How often do we stop to consider how various aspects of our lives may, in essence, be illusions? Even if we were to suppose that life and all the cosmos are indeed some kind of mirage, we must return to the Cartesian notion that we think, and thus we are. In other words, if we are conscious, we must exist, right?

Nothing, it seems, is ever quite so simple or cut-and-dry as being merely “is” or “isn’t.” Yes, there are indeed times where we must probe a bit deeper in order to understand the hidden aspects of our existence, from which we stand to learn and grow in immeasurable ways. These areas of life from which we stand to gain the most often appear within the context of dualistic principles, stemming from such things as ordinary relationships we have with those around us. But what sorts of things can we hope to learn from realizing the “sacred” nature of such relationships… and how could this relate to the strange and unseen around us?

Let’s start by making a rather bold statement: that perhaps marriage, dating, and even instinctual attractions and sexual desires are all perceptual illusions, stemming from human biology, and the institution of culture in societies. These things are all representative of intangible, pre-material essences that exist in a state of non-locality from which both consciousness and matter extend. David Bohm called this state the implicate order.

Space and Time are also illusory, and this has been proven through experiments that reveal such things as time dilation and other perceptible effects that result from the way that time, gravity, and other forces affect one another. However, we cannot deny that, in fact, a multitude of different kinds of forces in the universe levy an attraction on one another: electricity, magnetism, and the aforementioned (and highly mysterious) gravity are all capable of exerting attractive forces in this way.

And yet, we must also accept that even people exert attractive forces on one another, just as well. The gentle (or sometimes, to the contrary, rather rough and tumble) interplay between the sexes, which are perceived as biological differences between male and female, and are mostly conducive to attraction and mating, may actually just be manifestations of universal dualities or dualistic principles. In the East, this would be called yin and yang. The duality is present elsewhere in a number of cultural institutions, and manifests similarly under such themes as good and evil, night and day, heaven and hell, life and death, and so on. But fundamentally, all are illusory in some way or another, imposed upon us by cultural institutions that have accumulated around our lifestyles as we have progressed as a species since time immemorial.

This is partially why I have touched on ideas in the past that incorporate Jungian archetypes into simple exchanges we have with people we meet and befriend throughout our lives. Last summer, here at Mysterious Universe I wrote an article called Conscious Continuity: Ourselves, Others and Oddities, which discussed some of the ways that archetypal themes seem to crop up in certain relationships I’ve had with individuals over the years (this is perhaps nowhere more apparent than with past lady loves). In that piece from 2011, I wrote that

“From a rather personal perspective, I’ve often likened various past loves that have come and gone to being repeated manifestations of a single sort of greater feminine archetype I’ve encountered, rather than merely being individuals I’ve known over the years. Sometimes, I’ve even encountered strange sorts of synchronicity and other manifestations of a curious nature in this regard: one girl I had known, for instance, took to calling me by a nickname which a previous girlfriend had used for me, with no prior knowledge of that nickname being appended to me in the past. Granted, I’m not literally suggesting that every girl I’ve dated over the years has been the same woman in some surreal, cosmic sense. However, I think that in terms of Jungian psychology, there are from time to time various “manifestations” of things that are familiar to us, shades of which might occasionally pour through the fabric of physical existence between people we know, revealing themselves in startling ways.”

Getting back to the various manifestations of what we might call Sacred Duality for the purposes of this piece, such would certainly not remain relegated to the realm of love and dating. Think about professional relationships you’ve had: was there ever a mentor figure, especially one outside of being a direct family member (mother or father) who helped train you for a job position or other aspect of your professional life? Thinking back, have you ever felt at times that the lessons learned from that individual may have extended well beyond merely learning how to perform tasks on the job, and that you learned valuable life’s lessons from that individual? Though what I’ve outlined here seems less “dualistic” or contrasting in nature, it nonetheless exemplifies another aspect of the archetypal substrata that exists within our relationships with others; here, we see “master and student” exemplified, or the process of learning life’s lessons in a deeper capacity.

The idea of archetypes may literally be attributed to any such interaction within our lives, though they often are thought of as being far more esoteric that they perhaps need to be. For instance, they may be likened to being something that borders on ghostly manifestations of repetitive cultural and mythological themes; or like the Jungian school of thought would assert, they exist as primitive mental images inherited from our ancestors that remain available throughout the collective subconsciousness of all humans. However, we need not attribute any sort of magic or other spiritual importance bordering on Soloian “hokey ancient religions” (see what I did there?) to their presence in order to learn from the broader concept.

For all intended principles expressed here, archetypal awareness in our everyday lives may simply be an act of recognizing the deeper embellishments existing beneath the obvious; or in effect, a process of looking for things that aren’t always readily apparent, but which help us grow once they are realized. And yes, while such concepts arrive in many forms, there is indeed a sacred duality that begins to emerge between the more contrasting elements of our existence. By acknowledging this sort of symbolism, and reconciling with the idea of there being a unity between them through philosophical undertakings such as the mind’s meanderings presented here, perhaps we stand to grow and gain from them, and thus even lead happier, more productive lives. And at very least, a mind that can render such things from the ordinary will never succumb to boredom!

For many devout believers among the Judeo-Christian tradition, mankind’s struggles don’t end with our passing from this realm. And to be fair, a number of other cultures and long-practiced religious institutions spanning the centuries have maintained a belief in something that exists beyond our commitments in this physical life, as well. With belief in the afterlife, or even notions like ghosts and haunted sites, we’re given a certain hope that there may be more to life than merely living and dying.

While the notion of something beyond the physical–or to quote Raymond Moody, belief in “Life After Life”–remains a popular theme among the multitudes, there are nonetheless those who would argue that notions of an individual spirit existing beyond the mortal confines of the body is pure rubbish. Thus, it brings a touch of irony in knowing one of the staunchest critics, in recent times, of there being a potential for consciousness persisting after the body dies, has himself now passed from the mortal realm.

Yes, I’m speaking of none other than Christopher Hitchens, the erudite political and philosophical firebrand whose books, including God is Not Great and his recent autobiography Hitch 22: A Memoir illustrated with harsh lucidity the author’s own doubt that there could be more to our existence than what the physical body alone may allow. Of the writer’s passing, I offered the following earlier today:

One of the brightest minds we’ve ever seen, Christopher Hitchens, has come and gone. Ideologically perpendicular to most and intellectually parallel only to the clouds, the man’s genius, and firebrand, were certainly not paralleled by most humans. Whether you loved him, hated him, or merely observed him over the years like so many of us did, it’s a mind like his that so many of us will miss… and though I’m certain there was no heaven waiting for Hitch (he woudn’t have wanted one, at least), his is not a spirit that will be forgotten. If nothing else, I hope he knows the freedom and liberty he admired throughout his life… da mihi libertatem aut da mihi mortem.

But in wishing Hitchens well in the afterlife, we are similarly given opportunity to consider the nature of reality, and of course, the potential for there being an afterlife. A recent article on the notion of religious beliefs and people’s apparent guilt with regard to disbelief was featured at The Guardian, with some of the more heady criticisms presented by the ever-controversial (and tactful) Richard Dawkins, who argues that many, rather than holding belief in a creator or divinity in the great beyond, are instead quite attached to the mere belief in belief itself.

Belief in belief for its own sake is so prevalent that it makes non-believers feel guilty. Odd though it seems, people who can’t accept propositions for which no empirical evidence exists tend to suffer more self-doubt than those who take great leaps of faith into the unknown. And this may help to explain why books denying the existence of God – Dawkins’s one, for example, and Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great – shoot straight to the top of the bestseller lists. For even in our overwhelmingly secular society, belief in God is still regarded, even by those who don’t have it, as evidence of a person’s respectability; and guilt-ridden non-believers cannot get enough reassurance that it is perfectly acceptable to be an atheist.

Sure, there may be respectability that “belief” in a God can lend to an individual; this has become curiously the case in the determinations made of American political candidates. But taking this approach, the notion that a God exists, or for that matter, spirits of the dead, can also present troubles for us in equal measure to the assurances they lend. While many of religious predisposition consider the idea of “ghosts” to be relative to demonic forces or evil spirits, the very idea that a soul could indeed exist beyond the physical body is a reassurance, in the sense that it shows us that death is not the ultimate end. If anything, tantamount to notions of a fully conscious, non-physical spirit is the potential for absolute freedom in the truest sense; when we leave the world of the physical, perhaps we know real spiritual mobility, and thus become capable of harnessing the greater truth hidden away within the cosmos… often of a variety that steadily surpasses the conventions of human thinking.

The cluttered box that becomes human ideology, while grasping desperately for freedom and truth, can often become stifling as one is drawn ever more deeply into a narrow-sighted vision (to put it ironically) of what “truth” is supposed to be. Thus, whether we choose to believe in ghosts, gods, devils and demons, or the afterlife, we shouldn’t allow ourselves to become so completely stoic in our opinions that we become blinded to the obvious truth that surpasses any human understanding: that we simply cannot know all the answers, and that trying to surmise truth in partiality only leads us into the quicksand of an intellectual black hole. Once we’ve fallen in, it can become a damning process trying to get unstuck.

While proof of an afterlife cannot be asserted without any doubt, we also cannot, as humans, assume to be so all-knowing that we can say, with certainty, that there aren’t forces of divinity that supersede all things known in the physical world. We also cannot rule out the possibility that spirits of the dead might linger on after the body ceases to live. Certainly, if there is any afterlife waiting for the likes of Christopher Hitchens, he will with no doubt have a field day unraveling the mysteries on that clandestine other side of the spiritual senses; but rather than representing the greatest of all “gotchas”, perhaps instead it will be an introduction, of sorts, to a new kind of freedom and liberty. Philosophically, this was certainly the quest Hitchens seemed to care most for in his life, and as with any good hope for a life beyond the living should be, it may not only be a new notion of what “truth” is that he discovers. For all we know, it may be that he’ll find that a new definition of freedom itself exists in such a place just as well… and that is something all spirits–living or dead–seem to desire.

When it comes to the matter of government interest in paranormal phenomena, certainly one of the most controversial aspects of the entire issue revolves around the ways and means by which official agencies have exploited – or have tried to exploit – religious iconography as a weapon of war, deception, and manipulation.

So the story goes today, darkly ambitious plans are afoot to unleash upon the entire planet a monstrous and malignant holographic hoax relative to the so-called Second Coming. Known to the wilder elements of conspiracy-theorizing as Project Blue Beam, it is said to be an operation designed to usher in a definitive New World Order-type society, in which the populace – duped into believing by a series of aerial holograms that the final battle between good and evil is taking place in the skies above – will give up their freedoms and allow the NWO to rule them with an iron-fist born out of Old Testament/wrath of God-style teachings. Christ almighty.

Could such an astonishing scenario actually be true? Are there really cold-hearted people, buried deep within the corridors of power, who see the religious teachings and beliefs of the ancients as being viable ways of keeping all of us living in a state of never-ending, Hell-driven terror and martial-law? True or not, we do see prime evidence of official manipulation of religious iconography for military and psychological warfare purposes.

One of the most important, relevant and earliest contributions to this particular debate is an April 14, 1950 publication of the RAND Corporation titled The Exploitation of Superstitions for Purposes of Psychological Warfare. Written by a RAND employee named Jean M. Hungerford, and prepared for the attention of intelligence personnel within the U.S. Air Force, the 37-page document is an extremely interesting one and delves into some highly unusual areas, one of which has a direct bearing upon the extraordinary data contained within this particular article.

Hungerford stated in part: “Recently a series of religious ‘miracles’ has been reported from Czechoslovakian villages. In one instance the cross on the altar of a parish church was reported to have bowed right and left and finally, symbolically, to the West; the ‘miracle’ so impressed the Czechs that pilgrims began to converge on the village from miles around until Communist officials closed the church and turned the pilgrims away from approaching roads.”

On another occasion, noted Hungerford, the Virgin Mary herself was said to have materialized – in a vision – and to have given a communist a resounding slap that knocked him unconscious! And then there was a story from Western Bohemia that made its way into Hungerford’s report, which asserted locals had seen the Virgin Mary parading along the streets of a small town – with the American flag in her hand, no less – as U.S. troops and tanks followed dutifully behind.

Of course, the overriding message behind these particular visitations of the Marian kind, and the attendant, reported miracles, was acutely clear: God was (a) right behind Uncle Sam; and (b) hardly a noted supporter of communism. Whether or not this was all provoked by some top secret hand of the U.S. Government – of which RAND had no personal awareness – is unknown.

But, as RAND noted in its report to the Air Force, the U.S. Government had carefully, and secretly, monitored Moscow- and Czech-based radio broadcasts that discussed the claimed miracles in great depth. Most notably of all, the Russians and the Czechs exhibited deep, on-air anger and annoyance that the rumors in question were essentially casting a major slur on the entire Soviet Bloc and the communist way of life.

Hungerford noted something else that clearly demonstrated the large-scale extent to which American agents were dutifully monitoring this particular situation: “According to the Foreign Broadcast Information Services’ daily reports of Soviet and Eastern European radio broadcasts, there were nine broadcasts concerning the ‘miracles’ between February 28 and March 19, seven from Czech transmitters and two from Moscow (including a review of a New Times article on the subject).”

Every response and reaction by the Soviets, it appears, was being carefully watched and analyzed by the United States Government.

In closing on this particular matter, Hungerford detailed that the Soviets had their deep suspicions that this was all some sort of religious ruse perpetrated on them by intelligence agents of America. Concerning the report of the Virgin Mary waving the Stars-and-Stripes, a Prague-based radio broadcaster, whose words were transcribed and translated by the CIA, said:

“It is obvious at first sight that this apparition bears the mark made in the United States. These despicable machinations only help to unmask the high clergy as executors of the plans of the imperialist warmongers communicated to them by the Vatican through its agents.”

It is this affair, and, perhaps, this particular RAND-originated document of 1950, that galvanized America to further explore how, and under what particular circumstances, religion could be used as a tool of warfare, psychological manipulation, and control. Expect more, ahem, ”revelations” on this very matter in the near future…

The mind is perhaps the most wonderful, mysterious element to our human existence. Like a disembodied cosmic centrifuge, its workings dictate not only our actions, attitudes, and interaction with others, spreading our intentions and ideas throughout the world around us, but also functions a great deal in terms of shaping our very reality on an individual basis.

From within its many mysterious alcoves, subtle hints at even greater hidden powers that may exist within the mind have can be glimpsed as well. For centuries, psychics and mentalists have claimed to be able to access some of these clandestine abilities; a few individuals even claim to be able close their eyes, focus on a particular event or occurrence in their lives, and manifest aspects of it physically.

This sort of thought-projection can occur in a variety of ways. In the Hindu tradition, the notion of a tulpa involves physical manifestations–even supernatural beings–whose manifestation erupts from the intense, focused meditation of the yogi initiate. However, another attempt at manifesting the thoughts of others had its genesis a little further East during the early part of the twentieth century. In 1910, Tokyo University psychology Professor Tomokichi Fukarai began an odd series of experiments with various women claiming to have clairvoyant abilities, in which attempts were made at recording their mental images directly onto film. The first of these women (barring a series of failed experiments with an earlier subject) was Ikuko Nagao, and the two undertook attempts at developing what Fukarai called nensha, meaning “spirit photography.”

Poor Nagao’s fate would end up turning for the worst, however. Soon after she and the Professor had undertaken their experiments, she began to develop a fever, which would eventually take her life. It was speculated at the time that pressure from the skeptical public, among which were a number of individuals accusing her of being a fraud, may have contributed to her declining health. Nonetheless, with her passage, Tomokichi remained vigilant in his belief that direct transfer of thought onto film could be achieved; within a few months, he had begun to seek other psychics by whom his work might be supplemented. By 1913, he had become acquainted with psychics Sadako Takahashi and Mita Koichi, which resulted in the publication of a book detailing his findings, titled simply Clairvoyance and Thoughtography.

In years since, a number of other alleged “thoughtographers” have come and gone, among them famous mentalist Uri Gellar, who claimed to have procured his unique achievements by pressing the lens of a camera, with cap closed over the aperture, against his forehead and “projecting” the images forth onto the film within the camera (and of course, Gellar’s claims, admittedly rather outrageous, were decried profusely by skeptics).

Is it indeed possible to project “images” that stem solely from within the mind onto the photographic medium? If so, how exactly might this occur? One theory put forth by researcher John Joe McFadden of the University of Surrey, UK, deals with the idea that consciousness itself may in fact exist within an electromagnetic field produced by the brain. Sense traditional film cameras work by allowing light through an aperture onto photosensitive paper, and light is one portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, the notion that electromagnetism may have something to do with such claims–especially in terms of conscious thought projections being focused and imprinted onto film–might at least garner some consideration, though speculation along these lines still does little to explain exactly how it might occur.

Back in late 2010, probably the most controversial book I have ever written was published: Final Events and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife. The book told the story of an officially-funded think-tank – the Collins Elite – that concluded rather than coming from outer space, UFOs are – literally – the deceitful and deceptive tools of Satan. Controversial? Of course! 

But perhaps the most controversial aspect of the book was that which suggested certain elements of officialdom have contemplated using religious charades – possibly even in the form of elaborate, aerial holograms – to influence the mindset and religious-based belief-systems of the populace.

This is made all the more interesting by the fact that in the wake of the publication of Final Events I secured a copy of an April 14, 1950 RAND publication titled The Exploitation of Superstitions for Purposes of Psychological Warfare, written by Jean M. Hungerford, for the attention of the U.S. Air Force. The 37-page document is an extremely interesting one and delves into some highly unusual areas – one of which may have a bearing upon the data contained in Final Events.

Indeed, one particular aspect of the document states:

“Recently a series of religious ‘miracles’ has been reported from Czechoslovakian villages. In one instance the cross on the alter of a parish church was reported to have bowed right and left and finally, symbolically, to the West; the ‘miracle’ so impressed the Czechs that pilgrims began to converge on the village from miles around until Communist officials closed the church and turned the pilgrims away from approaching roads. In another instance, the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared in a vision and to have struck unconscious a local Communist. Finally, a report from Western Bohemia even stated that the Virgin Mary had been seen waving an American flag and followed by American tanks and troops [Note from Nick Redfern: Italics mine for emphasis]”

The RAND report continues: “The number of broadcasts from Moscow and Czech radios which have appeared since the reported ‘miracles’ would indicate that the Communists were considerably annoyed at the interest they provoked. According to the Foreign Broadcast Information Services’ daily reports of Soviet and Eastern European radio broadcasts, there were nine broadcasts concerning the ‘miracles’ between February 28 and March 19, seven from Czech transmitters and two from Moscow (including a review of a New Times article on the subject).”

On this particular matter, the author of the secret RAND report added: “The ‘miracle of the cross’ has been denounced as ‘an outrageous swindle’ engineered by the parish priest ‘with the aid of a steel wire, a coil spring, and rubber bands’; the fraud was inspired by the Vatican as part of its plot to undermine the new regime. It was explained to newspapermen at a press conference, and on March 10 all Czech motion picture houses were instructed to show a newsreel of it. A Prague Sunday newspaper featured a story with pictures to show how the trick was performed.”

And, in closing, noted Jean M. Hungerford: “As for the report of the Virgin Mary’s appearance waving the American flag, a Prague broadcast to Europe says: ‘It is obvious at first sight that this apparition bears the mark made in the United States. These despicable machinations only help to unmask the high clergy as executors of the plans of the imperialist warmongers communicated to them by the Vatican through its agents.’”

Are we seeing here a very early incarnation of a Collins Elite-type program designed to try and influence whole swathes of people with faked religious-themed motifs? Or was the author of the Prague-based story merely attacking those people and nations viewed as hostile? Stay tuned, as there is much more to come on this…

Have you ever seen someone you thought you knew, maybe from a short distance, and you thought for certain that you were seeing a friend? The hair, the height, the way they walked, and even the clothes they wore… all these things seemed to match the person you thought you were seeing… until that is, you get close enough to realize that it was actually somebody else who merely looked like the friend or acquaintance y0u thought you’d seen.

This kind of phenomenon has lent itself to a variety of interpretations of what might be called doppleganger phenomenon, as well as philosophical notions of what exactly consciousness is, and how we use it to relate to others around us. Often, it seems that there is something fundamentally deeper about the nature of the human experience, and that rather than just being physical bodies moving around and interacting with one another on a day-to-day basis, there indeed might be more to the proverbial pie than just the aroma we’re able to catch from time to time… especially when it comes to strange phenomena.

For instance, from a rather personal perspective, I’ve often likened various past loves that have come and gone to being repeated manifestations of a single sort of greater feminine archetype I’ve encountered, rather than merely being individuals I’ve known over the years. Sometimes, I’ve even encountered strange sorts of synchronicity and other manifestations of a curious nature in this regard: one girl I had known, for instance, took to calling me by a nickname which a previous girlfriend had used for me, with no prior knowledge of that nickname being appended to me in the past. Granted, I’m not literally suggesting that every girl I’ve dated over the years has been the same woman in some surreal, cosmic sense. However, I think that in terms of Jungian psychology, there are from time to time various “manifestations” of things that are familiar to us, shades of which might occasionally pour through the fabric of physical existence between people we know, revealing themselves in startling ways.

I bring up Carl Jung here since it was he who first supposed that all people might be interconnected by a greater “collective subconsciousness”, as he called it. This sort of thing, viewed from the perspective of being a phenomenological manifestation of our inner selves that all people share, is a bold and difficult thing to accept scientifically; nonetheless, Jung used this hypothesis for the justification of random coincidences that seemed to have much deeper symbolic meaning (often related to him by his patients), in addition to a possible way to explain various psychic phenomenon, or even more complex notions that are typically relegated to the realms of religious spirituality, such as past lives and reincarnation.

Indeed, I do often feel that I catch “shades” of people I know or have known in others I meet. In terms of evolution, this literally could come from the limitations of diversity that exist, in actuality, within our own genetic makeup. In other words, physical notions of individuality may exist only within the given confines of a number of random physical traits which do tend to pop up continually from person to person. Hence, we’re brought back to the notion of “dopplegangers” from earlier; if indeed there are a variety of traits–though perhaps somewhat limited in scope and number–which represent all the potential genetic differences that can occur in a human being, it stands to reason based on probability that those sequences might randomly produce, on occasion, two individuals that bear remarkable similar traits (hence, we think we see someone we know, when in reality, they merely looked a whole lot like that person we thought we were seeing).

But taking this a step further, what if these same sorts of limitations on variety could occur in other ways, perhaps even those that are non-physical? What if there could be predetermined elements about human existence that, in addition to governing how we physically look, might also dictate certain aspects of who we are spiritually, how we perceive the world around us, and in some capacity that is yet-to-be-understood, perhaps even tie us one another subconsciously? Given this criteria, perhaps there is far more to the notion of dopplegangers, or even the sense of “knowing” aspects of a person as if by psychic means. We could all just be running in peculiar little spiritual circles, meeting one another again and again in a bizarre, cosmic interplay that has been occurring since time immemorial… and which will continue on in the same fashion.

For those of us that engage in research, studies, investigations and writing in the realm of what broadly passes for Forteana – Ufology, Cryptozoology, ghost-hunting and much more – it’s a pursuit that can be as mentally stimulating as it can be enlightening, challenging, and thought-provoking. But, there’s an undeniable dark and disturbing downside to all this, too. Namely, that on not-infrequent occasions the phenomena seem to get their icy grips into the researcher, to the point where the relevant paranormal interests of the person in question mutate into full-blown unhealthy obsessions. Think I’m wrong? I suggest you read on…

In terms of UFOs, one only has to look at the weird, and somewhat tragic, case of Albert Bender. Arguably the one man who, more than any other, ushered in the era of the Men in Black, Bender, in the early-1950s, claimed an ominous visit from three black-garbed entities who essentially scared the you-know-what out of him, and led him to quit UFO research, never to return. At least, that is, aside from a brief resurfacing in the early 1960s, when Bender penned his own MIB-themed book, Flying Saucers and the Three Men.

Bender’s is an odd and disturbing story that I tell in my own The Real Men in Black book. But, what stands out about Bender is how his involvement in Ufology began to adversely affect his psychological state. Bender’s writings make it clear that, the more he delved into the UFO phenomenon, the more and more paranoid he became. He suspected unearthly entities were secretly watching him, that his precious UFO files had been clandestinely scanned by enigmatic entities, and that he was putting himself in great danger by following the path of a UFO investigator. Little wonder then, he finally left the scene forever, pummeled by anxiety, head-splitting migraines, hypochondria, paranoia and fears that “they” were hot on his trail.

Well, maybe “they” were indeed watching Bender. But, the mere fact that this possibility had such a devastating effect on the man is a sure sign of what can befall those who dare to enter the somewhat hazardous realm of Ufology. Very few give much thought to how deeply engrossing oneself in such a strange realm can so negatively affect them. Until it’s all far, far too late, of course, and the psychological damage is well and truly done.

It’s much the same – but in a radically different way – with Cryptozoology, the study of unclassified beasts such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Chupacabra. While paranoia does not appear to play a particularly significant (if, indeed, any) role in the search for unknown animals, obsession most certainly does. I won’t name names, but I have seen the wives of certain Sasquatch-seekers go from valiantly putting up with the interests  of their husbands – namely, taking off into the heart of deep woods just about every weekend in search of the legendary, hairy critters – to becoming overwhelmingly sick and tired of having to sit around the house on a nice, warm Saturday afternoon, while their other halves wildly race around the forests with trusty night-scope and camera in-hand.

Fortunately, my wife Dana is an understanding soul!  But, more importantly, yet still on the same path, I personally recognize the overwhelming significance and healthy importance of balance, and of ensuring that a social life, home life, and family life do not suffer at the expense of paranormal pursuits. I also recognize the importance of having wide and varied interests beyond Forteana, such as (for me, anyway!) British soccer. But, that isn’t always so with some. The sad reality is that the field of Forteana appears to have had far more than its fair share of  broken marriages, nervous breakdowns, paranoid mindsets, and life-controlling psychological aberrations.

Is this simply because certain people may be more prone than others to becoming isolated, suspicious of every click on the telephone, and worried that black-helicopters piloted by the emotionless minions of the New World Order are soaring above their rooftops, and beaming pulverizing microwaves and subliminal messages into their already-fried brains? Or, is there something very disturbing – menacing even – about the nature of certain Fortean phenomena that somehow allows it to get its grips into the psyche of particularly vulnerable souls to a profoundly significant – but highly negative – degree?

I prefer to think it’s the former. But, rather chillingly, I have seen enough lives transformed for the worse by Forteana that I have to say I strongly suspect it’s the latter.

Remember this: when you go looking for the paranormal, you may find it decides to welcome you into its enigmatic fold. This may not, however, be a good thing. Ultimately, it may prove to be your worst nightmare come true. When it comes to your supernatural searches, tread very carefully, my friends. And always ensure your lives are free of the miseries of obsession and paranoia that have blighted the lives of so many who have traveled the very same road before you…

For years, many who have sought the spiritual path have advocated things ranging from meditation and dietary planning to exercise and exotic belief systems in an effort to come closer to achieving “oneness” or enlightenment. It’s a process that people from virtually every culture and every area of the world have found themselves pursuing, and it’s something which intrigues our imaginations with the possibility that there are elements to our existence that extend beyond the scope of the everyday things in life.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that, occasionally, some have advocated the use of psychedelic substances for such purposes, ranging from cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms, to the more controversial substances such as LSD and dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Of course, the drug culture of the 1960s had both its pros and its cons, and despite the sorts of “enlightenment” many claimed to have achieved by incorporating the use of such things into their lifestyle, we’ve all been made privy to horror stories just as well, involving the tragic ways many substances can lead to issues regarding one’s mental health and general well being. But is it really fair to say that certain psychedelic substances, when used properly, might not have some beneficial qualities?

According to the folks over at John Hopkins University, which have been engaged in a series of experiments with psilocybin, the active component in so-called “magic mushrooms,” this is certainly the case. Recent findings of a study at the university’s school of medicine has determined that appropriately measured amounts of the drug can not only produce a positive experience with a minimized risk of negative drawback (perhaps this is a reference to the sort of “bad trip” we often hear of), but also with long-lasting positive effects on participant’s life outlook and spirituality.

Incredibly, 94 percent of those participating in the study “rated it as one of the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lifetimes.” 89 percent also said they felt that lasting positive changes in their general outlook on life occurred, ranging from increased value of personal friendships and familial relations, and general improvements on mental outlook. In the future, it is hoped that substances such as psilocybin might be able to be used more frequently in controlled settings, in an effort to help people struggling with things like addiction and depression.

Of course, psilocybin is far from being the only substance of the psychedelic variety that can seem to improve people’s lives. One controversial drug known as ibogaine, mentioned in the work of authors ranging from Daniel Pinchbeck to Hunter H. Thompson, has been an object of mystery for it’s apparent ability to reverse the harmful effects of addiction. Many who have gone through ceremonial ibogaine “cleansings” have reported having drug and substance addictions virtually lifted, as though the process had chemically removed their desire to engage in the use of such things. Despite the potential for improvement in people’s lives, ibogaine use is also black-listed in most countries, and there is a resulting general lack of knowledge about how this powerful drug actually works.

During a conversation I recently had with a friend, he had mentioned to me the various ways that certain substances or even diseases can affect our bodies chemically or genetically. “Think of a record being played,” he said. “Now if that record gets scratched, it’s never gonna play quite the same way again in the future.” Much the same, when we have a life-altering experience, often we’re “scratched” in the same way; but the effects may not always be purely mental or memory-based. Indeed, there could perhaps be subtle chemical changes that might be induced with the use of substances like psilocybin and ibogaine, among others. When used to excess or in circumstances where a “bad trip” might occur, they become dangerous. But when used in an environment that is conducive to eliciting a positive experience, the benefit of such chemical interactions within the body may be life-changing for the better. Too bad there are still so many prejudices and stereotypes applied to these substances, based on the dangers associated with them, that cause their use for potential good to be restricted also.

Have you ever had a life-changing experience–good or bad–that involved the use of substances such as these? What are your feelings about their use in a therapeutic or rehabilitative sense, and could we stand to benefit from lifting some of the old restrictions on them with interest in providing alternative therapies for victims of addiction, etc? Your thoughts on the matter, as always, are welcome and appreciated.

The subject of spirit mediums, séances and spirit manifestations are among what are considered some of the more dubious claims out there these days pertaining to the unexplained, especially in the realms of serious psychic research. All too often we’ve been made privy to tricks and treachery used to fool the gullible and unsuspecting into believing they had witnessed manifestations of strange beings from beyond the grave, or sometimes even from other worlds.

However, not all mediums throughout history–specifically the last hundred years or so–have had reputations for being hucksters. With this in mind, it’s interesting to note that there are at least a few instances where mediums and others present at séances, table-tappings and conjurings have claimed to have witnessed more tangible and utterly strange phenomena that, while incredible and wholly inexplicable, may also have been somehow legitimate.

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the use of séances and channeling had been considered one of the more reliable methods used to contact not only the deceased, but also beings from other dimensions… or even other planets. Mediums like the Reverend Bertie Lilly Candler, referred to prolifically in the spiritualist writings of William Dudley Pelley and several others, were said to have managed to evoke strange, credible apparitions with frightening consistency. Candler, described frequently as “the greatest physical medium of the world,” was the medium behind the alleged conjuring of an entity called “Diane,” which I described in my book Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule as “a very beautiful, eight-foot tall Venusian woman first encountered by contactee Dana Howard beginning in 1939.” Sixteen years later, Howard would meet Candler at the Church of Divine Light on South Parkview Street in Los Angeles, California, where Howard claimed that “a rising glow of phosphorescence” began to manifest during the session. “It was very tall at first, but out of this phosphorescent substance a form began to manifest itself. She was definitely different from the other ‘spirit’ manifestations, a solid, fleshly being, delicate in charm and manner.” To the amazement of Howard and those present, the being began to speak to them. Howard’s own recollections of the incident were as follows:

She called for DANA. Overwhelmed with emotion I could not choke back, I went up to her, standing only inches away from the manifestation. While I did not recognize her instantly, I knew there was something quaintly familiar about her. Standing like a sylph-like goddess, and bowing low in greeting to the twenty-seven persons present, the rich tones of her voice vibrated through the little church. “I AM DIANE. I COME FROM VENUS.”

The “Venusian” woman then said to Howard, “My daughter, always remember, without inner perfection there can be no outer perfection. There must be perfect balance between the realm of spirit and the realm of materiality.” In the presence of Candler, these sorts of manifestations seemed to occur with startling clarity and consistency. On occasion, even the more skeptical and discriminating would be touched by forces from other realms. The aforementioned author William Dudley Pelley, a popular spiritualist in the 1930s and 40s notorious for his association with pro-Nazi organizations, befriended Candler and, after a while, became convinced that the woman had indeed managed to manifest tangible manifestations of strange energies, often taking on the form of humans. On more than one occasion, Pelley specifically claimed to meet a young Indian girl calling herself “Silverleaf” at Candler’s meetings, who had alluded to a “materializing ray” behind the process used to manifest a physical body in our physical realm:

What she alluded to was, that to obtain such results in actuality, this was what took place: As the medium sank into deeper and deeper trance, her body began to release its ectoplasmic content, which poured out through its orifices into a sort of pool in the cabinet before her. This is one of the chief reasons for the cabinet at all, that such exhibition does not frighten or disgust the spectator. Into this flood of released ectoplasm, the more tenuous Light Body of the materializing entity steps and concentrates—with the help of “guides” like Silverleaf who are in the cabinet discarnate—on what his or her physical appearance was in mortality. This concentration acts as a sort of magnetic ray that begins to draw up the ectoplasm around the discarnate Light-Body like mercury filling up the glass stem of a thermometer. When the Light-Body, or pattern-self, is completely substantialized, the materialization is accomplished and the discarnate entity can leave the cabinet, to all intents a normal human being.

Pelley argued fiercely that this was indeed a valid phenomenon, and not merely the work of impressionable minds being played by frauds. “It can be done, and is done in a thousand bona fide séance rooms on five continents year after year,” Pelley wrote in his book Why I Believe the Dead Are Alive. “It is the operating of a law just as natural as the growth of a blood clot in a woman’s womb into a perfectly formed human being, within the first twenty-five days after conception, though too minute to be recognized for what it is. One is no more a mystery than the other.”

Despite the incredible circumstance described at the medium conjurings of Bertie Candler, there are even more fascinating circumstances claimed by the participants of such events that involve non-human beings manifesting and materializing. At Michael Tymn’s blog, a startling series of events dating back to 1919 is detailed, alleging the appearance of a “strange creature between ape and man” that appeared during a sitting with a famous Polish medium named Franek Kluski:

It was described as having the stature of a man, with a simian face but a high, straight forehead, a large and soft tongue, with facial and body hair, with long arms and very strong hands, and smelling like a wet dog. It would take the hands of the sitters and lick them like a dog… It manifested at several séances and at one séance rested its hairy head on the shoulder of one sitter while seizing the hand of another sitter and licking it.

According to Tymn, Gustav Geley, who wrote about this Bigfoot-like manifestation in his book Clairvoyance and Materialization: A Record of Experiments, dubbed the strange creature Pithecanthroupus. The odd, ancestrally primitive apparition was said to appear again at a later occasion also, during which a few of its previously “violent and rough” activities had calmed. Of course, following the prevalence of reports of flying saucers and UFOs by the likes of Kenneth Arnold in the coming years, the notion of contacting extraterrestrial presences through spiritualist means became old hat, and the era of the “Contactees” thus began. It’s no surprise that few reports of ape men and the like would continue to transpire during this period, either. The once popular method of contacting weird beings and other-worldly presences seemed to become relegated to merely contacting spirit folk again.

What really lays at the heart of these sorts of occurrences? Are there truly individuals who have managed to either “manifest” odd beings, or create the distinct impression among their guests that they had the ability to do so? In the case of the latter, could this occur in ways that don’t involve “smoke and mirrors,” lending itself to a psychological reason for the phenomenon? What if claims of such appearances were more akin to thought projections or “tulpa” phenomenon, and represented some kind or real, semi-physical existence… at least in the minds of those present? Could this kind of experiential hypothesis point to something deeper–perhaps even archetypal–about the nature of spirit manifestation and how people perceive strange phenomenon subconsciously?

In my book, Final Events, I told the strange story of a U.S. Government think-tank-style group nicknamed the Collins Elite. Their belief is that the UFO phenomenon has – quite literally – demonic origins, and that the extraterrestrial angle is merely an ingenious, deceptive ruse employed by Satan. The goal: to further allow his minions to get their claws into us all, and lead us down a distinctly dark pathway before Judgment Day and the final-countdown begins. As someone who holds no particular views on the nature of religion or life-after-death, I have no real opinion on the validity of the beliefs of the Collins Elite, aside from the fact that I find it fascinating that such a think-tank group actually exists. But what interests me most of all, is that a certain theme runs through much of this story that can also be found elsewhere at an official level, and it’s one I find somewhat disturbing…

I was put on the trail of the Collins Elite by a man named Ray Boeche. As well as being an Anglican priest, Ray is a former State-Director (for Nebraska) with the Mutual UFO Network: MUFON. In a truly fascinating interview with Ray in 2007, he told me how he had been clandestinely approached, in 1991, by two Department of Defense (DoD) physicists working on a classified program to try and contact what were described to Ray as “Non-Human Entities, or “NHE’s.”

In Ufological terms, we would call these entities the diminutive, black-eyed “Grays.” For the people on the DoD project, they may very well have begun with that view too, but ultimately they came around to the notion that this was merely a terrible ruse. Like the Collins Elite, Ray’s ufological Deep-Throat-like sources finally accepted that the entities at issue were demonic. But, there was an interesting – and disturbing – further aspect to this revelation: there were those on the project that believed engaging the NHE’s in some form of “Faustian pact,” as a means to understand and harness their extraordinary and potentially-lethal powers, could actually aid in the development of occult-based weapons of war, such as the ability to provoke psychic-assassinations.

Now, whether the entities really were demonic, to this day I truthfully don’t know. But, I do know that history is absolutely littered with examples where people have dabbled in the realm of the occult as part of a concerted effort to contact entities from beyond the veil, only for things to come crashing down around them. Ill-health (both mental and physical), extraordinary long runs of bad luck, disaster and misfortune, utter madness, and even death are all signs of what many term “psychic-backlash.”  And, it seems from what Ray Boeche was told, this was precisely what the DoD project was experiencing – which is why they had major concerns about continuing with such research.

But, since the publication of Final Events, I have uncovered further, disturbing data suggesting these Faustian pacts are still going on – and have been for a long time. One such story came from a man formerly attached to a U.S. military group known as the Night Stalkers, who maintained that the real purpose behind the cattle-mutilation phenomenon was to appease occult-based entities, with whom elements of the official world were desperately trying to engage and work. In essence, his story is that the removal of vital-organs, and particularly so the blood, from mutilated cattle is not the work of aliens at all – as many within Ufology believe is the case. Rather, my source maintained, the culprit is the military itself. The reason, I am told, is so that the the blood and organs may be utilized in ancient, sacrificial appeasement rites to incredibly old deities of a type that can offer something in return: supernatural powers of a type that, if understood and harnessed, may even be weaponized.

This, clearly, is very similar to the central theme of the story provided to Ray Boeche in 1991: namely, doing deals with the denizens of a very dark realm, as a means to achieve some near-unique military advantage over your potential-foes. And, I see another example of this, too.

I have just finished reading a fascinating, brand new book from Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Philip Imbrogno: The Vengeful Djinn. The book is an excellent study of the entire Djinn controversy, from a historical, supernatural and cultural perspective. And, the book makes it very clear that Djinns are most definitely not entities with which one should be crossing paths. But, aside from being a tremendous study of the Djinn phenomenon, there was one part of the book that really stood out for me beyond all others.

The section of The Vengeful Djinn in question focuses on a trip that Imbrogno made to Saudi Arabia in 1995. During the course of the visit, Imbrogno learned of secret, long-term attempts by a “special unit” of the U.S. military to “capture” a Djinn. The purpose of the program, Imbrogno was told by a cousin of Prince Khalid bin Fahd, was to secure for the U.S. Government “a technological device that allowed djinn to pass through solid walls and through dimensional windows.”

To what extent such an operation had been successful, the prince’s cousin did not know. If such an extraordinary goal had been achieved, however, Imbrogno was advised it would undoubtedly be classified at a very high level. Similarly, while visiting Oman, Imbrogno heard a story of the governments of Oman and the United States both knowing about Djinn, and even ”trying to deal with them.”

Clearly, we see something here that fits right in with the account of Ray Boeche, and with the cattle-mutilation affair: namely, doing a deal with paranormal entities where there is a perceived gain to be made from a military perspective.

I admit that I hold no firm beliefs on the specific nature of other realms of existence; only that I am sure they most assuredly do exist, and they appear to be the domains of entities who do not have our best interests at heart. And, as a result, I see absolutely no good at all coming out of a situation where military and government forces have the arrogance to believe they can actually deal with, take on, and exploit these same entities – and, ultimately, achieve something that, from officialdom’s perspective, is considered worthwhile: the development and deployment of fantastic, supernatural weaponry.

There is only ever one, inevitable, positive outcome of a Faustian pact with supernatural life-forms. The problem, however, is that the outcome is only ever positive for them, never for us.