Afterglow

 

I never heard of the Scole Experiments before. The idea that they proved the afterlife is ridiculous. Of course they didn´t. 

All the usual warning signs are there: two of the mediums were stage magicians, the room in which the "spirits" appeared was pitch dark, no infrared cameras were allowed (LOL), the "spirits" spoke in English (I didn´t know immortal souls had vocal chords or cared about earthly languages)...you get the drift. 

The Scole mediums did manage to trick or at least confuse three investigators from the SPR, so it´s kind of funny that the Why Files aren´t in on the con. Don´t get me wrong, the afterlife might be real, but this kind of stuff feels so 1890´s...   

A pluralist world

 

Sometimes, AI is damn funny. As here, in answer to the prompt "William James at a séance", James of course being the famous American pro-spiritual philosopher... 

Das Kleinod von Babylon

 

“The Occult Roots of Religious Studies”, edited by Yves Mühlematter and Helmut Zander, is a scholarly volume published in 2021. It´s interesting, to be sure, but the title is (frankly) click bait. (The subtitle is more correct: “Influence of Non-Hegemonic Currents in Academia around 1900”.) The contributors don´t really prove that religious studies have occult roots, and frankly don´t even try. I get the impression of a comfy scholarly conference where everyone made a presentation on their favorite obscure topic, had a quick snack in the bar, and then went home to Paris, Heidelberg, or wherever these people have their domicile! What the book proves is simply that many scholars of religion had “non-hegemonic” side interests. In plain English: they actually believed in Spiritualism, occultism, and the like. But that´s hardly news today. A more edgy volume (which will have to wait another 50 years) would detail which scholars *today* have religious connections and how that influences their academic research (Tibetology cough cough). It´s also somewhat weird that the two biggest fish in the occult/religious studies interface pond are hardly even mentioned. Yes, that would be Carl Gustav Jung and Mircea Eliade. Oh, and what about Henry Corbin?

But sure, “The Occult Roots of Religious Studies” isn´t bad, if you take it in the right spirit (pun intended). The chapter on Britain shows that both the Victorian and Edwardian periods were steeped in occultism, indeed, occultism (at least in the broad sense) was near-respectable. Even after the separation of science and “superstition”, many scientists were interested in Theosophy and Spiritualism on a purely personal level. So nah, Alfred Russell Wallace wasn´t unique. Chances are *Darwin* was! One thing that surprised me was that some Theosophists were members of the SPR even *after* the latter´s conflict with Madame Blavatsky. And SPR´s social base was near-upper class! The scientist Sir William Crookes, inventor of the TV tube and discoverer of Thallium, was a President of the SPR, a former President of the Royal Society and…a member of the Theosophical Society. He is even mentioned in the Mahatma Letters! It was also interesting to note that US philosopher William James was more into Spiritualism than I had expected, and that he was the son of a Swedenborgian minister…

One interesting chapter deals with John Woodroffe alias Arthur Avalon. Or perhaps not, since “Arthur Avalon” was really a collective pseudonym, encompassing both Woodroffe and a number of Bengali intellectuals. I never read Avalon´s works (an unfortunate lacuna, I know), but we´re apparently talking about a very late “reform” Tantra, paradoxically proposed to save India and Hinduism from modernity, while simultaneously claiming to be “scientific”. And speaking of India: one contribution deals with W Y Evans-Wentz, the man behind “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” and a lifelong Theosophist, who never left his occult ideas very far behind. He even saw evidence of reincarnation and other Theosophical doctrines in Celtic fairy lore!

The most intriguing section isn´t even about a scholar of religious studies sensu stricto: the famous German archeologist Walter Andrae. It turns out that his Babylonian exhibition at the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin (the one featuring the Ishtar Gate) is inspired by Anthroposophy! Apparently, Andrae both arranged and interpreted the exhibition according to doctrines he picked up from the Christian Community, the Anthroposophical “Church” founded by Friedrich Rittelmeyer under the inspiration of Rudolf Steiner. Apparently, it´s supposed to resemble an initiatory path. This also explains a weird anomaly in the exhibition: its two sphinxes aren´t Babylonian but Hittite. Yet, Andrae assumed that there simply must have been sphinxes present based on some hard-to-understand Anthroposophical doctrine. Indeed, Andrae believed that the Babylonians were carrying out a ritual created by a certain Zaratos, an earlier incarnation of Zarathustra, and the spiritual teacher of Nebuchadnezzar II. There are also speculations that the exhibition halls were painted according to Anthroposophical principles, Steiner having a complex theory of color supposedly derived from Goethe. While this is all very interesting, what conclusions are we supposed to draw from it? For instance, why did Andrae get away with it? Was it *only* because of his elevated position at an important institution, or did his take on ancient Babylon speak to some more widespread Zeitgeist?

The introduction to the volume does make some points worth pondering. For instance, it asks whether esotericism or occultism is really “non-hegemonic” to begin with? If a worldview is widely shared and discussed in elite society, isn´t it really hegemonic? Further, the introduction points out that the nouns “occultism” and “esotericism” are modern inventions and become common during the late 19^th century. Why? What made it necessary to distinguish occultism/esotericism from everything else during that period? Many of the ideas co-existing under those headers are, after all, much older. Protestant theologians apparently started denouncing esoteric ideas much earlier than Catholics. It struck me that this may explain why many esoteric groups are drawn to Catholicism and even end up creating a kind of pseudo-Catholicism themselves. Conversely, there doesn´t seem to be any esoteric groups obviously drawn to Protestantism, albeit more Protestants than we imagine may have been influenced by “heretical” esoteric ideas.   

With that observation, I close this little discussion.    

In the company of witches

 

“The Witch of Criswell” is a recent novel by John Michael Greer (JMG), an American blogger and student of the occult. Its exact relation to the author´s previous fantasy novels (the so-called Haliverse) is somewhat unclear, but there are certainly strong similarities. These include folk magic, awkward teenagers, secret societies, plot developments in farm country, and a near-future America slowly but steadfastly running out of steam. And yes, friendly anti-Communist Asians, this time from South Vietnam.

The most obvious difference with “The Weird of Hali” is that the Lovecraftian themes are missing. Indeed, “The Witch of Criswell” feels so in-house that I suspect that two of the characters, Ariel and her grandfather Dr Moravec, are both freely based on John Michael Greer himself! The least important example – but an extremely funny one – is that Dr Moravec is a Slovak-American. Slovak is a language related to Czech. And on his blog, JMG has revealed that he is trying to learn Czech. Another is the only city in the novel, the fictitious Adocentyn, named after an equally fictitious Arabic city in a medieval magical manuscript known as the Picatrix. One of the translators of the Picatrix from Latin to English is none other than JMG. The constant criticisms of Harry Potter novels are also a Greer staple, while the attacks on TV have been replaced by a ditto negative attitude towards I-pods.

The main character of the novel, Ariel Moravec, is an 18-year old high school student with some inner demons and peculiar habits. Although not autistic or extremely socially awkward, she is certainly “nerdy”, uncool and perhaps asexual. Using both wits and determination, this unlikely prodigy manages to become a cross of Sherlock Holmes, Hercules Poirot and a folkish witch. Note the name: Ariel is a nature spirit in Shakespeare´s play “The Tempest”, but perhaps also a symbol for a neophyte in magic. According to all-knowing Wikipedia, Ariel is also a gender-fluid character, which may or may not be significant.

Most of the plot is “realistic” in the sense that it deals with folk magic (or folk superstition, if you´re a Skeptic-TM), including Hoodoo, which I assume is more or less correctly described. It´s a world of farmers cursing each other´s cattle, old ladies reading tea leaves, mojos, hauntings and strong Omerta about the whole thing. One of the witches takes the form of a very large raven! And yes, some cats and barn owls are there, too. Only at the end does it seem that the magic becomes more ritualistic and “properly esoteric”, with Dr Moravec wielding the Trident of Paracelsus (whatever that is exactly) to kill off the evil sorceress once and for all. A more exotic ingredient in the magickal mix is Cao Dai, the Vietnamese Spiritualist religion which supposedly venerate Victor Hugo as a kind of prophet (although that particular detail isn´t mentioned).

If there is any message in “The Witch of Criswell”, it´s that a magician or witch isn´t really “special”, rather it´s a normal person who realizes that *the world* is special (or more special than many ordinary people think). A more subtle point is that God is very distant, and although you can somehow feel his presence during religious services, he stands far above the petty problems of humanity – the Cao Dai ritual of praying to God doesn´t seem to stop the evil witch. Presumably, humans must therefore become more “pagan” and learn magical tricks of trade themselves, perhaps with some input from spiritual beings of a lower order than God. Indeed, everything humans can perceive is really “natural”, although some of it goes unrecognized by modern Science-TM.

With that, I close these reflections on “The Witch of Criswell”. Apparently, a new Moravec mystery will soon be published…and available at your local conjure shop?  

Nightmare Tales

 

“Nightmare Tales” is a collection of nine short horror stories. They were written from 1876 to 1891, and originally published in various magazines. The stories are rather unremarkable in themselves, except for one thing: the author is none other than Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the founder and first leader of the Theosophical Society. The collection was published the year after Blavatsky´s death (or shall we say departure). It´s freely available at the website of the “Pasadena” branch of Theosophy. I´ve read them in a Swedish translation which I picked up at a very respectable venue (I was surprised).

While the short stories aren´t “bad” as in bad-bad, they feel unfinished, although it´s possible that 19^th century magazines habitually published tales of this sort. If so, Blavatsky simply adapted to the genre. Most of the stories are about Spiritualist séances gone dangerously wrong. All the usual “Gothic” tropes are there, including mysterious castles, journeys through the Balkans, Hungarian Gypsies, and so forth. Blavatsky was a Russian, so a few horror tropes that are perhaps more fitting to that nation are included, such as Siberian shamans. A strong belief in reincarnation shines through. So does the author´s ethnic prejudices: two of the bad guys are Jewish, one of them an extremely obnoxious brothel madam! Sometimes, evil people or skeptics who dabble in the occult get severely punished by the inexorable law of karma, but some villains actually get away with it. I suspect most of the stories are for entertainment only, rather than edifying morality tales.

A certain amount of mischievous humor shines through in some of the tales. The old grey-haired man on Svalbard in “From the Polar Lands: A Christmas Story” is presumably Santa Claus! “The Legend of the Blue Lotus” retells a Hindu legend with obvious anti-Biblical allusions added (Blavatsky hated Abrahamic religion). Blavatsky´s extreme pessimism is evident in “Karmic Visions”. The most serious story is “A Bewitched Life”, about a vain skeptic who gets possessed by demons after rejecting a Shinto purification ritual.

Not sure what to say about “Nightmare Tales” in general, but it does raise at least some eyebrows that the founder of a New Religious Movement with some kind of soteriological message also penned quasi-Gothic fiction!  

Quora: Even worse than Wikipedia?

 

Emma Thorne is quite the character, but I´m not sure why I link to her content at all. Maybe it´s the Quora thing, I don´t know...

Creating your own spirit is called "tulpamancy", btw.

Revelation on the road to 1619

Victoria Woodhull 

The late Louis Proyect, an independent Marxist in the United States, still has a blog presence. In the links below, he defends the 1619 Project from criticism. The 1619 Project argues that the American revolution was a conservative reaction against abolitionism. I previously reviewed several books arguing a similar position. The project is (or was) supported by the New York Times. 

Several historians critical of the 1619 Project sent an open letter to NYT protesting the paper´s endorsement. Proyect believes that the letter is actually part of a campaign organized by a far left group, the small but notorious Socialist Equality Party (SEP), often known as World Socialist Web Site (WSWS). Other opponents of the 1619 Project turn out to be Hillary Clinton supporters, Republicans and perhaps racists.

The links below go to Proyect´s exposés of the SEP, and to an article on the early history of Marxism in the United States, where Proyect seemingly supports the faction around Victoria Woodhull, who was expelled by the orthodox Marxists around Sorge. 

I´m not entirely convinced by the arguments concerning the American revolution, tbh, and Proyect never reflects over the Black pop front with the New York Times, but the contributions are nevertheless interesting. 

Marx, Lincoln and Project 1619

Behind the attack on New York Times Project 1619

Project 1619 and its detractors

A message from the Archons

 

Cyrus Kirkpatrick continues his far out speculations in this recent YouTube clip. While our man repudiated the wild claims he was promoting this summer, his new claims are...well, equally wild.

After communicating with "the Ashtar" and the "Angelic Order", Cyrus has reached the conclusion that the spiritual cosmos is currently split into two competing timelines. One of them is the "true" timeline, where our post-mortem existence looks pretty much as our present one, only much better, and we all get to keep our personalities and individualities. (I assume this is the "astral world" Cyrus usually talks about on his channel.) The fake timeline is created by a group of beings who think they are speeding up human evolution to higher levels of consciousness, while actually manipulating and perhaps even destroying it. These beings have created "the causal plane" in which the physical and the mental are conflated, every thought immidiately becomes an object, and human souls float around among strange geometric shapes, et cetera. This sounds like the *real* astral plane of many occult traditions, or perhaps a more chaotic version of the same? 

The point of the exercise is to teach human souls that any kind of material or individual existence is negative, and that they must therefore fuse with "God" (which seems to be a kind of pantheistic world-spirit in this scenario). However, if you unite with "God" in this way, your soul will be dissolved into the divine essence, and you will simply cease to exist. This is the second death. The Angelic Order calls this "dissolutionism" and has woved to fight it. The pantheistic timeline is inherently unstable, and self-destructs at regular intervals, at which the aliens controlling it has to recreate it anew. Thus, it cannot give its denizens ultimate peace or immortality. 

There are similarities between these curious teachings and other religious traditions. Richard Thompson´s book "Alien Identities" comes to mind, where some aliens are preaching a pantheist message, while the true message is that of Krishna seen as a personal god (the author was a member of ISKCON). The reason is simply that some UFO occupants are deluded by Maya (cosmic illusion). It also struck me that the communications from the Angelic Order sound like inverted Gnosticism. It´s as if the evil archons were communicating with humanity, trying to stop us from entering the real light (the "false" timeline) by enchanting promises of personal immortality. In the Gnostic scenario, the fantastic and perfect worlds promised us by the Angelic Order are the unstable ones, chaining us to further suffering. Another similarity would be with the devas of Buddhist mythology. The Angelic Order are the devas, claiming that the dissolutionists are the asuras, while real enlightenment (and nirvana) is different from both!

OK, you can have some fun with this material, if you studied comparative religion at college level (which I did). 

Why not simply admit that there are many paths through eternity? If I want to dissolve my essence into the Divine, why should some self-proclaimed angel from "the 7th density plane" try to stop me... 

Heretics in hollow heaven

 

Cyrus Kirkpatrick talks too much in this clip, but he does make some interesting points. Kirkpatrick is an "astral traveler" who believes that anyone can visit the astral plane (the afterlife) through a method similar to an out-of-body experience. He also believes in spirit communication with the dead (who are of course still alive on the other side), for instance with the aid of copper dowsing rods. So far, Kirkpatrick sounds like any other New Age channel or medium you are likely to encounter. 

Except, of course, that he doesn´t.

Cyrus half-jokingly, half-seriously refers to his philosophy as "Anti-Orb-of-Light-ism". His view of the astral plane is very concrete, almost "physical" or "material". We are reborn on the other side as individuals with all our earthly memories intact, interact with people we knew during our earthly lives, and have desires and interests similar to those of earthlings. Indeed, the astral world looks pretty much like our physical world, only better! 

Apparently, some people do become seemingly impersonal and blissful "orbs of light", but this is really a "hollow heaven" for misanthropic people who crave such a non-human or anti-human existence, believing that this makes them more "spiritually advanced", "closer to God", or whatever. In reality, this amorphous state is a cul-de-sac, and people stuck in it usually reincarnate on the astral level anyway, when they snap out of their orb-of-light-ism.

Kirkpatrick and others like him (this is an entire milieu) believe that concepts such as "ego" or "egolessness" have been misinterpreted by New Age teachers. Getting rid of egoism is one thing, getting rid of your literal personality or individuality is something else again. Indeed, Cyrus rejects puritanical religion and believe that we should get *more* grounded in our desires and earthly pleasures, rather than giving them up. He sounds almost a bit "Tantric" here, and indeed references (esoteric) Tibetan Buddhism at this point. 

Somehow, becoming more grounded on the physical plane and being reborn on the Earth-like astral plane prepares us for further spiritual-evolutionary advances on higher planes, although Cyrus isn´t sure exactly how (in other clips, he has talked positively about "The Law of One", a Theosophy-derived system.)

Personally, I feel that he is simply going too far in the other direction. Just as the orb-of-light-ists are apparently *shocked* by the suggestion that people in the afterlife have astral sex or eat chocolate, Kirkpatrick is downright hostile to the idea of a perfectly blissful merging with the Divine (and individual orbs-of-lights?). But what if I *want* to merge with the Divine just as much as our soul-traveler wants to eat astral bonbons? Why does every little religion constantly consign its opponents to some equivalent of the hell realms, in this case the "hollow heaven" which impedes your karmic growth or whatever? 

Why can´t their be more than one path through Eternity? 

Galactic News

 

Cyrus Kirkpatrick, the paranormal researcher, strikes again, this time with some speculations about aliens and alien conspiracies. Or rather "aliens" within scare quotes, since he is to some extent inspired by "The Law of One" here. The beings we call "aliens" are really "higher density beings" and might as well be called spirits, souls or perhaps even a kind of humans on a higher level of cosmic evolution (and elevation). They are thus not part of our dimension of reality at all, although we can communicate with them in various ways. The medium showed in this clip apparently uses computers to talk to the "aliens", rather than more classical channeling. Cyrus himself uses copper rods! 

The messages from the other side turn out to be highly contradictory. The medium named Gosia claims that the Nordics or Taygetans (tall blonde aliens with long flowing hair) have broken away from the Galactic Federation. The reason is that the Federation is misusing its power to keep humanity in perpetual ignorance and suffering, in effect stopping us from evolving any further. The Federation looks upon Earth as one gigantic artificial computer game in which all human souls are really players controlled by the program. The game is used by the federated "aliens" to incarnate on Earth and voluntarily go through various negative experiences (!), but to keep the game going, the real humans must remain subjugated to the matrix. Presumably, the Nordics believe this is unethical and wants to save humanity from the intrusive federal power, but it´s not entirely clear how. 

Cyrus´ own spirit-plane contact, Lawrina, denies the info coming from Gosia, suggesting that the Galactic Federation are really the good guys and that the evil power is some cabal closer to home (that is, an earthly or at least Earth-based conspiracy). What is less clear is why the Nordics would claim otherwise. 

Not sure if I believe any of this, but it does show the perils of inter-dimensional news broadcasts... 

The astral blockade

 

Cyrus Kirkpatrick, a paranormal researcher and psychonaut, discusses both politics and the paranormal in the clip above. It´s quite long (about 45 minutes) and includes another experiment with the copper rods Cyrus is using to communicate with "Lawrina", the spirit of a departed Turkish woman who supposedly lived in Izmir about 100 years ago. I admit that I didn´t find his demonstration of the rods *that* convincing, since it´s possible Cyrus makes them move subconsciously by grasping them hard with his hands. That is, the very thing that supposedly stops them from moving is what makes them do so! And yes, that´s admittedly an armchair criticism... (Cyrus claims to have independently verified some of the info he got from Lawrina and other communicators.)

Cyrus wonders aloud why many experiments with the paranormal begin very well for the true believer and then gets progressively worse and worse, "confirming" the skeptics. This kind of paranormal fatigue seems to have plagued the field since its inception, making it difficult to make repeatable experiments (at least beyond a certain point). Cyrus believes that perhaps there is a "astral blockade" against sharing too much information. This actually sounds logical (provided the astral exists at all), but it also creates another opening for the skeptics, who can then write off the entire topic as "ad hoc". Lawrina apparently told Cyrus that the blockade is the result of a democratic decision at the other side!

Cyrus also discusses some recent political blow-ups at his forums, revealing that he is a centrist who voted Obama twice (I assumed he was more "based"). He had problems with both fanaticized leftists and ditto right-wingers, but at the moment, the former are the stronger faction. 

Worth watching on a rainy summer day (which it is right now where I´m staying). 

Copper dowsing rods

 

I have no idea whether this is true or not, but here we go! Cyrus Kirkpatrick communicates with a Turkish-Italian Muslim spirit nicknamed Lawrina with the help of two copper dowsing rods. Also contains some discussions about "reincarnation traps", Ouija boards and such things. Not for the faint of heart pseudo-skeptic. 

Addendum: Nor for the faint of heart spiritual person. The comments about "the tunnel" and "reincarnation traps" below the Lawrina video are PARANOID. 

Summerland of the soul

 

"What is life REALLY like on the Astral Plane? Rare details" is a YouTube clip featuring Cyrus Kirkpatrick, an astral traveler and afterlife explorer (or purported such, if you´re of a more skeptical bent). Kirkpatrick´s channel is called Afterlife Topics and Metaphysics. It seems Kirkpatrick is finally back in the States, Tucson to be more exact, after being stuck somewhere in the Phillippines for most of the COVID pandemic. In this clip, he elaborates on his view of the afterlife, which he calls "the astral plane". He claims to have visited the afterlife during out-of-body experiences, and have interviewed its denizens. 

Apparently, the inhabitants of the astral world call our world "the Earth plane", while there world is simply "Earth". It looks like an improved copy of our world. For instance, there are copies of our cities in the astral world, including astral versions of LA, Hong Kong, Jerusalem and even Tucson, Arizona. Paranormal abilities, such as telepathy, are considered normal. Teleportation and materialization of objects are skills that can be learned. Objects come and go, a house further down the street might not be there the next day, and this too is considered a normal thing. Time is less important, since important meetings can be held at once through telepathy, or people can bilocate (be at more than one place at the same time). 

Many inhabitants of the astral create entire fantasy worlds through visualization. Ghosts exist on the astral plane -  more exactly, the "ghosts" are physical people on the Earth plane, who are barely visible from the astral. 

Technology is better on the other side. They had smart phones already 30 years ago! UFOs and aliens visit the astral Earth on a semi-regular basis, apparently without anyone raising an eyebrow. 

A curious detail is that astral humans are potentially mortal. Surprisingly enough, there are both wars and conflicts in the afterlife, and people who join such "causes" can be hurt so badly that their astral bodies in effect die. The only way to fix the problem is by reincarnating on our Earth plane, whereby new astral bodies are created! Kirkpatrick therefore advises everyone to stay out of such conflicts...

A critic might argue that Kirkpatrick´s description of the astral plane sounds strangely dream-like, and that this proves it *is* a dream. Indeed, Kirkpatrick says in another YouTube clip that out-of-body experiences can be consciously induced during sleep paralysis! What skeptics take as proof against an afterlife, is here turned into a mechanism to explore a supposedly real afterlife state. 

With that little observation, I close this review. 

There is chocolate in heaven

 

"How to get the BEST Afterlife states" is a YouTube clip featuring Cyrus Kirkpatrick. I linked to some of his content before. 

Kirkpatrick has a very "concrete" view of the afterlife. After the death of the physical body, the astral body is reborn in a kind of twin world to Earth, where life continues pretty much as normal, except better. For this reason, Kirkpatrick is sharply critical of mediums who claim that the afterlife state is in many ways *worse* than life on Earth (I´m surprised such people even exist), or "better" in a purely spiritual sense (we become luminous orbs of light). 

In this clip, he takes on the former idea. Apparently, a certain medium have claimed that there is no chocolate in heaven, a depressive thought roundly mocked at Kirkpatrick´s web forum. Kirkpatrick believes that some astral bodies might simply be incompatible with life on the astral planes, presumably due to negative thoughts and actions while the individual was physically alive, and that this clouds their perceptions of "the other side". Such a person in effect becomes a kind of ghost at the astral plane, being unable to fully sense it (including the taste of astral chocolate). 

In reality, the astral plane is just a small part of a vast multiverse, and the only limitations to experience are all in our own mind... 

Facing the unknown

"Det Okända: Övernaturliga möten och fenomen" is a book by Clas Svahn published in 2018. The language is Swedish. Svahn is a reporter, blogger and former chair of UFO-Sverige, a mostly skeptical (sic) ufology group (perhaps the only one).

"Det Okända" takes the reader on a wild ride through the murky waters of Forteana, folklore, and religion. Many of the phenomena covered are old hat to voracious readers of this kind of literature. Once again, we get to meet the Cottingley fairies, the sea-serpent, mermaids and good ol' Bigfoot. And yes, the Fox sisters!

What makes the book interesting even to a veteran like myself is the inclusion of Swedish and Finnish eye witness reports of paranormal activity. I had no idea that people still today see trolls, gnomes and other hobgoblins from Swedish folklore. I did know about Storsie or Storsjöodjuret, Sweden's very own lake-monster, but I had no idea that other lakes or some coasts had similar traditions. Lake Dellen in Hälsingland is supposedly home to another lake-monster, occasionally still seen today. A century ago, the exclusive resort town of Saltsjöbaden became the site for quite a few observations of a "monster" living off the coast. Sweden also has recent apparitions of Jesus and Mary - among Syriac Orthodox immigrants from the Middle East.

It's not always easy to categorize supposedly supernatural experiences. Are they aliens, fairies, ghosts or flying saucers? Several of the UFO-alien observations seem uncontaminated by the evolving UFO mythos and would have been classified as fairy lore a century ago. Others are so baffling that they don't resemble anything else, before or since.

Svahn is a skeptic, although a relatively civilized one, but  his conclusions will nevertheless rub the true believers the wrong way. Thus, he interprets Gösta Carlsson's famous UFO observation as sheer fantasy, caused by Carlsson's vivid dreams of "meetings with aliens". This used to be the "best" Swedish UFO observation!

Of course, skepticism isn't always wrong. Even a hopeless romantic like the editor of this blog can see that the "Finnish lion" is really a lynx, or that the evidence for a Swedish (!) Bigfoot is just an inconclusive blobsquatch. Somewhat ironically, the most scary phenomenon described by the author might have a purely natural explanation.

Yes, that would be swamp gas!

Remind me not to go near any methane-leaking Swedish bogs in the near future...

That being said, "Det Okända" is still an entertaining and sometimes intriguing read. 

A skeptic against the stream

"Profeter mot strömmen" by Olav Hammer is a Swedish book published in 1999 and long out of print. I found it two weeks ago at the Theosophical bookstore in Stockholm. That's rather strange, considering that Hammer is extremely critical of Theosophy! Indeed, the nice old lady at the bookstore did look rather startled when I showed her my find.

Hammer is a professor of religious studies and a rather hardline skeptic. His most well known book, "På spaning efter helheten" is a highly critical mini-encyclopedia of all things New Age. "Profeter mot strömmen" (Prophets counter current) deals with the historical background: Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Theosophy and New Thought. Hammer also takes us on a wild ride through the burned over district otherwise known as the United States. Mormons, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses and Edgar Cayce are all in for a good whipping. There is also an excursion back in time to Paracelsus and Newton, and one taking us forward to Ariosophy and Anthroposophy. 

I beg to differ on some finer points of interpretation (surely Origen believed in the soul's progress through reincarnation), and also on the author's "materialist" worldview, but overall, I say it's a fine study. The book is presented as a collection of free-standing essays, but I think it does have a fundamental unity. On a more humorous note, Hammer is honest enough to admit that he found Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine" almost impossible to read. He is probably not alone in this, although Bailey and Steiner are probably worse still!

The underlying theme of the essays is the strong skepticism to religious and "spiritual" truth-claims. The "scientific" arguments of many new agey writers are mere metaphors. Psychology and cold reading explains many "supernatural" phenomena. And then there are the hoaxes! An important point made in Hammer's critical writings is how strongly even the most exotic new religions are rooted in the Zeitgeist. Real innovators are rare - perhaps Mesmer was one such. Joseph Smith and Madame Blavatsky, each in their own way, were influenced by optimistic 19th century beliefs in progress. American individualism comes to the fore in New Thought. The scientific pretensions are of course connected to the prestige of modern science. Racist "pagan" occultism in prewar Germany looked more like Freemasonry and pseudo-Catholic chivalry (or even Theosophy) than an authentic ancient religion.

Hammer also points out that new religious movements are strangely "tradition-less". They have often created a fake tradition around themselves, but otherwise seem to be creations de novo. What they never mention is their *actual* pedigree. The Mormons avoid discussing Swedenborg, the kabbala or Freemasonry. Anthroposophists hardly know who Blavatsky was, and Mary Baker Eddy denied any connection to Quimby (her real master).

One thing that struck me when reading "Profeter mot strömmen" is how little has truly changed in 200 years. The 19th century, the early 20th century and the late 20th century have remarkable similarities when it comes to alternative spirituality. It's all there: the interest in, and distortion of, Hinduism and Buddhism, the seances (today known as channeling), the alternative medical therapies, the strong women leaders, the bizarre cults and utopian social schemes, the apocalypse-mongering with its great disappointments, the scientific pretensions, the Nature mystics... 

The "prophets" mentioned in this book aren't really swimming against the current, it seems! It's rather the poor skeptic who is somewhat out of joint... 

Makes me wonder how long the show will go on? It feels like the world is long overdue for a *truly* new prophet...or at least a new Zeitgeist! 

Navigating the ocean of Theosophy

"The Ocean of Theosophy" by William Q Judge was originally published in 1893. I recently read it in a Swedish translation, "Teosofins Ocean". The Swedish edition is published and distributed by the "Adyar" society, while the original book has been copyrighted by "Pasadena" (I admit that these kinds of details intrigue me). It seems Judge wrote the book before the Theosophical movement irreversibly split. The author was for a short while the leader of the "dissident" branch later known as "Pasadena". 

Judge's book should be considered introductory. Had I not known anything at all about Theosophy before reading it, I would probably have been bewildered! While Judge explains many of the basics, his emphasis is on reincarnation, life after death (or rather between incarnations), and the Theosophical criticism of Spiritualism. I assume these topics were of particular interest to spiritual seekers in New York City circa 1893. He spends much less time on the Masters and the cycles. 

Judge is sharply critical of both materialism and main-line Christianity. He often speaks highly of the spiritual traditions of India. The Theosophical alternative to materialism and Darwinism is a process of spiritual evolution in a meaningful universe, in which humans can evolve into "gods". It's easy to understand the appeal this could have on late 19th century Americans. Theosophy (somewhat curiously) combines the Western idea of Progress with a cyclical view of time and history. In the end, the progressive perspective is more decisive.

What is more difficult to swallow is the alternative to Christianity. Judge says that karma is automatic and inevitable, including karmic retribution. Karmic justice is "blind", without any remorse or forgiveness. The Universe is at all times in perfect karmic balance, and everything that happens (including mass poverty and social injustice) is therefore absolutely just. There is no fall in this system, but therefore no atonement or grace either. It's not even clear what exactly salvation entails, since all human monads must go through an extremely long evolutionary development before they can become Masters.

Judge's description of post-mortem existence is intriguing in many ways. The "astral" seem to correspond to the etheric and lower astral in other systems, while "devachan" is the higher astral. The "astral light" seem to be what later became known as the Akasha Chronicle. Judge must have seen Spiritualism as a dangerous competitor, or as a low brow form of occultism which risked to discredit the whole field, since he devotes half the book arguing that Spiritualist mediums don't have contacts with the souls of the departed. Rather, they are "communicating" with "astral shells" or even demonic entities! Of course, Judge's position does have a certain logic within the Theosophical system: if reincarnation is true, mediums must obviously be talking to somebody else... 

Some more weird ideas have also been included. Bees and wheat are said to have an extraterrestrial origin, fossils are "solidified astral forms" much older than science suspects, and America is the center of the next "root-race". Or was it the next sub-race? I take it the Coming American Race has been cancelled in 2020?

Not sure who could benefit from this work today, but if Theosophy is something that strongly interests you, I suppose this might make it somewhat easier to navigate its oceans... 

The real Randi?

Since I just dissed Cyrus Kirkpatrick´s weird content on Hitler (see previous post), it´s time to give the astral devil (or is it deva) his due. Here´s a link to an interesting clip dealing with James Randi, Rupert Sheldrake, and related topics. 

Here is the link to the blog post discussed in the clip:

The not-so-amazing Randi?

Breaking news from Astral Channel

"The whereabouts of Hitler in the Afterlife discovered?" is a slightly absurd YouTube clip featuring Cyrus Kirkpatrick, of whom I know very little. Apparently, Kirkpatrick is an "astral traveler" who once met Kim Jong-il in the afterlife (here identified with the astral world) inside a spiritual copy of North Korea. At another time, he visited an astral city where he watched a documentary on TV about the whereabouts of notorious war-criminal and Nazi Führer, Adolf Hitler. 

It seems Hitler is living a quiet life together with Eva Braun on the astral planes. When asked about his major accomplishment in life, he started discussing his relationship with Eva. Both Hitler and Mrs Braun looked elderly, in their 70´s, perhaps because they managed to escape to Argentina after the war and didn´t die until a ripe old age. The other Nazis, on the other hand, were much worse than Herr Hitler and their souls therefore disappeared under mysterious circumstances after their physical deaths. Nobody in Astral City knows where they are, but Kirkpatrick speculates that Hell is an appropriate location. The documentary on Astral Channel ended with Hitler refusing to speak to a large rally of Nazis (?) or perhaps just interested people in general, instead quietly absconding into the good night together with his beloved Eva...

WTF???

Even from a purely occult view, this makes literally ZERO sense, since the astral is the realm of subjective wish-fulfilment. Whose wishes were being fulfilled (Hitler´s, Kirkpatrick´s, Hitler´s pet dog´s maybe) I cannot say. What the traveler saw was simply a reflection of his own vivid imagination, and warped view of Third Reich history, projected onto the Akasha...

Spiritualist problems

Robert Mathiesen is a scholar of Eastern Orthodox history who also writes about magic, witches and occultism. I think he is a “pagan” pantheist himself, but I´m not entirely certain of this.

This article deals with certain problems concerning the life and activities of Emma Hardinge Britten, a prominent 19^th century Spiritualist active in both the UK and the US. Thus, the article isn´t a popularized account of her life, but rather scholarly “source criticism”. It´s probably mostly of interest to scholars specializing in Spiritualism, Theosophy and other odd topics.

Mathiesen believes he has identified Britten´s most prominent collaborator, the mysterious Chevalier Louis de B, as Ernest de Bunsen, an anti-Christian Spiritualist-occultist writer on religious history. He also claims that the earliest version of the Theosophical Society wasn’t completely dominated by Madame Blavatsky, Britten playing an equally important role and de facto competing with the Russian madame. Mathiesen also speculates that Britten may have been involved in a secret training program within the society, which had some resemblances to that of the later Golden Dawn.

It´s also interesting to note that Britten had a connection to an esoteric society which counted Edward Bulwer-Lytton as one of its members, but that´s apparently old hat! On a funnier note, the photo of Bunsen in this little book has a striking resemblance to Swedish actor Max von Sydow…