STORIES II

THE PTERODACTYL

Elsewhere on this blog I have described single pass direct perception, a simple method of remote viewing. More advanced techniques exist. It is possible, with proper training, for viewers to combine efforts and share awareness with another creature.

In this mode you feel like an individual and your thoughts are your thoughts, but you inherit the abilities of the other participants. It is a powerful mode and the results can be very interesting.

The students were curious about dinosaurs. One student had read up on pterodactyls and studied the photo of a fossilized skeleton. This enabled a possible states connection to the original animal.

We put it on the calendar.

We do calendar items in order. When one comes up that a student has proposed, he or she takes control of our joint efforts.

The student had a strong mind and he focused very well. Thus it was that I suddenly found myself in a bright sunny place. The sky was dark blue and the sun had a fresh golden look. It was somehow newer than our sun.

I seemed to be standing on bare ground before a stony peak. I remembered the pterodactyl. There should be one around here somewhere.

Then I realized that it was right in front of me. What I had taken for a stony peak or outcropping of earth was the bird. On closer examination it resembled a large, clumsily folded tent. It was covered with hair. The hair was four or five inches long, and about the color of a golden retriever’s. It was lanky and dull.

I had just begun to realize that it had an odor when the pilot moved us into the bird.

My first thought was, it’s awfully dark in here. There wasn’t nearly enough bird present, in the sense of thoughts or intelligence. Believe me, animals have evolved.

I bounced around in a vacuum. There were bird parts, but there didn’t seem to be an intellect. “This things’s gonna fly?” I thought. “Hey, wait a minute.”

And at that moment the creature, which had been standing on the edge of a cliff, stomped forward and bellyflopped into space.

There was a river like a silver ribbon at the bottom of the cliff. Everything got bigger and bigger as we fell. I had time to reflect that I’ve never been in anything when it crashed and burned. This is going to be interesting, I thought glumly.

As we/the bird fell the wind pushed against the wing membranes and they filled out. The wings extended. Dimly, a thought occurred in the brain. One does something now.

As the landscape rushed up to meet us the creature began to flap its wings. The kinesthetics were quite different than those of modern birds. I was very conscious of the bony circle (the predecessor to our collarbone) that the muscles used for leverage.

It labored up the slope of the air with all the grace of a cart horse dragging a sledge. But it was strong, and there was a helpful updraft. We soared over the river and along the bank on the other side, which was considerably lower than the cliff.

The vegetation was very green but had an unfamiliar appearance. It reminded me a bit of Africa. There was what looked like green grass, and at regular intervals there were circular clots of dark green bushes.

The pterodactyl’s eyesight was wonderful. Its eyes were like twin telescopes. It had better eyesight than any creature I have ever shared space with.

We glided closer to the ground, moving swiftly. I sensed that the bird had a destination in mind. And we swooped toward a big clearing surrounded by bushes. I remember noticing some plants that looked like Joshua trees, except that they were bright green.

I saw that other pterodactyls were on the ground at the destination. They surrounded a large carcass of something that had been dead for awhile. Ono. It’s going to have lunch.

Thankfully the pilot chose that moment to disengage.

At the end of the session we discuss all of the calendar items. When we got to the pterodactyl we agreed that there had been a remarkable absence of cognition. The pilot had had the thought “This thing’s gonna fly? Wait a minute!” but he remembered the game plan and decided to follow through.

When the bird was approaching the carrion he thought “Uh oh, I’m not up for this,” and pulled us out. For which we were grateful.

SOMETHING OF VALUE

Once upon a time in Houston, Texas a woman named Cindy [not her real name] contacted me. She related the following story: one evening she took LSD. She was sitting on the couch enjoying the trip when she noticed that the Devil was right outside.

“How did you know he was the Devil,” I inquired.

“Because he had red eyes. The Devil has red eyes,” she said confidently.

“He explained what he wanted and I said what I wanted, and we made a deal,” she continued.

When she woke up she had an odd looking triangular mark like a burn on the back of her right hand. But she dismissed it. It was just a drug trip.

Then she suddenly began receiving everything she had asked for. It was weird. She and her ex-boyfriend had saved their money and bought an old car together. He took it when they split up. Her ex brought it back to her and said he knew she needed it and she ought to have it.

Her child, of whom she had lost custody, was returned to her.

There was more, but these are the highlights.

Cindy thought about the drug dream in which she had made a deal with the Devil. The sudden changes in her life scared her. She started to make them go away.

She refused the car and other benefits, but she accepted custody of her daughter. She could not bear to give up her child.

Convinced that there was something wrong, Cindy went on an odyssey seeking help. She prayed, accepted Jesus, was reborn, baptized and so forth. It felt like nothing changed.

Finally someone referred her to me and she made the phone call. I asked her the usual questions, studied her situation and concluded that she had in fact made the bargain.

I explained the situation to Cindy and she asked for help.

The students and I set up for an exorcism. We do exorcism by ceremonial means; it is a different procedure than the Catholic Church uses. In our method we use the Cabalistic names of God to compel the possessing entity to manifest in a domain that we control, and we then force it to submit to a list of demands that begins with releasing the possessed person from his or her condition. (It goes on from there to require that no harm come to any party to the exorcism, the possessed person, the exorcist and assistants, etc.)

In this case we knew that a high ranked entity was involved, although we did not know its name. We fasted and did the purifications for the required number of days.

A note about entities. The fallen angels have degrees of power ranging from extreme to minor. Even a minor entity, from its lodging on the mid-astral, can exert significant influence on events in Malkuth [the realm of solid matter where we live].

I imagine there are exceptions, but most Christians prefer not to think of the dark side as composed of different beings. Each Christian (assuming he gives it any thought) wants to think of himself as personally challenged by the Devil.

Thus, each one thinks that his soul is of infinite value. If he makes the bargain he expects to be presented with the Keys of Hell.

Christians expect this outcome regardless of how they have spent their lives. Pornographer, thief, murderer, pedophile or member of Congress, they assume that their souls can be traded for ultimate power.

It doesn’t work that way. If someone offers to sell his soul for earthly benefit, an entity is dispatched to seal the bargain. That entity will have just enough power to secure the soul. Most of these sordid, shopworn souls have minimal value so the entities sent to them need not be high ranked.

As to what people get for the bargain, well, surely you know that the dark side is famous for the big lie. Most people who make the bargain get nothing except permanent bondage of spirit. Their souls aren’t worth very much, you see.

Getting back to Cindy, we set a date for the exorcism. In our method the person should be isolated from any human contact for the duration of the procedure.

We prefer not to do the exorcism in the presence of the possessed person because as soon as we begin applying force to dislodge the entity, it will use any means to transfer to another host. A meek, mild-mannered person can suddenly punch you in the face. This breaks your aura envelope and allows the entity to get in, after which you need an exorcism.

Cindy checked into a motel and locked herself in the bathroom as instructed.

We began the procedure.

When we arrived at the point in the ceremony where we compel the entity to manifest (in a triangle within a circle protected by the Cabalistic names of God) we discovered that Cindy had two dukes.

Dukes are high ranked entities. It is unusual for a person who makes the bargain to rate one duke, let alone two.

We forced them to give us their names and seals, to free Cindy from her bargain, to swear to harm no one connected with the exorcism, etc. It is a long list of demands; you don’t want to leave loopholes.

Then we dismissed them. Cindy was free.

I had worried about the amount of karma she would have to repay. To my astonishment there was nothing. She had had the combined power of two dukes at her disposal and she had made no use of it. That was extraordinary.

Here is how it works: when someone makes the bargain the entity that is sent to secure the soul moves into his/her aura. Thereafter it tries to empower the host’s least enlightened wishes, seeking to pile up karmic debt. Autonomy is gradually devoured; eventually nothing is left of the person but a shell that is operated by the entity.

Cindy had made the bargain more than two years before she got my name. She could have asked for great wealth, to be irresistible to men, for her ex back, for a Cadillac, for a lot of things. She had enormous power at her disposal. Instead she asked for a ratty old used car that was already half hers, for custody of her child, for her old job back and the return of an appliance that a neighbor had borrowed and kept. It was an amazingly modest price for a human soul.

In fact, she didn’t ask for anything she wasn’t entitled to have.

Cindy was in her mid twenties, and pretty although she was quite thin. I think her slenderness owed as much to poverty as it did to genetics. She made her living as a topless dancer in a sleazy bar on the Houston Ship Channel, one of the toughest waterfronts in the world.

Can you imagine holding that job in that place for two and a half years without even once wishing harm to someone? During all that time Cindy had had the power to maim or kill with a thought, and she had never used it.

I’ve never seen a more stringent test of character.

And this is why Cindy had two dukes on the other end of her bargain. Her lifestyle was humble but the powers of Hell knew what she was really worth.

THE NEW AGE

Let me preface this by saying that I know many New Age people and I consider them dear friends and enlightened people. However, experience has convinced me that the philosophy is not benign, and I am going to treat myself to a rant on the subject.

When the New Age movement first appeared I thought it admirable for its gentleness and open-mindedness. The freedom to explore other spiritual traditions was a breath of fresh air. The New Age was open to experiences that the previous generation could never have accepted.

Society changed, and much of that change was positive.

As things went on, the movement evolved. Psychologists and counselors of all types eagerly adopted it. People began to say we create our own reality. And they began to believe it.

I remember interviewing a prospective student. We were in a café sipping bad coffee (Denny’s—I held interviews there because it was such a a sterile psychic environment) while he described his philosophy of life. He explained that he created his own reality. “So when I’m talking to God I’m really talking to myself!” he finished with a smile.

The prospect of having God in my class gave me pause for thought. I doubted God had anything to learn from me. He evidently felt the same way because he never followed up on the contact.

Perhaps the New Age was not at fault. Perhaps it was like a delicate cream sauce in the hands of a fast food burger jockey. Maybe society simply wasn’t ready for it.

The I-create-my-own-reality concept had ramifications. If unhappy things happen in your reality, it means that you are not spiritually evolved. New Age people do not feel sorry for you. They feel superior.

The schools got involved. The mission of the public schools is to promote collectivism and re-engineer the individual to serve the community (by that they mean the state. Remind you of anything?).

The New Age made an ideal vehicle for social engineering because it denied the existence of absolute moral standards. If you create your own reality you are the one who decides what

right and wrong is. Everyone is the God of his or her private universe. There is no such thing as absolute truth. Everything is relative, and all beliefs are equal.

This produced the twin banes of New Age philosophy: situational ethics and rejection of the idea of an objective reality. What is real is what your peer group believes. Your anchor, your true identity, is as a member of the group. What they think, you think.

An axis of, well, unfortunate concepts requires a third member. And that is the belief that the purpose of life is to have pleasant emotions. If you tell someone something he doesn’t want to hear, like “your guru is a deranged pedophile” or “this ship is sinking,” you have caused unpleasant emotions and this makes you a bad person.

This is the result of having no objective standards of truth.

Every good rant needs a horrible example and I happen to have one.

Eight or so years ago I was contacted by a women’s drumming circle in Northern California. They sent two representatives to ask for my advice.

The circle consisted of about 100 people; they were nearly all women but there were a few men. They combined Native American practices such as drumming and trance journeys with New Age philosophy.

They had a problem. A Native American medicine man had raped two of their members. One of the victims was only thirteen. The head of the family had given him free lodging in his home and he had taken the opportunity to rape the little girl.

He had passed a lie detector test. The police were uninterested in pursuing the case.

I reflected on this story and used my remote viewing skills to see whether it was true. It was.

I saw the motive for the rape. It wasn’t just the desire for sex.

Among some Native American tribes women and men do their power work separately. Women know things they never tell to men. Women’s magic is more powerful than men’s; this is the reason a woman is not allowed in a circle when she is having her menses. Her energy is too strong at that time and the ceremony might be ruined.

Men sometimes try to steal women’s power. This was the real motive for the rapes. I saw that he had raped other women too.

This man claimed to be a medicine man, but I saw that he would not dare say that on the reservation. If he did he’d be found dead in a ditch. He was not highly regarded by his fellow tribesmen. Naïve Northern Californians were easy to fool so he was making a good living off them.

He didn’t have much knowledge at all, but he did know how to steal women’s power.

Feeling that I understood the situation, I asked the next question. “What have you done about it so far?”

My jaw figuratively hit the floor at their response. “We’ve been praying for the rapist and sending him love.”

“Why?”

They explained that he must have had a horrible childhood to do such an awful thing. He desperately needed love and healing.

“What about the victims?”

Their faces froze. “They agreed to learn this lesson.”

Nothing at all had been done for the victims. Except possibly ostracism.

They asked whether I had any advice.

“I would approach the matter as follows,” I said. I explained that the rapes involved the deliberate transfer of power (prana, mana) to the rapist. Losing power is an extremely painful experience, transcending mere physical pain. The victims were suffering because they had lost power. They had a hole in their very center and it was causing them anguish. That would continue until they got their power back.

There was a way to do that.

The moment in which he did the rape still existed. I could show the women how to return to it and how to reverse the flow of power. They could take their power back.

I could arrange for the reverse transfer to take place very quickly. It could be made instantaneous for all practical purposes.

The women would be healed of their suffering. Their power would be fully restored.

The rapid energy reversal would be punishing to the rapist. He might not survive. If he did, he would never rape another woman.

They sat in silence for a little while after I finished.

“Do you mean we should employ (delicately, like holding a dead mouse by the tail) sorcerous means?”

“Yes. This is exactly the kind of situation they are meant for.”

It was a warm afternoon but somehow a chill entered the room.

They took their leave.

The circle rejected my advice. They refused to convey my offer of help to the women.

They considered me spiritually unevolved. I thought them uncompassionate.

Both women will suffer from the rape for the rest of their lives. By now he has raped several more women.

I have read a bit about the Tibetan chod practice developed by Machig Labdron.* This great mystic believed, and argued persuasively, that all distinctions are error. The true state of mind is awareness, without content and without limit. The only true reality is mind.

If that is the case, then there is no point in becoming preoccupied with good and evil because they are both simply forms of mind-stuff, without any intrinsic reality. One should endeavor to release attachment to all distinctions. They are distractions. Personal identity itself must be released.

From this standpoint the New Age believers may be correct. By rejecting negative emotions, and strong emotions in general, perhaps they come one step closer to liberating themselves from distractions, and one step closer to merging with universal mind.

I have considered this. It may well be true.

Cabalistic philosophy conceives of the creation as ten divine emanations, called Spheres or Sephiroth (singular, Sephira). Each one is in a sense the parent of the next.

The first emanation is called Kether and consists of ultimate light. The divine creative expression in the Sphere is I AM, or GOD IS. It is formless, without distinction.

Kether gives rise to the second Sephira, Chokmah. This is the domain of divine inspiration, the realm of all ideas. Chokmah gives rise to Binah, the universe we live in. Binah may be viewed as a condensation from the realm of all ideas. The divine creative expression in Binah is the power of becoming

Binah gives rise to Chesed, a Sphere whose cabalistic name means glory (Gedulah). Chesed gives rise to Geburah, meaning force. The divine creative expression in Geburah is unlimited power.

Geburah gives rise to Tiphareth, the Cabalistic Sun. It is the domain of perfection, beauty and grace.

Tiphareth gives rise to Netzach, which means victory. This is the domain of triumph, beauty, luxury and completion. (The Sphere is sometimes called the Cabalistic Venus.)

Netzach gives rise to Hod. This is the domain of speed, communication and scientific knowledge (sometimes called the Cabalistic Mercury).

Hod gives rise to Yesod, in which the divine creative expression is the act of perception.

Yesod gives rise to Malkuth, the domain of mixed essences, which is the material world.

Every Sphere contains the entire universe, but every one contains it differently. The divine creative expression is unique in each Sephira.

Many people view Malkuth, the material world, as an imperfect place from which one should endeavor to escape. However I have come to believe that Malkuth is as important as any other Sphere. It is the domain in which sparks of spirit infuse life into a primordial ocean of formless potential.

Vast numbers of spirits rise up, seeking to be free of material burdens and concerns and rejoin their origin in Kether. It seems to me that some return from higher planes to assist in the evolution of spirit (sentience) in Malkuth.

If Malkuth serves a purpose in the grand design, it is as important as any other Sphere and efforts to make things go better in it are well spent. If it serves no purpose, why was it created?

So saying, I come to the end of reason. Only divine inspiration can make sense of these questions. At the end of it, I still wish I had been able to help the women and I don’t know whether that is an error or not.

* See Machig Labdron and the Foundations of Chod by Jerome Edou.