Sherry and I have just received word from Twylah’s son Bob Nitsch of the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge that on August 21, 2007 at 7:12 a.m., “our beloved Grandmother Twylah Hurd Nitsch sang her song and made her Skywalk back to the world beyond the Skydome. The way made clear by Skywoman for all humankind to follow.” A Celebration to honor Twylah was held at the Crystal River Archeological Site State Park on the North Temple Mound at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday August 26, 2007. Many of you know that on August 2, 1974, I was adopted by Twylah into the Wolf Clan of the Seneca Tribe. My Seneca name is Hat-yas-swas ( He Who Testifies). At a private ceremony, I was also initiated into the Wolf Clan Medicine Lodge. Twylah was a great teacher to me, and her words and wisdom will always guide me. In the early 1990s, before the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge moved to Florida, Sherry and I visited Twylah at her home in the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation, 30 miles south of Buffalo, New York. Twylah was a direct descendent of the great Seneca chief Red Jacket, a staunch defender of his people’s traditions and a brilliant orator. Twylah and her family lived in her ancestral home that had been built in 1858 by her great-grandfather Two Guns. She had persevered the original Seneca longhouse from the old Buffalo Creek Reservation, and this was were the teaching lodge meetings were conducted. We spoke often of the tribal legends that tell of other worlds before our own having been destroyed and of people emerging from the destruction that had been visited upon a former civilization on the North American continent. The Seneca prophets say that the world has undergone the traumatic experiences of birth, death, and rebirth six times before--and they predict that all of humanity now stands on the brink of destruction prior to entering the final world in our evolutionary cycle. Grandmother Twylah told us that she foresaw dramatic changes coming to the Earth Mother, and she envisioned great cosmic beings gathering to assist humankind through this terrible time of transition. "Thunder Beings are truth beings," she said, refering to these powerful entities who offer humans their assistance. "Their teachings are of truth, and they are filled with love. In these final days, it is important to think of unconditional love and not to permit anything to interfere." Twylah believed that the Thunder Beings are now speaking to everyone, "but only the awakened Thunder People are listening." In order to hear the Thunder Beings, she gave firm advice: "Go within...go within...go within. Go within to your vital core." Twylah warned that we cannot stop the coming Earth changes, but we can prepare for them. “All the great Medicine priests are saying that another time of purification and cleansing has rolled around on the great cosmic calendar. We are once again about to enter a time of earthquakes, vulcanisms, and dramatic Earth changes. "It is now time that people better get on their horses and decide which direction they're going,” she told us. “The important thing will be whether or not they will be able to stand in their truth. Those who stand in their truth will eat whatever Mother Nature provides--and it will be roots, bark, and seeds. Before this time ends, we will be crawling on our bellies--but we will be surviving." Twylah said that the "great fires" have already begun burning. "The Middle East set the flames going. The planet is warming up; the ice is melting, so much land is going to go under. "The Earth Mother is changing her garments. She's going to put on some new stuff. She is going to be dancing around. And it's about time. She's sick and tired of the way she's been treated." Twylah repeated the importance of standing in one's truth during the troubled times ahead: "Supposing right at this moment the Earth began to quake and up in the sky world there would be thunder and lightning and so much noise that we couldn't think. The best thing that we could do for our survival would be to stand on our truth. To run in panic never accomplishes anything." Information about Gram Twylah and her life work may be obtained through the e-mail site sihs@comcast.net or mail to Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge of the Seneca Indian Historical Society, PO Box 2313 Orange Park FL, 32067-2313.  I (Sherry) wish to add a note to the song Grandmother Twylah still sings to us all: Rarely in my life journey have I come face to face with so much kindness, love and grace as witnessed the first time her eyes met mine. Just this past week, she came to me in a dream and reminded me of the time she had me choose my sacred healing stone. Brad and I did not know of her Skywalk until just an hour ago. She still teaches from the world beyond the Skydome and the sparkle in her eyes still dances and sings. Grandmother Twylah, We love and miss you and will sing your song to all who will listen. Sherry Steiger
“War! Huh! What’s it good for? Absolutely nothing!” Edwin Starr’s classic peace anthem (1970) We are currently living in a time-cycle reminiscent of the Vietnam conflict era, and the nation is once again divided into those who protest for peace and those who legislate for war. Once again, we send our love and support for our children who have been sent to a strange land where they may die for their country, and we ponder what the terrible new weapons of the near-future may be. The January 14, 2007 issue of the Washington Post advised us that those people who believe the government is beaming voices into their heads may not be crazy. The Pentagon has actually pursued a weapon that is capable of doing just that. Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center, commented that microwave attacks against the human brain is a weapon of future warfare. Allegedly, at this point in their research, Air Force scientists have had marginal success in transmitting phrases into the heads of human subjects. What are some other nightmarish devices in the arsenals of the future? It is well-known that strobe lights have been known to trigger epileptic-type seizures. The pulsating lights that issue from television cartoons and other programming have promoted seizures and made both children and adults become ill. The human sensory receivers are extremely susceptible to disturbances in the electromagnetic and sonic spectrums that are ordinary and usual aspects of our environment. If some nation or agency were to focus an attack on the human mind and body of a population by directing weapons that utilized microwaves, lasers, and acoustics, the victimized people would soon capitulate. A quote attributed to Major I.Chernishev of the Russian Army has been in wide circulation. “It is completely clear,” according to the major, “that the state which is first to create such weapons will achieve incomparable superiority.” The weapons to which Major Chernishev refers are energy-based psychotronic instruments designed to introduce subliminal messages or to alter the body’s psychological and data-processing capabilities. The impulses or data that the human mind would receive from such psychotropic weapons using electromagnetic, vortex, or acoustical energy waves would would be confused and in extreme cases completely incapacitated as the internal signals which normally keep the body in balance would be altered or destroyed. As yet, there are no defenses against psychotropic weaponry. As some intelligence experts have observed, computers may be protected by a firewall, but the human kind cannot. The psychotropic instruments of warfare that are being developed at the present time including the following: *Russian Virus 666, a computer virus that creates a visual combination of colors which can place computer operators in a trance state and inject thoughts into their subconscious. In some cases, Virus 666 can cause arrhythmia of the heart. *Acoustic rifles that can vibrate the internal organs of human targets, stun or nauseate them. Raise the power, and at close range it can knock a person down with a shock wave or cause the enemy‘s inner organs to spasm and case great pain. At longer range, the acoustic or sonic frequencies can cause the hair cells in the inner ear to vibrate so rapidly that the enemy is incapacitated due to vertigo and nausea. The sonic waves of such rifles can penetrate buildings. *Microwave rifles that can heat up the body of an enemy and induce epileptic-like seizures or case cardiac arrest. *The Black Widow, a pulse wave weapon that can affect the signal from the motor cortex of the enemy’s brain and cause uncontrollable, involuntary muscle spasms. *An interrogation psychotronic device that can remove information which has been stored in a person’s brain, send it to a computer for modification, then reinserted into the subject’s brain so that the interrogators might control the subject. *Psychotronic generators which can directed toward large populations and cause mass hallucinations, sickness, zombi-like states, and even death. *Ultrasound generators capable of performing bloodless surgeries--or assassinations--without leaving a mark on the skin. May we all focus our strongest possible positive energies on the brains and hearts of the scientists who utilize their talents to devise hideous futuristic weapons and pray for their conversion to the ideal of creating instruments for peaceful evolution, rather than awful annihilation.
The novel Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus (1818) with its story of the iconoclastic scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the monster that he stitched together of human parts and brought to life is one of the most famous works of fiction in the world. The eerie tale has inspired over 100 motion pictures, and the character of the lumbering monster has appeared in dozens more stage plays, television shows, and even video games. The cinematic interpretations began with the 15-minute version filmed by Thomas Edison and J. Searle Dawley in 1910, and the most notable adaptations have been Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff as the monster and Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) with Christopher Lee as the monster and Peter Cushing as the obsessed scientist. The Media Psychology Lab at California State in Los Angeles recently polled people across the United States from ages 6 to 90 in all ethnic groups to determine which movie monsters ranked as the favorites. According to the survey, the most frightening motion picture of all time for all groups was The Exorcist (1973), in which a demon possesses a young girl. That same survey asked interviewees to name the most frightening movie monsters of all time. Seventy years after its initial theatrical release, the original Frankenstein monster as portrayed by Boris Karloff ranked Number Three [For movie buffs, the top ten movie monsters were 1. Dracula, the 1931 version with Bela Lugosi as the blood-sucking count. 2. Freddy Krueger, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). 3. The Frankenstein Monster (1931). 4. Godzilla (1954). 5. King Kong (1933). Chucky, Child’s Play (1988). 7. Michael Myers, Halloween (1978). 8. Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs (1991). 9. Jason, Friday the 13th (1980). The Alien, Alien (1979).] Few readers of Steiger books will be surprised to learn that the author whose work has become one of the greatest classics of horror was a teenaged girl. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797-1851) was just sixteen when she met the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), a devotee of her father, the political philosopher William Godwin (1756-1836). Mary ran off to Europe with Shelley in 1816, and they spent the summer with Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) and his friend and personal physician Dr. John Polidori (1795-1821) in Geneva. To pass the time during a dreary summer, Lord Byron suggested that each of them should write a ghost story. Eighteen-year-old Mary was the only one of the four who actually fulfilled the assignment, publishing her novel two years after she married Shelley in December 1816. While the novel has been hailed as a masterpiece and a work of genius, scholars have long debated the source of Mary Shelley’s inspiration. Although eerie and haunting, the story of a scientist who overreaches the bonds of convention to fashion new life from the bodies of the dead does not truly fit the challenge of writing a ghost story. What--or who--suggested the character of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who became the prototype of the mad or obsessed scientist, defying the limitations of his peers and the morals and values of conventional society? Many scholars maintain that The Golem of Jewish tradition was the young author’s inspiration for the Frankenstein monster. However, according to Kabbalists, the Golem is created from virgin soil and pure spring water, rather than the body parts of cadavers--and it can only be fashioned by those who have purified themselves spiritually and physically, rather than by heretical scientists in foreboding castle laboratories who bring down electricity from the sky to animate their patchwork human. Once the Golem has been formed, it is given life by the Kabbalist placing a piece of paper with the Tetragrammaton (the four-letter name of God) written on it under its tongue. The creation of a Golem is one of the advanced stages of development for serious practitioners of Kabbalah and alchemy. Instructions for fashioning a Golem according to the Talmudic tradition was set down sometime in the 10th century by Rabbi Eliezar Rokeach in The Book of Formation, and in his modern adaptation of the ancient text, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan stresses that the initiate should never attempt to make a Golem alone, but should always be accompanied by one or two learned colleagues. Extreme care must be taken by its creators, for the Golem can wreak havoc. When such a mistake occurs, the divine name must somehow be removed from the creature’s tongue and it be allowed to revert to dust. The most famous Golem is “Yossele,” the creature created by Judah Loew Ben Bezalel (1525-1609) to help protect the Jews of Prague from the libel that the blood of a Christian child was used during the Passover Seder. There are many accounts of how Yossele saved innocent Jews from reprisals directed against them by those citizens who had been incited by the horrible accusations of human sacrifice. Once the Golem had served its purpose, the rabbi locked it in the attic of Prague’s “Old-New Synagogue, where it is widely believed that the creature rests to this day. The synagogue survived the widespread destruction directed against Jewish places of worship by the Nazis, and it is said that the Gestapo did not even enter the attic. A statue of Yossele, the Golem of Prague, still stands at the entrance to the city’s Jewish sector. Literary researchers argue that Dr. John Polidori is the obvious source for the medical and scientific concepts that fired Mary’s imagination. The weather in Geneva that summer of 1816 was unpleasant, and Lord Byron and his guests found themselves indoors much of the time, telling one another ghost stories and gothic tales. Mary wrote in her diaries that she and her sister, who had accompanied her when she and Shelley left England, found Polidori both attractive and interesting. He regaled the group with accounts of strange medical phenomena, such as experiments in reviving corpses. Polidori also wrote a horror novel that summer The Vampyre (1819) that many scholars claim contains the seeds of inspiration for both Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). In 2002, while researching the influence of science upon the poetry of Percy Shelley, Chris Goulding, a PhD student at Newcastle University, found historical documents which indicated that the true model for Victor Frankenstein was Dr. James Lind (1736-1812), Shelley’s scientific mentor at Eton in 1809-1810. Lind had become fascinated with the ability of electrical impulses to provoke muscle movement in the legs of dead frogs, and he was quite likely the first scientist in England to conduct galvanic experiments similar to those which enabled Dr. Frankenstein to focus electricity from lightning and bring his monster to life. Percy Shelley was greatly interested in science, and Goulding points out passages in Mary Shelley’s unfinished biography of her husband wherein she commented that Percy often spoke of the great intellectual debt that he owed to Dr. Lind. Whatever or whoever was truly the model for Dr. Victor Frankenstein, one thing is certain: That dreary summer in 1816 as young Mary sat listening to Dr. Polidari spinning his tales of medical mysteries and to Shelley recounting the astonishing experiments of Dr. Lind, her fertile imagination was visualizing the story of a bold scientist who dared to play God and to give life to a grotesque monster--a vision that has haunted readers and movie-goers for nearly 200 years. Did the Devil’s Disciple Successfully Summon the Spirit of Marilyn Monroe on the Eleventh Anniversary of Her Death? By Brad and Sherry Steiger Robert F. Slatzer, who claimed a long-term friendship and a brief marriage to Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood Love Goddess of the 1950s, told us that on the night of August 4, 1973 he had participated in a ritual that had actually caused Marilyn's spirit form to materialize. Slatzer, a correspondent for an eastern newspaper, had arrived in Hollywood in the late 1940s. He met Norma Jeane Baker, a young model, in the summer of 1946 while he was doing interviews with movie celebrities. He had noticed Norma Jeane making the rounds of the studios, and one day as they were each waiting to see prospective clients in the lobby of Twentieth Century-Fox Studios, they struck up a conversation and made a date for later that evening. Thus began a long relationship that led to what Slatzer claimed was a marriage to Norma Jeane in Mexico in 1952. Norma Jeane landed only minor appearances in a couple of films in 1947, but by the time audiences began to notice the actress in two popular 1950 films, All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle, Fox had decided to rename her Marilyn Monroe. According to Slatzer, when Darryl F. Zanuck, the czar of Fox, learned of their marriage, he put pressure on his new sex symbol to get a divorce. Zanuck was about to give her star billing in Niagara, and he intended to spend a lot of publicity dollars transforming Norma Jeane into Marilyn Monroe, the next Hollywood Love Goddess. Zanuck told Norma Jeane that fans don‘t buy sexual fantasy figures if they find out they are married to nobody writers. Slatzer resolved not to stand in Norma Jeane’s path to fame. The two returned to Mexico where he said they held a small ceremony on a beach and burned their wedding certificate. Slatzer told us that Marilyn remained his closest friend, and he felt that the two of them maintained a special relationship until her death in 1962. He would later write The Marilyn Files (1992) and The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe (1974). He died on March 28, 2005. When we spoke with Bob in 1989, he told us that at the time of Marilyn’s passing many strange things had manifested in his life. He began to notice that particular odors would suddenly become apparent in his home, seemingly out of nowhere. The first time he remembered this occurring, the pungent smell of roses filled the air in the room. He looked all around, but saw no flowers. He even opened his patio door, but no odor of roses drifted in. Bob knew the smell of roses. He used to grow roses as a hobby and had worked his way through college by working in a funeral parlor, This particular rose smell was funereal, different from a floral shop or a garden smell. The phenomenon began to occur periodically, sometimes twice a week, sometimes once a month. This occurred about sixteen or seventeen times from about 1963 until about 1981--then just as mysteriously as it came, the funereal scent of roses went away. In 1971, Slatzer met Anton La Vey, the High Priest of the Church of Satan, and his wife at the home of a movie studio publicity man. During their conversation, he learned that La Vey was fascinated with Marilyn Monroe. "We socialized for dinners and such over a period of about two years," Slatzer said, "Then in August 1973, Anton contacted me and told me that about every eleven years astrologically a cycle would repeat itself and the 'dark of moon' would come back on Saturday, August the 4th, just as in 1962 when Marilyn had died. La Vey needed someone who knew Marilyn very well to help manifest her." Bob agreed to La Vey' s picking him up about 10:30 P.M. La Vey had received permission from the then-current owner of Marilyn's home to be there. Although she would be closing the gate, they were welcome to sit in the cul-de-sac. The location of the house was such that if an interloper were to intrude, there would be no place to run and hide without scaling a six- to seven- foot fence on either side. Their car was positioned against the gates, looking out, and there was no one else around. Bob Slatzer sat in the front seat on the passenger's side with Anton; La Vey’s wife was in the backseat. Anton had a tape recorder with prerecorded songs from Marilyn's films. At about 11:45 P.M., he turned on the recorder very softly. Anton had a penlight that he held down low by the steering column, and he began reading something he had written. Slatzer remembered that it was sort of like “tongues or a chant or something” that he didn't recognize. About 12:15 A.M., the night was still. Not one single blade of grass was moving. The leaves on the eucalyptus tree by the corner of the house were still. All of a sudden, Slatzer recalled, a terrific wind came up. The tree seemed to have an isolated wind blowing on it--yet nothing else on either side of the road was moving. It seemed as though the wind was blowing toward them. “Then from out of nowhere,” Slatzer said, “this woman appeared! It was just like somebody set her there. She had on white slacks with a little black-and-white, splash-pattern top, little white loafers, and I could see a shock of blond hair. She started walking toward the car. I had goose bumps all over! “Then my journalist's mind wondered if this was a setup by Anton. I knew he had been in town for a couple of days, but I didn't think he'd do anything like that. He seemed too intense and serious about his work, and he didn't seem to be that kind of person. “This figure began walking slowly toward the house--or it seemed toward our car since we were sitting in the driveway in front of the house. I asked Anton if he wanted to turn a light on. He sort of tapped me on the knee to keep quiet! I noticed that Anton was sweating profusely. “The figure came slowly toward us and stopped about 30 feet in front of the car. Anton had dimmed the music a little and finished his chant when she was about halfway to us. “All of a sudden, she veered off to our left. There used to be a big tree there, and she just stood there, almost as if she were made of cardboard, with kind of a wooden look, but the figure was highly. recognizable as Marilyn! “Then I really became a believer! She was so real! Anton's wife exclaimed something. I looked around at her. She had practically turned white and looked almost petrified! Anton‘s breath was taken, I can tell you that! “Marilyn hesitated for a minute, her hands clasped. It didn't appear that she was looking directly at our car, but she seemed to be looking at an angle past us. It appeared to me as if she was looking past the gates, as if she wanted to enter the gates and go in but didn't want to pass the car. “Then she turned to her left and slowly started to walk down the middle of the boulevard. She was about halfway when I told Anton to turn the lights on. He said no, and appeared as if he was frozen and stuck in a fixed position! “I had my door open to the point where if I pushed it, it would open. Anton had the car doors and inside lights rigged so that they would not interfere when the doors were opened. I had the door ajar so in case I wanted to get out, the door would not make a disturbing noise when opened. “By now, Marilyn was about three-fourths of the way down the street. Without saying anything, I decided to get out. I was going to walk after her. “I took off and walked as fast and as quietly as I could. When I was about one hundred and fifty feet away from her, she turned, and as she turned, she walked to the middle of the street--and vanished into thin air! “I noticed a little ditch where water was coming down from drainage ditches. The ditch on either side of the street was about two and a half feet wide. When I had hurriedly walked through the water, I noticed my footsteps left an imprint on the other side. The apparition of Marilyn had been taking short, small, measured footsteps on the other side of the road. There were no other footprints. If the ‘being’ had stepped over or walked across the water, it would have made a very noticeably different movement from the small steps it had been taking. I'm not saying that she walked on water, but if even her heels had touched the water or walked through it, there would have at least been a dripping of water. “Anton and his wife came up to me, and their flashlights further proved that my original examination and observation was true. Anton said that he was shaken by the whole experience. He begged off dinner, saying that he was completely drained and that he had no appetite. All he wanted was to go back to his hotel, take a shower, lie down, and go to sleep.” La Vey, author of such works as The Satanic Bible (1969) and The Satanic Rituals (1972), died on the day before Halloween in 1997. Bob Slatzer told us that he had told the story of the materialization of Marilyn Monroe only to one person besides psychic-sensitive Clarisa Bernhardt and that was to the author Norman Mailer, who told him, “I do not disbelieve it. I do believe these things.” Mothers, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Play with Ouija Boards From the Files of Brad Steiger Seventeen-year-old Jolene K, a passionate student of the paranormal and the occult, had begun experimenting with the Ouija board. She thought she had the knowledge to contact spirit entities through the board, but unfortunately she had neglected to assume a prayerful attitude to guard against malignant influences. Her parents, Darwin and Aileen, called me to their home after a Friday night slumber party encounter with an ouija board had left their daughters, Jolene and twelve-year-old Joy, and three of Jolene's friends in hysterics. According to Jolene, it had all begun three nights before on Tuesday evening after she had achieved what she believed to be a successful contact with a benevolent spirit through the Ouija board. The teenager said that she was in the process of putting the board away she became aware of a dark presence following her. "At first it seemed something like a dark cloud," she said. "Or maybe even some kind of dark cloth, like a billowing cloak of some kind." After she prepared for bed and said her prayers, she fell into a deep sleep. "But when I awakened sometime before morning, I had an awful feeling," she said. "It felt like something icky was in the room with me." Jolene got up, turned on all the lights in her bedroom, and went to the bathroom. "The lights made things better," she recalled, "so I just left them on until it was time for me to get up and go to school." But even during the day at high school, she felt peculiar. "Really weird and nasty thoughts kept popping into my mind," she said. "Stupid thoughts, ugly thoughts--and especially sexual thoughts. I found myself fantasizing about guys--and girls. And when I walked between classes with my boyfriend Jake, I was literally trembling from the sexual feelings that I had for him." Later that night, as Jolene prepared for bed, she washed her face, applied some cold cream on her face and was in the process of her evening "zit check" in front of her bathroom mirror when she found herself becoming completely fascinated with her features. "It was as if I was seeing myself for the first time," she said. "Suddenly my nose, my cheekbones, my lips, my chin, my long dark hair--all of me seemed so totally wonderful. I was really beautiful. I wasn't just all right--I was terrific. And especially my eyes. I found myself just staring into the reflection of my eyes in the mirror." Jolene has no idea how long she stood mesmerized by her own image in the mirror before she was aware of Joy standing beside her and squealing in disgust: "Eeeew! You really love yourself, don't you, Miss Movie Star? How creepy can you get? You were about to kiss yourself in the mirror!" Jolene screamed at her sister, reminding Joy how many times she had forbidden her from entering "Her Majesty's" room without knocking first and gaining permission to do so. "But the little Munchkin was right," Jolene admitted. "It was creepy the way I was standing there just staring at myself." It became even creepier and more disconcerting when Jolene was brushing her teeth on Wednesday morning and saw a few moments of a fleeting "motion picture" in the mirror. "It was like the mirror became a kind of crystal ball," she said, "and I saw my boyfriend Jake and his buddy Chuck getting in a bender-fender on the way to school that morning. When Jake wasn't in his homeroom, I knew that I had seen true. By third hour, everyone was talking about the accident. I had received an accurate prevision of an actual future event." For the first time, Jolene decided to share her uncomfortable experience with the shadowy form that followed her back to her body after working the Ouija board. Melanie, Heather, and Michaela were three close friends who were also fascinated by the supernatural. All four of them were fans of the various vampire-slayers and witches on television, and each of them had built up a small library of books on magic, witchcraft, and the occult. "Melanie hoped one day to become an initiated witch," Jolene said. "Heather experimented with a lot of different areas of the paranormal, and Michaela wanted to study to be a parapsychologist when she entered college." Jolene told them that not only had she foreseen Jake's and Chuck's accident that morning, but ever since that night she had been receiving other kinds of strange visions. "I could tell they really excited when I told them about all the sexual fantasies that had come to me, but they were most impressed with my ability to pick up impressions from some of the jewelry and stuff they had. I told them where they had got certain items or who had given it to them. Things I swear I didn't know before." Then Michaela, the budding parapsychologist, removed the deck of miniature Zener cards that she always carried in her purse. The deck consists of five each of five symbols--the square, the cross, the wavy lines, the circle, and the star--and is used to test ESP. "The girls were like totally amazed when I first got twenty out of twenty-five right, then twenty-two and twenty-three out of twenty-five," Jolene said. "Before when Michaela had tested me, I had never got too much above chance, five, six, or seven correct." The consensus of Jolene's confidantes was that an entity from the Other Side had been summoned by her experiments with the Ouija board and was granting her increased psychic powers, such as an ability to receive glimpses of the future. "I could tell that they were all kind of jealous of me, you know," Jolene said. When Jolene looked into the mirror that night, she was startled to see a face behind her own, just to the left of her shoulder. "The image really frightened me," she said. "It looked a lot like me, but its eyes had dark rings around them. Its hair was stringy, and its complexion had a kind of greenish tint to it. And when it smiled at me, it seemed more like an evil leer." Jolene dropped to her knees and began to utter a prayer for protection and a supplication that she be surrounded by a shield of Light. "After I had completed my prayers for protection and the banishment of evil, the mirror was once again clear," Jolene said. "I hoped that I had sent the thing back where it belonged and far away from me." Things might have been resolved and the entity discouraged by Jolene's fervent prayers if the next day over lunch in the cafeteria Heather hadn't suggested that the four of them conduct a seance with the Ouija board to see if they could learn the identity of the entity was who had been following Jolene. "I tried to warn them that this thing looked really evil and that we should let it go back to the Other Side," Jolene said. "But Heather kept insisting what a great research project this could be, and she got Michaela all excited about a big experiment, and pretty soon Melanie had come on board. "I really began to suspect that Heather's motives were not strictly academic, you know. I think if truth were told she was jealous when the entity appeared to have granted me these big ESP powers, and she wondered if she might not be able to channel and control such energy if we worked some more with the being." Against Jolene's objections, it was agreed that Friday night would be Ouija board night at her house. It was Jolene's turn to host a slumber party, anyway, so her parents wouldn't suspect that anything unusual might be occurring under their roof. The K's had been given a clue, however. Darwin told me that on Wednesday evening as he had come upstairs to go to bed, he thought he saw Jolene in the hallway outside of her room. "I called to her and asked what she was doing up at that late hour on a school night, but she didn't answer me," he said. "As I approached her, she turned and entered her bedroom. When I opened the door to see if anything were troubling her, I was surprised to see her in bed, quite obviously fast asleep." And then Darwin received a couple of other surprises. "It seemed that I caught a glimpse of Jolene standing in the doorway of her bathroom," he recalled. "How could this be, I wondered, because she is lying right there in her bed, right in front of me. And then I thought I saw the glowing outline of another person standing in the shadows off to the right of Jolene's bed. There was a soft, hissing sound from the direction of the bathroom, and where I thought I had seen Jolene, there was now only darkness." Darwin left his older daughter's room convinced that his eyes had been deceived by patterns of light and shadow. He had been working too hard, staying up too late, and suffering from sleep deprivation--all of which had caused him to see things that weren't there. The trouble was, the "things" really were there. The slumber party seance quickly became a psychic disaster. Twelve-year-old Joy begged to be included, and Michaela agreed, stating that a child's openness toward such matters could very likely provide the circle with greater energy. At the stroke of midnight, they began their attempts to contact the entity that had attached itself to Jolene during her out-of-body projection. All the girls knew from watching various television programs and reading certain books on the occult that midnight was the "witching hour," the time when doorways to the unknown opened a bit wider. At first the planchette under the girls' fingertips moved smoothly from letter to letter on the Ouija board, blithely spelling out a quaint tale of a young seamtress named Suzette who had been killed by runaway horses in the streets of their city in the 1880s. Her spirit had remained earthbound for many years, pining for her love, Raymond, who remained devoted to her memory. Just as the five girls were growing teary-eyed over the sad tale of a young woman deprived of life and love by a cruel accident, the board suddenly began to spell out lewd descriptions of Suzette's and Raymond's sexual techniques. At once repulsed and fascinated, the girls were soon learning how the spirit of Suzette had continued to make love to Raymond from beyond the grave--and how they, too, could receive passionate lovers from the Other Side. Heather moved away from the board and began to make strange noises as she dropped to the floor and started to twitch spasmodically. When Jolene and Michaela knelt beside her to see what was wrong, Heather sat up with a leering smile and greeted them with a string of obscenities. Later, the other four girls would all swear that Heather's face was changed, altered into the features of a profane stranger. Heather put her arms around little Joy and tried to kiss her. Jolene stepped in and pulled her away from her sister. Melanie screamed that she could see the image of a horrible, ugly woman superimposed over Heather's face and body. Michaela gasped that she, too, could see the wretched hag. "Begone, evil demon!" Melanie shouted, holding one of her occult charms at arm's length before her. "Begone and leave us alone!" Heather snarled and reached out for Melanie, seizing her by the throat, seemingly intent upon strangling her. When Darwin and Aileen finally pushed open the door to their daughter's bedroom to see what was going on in there, Joy, Jolene, and Michaela were screaming hysterically and trying to pull Heather off Melanie. Dawin immediately interpreted the scene as a bunch of teenagers' squabble over hairstyles, boys, rock stars, or lord-knows-what, so he insisted on driving Heather, Melanie, and Michaela home at once. It was when the always well-mannered and polite Heather spat in his face and swore at him in a hoarse, croaking voice that he knew that something was very wrong. Once again--sadly a bit late in the course of events--Jolene suggested that they all join hands and pray for Heather to return to them as she was. As Jolene began the prayer, Heather fell to her knees and began to make growling and hissing sounds. Joy screamed in horror, and Aileen carried her out of the bedroom. A few minutes after the prayer was concluded, Heather blinked her wide hazel eyes at her friends and Darwin, who stood ringed around her. She appeared to have no memory of the bizarre performance that had brought the slumber party experiment to a screeching halt. Darwin changed his mind about taking Heather, Melanie, and Michaela home at two o'clock in the morning. Later, he admitted to me that he was embarrassed about the incident and worried about what the parents of the girls would say if they were awakened in the middle of the night to be informed that unsupervised activities at the K household had driven the girls into hysterics. When the girls arose the next morning about ten o'clock and had some breakfast, everything seemed back to normal. But after her friends had gone home, the K's had a lengthy discussion with Jolene and decided to call me for advice in acquiring some preventionary measures against a repetition of such an event. Little Joy had slept between her parents until morning, crying, shuddering, and lapsing into nightmares that caused her to wake up screaming. Neither Darwin nor Aileen were eager to endure a repeat performance of a teenage activity that would traumatize their twelve-year-old and transform Jolene's normally courteous friends into crude, shrieking wackos. When I arrived at the K's home on Sunday evening, I was informed that Joy was at a friend's house so we could all speak frankly about the frightening occurrence on Friday evening. After only a few minutes of conversation in the K's' living room, I soon determined that neither Darwin nor Aileen were aware of their daughter's experiments with the Ouija board. As Jolene began to feel more comfortable with me and with her parents' disapproving, but supportive, attitude toward her adventures in the occult, she told of the dark entity that had apparently attached itself to her after one of her Ouija board sessions. "Such an entity is what I have come to call a spirit parasite," I said. "They may once have been humans and wish once more to occupy a physical body or they may be regarded as the classic demons, who wish to invade and control a fleshly vehicle to experience human passions and emotions. Generally, these parasites of the soul cannot achieve power over humans unless they are somehow invited into the person's private space--or unless they are attracted to a human aura by that person's negativity or vulnerability. Unless you have made your prayer for protection and alerted your spirit guide, you are extremely vulnerable during a conscious out-of-body projection." Jolene lowered her eyes and seemed to be studying my comments. "I guess I just thought that angels and guides were out there always looking after me." "They are," I agreed. "But remember that there are always negative entities looking out for vulnerable humans." I went on to say that humans are most susceptible to spirit invasion when they are abusing alcohol or drugs and have lowered their normal boundaries of self-control. Spirit parasites, eager to experience the passions of the flesh, may enter the human vehicle at that time and encourage the possessed human to indulgence in all sorts of excesses of sex, gluttony, greed, and ego aggrandizement. "So many beginning students of metaphysics make the mistake of assuming that their good intentions protect them when they enter trance or deep meditative states," I continued. "These individuals may find themselves particularly beset by spirit parasites because they are seeking to follow the path of Light. They present a challenge to negative entities. And when these beings from the darkside find a chink in their armor--such as inadequate spiritual preparation--they are quick to zero in on those students too impatient to take the time to pray or to surround themselves with the Light of protection." Darwin wondered what it was that he had seen in the hallway and in Jolene's room on Wednesday night. "Jolene told us how she felt as though another being was somehow influencing her thoughts and causing her to fantasize sexual images regarding her friends and classmates," I said. "Later, as she stared into the mirror, a kind of dual consciousness enabled her to perceive the thoughts of the spirit parasite as it admired the body in which it found itself. Still later, she saw the other face in the mirror, the face that resembled her own, yet was also reflective of the negative entity. It was that awful face that caused her to pray for the creature to leave her." I went on to explain that Jolene's prayers had probably been quite effective in discouraging the spirit parasite from making long range plans about inhabiting the teenager's body. If Jolene had continued to draw upon the Light, her spirit guardians would probably have been able to banish the negative entity within just a few more days. On Wednesday night, however, the spirit parasite was still able to draw energy from Jolene, and it was able to externalize itself while she slept. "The other entity that you saw hovering near Jolene's bed," I told Darwin, "the one that seemed to be glowing, was quite likely her guardian angel or spirit guide. A spiritual balance would probably been achieved very shortly if Jolene had been talked into that séance with the Ouija board. The combined energies of all those young women--especially young women open to communication with the Other Side--brought the spirit parasite renewed strength. Thank heaven, Jolene conducted that prayer circle and performed a kind of impromptu exorcism." Darwin and Aileen asked me if I believed that the entity had left their home. I redirected the question to Jolene, asking her if she still sensed the spiritual interloper around her. "I...I really don't think so," she answered after a moment of thought. "And I have been praying my knees off ever since Friday night!" I shared the following prayer with Jolene if she should ever be aware of the return of the spirit parasite: "Beloved Angel Guide, charge me with your great strength. Charge me with your light and your love. Charge my mental, physical, and spiritual selves with strength and energy. Keep me ever sensitive to your guidance and your direction and banish all evil and negativity from my presence." "And what about us?" Aileen wanted to know. "What if we should sense that evil presence anywhere in our home?" If any of them should still sense the negative energy of a spirit parasite or any discordant entity, I advised them to visualize their spirit guardian around them moving a soft, violet heavenly light over their physical bodies. Then say inwardly to the spirit guide: "Beloved spirit guide, angelic guardian, activate the God-spark within me and assist me in calling upon the highest of energies. Permit the heavenly Light to move around and through me. Keep this Holy Light bright around and within me and with the power of the Father-Mother-Creator Spirit banish all negative and chaotic energies from my presence." When I left the Kozisek's residence that evening, I felt confident that a spiritual balance had been reinstated both in their home and in their daughter's personal province of psychic development. And I had Jolene's promise that she would not continue her experiments in any facet of the paranormal until she had undergone a process of disciplined study that would enable her more accurately to discern between the various shadowy residents of the world of the supernatural.
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Smart People See Ghosts Higher education supports belief in the paranormal By Brad Steiger “Believe it or not,“ Robert Roy Britt writes in the January 20, 2006 issue of LiveScience, “ according to a new study higher education is linked to a greater tendency to believe in ghosts and other paranormal phenomena.“ Even though researchers Bryan Farha at Oklahoma City University and Gary Steward of University of Central Oklahoma admitted that they had expectations of finding contrary results, their poll of college students found that seniors and graduate students were more likely to believe in haunted houses, ghosts, telepathy, spirit channeling and other paranormal phenomena than were freshmen. Skeptics Confounded Although the results of the survey are not surprising to long-time researchers in the metaphysical/psychic fields, what is startling is the fact that the poll analysis is published in the January-February issue of The Skeptical Inquirer magazine, the journal of true unbelievers. While the poll may have been conducted with expectations of demonstrating that as students became more educated they dropped questionable beliefs in favor of more skeptical attitudes, The Skeptical Inquirer must be congratulated for publishing results that they really did not wish to find. Farha’s and Steward’s survey was based on a nationwide Gallup Poll in 2001 that found younger Americans more likely to believe in the paranormal than older respondents. The results of the Farha/Steward poll discovered that gaining more education was not a guarantee of skepticism or disbelief toward the paranormal. While only 23% of the freshman quizzed professed a belief toward paranormal concepts, the figures rose to 31% for college seniors and 34% for graduate students. The complete results of the survey may be found in the January-February issue of The Skeptical Inquirer. The percentages are rounded, and I have indicated the Gallup Poll 2001 figures in parenthesis, the Farha/Steward percentages in bold: Belief in psychic/spiritual healing: 56 (54) Belief in ESP: 28 (50) Haunted houses: 40 (42) Demonic possession: 40 (41) Ghosts/spirits of the dead: 39 (38) Telepathy: 24 (36) Extraterrestrials visited Earth in the past: 17 (33) Clairvoyance and prophecy: 24 (32) Communication with the dead: 16 (28) Astrology: 17 (28) Witches: 26 (26) Reincarnation: 14 (25) Channeling: 10 (15) It is in the “Not Sure” column that the researchers found that the higher the education level achieved, the more likelihood there was of believing in paranormal dimensions and the possibilities of a broader spectrum of reality. Belief in psychic/spiritual healing: 26 (19) Belief in ESP: 39 (20) Haunted houses: 25 (16) Demonic possession: 28 (16) Ghosts/spirits of the dead: 27 (17) Telepathy: 34 (26) Extraterrestrials visited Earth in the past: 34 (27) Clairvoyance and prophecy: 33 (23) Communication with the dead: 29 (26) Astrology: 26 (18) Witches: 19 (15) Reincarnation: 28 (20) Channeling: 29 (21) Why Disbelieve? Why do skeptics find it so difficult to believe that individuals who achieve a higher education may still maintain a belief in the paranormal? The world of the paranormal is one where effect often precedes cause, where mind often influences matter, where individuals communicate over great distances without physical aids, and where the spiritual essence of those deceased may be seen. Why, especially in an age of new theories embracing quantum physics and other dimensions, should skeptics find it difficult to believe in a world that lies beyond the five senses and the present reach of science? For those of us who have been researching and writing in the paranormal, UFO, and spiritual fields for many years, the repeated allegation that we and our readers must be undereducated and unaware of the science and technology of our contemporary culture becomes very annoying. As early as 1965, when I was researching ESP: Your Sixth Sense--which, in addition to becoming a popular book became a college and high school text, complete with workbook and study guide--the pioneering work of Dr. Gardner Murphy, Dr. Montague Ullman, Dr. Stanley Krippner, Dr. Henry Margenau, and many others had already demonstrated that contrary to common assumption, intelligence has little connection to paranormal abilities or beliefs. Neither is it the “odd” or poorly adjusted members of society who most often demonstrate high degrees of psychic ability. Quite the contrary appears to be true. Those individuals who are well-adjusted socially and who are possessed of an extraverted rather than an introverted personality are the ones who score consistently higher in ESP tests. The January 12, 1994 issue of USA Today carried the results of a survey conducted by Jeffrey S. Levin, associate professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, which stated that more than two-thirds of the U.S. population has had at least one mystical experience. Furthermore, Levin said, although only 5% of the population have such experiences often [that’s around 15 million people], such mystical encounters “seem to be getting more common with each successive generation.” And very interestingly, Levin added, individuals active in mainstream churches or synagogues report fewer mystical experiences than the general population. The November 1993 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology announced the finds of psychologists at Carleton University of Ottawa, that people who report seeing a UFO or an alien are not any less intelligent or psychologically healthy than other people. Their findings clearly contradicted the previously held notions that people who seemingly have bizarre experiences, such as missing time and communicating with aliens, have “wild imaginations and are easily swayed into believing the unbelievable.” Dr. Nicholas P. Spanos, who led the study and administered a battery of psychological tests to a large number of UFO experiencers, said that such individuals were not at all “off the wall.” On the contrary, he stated, “They tend to be white-collar, relatively well-educated representatives of the middle class.” Becoming More Common Psychiatrists Colin Ross and Shaun Joshi have affirmed that paranormal experiences have become so common in the general population that “no theory of normal psychology which does not take them into account can be comprehensive.” It may well be that we are turning into a nation of mystics regardless of the frustration of organized science or organized religion. And we might add, a nation of intelligent mystics. The October 27, 2004 issue of USA Today declared that “a spiritually inclined student is a happier student.” According to a national study of students conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California- Los Angeles, being spiritual contributes to one’s sense of psychological well-being. “A high degree of spirituality correlates with high self-esteem and feeling good about the way life is headed,” Sarah Hofius wrote of the study that took place at forty-six wide-ranging universities and colleges, encompassing 3,680 third-year students. “The study defines spirituality as desiring to integrate spirituality into one’s life, believing that we are all spiritual beings, believing in the sacredness of life and having spiritual experiences.” Another survey that should have offered an enormous amount of proof that one can achieve a higher education and still believe in the paranormal was released on December 20, 2004, revealing that 74% of medical doctors believe that miracles have occurred in the past and 73% believe that miracles can occur today. Sixty-seven percent of the doctors encouraged their patients to pray; 59% admitted that they prayed for their patients. The national survey, conducted by HCD Research and the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies of the Jewish Theological Seminary, polled 1,100 physicians throughout the United States. According to Dr. Alan Mittleman, Director of the Finkelstein Institute, doctors “although presumably more highly educated than their average patient, are not necessarily more secular or radically different in religious outlook.” Perhaps because of their frequent involvement with matters of life and death, medical doctors do not lose their belief in the miraculous as their level of education increases. A Believing Skeptic In 2002, the National Science Foundation found that 60% of adults in the United States agreed or strongly agreed that some people possessed psychic powers or extrasensory perception (ESP). In June 2002, the Consumer Analysis Group conducted the most extensive survey ever done in the United Kingdom and revealed that 67% of adults believed in psychic powers and that two out of three surveyed believed in an afterlife. Michael Shermer, the ubiquitous talking head who represents the skeptical view in dozens of television documentaries each year, author of Why People Believe Weird Things (2002) and editor of the aforementioned The Skeptical Inquirer, was among those who deplored the findings that such a high percentage of Americans accepted the reality of ESP. In Shermer’s analysis, such statistics posed a serious problem for science educators. Complaining that people too readily accepted the claims of pseudoscience, Shermer concluded his regular column for Scientific American (August 12, 2002) by stating that “for those lacking a fundamental comprehension of how science works, the siren song of pseudoscience becomes too alluring to resist, not matter how smart you are.” Shermer must have been somewhat surprised some years earlier when he interviewed Martin Gardner, the prolific science writer, author of the classic Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, and the founder of the modern skeptical movement, who told him that he believed in God, that he sometimes prayed and worshipped, and that he hoped for life after death. Gardner explained (Skeptic, Vol. 5 No.2 1997) that he called himself a “philosophical theist, or sometimes a fideist, who believes something on the basis of emotional reasons, rather than intellectual reasons.” Gardner also identified himself as a “mysterian,” explaining that “there are certain things I regard as ultimate mysteries. Free will is one of those. Another is time…Time and space are the ultimate mysteries. Free will is bound up in the mysteries of time about which we can never understand, at least at this stage of evolutionary history.” In my opinion, humankind’s one truly essential factor is its spirituality. The artificial concepts to which we have given the designation of sciences are no truer in the ultimate sense than dreams, visions, and inspirations. The quest for absolute proof or objective truth may always be unattainable when it seeks to define and limit the Soul. And I truly believe that one can achieve a high level of education and still maintain a firm belief in the unseen world. The Origins of the Steiger/Star People Questionnaire By Brad Steiger In 1966-’68, as I was traveling throughout the United States and Canada lecturing and gathering research data for my books and articles, I began to develop a questionnaire that I hoped might achieve a kind of pattern profile of individuals with psychic abilities. In 1972, after I had completed my lecture at a major midwestern university, something caused me to glance over the heads of those still clustered around the edge of the stage. I noticed a woman who sat alone in a row of seats in the center section. She seemed to be waiting for something or someone. Then I saw the man seated in a row on the right side of the auditorium. He smiled. I nodded in his direction. The two remained seated until the last members of the audience had shaken my hand and said their final farewells. Then (while neither of the two seemed particularly aware of the other) they stood and began to move toward me as I gathered my notes from the podium. As they drew nearer, I perceived a man and a woman of about my age (at that time, mid-thirties), very pleasant in appearance, and somehow transmitting an aura of great friendliness. It seemed as though I recognized them, but my memory could not precisely place their names or what the circumstances of our prior meetings had been. Then they stood before me, and I was compelled to stare into their eyes. They turned to look closely at one another, then returned their full attention to me. I think it was at that point that all three of us felt our eyes brim with tears. "We ... we are recognizing each other," the woman said softly. "Something like that seems to be occurring," I admitted. "It is so beautiful," the man whispered. "So beautiful to come together again." I had become very cautious over the years about being led into any of the games that people played at psychic and metaphysical gatherings. It was not uncommonplace for a man or a woman to rush up to a speaker at such conferences and seminars and challenge: "Do you remember me?" Invariably the question has to do with past life recollection and not Miss Murphy’s geometry class back in your sophomore year in high school. When the speaker did not recall a life together in Medieval Italy or Ancient, China, the challenger walked smugly away, convinced of his/her superior powers of metaphysical recall. But this was different. I was, somehow, being touched in a very special way. Strange, but profoundly familiar, images were flashing spasmodically from somewhere deep within me. What was happening here? The man and the woman introduced themselves to me, then to each other. She was a social worker. He was a psychologist. We shook hands, then walked to a nearby all-night coffee shop. We talked for hours. Words poured unchecked from each of us. We were delighted, rather than astonished, to discover that, in spite of having been reared in different parts of the country, different ethnic groups, different religions, and so forth, we had somehow managed to have nearly identical childhoods. Certain profound experiences had occurred to us at the same ages, and we found ourselves sharing the full and true nature of those experiences without hesitation. Each of us seemed to know that confidences could be totally shared without fear of censure, mockery, or doubt. We even discovered that we had certain physical anomalies in common, such as an extra vertebra, an unusual blood type, sensitivity to light, unusually keen hearing and smell, and unusually low normal body temperature. But most important, beyond the extraordinary similarity of attitudes, opinions, and philosophies, was the confession that at a very early age we had each experienced contact with an intelligence outside of ourselves with whom we had maintained a regular or semi-regular communication. And, in addition to that personal guidance, we each had an overwhelming sense of mission set against a timetable that screamed for urgency in its commitment. When we at last said our farewells, fully confident that we would somehow always be "in touch," I went back to my hotel room knowing that I had a great deal to sort out in my mind. Thoughts and memories were shouting against each other for immediate attention. Ever since I was a child, I have felt as though I were really a stranger here on Earth. Whenever it was my turn to request a hymn in daily religion class, I always asked for "Heaven Is My Home." I'm but a stranger here--Heaven is my home. Earth is a desert drear--Heaven is my home. Danger and sorrow stand, 'round me on every hand; Heaven is my Fatherland, Heaven is my home. There were other verses, but it was these simple lyrics that carried the greatest impact for me. I had always felt that I was an observer, rather than a participant, of this alien land in which I found myself. I never really felt estranged from the children around me, but I often experienced the notion that they were like a family of cousins whom I was visiting for a time before I returned home. Thank God, I had such warm and loving parents and a wonderful sister to make the sojourn bearable. I suppose that psychiatrists and others who feel that they have some reasonable experience in charting the labyrinths of the human psyche might regard such thoughts as suggestive of one possessed of the creative spirit and its attendant neuroses. But I divulge the above thoughts in a desire to share, rather than as a literary stripping of my inner-self for careless examination. Although I have some rather pronounced memories of a tall man and woman, both dressed in black, who stood looking down at me in my bed at night when I was very young, my first fully recalled contact with an extraterrestrial or multidimensional being took place when I was a child of five. For several minutes, I was able to study him as he seemed intent upon eavesdropping on my parents in the kitchen of our Iowa farm home. I shall never forget the anticipatory tickle in the pit of my stomach when he turned slowly to look directly at me. I was able to perceive clearly his astonishingly large eyes, slightly slanted in a peculiar manner. To my childish assessment, he seemed the very personification of the woodland elf, and he appeared to give me a smile that, in retrospect, seemed conspiratorial, as if we were sharing a secret that was profound in its simplicity. This multidimensional encounter and a near-death-experience at age eleven were quite likely responsible for setting me on my mission at a very early age. In the opinion of the skeptic or the materialist, the whole matter of otherworldly beings no doubt smacks of fairy tales which encourage dramatized regressive behavior. But those men and women who have come face-to-face with such beings know that these guiding entities are far more firm and. purposeful than whimsy or fantasy. Yet even with this awareness, the first time that a hooded master appeared before me in solid form, I did not welcome him at all in the way that I should have. I tried to hit him in the face. The materialized entity was so solid in appearance, so unmistakably there, that I reacted in a very primitive manner. I thought that a prowler was in the house, and I cocked back my fist to give the intruder all that I had. The blow was never delivered. Every ounce of my strength was instantly drained from me. I crumpled and folded like a toy balloon which has had the air totally released from within its elastic structure. Then a voice, deep, sepulchral, yet comforting, said: "Don't be afraid. We will not hurt you." The "we" has always puzzled me, for I was aware of only one entity before me. I know that I received deep and meaningful instruction that night. I know this, even though I have no conscious memory beyond the reassurance that I would not be harmed. One of the most tangible results of that particular visitation is the book, Revelation: The Divine Fire. Divine Fire was an important work in my own spiritual growth, and it has been a book that many men and women have told me was instrumental in altering their lives in a positive way. It is a book that seems to contain an extra charge of spiritual energy that has made connection with many people. The questionnaire which I began distributing in 1967-‘68 was originally created in an attempt to establish a pattern profile of paranormally talented individuals, contemporary mystics, and/or spiritually inspired men and women. After the meeting with my two fellow “strangers in a strange land” in 1972, I began to include aspects which might identity those whom I had come to call “Star People,” after the Chippewa legend of star husbands and wives who had come from the stars and interacted with tribal members. Few of the Star People I interviewed had all of the characteristics listed below, but all of them had a good number of the following elements: *Compelling eyes *Personal charisma *Lower than normal body temperature *Unusual blood type-or even a combination of blood types *Transitional vertebrae, extra vertebrae, or fused vertebrae *Extra ribs *Hypersensitivity to electricity, electromagnetic fields *Lower than normal blood pressure *Chronic sinusitis *Thrive on little sleep and do their best work at night *Was an unexpected child *Sense that their true ancestors came from another world, another dimension, another level of consciousness, and yearn for their real home "beyond the stars" *Feel a great urgency, a short time to complete important goals, a special mission *Experience a buzzing or a clicking sound or a high-pitched mechanical whine in the ears prior to, or during, some psychic event or warning of danger *Had unseen companions as a child *Had a dramatic experience around the age of five which often took the form of a white light and/or a visitation by human-appearing beings who gave information, guidance, or comfort *Have since maintained a continuing contact with beings which they consider to be angels, masters, elves, spiritual teachers or openly declared UFO intelligences *Had a serious accident, illness, traumatic experience or near-death experience around the age of eleven or twelve which encouraged them to turn inward. In 1987, I combined elements in this questionnaire with the research of Sherry Hansen, who had developed a similar questionnaire in 1970 as a counselor at the State University of New York at Stonybrook. We had both found that our interviewees were very often the “helpers” in society, and we found such individuals in all ethnic groups, all social strata, all occupations and professions. In 1993, Sherry and I fashioned the questionnaire that you now perceive on our website, www.bradandsherry.com . Over 90% of the approximately 30,000 individuals who have returned the questionnaire report having experienced a sense of "oneness with the universe." A remarkable 86% claim some kind of contact with other-worldly or other-dimensional beings. The greatest single commonality is a desire to be of service to the planet and to all of its creatures, great and small. Right now, all over the world, certain men and women appear to be responding to some remarkable internal stimulus, as if some time-release capsules are going off inside their hearts, brains, and psyches. They are having peculiar memories surface which remind them that their true ancestral home is a very distant, a very alien, "somewhere else." These awakening Star Seeds are remembering that they came to Earth to perform a specific mission. And they are coming awake to the all-consuming conviction that they must do something to help humankind through some very difficult times which lie ahead for all citizens of the planet. They envision that those who dwell on Earth will have to endure terrible cataclysms, vulcanisms, geological changes, the collapse of social structures, the toppling of political establishments, maybe even the reversal of the planet's electromagnetic field, the shifting of its magnetic poles, and the irreversible effects of global warming. Interestingly, the great majority of “aliens” are professionals who work in the "helping" vocations of our society. They are psychologists, social workers, nurses, medical doctors, chiropractors, school teachers, college professors, journalists, clergymen and clergywomen, police officers, and psychic counselors. These extraterrestrials have been undetected for years, because they are by no means science-fiction monsters or little green persons. They are normal-appearing men and women within the species Homo sapiens. And they seem to have channelled their unique awareness and their special abilities into positive forces for structuring their lives--and the lives of those around them--in exceptionally productive ways. As some internal triggering mechanism alerts them that it is now time to declare themselves and to prepare the planet for a fast-approaching period of transition and transformation, these men and women are quietly receptive to the knowledge that they have something extra which their Earth cousins seem to lack. The aliens among us know that they appear to have within them the seed left by the "Sons of God," who visited this planet in ancient times. From Werewolves with Love: The History of Valentine's Day by Brad Steiger FATE :: February 2006 Everyone thinks they know the origin of Valentine’s Day. According to the most commonly accepted story, Emperor Claudius of Rome issued a decree forbidding marriage in the year 271. Roman generals had found that married men did not make very good soldiers, because they wanted to return as quickly as possible to their wives and children—and they didn’t want to leave them to fight the emperor’s battles in the first place. So Claudius issued his edict that there should be no more marriages, and all single men should report for duty. A priest named Valentine deemed such a decree an abomination, and he secretly continued to marry young lovers. When Claudius learned of this extreme act of disobedience to his imperial command, he ordered the priest dragged off to prison and had him executed on February 14. Father Valentine, the friend of sweethearts, became a martyr to love and the sanctity of marriage, and when the Church gained power in the Roman Empire, the Holy See was quick to make him a saint. The early Church fathers were well aware of the popularity of a vast number of heathen gods and goddesses, as well as the dates of observation of pagan festivals, so they set about replacing as many of the entities and the holidays as possible with ecclesiastical saints and feast days. Mid-February had an ancient history of being devoted to acts of love of a far more passionate and lusty nature than the Church wished to bless, and the bishops moved as speedily as possible to claim the days of February 14 through 17 as belonging to Saint Valentine, the courageous martyr to the ties that bound couples in Christian love. February Is for Mating Actually, there is no proof that the good priest Valentine even existed. Some scholars trace the period of mid-February as a time for mating back to ancient Egypt. On those same days of the year that contemporary lovers devote to St. Valentine, men and women of the Egyptian lower classes determined their marital partners by the drawing of lots. But the time of coupling that comes with the cold nights in February before the spring thaw likely had its true origin very near where Valentine supposedly met his demise. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Wolf Charmer was called the Lupicinus. Perhaps hearkening back to prehistoric times, the Lupicinus may well have been an individual tribesman who had a particular affinity for communicating with wolves. As the tribes developed agriculture and small villages, it was necessary to have a person skilled in singing with the wolves and convincing them not to attack their domesticated animals. The Lupicinus had the ability to howl with the wolves and lead them away from the livestock pens. In some views, because he also wore the pelt of a wolf, the Lupicinus also had the power to transform himself into a wolf if he so desired. Rites of the Lupercalia The annual Lupercali festival of the Romans on February 15 was a perpetuation of the ancient blooding rites of the hunter in which the novice is smeared with the blood of his first kill. The sacrificial slaying of a goat—representing the flocks that nourished early humans in their efforts to establish permanent dwelling places—was followed by the sacrifice of a dog, the watchful protector of a flock that would be the first to be killed by attacking wolves. The blood of the she-goat and the dog were mixed, and a bloodstained knife was dipped into the fluid and drawn slowly across the foreheads of two noble-born children. Once the children had been “blooded,” the gore was wiped off their foreheads with wool that had been dipped in goat milk. As the children were being cleansed, they were expected to laugh, thereby demonstrating their lack of fear of blood and their acknowledgment that they had received the magic of protection against wolves and wolfmen. The god Lupercus, represented by a wolf, would next inspire and command men to behave as wolves, to act as werewolves during the festival. Lupus (wolf) itself is not an authentic or original Latin word, but was borrowed from the Sabine dialect. Luperca, the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus, may have given rise to secret fraternities known as the Luperci, who sacrificed she-goats at the entrances to their “wolves’ dens.” For centuries, the Luperci observed an annual ritual of chasing women through the streets of Roman cities and beating them with leather thongs. Scholars generally agree that such a violent _expression of eroticism celebrated the ancient behavior of primitive hunting tribes corraling captive women. Once a wolfman had ensnared a woman with his whip or thong, he would lead her away to be his wife or lover for as long as the “romance” lasted. Perhaps, as some scholars theorize, this yearly rite of lashing at women and lassoing them with leather thongs became a more acceptable substitute for the bloodlust of the Luperci’s latent werewolfism that in days past had seen them tearing the flesh of innocent victims with their teeth. As the Romans grew ever more sophisticated, the Lupercali would be celebrated by a man binding the lady of his choice wrist to wrist, and later by passing a billet to his object of desire, suggesting a romantic rendezvous in some secluded place. Christian Marriage One can easily see why the early Church fathers much preferred the union of man and woman to be smiled upon by St. Valentine, rather than the leering wolf god Lupercus. And, of course, they encouraged a knot tied securely by the sacred rite of marriage and blessed by the priest, rather than a fleeting midnight liaison. By the Middle Ages, the peasantry in England, Scotland, and parts of France honored St. Valentine, but their customs seemed very much to hearken back to ancient Egypt and Rome. On the evening before Valentine’s Day, the young people would gather in a village meeting place and draw names by chance. Each young woman would write her name or make her mark on a bit of cloth and place it into a large urn. Then each of the young men would draw a slip. The girl whose name or mark was on the piece of cloth became his sweetheart for the year. This method of celebrating St. Valentine’s Day quite often led to circumstances and situations that encouraged long-term and lasting relationships, blessed by the recital of marriage vows in the local church. If the young couple did not take the necessary steps to become bound in a church-sanctioned union, the parents of the respective “bride” and “groom” would actively arrange for the marriage sacrament to be observed. It wasn’t long before the peasant method of utilizing St. Valentine’s Day to guarantee the next generation of field hands, construction workers, and merchants reached the ears of the upper classes, and the custom became popular among the young men and women of the aristocracy and the landed gentry. Since the prospect of arranged marriages between successful families meant far more to the upper classes in Europe than to the peasantry, parental supervision most often limited the interaction between their children to be “sweethearts” during Valentine’s Day parties. By the late 1400s, the upper classes of Europe and England would come together in homes to celebrate Valentine’s Day and allow their young men to draw a “valentine” with the name of a member of the opposite sex, beside whom he would be seated at a lavish dinner party. Hostesses took advantage of the holiday theme to express the tradition in colorful decorative schemes. Gradually, Valentine’s Day came to be synonymous with the exchange of pretty sentiments, written in flourishes on scented paper and decorated with hearts, arrows, doves, and cupids—those little pagan deities maintaining their hold on the ancient holiday. By the early 1800s, young men were taking care to create symbols of their passion on elaborate cards that they could offer to “My Valentine.” Today’s Customs By the 1850s, Valentine’s Day cards were being manufactured and sold commercially in England, and the custom of observing the holiday with cards to one’s sweetheart became popular in the United States in the 1860s, around the time of the Civil War. Today, of course, we have vast commercial enterprises centered around St. Valentine’s Day, insisting that callow young men and seasoned husbands must buy their sweetheart a box of candy, a dozen roses, a diamond ring or necklace, or at least a five-dollar card. But don’t let the slick advertisers fool you with all this talk of a saint named Valentine who was martyred for love. Remember that it all began with a hyped-up wolfman smeared in blood chasing the object of his desire with a leather thong. One last word of advice: Forget the whip and stick with flowers and candy Brad Steiger is a professional writer who deals with the strange and unknown. He lives in Forest City, Iowa. Did Ghost Wolf Receive an Invitation to the Ghost Dance from the Great Spirit? Date: Monday, December 26, 2005 9:49 PM Shoshanna, Ghost Wolf's partner on the lifepath, just received a letter from a friend of Ghost Wolf’s that she would like to share. Tim, a wonderful friend of Wolf's, whose family let him use their vast lands in Montana for the Ghost Dance, received a Christmas gift from Wolf of a hand-crafted, hand-painted horse which had an engraved inscription below in very small print. Wolf also gave the same gift to Shoshanna’s son. After Ghost Wolf’s death, it was agreed that the inscription might be meaningful on his memorial page. But it was so small that no one had read it. Yesterday, Tim got out his magnifying glass and began what was a very difficult task. On December 26, he sent the words of the inscription. “Oh, my God!” Shoshanna exclaimed when she read the inscription. “I had no idea! None. And I had helped purchase the figurine, packed and mailed it off. I had no idea-- and honestly, I don't think Wolf did, either-- because he didn't have his glasses with him. However, knowing his vast knowledge of lyrics, somehow he must have KNOWN the lyrics to this song....when he saw the figurine.” The inscription was Bill Miller’s lyrics to Ghostdance: i wanna go where the blind can see i wanna go where the lame will walk i wanna see the sick ones clean where the deaf can hear and the silent talk where are you going, to a ghostdance in the snow? I am a mighty warrior Yes I’m finally coming home i wanna go where the dead are raised where the mountain lion lays down with the lamb i wanna stand where god is praised i wanna ride across the plains to the promised land where are you going, to a ghostdance in the snow? I am a mighty warrior and I’m finally coming home where i'm going don't need to raise your voice no starvation we'll have plenty to eat no guns no wars, no hateful noise just a victory dance, we'll never taste defeat where there's nothin' done or said that can't be forgiven where every step you take is on sacred ground walk away from death into the land of the living where all the lost tribes are finally found. “For Tim, I send feathers to help heal his heart in a gentle and warm way, and for you, Brad and Sherry, if you would like to post this amongst your website "tributes," you have Tim's and my permission...and I send my loving thanks for being our friend....... Shoshanna For those who may not be familiar with the Ghost Dance, here is a brief historical snapshot, excerpted from a published work of Brad and Sherry Steiger: In 1890, Jack Wilson (1856-1932), a Paiute who worked as a ranch hand for a white rancher, came down with an illness accompanied by a terrible fever. For three days, the powerfully built man lay as if dead. When he returned to consciousness and to the arms of his wife Mary, Wovoka, as he was known in his tribe, told the Paiute who had assembled around his “dead” body that his spirit had left his body and had walked with God, the Old Man, for those three days. As if that were not wonder enough, the Old Man had given him a powerful vision to share with the Paiute people. Wovoka’s vision had revealed that Jesus moved again upon the Earth Mother and that the dead of many tribes were alive in the spirit world, just waiting to be reborn. If the native people wished the buffalo to return, the grasses to grow tall, the rivers to run clean, they must not injure anyone; they must not do harm to any living thing; they must not make war. On the other hand, they must lead lives of purity, cease gambling, put away the white man’ strong drink, and guard themselves against all lusts and weaknesses of the flesh. The most important part of the vision that God gave to Wovoka was how to perform the Ghost Dance. The Paiute prophet told his people that the dance had never been performed anywhere on Earth. It was the dance of the spirit people of the Other World. To perform this dance was to insure that God’s blessings would be bestowed upon the tribe, and many ghosts would materialize during the dance to join with the living in celebration of the return of the old ways. Wovoka said that the Old Man had spoken to him as if he were his son, and He had assured him that many miracles would be worked through him. In his heart and in his life, Wovoka, also known in his tribe as “the Cutter,” became Jesus; Mason Valley, Nevada became Galilee; and the Native American people received a messiah. Soon, many representatives from various tribes visited the Paiute and saw them dance Wovoka’s vision. They saw the truth of the Ghost Dance, and they began calling Wovoka, Jesus. His fame spread so far that newspaper reporters from St. Louis, New York, and Chicago came to see the Ghost Dance Messiah and record his words. The white men were pleased that Wovoka did not speak of war, only of the importance of all people living together in harmony. Sitting Bull, the great Sioux prophet and holy man, was rather noncommittal toward the teachings of the Paiute Messiah. While he did not wholeheartedly endorse the Ghost Dance, neither did he prevent those Sioux who wished to join in the ritual from doing so. Sometime during the fall of 1890, the Ghost Dance spread through the Sioux villages of the Dakota reservations with the addition of the Ghost Shirts, special shirts that could resist the bullets of the bluecoats, the soldiers who might attempt to stop the rebirth of the old ways. As the Sioux danced, sometimes through the night, believing they were hastening the return of the buffalo and their many relatives who had been killed in combat with the pony soldiers, the settlers and townsfolk in the Dakota territory became anxious. And when the Sioux at Sitting Bull’s Grand River camp began to dance with rifles, the white soldiers falsely concluded that the Ghost Dance was really a war dance after all. After a nervous Indian Agent at Pine Ridge wired his superiors in Washington that the Sioux were dancing in the snow and were acting crazy, it was decided that Sitting Bull and other Sioux leaders should be removed from the general population and confined in a military post until the fanatical interest in the Ghost Dance religion had subsided. Sitting Bull was killed by Sioux reservation police on December 15, 1890, and Big Foot and 350 of his people were brought to the edge of Wounded Knee to camp. On December 28, Sioux police, Fouchet’s Cavalry, and Drum’s Infantry moved against the Sioux camp at Grand River. The aggressors also brought with them Hotchkiss multiple-firing guns and mountain howitzers. A shot rang out. The Sioux scattered to retrieve rifles that had been discarded or hidden. From all around the camp, fire from the automatic rifles, violent eruptions from the exploding shells, and volleys of grape shot destroyed the village. As they were being slaughtered by two battalions of soldiers and mounted Hotchkiss funs, the Sioux sang Ghost Dance songs, blended with their own death chants. Within a very short period of time, approximately 300 Sioux had been killed, Big Foot among them, and 25 soldiers had lost their lives. The massacre at Wounded Knee ended the Native American tribes’ widespread practice of the Ghost Dance religion and ended the Indian Wars forever. It was said that Wovoka wept bitterly when learned the fate of the Sioux at Wounded Knee. Jack Wilson, the Cutter, the Paiute Messiah, died in 1932. The Ghost Dance ended in the snow, as in Miller’s lyrics, and in Ghost Wolf’s vision of his approaching ascendance to the arms of the Great Spirit. Sometime in the late 1960s or early '70s, Tim Beckley asked me to present my favorite theory of UFOs for one of his publications. I told my friend Tim that it was impossible for me to select one above many others, so I submitted 17 possible solutions to the UFO enigma: 1. They come from an extraterrestrial civilization: While it seems likely that the visitors have had Earth under surveillance for centuries, they most often choose to conduct their activities in secret, perhaps even misleading humankind and deliberately misleading us for some undetermined reason, such as one of the following: *They are a benign species that follow a policy of noninterference in our planet's evolutionary development. * They are largely indifferent to us as a species and dispassionately observe and study our planet's evolutionary struggles. *They are in the final stages of conducting important tests that will determine whether they will destroy us, exploit us ruthlessly, or totally enslave us. It is this category of visitors who conduct human abductions and who have made secret deals with certain levels of Earth's governments-agreements that they may break with extreme prejudice. 2. Military Secret Hypothesis: The entire concept of alien spaceships, "invaders from Outer Space," was created by military intelligence to mask highly classified research being conducted at such bases as Area 51. *Or--The "aliens" are actually our own military scientists conducting secret maneuvers with highly classified aerial vehicles based on captured Nazi technology brought to the United States immediately after World War II in Project Paperclip. *Or-The crews of UFOs are terrestrial astronauts conducting secret military maneuvers with classified aerial vehicles based on alien technology reversed engineered from alien technology recovered in extraterrestrial vehicle crash sites, such as that near Roswell, NM in 1947. 3. The UFOs are products of a terrestrial secret society: Centuries ago, a secret society of alchemists developed an advanced technology, which they kept hidden in underground or undersea cities. This ancient society has been subtly guiding Earth's "elite" throughout history, and when it deemed the proper times, it provided certain "outsiders" with scientific breakthroughs. This mighty secret society only awaits the appropriate moment to conquer the outside world and enslave it. 4. They come from the Hollow Earth: Ancient secret societies, traditions, and folklore speak of an underground empire inside our planet. This underground world is the home of the Master Race, both feared and sought after by occult societies throughout world history. This shadow race has been responsible for the appearance of mysterious aerial vehicles and many of miseries that have plagued humankind. 5. A program of deceit and lies: A secret agency within the established government, allied with its counterparts in foreign nations, has created the UFO myth for its own nefarious purpose in bringing about a New World Order. Abductions, impregnations, and mysterious disappearances are all the sinister handiwork of those working for a One World Government-a goal which may have been assisted since ancient times by extraterrestrial intelligence. 6. Unknown terrestrial life-forms: Great numbers of UFO sightings may be explained by the existence of previously unknown, unidentified life-forms largely indigenous to the higher reaches of Earth's atmosphere. The "sky-critters," the "sky fish," may be plasmic, electrical, nearly pure energy forms that have the ability to assume a variety of forms. 7. Astronauts from Atlantis: The UFOnauts are the descendents of an ancient civilization on Earth that developed space travel and set about colonizing other worlds at the time when their own terrestrial empire was being destroyed by cataclysmic forces wrought by their own superscience. From time to time, the contemporary Atlanteans return to visit their home planet. 8. Time Travelers from the Future: Our descendents from the future return to study the true destiny of humankind by using the past-our present-as a kind of living museum. They cannot openly declare themselves for fear of up-setting the linear flow of history and thus altering the future-their present. 9. Other Dimensional Visitors: The Visitors come not from a faraway world in our solar system or any other, but from an adjacent space-time continuum, co-existing here on Earth, but on another vibrational/dimensional frequency or level. 10. Psychic Phenomena: The UFO phenomenon is the result of some as yet unknown physical energy that can be activated by the psyche, the unconscious level of the human mind. This physical law or energy would not itself be intelligent, but it would be able to absorb, reflect, or imitate human intelligence. 11. Projections of human beliefs: The UFO enigma is a phenomenon of the collective human psyche that charges to reflect the prevailing belief structures of the time. The UFO constitutes a paraphysical phenomenon that is related both to the psychological state of the observer and the zeitgeist which enmeshes the observer. 12. Psychic need: Certain of humankind's basic psychic needs tap into psychokinetic and other paranormal energies and create images of wee people, holy figures, and other worldly beings. The familiar forms that these manifestations assume have been intrinsic elements in the human psyche since very ancient times, but they appear modern in that human experiences perceive them in the context of ideas that the conscious mind has acquired through acculturation. 13. Archetypes: UFOs and their occupants are quasi-real images created by the human collective unconscious. Jungian archetypes surface as the result of thought-field energies that are accessible to humans through dreams, meditations, and other states of altered consciousness. These archetypes may, in certain instances, be directed by highly evolved entities who seek to influence and guide human affairs. 14. The Magic Theater: Such paranormal machinations that we associate with UFO phenomena are the result of the "magical" manipulations of time and space that are performed by the entities we have dubbed "elves, fairies, devas, " and so forth. These entities are paraphysical beings that have coexisted with us as a companion species and appear to participate somehow with us in an evolutionary design. 15. The Supernatural: The UFO intelligences are the same entities who are described in the scriptures of so many world religions as angels-both the messengers of God and the fallen armies of Lucifer. The entire UFO mystery may be the continuation of the struggle between the two warring factions of angels for the souls of humankind. 16. We are property: The UFO intelligences maintain an interest in our planet because they are literally the lords of the Earth, the creators of the human species. 17. The Reality Game: The UFO intelligences are playing a teaching game with humankind in which our concept of reality is being gradually changed. In the teasing fashion of a Zen riddle or a Sufi joke, we are being provoked and guided into a higher consciousness.
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