches." The increasing frequency of Otherworldly manifestations might signal the impending end of our own decadent age, which would make it possible for transcendental beings to return to Earth. Conversely, such manifestations may be meant as a warning that the age of impiety has only just begun, and those who wish to survive beyond the end of the cycle must seek an "invisible existence."
The flight from decadence has occurred many times in the past, most notably during the English colonization of North America. The colony of Roanoke in Virginia, established in the 1580's during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was originally conceived as a base for seagoing raids on the Spanish treasure fleet. The war beginning in 1585 between Spain and England provoked by these piratical depredations forced the Queen to abandon the Roanoke colony along with more than 100 colonists who occupied it. The colonists received no assistance for over three years, and when ships finally returned to the colony, all of its inhabitants had disappeared. The only indication of where they had gone was a carving in one of the wooden beams of their abandoned fortification which read CROATOAN. Though this would seem to indicate that the colonists had relocated to the nearby island of Croatoan, no trace of them was ever found, there or elsewhere. Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony (1984) tells us, "Local legends in North Carolina maintain that the lost colonists survived and intermarried with the Indians and that their descendants live in the region today." If this were the case, why did these former colonists fail to reestablish contact with their countrymen who settled at Jamestown in 1607? Perhaps their abandonment by the decadent and piratical English had disillusioned them, prompting them to voluntarily retreat from the world they once knew and instead seek a simpler, freer life among the natives of North America. In this case, CROATOAN might represent, for us today, a transcendental state of mind through which the decadent, materialistic world we know can be left behind in favor of an invisible existence centered in the Otherworld. As science tells us, this Otherworld coexists with the one we know and occupy already; the secret to entering it lies within us.
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Discussion: Crisis Of Faith Or Religious Revival? You Decide
A new mystical awareness has been sweeping the world since the end of the 19th century, even as technology has brought the human race to the brink of destruction through the manmade disasters of war and ecological collapse. Paranormal phenomena, as they become more frequent in their manifestations, insistently direct our attention to the realms beyond the physical world. These phenomena may yet save us from extinction if we only will open ourselves to the messages they convey. As Jacques Vallee wrote in The Invisible College (1975), "Something happened in classical times that is very inadequately explained by historical theories. The suggestion that the same thing might be happening again should make us extremely interested in bringing every possible light to bear on this problem. What I am referring to is the collapse of ancient civilizations. Beginning in the second century B.C. and continuing until the fall of the Roman Empire, the intellectual elites of the Mediterranean world, raised in a spirit of scientific rationalism, were confronted and eventually defeated by an irrational element similar to that contained in modern apparitions of unexplained phenomena, an element that is dramatized in their summary rejection by modern science." Vallee continues, "I think the stage is set for the appearance of new faiths, centered on the UFO belief." As Christianity supplanted the Roman Empire in ancient times, an equally "irrational" new religion may even now be rising in the wake of paranormal and mystical experiences that the materialist establishment known as "science" has still been unable to suppress.
What Julius Evil calls "the terminal decadence of modern civilization," evident in the increasing frequency of wars and the heedless destruction of the natural environment on which human life is based, results, according to Evil, from the loss of contact with the higher world and the resulting belief that the temporal world is the only reality. In Revolt Against The Modern World (1995) we read: "With the revolt of individualism, all consciousness of the superworld was lost. The only thing that was still regarded as all-inclusive and certain was the material view of the world, or nature seen as exteriority and a collection of phenomena." Thus, even the study of paranormal phenomena points to how far we have strayed from our spiritual center. However, Evil also tells us in Revolt Against The Modern World (1995) that "According to the Tibetan lama's teachings, Shamble, the mystical northern seat, is within everyone." If we can successfully deconstruct the modern point of view within our own minds, we might be able to reforge the link with the Otherworld or "superworld."
In order to accomplish this feat of mental reorganization, which will in turn enable us to remake our own worlds, we need a map that describes the different realms inside our own minds. Lawrence LeShan, in his book Alternate Realities (1976), has provided us with just such a map. According to LeShan, human experience can be roughly divided into four "modes of being," also known as "realities." The inhabitants of one reality do not acknowledge any other mode of being as "real." Only those with the ability to switch modes at will, and who therefore inhabit more than one reality, are capable of seeing that no mode of being is any more (or less) real than another. In a similar way, someone who understands only one language will hear all other languages as gibberish. Only the multilingual individual is capable of perceiving the fact that other languages actually make sense. All of us switch modes involuntarily when we fall asleep and allow ourselves to dream. In this case, we are moving from what LeShan calls the "Sensory Mode" of being to the "Mythic Mode" of being.
To make our terms more empirical we can change the word "being" to "perception." This change in terminology will remind us that we are perceiving the world and making it appear the way that it does, rather than just passively existing in a world we never made. The four "modes of perception," then, can be described as follows: the Sensory Mode, in which we perceive the world by means of the five physical senses; the Clairvoyant Mode, in which we become One with the Universe; the Transpsychic Mode, where we commune with some aspect of the Divine Mind (otherwise known as a god or goddess); and the Mythic Mode, which gives us access to the world known to psychology as the Collective Unconscious in which symbol and symbolized become one. Yoga and other techniques of meditation can provide access to the Clairvoyant Mode of perception. The Clairvoyant world corresponds to the Etheric realm. This Mode provides access to the various psychic powers such as precognition, telepathy, and clairvoyance. The Transpsychic realms can be contacted by means of sincere prayers, ritualized acts of worship, and Ceremonial Magick. This reality corresponds to the Astral plane. UFO's and Angel contacts can be classed as Transpsychic experiences. The Mythic Mode of perception can be consciously participated in through Lucid Dreaming, or through techniques of realizing that the world of the senses is also a Dream. This realization can lead us into the Mythical spaces that correspond to the superworld or Otherworld. The Mythic Reality, when fully integrated with the conscious mind, becomes One with Sensory Reality. When this happens, you will have journeyed beyond the limits of this map. The wise will heed one final word, for as the ancient treasure maps once warned: Here There Be Monsters. See you in Croatoan.