When it comes to esoteric books, nothing is stranger, more cryptic and incomprehensible than Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson: An Objective Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man (1950), written by the Greek-Armenian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949).

At a whopping 1,238 pages and replete with invented words that defy pronunciation, such as “Heptaparaparshinokh” and “Almznoshinoo,” completing the book is no easy task – as I myself just discovered.

The first sentence of chapter one, The Arousing of Thought, reads:

“Among other convictions formed in my common presence during my responsible, peculiarly composed life, there is one such also – an indubitable conviction – that always and everywhere on the earth, among people of every degree of development of understanding and of every form of manifestation of the factors which engender in their individuality all kinds of ideals, there is acquired the tendency, when beginning anything new, unfailingly to pronounce aloud or, if not aloud, at least mentally, that definite utterance understandable to every even quite illiterate person, which in different epochs has been formulated variously and in our day is formulated in the following words: ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and in the name of the Holy Ghost, Amen.’”

According to author John Chambers in an article about Gurdjieff in Forbidden Religion (2006), Beelzebub’s Tales has attracted renewed interest in recent years, with many concluding “that the novel – and its author also – may be more complexly profound than was previously thought.” Among members of the All and Everything International Humanities Conference – which includes scholars, artists and scientists from around the world – the book is a topic of extensive and serious discussion, as are Gurdjieff’s other works. (This year’s conference was held in Greece in late-March.)

The protagonist in Gurdjieff’s magnum opus is of course Beelzebub – the devil. Unlike the traditional Judeo-Christian devil, however, Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub is a redeemed being, who has, as it were, paid for his sins and attained a level of high spiritual development. Some interpret the book as an autobiography of sorts, suggesting that Gurdjieff is Beelzebub himself.

At the beginning of the book, we find Beelzebub onboard the spaceship Karnak, accompanied by his grandson Hussein, as they make their way through space towards Beelzebub’s home planet, Karatas. During the journey, Beelzebub uses the time to teach Hussein about the “three-brained beings” (humans) dwelling on Earth whom he has studied and lived among.

The book consists of long, dry talks by Beelzebub on topics of benefit to young Hussein’s education, with a focus on the various troubles of humanity. Some of the topics covered include the history of the Earth and the “fall” of humanity, hypnosis, objective art, and war. Even sexual hygiene and polygamy are covered. I even recall mention of a famous German scientist who devised a way to magically create “delicious chicken soup”…or something along those lines. (Parts of the book are so bizarre and seemingly ridiculous that the reader is left completely perplexed.)

Gurdjieff wrote Beelzebub’s Tales, from 1924 through to 1931, as an attempt to preserve his teaching (called the Fourth Way) in a form that would remain undistorted – hence the unique, coded style of his writing. Much of it was dictated by Gurdjieff, with some of his students assisting as scribes.

As to why the book is so difficult to read and understand, apparently Gurdjieff did this on purpose, in the hope that it would challenge and awaken the reader. (Gurdjieff believed that our normal waking state is a form of sleep, and that most books only encourage this state.) That the book is long and complicated also helps to ensure that those who could be bothered reading it are certain to have a sincere interest in Gurdjieff’s ideas. Gurdjieff once remarked: “I bury the bone so deep that the dogs have to scratch for it.”

Whatever one makes of Beelzebub’s Tales – a work of profound spiritual wisdom or the nonsensical ramblings of an eccentric guru – one has to agree that it’s unlike anything ever written. On a side note, I know from experience that second-hand copies of Beelzebub’s Tales are easy to find in New Age bookstores. My own copy, which I purchased second-hand, is in extremely good condition, which makes me wonder if the previous owner read it at all. Perhaps, like many spiritual seekers, they attempted to read it but quickly gave up!

Beelzebub’s Tales: More “Complexly Profound” Than Meets the Eye? is a post from: Mysterious Universe

No, the title of this post is not meant to imply that the strange things witnessed around the world are purely artifacts of our inner consciousness, nor is such a statement intended to disturb the faithful.

However, we must from time to time consider what kinds of things–often strange in their own right–can “trigger” paranormal experiences that do stem from within the mind.

What got me thinking along these lines was the fact that, while scanning my usual news sites this morning (always keeping a watchful eye cast toward the potential for anomalous occurrences), this particular Monday morning scan was turning up few “hits,” at least with regard to the really weird stuff I tend to gravitate toward. And yet, although lacking somewhat the entertainment value, maybe I should have kept my dismay at bay, since the world, it seems, is trending more and more towards ideas that involve inner consciousness and the way our mind and bodies work in tandem to produce spiritual effects within… and as some would argue, even outside the body.

My book Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule focuses a good bit on this very sort of thing, from the perspective that things like mirrors, meditation, and entheogenic plants used by native tribes in various locales can cause abnormalities (which, historically speaking, appear to be quite normal, to the contrary) that transpire within ourselves. However, sometimes these things also occur in our daily lives, though we would seldom recognize them as being such.

Take for instance the unusual account of a bout with delirium described recently in the New York Times, which dealt with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Justin Kaplan, 84. Kaplan described seeing “Thousands of tiny little creatures… some on horseback, waving arms, carrying weapons like some grand Renaissance battle,” that fought to turn people into zombies, led by a woman with a hole in her throat, rather than a mouth. The distinction could easily be made, some would argue, that a sudden hallucination in a hospital along these lines is hardly anything anomalous… but the curious fact worthy of closer study here is that this phenomenon is beginning to happen with greater frequency. Why?

A variety of reasons are cited, among them procedures and tests which may elicit anxiety. Some medications may also do the trick. The greatest incidence is, somewhat predictably, among elderly patients… but not always. Considering that anxiety, medications, and related factors can cause these sorts of things within the walls of a hospital, is it too much of a stretch to consider whether they could happen elsewhere?

Trying to learn from such episodes, I’ve brandished some odd theories over the years, ranging from the notion that close proximity to a high output source of electricity–whether that be an array of electric pylons, or a large electrically-powered UFO craft–might cause hallucinations (which may explain some of the dream-like experiences described by abductees), to the chemical similarities between mood altering enzymes like tryptophan and serotonin, when compared alongside their close chemical cousin, the highly psychoactive dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Furthermore, often disregarded (and perhaps even more often misdiagnosed) conditions such as Hashimoto’s encephelopathy could lie at the heart of conditions like schizophrenia, which in the opinion of a few in the academic community, is a condition itself caused by DMT… a hallucinogen produced within the human body, and yet, ironically, illegal to buy and sell due to its intense characteristics.

What other factors in our environment could be capable of triggering occurrences within our psyches that elicit spiritual experiences? Do they truly elicit anything worthy of the definition “other worldly,” or is there much more to the greater pie than even that? How far-thinking will we have to be as a species before we can reach that coveted position we refer to as “outside the box?”

Earth’s Mysteries… of the Mind? is a post from: Mysterious Universe

Once upon a time at the turn of the 20th century “physical mediums”– the kind who claimed to manifest ethereal apparitions, cause sort-of-seen spirits to knock on walls and rock seance tables — were all the rage.

Given the mad skills required to float a sofa with your mind, it’s not exactly surprising that a sizable percentage of  these physical mediums were caught levitating their clients’ wallets instead of the furniture.

There was one distinct exception: Eusapia Palladino, an orphaned and unschooled Italian peasant. Despite much evidence that she was using trickery herself, even the most skeptical investigators could never explain away all of her psychokinetic feats.

If you’re not familiar with her levitating ways, here’s a first hand report from Cesare Lombroso, one of the many scientists who investigated Palladino in action.  Bear in mind that Lombroso was a unapologetic skeptic, until he met Palladino:

“If ever there was an individual in the world opposed to spiritualism by virtue of scientific education, and I may say, by instinct, I was that person. I had made it the indefatigable pursuit of a lifetime to defend the thesis that every force is a property of matter and the soul an emanation of the brain.”

After studying  Palladino, he recanted, “I am ashamed and grieved at having opposed with so much tenacity the possibility of the so-called spiritualistic facts.”

Here’s one example of the kinds of activity that changed  Lombroso’s mind:

In semi-darkness, Eusapia was often levitated, chair and all, on to the table…. And Prof. Poro reports that while she, sitting in her chair, was raised above the table top, he and another sitter passed their hands under her and the chair. In good light articles of furniture were often seen to advance untouched towards the medium, and a small table sometimes [seen to] climb up, apparently with difficulty, on to the larger one, round which the sitters sat….” via Michael Prescott’s Occasional Thoughts on Matters of Life and Death

Could any human perform such astonishing feats or was it all trickery?  Fair question and, lucky you, you’re just a click away from downloading a seat at Palladino’s seance table and deciding for yourself.   Thanks goes to Robert Mcluhan at Paranormalia for sharing this rare document he used to research his forthcoming book Randi’s Prize:

“The Feilding Report (Palladino in Naples) on Eusapia Palladino [is the report on] the famous series of eleven sittings carried out by three researchers on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research in Naples in 1908. As far as I know this has never been freely available before, in contrast to out-of-copyright books such as the SPR’s Phantasms of the Living, Richet’s Thirty Years of Psychical Research and Oliver Lodge’s Raymond, which can be downloaded in various places….I’m tempted to pull some extracts out and discuss them, but there’s no substitute just for browsing it. What I will say is this: the report provides a detailed picture of three men – articulate, alert, highly intelligent and experienced in the dodgy medium business – shut up in a locked hotel room for hours at a time, on eleven different occasions, with a short, stout, middle-aged woman in long skirts, whom they have firmly controlled, and at times even tied up, watching all kinds of weird stuff happening: hands and faces appearing, the sensation of touches and grips on their arms, musical instruments playing themselves, tables and stools levitating, objects gliding around, raps sounding from the furniture. The disbelievers’ position, by and large, has always been that this is explicable if we accept that Palladino got a hand or foot free here and there. My view is you have to read the report to see just how untenable this is.”

Will reading these first person transcriptions convince you that tables can that tables can walk across the room like an animated character from a Disney’s Beauty and the Beast ? It depends, I think, on what your views on the subject were to begin with.

For instance, Michael Prescott thinks Palladino was the real thing:
In a blog post where he tries to parse out the wheat from the chaff of psychic claims he writes:

“If the only evidence for psychokinesis were the reported phenomena of Uri Geller, would I believe in PK? Probably not. Too many questions have been raised about some of Geller’s more bizarre claims — for instance, being in telepathic contact with extraterrestrials. Plus, there is Geller’s undeniable gift for showmanship, which at the very least blurs the line between genuine phenomena and stage magic.

If the only evidence for psychokinesis were the reported phenomena of Eusapia Palladino, would I believe in PK? Probably, yes. Though Palladino was unquestionably capable of cheating, she also seems to have produced genuine phenomena in circumstances that preclude fraud. The 1908 Naples sittings are the prime example. I think it is highly unlikely that a team of very experienced investigators, who among them had debunked more than 100 physical mediums, and who observed Palladino in adequate light, taking strenuous precautions, would be completely fooled over a long series of sittings.”

On the other hand, if you go by James Randi you’ll agree with Prescott’s doubts about Uri Geller, but draw no distinction  between Geller and every other psychic and paranormal claim that comes your way.  Here’s Randi’s take on psychokinesis from his Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural

“Psychokinesis (PK) Once known as “telekinesis,” PK is the claimed power to affect matter by mind alone. Such feats as spoon-bending, moving small objects, causing items to fall over or fly through the air, or changing the quality or quantity of any substance are included in this category.

Many explanations have been offered for such feats, including certain mythic energies such as “ectenic force,” said to come from the body of the spirit medium during a séance, resulting in table tipping and apports. (The word ectenic was coined by two Swiss scientists, Count de Gasparin and Professor Thury, who convinced themselves that table tippers were generating a special force, rather than simply pushing the table about. This postulation denies the existence of ectoplasm and its more divine origins.)”

Anyway, here’s that download link again.  Read it and see how the spirit moves you.

The Diva of Darkness: Rare Palladino Seances Now Online is a post from: Mysterious Universe

Amelia Earhart once said that her greatest fear was to live a life in which nothing happened. Fate must have been paying attention and for once been willing to oblige a mere mortal’s request because wherever Amelia went, headlines followed.

By May 21, 1932 when she landed on the Ireland coast, becoming the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic journey five years to the day after Charles Lindbergh’s, she had already made history several times over.

It seems, fate is not through with her yet. On May 21, 2010, 78 years to the day after that transatlantic nonstop, the intrepid TIGHERs (The International Group For Historic Aircraft Recovery) have arrived at a tiny Nikumaroro Island,  a slipknot of sand in the mid-Pacific Ocean where they hope to finally solve the mystery of the fatal end of her final flight that disappeared on July 2, 1937.

The TIGHER group has lead nine previous expeditions to the island and put together a convincing case that this is the spot where Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan crash landed.

“TIGHAR is testing the hypothesis that the Earhart aircraft reached Nikumaroro, an uninhabited coral atoll 350 nautical miles southeast of Howland and landed safely on the island’s flat, dry reef. Earhart and navigator Noonan appear to have sent radio distress calls from the aircraft for several nights before rising tides washed the plane over the reef edge, leaving Earhart and Noonan stranded on the waterless island where they eventually died as castaways. The partial skeleton of a castaway believed to be Earhart was found three years later in 1940 by a British Colonial Service officer, but the bones were misidentified and subsequently lost.”

Adding to the team’s conviction is tantalizing new evidence of possible aircraft wreckage discovered while reexamining a photograph taken of the island in October of 1937.  The red square shows where the previously unseen object appears.  The full description can be found at “Hiding in Plain Sight.”

The TIGHER Amelia Project Expedition will be on the island from May 23 through June 14, 2010. You can follow their daily progress and even contribute your own information to their ongoing research

Personally, I have a strong intuition that they’ll find the evidence needed to make a positive identification of the long-lost aviatrix. Could be I’m a little bit psychic as Earhart was herself. Or it could just be the Minnesota oozing out of me. I’ve been loathe to admit I’m from M… the state whose name I dare not utter ever again. If you listened to MU322, you know what it means to be from… let’s just say it’s “beyond Iowa.”

Ya sure, those of us who make it out retain some unique “talents,” but the troll stigma, there’s just no leaving it behind. Nor can one ever completely forget the lutefisk…like Cthulhu, only soaked in lye and served for Christmas dinner. Uff da! Of such things, I cannot speak!

Oh, BTW, Ben, Aaron, I assure you what the Ouija Board/Oracle guy reported may sound like  fiction because unless you’re from there, you simply can’t comprehend anything as punishingly cold as the truth.

Amelia Earhart’s “Lost” Island Found at Last? is a post from: Mysterious Universe

The Unholy Three (1930). This triple threat consists of a midget, a strongman, and a ventriloquist named Echo who concoct an ingenious plan to fleece the homes of wealthy people in the dead of night.

Okay, there were in fact four speakers on the UFO panel at San Francisco’s New Living Expo last weekend. Reuben Uriarte, the State Director for Northern California MUFON and Deputy Director of International Investigations, probably came closest to the evidence-based researcher type (in other words, the sanest of the bunch) but unfortunately it’s impossible to say for certain since his presentation of “the best UFO photos and live video footage” was thwarted by malfunctioning equipment.

But by the time Uriarte took the stage as the last speaker, it was obvious that the standing room only crowd had not come to see him or his slide show anyway. No, they were drawn by the trio who preceded him, all of whom belong to the  “we-don’t-need-no stinkin’ research” School of Ufology and that’s because they already have a direct or even divine line to Star Visitors, Edgar Cayce, George Noory or even all of the above.

Psychic and paranormal promoter Robert Perala was the MC and used his moment in the spotlight to drum up business for Conspiracy Con X in June (MU will so be there as will Ruben Uriarte and maybe this time his AV equipment will work). Plus a whole-day event with David Icke in October (neither Reptilian overlords nor  MU would miss it) before introducing the panelists. Each of whom was allowed 15 minutes to drive the crazy bus.  You can decide if there was a winner, but by the end we will probably all agree that they all made it to La la Land, albeit by slightly different routes.

First up, Dr. Richard Boylan, the former marriage and family therapist who who lost his license in 1995 for imposing his views of space aliens into the dreams and memories of two patients, nude hot tubbing with patients and bartering nude massages in return for psychological therapy.

Today he puts his faith in the Star Visitors, acts as a kind of shepherd for the Starseed Children and spokesperson for the Star Nations, which he describes as a kind of intergalactic Peace Corp. He claims that among adults over 65, one in eight are Starseeds, and the percentage grows as age decreases until among kids 12 and under 96 percent are Starseeds.

Of course, they don’t all know that they’re Starseeds. It happens just as Ben and Aaron discussed on MU319: the Star Visitor observes Earth’s plight and then “incarnates as a human to help out.” The human incarnation doesn’t remember he was a Star Visitor in a previous life, although he does bring his higher consciousness to this life.

Starseeds are different than regular humans in physical ways, too. “Starseed adults age more slowly, maintain robust health and sharpness,” Boylan explained, and then by way of example he introduced a woman from the audience who was 37 but “ looked like a college kid.” Then in a truly awkward moment the woman introduced herself and, you know, it was not impossible to imagine that she was aging at a normal human rate.

Then it got more awkward when Boylan said he wanted to measure her vast energy, so he descended from the stage with a forked dowsing rod and standing about 15 feet from the woman, pointed the forked object toward her. He took a few steps until the dowsing thing flinched out of sheer embarrassment.

“See how far her energy extends?” No one saw, and all I could think of was about a dozen NSFW jokes that involved hot-tubbing therapy sessions, dowsing rods and “energy extension.”

The last thing I heard him say was that Earth was going to be invited to join Star Nations.

Here is a brief excerpt from his website explaining some of the activities of the Star Nation we have been invited to join:

At five minutes before our JPE [Joint Psychic Exercise], and the Star Nations Liberation, TAUSS, the Cabal’s secret underground extreme-speed magnetic-levitation subway system, was taken down for the Western United States sector, at least temporarily, to provide a distraction.
At one minute before the JPE/Liberation, Star Visitors advised the captives and their families that liberation was imminent. Also at one minute before, the magnetic containment fields, and the implants in the SV [Star Visitor] captives, and the black boxes tying the SV’s to the Cabal pain administration equipment were deactivated.

The precise locations where the Star Visitors were help is given to you to assist you JPE participants in geo-locating the Liberation project sites in case you want to time-jump back and lend specific energy to the Liberation effort as it is going on. It will be useful.

Again thank you for your participation. Your presence helped Star Nations ethically intervene in Human affairs to liberate its own members from Cabal criminal elements working in “black projects”. Black, indeed!

Moving on to David Wilcox who was new to this MU blogger. On his website he describes himself  as a professional lecturer, filmmaker and researcher of ancient civilizations, consciousness science, and new paradigms of matter and energy. His upcoming Hollywood film CONVERGENCE unveils the “proof that all life on Earth is united in a field of consciousness, which affects our minds in fascinating ways.”

(BTW, Aaron, you’ll be interested to know, the website has a multi-part series on: A New Philadelphia Experiment Revelation )

But after checking out his online mug shot, I couldn’t take my eyes off the guy on the stage who looked very different than the one pictured. I decided he’d had a nose job. My photos aren’t very good, but maybe you’ll be able to see what I mean.

As far as I could Google, Wilcox seemed scandal free, and I understood what he was talking about when he decried the “skeptical laughter curtain” that surrounds subjects like UFOs. I’ll even entertain the idea that “UFOs are ourselves from the future come back during this time of change to help us out.” [More helpful star people, you might note this as a theme of all the panelists].

But then he turned up the juice on his “cosmic download” and from what I could grab from the warp-speed verbiage, was that this was a cosmos filled with crappy science. I think I have an unusually high tolerance for fringe theories, but, come on: Is the pineal gland “a Stargate inside your brain”? Are we seeing so many UFOs because we are colliding with incoming vortex, natural time travel vortexes on Earth. Very strange areas that you step inside and sound of birds goes away. All the sounds go away? Is human evolution speeding up 300 times faster? Is there really micro-biological proof that evolution is speeding up? Does the Illuminati and Hitler equal Darkness Hidden? [Hitler comes up again, too] Is it true that there has to be anti gravity. There has to be time travel? Can you really turn Einstein’s theory of relativity upside down so that mass decreases?

You can look it all up on his website and try to make sense of his “Divine Cosmos” or you can just take him at his word when he tells you that the truth is so much more incredible than we’ve been led to believe.

That’s where I’m leaving it.

Next up was psychic and Coast-to-Coast regular, Sean David Morton. He started his presentation by announcing “I’ll bet you’re surprised I’m not behind bars.” I had to Google him on my iPhone to find out that in March, Morton was indicted by SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for fraud which gave the New York Times the chance to write this headline: For Psychic, Suit Came as Surprise.

In a case that seems ripped from the pages of the satirical newspaper The Onion, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Mr. Morton for securities fraud on Thursday, claiming he swindled more than $6 million from investors by promising them “piles of money,” along with spiritual happiness.

Needless to say, Morton published a statement in response on the Coast to Coast website:

“I am shaken to my core by all this. I have never stolen from anyone in my life, and I cannot even fathom how someone could risk incurring such karma for base, short term monetary gain. I am sure it happens every day, but I firmly believe as the Apostle Paul said, What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

“Anyone who knows me and knows my body of work from listening to this show over the past 20 years knows that I am all about the truth and doing what is right, and that is what my wife and I have done ALL ALONG, and we will be fully vindicated from these baseless allegations.”

This story was far more intriguing than his ADHD-ish, rat-a-tat patter that spilled a million names and not a drop of content: from Groom Lake to Area 51 to the fact that HE is a Star Child to comparing Stephen Hawking’s alien bashing to John Keel’s warnings to Dan Ackroyd on Larry King Live, catsthatlooklikehitler.com, Copernicus, Edgar Cayce’s prophecy that there would be a shifting of the poles, the Hebrew calendar, Hindu calendar, the Norway Spiral, which he described as “creating the IKEA version of HAARP.”

He predicted that this summer is going to make the summer of the 60s look like the 50s, which sounded ominous but then wrapped up by explaining, “How special Earth is because we are actively defended (by our Star Nation friends, I presume) and actively helped. We have royal blood. Every one of us. The [star visitors?] protect us because of our ability to achieve Godhood. 2012 will be the end of terror. The end of evil.”

He could have said more along those lines but his 15-minute behind the wheel had screeched to a halt.  Time for Reuben Uriarte, except, whoops, his video must have connected with one of those strange vortexes where you can’t hear the birds or watch the UFOs.  Oh well, see you all at Conspiracy Con X 2010!

The Unholy Three of Ufology: Boylan, Wilcock & Morton is a post from: Mysterious Universe

How do you know if a telekinetic event is the real thing or just your imagination?

“It’s simple: Can you tell the difference between real sex and masturbation?” Dr. Natalia Shareyko asked the to audience at the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS). And she’s ought to know–about telekinesis, that is. She has a reported 100% success rate teaching students to spin a compass or move matches using the power of subtle energies at the Biosensory Psychology Institute St. Petersburg, Russia.

Telekinesis, the power to move matter with the mind, has something of an image problem, at least in the US, where is it linked to the “ghostly” ectoplasm of fake apparitions, Uri Geller vs. James Randi  and Men Who Stare at Goats

The phenomena is so often discredited as fraud that just studying it poses a risk to the reputations of serious scientists.  But one researcher who didn’t flinch in the face of critics is Dean Radin , PhD, Senior Scientists IONS, and author of  The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds, but even he has admitted to having doubts before he experienced it himself.

“I was much more skeptical about such claims until one day I personally folded the bowl of a large, heavy soup spoon in half with a gentle touch, and with half a dozen witnesses present. I later tested to see if I could do this again with a similar spoon using ordinary force. I couldn’t budge the bowl without the assistance of two pairs of pliers and some serious leverage. So I have good reason to doubt the usual skeptical assertion that all cases of metal-bending are conjuring tricks or due to unconscious use of force.”

— Dean Radin, Entangled Minds, page 331

Although Radin has continued his controversial research he did not weigh in on the accuracy of Dr. Shareyko’s sex analogy, but  he and members of his research team were in the audience as well as theoretical physicist and visionary, George Weissmann.

Weissman was responsible for connecting Dr. Shareyko with IONS after he attended her course in St. Petersburg.  After only days of training that included physical exercises, breathing exercises, and bio-energetic exercises, Weissmann was able to perform telekinesis. and set up outside the conference room glass cylinders containing spirals for anyone who wanted to test their own powers.

A little background on the Russians and telekinetic powers: Although they didn’t invent telekinesis, during the Cold War the KBG’s interest in weaponizing the powers of the mind were spurred by the psychic talents of Nina Kulagina, a Russian housewife who stopped a frog’s heart with her mind.  (The video claims she nearly killed a skeptic who volunteered to test her heart-stopping powers, but it sounds too good to be true).  Anyway, Russians have a history of taking psychic powers seriously.

Dr. Shareyko did not give a demonstration of telekinesis, at least not overtly. However, that evening she told us in heavily accented English that she would use only occasional translation assist from Yevgenly Gorodetskly, Director of the Foundation for Mind Being Research in Los Altos, CA. She also chose to forgo a microphone, and as she began there were whispers of protest rippling through the audience that she spoke too softly and couldn’t be understood. If she heard them she didn’t show it, and kept on with her talk without a pause. Within a few minutes, the whispers had stopped, no one appeared to be straining to hear and the audience was listening in rapt silence. Maybe she was sending out psychic Ritalin vibes to get people focused.

She began with her own initiation to the world of psychic phenomenon. Explaining that as a neurophysiologist from a family of medical professionals, she was skeptical when she enrolled in the Biosensory Psychology Institute St. Petersburg 18 years ago.

Her instructor, Vladimir Tonkov–who has taught 100,000 students about biosensory psychology since 1989, and authored a text (free download) on his methods and philosophy–changed her mind.

“He seems like a very ordinary man, but when he decides it’s time for you to learn something, you are able to learn it. He has a very direct connection with people.”

She admits she wasn’t an apt pupil, at least at first. “I am a medical doctor from a family of doctors and was very skeptical of all these things,” Shareyko said. “Is it true or some kind of illusion.? Vladimir Tonkov, told us that if we learned what he could teach us it was possible that our lives would totally change. ‘If you’re ready, you can continue. Think hard before you start,’ he said. I went three times to the street and back up the stairs again. But I felt such power. It touched me so deeply that for me there was no other choice.”

During the third lesson, she received a sign that she’d made the right choice. She was working with a partner when suddenly she was able to “see” the state of his health. Adding to her shock was the realization that despite her medical training she couldn’t find the right words to describe the physical problems she “saw” inside her partner. She had to ask another doctor taking the course to help her name the parts of the anatomy. “A moment of divine perception and my medical profession didn’t matter. The perception was so bright and another way [of understanding]. I knew how it shall be for this person. After that I change my view on this life.”

She showed us a video of students moving compass needles and match sticks without physical contact and said that the Institute had 100 percent success rate teaching students to perform these feats.

How does the training work? She said that students train for several hours each day and are in direct contact with their highly skilled teachers. However they are not practicing telekinesis, but are learning to expand their perception.

“When we expand our perception, what becomes real for us widens. At any one time there may be many signals surrounding us but we can’t understand because our everyday perception is very narrow. Only a little part of what it can be is perceived from this point of view. We are blinded. That is why we don’t understand the world we live in.

“Our world view is totally material. A chair; we can touch it. A thought; I cannot touch it. When your perception is changed (through this training) you understand that the material world is the middle stream bound on either side by the limits of our perception. We already know that there are species who have sensory perception outside the limits of human perception. Bats fly by sound not sight and dogs have a superior sense of smell. The psychic level is also outside our normal range of perception.”

She explained that enhanced perception turns out to be necessary but not sufficient: “Why our students have [telekinesis results] so quickly is the direct understanding from inside the teacher to inside the pupil. It’s like tuning the student into the proper channel, like tuning a TV. And the students must have a high level of desire in order to succeed. In that way, telekinesis is like inspiration.”

In order to maintain the gains and stay on the right channel requires dedication and feeling, which is not to be confused with emotion: “There is only one real feeling: Love. We confuse feelings we have inside our real selves with emotional reactions that are for making contact easier with people outside ourselves.

“Emotions are masks. The masks lock us inside our physical body. When we wake up, when we practice, we have the possibility to be without the mask. Clairvoyance and other psychic skills are only possible if a person doesn’t lie to himself about what he is experiencing. Then it’s imagination.

After spinning the compass needle and moving the matches, what other skills does the dedicated practitioner learn? “There have been students who have experienced levitation. We do not say that we teach levitation. It’s very rare for a person to levitate. I have observed it. And it happened one time in my life to me. No one saw it. It started to happen and then a touch of fear came over me and it ended. When a change in reality happens and you’re not expecting it fear comes.”

What about the bad things people can do? “Many people ask how I can teach this because it’s so dangerous. How can I do it? I say. “What is the difference? If you teach surgery you are teaching someone the best way to kill a person.”

And finally: “All of our theories, without practice it’s nothing. Many people who write about psychic experiences have a very great opinion of themselves. Very easy to talk. Not so easy to act. I’ve never stopped studying. When I wake up in the morning, sometimes I can’t believe it’s all real. Sometimes I start over from the beginning. Is it all real? We make this choice every time, many times during the day.

Dr. Shareyko spent the weekend at IONS teaching an intensive workshop on how to learn and apply telekinetic skills. If her perfect success rate holds, the students who were able to stay the course now know for themselves the difference between the a real telekinetic experience and the one that’s only a fantasy.

Hitting the T-Spot: MU Learns the Secrets to Mind Over Matter is a post from: Mysterious Universe

2010, only four month old, and already the year has shewn us: wonders from the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

It’s more than a bit unnerving, this cluster of extreme events, especially given the scientific evidence that the global climate is changing due in large part to human degradation of Earth’s environment. Mother Earth is putting us on notice: Change or die, puny humans.

Of course, not everyone “believes” that climate change is man made. Many seem to think that scientific studies are just “elitist” opinions. You know, like evolution. According to a 2005 Pew Poll, a shockingly high number–42 percent–of Americans believe that “humans and other living things had existed in their present form since the beginning of time.” Using the same rationale, they’ve now decided that Earth–or at least humans–have fallen out of favor with the Creator and we’ve reached The End of Days prophesied in the Bible.

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons
and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions…and I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” Joel 2:31 Bible

The real mystery is what’s making so many citizens turn their backs on the 21st Century and beat a fast retreat to the Dark Ages?

“End of the world movements are nothing new,” writes Stephen A. Schwarz in the current issue of Explore , “but this is the first time in my lifetime significant numbers of the political elite actively entertain the idea of end times or believe that the world is less that 10,000 years old.”

Schwartz, who is the editor of a trend-tracking newsletter, The Schwartz Report, finds an explanation this fatalistic frame of mind in the work of the Global Consciousness Project that has successfully measured global presentiment of major events such as the death of Princess Diana, the election of Barack Obama and 9/11.

If you can wrap your mind around the little understood capacity of human consciousness to intuitively, and collectively, “know” something that hasn’t yet happened, then you’ll be able to appreciate Schwartz’s explanation of why so many people are voluntarily opting for the Apocalypse over salvation by science:

“…. the fear arises from the presentiment of the future defined by climate change. We are each of us seismometers of the non-local, and our behavior is governed for good or ill in part by our response to this psychic wind. Those whose response is fear will become more and more agitated, more susceptible to manipulation, more irrational and centered on emotion. And more dangerous. Flight or fight at the social, the cultural, level is literally murderous. Every war being fought has as its basis some kind of fear.”

So why don’t we all succumb to fear? According to Schwartz,

“Those whose response is to see opportunity come to comprehend that on the other side of the petroleum/nuclear age lies a world based on different rules. It only requires the capacity to be supple and to adapt. In the world of climate change, the only remediation is to change those behaviors that are creating the problem—or die. And, as with the rest of my argument, we can turn to research to guide us. As Science Daily reported, “In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive.”

If you’re not buying his cozy New Age conclusion, but still not ready to “let go and let God,” there’s always the “Love me til you drug me. Kiss me til I’m in a coma” option offered by Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. You can get a dose of Soma directly from the source by downloading the two-part  CBS Theater of the Mind radio dramatization of Brave New World on the 25th anniversary of its publication. Aldous Huxley’s narration sets the appropriate tone of withering disdain for the folly of mankind. Thank Ford!  (part one)  (part two) (via)

Are Premonitions of Catastrophic Climate Change Fueling End-of-Days Fears? is a post from: Mysterious Universe

Some might say it’s a miracle, others might assert it’s just par for the course… No matter how you choose to look at it, around Easter each year we can typically expect to see a round-up of strange news pertaining to ancient biblical mysteries and even Jesus Christ himself.

This year has turned out to be no exception, with experts boasting everything from proof of biblical-era plagues, to claims that new digital scans of the famous Shroud of Turin have resulted in a clear rendering of the face of the Christian savior.

First up, a new mystery has surfaced at the site of the famous Rosslyn Chapel, often linked to Freemasonry and the legendary Knights Templar, who were once believed to keep the secret of the holy grail used by Christ at the last supper. During a recent renovation of the 600-year-old chapel, two beehives were discovered, hidden within the stonework in the upper portions of the building. Strangely, they aren’t abandoned insect nests, however; they are man made.

The Times Online reports:

“It appears the hives were carved into the roof when the chapel was built, with the entrance for the bees formed, appropriately, through the centre of an intricately carved stone flower. The hives were found when builders were dismantling and rebuilding the pinnacles for the first time in centuries.”

What is the mystery of the bees? As strange as this seems, perhaps the bees aren’t the only ones leading secret lives. In fact, for decades scholars have begun to suppose that Moses, who famously led the Israelites out of Egypt, may actually have been Egyptian himself. Ofri Ilani with Haaretz.com explains:

“Was Moses actually an Egyptian priest who led a revolt against his country? Various writers have raised this theory on numerous occasions in the past, from the Hellenistic period to the 20th century. It is supported by, among other things, the recurrent appearance in ancient Egyptian sources of the name Mose, which was fairly common among the Egyptian nobility.”

Moses’ nationality isn’t the only thing in question regarding his exploits, however. Now scientists appearing in an upcoming National Geographic special claim that proof of biblical-scale plagues draws from scientific fact, rather than Moses’ mystical feats. Believed by scholars to have occurred at the ancient city of Pi-Ramses on the Nile Delta, a new explanation for the appearances of swarms of pests and bad weather is offered by Richard Gray, Science Correspondent for the UK’s Telegraph:

“The city appears to have been abandoned around 3,000 years ago and scientists claim the plagues could offer an explanation. Climatologists studying the ancient climate at the time have discovered a dramatic shift in the climate in the area occurred towards the end of Rameses the Second’s reign.”

Though climate change (much like today) is now also considered to be a culprit for floods in biblical times, this new information is hardly the most controversial to culminate in time for Sunday’s big egg-hunt. Indeed, History Channel claims that modern technology and an ancient holy relic may have revealed the best rendering to-date that depicts the face of Jesus of Nazareth. According to a recent press release posted at their website, this research may have resulted in the most accurate depiction of Christ’s likeness to-date:

“While there have been many documentaries about the shroud, most have centered on the shroud’s authenticity. HISTORY’S THE REAL FACE OF JESUS? presents something very different: an attempt to reveal the image embedded in the fibers of the fabric, to turn the faint, unfocused, two-dimensional image into a living, moving, 3D creation – if they are successful, this may be the most accurate depiction ever made of the man many believe to be Jesus Christ.”

For the faithful–as well as the curious and science-minded among us–it looks like this year will bring us an unusually anomalous Easter! Let’s just hope none of the bunny eggs left lying around turn out to be vessels piloted by aliens from another dimension…

The Religious Fringe: This Year’s Anomalous Easter is a post from: Mysterious Universe

Rebecca Rosen doesn’t exactly “see” dead people, which is probably a good thing, because if she did she’d probably never make a public appearance for fear of being mobbed by all the DLO’s, i.e., Departed Loved Ones, clamoring for her attention.

Instead the spirits of the dead speak to her across the ether in a language of signs and symbols that she can interpret, but can often be understood only by the person for whom the message is meant, the still living loved one, Rebecca’s client.

MU caught up with Rosen on the last stop of  the promotion tour for her new book “Spirited: Connect with the Guides Around You,” which is part memoir, but mostly it’s a how-to on tuning into the spirit messengers without a psychic middleman. Why is she giving away trade secrets? Rosen says her psychic ability was a gift she never expected to receive. She is convinced that it is an talent we all share, but like singing or ice skating or calculus, some of us are far more skilled at it than others.

Rosen falls into the highly skilled category, although where the skill comes from she can’t say. She was raised in a conservative Jewish family, and had no spiritual connections until she left home for college. When she was a sophomore, the life she lived growing up began to crumble–her mother and father divorced, her father attempted suicide. Rebecca became deeply depressed, and she began nightly sleep walking trips to the kitchen where she ate everything she could get her hands on.

It was difficult for Rebeca to tell her parents, who had enough problems of their own, but there was one relative, Rebecca’s grandmother, who arrived on the scene to lend her support. The only thing that was odd about that was that her grandmother had committed suicide when Rebecca was 11.

At first, Rebecca didn’t know what to make of the messages that seemed to be coming through her pen but not from inside her mind, while she bared her soul to her journal. Eventually, she came to understand that it was her grandmother who was guiding her hand, explaining that she didn’t want Rebecca to go down the same dark road that had led to her suicide and was now taking her father in the same dangerous direction.

Rebecca’s grandmother continued to “speak” to her for two years. She even provided her with clues to identify her soul mate when she met him by giving her the names Ryan and Rose and a birth date, 9-24. When Rebecca paid an unexpected trip home one summer, her mother set her up on a date. It turned out her date’s name was Brian Rosen, and his birthday was on September 24.

Seven months later they were married, and instead of starting a career in marketing, her new husband encouraged her to develop her psychic talents, and she began giving readings in a coffee shop in Deerborn, Michigan. She did good.  Today those seeking a reading from Rosen must wait three years for an appointment. Unless you were fortunate to attend one of her book tour appearances, that is.

When Rosen took the floor that evening at the bookstore, she said that she hoped we weren’t expecting the usual books signing. She explained that the only way to convince people it was possible to speak to the departed was through experience. “The work speaks for itself,” Rosen told the audience, “And it’s the medium’s job to provide enough evidence or validation to convince you that we’re really speaking to spirits.”

The readings she gave of members of the audience were both riveting and moving, as the spirits seemed to elbow each other out of the way to get their messages across. At one point I thought I caught a “sign” that might be meant for me, but I was too timid to respond before  the spirit of someone else’s DLO caught Rosen’s attention.

It’s difficult to describe how intense the experience is for those audience members receiving messages from the spirit world, but you can hear for yourself.  Here’s a link to a remarkable set of readings she did recently for a morning radio show

After the bookstore reading, Rebecca discussed with MU what her personal psychic mediumship has taught her about the nature of angels, how to steer clear of evil energies, why psychics seem to be gaining public credibility and other wisdom she’s gained from connecting with spirits unseen but definitely heard.

MU: James Van Praagh wrote the forward of your book, but are there any other mediums or psychics that you know and with whom you discuss your work?
RR: Several, but none that are well known psychics. Victoria Laurie , Elizabeth Picone , Lori Lipton to name a few…I’ve worked with Concetta Bertoldi in the past, with JVP. I’ve met Char Margolis as well.

MU: In recent years there have been a flood of books and television shows– Crossing Over, The Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Afterlife–that have real or fictional psychics or psychic mediums as the central character. Do you think it indicates the public’s acceptance of the reality of psychic abilities?
RR: Definitely the world is opening up to the idea of intuition and life after death. As the universe is shifting, so too are people’s minds, suspending disbelief long enough to entertain the idea that there is some truth to this phenomena.

MU: Have you studied or been influenced by psychic mediums working today or from the past such as Edgar Cayce or Eileen Garrett?
RR: No, although, I have read an Edgar Cayce book in the past and very much admire his work. I did however, train under Dr. Doreen Virtue and was certified in her Angel Therapy Practitioner (ATP) program, and Mediumship Program 10 years ago.

MU: Edgar Cayce, the sleeping prophet, answered medical  questions sent in by people who he’d never met and who lived far away. Are you able to do readings via the telephone or other long distance methods, or must the person you’re reading be in the same room with you?
RR: I do phone readings daily…it works the exact same way as an in-person reading. Spirit is not limited to time or space like we are in this physical world, so they’re able to be with us both simultaneously.

MU: Do you ever travel psychically to realms you hadn’t been expecting to find or receive messages with no direct connection back to a currently living person? For instance, Cayce was often given information about the future (he made many prophetic statements) and the past (for instance, Atlantis) and he was given some philosophical or metaphysical wisdom that he also documented.
RR: I have be in touch with higher beings (masters, angels, prophets) through trance channeling in a group meditation format. And we are given higher guidance and truth through these Spirits. But, the mediumship work I conduct daily is not of this nature.

MU: Can you control these contacts/ethereal travels?
RR: Yes, I am in control based on my intention.

MU: Eileen Garrett, on the other hand, wanted to find the scientific explanation for the voices that spoke through her and spent her lifetime being put through scientific studies and experimentation. Have you attempted anything similar? What are your feelings or opinions regarding efforts of science to prove or disprove psychic abilities.
RR: I think it’s perfectly fine for one to try and “prove” this work scientifically, and I personally have not done so before. And while there’s been fascinating research to prove there’s something going on that defies explanation, there’s a reason it’s never been 100% successful in proving it thus far. On a mind level, I don’t feel we will ever be fully able to capture the essence of what’s behind this complex, divine system at work, mainly because (1) God cannot be measured and (2) the mind of man is not able to fully comprehend or conceive what “God” is….that requires being in touch with our higher consciousness (and our heart vs our head), and often comes in deep states of meditation, near death experiences, dream state, and of course when we die and transition into the spirit world.

MU: I read in your book that you are only visited by spirits who want to contact their loved ones to help them live more fulfilled lives. Since this is behavior quite rare among the living, do you find that there are some clients who either don’t trust or don’t believe the advice given by their deceased relatives? Have you had clients respond to messages from their dead relations with outrage or anger? Do the spirits always know the right thing to say? If so, are do you negotiate these exchanges? Or am I being too literal in the idea of the “spirit,” equating it too directly to the actual deceased person when instead the dead relative acts more as a conduit to the higher wisdom?
RR: It’s a case by case deal. Dead loved ones often times come through and give their two cents (opinions, beliefs, etc) on one’s life, and I recommend that one take this information like a grain of salt. They are entitled to their opinions, just as they were in life. Often times, one’s Spirit Guides come through with more reliable guidance, which can be trusted because they are assigned to the person and know what’s in their best interest. And sometimes, Departed Loved Ones are the person’s spirit guide as well…. so it’s a matter of me figuring out what role they play with the person being read, and making it clear on how much weight to put on the information coming through.

MU: Have you encountered spirits who were less kind or helpful? Maybe even those with malign intent? If so, what do you make of those spirits? Are they also spirits of deceased persons or are they a different kind of being?
RR: In the beginning of any reading, I say a prayer that only the highest and best spirits for the person being read, come through. And because of my intentions for only positive, truthful energy to show up, I rarely if ever have problems with this lower energy. Sometimes, spirits come through in a way that is more self-serving for them… to clear their conscience rather than with intentions of honoring or helping the person. This doesn’t make them bad or dark, just less evolved. But i don’t allow in dark energy.

MU: You also mentioned angels as spirit guides. What kind of being do you think they are? Are they like the angels described in the Bible? Or are they more like very old souls? Have they described their situation to you?
RR: Angels are beings of light that are such a high frequency that they do not incarnate. They are God’s messengers, and they are pure, positive energy designed to love us and guide us when in need.

MU: How do ghosts and hauntings fit into the spirit world as you understand it?

RR: They are just lost souls in need of attention or help in crossing over to the light. They are typically harmless, just have unfinished business with themselves and/or with the living. They operate on a different plane of existence than the spirit world….somewhere between this dimension and that.

MU:How about Jung’s collective unconscious? Is that where the spirits reside?
RR: Perhaps… The truth is, Spirits are residing within the same space we are, just vibrating on a higher frequency. And, for each person, their connection to Spirit will be unique.

MU: I recently heard an interview with the author of The Key to Life, which is about connections between the living and the spirit world. His metaphor went something like this: Earth and humanity and the universe are like a grain of sand at the bottom of the ocean and the spirit world is the ocean. I’m not sure I have that quite right, but he said that this “life” is the illusion and the spirit world is the “real” world that we attain at death. Does this description come close to what you know of the spirit world? And does reincarnation figure into the spirit world you describe?
RR: I love that quote and yes it fits into my belief system as well. Life is one big play, and we come into it with many different actors that we’ve chosen to show up to help teach us, and we them…to allow us the opportunity to grow and spiritually evolve. And, it’s all an illusion…as the course in miracles says, “only love is real.” Yes, I believe in reincarnation…it’s a choice.

MU’s “Spirited” Interview with Psychic Medium Rebecca Rosen is a post from: Mysterious Universe

According to a recent statement by Father Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist at the Vatican, “The Devil resides in the Vatican and you can see the consequences.” Using his powers of evil to shape shift, disappear, speak in different foreign languages, “or even appear to be sympathetic,” Father Amorth says the Prince of Darkness works constantly to undermine his holy efforts, but still claims to be “a man who is happy in his work.”

An interview the priest gave to news source La Repubblica was recently picked up by European news sources like The Telegraph, in which Amorth describes William Peter Blaty’s 1973 film The Exorcist as a “substantially exact” representation of demonic possession, though a few circumstances pertaining to exorcisms he has performed in the past may actually be more startling than those witnessed on film.

Revised in January 1998, Of Exorcisms and Certain Supplications is a document of the Catholic Church that details the age-old rite of exorcism. The following is an excerpt from an early version of this document, revised in 1614:

I command you, unclean spirit, whoever you are, along with all your minions now attacking this servant of God, by the mysteries of the incarnation, passion, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, by the coming of our Lord for judgment, that you tell me by some sign your name, and the day and hour of your departure. I command you, moreover, to obey me to the letter, I who am a minister of God despite my unworthiness; nor shall you be emboldened to harm in any way this creature of God, or the bystanders, or any of their possessions.

Serving under circumstances similar to these himself, arguably one of the stranger facets of possession Amorth cites details how victims vomit various strange things during the rite of exorcism, including rose petals, shards of glass and “pieces of iron as long as a finger.” Amorth, who is eighty five years old, claims to have performed 70,000 exorcisms in his lifetime. Nonetheless, the Catholic Church today more often will only condone exorcisms in extreme circumstances and after special investigation into the matter, since more often it is assumed that the victim suffers from some manifestation of psychosis or other mental disorder.

Amorth holds true to his creed regardless, certain that evil forces act on us in this world. “The exorcist has one principal duty,” he cryptically states. “To free human beings from the fear of the Devil.”

The Devil in Disguise: Demonic Dealings at the Vatican? is a post from: Mysterious Universe