by William Skink
Unlike some armchair investigators, I don’t choose to close myself off to an entire realm of inquiry when it comes to the subject of the occult. I don’t have to directly experience something or believe in it myself to find a subject like the occult worth looking at. That powerful people in our world believe in the occult is enough for me to take it seriously.
A good book to start with is Colin Wilson’s The Occult. Here is a tidbit from the introduction:
Primitive man believed the world was full of unseen forces: the orenda (spirit force) of the American Indians, the huaca of the ancient Peruvians. The Age of Reason said that these forces had only ever existed in man’s imagination; only reason could show man the truth about the universe. The trouble was that man became a thinking pygmy, and the world of the rationalists was a daylight place in which boredom, triviality and ‘ordinariness’ were ultimate truths.
But the main trouble with human beings is their tendency to become trapped in the ‘triviality of everydayness’ (to borrow Heidegger’s phrase), in the suffocating world of their personal preoccupations. ANd every time they do this, they forget the immense world of broader significance that stretches around them. And since man needs a sense of meaning to release his hidden energies, this forgetfulness pushes him deeper into depression and boredom, the sense the nothing is worth the effort.
As an artist, I have no problem entertaining the notion that unseen forces exist in our material world. From Greek mythology, the muses were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and they presided over the arts and sciences. Artists still use this concept to explain the inspiration that comes from somewhere beyond the individual artist, somewhere like the collective unconscious.
In Wilson’s book, he refers to magic as “the science of the future.” What does Wilson mean by this? Here’s a good example of what Wilson is talking about: if we had no idea of celestial movements, someone who did possess that knowledge to the degree that they could predict an eclipse would seem to be controlling that powerful celestial force, and the awed populace could then be suckered into believing the knower of this knowledge caused the eclipse to occur. Later, science comes along to rationally explain what initially seemed to be magic.
If there is power in the occult (and I believe there is), then those who lust for power will use it to their benefit. Zerohedge had a piece last week that touches on this, asking in the title are Globalists evil or just misunderstood? From the link:
To answer the question in the title of this article, yes, the globalists are in fact evil and the only misunderstandings are on the part of wide-eyed skeptics that have bought into the idea that “evil” is a moral conception created by religion rather than an inherent quality of human beings.
As Carl Jung discovered in his studies on the collective unconscious, people are born with inherent and conflicting conceptions and traits, or “dualities.” Good vs. Evil is an important duality we all come in to the world dealing with, it is not a mere product of environment or religious influence. That which is “good” is often dictated by what we call “conscience,” which again is an inherent idea or “voice,” and is only partly influenced by environment. The fact of inherent character traits and universal moral codes is present in anthropological studies as well as psychological studies beyond Jung’s very extensive work.
To define evil, we would have to look at those ideas and actions that are opposite inherent conscience. The globalists have basically constructed a festering belief system around everything that is contrary to our moral compass. I will attempt to dissect some elements of that belief system from a secular point of view. Wish me luck…
The piece goes on to put the occult into a very interesting context:
Occultism in itself is not necessarily “evil,” it only means “secret knowledge.” But the history of occultism is plagued by rather evil deeds and attitudes. John F. Kennedy once warned of secret societies and secret proceedings, and with good reason. For thousands of years, occult groups often withheld valuable knowledge from the masses as a means to influence behavior and control the direction of society. This did not have to be “magical” knowledge, whatever that means. Usually, it was scientific or psychological knowledge.
Say for example that a group of elitists withheld detailed knowledge of an impending economic collapse because this knowledge gave them a feeling of superiority and an advantage that they could exploit to gain power over others. Often, occult knowledge, secret knowledge, is driven by the selfish desire of one group to maintain a sense of dominance over another. Is it evil to withhold knowledge that could save lives for the sake of self-elevation? I would say absolutely.
Occultism can also lead to temptations of ever increasing criminality. If groups of people in positions of power maintain a well-oiled machine of secrecy that draws a dark curtain on their behavior, a machine that allows them to cover for each others actions to ensure no repercussions from outsiders, it is only a matter of time before the lack of transparency opens a door to greater evil. One act of evil left unpunished tends to breed many future acts of evil practiced with impunity.
When I was in my younger anti-authoritarian stage of development, I sneered at the Presbyterian church I attended and the nice-looking veneer of suburban goodness that bred conformity to the rat race for material success all around me. While I still maintain a healthy skepticism for organized religion, I now see more potential for allies against the organized evil that those without conscience are perpetrating today on a global scale. I don’t roll my eyes anymore when my mom tells me she prays for me. Prayer as a form of directed meditation could one day have science that reveals its actual efficacy.
A few weeks ago a ran across an interesting assertion that an epidemic psycho-spiritual sickness has taken hold of humanity. Here is a snip:
In the book Columbus and other Cannibals, indigenous author Jack D. Forbes lucidly explores a psychological disease that has been informing human self-destructive behavior that Native American people have known about for years. After reading his book, it was clear to me that he was describing the same psycho-spiritual disease of the soul that I wrote about in my book, The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of our Collective Psychosis. I introduce the idea that from the dawn of human history our species has fallen prey to a collective psychosis which I call malignant egophrenia. Speaking about this very same psychic epidemic, Forbes writes, “For several thousands of years human beings have suffered from a plague, a disease worse than leprosy, a sickness worse than malaria, a malady much more terrible than smallpox.”[i] Indigenous people have been tracking the same “psychic”[ii] virus that I call malignant egophrenia for many centuries and calling it “wetiko,” a Cree term which refers to a diabolically wicked person or spirit who terrorizes others. Professor Forbes, who was one of the founders of the Native American movement during the early sixties, says, “Tragically, the history of the world for the past 2,000 years is, in great part, the story of the epidemiology of the wetiko disease.”[iii] Wetiko/malignant egophrenia is a “psychosis” in the true sense of the word as being a “sickness of the soul or spirit.” Though calling it by different names, Forbes and I are both pointing at the same illness of the psyche, soul and spirit that has been at the root of humanity’s inhumanity to itself.
There is risk involved to those who go down these types of rabbit holes, so to conclude this post here is Robert Anton Wilson describing the concept of Chapel Perilous:
“In researching occult conspiracies, one eventually faces a crossroad of mythic proportions (called Chapel Perilous in the trade). You come out the other side either stone paranoid or an agnostic; there is no third way. I came out agnostic.
Chapel Perilous, like the mysterious entity called “I,” cannot be located in the space-time continuum; it is weightless, odorless, tasteless and undetectable by ordinary instruments. Indeed, like the Ego, it is even possible to deny that it is there. And yet, even more like the Ego, once you are inside it, there doesn’t seem to be any way to ever get out again, until you suddenly discover that it has been brought into existence by thought and does not exist outside thought. Everything you fear is waiting with slavering jaws in Chapel Perilous, but if you are armed with the wand of intuition, the cup of sympathy, the sword of reason, and the pentacle of valor, you will find there (the legends say) the Medicine of Metals, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher’s Stone, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
That’s what the legends always say, and the language of myth is poetically precise. For instance, if you go into that realm without the sword of reason, you will lose your mind, but at the same time, if you take only the sword of reason without the cup of sympathy, you will lose your heart. Even more remarkably, if you approach without the wand of intuition, you can stand at the door for decades never realizing you have arrived. You might think you are just waiting for a bus, or wandering from room to room looking for your cigarettes, watching a TV show, or reading a cryptic and ambiguous book. Chapel Perilous is tricky that way.
JC
Is there some part of Zerohedge’s conclusion you disagree with? Seems simple enough, without all the unecessary, “tricky” speculation.
“Evil is a part of every human being, just as good is a part of every human being. It is a battle we all struggle with until the day we die. But organized evil is something else entirely. It is not something we have to tolerate, and it is something we can change. Until it is expunged from our society, no other solutions can be fully enacted. Therefore, the solution begins with the end of organized evil, and it is a solution I plan to enact in my own way. The solution begins with the eradication of the globalists.”
what do you consider “tricky” speculation?
Poor choice of words on my part. “Chapel Perilous is tricky that way.” This is where the discussion ended above. Not “getting it.” Tedious, presumptuous I thought. I simply preferred the line of thinking and conclusion Zerohedge offered. No big thing.
I don’t think the chapel perilous quote represents unnecessary speculation. for me, it’s very necessary.
Ok, here’s little synchronicity. Last night my partner had me listen to this excerpt of a JFK speech called “The Presidient and the Press” given before the American Newspapers Assoc. in 1961. Of course, it was the excerpt that contained JFK’s remarks on secret societies, etc. This morning I wake up to this blog post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhZk8ronces
This is just an excerpt from the longer, unedited speech. that should follow this youtube video. And here’s the transcript for the longer piece.
Funny how the world works sometimes.
JFK’s secret society speech is excerpted all over the place, but in it he asks the public to put up with more secrecy, for the press to self censor, and for everyone to pretend we are at war. Those parts are never used.
From my armchair, I see smart and powerful people taking advantage of weak and dumb ones. They use secrecy because they like to keep secrets. It makes their activities more effective. They might even have a code among them never to speak out of school. But it is all natural and human, nothing supernatural about it.
That’s it in a nutshell. Why complicate it with Illuminati and oaths and pyramids? Maybe they like that sort of thing, just as churchgoers like crucifixes and statues. But the objects have no power.
Occam says introduction of new hypothesis is unnecessary when phenomena can be explained with fewer variables. I think smart/powerful ruling weak/dumb sums it up.
you referencing Occam? that’s rich. fake deaths, fake bombings, fake moon landing, elaborate crisis actor scenarios. you are like the anti-Occam.
All you ever need do is check the evidence. There must be some kind of a shaman’s curse around it, as you never go near. Boo!
I so completely overestimated you!
I’m surprised you can’t see the similarity between your refusal to investigate the occult and others refusal to investigate a picture of a dead toddler for hints of fakery.
I have not read nothing about it. I have read about theosophy. I have read about Crowley. I have read about Blavatsky. I have read Maury Terry’s work, and McGowan’s on serial killers. There is just nothing there to make me want to jump the hurdle from reality into spoon bending. What I see is fear and superstition, but most importantly, manipulation. They are diddling you. Life is mundane, all is showmanship. These are intelligence operatives trying to convince you that there is an outer/over world of spookery. We are all glued to this planet. We have to figure it out.
again, your willful ignorance on matters of the occult is your choice, but it’s a choice, just like the choice others make not to wade into the world of fakery you think you’ve discovered. if I were to condemn your inquiries with half the vigor you have shown in condemning others who don’t agree with your paranoid world view, you would throw a fit.
I remember as a first grader on Christmas Eve, after having fasted three hours and having a nagging stomach ache, I was certain that by my taking communion Jesus would fix my stomach for me. I was certain of it, which is why I remember being so puzzled when I got no relief. So already, at age six, I was becoming skeptical. There was no hard evidence to back what teachers, my authority figures, were telling me.
You say it is enough for you
How about this:
I take it you’ve seen no first-hand evidence. Better for me to be me than thee.
And again, I live and breathe by means of evidence. It is a hard process, it requires thinking, being wrong, moving forward, being wrong, taking a wrong turn, never trusting authority figures to do my thinking for me. By my judgment, then, the “occult” is ordinary people pulling a fast one on you. They got no more going than the WIzard behind thta curtain.
Man, this whole world of Internet exchange is a desert, one or two flowers blooming here and there, mostly sand and wind. .
the title of your post today references the soul. do you have any evidence the soul exists?
Thank you for making the best point possible, Mr. Skink. For one to accept Conspiro’s ‘knowledge’ one must reject every single bit of contrary evidence and swallow whole every ounce of evidence he will claim others haven’t encountered. Take the moon landings for example: 100s of hours of testimony from those who have been to the moon, 1000s of hours of testimony and records from the technical staff which sent people to the moon, especially concerning the screw-up of Apollo 13. 10s of 1000s of hours of study concerning extra-terrestrial material gathered on the moon. All of this should be dismissed because a certified schizophrenic reported a coke can sighting in a grainy video, someone says fossilized wood was sent to Denmark, the lunar buggy can have lines drawn on it that suggest a more standard vehicle, and the government has lied to us before. If evidence has weight, the scales are not in Conspiro’s favor.
So he claims we don’t read and we don’t know. A handy, false, and completely unsupported conclusion, based solely on the notion that he gets to choose what knowledge people have access to. Stupid, irresponsible and unreasonable. A total dick move, really. But you can’t prove him wrong, just as you can’t prove me wrong when I claim that I saw a unicorn yesterday.
Conspiro has read a lot “ABOUT” the occult, “ABOUT” Crowley and “ABOUT” theosophy. I suggest he’s read nothing of it, save portions of the precious Bible which informed the mythology of his upbringing. Conspiro and I are atheists. On this, we likely agree. However, I find value in exploration of others thoughts and beliefs. He denigrates them, hoping only for agreement and worship to his mind, his books, his ideals. I pointed that out many years ago, and was met with anger and derision, even by you. I trust you can accept that I might have been right about that then and now.
Skipping the comment in between, concerning the soul, we would first have to define it. I don’t know what it is other than energy detached from a physical body. As I used it in the title to my post, it refers to the true feelings, or emotions of a person putting on an outer shell and hiding secrets, as those four boys were.
You must be thinking I am some hard-boiled realist who can’t conceive of an oversoul or imagine there is more to life than our physical beings. But I am like everyone else – I wonder at the wonder of it all, and cannot imagine this is all done for nothing. I just do not see evidence that anyone has it figured out.
No evidence. By the way, religions offers much good, but is also a means of controlling people. Priests are supposedly necessary middle men between us and God, and so have enormous power of us. In the same manner, I would imagine the occult is exercising control over people, and that its leaders play the same game, super-insiders controlling weak followers.
Unrelated. Before I forget, check this out. http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/sleepbus-provides-homeless-australians-safe-place-to-sleep/
Interesting concept. It would probably be illegal to park it anywhere in Missoula except for a Walmart parking lot, but that would be a novel alternative to the under Reserve Street crew…