Tag: writing

ᴵᴺ LIEU ᴏғ RHYME ᴏʀ REASON: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ LOGIC ɢᴏᴇs ᴛᴏ DIE

(Animation by Dualvoidanima)

There is and always has been an ordinance of belief in effect upon this world. Anywhere and everywhere that mankind goes, his beliefs too, go with him, along with the repercussions associated with said belief. Some beliefs are more palatable than others, some can be proven with various practices, but a great many beliefs are enforced/controlled by popular opinion (or the manipulation/distortion of such). Some things, even if someone sees it with their own eyes, hears it with their own ears, they will doubt the event ever occurred at all. Believing rather, that they were deceived, that their memory is somehow erroneous, a spell of madness temporarily took hold of them, nullifying their senses. The ordinance, must not be questioned, this universe is governed by a set of rules and those rules cannot be broken. Until of course, “the universe,” chooses to behave quite altogether different, changing the rules of engagement entirely.

Our experiences with this world, this reality, go on to shape and mould us in a multitude of ways that we can barely imagine. Our imaginations, too, anchored to this very same existential experience. Somehow, somewhere, somewhen a singular event unfolds, that defies all logic and reason. A singular event that by all rights, by the laws of physics, the laws of nature as they are understood, should not be possible to have ever occurred at all. An event where the rules of logic and physics are effectively broken. What are the repercussions upon the individual(s) to witness one such event? Let alone, a lifetime of such events?

One thing is clear: strangeness, it seems, begets strangeness.

I noticed the screen of my phone illuminate before the sound of the call began, upon answering, an old familiar voice said, “surely we’re not the only ones who still remember what happened?” Flickers of memory cascaded through my mind’s eye, the dust rising over the road as the frill-neck lizard chased after me, hissing, all the way home from school. The mute little girl riding on the back of her German-shepherd, an uncannily gentle creature that would later be murdered by one of the many insidious characters of that time and place. The bizarre inkblot-like formation the spilled blood made as it pooled over the cement as they relentlessly tortured the albino boy. It all seemed like strange details in some obscure work of fiction now. “It was an unusual time, looking back, it’s sort of like trying to remember a dream,” I replied. “Or a nightmare, probably better off forgotten,” the voice said.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche

I shuffled the deck, without looking at the cards. Splitting the deck, I turned over one of the cards. “Four of hearts,” she said, I looked down and smiled. “I wonder what’s the record for guessing cards right, this many times in a row,” I wondered aloud. My grandmother’s voice spoke from across the room, “but she isn’t guessing.”

Three people were seated at a restaurant awaiting their meal. Of the three beverages delivered to the table, one was a can of coke cola, tiny beads of liquid perspiring down the chilled aluminum can. Throughout the exchange of general chit-chat one individual’s attention was drawn to the can as it began to slowly spin 360 degrees. Immediately all three individuals looked at the can and inspected underneath the table, laughing and dumbstruck by the seemingly odd behavior of physics unfolding before them. As they slid their chairs back from the table, their eyes fixated on the can, the can then slowly slid/moved (itself?) approximately 30 cm along the table, before coming to a halt. A young waitress approached the table and asked, “am I crazy or was that coke just moving?” Another patron added, “the table must be uneven, it looked like that from over here too.” There was shock, there was laughter, there was speculation, but then the nattering, the general chit-chat returned. Years later, a doubtful anecdote, at best, a mere question mark remains. There has to be a logical explanation, even if one cannot fathom what that explanation actually is.

A maintenance electrician arrives on site, parking where he always does, every morning. He exits his vehicle and prepares himself a coffee, as he does every day. He returns to his vehicle to sit in the driver seat to consume it. While drinking his beverage, sat in his vehicle he notices a familiar face in the distance, an old work mate he had not seen in years. Making his way toward this individual, he drops his coffee and falls to his knees with the concussive blast of a high pressure explosion. As the ringing in his ears subsides and he shakes the scolding hot coffee off of his hands, he looks back to his vehicle, specifically the front driver’s seat. The windscreen shattered, piping protruding through the metal frame of the vehicle, having burst through the driver’s head rest. The electrician observed visibly shaken upon the inspection of his vehicle, quickly coming to the conclusion that this old acquaintance he intended to catch up with, had inadvertently saved his life. So the tradesman began asking, where is this person, where is he. But he is reminded that he’s in shock, and not to worry about it. Later discovering that not only was the person he thought he had seen not on site that day, he had not been on any site for years, he had died in a workplace accident several years earlier. The question mark haunts this individual still.

Tragedy, she told me, echoes through time, sending shock-waves through memory, through generations, through worlds that cascade into oblivion. It would be another two decades before she would explain just how tragic certain events truly were, but the truth, it seems, found its way into my understanding long before it needed to be spoken. Wandering the abandoned asylum as a child, what I assumed were merely conjurations of my mind, the kind of stories that unfold in thought, were events that actually transpired in that abysmal place, to relatives that I never knew. Now, a memory of a memory, there is no meaning, there is no clarity or closure, merely a question mark, contributing to an ever estranged relationship with reality itself.

I was awoken in the middle of the night by a phone call, I didn’t recognize the number or even the area code. I could hear the familiar sounds heard within the carriage of a train, moving along the tracks. I could hear unintelligible voices in the background, it didn’t sound English. Then what sounded like a female voice saying, “Kappa… Kappa… Kappa.” I replied, “Hello, who is this?” I could hear the sounds of a train a moment longer, then they hung up. This went on for months, happening one night every few weeks, usually after midnight. It became apparent to me, that the word Kappa, 河童 in Japanese meant ‘river-child’, an amphibious yōkai, a creature of folklore. That didn’t give any sense to the purpose or nature of the continual prank call. Some years later, while traveling Japan during one of the many train trips taken, I had an eerily familiar feeling, as I listened to the sounds of the train clunking over the tracks, and just as I anticipated it, I heard a woman somewhere in the carriage say what I knew would be said, “Kappa… Kappa… Kappa.” I struggled to get out of my seat, by the luggage and other passengers, looking around for anyone holding a phone. But no one was, and the passengers looked concerned and uneasy as I investigated them with a glare. So I returned to my seat and the weight of the question mark grew heavier.

The ancients knew it best, there was good, there was evil, but most of all there was the in-between, the tricksters, the deceivers. These elusive beings that left all those who crossed-paths with them scratching their heads. Forgotten by the modern world. Their will was intangible, there was no rhyme or reason, it dumbfounded mortal men that gods, fay, beings of great power would toy with the lives of so many, to achieve, seemingly nothing. Yet in their mischief, in their tricks and games, theirs was the greatest gift of all. It was always a display of triviality, a literal example of nonsense, leading us both metaphorically and literally down the garden path. Exposing us to unbelievable spectacles that many might call paranormal or supernatural, in an effort to unveil what lay before us, that consumes our existence from the moment we are born to the second that we die. The ordinance of belief, alike our reality as we understand it is not rigid, indestructible or impervious to challenge.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᵀᴴᴱ MIND ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ MULTIVERSE

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

Who were you yesterday? Are you the same person today? Who will you be in 1 year’s time? Are you your physical body, comprised of approximately 60 elements? 65% Oxygen, 18% Carbon, 10% Hydrogen, 3% Nitrogen, with a remaining 4% of an assortment of about 56 remaining elements? Are you the chemical and electrical synapses of your brains? Are you the culmination of choices you’ve made? The summation of experience and memory? Are you your virtues? Are you your vices? Are you your likes and dislikes, tastes, sense of humor, the attitude you hold toward the world you inhabit? A great many people, throughout the ages, scattered all over this world have struggled to answer the seemingly simple question, ‘who am I?’

Before getting into topics the likes of religion, spirituality, dissociative disorders/multiple personality disorders, the theoretical Noösphere, the ‘collective consciousness’, our measurable, tangible reality appears to suggest that ‘self’, is singular. Singular in the sense that it is the individual product of the living entity, specifically the individual’s physical brain and the activity therein. Singular and finite, but essentially limited to the physical brain and body (without the use of specific apparatus). In this version of interpretation of self, you are the form and proceeding thoughts and effects of a being (even if conjoined with another) throughout the course of your mortal existence. The moment such an existence ends, with the declaration of death, aside from your physical ‘remains’, existing memory/implications left behind, who you are/were, ceases to be.

So why is it then, that virtually every religion on the planet suggests otherwise? The ‘Afterlife’, The Underworld, Heaven & Hell, The Dreamtime, Reincarnation, ‘Spirits of the Ancestors’, the Immortal Soul? These notions that something ‘goes on’, some part of all beings, transcending mortality arises time and time again, across almost all cultures. The belief in Ghosts, Spirits of the deceased lingering beyond death. The concept of Angels and Demons, beings thought to exist outside or veiled beneath the reality we see before us. Near Death Experiences where individuals report observations that correlate with one another. Much rarer and even more peculiar, NDEs where an individual is pronounced dead, where no brain activity is present, yet upon returning to life, claim to have experienced certain events. (Such as the case of Pam Reynolds Lowery, “In 1991, at the age of 35, she stated that she had a near-death experience (NDE) during a brain operation performed by Robert F. Spetzler at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Reynolds was under close medical monitoring during the entire operation. During part of the operation she had no brain-wave activity and no blood flowing in her brain, which rendered her clinically dead. She claimed to have made several observations during the procedure which later medical personnel reported to be accurate.” —Pam Reynolds Case, Wikipedia, Explained in greater detail in a book titled, Light and Death: One Doctor’s Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences, by Michael B. Sabom, 2011.)

Someone might suggest, that the reason this idea, regarding existence beyond death, beyond this reality keeps finding common ground is because the alternative terrifies us, as a species. We simply can’t bear the notion that our brief time in this world is all there is and the nothingness from whence we (seemingly) came is all that awaits us, in eternity after we inevitably draw our last breath. So we tell ourselves stories, stories that give a far grander view of things to come than funeral pyres and holes in the ground. But preconceived notions aside, religion and spirituality aside, the question that needs to be considered is, could consciousness exist outside of the brain?

“In [Dr. Peter] Fenwick’s view, the brain does not create or produce consciousness; rather, it filters it. As odd as this idea might seem at first, there are some analogies that bring the concept into sharper focus. For example, the eye filters and interprets only a very small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum and the ear registers only a narrow range of sonic frequencies. Similarly, according to Fenwick, the brain filters and perceives only a tiny part of the cosmos’ intrinsic ‘consciousness.’”

—Clifford N. Lazarus, Psychologytoday.com, 26th of June, 2019

Fenwick and Lazarus referring to a ‘consciousness’ worded as being intrinsic with the cosmos, a primary attribute of reality itself, as apparent as gravity or light. This resource of ‘consciousness’ being some form of intangible self/collective existing without any basis of physical, tangible, measurable presence, but accounting for what many might refer to as the elusive aspect of humanity, some religions call, the “immortal soul”. The part that transcends all else. The brain ‘filtering’ consciousness, like the filtering of frequency required to tune in to a specific signal. The question then, is ‘where’ or even ‘when’ does this source/signal of consciousness come from? Where does it exist? Assuming it exists in any conventional sense that we can imagine.

Is it possible that consciousness (or something similar), just as it’s insinuated in so many religions (in the form of a soul or spirit), exists beyond the realm of this reality, yet is here all the same? A spiritual, intangible connection to something beyond the observable universe. Something that can be hijacked, the influence of Demons, Angels, Spirits. Something that is (by processes elaborated later) connected to avenues that provide a means of perceiving future events, premonitions, déjà vu, soul mates, fate/destiny. Is this ‘link’ the very means by which God peers into the truest, purest, rawest nature of all living things? If consciousness does/could transcend this reality/dimension, what would be its relationship with the theoretical Multiverse/Omniverse?

“With the proposition of ∞ dimensions, comes an ∞ supply of variables. The basic principals of physics required to keep the some hundred trillion atoms that make up the individual cells in our bodies from destabilization may simply not exist. By the very nature of ∞, there has to be dimensions where that is the case. But by the same principal, dimensions depicting a religious afterlife, planes described in ancient myth and legend, too have a place in the theoretical Omniverse.

In the concept of “shadow dimensions” and “mirror dimensions”, it has been suggested that fragments of a dimension, like ours for instance, can/could be taking place simultaneously in multiple dimensions or shadow/mirror dimensions. For example, the concept of a dimension consisting purely of consciousness, a virtual archive of every sentient being to have ever existed in a specific dimension. Essentially a separate realm, possibly devoid of time, containing what some would call the “immortal soul”. Theoretically, the co-existence of these two (or more) dimensions, could be part of bridging a possible dimensional shift after what we consider to be death.”

—ᴛʜᴇ GREAT BEYOND …ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴇʏᴏɴᴅ

When applying the Infinite Monkey Theorem, the prospect of infinite versions of realities to the Multiverse theory:

“There are some, who believe that the Infinite Monkey Theorem is not purely limited to a hypothetical textual outcome. Throughout recent history in science-fiction literature the concept of infinite realities has been explored. The very instant the term ‘infinite’ is applied, then too, endless possibilities must also apply. Just as the endless variables have been addressed in reference to the Infinite Monkey Theorem. Which suggests there are infinite, slight variations of all things even remotely conceivable (or inconceivable! to quote Vizzini from the Princess Bride) throughout various realities or dimensions.

What this could mean, is that there is a reality exactly like this one, only 1 second behind our version of “time”. Then there is another reality, which is 1 second behind that second reality. This could go on infinitely, creating a relative constant of every moment of your (and my) existence, which actually lasts for an infinite amount of time collectively. Meaning, among other things, every second of every one of our existences is perpetually being lived in an incessant and infinite loop throughout the dimensions. That is one version of an infinite possible variations of realities.”

—ᴛʜᴇ INFINITE MONKEY THEOREM

A, B, C, D, E all representing independent realities in a theoretical multiverse. Each of the 5 realities are identical in every single way, but one. The one variable setting these 5 versions of reality apart, is that the entropic changing of state of each universe, the passing of time, is at a slightly different juncture/stage. A, B, C, D, E representing the same point in time, merely if there was an outside omniscient being observing all 5 realities, E is ahead of D, and so on, with A unfolding the same moment last. If you subscribe to both the Multiverse theory, and apply true ‘infinity’ to such a concept, by the logic behind the Infinite Monkey Theorem there is no reason it should be impossible or even improbable that there is an infinity of realities nigh indistinguishable from this one, in some/infinite cases, why wouldn’t ‘time/progression’ alone be the only variable of change?

“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence’ … Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: ‘You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.’”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882

The concept of the Eternal Return or Eternal Recurrence unsettled Friedrich Nietzsche (as he expressed in Beyond Good and Evil, 1886). In many works surrounding the idea, the notion suggests the events of this universe unfolding, returning and unfolding again, waves of time, merely going in and out like a tide. The concept is explained in greater detail here, TIME TRAVEL ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ 2ɴᴅ ʟᴀᴡ ᴏғ THERMODYNAMICS. But what if throughout the countless realities of the multiverse every fraction of a second of your own life was playing out right now, simultaneously? In the same second your eyes drift over these words, your infant self is exiting your mother’s womb. In the same moment you contemplate that reality, in another, and countless others you die, or a mourner visits your grave site 10 years after you were buried there.

Even those infinite variables, infinite moments that seem so vast to the individual are only a microscopic, minuscule, tiny aspect of a far greater complex system of possibilities. Do these variations, these segments of our identical selves, in perpetual existences, each require an independent soul? Or do the brains that harbor our consciousness interpret it from a plane, a singular dimension? Sometimes revealing glimpses of things perceived to us as future events, yet occurring simultaneously elsewhere. Déjà vu, dreams of future happenings, ‘memories of things yet to pass’, knowing where or what something without any reason to possess such knowledge. (This train of thought could also be applied to the Mandela effect phenomenon where large groups of people claim to remember historical events differently to others. Often argued as distorted or collective erroneous memory, but many believe the phenomenon to be an indication of possible alternate realities/universes, or the merging of such.)

“I remember a vivid dream I had when I was about eight or nine years old, that I’ve managed to remember for all these years. I was wandering through a hospital, I felt drawn to a location, almost like I wasn’t in control of where I was going. Eventually I was standing at the end of a bed where an old man lie. He seemed to be the only person who noticed my presence. He looked at me with a stunned expression, for a moment, until nurses began gathering around him, placing an oxygen mask over his face. I tried to wake up, and I did, but not before seeing the old man die.

Naturally, at the time I was upset, I thought it was some sort of omen about one of my grandfathers. It wasn’t until years later when I was speaking about it with my great grandmother, she suggested that perhaps the old man was me. That I was somehow consoling my future self during my own death. It was an interesting thought, from a woman who after passing away herself, has since visited many of my family members in their dreams.”

—ᴛʜᴇ DREAMING ᴅᴏᴏʀ

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 4

GHOSTS: WHAT ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛʜᴇ DEAD ᴡᴀɴᴛ?

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

Why do we do what we do? There is no shortage of texts, theories and hierarchies pertaining to motivation, its purpose and its connection to survival and existence. “Why did the chicken cross the road?” “To get to the other side.” Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) breaks down human motivation laying out the elements that meet the “conditions within the individual that are essential and necessary for the maintenance of life and the nurturance of growth and well-being.” —Beata Souders, Positivepsychology.com. These needs can be simplified to three primary categories. Basic needs, psychological needs and self-fulfillment needs. The basic needs include physiological, the raw fundamental needs required to perpetuate our basic (biological) state, along with safety/security. Belonging, union, self-esteem and accomplishment. Lastly, the need for self-actualization, and achieving one’s “full potential”.

When it comes to the living, there are a great many reasons why we do the things that we do. Even the more heinous, deplorable of human actions can be explained using motivation. “Motives for murder can be condensed into four sets of ‘Ls’: Lust; Love; Loathing; and Loot.” —Peter Morrall, Murder and Society, 2006. Lust and Love, both connected to attempts at achieving psychological needs (or perversions of such): union and self-esteem. In the barbaric sense, two or more conflicting parties, whose disagreement reaches its pinnacle will lead to violence, murder/defeat being the accomplishment of ‘ending’ an enemy (the mentality that stirs before many homicides to this day. Also, according to Friedrich Nietzsche when it comes to acts of cruelty and acts of benevolence: “On the doctrine of the feeling of power. Benefiting and hurting others are ways of exercising one’s power over them”, thus a similar motivation could account toward contributing factors for significantly implicating another individuals existence. An expression of power, a sense of accomplishment, good or bad, irrelevant). Lastly, and likely most obviously, the motivation to acquire ‘Loot’ or wealth from murder is driven by the prospect of personal gain (among other variables).

Consider anything any living soul has ever said or done and with enough contemplation, you’ll soon discover a myriad of (possible) elements that may explain the motivation that led them to do whatever it is they’ve done.

But could the same be said for the (theoretical) dead?

When it comes to the basic understanding of ‘ghosts‘, many cultures share an idea regarding the incorporeal presence of what was once living, most often human (or animal), somehow lingering after death. (The Shinto Tsukumogami 付喪神 being one of the exceptions, an inanimate object believed to gain a ‘kami’ or spirit after 100 years. If the object is treated poorly by its owners, the item’s spirit will take on an insidious persona. Other exceptions might include the likes of demons, jinn (جن), ‘shadow entities’, essentially sentient beings of religion, folklore & myth that have never existed on earth in a natural mortal state).

*Haunting: “A belief in the lingering presence of an unwelcome and often malicious intruder.”


Fantazmë, прывід, φάντασμα, spøkelse, גייַסט, ուրվական,幽霊, Hayalet, Exspiravit, Ysbryd, 유령…


Mentioned above are just a few of the many ways in which human language from all over the world can express the word ‘ghost’. There are approximately 7,097 languages (according to ethnologue.com, 2018) and you would be hard-pressed to find one that did not have a means of expressing what we in the western world call ghosts.

—A Compendium of Fear, C. M. Johnson, 2019

The Ghost/Phantom/Specter, stuck between the mortal world and beyond, in such a predicament either by choice, accident or punishment. Ghosts can be regarded as ‘lost souls’, blindly following the motions of life into death, glimpsed by the living as a sort of memory or echo of what once was (The Stone Tape theory). Ghosts in this light could be interpreted as something closer to a residual recording of some kind, as opposed to a truly sentient existence, that reacts to new stimuli. Though this benign, disconnected understanding is not highly popular among paranormal communities, believers or culturally. *This could be because fear, entertainment and intrigue have aided in the dispersion of widespread understanding of ghosts. A campfire story involving an echo, a ‘record’ of a ghost simply isn’t as frightening as a thinking/reacting supernatural entity.

What could possibly motivate the dead to do anything, if it is done so at all? What could the dead possibly want, if the dead were capable of wanting? Is it will alone that governs the existence of specters, if so, whose will? Could a ghost end its own existence? What purpose, if at all, does the existence of ghosts (fictional or otherwise) serve?

One popular conceptual basis for motivation for the dead has been called unfinished business. Implying motivations, desires held in life can transcend into the afterlife. Spirits of the dead lingering on earth watching over their loved ones, committing precarious deeds of chance otherwise blamed on luck, fate, guardian angels or a variety of mythological creatures. In many cultures around the world, particularly tribal cultures, the spirits of the ancestors are said to bring fortune and guidance to the living. Motivated by the love they held for the families/group in life and a desire to assist in the preservation of that group/lineage. The ghost of a murder victim believed to linger until the murderer is brought to justice. The ghost of a missing person lingering until the biological remnants are discovered, and so on, sometimes aiding in their own discovery. Almost always universally seeking a poetic, tidy ending, without any loose ends. But why (as so many clairvoyants claim) would a deceased person fret about ‘the missing ring’, or ‘the lost inheritance’ or ‘Name needs to forgive Name’? Is there really so little beyond this world that such trivial affairs concern us into the beyond? Estimations suggest that approximately 109 billion homo sapiens will have died on Planet Earth, as of year 2020. The dead well and truly outnumber the living, but the presence of ghosts, alike their actions are not commonly detected. Despite some surveys suggesting that 42% of Americans believe in ghosts (The Harris Poll, 2013).

A great deal of interest and belief in life(?) after death comes from spirits and ‘unusual activity’ affiliated with haunted areas, who or which reveal themselves, to be seemingly bound to specific locations (for seemingly indefinite periods of time, if not vanquished, smudged, exorcised, ceremonially/ritualistically cleansed such as the Tibetan Exorcising-Ghost day ‘Gutor’ ༼དགུ་གཏོར་༽ a ritual of spiritual cleansing, or simply just persuaded to leave).

Many individuals who experience hauntings of various severity suggest that the haunting within of itself, is a means of willful sentient communication. Unique and targeted towards various individuals with differing enthusiasm, depending on the (psychic/spiritual) sensitivity of the victim (or countless other factors), or ‘energy’ of the spirit(s). More often than not, the will of said apparition is perceived to be, “get out”, “you’re not welcome here”, “I hate you”, threats, insults etc. Leading many individuals and cultures alike to believe the noticeable acts of a poltergeist, be them visual apparitions or physical interactions (moving objects, banging walls) are efforts to inspire fear in the living to achieve an end result. Weaponizing fear to either scare the living into staying away, inflicting harm through psychological duress, or because they gain somehow through the ordeal/connection (emotional/psychological energy absorption, etc).

It’s often suggested that the behavior (often malevolent) and the implications of such on the living are a means of the dead perpetuating an existence by proxy. Subject A) is biologically alive, Subject B) is the common understanding of a ghost or even an imaginary entity. If subject B) implicates A) by any means whatsoever (paranormal event/erroneous hallucination) B) exists, to some degree, through A). Essentially a parasitic form of existence, riding on the coat tails of another being’s bond with reality.

According to interpretations of Tibetan Buddhist concepts, an entity that gains its existence very similar to this parasitic method, is called Tulpa (སྤྲུལ་པ་). A ‘being’ formed entirely from the mind of a living mortal, that through careful meditation, cultivation, imagination, and possibly no small amount of psychic/supernatural ability, a spiritual (ghost-like) manifestation is willed into existence. Are there an infinite supply of ghosts scratching at the inside of our imaginations, slowly being willed into reality with every second glance, with every skipped heartbeat when we hear a muffled whisper in the dark? Slowly (and literally) creating our own incorporeal assailants?

“Tulpa is a concept in mysticism and the paranormal of a being or object which is created through spiritual or mental powers. It was adapted by 20th-century theosophists from Tibetan sprul-pa which means “emanation” or “manifestation”. Modern practitioners use the term to refer to a type of willed imaginary friend which practitioners consider to be sentient and relatively autonomous.”

—Wikipedia

The popularized sentiment of ghosts haunting their previous homes, territory, property, treasure is rooted in an idea that these deceased individuals desire(?) or seek to perpetuate a form of “ownership”, ‘control’ over the mortal world, into the afterlife. But the concept of ownership, proceeding mortal death (regardless of whether or not ghosts/spirits exist) is also implying that ghosts not only retain consciousness/sentience but despite the death of the mortal body, the ego remains (or attempts to sustain a part of itself).

“Physical materialism is the belief that possessions can bring release from suffering. They may bring temporary happiness but then more suffering in the endless pursuit of creating one’s environment to be just right.”

—Chögyam Trungpa, Lords of Materialism, c. 1970

Could a ghost’s desire to retain ownership over something in the physical world act as an anchor to simply linger on? I still own this place, the place exists, I haunt the place to assert my ownership, therefore I exist. Could existence, even achieving the faint echo of such, be the motivation? An eternal defiance of loss, standing on the other side of the doorway, attempting to fake it until they make it? Holding on to the memory of life, because it’s simply better than nothing, or the only other options presented to the dead?

“The underlying motivation for materialism is finding happiness based on the mistaken notion that one’s ego is inherently existent and a valid point of view. That is incorrect, and therefore the materialistic approaches have an invalid basis to begin with. The message in summary is, “Don’t try to reinforce your ego through material things.” The point of religion is to show you that your ego doesn’t really exist inherently. Ego is something you build up to make you think you exist, but it is not necessary and in the long run causes more suffering.”

—Chögyam Trungpa, Lords of Materialism, c. 1970

Is the desperate, seemingly futile motivation toward ownership, influence over the living (commonly through fear) merely attempts at retaining ego (self), because such creatures are actually holding onto the notion that ego “is something you build up to make you think you exist, but it is not necessary and in the long run causes more suffering.”—Chögyam Trungpa.

“To live is to suffer.”

―Friedrich Nietzsche

From what most are led to believe at least from the popularized sentiments of ghosts and their common demeanor, is it possible that under certain circumstances, death (like life) is suffering also?

Unfinished business, may be the desire to hold onto the memory of the individual self, to simply suffer a little longer. Before letting go of the illusion of life itself.

“All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.”

―Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

A ghost may be, simply because it has but two choices:

To be, or not to be.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 9

ᵀᴴᴱᴿᴱ IS ɴᴏ YESTERDAY

(Animated by thebluesquare)

The time it takes for our planet to make a full orbit of our solar system’s sun, is (close to) 365 days, equating to one earth ‘year’. Our existence in terms of age/time begins at 0 (leaving the womb), after 1 year, to 2, 3, etc. Ending for most Homo sapiens on this planet at year 79 (average human life expectancy), with death. When moving through space and/or time, we often use consecutive junctures to indicate where we might be, where we’ve been and ultimately, where we are headed. If there are four points in space/time identified as A, B, C and D, and you found yourself at point C, you could establish that you have passed A and B, and if you continue on your trajectory, you’ll eventually get to D(eath).

For the sake of simplifying this thought exercise, we could imagine a highly advanced synthetic mind, a mind that after being activated for a time, has its memory entirely wiped. Every time it is activated, synthetic memories of past experiences that never occurred, can be freely recalled. The artificial intelligence believes events that never happened, signify its past. It believes it is on a trajectory, paved by the past that never was, awaiting a future that will never be. A foundation of self, a perceivable ‘existence’, built upon the illusion of a compiled ‘overall’ experience.

But why would point A, B, C and so on, have to be days, hours or even minutes?

Could a “mind” exist and essentially end in the fraction of a second without ever comprehending its existence was entirely synthetic and false? A glimpse of a moment, a virtual past, a presumed fictitious future. What if what were perceived to be the ‘physical world’, the anchor to a being’s reality, came from the very same synthetic source as the synthetic mind, perceiving it?

If memory and understanding of self was false, would it be inconceivable to suggest that thought and even the illusion of ‘free will’, could be false also. All the while, an individual believes that their existence is legitimate, they have a past, they believe in a future, never once assuming the entirety of their being and reality, was purely a work of fiction.

Perhaps in the event of malfunction, when a memory is accidentally recalled before the scenario was intended to unfold, a sentient mind might explain the occurrence as a similar phenomenon to what we call ‘déjà vu’.

Someone might say, “why would anyone go to all that trouble? To create an entirely artificial universe, purely to deceive an equally artificial mind? There’s no point.”

Firstly, its also a lot of trouble for an artificial being, existing in a simulation to push an artificial bolder, up an artificial hill. Achieving nothing at the end of the ordeal, that never truly happened anyway. To entertain such a prospect, suggesting, that you yourself are the artificial being, then you have no bearing on what truly dictates “trouble” or effort to someone/something with the means to create a (false) universe. As previously mentioned, while one planetary orbit of our sun signifies a year for us, a being capable of creating a simulation of such, may require a time some several thousand times greater than that to urinate. (Assuming time as we understand it, has to exist at all, outside of this reality.)

“There’s no point.”

If you had the means to construct a reality and harbor sentient beings that knew that reality as the be all and end all, would you do it? For what purpose? And if those artificial beings, in your artificial reality had the means, would they replicate the experiment? Over and over and over again? Does there need to be a point, a purpose for something, for it to occur? Human beings like to tell ourselves our species exists because of “love”, but would it be more honest to say, we (or a great many of us) exist, like many other things, as a product of something as trivial as boredom.

Despite all love, grief, fear, hope and meaning, what if, the moment is a lie. Tomorrow never comes, and ultimately, there is no yesterday?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 2

ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS & ᴛʜᴇ ARGONAUT

Orbs of mass, shaped by the will of the universe adorn what we might call the beyond. Estimations suggest the number of planets in our universe exceed 1024. These many orbs (oblate spheroids) formed by the gravitational rotations of time, the laws of nature. The rules imposed upon the behavior of matter and energy, seemingly conjured during some intrinsic union with time and space, essentially during the juncture at which reality as we perceive it, began. Assuming things like our ‘common reality’ can/could truly have a beginning.

It’s when we try to imagine something, anything or even nothing, before what we consider ‘the beginning’, that things start to become convoluted. Something that has been profoundly influential to me (regarding this topic), is something my childhood self stumbled upon. A coping method I came up with during difficult times. Initially, I would practice allowing myself to imagine an alternative to this reality. I would start by imagining the solar system, only the third (planetary) orb from the sun was gone. (Effectively psychologically eliminating all possible conceivable fears/problems, because all concerning trivial affairs not only no longer existed, but had no conceivable connection to the history of said theoretical universe).

Steadily, I let my minuscule understanding of the universe dissolve, and my imagination made its way to something close to what physicists might describe as ‘heat death’ or the fate of the universe. Only there was no mass, no time, no space. At around eight years old, what was once a coping method had become a pastime. A literal passing of time, because I’d discovered a way to mentally check out of reality. Now the challenge was no longer ‘allowing’ myself to imagine this, but attempting to force my mind to believe this was a reality, somewhere, somehow. I could zone out for an hour or so with ease, utterly oblivious to the passing of time.

Only there was something wrong, even in that conjured void, there was ‘something’, that doesn’t belong in nothingness. There was contemplation, a veiled recollection of self, an anchor and a lifeline back to reality. Strangely, even at about 10 years old, with no knowledge at the time of neuroplasticity, I began to understand the thought exercise and pastime was becoming detrimental. So I abandoned oblivion and essentially lost the means to even put myself in that state of mind. The overall experience, and the concept of an individual truly allowing themselves to believe something radically unconventional about the nature of their own reality (or its replacement with another), would later be the inspiration for a book I wrote called, The Book of Madness. (An exercise, that too, proved detrimental.)

When entertaining the concept put forward by René Descartes, “Cogito, ergo sum.” ‘I think, therefore I am’, we realize how alone we truly are in our interpretation of this reality. Descartes further explained this sentiment with, “we cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt.” To doubt suggests the existence of some ‘thinking entity’, even if literally everything else is false. But is the fractured mind that harbors multiple personalities capable of truly believing that suggestion is even more substantial than doubt, because the ‘personality’ (or artificial intelligence) doubting their existence, in some rare instances, might actually be right. Existence, by proxy.

Our world is an enigma. You may not think so now, or even any year soon. But for some of us, a time will come when we look over our life, our existence and wonder, “why did I come to be?” Why did our common genetic ancestry forge its way from the Australopithecus afarensis (bipedal ape) to its current state? Immersed in cycles, all creatures behaviors bound to the repetitions, rotations of this world, of our sun. Even with the noticeable changes in the human world, advancement in technology, we continue, time after time, to repeat the same mistakes of history.

It is entirely possible that what we might call ‘meaning’ applied to this reality, is entirely a human superimposition. It is equally possible, that that is not the case at all. Someone once told me the greatest paradox in life, is that the more you come to learn and understand, the more you realize there is, that you don’t know or understand. But what value does a secret hold, once it’s spoken aloud? How much intrigue does a riddle inspire after it’s been solved? As a species, the bulk of us have chosen to spend out our lives here, the blip that it is, pretending as though it all makes perfect sense. Eat, sleep, defecate, procreate, pay your taxes, rinse and repeat. But then there are those, compelled to ask “why?”

If I had to give the briefest explanation to what this blog, ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS is about, I would say, “a collection of questions (from various aspects) pertaining to the validity and common understanding of our reality.”

On the 27th of July, 2019, I remember hearing someone say something to the effect of, “silence is for the dead, while you’re alive, you might as well speak”. At that juncture in time, the sentiment resonated with me, enough to inspire me to go ahead with plans of pushing myself to attempt to write more publicly. So I decided to go about working towards some sort of writing hub, a blog, I didn’t particularly care what it was. For a title, ᴬᴺ ODD ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ and ᵀᴴᴱ PLANET EARTH ARCHIVES were on the cards, momentarily, but I eventually landed upon ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS.

ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS; orbs, rings, rotation, discs, the globe, the earth, the world. Something all encompassing, but singular. Our world, ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS, is an enigma. Is it by chance alone that the 3rd planet from a sun in the outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy is teeming with life? Or has there been machinations underway regarding the purpose of our world, long before our species ever existed? God(s), Extraterrestrials, Ultraterrestrials (inter-dimensional beings), or is it all purely the result of (seemingly) chance random events?

Whatever the answer actually is, all variations are equally incredible, but in my opinion, the strangest concept of all, is that we live in a universe, that by ‘chance’ alone, everything we’ve ever imagined can just, come to be. The mere passage of time and natural processes can achieve what we attribute to supreme sentient beings? That concept isn’t taking away from the majesty and reverence that religions and mythology have offered toward our reality, it’s saying the contrary, life is preordained.

As I mentioned earlier, the laws that govern our universe for whatever reason, by whatever means, were in effect the moment time and space ignited. Meaning, if what happened in our universe occurred an infinite number of times, perhaps in other universes of the theoretical super universe that contains our own. Or even universes that exist in theoretical dimensions separate from our own. How many times would it be theoretically possible for a planet IDENTICAL to Earth to form? Entirely by chance, the nature of physics (which may vary) how many times could have I written this very same text?

Is there some grand unifying theory?

Your guess is as good as mine.

I remember explaining to someone, the premise of a unified theory (specifically) regarding paranormal phenomenon (or the interpretations of such, made by an individual), and was asked, “what does something like déjà vu have in common with a poltergeist sighting?” I replied, “what is déjà vu, if not the ghost of a memory? A phantom recollection, that causes one to do a double take within their mind’s eye, just as one might investigate a room after they witness the appearance of a specter or apparition.”

I suppose the link with all things paranormal, high strangeness, synchronicity, events that by all rights, from what we know of ‘reality’ should not occur (or statistically less frequently), is that they make us question what we know, or think we know about this world.

The catch is, eventually, if you truly desire to know the truth, the anchor and the lifeline back to who you were before, will have to be abandoned. Once you make that choice, nothing will ever be the same again.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES

(Animation by Dave Strick)

Rather than asking someone, “do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life?” You might instead ask, “is it possible, or even likely, that life beyond this planet does not exist at all?” Is it possible to truly possess an ardent rejection of the concept of extraterrestrial life? Well, of course it is, belief is quite often unimpeded by reality (whichever variation happens to be accurate). Interestingly, unlike Ghosts, Demons, Goblins, conceptual beings which have the potential (regardless of the legitimacy of their existence) to exist only as a byproduct of human imagination, extraterrestrial life has one attribute, that cannot be denied: the existence of our species.

The fact that we can ask “is anything else out there?” indicates that all the conditions CAN be met in this universe, for something else to be asking the same question. The universe (seemingly) has the potential to spawn/harbor life (theoretical abiogenesis), otherwise the question would/could not be asked in the first place. (Someone might say “religion could disprove that statement”, but if we’re here by the will of God(s), then by the same notion, that will ‘could’ have created life elsewhere also?)

So then, if extraterrestrial life exists, why hasn’t it been discovered? It must either be in its primordial stages of development, or very, very far away? Then of course, there is another possibility, rarely considered to the extent that it deserves. What if extraterrestrials, are so very advanced, so incredibly adept, that they interact with us almost constantly, walking among us, entirely undetected?

ᵀᴴᴱ DECOY, dictionary.com

  • a bird or mammal, or an imitation of one, used by hunters to attract other birds or mammals. “a decoy duck”.
  • a person or thing used to mislead or lure someone into a trap. “we need a decoy to distract their attention”

verb (used with object)

  • to lure by or as if by a decoy: They decoyed the ducks to an area right in front of the blind.

The genetic similarity between a human and most avian species is around 60%, yet our species possesses the ability to deceive all of them. Simulate their calls to further lure them to a position or manipulate their behavior. In fact a great many animal species which share even closer genetic similarities with us, can be deceived with an array of decoys. We use robotic decoys to infiltrate highly social mammal groups, to study and monitor their behavior. Often (during closer inspections) the decoys fail, but as a species we have the ability to completely deceive another species, into thinking an object/machine is an acceptable member of that species’ social group.

Many of the animal species on this planet lack the ability to perceive the cues that would suggest illegitimacy, it’s a prospect (almost) entirely inconceivable to the animal world. Even after rejecting a decoy, its highly unlikely an animal would understand the nature of why the foreign imposter existed in the first place. When it comes to perception and self-awareness, the bulk of animal species on our planet don’t have much of an understanding of self. This is further investigated in research surrounding the mirror test.

(The Mirror test, a method used to determine an animal’s ability (or lack there of) to visually identify itself. Researchers place a mirror in front of various animal species and observe their behavior. Despite the arguments surrounding how substantial the results of the mirror test are, very few species on this planet actually pass the test.)

ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES?

A wolf in sheep’s clothing is no new concept. Even in bygone ages suspicions of demonic beings, otherworldly entities wearing the skin of men as a guise was always a prospect (of a paranoid mind). If you think its a stretch of the imagination to envisage a member of our species presuming another is ‘something else’ in disguise, you should familiarize yourself with the various witch trials that proceeded throughout Europe and the American colonies.

Even today, with various AI systems, we attempt to decoy one another. False emails, automated calls. Eventually our species may be able to create the perfect decoy, undetectable from an organic life-form. Could we achieve that feat within the next 100 years? Would our species be scrupulous with that kind of technology, or use it for unprecedented levels of exploitation and manipulation of one another?

If, however, highly advanced technology existed ‘today’, these beings, these hollow ones, could be existing among us, right now. The question would be, if you gave the concept any credence, what are ‘they’ working to achieve? What are they doing right now, this very moment? Are they monitoring us, testing us, planning our demise?

I’ve spoken to many of the belief that if such a theoretical situation were to take place (or if it is taking place) they would not do it if they weren’t gaining something from our species. I’ve heard adamant opinions, in regards to this topic, that the decoy is the tool of the hunter, that ultimately any being that shrouds their very existence in secrecy, does so because their purpose is purely nefarious.

But I couldn’t honestly agree with that sentiment. I’m (currently) incapable of abandoning the notion that with true advancement, with ultimate theoretical evolutionary development (ᵀᴴᴱ NOÖSPHERE), a being would display a certain level of benevolence. Ask any naturalist, or someone whose worked on a documentary filming the natural world, it takes a great deal of restraint to observe from afar as the lions close in on the baby gazelle, and do nothing. To possess the power to intervene, but the understanding to know you can’t.

Maybe a being from a time, and a place so far removed from here and now, living the human experience is all ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES are interested in? An entirely unremarkable person wanders through a crowded city, but her eyes transmit what she beholds to a group of beings in another dimension. She bumps into you, and says “excuse me” and smiles, you part ways, never giving it a second thought.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᵀᴴᴱ ENFIELD POLTERGEIST INCIDENT ᴏғ 1977

(Illustrated by Unknown Artist)

The recording above is part of the 1977 interview of 11 year old Janet Hodgson, by paranormal researcher Maurice Grosse. The odd gruff voice coming from the 11 year old girl, claimed to be that of deceased 72 year old man, Bill Wilkins.

August 1977, 284, Green Street, Brimsdown, Enfield, London, England. “It started in a back bedroom, the chest of drawers moved, and you could hear shuffling,” Janet Hodgson would recollect, some years after the incident in an interview. Upon hearing the sound of somewhat heavy furniture being moved about, Peggy (Margaret) Hodgson (mother of four) naturally assumed her children, were out of bed. The children insisted that the drawers were moving by themselves, Peggy Hodgson claimed she observed the chest of drawers moving along the floor, seemingly by its own accord. When Peggy attempted to push against the drawers, she discovered more resistance than the usual weight of the object, and was unable to move it from where it had traveled to.

Some of the children also claimed on the night of this primary incident, that they heard knocking coming from inside the walls of their shared bedroom. In a frantic and terrified state, Peggy Hodgson and four children, Margaret (13), Janet (11), Johnny (10) and Billy (7) fled from their home and went to their next-door neighbor’s home, that of Victor and Peggy (Margaret) Nottingham. Vic stated in numerous interviews afterward, he went over to the Hodgson’s home to investigate, “I went in there and I couldn’t make out these noises, there was a knocking on the wall, in the bedroom, on the ceiling, I was beginning to get a bit frightened.”

Following this first incident, the police were notified to investigate the Hodgson’s council home. It was during this home visit that Police Constable Carolyn Heeps witnessed a chair wobble and then slide, unable to determine the cause for its movement. Constable Heeps went on to signing an affidavit that she had assuredly witnessed an armchair levitate about one half of an inch off of the ground and move approximately four feet along the floor.

“I heard four distinct taps on the wall and then silence. Then about two minutes later I heard more tapping from a different wall, another PC checked the walls, the attic and the pipes but could find nothing to explain the knocking. Then the eldest son of the family pointed to a chair near the sofa. I then saw the chair slide across the floor. It moved approximately three to four feet and then came to rest. I checked the chair and I could find nothing to explain how it moved.”

—Police Constable Carolyn Heeps

Interest in the Enfield Poltergeist began to increase, the family made contact with the Society for Psychical Research. Led by paranormal investigator, Maurice Grosse, investigations were underway, attempting to assess and record the seemingly paranormal nature of the events.

In early November, 1977, Grosse confronted the presence in the living room: “As I asked the question, ‘Are you having a game with me?’ it threw the cardboard box and the pillow right in my face. I have actually seen, myself, marbles being thrown about. I have seen the door moving without any help. I have also experienced the reduction of temperature.”

—Maurice Grosse, Society for Psychical Research

Over 18 months following the night the Hodgson family first fled from their home, there were approximately 30 people who witnessed something perceived as a paranormal (or inexplicable) incident at the Enfield residence. Individuals consisting of police, journalists, researchers, even several claims made by people on the street passing by the home witnessed unusual sights through the windows. These experiences ranged from peculiar knocks, loud noises, tapping banging on the walls of the home. Toys, small objects being thrown around the house, particularly the living room. Furniture moving about the home by itself, usually relatively short distances. Disembodied voices, inaudible speech from different areas of the home. Unusual and often drastic changes in perceivable temperature. Lastly, the sighting (and experience) of Janet Hodgson levitating.

Eventually the strangeness of the Enfield Poltergeist Incident came to its crescendo with 11 year old Janet Hodgson, acting as a vessel for the being(s) responsible for the ‘unusual activity’. A distorted, gruff voice barked from the young girl’s mouth claiming to be the spirit of Bill Wilkins. Bill Wilkins, through Janet, claims to be 72 years old, from Durant Graveyard. It goes on to explain that Bill lost the use of his eyes and eventually died in the home of 284, Green Street, Brimsdown, Enfield. Even going as far as stating that he passed away in a chair that was in the home when the Hodgson’s moved in.

“I felt used by a force that nobody understands. I really don’t like to think about it too much. I’m not sure the poltergeist was truly ‘evil’. It was almost as if it wanted to be part of our family. It didn’t want to hurt us. It had died there and wanted to be at rest. The only way it could communicate was through me and my sister.”

—Janet Hodgson

It was eventually confirmed that there was in fact a man named William (Bill) Charles Louis Wilkins residing in the Enfield home, until he passed away in 1963. However, he was 61 years old when he died, not 72 as claimed in the recording. Also, Janet/the spirit claim that he came from ‘Durants Graveyard’ in the interview, when Bill Wilkins was actually buried in Lavender Hill Cemetery a little further away from the Enfield home, than the nearby cemetery.

It’s these inconsistencies, along with some researchers believing the children, primarily Janet, were willfully deceiving everyone. Some investigators reported seeing Janet knocking on walls herself, bending spoons and behaving in a way that suggested she were attempting to sway the beliefs of those researching the event (some of this was caught on film). Janet essentially admitted in various interviews in the years afterwards, that she would play games during the long periods of testing to see if Maurice Grosse could be deceived, stating that he always caught her in her attempts. Claiming that her deception would have accounted for less than 2% of the paranormal events in their entirety. But 2% of an admission to willful deception is grounds for many people to disregard the entire incident.

“There were many bystanders who thought the family invented it all, using basic conjuring tricks, in order to get a new and better council house. But although Mrs Hodgson was a single mother with four children, Roz Morris disputes this possible motivation: “She had a good house, as far as she was concerned, and in fact she stayed in it – that’s where she died in 2003.” The journalist admits that at the beginning she herself was extremely skeptical and looking out for any ways in which “trickery” could be involved, but she found Mrs Hodgson to be sincere and undoubtedly “very frightened”. Richard Crosse rules out a financial motive: “They never made any money out of it.” Graham Morris backs this up, maintaining that “cheque book journalism” simply didn’t exist in those days.”

—BBC RADIO

With the media circus dispersing, by 1978 a priest is said to have visited the home, after which, according to Janet Hodgson, the events settled down. But they didn’t end entirely, Peggy and Janet’s youngest brother Billy lived in the home until Peggy (Janet’s mother) passed away, allegedly in the same chair that Bill Wilkins passed away in. Billy and Peggy claimed that you always felt as though you were being watched inside that house.

So the last of the Hodgson’s left the home, Janet Hodgson claiming to this day that the events were not only legitimate, but all began after she and her sister Margaret had played with a Ouija board.

Strangely, after the home was momentarily uninhabited, the next inhabitants learned the story might not have been entirely over. One family in particular, Clare Bennett and her children, found they too felt as though they were constantly being watched inside the Enfield home. Voices and knocking would consistently awake the family during the night. When Clare’s son Shaka (15) began to awake to an apparition of a man entering his bedroom, and unusual experiences seemed to escalate once more. The Bennett’s left the home two months after moving in.

Whose to say if the current inhabitants have experienced anything unusual, when looking at the property on google maps, the words ‘JESUS HOUSE’ appear on one of the windows. Whether legitimately haunted, or an elaborate ruse, strange events have unfolded within the walls of 284, Green Street, Brimsdown, Enfield.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 5

ᴬ PORTAL ᵀᴼ ᴬᴺᴼᵀᴴᴱᴿ DIMENSION

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

I was falling asleep on a train, drifting in and out of consciousness. The cascading droplets of rain against the glass would momentarily catch my eye. The realest, truest thing in the world to me, in that moment, was the cold of the glass against the side of my forehead, the ice-cold collision came with the words of my inner-monologue, reminding me “don’t fall asleep”.

With each thud of my skull against the train window, with each jolt to my slipping consciousness, I found myself remembering, reliving similar moments. Different trains, different destinations, different times, different understandings of self. The blur of the outside world and the cascading droplets, rushing and colliding down and across the glass. Like the water droplets that form as one when they collide, when memories are so similar, the mind (under certain circumstances) might momentarily lose its bearing on exactly where, when, or (in some extreme cases) even who it is. A cascade of consciousness, altering, questioning the perceivable reality.

It’s like waking up in the middle of the night, and not knowing where you are. You’ve changed houses, changed beds multiple times but the subconscious mind can be caught off guard. Driving for five hours, with almost no recollection of how you actually got to your destination. For one moment, it’s as though a former self, by some miraculous means has taken the helm of a future/current self, bewildered by the changes that have come to pass. Until better senses return and you are living in the moment, once more (some of these experiences can be caused by serious conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia, Amnesia).

In my experience of human cognition, the mind doesn’t always want to live in the moment. Sometimes it seeks to traverse memories past, conjure events yet to come, or entertain some things that may never unfold in this reality. At this juncture in my existence, I’ve forgotten a great many details from my own life, let countless memories slip through the cracks of time. Even some of the chaotic, (relatively) cataclysmic moments, carelessly discarded. Yet strangely, sometimes I truly wonder, am I still falling asleep on that train to god-knows-where, soon to come to my senses, when my head next collides against the glass?

The ghost of a former self perpetually drifting in and out of consciousness?

Are we all essentially amalgamations of our many former selves?

To illustrate my point, you might ask yourself the following question:

Where are you right now? At this very moment?

You might tell yourself a geographical location, along with a juncture in time. But the relative geographical location, is fixed upon a planet that is moving (Earth orbits the sun at approximately 67,000 mph/107,000 km/h. 365 days for a full orbit. The sun and the solar system appear to be moving at 200 kilometers per second, or at an average speed of 448,000 mph/720,000 km/h —Space.com). The time you refer to, is also quite relative to where you are in this entropic universe. In fact, the relative time it’s taken to read to this point, the answer originally proposed, has already drastically changed.

Then there is the philosophical element, when asked where and when you are, your future self perpetually shed to join the amassing former selves, as every moment passes. Are the former selves, which for all of us, inevitably outnumber the current self, merely doomed to be lost to oblivion for all eternity? Outside of memory, outside of the physical implications, the footprints left behind, does/can anything truly last forever? Or is everyone, everything we’ve ever known like the particles of chalk temporarily marked on a blackboard, inevitably wiped astray?

As previously suggested in ᴛʜᴇ ILLUSION ᴏғ TIME, ᵀᴴᴱ WORMHOLE ᴬᴺᴰ ᵀᴴᴱ TIME PARADOX, TIME TRAVEL ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ 2ɴᴅ ʟᴀᴡ ᴏғ THERMODYNAMICS, I’ve slowly found myself veering further and further away from such an absolute, ultimately universal declaration.

So putting philosophy aside, putting psychology aside, removing the concept of a former-self “theoretically” returning (purely in the mind), due to some memory impairment etc. Is the past, the physical elements comprising what we consider to be a “past reality”, including our former selves, truly lost to oblivion?

Theoretically, no.

“Approximately 13.8 billion years ago, our comprehensible universe in its entirety existed in a fraction of time and space many, many times smaller than a single atom. Some have theorized the existence of parallel universes, a direct ‘shadow universe’ (connected/veiling our own and connected by gravity since and attributing to the beginning of our universe) and an entire multiverse linking/spawning universes and or dimensions. One theorized means of connecting two isolated points in space and time, universes, or junctures throughout the multiverse are naturally occurring ‘wormholes’.”

—ᵀᴴᴱ WORMHOLE ᴬᴺᴰ ᵀᴴᴱ TIME PARADOX

Theoretically, it would only take one single accessible ‘wormhole’ (located anywhere in this universe), even if it was only stable for a fraction of a second, for a highly technologically advanced being/machine to potentially have access to every single second of this universe, not excluding every moment that ever passed comprising the history of this planet (and your entire lifetime). If you could successfully get back to a starting point, the natural linear progression of the passing of time could be replayed over and over to access a certain event in history.

Such a wormhole could be a connection of time and space within this universe from the distant future, to the distant past (formation of earth). Or it could be a wormhole/portal naturally forming or technologically created connecting this universe (prior the formation of earth) to another dimension, where time as we understand it, may not exist.

The existence of inter-dimensional “portals” that have a constant or fixed entry point connected to a momentary conjuration in our universes history that collapsed in seconds, would still be a theoretical fixed portal to a very specific juncture in time (though problems would arise, if multiple objects arrive/exit at the narrow window of time output).

A highly advanced being/machine (some speculating UFOs to be traveling through time and dimensions, not just our atmosphere or space) may at some stage (or currently) possess the capability of creating dimensional portals at will, to travel through both dimensions and what we perceive as time relative to this universe (and beyond).

Immediately, traversing both dimensions and time would cause all kinds of theoretical temporal paradoxes to arise. The grandfather paradox, does an action committed by a (future) time traveling entity in the past, change the future from whence the traveler came? Does the Multiverse theory, allow for the possibility of so many (infinite) variations of universes/dimensions indistinguishably close to our own, that every single conceivable variation, is playing out in unison?

It’s so far removed from our understanding of time and reality, we come up with all sorts of answers to the paradox. If you travel back in time and assassinate yourself as a child, some might suggest you would immediately “vanish” or cease to be. But the physical being that committed the murder had to exist for the murder to take place. Perhaps, if time is a linear structure, played out like a game of chess, going backwards, every single time, has consequences that ultimately change the version of reality the time traveler left. Ultimately changing the arrangement of the pieces on the (shared) board. Meaning, while the individual entity of matter, and instrument of time alteration is unscathed in the past (now relative present), the future/time-line from whence the traveler came, no longer exists (connected to the current linear trajectory of time).

Aside from theoretically disconnected dimensions of the multiverse, there is also suggestions of a theoretical shadow universe/mirror universe, intrinsically linked with our own:

“If mirror matter is present in the universe with sufficient abundance then its gravitational effects can be detected. Because mirror matter is analogous to ordinary matter, it is then to be expected that a fraction of the mirror matter exists in the form of mirror galaxies, mirror stars, mirror planets etc. These objects can be detected using gravitational microlensing. One would also expect that some fraction of stars have mirror objects as their companion. In such cases one should be able to detect periodic Doppler shifts in the spectrum of the star.There are some hints that such effects may already have been observed.”

—R. N. Mohapatra, Vigdor L. Teplitz “Mirror matter MACHOs”, 1999

Right now, this very second, whenever that second may be, when whoever you are might be reading this. Is there currently, within this universe, a portal (naturally formed, or synthetically created) that leads to another dimension?

There isn’t currently, an authority on this Earth that could in all honesty give you a definitive answer to that question. But perhaps you could search yourself for the answer, in the form of yet another question.

Is there a limitation fixed upon infinity?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

BEYOND ᴛʜᴇ ALGORITHM: ᴀɴ INVASION ᴏғ MINDS

(Animated by Pi-Slices)

“Compartmentalize your mind. Doubt what you know, know what you doubt. But the very moment you’re truly certain of anything, they’ll have you.”

—The Agitator, Deviation, C. M. Johnson

You finish buying an assortment of products online. Hours later you open up a different browser, an advertisement appears listing products similar to those you just purchased. Even though you might have opted out of data collection services, it isn’t a stretch of the imagination to understand what might be going on. So you go about your business.

You finish a conversation about a certain topic. Later on, recommendations, feeds, advertisements display the content of the topic of that very conversation. You’re very much aware that you possess (possibly many) devices that have the potential to monitor speech and correlate the recognized terms and phrases with what is virtually presented to you. But surely such a feature would only function if it were activated. You’ve grown awfully attached to said device(s), far too attached to want to entertain the thought that there are seemingly invasive agendas working behind the services they provide. So you put it out of your mind and you go about your business.

But every so often, you might find yourself wondering, in lieu of any restrictions, what WOULD an unscrupulous agency do, IF it had the means?

If you are of the inclination that this is already a reality, you are far from alone. In fact, the number of people harboring such a suspicion has been steadily growing across numerous countries as the value of data continues to rise (previously mentioned in ᵀᴴᴱ SYSTEM).

“According to a new survey by Nixplay, 60% of millennials think their phones are listening to them and then tailoring ads precisely to those conversations. Overall, 55% of Americans think that smartphones are spying on them, collecting data to customize ads.”

—John Koetsier, Forbes.com, 2019

But for some, their suspicions about the algorithm do not end there.

You have a spoken conversation, (to your knowledge) far from any technological device(s). Two (or more) organic lifeforms verbally exchanging information. Yet when you return to your device(s), again, there are indications, that the private conversation, far from the microphones, far from the cameras was seemingly heard all the same. In some instances, both (multiple) parties discovering that the topic of their “private” conversation, far from prying eyes and ears is somehow intrinsically linked with each their data-flow algorithms, on a number of digital services.

Finally, you think your private thoughts, as you often do. The mutterings of the inner-mind, utterly disconnected from the physical world beyond the cranium. Or so you would have thought, only you begin to notice that the same algorithm which once manipulated results from keystrokes and physical inputs, seems to now show indications that the private thoughts in your mind, are somehow being read. But that’s nonsensical. Absolutely impossible, isn’t it?

Surely it’s coincidental, or the correlations are misinterpreted, bouts of apophenia? Is this the evolution of ᵀᴴᴱ NOÖSPHERE?

“Facebook has assembled a team of 60 people, including machine learning and neural prosthetics experts, to enable such a system. Facebook is currently hiring a brain-computer interface engineer and a neural imaging engineer. Its goal? To create a system capable of typing one hundred words per minute – five times faster than you can type on a smartphone – straight from your brain.”

—Olivia Solon, The Guardian.com, 2017

Where there’s a will, there’s a way?

Such a brain-to-device concept would require localized hardware and technology, years of advancement from the currently available methods?

Not according to some.

Over the last few years, the belief in the (apparent and evident) invasions of privacy has begun to spread and increase so severely, that it has given rise to a concept known among some circles as, REMOTE NEURAL MONITORING (a means of electronic harassment/privacy invasion). There is a publicly available .pdf of the U.S. SUPREME COURT PETITION OF CERTORARI, Nov 10, 2018 (court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency) pertaining to the governmental use of such “mind reading technologies”.

NEWS HEADING: MICROWAVE WEAPON BLAMED FOR APPARENT ATTACK ON US EMBASSY IN CUBA

“Why did dozens of U.S. Embassy workers in Cuba hear loud sounds and suffer neurological symptoms in 2016? There’s a new, Cold War-era microwave explanation for the mystery.

The Havana-based diplomats reported hearing loud, strange sounds and feeling movement in the air around them. Those affected went on to experience months of concussion-like symptoms, including cognitive impairment, balance issues and tinnitus (ringing in the ears). And as recently as February, researchers reported that they couldn’t tell what caused the problems, but they ruled out the most common early explanation: sonic attacks.

‘Sound in the audible range (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz) is not known to cause persistent injury to the central nervous system,’ they wrote in the journal JAMA.

Now, those same researchers have told The New York Times that microwave weapons may have been the cause.

Allan Frey, an American biologist, showed in the early 1960s that microwave beams can create the sensation of hearing noises when they hit the brain’s temporal lobe. The Times reported that Soviet researchers took a keen interest in the discovery after it was announced, going so far as to invite Frey to speak and then bring him to a military laboratory.”

—Rafi Letzter, LiveScience.com, September 04, 2018

On October 17th, 2017:

TRUMP SAYS CUBA ‘RESPONSIBLE’ FOR ALLEGED SONIC ATTACKS, BUT OFFERS NO EVIDENCE

“The state department has still not identified a culprit or even what weapon mysteriously injured 22 American government workers on Cuban soil.”

—The Guardian.com

December 7th, 2017:

MYSTERY ATTACKS CAUSED BRAIN DAMAGE IN US EMBASSY WORKERS IN CUBA.

—Tia Ghose, LiveScience.com

As suspicions and speculations have grown, so too have the numbers of individuals believing to be victims of various forms of electronic harassment.

“Electronic harassment, electromagnetic torture, or psychotronic torture is a conspiracy theory that government agents make use of electromagnetic radiation (such as the microwave auditory effect), radar, and surveillance techniques to transmit sounds and thoughts into people’s heads, affect people’s bodies, and harass people. Individuals who claim to experience this call themselves “targeted individuals“. They claim they are victims of gang stalking and many have joined support and advocacy groups.”

—Wikipedia

Sadly, as the gap between technology and imagination narrows, individuals afflicted with various forms of paranoia (often undiagnosed) can become consumed by this very idea, that minds are being invaded. Where once such a claim could be easily dismissed as impossible, with technological warfare the likes of the (alleged) voice of god (long range audio producing non-lethal weapon, developed by the U.S. military) and sonic warfare, dispelling fears as impossible is becoming increasingly difficult.

Unfortunately, as ways of life change and as new technologies are developed (or refined), once inconceivable dangers WILL emerge. Systems of control/surveillance that we might currently consider dystopian, immoral or terrifying may very well become a reality.

Could our global future be a new world, fighting one of the oldest battles to be fought, time and time again, throughout the ages. The struggle for freedom from tyranny. Sometimes it can take people quite awhile to realize their freedom is under attack, but when they do, they start to understand how valuable it truly is.

Until then, perhaps the invasion of minds has only just begun?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

HISTORICAL CLAIMS ᴏғ ‘VAMPIRIC’ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴠɪᴛʏ

(Illustrated by Maria Clemente)

The Vampire; a work of fiction, a metaphor for primal lust, an ancient fear of the dead, a figurative embodiment of evil, or perhaps something far more tangible. Something rooted in highly strange, albeit entirely ‘human’ behavior.

Across countless cultures throughout history, the vampire, or beings of a similar nature (comparisons further elaborated in ᴛʜᴇ DARK ORIGIN ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ VAMPIRE) appear in myth and legend, time and time again. But how long ago were such vampiric superstitions actually taken seriously? You might think of isolated communities across the Balkan Peninsula, maybe several hundred years ago, but in truth, such superstitions, much like the theoretical “vampire” itself, simply refuse to die.

With the use of TROVE, an initiative of research groups and the National Library of Australia, it isn’t a difficult endeavor to search how very often the term VAMPIRE, actually appears. Something that should be mentioned, however, is that the title of ‘Vampire’ was often applied to a variety of lascivious, lecherous, perverse or macabre individuals. For instance, the French ‘Vampire of Reuil’, was not actually believed to have been a literal creature of some sinister supernatural origin. But a man of abhorrently deplorable behavior, due to his penchant for sexually assaulting women in the dead of night (news article of the ‘Vampire of Reuil’, 15th of May, 1949 included below).

Yet aside from this use of the term as a means of condemnation, scattered throughout the pages of history, a far more conventional ‘vampire’ appears. I’ve gathered a small sample of historical reports that once made their way to Australian shores, telling tales of ‘vampiric’ activity. Stretching from 1906 to 1954, events pertaining to unusual torment and the consumption of blood. Keep in mind, news stories were just as likely to be falsified or misunderstood in the past as they are today. Also the concept of the vampire was popularized in the media, with the success of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, and the subject matter of many films (Nosferatu, 1922. Dracula, 1931. Vampyr, 1932. Horror of Dracula, 1958. etc).

Claims of ‘Vampiric’ Activity:

—

7th of July, 1906

The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931)

HUMAN VAMPIRE

An extraordinary case has just been heard in the Viennese law courts. The daughter of a rich merchant accused her husband, an artist’s model, of hypnotizing her. She declared that he was in the habit of hanging her up naked by her feet for hours, in which position she was hypnotized. The husband never took his meals in the ordinary way, but consumed oranges and milk in the course of the day. When he returned late at night he used to satisfy his hunger by sucking her blood, which he obtained from a wound in her neck.

ORIGINAL SOURCE, TROVE.NLA.GOV.AU

—

4th of August, 1906

Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931)

CHILD VAMPIRE

An almost incredible story of a child bloodsucker comes from Sweden. A clergyman in Nassjo, a small village in that country, was in the habit of educating a number of boys, among whom was a clever, but morose and dreamy, lad, who shunned all company, and took long walks in the woods alone. One day the clergyman’s favorite dog, a small spaniel, disappeared. It was believed that he had been stolen by gypsies. Shortly afterwards a peasant in the village lost a valuable sheep dog, and several cats, chickens, and a lamb. Suspicion fell on the boy living with the clergy man. One day when the boy returned from a walk it was found that his white sailor jacket was covered with blood, for which he was unable to account. After that he was “shadowed.” He was seen to enter a hut in the wood, and after he had been there several minutes, an agonized scream, evidently from an animal in pain, was heard. The watchers burst in the door. On the floor of the hut sat the boy, holding in his hand a shrieking black cat, from the neck of which he was sucking the blood. In the hut were found the carcasses of a number of dead cats, dogs, a lamb, and a chicken. The peasants tried to lynch him, and he was only rescued with difficulty.

ORIGINAL SOURCE, TROVE.NLA.GOV.AU

—

15th of May, 1949

Truth (Brisbane, Qld. : 1900 – 1954)

‘VAMPIRE’

PARIS, Sat. — Detectives who set out to catch the “Vampire of Reuil,” arrested police constable Eugene Henry. The vampire has been responsible for many attacks on women in the Paris suburbs. The detectives saw a man who was wheeling, a bicycle accost a woman. They arrested him and later confronted him with several of the women who have been attacked. Henry is said to have made a statement confessing to the attacks.

ORIGINAL SOURCE, TROVE.NLA.GOV.AU

—

3rd of July, 1951

Daily Mercury (Mackay, Qld. : 1906 – 1954)

VAMPIRE ALARM

The terrorizing legends of bloodsucking vampires are just legends— right? Not to credulous burghers of Dusseldorf, it seems. A rumor that vampires were in the city kept the Chief of Police and his assistants answering frantic phone calls from thousands of citizens for three days and nights. Newspaper and radio denials of the rumor eventually helped still the alarm.

ORIGINAL SOURCE, TROVE.NLA.GOV.AU

—

29th of November, 1952

Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1915 – 1954)

VAMPIRE WOMAN

MANILA, Thursday,— A vampire woman was caught on Tuesday in the Central Philippines town of Ilono. A 35-year-old woman had just caught a small child, hit his head against the concrete pavement and bitten his face to suck his blood when townspeople rescued the boy.

ORIGINAL SOURCE, TROVE.NLA.GOV.AU

—

13th of May, 1953

The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW : 1856 – 1861; 1863 – 1889; 1891 – 1954)

“VAMPIRE” MYSTERY

MANILA, May 12 (A.A.P.- Reuter). — A “Vampire” mystery is baffling Manila police. The most bizarre case in police memory began on Monday night when an 18-year-old girl was held in the women’s detention cell on a vagrancy charge. The girl began yelling that she was being bitten by a flying human being with big bulging eyes and wearing a black cape.” Other women in the jail made such a noise that police investigated, took the girl out, and held her for observation at police headquarters. About midnight as the police lieutenant held the girl’s left arm, she yelled, “here he comes again.” Police reporters saw nothing around them, but saw the girl begin squirming in the police officer’s grip. As horrified police and reporters looked on, eight human bite marks surrounded by what looked like saliva, appeared on the girl’s left arm. A police medical examiner said the bites, by now also showing on the girl’s right arm, were unmistakably human. As the girl cried in pain and terror, more bite marks appeared. The girl told police she had not encountered the “Dracula” apparition before she went to the jail. It did not resemble anybody she had met before. The chief medical examiner of the Manila police said the girl was an epileptic and the wounds were self-inflicted. But his assistant was still disputing his diagnosis. The girl was taken this afternoon to the Philippines Government Psychopathic Hospital for observation.

ORIGINAL SOURCE, TROVE.NLA.GOV.AU

—

23rd of May, 1953

The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 – 1954)

VAMPIRE CLAIMS

Australian Associated Press MANILA, Fri. — A former dancing girl, who claims that a Dracula-like invisible “thing” bites her, startled watching police here tonight when she went through the motion of fighting an invisible being in her detention cell. Police claimed that when they opened her clenched fists they found hair she claimed she had pulled off the “thing.” A laboratory analysis showed that the hair came from a dead man, police said. Earlier, local United States Methodist Church ministers exorcised the devil in the girl’s body, but were surprised when another girl, in an adjoining cell, began yelling, claiming that she was being attacked, police said. The new girl also exhibited bite marks on her arms and legs.

ORIGINAL SOURCE, TROVE.NLA.GOV.AU

—

“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”

—Ariel, The Tempest, Act 1 Scene 2, William Shakespeare.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0