Correcting an essay, and adding lucidity is the merit of Sophia (philosophy), and it behooves me to express my deepest gratitude to goddess Muse, whose help came to me propitious.
Before embarking into the Asp Snake (Subconscious) vs The Wild Lynx (Conscious) I would like to share this essay on the Supernatural, and how I have gleaned my experiences to touching upon the mysteries of good and evil.
Errors are inevitable, for when I venture into the supernatural, it is very difficult to draw the line between the authentic and the spurious, nay, there is rarely an area so insincere, so rife with profiteers, so abused by impostors and unreliability as that of the field of metaphysics or religion.
So often I am approached by a religious person or a fanatic, and there is, for the most part, a great deal of sincerity to convert me into this church or that religion. Though I would definitely agree with many Christians on the Universality of Christ and his Simple Message, I would rarely enter into profound theological arguments and schism. Let love and fraternity unite all men and women under the heaven of peace, tolerance and freedom in the inherent differences among the children of Adam & Eve.
This essay On The Supernatural was written between the years of 2011 and 2015, but in the last several months, I have added other lines. Revision is a thankless task. You may read this essay, slowly, as reflections of my personal experiences with religion, the Faust of Goethe, and the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer.
This is perhaps very heavy stuff, mad stuff, laugh out loud, and it would demand the fearless reader to fare with me into a world full of mysteries, magnetism, kinetic energies, riddles...and ghosts.
After all these years, many mysterious experiences in my life I could neither discard nor frame within the canon of the New Testament (Christianity).
I was therefore bound, however aware of the inconsistency of some apocryphal literature, to peruse other texts or belief-systems as found in the historic development of what is generally regarded as the main tenets of Christendom: a concoction or syncretism of Judaism, Greek Philosophy and the other gentle venerable teachings flowing from the lands of the Far East.
The mild sunset of Buddhism would cast my spiritual landscape with the most blissful hours with Shanti (Peace) which is to be free of passions, the root of our sufferings.
Further investigations led me to take greater confidence on the core message of every major religion, i.e., love, renunciation, faith, charity, hope and peace, but I was soon aware that my inquisitive nature would not let me rest content on the mere superficial performances of religious duty.
In 1992, when I first joined a small Christian group, I was soon agitated to seek answers to one of my most enduring questions and experiences on this life: the Spirit Realm.
The explanation on the possibility of Ghostly Apparitions, as furnished to me by some Protestant Christian friends left me much wanting and unsatisfied in all the riddles and conundrums of life.
Unlike the Catholic, the Protestant, for the most part (except for Mormonism which is generally considered an offshoot of Protestantism) cannot admit a place, a Purgatory, existing betwixt Hell and Paradise.
Mormonism, nevertheless, may still hold the strange doctrine of baptism for the dead, and Catholics may pray for the departed souls of their beloved ones.
Accordingly, these two religious denominations may have much in common however separated by their respective interpretations of the Bible.
With Mormonism, as asserted by their devout followers, in the latter restoration of the Church, the Bible was not yet complete without the joint sacred scriptures of the Book of Mormon, and with this latter, the addition of other inspired literature held sacred by the majority of its ever-growing adherents.
The Protestant Christian, holding the authority of the Bible in its entirety as the ultimate source to tracing back any Spirit Phenomena, is narrowly immured within the set confines of the "inspired scriptures" i.e. or canon of faith, which may exclude any other interpretation (exegesis) to our inquiries on Ghosts, Maleficus Powers (evil-eyed powers) and other Supernatural Phenomena.
Tentatively, I have dared point the fact that some books, (apocrypha, uninspired scriptures and spurious as deemed by the founders of major religious groups and sects), and now missing in most versions of our official Bible, have left our learned theologians grappling for answers on the incompressibility of the origin of evil, ghost, and the omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence of God.
On closer studies of the New Testament, however, the existence of Hell without a Purgatory may seem biblically supported, but it is, nonetheless, hardly plausible when we, likewise, may go on to hold this Omnipotent Creator so terribly holy, or irresponsible, that He could not have set limits to the general, revolting conditions and sufferings for the human race.
But so it seems, that this life, which is a veritable nightmare for countless miserable people who are simply born to suffer all kinds of afflictions, this earthly life is just the beginning, the amphitheater for more horrific torments in the unquenchable fires of eternity in Hell.
The doctrine of Eternal Damnation seemed revolting to the early Christians, and the Ancient Romans had to contrive, nay parse and implement, the inclusion of sundry pagan doctrines and apocryphal books to the possibility of life after death: a midway placed called the Purgatory.
Later, and as found in other pagan cultures (e.g. Tartarus, Hades, Inferno as known to the ancient Greeks and Romans), a Purgatory was believed to be morally necessary in the solemn judgments of God and His fair distribution of justice. Suffering is therefore our atonement for having been born sinful, or, our fallen human nature in the disobedience of our ancestors: Adam and Eve.
We are here expiating our trespasses within the perfect framework of an Omnipotent God who is perfect and unerring, but we, His creatures, are not perfect, and could fall into a world (samsara) of unspeakable sufferings and death.
The soul could still have one last chance, to budge a step out of this nightmare, and perhaps in the hereafter, when we fancy hearing the weeping, gnashing of teeth, and the disheartening clamor and wailing of countless people haunting the Spirit Realm, we are then reminded that these are perhaps the plaintive echoes of damned spirits pleading for help:
Help! Help! Help!
In some cases some haunting spirits seem to be confused, enchained or asleep in the performance of tedious chores and recurrent monotonies as they did in their former lives, but for the soul still existing among the living ones, there is to all this but unspeakable dread and horror to any contact with the dead.
For the Protestant Christian, nevertheless, the answer to the possibility of Spirit Apparitions was rather elicited as the work of Satan and his emissaries, and following the authority of the Bible, the said Christian would not admit the possibility of spiritual personification (ghosts) in the aftermath of our bodily annihilation --for all spirits, like the breath of life, would finally return back to the life-given Spirit of God; hence every supernatural phenomenon is attributed to the agency of Satan.
Nevertheless, for the more conservative religious reformers of our time, ghosts are simply deemed the manifestation of demons, and anything related to spirit-seeing thereof, hexes, seance, and even witchcrafts, are soon sneered at and dismissed as the benighted hutch-pot stuff of hotheaded, stupid, ignorant people still plunged in the Middle Ages.
Properly speaking, the belief in certain invisible influences, demonic spirits, ghosts, good or bad luck, spell, ill-eyed maleficus powers and so on, as found at all times, places and among many different cultures and people, should not be just deemed as mere superstition or ignorance among the bucolic people of yore; but such things, as being part of our daily lives, and showing how powerless we all are to determining our fate and final departure from this world, may find a welcome passport in our mind to a plausible interpretation to all the events, twists and circumstances surrounding our lives.
(Today, even when most materialistic authors deny the reality of Spirit Apparitions or Maleficus Psychic Powers, many people are still convinced that psychic energy, or magnetism, through will-power [Telema], are indeed the underlying supernatural network, "the cobweb of consciousness," which, from time to time, would plunge us all into a fantastical world akin to magic, clairvoyance, seance and the miraculous.)
From time to time, we are more attuned to this Spirit Realm, and our faculties seem to be actuated and activated by sundry presentiments, "forewarnings," haunches, divination, and even the power to predict the future in the distending womb of time; all these pre-fixes (presentiments) seem to be possible when the heart is transfixed by those inexplicable feelings --however imposing and ponderous-- which may hold our mind in a state of suspensive expectations and foreboding.
Such numinous experiences are as necessary as are the other faculties of the mind when transfixed by the sense of awe, dread and divine.
Later, we come to realize, and for the most part this is the case, that our intuitive perceptions had outwitted our reasoning powers, nay, the "forewarning gut-feeling" happened with such accuracy, with such extraordinary precision, that we are simply left grappling in the air with the facts pressing right in front our noses.
I Just Can't Believe It, But I had to Admit It!
Sometimes, even when the outward nature, on the deceptive language of physiognomy, presents itself as trustworthy or innocuous, we may still be perceptive of the baffling impulses (pre-sentiments) which once forewarned us of harm, pain, deceit.
Those who believe their thoughts as conveying kinetic energy in the visible realms of this deceptive reality, are said to be endowed with psychic powers capable of transmitting influences beyond the framework of our humble understanding of the visible world.
The problem is not so much in the falseness or truthfulness of such mysterious phenomena (witchcrafts, magic or demon-possession), but where and how can we find the ultimate causes of our joys and woes as evinced by so many cases of famous celebrities tampering with astrology, witchcrafts, Kabbalah, drugs?
In this short life, we are confronted with many riddles, lacunae and enigmas.
Another great mystery is, to what extent could an extremely subjective individual awake other faculties of the mind, however dormant in the skeptic a mind, and thus be able to perceive another reality, a fantastic world that seems to contradict our daily experiences of cause and effects?
Furthermore, we must diligently inquire:
What are the benefits to admitting the existence of another fabulous world --perhaps a pseudo-reality like that of the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer?
However the fancy and fabrication of an ingenious mind, some paranormal activities, especially during the night, and as an effective solution to the problem of ennui, could provide a highly more entertaining, nay, meaningful appreciation to all the riddles of existence. Let us know relish these poetic lines by the German bard:
"I don't seek my salvation in a heart gone dead. Best faculty in man's heart is the thrill of dread. Though we visit the other deepest, being seized by it. "
(Faust by Goethe, Part 2, Dark Gallery)
At any rate, we will stretch our reality, so far as to live on the fantastic, the mysterious, even if people think us mad or absurd, let us persist in the Faust of Goethe. Mind you, there are times when the Specters of Time and Space may shake our clumsy gait of incurable skeptics and materialists; and the Question of Life cannot just be crammed in our moldy shelves of Materialistic Doctrines.
Yea, even atheists like Schopenhauer and Immanuel Kant, wholeheartedly believed in Ghosts and Haunted Places (peruse Parerga and Paralipomena Vol 1, Spirit Apparitions). Perhaps there are plausible explanations in the mysterious Web of Will and Conscious Intelligence, as not yet circumscribed to our narrow notions of Time and Space.
I, your humble servant, more than once, have been perplexed by the Illusion of Time and Space; nay, many night-walks were shrouded in somber clouds of daunting thoughts and fear for the Unknown X of Immanuel Kant.
Walking Through Solitary Places
In the swelling womb of impregnable night, especially when I ramble through solitary places --abandoned houses in the nook and crannies of human conviviality-- once the hub and bustle of human activities, there is to be found an uncanny sense of spiritual communication, a seance, however telepathic, with lingering energies that seems to strike rapport with the Spirit Realm or Ghostly Apparitions.
In big cities, like New York, after all these years of stirs and bustle, and in the drifting flows of human society with every generation, there are the places, and even whole neighborhood seems to exhume the most creepy sentiments on the illusion of time, whose physical appearance may smack of things spooky and tenebrous.
Be honest with yourself, and admit this insight as an ineluctable fact of life: in the short voyage of existence, ghosts and shadows are often the intrusive guests, and from behind, in our rear, our hair quite often seem to bristle at their proximity. The tingling feeling is always accompanied by a chilly sense of cold and dread.
The Ghost of A Woman (1987)
It is more scary when you meet a stranger in the night, as it once happened to me with a beautiful Caucasian woman (year 1987).
The ghostly woman appeared shortly in front of me, her pale countenance expressing neither joy nor pain. The mysterious spirit, staying motionless for a little while nearby a grove-ringed house, retreated backward and backward amidst the trees, and was soon lost front sight in the imposing dark spacious residence of the night.
The other day, as I inquired upon this strange spirit apparition with the local watchman or security, my heart almost melted when I was informed that the said mysterious woman had been seen by other neighbors, and that for many years, the frightening story of this beauty-ghost-haunting was further confirmed by passers-by of the most trust-worthiness and reliability.
The said ghost, as it is with countless other similar stories of Haunted Places, was later explained as the mere night-strolling of a British woman who had been diagnosed with a strange bone-disease in the United Kingdom, rheumatism, and her recurrent excruciating symptoms, worsened by the sudden fall of the chilly temperatures in the night, would make her stride (strike) out late in the solitary broad avenues of existence...what a broad path of perdition!
The woman, whether an actor or a scorned ghost condemned to haunt the night, for so it seemed, had developed a fanciful wicked delight in scaring other innocent people; but her late appearances, quite often dressed in a creepy white gown --as a bride-to-be, had won her the infamous reputation of being a dreadful vindictive spirit hellbent on frightening other men...
The female fatale, it was reported by the local people, had an uncanny penchant to spruce herself up in the most antiquated manners, medieval attires and customs.
Late in the night, her approach to strangers was always marked by a sudden appalling standstill in yonder spot, especially shielded in the impenetrable shadows of bowers and the silhouette of groves, and thence, she would slowly hover and retreat backward in a most ghostly fashion.
We may deny the existence of ghosts, but as we chance ourselves through solitary places (especially the pathways of quiet cemeteries and forlorn churches) here and there littered with the discarded stones of our efforts, a sharp feeling would convince us that the Spirit Realm is replete with ghosts haunting the impregnable questions of our emotions, sufferings, premonitions, hope, and countless other experiences touching contiguity with our departed loved ones....
Because we may be pierced with the sharp feeling of loss, grief and dread, we may try to ignore it, and boldly would even put on a sturdy heart against this spiritual reality pressing within our bottomless bosom, pit of the stomach and the bristling hairs rising slowly in our scruff. The tingling sensation cannot be dismissed as a mere subjective, self-imposed, baseless fear lacking a kernel of truth in reality.
If we are strong enough, and remain fearless in the spacious vestibule of our most solemn encounters and meetings with the unknown, we may fancy to be in touch with our beloved departed ones. But fear may overcome our heart, and soon we are bound to postpone the hour of our meeting with the Spirit Realm.
Nevertheless, from time to time, you would have to come to grips with this lingering energy lapping your back in a greater network with the Spirit Realm or Spirit Apparitions.
The Question of Existence, certainly, borders and blurs into the Supernatural. The panic is greater when, however far we may grope and fumble in the darkest realms of our lives, there is not, sort of speak, a Mental Fringe or Boundary between this reality and the unknown: they constantly touch each in the unfolding circumstances of our lives.
Indeed, this narrowly confined realm we call reality seems to be the plaything of all kinds strangest coincidences, phantasmagoria, and ghostly apparitions; but so it seems, that when we set our eyes beyond the narrow confinement of this little world, out there, nevertheless, a boundless space seems to stretch far and far into distance... verily, beyond the circumscribed limit of our finite mind, our limited cognitive powers and epistemology, to comprehending this vast mysterious universe.
In such boundless space, as it is right here on Earth, mind you, there are penumbras, shadows, specters and kinetic forces at work --twenty four hours: Magnetism.
Lost Souls In Big Cities
The Existence of Hades, as conceived by the poetic genius of Dante and Homer, is perhaps a little antiquated when compared with the new Hell-Matrix of French philosopher Jean Baudrillard: a city-hell, not so much an invention of benighted days in the woods of superstition; for, even in big cities like New York, Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, we would walk and flit hither and thither, like lambs or lost sheep among the awful wolves of premonition, greed, terrorism and other forebodings.
But as Goethe assures us in his Faust Part II, in modern society and civilization, there are as many different types of hells, devils, high societies, and countless smooth pathways of perdition for a final doom.
During the diurnal hours, that is, if you believe this immediate world-masquerade of your daily experiences --the countless deceptive shades dancing in the phantasmagoria of your life-- if you believe all this make-believe show, oh boy, you are simply deluding yourself: a simpleton.
Once you go to sleep, the interpretations of all these fleeting shades may have to be accessed as being part and whole of the Spirit Realm.
Our lives, for most of us, is always the rutted path of uncertainty in the precarious issues of life and death. It is not simply that we are vulnerable to the undeniable reality of suffering, but in the serious struggle of life, we better safeguard our properties, lest we end up overcome by the creepy entities of this world. Devils may not exist, but suffering and loss are irrefutable facts of life.
I have to say, that out there in the world, there could be found, all over the globe, many different kinds of people to deciphering this essay, and the enlightened path is only for the few.
Therefore, the good soul (always) would look for the sweet blessings of heaven, not from without, but from within the human heart.
* * * * * * *
Some paranormal phenomena may still defy our understanding. I cannot say that I have been always victorious when confronting the other side of this reality.
From 1993 to 1999, and perhaps in 2004, I witnessed some strange events in my life. Alas, I cannot say how subjective or objective could be my mind to creating its own hells, delusions, fairy tales, angels and fantasy.
In 1979, I had an encounter with a ghost, an experience, which, frankly speaking, made me afraid of uncreated night for many years to come.
Still in my teens, I would sleep with the light-on all night long. When I had no electricity, I would simply light candles.
The Dominican Republic, without electricity, had something of the medieval times, some delightful dread that was irresistible to my childhood, and many Latinos, like the Scandinavians in medieval times "Upland Hags and Witches," perhaps due to poverty, social segregation and ignorance, are quite often prey to many strange phenomena, demon-possessions and other diabolical superstitions: Santeria and Witchcraft have their faithful devotees among some Latinos --even today in USA, people believe in Mala Suerte (Bad Luck).
In 1995, not that far from where I lived, a Cuban woman, una Santera (a witch) --a Night-Hag, was reported to have dangerously tampered with the other spirits of our dread.
For many days and nights, a rancid and putrid odor coming from her apartment, led the perplexed tenants to call the authority. The hapless woman was found dead amidst her infamous practices and hideous objects, among which, there were chicken's parts and entrails, dry bones, blood-splotches and other organic substances besmirching the floor and walls.
The stench of her apartment was so repugnant and indescribably hellish, that for a long time, some of her neighboring tenants reported to have suffered from nightmare, nausea, and dizziness...
In the 90s, Latinos churches were overwhelmingly packed with people looking for help. Our neighborhoods and endless squalid slums were stricken with drugs, dysfunctional homes, unwanted pregnancies, witchcraft, obesity, superstition, segregation. The government did little to improve the condition of the minority community, and so, many hapless people gave themselves either to the mysterious forces of Satan or to the caring hands of Jesus Christ.
Under such dire circumstances, certainly, there was not better a place than in a nearby church; therein, in the snug sanctuary, tenderly illumined by a few rays of hope, we would cry out to God for help:
"Please God, why don't you help these forsaken children? "
This was the time when paranormal experiences held sway over the hearts, minds and homes of many people.
Only a bold mind, an Achilles-like, a courageous soul would confront and unmask these wicked entities in the netherworld of this pseudo-reality.
Such soul must be brave, because the devils, if they are indeed real, in many ways, guises, masks and modus operandi must --to our comprehension things evil and disgusting-- may resemble some human beings in shape, behavior and coloration.
Ay! In this battlefield of life and death, and we are all here included, whole armies have been overcome with the dread of the unknown.
And it only takes a few effective mental tricks to enslave whole groups of people captive. No matter how strong you are, at times, the unknown, alas, would make you reflect, time and time again, how successful have you been in making headways through the many riddles and enigmas of existence?
Have your foe's ill-feelings reached your citadel?
Bendita Agua (Holy Water) Since I was a little kid, from time to time, I had the good custom and habit to take a holy shower with Agua Florida, or just discard some worn-out shoes, old clothing tattered with holes and rotten rags; or, I would throw away any other accursed object (especially bed, couches, sofas, curtains and sheets should be thrown away immediately, since there, while we were under the spell of some bad luck or invisible influence, and with constant friction and tribulations, we tend to unleash the lower energies of our human nature).
Thus, quite often, we draw unto ourselves, the most morbid feelings of illness, inexplicable dejection, and quite strangely, exuding from our aura and bodies, or I should say, exhuming from the graveyard of our past experiences with other human beings, many things and thoughts may eventually become a hindrance to our well-being and quick recovery. And perhaps, by so doing, you and I would be able to ward off any evil influence or haunting spirit...
In Spanish Bad Luck is translated Mala Suerte.
That bad mental energy may find its medium and manifestation in living entities was a wide-spread belief, not only among the Northern people, but also in Latin America and among the Asiatic people.
Among different cultures and people, some peasants would admit some occult malefic powers as related to the inexplicably changes (inexplicable morphology) of some animals: the mysterious appearances and disappearances of Chupacabra in Puerto Rico, to this day, has not yet been satisfactorily explained as simply the audacious drivels of profiteers looking to enrich themselves on the silly gullibility of the Latino people. The bad news, nevertheless, became widespread all over the globe.
Every country and people may have a dreadful story of strange entities or devils, however scary, rambling the forested woods of "animal magnetism" and magic.
Puerto Rico has their ghastly Chupacabras, and the Dominican Republic, a country neighboring with Haiti, has their prodigious share of strange entities and stories of creepy people who may strike kindred with the Devil.
In exchange for Maleficus Powers, so the stories go, the Devil would bestow the fiendish satanists with supernatural abilities to morph themselves into an animal at will.
Stories abound of shady, night-rambling entities whom seem to be impervious to either bullet or knife; and in some remarkable cases, the satanist could even impose his fatale will upon the hapless victim.
Galipote, A Demonic Entity From Colonial Times in Latin America
A Galipote, as it is called by the Dominican people, may still send shivers down our spine. The said demon-possessed individual, in conformity to his diabolical nature, during some nights, and making the most disheartening growls and rustles, would devour or rip off the crops of the poor Dominican peasants. The authority, unfortunately, cannot remain long enough into the night's drooping hours to catch the monster of such savagery.
The Galipote, as it is reported by some witnesses, would even transform into new guises and physiological contrivances resembling canines, or any mysterious onlooking stranger standing nearby; thus, incognito, sort of speak, the said individual, in his new docile appearance, would visit his adversaries at any time of the day; and quietly, would even inquire on anything said about him.
As the story goes, the form of a dog is generally believed to be more preferable and highly more suitable, because, a dog, or a cat, better than a lion or a fox, can play the role of foe or friend without any misgiving!
Don Juan D' Los Palos' Erratic Behavior - A Demonic Man with An Abnormal Libido:
In 1969, it was reported, in Sabana Iglesia, Santiago, Dominican Republic, that a mild, gentle man of good manners named Don Juan D' Los Palos, would not accept any goodly victual given to him during daytime, but later, in the night, the soft-spoken individual would show up in the guise of a dog wagging his tail; and thus, in such animal form, he would devour the few remaining crumbs strewn on the floor.
The infamous case and practice, came to the attention of an old lady named Nina Diaz (my aunt from my mother's side), who suspicious of Juan de Los Palos' erratic behavior, had the curious idea to strike the night-roaming cur on his flanks with a hard broom.
Don Juan, who, ever after lived on in human form, stopped visiting my aunt's house, was reported to have suffered broken ribs, sudden convulsion of inexplicable wriggles and twinging pains for many months.
In such frequent instances, the Will-to-Exist of Schopenhauer, would alarm us that the mysterious operations of mother nature are at work --twenty four hours; and they may manifest themselves not only in humans, but also in other living organism, reptiles, mammals, and even in insects, larvae, germs, nits and eggs, galore, would be left behind to spring about from any corner or hole; and feebly enough, so as to pass on almost unnoticed, such mysterious powers would manifest themselves even in plants; or, from time to time, we would witness, to our surprise, the sudden withering away of the most beautiful flowers, petals and virtues --as if some evil, pernicious influence or spirit-- all the while, has been at work behind most people's miserable lives...
In All This Junk and Rotting Life
Nits and Nitwittery are Rife
(Faust Part II, Act II)
Accordingly, to be assaulted by an unpredictable army of bedbugs, lice, mites, fleas, or, a sudden swarm of vermin and rats creeping from any hole into our living space at midnight, may warn us of potential adversaries lurking invisible: imminent dangers and many trials in our brief existence to keep us awake all nightlong.
Likewise, cats and dogs, as being our nearest witnesses and most faithful friends, and without any doubt, closest to our daily intimate experiences, are indeed highly susceptible to the presence of a false friend or rascal, simply, by the most subtle signs, traces or streaks of shades left here and there, thus providing some inklings as to how well we have done with our beloved Homo Homini Lupus (Man Is Wolf To His Fellow Man): but also a gentle chilly breeze rippling across the curtain, or, a sudden gust of air breaking through the main entrance door --leaving this latter ajar, and yet, furnishing us but with little evidence of its source of origination, may warn us of a passing ghost or spirit in the twilight of our existence...
On The Power of Prayer
However aware of the inexplicable power of prayer to ward off evil forces, I have found few things so effective and expedient as cleanliness, a propitious shower, good music, the power of art, the healing woods of mother nature and philosophy. No sooner I grabbed a bulky volume of Schopenhauer On Spirit Apparitions, when, all of a sudden, many strange things took into another different light and shade.
Having said all this, I am not hereby denying the irrefutable fact, that for the most part, our minds are astonishingly subjective.
Mother Nature and Paranormal Activity
The other night, while thinking about my mother, I heard an incredible clashing and crackling of dishes and utensils falling in the kitchen with great frightening din-noise and pandemonium.
Oh my goodness! I felt my chilly blood run cold through my veins. The other day, early in the morning, to dissipate my fear and curiosity, I found out, that the sink-tap had been left slightly open, and had thus caused some dishes to slide over; and ever brimming and drifting with accumulated water, some dishes released their weight with a sudden fall and crashing!
Fortunately, and however creepy and scary, the floor was but dry with little signs of any unusual activity, moisture, ghosts, rat feces, suspicious odors or spoors left behind by any haunting phenomena -- the ghastly Chupa-Cabra during the night of our dread and perspiration; and when I examined the sink, there were but few dishes and coups to account for so frightening an event. Perhaps my mind, while half-asleep, could have exaggerated the whole paranormal experience...
Note: ( Google, "Upland Witches," the nethermost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, also, don't forget how superstitious are the German people, Google "Walpurgisnacht Night."
* * * * * *
On People With Elongated Skulls And Remote Viewing.
As I have said in some previous writings, various species of the human type have been lost (disappeared) in the backyard of history, or perhaps they have simply transcended the seeming dichotomy of matter and energy, distance or proximity in the will-network of CWW (Cosmic Wide Web).
(While our civilization could be praised for its astonishing technological advances, and the science of medicine, without doubt, has relieved the load of sufferings for the human race, despite all these technological advances, the spiritual crisis of our time "the phenomenon of sectarianism in the world's leading religions" could place many religious groups on equal standing with the numinous experiences of the ancient pagan people).
We may laugh at the ancient people for their benighted ignorance and abominable practices --childish religious rites, but we must admit that the ancient people, if judged and appraised by the broad canvas of spiritual sensibilities in the high realms of consciousness and light, were perhaps more keenly perceptive, nay understanding, to the Universal Spirit of Divinity in the awesome operations of Mother Nature.
Their mistake, so I dare say, was not so much in the silly worship of idols (polytheism) --for many people today could be said that they are worshipers of some forms of religious denominations-- but the ancient people, except for the dear children of the Nile and Summer, had not yet developed a systematic comprehensive framework to tracing back every phenomenon as belonging to a greater network in the Cosmic Mind of God.
Monotheism, it is generally believed, starts with the religious systems of the Jews, but we may forget that Judaism is simply an outshoot of the body of religious doctrines and belief-system from the ancient people of Babylonia (peruse the writings of Ezequiel in the Old Testament, and confirm the many symbols and images as reminiscent to the sacred iconography of the ancient Babylonian people).
Nevertheless, the merit of the Abrahamic people was simply their systematic approach to the unification of all the phenomena of Mother Nature as surging from the Omnipresent Yahveh: a high-pitched mystification of the Philosophy of A. Schopenhauer.
It is well known that the Persian people of Zarathustra had already developed a complex monotheistic philosophical system, but like the esoteric fraternity of the ancient Greeks and the Gnostics, the Persian Religion (Zoroastrianism) could not hold sway the impetuous passions of the masses as did the Judeo-Christian religion or Islam, the latter one, nevertheless, appeals more to the fired passions of fanaticism than to the shimmering sparks of reason.
If we are impartial in the classification of all major religious systems, we must admit that many religious beliefs were rather imposed through the tight-fist of established authority than through the free choice of the philosophic mind.
Overtime, such beliefs, ever heaving up in the right soil and clime, are preserved through the gentle flow of customs and habits. The tropical people tend to attune themselves with the warm festivities of the Sun, whereas bucolic people (white people) tend to find congeniality with Mother Nature (pantheism).
Religious beliefs and feelings are quite often handled down as any other cultural patrimonies...
Of course, every one claims to hear the "sotto voce" of God in his head, or a soothing gentle touch of the Holy Spirit.
Concerning the Ancient Egyptians from the Premises of Our Times
It has been observed that a superior race of people (e.g. Ancient Egyptians, the Children of Sumer, or the Ancient Greek gods) may have developed (or evolved) their sensorial faculties to transcending the matrix of time and space, and possessing a thorough understanding of themselves, they probably have also unlocked the secrets of remote viewing, tele-transportation (the Dream Organ of Schopenhauer's philosophy), telepathy, ubiquity, and other psychic abilities scarcely suspected with our current cerebral development.
Quoting from Schopenhauer's treatise on the Will In Nature:
"Space no longer separates magnetiser and somnambulist; community of thoughts and of motions of the will appears; the state of clairvoyance overleaps the relations belonging to mere phenomenon and conditioned by Time and Space, such as proximity and distance, the present and the future."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qLtFbo7Wygg
Indeed, many friends may have overlooked this insightful fact about Homo sapiens --and this, notwithstanding the Darwinian biological dynamics of evolution as still affecting our bodies-- that mankind's most deeply seated desire is to reach the stars. Mankind's inner faculties are evolving beyond the limited scope of David Hume's matrix.
The Crocodile of Desires (the root of suffering, the basic teachings of Buddhism)
Please, become a master of your inner-self, and rein the restive crocodiles of desires and wanton appetites ("Will" in the reaffirmation of our sensual nature), and like the Ancient Egyptians, command the all-devouring animal to be obedient to you!
Like Zeus, be a terrible child of thunders and lightning bolts, and like Jesus, command the winds and the impetuous sea to obey you.
Rise up early in the morning, and claim your due as a prince/princess worthy of wisdom, wealth, intelligence, magic, chastity, ineffable music, kinship with Nature and for Nature; and finally, let a thrill of joy fill your heart with thanksgiving and gladness.
I am a terrible creature!
John: 10:34...Yes!
On Healing Through Faith and Magnetism
Few things, whether found in religion or philosophy, have so much persuaded me to admitting the power of thinking as a phenomenon akin to magnetism or kinetic energy.
Stubborn as I am for any easy chewing of religious cud or dogmatism, I am, nevertheless, totally convinced, by countless personal experiences, on the reality of miraculous healing, or on the power of the mind to transmitting energy through the mysterious will-network of our self-conscious thinking.
http://www.reiki.org/faq/learningreiki.html
True, just as for the devout Christian or pious Muslim, prayers may have the magical effects of healing, protection and the warding off of evil spirits, so we are all called to be vessels of a higher nature, love, forgiveness; and daily activated by the crystallization of the most elevated thoughts on the quest for God or Divinity, we may live a life in quiet devotion, humility, charity, contemplation and holiness.
After all, this is the best life on this earth. If you are lucky and can find congeniality with another human being, as united by pure love, agape, eros and mutual respect, then you may be willing to transmute the baser energies and animal instincts into the music of the higher spheres (The Walden Pond by Henry D. Thoreau, Higher Laws).
Couples who do not respect themselves on the basis of these premises are more likely bound to separate at a latter point.
Now, concerning Reiki, or Magnetism, we ought to treat ourselves as "sentient beings," for unlike spiritless machines, we are also moved by an array of the pleasantest feelings in the quest for holiness, perfection and the purification of our inner selves.
True, many religious fanatical people, may fail to perceive the "underlying principle" which transcends religious differences, and how faith, love and conviction may activate the mind to performing miracles and wonders.
The danger of religious fanaticism, as those naive ones (new age wackos) who may tamper with the mysterious operations of the Mind and Mother Mature (Witchcrafts), is that the unchartered territory of the unknown could never promise a safe haven in the journey of life.
At times, you may have to come to grips with a full-fledged devil like Satan or Asmodeus! And if you think you are wise, learn that the Devils instructed the ancient Babylonians in all the esoteric wisdom of astrology, demonology and soothsaying --and a black cat was always an omen for bad luck!
Rarely we would encounter a mystic that is situated in the "mean-point," and the new gurus of our time are quite often profiteers.
For the Christians, there are the devils and angels, and only through Christ could we command them to obey us. Of course, Christ, as a universal principle, has led our Christian philologists to embrace the Chinese Culture with greater respect. The lotus-flower may shine and blossom even in India!
There is also this incomprehensible antagonism in the very core of every world's major leading religious system: and from the Book of the Dead of the Ancient Egyptians to the ponderous teachings of Zarathustra, there is to be found an ever-present dichotomy between the forces of good and evil.
Okay, I may still believe that, underlying the serious issues of life, death and suffering, our official sciences, like the canon of many religious systems, cannot elicit a satisfactory answer to the obvious disparity inherent in the constitution of both the individual and society.
What is striking is that Mother Nature seems to be prolific and prodigious in spawning a staggering number of human beings, of the worst kind, damaging the most splendid and lush habitats of the planet earth. Like Sigmund Freud, I am inclined to believe that the world is rife with trashy people who could care less about any enhancement of the human type.
Some Christian friends must admit sectarianism and schism as splitting the very body of Christ, and perhaps the emissaries of Mammon-Profitability, are aware that the god of money has compromised the simple teachings of the Man of Galilee.
The ancient people, however behind us in technology and medicine, seemed to have mystified the mysterious forces and operations of both the subject and the object (Nature) and they could not but hold Mother Nature with awe, reverence, respect and terror.
Concerning the mysteries of the mind, much has been shed on the underlying layers of our unconscious and subconscious levels of psyche. A demon-possessed person may be under the influence of psychic forces defying our understanding, but today, such person could be diagnosed and thence prescribed with some specific drugs for mental illnesses.
The situation becomes more challenging when Devils prescribe medicine to our sordid generations.
Even the Devils would agree that the business of selling or purloining souls have become more complicated these days: many pastors, impostors, have stolen the innocent souls from the holy shrines of Mother Nature. This is indeed the greatest tragedy for Christendom in USA.
On the other hand, countless souls have been lost in the ever-drifting river of consumerism, nihilism, narcism and religious fanaticism.
For the last 50 years, drugs, hallucinogenics and psychotropics, have redefined the very definition of virtual reality.
Of course, and as corroborated every day, one ought to be watchful and alert, for the reality of hatred, terrorism, fanaticism, are as real and evil as the very wanton passions of human beings.
Reaching a serene level of inner peace, "enlightenment," with the necessary essentials already provided, is indeed the best life we all can hope for.
For almost ten years, I stopped writing anything to my Shanti-novel. I wrote Chapter 5, around the Fall of 2010. Most writers simply extrapolate or externalize their experiences into writings, hence, I had spelled some of my joys and sufferings in the Forest of Transylvania.
As I read some drafts on the Asp Snake and the Lynx, I realize how much Ferdinand Ossendowski and F. Nietzsche influenced my worldview concerning the mysteries of good and evil.
The Christian vs the Pantheist: God in Mother Nature:
But even more embarrassing is my subtle attacks on the this pseudo-Christianity, the religious herds and widespread robotization of our times, which should be the subject for another essay.
Accordingly, I would need to delve my thoughts and perhaps be able to drain them to a more substantial, if perhaps, more cogent, reactionary stance on the insidious powers of the Beast, 666, and how far-reaching are the sneaky tendrils of Lilith (the Asp Snake), the hag of our senses and illusionary pursuits in modern society.
We are, therefore, attempting to transcend religious nominal differences, "the dead word" cast in the mold of our chauvinistic ideas and fanaticism, for the universal truths of Satan (the illusions of our senses) are said to be veiled in the ceremonies, rites and symbols of the world's leading religions: from the East to West.
The noisy state of our vulgar religious gatherings, how much a Christian would reject my stance on the current melees and devils passing for genuine religion in USA, are below the lofty thoughts of Buddha or Confucius.
Of course, in chapter 3, the devils are like zombies, and their infectiousness, like Covid-19, could spread quickly even within the "Church of God."
Let me assure you, I am not reducing the effectiveness of the so-called "Christian" to cast out demons, but it seems that the devils are bringing their abominations and sacrilegious practices even into the church of God.
Yes, there is power in the name of Jesus Christ, but would you say a Pantheist (a person who seeks the spirits and gods in the shrine of Mother Nature) is lacking in the numinous experience with the divine?
Shanti is a pagan woman, but her feelings, when compared to the new religious herds of our times, are the loftier and nobler.
Shanti is a difficult undertaking, and it would require years of experience to increasing my humble smattering of the English language.
From 2010-2019, I had to take a propitious break: my mom dying of cancer, my vocabulary becoming too hackney here and there, unfinished paintings, unfinished compositions for piano, and other adventures that turned out to be time- consuming and stressful.
Of course, during the ensuing years, 2011-2019) I wrote other short stories: Andromeda, Former Neighbors in Washington Heights, and other essays.
I would like to remind you, that I still peruse my writings very carefully.
The story of Shanti starts in the Fort Trying Park; a man growing weary with the hurly burly of city-life and the current situation of America, retreats to a quiet place: the woods.
While reflecting on our difficult times and the seeming collapse of civilization, the lonely man (a Philosopher) meets a frisky Squirrel, an amusing creature who would promise him a life more meaningful with the woods of yore: a beautiful woman (Shanti) in the past waiting for a Blue Prince. The Prince (Philsopher) cannot believe this wonder!
In order to avoid some one stealing or plagiarizing my thoughts I wrote Shahti in a rather purposely desultory style, backward and lacking any linear sequence.
The story is fraught with motley concotion of sundry ideas: Religion, Darwinism, Schopenhuer, Nietzsche, Paganism and Christianity.
The story is narrated by the Phoenix Bird (a Christian).
The Squirrel is a Pantheist, the Philsopher is an Existentialist (almost an athiest).
Shanti is a Pagan woman.
Meanwhile, I have been reading other books by great writes to hone my lexicon and diction. I found the Faust of Goethe as translated by Philip Wayne very exquisite English --really beautiful English.
Of course, I am terrbily indebted to John Milton's Paradise Lost and to German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.
Characters:
A Squirrel (Parsifal)
Prince (Philosopher)
Phoenix Bird (A Christian)
Princess (Shanti-peace)
Nihilo (The King of Meaninglessness),
Lilith (The Hag of Our Senses and Illusions)
The Half-Dead Man (the Death of Christianity in America)
Places in the Shanti story:
The Fort Tryon Park (New York) River, Transylvania (Europe), Hudson River, Kingdom of Agharti, Shamala, Tibet).
Before embarking into the Asp Snake (Subconscious) vs The Wild Lynx (Conscious) I would like to share this essay on the Supernatural, and how I have gleaned my experiences to touching upon the mysteries of good and evil.
Errors are inevitable, for when I venture into the supernatural, it is very difficult to draw the line between the authentic and the spurious, nay, there is rarely an area so insincere, so rife with profiteers, so abused by impostors and unreliability as that of the field of metaphysics or religion.
So often I am approached by a religious person or a fanatic, and there is, for the most part, a great deal of sincerity to convert me into this church or that religion. Though I would definitely agree with many Christians on the Universality of Christ and his Simple Message, I would rarely enter into profound theological arguments and schism. Let love and fraternity unite all men and women under the heaven of peace, tolerance and freedom in the inherent differences among the children of Adam & Eve.
This essay On The Supernatural was written between the years of 2011 and 2015, but in the last several months, I have added other lines. Revision is a thankless task. You may read this essay, slowly, as reflections of my personal experiences with religion, the Faust of Goethe, and the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer.
This is perhaps very heavy stuff, mad stuff, laugh out loud, and it would demand the fearless reader to fare with me into a world full of mysteries, magnetism, kinetic energies, riddles...and ghosts.
After all these years, many mysterious experiences in my life I could neither discard nor frame within the canon of the New Testament (Christianity).
I was therefore bound, however aware of the inconsistency of some apocryphal literature, to peruse other texts or belief-systems as found in the historic development of what is generally regarded as the main tenets of Christendom: a concoction or syncretism of Judaism, Greek Philosophy and the other gentle venerable teachings flowing from the lands of the Far East.
The mild sunset of Buddhism would cast my spiritual landscape with the most blissful hours with Shanti (Peace) which is to be free of passions, the root of our sufferings.
Further investigations led me to take greater confidence on the core message of every major religion, i.e., love, renunciation, faith, charity, hope and peace, but I was soon aware that my inquisitive nature would not let me rest content on the mere superficial performances of religious duty.
In 1992, when I first joined a small Christian group, I was soon agitated to seek answers to one of my most enduring questions and experiences on this life: the Spirit Realm.
The explanation on the possibility of Ghostly Apparitions, as furnished to me by some Protestant Christian friends left me much wanting and unsatisfied in all the riddles and conundrums of life.
Unlike the Catholic, the Protestant, for the most part (except for Mormonism which is generally considered an offshoot of Protestantism) cannot admit a place, a Purgatory, existing betwixt Hell and Paradise.
Mormonism, nevertheless, may still hold the strange doctrine of baptism for the dead, and Catholics may pray for the departed souls of their beloved ones.
Accordingly, these two religious denominations may have much in common however separated by their respective interpretations of the Bible.
With Mormonism, as asserted by their devout followers, in the latter restoration of the Church, the Bible was not yet complete without the joint sacred scriptures of the Book of Mormon, and with this latter, the addition of other inspired literature held sacred by the majority of its ever-growing adherents.
The Protestant Christian, holding the authority of the Bible in its entirety as the ultimate source to tracing back any Spirit Phenomena, is narrowly immured within the set confines of the "inspired scriptures" i.e. or canon of faith, which may exclude any other interpretation (exegesis) to our inquiries on Ghosts, Maleficus Powers (evil-eyed powers) and other Supernatural Phenomena.
Tentatively, I have dared point the fact that some books, (apocrypha, uninspired scriptures and spurious as deemed by the founders of major religious groups and sects), and now missing in most versions of our official Bible, have left our learned theologians grappling for answers on the incompressibility of the origin of evil, ghost, and the omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence of God.
On closer studies of the New Testament, however, the existence of Hell without a Purgatory may seem biblically supported, but it is, nonetheless, hardly plausible when we, likewise, may go on to hold this Omnipotent Creator so terribly holy, or irresponsible, that He could not have set limits to the general, revolting conditions and sufferings for the human race.
But so it seems, that this life, which is a veritable nightmare for countless miserable people who are simply born to suffer all kinds of afflictions, this earthly life is just the beginning, the amphitheater for more horrific torments in the unquenchable fires of eternity in Hell.
The doctrine of Eternal Damnation seemed revolting to the early Christians, and the Ancient Romans had to contrive, nay parse and implement, the inclusion of sundry pagan doctrines and apocryphal books to the possibility of life after death: a midway placed called the Purgatory.
Later, and as found in other pagan cultures (e.g. Tartarus, Hades, Inferno as known to the ancient Greeks and Romans), a Purgatory was believed to be morally necessary in the solemn judgments of God and His fair distribution of justice. Suffering is therefore our atonement for having been born sinful, or, our fallen human nature in the disobedience of our ancestors: Adam and Eve.
We are here expiating our trespasses within the perfect framework of an Omnipotent God who is perfect and unerring, but we, His creatures, are not perfect, and could fall into a world (samsara) of unspeakable sufferings and death.
The soul could still have one last chance, to budge a step out of this nightmare, and perhaps in the hereafter, when we fancy hearing the weeping, gnashing of teeth, and the disheartening clamor and wailing of countless people haunting the Spirit Realm, we are then reminded that these are perhaps the plaintive echoes of damned spirits pleading for help:
Help! Help! Help!
In some cases some haunting spirits seem to be confused, enchained or asleep in the performance of tedious chores and recurrent monotonies as they did in their former lives, but for the soul still existing among the living ones, there is to all this but unspeakable dread and horror to any contact with the dead.
For the Protestant Christian, nevertheless, the answer to the possibility of Spirit Apparitions was rather elicited as the work of Satan and his emissaries, and following the authority of the Bible, the said Christian would not admit the possibility of spiritual personification (ghosts) in the aftermath of our bodily annihilation --for all spirits, like the breath of life, would finally return back to the life-given Spirit of God; hence every supernatural phenomenon is attributed to the agency of Satan.
Nevertheless, for the more conservative religious reformers of our time, ghosts are simply deemed the manifestation of demons, and anything related to spirit-seeing thereof, hexes, seance, and even witchcrafts, are soon sneered at and dismissed as the benighted hutch-pot stuff of hotheaded, stupid, ignorant people still plunged in the Middle Ages.
Properly speaking, the belief in certain invisible influences, demonic spirits, ghosts, good or bad luck, spell, ill-eyed maleficus powers and so on, as found at all times, places and among many different cultures and people, should not be just deemed as mere superstition or ignorance among the bucolic people of yore; but such things, as being part of our daily lives, and showing how powerless we all are to determining our fate and final departure from this world, may find a welcome passport in our mind to a plausible interpretation to all the events, twists and circumstances surrounding our lives.
(Today, even when most materialistic authors deny the reality of Spirit Apparitions or Maleficus Psychic Powers, many people are still convinced that psychic energy, or magnetism, through will-power [Telema], are indeed the underlying supernatural network, "the cobweb of consciousness," which, from time to time, would plunge us all into a fantastical world akin to magic, clairvoyance, seance and the miraculous.)
From time to time, we are more attuned to this Spirit Realm, and our faculties seem to be actuated and activated by sundry presentiments, "forewarnings," haunches, divination, and even the power to predict the future in the distending womb of time; all these pre-fixes (presentiments) seem to be possible when the heart is transfixed by those inexplicable feelings --however imposing and ponderous-- which may hold our mind in a state of suspensive expectations and foreboding.
Such numinous experiences are as necessary as are the other faculties of the mind when transfixed by the sense of awe, dread and divine.
Later, we come to realize, and for the most part this is the case, that our intuitive perceptions had outwitted our reasoning powers, nay, the "forewarning gut-feeling" happened with such accuracy, with such extraordinary precision, that we are simply left grappling in the air with the facts pressing right in front our noses.
I Just Can't Believe It, But I had to Admit It!
Sometimes, even when the outward nature, on the deceptive language of physiognomy, presents itself as trustworthy or innocuous, we may still be perceptive of the baffling impulses (pre-sentiments) which once forewarned us of harm, pain, deceit.
Those who believe their thoughts as conveying kinetic energy in the visible realms of this deceptive reality, are said to be endowed with psychic powers capable of transmitting influences beyond the framework of our humble understanding of the visible world.
The problem is not so much in the falseness or truthfulness of such mysterious phenomena (witchcrafts, magic or demon-possession), but where and how can we find the ultimate causes of our joys and woes as evinced by so many cases of famous celebrities tampering with astrology, witchcrafts, Kabbalah, drugs?
In this short life, we are confronted with many riddles, lacunae and enigmas.
Another great mystery is, to what extent could an extremely subjective individual awake other faculties of the mind, however dormant in the skeptic a mind, and thus be able to perceive another reality, a fantastic world that seems to contradict our daily experiences of cause and effects?
Furthermore, we must diligently inquire:
What are the benefits to admitting the existence of another fabulous world --perhaps a pseudo-reality like that of the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer?
However the fancy and fabrication of an ingenious mind, some paranormal activities, especially during the night, and as an effective solution to the problem of ennui, could provide a highly more entertaining, nay, meaningful appreciation to all the riddles of existence. Let us know relish these poetic lines by the German bard:
"I don't seek my salvation in a heart gone dead. Best faculty in man's heart is the thrill of dread. Though we visit the other deepest, being seized by it. "
(Faust by Goethe, Part 2, Dark Gallery)
At any rate, we will stretch our reality, so far as to live on the fantastic, the mysterious, even if people think us mad or absurd, let us persist in the Faust of Goethe. Mind you, there are times when the Specters of Time and Space may shake our clumsy gait of incurable skeptics and materialists; and the Question of Life cannot just be crammed in our moldy shelves of Materialistic Doctrines.
Yea, even atheists like Schopenhauer and Immanuel Kant, wholeheartedly believed in Ghosts and Haunted Places (peruse Parerga and Paralipomena Vol 1, Spirit Apparitions). Perhaps there are plausible explanations in the mysterious Web of Will and Conscious Intelligence, as not yet circumscribed to our narrow notions of Time and Space.
I, your humble servant, more than once, have been perplexed by the Illusion of Time and Space; nay, many night-walks were shrouded in somber clouds of daunting thoughts and fear for the Unknown X of Immanuel Kant.
Walking Through Solitary Places
In the swelling womb of impregnable night, especially when I ramble through solitary places --abandoned houses in the nook and crannies of human conviviality-- once the hub and bustle of human activities, there is to be found an uncanny sense of spiritual communication, a seance, however telepathic, with lingering energies that seems to strike rapport with the Spirit Realm or Ghostly Apparitions.
In big cities, like New York, after all these years of stirs and bustle, and in the drifting flows of human society with every generation, there are the places, and even whole neighborhood seems to exhume the most creepy sentiments on the illusion of time, whose physical appearance may smack of things spooky and tenebrous.
Be honest with yourself, and admit this insight as an ineluctable fact of life: in the short voyage of existence, ghosts and shadows are often the intrusive guests, and from behind, in our rear, our hair quite often seem to bristle at their proximity. The tingling feeling is always accompanied by a chilly sense of cold and dread.
The Ghost of A Woman (1987)
It is more scary when you meet a stranger in the night, as it once happened to me with a beautiful Caucasian woman (year 1987).
The ghostly woman appeared shortly in front of me, her pale countenance expressing neither joy nor pain. The mysterious spirit, staying motionless for a little while nearby a grove-ringed house, retreated backward and backward amidst the trees, and was soon lost front sight in the imposing dark spacious residence of the night.
The other day, as I inquired upon this strange spirit apparition with the local watchman or security, my heart almost melted when I was informed that the said mysterious woman had been seen by other neighbors, and that for many years, the frightening story of this beauty-ghost-haunting was further confirmed by passers-by of the most trust-worthiness and reliability.
The said ghost, as it is with countless other similar stories of Haunted Places, was later explained as the mere night-strolling of a British woman who had been diagnosed with a strange bone-disease in the United Kingdom, rheumatism, and her recurrent excruciating symptoms, worsened by the sudden fall of the chilly temperatures in the night, would make her stride (strike) out late in the solitary broad avenues of existence...what a broad path of perdition!
The woman, whether an actor or a scorned ghost condemned to haunt the night, for so it seemed, had developed a fanciful wicked delight in scaring other innocent people; but her late appearances, quite often dressed in a creepy white gown --as a bride-to-be, had won her the infamous reputation of being a dreadful vindictive spirit hellbent on frightening other men...
The female fatale, it was reported by the local people, had an uncanny penchant to spruce herself up in the most antiquated manners, medieval attires and customs.
Late in the night, her approach to strangers was always marked by a sudden appalling standstill in yonder spot, especially shielded in the impenetrable shadows of bowers and the silhouette of groves, and thence, she would slowly hover and retreat backward in a most ghostly fashion.
We may deny the existence of ghosts, but as we chance ourselves through solitary places (especially the pathways of quiet cemeteries and forlorn churches) here and there littered with the discarded stones of our efforts, a sharp feeling would convince us that the Spirit Realm is replete with ghosts haunting the impregnable questions of our emotions, sufferings, premonitions, hope, and countless other experiences touching contiguity with our departed loved ones....
Because we may be pierced with the sharp feeling of loss, grief and dread, we may try to ignore it, and boldly would even put on a sturdy heart against this spiritual reality pressing within our bottomless bosom, pit of the stomach and the bristling hairs rising slowly in our scruff. The tingling sensation cannot be dismissed as a mere subjective, self-imposed, baseless fear lacking a kernel of truth in reality.
If we are strong enough, and remain fearless in the spacious vestibule of our most solemn encounters and meetings with the unknown, we may fancy to be in touch with our beloved departed ones. But fear may overcome our heart, and soon we are bound to postpone the hour of our meeting with the Spirit Realm.
Nevertheless, from time to time, you would have to come to grips with this lingering energy lapping your back in a greater network with the Spirit Realm or Spirit Apparitions.
The Question of Existence, certainly, borders and blurs into the Supernatural. The panic is greater when, however far we may grope and fumble in the darkest realms of our lives, there is not, sort of speak, a Mental Fringe or Boundary between this reality and the unknown: they constantly touch each in the unfolding circumstances of our lives.
Indeed, this narrowly confined realm we call reality seems to be the plaything of all kinds strangest coincidences, phantasmagoria, and ghostly apparitions; but so it seems, that when we set our eyes beyond the narrow confinement of this little world, out there, nevertheless, a boundless space seems to stretch far and far into distance... verily, beyond the circumscribed limit of our finite mind, our limited cognitive powers and epistemology, to comprehending this vast mysterious universe.
In such boundless space, as it is right here on Earth, mind you, there are penumbras, shadows, specters and kinetic forces at work --twenty four hours: Magnetism.
Lost Souls In Big Cities
The Existence of Hades, as conceived by the poetic genius of Dante and Homer, is perhaps a little antiquated when compared with the new Hell-Matrix of French philosopher Jean Baudrillard: a city-hell, not so much an invention of benighted days in the woods of superstition; for, even in big cities like New York, Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, we would walk and flit hither and thither, like lambs or lost sheep among the awful wolves of premonition, greed, terrorism and other forebodings.
But as Goethe assures us in his Faust Part II, in modern society and civilization, there are as many different types of hells, devils, high societies, and countless smooth pathways of perdition for a final doom.
During the diurnal hours, that is, if you believe this immediate world-masquerade of your daily experiences --the countless deceptive shades dancing in the phantasmagoria of your life-- if you believe all this make-believe show, oh boy, you are simply deluding yourself: a simpleton.
Once you go to sleep, the interpretations of all these fleeting shades may have to be accessed as being part and whole of the Spirit Realm.
Our lives, for most of us, is always the rutted path of uncertainty in the precarious issues of life and death. It is not simply that we are vulnerable to the undeniable reality of suffering, but in the serious struggle of life, we better safeguard our properties, lest we end up overcome by the creepy entities of this world. Devils may not exist, but suffering and loss are irrefutable facts of life.
I have to say, that out there in the world, there could be found, all over the globe, many different kinds of people to deciphering this essay, and the enlightened path is only for the few.
Therefore, the good soul (always) would look for the sweet blessings of heaven, not from without, but from within the human heart.
* * * * * * *
Some paranormal phenomena may still defy our understanding. I cannot say that I have been always victorious when confronting the other side of this reality.
From 1993 to 1999, and perhaps in 2004, I witnessed some strange events in my life. Alas, I cannot say how subjective or objective could be my mind to creating its own hells, delusions, fairy tales, angels and fantasy.
In 1979, I had an encounter with a ghost, an experience, which, frankly speaking, made me afraid of uncreated night for many years to come.
Still in my teens, I would sleep with the light-on all night long. When I had no electricity, I would simply light candles.
The Dominican Republic, without electricity, had something of the medieval times, some delightful dread that was irresistible to my childhood, and many Latinos, like the Scandinavians in medieval times "Upland Hags and Witches," perhaps due to poverty, social segregation and ignorance, are quite often prey to many strange phenomena, demon-possessions and other diabolical superstitions: Santeria and Witchcraft have their faithful devotees among some Latinos --even today in USA, people believe in Mala Suerte (Bad Luck).
In 1995, not that far from where I lived, a Cuban woman, una Santera (a witch) --a Night-Hag, was reported to have dangerously tampered with the other spirits of our dread.
For many days and nights, a rancid and putrid odor coming from her apartment, led the perplexed tenants to call the authority. The hapless woman was found dead amidst her infamous practices and hideous objects, among which, there were chicken's parts and entrails, dry bones, blood-splotches and other organic substances besmirching the floor and walls.
The stench of her apartment was so repugnant and indescribably hellish, that for a long time, some of her neighboring tenants reported to have suffered from nightmare, nausea, and dizziness...
In the 90s, Latinos churches were overwhelmingly packed with people looking for help. Our neighborhoods and endless squalid slums were stricken with drugs, dysfunctional homes, unwanted pregnancies, witchcraft, obesity, superstition, segregation. The government did little to improve the condition of the minority community, and so, many hapless people gave themselves either to the mysterious forces of Satan or to the caring hands of Jesus Christ.
Under such dire circumstances, certainly, there was not better a place than in a nearby church; therein, in the snug sanctuary, tenderly illumined by a few rays of hope, we would cry out to God for help:
"Please God, why don't you help these forsaken children? "
This was the time when paranormal experiences held sway over the hearts, minds and homes of many people.
Only a bold mind, an Achilles-like, a courageous soul would confront and unmask these wicked entities in the netherworld of this pseudo-reality.
Such soul must be brave, because the devils, if they are indeed real, in many ways, guises, masks and modus operandi must --to our comprehension things evil and disgusting-- may resemble some human beings in shape, behavior and coloration.
Ay! In this battlefield of life and death, and we are all here included, whole armies have been overcome with the dread of the unknown.
And it only takes a few effective mental tricks to enslave whole groups of people captive. No matter how strong you are, at times, the unknown, alas, would make you reflect, time and time again, how successful have you been in making headways through the many riddles and enigmas of existence?
Have your foe's ill-feelings reached your citadel?
Bendita Agua (Holy Water) Since I was a little kid, from time to time, I had the good custom and habit to take a holy shower with Agua Florida, or just discard some worn-out shoes, old clothing tattered with holes and rotten rags; or, I would throw away any other accursed object (especially bed, couches, sofas, curtains and sheets should be thrown away immediately, since there, while we were under the spell of some bad luck or invisible influence, and with constant friction and tribulations, we tend to unleash the lower energies of our human nature).
Thus, quite often, we draw unto ourselves, the most morbid feelings of illness, inexplicable dejection, and quite strangely, exuding from our aura and bodies, or I should say, exhuming from the graveyard of our past experiences with other human beings, many things and thoughts may eventually become a hindrance to our well-being and quick recovery. And perhaps, by so doing, you and I would be able to ward off any evil influence or haunting spirit...
In Spanish Bad Luck is translated Mala Suerte.
That bad mental energy may find its medium and manifestation in living entities was a wide-spread belief, not only among the Northern people, but also in Latin America and among the Asiatic people.
Among different cultures and people, some peasants would admit some occult malefic powers as related to the inexplicably changes (inexplicable morphology) of some animals: the mysterious appearances and disappearances of Chupacabra in Puerto Rico, to this day, has not yet been satisfactorily explained as simply the audacious drivels of profiteers looking to enrich themselves on the silly gullibility of the Latino people. The bad news, nevertheless, became widespread all over the globe.
Every country and people may have a dreadful story of strange entities or devils, however scary, rambling the forested woods of "animal magnetism" and magic.
Puerto Rico has their ghastly Chupacabras, and the Dominican Republic, a country neighboring with Haiti, has their prodigious share of strange entities and stories of creepy people who may strike kindred with the Devil.
In exchange for Maleficus Powers, so the stories go, the Devil would bestow the fiendish satanists with supernatural abilities to morph themselves into an animal at will.
Stories abound of shady, night-rambling entities whom seem to be impervious to either bullet or knife; and in some remarkable cases, the satanist could even impose his fatale will upon the hapless victim.
Galipote, A Demonic Entity From Colonial Times in Latin America
A Galipote, as it is called by the Dominican people, may still send shivers down our spine. The said demon-possessed individual, in conformity to his diabolical nature, during some nights, and making the most disheartening growls and rustles, would devour or rip off the crops of the poor Dominican peasants. The authority, unfortunately, cannot remain long enough into the night's drooping hours to catch the monster of such savagery.
The Galipote, as it is reported by some witnesses, would even transform into new guises and physiological contrivances resembling canines, or any mysterious onlooking stranger standing nearby; thus, incognito, sort of speak, the said individual, in his new docile appearance, would visit his adversaries at any time of the day; and quietly, would even inquire on anything said about him.
As the story goes, the form of a dog is generally believed to be more preferable and highly more suitable, because, a dog, or a cat, better than a lion or a fox, can play the role of foe or friend without any misgiving!
Don Juan D' Los Palos' Erratic Behavior - A Demonic Man with An Abnormal Libido:
In 1969, it was reported, in Sabana Iglesia, Santiago, Dominican Republic, that a mild, gentle man of good manners named Don Juan D' Los Palos, would not accept any goodly victual given to him during daytime, but later, in the night, the soft-spoken individual would show up in the guise of a dog wagging his tail; and thus, in such animal form, he would devour the few remaining crumbs strewn on the floor.
The infamous case and practice, came to the attention of an old lady named Nina Diaz (my aunt from my mother's side), who suspicious of Juan de Los Palos' erratic behavior, had the curious idea to strike the night-roaming cur on his flanks with a hard broom.
Don Juan, who, ever after lived on in human form, stopped visiting my aunt's house, was reported to have suffered broken ribs, sudden convulsion of inexplicable wriggles and twinging pains for many months.
In such frequent instances, the Will-to-Exist of Schopenhauer, would alarm us that the mysterious operations of mother nature are at work --twenty four hours; and they may manifest themselves not only in humans, but also in other living organism, reptiles, mammals, and even in insects, larvae, germs, nits and eggs, galore, would be left behind to spring about from any corner or hole; and feebly enough, so as to pass on almost unnoticed, such mysterious powers would manifest themselves even in plants; or, from time to time, we would witness, to our surprise, the sudden withering away of the most beautiful flowers, petals and virtues --as if some evil, pernicious influence or spirit-- all the while, has been at work behind most people's miserable lives...
In All This Junk and Rotting Life
Nits and Nitwittery are Rife
(Faust Part II, Act II)
Accordingly, to be assaulted by an unpredictable army of bedbugs, lice, mites, fleas, or, a sudden swarm of vermin and rats creeping from any hole into our living space at midnight, may warn us of potential adversaries lurking invisible: imminent dangers and many trials in our brief existence to keep us awake all nightlong.
Likewise, cats and dogs, as being our nearest witnesses and most faithful friends, and without any doubt, closest to our daily intimate experiences, are indeed highly susceptible to the presence of a false friend or rascal, simply, by the most subtle signs, traces or streaks of shades left here and there, thus providing some inklings as to how well we have done with our beloved Homo Homini Lupus (Man Is Wolf To His Fellow Man): but also a gentle chilly breeze rippling across the curtain, or, a sudden gust of air breaking through the main entrance door --leaving this latter ajar, and yet, furnishing us but with little evidence of its source of origination, may warn us of a passing ghost or spirit in the twilight of our existence...
On The Power of Prayer
However aware of the inexplicable power of prayer to ward off evil forces, I have found few things so effective and expedient as cleanliness, a propitious shower, good music, the power of art, the healing woods of mother nature and philosophy. No sooner I grabbed a bulky volume of Schopenhauer On Spirit Apparitions, when, all of a sudden, many strange things took into another different light and shade.
Having said all this, I am not hereby denying the irrefutable fact, that for the most part, our minds are astonishingly subjective.
Mother Nature and Paranormal Activity
The other night, while thinking about my mother, I heard an incredible clashing and crackling of dishes and utensils falling in the kitchen with great frightening din-noise and pandemonium.
Oh my goodness! I felt my chilly blood run cold through my veins. The other day, early in the morning, to dissipate my fear and curiosity, I found out, that the sink-tap had been left slightly open, and had thus caused some dishes to slide over; and ever brimming and drifting with accumulated water, some dishes released their weight with a sudden fall and crashing!
Fortunately, and however creepy and scary, the floor was but dry with little signs of any unusual activity, moisture, ghosts, rat feces, suspicious odors or spoors left behind by any haunting phenomena -- the ghastly Chupa-Cabra during the night of our dread and perspiration; and when I examined the sink, there were but few dishes and coups to account for so frightening an event. Perhaps my mind, while half-asleep, could have exaggerated the whole paranormal experience...
Note: ( Google, "Upland Witches," the nethermost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, also, don't forget how superstitious are the German people, Google "Walpurgisnacht Night."
* * * * * *
On People With Elongated Skulls And Remote Viewing.
As I have said in some previous writings, various species of the human type have been lost (disappeared) in the backyard of history, or perhaps they have simply transcended the seeming dichotomy of matter and energy, distance or proximity in the will-network of CWW (Cosmic Wide Web).
(While our civilization could be praised for its astonishing technological advances, and the science of medicine, without doubt, has relieved the load of sufferings for the human race, despite all these technological advances, the spiritual crisis of our time "the phenomenon of sectarianism in the world's leading religions" could place many religious groups on equal standing with the numinous experiences of the ancient pagan people).
We may laugh at the ancient people for their benighted ignorance and abominable practices --childish religious rites, but we must admit that the ancient people, if judged and appraised by the broad canvas of spiritual sensibilities in the high realms of consciousness and light, were perhaps more keenly perceptive, nay understanding, to the Universal Spirit of Divinity in the awesome operations of Mother Nature.
Their mistake, so I dare say, was not so much in the silly worship of idols (polytheism) --for many people today could be said that they are worshipers of some forms of religious denominations-- but the ancient people, except for the dear children of the Nile and Summer, had not yet developed a systematic comprehensive framework to tracing back every phenomenon as belonging to a greater network in the Cosmic Mind of God.
Monotheism, it is generally believed, starts with the religious systems of the Jews, but we may forget that Judaism is simply an outshoot of the body of religious doctrines and belief-system from the ancient people of Babylonia (peruse the writings of Ezequiel in the Old Testament, and confirm the many symbols and images as reminiscent to the sacred iconography of the ancient Babylonian people).
Nevertheless, the merit of the Abrahamic people was simply their systematic approach to the unification of all the phenomena of Mother Nature as surging from the Omnipresent Yahveh: a high-pitched mystification of the Philosophy of A. Schopenhauer.
It is well known that the Persian people of Zarathustra had already developed a complex monotheistic philosophical system, but like the esoteric fraternity of the ancient Greeks and the Gnostics, the Persian Religion (Zoroastrianism) could not hold sway the impetuous passions of the masses as did the Judeo-Christian religion or Islam, the latter one, nevertheless, appeals more to the fired passions of fanaticism than to the shimmering sparks of reason.
If we are impartial in the classification of all major religious systems, we must admit that many religious beliefs were rather imposed through the tight-fist of established authority than through the free choice of the philosophic mind.
Overtime, such beliefs, ever heaving up in the right soil and clime, are preserved through the gentle flow of customs and habits. The tropical people tend to attune themselves with the warm festivities of the Sun, whereas bucolic people (white people) tend to find congeniality with Mother Nature (pantheism).
Religious beliefs and feelings are quite often handled down as any other cultural patrimonies...
Of course, every one claims to hear the "sotto voce" of God in his head, or a soothing gentle touch of the Holy Spirit.
Concerning the Ancient Egyptians from the Premises of Our Times
It has been observed that a superior race of people (e.g. Ancient Egyptians, the Children of Sumer, or the Ancient Greek gods) may have developed (or evolved) their sensorial faculties to transcending the matrix of time and space, and possessing a thorough understanding of themselves, they probably have also unlocked the secrets of remote viewing, tele-transportation (the Dream Organ of Schopenhauer's philosophy), telepathy, ubiquity, and other psychic abilities scarcely suspected with our current cerebral development.
Quoting from Schopenhauer's treatise on the Will In Nature:
"Space no longer separates magnetiser and somnambulist; community of thoughts and of motions of the will appears; the state of clairvoyance overleaps the relations belonging to mere phenomenon and conditioned by Time and Space, such as proximity and distance, the present and the future."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qLtFbo7Wygg
Indeed, many friends may have overlooked this insightful fact about Homo sapiens --and this, notwithstanding the Darwinian biological dynamics of evolution as still affecting our bodies-- that mankind's most deeply seated desire is to reach the stars. Mankind's inner faculties are evolving beyond the limited scope of David Hume's matrix.
The Crocodile of Desires (the root of suffering, the basic teachings of Buddhism)
Please, become a master of your inner-self, and rein the restive crocodiles of desires and wanton appetites ("Will" in the reaffirmation of our sensual nature), and like the Ancient Egyptians, command the all-devouring animal to be obedient to you!
Like Zeus, be a terrible child of thunders and lightning bolts, and like Jesus, command the winds and the impetuous sea to obey you.
Rise up early in the morning, and claim your due as a prince/princess worthy of wisdom, wealth, intelligence, magic, chastity, ineffable music, kinship with Nature and for Nature; and finally, let a thrill of joy fill your heart with thanksgiving and gladness.
I am a terrible creature!
John: 10:34...Yes!
On Healing Through Faith and Magnetism
Few things, whether found in religion or philosophy, have so much persuaded me to admitting the power of thinking as a phenomenon akin to magnetism or kinetic energy.
Stubborn as I am for any easy chewing of religious cud or dogmatism, I am, nevertheless, totally convinced, by countless personal experiences, on the reality of miraculous healing, or on the power of the mind to transmitting energy through the mysterious will-network of our self-conscious thinking.
http://www.reiki.org/faq/learningreiki.html
True, just as for the devout Christian or pious Muslim, prayers may have the magical effects of healing, protection and the warding off of evil spirits, so we are all called to be vessels of a higher nature, love, forgiveness; and daily activated by the crystallization of the most elevated thoughts on the quest for God or Divinity, we may live a life in quiet devotion, humility, charity, contemplation and holiness.
After all, this is the best life on this earth. If you are lucky and can find congeniality with another human being, as united by pure love, agape, eros and mutual respect, then you may be willing to transmute the baser energies and animal instincts into the music of the higher spheres (The Walden Pond by Henry D. Thoreau, Higher Laws).
Couples who do not respect themselves on the basis of these premises are more likely bound to separate at a latter point.
Now, concerning Reiki, or Magnetism, we ought to treat ourselves as "sentient beings," for unlike spiritless machines, we are also moved by an array of the pleasantest feelings in the quest for holiness, perfection and the purification of our inner selves.
True, many religious fanatical people, may fail to perceive the "underlying principle" which transcends religious differences, and how faith, love and conviction may activate the mind to performing miracles and wonders.
The danger of religious fanaticism, as those naive ones (new age wackos) who may tamper with the mysterious operations of the Mind and Mother Mature (Witchcrafts), is that the unchartered territory of the unknown could never promise a safe haven in the journey of life.
At times, you may have to come to grips with a full-fledged devil like Satan or Asmodeus! And if you think you are wise, learn that the Devils instructed the ancient Babylonians in all the esoteric wisdom of astrology, demonology and soothsaying --and a black cat was always an omen for bad luck!
Rarely we would encounter a mystic that is situated in the "mean-point," and the new gurus of our time are quite often profiteers.
For the Christians, there are the devils and angels, and only through Christ could we command them to obey us. Of course, Christ, as a universal principle, has led our Christian philologists to embrace the Chinese Culture with greater respect. The lotus-flower may shine and blossom even in India!
There is also this incomprehensible antagonism in the very core of every world's major leading religious system: and from the Book of the Dead of the Ancient Egyptians to the ponderous teachings of Zarathustra, there is to be found an ever-present dichotomy between the forces of good and evil.
Okay, I may still believe that, underlying the serious issues of life, death and suffering, our official sciences, like the canon of many religious systems, cannot elicit a satisfactory answer to the obvious disparity inherent in the constitution of both the individual and society.
What is striking is that Mother Nature seems to be prolific and prodigious in spawning a staggering number of human beings, of the worst kind, damaging the most splendid and lush habitats of the planet earth. Like Sigmund Freud, I am inclined to believe that the world is rife with trashy people who could care less about any enhancement of the human type.
Some Christian friends must admit sectarianism and schism as splitting the very body of Christ, and perhaps the emissaries of Mammon-Profitability, are aware that the god of money has compromised the simple teachings of the Man of Galilee.
The ancient people, however behind us in technology and medicine, seemed to have mystified the mysterious forces and operations of both the subject and the object (Nature) and they could not but hold Mother Nature with awe, reverence, respect and terror.
Concerning the mysteries of the mind, much has been shed on the underlying layers of our unconscious and subconscious levels of psyche. A demon-possessed person may be under the influence of psychic forces defying our understanding, but today, such person could be diagnosed and thence prescribed with some specific drugs for mental illnesses.
The situation becomes more challenging when Devils prescribe medicine to our sordid generations.
Even the Devils would agree that the business of selling or purloining souls have become more complicated these days: many pastors, impostors, have stolen the innocent souls from the holy shrines of Mother Nature. This is indeed the greatest tragedy for Christendom in USA.
On the other hand, countless souls have been lost in the ever-drifting river of consumerism, nihilism, narcism and religious fanaticism.
For the last 50 years, drugs, hallucinogenics and psychotropics, have redefined the very definition of virtual reality.
Of course, and as corroborated every day, one ought to be watchful and alert, for the reality of hatred, terrorism, fanaticism, are as real and evil as the very wanton passions of human beings.
Reaching a serene level of inner peace, "enlightenment," with the necessary essentials already provided, is indeed the best life we all can hope for.
For almost ten years, I stopped writing anything to my Shanti-novel. I wrote Chapter 5, around the Fall of 2010. Most writers simply extrapolate or externalize their experiences into writings, hence, I had spelled some of my joys and sufferings in the Forest of Transylvania.
As I read some drafts on the Asp Snake and the Lynx, I realize how much Ferdinand Ossendowski and F. Nietzsche influenced my worldview concerning the mysteries of good and evil.
The Christian vs the Pantheist: God in Mother Nature:
But even more embarrassing is my subtle attacks on the this pseudo-Christianity, the religious herds and widespread robotization of our times, which should be the subject for another essay.
Accordingly, I would need to delve my thoughts and perhaps be able to drain them to a more substantial, if perhaps, more cogent, reactionary stance on the insidious powers of the Beast, 666, and how far-reaching are the sneaky tendrils of Lilith (the Asp Snake), the hag of our senses and illusionary pursuits in modern society.
We are, therefore, attempting to transcend religious nominal differences, "the dead word" cast in the mold of our chauvinistic ideas and fanaticism, for the universal truths of Satan (the illusions of our senses) are said to be veiled in the ceremonies, rites and symbols of the world's leading religions: from the East to West.
The noisy state of our vulgar religious gatherings, how much a Christian would reject my stance on the current melees and devils passing for genuine religion in USA, are below the lofty thoughts of Buddha or Confucius.
Of course, in chapter 3, the devils are like zombies, and their infectiousness, like Covid-19, could spread quickly even within the "Church of God."
Let me assure you, I am not reducing the effectiveness of the so-called "Christian" to cast out demons, but it seems that the devils are bringing their abominations and sacrilegious practices even into the church of God.
Yes, there is power in the name of Jesus Christ, but would you say a Pantheist (a person who seeks the spirits and gods in the shrine of Mother Nature) is lacking in the numinous experience with the divine?
Shanti is a pagan woman, but her feelings, when compared to the new religious herds of our times, are the loftier and nobler.
Shanti is a difficult undertaking, and it would require years of experience to increasing my humble smattering of the English language.
From 2010-2019, I had to take a propitious break: my mom dying of cancer, my vocabulary becoming too hackney here and there, unfinished paintings, unfinished compositions for piano, and other adventures that turned out to be time- consuming and stressful.
Of course, during the ensuing years, 2011-2019) I wrote other short stories: Andromeda, Former Neighbors in Washington Heights, and other essays.
I would like to remind you, that I still peruse my writings very carefully.
The story of Shanti starts in the Fort Trying Park; a man growing weary with the hurly burly of city-life and the current situation of America, retreats to a quiet place: the woods.
While reflecting on our difficult times and the seeming collapse of civilization, the lonely man (a Philosopher) meets a frisky Squirrel, an amusing creature who would promise him a life more meaningful with the woods of yore: a beautiful woman (Shanti) in the past waiting for a Blue Prince. The Prince (Philsopher) cannot believe this wonder!
In order to avoid some one stealing or plagiarizing my thoughts I wrote Shahti in a rather purposely desultory style, backward and lacking any linear sequence.
The story is fraught with motley concotion of sundry ideas: Religion, Darwinism, Schopenhuer, Nietzsche, Paganism and Christianity.
The story is narrated by the Phoenix Bird (a Christian).
The Squirrel is a Pantheist, the Philsopher is an Existentialist (almost an athiest).
Shanti is a Pagan woman.
Meanwhile, I have been reading other books by great writes to hone my lexicon and diction. I found the Faust of Goethe as translated by Philip Wayne very exquisite English --really beautiful English.
Of course, I am terrbily indebted to John Milton's Paradise Lost and to German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.
Characters:
A Squirrel (Parsifal)
Prince (Philosopher)
Phoenix Bird (A Christian)
Princess (Shanti-peace)
Nihilo (The King of Meaninglessness),
Lilith (The Hag of Our Senses and Illusions)
The Half-Dead Man (the Death of Christianity in America)
Places in the Shanti story:
The Fort Tryon Park (New York) River, Transylvania (Europe), Hudson River, Kingdom of Agharti, Shamala, Tibet).