Speaking in Tongues Part II

"And after calming me down with some orange slices and some fetal spooning

E.T. revealed to me his singular purpose he said, 'You are the Chosen One

'The One who will deliver the message

'A message of hope for those who choose to hear it and a warning for those who do not'

Me? The Chosen One?

They chose me!!!

And I didn't even graduate from fuckin' high school!"

-Tool, Rosetta Stoned

So, now that we've established that many influential and important people have claimed contact with entities over the years we can focus in on the important question; namely whether or not this is a wise idea. Previously we examined Narby's contact with the Cosmic Serpent earlier in the prior post. Now consider another experience on the DMT-laced ayahuasca that an earlier anthropologist named Michael Harner had:

"...he asked the Amazonian natives to tell him about their religious beliefs. They told him that if he really wished to learn, he had to take a shamanic sacred drink made from a hallucinogenic plant known as ayahuasca, the 'soul vine.' He agreed and after drinking the bitter concoction had an out-of-body experience in which he traveled a level of reality populated by what appeared to be the gods and devils pf the Conibo's mythology. He saw demons with grinning crocodilian heads. He watched as an 'energy-essence' rose up out of his chest and floated toward a dragon-headed ship manned by Egyptian-style figures with blue-jay heads; and felt what he thought was the slow, advancing numbness of his own death.

"But the most dramatic experience he had during his spirit journey was an encounter with a group of winged, dragonlike beings that emerged from his spine. After they had crawled out of his body, they 'projected' a visual scene in front of him in which they showed him what they said was the 'true' history of the earth. Through a kind of 'thought language' they explained that they were responsible for both the origin and evolution of all life on the planet. Indeed, they resided not only in human beings, but in all life, and had created the multitude of  living forms that populates the earth to provide themselves with a hiding place from some undisclosed enemy in outer space (Harner notes that although the beings were almost like DNA, at the time, he knew nothing of DNA).

"After this concatenation of visions was over, Harner sought out a blind Conibo shaman noted for his paranormal talents to talk to him about the experience. The shaman, who had made many excursions into the spirit world, nodded occasionally as Harner related the events that had befallen him, but when he told the old man about the dragon-like beings and their claim that they were the true masters of the earth, the shaman smiled in amusement. 'Oh, they're always saying that. But they are only the Masters of Outer Darkness,' he corrected. "
(The Holographic Universe, Michael Talbot, pg. 267)

33rd degree Freemason and occult scholar Manly P Hall took a much dimmer view of the messages received from nonhuman entities.

"Those who sought to control elemental spirits through ceremonial magic did so largely with the hope of securing from the invisible world either rare knowledge or supernatural power. The little red demon of Napoleon Bonaparte and the infamous oracular heads of de Medici are examples of the disastrous results of permitting elemental beings to dictate the course of human procedure. While the learned and godlike daemon of Socrates seems to have been an exception, this really proves that the intellectual and moral status of the magician has much to do with the type of elemental he is capable of invoking. But even the daemon of Socrates deserted the philosopher when the sentence of death passed.

"Transcendentalism and all forms of phenomenalistic magic are but blind alleys -outgrowths of Atlantean sorcery; and those who forsake the straight path of philosophy to wander therein almost invariably fall victim to their imprudence. Man, incapable of controlling his own appetites, is not equal to the task of governing the fiery and tempestuous elemental spirits.

"Many a magician has lost his life as the result of opening a way whereby submundane creatures could become active participants in his affairs. When Eliphas Levi invoked the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana, what did he hope to accomplish? Is the gratification of curiosity a motive sufficient to warrant the devotion of an entire lifetime to a dangerous and unprofitable pursuit? If the living Apollonius refused to divulge his secrets to the profane, is there any probability that after death he would disclose them to the curious-minded? Levi himself did not dare assert that the specter which appeared to him was actually the great philosopher, for Levi realized only too well the proclivity of elementals to impersonate those who have passed on. The majority of modern mediumistic apparitions are but elemental creatures masquerading through bodies composed of thought substance supplied by the very persons desiring to behold these wraiths of decarnate beings."

(The Secret Teachings of All Ages, pg. 317)

Those that have actually dared click on the 'Field Work' section of this blog know that this writer is also an amateur paranormal investigator as well. Based on my experiences in the field I would have to agree strongly with Hall's assessment that the vast majority of entities claiming to be 'ghosts', the spirits of the dead, are nothing but out and out liars. At best what appear to be 'ghosts' are but minor fragments of the astral bodies of the deceased. Most likely they are simply macrobes playing off the thoughts of the investigators. I have yet to encounter such an entity that holds up under intense questioning as an actual spirit of the dead. I suspect this is also true of the vast majority of alien visitations -that what appears to be extraterrestrial has a much more earthly origin.

Thus, if these beings are not even honest about what they are, then what can be said of the 'wisdom' they supposedly wish to pass on to human beings. The best apologists have been able to come up with is that something is simply 'lost in translation.' Consider Robert Anton Wilson's explanation of John Keel's 'Mothman Prophecies':

"If objectivity fails and there are parallel worlds... it is easy to see how communications from here to there could be bedeviled by incoherence and confusion. Various humans who had turned on to the universe next door or to various universes two or more quantum jumps away might carry back signals which they would organize into such Gestalts as 'I talked to God,' 'I traveled in time,' 'I met an extraterrestrial,' etc. In particular, they might bring back both prophecies that succeed and prophecies that fail, our universe being tangent to the parallel universe at some point but not at all points.

"The 'Mothman Prophecies' of John Keel, remember, worked out that way:

"Prophecy #1: The Pope will be stabbed fatally in the Near East in 1968.

"Result: The Pope was stabbed, non-fatally, in Manila, in 1969.

"Prophecy #2: Robert Kennedy was in danger in a hotel kitchen

"Result: Robert Kennedy was shot to death in a hotel kitchen

"Prophecy 3: All the power in the U.S. will fail at noon on December 24, 1968

"Result: The power didn't fail, but a bridge in the center of Mothman territory collapsed at that moment, killing 100

"Keel interprets this mindfuck to mean that the communicating entities were mischievous, had a nasty sense of humor, and are deliberately misleading and tormenting those who get involved with them. Although he calls them 'ultraterrestrials,' his concept of them is not much different from what earlier centuries meant by 'demons.'

"In terms of the multi-universe model, however, the entities could be totally honest. All of their predictions came true, in one universe or another. Keel just happened to be in one of the universes at a tangent to theirs, where only part of the prophecies came true."

(The Cosmic Trigger Volume 1, pgs. 195-196)

So, we'll give the entities the benefit of the doubt -they only appear to be lying to us because they're trying to pierce a multi-dimensional reality that we as humans can scarcely understand. It still begs the question, is it especially wise for humans to follow the instructions given to them by these beings? Given the track record of those that have dabbled in the other side, a simple observation can be put forth: Regardless of the value of this wisdom, it can be very dangerous to seek for it.

Consider the plight of one of the authors featured in part one of this series, Joe Fisher. Fisher wrote a book called The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts that documented the effects that dabbling in mediumship had on his life. Fisher became convinced that he was in contact with the spirit of a Greek woman he had been married to in the 18th century. Fisher became obsessed with this entity to the point that he drove away his current girlfriend in addition to close friends. Finally, when he headed to modern Greece to search for evidence of his 18th century soul mate, he found none. What he did find was that vast chunks of the story she had told him could not have possibly been true based on the age of certain cities and towns she described.

Fisher was devastated. He would eventually go on to commit suicide in 2001. From his publisher's website:

"Troubled by personal problems - as well as by the spirits he claimed to have angered in writing the Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts - Joe Fisher took his own life on May 9, 2001. That he would do so is all the more surprising considering what he had written earlier in The Case for Reincarnation: 'As much as the suicidal personality feels able to escape the world by getting rid of the body, reincarnation's revolving door ensures that all hope (of escape) is short lived. Those who learn that they have killed themselves in past lives are quickly brought to the realization that suicide, far from being an answer to life's problems is (instead) the violent breaking of the lifeline. If the (suicide) could only realize the resulting intensification of difficulty which must enter the life to come, (suicide) would never be (attempted).'"

Apparently Fisher changed his mind after a decade or so of contact with the macrobes.

He is not the only author featured in this series that died prematurely. Michael Talbot presents another fascinating case. Aside from writing and dabbling in metaphysics, Talbot also claimed psychokinetic powers that manifested themselves as poltergeist activities.

"...I mentioned that I had experienced firsthand many of the paranormal phenomena that would be discussed in this book and would relate a few of my own experiences... when I was a child, the house in which my family had recently moved (a new house that my parents themselves had built) became the site of an active poltergeist haunting. Since our poltergeist left my family's home and followed me when i went away to college, and since its activity very definitely seemed connected to my moods -its antics becoming mo malicious when I was angry or my spirits were low, and more impish and whimsical when my mood was brighter -I have always accepted the idea that poltergeists are manifestations of the unconscious psychokinetic ability of the person around whom they are most active.

"This connection to my emotions displayed itself frequently. If I was in a good mood, I might wake up to find all of my socks draped over the house plants. If I was in a darker frame of mind, the poltergeist might manifest by hurling a small object across the room or occasionally even by breaking something. Over the years both I and various family members and friends witnessed a wide range of psychokinetic activity. My mother tells me that even when I was a toddler pots and pans had already begun to jump inexplicably from the middle of the kitchen table to the floor."
(The Holographic Universe, pg. 149)

Michael Talbot died at the age of 38 from leukaemia, a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow.

In general, cancer seems to be a reoccurring theme amongst those in contact with macrobes or displaying some kind of psychic ability. I have already drawn attention to this in several prior blogs. Consider the fate of the men and women involved in the US Army's remote viewing program:

"...many of them had seemed to die before their time. Had they been living too far out on the shamanic edge of things? Did the act of remote viewing, or even being near a remote viewer, produce some kind of hazardous effect on the human nervous system, or immune system?.. There were Pat Price and Jackie Keith, who both died of heart attacks. (Alex Thomas would later die of a heart attack too.) Rob Cowart and Hartleigh Trent had developed serious cases of cancer; Cowart had been severely disabled and Trent had died. Cancer was currently gnawing at Jim Salyer and Hella Hammid, neither of whom would live through the decade. Even the lab secretary at SRI, young and attractive Martha Thompson, was about to die from melanoma."
(Remote Viewers, Jim Schnabel, pg. 325)

Similar results plagued Rick Strassman's DMT experiments in which participants claimed to make contact with a host of nonhuman beings. More on that can be read here at the end of the post.

It goes without saying that being in contact with the other side doesn't always lead to the healthiest lifestyle either. Both Aleister Crowley and Philip K Dick were plagued by lifelong drug addiction. Dick, a sci-fi writer who became convinced he was in contact with a being known as VALIS, was also plagued by the mental instability that characterizes many individuals that have had long contact with the other side, eg Joe Fisher.

To recap: the fallout from entity contact and other psychic manifestations can result in crippling drug and/or alcohol addiction, insanity, bizarre psychic phenomena, and terminal diseases. There's probably more effects that I'm forgetting at the moment, but you get the idea. And this is all to receive messages that, at best, may have no relationship to our own dimension whatsoever.

But can we simply dismiss these experiences in consciousness as out and out evil? Can certain individuals avoid them even if they want? In answer to both, I would have to state a hesitant no. Speaking as someone who has dabbled in divination, psychedelics, and other aspects of metaprogramming, I feel that I gained something valuable from them... Namely, the ability to see through the illusions. Unfortunately, many are easily seduced. And worse, few even consider the implications when trying to make contact, or falling into contact, with the other side.