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Brad Steigerand

SherryHansenSteiger

1

GEUUhttp-v1.quark 4/4/03 5:20 PM

Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and UnexplainedBrad E. Steiger and Sherry Hansen Steiger

Project EditorJolen Marya Gedridge

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Steiger, Brad.Gale encyclopedia of the unusual and unexplained / Brad E. Steiger

and Sherry Hansen Steiger.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-7876-5382-9 (set : hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN

0-7876-5383-7 (v. 1 : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7876-5384-5 (v. 2 : alk.paper) — ISBN 0-7876-5385-3 (v. 3 : alk. paper)

1. Parapsychology—Encyclopedias. 2. Occultism—Encyclopedias. 3.Supernatural—Encyclopedias. I. Title: Encyclopedia of the unusual andunexplained. II. Steiger, Sherry Hansen. III. Title.

BF1025.S79 2003130’.3—dc21

2003003995

Table of Contents

preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiintroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 1

How the Major Religions Viewthe Afterlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Buddhism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Hinduism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Islam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Judaism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Ancient Egypt andthe Afterlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Egyptian Book of the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Osiris: Death and Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . 18Pyramid Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Individual Human Experiencewith Death and the Afterlife . . . 22

Deathbed Visions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Near-Death Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The Mystery Schools . . . . . . . . . . 31

Dionysian Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Eleusinian Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Hermetic Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Orphic Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Pythagorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Tribal Religions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Burial Mounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Land of the Grandparents . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

How the Major ReligionsView Reincarnation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Hinduism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Islam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Judaism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Contemporary Mystery Schoolsand Reincarnation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Akashic Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Anthroposophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Association for Research

and Enlightenment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Theosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Volume 1

Experiential Quests intoPast Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Hypnotic Regression into Past Lives . . . . . . 59Bridey Murphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Past-Life Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Ian Stevenson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Chapter 2

Shamanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Spirit Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Totem Animal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Vision Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Spirit Mediumship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Ouija Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Seance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Spirit Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Trance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Mediums and Channelers . . . . . . . 93

Sylvia Browne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Florence Cook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Mina “Margery” Crandon . . . . . . . . . . . . 101John Edward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Arthur Augustus Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Eileen Garrett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Daniel Dunglas Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110J. Z. Knight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Carlos Mirabelli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Eusapia Palladino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Leonora E. Piper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122James Van Praagh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Jach Pursel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Jane Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Rudi Schneider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Witch of Endor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Spiritualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Andrew Jackson Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137The Fox Sisters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139Allen Kardec. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Mystics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky . . . . . . . . . . . 147Rudolf Steiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149Emanuel Swedenborg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Researchers into the Mysteryof Spirit Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Hereward Carrington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Sir William Crookes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Harry Houdini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163William James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Sir Oliver Lodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167Fredric W. H. Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169Society for Psychical Research (SPR). . . . . 172

Chapter 3

Antichrist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Apocalypse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182Apparitions of Holy Figures . . . 186Armaggedon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192Cosmic Consciousness . . . . . . . . 193Demons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196Devil’s Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199Ecstasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200Exorcism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204Faith Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Guardian Angels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211Illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214Inquisition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217Miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220Possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223Power of Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225The Rapture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231Shroud of Turin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232666 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238Snake Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Stigmata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Virgin of Guadalupe . . . . . . . . . . . 244Visions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246Weeping Statues and Icons . . . . 249

Chapter 4

Egyptian Mystery Schools . . . . . 257

Akhenaten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259Isis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260Osiris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Greek Mystery Schools . . . . . . . 264

Delphi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265Dionysus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266Eleusis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Christian Mystery Schools,Cults, Heresies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Black Madonna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272Cathars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274Gnosticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277Manichaeism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Tribal Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Ghost Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283Macumba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285Santeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Satanic Cults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

T h e G a l e E n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e U n u s u a l a n d U n e x p l a i n e d

The Rise of Satanism in theMiddle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Black Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293Catherine Montvoisin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296Gilles de Rais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Anton LaVey’s First Churchof Satan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Temple of Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

UFO Cults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Aetherius Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307Heaven’s Gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309The Raelians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Twentieth-CenturySpiritual Expression . . . . . . . . . . 313

Branch Davidians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315Eckankar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316Falun Gong. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317Order of the Solar Temple . . . . . . . . . . . . 318The People’s Temple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319Scientology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323Cumulative Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 5

The Assassins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4The Decided Ones of Jupiter. . . . . 5The Freemasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9The Garduna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12The Holy Vehm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15The Illuminati. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16The Knights Templar . . . . . . . . . . . 19The Leopard Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24The Mau-Mau. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27The Rosicrucians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30The Thuggee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32The Tongs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Chapter 6

Alchemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Valentine Andreae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Roger Bacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Helvetius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Hermes Trismegistus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Albertus Magnus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Paracelsus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Magick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Abremelin Magick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Black Magick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Enochian Magick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Vodun/Vodoun/Voodoo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52White Magick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Magi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Agrippa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Count Allesandro Cagliostro . . . . . . . . . . . 61Aleister Crowley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62John Dee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Dr. Faust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Marie Laveau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Eliphas Levi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Simon Magus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Pico della Mirandola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Pythagoras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Count Saint-Germain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Wicca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

People of Wicca. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Margot Adler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Philip Emmons (Isaac) Bonewits. . . . . . . . . 78Raymond Buckland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Gavin Frost and Yvonne Frost . . . . . . . . . . 82Gerald Brosseau Gardner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Sybil Leek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Margaret Alice Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87M. Macha NightMare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Starhawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Doreen Valiente . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Witchcraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Familiars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95The Inquisition—The Time of

the Burning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Sabbats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Witchcraft Trials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Salem, Massachusetts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Scotland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Witchhunters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Jean Bodin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110Henri Boguet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110Matthew Hopkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111


Volume 2

Pope Innocent III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Pierre de Lancre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Chapter 7

Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Automatic Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Cartomancy/Tarot . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Telling Fortunes with ModernPlaying Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Dowsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Graphology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

I Ching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Kabbalah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Necromancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Numerology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Palmistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Prophets and Diviners . . . . . . . . 150

Edgar Cayce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Delphic Oracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154Jeane Dixon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155Irene Hughes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157Olof Jonsson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Nostradamus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Mother Shipton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Scrying/CrystalGazing/Crystalomancy . . . . . . . . . 162

Tea Leaf Reading(Tasseography) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Chapter 8

Amulets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Bells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170Bloodstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171Candles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171Cauldron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172Crystals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173Fairy Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176Garlic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177Hand of Glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Horseshoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Knife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Love Knots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Mandrake Root . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Maypole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182Mistletoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Salt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Silver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185Stones for Healing and Energy . . . . . . . . . 185Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187Voodoo Dolls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Tribal Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Crystal Skulls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Fetishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193Megaliths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Runes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197Talismans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197Totems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Things of Sacred Power . . . . . . . 199

The Ark of the Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . 201Crosses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203The Holy Grail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204Philosopher’s Stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206The Spear of Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Swastikas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Chapter 9

Angkor Wat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216Mt. Ararat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216Atlantis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219Avalon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225The Bermuda Triangle . . . . . . . . . 226Chartres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230Cursuses and Leys . . . . . . . . . . . . 232El Dorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234Easter Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235Glastonbury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238Hollow Earth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242Karnak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245Lemuria and Mu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247Lourdes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248Machu Picchu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251Mayan Temples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253Mecca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256The Nazca Lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260The Great Pyramid(of Kfhufu), at Giza . . . . . . . . . . . 264The Sphinx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268Stonehenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272Taos Pueblo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275Tiahuanaco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277



Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 10

Ghostly Beings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Animal Spirits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Apparitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Autoscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Ghosts of the Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Phantoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Poltergeists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Spirits of the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Spooklights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Famous Haunted Housesand Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Bell Witch’s Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Borley Rectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Calvados Castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Epworth Rectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36General Wayne Inn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38The Gray Man of Hinton Ampner . . . . . . . 40Myrtles Plantation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42The Tedworth Drummer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44The Whaley House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Ghosts in the Movies . . . . . . . . . . 49

Spontaneous HumanCombustion (SHC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 11

Apelike Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Bigfoot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Orang Pendek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Skunk Ape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Yeti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Creatures of the Night . . . . . . . . 68

Chupacabra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Ghoul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Golem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Imp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Incubus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Jersey Devil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Succubus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Vampire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Werewolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83


Volume 3 Monsters of Land, Sea,and Air. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Dragons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Loch Ness and Other Lake Monsters . . . . . . 89Sea Serpents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Thunderbirds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Wee Folk and Their Friends . . . . . 99

Elves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Fairies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Gnomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Goblins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Gremlins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Leprechauns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Menehune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Mermaids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Nisse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Selkies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Trolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Actors Who Faced(or Became) Monsters . . . . . . . . . 109

Chapter 12

Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Creative and Lucid Dreaming . . . . . . . . . . 122Nightmares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Sleep Paralysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Symbology of Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

The Mechanics of Memory . . . . . . 130

False Memories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Phobias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Altered Statesof Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Hallucinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144Meditation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149Psychedelics—

The Mind-Expanding Drugs . . . . . . . . 151Relaxation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Extrasensory Perception:The “Sixth Sense”. . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

ESP Researchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Clairvoyance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166Out-of-Body Experience (OBE) . . . . . . . . 170Precognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174Psychokinesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Telepathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Chapter 13

Superstitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Cats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189Days of the Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Dogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191The Evil Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193Four-Leaf Clover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Gems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Horseshoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Knocking on Wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196Ladders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197Numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197Rabbit’s Foot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198Sneezing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199Spitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Strange Customsand Taboos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Courtship and Marriage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203Hospitality and Etiquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215Burials and Funerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Urban Legends and Beliefs . . . . 228

Deadly Reptiles in the Imported Carpets. . . 229The Fabulous Cookie Recipe . . . . . . . . . . 230Green M&Ms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231The Hook on the Car Door . . . . . . . . . . . 231If Your College Roommate

Commits Suicide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232Jesus on the Freeway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233The Phantom Hitchhiker . . . . . . . . . . . . 234Proctor & Gamble Is a

Satanist Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235The Scuba Diver in the Tree . . . . . . . . . . 236Snakes in the Toilet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236Spiders in the Hairdo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Chapter 14

UFOs in Ancient Times . . . . . . . . . 246

Space Visitors in the Bible andOther Holy Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

The Modern UFO Era Begins . . . 251

The Air Force and Project Blue Book. . . . . 255The Condon/University of

Colorado Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258Hangar 18. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259Roswell, New Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260Socorro, New Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

UFO Contacteesand Abductees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

George Adamski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271Daniel W. Fry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273Betty and Barney Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274The Men in Black (MIB). . . . . . . . . . . . . 276Whitley Strieber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279George Van Tassel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

The Influence of the Media . . . . 281

Close Encounters of the Third Kind . . . . . . . 282The Day the Earth Stood Still . . . . . . . . . . . 284War of the Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285The X-Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

The UFO Mystery Grows . . . . . . . 290

Area 51 and Reverse Engineering . . . . . . . 293Cattle Mutilations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293Crop Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295Majestic-12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297The Philadelphia Experiment . . . . . . . . . . 298



Preface

xi

The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual andUnexplained (GEUU) presents com-prehensive and objective information

on unexplained mysteries, paranormal abili-ties, supernatural events, religious phenome-na, magic, UFOs, and myths that haveevolved into cultural realities. This extensivethree-volume work is a valuable tool provid-ing users the opportunity to evaluate themany claims and counterclaims regarding themysterious and unknown. Many of theseclaims have been brought to the forefrontfrom television, motion pictures, radio talkshows, best-selling books, and the Internet.

There has been a conscious effort to pro-vide reliable and authoritative information inthe most objective and factual way possible, topresent multiple viewpoints for controversialsubject topics, and to avoid sensationalismthat taints the credibility of the subject mat-ter. The manner of presentation enables read-ers to utilize their critical thinking skills toseparate fact from fiction, opinion fromdogma, and truth from legend regarding enig-mas that have intrigued, baffled, and inspiredhumankind over the centuries.

About the Authors

and Advisors

Brad E. Steiger has written over 150 bookswith over 17 million copies in print. His vastwriting experience includes biographies,books of inspiration, phenomenon and theparanormal, spirituality, UFO research, andcrimes. His first articles on the paranormalappeared in 1954 and, today, he has producedover 2,000 articles on such themes. Steigerhas appeared on such television programs asNightline with Ted Koppel, ABC Evening Newswith Peter Jennings, NBC Evening News withTom Brokaw, This Week (with David Brinkley,Sam Donaldson, and Cokie Roberts), TheMike Douglas Show, The David Susskind Show,The Joan Rivers Show, Entertainment Tonight,Haunted Hollywood, Inside Edition, The Unex-plained, and Giants: The Myth and the Mystery.Sherry Hansen Steiger is a co-author of 24books on a variety of topics on the unusual

and unexplained with her husband Brad. Hercontinual studies in alternative medicine andtherapies led to the 1992 official creation ofThe Office of Alternative Medicine under theInstitutes of Health, Education and Welfare inBethesda, Maryland. Both Steigers haveserved as consultants for such television showsas Sightings and Unsolved Mysteries.

The advisors for GEUU are Judy T. Nel-son, the Youth Services Coordinator for thePierce County Library System in Tacoma,Washington; Lee Sprince, former Head ofYouth Services for the Broward County MainLibrary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and BradE. Steiger, author of Gale’s former Visible InkPress title The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopediaof Shape-Shifting Things. For GEUU, both Nel-son and Sprince were consulted on GEUU’ssubject content, its appropriateness, and for-mat; Steiger advised on the content’s organiza-tion before he became the author of GEUU.

Format

The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual andUnexplained consists of fourteen broad-subjectchapters covering a wide range of high-inter-est topics: Afterlife Mysteries; Mediums andMystics; Religious Phenomena; Mystery Reli-gions and Cults; Secret Societies; Magic andSorcery; Prophecy and Divination; Objects ofMystery and Power; Places of Mystery andPower; Ghosts and Phantoms; MysteriousCreatures; Mysteries of the Mind; Supersti-tions, Strange Customs, Taboos, and UrbanLegends; and Invaders from Outer Space.Each chapter begins with an Overview thatsummarizes the chapter’s concept in a fewbrief sentences. Then the Chapter Explo-ration provides a complete outline of thechapter, listing all topics and subtopics there-in, so that the user can understand the interre-lationships between the chapter’s topics andits subtopics. An Introduction consisting of 6to 12 paragraphs follows; it broadly describesthe chapter’s theme. Then each topic is

explored, along with each subtopic, develop-ing relevant concepts, geographic places, per-sons, practices, etc. After each topic, a Delv-ing Deeper section provides complete biblio-graphical citations of books, periodicals, tele-vision programs, Internet sites, movies, andtheses used, and provides users with furtherresearch opportunities. Boldfaced cross-refer-ences are used to guide users from the text torelated entries found elsewhere in the threevolumes. Sidebars supplement the text withunusual facts, features, and biographies, aswell as descriptions of web sites, etc.

Each chapter contains photographs, linedrawings, and original graphics that were cho-sen to complement the text; in all three vol-umes, over 250 images enliven the text. Manyof these images are provided by Fortean Pic-ture Library—“a pictorial archive of mysteriesand strange phenomena”—and from the per-sonal archives of the author, Brad Steiger. Atthe end of each chapter, a glossary, calledMaking the Connection, lists significantterms, theories, and practices mentionedwithin the text. A comprehensive glossary ofthe terms used throughout all three volumescan be found at the end of each volume.

Each volume has a cumulative Table ofContents allowing users to see the organiza-tion of each chapter at a glance. The Cumula-tive Index, found in each volume, is an alpha-betic arrangement of all people, places,images, and concepts found in the text. Thepage references to the terms include the vol-ume number as well as the page number;images are denoted by italicized page numbers.

User Comments

Are Welcome

Users having comments, corrections, orsuggestions can contact the editor at the fol-lowing address: Gale Encyclopedia of theUnusual and Unexplained, The Gale Group,Inc., 27500 Drake Rd., Farmington Hills, MI48331-3535.


Prefacexii

Introduction

xiii

Understanding

the Unknown

The belief in a reality that transcends oureveryday existence is as old as humanity itselfand it continues to the present day. In fact, inrecent years there has been a tremendous surgeof interest in the paranormal and the supernat-ural. People speak freely of guardian angels, abelief in life after death, an acceptance ofextrasensory perception (ESP), and the exis-tence of ghosts. In a Gallup Poll released onJune 10, 2001, the survey administrators foundthat 54 percent of Americans believe in spiri-tual or faith healing; 41 percent acknowledgethat people can be possessed by the devil; 50percent accept the reality of ESP; 32 percentbelieve in the power of prophecy; and 38 per-cent agree that ghosts and spirits exist.

What are the origins of these age-oldbeliefs? Are they natural phenomenon thatcan be understood by the physical sciences?Some scientists are suggesting that such mysti-cal experiences can be explained in terms ofneural transmitters, neural networks, andbrain chemistry. Perhaps the feeling of tran-scendence that mystics describe could be theresult of decreased activity in the brain’s pari-etal lobe, which helps regulate the sense of selfand physical orientation. Perhaps the humanbrain is wired for mystical experiences and theflash of wisdom that illuminated the Buddha,the voices that Mohammed and Moses heardin the wilderness, and the dialogues that Jesushad with the Father were the result of brainchemistry and may someday be completelyexplained in scientific terms.

Perhaps the origin of these beliefs is to befound in psychology? Humankind’s fascinationwith the unknown quite likely began with themost basic of human emotions—fear. Earlyhumans faced the constant danger of beingattacked by predators, of being killed by peoplefrom other tribes, or of falling victim to thesudden fury of a natural disaster, such as flood,fire, or avalanche. Nearly all of these violentencounters brought about the death of a friendor family member, so one may surmise thatchief among the mysteries that troubled early

humans was the same one that haunts mantoday: What happens when someone dies?

But belief in the unknown may be morethan brain chemistry or a figment of our fears.Perhaps there is some spiritual reality that isoutside of us, but with which one can some-how communicate? Perhaps the physical activ-ity of the brain or psychological state (the twoare of course related) may be only a precondi-tion or a conduit to a transcendent world? Thecentral mystery may always remain.

Ghostly Entities and

Urban Legends

There is not a single known culture on plan-et Earth that does not have its ghost stories, andone can determine from Paleolithic cave paint-ings that the belief that there is something with-in the human body that survives physical deathis at least 50,000 years old. If there is a singleunifying factor in the arena of the unknown andthe unexplained it is the universality ofaccounts of ghostly entities. Of course, noteveryone agrees on the exact nature of ghosts.Some insist that the appearance of ghosts provesurvival after death. Others state that such phe-nomena represent other dimensions of reality.

And then there are the skeptics who groupmost ghost stories in the category of “UrbanLegends,” those unverifiable stories about out-landish, humorous, frightening, or supernatur-al events. In some instances, the stories arebased on actual occurrences that have in theirtelling and retelling been exaggerated or dis-torted. Other urban legends have their originsin people misinterpreting or misunderstandingstories that they have heard or read in themedia or from actual witnesses of an event.There is usually some distance between thenarrator and his tale; all urban legends claimthat the story always happened to someoneelse, most often “a friend of a friend.”

The Roots of Superstition

Whatever their basis in reality, certainbeliefs and practices of primitive people

helped ease their fear and the feeling of help-lessness that arose from the precariousness oftheir existence. Others in the community whotook careful note of their behavior ritualizedthe stories of those who had faced great dan-gers and survived. In such rituals lies the ori-gin of “superstition,” a belief that certainrepeated actions or words will bring the prac-titioner luck or ward off evil. Ancient super-stitions survive today in such common prac-tices as tossing a pinch of salt over the shoul-der or whispering a blessing after a sneeze toassure good fortune.

The earliest traces of magical practices arefound in the European caves of the PaleolithicAge, c. 50,000 B.C.E. in which it seems clearthat early humans sought supernatural meansto placate the spirits of the animals they killedfor food, to dispel the restless spirits of thehumans they had slain, or to bring peace tothe spirits of their deceased tribal kin. It was atthis time that early humans began to believethat there could be supernatural powers in acharm, a spell, or a ritual to work good or evilon their enemies. Practices, such as imitatingthe animal of the hunt through preparatorydance, cutting off a bit of an enemy’s hair orclothing to be used in a charm against him, orinvoking evil spirits to cause harm to others,eventually gained a higher level of sophistica-tion and evolved into more formal religiouspractices.

As such beliefs developed, certain tribalmembers were elevated in status to shamanand magician because of their ability tocommunicate with the spirit worlds, toinfluence the weather, to heal the sick, andto interpret dreams. Shamans entered atrance-like condition separating them fromlife’s mundane existence and allowing themto enter a state of heightened spiritualawareness. According to anthropologists,shamanic methods are remarkably similarthroughout the world. In our own time,Spiritualist mediums who claim to be ableto communicate with the dead remain pop-ular as guides for contemporary men andwomen, and such individuals as JohnEdward, James Van Praagh, and SylviaBrowne issue advice from the Other Side onsyndicated television programs.


Introductionxiv

Monsters and

Night Terrors

Stone Age humans had good reason to fearthe monsters that emerged from the darkness.Saber-tooth tigers stalked man, cave bearsmauled them, and rival hominid species—many appearing more animal-like thanhuman—struggled against them for domi-nance. The memories of the ancient night ter-rors surface in dreams and imagination, a kindof psychic residue of primitive fears. Anthro-pologists have observed that such half-human,half-animal monsters as the werewolf andother werecreatures were painted by StoneAge artists more than 10,000 years ago. Someof the world’s oldest art found on ancient sitesin Europe, Africa, and Australia depict ani-mal-human hybrids. Such “therianthropes,” orhybrid beings, appear to be the only commondenominator in primitive art around the plan-et. These werewolves, were-lions, and were-bats belonged to an imagined world whichearly humans saw as powerful, dangerous, andfrightening.

Images of these creatures persisted into thehistorical period. The ancient Egyptians oftendepicted their gods as human-animal hybrids.Pharaoh identified himself with the god Horus,who could be represented as a falcon or a fal-con-headed human. Anubis, the god of thenecropolis, can be shown as a jackal-headedman, probably because such carrion-eatingjackals prowled Egyptian cemeteries. Manyother civilizations felt the power of these kindsof images. For example, the ancient Greeksfashioned the minotaur (half-human, half-bull), the satyr (half-human, half-goat), theharpy (half-woman, half-bird) and a host ofother hybrid entities—the vast majority unfa-vorably disposed toward humankind. Examplescould be found in other cultures as well.

Customs and Taboos

In 2001, scientists were surprised whenbits of stone etched with intricate patternsfound in the Blombos Cave, east of CapeTown on the southern African shores of the

Indian Ocean, were dated at 77,000 years old,thereby indicating that ancient humans werecapable of complex behavior and abstractthought thousands of years earlier than previ-ously believed. In Europe, numerous sites havebeen excavated and artifacts unearthed thatprove that structured behavior with customsand taboos existed about 40,000 years ago.

Customs are those activities that havebeen approved by a social group and havebeen handed down from generation to gener-ation until they have become habitual. Whenan action or activity violates behavior consid-ered appropriate by a social group, it islabeled a “taboo,” a word borrowed from thePolynesians of the South Pacific. An act thatis taboo is forbidden, and those who trans-gress may be ostracized by others or, inextreme instances, killed.

However, customs vary from culture toculture, and customary actions in one societymay be considered improper in another.While the marriage of near-blood relations isprohibited in contemporary civilization, inearlier societies it was quite common. Theancient brother and sister gods of Egypt, Osirisand Isis, provided an example for pharaohs,who at times married their sisters. Polygamy,the marriage of one man and several womenor one woman and several men, is prohibitedin modern civilization, but there are still reli-gious groups in nearly every nation who justifyplural marriages as being ordained by the deitythey worship. Adultery, an act of infidelity onthe part of a married individual, is one of themost universal taboos. The code of Mosescondemned both parties involved in the act tobe stoned to death. Hindu religious doctrinesdemand the death, mutilation, or humiliationof both men and women, depending upon thecaste of the guilty parties.

Taboos can change within a society overtime. Many acts that were once consideredforbidden have developed into an acceptablesocial activity. While some of the old customsand taboos surrounding courtship and mar-riage, hospitality and etiquette, and burialsand funerals may seem amusing or quaint,primitive or savage, certain elements of suchacts as capturing one’s bride have been pre-


xvIntroduction

served in many traditions that are still prac-ticed in the modern marriage ceremony.

Belief in an Afterlife

Belief in the survival of some part of usafter death may also be as old as the humanrace. Although one cannot be certain the ear-liest members of man’s species (Homo sapiensc. 30,000 B.C.E.) conducted burial rituals thatwould qualify them as believers in an afterlife,one does know they buried their dead withcare and consideration and included food,weapons, and various personal belongingswith the body. Anthropologists have also dis-covered the Neanderthal species (c. 100,000B.C.E.) placed food, stone implements, anddecorative shells and bones with the deceased.Because of the placement of such funeraryobjects in the graves, one may safely conjec-ture that these prehistoric people believeddeath was not the end. There was some part ofthe deceased requiring nourishment, clothing,and protection in order to journey safely inanother kind of existence beyond the grave.This belief persisted into more recent histori-cal times. The ancient Egyptians had a highlydeveloped concept of life after death, devotingmuch thought and effort to their eternal well-being, and they were not the only early civi-lization to be concerned about an afterlife.

With all their diversity of beliefs, themajor religions of today are in accord in oneessential teaching: Human beings are immor-tal and their spirit comes from a divine worldand may eventually return there. The part ofthe human being that survives death is knownin Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as thesoul—the very essence of the individual per-son that must answer for its earthly deeds,good or bad. Hinduism perceives this spiritualessence as the divine Self, the Atman, andBuddhism believes it to be the summation ofconditions and causes. Of the major worldreligions, only Buddhism does not perceive aneternal metaphysical aspect of the human per-sonality in the same way that the others do.However, all the major faiths believe thatafter the spirit has left the body, it moves on to

another existence. The physical body is a tem-porary possession that a human has, not whata person is.

The mystery of what happens when the soulleaves the body remains an enigma in the teach-ings of the major religions; however, as moreand more individuals are retrieved from clinicaldeath by the miracles of modern medicine, liter-ature describing near-death-experiences hasarisen which depicts a transition into anotherworld or dimension of consciousness whereinthe deceased are met by beings of light. Many ofthose who have returned to life after such anexperience also speak of a life-review of theirdeeds and misdeeds from childhood to themoment of the near-death encounter.

Prophecy and Divination

The desire to foresee the future quite likelybegan when early humans began to perceivethat they were a part of nature, subject to itslimitations and laws, and that they were seem-ingly powerless to alter those laws. Mysterioussupernatural forces—sometimes benign, oftenhostile—appeared to be in control of humanexistence.

Divination, the method of obtainingknowledge of the future by means of omens orsacred objects, has been practiced in all soci-eties, whether primitive or civilized. Theancient Chaldeans read the will of the gods inthe star-jeweled heavens. The children ofIsrael sought the word of the Lord in the jewelsof the Ephod. Pharaoh elevated Joseph fromhis prison cell to the office of chief minister ofEgypt and staked the survival of his kingdomon Joseph’s interpretation of his dreams. In thesame land of Egypt, priests of Isis and Ra lis-tened as those deities spoke through theunmoving lips of the stone Sphinx.

Throughout the centuries, soothsayers andseers have sought to predict the destiny oftheir clients by interpreting signs in theentrails of animals, the movements of the starsin the heavens, the reflections in a crystalball, the spread of a deck of cards, and evenmessages from the dead. All of these ancientpractices are still being utilized today by thosewho wish to know the future.


Introductionxvi

Objects and Places of

Mystery and Power

Objects of mystery and power that becomeinfluential in a person’s life can be an every-day item that an individual has come tobelieve will bring good fortune, such as anarticle of clothing that was worn when somegreat personal success was achieved or anamulet that has been passed on from genera-tion to generation. In addition to such itemsof personal significance, some individualshave prized objects that reportedly broughtvictory or good fortune to heroes of long ago.Still others have searched for mysterious relicsfilled with supernatural attributes that werecredited with accomplishing miracles in thepast. No physical evidence is available todetermine that such an object as the Ark ofthe Covenant ever existed, but its presentlocation continues to be sought. The HolyGrail, the cup from which Jesus drank at theLast Supper, is never mentioned in the Bible,but by medieval times it had been popularizedas the holiest relic in Christendom.

In addition to bestowing mystery andpower upon certain objects, humans havealways found or created places that are sacredto them—sites where they might gather toparticipate in religious rituals or where theymight retreat for solitude and reflection. Insuch places, many people claim to experiencea sense of the sublime. Others, while in asolemn place of worship or in a natural set-ting, attest to feeling a special energy that rais-es their consciousness and perhaps even healstheir physical body.

Mysterious megaliths (large stones) werethose placed at a special location by ancientpeople. Such sites include the standing stonesof Brittany, the Bighorn Medicine Wheel inWyoming, and the monuments of EasterIsland. All of these places were ostensibly sig-nificant to an ancient society or religion, butmany were long abandoned by the time theybecame known to today’s world and their sig-nificance remains unexplained.

The most well-known megalithic struc-tures are Stonehenge in Great Britain and thecomplex of pyramids and the Great Sphinx in

Egypt. Like many such ancient places, thosesites have been examined and speculatedupon for centuries, yet they still continue toconceal secrets and occasionally yield surpris-ing information that forces new historicalinterpretations of past societies.

There are other places that have becomemysterious sites because of unusual occur-rences. The claimed miraculous healing atLourdes, France, the accounts of spiritual illu-mination at Jerusalem and Mecca, and thesacred visions at Taos, New Mexico, providetestimonies of faith and wonder that must beassessed by each individual.

There are also the “lost” civilizations andmysterious places that may never have existedbeyond the human imagination. More than2,500 years ago, legends first began aboutAtlantis, an ideal society that enjoyed anabundance of natural resources, great militarypower, splendid building and engineeringfeats, and intellectual achievements faradvanced over those of other lands. Thisancient society was described as existing on acontinent-sized area with rich soil, plentifulpure water, abundant vegetation, and suchmineral wealth that gold was inlaid in build-ings. In the ensuing centuries, no conclusiveevidence of Atlantis has been found, but itsattributes have expanded to include engineer-ing and technological feats that enhance itslegendary status.

Sometimes legends come to life. The LostCity of Willkapanpa the Old, a city rumoredto consist primarily of Incan rulers and sol-diers, was not discovered until 1912 when ahistorian from Yale University found the sitenow known as Machu Picchu hidden at 8,000feet in altitude between two mountains,Huayana Picchu (“young mountain”) andMachu Picchu (“ancient mountain”) in Peru.

Mystery Schools

and Cults

Once a religion has become firmly estab-lished in a society, dissatisfied members oftenwill break away from the larger group to createwhat they believe to be a more valid form of


xviiIntroduction

religious expression. Sometimes such splintergroups are organized around the revelationsand visions of a single individual, who is rec-ognized as a prophet by his or her followers.Because the new teachings may be judged asheretical to the original body of worshippers,those who follow the new revelations arebranded as cultists or heretics.

Even in ancient times, the dissenters wereforced to meet in secret because of oppressionby the established group or because of theirdesire to hide their practices. Since only devo-tees could know the truths of their faith,adherents were required to maintain thestrictest silence regarding their rites and ritu-als. The term “mysteries” or “mystery religion”is applied to these beliefs. The word “mystery”comes from the Greek word myein, “to close,”referring to the need of the mystes, the initi-ate, to close his or her eyes and the lips and tokeep secret the rites of the cult.

In ancient Greece, postulants of the mys-tery religions had to undergo a rigorous initia-tion that disciplined both their mind andbody. In order to attain the self-masterydemanded by the priests of the mysteries, theneophytes understood that they must restruc-ture their physical, moral, and spiritual beingto gain access to the hidden forces in the uni-verse. Only through complete mastery of one-self could one see beyond death and perceivethe pathways of the after-life. Many timesthese mysteries were taught in the form of aplay and were celebrated in sacred groves or insecret temples away from the cities.

In contemporary usage, the word “cult”generally carries with it negative connotationsand associations. In modern times, a numberof apocalyptic cults, such as the BranchDavidians and the People’s Temple, havealarmed the general population by isolatingthemselves and preparing for Armageddon,the last great battle between good and evil.The mass suicides carried out by members ofHeaven’s Gate, People’s Temple, and Order ofthe Solar Temple have also presented alarm-ing images of what many believe to be typicalcultist practice. Recent statistics indicate thatthere are 2,680 religions in the United States.Therefore, one must be cautious in labeling

any seemingly unorthodox religion as a cult,for what is regarded as anti-social or blasphe-mous expression by some may be hailed as sin-cere spiritual witness by others.

Secret Societies

and Conspiracies

There will always be envious individualswho believe that wealthy and powerful mem-bers of society have been able to acquire theirposition only because of secret formulas, magi-cal words, and supernatural rituals. Rumorsand legends of secret societies have fueled theimaginations, fears, and envy of those on theoutside for thousands of years. Many secretsocieties, such as the Assassins, the Garduna,the Thuggee, and the Tongs, were made up ofhighly trained criminals who were extremelydangerous to all outsiders. Others, such as theKnights Templar, the Illuminati, and the Rosi-crucians, were said to possess enough ancientsecrets of power and wealth to control theentire world.

Conspiracy enthusiasts allege that thereare clandestine organizations which for cen-turies have remained a threat to individualfreedoms, quietly operating in the shadows,silently infiltrating political organizations, andsecretly manipulating every level of govern-ment and every facet of society. One of thefavorites of conspiracy theorists, the Freema-sons, while once a powerful and influentialgroup throughout the Western world, is todayregarded by many as simply a philanthropicand fraternal organization. Another secretsociety, the Illuminati, deemed by many con-spiracy buffs to be the most insidious of all,faded into obscurity in the late eighteenthcentury. However, there is always a new secretsociety that seeks to divine arcane and forbid-den avenues to wealth and power.

Sorcery, Alchemy

and Witchcraft

Although Christianity affirms the exis-tence of a transcendent reality, it has always


Introductionxviii

distinguished between religio (reverence forGod) and superstitio, which in Latin means“unreasonable religious belief.” Christianitybecame the state religion of the RomanEmpire in 395 C.E., and in 525 the Council ofOxia prohibited Christians from consultingsorcerers, diviners, or any kind of seer. Acanon passed by the Council of Constantino-ple in 625 prescribed excommunication for aperiod of six years for anyone found practicingdivination or who consulted with a diviner.

Although the Church had issued manycanons warning against the practice of witch-craft or magic, little action was taken againstthose learned men who experimented withalchemy or those common folk who practicedthe old ways of witchcraft. In 906 C.E., AbbotRegino of Prum recognized that earlier canonlaws had done little to eradicate the practicesof magic and witchcraft, so he issued his Deecclesiaticis disciplinis to condemn as hereticalany belief in witchcraft or the power of sorcer-ers. In 1,000 C.E., Deacon Burchard, whowould later become archbishop of Worms,published Corrrector which updated Regino’swork and stressed that only God had thepower to transform matter. Alchemists couldnot change base metals into gold, and witchescould not shapeshift into animals.

In spite of such decrees, a lively belief in aworld of witches and ghosts persistedthroughout the Middle Ages and co-existedin the minds of many of the faithful with themiracle stories of the saints. To the nativebeliefs were added those of non-Christianpeoples who either lived in Europe or whomEuropeans met when they journeyed far fromhome, as when they went on the Crusades. Bythe twelfth century, magical practices basedupon the arcane systems of the SpanishMoors and Jewish Kabbalah were establishedin Europe. The Church created the Inquisi-tion in the High Middle Ages in response tounorthodox religious beliefs that it calledheresies. Since some of these involved magi-cal practices and witchcraft, the occult alsobecame an object of persecution. The harshtreatment of the Manichaean Cathars insouthern France is an example of society’sreaction to those who mixed arcane practicewith heterodox theology.

In spite of persecution, the concept ofwitchcraft persisted and even flourished inearly modern times. At least the fear of it did,as the Salem witch trials richly illustrate. Inthe early decades of the twentieth century,schools of pagan and magical teachings werereborn as Wicca. Wiccans, calling themselves“practitioners of the craft of the wise,” wouldresurrect many of the old ways and infuse themwith modern thoughts and practices. Whatev-er its origin, the occult seems to be an object ofpermanent fascination to the human race.

Are We Alone?

Is the earth the only inhabited planet?Imagine the excitement if contact is madewith intelligent extraterrestrial life forms andhumankind discovers that it is part of a largercosmic community. It would change the waywe think of ourselves and of our place in theuniverse. Or is the belief in extraterrestrials acreation of our minds? The universe is so vastwe may never know, but the mysteries of outerspace have a grip on the modern psyche, sinceit seems to offer the possibility of a world thatmay be more open to scientific verificationthan witchcraft.

Purpose of Book

Whatever the origin and veracity of theunusual, these beliefs and experiences haveplayed a significant role in human experiencesand deserve to be studied dispassionately. Thesevolumes explore and describe the research ofthose who take such phenomena seriously;extraterrestrials, ghosts, spirits, and hauntedplaces are explored from many perspectives.They are part of the adventure of humanity.

Acknowledgements

Compiling such an extensive work as athree-volume encyclopedia of the unusual andunexplained proved many times to be a mostformidable task. During those moments whenI felt the labor pains of giving birth to such a


xixIntroduction

large and exhausting enterprise might bebeyond me, I was able to rely upon a numberof wonderful midwives. My agent Agnes Birn-baum never failed to offer encouragement andsupport; my remarkably resourceful andaccomplished editor Jolen Marya Gedridgecontinued to assure me that there truly waslight at the end of the tunnel and that thegreat enterprise would one day be completed;the always pleasant and helpful staff at Gale—

Julia Furtaw, Rita Runchock, Lynn Koch, andNancy Matuszak—stood by to offer assistance;and most of all, I am forever indebted to mywife Sherry Hansen Steiger for her tirelesscompiling of the glossaries, her efforts in writ-ing sidebars, her invaluable talents as aresearcher, her patience and love, and heralways providing a shoulder to cry on duringthe all-night writing sessions.

—Brad E. Steiger


Introductionxx

Chapter 1

Afterlife Mysteries

Humankind’s obsession with the unknown

and the unexplained begins with the

greatest question of all: Do humans survive

physical death? And if so, are they born

again? The mystery of what lies on the

other side of death has given birth to

humankind’s magic, mysticisms, religions,

and all the diverse creatures of Light and

Darkness that populate the mysterious

regions in between.

1

Chapter Exploration

How the Major ReligionsView the Afterlife

BuddhismChristianityHinduism

IslamJudaism

Ancient Egypt and the Afterlife

Egyptian Book of the DeadOsiris: Death and Resurrection

Pyramid Texts

Individual Human Experiencewith Death and the Afterlife

Deathbed VisionsNear-Death Experiences

The Mystery Schools

Dionysian MysteriesEleusinian MysteriesHermetic MysteriesOrphic Mysteries

Pythagorus

Tribal Religions

Burial MoundsLand of the Grandparents

How the Major ReligionsView Reincarnation

BuddhismChristianityHinduism

IslamJudaism

Contemporary Mystery Schoolsand Reincarnation

Akashic RecordsAnthroposophy

Association for Research and EnlightenmentTheosophy

Experiential Questsinto Past Lives

Hypnotic Regression into Past LivesBridey Murphy

Past-Life TherapyIan Stevenson

Introduction

Children take the continuity of life forgranted. It is the fact of death that hasto be taught. Self-preservation is one

of humankind’s most powerful instincts, tran-scending the grave itself, for the desire forimmortality, an afterlife, is nothing else thanone form of the search for self-preservation.

In the inner-self, humans visualize them-selves as observers of all that can be seen orcan be imagined. Consciousness is experi-enced as a ever-flowing stream which, in spiteof its temporary breaks in sleep, still seems tobe continuous and without a conscious begin-ning or end. One goes to sleep many times,but always to wake once more. Humans havegotten into the habit of being alive. To thinkof oneself as non-being is difficult. People canaccept the mortality of others, but not ofthemselves.

One of the earliest recorded expressions ofdesire for a future life was written thousands ofyears ago by an Egyptian scribe for whom theexpectation of personal immortality was con-nected with the belief that his body wouldavoid the horrors of disintegration if it were tobe mummified. This prayer of a hopeful soulcontains a cry of immediately recognizablehuman longing. To the god Osiris, the kingand judge of the dead, he prays,

Grant thou that I may enter intothe land of everlastingness, accordingto what was done for thee, whose bodynever saw corruption…Let not mybody become worms, but deliver me asthou didst thyself.…Let life come fromthe body’s death and let notdecay…make an end of me…I shallhave my being; I shall live; I shall live!(from the Egyptian Book of the Dead,translated by E. A.W. Budge, 1901)

The belief in an afterlife coincides withthe innate conviction that present life has sig-nificance and purpose. And because humansbelieve their earthly existence has meaningand they therefore have a reason for being, itseems imperative that at least some part ofthem must somehow continue in a future life.While an afterlife may be difficult to prove in

a material sense, various world religionspromise to provide a spiritual link between aperson’s actions in this life and his or her con-tinued existence in a future life.

Conceptions of the world beyond deathvary considerably among the world religions,but in every religious expression known to his-tory or anthropology, the question of the after-life in store for the individual believer hasbeen of prime importance. This chapter willoffer summaries of the beliefs of the Buddhist,Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Jewish faithsconcerning the fate of the soul after death.

Belief in an afterlife, like belief in aSupreme Being, creates in those who affirmsuch faith a way of regarding themselves inrelation to the future life. These individualsneed not view the possibility of an afterlife inthe abstract. Those whose faith has trainedthem to believe completely in an afterlife caneasily imagine what the future life will be. Forthem, life after death is a definable concept, agenuine and real result of how they have livedtheir present life. To religious individuals, faithin an afterlife becomes increasingly part of theirexistence, a source of courage and strength asthe years go by. And once physical death over-takes them, for the great majority of these indi-viduals, the most significant feature of an after-life will be their union with the Divine.

For those individuals who hold Christian,Islamic, or Jewish religious beliefs, the soul isgenerally conceived as coming into existencewith the birth of the body, and it would perishwhen the body perished if it were not for thesupernatural intervention of God, who confersupon the soul an immortality that it could nototherwise attain. Those whose view of theafterlife includes the possibility of reincarna-tion, past lives, and future incarnations haveno doubt that the soul is immortal by its verynature. In their view, the existence of the souldid not begin when the body was born, sothere is no reason to believe that it will ceaseto exist when the body dies. According to var-ious doctrines of reincarnation, there areimmutable spiritual laws which will determinewhether the soul will be born again intoanother physical body or will be merged ineternal unity with the Absolute.


Afterlife Mysteries2


3Afterlife Mysteries

The earliest discovered burial sites arethose of Neanderthal man, though accord-ing to researcher George Constable, they“were not credited with deliberate mean-

ingful burial of their dead until more than a half-centu-ry after their discovery.” The well-known anthropolo-gist and archaeologist Louis Leaky said of the discov-eries that their grave sites were intentional and thusindicates the Neanderthals displayed a keen self-awareness and a concern for the human spirit.

Many burial sites have been discovered in Europeand the Near East. The placement of the remainsreveals ritualistic elements, as the cadavers were foundin a sleeping or fetal position. Some remains have alsobeen found with plants or flowers, placed in the handsor the body, and sometimes with red pigment, possiblyused in a symbolic rite. Some Neanderthals were foundburied together in a group, meaning that entire familygroups remained united after death.

One of the most interesting burial sites containedremains that had been carefully placed in the fetalposition on a bedding of woody horsetail, a regionalplant. This particular Neanderthal was also buriedwith several varieties of flowers. Leaky stated that theflowers were arranged deliberately as the body wasbeing covered. Apparently the family and friends ofthe deceased gathered the distinct species of flow-ers, carried them to the grave, and carefully placedthem on the body.

An analysis of the flower specimens revealedthem to be cornflowers, St. Banaby’s thistle, andgrape hyacinths, among other plants. Many of theplants found have curative qualities that range frompain relief to inflammation suppression. It is notknown if Neanderthals were advanced enough torealize the exact medicinal properties of the plants totheir specific uses, or if this was only a coincidentalplacement of flowers and herbs. Or perhaps theywere honoring a special person of the tribe, such as amedicine man or shaman. Regardless, it is evidentthat Neanderthal man was much more complex thanhe was given credit for.

According to anthropologist F. Clark Howell theflexed position of the body, and discoveries of othersites where stone slabs were placed over the Nean-derthal graves, along with food and tools, suggeststhat Neanderthal man believed in life after death.Their concept of the afterlife must not have been thatmuch different than the life they experienced onearth; they provided the dead with food, tools, andother everyday items, much like the Egyptians did fortheir journey to the next life. Death to the Nean-derthals may have even been regarded as a kind ofsleep, perhaps like a rest before a rebirth, as corpseswere carefully positioned in the fetal state.

Sources:

Burial, Ritual, Religion, and Cannibalism. http://thunder.indstate.

edu/~ramanank/ritual.html. 10 July 2001.

Oldest Discovered

Burial Site

While many people consider the belief inreincarnation to be held primarily by theadherents of Hinduism and some Buddhistsects, the concept of past lives is by no meansconfined to these Eastern religions. This chap-ter will examine many Western philosophers,clerics, medical doctors, and scholars whohave expressed an individual acceptance of aprior and continued existence in an earthlybody, in addition to certain Christian, Islamic,and Jewish sects that have also suggested thatreincarnation may be one of the forms of sur-vival after death.

Down through the centuries, the physicalact of passage from one world to another atthe moment of death has remained a mysteryfor the living. From time to time, one who hadbeen resuscitated and brought back to lifereturned with an account of having stood atthe edge of some vast unknown and unchartedworld and having witnessed the activity ofethereal beings within. In recent decades,there have been an increasing number of well-documented accounts of people who havebeen resuscitated from clinical death andreturned with reports of passing through adarkened tunnel to emerge into a place oflight, and therein, meeting beings of light.Such near-death experiences (NDEs) demon-strate the inherent desire for a conscious lifebeyond the grave and for an endless continua-tion of spiritual opportunities. This longingfor an unobstructed life, for life in the fullestsense that the individual can conceive, is anessential element in the earnest desire forimmortality.

A belief in an afterlife may be essentiallyhumanity’s belief in itself. Within the vastmajority of human beings exists a fundamen-tal longing for the continuance of consciousand rational life. In centuries past, a desirefor a future life was confined to affirmationsof faith in the teachings or the scriptures ofone’s religious belief. Today, the hopes of thecommon person, the saint, and the mysticthat an afterlife is truly a reality have beenjoined by many scientists, who are provingthat the scientific desire to know and to keepon knowing is but another form of the samedemand for a continuation of a conscious andrational life.

How the Major Religions

View the Afterlife

With all their diversity of beliefs, themajor religions are in accord in onegreat teaching: Human beings are

immortal and their spirit comes from a divineworld and may eventually return there. Sincethe earliest forms of spiritual expression, this isthe great promise and hope that religions haveoffered to their followers. It is the believer’seternal answer to the cynicism of the materi-alist who shouts that there is no afterlife, thatdeath is the end.

Anthropologists can only guess whether ornot the earliest members of the Homo sapiensspecies (c. 30,000 B.C.E.) conducted burial rit-uals of a quality that would qualify them asreligious. However, it is known that theyburied their dead with care and considerationand included food, weapons, and various per-sonal belongings with the body. Even theNeanderthal species (c. 100,000 B.C.E.) placedfood, stone implements, and decorative shellsand bones in the graves with the deceased,which they often covered with a red pigment.Since there are no written scriptures describ-ing the purpose of including such funeraryobjects in the graves (writing was not devel-oped until the fourth millennium B.C.E.), onemust presume the placement of weapons,food, and other utilitarian items beside thedead indicates that these prehistoric peoplebelieved that death was not the end. Themember of the tribe or clan who was no longeramong the living still required nourishment,clothing, and protection to journey safely inanother kind of existence beyond the grave.Somehow, there was some part of the personthat survived death.

That part of the human being that survivesdeath is known in Christianity, Islam, andJudaism as the soul, the very essence of theindividual person that must answer for itsearthly deeds, good or bad. Hinduism per-ceives this spiritual essence as the divine partof a living being, the atman, which is eternaland seeks to be united with the UniversalSoul, or the Brahman. Buddhism teaches thatan individual is but a transient combination of



the five aggregates (skandhas)—matter, sensa-tion, perception, predisposition, and con-sciousness—and has no permanent soul. Ofthe major world religions, only Buddhism doesnot perceive an eternal metaphysical aspect ofthe human personality in the same way thatthe others do. However, all the major faithsbelieve that after the spirit has left the body, itmoves on to another existence. Some faithscontend that it ascends to a paradise ordescends into a hell. Others believe it mayachieve a rebirth into another physical body,or may merge with the Divine in an eternalunity. Traditional Christianity, Islam, andJudaism envision a resurrection of a spiritualbody at a time of final judgment, but generallyspeaking, the soul is of greater value and pur-pose than the physical body it inhabited whileon Earth. The material shell within whichhumans dwell during their lifetime is nothingother than clay or ashes into which God hasbreathed the breath of life. The physical bodyis a temporary possession that a human has,not what a person is.

All the major world religions hold thebelief that how a person has conducted him-self or herself while living on Earth will great-ly influence his or her soul’s ultimate destinyafter physical death. In fact, many teachingsstate that the only reason for birth into thematerial world is the opportunity to preparefor the soul’s destiny in the immaterial worlds.And what is more, how one meets the chal-lenges of life on Earth, whether or not onechooses to walk a path of good or evil, deter-mines how that soul will be treated afterdeath. All the seeds that one has sownthroughout his or her lifetime, good or bad,will be harvested in the afterlife.

When an individual dies, according tomany world religions, the soul is judged orevaluated, then sent to what is perceived as aneternal place—heaven or hell. The Hindu orBuddhist expects to encounter Yama, the godof the dead. In the Hindu scriptures, Yamaholds dominion over the bright realms and canbe influenced in determining a soul’s admis-sion by offerings made for the benefit of thedeceased by relatives and friends. In the Bud-dhist tradition, Yama is the lord of hell whoadministers punishment according to each

individual’s karma, the cause and effect of hisor her actions on Earth. In neither religiousexpression is Yama at all comparable to Satan,who in Christian belief is both the creator ofevil and the accuser of human weaknesses.

In Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, thesoul’s arrival at either heaven or hell is madesomewhat confusing by the teachings of a great,final Judgment Day and the Resurrection of theDead. And when Roman Catholic Christianityadded the doctrine of purgatory in the six-teenth century, the matter became all the morecomplex because now certain souls were givenan opportunity to atone for their sins whileresiding in a kind of interim area betweenheaven and hell. While many Christians, Jews,and Muslims believe that the dead lie sleepingin their graves until the Last Judgment, othersin those same faiths maintain that judgment ispronounced immediately after death. Likewise,the concept of the World to Come in Jewishwritings may refer to a present heaven or fore-tell of a future redemption on Earth.

Buddhism

While the Buddhist text recognizes the exis-tence of a self as a being that distinguishes oneperson from another, the Buddhist teachingsstate that the Christian, Hindu, Jewish, andMuslim concept of an eternal metaphysicalsoul is inaccurate. To Buddhists, the humanperson is but a temporary assemblage of vari-ous elements, both physical and psychical,and none of these individual aspects of awhole person can be isolated as the essentialself; nor can the sum of them all constitute theself. Everything, all of reality, is in a constantstate of change and decay. Because a human iscomposed of so many elements that are alwaysin a state of flux, always dissolving and com-bining with one another in new ways, it is



EARLIEST members of the Homo sapiensspecies (c. 30,000 B.C.E.) conducted burial rituals ofa quality that would qualify them as religious.

impossible to suggest that an individual couldretain the same soul-self for eternity. Ratherthan atman, Buddhist doctrine teaches anat-man/or, “no-self.”

Although the Buddha (c. 567–487 B.C.E.)denied the Hindu concept of an immortal selfthat passes through a series of incarnations, hedid accept the doctrines of karma (“actions,”the cause-and-effect laws of material existence)and samsara (rebirth). If the Buddha recognizedrebirth into another lifetime but did not believein an essential self or soul, then what would bereborn? The Buddhist answer is difficult to com-prehend; the various components in the perpet-ual process of change that constitute humanbeings do not reassemble themselves by randomchance. The karmic laws determine the natureof a person’s rebirth. Various aspects whichmake up a functioning human during his or herlifetime enter the santana, the “chain of being,”whose various links are related one to the otherby the law of cause and effect. While there is noatman or individual self that can be reincarnat-ed, the “contingent self” that exists frommoment to moment is comprised of aggregatesthat are burdened with the consequences of pre-vious actions and bear the potential to bereborn again and again. Because the aggregatesof each living person bear within them the fruitsof past actions and desires, the moment of deathsets in motion an immediate retribution for theconsequences of these deeds, forcing the indi-vidual to be reborn once again into the unceas-ing cycle of karma and samsara. However, dhar-ma, the physical and moral laws that govern theuniverse, flow through everything and every-one, thereby continually changing and rear-ranging every aspect of the human. Althoughdriven by karma, the dharma rearranges theprocess of rebirth to form a new individual.

In his first sermon, the Noble Truth of Suf-fering (Dukha), the Buddha presented his

views on the aggregates that constitute thehuman condition:

The Noble Truth of Suffering isthis: Birth is suffering; aging is suffer-ing; sickness is suffering; death is suffer-ing; sorrow and lamentation, pain,grief, and despair are suffering; associa-tion with the unpleasant is suffering;dissociation with the pleasant is suffer-ing; not to get what one wants is suffer-ing—in brief, the five aggregates ofattachment are suffering.

In the Dhammapada (147:51) the Buddhaspeaks further of the destiny of all human fleshin quite graphic terms:

Behold this beautiful body, a mass ofsores, a heaped up lump, diseased, muchthought of, in which nothing lasts,nothing persists. Thoroughly worn outis this body, a nest of diseases, perish-able.…Truly, life ends in death.…Ofbones is this house made, plastered withflesh and blood. Herein are storeddecay, death, conceit, and hypocrisy.Even ornamented royal chariots wearout. So too the body reaches old age.But the Dhamma of the Good growsnot old. Thus do the Good reveal itamong the Good.

The Buddha’s advice to all those who wishto rise above the karmic laws of death andrebirth is to live a contemplative, religious life:

Men who have not led a religiouslife and have not laid up treasure intheir youth, perish like old herons in alake without fish. Men who have notled a religious life and have not laid uptreasure in their youth lie like worn-out bows, sighing after the past.(Dhammapada 155:56)

The counsel of the Buddha is quite similarto the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:19–21when he admonished those who would followhim not to expend their energies accumulatingtreasures on Earth where moth and rust con-sume and where thieves break in and steal, butlay up for yourself treasure in heaven, whereneither moth nor rust consumes and wherethieves do not break in and steal. For whereyour treasure is, there will your heart be also.



“WHEN a son of the Buddha fulfills hiscourse, in the world to come, he becomes Buddha.”

Dharma is the path to the goal of nirvana,which in Buddhist teachings can represent thefinal extinction of the desire to exist, or canalso suggest a high level of mystical experi-ence achieved through deep meditation ortrance. It never means the complete annihila-tion of the self, only the squelching of thewish to be reborn. Most often, nirvana ismeant to indicate a transformed state ofhuman consciousness which achieves a realityindependent of the material world.

Once the desire to continue existence in amaterial flesh form has been extinguished, and“when a son of the Buddha fulfills his course,in the world to come, he comes Buddha.” Toachieve one’s Buddhahood in Buddhism iscomparable to realizing Brahma, the Absoluteand Ultimate, in Hinduism. Once those levelshave been attained, it is believed that one isfreed forever from material reality and becomesone with eternal reality.

There are many schools of historical Bud-dhism—Hinayana, Mahayana, Tantric, andPure Land—and it is difficult to find consensusamong them concerning the afterlife. TibetanBuddhism’s Book of the Dead provides animportant source for an understanding of theirconcept of the afterlife journey of the soul. Alama (priest) sits at the side of the deceasedand recites texts from the Book, a ritual whichis thought to revive the bla, the life force with-in the body, and give it the power to embarkupon a 49-day journey through the intermedi-ate stage between death and rebirth. Such arecitation by the priest at the bedside of thedeceased might include these words from theTibetan Book of the Dead:

Since you [no longer] have a mater-ial body of flesh and blood, whatevermay come—sounds, lights, or rays—are, all three, unable to harm you; youare incapable of dying. It is quite suffi-cient for you to know that theseapparitions are your own thought-forms. Recognize this to be the bardo[the intermediate state after death].

If there is to be no rebirth for the soul, itappears before Yama, the god of the dead, to bejudged. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a directlink between one’s earthly lifetimes and inter-

mediate stages of existence in the variousspheres of paradise, extending to the appear-ance of the soul remaining the same as the oneit assumed when living as a human on Earth.

Both Buddhism and Hinduism placeYama, god of the dead, in the position of judgein the afterlife, and these passages from theRig-Veda depict the special reverence withwhich he was held:

Yama was the first to find us ourabode, a place that can never be takenaway, a place where our ancient Fathershave departed; all who are born gothere by that path, treading their own.Meet the Fathers, meet Yama, meet



The Fourteenth Dalai

Lama. (AP/WIDE WORLD

PHOTOS)

with the fulfillment of wishes in thehighest heaven; casting off imperfec-tions, find anew your dwelling, and beunited with a lustrous body.

Regardless of one’s religious background, it isin the presence of death that all humans findthemselves face to face with the single greatestmystery of their existence: Does life extendbeyond the grave? Whether one believes in asupernatural heavenly kingdom, the inescapablelaws of karma, or a state of eternal bliss, deathremains a dreadful force beyond one’s control.For untold millions of men and women theceremonies of religion provide their only assur-ance that life goes on when the darkness ofphysical death envelops them.

M Delving Deeper

Carter, John Ross and Mahinda Palihawadana, trans.Buddhism: The Dhammapada. New York: OxfordUniversity Press for the Book of the Month Club,1992.

Crim, Keith. The Perennial Dictionary of World Reli-gions. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1989.

Eerdmans’ Handbook to the World’s Religions. GrandRapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,1994.

Larousse Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions. New York:Larousse, 1994.

Rosten, Leo, ed. Religions of America. New York:Simon & Schuster, 1975.

Sullivan, Lawrence E., ed. Death, Afterlife, and theSoul. New York: Macmillan, 1989.

Wilson, Andrew, ed. World Scripture: A ComparativeAnthology of Sacred Texts. New York: ParagonHouse, 1995.

Christianity

The core of the Christian faith is the belief inthe resurrection of Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.)after his death on the cross and the promise oflife everlasting to all who accept his divinityand believe in him. Because Christianity roseout of Judaism, the teachings of Jesus asrecorded in the gospels reflect many of theJewish beliefs of the soul and the afterlife, pri-marily that a reunion of body and soul will beaccomplished in the next world. The accountsof the appearance of Jesus to his apostles afterhis resurrection show how completely they

believed that they beheld him in the flesh,even to the extreme of the skeptical Thomasplacing his fingertips into the still-openwounds of the crucifixion. “A spirit does nothave flesh and bones as you see that I have,”Jesus told them. Then, to prove his physicalitystill further, he asks if they have anything forhim to eat.

Paul (?–c. 68 C.E.), the apostle and onceavid persecutor of Christians, received his reve-lation from the voice of Jesus within a blindinglight while he was traveling on the road toDamascus. He discovered it to be a challenge toconvince others in the belief in the physicalresurrection of the dead when he preached inAthens. Although the assembled Athenianslistened politely to his message of a new faith,they mocked him and walked away when hebegan to speak of dead bodies standing up andbeing reborn. To these cultured men andwomen who had been exposed to Plato’s phi-losophy that the material body was but a fleshlyprison from which the soul was freed by death,the very notion of resurrecting decaying bodieswas repugnant. Paul refused to acknowledgedefeat. Because he had been educated as aGreek, he set about achieving a compromisebetween the resurrection theology being taughtby his fellow apostles and the Platonic view ofthe soul so widely accepted in Greek society.

Paul knew that Plato had viewed the soulas composed of three constituents: the nous,(the rational soul, is immortal and incarnatedin a physical body); the thumos (passion,heart, spirit); and epithumetikos (desire). Aftermany hardships, imprisonments, and publichumiliation, Paul worked out a theology thatenvisioned human nature as composed ofthree essential elements—the physical body;the psyche, the life-principle, much like theHebrew concept of the nephesh; and the pneu-ma, the spirit, the inner self. Developing histhought further, he made the distinctionbetween the “natural body” of a living personthat dies and is buried, and the “spiritualbody,” which is resurrected.

In I Corinthians 15:35–44, Paul writes:

But some will ask, “How are the deadraised? With what kind of body do theycome?” You foolish man! What you sow



does not come to life unless it dies. Andwhat you sow is not the body which is tobe, but a bare kernel.…God gives it abody as He has chosen, and to each kindof seed its own body. For not all flesh isalike.…There are celestial bodies andthere are terrestrial bodies; but the gloryof the celestial is one, and the glory ofthe terrestrial is another.…So it is withthe resurrection from the dead. What issown is perishable, what is raised isimperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it israised in glory. It is sown in weakness, itis raised in power. It is sown in the physi-cal body, it is raised in a spiritual body. Ifthere is a physical body, there is also aspiritual body.

Although he had begun to mix Platonicand Jewish philosophies in a manner thatwould be found acceptable to thousands ofnew converts to Christianity, Paul could notfree himself completely from the Hebrew tradi-tion that insisted upon some bodily form in theafterlife. However inconsistent it might appearto some students of theology, Paul and his fel-low first-century Christian missionaries taughtthat while the immortal soul within was themost essential aspect of a person’s existence, inorder for a proper afterlife, one day there wouldbe a judgment and the righteous would berewarded with reconstituted bodies.

The early church fathers began more andmore to shape Christian doctrines that reflect-ed Plato’s metaphysical philosophy, but theyremained greatly divided over the particularnature of the immortal soul. The Platonistssaw the soul as supraindividual and remainingwithin the universal cosmic soul after its finalascent to oneness with the Divine. The Christ-ian philosophers could not be shaken fromtheir position that each soul was created byGod to be immortal and individual, irrevoca-bly connected to the afterlife. Among themwas Tertullian (c. 160 C.E.–220 C.E.), whodefined the soul as having sprung directly fromthe breath of God, thereby making it immor-tal. The body, in the Platonic view, was merelythe instrument of the anima—the soul. Thehighly respected Alexandrian scholar Origen(c. 185 C.E.–254 C.E.) theorized that in thebeginning, God had created a certain number

of spirit entities who received physical bodiesor spiritual bodies as determined by theirrespective merits. Some might be appointedhuman forms, while others, according to theirconduct, would be elevated to angelic status,or relegated to the position of demons.

Such a concept of the preexistence of soulsseemed too close to reincarnation for thoselearned Christian scholars assembled for theFirst Council of Constantinople in 543. Bythen, church doctrine had decreed that it wasgiven each soul to live once, to die, and thento await the Day of Judgement when Christreturned to Earth. Despite his prestige as alearned and wise church father, Origen’s viewswere condemned as heretical. The prevailingview of the early Christian church was theone espoused by Jerome (c. 342 C.E.–420 C.E.),who envisioned God as creating new souls asthey were required for the new bodies beingborn to human parents on Earth. Essentially,orthodox contemporary Christianity contin-ues to maintain the position that each newperson born receives a new soul that has neverbefore existed in any other form. In Christiandoctrine, the soul is superior to the bodybecause of its divine origin and because it isimmortal, but belief in a resurrection of thephysical body is also an essential aspect ofboth the Apostles’ Creed and the NiceneCreed, which declare that after the Last Judg-ment Jesus shall once again appear to “judgethe living and the dead.”

In Chapter 25 of Matthew, Jesus tells a para-ble of how the Son of Man is to come and sit onhis throne as the people of all nations gatherbefore him so that he might separate them as ashepherd separates the sheep from the goats.Those individuals who loved their neighbors asthemselves will be rewarded with eternal life,but those who have chosen greed and self-inter-est will be sent away into eternal punishment.



EACH soul was created by God to be immortaland individual, irrevocably connected to the afterlife.

In Acts 17:31, it is stated that God has appoint-ed Jesus Christ to judge the world; Acts 10:42again names Christ as the one “ordained byGod to be judge of the living and the dead.”

The early Christian Church believed thatthe Second Coming of Jesus was imminentand that many who were alive in the time ofthe apostles would live to see his return in theclouds. When this remarkable event occurred,it would signal the end of time and JesusChrist would raise the dead and judge thosewho would ascend to heaven and those whowould suffer the everlasting torments of hell.The delay in the Second Coming forced theChurch to adjust its theology to acknowledgethat the time of judgment for each individualwould arrive at the time of that person’s death.

For the traditional Christian, heaven is theeverlasting dwelling place of God and theangelic beings who have served him faithfullysince the beginning. There, those Christianswho have been redeemed through faith in Jesusas the Christ will be with him forever in glory.Liberal Christians acknowledge that, as Jesuspromised, there are many mansions in hisfather’s kingdom where those of other faithsmay also dwell. For more fundamental and con-servative Christians, the terrifying graphicimages depicted over the centuries of the LastJudgment have been too powerful to be elimi-nated from doctrinal teachings, so they envisiona beautiful place high above the Earth whereonly true believers in Jesus may reign with him.

Hell, in traditional Christian thought, is aplace of eternal torment for those who havebeen damned after the Last Judgment. It is gen-erally pictured as a barren pit filled with flames,the images developed out of the Hebrew Sheoland the Greek Hades as the final resting placesfor the dead. Roman Catholic Christianitycontinues to depict hell as a state of unending

punishment for the unrepentant, but over fivecenturies ago, the councils of Florence (1439)and Trent (1545–63) defined the concept ofpurgatory, an intermediate state after deathduring which the souls have opportunities toexpiate certain of their sins. Devoted membersof their families can offer prayers and oblationswhich can assist those souls in purgatory toatone for their earthly transgressions andachieve a restoration of their union with God.

Protestant Christianity does not offer itsfollowers the opportunities for afterliferedemption afforded by purgatory or any otherintermediate spiritual state, but it has removedmuch of the fear of hell and replaced it with anemphasis upon grace and faith. While funda-mentalist Protestants retain the traditionalviews of heaven and hell, there are many con-temporary Protestant clergy who have rejectedthe idea of a place of eternal torment for con-demned souls as incompatible with the beliefin a loving God of forgiveness. Hell has beentransformed from a place of everlasting suffer-ing to an afterlife state of being without thepresence of God. For liberal Christian theolo-gians, the entire teaching of a place of everlast-ing damnation has been completely rejected infavor of the love of Jesus for all humanity.

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Brandon, S. G. F. Religion in Ancient History. NewYork: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969.

Clifton, Charles S. Encyclopedia of Heresies andHeretics. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1992.

Crim, Keith, ed. The Perennial Dictionary of WorldReligions. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1989.

Pelikan, Jaroslav, ed. Christianity: The Apocrypha andthe New Testament. New York: Oxford UniversityPress and Cambridge University Press for theBook of the Month Club, 1992.


Hinduism

In India’s religious classic work, the BhagavadGita (“Song of the Lord”), the nature of thesoul is defined: “It is born not, nor does it everdie, nor shall it, after having been brought intobeing, come not to be hereafter. The unborn,the permanent, the eternal, the ancient, it isslain not when the body is slain.”



HELL, in traditional Christian thought, is aplace of eternal torment for those who have been

damned after the Last Judgment.

The oldest collection of Sanskrit hymns isthe Rig-Veda, dating back to about 1400 B.C.E.Composed by the Aryan people who invadedthe Indus Valley in about 1500 B.C.E., theearly Vedic songs are primarily associated withfuneral rituals and perceive the individual per-son as composed of three separate entities: thebody, the asu (life principle), and the manas(the seat of the mind, will, and emotions).Although the asu, and the manas were highlyregarded, they cannot really be considered ascomprising the essential self, the soul. Thefacet of the person that survives the physical isyet something else, a kind of miniature of theliving man or woman that resides within thecenter of the body near the heart.

During the period from about 600 B.C.E. to480 B.C.E., the series of writings known asUpanishads set forth the twin doctrines ofsamsara (rebirth) and karma (the cause andeffect actions of an individual during his or herlife). An individual has a direct influence onhis or her karma process in the material worldand the manner in which the person dealswith the difficulties inherent in an existencebound by time and space; the individual deter-mines the form of his or her next earthly incar-nation. The subject of the two doctrines is theatman, or self, the essence of the person thatcontains the divine breath of life. The atmanwithin the individual was “smaller than a grainof rice,” but it was connected to the great cos-mic soul, the Atman or Brahma, the divineprinciple. Unfortunately, while occupying aphysical body, the atman was subject to avidya,an earthly veil of profound ignorance thatblinded the atman to its true nature as Brahmaand subjected it to the processes of karma andsamsara. Avidya led to maya the illusion thatdeceives each individual atman into mistakingthe material world as the real world. Livingunder this illusion, the individual accumulateskarma and continues to enter the unceasingprocess of samsara, the wheel of return with itssuccession of new lifetimes and deaths.

The passage of the soul from this world tothe next is described in the BrihadarankyakaUpanishad:

The Self, having in dreams enjoyedthe pleasures of sense, gone hither and

thither, experienced good and evil, has-tens back to the state of waking fromwhich he started. As a man passes fromdream to wakefulness, so does he passfrom this life to the next.… Then thepoint of his heart, where the nerves join,is lighted by the light of the Self, and bythat light he departs either through theeye, or through the gate of the skull, orthrough some other aperture of thebody.…The Self remains conscious, and,conscious, the dying man goes to hisabode. The deeds of this life, and the



In Hinduism, Vishnu is

considered one of the

main gods of worship.

(ST. LOUIS ART MUSEUM)

impressions they leave behind, followhim. As a caterpillar, having reached theend of a blade of grass, takes hold ofanother blade and draws itself to it, sothe Self, having left behind it [a body]unconscious, takes hold of another bodyand draws himself to it.

By the third century B.C.E. Hinduism hadlargely adopted a cyclical worldview of livesand rebirths in which the earlier concepts ofheaven and hell, an afterlife system of rewardand punishment, were replaced by intermedi-ate states between lifetimes. Hindu cosmologydepicted three lokas, or realms—heaven,Earth, and a netherworld—and 14 additionallevels in which varying degrees of suffering orbliss awaited the soul between physical exis-tences. Seven of these heavens or hells riseabove Earth and seven descend below. Accord-ing to the great Hindu teacher Sankara, wholived in the ninth century, and the school ofAdvaita Vedanata, the eventual goal of thesoul’s odyssey was moksa, a complete liberation

from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth,which would lead to nirvana, the ultimateunion of atman with the divine Brahma. In theeleventh century, Ramanjua and the school ofVisitadvaita saw the bliss of nirvana as a com-plete oneness of the soul with God.

In the last centuries before the commonera, a form of Hinduism known as bhakti spreadrapidly across India. Bhakti envisions a lovingrelationship between God and the devoutbeliever that is based upon grace. Those devo-tees who have prepared themselves by a lovingattitude, a study of the scriptures, and devotionto Lord Krishna may free themselves from anendless cycle of death and rebirth. Eternal lifeis granted to the devotees who, at the time ofdeath, give up their physical body with onlythoughts of Lord Krishna on their minds.

M Delving Deeper



Pelikan, Jaroslav, ed. Hinduism: The Rig Veda. Trans.by Ralph T. H. Griffith. New York: MotilalBanarsidass Publishers for the Book of the MonthClub, 1992.

Sullivan, Lawrence E., ed. Death, Afterlife, and theSoul. New York, Macmillan, 1989.


Zaehner, R. C., ed. Encyclopedia of the World’s Reli-gions. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1997.

Islam

In regard to the concept of a soul, Islam envi-sions a human as a being of spirit and body.The creation of Adam as described in theQur’an (or Koran) is reminiscent of Genesisin the Judeo-Christian Bible as the Lordannounces to the angels that he is going tocreate a human of clay and that he willbreathe his spirit into him after he has givenhim form. “And He originated the creation ofman out of clay, then He fashioned his proge-ny of an extraction of mean water, then Heshaped him, and breathed His spirit in him.”(Qur’an 32:8–9)



Hindu holy man or

Sadhu. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

“IT is born not, nor does it ever die, nor shall it,after having been brought into being, come not to behereafter. The unborn, the permanent, the eternal,the ancient, it is slain not when the body is slain.”

Muhammed (570 C.E.–632 C.E.) appears tohave regarded the soul as the essential self of ahuman being, but he, adhering to the ancientJudeo-Christian tradition, also considered thephysical body as a requirement for life afterdeath. The word for the independent soul isnafs, similar in meaning to the Greek psyche,and the word for the aspect of the soul thatgives humans their dignity and elevates themabove the animals is ruh, equivalent to theGreek word nous. These two aspects of thesoul combine the lower and the higher, thehuman and the divine.

As in the other major religions, how onelives on Earth will prepare the soul for theafterlife, and there are promises of a paradise orthe warnings of a place of torment. The Qur’an57:20 contains an admonition concerning thetransient nature of life on Earth and areminder of the two possible destinations thatawait the soul after death: “Know that the pre-sent life is but a sport and a diversion, anadornment and a cause of boasting among you,

and a rivalry in wealth and children. It is as arain whose vegetation pleases the unbelievers;then it withers, and you see it turning yellow,then it becomes straw. And in the Hereafterthere is grievous punishment, and forgivenessfrom God and good pleasure; whereas the pre-sent life is but the joy of delusion.”

Muhammed speaks of the Last Judgment,after which there will be a resurrection of thedead which will bring everlasting bliss to therighteous and hellish torments to the wicked.The judgment will be individual. No soul willbe able to help a friend or family member, hewarns; no soul will be able to give satisfactionor to make intercession for another.

While the doctrine of the resurrection ofthe body has never been abandoned in Islam,later students of the Qur’an sought to definethe soul in more metaphysical terms, and abelief in the preexistence of souls was general-ly established. In this view, Allah kept a trea-sure house of souls in paradise available fortheir respective incarnations on Earth.



Muslims pray in the

direction of Mecca

during an Islamic holiday

at Coney Island, New

York. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

The Islamic paradise is in many ways anextension of the legendary Garden of Eden inthe Bible. It is a beautiful place filled withtrees, flowers, and fruits, but it really cannotbe expressed in human terms. It is far morewonderful than any person could ever imag-ine. “All who obey God and the Apostle arein the company of those on whom is thegrace of God—of the Prophets who teach,the sincere lovers of Truth, the witnesses[martyrs] who testify, and the righteous whodo good: Ah! What a beautiful fellowship!”(Qur’an 4:69)

Hell is a place of torment, and, like theimage held by many Christians, a place of fireand burning. In the Islamic teachings, neitherheaven nor hell last throughout eternity.Infinity belongs to Allah alone, and there mayexist various stages of paradise and hell forthose souls who dwell there.

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Ali, Ahmed, trans. The Qur’an. New York: AkrashPublishing Karachi for the Book of the MonthClub, 1992.





Judaism

“Then the Lord God formed man out of thedust of the ground, and breathed into his nos-trils the breath of life; and man became a liv-ing being” (Genesis 2:7). In the second chap-ter of Genesis, Yahweh, the god of Israel,

shapes the form of Adam from the clay, thenbreathes into him the “breath of life,” so thatAdam becomes nephesh, or a “living soul.”

Interestingly, Yahweh also bestows thebreath of life into the animals that flourishedin the Garden of Eden, and they, too, are con-sidered living souls. Nephesh is closely associ-ated with blood, the life-substance, which isdrained away from the body at death, thusestablishing in Hebrew tradition the recogni-tion that a living person is a composite entitymade up of flesh and nephesh, the spiritualessence. “The body is the sheath of the soul,”states the Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a.

The early Hebrews believed that afterdeath the soul descended to Sheol, a placedeep inside the Earth where the spirits of thedead were consigned to dust and gloom. “Allgo unto one place; all are of the dust, and allturn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:20). By thetime the Book of Daniel was written, in about165 B.C.E., the belief had been established thatthe dead would be resurrected and receivejudgment: “Many of those who lie dead in theground will rise from death. Some of them willbe given eternal life, and others will receivenothing but eternal shame and disgrace.Everyone who has been wise will shine brightas the sky above, and everyone who has ledothers to please God will shine like the stars”(Daniel 12: 2–4).

While the verses from Daniel are theonly ones in Jewish scripture that specifical-ly mention the afterlife of the soul, the sub-ject is widely discussed in Rabbinic litera-ture, the Kabbalah, and Jewish folklore.Generally, the soul is believed to have itsroots in the world of the divine, and afterthe physical death of the body, the soulreturns to the place of its spiritual origin.Some Jewish thinkers refer to the soul’ssojourn on Earth as a kind of exile to beserved until its reunion with God.

By the second century B.C.E., many Jewishteachers had been exposed to the Greek con-cept of the soul as the essential self thatexists prior to the earthly body into which itis born and which survives the body’s physi-cal death. However, the old traditionsretained the view that, an existence in the



MUHAMMED says the Last Judgment willbring everlasting bliss to the righteous and hellish

torments to the wicked.

afterlife requires the restoration of the wholeperson. As Jewish thinking on the afterlifeprogressed from earlier beliefs, a school ofthought arose maintaining that during thearrival of the Messiah, God would raise thedead to life again and pass judgment uponthem—rewarding the righteous and punish-ing the wicked. Such a resurrection wasviewed as a restoration of persons who wouldpossess both physical bodies and spirits, thusreinforcing the traditional philosophy that tobe a living person was to be a psycho-physi-cal unit, not an eternal soul temporarilyinhabiting a mortal body. More often, how-ever, the references to a judgment of the deadin Judaism recall the scene in the seventhchapter of the Book of Daniel in which theAncient of Days opens the books of life andpasses judgment on the kingdoms of theEarth, rather than on individuals.

According to some circles of Jewishthought, the actual Day of Judgment, yom ha-din, the resurrection of the dead, will occurwhen the Messiah comes. On that fateful day,both Israel and the Gentile nations will besummoned to the place of judgment by theblowing of the great shofar (ram’s horn) toawaken the people from their spiritual slum-ber. Elijah the prophet will return and setabout the task of reconciling families whohave become estranged. The day when theLord judges “will be dark, very dark, without aray of light” (Amos 5:20). Those who havemaintained righteous lives and kept theircovenant with God will be taken to the heav-enly paradise. Those who have been judged asdeserving of punishment for their misdeedswill be sent to Gehenna, to stay there for alength of time commensurate with the seri-ousness of their transgressions.

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Jewish Publication Society Translation. The Tanakh.New York, 1992.


Unterman, Alan. Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend.New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.


Ancient Egypt and

the Afterlife

The ancient Egyptians were preoccupiedwith the specter of death and the prob-lem of how best to accomplish passage

to the other side. There was never an ancientpeople who insisted upon believing that deathwas not the final act of a human being, that “itis not death to die,” with more emphasis thanthe Egyptians.

In the cosmology of the early Egyptians,humans were considered the children of thegods, which meant that they had inherited manyother elements from their divine progenitorsthan physical bodies. The ba, or soul, was por-trayed on the walls of tombs as a human-headedbird leaving the body at death. During a person’slifetime, the ba was an intangible essence, associ-ated with the breath. In addition to the ba, eachperson possessed a ka, a kind of ghostly double



A white-bearded rabbi

reading the Talmud.

(CORBIS CORPORATION)

which was given to each individual at themoment of birth. As long as people kept controlof their ka, they lived. But as soon as they died, itbegan a separate existence, still resembling thebody that it formerly occupied, and still requir-ing food for sustenance. Each person also had aren, or name, which could acquire a separateexistence and was once the underlying substanceof all one’s integral aspects. Other facets includethe khu, or intelligence; the ab, or heart (will);the sakkem, or life force; the khaybet, or shadow;the ikh, or glorified spirit; and the sahu, ormummy. But the most important of all thesefacets of a human being was the ka, whichbecame the center of the cult of the dead, for itwas to the ka that all offerings of food and mater-

ial possessions were made. Those priests whowere ordained to carry the offerings to the deadwere called “servants of the ka.”

Upon an Egyptian’s death, although thebody became inert, no longer capable of motion,the body did not decay, for the greatest care wastaken to preserve it as a center of individual spir-it manifestation. The body was carefullyembalmed and mummified and placed in a cof-fin, on its side, as if it were only asleep. In thetomb with the mummy were brought all theutensils that a living person might need on along journey, together with toilet articles, vesselsfor water and food, and weapons and huntingequipment to protect against robbers and to pro-vide food once the initial supply was depleted.

Based on their writings concerning theirconcepts of goodness, purity, faithfulness, truth,and justice, beginning in the Pyramid Textsand extending onward, most scholars agree thatthe ancient Egyptians were a highly moral peo-ple. The gods Osiris and Isis were exalted as theideal father and mother, and Set (god of chaos)became the personification of evil. During thetime of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000 B.C.E.,)the story of Osiris became a kind of gospel ofrighteousness, and justice was exalted in a man-ner found in few periods of history.

Egyptian Book of the Dead

As early as the Eighteenth Dynasty, whichbegan about 1580 B.C.E., most of the religiousliterature of ancient Egypt, including thePyramid Texts—the oldest extant funeraryliterature in the world, dating back to as earlyas the fourth millennium B.C.E.—and certainrevised editions of those texts, called the Cof-fin Texts, were brought together, reedited, andadded to, and painted on sarcophagi and writ-ten on papyrus. This massive literary effort,the work of many authors and compilers, isnow known as the Book of the Dead; its cre-ators called it The Chapters of Coming Forthby Day. Although many known copies of thisancient work exist, no one copy contains allthe chapters, which are thought to numberaround 200. The subject matter of each chap-ter is the beatification of the dead, but thechapters are as independent of one another asare the psalms in the Old Testament.



MANKIND’S HISTORY OF

BURIAL PRACTICES

Timeline

70,000 B.C.E.Earliest discovered burial sites of Neanderthal man.

3600 B.C.E.Earliest known attempts to mummify bodies in Egypt.

3000 B.C.E.Ancient Chileans mummify bodies.

1000 B.C.E.Ancient Greeks cremate their dead.

625 B.C.E.Mourners in Ancient Greece place metal coins under the tongues of the dead.

600 B.C.E.Romans cremate their dead.

Sources:

Weathersby, Trudy. About Death and Dying. http://dying.about.com/blchron1.htm. 9 July 2001.

One of the most curious aspects of theEgyptian Book of the Dead is that while thework is filled with realistic and graphic scenesof the preparation of the deceased for mummi-fication, there are no illustrations depictingdeath and dying. For a people obsessed withthe mortuary and funerary aspects of death, theEgyptians seldom dealt with the actual ways inwhich people lost their lives. Some scholarshave observed that it was not so much that theancient Egyptians wished to avoid the unpleas-ant topic of death and dying; it was rather thatthey never really formulated any clear concep-tion of the nature of death or of its cause.

By the time the text of the Book of theDead was being copied on rolls of papyrus andplaced in the tombs of the dead, a great socialand religious revolution had taken place.Whereas the Pyramid Texts were meant onlyto be inscribed on the sarcophagi of the royals,

it was now decreed that anyone who couldafford the rituals would be entitled to followthe god Osiris into the afterlife. The cult ofOsiris had now been extended so that anydeceased human, commoner or noble-born,who had the means could become an “Osiris.”

The most important ceremony associatedwith the preparation of the dead was the open-ing of the eyes, mouth, ears, and nose of thedeceased. This rite was thought to guarantee



The Egyptians did not believe that mummi-fying a body would enable it to come backto life in the next world. They knew thephysical body would remain in this world,

but they preserved it, believing that the spirit of theperson needed its body as a kind of base or referencepoint. If a body could not be recovered, had it, forexample, been destroyed by fire or lost at sea, it was aserious matter. In cases such as these, a statue or akind of reconstruction or artistic portrait would beused for the departing spirit.

An important ritual was performed at the funeralservice of the departed, called The Opening of theMouth. This ceremony was a “magical treatment” ofthe mouth and other apertures of the body to ensurethe spirit’s ability to continue to hear, see, eat, and soforth, should it need to in the spirit world. The Egyptiansalso performed this ceremony over statues and paint-ings, to endow them with a form in the afterworld.

Sources:

Ruffle, John. “Ancient Egypt: Land of the Priest-King; Egyptian

Temples: Houses of Power.” In Eerdman’s Handbook to the

World’s Religions. Edited by R. Pierce Beaver. Grand

Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 1982.

Egyptian Journey

to the Next World

UPON an Egyptian’s death the greatest carewas taken to preserve the body as a center ofindividual spirit manifestation.

life to the body and make it possible for the bato reenter its former dwelling. If the deceased’sbudget allowed, it was also customary to bringinto the tomb a number of small figures calledushabtiu, whose duty was to speak up and givecharacter witness when the entombed stoodbefore Osiris and the 42 divine judges.

The Book of the Dead also contained cer-tain holy incantations that were designed tofree the ka from the tomb and allow it to beincarnated again. The spirit might experiencean existence as a hawk, a heron, or even aplant form, such as a lotus or a lily, movingalong through various expressions of the lifeforce until, after about 3,000 years, it couldonce again achieve rebirth as a human.

M Delving Deeper

Gaster, Theodor H., ed. The New Golden Bough. NewYork: Criterion Books, 1959.


Osiris: Death and Resurrection

Osiris was called Lord of Lords, King of Kings,and God of Gods by the Egyptians. Accordingto the scholar E. A. W. Budge, “[Osiris] wasthe god-man who suffered, and died, and roseagain, and reigned eternally in heaven. They[the Egyptians] believed that they wouldinherit eternal life, just as he had done.”

The ancient myths proclaim that Osirisfirst received renown as a peaceful leader of ahigher culture in the eastern Delta, then as apowerful ruler over all the Delta, a veritablegod of the Nile and its vegetation, growth,life, and culture. He was the husband of Isis,goddess of enchantment and magic; father ofthe great war god Horus; and finally conquerorof northern Upper Egypt with his principalcity at Abydos. It was then that he came intoconflict with Set, who killed and dismem-bered him. The dark mists of death didn’t



In ancient Egypt, dead

people’s bodies were

prepared for

mummification. It was

believed they would go

to an afterlife. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

THE Pyramid Texts were the oldest extantfunerary literature in the world, dating back to as

early as the fourth millennium B.C.E.

eliminate Osiris. Quite the opposite, in fact,for Isis, incarnation of the divine mother god-dess, used her magic to put him back together.Osiris rose from the dead and became for all ofhis followers a god of resurrection. The cult ofOsiris was established at Abydos, where hebecame known as the Lord of the Death orLord of the West, referring to his mastery overall those who had traveled “west” into thesunset of death. The theology of Osiris, whichpromised resurrection, soon overshadowedthat of the sun god Ra and became the domi-nant feature of all Egyptian religion.

Ra was a creator god, fundamentally solar, aking by nature, whose theology concerned itselfwith the world, its origin, creation, and thelaws that governed it. Osiris and his doctrineswere concerned with the problems of life,death, resurrection, and an afterlife. The con-nection between the two deities was Horus,who was a sky god of the heavens and also thedutiful son and heir of Osiris. The general influ-ence of Ra and Osiris can be traced back to thetime of the Pyramid Texts and forward to thedecline of Egyptian religious history. The cos-mology of Osiris may be divided into two peri-ods. The earlier one extended up until the timeof the Pyramid Texts, during which he was apeaceful political power, an administrator of ahigher culture, the unifying factor in bringingthe Delta and northern Upper Egypt into onerealm, the ideal husband and father, and afterhis death, the god of resurrection. The secondperiod extended from the time of the PyramidTexts to the common era, when he was primari-ly god of the dead and king of the underworld.

When an ancient Egyptian died, thedeceased expected to appear before Osiris, whowould be sitting upon his throne, waiting topass judgment on him or her. The deceasedwould be led in by the jackal-headed god Anu-bis, followed by the goddess Isis, the divineenchantress, representing life, and the goddessof the underworld, Nephthys, representingdeath. There were 42 divine judges to assessthe life of the one who stood before them, andthe deceased would be allowed to deny 42 mis-deeds. Once the deceased had presented his orher case, Osiris indicated a large pair of bal-ances before them with the heart of thedeceased and the feather of truth, one in each

of the pans. The god Thoth read and recordedthe decision. Standing in the shadows was amonstrous creature prepared to devour thedeceased, should the feather of truth outweighhis or her heart. In those instances when theheart outweighed the feather—and few devoutEgyptians could really believe that theirbeloved Osiris would condemn them—thedeceased was permitted to proceed to theFields of Aalu, the world, where the gods lived.Because humans were the offspring of the gods,the Fields of Aalu offered an eternal associa-tion and loving companionship with thedeities. This, the ancient Egyptians believed,was the natural order of things. They had nodoubts about immortality. In their cosmology,a blessed afterlife was a certainty.

M Delving Deeper

Ferm, Vergilious, ed. Ancient Religions. New York:The Philosophical Library, 1950.

Gaster, Theodor H., ed. The New Golden Bough. NewYork: Criterion Books, 1959.




Osiris, God of the

Underworld. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS

Pyramid Texts

The Pyramid Texts recorded some of human-kind’s earliest written insights concerning itsconcepts about the soul and the afterlife. Thetexts were inscribed on the stone walls of fivepyramids at Saccara during the later part ofthe Old Kingdom, 2400–2240 B.C.E., and werecompiled by priestly scholars from a variety ofsources, some dating earlier than the begin-ning of the historical period, about 3000 B.C.E.Beginning with the Middle Kingdom, about2000 B.C.E., priests began to copy large por-tions of the Pyramid Texts onto the sarcopha-gi of pharoahs and nobles.

Although the texts deal only with themanner in which to guarantee the safe passageof deceased nobility to the other world, theyalso reflect the general thinking of the com-mon people toward the next world, as well asthat of the priesthood and the royal heads ofstate. It is clear that the Egyptians, even duringthis remote and long-ago period, thought ofthemselves as being more than a physical body,but what is not easily understood is exactlywhat their conception of death might havebeen. From what can be ascertained from theearliest mortuary texts is that the entire culturewas in denial of death and refused to accept itas a natural and inevitable event. In fact thetexts allude to a time when death did not exist,but there is no account of how death enteredthe world, as there are in many other cultures.

All pharaohs were considered to be divine, abelief that had its roots in the myths that godshad ruled Egypt in prehistoric times and thatthe earliest human rulers were the actual chil-dren of these divine beings. Therefore, when apharaoh died, he could be prepared for deathand become an “Osiris,” the god of resurrection.

The Egyptians of this period conceived oftwo nonphysical entities, the ka and the ba, thatmade up the whole self and were of equal valueto the physical body. Although it is difficult toascertain a precise understanding of the cosmol-ogy of the Egyptian people of such a farawaytime, it would appear that the ka, often repre-sented in hieroglyphs as two arms upstretchedin a gesture of protection, was believed to havebeen a kind of spiritual double of a living personthat also served as his or her guardian spirit. A



MUMMY FACTS

1. Mummification was not limited to Egyptians. Greeks and Romanswho resided in Egypt were also mummified in Egyptian fashion.

2. The process of mummification continued in Egypt as late as the fifthcentury C.E., then slowly tapered off when Christianity took hold.

3. From 400 to 1400 C.E. there was a common belief that mummia was apotent medicine with curative powers. This mummia was obtainedby grinding up actual mummies.

4. Many travelers who visited Egypt from Europe in the 1600s and1700s took mummies home and displayed them as centerpieces orin curio cabinets.

5. The study of Egyptian antiquities, known as Egyptology, became apopular academic discipline in the 1800s. The event of “unwrappinga mummy” became a most popular attraction and draw to Europeanmuseums.

6. In 1896, British archaeologist William Flinders Petrie began using X-ray techniques to examine mummies without unwrapping them.

7. In the early 1970s, scientists began using computed tomography, orCAT scans, to create images of the insides of mummies. This aidedthem in determining information about the embalming and wrappingprocesses the Egyptians used.

8. During the 1980s and 1990s, scientists extracted DNA frommummies in hopes of gathering information about ancient Egyptianpatterns of settlement and migration, as well as information ondiseases and genetic characteristics.

9. Recent approaches to studying mummies involve theinterdisciplinary cooperation of Egyptologists, physicians,radiologists, physical anthropologists, and specialists in ancientlanguages.

10. Recent discoveries of mummies in the Sinai Peninsula, the desertoases, and the eastern delta of the Nile River are providingabundant information about the regional mummification styles.

Sources:

Teeter, Emily. Presentation of Maat: Ritual and Legitimacy in Ancient Egypt and Scarabs,

Scarboids, Seals and Seal Impressions from Medinet Habu. N.p., n.d.

person’s tomb was called the het ka, the “houseof the ka,” suggesting that the Egyptians notonly considered the ka an essential aspect of ahuman being, but understood that a provisionfor it, as well as for the physical body, must bemade at the time of death.

The ba is generally understood by modernscholars as representing that aspect of theessential self that is commonly referred to asthe soul. Often depicted in ancient Egyptianart and hieroglyphs as a bird with a humanhead—male or female, corresponding to thesex of the person represented—the ba hoversnear its physical counterpart. In culturesthroughout the world, the bird is often utilizedas a symbol for the soul. And certainly, in theEgypt of thousands of years ago, the high-fly-ing, free-moving creature of the air wouldhave seemed an obvious representation of the

aspect of the self that separates from the bodyat the time of death.

While there seems no question that theancient Egyptian view of the nature of eachindividual human included both the physicaland nonphysical aspects of the whole person,the spiritual, nonmaterial representations werenot valued above the material body. Such anassertion is easily demonstrated by the lengthyprocess of embalmment and the elaborateprocess of mummification conducted on thephysical body of the deceased. The magical rit-



In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region innorthern China, Chinese archeologists havediscovered a pyramid which they have dated tobe more than 5,000 years old. Archaeologist

Guo Dashun stated that the three-stepped pyramidbelongs to the Hongshan culture period of 5,000 to6,000 years ago, during the Stone Age.

At the top of the pyramid, the archeologists foundseven tombs and the ruins of an altar. Also found weremany fragments of broken pottery carved with theChinese character mi (rice). They also discovered abone flute, a stone ring, and a life-sized sculpture of agoddess.

Archeologists believe that the discovery of theserelics, as well as of the pyramid itself, will be crucial inlearning more about both the spiritual and earthboundlife of the peoples of the Hongshan culture.

Sources:

“Xinhua.” China Daily.http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/2001-07-

10/19256.html. 10 July 2001.

Hongshan Pyramid

Discovered

in China

THE Pyramid Texts were inscribed on the stonewalls of five pyramids at Saccara.

uals and ceremonies carefully performed to pre-pare the dead for the afterlife journey indicatethat the body was as important an aspect of thecomplete entity as were the ka and the ba. Norcan it truly be known if the ka and the ba wereviewed strictly as spiritual entities, for they, aswell as their mummified human-self, were leftfood and drink in the mortuary offerings so theymight live on in their roles of overseers.

M Delving Deeper


Ferm, Vergilius, ed. Ancient Religions. New York:Philosophical Library, 1950.

Individual Human

Experience with Death

and the Afterlife

For the past three hundred years, Westernscience has been fixated upon the con-cept that everything in the universe is

subject to physical laws and exists only interms of mass and energy—matter being trans-formed by energy into a variety of conditionsand shapes that come into existence only topass away eventually in time and space.Death, therefore, is the end of existence for allwho succumb to its ultimate withdrawal of thelife force.

From time to time, however, highly regard-ed scientists have protested that such a viewof the universe leaves out a sizable portion ofreality. British philosopher and mathemati-cian Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)observed that a strictly materialistic approachto life completely ignored the subjective life ofhumans—or that area of existence which iscommonly called the spiritual. It in no wayaccounted for emotions—the manner inwhich human beings experience the feelingsof love between a woman and a man, betweenparents and children; the joy upon hearing amagnificent symphony; the sense of beautyand awe in sighting a rainbow; the inspirationof religious thought.



The Chepren pyramid in

Giza, Egypt. (ARCHIVE

PHOTOS, INC.)

But the major tenets of Western sciencehold fast. Such human experiences, materialscientists insist, are mere transient illusions—things that people imagine for themselves ordream for themselves—while the only truereality consists in the movement of atomsblindly obeying chemical and physical laws.

This soulless “world machine” was createdthree centuries ago by the genius of ReneDescartes (1596–1650), Sir Isaac Newton(1642–1727), and their predecessors; and ithas proved useful for the development ofphysical science. The attempts of Whiteheadand others to construct an approach to sci-ence that could include the experiences ofpeople’s inner lives within the framework ofreality has made little impression in contem-porary science, which remains rigidly devotedto the seventeenth century “world machine.”Everything must be explained in terms of thephysical action of material bodies being actedupon by external forces.

But even the most rigid disciple of thematerialistic religion of test tubes, chemicalcompounds, and mathematical formulas stillcannot answer the ultimate question—whatlies beyond physical death?

Some scientists compromise because theirinstincts or desires prompt them to hope thatlife goes on, and they point to the researchbeing done with those men and women whohave survived the near-death experience(NDE) and the testimonies of medical person-nel who have observed individuals undergoingdeathbed visions. While some scientists mayargue that the answers that come forth fromthose who have experienced NDE are subjec-tive, other researchers insist that such reportsdo provide valuable clues to the dimensions ofreality that lie beyond physical death.

Throughout history there have been menand women who have been somehow broughtback to life after accidents, severe injuries,surgeries, and other physical traumas, andthey have related their own accounts of lifebeyond death, the journey of the soul, and theprocess of judgment that awaits the spirits ofthe deceased on the other side. While the var-ious representatives of religious orthodoxymay often look upon such stories as visions

wrought by the severity of a painful ordeal anda subsequent misinterpretation of acceptedreligious teachings, and while the proponentsof the material sciences may consider theseexperiences delusions, those who have sur-vived such near-death encounters cannot beshaken from the testimony of their own per-sonal experiences, regardless of the accepteddogmas and doctrines taught by the variousreligious bodies or the physical sciences con-cerning the afterlife.

Father Andrew Greeley (1928– ), whohas a Ph.D. in sociology and is a best-sellingnovelist as well as a Roman Catholic priest,has been keeping tabs on the spiritual experi-ences of Americans since 1973. Together withcolleagues at the University of Chicago, Gree-ley, a professor of sociology at the Universityof Arizona, released the following data in theJanuary/February 1987 issue of AmericanHealth: Seventy-three percent of the adultpopulation in the United States believe in lifeafter death; 74 percent expect to be reunitedwith their loved ones after death.

In the fall of 1988, the editors at BetterHomes and Gardens drew more than 80,000responses when they surveyed their readershipregarding their spiritual lives. Eighty-nine per-cent believed in eternal life; 30 percentbelieved in a spirit world; and 86 percentbelieved in miracles.

Deathbed Visions

For thousands of years, many individuals havereceived personal proof of survival by observ-ing their fellow humans at the moment ofdeath. Reports of deathbed experiences havelong intrigued physical researchers, but system-atic investigations of such accounts were notattempted until the pilot study of Dr. KarlisOsis (Deathbed Observations by Physicians andNurses, 1961) sought to analyze the experi-ences of dying persons in search of patterns.

Because of their specialized training, abili-ty to make accurate medical assessments, andproximity to dying patients, Osis selected doc-tors and nurses as informants. Each of the 640respondents to Osis’s questionnaires hadobserved an average of 50 to 60 deathbedpatients—a total of over 35,000 cases. The



parapsychologists followed up the initial ques-tionnaire with telephone calls, additionalquestionnaires, and correspondence.

A total of 385 respondents reported 1,318cases wherein deathbed patients claimed to haveseen apparitions or phantasms. Fifty-two percentof these apparitions represented dead personswho were known to the patients; 28 percentwere of living persons; and 20 percent were ofreligious figures. Visions that either gave thedying patient a view of the traditional heaven ordepicted scenes of wondrous beauty and brilliantcolor were reported by 248 respondents to havebeen observed in 884 instances. Mood eleva-tion—that is, a shift in the patient’s emotionsfrom extreme pain and fear to tranquility—wasreported by 169 respondents in 753 cases.

About half of the apparitions reported bythe dying patients seemed to have appeared

for the purpose of guiding them through thetransition from death to the afterlife. One dis-tinct observation emerging from Osis’s studywas that few patients appeared to die in a stateof fear.

Age and sex showed no correlation withthe phenomena of deathbed apparitions,visions, or mood elevations. Interestinglyenough, the more highly educated patientsevidenced more deathbed phenomena thanthe less well educated, thus contradicting theallegation that the more superstitious are like-ly to experience deathbed phenomena.

Religious beliefs correlated in a positivemanner, as might be expected. Only thosepatients who believed in life after death expe-rienced visions depicting scenes in the otherworld. Religious figures were sometimesreported by those with no religious affiliation,



The Near-Death Experiences and the After-life website (http://www.near-death. com)presents a comprehensive overview of thenear-death experience and views of the

afterlife from the standpoint of all world religionsincluding Christian, New Age, Jewish, Hindu, Atheist,Buddhist, and Muslim. There are also NDEs, (near-death experiences) of children, of those who are blindand those who committed suicide.

Research, analysis, and support are among themany other features on the website. There are inter-esting and related topics including scientific or psy-chic research, informative news, books, docu-mentaries, audio, television shows, and films availablewithin the fields of study of the afterlife and the near-death experience. Links are provided to many of theresearchers in the field, such as Dr. P. M. H. Atwater andDr. George Ritchie, as well as to those who have widelywritten about their own transformative near-deathevents, such as Bettie Eadie and Dannion Brinkley.

Also, a section called Films with Afterlife Themesprovides a list of more than 30 films that were madefrom 1939 to the present. A brief overview anddescription of the plot is given, in addition to the ratingand length of the film.

Sources:

Near Death Experiences and the Afterlife. http://www.near-

death.com. 15 October 2001.

Near-Death

Experiences and

the Afterlife

but those with strong beliefs most often iden-tified a biblical or saintly figure.

Another interesting statistic revealed bythe study is that visions, apparitions, andmood elevations are reported more often incases where the dying patient is fully con-scious and appears in complete control of hissenses. Sedation, high fever, and painkillingdrugs seem to decrease, rather than toincrease, the ability to experience these phe-nomena. By the same token, cases of braindamage or brain disease were found unrelatedto the kinds of deathbed experiences relevantto Osis’s study.

The questionnaire and subsequent follow-up also uncovered some intriguing areas foradditional research. There were cases, forexample, in which collective viewings ofapparitions were reported by those who hadgathered around the patient’s deathbed. Therewere numerous instances of “extrasensory”interaction between patients and attendingphysicians and nurses; and many cases where-in observers underwent a change in their ownpersonal philosophy after witnessing the expe-rience of the dying person.

Among the many patterns disclosed by thestudy, Osis feels that one of the most consis-tent was that phenomena relevant to the sur-vival hypothesis occurred most often whenthe physiological and psychological balance ofthe patient was not greatly disturbed. Accord-ing to the research project’s findings as report-ed by Osis, “Trends in line with the survivalhypothesis occurred predominantly inpatients whose mentality was not disturbed bysedatives or other medications, who had nodiagnosed hallucinogenic pathology, and whowere fully conscious as well as responsive totheir environment.” The study found thatexperiences irrelevant to the survival hypoth-esis occurred more often in those patients whowere generally prone to hallucinate, “such asthe sedated patients, those whose pathologywas diagnosed as hallucinogenic, or thosewhose consciousness and contact with theenvironment was impaired.”

Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross ( 1926– ) hassaid that the turning point in her work as amedical doctor occurred in a Chicago hospital

in 1969 when a deceased patient appearedbefore her in fully materialized form. Kubler-Ross had been feeling discouraged about herresearch with the dying because of the opposi-tion that she had encountered among her col-leagues, but the apparition of Mary Schwartzappeared to her to tell her not to abandon herwork because life after death was a reality.

“Death is simply a shedding of the physicalbody, like the butterfly coming out of acocoon,” Kubler-Ross has told her lecture audi-ences in presentations which she had conduct-ed around the world. “Death is a transitioninto a higher state of consciousness where youcontinue to perceive, to understand, to laugh,to be able to grow, and the only thing you loseis something that you don’t need anymore—and that is your physical body.”

The thousands of case histories thatKubler-Ross has studied have demonstrated toher that while, in some cases, dying may bepainful, death itself—as described by thosewho have survived near-death experiences(NDE)—is a completely peaceful experience,free of pain and fear. Kubler-Ross also foundthat when one of her patients died, someonewas always there to help in the transition fromlife to death, often a deceased family memberor friend. Those who had experienced a“comeback” from death to life assured her thatto die was to experience a feeling of “peace,freedom, equanimity, a sense of wholeness,”and they told her that they were no longerafraid to die.

While the great majority of today’s scien-tists may consider the quest to discover theworld beyond death a waste of time and ener-gy when there are so many physical challengesawaiting humankind in the twenty-first cen-tury, Dr. Karlis Osis has spoken to this issueand advised his more materialistic colleagues



“DEATH is simply a shedding of the physicalbody, like the butterfly coming out of a cocoon.”—DR. ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

to take a “wider look toward the far horizonswhich have attracted the best minds throughthe centuries.” There is, of course, greatness indefeating humankind’s diseases and in con-quering new worlds in outer space, but, Osiswonders “how the age-old problem, ‘Whathappens when someone dies?,’ compares withthese material challenges? Is it not equallyimportant to know the certain answer to sucha basic question of human existence?”

In his A Practical Guide to Death andDying, (1988) author John W. White, afounding member of the International Asso-ciation for Near-Death Studies, quotes thephilosopher Socrates’ (c. 470–399 B.C.E.)statement just before drinking the hemlockthat would kill him: “To fear death, gentle-men, is nothing other than to think oneselfwise when one is not; for it is to think oneknows what one does not know. No manknows whether death may not even turn outto be the greater of blessings for a humanbeing, and yet people fear it as if they knewfor certain that it is the greatest of evils.”

White states that, in his opinion, the cur-rent research on death and dying indicates thatone’s personality will survive death of the bodyand, in all likelihood, will be reincarnated.“Death challenges us to find the meaning oflife,” he writes, “and with it, genuine happiness.It is nature’s way of goading us to discover ourtrue condition, our real self—beyond the tran-sience and ephemerality of this material world.And not only this world, but all worlds.”

M Delving Deeper

Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth. Living with Death and Dying.New York: Macmillan, 1997.

Morse, Melvin. Parting Visions: Uses and Meaning ofPre-Death. New York: Villard Books, 1994.

White, John. A Practical Guide to Death and Dying.Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House,1988.

Willis-Brandon, Carla. One Last Hug Before I Go: TheMystery and Meaning of Deathbed Visions. Deer-field Beach, Fla.: Health Communications, 2000.

Near-Death Experiences (NDEs)

In the mid-1970s, the work of such notedresearchers as Drs. Raymond Moody, MelvinMorse, Kenneth Ring, and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926– ) brought the subject of thenear-death experience (NDE) to the attentionof the general public. As accounts of men andwomen who had been brought back to life andtold of having witnessed scenes from the otherside received wide circulation, more near-death experiencers felt confident in sharingtheir own stories of having come back fromother-dimensional journeys outside of theirbodies. As medical science became increasing-ly sophisticated and successful in terms of itsability to resuscitate those individuals whomight otherwise have died from heart attacks,automobile accidents, and other physical trau-mas, the more men and women came forwardto tell of having perceived the spirits ofdeceased friends and relatives, guardian angels,and beings of light that met them in a heaven-ly kind of place and communicated with thembefore returning them to their bodies.

In 1983, an extensive survey conducted byGeorge Gallup, Jr., found that eight millionAmericans—5 percent of the adult popula-tion—said that they had undergone a near-death experience. A survey conducted in 1991by Dr. Colin Ross, associate professor of psy-chiatry at the University of Manitoba in Win-nipeg, suggests that as many as one in threepeople have left their bodies and returned—most often during times of crisis, extremepain, and near-death. In 1992, a new GallupPoll survey revealed that around 13 millionAmericans claimed to have undergone at leastone NDE. While such statistics and inspira-



“TO fear death, gentlemen, is nothing otherthan to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is

to think one knows what one does not know. No man knows whether death may not even turn out

to be the greater of blessings for a human being, and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that

it is the greatest of evils.”—SOCRATES

tional stories were new to many men andwomen, accounts of people who came back tolife after clinical death and who told of experi-encing proof of life after death had beenrecorded by researchers for hundreds of years.

In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, psychoan-alyst Dr. Carl G. Jung (1875–1961) describes anear-death experience he underwent after hehad broken a foot and suffered a heart attack.“It seemed to me that I was high up in space,”he wrote. “Far below I saw the globe of Earth,bathed in a gloriously blue light.… Below myfeet lay Ceylon, and in the distance ahead…the subcontinent of India. My field of visiondid not include the whole Earth, but its globalshape was plainly distinguishable.”

The psychoanalyst described the reddish-yellow desert of Arabia, the Red Sea, and theMediterranean. “The sight of the Earth fromthis height was the most glorious thing I hadever seen,” Jung said, estimating that his con-sciousness would have had to have been atleast a thousand miles up to have perceivedsuch a panoramic view of the planet. He wasmost emphatic in stressing his belief that theexperiences he had during his heart attackwere not the products of imagination or afevered brain. “The visions and experienceswere utterly real,” he wrote. “There was noth-ing subjective about them; they all had a qual-ity of absolute objectivity.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961), theAmerican author of such works as The SunAlso Rises and The Old Man and the Sea, wroteof his near-death experience while serving inthe trenches near Fossalta, Italy. It was aboutmidnight on July 8, 1918, when a mortar shellexploded near the 19-year-old Hemingway,badly wounding him in the legs. Later, he saidthat he experienced death at that moment.He had felt his soul coming out of his body“like you’d pull a silk handkerchief out a pock-et by one corner. It flew around and thencame back and went in again and I wasn’tdead any more.”

Hemingway used his own near-death expe-rience in A Farewell to Arms when he has hisfictional hero, Frederick Henry, undergo asimilar experience. The novel’s protagonist isalso positioned in the Italian trenches when

“…a blast-furnace door is swung open and aroar that started white and went red…in arushing wind.” Henry feels his spirit rush outof himself and soar with the wind. He believeshimself to be dead and realizes that there is anexistence beyond physical death. Then“…instead of going on, I felt myself slide back.I breathed and I was back.”

Dr. Robert Crookall, a British biologistand botanist, was one of the great pioneers inthe clinical study of near-death experiences.Crookall theorized that what metaphysicianshad labeled the astral or the etheric body—the soul—is normally “enmeshed in” thephysical body so that most people are neveraware of its existence. During out-of-body ornear-death experiences, however, the SoulBody separates or projects from the physicalbody and is used temporarily as an instrumentof consciousness. According to Crookall, thisSoul Body consists of matter “…but it isextremely subtle and may be described as‘superphysical.’”

Crookall perceived the physical body asanimated by a semiphysical “vehicle of vitali-ty,” which serves as a bridge between the phys-ical body and the Soul Body. This, hebelieved, was the “breath of life” mentioned inGenesis. In some people, he speculated“…especially (though not necessarily) saintlypeople,” the Soul Body may be less confinedto the physical flesh than it is in persons of amore physical or material nature, thus makingit easier for the aesthetic to achieve out-of-body experiences.

Among the hundreds of cases of near-death and out-of-body experiences thatCrookall collected, he found numerous refer-ences to a kind of psychic “umbilical cord”that appears to connect the nonphysical SoulBody to the physical body. Citing such casesfrom his research, Crookall wrote:

With regard to form, several [expe-riencers] have described seeing merelya “cord” and said that it was about halfan inch wide. T. D. compared his to a“thread.” H. considered, “I am surethat, had a feeble thread between souland body been severed, I would haveremained intact” (i.e., the soul would



have survived the death of the body).The Tibetans also observed that “astrand” subsisted between the [SoulBody] and the [physical] body. Like H.,Miss K. realized that once [the cord]was “loosed” the reentry…into thebody would have been impossible. Shesaid, “This is what death means.”

Those men and women of a Judeo-Christ-ian belief construct who have undergone thenear-death experience (NDE) sometimesquote Ecclesiastes 12:5–7 as scriptural testi-mony to the reality of the spiritual body andits ability to separate itself from the flesh: “Orever the silver cord be loosed, or the goldenbowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken atthe fountain, or the wheel be broken at thecistern: Then shall the dust return to the earthas it was; and the spirit shall return to Godwho gave it.”

One frequently observed quality of the sil-ver cord which appears to connect the SoulBody to the physical body is its elasticity.Numerous persons who have undergone near-death experiences have remarked upon thisquality in their descriptions of the experience.Crookall wrote of a man named Edwards whostated that from the pull of his silver cord hewould characterize it as being made of somekind of substance similar to “stout elastic.”Another of his subjects, a Mrs. Leonard, notedthat as her Soul Body neared her physicalbody, the cord not only became shorter andthicker, as would be expected, but also lesselastic, agreeing with the often reported state-ments that when the Soul Body approachesvery near the physical body, it tends to reenterit—in fact it is often “sucked” back.

In the late 1970s, the popular acceptanceof the work of Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Rossbrought sharp scientific focus to bear on thequestion of what happens to humans after theexperience of physical death. In her bookDeath, the Final Stages of Growth Kubler-Rossdeclares that “beyond a shadow of a doubt,there is life after death.”

Far from an evangelical tract, Kubler-Ross’s publication is actually a textbook that isbased on more than a thousand interviewswith terminally ill persons, many of whom had

recovered from near-death experiences. Theydescribe such sensations as floating abovetheir own physical bodies and being able totranscend the normally accepted limitationsof time and space. Nearly all of the near-deathsurvivors told of a sense of euphoria andpeace, and many had been confronted byangels and spirit beings who told them that itwas not yet time for them to make the finaltransition to the other side. When the dyingdo accomplish that ultimate change of dimen-sions, according to Kubler-Ross’s observations,they are “…at peace; they are fully awake;when they float out of their bodies they arewithout fear, pain, or anxiety; and they have asense of wholeness.”

Dr. Raymond Moody, who is both a med-ical doctor and the holder of a doctorate inphilosophy, discovered an enormous numberof similar reports when he became curiousabout what happened to his patients in theperiod of time in which they “died” beforebeing revived and returned to life throughmedical treatment. After interviewing manymen and women who had survived near-deathexperiences, for his book Life after Life, Dr.Moody discovered what Dr. Kubler-Ross andnumerous other researchers had found: Thenear-death experiencers had the sensation ofmoving rapidly through a long, dark tunnelbefore “popping” outside of their physical bod-ies. If they were in hospital rooms or otherenclosures, they often floated near the ceilingand watched medical teams attempting torevive their physical bodies. Many reportedtheir life literally “flashing” before their eyes,and others said that they were welcomed tothe other world by previously deceased rela-tives or friends. Whether or not they were of areligious background, they often reported anencounter with a brilliant, intense white lightthat assumed the form of an angel, a guide, ateacher, Father Abraham, or a Christ-figure.

In 1977, Dr. Kenneth Ring, professor of psy-chology at the University of Connecticut,began a scientific investigation of 102 men andwomen who had undergone the near-deathexperience. In his Life at Death, published in1980, Ring released the results of the data thathe had compiled. According to his assessmentof his subjects’ experiences, Ring tabulated that



60 percent of them found that the near-deathexperience had brought them a sense of peaceand well-being; 37 percent reported a separa-tion of consciousness from the physical body;23 percent mentioned the process of entering adark tunnel; 16 percent said that they had seena bright light; and 10 percent claimed that theyhad entered the light.

Ring concludes his book by dropping hisscientific demeanor and admitting that he,personally, believes that humankind has a“conscious existence after our physical deathand that the core experience does represent itsbeginning, a glimpse of things to come.” Ringfurther states that he considers the near-deathexperience to be a teaching, revelatory experi-ence. In his observation, both those whoundergo a near-death experience and thosewho hear about them from others receive “anintuitive sense of the transcendent aspect ofcreation.” To Ring, the near-death experienceclearly implies that “there is something more,something beyond the physical world of thesenses, which, in the light of these experi-ences, now appears to be only the mundanesegment of a great spectrum of reality.”

Ring has also given some thought to thequestion of why the study of death became soprominent in the late 1970s and early 80s:“One reason…is to help us to become globallysensitized to the experience of death on aplanetary scale which now hangs like thesword of Damocles over our heads. Could thisbe the universe’s way of ‘innoculating’ usagainst the fear of death?”

A consensus among those who investigatethe near-death experience yields a number offeatures commonly described by those whohave undergone NDE:

• They usually see their physical bodiesapart from their spiritual bodies. Theyexperience a soaring sensation, a definitemovement out of the body and discoverthat their consciousness is free of time andspace and all prior physical limitations.

• There is often a sense of disorientation andconfusion when family, friends, medicalpersonnel, and other people seem unawareof their nonphysical presence.

• The sensation of moving down a tunneltoward a bright light is frequently men-tioned.

• A great number of those who have under-gone NDE state that they encountered anangelic being, a spirit guardian, or the spiritof someone known by them to have beendeceased, such as a friend or a relative.

• Many report having witnessed a kind oflife review of their Earth-plane existence.

• A glimpse of paradise or even a guided tourof heaven conducted by an angelic host isrecalled by many.

• An extreme reluctance to leave this beau-tiful state of existence and return to theirphysical bodies is commonly expressed.

• Upon their return to their bodies, manynear-death experiencers discover thattheir awareness has been expanded farbeyond what it was before the NDE. Somereport heightened extrasensory abilities,such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and pre-cognition.

Dr. Antonio Aldo Soldaro, chief surgeonat Rome’s main public hospital and a professorof surgery at Rome University, has observedthat all NDE subjects “improve their spiritualand social lives. They become more generous,optimistic, and positive.”

Dr. Melvin Morse, clinical associate pro-fessor of pediatrics at the University of Wash-ington, is another NDE researcher who hasfound that certain survivors of the near-deathexperience return with enhanced abilities.Morse, author of such books as Transformed bythe Light, noted that some of the people heinterviewed came back to life with “anincrease in the amount of electrical energytheir bodies emit,” an acceleration of intellectand/or psychic abilities, and even the power toheal themselves.

In one of his investigations, Morse spoketo a 45-year-old woman named Kathy whosaid that she had been afflicted with incurablethyroid cancer and had been given six monthsto live. It was at that awful moment that shealso developed pneumonia. After she wasrushed to a hospital, her heart stopped; and asdoctors worked desperately to revive her,



Kathy stated that the real her was “high ontop of a beautiful ridge overlooking a beautifulvalley. The colors were extremely vivid, and Iwas filled with joy.” A being of light touchedher spirit body, and her entire essence was“filled with light.”

Later, when she was revived, Kathy’s pneu-monia had disappeared. A few weeks later, hercancer, too, had inexplicably left her. Morsetheorized that Kathy’s NDE had a direct influ-ence on healing the cancer. He also stated thathe had studied instances in which near-deathsurvivors had returned to life more intelligentthan they had been before the experience.

Dr. P. M. H. Atwater, of Charlottesville,Virginia, nearly died after hemorrhaging in1977. After her own dramatic experience, shebegan to investigate other cases of NDE inwhich ordinary men and women had survivednear-death. By 1988, she had interviewedmore than 200 NDE survivors and found thattheir experiences had triggered something inthem that had enhanced certain abilities. Shehas written a number of books on the subject,such as Beyond the Light (1997). In one of hercase studies, she tells of a truck driver who hadsurvived a near-fatal crash and who subse-quently began to display advanced mathemat-ical abilities. Literally overnight he demon-strated a gift for higher mathematics. He wasable to write down complicated mathematicalequations about which he had no prior knowl-edge. Gradually, the man began to understandhis new abilities and was eventually able touse them in practical applications.

In those cases in which near-death sur-vivors claim to have been left with after effects,Atwater states that her research indicates that80 to 90 percent exhibit physiological changes

as well as psychological alterations. Among themost frequent after effects reported to Atwaterare the following: The near-death experiencerlooks and acts more playful. His or her skinbrightens, and eyes sparkle. There is anincreased sensitivity to any form of light, espe-cially sunlight, and to any form of sound and tonoise levels. Boredom levels decrease orincrease. He or she has substantially more orless energy. He or she can handle stress easierand heal quicker from hurts and wounds. His orher brain begins to function differently.

If it is true that near-death survivors arephysically as well as psychologically changed bytheir experiences, what does this say about thereal power of the experience? Atwater suggestsever larger questions: “Since the part of us thathas this experience ‘separates’ from the body tothe extent that it does, is that an indicationthat not only do we have a soul, we are a soul-resident in a lifeform? If that is true, what else istrue about life, about death, about purpose andmission and Source and Creation?”

While skeptics ridicule the “will to believe”in an afterlife as religious wishful thinking, itmight be suggested that many of them embracea “will to disbelieve” with what also amountsto a kind of religious fervor. For many scien-tists, there can be no consciousness after thephysical body dies. The universe is comprisedexclusively of material realities, and withoutthe physical organism there can be no mind,no consciousness—and certainly no life afterdeath. Many believe near-death experiencesare but hallucinations caused by reasons thatmay be psychological, pharmacological, orneurological. According to the material scien-tists, those men and women who claim to besurvivors of a near-death experience and whoreport that their soul left their body and begana journey into an afterlife before being revivedare suffering from delusions. Science hasproved that there is no aspect of personalitywithin a human being that could travel any-where without a physical body to propel it.

Dr. Susan Blackmore of Bristol Universityin England has spent many years investigatingthe near-death experience and is convincedthat all the phenomena associated with anNDE are manifestations of the “winding



DR. Susan Blackmore of Bristol University inEngland claims all the phenomena associated with an

NDE are manifestations of the “winding down” ofbrain functions as a person nears death.

down” of brain functions as a person nearsdeath. Blackmore explains the oft-mentioned“tunnel of light” seen by near-death experi-encers as a result of the turmoil occurring inthe section of the brain that controls vision.As the brain continues to shut down and isincreasingly deprived of sensory input, itbegins to draw upon memory to answer suchquestions as “who am I?” and “where am I?”and information stored in the memory sup-plies images based upon the individual’s per-ception of self and expectations of an afterlife.

In October 2000, the results of a year-longresearch project that was described as the “firstscientific study of near-death experiences”were released by Dr. Peter Fenwick, a consul-tant and neurophysicist at the Institute of Psy-chiatry in London, and Dr. Sam Parnia, a clini-cal research fellow and registrar at Southamp-ton Hospital. Although the doctors were ini-tially skeptical of reports in which people closeto death had encounters with bright lights andheavenly beings, their new study concludesthat a “number of people have almost certainlyhad these experiences after they were pro-nounced clinically dead.” By carefully examin-ing medical records, the researchers ruled outthe collapse of brain functions caused by lowlevels of oxygen or that drugs might be respon-sible for the experiences.

“These people were having these experi-ences when we wouldn’t expect them to hap-pen, when the brain should be able to sustainlucid processes or allow them to form memo-ries that would last,” Parnia said. “So [thestudy] might hold an answer to the question ofwhether mind or consciousness is actually pro-duced by the brain or whether the brain is akind of intermediary for the mind, whichexists independently.”

Fenwick commented, “If the mind andbrain can be independent, then that raisesquestions about the continuation of con-sciousness after death. It also raises the ques-tion about a spiritual component to humansand about a meaningful universe with a pur-pose rather than a random universe.”

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Atwater, P. M. H. Beyond the Light. New York: Avon,1997.

———. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Near-DeathExperiences. New York: Alpha Books, 2000.

Crookall, Robert. More Astral Projections: Analysis ofCase Histories. London: Aquarian Press, 1964.

Eadie, Betty J. Embraced by the Light. New York: Ban-tam Books, 1994.

Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying. NewYork: Macmillan, 1969.

Moody, Raymond A., Jr. Life After Life. New York:Bantam Books, 1981.

Morse, Melvin. Closer to the Light. New York: IvyBooks, 1991.

Muldoon, Sylvan, and Hereward Carrington. TheProjection of the Astral Body. New York: Weiser,1981.

Ring, Kenneth. Life at Death. New York: Coward,McCann and Geoghegan, 1980.

Steiger, Brad. Minds Through Space and Time. NewYork: Award Books, 1971.

Steiger, Brad and Steiger, Sherry Hansen. Children ofthe Light. New York: Signet, 1995.

The Mystery Schools

The great Epic of Gilgamesh, which datesback to the early part of the second mil-lennium B.C.E., portrays an ancient

Mesopotamian king’s quest for immortalityand his despair when he learns that the godskeep the priceless jewel of eternal life forthemselves. From clay, the gods shapedhumankind and breathed into their nostrilsthe breath of life. What a cruel trick, then, tosnatch back the wind of life at the time ofphysical death and permit the wonderful pieceof work that is man to return once again todust. The destiny of all humans, regardless ofwhatever greatness they may achieve or how-ever low they might sink, is the same—death.

Throughout all of humankind’s recordedhistory, there have been those who havesought to guarantee a dignified way of deathand to ensure a stylish and safe passage intothe afterlife. Many of these individuals whosought to approach death on their own termsformed secret societies and cults which areknown by the general name of “mysteries,”which comes from the Greek myein,“to close,”referring to the need of the mystes, the initi-



ate, to close the eyes and the lips and to keepsecret the rites of the cult.

All of the early mysteries and mystical tra-ditions appear to center around a kind of mys-tery play or ritual reenactment of the life ofsuch gods as Osiris, Dionysus, and Demeter,divinities most often associated with theunderworld, the realm of the dead, the powersof darkness, and the process of rebirth.Because of the importance of the regenerativeprocess, the rites of the mysteries were usuallybuilt around a divine female as the agent oftransformation and regeneration. While theinitiates of the mystery cult enacted the lifecycle of the gods who triumphed over deathand who were reborn, they also asserted theirown path of wisdom that would enable themto conquer death and accomplish resurrectionin the afterlife, with rebirth in a new body ina new existence.

The origin and substance of the state reli-gion of ancient Greece was a sophisticatedkind of nature worship wherein natural ele-ments and phenomena were transformed intodivine beings who lived atop Mount Olympus.If the Judeo-Christian tradition proclaimedthat humans were fashioned in the image ofGod, their creator, then it must be said thatthe gods of ancient Greece were created in theimage of humans, their creators. Like thehumans who worshipped them, theOlympians lived in communities and had fam-ilies, friends, and enemies and were controlledby the same emotions, lusts, and loves. Thepantheon of the gods of ancient Greece werenot cloaked in the mysterious, unfathomablequalities of the deities of the East, but pos-sessed the same vices and virtues as thehumans who sought their assistance.Although the Olympians could manifest asall-powerful entities—especially when a rival

god wasn’t interfering—none of them wereomnipotent. Although they were capable ofexhibiting wisdom, none of them were omni-scient. And they often found themselves assubject to the whims of Fate as the humanswho prayed for their guidance.

The Olympians were worshipped by theGreeks most often in small family groups.There existed no highly organized or formallyeducated priesthood, no strict doctrines, notheologians to interpret the meaning ofambiguous scriptural passages. The followersof the state religion could worship the god orgods of their choosing and believed that theycould gain their favor by performing simpleritual acts and sacrifices.

In addition to the state religion into whichevery Greek belonged automatically at birth,there were also the “mystery religions,” whichrequired elaborate processes of purificationand initiation before a man or woman couldqualify for membership. The mystery religionswere concerned with the spiritual welfare ofthe individual, and their proponents believedin an orderly universe and the unity of all lifewith God. The relationship of the mystes, theinitiate, was not taken lightly, as in the officialstate religion, but was considered to be inti-mate and close. The aim and promise of themystical rites was to enable the initiate to feelas though he or she had attained union withthe divine. The purifications and processions,the fasting and the feasts, the blazing lights oftorches and the musical liturgies played duringthe performances of the sacred plays—allfueled the imagination and stirred deep emo-tions. The initiates left the celebration of themystery feeling that they were now superior tothe problems that the uninitiated faced con-cerning life, death, and immortality. Not onlydid the initiates believe that their communionwith the patron god or goddess would contin-ue after death, but that they would eventuallyleave Hades to be born again in another lifeexperience.

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Cotterell, Arthur, ed. Encyclopedia of World Mytholo-gy. London: Dempsey Parr, 1999.

Ferm, Vergilius, ed. Ancient Religions. New York: ThePhilosophical Library, 1950.



THE rites of Dionysus often featured animalsacrifice. This was meant to symbolize the

incarnation, death, and resurrection of the divinity.

Fox, Robin Lane. Pagans and Christians. New York:Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.

Gordon, Stuart. The Encyclopedia of Myths and Leg-ends. London: Headline Book Publishing, 1994.

Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Mythsand Secrets. San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1983.

Dionysian Mysteries

Next to the Eleusinian mysteries in impor-tance and popularity were the Dionysian,which were centered around Dionysus (Bac-chus), a god of life, vegetation, and the vinewho, because all things growing and greenmust one day decay and die, was also a divini-ty of the underworld. Those initiates whoentered into communion with Dionysus dranklarge amounts of wine and celebrated withfeasts that encouraged them to dress them-selves in leaves and flowers and even to takeon the character of the god himself, in anattempt to achieve his power. Once the godhad entered into union with the initiates, theywould experience a new spiritual rebirth. Thisdivine union with Dionysus marked thebeginning of a new life for the initiates, who,thereafter, regarded themselves as superiorbeings. And since Dionysus was the Lord ofDeath, as well as the Lord of Life, the initiatesbelieved that their union with him wouldcontinue even after death, and that immortal-ity was now within their grasp.

The rites of Dionysus were conducted on amuch lower level than those of Eleusis, andoften featured the sacrifice of an animal—usu-ally a goat—that was torn to pieces by the ini-tiates, whose savagery was meant to symbolizethe incarnation, death, and resurrection of thedivinity. Although the cult was not lookedupon with high regard by the sages andphilosophers of the day, amulets and tabletswith fragments of Dionysian hymns upon themhave been found dating back to the third cen-tury B.C.E. These magical symbols were buriedwith the dead and meant to protect the soulfrom the dangers of the underworld.

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Ferm, Vergilious ed. Ancient Religions. New York:Philosophical Library, 1950.

Eleusinian Mysteries

The sacred Eleusinian mysteries of the Greeksdate back to the fifth century B.C.E. and werethe most popular and influential of the cults.The rites took place in the city of Eleusis, asmall community 14 miles west of Athens, butit was the ruler of Athens, together with a spe-cially selected committee, who was in chargeof the general management of the annualevent. Although the Dionysian and Orphicrites could be celebrated at any time, theEleusinian rites were held at a fixed time inthe early fall after the seeds had been entrust-ed to the fields, and were conducted by ahereditary priesthood called the Eumolpedie.

Sometime in the month of September, theEumolpedie removed the Eleusinian holy objectsfrom Eleusis and carried them to the sacred cityof Athens, where they were placed in theEleusinion temple. Three days after the holyrelics had been transported, the initiates gath-ered to hear the exhortations of the priests, whosolemnly warned all those who did not considerthemselves worthy of initiation to leave at once.Women and even slaves were permitted to jointhe mysteries of Eleusis, providing that they wereeither Greeks or Romans, but it was requiredthat all those wishing to be considered as initi-ates had first undergone the lesser mysteries heldin Agrae, a suburb of Athens, six months before.After the rites of purification had been observed,the initiates bathed in the sea and were sprin-kled with the blood of pigs as they emerged. Asacrifice was offered to the gods, and a processionbegan the journey to Eleusis, where, upon thearrival of the priests and the initiates, a midnightfeast was celebrated and the new members of thecult were made one with the gods and goddessesby partaking of holy food and drink and enactingthe ritual drama.



THE Eleusinian rites were held at a fixed time inthe early fall after the seeds had been entrusted to thefields, and were conducted by a hereditary priesthoodcalled the Eumolpedie.

The Eleusinian drama reenacted the mythof the rape, abduction, and marriage of Kore(Persephone) by Hades, god of the under-world, and her separation from her mother,Demeter, the goddess of grain and vegetation.When, in her despair, Demeter refuses toallow the earth to bear fruit and brings about atime of blight and starvation that threatens toextinguish both humans and the gods, Zeusrecalls Persephone from Hades. Filled with joyat the reunion with her daughter, Demeteronce again allows the Earth to bear fruit.Persephone, however, will now divide thedays of each year between her husband,Hades, in the underworld, and her mother,ensuring a bountiful harvest.

Essentially, the rites imitated the agricul-tural cycles of planting the seed, nurturing itsgrowth, and harvesting the grain, which, onthe symbolical level, represented the birth ofthe soul, its journey through life, and itsdeath. As the seed of the harvest is plantedagain and the agricultural cycle is perpetuated,so is the soul harvested by the gods to be resur-rected. Membership in the mysteries of Eleusiswas undertaken to ensure initiates a happyimmortality.

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Ferm, Vergilious, ed. Ancient Religions. New York:Philosophical Library, 1950.

Gaster, Dr. Theodor H., ed. The New Golden Bough.New York: Criterion Books, 1959.


Hermetic Mysteries

The Hermes Trismegistus (the thrice greatestHermes), who set forth the esoteric doctrinesof the ancient Egyptian priesthood, recognizedthe reincarnation of “impious souls” and theachievement of pious souls when they knowGod and become “all intelligence.” Hermeswas the name the Greeks gave to the Egyptiangod Thoth, the god of wisdom, learning, andliterature. To Hermes was given the title“scribe of the gods,” and he is said to haveauthored 42 sacred books, the Hermetic Mys-teries, which contained a wide assortment ofsecret wisdom. These divine documents weredivided into six categories. The first dealt with

the education of the priesthood; the second,temple ritual; the third, geographical knowl-edge; the fourth, astrology; the fifth, hymns inhonor of the gods and a guide for the properbehavior of royalty; the sixth, medical com-mentary. Legend has it that these sacred textscontain all the accumulated wisdom ofancient Egypt, going back in an unbroken tra-dition to the very earliest time.

As the Hermetic texts continued to influ-ence the growth of European alchemy, astrolo-gy, and magic, the author of the books was saidto have been Adam’s grandson, who built thegreat pyramids of Egypt; or an Egyptian magi-cian who lived three generations after Moses;or a magus from Babylonia who instructedPythagoras. The Hermetic text decreesagainst transmigration, the belief that thesouls of humans may enter into animals:“Divine law preserves the human soul fromsuch infamy.”

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Gordon, Stuart. The Encyclopedia of Myths and Leg-ends. London: Headline House, 1993.

Orphic Mysteries

Orpheus may have been an actual historic fig-ure, a man capable of charming both man andbeast with his music, but god or human, hemodified the Dionysian rites by removing theirorgiastic elements. Dionysus Zagreus, thehorned son of Zeus (king of the Gods) andPersephone (daughter of Zeus and Demeter),was the great god of the Orphic mysteries, whowas devoured by the evil Titans while Zeus wasotherwise distracted. Athena managed to saveDionysus Zagreus’s heart while the enraged Zeusdestroyed the Titans with his thunderbolts. Zeusgave the heart of his beloved son to the Earthgoddess Semele who dissolved it in a potion,drank thereof, and gave birth to Dionysus, thegod of vegetation, whose cycle of birth, death,and rebirth reflects the cycle of growth, decay,and rebirth seen in nature. Orpheus preachedthat humankind was created from the ashes ofthe Titans who devoured Dionysus Zagreus;therefore, the physical bodies of humans areformed from the evil of the Titans, but they alsocontain within them a tiny particle of thedivine essence. Within this duality a constant



war rages, so it is the duty of each human torepress the Titanic element and allow theDionysian an opportunity to assert itself. Thefinal release of the divine essence within, theredemption of the soul, is the utmost goal of theOrphic process. This process may best beobtained by the soul reincarnating in a numberof physical bodies in different life experiences.

While other schools of reincarnation seethe process of rebirth as an evolving of the soulever higher with each incarnation, the Orphicconcept introduces the aspect of the soul beinggradually purged or purified through the suffer-ings incurred during each physical rebirth. Asthe soul inhabits the body, it is really doingpenance for previous incarnations, a processwhich gradually purifies the soul. Between life-times, when the soul descends to Hades, it canenjoy a brief period of freedom that can bepleasant or unpleasant. Then it must return tothe cycle of births and deaths. How many lifes-pans must the soul endure before the process ofpurification is completed and its final release isobtained? Plato (c. 428–348 B.C.E.) envisionedthree periods of a thousand years each as a pos-sible answer.

According to Orphic teachings, the onlyway out of the “wheel of birth,” the “great cir-cle of necessity,” was through an act of divinegrace that could possibly be obtained by thesupplicant becoming immersed in the writing,ritual acts, and teachings of Orpheus andreceiving initiation into the mysteries of thecult. Although there are no available textsclearly setting forth the process of initiation, itlikely included fasting, rites of purification,and the reciting of prayers and hymns. It alsoseems quite certain that the initiates wouldhave enacted a play depicting the life, death,and resurrection of Dionysus Zagreus. In addi-tion, records suggest that a horned bull wassacrificed and the initiates partook of a sacra-mental feast of its raw flesh as a holy act thatbrought them in closer union with the god.Once this had been accomplished, the initi-ates were given secret formulas which wouldenable them to avoid the snares awaiting theunwary soul as it descended to Hades andwould ensure them a blissful stay while theyawaited a sign that their participation in the“great circle of necessity” had ended.

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Pythagoras (c. 590–c.520 B.C.E.)

Pythagoras, one of the greatest philosophersand mathematicians of the sixth century B.C.E.,is reported to have been the first of the Greeksto teach the doctrine that the soul, passingthrough the “great circle of necessity,” wasborn at various times to various living bodies.Pythagoras believed in the soul as a “thoughtof God,” and he considered the physical bodyto be simply one of a succession of “recepta-cles” for the housing of the soul. Many of hisfollowers became vegetarians, for he taughtthat the soul might live again in animals.

Because of his importance to early Greekculture, Pythagoras is among those individualsgiven the status of becoming a myth in hisown lifetime. Therefore, the philosopher wassaid to have been born of the virgin Parthenisand fathered by the god Apollo. Pythagoras’shuman father, Mnesarchus, a ring merchantfrom Samos, and his mother consulted theDelphic Oracle and were told that he wouldbe born in Sidon in Phoenicia and that hewould produce works and wonders that wouldbenefit all humankind. Wishing to please thegods, Mnesarchus demanded that his wifechange her name from Parthenis to Pythasis,in order to honor the seeress at Delphi. Whenit was time for the child to be born, Mne-sarchus devised “Pythagoras” to be a name inwhich each of the specially arranged lettersheld an individual sacred meaning.

Pythagoras is said to have traveled theknown world of his time, accumulating andabsorbing wisdom and knowledge. According



DIONYSUS, the god of vegetation, whosecycle of birth, death, and rebirth reflects the cycle ofgrowth, decay, and rebirth seen in nature.

to the legends surrounding his life, he wastaught by Zoroaster (c. 628–c. 551 B.C.E.), thePersian prophet, and by the Brahmans ofIndia. Although his teachings on past livesformed the essence of so many of the mysteryreligions, he was initiated into the Orphic,Egyptian, Judaic, Chaldean, and many othermystery schools.

At last Pythagoras formed his own school atCrotona in southern Italy. An unyieldingtaskmaster, he accepted only those studentswhom he assessed as already having establishedpersonal regimens of self-discipline. To furtherstress the seriousness of his study program,Pythagoras lectured while standing behind a cur-tain, thereby denying all personal contact withhis students until they had achieved progress ona ladder of initiatory degrees that allowed themto reach the higher grades. While separated fromthem by the curtain, Pythagoras lectured his stu-dents on the basic principles of music, mathe-matics, astronomy, and philosophy.

Pythagoras called his disciples mathemati-cians, for he believed that the higher teach-ings began with the study of numbers. Fromhis perspective, he had fashioned a rationaltheology. The science of numbers lay in theliving forces of divine faculties in action inthe world, in universal macrocosm, and in theearthly microcosm of the human being. Num-bers were transcendent entities, living virtuesof the supreme “One,” God, the source of uni-versal harmony.

Devoted to his studies, his travels, and hisschool, Pythagoras did not marry until he wasabout 60. The young woman had been one ofhis disciples, and she bore him seven children.The legendary philosopher died while exercis-ing authority over his strict standards of admit-tance to his school. He denied a man accep-tance because it was apparent that the would-be student had an unruly temper that couldeasily become violent. The rejected followerfulfilled Pythagoras’s negative evaluation byangrily leading a mob against the school andburning down the house where the teacherand 40 students were gathered. Some accountsstate that Pythagoras died in the fire; othershave it that he died of grief, sorrowing overhow difficult a task it was to elevate humanity.

M Delving Deeper

Schure, Edouard. The Great Initiates. Trans. by GloriaRaspberry. New York: Harper and Row, 1961.

Tribal Religions

The legends of the dead told by ancientor tribal people are perhaps the mostaccurate indicators of their religious

thought. And from what can be assumed fromthe burial rites of early humans, they ponderedthe same kinds of questions concerning theafterlife as humans do today. Where had theirfriends gone? What do they do and see whenthey disappear into the unknown? Will theylive again? Can their spirits return to commu-nicate? Or are they just gone—forever? Earlyhumans could not answer these great ques-tions, and so, to temper their fear of death,they created rituals, rites, and religions tocomfort them.

Although the process of death and the rea-sons why the once animated body became life-less were puzzles, aboriginal tribal societiesunderstood that there was something in theirdeparted friends and family members that sur-vived somehow in another existence. The rea-son for this belief can be easily imagined. Asthey slept, early humans saw those personswhom they knew to be dead, alive and well intheir dreams. Perhaps they themselves hadwitnessed their friends being killed in a dis-pute with another tribe or mangled by apredator, yet now they saw them and spokewith them, just as they had before their death.These vivid dreams of the dead undoubtedlyled to the belief that there existed an immate-rial aspect of human beings, a part that man-aged to survive the dissolution of the body.

Many Native American tribes believedthat the physical body housed two or moresouls, which became separated at death. Theancient Chinese affirmed three souls set freeat death: one remained in the family house toserve as a kind of protector; another watchedover the grave site as “guardian of the tomb”;and the third passed into the invisible realm.The aboriginal people of New Zealand, theMaori, believe that each of the eyes of the



deceased is given a separate immortality: thespirit of the left eye ascends to heaven and isseen as a new dark star in the sky, and the spir-it of the right takes flight to Reinga, a placebeyond the sea.

The Fang people of Gabon envision seventypes of souls:

1. a vital principle that resides in the brainuntil death, when it disappears;

2. the heart, the seat of the conscience,which inspires action during the life expe-rience, but also disappears at the time ofdeath;

3. the person’s name, which achieves a kindof individuality after death;

4. the essence of the person, which perpetu-ates itself after death;

5. the active principle of the soul as long asthe body lives;

6. the blending of shadow and soul;

7. the spiritual residue, which can appear toliving humans as a ghost.

The aboriginal inhabitants of the FijiIslands believe that a human has two souls:the “dark spirit” and the “light spirit.” TheNootkas of British Columbia regarded the soulas a tiny facsimile of the person that lived inthe crown of the head.

Early humans generally did not acceptdeath as due to natural causes. Death waseither the result of acts of violence caused byhuman or animal enemies, or it was caused byevil and unseen demons. To the primitivemind, if a man or a woman, without wound orinjury, fell silently asleep and never awakened,they had to have been the victim of malevo-lent spirits.

Some of the earliest rituals revolvingaround death concerned the interactionbetween the living and the body of the newlydead. Some tribal cultures believed that anevil spirit inhabited the corpse, and it shouldnot be touched for fear of providing themalevolent entity with a living body to pos-sess. Some anthropologists have theorized thatit was fear of the dead body that led earlyhumans to dispose of it. Since evil spirits hadcaused the “long sleep,” they must undoubted-ly still be lurking near the body to seize new

victims. Therefore, the practical thing to dowas to bury or burn or otherwise dispose of thebody, thereby removing both the dead and thedemons at the same time.

The Australian aborigines showed theirfear of the dead by burning all the deceased’sproperty and running away to establish a newvillage. They believed that the demon residednot only in the dead body, but in all thedeceased’s belongings. Early tribes in Green-land threw everything out of the house thathad been owned by the dead person. At Battafunerals, the natives marched behind thebody, brandishing swords to frighten away thedeath demons. The Galibis of Guiana danceon the newly covered grave to stamp downthe spirits. The Winnebago tribe had a fear ofevil spirits troubling the corpses of theirdeceased loved ones, so they swept the grassaround the grave in a circle from six to 20 feetin diameter, a ritual that they believed pre-vented the evil spirits from approaching thedeparted’s final earthly resting place.

The cosmology of certain eastern NativeAmerican tribes placed two powerful mani-tous, representatives of the Great Spirit, onduty in the Land of the Departed. One of themanitous, Chibiabos, like the Egyptian godOsiris and the Hindu judge of the dead, Yama,was master over the realm of the dead andescorted the newly arriving souls into theirnew environment. Sometimes there was aprocess of judgment involved, in which theworthy souls would be allowed to dwell in theLand of the Departed and the unworthy wouldbe set adrift in space. The other manitou, Pau-guk, protected the realm of the dead fromunwelcome intruders with his bow and arrows.

Many Native American tribes believedthat spirits of the dead lingered among the liv-ing until certain rites had been performed thatwould aid the spirits in their passage to theother world. Among the Ogallala Sioux, itwas maintained that the spirit of the deadpassed into the spirit world, by degrees, at thecompletion of necessary rituals that becamethe duty of the deceased person’s family. Likefleeting shadows, the spirits of the dead slowlymigrated to the Land of the Grandparents,gaining strength for their journey from the



energy received from their living relatives,who performed a long and demanding riteknown as the Shadow or Ghost Ceremony.The time needed to complete the ritual suc-cessfully could amount to as long as two years,during which period the immediate family andclose relatives endured great privation toensure the safe passage of the departed spirit.

These extensive rites were conducted inspecial Ghost Lodges, and it was here that thebody of the deceased was kept prior to burialand where the ceremonies on the part of thedeceased were held long after his or her inter-ment. The Ogallala most often kept GhostLodges when the death was a particularly sadone, such as the passing of a child by accidentor illness.

Among the Ojibway people it is customaryto cut the hair of a child who has died andmake a little doll of it, which they call the“doll of sorrow.” This doll takes the place ofthe deceased child, and the mother carries itwith her everywhere for a year. They believethat during this period of time, the soul of thechild is transferred through the hair from thedead body to the doll.

The ghost land or spirit land of tribal peo-ple is equivalent to the concept of a heaven ora paradise: It is a place free from worry, illness,war, and the fear of death. It seems a generalbelief among many different tribal culturesthat the afterlife of the soul is concerned withthe same kind of pursuits that the entity fol-lowed as a living person. The spirit land wouldfeature good hunting and fishing, beautifulnew lands to explore, and no warfare or tribalrivalries.

Because the deceased individuals would becontinuing a life similar to their life on Earth,

they would need their valuables, their toolsand weapons, and, of course, food and drink.Therefore, in nearly all tribal religions, it wascustomary to bury material things with thebody. For the Papuans, Tahitians, Polynesians,Malanans, ancient Peruvians, Brazilians, andcountless others, food and drink was left withthe corpse. In Patagonia, it was the annualcustom to open the burial chambers andreclothe the dead. Each year the Eskimo takeclothes as a gift to the dead. Among theKukis, the widow is compelled to remain for ayear beside the tomb of her deceased husband,while other members of the family bring fooddaily for her and the spirit of the deceased. Inthe Mosquito tribe, the widow is obligated tosupply the grave of her husband with provi-sions for a year.

It has been suggested that the religiousaspects of funerals grew out of the belief thatdeath was nothing more than a journey toanother world and that the newly dead expectto have ceremonies performed for them tohasten their travels and to lessen the dangersof the journey. Among most tribal cultures,therefore, it is customary to dance and feast atthe time of death for purposes of pleasing thespirit of the departed and to stamp upon theground to frighten away evil spirits.

M Delving Deeper

Steiger, Brad. Medicine Power. New York: Doubleday,1974.


Burial Mounds

Rising out of the earth in Ohio, Minnesota,Wisconsin, Iowa, and other states are the hugeearthworks of the mysterious Mound Builders.The earthworks, also known as “effigy mounds”because of their bird and animal shapes, arescattered throughout the Midwest and wereapparently raised by the same unknown peo-ple. Along with skeletal remains, the earth-works contain weapons, pottery, and numerousother artifacts, thus indicating that the MoundBuilders believed that the dead buried in theseearthworks were beginning a journey into theafterlife.



AMONG most tribal cultures, it is customaryto dance and feast at the time of death to please the

spirit of the departed and to stamp upon the ground tofrighten away evil spirits.

The burial mounds that depict animals quitelikely represent the totem animal of thedeceased buried within the earthwork. To theNative American tribes, the totems were sacredbeings to which great importance was attrib-uted. To have the mound shaped in such adesign would ensure a positive afterlife destinyfor the deceased. There are also ancient moundsshaped in a combination of animal and humanforms, very likely indicating the name of a greatchief, such as Standing Bear or Strong Eagle.

Excavation of certain mounds indicatethat one or several bodies were buried at vari-ous levels, either on the floor, above it, or in apit beneath it. In the effigy mounds shaped asbirds or animals, the placement of the bodieswas in the head or heart region. In the roundmounds, the bodies were interred in the cen-ter; and in the linear earthworks, they werefound along the central axis. The most com-mon burial position was the flexed, with armsand legs over the chest.

Early settlers in the Ohio Valley in the1700s were greatly impressed by the GreatSerpent Mound on Brush Creek in AdamsCounty, Ohio. The mound is approximatelyfive feet high, and its length is 30 feet, dimin-ishing in height toward the head and the tailof the “serpent.” Near the open jaws of theserpent is another much smaller, oval mound.There are other such serpentine mounds nearthe Mississippi River at McGregor, Iowa;another structure in Licking County, Ohio,resembles an alligator.

At Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, there is acircular mound enclosing a pentagram. Theouter circle measures 1200 feet, and the pen-tagon is 200 feet on each side. The mound is36 feet in diameter and 12 feet high. Its sum-mit is composed of white pipe-clay, beneathwhich has been found a large quantity of mica.Four miles away, on the low lands of the Kick-apoo River, is a mound with eight radiatingpoints, very likely representing the sun. Thismound is 60 feet in diameter at the base andthree feet high, the points extending aboutnine feet. Surrounding this mound are fivecrescent-shaped mounds, arranged in a circle.

The size and number of the earthworkssuggest that the construction of the burial

mounds was a community project. Hundredsof tribespeople had to dig soil from nearbyareas, then over a period of weeks or monthscarry innumerable baskets or buckets, anddump them on the growing mound. The workmay have been directed by a shaman, for itappears from the presence of fire pits in someof the mounds that religious ceremonies wereconducted and funeral rites were observed.

In Pike County, Ohio, on the banks of theScioto River, there is a mound consisting of acircle and square, constructed with great geo-metric accuracy. In Native American pictog-raphy, the ring or circle is generally anemblem of the sun, the stars, and the GreatSpirit, the divine being. The oval also repre-sents the Creator or the act of creation. Thesquare designates the four cardinal directions.If it is assumed that the ancient MoundBuilders had similar religious philosophies,then some insight may be gained into theirbeliefs about destiny and life after death.

One of the largest of the effigy mounds is ahuge bird earthwork that is located on theMendota Hospital grounds near Madison,Wisconsin. The bird is six feet high with awingspread of 624 feet. A panther mound atBuffalo Lake in Marquette County, Wiscon-sin, is 575 feet in length, including its remark-ably long tail. The largest of all earthworks yetdiscovered is Cahokia Mound (c. 1000) nearSt. Louis, Missouri, which is 998 feet long,721 feet wide, and 99 feet high. Archaeolo-gists have also discovered 45 mounds of small-er dimensions in the same area.

Who the Mound Builders were and whythey stopped constructing their massive earth-works may never be known. There is nothingto point to their destruction by enemies orcatastrophes. The most likely theory of theirdestiny is that their descendants were eventu-ally absorbed into the Native American tribes



THE construction of the burial mounds was acommunity project.

that greeted the European explorers in the fif-teenth and sixteenth centuries.

M Delving Deeper

Emerson, Ellen Russell. Indian Myths. Minneapolis:Ross & Haines, 1965.

Steiger, Brad. Worlds Before Our Own. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1978.

Land of the Grandparents

It was a general belief among most NativeAmerican tribes that the world of spirit, theLand of the Grandparents, was similar to thephysical world in its tasks and pursuits, hencethe common reference to the “happy huntingground,” a place where all needs would be eas-ily met. In this respect, the ghost land, theLand of the Grandparents, is equivalent to theElysian Fields of the ancient Greeks, the Val-halla of the Vikings, and the general conceptof a heaven or a paradise that awaits the virtu-ous soul after death.

Some tribes believed that their eternalabode would be in the stars. To these people,the Milky Way was known as the Pathway ofthe Dead; and it was their custom to light firesupon the graves of the dead for four days togive the spirits ample time to arrive safely onthe glorious path in the sky.

For other tribes, the Land of the Grand-parents, the Place of the Souls, was locatedunder the earth, where the sun would shineduring the time of its disappearance from thetopside world at night. Others believed theplace of the departed spirits was far away inthe south.

Medicine priests among the Algonquin peo-ple taught that two souls resided in the physicalbody. One of the souls kept the body animateand remained with it during sleep. The other,less attached to the material plane, movedabout at will, free to travel to faraway places andeven to the spirit world. It was for the soul thatremained with the physical body that the tribes-people left food beside their dead.

The Dakota, among other tribes, believedthat each person possessed four souls: Oneanimated the body and required food; a sec-ond watched over the body, somewhat like aguardian spirit; a third hovered around the vil-

lage; the fourth went to the Land of theGrandparents at the time of physical death.

In the Chippewa cosmology, the soul passedto another world immediately after death.Once in the dimension of the afterlife, the soulwould arrive in a beautiful lake and be ferriedacross by a spirit ancestor in a stone canoe. Inthe middle of the lake was a magic island ofgood spirits, and the soul must remain in thestone canoe to await judgment for its conductduring life. If its good actions predominated,the soul would be permitted to reside on theisland of good spirits. If the soul in its physicalincarnation had spent a life seeking only carnaland material satisfactions, the stone canoewould sink at once and leave only the soul’shead above the water. This imagery is reminis-cent of the Greek belief that after death thesoul must have ready its fee for Charon, ferry-man of the Styx, to transport it to the afterlife.

Among many of the eastern tribes, therewas a tendency to believe that the spiritstayed near the body for a time before it wentto the paradise of the happy hunting grounds.The Iroquois left small holes in the grave sothat the spirit could go in and out as it pleaseduntil it left for the Land of the Grandparents.The tribes of the Ohio followed a similar cus-tom of boring holes in the burial casket toallow the spirit to leave at a time of its ownchoosing.

For the Native American tribes, the colorblack was the symbol of death, evil, andmourning, as it seems to be so often through-out the world. In Native American tribal artor sign-writing, a black circle signified thedeparture of the soul, whose travel to the Landof the Grandparents occurred at night, afterthe sun had gone down.

The human soul was represented amongsome tribes as a dark and somber image, com-plete with feet, hands, and head. Because thesoul still existed in human shape, it, like theka of the ancient Egyptians, still needed to beprovided with nourishment. Some tribalmembers burned the best part of their food asan offering to the souls of the departed.

M Delving Deeper

Emerson, Ellen Russell. Indian Myths. Minneapolis:Ross & Haines, 1965.



Gill, Sam D., and Irene F. Sullivan. Dictionary ofNative American Mythology. New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1992.

How the Major Religions

View Reincarnation

Reincarnation, the belief that the soul ofa man or woman who has died will laterbe born again into another physical

body, is an ancient doctrine, ancient even atthe time of the Greek and Roman empires.Plato (c. 428–348 B.C.E.) alludes to reincarna-tion in many of his essays, and he seems to bespeaking of the law of karma, the spiritual bal-ance of cause and effect, in Book X of Lawswhen he says: “Know that if you becomeworse, you will go to the worst souls, or if bet-ter, to the better; and in every succession oflife and death you will do and suffer what lifemay fitly suffer at the hands of life.”

Cicero’s (106–43 B.C.E.) Treatise on Gloryconcedes that “the counsels of the DivineMind had some glimpse of truth when theysaid that men are born in order to suffer thepenalty for some sins committed in a formerlife.” Plotinus (205–270 C.E.), in the SecondEnnead, writes that reincarnation is “a dogmarecognized throughout antiquity…the soulexpiates its sins in the darkness of the infernalregions and…afterwards…passes into newbodies, there to undergo new trials.”

Reincarnation is not an approved doctrinein any of the orthodox Christian, Islamic, orJudaic religions, which all hold fast to thebelief that there is but one lifetime, one Dayof Judgment, and a heavenly resurrection ofthe body for the righteous. Reincarnation, thegreat Wheel of Return set in motion by one’skarma, is accepted as a reality in the Hinduand Buddhist religions, as well as certain mys-tical sects in Judaism and Islam.

In the early days of Christianity, however,even the Church’s greatest leaders, such as St.Clement of Alexandria (150–215 C.E.) in hisExhortations to the Pagans, stated their beliefsin the soul’s preexistence: “We were in beinglong before the foundation of the world. Weexisted in the eye of God, for it is our destiny

to live in Him. We are the reasonable crea-tures of the Divine Word; therefore, we haveexisted from the beginning, for in the begin-ning was the Word.… Not for the first timedoes He show pity on us in our wanderings;He pitied us from the very beginning.”

The Christian philosopher St. Augustine(354–430 C.E.) asked the eternal question inhis Confessions:“Say, Lord…did my infancysucceed another age of mine that died beforeit? Was it that which I spent within my moth-er’s womb?…and what before that life again,O God…was I anywhere or in any body?”

Even though the majority of Eastern cul-tures maintain a belief in reincarnation as anintegral element in their religious faiths, peo-ple—young children, in particular—are notencouraged to “remember” past lives. Regard-less of such admonitions against pursuing the



Pope John Paul II places

a signed note into a

crack in the Western

Wall in Israel. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

REINCARNATION is not an approveddoctrine in any of the orthodox Christian, Islamic, orJudaic religions.

knowledge of karma acquired from prior lifeexperiences, the holy books of Eastern faithsteach reincarnation with none of the reluc-tance of the West.

The chief theological work of the Hindus,the Upanishads, expresses the doctrine ofrebirth in the poetic imagery of a goldsmithwho takes a raw piece of gold and shapes itinto another more beautiful form. “So verily,the Self, having cast off this body and havingput away ignorance, makes another new andmore beautiful form.”

The Anguttara Nikaya, a Buddhist text,observes that “the wise priest knows he nowmust reap the fruits of deeds of former births.For be they many or but few, deeds done incovetousness or hate, or through infatuation’spower, [he] must bear their needful conse-quence.”

Although the Qur’an, the holy bookreceived by the prophet Muhammed, doesn’treally address the concept of past lives andrebirth, Sufism, a mystical sect of Islam, acceptstransmigration of souls as a reality. In the wordsof the Sufi teacher Sharf-U’D Din-Maneri: “OBrother, know for certain that this work hasbeen before thee and me in byone ages.…Noone has begun this work for the first time.”

Orthodox Judaism also rejects reincarna-tion as doctrine, but the Hasidic sect and thosewho follow the teachings of the Kabbalah, acollection of mystical texts first published in1280, accept the belief in the transmigration ofsouls as a firm and infallible doctrine. RabbiManasseh ben Israel (1604–1657), the reveredtheologian and English statesman, said thatreincarnation was a fundamental point of theirreligion: “We are therefore duty bound to obey



The Chinese Taoists believe that afterdeath, the soul crosses a bridge to thenext life where it undergoes a process ofjudgment. Once on the other side of the

bridge, judges in ten courts decide whether thedeceased person has lived a good or bad life. If theperson has lived a good life, the soul is allowed topass through the courts and go to heaven. If the per-son was judged to have been bad, a punishment isordered before the soul can go any further.

Following the burial of the coffin, paper models ofhouses, cars, and money are burned to assist the soulin the afterlife. It is believed that these items will helpthe deceased “pay his or her way” through the courtsof judgment. The son of the deceased burns the mostimportant and “influential” paper models.

Ten years after the burial, the coffin is then dugup. The remains, or the bones of the deceased aretaken to be cleaned and then placed in a pot which isthen sealed by a priest. The priest finds the “rightplace” to bury the pot in a special ceremony called

feng-shui. They believed it important to bury thebones in a place where the dead person will be happy,or else his or her ghost might return to punish the fam-ily. Annually, the Chinese festival, Ching-Ming, is heldto pay tribute to and honor the deceased.

Sources:

Mayled, John. Death Customs. Morristown, N.J.: Silver Burdett

Press: 1987.

Chinese Taoist

Journey to the

Next Life

and accept this dogma with acclamation…asthe truth of it has been incontestably demon-strated by the Zohar, and all the books of theKabbalists.”

In Religion and Immortality, G. Lowes Dickin-son presents his view that reincarnation offers“…a really consoling idea that our present capac-ities are determined by our previous actions andthat our present actions again will determine ourfuture character.” Such a philosophy, Dickinsonobserves, liberates people from the bonds of anexternal fate and places them in charge of theirdestiny: “If we have formed here a beautiful rela-tionship, it will not perish at death, but be per-petuated, albeit unconsciously, in some futurelife. If we have developed a faculty here, it willnot be destroyed, but will be the starting point oflater developments. Again, if we suffer…fromimperfections and misfortunes, it would be con-soling to believe that these were punishments ofour own acts in the past, not mere effects of theacts of other people, or of an indifferent natureover which we have no control.”

M Delving Deeper

Goring, Rosemary, ed. Larousse Dictionary of Beliefsand Religions. New York: Larousse, 1994.

Head, Joseph, and S. L. Cranston. Reincarnation: AnEast-West Anthology . Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books,1968.

May, Robert M. Physicians of the Soul: The Psychologiesof the World’s Great Spiritual Teachers. Warwick,N.Y.: Amity House, 1988.

Smith, Huston. The World’s Religions. New York:Harper San Francisco, 1991.


Zaehner, R. C. Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions.New York: Barnes & Noble, 1997.

Buddhism

The Buddha (563–483 B.C.E.) believed in thekarmic laws that gripped and held those whodid not understand the true nature of life anddeath. But because the universe and reality arealways in a state of flux, forever changing andreshaping themselves, there can be no single,unique soul of any individual that is caught upin the cycle of death and rebirth. The variouscomponents that make up a human being arein a perpetual process of change but always

held by the laws of karma, which determinethe nature of a person’s rebirth.

There are many schools of Buddhism, andcertain scholars point out that the so-called“Northern Buddhism” of Tibet, China, andJapan, emphasizes the doctrine of a permanentidentity which serves to unite all the incarna-tions of a single individual. Such an emphasisis closer to the Hindu interpretation of a con-tinuity of a soul linked to its karma than thestrict Buddhist teaching that only psychicresidues remain of an individual’s traits of per-sonality and character. As might be expected,Northern Buddhism claims to have preservedthe true teaching given by the Buddha to hisinitiated disciples. Since karma is one of thekey teachings of the Buddha, they insist thatthe concept becomes virtually meaninglessunless it is applied to the idea of a single rein-carnating ego. The teachers of Northern Bud-dhism also recall that according to tradition,the Buddha’s dying words were: “All com-pounds are perishable. Spirit is the sole, ele-mentary, and primordial unity, and each of itsrays is immortal, infinite, and indestructible.Beware of the illusions of matter.”

Christianity

Although many of the great minds who haveshaped the intellectual and religious climateof the West held firm beliefs in reincarnation,historically, at least since the fourth century,Christian theologians have spoken out againstthe doctrine of rebirth. Reincarnation is nottaught in any of the mainstream Christianchurches, and most denominations condemnthe concept.

Origen (185–254 C.E.) devoted his life tothe preservation of the original gospels and isconsidered by many scholars to have been themost prominent of all the church fathers, withthe possible exception of Augustine (354–430



THE Buddha believes the laws of karmadetermines the nature of a person’s rebirth.

C.E.). A prolific Christian writer and leader,Origen preached a relationship between faithand knowledge and explained the sinfulness ofall men and women by the doctrine of the pre-existence of all souls. In Contra Celsum heasked, “Is it not rational that souls should beintroduced into bodies in accordance withtheir merits and previous deeds, and that thosewho have used their bodies in doing the utmostpossible good should have a right to bodiesendowed with qualities superior to the bodies ofothers?” In response to the query, Origen con-tinues: “The soul, which is immaterial andinvisible in its nature, exists in no materialplace without having a body suited to thenature of that place; accordingly, it at one timeputs off one body, which is necessary before, butwhich is no longer adequate in its changedstate, and it exchanges it for a second.”

In the Des Principiis, Origen states thatevery soul comes into this world strengthened

by the victories or weakened by the defeats ofits previous life. The soul’s place in this worldin terms of dwelling within a physical body ofhonor or dishonor is determined by its previ-ous merits or demerits. Its work in this worlddetermines its place in the world to follow.

At the Council of Nicaea in 325, Ori-genism was excluded from the doctrines of theChristian Church and 15 anathemas wereproposed against Origen himself. The Ori-genists, those who favored including theethics of karma and the doctrine of preexis-tence in the official Church teachings, hadlost by only one vote. But, as stated by Headand Cranston in Reincarnation: An East-WestAnthology (1968), “Catholic scholars arebeginning to claim that the Roman churchnever took any part in the anathemas againstOrigen.…However, one disastrous result ofthe mistake still persists, namely, the exclu-sion from the Christian creed of the teaching



Six-year-old Gyaltsen

Norbu is installed as the

eleventh Panchen Lama

in Bejing, China.

(AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS)



In England, until the fourteenth century, theChristian Bible was considered the preserve ofthe priestly classes. The Vulgate was a Latintranslation by Saint Jerome, read and interpret-

ed only by the clergy, as the Church deliberately dis-couraged common people from reading vernacularbibles. They believed those outside the Church wouldmisinterpret the text in the Bible, which would thenlead to heresy. In fact, it was a crime to possess a ver-nacular bible.

In the centuries that followed, however, theefforts of men who challenged the Church, and theinvention of the printing press, made the Bible avail-able in plain English, to ordinary men and women.

In his New York Times article “Where Is it Writ-ten? Right Here,” Simon Winchester discusses themen who sought to put the Bible in commoners’hands. Among them is William Tyndale, who wasstrangled and burned at the stake for “such a hereti-cal presumption.” Winchester also comments on twointeresting books, which go into detail about how theBible revolutionized England: Wide as the Waters:The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution ItInspired, by Benson Bobrick, and In the Beginning:The Story of the King James Bible and How ItChanged a Nation, a Language and a Culture, by Alis-ter McGrath.

Winchester states that the more important points inthese books are about the realizations that came fromthe brave actions taken to make the Bible available toall, and how the popularization of the Bible led to theestablishment of the individual’s inviolable rights andthe formation of equal government, for and of the peo-ple. “In other words, the essentials of popular democra-cy were inspired by writings first set down on papyrusand in manuscript two millenniums ago in Hebrew, Ara-maic, and Greek—words since translated and thenprinted for the benefit of all, by the courageous andlong-suffering heroes,” Winchester said.

Sources:

Bobrick, Benson. Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English

Bible and the Revolution It Inspired. New York: Simon &

Schuster, 2001.

McGrath, Alister. In the Beginning: The Story of the King James

Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language and a

Culture. New York: Doubleday, 2001.

Winchester, Simon. “Where Is It Written? Right Here.” New York

Times, http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/08/reviews

010408.winchet.html. 8 April 2001.

The

Christian Bible

of the preexistence of the soul, and, by impli-cation, reincarnation.”

While the official position of the Christianchurches still holds with those anathemasagainst reincarnation, a more liberal attitudeexists among many Christian laypeople, who,in modern times, need not fear being brandedas heretics and threatened with burning at thestake. A 2001 Gallup poll of public opinionindicate that nearly 25 percent of the peoplein the United States, including Christians,believe that they may have past-life memoriesof their own. Those Christians who accept atleast the possibility of reincarnation insist thatthere are many passages in the New Testa-ment that imply a belief on the part of Jesus(c. 6 B.C.E.–30 C.E.) and his disciples in thereality of past lives.

In his Lux Orientalis (c. 1670), JosephGlanvil states that the preexistence of hu-mankind was a philosophy commonly held bythe Jews; and he maintains that such a theo-logical position is illustrated by the disciples’ready questioning of Jesus when they asked(John 9:1–4): “Master, was it for this man’s sinor his father’s that he was born blind?” If thedisciples had not believed that the blind manhad lived another life in which he might havesinned, Glanvil argues, the question wouldhave been senseless and impertinent.

When Jesus asked his disciples who thecrowds said he was, they answered that somesaid John the Baptist, others Elijah, othersJeremiah or one of the prophets (Matthew16:13–14). Again, Glanvil reasons that such aresponse on the part of the disciples demon-strates their belief in preexistence.

At another time, Jesus’ disciples asked himwhy the scribes had said that Elijah mustcome first before the Messiah, to which Jesusanswered (Matthew 17:10–13), “Elijah truly

shall first come and restore all things. But I sayunto you that Elijah has already come, andthey knew him not!” The disciples thenunderstood that Jesus was referring to Johnthe Baptist.

Information gained from the Dead SeaScrolls, which were discovered near Qumranin 1947 and are slowly being translated andreleased to the public, may have a great effecton both the Jewish and Christian religions.These scrolls refer often to a great Teacher ofRighteousness and a great warfare betweenthe Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.The Qumran sect, known as the Essenes,forms a definite link between Judaism andChristianity, and many scholars have suggest-ed that Jesus was a member of the group. TheNag-Hammadi scrolls, discovered in Egypt in1945, also give a strong indication that Jesusmay have been an Essene, a student of theEssenes, or at least closely associated with thisapocalyptic sect during the so-called “silentyears of Jesus,” ages 12 to 30. It is generallybelieved that the Essenes incorporated certainaspects of reincarnation in their teachings.Certain scholars have also speculated thatJesus may have studied various mystical tradi-tions in Egypt, India, and Tibet, all of whichwould have introduced him to the teachingsof reincarnation.

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Eerdman’s Handbook to the World’s Religions. GrandRapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing,1994.


Head, Joseph, and S. L. Cranston. Reincarnation: AnEast-West Anthology. Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books,1968.

McDannell, Colleen, and Bernard Lang. Heaven: AHistory. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.

Hinduism

The Bhagavad-Gita, the holy text of the Hin-dus, observes that “…as the dweller in thebody experiences childhood, youth, old age,so passes he on to another body.” In 2:19–25,the holy book declares that a man who regardshimself as a slayer, or another who thinks he isthe slain, are both ignorant:



REINCARNATION is not taught in anyof the mainstream Christian churches, and most

denominations condemn the concept.

You are never born; you will neverdie. You have never changed; you cannever change. Unborn, eternal, immu-table, immemorial, you do not die whenthe body dies. Realizing that which isindestructible, eternal, unborn, andunchanging, how can you slay or causeanother to be slain? As a man abandonshis worn-out clothes and acquires newones, so when the body is worn out anew one is acquired by the Self, wholives within. The Self cannot be piercedwith weapons or burned with fire; watercannot wet it, nor can the wind dry it.The Self cannot be pierced or burned,made wet or dry. It is everlasting andinfinite, standing on the motionlessfoundation of eternity. The Self isunmanifested, beyond all thought,beyond all change. Knowing this, youshould not grieve.

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952),the founder of the Self-Realization Fellow-ship, which seeks to blend Hindu and Christ-ian concepts, once presented three truths tobe employed by those who wished to riseabove karma. The first truth, the Yogi said, isthat when the mind is strong and the heart ispure, we are free. “It is the mind that connectsyou with pain in the body,” he said. “Whenyou think pure thoughts and are mentallystrong, you can endure the painful effects ofevil karma.” The second truth is that in sub-conscious sleep, we are free. Truth numberthree, he revealed, is when we are in ecstasy,identified with God, we have no karma. “Thisis why the saints say, ‘Pray unceasingly.’ Whenyou continuously pray and meditate, you gointo the land of superconsciousness, where notroubles can reach you.”

M Delving Deeper

Brunton, Paul. A Search in Secret India. New York:Samuel Weiser, 1972.


Head, Joseph, and S. L. Cranston. Reincarnation: AnEast-West Anthology. Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books,1968.

Hinduism Today. http://www.hinduism-today.com. 28September 2001.

Understanding Hinduism. http://www.hinduism.co.za.28 September 2001.

Islam

The Qur’an (or Koran), the holy book ofIslam, has no direct reference to reincarna-tion, and there are only a few passages thatmay suggest a concept of rebirth, such as thefollowing: “God generates beings and sendsthem back over and over again, ‘til they returnto Him.” Orthodox Islamic scholars generallyfrown upon the concept of transmigration.

However, the Islamic mystical sect of Per-sia, the Sufis, carries on the ancient teachingsof rebirth as espoused by Moorish andSaracenic philosophers in the schools of Bagh-dad and Cordova. The Sufis claim to keepalive the Islamic esoteric philosophies and



Krishna, one of the main

gods in Hinduism,

represented in a

thirteenth-century relief.


THE Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, has nodirect reference to reincarnation.

maintain that reincarnation is an importantdoctrine. The Sufi poet Jalalu ‘D-Din Rumi(1207–1273) wrote these lines that are oftenquoted as containing the essence of transmi-gration: “I died as mineral and became a plant;I died as plant and rose to animal; I died as ani-mal and I was Man.…Yet once more I shall dieas Man, to soar with angels blest; but evenfrom angelhood I must pass on.…”

Judaism

The Hebrew term for the passage of a soul afterdeath into another physical form—human,animal, or inanimate—is gilgul neshamot.Although reincarnation as a doctrine is gener-ally renounced by Jewish theologians andphilosophers, the Karaites, a Jewish sect whichrejected Rabbinism and Talmudism, taughttransmigration of the soul. Anan ben David,who founded the Karaites in Baghdad about765, said that all human souls have a commonorigin in the primordial human, Adam Kad-mon, whose spiritual essence sends forth sparkswhich form individual souls. When the laterAdam of Genesis committed sin in the Gardenof Eden, his fall brought about confusionamong higher and lower souls throughout cre-ation, which resulted in the need for every soulto pass through a series of incarnations.Although Anan ben David’s teachings wereseverely criticized as contrary to Orthodoxbelief, gilgul became a part of the Kabbalah, thecompilation of mystical works collected inthirteenth-century Spain. Transmigration ofsouls is also a universal belief in Hasidism.

According to Alan Unterman in his Dic-tionary of Jewish Lore and Legend (1994):“Transmigration gave a new meaning to manyaspects of life.…The deaths of young childrenwere less tragic, since they were being pun-ished for previous sins and would be reborn ina new life.…Proselytes to Judaism were Jewish

souls which had been incarnated in Gentilebodies. [Transmigration] also allowed for thegradual perfection of the individual soulsthrough different lives.”

The Zohar (Hebrew for “Splendor”), themain work of the Kabbalah, describes the eso-teric reality that lies behind everyday experi-ence, and insists that the real meaning of theTorah lies in its mystical secrets. Althoughtradition declares Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai(c. 80 C.E.) as its author, later scholarshipacknowledges the contribution of RabbiMoses De Leon (1240–1305) and otherHebrew scholars in the thirteenth century.The Zohar states that since the human soul isrooted in the divine, the redemption of theworld will be achieved when each individualhas undergone the process of the transmigra-tion of souls and completes his or her task ofunification. Because humans cannot know theMost High’s plans for each individual, theycannot know how they are being judged at alltimes, both before and after coming into theworld and when they leave it. Because thegoal of all human souls is to reenter theabsolute from which they originally emerged,it is necessary for them to develop the level ofperfection that will find them worthy ofreunion with God. Since it is unlikely thatsuch perfection can be achieved in one life-time, the souls must continue their spiritualgrowth from lifetime to lifetime until they arefit to return to the divine.

Although the study of the Kabbalahundergoes cycles of popularity and esteem,reincarnation is not generally taught today inthe three main branches of Judaism—Reform,Conservative, and Orthodox—but is acceptedby those in the Hasidic sect. Rabbi YonassanGershom, a neo-Hasidic rabbi, has said thatalthough Jews are generally reluctant to speakof their personal spiritual experiences in pub-lic, it doesn’t mean that some of them aren’thaving memories of past lives.

“There are many teachings about reincar-nation in Jewish mysticism,” Gershom said.“The Hebrew word gilgul comes from the sameroot as the Hebrew word for ‘circle’ or ‘cycle.’So the essence of its meaning is similar to theideal of the Wheel of Karma.”



TRANSMIGRATION of souls is auniversal belief in Hasidism.

M Delving Deeper


Eerdmans’ Handbook to the World’s Religions. GrandRapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,1994.

Head, Joseph, and S. L. Cranston, S.L., eds. Reincar-nation: An East-West Anthology. Wheaton, Ill.:Theosophical Publishing House, 1968.


Unterman, Alan. Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend.London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.

Contemporary Mystery

Schools and

Reincarnation

Since the earliest days of organized reli-gious expression there have always beenthose who preferred seeking the individ-

ual mystical experience as their personal door-way to other dimensions of reality and theworld beyond death. These mystics found thedoctrines and dogmas of structured religion tobe too inhibiting, too restrictive, and not atall conducive to the kind of personal relation-ship with the holy which they so desperatelysought. Regardless of the religion or the cul-ture from which they sprang, all mystics haveas their goal the transcendence of the earthlyself and union with the Absolute.

While the ancient mystery schools werebuilt upon the worship of a particular god orgoddess, the contemporary mystery schoolshave been built around the charisma and thespiritual teachings of a psychic sensitive, amedium, or a prophet. Since the latter part ofthe nineteenth century, in Europe, GreatBritain, Canada, and the United States, themen and women who are most often attractedto the modern mystery schools are those whohave grown dissatisfied with the teachings ofChristianity and what they consider to be itsrestrictive religious doctrines concerning theafterlife and rebirth. Each of the contempo-rary mystery schools examined in this sec-tion—Anthroposophy, the Association forResearch and Enlightenment, and Theoso-

phy—accept the concept of reincarnation andblend many of the beliefs of Christianity andJudaism with traditional teachings of Hin-duism and Buddhism.

In his classic work, The Varieties of ReligiousExperience, William James (1842–1910) hasthis to say regarding the oneness and unity ofthe mystical traditions: “This overcoming ofall the usual barriers between the individualand the Absolute is the great mystic achieve-ment. In mystic states we both become onewith the Absolute and we become aware ofour oneness. This is the everlasting and tri-umphant mystical tradition, hardly altered bydifferences of climate or creed. In Hinduism,in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in Christian mys-ticism…we find the same recurring note, sothat there is about mystical utterances an eter-nal unanimity…perpetually telling of theunity of man with God.”

Many scholars of the early Christianchurch believed strongly that the variouschurch councils had erred in removing rein-carnation from official doctrine. The Gnos-tics, who strongly influenced early Christiandoctrine, believed in reincarnation, and whenthe teachings of Origen (185 C.E.–254 C.E.),who championed preexistence, was anathe-matized in 553, they, along with other believ-ers in reincarnation, were condemned asheretics. In later centuries, those who heldGnostic views were forced to remain silentregarding their beliefs in reincarnation, sothey very often formed their own sects andschools of thought, such as the Cathars, theKnights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and theAlbigenses.

Because many serious-minded Christiansbelieve that there is evidence in the gospelsthat Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–30 C.E.) himself believedin reincarnation, they are comfortable with



CONTEMPORARY mystery schoolshave been built around teachings of a psychicsensitive, a medium, or a prophet.

Hindu and Buddhist concepts of past lives andkarma and see no conflict with their tradition-al belief in Christianity. Dr. Gladys McGareyis a member of the Association for Researchand Enlightenment, the contemporary mys-tery school based on the medical and past-lifereadings of Edgar Cayce (1877–1945). Thedaughter of Christian missionaries and a med-ical doctor who employs the concepts of pastlives in her practice, McGarey has expressedher belief that Jesus came to offer humankindthe law of grace to supersede the law of karma.

“I believe sincerely that when Jesus saidthat he came to fulfill the law and not destroyit, he was referring to the law of karma, thelaw of cause and effect, which is superseded bythe law of grace,” she said. “If we are function-ing under the law of karma, it is as if we arewalking away from the Sun and walking intoour own shadow—which means we are walk-ing into darkness. But if we turn around andwalk toward the Sun, then we are walkingtoward the Light, and that is great. To me, thelight of the Sun—whether you spell it son orsun is a symbol of moving in the law of grace.The law of grace does not take away thekarmic pattern, it just makes it so I don’t haveto hurt myself as I move through the karmathat I have created.”

In A Psychological and Poetic Approach tothe Study of Christ in the Fourth Gospel (1923),Eva Gore-Booth explains the role of Jesus theChrist from the perspective of a reincarna-tionist and states that he is the way-shower inGod’s Great Plan, the intercessor who offershumankind release from the cycle of rebirth,the “circle of wanderings.” In this view, Jesusbecame the anointed one who achievedChrist consciousness and thereby was allowedto offer eternal life to all people, a “deliver-ance from reincarnation, from the life anddeath circle of this earthly living.”

In the latter part of the nineteenth centu-ry, Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) and his wifefounded what eventually became known asUnity School of Christianity. Fillmore onceobserved that a large part of the Westernworld looked upon reincarnation as a heathendoctrine and that many people closed thedoors of their mind without waiting to find

out what message it may have for them, inter-preted in the Light of Truth. According toFillmore’s view, Christ released humanity fromthe bondage of karmic law, thereby allowingeach individual to make the most of eachincarnation.

Edgar Cayce (1877–1945), the famous“sleeping prophet” of Virginia Beach, was asolid Baptist and a Sunday school teacher, butwhile in a trance, he gave past-life readings tothousands of men and women. Cayce believedthat each soul enters the material plane not bychance, but through grace and the mercy of aloving Father-God. As to whether the soul isdeveloped or retarded during these variousincarnations is left to the free will of the indi-viduals as they live through the errors incum-bent in the life process or rise above them intheir journey toward Oneness.

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was the headof the German Theosophical Society until1912, when he broke away to form hisAnthroposophical Society. Steiner’s objec-tions with the Theosophists were mainly thatthey didn’t revere Jesus and Christianity asspecial. However, he had no problem incorpo-rating reincarnation and karma into hisbeliefs.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891),the founder of Theosophy in collaborationwith Henry Steele Olcott (1832–1907), hadno problem with Christianity, but she pre-ferred focusing on its esoteric traditions,which united it with all other religions. Shepopularized the study of reincarnation andpast lives in Europe and the United States andintroduced many occult and metaphysicalconcepts which flourished in the New AgeMovement of the 1970s.

The contemporary mystery schools acceptthe doctrine of reincarnation as completely asdid the ancient mystery religions. And just asthe ancient mysteries departed from the statereligions to form secret groups that requiredspecial initiations to ensure oneness with thegods, so have the contemporary mysteriesdeparted from the organized religions of theircultures to form groups that require specialmemberships to establish a mystical unionwith the Absolute.



Akashic Records

Some metaphysicians believe that theyhave the ability to perceive and to read theAkashic Records, eternal accountings of indi-vidual human life patterns which have beensomehow impressed on the celestial ether orastral light that fills all of space. These recordsare said to detail each lifetime and are perpet-uated like vast computer-like memory banksin the collective unconscious. Certain psychicsensitives claim to enter altered states of con-sciousness, such as trance or meditation, andthereby achieve the ability to read the pastlives of individuals who seek such knowledge.When these seers return to the mundaneworld, they may recount these memories insuch a way as to aid men and women to avoidcertain errors in their present life experiencewhich were committed in earlier lifetimes.

According to many readers of the AkashicRecords, they possess an accounting of thedivine laws of debt (karma) and duty (dhar-ma). It is as the Christian gospels declare; theysay, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall healso reap.” So do the psychic forces thatemanate from an individual also come full cir-cle and return to that person.

Most readers of the Akashic Records willpresent their clients with the events of certainpast lives that are affecting them today intheir present lives. It depends on the judg-ment of the Akashic readers to give whateverlives and whatever events they think may becausing the present problems and to offer sug-gestions on how to resolve them.

Paul Twitchell (d. 1971) the modern expo-nent of Eckankar, once explained that to readthe Akashic Records, he had to project himselfvia his soul body so that he might rise abovethe time track and study the lives of whomeverhad requested a reading. Twitchell said that itdidn’t make any difference where his subjectsmight be, Australia or the Arctic Circle:“Once I rise above the time track in my soulbody, I can read the lives of anyone. I mustlook at the lives of my clients, spread out like afan of hundreds of playing cards. And I mustlook at the millions of little file cards, whichare memories of past lives, in order to selectwhat I believe to be most important to my

clients and the problems that they are facingtoday. Next, it is up to me to make suggestionsabout how they might go about dissolving thekarmic debts that they have accumulated.”

M Delving Deeper

Gaynor, Frank, ed. Dictionary of Mysticism. New York:Philosophical Library, 1953.

Steiger, Brad. Returning from the Light. New York:Signet Inspiration, 1996.

Anthroposophy

When he was in his late 30s, Rudolf Steiner(1861–1925), the founder of Anthroposophy,received a revelation of what he believed wasthe turning point in human spiritual history,the incarnation of the divine being known asthe Christ. In the twentieth century, Steinersaid, humankind began to enter the “fullnessof time” when the Christ principle, cosmicconsciousness, might once again become man-ifest. Steiner defined “Christ consciousness” asa transformative energy that greatly tran-scended orthodox Christianity. In Steiner’sview, the Master Jesus became “christed” andthereby was able to present humankind with adramatic example of what it means to achievea complete activation of the spiritual seedwithin all human souls and to rise above allmaterial considerations.

Steiner was born in Krajevic, Austria-Hun-gary (now Serbia-Montenegro), on February27, 1861. Although he had experiencedencounters with the mystical and the unknownas a young child and was introduced to theoccult by an adept he would only refer to as the“Master,” Steiner’s early academic accomplish-ments were in the scientific fields. His fatherwanted him to become a railway engineer, sothat had led Steiner into a study of mathemat-ics, which seemed only to whet his appetite for



ACCORDING to readers of the AkashicRecords, they possess an accounting of the divinelaws of debt (karma) and duty (dharma).

the material sciences, leading him to pursuestudies in medicine, chemistry, and physics, aswell as agriculture, architecture, art, drama, lit-erature, and philosophy. Fascinated by theworks of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), Steiner began the extensive task of edit-ing Goethe’s scientific papers, and from 1889 to1896 worked on this project. It was also duringthis period that Steiner wrote his own highlyacclaimed The Philosophy of Freedom.

Steiner grew increasingly interested in theoccult and mystical doctrines, and he laterclaimed to be endowed with the ability to readthe Akashic Records, from which he had beenable to envision the true history of human evo-lution. According to his interpretation ofhumankind’s prehistory, many present-daymen and women were descended from the peo-ple of the lost continent of Atlantis, who hadbeen guided to achieve illumination by a high-er order of beings. Eventually, the smartest,

strongest, and most intellectually flexible ofthe Atlanteans evolved into demigods, semidi-vine beings, who were able to relay instruc-tions from higher intelligences. Consequently,within the contemporary mass of evolvinghumans are individuals who are descendants ofthose divine human-hybrid beings, men andwomen who are animated by higher ideals andwho regard themselves as children of a univer-sal power. Steiner perceived these individualsas members of the emerging “Sixth Post-Atlantean Race,” who, imbued with divineuniversal power, would be able to initiate themore advanced members of the larger mass ofhumankind. The catalyst for this accelerationof humanity, in Steiner’s vision, was the Christenergy, which the rest of the species mustbegin to imitate.

At the turn of the twentieth century,Steiner found that his lectures were well-received by those in the audience who weremembers of the Theosophical Society, so hebegan to make himself more familiar with theirphilosophy. In 1902, he became the generalsecretary of the German Section of the society,but he began to feel uncomfortable with whathe perceived to be their lack of enthusiasmabout the place of Jesus and Christ conscious-ness in the overall scheme of spiritual evolu-tion. Although he accepted most of theirteachings on reincarnation and highlyapproved of meditation, he came to believethat Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891)and other high-ranking Theosophists were dis-torting many of the Eastern doctrines that theyclaimed to espouse.

In 1913, Steiner made a formal break withthe Theosophical Society and set about form-ing his own group, which he declared wouldbe about the utilization of “human wisdom”(anthro ’ man; sophy ’ wisdom) to achievecontact with the spiritual world. The humanintellect, Steiner insisted, could be trained torise above material concerns and to perceive agreater spiritual reality. The human conscious-ness had the ability to activate the seed thatthe great Spirit Beings had implanted withintheir human offspring.

Steiner recognized that while the physicalseeds of male and female intermingled to pro-



The Symbol of the

Theosophical Society.

(FORTEAN PICTURE LIBRARY)

RUDOLF Steiner defined “Christconsciousness” as a transformative energy that

transcended orthodox Christianity.

duce the whole human being, there was alsosomething in each human that did not arisefrom the blending of two physical seeds. Some-thing ineffable and indescribable somehowflowed into the process of germination of theseed of the Spirit Beings within, somethingthat could be accessed by human conscious-ness and directed by the Christ principle.

Steiner emphasized that the path to suchcontact might best be attained by a properapplication of meditation. When human con-sciousness had been raised to the spirituallevel, where it can experience the eternal ele-ment that is limited by neither birth nordeath, then it can comprehend its own eter-nality and its ability to be born again in subse-quent life existences. Steiner taught that theprocess of spiritual evolution enabled thosewho died in one period of history to be rebornin other epochs to experience various levels ofEarth-existence.

In Lecture V, Earthly and Cosmic Man(1948) Steiner stated that in rejecting thedoctrine of reincarnation, Christian thoughthad lost something vital that the East hadalways possessed, and he urged that suchknowledge be reacquired. Western religionand culture is in the process of passingthrough a period during which individualswere “split up” into separate personalities,Steiner said, but now men and women of theWest “…stand on the threshold of a deepen-ing of thought and experience…they willthemselves be aware of a longing to find thethread uniting the fragments which maketheir appearance in the life of a human beingbetween birth and death.…”

In 1914, Steiner married Marie von Siev-ers, an actress, who had been secretary of theGerman Section of the Theosophical Society.Together they established a school for esotericresearch near Basel, Switzerland, and devel-oped new approaches to the teaching ofspeech and drama, which led to “eurythmy,”an art of movement. Later, Steiner originatedthe Waldorf School Movement, an innovativeeducational system, which still maintains 80schools in Europe and the United States.Rudolf Steiner died on March 30, 1925, inDornach, Switzerland.

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Melton, J. Gordon, Jerome Clark, and Aidan A. Kelly.New Age Almanac. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1991.

Shepherd, A. P. Rudolf Steiner: Scientist of the Invisible.Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions International,1983.

Steiner, Rudolf. Lecture V, Earthly and Cosmic Man.Rudolf Steiner Publishing, 1948.

Association for Research

and Enlightenment

When Edgar Cayce (1877–1945) died at theage of 67, he had given nearly 9,000 medicalreadings while in a state of clairvoyant trance.In addition, the “sleeping prophet” also gavelife readings dealing with the vocational, psy-chological, and human-relations problems ofindividuals. It was through these life readingsthat the concepts of reincarnation and thepossibility of past lives were introduced. Alltogether, more than 14,000 Cayce readingshave been recorded on 200,000 permanentfile cards and cross-referenced into 10,000major subjects.

In 1931, the Association for Research andEnlightenment (ARE) was chartered in thestate of Virginia as a nonprofit organization toconduct scientific and psychical research. In1947, two years after Cayce’s death, the EdgarCayce Foundation was established. The origi-nal ARE has become the membership arm ofthe Cayce programs. The foundation is the cus-todian of the original Cayce readings, and thememorabilia of the great contemporary seer’slife and career. Both are headquartered in Vir-ginia Beach, Virginia, and there are more than1,500 ARE study groups around the world.

Since the establishment of the ARE, thou-sands of people from every corner of the



IN 1931, the Association for Research andEnlightenment (ARE) was chartered in Virginia as anonprofit organization to conduct scientific andpsychical research.

nation, as well as from around the world, havejourneyed to Virginia Beach to attend lecturesand conferences and to investigate the infor-mation in the Cayce readings. Many of theskeptics who came to expose Cayce stayed onto support his work. Among these have beenJess Stearn, author of Edgar Cayce: the SleepingProphet (1967), and Thomas Sugrue, author ofThere Is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce(1942), both of which are important booksabout the life and work of Edgar Cayce.

Cayce’s son, Hugh Lynn Cayce (1907–1982), once commented that his father hadsaid that everyone was psychic, “but for manypeople manifestation of this ability can bevery disturbing, very upsetting, and in fact, itcan even destroy the personality if it runs ram-pant in the person’s life. This can be verydamaging if the individual does not use theseabilities constructively. If he takes ego tripswith it, or begins to fake it, the result can bevery destructive to the personality, particular-ly that of young children.”

With these concerns in mind, before hedied Edgar told Hugh Lynn that the Associa-tion for Research and Enlightenment had bet-ter make certain that they were doing theresearch before they did too much enlighten-ing. To fulfill Edgar’s wish, the ARE maintainsan extensive library of information concern-ing the entire field of psychical research andmetaphysics, as well as the Cayce materials. Italso sponsors regular seminars, publishes ajournal, and established Atlantic Universityas an environment in which various psychicattributes can be examined and developed.

Cayce believed that in an earlier incarna-tion, he had been wounded in battle and leftin the field for dead. However, he had man-aged to live for several days, conscious and inextreme pain. He was not able to help himselfin any way, having only his mind as a weaponagainst pain. Just prior to his physical death,he had been able to elevate his mind beyondthe reach of his body and its suffering. Sinceno achievement, good or bad, is ever lost, theability to subdue the body and its feelingsbecame part of the pattern of his individuali-ty—and he was able to use this ability in hisphysical incarnation as Edgar Cayce.

In a trance state, Cayce was able to givecomplete medical diagnoses, prescribe reme-dies, and review the past lives of his clients.Cayce learned that each existence on Earthis a purposeful experience, and the place inwhich people find themselves provides themwith the opportunities to use their present-life abilities, weaknesses, or virtues in fulfill-ing the purpose for which their souls decidedto manifest in the three-dimensional plane ofEarth. In Cayce’s opinion, no soul is placedhere accidentally. Humans are all where theyare today because they have “chosen” to bethere in an effort to work out their souldevelopment.

“My father’s unconscious mind was able totap the unconscious minds of other peopleand draw information from them,” Hugh LynnCayce said. “He insisted that there is a river ofthought forms and intelligence at anotherlevel of consciousness, and that this was thesource of his information. This procedureapparently had nothing to do with medi-



Edgar Cayce (1877–1945).


umship as we understand it. He had no guidesor anything like that. He had to do his ownlegwork, so to speak.”

Hugh Lynn Cayce died on July 4, 1982, inVirginia Beach. Posthumously, a collection ofhis speeches concerning Edgar Cayce’s teach-ings on Jesus and Christianity was publishedunder the title The Jesus I Knew (1982). HughLynn’s son Charles Thomas Cayce (1942– )became the president of the ARE in 1976after his father suffered a heart attack, and hestill serves the organization in that position.

Dr. Gina Cerminara, a trained psychologistwith a specialty in semantics, conducted anextensive study of the Edgar Cayce past-lifereadings while she was residing in VirginiaBeach. In Chapter XXIV, “A Philosophy to LiveBy,” in her book Many Mansions (1950), Cermi-nara presented the ethics of karma as delineatedin the Cayce readings. In outline form, the pat-tern that she discovered is as follows:

• God exists, and every soul is a portion ofGod. (You are a soul; you inhabit a body.)

• Life is purposeful and continuous.

• All human life operates under the law ofkarma and reincarnation.

• Love fulfills that law.

• The will of all humans creates their des-tiny.

• The mind of all humans has formativepowers.

• The answer to all problems is within theSelf.

In accordance with the above postulates,humankind is enjoined as follows:

• Realize first your relationship to the Cre-ative Forces of the Universe: God.

• Formulate your ideas and purpose in life.Strive to achieve those ideals.

• Be active. Be patient. Be joyous. Leave theresults to God.

• Do not seek to evade any problem.

• Be a channel of good to other people.

Dr. Gladys McGarey is a medical doctorwho employs various concepts from the EdgarCayce material in her practice at the Associa-tion for Research and Enlightenment Clinic

in Phoenix, Arizona. McGarey gave new lifeto the Temple Beautiful program as it wasdescribed in Cayce’s readings of the lost conti-nent of Atlantis. The daughter of Christianmissionaries, McGarey has said that her workwith the Cayce readings had not changed herbasic attitude toward life and death, religionand immortality. “It is still Christ-centeredwith a basic Christian foundation. The partthat has changed is the addition of reincarna-tion and the concept that comes from theCayce material that gives impact and realityto the importance of us as ongoing beings. Weare as rays of light and love that are involvedin this three-dimensional world.”

Rather than taking her away from thechurch, McGarey stated that the concepts ofreincarnation had actually given her a deeperunderstanding of Christian ritual and thebelief structures of the Christian faith. Shealso said that the concept of past lives hadhelped her to be a better physician, becausethey had enabled her to share responsibilitywith her patients, “rather than take responsi-bility from them.”

M Delving Deeper

Cayce, Hugh Lynn. Venture Inward. New York: Paper-back Library, 1966.

Cerminara, Gina. Many Mansions. New York:William Morrow, 1950.

Stearn, Jess. Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet. NewYork: Doubleday, 1967.

Steiger, Brad. Returning from the Light. New York:Signet Inspiration, 1996.

Sugrue, Thomas. There Is a River: The Story of EdgarCayce. New York: H. Holt and Co., 1942.

Theosophy

Theosophy (divine wisdom) is an eclecticblend of many earlier philosophies and cultteachings, all of which claim to have beenhanded down to contemporary seekers of spir-itual truth by disciples of ancient wisdom. TheTheosophical Society, cofounded by HelenaPetrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891) in NewYork in 1875, is an esoteric blend of Zoroastri-anism, Hinduism, Gnosticism, Manichaeism,the Kabbalah, and the philosophy of Plato (c.428 B.C.E.–c. 348 B.C.E.) and other mystics,combined with the teachings of mysterious



masters who dwell in secret places in theHimalayas and communicate with their initi-ates through their psychic abilities and theirprojected astral bodies. Whereas Edgar Cayce(1877–1945) and Rudolf Steiner(1861–1925) evolved their spiritual teachingsprimarily through their own revelations, inspi-rations, and psychic abilities, Blavatskyclaimed to be able to draw upon the ancientwisdom of the Masters Koot Hoomi andMorya to abet the considerable knowledgethat she had distilled from various mysteryschools, Hindu religious thought, Jewish mys-ticism, and Christian sects. Many of the con-cepts and the spiritual eclecticism professed byBlavatsky in the 1880s would be revised on alarge scale in the 1970s, in what has looselybeen called the New Age Movement. In addi-tion to such contributions as occult mastersand guides, Blavatsky introduced the legend ofthe lost continent of Lemuria, the return ofthe Maitreya (world savior), and was greatlyresponsible for popularizing the concepts ofreincarnation and past lives in Europe and theUnited States.

At the time of her death in 1891, Blavat-sky’s detractors considered her to have been ahoaxster, a fraud, and a deceiver, while her fol-lowers revered her as a genius, a veritable saint,and a woman of monumental courage who hadstruggled against an incredible array of adversi-ties and adversaries to fashion a modern mys-tery school without equal. Foe and followeralike conceded that she was a unique, some-times overpowering, personality who hadapparently traveled the world in search of spir-itual truths and who had survived physicalcrises and challenges that would certainly havediscouraged—or killed—a less indomitableindividual.

Born Helena Petrovna Hahn on July 30,1831, in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk)in the Ukraine, she began displaying mediu-mistic abilities as a young girl. Just before herseventeenth birthday, she married the mucholder General Nicephore Blavatsky, a Russianofficial in Caucasia. Three months later, sheleft her husband and her homeland to travelfreely and widely throughout the world,exploring the occult wisdom and teachings ofmany traditions.

In 1858, Blavatsky arrived in Paris, whereshe met the famous spirit medium DanielDunglas Home (1833–1886). By this time,she had herself acquired a modest reputationfor mediumship, and she began to practicethese talents more openly. In Cairo, Egypt, in1871, Blavatsky founded a spiritualist groupthat was forced to disband after accusations ofhaving produced fraudulent phenomena todeceive its patrons. In 1873, she settled inNew York City and resumed the practice ofher mediumship in association with the broth-ers William and Horatio Eddy, two well-known materialization mediums. Her partici-pation in numerous seances in New Englandbrought her to the attention of Henry SteelOlcott (1832–1907), a newspaperman fasci-nated with psychic phenomena, who estab-lished a group centered around her medi-umship.

In 1875, Blavatsky, Olcott, and WilliamQ. Judge (1851–1896), an attorney, made thedecision to move beyond the precepts of Spir-itualism and create a more sophisticatedapproach to spirit contact and mysticism,which they named the Theosophical Society.The threefold purpose of the society was

1. to form a universal brotherhood of man;

2. to study and make known the ancient reli-gions, philosophies, and sciences;

3. to investigate the laws of nature and devel-op the divine powers latent in humankind.

In 1877, Blavatsky published her world-view of the occult, Isis Unveiled. In this work,she argues that the reason metempsychosis(reincarnation) has been ridiculed by scien-tists and orthodox theologians in the West isbecause it has never been properly under-stood. While learned individuals accept the



THE Theosophical Society is an esoteric blend of Zoroastrianism, Hinduism,

Gnosticism, Manichaeism, the Kabbalah, and the philosophy of Plato.

indestructibility of energy, she reasons, howcan they believe that

“man, the living, thinking, reason-ing entity, the indwelling deity of ournature’s crowning masterpiece, willevacuate his casket and be no more!Would the principle of continuitywhich exists even for the so-calledinorganic matter, for a floating atom,be denied to the spirit, whose attribut-es are consciousness, memory, mind,love! Really, the very idea is preposter-ous.…If the Pythagorean metempsy-chosis should be thoroughly explainedand compared with the modern theoryof evolution it would be found to sup-ply every ‘missing link’ in the chain ofthe latter. There was not a philosopherof any notoriety who did not hold tothis doctrine, as taught by the Brah-mans, Buddhists, and later by thePythagoreans.”

In 1878, Blavatsky and Olcott moved toBombay, India, to be nearer the mahatmas andmasters, the members of the Great WhiteBrotherhood who appeared to her in theirastral bodies to relay metaphysical teachings.After a turbulent period in India, which sheleft under charges of fraud to settle in Londonin 1887, Blavatsky began work on her mag-num opus, The Secret Doctrine (1888), a mas-sive statement of her theosophical philosophy,including her views on reincarnation.

Only a constant series of rebirths of oneand the same individual, passing through the“Circle of Necessity,” can fully explain theage-old problems of good and evil and theapparent injustices of life, Blavatsky argues.Only a system wherein one is rewarded orpunished for the deeds or crimes committed ina former life can explain the inequalities of“birth and fortune, of intellect and capaci-ties.” When a person’s life is beset by injusticeand misfortune, only the “blessed knowledgeof Karma” can prevent one “from cursing lifeand men, as well as their supposed Creator.”Those individuals who believe in karma haveto believe in destiny, which, Blavatsky statesin The Secret Doctrine,“from birth to death,every man is weaving, thread by thread,

around himself, as a spider does his cob-web.…Karma creates nothing, nor does itdesign. It is man who plants and creates caus-es, and karmic law adjusts the effects, whichadjustment is not an act but universal harmo-ny.…Karma has never sought to destroy intel-lectual and individual liberty.…On the con-trary, he who unveils through study and medi-tation its intricate paths, and throws light onthose dark ways…is working for the good ofhis fellow men.…”

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Blavatsky, H. P. Collected Writings. 16 vols. Wheaton,Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1950–85.

Spence, Lewis. An Encyclopedia of Occultism. NewHyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1960.

Experiential Quests into

Past Lives

Some speculate that the phenomenon ofpast lives can answer troubling questionsin the present and explain deja vu, a feel-

ing that one has seen or heard somethingbefore. Many people report that they havewalked down a street in a strange city andbeen overwhelmed with the sudden familiari-ty of its shop windows, sidewalks, and storefronts. Others say that hidden memories havebeen stimulated by witnessing a dramaticreenactment of some scene from the past in amotion picture or television production.

Throughout the centuries, millions ofindividuals, especially those who live in Indiaand Asia, believe that they have lived before,and in recent years increasing numbers of menand women in the Western cultures havebegun to explore the possibility that reincar-nation is a spiritual reality.



IN recent years, men and women in Westerncultures have begun to explore the possibility thatreincarnation is a spiritual reality.

Accomplished Broadway lyricist Alan JayLerner (1918–1986) said that the first-actending of his musical Brigadoon (1946), whichfeatures an outdoor wedding ceremony in sev-enteenth-century Scotland, seemed at first tohave sprung spontaneously from his mind.Several years later, when Lerner was in Lon-don, he came into possession of a book enti-tled Everyday Life in Old Scotland and found“his” marriage ceremony word for word. Lern-er’s later musical success, On a Clear Day YouCan See Forever, openly declared his fascina-tion with the subject of reincarnation. Thestoryline tells of a Brooklyn model who is hyp-notically regressed to an earlier life in eigh-teenth-century England.

British psychiatrist Dr. Denys Kelseybelieved that his acceptance of the cycle ofrebirth enabled him to show his patients howthey might begin anew at any given moment.He was also convinced that it was occasional-ly possible for subjects to recall experiencesthat were felt centuries before their presentincarnation. Belief in the doctrine of rebirthmay have come somewhat easier to Kelseythan it might to the average psychiatristbecause he was married to Joan Grant, an

author who claimed to be 25,000 years old andto have soul memories of 30 prior-life experi-ences. Grant wrote seven popular historicalnovels without doing a bit of research, yetnone of the material in her books has everbeen successfully challenged by skepticalscholars. To the contrary, a good deal of thematerial in her books that was consideredcontroversial at the time of publication hassince been validated by archaeologists andhistorians. Every time, when queried how shecould have acquired such knowledge, sheattributed her accuracy to memories of herpast lives.

Winged Pharaoh, the novel that Joan Grantwrote in 1937, described her life as a womanpharaoh in the first dynasty of Egypt, 4,000years ago. On those frequent occasions whenshe was asked to comment on the book’salmost biblical style, she replied that thewords had just come out that way. She insistedthat she never did any research at all and thatshe had previously known nothing of Egypt onthe conscious level, yet Egyptologists hadbeen unable to fault the book. Grant statedthat even her critics had said that she couldn’tpossibly have made it all up, so she must haveexperienced it all to write in such detail.

Yonassan Gershom, a neo-Hasidic rabbiwho lives in Minnesota, tells in his bookBeyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation fromthe Holocaust (1992) of hearing the terriblememories of concentration camps, gas cham-bers, barbed wire, swastikas, and the sadistichenchmen of Nazi Germany not from elderlyJewish survivors of the Holocaust, but fromyoung people, many of them blonde, blue-eyed Gentiles of Nordic descent, who werebeing forced to deal with what appeared to bepast-life memories of having died as victims ofHitler’s “final solution” to the “Jewish prob-lem.” At the time he was writing his book,Gershom stated that out of the hundreds ofpeople who had told him their dreams,visions, regressions, or intuitions of havingdied as Jews in the Holocaust, two-thirds hadbeen reborn as non-Jews. Later samplings,however, indicated that many more Jews havealso experienced such past-life memories. Ger-shom’s later book, From Ashes to Healing(1996), focused on stories about the acts of



Olga Worrall (1906–1985)

doing spiritual healing.

(ARCHIVES OF

BRAD STEIGER)

physical or spiritual healing that have resultedfrom the act of recalling a Holocaust lifetime.

The aspect of physical and spiritual healingthat accompanies a past-life recall is one of theprincipal motives in regression into prior-lifeexperiences for therapeutic reasons. BenjaminSmith of Port Orchard, Washington, has beeninvolved in past-lives therapy for over 25years, and he stated that when he first begandoing regressions, he was concerned withestablishing dates, names, and locations associ-ated with the past-life personality of hisclients. “Then I discovered that they didn’treally care if they would be able to trace and toprove a particular lifetime. All they were inter-ested in was removing the personal problemthat they had come to me for help in solving. Iquit worrying whether reincarnation was realor not. The important thing to my clients waswhether or not they discovered the origins oftheir pains, their traumas, and their problems.If the solution came from their previous life-time or from their Higher Self, it really didn’tmake any difference to them.”

In Volume 9 of Collected Works (1981) Dr.Carl G. Jung (1875–1961) expressed his opin-ion that “the mere fact that people talk aboutrebirth and that there is such a concept at all,means that a store of psychic experiences desig-nated by that term must actually exist. Rebirthis an affirmation that must be counted amongthe primordial affirmations of mankind.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) saw thewhole matter of past lives and rebirth as a prac-tical cosmic recycling: “When I see nothingannihilated [in the works of God] and not adrop of water wasted, I cannot suspect the anni-hilation of souls, or believe that He will sufferthe daily waste of millions of minds ready-madethat now exist, and put Himself to the continu-al trouble of making new ones. Thus, findingmyself to exist in the world, I believe Ishall…always exist; and with all the inconve-niences human life is liable to, I shall not objectto a new edition of mine, hoping, however, thatthe errata of the last may be corrected.”

M Delving Deeper

Gershom, Yonassan. Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Rein-carnation from the Holocaust. Virginia Beach, Va.:A.R.E. Press, 1992.

Goldberg, Dr. Bruce. The Search for Grace. Sedona,Ariz.: In Print Publishing, 1994.

Guirdham, Arthur. We Are One Another. Wellingbor-ough, Northamptonshire, Great Britian: Turn-stone Press Ltd., 1982.

Jung, Carl Gustav, and Herbert Read, eds. Archtypesand the Collective Unconscious (Collected Works ofC. G. Jung, Vol. 9, Part 1). 2nd edition. Prince-ton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Lane, Barbara. Echoes from Medieval Halls. VirginiaBeach, Va.: A.R.E. Press, 1997.

Stearn, Jess. The Search for the Girl with the Blue Eyes.New York: Bantam Books, 1969.

Sutphen, Richard. You Were Born Together to BeTogether. New York: Pocket Books, 1976.

Hypnotic Regression into Past Lives

Richard Sutphen (1937– ) began his hypno-sis and past-lives regression work in 1972 andwas probably the first to develop a techniquewhereby a hypnotist might regress large num-bers of men and women to alleged former life-times at the same time and in the same room.Sutphen began fine-tuning his style in hisPhoenix, Arizona, home with a roomful ofpeople at a time. He continued perfecting histechnique in area colleges and high schoolsand at metaphysical gatherings in the South-west. In 1973, he founded and directed a hyp-nosis/metaphysical center in Scottsdale, Ari-zona. The convenience of working at an estab-lished center provided him with the structurethat he needed to experiment extensively withboth individual and group techniques and theopportunity to amass a large number of casehistories for comparison and contrast.

In 1976, Sutphen created and marketedthe first prerecorded hypnosis tapes throughhis Valley of the Sun publishing company. In1978, Pocket Books published Sutphen’s YouWere Born Again to Be Together, case historiesof men and women who had found themselvesand their loves once again after the separationof many lifetimes. The book became a nationalbest-seller, and soon thousands of people want-ed to be regressed by Sutphen and explore thepossibilities of their past lives. To meet thesudden demand for his hypnotic abilities, hebegan holding past-life seminars in major citiesthroughout the United States and hosting an



annual Super Seminar in Scottsdale. By the1990s, over 100,000 people had attended aSutphen seminar; his inventory had grown toinclude 380 audio and video titles; and he hadwritten 18 books, including Past Lives, FutureLoves (1978), The Master of Life Manual(1980), and Unseen Influences (1982).

“Past-life hypnotic regression can be usedas an extremely valuable therapeutic tool toexplore the cause of unconscious anxiety,repressed hostilities, hidden fears, hangups,and interpersonal relationship conflicts,” Sut-phen said. He cautioned, however, that past-life therapy is not a magic wand, and the past-life causes don’t always surface immediately.“But it does work,” he stated, “and it can befor many the first stop in letting go of a prob-lem. Psychiatrists often spend months or evenyears searching for the cause of their patient’sproblem. They are aware that in understand-ing the cause they can begin to mitigate and,eventually, eliminate the effect. Yet by limit-ing their search to the time frame of only onelifetime, they may never find the origin of thepresent-life problem.”

During one of his seminars, Sutphen spokewith a woman named Barbara who had drivenhundreds of miles to be in attendance becauseit was important to her to experience past-liferegression. She told Sutphen that she had sev-eral problems, some he could see plainly, oth-ers he couldn’t. He could see that Barbara wasobviously referring to her excessive weightwhen she spoke of some of her problems beingeasily visible. The attractive 29-year-oldwoman weighed 225 pounds.

As the seminar sessions progressed, Sut-phen observed Barbara during two groupregressions, trying to be comfortable in twochairs because her weight made lying down onthe floor with everyone else too difficult. Hecould see, though, that she was a good deep-level hypnotic subject, for she had practicallyfallen off the chairs almost immediately afterhe had begun the process. During an eveningsession, Sutphen asked Barbara to join 11other subjects on the platform for a demon-stration of individual regression work.

During the group hypnosis of the 12 vol-unteers, Sutphen instructed them to think

about something in their life that they wouldlike to change—any kind of problem, habit, orpersonal situation. As he counted backwardfrom three to one, they would move back intime to the cause of their present problem,whether it should be in their past, in their pre-sent life experience or in any of their previouslives. They would see clearly and relive thesituation before their inner eyes, therebyunderstanding the problem and be able torelease it.

That night a man cried out as he relived anancient battle. A young woman relived the fearof being lost in the woods as a small child. Amiddle-aged woman was recalling starving todeath in an African village. But when Sutphencame to Barbara, she cried out, screamed, andbegan to shake. Her voice became that of ayoung girl on the edge of panic. The hypnotistquickly redirected her from the alarming memo-ry to a state of peaceful sleep. Later, after all theother subjects had been awakened, Sutphenasked if Barbara wished to explore in greaterdetail the prior life on which she had touched soemotionally. She eagerly agreed, and Sutphenonce again induced the trance state.

In a few moments, Barbara was speaking inthe voice and persona of a 12-year-old Frenchgirl, describing her luxurious home and herperfect life in eighteenth-century France atthe time of the Revolution. When the hypno-tist moved her forward in time, she experi-enced the arrival of soldiers who had orders totake her family to prison. Numerous humilia-tions followed, and the young girl was eventu-ally killed by the revolutionaries.

After her death experience in that life-time, Sutphen directed a question to Barbara’sHigher Self: How had events from the past lifein France related to her present life problems?From the depths of her hypnotic sleep, Bar-bara cried out that pretty people got hurt. Shehad been very pretty in that life in France andthe soldiers had humiliated and killed her.“The only way to be safe is to remain ugly inthe world,” she said.”

After she was once again awakened fromthe trance state, Barbara provided additionalinformation about her weight problems. Sheexplained how she had attended the best and



most highly recommended weight-loss cen-ters, but she could never shed the pounds. Insome cases, she had begun to lose a little, thenshe would go on an eating binge and bring herweight right back to 225. One well-knownspecialist had told her that once she found outwhy she psychologically needed to retainweight, then she would be able to keep it off.

“You know you can do that now, don’t you,Barbara?” Sutphen asked. She answered with asmile that now she knew that she could.

Sutphen has never been dogmatic in hisdefinition of what reincarnation may be, buthe remains convinced that regardless of howthe question of rebirth is viewed philosophi-cally, it would appear that which is perceivedas the past is somehow affecting the present.And once one has pondered the significanceof one’s past lives, one learns how to transformthe present into a meaningful growth experi-ence and in this manner prepare for as signifi-cant a future as possible.

One of the best documented cases of rein-carnation in recent times had another incar-nation of its own when, on May 17, 1994,CBS presented a television movie “inspired byan actual case history,” Search for Grace, star-ring Lisa Hartman and Ken Wahl. As fiction-alized for mass viewing, the television drama isa thriller about an attractive young womannamed Ivy who becomes ensnared by an over-whelming attraction for a powerful, suspiciousstranger who turns physically abusive. WhenIvy seeks psychological therapy for this irra-tional compulsion and for related nightmares,she is hypnotically regressed and begins torelive the events leading to the brutal death ofa woman, Grace Lovel, which had taken placemore than 60 years before. In her wakingstate, Ivy has never heard of the woman, andshe has never been to the city in which hermurder occurred. Ivy’s confusion and terrorgrow as she learns that Grace Lovel actuallydid live and die exactly as she relived in thehypnotic trance. Even more frightening is theuncomfortable awareness that Ivy’s violentnew lover, John, bears an eerie resemblance toGrace’s murderous boyfriend, Jake.

All of the above makes for an excitingevening in front of the television set, but it

was based on an actual case researched anddocumented by renowned hypnotherapist Dr.Bruce Goldberg and reported in detail in hisbook The Search for Grace: A DocumentedCase of Murder and Reincarnation (1994).“Ivy’s past-life regression revealed an eternallove triangle, a terrifying karmic dance of pas-sion and murder, culminating in the shorttragic career of one Grace Doze, a headstrongflapper from Buffalo, New York, whose reck-less love life ended in murder,” Goldbergstates in his book. Exhaustive researchenabled Goldberg to discover that even thesmallest details of Grace’s life and death couldbe explicitly documented through contempo-rary newspapers and police reports.

In Goldberg’s actual transcript of theregression in which Ivy/Grace recalled thedetails of the murder that took place on Tues-day night, May 17, 1927, Grace had ditchedher “boring” husband Chester and gone shop-ping. Although her new bobbed hairstyle,short skirt, and red shoes might be everythingthat dull old Chester hates, Jake finds themmagnetically appealing. When he picks her upthat night, Jake has already had a few toomany drinks.

As Goldberg listened to Ivy/Grace alteringher voice to speak both parts, Jake’s foul tem-per is displayed, and the two of them get into aheated argument as they drive. Jake is angrythat she dresses so cheaply and is still flirtingwith other men, and he punches her on thejaw. Although she is in pain, Grace is stillconscious when Jake stops the car, threateningto teach her a lesson. He beats her badly,strangles her, and dumps her body in EllicottCreek.

Goldberg guided Ivy/Grace to the super-conscious mind level and asked her if sheknew Jake in her current lifetime. Sheanswered without hesitation that he was John.

As a therapist, Goldberg was not particu-larly interested in obtaining documentationfor his various patients’ claims to past lives,but a search of old files from Buffalo, NewYork, newspapers for May 19–21, 1927, pro-duced accounts of a “handsome bob-hairedwoman found floating in Ellicott Creek,” whohad been strangled to death “before she was



thrown in the water.” At first there was doubtthat the identity of “the beautiful youngwoman” would ever be determined. And then,on June 1, 1927, the Buffalo Courier reportedthe find of a “small black suitcase owned byMrs. Grace Doze and carried by her the nightshe was thrown into the Ellicott Creek.”When the police showed the suitcase to“Chester Doze,” husband of the murderedwoman, he identified the bag and contents asthe property of his wife.

Goldberg’s book contains an astonishing 54pages of documentation—death and birth cer-tificates, newspaper accounts, police reports,and so forth—that prove to any reasonable per-son that Grace Doze, the victim of a murder in1927, did most certainly exist. Exactly howIvy’s psyche gained that information remains amystery. “Could it have been the unquiet spiritof the murdered young woman, workingthrough her reincarnation as Ivy, that demand-ed at long last public resolution of the mysteryof her death?” Goldberg asks.

One more eerie “coincidence” regardingthe case must be mentioned. When Search forGrace was telecast on that Tuesday night inMay 1994, it was 67 years to the hour sinceGrace Doze was murdered.

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Gershom, Yonassan. Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Rein-carnation from the Holocaust. Virginia Beach, Va.:A.R.E. Press, 1992.

Goldberg, Bruce. The Search for Grace: A DocumentedCase of Murder and Reincarnation. Sedona, Ariz.:In Print Publishing, 1994.

Sutphen, Richard. Past Lives, Future Loves. New York:Pocket Books, 1978.

Sutphen, Richard. You Were Born Again to Be Togeth-er. New York: Pocket Books, 1976.

Bridey Murphy

To a great number of Americans, the nameBridey Murphy has become synonymous withreincarnation and accounts of past lives. Thestory of the Pueblo, Colorado, housewife whoremembered a prior incarnation as a nine-teenth-century Irish woman while under hyp-nosis made a dramatic impact upon the publicimagination. Newspapers, magazines, and

scholarly journals debated the validity of the“memory,” and the controversy surroundingthis alleged case of reincarnation has notresolved itself to this day.

William J. Barker of the Denver Post pub-lished the first account of this now-famouscase in that newspaper’s Empire magazine.Barker told how Morey Bernstein, a youngPueblo business executive, first noticed whatan excellent subject “Mrs. S.” was for deeptrance when he was asked to demonstratehypnosis at a party in October of 1952. It wassome weeks later, on the evening of Novem-ber 29, that Bernstein gained the woman’sconsent to participate in an experiment inage-regression.

The amateur hypnotist had heard stories ofresearchers having led their subjects back intopast lives, but he had always scoffed at suchaccounts. He had been particularly skepticalabout the testimony of the British psychiatristSir Alexander Cannon, who reported that hehad investigated over a thousand cases where-in hypnotized individuals had recalled pastincarnations.

Mrs. S., who later became identified asRuth Simmons (and many years later by heractual name, Virginia Tighe), was not particu-larly interested in hypnotism, either, nor inbecoming a guinea pig for Bernstein’s attemptto test the theses of those psychicalresearchers who had claimed the revelation ofpast lives. She was, at that time, 28 years old,a housewife who enjoyed playing bridge andattending ball games with her husband.

With Rex Simmons and Hazel Bernsteinas witnesses, the hypnotist placed Simmons ina trance and began to lead her back throughsignificant periods of her childhood. Then hetold her that she would go back until shefound herself in another place and time andthat she would be able to talk to him and tellhim what she saw. She began to breathe heav-ily and her first words from an alleged previousmemory were more puzzling than dramatic.She said that she was scratching the paint offher bed because she was angry over havingjust received an awful spanking. She identifiedherself by a name that Bernstein first heard as“Friday,” then clarified as “Bridey,” and the





Under hypnotism,

Virginia Tighe claimed to

be the incarnation of an

Irish woman named

Bridey Murphy. (CORBIS

CORPORATION)

strange search for evidence of a former incar-nation had begun.

Bridey—short for Bridget—Murphy beganto use words and expressions that were com-pletely out of character for Ruth Simmons.Bridey told of playing hide’n’seek with herbrother Duncan, who had reddish hair likehers (Simmons was a brunette). She spoke ofattending Mrs. Strayne’s school in Cork whereshe spent her time “studying to be a lady.”With sensitivity she recreated her marriage toBrian MacCarthy, a young lawyer, who tookher to live in Belfast in a cottage back of hisgrandmother’s house, not far from St. There-sa’s Church.

In her melodic Irish brogue, Bridey told ofa life without children, a life laced with anedge of conflict because she was Protestantwhile Brian was Catholic; then in a tired andquerulous voice, she told how she had fallendown a flight of stairs in 1864 when she was66. After the fall, she was left crippled andhad to be carried about wherever she went.

Then one Sunday while her husband wasat church, Bridey died. Her death upset Brianterribly, she said. Her spirit lingered besidehim, trying to establish communication withhim, trying to let him know that he shouldnot grieve for her. Bridey told the astonishedhypnotist and the witnesses that her spirit hadwaited around Belfast until Father John, apriest friend of her husband’s, had passed away.She wanted to point out to him that he hadbeen wrong about purgatory, she said, andadded that he admitted it.

The spirit world, Bridey said, was one inwhich “you couldn’t talk to anybody verylong…they’d go away.” In the spirit realm, onedid not sleep, never ate, and never becametired. Bridey thought that her spirit had

resided there for about 40 Earth years beforeshe was born as Ruth Simmons. (Ruth/Vir-ginia had been born in 1923, so Bridey’s spirithad spent nearly 60 years in that timelessdimension.)

At a second session, Bridey again stressedthat the afterlife was painless, with nothing tofear. There was neither love nor hate, and rel-atives did not stay together in clannish groups.Her father, she recalled, said he saw her moth-er, but she hadn’t. The spirit world was simplya place where the soul waited to pass on to“another form of existence.”

Details of Bridey Murphy’s physical life inIreland began to amass on Morey Bernstein’stape recorders. Business associates who heardthe tapes encouraged Bernstein to continuehis experiments, but to allow someone else, adisinterested third party, to check Bridey’sstatements in old Irish records or whereversuch evidence might be found. Ruth Simmonswas not eager to continue, but the high regardthat she and her husband had for Bernsteinled her to consent to additional sessions.

Utilizing her present-life incarnation asRuth Simmons, Bridey Murphy demonstrateda graceful and lively rendition of an Irish folkdance which she called the “Morning Jig.”Her favorite songs were “Sean,” “The Min-strel’s March,” and “Londonderry Air.” RuthSimmons had no interest in musical activities.

William Barker of the Denver Post askedBernstein if the case for Bridey Murphy couldbe explained by genetic memory which hadbeen transferred through Simmons’s ancestors,for she was one-third Irish. Bernstein concededthat such a theory might make the story moreacceptable to the general public, but he feltthe hypothesis fell apart when it is remem-bered that Bridey had no children. He alsopointed out that other researchers who haveregressed subjects back into alleged previous-life memories have found that blood line andheredity have nothing to do with former incar-nations. Many have spoken of the afterlife as akind of “stockpile of souls.” When a particulartype of spirit is required to inhabit and animatea body that is about to be born, that certainspirit is selected and introduced into that body.Bernstein observed that a person who boasts of



TO a number of Americans, “Bridey Murphy”has become synonymous with reincarnation and

accounts of past lives.

having noble French ancestry might have beena slave or a concubine on his or her prior visitto the physical plane of existence.

In Bernstein’s opinion, one could takeonly one of two points of view in regard to thestrange case of Bridey Murphy. One mightconclude that the whole thing had been ahoax without a motive. This conclusionwould hold that Ruth Simmons was not the“normal young gal” she appeared to be, butactually a frustrated actress who proved to be aconsummate performer in her interpretationof a script dreamed up by Bernstein because he“likes to fool people.” Or if one did not acceptthat particular hypothesis, Bernstein said,then the public must admit that the experi-ment may have opened a hidden door thatprovided a glimpse of immortality.

Doubleday published Morey Bernstein’sThe Search for Bridey Murphy in 1956. Skepticsand serious investigators alike were interestedin testing the validity of Bernstein’s experi-ments and in determining whether or not theymight demonstrate the reality of past lives.

In mid-January of 1956, the Chicago DailyNews sent its London representative on a three-day quest to check out Cork, Dublin, andBelfast and attempt to uncover any evidencethat might serve as verification for the BrideyMurphy claims. With only one day for each city,it is not surprising that the newsman reportedthat he could find nothing of significance.

In February, the Denver Post sent WilliamBarker, the journalist who first reported thestory of the search for Bridey Murphy, to con-duct a thorough investigation of the mystery.Barker felt that certain strong supportivepoints had already been established by Irishinvestigators and had been detailed in Bern-stein’s book. Bridey (Irish spelling of the nameis Bridie) had said that her father-in-law, JohnMacCarthy, had been a barrister (lawyer) inCork. The records revealed that a John Mac-Carthy from Cork, a Roman Catholic educat-ed at Clongowes School, was listed in theRegistry of Kings Inn. Bridey had mentioned a“green-grocer,” John Carrigan, with whom shehad traded in Belfast. A Belfast librarianattested to the fact that there had been a manof that name and trade at 90 Northumberland

during the time in which Bridey claimed tohave lived there. The librarian also verifiedBridey’s statement that there had been aWilliam Farr who had sold foodstuffs duringthis same period. One of the most significantbits of information had to do with a place thatBridey called Mourne. Such a place was notshown on any modern maps of Ireland, but itsexistence was substantiated through theBritish Information Service.

While under hypnosis, Ruth Simmons had“remembered” that Catholics could teach atQueen’s University, Belfast, even though itwas a Protestant institution. American inves-tigators made a hasty prejudgment when theychallenged the likelihood of such an interde-nominational teaching arrangement. In Ire-land, however, such a fact was commonknowledge, and Bridey scored another hit.Then there were such details as Bridey know-ing about the old Irish custom of dancing atweddings and putting money in the bride’spockets. There was also her familiarity withthe currency of that period, the types of cropsgrown in the region, the contemporary musi-cal pieces, and the folklore of the area.

When Barker dined with Kenneth Besson,a hotel owner who was interested in thesearch, the newsman questioned Bridey’s ref-erences to certain food being prepared in“flats,” an unfamiliar term to Americans.Besson waved a waiter to their table and askedhim to bring some flats. When the waiterreturned, Barker saw that the mysterious flatswere but serving platters.

Some scholars believed that they hadcaught Bridey in a gross error when she men-tioned the custom of kissing the Blarney Stone.Such a superstition was a late nineteenth-cen-tury notion, stated Dermot Foley, the Cork citylibrarian. Later, however, Foley made an apolo-gy to Bridey when he discovered that T.Crofton Cronker, in his Researches in the Southof Ireland (1824), mentions the custom of kiss-ing the Blarney Stone as early as 1820.

Bridey was correct about other mattersthat at first were thought to be wrong byscholars and authorities. For example, certainauthorities discredited her statement aboutthe iron bed she had scratched with her fin-



gernails after the “awful spanking” on thegrounds that iron beds had not yet been intro-duced into Ireland during the period in whichBridey claimed to have lived. The Encyclope-dia Britannica, however, states that iron bedsdid appear in Bridey’s era in Ireland and wereadvertised as being “free from the insectswhich sometimes infect wooden bedsteads.”Bridey’s claims to have eaten muffins as achild and to have obtained books from a lend-ing library in Belfast were at first judged to beout of proper time context. Later, her chal-lengers actually uncovered historical substan-tiation for such statements.

Throughout the regressions conducted byMorey Bernstein, one of the most convincingaspects of the experiments had been thevocabulary expressed by the hypnotized sub-ject. The personality of Bridey Murphy neverfaltered in her almost poetic speech, and ofthe hundreds of words of jargon and colloquialphrases she uttered, nearly all were found tobe appropriate for the time in which sheclaimed to have lived. The songs that Brideysang, her graphic word pictures of wake andmarriage customs, were all acclaimed by Irishfolklorists as being accurate. Her grim refer-ence to the “black something” that took thelife of her baby brother probably referred tofamine or disease. The Irish use of “black” inthis context means “malignant” or “evil” andwould have nothing to do with the actualcolor of the pestilence.

Bridey Murphy did not always score hits,though. Numerous Irish historians and schol-ars felt that she must have been more Scottishthan Irish, especially when she gave the nameDuncan for her father and brother. Certainexperts sympathetically suggested that shemay have been attempting to say Dunnock,rather than Duncan.

William Barker could find no completebirth data for either Bridey or her kin, and helearned that she had shocked most Irishresearchers with her crude term “ditched” todescribe her burial. The Colorado journalist wasinformed that the Irish are much too reverentabout the dead to employ such a brutal word.

Bridey demonstrated little knowledge ofIreland’s history from 1800 to 1860. Bridey and

Brian’s honeymoon route was hopelesslyuntraceable and appeared to be confused withthe trip that she had made to Antrim as a childof 10. The principal difficulty in accepting thewhole of Bridey’s story lay in the fact that somuch of the testimony was unverifiable.

While most psychical researchers agreethat the Bridey Murphy case is not a con-sciously contrived fraud, they will not rule outthe role that some psychic or extrasensoryability may have played in the “memory” ofthe Irish woman allegedly reborn in a Col-orado housewife. Other investigators havesuggested that Mrs. S., Virginia Tighe, couldhave had several acquaintances throughouther life who were familiar with Ireland andwho may each have imparted a bit of thememory of Bridey Murphy as it was minedfrom her subconscious by the hypnotic tranceinduced by Morey Bernstein.

As other researchers explored the claims ofThe Search for Bridey Murphy, the phenome-non of cryptomensia was also applied to thecase when reporters for the Chicago Americandiscovered that a woman named Bridie Mur-phey Corkell had lived across the street whereVirginia Tighe had grown up. To say that cryp-tomensia was responsible for Tighe’s allegedmemories of a nineteenth-century Irish-woman is to propose that she had forgottenboth the source of her “memory” and the factthat she had ever obtained it. Then, underhypnosis, such memories could be recalled sodramatically that they could be presented as apast-life memory.

The attempts to discredit Bridey Murphyas a manifestation of cryptomensia fail in theestimation of researchers C. J. Ducasse and Dr.Ian Stevenson (1918– ). In Stevenson’s esti-mation, the critics of the Bridey Murphy caseprovided only suppositions of possible sourcesof information, not evidence that these hadbeen the sources.

The controversy over Bridey Murphy andthe value of past-life regressions still rages.Those who champion the case state that it can-not be denied that Bridey/Virginia possessed aknowledge of nineteenth-century Ireland thatcontained a number of details that were unfa-miliar even to historians and authorities. Such



details, when checked for accuracy after elabo-rate research, were found to be correct inBridey’s favor. Others insist that such datacould have been acquired paranormally,through extrasensory means, and therefore doesnot prove reincarnation. Skeptics dismiss theevidence of Bridey Murphy’s alleged past-lifememories by stating that they originated in herchildhood, rather than in a prior incarnation.

On July 12, 1995, Virginia Tighe Morrowdied in her suburban Denver home. She hadnever again submitted to hypnosis by anyresearcher seeking to test her story. Althoughshe never became a true believer in reincarna-tion, she always stood by the entranced recol-lections as recorded in The Search for BrideyMurphy.

M Delving Deeper

Bernstein, Morey. The Search for Bridey Murphy. NewYork: Doubleday and Co., 1956.

Steiger, Brad. You Will Live Again. Nevada City,Calif.: Blue Dolphin Publishing, 1996.

Past-Life Therapy

In past-life therapy, subjects arrive at theoffice of a past-life therapist with a phobia, anobsession, or a compulsion that seems unrelat-ed to anything they can remember in theirpresent life experience. Their problem hasincreasingly begun to become awkward, stress-ful, or embarrassing. When they relive a pastlife during a hypnotic regression or in a dreamor a vision, they view a scenario in which theysee themselves setting in motion that karma,the initial action or deed that created theirphobia, obsession, or compulsion. Dissociatedfrom their present life experience, theybecome capable of accepting responsibility fora past action that was performed in a priorexistence. Once the subjects have made thetransfer of responsibility to the present lifeand have recognized that the “fault” or thetrauma lies in a time far removed from currentconcerns, they are able to deal with the matterwith a new perspective and without embar-rassment or shame.

Today, a great number of past-life thera-pists have learned that it really doesn’t matterwhether past-life recall is pure fantasy or theactual memory of a prior existence. What does

matter to the therapists is their claim thatthousands of men and women have obtained adefinite and profound release from a presentpain or phobia by reliving the origin of theirproblems in some real or imagined formerexistence.

While skeptics may scoff at men andwomen who claim to recall past lives whileunder hypnosis, and even question their men-tal balance, psychiatrist Reima Kampman ofthe University of Oulu in Finland has saidthat her research demonstrates that peoplewho are able to display multiple personalitiesor alleged past lives under hypnosis are actual-ly healthier than those who cannot. Accord-ing to Kampman, one of her subjects, a 28-year-old woman, revealed eight different per-sonalities in progressive chronological order,ranging from a young woman who lived inRussia during the Bolshevik Revolution to aneighteenth-century titled English lady to a girlnamed Bessina who said that she lived inBabylonia. Contrary to what the establishedpsychiatric literature would lead one tobelieve, Kampman stated, these were nottroubled minds on the verge of fragmentation.

Compared with those who could not riseto the hypnotist’s challenge, the multiple-per-sonality group had greater stress tolerance,more adaptability, and far less guilt. Internalidentity diffusion—a neurotic quality definedas the discrepancy between what one feelsabout oneself and how one feels that others



Dr. Brian Weiss with his

book on reincarnation.

One of his patients in his

book claims to have 86

past lives. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

perceive one—was also greater in the nonre-sponsive group.

Kampman suggests that in the ego-threat-ening situation induced by the hypnotist’srequest for other personalities, only the men-tally healthy can afford to respond creatively:“Creating multiple personalities is evidence ofa highly specialized ability of the personalityto extricate itself adaptively by a deep regres-sion of the conflict situation created by thehypnotist” (Human Behavior, May 1977).

Bettye B. Binder, former president of theAssociation for Past-Life Research and Thera-pies, has conducted over 3,600 individualpast-life regressions and has taught nearly20,000 students in workshops and classes since1980. The author of six books on past lives,her Past Life Regression Guidebook (1992) hasbecome a popular textbook in the field. Whenasked to provide a case history demonstratingthe benefits of past-life regression, she oftenmakes reference to the case of “Darrell,”whose story was featured on the televisionprograms Sightings and 20/20.

A native of Toronto who has lived inSouthern California for many years, Darrellcame to Bettye Binder with a terror of drown-ing in the middle of the ocean. He was notfrightened of seashores, swimming pools, orother bodies of water, but he would not ven-ture far into the ocean because of a morbidfear of drowning there. In three separateregressions with Binder, Darrell discoveredthat he drowned in the middle of the ocean inthree previous lifetimes. In one, he was ablack slave in the South, about 1840, whotried to escape in a small boat that sank due toan explosion on board. In 1940, before theUnited States entered World War II, he was ayoung man from Pennsylvania who joined theCanadian Air Force and was shot down overthe Pacific Ocean. His death on the Titanic,however, was the most important experiencerelated to his phobia.

In regression, Darrell experienced being acrew member on the Titanic, which sank afterstriking an iceberg in the middle of theAtlantic Ocean in April 1912. He was asleepin his bunk when the crisis began. He wasawakened and told to go to the boiler room

where he worked. It was flooded, so he wentto the next available boiler room that was stillfree of seawater. He and his workmates didtheir best to get the ship moving, but it soonbecame evident that the huge ship was sink-ing. Darrell’s last memory in that lifetime wasbeing tangled up in ropes as the ship began tolurch and dive into the depths of the sea.

Binder has had Darrell undergo this partic-ular regression on many different occasions,both as a demonstration before students andfor television. Each time, she has observed,Darrell receives more resolution from suchexplorations of his past life as a victim of theTitanic disaster. In June 1992, when sheregressed him for a television crew, Darrell sawhis angels leading him away from the bodythat was entangled in heavy ropes and beingpulled down into the ocean. He felt peace andlight come over him as he rose toward theheavens, and he also experienced great com-passion for the man that he had been.

What is most significant about Darrell’scase, Binder pointed out, is how the experi-ence of past-life regression has turned his lifearound. When he had first come to her, shesaid, he was a timid, withdrawn, fearful youngman, whose life and career were goingnowhere. He had dreams of becoming an ani-mator for a major movie or television studio,but those aspirations were not being realized.After a series of regressions in 1992, Darrell’scareer began to move in an exciting newdirection. He began to exhibit a sense of peaceand happiness that he had never beforeknown. He became poised and self-assured.He was hired as an animator on a major fea-ture film, and at Christmas in 1994, he washired to direct an animated feature film, ahuge career breakthrough.

According to Binder, “Darrell has learnedlessons that he was unable to learn in his pre-vious past lives in which he drowned, and heis no longer phobic about the ocean. Today,Darrell is a man who smiles easily and who isdoing what he loves most in life. He hasgained a spiritual peace for the first time inseveral lifetimes.”

In her view of past-life exploration, Binderbelieves that the key to making reincarnation



acceptable in the Western world lies in theculture learning to acknowledge individuals’true identities as souls that exist in a multidi-mensional universe where time is not limitedto a linear construction. Through the alteredstates of consciousness available in meditationor hypnosis, one can experience what “multi-dimensionality” and “simultaneous time” feellike even if one does not yet understand whatthe words mean.

A teacher of reincarnation since 1980,Binder frequently emphasizes in her classesthat individuals don’t have souls, they are souls.“All of us are souls who chose to becomehuman beings, but our human identity is limit-ed to being in this body,” she said. “The soul ispure energy, and energy cannot be destroyed.The soul’s existence is independent of thebody it occupies. It is the soul that continuesto exist after the human body dies, and it is thesoul that reincarnates lifetime after lifetime.”

Dr. Russell C. Davis was editor of The Jour-nal of Regression Therapy and practiced past-lifetherapy for 40 years before his death in 1998.According to Davis, the concept of an eternalpart of oneself that moves from lifetime to life-time is fundamental to conducting past-liferegressions. Whether one chooses to call this“eternal part” the soul or the Higher Self, it is“the very core of the person that is accessedduring the experience and in which is storedthat collective awareness of what is and whatwas. Over the years, I have come to call this‘the part of us that knows and understands,’ andit is this element of the person that I addressduring the regression experience. In essence, inconducting a past-life regression, this ‘part [ofthe subject] which knows and understands,’ the‘Higher Self,’ is asked to reveal to the client’sconscious awareness information and under-standing about a past life (or lives) and what itsmeaning is to the present.”

M Delving Deeper

Binder, Bettye B. Discovering Your Past Lives and OtherDimensions. Culver City, Calif.: ReincarnationBooks & Tapes, 1994.

Binder, Bettye B. Past Live Regressions Guidebook. Tor-rance, Calif.: Reincarnation Books, 1992.

Moody, Raymond A., Jr. Life After Life. New York:Bantam Books, 1985.

Sutphen, Richard. Past Lives, Future Loves. New York:Pocket Books, 1978.

Wambaugh, Helen. Reliving Past Lives: The EvidenceUnder Hypnosis. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.

Weiss, Brian. Many Lives, Many Masters. New York:Simon & Schuster, 1988.

Whitton, Joel, and Joe Fisher. The Case for Reincarna-tion. New York: Bantam Books, 1984.

Ian Stevenson (1918– )

Dr. Ian Stevenson is the former head of theDepartment of Psychiatry at the University ofVirginia, and now is director of that school’sDivision of Personality. In the more than 40years that he has devoted to the documenta-tion of past-life memories, Stevenson hasdone a great deal to put a serious study of rein-carnation on a scientific basis. His classicwork,Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation,which was published by the American Societyfor Psychical Research in 1966, is an exhaus-tive exercise in research in which Stevensondons the mantle of historian, lawyer, and psy-chiatrist to gather evidence from as many per-cipients as possible.

Stevenson has now collected over 3,000cases of past-life memories of children from allover the world, and in 1997 published Reincar-nation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiolo-gy of Birthmarks and Birth Defects. In the firstvolume of this massive work, he primarilydescribes the various kinds of birthmarks,those uniquely distinguishing marks on a new-born’s skin cannot be explained only by inher-itance. The second volume focuses on defor-mities and other anomalous markings withwhich certain children are born and cannotbe traced back to inheritance, prenatal, orperinatal (formed during birth) occurrences.

Although Stevenson concedes thatnobody has “as yet thought up a way that rein-carnation could be proved in a laboratory testtube,” he argues that even in the laboratorythe scientist cannot escape from human testi-mony of one kind or another. In his essay“The Evidence for Survival from ClaimedMemories of Former Incarnations,” whichwon the American Society for PsychicalResearch’s 1960 contest in honor of WilliamJames (1842–1910), Stevenson discussed a



number of hypotheses that he feels deserveconsideration in attempting to comprehenddata from cases suggestive of reincarnation.Among these hypotheses are the following:

Unconscious Fraud. In some cases, otherindividuals have attributed statements to thesubjects alleging past lives that they nevermade, and in this way have permitted the ini-tial claim to grow out of proportion. Steven-son terms this a kind of “collective hallucina-tion” in which further statements are imagina-tively attributed to the subjects.

Derivation of the “Memories” through Nor-mal Means with Subsequent Forgetting of theSource. Stevenson holds this hypothesis to bemost often responsible for the many cases ofpseudo-reincarnation. He quotes from thework of E. S. Zolik, who studied the ability ofstudents to create fictitious former lives whileunder hypnosis. These fantasy personalitieswere the products of bits and pieces of charac-ters in novels, motion pictures, and remem-bered childhood acquaintances. Because ofthe remarkable ability of the human mind toacquire paranormal information and to createfantasy personalities all its own, Stevensoncites another difficulty in serious research intocases suggestive of reincarnation: “We need toremember that items normally acquired canbecome mingled with those paranormallyderived in the productions of persons appar-ently remembering past lives.”

Racial Memory. Stevenson, a medical doc-tor as well as a psychiatrist, is well aware thatscience has not yet discovered the parametersof genetic transmission. He feels, however,that such a theory applied to the alleged mem-ories of previous lives will encounter seriousobstacles. While he concedes that the hypoth-esis of “remembering” our ancestors’ livesmight apply in those instances where it can beshown that the subject having the past-lifememories belongs to a genetic line descendingfrom the personality whom he or she claims tobe, in most cases, Stevenson believes that theseparation of time and place makes “…impos-sible any transmission of information from thefirst to the second person along genetic lines.”

Extrasensory Perception of the Items of theApparent Recollections in the Minds of Living

Persons. Stevenson finds it difficult to acceptthe theory that an individual gifted with para-normal talents should limit the exercise ofsuch abilities only to communication with thespecific living persons who might have rele-vant bits of information about the deceasedpersonalities from whom the subjects claim toderive their memories.

Retrocognition. Stevenson is receptive tothe notion that the psychic ability known asretrocognition could be responsible for somecases suggestive of reincarnation. The subjectsin such cases could be stimulated by being atthe scene of historical events, by some objectconnected with the events themselves or per-sons who participated in them, or in analtered state of consciousness, such as staringat a crystal ball or being in a trance.

Possession. The doctor recognizes the plausi-bility of temporary possession as an explanationfor some apparent memories of former incarna-tions. But he makes a very important distinc-tion: In cases of possession, the entity that hasaccomplished the transformation of personalityusually does so solely for the purpose of commu-nication with its loved ones on the physicalplane, and it never claims to be a former incar-nation of the subject who has temporarily pro-vided a physical body. In true cases suggestive ofreincarnation, there is no other personalityclaiming to occupy the body of the subject andthe entity speaks of a former life, not of commu-nication with surviving loved ones.

M Delving Deeper

Stevenson, Ian. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarna-tion. 2d ed. Charlottesville: University Press ofVirginia, 1974.

Making the Connection

anthroposophy A spiritual or religious philos-ophy that Rudolph Steiner (1861–1925),an Austrian philosopher and scientist,developed, with the core belief centeringaround the human accessibility of the spiri-tual world to properly developed humanintellect. Steiner founded the Anthropo-sophical Society in 1912 to promote hisideas that spiritual development should behumanity’s foremost concern.



clairvoyance The ability to see, visualize, orsense things beyond the normal range ofhuman vision or senses.

cosmology The philosophical study andexplanation of the nature of the universeor the scientific study of the origin andstructure of the universe.

cryptomensia A state of consciousness inwhich the true source or origin of a partic-ular memory is forgotten or is attributed toa wrongful source or origin.

ephemerality Refers to the state of somethingliving or lasting for a markedly short or brieftime. The nature of existing or lasting foronly a day, such as certain plants or insects.

hieroglyphs A system of writing which usessymbols or pictures to denote an object,concept, sound, or sequence of sounds.The word comes from an ancient Greekterm meaning “sacred carving,” to describethe characters carved on Egyptian tombs.

incantations Ritual chanting or recitation ofverbal charms or spells to produce a sup-posed magic effect.

Kabbalah (Cabala, Cabbala, Kabala, or Kab-bala) A body of mystical Jewish teachingsbased on an interpretation of hidden mean-ings contained in the Hebrew scriptures.Kabbalah is Hebrew for “that which isreceived,” and also refers to a secret oral tra-dition handed down from teacher to pupil.The term Kabbalah is generally used now toapply to all Jewish mystical practice.

karmic law Karma is the Sanskrit word for“deed.” In the Eastern religions of Bud-dhism and Hinduism all deeds of a personin this life dictate an equal punishment orreward to be met in the next life or seriesof lives. In this philosophy, it is a naturalmoral law rather than a divine judgmentwhich provides the process of develop-ment, enabling the soul into higher orlower states, according to the laws of causeand effect to be met.

manitou A supernatural force, or spirit thatsuffuses various living things, as well asinanimate objects, according to the Algo-nquian peoples. In the mythology of the

Ojibwa of the eastern United States, Man-itou is the name of the supreme deity, orGod, and means “Great Spirit.”

precognition The direct knowledge of theability to foresee what is going to happenin the future, especially if this perceptionis gained through other than the normalhuman senses or extrasensory.

retrocognition The mental process or facultyof knowing, seeing, or perceiving things,events, or occurrences of things in thepast, especially through other than thenormal human senses as in extrasensory.

Sanskrit Sanskrit is an ancient Indo-Euro-pean language and the language of tradi-tional Hinduism in India. Spoken betweenthe fourteenth and fifth centuries B.C.E., ithas been considered and maintained as apriestly and literary language of the sacredVeda scriptures and other classical texts.

shaman A religious or spiritual leader, usuallypossessing special powers, such as that ofprophecy, and healing, and acts as anintermediary between the physical andspiritual realms.

shofar A trumpet made of a ram’s horn, blownby the ancient and modern Hebrews duringreligious ceremonies and as a signal inbattle.

soul The animating and vital principal inhuman beings, credited with the facultiesof will, emotion, thought and action andoften conceived as an immaterial entity,separate from the physical body. The spiri-tual nature of human beings, regarded asimmortal, separable from the body atdeath, and susceptible to happiness or mis-ery in a future state. The disembodied spir-it of a dead human being.

telepathy Communication of thoughts, men-tal images, ideas, feelings, or sensationsfrom one person’s mind to another’s with-out the use of speech, writing, signs, orsymbols.

transience A state of impermanence, or last-ing for only a brief time. Remaining in aplace only for a short time, or the briefappearance of someone or something.



Chapter 2

Mediums and Mystics

Throughout history, certain men and

women have claimed that they can speak to

the deceased on the other side and relay

messages to those who yearn for such

confirmation that there is life after death. In

this chapter, the colorful and controversial

lives of such mystics and mediums will be

examined and their philosophies,

techniques, and spiritual tools identified.

73

Chapter Exploration

Shamanism

Spirit GuideTotem AnimalVision Quest

Spirit Mediumship

Ouija BoardSeance

Spirit ControlTrance

Mediums and Channelers

Sylvia BrowneFlorence Cook

Mina “Margery” Crandon John Edward

Arthur Augustus FordEileen Garrett

Daniel Dunglas HomeJ. Z. Knight

Carlos MirabelliEusapia PalladinoLeonora E. Piper

James Van PraaghJach Pursel

Jane RobertsRudi SchneiderWitch of Endor

Spiritualism

Andrew Jackson DavisSir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Fox SistersAllen Kardec

Mystics

Helena Petrovna BlavatskyRudolf Steiner

Emanuel Swedenborg

Researchers into theMystery of Spirit Contact

Hereward CarringtonSir William Crookes

Harry HoudiniWilliam James

Sir Oliver LodgeFredric W. H. Myers

Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

Introduction

The belief in an afterlife in which thesoul continues a conscious and rationalexistence is an intensely powerful

human longing. While even those of deepreligious faiths may still have apprehensionswhen it comes to facing death and standingon the edge of the boundaries of theunknown, throughout history there have beenthose men and women who claim that theycan not only conceive of a future life, but alsodirectly experience it and communicate withthose souls who have died and gone there.These individuals who claim such extraordi-nary abilities are known as mystics, mediums,or channels, and they are as sought after bythose who seek reassurance of the afterlife inthe twenty-first century as they were in thedays of the pharaohs.

For traditional shamans in aboriginal cul-tures throughout the world, the barrierbetween the world of spirits and the world ofhumans was a very thin one, and the ability tocommunicate with the spirits and to travel intheir dimension of reality was an essentialfacet of the shamans’ responsibility to theirpeople. It was also true of the medicine peopleand shamans of the various Native Americantribes, and a belief in a total partnership withthe world of spirits and the ability to makepersonal contact with those who had changedplanes of existence was a basic tenet in theirspiritual practice.

Whether the man or woman who claimscontact with the spirit world is a traditionalshaman or a contemporary channeler, he orshe will most likely establish that communi-cation through the ethereal services of a spir-it guide or spirit control. This entity servesthe medium as a link between the worlds offlesh and spirit. It is said to have the abilityto usher the spirits of the departed to a levelof the medium’s consciousness that permitshim or her to relay messages to those whohave come to hear words of comfort andinspiration.

While most of the major religions con-demn those who claim to be able to speak tothe dead or deny their abilities, mediums have

countered by questioning the lack of logic dis-played by members of orthodox faiths who saythat it is all right to hope for survival afterdeath but wrong to prove it. For centuries,various investigators of mediumistic phenom-ena have argued that if it could be proved thatsincere and honest mediums were able to con-tact the dead, then the mysteries of the after-life could be answered, and organized reli-gion’s hope of the future life would be trans-formed from an ethereal promise to a demon-strable guarantee.

Those scientists who have been intriguedenough by spiritistic phenomena to study it ina serious manner under laboratory conditionsare known as psychical researchers, and theyhave been examining mediums and mystics ina structured and determined process since theestablishment of the British Society of Psychi-cal Research in 1882 and the American Soci-ety in 1885.

Most mediums, however, feel that theycan get along well without psychicalresearchers. Successful mediums do not needto prove anything to their followers, whoalready believe in their abilities. The tests ofthe psychical researchers are often tediousand set up to be administered by objectiveand unemotional personnel. The mediumsargue that the laboratory certainly does notoffer the mood and atmosphere to be found inthe seance parlor, and the bright lights arenot as conducive to the trance state as thedimly lighted room. Psychical researcherscounter such arguments by pointing out thatlaboratory controls are necessary to unmaskthe charlatans, because there are those whodeceive people during their period of grievingfor a deceased loved one.

This chapter will introduce some extraor-dinarily colorful and fascinating men andwomen and explore the remarkable claims ofmediums who insist that they can summonspirits from the world beyond death. There arepassionate believers, determined debunkers,and individuals who believe that they haveproved scientifically and conclusively that afuture existence awaits the soul of eachhuman who passes from life to death.


Mediums and Mystics74


75Mediums and Mystics

ANative American Indian medicine man,spiritual leader, philosopher, andacknowledged spokesman and intertribalshaman for the Cherokee and Shoshone

tribes, Rolling Thunder, served as a consultant to thepopular films Billy Jack (1971), and its sequel, BillyJack II (1972). His way of life as a powerful healer,teacher, and activist gave him widespread fame fol-lowing the films. Internationally known, Rolling Thun-der’s spiritual counsel and tribal skills were sought ona regular basis by many in the entertainment industry.

Rolling Thunder was among the first ever to bestudied by mainstream institutions and undergo manylaboratory tests to determine the authenticity of hisshamanic skills. It had been said that his powers overthe elements of nature surpassed any seen in recenttimes. Reports of Rolling Thunder’s ability to “makerain” on a clear day, to heal disease and wounds, totransport or teleport objects through the air, and histelepathic skills were legendary until he agreed tosubmit himself to testing. His abilities have beeninvestigated and documented by such organizationsas the Menninger Foundation.

An advocate for Native American rights, as wellas for ecological harmony, Rolling Thunder traveledwidely and was in great demand worldwide for hisinsight and teachings. He himself joked that he had tomake it rain and thunder “in order to clean the pollut-ed air” before he spoke in a new city. Speaking beforespiritual, ecological, psychological, and healing gath-erings, Rolling Thunder participated in conferencessponsored by the Association for Research andEnlightenment (Edgar Cayce’s Foundation), the Men-ninger Foundation, the East West Academy of theHealing Arts, the Stockholm United Nations Confer-ence on the Environment, the World Conference ofSpiritual Leaders of the United Nations, and the WorldHumanity Conference in Vancouver, B.C., among oth-ers.

Often controversial, and regarded even militant attimes, Rolling Thunder was known for being outspo-ken and “telling it like it is.” “The Great Spirit guidesme to tell people what they need to know, not what

they want to know,” he often said. Never makingclaims for his special powers, he reminded those whocalled him a medicine man, or who spoke of his heal-ing abilities, that “All power belongs to the Great Spir-it.” Then he would add, “You call him God.” Inresponse to the charges of being militant, RollingThunder said, “Yes, I’m a militant. So was your greathealer they call Jesus Christ.”

Sources:

Boyd, Doug. Rolling Thunder. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.:

1974.

Steiger, Brad, and Sherry Hansen Steiger. Indian Wisdom And Its

Guiding Power. West Chester, Penn.: Whitford Press: 1991.

Steiger, Sherry Hansen, and Brad Steiger. Hollywood and the

Supernatural. New York: St. Martin’s Press: 1990.

Rolling Thunder

Shamanism

Ashaman is one who serves his peopleby acting as an intermediary to thespirit world. The claimed ability to

communicate with the world beyond death isat least as old as the time when early humansfirst conceived the idea that some part ofthem somehow survived physical death andexisted in some other place in spirit form. Thegrief that came with the sorrowful thought oflosing all contact with a loved one was less-ened by the assertion of a fellow tribespersonthat he or she could still communicate withthe spirit of the one who lay in the grave.Among early humans, those individuals whoclaimed to be able to visit the place of thedead were known as shamans, and the mes-sages that they relayed from the spirit worldwere sought by the elders regarding everymajor tribal decision. Originally, the term“shaman” was applied to the spirit doctors andexorcists of the Tungus of Siberia, but inrecent years the title has been applied as wellto the medicine men and women of the vari-ous North American tribes who also serve asmediums, healers, and visionaries for theirpeople. Many tribal traditionalists still reverethe wisdom that is shared by those men and

women who maintain the shamanic traditionsand who travel to the other side in the compa-ny of their spirit helper.

In the introduction to his book The Way ofthe Shaman (1982) anthropologist MichaelHarner writes that shamans “…whom we inthe ‘civilized’ world have called ‘medicine men’and ‘witchdoctors’ are the keepers of a remark-able body of ancient techniques that they useto achieve and maintain well-being and heal-ing for themselves and members of their com-munities.” Harner states that shamanic meth-ods are remarkably similar throughout theworld, “even for those peoples whose culturesare quite different in other respects, and whohave been separated by oceans and continentsfor tens of thousands of years.”

The anthropologist Ivar Lissner, who spenta great deal of time among the Tungus ofSiberia, as well as native peoples in NorthAmerica, defines a shaman as one “…whoknows how to deal with spirits and influencethem.…The essential characteristic of theshaman is his excitement, his ecstasy andtrancelike condition.…[The elements whichconstitute this ecstasy are] a form of self-sever-ance from mundane existence, a state ofheightened sensibility, and spiritual aware-ness. The shaman loses outward consciousnessand becomes inspired or enraptured. While inthis state of enthusiasm, he sees dreamlikeapparitions, hears voices, and receives visionsof truth. More than that, his soul sometimesleaves his body to go wandering.”

It is believed that during those times whenthe souls of shamans go wandering, they pro-ject their consciousness to faraway places onEarth as well as to the shadow world of spirits.These soul journeys may inform those whoseek their shaman’s counsel of everythingfrom where to find the choicest herds of gameto how to banish a troublesome spirit fromtheir home. Those men and women whoaspire to learning such techniques for them-selves may pay a shamanic practitioner for theprivilege of undergoing an arduous course oftraining that would include periods of fasting,going on vision quests, and encounters withthe world of spirits—a regimen that may takethe student many years to accomplish.



Shaman’s headdress.

(ARCHIVES OF

BRAD STEIGER)

In 1865, the great warrior Roman Nose,who had studied under the tutelage of WhiteBull, an elderly Cheyenne medicine man, layon a raft for four days in the midst of a sacredlake. Roman Nose partook of no food orwater, and he suffered a relentless sun by dayand a pouring rain by night. But he felt noneof these distractions, for Roman Nose was in atrance so deep that he appeared to be dead.

When he returned from the Land of theGrandparents, the place of spirits, RomanNose had obtained the necessary vision teach-ings to attack the white man’s cavalry whowere invading the Powder River country. Onthe day of battle, Roman Nose mounted hiswhite pony and told the assembled warriorsnot to accompany his charge until the BlueCoat soldiers had emptied their rifles at him.The power that he had received from the spir-its during his “little death” had rendered himimpervious to their bullets.

Roman Nose broke away from the rest ofthe war party and urged his pony into a runtoward the ranks of white soldiers standingbehind their wagons. When he was so nearthat he could see their faces, Roman Nosewheeled his mount and rode parallel to theirranks and their rifles. He made three or fourpasses before volley after volley from the sol-diers’ Springfield rifles. He remaineduntouched, unscratched. Finally a musket ballknocked his pony out from under him, butRoman Nose rose untouched and signaled hiswarriors to attack. They believed that magiche had received from the spirits kept him safethat day from all the bullets.

While one can pursue the path of becom-ing a medicine man or woman by undergoinga vision quest, receiving a spirit guide, andserving an apprenticeship under the directionof an established medicine person, traditional-ly, it seems, the greatest shamans are createdby spiritual intervention in the shape of a sud-den and severe illness, spells of fever, epilepticseizures, or possession by tutelary spirits. Itwould appear that those who become the mosteffective intermediaries between the worlds offlesh and spirit must have their physical bod-ies purged and nearly destroyed before theycan establish contact with spirits.

Black Elk (1863–1950), the respectedmedicine practitioner/shaman of the OglalaSioux, became a “hole,” a port of entry forspirits to enter the physical world, when hefell terribly ill as a boy of nine. He heard voic-es telling him that it was time for him toreceive his first great vision, and he was takenout of his body by two spirit guides whoinformed him that they were to take him tothe land of his grandfathers. Here, in the landof the spirits, Black Elk received the greatvision that was to sustain him all of his life.When he was returned to his body, his parentsgreeted the first flutterings of his eyelids withgreat joy. The boy had been lying as if dead for12 days.

As he grew to maturity and learned tofocus his healing and clairvoyant energies,Black Elk never failed to credit the otherworld for his accomplishments and to explainthat he was but a “hole” through which thespirits entered this world. Rather than the



Twylzh selecting

medicine stones.

(ARCHIVES OF BRAD

STEIGER)

A shaman is one who acts as an intermediary to thespirit world.

term “hole,” today’s counterparts of theshamanic mission might say that they are spir-it mediums or channels through which thepower from the spirit world might flow.

In many tribal societies, the pseudo-death,or near-death experience, appears to be nearlya precondition that must be met by those whoaspire to the role of the most prestigious ofshamans.

In 1890, Jack Wilson, a Paiute whoworked as a hired hand for a white rancher,came down with a terrible fever. His sicknessbecame so bad that for three days he lay as ifdead. When he returned to consciousness, hetold the Paiutes who had assembled around

his “corpse” that his spirit had walked withGod, the Old Man, for those three days; andthe Old Man had given him a powerful visionto share with the Paiute people.

His vision proclaimed that the dead ofmany tribes were all alive, waiting to bereborn. If the native peoples wished the buffa-lo to return, the grasses to grow tall, and therivers to run clean, they must not injure any-one; they must not do harm to any livingthing. They must not make war. They mustlead lives of purity, cease gambling, put awaystrong drink, and guard themselves against alllusts of the flesh.

Jack Wilson’s grandfather had been theesteemed prophet Wodziwob. His father hadbeen the respected holy man Tavibo. Amonghis own people, Wilson was known as Wovo-ka; and now he, too, had spent his time of ini-tiation in death and had emerged as a holyman and a prophet.

The most important part of the vision thatthe Great Spirit had given to Wovoka was the



Shaman’s kilt. (ARCHIVES

OF BRAD STEIGER)

A crucial element in shamanism is the ability to riseabove the constrictions and restraints of linear time.

Ghost Dance. The Paiute prophet told hispeople that the dance had never been per-formed anywhere on Earth. It was the dance ofthe spirit people of the Other World. To per-form this dance was to insure that the GreatMystery’s blessings would be bestowed uponthe tribe. Wovoka said that the Old Man hadspoken to him as if he were his son andassured him that many miracles would beworked through him. The native people hadreceived their shamanic messiah.

A crucial element in shamanism is theability to rise above the constrictions andrestraints of linear time. In his text for Ameri-can Indian Ceremonial Dances (1972), JohnCollier comments upon the shaman’s and thetraditional native people’s possession of a timesense that is different from the present societalunderstanding of the passages of minutes,hours, and days. At one time everyone pos-sessed such freedom, Collier says, but themechanized world took it away. If humanscould exist, as the native people in their wholelives affirmed, “in a dimension of time, a reali-ty of time—not linear, not clock-measured,clock-controlled, and clock-ended,” Colliersuggests that they should gladly enter it, forindividuals would expand their consciousnessby being there. “In solitary, mystical experi-ence many of ourselves do enter another timedimension,” he continues. But the “frown ofclockwork time” demands a return to chrono-logical time. The shaman, however, recognizesthat this other time dimension originated“within the germ plasm and the organicrhythms…of moveless eternity. It is life’sinstinct and environment and human society’sinstinct and environment. To realize it or notrealize it makes an enormous difference.”

Achieving a deep trance state appears tobe the most effective way that shamans regu-larly abandon linear time restrictions in orderto gain entrance to that other dimension oftime. By singing their special songs received invision quests or dreams, shamans put them-selves into trances that permit them to travelwith their spirit helpers to the Land of theGrandparents, a place free of “clockworktime,” where they gain the knowledge to pre-dict the future, to heal, and to relay messagesof wisdom from the spirit people.

M Delving Deeper

Harner, Michael. The Way of the Shaman. New York:Bantam Books, 1982.

Hirschfelder, Arlene, and Paulette Molin. The Ency-clopedia of Native American Religions. New York:MJF Books, 1992.

Lissner, Ivar. Man, God and Magic. New York: G. P.Putnam’s Sons, 1961.

Steiger, Brad. Medicine Power. New York: Doubleday,1972.

Spirit Guide

When spirit mediums speak of their controlor guide, they are referring to the entity fromthe world beyond physical death who assiststhem in establishing contact with deceasedhumans. The spirit guides of mediums usuallyclaim to have lived as humans on Earth beforethe time of their death and their graduation tohigher realms of being.

In the shamanic tradition, the spirit guideor spirit helper is usually received by thosewho choose to participate in a vision quest.Before initiates embark upon this ordeal, trib-al elders and shamans tutor them for manyweeks on what to expect and what is expectedof them. In many shamanic traditions, the



Shaman’s mask.

(Archives of

Brad Steiger)

spirit helper serves as an ambassador from theworld of spirits to the world of humans andoften manifests in animal form to serve as akind of chaperone during visits to otherdimensions of reality.

For the more contemporary spirit mediums,who often prefer to call themselves “channels,”the guide may represent itself as a being whoonce lived as a human on Earth or as a LightBeing, an extraterrestrial, or even an angel.Regardless of the semantics involved, today’smediums and channels follow the basic proce-dures of ancient shamanic traditions.

M Delving Deeper

Fodor, Nandor. Between Two Worlds. New York:Paperback Library, 1969.

Garrett, Eileen. Many Voices: The Autobiography of aMedium. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1968.

Murphy, Gardner, and Robert O. Ballou, eds. WilliamJames on Psychical Research. New York: VikingPress, 1960.

Paranormal News. http://paranormal.about.com/sci-ence/ paranormal/library/blnews.htm. 1 October2001.

Post, Eric G. Communicating with the Beyond. NewYork: Atlantic Publishing, 1946.

Totem Animal

Among the shamanic or medicine teachingsof the traditional Native Americans, thetotem animal represents the physical form ofone’s spirit helper, the guide, who will lead theshaman into the spirit world and return himor her safely to the physical world. Contrary tothe misinterpretations of early missionaries,the native people did not worship these ani-mal representations of their guides as gods.

Latvian ethnologist Ivar Lissner stated inhis Man, God, and Magic (1961) that his 17years of expeditions among the shamans andpeople of the Tungus, Polynesians, Malaysians,Australian Aborigines, Ainus, Chinese, Mon-gols, and North American tribes demonstratedto him quite clearly that totemism is not reli-gion. While all these diverse people lived in aworld filled with animate beings, they allbelieved in a single supreme deity.

Aside from a few Venus-type mother-god-dess statuettes, there remains a rather strangecollection of ghostly creatures and a greatvariety of two-legged beings with the heads ofanimals and birds. Why, so many anthropolo-gists have wondered, did these cave painters,despite their remarkable artistic gifts, neverpass on an accurate idea of their features?Why did they confine themselves to portray-ing beings that were half-human, half-animal?

And then Lissner has an inspiration. It isquite possible that the Stone-Age artists reallywere portraying themselves, but in somethingmore than in human shape. Perhaps they weredepicting themselves “…in the guise of inter-mediary beings who were stronger than com-mon men and able to penetrate more deeplyinto the mysteries of fate, that unfathomableinterrelationship between animals, men, andgods.” Lissner suggests that what the ancientcave painters may have been relaying is thatthe “road to supernatural powers is easier tofollow in animal shape and that spirits canonly be reached with an animal’s assistance.”The ancient artists may have been portrayingthemselves after all, but in animal guise,shamanistically.

The spirit guides, appearing as totemicanimals, guide the shamans to the mysterious,transcendent reality beyond the material



Shaman’s necklace.

(ARCHIVES OF BRAD

STEIGER)

A spirit guide or spirit helper is received by thosewho choose to participate in a vision quest.

world and lead them into another dimensionof time and space wherein dwell the inhabi-tants of the spirit world. It is through such aportal that mediumistic shamans must pass togain their contact with the grandfathers andgrandmothers who reside there. With theirspirit guide at their side in the form of a totemanimal, they can communicate with the spiritsand derive wisdom and knowledge which willserve their tribe or those who have come toseek specific information from the worldbeyond death.

M Delving Deeper

Bennett, Hal Zina. Spirit Animals and the Wheel ofLife. Charlottesville, Va.: Hampton Roads Pub-lishing, 2000.

Steiger, Brad. Totems: The Transformative Power ofYour Personal Animal Totem. San Francisco:HarperSanFrancisco, 1997.

Vision Quest

The personal revelatory experience and thecontact with the spirit world received duringthe vision quest becomes the fundamentalguiding force in the shaman’s power (medi-cine). In addition to those who would beshamans, all traditional young men andwomen may partake of the vision quest, set-ting out alone in the wilderness to fast, toexhaust the physical body, to pray, to establishtheir own contact with the dimension of spir-it, and to receive their individual “medicine”power. The dogma of tribal rituals and thereligious expressions of others become sec-ondary to the guidance that one receives fromhis or her own personal visions.

“The seeker goes forth solitary,” writesHartley Burr Alexander in The World’s Rim(1967) “carrying his pipe and with an offeringof tobacco. There in the wilderness alone, hechants his song and utters his prayers while hewaits, fasting, such revelation as the Powersmay grant.”

The vision quest is basic to all traditionalNative American religious experience, butone may certainly see similarities between theyouthful tribal members presenting them-selves to the Great Mystery as helpless, shel-terless, and humble supplicants and the initi-ates of other religious traditions who fast, fla-

gellate, and prostrate themselves before theirconcept of a Supreme Being. In Christianity,the questing devotees kneel before a personaldeity and beseech insight from the Son ofGod, whom they hope to please with theirexample of piety and self-sacrifice. In theNative American tribal traditions, the powergranted by the vision quest comes from a vastand impersonal repository of spiritual energy;and those who partake of the quest receivetheir personal guardian spirit and a greatvision that will grant them insight into thespiritual dimensions beyond physical reality.

For the traditional Native American, thevision quest may be likened to the first Com-munion in Christianity. Far from being a goalachieved, the vision quest marks the begin-ning of the traditionalist’s lifelong search forknowledge and wisdom. Nor are the spiritualmechanics of the vision quest ignored oncethe youths have established contact with theirguardian spirit and with the forces that are toaid them in the shaping of their destiny. Atany stressful period of their life, the tradition-alists may go into the wilderness to fast and toseek insight into the particular problems thatbeset them.

Hartley Burr Alexander saw the continuedquest for wisdom of body and mind—thesearch for the single essential force at the coreof every thought and deed—as the perpetuallyaccumulating elements in medicine power.The reason the term “medicine” becameapplied to this life-career function is simplybecause those attaining stature as men andwomen who had acquired this special kind ofwisdom were so often also great healers. Thetrue meaning of “medicine” extends beyondthe arts of healing to clairvoyance, precogni-tion, and the control of weather elements.



TOTEM animals represent the physical form ofone’s spirit helper, the guide, who will lead a shamaninto the spirit world and return him or her safely tothe physical world.

The power received in the vision questenables the practitioner to obtain personalcontact with the invisible world of spirits andto pierce the sensory world of illusion whichveils the Great Mystery.

M Delving Deeper

Harner, Michael. The Way of the Shaman. New York:Bantam Books, 1982.

Hirschfelder, Arlene, and Paulette Molin. The Ency-clopedia of Native American Religions. New York:MJF Books, 1992.

Spirit Mediumship

Aspirit medium is a person who hasbecome qualified in some special wayto form a link between the living and

the dead. Through the physical agency of themedium, the spirits of the deceased may speakto their family and friends and relay messagesof comfort, support, and personal information.While some mediums gain impressions fromthe spirit world in a fully conscious state, oth-ers place themselves into a trance, which isoften accompanied by manifestations thatappear to defy known physical laws, such asmoving objects without touching them, levi-tating the mediums’ own body, and materializ-ing spirit forms of the deceased.

The essential attribute that qualifies oneto be a medium is an extreme or abnormalsensitivity which seemingly allows the spiritsmore easily to control the individual’s psyche.For this reason, mediums are often referred toas “sensitives.”

During seances, spirit mediums, oftenworking in a trance state, claim to be underthe direction of a spirit control or spirit guidethat serves as an intermediary between them-

selves and the spirits of deceased men andwomen. Once contact has been made withparticular spirits in the other world, the guidespeaks through the medium and relays mes-sages to the sitters, those men and womenwho have assembled in the seance room forthe opportunity of hearing words of comfort orguidance from their departed loved ones.

Spirit mediums argue that while Christian-ity, Judaism, and Islam promise their followersa life eternal whose reality must be taken onfaith alone, for thousands of years those whovisit mediums have been able to base theirhope for a life beyond the grave on the tangi-ble evidence provided by the phenomena pro-vided in the seance room. Although they havebeen condemned as cultists, scorned assatanists, and reprimanded for communingwith evil spirits by most of the major religions,mediums have remained thick-skinned towardtheir critics among the various clergy.

In addition to any religious objections onemight have toward the kind of evidence thatspirit mediums present as proof of life afterdeath, an important factor that has long con-tributed to the layperson’s skepticism towardmediums is the fact that few areas of humanrelationships are so open to cruel deceptions.It has taken neither scientific training nororthodox religious views to expose many spiritmediums as charlatans preying upon suchhuman emotions as grief and sorrow over theloss of a loved one.

Beginning in the latter decades of thenineteenth century, Spiritualists and spiritmediums began to contend with an increasing-ly materialistic and mechanistic science thatdid a great deal to obliterate the idea of a souland the duality of mind and body. The conceptof an eternal soul was being steadily eroded byan emphasis on brain cells, conditionedresponses, and memory patterns that couldexist only while the body remained alive.

When the British Society for PsychicalResearch (BSPR) was established in 1882 andthe American Society for Psychical Research(ASPR) was formed in 1885, leading spiritmediums such as Florence Cook (1856–1904),Mina “Margery” Crandon (1888–1941),Leonora E. Piper (1857–1950), and Daniel



A spirit medium is a person who has becomequalified in some special way to form a link between

the living and the dead.



Spooky phenomena like levitating tables andghostly goings-on that occur at seances aremost likely manifestations of the power ofsuggestion, say some researchers.

At Fortean Times conventions in London, paranor-mal investigator Dr. Richard Wiseman arranged twofake seances in which participants were told theywould be taking part in a reenactment in which the“medium” would be an actor. Even though they weretold it was not a “real” seance, 30 percent of thosewho participated were convinced they saw a lumi-nous-edged table levitate in the air —when it was sug-gested by the staged medium that it would do so.

The “seance” was filmed in infrared light so theyhad proof that the table did not move, yet 30 percent ofpeople believed it had levitated, Wiseman stated.Wiseman said, “These seances are pretty spooky.We’re arguing that some seance phenomena are downto the power of suggestion.” Conceding that theremight indeed be other explanations, and sometimeseven an element of fraud or trickery, Wisemanexpressed there were no supernatural forces at work.

The experiments were carried out with EmmaGreening, also from the University of Hertfordshire,and Dr. Matthew Smith from Liverpool Hope UniversityCollege.

In another study, with people who claimed to behighly intuitive, Wiseman and his colleague, Dr. PaulRogers, produced results to show their claims mightbe something else. Their findings indicated that beinghighly intuitive may be a result of their simply beinggood at assessing strangers’ personality traits.

Wendy Snowden and Kei Ito, both researchersfrom the University of Buckingham, reported in anoth-er study that the feeling of having been there before,known as “deja vu,” was a very common experienceassociated with the particular personality traits ofextroversion and emotional disorders.

The researchers’ findings were presented at theEuropean Congress of Psychology, organized by theBritish Psychological Society in London.

Sources:

British Psychological Society. http://www.bps.org.uk/index.cfm.

15 October 2001.

British Psychological Society Report to European Congress of

Psychology. N.p., 2001.

Are Spooky Things

All in the Mind?

Dunglas Home (1833–1886) allowed them-selves to be subjected to extensive tests con-ducted by psychical researchers, most of whomat least believed that man and mind weresomething more than physical things. Howev-er, as the experiments progressed year afteryear with spirit guides, materialized beings, andlevitated objects, the researchers came more tobelieve in the enormous reach and abilities ofthe human psyche. They began to see themedium’s spirit control as evidence that thehuman mind was capable of projecting a seg-ment of itself unhampered by time and space,that one level of mind might be able to give“birth” to new personalities, that one level ofthe subconscious might telepathically gainknowledge of a departed individual from a sit-ter’s memories while yet another level drama-tized that knowledge into an imitation of the

deceased’s voice. In other words, the more thepsychical researchers learned about the rangeand power of the human mind, the less cre-dence they tended to grant to the spirit medi-um’s “proof” of survival.

Spirit mediums have never felt that thephenomena of the seance room can be prop-erly or fairly transferred to the sterile environ-ment of the laboratory with any degree of suc-cess. In answering the criticism that spiritisticphenomena cannot be repeated again underindividually controlled conditions asdemanded of a scientific experiment, MauriceBarbanell (1902–1981) wrote in This Is Spiri-tualism (1966) that such was not possible“because mediumship involves the use ofhuman beings. Whenever you deal withhuman beings, the human factor can be way-ward and liable to upset the most intricatecalculations.”

Sometime in the 1940s, Dr. J. B. Rhine(1895–1980) summarized the research on sur-vival evidence provided by spirit mediums inthe laboratory to be a draw. While hardly any-one would claim that all the investigationsconducted by psychical researchers since the1880s could disprove the claim that “if a manshall die he shall in some manner or other becapable of living again,” Rhine stated, “Onthe other hand, no serious scientific student ofthe field of investigation could say that a clear,defensible, scientific confrontation has beenreached.”

However, in March of 2001, scientistsinvolved in a unique study of spirit mediumsat the University of Arizona announced thattheir findings were so extraordinary that theyraised fundamental questions about the sur-vival of human consciousness after death. Pro-fessor Gary Schwartz, who led the team ofresearchers, concluded that highly skilled spir-it mediums were able to deal directly with thedead, rather than merely with the minds ofthe sitters. In the opinion of the scientists, allthe data they gathered was “consistently inaccord with survival of consciousness afterdeath.” Based on all their data to date,Schwartz said, “The most parsimonious expla-nation is that the mediums are in direct com-munication with the deceased.”



C. P. Webster’s

Paranormal

Photography

Researcher and artist Dr. Christopher Web-ster presents an interesting website ofparanormal photography (especially therelationship between the crisis in belief

and spirit photographs in the nineteenth century).Webster describes his work as being “to some degreea visual equivalent of automatic writing.” He exploresphotography as a tool for recording the paranormal.

Sources:

C. P. Webster’s Homepage and Paranormal Photography.

http://users.aber.ac.uk/cpw/mainpage.html. 15 October 2001.

Ouija Board

A Ouija board is used by some spirit mediumsfor purposes of contacting the other side. Theinstrument has two parts: a large smoothboard, approximately 22 by 15 inches, and athree-legged triangular or heart-shaped point-er called a planchette, which slides easilyacross the face of the board. On the board theletters of the alphabet are arrayed in large, eas-ily read characters in two curved lines; aboveto the right and left, respectively, are thewords “yes” and “no.” At the bottom are thewords “Good Bye” (on some boards the word“Maybe” is added). During a seance, spiritmediums who use a Ouija board will placetheir fingers lightly on the planchette, and thespirits will provide the energy to move it toanswer yes or no questions or to spell outnames and more detailed information. On cer-tain occasions, mediums may invite one ormore sitters to place their own hands on theplanchette so that they may feel the spiritual

force controlling its movements and deter-mine that the medium is not responsible forits actions.

Spirit mediums and certain psychicalresearchers maintain that the Ouija board hasbeen instrumental in producing volumes ofimpressive communications from the otherside and has also helped to develop hundredsof psychic-sensitives who have become adeptat spirit contact.

The Ouija board was first available for theAmerican public in 1890 and was marketed asa parlor game. According to its creators, E. C.Reiche, Elijah Bond, and Charles Kennard,the name of the board was derived from theancient Egyptian word for good luck. Egyptol-ogists flatly stated that “ouija” was not anancient blessing, and William Fuld, a foremanat Kennard’s company, agreed, protesting thathe was the one who had really invented theboard, fashioning its name by splicing togeth-er the German (ja) and the French (oui)



Ouija boards were

created in the 1890s and

used by spirit mediums

to contact people in the

afterlife. It was used in

seances and as a parlor

game. (CORBIS

CORPORATION)

words for “yes.” In 1892, Kennard lost hiscompany, and the selling of the Ouija boardswas taken over by Fuld.

It seems likely that the Ouija board wasinspired by the planchette that has been usedby spirit mediums for centuries as they receivedautomatic writing from their control. Thisplanchette is a roughly triangular or heart-shaped object about four inches long and threeinches wide, approximately one-eighth on aninch thick, and is mounted on two small legswhich are generally padded with felt orequipped with small wheels or casters. At thetip of the planchette is a hole through which asoft pencil or ballpoint pen can be insertedpoint downward to serve as a third leg. Whenthe planchette is placed on a plain sheet ofpaper and the medium places his or her fingerslightly on its surface, the planchette will moveacross the paper and write messages for thosesitters in attendance at the seance.

The idea of the Ouija board may also be amodern adaptation of glass writing, a methodstill favored by some spirit mediums. In glasswriting, a fairly large sheet of paper on whichthe letters of the alphabet are printed in awide circle is placed on a table. On it, upsidedown, is placed a thin wine glass or a lightwater tumbler. Then the sitters, usually twoand never more than four, place their finger-tips on the bottom of the upturned glass. Aftera while, spirit energy is believed to enter theglass. As the glass moves, it will come to restover certain letters which, when written outon a separate sheet of paper, will spell outintelligent messages.

Skeptics believe that those mediums whouse such devices as a Ouija board are not sum-moning spirits to provide the answers to ques-tions put to the board, but are either consciouslyor unconsciously moving the planchette to spell

out the desired answers. The same thing is trueof those persons who use the Ouija board as akind of parlor game and who may receive “spiritcommunications” that appear on first examina-tion to be baffling and indicative of unseenintelligences hovering nearby. These peoplemay have permitted themselves to become sug-gestible by the mood provoked by seeking spiritcontact and may have allowed the answers pro-vided by the planchette to reflect their uncon-scious thoughts, fears, or wishes.

Both psychical researchers and skepticalinvestigators agree that impressionable chil-dren should not use the Ouija board as a gameto be played late at night during slumber par-ties or sleep-overs. Often the messages relayedby the planchette—whether by spirits or thehuman unconscious—are of a profane and vilenature, revealing psychological weaknessesand primal fears.

M Delving Deeper

Gaynor, Frank, ed. Dictionary of Mysticism. New York:Philosophical Library, 1953.

Paranormal News. http://paranormal.about.com/science/paranormal/ library/blnews. htm. 1 October 2001.


Skeptics Dictionary. http://skepdic.com. 1 October 2001.

Seance

Those who accept the teachings of Spiritual-ism believe that the varied phenomena associ-ated with a seance, such as the levitation ofobjects, the materialization of spirit forms, orthe acquisition of information beyond thenormal sensory channels, emanate from spiritsof the dead. Nonspiritualists who attendseances may hold a wide variety of religiousand philosophical views, but they are likely tobelieve that some part of their being survivesphysical death, and they are willing to basetheir hope for life eternal on the phenomenaof the seance room and the messages that theyreceive from discarnate beings.

After the sitters have been ushered intothe seance room with its subdued lighting,they are invited to be seated, generally form-ing a circle around a large round table. Thesuccessful medium of an established reputa-



THE Ouija board was first available for theAmerican public in 1890 and was marketed as a

parlor game.

tion usually begins the seance in a friendlymanner, making light conversation with eachof the sitters. Such an approach relaxes thesitters and encourages them to express theirwishes or any concerns that they might haveabout their communicating with the deceased.The medium is quite certain that their verypresence at a seance indicates some degree ofreceptivity to the idea of communication withthe dead. By the time the medium has enteredthe meditative state that induces the trancewhich summons the spirit guide, the sittershave been prepared by the medium’s confi-dence and by their own beliefs and expectan-cy to accept the reality of an outside intelli-gence occupying the medium’s physical body.

Mediums usually make it quite clear toneophyte sitters that the best manner in which

to secure a demonstration of genuine spiritisticphenomena is to assure the medium of one’sgood will. The sitter should also let the medi-um know that he or she is assured of the medi-um’s honesty and abilities. The sitter shouldnot hurry the medium, but keep in mind thatthe greatest guarantee of a successful seance isthe medium’s serene state of mind.

Often the spirit voices of the deceasedspeak through a metal trumpet that has beencoated with luminous paint and which floatsaround the seance room. At trumpetseances—almost invariably conducted incomplete darkness—the horn rises, apparentlylifted by spirit hands, and the voices of thedeparted are heard speaking through theinstrument. Theoretically, these voices mani-fest independently from the medium. Trumpet



A group of men and

women levitating a table.

(ARCHIVES OF

BRAD STEIGER)

mediums are popular at Spiritualist camps,and husband and wife teams often travel thecircle of summer camps giving demonstra-tions. Skeptics suggest that the reason for suchmale and female partnerships among trumpetmediums is the simple fact that many morevoice tones may be imitated by the mediumsduring the course of a seance.

The materialization of an old coin, a ring,a bracelet, or a semiprecious stone from thespirit world to a sitter attending a seance iscalled an “apport” (from the French apporter,“to bring”). According to mediums, spiritfriends bring these objects from great dis-tances to lay before the sitters. Sometimes,according to mediums, these objects comefrom old treasure chests that have lain lostand forgotten beneath the land or sea for ages.On other occasions, the apports are said to beitems lost by owners who are now dead andpresented as gifts to their living relatives inattendance at the seance.

Spirit photography is one phenomenon ofthe seance room which seems to function aseffectively in a spontaneous situation—suchas snapping a photograph in a graveyard or ahaunted house—as in the trappings of the sit-ting room. Psychic photography is nearly asold as photography itself. Since the earliestdaguerrotypes, people have been taking pic-tures that have shown unexplainable objectsand figures in the background. The idea thatsuch figures and objects could have originatedbecause of some paranormal influence hasbeen rejected by the great majority of scien-tists. Hazy, spectral figures have been creditedto the faulty processing of film. Clearly dis-cernible and even recognizable features on theghostly faces have been attributed to deliber-ate fakery.

In the early days of photography, suchskepticism was understandable because of the

many steps of processing that a photographhad to undergo before it could be examined.With loading and unloading of the film anddarkroom operations that sometimes tookhours, the opportunities for switching theplates were so great that even the most open-minded person could not help becoming sus-picious if shown the photograph of spirit formsappearing over his or her shoulder after theportrait had been taken.

Technological advances in photographyhave managed to eliminate many such objec-tions and, at the same time, created manymore. With modern 10-second processing offilm and the use of an observer’s own camera,the opportunity for trickery in the seanceroom has been greatly lowered. But computertechnology has been able to create seamlessphotographs of an endless array of ghosts,phantoms, and spirit forms. Ghost sites andspirit photographs are popular on the Internetand available for scrutiny by skeptic andbeliever alike.

Perhaps the ultimate in seance phenome-na is the materialization of a spirit form that isin some way recognizable to one or more ofthe sitters. This is often accomplished throughthe utilization of a cabinet from which thematerialized spirit emerges and communicateswith those gathered around the medium. Spir-it cabinets may be elaborate wooden struc-tures or they may simply be blankets strungacross wires in order to give the medium someprivacy while in trance.

“The miracle of materialization,” MauriceBarbanell (1902–1981) writes in This Is Spiri-tualism (1959), “is that in a few minutes thereis reproduced in the seance room the birthwhich normally takes nine months in themother’s womb.” Numerous researchers, aswell as Spiritualists, have claimed to haveseen a nearly invisible cord which links thematerialized spirit figure to the medium andhave all made the obvious comparison to anumbilical cord.

If, indeed, disembodied spirits are capableof fashioning temporary physical bodies fortheir ethereal personalities, just what kind ofsubstance could be used for such a remarkablematerialization? The name that Spiritualists



PSYCHIC photography is nearly as old asphotography itself.

give to such a substance is “ectoplasm,” andthey contend that it is drawn from the medi-um’s body.

Maurice Barbanell claims that ectoplasm isideoplastic by nature, which is to suggest thatit may be molded by the psychic “womb” ofthe medium into a representation of thehuman body. Barbanell gives “spirit chemists”the credit for compounding ectoplasm until itassumes a human form that “breathes, walks,and talks, and is apparently complete even tofingernails.”

French researcher Dr. Charles Richet(1850–1935) christened ectoplasm in the1920s, but Baron Albert von Schrenck Notz-ing (1862–1929), a German investigator ofthe paranormal, gained a medium’s permissionto “amputate” some of the material and toanalyze it. He found it to be a colorless, odor-less, slightly alkaline fluid with traces of skindiscs, minute particles of flesh, sputum, andgranulates of the mucous membrane.

Few contemporary mediums attempt toproduce ectoplasmic materializations in theseance room. Today, the vast majority ofseances conducted by professional mediums fitinto the categories of “direct-voice” commu-nication, during which the spirit guide speaksdirectly to the sitters through a medium whoappears in a deep state of trance; “twilight”communication, during which the medium ina very light altered state of consciousnessrelays messages from the guide in a conversa-tional exchange with the sitters; or a “read-ing,” in which the medium in a fully consciousstate presents a series of images and messagesthat are “shown” or “told” by spirits who havesome personal connection to the sitters.

Some parapsychologists who have wit-nessed a wide range of the phenomena of theseance room under test conditions state thatall such manifestations may be the result ofconscious or unconscious fraud on the part ofthe medium. These researchers also point outthat the intelligence exhibited by the “spirits”appears to be always on a level with that ofthe medium through whom they manifest.

Such critics go on to state that the spiritscan be controlled by the power of suggestionand can be made to respond to questions

which have no basis in reality. Many investi-gators have discovered that they can as readilyestablish communication with an imaginaryperson as with a real one.

Other parapsychologists accept a greatdeal of the phenomena of the seance room,but they deny that the source of the manifes-tations comes from spirits. These investigatorshave found that in many seances conductedunder controlled conditions, the informationrelayed often rises far above the medium’sknown objective intelligence, but they arguethat there are a number of ways by which thesubjective mind can be elevated above thethreshold of ordinary consciousness to thepoint where various phenomena may be pro-duced. When mediums induce the trance statewhich summons the spirit control, they maysincerely believe that their physical body ispossessed by an outside intelligence. Whenthe subjective mind is operating under thesuggestion that it is being controlled by thespirit of a deceased person, it can become mar-velously adept at filling in the details of thatperson’s life on Earth.

For many individuals who hold certainreligious views, it is abhorrent for anyone toclaim the ability to talk to the dead. At best,in this view, such claimants are frauds andcharlatans. At worst, they are committing agrave sin. And if the phenomena of the seanceroom is really due to as-yet unknown facultiesof the human mind, then the sins of mediumsare doubled if they claim that manifestationsoriginating in their subconscious come fromdiscarnate entities.

Spiritualists will answer such charges bystating that the more conservative religionspromise their congregations a life eternal, butspirit mediums offer tangible proof that thehuman soul does survive the act of physicaldeath. They will assert that millions of strick-en hearts have been healed by the consolationafforded by the conviction that they havetruly communicated with the spirits of lovedones who have gone on before. They willargue that the sincere medium is no more afraud than the sincere pastor, priest, or rabbi.And when parapsychologists claim that thephenomena of the seance room are controlled



by the subconscious of the medium, Spiritual-ists insist that these researchers are basingtheir conclusions on a hypothesis influencedby mechanistic psychology and a materialisticsociety.

Parapsychologists counter by stating thatthe subjective mind of the medium operatesunder the suggestion that it is being con-trolled by the spirit of a deceased person. Themedium has conditioned his or her subjectivemind to that pervading premise by a selectiveeducation, environment, and religious beliefs;therefore, any display of paranormal abilities,such as clairvoyance, telepathy, or precogni-tion, will be attributed to the interaction ofspirit entities.

M Delving Deeper

Barbanell, Maurice. This Is Spiritualism. London: Her-bert Jenkins, 1959.

Carrington, Hereward. The Case for Psychic Survival.New York: Citadel Press, 1957.

Fodor, Nandor. An Encyclopedia of Psychic Science.Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1966.


Hart, Hornell. The Enigma of Survival. London: Rider& Co., 1959.

Matthews, Robert. Scientists Becoming Believers in Spir-itualists’ Paranormal Powers. http://www.tele-graph.co.uk. 6 March 2001.

Mysteries of the Unknown: Spirit Summonings. Alexan-dria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1989.

Rhine, Louisa E. ESP in Life and Lab: Tracing HiddenChannels. New York: Collier-Macmillan, 1969.

Smith, Alson J. Immortality: The Scientific Evidence.New York: Prentice Hall, 1954.


Spirit Control

Spirit mediums believe that while they are inan entranced state of consciousness, they fallunder the control of a particular spirit that hasbecome their special guide and who speaksthrough them and works all manner of myste-rious phenomena on their behalf. Althoughthis spirit was once a living person, it has,since its time in the spirit world, becomegreatly elevated in spiritual awareness.

The concept of a spirit guide goes back toantiquity. The philosopher Socrates (c. 470B.C.E.–399 B.C.E.) furnishes the most notableexample in ancient times of an individualwhose subjective mind was able to communi-cate with his objective mind by direct speechstimulus. Socrates referred to this voice as hisdaemon (not to be confused with “demon,” afallen angel or a negative, possessing entity).Daemon is better translated as guardian angelor muse, and the philosopher believed that hisguardian spirit kept vigil and warned him ofapproaching danger.

Parapsychologists have suggested that thespirit guide may be another little-knownpower of the mind which enables the medi-um’s subjective level of consciousness to dra-matize another personality, complete with afull range of personal characteristics and itsvery own voice. The subjective mind of themedium may clairaudiently contact its ownobjective level, as in the instances of thosepeople, such as Socrates, who claim to hearthe voice of a personal guide.

Mediums perceive the spirit guide in a verydifferent manner. While they may admit thatthe action of the subjective mind is notentirely eliminated during trance and thearrival of the guide, they will insist that theirsubconscious mind is taken over and con-trolled by a spirit entity of great compassionand wisdom.

Psychical researchers will counter such aclaim of communication with a spirit by stat-ing that the intelligence exhibited by the spiritcontrol appears to be always on a level withthat of the medium through whom it manifestsitself. Some investigators of mediumistic phe-nomena will admit that the informationrelayed during a seance often rises above themedium’s known objective intelligence, butthey are quick to point out that the limits ofthe human subjective mind are not yet known.

Critics of spiritualistic phenomena alsopoint out that the “spirits” can often be con-trolled by the power of suggestion and can bemade to respond to questions which have nobasis in reality. Many investigators have dis-covered that one can as readily establish com-munication with an imaginary person as with



a real one. Careless or mediocre mediumshave found themselves the object of ridiculewhen they have relayed a message from a liv-ing person or even from a sitter who has giventhe medium a fictitious name.

The experienced and knowledgeable psy-chical researcher Hereward Carrington(1880–1958) devoted an entire book, The Casefor Psychic Survival (1957), to his examinationof Eileen Garrett (1892–1970), an Englishmedium who is generally regarded as one of thegreatest of the twentieth century, and her spiritcontrol, Uvani. Carrington administered anextensive battery of personality tests to bothUvani and Garrett so that researchers mightcompare the two sets of responses. The spiritguide and the medium sat through sessions ofthe Bernreuter Personality Inventory, theThurstone Attitude Scale, the WoodworthNeurotic Inventory, the Rorschach Test, and aseemingly endless number of word associationtests. Carrington concluded that even thoughthere existed only slight evidence for the gen-uinely supernatural character of spirit guides,“…they nevertheless succeed in bringingthrough a vast mass of supernormal informa-tion which could not be obtained in theirabsence.” Spirit guides, he theorized, seem toact as some sort of psychic catalyst.

Carrington speculated that the function ofa medium’s spirit guide appears to be that ofan intermediary—and whether the entity istruly a spirit or a personification of the medi-um’s subconscious, it is only through the coop-eration of the guide that authentic, verifiablemessages are obtained.

The psychical researcher stressed in hisreport that an essential and significant differ-ence between the secondary personality inpathological cases—such as multiple personal-ity and schizophrenia—and the personality ofthe spirit guide in mediumship lay in the factthat in the pathological cases, the secondarypersonalities do not acquire supernormalinformation, while in mediumship, the guidedoes: “In the pathological cases, we seem tohave a mere splitting of the mind, while in themediumship cases we have to deal with a (per-haps fictitious) personality which is neverthe-less in touch or contact, in some mysterious

way, with another (spiritual) world, fromwhich it derives information, and throughwhich genuine messages often come.”

In an interesting appendix to Carrington’sbook, he records a conversation with the spiritguide Uvani in which he questions him con-cerning the mechanics involved in the con-trolling of Eileen Garrett’s “underconscious-ness,” his term for the unconscious. Uvaniemphasizes that although he controls themedium’s “underconsciousness,” he hasabsolutely no control over her consciousmind—nor would he ever consider such con-trol to be ethical or right. In answer to a directquestion of whether or not he had any knowl-edge of the medium’s thoughts, Uvani stressedthat he had no interest in her thinkingprocesses or in the activity of her consciousmind. It was that time when she was in thetrance state that he could make the medium’sunconscious become a means of expressionnot only for his ideas but for the concepts andthoughts of many other entities. Garrett’s“underconsciousness” became an instrumentthat he could work “like notes on a piano.”



Entranced medium and

spirit phenomenon.

(ARCHIVES OF

BRAD STEIGER)

THE concept of spirit control goes as far back asto Socrates’s lifetime.

Carrington touches on two questions thatskeptics and believers alike have asked ofmany mediums and their alleged guides:

1. How do you know when the medium isready for you to assume control of herunconscious?;

2. If in life you were a man from another cul-ture speaking a different language, how isit that you now speak perfect Englishthrough the medium?

To the first question, Uvani responded thathe received a “telegraphed impression” whenthe mediumistic instrument was ready. Thenthe medium’s conscious mind becomes verylow in energy, but her “soulbody” becomesmore vibrant before he assumes command.

As to the question of speaking perfect Eng-lish through their medium’s mouths, Uvanianswered bluntly that he does not speak Eng-lish: “It is my Instrument who speaks. Iimpress my thought upon her, on that ‘fig-ment’ which I must work up, but no word ofmine actually comes to you. The Instrument isimpressed by my personal contact.”

Chicago psychic-sensitive Irene F. Hugh-es explained how she can tell when her spiritguide wishes to bring forth an impression ormessage from a discarnate entity on the otherside. “I am quiet, completely relaxed, deep inmeditation,” she explained. “I may be alone athome or among friends in a prayer circle. Atingling sensation, similar to a chill, begins onmy right ankle, then on my left. Slowly thetingling spreads to cover my entire body. It isas though a soft silken skin has been pulledover me, glove-tight—even over my face,changing its features—yet comfortable andprotective. At this point I am on the way tothat golden flow of consciousness that weearthlings term the Spirit Plane. I am in semi-trance. Were I in full trance, I could not recalla single detail.”

As her involvement with the spirit planeprogresses, Hughes says that her body becomesas “icy cold as death itself,” yet a delightfulwarmth engulfs her inner self. Soon, Kaygee,her spirit teacher, appears, smiles, bows to heras a trusted friend, indicating approval of herincursion into the spirit world. By a slightwaving of his hand, he ushers in those of the

spirit plane who wish to speak through her. “Iam bound to my spirit teacher by ties that areethereal, yet mighty as a coaxial cable,” shesaid. “Every thought that flashes through hisconsciousness becomes crystal clear also in myconsciousness.”

Critics of the spiritistic hypothesis remainunimpressed by the agile mental phenomenaof the spirit guide and the medium’s attemptsto explain the levels of his or her interactionwith this mysterious personality. Many para-psychologists agree that mediums may arrive atcertain information through paranormalmeans, but they maintain that the knowledgewas gained through extrasensory abilitiesrather than through the cooperation of spirits.And in those cases when the alleged spiritguide displays a prima donna’s temperament atbeing questioned for further proof of identity, itwould seem that all-too-human behavior findsits seat in the unconscious of the medium.

M Delving Deeper

Barbanell, Maurice. Spiritualism Today. London: Her-bert Jenkins, 1969.

Bayless, Raymond. The Other Side of Death. NewHyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1971.



Uphoff, Walter and Mary Jo. New Psychic Frontiers.Gerrards Cross, Bucks, Great Britain: ColinSmythe, 1975.

Trance

Numerous researchers have noted the obviousparallels between hypnotic sleep and the trancestate of the medium. In hypnosis the subject iscontrolled by the suggestions of the hypnotist.In the trance state, many investigators believe,the medium is controlled by autosuggestion—akind of self-induced hypnotic state.

Good subjects for hypnosis can be made toassume any number of characterizations, fromelderly people to babies, and will firmly appearto believe themselves to be the individualsthey represent, complete with a set of habitsand idiosyncrasies for the characters they areimpersonating. Likewise mediums, through



autosuggestion in the trance state, assume theguise of the spirit communicators who havecome to speak to the sitters in the seance cir-cle. Professional hypnotists have oftenclaimed that all the phenomena of medi-umship can be duplicated through their sub-jects by suggesting to them that they are underthe control of discarnate entities.

A medium or a Spiritualist might countersuch an assertion by saying that certain spiritsmay actually take possession of a hypnoticsubject when they receive permission to do so,and that the subject may then truly be said tobe in the control of the souls of the deceased.

Parapsychologists who have tested boththe hypnosis hypothesis and the possibility ofspirit possession have found that, in someinstances, it is just as easy to obtain communi-cation from a living person through a hypnot-ic subject or a medium as from a dead one, andfrom a fictitious person as from a real one, sim-ply by making the proper suggestion to eitherentranced agent.

When mediums enter the trance state,they enter into a subjective condition thatleaves them as open and amenable to the lawof suggestion as is the subject of hypnosis. Thepotent suggestion that the spirit of a deceasedperson is about to enter their body and controlthem is ever present in the subjective mind ofmediums. Such a suggestion has been a part oftheir educational development, and their reli-gious beliefs are based on the “fact” of spiritsurvival and communication. All paranormalphenomena are considered by mediums to bea direct interaction of the spirit world withthe material world. The trance state allowsthem to cooperate with spirit personalitiesand to become a vital link in communicationbetween the two worlds. Since mediumsbelieve so strongly in survival and their abilityto establish contact with the departed, it istheir mission to aid others in communicatingwith their beloved deceased.

Many parapsychologists theorize that withsuch a powerful autosuggestion constantlybeing directed to the transcendent or subjec-tive level of the mind of a medium, all subjec-tive knowledge gained by establishing tele-pathic rapport with the unconscious level of

other minds will be immediately interpretedas information gained by the intercession ofspirits. And so far as the transcendent mind ofthe medium is able to receive impressions ofthe “spirits,” that mental image will be imper-sonated with all the creative abilities thatreside in the almost limitless range of subjec-tive intelligence.

M Delving Deeper

Barbanell, Maurice. Spiritualism Today. London: Her-bert Jenkins, 1969.



Uphoff, Walter and Mary Jo. New Psychic Frontiers.Gerrards Cross, Bucks, Great Britain: ColinSmythe, 1975.

Mediums and Channelers

The idea that humans survive physicaldeath, that some part of the humanbeing is immortal, profoundly affects

the lives of those who harbor such a belief.While Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and manyother religions promise their followers someform of a life after death, many thousands ofmen and women feel that they have proof of alife beyond the grave based on the evidence ofsurvival that manifests through spirit mediums.

Some psychical researchers maintain thatthe principal difference between a psychic-sensitive and a trance medium is that the psy-chic attributes his or her talents to some man-ifestations of extrasensory ability, such asclairvoyance, precognition, or telepathy,whereas the medium credits his or her abilitiesto the interaction with spirits.



THE idea that humans survive physical death,profoundly affects the lives of those who harbor such a belief.

Mediums most often relay messages fromthe other side through the agency of a spiritcontrol or spirit guide, an entity who claimsto have lived on Earth and acquired certainskills, knowledge, and wisdom before its ownphysical death. The concept of a spirit guidedates back to antiquity, and serious scholarsand researchers have been asking the samequestion for hundreds of years: Is this allegedentity, who claims to speak through the medi-um, really a spirit, or is it the voice of themedium’s subconscious?

Some mediums would probably concedethat the action of the subjective mind is notentirely eliminated during trance and thearrival of the spirit control, but from theirviewpoint their subconscious is taken over bythe guide. An aspect of mediumistic phenom-ena on which both psychical researchers and

mediums will be likely to agree is that there isan intelligence that directs and controls them.Another area of agreement would probably bethat this intelligence is a human intelligence.Once again, the area of dispute would bewhether that human intelligence issues fromthe living or from the dead. Interestingly, spir-it communication still requires both a souland a body—the soul of an alleged deceasedhuman personality and the physical body ofthe medium.

In the 1970s, after the publication of JaneRoberts’s (1929–1984) books The Seth Materi-al and Seth Speaks, “channeling” became amore popular name for mediumship, and itremains so to the present day. Jane Robertsreceived contact with an entity named Sethafter undergoing a trance state while RobertButts, her husband, recorded the thought,ideas, and concepts communicated by thespirit in notebooks. The material dictated bySeth was literate and provocative, and espe-cially well-suited to a generation of maturingsixties’ flower children and baby boomers. Itwasn’t long before Seth discussion groupsaround the United States were celebratingsuch concepts as the following: 1) We all cre-ate our own reality; 2) Our point of power liesin the present; and 3) We are all gods couchedin “creaturehood.” Nor was it long before“channelers” were emerging in large numbersthroughout the country, and individuals suchas Jach Pursel, Kevin Ryerson (1953– ), andJ. Z. Knight (1946– ) had attained nationaland international celebrity status.

Perhaps in the mind of the channelers, thedesignation of “mediums” conjured up imagesof the traditional darkened seance parlors andectoplasmic spirit guides, imagery that hadbecome unacceptable to the modern spiritcommunicator, who more often relays mes-sages from guides and master teachers in thefull light of a platform setting or a televisionstudio and seldom claims to materialize any-thing other than an engaging performance forthe assembled audience. Then, too, just as inthe 1930s when mediums were often com-pared to radio receiving sets for transmissionsfrom the spirit world, it likely occurred tosomeone that the contemporary mediummight be thought of as being similar to a



Berkeley

Psychic Institute

Berkeley Psychic Institute (BPI), throughoutCalifornia—with locations in Berkeley,Mountain View, Sacramento, and SantaRosa—refers to itself as “a Psychic Kin-

dergarten.” The meaning of kindergarten, in this case,is the virtual playground in the psychic field, a place forexploring what it means to be psychic.

Since 1973, the BPI has taught students how torecognize and develop their own psychic abilitiesthrough classes in clairvoyance, meditation, healing,and male and female energy. Since that time, morethan 100,000 students have taken classes, and anadditional 4,000-plus have graduated from a one-yearintensive clairvoyant training program.

Sources:

Berkeley Psychic Institute. http://www.berkeleypsychic.com/

BPI/bpi.html. 15 October 2001.

human television channel, receiving thoughtsand images from beyond. Whichever title ispreferred by those who claim to relay messagesfrom the spirits, the process of communicationremains the same: Spirit entities occupy thephysical body of the channelers or the medi-ums and speak through them.

Although the very idea of establishing con-tact with great spirit teachers from the beyondor from other dimensions of reality seemed newand exciting to the great masses of men andwomen in the 1970s, from the viewpoint ofthose individuals who research such matters itseemed only as though another cycle had onceagain reached its season and general publicinterest in spirit contact had returned. It wastime again to recognize those sensitive men andwomen—modern-day shamans, so to speak—who were carrying on the tradition of spirit

communication first set in motion in the nine-teenth century by such great mediums as DanielDunglas Home (1833–1886), Mina “Margery”Crandon (1889–1941), Leonora E. Piper(1857–1950), and Eileen Garrett (1892–1970)—all of whom were quite likely to becompletely unknown to the general public andeven, perhaps, to the contemporary crop ofchannelers themselves. In addition to the pio-neer work accomplished by such long-forgottenspirit mediums as those named above, the entireNew Age Movement of the late twentieth cen-tury owes a great debt to the controversial Hele-na Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891), who wasthe first to popularize “channeling” wisdomfrom ancient teachers and masters, as well as themystique of past lives and lost worlds.

In 1987, the ABC television network pre-sented a miniseries based on actress Shirley



Boundary Institute, in Los Altos, California, isa nonprofit scientific research center,focusing on the development and explo-ration of physics, quantum theories of

physics, mathematics and their linked relationships.

Asserting they are beginning to understand andexplain psi phenomena—without contradicting exist-ing well-established physical laws—they use thestandard tools of science, such as grounded theo-retical development, carefully controlled experiments,statistical analyses and replication, and collaborationwith other researchers.

One of the most popular features is the institute’sOn-Line Experimental Program, focusing in the areasof psi and the psychic. Also of interest is backgroundinformation on psychic phenomena, profiles of thestaff and research associates, and various papers andarticles about the theories they are developing and theexperimental evidence that has been accumulated.

Sources:

Boundary Institute. http://www.boundaryinstitute.org. 15 October

2001.

Boundary

Institute—Got psi?

MacLaine’s (1934– ) book Out on a Limb(1987), which dealt with many subjects excit-ing to New Age enthusiasts, such as reincarna-tion, extraterrestrial visitation, ancient myster-ies, and spirit communication. Perhaps themost captivating segments of the miniseriesdepicted MacLaine receiving spirit communi-cation through channeler Kevin Ryerson. Theactress and the channeler played themselves inthe five-hour dramatization on prime-time tele-vision, and an international audience of mil-lions were able to see for themselves how TomMcPherson, the 400-year-old spirit of an Irish-man, spoke through Ryerson to adviseMacLaine. Due to the popularity of Out on aLimb as a book and as a miniseries, channelingbecame a kind of craze throughout NorthAmerica. The actress herself conducted a seriesof seminars in which she openly discussed her

beliefs in past lives, UFOs, and spirit communi-cation. Channeling and the claimed accessibil-ity of the world beyond death achieved a peakof popularity which led to an outpouring oftelevision programs, motion pictures, books,New Age expos, psychic fairs, and the “birth”of new channelers in a virtual cosmic popula-tion explosion. The interest in channelers andafter-death communication continues to findits expression in such individuals as SylviaBrowne (1936– ), James Van Praagh (ca.1960– ), and John Edward.

Even in this day of mass communication,Skylabs, the Internet, and increasingly sophis-ticated technology people are still fascinatedby mediumship, channeling, and contactingthe spirit world. According to J. Z. Knight(1946– ), another of Shirley MacLaine’sfavorite channelers, through her guide,Ramtha, believes the reason for their contin-ued popularity is that there really aren’t anymysteries left in humankind’s material jour-ney. Millions of people have reached a kind ofpeak in their evolution. Knight explained:“This has nothing to do with class distinction.Rich and poor, superstars and mediocrity alikefeel that there must be more to life than this.The rich ask if there isn’t more to life thanmaterial things. They also ask, ‘Who am I?’‘Why am I doing this?’ The poor ask if thereisn’t more to life than strife and suffering.”

Knight says that Ramtha, the 35,000-year-old warrior from Lemuria who speaks throughher, calls this point in people’s lives the “timeof fantastic realism.” Ramtha also said that thehuman journey has reached a point when theself seeks to turn inward to self-examination.“In this age of communication and travel andthe media, we have all been brought so closetogether,” Knight said. “There really isn’tmuch left to discover about our binary-think-ing world. The next step will have to be thatthe analogical mind takes things into a differ-ent perspective, and we find ourselves in an‘unknown mind,’ discovering what the ulti-mate journey is all about.”

M Delving Deeper

Christopher, Milbourne. Mediums, Mystics & theOccult. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1975.



Rhine

Research Center

The Rhine Research Center is the succes-sor to the Duke University ParapsychologyLaboratory. It carries forward Duke’sresearch mission to explore unusual expe-

riences. Located adjacent to Duke University’s EastCampus in Durham, North Carolina, the center offers avariety of lectures, workshops, guest speakers, andconferences, in addition to courses.

Sources:

Rhine Research Center. http://www.rhine.org. 15 October 2001.

Klimo, Jon. Channeling: Investigations on ReceivingInformation from Paranormal Sources. Los Angeles:Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1987.

Maclaine, Shirley. Out on a Limb. New York: BantamBooks, 1983.

Paranormal News. http://paranormal.about.com/science/paranormal/library/blnews.htm. 1 Octo-ber 2001.

Weinberg, Steven Lee, ed. Ramtha. Eastsound, Wash.:Sovereignty, Inc., 1986.

Sylvia Browne (1936– )

Spiritual advisor, trance medium, and psy-chic detective Sylvia Brown has proclaimedthat her goals are to prove that the soul sur-vives death, that God is a real and lovingpresence, and that there is a divine plan toeveryone’s life.

Browne is an example of the modern chan-nel/medium who has become a media person-ality, thanks to her 27 years of making televi-sion and radio talk show appearances, 47 yearsof giving psychic readings, and 25 years of con-ducting paranormal research. Slowly building areputation as a psychic-sensitive and trancechanneler in California throughout the sixties,seventies, and eighties, Browne arrived uponthe national scene in December of 1998 whenshe appeared on the Montel Williams Show topromote her biography, Adventures of a Psychic.The best-selling book was quickly followed in1999 by The Other Side and Back: A Psychic’sGuide to Our World and Beyond. These books,coupled with her appearances on Larry KingLive, the Montel Williams Show, and UnsolvedMysteries, soon increased her popularity quo-tient to celebrity status.

Born Sylvia Shoemaker in Kansas City,Missouri, in 1936, she first gave evidence ofher psychic ability at the age of five when sheexperienced frightening premonitions of thedeaths of her two great-grandmothers justweeks before their passing. Fortunately for thesensitive child, she had her grandmother, AdaCoil, an established and respected psychiccounselor and healer, to guide her and to helpher to understand her paranormal talents,including the ability to communicate withthose in the spirit world. Developing as a deeptrance medium, Browne learned to allow her

guide “Francine” to enter her body and com-municate directly with people.

For many years Sylvia Browne quietlyshared her insights with family and friendsand became well known in the Kansas Cityarea for her talent in helping people foreseetheir future. Even after moving to Californiain 1964, she continued assisting people on aprivate basis.

About 10 years after making the move tothe West Coast, Browne decided that afterhaving spent 18 years as a Catholic school-teacher, she now wished to research the para-normal and her own psychic abilities througha professionally established and legally sanc-tioned organization. In 1974, she incorporatedthe Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research,a nonprofit organization known today as theSylvia Browne Corporation. Soon the read-ings in her home with a dozen or so friends inattendance had grown to gatherings of two orthree hundred people in churches and townhalls. Although she was raised predominantlya Roman Catholic, she was familiar with theJewish, Episcopalian, and Lutheran back-grounds of her extended family. In 1986, sheestablished a church called the Society ofNovus Spiritus (New Spirit), which, thoughbased essentially upon Christian Gnostic the-



Kevin Ryerson,

channeler. (ARCHIVES OF

BRAD STEIGER)

ology, rejects the concepts of sin, guilt, andretribution and is devoted to the building of aspiritual community that loves both theFather and Mother God.

While many spirit mediums reject reincar-nation as contradictory to their concept of thedivine program of spiritual evolution for thespirits of the deceased on the other side,Sylvia Browne accepts past lives as a centraltheme in her philosophy. She states that shehas conducted thousands of hypnotic regres-sions and hundreds of trance sessions, whichhave convinced her that to understand thelaws of karma/reincarnation is to possess oneof the keys to understanding the true meaningof life. Browne is not dogmatic regarding anyof her personal views, however, and she makesa point not to force her beliefs on anyone else.

There are hazards in establishing a highprofile as a medium or a psychic-sensitive.Orthodox religionists condemn them as satan-ic; skeptics accuse them of exaggerating theirclaims of success; and nearly everyone chargesthem with being in the “spooky” business onlyto take money from the gullible and the griev-ing. In addition, various research groups oftendemand to conduct their own tests to decidewhether or not the medium or the psychic haswhat they deem true paranormal abilities.

Brill’s Content (2001) claimed to haveexamined 10 of the Montel Williams pro-grams that featured Browne’s work with thepolice as a “psychic detective,” dealing with35 cases. According to their analyses, in 21the details were too vague to be verified. Ofthe 14 cases remaining, interviews with thelaw-enforcement officers involved in theinvestigations or family members of the vic-tims produced comments that Browne hadcontributed nothing of value to the solving ofthe cases.

Regardless of the skeptics and the criticswho seek to undermine her reputation, SylviaBrowne has counseled hundreds of men andwomen who will attest to the value and accu-racy of her psychic readings. According to hersupporters, Browne has been able to helpthousands of men and women gain control oftheir lives, understand the deeper meaning oflife, and find God in their own individual way.

M Delving Deeper

Browne, Sylvia. Life on the Other Side: A Psychic’s Tourof the Afterlife. New York: E. P. Dutton, 2000.

Browne, Sylvia, and Lindsay Harrison. The Other Sideand Back: A Psychic’s Guide to Our World andBeyond. New York: Signet, 2001.

Browne, Sylvia, and Lindsay Harrison. Past Lives,Future Healing: A Psychic Reveals the Secrets toGood Health and Great Relationships. New York:Penguin, 2001.

Florence Cook (1856–1904)

In his book Researches into the Phenomena ofSpiritualism (1874), Sir William Crookes(1832–1919), the famous and respectedBritish scientist, states that he walked with amaterialized spirit form, talked with it, andtook more than 40 flashlight photographs ofthe entity. The lively and charming spirit formwas named Katie King, and she materializedthrough the mediumship of a teenager namedFlorence Cook.

When she was 15, Cook began sitting inseances with her mother in their home inManchester, England, and she soon found thatshe was capable of producing writing sheclaimed was dictated by spirits from the otherside. Her mediumship progressed rapidly, andwithin a short period of time, she was conduct-



Channel Sylvia Browne

(1936– ) has been on

numerous talk shows,

including the Montel

Williams Show. (SYLVIA

BROWNE CORPORATION)

ing dramatic demonstrations of spirit phenom-ena at meetings of the Dalston Society, a Spiri-tualist group. At some of these meetings thephenomena became so powerful that Cook waslevitated above the heads of the sitters.

It was at this time that the teenaged medi-um met the spirit personality of “Katie King,”who claimed to be the daughter of John King,alias Henry Owen Morgan, the infamous buc-caneer. King promised to be Cook’s spirit con-trol and to produce many types of remarkablephenomena for a period of three years.

Cook was conducting her seances only ather parental home, and her father, mother,two sisters, and their household maid served asher steady circle of sitters. The teenager’s rep-utation as a medium of remarkable talents hadspread, and wealthy citizens of Manchesterwere offering retainers that would guaranteetheir attendance at her spirit circles wheneverthey required them.

In April of 1872, Katie King made anattempt to materialize, and she appeared onlyas a deathlike face between the gauze curtainsof a seance cabinet. As spirit and mediumstrengthened their spiritual bond, King’s abili-ty to materialize became more and moreadvanced. Then, after a year’s time, the spiritbeing could step out of the cabinet and showherself in full body to those who had gatheredfor Cook’s seances. Sitters were allowed totouch her and even to photograph her.

As the spirit responded to questions con-cerning her life before death, she told a storyof having been in the crowd that watchedKing Charles I of England lose his head at thechopping block in 1649. She had been but 12then, and within a few more years, she wasmarried. King confessed, however, to havingbeen a violent, rather than a domestic, type;and she related with a macabre kind of eager-ness how she had herself “done in” many peo-ple with her own hands before her death atthe age of 23.

In a letter written February 3, 1874, SirWilliam Crookes described a seance in whichCook entered the spirit cabinet and slippedinto trance. Moments later, Katie Kingemerged to say that the medium was not wellenough that night to permit her to materialize

to the level where she might wander very farfrom the cabinet. The spirit form did come ashort distance amidst the sitters, but all thewhile they could hear the moanings and sob-bings of Florence Cook.

Crookes stated that he sat in a positionwhere he could clearly see the entranced formof Florence Cook and the materialized form ofKatie King at the same time. Although he wasimpressed by the lifelike quality of the spiritcontrol and by the fact that he could both seeand hear Florence Cook while Katie Kingmoved elsewhere in the seance room, the sci-entist was not firmly convinced by thedemonstration.

At a later sitting, when Cook was feelingbetter, Katie King materialized for nearly twohours. Crookes reported that the charmingspirit took his arm as she walked, and he foundit hard to believe that his lovely companioncould indeed be a visitor from beyond thegrave. He asked permission to clasp King inhis arms and was astonished when his requestwas granted.

During that same seance when he wasallowed to touch the materialized spirit form,Crookes was also able to compare the featuresof the young medium and the spirit whenKing stood behind the form of the entrancedFlorence Cook. The medium lay in her cus-tomary black velvet dress, and the spirit formstood behind the couch in her flowing whitedrapery. Then, holding one of the medium’shands in one of his, Crookes knelt before thespirit and passed a lamp slowly up and downthe whole figure of Katie King. Such a meticu-lous and brightly illumined examination thor-oughly satisfied the eminent scientist that hehad beheld a materialized spirit being and not“the phantasm of a disordered brain.”

Crookes repeated the process three times,in each instance pausing to examine yet anoth-er aspect of either the spirit or the medium,whose psychic energy had manifested the spiritform. Later, in addition to a number of decideddifferences between the medium and the spirit,he listed various points of physical dissimilari-ties that he had observed between FlorenceCook and Katie King: King was a good four andone-half inches taller than the medium. The



skin of the spirit form’s neck was very smoothboth to touch and to sight, while Florence hada large blister on her neck that was distinctlyvisible and rough to the touch. Katie’s ears wereunpierced, while Florence habitually wore ear-rings. King’s complexion was very fair, whileCook’s was very dark. The spirit entity’s fingerswere much longer than the medium’s, andKing’s face was also much larger.

For a period of over six months, Crookesstudied the phenomena of Florence Cook atclose hand. For as long as a week at a time, theyoung medium would be a guest at theCrookes’s residence, constantly in the pres-ence of some member of his family. Crookesbecame so familiar to the spirit that KatieKing would allow him to enter the seance cab-inet whenever he wished or to touch her atany time. The scientist wrote that it was acommon thing for the seven or eight workersin his laboratory to view the materialized Kingin full glare of the electric lights.

After he had seen the spirit many times inthe full light of his laboratory environment,Crookes added to the points of differencebetween the medium and the spirit form. Inan article for a newspaper, he stated that hehad the most absolute certainty that FlorenceCook and the materialized entity were twoseparate individuals, so far as their physicalbodies were concerned. There were severalsmall blemishes on Cook’s face which wereabsent on King’s. The medium’s hair was avery dark brown, whereas the spirit’s hair wasa rich golden auburn.

On the evening of Katie King’s finalappearance in the seance cabinet, she gaveeach of the members of the circle a farewellmessage and relayed a few general directions forthe future well-being of Florence Cook.Crookes stated that after the spirit being hadclosed the curtains of the cabinet, she con-versed with him for some time, then walkedacross the room to where the medium was lyingon the floor in a state of deep trance. Stoopingover her, King touched Cook and said, “Wakeup, Florrie. Wake up! I must leave you now.”

Crookes testified that the medium and thematerialized spirit conversed with one anotherfor several minutes, as Cook begged King to

stay with her a little longer. “My work isdone,” King told her. “God bless you.”

Sir William Crookes was outspoken in hisdefense of the validity of the phenomena pro-duced by the young medium Florence Cookand her spirit control, Katie King. “Every testthat I proposed [Florence Cook] agreed to,” hetold his scientific colleagues in the RoyalSociety. “She is open and straightforward inspeech.…Indeed, I do not believe she couldcarry on a deception if she wished totry.…And to imagine that an innocentschoolgirl of fifteen should be able to conceiveand then successfully carry out for three yearsso gigantic an imposture as this, and in thattime should submit to any test which might beimposed upon her, should bear the strictestscrutiny, should be willing to be searched atany time, either before or after a seance, andshould meet with even better success in myown house…does more violence to one’s rea-son and common sense than to believe [KatieKing] to be what she herself affirms.”

The controversy over the scientist and his“pet ghost” has not been quieted to this day.One of the most common theories proposedby the detractors of the phenomena producedby Florence Cook is that Sir William Crookesfell in love with the 15-year-old medium andthereby became blinded to her trickery.Although the issue has been muddied by suchcharges, the experiments and reports of anillustrious scientist with the courage to bringhis knowledge and training to psychicresearch stand as a matter of public record.

Florence Cook married Elgie Corner in1874 and about the same time acquired a newspirit control named Marie, who followed inKatie King’s ghostly footsteps by stepping outof the spirit cabinet, even singing and dancingto the delight of those clients assembled for aseance. At a sitting on January 9, 1880, duringa materialization seance, Sir George Sitwellreached into the spirit cabinet and grabbedMarie. When the lights came up, the livelyspirit Marie was found to be the medium Cookclad only in her corsets and petticoat andwrapped in white drapery.

Apologists for the medium argue that all ofthe incredible phenomena produced by Flo-



rence Cook Corner and witnessed by numer-ous psychical researchers, including the emi-nent scientist Sir William Crookes, shouldnot be dismissed because of one incident ofcheating. Skeptics counter that all of Cook’smediumistic materializations of Katie Kingand Marie were really dramatic imperson-ations for true believers in Spiritualism andthat Crookes had become too infatuated withthe young medium to be effectively objective.

Cook withdrew from public mediumshipuntil 1899, when she accepted an invitationfrom the Sphinx Society in Berlin to sit undertest conditions and demonstrate her abilities.According to many observers, the remarkablephenomena that Cook produced during thosetests went a long way toward clearing hersomewhat tarnished reputation.

Sir William Crookes stoutly maintainedthat Florence Cook had produced genuinespirit phenomena under the strictest of con-trols imposed upon her. When he learned ofher death, he expressed his deepest sympathyfor her family in a letter dated April 24, 1904,and declared that for many people their beliefin an afterlife was strengthened because of themediumship of Florence Cook.

M Delving Deeper

Brandon, Ruth. The Spiritualists. New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1983.

Fodor, Nandor. These Mysterious People. London:Rider & Co., 1935.

Mina “Margery” Stinson Crandon

(1888–1941)

Mina “Margery” Stinson Crandon ranks as oneof the most thoroughly investigated and con-troversial mediums of the twentieth century.Psychical researchers put the ever-cooperativewoman in uncomfortable situations, encasedher in awkward contraptions, and sometimeswound her in enough adhesive tape to makeher look like a mummy. In spite of such labori-ous efforts to disprove the validity of her phe-nomena, Margery Crandon again and againmaterialized spirits and performed astoundingfeats of psychokinesis, or mind over matter.

Mina Stinson was born in Canada in 1888and moved to Boston when she was quite

young. In 1918, after an unsuccessful mar-riage, she became the wife of a senior Bostonsurgeon, Dr. Le Roi Goddard Crandon, whosefamily dated back to the Mayflower. Theybought the house at Number 11 Lime Streeton Beacon Hill, and became popular inBoston society. Crandon was a highly respect-ed instructor at Harvard Medical School, andMina was known as a lady with a sharp andlively wit.

In 1923, Crandon became extremely inter-ested in psychical research, and he convincedMina and a number of their friends to begin toexplore the possibilities of contacting thedead. The group began with the customaryattempts at table-tipping and spirit raps, andCrandon was astonished when it became evi-dent that Mina was a powerful medium. Aftera few sessions Mina’s deceased brother Walter,who had died in a train crash in 1911,announced his presence as her spirit control



Mrs. Mina “Margery”

Crandon (1888–1941).


and within a brief period of time he beganspeaking through Mina and demonstrating awide variety of spirit phenomena. Walter,speaking in down-to-earth language, oftencolored with profanity, stated that it was hismission to perform the process of mind overmatter, rather than delivering flowery inspira-tional messages from the other side.

Although Mina was regularly producingdramatic phenomena, attendance to theseances were by invitation only in order toprotect Crandon’s standing at Harvard. Withina few months after they had begun the privateseances, the Crandons submitted to the firstformal investigation of Mina’s mediumshipunder the auspices of Professor WilliamMcDougall, head of Harvard’s Department ofPsychology, and a committee from the univer-sity. After five months of observation, thecommittee declared its opinion that the spiri-tistic mind over matter phenomena were pro-duced through fraudulent means.

In November of 1923, J. Malcolm Bird(1886–1964) of Scientific American magazineattended one of the Crandons’ seances andwas impressed with the spiritistic manifesta-tions he witnessed. At that time, ScientificAmerican was offering a prize of $2,500 to any-one who could provide conclusive proof thatpsychic phenomena truly existed, and Birdasked Mina to submit to a series of their tests.The investigating committee for the magazineincluded Harry Houdini (1874–1926), Here-ward Carrington (1880–1958), Dr. WalterFranklin Prince (1863–1934), Dr. D. F. Com-stock, Dr. William McDougall (1871–1938),and J. Malcolm Bird, secretary of the commit-tee. To protect Mina Crandon’s social stand-ing as the wife of a prominent Boston surgeonand Harvard professor, Bird gave her the pseu-donym of “Margery,” which is how she shall

always be remembered in the annals of psychi-cal research.

The tests began in January 1924 under thegeneral supervision of Crandon. The strictest ofcontrol conditions were enforced to ensure thatfraud of any kind, conscious or unconscious, onthe part of the medium could not go undetect-ed. The most controversial aspect of the testshas to do with the role of the famous magicianHarry Houdini in the experiments. Houdiniwas outspoken in his declarations that he hadexposed Margery as a fraud. The medium’sdefenders proclaim that the greatest myth inthe history of psychical research is that Houdi-ni caught Margery cheating and exposed her.On one point there is agreement: Houdiniseemed determined to expose Margery as a fakeby whatever means necessary.

During one night of tests, Houdini broughtan electric doorbell into the seance room andsaid that he would challenge the spirit to ring itfor the circle. Once Margery was in a trancestate, a low voice, that of Walter, the medium’sdeceased brother and her spirit control,bemoaned the presence of Houdini. “Still tryingto get some publicity by haunting seance rooms,eh?” the spirit voice taunted the magician.

Walter then directed Malcolm Bird, secre-tary of the committee, to take Houdini’s door-bell out of the room so that he might examineit and see what kind of trickery the magicianhad planned. Bird hesitated for a moment, thenpicked up the apparatus and left the room.When he returned a few moments later, Birdfrowned in displeasure at the magician, accus-ing him of having placed pieces of rubber onthe contact points of the bell so that it couldnot possibly ring. Houdini offered no defense ofhis actions, and he was admonished that dis-honesty would do the committee no service.

The words of admonishment were scarcelyout of Bird’s mouth when the electric bellbegan to ring in vigorous spurts of clangingsound, and Walter’s booming voice filled theseance room. “How does that suit you, Mr.Houdini?” the spirit control mocked.

Houdini’s tricks to confuse Margery weremethodically uncovered by the all-seeing spir-it guide Walter, and the magician’s attendanceat the sessions in the medium’s seance room



MINA “Margery” Stinson Crandon ranks asone of the most thoroughly investigated and

controversial mediums of the twentieth century.

became more and more infrequent. When thecommittee demanded that the magician makegood his boast that he could duplicate all theeffects that the medium had manifested dur-ing her seances, Houdini found that he hadsuddenly been called away on business.

The investigating committee from the Sci-entific American never seemed to exhaust theirlist of inventive tests by which they mightchallenge the abilities of the patient Margery.For one experiment, the medium allowed her-self to be encased in a wooden compartmentwhich would permit only her arms and legs toprotrude. With her limbs grasped firmly by theresearchers, Margery was still able to ring bells,snuff out candles, and set in motion rockingchairs on the opposite side of the room.

In order to better investigate the spiritvoices that seemed to be under Margery’s con-trol, the committee carefully measured anamount of colored water that would easily fillher mouth. With her mouth full of the coloredwater, the voices of Walter and other entitieswere still able to speak freely and to answer allquestions put to them. After the experiment’scompletion, the water was removed from themedium’s mouth and remeasured. The colorremained the same and the amount of waterwithdrawn varied not more than a teaspoonful.

The water test had not adequatelyimpressed all the investigators, however, sothey devised a balloon which could be placedin the medium’s mouth and inflated while theseance was in progress. Once again, the voiceswere able to engage in free discourse, eventhough Margery’s larynx was completelyblocked off. A number of the spirit voicesexpressed their scorn with the feeble attemptsthat the investigators were making in anattempt to mute them.

Although Margery was always remarkablypatient and good-humored regarding the teststhat the committee devised, there were someovereager members among the researcherswho did not return her good will. Before theresearch seances had begun, each of the inves-tigators had signed an affidavit stating thatnone of them would touch the ectoplasm thatstreamed forth from the medium’s body, buton one occasion, a committee member seized

the substance as it moved over his wrist.Margery emitted a terrible shriek of pain, andlater she became ill and hemorraged for sever-al days. Another time when she was in deeptrance, a researcher drove a thick needle intoher flesh. Although the medium did not flinchwhile entranced, she suffered greatly from thewound when she awakened. On still anotheroccasion, Margery was badly burned by corro-sive chemicals which a zealous investigatorhad designed for an experiment.

After six weeks of tests, the committeeremained undecided as to the validity of thephenomena produced by Margery, but anenthusiastic J. Malcolm Bird began writingpositive articles concerning the authenticityof the medium’s abilities. When it seemedapparent that there was no general consensusaccepting or rejecting Margery’s mediumshipas providing proof of survival, Houdinibecame furious, fearing that they were aboutto hand over the prize money of $2,500 to theCrandons. Because of his open and much pub-licized skepticism of spirit mediums and Spiri-tualists, Houdini felt that his very reputationas a master magician was being challengedand insulted, so he wrote his own report, Hou-dini Exposes the Tricks Used by the Boston Medi-um Margery, and had it published as a bookletin 1924. As should be obvious from the title,Houdini presented his own explanations ofhow each of the phenomena manifested byMargery had been accomplished throughtrickery. The angry magician even went so faras to accuse two of his fellow committee mem-bers, Hereward Carrington and J. MalcolmBird, of having assisted Margery in perpetrat-ing her fraudulent mediumship.

In spite of crude and careless acts on thepart of certain members of the committeethroughout the grueling tests, Margery Cran-don retained her goodwill toward the persis-tent investigators and produced a remarkablevariety of phenomena, ranging from breezes,raps, spirit writing in several languages, inde-pendent voice manifestations, apports, and theimprint of spirit fingerprints in paraffin. Manymembers of the committee made public decla-rations that Margery Crandon had control offorces beyond the present knowledge of twen-tieth-century science. Hereward Carrington



went on record as stating that after attendingmore than 40 sittings with Margery he hadarrived at the “…definite conclusion that gen-uine supernormal would frequently occur.Many of the observed manifestations mightwell have been produced fraudulently…how-ever, there remains a number of instanceswhen phenomena were produced and observedunder practically perfect control.”

Unfortunately for Margery and her manyfriends and supporters, it was discovered that afingerprint that had been allegedly left in waxby Walter was found to be that of a Bostondentist, Dr. Frederick Caldwell, who admittedthat he had given Margery a bit of wax inwhich his own print had been pressed. Onesuch exposure of fraud could not prove that allof Margery’s spirit phenomena had been pro-duced as products of clever deception, as Hou-dini had declared, but the falsification of herspirit control’s fingerprint caused the majorityof researchers who had examined and testedher mediumship to decide that perhaps shehad, after all, been too good to be true.

Mina Crandon herself remains a mystery.The most famous medium of the 1920s hasbecome a martyr in the minds of Spiritualists,a courageous woman who submitted to testafter complex test for the sake of demonstrat-ing the truth of survival after death. For psy-chical researchers, she stands as a classicexample of a talented medium who, thoughcapable of occasionally producing genuinephenomena, from time to time resorted totrickery. For the skeptics, she is simply anotherclever fraud who deceived the gullible untilshe was exposed by the harsh light of scientificinvestigation.

Mina Stinson Crandon died in her sleepon November 1, 1941. Although she was saidto have spent her final years unhappy and dis-illusioned, tending to her husband during along convalescence, then succumbing herselfto illness, her supporters never ceased toremind her that her fame as a medium wasknown throughout the world.

M Delving Deeper


Steiger, Brad. Voices from Beyond: Do They Prove Sur-vival? New York: Award Books; London: TandemBooks, 1968.

Tietze, Thomas R. Margery. New York: Harper &Row, 1973.

John Edward

John Edward is an internationally acclaimedpsychic medium. At the age of 31, he hasattained the ability to touch the deepestaspects of the human spirit: longing andcuriosity.

The debut of his highly rated cable TVshow, Crossing Over with John Edward, on theSci Fi Channel, went from a large audience of275,000 households to more than 614,000households within a year and was moved fromlate-night to prime-time, five days a week. Hisoverwhelming popularity bought him syndica-tion and a network spot on CBS.

Born and raised John MaGee Jr. in LongIsland, New York, to a father who was apoliceman, Edward remembers exhibiting at avery young age an uncanny ability to “know”family history and events that took placebefore he was even born.

It wasn’t, however, until Edward had areading with Lydia Clar, a famed psychic fromNew Jersey, that he embarked on developinghis abilities. At age fifteen, it was Clar whomade him aware that his psychic abilities wereextraordinary and should be used to help andassist others. Before his reading with her,despite being somewhat aware of his child-hood abilities, Edward said he was actuallyquite skeptical. He did not believe Clar whenshe said his destiny was to be a medium.

Attributing the nourishing environmentand acceptance of his family to “psychic phe-nomena,” Edward found it easy to flourish andeventually fine tune his gifts. Graduating fromcollege with a degree in public administrationand health care administration, he was able tomaintain a management position in a healthcare facility in the Northeast, while continu-ing his research in the field of parapsychology.He also made time for lecturing, teaching,writing, and doing readings for others, untilthe demand for his time and ability grew to



such a point that he decided to devote himselfexclusively to “speaking to the dead.”

In a June 18, 1998, interview with LarryKing on Larry King Live, Edward explained:

Basically, I act as a bridge, I gobetween the physical world and thenon-physical world. And what I do—I’m somewhat of a waiter—I go to theother side, not literally go there, but Igo to the other side and get informa-tion and I bring it out and I serve myclient the information and hope thatthey understand it.

Elaborating on “how” the energy comesfrom the “other side,” Edward says it comes indifferent ways: “clairvoyance” (clear-seeing),“clairaudience” (clear-hearing), “clairsen-tience” (clear-sensing), “clairalience” (clear-smelling), and “clairhambience” (clear-tast-ing). Then it is up to him to interpret what isbeing communicated through these varioussenses, or what the loved ones on the otherside are trying to communicate.

Detractors such as James Randi, a.k.a.“Amazing Randi” (of the James Randi Educa-tional Foundation in Fort Lauderdale, Flori-da), say that Edward does nothing more thando “cold readings”—using the same techniquethat has been long used by magicians to enter-tain and mediums. The technique involvesposing a series of questions and suggestions,each shaped by the subject’s previousresponse. For example, a generic statementmight be uttered, such as, “I sense a father-fig-ure here,” and when that gets a response,adding something like, “I’m getting that hisdeath resulted from a problem in his chest”(which Randi says can be anything from aheart attack to emphysema to lung cancer). Ifthe subjects answers “no,” then the response isnormally, “Well, I’ll get back to that.…”

Others say Edward’s show benefits fromthe use of “creative editing.” They argue thatmany of the “misses” are left out of the finalairing and the successes “enhanced.” Someeven suggest that a lot of information comesfrom detailed questionnaires filled out by theaudience members, who go through a strin-gent selection process before being acceptedon the set.

The skeptics haven’t deterred the vastnumbers of people who feel that John Edwardhas helped them deal with loss, grief, and clo-sure, and given them the ability to move onwith their lives. Edward’s book One Last Time,released in November 1999, hit number oneon the L.A. Times’ best-seller list. Edward hasalso been featured in the HBO documentaryLife Afterlife and appeared not only on LarryKing Live, but on Leeza, Roseanne, Maury,Sally, Entertainment Tonight, The Crier Report,and Charles Grodin—among others.

M Delving Deeper

About John Edward.http://www.johnedward.net/aboutjohn.htm. 15October 2001.

“Can the Living Talk to the Dead? Psychics say TheyConnect with the Spirit World, but SkepticsRespond: ‘Prove It.’” USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010620/3415680s.htm. 18 October 2001.

Edward, John. “After Death Communication.” ThePsychic Reader, June 1999. http://www.berkeleypsychic.com/Reader/archive/june99/afterdeathcommunication.html. 18 October 2001.

Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,104073~3~0~scifispsychictalk,00.html 28 March 2001.

Leon Jaroff. “Talking To The Dead.” Time Magazine,Vol. 157, No. 9: (March 5, 2001).

Arthur Augustus Ford (1896–1971)

In his autobiography written in collaborationwith Marguerite Harmon Bro, the highlyrespected medium Arthur Ford, an ordainedminister of the Disciples of Christ Church,explained the working relationship that heenjoyed with his spirit guide, Fletcher. WhenFord wished to enter trance, he would liedown on a couch or lean back in a comfort-able chair and breathe slowly and rhythmical-ly until he felt an in-drawing of energy at thesolar plexus. Then he focused his attention onFletcher’s face, as he had come to know it,until gradually he felt as if his guide’s face hadpressed into his own “at which instant there isa sense of shock,” as if he were fainting or“passing out.” At this point, Ford says, he losesconsciousness—and when he awakens at the



completion of a seance, it is as if he has had a“good nap.”

Born into a Southern Baptist family onJanuary 8, 1896, in Titusville, Florida, youngArthur had no real psychic experiences as achild, other than the occasional instanceswhen he seemed to know what people wereabout to say. He was drawn to the religion, buthe annoyed the local clergy with his persis-tence in asking questions about church doc-trines, especially those concerning life afterdeath. Although he was excommunicatedfrom the Baptist church at the age of 16, in1917 Ford entered Transylvania College inLexington, Kentucky on a scholarship, withthe intention of becoming a minister. His edu-cation was interrupted when the UnitedStates entered the First World War that sameyear, and Ford joined the army in 1918.

Ford advanced to the rank of second lieu-tenant, but he was not among the doughboyswho served in the trenches overseas. Althoughhe never saw action in Europe (the war endedsoon after he enlisted), Ford observed firsthandthe ravages of the terrible influenza epidemicas it struck the army camps. He began to havevisions concerning those who would die ofinfluenza, and at the same time, he heard thenames of the soldiers who would be killed inaction in Europe. For several frighteningmonths, Ford thought that he was goinginsane. It was not until he had returned to hisstudies at Transylvania College that Dr. ElmerSnoddy, a psychology professor, suggested thatFord might be experiencing some kind ofextrasensory phenomena, rather than insanity.

In 1922, Ford married Sallie Stewart andwas ordained a minister of the Disciples ofChrist Church in Barbourville, Kentucky. Hebegan to gain immediate attention as a power-ful presence in the pulpit, but his developingmediumistic abilities were creating an increas-ing amount of friction with his conventionalministry and his personal relationships. Afterfive years of marriage, he divorced his wife andleft the church to begin lecturing about lifeafter death. It was not long before his lectureappearances included his entering self-induced states of trance and relaying messagesfrom the spirit world to members of his audi-

ences. Ford’s spiritistic talents were ratherspontaneous and undisciplined, however,until he made the acquaintance of the greatHindu Yogi Paramhansa Yogananda(1893–1952), who taught him how to achievea Yogic trance state and establish control ofhis burgeoning psychic abilities.

In 1924, Ford encountered another impor-tant influence in his life, the entity Fletcher,who would become his spirit control. In thisparticular instance, it was more a matter ofreacquaintance, for Fletcher was a boyhoodfriend of Ford’s who had been killed in actionin Europe during World War I. With theadvent of Fletcher as his spirit guide, Fordbegan a lifepath that would soon lead to worldfame. In the late 1920s, Ford established theFirst Spiritualist Church of New York, the firstof numerous churches and spiritual organiza-tions that he would found or lead. Such lumi-naries as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) called him one of the most amazingmental mediums of all times.

In 1929, Ford received a message that hebelieved to have originated from the spirit ofthe late master magician Harry Houdini(1874–1926) and conveyed it to Mrs. Houdi-ni’s attention. Immediately a storm of fiercearguments pro and con erupted in the media. Itwas well known that before his death Houdinihad left a coded message with his wife that hewould attempt to send her from beyond thegrave to prove life after death. Some featurewriters championed the authenticity of Ford’srelayed after-death communication from Hou-dini, while others quoted his widow as sayingthat the message was not correct.

On February 9, 1929, however, accordingto Ford’s supporters, Beatrice (Bess) Houdiniwrote the medium to state with finality:“Regardless of any statement made to the con-trary: I wish to declare that the message, in itsentirety, and in the agreed upon sequence,given to me by Arthur Ford, is the correctmessage prearranged between Mr. Houdiniand myself.”

Eventually it came to be widely knownthat the various words in the Houdini codespelled out the secret message: “Rosabelle,believe.” Ford’s detractors argued that there



was nothing paranormal involved in themedium’s providing the secret message to Mrs.Houdini. Houdini’s spirit had not whisperedthe words to Ford, they insisted. Rather, Fordhad carefully studied an interview that BessHoudini had given the year before in whichshe had inadvertently revealed the code toseveral reporters when she explained that themessage her late husband would pass on fromthe world beyond was based on their oldvaudeville mind-reading routine that used asecret spelling code.

Arthur Ford was at the center of anothergreat afterlife controversy when Fletcherbrought forth Bishop James A. Pike’s son JamesA. Pike, Jr., who had committed suicide in Feb-ruary 1966, at the age of 22, as well as othercommunicating entities during a seance onSeptember 3, 1967. This particular seance,which took place in Toronto, Ontario, wasunique in that it was not limited to a drape-darkened room, but was taped and televised onCTV, the private Canadian television network.Allen Spraggett, the religion editor of theToronto Star and a former pastor of the UnitedChurch of Canada, arranged the seance andlater told the Associated Press that he believedthat during the seance there had been strongevidence for communication with the dead orof extrasensory perception at the least.

At the beginning of the seance, Fordplaced a dark handkerchief over his eyes, com-menting that it was easier to go into trance ifhe did not have light, and the bright lights ofthe television studio would make the recep-tion of the trance state that much more diffi-cult. Once he had attained the trance state,Fletcher soon made an appearance. Fletchersaid that he had two people eager to speak.The first communicating entity was that of ayoung man who had been mentally disturbedand confused before he departed. He revealedhimself as James A. Pike, Jr. He said howhappy he was to speak with his father. NextFletcher brought forward George Zobrisky, alawyer who had taught history at VirginiaTheological Seminary. Zobrisky said that hehad more or less shaped Bishop Pike’s think-ing, a point which the clergyman readily con-ceded. Louis Pitt then sent greetings to thebishop, who recognized Pitt as having been

acting chaplain at Columbia Universitybefore Pike had become chairman of theDepartment of Religion.

Fletcher next described an “old gentle-man,” who, after some discussion, Bishop Pikerecognized as Donald McKinnon, a man whohad been the principal influence on his think-ing at Cambridge. The last spirit to come for-ward told Fletcher that he had called himselfan “ecclesiastical panhandler” in life. BishopPike appeared to know at once what man hadcarried such a humorous self-described title.Allen Spragget, serving as moderator, askedFletcher for a precise name. “Oh,” said thespirit control, “something like Black. Carl.Black. Block.”

“Carl Block,” Bishop Pike agreed, “thefourth bishop of California, my predecessor.”Then addressing the spirit directly, BishopPike said, “I admired and respected you, andyet I hoped you weren’t feeling too badlyabout some changes.”

Speaking through Fletcher, Bishop Blocktold his successor that he had done a “magnifi-cent job” and that he had “magnificent workyet to do.”

Bishop Pike said later that he did not seehow any research done by Arthur Ford couldhave developed such intimate details abouthis life and such facts about the roles that cer-tain individuals had played in shaping histhinking. He felt that the details had been“quite cumulative…not just bits and pieces,an assortment of facts.” Bishop Pike statedthat the information provided through Fletch-er had formed a pattern. “Also, the personswho purportedly communicated had onething in common—they were in varying waysconnected with the development of mythought. They knew me at particularly signifi-cant times in my life, turning-points.”

In many ways, the life of Arthur Ford wasquite tragic. In 1930, a truck went out of con-trol and struck the car in which he was drivingwith his sister and another woman as passen-gers. The two women were killed outright,and he suffered serious internal injuries, a bro-ken jaw, and crushed ribs. During his long hos-pitalization, he became addicted to morphineand attempted to free himself of the resultant



insomnia by drinking heavily. While at theheight of his popularity, he was also an alco-holic, suffering blackouts and failing to appearfor scheduled demonstrations.

In 1938, Ford married an English widow,Valerie McKeown, whom he had met while ontour, but in spite of their initial happinesstogether, his bouts with alcoholism doomed themarriage from the beginning. His public dis-plays of drunkenness had become so humiliat-ing that his faithful spirit control, Fletcher,threatened to leave Ford unless he began toexercise some degree of self-control. Ford con-tinued to drink and Fletcher left the medium.Soon thereafter, Ford entered a deep depressionand suffered a complete physical breakdown.

The Twelve-Step Program of AlcoholicsAnonymous managed to help Ford attain alevel of control over his drinking problem,though he was never able to give up alcoholcompletely. In the 1950s, Fletcher returned ashis spirit control, and Ford began once again toprovide demonstrations of afterlife communi-cations that many individuals found providedproof of survival of the spirit after death.Among Ford’s many positive accomplishmentsduring this period of revival was his participa-tion in the founding of Spiritual Frontiers Fel-lowship in 1956. Arthur Ford spent the finalyears of his life in Miami, Florida, where hedied of cardiac arrest on January 4, 1971.

M Delving Deeper

Ford, Arthur (as told to Jerome Ellison). The LifeBeyond Death. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons,1971.

Ford, Arthur, with Marguerite Harmon Bro. NothingSo Strange: The Autobiography of Arthur Ford.New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.

Spraggett, Allen. Arthur Ford: The Man Who Talkedwith the Dead. New York: New American Library,1973.

Steiger, Brad. The World Beyond Death. Norfolk, Va.:Donning, 1982.

Tribbe, Frank C., ed. An Arthur Ford Anthology.Nevada City, Calif.: Blue Dolphin, 1999.

Eileen Garrett (1893–1970)

Eileen Garrett, who became one of the mostrespected mediums of the twentieth century,

continued to study the phenomena of hermediumship throughout her long career, andshe consistently questioned the source of thepower that guided her for so many years.

Both of her parents committed suicideshortly after her birth in 1893 in Beauparc,County Meath, Ireland, and she was adoptedby an aunt and uncle. Garrett had what manyresearchers recognize as a typical medium’schildhood: She was ill a great deal, sufferedmany family tragedies at a young age, andbegan to experience visions and to see “peo-ple” who weren’t there. Little Eileen hadimaginary playmates, saw various forms oflight and energy around people and animals,and became aware at an early age that life didnot end with physical death when she saw akind of grayish smoke rising up from the bod-ies of pets after they died.

Garrett was plagued by tuberculosis andother respiratory illnesses throughout herchildhood, and when she was 15 she left Ire-land for the milder climate of England. Shelived there with relatives for only a short timewhen an older gentleman named Clive beganto call on her. After a courtship of a fewmonths, she married him, and during thecourse of their brief marriage, she bore himthree sons, all of whom died at young ages.She eventually gave birth to a daughter,Eileen, and succumbed once again to illhealth. By the time she had recovered, themarriage had ended in divorce.

During World War I, Garrett opened ahostel for convalescent soldiers. While shewas caring for the wounded men, she attractedthe attention of a young officer who asked herto marry him. Although she had a premoni-tion that their life together would be veryshort, she agreed to a marriage just before heleft for the front. Within a brief period of timeapart, she had a vision of his dying, and twodays later she received word that he was miss-ing in action. Shortly thereafter, she was noti-fied that he had been killed in Ypres. She wasrecuperating from yet another illness whenshe met a young man whom she married onemonth before the armistice in 1918—in spiteof the fact that her intuitive abilities informedher that this union would not become any



more permanent than her previous states ofmatrimony.

Eileen Garrett did not learn that she was atrance medium until shortly after thearmistice in November, when she accidentallyfell asleep at a public meeting in London andthe spirits of deceased relatives of the men andwomen seated around her began to speakthrough her. One gentleman present wasfamiliar with the phenomenon of medi-umship, and he explained to the youngwoman what had happened to her. He wenton to say that he had communicated with anAsian spirit named Uvani that had manifestedthrough her while she was entranced, and theentity had informed him that henceforth hewould serve as Eileen Garrett’s guide and spir-it control. Uvani had declared that togetherthey would do serious work to prove the valid-ity of the survival of the human spirit afterphysical death.

At first Garrett was horrified at theprospect of a spirit sharing her subconsciousand eavesdropping on her private thoughtsand her private life. For weeks she slept withthe light burning in her bedroom, fearful thatUvani might put in a materialized appearance.Such stress contributed to another bout of ill-ness, and her developing mediumship con-tributed to the breakup of her third marriage.Until she sought advice from James HewatMcKenzie (1869–1929), founder of the BritishCollege of Psychic Science, she was troubledby fear of the unknown and doubts about hersanity. Under the guidance of McKenzie andhis wife, Barbara, Garrett was assured that herspirit guide would not be at all interested inher daily life and that his whole purpose wasbased on a sincere wish to be of service tohumanity. Garrett concentrated on develop-ing her mediumship and studied with the col-lege until McKenzie’s death in 1929.

Although she had another of her premoni-tions concerning the transient nature of herrole as wife in the state of marriage, Garretthad fallen in love and planned to be marriedfor a fourth time. As strange as it might seem,both Garrett and her fiance became ill on thesame day. She barely survived a mastoid oper-ation, and he died of pneumonia. Confused

about the course in life she was to follow,Eileen Garrett decided to come to the UnitedStates and devote herself to the process ofunderstanding mediumship and survival afterdeath by submitting to an intense barrage oftests at the hands of academic parapsycholo-gists and psychical researchers.

Hereward Carrington (1880–1958), oneof the leading researchers during that period,had devoted decades to psychical investiga-tions, with a special emphasis on the variousphenomena of mediumship. After years ofscrupulous tests and experiments, he had con-cluded that 98 percent of all such phenomenaare fraudulent. But when he began a series oftests with Eileen Garrett, he declared her tobe a “medium’s medium.” He found that shewas a generous woman who had always been“on the fence” with regard to her own highlyacclaimed mediumship and who had offeredherself to science in a sincere effort to learnmore about the spirits who communicatedthrough her.

During the years in which she perfectedher ability to communicate with the spirits of



Eileen Garrett

(1893–1970). (FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

the deceased through her spirit guide, EileenGarrett often expressed doubts about Uvani’sspiritual independence and frequently voicedher suspicions that he might only be a segmentof her own subconscious mind. Eventually, shehad four trance communicators. Uvani, a four-teenth-century Arab soldier, remained alwaysas the control, but there was also Abdul Latif, aseventeenth-century Persian physician, whodealt primarily with healing, and Tahotah andRamah, who claimed no prior earthly incarna-tions and who spoke only seldom and then onphilosophical and spiritual matters. Such inde-cisiveness about the source of her abilities dis-mayed the Spiritualists, who in her develop-mental years in London, had tutored her withthe utmost seriousness.

Eileen Garrett became a persistent andhighly qualified researcher in her own right.In 1951, she founded the ParapsychologyFoundation, Inc., in New York City, and in1952 reestablished her magazine Tomorrow asa quarterly journal of psychic science. In 1959,the foundation began publishing the Interna-tional Journal of Parapsychology and in 1970,the Parapsychology Review. She also authoredsuch books as Adventures in the Supernormal(1949), The Sense and Nonsense of Prophecy(1950), and Many Voices: The Autobiography ofa Medium (1968).

In an article entitled “The Ethics of Medi-umship” for the Autumn 1960 issue of Tomor-row, Eileen Garrett stated that she was notone who “assumes that the gift of mediumshipnecessarily brings with it greater insight intothe phenomena of that mediumship.” Shegoes on to advise the serious medium to “with-draw herself from the ideas thrown out by theinquirer” and regard herself “as a mechanism,clear and simple, through which ideas flow.”According to an accomplished medium such

as Garrett, those who had similar gifts shouldput themselves into a “receptive mood” whichwill enable them to “accept the flow of eventsand ideas to be perceived and known.”

Continuing with this line of thought, shewrote:

If the medium allows herself to bethus used, things will happen of them-selves—a technique old as wisdomitself, and not contradictory to Zen.One allows the feminine perceptiveprinciple of the unconscious to emergeand thus one is not swamped by thedemanding consciousness of the self orthe inquirer. This instructive feminineelement is, according to Jung, the com-mon property of all mankind. It cannotbe coerced. It must be respected andnurtured.

To Eileen Garrett, mediumship was not a“breaking-down of the personality,” but a stateof wholeness. She regarded the tendency of“enthusiastic sitters to regard the medium aspriest or priestess” as the “major danger area inmediumistic activities.” She wisely concludedthat “…communication with the ‘other world’may well become a substitute for living in thisworld. Understanding that this world inwhich we live has priority in this existence isthe core of mediumship ethics.”

Eileen Garrett died on September 15,1970, in Nice, France, following a period ofdeclining health.

M Delving Deeper

Angoff, Allan. Eileen Garrett and the World Beyond theSenses. New York: William Morrow, 1974.



LeShan, Lawrence. The Medium, the Mystic, and thePhysicist. New York: Viking Press, 1974.

Daniel Dunglas Home (1833–1886)

The clientele of Daniel Dunglas Home was oneof the most exclusive that ever gathered aroundany one medium: Elizabeth Barrett Browning,Mark Twain, Napoleon III, the Empress Euge-nie, Tolstoy, and many other notables on both



TO Eileen Garrett, mediumship was not a“breaking-down of the personality,” but a state

of wholeness.

sides of the Atlantic. Home was poked andprobed and examined by dozens of scientists,and he graciously submitted to hundreds oftests by psychical researchers. No skepticalinvestigator ever succeeded in exposing him,and two of the most prestigious scientists of theday, Sir William Crookes (1832–1919) and Dr.Robert Hare (1781–1858), stated that, in theiropinion, the phenomena manifested by Homewas genuine. Home conducted over 1,500seances and produced phenomena at all times,under all manner of conditions, in broad day-light, under artificial lighting, indoors, out-doors, in private homes, in hotel rooms, and onpublic lecture platforms.

Born near Edinburgh, Scotland, on March20, 1833, Home was said to have been rockedin his cradle by unseen entities. His motherwas also said to have had the gift of “secondsight,” as clairvoyance was called in thosedays, and Mary McNeal Cook, an aunt whoadopted Home when he was but a year old,began noticing clairvoyant impressions fromthe child almost as soon as he began to speak.At the age of four he began having visionswhich proved to be accurate. A frail child whocontracted tuberculosis at an early age, Home’searly childhood was marked by long periods ofconvalescence. When he was nine, his auntand uncle moved to the United States, wherethey settled in Greeneville, Connecticut.

Home was 17 when the physical phenome-na which was to direct the course of his lifebegan to occur around him. In his memoirs,Home writes that he first heard “…three loudblows on the head of the bed as if it had beenstruck by a hammer.” His first impression wasthat someone had hidden in his bedroom tofrighten him, but the next morning at break-fast, the table at which he had seated himselfwas shaken nearly to pieces by a wild flurry ofrappings.

His aunt, near hysteria, left the home tosummon three clergymen from the village todrive the devil out of her house. Unable tomake the rappings cease with their prayers,the ministers advised Cook to ignore the dis-turbances.

While it may have been possible to heedthe ministers’ advice regarding the mysterious

rapping sounds, Cook found it impossible toignore the activity of the furniture whentables and chairs began to move about therooms. As the townspeople gathered to watchthe strange, unexplainable occurrences, Homegave his first impromptu seance. According toan account in the local newspaper, scores ofpeople from Greeneville and nearby commu-nities came to ask questions of the “talkingtable” in the Cook residence. The table wouldraise or lower a leg and tap out answers toqueries put to it by the astonished villagers,and even a strong man could not make theheavy table duplicate such movements whenHome was not there to control it.

By the early 1850s, his fame had spread,and the teenager was soon beleaguered by sci-entists, clergymen, and medical doctors, eachseeking to be the first to explain his mysteri-ous talents. Home’s powers began to growstronger, and numerous individuals testified toinstantaneous healings accomplished by theyoung medium. At the same time, Home dis-played an amazing ability to divine the futureand to clairvoyantly determine happenings atgreat distances.

In 1852, when, at the age of 19, he madehis first trip to New York, Home was eagerlyreceived by those who had been awaiting anopportunity to see firsthand the various won-ders that had been attributed to the youthfulmedium. Dr. Robert Hare, professor emeritusof chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania,attested to the absolute authenticity of Home’sstrange talents, but the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science refused tohear the report of its distinguished member.Although the association declined even toexamine Home or to witness any phenomenaproduced by him firsthand, the elite of NewYork society outdid themselves in bidding forthe medium’s appearance at their homes.



DANIEL Dunglas Home conducted over1,500 seances and produced phenomena at all times.

In 1855, after three years of exhaustivetests with those scientists who were not fearfulof risking their reputations by examining hismediumistic talents, Daniel Dunglas Home setout for England and France. The overseaspress had been awaiting the medium’s arrival,and so had the greatest hostesses of Londonsociety. Home soon captivated England asthoroughly as he had the United States.Those who attended his seances could expectto see spirit lights, to hear raps and the voicesof disembodied spirits, and perhaps even toexperience the thrill of being lifted into theair by unseen hands.

The English novelist Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1831–91), who was well versed in theoccult, reported a series of seances held in hishome in which the medium had set heavytables rolling like hoops, and invisible musicianshad played familiar melodies on accordions.Spirit hands and arms materialized, and Bulwer-Lytton claimed to have seen objects being trans-ported about the room by ethereal fingers.

In Florence, Italy, Home is reported tohave caused a grand piano, at which theCountess Orsini was seated, to rise into the airand to remain levitated until she had com-pleted the musical number that she had beenplaying. Home’s mediumship was witnessed bysuch members of the aristocracy as PrinceMurat, Napoleon III, and the Empress Euge-nie. During one seance, Napoleon Bonaparteappeared and signed his name, and his grand-son attested to its authenticity. The youngmedium’s demonstrations in Florence were ofsuch a dramatic nature that frightened whis-pers began to circulate that Daniel DunglasHome was one of Satan’s own. Public fervorbecame so heated that Home was attackedand wounded by an unknown assailant.

As he lay in pain recovering from hiswound, the spirits appeared to deal Home apsychological blow. They informed him thatthey would remove his powers for a period ofone year, beginning on February 10, 1856. Trueto their word, Home found that he was unableto summon any spirit control or to produce anyphenomena whatsoever after that date.

The 23-year-old medium traveled toRome, where he sought consolation in the

Roman Catholic Church. He was withoutfunds, ill, and sorely disillusioned with hisspirit guides for having deserted him. Homeexpressed a wish to shun everything pertain-ing to the material world, and for a time heconsidered entering a monastery. Althoughthe church became a mainstay to Home dur-ing his period of despondency, the relation-ship was terminated at the stroke of midnighton February 10, 1857, when Home’s bedsteadresounded with hearty spirit raps, and a voicefrom the other side announced the return ofhis powers of mediumship.

Father Ravignan, who had been Home’sconfessor and close friend, was convinced thatthe young man had been sincere about hisembracing the church, but the RomanCatholic clergyman could in no way sanctionmediumship and the contacting of spirits.Although Home was grateful to the churchthat had ministered to him during his hour ofgreatest need, he saw clearly that there couldbe no more harmony between them.

The wealthy and powerful of Europe hadbeen waiting to see if the medium’s powerswould truly return to him after their year ofdesertion. When Home reappeared on thescene, once again materializing spirit formsand producing raps on the walls, his eliteclientele immediately restored him to celebri-ty status. He demonstrated his dramatic con-trol of unseen forces before the courts ofNapoleon III, Empress Eugenie, and PrinceMurat, and won hundreds of new supporters.

Back in Rome, Home married Alexandri-na, the wealthy sister-in-law of a Russiannobleman. Alexander Dumas (1802–1870),the French novelist, was Home’s best man.The marriage ceremony was performed withboth Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodoxrites—a gesture that Home intended as anexpression of his good will toward the church,in spite of the interminable religious contro-versies in which he was embroiled.

It was in the presence of the Russian nov-elist Count Leo Tolstoy that Home first pro-duced the phenomenon with which he hascome to be most commonly associated in theannals of psychical research. In full view ofseveral sitters and with Tolstoy’s hands firmly



clasping his feet, Home levitated from hischair until he was seen floating above theheads of the members of the seance circle.

Home’s wife died in London in 1862, andwithout her contributions to their upkeepfrom her family’s wealth, he was forced to givelectures and other public demonstrations thatproved to be exhausting. He decided to returnto Rome and express his creativity throughsculpturing, rather than mediumship, but hewas ordered to leave Italy on the charge of sor-cery. He promised once again to abandon thesummoning of spirits, but Italian officials putlittle faith in such vows. Home was forced toleave the country, and he returned to Britainin 1864.

The single event in Home’s remarkablepsychic career that is most rememberedoccurred on the evening of December 13,1868, when he was seen to float out of thewindow of a third-floor home in AshleyHouse and return through another window torejoin the men who witnessed the extraordi-nary act of levitation. Among those whoobserved the feat were Captain Wynne, theEarl of Dunraven, and the Earl of Crawford,all men of solid character and integrity. Eversince the phenomenon was first reported,skeptics have insisted that the witnessesthemselves helped to perpetuate a fraud. Oth-ers have suggested that Home merely hypno-tized the illustrious men into believing that hefloated in and out of the windows on the thirdfloor or that he had discovered nasty secretsabout all of them and used blackmail to pres-sure them into going along with his account.

In 1869, William Thackeray’s publicationThe Cornhill Magazine printed an article whichcreated a sensation in all of England. Theauthor told of another seance in which DanielD. Home levitated from his chair to a heightof about four feet, then assumed a horizontalposition and floated about the room.

By then the controversy over the “WizardHome” had reached such proportions that thepress was demanding a scientific investigationof such remarkable feats. Sir William Crookesseemed to be the scientist most likely to suc-ceed in revealing Home’s alleged wonders ashoaxes, if he was a hoaxster. Crookes, a mem-

ber of the Royal Society, was a chemist andphysicist, inventor of the X-Ray tube, and ascientist eager to test the medium under thestrictest of laboratory conditions. Home didnot shrink from the challenge. On the con-trary, he appeared as eager as Crookes to enterinto a full series of experiments and tests. Heimposed no restrictions on Crookes’s probings,and he voiced no objection to producing allspiritistic phenomena in a bright light.

Crookes found that Home’s strange talentswere strong enough to resist the antagonisticinfluence of the laboratory. In one of his reportson the medium, Crookes stated that he wasprepared to attest that the phenomena he hadwitnessed “are so extraordinary and so directlyoppose the most firmly-rooted articles of scien-tific belief—[such as]…the ubiquity and invari-able action of gravitation—that even now, onrecalling the details of what I witnessed, thereis an antagonism in my mind between reason,which pronounces it to be scientifically impos-sible, and the consciousness that my sensesboth of touch and sight—and these corroborat-ed, as they were, by the senses of all who werepresent—are not lying witnesses when they tes-tify against my preconceptions.”

Crookes studied firsthand the full gamut ofHome’s phenomena, from levitation to themovement of objects. The physicist notedthat the movements were generally precededby “…a peculiar cold air, sometimes amount-ing to a decided wind. I have had sheets ofpaper blown about by it, and a thermometerlowered several degrees.” Crookes alsoobserved luminous points of light and glowingclouds that formed and often settled on theheads of various investigators. In someinstances, the scientist saw these luminousclouds form hands which carried small objectsabout the laboratory.

On one occasion, Crookes watched whilea beautifully formed small hand rose up froman opening in a dining table and handed hima flower before it disappeared. The scientisttestified that the materialization occurred inthe light of his own room while he was secure-ly holding the medium’s hands and feet. Dur-ing another such experiment when a handmaterialized before him, Crookes reached out



to clasp it, firmly resolving not to allow it toescape. He stated that there was no struggleon the part of the spirit hand, but it graduallyseemed to become vaporous and slowly fadedfrom his grasp.

A spirit form materialized in a corner ofthe laboratory during the course of one experi-ment, took up an accordion into its hands,and glided about the room playing the instru-ment. Crookes’s report of the incident indicat-ed that the phantom was visible for severalminutes before it disappeared at a slight cryfrom one of the female sitters. Intrigued bythis particular demonstration, Crookesdesigned a special cage wherein he placed anaccordion which he invited the spirit to play.During the laboratory-controlled experiment,the accordion floated about the “spook-proof”cage and unseen fingers played a variety ofmelodies on the keyboard of the instrument.

In addition to his famous feats of levita-tion—a phenomenon that Crookes personallywitnessed on three different occasions—Daniel Dunglas Home was well known for hisability to handle fire without being burned orincurring any ill effects. During one demon-stration, Crookes watched in astonishment as“…Home went to the fire, and after stirringthe hot coals about with his hand, took out ared hot piece nearly as big as an orange, andputting it on his right hand, covered it overwith his left hand so as to almost completelyenclose it, and then blew into the small fur-nace that extemporized until the lump ofcharcoal was nearly white-hot.…”

Sir William Crookes took extensive noteson all phases of Home’s abilities, and a num-ber of his reports were published in the Quar-terly Journal of Science. However, his col-leagues in the Royal Society of Science wereimmensely disappointed in his affirmationthat the phenomena produced by Home weregenuine. Most of the members of the presti-gious society of scientists had long beforemade up their minds that Daniel DunglasHome was a faker, and they had set SirWilliam Crookes to the task of exposing him.The chemist and physicist who had only ashort time before been acclaimed as one ofGreat Britain’s most brilliant scientists was

now being viciously attacked by his colleaguesas a gullible simpleton who had been taken inby Home’s parlor magic tricks.

Crookes stood firm, and he challenged hisfellow members of the Royal Society to provehis errors by showing him where the errors lay,by showing him how the medium’s tricks hadbeen performed. “Try the experiment fully andfairly,” Crookes answered his critics. “If thenfraud be found, expose it; if it be truth, pro-claim it. This is the only scientific procedure,and this it is that I propose steadily to pursue.”

Although the Royal Society stood as onein refusing to witness a new series of tests withHome, the ridicule that was heaped uponCrookes was not enough to greatly damage hissolid reputation. Twenty years later, when SirWilliam Crookes was president of the BritishAssociation for the Advancement of Science,he publicly reaffirmed that his previous assess-ment of the experiments with Daniel DunglasHome had been valid and that he found noth-ing to retract or to alter in his original findings.

In 1871, Home married for the secondtime, and once again his wife, Julie deGloumeline, came from a wealthy Russianfamily. He ceased giving mediumistic demon-strations for the public or for science duringthe 1870s, and on June 12, 1886, Daniel Dun-glas Home died from the tuberculosis that hadfirst assailed him in his youth. Home remainsone of the most remarkable figures of the nine-teenth century, and if one of the most respect-ed scientists of that era is to be believed, hewas one of the most amazing spirit mediumswho ever lived.

Although Home was accused many timesof fraudulent mediumism, in 1907 the respect-ed psychical researcher Hereward Carringtonstressed in his book The Physical Phenomenon ofSpiritualism (1907) that in spite of such persis-tent accusations, Daniel Dunglas Home wasnever exposed as a fraud. Such prominentmagicians as Harry Houdini (1874–1926) andJohn Mulholland, well known for their effortsto expose mediums as charlatans, claimed thatthey could duplicate Home’s phenomena, butthey never actually did so. Houdini evenannounced that he could duplicate the famousHome feat of levitating in and out of the third-



floor windows at Lord Adare’s home, but hecanceled the event without explanation.

M Delving Deeper

Brown, Slater. The Heyday of Spiritualism. New York:Hawthorn Books, 1970.

Edmonds, I. G. D. D. Home, the Man Who Talked withGhosts. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1978.


———. These Mysterious People. London: Rider &Co., 1935.

J. Z. Knight (1946– )

J. Z. Knight channels “Ramtha,” or “theRam,” for the purpose of presenting his mes-sage to humankind. The Ram says that helived only one time on Earth, 35,000 yearsago, as a young man from Lemuria who grewup in the port city of Onai in Atlantis.Through the vehicle of J. Z. Knight, who washis daughter in that existence, he claims thathe did not die a physical death during thatlifetime but learned to harness the power theof mind so that he could take his body withhim to an unseen dimension of life. Ramthastates that he is now a part of an unseenbrotherhood that loves humankind. He is,therefore, fulfilling a mission of aiding andpreparing humankind for a great event thathas already been set in motion.

Entertainers such as Shirley MacLaine,Linda Evans, and Richard Chamberlain havebeen in the audiences of Ramtha, along withthrongs of people around the United Statesand Canada. Since 1978, thousands havestudied the Ramtha videos, cassettes, andbooks. For a period of time, it seemed impos-sible to pick up a weekly tabloid without find-ing an article about Ramtha and his high-pro-file disciples in its pages. In 1988, Ramthafounded the School of Enlightenment on J. Z.Knight’s ranch in Yelm, Washington, whichcontinues to hold teaching seminars. Knightand her followers make clear that the schoolis neither a church nor a nonprofit organiza-tion. They pay business taxes and run theschool as a business.

Born Judith Darlene Hampton on March16, 1946, in Dexter, New Mexico, Knight

grew up in poverty and married Caris Hensley,a gas station attendant, soon after attendingLubbock Business College in Lubbock, Texas.The marriage produced two sons, but ended indivorce. It was while she was working as acable television salesperson in Roswell, NewMexico, and Tacoma, Washington, that shebegan using the initials “J. Z.,” signifying herfirst name and her nickname, “Zebra,” derivedfrom her penchant for wearing black-and-white clothing.

It all began for J. Z. Knight one day in1977 when she and her second husband, Jere-my Wilder, a dentist, were cutting out andputting together small pyramids and experi-menting with “pyramid energy.” She jokinglyput a pyramid on her head, and as it slippeddown over her eyes, Ramtha appeared physi-cally before them in their kitchen in Tacoma.

In the beginning, Knight said that shebelieved that the power of the pyramid mayhave induced the manifestation of the spiritentity, but she grew to understand that it was acombination of the student being ready andthe teacher appearing, plus her own spiritualenergy and her willingness to take a step into



Shirley MacLaine.


the unknown. “I feel I may have created a stateof readiness in my mind,” she said. “Part of mymind said, ‘Girl, here you are doing somethingreally bizarre.’ Another part of my mind said,‘This is wonderful—you are starting to reachout and explore.’ I think by virtue of thatprocess alone, the entity’s consciousness wasable to become visual to me at that time.”

It took two years of Ramtha’s working withJ. Z. Knight before she got used to his pres-ence. Frankly, she stated, it was her persistentlove of God that maintained her. “To havegone through the two-year study with Ramthaand his teachings, then to have the courage to

change my life and to allow myself to be usedas an instrument and to face a critical worldand go on with the teachings led to a verybeneficial personal growth and depth for me,”she said. “I have been nailed to the cross ofthe media, and yet nothing will keep me fromprogressing because I know the truth.”

After her period of study with Ramtha,Knight gave her first public channeling inNovember 1978, and word of the content andthe mystique spread quickly and gained a widefollowing for the 35,000-year-old entity andhis channel. Knight’s increased popularity andthe demand for public appearances placed astrain on her marriage, and in 1981, shedivorced Wilder to marry Jeff Knight, a trainerof Arabian horses. In the late 1980s sheunderwent a series of financial and legalstresses, and she filed for divorce from Knightin 1989.

Knight has said that Ramtha occurs in herlife in three different ways. The first is whenshe leaves the body in trance. She claims to



J. Z. Knight with Linda

Evans. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

AFTER her period of study with Ramtha, J. Z. Knight gave her first public channeling in

November 1978.

have no conscious recollections of what tran-spires when Ramtha takes over. In her person-al assessment, he is a consciousness that worksthrough her brain and mind and manipulatesher body in order for that to occur. “We bothcannot occupy the same space,” she said, “so Iwas afraid of letting go because that meantdeath, in a sense, to me. It took me two yearsto get over that fear.”

In her opinion, Ramtha is a “channeledconsciousness,” rather than a spirit. “As a con-sciousness that has hyperlucidity, Ramtha canbe considered superconsciousness that affectsitself through physical mass,” Knight said.

Secondly, Ramtha appears separate fromher. The channeler said that she had come tounderstand that his visual appearance “may bea hologram of his consciousness that was actu-ally working through my brain to create thatvision.”

The third manner that Ramtha can mani-fest is that he can answer J. Z. Knight whenshe has a question. “I can actually hear theanswer that is translated in my head,” she said.“I hear that as a vocal voice. Ramtha hasnever imposed by taking over my body.Regardless of what anybody says, I am notbeing possessed. It is of my own free will.”

Ramtha told the thousands of men andwomen who gathered for the series of popularlectures and seminars that they were gods, pos-sessed of a divine nature, fully capable of creat-ing and realizing whatever goals they desired.When answering questions from individuals,he addresses them as “master,” thereby indicat-ing that he considers them on the path of self-mastery. Consistent with other New Ageteachers, Ramtha teaches that all those whomeditate upon the vital life-force within willbe directed to the path of self-realization.

Although J. Z. Knight has been criticizedby those who point out that there is no sub-stantial evidence that Ramtha’s Lemuria orAtlantis ever existed and that 35,000 yearsago, humankind was still at the hunter andgatherer stage of development, she hasreceived the harshest criticism for the highprices she charges for her seminars. The chan-neler admitted that at first she had difficultywith Ramtha’s insistence that she must charge

people for the teachings, but the entity toldher that people did not appreciate knowledgethat they receive for free.

“The only way we ever gain wisdom iswhen we interact and experience life,” sheexplained. “We pay the price of experiencinglife in order to gain wisdom, the virtue ofwhich is the prize of evolution. So the pricepeople pay to attend the teachings is equal tothe price they pay in life to gain knowledgeand wisdom. It is equal and relative to personalexperience, which always comes with a price.”

M Delving Deeper

Klimo, Jon. Channeling: Investigations on ReceivingInformation from Paranormal Sources. Los Angeles:Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1987.

Knight, J. Z. A State of Mind. New York: WarnerBooks, 1987.

Steiger, Sherry Hansen, and Brad Steiger. Hollywoodand the Supernatural. New York: St. Martin’s Press,1990.

Weinberg, Steven Lee, ed., with Randall Weischedell,Sue Ann Fazio, and Carol Wright. Ramtha. East-sound, Wash.: Sovereignty, 1986.

Carlos Mirabelli (1889–1951)

Cesar (Carlos) Augusto Mirabelli was born in1889 in Botucatu in the state of Sao Paulo,Brazil. From his earliest childhood, he demon-strated a strong interest in religion. He hopedto enter into the service of the RomanCatholic Church, but these aspirations werenever realized, and he took employment witha commercial firm in Rio de Janeiro.

Things did not go smoothly for Mirabellion the job, and the strange happenings thathad begun to occur around the place of busi-ness were soon attributed to the peculiaryoung man. While some of his fellow employ-ees were drawn to the short man with thelight-blue eyes, others found him arrogant andconceited and complained that his eyesseemed to look right through them. And thenthere were the eerie manifestations thatseemed always to take place around him.

Mirabelli was examined by medical doc-tors and sent to the Juqueri Asylum where thedirector, Dr. E. Costa, recognized the youngman’s peculiarities to be due to psychism



rather than insanity. Costa conducted a num-ber of tests with his patient and became thefirst doctor to verify the reality of Mirabelli’smediumship. Costa returned Mirabelli to Riode Janeiro, where he arranged for the youngmedium to demonstrate his abilities. Underthe strictest of controls, Mirabelli confoundedan assembly of doctors by utilizing apparentteleportation to send a painting over a dis-tance of several miles from one house toanother. This experiment was reported in sen-sational detail in the Brazilian newspapers,and the career of the medium Mirabelli hadbeen launched.

By 1926 Mirabelli had produced phenom-ena before a total of nearly 600 witnesses,most of whom had been recruited from theranks of Brazil’s leading scientists, medicaldoctors, administrators, and writers, with an

occasional learned visitor from abroad. As atrance-speaking medium, Mirabelli particular-ly excelled in xenoglossy, the ability to speakin languages unknown to him in his normalstate. Not only did he speak in foreigntongues, but he gave spontaneous lectures onphilosophy, astronomy, sociology, politics,medicine, history, and the natural sciences.These speeches were delivered alternately inGerman, French, Dutch, English, Greek, Pol-ish, Syrian, Albanian, Czech, four Italiandialects, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Chinese,Japanese, and several African dialects, inaddition to Latin, Ancient Greek, and hisnative tongue, Portuguese.

As an automatic-writing medium, he pro-duced lengthy and erudite written disserta-tions in 28 languages, in a speed impossible toachieve under normal writing conditions.While entranced, it is said that Mirabelliwrote treatises in the style of Lombroso,Kepler, Voltaire, and Galileo. These worksincluded an essay on evil written in Hebrewand signed by Moses, a tract on the instabilityof empires by Alexander the Great, and anessay on the mysterious things between heav-en and Earth by Shakespeare. Althoughunable to verify such prestigious authorship,



At the Cesar Lombroso

Academy of Psychic

Studies in San Paul,

Brazil, Carlos Mirabelli

(1889–1951) (left) and Dr.

Carlos de Castro (right)

are seated at a table

with the alleged

materialized dead poet,

Giuseppi Parini

(1729–1799). (FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

AS an automatic-writing medium, Mirabelliproduced lengthy and erudite written dissertations in

28 languages.

linguists were said to be amazed at the master-ful control that the medium exercised overeach of the languages employed in these trea-tises. Such accomplishments are made themore impressive by noting that Mirabelli’s for-mal education ended with primary school.

As a physical medium, Mirabelli oncematerialized the spirit bodies of a marshal anda bishop, both long deceased, and both ofwhom were instantly recognizable to manywho had assembled for the seance. Levitationseemed almost to be a specialty of the medi-um, and witnesses once observed him levitatean automobile to a height of six feet, where itwas suspended for a period of three minutes.Once when Mirabelli visited a pharmacy, askull rose from the back of the laboratory andcame to rest on the cash register. Before agathering of doctors, who lent their names toa deposition, Mirabelli caused a violin to be

played by spirit hands. To exhibit spirit con-trol, Mirabelli caused billiard balls to roll andstop at his command.

At a party with more than a thousandguests in attendance, the medium conductedan invisible orchestra of trumpets and drumswhich entertained the astonished partygoerswith a lively march. During numerousseances, Mirabelli caused such inanimateobjects as books, bells, chairs, and chandeliersto move at his command. The list of doctorsand other witnesses who attested to Mirabel-li’s psychic abilities include the names ofmany well-known persons. Time and again,psychical researchers subjected the medium tothe most rigorous examinations, but none evercaught him in an act of trickery.

While he was undergoing examination bythe members of the Lombroso Academy,Mirabelli was bound to a chair in which he



Person being teleported.


raised himself to a height of more than six feetand hung suspended for over two minutes. Sev-eral members of the academy walked beneaththe levitated medium and satisfied themselvesthat they were witnessing an authentic phe-nomenon and not a magician’s trick.

During one seance held for the academy atthe unlikely hour of 9:00 A.M., the deaddaughter of Dr. de Souza materialized. The doc-tor recognized his daughter and the dress inwhich she had been buried. He was allowed toembrace the spirit form and numerous pho-tographs were taken of the scene. The spiritbeing remained in material form for a period of36 minutes. This seance was witnessed by alarge assembly, including 20 medical doctorsand seven professors. Investigated by scientistsand psychic researchers from all over the world,the mediumship of Mirabelli offered yet anoth-er question mark to the skeptical mind andanother source of reassurance to the believer.

In 1990, Dr. Gordon Stein found a picturein the collection of the London Society forPsychical Research that depicted Mirabelli ina white laboratory coat levitating to a heightof several feet in the air. The photograph wasinscribed to Theodore Besterman, an SPRresearcher who was known to have visited themedium in August of 1934. At the time,Besterman had prepared a contradictoryreport about Mirabelli’s paranormal abilitieswhich, according to Mirabelli’s defenders,reflected more upon Besterman’s inexperienceas a psychical researcher than the medium’sability to produce genuine phenomena. In1992, Guy Lyon Playfair published an illus-trated article about the incident in the Journalof the American Society for Psychical Research inwhich he points out that the famous levita-tion photograph reveals signs of carefulretouching which eliminated the ladder underMirabelli’s feet. Proponents of Mirabelli’smediumship argue that if the photograph wasdeliberately faked by Mirabelli, it would bethe first evidence of trickery on his part everdiscovered by any investigator.

M Delving Deeper

Mello, Da Silva A. Mysteries and Realities of ThisWorld and the Next. Trans. by M. B. Fierz. Lon-don: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1950.

Eusapia Palladino (1854–1918)

At the time of her death in 1918, Eusapia Pal-ladino had been both the most thoroughlyinvestigated physical medium in the history ofpsychical research and the most controversialand startling personality ever to confront ateam of investigators into the unexplained.She could be at once flirtatious and so sugges-tive in her conversation that some researcherswere embarrassed by her frank sexuality; andat the same time, she dominated her husbandso completely that the beleaguered man hadto take her maiden name as his own whenthey were married. Palladino could hardly signher own name and reading was beyond herknowledge, but the world’s leading scientistsand psychical researchers testified that thisenigmatic woman was somehow able to tapinto strange powers as yet unnamed by con-ventional science.

Born in Bari, Italy, in 1854, Palladino’smediumship was discovered by a family whoemployed her as a maid when she moved toNaples as a young girl. The quality of the phe-nomena that she produced brought her to theattention of Professor Chiaia, who, in turn,introduced her to the professor Cesare Lom-broso (1835–1909). When the great psycholo-gist’s initial reports on Eusapia Palladino werepublished, it was not long before she was sit-ting with research groups in Paris, St. Peters-burg, Turin, Genoa, London, and New York.As far as the audacious Eusapia was con-cerned, it mattered little where she conductedher seances. Her mysterious talents were notbound by geographical locations. She was ableto produce incredible psychic effects whenev-er and wherever she sat.

In 1908, a special committee was selectedby the British Society for Psychical Research(BSPR) for the sole purpose of investigatingthe claims that had been made by a number ofcelebrated scientists on behalf of the medium.The committee was especially chosen for theirskepticism and was composed of EverardFeilding, Mrs. W. W. Baggally, and HerewardCarrington (1880–1958), each of whom hadexposed many fraudulent mediums in thecourse of their investigations. Previous testresults with the medium at Cambridge in thesummer of 1895 had been contradictory, with



some of the researchers convinced of her abili-ties, and others equally certain that they hadcaught her in acts of trickery. Subsequentexaminations of Palladino by psychicalresearchers in Paris in 1898 and various citiesin Italy during the years 1901–7 had producedthe same mixture of acceptance and doubt.

Between November 21 and December 19,1908, the team of professional skeptics spentseveral weeks in the Hotel Victoria in themedium’s native city of Naples and were able toobserve an incredibly wide range of spiritisticphenomena. Each of the members publishedlengthy reports on the remarkable Palladino,and each of them came away from the exhaus-tive series of seances quite convinced that themedium had the ability to release an extremelypotent paranormal force. They also noted thatPalladino would cheat if she were allowed to doso, but because of their strict controls, she wasforced to abandon the easier path of trickeryand produce genuine phenomena.

Working under the strictest control theinvestigators could exert upon her, Palladinoallowed the committee to examine both herperson and her room as thoroughly as theymight wish. She utilized a spirit cabinet thatwas formed by stretching two black curtainsacross one of the corners of the room. Insidethis makeshift affair, the investigators placedmusical instruments and a variety of othersmall, movable objects. The medium sat direct-ly in front of the closet with at least a foot ofspace between her chair and the curtains.

After warming up with simple displays oftable levitation, Palladino would call for adimming of the lights. Almost instantly, themedium would summon her spirit control,John King, who would subsequently cause theobjects behind the curtain to come floatingout. Musical instruments would be played byunseen hands, and the sound would be easilyheard by all sitters in the room. The highlightof every seance was the materialization of spir-it hands and bodies. These materializationsalways came last in any seance, as if thewoman’s inborn sense of the dramatic knewhow best to leave an audience wanting more.

Hereward Carrington, who published agreat deal of material about the medium, relat-

ed one incident wherein Palladino had askedhim to replace a small table that had been lev-itated from the closet behind her. Carringtonpushed aside the curtains and attempted toplace the table on the floor where it had beensituated. He was startled when some powerfulforce resisted his doing so.

Outside the cabinet, the other members ofthe committee had observed Carrington’s dif-ficulty in replacing the small table. One of thepsychical investigators crouched under thetable and clamped both of his hands aroundthe medium’s feet. Two other researchers werestationed at her side. They all assured Carring-ton that the medium had not moved since shehad asked him to replace the table and thatthey would prevent her from making anymoves at all. Once these precautions had beentaken, Carrington resolutely tried again toreplace the stubborn table behind the curtainof the spirit cabinet—but each time someunknown force repelled his efforts. At last theinvisible entity seemed to grow tired of thegame, and with a considerable burst of energy,sent both Carrington and the table tumblingout of the cabinet and sprawling to the floor.

In 1909, at a later sitting in New Yorkwhere Palladino had been brought by greatdemand on the part of American psychical



Eusapia Palladino in

1907. (FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

researchers, the medium capped her usualrepertoire of paranormal feats by materializinga small hand in the air. Carrington laterreported that the hand appeared white in thedim light of the laboratory and that its armwas visible up to a ghostly elbow. The wristwas encased in a lacy cuff. The hand and fore-arm were clearly seen by all the researchers inthe room, and Palladino’s own limbs were tiedto two men, one on either side of her. Whilethe investigators watched as if mesmerized,the ghostly hand moved to the medium’sbonds and deftly untied the knots. When thespirit had undone the ropes, it threw one ofthe bonds at an observer and struck him in thechest. The other rope was thrown against thefar wall of the sitting room.

The good-natured medium laughed at theantics of the ambitious spirit hand and badethe researchers to bind her once again. Themen had no sooner fastened the knots a sec-ond time when the spirit hand rematerializedand quickly untied them.

The mystery of Eusapia Palladino’s medi-umship is a many-faceted one. Carringtonwrote, for example, that she was often caughtattempting the most crude kind of trickery—pranks that even the most inexperienced psy-chical researcher would be certain to catch.Her nature was permeated with mischief andguile, and she would try to cheat at card gamesor even croquet. Carrington felt that she didthese things to those who would test her to seehow far she might go in taunting them—orbecause she was basically a lazy person, to seeif she could fool them with a few tricks so thatshe might be spared the effort of going intotrance. When she found that she could notdeceive the knowledgeable investigators fromthe various research committees—most ofwhom were accomplished amateur magi-cians—Palladino would settle down to pro-ducing some of the most remarkable psychicphenomena ever recorded and witnessed byan investigating body of skeptics.

M Delving Deeper

Carrington, Hereward. Eusapia Palladino and Her Phe-nomena. New York: B. W. Dodge, 1909.

Dingwall, E. J. Very Peculiar People. London: Rider &Co., 1950.

Tabori, Paul. Pioneers of the Unseen. New York:Taplinger, 1973.

Leonora E. Piper (1857–1950)

Psychical researcher Hereward Carrington(1880–1958) considered Leonora E. Piper tobe the greatest psychical medium of her time.Piper was a resident of Boston, as was MargeryCrandon (1888–1941), but her mediumshiphad already won the endorsement of suchluminaries as William James (1842–1910), Dr.Richard Hodgson (1855–1905), and Sir Oliv-er Lodge (1851–1940) before Crandon hadreally begun her psychic career. Piper was adirect-voice medium, who while entranced,would allow her body to be taken over by spir-its who would use her voice to speak and, onoccasion, to write messages to those personsassembled for her seances.

Eight-year-old Leonora (often spelledLeonore) had been playing in the family gar-den when she suddenly felt a stinging blow onher right ear and heard a kind of hissing soundthat gradually became a voice repeating theletter “S.” Once this had been resolved,Leonora clearly heard the same voice tell herthat her Aunt Sara had died, but her spiritremained near. Leonora’s mother made note ofthe day and the hour in which she hadreceived the spirit communication, and a fewdays later the family learned that Sara haddied at the very hour on the very day thatLeonora received the message.

Although this event signaled the advent ofLeonora’s mediumship, her mother wiselyinsisted on the young girl enjoying a normalchildhood and the dramatic impact of anysubsequent paranormal phenomena wasunderplayed. When Leonora was 22, she mar-ried William Piper of Boston, and shortlythereafter developed a friendship with a blindclairvoyant named Dr. J. R. Cocke, who hadbeen attracting a substantial following as aresult of his accurate medical diagnoses andcures. At their first meeting, Leonora Piperhad fallen into a trance, walked in such a stateacross the room, where she sat at a table,picked up pencil and paper, and began to writemessages from spirit entities. ProminentBostonians were often seated in the seance



circle at Cocke’s home, the remarkable accu-racy of Piper’s trance communications soonspread throughout the city, and she was soonbeing pursued by men and women who wishedto sit with her in her own seances.

At the beginning of her mediumship,Piper’s spirit control claimed to be a youngNative American girl, but within a short time,Cocke’s guide, Phinuit, a French doctor, hadswitched his allegiance to Piper. Phinuitremained the medium’s principal spirit controlfrom 1884 to 1892, although other entitiesspoke or wrote through her, notably the spiritof George Pelham, a friend of the well-knownpsychical researcher Dr. Richard Hodgson.Pelham communicated through automaticwriting until sometime in 1897 when both heand Phinuit essentially retreated back into thespirit world upon the arrival of a powerfulcontrol known simply as the Imperator.

Harvard University psychologist WilliamJames, author of The Varieties of Religious Experi-ence, was brought to Piper’s seance room bysome rather astonishing reports which he hadheard from his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law. The elder woman had heard the mediumgive the names, both first and last, of distant rel-atives. Later, James’s sister-in-law hadapproached Piper with a letter written in Italianthat had been sent to her by a writer who wasknown only to two people in the entire UnitedStates. The medium placed the letter to herforehead and gave details of its contents anddescribed the physical appearance of the writer.

As he entered Piper’s seance room, Jamesidentified himself with a false name in ordernot to provide the medium with even theslightest clue on which to work. In spite of hisprecautions, the psychologist came away fromthe sitting completely baffled as to how Piperhad been able to give accurate information onall of the subjects about which he had queried.

James soon returned to Leonora Piper’sseance room. He was uninterested in the spirithypothesis, but he was convinced that thewoman could only be obtaining her informa-tion through some paranormal means. Piperbecame William James’s “one white raven.” Ina well-known passage from his works, Jameswrites that the phenomena that he witnessed

through the mediumship of Piper had weak-ened his orthodox beliefs. “To use the lan-guage of logic,” he states, “I will say that a uni-versal supposition may become false becauseof one particular example. If you are taughtthat all crows are black, and you wish todestroy this belief, it is sufficient to you to pre-sent to your teacher one white raven. My onlywhite raven is Mrs. Piper.”

It became the psychologist’s convictionthat, while in the state of trance, Piper was ableto reveal knowledge that she could not haveacquired through the normal sensory channels.“Science, like life, feeds itself on its own ruins,”James said. “New facts break old rules.”

Sir Oliver Lodge, after a series of experi-ments with Piper, told how the medium fromBoston had completely convinced him “…notonly of human survival but also of the facultypossessed by disembodied spirits to communi-cate with people on earth.”

Hereward Carrington related that Piper’sprocedure during a seance was to make herselfcomfortable on a pile of cushions, then gradu-ally pass into the trance state. Onceentranced, the medium was impervious topain and oblivious to everything that hap-pened around her. After a few moments oftrance, her right hand would reach out andaccept the pencil that a sitter would place inher hand. At this point, automatic writing wasproduced and spirit communications wererelayed to the members of the seance circle.

Professor James Hervey Hyslop (1854–1920) wished to observe this remarkablewoman for himself and contacted RichardHodgson, who at that time was conductingextensive tests with Piper, to make arrange-ments for his attendance at a seance. Hyslopwas a stickler for taking extreme precautions.He drove up to the medium’s house in a closedcarriage, wearing a black mask which com-pletely covered his face. After Piper hadentered into the trance state, Hodgsonmotioned for Hyslop to take his place in achair behind the medium.

From the time he entered the seance roomuntil the moment the sitting was completedand he was out the door and back in his closedcarriage, Hyslop did not utter a word. Even if



the medium had not been in a trance state, shewould not have been able to determine theidentity of the silent man who sat behind herwith his face completely covered. But in spiteof these extreme precautions, Piper had men-tioned Professor Hyslop’s name several timesduring the course of the seance and had giventhe names of so many of his family membersthat it took him more than six months of cor-respondence with his kin back in the smallOhio town where he was born to verify all theinformation told him during the sitting.

Piper died on July 3, 1950. The majority ofresearchers who sat with Leonora Piper weremore than willing to agree with WilliamJames when he said of her: “I wish to certifyhere and now the presence of a supernaturalknowledge; a knowledge the origin of whichcannot be attributed to ordinary sources ofinformation, that is, to our physical senses.”

M Delving Deeper


Gauld, Alan. Mediumship and Survival. London:William Heinemann, 1982.

Piper, Alta L. The Life and Works of Mrs. Piper. Lon-don: Kegan Paul, 1929.

James Van Praagh

Born in Bayside, New York, and the youngestof four children, James Van Praagh, remem-bers himself as being an average child, buthaving a tremendous fascination with death.Raised a devout Catholic, James served as analtar boy and entered the seminary at the ageof 14. It was while he was attending the semi-nary that his “interest in Catholicism endedand his sense of spirituality began.”

Although Van Praagh graduated from pub-lic high school and went on to graduate fromSan Francisco State University with a degreein broadcasting and communications, hisdirection would change slightly. He soonmoved to Los Angeles and became deeplyinvolved in the study of metaphysics and psy-chic phenomena. He was invited to a sessionwith a medium who told Van Praagh thatwithin two years he would be doing the samekind of work; that is, talking to the dead. Atthat time, Van Praagh claims he didn’t even

know what a medium was. His first reactionwas that he had a hard enough time dealingwith the living; why would he want to talkwith the dead? Van Praagh would soon realizehe would indeed continue in broadcasting andcommunications, just a bit less conventionallythan what he studied at the university level.

At the young age of eight, while VanPraagh was fervently praying for God to revealHimself to him, an open hand appearedthrough the ceiling of his room emitting radi-ant beams of light. Incredibly, he recounted, “Iwasn’t scared. It was actually very peaceful.”

Perhaps this experience was an early signthat Van Praagh had an unusual sensitivityand gift to share between worlds. Often calleda survival evidence medium, Van Praaghexplained his discovered ability to bridge thegap between two planes of existence—that ofthe living and that of the dead—and has doneso by providing evidential proof of life afterdeath through detailed messages. “I’mclairsentient,” he has said of himself, “whichsimply means clear feeling. I feel the emotionsand personalities of the deceased. I am alsoclairvoyant,” he added, clarifying that, “thefirst is feeling, the second is seeing, very muchlike Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost.”

When Van Praagh began doing psychicreadings for his friends, although it seemedstrange to him, he couldn’t deny that thedetailed messages he received were on target.Personality traits of the deceased come throughas well as physical traits and death conditionsor circumstances to validate the connection, hesaid. The true essence of the messages hereceives from the departed are the “feelingsbehind them” and the actual “love bond”between the living and the dead—not words.“No words exist in the English language, or anyother for that matter, which can describe theintense sensations,” Van Praagh explained.

Learning how to fine tune and refine thisgift into understanding what the emotions ofthe spirits wished to convey and how to relaythose messages to the living, earned VanPraagh the status as one of the most recog-nized and foremost mediums in the world. Hismessage has been broadcast on numerousappearances on such shows as Oprah, Larry



King Live, Maury Povich, 20/20, and 48 Hours.A CBS television miniseries is being producedon Van Praagh’s first book, Talking to Heaven(1997). Also in production is a television talkshow, Beyond With James Van Praagh.

Humble in his success, Van Praagh said, “IfI convey recognizable evidence along witheven a fraction of the loving energy behindthe message, I consider the reading success-ful.” He said of his work: “When someone isalone and overwhelmed by grief, life seemsover. But, when someone is able to make con-tact with a loved one by utilizing the informa-tion…grief and loneliness disappear and prop-er closure can take place.” His message is that“our personalities do indeed survive death.”

There are, of course, skeptics. MichaelShermer of Skeptic magazine called VanPraagh “the master of cold-reading in the psy-chic world.” Marcello Truzzi of Eastern Michi-gan University said he has studied “charac-ters” like Van Praagh for more than 35 yearsand described his demonstrations as “extreme-ly unimpressive.”

M Delving Deeper

James Van Praagh Biography. http://www.vanpraagh.com/bio.cfm. 15 October 2001.

Maryless, Daisy. “A Medium Becomes Large.” Publish-ers Weekly, 19 January 1998.

Rubin, Sylvia. “Spirit of Success,” San FranciscoChronicle, 24 April 1998.

Sefton, Dru. “A Spirited Debate.” The San DiegoUnion-Tribune, 10 July 1998, p. E1.

Van Praagh, James. Talking To Heaven. New York:Dutton: 1997.

Witchel, Alex. “Gone, Perhaps, but No Less Chatty:A Visit With Friendly Spirits.” New YorkTimes–Sunday Styles, February 22, 1998.

Jach Pursel

Jach Pursel grew up in Lansing, Michigan.And after marrying his high school sweet-heart, Peny, he graduated from University ofMichigan with degrees in international busi-ness and political science.

In 1974, that was to change forever.Pursel, then a young corporate business execu-tive with State Farm Insurance, was on thefast track in an accelerated program to move

up the corporate ladder. But, while out oftown and halfway through a five-day confer-ence and training session, Jach wouldencounter “a teacher from another realm”who was about to take him on a long journeyunlike any other, and one that would changethe direction of his entire life forever.

Late one evening, after the day’s events,Pursel sat on his bed, alone in the hotel room,closed his eyes, and began to relax. Using theroutine he learned for meditation, he“breathed the tension out of his body” andthought he felt himself drifting off to sleep.Several years before, Peny had urged him totake a meditation course. Many times he hadtried meditating, and although he observedgreat benefits from meditation in the lives ofothers, he saw little or no benefits in his ownlife. “Glorified napping” is what Jach calledmeditation, until, for whatever reason, hedecided to give it another try.

Suddenly he realized he had not fallenasleep after all, as something strange and realbegan happening. He started “seeing things”in visualizations so vivid in detail that the col-ors, smells, sights, and sounds came to life. Hefelt the images bursting with a reality thatcaused his mind to race with excitement andanticipation.

Following a path through ferns, lush trees,and sweet smells, he was beckoned to a cabinwith a thatched roof that was nestled amongtall pines and sequoia trees. Feeling almostlike he could hear the cabin breathe he startedto reach for the latch on the door, when thedoor opened on its own. Stepping into theroom, he saw a man standing in front of him.A warm light seemed to pour through thewindows and doors, as the kind man spoke toJach, identifying himself as Lazaris. Just then,Jach’s meditation ended abruptly, but he furi-ously recorded every detail, writing as fast ashe could, lest he forget. Excited, he called hiswife to tell her about his successful meditationand that he hadn’t fallen asleep.

Jach said he all but forgot about the expe-rience for a time, but many months later, hedecided to try meditating again, this time withPeny present. She asked him questions whilehe was in the meditative state, but the answers



he gave to the questions “bored him,” so hefell asleep—or so he thought. Two hours later,Jach started to apologize to Peny for sleeping,but barely got the words out. Peny was exhila-rated as her words tumbled out to tell him thatshe had thought he was asleep too, until an“entity” had spoken through him, in a deep,resonant voice, saying he was “Lazaris”—thesame one from months before.

Actually, Lazaris took over answering thequestions, and lengthy dialogues took placebetween Peny and Lazaris. Peny recordedevery word, and although Jach had a difficulttime believing what he was hearing, andwished to avoid even talking about it, he didagree to sit and close his eyes and take whathe called his “after-dinner nap” while Lazarischanneled through him. Over time, the words“just keep moving” continued to go throughJach’s mind, as Peny and Michaell, a friendknowledgeable in Eastern philosophy andmetaphysics, helped interpret what was beingsaid. They experienced an overwhelming spir-it of love as they witnessed the channeledmessages. It would be two years, however,before Jach himself felt the compassion, con-cern, and wisdom of Lazaris, and when itcame, he broke down sobbing, as he was filledwith a perfect peace.

From that point on, Jach devoted his lifeto allowing Lazaris “to borrow his vocalchords” while he went into a deep trance, inorder to teach and heal others. Lazarisexplained that by Jach going into a “full-trance state,” the information coming throughhim would not be colored or tainted withJach’s personality or personal interpretation,but it would come through as a pure messagefrom Lazaris. Clarifying that Jach’s energy fieldacts merely as an antenna—his body anamplifier for the “vibratory frequencies” thatend up as sound—Lazaris was emphatic thatthere is no taking over or possessing of Jach’sbody any more than a news anchor on TV isreally in the television set. Stating that Lazarishas never been in a physical body, nor do“they” desire to ever be, one of the main mes-sages “they” wish to make known is that aconsciousness exists far beyond what onecould imagine or believe.

Since 1974, tens of thousands, includingcelebrities, have found friendships with whatthey describe as the loving, humorous, andwitty Lazaris, who offers them emotional andspiritual guidance on a wide range of topics.

M Delving Deeper

Kautz, William H. and Melanie Branson. Channeling:The Intuitive Connection. San Francisco: Harperand Row, 1987.

Lazaris. http://www.lazaris.com/lmintromf.htm. 15October 2001.

———. Lazaris Interviews, Book 1. Beverly Hills:Concept: Synergy Publishing, 1988.

———. The Sacred Journey: You and Your Higher Self.Beverly Hills: Concept: Synergy Publishing,1987.

Zuromski, Paul. “A Conversation with Jach Purseland Lazaris.” Body, Mind Spirit 7, no. 1: (January/February 1988).

Jane Roberts (1929–1984)

On September 9, 1963, 34-year-old JaneRoberts had finished her dinner and was sit-ting down to her usual evening session ofpoetry writing. Her husband, Robert F. Butts,was in his art studio, three rooms away, work-ing on his painting. Roberts picked up her penand stared at the blank piece of paper, waitingfor the creative juices to begin flowing. Shehad no reason to suspect that this night wouldbe any different from others in her life.

All at once she found herself in the throesof an experience she could only liken to adrugless trip. “Between one normal minute andthe next, a fantastic avalanche of radical, newideas burst into my head, with tremendousforce, as if my skull were some sort of receivingstation, tuned up to unbearable volume,” shewrote later, describing the experience. “Notonly ideas came through this channel, but sen-sations, intensified and pulsating. I was…con-nected to some incredible source of energy.”

The startled young woman had no time tocall out to her husband, but her pen beganfeverishly to cover the page before her with amultitude of thoughts and feelings. Conscious-ness and reality were all turned around, andthe thoughts that she was receiving seemed tobe invading her mind, taking up permanent



residence. Feeling and knowing became oneand the same thing, and the importance ofintellectual knowledge paled before the sensa-tion of wisdom gained beyond the power ofreasoning. At the same time all this was hap-pening, a small part of Roberts seemed toremember that this same scenario had beenenacted the night before in a dream, but shehad forgotten it. Somehow, though, she knewthe two experiences were connected.

When she returned to full consciousness,Roberts found herself giving a title to the bar-rage of words that had streamed across thepaper in front of her: The Physical Universe ofIdea Construction. The title seemed to fit thehastily scribbled notes, but none of the mater-ial fit anywhere into Roberts’s previous con-victions regarding life and the human psyche.The sudden paranormal experience hadturned her world upside-down and wouldeventually lead to a series of dramatic eventsthat forever changed her life.

Jane Roberts and Rob Butts bought a bookon extrasensory perception, and they decidedto try some experiments with an old Ouijaboard that their landlady had found in theattic. The first two times they tried to movethe planchette, nothing happened. Neither ofthem were surprised, for they had little faith inthe board’s capabilities. On the third try, theywere both amazed when the planchette beganto move across the board and spell out answersto their questions. The couple found out thatthey had contacted an entity calling itselfFrank Withers, who claimed to have lived intheir New York town of Elmira and died therein the 1940s. The spirit provided other detailsof his life on Earth, and Jane Roberts and RobButts were surprised when the informationactually checked out in the town records.

On December 8, 1963, the spirit of FrankWithers said while he had lived a “rather color-less” existence by that name, he preferred to beaddressed as Seth, because it better suited thewhole self that he was trying to be. He went onto say that from his perspective, Rob would bet-ter be named Joseph, and Jane, Rupert.

After that session, which lasted until aftermidnight, Roberts was convinced that Sethwas an aspect of either her or Butts’s subcon-

scious. She could not accept the idea thatSeth might represent a separate entity thathad survived death. In subsequent sessions,she was determined to resist the developmentof mediumship that was apparently growingstronger within her each time they sat downat the Ouija board. Then, on the evening ofDecember 15, Roberts felt a great rush ofwords welling up within her. She felt nearlychoked up with “piles of nouns and verbs” inher head. And then, “without really knowinghow or why, I opened my mouth and let themout.” Seth was no longer restricted to theOuija board. He was now able to speakthrough Jane and to deal with complex sub-jects that changed their response to the uni-verse and their own role within it.

There seemed little in either Roberts’s orButts’s early lives to which a psychicalresearcher might point and reach a clear con-clusion that a spirit medium or channel was inthe making. Growing up in Saratoga Springs,New York, as far as Roberts could remember, shehad never demonstrated any extrasensory abili-ties before Seth’s arrival. She had begun writingpoetry as a child, and she had always been cre-ative, but there was nothing to indicate that thegirl would grow into a psychic of substantialability. Her parents divorced, and Roberts hadlived with her mother as they struggled to makeends meet. It had been a poetry scholarship thatgot Roberts into Skidmore College and out ofher relentlessly poor life.

Butts was a product of what Jane calledmiddle-class American “social Protestantism.”A talented painter, Butts’s role in accumulat-ing what would later come to be called “TheSeth Material” was from the first that of scribeand questioner. They seldom used a taperecorder during their twice-a-week sessions,but Butts maintained meticulous notes. Heobserved the subtle changes in Roberts orSeth as he carefully transcribed Seth’s wordsverbatim, and he had the pleasure of convers-ing with Seth, something that Roberts attimes wished that she were able to do.

At first Roberts had been reluctant to givein too much to Seth, and she insisted on beingable to keep her eyes open while she pacedaround the room. Later, she liked to sit in a



rocker while in trance, and though she wentthrough a period of closing her eyes for a cou-ple of years, she returned to open, thoughhalf-lidded, eyes. Seth usually announced hispresence by taking off Roberts’s glasses andcasting them to the floor or a nearby piece offurniture. The volume of his voice wentthrough various stages of development. It wasresonant and conversational, but on occasion,boomed out at an extraordinary volume.

Both Butts and Roberts were greatly affect-ed personally by the lessons learned from theirsessions with Seth. Butts benefitted from whatSeth termed “inner visual data,” and he evenreceived a few useful art instructions from hisunusual friend. Roberts saw her latent psychicabilities flower under Seth’s tutelage. Shereceived specific instructions from Seth onhow to develop telepathy, clairvoyance, andprecognition. Of particular interest to herwere her out-of-body experiences, whichsometimes occurred under curious circum-stances while she was in trance with Seth.

Through such books as The Seth Material,Jane Roberts essentially created a renewedinterest in contemporary spirit mediumship,which was now updated as “channeling,”likening the psychic-sensitive to a televisionset receiving channels telecast to it. Centralto an understanding of the Seth Material is anawareness of the entity’s basic teaching thatall reality is created by thought and emotions.Specifically, what a person thinks and feelsforms his or her surrounding reality. Thisprocess of reality-building is not static, howev-er. It is dynamic. Therefore, reality is con-stantly changing, and it follows that a con-scious awareness of this process can changeany reality for the better. No one is at themercy of past events. An individual cannotblame his or her parents, church, schooling, orany other person or event for making him orher the way he or she is. In ignorance, onemay have made oneself unhappy, but withconscious awareness that person can makehimself or herself a happy, productive individ-ual. Because individuals create their own real-ity, they can therefore change it.

Seth’s belief in mind as the builder expandsthe concept of human personality in a unique

way. Since thoughts and emotions are believedto create reality, then dreams, too, have a sepa-rate reality. When individuals dream of them-selves, they are seeing a fragment of their ownpersonality, such as the probable self identifiedby Seth. According to the spirit entity, eachindividual has a counterpart in other systemsof reality. These are not identical selves ortwins, but other selves who are part of thewhole person, developing ideas in a differentway. Each of these probable selves represents aportion of the whole self existing in a differentdimension, yet all are a part of the whole self.According to Seth, these various realities“merge in the overall perceptions of the wholeself” and “ultimately the inner ego must bringabout comprehension on the parts of thesimultaneous selves. Each portion of the wholeself must become aware of the other parts.”Seth also maintained that all layers of thewhole self continually exchange informationon a subconscious level.

In such terms, Jane Roberts may then havebeen a physical manifestation of the personal-ity Seth; she may even have been one of hisprobable selves. She could have been part of acompletely other whole self, separate from thewhole self of which Seth was a part. Robertscontinually attempted to better understandthe relationship she had with Seth and toexplain the true nature of their connection.

On February 26, 1982, Roberts was hospi-talized for an underactive thyroid gland,severe arthritis, and other complications.Through the years of their spiritual interac-tion, Seth had provided suggestions to easecertain of her physical conditions, but never-theless, she died on September 5, 1984. Buttshas continued disseminating the Seth Materi-al and completed two books on which theyhad been working before his wife’s death.

It is difficult to place Jane Roberts in a cat-egory, for she herself refused any attempts toanalyze either her trance abilities or the phe-nomenon of Seth in the old traditional medi-um/spirit guide relationship. The material thatSeth imparted to her was not often seen intraditional examples of mediumship and spiritguides. It may take years before the SethMaterial can be appropriately evaluated.



M Delving Deeper

Roberts, Jane. The Afterdeath Journal of an AmericanPhilosopher: The World View of William James.Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1978.

———. Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time.Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975.

———. Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul.Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972.

Steiger, Brad. Exploring the Power Within. WestChester, Penn.: Whitford Books, 1989.

Rudi Schneider (1908–1957)

Rudi (Rudolf) Schneider was one of fourbrothers who produced mediumistic phenom-ena in the family’s hometown of Branau, Aus-tria. Although his older brothers—Willy,Hans, and Karl—demonstrated somewhatimpressive abilities when they were children,it was Rudi who gained the greatest attentionfrom scientific investigators.

Willy was the first of the Schneider broth-ers to receive more than a local reputationwhen a skeptic, a man named Kogelnik, wit-nessed one of Willy’s seances and was con-vinced that he was observing genuine phenom-ena. Kogelnik brought Willy to the attention ofthe active psychical researcher Baron Albertvon Schrenck-Notzing (1862–1929), whoimmediately tested and monitored the youngmedium. However, shortly after the tests hadbegun in earnest, “Olga,” Willy’s spirit control,asked that eleven-year-old Rudi be present.Although at that time Rudi’s mediumship wasonly in the early process of development, vonSchrenck-Notzing was intrigued by the factthat while Willy insisted upon complete dark-ness in which to produce phenomena, theyounger Schneider felt contented to workunder at least partially lighted conditions.

In January of 1926, a seance was held inthe headquarters of the British Society forPsychical Research (BSPR) with WillySchneider. The meeting had been organizedby researcher Dr. E. J. Dingwall (1890–1986)and was attended by Douglas Dexter, a profes-sional magician, and Dr. C. G. Lamb of theEngineering Laboratory at Cambridge.Schneider was carefully inspected by Dingwallthe moment he set foot on the society’spremises. The clothing that Schneider

changed into before the seance—a set of paja-mas and a dressing jacket—was the propertyof the society. Every precaution was taken toassure the investigators that whatever theymight witness that night would be the resultof psychic ability and not trickery.

The medium was led to a seat, and lumi-nous strips were taped around both his anklesand his wrists so that his slightest movementcould easily be seen by the members of thesociety. During the seance, as an added pre-caution, the medium’s hands would be held bytwo researchers.

Enclosed in a gauze cage were a luminouscardboard ring and a tambourine. The cageitself was set on a table several feet in front ofSchneider. As the seance progressed, theinvestigators were astonished to see the twoenclosed objects float about in the gauzeenclosure and dance like snowflakes throughthe air. The researchers found the phenome-non inexplicable, and Dingwall concluded hisreport with the statement that “…the onlyreasonable hypothesis is that some supernor-mal agency produced the result.”

But even more impressive was the showingthat Willy’s brother Rudi made for the societysix years later, on December 8, 1932. Daysbefore he was to conduct the seance, represen-tatives from a firm of building contractorsinspected the seance room to assure the soci-ety that no hidden apparatus of any kindexisted that might in some way simulate psy-chic effects. With the assistance of societymember Lord Rayleigh and the Imperial Col-lege of Science, infrared equipment wasinstalled in the seance room so that the slight-est movement of Rudi’s limbs could be detect-



AFTER Rudi Schneider had entered a trance,Olga, his spirit contact, manifested and the mediumlevitated several times. The investigators wereastounded to record an increase in his respiration rateto 250 to 300 times a minute.

ed. Before the sitting began, Rudi was trussedup in much the same manner as his brotherhad been.

After Schneider had entered a trance,Olga, his spirit contact, manifested and themedium levitated several times. The investi-gators were astounded to record an increase inhis normal respiration rate of 14–26 times aminute to 250 to 300 times a minute. Themedium maintained this rate for two hours, afeat that the researchers considered almost asremarkable as his ability to rise into the airand to flutter the curtains across the room.

The installation of the infrared equipmentenabled the researchers to be assured thatRudi Schneider had not moved his limbs.However, C. V. C. Herbert, the man behindthe controls, did report that the mediumseemed to generate a mysterious force thathad made the infrared beam oscillate at exact-ly twice the rate of his respiratory pattern.

In an intensive series of sittings conductedunder the auspices of the Institute Meta-physique of Paris in 1930, Rudi Schneider hadsubmitted to the experiments of Dr. EugenOsty (1874–1938) and his son, Marcel. Ostyenthusiastically confirmed the paranormalabilities of the medium and presented theresults of his findings in a pamphlet entitledUnknown Power of the Spirit Over Matter inwhich he concluded that Rudi Schneider pos-sessed the ability to move objects by sheerpower of will. In Osty’s assessment, the medi-um could not have produced such phenomenaby fraudulent means because his hands andfeet had been controlled by electrical appara-tus and his body had been held down byresearchers, who had prevented any move-ment on his part.

Between February and May of 1932, RudiSchneider began another series of experi-ments in London with Harry Price(1881–1948), a psychical researcher who was



Rudi Schneider

(1908–1957) (head

bowed) experimenting

on Baron von Schrenck-

Notzig (1862–1929).


attempting to have his National Laboratoryfor Psychical Research integrated into theSociety for Psychical Research. Earlier, Pricehad been a champion of Willy’s psychic abili-ties, and he appeared equally enthusiasticabout Rudi’s mediumistic talents. Pricearranged for a complicated array of photo-graphic equipment to photograph the resul-tant phenomena from every possible angle.While some of the sessions produced suchmanifestations as ghostly winds, the move-ment of objects, and the materialization ofvarious forms, other tests were unsuccessfuland left the observing scientists sharply divid-ed in their opinions over the genuineness ofSchneider’s mediumship.

Price continued to proclaim the authentic-ity of Schneider’s paranormal abilities, writingvarious articles insisting that he had passedevery major test set before him and emergedunscathed from the ordeals of intense scientificinvestigation. Then on March 5, 1933, Pricepuzzled both his many admirers and detractorswhen he published an article in the SundayDispatch claiming that Rudi Schneider was afraud. One of the photographs taken in Aprilof the previous year, during the period ofexhaustive experiments, revealed Schneiderfreeing a hand at the time that spiritistic phe-nomena had occurred. Why Price reversedhimself so dramatically after having so publiclychampioned Schneider remains a mystery,though some psychical researchers felt thatPrice had become jealous of other investigatorswho appeared to have taken Schneider awayfrom him to conduct their own tests. Whenother researchers who had examined Schnei-der began to waffle and backpeddle on theirprior positive endorsements of his medi-umship, proponents of Spiritualism denouncedthe psychic investigators as deceitful individu-als who could not handle the truth of con-fronting genuine spirit phenomena. Therenowned Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung(1875–1961), who had attended one ofSchneider’s seances in 1925, said, “I shall notcommit the fashionable stupidity of regardingeverything I cannot explain as a fraud.”

In The Strange Case of Rudi Schneider(1985), Anita Gregory concludes that anyobjective person who studied Schneider’s life

and his mediumship would form the impres-sion that he was possessed of remarkable psy-chic abilities. Since he was a boy of 11, he hadpermitted himself to be thoroughly investigat-ed by psychical researchers and had willinglyaccepted whatever strenuous conditions theychose to impose. In Gregory’s assessment,“there is not one iota of evidence to suggestthat he was ever in his life anything otherthan transparently honest.” Today, psychicalresearcher John Beloff has decreed RudiSchneider’s mediumship to be rightly consid-ered among the most authenticated in theannals of psychical research.

Until his death on April 28, 1957, at theage of 49, Rudolf Schneider continued toindulge various researchers who wished to testhis mediumship, and he generously shared histalents with his friends and neighbors inMeyer, Austria, where he had supported hisfamily by starting his own driving school.

M Delving Deeper

Gregory, Anita. The Strange Case of Rudi Schneider.Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985.

Inglis, Brian. Science and Parascience: A History of theParanormal. London: Hodder and Stoughton,1984.

Tabori, Paul. Companions of the Unseen. New HydePark: N.Y.: University Press, 1968.

Witch of Endor (c. 1025 B.C.E.)

The Witch of Endor receives her indeliblemoments in the spiritual history of the Judeo-Christian traditions in Chapter 28: 4–28 of ISamuel. Saul, King of Israel, had begun hisreign with a great military victory over theAmmonites, but he, who had once been ahumble man, allowed his early successes to goto his head. When it becomes apparent toKing Saul that David, once a mere shepherdboy whose musical talents eased his troubledmind, has found favor in God’s eyes and willsoon claim the throne of Israel, Saul tries tokill him. But David has evolved from the boywho slew the giant warrior Goliath with asling-shot and the giant’s own sword to a capa-ble leader with his own army. Thoroughlyfrightened and confused, King Saul wishesthat he would once again be able to seek theadvice of the great and wise Samuel, who,



before his death, had served Israel as the lastof the judges, the first of the prophets, and thefounder of the monarchy, the sole rulerbetween Eli and Saul.

Receiving no answer to his prayers to God,Saul tells one of his servants to find him awoman who has a familiar spirit (i.e., a spiritmedium) who can speak to the dead. The ser-vant reminds Saul that he had passed lawsthat forced all such mediums and wizards outof the land under penalty of death, but, headmits, he does know of such a woman wholives at Endor.

Saul disguises himself and, accompaniedby two loyal men, comes to see the Witch ofEndor after it is dark. Getting directly to thepoint, Saul asks the woman to ask her spiritcontrol to summon someone from the dead sothat he might speak with him. No fool, themedium plays it very carefully, and remindsthe stranger that Saul has driven all such menand women who claim to have familiar spiritsout of the land of Israel. If she even acknowl-edges that she has such abilities, she could beput to death.

Saul, desperate for counsel from the spiritof Samuel, swears to her by the Lord that nopunishment will come to her if she will per-form this favor for him. He promises that hewill tell no one. Satisfied with her client’s oathof secrecy, the witch asks whom she shall askher spirit control to summon from the land ofthe dead. Saul answers, “Bring me Samuel.”

When the woman sees the spirit of Samuelmaterialize before her, it is also given to her toknow that her client is King Saul, none otherthan the very ruler who had banished allmediums and conjurors from Israel. Saul onceagain reassures her that no harm will come toher, but he can see nothing and asks her whatit is that has startled her. She describes the

elderly man covered with a mantle who hasappeared, and Saul, knowing that it is thespirit of Samuel, bows before him.

Although it seems Saul cannot see theform of his mentor, he can clearly hear theprophet’s words of distress at being disturbedand brought back to the land of the living.“Why are you bothering me by bringing me uplike this?” a querulous Samuel demands.When Saul explains how worried he is—thePhilistines are preparing to attack his forcesand God appears to have turned his back onhim—Samuel goes on to say that there isnothing he can do or say to help him, becausethe Lord has departed from him and will turnthe kingdom of Israel over to David. More-over, Saul and his sons will soon be withSamuel among the spirits of the dead, slain inbattle by the Philistines.

Saul trembles and falls to the ground in afaint. He is weak because of fear andbecause he has not eaten a single bit of foodall that day or night. The Witch of Endorprevails upon him to eat something, andSaul’s two bodyguards agree with her insis-tence that he needs nourishment. Thewoman kills a calf that she has been fatten-ing for a special occasion, prepares its meatalong with some unleavened bread that shebakes, and Saul dines with her and his menbefore he takes his leave to meet his destinyon the battlefield.

The Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legendstates that the Witch of Endor was able toraise Samuel from the spirit world because hehad been dead less than 12 months, “and thesoul stays close to the body for this period.”Certain traditional accounts of the incidentstate that other spirits, including Moses, camewith Samuel because when they saw his spiritarise, they thought that the Resurrection ofthe Dead had begun. Other scholars are divid-ed in their opinions whether the apparition ofSamuel was real or fraudulent, some statingthat the Witch of Endor only placed Saul intoa trance and deceived him into believing thathe had seen Samuel. The Witch of Endor hasbecome the prototype for the spirit medium asa necromancer, a magician who raises the spir-its of the dead.



THE Witch of Endor has become the prototypefor the spirit medium as a necromancer, a magician

who raises the spirits of the dead.

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Holy Bible: Contemporary English Version. New York:American Bible Society, 1995.

Unterman, Alan. Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend.London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.

Spiritualism

Modern Spiritualism began in the latewinter months of 1847 with the mys-terious knocking and window rat-

tling at the John Fox residence in Hydesville,New York. Fox spent an entire day securingeverything that looked as if it might shake orvibrate, only to have the night resound witheven louder knockings and rappings. After atime, the Fox family began to observe that thecenter of the disturbances seemed to be thebedroom shared by 12-year-old Catherine(Katie) and 15-year-old Margaretta (Maggie).

One night in March 1848, when John Foxwas once again attempting to discover a causefor the rappings, the family was startled tohear mysterious sounds imitating those thattheir father was making as he went hammer-ing about the room. Katie excitedly chal-lenged the unseen presence, which she laugh-ingly personified as “Old Splitfoot,” to followthe snappings of her fingers. When the soundsresponded in a precise manner, other membersof the family began to test the mysteriousinvisible agency.

As word spread that the John Fox familyhad a knocking ghost that could respond toany question answerable with a “yes” or “no”(one rap for yes; two for no), people from allover Hydesville came to test the spirit’sknowledge. Although the invisible agencyresponsible for the initial knockings claimedto be the spirit of a peddler who had beenmurdered and buried in the basement of theFox home (some accounts have it that investi-gation produced a skeleton interred in thebasement), other spirit entities soon manifest-ed themselves. Young Katie and her older sis-ter Maggie seemed especially suited for therole of medium, for they seemed pleased andexcited by the phenomena and did not appearto fear the invisible communicators as did the

other Fox children. Serious investigators whowere attracted to the phenomena soon workedout codes whereby in-depth communicationwith the spirits might be possible. Committeesof researchers tracked through the Fox homeand did considerable knocking and rapping oftheir own.

In order to give their parents a respite fromthe knocking spirits and the crowds of the curi-ous, Katie and Maggie were sent to their oldersister Leah’s home in Rochester, New York. Itwas soon apparent that the spirits had followedthem, and Leah encouraged her sisters to holdseances to contact other entities. When theseinitial attempts at spirit contact proved success-ful, Leah arranged for Maggie and Katie to givea public demonstration of the spiritistic phe-nomena, which brought an audience of 400.According to witnesses, the spirit knockingsdid not seem confined to the stage, but rappedfrom numerous areas in the hall.

After they had played to that enrapturedaudience in Rochester, it seemed clear to Leahthat the spirits were telling her that she shouldact as a manager for Maggie and Katie andarrange demonstrations in other cities. Follow-ing her other-worldly guidance, Leah set up atour that made her sisters a sensation whereverthey appeared. Soon the two young girls werebeing routinely hailed as modern prophets oras frauds and deceivers, depending upon thebiases of the witnesses. Maggie and Katie wereexamined by scientific investigators on bothsides of the Atlantic and were “exposed” whenthey purportedly confessed that they producedthe knocks and raps by cracking their toejoints. In the skeptic’s casebook, this hasbecome the accepted disclaimer for the phe-nomena produced by the Fox sisters.

Official cynicism had little effect on thebudding Spiritualist movement, however.Some authorities fix the membership of theSpiritualist church as nearly two million bythe height of the American Civil War in1864. This seems high when one notes thatthe total population of the United States atthis time was about 30 million. (The Spiritu-alist church today—International GeneralAssembly of Spiritualists, National SpiritualAlliance of the U.S.A., and Nationalist Spiri-



tualist Association of Churches—numbersabout 200,000 members.) In the second halfof the nineteenth century, though, severalimportant Americans were either members ofa Spiritualist church or were in sympathy withits philosophy of spirit contact. Shortly afterAbraham Lincoln’s (1809–1865) election tothe presidency, Cleveland’s Plain Dealer dealtthe president-elect some harsh criticism forhaving “consulted spooks.” Lincoln’s honestreply was that the only falsehood in the storywas that “the half of it has not been told. Thearticle does not begin to tell of the wonderfulthings I have witnessed.”

Lincoln made no secret of having consult-ed backwoods “granny women” in his youth,and once he moved to Washington, D.C., heinvited some of the most noted mediums ofthe day to conduct seances in the WhiteHouse. Lincoln had received a strong spiritualheritage from his mother, and he had beenreared in an atmosphere in which one did notreject advice from “the other side.” AlthoughLincoln never became dependent upon medi-ums to guide his administration, he was by nomeans a skeptic, and he stated that spirit mes-sages had enabled him to survive crisis aftercrisis during his presidency. The presidentbecame so outspoken in praise of the guidancehe received from the spirit world that it is saidthat it was Lincoln’s influence that promptedUnion general Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885)to turn to Spiritualism.

In December of 1862, when the Unioncause was on the brink of defeat, Lincoln wasunder great pressure from all sides to drop therigid enforcement of the forthcoming Emanci-pation Proclamation. Mary Lincoln, aware ofthe terrible strain on her husband, called sev-eral trusted individuals together in the Red

Parlor and called for one of the president’sfavorite mediums, Nettie Colburn (b. ca.1841), to conduct a seance.

The medium went into trance and herspirit control spoke of matters which only thepresident seemed to understand. Then theentranced Nettie Colburn’s spirit controlcharged President Lincoln not to compromisethe terms of the Emancipation Proclamation,but resolutely to carry out all the implicationsof the announcement he had made.

When the medium came out of the trance,she found the president looking soberly at her.One of the gentlemen present asked Lincoln ifhe had recognized anything about the voiceand the message of the delivery. Nettie Col-burn recalled later that the president “raisedhimself as if shaking off a spell,” then glancedat the full-length portrait of Daniel Websterthat hung over the piano. “Yes,” the presidentadmitted, “and it is very singular, very.”

In his Miracles and Modern Spiritualism(1975), Alfred Russell Wallace writes that thehypothesis of Spiritualism is the only one thatcan at all commend itself to the modern philo-sophical mind. “The main doctrines of this reli-gion are: That after death man’s spirit survivesin an ethereal body, gifted with new powers,but mentally and morally the same individualas when clothed in flesh. That he commencesfrom that moment a course of apparently end-less progression, which is rapid just in propor-tion as his mental and moral faculties are culti-vated when on earth. That his comparativehappiness or misery will depend entirely uponhimself.…Neither punishments nor rewards aremeted out by an external power, but each one’scondition is the natural and inevitablesequence of his condition here.…”

Spiritualists contend that they have proofof survival after death and the existence of anafterlife that other churches only promise onfaith. Many orthodox clergypersons do notdeny the occurrence of genuine spiritual phe-nomena, but they are in sharp disagreementwith Spiritualists as to the source of the mani-festations. Some of the disagreement stemsfrom the accusation that Spiritualism may betreading dangerously close to demonology.Religious orthodoxy, which believes survival



SHORTLY after Abraham Lincoln’s(1809–1865) election to the presidency, Cleveland’s

Plain Dealer dealt the president-elect some harshcriticism for having “consulted spooks.”

after death to be assured, holds that contactwith departed mortals cannot be establishedand warns that those who attempt to establishcommunication with the dead may find them-selves involved with deceptive evil spirits.The oft-quoted allegation that Spiritualistsconsort with demons goes a long way towardpreventing any sort of ecumenical movementbetween Spiritualists and the conventionalreligious groups from developing.

In an effort to clarify their theologicalposition, the National Spiritualist Associationadopted these following definitions of itsbelief in October 1914:

1. Spiritualism is the science, phi-losophy, and religion of a continuouslife, based on the demonstrated fact ofcommunication, by means of medi-umship, with those who live in thespirit world.

2. A spiritualist is one whobelieves, as the basis of his or her reli-gion, in the communication betweenthis and the spirit world by means ofmediumship, and who endeavors tomold his or her character and conductin accordance with the highest teach-ing derived from such communication.

3. A medium is one whose organ-ism is sensitive to vibrations from thespirit world and through whose instru-mentality intelligences in that worldare able to convey messages and pro-duce the phenomena of spiritualism.

4. A spiritualist healer is one who,either through his own inherent pow-ers or through his mediumship, is ableto impart vital, curative force to patho-logic conditions.

“Spiritualism is a science” because it inves-tigates, analyzes, and classifies facts and mani-festations demonstrated from the spirit side oflife.

“Spiritualism is a philosophy” because itstudies the laws of nature both on the seenand unseen sides of life and bases its conclu-sions upon present observed facts. It acceptsstatements of observed facts of past ages andconclusions drawn therefrom, when sustained

by reason and by results of observed facts ofthe present day.

“Spiritualism is a religion” because itstrives to understand and to comply with thephysical, mental, and spiritual laws of nature,which are the laws of God.

M Delving Deeper

Barbanell, Maurice. This Is Spiritualism. London: Her-bert Jenkins, 1959.

Brown, Slater. The Heyday of Spiritualism. New York:Pocket Books, 1972.

Moore, R. Laurence. In Search of White Crows: Spiritu-alism, Parapsychology and American Culture. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Moore, Raymond C., and Paul Perry. Reunions:Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones.New York: Villard Books, 1993.



Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910)

Andrew Jackson Davis is often referred to asthe “John the Baptist” of modern Spiritual-ism, for he preached the advent of spirit com-munication in the United States with anevangelical fervor. Davis grew up in extremepoverty in Blooming Grove, New York, asmall hamlet along the Hudson River, theonly son in a family of six. His mother wasilliterate, but highly religious, and quite likelyencouraged her frail, nervous son to receivevisions and to hear voices early in life. Davis’sfather was afflicted with alcoholism and bare-ly managed to provide any sustenance for hisfamily in his trade as a weaver and shoemaker.Only one of the family’s five daughters sur-vived to adulthood.



MANY orthodox clergypersons do not deny theoccurrence of genuine spiritual phenomena, but theyare in sharp disagreement with Spiritualists as to thesource of the manifestations.

When he was 12, Davis’s clairvoyantimpressions and spirit voices manifested con-vincingly enough to persuade his father tomove the family to Poughkeepsie. Five yearslater, in 1843, Davis attended a demonstra-tion on mesmerism conducted by Dr. J. Stan-ley Grimes. Mesmerism, usually defined as anold-fashioned term for hypnotism, developedout of the theories of certain physicians inthe sixteenth century that humans could pro-ject and control their animal magnetism,sometimes inducing trance states in them-selves or in others. In the 1760s, Dr. FranzAnton Mesmer (1734–1815) began healingpatients with what he believed was the resultof animal magnetism’s effect on a kind of“universal fluid” that flowed between thestars, the human body, and everything on theplanet, but which today would likely to beattributed to light trance states and thepower of suggestion.

With Davis’s childhood experiences ofhearing spirit voices, it is not surprising thathe was found to be a good subject by a localtailor named William Levingston, who haddecided to experiment with mesmerism on hisown. Once Davis had entered an altered stateof consciousness, he seemed to have the abili-ty to see through the human body and to diag-nose the cause of illnesses and medical disor-ders. Within a short period of time, AndrewJackson Davis was being proclaimed as the“Poughkeepsie Seer.” Men and women werecoming from miles around to draw from hismagnetic powers, and Levingston abandonedhis tailor shop to devote all of his time tooverseeing Davis’s healing ministry.

On the evening of March 6, 1844, Davisexperienced a life-altering event that woulddirect the course of his personal destiny. Allhe claimed to remember was being overcomeby some power that made him feel as thoughhe were literally flying through the air. Whenhe regained consciousness the next morning,he found himself in the Catskill Mountains,40 miles away from Poughkeepsie. Had thespirits transported him through the air anddeposited him there in the mountains? Or hadhe walked 40 miles in one evening while in atrance? And why did he suddenly awaken tofind himself in this particular spot?

While Davis claimed never to learn theanswer as to how he got to that particular set-ting in the Catskills, he soon learned the rea-son why. He said that first the spirit of theGreek philosopher Galen (129 C.E.–C.199c.e.) materialized before him, then thespirit of the Swedish seer Emanuel Sweden-borg (1688–1772), both of whom providedhim with mental illumination and spiritualrevelation. From that day onward, AndrewJackson Davis set forth on an extensive lec-ture schedule, proclaiming the advent of spiritcommunication for humans everywhere. Heclaimed a great cosmic doorway was beingopened, and ministers from the spirit worldwould soon be making themselves availablefor contact with those individuals who wishedto gain from their wisdom and inspiration.

While on tour, Davis met Dr. S. SilasLyons, an experienced mesmerist, who wasable to induce a deep trance state in thePoughkeepsie seer. In November of 1845, withLyons as the mesmerist, Davis as the propheticvoice, and Reverend William Fishbough asthe stenographer, dictation was begun on ThePrinciples of Nature: Her Divine Revelations anda Voice to Mankind. The process lasted for 15months, and often small crowds of enthusias-tic men and women, including such luminar-ies as American writer Edgar Allan Poe(1809–1849), bore witness to the words asthey poured forth from the entranced Davis.

In 1847, the book was published and wasreceived eagerly by a public seeking new reve-lations from a modern prophet. Althoughsome critics pointed out many similarities tothe writings of Swedenborg concerning cre-ation, philosophy, and religion, Davis’ cham-pions replied that the seer was a man of mod-est education who had never read the works ofthe great Swedish mystic. Davis had, in fact,only five months of formal schooling. Howev-er, there should be little mystery if the Princi-ples of Nature contained echoes of Sweden-borg, for it was his spirit who had manifestedwith Galen to inspire Davis. Due to the suc-cess of his book, Davis began issuing Univer-coelum, a periodical which was published from1847 to 1849 and was devoted to clairvoy-ance, trance phenomena, and his HarmonialPhilosophy.



On March 31, 1848, it is said that Davispredicted the coming of modern Spiritualismwhen he reported that he had awakened thatmorning hearing a voice telling him that thegood work had begun: “About daylight thismorning a warm breathing passed over myface, and I heard a voice, tender and strong,saying, ‘Brother, the good work has begun.Behold, a living demonstration is born.’ I wasleft wondering what could be meant by such amessage.” Although Davis and his followerswould not ally themselves with the Spiritual-ist cause until 1850, it would often be pointedout that the Fox sisters first challenged “oldSplitfoot” on March 31, 1848, and that the“voice, tender and strong,” had obviouslybeen referring to their “living demonstration”of spirit communication.

In July 1848, after creating a bit of scandalfor the conservative times, Andrew JacksonDavis married Catherine Dodge, a wealthyheiress, who was 20 years his senior. Theirunion was unhappy and brief, and she died in1853, leaving her estate to Davis. Davis con-tinued to lecture and teach his HarmonialPhilosophy for many years. At the age of 60,he acquired a medical degree, but soon there-after he retired to Boston, where he ran abookshop and prescribed herbal remedies tohis patients. Andrew Jackson Davis diedamidst his books and herbs in 1910, a quietending to the full life of the “John the Baptist”of the Spiritualist movement.

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Brown, Slater. The Heyday of Spiritualism. New York:Pocket Books, 1972.


———. These Mysterious People. London: Rider &Co., 1936.

Moore, R. Laurence. In Search of White Crows: Spiritu-alism, Parapsychology and American Culture. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)

When many first learn that Sir Arthur ConanDoyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteryseries, was fascinated with psychical researchand an investigation of life after death, theymake the immediate assumption that he may

well have been allied with the likes of the greatmagician Harry Houdini (1874–1926) (espe-cially when it is learned that the two men werefriends), devoting his intellect and his experi-ence to exposing fraudulent spirit mediums.They may visualize the author much likeHolmes, his famous fictional detective, unveil-ing the trickery by which a charismatic, butphony, medium has deceived the unwary, thenclimaxing his explanation of the deceptionwith the casual utterance of, “elementary, mydear Watson.” In fact, nothing could be furtherfrom the truth. Doyle was an ardent believer inthe reality of spirit communication, and hebecame such a missionary for Spiritualism thathe came to be known as the “St. Paul” of themovement. While Holmes, the quintessentialproponent of deduction, and his creator did notshare the tendencies to be unfailingly skeptical,extremely rational, and shrewd, there wereother aspects of the fictional detective whichdid manifest in Doyle. Arthur Conan Doylewas tall, upper-class, thoroughly English, self-confident, and successful at his chosen profes-sion, which, like that of Holmes’s loyal associ-ate, Dr. Watson, was the practice of medicine.

Doyle was first invited to witness mediu-mistic phenomena while he was a physician atSouthsea in 1885. For the next three years, heparticipated in a number of sittings in thehome of one of his patients, who was a teacherat the Greenwich Naval College. The medi-um at the center of these experiments was arailway signalman who seemed capable of pro-ducing a wide range of astonishing phenome-na. So astonishing, that Doyle, the young manof science and medicine, eventually conclud-ed that the man was occasionally faking themanifestations, and that the other sitterseither chose to ignore the trickery in the hopethat more genuine phenomena would mani-fest—or else were too gullible or too eager toaccept the miraculous to protest.

While his early encounters with medi-umship were not greatly impressive, Doyle’sinterest in exploring the unknown was stirred,and he joined the Society for PsychicalResearch (SPR) shortly thereafter. In 1902 hemet Sir Oliver Lodge (1851–1940), and theexperiences and research of this highly respect-ed scientist had a great impact upon him.



Doyle became convinced that telepathy was agenuine phenomenon that could also accountfor a great deal of apparent mediumisticknowledge of the deceased. Perhaps, he theo-rized, the medium was picking up thoughtsabout the dead from the various sitters in theseance circle who had lost loved ones. Duringthe same period of time, Doyle read Fredric W.H. Myers’s (1843–1901) Human Personalityand Its Survival of Bodily Death (1903), whichhad a great effect on his acceptance of medi-umship and spirit communication.

In 1916, after 30 years of intense study,Doyle accepted the phenomena of Spiritual-ism as genuine. He was 58, at the height of hisliterary career, and filled with self-confidence,so he openly associated himself with the causeof modern Spiritualism in two books, The NewRevelation (1918) and The Vital Message(1919). In that same year, with World War Icreating turmoil in both the physical and spir-itual worlds, his second wife, Jean, lost herbrother at the Battle of Mons. In the midst ofher grief, she began experimenting with auto-matic writing, a mediumistic techniquewhereby one allows the pen to flow across thepage under the guidance of spirit writers.When her early attempts at spirit communica-tion proved successful, Sir Arthur and LadyDoyle became convinced that their earthlymission was in large part to be devoted torelaying messages from those who had fallenin battle to their bereaved families.

In 1918, Doyle’s oldest son, Kingsley, diedof pneumonia during the Battle of theSomme. A year after his son’s death, Doyleattended a seance held by a Welsh mediumwho spoke in Kingsley’s voice and referred tomatters that would have been completelyunknown to the medium. Shortly after theremarkable direct voice communication, themedium materialized Doyle’s mother andnephew. Contemptuously brushing aside theefforts of those who attempted to explain thephenomena, Doyle declared that he saw hisloved ones as plainly and as clearly as he hadever seen them in life.

After the war ended in 1918, Sir Arthurand Lady Doyle began the first of their exten-sive lecture tours. For the next 12 years, they

were seldom at home for very long periods oftime as they traveled throughout GreatBritain, Australia, New Zealand, northernEurope, South Africa, and the United States.Among the members of the large crowds thatgathered were those who were eager to meetthe author of their favorite detective fictionand those who wished to hear words of com-fort from the Doyles concerning the kind ofexistence that their deceased loved ones wereliving on the other side.

The December 1920 issue of Strand maga-zine contained several allegedly authenticphotographs of fairies that had been takenwith an inexpensive camera by two younggirls, Elsie Wright and her cousin FrancesGriffiths, in a little valley through which ran anarrow stream near the village of Cottingley.One snapshot taken by Elsie in the summer of1917, when she was 16, captured her 10-year-old cousin seated on the grass surrounded byfour dancing fairies. Another, taken a fewmonths later, showed Elsie with a tiny gnome.

Doyle managed to obtain the negatives andbrought them to one of England’s most emi-nent photographic analysts. At first the expertdismissed the very notion of fairy photographs,but he ended up staking his professional repu-tation by saying that not only were the picturesall single exposures, but he said that he coulddetect that the tiny beings had actually beenmoving while having their images snapped bythe girls’ camera. Furthermore, he stated firm-ly, he could not detect the slightest evidence ofany fakery in the photographs. Doyle wiselysought another opinion, so he took the nega-tives to the Kodak Company’s offices inKingsway. While these experts declined toacknowledge that the photographs actuallydepicted fairies, they did issue a statement thatthey could find no evidence of trick photogra-phy or any tampering with the film. Yet a thirdanalyst expressed his opinion that the most sig-nificant factor in the Cottingley photographswas that the fairy figures seemed clearly tohave been caught in motion as they hoveredover the flowers and the girls.

As the British press spread the charmingstory of the Cottingley fairy photographs,numerous individuals came forward to testify



that they, too, as children had played with thelittle people. Fortified by the photographicanalyses of several experts that the photographswere genuine, Doyle obtained the services ofone of Great Britain’s most gifted clairvoyantsto see if he might be able psychically to verifythe girls’ accounts of fairies near Cottingley.The psychic sat down with Elsie and Frances inthe little valley and found that he was able tosee even more of the fairy realm because of hismediumistic abilities. According to his greatsensitivity, the entire glen was alive with manytypes of elemental spirits—wood elves, gnomes,fairies, and graceful water sprites around thevalley and stream. Try as he might, though, theclairvoyant was unable to project to the fairiesthe amount of psychic energy necessary toallow them to materialize. It appeared that onlythe young girls had the unique blend of inno-cence and wonder that could somehow supplythe fairies with the necessary energy to permitthem to attain a material form.

Doyle issued his summation of the case ofElsie and Frances and their fairy photographs,along with his interpretation of the phenome-na, in which he stated that while the proofoffered by the Cottingley experience was notas “overwhelming” as in the case of spiritualis-tic phenomena, “there is enough already con-vincing evidence [for the authenticity offairies] available.” Later, the photographs wereexposed as fakes, and Doyle was embarrassedby his having endorsed both the girls and theirpictures in his book The Coming of the Fairies(1922) as being authentic examples of theability of certain sensitive individuals to takegenuine spirit photographs.

Sir Arthur and Lady Doyle had met HarryHoudini after one of the famous magician’sperformances at the Hippodrome in Brighton,England, in 1920, and while many have pon-dered how Doyle, a true believer in Spiritual-ism, and Houdini, the determined nemesis ofspirit mediums, could ever have becomefriends, a bond of friendship was formedbetween the two families. Some writers andresearchers contend that Houdini didn’t dis-believe in survival after death, but, rather, wasseeking proof that he could find completelyacceptable by his standards. His attack againstcertain spirit mediums may have been inspired

by his feeling that their evidence for the after-life had been faked. Indeed, the friendshipbetween Doyle and Houdini may have beeninspired by the entertainer’s sincere desirethat the Doyles might somehow be instrumen-tal in providing him with the proof of theafterlife that he so desired. Sadly, their friend-ship ended quite explosively after Lady Doyleconducted a seance in the United States.

In 1922, Sir Arthur and Lady Doyle werelecturing in the United States, and Houdiniasked them to join him and his wife Beatrice(Bess) for a brief vacation in Atlantic City onJune 17. That particular date was sacred toHoudini because it was his beloved mother’sbirthday. Expressing the belief that she couldestablish contact with his mother on that spe-cial day, Lady Doyle entered a light trance andbegan producing lovely and sentimental mes-sages from the magician’s mother in the spiritworld. Although Houdini was grateful for thekind sentiments, he later publicly expressedhis strong doubts that the spirit of his motherhad written such words, especially since shehad never learned to write English. Also,since the Weiss family (Houdini’s birthname)was Jewish, Houdini doubted that his motherwould have begun the message by drawing across at the top of the page of automatic writ-ing. Houdini’s public denials of Lady Doyle’smediumship created a breach between thefriends which never healed.

Doyle was nominated honorary presidentof the International Spiritualist Congress thatwas held in Paris in 1925. In 1927, he pub-lished Pheneas Speaks, revelations relayedthrough automatic writing to Lady Doyle fromher spirit control Pheneas. Sir Arthur ConanDoyle died on July 7, 1930.

M Delving Deeper


Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Edge of the Unknown.New York: Berkley Medallion Books, 1968.


The Fox Sisters

On one of the last days of her life, in Februaryof 1893, Margaretta Kane managed to prop



herself into a sitting position and demanded apencil and paper from Dr. Mellin, the doctorwho had been commissioned to care for her.Kane began writing at an incredible pace, andbefore she had finished she had filled 20sheets with clear handwriting. After handingthe written sheets back to the doctor, she fellinto a coma and died.

When Mellin had the opportunity toexamine what Kane had written, she wasastonished to discover that her patient hadfilled the sheets with an accurate and detailedbiography of the doctor’s own life. It includedmany events that Mellin had not divulged toanyone. Some time later, Mellin described theincident to the Medico-Legal Society of NewYork. She concluded her remarks about themanuscript by saying: “To my surprise, I foundshe had written down a detailed story of mylife. The most startling thing did not appearuntil near the end where Mrs. Kane men-tioned the missing will of my mother and thenames of several people back home in Man-chester, Indiana. I wrote at once to my broth-er. He sent a friend to Manchester and moth-er’s missing will was recovered.”

The story of the dying woman who some-how knew intimate details about her doctorthat could not have been known throughordinary means takes on tragic significancewhen Kane’s history is revealed. Kane wasborn Margaretta Fox, and it was she and hersister Catherine who were credited with thefounding of modern Spiritualism. They werelater discredited by certain investigators asbeing clever deceivers with no paranormal ormediumistic abilities whatsoever.

Mysterious knocking and window rattlingbegan in the John Fox home in Hydesville, NewYork, shortly after they had moved into thehouse on December 11, 1847. After the firstnight, Fox spent the next day securing every-thing that looked as though it might makeknocking or rattling sounds, but the followingnight the knockings and rappings were evenlouder. One of the family members ventured aguess that it was a prankster playing a trick onthem or some neighbor trying to frighten themaway, but as much as they tried to catch the sup-posed joker in the act, they never saw him.

Then Fox, the local blacksmith, began tohear talk about the complaints of some of theprevious tenants in the house, who, as early as1843, had also complained of mysterious rap-pings, footsteps, and dragging sounds. MichaelWeekman, who had rented the house justprior to their occupancy, moved out when hecould no longer stand the eerie night sounds.

By March 31, 1848, John and MargaretFox gave up chasing after the rappings andresolved to live with the disturbances. Afterall, no real damage had ever occurred. Thesounds were just annoying. They would go tobed early that evening and try to get a goodnight’s sleep.

But that night when the disturbancesbegan, the five children—John, David, Maria,Margaretta (Maggie), and Catherine(Katie)—seemed to be more frightened thanever before by the continual knocks and thudsechoing throughout the house. Observing thatthe strange noises were centering around 12-year-old Katie and 15-year-old Maggie, Foxclosed the window in the girls’ bedroom witha loud thump. His thump was immediately fol-lowed by two others, and Katie cried out that“they” were answering him.

For a few moments, no one moved. ThenFox cautiously knocked on the window sill.There came an answering knock from some-where in the room. Katie was more excitedthan frightened. As if it were all somethrilling game, she commanded the sounds tofollow the snaps of her fingers and called out:“Here, Mr. Splitfoot, do as I do.” The unseenprankster did so perfectly, even when sheonly held up a certain number of fingers toprompt an appropriate number of raps. “Itcan see as well as hear!” she laughed in child-like triumph.

Soon other members of the family hadentered the game with the mysterious unseenvisitor and were asking it to pound out num-ber sequences or to sound one rap for yes, tworaps for no. Mrs. Fox was no stranger to psy-chic phenomena, for although they wererespected members of the Methodist Church,three prior generations of women in her fami-ly (Rutan) had the ability to predict deaths,births, and other local occurrences.



As his daughters’ communication withthe spirit progressed, Fox wanted to deter-mine whether or not his entire family wasdeluded. He went next door and brought aneighbor, Mrs. Redfield, into the children’sbedroom. Although the woman laughed atthe thought of a knocking spirit, she wentaway greatly disturbed by the fact that shehad not only heard the knocks, but whateverinvisible source was making them knew agreat deal about her past, also.

As word spread about the curious phenom-ena that was occurring in the Fox home, peo-ple from all over Hydesville came to hear themysterious rappings. A committee composedof 20 friends and neighbors and directed byWilliam Duesler set about a program of inves-tigation. Shortly after the committee hadreached its conclusions regarding the authen-ticity of the phenomena, E. E. Lewis publisheda 40-page pamphlet of their findings entitled,“A Report on the Mysterious Noises Heard inthe House of John D. Fox at Hydesville, Arca-dia, Wayne County. Authenticated by the cer-tificates and confirmed by the statements ofthe citizens of that place and vicinity.”

After Katie and Maggie had experimentedwith the phenomena for several weeks, a codeof rappings had been developed and intelli-gent communication with the entity had beenestablished. The spirit revealed itself asCharles B. Rosna (Rosa in some accounts), a31-year-old itinerant peddler who had beenmurdered in the house and buried in the base-ment. Charles became the spirit control forKatie and Maggie, and he revealed a great dealof personal information about his life on Earththrough their mediumship.

On April 3, 1848, David Fox and someneighbors began digging in the cellar and dis-covered charcoal, quicklime, strands ofhuman hair, and portions of a human skull.Based on the evidence provided by the spiritof the murdered man, a former tenant wasaccused of having perpetrated the deed, butthe authorities refused to arrest or prosecuteon such testimony.

The Fox family was growing weary of allthe attention that they were receiving bothfrom the spirit world and from the populace of

Hydesville and the surrounding area. John andMargaret thought they might be able to get ridof the ghostly noises if they sent Maggie andKatie away from the house for a while. Thegirls were sent to their older sister Leah, 34,who was living in poverty in Rochester afterher husband had deserted her. Loud, resound-ing raps broke out in Leah’s home when thegirls arrived, indicating that the spirits hadfollowed them to Rochester, and they receivedthe following message from the spirits: “Youmust proclaim this truth to the world. This isthe dawning of a new era. You must not try toconceal it any longer. When you do your duty,God will protect you and good spirits willwatch over you.”

With this message from the spirit world,modern Spiritualism was born. Spiritualistsbelieve that death is only a change of worlds,and communication with those who havepassed to the other side is possible. For the Foxsisters, their declaration of this message fromthe spirits placed them in the center of atumultuous storm that raged throughout theirlifetimes. Leah, who according to somesources is also said to have demonstrated somemediumistic abilities, became the manager forMaggie and Katie and arranged during numer-ous stage presentations for them to demon-strate their interaction with spirits, first inRochester, then in many other cities through-out New England. The sisters were tested andexposed, tested and authenticated, tested andhumiliated, over and over again—damned orpraised, depending upon the biases of theinvestigators. They succumbed to such con-tinual stresses by resorting to heavy drinking.They fought among themselves.

In 1857, Leah married a wealthy insuranceman named Underhill and retired from herposition as her sisters’ manager. Maggie had



SPIRITUALISTS believe that death is onlya change of worlds, and communication with thosewho have passed to the other side is possible.

been wooed by the famous Arctic explorer Dr.Elisha Kane (1820–1857), who died tragicallybefore they could be married. Undeterred bysuch a sorrowful change of plans, Maggie con-sidered herself a widow and called herself Mar-garetta Kane. In 1861, Katie went to Englandto be tested by such active psychic researchersas Sir William Crookes (1832–1919) andbecame the wife of H. D. Jencken, an attorney.She bore Jencken two sons before he died in1885, leaving her despondent and once againdependent upon alcohol. In 1888, Katie’slifestyle had become so destructive that Leahmanaged to have the Society for the Preven-tion of Cruelty to Children assume custody ofher two children.

Outraged by what she considered a traitor-ous act, Maggie allied herself with her youngersister and vowed to ruin Leah. This she soughtto accomplish by writing a letter to the NewYork Herald denouncing Spiritualism andpromising revelations of the frauds that thesisters had employed to deceive their audi-ences. Maggie made good her threat to Leahand her promise to the New York Herald bygiving a lecture at the New York Academy ofMusic, where she confessed to being a fraudand offered explanations as to how she andKatie had produced various aspects of the phe-nomena. An angry Katie joined her sister andendorsed her exposure of spirit communica-tion. They had been able to crack their toesand certain joints to make the sound of thespirit raps, the two sisters said. It had begun asa joke on their parents, but Leah had seen away to make money from their unique talents.Plus, Maggie and Katie said, Leah had wantedto establish a new religion.

A year later, after passions had cooledamong the sisters, Maggie completely retract-ed her confession of trickery and fraud. Sheexplained that she had been under great men-tal stress and suffering severe financial diffi-culties. For five dollars, she declared, shewould have sworn to anything. The demon-stration at the New York Academy of Musiconly revealed how such phenomena could befaked, she swore, not how she and her sistershad actually engaged in fraudulent activity.Maggie swore now that they had served asmediums for genuine spirit manifestations.

The phenomena produced by the Fox sis-ters were important to psychical research. Pro-fessor Charles Richet (1850–1935), world-famous physiologist at the Sorbonne, statedthat spirit rappings were of “primary impor-tance” as demonstrations that “there are inthe universe human or nonhuman intelli-gences that can act directly on matter.” SirWilliam Crookes (1832–1919), the renownedBritish chemist and physicist, concluded aftera full investigation of Katie Fox that she onlyhad to place her hand on any substance toproduce “raps loud enough to be heard severalrooms off. In this manner, I have heard themin a living tree, on a sheet of glass, on astretched iron wire, on a stretched membrane,a tambourine, on the roof of a cab, and on thefloor of a theatre. Moreover, actual contact isnot always necessary. I have heard thesesounds proceeding from the floors, walls, etc.,when the medium’s hands were held, whenshe was standing on a chair, when she was sus-pended from the ceiling, when she wasenclosed in a wire cage.…”

Psychical researcher Robert Dale Owenobserved Leah Fox Underhill in a seance dur-ing which she manifested a “light about as largeas a small fist, that rose and fell as a hammerwould, striking the floor. At each stroke, a loudrap was heard.” In over 400 seances sponsoredby investigators in New York, Katie Fox, whosehands were held by the researchers, material-ized phantom human forms that produced flow-ers, glowing lights, and written messages in thehandwriting of deceased individuals.

Katie worked as a medium and conductedseances until, at the age of 56, she drank her-self to death on July 2, 1892. Leah had passedaway the year before, November 1, 1891.Maggie died ill and destitute on March 8,1893, at the age of 59.

Whether the majority of Americansaccepted the exposure of the Fox sisters asdeceivers and frauds or believed the more posi-tive appraisals by certain psychical researchersthat Maggie and Katie were capable of produc-ing genuine spirit phenomena, the Spiritualistmovement had been born, and with the helpof sensationalistic articles in the press, word ofthe controversial mediums spread around the



world. Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910)and Emma Vera Brittain began to delivertrance lectures in the major cities of the east-ern seaboard of the United States. In 1859, Dr.Phelps, a Presbyterian minister in Stratford,Connecticut, produced spirit manifestationsand developed a following. Soon, trance medi-ums from the United States were visiting Scot-land, England, and being embraced in theScandinavian countries, where the teachingsof Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) hadprepared them to expect such messages fromthe spirit world. Within months, the move-ment had taken root in Germany, France, Rus-sia, and many other countries on the conti-nent—all the result of the rappings and knock-ings of Maggie and Katie Fox, two little girlswho, in the eyes of their supporters, had bro-ken down the dividing wall between theworlds of life and death.

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Jackson, Herbert G., Jr. The Spirit Rappers. GardenCity, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972.

Allen Kardec (1804–1869)

Allen Kardec, known as the father of Spiritism,distinct from Spiritualism, was born in Lyons,France, in 1804, with the birth name HypolyteLeon Denizard Rivail. The names “Allen” and“Kardec” were names from prior lifetimes thathe chose to use in his present life experience.The son of an attorney, Kardec decided tobecome a medical doctor, but he soon becameintrigued by the enthusiasm for experiments inmesmerism and spirit communication thatwere spreading throughout Europe.

In 1850, he began sitting with CelinaBequet, a professional somnambulist (hypno-tist) who, for family reasons, assumed thename of Celina Japhet. Japhet not only placedothers in trance states, but was assisted inachieving a somnambulistic state by M. Rous-tan. While in trance, Japhet was under thespirit control of her grandfather, M. Hahne-

mann, and the spirit of Franz Anton Mesmer(1734–1815) spoke from the spirit world togive medical advice through her mediumship.Many other spirit entities manifested them-selves and explained to the assembled sittersthat the process of reincarnation was not onlypossible, but that it was compulsory for allsouls to be reborn and receive new life experi-ences. Because Kardec was recognized as aproficient writer as well as a medical doctor,the spirits urged him to author what would beconsidered his classic work, Le Livre des Esprits(known today as The Spirits’ Book), first pub-lished in 1856.

The 1857 revised edition of Kardec’s book,based on the trance communications of Celi-na Japhet, became the guidebook for thosewishing information regarding mediumship,life in spirit, and the evolution of the soul. TheSpirits’ Book went into more than 25 editionsand became popular throughout Europe andSouth America. However, because traditionalSpiritualists reject the concept of reincarna-tion, conflict developed between the estab-lished dogma and the writings of Kardec.Kardec remained firm in his belief in what the



Grave of Allen Kardec.

(DR. ELMAR R.

GRUBER/FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

TRADITIONAL Spiritualists reject theconcept of reincarnation.

spirits had told him: Reincarnation was neces-sary for the soul to progress and to betterunderstand and heal current physical or men-tal illnesses, which had been caused by thedeeds and misdeeds of prior life experiences.Because of his resolve in these matters,“Spiritism” or “Kardecism” became distin-guished from Spiritualism.

Other books written by Allen Kardecinclude The Gospel as Explained by Spirits(1864); Heaven and Hell (1865); and Experi-mental Spiritism and Spiritualist Philosophy(1867). Although Spiritism was graduallyreabsorbed back into Spiritualism in Europe, itremains popular as a separate philosophythroughout South America, especially inBrazil, where its members see no conflict inbeing nominal Roman Catholics and practic-ing espiritas.

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Playfair, Guy Lyon. The Unknown Power. New York:Pocket Books, 1975.

Mystics

Mysticism is the attempt of humans toattain ultimate knowledge of the truereality of things and to achieve com-

munion with a hierarchy of spiritual beingsand with God, not through the ordinary reli-gious paths, but by means of personal revela-tion and interaction with the divine. Whereasthe major religions teach submission of theindividual will and adherence to various creedsand dogmas, the mystic desires to realize aunion with the Supreme Being free of allecclesiasticisms and physical limitations.While the faithful member of the orthodoxreligious bodies seeks to walk the doctrinalspiritual path and obey the will of God accord-ing to accepted dogma, the mystic wishes tobecome one with the Divine Essence itself.

In other words, for the conventional,unquestioning member of a religious faith,revealed truths come from an external source,such as God and his selected prophets andteachers. For the mystic, however, truth comes

from the god-self within and with the union ofthe human mind and the Divine.

Many mystics speak of having received“cosmic consciousness,” or illumination, asense of oneness with all-that-is. In his classicstudy of the experience, Dr. Raymond Bucke(1837–92) studied a number of individualswhom he considered recipients of cosmic con-sciousness, such as Gautama the Buddha (c. 563 B.C.E.–c. 483 B.C.E.), Jesus the Christ(6 B.C.E.–C. 30 C.E.), Paul (?–C. 62 C.E.), Ploti-nus (205 C.E.–270 C.E.), Muhammed (570–632), Dante (1265–1321), Moses (c. 1400B.C.E.), Isaiah, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882),and Ramakrishna Paramahansa. Bucke con-cluded that the recipient of such illuminationmust be a person of high intellectual, moral,and physical attainment and express a “warmheart, courage, and strong and religious feel-ing.” He considered the approximate age of 36as the most propitious time in one’s life toachieve this elevated state of consciousness.

In Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)William James (1842–1910) cites four fea-tures that he feels may distinguish a mysticalstate of consciousness from other states ofconsciousness:

1. Ineffability. When one receives an illumi-nation experience, James comments, itdefies expression; “no adequate report of itscontents can be given in words.” The mys-tical experience, he suggests, must bedirectly experienced; “it cannot be impart-ed or transferred to others.” Mystical statesare, therefore, more like states of feeling.“Lacking the heart or ear, we cannot inter-pret the musician or the lover justly,” Jameswrites, “and are even likely to consider himweak-minded or absurd. The mystic findsthat most of us accord to his experiences anequally incompetent treatment.”

2. Noetic quality. Although the mysticalstates are similar to states of feeling, tothose who experience them they seem alsoto be states of knowledge. “They are statesof insight into depths of truth” that evadethe intellect; they are revelations “full ofsignificance and importance” that carrywith them a “curious sense of authority.”



3. Transiency. James observes that mysticalstates cannot be sustained for lengthy peri-ods of time. “Often, when faded, theirquality can but imperfectly be reproducedin memory; but when they recur it is rec-ognized.”

4. Passivity. Although the onset of a mysticalstate may be facilitated by entering a self-induced state of meditation or trance, Jamescomments that once the “characteristic sortof consciousness” has set in, “the mysticfeels as if his own will were in abeyance,and indeed sometimes as if he were graspedand held by a superior power. This latterpeculiarity connects mystical states withcertain definite phenomena of secondary oralternative personality, such as propheticspeech, automatic writing, or the mediu-mistic trance.…Mystical states…are nevermerely interruptive. Some memory of theircontent always remains, and a profoundsense of their importance.”

In a chapter on “Basic Mystical Experi-ence” in his Watcher on the Hills (1959), Dr.Raynor C. Johnson, Master of Queens Col-lege, University of Melbourne, lists sevencharacteristics of illumination:

1. The appearance of light. “This observation isuniformly made, and may be regarded as acriterion of the contact of soul and Spirit.”

2. Ecstasy, love, bliss. “Directly or by implica-tion, almost all the accounts refer to thesupreme emotional tones of the experience.”

3. The approach to one-ness. “In the union ofsoul with Spirit, the former acquires asense of unity with all things.”

4. Insights given.

5. Effect on health and vitality.

6. Sense of time obscured.

7. Effects on living. Johnson quotes a recipientof the illumination experience who said:“Its significance for me has been incalcula-ble and has helped me through sorrowsand stresses which, I feel, would havecaused shipwreck in my life without theclearly remembered refreshment and undy-ing certainty of this one experience.”

The British marine biologist Sir AlisterHardy (1896–1985), D.Sc., Emeritus Professor

at Oxford, came to believe that the nonmateri-al side of life was of extreme importance in pro-viding science with a complete account of theevolutionary process. Contending that spiritualexperiences could be subject to scientific scruti-ny, Hardy established the Religious ExperienceResearch Unit at Manchester College in Eng-land. “A biology based upon an acceptance ofthe mechanistic hypothesis is a marvelousextension of chemistry and physics,” Hardyremarked. “But to call it an entire science of lifeis a pretense. I cannot help feeling that much ofman’s unrest today is due to the widespreadintellectual acceptance of this mechanisticsuperstition when the common sense of hisintuition cries out that it is false.”

In April 2001, research funded by theAlister Hardy Trust being conducted at the



The

Parapsychological

Association, Inc.

The Parapsychological Association pro-vides readers with Parapsychology FAQwhich is a three-part document compiledby researchers who are leaders in the

field, offering a basic introduction to and explanationof the basics in parapsychology; Available FYI—books, audio and video tapes, CDs, etc.; and Parapsy-chology Online—science papers and articles.

Sources:

The Parapsychological Association, Inc.

http://www.parapsych.org. 15 October 2001.

University of Wales revealed that Christians,Muslims, and Jews have similar mystical expe-riences in which they describe intense lightand a sense of encompassing love. Since 1969,the trust has collected accounts of 6,000 reli-gious experiences from people of all ages andbackgrounds. Christians most often describedthe light as an encounter with Jesus or anangel, and Muslims also often interpreted thelight to be an angel. Jews perceived it as a signof inspiration or an experience of God.

Writing in Fields Within Fields (1971), RezaArasteh, a transcultural developmental psy-chologist and author of Final Integration in theAdult Personality, speaks of the role that mysti-cism has played in all major cultures by permit-ting individuals to transcend cultural reality.Whether one examines Judaic, Christian, orMuslim mysticism in the Near East; humanismand modern psychoanalysis in the West; orZen Buddhism and Taoism in Far Eastern cul-tures, “the interesting point is that all thesemechanisms have come to us as a ‘path’ ratherthan as logic, as experience rather than ratio-nality.” Regardless of language or cultural ortemporal differences, Arasteh says, “all thesestyles of life have adopted the same goal ofexperiencing man in his totality, and the reali-ty of all is cosmic reality.” The commondenominator of mystical experience “comeswith encounter and inner motivation, and theresult is inner freedom for a cosmic trip andouter security for the release of unbound ener-gy for future creativity. “The Cosmic Self,” hestates, “is the manifestation of transcendingthe earthly and cultural self.”

Although there are many schools of mysti-cism associated with the major world religions,the kind of mystic who focuses upon establish-ing a meaningful relationship with spirits andthe afterlife is also a person who is likely toincorporate the secret teachings of ancientbrotherhoods, mysterious mahatmas and mas-ters from secret monasteries in hidden cities,and even tutelary entities from Atlantis andother lost civilizations. While such mystics asHelena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891),Alice Bailey (1880–1949), Annie Besant(1847–1933), Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925),and Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) mayhave seemed out of touch with reality to those

members of their societies who judged them asmad, they believed themselves to be exercisingthe power of their intellects to establish a truerconnection with the actual powers of the uni-verse than their contemporary scholars andclergy could ever hope to achieve. For thoseprofessors and scientists who assessed theclaimed ability of Swedenborg to communicatewith angels and spirits as heresy at worst andinsanity at best, he barely noticed such criti-cism and continued to write book after bookand do God’s work as it was specially revealedto him. While critics of Steiner were aston-ished by the depths of his scholarship, theywere appalled by his belief in Atlantis and hissuggestions that the seeds of the giants of oldare ripening in certain modern humans, andthat he went on to establish a model of scholas-tic education that thrives to this day. WhenBlavatsky, Bailey, and Besant insisted that theirwisdom was being astrally communicated tothem by great mahatmas and masters in India,they ignored the psychical researchers whocried fraud, and continued to build the Theo-sophical Society, which still flourishes today.

In his Mystics as a Force for Change (1981),Dr. Sisirkumar Ghose writes that the mystic’sreal service to humankind is not so much tohelp people solve material problems as it is toshow them how to “transcend secular andhumanistic values, to transfigure them in thelight of the spiritual ideal or the will of God.The mystic brings not peace, but the sword ofdiscrimination and a sense of the holy.…Themystics have played an important part in themaking of…civilization. Most early civiliza-tions owe a good deal to this creative minori-ty.…The early mystics would also be amongthe priests and medicine men of the tribe.”

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Bach, Marcus. The Inner Ecstasy. New York-Cleve-land: World Publishing, 1969.

Bancroft, Anne. Twentieth Century Mystics and Sages.Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1976.

James, William. Varieties of Religious Experience. Gar-den City, N.Y.: Masterworks Program, 1963.

Johnson, Raynor C. The Imprisoned Splendour. NewYork: Harper & Brothers, 1953.

Otto, Rudolf. Mysticism East and West. New York:Macmillan, 1970.



Stace, Walter T. The Teachings of the Mystics. NewYork: New American Library 1960.

Steiger, Brad. Revelation: The Divine Fire. EnglewoodCliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973.

Talbot, Michael. Mysticism and the New Physics. NewYork: Bantam Books, 1981.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism. New York: E. P. Dutton& Co., 1961.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

(1831–1891)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, founder of theTheosophical Movement, was born in Eka-terinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), in theUkraine, on July 30, 1831, the daughter ofColonel Peter Hahn. As a child, she lovedmystery and fantasy and claimed supernaturalcompanions that kept her safe from harm. Sheappeared to demonstrate this paranormal pro-tection when she fell from the saddle whilehorseback riding and caught her foot in thestirrup. According to young Helena, shewould surely have been dragged to deathbefore the horse was stopped if it weren’t forthe unseen entities that kept her from fallingto the ground.

At the age of 17 she married NicephoreBlavatsky, a Russian official in Caucasia, whowas 40 years older than she. She separatedfrom her husband after three months andspent over a year traveling in Texas, Mexico,Canada, and India. All the time she was wan-dering, she was developing her mediumisticabilities, secure in the confidence that herphantom protector watched over her. Twiceshe attempted to enter Tibet, and on oneoccasion she managed to cross its frontier indisguise, but she lost her way and after variousadventures was found by horsemen and escort-ed out of the country.

Blavatsky described the 10-year periodbetween 1848 and 1858 as the “veiled” timein her life, refusing to divulge anything specif-ic that happened to her during that period,but making mysterious allusions to spiritualretreats in Tibet or in the Himalayas. In 1847,shortly after she had “escaped” from her hus-band, she fled to Egypt, where she said thatshe became adept in the art of snake-charm-ing and was initiated in the secrets of Oriental

magic by a Coptic magician. In 1851, accord-ing to her account, she was in New Orleans,studying the rites and mysteries of voodoo.She traveled to Paris in 1858 and was intro-duced to the internationally famous mediumDaniel Dunglas Home (1833–1886) and wasso impressed by his paranormal abilities thatshe became a Spiritualist. When Blavatsky, inturn, sought to impress him with her ownmediumistic talents, Home ignored her andinformed her that she was a cheat.

In 1858 she returned to Russia, where shesoon gained fame as a spirit medium. Always amesmerizing storyteller, Blavatsky claimed tohave disguised herself as a man and foughtunder Garibaldi during the battle of Mentanawhen she was wounded and left for dead. Afterabout five years spent perfecting her medi-umship in Russia, Blavatsky entered another



Helena Petrovna

Blavatsky (1831–1891)

was the founder of the

Theosophical Society.


“veiled” period in her life when, from 1863to1870, she was allegedly in retreat in Tibet,studying with the mahatmas Koot Hoomi andMorya, and a secret brotherhood of adepts.

In 1870, back in Europe, Blavatsky was enroute to Greece when the vessel on which shewas traveling exploded, and she lost all herearthly possessions, including whatevermoney she had managed to save. Rescued atsea and brought to Cairo, she supported her-self through her mediumship, and in 1871, shefounded the Spirit Society, which was quicklydisbanded after accusations of fraud.

In 1873, after two months in Paris, shetraveled to the United States and settled inNew York, where she remained for six yearsand, according to some accounts, became anaturalized citizen. She resumed the practiceof her mediumship in association with thebrothers William (1832–1932) and HoratioEddy (1842–1922), two well-known material-ization mediums. As she became more promi-nent in Spiritualist circles in America,Blavatsky came to the attention of HenrySteel Olcott (1832–1907), a journalist, whoestablished a study group around her uniquestyle of mediumship, a blend of Spiritualismand Buddhistic legends about Tibetan sages.She professed to have direct spiritual contactwith two Tibetan mahatmas, Koot Humi andMorya, who communicated with her on theastral plane and who provided her with won-derful teachings of wisdom and knowledge.

On November 17, 1875, with the aid ofHenry Olcott and William Q. Judge(1851–1896), an attorney, Blavatsky foundedthe Theosophical Society in New York. Thethreefold purpose of the society was: 1) to forma universal brotherhood of man; 2) to studyand make known the ancient religions,philosophies, and sciences; 3) to investigatethe laws of nature and develop the divine pow-ers latent in humankind. Theosophy (divinewisdom) is a vigorous blend of many earlierphilosophies, all of which claim to have beenhanded down to modern students of the occultby disciples of ancient wisdom. Theosophycombines teachings from Zoroastrianism, Hin-duism, Gnosticism, Manichaeism, the Kab-balah, and numerous other philosophies.

Sometime during that same year, (1875),Blavatsky entered into a brief marriage of twoor three months with a merchant in Philadel-phia named M. C. Betanelly. At about thesame time, she was partially responsible forbreaking up the marriage of Olcott, who lefthis wife and children for her.

Disappointed by Blavatsky’s lack of enthu-siasm for the day-to-day administration of agrowing movement, Olcott became responsi-ble for the management of the TheosophicalSociety. In 1877, he began to speak of movingthe headquarters of the society to India, wherethey might be closer to the mahatmas, theoccult brotherhood, and sincere practicingHindu adepts. A year later, Olcott, Blavatsky,and a handful of the faithful left New York forIndia because the masters wished them to doso. By 1879, the central headquarters of thesociety had been established in Adyar, India,and an amalgamation with the Arya Samajsect founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswatihad also been accomplished. By April 1882,however, the swami realized that he had beenexploited by the leaders of the Theosophistsand he denounced the group.

By that time, the influence of the swami inIndia was no longer required, for in 1880,Blavatsky had visited northern India andobserved phenomena manifested especially forher by the mahatmas. It was also at this timethat she met A. P. Sinnett, journalist and edi-tor of The Pioneer, and Allen O. Hume, of theIndian Civil Service, her two most importantconverts in India. Shortly after reports hadspread of the wondrous phenomena the mas-ters had created for her benefit in northernIndia, Theosophy began to attract studentsand followers from around the world whocame to observe for themselves the miraclescentered around the spiritual teachings ofMorya and Koot Hoomi as channeled throughBlavatsky’s mediumship.

In order to gain converts to Theosophy,Blavatsky felt obliged to perform such miracu-lous manifestations as the written letters fromKoot Hoomi and Morya that would materializein midair. Eventually such reports reached theattention of England’s Society for PsychicalResearch (SPR), which dispatched Dr.



Richard Hodgson (1855–1905), one of itsmost formidable researchers, to investigate. Itdidn’t take long for Hodgson to assess the fol-lowers of Theosophy to be extremely gulliblemen and women who had arrived in India withexpectations of finding in Blavatsky a modernmiracle worker. The psychical researcher quiteeasily detected the sliding panels, the dummyhead and shoulders of Koot Hoomi, and thecracks in the ceiling from which the lettersfrom Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Moryadropped down from “midair” to the astonish-ment of the true believers assembled aroundthe medium. The script in which these docu-ments was written were shown to be an ama-teurish attempt on the part of Blavatsky to dis-guise her handwriting.

Regardless of the expose published by theSociety for Psychical Research (SPR), Theoso-phy continued to grow to become a worldwidemovement. In 1877, Blavatsky published IsisUnveiled, and in 1887, her monumental TheSecret Doctrine, which was alleged to havebeen written in an altered state of conscious-ness while attuned to higher powers. In spite ofa barrage of attacks and exposures, Blavatsky’scommanding personality secured a large fol-lowing, and when she died in 1891 she was atthe head of a large body of believers, number-ing about 100,000 persons. Annie Besant(1847–1933) became her successor and active-ly preached the wisdom and insights providedin The Secret Doctrine and shepherded themovement into steadily larger growth.

M Delving Deeper

Blavatsky, H. P. Collected Writings. 16 vols. Wheaton,Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1950–1985.

Harris, Iverson L. Mme. Blavatsky Defended. Santa FeSprings, Calif.: Stockton Trade Press, 1971.

Meade, Marion. Madame Blavatsky: The WomanBehind the Myth. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons,1980.

Murphet, Howard. When Daylight Comes: A Biographyof Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Wheaton, Ill.:Theosophical Publishing House, 1975.

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925)

Rudolf Steiner was born in Krajevec Austria-Hungary (now Yugoslavia), on February 27,1861, the son of a minor railway official. By

the age of eight, Steiner had experienced theunseen worlds, the invisible reality within theeveryday world. Once he even perceived theapparition of a deceased relative. Because ofhis tendencies toward the spiritual aspects oflife, it was thought for a time that Steinermight become a clergyman; but his freethink-ing father argued that he was a bright boy, andhe envisioned him following a more practicaland materially rewarding occupation as a rail-way engineer.

When he was 15, Steiner met FelixKotgutski, an herbalist and metaphysician,who, when Steiner was 19, introduced him toan adept in the occult to whom Steinerreferred only as “the Master.” Steiner neverrevealed the man’s identity, in keeping withoccult tradition. The Master informed him ofhis spiritual mission in life and foretold thatSteiner would develop a system of knowledgethat would blend science and religion.

Wishing to please his father, Steiner took adegree in mathematics, physics, and chemistry,from the Technische Hochschule in Vienna,but he wrote his doctoral thesis, “Truth andScience,” at the University of Rostock in1891. In 1894, he published the book The Phi-losophy of Spiritual Activity, which he describedas “a biographical account of how one humansoul made the difficult ascent to freedom.” Inthe work, Steiner sought to help others discov-er the reality of spiritual experience anddemonstrate how it could function side by sidewith the world of ordinary thought and experi-ence. In his worldview, it was possible to havea spiritual science that would be an outgrowthof the true spirit of natural science.

In his thirties, Steiner awakened to aninner recognition of what he believed was theturning point in time in human spiritual histo-ry—the incarnation of the Divine Beingknown as the Christ. In his “Tenth Lecture onthe Gospel of St. Luke,” he reflects that just asa plant cannot unfold its blossom immediatelyafter the seed has been sown, so has humankindhad to progress from stage to stage until theright knowledge could be brought to maturityat the right time. Steiner is among those mys-tics who state that in the twentieth centuryhumankind began to enter the “fullness” time



when the Christ principle, cosmic conscious-ness, might once again become manifest.“Christ consciousness” is defined as a transfor-mative energy that transcends orthodox Chris-tianity. According to Steiner, the Master Jesusbecame “christed” and thereby presentedhumankind with an example of what it meansto achieve a complete activation of the spiritu-al seed within all souls.

Following the example of the Master Jesus,Steiner told his students that the rest ofhumanity must now in imitation of Christgradually develop “what was present for thir-ty-three years on the Earth in one single per-sonality.” Jesus, the Christed One, was able toimplant into humanity a seed which must nowunfold and grow. To Steiner, the Christ energyis the catalyst that germinates the seed that



Rudolf Steiner

(1861–1925). (FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

great spirit beings implanted within theirhuman offspring. The physical seeds of maleand female intermingled to produce the wholehuman being, but Steiner believed there wasalso something within each human that didnot arise from the blending of the two physi-cal seeds: a “virgin birth,” something ineffable,which somehow flowed into the process ofgermination from a different source.

Steiner also claimed to be able to read theAkashic Records, from which he had beenable to ascertain the true history of humanevolution. He set forth the hypothesis that thepeople of prehistory, the Atlanteans, had beenlargely guided and directed by a higher orderof beings who interacted and communicatedwith certain humans—the smartest, thestrongest, the most intellectually flexible.Eventually, these select humans producedwhat might be called demigods, semidivinehuman beings, who, in turn, could relayinstructions from higher intelligences. Ineffect, Steiner may have presented anotherdefinition of the children of humans and the“sons of God” referred to in the book of Gene-sis, the hybrids that the ancient Hebrewsnamed “Nephilim,” which does, in fact, meandemigods, men of “great renown.”

Steiner went on to speculate that withinthe larger evolving human race were thedescendents of those divine-human hybridbeings, men and women who are animated byhigher ideals, who regard themselves as chil-dren of a divine, universal power. He alsobelieved that within what he termed theemerging “Sixth Post-Atlantean Race” wouldbe children of the divine universal power whocould be able to initiate those men andwomen who have developed their facility ofthought so that they might better unite them-selves with the divine. The children of thedivine universal power, those who have the“seed” within them, would be able to initiatethe more advanced members of humankind.People so initiated would be able to receiverevelations and perform what others wouldconsider miracles. The initiates would go onto become the mediators between humankindand the higher intelligences. The whole pointof the efforts of these higher intelligences wasto enable humankind to become more inde-

pendent, more able to stand on its own feetwithout having to rely on the higher order ofbeings that directed humans in ancient times.

In 1902, Steiner became the general secre-tary of the German Section of the Theosophi-cal Society. His lectures had found great recep-tion among Theosophical audiences, so Steinerfelt confident that he would be comfortablejoining the movement. It wasn’t long, however,before he became disappointed with the soci-ety’s emphasis on Eastern mysticism, for he hadbecome convinced that the passive Eastern doc-trines were incapable of satisfying the spiritualneeds of the Western consciousness. Steineralso believed that its founders had distorted anumber of basic metaphysical and occult truthsand did not place enough emphasis on the roleof the Christ and the Christian Church inhumankind’s spiritual evolution. In 1913, Stein-er left the Theosophists and formed his owngroup, the Anthroposophical Society, dedicatedto constructing a path for spiritual growth estab-lished on four levels of human nature—thesenses, imagination, inspiration, and intuition.

In 1914, Steiner married Marie von Siev-ers, an actress, who had been secretary of theGerman Section of the Theosophical Society.His first marriage, to Anna Eunicke, hadended in divorce some years previously.Between 1910 and 1914, he had written fourmystery plays and he intended to stage these,together with the dramas of Goethe, in theGoetheanum, a school for esoteric researchthat he founded in Dornach, near Basel,Switzerland. Together with the talents of hiswife, Steiner began to develop new approach-es to speech and drama, which led to thebeginnings of “eurythmy,” an art of movementthat makes visible those inner forms of lan-guage and music formerly revealed only in theunseen levels of artistic expression. After theFirst World War, an international group ofvolunteers, together with local craftsmen,constructed the unique building designed bySteiner. The Goetheanum was opened in1920, to serve the “awareness of one’s humani-ty” and to support the developing work ofanthroposophy. On December 31, 1922, anarsonist burned the wooden building to theground. A new building was designed andconstructed in 1923, which still serves as the



international headquarters of the Anthropo-sophical Society.

Among Steiner’s greatest legacies is hiswork in education and the establishment ofthe Waldorf School Movement, which origi-nated from a request made by Emil Molt,director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette fac-tory, for a school to which his employees couldsend their children. Steiner died on March 30,1925, in Dornach.

M Delving Deeper

McDermott, Robert A., ed. The Essential Steiner. SanFrancisco: Harper & Row, 1984.

Shepherd, A. P. Rudolf Steiner: Scientist of the Invisible.Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions International,1983.

Steiner, Rudolf. An Autobiography. Blauvelt, N.Y.:Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1977.

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772)

Emanuel Swedenborg was perhaps the last ofthe Renaissance men—he was fluent in ninelanguages, wrote 150 works in 17 sciences, wasexpert in numerous crafts, and was a musician, apolitician, and an inventor with dozens of majorcontributions attributed to his name. When hisname is recalled today, it is usually as a Swedishmystic and medium who courted angels andcursed demons. Swedenborg claimed daily com-munications with the inhabitants of the unseenworld, and his manifestations of remarkable psy-chic phenomena are well documented.

Emanuel Swedberg was born in Stockholm,Sweden, on January 29, 1688. His father was aprofessor of theology at the University ofUpsala, who later became the Lutheran Bishopof Scara in spite of certain opinions whichappeared to challenge orthodox religiousviews. Emanuel completed his university edu-cation at Upsala in 1710, then traveled abroadin England, Holland, France, and Germany. In1715, he returned to Upsala and gained a solidreputation as an engineer, leading to hisappointment by Charles XII to the SwedishBoard of Mines in 1716. In addition to hisengineering duties, Emanuel published numer-ous works on mathematics, as well as mechani-cal engineering. Shortly thereafter, he was ele-vated to the rank of nobility by Queen Ulrica,and changed his name to Swedenborg.

As he sat in the House of Nobles, Sweden-borg was much admired for his political views.Some of his opinions were a bit unsettling tohis royal benefactors, however, for Swedenborgwas openly in favor of a democratic form ofgovernment. Hardly content to pontificate inthe House of Nobles, he published works onthe nature of the universe, as well as papers ongeology, physics, anatomy, zoology, and astron-omy which were decidedly ahead of their time.In 1734, he published Prodomus PhilosophiaRatiocinatrio de Infinite, which explores therelationship of the finite to the infinite and ofthe soul to the body. In spite of his mastery ofthe material sciences and mechanical engi-neering, it was becoming obvious to all hisreaders that Swedenborg’s concept of thesupreme effort of humankind was an intensestudy of the spiritual and the divine.

In 1743, when he was 56, Swedenborg hada vision in which he believed that “Our Lord”initiated him into the deeper spiritual mean-ing of the scriptures. The Bible was the wordof God, he was told, but its true meaning dif-fered greatly from its more apparent teachings.Only Swedenborg, with the help of minister-ing angels, could translate the actual messageof scripture. After a series of dreams andvisions, Swedenborg abandoned his life of pol-itics and science to spend all of his consider-able energy delving into the mysteries of thespiritual world. He immediately resigned all ofhis appointments and retired at half his pen-sion. Not only had God revealed himself andthe true spiritual essence of the scriptures tohim, but Swedenborg felt that God wantedhim to develop a new church. Swedenborgsaid that he could hear the conversations ofangelic beings and could even participate insuch otherworldly discussions. In time, he wasgiven visions of both heaven and hell, and hedeveloped the habit of lying in trance for sev-eral days and nights. His arguments with theevil spirits, the fallen angels, terrified his ser-vants, but the gentle conversations with thebenign angelic beings soothed their fears.

In 1759, Swedenborg had the vision of thegreat fire at Stockholm, which has beenrecorded as one of the first completely docu-mented cases of clairvoyance in history andwhich has become well known throughout the



Western world. In September, at about fouro’clock on a Saturday afternoon, Swedenborgarrived in Gotenburg, Sweden, from England,and was invited by a friend to spend sometime at his house before returning to his homein Stockholm. While there, Swedenborgbecame restless and went outside for abouttwo hours. When he came back inside, heinformed his host and other guests that a terri-ble fire had just broken out in Stockholm(which was about 300 miles from Gotenburg)and that it was spreading rapidly. His friendsdid not know how to respond to such news, forthey had no idea how Swedenborg could pos-sibly know that such a dreadful conflagrationwas occurring at such a distance away.

Swedenborg remained agitated and restlessand went outside often that day, only to returnwith additional dire news, as if he were some-how viewing the disaster as it occurred.Alarmed, he told the company that the houseof a friend was already in ashes and that thefire was fast approaching his own home. Ateight o’clock in the evening, he came backinside to announce joyfully that the awful firehad been extinguished—and that it had beenstopped just three doors away from his house.

By Sunday morning, word had spread ofSwedenborg’s remarkable vision, and he wassummoned to the governor, who questionedhim about the disaster. The seer described thefire precisely, telling exactly how it had begunand precisely how it had at last beensquelched. On Monday evening, a messengerdispatched by the Board of Trade during thetime of the fire arrived in Gotenburg. In let-ters the courier had brought with him, the firewas described exactly as stated by Sweden-borg, and the next morning the news was fur-ther confirmed by messages brought to thegovernor by royal courier. As the seer had pro-claimed, the fire had been extinguished atexactly eight o’clock in the evening.

Swedenborg’s conversations with theangels and spirits of the dead had informedhim that humans possess two receptacles forthe containment of God—the will for divinelove and the understanding for divine wisdom.Before the Fall, the flow of these virtues fromGod into the human spirit was perfect, but the

intervention of evil and the sins ofhumankind itself had interrupted this once-perfect communion. The purpose of religion isto accomplish good and to establish a connec-tion between God and the human spirit. Swe-denborg came to recognize that even thoughhe had become an apostle of God for whomno mysteries were hidden, it was not necessaryfor him to form a new church. All sinceremembers of all existing religious systems wereconnected as one in a spiritual sense. In spiteof this apparent change of focus, Swedenbor-gianism did become a religion, with churchesestablished in England in 1778 and in theUnited States in 1792.

Swedenborg believed strongly in what hetermed the Doctrine of Correspondence: thateverything in the visible, material world has acounterpart in the unseen, nonmaterial world.To those who questioned the validity of hisjourneys and conversations in the spiritualworld, Swedenborg responded firmly that his



Emanuel Swedenborg

(1688–1772).

observations of these other dimensions hadbeen recorded as strictly as any man of scienceamong his detractors. It had been given tohim, as a scientist and as a man of spirit, to beable to reach into two worlds—one of spirit,the other of matter.

From the time he was 55 until his death,Swedenborg spoke to spirits of the deceasedand to angelic beings. According to his con-stant dialogues with such entities, he said thatthe spirit world was comprised of a number ofconcentric spheres, each with its own densityand inhabitants. The existence of the spiritswas quite similar to that of Earth, with houses,trees, parks, schools, and so forth. Those whodied of disease or old age regained their youthand health in the spirit world. Everyone whoarrived on those ethereal planes after deathrested for a few days before regaining full con-sciousness. Because on Earth it takes a manand a woman to form a complete human unit,marriage continues to exist as a spiritual unionon the other side. There is no such thing ashell or eternal punishment. Those spirits whofind themselves in a hellish place after deathcan evolve toward a higher spiritual plane.

In spite of it being granted to him “to beconstantly and uninterruptedly in companywith spirits and angels,” Swedenborg did issuea caution in regard to receiving counsel fromjust any spirit that might manifest with analleged personal message. “When spirits beginto speak,” he wrote in Miscellaneous TheologicalWorks (1996), “care should be taken not tobelieve them, for nearly everything they say ismade up by them.…They love to feign. What-ever be the topic spoken of, they think theyknow it, and if man listens and believes, theyinsist, and in various ways deceive and seduce.”

From 1747 onward, Swedenborg lived atvarious times in Stockholm, Holland, andLondon, where he died on March 29, 1772.He was first buried in the Swedish Church inPrince’s Square, then, later, at the request ofthe Swedish government, his body was sent toStockholm for reinterment.

M Delving Deeper


Swedenborg, Emanuel. Divine Providence. New York:The Swedenborg Foundation, 1972.

———. Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell. New York:Citadel Press, 1965.

Wilson, Colin. The Occult. New York: Vintage Books,1973.

Researchers into the

Mystery of Spirit Contact

To the uninformed layperson, psychicalresearchers who investigate individualswho claim to be able to make contact

with the spirits of the departed are sometimesthought of as gullible men or women who goto seances in order to converse with the ghostof their late Uncle Henry. To be certain, medi-ums and their paranormal abilities are studiedand tested, but not in an attitude of openacceptance. Such investigations are conduct-ed in all earnestness and seriousness and underthe strictest laboratory conditions possible.And rather than being gullible, theresearchers are more likely to be skeptical andcautious observers, ever on the watch fortrickery and evidence of charlatanism.

Many of those who research spirit contactbelieve that the difference between the gen-uine medium or channel and the great majori-ty of humankind lies in the fact that the medi-um’s threshold of consciousness may be setlower than that of others. In other words, themedium has access to levels of awareness thatlie beyond the normal “reach” of the subcon-scious. The spirit medium usually works intrance, and while in this state of conscious-ness, he or she claims to be under the direc-tion of a spirit guide or spirit control. Spiritu-alists believe in the reality of the guide as aspiritual entity apart from the medium. Psy-chical researchers theorize that the controlpersonality is but a secondary personality ofthe medium that is able to dip into the psy-chic abilities residing in the subconscious.

The physical phenomena of mediumshipare among the strangest and most dramatic ofall occurrences studied by psychical researchers.Under laboratory conditions, serious reportshave been made of the materialization of





Americans are trying to communicate withspirits in record numbers; half of all Amer-icans believe in extrasensory perception.A new 2000 Gallup poll reports that fully 28

percent of Americans believe people can hear from orcommunicate mentally with the dead.

Regardless of whether spirits are attempting tocommunicate with us, people are trying to communi-cate with them—spouses with deceased spouses;parents with deceased children; children withdeceased parents—says Greg Barrett of the GannettNews Service. Skeptics and believers alike say it isthis love—and love lost—that drives our undyingdesire to talk to the dead.

Longtime skeptic and magician James Randi,a.k.a. “Amazing Randi,” says, “People not only want itto be true, they need it to be true. It’s the feel-goodsyndrome,” says the 72-year-old, who has standingoffer of $1 million to psychics who can independentlyverify their “magic.”

Between 1972 and 1995 U.S. taxpayer,s unbe-knownst to them, supported the paranormal profes-sion. Before the ties were severed to psychics in 1996,the CIA and various U.S. Defense Department intelli-gence agencies spent $20 million in an effort to turnpsychics into spy satellites. Some of the details of thegovernment program may soon be released, as theyare in the process of being reviewed for declassifica-tion, according to CIA spokeswoman Anya Guilsher.Guilsher adds that the government’s conclusion of theuse of psychics was “unpromising.”

Psychic Noreen Renier doesn’t agree. She waslecturing on extrasensory perception at the FBI Acad-emy in Quantico, Virginia, when she warned that Presi-dent Reagan would soon receive an injury to the upperchest. Two months later, John Hinckley shot Reagan.

Skeptic Paul Kurtz says all of this medium stuff is“nincompoopery.” “But for whatever reason, it’s allthe rage.” Kurtz is chairman of the Committee for theScientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormaland he tackles claims of psychics and the like in hisSkeptic Inquirer magazine.

Gary Schwartz thinks he has evidence that theliving can talk to the dead. Schwartz, Harvard-educat-ed and head of the University of Arizona Human Ener-gy Systems Laboratory, claims the lab, which is a psy-chic testing ground, is revealing some interestingdata. Several years ago, five mediums that Schwartzrefers to as the “Dream Team” were flown to Tucsonand put through a battery of tests. Most psychicsscored 83 percent in revealing personal details aboutothers, when asking yes or no questions.

When asked if any of his “Dream Team” will takeAmazing Randi’s challenge for the $1 million prize, heanswers that Randi is an eternal skeptic who willnever convert, no matter what evidence confrontshim, so it is unlikely.

Sources:

Barrett, Greg. USA Today, 20 June 2001.

Can the Living

Talk to the Dead?

human heads, hands, and even complete bodiesfrom a cloudy substance, known as ectoplasm,which somehow appears to issue from the medi-um’s physical body. Mediums have been seen tolevitate into the air, manifest stigmata on theirbodies, and cause mysterious apports (arrivals)of flowers, medallions, and items of jewelry.

Some of the world’s best minds have beenvitally concerned with the mystery of survival,life after death, and whether or not it is possi-ble to speak with the dead. The British states-

man William E. Gladstone (1809–1898), whomost of his life was an avowed skeptic of spiritcontact and all paranormal occurrences, final-ly concluded that psychical research “is themost important work in the world today—byfar the most important.”

The famous statesman was not alone in hisdeclaration of the importance of psychicalresearch. Pierre Curie (1859–1906), who withhis wife, Marie, discovered radium, statedshortly before his death that in his opinionpsychical research had more importance forhumankind than any other. Sigmund Freud(1856–1939), generally accepted as the“father of psychoanalysis,” belonged to boththe British and the American Societies forPsychical Research and once commented thathe wished he had devoted more time to suchstudy when he was younger. His colleague andsometimes rival, Carl G. Jung (1875–1961),remained actively interested in psychicalexperiments until his death.

Sir William Crookes (1832–1919), aBritish physicist, conducted many exhaustivestudies of spirit contact and mediums. TheGerman philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer(1788–1860) insisted that psychical researchexplored the most important aspects of humanexperience and that it was the obligation ofevery scientist to learn more about them.Julian Huxley (1887–1975), the biologist; SirJames Jeans (1877–1946), the astronomer;Arnold Toynbee (1889–1975), the historian;Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), thephilosopher—all of these great thinkers urgedthat their fellow scientists seriously approachpsychical research.

In spite of the attention of such command-ing intellects and the painstaking research ofsuch individuals as Sir William Crookes, SirOliver Lodge (1851–1940), Dr. Gardner Mur-phy (1895–1979), Hereward Carrington(1880–1958). J. B. Rhine (1895–1980), G. N.M. Tyrell (1879–1973), Dr. Karlis Osis(1917–1997), Dr. Stanley Krippner (1932– ),and Dr. Harold Puthoff (1930– ), psychicalresearchers are still regarded by a large section ofthe scientific community as being “spookchasers” and as outright rebels and heretics tothe bodies of established knowledge. The basic



The ASPR

Based in New York, New York, the AmericanSociety for Psychical Research, Inc.,(ASPR) , the oldest psychical researchorganization in the United States, seeks to

advance the understanding of psychic phenomena,with emphasis on scientific research. With its labora-tories, offices, library and archive, it offers extensivetopics in Parapsychology, such as extrasensory per-ception, (ESP), telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition(PK), psychokinesis, out of body experiences (OBEs),near death experiences (NDE’s), survival after death,reincarnation, and apparitions and poltergeists.

There is also an “On-line Research” sectionwhere one can fill out a questionnaire to participate incurrent research linked with the Department of Psy-chology at the State University of West Georgia.

Sources:

American Society for Psychical Research, Inc. http://www.aspr.

com. 15 October 2001.

SPIRITUALISTS believe in the reality ofthe guide as a spiritual entity apart from the medium.

reason for such disdain on the part of orthodoxscientists is the understandable reluctance ofthe scientific establishment to grant a hearingto a body of knowledge that might very wellreshape or revise many of the premises on whichits entire structure is based.

Arthur Koestler (1905–1983), noted novel-ist and journalist, told of his visit with a leadingmathematical logician and philosopher.Koestler expressed his interest in recent statisti-cal work in psychical research. The logicianloudly scoffed at such studies until Koestler,irritated by the man’s closed mind, providedhim with the name of the world-famous statisti-cian who had checked the statistics. Uponhearing the statistician’s name, the logicianseemed completely nonplussed. After a fewmoments he said, “If that is true, it is terrible,terrible. It would mean that I would have toscrap everything and start from the beginning.”

Orthodox scientists in the more conven-tional disciplines are not about to “scrapeverything,” and many of them feel that thebest method of avoiding the research statisticscompiled by psychical researchers is to insistupon the requirements demanded of all con-ventional sciences: (1) that they produce con-trolled and repeatable experiments; (2) thatthey develop a hypothesis comprehensiveenough to include all psychic phenomena—from telepathy to poltergeists, from waterdowsing to spirit contact.

The difficulties in fulfilling these require-ments can be immediately grasped when oneconsiders how impossible it would be torepeat, for example, the apparition of a man’sfather as it appeared to him at the moment ofhis father’s death. This sort of crisis apparitionoccurs only at death, and the man’s father isgoing to die only once. The great majority ofpsychic phenomena are almost completelyspontaneous in nature, and ungovernable ele-ments of mood and emotion obviously playenormously important roles in any type ofparanormal experience. As G. N. M. Tyrellpointed out, people are never aware of a tele-pathic, clairvoyant, or precognitive process atwork within them. They are only aware of theproduct of that process. In fact, it seems appar-ent from laboratory work that conscious effort

at determining any psychic process at workwithin oneself will either completely destroyit or greatly diminish its effectiveness.

Those men and women who devote them-selves to researching the possibility of lifebeyond death and spirit contact insist that sci-ence must not continue to ignore that whichis not directly perceivable. By the same token,



Society for

Psychical Research

(SPR)

During a lecture given to the Society forPsychical Research (SPR) in 1919, CarlG. Jung said, “I shall not commit thefashionable stupidity of regarding every-

thing I cannot explain as fraud.” Still located in Kens-ington, London, the society offers research and dataavailable both in classrooms and lecture halls in Lon-don, or over the Internet. Its said purpose is toadvance the understanding of events and abilitiescommonly described as “psychic” or “paranormal” ina scientific manner. Scheduled conferences and lec-tures are offered on the website in addition to paranor-mal review, journals, books, and research initiatives.

Sources:

Society for Psychical Research. http://www.spr.ac.uk. 15

October 2001.

PSYCHICAL researchers are still regarded bya large section of the scientific community as being“spook chasers” and as outright rebels and heretics tothe bodies of established knowledge.

it falls upon the psychical researchers to exer-cise the greatest caution and the strictest con-trols when conducting tests with those whoclaim to be able to contact the dead.

In his Psychic Science and Survival (1947)Hereward Carrington, who devoted a lifetimeto psychical research, listed the followingrequirements of an ideal researcher:

1. a thorough knowledge of the literature ofthe subject;

2. a good grounding in normal and abnormalpsychology, in physics, chemistry, biology,and photography;

3. keen powers of observation and an abilityto judge human nature and its motives;

4. training in magic and sleight of hand;

5. shrewdness, quickness of thought andaction, patience, resourcefulness, sympa-thy, and a sense of humor;

6. freedom from superstition;

7. the strength to stand out against bigotry,scientific as well as theological.

M Delving Deeper


Murphy, Gardner. Challenge of Psychical Research: APrimer of Parapsychology. New York: Harper &Row, 1970.

Murphy, Gardner, and Robert O. Ballou, eds. WilliamJames on Psychical Research. New York: VikingPress, 1960.

Rhine, Louisa E. Hidden Channels of the Mind. NewYork: William Sloane Associates, 1960.

Steinour, Harold. Exploring the Unseen World. NewYork: Citadel Press, 1959.

Sudre, Rene. Parapsychology. New York: Citadel Press,1960.

Hereward Carrington (1880–1958)

Hereward Carrington spent his childhoodyears in Jersey, one of Britain’s ChannelIslands, and received his early schooling inLondon. Although he would one day writeover one hundred books in the field of psychi-cal research, as a teenager, he was far moreinterested in becoming a stage magician thanexploring the spirit world. If it weren’t for afascination with certain well-documented

cases of the paranormal, such as those record-ed by Fredric W. H. Myers (1843–1901) andother serious psychical researchers, his onlyinterest in mediums would have been to seekto expose them in the manner of Harry Hou-dini (1874–1926).

Carrington moved to Boston when he was20 and remained in the United States for therest of his life. While at first he earned his liv-ing as a journalist, he began to spend moreand more time continuing to research theunexplained, and in 1905, he joined the staffof the American Society for PsychicalResearch (ASPR) as an investigator.

In addition to such famous mediums asMargery Crandon (1888–1941), Eusapia Pal-ladino (1854–1918), and Eileen Garrett(1893–1970), Carrington had a number ofimpressive sittings with William Cartheuser.Cartheuser appeared to have been representa-tive of some of the many paradoxes withwhich serious researchers may find themselvesconfronted in paranormal investigations. Themedium had a harelip and a cleft palate whichcaused a severe impediment in his speakingvoice, yet at no time did any of the spirit voic-es produced by him give any evidence ofunclear or unintelligible speech—althoughmost of the visiting entities did speak in whis-pers. The female voices from beyond seemedobviously to be those of a male speaking in afalsetto. Many of the communicating spiritsreflected the same opinions and temperamentof the medium, but now and then Carringtonfelt that the alleged entities did make refer-ence to information and the names of individ-uals that could only have been gained in someparanormal manner.

In assessing the mediumship of WilliamCartheuser, Carrington could only theorizethat the alleged spirit controls upon whichthe medium relied to summon the departedwere nothing other than the medium speakingin a number of different voices. On occasion,however, Cartheuser’s simulated spirit guidesenabled him, perhaps by the power of sugges-tion and a state of light trance, to come upwith information that he could only haveacquired through an unknown power of mindor through a surviving personality—and to



relay those messages in voices free of his usualspeech impediments.

Carrington devoted an entire book to hisexamination of the famous medium EileenGarrett. In The Case for Psychic Survival (1957)he concluded that even though there existedonly slight evidence for the genuinely spiritis-tic character of spirit guides, the alleged spiritpersonalities “…nevertheless succeed in bring-ing through a vast mass of supernormal infor-mation which could not be obtained in theirabsence.” The mechanism of believing in aspirit control somehow seemed to act as somesort of psychic catalyst to bring about informa-tion acquired through paranormal means.

The psychical researcher went on to theo-rize that the function of a medium’s regularspirit guide seems to be that of an intermedi-ary; and whether the entity is truly a spirit oris a dramatic personification of the medium’ssubconscious, it is only through the coopera-tion of the guide that accurate and truthfulmessages are obtained. In Carrington’s opin-ion, the essential difference between the kindof secondary personality in pathological casesand the spirit control personality in mediu-mistic cases is that in those instances of multi-ple personalities, the secondary selves acquireno supernormal information, while in the caseof a medium’s spirit control it does. “In thepathological cases,” he said, “we seem to havea mere splitting of the mind, while in themediumistic cases we have to deal with a (per-haps fictitious) personality which is neverthe-less in touch or contact, in some mysteriousway, with another (spiritual) world, fromwhich it derives information, and throughwhich genuine messages often come.”

In his conversations with Uvani, EileenGarrett’s spirit control, Carrington learnedthat the entity claimed to have no controlover the medium’s conscious mind, nor wouldhe feel that he would have the right to inter-fere with her normal thinking processes. Dur-ing the trance state, however, Uvani said thathe could work Garrett’s subconscious likeplaying notes on a piano. When Carringtonasked why a personality who claimed to havelived a life as an Asian could speak such excel-lent English through the medium, Uvani

answered that he could not speak English, butas a spirit he had the ability to impress histhoughts upon his “instrument,” Eileen Gar-rett, who thereby relayed the communication.

Carrington concluded, as a result of exten-sive analysis of mediumship techniques, thatan intelligently influenced mechanism wassomehow involved in producing the physicalphenomena of spirit contact in the seanceroom. In an essay written in 1946, Carringtonsaid that there appears to be a form of“unknown energy” that issues from the bodyof the medium, “capable of affecting andmolding matter in its immediate environ-ment. At times this is invisible; at other timesit takes forms and becomes more or less solid,when we have instances of the formation ofso-called ectoplasm. It is this semi-materialsubstance which moves matter and evenshapes it into different forms.”

According to Carrington’s observations,this ectoplasm issues from various parts of themedium’s body—from the fingertips, the solarplexus, and the genitals. “It represents a psychicforce,” he claimed, “as yet unknown to science,but now being studied by scientific men as partand parcel of supernormal biology.” Carrington



Hereward Carrington

(1880–1958). (FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

was certain that this energy had a biologicalbasis and was dependent upon the physicalbody of the medium for its production, regard-less of whether it was directed by the subcon-scious mind of the medium or by the mind ofan unseen, disembodied personality.

Although few psychical researchers had asmuch firsthand experience investigatinginstances of spirit contact and hauntings asHereward Carrington, there were times wheneven he found himself dealing with somethingthat affected him in a very primal, frighteningway. It was on the night of August 13, 1937,that Carrington, his wife, Marie Sweet Smith,and a party of five others obtained permissionto spend a night in a haunted house locatedsome 50 miles from New York City. As hereferred to the incident in his Essays in theOccult (1958), the summer tenant had beenforced to move back to the city in the middleof July because neither he nor his wife couldsleep uninterrupted and their servants had allleft their employ because of the haunting.

Carrington insisted that he be told noth-ing of the history of the house until he hadfirst had an opportunity to explore the placefrom cellar to attic. The house was lightedfrom top to bottom, and the party began itssafari into the unknown. On the second floor,two or three of the group commented thatthey had sensed “something strange” in one ofthe middle bedrooms, especially in the areanext to an old bureau. The tenant, whom Car-rington identified only as “Mr. X,” told theparty that he and his wife had heard noisescoming from that particular bedroom.

The group proceeded down a hallway untilthey came to the door that led to the servants’quarters. Carrington opened the door, glancedup, and saw that the top floor was brightlyilluminated and that a steep flight of stairs layjust ahead of the investigators. With Carring-ton in the lead, the party ascended the stairsuntil they found themselves confronted by aseries of small rooms. Carrington made a sharpturn to the right, and the moment he did so,he felt as though a sudden blow that beendelivered to his solar plexus. His foreheadbroke out into profuse perspiration, his headswam, and he had difficulty swallowing. “It

was an extraordinary sensation,” he said, “def-initely physiological, and unlike anything Ihad ever experienced before.”

The veteran investigator was gripped byterror and panic and only through a firm exer-cise of will was he able to stop himself fromfleeing in horror. His wife, who was only a stepor two behind him, had just finished com-menting on the “cute little rooms,” when shesuddenly uttered a frightened cry, turned, andran down the stairs. Two unemotional, hard-nosed psychical researchers, completely accus-tomed to psychic manifestations of all kinds,had experienced “distinctly a bodily and emo-tional reaction—accompanied…by a momen-tary mental panic and sensation of terror” suchas neither of them had ever known before.

Carrington saw to his wife, whom hefound outside on the porch, breathing deeplyof the fresh air; then he returned to theremainder of the group. Each of them hadexperienced identical sensations and hadretreated to the lower floor, where they satsprawled in chairs or leaned against walls,tears streaming down their cheeks.

Carrington made special note of the factthat two highly skeptical friends of the tenanthad accompanied the group to the house outof boredom. Both of these skeptics experi-enced the same sensations as the other mem-bers of the group—a difficulty in swallowing,tears streaming from the eyes, and cold perspi-ration on the forehead.

A dog, belonging to a member of the party,resisted all manner of coaxing designed to lureit upstairs. It growled, planted its feet stubborn-ly, and the hair raised on its back. In short, Car-rington commented, the dog behaved “verymuch as dogs are supposed to behave in thepresence of ghostly phenomena.”

Much later that evening, Carrington ledanother expedition up the stairs to the ser-vants’ quarters. This time, the atmosphereseemed to have purged itself of the poisonousinfluence, and no member of the party experi-enced any sensations similar to their previousexcursion. The dog bounded up the stairs,poked its nose into all the corners, andbehaved as if prowling around such a housewere the most natural thing in the world. Car-



rington later sought to return to the housewith a spirit medium and special apparatus forrecording and testing sounds and atmosphere.He was denied permission to continue hisinvestigation, because one of the friends of thetenant had given the story to the papers, andthe owner of the house did not wish addition-al publicity about his haunted house.

Carrington broke with the American Soci-ety for Psychical Research (ASPR) over a dis-agreement concerning the mediumship ofMina “Margery” Stinson Crandon (1888–1941), and he formed his American PsychicalInstitute in 1933. His wife served as the insti-tute’s secretary, and their principal researcharea focused upon the testing of such spiritmediums as Eileen Garrett. Sometime in1938, the Carringtons moved the institute toSouthern California, where they continued toinvestigate claims of hauntings and spirit con-tact. Among his many books are such titles asThe Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism (1907);Your Psychic Powers and How to Develop Them(1920); and Psychic Science and Survival(1947). Hereward Carrington died on Decem-ber 26, 1958, in Los Angeles.

M Delving Deeper


———. Essays in the Occult: Experiences Out of a Life-time of Psychical Research. New York: ThomasYoseloff, 1958.


Sir William Crookes (1832–1919)

Sir William Crookes, a physicist and chemistof international reputation, was a professor atthe University of London, editor of the Quar-terly Journal of Science, president of the BritishChemical Society, discoverer of the elementthallium, and inventor of the radiometer andthe Crookes tube, which made the later devel-opment of X-rays possible. In addition to theseaccomplishments, Crookes was one of themost thorough and exacting scientific investi-gators of spirit contact. After many years ofpainstaking research and experimentationwith dozens of well-known mediums, hebecame convinced that a great deal of spiritis-

tic phenomena was real and indicated proof ofan afterlife.

Born in London on June 17, 1832,Crookes was one of 16 children of a well-known and prosperous tailor and his secondwife. William also had five stepbrothers andstepsisters from his father’s first wife.Although the young man had little formaleducation, his keen mind and natural abilitiesallowed him to enroll in the Royal College ofChemistry when he was only 16. Upon gradu-ation in 1854, Crookes became superinten-dent of the Meteorological Department atRadcliffe Observatory, Oxford. A year later,he gained a post at the College of Science inChester, Cheshire.

In 1856, when he was 24, he married EllenHumphrey, and because of the large fortunehe had inherited from his father, Crookes wasable to establish a private laboratory anddevote himself entirely to scientific work ofhis own choosing. Three years later, in 1861,Crookes discovered the element thallium andthe correct measurement of its atomic weight.In 1863, when he was only 31, he was electeda fellow of the Royal Society.

Just when it seemed Crookes faced only alife of one triumph after another, he was grief-stricken when his youngest brother, Phillip,died in 1867. Cromwell Varley, a close friendand fellow physicist who was also a practicingSpiritualist, convinced William and Ellen toattend a seance and attempt to communicatewith Phillip. Whatever spirit messagesCrookes and his wife received during a seriesof seances in 1867, it appears that they wereconvincing enough to inspire the brilliantphysicist to turn his genius toward the explo-ration of spiritistic phenomena.

Some scholars of the psychic field havedeclared the series of experiments thatCrookes conducted with the famous mediumDaniel Dunglas Home (1833–1886) to be thefirst strictly scientific tests of mediumisticability. Of one such test, Crookes stated thatHome went to the fireplace and after stirringthe hot coals around with his bare hands, tookout a red-hot piece nearly as large as anorange, and “putting it on his right hand, so asto almost completely enclose it, he then blew



into the small furnace” he had made of hishand “until the lump of charcoal was nearlywhite hot,” and then drew Crookes’s attentionto the flame that was “flickering over the coaland licking round his fingers.” A number ofwitnesses to the experiment were also able tohandle the hot coal without burning them-selves after Home had transferred his “power”to them. Those who handled the coal withoutthe transference of energy from Home“received bad blisters at the attempt.”

Crookes no doubt created quite a stiramong his more orthodox scientific colleagueswhen he told them that he had walked with aghost, talked with a ghost, and taken morethan 40 flashlight photographs of the specter.And when he went on to describe the spirit asa “perfect beauty” with a “brilliant purity of

complexion that photography could not hopeto capture,” tongues began to wag that thegreat scientist had lost all form of objectivityand had grown much too attached to the spiritthat he was supposed to be investigating.When such a man of stature as Crookesannounced that he had judged medium Flo-rence Cook’s (1856–1904) materializations ofthe spirit Katie King to be genuine, it wasbound to spark controversy. Whether or notthe “perfect beauty” with whom Sir Williamchatted and strolled about the seance roomwas a ghost or a hoax is a question that is stillbeing debated to this day.

Florence Cook, the medium throughwhom Katie King materialized, first met thespirit in seances which she conducted whenshe was only 15. Katie promised to be Flo-rence’s spirit control for a period of threeyears and assist her in producing many types ofremarkable phenomena. In April of 1872,Katie appeared only as a deathlike facebetween the gauze curtains of a seance cabi-net, but as her control of the medium becamemore advanced, she could at last step out ofthe cabinet and show herself in full body tothose sitters assembled for Cook’s seances.

It has been said that the spirit of Katie Kingbecame almost as if she were a full-time board-er at the Cook household. When FlorenceCook married, her husband complained that itwas like being married to two women. Katiebegan to materialize at unexpected moments,and some nights she even went to bed with themedium and her long-suffering spouse.

Many people became thoroughly con-vinced of the validity of Katie King’s existencebecause of Crookes’ testimony. Others whis-pered scandal and made much of the manyhours the physicist had spent alone with Flo-rence Cook and her alleged spirit friend.Crookes, however, stood firm in his convic-tions that he had not been duped and summedup his investigations by stating that it wasunimaginable to suggest that “an innocentschoolgirl of fifteen” should be able to deviseand to carry out such a “gigantic imposture” sosuccessfully for a period of three years.Crookes pointed out to his critics that inthose same three years the fact that she sub-



Sir William Crookes

(1832–1919). (THE LIBRARY

OF CONGRESS)

mitted to any test that might be imposed uponher, was willing to be searched at any time,either before or after a seance, and visited hislaboratory for the express object of submittingto the strictest scientific tests, certainlydemonstrated her integrity. To insist furtherthat the spirit Katie King was the result ofdeceit did more “violence to one’s reason andcommon sense than to believe her to be whatshe herself affirms.”

William Crookes’s experiments in psychi-cal research did little to prevent his receivingthe Royal Medal from the Royal Society in1875 or from being knighted in 1897. He sup-ported the Society for Psychical Research(SPR) when it was founded in 1882 and evenserved as its president in 1886, but he con-ducted no tests of mediumship or any otherparanormal phenomena after 1875. As a kindof summation of his views on the subject,Crookes once said: “The phenomena I am pre-pared to attest to are extraordinary and sodirectly oppose the most firmly rooted articlesof scientific belief—amongst others, the ubiq-uity and invariable action of the force of grav-itation—that even now, on recalling thedetails of what I witnessed, there is an antago-nism in my mind between reason which pro-nounces it to be scientifically impossible, andthe consciousness of my senses, both of touchand sight.…It is absolutely true that connec-tions have been set up between this world andthe next!”

After Lady Crookes died in 1916, SirWilliam immediately began attempts to com-municate with her. According to somesources, he did receive messages from her spir-it that he felt constituted proof of contactwith the other side. Others say that an allegedspirit photograph of Lady Crookes appeared tohave been manipulated in the developingprocess. Crookes died on April 4, 1919, sur-vived by four of his eight children.

M Delving Deeper

Gauld, Alan. The Founders of Psychical Research. Lon-don: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968.

Hall, Trevor. The Spiritualists. London: Duckworth,1962.

Medhurst, R. G., and K. M. Goldney. Crookes and theSpirit World. New York: Taplinger, 1972.

Harry Houdini (1874–1926)

Although Harry Houdini died in 1926, hisname remains synonymous with incredibledemonstrations of stage magic and daredevilescapes. For Spiritualists and mediums, howev-er, his name is also synonymous with the devilat worst, the Grand Inquisitor at the least.Houdini developed a strange kind of ambiva-lence, a love-hate attitude, toward the spiritworld that, according to many of his biogra-phers, developed after he failed to contact thespirit of his deceased mother through a medi-um. Others have commented that Houdini,known as a notorious self-promoter, initiatedthe highly publicized attempts to expose fraud-ulent mediums only because of the attentionthat such exploits would receive in the press.

Houdini was born Ehrich Weiss inBudapest, Hungary, on March 24, 1874, andhe was only 13 weeks old when his family emi-grated to the United States and settled inAppleton, Wisconsin. He was only a boywhen he read the memoirs of the great Frenchconjuror Robert-Houdin (1805–1871), who istoday known as the “Father of ModernMagic.” Ehrich became so impressed with thelife and the talent of Robert-Houdin that heresolved to become a magician, and when hewas 17, he added an “i” to his idol’s name andbecame “Houdini.”

Houdini practiced long hours with a child-hood friend who also aspired to become a mas-ter conjuror. When his friend’s interests drift-ed elsewhere, Houdini began playing carnivalsand amusement parks with his brother,Theodore, billing themselves as the HoudiniBrothers. Houdini also added the first nameHarry, which was an adaptation of his familynickname, “Ehrie.”

The Houdini Brothers’ first major bookingwas at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893,and Houdini found great audience response totheir act when he spontaneously added ahandcuff escape during an evening perfor-mance. After the fair ended, he billed himselfin a solo act as the “Handcuff King” andplayed a successful run at the Kohl and Mid-dleton Dime Museum in Chicago. When thatengagement came to a close, he rejoinedTheodore in their double-act and played vari-





Harry Houdini

(1874–1926) had himself

wrapped in chains as

part of his escape act.

(THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

ous high schools and social events. It waswhen the Houdini Brothers were performingat a girls’ school that Houdini met Beatrice(Bess) Rahner, who would soon become hiswife. After they were married, the newlywedsbegan playing the theatrical circuit as “TheHoudinis,” and Theodore went solo under hisnew stage name, “Hardeen.”

Until they decided to try their luck in Eng-land in July 1900, the Houdinis barely man-aged to survive in show business. There hadbeen brief stints with a circus, a burlesqueshow, a traveling medicine show, and an ill-fated attempt to begin a school of magic. Hou-dini was featuring escapes more and more intheir act, but even the publicity gained fromsuch risky ventures as freeing himself from aprison cell under the watchful eye of lawenforcement officers didn’t bring customers tothe theaters. Utilizing his bold personality tothe utmost degree, Houdini managed to securea contract with the Alhambra Theatre, one ofthe largest music halls in London. By July1901, Houdini and his daring escapes werereceiving top billing all over Europe—and itwasn’t long before accounts of his danglingfrom tall buildings wrapped in chains, freeinghimself from casks, kegs, and trunks submergedin rivers, and escaping from coffins, giant milkcans, and huge mail bags were creating a stirback in the States, where audiences had oncebeen unmoved by the Great Houdini.

It is difficult to ascertain exactly when orwhy Houdini became the great nemesis ofSpiritualist mediums—or even if he really did,in fact, set about instituting any sort ofvendetta against them. Some writers andresearchers believe that Houdini truly didbelieve in survival of the spirit after physicaldeath, and his supposed vicious attacks againstspirit mediums were but an expression of hisgreat disappointment that he never reallyfound any whom he felt had truly providedhim with actual proof of his mother’s afterlifeexistence. Others maintain that he only setout to expose mediums as a means of keepinghimself in the headlines.

Houdini’s friendship with Sir ArthurConan Doyle (1859–1930), the creator ofSherlock Holmes and an avid supporter of

Spiritualism, suggests his sincerity in seeking topierce the veil of death. During the Doyles’ lec-ture tour of the United States in June 1922,Houdini and Beatrice joined Sir Arthur andLady Doyle for a brief vacation in AtlanticCity. On June 17, Houdini’s mother’s birthday,Lady Doyle said that she felt she could establishcontact with her. Houdini later claimed that hehad kept an open mind regarding the allegedcommunication, but he publicly renounced themessages that Lady Doyle had producedthrough automatic writing. Houdini doubtedthat his mother would have begun writing themessage by making a cross, since she had beenJewish. And since she spoke only broken Eng-lish and couldn’t write the language at all, hewas skeptical of the answers that she had writ-ten so perfectly. Doyle was outraged at what hefelt was his friend’s betrayal of trust and thebelittling of a spirit communication. Theirfriendship ceased after Houdini’s statement.

Houdini’s attacks on Spiritualist mediumsalso draws a parallel in many researchers’ mindsto his strange vitriolic assault on his childhoodhero, Robert-Houdin, who provided the sourceof young Ehrich Weiss’s inspiration to be amagician as well as the origin of his professionalname. As he was beginning his own rise tofame, Houdini wrote a book about Robert-Houdin in which he not only ceased praisinghim, but ruthlessly sought to destroy the greatconjuror’s reputation. In The Unmasking ofRobert-Houdin (1908), Houdini twisted factsand fictionalized others in order to fit the accu-sations that he had contrived. Houdini’s criticspoint out that this kind of underhanded proce-dure was what he appeared to do with so manymediums. While Houdini’s admirers state thathe exposed some of the most famous mediumsof the day as being fraudulent, his critics protestthat he resorted to trickery, then loudly claimedthat he had caught them in deceit when it wastruly he who was the deceiver.



HARRY Houdini became the great nemesis ofSpiritualist mediums.

Dr. Walter Franklin Prince, head of theAmerican Society for Psychical Research(ASPR) at the time of Houdini’s campaignagainst mediums, stated that the magicianshowed “considerable bias by his selection ofmediums and phenomena.” According toPrince, Houdini “only chose to investigatethose [mediums] already deemed spurious orvery dubious by careful researchers in Americaand Britain, and ignored psychics and phe-nomena generally treated with respect by thesame people.”

Houdini’s most publicized encounterwith a medium was his alleged exposure ofthe famous Boston medium Mina“Margery” Crandon (1888–1941) in 1924.The investigating committee, sponsored byScientific American magazine, had soughtHoudini’s expertise as a magician, but manyof the members soon became irate over hisattempts to employ trickery against themedium. Although Houdini claimed that hehad caught Crandon in fraudulent actions,certain committee members felt that themedium’s spirit guide, Walter, had been theone who had exposed Houdini and the tricksthat he used in his attempts to confuseCrandon.

The great magician’s crusade against fraud-ulent mediums, as well as his career as a con-juror and escape artist, was cut short on Octo-ber 22, 1926, when a student who was visitingbackstage at a Montreal theater wished to testHoudini’s much vaunted muscle control, andcaught him off guard with a punch to thestomach that ruptured his appendix. Houdinidied nine days later on Halloween.

The controversy over whether or not theHoudini after-death code was broken will nodoubt continue to rage on for many years.Houdini pledged to his wife, Bess, that if at allpossible he would communicate with her afterhis death, and in order to prove his identitybeyond all doubt and to eliminate the possibil-ity of deception, the magician’s prearrangedmessage was a secret known only to Bess. Toadd to the mystique, Houdini, the mastershowman, stated that a seance should be heldeach anniversary of his death in an attempt forhim to transmit the code words to a medium.

The Reverend Arthur Ford (1896–1971),formerly an orthodox clergyman, had becomea trance medium and had gained an interna-tional reputation for the accuracy of his spiritcommunication, receiving accolades fromsuch luminaries as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,who called him one of the most amazing men-tal mediums of all times. In 1929, ReverendFord received a message that he believed tohave originated from Houdini and conveyed itto Bess Houdini’s attention. Immediately astorm of fierce arguments pro and con eruptedin the media. Perhaps betraying their own per-sonal prejudices, some feature writers champi-oned the authenticity of Reverend Ford’srelayed communication from Houdini, whileothers quoted the magician’s widow as sayingthat the message was incorrect.

On February 9, 1929, however, BeatriceHoudini wrote Reverend Ford to state withfinality: “Regardless of any statement made tothe contrary: I wish to declare that the mes-sage, in its entirety, and in the agreed uponsequence, given to me by Arthur Ford, is thecorrect message prearranged between Mr.Houdini and myself.”

Critics of the paranormal downplay Ford’shaving received the code from the spirit ofHoudini. They insist that Bess Houdini hadinadvertently revealed the code to severalreporters the year before when she explainedthat the message her late husband would passon from the world beyond was based on theirold vaudeville routine that utilized a secretspelling code that would pass informationfrom her to Houdini. The various words in thecode spelled out Harry’s and Bess’s secret mes-sage: “Roseabelle, believe.”

M Delving Deeper


Houdini, Harry. A Magician Among the Spirits. NewYork: Arno Press, 1972.


William James (1842–1910)

William James is best known for his classicwork on the mystical experience The Varieties ofReligious Experience (1902). James had a career



as a psychologist, a philosopher, and a teacher.His father, Henry James, Sr. (1811–1882), wasa philosopher, a friend of the poet and essayistRalph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), and anardent follower of the teachings of EmanuelSwedenborg (1688–1772). William’s brother,Henry James (1843–1916), was the acclaimednovelist of such American classics as DaisyMiller (1879), The Europeans, and the psycho-logical thriller The Turn of the Screw (1898).James studied both science and art beforereceiving a degree in medicine from HarvardUniversity in 1869. Two years later, he beganteaching courses at Harvard, first in physiology,then in psychology and philosophy.

James’s interest in mediumship and theafterlife was closely allied with his research inthe psychology of altered states of conscious-ness. In 1882, while in London, he met FredricW. H. Myers (1843–1901), Henry Sidgwick(1838–1900), Edmund Gurney (1847–1888),and other founding members of the newlyformed British Society for Psychical Research(BSPR). James was impressed by Myers, a fel-low psychologist, and his theory of the sublimi-nal self, a secondary consciousness containing anumber of higher-level mental processes whichmight be responsible for phenomena otherwiseattributed to spirits. Returning to Boston,James, together with Sir William Barret andothers, helped establish the American Societyfor Psychical Research (ASPR) in 1885.

That same year, James was brought to theseance room of Leonora E. Piper (1857–1950), the medium whom many psychicalresearchers would later declare the greatestmental medium of all time. Taking such pre-cautions as identifying himself with a falsename, the psychologist came away from thesitting completely baffled as to how the medi-um’s spirit control had been able to provideaccurate information on all the subjects aboutwhich he had queried. Although he was nevergreatly impressed by the phenomena producedby the physical mediums, James began alengthy study of mental mediums, whom hehoped would be able to exhibit as much gen-uine phenomena as Piper.

James served as vice president of theAmerican Society for Psychical Research

(ASPR) from 1890 to 1910 and as presidentfrom 1894 to 1895. Although he was a stal-wart champion of the scientific research ofparanormal phenomena, he never quite foundthe proof in survival after death which he hadhoped to discover through the study of medi-umship. William James died on August 26,1910, at his summer home in Chocurua, NewHampshire.

M Delving Deeper

Burkhardt, Frederic, and Fredson Bowers, eds. TheWorks of William James: Essays in PsychicalResearch. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 1986.

Myers, Gerald E. William James: His Life and Thought.New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986.

Sir Oliver Lodge (1851–1940)

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge was a world-renowned British physicist whose first experi-ences in psychical research date back to 1881,when Malcolm Guthrie, the owner of a drap-ery shop, invited him to join his investigationsin thought transference in Liverpool. Lodgewas quite amazed with the results, and hebegan to conduct his own tests. Shortly there-after, he joined the Society for PsychicalResearch (SPR).

In 1889, Lodge invited the famous Bostonmedium Leonora E. Piper (1857–1950) toEngland for tests and saw that she was madecomfortable in his own home. Ever the exact-ing researcher, he took every conceivable pre-caution to eliminate any possibility of fore-knowledge or fraud on Piper’s part. He went sofar as to temporarily dismiss all of his servantsand replace them with others who knewabsolutely nothing about any member of theLodge family or Piper. Although a guest in theLodge home, the medium was kept incommu-nicado and was constantly watched by experi-enced professional detectives. With Piper’spermission, her private mail was opened andread. Every possibility of her communicatingwith others and receiving any type of informa-tion was completely eliminated, yet Piper’sspirit guides provided accurate communica-tion in every test that Lodge devised, whichhelped convince the researcher that spiritisticphenomena were real.



“The messages received tend to render cer-tain the existence of some outside intelligenceor control,” he said. “My sittings convincedme of survival. I am as convinced of continuedexistence on the other side of death as I am ofexistence here…I say this on distinct scientif-ic grounds. I say it because certain friends ofmine who have died still exist, because I havetalked with them.”

Five years later, in 1894, Lodge’s firstencounters with physical mediumship tookplace when he and Fredric W. H. Myers(1843–1901) traveled to the summer home ofthe French psychical researcher Charles Richet(1850–1935) to investigate the extraordinaryEusapia Palladino (1854–1918). AlthoughPalladino had to be observed carefully to pre-

vent her from resorting to trickery, Lodge wasimpressed with what he had witnessed. “Thingshitherto held impossible do actually occur,” thephysicist concurred. “Certain phenomena usu-ally considered abnormal do belong to theorder of nature, and as a corollary from this,that these phenomena ought to be investigatedand recorded by persons and societies interest-ed in natural knowledge.”

Oliver Lodge was knighted in 1902 whilehe was serving as president of the Society forPsychical Research (SPR). In 1913, he waselected president of the British Associationfor the Advancement of Science. His fascina-tion with Spiritualism did nothing to preventhim from accomplishing highly regarded workwith electricity and with early forms of radiobefore Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937).

In August 1915, Lodge received what heconsidered proof of survival after death when,in Boston, Leonora Piper relayed what he con-sidered to be convincing messages fromFredric Myers, who had died in 1901, andEdmund Gurney, who had passed on in1888—two close friends and associates. Suchdramatic assurances of life in the spirit worldhelped to prepare Lodge for the death of hisson Raymond, who was killed on September14, 1915, in his capacity as a medical officer ofthe Second South Lancers.

On September 25, Lady Lodge sat withmedium Gladys Osborne Leonard (1882–1968), who described a photograph that hadbeen taken of Raymond with a group of fellowofficers. Lady Lodge knew of no such photo-graph. The medium said that Raymond’s spiritwas insistent that he should tell Lady Lodgethat in this particular photograph, Raymondwas holding his walking stick under his arm.The Lodges had numerous photographs oftheir son, but they did not possess a single onedepicting a group of medical officers in whichRaymond would be included. Lodge wasimpressed with the emphasis that the mediumhad placed upon Raymond’s insistence thatthey should locate such a photograph.

Then, according to Sir Oliver’s report onthe case (Proceedings, S.P.R. Vol. XXIX), onNovember 29, a letter was received from a Mrs.Cheves, who was a stranger to the Lodges, but



Sir Oliver Lodge

(1851–1940). (THE LIBRARY

OF CONGRESS)

who was the mother of a friend of Raymond’s.Cheves informed the Lodges that she had half adozen photographs from a sitting by a group ofmedical officers in which Raymond and her sonwere present. Cheves inquired if the Lodgeswould like a copy of the photograph.

Although Lodge and his wife respondedimmediately and enthusiastically, the photo-graph did not arrive until the afternoon ofDecember 7. In the interim, Lady Lodge hadgone through Raymond’s diary, which hadbeen returned from the front, and had foundan entry dated August 24 which told of such aphoto having been taken. In his report for theSociety for Psychical Research (SPR), Lodgenoted that the photograph had been taken 21days before their son’s death. “Some days mayhave elapsed before [Raymond] saw a print, ifhe ever saw one,” he wrote. “He certainlynever mentioned it in his letters. We were,therefore, in complete ignorance of it.”

While the Lodges were awaiting the pho-tograph from Cheves, they visited anothermedium through whose spirit control Ray-mond gave them additional details concern-ing the group picture. Now, it seemed, Ray-mond was not so certain he held his walkingstick, but he confirmed that there were a con-siderable number of men in the photograph,including two who were friends of his. Thesetwo men were prominently featured standingbehind Raymond, one of whom annoyed himby leaning on his shoulder.

When the photograph was delivered to theLodge home, Sir Oliver and Lady Lodgenoticed at once that it offered a poor likenessof Raymond, but provided excellent evidencethat their son had communicated to themfrom beyond the grave. The walking stick wasthere, though not under Raymond’s arm, asthe first medium had said. The fellow officersRaymond had named through the secondmedium were in the photograph and the gen-eral arrangement of the men was as bothmediums had described it.

“But by far the most striking piece of evi-dence is the fact that some one sitting behindRaymond is leaning or resting a hand on hisshoulder,” commented Lodge in his report.“The photograph fortunately shows the actual

occurrence and almost indicates that Ray-mond was rather annoyed with it, for his faceis a little screwed up, and his head has beenslightly bent to one side out of the way of theman’s arm. It is the only case in the photo-graph where one man is leaning or resting hishand on the shoulder of another.”

Lodge once again contacted Cheves andlearned where he might obtain prints of otherphotographs that had been taken at the sametime. Upon examination of all accessibleprints, Lodge found that the basic group posehad been repeated with only slight variationsfor three different photographs. The Lodgesfelt the evidential value of the communica-tion had been greatly enhanced by the factthat one medium had made a reference to theexistence of Raymond’s last photograph, andanother medium, unknown to the first, hadsupplied the details of the photograph inresponse to Lodge’s direct question. In his MyPhilosophy (1933), he wrote: “I am absolutelyconvinced not only of survival, but of demon-strated survival, demonstrated by occasionalinteraction with matter in such a way as toproduce physical results.”

Among the books written by Sir OliverLodge are such titles as: Man and the Universe(1908); Science and Religion (1914); Raymondor Life and Death (1917); Raymond Revisited(1922); Science and Human Progress (1927);Why I Believe in Personal Immortality (1928);The Reality of a Spiritual World (1930); and MyPhilosophy (1933).

M Delving Deeper

Jolly, W. P. Sir Oliver Lodge. London: Constable, 1974.


Fredric W. H. Myers (1843–1901)

Fredric William Henry Myers was born in1843 in Keswick, Cumberland, England, intothe family of a clergyman. He was educated atCheltenham and Trinity College, Cambridge.In 1865, he became a lecturer in the classics atCambridge, but in 1872, he resigned that posi-tion to become a school inspector. Myers pub-lished several volumes of poetry, though it wasas an essayist that he became known (Essays,Classical and Modern [1885]).



Intrigued by the possibility of ghosts, spir-its, and the survival of the soul since he wasvery young, Myers began sitting with mediumsin 1872, often in the company of his friends,Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900) and EdmundGurney (1847–1888). In 1882, he was one ofthe original group, together with Sidgwickand Gurney, who founded the British Societyfor Psychical Research (BSPR) and remaineduntil the end of his life one of its most activeand productive members, serving as the soci-ety’s secretary from 1888 to 1899 and its presi-dent in 1900.

Although he was never a skeptic toward theparanormal, Myers deemed many of the mani-festations of spirit mediums to be simplistic andpuerile. In his opinion, the greatest evidence forsurvival of the human personality after deathwas to be found in what he called the “sublimi-nal consciousness,” that mysterious realm thatlies beneath the threshold of ordinary con-sciousness wherein exist the faculties of telepa-thy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, and precog-nition. All the phenomena of mediumism andthe seance room Myers attributed to the mani-festations of the subliminal consciousness.

Myers investigated one of the most evi-dential cases suggestive of the survival ofhuman personality beyond the death experi-ence recorded in the early annals of psychicalresearch. The report, which has come to beknown as “The Case of the Scratch on theCheek.”

In 1876 Mr. F. G., a traveling salesman,was sitting in a hotel room in St. Joseph, Mis-souri. It was high noon and he was smoking acigar and writing out sales orders. Suddenlyconscious of someone sitting on his left withone arm resting on the table, the salesman wasstartled to look up into the face of his dead sis-ter, a young lady of 18 who had died of cholerain 1867. “So sure was I that it was she,” hewrote in an account to the American Societyfor Psychical Research (ASPR) (Proceedings,S.P.R., VI, 17), “that I sprang forward indelight, calling her by name.”

As he did so, the image of his sister van-ished, and Mr. F. G. resumed his seat, stunnedby the experience. The cigar was still in hismouth, the pen was still in his hand, and the

ink was still moist on his order blank. He wassatisfied that he had not been dreaming, butwas wide awake. He had been near enough totouch her, “had it been a physical possibility.”He had noted her features, expression, anddetails of dress. “She appeared as if alive,” hestated. “Her eyes looked kindly and perfectlynaturally into mine. Her skin was so lifelikethat I could see the glow of moisture on itssurface, and, on the whole, there was nochange in her appearance.”

Mr. F. G. was so impressed by the experi-ence that he took the next train home to tellhis parents about the remarkable visitation.But his mother nearly fainted when he toldthem of “a bright red line or scratch on theright-hand side” of his sister’s face. With tearsstreaming down her face, his mother told himthat he had most certainly seen his sister’sspirit since only she was aware of a scratchthat she had accidentally made while doingsome little act of kindness after the girl’sdeath. Feeling terrible over what hadoccurred, his mother had carefully “obliterat-ed all traces of the slight scratch with the aidof powder” and had never mentioned theunfortunate occurrence to a single personfrom that day onward until F. G. had men-tioned seeing it on the spirit form of his sister.

It seems a bit more than coincidence whenthe anonymous narrator, F. G., adds: “A fewweeks later my mother died, happy in herbelief that she would rejoin her favoritedaughter in a better world.”

In discussing this case, Fredric W. H.Myers wrote that, in his opinion, the spirit ofthe daughter had perceived the approachingdeath of her mother and had appeared to thebrother to force him into the role of messagebearer. Also, by prompting F. G. to returnhome unexpectedly at that time, the spirit hadenabled him to have a final visit with hismother. Myers was further intrigued by thefact that the spirit figure appeared not as acorpse, but as a girl full of health and happi-ness “with the symbolic red mark worn simplyas a test of identity.” Myers discounted thetheory that the spirit figure could have been aprojection from the mother’s mind. “As to thespirit’s own knowledge of the fate of the body



after death, other reported cases show thatthis specific form of post-mortem perception isnot unusual,” he concluded. “This case is oneof the best attested, and in itself one of themost remarkable that we possess…It certainly

seems probable that recognition was intelli-gently aimed at.”

The Reverend Arthur Bellamy told Myersabout the “lady” he saw one night sitting by the



Frederic W. Myers

(1843–1901). (FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

side of the bed where his wife lay sound asleep.Bellamy stared at the strange woman for severalminutes, noting especially the elegant styling ofher hair, before the lady vanished.

When Mrs. Bellamy awakened, the rev-erend described her mysterious caller. He wasstartled to learn that the description fit that ofa schoolgirl friend of his wife’s with whom shehad once made a pact that the first one to dieshould appear after her death to the survivor.The astonished clergyman then asked his wifeif there was anything outstanding about herfriend, so they might be certain it had beenshe. “Her hair,” she answered without hesita-tion. “We girls used to tease her at school fordevoting so much time to the arrangement ofher hair.” Later, Bellamy identified a photo-graph of his wife’s friend as being the likenessof the specter that had appeared at her bedside.

The results, speculations, and conclusionsof Frederic W. H. Myers’s many years ofresearch were published posthumously inHuman Personality and Its Survival of BodilyDeath (coauthored with Edmund Gurney andFrank Podmore, 1903). Myers died in Rome in1901 and was buried in Keswick.

M Delving Deeper

Gauld, Alan. The Founders of Psychical Research. Lon-don: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968.

Oppenheim, Janet. The Other World: Spiritualism andPsychical Research in England. Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press, 1985.


Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

In 1882, a distinguished group of Cambridgescholars founded the British Society for Psy-chical Research (BSPR) for the purpose ofexamining allegedly paranormal phenomenain a scientific and unbiased manner. The firstpresident of the society was Professor HenrySidgwick (1838–1900), and the council num-bered among its members Edmund Gurney(1847–1888), Frank Podmore (1856–1910),Fredric W. H. Myers (1843–1901), and Pro-fessor William Barrett (1844–1925). The ini-tial major undertaking of the newly formedsociety, the first of its kind in the world, was toconduct a census of hallucinations by means

of a circulated questionnaire that asked itsrespondents:

Have you ever, when believingyourself to be completely awake, had avivid impression of seeing or beingtouched by a living being or inanimateobject, or of hearing a voice; whichimpression, so far as you could discover,was not due to any external physicalcause?

The SPR received answers from 17,000people, 1,684 of whom answered “yes.” Fromthis, the committee which was conducting thecensus estimated that nearly 10 percent of thepopulation had experienced some kind ofvisual or auditory “hallucination.” Those peo-ple who indicated that they had experiencedsome paranormal appearance or manifestationwere sent forms requesting details.

The census of hallucinations enabled theresearchers to arrive at a number of basicpremises concerning ghosts and apparitions,which were strengthened by subsequentresearch. The committee was able to con-clude, for example, that although apparitionsare associated with other events besides death,they are more likely to be linked with deaththan anything else. Visual hallucinations werefound to be the most common (1,087). Thisseemed especially important to note becausepsychologists have found that auditory experi-ences are most common among the mentallyill. Of the visual cases reported, 283 had beenshared by more than one witness. This wasalso noted to be of great importance becausecritics of psychic phenomena have alwaysargued that the appearance of a “ghost” is anentirely subjective experience. Those whoanswered the committee’s follow-up formindicated that they had not been ill whenthey had witnessed the phenomena theyreported, and they insisted that the “halluci-nations” were quite unlike the bizarre, night-marish creatures which might appear duringhigh fevers or high alcoholic consumption. Ofthe 493 reported auditory hallucinations, 94had occurred when another person had beenpresent. Therefore, about one-third of thecases were collective—that is, experienced bymore than one witness at the same time.



After the findings of the census of halluci-nations were made public, the SPR began to beflooded by personal accounts of spontaneouscases of ghosts and apparitions. In order to aidan appointed committee in the handling ofsuch an influx of material, the SPR worked outa series of questions that could be applied toeach case that came into their offices:

1. Is the account firsthand?

2. Was it written or told before the corre-sponding event was known?

3. Has the principal witness been corroborat-ed?

4. Was the percipient awake at the time?

5. Was the percipient an educated person ofgood character?

6. Was the apparition recognized?

7. Was it seen out of doors?

8. Was the percipient anxious or in a state ofexpectancy?

9. Could relevant details have been readback into the narrative after the event?

10. Could the coincidence between the expe-rience and the event be accounted for bychance?

Later, committee member J. Fraser Nicholestablished three points of critique that couldbe used by the investigator of spontaneousphenomena:

1. That the experience be veridical—that is,that it relate to an actual event that wasoccurring, had occurred, or would occur;

2. That there be an independent witness whotestifies that the percipient related hisexperience to him before he came toknow, by normal means, that the experi-ence had been veridical; and

3. That no more than five years have passedbetween the experience and the writtenaccount of it.

The American Society for PsychicalResearch (ASPR), first organized in 1885 withastronomer Simon Newcomb (1835–1909) aspresident, later became a branch of the BritishSociety of Psychical Research (BSPR) andfunctioned in Boston under the guidance ofRichard Hodgson (1855–1905), formerly ofCambridge University, until his death in

1905. The ASPR became independent of theBSPR and relocated to New York City in 1906with James Hervey Hyslop (1854–1920), Pro-fessor of Logic and Ethics at Columbia Uni-versity, as its secretary and treasurer. For thenext 14 years, until his death in 1920, Hyslopexpanded the scope of the society’s work.

At the ASPR all-day ESP forum held onNovember 20, 1965, in New York City, Dr.Gardner Murphy (1895–1979), president ofthe ASPR, told assembled parapsychologistsand representatives from other scientific disci-plines that “…Progress in parapsychology inthe direction of science calls for major, sus-tained effort…devoted to the building of theo-ries and systematic models. The primary needis not for lots and lots of further little experi-ments, but for bold and sound model building.”

Murphy concluded his address, “Advance-ment of Parapsychology as a Science,” by statingthat the future of parapsychology as a science isgoing to depend on multidisciplinary coopera-tion between the psychical researcher and“…the medical man, the anthropologist, thesociologist, the physicist, the biologist, the psy-chologist, and a great many other kinds of peo-ple working together within a broad perspectiveand giving each other mutual support.”


automatic writing Writing that occursthrough either an involuntary, or uncon-scious, trance-like state with the sourcebeing the writer’s own unconscious self,from a telepathic link with another, orfrom a deceased spirit wishing to commu-nicate a message.



AGROUP of Cambridge scholars founded theBritish Society for Psychical Research for the purposeof examining allegedly paranormal phenomena in ascientific and unbiased manner.

dogma A principle, belief, or set of beliefsconsidered to be absolutely true, whetherreligious, political, or philosophical.

ecclesiasticism Principles, practices, activi-ties, or body of thought that is all-encom-passing and adhered to in an organizedchurch or institution.

elemental spirits A lower order of spiritbeings, said to be usually benevolent anddwell in the nature kingdom as the lifeforce of all things in nature, such as miner-als, plants, animals, and the four elementsof earth, air, fire and water; the planets,stars, and signs of the zodiac; and hours ofthe day and night. Elves, brownies, gob-lins, gnomes, and fairies are said to beamong these spirits.

knockings/rappings Tapping sounds said tobe coming from deceased spirits in anattempt to communicate with or frightenthe living.

materialization Something that appears sud-denly, as if out of nowhere. In the paranor-mal it might be a ghost or spirit that sud-denly appears to take on a physical form.

medium In the paranormal, someone who isable to convey messages between the spir-its of the deceased and the spirits of theliving.

messiah A leader who is regarded as a libera-tor or savior. In Christianity, the Messiahis Jesus Christ (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.), inJudaism, it is the king who will lead theJews back to the Holy Land of Israel andestablish world peace.

near-death experience A mystical-like occur-rence or sensation that individuals on thebrink of death or who were dead, butbrought back to life, have described whichincludes leaving their physical body andhovering over it as though they were abystander.

parapsychologist One who studies mentalphenomena, such as telepathy or extrasen-sory perception, the mind/body connec-tion, and other psi or paranormal factorsthat cannot be explained by known scien-tific principles.

phenomena Occurrences, persons, or thingsthat are strange, extraordinary, or consid-ered to be unusual and significant.

precognition The ability to foresee or toknow what is going to happen in thefuture, before it occurs, especially if basedon extrasensory perception.

psychokinesis The ability to make objectsmove or to in some way affect them with-out using anything but mental powers.

schizophrenia A severe psychiatric disorderwhich can include symptoms of withdraw-al or detachment from reality, delusions,hallucinations, emotional instability, andintellectual disturbances or illogical pat-terns of thinking to various degrees. Theterm comes from Greek words meaning“split mind.”

seance A meeting or gathering of people inwhich a spiritualist makes attempts tocommunicate with the spirits of deceasedpersons, or a gathering to receive spiritual-istic messages.

shaman A religious or spiritual leader, usuallypossessing special powers such as that ofprophecy, and healing, and acts as anintermediary between the physical andspiritual realms.

spirit control The guide that mediums con-tact to receive messages from deceasedspirits, or another name for spirit guide asused in mediumship.

spirit guide A nonphysical being or entitywhich possibly can be an angel, the higherself, the spirit of a deceased person, a high-er group mind, or a highly evolved beingwhose purpose is to help, guide, direct, andprotect the individual.

stigmata Marks on a person’s body resemblingthe Crucifixion wounds suffered by JesusChrist (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) during hisCrucifixion on the cross.

telepathy Communication from one person’smind to another without the use of speech,writing, or any other signs or symbols, butthrough extrasensory means.



totem An animal, bird, plant, or any othernatural object that is revered as a personalor tribal symbol.

transference The process of change that hap-pens when one person or place is trans-ferred to another.



Chapter 3

Religious Phenomena

This chapter will explore a number of the

phenomena that surround a great variety of

religious beliefs, from the veneration of

sacred objects to the expectation of

miracles, from the power of prayer to heal

to the judgment of ecclesiastical tribunals to

cause suffering.

177

Antichrist

Apocalypse

Apparitions of Holy Figures

Armaggedon

Cosmic Consciousness

Demons

Devil’s Mark

Ecstasy

Exorcism

Faith Healing

Guardian Angels

Illumination

Inquisition

Miracles

Possession

Power of Prayer

The Rapture

Shroud of Turin

666

Snake Handling

Stigmata

Virgin of Guadalupe

Visions

Weeping Statues and Icons

Introduction

In recent years there has been a tremendoussurge of interest in both organized religionand expressions of individual spirituality.

People speak freely of their guardian angels,their belief in life after death, their efforts to ele-vate their consciousness, and the power ofprayer. Others are concerned about being underpsychic attack by demons when they learn fromthe mainstream media that the number of exor-cisms of those who are suffering demonic pos-session has been rising steadily. In a Gallup pollreleased on June 10, 2001, the administrators ofthe survey found that 54 percent of Americansbelieve in spiritual or faith healing; 41 percentacknowledge that people can be possessed bythe devil; 50 percent accept the reality of ESP,or extrasensory perception; 32 percent believein the power of prophecy; and 38 percent agreethat ghosts and spirits exist.

In the fall of 1988 the editors at BetterHomes and Gardens conducted a survey of theirreaders’ spiritual lives. The editors were aston-ished when the subject drew more than 80,000responses, and more than 10,000 peopleattached thoughtful letters expressing remark-able strength of feeling. Of the 80,000 readerswho responded to the survey: 86 percentbelieved in miracles; 89 percent in eternal life;30 percent in a spirit world; and 13 percentaccepted the possibility that beings in the spir-it world can make contact with the living.

In December 1997, the editors of Self mag-azine published the results of a similar surveyconducted with their readership: 91 percentbelieved in miracles; 87 percent, angels; 85percent, spirits; 82 percent, heaven; 65 per-cent, hell; and 65 percent, the devil.

Some observers of the contemporary sceneattribute this great spiritual questing to the

advent of the millennium and the concerns ofcertain Christians about an approaching Apoc-alypse, when people will be called to accountfor their misdeeds. Others say that large massesof people have become disillusioned with thetenets of science and the tools of technologythat promised an earthly paradise, but cannotanswer the basic questions of why humans arehere and what they are to do with themselvesin their allotted time on the planet.

In Why Religion Matters: The Future ofFaith in an Age of Disbelief (2001), HustonSmith states that a people with only scienceto guide them are morally lost. Smith readilygrants that the scientific method is “nearlyperfect” for understanding the physical aspectsof human life. “But it is a radical [rather] limit-ed viewfinder in its inability to offer values,morals, and meanings that are at the center ofour lives,” Smith says. The practice of sciencecan deepen the understanding of the physicalworld, “but it can never answer the questionsabout our moral universe that have troubledour ancestors since the beginning of time—who are we, why are we here, and how shouldwe behave while we are here?”

Why should there be such a dramatic spiri-tual awakening at this time? Dr. Walter Hous-ton Clark, professor emeritus at Andover The-ological Seminary, saw it beginning in theearly 1970s. At that time (c. 1972) he said, “Ithink the best explanation is the obvious star-vation of humankind’s nonrational needs overmany decades. Materialism, competition,power politics, and human exploitation can beendured only so long before they begin tomake nonsense to sensitive natures jaded bythe persistent denial of their essential longing,the longing for a living God and a vital reli-gious experience.”

All of the highly varied religious phenom-ena described in this chapter have one thingin common: They all involve human beingsresponding to an individual mystical experi-ence. Whether one is soaring to the heart ofthe universe after receiving cosmic conscious-ness, standing in awe before a weeping statueof Mother Mary, or strengthening the spirit toresist the temptations of the fallen angels, atrue blending of the phenomenon with the


Religious Phenomena178

IN a recent survey, it was revealed that 41 percentbelieve people can be possessed by the devil and 38

percent believe ghosts and spirits exist.


179Religious Phenomena

In the U.S., some clergypersons believe Satanand his demons appear to be busier than everin the new millennium—and they admit that theancient rites of exorcism are being performed

in increasingly large numbers to combat the evilmachinations of the powers of darkness.

While the Roman Catholic Church is most notedfor conducting exorcisms, their clergy is actuallyextremely cautious in approving the rites. Once offi-cial approval has been granted to conduct an exor-cism, the rites themselves may take hours, days, orweeks to complete. But in spite of their careful scruti-ny of all claims of satanic possession, the church hasadmitted to having ten official exorcists on duty in theUnited States today; ten years ago, they had only one.

Most experts agree the majority of exorcismscurrently being conducted in the Americas are beingperformed by Protestant churches and sects. Approx-imately 600 evangelical exorcism ministries are inoperation, in addition to numerous exorcisms beingconducted by Pentecostals and other Christian sects.These religious bodies see Satan as an active force.They perceive a heightened campaign of evil in whatthey believe are the fast-approaching End-Timesbefore the Second Coming of Christ. They believe thedevil and his demonic hordes must put in overtime tolead as many people astray as possible before theLord conquers Satan and casts him into the pit of fire.

In some of these exorcisms, little more is donethan prayers for deliverance of the afflicted and thelaying on of hands to heal the victim of demonic influ-ences. In others, the so-called exorcism may be a kindof counseling session in which the troubled individualis advised how best to escape the lures of the demonsof lust, greed, anger, and so forth. In still otherinstances, those accused of being possessed might betied to chairs and subjected to teams of exorcistspraying and screaming for the demons to retreat.Some observers have compared the techniques ofsome of the more elaborate exorcisms to a kind of psy-chodrama in which the possessed is able to enact akind of release of guilt and feel reborn and freed of sin.

While not all contemporary clergypersonsbelieve in the possibility of demon possession, butprefer to speak of mental health problems that maytrouble certain parishioners, most still concede thatthere appears to be an intelligence of some kind thatdirects evil in the world. They caution that those whosuspect possession in themselves or others are notgullible or that they open themselves to the sugges-tion of demonic possession when other mundaneexplanations may exist.

Sources:

Cuneo, Michael W. American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the

Land of Plenty. New York: Doubleday, 2001.

Demonic

Invasions

individual psyche occurs during the awesomesplendor of a mystical experience.

In his Varieties of Religious Experience(1902), William James (1842–1912) states hisview that personal religion has its origin inthe mystical consciousness. “The mother seaand fountainhead of all religions lie in themystical experiences of the individual, takingthe word mystical in a very wide sense. Alltheologies and all ecclesiasticisms are sec-ondary growths superimposed.”

At the same time that men and women areexamining various aspects of religious phe-nomena and evaluating them in terms of theirown spiritual quest, scientists around theworld are assessing the individual mysticalexperience and asking whether spiritualitycannot be explained in terms of neural trans-mitters, neural networks, and brain chemistry.Perhaps that feeling of transcendence thatmystics describe could be the decreased activi-ty in the brain’s parietal lobe, which helps reg-ulate the sense of self and physical orienta-tion. Perhaps, these neurotheologians theo-rize, the human brain is wired for God.

And the great mystery will always remain.Is it the wiring of the human brain that cre-ates God and the mystical experience? Or wasit God who created this brain wiring sohumans might experience the splendor withinand all religious phenomena?

Antichrist

The Antichrist, as the word implies, isone who opposes Christ or who falselypresents himself or herself as Christ.

Although the word is most commonly associ-ated with the apocalyptic New Testamentbook of Revelation, the word “Antichrist” isnowhere to be found within its text. In 1 John2:18, the epistle writer declares that the“enemy of Christ” has manifested and thatmany false teachers have infiltrated the Chris-tian ranks. In verse 22, John names as theAntichrist anyone who would deny Jesus asthe Christ and the Father and the Son, and in2 John verse 7 he declares that there are manydeceivers already at work among the faithful.

The concept of an earthly opponent orantagonist of the Messiah also appears in theOld Testament. The earliest form of theAntichrist is probably the warrior King Gog,who appears in the Book of Ezekiel and whoreappears in Revelation along with his king-dom of Magog, representing those earthlyminions of Satan who will attack the peopleof God in a final great battle of good versusevil. In Jewish eschatology, writings about the“end of days” state that the armies of Gog andMagog will eventually be defeated and theworld will finally be at peace.

Throughout the Bible the Antichrist bearsmany titles: Son of Perdition, Man of Sin,Man of Lawlessness, the Prince of Destruc-tion/Abomination, and the Beast. Theprophet Daniel describes the man in greatdetail: He shall be an evil king who will“…exalt himself and magnify himself aboveevery god and shall speak outrageous thingsagainst the God of gods, and shall prosperuntil the indignation is accomplished: for thatwhich has been determined shall come topass. Neither shall he regard the God of hisfathers, nor the desire of women, nor regardany god: for he shall magnify himself aboveall. But in his estate he shall (secretly) honor agod of forces and a god whom his fathers neverknew. To these he will worship with gold andsilver and with precious stones and pleasantthings. Thus shall he do in his fortress with astrange god, whom he shall acknowledge andincrease with glory; and he shall cause them torule over many and shall divide the land forgain” (Daniel 11:36).

St. Paul, writing in 2 Thessalonians 2:3,had a similar vision concerning the arrogantand evil king: “The man of sin…who opposesand exalts himself above all that is called Godor that is worshipped; so that he as God sits inthe temple of God, displaying himself as ifbeing God…for the mystery of lawlessness isalready at work in the world: only he who nowrestrains (the coming of the Antichrist) willdo so.… And then shall that Wicked [one] berevealed, whom the Lord will consume withthe spirit of his mouth.… Destroying himwhose coming is in harmony with the workingof Satan with all power and signs and falsemiracles.…”



In both the prophecies of Daniel and Johnthe Revelator, the evil king, the Antichrist, isassociated with 10 rulers who give their powerand allegiance to him in order to form a short-lived empire of bloodshed and destruction.“And the ten horns of this kingdom are tenkings that shall arise: and another shall riseafter them, and he shall be diverse…and speakgreat words against the most high God andshall wear down the saints of the Highest Oneand think to make changes in times and laws:and they shall be given into his hand for threeand one half years” (Daniel 7:24). “And thereare seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, andthe other is not yet come; and when he comes,he must continue only for a short time” (Rev-elation 17:10).

In Matthew 24:3–44, Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30C.E.) speaks to his disciples at great length con-cerning the false Messiahs and prophets whowill deceive many people with their rumorsabout the end of the world. He makes referenceto the prophet Daniel and his warnings con-cerning the end times and the Antichrist, andhe admonishes the disciples not to chase afterfalse teachers who will produce great miraclesand signs to trick God’s chosen ones. No oneknows when the Son of Man shall appear againcoming on the clouds of heaven, Jesus tellsthem, not even the angels.

Although Jesus makes it clear that no oneknows the hour or day of his Second Coming,for many centuries now certain Christian cler-gy and scholars have steadfastly associated therise of the Antichrist to earthly power as a kindof catalyst that would set in motion Armaged-don, the last final battle between good andevil, the ultimate clash between the armies ofJesus Christ and Satan. Throughout the cen-turies, Christians have attempted to determinethe Antichrist from among the powerful andruthless leaders of their day. Ever since theProtestant Reformation, the pope has been afavorite of Evangelicals for the ignominioustitle. While many of the pontiffs in the MiddleAges did exercise great power over the rulersand the people of the emerging Europeannations, contemporary popes wield little politi-cal influence, surely none that would placethem in world-threatening positions.



Aleister Crowley

(1875–1947) of the Order

of the Golden Dawn.


There have been such men as AleisterCrowley (1875–1947), who actually appearedto seek the position by calling himself theBeast and 666. The numerical value ofFranklin Delano Roosevelt’s (1882–1945)name reportedly added up to 666, and since heheld the office of president of the UnitedStates for 12 years—and during the GreatDepression and World War II—many of hisconservative Christian critics began thinkingof him as the Antichrist. And even the formerPresident Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911– ),had certain dissenters calling attention to thefact that he had six letters in each of his threenames—6-6-6.

In recent decades, the term of Antichristhas been applied to so many individuals inpopular culture that it has lost much of itsmeaning and its sense of menace. During theGulf War in 1992, Saddam Hussein (1937– )received many votes for the title of the Beast,especially when he announced plans to beginto restore the ruins of Babylon to a splendorthat would approximate the wicked city’s for-mer glory. Before Hussein, there were manynominations for the Ayatollah Khomeini(1900–1989) to don the mantle. But laterwhen certain extremists named PresidentReagan, former U.S. Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger (1923– ), and even thechildren’s television icon Barney theDinosaur as the Antichrist, the word beganlosing its threat for the general population.However, those Christians who believestrongly in the coming time of Tribulation,the Apocalypse, the Rapture, and the greatfinal battle of good versus evil at Armaged-don, firmly believe that the title ofAntichrist maintains its fear factor and thatthose signs and warnings of the Beast asprophesied in the book of Revelation shouldbe seriously heeded.

M Delving Deeper

Crim, Keith, gen. ed. The Perennial Dictionary ofWorld Religions. San Francisco: HarperSanFran-cisco, 1989.

Lindsey, Hal, with C. C. Carlson. The Late GreatPlanet Earth. New York: Bantam Books, 1978.

McGinn, Bernard. Antichrist: Two Thousand Years ofthe Human Fascination with Evil. San Francisco:HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.


Apocalypse

In apocalyptic visions, prophets see aheadto the end time. Humankind’s salvationlies in the future, and the meaning of the

present is obscured in the chaos of survival onthe Earth’s plane. In apocalyptic thought,humankind’s destiny is viewed as steadilyunfolding according to a great design of God.The present is a time of trial and tribulation,

and its meaning will only be made clear in thelast days before the final judgment occurs.Placing the ultimate revelation of God at theend time seems to imply a history for God, aswell as for his creation—or at least an evolu-tion, or transformation, from one sphere ofactivity to another.

In the Jewish tradition, apocalypticthought presupposes a universal history inwhich the Divine Author of that history willreveal and manifest his secrets in a dramaticend time that with finality will establish theGod of Israel as the one true God. The “end ofdays” (acharit ha-yamin) is bound up with thecoming of the Messiah, but before his appear-ance governments will become increasinglycorrupt, religious schools will become hereti-cal, the wisdom of the scribes and teacherswill become blasphemous, young people willshame their elders, and members of familieswill turn upon one another. Then, just prior tothe arrival of the Messiah, the righteous ofIsrael shall defeat the armies of evil that havegathered under the banner of Gog and Magog,and the exiles shall return to the Holy Land.The world will be at peace and all people willrecognize the one true God. With the adventof the Messiah will come the great Day ofJudgment in which the dead shall rise fromtheir graves to begin a new life. During theperiod known as the World to Come (OlamHaba), the righteous will join the Messiah inpartaking of a great banquet in which allfoods, even those previously judged impure,shall be declared kosher. All the many nationsof the world will communicate in one lan-guage; the Angel of Death will be slain byGod; trees and crops will produce fresh har-vests each month; the warmth of the sun shallheal the sick; and the righteous will be nour-ished forever by the radiance of God.

To most orthodox Christians, the profoundmeaning of the New Testament is that JesusChrist (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) will one day returnin the Last Days and his Second Coming willprompt the resurrection of the dead and theFinal Judgment. The heart of the gospels iseschatological, or end-oriented. The essentialtheme of Jesus and the apostles is that the laststage of history, the end time, was being enteredinto with his appearance. In Matthew 24:3–44,



Jesus speaks to his disciples at great length con-cerning false Messiahs and prophets who willdeceive many people with their rumors aboutthe end of the world. He makes reference to theprophet Daniel and his warnings concerningthe end times and the Antichrist, and headmonishes the disciples not to chase after falseteachers who will produce great miracles andsigns to trick God’s chosen ones. No one knowswhen the Son of Man shall appear again com-ing on the clouds of heaven, Jesus tells them,not even the angels.

As in Jewish apocalyptic tradition, Chris-tians also recognize that there must come theterrible time when the Antichrist, summoninggreat powers of evil, will triumph for a periodover the righteous believers and that therewill be one last awful clash between the forcesof good under the banner of Christ and hisangels and the minions of evil under the ban-ner of Satan. Before that final battle in thevalley of Armageddon, the faithful may lookfor various signs to alert them that the endtime, the Apocalypse, has begun. Drawingupon the apocalyptic traditions of his Jewishbackground, John the Revelator, presents inRevelation, the last book in the New Testa-ment, a guidebook for the Christian on whatto expect during the Apocalypse, the time ofTribulation. Specifically, the book was writtenfor the members of the churches of Ephesus,Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis,Philadelphia, and Laodicea in order to preparethem for what John believed to be a fast-approaching time of persecution and thereturn of Jesus Christ.

The first of Seven Seals to be opened(Revelation 6:1–2) by the Lamb (Christ) dis-closes a conquering king astride a white horse,the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apoca-lypse. Scholars disagree whether this tri-umphant king represents Christ returning todo battle with Satan or the Antichrist emerg-ing to summon the forces of evil to opposeChrist and his angelic army. The Second Seal(6:3–4) reveals the red horse, representingcivil war; the third, the black horse, symboliz-ing famine (6:5–6); the fourth, the pale horse,representing the suffering that follows war andfamine. The Fifth Seal to be opened by theLamb yields a vision of the persecution of the

Church throughout history and during theLast Days. When the Sixth Seal is revealed, itdisplays the coming signs of a great Day ofWrath at hand when there will be Earthlyupheavals, a darkened sun, stars falling fromthe heavens, mountains and islands removed,and more strife and revolution throughout thenations. The Seventh and final Seal releasesseven trumpets that sound the triumphantblast signaling the approach of the final andeverlasting victory of Christ over the king-doms of the world.

But rising out of the abyss to block Christ’striumph at Armageddon is a monstrous armyof demons, some resembling locusts and scor-pions, others a repulsive mixture of humans,horses, and lions. These demons are soonjoined by 200,000 serpentine-leonine horse-men capable of belching fire, smoke, andbrimstone. Led by Satan, the once-trustedangel who led the rebellion against God inHeaven, the Prince of the World sets hislegions upon the faithful to make their lives asmiserable as possible in the end time. To makematters even more complex for those whoserve God, the Antichrist appears on thescene pretending to be the Lamb, the Messi-ah. John the Revelator is told that this man,this beast in lamb’s clothing, can be recog-nized by a name, the letters of which, whenregarded as numbers, total 666.



John Collins, author of

the Encyclopedia of

Apocalypticism.


Although the term “Antichrist” is fre-quently used by those Christians who adhereto the New Testament book of Revelation as aliteral guide to the end of days which they feelis here, the word is nowhere to be found with-in its text. Traditionally, it was believed formany centuries that the apostle John, the oneespecially loved by Jesus, was the author ofRevelation. Contemporary scholarship gener-ally disputes that St. John was the lonelyvisionary on the Island of Patmos who foresawthe time of great tribulation. It is, however,likely that the apostle John is the first to men-tion the Antichrist. In 1 John 2:18, hedeclares that the “enemy of Christ” has mani-fested and that many false teachers have infil-trated the Christian ranks. In verse 22, Johnnames as the Antichrist anyone who woulddeny Jesus as the Christ and the Father andthe Son as the Antichrist, and in 2 John verse

7 he declares that there are many deceiversalready at work among the faithful.

According to Revelation, Christ and hisangelic armies of light destroy the forces ofdarkness at Armageddon in the final battle ofgood versus evil. Babylon, the False Prophet,and the Beast (the Antichrist) are dispatchedto their doom, and Satan, the Dragon, isbound in a pit for a thousand years. WithSatan imprisoned and chained, the Millenni-um, the Thousand Years of peace and harmo-ny, begins.

Although Christ’s Second Coming is saidto be mentioned over 300 times in the NewTestament, the only references to the Millen-nium are found in Revelation 20:2–7. Christ-ian scholars disagree whether or not there willbe an initial resurrection of the just at theadvent of the Millennium and a second one a



The Four Riders of the

Apocalypse. (FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

thousand years later immediately prior to theFinal Day of Judgment. While many Christiantheologians link Christ’s Second Coming, theResurrection, and Judgment Day all occurringafter the defeat of Satan and the beginning ofthe thousand years of peace and harmony,others maintain that the resurrection of thedead and the final judgment of God will nottake place until after the Millennium hascome to a close.

For some rather incomprehensible reason,Satan is released from the pit at the conclu-sion of the Millennium; and true to his nature,he makes a furious attempt to regain his earth-ly kingdom. His former allies, the Beast (theAntichrist), the False Prophet, and the hordesof Babylon, were destroyed at Armageddon,but there were some demons who escapedannihilation at the great battle who standready to serve their master. In addition tothese evil creatures, Satan summons Gog andhis armies of the Magog nations to join themin attacking the saints and the righteous fol-

lowers of God. Although the vast multitude ofvile and wicked servants of evil and grotesquemonsters quickly surround the godly men andwomen, God’s patience with the rebelliousangel has come to an end. Fire blasts downfrom heaven, engulfing and destroying thesatanic legions and the armies of Gog andMagog. Satan himself is sent to spend the restof eternity in a lake of fire.

And now (Revelation 20:11–15) comesthe Final Judgment, the time when God shalljudge the secrets of all men and women(Romans 2:16). This Judgment will be com-



Doomsday clock’s

minute hand is moved to

show the world that it is

closer to a nuclear

apocalypse. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

ALTHOUGH Christ’s Second Coming issaid to be mentioned more than 300 times in the NewTestament, the only references to the Millennium arefound in Revelation 20:2–7.

plete. Every person from every age and nationwill be there. And there shall only be classes:the Saved and the Lost. The Book of Life willhave the names of the Saved. For those whosenames do not appear on those heavenlyrecords, there is the final doom: to be sen-tenced to join Satan and his angels in theplace where the fire is never quenched. Whenthe Judgment has been completed, the firstheaven and Earth shall pass away and a newheaven and new Earth shall be established forthose Saved to occupy with their glorified,incorruptible, spiritual bodies.

M Delving Deeper

Abanes, Richard. End-Time Visions. Nashville, Tenn.:Broadman & Holman, 1998.

Cohn, Norman. The Pursuit of the Millennium. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Goetz, William R. Apocalypse Next. Camp Hill,Penn.: Horizon Books, 1996.

Shaw, Eva. Eve of Destruction: Prophecies, Theories andPreparations for the End of the World. Chicago:Contemporary Books, 1995.


Wheeler, John Jr. Earth’s Two-Minute Warning:Today’s Bible-Predicted Signs of the End Times.North Canton, Ohio: Leader Co., 1996.

Apparitions of Holy

Figures

In the twelfth century, St. Francis of Assisi(1181–1226) was credited with seeing anapparition of Jesus Christ (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30

C.E.). St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)reported seeing Jesus in the fourteenth centu-ry. The Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heartas a symbol of love was begun in the seven-teenth century after an apparition of JesusChrist had been seen by the French nun St.Margaret Mary (1647–1690).

At the height of his illness in December1954, Pope Pius XII (1876–1958) had a visionof Jesus in which the Savior spoke to him in“His own true voice.” The Vatican kept Pius’srevelation secret for nearly a year, thenthrough the “affectionate indiscretion” of one

of the Holy Father’s close friends, the maga-zine Oggi broke the story in its November 19,1955, issue. On December 12, the Vaticanconfirmed the remarkable disclosure, declar-ing the vision not to have been a dream.Sources near to the pope said that he hadbeen wide awake and lucid.

Vatican authorities said that there had notbeen a more vivid or specific vision of Jesussince the days of the Apostles than thatreported by the pontiff. According to Churchrecords, Christ had appeared to a pope onlyonce before, and that was in the fourth centu-ry, when Pope Sylvester (d. 335) consecratedthe mother church of St. John Lateran inRome after Emperor Constantine had endedthe brutal persecutions of the Christians.

Although devout Christian laypersonsoccasionally report apparitions of varioussaints and the image of Jesus, by far the great-est number of apparitions of religious figuresare those of Mother Mary. Pope John Paul II(1920– ) has proclaimed his firm belief thatit was a number of significant apparitions ofMother Mary that brought about the end ofcommunism in the former Soviet Union, thusfulfilling a prophetic pronouncement to oneof the three children to whom she appearedsix times between May 13 and October 13,1917, in Fatima, Portugal.

In his book Russia Will Be Converted(1950), John Haffert detailed a series ofapparitions of Mary in the 1940s that beganeroding communist doctrine and convertingthousands to Roman Catholicism. In oneinstance, a young girl was said to have beheldthe apparition of a beautiful lady who told herto return to the same spot for 15 days. Afterhaving received visions on each of these suc-cessive days, the girl was presented with thematerialization of seven perfect rose petals. Itwas claimed that the petals did not fade orlose their fragrance. It was also said that abotanist declared that the petals could nothave come from an ordinary Earth rose.

Ann Matter, a specialist in the history ofChristianity at the University of Pennsylva-nia, has commented that contemporary timesconstitute the most active age of devotion toMother Mary, not the twelfth century or the





On April 2, 1968, two mechanics workingin a city garage across the street fromSt. Mary’s Church of Zeitoun, Egypt,were startled to see what appeared to

be a nun dressed in white standing on top of the largedome at the center of the roof. Fearful that somethingmight happen to the sister, one of the men ran into thechurch to get a priest, the other telephoned for apolice emergency squad.

When the priest ran from the church to look up atthe dome, he was the first to recognize it as a mani-festation of Mother Mary. The image of the BlessedMother remained in full view of the priest, the twomechanics, and a growing crowd of excited witness-es for several minutes, then disappeared.

The news of the Holy Mother’s visitation spreadrapidly from Zeitoun, a suburb of Cairo, to the greatermetropolitan population of over six million. While thereligious makeup of Cairo is largely Muslim, there is afairly large Coptic Catholic minority. Thousands beganto gather at the majestic church of Zeitoun at Toman-bey Street and Khalil Lane to see for themselves theplace where the Queen of Heaven had come to Earth.

Amazingly, for the next three years, the visions ofthe Holy Mother manifested sporadically atop thedome of the church. Millions claimed to witness thevisitations, and numerous photographs of the spiritualphenomenon can be found on the Internet.

Although thousands of people claimed miracu-lous cures as they looked upward at the glowing fig-ure of the Holy Mother, no one announced receivingany special messages from her. No visionaries everclaimed to have received any warnings of impendingdisasters or relayed any admonitions from MotherMary to repent or to cease sinning.

Sources:

Apparitions of Virgin Mary. http:// www.geocities.com/Athens

/7084 /stmaridx. htm, 11 October 2001.

Our Lady of Zeitoun. http://www.zeitoun.org/, 11 October 2001.

Zeitoun Apparition. http://www.science-frontiers.com, 11

October 2001.

Mother Mary

Appears in Egypt

ninth century, but “right now.” Matter statedthat the interest in apparitions of the HolyMother has been building for the past 150years, “with more and more reports of visionsof Mary in more and more places.”

In the past few decades, apparitions ofMother Mary and her attending angels havebeen seen in places as varied as Betania,Venezuela; Cuapa, Nicaragua; Akita, Japan;Damascus, Syria; San Nicholas, Argentina;Cairo, Egypt; Naju, Korea; and Hrouchiv,Ukraine. In spite of an increasing number ofapparitions around the world, the RomanCatholic hierarchy officially recognizes onlyseven appearances of Mother Mary:

Guadalupe, Mexico: In 1531, a NativeAmerican named Juan Diego saw Mother Maryfour times and was given a miraculously createdserape as evidence of her heavenly visitation.

Paris, France: The Holy Mother appearedto a nun in 1830 and asked her to fashion amedal to commemorate the Immaculate Con-ception.

La Salette, France: A weeping, sorrowfulMary manifested to two peasant children onSeptember 19, 1846, and instructed them todo penance for their sins.

Lourdes, France: Identifying herself as theImmaculate Conception, Mary appeared 18times to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubriousbetween February 11 and July 16, 1858. Thewaters of the miraculous spring that appearedaccording to Mary’s promise are world famousfor their healing powers.

Fatima, Portugal: Mother Mary appearedto three children near Fatima, instructingthem to say their rosary frequently. During hersix visits between May 13 and October 13,1917, Mary issued a number of prophecies,many of which are said to be held secret bythe Vatican.

Beauraling, Belgium: Between November29, 1932, and January 3, 1933, five children ata convent school experienced a remarkable 33encounters with Mother Mary in the schoolgarden.

Banneaux, Belgium: Mother Mary appearedto an 11-year-old girl eight times between Janu-ary 15 and March 2, 1933, in the garden of herparents’ humble cottage.

In addition to the above listed Vatican-recognized meetings with Mother Mary, thereare a number of other encounters with herthat have been highly publicized and mayeven be better known than many of those onthe approved roster.

Village of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland:In 1879, in the midst of terrible famine, devoutvillagers gathered in their church to ask fordeliverance from hunger. Then, at one end ofthe church, a glowing light began to form thatsoon revealed the figures of Mother Mary, St.Joseph, St. John, and a lamb surrounded bygolden stars. A short time after the villagershad reported their collective vision, many ill,diseased, or crippled people who visited thechurch began to claim miraculous cures as theyknelt at the statue of Mother Mary. Since that



Virgin Mary and Jesus

vision in Hungary.

(KAROLY LIGETI/FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)



Virgin Mary appearing

before Bernadette

Soubirous (1844–1879) at

Lourdes. (FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

time, the small village of Knock has come tobe called the “Irish Lourdes.”

Garabandal, Spain: A series of ecstaticvisions of Mother Mary began for four chil-dren one Sunday after Mass in 1961. The visi-tations continued until 1965 and producednumerous accurate prophecies and astonish-ing miracles.

Zeitoun, Egypt: As many as a million wit-nesses may have glimpsed the figure of theglowing Madonna standing, kneeling, or pray-ing beside a cross on the roof of St. Mary’sCoptic Church. Miraculous cures manifestedamong the pilgrims from 1968 to 1971.

Medjugorje, Yugoslavia: In 1981, six chil-dren saw Mother Mary holding the infantJesus near the village. The holy figureappeared on an almost daily basis for fivemonths, leaving behind a continuing legacy ofmiraculous healings.

Bayside, New York: From 1970 to the pre-sent day, the “Bayside Seeress,” VeronicaLueken, issues pronouncements from MotherMary against the spiritual abuses of contempo-rary society.

Conyers, Georgia: Since 1987, Nancy Fow-ler has been receiving daily messages fromMother Mary. On the thirteenth of eachmonth, beginning in 1990, apparitions of Maryand Jesus began to appear. By 1993 as many as50,000 pilgrims could be expected to gather foreach month’s demonstration of the divine.

Hollywood, Florida: A devout Catholicwho had fled to Florida from Castro’s Cuba in1967, Rosa Lopez was left bedridden after aseries of painful surgeries in 1982. In 1992,after making a pilgrimage to Conyers, Geor-gia, Lopez received a healing miracle; and in1993, Jesus manifested to her and proclaimedthat she, too, had been chosen to be a messen-ger for Mother Mary. Soon the Divine Motherbegan conveying messages to Rosa Lopez to be

shared with the thousands of faithful whogather outside her modest home.

Roman Catholic scholarship holds thatthere are two kinds of visions: One is the imag-inative vision, in which the object seen is but amental concept or symbol, such as Jacob’s Lad-der leading up to heaven. St. Teresa of Avila(1515–1582) had numerous visions, includingimages of Christ, which Church authoritieshave judged were of this symbolic kind ofvision. The other is the corporeal vision, inwhich the figure seen is externally present orin which a supernatural power has so modifiedthe retina of the eye so as to produce the effectof three-dimensional solidarity.

By no means are Roman Catholics theonly Christians who have religious visionsand see apparitions of holy figures. In Octo-ber of 2000, a Lutheran minister and a sociol-ogist in Minnesota released their study thatmore than 30 percent of 2,000 Christianssurveyed said that they had had dramaticvisions, heard heavenly voices, or experi-enced prophetic dreams.

In April 2001, details of research conductedat the University of Wales detected a commoncore to religious experiences that crosses bound-aries of culture and faith. An analysis of 6,000such experiences revealed that Christians maydescribe a religious experience as an encounterwith Jesus, Mary, or an angel; Muslims ofteninterpret the phenomenon as the presence of anangel; and Jews describe the event as a sign ofinsight or an experience of God.

With all the interest in spiritual experi-ences, scientists have begun asking if spirituali-ty can be better explained in terms of neuralnetworks, neurotransmitters, and brain chem-istry. Philadelphia scientist Andrew Newberg,who wrote the book Why God Won’t Go Away(2001), says that the human brain is set up insuch a way as to have spiritual and religiousexperiences. Michael Persinger, a professor ofneuroscience at Laurentian University in Sud-bury, Ontario, conducts experiments with ahelmet-like device that runs a weak electro-magnetic signal around the skulls of volunteers.Persinger claims that four in five people reporta mystical experience of some kind when theydon his magnetic headpiece. Matthew Alper,



THE Roman Catholic hierarchy officiallyrecognizes only seven appearances of Mother Mary.

author of The “God” Part of the Brain (1998), abook about the neuroscience of belief, goes sofar as to declare that dogmatic religious beliefsthat insist particular faiths are unique, ratherthan the results of universal brain chemistry,are irrational and dangerous.

In his book The Faith of Biology and theBiology of Faith (2000), Robert Pollack con-cedes that religious experience may seem irra-tional to a materialistic scientist, but he arguesthat irrational experiences are not necessarilyunreal. In fact, he states, they can be just asreal, just as much a part of being human, asthose things that are known through reason.Lorenzo Albacete, a Roman Catholic priest, aprofessor of theology at St. Joseph’s Seminaryin Yonkers, writes in the New York Times Mag-azine (December 18, 2000) that he is some-what nervous about the new efforts of scienceto explain human spirituality: “If the religiousexperience is an authentic contact with atranscendent Mystery, it not only will but

should exceed the grasp of science. Otherwise,what about it would be transcendent?”

Daniel Batson, a University of Kansas psy-chologist who studies the effect of religion onpeople, states that the brain is the hardwarethrough which religion is experienced. “To saythat the brain produces religion is like saying apiano produces music,” he commented.

Numerous believers in the transcendentand in the possibility of experiencing religiousapparitions argue that if God created the uni-verse, wouldn’t it make sense that he wouldwire our brains so it would be possible to havemystical experiences?

M Delving Deeper

Begley, Sharon. “Religion and the Brain.” Newsweek,7 May 2001, pp. 50–57.

Cranston, Ruth. The Miracle of Lourdes. New York:McGraw-Hill, 1955.

Delaney, John J, ed. A Woman Clothed with the Sun.Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961.



Vietnamese Roman

Catholic nuns in a

commemorative

anniversary procession

of the Virgin Mary

apparition in Vietnam.


Kirkwood, Annie. Mary’s Message of Hope. NevadaCity, Calif.: Blue Dolphin Publishing, 1995.

Sparrow, Scott G. I Am with You Always: True Storiesof Encounters with Jesus. New York: BantamBooks, 1995.

Steiger, Brad, and Sherry Hansen Steiger. MotherMary Speaks to Us. New York: Dutton, 1996;Signet, 1997.

Armageddon

In Revelation 16:16, the battlefield desig-nated where blasphemers, unclean spirits,and devils join forces for the final great

battle of the ages between their evil hordesand Christ and his faithful angelic army isArmageddon, “the mound of Megiddo.” Theinspiration for such a choice of battlegroundswas quite likely an obvious one for John theRevelator, for it has been said that more bloodhas been shed around the hill of Megiddothan any other single spot on Earth. Located10 miles southwest of Nazareth at theentrance to a pass across the Carmel moun-tain range, it stands on the main highwaybetween Asia and Africa and in a key positionbetween the Euphrates and the Nile rivers,thus providing a traditional meeting place ofarmies from the East and from the West. Forthousands of years, the Valley of Mageddon,now known as the Jezreel Valley, had been thesite where great battles had been waged andthe fate of empires decided. Thothmes III,whose military strategies made Egypt a worldempire, proclaimed the taking of Megiddo tobe worth the conquering of a thousand cities.During World War I in 1918, the British gen-eral Allenby broke the power of the Turkisharmy at Megiddo.

Most scholars agree that the word “Arma-geddon” is a Greek corruption of the HebrewHar-Megiddo, “the mound of Megiddo,” butthey debate exactly when the designation ofArmageddon was first used. The city of Megid-do was abandoned sometime during the Per-sian period (539 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.), and thesmall villages established to the south wereknown by other names. It could well havebeen that John the Revelator, writing in the

Jewish apocalyptic tradition of a final conflictbetween the forces of light and darkness, waswell aware of the bloody tradition of the hill ofMegiddo and was inspired by the ruins of thecity on its edge; but by the Middle Ages, the-ologians appeared to employ Armageddon as aspiritual concept without any conscious associ-ation with the Valley of Megiddo. Armaged-don simply stood for the promised time whenthe returning Christ and his legions of angelswould gather to defeat the assembled armies ofdarkness. During that same period, thosechurch scholars who persisted in naming anactual geographical location for the final battlebetween good and evil theorized that it mightoccur at places in the Holy Land as widely sep-arated as Mount Tabor, Mount Zion, MountCarmel, or Mount Hermon.

In the fourteenth century, the Jewish geog-rapher Estori Ha-Farchi suggested that theroadside village of Lejjun might be the loca-tion of the biblical Megiddo. Ha-Farchi point-ed out that Lejjun was the Arabic form ofLegio, the old Roman name for the place. Inthe early nineteenth century, American bibli-cal scholar Edwin Robinson traveled to thearea of Palestine that was held at that time bythe Ottoman Empire and became convincedthat Ha-Farchi was correct in his designationof the site as the biblical Megiddo. Laterexplorers and archaeologists determined thatthe ruins of the ancient city lay about a milenorth of Lejjun at what had been renamed bythe Ottoman government as the mound ofTell el-Mutasellim, “the hill of the governor.”

Today, tourists visit Tel Megiddo in greatnumbers, attracted by the site’s apocalypticmystique and the old battleground’s signifi-cance as the place where the fate of ancientempires was decided with the might of swordand spear. The Israel National Parks Authori-ty works in close coordination with theMegiddo Expedition and the Ename Centerfor Public Archaeology of Belgium in offeringvisitors a dramatic perspective of the historyof Armageddon.

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Bloomfield, Arthur E. Before the Last Battle—Armageddon. Minneapolis: Dimension Books,Bethany Fellowship, 1971.





Silberman, Neil Asher, Israel Finkelstein, DavidUssishkin, and Baruch Halpern. “Digging atArmageddon.” Archaeology, November/December1999, pp. 32–39.


Cosmic Consciousness

In his classic work, Cosmic Consciousness(1901), Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke(1837–1902) did not presume to place

himself in the company of the illumined indi-viduals whose lives he examined in his book,but he did relate—in the third person—theaccount of his own experience. It was in theearly spring at the beginning of Bucke’s 36thyear. He and two friends had spent theevening reading selections from such poets asWilliam Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley,John Keats and Robert Browning, with a spe-cial emphasis on Walt Whitman. The youngmen had become so enraptured by their read-ings that they didn’t part until midnight, andBucke faced a long ride home in a horse-drawn hansom cab. He recalled that his mindwas still deeply under the influence of themany inspirational ideas, images, and emo-tions that had been provoked by the readingand discussions of the evening. He was feelingcalm and peaceful when, without any warningof any kind, “he found himself wrappedaround as it were by a flame-colored cloud.”For an instant, he thought of a great fire some-where in the city, then “he knew that the lightwas within himself.”

Upon this realization, Bucke experienceda great sense of exultation, of joyousness,“immediately followed by an intellectual illu-mination quite impossible to describe.” Itseemed as if there streamed into his brain “onemomentary lightning-flash of the BrahmicSplendor” which would henceforth foreverlighten his life. He saw and knew that the cos-

mos is not dead matter but a living presence,that the soul of man is immortal, that the uni-verse is so built and ordered that without per-adventure all things work together for thegood of each and all, that the foundation prin-ciple of this world is what we call love andthat the happiness of everyone is in the longrun absolutely certain. Bucke would ever afterinsist that he learned more within the few sec-onds during which the illumination experi-ence lasted than in previous years of study—and “he learned much that no study couldever have taught.”

Among those historic individuals whomhe saw as definitely having attained cosmicconsciousness, Bucke included Gautama theBuddha (c. 563–c. 483 B.C.E.), Jesus Christ (c.6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.), Paul (d. 62–68 C.E.), Ploti-nus (205–270 C.E.), Muhammed (c. 570–632C.E.), Dante (1265–1321), Francis Bacon(1561–1626), Jakob Behmen (1575–1624),William Blake (1757–1827), and his own idol,Walt Whitman (1819–1892). It is apparentfrom the above listing that Bucke saw suchillumination occurring more often to menthan to women. In added chapters, he nameda number of other individuals whom he con-sidered lesser, imperfect, or doubtful recipientsof cosmic consciousness—men such as Moses(fourteenth–thirteenth century B.C.E.), Gid-eon, Isaiah (eighth century B.C.E.), Socrates (c.470–399 B.C.E.), Spinoza (1632–1677),Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), RalphWaldo Emerson (1803–1882), Henry DavidThoreau (1817–1862), and RamakrishnaParamahansa (1836–1886).

In order for one to achieve cosmic con-sciousness, Bucke maintains that he or shemust first belong to the “top-layer of the worldof Self-Consciousness.” One must have a goodintellect, a good physique, good health, butabove all “…he must have an exalted moralnature, strong sympathies, a warm heart,courage, strong and earnest religious feelings.”Bucke’s extensive study of those whom heconsidered possessed of cosmic consciousnessled him to consider the approximate age of 36as the most propitious time in one’s life toachieve this elevated state of consciousness.In summation, he found the marks of the“Cosmic Sense” to be the following:



1. Subjective light: The person suddenlyfinds himself or herself immersed in flame,or a rose-colored cloud, or “perhaps a sensethat the mind is itself filled with such acloud of haze.”

2. Moral elevation: The recipient is bathed inan emotion of “joy, assurance, triumph, ‘sal-vation.’” But, Bucke explains, it is not “sal-vation” in its usual context of deliverancefrom sin, but it is the realization that “nospecial ‘salvation’ is needed, the schemeupon which the world is built being itselfsufficient.”

3. Intellectual illumination: The recipientdoes not merely come to believe, “but hesees and knows that the cosmos, which tothe self-conscious mind seems made up ofdead matter, is in fact far otherwise—is invery truth a living presence.”

4. Sense of immortality.

5. Loss of the fear of death.

6. Loss of the sense of sin.

7. Instantaneousness of the illumination.

8. Previous character of high intellectual,moral, and physical degree.

9. Age about 36.

10. Added charm of the illumined personality.

11. Transformation or change of appearance:Although this change may gradually passaway, Bucke writes, “In those great cases inwhich the illumination is intense, thechange in question is also intense and mayamount to a veritable transfiguration.”

Bucke’s primary thesis is that during thecenturies of humankind’s evolutionary devel-opment as a species there have been threeforms of consciousness. First, there was simpleconsciousness, our instinctual awareness.Next came a self-consciousness, a self-aware-ness that allowed human beings to realizethemselves as distinct individuals. And now,developing among the human species, arethose individuals possessed of cosmic con-sciousness, a new faculty of consciousness,that will lead humankind to the pinnacle ofhuman evolution.

Such spiritual prophets as Rudolf Steiner(1861–1925) also foretold that humankind is

entering a “fullness” of time in which a newconsciousness shall emerge. Steiner termedthe new awareness “Christ consciousness,” atransformative energy that would transcendorthodox Christianity. In his view, “the rest ofhumanity must now, in imitation of Christ,gradually develop what was present for 33years on the Earth in one single personality.”

Steiner acknowledged that spiritual histo-ry is replete with many sincere and insightfulprophets and teachers who lived before theMaster Jesus, but, in his opinion, they couldonly speak to their fellow humans by using thefaculties transmitted through their earthlynatures. They used the energy and the wisdomof Earth. Jesus, however, tapped into anawareness of that higher energy that comesfrom the realm of the Divine. He knew that aspeck of this energy no larger than a mustardseed could exalt the human psyche. He knewthat even the slightest infusion of this energyinto a man or a woman would transform theindividual into a citizen of a higher dimensionof reality, the “Kingdom of God.” And, at thesame time, he taught that the doorway toenter such a wondrous kingdom lay within theheart of each sincere pilgrim who sought tojoin him there.

Author/philosopher John W. White(1939– ) also sees Jesus as an evolutionaryforerunner of the higher race that will inheritthe Earth, a “race of people that will embodyCosmic Consciousness, the Christ Conscious-ness on a species-wide basis, rather than thesporadic individual basis seen earlier in historywhen an occasional avatar, such as Buddha orJesus, appeared.” White gives the name ofHomo Noeticus (pertaining to higher con-sciousness) to this evolving form of humanity.“Because of their deepened awareness andself-understanding, the traditionally imposedforms, controls, and institutions of society arebarriers to their full development,” Whitesays. “Their changed psychology is based onexpression, not suppression, of feeling. Theirmotivation is cooperative and loving, notcompetitive and aggressive. Their sense oflogic is multilevel, integrated, simultane-ous.… Their identity is sharing-collective, notisolated-individual.… The conventional ways



of society do not satisfy them. The search fornew ways of living concerns them.”

In the 1950s, Albert Einstein (1879–1955)strongly advised people that humankind hadto develop a new way of thinking if they wereto survive as a species. Since that time, thegreat genius physicist has not been alone insuggesting that humanity must develop aninner road to salvation involving a synthesisof rational understanding with the mysticalexperience of oneness, of unity.

In his Mystics as a Force for Change (1981),Dr. Sisirkumar Ghose argues that throughoutthe evolution of humankind, the mystics havealways been among people as evidence oftransitional forms within the species. Insteadof accusing mystics of being dropouts andescapists, Ghose insists that “it might be fairerto say that in breaking the illusions of thecave dwellers they have been more responsi-ble to reality and to the race.… They havebeen the true scientists of catharsis and con-version.… The only radical thinkers, theyalone go to the root of the matter, beyond thevarious shaky schemes of mundane perfection,swaying between the worship of the FattedCalf and the horror of the Organization Man.”

Since many saints, prophets, and mysticshave seemingly achieved a state of cosmicconsciousness and/or illumination, WilliamJames (1842—1910), writing in his classicwork Varieties of Religious Experience (1902),lists the features that he believes form a com-posite picture of “universal saintliness, thesame in all religions:”

1. A feeling of being in a wider life than thatof this world’s selfish little interests; and aconviction, not merely intellectual, but asit were sensible, of the existence of anIdeal Power.…

2. A sense of the friendly continuity of theideal power with our own life, and willingself-surrender to its control.

3. An immense elation and freedom, as the out-lines of the confining selfhood melt down.

4. A shifting of the emotional center towardloving and harmonious affections, towards“yes-yes” and away from “no,” where theclaims of the self-ego are concerned.

Many contemporary researchers use theterm “peak experience” when referring to cos-mic consciousness. In her Ordinary People asMonks and Mystics (1986), Marsha Sinetarwrites that the peak experience is “critical toany discussion of the mystic’s journey, sincethrough it and because of it the individualgains an overarching and penetrating viewinto what he is at his best, into what he iswhen he simply ‘is.’ The peak experiencemeans that the person experiences himself‘being,’ rather than becoming.” Sinetar goeson to state that the person undergoing such anexpansion of consciousness is able to have adirect experience with “the transcendentnature of reality.” The person then “enters intothe Absolute, becoming one with it, if only foran instant…a life-altering instant.” The peakexperience expands “the individual’s field ofconsciousness to include everything in theuniverse…he feels he has everything becausehe experiences everything within.”

In his Watcher on the Hills (1959), Dr.Raynor C. Johnson sets forth the followingthree criteria to test the validity of mysticalexperience, those moments when one feelsthat he or she has touched “the transcendentnature of reality”:

1. The pragmatic test. Has it led to well-bal-anced, happy, serene living of an enhancedquality?

2. Is it consistent with the well-establishedfindings of reason? (This need not implythat it is supported by reason.)

3. Is it unifying and integrative, or isolatingand destructive so far as the individual’srelationship to an all-embracing whole isconcerned?

Johnson contends that it is obvious that“…all psychotic products resulting in obses-sional feeling-states cannot pass the first crite-rion.” It is also clear, he writes, that “allallegedly religious people who…have onlyintolerance in common and are sure that ifpeople only believed as they do, all would bewell, are ruled out by the third criterion.”

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Johnson, Raynor C. Watcher on the Hills. London:Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., 1959.

Otto, Rudolf. Mysticism East and West. New York:Macmillan, 1970.

Tilby, Angela. Soul: God, Self and the New Cosmology.New York: Doubleday, 1993.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism. New York: Dutton,1961.

Demons

In the teachings and traditions of all worldreligions, demons are spiritual entities with-out physical bodies that roam the Earth

seeking to torment whomever attracts themthrough a wide variety of means—from weak-ness to wizardry. According to these ancient tra-ditions, demons have supernatural powers; theyare numerous; and they are organized. They caninflict sickness and mental disorders on theirvictims. They can possess and control humansand animals. Demons lie and deceive and teachfalse and misleading doctrines of spirituality.They oppose all teachings and actions that seekto serve the good and God.

According to the great teachers of theworld religions, the main tasks of demons areto disseminate error among humans and toseduce believers into forsaking good for evil.Since they are such skilled deceivers, it is near-ly impossible to develop an adequate litmustest that will unfailingly distinguish betweengood spirits and bad ones. Unless one is trulypure in heart, mind, and soul and has the abili-ty to maintain only clean thoughts and goodhabits, it is very difficult to discern with unfail-ing accuracy the true nature of demon spirits.

Theologians remind their followers that asmortal beings they are in the midst of a greatspiritual warfare between the angels of light

who serve God and the fallen angels whoserve the forces of darkness—and that theirsouls may be the prize for the victors. Accom-plished spiritual teachers of all faiths advisetheir congregants that the good spirits willnever try to interfere with the free will ofhumans or seek to possess their bodies. On theother hand, the evil spirits desire the physicalhost body of a human being. In fact, they musthave such a vehicle if they are to experienceearthly pleasures. When a demon invades ahuman body, it is said that possession hasoccurred and an exorcism by a priest orshaman may be required to free the victimfrom the evil spirit’s grasp.

Demonic entities are credited with willand intellect, but these attributes are invari-ably directed toward evil as they exert theirmalevolent powers. When these evil spiritspenetrate the material world and the circum-stances of human life, they conceal them-selves in every aspect of human existence.

In many instances, the gods of the old reli-gions become the demons of the new. TheAsuras, a race of gods in the early Vedas(sacred Hindu texts composed around 1500 to1200 B.C.E.), are transmuted to powerful evilbeings with the advent of the new deities ofIndra and Vishnu. The raksasas are a class ofentities who attack humans with the intendedgoal of driving them insane or causing themmaterial ruin. As in many theologies, there isan ambivalence concerning certain deities. InHinduism, the most terrifying of the gods, suchas Kali, Durga, and Shiva, although seeminglydemonic and destructive, often perform deedsthat ultimately turn out to be good.

In the scriptures of the world religions, thechief of the legions and hordes of demons isknown by various names: Satan, Lucifer, Iblis,Mara, and Angra Mainyu, among others. Theword “devil” is derived from the Greek diabo-los, which means “accuser” or “slanderer,” andis one of the names for Satan. Daimon, theGreek word from which “demon” is derived,originally meant a tutelary spirit or a spiritguide, but it is frequently, and incorrectly,translated as “devil” or “demon.”

In the traditions of Christianity, Islam, andJudaism, the animosity between demons (the



DEMONS are spiritual entities withoutphysical bodies that roam the Earth seeking to torment

whoever attracts them.

fallen angels) and the human race can betraced to the moment when God granted hisearthly creations of dust and clay with thepriceless gift of free will. In the biblical andqur’anic traditions are found references to thejealousy that afflicted certain angels regardingthe attention that God displayed toward hishuman creation. In the Qur’an (17:61–64),Iblis (Satan), the leader of the rebelliousangels, refuses to bow to a creature that Godhas created of clay, and he threatens to makeexistence miserable for the descendants of thebeing that the Creator has honored abovethem. Because of the declared animosity ofthe fallen angels against those heavenlybeings who remain faithful to the Creator andagainst those mortals who seek to follow thehigher teachings of revealed truth, the epistlewriter Paul (d. 62–68 C.E.) gave counsel whenhe warned that humans not only engage inspiritual warfare with those of flesh and bloodwho serve evil, “but against the principalities,against the powers, against the world rulers ofthis present darkness, against the spiritualhosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”(Ephesians 6:12).

Although Buddhism generally rejects acosmological dualism between good and bad,angels and demons, there is an aspect withinthe traditional lives of the Buddha whichechoes the jealousy motif of various entitiestoward humans. Mara, who tempted theAwakened One on the night of his enlighten-ment, is said to be an asura or a Deva (a beingof light) who was jealous of the power thatwas about to be bestowed on a human, for tobecome a Buddha would be to achieve spiritu-al status greater than they possessed. TibetanBuddhism borrows its demons from Hinduismand adds a number of indigenous entities, whoare ambivalent toward the inhabitants of theHimalayas, sometimes appearing as fierce andmalevolent creatures, other times manifestingas teachers of enlightenment.

Various scriptures state firmly that regard-less of their strength, power, and majesty,angels are not to be worshipped, and religiousteachers advise that true heavenly beings willimmediately discourage any humans fromattempting to bow their knees to them. Onthe other hand, the fallen angels, the demons,

are motivated by their own selfish goals anddelight in corrupting humans. They encouragemortals to express greed and to seek the acqui-sition of material, rather than spiritual, trea-sures. As a general spiritual law, these negativeentities cannot achieve power over humansunless they are somehow invited into a per-son’s private space—or unless they are attract-ed to an individual by that person’s negativityor vulnerability.

According to certain Christian teachers,there was an outburst of demonic activityupon the occasion of Jesus’ coming to Earth,which was perceived as a great threat toSatan’s material kingdom. Other churchscholars state that another such outburst isexpected just before the Second Coming ofChrist. Some fundamentalist Christiansbelieve that that time has begun.

Regardless of the general view of the vastmajority of contemporary scientists and psy-chologists—and even many members of theclergy—to regard a belief in demons as asuperstitious holdover from the past and toattribute the traditional accounts of posses-sion by evil spirits as primitive ways of describ-ing mental illness, there are professional care-givers and clerics who maintain that these evilcreatures are as much a part of the twenty-first-century world as they were in the MiddleAges. And the results of a Gallup poll releasedin June 2001 reveal that 41 percent of adultAmericans believe that people can be pos-sessed by the Devil or his demons.

Professor Morton Kelsey, an Episcopalpriest, a noted Notre Dame professor of theolo-gy, and the author of Discernment—The Study ofEcstasy and Evil (1978), states that demons arereal and can invade the minds of humans.“Most people in the modern world considerthemselves too sophisticated and too intelligentto be concerned with demons,” he commented.“They totally ignore the evidence around them.



THE word “devil” is derived from the Greekdiabolos, which means “accuser” or “slanderer.”

But in thirty years of study, I have seen theeffects of angels and demons on humans.”

Kelsey insists that a demon is not a fig-ment of the imagination. “It is a negative,destructive spiritual force. It seeks to destroythe person and everyone with whom that per-son comes into contact. The essential mark ofthe demon—and those possessed bydemons—is total self-interest to the exclusionof everyone and everything else.”

Agreeing with many other contemporaryreligious scholars, Kelsey expressed his con-cern that most people in today’s world offerlittle challenge for demons. “They find it easyto enter and operate in the unconscious partsof the mind, taking control of the person andhis character,” he said. In offering advice forthose who may fear themselves to be underdemonic attack, Kelsey said that they shouldnot despair. They must focus their thoughts onGod, and “try to reach out to Him and findHis light.”

There are numerous admonitions in theNew Testament to be cautious of any mani-festing entity and to test it to determine itstrue motives. “Beloved, do not believe everyspirit, but test the spirits to see whether theyare of God” (1 John 4:1).

While such a passage is easily quoted, itsadmonition is much more difficult to put intopractice when warned in 2 Corinthians 11:14,“Even Satan disguises himself as an angel oflight.”

Dr. Wilson Van Dusen is a university pro-fessor who has served as chief psychologist atMendocino State Hospital in California.Based upon his decades of research, VanDusen has stated that many patients in mentalhospitals may be possessed by demons andthat people who hallucinate may often beunder the control of demonic entities. VanDusen also affirms that he has been able tospeak directly to demons that have possessedhis patients. He has heard their own guttural,otherworld voices, and he has even been ableto administer psychological tests to these tor-menting entities.

An accomplished psychologist, Van Dusenhas lectured at the University of California,Davis; served as professor of psychology at

John F. Kennedy University; and publishedmore than 150 scientific papers and writtenseveral books on his research, such as ThePresence of Other Worlds: The Psychological/Spiritual Findings of Emanuel Swedenborg(1974) and The Natural Depth in Man (1974).

In a landmark research paper, the clinicalpsychologist noted the “striking similarities”between the hierarchy of the unseen worlddescribed by the Swedish inventor-mysticEmanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) and thealleged hallucinations of his patients in a statemental hospital. Van Dusen began to seek outthose from among the hundreds of chronicschizophrenics, alcoholics, and brain-damagedpersons who could distinguish between theirown thoughts and the products of their hallu-cinations. He would question these other sup-posed entities directly and instruct the patientto give a word-for-word account of what thevoices answered or what was seen. In thismanner, he could hold long dialogues with apatient’s hallucinations and record both hisquestions and the entity’s answers.

On numerous occasions the psychologistfound that he was engaged in dialogues withhallucinations that were above the patient’scomprehension. He found this to be especiallytrue when he contacted the higher order ofhallucinations, which he discovered to be“symbolically rich beyond the patient’s ownunderstanding.” The lower order, Van Dusennoted, was composed of entities that wereconsistently antireligious, and some activelyobstructed the patient’s religious practices.Occasionally they would even refer to them-selves as demons from hell, suggest lewd acts,then scold the patient for considering them.They would find a weak point of conscienceand work on it interminably. They wouldinvade “every nook and cranny of privacy,work on every weakness and credibility, claimawesome powers, lie, make promises, and thenundermine the patient’s will.”

Van Dusen also found that the “hallucina-tions” could take over a patient’s eyes, ears,and voice, just as in traditional accounts ofdemon possession. The entities had totally dif-ferent personalities from his patients’ normaldispositions, which indicated to him that they



were not simply products of his patients’minds. Some of the beings had ESP and couldpredict the future. Often they would threatena patient and then cause actual physical pain.The demons were described in a variety ofshapes and sizes, but generally appeared inhuman form, ranging from an old man toalleged space aliens, but any of them couldchange form in an instant. Some were so solidto the victims that they could not see throughthem. At times the patients would become soangry at the apparitions that they would strikeat them—only to hurt their hands on the wall.

Van Dusen made detailed studies of 15cases of demonic possession, but he dealt withseveral thousand patients during his 20 yearsas a clinical psychologist. In his opinion, theentities were present “in every single one ofthe thousands of patients.” He even admittedthat some of the entities knew far more thanhe did, even though he tried to test them bylooking up obscure academic references.

One of Van Dusen’s conclusions was thatthe entities took over the minds of peoplewho were emotionally or physically at a lowebb. The beings seemed to be able to “leechon those people because they had been weak-ened by strains and stresses with which theycould not cope.”

Considering once again some of the impli-cations of Swedenborg’s thoughts and works,Van Dusen commented that it was curious toreflect that, as Swedenborg has suggested,human lives may be “the little free space atthe confluence of giant higher and lower spiri-tual hierarchies.” The psychologist finds a les-son in such a consideration: “Man freelypoised between good and evil, is under theinfluence of cosmic forces he usually doesn’tknow exist. Man, thinking he chooses, may bethe resultant of other forces.”

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Crim, Keith, ed. The Perennial Dictionary of WorldReligions. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,1989.

Karpel, Craig. The Rite of Exorcism: The CompleteText. New York: Berkley, 1975.

Kinnaman, Gary. Angels Dark and Light. Ann Arbor,Mich.: Servant Publications, 1994.

Mack, Carol K., and Dianah Mack. A Field Guide toDemons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver-sive Spirits. New York: Owl Book, Henry Holt,1999.

Montgomery, John Warwick. Powers and Principalities.Minneapolis: Dimension Books, 1975.

Van Dusen, Wilson. The Psychological/Spiritual Pres-ence of Other Worlds: The Findings of EmanuelSwedenborg. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

Devil’s Mark

During the time of the Inquisition ofthe Middle Ages, it was believed thatthe Devil placed upon his human

brides, the witches, a special mark that wasinsensitive to pain. Because it was supposedthat such a mark might be well hidden some-where on the witch’s body, one of the first ofthe many degrading and painful ordeals of theInquisition began when the accused womanwas turned over to the torturers to have herbody shaved in search of the “Devil’s Mark.”

Once the alleged spot—which could wellhave been a mole or a birthmark—was found,the torturers would insert long, sharp pins intothe victim’s flesh or sear the mark with red-hotbranding irons in order to test its resistance topain. The fact that the suspected area gave noindication of being immune to pain did noth-ing to absolve the woman accused of witch-craft from later being burned at the stake.

In 1486, two devout priests, Jakob Spren-ger and Heinrich Kramer, published MalleusMaleficarum (A Hammer for Witches), thebook that became the handbook of the profes-sional witch hunters. Charles Williams, writ-ing in his Witchcraft, believes that Sprengerand Kramer proceeded with great care toexamine the nature of witchcraft and to ana-



IN 1486, Malleus Maleficarum (“A Hammer forWitches”) became the handbook of the professionalwitch hunters.

lyze the best methods of operating against itsmenace. They perceived the witches as makinguse of their unholy alliance with Satan to cor-rupt the generative powers of humankind. Inaddition, they believed that witches sought todepopulate Christendom by demanding thesacrifice of children and babies.

The tribunal judges of the Inquisitionexamined, tried, and tortured female witchesover male witches at a ratio of (dependingupon the authority) 10 to 1, 100 to 1, or10,000 to 1. And beginning with the brutalsearch for the Devil’s Mark, the inquisitorsdirected their tortures toward the private partsof the body.

Once a woman accused of witchcraftfound herself in prison through the testi-monies of witnesses who had seen her allegedevil powers at work (these could be a neighborwoman jealous of her beauty, a suitor disap-pointed at her rejection of his love, a relativewho sought her share of an inheritance), shewas often as good as condemned. At theheight of the witch hunt mania, an accusationwas the equivalent of guilt in the eyes of

judges. And few lawyers would dare defend anaccused witch for fear that he would himselfbe accused of witchcraft or heresy if he pledher case too well.

The common justice of the Inquisitiondemanded that a witch should not be con-demned to death unless she convict herself byher own confession. Therefore, the judges hadno choice other than to order her to be exam-ined for the Devil’s Mark and to turn her overto the torturers to extract a confession fromher. In a bizarre rationalization and paradox ofjustice, the law insisted that the tribunal couldnot use torture to wring a confession from anaccused witch, so they turned her over toblack-hooded torturers to burn, stretch,starve, and beat her until she confessed. Oncethis confession had been accomplished, theaccused was made to stand once again beforethe judges (usually standing of one’s own voli-tion was impossible at this stage, so thewoman was supported by priests) and confessof her “own free will without torture.” Oncethe confession was properly recorded, the vic-tim of the Inquisition would be led directlyfrom the courtroom to be burned at the stake.

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Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Witchcraft in the Middle Ages.Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1972.

Seligmann, Kurt. The History of Magic. New York:Pantheon Books, 1948.

Trevor-Roper, H. R. The European Witch-Craze. NewYork: Harper & Row, 1967.

Ecstasy

“All that the soul knows when it is leftto itself is nothing in comparisonwith the knowledge that is given it

during ecstasy. When the soul is raised aloft,illumined by the presence of God, when Godand it are lost in each other, it apprehends andpossesses with joy good things which it cannotdescribe. The soul swims in joy and knowl-edge.” (Angela da Foligno, mystic, quoted byFather A. Poulain in The Graces of InteriorPrayer [1910])

Many students of spirituality describe theecstatic experience as the mystic state par



The Spanish Inquisition

was ordered to rid

Europe of heretics. By

1257, the Church

officially sanctioned

torture as a means of

forcing witches,

sorcerers, and

shapeshifters to confess

their alliance with Satan.




The city of Jerusalem contains some of themost venerated sites in the Muslim, Chris-tian, and Jewish religions. To name only afew, the Muslims built the Dome of the

Rock over the place from which Muhammad ascend-ed to heaven; the Jews revere the Wailing Wall, allthat remains of the great Temple of Solomondestroyed by the Romans; and the Christians flock tothe Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built around thetomb from which Jesus rose from the dead. Becauseof the extreme emotionality and religious fervor whichexists around such sacred sites, a bizarre psychologi-cal condition known as “Jerusalem Fever” plaguescertain visitors to the city, causing them to believethat they are on a mission from God and that theymust carry out His will.

Thousands of pilgrims come each year from allover the world to experience the sacred sites of OldJerusalem. The visitors are able to walk the streetswhere many of their biblical heroes and heroines trod.In Jersusalem, citizens of our modern, fast-pacedtechnological society can meditate under the shadeof olive trees and reflect upon the divine inspirationthat guided the ancient prophets, teachers, and kingsto write the psalms, sermons, and scriptures. The pil-grims can leave the city and travel through the samelandscapes where the great figures of the bible andthe Qu’ran sought God and heard His messages.

Such a total immersion in the places and eventsrecounted in scripture overpowers some visitors witha desire to bring about a oneness of all religions andall people on Earth. They develop a deep sense ofsadness for all the religious wars and crusades thathave been waged over earthly possession of the HolyCity; they want to do whatever they can to bringtogether all believers. At the other end of the spec-trum, other pilgrims are struck with a paranoia thatmakes them think the End-Times are near and thatthey must prepare at once for Armageddon—the lastgreat conflict between good and evil and the precur-sor to Christ’s Second Coming and the Final Judgment.

Both psychological conditions are clinically iden-tified as “Jerusalem Fever.” While these peculiar psy-

chological symptoms are usually fleeting, they canoccasionally be severe enough to result in bizarrebehavior and acts of violence against others.

Sources:

Jerusalem Syndrome. http://www.jerusalemsyndrome.com/jsint.

htm, 12 October 2001.

Jerusalem

Fever

excellence. Mystics from all traditions agree inregarding ecstasy as a wonderful state—theone in which the human spirit is swept up andinto an immediate union with the divine. AsEvelyn Underhill points out in her Mysticism(1961), the word has become synonymouswith joyous exaltation: “The induced ecstasiesof the Dionysian mysteries, the metaphysicalraptures of the Neoplatonists, the voluntary orinvoluntary trance of Indian mystics andChristian saints—all these, however widelythey may differ in transcendental value, agreein claiming such value, in declaring that thischange of consciousness brought with it avalid and ineffable apprehension of the Real.”

Ecstasy differs from meditation—one of thestages that may precede it—both in characterand development. In all the lengthy preliminarytraining of the mystical consciousness, a con-stant exertion of the will is required. But whenat last the new and long-desired experiencescome to the mystic “like a flash” into the psy-che, he or she knows that there is nothing moreto do than to accept that which has been given.

Fredric W. H. Myers (1843–1901)observed that the evidence for ecstasy isstronger than the evidence for any other reli-gious belief. “Of all the subjective experiencesof religion, ecstasy is that which has beenmost urgently, perhaps to the psychologistmost convincingly asserted; and it is not con-fined to any one religion,” Myers said. “Fromthe medicine man…up to St. John, St. Peter,and St. Paul, with Buddha and Mahomet onthe way, we find records which, though moral-ly and intellectually much differing, are inpsychological essence the same.”

Evelyn Underhill states that ecstasy “rep-resents the greatest possible extension of thespiritual consciousness in the direction of PureBeing: the blind intent stretching herereceives its reward in a profound experience of

Eternal Life. In this experience, the con-sciousness of ‘I-hood,’ of space and time…allthat beings to the World of Becoming and ourown place therein…are suspended. The vitali-ty which we are accustomed to split amongstthese various things, is gathered up to form astate of pure apprehension…a vivid intuitionof the Transcendent.”

Underhill goes on to explain that in the per-fect unity of consciousness that comes in a stateof ecstasy, the mystic is so concentrated on theAbsolute that his or her faculties are suspendedand he or she ceases to think of himself or her-self as separate from the “All That Is.” The mys-tic becomes so immersed in the Absolute that“as the bird cannot see the air which supports it,nor the fish the ocean in which it swims, [themystic] knows all, but think naught, perceivesall, but conceives naught.”

In addition to the passive nature of theecstasy, another characteristic of its content isits relative unity and the narrowness of itsconscious field. To a large extent, the outsideworld is shut out, and the five senses are com-pletely closed to external stimuli. Every otherthought, feeling, or emotion is pushed out ofthe mind but the idea of God and the emo-tions of joy and love. These fill the mind tothe exclusion of nearly everything else, andare themselves blended into a single whole.The mystic does not believe God to be present;he or she feels God united with his or her soul,so that this intense awareness and its strongemotional accompaniment leave no room inhis or her consciousness for anything else.

A story is told that St. Ignatius (1491–1556) was seated at the side of a road, lookingat the stream that crossed it, absorbed in con-templation, when the eyes of his soul wereopened and inundated with light. He was ableto distinguish nothing with his five senses, buthe comprehended marvelously a great numberof truths pertaining to the faith or to thehuman sciences. The new concepts and ideaswere so numerous and the light so bright thatSt. Ignatius seemed to enter into a new world.The amount of this new knowledge was sogreat that, according to Ignatius, all that hehad learned in his life up to his 62nd year,whether supernatural or through laborious



IN a state of ecstacy, the human spirit is swept upand into an immediate union with the divine.

study, could not be compared to what he hadlearned at this one ecstatic experience.

The knowledge that one receives while ina state of ecstasy is immediate and leaves thepercipient with a complete sense of the noet-ic, an inner knowing and awareness that whatwas shown to him or her in the ecstatic visionis the way things truly are. The knowledgereceived in such a state often has very little todo with conceptual or representative knowl-edge about things. To the mystic, true realitydoes not lie in such knowledge. Only in animmediate experience, a visionary ecstaticexperience, which stands for itself alone, canone find true reality—and most certainly ofall, there alone can one find the ultimate real-ity with God.

St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), theesteemed Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, andwriter, referred in her last great work, the Inte-rior Castle (1577), to four degrees of the mysticunion with God:

1. the incomplete mystic union that comeswith a quieting of the mind;

2. the semi-ecstatic union;

3. the ecstatic union;

4. the transforming union of complete one-ness with God.

Perhaps the most dramatic characteristicof the ecstatic experience is the occasionalphenomenon of visions, often of Christ, Mary,various saints, or angels. Since so many ofthese visionary encounters are compatiblewith the ecstatic’s religious beliefs, certainresearchers maintain that the visions of themystics are determined in content by theirspiritual orientation and are set in motion bythe imagination working in dreamlike fashionupon the mass of theological material whichfills the mind. Some researchers also find itlikely that the vision, much like a normaldream, originates from some sensational stim-ulus which the imagination proceeds to inter-pret and elaborate.

Mystic ecstasy, to the percipient of theexperience, reveals a genuine truth. He or sheis brought face-to-face with ultimate realitythat is experienced with emotions and intu-ition. A transcendence of the self is achieved.

The mystic returns from the experience withthe certainty of having been somewhere elsewhere a revelation of some remarkable truthwas given, a truth such as reality is unitary anddivine; even ordinary human experiences arephenomenal; the soul, which is the key toreality, may rise to oneness with God; thatGod’s presence may be found everywhere hid-den in the midst of daily life.

In her Ecstasy: A Study of Some Secular andReligious Experiences (1961), Marghanita Laskilists five principal manifestations of the ecsta-tic mystical experience:

1. The feelings of loss: i.e., loss of time, of place,of worldliness, of self, of sin, and so on.

2. The feelings of gain: i.e., gain of a new life,of joy, of salvation, of glory, of new knowl-edge, and so on.

3. Ineffability: experiences which the personfinds impossible to put into words at all.

4. Quasi-physical feelings: i.e., reference tosensations suggesting physical feelings,which may accompany ecstatic experi-ences, such as floating sensations, a feelingof swelling up, an impression of a shininglight, and so on.

5. Feelings of intensity or withdrawal: i.e., afeeling of a ‘winding up,’ an accumulationof force to the point at which it is let go,whereas withdrawal is the opposite—anecstatic condition reached ‘not by accu-mulation but by subtraction,’ a feeling ofwithdrawal of force and energy.

Laski states that ecstatic experiences cannever be satisfactorily explained if it is sug-gested that ecstasies are “…only this or onlythat—only a phenomenon of repressed sexu-ality or only a concomitant of some or othermorbid condition.” In her examination of therecipients’ convictions of the value of theecstatic experience, she came to believe thatsuch manifestations must be “treated asimportant outside religious contexts, as hav-ing important effects on people’s mental andphysical well-being, on their aesthetic prefer-ences, their creativity, their beliefs andphilosophies, and on their conduct.…” Toignore or to deny the importance of ecstaticexperiences, Laski contends, is “to leave to



the irrational the interpretation of what manypeople believe to be of supreme value.”

M Delving Deeper

Bach, Marcus. The Inner Ecstasy. New York, Cleve-land: World Publishing, 1969.


Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. New York: GalaxyBooks, 1958.

Suzuki, D. T. Mysticism, Christian and Buddhist. NewYork: Perennial, 1971.

Tart, Charles T. Altered States of Consciousness. NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1969.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism. New York: Dutton, 1961.

Exorcism

On September 11, 2000, newspapersaround the world carried the storyabout how Satan had invaded the Vat-

ican in Rome and screamed insults at PopeJohn Paul II (1920– ) through the agency of ateenage girl, reported to have been a “splendidgirl in terms of purity and goodness” beforebeing possessed by the devil at the age of 12.The 19-year-old began shouting in a “cav-ernous voice” during a general papal audiencein St. Peter’s Square. Despite the efforts of thepope to quiet the attack, the Prince of Darknesslaughed at the Holy Father’s efforts to drivehim away. When Vatican guards attempted toconstrain the girl, she violently pushed themback in a display of superhuman strength.

Vatican exorcist Father Gabriele Amorthsaid that he and another exorcist, FatherGiancarlo Gramolazzo, had previously workedwith the girl and that the pope had spent halfan hour with her the day before the incident

and had also exorcised the teenager. However,it soon became apparent when the girl beganinsulting the pope and speaking in unknowntongues during the papal audience that nei-ther of the exorcisms had managed to banishSatan. Vatican sources were quick to remindthe media of Pope John Paul II’s successfulexorcism of an Italian woman namedFrancesca Fabrizzi in 1982.

Later in September 2000, Reverend JamesLe Bar, an exorcist for the Archdiocese ofNew York, commented that there had been a“large explosion” of exorcisms in recent years.In New York alone, he said, the number hadaccelerated from none in 1990 to a total of300 in the last 10 years. Reverend Le Bar saidthat as men and women have diminished self-respect for themselves and decreased rever-ence for spirituality, for other human beings,and for life in general, one of Satan’s demonscan move in and “attack them by possessingthem and rendering them helpless.”

On November 26, 2000, an AssociatedPress story datelined Mexico City, Mexico,stated that a steady procession of men andwomen believing themselves to be possessedpass through the doors of the city’s RomanCatholic parishes seeking exorcism from theeight priests appointed by the archbishop tobattle Satan and his demons. Reverend Alber-to Juarez told of seeing a young woman whobegan to speak in a man’s voice and thengrowl like a dog. Father Enrique Maldonadospoke of houses where he witnessed lockeddoors open and objects move about the rooms.Reverend Daniel Gagnon stated that he hadonce considered himself scientific, pragmatic,but he had changed his mind. “Psychology iswhere you begin, but there is an area that sci-ence cannot explain,” he said.

The casting out of demons and the healingof the sick and the lame were two of the greatfacets of the apostolic commission that Jesus(c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) gave to his followers,but the practice of performing an exorcism oncandidates for baptism was first recorded bythe church father Hippolytus (c. 170–c. 235)in third-century Rome. The priest or laymaninstructing those who would join the churchwas instructed to lay his hands upon the heads



THE practice of performing an exorcism oncandidates for baptism was first recorded by the

church father Hippolytus (c. 170–c. 235) in third-century Rome.

of the catechumens and pray. It was then sup-posed that it would be impossible for a demon-ic entity to remain quiet and unnoticed at thistime, thereby betraying its presence and pre-senting the unfortunate human host for theprocess of exorcism.

According to the September 1, 2000, issueof the National Catholic Reporter, the first men-tion of “exorcist” as an office in the RomanCatholic Church exists in a letter of Pope Cor-nelius in 253. Historian Jeffrey Burton Russellstates that in the early medieval liturgies, therewere three kinds of common exorcisms—theexorcism or blessing of houses or objects, ofthose about to receive baptism, and of peoplebelieved to be possessed by demons. In variousparts of Europe, the priest conducting theexorcism might also use the rites to banishsuch pre-Christian deities as Thor and Odin.

Accounts of demonic possession werecommonplace in ancient Egypt, Babylonia,and Persia from the earliest times. Althoughthere are no accounts of demonic possessionor of exorcism in the Old Testament, the cast-ing out of demons is an integral part of Jesus’ministry and it is an important aspect of theearthly assignments that he gives to his fol-lowers. (“Then he called together his twelveapostles and sent them out two by two withpower over evil spirits” [Mark 6:7]. “Finally,Paul…turned and said to the spirit, ‘In thename of Jesus Christ, I order you to leave thisgirl alone!’” [Acts 16:18]. The New Testamentalso refers to Jewish exorcists who begin tocast out demons in Jesus’ name (Mark9:38–40): “‘Teacher, we saw a man using yourname to force demons out of people. But hewasn’t one of us, and we told him to stop.’Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Don’t stop him! No



Mother Teresa (1910–1997), winner ofthe Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, had ledsuch an exemplary life as a nundevoted to healing the poor of India

that, shortly after her death on September 5, 1997,Pope John Paul II (1920– ) waived the customaryfive-year-waiting period and began the process toconsider her for possible sainthood. On September 5,2001, on the fourth anniversary of her death, the Arch-bishop of Calcutta, Henry D’Souza, revealed thatMother Teresa had an exorcism performed on herwhile she was hospitalized in 1997. Because theRoman Catholic Church performs exorcisms onlywhen someone is believed to be possessed by thedevil, the world was shocked by such a disclosure.

According to D’Souza, shortly before her death atthe age of 87, Mother Teresa was admitted to a hospi-tal because of heart trouble. D’Souza happened to bea patient in the same hospital during her stay, and helearned that the nun was having difficulty sleeping.When it was determined that there was no medicalreason to account for such problems, it occurred tohim that some evil spirit might be trying to disturb herduring the night.

With the nun’s consent, D’Souza arranged for apriest to perform an exorcism as a precautionarymeasure. Mother Theresa participated with the priestin a prayer for protection and slept peacefully afterthe ritual had been completed. Not wishing to tarnishMother Teresa’s sanctity, immediately after he hadmade the disclosure of her exorcism, D’Souza insistedthat she had not been satanically possessed, and hewas firm in his assertion that the exorcism should inno way affect her candidacy for sainthood.

Sources:

“Archbishop: Mother Theresa underwent Exorcism.”

http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/09/04/mot

her.theresa.exorcism/. 7 September 2001.

Mother Teresa’s

Exorcism

one who works miracles in my name will soonturn and say something bad about me. Any-one who isn’t against us is for us.’”

Neither Jesus nor those who cast outdemons in his name is called an “exorcist” inthe New Testament, and the word “exorcise”is never used anywhere in the Bible in thecontext of banishing demons. By contrast toshamanic exorcisms of evil spirits in tribal cul-tures, which can last for hours or days; the rit-uals of demonic banishment in ancient Egyptor pagan Europe, which were dramatic ordealsof lengthy duration; or the rites of exorcism ofthe Roman Catholic Church, which can goon for many days, months, even years, Jesus’exorcisms consisted of his/her simple anddirect command to the demon to leave itsunwilling host body.

When Jesus triumphs easily and immedi-ately over the evil beings that have infested ahuman body and soul in the many encountersdescribed in the gospels, the possessing enti-

ties are always demons, never Satan himself.Although these are victories that diminishSatan’s earthly powers, it may be that thegreat showdown between Jesus, the Son ofGod, and Satan, the Lord of the Earth, isbuilding for the great final battle betweengood and evil at Armageddon at the time ofthe Apocalypse.

Although accounts of exorcism are not tobe found in the Old Testament, later Jewishtradition employs a ritual that involves thesounding of the shofar, the reciting of prayers,and the anointing of the afflicted person withoil and water over which passages from Psalmshave been read. As in Christian exorcism, it isimportant that the true identity of the demonbe learned so that it can be addressed by nameand ordered out of the body of its victim. Inthe Kabbalist tradition, the exorcist alsodemands to know the nature of the sin thatled the demon to attach itself to a humanbody so that after expulsion the soul can berectified and placed at rest.

John L. Allen, Jr., a staff writer for theNational Catholic Reporter, acknowledged(September 1, 2000) that in a few well-publi-cized cases “failure to make a careful assess-ment of possible brain dysfunction before per-forming exorcism has resulted in disaster.”Allen then mentions a 1976 case in whichtwo Bavarian priests were convicted of negli-gent homicide when medical treatment for a23-year-old epileptic was discontinued infavor of exorcism and the young woman died.He also refers to a 1996 case in which a Kore-an Protestant exorcist in California was con-victed of involuntary manslaughter and sen-tenced to four years in prison for inadvertentlytrampling a woman to death during a four-hour exorcism.

Vatican exorcist Gabriele Amorth saidthat he always asks for a person’s medical his-tory and consults a psychiatrist if he feels suchinformation will be useful before beginning anexorcism. He argues, however, that only per-forming an exorcism can provide certainty,because it is in the response to the rites thatone can detect the presence of a demon.

While many priests appear to have theattitude that a little exorcism could never hurt



Perry King in the 1972

movie The Possession of

Joel Delaney. (THE

KOBAL COLLECTION)

IN the Kabbalist tradition, the exorcist demands toknow the nature of the sin that led the demon to

attach itself to a human body so that after expulsionthe soul can be rectified and placed at rest.

anyone, Father Joseph Mahoney, a Catholicchaplain in Detroit who works with individu-als suffering from multiple personality disor-der, sees it quite differently. He believes thatan exorcism can be “extremely destructive”when applied to patients with undiagnosedmultiple personality disorders, and he refers toresearch carried out by the Royal Ottawa Hos-pital in Canada, which concluded that theprocess of exorcism could create new person-alities in such subjects.

In January 1999, the Vatican issued arevised Catholic rite of exorcism for the firsttime since 1614, reaffirming the existence ofSatan and revamping his image for the millen-nium. Officials stressed that the church wasnot revising scriptural references to the Devilor suggesting that people should cease believ-ing in the Evil One. But priests who conductexorcisms should now deal with evil as a forcelurking within all individuals, rather than onethat threatens people from without.

Father Malachi Martin, a Jesuit whoserved as an advisor to three popes, hasauthored a number of books dealing withdemon possession and exorcism, includingHostage to the Devil. When he was asked whythere has been such a spectacular rise in thenumber of people possessed by demons andin need of exorcism, he replied that it was asSt. Paul (d. 62–68 C.E.) had declared: “Thereis a spiritual war on, a war with the spir-its…a war with the invisible forces thatwant men’s souls.”

Describing the process of exorcism, Martinexplained that an exorcism was a confronta-tion, not a mere exercise in prayer. The exor-cist was at war with the demon. Once begun,the process must be finished. If the exorcistshould stop the rites for any reason, thedemon will pursue him.

The exorcism continues with a kind of con-versation between the demon and the exorcist,who is attempting to learn as quickly as possiblethe demon’s name. Often the entity’s name is areflection or a symbol of that demon’s function,and it must be forced to admit it.

The demon systematically ridicules humanlove and faith and constantly probes the exor-cist for any signs of weakness, any area of his

past that might be open to reproach. Objectsin the room may move, windows shatter, doorsopen and close. “At a certain moment,” Mar-tin told journalist Wen Smith, “everybody inthe room knows there’s something in the roomthat wants you dead. It’s a horrible feelingknowing that unless something happens, youare going to die—now.”

Martin freely admitted that not all exor-cisms end in triumph for the exorcist. Some-times the demon remains in control and thevictim remains possessed. Even when thedemon is expelled from its unwilling humanhost, it may still wander about seeking othervulnerable men and women to inhabit. Andthe exorcist himself may continue to pay aprice for interfering in the demon’s posses-sion of its host body. Martin said that he hadbeen flung out of bed, knocked off stools, andhad his shoulder broken—reminders that thedemon was still around and very angry withhim.



Linda Blair in the popular

1973 film The Exorcist.

(THE KOBAL COLLECTION)

On September 22, 2000, the 1973 horrorfilm The Exorcist was rereleased with addedfootage that had been excised from the origi-nal, and priests across the nation braced them-selves for a tidal wave of cases of allegeddemonic possession. Arguably the most fright-ening movie ever made, the film was based onthe best-selling novel by William Peter Blattyand was directed by William Friedkin. Asmany motion picture reviewers and commen-tators have discussed, the film presentation ofdemonic possession touched a kind of collec-tive primal fear in its audiences that was madeall the more horrible by the fact that the vic-tim was a smiling, cherubic, innocent younggirl. Demons became all the more real whenpeople realized that possession could occur totheir child, to their spouse, even to them.Father Merrin, the exorcist in the film, usesthe actual Roman Ritual of exorcism that wascreated by the Roman Catholic Church in

1614, and the repetitious chanting of theactors performing the rites gave the presenta-tion an added aura of reality and of participa-tion in a supernatural event.

Reverend Bob Larson, an evangelicalpreacher and author who runs an exorcismministry in Denver, told the New York Times(November 28, 2000) that he had 40 exorcismteams across the country and that his goal wasthat “no one should ever be more than a day’sdrive from a city where you can find an exor-cist.” Larson could not see why anyone wouldbe “freaked out” over the idea of an exorcism:“It’s in the Bible. Christ taught it.”

Michael W. Cuneo, a Fordham Universitysociologist, has been studying the subject ofexorcisms for many years. His research indi-cates that as recently as the 1960s, exorcism inthe United States was nearly completelyabandoned as a church rite. Then, in 1973,



Ellen Burstyn and Linda

Blair in a scene from The

Exorcist. (CORBIS

CORPORATION)

the motion picture The Exorcist changed that.By the mid-1980s, there was a “proliferation ofexorcisms being performed by evangelicalProtestants.” In the 1990s, Cuneo says thatthere is an “underground network” of exorcistsnumbering in the hundreds, and a “bewilder-ing variety of exorcisms being performed.”

Reverend Martin Marty, a Lutheran min-ister and an analyst of religious trends andcustoms in the United States, commentedthat exorcisms were “all over the place” andthe driving out of evil spirits has a long andvaried history. Marty noted that the godpar-ents at the baptismal service in many Christ-ian faiths are asked, on behalf of the childthey sponsor, if they renounce the devil andall his works and ways. That, he explained, isa mild version of exorcism. And exorcism is asmaller part of modern Western religionsthan it was in ancient Babylon, Egypt, andGreece. There are witchdoctors in Africansocieties who perform exorcisms, medicinepeople among Native American tribes whoare exorcists, and shamans throughout Asiawho banish evil spirits.

As long as there are human beings whobelieve in supernatural powers, there will beexorcists who will be summoned to rid theinnocent of the demons who have possessedthem. A survey of its readers conducted by Selfmagazine in 1997 revealed that 65 percent ofthose surveyed believed in the Devil; and theresults of a Gallup poll released in June 2001indicated that 41 percent of adult Americansbelieve that the Devil or his demons can pos-sess humans.

M Delving Deeper

Bamberger, Bernard J. Fallen Angels. New York: Jew-ish Publication Society, Barnes & Noble, 1995.

Blatty, William Peter. The Exorcist. New York: Ban-tam Books, 1972.

Dickason, C. Fred. Demon Possession & The Christian.Westchester, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1989.


Oesterreich, T. K. Possession: Demonical & OtherAmong Primitive Races, in Antiquity, the MiddleAges, and Modern Times. New Hyde Park, N.Y.:University Books, 1966.

Faith Healing

Faith healing refers to the termination ofan illness or a debilitating physical con-dition through supernatural means, such

as the power of prayer or an intervention ofGod through a miracle. In the New Testa-ment, one of the principal facets of Jesus’ (c. 6B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) earthly ministry was thehealing of those who sought surcease of painand suffering. Throughout the gospels, Jesusheals the lame, the blind, the diseased, andthose possessed by demons, and he chargeshis apostles to go out into the world to do ashe has done in their presence.

The early churches included a time forthe healing of its members within the formalservice, a practice which many contemporaryChristian congregations still maintain, as aprayer for the sick if not as an actual time forthe laying on of hands. The pattern for sucha procedure within the church service was setforth in the epistle of James (5:14–16): “Isany one of you sick? He should call upon theelders of the church to pray over him andanoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.And the prayer offered in faith will make thesick person well; the Lord will raise him up. Ifhe has sinned, he will be forgiven. Thereforeconfess your sins to each other and pray foreach other so that you may be healed. Theprayer of a righteous man is powerful andeffective.”

The May 1, 2000, issue of Newsweek maga-zine released the results of a survey that itsstaff had conducted regarding such miracles asfaith healing. According to its statistics, 71percent of all Christians said that they hadprayed for miracles regarding the healing ofthe terminally ill. A national Gallup pollreleased in June 2001 revealed that 54 percentof adult Americans of all faiths believed inspiritual healing and the power of the mindthrough prayer to heal the body.

Many people of faith find that a pilgrim-age to a holy shrine or icon can accomplishmiracles of healing. Among the most famousin the world is the healing Grotto ofBernadette at Lourdes, France, which wasconstructed on the spot where Bernadette



Soubrious (1844–1879) had the vision ofMother Mary in 1858. Since the time themiracle occurred to the young miller’s daugh-ter, pilgrims have journeyed to Lourdes toseek healing and salvation from the waters ofthe natural spring that appeared in the hill-side after the apparition of the Holy Motherappeared to Bernadette. Consistently, fordecades, an average of 200,000 people visitedthe shrine every year. During the centennialcelebration of Lourdes in 1958, more thantwo million people came to the tiny commu-nity in southern France seeking a healing. Inrecent years, annual attendance has risen toover five million.

Thousands of pilgrims have left theircrutches and canes at the shrine. Thousandsmore have been cured of such fatal diseasesas advanced stages of cancer. Hundreds of

thousands of cures have been claimed by menand women who immersed themselves in thecold spring waters of the shrine, but theLourdes Medical Bureau has established cer-tain criteria that must be met before it willcertify a cure as an example of miraculousfaith healing:

1. The affliction must be a serious disease. Ifit is not classified as incurable, it must bediagnosed as extremely difficult to cure.

2. There must be no improvement in thepatient’s condition prior to the visit to theLourdes shrine.

3. Medication that may have been used musthave been judged ineffective.

4. The cure must be totally complete.

5. The cure must be unquestionably defini-tive and free of all doubt.



According to the Gallup Poll, belief in Godhas always been very high in the UnitedStates, ranking in the mid-90 percentrange over the last sixty years. Interest-

ingly, while 95 percent of Americans believe in God,only eight in ten envision that the Supreme Being isone who watches over them and answers theirprayers. And even fewer, six in ten, recently declaretheir complete trust in God.

When the Gallup Poll asked Americans howimportant religion was in their lives, six in ten (about58.7 percent) say it is very important. In fifty years ofmeasurement, the highest percentage regarding theimportance of religion (75 percent) was registered in1952; the lowest (52 percent) in 1978.

According to a 2000 Gallup poll, 64.9 percent ofrespondents believed that religion has the ability toanswer today’s problems. This particular statistic hasranged from a high of 81 percent in 1957 to a low of 53percent in 1993.

Church membership reached a high of 76 percentin both 1943 and 1947 and dropped to a low of 65 per-

cent in 1988 and 1990. In 1939, when Gallup first beganmeasuring church attendance, 41 percent of Ameri-cans claimed to attend weekly worship services. Thehigh point for weekly observance of religious faithwas reached in the mid- and late 1950s, when 49 per-cent of the adult population said that they attendedchurch or synagogue once a week.

Sources:

Gallup, George Jr. “Americans More Religious Now Than Ten

Years Ago, but Less So Than in 1950s and 1960s.” Gallup

News Service, 29 March, 2001. http://www.gallup.com/poll/

releases/pr010329.asp. 17 October 2001.

Ninety-Five

Percent of

Americans Believe

in God

The results of a Time/CNN poll (Time,June 24, 1996) stated that 82 percent of thosesurveyed believed in the personal power ofprayer to heal; 73 percent believed that theirprayers could heal others of their illness; 77percent expressed their faith that God couldsometimes intervene to heal people with aserious illness; and 65 percent indicated that adoctor should join their patients in prayer if soasked. Interestingly, with all these high per-centages indicating a belief in faith healing,only 28 percent of those polled believed in theability of faith healers to make people wellthrough their personal touch. It would seemthat in matters of faith healing, the greatmajority of individuals prefer a cooperativeunion between themselves and God.

Since Dr. Herbert Bensen’s seminalresearch at Harvard in 1972 demonstratingthe influence that the mind can have over thebody, 92 of 125 medical schools offer coursesin nontraditional healing methods. In his TheRelaxation Response (1975), Bensen showedhow patients could successfully battle a num-ber of stress-related illnesses by practicing asimple form of meditation. Bensen, presidentof the Mind/Body Medical Institute ofBoston’s Deaconess Hospital and HarvardMedical School, has suggested that 60 percentto 90 percent of all visits to doctors are in themind-body, stress-related area and that thetraditional medical ways of treating suchpatients through prescription medicines orsurgeries are not effective in such chroniccases. Perhaps, more and more researchers arediscovering, faith can make a sick person well.

Dr. Jeffrey Levin, of Eastern Virginia, andDr. David Larson, a research psychiatrist withthe National Institute for HealthcareResearch, have located more than 200 studiesthat touch directly on the role that faith andreligion may have in the healing process.Among such research studies were a 1995study at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Cen-ter which found that heart-surgery patientswho drew comfort and strength from religiousfaith were more than three times more likelyto survive; a 30-year study on blood pressurethat showed that churchgoers have lowerblood pressure than non-churchgoers, evenwhen adjusted for smoking and other risk fac-

tors; a 1996 National Institute on Agingstudy of 4,000 elderly which found that thosewho attend religious services are lessdepressed and physically healthier than thosewho don’t attend or who worship at home;and numerous studies in which non-churchgoers have been found to have a sui-cide rate four times higher than regularchurchgoers and much higher rates of depres-sion and anxiety-related illnesses.

In Timeless Healing (1996), Herbert Ben-son states that those patients who claim tofeel the intimate presence of a higher powerhave generally better health and chances formuch more rapid recoveries. He writes thatthe human genetic blueprint has made abelief in an Infinite Absolute a part of humannature in order to offset the uniquely humantendency to ponder one’s own death: “Tocounter this fundamental angst, humans arealso wired for God.”

M Delving Deeper

Benson, Herbert. Timeless Healing. New York: Scribn-er, 1996.

Cranston, Ruth. The Miracle of Lourdes. New York:McGraw-Hill, 1955.

Humphrey, Nicholas. Science, Miracles and the Searchfor Supernatural Consolation. New York: BasicBooks, 1996.

Lewis, C. S. Miracles. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Villoldo, Aberto, and Stanley Krippner. Healing States.New York: Fireside, Simon & Schuster, 1987.

Guardian Angels

An old tradition says that guardianangels are appointed to children at thetime of their birth. The seventeenth-



NATIONAL Institute on Aging study foundthat those who attend religious services are lessdepressed and physically healthier than those whodon’t attend or who worship at home.

century mystic Amos Komensky (1592–1670)declared that each child has an angel “givento him by God and ordained to be hisguardian, that [the angel] might guard him,preserve him, and protect him against all dan-gers and snares, pits, ambushes, traps, andtemptations.”

Those men and women who claim to haveseen their guardian angels generally describethem as appearing youthful, commanding,beautiful of countenance, and often majesticand awesome. Manifestations of light oftenaccompany them, which lend to the grandeurof their appearance and the feelings of pro-found reverence that suffuse those whoencounter angelic beings.

Not all angels appear as blond, blue-eyedentities in flowing white robes. Angels arethought to have the ability to appear in a vari-ety of forms and with a wide range of physicalcharacteristics. They seem completely capableof shaping reality in the three-dimensionalworld to suit their heavenly purposes. In cer-tain cases, they may even reveal themselves asbeings of pure light.

According to a poll conducted by Timemagazine and published in the December 27,1993, issue, 69 percent of Americans believedin the existence of angels, and 46 percentwere certain that they had their own guardianangels to watch over them and to guide them.Of those men and women polled by the newsmagazine, 32 percent claimed that they hadpersonally felt the presence and/or guidance ofethereal entities in their lives; and 15 percentbelieved that the heavenly helpers who minis-tered to them were the benevolent spirits ofhumans who had died, rather than higher spir-itual beings with special powers. A similar pollconducted by Self magazine for its December1997 issue found that 87 percent of readersbelieved in angels.

All religions have some tradition of aguardian angel or type of spirit guideassigned to each individual human soul. Inthe ancient Sanskrit texts of the Vedas, theword for angel is angira; in Hebrew, malakh,meaning “messenger,” or bene elohim, forGod’s children; in Arabic, malakah; and inIndia, multiwinged angels or beings are

called garudas. As early as the third millenni-um B.C.E., the written records of ancientEgypt and Mesopotamia recognized a hierar-chy of supernatural beings that ruled overvarious parts of the Earth, the universe, andthe lives of human beings. They also believedin lower levels of entities that might beeither hostile or benign in their actionstoward humans. The Mesopotamians wantedto be certain that they were well protected bytheir spiritual guardians, the shedu and thelamassu. The lamassus were portrayed in artas grotesque creatures that looked like lionsor bulls with human heads and large wings,and they were often represented by statues atthe entrances of temples to ward off evil. Thepeople of Mesopotamia considered them tobe guardian spirits. An ancient magical textof the Mesopotamians invokes the goodshedu to walk on one’s right hand and thegood lamassu to walk on the left.

In nearly all stories of angels, the beingsappear to be paraphysical—that is, they areboth material and nonmaterial entities.Although they originate in some invisibleand nonphysical dimension, they are oftenseen to manifest as solidly in human realityas those humans whose lives they affect.There is no question that in both the Oldand New Testaments angels are consideredfully capable of becoming quite physical andmaterial—at least long enough to accom-plish their appointed mission of rescue, heal-ing, or guidance. Throughout the Bible thereare accounts of angels who wrestle withstubborn shepherds, guide people lost in thewilderness, and free persecuted prophetsfrom fiery furnaces and dank prisons. Jesus(c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) himself was fed byangels, defended by angels, and strengthenedby angels.

Although popular culture has for centuriesperpetuated the idea that humans becomeangels when they die, the holy books of thegreat world religions are in agreement thatangels are an earlier and separate order of cre-ation from human beings. According to theseancient teachings, humans were created a “lit-tle lower than the angels,” and mortal menand women do not join their guardian spiritsin the heavenly realm until after death—or, in



some traditions, until after the Final Judg-ment. But even though humans are “lowerthan the angels” and made of material, physi-cal substance in comparison with their ethere-al, heavenly spirits, the scriptures of variousfaiths state firmly that the angels are notomnipresent, omnipotent, or omniscient—and neither are they immune to falling intotemptation or into error: “Even in his servantshe puts no trust, and his angels he chargeswith error” (Job 4:18).

A number of religious traditions teach thateach human individual has a good and a badangel that remain with him or her throughouthis or her entire earthly lifespan. Others main-tain that there are two unseen angels thathover near each person, and it is the task ofthe one to record the good deeds; the other,the bad. The American poet Henry Wads-worth Longfellow (1807–1882) gave expres-sion to this concept in his poem “The GoldenLegend” (1851):

He who writes down the good ones,after each action closes his volume andascends with it to God. The otherkeeps his dreadful day-book open untilsunset, that we may repent.

The sacred writings of Islam also proclaimthat every human is guarded by two angels—one taking the day watch, the other, nightduty. As in Longfellow’s poem, these two vigi-lant guardians record their human’s good andbad deeds for Judgment Day.

In addition to their task as guardians, thebenevolent unseen companions have as a con-siderable portion of their earthly mission, thetask of guiding their humans toward spiritualawareness and leading their human wards to aclearer understanding of their true role in thecosmic scheme of things. Episcopal bishopPhilip Brooks once observed that there isnothing clearer or more striking in the Biblethan “the calm, familiar way with which fromend to end it assumes the present existence ofa world of spiritual beings always close to andacting on this world of flesh and blood.…From creation to judgment, the spiritualbeings are forever present. They act as truly inthe drama as the men and women who, withtheir unmistakable humanity, walk the sacred

stage in successive scenes. There is nothing ofhesitation about the Bible’s treatment of thespiritual world. There is no reserve, no vague-ness that would leave a chance for the wholesystem to be explained away in dreams andmetaphors. The spiritual world, with all itsmultitudinous existence, is just as real as thecrowded cities and the fragrant fields and theloud battlegrounds of the visible, palpableJudea, in which the writers of the sacred bookswere living.”

The teachings of Islam state that there arethree distinct species of intelligent beings inthe universe: first, the angels, a high order ofbeings created of Light, the malakh; second,the al-jinn, ethereal, perhaps even multidi-mensional entities; and then human beings,fashioned out of the stuff of Earth and borninto physical bodies. On occasion, the al-jinncan serve as helpful guides or guardians, butthey can also be tricksters.

There are numerous admonitions in theNew Testament to be cautious of any mani-festing entity and to test it to determine itstrue motives. “Beloved, do not believe everyspirit, but test the spirits to see whether theyare of God.” (1 John 4:1) While such a pas-sage is easily quoted, its admonition is muchmore difficult to put into practice when peo-ple are warned in 2 Corinthians 11:14, “EvenSatan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

A general admonition mentioned by sev-eral spiritual teachers is never to enter medita-tion or prayer with the sole thought of obtain-ing ego aggrandizement or material gain. Self-ish motivation may risk one becoming easilyaffected by those spirit beings who rebelledagainst God and became ensnared in theirown selfish lust for power.

On December 12, 2000, the London Timesreported on the two-year study of the phe-nomenon of guardian angels that was con-ducted by Emma Heathcote, a BirminghamUniversity researcher. Heathcote’s study, thefirst academic research into the subject ofangels, examined the stories of over 800Britons who claimed encounters with heaven-ly beings. Almost a third of those who con-tacted the researcher reported seeing a tradi-tional angel with white gown and wings.



Another 21 percent saw their guardian angelin human form. Others experienced the sensa-tion of a force around them or being engulfedin light.

In one of the more dramatic accounts inHeathcote’s research, an angel appeared dur-ing a baptism at a village church in Hertford-shire in front of 30 witnesses, including therector, churchwarden, and organist. Confirm-ing the story for journalist Carol Midgley, therector said that he was baptizing a 22-year-oldwoman who was about to be married but hadnever been christened. Suddenly thereappeared before the rector “a man, but he wastotally different from the rest of us. He waswearing something long, like a robe, but it wasso white it was almost transparent.” Theangelic figure didn’t have wings, and he sim-ply stood there silently, looking at thoseassembled for the baptismal service. Childrencame forward with their mouths open. Peoplesaid later that they felt as if “warm oil” hadbeen poured over them. Then, in a few sec-onds, the angel was gone. But, the rector stat-ed, the appearance of the angel had changedthe lives of everyone present that day.

Other witnesses of angelic activity toldHeathcote stories of seeing guardian angels athospital beds and deathbeds, ministering tothe ill or manifesting to escort souls to heav-en. A good number of accounts reported theappearance of majestic beings to allay people’sfears, to let them know that they were notalone in dangerous or stressful situations.

Rather than external entities presentingthemselves to provide assurance of a celestialhelping hand, psychotherapist Dr. SusanBlackmore theorizes that angel sightings aremerely apparitions created by the brain intimes of crisis in order to provide comfort.Though she might agree with Blackmore thatcertain angel sightings might be “crisis appari-tions,” Heathcote returns to the baptism inthe church in Hertfordshire as an incident togive the staunchest critic pause to wonder: “Iinterviewed a lot of people about that angel,”she said, “and everybody told the same story.Their descriptions were totally consistent.”

Emma Heathcote said that althoughhumans have been preoccupied with angels

for centuries, humankind may now be goingthrough an increased period of interest in theheavenly beings because “people are feeling aspiritual shortage and angels fill the gap.” Inher opinion, men and women in contempo-rary times fashion their own faiths in whatoften seems like a “spiritual supermarket” ofchoices available to them. “They might take abit of Christianity, a bit of Judaism and Bud-dhism, together with a belief in angels to cre-ate their own eclectic religion,” she said.

M Delving Deeper

Burnham, Sophy. A Book of Angels. New York: Faw-cett Columbine, 1995.

Hastings, Arthur. With the Tongues of Men and Angels.Ft. Worth, Tex.: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1991.

Moolenburg, H. C. Meetings with Angels. New York:Barnes & Noble, 1995.

Pruitt, James. Angels through the Ages: All You Need toKnow. New York: Avon Books, 1995.

Steiger, Sherry, and Brad Steiger. Angels around theWorld. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1996.

Illumination

The Buddha (c. 563–c. 483 B.C.E.) hadspent one week in samadhi, a state ofdeep awareness when, on the morning

of December 8, 528 B.C.E., he looked up atVenus, the morning star, beheld its brilliance,and exclaimed in a state of enlightenment,“That’s it! That’s me! That’s me that’s shiningso brilliantly!”

Rinzai Zen master Shodo Harada Roshi(1940– ) writes, in Morning Dewdrops of theMind: Teachings of a Contemporary Zen Master(1993), that Buddha, in the rebirth of hisconsciousness, looked around and saw howwondrous it was that all beings were shiningwith the brilliance of the morning star. Fromsuch a deep illumination of the mind of Bud-dha, all of Buddha’s wisdom was born and allof Zen was held within the deep impression ofBuddha’s mind at that moment. Therefore,each year as the eighth of Decemberapproaches, Zen monks anticipate the rohatsusesshin (intensive meditation retreat) andvow to experience the brilliance of such adeep realization.



In An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1934),D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) describes satori, thestate of illumination attained by reaching ahigher level of consciousness, as the state thatthe masters of Zen call the mind of Buddha,the knowledge whereby humans experienceenlightenment or Prajna, the highest wisdom.“It is the godly light, the inner heaven, thekey of all the treasures of the mind, the focalpoint of thought and consciousness, thesource of power and might, the seat of good-ness, of justice, of sympathy, of the measure ofall things,” Suzuki states. “When this inmostknowledge is fully awakened, we are able tounderstand that each of us is identical in spir-it, in being, and in nature with universal life.”

The Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita’sinstruction on how best to practice Yoga endswith the promise that “…when the mind ofthe Yogi is in harmony and finds rest in theSpirit within, all restless desires gone, then heis a Yukta, one in God. Then his soul is a lampwhose light is steady, for it burns in a shelterwhere no winds come.”

In the chapter on “Basic Mystical Experi-ence” in his Watcher on the Hills (1959), Dr.Raynor C. Johnson (1901–1987) places “theappearance of light” at the top of his list ofillumination characteristics:

1. The Appearance of light. This observation isuniformly made, and may be regarded as acriterion of the contact of soul and Spirit.

2. Ecstasy, love, bliss. Directly or by implica-tion, almost all the accounts [of mysticalexperience] refer to the supreme emotionaltones of the experience.

3. The Approach to one-ness. In the union ofsoul with Spirit, the former acquires asense of unity with all things.

Johnson lists other aspects of the illumina-tion as profound insights given to the recipi-ent of the experience; a positive effect on theperson’s health and vitality; a sense that timehas been obscured or altered; and a positiveeffect on the individual’s lifestyle. Johnsonquotes a recipient of the illumination experi-ence who said, “Its significance for me hasbeen incalculable and has helped me throughsorrows and stresses.”

In her autobiographical work Don’t FallOff the Mountain (1970), actress/authorShirley MacLaine (1934– ) tells of the nightthat she lay shivering in a Bhutanese hut inthe Paro Valley of the Himalayas, wonderinghow she might overcome the terrible cold.Suddenly she remembered the words of a Yogainstructor in Calcutta who had told her thatthere was a center in her mind that was hernucleus, the center of her universe. Once shewould find this nucleus, neither pain, fear, norsorrow, could touch her. He had instructed herthat it would look like a tiny sun. “The sun isthe center of every solar system and the reasonfor all life on all planets in all universes,” hehad said. “So it is with yours.”

With her teeth chattering, she closed hereyes and searched for the center of her mind.Then the cold room and the wind outsidebegan to leave her conscious mind. Slowly inthe center of her mind’s eye a tiny, round,orange ball appeared. She stared and stared atit. Then she felt as though she had becomethe little orange ball. Heat began to spreaddown through her neck and arms and finallystopped in her stomach. She felt drops of per-spiration on her midriff and forehead.

MacLaine writes that the light grewbrighter and brighter until she finally sat upon her cot with a start and opened her eyes,fully expecting to find that someone hadturned on a light. “I lay back,” she said. “I feltas though I was glowing.… The instructor wasright; hidden beneath the surface there wassomething greater than my outer self.”

Parapsychologist Dr. W. G. Roll has com-mented that “It is true that this light phenom-enon does occur. Some people believe it’s asort of quasi-physical light. When we get intothese areas, it becomes difficult to distinguishbetween the physical and the spiritual worlds.What we call the spiritual, the physical, andthe mental, are probably all the same thing.”

Dr. Walter Houston Clark speaks of thephenomenon of the blinding light of illumina-tion in connection with those who haveundergone revelatory experiences as “…a kindof symbol of the new and freeing insight intothe nature of the subject’s existence. However,I am inclined to think that the profundity and



excitement of the experience causes somekind of nervous activity that produces thelight. Of course, in some sense, this may havea cosmic origin.”

Writing in Psychiatry (Vol. 29, 1966), Dr.Arthur J. Deikman refers to the mystical per-ceptions of encompassing light in terms of hishypothesis of a “sensory translation,” whichhe defines as “the perception of psychic action(conflict, repression, problem solving, atten-tiveness, and so forth) via the relativelyunstructured sensations of light, color, move-ment, force, sound, smell or taste.… ‘Sensorytranslation’ refers to the experience of non-verbal, simple, concrete perceptual equiva-lents of psychic action.” In Deikman’s theory,“light” may be more than a metaphor for mys-tical experience: “Illumination may be derivedfrom an actual sensory experience occurringwhen, in the cognitive act of unification, aliberation of energy takes place, or when a res-olution of unconscious conflict occurs, per-mitting the experience of ‘peace,’ ‘presence,’and the like. Liberated energy experienced aslight may be the core sensory experience ofmysticism.”

According to research conducted at theUniversity of Wales, Christians, Jews, andMuslims have similar experiences in whichthey describe an intense light and a sense ofencompassing love. The research-in-progress,funded by the Sir Alister Hardy Trust, hascollected 6,000 accounts of religious experi-ences from people of all ages and back-grounds. About 1,000 of these describe a lightwhich enters the room, and others tell ofbeing enveloped or filled with light. Mostpeople are alone when they have such anexperience, but the researchers have collect-ed accounts of a number of individuals wit-nessing the same light.

Sir Alister Hardy (1896–1985) formed theReligious Experience Research Unit, Man-chester College, Oxford, in 1969 and beganthe program by studying a more general kindof spiritual awareness—the feeling of being intouch with some “transcendental power,whether called God or not, which leads to abetter life.” Although the researchers stressedtheir interest in collecting these kinds of

reports, they immediately received an almostequal number “of the more ecstatic mysticaltype,” which included experiences with thelight phenomenon that accompanied illumi-nation.

In his book The Divine Flame (1966) Hardysuggested that science should “entertain thepossibility that the rapture of spiritual experi-ence…may…be a part of natural history…andthat perhaps it may have only developed as reli-gion when man’s speech enabled him to com-pare and discuss this strange feeling of what[Rudolf] Otto called the numinous…[and]what I am calling a divine flame as an integralpart of the creative evolutionary process whichman, with his greater perceptive faculties, isnow becoming aware.”

Hardy concedes that science can no morebe concerned with the “inner essence” of reli-gion than it can be with the nature of art orthe poetry of human love. But he does main-tain that “an organized scientific knowledge—indeed one closely related to psychology—dealing with the records of man’s religiousexperience…need not destroy the elements ofreligion which are most precious to man—anymore than our biological knowledge of sexneed diminish the passion and beauty ofhuman love.”

With the advent of the twenty-first centu-ry, many scientists are involved in researchprojects dealing with religious, spiritual, andmystical experiences. Varieties of AnomalousExperiences (2000), edited by Etzel Cardena,of the University of Texas Pan American inEdinburg, Steven J. Lynn, of the State Uni-versity of New York at Binghamton, andStanley Krippner, of the Saybrook GraduateSchool in San Francisco, examines the scien-tific evidence for altered states of conscious-ness associated with mystical experiences andother so-called anomalous events. Accordingto Science News (February 17, 2001), thethree psychologists “see no reason to assumethat supernatural worlds…exist outside of theminds of people who report them. Instead[they] want to launch a science to study thecharacteristics of human consciousness thatmake mystical experiences possible. Theirfocus on a spectrum of consciousness defies



the mainstream notion that there’s a singletype of awareness.…”

David M. Wulff, a psychologist atWheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts,has said that mystical experiences occur on acontinuum: “Even if they are not religiouslyinspired, they can be striking, such as thetranscendent feelings musicians sometimes getwhile they perform. I have colleagues who saythey’ve had mystical experiences, althoughthey have various ways to explain them.”

Other scientists pursuing the study of mys-tical experiences suggest that the transcen-dent feelings noted by musicians, actors, andartists; the claims of two-thirds of Americanadults who claim to have been in touch witha force or spirit outside of themselves; andeven the illumination of Buddha or the heav-enly voices heard by Moses (14th–13th cen-tury B.C.E.), Muhammed (c. 570C.E.–632C.E.),and Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) were nothingmore than the decreased activity of thebrain’s parietal lobe, which helps regulate thesense of self and physical orientation. Andwhat of the feelings of unconditional loveand overwhelming compassion for all livingthings that come over so many of those whoclaim illumination? These scientists arguethat perhaps prayer, meditation, chanting, orsome other religious or spiritual practicecould have activated the temporal lobe,which imbues certain experiences with per-sonal significance.

Other scientists testing the boundaries ofthe human psyche and the wonders of illumi-nation are more open to the reality of theindividual mystical experience. Whileresearchers like Matthew Alper, author of The“God” Part of the Brain (1998), argue thathuman brains are hardwired for God and reli-gious experiences, others, such as Daniel Bat-son, a University of Kansas psychologist,respond that the “brain is the hardwarethrough which religion is experienced.”

Duke psychiatrist Roy Mathew told theWashington Post (June 18, 2001) that toomany of the contemporary neuroscientistsand neurotheologians are “taking the view-points of the physicists of the last centurythat everything is matter. I am open to the

possibility that there is more to this thanwhat meets the eye. I don’t believe in theomnipotence of science or that we have afoolproof explanation.”

M Delving Deeper

Bach, Marcus. The Inner Ecstasy. New York, Cleve-land: World Publishing, 1969.


Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. New York: GalaxyBooks, 1958.

Suzuki, D. T. Mysticism, Christian and Buddhist. NewYork: Perennial, 1971.

Tart, Charles T. Altered States of Consciousness. NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1969.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism. New York: Dutton,1961.

Inquisition

When Christianity became the statereligion of Rome in the fourth cen-tury, those who held dissenting or

differing views from the established churchwere condemned as heretics and excommuni-cated from church membership. Most of theearly church fathers, such as St. Augustine (d.604), were displeased by any action taken bythe state toward heretics, but the clergy gener-ally gave their reluctant approval, stressingthat the church abhorred any kind of physicalmistreatment of dissenters.

In 906, the Canon Episcopi by Abbot Regi-no of Prum (d. c. 915) condemned as hereticalany belief in witchcraft or in the power of sor-cerers to transform people into animals. Theconsensus of the Christian clergy was thatthose individuals who believed that theycould fly through the air or work evil magic onanother person were allowing Satan todeceive them. The clergy was more concernedwith stamping out all allegiance to the god-dess Diana and any other regional deities, andthey regarded as primitive superstition anysuggestion that witches possessed any kind ofmagical powers. In 1000, Deacon Burchard (d.1025), later archbishop of Worms, publishedCorrector, which updated Regino’s CanonEpiscopi and stressed that God alone had the



kind of power that the untutored masses wereattributing to witches. In 1022 there occurredthe first fully attested burning of a heretic, inthe city of Orleans.

By the twelfth century, the Cathar secthad become so popular among the people thatPope Innocent III (1160 or 1161–1216) con-sidered it a greater menace to Christianitythan the Islamic warriors who pummeled thecrusaders and who threatened all of Europe.To satisfy his outrage, he ordered the onlyCrusade ever launched by Christians againstfellow Christians, declaring as heretics theAlbigensians, as the Cathars of southernFrance were known.

The Inquisition came into existence in1231 with the Excommunicamus of Pope Gre-gory IX (c. 1170–1241), who at first urgedlocal bishops to become more vigorous in rid-ding Europe of heretics, then lessened theirresponsibility for determining orthodoxy byestablishing inquisitors under the specialjurisdiction of the papacy. The office ofinquisitor was entrusted primarily to theFranciscans and the Dominicans, because oftheir reputation for superior knowledge oftheology and their declared freedom fromworldly ambition. Each tribunal was orderedto include two inquisitors of equal authority,who would be assisted by notaries, police, andcounselors. Because they had the power toexcommunicate even members of royal hous-es, the inquisitors were formidable figureswith whom to reckon.

In 1246 Montsegur, the center of Albigen-sian resistance, fell, and hundreds of Catharswere burned at the stake. The headquarters ofthe Inquisition was established in Toulouse,and in 1252, Pope Innocent IV (d. 1254)issued a papal bull that placed inquisitorsabove the law. Another decree within the bull

demanded that all civil rulers and all com-moners must assist the work of the Inquisitionor face excommunication. In 1257, thechurch officially sanctioned torture as a meansof forcing witches, sorcerers, shapeshifters,and other heretics to confess their alliancewith Satan.

The inquisitors would stay in a particularlocation for weeks or months, from whichthey would bring suit against any person sus-pected of heresy. Lesser penalties were leviedagainst those who came forward of their ownvolition and confessed their heresy thanagainst those who ignored the summons andhad to be placed on trial. The tribunalallowed a grace period of about a month forthe accused to come to them and confessbefore the heretic would be arrested andbrought to trial. The penances and sentencesfor those who confessed or were found guiltyduring the trial were pronounced by theinquisitors at a public ceremony known as thesermo generalis or auto-da-fe and might consistof a public whipping, a pilgrimage to a holyshrine, a monetary fine, or the wearing of across. The most severe penalty that theinquisitors could pronounce was life impris-onment; therefore, when they turned over aconfessed heretic to the civil authorities, itwas quite likely that person would be put todeath at the stake.

The wealthy and powerful Knights Tem-plar were accused of heretical acts, such asinvoking Satan and worshipping demons thatappeared as large black cats. In spite of alengthy trial and 573 witnesses for theirdefense, the arrested Templars were tortureden masse, burned at the stake, and their orderwas disbanded by Pope Clement V (c.1260–1314). In 1313 as he was being burnedto death on a scaffold built for the occasion infront of Notre Dame Cathedral, Jacques deMolay (1243–1314), the Knights Templargrand master, recanted the confession pro-duced by torture and proclaimed his inno-cence to the pope and the king—and he invit-ed them to meet him at heaven’s gate. Whenboth dignitaries died soon after de Molay’sexecution, it seemed to the public at large tobe a sign that the grand master had been inno-cent of the charges of heresy.



IN 1257, the church officially sanctioned torture asa means of forcing witches, sorcerers, shapeshifters,

and other heretics to confess their alliance with Satan.

With the Albigensian heresy destroyed,the Inquisition began to direct more of itsattention toward witches. In 1320 BernardGui (c. 1261–1331) published Practica, aninfluential instructional manual for inquisi-tors, in which he urged them to pay particularheed to arresting those women who cavortedwith the goddess Diana. Four years later, in1324, Ireland’s first witchcraft trial convenedwhen Alice Kyteler was found guilty of con-sorting with a demon.

Separate from the Inquisition that extend-ed its jurisdiction over all the rest of Europe,in 1478, at the request of King Ferdinand II(1452–1516) and Queen Isabella I (1451–1504), papal permission was granted to estab-lish the Spanish Inquisition. More a political,than a religious, weapon, this Inquisition per-secuted the Marranos or conversos, those Jewssuspected of insincerely converting to Chris-tianity; converts from Islam, similarly thoughtto be insincere in practicing the Christianfaith; and, in the 1520s, those individuals whowere believed to have converted to Protes-tantism. The support of Spain’s royal houseenabled Tomas de Torquemada (1420–1498)to become the single grand inquisitor whosename has become synonymous with the Inqui-sition’s most cruel acts and excesses. Torque-mada is known to have ordered the deaths bytorture and burning of thousands of hereticsand witches.

In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII (1432–1492)became so angered by the apparent spread ofwitchcraft in Germany that he issued thepapal bull Summis Desiderantes Affectibus andauthorized two trusted Dominican inquisitors,Heinrich Institoris (Henry Kramer) (1430–1505) and Jakob Sprenger (c. 1435–1495), tostamp out demonology in the Rhineland. In1486, Kramer and Sprenger published MalleusMaleficarum, the “Hammer for Witches,”which quickly became the “bible” of hereticand witch hunters. The book earnestly refutedall those who would claim that the works ofdemons existed only in troubled humanminds. Certain angels fell from heaven, and tobelieve otherwise was to believe contrary tothe true faith. And now these fallen angels,these demons, were intent upon destroyingthe human race. Any persons who consorted

with demons and became witches must recanttheir evil ways or be put to death.

By the late sixteenth century, the power ofthe Inquisition was beginning to wane. In1563, Johann Weyer (Weir) (1515–1588), acritic of the Inquisition, managed to publishDe praestigus daemonum, in which he arguedthat while Satan does seek to ensnare anddestroy human beings, the charge that accusedwitches, werewolves, and vampires possessedsupernatural powers was false. Such abilitiesexisted only in their minds and imaginations.As if to provide an antidote to Weyer’s call fora rational approach to dealing with accusationsof witchcraft, in 1580 the respected intellectu-al Jean Bodin (1530–1596), often referred to asthe Aristotle of the sixteenth century, wroteDe La demonomanie des sorciers, a book thatcaused the flames once again to burn higharound thousands of heretics’ stakes.

With the spread of Protestantism through-out Europe, in 1542 Pope Paul III (1468– 1549)established the Congregation of the Inquisition(also known as the Roman Inquisition and theHoly Office), which consisted of six cardinals,including the reformer Gian Pietro CardinalCarafa (1476–1559). Although their powersextended to the whole church, the Holy Officewas less concerned about heresies and falsebeliefs of church members than they were withmisstatements of orthodoxy in the academicwritings of its theologians. When Carafabecame Pope Paul IV in 1555, he approved thefirst Index of Forbidden Books (1559) and vigor-ously sought out any academics who wereprompted any thought that offended churchdoctrine or favored Protestantism.

Although organized witchcraft trials con-tinued to be held throughout Europe, andeven the American colonies, until the lateseventeenth century, they were most oftencivil affairs and the Inquisition had little part



BY the late sixteenth century, the power of theInquisition was beginning to wane.

in such ordeals. However, the Holy Officecontinued to serve as the instrument by whichthe papal government regulated church orderand doctrine, and it did try and condemnGalileo (1564–1642) in 1633. In 1965, PopePaul VI (1897–1978) reorganized the HolyOffice and renamed it the Congregation forthe Doctrine of the Faith.

M Delving Deeper

Netanyahu, B. The Origins of the Inquisition. NewYork: Random House, 1995.




Miracles

According to a Gallup poll taken in1988, 88 percent of the people in theUnited States believed in miracles. In

the results of a survey on spirituality publishedin the December 1997 issue of Self magazine,91 percent of the readers who respondedanswered that they believed in miracles. Inthat same month and year, a poll commis-sioned by the Pew Research Center found that61 percent of Americans believed in miraclesand that such acts originate from the power ofGod. The May 1, 2000, issue of Newsweek car-ried the result of that news magazine’s pollthat stated 84 percent of American adults saidthey believe that God performs miracles and48 percent claimed to have witnessed one.

Jon Butler, a Yale University professor ofAmerican history who specializes in Americanreligion, defined miracles as physical eventsthat defy the laws of nature. “Most miracleshave some physical manifestation that is evi-

dent not only to the individuals involved, butmay be evident to the people around them,” hesaid. “The catch is, how do you explain it?”

Father James Wiseman, associate professorof theology at Catholic University, said thatthere are always going to be some people “whosee immediately the hand of God in everycoincidence, and those who are going to beskeptical of everything. And there is a greatin-between.”

Miracle stories are found in all the worldreligions, and while accounts of wonder-work-ing saints and sages and the ancient acts ofdivine intervention in human affairs are cele-brated regularly by the faithful who gather inchurches, synagogues, and mosques through-out the world, contemporary Buddhists,Christians, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims stillpray for and expect miraculous occurrences intheir own lives today. And, according to theNewsweek survey, 43 percent of those polledwho belonged to no religious body at alladmitted that they had on occasion prayed forGod’s intervention.

Both the Old and New Testaments of theBible are filled with miracles and wonders per-formed by prophets, angels, and God. So, too,does the Qur’an contain accounts of countlessmiracles, thus enabling the contemporary fol-lowers of Islam to expect such occurrences asproof of the validity of their faith. Islamic the-ologians have established two basic kinds ofmiracles: the mu’jizat, or prophetic miracles;and the karamat, those wonders performed byholy people and saints.

The Roman Catholic tradition containsmany healing miracles performed by saintsand popes—both alive and in spirit. Early in1967 the Irish Independent of Dublin carriedthe account of a miracle healing that hadbrought a dying nun “from death’s door to ahealthy normal life” after the spirit of PopeJohn XXIII (1881–1963), who had died in1963, appeared and spoke to her.

Sister Caterina Capitani (b. 1943 or1944), a nun of the Sisters of Charity of St.Vincent de Paul, suffered from varicose veinsof the esophagus, a condition thought to beincurable and surgically inoperable. However,because the unfortunate sister endured con-



MIRACLES have been defined as physicalevents that defy the laws of nature.



In Italy alone there are 190 blood samples ofvarious saints that are venerated by the faithfulas important religious relics. In a number ofcases, these vials of clotted blood become liq-

uefied in a paranormal manner, especially during reli-gious ceremonies, thus exalting the sample from relicto a supernatural miracle.

Perhaps the most celebrated of such relics is thevial of blood said to be that of St. Januarius (c.272–305), an early bishop of Benevento, who wasbeheaded during the persecutions of the Christians byEmperor Diocletian (245–316) in 305. Once or twice ayear since 1389, St. Januarius’ dried blood has lique-fied in full view of the pilgrims who arrive to pay trib-ute to his memory in Naples.

The blood of St. Lorenzo (d. 258) rests in a smallflask in the right wing of the church of St. Maria inAmaseno. Lorenzo was martyred on August 10, 258under the order of the Emperor Valerian (d. 260), andalthough he was condemned to be burned to death ona grill, some of his blood was caught and preserved byhis fellow Christians. Each year on the anniversary ofhis martyrdom, the vial is brought near the altar andlocked in a glass cabinet. There, in full view of theassembled worshippers at St. Maria, the transforma-tion of the centuries-old clotted blood to liquid occurs.

Psychical researcher Luigi Garlaschelli has pro-posed that a process called “thixotropy” mightexplain how the blood of St. Januarius might liquefyeach year. Thixotropy “denotes the property of certaingels to liquefy when stirred or vibrated, and to solidifyagain when left to stand.” It is Garlaschelli’s theorythat the very act of handling the relic during the reli-gious ceremony, the motions of a priest repeatedlychecking the progress of the blood in the vial, mightwell provide the necessary movement to prompt theliquefaction of the saint’s blood.

But the investigator is cautious about applying histheory to explain the liquefied blood of St. Lorenzo,which is only moved once on August 10 from its placeof safekeeping to the altar, or the large vial containingthe blood of St. Panatleone, which becomes liquefied

on July 27 and is never moved from its resting placebehind a grating.

Garlaschelli speculates that the overall look ofthe substances in the vials, together with theirobserved properties of softening and liquefying whennear the warming effect of altar candles and humantouch, then returning to solid once removed from thewarmth, suggest that the relics may consist of fats orwaxes and an oil-soluble red dye. While the rationalmind insists that the substance in the vials of thesaints cannot possibly be blood, until church authori-ties permit scientists to withdraw actual specimensfrom the receptacles, the question remains a puzzle toscientists and a miracle of faith to believers.

Sources:

Garlaschelli, Luigi, Ramacine, F. and S. Della Sala. “Working

Bloody Miracles,” Nature, Vol. 353, 1991, p. 507.

———. “A Miracle Diagnosis,” Chemistry in Britain, Vol. 30,

1994, p. 123.

Liquefied Blood

of Saints

tinual hemorrhages, physicians decided toattempt an operation at Medical Missionariesof Mary of the Clinca Mediterranea in Naples,Italy. Two surgeries were performed, but theywere unsuccessful; and when the incision onher stomach opened, Sister Caterina’s condi-tion steadily worsened to the point where shecollapsed. Desperate to attempt any new ther-apy, her doctors sent the nun south for achange of air, but she was soon returned toNaples when it was decided that she had onlya brief time to live.

Sister Caterina lay in her room alone. Shehad turned on her side when she felt someoneplace a hand on her stomach. Summoning allher strength, she turned to see Pope JohnXXIII standing beside her bed. He was notattired in his papal robes, but she easily recog-nized him. In a quiet yet authoritative voice,the ethereal image of the pope, who had diedon June 3, 1963, spoke words of great comfort:“Sister, you have called to me so manytimes…that you have torn out of my heartthis miracle. Do not fear. You are healed.”

The spirit of Pope John then told SisterCaterina to call in the sisters and the doctorsso that a test could be performed. But beforeshe did so, he assured her once again that notrace of her illness would remain. Just beforethe image vanished, he told Sister Caterina tocome to Rome and pray at his tomb.

The moment the spirit of the deceasedpope disappeared, Sister Caterina rose fromher bed and was elated that she felt no pain.When she summoned the sisters and doctorsinto her room, they were astonished to findthat the scar on her abdomen, which had beenopen and bleeding, was now completelyhealed. No other physical sign indicated thatmoments before there had been a gapingwound. The sisters declared the healing a mir-acle. Sister Caterina had not been expected to

survive the day, yet that evening she was upand eating her supper with the community.

According to the Irish Independent, eversince her miracle healing by the apparition ofPope John XXIII, Sister Caterina lived a nor-mal, healthy life in every way. “This is a phe-nomenon that cannot be explained in ahuman way,” the account concluded.

Contrary to those skeptics who suggestthat the Roman Catholic Church is likely toaccept nearly all claims of miracles as genuine,many serious steps are taken by various com-mittees to authenticate a miracle. Father Fred-erick Jelly, professor of systematic theology atMount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg,Maryland, has served on miracles committeesand has listed the questions asked to authenti-cate a miracle as the following: What is thepsychological state of the person claiming themiracle? Is there a profit motive behind themiracle claim? What is the character of theperson who is claiming the miracle? Does themiracle contain any elements contrary toscripture or faith? What are the spiritual fruitsof the miracle—does it attract people toprayer or to acts of greater charity?

Once these questions have been deter-mined and reviewed, the committee makes itsdecision as to whether or not the event washeaven-inspired. If the committee decides theevent is miraculous and its implications havenational or international effect, the case maybe referred to the Vatican’s Sacred Congrega-tion for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.The Sacred Congregation has the authority toinstitute a new investigation and make its ownruling and recommendation to the pope, whois the final arbiter of the validity of miracles.

Rather than miracles, Philip Hefner, pro-fessor of systematic theology at the LutheranSchool of Theology in Chicago, stated in anessay in Newsweek (May 1, 2000) that hewould rather talk about blessings. “We receiveblessings, often quite unexpectedly, and wewant to praise God for them. We know wecannot claim the credit for these blessings.Even though we cannot predict their arrival,nor understand why so much of human lifeinvolves sorrow and evil, we can be gratefuland render praise.”



VARIOUS committees of the Roman CatholicChurch takes serious steps to authenticate a miracle.

M Delving Deeper

Glynn, Patrick. God: The Evidence—The Reconcilia-tion of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World.Rocklin, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 1997.


Lewis, C. S. Miracles. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Schroeder, Gerald L. The Science of God: The Conver-gence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom. New York:Free Press, 1997.

Steiger, Sherry Hansen, and Brad Steiger. Mother MarySpeaks to Us. New York: Dutton, 1996; Signet, 1997.

Possession

In February 2001, a 53-year-old Oklahomawoman who had no history of mental ill-ness, drug or alcohol abuse, or domestic

strife, began working a Ouija board with herdaughter and two granddaughters. Later thatnight, claiming to be possessed by a spirit fromthe Ouija board that told her to kill, thewoman stabbed to death her son-in-law, whowas sleeping in another room, and attemptedto kill other members of her family. Policelater apprehended the woman, who was hid-ing in a wooded area, and commented howunbelievable it was that she could haveallowed a Ouija board to “consume her life.”

International newspapers carried anaccount in March 2001 describing howdemands for exorcisms were soaring in Brazildue to the fact that demonic possession wason the rise. A priest was quoted as saying thathe believed the number of evil spirits amongthe populace could only mean that the Apoc-alypse would soon be manifesting.

In April 2001, Croatian newspapersreported that the Roman Catholic clergy weredesperately looking for exorcists to deal withthe large numbers of men and women whogave evidence of being possessed by Satan.

In June 2001, a new Gallup poll of adultAmericans indicated that 41 percent believethat people can be possessed by the devil orhis minions.

The majority of healthcare professionalsdiscount possession by spirits as superstitious

nonsense and believe such claims to be primi-tive responses to a variety of mental illnesses,and there are few contemporary clergymenwho will acknowledge the existence of demonsand the possibility of demonic or spirit posses-sion. However, Dr. Morton Kelsey, an Episco-pal priest and a noted Notre Dame professor oftheology, has this to say to those who protestthat demon possession is a superstitious throw-back to the Middle Ages: “Most people in themodern world consider themselves too sophis-ticated and too intelligent to be concernedwith demons. But in thirty years of study, Ihave seen the effect of demons upon humans.”

Kelsey maintains that demons are real andcan invade the minds of humans. Demons arenot the figment of the imagination, but arenegative, destructive spiritual forces that seekto destroy the possessed host body and every-one with whom that person comes into con-tact. The most severe cases of possession cantrigger suicide, Kelsey said, because the demonis trying to destroy people any way it can.

Among those traits which the RomanCatholic Church might find indicative of pos-session, rather than mental illness, are exhibi-tion of superhuman strength; knowledge oflanguages outside of a person’s education ortraining; demonstration of hidden insights intoa person’s private life or past indiscretions; andaversion to all things spiritual—holy water, themass, a crucifix, or the name of Jesus.

While the skeptical might argue thatLeBar is a priest, an exorcist, and that his the-ological training has conditioned him tobelieve in demons, they may wish to take intoserious consideration the comments of Dr.Ralph Allison, senior psychiatrist at the Cali-fornia state prison in San Luis Obispo: “My



AMAJORITY of healthcare professionalsdiscount possession by spirits as superstitiousnonsense and believe such claims to be primitiveresponses to a variety of mental illnesses.

conclusion after 30 years of observing overone thousand disturbed patients is that someof them act in a bizarre fashion due to posses-sion by spirits. The spirit may be that of ahuman being who died. Or it may be a spiritentity that has never been a human being andsometimes identifies itself as a demon, anagent of evil.”

Dr. Wilson Van Dusen, a university profes-sor who has served as chief psychologist atMendocino State Hospital, is another healthcare professional who has stated his opinionthat many patients in mental hospitals arepossessed by demons.

“I am totally convinced that there areentities that can possess our minds and ourbodies,” Van Dusen said. “I have even beenable to speak directly to demons. I have heardtheir own guttural, other-world voices.”

And all too often, some researchers say,those hellish guttural voices have commandedtheir possessed hosts to kill, to offer humansacrifice to Satan.

In a recent report released by the Ameri-can Psychological Evaluation Corporation, Dr.Andrew Blankley, a sociologist, issued state-ments about the rise in contemporary sacrifi-cial cults, warning that society at large mightexpect a “serious menace” to come. Accordingto Blankley, human sacrifice constitutes analarming trend in new religious cults: “Desper-ate people are seeking dramatic revelation andsimplistic answers to complex social problems.They are attracted to fringe groups who pro-vide the ritualistic irrationality that theycrave. In the last ten years, fringe rituals ofteninclude the sacrifice of a human being.”

Dr. Al Carlisle of the Utah State PrisonSystem has estimated that between 40,000and 60,000 humans are killed through ritualhomicides in the United States every year. Inthe Las Vegas area alone, Carlisle asserts, asmany as 600 people may die in demon-inspired ceremonies each year.

Based on a synthesis of the studies of cer-tain clergy and psychical researchers, follow-ing is a pattern profile of what may occurwhen someone has become the unwilling hostof an uninvited spirit presence and becomepossessed:

The possessed may begin to hear voicesdirecting him/her to do antisocial or perverseacts that he/she had never before considered.He/she will claim to see the image of a spiritor demonic presence. In the weeks andmonths that follow, he/she may fall into statesof blacked-out consciousness, times of whichhe/she later has absolutely no memory. Onoccasions, he/she will fall into a trance-likestate. The possessed will be observed walkingand speaking differently, and acting in astrange, irrational manner. He/she will begindoing things that he/she has never donebefore. In the worst of cases, the possessingspirit or demon will consume the victim’s life.It may reach to a climax where the possessedcommits murder, suicide, or some violent anti-social act.

Healthcare professionals will point outthat many of the above “symptoms” of posses-sion may also indicate the onset of stress,depression, and certain mental illnesses.

Dr. Adam Crabtree, a psychotherapist inToronto, has stated his view that the spirits ofthe deceased can possess their living relatives.Crabtree, who is a former priest and Benedic-tine monk, said that entities from beyond thegrave usually seek a living person’s mind andbody because they have unfinished business onEarth. Crabtree has encountered such caseswhen emotionally disturbed patients came tohim complaining that they seemed to feel a“presence” in them that was different fromtheir usual mental awareness. Crabtree discov-ered that these people were adopting traits andcharacteristics that were not their own. Theycomplained of hearing voices that told themwhat to do, and they saw mental images of deadrelatives who were dictating their actions.

While more conventional psychothera-pists might provide a different diagnosis fromCrabtree’s, in his opinion because the spiritswere related to the living person and wereemotionally tied to them, their physical rela-tionship made possession easier to accomplish.The reasons for such possession vary. Accord-ing to Crabtree’s research, sometimes the deadsimply do not realize that they have changedplanes of existence and wish to maintain theirrelationship with their relatives. In other



cases, the spirits want to take care of unfin-ished business and have no compunctionabout using their living relatives to attaintheir goals.

Dr. C. Fred Dickason, chairman of theTheology Department at Moody Bible Insti-tute in Chicago, relates a number of cases ofdemonic possession through ancestral lines inhis book Demon Possession and the Christian(1987). In one case, a Chicago-area pastorconsulted Dickason to receive his advice con-cerning his father, who had been invaded bydemonic spirits because his mother (the pas-tor’s grandmother) had been heavily involvedin occult practices. The entities had begun toenter the pastor’s young daughter, but alert topossession, he prayed with his wife that thespirits be dismissed from her.

Dickason is of the firm opinion thatdemons, who are nonmaterial entities thatmay exist for thousands of years, feel that theyhave the right to enter any man or woman—regardless of how innocent he or she may be—whose ancestors were involved in occult anddemonic activities.

M Delving Deeper

Crim, Keith, ed. The Perennial Dictionary of World Reli-gions. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989.

Harpur, Patrick. Daimonic Reality. London: PenguinGroup, 1994.

Karpel, Craig. The Rite of Exorcism: The CompleteText. New York: Berkley, 1975.

Kinnaman, Gary. Angels Dark and Light. Ann Arbor,Mich.: Servant Publications, 1994.

Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide toDemons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other SubversiveSpirits. New York: Owl Book, Henry Holt, 1999.

Montgomery, John Warwick. Powers and Principalities.Minneapolis: Dimension Books, 1975.

Van Dusen, Wilson. The Presence of Other Worlds: TheFindings of Emanuel Swedenborg. New York: Harp-er & Row, 1974.

Power of Prayer

Prayer is a basic element of religiousexpression. According to a survey takenby Lutheran Brotherhood and reported in

USA Today (February 7, 1997) Americans aregreat practitioners of prayer: 24 percent of thosepolled said that they prayed more than once aday; 31 percent prayed every day; 16 percent,several times a week; 10 percent, several times amonth; 9 percent, several times a year.

For Christians worldwide the “perfectprayer” is the one that Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30C.E.) gave to his apostles and which has beenknown for centuries as the Lord’s Prayer:“And…as [Jesus] was praying in a certainplace, when he ceased, one of his disciples saidunto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John [theBaptist] also taught his disciples. And he saidunto them, “When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven,Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdomcome. Thy will be done, as in heaven,so on Earth. Give us this day our dailybread. And forgive us our sins; for wealso forgive everyone that is indebted tous. And lead us not into temptation;but deliver us from evil” (Luke 11: 1–4,King James Version). [Matthew 6:13adds: “For thine is the kingdom and thepower and the glory, forever. Amen.”]

The Lord’s Prayer has long been esteemedas without equal or rival as a prayer. “Shortand mysterious,” the seventeenth-centurybishop Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) declared,“and like the treasures of the Spirit, full of wis-dom and latent senses.”

Jesus prayed a great deal throughout thegospels. In addition to his giving of the well-known prayer quoted above, he prayed at hisbaptism (Luke 3:21), before he chose theTwelve (Luke 6:12), before his invitation toall humankind to “come unto” him (Matthew11:25–27), at the feeding of the 5,000 (John6:11), before his Transfiguration (Luke9:28–29), for little children (Matthew 19:13),at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:26–27), in



PRAYER is a basic element of religious expression.



The phenomenon of speaking in tonguesduring ecstatic religious experiences isalso known as glossolalia, and beganamong the first Christians.

Described in Acts 2:1–18, the Holy Spirit granted tothe apostles the ability to speak in the languages of theforeigners who had assembled in Jerusalem for theobservance of Pentecost. The visitors were amazedthey could speak with them in their native language.

While Holy Spirit allowed the apostles to con-verse suddenly in a foreign language, later referencesimplied that glossolalia was a kind of religious ecstasyor unintelligible babbling. In I Corinthians, Paul liststhe variety of spiritual gifts that might be received byChristians; he writes that one such blessing is theability to interpret what another speaking in tonguesmight be saying. Paul states that those who speak in atongue that only God can understand might well bepleasing themselves, but they deliver no edification toothers in the church. He concludes that, if one speaksin unknown tongues and no one can interpret thespeech, then “let him keep silence in the church andspeak to himself and to God.”

Paul’s denigration of the act of speaking in tonguesset the standard for Christians down through the cen-turies. Various church fathers advised against thepractice, and St. John of Chrysostom (c. 347–407)believed that the usefulness of glossolalia for the Chris-tian ended in the first century. St. Augustine (354–430)denied that any special ability, such as speaking intongues, prophesy, and so forth, proved one’s faith.With the advent of the Protestant Reformation, leaderssuch as Martin Luther (1483–1546) dismissed glosso-lalia as unnecessary to the Christian faith.

In the eighteenth century, however, certain newvisionary sects, such as the Shakers and the CatholicApostolic Church, began to consider speaking intongues as one of the special gifts given to truebelievers. Then, in the early 1900s, Pentecostalismdeclared that “Spirit-baptism” brought with itsindwelling power the ability to speak in tongues. In the1960s, glossolalia became suddenly popular evenamong the more mainstream churches.

While the movement spread in the 1970s, theposition largely taken by the mainstream church bod-ies was that, while it may be legitimate gift from theHoly Spirit, glossolalia was hardly the normativeexpression for Christians and did not denote a superi-ority over those who did not practice it. However,today’s approximately 500,000 practicing Pentecostalscontinue to believe in the power of the Holy Spirit tobring about a baptism of the spirit like that received bythe apostles that enabled them to speak in tongues.

Sources:

Dyer, Luther B. Tongues. Jefferson City, Mo.: Le Roi, 1971.

Rosten, Leo. Religions of America. New York: Simon & Schuster,

1975.

Sherrill, John L. They Speak with Other Tongues. New York:

Pyramid Books, 1965.

Speaking in

Tongues

Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 36–44), and onthe Cross (Luke 24:30) to name only some ofthe most significant prayers recorded by thegospel writers. But as often as Jesus declaredthat prayer could work mysteries and wonders,he also admonished his followers concerningthe secret nature of the act of praying:

“When thou prayest, thou shalt notbe as the hypocrites are, for they loveto pray standing in the synagogues andin the corners of the streets that theymay be seen of men.… But thou, whenthou prayest, enter into thy closet, andwhen thou hast shut thy door, pray tothe Father which is in secret; and thyFather which seeth in secret shallreward thee openly. But when ye pray,use not vain repetitions, as the hea-then do, for they think they shall beheard for their much speaking. Be notye therefore like unto them: for yourFather knoweth what things ye haveneed of before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:5–8, King James Version).

In Islam prayer, salat is one of the five Pil-lars of Islam, and the true believer must say hisprayers (salla) five times a day, as well as onspecial occasions. The set schedule ofprayers—dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, andnighttime—is strictly prescribed and regulat-ed. There is another category of prayer, thedu’a, which permits spontaneous expressionsof supplication, petition, and intercession.The du’a may also be allowed after the utter-ing of the formal salat.

While many religions suggest that theirsupplicants fold their hands, bow their head,close their eyes, and so forth, the followers ofIslam have many exact procedures that mustbe observed in their prayers. Before prayer,there is the ritual purification (tahara), whichat the very least requires washing the face andthe hands to the elbows, rubbing the headwith water, and bathing the feet to the ankles.In addition, the mouth, nose, and teeth mustreceive a thorough cleansing. If water shouldbe unavailable to someone on a journey oraway from home, clean earth or sand may besubstituted in an abbreviated ritual exercise ofcleansing.

In a city or village, the call to prayer(Adhan) is announced from a minaret or tallbuilding by a muezzin, a crier. When the wor-shippers have assembled, another crier issuesthe iqama in a rapid, but more subdued, voice,announcing that it is now time to begin theprayers. If the worshippers should be away froma city, a mosque, or a muezzin, they themselvesmay call out the two summons to prayer.

While it is desirable to pray in a mosque,when the supplicants find themselves awayfrom a formal place of worship, they mustattempt to find as clean an area as possible.



Believing in the power of

prayer, a group of

Muslims pray for rain in

Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP/

WIDE WORLD PHOTOS)

A TRUE believer of Islam must say his prayers(salla) five times a day—dawn, noon, afternoon,sunset, and nighttime.

Prayer rugs (saijada) are carried by many Mus-lims, but they are not an essential aspect ofthe ritual. It is essential to properly cover thebody: males, at least from the navel to theknees; females, the entire body except for face,hands, and feet. It is also of utmost impor-tance that wherever they may be, they facethe Qiblah, the precise direction of Mecca.And while it is always preferable to performthe salat in the company of others, it is permis-sible under certain conditions to pray in pri-vate—except for the Friday congregationalsalat, which may never be performed alone.

Before kneeling on their prayer rugs,however, it is of the utmost importance thatthe supplicants perform a required number ofbending and bowing postures (rak’as) withthe appropriate accompanying phrases.There must be two rak’as at dawn, four at

noon, four in the afternoon, three at sunset,and four at night.

Jewish liturgy did not begin to achieve itsfixed form until the centuries after thedestruction of the second temple, and theprayer book did not appear in its classical formuntil the Middle Ages. But spontaneousprayers are found throughout the Tanakh, theHebrew Bible, and the Old Testament in theChristian Bible. To list only a few: the prayersof Abraham (Genesis 15:2–3), Isaac (Genesis25:21–23), and Hannah (1 Samuel 1:9–13)petitioning God for an heir; Moses’ prayers forplagues on the Egyptians (Exodus 8:12), forthe Red Sea to part its waters (Exodus 14:21),for a glimpse of God’s glory (Exodus 33:18),for Aaron’s forgiveness after his sin of makingthe gold calf (Deuteronomy 9:20); Samson’sprayer for strength to bring the columns down



According to a 2001 survey on the prayerhabits of Americans conducted byYankelovich Partners for Lutheran Broth-erhood, nine out of 10 adults responded

by saying that they prayed regularly. When askedwhat they most often prayed for, 98 percent answeredthat they prayed most frequently for their own familymembers. Petitions for the children of the world weredesignated for 81 percent of the prayers; 77 percentfor world peace, and 69 percent for the needs andconcerns of their co-workers.

In an earlier survey (c. 1992), Andrew M. Greeley,the sociologist-novelist-priest, and his research cen-ter found that 78 percent of Americans pray at leastonce a week and 57 percent pray at least once a day.Combining the statistics of the Father Greeleyresearch with those of a Gallup and Poloma poll, itwas revealed that 91 percent of women pray, as do 85percent of men. Twenty-six percent of those who praysay that they regularly sense the strong presence ofGod, and 32 percent feel a deep sense of peace.

Sources:

“Snapshot.” USA Today, 14 June 2001.

“Talking to God.” Newsweek, 6 January 1992, pp. 39–44.

The Most

Popular Prayers

of Americans

upon the Philistines (Judges 16:28–31);David’s prayer to be forgiven for his immorali-ty with Bathsheba (Psalms 51); Job’s prayer tobe forgiven for pride (Job 40:3–4; 42:6);Solomon’s prayer for wisdom (1 Kings 3:5–9);Elijah’s prayer for fire to consume the altars ofBaal (1 Kings 18:36–37); Jabez’s prayer forprosperity in his work (1 Chronicles 4:10).

There is a rich Jewish tradition that envi-sions angels carrying human prayers to heav-en, and there is a belief that the entreaties ofthe righteous can more effectively intercedewith God than ordinary mortals. As in theChristian and Islamic traditions, there arestrict warnings against worshipping the angel-ic intercessors. God alone must be the soleand ultimate focus of all prayer.

In recent years, more and more doctorsand scientists have begun to study the powerthat many religious men and women claimmay be achieved by focusing their prayersupon God and asking healing for themselvesor others. Dr. Larry Dossey (1940– ), authorof Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and thePractice of Medicine (1993), recalled when hewas doing his residency at Parkland MemorialHospital in Dallas, Texas, and had his firstpatient with a terminal case of cancer. When-ever he would stop by the man’s hospitalroom, Dossey found him surrounded by visi-tors from his church, praying and singing.Dossey thought this was appropriate sincethey would soon be singing and praying at theman’s funeral, because the cancer had spreadthroughout both lungs. A year later, when hewas working elsewhere, Dossey learned from acolleague that the terminally ill patient wasalive and well. When he had an opportunityto examine the man’s X-rays, Dossey wasstunned to see that his lungs were completelyclear. There was no trace of cancer. AlthoughDossey had long since given up the faith of hischildhood, it seemed to him that prayer hadhealed this man of his terminal cancer.

Intrigued, but devoted to the power ofmodern medicine, Dossey became chief ofstaff at a large urban hospital. He observedthat many of his patients prayed, but he putlittle trust in the practice until he came acrossa study done in 1983 by Dr. Randolph Byrd, a

cardiologist at San Francisco General Hospi-tal, in which half of a group of cardiac patientswere prayed for and half were not. Those whowere prayed for did better in a significantnumber of ways. Dossey could no longerignore the evidence. The Byrd study had beendesigned according to rigid criteria. It hadbeen a randomized, double-blind experi-ment—neither the patients, nurses, nor doc-tors knew which group the patients were in.

Inspired to search for other such experi-ments, Dossey was astonished to find morethan 100 serious and well-conducted studiesexhibiting the criteria of good science. Abouthalf demonstrated that prayer could bringabout significant changes in those sufferingfrom a variety of illnesses. Dossey has sincegiven up the practice of medicine to devotehimself full time to researching and writingabout prayer and how it affects human health.His extensive studies have produced the fol-lowing discoveries:

1. The power of prayer does not diminishwith distance. It can be as effective fromthe other side of the world as it is from thenext room.

2. There is no right way to pray. There is nodifference in the effectiveness of the vari-ous religious methods of praying.

3. Rather than asking for a specific healingfor a particular health problem, the non-specific prayer, “Thy will be done,” worksas well or better as attempting to specifythe outcome.

4. Love added to prayer increases its power.

5. Prayer is outside of time. It can be answeredeven before it is made.

6. Prayer is a reminder that we are neveralone.

In June 2000, researchers at Duke Univer-sity Medical Center in Durham, North Caroli-



THE Jewish prayer book did not appear in itsclassical form until the Middle Ages.

na, presented the results of a six-year study inthe Journal of Gerontology in which nearly4,000 mostly Christian men and women 65and older were asked about health problemsand whether they prayed, meditated, or readthe Bible. Dr. Harold Koenig, one of theresearchers, stated that this was one of the firststudies showing that people who pray livelonger. Relatively healthy seniors who saidthat they rarely or never prayed ran about a 50percent greater risk of dying during the six-year study, compared with those who prayed atleast once a month. People who prayed evenonce a month appeared to get the same pro-tection as those who prayed more often.

Critics of such studies accuse the re-searchers of making subjective judgments con-cerning patients or of injecting hope into theequation. Others say that the results of peoplepraying for the sick are no greater than ran-dom chance.

But, in general, Americans believe thatthe power of prayer is beneficial for theirhealth. A 1999 CBS News poll found that 80percent of adult Americans believe prayerimproves recovery from disease. In June 2001,a Gallup Poll revealed that 54 percent of adultAmericans believed in spiritual healing.

The contemporary mystic Harold Sher-man was firm in stating that one should never

pray out of a sense of duty or obligation orhabit. One should not make a ritual of gettinga prayer over with as quickly as possible.Nothing is accomplished by rapidly mumblinga prayer without thought or feeling behind it.It is the feeling behind a prayer, Shermanadvised, not the words thought or spoken,which gets through to God, to the cosmicconsciousness level of the mind. In his bookHow to Solve Mysteries of Your Mind and Soul(1965), Sherman presented “Seven Secrets forSuccessful Prayer”:

1. Remove all fears and doubts from yourmind before you start to pray.

2. Make your mind receptive so it is preparedto receive guidance and inspiration.

3. Picture clearly in your mind what it is thatyou desire to bring to pass in your life.

4. Have unfaltering faith that with God’shelp what you are picturing will come true.

5. Repeat your visualization and your prayer…until what you have pictured becomes areality.

6. Review each day’s activities and constant-ly strive to improve your mental attitude,so your mind can become a clearer chan-nel attuned to the God Power within.

7. Realize that if your thinking is right and ifyou persist with faith and put forth everyeffort in support of your prayer, then thatwhich you create in your mind must even-tually come to pass.

M Delving Deeper

Benson, Herbert. Timeless Healing. New York: Scribn-er, 1996.

Dossey, Larry. Healing Words: The Power of Prayer andthe Practice of Medicine. San Francisco: Harper-SanFrancisco, 1993.

Guideposts Associates. The Unlimited Power of Prayer.Carmel, N.Y.: Guideposts, 1968.


Steiger, Sherry Hansen. The Power of Prayer to Healand Transform Your Life. New York: Signet, 1997.



Harold Sherman.


The Rapture

According to the beliefs of the born-again Christians concerning the endtimes, the Rapture is an event when

Christians will be taken up into the air tomeet Christ in the sky. Many believe that theRapture will happen unexpectedly and thatthose Christians of special merit will be liftedsuddenly from their homes, their automobiles,even from their passenger seats on airliners.The Rapture is a literal, physical occurrence,rather than a spiritual transformation. Thosewho are taken up by Christ may leave behindtheir clothing on the streets and their carscrashing into trees, but they will be lifted bodyand soul into the sky.

Most of humankind will be left behind,including those Christians whose faithrequires strengthening. It is believed that theRapture will cause great confusion and chaos.A time of tribulation will begin, making theworld easy pickings for the advent of a charis-matic savior who appears to have all the bestways, financial means, and power to makethings right again. This individual shall rise tointernational domination and deceive manybefore he is revealed as the Antichrist.

Although those Christians who believe inthe Rapture are certain that it will occur inassociation with the time of tribulation (theseven-year period of disasters, famine, and ill-ness during which the Antichrist will be inpower), there are differences of opinionwhether it will come about just before thetribulation begins, midway through the seven-year reign of the Antichrist, or at the end ofthe time of tribulation. There is, however,general agreement that when this awful timeof lawlessness and corruption has passed,Christ will return to Earth with his army ofangels, defeat the forces of evil in a great finalbattle at Armageddon, and begin his 1,000-year reign, during which time there will benothing but justice, peace, and joy on Earth.When this millennial reign comes to an end,history will end and Christ shall establish anew heaven and a new Earth.

Those Christians who believe in the Rap-ture maintain that it was Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–

c. 30 C.E.) himself who established the formatfor such an event in the end times:

“Immediately after the tribulationof those days shall the sun be darkened,and the moon shall not give her light,and the stars shall fall from heaven,and the powers of the heavens shall beshaken. And then shall appear the signof the Son of man in heaven and thenshall all the tribes of the Earth mourn,and they shall see the Son of man com-ing in the clouds of heaven with powerand great glory. And he shall send hisangels with a great sound of a trumpet,and they shall gather together his electfrom the four winds, from one end ofheaven to the other” (Matthew24:29–31, King James Version).

In Mark 13:24–27, the prediction of Jesusconcerning the end times is essentially thesame: “There will be an end to the time oftribulation; the sun and moon will be darkenedand stars will fall; the Son of man will be seenin the clouds coming with great power andglory; angels will be sent to gather the electfrom every part of the heavens and the Earth.”

In two of his epistles, St. Paul speaks of thereturn of Christ and what many Christiansbelieve to be the Rapture, when those who arebelievers shall be caught to meet the Lord in theair: “For the Lord himself shall descend fromheaven with a shout, with the voice of thearchangel, and with the trump of God: and thedead in Christ shall rise first: Then we whichare alive [and] remain shall be caught up togeth-er with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord inthe air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”(1 Thessalonians 4:16–18). In 1 Corinthians15:51–53, the epistle writer tells of the mysterywhen “in the twinkling of an eye” those whobelieve in Christ shall be changed: “Behold, Ishew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, butwe shall all be changed. In a moment, in thetwinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for thetrumpet shall sound, and the dead shall beraised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.For this corruptible must put on incorruption,and this mortal must put on immortality.”

Although not all Christians accept thescenario of the Rapture, many Christians and



non-Christians alike find the premise intrigu-ing and read the books in the “Left Behind”series as exciting science fiction. By June2001, the first six volumes in the series basedon the events of the Rapture by fundamental-ist minister Tim LaHaye and professionalwriter Jerry Jenkins have sold over 12 millioncopies. Number seven in the series of planned12 volumes, The Indwelling (2000), had an ini-tial print run of two million and appeared onthe bestseller lists a few days after its publica-tion. In addition, a complementary “LeftBehind” series for children has sold three mil-lion copies, and, altogether, over 18 millionvarious products related to the series havebeen purchased.

M Delving Deeper



Lindsey, Hal, with C. C. Carlson. The Late GreatPlanet Earth. New York: Bantam Books, 1978.



Wheeler, John Jr. Earth’s Two-Minute Warning:Today’s Bible-Predicted Signs of the End Times.North Canton, Ohio: Leader Co., 1996.

Shroud of Turin

In the fall of 1978, the ancient Shroud ofTurin was exhibited publicly for the firsttime since 1933, thus rekindling the fires of

controversy that have raged intermittentlyaround this icon since the first century C.E. Isthis cloth truly the authentic burial shroud ofJesus of Nazareth (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.)? Is thefull-sized human image impressed on its coarsefibers the actual physical representation of Jesusas he lay in the tomb after his death by crucifix-ion at the hands of Roman soldiers? Whenlooking at the shroud, is one seeing a kind ofsupernatural photograph of Jesus that can accu-rately depict his actual human appearance?

The fourteen-by-four-foot shroud has beenkept under guard in a Roman Catholic chapelin Turin, Italy, since 1452, and it has been pre-viously examined by technical investigators in1973 and 1978. Although at that time theresearchers were unable to date the cloth withcertainty, scientists at the Los Alamos Scien-tific Laboratory in New Mexico announcedthat the burial shroud appeared to be authen-tic, woven of a type of linen typically used inJewish burials in the Holy Land about 30 C.E.,thus approximating the date of Jesus’ Crucifix-ion. As for the remarkable image imprinted onthe shroud, Los Alamos chemist Ray Rogers,stated his opinion that the impression hadbeen formed by “a burst of radiant energy—light, if you will.”

Such a view is in harmony with gospel ref-erences to a brilliant light from heaven andthe process of transformation undergone byJesus at the moment of his Resurrection afterthree days in the tomb. A statement issued bythe Los Alamos Laboratory, operated by theUniversity of California for the U.S. Depart-ment of Energy, explains one hypothesis thatdraws a parallel between the mysteriousimages on the shroud “and the fact thatimages were formed on stones by fireball radi-ation from the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.”

Many of the experts who have examinedthe shroud insist that the image was not paint-ed on the cloth, for the portrait is notabsorbed into the fibers. Neither could theimage have been placed on the shroud by anyordinary application of heat, they argue, orthe fibers would have been scorched.

The gospel accounts of Jesus’ Crucifixionstate that he was whipped and beaten byRoman soldiers, who placed a crown of thornson the head of the man who was identified asthe “King of the Jews.” The beating completedcompleted, Jesus was marched through thestreets of Jerusalem bearing the wooden crosson his back before he was nailed to its hori-zontal bar at the place of execution. After hisapparent death, a spear was thrust into his sideby a Roman soldier.

Certain researchers have declared thefront and the back images on the Shroud ofTurin to be anatomically correct if the cloth



had been used to wrap a crucified man in itsfolds. The impressions on the shroud are of atall man with a beard, his hands crossed withthe imprints of nails through the wrists andfeet. The right side of the man’s chest waspierced. In addition, the image is said byinvestigators to bear the marks of whip lasheson the back. The man’s right shoulder ischafed, as if from having borne a rough, heavyobject. A number of puncture wounds appeararound the head, and one cheek displays apronounced bruise. The chest cavity isexpanded, as if the victim had been trying des-perately to draw air into the lungs, a commonoccurrence and a typical physical responseduring crucifixion.

Since its second examination in 1978, theShroud of Turin has been hailed by some asphysical proof of Jesus’ Resurrection from thedead and his triumph over the grave, while oth-ers have condemned it as a hoax crafted bymedieval monks who sought to create the ulti-mate in holy relics for spiritual pilgrims to ven-erate. Ray Rogers is one of a number of scien-tists who believes that the burial cloth is truly

the shroud of Jesus Christ. In his view—and inthat of many others—the Shroud of Turinanswers the eternal question of whether humanscan achieve immortality. “If Christ was resur-rected from the dead,” Rogers stated, “then thegospels are true, and eternal life is offered to all.”

In October 1978, the Shroud of TurinResearch Project, the U.S. scientific groupthat examined the shroud, unanimouslyreported that “the image on the cloth is notthe result of applied materials.” In their esti-mation, the man on the shroud was not paint-ed on the cloth and that an unknown event ofoxidation selectively darkened certain fibrils



The Shroud of Turin.


THE Shroud of Turin has been hailed by someas physical proof of Jesus’ Resurrection, while othershave condemned it as a hoax crafted by medievalmonks.

of the threads so as to make a superficial imageof a man with accurate details valid whenmagnified 1,000 times. Through some para-normal occurrence the body image is muchlike a photographic negative.

During the September/October 1978 exhi-bition of the shroud in Turin, more than threeand a half million people viewed the relic.The viewing was followed by a SindonologicalCongress of experts on October 7 and 8, andon October 8–13, a detailed, around-the-clock, 120-hour scientific examination of theshroud that included more than 30,000 pho-tographs of various kinds. The latter effort wasconducted primarily by scientists from theUnited States who had brought 72 crates ofequipment weighing eight tons.

Also in 1978, Ian Wilson published TheShroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of JesusChrist? in which he presented the results of hishistorical research which brought continuity,from 33 C.E. to 1204 C.E., to the story of theshroud and its travels. Wilson concluded thatthe “Face of Edessa” and the “Mandylion ofConstantinople” were but other designationsfor the Shroud of Turin. He also postulated aKnights Templar connection for the so-calledmissing years of the shroud from 1204 to 1357which indicates that the relic was in Athensand Bescancon, France, during that period. Itmay well have been, Wilson suggested, thatthe extensive copying of the face on theshroud by the Knights Templar could have ledto the papal revocation of their charter, whichwas later followed by the execution of theirleaders by the French ecclesiastical court. TheTemplar involvement appeared to be validat-ed by the discovery of a matching shroud facethat was found behind the false ceiling of anoutbuilding in Templecombe, southern Eng-land, on grounds that had once served as aTemplar recruitment and training center.

From its earliest years, in legends and inart, there have been claims of miracles andhealings through the shroud. Four crediblewitnesses reported that in 544 when Edessawas threatened with siege by a Persian army,the image was rushed to the top of the citywall and prominently displayed; the armyturned and abandoned the attack. Eusebius

and others state that King Agabar V of Edessawas mortally ill and was instantly healed whenshown the face on the cloth. While theshroud was being carried to Constantinople in944, it was said that a man possessed ofdemons was cleansed when he touched it.

In 1954, in a small village of Gloucester-shire, England, 11-year-old Josie Wollam wasin the hospital dying of a severe bone disease,osteomyelitis, in hip and leg, plus lung abscess-es. The doctor advised that there was no hopefor Josie, and she was given the last rites of thechurch. However, Josie had learned thatretired RAF Group Captain Leonard Cheshire(1917–1992) was giving lectures in the area onthe Shroud of Turin, and she told her motherthat she was certain she would be able to walkagain if she could only see the shroud. AtJosie’s urging, her mother wrote CaptainCheshire and his office sent a photograph ofthe shroud face. Merely holding the photo-graph appeared to accomplish a partial remis-sion of the bone disease, and two weeks later,Josie was sent home from the hospital.

The girl was still unable to walk, and shecontinued to declare that if she could actuallysee the shroud and be in its presence, she knewthat she would be completely healed. Cheshirewas so impressed by Josie’s faith that he took herwith him to Portugal to see former King Umber-to II (1904–1983), the shroud’s owner, to askpermission for a rare private session with theshroud. Umberto readily granted their request,and Cheshire and Josie traveled on to Turin,where the rolled shroud was placed across thearms of her wheelchair. Cautiously, respectfully,the girl reached a hand into the end of the rollto touch gently the inner surface.

At the 1978 public exhibition of theshroud 24 years later, Josie, now 35, walkedinto the cathedral at Turin, once again accom-panied by Cheshire but no longer in a wheel-chair. The child who had been given last ritesin 1954 had been allegedly healed completelyby being in the presence of the shroud. Shemet Father Peter Rinaldi while at Turin andtold him that after her healing she hadmatured normally through childhood andadolescence, married, had a daughter, and wasgainfully employed.



While many scientists urged increasedusage of carbon-dating techniques to deter-mine once and for all the true age of theshroud, other experts warned that an accuratecarbon dating might not be technically possi-ble with present-day laboratory techniquesand practices. In the 1970s, two researchersindependent of each another suggested thatthe 1532 fire at Chambery, France, whichcaused the silver reliquary to drip molten sil-ver onto the cloth, also may have created a“pressure-cooker effect” of driving knowncontaminants on the cloth into the moleculesof the cloth, so that the carbon content wouldbe skewed. At the Rome Symposium of 1993,and subsequently, Dmitri Kouznetsov of theSedov Laboratory in Moscow asserted thatduring the 1532 fire the molten silver acted asa catalyst for carboxylation of the cellulose, sothat subsequently the cloth became enrichedwith carbon, thus making it appear to beyounger than it may actually be. In spite ofsuch protests regarding carbon-dating tech-niques, laboratory tests conducted in 1985reported that 1320 was the median date thatthe shroud cloth had been woven.

As might be expected, large numbers ofdiligent researchers object to the date of 1320and the suggestion that some talented artisanin the Middle Ages had created the image onthe shroud as a work of piety or as an instru-ment of deception. Those who champion theauthenticity of the shroud point out that thescalp punctures and blood rivulets as seen onthe forehead of the man of the shroud have thecharacteristics and proper location for bothveinous and arterial blood flow, and yet, if theshroud were a hoax created in approximately1320, circulation of human blood was not dis-covered until 1593. The cloth-to-body dis-tance correlates so precisely that the imageperfectly encapsulates three-dimensional dataperfectly. When the shroud image is fed intoNASA’s VP-8 image analyzer, it produces abas-relief of the man of the shroud with no dis-tortion. No other image, drawing, painting, orphotograph has this quality—only star mapsand the shroud image; everything else distorts.

Other researchers who claim the shroud isauthentic point out that the 70 varieties ofpollen found on the burial cloth come from

the Near East and 38 varieties come fromwithin 50 miles of Jerusalem—and 14 of themgrow nowhere else.

Among other significant data which wouldseem to testify to the shroud’s authenticity aresuch items as the following:

• The Z-twist thread and 3-to-1 herring-bone-twill weave used in forming theshroud were known only to the Near Eastand Asia until recent centuries. The cot-ton fibers in the shroud linen could havecome only by weaving on looms of theNear East.

• Microscopes were perfected in the periodbetween 1590 to 1610, and yet meaningfuldata in the shroud image has been foundby magnifications up to 1,200 times. Howcould an artist working in the 1300s havefashioned such details?

• The feet of the man of the shroud bearssmudges of actual dirt that contain traver-tine aronite, a rare form of calcium thatmatches the spectral properties of thislimestone substance found in caves nearJerusalem’s Damascus Gate. No othersource is known.

• One oddity of the shroud image is that itcan be seen only in an optimum viewing dis-tance of six to 15 feet. Closer or farther andthe image fades out of view. Did the sup-posed hoaxer paint the man on the shroudby holding a six-foot brush at arm’s length?

Even the most recent translations of thegospels state that Jesus was nailed to the crossby his hands. But the shroud correctly displaysa medical truth: He was nailed through the“space of Destot” in the wrist, because a nail inthe soft flesh of the hands would not support aman’s weight. Another medical fact is that aspike driven through the “space of Destot” inthe wrist will lacerate the median nerve, caus-ing the thumb to flex sharply into the palm.The man of the shroud has no discerniblethumbs. Would an artist in the Middle Ageshave known such medical idiosyncrasies?

The man was crowned with a cap ofthorns, typical of the Near East Judeans, notthe Greek-style wreath so often depicted inartists’ renderings of Jesus’ “crown of thorns.”



The bloodstains on the shroud are precise-ly correct, both biblically and anatomically. Ifthe shroud had been lifted off the man, one oftwo things would have happened: If the bloodwas still wet the stain on the cloth wouldsmear; if the blood was dry it would have bro-

ken the crusted blood that had soaked intothe weave. Neither occurred, thus leadingsome researchers to believe that the bodymust somehow have dematerialized withoutthe removal of the shroud. If the shroud mere-ly collapsed and was not thrown back, then



Close-up of the Shroud of

Turin. It is still disputed

whether this is the

authentic shroud of

Jesus Christ or a hoax

created by people during

the Crusades. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

the story of Peter and John’s arrival at thetomb after Jesus’ Resurrection (John 20:1–10)makes better sense when Peter saw “the linencloths lying” and John “saw and believed.”

Although the shroud had some contactwith Jesus’ body, for scientists have decreedthe bloodstains on the cloth to have beenmade by real blood, the body-image isdescribed by some of the researchers as “madethrough space” by an “image-making process”which they have named “flash photolysis,”because the images are not pressure sensitivein that the back and front images of the manhave the same shadow and lack of saturationcharacteristics. If contact with the bleedingphysical body was the only factor, the man’slying on his back should have made the imagedarker and different.

Many of the critics of the authenticity ofthe shroud and its images argue that it is noth-ing more than a finely executed medievalpainting. Some skeptics have even claimedthat the shroud images were painted byLeonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). Such anargument was quickly dissolved by pointingout that the great artist was born in 1452,nearly one hundred years after the shroud hadbeen on exhibit in Lirey in 1357. At the sci-entific symposium on the shroud conducted inRome in 1993, Isabel H. Piczek of Los Angelespresented her conclusions that the controver-sial cloth is not and cannot be a painting ofany sort, technique, or medium. Piczek is aprofessional artist with degrees in physics whohas won international awards for painting andfigurative draftsmanship. She has personallyexecuted art works in every ancient and mod-ern technique known, including nearly 500giant-size items in public buildings throughoutthe world. In her opinion, Piczek cautionsthat the shroud must not be conserved as apainting would be, “or else we may destroy theonly object on Earth which is the blueprint ofthe future of our cosmos.”

There have always been critics, skeptics,and disbelievers when it comes to the authen-ticity of the shroud. Even King Abgar’s secondson, Manu V, was a doubter, in spite of hisfather’s alleged cure after viewing the face onthe shroud. The sons of the Byzantine emper-

or were also skeptics. Bishop Henri dePoitieres of Troyes (fl. mid-fourteenth centu-ry) vacillated between praising the exhibitionin Lirey, then trying to have it closed down.His successor, Bishop Pierre D’Arcis (fl. late-fourteenth century), attempted to stop latershowings of the burial cloth in Lirey, but thepope ordered him to cease such efforts or faceexcommunication.

Critical researchers in the twentieth cen-tury found an alleged memo from BishopD’Arcis written in 1389 and presumablyintended for the pope in which the bishopclaimed to know the identity of the painterwho was responsible for creating the shroudimages. The French scholar Ulysee Chevalier(1841–1923) believed in the testimony of thememo and so did the Jesuit Herbert Thurston(1856–1939). Dr. John A. T. Robinson, theEnglish theologian, also accepted the docu-ment at first, but he later rejected its allega-tions and accepted the shroud as genuine. Inthe 1990s, Parisian researchers determinedthat the so-called “D’Arcis memo” was nomemo at all, but merely a clerk’s draft in poorLatin, never dated nor signed nor sent to theVatican, and with no official copy in eitherTroyes or the Vatican archives.

In sharp contrast to those criticalresearchers who attempt to diminish theshroud’s credibility are those scientists of faithwho are personally convinced that the shroudis truly the one that briefly enveloped the bodyof Jesus Christ and that the images on its clothwere made by a supernatural energy as part of aspiritual event that Christians call the Resur-rection. At the Rome Symposium of 1993, Dr.Gilbert R. Lavoie of the Fallon Clinic, Worces-ter, Massachusetts, demonstrated that theblood and body images on the burial cloth areof a man who had been suspended upright as ifhanging on a cross. According to tradition, thebody of Jesus hung on the cross from 9 A.M.until 3 P.M., and he was not placed on his backwithin the folds of a burial cloth until about 5P.M. Thus, according to Lavoie, a truly spiritualimage resulted on the shroud in order for theimage to show Jesus as if hanging on the cross.

Pope John Paul II (1920– ) authorizedpublic exhibitions of the shroud for April 18 to



May 31, 1998, and for April 29 to June 11,2000. Among the latest findings prompted bythe most recent showings was the report bytwo Israeli scientists who stated in June 1999that plant imprints and pollen found on theshroud supported the premise that it originatedin the Holy Land. Avinoam Danin, a botanyprofessor at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem, said that the shroud containedimages of some plants, such as the bean caper(Zygophyllum dumosum), which grows only inIsrael, Jordan, and Egypt Sinai desert. The rockrose (Cistus creticus) which grows throughoutthe Middle East was also detected, along withthe imprint of a coin minted in the reign of theRoman Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C.E.–37 C.E.),who ruled at the time of the Crucifixion.

Clearly, while a number of scientistsdebate the accuracy of the radiocarbon datingresults—some insisting that the most reliableresults date the shroud to 1260–1390—andothers defend the authenticity of the burialcloth and argue that it was the one thatwrapped Jesus’ crucified body until the cosmicevent of the Resurrection, one can only echothe words of Archbishop Severino Poletto,the shroud’s custodian: “The last word has notyet been said.”

M Delving Deeper

Riggi, Giovanni. The Holy Shroud. Roman Center forShroud Studies, 1981.

Shroud of Turin Research at McCrone Research Institute.http://www.mcri.org/Shroud.html. 14 August 2001.

Shroud of Turin. http://www.shroud.com. 14 August2001.

Tribbe, Frank. Portrait of Jesus?—The Illustrated Storyof the Shroud of Turin. New York: Stein & Day,1983.

Wilson, Ian. The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth ofJesus Christ? New York: Doubleday, 1978.

666

The association of the number 666 withthe Antichrist is derived from Revela-tion 13:18 in which John the Revela-

tor is told in his apocalyptic vision that thenumber of the Beast is 666 and that the num-ber stands for a person. In John’s world of the

first century, the Beast that ruled the Earthwould have been the emperor, the caesar, ofthe Roman Empire, Nero (37C.E.–68 C.E.).Using the Hebrew alphabet, the numericalvalue of “Caesar Nero,” the merciless persecu-tor of the early Christians, is 666.

Although Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.)made it clear when speaking to the apostlesthat no one will know the exact hour or day ofhis Second Coming, for many centuries cer-tain Christian theologians have associated therise of the Antichrist to power and hisachievement of a seven-year reign over all theEarth as a kind of catalyst that would set inmotion Armageddon, the last final battlebetween good and evil—the ultimate clashbetween the armies of Jesus Christ and Satan.

Ever since the Protestant Reformation, thepope has been a favorite of certain Evangeli-cals for the ignominious title. Many of thepontiffs in the Middle Ages did exercise greatpower over the rulers and the people of theemerging European nations; and consequent-ly, there were numerous embittered princesand fiery Protestant leaders who did seek toaffix the blame for a large number of repres-sive social and religious programs on the Vati-can. However, contemporary popes havewielded little political influence, surely nonethat would place them in world-threateningpositions. There have been such men as Aleis-ter Crowley (1875–1947), who actuallyappeared to covet and campaign for the posi-tion by calling himself the Beast and 666.

Hollywood has capitalized on the fascina-tion of certain Christians and horror moviefans with the menacing evil of the Antichristand depicted him in a number of motion pic-tures. In Rosemary’s Baby (1968), an unsus-pecting young wife (Mia Farrow) is selected tobear the Antichrist after her husband (JohnCassavetes) makes a pact with Satan. TheOmen (1976) spawned a series of three filmsthat follow the Antichrist from early child-hood to his position of wealth, power, andcharismatic mastery as an adult. In the first ofthese films, Gregory Peck, as the unsuspectingsurrogate father of the Antichrist, is warned ofhis son’s true identity by a number of priestsand other individuals who all meet untimely



ends. Although initially he considers suchwarnings as the babble of the demented, he islater shocked to discover the numerals “666”on his son’s scalp and he resolves to do what-ever must be done to stop Satan’s will frombeing accomplished. In spite of a valiant efforton the part of the father, who now concludesrightfully that his true son was killed and sup-planted by the disciples of the Antichrist, thedemon seed continues his destructive path toworld domination in two additional films. Inthe The Chosen (1977), Kirk Douglas playsanother unaware father, an industrialist spe-cializing in building nuclear power plants,who comes to realize that his son (SimonWard) is the Antichrist. In Lost Souls (2000),a devout teacher played by Winona Rydermust convince an unsuspecting young jour-nalist that he is the Antichrist before thefated hour when his newly awakened demonicawareness will seize control of his conscious-ness. Arnold Schwarzenegger is challenged bythe almost impossible mission of preventingSatan (Gabriel Byrne) from fathering theAntichrist in End of Days (2000). In Stigmata(2000), Byrne switches sides and plays a priestwho fights to thwart satanic interferencetoward a young stigmatist, a woman who bearsthe bleeding wounds of Christ’s crucifixion.Bless the Child (2000) portrays a desperatemother (Kim Basinger) who must somehowprevent her specially gifted and blessed childfrom becoming the human sacrifice thatwould grant the Antichrist his full-poweredentry into the world.

Christians who believe completely thatthe end times drama will play out according tocertain scriptural references maintain a waryeye for signs of the Antichrist and the onset ofthe Apocalypse, but not all Christians acceptthe warnings of the advent of the Beast withhis telltale numerical designation of 666 orbelieve that the traditional scenario of theAntichrist and his seven-year reign has anyreal relevance to the actual “signs in the sky”that will precede the Second Coming ofChrist. In today’s world the term “antichrist”lost much of its power to provoke fear afterthe concept entered the popular mass culture.For millions of modern secular men andwomen, the Beast 666 has become merely a

sinister, but always defeated, villain in horrormovies, and his once dreaded title is oftenloosely applied in an offhanded manner toeverything from cartoon figures to a widerange of men and women in a vast spectrum ofmodern society.

M Delving Deeper






Snake Handling

In the sixteenth chapter of the gospel ofMark, the resurrected Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c.30 C.E.) appears to his disciples and, before

ascending to heaven, sends them forth intothe world to preach the gospel. Jesus promisesthat all who believe in him shall cast out dev-ils and shall speak with new tongues. In addi-tion, believers “shall take up serpents; and ifthey drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurtthem” (Mark 16:17–18).

In 1909, Reverend George Went Hensley(c. 1870s–1955) of the Church of God inGrasshopper, Tennessee, began to teach thatthose verses in Mark should be taken literally. Ifbelievers truly had the Holy Spirit withinthem, he argued from the pulpit, they should beable to handle rattlesnakes and any number ofother venomous serpents. They should also beable to drink poison and suffer no harm what-soever. Snake handling as a test or demonstra-tion of faith became popular wherever Hensleytraveled and preached in the small towns andbackwaters of Tennessee, Kentucky, the Caroli-nas, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana.

For a time, the Church of God defendedthe innovation of snake handling that had



been injected into the prescribed order of ser-vice by Hensley, but in 1922, it disavowed thepractice. Other Pentecostal churches followedsuit and discouraged their members from test-ing the Holy Spirit by picking up venomoussnakes or drinking poison. Undaunted, Hens-ley established the Church of God with SignsFollowing.

Some researchers of the religious snakehandling phenomenon state that the practicesprang up independently on Sand Mountain,Alabama, around 1912 without any assistancefrom George Hensley. Within a coupledecades, snakes were being handled openly inoutdoor worship services in east Birmingham.However, in 1950, the Alabama Legislature,reacting to a number of highly publicizedsnake fatalities, passed an act making it illegalto “display, handle, use, or exhibit any poiso-nous snake or reptile in such a manner as toendanger the health of another.”

Those who have investigated snake han-dling have found that it is a popular misconcep-tion that the snakes won’t bite the snake han-dlers in their religious ritual or that, if bitten,the handlers, under the direction of the HolySpirit, won’t die. Although exact records aredifficult to substantiate, at least 71 people havebeen killed by poisonous snakebites during reli-gious services in the United States. And thatnumber includes the founder of the snake han-dling movement, George Went Hensley, who,it has been estimated, had been bitten over 400times before his death in 1955. While somemight consider such deaths as strong reasons todiscontinue the practice of actually handlingpoisonous snakes during services, devout snakehandlers say that it is a good thing that one oftheir members occasionally dies as a result of asnake bite. Such fatalities only prove to skep-tics and nonbelievers that they are truly usingdangerous snakes in their worship services.



According to the gospel

of Mark believers “shall

take up serpents; and if

they drink any deadly

thing, it shall not hurt

them.” It is believed in

some southern American

Pentecostal churches

that if a person truly has

the Holy Spirit within

them, they should be

able to handle

rattlesnakes and other

venomous serpents.

Snake handling is used

as a test or

demonstration of faith.

(NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND

RECORDS ADMINISTRATION)

In those rural churches in the Appalachi-an highlands where snake handling remainspopular, no members of the congregations arerequired to handle the snakes, and in mostchurches, no one under the age of 18 is per-mitted to pick up the serpents. The AmericanCivil Liberties Union has defended the reli-gious freedom of snake handlers against vari-ous attempts to have the practice abolished.In Thomas Burton’s Serpent-Handling Believers(1993), Burton states that snake handling is acomplex traditional religious belief of a groupof American Christians which should berespected for what it is.

M Delving Deeper

Burton, Thomas. Serpent-Handling Believers.Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press,1993.


Farnell, Kathie. “Snakes and Salvation.” Fate,December 1996, pp. 28–32.

Stigmata

Stigmata are spontaneous bleeding woundswhich appear in various places on thebody, such as the hands, the feet, the

back, the forehead, and the side, and, in theChristian context, are considered to be mani-festations of the suffering endured prior to, andduring, Jesus’ (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) Crucifix-ion. While theologians debate whether or notSt. Paul himself may have been a stigmatic(Galatians 6:17—“I bear on my body themarks of Jesus”), St. Francis of Assisi(1181–1226) suddenly bore the wounds ofChrist while praying outside a cave after a 40-day retreat in 1224, thereby becoming the firststigmatic recorded in the annals of church his-tory. St. Francis is also the only stigmatic onwhom the wounds in the feet and the handsactually bore representations of nails.

In 1275, a Cistercian nun named Elizabethreceived stigmata on her forehead, represent-ing Christ’s crown of thorns, after she wit-nessed a vision of the Crucifixion. Church tra-dition has it that St. Catherine of Siena

(1347–1380) was visited with the marks ofChrist’s suffering, but through her greathumility she prayed that they might becomeinvisible, and, though the pain of the woundsremained, her entreaty was granted and theblood no longer flowed. The Catholic Encyclo-pedia states that the suffering that stigmaticsendure is the “essential part of visible stigma-ta; the substance of this grace consists of pityfor Christ, participation in his sufferings, sor-rows, and for the same end—the expiation ofthe sins unceasingly committed in the world.”If the stigmatics did not suffer, the woundswould be “but an empty symbol, theatricalrepresentation, conducing to pride.” And ifthe stigmata truly issue from God, it would beunworthy of his wisdom to participate in suchfutility, “and to do so by a miracle.”

While not yet blessed with sainthood,Padre Pio (1887–1968), one of the most well-known stigmatics of the twentieth century,saw a vision of a mysterious person whosehands, feet, and side were dripping blood onAugust 20, 1918. After Padre Pio was deliv-ered from such a terrifying sight, the priest suf-fered the first of the stigmata which wouldcause his wounds to bleed daily for 50 years.

Therese Neumann (1898–1962) was also astigmatic who became familiar to the generalpublic. Born between Good Friday and Easterat Konnersreuth, Bavaria, Neumann suffered aseries of serious accidents that brought blind-ness, convulsions, and paralysis. Her eyesightwas restored on the day of the beatification ofSt. Therese of Lisieux (1873–1897), April 29,1923, and on the day of St. Therese’s canon-ization on May 17, 1925, her mobilityreturned. Then, after a vision of Jesus onMarch 4, 1926, the stigmata began, and shewould suffer bleeding from all the wounds,including shoulders and knees, on Fridays,especially during the church season of Lent. Itis claimed that from Christmas 1926 until herdeath in 1962, Neumann didn’t eat or drinkanything except daily Communion.

For those saints who were also stigmaticsor for those stigmatics who may be authentic,the church has issued three qualificationsregarding the production of the phenomenaon their bodies:





In 1997, Michael Drosnin’s bookThe Bible Codeclaimed that the Hebrew Bible contains a com-plex code that had predicted events whichoccurred thousands of years after the ancient

texts were first written.

Drosnin’s book was based on the work of Dr.Eliyahu Rips, an Israeli mathematician, who discov-ered the codes along with Doron Witzman and YoavRosenberg. The mathematicians first arranged the304,805 Hebrew letters of the Bible into a large array,removing all spaces and punctuation and running thewords together one after another. Then a computersearched for matches in all directions for names,words, and hidden phrases. According to Rips, onlythe Hebrew Bible may be used, because God gave theHebrew characters to Moses one at a time, with nospaces or punctuation. The colleagues published apeer reviewed paper in the Statistical Science Jour-nal in 1994 regarding their findings when they appliedthe code to the book of Genesis. Since then, researchhas indicated that the hidden code exists throughoutall the books of the Tanakh in the original Hebrew.

Rips and his associates tested the book of Genesisto see if the code could pick out the names of the 66Rabbis who had the longest entries in various Jewishannals. The Bible code revealed all 66 names, togetherwith either the Rabbis’ birth date or death date. In testafter test, the Bible code found people, places, andinventions that did not come into being until 3,000 yearsafter the ancient Hebrew texts had been recorded.

Drosnin, an agnostic, states that his belief in theBible code was confirmed when Israeli Prime Minis-ter Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995. Drosninstates that he had seen the forecast in the code ayear earlier and even warned Rabin of the danger.

While Drosnin is reluctant to state that the Biblecode proves that God is its author, others have firmlystated their belief that God guided the ancient scribesand directed them to place the prophecies within thetexts.

To test the claims of the Bible code, skepticalmathematicians have downloaded the texts of the

Hebrew Bible and the King James Version. In theopinion of these researchers, hidden messages andprophetic statements made about famous politicians,inventors, military men, musicians, and so forth canalso be located.

Sources:

Drosnin, Michael. The Bible Code. New York: Simon & Schuster,

1997.

Thomas, David E. “Hidden Messages and the Bible Code.”

Skeptical Inquirer, November 1997. http://www.csicop.org/

si/9711/bible-code.html. 11 October 2001.

Wiztum, Doron, Eliyahu Rips, and Yaov Rosenburg. “Equidistant

letter sequences in the Book of Genesis.” Statistical

Science Journal 1994, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 429–438.

Is There a Hidden

Code in the Bible?

1. Physicians could not succeed in curing thewounds with their remedies.

2. Unlike long-lasting wounds in others,those of stigmatics give off no foul or fetidodor.

3. Sometimes the wounds of the stigmaticsemit the odor of perfumes.

In April 1998, various media carried thestory of a priest who began to manifest stigma-ta in his side, hands, and feet while serving aparish in Antigua, West Indies. ReverendGerard Critch was flown to New York to betreated by medical specialists. Dr. Joseph Johnwas quoted as saying that no treatment he hadgiven Critch had worked or been effective.According to Critch’s parishioners, they werethrown to the floor by an invisible force or felttheir injuries healed when he blessed them. R.Allen Stanford, a banker from the UnitedStates who flew Critch to New York City onhis private jet, said that oil was oozing fromthe marks on the priest’s feet, as it did from

Jesus. “The wounds were real,” Stanford said(Evening Telegram, April 11, 1998).

The Roman Catholic Church does notsee the onset of stigmata as bringing with itany increase of holiness, so its clergy recog-nizes the real possibility of conscious orunconscious fraud in some of the cases ofstigmata reported almost annually. Thechurch also acknowledges the role that psy-chosomatic medicine might play in explain-ing many instances of the spontaneouswounds that mimic those of Christ’s Cruci-fixion. Some people who suffer from stigmatareport having felt sadness, depression, a gen-eral malaise, and physical pain prior to thebleeding. Many stigmatics could be so emo-tionally involved with the passion of Christthat their imagination could somehow mani-fest the physiological phenomena of thebleeding wounds. Perhaps those who enterdeep states of trance or religious ecstasymight trigger a mind-body link capable of



Gabriel Byrne portrays a

priest in the movie

Stigmata. (KEVORK

DJANSEZIAN/ AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

producing stigmata. And the phenomenon isnot exclusively a Christian one. Cases arealso known of Muslim stigmatics who bearwounds that correspond to those known tohave been suffered by Muhammed (c. 570C.E.–632 C.E.) while doing battle.

M Delving Deeper

Carty, Rev. Charles M. Padre Pio the Stigmatist.Dublin: Clonmore and Reynolds, 1955.


Steiner, Johannes. Therese Neumann. New York: AlbaHouse, 1967.

Wilson, Ian. Stigmata. New York: Harper & Row,1989.

Virgin of Guadalupe

In Mexico, December 12, Virgin ofGuadalupe Day, is a national holiday, andoften as many as five million Mexicans—

many crawling on bloodied knees—maketheir annual pilgrimage to the country’s mostvenerated shrine, a basilica for the VirginMary in Mexico City. In 1996, eight peoplewere killed and 15 were injured in the press ofpilgrims gathered around the site.

The story of the Virgin of Guadalupe isone of a mystery within a miracle. In 1531, a57-year-old Aztec Indian named Juan Diego(1474–1548), whose native name Cuauhtla-toatzin means “eagle that sings” (or in sometranslations, “eagle that talks”), claimed tohave encountered the Blessed Virgin Mary onfour occasions in desolate regions outside ofMexico City. At first she appeared as a beauti-ful, dark-skinned 14-year-old Mexican Indiangirl, who then revealed herself as the “ever-virgin Mary, Mother of God.” During laterappearances, Mother Mary told Diego that shewished a church built to her in the placewhere she appeared to him–Guadalupe, theriver of the wolf. As proof of her holy appear-ances, the Queen of Heaven projected animage of herself upon his tilma (cloak). It isthat artifact that brought Bishop Juan deZumarraga (1468–1548) of Mexico City andhis entire household to their knees when heasked for some kind of tangible sign from theHoly Mother. It is that same image on thetilma, set in gold at the center of an elaboratealtar, that still awaits today’s pilgrim at thebasilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

It has been said that the dark-skinnedimage of Mother Mary as a virginal NativeAmerican girl helped the Spanish priests con-vert millions of Mexican Indians to Catholi-cism. After an extensive examination, thecommittee from the Holy See in Romedeclared the apparitions seen by Juan Diego tobe authentic, thus making the miracle one ofseven appearances of Mother Mary officiallyrecognized by the Vatican.

Then, in 1929, an image was discoveredwithin the right eye of the image of the Virginon Juan Diego’s tilma. Alfonso Marcue, official



Padre Pio (1887–1968) is

one of the most well-

known stigmatics of the

twentieth century.


photographer of the old Basilica of Guadalupein Mexico City, discovered what appeared tobe a clear image of a bearded man reflectedwithin the right eye of the Virgin. At firstdoubting his own senses, Marcue made manyblack-and-white photographs of the image;and after he had examined them exhaustively,he went to the authorities of the basilica withhis incredible finding. He was told to remainsilent about his discovery, and out of respectfor the church officials, he did.

On May 29, 1951, Jose Carlos SalinasChavez was examining a particularly goodphotograph of the face of the Virgin and redis-covered what clearly appeared to be the imageof a bearded man reflected in both the rightand left eyes of Mother Mary. Since that time,more than 20 experts, including a number ofophthalmologists, have carefully inspected theeyes and the mysterious image.

On March 27, 1956, Dr. Javier TorroellaBueno, a prestigious ophthalmologist, certi-fied the presence of the triple reflection (Sam-son-Purkinje effect) characteristic of all livehuman eyes and stated that the resultingimages of the bearded man were located pre-cisely where they should be according to suchan effect. Bueno also pointed out that the dis-tortion of the images agreed with the normalcurvature of the cornea.

In that same year, another experiencedophthalmologist, Dr. Rafael Torrija Lavoignet,using an ophthalmoscope, studied the apparenthuman figure in the corneas of both eyes, withthe location and distortion of a normal humaneye, and found that the Virgin’s eyes appeared“strangely alive” when he examined them.

While working at IBM in 1979, Dr. JoseAste Tonsmann, a graduate of environmentalsystems engineering of Cornell University,scanned a photograph of the Virgin’s face onthe tilma and was astonished to discover whathe believed to be other human figures reflect-ed in the eyes. Aste Tonsmann has since theo-rized that Our Lady of Guadalupe not only lefta miraculous image as proof of her apparitionto Juan Diego, but may also have left someimportant messages hidden in her eyes thatcould not be revealed until new technologieswould permit them to be discovered.

Another mystery that had puzzled academ-ic researchers into the phenomena surround-ing the Virgin of Guadalupe was how the col-ored image of the apparition could have beenimpressed upon the simple tilma of a poorAztec tribesman and how it could have lastedfor centuries without falling apart. As early asthe eighteenth century, scientists discoveredthat it was impossible to paint such an imagein a fabric of such texture. The ayate fibersused by the Aztecs at that time deterioratedafter 20 years. Richard Kuhn (1900–1967), aNobel Prize winner in chemistry, stated in hisreport of the tilma that it had not been paintedwith natural, animal, or mineral colorings.Since there were no synthetic colorings in1531, the possibility of a native artist accom-plishing a hoax seems out of the question.

In January 2001, Dr. Jose Aste Tonsmann,now with the Mexican Center of GuadalupanStudies, revealed at a conference at the Pon-tifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum inRome that advances in digital photographynow revealed that the images in the Virgin’seyes were those assembled with Bishop Juande Zumarraga when Juan Diego first unfurledhis tilma and displayed the miraculous image.By magnifying the iris of the Virgin’s eyes2,500 times and, through mathematical andoptical procedures, Aste Tonsmann feels that



On December 12, many

Mexicans celebrate the

Virgin of Guadalupe Day

by visiting the basilica.

This painting is by Juan

de Villegas. (ARTE

PUBLICO PRESS)

he is able to identify all the people imprintedin the eyes. In other words, the Virgin’s eyesbear a kind of instant photograph of whatoccurred the moment the image was unveiledbefore the bishop.

M Delving Deeper

Delaney, John J., ed. A Woman Clothed with the Sun.New York: Doubleday, Image Books, 1961.

Our Lady of Guadalupe.http://www.sancta.org/eyes.html. 14 August 2001.

“Science Stunned by Virgin of Guadalupe’s Eyes: Engi-neer Sees a Reflection, Literally, from a Scene in1531,” Zenit News Agency, 15 January 2001.

Visions

Avision consists of something seen otherthan by ordinary sight. Throughout thecenturies, mystics, prophets, and ordi-

nary people from all religions have experi-enced visions from their deities or higher levelsof consciousness that have informed them,warned them, or enlightened them. FromGenesis to Revelation in the Bible, God usesvisions and dreams as a principal means ofcommunicating with his prophets and his peo-ple. In Numbers 12:6, God declares, “If there isa prophet among you, I the Lord make Myselfknown to him in a vision and speak to him in adream.” And in Joel 2:28: “And it shall cometo pass afterward that I shall pour out my spiritupon flesh; and your sons and your daughtersshall prophesy, your old men shall dreamdreams, your young men shall see visions.”

The great Jewish philosopher Maimonides(1135–1204) conceived of revelations receivedthrough visions as a continuous emanationfrom the Divine Being, which is transmitted toall those men and women who are endowedwith a certain imaginative faculty and whohave achieved a certain moral and mental stan-dard. The revelatory transmission is filteredthrough the medium of the active intellect,first to the visionary’s rational faculty, then tohis or her imaginative faculty. In this way thedistribution of prophetic illumination occurs inconformity with a natural law of emanation.

Roman Catholic scholarship holds thatthere are two kinds of visions. One is the

imaginative vision, in which the object seen isbut a mental concept of symbol, such asJacob’s Ladder leading up to heaven. St. Tere-sa of Avila (151–1582) had numerous visions,including images of Christ, which churchauthorities have judged were of this symbolickind of vision. The other is the corporealvision, in which the figure seen is externallypresent or in which a supernatural power hasso modified the retina of the eye as to producethe effect of three-dimensional solidarity.

In 1976 an extensive survey conducted bythe administrators of the Gallup Poll indicatedthat 31 percent of Americans had experiencedan “otherworldly” feeling of union with adivine being. The survey was based on in-homeinterviews with adults in more than 300 scien-tifically selected localities across the nation,and a further breakdown of the percentagesrevealed that 34 percent of the women polledand 27 percent of the men admitted that theyhad had a “religious experience.”

To refute the often-heard suggestion thatpeople with little formal education are morelikely to undergo such experiences, the polldisclosed little difference in the educationallevel of the respondents: college background,29 percent; high school, 31 percent; gradeschool, 30 percent. According to the pollsters,“Whether one regards these experiences as inthe nature of self-delusion or wishful thinking,the important fact remains that, for the per-sons concerned, such experiences are very realand meaningful. Most important, perhaps, isthe finding that these religious experiencesare widespread and not limited to particulargroups [or] one’s circumstances in life…rich orpoor, educated or uneducated, churched orunchurched.”

According to a press release issued by theGallup office in Princeton, New Jersey, thesekinds of experiences “appear to have a pro-found effect on the outlook and direction of aperson’s life.” A 29-year-old office worker inLynnwood, Washington, told a Gallup inter-viewer that she had been reading the Bibleone night and was unable to sleep. A visionappeared to her that rendered her frozen,motionless. “I saw an unusual light that wasn’tthere—but was,” she said. “There was a



greater awareness of someone else being inthat room with me. And ever since, it is as ifsomeone else is walking with me.”

A spokesperson for the Gallup Poll com-mented: “One of the most interesting aspectsof these phenomena is that they happen tothe nonchurched and the nonreligious as wellas to persons who attend church regularly orwho say religion plays an important role intheir lives.”

On January 23, 1994, USA Today pub-lished the results of an analysis of the mostcomprehensive data available at that time ofprivate religious experience based on anational sociological survey conducted for theNational Opinion Research Center, Universi-ty of Chicago, which reveals that more thantwo-thirds of Americans claim to have had atleast one mystical experience. According toJeffrey S. Levin, an associate professor at East-ern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Vir-ginia, such experiences as visions and the feel-ing of being connected to a powerful spiritualforce that elevates one’s consciousness arereported less by those people who are active inchurch or synagogue. All types of mysticalexperiences have been around since “timeimmemorial,” Levin acknowledges, but “somekind of stigma” may have prevented peoplefrom reporting them. However, while only 5percent of the population has such experi-ences somewhat regularly, such occurrencesare becoming “more common with each suc-cessive generation.”

As these many polls and surveys demon-strate, visions come to the religious, the non-religious, and the antireligious alike. To thepsychologist, these experiences may be revela-tions of the personal unconscious of the indi-vidual and attempts at psychic integration orpsychic wholeness. Dr. Robert E. L. Mastersand Dr. Jean Houston were among the firstresearchers to have recognized that through-out history people have sought altered statesof consciousness as gateways “to subjectiverealities.” At their Foundation for MindResearch, which they established in 1966,they concluded on the basis of hundreds ofexperiments with normal, healthy personsthat the “brain-mind system has a built-in

contact point with what is experienced asGod, fundamental reality, or the profoundlysacred.” (Time, October 5, 1970).

At the beginning of the twenty-first centu-ry, scientists have begun asking if the “brain-mind system,” with its built-in contact pointwith God or a greater reality that producessuch mystical experiences as visions, can bebetter explained in terms of neural networks,neurotransmitters, and brain chemistry.Philadelphia scientist Andrew Newberg, whowrote the book Why God Won’t Go Away(2001), says that the human brain is set up insuch a way as to have spiritual and religiousexperiences. Michael Persinger, a professor ofneuroscience at Laurentian University in Sud-bury, Ontario, conducts experiments with ahelmet-like device that runs a weak electro-magnetic signal around the skulls of volun-teers. Persinger claims that four in five peoplereport a mystical experience of some kindwhen they don this magnetic headpiece.Matthew Alper, author of The “God” Part ofthe Brain (1998), a book about the neuro-science of belief, goes so far as to declare thatdogmatic religious beliefs that insist that par-ticular faiths are unique, rather than theresults of universal brain chemistry, are irra-tional and dangerous.

Daniel Batson, a University of Kansas psy-chologist who studies the effect of religion onpeople, states that the brain may be the hard-ware through which religion is experienced,but for certain neurotheologians to say thatthe brain produces religion “is like saying apiano produces music.” In his book The Faithof Biology and the Biology of Faith (2000),Robert Pollack concedes that religious experi-ence may seem irrational to a materialistic sci-entist, but he argues that irrational experi-ences are not necessarily unreal. In fact, hestates, they can be just as real, just as much apart of being human, as those things which areknown through reason.

Numerous believers in the possibility ofexperiencing visions and religious apparitionsargue that if God created the universe, would-n’t it make sense that he would wire thehuman brain so it would be possible to havemystical experiences?



Huston Smith (1919– ), author of TheWorld’s Religions (first published as The Reli-gions of Man in 1958), was six weeks short ofearning his Ph.D. in naturalistic theism—aphilosophical system that emphasizes scienceover religion—when he happened to readphilosopher Gerald Heard’s (1889–1971) sym-pathetic treatment of the mystical experiencein Pain, Sex and Time (1939). Smith said thathe experienced an epiphany when he readHeard’s argument that mysticism is the trueexperience of God. He completed his degreein naturalistic theism, but for the next 45years he has sought out the mystic path inevery religion he has encountered. In WhyReligion Matters: The Future of Faith in an Ageof Disbelief (2001), Smith seeks to explain thedifferences between science and religion.Where science attempts to define realitythrough numbers, formulas, and facts, religionstrives to know it through spiritual practiceand devotion. “Scientism,” the belief thatonly science has all the answers, ultimatelyfails when it attempts to answer the questionsthat have troubled humans since the begin-ning of human existence—who are we…whyare we here, and how should we behave whilewe are here?

Writer Eddie Ensley believes that thevisionary dimension of spirituality has the abil-ity to transform a person and reconnecthumanity to its innate yearning for God. Ens-ley, of Native American descent, states inVisions: The Soul’s Path to the Sacred (2000),that human beings are “fashioned to see God”and nurture a “deep desire for this mystery andan ability to be open to it and receive it.” Ens-ley, who has a master’s degree in pastoral min-istry from Loyola University in New Orleans,also says that the Christian, Jewish, and NativeAmerican ancestors “understood the subtleinterrelationships of flesh and spirit more accu-rately than we do. When they received visions,they knew what to do with them.”

Because sociological, psychological, andreligious research have all discovered thatvisions are much more common than scholarsonce believed, Ensley is of the opinion thatsuch experiences should be treated differentlyby both the church and society at large. “Peo-ple who have mystical experiences are not

crazy,” he said. “Some research suggests thatthey tend to be (mentally) healthier.”

Numerous studies substantiate Ensley’shigh opinion regarding the mental health ofvisionaries. Among such studies is one con-ducted by psychologists at Carleton Universi-ty of Ottawa, Canada, published in theNovember 1993 issue of the Journal of Abnor-mal Psychology, in which they reported thatthose individuals examined who had “seem-ingly bizarre experiences,” such as mysticalvisions, missing time, and so forth, were just asintelligent and psychologically healthy asother people. Recognizing that their findingscontradicted the previously held notion thatsuch individuals had “wild imaginations” andcould be “easily swayed into believing theunbelievable,” the psychologists who hadadministered an extensive battery of psycho-logical tests to the subjects found that theytended to be “white-collar, relatively well-educated representatives of the middle class.”

Albacete, a Roman Catholic priest and aprofessor of theology at St. Joseph’s Seminaryin Yonkers, acknowledges that until recentlypsychiatric orthodoxy held the view that themore “sensational a person’s religious experi-ence (voices, visions…extraordinary mis-sions), the more pathological the underlyingconflict.” Then, in 1994, the American Psy-chiatric Association softened its position andofficially recognized the “religious or spiritual”as a normal dimension of life.

“As a believer and as a priest, as well as aformer scientist,” Albacete says that he findshimself “somewhat nervous about this blur-ring.” He suggests that it is only right that psy-chiatrists and neurologists should find it diffi-cult to incorporate the transcendent into sci-entific methodology and that they should lookupon mystics and visionaries as if they weresuffering mental disturbances. “If the religiousexperience is an authentic contact with a tran-scendent mystery, it not only will but shouldexceed the grasp of science,” he reasons. “Oth-erwise what about it would be transcendent?”

Albacete quotes Monika Grygiel, who toldhim that as a psychiatrist, she experienced“great poverty before the mystery perceived inthe religious experience.” As a psychiatrist



who was also a person of faith, she said thather hope was that she would not “destroy thepatient’s extraordinary experience, but helphim or her integrate it into the rest of life asharmoniously as possible.”

M Delving Deeper

Alper, Matthew. The “God” Part of the Brain. RoguePress, 2001.

Benson, Carmen. Supernatural Dreams & Visions.Planfield, N.J.: Logos International, 1970.

Ensley, Eddie. Visions: The Soul’s Path to the Sacred.New Orleans: Loyola Press, 2001.

Newberg, Andrew, Eugene G. D’Aquili, and VinceRause. Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Scienceand the Biology of Belief. New York: Ballantine,2001.

Smith, Huston. Why Religion Matters: The Future ofFaith in an Age of Disbelief. San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 2001.

Weeping Statues and Icons

She was like thousands of other plasterMadonnas manufactured at a plant inSicily and sold throughout the country

for a few lira. This particular Madonna wassold as a wedding present from a friend whodecided that such a statue would be an appro-priate gift for Antionetta and Angelo Iannus-co, who were married in Syracuse, Sicily, inthe spring of 1953. Then, on the morning ofAugust 29, 1953, as Antionetta prayeddevoutly to the Blessed Mother to grant hersurcease from the pains of her pregnancy, thestatue began to weep.

At first her mother-in-law and sister-in-lawwere skeptical, but then they witnessed a virtu-al torrent of tears flowing from the eyes of theplaster Madonna. Angelo, who prided himselfon his atheistic philosophy and communisticpolitics, became so moved by the apparentsupernatural manifestation that he left theCommunist Party and assisted the priest as hesaid mass over the weeping Madonna.

Doubting neighbors, cynical journalists,and rational, scientific investigators were baf-fled by the phenomenon of the weeping statuein the Iannusco household. When news of the

miracle Madonna spread throughout Italy,thousands of people hurried to view it forthemselves. The southeastern Sicilian com-munity’s hotels were quickly swamped withrequests for accommodation.

Before the Iannusco’s home could becrushed by the onslaught of curious pilgrims,the Syracuse Police Department agreed toremove the little Madonna to their headquar-ters for safekeeping. As the squad car movedthrough the streets, a patrolman carefully heldthe statue on his lap. Soon his jacket wasdrenched with tears. A skeptical detectivecaught several tears in a chemist’s vial and,without identifying the liquid, sent the speci-men to a police laboratory for analysis. Thenext morning the irritated director of the labberated him for wasting his time analyzingsuch substances as human tears.

Hardly any time passed before the crip-pled, the lame, and the ill from all over Italywere soon gathering before the weepingMadonna. The tears were caught on a clothand wiped on the bodies of the afflicted. Amiddle-aged man recovered the use of a crip-pled arm. A three-year-old girl stricken withpolio was able to discard the stainless steelbraces that had encased her twisted legs. An18-year-old girl who had been struck dumb 11years before began to speak. Hundreds of oth-ers claimed to have received a healing blessingfrom the tears of the little Madonna.

The Madonna’s tears ceased to flow on thefourth day of the phenomenon, but exactlyone month later, the statue was carriedthrough the streets of Syracuse at the head ofa procession of 30,000 people. Since that day,thousands of pilgrims have flocked to theshrine of the little Madonna, including morethan a hundred bishops and archbishops andseveral cardinals. Her glassed-wall case,capped with a bronze cross, is surrounded bydozens of crutches and braces that have beenleft there as silent testimony of hundreds ofmiracle healings. Hopeful that their citywould become known as the “Italian Lourdes,”the citizens of Syracuse purchased a 12-acresite and constructed a lattice-type pagodashrine for the Madonna. Large ramps lead upto the entrance and the 400-foot high walls.





Aman named Fabio Gregori of Civitavecchia,near Rome, became extremely devoutafter surviving an automobile crash in1993. To aid in his devotions, his priest

Father Pablo gave him a 17-inch replica of the statue ofthe Madonna that now stands in Medjugorje, Bosnia.Father Pablo blessed the statuette with holy water andtold Gregori that Mary would be his guardian. Rever-ently, Gregori placed the image in a niche in the back-yard grotto that he had created for his family’s prayers.

On February 2, 1995, Gregori and his wife were get-ting ready to attend church when their daughter ran intothe house shouting that the statue was crying tears ofblood. The statue of Mother Mary wept tears of bloodfor the next four days. Soon the grotto was overrun bythousands people. Many soaked handkerchiefs in theblood, and some claimed that they were healed of theirafflictions after wiping the blood on their bodies.

When word of the miracle reached Bishop Giro-lamo Grillo, he requested that the statue be turnedover to the church for scientific examination. Gregoriwillingly complied, and the commission assembled byBishop Grillo conducted an extensive examination ofthe statue, which included X-rays and a CAT scan.

Bishop Grillo admitted his initial skepticism, butwhen the commission found no evidence of trickeryand determined that the tears were composed ofhuman blood, he had changed his mind.

After the examination, the tears of blood ceased.But thousands of pilgrims continued to seek healingand inspiration from the statuette, and it was placed inthe St. Agostino church in Pantano, near Civitavecchia.

Bishop Grillo’s conversion to the authenticity ofthe weeping Madonna did little to quiet the accusa-tions of fraud that had begun to arise from skeptics.Amid the controversy, Fabio Gregori and his familywere named often as the most likely instigators of thedeception. In spite of his denials, skeptics continuedtheir investigations of the weeping Madonna.

Later, a DNA examination of the bloodstainsrevealed that they were from a male, and researchers

argued that if the tears were the Madonna’s blood, theyshould have come from a female. Gregori was suspect-ed of placing drops of his own blood upon the statuette.Bishop Grillo said it had bled when it was far away fromGregori; he stated that the male blood was Jesus’, notMother Mary’s, which resulted in the critics accusingBishop Grillo of perpetrating a “pious fraud.”

Although it will perhaps remain a subject of con-troversy, each year the statuette attracts thousandsof pilgrims and is said to be responsible for scores ofmiracles.

Sources:

Kirsta, Alix. “The Crying Game.” The Guardian, 18 December 2000.

Steiger, Brad and Sherry Hansen Steiger. Mother Mary Speaks

to Us. New York: Dutton, 1996.

Weeping Statues Archive. http://www.mcn.org/1/miracles/

weeping.html. 24 October 2001.

Tears of Blood

Thirty-six small chapels surround the shrineand await the devout.

In a message to the Sicilians in 1958, PopePius XII (1876–1958) said: “So ardent are thepeople of Sicily in their devotion to Mary thatwho would marvel if she had chosen the illustri-ous city of Syracuse to give a sign of her grace?”

While the skeptical explain weeping stat-ues and icons of the Madonna, Jesus (c. 6B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.), or other holy figures asbizarre moisture condensation at best and asoutright fraud at the worst, throughout theworld and all of Roman Catholic Christen-dom, the ordinary statues or paintings becomehighly venerated objects of faith. As the oldsaying goes, “For those who believe, no expla-nation is needed. For those who do notbelieve, no explanation is possible.”

Just before Christmas in 1996, a paintingof Jesus was seen by hundreds of eyewitnessesto be weeping red tears. This painting was noordinary icon, for it hangs in the BethlehemChurch of the Nativity, above the spot whereChristian tradition maintains Jesus was born.A Muslim cleaning lady was the first to see alight that came from the painting just prior tothe tears flowing from the eyes of Jesus. Sinceher sighting, thousands of Christians of alldenominations, along with many Jews andMuslims, have witnessed the tears.

Among other recent manifestations ofweeping statues and icons are the following:

Rooty Hill, near Sydney, Australia: Since1994, tears have streamed from the eyes of astatue of Our Lady of Fatima in a small, pri-vate home.

Grangecon, Ireland: Three weeks after aretired postmaster and her daughter noticedtears and drops of blood tricking from the eye ofa statue of the Madonna one day in 1994, 3,000visitors from all over the world had arrived towitness the phenomenon for themselves.

The phenomena associated with the ma-donnas and the icons of various saints andholy figures that appear to issue tears areworldwide. To the skeptical, such phenomenacan be easily explained as moisture gatheringin the eye hollows of the statues due to con-densation, sudden changes in humidity, or

outright fraud. The weeping of blood is dis-missed as normal condensation colored by thereddish-hued paints so often used in the for-mation of religious statues. For the faithful,who point to dozens of dramatic healings,hundreds of mystical experiences, and thou-sands of religious conversions as their evi-dence that something supernatural is occur-ring around these icons, such phenomena asthe weeping madonnas are likely to be inter-preted as physical signs that the spiritual pres-ence of the holy figure is with them.

M Delving Deeper

Delaney, John J. ed. A Woman Clothed with the Sun.Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961.

Hayford, Jack. The Mary Miracle. Ventura, Calif.:Gospel Light, 1994.

Kirkwood, Annie. Mary’s Message of Hope. NevadaCity, Calif.: Blue Dolphin Publishing, 1995.



Bleeding Rosa Mystica

statue. (FORTEAN PICTURE

LIBRARY)

Steiger, Brad and Sherry Hansen Steiger. Mother MarySpeaks to Us: Life-Changing Encounters with theVirgin Mary. New York: Dutton, 1997.

Weeping Statues Archives. http://www.mcn.org/1/ Mir-acles/weeparchive.htm. 1 October 2001.

Zimdars-Swartz, Sandral. Encountering Mary. NewYork: Avon Books, 1992.


Antichrist The antagonist or opponent ofJesus Christ (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.), who isanticipated by many early as well as con-temporary Christians to lead the worldinto evil before Christ returns to Earth toredeem and rescue the faithful. Can alsorefer to any person who is in opposition toor an enemy of Jesus Christ or his teach-ings, as well as to those who claim to beChrist, but in fact are false and misleading.

apocalypse From the Greek apokalupsis,meaning “revelation.” In the Bible, theBook of Revelation is often referred to asthe Apocalypse. Comes from many anony-mous, second-century B.C.E. and later Jew-

ish and Christian texts that containprophetic messages pertaining to a greattotal devastation or destruction of theworld and the salvation of the righteous.

Armageddon From late Latin Armagedon,Greek and Hebrew, har megiddo, megiddon,which is the mountain region of Megiddo.Megiddo is the site where the great finalbattle between good and evil will befought as prophesied and will be a decisivecatastrophic event that many believe willbe the end of the world.

Bhagavad Gita From Sanskrit Bhagavadgi ta,meaning “song of the blessed one.” AHindu religious text, consisting of 700verses, in which the Hindu god, Krishna,teaches the importance of unattachmentfrom personal aims to the fulfillment ofreligious duties and devotion to God.

cosmic consciousness The sense or specialinsight of one’s personal or collectiveawareness in relation to the universe or auniversal scheme.

cosmic sense The awareness of one’s identityand actions in relationship to the universeor universal scheme of things.

demon possession When low-level disincar-nate spirits invade and take over a humanbody.

eschatology Comes from the Greek wordeskhatos meaning “last” and -logy literallymeaning “discourse about the last things.”Refers to the body of religious doctrinesconcerning the human soul in relation todeath, judgment, heaven or hell, or in gen-eral, life after death and of the final stageor end of the world.

Five Pillars of Islam In Arabic, also calledthe arkan, and consists of the five sacredritual duties believed to be central tomainstream Muslims’ faith. The five dutiesare: the confession of faith, performing thefive daily prayers, fasting during the monthof Ramadan, paying alms tax, and perform-ing at least one sacred pilgrimage toMecca, the holy land.

guardian angel A holy, divine being thatwatches over, guides, and protects humans.



The weeping statue of

Rosa Mystica in

Maamechelen, Belgium.


Mesopotamia Greek word, meaning“between two rivers.” An ancient regionthat was located between the Tigris andEuphrates rivers in what is today, modernIraq and Syria. Some of the world’s earliestand greatest ancient civilizations such asUr, Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia weredeveloped in that region.

Old Testament The first of the two maindivisions of the Christian Bible that corre-sponds to the Hebrew scriptures.

omen A prophetic sign, phenomenon, orhappening supposed to portend good orevil or indicate how someone or some-thing will fare in the future.

Qur’an (Koran) The sacred text, or holybook, of Islam. For Muslims, it is the veryword of Allah, the absolute God of theIslamic faith, as revealed to the prophet

Muhammad (c. 570C.E.–632 C.E.) by thearchangel Gabriel.

shamanic exorcism When a shaman, or trib-al medicine-holy person, performs a cere-monial ritual to expel the disincarnatespirits from a person.

Tanakh (Also known as Tanach.) From theHebrew tenak, an acronym formed fromtorah. It is the sacred book of Judaism, con-sisting of the Torah—the five books ofMoses, The Nevi’im—the words of theprophets, and the Kethuvim—the writings.

tribulation Great affliction, trial, or distress.In Christianity, the tribulation refers tothe prophesied period of time which pre-cedes the return of Jesus Christ to Earth, inwhich there will be tremendous sufferingthat will test humanity’s endurance,patience, or faith.



Chapter 4

Mystery Religions

and Cults

Throughout the history of organized

religion there have been congregants who

became dissatisfied with the structure of

orthodoxy. These people left to develop

their own forms of worship. The new

groups were considered heretical by the

mainstream religions, and were branded as

“cults.” In other instances, those who

practiced ancient forms of deity worship

that were before the more recently

established religions were identified as

“devil-worshippers.” In this chapter, a

number of faith groups that have been

called cults and heresies are examined.

255

Chapter Exploration

Egyptian Mystery Schools

AkhenatenIsis

Osiris

Greek Mystery Schools

DelphiDionysusEleusis

Christian Mystery Schools,Cults, Heresies

Black MadonnaCathars

GnosticismManichaeism

Tribal Mysteries

Ghost DanceMacumbaSanteria

Satanic Cults

The Rise of Satanismin the Middle Ages

Black MassCatherine Montvoisin

Gilles de Rais

Anton LaVey’sFirst Church of Satan

Temple of Set

UFO Cults

Aetherius SocietyHeaven’s GateThe Raelians

Twentieth-CenturySpiritual Expression

Branch DavidiansEckanar

Falun GongOrder of the Solar Temple

The People’s TempleScientology

Introduction

From the very beginnings of organizedreligion in Egypt, Sumer, and Babylonia(c. 3000 B.C.E.), certain members of the

established or state religion have become dis-satisfied with the structure of orthodox wor-ship and have broken away from the largergroup to create what they believe to be a morespiritually transcendent and personal form ofreligious expression. Sometimes these splintergroups are organized around the revelationsand visions of a single individual, who is rec-ognized as a prophet by his or her followers.Because the new revelator’s teaching mayseem unorthodox or heretical to the beliefs ofthe larger body of worshippers, its membersare branded as cultists or heretics. In otherinstances, those practitioners of ancient wis-dom who celebrate the rituals of a religionthat existed long before the dominant faithhad established itself are condemned as devil-worshippers. It has been observed that the godof the old religion often becomes the devil ofthe faith that has supplanted it.

Often, the members of cults are forced tomeet in secret due to oppression by the estab-lished majority religion and the state orbecause of their own wishes to practice theirfaith in private. Because these groups oftenrequire their members to swear to maintainthe strictest of silence and secrecy regardingthe rites and rituals employed by their reli-gion, the general term “mysteries” is oftenapplied to them. The word “mystery” comesfrom the Greek word myein, “to close,” refer-ring to the need of the mystes, the initiate, toclose his or her eyes and lips and to keepsecret the rites of the cult.

In ancient times, the students who wouldbe initiates of the mystery schools were wellaware that they must undergo the rigors of dis-ciplined study and the training of body, soul,and spirit. In order to attain the self-masterydemanded by the priests of the mysteries, thenewcomers understood that they wouldundergo a complete restructuring of theirphysical, moral, and spiritual being. Thepriests, the hierophants, preached that only bydeveloping one’s faculties of will, intuition,and reason to an extraordinary degree could

one ever gain access to the hidden forces inthe universe. Only through complete masteryof body, soul, and spirit could one see beyonddeath and perceive the pathways to be takenin the afterlife. Many times these mysterieswere taught in the form of a play and celebrat-ed away from the cities in sacred groves or insecret temples.

In contemporary usage, the word “cult”generally carries with it very negative conno-tations and associations. Many men andwomen, who draw upon stereotypes created bysensationalism in the media, hear the wordand immediately think of devil-worshipperssacrificing babies or black-swathed zealots,carrying bombs under their robes, intent onblowing up a church, synagogue, or mosque inorder to appease their angry god of wrath. Toooften, it seems, the word “cult” has becomesynonymous with “hate,” and religious hatredstend to have long memories.

Writing in the March 15, 1993, issue ofTime magazine, Lance Morrow suggested thatevery cult is a kind of nationalism withcitadels that “bristle with intolerant claritiesand with high-caliber weapons.” Scratch anyaggressive tribalism or nationalism surface andone is likely to find “a religious core, someolder binding energy of belief or superstition,previous to civic consciousness, previousalmost to thought.” Here, Morrow discovered,is the great paradox—God-love, the life-force,the deepest well of compassion “is capable oftransforming itself into a death force, with thepeculiar annihilating energies of belief.”

A number of apocalyptic cults, such asAUM Supreme Truth, the Branch Davidians,and the People’s Temple, have seen signs incontemporary society that they have inter-preted as omens that the end-times are fastapproaching. Because these groups want toisolate their members and prepare to defendthemselves during Armageddon, they havefrightened the general population by theirstockpiling of arms and their occasional anti-social acts. The mass suicides carried out bymembers of Heaven’s Gate, People’s Temple,and Order of the Solar Temple have also pre-sented negative and alarming images of whatmany believe to be typical cultist practice.


Mystery Religions and Cults256

However, for every Heaven’s Gate seeking tosend its members to a “higher level” aboard aUFO, there is an Aetherius Society, whereinits members simply wish to convey the mes-sages of hope and good will that they believewas given to them by the Space Brothers,extraterrestrial visitors in the skies. For everyAUM Supreme Truth releasing poison gas in acrowded Japanese train station, there is aFalun Gong that trains its members to beemissaries of peace and champions of civilrights in China. Caution must be used inlabeling any seemingly unorthodox group ofreligionists as a cult; what is regarded as anti-social or blasphemous expression by some maybe hailed as sincere spiritual witness by others.

M Delving Deeper



Morrow, Lance. “In the Name of God.” Time, 15March 1993, pp. 24–25.


Steiger, Brad. The Fellowship: Spiritual ContactBetween Humans and Outer Space Beings. NewYork: Doubleday, 1988.

Egyptian Mystery Schools

For more than 3,000 years, the mysteryschools of Egypt have epitomized theultimate in secret wisdom and knowl-

edge. As in ancient times, certain contempo-rary scholars and researchers insist that thegreat teachers who presided over the Egyptianmystery schools had to have come from someextraordinary place. Perhaps, it has been theo-rized, they were wise masters who survived thedestruction of the lost continent of Atlantisand made their way to the early civilization ofEgypt, where they helped elevate it to a great-ness far in advance of other cultures of thatera. Some have even suggested that the entityknown as the god Osiris was an extraterrestrialastronaut from the Pleiades, who first visitedEgypt in prehistoric times when it was com-posed of barbaric tribes. Because he came from


257Mystery Religions and Cults

EGYPTIAN GODS

AND GODDESSES

• Amen: A creation-deity

• Anubis: God of the dead

• Bast: Cat goddess

• Bes: God to guard against evil spirits and misfortune

• Chons: God of the moon

• Dua: Protector of the stomach of the dead

• Geb: God of the Earth

• Hathor: Cow goddess

• Isis: Mother goddess

• Ka: God for the vital force of life

• Maat: Goddess of truth and justice

• Min: Egyptian fertility god

• Mut: Wife of Amen, mother of Khons

• Nephthys: Goddess of the dead

• Nut: Goddess of the sky and of the heavens

• Osiris: God of the underworld and of vegetation

• Qetesh: Goddess of love and beauty

• Ra: God of the sun

• Selket: Goddess of childbirth

• Set: God of chaos

• Shu: God of the air

• Sobek: Crocodile god

• Taweret: Hippopotamus goddess and protective deity of childbirth

• Wepwawet: God of war and of funerals

Source:

“Social Science Data Lab: Egyptian Gods Theme.” http://sobek.colorado.edu/LAB/GODS/

index.html. 12 November 2002.

an advanced extraterrestrial culture, say theproponents of this theory, he was considered agod and became the founder of the mysteryschools and raised the primitive Egyptians’standard of living to a remarkable degree.

Even many conservative scholars of thehistory of religion have a sense that the mys-tery schools of Egypt contain within theirteachings a particular knowledge that came, ifnot from prehistoric times, from ancienttimes. The earliest human records legible, thePyramid Texts of Egypt (c. 3000 B.C.E.), con-tain many prayers that are quoted from a farmore ancient period, and it is apparent thatthe prayers were used in the texts as magicalformulas and spells.

The mysterious first initiator into thesesacred doctrines was known as Toth and laterto the Greeks by his more familiar name ofHermes. Hermes-Toth is a generic name thatdesignates a man, a caste, and a god at thesame time. As a man, Hermes-Toth is theoriginator of a powerful system of magic andits first initiator; as a caste, he represents thepriesthood, the repository of ancient wisdom;as a god, Hermes becomes Mercury for theGreeks, the god who delivers messages to mor-tals from the Olympiad and the god who initi-ates mortals into transcendent mysteries.Later, the Greek disciples of this secret tradi-tion would call him Hermes Trismegistus(three times great), and he would be creditedfor originating the material contained in 42books of esoteric science.

In the time of the Ramses (c. 1300 B.C.E.),Egypt shone as a beacon light of civilizationthroughout the known world, and while theleaders of foreign nations sought to barter forthe empire’s rich produce in order to avert

local famines and to make treaties withpharaoh in order to avert his military might,seekers of the divine sciences came from thedistant shores of Asia Minor and Greece tostudy in the sanctuaries with magi and hiero-phants who they believed could give them thesecrets of immortality. The students whowould be initiates of the mystery schools werewell aware that they must undertake the rigorsof disciplined study and the training of body,soul, and spirit. They had heard from formerinitiates that in order to attain the masterydemanded by the priests of the mysteries thatthe newcomers would undergo a completerestructuring of their physical, moral, and spir-itual being. According to the credo of themysteries, only by developing one’s faculties ofwill, intuition, and reason to an extraordinarydegree could one ever gain access to the hid-den forces in the universe. Only through com-plete mastery of body, soul, and spirit couldone see beyond death and perceive the path-ways to be taken in the afterlife. Only whenone has conquered fate and acquired divinefreedom could he or she, the initiate, becomea seer, a magician, an initiator.

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 580–c. 500 B.C.E.) learned the secret doctrine ofnumbers, the heliocentric system of the uni-verse, music, astrology, astronomy, mathemat-ics, and geometry from the powerful EgyptianMagi. Before he established his own school ofphilosophy in southern Italy, Pythagoras spent22 years in the temples of Egypt as an initiatein the ancient mysteries.

A particularly interesting aspect of theEgyptian mystery schools is that for centuriesthe pharaohs themselves were the pupils andinstruments of the hierophants, the magi-cians, who presided over the temples and cultsof Isis and Osiris. Each pharaoh received hisinitiation name from the temple, and thepriests were honored with the roles of coun-selors and advisors to the throne. Some haveeven referred to the rule of ancient Egypt asgovernment of the initiates.

Although the ancient Egyptians neverappeared to produce a philosophical system inthe manner of the Greeks or the Romans, themysteries produced a remarkable number of



THE earliest, legible human records, known asthe Pyramid Texts of Egypt (c. 3000 B.C.E.),

contained many prayers which were used as magicalformulas and spells.

systematized theologies that dealt with theessential questions about the true nature ofhumankind and its relationship to the cosmos.The hierophants created theological con-structs and formulated esoteric answers thatbrought initiates and aspirants to the greatreligious cities of Heliopolis, Memphis, Her-mopolis magna, Abydos, and Thebes.

M Delving Deeper


Cotterell, Arthur, ed. Encyclopedia of World Mytholo-gy. London: Dempsey Parr Book, 1999.



Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt.Cam-bridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.

Akhenaten

Some scholars credit the pharaoh AmenhotepIV, who ruled Egypt (c. 1358–1340 B.C.E.),with being an astonishing visionary who con-ceived of monotheism in a time when multi-ple gods flourished. Amenhotep IV chose tocall himself Akhenaten. Because of his revolu-tionary religious views, his contemporarieschose to call him “heretic,” and he remains acontroversial historical figure to this day.

During the so-called Old Kingdom period ofEgyptian history (c. 2700–2185 B.C.E.), pharaohswere considered to be divine, representatives ofthe many gods of ancient Egypt, and the earthlyincarnation of the “Great God,” the sun god, Ra.During the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1785B.C.E.) when the Egyptian power base shiftedfrom Heliopolis, near the junction of Upper andLower Egypt, to Thebes in Upper Egypt, theTheban god “Amun” became combined with Rato become Amun-Ra. Although he was general-ly depicted in human form, Amun-Ra was stillconsidered the Great God/Creator Being andstill identified with the sun, and since Egyptunder the Theban kings entered into a period ofgreat power and posterity, he was esteemed as amighty and benevolent god.

When Amenhotep IV became pharoahabout the year 1367 B.C.E., he inherited his

father’s name, as well as his throne. Amen-hotep means “Amun is content,” but theyoung ruler neglected his responsibility toAmun and paid special attention to the “aten,”the representation of the sun’s disc and a sym-bol of the sun god Ra. While there is evidencethat the pharoah’s mother, Queen Tiye, mayhave been associated with a cult of the Atenand may have been influential in her son’sgrowing belief in a single god; his spiritual pathwas established at an early age. Choosing tocall himself Akhenaten (It is pleasing to theAten), the pharoah declared that there wasonly one god, his father Aten. By his royaldecree, the worship of Amun was to be sup-pressed and his very name was to be chiseledaway from any statues, monuments, temples, orcity walls throughout all of Egypt. Likewise,images of all of the ancient representations ofthe Egyptian gods—Osiris, Horus, Isis, and soforth—were to be destroyed. Even the cen-turies-old Osirian funerary rites were to beabandoned and the name of Osiris was to bereplaced in the mortuary texts by prayers to theAten. Aten also directed Akhenaten to disas-sociate himself with the city sacred to Amun,and to establish a new holy city, a new capitalfor Egypt, called Akhetaton or Amarna



Pharoah Akhenaten.


(known today as Tell el-Amarna), 300 milesnorth of Thebes. The mystically enlightenedAkhenaten stayed true to tradition only inthat he, as pharoah, was the single mostunique son of the sun god on Earth and onlythrough his physical being could other mortalsapproach the Great God.

Akhenaten insisted upon naturalism in allof Egyptian life, including its artistic represen-tation of the pharoah and his family. Such acommand to portray only truth in art gave pos-terity a unique portrait of this religious reformerwho so jarred history. While the portraits andthe famous statue of his queen, Nefertiti, haveallowed her to be recognized as one of the greatbeauties of the ages, the king himself appears tohave been far from majestic in appearance.Narrow-shouldered and pear-shaped in body,his head is abnormally elongated with a droop-ing jaw. Only in his mysterious, pensive eyesdoes one glimpse a fleeting shadow of the soulthat sought to persuade a kingdom to under-stand his belief in monotheism.

For the 17 or so years of his reign, Akhen-aten was so absorbed in preaching his newfaith that he sought to conquer no new terri-tories—nor did he heed the reports of his mili-tary commanders and allies to shore up thedefenses of Egypt’s borders. To the dismay ofthose who had grown wealthy with the expan-sion of the Egyptian empire, Akhenaten wasnot the great warrior-pharoah that so many ofhis predecessors to the throne had been. Nei-ther was he an effective missionary, for theangry, dispossessed priests of Amun and theoutcast servants of the many other gods onlybided their time to resume control of the spiri-tual needs of the Egyptian people. While somescholars maintain that Akhenaten’s experi-ment in monotheism has had lasting effectupon the religions of today, the cult of Atenappeared to have had no real lasting effectupon the religious framework of Egypt.

Recent scholarship has suggested thatabout the twelfth year of his reign, Nefertitiand Akhenaten became estranged and that hemay have taken another queen who mightbear him a son. Others have argued he elevat-ed his son-in-law Smenkhkare to share thethrone with him in a kind of co-rulership

capacity. Still other scholars have debated thatNefertiti herself ascended the throne afterAkhenaten died a natural death or was killedby those who condemned him as a heretic. Allthat is certain is that the son-in-law who suc-ceeded Akhenaten soon changed his namefrom Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun, therebyindicating his allegiance to the Theban god ofAmun, rather than Aten, the god of Akhenat-en. It is also evident that the priests and fol-lowers of Amun achieved their revenge on theheretic pharoah by obliterating his name andthe name of his god from all monuments, stat-ues, temples, and city walls throughout Egypt.

In 1907, a mummy was found in a violatedtomb in the Biban-el-Moluk that some Egyptol-ogists theorized might well contain the remainsof Akhenaten. While such claims have not yetbeen verified, perhaps modern pathology mightone day solve another controversy that has beenprovoked by the mystical pharoah.

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Aldred, Cyril. Akhenaten: King of Egypt. London:Thames and Hudson, 1989.

Assmann, Jan. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory ofEgypt in Western Monotheism. Cambridge: Har-vard University Press, 1997.



Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. Cam-bridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.

Isis

Around the year 2000 B.C.E. Egypt was invadedand partially conquered by bands of shepherd-kings from Asia called Hyksos, who occupiedthe areas of the Delta and Middle Egypt. Theinvaders brought with them a culture that wascorrupt by Egyptian standards, and for a time itseemed as though the life and soul of Egypt wasthreatened. However, the priesthood that keptalive the ancient knowledge of Hermes with-drew to hidden sanctuaries and temples andpracticed the secret mysteries. While they out-wardly bowed to the foreign gods, they main-tained their old traditions and believed in atime when the dynasties of Egypt would berestored in all their magnificence.



It was during this time that the priestsbegan to propagate the legend of Isis, goddessof enchantment and magic, and her husbandOsiris, father of the great war god Horus,finally conqueror of northern Upper Egypt.Osiris came into conflict with Set, who killedand dismembered him, scattering his bodyparts in the Nile. Death didn’t eliminateOsiris, for Isis, incarnation of the divinemother goddess, used her magic to put himback together. Osiris and his doctrines wereconcerned with the problems of life, death,resurrection, and an afterlife.

The initiate who wished to attain masteryover the mysteries of life after death would besent to knock at the door of the great temple ofThebes or of Memphis. Here, he had been told,the priests could teach what Isis and Osiris knew.If the newcomer were admitted, the priest ofOsiris would question him about the place of hisbirth, his family lineage, and the temple wherehe had received his elementary instruction. In abrief but revealing interrogation, if the studentwas found unworthy of the mysteries, he wouldbe sent quickly away. If the seeker appeared to beone who sincerely desired to learn the truth ofthe mysteries, he would be led through a corridorto an underground crypt where a large statue ofIsis hid the doorway to an inner sanctuary. Thegoddess’s face was veiled, with an inscriptionthat advised all initiates that no mortal couldever lift her veil and look upon her true featuresuntil the moment of death.

Within the hidden sanctuary were twocolumns, one colored black, the other red.The priest explained to the novice that thered column represented the ascension of thespirit into the light of Osiris, while the blackone signified the captivity of the spirit inphysical matter. Whoever sought the myster-ies risked madness or death, the initiate waswarned. Once the door closed behind him, hewould no longer be able to turn back.

Those novices who chose to go forwardwere assigned a week of menial tasks workingwith the temple servants and forced to observea strict silence. When the evening of theordeals arrived, two neocoros, assistants of thehierophant, led the candidate to the secretsanctuary, a dark room where statues of the

ancient gods and goddesses, entities withhuman bodies and animal heads, appearedforeboding and threatening in the flickeringtorchlight. On the far side of the room, a holein the wall, flanked by a human skeleton and amummy, appeared just large enough for some-one to enter on hands and knees. Here, thenovice was given another opportunity to turnback. Or, if he had the courage, he was to crawlinto the tunnel and continue on his way.

With only a small lamp to drive back theshadows of the cramped corridor, the novicecrawled on his hands and knees, hearing overand over a deep sepulchral voice warning thatfools who coveted knowledge were certain toperish in the tunnel. As the initiate proceededforward, he eventually found himself in awider area where he began to descend an ironladder. But as he reached the lowest rung, hesaw below him only a gaping abyss. Thereseemed no choice left to him. He could not goback, and he could surely die if he stepped offthe ladder into what might be a drop of thou-sands of feet into the blackness below him.

It was at this point that the fortunate initi-ate, if the oil in his small lamp had held out,



Isis. (ARCHIVE

PHOTOS, INC.)

would notice a staircase carved into a crevice tohis right. Stepping into the crevice and ascend-ing the spiral staircase, he would find himselfentering a great hall and being congratulatedby a magician called a pastophor, a guardian ofsacred symbols, for having passed the first test.

Before the next ordeal, the pastophorexplained the sacred paintings and the 22 secretsymbols on the walls of the great hall. Theserepresented the 22 first mysteries and the alpha-bet of their secret science, the universal keys,the source of all wisdom and power. Each letterand each number given in the language of themysteries had its repercussion in the worlds ofthe divine, the intellectual, and the physical.

The second test involved passing througha great furnace of flames. Those initiates whorefused, protesting that to enter such a wall offire could only result in death, never got closeenough to see that it was all a clever opticalillusion and that there was a safe pathwaythrough the middle. Following the trial by firewas the trial by water, which offered no illu-sion, but only a walk through a chest-highdark and stagnant pool.

Two assistants helped pull the novice fromthe dank pool, escorted him to a room with atub filled with warm and perfumed water, thenleft him to dry off and to dress in fine linenswhile awaiting the hierophant. Exhaustedfrom his ordeals, the initiate could enjoy thebath, and later lie on a soft bed to relax whileawaiting the priest.

Soon music sounded from an invisiblegroup of musicians, and within a few moments,a lovely young woman, appearing much likethe goddess Isis herself, entered the roomwhere the initiate lay resting upon the bed.Heavy with perfumes, moving in rhythm tothe sounds of harp, flute, and drum, the per-sonification of Isis would do her best to temptand seduce the novice.

If she succeeded, the initiate failed. Hewould be sent away from the temple with theadmonishment that he had triumphed overdeath, fire, and water, but he had not learnedto conquer himself. He had succumbed to thefirst temptation of the senses that he encoun-tered after the tests, and he fallen into theabyss of matter.

If, however, the initiate had resisted theseductress, 12 neocoros would enter the roomto lead him in triumph into the sanctuary ofIsis, where the priests awaited him beneath amassive statue of the goddess. Beneath thisrepresentation of Isis, a gold rose at her breast,wearing a crown of seven rays, and holdingher son Horus in her arms, the aspirant wouldtake oaths of silence and submission as a disci-ple of Isis. From that day forward, he would bea recipient of the mysteries of Isis.

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Imel, Martha Ann, and Dorothy Myers. Goddesses inWorld Mythology. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1995.

Schure, Edouard. The Great Initiates. New York: Harp-er & Row, 1961.

Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. New York:Barnes & Noble Books, 1993.

Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Mythsand Secrets. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.

Young, Dudley. Origins of the Sacred. New York: St.Martins, 1991.

Osiris

The god Osiris appears in the Pyramid Texts(c. 2400 B.C.E.), the earliest of Egyptianrecords, as the deity of the royal mortuary ritu-al. The ancient myths proclaim that Osiris firstreceived renown as a good king, a peacefulleader of a higher culture in the eastern Delta,then as a powerful lord over all the Delta.Although Osiris was eventually slain by an evilbeing called Set, it was believed that the greatking’s power conquered the grave and enabledhim to be resurrected. Henceforth, beginningwith the pharoahs and later to all who couldafford mummification, all those who paidhomage to Osiris would gain eternal life.

Down through the centuries, Osiris wastransformed into a veritable god of the Nileand its vegetation, growth, life, and culture.He was the husband of Isis, goddess ofenchantment and magic; father of the greatwar god Horus; and conqueror of northernUpper Egypt with his principal city at Abydos.

The cult of Osiris was established at Abydos,where he became known as the Lord of the



Death or Lord of the West, referring to his mas-tery over all those who had traveled “west” intothe sunset of death. An initiate into the cultwould be led at dusk into the lower crypt of thetemple by four priests carrying torches. In a cor-ner of the crypt was an open marble sarcophagussupported by four pillars placed upon foursphinxes. The chief priest of the mystery wouldadvise the aspirant that no man could everescape death, but every soul who died was alsodestined to be resurrected and to receive lifeanew. Those who would be a priest of Osirismust enter the tomb alive and await his light.He must spend the night in the coffin and enterthrough the door of fear to achieve mastery.

The initiate would lie down in the opensarcophagus and be left alone in the crypt. Thepriests would leave him a small lamp whichwould soon use up its reservoir of oil. Fromsomewhere outside the tomb, he would be ableto hear priests chanting his funeral song. Thenhe would be alone in the darkness, feeling thecold of the grave close in upon him.

Perhaps the initiate would experience a lifereview or begin to see colors and lights appeararound him. This illumination, he believed,was the light of Osiris come to bring himvisions. Some aspirants might claim to havehad conversations with Isis or Osiris. Othersmight visualize themselves in the land of thedead, walking and talking with departed spiritsand receiving special teachings from Osiris.

Those who survived the night alone inthe sarcophagus were awakened by the priestswho proclaimed the initiate’s resurrectionand who brought him refreshing food anddrink. Later, at an appropriate time in thetemple of Osiris, the newly initiated memberof the cult would be asked to describe anyvisions that he experienced or any propheticmessages that he received while on the jour-ney of light with Osiris.

The theology of Osiris that promised resur-rection soon overshadowed that of the sun godRa (Re). Ra was a creator god, fundamentallysolar, a king by nature, whose theology con-cerned itself with the world—its origin, cre-ation, and the laws that governed it. Osiris andhis doctrines were concerned with the prob-lems of life, death, resurrection, and an after-

life. The connection between the two deitieswas Horus, who was a sky god of the heavensand also the dutiful son and heir of Osiris.

The cosmology of Osiris may be dividedinto two periods. The earliest period extendedto the time of the Pyramid Texts (c. 3000B.C.E.). He was known as a peaceful politicalpower, an administrator of a higher culture,the unifying factor in bringing the Delta andnorthern Upper Egypt into one realm, theideal husband and father, and after his death,the god of resurrection. The second periodextended from the time of the Pyramid Textsto the common era when he was primarily godof the dead and king of the underworld.



Osiris, god of the

Underworld, is

considered to be a

symbol of resurrection.

(ARCHIVE PHOTOS, INC.)

OSIRIS became known as the Lord of theDeath or Lord of the West, referring to his masteryover all those who had traveled “west” into the sunsetof death.

According to the scholar E. A. W. Budge,“[Osiris] was the god-man who suffered, anddied, and rose again, and reigned eternally inheaven. They [the Egyptians] believed thatthey would inherit eternal life, just as he haddone.” When an ancient Egyptian died, thedeceased expected to appear before Osiris,who would be sitting upon his throne, waitingto pass judgment on him or her. The deceasedwould be led into a room by the jackal-head-ed god Anubis, followed by the goddess Isis,the divine enchantress, representing life, andthe goddess of the underworld Nephthys, rep-resenting death. There were 42 divine judgesto assess the life of the one who stood beforethem, and the deceased would be allowed todeny 42 misdeeds. Once the deceased hadpresented his or her case, Osiris indicated alarge pair of balances with the heart of thedeceased and the feather of truth, one in eachof the pans. The god Thoth read and recordedthe decision.

Standing in the shadows was a monstrouscreature prepared to devour the deceased,should the feather of truth outweigh his or herheart. In those instances when the heart out-weighed the feather—and few devout Egyp-tians could really believe that their belovedOsiris would condemn them—the deceasedwas permitted to proceed to the Fields of Aalu(or Iahru), the real world, where the godslived. Because humans were the offspring ofthe gods, the Fields of Aalu (also known asKherneter) offered an eternal association andloving companionship with the deities. Theancient Egyptians had no doubts about immor-tality. In their cosmology, an afterlife under thewatchful eye of Osiris was a certainty.

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Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. Cambridge:Blackwell Publishers, 1994.

Schure, Edouard. The Great Initiates. New York: Harper& Row, 1961.

Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. New York:Barnes & Noble Books, 1993.

Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Mythsand Secrets. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.

Greek Mystery Schools

The origin and substance of the state reli-gion of ancient Greece was a sophisti-cated kind of nature worship wherein

natural elements and phenomena were trans-formed into divine beings who lived atopMount Olympus. Like the humans who wor-shipped them, the Olympians lived in commu-nities and had families, friends, and enemiesand were controlled by the same emotions,lusts, and loves. The pantheon of the gods ofancient Greece were not cloaked in the myste-rious, unfathomable qualities of the deities ofthe East, but possessed the same vices andvirtues as the humans who sought their assis-tance. Although the Olympians could mani-fest as all-powerful entities, none of them wereomnipotent. Although they were capable ofexhibiting wisdom, none of them were omni-scient. And they often found themselves justas subject to the whims of Fate as the humanswho prayed to them for their guidance.

The Olympians were worshipped by theGreeks most often in small family groups.There existed no highly organized or formallyeducated priesthood, no strict doctrines, notheologians to interpret the meaning ofambiguous scriptural passages. The followersof the state religion could worship the god orgods of their choosing and believed that theycould gain their favor by performing simpleritual acts and sacrifices.

In addition to the state religion into whichevery Greek belonged automatically at birth,there were the “mystery religions,” whichrequired elaborate processes of purificationand initiation before a man or woman couldqualify for membership. The mystery religionswere concerned with the spiritual welfare of



THE gods of Ancient Greece possessed the samevices and virtues as the humans who prayed to them

for guidance.

the individual, and their proponents believedin an orderly universe and the unity of all lifewith God. The relationship of the mystes,theinitiate, was not taken lightly, as in the officialstate religion, but was considered to be inti-mate and close. The aim and promise of themystical rites was to enable the initiate to feelas though he or she had attained union withthe divine. The purifications and processions,the fasting and the feasts, the blazing lights oftorches, and the musical liturgies played dur-ing the performances of the sacred plays, allfueled the imagination and stirred deep emo-tions. The initiates left the celebration of themystery knowing that they were now superiorto the problems that the uninitiated facedconcerning life, death, and immortality. Notonly did the initiates know that their commu-nion with the patron god or goddess wouldcontinue after death, but that they wouldeventually leave Hades to be born again inanother life experience.

The early mystery schools of the Greekscentered around a kind of play or ritual reen-actment of the life of such gods as Osiris,Dionysus, Demeter—divinities most oftenassociated with the underworld, the realm ofthe dead, the powers of darkness, and theprocess of rebirth. Because of the importanceof the regenerative process, the rites of themysteries were usually built around a divinefemale as the agent of transformation andregeneration. While the initiates of the mys-tery cult enacted the life cycle of the gods whotriumphed over death and who were reborn,they also asserted their own path of wisdomthat would enable them to conquer death andaccomplish resurrection in the afterlife, withrebirth in a new body in a new existence.

There is a general consensus that the mostimportant mystery religions of Greece—theEleusinian, the Dionysian, and the Orphic—were brought to that country from abroadsometime during the closing centuries of thePrehistoric Era (c. 2000 B.C.E.). The oldest ofthe mysteries, the Dionysian, was probablydeveloped in Thrace, in the eastern Balkans,and introduced to the Greeks. Once the mys-teries were accepted by the Greek initiates,the passion plays of Demeter and Dionysusbecame popular in the sixth century B.C.E. and

again in the Hellenistic Age in the fourthcentury B.C.E. This was when individualismwas encouraged and the old gods of Olympusfell into disregard. Perhaps the time of greatestpopularity for the mysteries occurred duringthe closing centuries of pagan worship prac-tices and the advent of the Christian Era. Theearly Christian Fathers regarded the rites inthe sacred groves as strong rivals for theirfaith, and in the Middle Ages (500–1500C.E.), the Christian clergy would declare suchmysteries as satanic.

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Delphi

For centuries, the Temple of Apollo at Delphiin central Greece contained the most presti-gious oracle in the Graeco-Roman world, afavorite of public officials and individualsalike. The oracle was said to relay propheticmessages and words of counsel from Python,the wise serpent son of the Mother-goddessDelphyne or from the Moon-goddess Artemisthrough their priestess daughters, the Pytho-nesses or Pythia. According to myth, the godApollo murdered Delphyne and claimed theshrine and the Pythia for himself, imprisoningthe serpent seer in the recesses of a cavebeneath the temple.

The historian Plutarch (c. 46–120 C.E.),author of Plutarch’s Lives, served for a time ashigh priest at the Delphic Oracle andexplained why its oracles had remained popu-lar while others had fallen into disrepute. Inhis opinion, the gods had declined to speakthrough the other oracles because their devo-tees had insulted them by asking too manyblasphemous and trivial questions, such asadvice concerning love affairs and disrep-utable business transactions.



Plutarch also described how the oracleworked. The priestess went into a small cham-ber called the adyton where she would inhalesweet-smelling fumes that issued from fissuresin the rocks. The fumes, supposedly releasedby the serpent deep within the cave, wouldplace the Pythia in a trance that would allowher to see the future and to make predictions.Plutarch asserted that such trance states occa-sionally deepened into delerium, even death.

While some researchers have touted theaccuracy of the oracle at Delphi, other scholarshave protested that the predictions of thePythia were too often made in extremelyambiguous language, so that it could always beclaimed that the petitioner had misinterpretedor misunderstood the true meaning of theprophecy. An oft-cited example of such ambigu-ity concerns the wealthy and powerful Croesus(d. 546 B.C.E.), king of Lydia, who sought coun-sel regarding his plans to attack Cyrus the Great(c. 600–529 B.C.E.), king of Persia. The oracletold Croesus that if he went to war with Cyrus,he would thereby destroy a mighty kingdom.Encouraged by such a prophecy, Croesus wentto war and was soundly defeated by the Persians.The Greek king had fulfilled the prophecy bydestroying his own kingdom. In response to hisbitter complaint, the Pythia reminded him thattheir seership had been accurate. Croesus wastold that he should have thought first to askwhose kingdom would be destroyed before heset about waging war against the Persians.

The Oracle at Delphi was a major religioussite for 2,000 years until it was closed by theChristian emperor Theodosius I (346?–395).Later, Arcadius ordered the temple destroyed.

In the summer of 2001, Jelle de Boer ofWesleyan University in Connecticut and co-workers discovered a previously unknown geo-logical fault passing through the sanctuary ofthe Temple of Apollo. According to de Boer,the fault crosses the previously known Delphi

fault directly below the temple. This crossingmakes the bitumen-rich limestone much morepermeable to gases and groundwater. Theresearchers speculated that seismic activity onthe faults could have heated such deposits,releasing light hydrocarbon gases, such as eth-ylene. Ethylene is a sweet-smelling gas thatwas once used in certain medical proceduresas an anesthetic. Although fatal if inhaled inlarge quantities for too long a period of time,in small doses ethylene stimulates the centralnervous system and produces a sensation ofeuphoria and a floating feeling—according toJelle de Boer, just what oracles need to promptvisions.

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Ball, Philip. “Oracle’s Secret Fault Found.” NatureNews Service/ Macmillan Magazines, Ltd. 17 July2001.


De Boer, J. Z., J. R. Hale, and J. Chanton. “New Evi-dence of the Geological Origins of the AncientDelphic Oracle.” Geology, 29 (2001): 707–710.

Piccardi, L. “Active Faulting at Delphi, Greece: Seis-motectonic Remarks and a Hypothesis for theGeologic Environment of a Myth.” Geology 28(2001): 651–54.

Gaskell, G. A. Dictionary of All Scriptures & Myths.Avenel, N.J.: Gramercy Books, 1981.

Dionysus

Next to the Eleusinian mysteries in impor-tance and popularity was the Dionysian,which was centered around Dionysus (Bac-chus), a god of life, vegetation, and the vine,who, because all things growing and greenmust one day decay and die, was also a divini-ty of the underworld. Those initiates whoentered into communion with Dionysus drankheavily of the fruit of the vine and celebratedwith feasts that encouraged them to dressthemselves in leaves and flowers and even totake on the character of the god himself,thereby also achieving his power. Once thegod had entered into union with the initiates,they would experience a new spiritual rebirth.This divine union with Dionysus marked thebeginning of a new life for the initiates, who,thereafter, regarded themselves as superior



THE Oracle at Delphi was a major religious sitefor 2,000 years.

beings. And since Dionysus was the Lord ofDeath, as well as the Lord of Life, the initiatesbelieved that their union with him wouldcontinue even after death and immortalitywas now within their grasp.

The earlier rites of Dionysus were conduct-ed on a much lower level than those of Eleusis,and often featured the sacrifice of an animal—usually a goat— that was torn to pieces by theinitiates, whose savagery was meant to symbol-ize the incarnation, death, and resurrection ofthe divinity. Although the cult was not lookedupon with high regard by the sages andphilosophers of the day, amulets and tabletswith fragments of Dionysian hymns upon themhave been found dating back to the third cen-tury B.C.E. These magical symbols were buriedwith the dead and meant to protect the soulfrom the dangers of the underworld.

Orpheus may have been an actual historicfigure, a man capable of charming both manand beast with his music, but god or human,he modified the Dionysian rites by removingtheir orgiastic elements. According to sometraditions, he was said to be the son of a priest-ess of Apollo, gifted with a melodious voice,golden hair, deep blue eyes, and a powerfulmagnetism that exerted a kind of magic uponall those with whom he came into contact.Then, so the legend goes, he disappeared, andmany presumed him dead. In reality, he hadtraveled to Memphis, where he spent the next20 years studying in the Egyptian mysteryschools. When he returned to Greece, he wasknown only by the name that he had receivedin the initiation rites, Orpheus of Arpha, “theone who heals with light.”

Orpheus next changed the cult of Bac-chus/Dionysus and set about restructuring thespiritual soul of Greece, recreating the myster-ies by blending the religion of Zeus with thatof Dionysus. Orpheus taught that DionysisZagreus, the horned son of Zeus and Perse-phone, the great god of the Orphic mysteries,was devoured by the evil Titans while Zeuswas otherwise distracted. Athena managed tosave Dionysus Zagreus’s heart while theenraged Zeus destroyed the Titans with histhunderbolts. Zeus gave the heart of hisbeloved son to the earth goddess Semele who

dissolved it in a potion, drank thereof, andgave birth to Dionysus, the god of vegetation,whose cycle of birth, death, and rebirthreflects the cycle of growth, decay, and rebirthseen in nature.

Orpheus preached that humankind wascreated from the ashes of the Titans whodevoured Dionysus Zagreus; therefore, thephysical bodies of humans are formed from theevil of the Titans, but they also contain withinthem a tiny particle of the divine essence.Within this duality a constant war rages, so itis the duty of each human to repress the Titan-ic element and allow the Dionysian an oppor-tunity to assert itself. The final release of thedivine essence within, the redemption of thesoul, is the utmost goal of the Orphic process.This process may best be obtained by the soulreincarnating in a number of physical bodiesin different life experiences.

In Orphic thought, the gods Apollo andDionysus were two representations or revela-tions of the same divinity. Dionysus represent-ed the mysteries of life, the secrets of past andfuture incarnations, the true relationshipbetween spirit and body—truths that couldonly be accessible to the initiates of the mys-tery school. Dionysus was the expression ofthe evolving soul in the universe. Apollo per-sonified those same truths as they could beapplied to humans in their earthly existence.Apollo gave inspiration to those who wouldbe artists, poets, doctors, lawyers, and scien-tists through divination, such as that whichissued from his priestesses at Delphi.

One of the essential aspects of the Orphicinitiation was the process of the initiateabsorbing the healing light of Orpheus andpurifying the heart and spirit. Among thetruths that Orpheus had learned in the Egypt-ian sanctuaries was that God is One, but thegods are many and diverse. Orpheus had



THE gods Apollo and Dionysus were tworepresentations or revelations of the same divinity.

descended into hell, the underworld, andbraved its challenges and subdued the demonsof the pit. The disciples of the Orphic/Diony-sus schools were promised the celestial fire ofZeus, the light retrieved by Orpheus, thatenabled their souls to triumph over death.These things would all be enacted in the mys-tery play that depicted Orpheus descendinginto Hades and observing Persephone, thequeen of the dead, being awakened by Diony-sus and being reborn in his arms, thus perpetu-ating the cycle of rebirth and death, past andfuture, blending into a timeless immortality.

While other schools of reincarnation seethe process of rebirth as an evolving of thesoul ever higher with each incarnation, theOrphic concept introduces the aspect of thesoul being gradually purged or purifiedthrough the sufferings incurred during eachphysical rebirth. As the soul inhabits thebody, it is really doing penance for previousincarnations, a process that gradually purifiesthe soul. Between lifetimes, when the souldescends to Hades, it can enjoy a brief periodof freedom that can be pleasant or unpleasant.Then it must return to the cycle of births anddeaths. How many lifespans must the soulendure before the process of purification iscompleted and its final release is obtained?Plato envisioned three periods of a thousandyears each as a possible answer.

According to Orphic teachings, the onlyway out of the “wheel of birth,” the “Great Cir-cle of Necessity,” was through an act of divinegrace that could possibly be obtained by thesupplicant becoming immersed in the writing,ritual acts, and teachings of Orpheus and receiv-ing initiation into the mysteries of the cult.Although there are no available texts clearlysetting forth the process of initiation, it is likelythat they included fasting, rites of purification,and the reciting of prayers and hymns. It alsoseems quite certain that the initiates wouldhave enacted a play depicting the life, death,and resurrection of Dionysus Zagreus. In addi-tion, records suggest that a horned bull was sac-rificed and the initiates partook of a sacramentalfeast of its raw flesh as a holy act that broughtthem in closer union with the god. Once thishad been accomplished, the initiates were givensecret formulas that would enable them to avoid

the snares awaiting the unwary soul as itdescended to Hades and would ensure them ablissful stay while they awaited a sign that theirparticipation in the Great Circle of Necessityhad ended.

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Sullivan, Lawrence E., ed. Death, Afterlife and theSoul. New York, Macmillan, 1989.


Eleusis

The sacred Eleusinian mysteries of the Greeksdate back to the fifth century and were themost popular and influential of the cults, andit has been said that nowhere did the ancientmysteries appear in such human, vital, andcolorful form. The cult of Eleusis centeredaround the myth of Demeter (Ceres), thegreat mother of agriculture and vegetation,and her daughter Persephone, queen of theGreek underworld, the original name of thegoddess of death and regeneration. The dramaenacted for the initiates symbolized theodyssey of the human soul, its descent intomatter, its earthly sufferings, its terror in thedarkness of death, and its rebirth into divineexistence. Some contemporary students of themysteries have portrayed the myth as the storyof the Fall of humankind and its Redemptionas expressed in the religion of the Eleusinians.In the temples and in the groves where themysteries were celebrated, the candidates weretold that life was a series of tests and that afterdeath would be revealed the hopes and joys ofa glorious world beyond and the opportunityfor rebirth.

The rites of the mysteries took place nearEleusis, a small community 14 miles west ofAthens, but it was the ruler of Athens, togeth-er with a specially selected committee, whowas in charge of the general management ofthe annual event. Although the Dionysianand Orphic rites could be celebrated at any



time, the Eleusinian rites were held at a fixedtime in the early fall after the seeds had beenentrusted to the fields and were conducted bya hereditary priesthood called the Eumol-pedie, the “singers of gracious melodies.”

Sometime in the month of September, theEumolpedie removed the Eleusianian holyobjects from Eleusis and carried them to thesacred city of Athens where they were placedin the Eleusinion. Three days after the holyrelics had been transported, the initiates gath-ered to hear the exhortations of the priests,who solemnly warned all those who did notconsider themselves worthy of initiation toleave at once. Women and even slaves werepermitted to join the mysteries of Eleusis, pro-viding they were either Greeks or Romans,but it was required that all those wishing to beconsidered as initiates had first undergone thelesser mysteries held in Agrae, a suburb ofAthens, six months before in March. Afterthe rites of purification had been observed,the initiates bathed in the sea and were sprin-kled with the blood of pigs as they emerged. Asacrifice was offered to the gods, and a proces-sion began the journey to Eleusis, where, uponthe arrival of the priests, the initiates werereceived by the high priest of Eleusis, the hie-roceryx, or sacred herald, who was dressed in amanner suggesting the god Hermes (Mercury),holding the caduceus, the entwined serpents,as a symbol of his authority. Once the aspi-rants had assembled, the sacred herald ledthem to a sanctuary of the goddess Persephonehidden in a quiet valley in the midst of asacred grove. Here, the priestesses of Perse-phone, crowned with narcissus wreaths, beganchanting, warning the newcomers of the mys-teries that they were about to perceive. Theinitiates would learn that the present life thatthey held so dear was but a tapestry of illusionand confused dreams. After a stern admoni-tion that the aspirants be careful not to dese-crate the mysteries in any way lest the goddessPersephone pursue them forever, they wereallowed to partake of food and drink.

For the next several days, the initiates fast-ed and participated in cleansing rituals andprayers. On the evening of the last day of thecelebration of the mystery, the candidates gath-ered in the most secret area of the sacred grove

to attend the Rape of Persephone. The Eleusin-ian drama reenacted the myth of the rape,abduction, and marriage of Persephone (Kore)by Hades, god of the underworld, and her sepa-ration from her mother, Demeter (Ceres), thegoddess of grain and vegetation. When, in herdespair, Demeter refuses to allow the earth tobear fruit and causes a time of blight and starva-tion that threatens to bring about the extinc-tion of both humans and the gods, Zeus recallsPersephone from Hades. Filled with joy at thereunion with her daughter, Demeter once againallows the earth to bear fruit. Persephone, how-ever, will now divide her time between her hus-band Hades in the underworld and her motheron Earth, ensuring a bountiful harvest.

Essentially, the rites imitated the agricultur-al cycles of planting the seed, nurturing itsgrowth, and harvesting the grain, which, on thesymbolical level, represented the birth of thesoul, its journey through life, and its death. Asthe seed of the harvest is planted again and theagricultural cycle is perpetuated, so is the soulharvested by the gods to be resurrected. Mem-bership in the mysteries of Eleusis was undertak-en for the purpose of the initiates ensuringthemselves a happy immortality. They returnedto their customary occupations as mystics, oneswho had been endowed with the ability to opentheir inner eyes to perceive a world of lightbeyond the darkness of their ordinary lives.

M Delving Deeper



Fox, Robin Lane.Pagans and Christians. New York:Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.

Gaskell, G. A. Dictionary of All Scriptures & Myths.Avenel, N.J.: Gramercy Books, 1981.


Christian Mystery

Schools, Cults, Heresies

The Christian Mystery Schools werelargely condemned by the early ChurchFathers because of the fear that their



practitioners were consciously or unconscious-ly continuing the old pagan ways. As it was,nearly all of the Christian holy days coincidedwith pagan holidays, from Christmas and theRoman feast of Saturnalia to Easter and thefertility rites of the goddess Eastre. TheChurch patriarchs were not at all willing toencourage any additional blendings of Chris-tianity with the Old Religions.

Christianity was a young religion whencompared to the worship of the Greek,Roman, Egyptian, and other Middle Easternand Eastern deities. The mystery schools keptalive the practice of magic and the belief thatsecret rituals and sacred relics could commandthe presence of divinity. The ancient mysteryrites dedicated to such gods as Osiris, Isis, andDionysus, together with the magical formulasdiscovered by Hermes Trimegistus and othermasters of the art of theurgy, compelled thegods to manifest and share their powers. Themyths of the old gods and the holy scripturesof the Christians, the secret experiences of theancients and the revelations of the apostles,the personal sense of God developed by thepagan cults, and the promise of the ChurchFathers that one could know God through hisson—all seemed to some individuals to beharmonious. The rich inheritance of thepagan world seemed too valuable to abandonwhen such mysteries could be so easily adapt-ed and kept alive in the new rituals.

The Church Fathers disagreed sharplywith the devotees of the Christian mysteryschools who sought their approval. In theirunanimous opinion, those who sought toblend the old pagan rituals with the new reve-lation of Christ were members of secret cultswho were to be condemned as heretics. Inresponse to the rejection of the church estab-lishment, the heretical members of the Christ-ian mystery schools simply became less open

and more secretive in the expression of theirreligious practices.

Originally, the word “heresy” was anunemotional term that meant to engage in theact of choosing a course of action or a set ofprinciples. In contemporary culture, to becalled a heretic may be considered somethingof a compliment, suggesting that one is anindependent or adventurous thinker. However,in the epistles of St. Paul, heretics were con-demned as being those dangerous teachers whosought to distort or corrupt the teachings ofJesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.). Ironically, it wasin Antioch, the city where those who followedJesus of Nazareth were first called Christians,that Bishop Ignatius (c. 40–107) became thefirst of the Church Fathers to use the term“heretic” to condemn those he believed werealtering the true understanding of Christ.

It was rather easy to be labeled a heretic bythe early Church Fathers. Originally com-posed of a small group of Jews who had fol-lowed the teachings of their rabbi until hisdeath on the cross, the first members of thatsect—or cult—were sharply divided in what itwas that they believed. Was Jesus of Nazaretha great prophet or was he truly the long-await-ed Messiah of the Jews? The early Christianshad no established doctrines regarding the res-urrection of their teacher from the dead or hisalleged divinity. They were even uncertain ifthey should continue to follow the Jewish reli-gious laws. When Gentiles were allowed tojoin the small Jewish sect, the arguments con-cerning the true revelation of Jesus the Christonly escalated. Eventually, as the Christianssolidified their beliefs, established their doc-trines, became recognized as a church, andheld councils to establish more rigid creedsand ecclesiasticisms, it became much easier toidentify those men and women who wereheretics and who truly departed from theestablished beliefs of the church.

There is often confusion between theterms “cult” and “sect.” Generally speaking, ifa cult becomes accepted by the mainstreamculture, some of its original enthusiasm willeventually cool and it will steadily becomemore organized and structured until it maturesinto a “religious organization.” Later, as some



NEARLY all of the Christian holy dayscoincided with pagan holidays.



Although Mithraism, the most popular reli-gion among the soldiers in the Romanlegions, became Christianity’s greatestrival in the early centuries of the church, it

was not, as is often incorrectly cited, a Christianheresy. While it is true that the worshippers of thePersian god Mithras spoke of the adoration of theirdeity by a group of shepherds at his miraculous birth,observed a baptismal ritual that must be observed bythose who wished to follow him, participated in acommunal meal of bread and water which resembledthe Eucharist, and celebrated his birthday on Decem-ber 25, Mithraism had been established throughoutthe Persian Empire at least 500 years before the birthof Jesus Christ in 6 B.C.E. Mithraism had been spreadthroughout the then-known world by a group of magi,who preached an apocalyptic scenario in whichMithras, greatly associated with solar symbolism,would return at the end of a 7,000-year cycle to renewthe world and to reestablish his earthly reign.

In Rome, Mithras had appeal to both the foot sol-dier and his ranking officers. Mithraism was a machoreligion for men only—no women allowed. After bap-tismal rites had been conducted, the rugged legion-naires passed through graded ranks, such as Crow,Soldier, Lion, Courtier of the Sun, and, ultimately,Father. Boys as young as seven could begin their initi-ation as Crow, and neither military rank nor class dis-tinctions differentiated those who followed Mithras.Those who declared themselves to be practicingMithraists were valued as disciplined and temperatesoldiers who had formed an unbreakable bond withtheir fellow worshippers. And those men who faceddeath in battle were assured that the rites of Mithraswould guide them securely into a peaceful afterlife.

The powerful effects of Emperor Constantine’s (d. 337) conversion to Christianity in the fourth centuryhad a great influence on vast numbers of the Romanlegions, and thousands of soldiers followed his exam-ple and converted to the teachings of Jesus ofNazareth (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) and the ChristianChurch. Mithraism gradually faded into obscurity bythe end of the fourth century, retaining only small

pockets of followers scattered throughout what hadonce been the Persian Empire.

Sources:

Clifton, Chas S. Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics. New

York: Barnes & Noble, 1998.

Fox, Robin Lane. Pagans and Christians. New York: Alfred A.

Knopf, 1989.

Spence, Lewis. Encyclopedia of Occultism. New Hyde Park: N.Y.:

University Books, 1960.

Mithras in the

Roman Legions

of the orgnization’s members become dissatis-fied with the religious routine and yearn for amore passionate expression of faith, theybreak off into a splinter group of the churchand become a “sect.” As the sect becomesmore organized and is regarded more seriouslyby the mainstream culture, it becomes knownas a “denomination.”

The various Christian mystery schools,cults, and heresies that have influenced mil-lions of individuals for two millennia. Fromthe earliest days of Christianity, there werebasically two opposing interpretations of Jesus:

1. Jesus, a rabbi of Nazareth, was a power-ful teacher and prophet, a devout mandivinely inspired by God.

2. Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, theMessiah, the true Son of God madeflesh to serve as a sacrificial lamb for thesins of humankind.

From these two metaphysical expressionswith their vast essential differences, therearose centuries of theological arguments andinterpretations of the gospels. What washeresy to some was sacred belief to others.And so it continues to this day.

M Delving Deeper




Black Madonna

Of the more than 400 images of the BlackMadonna or Black Virgin known worldwide,the image of Our Lady in Czestochowa, Poland,has received the most recent recognitionbecause of the personal devotion displayedtoward this religious icon by Pope John Paul II(1920– ). The pope, a native of Poland,prayed before the Madonna of Czestochowa in1979, several months after his election to theChair of Peter, and he is known to have madesubsequent visits in 1983 and in 1991. Thereports of miracles and healings attributed toOur Lady of Czestochowa (also known as OurLady of Jasna Gora) through the centuries are

numerous. They include Our Lady greatlyenhancing the ability of a small group of Polishdefenders to protect her sanctuary from anarmy of Swedish invaders in 1655 and her holyapparition appearing to disperse an invadingarmy of Russians in 1920. Records of such spec-tacular acts of intervention and dramatic curesare kept in the archives of the Pauline Fathersat Jasna Gora, the monastery site in which theportrait was housed for six centuries.

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa is ofsuch antiquity that its origins are unknown.Tradition has it that St. Luke, the “belovedphysician,” painted the portrait of Jesus’s moth-er on the cedar wood table at which she tookher meals. Two centuries later, during her visitto the Holy Land, St. Helena (c. 248–c. 328),the Queen-Mother of Emperor Constantine (d.337), is said to have discovered the portrait andbrought it to Constantinople in the fourth cen-tury. Five centuries later, determined to savethe image of the Madonna from the repeatedinvasions of the Tartars, St. Ladislaus (1040–1095) took the portrait to Opala, Poland, thecity of his birth, for safekeeping. Regretfully,not long after its move, a disrespectful Tartararrow managed to find its way to the Madon-na’s throat, inflicting a scar that still remainsvisible. In 1430, Hussite thieves stole the por-trait and broke it into three pieces.

Contemporary scholar Leonard Moss hasargued against a vast antiquity for the BlackMadonna of Czestochowa, claiming that thefigure of the woman in the portrait was paint-ed in a distinctly thirteenth- or fourteenth-century Byzantine style. Janusz Pasierb, anoth-er scholar who examined the portrait, coun-ters such an assertion, stating that the imagewas “painted virtually new” in 1434 because ofthe extensive damage that the portrait hadsuffered at the hands of vandals.

Another aspect of the mystery of Our Ladyof Czestochowa and all the other BlackMadonnas that has puzzled many individuals iswhy they are portrayed with such dark skintones. Some scholars answer this by statingthat it wasn’t until the onset of the Renais-sance in the fourteenth century that Jesus,Mary, and Joseph began being portrayed withpale skin, blue eyes, and blond or reddish-blond hair. Prior to that period, the Holy Fam-



ily and the apostles were most often depictedas semitic people whose dark skin tones reflect-ed the hot arid climate in which they lived. Ifthe Black Madonna of Czestochowa was trulya portrait of Mary that had been painted fromlife by the apostle Luke, he would surely havecaptured a woman with olive or dark brownskin and black or brown hair.

Other researchers into the mystique of theBlack Madonna state that the reasons that theRoman Catholic Church in general has notwarmly embraced such depictions of the HolyMother or Virgin Mary are because they fearthat such representations are actually payingtribute to the ancient goddesses and Earthmothers and that these images perpetuate



Pope John Paul II

praying at the Black

Madonna Shrine in

Czestochowa, Poland, in

1999. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

strains of pagan worship of the female principle.For example, church scholars point out that St.Germain de Pres, the oldest church in Paris(Par-isis, the Grove of Isis), was built in 542 onthe site of a former temple dedicated to Isis. Isishad been the patron goddess of Paris untilChristianity replaced her with St. Genevieve.Within the church of St. Germain de Pres,however, parishioners worshipped a black statueof Isis until it was destroyed in 1514.

Christianity warred against goddess worshipfrom the days of the apostles when St. Paul (d.62–68 C.E.) found to his great frustration thathis message was being shouted down by thecrowds at Ephesus who pledged their obeisanceto Diana. Until they had been romanized andwesternized, Diana/Artemis, together with theother two preeminent goddesses of the East, Isisand Cybele, were first represented as blackmadonnas. And before the people of the Eastbent their knees to Diana, Isis, and Cybele,they had worshipped the Great Mother asInanna in Sumeria, as Ishtar in Babylonia, andas Astarte among the Hebrews. Most scholarsagree that among the first images of the BlackMadonna and her son were representations ofIsis and Horus.

The Black Madonna may also refer toMary Magdalene, who, in the traditions ofmany Christian sects, such as the Gnostics,was the wife of Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) Inthis interpretation of the events that occurredafter Jesus’ death at the hands of the Romans,Mary brought the cup used at the Last Sup-per—the Holy Grail—from Palestine tosouthern France, where it would eventually beguarded by the Knights Templar.

There is also a belief that Mary arrived inFrance carrying within her womb a childfathered by Jesus of Nazareth, who then becamethe progenitor for the royal family of France. Forthose who hold such beliefs, the Holy Grail isbut a metaphor for Mary Magdalene’s womb,which carried the true blood of Jesus in the per-son of his unborn son. Therefore, many of thedepictions of the Black Madonna and childthroughout the regions of southern France andSpain may be regarded as images of Mary Mag-dalene carrying the infant son of Jesus ratherthan the Virgin Mary carrying the infant Jesus.

M Delving Deeper

Baigent, Michael, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln.Holy Blood, Holy Grail. New York: Dell Publish-ing Co., 1983.


Dorese, Jean. The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics.New York: MJF Books, 1986.

Duricy, Michael P. “Black Madonnas: Our Lady ofCzestochowa,” maintained by the MarianLibrary/International Marian Research Institute.[Online] http://www.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/olczest.html. 23 January 2002.

Imel, Martha Ann, and Dorothy Myers. Goddesses inWorld Mythology. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1995.

Matthews, Caitlin. Sophia Goddess of Wisdom: TheDivine Feminine from Black Goddess to World-Soul.London: Aquarian Press, 1992.

Sjoo, Monica, and Barbara Mor. The Great CosmicMother. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987.

Cathars

In 1208, Pope Innocent III (c. 1161–1216)declared the Cathars, a sect of Christianity(also known as the Albigenses), to be hereticaland condemned the citizens of Beziers, Perpig-nan, Narbonne, Toulouse, and Carcassone todeath as “enemies of the Church.” Simon deMontfort (c. 1165–1218), an accomplishedmilitary leader, was appointed to conduct acrusade against fellow Christians, culturedmen and women of what is today southernFrance, who the pope had deemed a greaterthreat to Christianity than the Islamic warriorswho had pummeled the Crusaders. Although ittook him nearly 20 years of warfare against thebeleaguered Albigenses, de Montfort managedto exterminate 100,000 men, women, andchildren, before he himself was killed duringthe siege of Toulouse in June 1218.

According to many contemporary schol-ars, the Cathars’ or Albigenses’ real offense,their “heresy,” was their opposition to thesacramental materialism of the medievalchurch. The group had no fixed, religious doc-trine, and was known by various names. Theycalled themselves the True Church of God,and most of the few manuscripts that survivedthe flames of siege were all written in Proven-





Annie Besant was a social reformer andTheosophist who advocated for the inde-pendence and religious rights of women.Born to William and Emily Wood in 1847

England, Annie married a young clergyman, FrankBesant, at 19; they had two children. She questionedthe extreme traditional religious views of her hus-band, and in response he ordered her out of thechurch, home, and family.

Besant preached a different kind of religion: freethought. She began working with Charles Bradlaugh(1833–1891), leader of the secular movement in Britainand editor of the radical paper National Reformer.They coauthored a book, The Fruits of Philosophy,which advocated the use of birth control, buttressedby such arguments as financial distress and over-crowding. Their writings caused them to be arrestedin 1877 on charges of immorality, for which theyserved six months before the sentence was appealedand overturned. Not intimidated, Besant wrote anoth-er book advocating the use of birth control, The Lawsof Population.

During the 1880s Besant attacked unhealthyworking conditions and low wages for women factoryworkers, leading the Match Girls’ Strike in 1888. Apopular speaker on women’s rights, Besant waselected to the London School Board and earned a sci-ence degree from London University. She continuedto urge the legalization of birth control, and producedother writings defending free thought and atheismwhile criticizing Christianity. An 1887 pamphlet, “Why IDo Not Believe in God,” coauthored with Bradlaugh,added to her notoriety.

In 1887, Besant met Spiritualist Helena PetrovnaBlavatsky (1831–1891), who in 1885 had founded theTheosophical Society. Besant embraced Blavatsky’sbeliefs, which seemed to ignite a religious awakeningwithin her. The Theosophical Society split into twobranches after Blavatsky’s death in 1891, with AnnieBesant as president of one of them.

Besant emigrated to India, where she founded theCentral Hindu College in 1898. She established the Indi-an Home Rule League in 1916 and became its president;

in 1917, she became president of the Indian NationalCongress, but would break ties with Ghandi. Besantremained in India until her death in 1933, but returned toEngland in 1926–1927 with her protege, Jiddu Krishna-murti, whom she announced as the new Messiah.

Sources:

Besant, Annie Wood. Annie Besant, An Autobiography. London:

T. Fisher Unwin, 1893. Reprint Adgar: The Theosophical

Press, 1939.

———. Avatares. London: Theosophical Press, 1923.

———. H. P. Blavatsky and the Masters of the Wisdom. London:

Theosophical Publishing House, 1918.

Annie Besant and

the Theosophical

Society

cal, the old language of southern France, witheven fewer written in Latin. Albi was thetown in the province of Languedoc in whichan ecclesiastical church council condemnedthem as heretics, hence the Albigenses desig-nation. The cultural life of the Albigenses farout-shone that of any other locality in theEurope of their day. In manners, morals, andlearning, objective historians state the Albi-genses deserved respect to a greater extentthan the orthodox bishops and clergy. It isnow generally conceded among researchersthat the court of Toulouse before the ravagesof Simon de Montfort’s siege was the center ofa higher type of civilization than existed any-where else in Europe at that time.

Most experts on this historical periodagree that the nearly 40 years of warfareagainst the Cathars ruined the most civilizednation in thirteenth-century Europe. The piti-less cruelty and brutal licentiousness, whichwas habitual among the Crusaders, achievednew depths of inhumanity against the Albi-genses. No man was spared in their wrath. Nowoman was spared their violence. It has been

observed that no Roman, Hunnish, Muslim,or Mongol conqueror ever annihilated aChristian community with greater savagery.

Since most of the Albigensian communi-ties were first sacked, then burned, theirrecords and their libraries were destroyed.Because the testimony of exactly what theCathars really believed was wrung out underextreme pain from those who survived themassacres and endless sieges long enough tobe tortured and burned at the stake, it hasbeen difficult to gain access to their true beliefstructure until recent times. Research nowindicates that far from the devil-worshippingheretics that Pope Innocent III decreed war-ranted extermination, the Albigenses weredevout, chaste, tolerant Christian humanists,who loathed the material excesses of themedieval church. They were metaphysicians,spiritual alchemists, herbalists, healers, andsocial activists with a pragmatic turn of mind.Similiar expressions of their belief conceptsmay be found in the Gnostic Gospels, in theEssenic teachings discovered at Qumran, andin the Egyptian mystery schools.



Carcassonne in

Cathar country.

(F. C. TAYLOR/FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

It would appear that the greatest heresy tothe Christian Church lay in the Cathars’denial that Christ ever lived as a man, butwas a being of spirit, much like an angel.They also believed that it was Satan who cre-ated the material world after his expulsionfrom heaven when God the Father, takingpity on his once bright star Lucifer, allowedhim seven days to see what he might create.The bodies of Adam and Eve were animatedby fallen angels and directed by Satan tobeget children who would follow the ways ofthe serpent. To counter the lust of the fleshinspired by the devil, the Cathars preachedabstinence before marriage, chastity, vegetari-anism, and nonviolence. They believed in aprogressive doctrine of reincarnation with thespirits of animals evolving into humans. Intheir view, it was a dualistic universe, withgood and evil having equal strength, and theyconsidered their time in the world as a strug-gle to resist Satan’s power.

In 1244 Montsegur, the last center of Albi-gensian resistance, fell, and hundreds ofCathars were burned at the stake. The head-quarters of the Inquisition was now estab-lished in the once highly cultured Albigensiancity of Toulouse, and the few Cathars who hadmanaged to escape death during the bloodydecades of the crusade that had been launchedagainst them were now at the mercy of therelentless witch and heretic hunters.

M Delving Deeper

Baigent, Michael, Leigh, Richard, and Lincoln,Henry. Holy Blood, Holy Grail. New York: DellPublishing Co., 1983.


Delaforge, Gaetan. The Templar Tradition. Putney, Vt.:Threshold Books, 1987.

Lea, Henry Charles. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages.New York: Citadel Press, 1963.


Gnosticism

Several cults with widely differing beliefs allbearing the label of “Gnostic” arose in the firstcentury, strongly competing with the adventof Christianity. The term Gnostic is derived

from the Greek “gnosis,” meaning “to know,”and the adherents of Gnosticism unabashedlydeclared that members of their form of reli-gious expression “knew” from firsthand expe-rience the truths that other beliefs had toaccept on faith.

Many of the Gnostic sects blended ele-ments of Christianity with the Eleusianianmysteries, combining them with Indian,Egyptian, and Babylonian magic, and alsobringing in aspects of the Jewish Kabbalah aswell. Whatever the expression of the variousGnostic belief structures, they all emphasized adetachment from the material world and anelaborate series of spiritual hierarchies throughwhich those initiates who had achieved per-sonal knowledge of divinity could arise. TheChristian Church Fathers branded the Gnos-



Monument memorial in

Field of the Burned in

Montsegur, Cathar

country, France.

(F. C. TAYLOR/FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

THE Gnostics sought direct experience with thedivine by uttering secret words of wisdom.

tics as heretics just as soon as they had devel-oped enough power within the Roman Empireto do so, and the cult continued to be anathe-ma to the Church down through its variationsin the Cathars, the Albigensis, and theKnights Templar.

The first Gnostic of importance wouldseem to be Simon Magus (fl. c. 67 C.E.), aSamarian sorcerer, a contemporary of theapostles, who was converted to Christianity,then strongly rebuked by Peter when hesought to purchase the wonder-workingpower of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:9–24).Those Gnostic Christians influenced by suchcharismatic individuals as Simon Magusbelieved that there was a secret oral traditionthat had been passed down from Jesus thathad much greater power and authority thanthe scriptures and epistles offered by the

orthodox teachers of Christianity. The Gnos-tics, like the initiates of the Greek and Egypt-ian mysteries, sought direct experience withthe divine and they believed that this com-munion could be achieved by uttering secretwords of wisdom that God had granted to spe-cially enlightened teachers. The Gnosticsconsidered themselves much more spirituallyadvanced than the larger community ofChristians, whom they regarded as ignorantplodders and easily led sheep.

Nearly everything that was known aboutthe Christian Gnostics prior to the discoveryof the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 wastaken from the highly prejudiced writings ofsuch Church Fathers as Irenaeus, Hippolytus,and Epiphanius, who condemned the Gnos-tics as heretics and devil-worshippers. Thelibrary that was found in Upper Egypt consists



Simon Magus: The earliest known Gnostic.Magnus construed that the Garden of Eden,the exodus from Egypt, and the Red Seacrossings were symbols.

Marcion (85–160 C.E.): Organizer of Gnostic con-gregations. These eastern Mediterranean congrega-tions lasted into the third century C.E. Christian leadersfrom Rome excommunicated Marcion for writing abook called Antitheses. He believed the death ofChrist was a hallucination, because Jesus did nothave a physical body.

Valentinus: Founder of the largest Gnosticismschool which lasted into the fourth century C.E. Hetaught that groups of Aeons made up the fullness ofthe High God. The groups were divided into threeparts: the Ogoad—Depth, Silence, Mind, Truth, Word,Life, Man and Church; the Decad (10) and Dodecad(12); and the Docecad—Wisdom, also called Sophia.

Carpocrates (c.140 C.E.): Teacher of reincarnation.He believed an individual had to live many lives andadsorb a full range of experiences before being ableto return to God.

Source:

“Gnosticism: Ancient and Modern.” [Online]. http://www.

religioustolerance.org/gnostic.htm.

Main Leaders

of Gnosticism

of 12 books, plus eight leaves removed from athirteenth book and tucked inside the frontcover of the sixth. These eight leaves makeup the complete text of a work that has beentaken out of a volume of collected works.Each of the books, except the tenth, consistsof a collection of brief works, such as “ThePrayer of the Apostle Paul,” “The Gospel ofThomas,” “The Sophia of Jesus Christ,” “TheGospel of the Egyptians,” and so on.Although the Nag Hammadi library is writtenin Coptic, the texts were originally composedin Greek and contain many references toEgyptian sites and beliefs. And although thework is ascribed to Christian Gnostics, thereare many essays within the library that do notseem to reflect much of the Christian tradi-tion. While there are references to a GnosticSavior, his presentation does not seem to bebased on the Jesus found in the New Testa-ment. On those occasions when Jesus doesappear in the texts, he often appears to becriticizing those orthodox Christians whohave confused his words and his teachings. Byfollowing the true way and thus achievingtranscendence, Jesus says in “The Apocalypseof Peter,” every believer’s “resurrection”becomes a spiritual reality.

Throughout the Nag Hammadi librarythere are admonitions to resist the lures andtraps of trying to be content in a world thathas been corrupted by evil. The world createdby God is good. The evil that has permeatedthe world, although alien to its originaldesign, has risen to the status where it hasbecome the ruler of Earth. Rather than per-ceiving existence as a battle between God andthe devil, the Gnostics envisioned a strugglebetween the true, most high, unknowableGod and the lesser god of this Earth, the“Demiurge,” that they associated with theangry, jealous, rule-giving deity of the ancientHebrews. They believe that all humans havethe ability to awaken to the realization thatthey have within themselves a spark of thedivine. By attuning to the mystical awarenesswithin them, they may transcend all earthlyentrapments and regain their true spiritualhome. Jesus had been sent by God as a guideto teach humans how to free themselves fromthe control of the Demiurge and to under-

stand that the kingdom of God was within, atranscendental state of consciousness, ratherthan a future reward.

As if the theology of the Gnostics was notenough to have them branded as heretics bythe orthodox Christian establishment, theirdoctrines and their scriptural texts often uti-lized feminine imagery and symbology. Evenmore offensive to the patriarchal ChurchFathers was the Gnostic assertion that Jesushad close women disciples as well as men. InThe Gospel of Phillip it is written that the Lordloved Mary Magdalene above all the otherapostles, and he sharply reprimanded those ofhis followers who objected to his open displaysof affection toward her.

Gnosticism ceased to be a threat to theorganized Christian Church by the fourteenthcentury, but many of its tenets of belief havenever faded completely from the thoughts and



Illustrations of Gnostic

gems from Mensa Isaica

(1669) by Lorenzo

Pignoria. FORTEAN

PICTURE LIBRARY)

GNOSTICISM ceased to be a threat to theChristian Church by the fourteenth century.

writings of many scholars and intellectualsdown through the centuries. Elements of theGnostic creeds surfaced again in the New Agemovement of the late twentieth century. Animpetus to study the writings of the Gnostictexts was provided by psychologist Carl Gus-tav Jung (1875–1961), who perceived value inthe writings of Valentinus, a prominent Gnos-tic teacher. In Jung’s opinion, Gnosticism’sdepiction of the struggle between God and thefalse god represented the turmoil that existedamong various aspects of the human psyche.God, in the psychologist’s interpretation, wasthe personal unconscious; the Demiurge wasthe ego, the organizing principle of conscious-ness; and Christ was the unified self, the com-plete human.

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O’Grady, Joan. Early Christian Heresies. New York:Barnes & Noble, 1985.

Robinson, James, ed. The Nag Hammadi Library. SanFrancisco: Harper & Row, 1981.

Manichaeism

Mani (c. 216–277), a self-proclaimed “apostleof Christ” who spoke in Syrian, a version of theAramaic language in which Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c.30 C.E.) taught, proclaimed that his churchwould preach a universal religion that would befor all people, regardless of nationality ortongue. The well-educated child, born to a Per-sian family that lived near Babylon and whoworshipped with the Elkesaites, fell under theinfluence of Gnostic teaching and began todevise a philosophy that saw life on Earth as aconstant struggle between good and evil. Whenhe was only 12, Mani experienced his first reli-gious vision and perceived an angelic beingwho declared itself his heavenly twin and whopromised always to be Mani’s helper and pro-tector. When he was 24, the twin appearedagain, and he instructed the young visionarythat it was now time to leave the Elkesaitecommunity and to begin his public ministry.

Mani believed that his visions qualifiedhim to preach a new gospel that combined the

words and works of Jesus with other great mes-sianic teachers. He sought to pattern his lifeafter that of St. Paul (d. 62–68 C.E.), and hecalled himself an apostle through the will ofChrist before he set out on his extensive mis-sionary travels. However, unlike Paul, Manibelieved, as did so many Christian heretics,that as the Son of God Jesus could not havebeen born of a woman and he would neverhave subjected himself to a death upon across. In true apostle fashion, however, Manidid heal the sick and the lame, and he did per-form miracles. In addition, he wrote sevenholy texts, ranging from a collection of his let-ters to his “Living Gospel” and his own ver-sion of the “Acts of the Apostles.”

According to Mani’s theology, in thebeginning of the universe the powers of goodand evil, light and dark, were placed in twodifferent spheres. The Father of Greatness per-sonified the principle of goodness and light,the divine and the spiritual. The Prince ofDarkness represented the principle of evil andthe material. Over time, the world became aplace of constant struggle and turmoilbetween an evil kingdom of darkness and theparticles of light and goodness that had even-tually become ensnared in matter. To assisthim in the great battle, the Father of Great-ness created the Mother of Life, who producedPrimordial Man as an instrument of light tocombat the powers of darkness. With theassistance of the Living Spirit, a second divinepersonage fashioned by the Father of Great-ness, Primordial Man fought the forces of thePrince of Darkness. In the process of the greatstruggle, the physical Earth was created as akind of by-product of the raging cosmic ener-gies. Although Primordial Man was defeatedby the Prince of Darkness and his childrendevoured by the monster, enough of their lightleaked out to enable the Third Messenger,another creation of the Father of Greatness, torescue them. Humans were later produced bythe mating of demons who had inadvertentlyswallowed particles of light, and it would beJesus who would at last awaken human beingsto the spiritual realization that they each con-tained a spark of the divine light within them.

Mani taught that continued spiritual war-fare was an unpleasant fact of life on Earth,





Born on June 16, 1880, in Manchester, Eng-land, Alice Ann La Trobe Bateman was adevoted missionary worker and Sundayschool teacher. She later became known

as a writer of the occult. Many refer to her as themother of the modern form of the New Age Movement.

One Sunday, Alice was alone in her room reading,when the door opened and a stranger entered. Terri-fied, she listened as the man dressed in Europeanclothing with a large turban on his head informed herthat there was a plan for her to do some work in theworld, if she chose to; however, her disposition wouldhave to change. If she could learn to exercise self-control and become a more pleasant, trustworthy per-son, she would travel throughout the world and do the“master’s work.” Promising to check on her in sever-al-year intervals, he paused, looked at her one lasttime, and walked out.

Thinking the stranger to be Jesus Christ (c. 6B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) and deeply affected by his message, sheworked to become a nice person, so much so that herfamily was concerned that she was ill. In 1915, nearlyfive years later, when several English women intro-duced Alice to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891)and Theosophy, her studies of Blavatsky’s Secret Doc-trines revealed that the man was the Master KootHoomi. In 1919, another “teacher” appeared to Alice,identifying himself as Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul.

Alice Bailey wrote a series of Ageless Wisdombooks of teachings from Djwhal Khul that becamelauded as classics in occult teaching. In an unfinishedautobiography, Bailey expressed her love and com-passion for her teachers, declaring them hard-work-ing disciples of the world and of the Christ.

In 1923, she established The World Goodwill Cen-ters, to assist those in need, and The Arcane Schoolfor the education and development of spiritual disci-plines and techniques, such as meditation. In order tooffer the school activities and courses free of charge,Bailey established The Lucis Trust, a publishing com-pany and funding organization, which in 1924 pub-lished Bailey’s popular Great Invocation Prayer, and

would eventually publish 24 other works in 50 lan-guages. Baily’s writings continue to be a main influ-ence of “New Agers” or those interested in the occultor deeper spiritual mysteries.

Sources:

Bailey, Alice A. The Unfinished Autobiography. New York: Lucis

Trust Publishing, 1951.

Three Remarkable Women. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Altai Publishing, 1986.

Alice Bailey

and it was being conducted daily in the heartsand minds of all human beings. By respondingto Mani’s Gospel of Light, a person couldawaken to the persistent earthly dualism ofgood and evil and activate the particles ofgoodness trapped within his or her own fleshlybodies. Once these elements of light had beenreleased, the newly awakened individualscould hope to progress to a higher existence inthe afterlife. While they remained in theirbodies on Earth, however, they must accepttheir state of sin and acknowledge that theywould never be able to conquer the state ofwickedness that encompassed the physicalworld. Those whom Mani deemed “the Elect”would rise directly to the kingdom of lightwhen they died; those “hearers,” individualswho had merely heard the Gospel of Lightbeing preached, would have the opportunityof experiencing additional incarnations beforeachieving such elevation. All disbelievers,those who rejected Mani’s gospel, were des-tined to hell when Jesus returned to bringabout the end of the world.

Manichaeans were taught that the parti-cles of light and goodness remained trapped inevil matter and that all living things, includ-ing plant life, were sentient beings to berespected. Hunting and meat-eating were for-bidden, and Manichaeans were strict vegetari-ans. Later, when Mani had a vision of vegeta-bles screaming as they were about to be pulledfrom the ground, gardening and farming werealso discouraged. To solve the dilemma ofwhat food his followers might partake fornourishment, he advised the eating of melons,fleshless vegetables of concentrated goodnessand light, that separated themselves from theparent vine when they were mature.

Mani first traveled to India with his newGospel of Light, then turned back to Persia atthe summons of Emperor Shapur I (d. 272),who became a strong adherent of the young

man’s universal religion, gave Mani permis-sion to preach throughout his kingdom. Inspite of the support of Shapur I, the Magi, theofficial Zoroastrian clergy who had unrivaledsupremacy in Persia for many centuries,detested Mani and believed his “new” religionto be nothing more than an amalgamation ofZoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism, and awide assortment of other doctrines. At theinstigation of the Magi, Persia’s next ruler,Bahram I, who ruled from 273–276, orderedMani arrested, interrogated, then executed,his head impaled on the city gates and hisbody thrown to the dogs.

Mani’s death did little to thwart the zeal ofthe ever-growing number of new Manichaeanmissionaries, and his religion came to bepreached in eleven languages and spread fromNorth Africa to China; there it continued tothrive as a living faith from the T’ang dynasty(618–907) to the 1930s. In Europe, Manich-aeism remained quite strong in Sicily, Spain,and southern France until the sixth century.Although the sect posed little threat to theChristian Church in the Middle Ages, theterm “Manichaean” was used interchangeablywith “heretic.” Elements of Manichaeismhave survived in minor ways in various secretsocieties, most frequently in its symbolism.

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O’Grady, Joan. Early Christian Heresies. New York:Barnes & Noble, 1985.

Tribal Mysteries

The tribal cults that have emerged in thepast 500 years offer a blend of Chris-tianity—the majority religion of the

conqueror and the slave owner—and the abo-riginal belief structures of the Native Ameri-can or African tribes that were subjugated or



IN the Middle Ages, the term “Manichaean” wasused interchangeably with “heretic.”

enslaved. While the early Christian missionar-ies, ministers, and priests were sincere inpreaching what they considered to be theauthentic word of God to the tribes of Northand South America and Africa, they regardedtheir culture, customs, and religion as innatelysuperior. Thus, a deeper understanding andrespect between the missionaries and the tribalpeoples was difficult to achieve.

“Lost in the dark the heathen doth lan-guish,” bemoans a familiar missionary hymn,soundly implying that there is but a singlesource of illumination. When the Christianclergy set forth on their spiritual journeys toconvert the tribal peoples, they establishedthemselves in the parental role and widenedthe gap of understanding between religioustraditions.

On the North American continent, theChristian missionaries were intrigued to dis-cover that tribe after tribe across the lengthand width of the continent had legends andmyths which closely paralleled so many of theaccounts found in Genesis and in other booksof the Old Testament. The Delaware, to citeonly one example, told the story of the Cre-ation and the Great Deluge in pictographs.Some missionaries dealt with the mystery inthe same manner that the early Spanishpriests who accompanied the conquistadoreshad dealt with the Aztec myths that told sto-ries similiar to those found in the Bible—theydeclared that the native people had been toldthese stories by Satan.

In a study of the aboriginal peoples of theUnited States written by a theologian in thelate 1800s, Dr. John Tanner fulminatedagainst such accounts related by the tribalpriests and declared: “If the Great Spirit hadcommunications to make, he would makethem through a white man, not an Indian!”

Other Christian scholars and missionarieswere not so certain, and, in an effort toexplain the similarity between so many of thetribal legends and rites to the Judeo-Christiantraditions, a theory was formulated thatargued that the aboriginal peoples of the NewWorld were the descendants of the Lost Tribesof Israel. To add an intriguing credence to thistheory was the enigma of the Mandan tribe—

blue-eyed, fair-complexioned native people ofthe central plains. Christian clergymen set outwith renewed vigor to reclaim the scatteredIsraelite tribes, lost to the fold for so long,denied the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ(c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) as the Messiah, con-demned to wander a strange and pagan landwith their holy traditions but dim memories.

In recent decades, the term “cult” hasbecome negative, quickly applied to religiousexpressions that may seem different from theorder of service in more conventional churchbodies. In the twenty-first century, one shouldalways be mindful that what seems to be astrange cult to one person is likely to be a sin-cere and serious form of worship to another; justbecause this “strange religious practice” may bean eclectic blend of several traditions does notmake it any less serious to its practitioners.

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Harvey, Graham. Indigenous Religions. New York: Cas-sell, 2000.


Sharma, Arvind, ed. Women in World Religions.Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.

Ghost Dance

In 1890 Jack “Wovoka” Wilson (1856–1932),a Paiute who worked as a ranch hand for awhite rancher, came down with an illnessaccompanied by a terrible fever. For threedays, the Native American lay as if dead.When he returned to consciousness and to thearms of his wife Mary, he told the Paiute whohad assembled around his “dead” body that hisspirit had left his body and had walked withGod, the Old Man, for those three days. As ifthat were not wonder enough, the Old Manhad given him a powerful vision to share withthe Paiute people.

Wovoka’s vision had revealed that Jesus (c. 6B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) moved again upon the EarthMother and that the dead of many tribes werealive in the spirit world, just waiting to bereborn. If the native people wished the buffaloto return, the grasses to grow tall, the rivers to



run clean, they must not injure anyone; theymust not do harm to any living thing; theymust not make war. On the other hand, theymust lead lives of purity, cease gambling, putaway the alcohol, and guard themselvesagainst all lusts and weaknesses of the flesh.

The most important part of the vision thatGod gave to Wovoka was how to perform theGhost Dance. The Paiute prophet told hispeople that the dance had never been per-formed anywhere on Earth. It was the dance ofthe spirit people of the Other World. To per-form this dance was to insure that God’s bless-ings would be bestowed upon the tribe, and

many ghosts would materialize during thedance to join with the living in celebration ofthe return of the old ways. Wovoka said thatthe Old Man had spoken to him as if he werehis son, and God had assured him that manymiracles would be worked through him. In hisheart and in his life, Wovoka, also known inhis tribe as “the Cutter,” became Jesus; MasonValley, Nevada became Galilee; and theNative American people received a messiah.

Wovoka’s father had been the respectedholy man Tavibo and his grandfather hadbeen the esteemed prophet Wodziwob. Andnow he, too, had spent his time in imitation ofdeath, lying in a trance-like state for threedays, receiving his spiritual initiation in theOther World. Wovoka had emerged as a holyman and a prophet, and history would foreverknow him as the Paiute Messiah.

Soon, many representatives from varioustribes visited the Paiute and saw them danceWovoka’s vision. They saw the truth of theGhost Dance, and they began calling Wovoka,



“Arapaho Ghost Dance”

(1900) painting by Mary

Irvin Wright. (NATIONAL

ARCHIVES AND RECORDS

ADMINISTRATION)

TO perform the Ghost Dance was to insure that God’s blessings would be bestowed upon

the Paiute tribe.

Jesus. His fame spread so far that newspaperreporters from St. Louis, New York, and Chica-go came to see the Ghost Dance Messiah andrecord his words. Whites were pleased thatWovoka did not speak of war, only of the impor-tance of all people living together in harmony.

Chief Big Foot (1825?–1890) of the Siouxtraveled from the camp in South Dakota toNevada to see the Ghost Dance, and hereturned to tell Sitting Bull (c. 1831–1890)about Wovoka’s promise that the dead frommany tribes would soon be joining the livingin a restored world that would once again befilled with plentiful game, herds of buffalo,and the tall grasses of the prairie. All thosewhites who interfered with this would be swal-lowed up by the earth, and only those whopracticed the ways of peace would be spared.

Sitting Bull, the great Sioux prophet andholy man, was impressed by Big Foot’s report,but rather noncommittal toward the teachingsof the Paiute Messiah. While he did notwholeheartedly endorse the Ghost Dance,neither did he prevent those Sioux whowished to join in the ritual from doing so.

Sometime during the fall of 1890, theGhost Dance spread through the Sioux vil-lages of the Dakota reservations with the addi-tion of the Ghost Shirts, special shirts thatcould resist the bullets of the bluecoats, thesoldiers who might attempt to stop the rebirthof the old ways. As the Sioux danced, some-times through the night, believing they werehastening the return of the buffalo and theirmany relatives who had been killed in combatwith the pony soldiers, the settlers and towns-folk in the Dakota territory became anxious.And when the Sioux at Sitting Bull’s GrandRiver camp began to dance with rifles, itbecme apparent to the white soldiers that theGhost Dance was really a war dance after all.

After a nervous Indian agent at Pine Ridgewired his superiors in Washington that theSioux were dancing in the snow and were actingcrazy, it was decided that Sitting Bull and otherSioux leaders should be removed from the gener-al population and confined in a military postuntil the fanatical interest in the Ghost Dancereligion had subsided. Sitting Bull was killed bySioux reservation police on December 15, 1890,

and Big Foot and 350 of his people were broughtto the edge of Wounded Knee to camp.

On December 28, Sioux police, Fouchet’sCavalry, and Drum’s Infantry moved againstthe Sioux camp at Grand River. The aggressorsalso brought with them Hotchkiss multiple-fir-ing guns and mountain howitzers. A shot rangout. The Sioux scattered to retrieve rifles thathad been discarded or hidden. From all aroundthe camp, fire from the automatic rifles, violenteruptions from the exploding shells, and volleysof bullets destroyed the village. As they werebeing slaughtered by two battalions of soldiers,the Sioux sang Ghost Dance songs, blendedwith their own death chants. Within a shortperiod of time, approximately 300 Sioux hadbeen killed, Big Foot among them, and 25 sol-diers had lost their lives. The massacre atWounded Knee ended the Native Americantribes’ widespread practice of the Ghost Dancereligion and ended the Indian Wars.

It was said that Wovoka wept bitterlywhen he learned the fate of the Sioux atWounded Knee. Jack Wilson, the Cutter, thePaiute Messiah, died in 1932.

M Delving Deeper

Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. NewYork: Bantam Books, 1972.

Harvey, Graham. Indigenous Religions. New York: Cas-sell, 2000.

La Barre, Weston. The Ghost Dance. New York: DeltaBooks, 1972.

Macumba

The Macumba religion (also known asSpiritism, Candomble, and Umbanda) is prac-ticed by a large number of Brazilians who cher-ish the ages-old relationship between a shamanand his or her people. In its outward appear-ances and in some of its practices, Macumbaresembles voodoo ceremonies. Trance statesamong the practitioners are encouraged bydancing and drumming, and the evening cere-mony is climaxed with an animal sacrifice.

Macumba was born in the 1550s from acompromise between the African spirit worshipof the slaves who had been brought to Braziland the Roman Catholicism of the slavehold-ers. Although they were forced to honor an



array of Christian saints and the God of theirmasters, the native priests soon realized howcomplementary the two faiths could be—espe-cially since, unlike the slaveowners in theUnited States, the Brazilians allowed the slavesto keep their drums. The Africans summonedtheir gods, the Orishas, with the sound of theirdrums and the rhythm of their dancing. Fromthe melding of the two religious faiths, theAfricans created the samba, the rhythm of thesaints. The African god, Exu, became St.Anthony; Iemanja became Our Lady of theGlory; Oba became St. Joan of Arc; Oxalabecame Jesus Christ; Oxum became Our Ladyof the Conception, and so on.

During this same period, Roman Catholicmissionaries were attempting to convince theNative American tribes in Brazil to forsaketheir old religion and embrace Christianity. Inmany instances, Macumba provided the samekind of bridge between faiths for the indige-nous people as it had for the Africans import-ed to the country by the slave trade. Whilethey paid homage to the religious practices ofthe Europeans, they also could worship theirnature spirits in the guise of paying homage tothe Christian saints.

The ancient role of the shaman remainscentral to Macumba. He (it is most often amale) or she enters into a trance state andtalks to the spirits in order to gain advice or aidfor the supplicants. Before anyone can partici-pate in a Macumba ceremony, he or she mustundergo an initiation. The aspirants mustenter a trance during the dancing and thedrumming and allow a god to possess them.Once the possession has taken place, theshaman must determine which gods are inwhich initiate so the correct rituals may beperformed. The process is assisted by the sacri-fice of an animal and the shaman smearingblood over the initiates. Once the initiateshave been blooded, they take an oath of loyal-ty to the cult. Later, when the trance state andthe possessing spirit has left them, the aspi-rants, now members of the Macumba cult, usu-ally have no memory of the ritual proceedings.

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Huxley, Francis.The Invisibles. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.

“Macumba,” Occultopedia. [Online] http://www.occul-topedia.com/m/ macumba.htm. 23 January 2002

Middleton, John, ed. Magic, Witchcraft, and Curing.Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press, 1967.


Villodo, Alberto, and Stanley Krippner. HealingStates: A Journey into the World of Spiritual Healingand Shamanism. New York: Fireside Books, 1987.

Santeria

In April 1989, the religion of Santeria wasdealt a negative blow to its image that has beendifficult to overcome in the public conscious-ness. Police officials digging on the grounds ofRancho Santa Elena outside of Matamoros,Mexico, brought up a dozen human corpsesthat had all suffered ritual mutilations. Andwhen it was learned that Adolfo de Jesus Con-stanzo, the leader of the drug ring responsiblefor the murders, had a mother who was a practi-tioner of Santeria, a media frenzy swept acrossboth Mexico and the United States. Santeriawas most often defined in the media as anobscure cult that was a mixture of Satanism,voodoo, witchcraft, and demon-worship,rather than a religious amalgamation thatevolved from a blending of African slaves’ spiritworship with their Spanish Catholic masters’hierarchy of intercessory saints.

Constanzo, a drug smuggler, had created hisown cruel concept of a cult and declared him-self its high priest. He was joined by Sara MariaAldrete, an attractive young woman, who led abizarre double life as a high priestess and as anhonor student at Texas Southmost College inBrownsville. Although, on the one hand, itseemed that the cruel executions were used as adisciplinary tool by the drug boss, as in allinstances of ritual sacrifice it was learned fromsurviving gang members that Constanzo hadpromised his followers that they would be ableto absorb the spiritual essence of the victims.

While Santeria’s rites are controversial inthat they may include the sacrifice of small ani-mals, it is essentially a benign religion. Once aserious investigation was made of Constanzo’sgrotesque and gory version of a cult of humansacrifice, it was learned that he had combinedaspects of Santeria, voodoo, and an ancient



Aztec ritual known as santismo with elements ofhis own personal bloody cosmology. Mexicanpolice officials had discovered the grisly handi-work of the drug ring by following one of itsmembers to a large black cauldron in which ahuman brain, a turtle shell, a horseshoe, ahuman spinal column, and an assortment ofhuman bones had been boiled in blood.

Subsequent investigation revealed thatConstanzo’s drug ring was actually composedof individuals who belonged to a number ofreligious groups common to the area, includ-ing Roman Catholicism, Santeria, and PaloMayombe. Many members of the gang insist-ed that the true inspiration for the humansacrifices came from Constanzo’s demand thateach of them watch the motion picture TheBelievers (1987) 14 times. This thriller, star-ring Martin Sheen, Jimmy Smits, and RobertLoggia, took certain elements of Santeria,added numerous concepts foreign to thefaith—including a malevolent high priestwith incredible supernatural powers—thenclimaxed these powerful ingredients withhuman sacrifice.

In spite of such public relations low pointsas the murders at Matamoros and negativedepictions in motion picture and televisionpresentations, Santeria continues to growamong Hispanics in Florida, New York City,and Los Angeles. Some estimates state thatthere are more than 300,000 practitioners ofSanteria in New York alone. Although it wassuppressed in Cuba during the 1960s, lessen-ing of restrictions upon religious practices inthe 1990s saw the practitioners of Santeria inthat country increase in great numbers.While the rites remain secret and hiddenfrom outsiders, a few churches have emergedthat provide their members an opportunity topractice Santeria freely. The Church of theLukumi Babalu Aye was formed in southernFlorida in the early 1970s and won a land-mark decision by the Supreme Court to beallowed to practice animal sacrifice. TheAfrican Theological Archministry, foundedby Walter Eugene King in South Carolina,now reports approximately 10,000 members.The Church of Seven African Powers, alsolocated in Florida, instructs its members howto use spells in their daily lives.

Santeria originated in Cuba around 1517among the slaves who combined elements ofthe Western African Yoruba and Bantu reli-gions with aspects of Spanish Catholicism.When they were forced to accept the religiouspractices of their masters, the African slaveswere at first greatly distressed that they couldno longer pay homage to their worship of theOrishas, their spiritual guardians. Since theywere in no position to protest for the freedomto practice their native religion, their resource-ful priests quickly noticed a number of parallelsbetween the Yoruba religion and Catholicism.While paying respect and homage to variousChristian saints, the Africans found that theycould simply envision that they were prayingto one of their own spirit beings. A secret reli-gion was born—Regla de Ocha, “The Rule ofthe Orisha,” or the common and most popularname, Santeria, “the way of the saints.”

In Santeria, the principal God, the supremedeity, is referred to as Olorun or Olodumare,“theone who owns heaven.” The lesser guardians,the Orisha, were the entities who were eachassociated with a different saint: Babalz Ayibecame St. Lazaurus; Oggzn became St. Peter;Oshzn became Our Lady of Charity; Elegbabecame St. Anthony; Obatala became the Res-urrected Christ, and so forth. Priests of the faithare called Santeros or Babalochas; priestesses arecalled Santeras or lyalochas. The term Olorishamay be applied to either a priest or a priestess.

Although little is known of the rites ofSanteria, from what can be ascertained eachcelebration usually begins with an innovationof Olorun, the supreme deity. Dancing to thestrong African rhythms continues until indi-viduals are possessed by a particular Orishaand allow the spirits to speak through them.The ritual is climaxed with the blood sacrifice,usually a chicken.

M Delving Deeper

Middleton, John, ed. Magic, Witchcraft, and Curing.Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press, 1967.



SANTERIA originated in Cuba around 1517.

“Santeria,” Alternative Religions. [Online] http://www.religioustolerance. org/santeri.htm. 23 January2002.


Villodo, Alberto, and Stanley Krippner. HealingStates: A Journey into the World of Spiritual Healingand Shamanism. New York: Fireside Books, 1987.

Satanic Cults

The scriptures of all religions acknowl-edge the existence of demonic beings.Some, including Christianity, Islam,

and Zoroastrianism, regard the power of evilentities to be real and perceive them as rivalsto the dominion of God. Others, such as Bud-dhism, consider them to be manifestations ofignorance and illusion. Those religions thattestify to demonic powers also recognize thatthese negative beings are subject to the com-mands of a leader, known by various names:Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Iblis, Mara, andAngra Mainyu, among others.

While rationalists in the present age of sci-ence and technology find it difficult to acceptthe concept of demons tempting men andwomen to commit acts of wickedness underthe direction of a central embodiment of evil,such as Satan, other serious-minded philoso-phers and theologians call attention to thediverse horrors of the twentieth century andthe seemingly endless capabilities of humansto inflict evil upon their fellow beings in thebeginning of the twenty-first century andargue that such perversities transcend thebounds of reason. The Qur’an warns that“whoever follows the steps of Satan willassuredly be bid to indecency and dishonor.”The prophet Zoroaster (c. 628 B.C.E.–c. 551

B.C.E.) blamed the Evil One for spoiling theplan of life and depriving humans of the“exalted goal of Good Thought.” Hinduismenvisions the gods and the demons as cosmicrivals for humankind. The demons are self-centered and interested in their own gainwhile the gods are generous and willing toshare their bounty with others. The epistlewriter Paul (d. 62–68 C.E.) informs Christiansin Ephesians 6:12 that they are not fightingagainst creatures of flesh and blood, “butagainst the principalities, against the powers,against the world rulers of this present dark-ness, against the spiritual hosts of wickednessin the heavenly places.”

While it is one thing to recognize thehuman capacity for inflicting acts of incredibleevil upon their fellow men and women, it isquite another to fear rumors of organized cultsof thousands of Satan worshippers who alleged-ly plot horrid deeds against the members ofother religions in the name of their cloven-hoofed and horned god. Contrary to the beliefsof certain conservative Christians, Satanism asan actual religion is composed of a few smallgroups, which according to census figures in theUnited States and Canada probably numberless than 10,000 members. Such religious cultsas Santeria, Wicca, voodoo, and various neopa-gan groups are regularly and incorrectly identi-fied as satanic, and it has been suggested bysome that the statistics often quoted by certainChristian evangelists, warning of millions ofSatan worshippers, quite likely consider allnon-Christian religions as satanic, includingBuddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a widespread fearswept across the United States that there weredozens of secret satanic cults involved in satan-ic ritual abuse and sacrificing hundreds ofbabies, children, and adults. Television andradio talk shows featured people who claimedto be former members of such demonic cultsand those who had allegedly recovered memo-ries of satanic abuse. For a time, certain com-munities developed a near-hysteria and a fearof Satanists that recalled the time of the Salemwitchcraft trials. Even at its most alarmingpeak of irrational belief in such murderouscults, however, few accused such religiousSatanists as Anton LaVey (1930–1997) and



THE Qur’an warns that “whoever follows the steps of Satan will assuredly be bid to

indecency and dishonor.”

his Church of Satan in San Francisco as con-doning ritual human sacrifices. After exhaus-tive police investigations on both local andnational levels failed to produce any hard evi-dence to support such frightening accounts,allegations of satanic ritual abuse faded to thestatus of a kind of Christian urban legend.

There are many kinds of free-form Satan-ism, ranging from that which is merely sympto-matic of sexual unrest and moral rebellionamong young people to those mentally unbal-anced serial killers who murder and sacrificetheir victims to their own perverse concept ofsatanic evil. Teenagers and young adults may bemistaken for Satanists, because they dress indark gothic clothes, read occult literature, orplay with a ouija board with friends—but mostof them are merely role-playing and quietlyprotesting the conformity they wish to resist.Other young people are drawn into a transientattraction toward Satanism by a number ofheavy-metal bands who merely pretend to bepracticing Satanists to shock parents and toprovoke publicity in the highly competitivefield of contemporary music.

Each year, hundreds of homicides arethought to have been satanically or rituallyinspired. However, federal, state, and local lawenforcement has never proven the existenceof an organized satanic movement that hasbeen responsible for these deaths, or thatthose murderers who were apprehended forthe homicides were members of any satanicreligious group. Some serial killers haveclaimed to be Satanists, but in each of thesecases, police investigations have revealed thatthe murderers were not actually members ofany of the satanic religious groups. Even sucha high-profile “devil-worshipper” as RichardRamirez (1960– ), the infamous “NightStalker” of Los Angeles, who committed aseries of brutal night-time killings, robberies,and sexual attacks, was never found to be amember of any formal satanic group.Although Ramirez scrawled an inverted pen-tagram (a symbol traditionally associated withsatanic rituals) in the homes of some of hisvictims and shouted, “Hail, Satan!” as he wasbeing arraigned on charges of having mur-dered 14 people, he was strictly a lone-wolfworshipper of evil.

Individuals, primarily teenagers and youngadults, may for a time dabble in the occult, cer-emonial magick, and other freelance rituals anddeclare themselves as Satanists. Their numbersare difficult to assess with any degree of accura-cy, for they are essentially faddists, generallyinspired by a current motion picture or televi-sion series that popularizes Satanism or witch-craft, and their interest in Satanism is short-lived. Some of these satanic dabblers may go sofar as to sacrifice a small animal and spray-paintsatanic symbols on houses and sidewalks, buttheir commitment to a lifestyle dominated bydedication to Satan soon dissipates.

Although Satanism and witchcraft havebecome synonymous in the popular mind formany centuries, they constitute two vastlydivergent philosophies and metaphysical sys-tems. Generally speaking, witchcraft, the OldReligion, has its origins in primitive natureworship and has no devil or Satan in its cos-mology. While some traditional witches seekto control the forces of nature and elementalforces in both the seen and unseen worlds, oth-ers are contented to work with herbs and heal-ing. In essence, what many have described asthe “power” of witchcraft throughout the agesmay be the effective exercise of mind overmatter, those abilities in the transcendentlevel of mind that today we term psychic ormental phenomena. True Satanism—althoughmanifesting in a multitude of forms andexpressions and having also originated in anancient worship of a pre-Judeo-Christiangod—is today essentially a corruption of boththe nature worship of witchcraft and the for-mal Christian church service, especially therites of the Roman Catholic Church.

Some scholars argue that in a real sense,the Christian Church itself “created” the kindof Satanism it fears most through the excessesof the Inquisition, which made an industryout of hunting, persecuting, torturing, andkilling those men and women accused ofbeing doctrinal heretics and those practition-ers of the Old Religion who were condemnedfor worshipping the devil through the practiceof witchcraft. Then, in the sixteenth century,a jaded and decadent aristocracy, weary of theseverity of conventional morality legislated bythe church, perversely began to convert the



primitive belief structures of serf and peasantinto an obscene rendering of the rites of tradi-tional paganism with the ritualistic aspects ofChristian worship.

In contemporary times, many of those whoopenly claim to be Satanists and to belong toorganized satanic groups insist that they do notworship the image of the devil condemned byChristian and other religions because the word“Satan” does not specify a being, but rather amovement or a state of mind. What Satanistsdo worship, these individuals explain, is a spiritbeing commonly known as Sathan in Englishand Sathanas in Latin. They do not believeSatan to be the Supreme God, but they believehim to be the messenger of God in that hebrought to Eve the knowledge of God.Satanists believe that there is a God above andbeyond the “god” that created the cosmos. Themost high God takes no part in the affairs ofthe world; thus Satanists believe their faith tobe the only true religion, insofar as revealedreligion to mortals can be understood.

Satanism, according to certain of its expo-nents, is the oldest of all world religions, and itis the only one that by doctrine lays claim tohaving its origin in the Garden of Eden.Adam’s firstborn son, Cain, is thought to havecelebrated the first Satanic Mass, and today,any lone Satanist can celebrate a valid Mass ifthe occasion arises. In the case of establishedcovens, an ordained priest performs the officeof the liturgy. Satanism, they maintain, is alsothe oldest form of worship according to discov-eries made by archaeologists, who have discov-ered drawings of the Horned God (Sathan) incaves of Europe dating to prehistoric times.

The following signs and symbols are amongthe most common expressions of Satanism,both among individual Satanists and thoseself-proclaimed “high-priests and priestesses”

who have established small covens of 13 orfewer members:

The Pentagram: The traditional five-point-ed star, most often shown within a circle.

Goat’s Head within a Pentagram: The sigilof Baphomet, the symbol for Anton LaVey’sChurch of Satan.

Number 666:The number of the beast inthe Book of Revelation, considered by manyChristians to represent Satan.

Upside-Down Cross: A mockery of Jesus’death on the cross. Sometimes the cross isshown with broken “arms.”

Upside-Down Cross Incorporating an Invert-ed Question Mark: The cross of confusion,questioning the authority and power of Jesus.

Quarter Moon and Star: Represents theMoon Goddess Diana and Lucifer, the “Morn-ing Star.” When the moon is reversed, it isusually satanic.

Classic Peace Symbol of the 1960s: The signof peace carried by protestors of the VietnamWar in the 1960s has allegedly been appropri-ated by Satanists who now use it to denote anupside-down cross with broken arms, thus sig-nifying the defeat of Christianity.

Inverted Swastika: The swastika is anotheronce-honorable symbol that simply represent-ed the perpetual progression of the four sea-sons, the four winds, the four elements, and soforth. Already perverted when the Nazisclaimed it as their symbol, Satanists are said toinvert it to show the elements of natureturned against themselves and out of harmonywith God’s divine plan of balance.

Ritual Calendar: Satanism adopted the tra-ditional calendar of witchcraft and celebrateseight major festivals, known as Sabbats:

• February 1 Candelmas

• March 21 Spring Equinox

• April 30 Walpurgisnacht

• May 1 Beltane

• June 21 Summer Solstice

• August 1 Lammas

• September 23 Fall Euinox

• October 31 Samhain

*• December 21 Winter Solstice



ANTON Szandor LaVey started the rebirth of Contemporary Satanism on Walpurgisnacht

(May 1), 1966 with the Church of Satan.

Contemporary Satanism is said to haveexperienced its rebirth on Walpurgisnacht(May 1), 1966, when Anton Szandor LaVeybrought into being San Francisco’s Church ofSatan. The kinds of Satanism in vogue at vari-ous times in the centuries before LaVey’srevival expressed itself in many ways—somereflected the Dark Gods of antiquity, but mostmirrored the dark side of the human imagina-tion. Generally speaking, the kind of Satanismchampioned by LaVey and others preachesindulgence in personal pleasure, and it hasnever pretended to be other than a countercul-ture alternative to the civil and religious estab-lishments and a relentless foe of conventionalmorality. But none of the satanic cults, such asthe Church of Satan or the Temple of Set,have many points in common with the conser-vative Christian concept of Satan. They donot worship a Satan that commands demonsand seduces human souls into hell. To most ofthe satanic cultists, Satan represents a force ofnature that inspires their own individualexpressions of virility and sexuality.

M Delving Deeper

Cristiani, Leon. Evidence of Satan in the ModernWorld. New York: Avon, 1975.

Freedland, Nat. The Occult Explosion. New York:Berkley, 1972.

LaVey, Anton Szandor.The Satanic Bible. New York:Avon, 1969.

———. The Satanic Rituals. New York: Avon, 1972.

Lyons, Arthur. Satan Wants You: The Cult of Devil Wor-ship in America. New York: Mysterious Press, 1989.

The Rise of Satanism in

the Middle Ages

For the common folk of Europe, the Mid-dle Ages (c. 500–c. 1500) were a time offear, oppression, and despair, thus provid-

ing fertile soil for the seeds of the old paganpractices to take root and flourish anew. Theancient rituals and nature rites that were prac-ticed with joy and abandon by the peasantscame to be feared by the Medieval Church asdemonic witchcraft that worshipped Satan andsought to destroy Christendom, which was atthat time the official religion of all European

countries. According to a number of scholars,the Church itself may have been greatlyresponsible for the revival of the Old Religionby its having increasingly exercised extremelyrepressive regulations upon the private lives ofthe common people. Then, once excessive doc-trines and dogmas had provoked a rebirth ofpaganism, the Church saw the nature-worship-ping rituals of the common people as a threat toits authority and condemned these men andwomen as being practitioners of an organizedsatanic religion that never really existed.

An analysis of the Medieval Church’s sex-ual code reveals that its basic law was that theact of sexual intercourse was to be performedas seldom as possible. Stern-faced Churchauthorities encouraged their flocks to avoidcohabitation completely, even if married. Inthe eyes of the Church there was no love, onlydesire. To have feelings toward a member ofthe opposite sex, even though no actual physi-cal intimacy took place, was inherently sinful.And the holy state of matrimony provided nosanctuary for love. To love, or desire, one’slawful marriage partner was considered sinful.One of the Church’s defenders stated that if aman loved his wife too passionately, he hadcommitted a sin worse than adultery.

In his Sex in History (1954), G. Rattray Tay-lor summarized the strict system of Churchmorality as it was set forward in a series of peni-tential books. Every imaginable misdeed andevery conceivable misdemeanor is discussed andanalyzed at great length and appropriate penal-ties are set forth for each sexual misstep. Taylorexplains that the basic code of the Church wascomposed of three main propositions:

1. All who could were urged to accept theideal of complete celibacy;

2. An absolute ban was placed on all forms ofsexual expression other than intercoursebetween married persons, and prohibitionswere drawn up to thwart an exhaustive listof sexual activity, the violation of whichresulted in terrible penitential acts;

3. The days per year upon which even mar-ried couples might consummate the sex actwere decreased in number.

The frustrated populace were left with theequivalent of about two months of the year



during which they might, for the purpose ofprocreation alone and without invoking anysensations of pleasure, engage in sexual con-nection. If a child had been born to them andhad been delivered at a particular time of theyear which would fit in a certain manner inthe Church calendar, the anxious parentsmight be prevented by their faith from havingintercourse for a year or more.

The penitential books developed the mys-tical concept that all virgins were the brides ofJesus Christ (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.). Therefore,any man who seduced a virgin was not onlycommitting fornication, but, at the same time,the more serious sexual crime of adultery.Christ was cast into the role of the indignantand outraged husband, and Mother Church, ashis earthly representative, was thereby empow-ered to exact the terrible penance which theangered deity demanded. The maiden, unlessshe had been forcibly raped, was also held to bein mortal sin, for she had committed adulteryagainst her husband, Christ.

Chastity was honored as the Church’s sex-ual ideal and the virtuous wife was the onewho would deny herself to her husband. It wasnot only the sexual act for which the peniten-tials prescribed prohibitions and penance.Kissing and fondling also brought down severepenalties.

It was, according to Taylor, in a spirit ofdesperation to save the souls of weakerbrethren that the Church passed such ruthlesscodes of personal behavior and repeatedly dis-torted and falsified the pronouncement of bib-lical texts in order to obtain justification forits laws. Such an extreme asceticism was cer-tainly not preached by Christ, and such a sex-ual code is supported by neither the Old norNew Testaments.

The Middle Ages had become a time ofintolerable sexual frustration and sexual

obsession. In its attempt to eradicate sin bymeans of enforced sexual repression, theChurch inadvertently created fertile groundfor the rebirth of the dormant Old Religion.With the sanctioned state of Holy Matrimonyopen to only a few, the stories of the old ways,the old customs, and the old mysteries withtheir emphasis on fertility and communal sexrites became appealing to the common folk.

In the early days of Christianity, theChurch Fathers permitted women to preach,cure, exorcise, and baptize. By the MiddleAges, women had lost all vestiges of any legalrights whatsoever, and the Church regardedthem as responsible for all sexual guilt. It waswoman who had precipitated the Fall by tempt-ing man, who would otherwise have surelyremained pure. Women were considered a nec-essary evil. In the Old Religion, she would onceagain be elevated to the status of priestess, heal-er, and a respected symbol of fertility.

The loss of civil rights, the tyranny of thefeudal lords, and the imposition of sexualrepression by the Church provided the freshfuel for the smoldering sparks of the Old Reli-gion among the common people. But theChurch and the feudal establishment wouldsoon move to combat the “evil” influence ofthe resurrected Pan, god of fertility, nature,and freedom. Church scholars would soonconsult the ancient manuscripts to determinehow best to deal with the formidable adver-sary who had returned from the past. The feu-dal lords would soon lose all patience with therebellious serfs and set about to slay them asmethodically as a farmer sets out to removenoxious weeds from his fields of grain, and theChurch would ignite a flame which wouldeventually destroy thousands of innocents inthe Inquisition. Pan, the horned and goat-hoofed god of the ancient mystery rites, hadbeen transformed into Satan, the enemy ofthe Church, Christ, and all good.

In The History of Magic, (1948), KurtSeligmann offered what seems to be an astuteanalysis of the situation: “…the ancient sur-vivals, the amusements of serfs, the mostinnocent stories, were henceforth Satanic,and the women who knew about the old leg-ends and magic traditions were transformed



FOR the common folk of Europe, the MiddleAges were a time of fear, oppression, and despair.

into witches.…the traditional gatherings, theDruid’s Festival on the eve of May Day, theBacchanals, the Diana feasts, became thewitches’ sabbath…the broom, symbol of thesacred hearth…became an evil tool. The sex-ual rites of old, destined to stimulate the fertil-ity of nature, were now the manifestations of aforbidden carnal lust. Mating at random, asurvival of communal customs…now [were]an infringement of the most sacred laws.”

To the Church, the devils solidified intoone—Satan, enemy of Christ’s work here onEarth. To the people, who could not reallycare about the philosophical dualism of anevil adversary for the Christ of the FeudalLords and the Church, the Old Religionoffered release from oppression and unrelent-ing drudgery.

According to Seligmann, the peasants ofthe Middle Ages did not view their Old Reli-gion as a perversion, but as “…primitive andinnocent customs. At the sabbat [the peasant]was free to do as he pleased. He was fearedalso; and in his lifelong oppression, this gavehim some dignity, some sense of freedom.”

It was in his enjoyment of the excitementand vigor of the Old Religion that the peasantcould allow himself the luxury of experiencingpleasure without the interference of MotherChurch, which sought to control and represseven human emotions. But it was in rebellionagainst church and state that provoked thefeudal and church establishments to denouncethe Old Religion as satanic and to declare itspractitioners witches, Satan’s willing servants.And it was in that same time of unrest, despair,and fear of demons that “woman” and “witch”became largely synonymous. St. Augustine (d.604) had declared that humankind had beensent to destruction through one woman (Eve)and had had salvation restored to it throughanother woman (Mary). But, as many writershave since commented, woman had, to themedieval and Renaissance man, becomealmost completely dualistic.

M Delving Deeper

Hunt, Morton. The Natural History of Love. NewYork: Anchor, 1994.



Taylor, G. Rattray. Sex in History. New York: Van-guard Press, 1952.


Black Mass

In 1966, when Anton Szandor LaVey (1930–1997), high priest of the Satanic Church ofAmerica, joined socialite Judith Case andfreelance writer John Raymond in the bondsof matrimony, he performed the rites over thenaked body of Lois Murgenstrumm, whoserved as the living altar. Later, when LaVeyexplained the ritual significance of the livingaltar to reporters, he remarked that an altarshouldn’t be a cold, unyielding slab of sterilestone or wood. It should be a symbol of unre-strained lust and indulgence.

All in all, it was quite a wedding for thefirst public marriage ceremony ever held inthe United States by a devil-worshipping cult.The bride shunned the traditional white gownto appear in a bright red dress. The groomwore a black turtleneck sweater and coat. Thesatanic high priest stole the show, however, ina black cape lined with scarlet silk and a close-fitting blood-red hood from which two whitehorns protruded.

The cynical might point out that LaVey’sSan Francisco-based church headquarters wasonce a brothel; the purists among the Satanistsmight grumble about how LaVey’s showbizapproach has demeaned the esoteric allure oftheir secret rituals; but it is difficult to be dog-matic about the precise rites and liturgies ofthe Black Mass.

Most authorities agree that the early Sab-bats were held well away from the cities andvillages on large areas of flat ground. Manycovens preferred hilly ground, even mountain-



EARLY Sabbats were held well away from thecities and villages on large areas of flat ground.

sides; but wherever the rituals were held, itwas essential that one end of the worship areabe wooded. This grove, according to tradition,served as the choir and sanctuary. The openarea served as the equivalent of the nave in anorthodox church. At the far end of the wood-ed grove, the worshippers erected an altar ofstones. Upon the altar was placed a large,wooden image of Satan, which many contem-porary scholars agree was quite likely intendedto be a representation of the nature god Pan,rather than the Prince of Darkness.

Even in its most polished form, this effigydid not resemble the sleek, mustachioed popu-lar conception of a long-tailed devil in redtights. The idol’s torso was human, but its bot-tom half was that of a goat. Its head, too, wasmore often goat-like than that of a clearly dis-cernible human physiognomy. The entireimage was stained black, and in some locales,bore a small torch between its horns. The cen-tral feature of all such idols was said to be aprominent penis of exaggerated proportions,emphasizing the rites of fertility in which theancient rituals originated.

The tortures of the Inquisition broughtforth all manner of obscene versions of theBlack Sabbat, and perhaps the great majorityof such testimony is suspect. It must be point-ed out that descriptions of the Black Masswere derived from confessions achieved bytorture, as well as from accounts of medievalChristians who observed pagan celebrations ofthe solstices, midsummer, and so forth andwho collectively designated the participantsas “satan-worshippers.” However, numerousscholars of witchcraft, sorcery, and Satanismgenerally agree on the following order of ser-vice for the observance.

The Sabbat began with the ceremonialentrance of the participants, led by the highpriest or high priestess of the coven. (A coven is

traditionally comprised of no more than 12members.) Christian observers of the Sabbatwere quick to compare this ceremonial entranceto the orthodox introit, but there is no evidencethat the witches referred to the procession bythis name or even intended a comparison to theChristian order of service. According to con-temporary reports of Sabbat gatherings in theMiddle Ages (c. 500–c. 1500), several hundred,and in some cases, several thousand, peopleattended the ritual observances.

The chief officiant was called “TheAncient One,” a purely symbolic title, as inmany Sabbats, the priestess might be an adoles-cent girl. At the priestess’ signal, the celebrantstouched their torches to the flame burningbetween the dark image’s horns and receivedthe transference of Lucifer’s light. The officewas opened with the priestess chanting: “I willcome to the altar. Save me my Holy Lord Satanfrom the treacherous and the violent.” The cer-emonial procession and opening prayer com-pleted, the priestess next delivered the ceremo-nial kiss to the hindquarters of the image.

The only real steadfast rule of the Sabbatwas that there must be an equal number ofboth sexes. Each participant must have amate. Under torture, many witches told theirconfessors that Satan would conjure updemons to take the place of either sex ifhuman company should run short.

Each initiate and each member in atten-dance was required to bring food and drink forthe banquet. In the state of poverty and depri-vation in which so many peasants lived, it iseasy to see why they looked forward to thesesmorgasbords during the Sabbats. Wine, beer,and cider were all known by the twelfth cen-tury, and attendees were encouraged to drinkas well as eat their fill.

It seems, in the opinion of many scholars,that the celebrants may have sprinkled liberaldosages of trance-inducing herbs into thecommunal brew. Undoubtedly, such an actionwas designed to break down the last vestiges ofinhibitions that some newcomers might main-tain. It was most important that everyone becongenial by the hour when it was time forthe Sabbat Dance, or, as it is commonlyknown, the Witches’ Round.



A COVEN is traditionally comprised of nomore than 12 members.

The round was performed with the dancersin a back-to-back position with their handsclasped and their heads turned so that theymight see each other. A lively dance such asthis, which was essentially circular in move-ment, would need little help from druggeddrinks to bring about a condition of vertigo inthe most hearty of dancers. In his The SatanicMass (1965), H. T. F. Rhodes writes: “Theresult of the dance was an ecstatic conditionwherein, as the movement progressed, offi-ciants and congregation were united as if inone body.”

In the sixteenth century, Florin de Rae-mond described the rites of the Sabbat thenextant (translation from Rhodes, The SatanicMass): “The presiding deity is a black goatwith two horns. A man dressed as a priest isattended by two women servers. A young ini-tiate is presented to the goat who makes thesign of the cross with the left hand and com-mands those present to salute him with…thekiss upon the hind-quarters. Between hishorns the creature carries a black lighted can-dle from which the worshippers’ tapers arelighted. As each one adores the goat, money isdropped into a silver dish.” De Raemond goeson to state that the new witch is initiated bygiving Satan a lock of her hair, and by “goingapart with him into a wood.” Then, accordingto de Raemond, “The Sabbat dance follows inthe familiar back-to-back positions and theMass proper then begins. A plain black cape isworn by the celebrant. A segment of turnip,dyed black, is used in place of the Host for theelevation. On seeing it above the priest’shead, the congregation cry, ‘Master, save us!’Water replaces wine in the chalice. Offensivematerial is used as a substitute for holy water.”

The simplest ring dance practiced bywitches is that of a plain circle with men andwomen alternating with joined hands. Some-times the men face in and the women faceout. In certain cases, upright poles may beplaced on the perimeter of the dance circle sothat the dancers might weave their waythrough the staves. As the witches becomemore accomplished, the dance patterns maybecome more sophisticated, but most authori-ties feel that nearly all of the dances may betraced from ancient designs, such as the

swastika, which represents the horns of fourbeasts turning a mill or a wheel.

Perhaps the climax of the traditionalWitches Round came with the priestessbecoming the living altar and lying there,naked, to receive the material offerings of thegroup. Token gifts of wheat, fruit, and in somecases, small animals, may have been offeredon the human altar. This part of the Sabbatseems to have been a most important facet ofthe fertility rites, which, in primitive times,was probably the primary motivation for theobservance.

By the time of the Middle Ages with itsgrim repression of pleasure and sex, it appearsto be a point of general agreement that a masssexual communion was followed by wild andecstatic dancing. Such accounts must alwaysbe evaluated by considering the source:women and men under torture and death atthe stake. It seems certain from the perspec-tive in the twenty-first century, that the oldmystery religions took on a completely differ-ent interpretation when observed by Christ-ian witnesses.

It was during the sixteenth and seven-teenth centuries that the mold became set forthe ritual patterns which many today com-monly think of as Satanism. It was then thatthe practitioners of the Old Religion wentcompletely underground with their worshipceremonies while the decadent aristocracyseized upon the Black Mass as a kind of hedo-nistic parlor game in which one might expresshis sexual fantasies on living altars and cavortabout in the nude. Unrestrained immoralitywas the order of the day as Parisians followedthe example of their Sun King, Louis XIV(1638–1715). Satanism was perhaps developedto its highest estate, as the jaded aristocratsbegan to adapt the witchcraft rituals to suittheir own sexual fantasies. The enlightenedsophisticate’s mockery of the primitive customshad been converted to a serious interest by thetension and insecurity of the times. Althoughthe Inquisition still consumed its quota ofwitches, the France of King Louis XIV was ahigh-living, low-principled era, and lords andladies began to pray in earnest to Satan togrant them high office and wealth. Whether or



not their wishes for elevation in the society oftheir day was granted, it would seem that themajority of these high-born Satanists paid cur-sory homage to the Horned God only as ameans of indulging their baser passions.

M Delving Deeper

O’Keefe, Daniel Lawrence. Stolen Lightning: The SocialTheory of Magic. New York: Vintage Books, 1983.

Rhodes, H. T. F. The Satanic Mass. London: ArrowBooks, 1965.

Taylor, G. Rattray. Sex in History. New York: Van-guard Press, 1952.


Williams, Charles. Witchcraft . New York: MeridianBooks, 1960.

Catherine Montvoisin

At her trial in Paris in 1680, CatherineDeshayes, “La Voisin” (c. 1640–1680), boast-fully stated that she had sacrificed more than2,500 children who had their throats slit ather Black Sabbats. She also claimed that herpoisonous potions brought about the deaths ofmany more jealous husbands, unfaithful wives,and unwanted parents than all the other pro-fessional poisoners of Paris combined.

In 1647, the little girl who would becomeone of history’s most infamous Satanists wasjust another barefooted beggar who had beensent out into the streets to tell fortunes for afew coins from the passersby. By coincidence,many of the waif ’s “predictions” came true,and she cultivated a clientele who swore byher “God-given powers.” But the appealing lit-tle prophetess with the smudged nose soon dis-covered that Satan’s wages were much higherthan the ones offered by the angry wives whosuspected their husbands of infidelity or thefrustrated young women who wanted to knowwhen they would get a husband.

When she was 20, Catherine marriedAntoine Montvoisin, who, as far as can bedetermined, never contributed any moneytoward her well-being. Innately resourceful,she had soon established herself as a midwife,a beautician, and an herbalist, and was sup-porting both Antoine and his daughter by aformer marriage in handsome style.

It was when the enterprising La Voisinincluded palmistry, prophecy, and astrologyamong her stock-in-trade that she incurredthe wrath of the established Church. Insteadof being flayed alive by a grand inquisitor, theyoung woman convinced a learned tribunalcomposed of the vicars general and severaldoctors of theology from the Sorbonne thather approach to astrology was completelyacceptable to the Church.

The effect that her release had upon heralready flourishing trade as an herbalist andher ever-increasing reputation as a seer wasremarkable. People reasoned that La Voisinhad secured the Church’s blessing on hermagic. She was soon surrounded by manywealthy clients.

La Voisin received her supplicants in adarkened chamber wherein she appeared in anermine-lined robe emblazoned with two hun-dred eagles embroidered in gold thread on pur-ple velvet. For the right price, the high priest-ess would officiate at a special Black Mass for atroubled seeker of satanic solace. If the suppli-cant were female, then the client herself,regardless of how high-born she might be,would serve as the Black Mass’s living altar.

The high priestess kept a secret list of morethan 50 Roman Catholic priests who wouldcelebrate the Black Mass at her bidding. Hergreat favorite was Abbe Guilborg (d. 1680),who, in spite of the fact that he held a numberof public and private ecclesiastical offices, wasalways in need of extra money to maintain hismistresses he kept closeted about Paris. Hisskill as a chemist was also put to good use byLa Voisin for her clients who wished effectivepoisons, and Guilborg managed to cut downon housekeeping expenses with his mistressesby selling his many illegitimate children to LaVoisin for use as satanic sacrifices during herBlack Masses.



LA Voisin convinced a learned tribunal that her approach to astrology was completely acceptable

to the Church.

Babies for sacrifice cost the high priestess agood deal of money, but she had learned toeconomize in the Paris streets. She establisheda home for unwed mothers, which saw the girlsthrough their pregnancies and relieved themof the responsibility of caring for an unwantedchild. Girls without financial means were pro-vided for at no charge. The bills presented tothe women of the aristocracy were largeenough to cover the operating expenses for theentire home. The young pampered aristocrats,who inconveniently found themselves in afamily way, were, however, offered the bonus ofhaving a punitive potion secretly administeredto the rogue who had been so careless in hisseduction. With moral laxity the order of theday in Louis XIV’s (1638–1715) France, theshrewd La Voisin’s home for unwed mothersalways managed to provide her with a stock-pile of sacrificial infants.

The Black Mass was held deep in the bow-els of La Voisin’s high-walled house in theregion lying south of St. Denis, which, in sev-enteenth-century Paris, was called Villeneuve.The supplicant approached the altar in com-plete nudity and lay upon its black surface. Ablack-robed acolyte stepped forward to place aflickering black candle in each of her upturnedpalms. At this point, Abbe Guilborg (d. 1680)appeared and positioned himself at the livingaltar. He wore vestments of an orthodox shapemade of white linen. The chasuble (outer vest-ment worn by celebrant at Mass) and the albwere embroidered with black pine cones, theancient Greek symbol of fertility. The priestplaced the chalice upon the supplicant’s stom-ach, kissed her body, and officiated the ceremo-ny. The prayer book was bound in human skin;the holy water was urine; and the host was usu-ally a toad, a turnip, or on occasion, true hoststolen from a church and desecrated with filth.

The rituals completed, it was time for theoffering. Abbe Guilborg stretched out his armsto receive the infant delivered there by theblack-robed acolyte, intoning the dark entitiesAstaroth and Asmodeus to accept the sacrificeof the child so the supplicants at the BlackMass might receive the things that they asked.

The child was raised aloft and the priestdeftly slashed its throat.

Marguerite, La Voisin’s stepdaughter, oftenassisted at the Black Mass in the capacity ofclerk to the celebrating priest. When Mar-guerite happened to find herself with child asthe result of a flirtation with a married neigh-bor, she became alarmed when she found herstepmother casting appraising eyes at thebulge of her pregnancy. When the child wasborn, Marguerite, in spite of herself, foundthat a maternal instinct existed within her.Since she was quite aware that La Voisin hadno interest in becoming a grandmother, Mar-guerite had sent her child away to be broughtup in the country.

While she was becoming wealthy from herperformance of the satanic rites, La Voisin wasunaware that a police official named Desgrez,a detective who had arrested Madame deBrinvilliers (1630–1676), an aristocraticSatanist who specialized in poisons, was clos-ing in on her Black Sabbats. When his menreported the number of the high-ranking andthe high-born who were frequenting theSatanist’s subterranean chambers, Desgrezfound himself faced with quite a decision. Itwould not benefit him to anger so manyimportant people by suggesting that the activ-ities in which they were engaging were wrong.If he arrested La Voisin, he would, at leastindirectly, be criticizing the members of thearistocracy who regularly attended her Sab-bats and who relied upon her talents as a seer-ess and a priestess.

As Desgrez struggled with this dilemma,one of his officers came to him trembling withfear. He had recognized the crest on one of thecoaches waiting before La Voisin’s walls asbelonging to none other than Madame deMontespan (1641–1707), the mistress of KingLouis XIV. The officer told him that the royalmistress had served as the naked, living altarat one of La Voisin’s Sabbats.

Desgrez brought his evidence and the list ofnames to his superior, La Reynie, head of theChambre Ardente. King Louis had pledgedhimself to support the Chambre, but the rankof the names on the list, including that of hisown mistress, placed him in a politically explo-sive situation. His advisors cautioned him thata hasty exposure of the decadence of court life



would lead to a revolution or encourage Eng-land to launch an invasion against a morallycorrupt and internally torn France.

After the arrest of La Voisin, several plant-ed rumors caused some of the court favoritesinvolved to flee the country on extended tripsabroad. After they were safely out of the coun-try, the king saw to it that evidence againsthighborn court figures, including his indis-creet mistress, was suppressed. La Voisin her-self was treated to a rather pleasant stay in jail,until King Louis had seen to it that all those ofhigh position had been protected. Then LaVoisin was delivered to the grand inquisitor.

Catherine Montvoisin endured four six-hour ordeals in the torture chamber before shewas brought to the stake on February 23, 1680.By the king’s order, only testimony concerningthose Satanists who had already been con-demned was allowed to be recorded. The for-mer fortuneteller from the streets of Paris wentto her death singing offensive songs and curs-ing the priests who sought her final confession.

M Delving Deeper

Cavendish, Richard. The Black Arts. New York:Capricorn Books, 1968.

Rhodes, H. T. F. The Satanic Mass. London: ArrowBooks, 1965.


Williams, Charles. Witchcraft. New York: MeridianBooks, 1960.

Gilles de Rais (1404–1440)

In 1415, as a boy of 11, Gilles de Rais becameheir to the greatest fortune in France. At 16,he increased his net worth by marrying theextremely wealthy Catherine de Thouars.Although he was known as a devout Christianwith a mystical turn of mind, and is describedby his contemporaries as a man of rare ele-gance and almost angelic beauty, he was farfrom an ascetic. He was highly skilled in thearts of warfare, and when he had barely turned20 he rode by the side of Joan of Arc (c.1412–1441) and served as her chief lieu-tenant, fighting with such fierce merit thatKing Charles VII (1403–1431) later awardedde Rais the title of Marshal of France.

Gilles de Rais was a man so noted for hisdevotion to duty and his personal piety that hecame to be regarded as a latter-day Lancelot.But, like Lancelot, de Rais entered into an ill-fated love affair that destroyed him. Althoughit was undoubtedly an affair that was conduct-ed entirely on a spiritual plane, de Rais becamethe platonic lover of Joan of Arc, the strangeyoung mystic whose “voices” dictated that shesave France. He became her guardian and pro-tector, but when Joan was captured and burnedat the stake, de Rais felt as though his years ofserving God and the good had been fornaught. After the maid of Orleans wasbetrayed by the Church, he became trans-formed into a satanic fiend of such hellish andunholy proportions that his like may beunequaled in the annals of perverse crimesagainst society. Many scholars who have exam-ined the life of this pietist turned monster indepth have agreed that de Rais’s crimes andacts of sacrilege were quite likely inspired bywhat he considered God’s betrayal of God’sgood and faithful servant, Joan of Arc.

Although she had given him a child,Gilles de Rais left his wife, vowed never tohave sexual intercourse with another woman,and secreted himself in his castle at Tiffauges.The young man who had once surroundedhimself with priests and supported dozens ofchapels throughout France, now welcomedprofligates, broken-down courtiers, syco-phants, and wastrels to his castle, and his fam-ily gold supported several rounds of lavishorgies. At last, even the vast wealth of the deRais was depleted, and Gilles decided to tryhis hand at alchemy, the dream of transmutingbase metals into gold, as a means of replenish-ing his fortune.

Within a short time, he had converted anentire wing of his castle into a series of exten-sive alchemical laboratories. Alchemists andsorcerers from all over Europe flocked toTiffauges. Some came to freeload on the feastsand to fleece the young nobleman out of a fewbags of gold. Others came to seek final answersand resolution to the persistent, haunting questof the alchemist. Although de Rais himselfjoined the alchemists and magicians in worksessions that went nearly around the clock, allof their experiments counted for naught.



It was the Italian alchemist/sorcerer Anto-nio Francisco Prelati, a former priest, who toldhim that a mortal cannot hope to achieve thetransmutation of base metals into gold withoutthe help of Satan. And the only way that analchemist or a sorcerer could hope to arouseSatan’s interest in his work was by dedicatingthe most abominable crimes to his name.

Under Prelati’s direction, de Rais set aboutto commit his first abominable crime. Helured a young peasant boy into the castle andinto the chambers that he provided for Prelati.Under the alchemist’s instruction, de Raisbrutally killed the boy and used his blood forwriting of evocations and formulas. Satan didnot appear and no base metals were transmut-ed into gold, but Gilles de Rais no longercared. He had discovered an enterprise farmore satisfying than the alchemist’s quest. Hehad discovered sadistic satisfaction and plea-sure in the torture and murder of children.

On September 13, 1440, Jean the Bishop ofNantes signed the legal citation which wouldbring the Baron Gilles de Rais to trial. Amongthe charges levied on him were the killing,strangling, and massacring of innocent chil-dren. In addition to such horrors, he was alsocharged with evoking demons, making pactswith them, and sacrificing children to them.

Etienne Corillaut, one of de Raises’s per-sonal servants, later testified at his master’strial when the Marshal of France was accusedof having slain as many as 800 children.

Rather than be put to the question by thecourt, de Rais chose to confess every sordidand gory deed. Such a confession would sparehim the ordeals by torture awaiting those whoprotested their innocence. Because of his highposition in the court of France, Gilles de Raiswas granted the mercy of being strangledbefore being burned. The tribunal convenient-ly looked the other way after his execution,however, and the de Rais family was permittedto remove his corpse after it had been givenonly a cursory singeing. The mass murderer ofhundreds of innocent children was interred ina Catholic ceremony in a Carmelite church-yard. Antonio Francisco Prelati and the otherprofessing Satanists were given, at most, a fewmonths in prison for their part in the murders.

“It is thought likely by some historiansthat this was their reward for testifying againsttheir master,” Masters and Lea reflect, “andthat both ecclesiastical and civil authoritieswere far more interested in obtaining Gilles’money and properties, which were still consid-erable, than in punishing him for his crimes.”

M Delving Deeper

Lyons, Arthur. The Second Coming: Satanism in Ameri-ca. New York: Award Books, 1970.

Masters, R. E. L. and Eduard Lea. Perverse Crimes inHistory. New York: Julian Press, 1963.


Williams, Charles. Witchcraft. New York: MeridianBooks, 1960.

Anton LaVey’s First

Church of Satan

On Walpurgisnacht, April 30, 1966,Anton Szandor LaVey (1930–1997)of San Francisco shaved his head,

donned clerical clothing, complete with whitecollar, and proclaimed himself Satan’s highpriest. Concurrently, LaVey announced theestablishment of the First Church of Satan inAmerica. A short time later, LaVey publishedThe Satanic Bible (1969), affirming in bold lan-guage the teachings of the Church of Satanand proclaiming that Satan ruled the earth.This was the dawn of the Age of Satan, heannounced—the morning of magic and unde-filed wisdom.

Worship of the Prince of Darkness is at leastas old as the Judeo-Christian tradition, andthere was nothing new about a belief in magicalpowers. What was new was LaVey’s use of theterm “church” as part of his organization’s title.While some accused him of blasphemy, hepointed out that the word itself came from theGreek and applied to any group that feels it hasbeen “called out” of society’s rank-and-file for aspecial purpose. And there seemed little ques-tion that LaVey seriously considered his churchto be quite special. In addition to ceremoniesand rituals devoted to the Prince of Darkness,there were weddings, funerals, and childrenbaptized in the name of Satan.



LaVey’s The Satanic Bible listed nine decla-rations that defined Satanism for a new age:

1. indulgence, instead of abstinence;

2. vital existence, instead of spiritual pipedreams;

3. undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocriticalself-deceit;

4. kindness to those who deserve it, insteadof love wasted on ingrates;

5. vengeance, instead of turning the othercheek;

6. responsibility to the responsible, instead ofconcern for psychic vampires;

7. man as just another animal…more oftenworse than those that walk on all fours,

who because of his divine spiritual andintellectual development, has become themost vicious animal of all;

8. all of the so-called sins, as they lead to phys-ical, mental, or emotional gratification;

9. Satan is the best friend the Church hasever had, as he has kept it in business allthese years.

In The Satanic Bible, LaVey revealed andexplained the credos of Satanism as pro-claimed by the Church of Satan. In his intro-duction to the work, he described Satanism asbeing “dedicated to the dark, hidden force innature responsible for the workings of earthlyaffairs for which science and religion had no



Church of Satan founder

Anton Szandor La Vey

(1930–1997). (CHURCH OF

SATAN ARCHIVES)

explanation.” He explained that he was movedto establish the Church of Satan when he sawthe need for a church that would “recaptureman’s body and carnal desires as objects of cel-ebration.” The Church of Satan preaches areligious system that endeavors to overcomethe repressions and inhibitions of humaninstinctual behavior it believes has been fos-tered by the Judeo-Christian tradition.

The First Church of Satan does not recog-nize the existence of Satan as an actual being,but as a symbol representing materialism. Thechurch emphasizes that the figure of Satanstands for an inner attitude, and it is never tobe regarded as an object onto which humanpowers are projected in order to worship what isonly human in an externalized form. In TheSatanic Bible, Satanists are charged to Asay untothine own heart, ‘I am my own redeemer.’”(Book IV, line 3.)

The Satanic Bible is divided into four sec-tions, or books, each corresponding to one ofthe four hermetic elements of fire, air, earth,and water. The first section is entitled The Bookof Satan, and its introduction advises the readerthat the “ponderous rule books of hypocrisy areno longer needed,” it is time to relearn the Lawof the Jungle. The second section, The Book ofLucifer, explains how the Roman god Lucifer,the light bearer, the spirit of enlightenment,was made synonymous with evil through Chris-tian teachings. The Book of Belial, the third sec-tion, is a basic text on materialistic magic, abook of ritual and ceremonial magic expressedin satanic terms. The fourth section, The Bookof Leviathan, stresses the importance to success-ful magic of the spoken word.

The Satanist doctrine celebrates man theanimal. It exalts sexual lust above spirituallove, claiming that the latter is but a sham anda cover-up. Satanism declares that violencemust be met with violence and that to loveone’s neighbor is a utopian unreality. “Hateyour enemies with a whole heart,” The SatanicBible advises. “And if a man smite you on onecheek, smash him on the other! Smite himhip and thigh, for self-preservation is thehighest law!” (Section III, paragraph 7).

Satanists condemn prayer and confessionas vain, futile gestures, believing that the way

to achieve what one wants is through magicand aggressive effort—and that the bestmethod of ridding oneself of guilt is not toassume it in the first place. If Satanists make amistake, they recognize sincerely that to err ishuman; and instead of involving themselvesin efforts to cleanse themselves, they examinethe situation in order to determine exactlywhat happened and how to prevent its hap-pening again.

Satanists regard the Christian preoccupa-tions with otherworldliness as subterfuge, withself-denial as depravity, and with piety as asign of weakness. To Satanists, the Christianway of life is a colorless, odorless, and tastelessencounter with stagnation and boredom.Worshippers of Satan believe that the way togreater levels of personal perfection and anexploration of the deeper mysteries of life isthrough study and the performance of ritualsemphasizing the sensual nature of humankindand directing this power toward the release ofpsychic or emotional energy.

Because Christian churches, especially theRoman Catholic, are considered anathema tothe Prince of Darkness, Satanists use parodiedversions of their rituals and symbols in theirceremonies. The cross is used, but it is worn ordisplayed with the long beam pointing down-ward. Satanists may on occasion use the pen-tagram or five-pointed star, traditionally usedby the practitioners of Wicca or witchcraft,but as with the cross, it is inverted, restingupon a single point, rather than two. Satanistsinsist that their parodying and inversion ofother religions’ rites and symbols are not donestrictly for purposes of blasphemy. It is theirbelief, they maintain, that such use appropri-ates the power inherent in the rite or symboland inverts it for Satan’s purposes.

Satanists believe their doctrine and beliefsystem is of the here and now. Acting on thatpremise, they look for their rewards in their



ANTON LaVey’s The Satanic Bible waspublished in 1969.

present life and in this world. “Life is the greatindulgence—death the great abstinence.Therefore, make the most of life here andnow!” (Book IV, line 1.)

As a supplement to The Satanic Bible, LaVeypublished The Satanic Rituals (1972), in whichhe explained the Church of Satan’s rituals andceremonies in greater detail. Rituals includes theactual text of the Black Mass and the ritual forthe satanic baptism of adults and children.

Anton LaVey, the founder of the FirstChurch of Satan in San Francisco, ran awayfrom home at the age of 17 to work as a cageboy for the circus lion tamer Clyde Beatty.Later, LaVey became a carnival mentalist andhypnotist, then an organ player for the dancersand strippers in the sideshows. On Sundaymornings he had an extra job playing the organfor an evangelist who conducted revival meet-ings in a large tent on the neighboring lot.

In the 1950s, LaVey became a San Francis-co Police Department crime scene photogra-pher, but he maintained the same fascinationfor magic that had driven him to perform as astage mentalist, hypnotist, and magician in thecarnivals and circuses of his youth, and hesoon included a widening circle of devotees inhis Magic Circle discussion group. In the late1960s, when he founded the First Church ofSatan, LaVey became immediately popular inthe media, often allowing reporters to attendcertain rituals that he conducted over the liv-ing altar of a woman’s naked body in hischurch, the famous “Black House,” said tohave been a brothel. Then in a sudden rushcame the books, the attention from moviestars, the position as technical advisor to suchmotion pictures as Rosemary’s Baby, (1968),and the hostility of millions of devout Chris-tians, who saw LaVey as a kind of antichrist.By the 1970s, the death threats and the harass-ment had become oppressive, and LaVey wentunderground, ceased all public ceremonies,and recast his church as a secret society.

In February 23, 1986, The Washington PostMagazine carried Walt Harrington’s account ofa visit with LaVey in which the journalistnoted that the satanic high priest, like anyoneelse, loved his friends, wife, and children, butthere was a venom that went beyond his claimthat Satanism was a parody of Christianity:“Anton LaVey is not a cartoon Satan,” Har-rington wrote. “He’s far less frightening thanyou would imagine, because he is admittedly acarnival hustler. Yet he is still terrifying,because he touches, if not the mystical dark-ness, then the psychological darkness—thehate and fear—in us all.”

In 1991, LaVey lost ownership of the“Black House” when a judge ordered him to



Since Anton La Vey’s

death in 1997, Peter H.

Gilmore is currently the

Church of Satan’s High

Priest. (CHURCH OF

SATAN ARCHIVES)

sell the satanic temple, along with suchmementos as a shrunken head and a stuffedwolf, and split the proceeds with his estrangedwife, Diane Hagerty.

Anton Szandor LaVey died on October 30,1997, the day before Halloween, and soonafter his death, what remained of his estatebecame the object of a legal struggle betweenhis oldest daughter Karla and Blanche Barton,his longtime consort and the mother of his sonXerxes. At the same time, LaVey’s youngerdaughter Zeena, who renounced the Church ofSatan in 1990 and became a priest in the Tem-ple of Set, began proclaiming what she claimedwas the truth about the Church of Satan, list-ing, among other charges, that it had neverbeen intended to be a spiritual movement, butwas created solely as a money-making venture.Such denouncements are unlikely to damageseverely the reputation of the First Church ofSatan, which continues today under the direc-tion of the High Priestess Blanche Barton andthe Magister Peter H. Gilmore.

M Delving Deeper

Church of Satan web page. [Online] http://www.churchofsatan.org/main.html. 26 January 2002.

Freedland, Nat. The Occult Explosion. New York:Berkley, 1972.

Harrington, Walt. “The Devil in Anton LaVey,” TheWashington Post Magazine, February 23, 1986.[Online] http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/WaPost/html. 26 January 2002.

LaVey, Anton Szandor. The Satanic Bible. New York:Avon, 1969.

———. The Satanic Rituals. New York: Avon, 1972.

Temple of Set

The ancient Egyptians were perhaps thefirst to personify evil as a distinct forcein the universe, but they retained a

concept of unity by representing the evil godSet as a brother of Horus, prince of light andgoodness. Although Set was actually theyounger brother of Osiris—who, with Isis, hiswife, and Horus, his son, comprised the Egypt-ian trinity—he was represented as Horus’sbrother, because Set stood for the opposingforces of evil and darkness. Set was jealous of

Osiris’s power and sought to seize the thronefrom him. In ensuing struggle, Osiris was dis-membered, leaving Horus to oppose his evilbrother/uncle. In the war between the twothat ensued, Horus and the forces of good pre-vailed. In the story of Set’s insurrection can beseen a parallel with the Hebrew tradition ofLucifer’s rebellion, his defeat by Michael andthe angels, and his subsequent expulsion fromheaven. Set, therefore, is clearly an early fore-runner of Christianity’s and Islam’s irreconcil-ably and absolutely evil Satan.

The Temple of Set maintains, however,that regardless of how evil Set may be por-trayed, his “essential function” of “expandingthe borders of existence and then returningthat Chaotic energy to the center” has contin-ued to the present day. In the temple’s cosmol-ogy, Set stands separate and apart from theforces of the natural universe.

In 1975, Michael Aquino (1946– ), oneof Anton LaVey’s followers, left the Church ofSatan after a disagreement and organized theTemple of Set in San Francisco. Aquino hadbeen the editor of the Church of Satannewsletter, and when it appeared to him thatLaVey was merely “selling” priesthoods, helodged a firm protest with the Black Pope. InAquino’s view, priesthoods in satanic ordersshould be conferred solely on the basis of magi-cal achievement. Unimpressed with Aquino’sargument, LaVey dismissed the matter byexplaining that he considered the degrees heissued as merely symbolic of the member’s sta-tus in the outside world. In protest, Aquinoresigned his priesthood in the Church of Satanand with Lilith Sinclair, head of the New YorkLilith Grotto, formed the Temple of Set.

Aquino, a former lieutenant in Army Intel-ligence, specializing in psychological warfare,had joined the Church of Satan together withhis first wife in 1968. An enthusiastic memberof the church, he was ordained a satanic priestafter he had returned from serving in Vietnamin 1970; and he envisioned his mission in lifeas one of destroying the influence of conven-tional religion in human affairs. Filled withmissionary zeal, Aquino made it clear that hedid not wish to convert everyone to Satanism,but he did wish to remove the shadow of fear



and superstition that he believed had beenperpetuated by organized religion.

On the eve of the summer solstice on June21, 1975, after his split with LaVey, Aquinoperformed a magical ritual and sought to sum-mon Satan to appear to him to advise him howbest to proceed in his earthly mission. Accord-ing to Aquino, the Prince of Darknessappeared to him in the image of Set anddeclared to his disciple the dawning of theAeon of Set. It was revealed that Set appearedto Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) in Cairo in1904 in the image of Crowley’s guardian angel,Aiwass. At this time, Crowley was declaredthe herald for the advent of the Aeon of Horusand assumed the title of “The Beast.” In 1966,Anton LaVey had ushered in the Aeon ofSatan, an intermediary stage that was designedto prepare the way for the Aeon of Set, an agethat would bring forth enlightenment. Aquinowas delighted and honored to assume the man-tle of “The Second Beast,” and he even had“666,” the number of the Beast in the book ofRevelation tattooed on his scalp. At the sametime, he also assumed Crowley’s Golden Dawndegree of Ipsissimus as his own.

In Aquino’s view, the Temple of Set offersits followers an opportunity to raise their con-sciousness and to apprehend what exists ineach individual to make him or her unique.Such awareness, according to the precepts ofthe Temple of Set, will permit its members touse this gift of expanded consciousness tomake themselves stronger in all facets of theirbeing. To accomplish this, they state, they“perserve and improve the tradition of spiritu-al distinction from the natural universe,which in the Judeo/Christian West has beencalled Satanism,” but they choose to call “theLeft-Hand Path.” To follow such a path, theypromise, is to enter a process that will create“an individual, powerful essence that existsabove and beyond animal life. It is thus thetrue vehicle for personal immortality.”

The Temple of Set emphasizes the employ-ment of black magic of a sort that focuses on“self-determined goals.” While this form ofmagic may be utilized to accomplish every-thing from healing one’s ill friends or relativesto obtaining a better paying position, the tem-

ple stresses that the practitioner must firstlearn to develop a system of ethics and dis-cernment before putting such power to use.Using magic for “impulsive, trivial, or egoisticdesires” is not considered to be Setian. Blackmagic is the means by which Setian initiates“experience being gods, rather than praying toimaginary images of gods.”

The Temple of Set does not tolerate con-gregations of docile Setians. Those who attendmust be considered “cooperative philosophersand magicians.” According to their generalinformation distributed to those who inquireabout the temple, executive authority is heldby the Council of Nine, which is responsiblefor appointing both the high priest and theexecutive director. There are six degrees of ini-tiates: Setian 1, Adept II, Priest/Priestess of SetIII, Magister/ Magistra Templi IV, Magus/MagaV, and Ipsissimus/Ipissima VI. To be recognizedas an Adept II, one must demonstrate that heor she has successfully mastered and appliedthe essential principles of black magic. Read-ing materials available to the initiates includethe newsletter Scroll of Set and the encyclope-dias entitled the Jeweled Tablets of Set.

The Temple of Set emphasizes that theblack arts may be as dangerous to the newcom-er as volatile chemicals may become to theinexperienced lab technician. It cautions thatthe practice of magic is not for unstable, imma-ture, or emotionally weak-minded individuals.And it also stresses that the process offers tothose who seek their “evolutionary product ofhuman experience” is the kind of activity thatno enlightened, mature intellect would regardas “undignified, sadistic, criminal, or depraved.”

M Delving Deeper

Lyons, Arthur. Satan Wants You: The Cult of Devil Wor-ship in America. New York: Mysterious Press, 1989.

———. The Second Coming: Satanism in America.New York: Award Books, 1970.

Temple of Set. [Online] http://www.xeper.org/pub/tos/infoadms/html. October 31, 2001.

UFO Cults

On November 20, 1952, GeorgeAdamski (1891–1965) walked intothe night near Desert Center, Califor-



nia, and when he returned, he claimed to havecommunicated with the pilot of a Venusianspaceship through telepathic transfer. The enti-ty was benign and seemed extremely concernedwith the spiritual growth of humankind. Hewas what George Adamski called a “spacebrother.” Just as the prophets of old had retreat-ed into the desert wilderness to receive theirinspiration from a higher source, so hadAdamski, by some prearranged cosmic signal,gone to meet his space brother in the desert.

Adamski was the first of a long line ofUFO contactees who would claim to havecommunicated with extraterrestrial intelli-gences. Many, like Adamski, became NewAge UFO prophets, sharing the cosmic ser-monettes that they said were given to them bywise beings from the stars. These men andwomen said they were not at all frightened bythe extraterrestrial entities with whom theyhad come into contact. On the contrary, sucha contact with the space brothers and sistershad enabled them to undergo a kind of cosmicconsciousness experience. Throughout hiscareer as a UFO prophet, Adamski’s believerssteadfastly declared him to be one of the mostsaintly of men, completely devoted to theteachings of universal laws.

After Adamski’s contact experience in1952, there were individuals like George VanTassel (1910–1978), George Hunt Williamson,Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry (1908–1992),Cedric Allingham, Orfeo Angelucci, FranklinThomas, Buck Nelson, Gloria Lee (d. 1962),and Howard Menger, who claimed to havetouched souls and, in some cases, bodies withspace beings. Their accounts were circulatedmost often in privately printed books, whichbecame scrolls of wisdom for thousands ofquesting seekers. The contactee literatureranges from reports of fanciful adventures inother worlds, in which the UFO contacteeappears as some modern-day Gulliver beingescorted through awesome alien cultures by abenevolent extraterrestrial guide, to workswhich concern themselves with more philo-sophical, religious, and moral information.

George Van Tassel (1910–1978) publishedhis first booklet in 1952 and introduced theworld to “Ashtar, commandant of station

Schare.” Those who visited Van Tassel’s head-quarters at Giant Rock, California, soonbecame aware that “Schare” was one of sever-al flying saucer stations in Blaau, the fourthsector of Bela, into which our solar system ismoving. “Shan” was the name that Van Tas-sel’s space brother had given for Earth. Com-mandant Ashtar also decreed the universe tobe ruled by the Council of Seven Lights,which had divided the cosmos into sector sys-tems and sectors. Van Tassel found the Min-istry of Universal Wisdom based on his revela-tions from the space brothers. This ministryteaches the universal law that operates inseven states: gender, male and female; the Cre-ator as cause; polarity of negative and positive;vibration; rhythm; relativity; and mentality.

Daniel Fry (1908–1992) establishedUnderstanding Incorporated in 1955 as ameans of better spreading the teachings ofspace brother A-Lan, whom Fry claimed tohave met on his first trip in a UFO. In thatsame year, George King (1919–1997) claimedto have been named the “Primary TerrestrialMental Channel” by Master Aetherius ofVenus. King was later declared an agent forthe Great White Brotherhood and a channelfor both Aetherius and Master Jesus. Membersof the Aetherius Society are earnestlyengaged in the war being waged by the broth-erhood against the black magicians, a groupthey feel seeks to enslave the human race.

By the 1960s, few people were claimingthe direct kind of physical contact thatAdamski had alleged he had experienced outin the California desert, and the psychic-channeling flying saucer groups were becom-ing increasingly popular among the faithfulfollowers of the UFO prophets. Gloria Lee (d.1962), a former flight attendant and the wifeof aircraft designer William H. Byrd, sighted aUFO in the 1950s. In 1953, she began toreceive telepathic communications from anentity on the planet Jupiter who revealedhimself only as “JW.” As she came to placemore confidence in her space being, shebecame a well-known figure among UFOcultist groups as a lecturer and a channel.

JW revealed that on Jupiter vocal cords hadgone out of use, so he began to channel a book



through Gloria Lee. He also prompted her tofound the Cosmon Research Foundation, dedi-cated to the spreading of his teachings and thebringing about of humankind’s spiritual devel-opment in preparation for the New Age.Through JW’s direction and the persistence ofGloria Lee on the lecture circuit, the founda-tion became a thriving organization.

Then, tragically, Lee starved herself todeath after a 66-day fast instituted upon theinstructions of her mentor from Jupiter. Thefast was carried out in the name of peace, in aGandhi-like effort to make the United Statesgovernment officially investigate and studyplans for a spacecraft that she had broughtwith her to Washington. On September 23,1962, Lee secured herself in a hotel room. OnDecember 2, with still no word from any gov-ernment official—or from her extraterrestrialadvisor—the 37-year-old UFO prophet died.

Shortly after her passing, the Mark-AgeMetacenter in Miami, Florida, announcedthat they were receiving messages from thespirit of Gloria Lee. Her etheric form told thegroup that she was now able to discover howthe method of interdimensional communica-tion actually worked. As the Metacenter tooknotes for a booklet Gloria Lee’s publisherwould later issue to the faithful and the curi-ous, Gloria’s spirit spoke through the channelNada Yolanda, explaining how her consciousintelligence had been transferred to anotherfrequency and another body of higher vibra-tional rate.

The death of George Adamski on April 12,1965, by no means stilled the heated contro-versy which had always swirled around the pro-lific and articulate founder of the Flying SaucerMovement, for his followers quickly resurrectedhim. In the book Scoriton Mystery (1967) byEileen Buckle, a contactee named ErnestBryant claims to have met three spacemen onApril 24, 1965, one of whom was a youthnamed Yamski, whose extraterrestrial bodyalready housed the spirit of George Adamski.

Often those men and women who joinUFO cults are, by their own admission, indi-viduals who have become disillusioned withexisting religious institutions and dissatisfiedby the manner in which the political estab-

lishment is dealing with social and economicinjustices. As in the accounts of the prophetsand seekers of old, the contemporary UFOcultists are looking for a more intimate rela-tionship with a source of strength and inspira-tion outside of themselves. And they cannotseek much farther outside of themselves thanouter space.

When such world-weary pilgrims encountera charismatic man or woman who tells a mar-velous story of having received direct spiritualenlightenment from beings from beyond thestars, the potential cultists feel that they havefound a teacher who can now truly answer theirquestions. Their quest has come to an end.They, too, will now willingly become messen-gers for a new gospel from outer space, for theUFO prophet has not only made contact with agodlike being from another world, but he or sheis offering a blend of science and religion thatoffers a theology that seems more applicable tothe problems of modern humankind.

There is a New Age coming, the UFOprophets tell their followers. It will be an agewherein humankind will attain a new con-sciousness, a new awareness, and a higherstate—or frequency—of physical vibration.The UFO beings themselves come from high-er dimensions all around us which function ondifferent vibratory levels, just as there are vari-ous radio frequencies operating simultaneous-ly in our environment. The space brothers andsisters have come to Earth to reach and toteach those humans who will respond to thepromise of a larger universe.

According to the UFO prophets, the spacebeings have advanced information which theywish to impart to their weaker cousins onEarth. They want humankind to join an inter-galactic spiritual federation. They are here toteach, to help awaken the human spirit, tohelp humankind rise to higher levels of vibra-tion so that the people of Earth will be readyto enter new dimensions. Such a goal, accord-ing to the UFO prophets, was precisely whatJesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.), the Buddha (c.563–c. 483 B.C.E.), the prophets in the Bible,and the other leaders of the great religionssought to teach humanity. In fact, Jesus,known to Mark-Age and others in the Flying



Saucer Movement as “Sananda,” has been inorbit around the planet since 1885 and willtake on material form as Earth’s transition to ahigher consciousness is made.

Humankind stands now in the transitionalperiod before the dawn of a New Age, accord-ing to the UFO prophets. If earthlings do notraise their vibrational rate within a set periodof time, severe earth changes and major cata-clysms will take place. Such disasters will notend the world, but shall serve to eliminate theunreceptive members of the human species.However, those who die in such dreadful purg-ings of the planet will be allowed to reincar-nate on higher levels of development so thattheir salvation will be more readily accom-plished through higher teachings on a highervibratory level.

For thousands of men and womenthroughout the world, the UFO has become asymbol of religious awakening and spiritualtransformation. Some envision the UFO astheir deliverer from a world fouled by its owninhabitants, and the presence of UFOs provesto them that humans are not alone in the uni-verse. Because humans are not alone, then lifedoes have meaning, for humans are thereforepart of a larger community of intelligences.All humans have become evolving membersin a hierarchy of cosmic citizenship.

Although certain UFO cults such as Heav-en’s Gate and Order of the Solar Templeacquired a dark side that eventually led to themass suicide of many of its members, the greatmajority of these groups are benign; and asmany scholars of contemporary religiousmovements have noted, may be the heralds ofa New Age religion, a blending of technologyand traditional religious concepts. Dr. GordonMelton, director of the Institute for the Studyof American Religion, has commented thatsuch groups are best understood as “an emerg-ing religious movement with an impetus and alife of their own.”

M Delving Deeper

Clark, Jerome. The UFO Book. Detroit: Visible InkPress, 1998.

Godwin, John. Occult America. New York: Double-day, 1972.


Story, Ron, ed. The Encyclopedia of ExtraterrestrialEncounters. New York: New American Library,2001.

Sutherly, Curt. Strange Encounters. St. Paul, Minn.:Llewellyn Publications, 1996.

Aetherius Society

In 1954 while he was in a deep meditativetrance, George King (1919–1997) claimedthat he received a message from an outer spacebeing who told him to prepare himself tobecome the human voice of the InterplanetaryParliament. While such a command mighthave startled one unqualified to receive suchcommunication, the 35-year-old Englishmanhad been immersed in spiritual studies since hewas young. Beginning with an intense study oforthodox Christianity, King became interestedin exploring psychic phenomena and spiritualhealing. When he was to be the primary men-tal channel for the cosmic masters, King inten-sified his practice of yoga, which included theyogic sciences of raja, gnani, and kundalini.This permitted him to attain the state ofsamadhi—the union of spirit with the super-conscious, which allowed communication withthe masters in other energy spheres. Soon,King was to discover that the voice that hadcontacted him belonged to the masterAetherius, a 3,500-year-old Venusian whosename, loosely translated, meant “one whocomes from outer space.”

By 1955, King had received a number ofteachings from the cosmic masters that he feltcompelled to share with others. With a num-ber of men and women who had been drawnto his channeling of the messages from outerspace, King formed the Aetherius Society inLondon, England, in 1956, relinquishing all ofhis other spiritual research and his materialis-tic enterprises to focus his life completely onthe transmissions from the cosmic masters.

According to what King had learned fromhis contact, Aetherius and the other cosmicmentors came from a world or a dimensionthat was far more technologically advancedthan Earth. While they arrive in crafts



referred to as UFOs, their advanced technolo-gy allows them to remain invisible to Earth’sradar and other scientific detection devicesuntil they permit themselves to be seen justoften enough to provoke controversial sight-ings and signs to the people of the planet. Inspite of their superior scientific knowledge,the outer space beings choose to visit Earthbecause they are benevolent entities who wishto guide humankind in its spiritual evolution.Essentially, the masters are the planet’s spiritguides, and they can appear to earthlings fromtime to time in physical bodies simply by low-ering their vibratory rate.

As well as seeking to guide earthlings spiri-tually, the cosmic masters have also protectedEarth on numerous occasions from both exter-nal and internal forces, King claimed. Theyhave intervened and prevented ecological dis-asters from occurring. Their spacecraft have,from time to time, blocked the invasion of theplanet from hostile interplanetary imperialistswho wish to colonize Earth. The outer spacemasters have even gone so far as to erect aninvisible barrier around the planet to protect itfrom invasion by the “black magicians,” evilaliens who wish to enslave the people of Earth.

As with a number of UFO contactees,King linked the masters from extraterrestrialworlds with the ancient metaphysical legendof the Great White Brotherhood, the lightbeings who are said to belong to a multidi-mensional, intergalactic organization thatdedicates itself to serving the divine cosmicplan in the universe. Among the ascendedmasters who have been historical figures onEarth, the contactees include Jesus (c. 6B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.), St. Germain, Krishna, andLord Buddha (c. 563–c. 483 B.C.E.). By benefitof his crucial role in the relaying of transmis-sions from Aetherius, George King, in theview of the members of the Aetherius Society,had been elected by the brotherhood tobecome the next great spiritual prophet.

To further assist his fellow brothers and sis-ters of Earth to welcome the wisdom andknowledge of the outer space beings, Kingbegan to publish The Cosmic Voice, a transcriptof the communications that he had receivedfrom the cosmic masters. He also began giving

public demonstrations of his channeling of theextraterrestrial teachers and presenting lec-tures to audiences of the curious and the truebelievers in the spiritual teachings from wisementors from outer space. On May 21, 1959,King went into samadhic trance while beinginterviewed on the BBC, and thousands ofradio listeners in the United Kingdom wereable to hear for themselves the warnings andthe counsel of the cosmic masters. In recogni-tion of his devotion to his extraterrestrialassignment as the principal terrestrial contactfor the masters, King’s followers bestowed uponhim the titles of Sir George King, O.S.P.,Ph.D., Th.D., D.D., Metropolitan Archbishopof the Aetherius Churches, Prince Grand Mas-ter of the Mystical Order of St. Peter, andHRH Prince De George King De Santori.

By 1960, King and his Aetherius Societyhad spread their Cosmic Gospel throughoutthe British Isles, as well as to the UnitedStates, and an American headquarters wasestablished in Hollywood, California. Soonthere would be branches in Detroit, Michigan;Australia; and West Africa.

The Aetherius Society warned that matterswere serious in the view of the cosmic masters.Two previous terrestrial civilizations, Atlantisand Lemuria, had destroyed themselves in anuclear war in prehistory, and the IntergalacticCouncil was concerned that such a catastrophecould take place once again. The members ofhumankind were regarded as the problem chil-dren of the solar system, and various masters andadepts were forced to give Earth special atten-tion. To this end, a grand master plan would seethe arrival of a cosmic master in a spacecraft in atime in the near future. When this event occurs,the people of Earth will be given the choice offollowing the laws of the Most High God andentering a new era of peace and enlightenment,or rejecting the divine laws and pass through thegateway of death to be placed on a planet wherethey will have the opportunity to relearn thelessons of the universe.

M Delving Deeper

Aetherius website. [Online] http://www.aetherius.org.28 January 2002.

Godwin, John. Occult America. New York: Double-day, 1972.



King, George, and Richard Lawrence. Contacts withthe Gods from Space: Pathway to the New Millenni-um. Hollywood, Calif.: Aetherius Society, 1996.



Heaven’s Gate

When the bodies of the 39 men and womenwere found in rooms throughout the spaciousRancho Santa Fe mansion outside of SanDiego, California, on March 26, 1997, theirdeaths by suicide enabled the media to trans-form them from members in a UFO cult previ-ously known as Human Individual Metamor-phosis to the Heaven’s Gate suicide cult.According to what could be learned about thedeceased in letters and videotapes that theyhad left behind, they had interpreted thearrival of the Hale-Bopp comet as the sign forwhich they had been waiting. When the cometpassed overhead, they would hasten their“graduation from the human evolutionarylevel” through self-administered poison andhitch a ride to their “Father’s Kingdom” on theextraterrestrial spacecraft that they believedfollowed in the wake of the comet’s tail.

The cosmology of what has come to beknown as the Heaven’s Gate cult was born inthe minds of Marshall Herff Applewhite(1931–1997) and Bonnie Lu Trousdale Nettles(1927–1985) sometime around 1972 when theyformed the Christian Arts Center in Houstonfor the declared purpose of helping to makehumans more aware of their spiritual potentialby sponsoring lectures in comparative religion,mysticism, meditation, and astrology. Apple-white, the son of a Presbyterian minister, hadserved with the Army Signal Corps in Salzburg,Austria; studied sacred music at Union Theo-logical Seminary in Richmond, Virginia; direct-ed musicals for the Houston Music Theatre; andfrom 1966 to 1971 taught music at the Univer-sity of St. Thomas in Houston. Nettles, anastrology enthusiast, was a graduate of the Her-mann Hospital School of Professional Nursingin 1948 and worked as a nurse in the Houston

area. Although they had each been previouslymarried to others, in 1974, when Applewhiteand Nettles were creating their philosophicalblend of apocalyptic Christianity and UFOlogy,they said that they were not married, but wereliving together “by spiritual guidance.” Espous-ing the highest principles, the couple stated thatthey had renounced sex in preparation for theirjourney to the Father’s Kingdom.

Applewhite and Nettles began to callthemselves “Bo” and “Peep,” and they pro-claimed that they had awakened to their trueextraterrestrial origins and earthly mission.They had come to the planet to acquainthumankind with the basic methods by whicha human might leave his or her humanity andmake the graduation to an entirely differentconsciousness. As benevolent aliens, they hadcome to Earth to demonstrate, if need be, bytheir own deaths and resurrection in three anda half days, how the human body could under-go a dramatic metamorphosis, just as thechrysalis changed from caterpillar to butterfly.



Marshall Herff

Applewhite, Jr.

(1931–1997), leader of the

Heaven’s Gate cult,

convinced his followers

to commit a mass

suicide, because he

believed a spaceship

following the Hale Bopp

Comet would take them

to their “new world

destination.” (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

MARSHALL Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Trousdale Nettles were also known as “Bo and Peep.”

Bo and Peep claimed to have originatedfrom the same level as Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30C.E.), asserting that they were the two witness-es referred to in the Book of Revelation whowould be the harbingers of a great harvesttime for humanity: [Revelation: 11:3–13]“And I will give power to two witnesses, andthey shall prophesy.…And when they havefinished their testimony, the beast that ascen-deth out of the bottomless pit shall…over-come them and kill them. And their deadbodies shall lie in the street of the greatcity…three days and a half.…And after threedays and a half the spirit of life from Godentered them and they stood upon theirfeet…And they heard a great voice fromheaven saying to them, Come up hither. Andthey ascended to heaven in a cloud…and theremnant were affrighted and gave glory to theGod in heaven.”

It has long been one of the major tenets ofChristianity that if one aspires to a higherlevel beyond death, one will achieve such astate in spirit form, not in the physical body.However, Bo and Peep insisted that spiritualseekers must begin their butterfly-like appren-ticeship by leaving the ways of their humancaterpillar family and friends behind andattain the higher level in an actual physicalbody. The kingdom of heaven and all thosewho occupy it, according to the two, were lit-erally physical in form. No spirits were permit-ted in their father’s kingdom. If one stays atthe human level, Bo and Peep warned,whether incarnate or discarnate, one still hasall ties with this garden Earth.

Bo and Peep achieved national mediaattention after a UFO lecture in Waldport,Oregon, on September 14, 1975, when theywere said to have mysteriously whisked away20 members of the audience aboard a flyingsaucer. Concerned family members of the van-ishing Oregonians were not convinced thatextraterrestrials had kidnapped their relatives.They feared that it was more likely that theirmissing kin had been murdered. Law enforce-ment officials tried their best to squelchrumors that satanic sacrifice was involved inthe mysterious disappearances. However, itwould soon be revealed that a good number ofthe UFO enthusiasts who had attended the

lecture had chosen of their own free will tojoin Bo and Peep on their spiritual pilgrimage.

The two did not promise an easy path tohigher awareness. They instructed their fol-lowers that they must walk out the door oftheir human lives and take with them onlywhat would be necessary while they were stillon the planet. Newcomers were advised thatthe process worked best if they had a partnerand that they would be paired with anotherfor a time. However, the only bond that was toexist between them would be a mutual desireto raise their vibrational levels so they mightascend to the next realm. Bo and Peep admit-ted they didn’t know where their father wouldlead them or when their assassinations andsubsequent demonstration overcoming deathmight occur. But those who felt they mustaccompany them, they were to bring withthem a car, a tent, a warm sleeping bag, uten-sils, and whatever money they could carrywith them. Those who joined the HumanIndividual Metamorphosis (HIM) groupwould be camping out a lot in order to takethe word to others who might be seeking it.

In spite of painting such a bleak picture ofa nomadic existence, traveling from city tocity as Bo and Peep spread the word, within afew months a remarkable number of highlyeducated professionals left high-salaried jobs,expensive homes, and loving spouses and chil-dren to follow the two on a journey of faiththat would have them living hand-to-mouthand sleeping under the stars. Bo and Peep stat-ed firmly that they found no need to defendthemselves against any charges of kidnappingor of brainwashing their followers into anykind of organized cult activity. The only kindof conversion experience that the two wereinterested in was that of the physical—thebiological and chemical changeover fromhuman-level creatures to creatures on thenext evolutionary level. Just as a caterpillarhas to cease all of its caterpillar activities inorder to achieve its chrysalis, they instructedtheir followers, so must the same thing happento a human who wished to make the transi-tion. All human desires and activities must beleft behind so one could emerge as an individ-ual capable of entering a realm that is alto-gether different from the human.



Applewhite and Nettles warned their fol-lowers and the members of their lecture audi-ences that Earth was fast approaching “thatseason” when humans could enter the processthat would enable them to graduate to a high-er level. They insisted that they were notspeaking of anything “etheric.” They weretalking about actually leaving the Earth’satmosphere. Those who took the trip wouldno longer be associated with the human king-dom, but with the next level of existence.They will have graduated from Earth.

Many members of the HIM inferred fromvarious pronouncements by Bo and Peep thatit was quite likely that they would be assassi-nated sometime around June 1976. They tolda number of their followers that they would liein state for three-and-a-half days, then rise tothe next level in full view of the media, there-by proving that they were the two spoken ofin the Book of Revelation.

When such a convincing demonstration oftheir true identity was delayed because of thetwo’s dissatisfaction with certain media repre-sentations of their mission, a large number ofdisillusioned followers dropped out of thegroup, leaving Bo and Peep and their mostfaithful members to resume their nomadiclifestyle and to go underground with theirministry. In 1985 Bonnie Nettles, who at thattime called herself “Ti,” died of cancer, and, inthe words of an ardent follower, “returned tothe next level.” Applewhite, now “Do,” car-ried on their mission of informing humansthat salvation hovered overhead in a space-ship. Sometime in 1993, there were signs thatthe group was active under the new name ofthe Total Overcomers, and still under theleadership of Applewhite, who now warnedearthlings that their planet was at the mercyof alien star gods, the “Luciferians,” who hadfallen away from the Father’s Kingdom manythousands of years ago.

In 1995, renaming the group Heaven’sGate, Applewhite and his most devoted disci-ples moved to San Diego and established acomputer business, Higher Source, which spe-cialized in designing computer websites. InOctober 1996, the group, which had seeming-ly chosen to live quietly and avoid extensive

media exposure, moved into the mansion atRancho Santa Fe.

Five months later, on March 26, 1997,news media around the world carried the star-tling announcement of the mass suicide.Apparently Applewhite had become con-vinced that he had at last found the narrowwindow of opportunity for graduation to thehigher level provided by a spacecraft boundfor heaven, the father’s kingdom. Tragically,he took 38 loyal followers with him.

M Delving Deeper

Jackson, Forest, and Rodney Perkins. Cosmic Suicide:The Tragedy and Transcendence of Heaven’s Gate.Dallas, TX: Pentaradial Press, 1997.

Heaven’s Gate website. [Online] http://www.web-coast.com/heavensgate.com. 28 January 2002.

Steiger, Brad, and Hayden Hewes. Inside Heaven’sGate: The UFO Cult Leaders Tell Their Story inTheir Own Words. New York: Signet, 1997.

Story, Ron ed. The Encyclopedia of ExtraterrestrialEncounters. New York: New American Library,2001.

Wessinger, Catherine Lowman. How the MillenniumComes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate.New York: Chatham House, 2000.

The Raelians

On December 13, 1973, Claude Vorilhon(1946– ), a French sports journalist and for-mer race car driver, claimed to have been con-tacted by an extraterrestrial being while climb-ing the Puy de Lassolas volcanic crater nearClermond-Ferrand, France. Vorilhon wasastonished when he spotted a metallic-lookingobject in the shape of a flattened bell about 30feet in diameter descend from the sky. A dooropened in the side of the craft, and whatappeared to be a humanlike being about fourfeet in height approached in a peaceful man-ner. Vorilhon soon believed that the being wasa member of the Elohim—the “gods” whomade humans in their own image. The primi-tive ancestors of modern humankind hadinterpreted the extraterrestrial visitors fromthe stars as gods, because to them any beingsarriving from the heavens could only bedivine. It was the extraterrestrials, the Elohim,who created Homo sapiens in their image intheir laboratories, utilizing deoxyribonucleic



acid (DNA), just as contemporary Earth scien-tists are at the point of creating “synthetic”humans in the same manner.

Then, Vorilhon said, the extraterrestrialbeing explained that in a manner similar to theGreek legend of Pygmalion who created a stat-ue so beautiful that he fell in love with it, so didcertain of the Elohim find the products of theirlaboratory artistry compellingly irresistible. Theresults, Vorilhon said, were recorded in Genesis6:4: “…When the sons of God came in untothe daughters of men…they bare children tothem, the same became mighty men whichwere of old, men of renown.”

The extraterrestrial told Vorilhon that theElohim had sent great prophets, such as Moses(c. 14th–13th century B.C.E.), Ezekial (sixthcentury B.C.E.), the Buddha (c. 563–c. 483B.C.E.), and Muhammad (c. 570–632 C.E) toguide humankind. Jesus (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.),the fruit of a union between the Elohim andMary, a daughter of man, was given the mis-sion of making the Elohim’s messages of guid-ance known throughout the world in anticipa-tion of the Age of Apocalypse—which in theoriginal Greek meant the “age of revelation,”not the “end of the world.” It is in this epoch,which the people of Earth entered in 1945,that humankind will at last be able to under-stand scientifically that which the Elohimaccomplished aeons ago in the Genesis story.

Claude Vorilhon said that the Elohimrenamed him “Rael,” which means “the manwho brings light.” Shortly after his encounterwith the extraterrestrial, he created theRaelian Movement, which soon acquiredmore than a thousand members in France. In2001, according to figures produced by theRaelians, their membership included 55,000individuals in 85 different countries.

Rael claimed that on October 7, 1975, theElohim physically contacted him again, andthis time he was invited aboard a spacecraftand taken to their home planet. During thisextraterrestrial contact experience, Raellearned that after the nuclear explosions in1945, the Elohim believed that humans hadentered the Age of Apocalypse. However,they cannot return in large numbers until theinhabitants of Earth begin to display a greater

ability to live together in peace, love, andbrother/sisterhood. And the Elohim are await-ing some evidence that the planet can be gov-erned with intelligence and spirit before theyfully reveal themselves to Earth at large.

Because the Elohim feel that many mem-bers of humankind are now able to understandtheir extraterrestrial creators without mystify-ing or worshipping them, they asked Rael toestablish an embassy wherein they will be ableto meet with Earth’s leaders. Although theElohim feel strongly that a mass landingwould bring about disastrous political, reli-gious, social, and economic consequencesthroughout the world, the neutrality providedby such an embassy would enable them todemonstrate the love and respect that theyhold for humankind.

Rael maintains that he has established theRaelian Movement according to the instruc-tions given to him by the Elohim. Its aims areto inform humankind of the reality of the Elo-him “without convincing,” to establish theembassy where the Elohim would be welcome,and to help prepare a human society adaptedto the future. In the years since his first contactexperience, he has written a number of booksthat may be obtained directly from theRaelians. The titles include The Message Givenby Extraterrestrials, (detailing his first messagesfrom the Elohim, said to have sold one millioncopies and to be printed in 22 languages), andLet’s Welcome Our Fathers from Space.

In July 2001, the Raelian Movement madeheadlines around the world when one of itsmembers, Brigitte Boisselier, a 44-year-old sci-entist with doctorates from universities in Dijonand Houston, announced that Clonaid, herteam of four doctors and a technician, wouldsoon produce the first human clone. Defyingopposition from President George W. Bush, theU.S. Congress, Secretary of Health TommyThompson, and the Food and Drug Administra-tion, Boisselier refused to disclose the locationof Clonaid’s two laboratories, other than to statethat one was in the United States and the otherabroad. Clonaid, established by Rael in 1997, isfunded in part by $500,000 from an anonymouscouple who want a child cloned from the DNAof their deceased 10-month-old son.



In Rael’s opinion, such cloning willdemonstrate the methods employed by theElohim in their creation of the human species.As it was told to him, many centuries ago on adistant planet, scientific teams set out to cre-ate life on more primitive worlds. On one suchplanet, Earth, their laboratories created thelife forms that became human beings.

M Delving Deeper

Ellison, Michael. “Cult Determined to CloneHumans,” The Guardian. July 19, 2001. [Online]http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/ 0,3858,4224163,00.html. 28 January 2002.

Raelian Revolution website. [Online] http://www.rael.org. 28 January 2002.


Twentieth-Century

Spiritual Expression

Although millennial thought dates backto the ancient Persian philosophers andwas sustained through the centuries by

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim teachers, Ameri-cans especially seem always to have been fasci-nated by the horror of a certain apocalypticvision that includes plagues, earthquakes, andcataclysmic volcanic eruptions. ChristopherColumbus was a devout student of biblicalprophecies who believed that the world wouldend in 1650. He perceived that his personalmission was to find a new continent that wouldbe a special refuge for those who survived thepurging of Armageddon, the final battlebetween the armies of Christ and Satan, that hebelieved would occur during the mid-seven-teenth century.

Scores of American preachers and mysticsfrom colonial times through the Civil Warand up to the present day have continued theprecedent set by Columbus and occupiedthemselves with predicting the exact time ofChrist’s return and the subsequent final battlebetween Good and Evil.

Of course such obsessions with apocalypticteachings and personal quests for spiritual ful-

fillment are by no means limited to Ameri-cans. By the twentieth century, many formerlyloyal followers of organized religious bodiesthroughout the world were beginning tobecome impatient with doctrinal rules of orderand began to blend the new discoveries of sci-ence with the faith of their forefathers. In theWest, many spiritual seekers chose to combinethe teachings of Eastern religions with thoseaspects of western science which they felt sup-ported their spiritual beliefs, including medita-tion, biofeedback, and extrasensory perceptionas means of attaining higher awareness.

These amalgamations of science, conven-tional Christianity, and such eastern religionsas Hinduism and Buddhism offended manyindividuals who deemed themselves to be thetrue followers of the revelations disclosed inthe Bible; and these apocalyptic groups, suchas the Branch Davidians set themselves apartto prepare for the time of judgment that theybelieved was imminent.

While members of organized church bod-ies, as well as the general public, were quick tobrand these various splinter groups as cults, incontemporary language usage such a term isconsidered negative and judgmental.Although the beliefs practiced by some ofthese groups may seem strange to certain ofthe more conventionally religious, the sinceri-ty of the members of such evolving spiritualbodies cannot be so readily discounted bythose who have not carefully examined whatmay be a blending of several traditions and aserious attempt to achieve enlightenment.

It may be that many of the spiritual experi-ments of the twentieth century will beassessed by more conventional students oftheology as modern expressions of the Christ-ian Mystery Schools that combined elementsof the occult within their dogma. Unfortu-nately, far too many of these newly emergentgroups began with visions of peace and loveand ended with the mass suicides and deathsof their followers. In the United States, ThePeoples’ Temple began with Pastor JamesJones expanding the teachings of a liberalProtestant denomination into a doomsdaycult and later revealing himself to group asbeing the reincarnation of Jesus and the Bud-





The cult of the Restoration of the Ten Com-mandments appears to have had its ori-gins in the late 1970s when a group ofschoolchildren claimed to have received

visions of the Virgin Mary on a soccer field in the townof Kibeho, Rwanda. A cult of the Virgin, combiningRoman Catholicism with aboriginal religious tradi-tions, formed and spread to southwest Uganda. It washere that Credonia Mwerinde, a store proprietor andbrewer of banana beer, said that the Virgin Maryappeared to her in 1984.

In 1989, Mwerinde met Joseph Kibwetere, aschool administrator and politician, and informed himthe Virgin required his aid in spreading a message:people must restore value to the Ten Commandmentsand strictly follow their admonitions if they were toescape damnation at the end of the world. And the endwas near: According to Mwerinde’s visions, the worldwould end on December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000.

The convictions of Mwerinde and the newlyinspired Kibwetere proved to be convincing, andmembership in Uganda swelled to 5,000. The rules forthe program dictated by the Virgin Mary throughMwerinde were extremely strict. Cult members wereforbidden to communicate other than through signlanguage. They were to labor in the fields to growtheir own food, and had to fast regularly. On Mondaysand Fridays they were allowed only one meal. Soap, asinful indulgence, was forbidden.

The continued existence of the world after Janu-ary 1, 2000, caused dissension to grow in the ranks ofthe cult. Many members, having followed the com-mand to sell their property and belongings and give allproceeds to the cult, wanted their money back.

On March 15, 2000, the cult held a great party inthe town of Kanungu, roasting three bulls and provid-ing 70 crates of “soft drinks” for their members.Although facts remain unclear, apparently more than1,000 were poisoned or otherwise murdered, dousedwith sulphuric acid, and set on fire. The bodies of Cre-donia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibwetere were notfound among the charred remains of their faithful

members. A witness in Kanungu told police that hehad caught sight of the two leaving the festivities withsuitcases in hand and wondered at the time why theywould leave before their party had ended.

Sources:

Fisher, Ian. “Exploring the Deadly Mystique Surrounding a

Uganda Cult.” New York Times on the Web,April 1, 2000.

Sieveking, Paul. “Shallow Grave.” Fortean Times, July 2000,

34–38.

The Restoration

of the Ten

Commandments

dha. In Jonestown, Guyana, on November 14,1978, Jones joined 638 of his adult followersand 276 of their children in a mass suicide. InRwanda, Credonia Mwerinde combined a cultof the Virgin Mary and Roman Catholicismwith aboriginal religious traditions andallowed the heavenly messages to end thelives of over 1,000 members by mass murderon March 15, 2000. In Switzerland, TheOrder of the Solar Temple sought to preparehumankind for the return of Christ throughthe wisdom of occult and extraterrestrial mas-ters, but when the illusion of immortalityfaded, a series of mass suicides of cult memberstook place in Switzerland, France, and Que-bec, from October 1994 to March 1997.

Many of the new spiritual groups combineaspects of Christianity with the “new gospels’that they claim to have obtained fromextraterrestrial Masters. Members of some ofthese UFO groups call Jesus by what theybelieve to be his true name of Sananda andrecognize him as an extraterrestrial who is cir-cling Earth in a spaceship, awaiting the propertime for his Second Coming. While UFOcults such as Heaven’s Gate, the Raelians, andthe Order of the Solar Temple developed sen-sational or negative images, there are manyUFO groups who seek to develop a new reli-gion that will blend science and more tradi-tional religious concepts.

Falun Gong, although branded an evil cultby the Chinese government in 1999, claims tohave 100 million members worldwide. LiHongzhi, the founder of the movement wholives in the United States, insists that hisgroup is not a religion, but a series of five dailyexercises by which individuals may activatethe higher abilities of mind, body, and spirit.

The Church of Scientology is classified asa cult by its detractors, but its members assertthat Scientology is a new religion that wasfounded by L. Ron Hubbard in the twentiethcentury and has its roots in the deep beliefsand ancient wisdom that go back more than50,000 years. By combining with the physicalsciences, Scientology offers an application ofscientific methodology to spiritual questionsand allows individuals to approach their liveswith more confidence.

As the world continues to shrink and mil-lions of pulpits on the Internet become avail-able to new mystics and visionaries, it remainsfor the individual reader to judge whichgroups contain the precepts, the truths, andthe moral values to survive into the twenty-first century and beyond.

Branch Davidians

The Branch Davidian religious group had itsorigins when Victor Houteff (1885–1929) sep-arated from the Seventh-Day AdventistChurch in 1929 to form the Shepherds Rod,Branch Seventh-Day Adventist. In 1935, with11 of his followers, Houteff founded the MountCarmel Center near Waco, Texas. In 1942 hechanged the name of his group to the DavidianSeventh-Day Adventist Association.

Houteff died in 1955, and his wife, Flo-rence Houteff, focused the group with hervision that Judgment Day would occur onApril 22, 1959. Her prophecy having failed,she sold Mount Carmel in 1965 to BenjaminRoden, who named his faction the BranchDavidian Seventh-Day Adventist Associa-tion. After Roden’s death in 1978, his wife,Lois Roden, declared herself the Sixth Angelin Revelation and a prophet speaking throughthe feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit.

A young man named Vernon Howell joinedthe Branch Davidians in 1981 and almostimmediately caught Lois Roden’s eye as thegroup’s next prophet. Howell assumed controlof the Davidians in 1988 and changed his nameto David Koresh in 1990. He pronounced him-self the Lamb of Revelation, who would openthe seven seals of the scroll and interpret thesecrets that would immediately bring about theSecond Coming of Jesus Christ.

Koresh believed that the final strugglebetween good and evil would begin in theUnited States, rather than Israel, so the com-munity of believers stockpiled food, water, andweapons. In 1992, Koresh renamed the MountCarmel commune “Ranch Apocalypse.”

Rumors began to circulate that the BranchDavidians were abusing children and storinglarge amounts of illegal firearms and explo-sives. On February 28, 1993, Bureau of Alco-hol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) agents



raided Ranch Apocalypse, resulting in tendeaths and 25 wounded. The FBI took over,and the ensuing siege lasted 51 days. On April14, Koresh had a vision that instructed him towrite his translation of the seven seals in Rev-elation and then surrender. But the encirclingforces had grown tired of his biblical babblingsand apocalyptic pronouncements. On April19, the FBI attacked and ended the stand-offat Ranch Apocalypse.

Koresh and 75 of his followers, including21 children, died in the fire that sweptthrough the entire compound. Prior to thesiege at Ranch Apocalypse, there were about130 members of the Branch Davidians. Afterthe destruction of the compound, there wereestimates of 30 to 50 members who had man-aged to leave the commune before the finaldays or who had escaped the inferno. Accusa-tions circulated that the FBI was responsiblefor starting the fire with incendiary tear gascartridges.

M Delving Deeper

Neville, Leigh. “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” ForteanTimes, April 2000, 34–38.

Kantrowitz, Barbara, with Peter Annin, Ginny Car-roll, and Bob Conn. “Was It Friendly Fire? In theBungled Waco Raid, Federal Agents May HaveBeen Shot by Their Own Men.” Newsweek, April5, 1993, 50–51.

Rainie, Harrison, with James Popkin, Dan McGraw,Brian Duppy, Ted Gest, Jo Ann Tooley, andDavid Bowermaster. “Armageddon in Waco: TheFinal Days of David Koresh.” U.S. News andWorld Report, May 3, 1993, 24–34.

Reavis, Dick J. The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation.Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press,Reprint, 1998.

Eckankar

Those who follow the alternative religion ofEckankar say that theirs is the religion of theLight and Sound of God. The Light of God isthe ECK, known to many saints and mystics asthe Holy Spirit. The Sound of God is therushing wind that the disciples of Jesus (c. 6B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) heard on that first Pentecost.

Eckists believe that they follow ancientwisdom teachings that were revived in 1965for modern men and women by the LivingECK Master Paul Twitchell (1910?–1971).According to Twitchell and such masters fromhigher planes as Rebazar Tarzs, whose teach-ings he relayed, the soul is on a journey of self-and god-realization. To assist the individualsoul to achieve contact with the ECK, theDivine Spirit, the Mahanta, the Living ECKMaster, provides spiritual exercises and guid-ance available to all sincere seekers.

Because the Mahantas emphasize that Eck-ankar is a living faith that changes constantly,Eckists must pay close attention to the teach-ings and revelations of the Living Master, whocomes from a long line of masters from theVairagi Order, whose spiritual essences residein the Golden Temple of Wisdom on higherdimensions of being. The Living Master isnever worshipped, but he is highly revered byall Eckists. According to official Eckankarrecords, there are approximately 50,000 mem-bers in more than 100 countries.

Shortly before Twitchell’s death in 1971,critics accused him of fabricating the religiousorigins of Eckankar, borrowing concepts fromother spiritual groups, and plagiarizing ideas



David Koresh, founder of

the Branch Davidian.


from previously published works. A firmdenial by Twitchell did little to quench thecontroversy, and Twitchell’s successor, DarwinGross, became involved in an internal strugglethat resulted in his expulsion from Eckankarand his founding of the Ancient Teachings ofthe Masters, which he claimed perpetuatedthe true teachings of Twitchell.

The present Living ECK Master, HaroldKlemp, who claims to be the 973rd initiatedMahanta, became the spiritual leader of Eck-ankar in 1981. At the present time, the spiri-tual home of Eckankar is the Temple of ECKin Chanhassen, Minnesota.

M Delving Deeper

Eckankar: The Religion of Light and Sound. [Online]http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/ecka.html.

Klemp, Harold. The Art of Spiritual Dreaming. Min-neapolis: Eckankar, 1999.

Lane, David. The Making of a Spiritual Movement: TheUntold Story of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar. DelMar, Calif.: Del Mar Publishing, 1978.

Main Site of Eckankar, Religion of Light and Sound ofGod. [Online] http://www.eckankar.org.

Twitchell, Paul. Eckankar: The Key to the SecretWorlds. New York: Lancer Books, 1969. Reprint,Minneapolis: Eckankar, 1989.

Falun Gong

For 13 hours on April 25, 1999, 15,000 mem-bers of the Falun Gong qigong sect, five or sixrows deep, stretching for more than a milealong the Avenue of Everlasting Peace in cen-tral Beijing, China, protested their negativetreatment in the state media and demandedofficial recognition for their sect and the free-dom to publish their texts. The protest man-aged to get the State Council of China to agreeto negotiate with the Falun Gong. However, inJuly 1999, Chinese officials branded the FalunGong an evil cult, claiming that it had causedthe deaths of 1,500 of its members. The Chi-nese government banned the practice of thecult and sent more than 50,000 adherents toprisons, labor camps, and mental hospitals.

Falun Gong means the “Practice of theWheel of the Dharma.” (Dharma is a complexHindu and Buddhist concept that translates in

a broad sense to “law,” especially to the natur-al order of personal ethics and principles ofconduct, equivalent to what is commonlyreferred to as “religion.”) The founder of themovement, Li Hongzhi, a former Chinesegovernment grain clerk now residing in theUnited States, claims to have been born onMay 13, 1951, the supposed birthday of Sid-dhartha Gautama, the Buddha (c. 563–c. 483B.C.E.), but government records list his birth-day as July 7, 1952. Hongzhi also claims thatFalun Gong has 100 million members world-wide, 80 million of whom are in China. TheChinese government says the number in theircountry is closer to two million.

Founded in 1992, the movement pre-scribes five daily exercises are to activate thehigher abilities of mind, body, and spirit, andcontribute to an individual’s self-examinationand self-knowledge. If practiced properly,Hongzhi promises, Falun Gong will enableone to attain enlightenment and to mastermany supernatural powers, including levita-tion, psychokinesis, and telepathy.

Hongzhi has often stated that he believesthat Earth has been quietly invaded by evilaliens from extraterrestrial worlds who havecome to undermine humans’ spirituality bycontributing to the rapid expansion of tech-nology. In his opinion, humankind would bemuch better off without computers and all



Twitchell from Eckankar

standing before the

Stardust Hotel podium in

Las Vegas. (ARCHIVES OF

BRAD STEIGER)

other machines that seek to replicate humanactivity and to supplant human productivity.

M Delving Deeper

“Beijing, Falun Gong Group in New War of Words,”Yahoo! Finance/DowJones,January 6, 2001.[Online] http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/news/ interna-tional/article.html?s =sgfinance/news/0l0106/.

“Falun Gong.” Religious Movements Homepage.[Online] http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/falun-gong.html.

Falun Gong Official Website. [Online]www.falundafa.com/.

Order of the Solar Temple

The Order of the Solar Temple claims a spiri-tual heritage from the Order of the KnightsTemplar(founded c. 1118 and dissolved in1307). Among its declared goals are helpingEarth to prepare for the return of Christ insolar glory and assisting humankind through atime of transition as spirituality assumes pri-macy over materiality. Although the groupclaims it is descended from the original Tem-plars, the Order of the Solar Temple wasfounded in 1984 by Joseph Di Mambro(1924–1994) and Luc Jouret (1947–1994). By1989, the cult had gathered about 500 mem-bers, most of them in Switzerland, France, andCanada.

Joseph Di Mambro, of Pont-Saint-Espirit,France, had a fascination with the occult dat-ing back to his childhood. In 1976, he became

a self-appointed spiritual master, and by 1978,he had established the Golden Way Founda-tion in Geneva. About then he made a hardassessment of own appeal, deciding that if hiscult was to expand, he needed to find a morecharismatic individual to share its leadership.

In 1981, Luc Jouret, a physician who hadbeen grand master of the Renewed Order ofthe Temple, another group that combinedconcepts of the Knights Templar and theRosicrucians, left that order over a policy dis-pute. Di Mambro appealed to him to jointlyform a new order. Jouret agreed, and the twofounded the Order of the Solar Temple.

Jouret’s credentials as a physician and hisdynamic platform personality drew largecrowds to his lectures. From 1984 to about1990, Jouret convinced many that the time ofthe apocalypse was drawing near and the bestway to survive was in the safety of the Orderof the Solar Temple.

But by 1992, Jouret and Di Mambro hadmade too many unfulfilled predictions andpromises. Even Di Mambro’s son Elie declaredthat he doubted the existence of the masterswho were allegedly guiding his father andJouret, and he went so far as to expose some ofthe illusions his father employed to create cer-tain phenomena during demonstrations.

With the structure of the Order crumbling,Di Mambro and Jouret began preparing fortheir transition to another world. Those whoremained faithful to the teachings also begantheir own transitions.

When authorities from Chiery, Switzer-land, investigated a fire in a farmhouse onOctober 4, 1994, they discovered a secretroom containing 22 corpses, many of themwearing ceremonial capes. On October 5,three adjacent houses burning in the village ofGranges-sur-Salvan yielded the bodies of 25more members of the Order. Six charred bod-ies found in Morin Heights, Quebec, a dayearlier, were also members. In December 1995,16 more members were found dead in France,and in March 1997, five killed themselves inQuebec. Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jourethad convinced at least 74 of their followers tojoin them in mass suicide.



A group of Falun Gong

followers perform

meditation exercises.


M Delving Deeper

Hall, John, and Philip Schuyler. “The Mystical Apoc-alypse of the Solar Temple.” In Millennium, Messi-ahs, and Mayhem. Edited by Thomas Robbins andSusan J. Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997,285–311.

Mayer, Jean Francois. “Apocalyptic Millennialism inthe West: The Case of the Solar Temple.” CriticalIncident Analysis Group. [Online] http://faculty.virginia.edu/ciag/apoc_bkg.html.

“Order of the Solar Temple.” Religious Movementshomepage. [Online] http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/solartemp.html.

The People’s Temple

Although James Jones (1931–1978) helddegrees from Indiana University and Butler Uni-versity, he had received no formal training intheology when he was invited to speak at theLaurel Street Tabernacle, an Assemblies of GodPentecostal church, in Indianapolis in Septem-ber 1954. Following his powerful sermon onracial equality, many members left the congrega-tion to follow Jones and to form a new church,the Wings of Deliverance, which was renamedthe People’s Temple. Within a short period oftime, Jones’s gospel of equality and love attractedmore than 900 members. In 1965 the templemoved to Ukiah, California, where Jonesbelieved racial equality could be preached withgreater openness and less fear of retaliation. Sev-enty families moved with him. A second congre-gation was added in San Francisco in 1972.

In 1977, following various exposes direct-ed at the temple, Jones moved his communityto the South American nation of Guyana,where he had acquired a lease from theGuyanese government for 4,000 acres of landto be used for colonization. The new commu-nity was called the People’s Temple Agricul-tural Project, and eventually more than 900men, women, and children would follow theircharismatic leader to Jonestown.

Members were required to labor 11 hoursper day, six days per week, and eight hours onSunday, clearing land for agriculture, plantingcrops, and erecting buildings. They ate primari-ly of rice and beans, and their evenings werefilled with required meetings before they wereallowed to get some rest. Jones claimed to be

receiving messages from extraterrestrials thatdescribed a process called “Translation,” inwhich he and his followers would all die togeth-er and their spirits would be taken to anotherplanet to enjoy a life of bliss. Jones directedrehearsals of a mass suicide, having followerspretend to drink poison and fall to the ground.

On November 14, 1978, California con-gressman Leo Ryan and several representativesof the media visited Jonestown to investigateclaims of civil rights violations that hadreached the United States. On November 18, atemple member made an attempt on Ryan’slife, and the visitors decided to leave Jonestownimmediately. While they were boarding twoplanes on the jungle airstrip, some heavilyarmed members of the temple’s security guardsarrived and began firing on the group. Ryanand four others were killed and 11 were wound-ed before the planes could get into the air.

Jones decreed that it was time to put“Translation” into effect. Some members ofthe temple committed suicide by ingestingcyanide-laced Kool-Aid, and others injectedpoison directly into their veins or were shot.An investigation revealed that 638 adult



Jim Jones, founder of the

People’s Temple. (CORBIS

CORPORATION)

members of the community died, togetherwith 276 children. A few fled into the jungleand survived.

Various investigations continue into thereasons why such a tragedy could have occurredand what appeal James Jones could have had tocause so many individuals to take their ownlives. Conspiracy theorists argue that thedeaths at Jonestown in November 1978 elimi-nated evidence of a CIA experiment gone bad.Others suggest that Jones subjected his follow-ers to mind-control experiments of his own andlost control of the situation. And then thereare those who insist that Jones was mentally illand complicated his mental imbalance withdrug abuse.

M Delving Deeper

Jonestown: Examining the People’s Temple. [Online]http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~reli291/Jonestown/Jonestown.html.

Maaga, M. McCormick, and Catherine Wessinger.Hearing the Voices of Jonestown. Syracuse, N.Y.:Syracuse University Press, 1998.

Wright, Lawrence. ”Orphans of Jonestown.” The NewYorker, November 22, 1993, 66–89.

Scientology

Some have called Scientology a cult ofcelebrity because of the number of well-known entertainers who ascribe to its teach-ings. In spite of endorsements regarding the

benefits of Scientology from various well-known persons, the organization is often inthe center of controversy. Richard Behar, writ-ing in Time magazine, stated that rather thanbeing a religion or a church, Scientology “…isa hugely profitable global racket that survivesby intimidating members and critics in aMafia-like manner.”

The founder of the church, LafayetteRonald Hubbard (1911–1986), known to Sci-entologists as “L. Ron,” is said to have studiedmany Eastern philosophies as he journeyed tothe various countries of their origins. Wheninjuries suffered during service as a naval offi-cer during World War II (1939–1945) left himcrippled and blind, Hubbard claimed that hisability to draw upon mental insights allowedhim to cure himself of his disabilities. Hecalled this process Dianetics, and outlined itscentral elements in an article for the May 1950issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine.Shortly thereafter Hubbard published Dianet-ics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

Dianetics deals with what it terms theAnalytical and the Reactive components ofthe mind. The Reactive mind absorbs andrecords every nuance of emotional, mental,and physical pain. Hubbard called the impres-sions or “recordings” made by the Reactivemind during moments of trauma “engrams,”and while the conscious, Analytical mind mayremain unaware of their presence, they cancause debilitating mental and physical prob-lems and inhibit one’s full potential. The Dia-netics process enables a person to explore andbe “cleared” of such impediments by an “audi-tor”—a minister of Scientology—clearing theway to a state of freedom from all the con-straints of matter, energy, space, and time anda transcendent level of near-perfection.

In August 1952 the Journal of Scientologybegan publication, and in 1954 the firstChurch of Scientology was founded in LosAngeles. Increasing demand for more infor-mation about Scientology led to the establish-ment of the Founding Church of Scientologyand the first Academy of Scientology inWashington, D.C., in 1955. Today, Scientol-ogy claims a worldwide membership of aroundeight million and more than 3,000 churches.



Actor John Travolta

(center) standing with

actress Jenna Elfman

(left) and wife Kelly

Preston (right) while

attending a Scientology

conference. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

M Delving Deeper

Behar, Richard. “The Thriving Cult of Greed andPower.” Time, May 6, 1991, 50–57.

“Church of Scientology.” Religious Movements.[Online] http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/scientology.html.

Frantz, Douglas. “Scientology Faces Glare of Scrutinyafter Florida Parishioner’s Death.” New YorkTimes, December 1, 1997.

Hubbard, L. Ron. Dianetics: The Modern Science ofMental Health. Bridge Publications, 1985.

Scientology: Applied Religious Philosophy. [Online]http://www.scientology.org/scn_home.htm.


aboriginal Refers to a people that has lived orexisted in a particular area or region fromthe earliest known times or from thebeginning.

abyss From late Latin abyssus and Greek abus-sos, which literally means “bottomless,”stemming from bussos, meaning “bottom.”A gorge or chasm that is unfathomablydeep, vast or infinite, such as the bottom-less pit of hell or a dwelling place of evilspirits.

Anti-Christ From the Greek antikhristos. Anyantagonist, opponent, or enemy of JesusChrist, whether a person or a power. Afalse Christ.

black magick The use of magic for evil pur-poses, calling upon the devil or evil spirits.

blasphemy Something said or done whichshows a disrespect for God or things thatare sacred.

conquistadores From the Latin conquireremeaning “to conquer.” Spanish soldiers oradventurers, especially of the sixteenthcentury who conquered Peru, Mexico, orCentral America.

coven From the Anglo-Norman, mid-seven-teenth century “assembly” and from con-venire meaning convene.

dogma From Greek stem word dogmat, mean-ing “opinion” or “tenet,” and from dokein,“to seem good.” A belief or set of beliefs,

either political, religious, philosophical, ormoral and held to be true.

hierophant From the Latin hierophanta andGreek hierophantes, meaning literally a“sacred person who reveals something.”An ancient Greek priest who revealed orinterpreted the sacred mysteries, or holydoctrines, at the annual festival of Eleusis.

incarnation A period of time in which a spiritor soul dwells in a bodily form or condi-tion. One of a series of lives spent in aphysical form.

indigenous From a mid-seventeenth centuryword indigena, literally meaning “born-in,”and from gignere, meaning “to beget.”Inborn, intrinsic, or belonging to a place,such as originating, growing, or living inan area, environment, region, or country.

left-hand path In occult tradition, a practi-tioner who practices black magick.



L. Ron Hubbard

(1911–1986), the founder

of the Church of

Scientology. (AP/WIDE

WORLD PHOTOS)

neophyte From the Latin neophytus and Greekneophutos or phuein, “to plant” or “cause togrow”—literally meaning “newly planted.”A beginner or novice at a particular task orendeavor. Somebody who is a recent con-vert to a belief. A newly ordained priest, orsomeone who is new to a religious order,but who has not yet taken their vows, so isnot yet a part of the order.

Pan In Greek mythology the god of nature orof the woods, fields, pastures, forests, andflocks. Is described as having the torso andhead of a human, but the legs, ears, andhorns of a goat.

pharaoh From the Hebrew par’oh, Egyptianpr-’o, and Latin and Greek Pharao, mean-ing literally “great house.” An ancientEgyptian title for the ruler or king ofEgypt, often considered a tyrant and onewho expected unquestioning obedience.

physiognomy From phusis meaning “nature,character” and gnomon, “to judge.” The artof judging a person’s character or tempera-ment by their physical features, especiallyfacial features.

reincarnation The reappearance or rebirth ofsomething in a new form. Some religionsor belief systems state that the soul returnsto live another life in a new physical formand does so in a cyclical manner.

resurrection The act of rising from the deador returning to life. In Christian belief,the Resurrection was the rising of JesusChrist from the dead after he was cruci-fied and entombed. Resurrection alsorefers to the rising of the dead on Judg-ment Day, as anticipated by Christians,Jews, and Muslims.

right-hand path In occult tradition, a practi-tioner who practices white magic.

Sabbath From the Greek sabbaton, and theHebrew sabba, both meaning “to rest.”Sunday is observed as the Sabbath, or dayof rest from work and for religious worshipin Christianity, and Saturday is the Sab-bath as observed by Judaism and someChristians.

Santeria From Spanish santeria meaning“holiness”. A religion which originatedin Cuba by enslaved West African labor-ers that combines the West AfricanYoruba religion with Roman Catholicismand recognizes a supreme God as well asother spirits.

sarcophagus From the Greek sarkophogos,which literally means “flesh-eater” andprobably refers to the kind of limestonethat was used in the making of coffinsthought to decompose bodies rapidly.

spell A formula or word believed to have mag-ical power. A trance or a bewitched state.

vision From the Latin vis, to see. Faculty ofsight or a mental image produced by imag-ination. Can refer to a mystical experienceof seeing as if with the eyes, only through asupernatural means such as in a dream,trance, or through a supernatural being,and one which often has religious, revela-tory, or prophetic significance.

voodoo From Louisiana French, voudou orvodu, meaning “fetish.” A religion mainlypracticed in the Caribbean countries,especially Haiti, that is comprised of acombination of Roman Catholic ritualsand animistic beliefs involving fetishes,magic, charms, spells, curses, and commu-nication with ancestral spirits.

white magick The use of magic for supposedgood purposes such as to counteract evil.



Glossary

323

abductee Someone who believes that he orshe has been taken away by deception orforce against his/her will.

aboriginal Refers to a people that has lived orexisted in a particular area or region fromthe earliest known times or from thebeginning.

abyss From late Latin abyssus and Greek abus-sos, which literally means “bottomless,”stemming from bussos, meaning “bottom.”A gorge or chasm that is inconceivablydeep, vast or infinite, such as the bottom-less pit of hell or a dwelling place of evilspirits.

alchemy From Greek, khemeia to Arabic,alkimiya via medieval Latin alchimia andOld French, fourteenth century alquemie,meaning “the chemistry.” A predecessor ofchemistry practiced in the Middle Agesand Renaissance principally concernedwith seeking methods of transforming basemetals into gold and the “elixir of life.”

alien A being or living creature from anotherplanet or world.

amnesia The loss of memory which can betemporary or long term and usuallybrought on by shock, an injury, or psycho-logical disturbance. Originally from theGreek word amnestos, literally meaningnot remembered and from a later alter-ation of the word amnesia forgetfulness.

anomalous Something strange and unusualthat deviates from what is considered nor-mal. From the Greek anomalos, meaninguneven.

anthropology The scientific study of the ori-gins, behavior, physical, social, and cultur-al aspects of humankind.

Antichrist The antagonist or opponent ofJesus Christ (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.), who isanticipated by many early as well as con-temporary Christians to lead the worldinto evil before Christ returns to Earth toredeem and rescue the faithful. Can alsorefer to any person who is in opposition toor an enemy of Jesus Christ or his teach-ings, as well as to those who claim to beChrist, but in fact are false and misleading.

anthroposophy A spiritual or religious philos-ophy that Rudolph Steiner (1861–1925),an Austrian philosopher and scientist,developed, with the core belief centeringaround the human accessibility of the spir-itual world to properly developed humanintellect. Steiner founded the Anthropo-sophical Society in 1912 to promote hisideas that spiritual development should behumanity’s foremost concern.

apocalypse From the Greek apokalupsis,meaning “revelation.” In the Bible, theBook of Revelation is often referred to asthe Apocalypse. Comes from many anony-mous, second-century B.C.E. and later Jew-ish and Christian texts that containprophetic messages pertaining to a greattotal devastation or destruction of theworld and the salvation of the righteous.

apothacary From the Greek apotheke meaning“storehouse.” A pharmacist or druggist whois licensed to prescribe, prepare and selldrugs and other medicines, or a pharma-cy—where drugs and medicines are sold.

apparition The unexpected or sudden appear-ance of something strange, such as a ghost.From the Latin apparitus, past participle ofapparere, meaning to appear.

archaeologist A person who scientificallyexamines old ruins or artifacts such as theremains of buildings, pottery, graves, tools,and all other relevant material in order tostudy ancient cultures.

archipelago From the Greek arkhi, meaning“chief or main” and pelagos meaning “sea.”Any large body of water that contains alarge number of scattered islands.

Armageddon From late Latin Armagedon,Greek and Hebrew, har megiddo, megiddon,which is the mountain region of Megiddo.Megiddo is the site where the great finalbattle between good and evil will befought as prophesied and will be a decisivecatastrophic event that many believe willbe the end of the world.

astral self Theosophical belief that humanspossess a second body that cannot be per-

ceived with normal senses, yet it coexistswith the human body and survives death.

astronomy The scientific study of the of theworkings of the universe—of stars, planets,their positions, sizes, composition, move-ment behavior. Via the Old French andLatin from Greek astronomia, meaning lit-erally star-arranging.

automatic writing Writing that occurs througheither an involuntary, or unconscious,trance-like state with the source being thewriter’s own unconscious self, from a tele-pathic link with another, or from adeceased spirit wishing to communicate amessage.

banal Boring, very ordinary and common-place. From the French word ban, original-ly used in the context of a mandatory mili-tary service for all or common to all.

barter The exchange or the process of negoti-ating certain goods or services for othergoods or services.

Bedouin A nomadic Arabic person from thedesert areas of North Africa and Arabia.Via Old French beduin, ultimately fromArabic badw, or desert, nomadic desertpeople.

betrothal The act of becoming or beingengaged to marry another person.

Bhagavad Gita From Sanskrit Bhagavadgi ta,meaning “song of the blessed one.” AHindu religious text, consisting of 700verses, in which the Hindu god, Krishna,teaches the importance of unattachmentfrom personal aims to the fulfillment ofreligious duties and devotion to God.

bipedal Any animal that has two legs or feet.From the Latin stem biped, meaning two-footed.

birthstone Each month of the year has a par-ticular precious gemstone or a semi-precious stone associated with it. It isbelieved that if a person wears the stoneassigned their birth month, good fortuneor luck will follow.

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bons derived from petroleum and used as acement or mortar for surfacing roads.

black magick The use of magic for evil pur-poses, calling upon the devil or evil spirits.

blasphemy Something said or done whichshows a disrespect for God or things thatare sacred. An irreverent utterance oraction showing a disrespect for sacredthings or for God.

cadaver A dead body that is usually intendedfor dissection. From the Latin cadere,meaning to fall or to die.

charlatan From the Italian ciarlatano, via sev-enteenth-century French ciarlare, meaning“to babble or patter” or “empty talk.” Some-one who makes elaborate claims or whopretends to have more skill or knowledgethan is factual, such as a fraud or quack.

chieftain The leader of a clan, tribe, or group.

clairvoyance The ability to visualize or sensethings beyond the normal range of the fivehuman senses. From the French word clair-voyant, meaning clear-sighted and voyant,the present participle of voir to see.

conjurations The act of reciting a name,words or particular phrases with the intentof summoning or invoking a supernaturalforce or occurrence.

conquistadores From the Latin conquireremeaning “to conquer.” Spanish soldiers oradventurers, especially of the sixteenthcentury who conquered Peru, Mexico, orCentral America.

consciousness Someone’s mind, thoughts orfeelings, or can be referring to the part ofthe mind which is aware of same. Thestate of being aware of what is going onaround you, either individually or theshared feelings of group awareness, feelingsor thoughts.

conspiracy A plan formulated in secretbetween two or more people to commit asubversive act.

contactee Someone who believes to havebeen or is in contact with an alien fromanother planet.

cosmic consciousness The sense or specialinsight of one’s personal or collectiveawareness in relation to the universe or auniversal scheme.

cosmic sense The awareness of one’s identityand actions in relationship to the universeor universal scheme of things.

cosmology The philosophical study andexplanation of the nature of the universeor the scientific study of the origin andstructure of the universe.

cosmos From the Greek kosmos meaning“order, universe, ornament.” The entireuniverse as regarded in an orderly, harmo-nious and integrated whole.

coven From the Anglo-Norman, mid-seven-teenth century “assembly” and from con-venire meaning convene. An assembly ofor a meeting of a group of witches, often13 in number.

cryptomensia A state of consciousness inwhich the true source or origin of a partic-ular memory is forgotten or is attributed toa wrongful source or origin.

cryptozoology The study of so-called mythicalcreatures such as the Yeti or Bigfoot,whose existence has not yet been scientifi-cally substantiated.

cubit From the Latin cubitum, meaning fore-arm or elbow. An ancient unit of length,based on the distance from the tip of themiddle finger to the elbow which approxi-mated 17 to 22 inches.

deity From late Latin deitas “divine nature,”and deus “god.” A divine being or some-body or something with the essentialnature of a divinity, such as a god, goddess.When the term is capitalized, it refers toGod in monotheistic belief or religions.

demarcation The process of setting borders,limits or marking boundaries. From theSpanish demarcacion, literally meaning,marking off.

demon possession When low-level disincar-nate spirits invade and take over a humanbody.


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desecration When something sacred is treatedin a profane or damaging manner.

discarnate The lack of a physical body.Coined from dis- and the Latin stem carn,meaning flesh.

The Dispersion From the Greek diasporameaning to scatter or disperse. Refers to theperiod in history when the Jewish peoplewere forced to scatter in countries outside ofPalestine after the Babylonian captivity.

dogma From Greek stem word dogmat, mean-ing “opinion” or “tenet,” and from dokein,“to seem good.” A belief or set of beliefs,either political, religious, philosophical, ormoral and considered to be absolutely true.

druid Someone who worships the forces ofnature as in the ancient Celtic religion.Can also refer to a priest in the Celtic reli-gion.

ecclesiasticism Principles, practices, activi-ties, or body of thought that is all-encom-passing and adhered to in an organizedchurch or institution.

ecstatic Intense emotion of pleasure, happi-ness, joy or elation.

electrodes Two conductors through whichelectricity flows in batteries or other elec-trical equipment.

electroencephalograph A device or machinethat through the use of electrodes placedon a person’s scalp, monitors the electricalactivity in various parts of the brain. Theseare recorded and used as a diagnostic toolin tracing a variety of anything from braindisorders, tumors or other irregularities todream research.

electroencephalographic dream researchResearching dreams using a electroen-cephalograph to aid the researcher in thebrain activity of the one being studied.

electromagnetic Of or pertaining to the char-acteristics of an electromagnet, which is adevice having a steel or iron core and ismagnetized by an electric current thatflows through a surrounding coil.

elemental spirits A lower order of spiritbeings, said to be usually benevolent and

dwell in the nature kingdom as the lifeforce of all things in nature, such as miner-als, plants, animals, and the four elementsof earth, air, fire and water; the planets,stars, and signs of the zodiac; and hours ofthe day and night. Elves, brownies, gob-lins, gnomes, and fairies are said to beamong these spirits.

elixir Something that is a mysterious, magicalsubstance with curative powers believed toheal all ills or to prolong life and preserveyouthfulness. From the Arabic al-iksir andthe Greek xerion, meaning dry powder fortreating wounds.

enchantments Things or conditions whichpossess a charming or bewitching qualitysuch as a magical spell.

encode To convert a message from plain textinto a code. In computer language, to con-vert from analog to digital form, and ingenetics to convert appropriate geneticdata.

enigma From Greek ainigma “to speak in rid-dles” and ainos, meaning “fables.” Some-body or something that is ambiguous, puz-zling or not easily understood and mighthave a hidden meaning or riddle.

ephemerality Refers to the state of somethingliving or lasting for a markedly short orbrief time. The nature of existing or lastingfor only a day, such as certain plants orinsects.

eschatology Comes from the Greek wordeskhatos meaning “last” and -logy literallymeaning “discourse about the last things.”Refers to the body of religious doctrinesconcerning the human soul in relation todeath, judgment, heaven or hell, or in gen-eral, life after death and of the final stageor end of the world.

evocation The act of calling forth, drawingout or summoning an event or memoryfrom the past, as in recreating.

exorcism The act, religious ceremony, or ritu-al of casting out evil spirits from a personor a place.


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extraterrestrial Something or someone origi-nating or coming from beyond Earth, out-side of Earth’s atmosphere.

false memory Refers to situations where sometherapies and hypnosis may actually beplanting memories through certain sugges-tions or leading questions and comments;thereby creating memories that the patientor client believes to be true, but in realitythey are not.

fanatical Extreme enthusiasm, frenzy, or zealabout a particular belief, as in politics orreligion.

Five Pillars of Islam In Arabic, also called thearkan, and consists of the five sacred ritualduties believed to be central to main-stream Muslims’ faith. The five duties arethe confession of faith, performing the fivedaily prayers, fasting during the month ofRamadan, paying alms tax, and performingat least one sacred pilgrimage to Mecca,the holy land.

foo fighter A term coined by pilots whoreported sightings of unconventional air-craft that appeared as nocturnal lights dur-ing World War II. A popular cartoon char-acter of the time, Smokey Stover, oftensaid “Where there’s foo there’s fire” and itbecame the saying to describe the strangephenomena.

frieze From the Latin phrygium (opus), mean-ing work or craftmanship. A decorativearchitectural band, usually running along awall, just below the ceiling, often sculptedwith figurines or ornaments.

fulcrum From the Latin fulcire, meaning “toprop up or support.” The part of somethingthat acts as its support.

Geiger counter An instrument named after itsinventor, German physicist Hans Geiger(1882–1945), that is used to measure anddetect such things as particles fromradioactive materials.

geoglyphics Lines, designs, or symbols left inthe earth, such as those in Egypt, Malta,Chile, Bolivia, and Peru with a mysterious,ancient, and puzzling origin.

Gestalt therapy A type of psychotherapy thatputs a emphasis on a person’s feelings asrevealing desired or undesired personalitytraits and how they came to be, by exam-ining unresolved issues from the past.

Gnostic From the Greek, gnostikos, meaning“concerning knowledge.” A believer inGnosticism, or relating to or possessing spir-itual or intellectual knowledge or wisdom.

guardian angel A holy, divine being thatwatches over, guides, and protects humans.

hallucinations A false or distorted perceptionof events during which one vividly imag-ines seeing, hearing or sensing objects orother people to be present, when in factthey are not witnessed by others.

haruspicy A method of divining or telling thefuture by examining the entrails of ani-mals.

heresy The willful, persistent act of adheringto an opinion or belief that rejects or con-tradicts established teachings or theoriesthat are traditional in philosophy, religion,science, or politics.

heretic From the Greek hairetikos, meaning“able to choose.” Someone who does notconform or whose opinions, theories, orbeliefs contradict the conventional estab-lished teaching, doctrines, or principles,especially that of religion.

hieroglyphics A writing system of ancient Egyptthat uses symbols or pictures to signifysounds, objects, or concepts. Can also referto any writing or symbols that are difficult todecipher. The word comes from an ancientGreek term meaning “sacred carving.”

hierophant From the Latin hierophanta andGreek hierophantes, meaning literally a“sacred person who reveals something.”An ancient Greek priest who revealed orinterpreted the sacred mysteries, or holydoctrines, at the annual festival of Eleusis.

hoax An act of deception that is intended tomake people think or believe something isreal when it is not.

Homo sapiens Mankind or humankind, thespecies of modern human beings.


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horoscope From Greek horoskopos, literallymeaning “time observer” and from horameaning “time, or hour,” referring to thetime of birth. A diagram or astrologicalforecast based on the relative position inthe heavens of the stars and planets in thesigns of the zodiac, at any given moment,but especially at the moment of one’sbirth.

hypnagogic Relating to or being in the statebetween wakefulness and sleep where oneis drowsy. From the French hypnagogiquemeaning literally leading to sleep.

hypnopompic Typical of or involving the statebetween sleeping and waking. Coinedfrom hypno and Greek pompe, meaning asending away.

hypnosis The process of putting or being in asleeplike state, although the person is notsleeping. It can be induced by suggestionsor methods of a hypnotist.

hypothesis A theory or assumption that needsfurther exploration, but which is used as atentative explanation until further dataconfirms or denies it. From the Greekhupothesis meaning foundation or base.

Ice Age Any of the periods of extreme cold orglacial epochs in the history of Earth whentemperatures fell, resulting in large areas ofEarth’s surface covered with glaciers; themost recent one occurring during thePleistocene epoch.

incantation From fourteenth-century French,cantare, meaning “to sing” via Latin—incantare—“to chant.” The chanting,recitation or uttering of words supposed toproduce a magical effect or power.

incarnation A period of time in which a spiritor soul dwells in a bodily form or condi-tion. One of a series of lives spent in aphysical form.

indigenous From a mid-seventeenth centuryword indigena, literally meaning “born-in,”and from gignere, meaning “to beget.”Inborn, intrinsic, or belonging to a place,such as originating, growing, or living inan area, environment, region, or country.

Inquisition Fourteenth century, from Latininquirere via Old French inquisicion, mean-ing “to inquire.” In the thirteenth century,Roman Catholicism appointed a specialtribunal or committee whose chief func-tion was to combat, suppress and punishheresy against the church. Remainingactive until the modern era, the officialinvestigations were often harsh and unfair.

insurrectionist Someone who is in rebellionor revolt against an established authority,ruler, or government.

intergalactic Something that is located, or ismoving, between two or more galaxies.

Invocation The act of calling upon or appeal-ing to a higher power such as a deity, spirit,or God for assistance. A form of prayer,that invites God’s presence, at the begin-ning of a ceremony or meeting. In blackmagick, can be the casting of a spell or for-mula to invite an evil spirit to appear.

ions An atom or group of atoms that are elec-trically charged through the process ofgaining or losing one or more electrons.From the Greek ion meaning movingthing; and from the present participle ofienai meaning to go —from the movementof any ion toward the electrode of theopposite charge.

jinni In Islamic or Muslim legend, a spirit thatis capable of taking on the shape ofhumans or animals in order to performmischievous acts or to exercise supernatur-al power and influence over humans. Fromthe Arabic jinn, which is the plural of jinni.

Kabbalah body of mystical Jewish teachingsbased on an interpretation of hidden mean-ings contained in the Hebrew scriptures.Kabbalah is Hebrew for “that which isreceived,” and also refers to a secret oral tra-dition handed down from teacher to pupil.The term Kabbalah is generally used now toapply to all Jewish mystical practice.

karmic law Karma is the Sanskrit word for“deed.” In the Eastern religions of Bud-dhism and Hinduism all deeds of a personin this life dictate an equal punishment orreward to be met in the next life or series


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of lives. In this philosophy, it is a naturalmoral law rather than a divine judgmentwhich provides the process of develop-ment, enabling the soul into higher orlower states, according to the laws of causeand effect to be met.

knockings/rappings Tapping sounds said to becoming from deceased spirits in an attemptto communicate with or frighten the living.

left-hand path In occult tradition, a practi-tioner who practices black magic.

leprous From the Greek, lepros, meaning“scale.” Something resembling the symp-toms of or relating to the disease of leprosy,which covers a person’s skin with scales orulcerations.

loa A spirit that is thought to enter the devo-tee of the Haitian voodoo, during a trancestate, and believed to be a protector andguide that could be a local deity, a deifiedancestor or even a saint of the RomanCatholic Church.

lupinomanis Having the excessive character-istics of a wolf, such as being greedy or rav-enously hungry.

lycanthropy The magical ability in legendsand horror stories of a person who is ableto transform into a wolf, and take on all ofits characteristics.

magus A priest, wizard, or someone who isskilled or learned, especially in astrology,magic, sorcery, or the like.

manitou A supernatural force, or spirit thatsuffuses various living things, as well asinanimate objects, according to the Algo-nquian peoples. In the mythology of theOjibwa of the eastern United States, Man-itou is the name of the supreme deity, orGod, and means “Great Spirit.”

manna The food miraculously supplied to theIsraelites by God, according to the Old Tes-tament, as they wandered in the wildernessduring their flight from Egypt. Spiritualnourishment or something of valuereceived of divine origin or unexpectedly.

materialization Something that appears sud-denly, as if out of nowhere. In the paranor-

mal it might be a ghost or spirit that sud-denly appears to take on a physical form.

medium In the paranormal, someone who isable to convey messages between the spiritsof the deceased and the spirits of the living.

megalith A very large stone that is usually apart of a monument or prehistoric archi-tecture.

Mesopotamia Greek word, meaning “betweentwo rivers.” An ancient region that waslocated between the Tigris and Euphratesrivers in what is today, modern Iraq andSyria. Some of the world’s earliest andgreatest ancient civilizations such as Ur,Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia were devel-oped in that region.

messiah A leader who is regarded as a libera-tor or savior. In Christianity, the Messiahis Jesus Christ (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.), inJudaism, it is the king who will lead theJews back to the Holy Land of Israel andestablish world peace.

metaphysical Relating to abstract thought orthe philosophical study of the nature ofexistence and truth.

metrology The scientific system or study ofmeasurements. From the Greek metrologie,meaning theory of ratios and metron, ormeasure.

mortician An undertaker or one who preparesdead bodies for burial and funerals.

narcolepsy A condition where a personuncontrollably falls asleep at odd timesduring daily activities and/or for longextended periods of time. Hallucinationsand even paralysis might also accompanythis condition.

near-death experience A mystical-like occur-rence or sensation that individuals on thebrink of death or who were dead, butbrought back to life, have described whichincludes leaving their physical body andhovering over it as though they were abystander.

neo-paganism Someone who believes in acontemporary or modernized version ofthe religions which existed before Chris-


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tianity, especially those with a reverencefor nature over the worship of a divine orsupreme being.

neophyte From the Latin neophytus and Greekneophutos or phuein, “to plant” or “cause togrow”—literally meaning “newly planted.”A beginner or novice at a particular task orendeavor. Somebody who is a recent con-vert to a belief. A newly ordained priest, orsomeone who is new to a religious order,but who has not yet taken their vows, so isnot yet a part of the order.

neuron The basic functional unit of the ner-vous system a cell body that consists of anaxon and dendrites and transmit nerveimpulses. A neuron is also called a nervecell. Via German from Greek neuron,meaning sinew, cord, or nerve.

Novena of Masses In the Roman CatholicChurch, the recitation of prayers or devo-tions for a particular purpose, for nine con-secutive days. From the Latin nus, meaningnine each and from novern, meaning nine.

Old Testament The first of the two main divi-sions of the Christian Bible that corre-sponds to the Hebrew scriptures.

omen A prophetic sign, phenomenon, or hap-pening supposed to foreshadow good orevil or indicate how someone or some-thing will fare in the future—an indicationof the course of future events.

oracle Either someone or something that isthe source of wisdom, knowledge orprophecy. Can also refer to the placewhere the prophetic word would be given.Via French from the Latin oraculum, fromorare to speak.

paleoanthropology The study of humanlikecreatures or early human beings moreprimitive that Homo Sapiens, usually donethrough fossil evidence.

paleontology The study of ancient forms oflife in geologic or prehistoric times, usingsuch evidence as fossils, plants, animals,and other organisms.

Pan In Greek mythology the god of nature orof the woods, fields, pastures, forests, andflocks. Is described as having the torso and

head of a human, but the legs, ears, andhorns of a goat.

paranormal Events or phenomena that arebeyond the range of normal experienceand not understood or explained in termsof current scientific knowledge.

parapsychologist One who studies mentalphenomena, such as telepathy or extrasen-sory perception, the mind/body connec-tion, and other psi or paranormal factorsthat cannot be explained by known scien-tific principles.

parapsychology The study or exploration ofmental phenomena that does not have ascientific explanation in the known psy-chological principles.

Passover The seven or eight days of a Jewishfestival that begins on the fourteenth dayof Nissan and commemorates the exodusof the Hebrews from their captivity inEgypt. From the Hebrew word pesa, mean-ing to pass without affecting.

pharaoh From the Hebrew par’oh, Egyptianpr-’o, and Latin and Greek Pharao, mean-ing literally “great house.” An ancientEgyptian title for the ruler or king ofEgypt, often considered a tyrant and onewho expected unquestioning obedience.

pharmacologist The study of or science ofdrugs in all their aspects, includingsources, chemistry, production, their use intreating ailments and disease, as well asany known side effects.

phenomena Strange, extraordinary, unusual,even miraculous events, or happenings topersons or things. From the Greek phain-omenon, that which appears, from the pastparticiple of phainein, to bring to light.

philanthropist Someone who is benevolent orgenerous in his or her desire or activities toimprove the social, spiritual or materialwelfare of humankind. From the lateLatin, ultimately, Greek philanthropos,humane; philos; loving and anthropos,human being.

philanthropy From the Greek philanthropos,meaning “humane,” and from philos,meaning “loving.” An affection or desire


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to help improve the spiritual, social, ormaterial welfare of humanity through actsof charity or benevolence.

physiognomy From phusis meaning “nature,character” and gnomon, “to judge.” The artof judging a person’s character or tempera-ment by their physical features, especiallyfacial features.

physiology The study of the functioning andinternal workings of living things, such asmetabolism, respiration, reproduction andthe like. From the Latin word physiologiaand the Greek phusiologia, and phusismeaning nature.

precognition The ability to foresee what isgoing to happen in the future, especially ifthis perception is gained through otherthan the normal human senses orextrasensory.

predator Any organism or animal that hunts,kills, and eats other animals. Can refer to aruthless person who is extremely aggressivein harming another. From the Latinpraedator and praedari, meaning to seize asplunder.

psi The factor or factors responsible for para-psychological phenomena. Derived fromthe Greek letter psi which is used to denotethe unknown factor in an equation.

psyche The soul or human spirit or can referto the mental characteristics of a person orgroup or nation. Via Latin from Greekpsukhe meaning breath, soul, mind andfrom psukhein to breathe.

psychiatrist A doctor who is trained to treatpeople with psychiatric disorders.

psychoanalysis The system of analysis regard-ing the relationship of conscious andunconscious psychological aspects and theirtreatment in mental or psycho neurosis.

psychoanalyst One who uses the therapeuticmethods of psychiatric analysis, such asdream analysis and free association, asdeveloped by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)to treat patients in order to gain awarenessof suppressed subconscious experiences ormemories that might be causing psycho-logical blocks.

psychokinesis The ability to make objectsmove or to in some way affect them with-out using anything but mental powers.

pulsar A star generally believed to be a neu-tron star and that appears to pulse as itbriefly emits bursts of visible radiationsuch as radio waves and x-rays.

putrefy Causing something to decay, usuallyindicating a foul odor. From the Latinstem, putr, meaning rotten, plus facere, tomake.

Qur’an The sacred text, or holy book, of Islam.For Muslims, it is the very word of Allah,the absolute God of the Islamic faith, asrevealed to the prophet Muhammad (c.570 C.E.–632 C.E.) by the archangel Gabriel.

rectory The house or dwelling that a rector(clergyman) lives in.

reincarnation The reappearance or rebirth ofsomething in a new form. Some religionsor belief systems state that the soul returnsto live another life in a new physical formand does so in a cyclical manner.

resurrection The act of rising from the dead orreturning to life. In Christian belief, the Res-urrection was the rising of Jesus Christ fromthe dead after he was crucified andentombed. Resurrection also refers to the ris-ing of the dead on Judgment Day, as antici-pated by Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

retrocognition The mental process or facultyof knowing, seeing, or perceiving things,events, or occurrences of things in thepast, especially through other than thenormal human senses as in extrasensory.

right-hand path In occult tradition, a practi-tioner who practices white magic.

rite Originally from an Indo-European basemeaning “to fit together” and was theancestor of the English words arithmeticand rhyme via, the Latin ritus. A formal actor observance as a community custom,such as the rite of courtship. Often has asolemn, religious or ceremonial meaning,such as the rite of baptism.

Sabbath From the Greek sabbaton, and theHebrew sabba, both meaning “to rest.” A


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day of rest from work and for religious wor-ship. In Christianity, Sunday is theobserved day of worship while Saturday isobserved in Judaism and some Christiandenominations.

Sanskrit Sanskrit is an ancient Indo-Euro-pean language and the language of tradi-tional Hinduism in India. Spoken betweenthe fourteenth and fifth centuries B.C.E., ithas been considered and maintained as apriestly and literary language of the sacredVeda scriptures and other classical texts.

Santeria From Spanish santeria meaning “holi-ness.” A religion which originated in Cubaby enslaved West African laborers thatcombines the West African Yoruba religionwith Roman Catholicism and recognizes asupreme God as well as other spirits.

sarcophagus From the Greek sarx meaning“flesh,” and Greek sarkophogos, literallymeaning “flesh-eater.” Originally a kind oflimestone that had properties to aid in therapid decomposition of the deceased bod-ies and was used in the making of coffins.Eventually came to mean any stone coffin,especially one with inscriptions or decorat-ed with sculpture and used as a monument.

sauropod Any of various large semi-aquaticplant-eating dinosaurs that had a longneck and tail and a small head. From thesuborder Sauropoda, a Latin word meaninglizard foot.

schizophrenia A severe psychiatric disorderwhich can include symptoms of withdrawalor detachment from reality, delusions, hallu-cinations, emotional instability, and intel-lectual disturbances or illogical patterns ofthinking to various degrees. The term comesfrom Greek words meaning “split mind.”

seance A meeting or gathering of people inwhich a spiritualist makes attempts tocommunicate with the spirits of deceasedpersons, or a gathering to receive spiritual-istic messages.

semidivine Possessing similar or some of thecharacteristics, abilities, or powers normal-ly attributed to a deity and/or existing on a

higher spiritual level or plane than com-mon mortals yet not completely divine.

shaman A religious or spiritual leader, usuallypossessing special powers, such as that ofprophecy, and healing, and acts as anintermediary between the physical andspiritual realms.

shamanic exorcism When a shaman, or tribalmedicine-holy person, performs a ceremo-nial ritual to expel the disincarnate spiritsfrom a person.

shapeshifter A supposed fictional being, spiritor something that is able to change itsappearance or shape.

shofar A trumpet made of a ram’s horn, blownby the ancient and modern Hebrews dur-ing religious ceremonies and as a signal inbattle.

soothsayer From Middle English, literallymeaning “somebody who speaks thetruth.” Someone who claims to have theability to foretell future events.

soul The animating and vital principal inhuman beings, credited with the facultiesof will, emotion, thought and action andoften conceived as an immaterial entity,separate from the physical body. The spiri-tual nature of human beings, regarded asimmortal, separable from the body atdeath, and susceptible to happiness or mis-ery in a future state. The disembodied spir-it of a dead human being.

spell A formula or word believed to have mag-ical power. A trance or a bewitched state.

spirit control The guide that mediums con-tact to receive messages from deceasedspirits, or another name for spirit guide asused in mediumship.

spirit guide A nonphysical being or entitywhich possibly can be an angel, the higherself, the spirit of a deceased person, a high-er group mind, or a highly evolved beingwhose purpose is to help, guide, direct, andprotect the individual.

spittle Something that looks like or is saliva,which is secreted from the mouth.


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stigmata Marks on a person’s body resemblingthe wounds inflicted on Jesus Christ (c. 6B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) during his Crucifixion onthe cross.

subversive To cause the ruin or downfall ofsomething or to undermine or overthrowprinciples, an institution, or a govern-ment.

supernatural Relating to or pertaining to Godor the characteristics of God; a deity ormagic of something that is above andbeyond what is normally explained by nat-ural laws.

superstition The belief that certain actionsand rituals have a magical effect resultingin either good or bad. From the Latin stemsuperstition, and superstes, meaning stand-ing over or in awe.

taboo Something that is forbidden. In somecases can refer to something being sacred,therefore forbidden, such as in Polynesiansocieties. From the Tongan tabu, said tohave been introduced into the Englishlanguage by Captain James Cook in thelate eighteenth century.

talisman An object such as a gemstone orstone, believed to have magical powers orproperties. From the Greek telesma, mean-ing something consecrated, telein, to com-plete, and telos, result.

Tanakh From the Hebrew tenak, an acronymformed from torah. It is the sacred book ofJudaism, consisting of the Torah—the fivebooks of Moses, The Nevi’im—the wordsof the prophets, and the Kethuvim—thewritings.

telepathy Communication of thoughts, mentalimages, ideas, feelings, or sensations fromone person’s mind to another’s without theuse of speech, writing, signs, or symbols.

theory of evolution The biological theory ofthe complex process of living organisms,how they change and evolve from onegeneration to another or over many gener-ations.

therianthropic Used to describe a mythologi-cal creature that is half human and halfanimal. Coined from the Greek therion,

meaning small wild animal, and anthropo,meaning human being.

totem An animal, bird, plant, or any othernatural object that is revered as a personalor tribal symbol.

transference The process of change that hap-pens when one person or place is trans-ferred to another.

transience A state of impermanence, or last-ing for only a brief time. Remaining in aplace only for a short time, or the briefappearance of someone or something.

transmutation The act of transforming orchanging from one nature, form, or stateinto another.

tribulation Great affliction, trial, or distress.In Christianity, the tribulation refers tothe prophesied period of time which pre-cedes the return of Jesus Christ to Earth, inwhich there will be tremendous sufferingthat will test humanity’s endurance,patience, or faith.

UFO Literally an unidentified flying object,although the term is often used by some torefer to an alien spacecraft.

UFOlogist Someone who investigates thereports and sightings of unidentified flyingobjects.

Valhalla In Norse mythology, when the soulsof heroes are killed in battle, they spendeternity in a great hall, which is calledValhalla. From the Old Norse valhall, liter-ally meaning hall of the slain.

Valkyrie One of the 12 handmaids of Odin inNorse mythology who ride their horsesover the battlefield as they escort the soulsof slain heroes to Valhalla. From the OldNorse Valkyrja, meaning literally chooserof the slain.

vision From the Latin vis, to see. Faculty ofsight or a mental image produced by imag-ination. Can refer to a mystical experienceof seeing as if with the eyes, only through asupernatural means such as in a dream,trance, or through a supernatural being,and one which often has religious, revela-tory, or prophetic significance.


333Glossary

GL

OS

SA

RY

voodoo From Louisiana French, voudou orvodu, meaning “fetish.” A religion mainlypracticed in the Caribbean countries,especially Haiti, that is comprised of acombination of Roman Catholic ritualsand animistic beliefs involving fetishes,magic, charms, spells, curses, and commu-nication with ancestral spirits.

white magick The use of magic for supposedgood purposes such as to counteract evil.

Wiccan Someone who is a witch, a believer orfollower of the religion of Wicca.

wizard A variant of the fifteenth century wordwisard, meaning “wise.” Someone professing

to have magical powers as a magician, sor-cerer, or a male witch. In general, someonewho is extremely knowledgeable and clever.

zoology The scientific branch of biology thatstudies animals in all their characteristicsand aspects. From the Greek zoologia, liter-ally the study of life and from zolion, or lifeform.

Zoroaster A Persian prophet (c. 628 B.C.E.–c. 551 B.C.E.) and the founder of an ancientreligion called Zoroastrianism whose prin-cipal belief is in a supreme deity and of theexistence of a dualism between good andevil. Derived from the Greek word Zarat orZarathustra, meaning camel handler.


Glossary334

Cumulative Index

335

The Cumulative Index, found in eachvolume, is an alphabetic arrangement ofall people, places, images, and conceptsfound in the text. Names of publications,movies, ships, television programs, radiobroadcasts, foreign words, and cross-references are indicated by italics.

The page references to the subjects includethe Arabic volume number as well as thepage number. Main entries are designatedby bold page numbers while images aredenoted by italics.

AAbgar (King of Edessa), 1:237“Abominable snowman.” See YetiAbramelin magick, 2:49–51Abyssinia, alleged location of Ark of the

Covenant, 2:203Ace (One). See One, symbolism ofAcrophobia, 3:137–138Actors, in horror films, 3:109–112Adam (Biblical figure), 1:12, 3:76, 79Adamic Theology. See “Star Gospel” (Katter)Adams, John Quincy, 2:240Adamski, George, 1:304–305, 306, 3:271–273,

272Adelson, Joseph, 3:124Adler, Margot, 2:77–78, 97Adultery, 3:202Aegeus of Athens, 2:154Aetherius (alien being), 1:307Aetherius Society, 1:305, 307–309Afghanistan, engagement announcements,

3:208Africa, beliefs and customs

bells, 2:171bride buying, 3:204corpse smoking, 3:223guests, courtesy to, 3:217love knots, 2:180mourning, 3:227See also specific countries

African Theological Archministry, 1:287Afterlife, in ancient Egypt, 1:15–22Afterlife, in major religions, 1:4–15

See also specific religionsAfterlife, in tribal religions, 1:36–41Afterlife, individual human experiences with,

1:22–31

Agate, 2:186Agathon, Dan, 3:80Agoraphobia, 3:136Agri Dagi (Turkey). See Mt. Ararat (Turkey)Agrippa (German philosopher), 2:59, 59–61,

145Ailurophobia, 3:136Air Force Regulation 3:200–2, 254Air Material Command investigations,

3:255–256Aircraft disappearances, Bermuda Triangle,

2:228Aiwass (spirit entity), 2:62Akashic Records, 1:51Akhenaten (Pharaoh of Egypt), 1:259,

259–260Alan (alien being), 3:273, 274Alaska thunderbird sightings, 3:99Albacete, Lorenzo, 1:191, 248Albert le Grand. See Albertus MagnusAlbertus Magnus, 2:43, 47, 47Albigensians. See CatharsAlchemy, 2:41, 42–43

gnomes and, 3:103Rosicrucians and, 2:30, 31Satanism and, 1:298–299See also Philosopher’s stone

Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond (TV program),3:51

Aldrete, Sara Maria, 1:286Alexander, Hartley Burr, 1:81Alexander VI, Pope, 2:70Alford, Alan F., 2:222Algonquin people, souls of, 1:40Alien abductions. See UFO contactees and

abducteesAlien autopsies (Roswell, NM), 3:263Alien (film), 3:282Alien footprints, 3:247Alien technology, reverse engineering from,

3:293Alien visitors, in Holy Scripture, 3:249–251Alkahest, 2:48Allahabad (India), 2:217Allen, Carl M. See Allende, Carlos MiguelAllen, John L., Jr., 1:206Allende, Carlos Miguel, 3:299–300Allison, Ralph, 1:223–224Allman, John, 3:193“Almasti.” See YetiAlper, Frank, 2:175

Alper, Matthew, 1:190–191, 247Alpert, Richard, 3:154Altered states of consciousness, 3:140–157

See also TrancesAlthotas (Asian mystic), 2:61“Amazing Randi.” See Randi, JamesAmber, 2:187, 3:195Amenhotep IV. See Akhenaten (Pharaoh of

Egypt)American Society for Psychical Research, Inc.,

1:156, 173Amethysts, 2:186Amon-Ra (Egyptian deity), 2:245–246Amorth, Gabriele, 1:204, 206Amulets, 2:168, 169–190, 194, 3:188, 193–194,

195See also Fetishes; Good luck charms;

TalismansAmun-Ra (Egyptian deity), 1:259The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous

System in General and the Brain in Particular(Gall), 2:151

Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of theMystic Shrine. See Shriners

Andaman Islands, mourning practices, 3:227Anderson, Gillian, 3:288Anderson, Michael, 3:134Andreae, Valentine, 2:43–44Andresen, Theodore, 3:178Andrews, Dana, 3:109–110Angels

angelic hierarchy, 2:58in dream symbolism, 3:129mating with women, 3:250necromancy and, 2:144Seven Angels, 2:42, 57–58space beings, comparison with, 3:268symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Watchers, 2:52wee folk, relation to, 3:100, 102See also Apparitions, of holy figures;

Guardian angelsAngkor Wat (Cambodia), 2:216, 216Anguttara Nikaya (Buddhist text), 1:42“Animal magnetism” theory, 3:146Animal sacrifice, in voodoo, 2:55Animal spirits, 3:5–8Animal symbolism

astrology, 2:121–123, 124dreams, 3:129, 130fetishes, 2:193


Cumulative Index336

ichthys, 2:170Middle Eastern amulets, 2:169Nazca Lines, 2:263saints, 2:95tea leaf reading, 2:165, 166See also specific animals

Animism, 2:40Annunchiarico, Ciro, 2:6–7Ansel (angel), 2:42Ant symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Anthroposophy, 1:51–53Anti-Mason Party, 2:12The Antichrist, 1:180–182, 183–184, 231, 238Anubis (Egyptian deity), 3:193Apelike monsters, 3:59–68Apocalypse, 1:182–186Apocalyptic cults, 1:256–257, 313

See also specific cultsApollinario (8th c. Spanish hermit), 2:13Apparitions, 1:24–25, 3:3–4, 8–9, 11

See also Ghosts and ghostly beings;Phantoms

Apparitions, of holy figures, 1:186–192, 203Applewhite, Marshall Herff, Jr., 1:309, 309–311“Applied Engineering” government program,

3:293Apports, 1:88Aquarian Anti-Defamation League, 2:78Aquarius, the Water Bearer, 2:123, 186Aquino, Michael, 1:303–304Arachne (mythical figure), 3:138Arachnophobia, 3:138Aradia: The Gospel of Witches (Leland), 2:75Arapaho Ghost Dance (Wright), 1:284Arasteh, Reza, 1:146The Arcane School, 1:281Archaeoastronomy, 2:195Archangels. See Seven Angels“Archetypes” (mental forces), 3:119, 129Area 51 (NV), 3:293

See also Roswell (NM) UFO crash (1947)Argentina, cattle mutilations, 3:295Aries, the Ram, 2:121, 186Aristotle (Greek philosopher), 2:147, 220Ark of the Covenant, 2:200, 201–203, 202Arkadev, V., 3:183Armageddon, 1:192–193

Dome of the Rock, as site of, 2:245Nostradamus’ prophecies of, 2:160Red Heifer legend and, 2:143UFOs and, 3:290

Armstrong, P. A., 3:98–99Arness, James, 3:110Arnold, Kenneth, 3:242, 243, 251–252, 255Arran Island (Scotland), 2:226Arthur (King of Britain). See Arthurian legendsArthurian legends, 2:50, 200, 204–206, 238–239Aryans, cremation by, 3:226Aserinsky, Eugene, 3:120Ashtar (alien being), 1:305, 3:280Assassins (secret society), 2:4–5Association for Research and Enlightenment

(Virginia Beach, VA), 1:53–55, 2:153Assyrians, graves and grave markers, 3:226Astaire, Fred, 3:110Astral body, 3:171–172Astral projection. See Autoscopy; Out-of-body

experiencesAstrology, 2:44, 2:119–127Astronomical events, parallels with Earth

events, 2:124Astronomical tools, ancient

Great Pyramid, 2:264–266Mayan calendar, 2:254, 256Medicine Wheel, 2:259megaliths, 2:195Nazca Lines, 2:261–262Stonehenge, 2:273–274Tiahuanaco temples, 2:277, 278, 279

Aten (Egyptian deity), 1:259Athletes (Garduna), 2:14Atlantic Ocean land bridge, 2:222Atlantis (mythical continent), 2:215, 219–225

Atlanteans, alleged qualities of, 2:220Atlanteans as Sphinx builders, 2:271Atlanteans’ evolution, 1:52, 151Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna, on, 2:248Cayce, Edgar, on, 2:153crystals and destruction of, 2:175floorbed of, 2:222Freemasons’ belief in, 2:919th century map, 2:221nuclear destruction of, 3:273, 274

Atman (self), 1:11Atwater, P. M. H., 1:30Augustine, St., 1:41, 226Australian aboriginals

fear of the dead, 1:37mistletoe custom, 2:183telepathy of, 3:180–181

Austria, mistletoe custom, 2:183Auto-da-fe, 1:218, 2:107


337Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

Auto-hypnosis, telepathy and, 3:183Automatic writing, 1:86, 118–119, 2:127–128Autoscopy, 3:11–12Autosuggestion, mediums and, 1:92–93Avalon (mythical land), 2:215, 225–226Avebury (England) phantoms, 3:17Aveni, Anthony, 2:263Aviophobia, 3:136The Awakening (film), 3:111Axe symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Ayers Rock (Australia). See Uluru monolith

(Australia)Aymara people, 2:277, 279Aztecs, crystal skulls and, 2:191

BBa and ka, 1:15–16, 20–21Bacon, Francis, 2:31Bacon, Roger, 2:44, 44–45Bahram I (Emperor of Persia), 1:282Bailey, Alice, 1:281

See also New Age MovementBailly, Marie, 2:250Bakongo people, fetishes of, 2:194Ball lightening, 3:54“Bangungot” urban legend, 3:233Banneaux (Belgium) holy apparitions, 1:188Baphomet (pagan deity), 2:51Barbanell, Maurice, 1:84, 88, 89Barkasy, David, 3:66Barker, Gray, 3:277Barker, William, 1:65, 66Barnett, Barney, 3:261Barrett, Deirdre, 3:126Barrett, Sir William, 3:146, 162Barry, Gene, 3:110Barton, Blanche, 1:303Basilosaurus, 3:87, 96Basinger, Kim, 3:136Bast (Egyptian deity), 3:190Bathing. See Hand washing and bathingBathing, dream symbolism, 3:129Bati Yeli, 2:25Batons (tarot), 2:132, 134Batson, Daniel, 1:191, 247Battle of Edge Hill phantoms (Keinton,

England), 3:15Bauval, Robert, 2:266Bayanov, Dmitri, 3:62Bayside (NY) holy apparitions, 1:190

Bear symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Beard, S. H., 3:12–13Beauraling (Belgium) holy apparitions, 1:188Bed-wetting, 3:125Bedouins, food kinship and, 3:216The Beginning of the End (film), 3:110Bekhterev, Vladimir M., 3:182The Believers (film), 1:287Bell, Charles Bailey, 3:29Bell, Drewry, 3:26, 28Bell, Elizabeth “Betsy,” 3:26–29Bell, Joel, 3:26, 29Bell, John, Jr., 3:26, 27, 28, 29Bell, John, Sr., 3:26, 27, 28, 29Bell, Luce, 3:26, 28, 29Bell, Richard, 3:26, 28, 29Bell symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Bell Witch haunting (Clarksville, TN), 3:26–29Bellamy, Arthur, 1:171–172“Bellows” (Garduna), 2:14Bells, 2:170–171Bender, Albert K., 3:276Beneath the Planet of the Apes (film), 3:111Beneficial previsions, 3:176Benio, Mike, 3:39Benson, Herbert, 1:211, 3:151Bequet, Celina. See Japhet, CelinaBereshit, Maaseh, 2:141–142Berkeley Psychic Institute (CA), 1:94Berkner, Lloyd V., 3:297Bermuda Triangle, 2:215, 226–230, 229Bernard, Eugene E., 3:170Bernard of Clairvaux, St., 2:20, 22Bernstein, Morey, 1:62, 64–66Berossus (Babylonian priest-historian), 3:248–249Bertrand, Rev., 3:171Beryl, 2:187Besant, Annie, 1:275Best man, 3:209–210Bethsames, 2:201–202Beware the Cat (anonymous), 3:190Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation from the

Holocaust (Gershom), 1:58Beyond with James Van Praagh (TV program),

3:51Bhagavad Gita (Hindu text), 1:46–47Bhakti Hinduism, 1:12Biannual baths, 3:219–220Bible

alleged hidden code, 1:242blood, sacredness of, 3:69


Cumulative Index338

celestial body veneration, 2:119commoners’ use of, 1:45dreams, 3:118exorcism accounts, 1:205–206hospitality, 3:215Noah’s Ark and the deluge, 2:218prayer, 1:225, 227, 228–229space visitor accounts, 3:249–251tribal legends, parallels to, 1:283

The Bible Code (Drosnin), 1:242Big Foot (Sioux chief), 1:285Bigfoot (apelike monster), 3:60–63, 61Bilderbergers, 2:17Bimini Road, 2:223Binder, Bettye B., 1:68–69Bindernagel, John, 3:63Bingham, Hiram, 2:251–252Biochip implant conspiracy theory, 2:8Biodiversity Project Spirituality Working

Group, 2:89Bird, J. Malcolm, 1:102, 103Bird symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Birth stones, 2:185–186, 3:195Bishop, Bridget, 2:106Black cats, 3:190, 190Black (color), symbolism of, 1:40, 3:227Black Death, 2:99Black Elk (Oglala Sioux shaman), 1:77–78, 2:190Black Helicopters, 3:290–291“Black House” (San Francisco, CA), 1:302–303“Black-letter days,” 3:191Black Madonna, 1:272–274, 273Black magick, 2:51–52, 3:188Black Mass, 1:293–296

See also SabbatsBlackmore, Susan, 1:30–31, 214Blair, Linda, 1:207, 208Blanchard, William, 3:264Blankley, Andrew, 1:224Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna, 1:147, 147–149

Besant, Annie, and, 1:275on Lemuria, 2:248on reincarnation, 1:50theosophy and, 1:55–56

Bless the Child (film), 1:239Blessing, before meals, 3:220Block, Carl, 1:107Blombos Cave (Cape Town, South Africa), 3:200Blood

fear of, 3:138liquefied blood of saints, 1:221

sacredness of, 3:69Shroud of Turin stains, 1:236–237from weeping statutes, 1:250

Bloodstone, 2:171, 186, 187See also Carnelian

Bloom, Clair, 3:14“Blue Bell Hill Phantom” urban legend, 3:235Blue Lake (NM), 2:276“Blue Monday,” 3:191Bluff Creek (CA) Bigfoot sightings, 3:60–61, 61“Bo.” See Applewhite, Marshall Herff, Jr.Bodily feelings (nonreflective consciousness),

3:140Bodin, Jean, 1:219, 2:110Body preservation. See EmbalmingBoer, Jelle de, 1:266, 2:155Boguet, Henri, 2:110–111Bohr, Niels, 3:124, 189Boisselier, Brigitte, 1:312Bonaparte, Joseph, 3:190–191Bonaparte, Napoleon, 3:190, 198Bone pendants, 2:198Bonewits, Philip Emmons (Isaac), 2:78–79The Book of Belial. See The Satanic Bible (LaVey)Book of Changes. See I ChingThe Book of Formation (Rokeach), 3:74The Book of Leviathan. See The Satanic Bible

(LaVey)The Book of Lucifer. See The Satanic Bible (LaVey)The Book of Satan. See The Satanic Bible (LaVey)The Book of Shadows (Gardner), 2:90Book of the Dead, Egyptian, 1:16–18Book of the Dead, Tibetan, 1:7The Book of the Law (Crowley), 2:62Borley Rectory (England), 3:29–33, 31Bouker, John, 3:99Boundary Institute (Los Altos, CA), 1:95“Boundary Questionnaire” (Hartmann), 3:125Bouquet tossing, 3:214Bourtsev, Igor, 3:62Bousfield, Edward L., 3:93Bower, David, 3:133Bower, Doug, 3:296Boxer Tong, 2:36–37Bradford, David, 3:42Bradlaugh, Charles, 1:275Bradley, Richard, 2:233Brahe, Tycho, 2:125Brain activity

brain-wave patterns of ESP senders andreceivers, 3:164


339Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

hydrocephalus and, 3:133during illumination, 1:217during REM sleep, 3:120unused brain capacity, 3:123during visions, 1:247See also Altered states of consciousness;

Memory; TrancesBrain chemistry, paranormal beliefs and, 3:159The Brain Eaters (film), 3:112Brain surgery, Tiahuananco civilization, 2:278Brainerd, C. J., 3:135Branch Davidians, 1:315–316Brandon, Sydney, 3:135Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles-Etienne, 2:247Brazel, Mac, 3:261, 262, 264Brazil

Chupacabra activity, 3:70–71Macumba activity, 1:285–286witchcraft-related violence (21st c.), 2:101

Brethren of the Rosy Cross. See RosicruciansBridal dress, 3:208–209Bridal garters, 3:214Bridal showers, 3:208Bridal veils, 3:209Bride buying, 3:204–205Bride capture, 3:204Bride knights, 3:210Bride of the Gorilla (film), 3:110Bridegrooms, 3:214Bridesmaids, 3:209, 210British Isles, beliefs and customs

engagement announcements, 3:208fairy tales, 2:176horseshoes, 2:178maypoles, 2:181See also specific countries

British Society for Psychical Research, 1:172Bronk, Detley W., 3:297Broughton, R. J., 3:125Brown, Ron, 3:63Brown, William Moseley, 2:152Brown Mountain (NC) spooklights, 3:22Browne, Sylvia, 1:97–98, 98Brugger, Peter, 3:159Brujeria and brujas, 2:53Brunner, Hans, 3:64Bubastis (Egypt), 3:190Bubonic plague. See Black DeathBucke, Richard Maurice, 1:144, 193–194Buckland, Raymond, 2:77, 79–82, 80, 92,

94–95

Buckland, Stanley Thomas, 2:79–80Buddhism

afterlife, 1:5–8bells, 2:171burials and funerals, 3:223cremation, 3:226demons, 1:197meditation, 3:149–150reincarnation, 1:43soul, 1:4–5wedding ceremonies, 3:212

Bueno, Javier Torroella, 1:245Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 3:112Buhram (Thuggee member), 2:33Bulganin, Nikolai, 2:156–157Bull, Henry, 3:30–31Bulwer-Lytton, Sir Edward, 1:112Burial mounds, 1:38–40Burials and funerals, 1:3, 4, 16, 3:221–228, 225Burr, Raymond, 3:110Burstyn, Ellen, 1:208Burundi, Mambu-mutu activity, 3:107Bush, Vannevar, 3:297Butler, Jon, 1:220Butts, Robert F., 1:126, 127, 128Byrd, Richard E., 2:242Byrne, Gabriel, 1:243Byrne, Peter and Bryan, 3:67Byron, George Gordon, 3:75

CCabala. See KabbalahCadavers, grave robbing for, 3:72“Cadborosaurus,” 3:93Caget, Virginia, 3:52Cagliostro, Count Allesandro, 2:61–62, 72Cahauchi (Peru), 2:261Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site (IL), 2:231Caledonia (IL) monster, 3:97Caleuche (ship), 3:10Calvados Castle (France), 3:33–36Cambyses II (King of Persia), 3:190Campbell, Gary, 3:92Canael (angel), 2:58Cancer, the Crab, 2:121, 186Candles, 2:171–172Candomble. See MacumbaCannon, Alexander, 3:171–172Canon, Walter, 2:56Canon Episcopi (Regino of Prum), 1:217, 2:41


Cumulative Index340

Cape Ann (MA) sea serpent, 3:93–94Capitani, Caterina, 1:220, 222Capricorn, the Goat, 2:123, 186Carafa, Gian Pietro. See Paul IV, PopeCarbon dating. See Radiocarbon datingCarcassonne (France), 1:276Caribbean Sea land bridge, 2:225Carl Theodore (Bavarian monarch), 2:19Carlisle, Al, 1:224Carlyon, Kevin, 2:195Carnac (France) megaliths, 2:195, 196Carnelian, 2:171

See also BloodstoneCarpocrates (Gnostic teacher), 1:278Carrel, Alexis, 2:250Carrington, Hereward, 1:158–161, 159

Crandon, Mina, and, 1:103–104Garrett, Eileen, and, 1:91–92, 109on out-of-body experiences, 3:172Palladino, Eusapia, and, 1:121Piper, Leonora E., and, 1:123on psychical researchers’ qualities, 1:158

Carrington, Patricia, 3:121Cartheuser, William, 1:158–159Cartomancy and tarot, 2:128–136, 130The Case for Psychic Survival (Carrington), 1:159“The Case of the Derailed Engine” (1860),

3:174–175“The Case of the Scratch on the Cheek” (1876),

1:170–171Cassiel (angel), 2:42Castro, Carlos de, 1:118Cathars, 1:218, 274, 276–277, 2:41, 102, 113Catherine of Siena, St., 1:186, 241Catholicism. See Roman CatholicismCatoptomancy, 2:183

See also ScryingCats and cat superstitions, 3:189–190

dream symbolism, 3:129as familiars, 2:95fear of, 3:136tea leaf reading symbolism, 2:165

Cattle mutilations, 3:293–295Cauldrons, 2:172–173, 173Cavalier (tarot). See Knight (tarot)Cayce, Charles Thomas, 2:153Cayce, Edgar, 1:54, 2:152–154

Association for Research andEnlightenment and, 1:53–55

on Atlantis, 2:223on crystals, 2:175

on the Great Pyramid, 2:268on reincarnation, 1:30

Cayce, Hugh Lynn, 1:54–55, 2:152–153Cazzamalli, F., 3:182Ceasg, 3:107Celebrities, phobias of, 3:136, 138The Cellular Cosmogony, or The Earth, A

Concave Sphere (Teed), 2:242Celts

cauldron use, 2:172–173cursuses and ley lines and, 2:233myths as basis for Arthurian legends,

2:205–206, 225–226Stonehenge and, 2:273, 274

Cerminara, Gina, 1:55Chaffin, James, 3:20–22Chaffin, James Pinkney, 3:20, 21, 22Chaffin, John, 3:20Chaffin, Marshall, 3:20, 21Chaldeans, astrology and, 2:118, 119–120Chambers, John, 3:62Chaney, James, 3:166Chaney, Lon, Jr., 3:109Chang Cheuh, 2:36Channelers. See Mediums and channelersChariot (tarot), 2:130Chariots, used to describe UFOs, 3:250Chariots of the Gods? (Daniken), 3:246“Charles B. Rosna” (spirit control). See Fox

sistersCharles I (King of England), 3:15Charon (mythical figure), 3:222Chartres Cathedral (France), 2:232Chartres (France), 2:230, 232Chase, Judith, 1:293Chastity, medieval view of, 1:292Cheiromancy, 2:148Chemical discoveries, from alchemy, 2:43The Chemical Wedding. See The Hermetic

Romance (Andreae)Chepren Pyramid (Giza, Egypt), 1:22Cher (entertainer), 3:136Cheshire, Leonard, 1:234Chevalier, Ulysee, 1:237Chibcha people, 2:234“Chicago Seeress.” See Hughes, IreneChichen Itza (Mexico), 2:254, 255Chickasaw people, mourning custom, 3:227Chile, Chupacabra activity, 3:71China, beliefs and customs

astrology, 2:124


341Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

evil eye, 3:194fairy tales, 2:176kissing, 3:207mourning, 3:227number superstitions, 3:198silver, 2:185

China, UFO research, 3:267“Chinese Mafia.” See Triad TongChippewa people, souls of, 1:40Chippindale, Christopher, 3:58Chiron (mythical figure), 2:123Chirosophy, 2:148Chivalrous Order of the Holy Vehm. See Holy

VehmChloe (18th c. slave), 3:42–43Chorley, Dave, 3:296The Chosen (film), 1:239, 3:110Chretien de Troyes, 2:204“Christ consciousness,” 1:150–152Christianity

afterlife, 1:8–10Apocalypse, 1:182–183bells, 2:171burials and funerals, 3:223–224, 226–227cremation, 3:226–227Dead Sea Scrolls and link with Judaism,

1:46demons, 1:196–197exorcism, 1:206holy days and pagan festivals, coinciding of,

1:270holy objects, 2:150, 152hospitality and charity, 3:215Jerusalem, importance of, 2:242, 244occult arts, early suppression of, 2:40–41,

118–119paganism and Satanism, driving of people

to, 1:289–290, 291–293Pueblo adoption of, 2:275–276The Rapture, 1:231–232reincarnation, 1:43–44, 46Satanists’ view of, 1:301slave adoption of, 1:282–283, 285–286soul, 1:4, 5wedding ceremonies, 3:210–211, 213See also Jesus Christ; Mystery religions and

heresies, Christian; Protestantism;Roman Catholicism; specific Christiansects

A Christmas Carol (film), 3:21Chrysocolla, 2:187

Chupacabra, 3:70–72, 71Church, General, 2:7Church of God, snake handling and, 1:239–240Church of Satan, 1:299–303Church of Scientology. See ScientologyChurch of Seven African Powers, 1:287Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem),

2:242, 244Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, 1:287Church of Wicca (U.S.), 2:82, 84Churches, dream symbolism, 3:129Churchward, James, 2:248Cicero (Roman orator), 1:41Cieza de Leon, Pedro de, 2:277Clairvoyance, 3:158, 164Clairvoyance, researchers of, 3:166–170Clar, Lydia, 1:104Clark, Walter Houston, 1:178, 215–216Claustrophobia, 3:138Clement of Alexandria, St., 1:41Clement V, Pope, 1:218, 2:23–24, 102Cleveland, Grover, 2:125Clift, Montgomery, 3:25Clonaid, 1:312Clones, alleged human, 1:312Close Encounters of the Third Kind (film),

3:282–283, 283, 284Cloud symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Clubs (playing cards), 2:135Cochran, Tara, 2:81Cocke, J. R., 1:122–123Coelacanths, 3:58–59, 87Coffins, 3:224Cohen, Sidney, 3:153Coins (tarot), 2:132, 133Colburn, Nettie, 1:134Cold readings, 1:105Cold War hysteria, 3:242, 287Coleman, Loren, 3:66“College roommate suicide” urban legend,

3:232–233Collier, John, 1:79Collina-Girard, Jacques, 2:222Collins, Joan, 3:110Collins, John, 1:183Colossus of Rhodes, 2:243Columbus, Christopher, 1:313, 2:226Coma, 3:140The Coming Race (Bulwer-Lytton), 2:242Communion (Strieber), 3:270–271, 284Compass variation, 2:229


Cumulative Index342

Concave Earth theory, 2:242Condon, Edward, 3:258Condon/University of Colorado Report (1969),

3:258, 258–259Congregation of the Inquisition. See Holy OfficeConnally, John and Nellie, 2:35Connecticut thunderbird sightings, 3:97Consciousness, altered states of, 3:140–157

See also Memory; TrancesConspiracy theories

Bilderbergers’ New World Order, 2:17biochip implants, 2:8cattle mutilations, 3:294–295Diana (Princess of Wales), death of, 2:3Illuminati, 2:16Kennedy assassination, 2:35Majestic-12, 3:289, 290, 297–298Men in Black, 3:245–246, 276–279NASA cover-up of life on Mars, 2:27secret societies, theorists’ preoccupation

with, 2:2staged alien invasion and Armageddon,

3:290Constant, Alphonse Louis. See Levi, EliphasConstantine I (Roman Emperor), 1:271, 2:40,

244Constantine’s Lance. See Spear of DestinyConstanzo, Adolfo de Jesus, 1:286–287Construction theories

Carnac megaliths, 2:196Easter Island statues, 2:236–237Great Pyramid, 2:266–267, 3:247–248Sacsahuaman, 2:274Sphinx, 2:270, 271Stonehenge, 2:272–273, 274–275

Controlled Substances Act (U.S., 1970), 3:155Conyers (GA) holy apparitions, 1:190Cook, Florence, 1:98–101, 162–163Cooper, L. Gordon, 3:264–265Copernicus, Nicolaus, 2:124Coral, 2:187, 3:195Cords, as amulets, 2:170Corillaut, Etienne, 1:299Corporeal visions, 1:190, 246Corpse smoking, 3:223Corrector (Burchard), 2:41Corregidor (Philippines) phantoms, 3:16Corso, Philip J., 3:293Corwin, Jonathan, 2:105Cory, Giles, 2:105Cory, Martha, 2:105

Cosmic consciousness, 1:193–196Cosmon Research Foundation, 1:306Costa, E., 1:117–118Cottingley (England) fairy photograph hoax,

1:138–139, 3:103Council of Constantinople (625), 2:40Council of Laodicea (364), 2:40Council of Nicaea (325), 1:44Council of Oxia (525), 2:40Council of Tours (613), 2:40Count Dracula theme park plans (Romania),

3:80Coupchiak, Moses, 3:99“Coupling” guests, 3:217Courtship and marriage customs, 3:203–215Covenant of the Goddess, 2:88–89Covens, 1:294Covers (Garduna), 2:14Crabtree, Adam, 1:224Cragg, Rev., 3:45–46Crainoscopy. See PhrenologyCrandon, Le Roi Goddard, 1:101, 102Crandon, Mina Stinson, 1:101, 101–104, 166Crawford, Joan, 3:25, 138Creative and lucid dreaming, 3:122–125Creatures of the night, 3:68–85Cremation, 3:224, 226–227Crenshaw, James, 3:17Crete, as possible site of Atlantis, 2:223–224“Crisis apparitions,” 3:8Critch, Gerard, 1:243Critias (Plato), 2:221Croesus (King of Lydia), 1:266Croiset, Gerard, 3:166Crookall, Robert, 1:27–28, 3:171Crookes, Sir William, 1:156, 161–163, 162

Cooke, Florence, and, 1:98, 99–100, 101Fox sisters and, 1:142Home, Daniel Dunglas, and, 1:113–114

Crop circles, 3:295–297Crosette, Barbara, 3:202Crosses, 2:203–204Crosses, inverted, 1:290, 301Crossing Over with John Edward (TV program),

1:104, 105, 3:51Crowley, Aleister, 1:181, 181, 304, 2:62–64,

63, 76Crowley, Edward Alexander. See Crowley,

AleisterThe Crucible (Miller), 2:104


343Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

The Crucifixion. See Crosses; Jesus Christ,Crucifixion of; Stigmata

Crusades, 2:19, 40–41Cryptozoologists, 3:58Crystal gazing. See ScryingCrystal skulls, 2:191–193Crystalomancy. See ScryingCrystals, 2:169, 173–174, 175, 195

See also ScryingCuauhtlatoatzin. See Juan Diego (16th c. Aztec)Cuba, Santeria in, 1:287Cults, 1:270, 272

See also specific cultsCuneo, Michael W., 1:208–209Cups (tarot), 2:132–133, 133Curandero, 2:91Curie, Pierre, 1:156Curran, Pearl Leonore, 2:127Cursuses and leys, 2:232–234, 261

See also Holy lines; Nazca Lines (Peru)Curtis, Tony, 3:136Customs and taboos, 3:200–228Cyrus the Great (King of Persia), 1:266

DDakota people, souls of, 1:40Dalai Lama, 1:7Daniel (Hebrew prophet), 1:180, 181D’Arcis, Pierre, 1:237Dark, fear of. See ScotophobiaDark Skies (TV program), 3:288–289“Darrell” (drowning victim), 1:68Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Association.

See Branch DavidiansDavies, Joseph, 2:156Davis, Andrew Jackson, 1:135–137Davis, Nancy. See Reagan, NancyDavis, Russell C., 1:69The Dawn of Astronomy (Lockyer), 2:265The Day After Roswell (Corso), 3:293Day of Judgment. See Final JudgmentThe Day the Earth Stood Still (film), 3:281–282,

284–285, 285Daydreaming, 3:141Days of the week superstitions, 3:191, 199De la demonomanie des sorciers (Bodin), 1:219,

2:96, 110De Leon, Moses, 2:142De praestigus daemonum (Weyer), 2:96, 109De Wohl, Louis, 2:125–126

Dead creatures, fear of. See NecrophobiaDead Sea Scrolls, 1:46Death, the Final Stages of Growth (Kubler-Ross),

1:28Death knells, 2:170–171Death (tarot), 2:131Deathbed visions, 1:23–26Decided Ones of Jupiter, 2:5–7Dee, John, 2:64–65, 65Deikman, Arthur J., 1:215Deja vu, 3:177Delphic Oracles, 1:265–266, 2:154, 154–155The Deluge, 2:218, 222Dement, William C., 3:120–121Demeter (Greek deity), 1:268, 269Demonolgie (James VI of Scotland), 2:106Demons, 1:196–199

See also Goblins; Imps; Possession, bydemons

Dennis, Glenn, 3:263Denominations, 1:272Depression, placebos and, 3:139Descartes, René, 2:31–32Deserts, dream symbolism, 3:129Desgrez (17th c. French police official), 1:297Dessoir, Max, 3:162Detrimental previsions, 3:176Devereaux, Paul, 2:233Devil, dream symbolism, 3:129The Devil and Miss Sarah (film), 3:110Devil (tarot), 2:131–132The Devil Within Her (film), 3:110Devil worship. See Satanic cults; SatanismDevil’s Mark, 1:199–200“Devil’s Sea.” See Dragon’s TriangleDevil’s Triangle. See Bermuda TriangleDhammapada (Buddha), 1:6Di Mambro, Joseph, 1:318Diamonds (gems), 2:184, 186, 3:195Diamonds (playing cards), 2:134Diana (Greek deity), 2:123Diana (Princess of Wales), death of, 2:3Dianetics, 1:320Dickason, C. Fred, 1:225Dickinson, G. Lowes, 1:43Dieppe (France) phantoms, 3:16Dingwall, E. J., 1:129Dinner plates, 3:219Dinner tables, 3:217–218Dinsdale, Tim, 3:90Dionysian Mysteries, 1:33, 265, 266–268


Cumulative Index344

Dionysus (Greek deity), 1:33, 266Dionysus Zagreus (mythic figure), 1:267“Direct-voice” communication, 1:89Dirt, fear of. See MysophobiaDiscours des Sorciers (Boguet), 2:110, 111The Discovery of the Large, Rich and Beautiful

Empire of Guyana with a Relation to the Greatand Golden City of Manoa (Raleigh), 2:235

The Discovery of Witchcraft (Scot), 2:106, 109The Discovery of Witches (Hopkins), 2:112Discrimination, against Wiccans, 2:74Divination, 2:118Divinity, horns as symbols of, 2:92, 94Dixon, Jeane, 2:155, 155–157“Do.” See Applewhite, Marshall Herff, Jr.Do Dogs Go to Heaven? (Holmes), 3:7D’Octavio, General, 2:7Doctrine of Correspondence, 1:153Doerr, Vince, 3:65Dog superstitions, 3:191–193Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem), 2:242, 245Donnelly, Ignatius, 2:219Donovan’s Brain (film), 3:110Doomsday clock, 1:185Dopamine, 3:159Dorland, Frank, 2:193Dornheim, Fuchs George II, Johann von, 2:103Dorset Cursuses (England), 2:233Dossey, Larry, 1:229Douglas, Janet, 2:106Douglas, Kirk, 3:110Dowries, 3:206, 213Dowsing, 2:136–137Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 1:137–139, 165,

3:102–103Doyle, Lady Jean, 1:138, 139, 165Doyle, Kingsley, 1:138Doze, Grace, 1:61–62Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (film), 3:112“The Dragon and the Unicorn” (Cherry), 3:88Dragonheart (film), 3:89Dragons, 3:87–89Dragon’s Triangle, 2:227Dream diaries, 3:132Dream incubation temples, 3:117Dream symbology, 3:128–130Dreamland. See Area 51 (NV)Dreams, 3:117–130Drosnin, Michael, 1:242Drug use

by Assassins, 2:4

sleep interference and, 3:121in voodoo, 2:56See also Psychedelics

Druidsin Chartres (France), 2:230, 232Stonehenge and, 2:273tree superstitions, 2:187–188, 3:196

Drury (English drummer). See TedworthDrummer (Tedworth, England)

D’Souza, Henry, 1:205DuBose, Thomas, 3:261Duchovny, David, 3:288Duke University psychical research lab

(Durham, NC), 3:162, 163Dunne, J. W., 3:176–177

EEa (Babylonian deity), 2:123Earthquakes, dream symbolism, 3:129Easter Island, 2:235–238, 236Easter symbolism, 3:198–199Eastre (Norse deity), 3:199Eastwood, Clint, 3:110Eating utensils, 3:215–216, 218–219Eaton, Sally, 2:79Ebertin, Elsbeth, 2:125Eby, Hester, 3:43The ECK, 1:316Eckankar, 1:316–317Ecstasy, 1:200, 202–204Ectoplasm, 1:88–89, 159, 3:78Eddington, A. S., 3:176Eddy, John A., 2:259Edelman, Gerald M., 3:116Edgar Cayce Foundation (Virginia Beach, VA),

2:153Edison, Thomas Alva, 3:13, 15, 123–124Edward, John, 1:104–105Edward VI (King of England), 2:64Edwards, Frank, 3:278Edwards, Susanna, 2:101Ego, 3:119Egypt, beliefs and customs

adultery, 3:202afterlife, 1:15–22amulets, 2:169cat worship, 3:190dog superstitions, 3:193evil eye, 3:194fetishes, 2:194


345Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

gods and goddesses, 1:257, 3:58graves and grave markers, 3:225–226guests, courtesy to, 3:216hand washing and bathing, 3:219hospitality, 3:215hypnosis, 3:144, 146ladder superstitions, 3:197mourning, 3:227mummies and mummification, 1:18, 20,

3:222–223mystery religions, 1:257–264silver use, 2:185sneezing superstitions, 3:199wedding rings, 3:213

Egyptian Masonic rite, 2:61, 62Egyptian temples, Tiahuananco similarities to,

2:278Ehrenwald, Jan, 3:175–176, 181Eight, symbolism of

numerology, 2:146playing cards, 2:134, 135Pythagoras on, 2:145tarot, 2:131, 133, 134

Eighteen, tarot symbolism of, 2:132Einstein, Albert, 1:195El Cid (Spanish hero), 2:12–13El Dorado (mythical city), 2:215, 234–235Elders of Lemuria. See Thirteenth SchoolElectromagnetivity, telepathy and, 3:182, 183Eleusinian Mysteries, 1:33–34, 268–269Eleven, symbolism of

numerology, 2:147tarot, 2:131

Elfman, Jenna, 1:320Elijah (Hebrew prophet), 3:250Elizabeth I (Queen of England), 2:64, 65, 235Elizabeth (13th c. Cistercian nun), 1:241Elkin, A. P., 3:180–181Elliot, Rusty, 2:78Ellison, Robert, 3:23Elohim, 1:311–312, 313Elopement, 3:206Elves, 3:100–101Embalming, 3:222–223Emerald Tablet, 2:46Emeralds, 2:186Emperor (tarot), 2:130Empire of the Ants (film), 3:110Employers, use of graphology, 2:138Empress (tarot), 2:130Enclosed spaces, fear of. See Claustrophobia

End of Days (film), 1:239End times. See ApocalypseEndogamy, 3:203Energy alignments. See Cursuses and leysEngagement announcements, 3:208England, beliefs and customs

dinner plates, 3:219drinking toasts, 3:220–221eating utensils, 3:218elves, 3:100fairy tales, 2:176rings, 2:184sneezing superstitions, 3:199See also British Isles, beliefs and customs

England, witchcraft trials, 2:100–101English, Philip, 2:105Enochian magick, 2:52Ensley, Eddie, 1:248Environment, affect on dreams, 3:121–122Episodic memory, 3:132Epworth Rectory (England), 3:36–38, 37Ergot, 3:153Erosion, of the Sphinx, 2:270Erotomania, Inquisition and, 3:76, 78Eskimo beliefs and customs

kissing, 3:207marriage, 3:205

ESP. SeeExtrasensory perceptionE.T. (fictional character), 3:281E.T.—The Extraterrestrial (film), 3:283Etheric body, 3:171–172Ethylene, 1:266, 2:155Etiquette. See Hospitality and etiquette; specific

countries and culturesEuler, Leonhard, 2:240Europe, beliefs and customs

bathing, 3:219–220burials and funerals, 3:226cat superstitions, 3:189–190dinner plates, 3:219dinner tables, 3:217engagement announcements, 3:208guests, courtesy to, 3:217hope chests, 3:206–207ladder superstitions, 3:197See also specific countries

Evans, Linda, 1:116Evans, Sir Arthur, 2:223Everest Expedition (1921), 3:66Evil Eye, 3:193–195, 200Exogamy, 3:203


Cumulative Index346

Exon, Arthur, 3:259Exorcism, 1:179, 204–209

at Calvados Castle (France), 3:36John Paul II, Pope, performed by, 1:204of Mother Teresa, 1:205recent demand for, 1:223See also Possession, by demons

The Exorcist (film), 1:207, 208, 208–209Expanded consciousness, 3:141–142Exploring Atlantis (Alper), 2:175Extersteine megaliths (Germany), 2:257Extrasensory perception (ESP), 3:146,

157–160, 179, 266researchers of, 3:161–184

Extraterrestrials. See Alien visitors, in HolyScripture; UFO contactees and abductees;UFOs, in ancient times; UFOs, in film andTV; UFOs, in modern times; UFOs, recentmysteries

FFahler, Jarl, 3:167Fairies, 3:101, 101–103, 102, 296Fairy circles, 2:176–177, 177, 3:295Fairy photograph hoax (England), 1:138–139,

3:103Fairy Tale: A True Story (film), 3:102, 103Faith, afterlife belief and, 1:2Faith healing, 1:209–211“Fall of the Angels” (tarot). See Tower of

Destruction (tarot)Falling, dream symbolism, 3:129False memories, 3:131, 134–135Falun Gong, 1:315, 317–318Familiars, 2:95, 111–112

See also ImpsFang people, souls of, 1:37A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway), 1:27Faria, King, 2:137“Fat man suffocator” urban legend, 3:233Fate line, 2:149Fate Magazine, 2:220, 3:145Father of Greatness, 1:280Fatima (Portugal) holy apparitions, 1:188Faust, Dr., 2:65–67, 66Faust, Georg. See Faust, Dr.Favazza, John, 3:94, 95Al Fayed, Dodi, 2:3Feather, Sally, 3:165Fedayeen, 2:4, 5

Fehm. See Holy VehmFeliciani, Lorenza, 2:61, 62Female symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:166Fenwick, Peter, 1:31Ferdinand II (King of Aragon), 1:219, 2:13–14Ferdinand V (King of Castile). See Ferdinand II

(King of Aragon)Fetishes, 2:193–195

See also Amulets; TalismansFeudal system, 2:94Field memory, 3:132Fifteen, tarot symbolism of, 2:132Fight the Future (film), 3:288Fiji Islands, beliefs and customs

infant betrothals, 3:205wedding dinners, 3:213

Fillmore, Charles, 1:50Film monster favorites, 3:77

See also specific filmsFinal Judgment, 1:185–186

in Christianity, 1:9–10in Islam, 1:13in Judaism, 1:15

“Fire ship” of New Brunswick (Canada), 3:10First Church of Satan. See Church of SatanFischer, Charles, 3:120Fish, LeRoy, 3:62Fish symbol (Ichthys), 2:170Fisher King (mythical figure), 2:205, 206Five, symbolism of


“Five Companies” (Tong), 2:37Five elements (Chinese astrology), 2:124Flatwoods (WV) UFO sightings (1952), 3:243Fleau des demons et des Sorciers. See De la

demonomanie des sorciers (Bodin)“Fletcher” (spirit guide). See Ford, Arthur

Augustus“Florida Sandman.” See Skunk ApeFlower girls, 3:209Flowers

bouquet tossing, 3:214courtship and, 3:207–208in funerals, 3:226in prehistoric burials, 1:3symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165in weddings, 3:209

Floyran, Esquire de, 2:23


347Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

Flying, fear of. See AviophobiaFlying Dutchman (ship), 3:10“Flying ointment,” 2:98, 3:153Flying Saucers and the Three Men (Bender), 3:276Fodor, Nandor, 3:24Food and Drug Administration, LSD and, 3:154,

155Food kinship, 3:216The Fool (tarot), 2:132“Foos” and “foo fighters,” 3:252The Force (tarot), 2:131Ford, Arthur Augustus, 1:105–108, 1:166Ford, Gerald, 2:35Foreigners, fear of. See XenophobiaForrestal, James V., 3:297, 298Fossils, mistaken for dragon remains, 3:88–89Foundation for Research of the Nature of Man

(Durham, NC), 3:164See also Rhine Research Center (Durham,

NC)Four, symbolism of

Chinese and Japanese superstitions, 3:198numerology, 2:146playing cards, 2:134, 135Pythagoras on, 2:145tarot, 2:130, 133, 134

Four elements, 2:119–120Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1:183, 184Four-leaf clovers, 3:195Fourteen, tarot symbolism of, 2:131Fowler, Nancy, 1:190Fox, Catherine “Katie.” See Fox sistersFox, John, 1:133, 140, 141Fox, Margaret, 1:140, 141Fox, Margaretta “Maggie.” See Fox sistersFox sisters, 1:133, 139–143Foyster, Lionel Algernon, 3:31–32Foyster, Marianne, 3:31–32, 33Fragmented consciousness, 3:141France

Knights Templar activity, 2:22–24Satanism popularity (16th–17th c.),

1:295–296werewolf burnings, 3:84

France, beliefs and customsbridal garters, 3:214eating utensils, 3:218kissing, 3:207quartrozieme, 3:198

France, witchcraft trials, 2:101–102“Francine” (spirit guide). See Browne, Sylvia

Francis of Assisi, St., 1:186, 241, 2:95Franco-Cantabrian cave art, 2:199“Frank Withers” (spirit guide). See Roberts, JaneFrankenstein: A Modern Prometheus (Shelley),

3:75Frankenstein (film), 3:74Franklin, Aretha, 3:136Franklin, Benjamin, 1:59, 2:11Frazer, Sir James George, 2:92Frederick the Great (King of Prussia), 2:71, 72,

209Free and Accepted Order of Freemasons. See

FreemasonsFree will, astrology and, 2:127Freeman, George P., 3:278Freemasons, 2:2, 9–12, 10, 11, 18Freud, Sigmund, 3:129

agoraphobia of, 3:136on dreams, 3:118as member of psychical research societies,

1:156on memory repression, 3:132, 134on telepathy, 3:178

Friday superstitions, 3:191Friedman, Michael, 3:126Friedman, Stanton, 3:263–264, 297Frog symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Frost, Gavin and Yvonne, 2:77, 82–85, 83, 84The Fruits of Philosophy (Besant, Bradlaugh),

1:275Fry, Daniel W., 1:305, 3:273–274Fuld, William, 1:85–86Fulton, Harold H., 3:277The Fury (film), 3:110

GGabriel (angel), 2:42, 58Gaddis, Vincent H., 2:227“Galahad and the Holy Grail” (Abbey), 2:205Galahad (mythic figure), 2:205Gall, Franz Joseph, 2:151Gandhi, Indira, 2:126Gandillon family, 2:110, 111Garabandal (Spain) holy apparitions, 1:190Gardner, Gerald Brosseau, 2:85, 85–86

Buckland, Raymond, and, 2:80revival of Wicca and, 2:75, 77Valiente, Doreen, and, 2:90–91

Gardner, Joshua, 3:28Gardner, Marshall, 2:241


Cumulative Index348

Garduna, 2:2, 12–15Garlaschelli, Luigi, 1:221Garlic, 2:177–178, 178Garnets, 2:186Garnier, Gilles, 3:84Garrett, Eileen, 1:91–92, 108–110, 109, 159Gateway Program, 3:13Gauquelin, Michael, 2:125Gavitt, Captain, 3:96Gee, D. J., 3:53Gelanpoulous, Angelo, 2:224Gelb, Lester, 3:118Gem superstitions, 3:195Gemini, the Twins, 2:121, 186General Wayne Inn (Merion, PA), 3:38–40Geoffrey of Monmouth, 2:225–226Geoffrey of Saint-Omer, 2:19–20Geoglyphs, 2:260Germany, beliefs and customs

elves, 3:100fairy tales, 2:176salt, 2:185

Germany, Holy Vehm activity, 2:15–16Germany, Illuminati activity, 2:18–19Germany, witchcraft trials, 2:102–103Germs, fear of. See MysophobiaGershom, Yonassan, 1:48, 58–59Gestalt therapy, dreams and, 3:128Ghose, Sisirkumar, 1:146, 195The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (TV program), 3:51Ghost Ceremony, 1:38Ghost Dance, 1:283–285Ghost (film), 3:50“Ghost junk” (ship), 3:10Ghost land. See Spirit landGhost ships, 3:10Ghost Shirts, 1:285Ghost Story (film), 3:50, 110Ghostbusters (film), 3:9, 50Ghosts, in film and TV, 3:49–52Ghosts and ghostly beings, 3:2, 3–24, 4, 20, 24

See also Apparitions; PhantomsGhosts of the dead, 3:4, 20–22Ghosts of the living, 3:12–14Ghouls, 3:72Giant squids, 3:95Giants’ Dance. See Stonehenge (England)Gibbons, Bill, 3:86Gibbons, Jenny, 2:97Gift exchange, during courtship, 3:207–208Gilbert, Adrian, 2:266

Gilmore, Peter H., 1:302Gimlin, Bob, 3:61Girdle of Venus, 2:149“Giving away” the bride, 3:210, 211Gladstone, William E., 1:156Glanvil, Joseph, 1:46, 3:46, 47Glass writing, 1:86Glastonbury Abbey (England), 2:238–239, 239Glastonbury (England), 2:238–239Glastonbury Thorn (England), 2:238Glastonbury Tor (England), 2:238Glossolalia, 1:226Glossophobia, 3:138Gloucester (MA) sea serpent. See Cape Ann

(MA) sea serpentGloves, for brides, 3:209Gnomes, 3:103–104Gnosticism, 1:277–280

reincarnation and, 1:49Simon Magus and, 2:69–70tarot and, 2:128

“Goats” (Garduna), 2:14Goat’s head, symbol of Satanism, 1:290Goblins, 3:104

See also DemonsGod, belief in, 1:210God of the Hunt. See Horned GodThe“God” Part of the Brain (Alper), 1:247Goddess worship, 1:273–274, 2:93, 94

See also Demeter (Greek deity); Diana(Greek deity)

Godzilla (film), 3:110Goebbels, Joseph, 2:126Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 3:11Goetheanum (Dornach, Switzerland),

1:151–152Gog and Magog, 1:180, 185Goldberg, Bruce, 1:61–62Goldberg, Whoopi, 3:136“The Golden Legend” (Longfellow), 1:213Golem, 3:72–74, 73, 76The Golem of Prague (film), 3:73Golem of Prague (“Yossele”), 3:76Good, Dorcas, 2:105Good, Sarah, 2:105Good luck charms, 2:168, 3:188

See also Amulets; Fetishes; TalismansGoodavage, Joseph, 2:124Goodman, Andrew, 3:166Gore-Booth, Eva, 1:50Gospel of Light (Mani), 1:280, 282


349Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

Gosse, Philip, 3:87Gothic movement, vampire subculture and,

3:81–82Goulding, Chris, 3:75Gramolazzo, Giancarlo, 1:204Grand Master of Knights Templar, 2:21Grangecon (Ireland), weeping statue of, 1:251Grannis, Appleton, 3:6Grant, Joan, 1:58Graphology, 2:137–140Graphotherapeutics, 2:139Grave robbing, 3:72Graves, Peter, 3:110Graves and grave markers, 3:225–226Gray, Gordon, 3:297Gray man of Hinton Ampner (England), 3:40–42Great Flood. See The DelugeGreat Grimoires, 2:51Great Pyramid (Giza, Egypt), 2:214, 243,

264–268, 3:247–248Great Seal of the United States, Masonic

imagery of, 2:9Great Serpent Mound (Adams County, OH),

1:39Great White Brotherhood, 1:308, 2:248Greece, beliefs and customs

adultery, 3:202afterlife, 3:222cremation, 3:226crystals, 2:173days of the week superstitions, 3:191divination, 2:118, 150, 182dog superstitions, 3:193dowries, 3:206drinking toasts, 3:220eating utensils, 3:218, 219engagement announcements, 3:208evil eye, 3:194gem superstitions, 3:195guests, courtesy to, 3:216hand washing and bathing, 3:219horseshoe superstitions, 3:196hospitality, 3:215love and marriage, 3:206mushrooms, sacredness of, 3:152salt, 2:184sneezing superstitions, 3:199spitting superstitions, 3:200state religion, 1:32, 264, 2:40sweetmeats for newlyweds, 3:214white, symbolism of, 3:208–209

Greeley, Andrew, 1:23Green, John, 3:63“Green M&Ms” urban legend, 3:231Greenwell, Chief, 3:244Greenwell, J. Richard, 3:86Gregori, Fabio, 1:250Gregory, Anita, 1:131Gregory IX, Pope, 1:218, 2:95Gregory the Great, Pope, 3:199Gregson, W. H., 3:32Gremlins, 3:104–105, 105Grey, Joel, 3:21Griffiths, Frances, 1:138, 139, 3:103Grillo, Girolamo, 1:250Grimoires, 2:107Gris-gris, 2:198Gross, Maurice, 3:19Grygiel, Monika, 1:248–249Guadalupe (Mexico) holy apparitions, 1:188Guardian angels, 1:211–214

See also Spirit guidesGuests, courtesy to, 3:216–217Guilborg, Abbe, 1:296, 297Gundestrup Cauldron, 2:173Guoxing, Zhou, 3:68Gurney, Edmund, 3:12, 13, 24, 146Gypsies, stereotypes of, 2:128

HHa-Farchi, Estori, 1:192Haeckel, Heinrich, 2:248Hair, dream symbolism, 3:129Hair and wig grooming, 3:220Haiti

slave revolt (1791), 2:54voodoo, 2:52, 54–56

Hajj, 2:257–258, 260Hall, Prince, 2:11Halley, Edmund, 2:239–240Halley’s comet, 2:239Hallucinations, 3:143–144

autoscopy and, 3:11demon possession and, 1:198–199hypnosis and, 3:147LSD and, 3:154

Hallucinogens. See PsychedelicsHamachis. See The Sphinx (Giza, Egypt)Hamilton, George, 3:110–111Hammer for Witches (Malleus Maleficarum)

(Kramer, Sprenger), 1:219, 2:103, 108


Cumulative Index350

Hancock, John, 2:11Hand of Glory, 2:178, 179Hand washing and bathing, 3:219–220Handwriting analysis. See GraphologyHangar 18, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

(Dayton, OH), 3:259–260, 260See also Roswell (NM) UFO crash (1947)

Hanged Man (tarot), 2:131Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 2:243Haniel (angel), 2:58Harder, James, 3:270Hardy, Sir Alister, 1:145, 216Harkins, Roger, 3:259Harner, Michael, 1:76Hart, Hornell, 3:170Hartmann, Ernest, 3:125Hashashin. See Assassins (secret society)Hashish, Assassin use of, 2:4Hasidism, on reincarnation, 1:42–43, 48Hathorne, John, 2:105Haunted hotels, U.S., 3:25, 35Haunted houses and places, 3:24–49Haunted (TV program), 3:51The Haunting (film), 3:14, 49–50Haut, Walter, 3:261, 262, 264Hawass, Zahi, 2:267Hawkins, Gerald, 2:273, 274Hawley, William, 2:272Haynes, John, 3:291, 292Hazel wood, 2:187Head, Richard, 2:162Head line, 2:148Health benefits of meditation, 3:151

See also Prayer, power ofHealy, Henry A., 3:6Heart line, 2:148Heart symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Hearts (playing cards), 2:135Heathcote, Emma, 1:213–214Heaven, 1:14, 38Heaven’s Gate cult, 1:256–257, 309–311Hebrew beliefs and customs

graves and grave markers, 3:225hand washing and bathing, 3:219See also Judaism

Hecate (Greek deity), 3:193Hefner, Philip, 1:222Heights, fear of. See AcrophobiaHeilige linien. See Holy linesHeimliches Gericht, 2:15Hekau, 2:58

Helena, St., 1:272, 2:244Heliotrope. See BloodstoneHell, 1:10, 14Helvetius (Dutch alchemist), 2:45–46Hemaphobia, 3:138Hemingway, Ernest, 1:27Henderson, Oliver “Pappy,” 3:259Hennepin, Louis, 3:98Henry III (King of England), 3:190Hensley, George Went, 1:239–240Herbert, Bennison, 2:86, 87Heresy

Cathars and, 1:218, 274, 276–277in early Christianity, 1:270Gnosticism and, 1:277–280under Innocent III, 2:113Inquisition and, 1:217–219Knights Templar and, 2:22–23See also Mystery religions and heresies,

ChristianHermes (Greek deity), 3:119Hermes-Toth (Greek deity), 1:34, 258, 2:46Hermes Trismegistus (mythical alchemist),

1:258, 2:42, 46–47, 58, 118Hermetic Mysteries, 1:34, 2:42Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 2:76The Hermetic Romance (Andreae), 2:43Hermit (tarot), 2:131Herodotus (Greek historian), 2:264, 266Heston, Charlton, 3:111Heyerdahl, Thor, 2:237Hierophant (tarot), 2:130Higdon, Carl, 3:269–270High Magick’s Aid (Gardner), 2:85High Priestess (tarot), 2:130Higher Self, 2:175“Highway hypnosis,” 3:143Hilgard, Ernest R., 3:146, 147Hill, Barney and Betty, 3:274–276, 275Hill, Osman, 3:62Hillary, Sir Edmund, 3:59, 67Hillenkoetter, Roscoe H., 3:254, 298HIM. See Human Individual MetamorphosisHimmler, Heinrich, 2:125Hindley, Charles, 2:162Hinduism

adultery, 3:202afterlife, 1:10–12alien visitations, 3:251burials and funerals, 3:224cremation, 3:226


351Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

demons, 1:196, 288dreams, 3:117hospitality and charity, 3:215mourning, 3:227reincarnation, 1:46–47sadhu, 1:12soul, 1:4, 11–12wedding ceremonies, 3:212

Hinton Ampner (England) haunting, 3:40–42Hippocrates (Greek physician), 2:121Hiram Abiff, 2:10The History of Dr. Johann Faust (Speiss), 2:65History of the Kings of Britain (Geoffrey of

Monmouth), 2:204, 225–226, 272Hitler, Adolf

astrology and, 2:125cat phobia of, 3:190Nostradamus’ alleged prophecies of, 2:160Spear of Destiny and, 2:209swastika and, 2:210

HMS Eurydice (ship), 3:10Hoaxes

Borley Rectory (England) haunting,3:32–33

Cottingley (England) fairy photographs,1:138–139, 3:103

crop circles (England), 3:296Houdini’s exposure of, 1:102–103, 163,

165–166resulting from September 11 (2001)

terrorist attacks, 3:228, 229See also Urban legends and beliefs

Hobgoblins, 3:104Hodgson, Richard, 1:123, 149Hofman, Albert, 3:153–154Hohenheim, Theophrastus Bombast von. See

Paracelsus (German physician)Hollow Earth theory, 2:239–242Hollywood (CA) hauntings, 3:25Hollywood (FL) holy apparitions, 1:190Holmes, Irene Hume, 3:7Holmes, M. Jean, 3:7Holy Grail, 1:274, 2:168, 200, 204–206Holy Lance. See Spear of DestinyHoly lines, 2:257

See also Cursuses and leysHoly objects. See Sacred objects, power ofHoly Office, 1:219, 220, 2:62, 96–97Holy Vehm, 2:2, 15–16Holzer, Hans, 2:87Home, Daniel Dunglas, 1:110–115, 161–162

Homo Noeticus, 1:194–195Hongshan Pyramid (Mongolia), 1:21Hongzhi, Li, 1:315, 317Honorius II, Pope, 2:20“Hook on the car door” urban legend,

3:231–232Hoover, Herbert, 3:198Hope chests, 3:206–207Hopkins, Matthew, 2:111–112, 112Hor-em-Akhet. See The Sphinx (Giza, Egypt)Horn, Jenny, 2:106Horned God, 2:92, 94, 98Horns, as symbols of divinity, 2:92, 94Horrocks, Stella, 2:128Horror films and TV programs

actors in, 3:109–112film monster favorites, 3:77ghosts in, 3:49–52parallels to 20th century traumas, 3:77about UFOs and space aliens, 3:281–289See also specific films and TV programs

Horseshoe symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:166Horseshoes, 2:178–179, 3:195–196Horus (Egyptian deity), 1:303Hospitality and etiquette, 3:215–221Houdini, Beatrice “Bess,” 1:106–107, 165, 166Houdini, Harry, 1:163–166, 164

claustrophobia of, 3:138Crandon, Mina, and, 1:102–103Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, and, 1:139Ford, Arthur Augustus, and, 1:106–107

Houdini Exposes the Tricks Used by the BostonMedium Margery (Houdini), 1:103

Houngans. See HungansHour glass symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:166Houston, Jean, 3:169Houteff, Florence, 1:315Houteff, Victor, 1:315How to Make a Monster (film), 3:111Howard-Bury, C. K., 3:66Howe, Elias, 3:124Howe, Linda Moulton, 3:295Howell, Vernon. See Koresh, DavidHubbard, L. Ron, 1:315, 320, 321Hughes, Howard, 3:136, 138Hughes, Irene, 1:92, 2:157, 157–158“Huldre folk,” 3:101, 108Human Individual Metamorphosis (HIM). See

Heaven’s Gate cultHuman sacrifice and ritual murder

Gundestrup Cauldron and, 2:173


Cumulative Index352

Leopard Men and, 2:2, 24–25lion men and, 2:26Mau-Mau and, 2:27satanic cults and, 1:224, 288–289Thuggee and, 2:2, 32–33

Humility, of Knights Templar, 2:21Humperdinck, Englebert, 3:25“Hunches,” 3:176Hungans, 2:55, 56Hungary, drinking toasts, 3:221Hunsaker, Jerome C., 3:297Hurkos, Peter, 3:166Hurley, James, 3:178Huron people, souls of, 3:221Hussein, Saddam, 1:182Huxley, Aldous, 3:152Huxley, Julian, 1:156Hybrid beings. See TherianthropesHydrocephalus, 3:133Hyksos, 1:260Hynek, J. Allen, 3:257, 257, 259, 266, 282–283Hyperalert consciousness, 3:141Hypnopompic episodes, 3:143Hypnosis, 3:144–149

ESP and, 3:160, 166–168long-distance hypnosis, 3:182–183trances, comparison with, 1:92–93

Hypnotic regression, 1:59–62, 3:270, 271See also Past-life therapy

“A Hypothesis of Extrasensory Perception”(Osis), 3:164

Hyslop, James Hervey, 1:123–124Hysterical consciousness, 3:141

II Ching, 2:140, 140–141I Ho Chuan. See Boxer TongI Was a Teenage Werewolf (film), 3:111Iannusco, Angelo and Antionetta, 1:249Iberians, graves and grave markers, 3:226Iceland, sneezing superstitions, 3:199Ichthys (Fish symbol), 2:170Id, 3:119Ignatius, St., 1:202–203Illuminati, 2:2, 16, 18–19, 3:290Illumination, 1:145, 214–217Imaginative visions, 1:190, 246Imps, 3:76

See also Demons; FamiliarsIn Search Of (TV program), 3:51

Incas, 2:185, 234See also Machu Picchu (Peru)

Incubi, 3:76, 78, 143Independence Day (film), 3:289Indian Ocean land bridge, 2:247–248Individuation, 3:119Indonesia, witch hunts (1990s), 2:101Indra (Hindu being), 3:251Ineffability, in consciousness, 1:144Infant betrothals, 3:205Infants, dreams of, 3:120Ingenio Valley (Peru), 2:261Inherited fears, 3:136–137Innocent II, Pope, 2:21Innocent III, Pope, 1:274, 2:41, 113Innocent IV, Pope, 1:218, 2:102Innocent VIII, Pope, 1:219, 2:70, 109The Innocents (film), 3:49Inquisition, 1:200, 217–220, 2:14, 95–97, 3:76,

78Insects symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:165Insomnia, 3:121Integrative level of expanded consciousness, 3:142“Integratron” (Giant Rock, CA), 3:280Internet myths. See Urban legends and beliefsThe Interpretation of Dreams (Freud), 3:118Intihuantana Shrine (Peru), 2:253Intruders (film), 3:284Invaders from Mars (film), 3:287The Invaders (TV program), 3:287Invasion of the Body Snatchers (film), 3:112, 287Ireland, beliefs and customs

bride capturing, 3:204evil eye, 3:194fairies and fairy tales, 2:176, 3:101hair rings, 2:184horseshoes, 2:178leprechauns, 3:105–106, 106wakes, 3:225

Ireland, witch hunts, 2:100Iroquois people, souls of, 1:40Irvine, Malcolm, 3:89, 91Irwin, James, 2:219Irwin, R. I., 3:181–182Isabella I (Queen of Spain), 1:219, 2:13Isis cult, 1:260–262Isis (Egyptian deity), 1:18, 19, 261Isis Unveiled (Blavatsky), 1:56–57Isla de Pascua. See Easter IslandIslam

afterlife, 1:12–14


353Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

amulets, 2:170Assassins’ view of, 2:4burials and funerals, 3:224–225demons, 1:196–197guardian angels, 1:213hospitality and charity, 3:215Jerusalem, importance of, 2:242, 244–245mourning, 3:228prayer, 1:227, 227–228reincarnation, 1:47–48soul, 1:4, 5wedding ceremonies, 3:212–213See also Middle Eastern and Arab beliefs and

customsIslands, dream symbolism, 3:129It Conquered the World (film), 3:110Italy, beliefs and customs

evil eye, 3:194horseshoes, 2:179

Italy, witchcraft trials, 2:107–108Ito, Kei, 1:83

JJack (playing cards), 2:134, 135“Jacko” (alleged man-beast), 3:61Jackson, Andrew, 2:240, 3:28Jackson, Michael, 3:138Jacob (Hebrew patriarch), 3:199, 204

See also Jacob’s ladderJacobs, Doris Lee, 3:52Jacob’s ladder, 3:118, 197Jacobson, Edward, 3:63Jade, 2:187James, David, 3:90James, William, 1:166–167, 3:162

on consciousness, 1:144–145, 195, 3:142on mystical traditions, 1:49on personal religion, 1:180Piper, Leonora E., and, 1:123

James VI (King of Scotland), 2:106Januarius, St., 1:221Japan, beliefs and customs

bride buying, 3:204fairy tales, 2:176kissing, 3:207mistletoe, 2:183mourning, 3:227number superstitions, 3:198wedding dinners, 3:214wedding gifts, 3:207

Japanese Fugo balloons, 3:264Japhet, Celina, 1:143Jarrold, Edgar R., 3:277Java, food kinship, 3:216Javan rhinoceros, 3:86“Jeane Dixon effect,” 2:157Jeans, Sir James, 1:156Jelly, Frederick, 1:222Jersey Devil, 3:78–79, 79“Jerusalem Fever,” 1:201Jerusalem (Israel), 2:242, 244–245Jervis, John, Earl of St. Vincent. See St. Vincent,

John Jervis, Earl ofJessup, Morris K., 3:299–300Jesus Christ

on the Antichrist, 1:181apparitions of, 1:186, 188Crucifixion of, 1:232, 2:209exorcisms performed, 1:205–206in Gnostic texts, 1:279Manichaean view of, 1:279prayer of, 1:225, 227preexistence of, 1:46The Rapture and, 1:231reincarnation, alleged belief in, 1:49–50Resurrection of, 1:8Second Coming, 1:9–10, 182–183, 184–185UFO cult view of, 1:306–307, 315

“Jesus on the freeway” urban legend, 3:233–234Jet (stone), 2:187Jewish revolts (1st–2nd c.), 2:244Jews, persecution of, 2:13–14, 16, 113–114Jezreel Valley (Israel), 1:192Ji, Yang, 3:267Joan of Arc, St., 1:298John, St., 1:184“John King” (spirit control). See Palladino,

EusapiaJohn of Chrysostom, St., 1:226John Paul II, Pope

Black Madonna, reverence of, 1:272, 273exorcisms performed by, 1:204Shroud of Turin exhibits, authorization of,

1:237–238on Soviet Union’s end of communism, 1:186at the Western Wall (Israel), 1:41

John XXIII, Pope, 1:220, 222, 3:272Johnson, Barton, 3:39Johnson, James, 3:26Johnson, Raynor C., 1:145, 195, 315Johnson, Richard, 3:14


Cumulative Index354

Johnson, Richard M., 2:240Johnston, Roy, 3:91Jones, Ernest, 3:179Jones, Jim, 1:313, 315, 319Jones, Tommy Lee, 3:277Jonsson, Olof, 2:158, 3:178–179Joseph of Arimathea, 2:204, 238Josephson, Brian, 3:162Josselyn, John, 3:93Jourdemaine, Margaret, 2:100Jouret, Luc, 1:318Journey to the Center of the Earth (Verne), 2:242Juan Diego (16th c. Aztec), 1:188, 244Judaism

afterlife, 1:14–15amulets, 2:169–170Apocalypse, 1:182blessing meals, 3:220burials and funerals, 3:224Dead Sea Scrolls and link with Christianity,

1:46demons, 1:196–197divination of Hebrews, 2:150dreams, 3:117exorcism, 1:206hospitality and charity, 3:215Jerusalem, importance of, 2:242, 244, 245mourning, 3:228prayer, 1:228–229reincarnation, 1:48–49soul, 1:4, 5, 14wedding ceremonies, 3:211–212See also Hebrew beliefs and customs;

KabbalahJudas Iscariot, 3:197–198Judges, dream symbolism, 3:129Judgment Day. See Final JudgmentJudgment (tarot), 2:132Juggler (tarot), 2:130Julius II, Pope, 2:125Jung, Carl G., 3:128

astrology and, 2:125on dreams, 3:119, 128–129ghostly encounter of, 3:3on Gnosticism, 1:280Kabbalah and, 2:142near-death experience of, 1:27on reincarnation, 1:59

Juno Lucina (Roman deity), 2:172Justice (tarot), 2:131“JW” (alien being), 1:305–306

KKa. See Ba and kaKa’aba (Mecca, Saudi Arabia), 2:256, 257–258,

260Kabbala Dnudata Seu Dotrina Hebraeorum

Transcendentalis et Metaphysica AtoveTheologica (Rosenroth), 2:142

Kabbalah, 2:141–142, 144Golem and, 3:74magic squares and, 2:198on meditation, 3:150Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, and, 2:70on reincarnation, 1:48tarot and, 2:129

Kaio Maru No. 5 disappearance (1952), 2:227Kali (Hindu deity), 2:32, 33Kamau, Johnstone. See Kenyatta, JomoKampman, Reima, 1:67–68Kane, Margaretta. See Fox sistersKaplan, Aryeh, 3:74Kaplan, Stephen, 3:81“Kaptar.” See YetiKardec, Allen, 1:143–144Karloff, Boris, 3:74, 109, 112Karma, 1:6, 11, 55Karnak (Egypt), 2:245–247“Katie King” (spirit control). See Cook, FlorenceKatter, Reuben Luther, 2:124Keel, John A., 3:264, 277Kelly-Hopkinsville (KY) UFO sightings (1955),

3:243–244Kelsey, Denys, 1:58Kelsey, Morton, 1:197–198, 223Kennedy, John F., assassination of, 2:35, 156Kenya, food kinship, 3:216Kenya, Mau-Mau activity, 2:27–30Kenyatta, Jomo, 2:30Kepler, Johannes, 2:125Key, dream symbolism, 3:129Key of Solomon (ceremonial text), 2:107Keyhoe, Donald E., 3:254, 254–255Khafre (Pharaoh of Egypt), 2:268–269al-Khattab, Omar Ibn, 2:244–245Khomeini, Ayatollah, 1:182Khul, Djwhal, 1:281Kibwetere, Joseph, 1:314Kikuyu Central Association, 2:30Kikuyu people, 2:27, 29Kilnapp, John W., 3:148Kim, Young Sik, 3:52Kimathi, Dedan, 2:29–30


355Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

King, George, 1:305, 307, 308King, Perry, 1:206King of the Holy Cities (Titharaja). See

Allahabad (India)King (playing cards), 2:134, 135King (tarot), 2:133, 134King Tut’s Curse, 3:201Kissing, 2:183, 3:202, 207Kissinger, Henry, 1:182Kjellen, Stig Arne, 3:178–179Klaatu (fictional character), 3:284–285Klagenfurt (Austria) dragon, 3:89Kleitman, Nathaniel, 3:119–120, 132Klemp, Harold, 1:317Knave (tarot), 2:133, 134Knight, J. Z., 1:96, 115–117, 116Knight (tarot), 2:133, 134Knights Hospitallers, 2:19, 20Knights of Malta. See Knights HospitallersKnights of Rhodes. See Knights HospitallersKnights of Saint John of Jerusalem. See Knights

HospitallersKnights of the Red Cross. See Knights TemplarKnights of the Temple of Solomon. See Knights

TemplarKnights Templar, 2:2, 19–24, 21, 102

Ark of the Covenant and, 2:203heresy of, 1:2181930 parade, 2:20Shroud of Turin and, 1:234

Knives, power of, 2:179–180Knives, table use, 3:218Knives, tea leaf reading symbols, 2:166Knock (Ireland) holy apparitions, 1:188, 190“Knock-out perfume” urban legend, 3:228–229Knocking on wood, 3:196Knossos (Crete), 2:223–224Koestler, Arthur, 1:157Koffman, Jeanne-Marie-Therese, 3:60Kolb, Janice Gray, 3:7Komesky, Amos, 1:212Komodo dragons, 3:88Koot, Hoomi, 1:281Koran. See Qur’anKoresh, David (Branch Davidian leader),

1:315–316, 316Koresh (Koreshanity leader). See Teed, Cyrus

ReadKosok, Paul, 2:261Krafft, Karl Ernst, 2:125Kraken, 3:95

Kramer, Heinrich, 1:199–200, 219, 2:108Krantz, Grover, 3:63Kripke, Daniel, 3:121Krippner, Stanley, 3:163

on dreams, 3:118, 120, 121, 128–129, 164on nightmares, 3:125on reality and altered states, 3:174–175

Krishna (Hindu deity), 1:47Krogman, Wilton, 3:54, 55Krohn, Friedrich, 2:210Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth, 1:25, 28Kumsong (Korea) phantom village, 3:16–17Kurtz, Paul, 1:155Kusche, Larry, 2:229

LL-dopa, 3:159La Estaqueria (Peru), 2:261La Salette (France) holy apparitions, 1:188Ladder superstitions, 3:197Ladislaus, St., 1:272Lake Saloe (Turkey), 2:225Lakes, dream symbolism, 3:129LaMarca, Angelo John, 2:139Lamassus, 1:212Lancre, Pierre de, 2:113–114Land, sea, and air monsters, 3:85–99Land bridges

Atlantic Ocean, 2:222Caribbean Sea, 2:225Indian Ocean, 2:247–248

Land of the Grandparents, 1:40–41Landon, Michael, 3:111Lapis lazuli, 2:187Larson, Bob, 1:208Larson, David, 1:211Larsson, Sven Erik, 3:178Laski, Marghanita, 1:203–204Lasswell, Harold D., 3:244Last Judgment. See Final JudgmentLast Supper, 2:185, 204, 3:197Laveau, Marie, 2:67–68LaVey, Anton Szandor, 1:291, 293, 299–304, 300LaVey, Karla, 1:303LaVey, Xerxes, 1:303LaVey, Zeena, 1:303Lavoie, Gilbert R., 1:237Lavoignet, Rafael Torrija, 1:245Law enforcement and psychic crime solving

Browne, Sylvia, and, 1:98


Cumulative Index356

Croiset, Gerard, and, 3:166forensic hypnosis, 3:148graphology, 2:139–140Hughes, Irene, and, 2:158Hurkos, Peter, 3:166psychedelics and, 3:154–156

Lawrence, Amos, 3:93–94Lawrence, T. E., 3:33Laying bodies to rest, 3:223–224“Lazaris” (spirit guide). See Pursel, JachLe Bar, James, 1:204Leary, Timothy, 3:154, 155Leblond, Paul H., 3:93Lee, Gloria, 1:305–306Leek, Sybil, 2:73, 2:86–87“Left Behind” books (LaHaye, Jenkins), 1:232Left-hand path. See Black magickLehner, Mark, 2:267–268Leland, Charles Godfrey, 2:75Lemuria and Mu (mythical continents), 2:237,

247–248, 3:273Leo, the Lion, 2:121–122, 186Leo X, Pope, 2:125Leopard Men, 2:24–27Leprechauns, 3:105–106, 106Lerner, Alan Jay, 1:58Leslie, Desmond, 3:272–273Leslie, John, 2:240Lethargic consciousness, 3:141Levi, Eliphas, 2:57, 68–69Levin, Jeffrey, 1:211Levitation, 1:87, 113Lewis, C. S., 3:100Lewis, Mercy, 2:104, 105The Ley Hunter’s Companion, 2:233Ley hunting, 2:232, 233Liber samekh rite, 2:62Libra, the Scales, 2:122, 186Life After Life (Moody), 1:28Life at Death (Ring), 1:28–29Life line, 2:148Light manifestations

in illumination, 1:215–216Shroud of Turin and, 1:232spooklights, 3:22–24during UFO contact, 3:267

Lighthouse of Alexandria (Egypt). See Pharos ofAlexandria (Egypt)

Lilith (mythical figure), 3:76, 79Limestone, use in Egyptian monuments,

2:266–267, 268

Lincoln, Abraham, 1:134Lind, James, 3:75Line of Intuition, 2:149Line of Mercury, 2:149Line of Saturn. See Fate lineLine of the Sun, 2:149Lines of Marriage, 2:149Lipp, Deborah, 2:79Liquefied blood of saints, 1:221Lissner, Ivar, 1:76, 80, 2:199Living altars, 1:295Le Livre des Esprits (The Spirits’ Book) (Kardec),

1:143Lloyd, Temperance, 2:101Loa, 2:55Loch Ness monster and other lake monsters,

3:89–93, 90Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau,

3:90Lockyer, Sir J. Norman, 2:265, 273Lodge, Lady, 1:168–169Lodge, Sir Oliver, 1:167–169, 168Loewi, Otto, 3:123Loftus, Elizabeth F., 3:134–135Loki (Norse deity), 3:197London Crystal Skull, 2:192Long-term memory, 3:131Lopez, Rosa, 1:190Lorber, John, 3:133Lord’s Prayer, 1:225Lorenzo, St., 1:221Lost City of Willkapanpa the Old. See Machu

Picchu (Peru)Lost Souls (film), 1:239Lost Tribes of Israel, 1:283Louis XIV (King of France), 1:297–298Louise (Duchess of Savoy), 2:60Lourdes (France) holy apparitions and miracles,

1:188, 189, 209–210, 2:248–251, 249, 250Lourdes Medical Commission, 2:249, 250–251L’Ouverture, Toussaint, 2:54Love, Charlie, 2:237Love at First Bite (film), 3:110–111Love knots, 2:180–181Lovers (tarot), 2:130Lowe, George, 3:67LSD, 3:153–155Lucid dreaming. See Creative and lucid

dreamingThe Lucis Trust, 1:281“Ludwig” (spirit entity), 3:39


357Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

Lueken, Veronica, 1:190Lugosi, Bela, 3:109Luke, St., 1:272Lully, Raymond, 2:43Lumbee people, 2:269Lupinomanis. See LycanthropyLuther, Martin, 2:31Luttrell, Captain, 3:41Lycanthropy, 3:58, 85Lydia (ancient country), 2:224Lyons, S. Silas, 1:136Lyserg-Saeure-Diaethylamid. See LSDLysergic acid. See LSD

M

Machu Picchu (Peru), 2:215, 251–253, 252Mackal, Roy P., 3:87, 90MacLaine, Shirley, 1:95, 115, 215Macumba, 1:285–286Madagascar, beliefs and customs

days of the week superstitions, 3:191wedding dinners, 3:213

Maeonia. See Lydia (ancient country)MaGee, John, Jr. See Edward, JohnMagi, 2:57–59“Magic bullet” of Kennedy assassination, 2:35Magic circles, 2:144, 179–180Magic (sleight-of-hand), 2:48Magic squares, 2:50–51, 60, 198Magic triangles, 2:198Magician (tarot). See Juggler (tarot)Magick (sorcery), 2:48–49

See also Black magick; White magickMagnetic healing theory, 3:146Magog and Gog, 1:180, 185Mahoney, Joseph, 1:207Maid of honor, 3:209Maillat, Louise, 2:110Majestic-12, 3:289, 290, 297–298Major Arcana, 2:128–132Malenkov, Georgy, 2:156Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer for Witches)

(Kramer, Sprenger), 1:219, 2:103, 108Mambu-mutu, 3:107Al Mamun, Abdullah, 2:266Mandan people, 1:283Mandragora officinarum. See Mandrake rootMandrake root, 2:181, 181Mani. See Prayer wheels

Mani (Persian religious leader). SeeManichaeism

Manichaeism, 1:280, 282Manitous, 1:37Manoa (mythical city), 2:234–235Mansfield, Jayne, 3:25Maori people, souls of, 1:36–37Marcel, Jesse, 3:259, 260–261, 262Marcion (Gnostic writer), 1:278Marcue, Alfonso, 1:244–245Marfa (TX) spooklights, 3:23Margaret Mary, St., 1:186Margaret of Austria (Duchess of Savoy), 2:59, 60“Margery” (medium). See Crandon, Mina

StinsonMarie Antoinette (Queen of France), 2:72Marinatos, Sypridon, 2:224Mark-Age Metacenter (Miami, FL), 1:306Marquette, Jacques, 3:97–98Marriage. See Courtship and marriage customsMars, NASA cover-up of life on, 2:27Mars Attacks! (film), 3:112Mars Face, 2:27Martin, Dean, 3:138Martin, Malachi, 1:207Martin, Rose, 2:249–250Martin, Susannah, 2:106Martinez, Juan, 2:235Marty, Martin, 1:209Martyr, Debbie, 3:63Mary, Blessed Virgin

apparitions of, 1:186–188, 188, 189, 190,2:13, 248–249

as representation of ancient goddesses,1:274–275, 2:93

weeping statues of, 1:249–252, 251, 252See also Virgin of Guadalupe

Mary Celeste mystery (1872), 2:228Mary Magdalene, St., 1:274Masonic Temple (Alexandria, VA), 2:9Masons. See FreemasonsMass suicides, of cults, 1:315, 318

See also Human sacrifice and ritual murderMasters, R. E. L., 3:78, 169Matamoros (Mexico) massacre (1989), 1:286–287Materialization of objects. See ApportsMaterialization of spirits, 1:88–89Mathematics

Bacon, Roger, on, 2:44Great Pyramid and, 2:265Pythagoras on, 2:71, 145


Cumulative Index358

Mather, Cotton, 2:105Mathers, MacGregor, 2:49, 51Mathew, Roy, 1:217Matron of honor, 3:209Matter, Ann, 1:186, 188Matthews, Louise, 3:54Mau-Mau, 2:27–30, 28Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (Asia Minor),

2:243May, Kathleen, 3:243Mayan temples, 2:253–256, 255Mayans

calendar, 2:254, 256crystal skulls, 2:191, 192Mu and, 2:247mushrooms, sacredness of, 3:152

Mayberg, Helen, 3:139Mayerling, Louis, 3:32–33Maypoles, 2:181–182, 182McBain, Janet, 3:91McBride, James, 2:240McCall, Rob, 3:68McConnell, Robert A., 3:161–162, 164McDougall, William, 3:162, 182McFadden, Johnjoe, 3:116McGarey, Gladys, 1:50McLuckie, John, 2:203McMullen, Clements, 3:264McVeigh, Timothy, 2:8Meade-Waldo, E. G. B., 3:93Meaningful precognition, 3:176Meany, George, 3:278Meath, Petronilla de, 2:100Mecca (Saudi Arabia), 2:256–258, 258, 260Mecca stone. See BloodstoneMedia influence, UFOs and, 3:281–290Medici, Catherine de, 2:159–160Medicine Wheel of the Big Horn Mountains

(WY), 2:259Meditation, 3:149–151Medium trances, 1:92–93Mediums and channelers, 1:93–133, 154, 156

See also Seances; specific mediumsMediumship, researchers of, 1:74, 84, 90, 154–173

See also specific mediumsMedjugorje (Yugoslavia) holy apparitions, 1:190Megaliths, 2:195–197, 214

See also Cursuses and leys; Easter Island;Stonehenge

Meggido (Israel), 1:192“Mehteh kangmi.” See Yeti

Melchizdek (Hebrew priest), 2:244Meldrum, Jeff, 3:62–63Melton, Gordon, 1:307Memory, 3:130–135

autoscopy and, 3:12phobias and, 3:137repression of, 3:132, 134“time compression,” 3:292

Men in Black conspiracy theory, 3:245–246,276–279

Men in Black (film), 3:277, 278, 289Menehune, 3:106–107Mensa Isaica (Pignoria), 1:279Mental illness, sleep and, 3:121Menzel, August, 3:23Menzel, Donald H., 3:255, 297, 298Mephistopheles (literary character), 2:66Merkavah, Maaseh, 2:141–142Merlin (mythical figure), 2:50, 226, 272Mermaids, 3:107“Mesheadam.” See YetiMesmer, Franz Anton, 1:136, 3:146Mesmerism. See HypnosisMessiah, 1:182Mestchegamie people, 3:98Mexico, beliefs and customs

garlic, 2:177horseshoes, 2:179Santeria, 1:286

Mezuzah, 2:170Miami people, 3:98Michael (angel), 2:42, 58Michanowsky, George, 3:248Michigan UFO sightings (1966), 3:255, 257Middle Eastern and Arab beliefs and customs

amulets, 2:169bridal veils, 3:209bride buying, 3:204bride capturing, 3:204evil eye, 3:194–195food kinship, 3:216gem superstitions, 3:195guests, courtesy to, 3:217See also Islam

“Middle folk.” See Wee folkMigraine headaches, 3:143Mikkelson, Barbara, 3:229Miles, Frank, 3:28Militi Templi Scotia, 2:24Millennium (Apocalypse), 1:184–185, 231Mind-altering drugs. See Psychedelics


359Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

Ministry of Universal Wisdom, 1:305, 3:280Minoan culture, 2:223–224Minor Arcana, 2:128–129, 132–134“Minus function,” 3:181Mirabelli, Carlos, 1:117–120, 118Miracles, 1:220–223, 234, 272Mirrors, dream symbolism, 3:130Mirrors, power of, 2:182–183

See also ScryingMissionaries, Christian, 1:283Mississippian culture, 2:231Mistletoe, 2:183, 183–184Mitchell, Edgar, 2:158, 3:265Mitchell-Hedges, Anna, 2:192–193Mitchell-Hedges, F. A., 2:192–193Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull, 2:192–193Mithraism, 1:271Mixtec people, 3:152, 153Mnesarchus (father of Pythagoras), 2:71Moai figures. See Easter IslandMokele-mbembe, 3:86“Mokey.” See Mokele-mbembeMolay, Jacques de, 1:218, 2:23, 24Mompesson, John, 3:44, 45, 46, 47Monks Mound (IL), 2:231Monogamy, 3:203Monoliths, 2:196Monongahela sea serpent, 3:96Monroe, Marilyn, 3:25Monroe, Robert, 3:13Monsieur (dog), 2:60Monsters. See Apelike monsters; Creatures of

the night; Land, sea, and air monsters;Monsters, in film; specific creatures

Monsters, in film, 3:77Montague, Robert M., 3:297Montfort, Simon de, 1:274Montolesi, Giovanni, 2:6Montvoison, Catherine, 1:296–298Montvoison, Marguerite, 1:297Monty Python and the Holy Grail (film), 2:206Moo (mythical queen), 2:247Moody, Raymond, 1:28Moon symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:166Moon (tarot), 2:132Moore, William, 3:297Moors, persecution of, 2:13–14Morgan, Augustus de, 3:167Morgan, William, 2:12Morris, Robert, 3:165Morrow, Lance, 1:256

Morrow, Virginia Tighe, 1:63See also Murphy, Bridey

Morse, Melvin, 1:29–30Morte d’Arthur (Malory), 2:205Moses (Hebrew prophet), 3:250Moss, John and Teeta, 3:43Moss, Leonard, 1:272Mother Mary. See Mary, Blessed VirginMother Shipton, 2:161, 161–162Mother Teresa, 1:205Mound builders, 1:38–40Mt. Ararat (Turkey), 2:216–219, 218Mount of Jupiter, 2:148Mount of Mercury, 2:148Mount of the Moon, 2:148Mount of Saturn, 2:148Mount of the Sun, 2:148Mount of Venus, 2:148Mount Rainier (WA) UFO sightings (1947),

3:242, 251–252, 255, 256Mt. Sipylus (Lydia), 2:224–225Mourning and remembrance, 3:227–228Movies. See Horror films and TV programs;

specific films“Mrs. Fields cookie recipe” urban legend, 3:231MS Tricouleur (ship), 3:10Mu (mythical continent). See Lemuria and Mu

(mythical continents)Mugabe, Robert, 2:101Muhammad (Muslim prophet), 1:13, 2:256–257Muldoon, Sylvan J., 3:13, 171, 172Multiple personalities, past-lives therapy and,

1:67–68Mummies and mummification, 1:18, 20,

3:222–223Munsterberg, Hugo, 2:152Murphy, Bridey, 1:62–67Murphy, Chris, 3:62Murphy, Gardner, 1:173, 3:162Murray, Margaret Alice, 2:75, 87–88Mushrooms, sacredness of, 3:152Mutual love, courtship and, 3:205–206Mwerinde, Credonia, 1:314, 315My Favorite Martian (TV program), 3:287Mycenae civilization, 2:272–273Mycerinus Pyramid (Giza, Egypt), 3:247Myers, Fredric W. H., 1:169–172, 171, 202,

3:162, 170Myrrdin (6th c. Seer), 2:50Myrtles Plantation (St. Francisville, LA), 3:42–44Mysophobia, 3:138


Cumulative Index360

Mystery religionsancient, 1:31–36contemporary, 1:49–57Egyptian, 1:257–264Greek, 1:264–269tribal, 1:282–288

Mystery religions and heresies, Christian,1:269–282

Mystical experiences, common denominators of,1:146

Mystical experiences, validity test of, 1:195Mysticism, 1:144Mystics, 1:144–154

See also specific mystics

NNader, Karim, 3:131Nag Hammadi scrolls, 1:46, 278–279Nagas (mythical serpent people), 3:249Nagogo (Nigerian chief), 2:25Nakh, 3:107Napier, John R., 3:61–62Natchez people, 2:231National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA), alleged conspiracytheories, 2:27, 3:71

National Spiritualist Association beliefs, 1:135Native American beliefs and customs

bride buying, 3:204burial mounds, 1:38–40burning possessions of the dead, 3:226cross symbolism, 2:203–204fetishes, 2:193mourning, 3:227“pukwudjinis,” 2:177shamanism, 1:76–79soul, 1:36spirit land, 1:38swastika symbolism, 2:210therianthropes, 3:83totem animals, 1:80–81, 2:198–199tribal mystery religions, 1:282–285vision quests, 1:81–82wedding gifts, 3:207wolves, significance of, 3:193See also Spirit guides; specific native people

Navajo people, beliefs and customsmourning, 3:227wedding dinners, 3:213–214

Navigation, comparison to astrology, 2:136

Nazca Lines (Peru), 2:215, 260–264, 262, 263Nazis

astrology and, 2:125Holy Vehm and, 2:16swastika and, 2:210

Neanderthal man, burial sites, 1:3, 4Near-death experiences, 1:26–31

desire for afterlife and, 1:4living ghosts and, 3:13–14physiological and psychological changes

after, 1:30scientific controversy on, 1:23See also Out-of-body experiences

Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife website, 1:24

Necromancy, 2:144–145Necrophobia, 3:138Needles, dream symbolism, 3:130Nefertiti (Queen of Egypt), 1:260Neihardt, John G., 2:190“Neiman Marcus cookie recipe” urban legend,

3:230–231Neo-druids, 2:79Neocortex, 3:123Nephesh (living soul), 1:14Nephilim, 3:250“Nessie.” See Loch Ness monster and other lake

monstersNetherlands, police use of clairvoyants, 3:166Nettles, Bonnie Lu Trousdale, 1:309–311Neumann, Therese, 1:241New Age Movement

crystal use, 2:175Kabbalah and, 2:142, 143relaxation techniques and, 3:156–157Sedona (AZ) center, 2:271UFO cults and, 1:306, 307

The New Atlantis (Bacon), 2:31New Guinea, courtesy to guests, 3:217New World Order, 2:17, 3:290New York (NY) vampire subculture, 3:82Newberg, Andrew, 1:190, 247Newton, Sir Isaac, 2:125Nicholas II (Tsar of Russia), 2:218Nicholson, Jack, 3:111–112Nicoll, Michael J., 3:93Nigerian Leopard Men, 2:24–26“Night Stalker.” See Ramirez, RichardNight visions. See DreamsNightMare, M. Macha, 2:88–89“The Nightmare” (Fuseli), 3:126


361Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

Nightmares, 3:125–127“Nightwalker of Nago” urban legend, 3:235Nimoy, Leonard, 3:112Nine, symbolism of

numerology, 2:146playing cards, 2:134, 135tarot, 2:131, 133, 134

Nirvana, 1:7Nisse, 3:107–108Nix, 3:107Nkosi, 2:194Noah’s Ark, 2:200, 216–219The Nobility of the Female Sex (Agrippa), 2:59Noble Truth of Suffering (Buddha), 1:6Nocerino, F. R.“Nick,” 2:193Noetic quality, in consciousness, 1:144Noll, Richard, 3:62Non-beneficial previsions, 3:176Non-rapid eye movement sleep. See Non-REM

sleepNon-REM sleep, 3:140Nonreflective consciousness, 3:140–141Nootka people, souls of, 3:221Norbu, Gyaltsen. See Panchen LamaNorman, Sir Montagu, 3:33Nosferatu (film), 3:80–81, 81Nostradamus (French Seer), 2:125–126, 152,

158–161, 160Nostredame, Michel de. See Nostradamus

(French Seer)Number of the Beast (666), 1:181, 183,

238–239, 290, 3:198See also The Antichrist

Number superstitions, 3:197–198Number symbolism

in playing cards, 2:134–135Pythagoras on, 2:145in tarot, 2:130–132, 133–134in tea leaf reading, 2:164See also Numerology; specific numbers

Numerology, 2:145–147Nurse, Rebecca, 2:105

O“O Bicho.” See ChupacabraOannes (mythical fish-man), 3:248–249Oberlin, John Frederick, 3:9, 11OBEs. See Out-of-body experiencesObjects of sacred power, 2:199–210

See also specific objects

O’Brien, Aline. See NightMare, M. MachaObserver memory, 3:132The Occult Philosophy (Agrippa), 2:59, 60Oceans, dream symbolism, 3:130O’Connor, John, 3:52Ogallala Sioux people, afterlife beliefs, 1:37Oh-Mah. See Bigfoot (apelike monster)Ojibway people, souls of, 1:38Olcott, Henry, 1:148“Old Jeffrey” (spirit entity), 3:38“Old Religion.” See Wicca; Witchcraft“Olga” (spirit control). See Schneider, RudiOlivier, Edith, 3:17Omega (Greek letter), 3:196The Omega Man (film), 3:111The Omen (film), 1:238–239On the Vanity of Arts and Sciences (Agrippa),

2:60One, symbolism of

numerology, 2:145, 146playing cards, 2:134, 135Pythagoras on, 2:145tarot, 2:130, 133, 134

O’Neill, John J., 2:125Oneirocritica (Artemidorous of Ephesus), 3:117Opals, 2:186, 3:195Open poles theory, 2:240, 241Open spaces, fear of. See AgoraphobiaOpening of the Mouth ritual, 1:17–18Operation Majestic-12. See Majestic-12Opus Magus (Bacon), 2:45Orang pendek, 3:63–65Order of the Illuminati. See IlluminatiOrder of the Solar Temple, 1:315, 1:318–319Origen (Alexandrian writer), 1:9, 43–44, 46Origin of the Species (Darwin), 2:247Orion constellation, 2:266Orion (mythical figure), 2:123Orisha, 1:287Orpheus (mythic figure), 1:267–268Orphic Mysteries, 1:34–35Orthon (alien being), 3:271Osburne, Sarah, 2:105Osiris cult, 1:262–264Osiris (Egyptian deity), 1:18–19, 1:19,

257–258, 261, 263, 303Osis, Karlis, 1:23–24, 25–26, 3:164Osment, Haley Joel, 3:158Osmond, Humphrey, 3:152Osty, Eugen, 1:130Oswald, Lee Harvey, 2:35


Cumulative Index362

The Others (film), 3:50The Others (TV program), 3:51Ouija boards, 1:85, 1:85–86Our Lady of Czestochowa. See Black MadonnaOur Lady of Jasna Gora. See Black MadonnaOut-of-body experiences, 3:12, 158, 170–171

See also AutoscopyOut-of-body experiences, research in,

3:170–174Out on a Limb (film), 1:96Owen, Robert Dale, 3:11

PPaganism, popularity of, 2:94Page (tarot). See Knave (tarot)Paiens, Hugues des, 2:19–20Pain relief, 3:139, 147–148Paiute Messiah. See Wilson, JackThe Palantine (ship), 3:10Palladino, Eusapia, 1:120–122, 121, 168Palm reading. See PalmistryPalmistry, 2:147–150, 148, 149Pan (Greek deity), 2:123Panatleone, St., 1:221Panchen Lama, 1:44Panic disorders, 3:137Paracelsus (German physician), 2:41, 43,

47–48, 48, 57, 3:146Paranormal photography. See Psychic

photographyThe Parapsychological Association, Inc., 1:145Parapsychologists, 3:157–158

See also Researchers of clairvoyance;Researchers of ESP (Extrasensoryperception); Researchers ofpsychokinesis; Researchers of spiritcontact; Researchers of telepathy

Parini, Giuseppi, 1:118Paris (France) holy apparitions, 1:188Parker, Alice, 2:106Parker, Walter E., Sr., 3:9Parks, Carl, 2:193Parks, Jo Ann, 2:193Parris, Betty, 2:104, 105Parris, Samuel, 2:104Parzeval (Eschenbach), 2:205, 206Pasierb, Janusz, 1:272Passivity, in consciousness, 1:145Past-life therapy, 1:67–69Past lives, 1:57–70

Patience (tarot). See Temperance (tarot)“Patience Worth” (spirit control). See Curran,

Pearl LeonorePatrick, St., 3:225Patterson, Roger, 3:61, 62Paul, St.

on afterlife, 1:8on the Antichrist, 1:180on fight against forces of evil, 1:288on glossolalia, 1:226possible stigmata of, 1:241on The Rapture, 1:231on soul, 1:8–9

Paul III, Pope, 1:219, 2:96–97, 125Paul IV, Pope, 1:219, 2:97Paul VI, Pope, 1:220, 2:97Peace symbols, 1:290Pearls, 3:195“Peep.” See Nettles, Bonnie Lu TrousdalePennsylvania State Police, hoax warnings from,

3:228, 229Pennsylvania thunderbird sightings, 3:97, 99Pentagrams, 1:290Pentecostalism, glossolalia and, 1:226People’s Temple, 1:313, 315, 319–320Peretti, Felice. See Sixtus V, PopePerkins, Thomas H., 3:94Perls, Fritz, 3:128Perntz, Anders, 3:178Persephone (mythic figure), 1:34, 268, 269Persia, dog superstitions, 3:193Persinger, Michael, 1:190, 247Peter, St., 2:69Peter of Abano, 2:144Petroglyphs, 3:97–98, 248Peuckert, Erick-Will, 3:153Peyramale, Father, 2:249Phantasms. See Apparitions“Phantom hitchhiker” urban legend,

3:234–235Phantoms, 3:2, 4, 14–18

See also Apparitions; Ghosts and ghostlybeings

Pharaohs, role in religion, 1:258Pharos of Alexandria (Egypt), 2:243The Phenomena of Astral Projection (Carrington,

Muldoon), 3:172Philadelphia Experiment (1943), 3:298–301Philbin, Regis, 3:48Philip IV (King of France), 2:22–23, 24Philippines, food kinship custom, 3:216


363Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

Philistines, 2:201Phillips, David, 3:198Phillips, Mary, 2:111Philosopher’s stone, 2:206, 208, 208

Albertus Magnus and, 2:47Cagliostro, Allesandro, and, 2:61Helvetius and, 2:45–46Rosencreutz, Christian, and, 2:30

“Phinuit” (spirit guide). See Piper, Leonora E.Phips, William, 2:105Phobias, 3:135–138, 140Photographing Fairies (film), 3:103Phrenology, 2:151Pi (number), Egyptian use of, 2:265Piasa, 3:98–99Pickrell, Jacquie E., 3:134Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, 2:70Piczek, Isabel H., 1:237Piezoelectricity, 2:173Pigs, dream symbolism, 3:130Pike, James A., Jr., 1:107Pike, James A., Sr., 1:107Pillars of Hercules, 2:221, 222Pio, Padre, 1:241, 244Piper, Leonora E., 1:122–124, 167Pisces, the Fish, 2:123, 186Pius XII, Pope, 1:186Piusa. See PiasaPizarro, Francisco, 2:234, 251PK. See PsychokinesisPlace of Serpents (Guatemala), 2:255Placebos, 3:139The Plague. See Black DeathPlanchettes, 1:86Planet of the Apes (film), 3:111Planets, association with palmistry, 2:148Plato (Greek philosopher)

on Atlantis, 2:220–221, 222, 224on dreams, 3:117on reincarnation, 1:41on soul, 1:8

Playing cards, fortune telling with, 2:134–135Pleiosaurs, 3:96Plongeon, Augustus, 2:247Plotinus (Roman philosopher), 1:41Plutarch (Greek historian), 1:265–266Podmore, Frank, 3:146Podolsky, Edward, 3:11Poe, Edgar Allen, 3:138Poitieres, Henri de, 1:237Polidori, John, 3:75

Pollack, Robert, 1:191, 247Polo, Marco, 2:217, 218Poltergeist (film), 3:2, 18, 50Poltergeists, 3:4, 18–20, 52, 158Polyandry, 3:203Polygamy, 3:202, 203Polynesian and Pacific beliefs and customs

flower giving, 3:208food kinship, 3:216infant betrothals, 3:205kissing, 3:207Menehune, 3:106–107

“Poor Soldiers of the Holy City.” See KnightsTemplar

Pope, Alexander, 3:102Pope (tarot). See Hierophant (tarot)Popes, viewed as the Antichrist, 1:181, 238Poppets, 2:190Porphyria, 3:58Poseidon (Greek deity), 2:221, 222Posnansky, Arthur, 2:278, 279Possession, 1:70, 2:55

See also Spirit controls; TrancesPossession, by demons, 1:196, 197, 198–199,

223–225See also Exorcism

The Possession of Joel Delaney (film), 1:206Pottery, 3:219“Poughkeepsie Seer.” See Davis, Andrew

JacksonThe Power (film), 3:110Power of suggestion, 1:83, 90Practica (Gui), 1:219Pragmatic consciousness, 3:141Prairie du Chien mounds (WI), 1:39Prayag (India). See Allahabad (India)Prayer, power of, 1:225, 227–230Prayer wheels, 2:207Precognition, 3:158Precognition, researchers of, 3:174–178Prelati, Antonio Francisco, 1:299Premonition. See Precognition“Present moment,” 3:175Presleep experiences, 3:122Prestidigitation. See Magic (sleight-of-hand)Preston, Kelly, 1:320Price, Harry, 1:130–131, 3:24, 26, 30, 31–32Primordial Man, in Manichaeism, 1:280Prince, Walter Franklin, 1:166Prince of Darkness, in Manichaeism, 1:280


Cumulative Index364

The Principles of Nature: Her Divine Revelationsand a Voice to Mankind (Davis), 1:136

Pringle, Lucy, 3:296Pringsheim, Peter, 2:174Procedural memory, 3:132Proctor, John, 2:105“Proctor & Gamble sponsors Satanism” urban

legend, 3:235–236Project Blue Book, 3:255–258Project Grudge, 3:256Project Mogul, 3:264, 291Project Sign, 3:256The Propheceyes of Mother Shipton…Foretelling

the Death of Cardinall Wolsey, the Lord of Percy,and others, As Also What Should Happen inInsuing Times (Anonymous), 2:161–162

Prophets and diviners, 2:150, 152–162Protestantism

exorcism, 1:179hell, 1:10Holy Office and, 1:219Reformation and witch hunts, 2:99–100,

103See also specific sects

Psamtik III (King of Egypt), 3:190Psychagogues, 2:150Psychedelics, 3:151–156, 169Psychic crime solving. See Law enforcement and

psychic crime solving“Psychic ether” theory, 3:24, 26Psychic photography, 1:88, 3:49Psychical research. See Public opinion and

research statistics; specific institutions; specificphenomena; specific researchers

Psychical Research Bureau (U.K.), 2:125“Psychoanalysis and Telepathy” (Freud), 3:179Psychokinesis, 3:18, 158Psychokinesis, researchers of, 3:178–179Psychology of alleged vampires, 3:82Puberty, poltergeists and, 3:18–19Public opinion and research statistics

angels, belief in, 1:212apparitions of holy figures, 1:190deathbed apparitions, 1:24–25demon possession, belief in, 1:197, 209, 223ESP, belief in, 3:159, 161faith healing or power of prayer, belief in,

1:209, 211, 230film monster favorites, 3:77flying, fear of, 3:136ghosts, belief in, 3:2, 3, 20

God, belief in, 1:210haunted houses, belief in, 3:24insomnia complaints, 3:121life after death, belief in, 1:23memory storage, 3:130miracles, belief in, 1:220near-death experiences, 1:26–27, 28–29past life memories, 1:46pets in heaven, belief in, 3:7phobia sufferers, 3:137prayer, practicing of, 1:225, 228religious phenomena, belief in, 1:178Society for Psychical Research census

(1882), 1:172, 3:5UFO cover-up conspiracies, belief in, 3:281,

290UFOs and alien visitation, belief in, 3:245,

290, 292U.S. government, public trust in, 3:289visions and religious experiences, 1:246–247Wicca practitioners, 2:72–73witch executions, 2:97

Public speaking, fear of. See GlossophobiaPudeator, Ann, 2:105Pueblo people, 2:275–277“Pukwudjinis,” 2:177Puma Punka temple (Tiahuanaco, Bolivia),

2:278Punna (Insight), 3:149–150Purgatory, 1:10Pursel, Jach, 1:125–126Pursel, Peny, 1:125–126Puthoff, Harold, 3:164Putnam, Ann, 2:104–105Pyle, Robert, 3:59Pymander (angelic being), 2:58Pyramid of Khafre (Giza, Egypt), 3:247Pyramid of Khufu. See Great Pyramid (Giza,

Egypt)Pyramid Texts, 1:16, 20–22, 258Pyramids

Chepren Pyramid (Giza, Egypt), 1:22Hongshan Pyramid (Mongolia), 1:21Mayan structures, 2:255Mycerinus Pyramid (Giza, Egypt), 3:247Pyramid of Khafre (Giza, Egypt), 3:247similarities among cultures, 2:220See also Great Pyramid (Giza, Egypt)

Pyroelectricity, 2:173Pythagoras (Greek philosopher), 1:35–36, 258,

2:70–71, 145


365Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

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I

ND

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Pythias. See Delphic OraclesPythonesses. See Delphic Oracles

Q

Quaid, Dennis, 3:89Quarter moon and star, as Satanic symbols,

1:290Quartrozieme custom, 3:198Queen (playing cards), 2:134, 135Queen (tarot), 2:133, 134Quetzalcoatl (mythical being), 3:249Quigley, Joan, 2:126Qur’an

blessing meals, 3:220creation of Adam, 1:12miracle accounts, 1:220warning against Satanism, 1:288

R

Rabbit’s foot, 2:169, 3:198–199Radar Magazine, 3:67Radiocarbon dating, 2:270–271

Bimini Road, 2:223Carnac (France) megaliths, 2:196Easter Island statues, 2:237Nazca Lines, 2:261Shroud of Turin, 1:235Stonehenge, 2:274Tiahuanaco, 2:279

Radioesthesia. See Dowsing“Rael.” See Vorilhon, ClaudeRaelians, 1:311–313Raemond, Florin de, 1:295Raiders of the Lost Ark (film), 2:203Rais, Gilles de, 1:298–299Raleigh, Sir Walter, 2:234, 235Ramey, Roger, 3:261, 264Ramirez, Richard, 1:289Ramphorhyneus, 3:99Ramses II (Pharaoh of Egypt), 2:246“Ramtha” (spirit guide). See Knight, J. Z.Randi, James, 1:105Randle, Kevin, 3:259–260, 261–262, 263Randles, Derek, 3:62Rapa Nui. See Easter IslandRaphael (angel), 2:42, 58Rapid eye movement sleep. See REM sleepThe Rapture, 1:231–232

Rapturous consciousness, 3:141The Raven (film), 3:111–112Rawicz, Slavomir, 3:67Raymond, John, 1:293Reading, June, 3:48Reagan, Nancy, 2:126, 3:110Reagan, Ronald, 1:181, 2:126Real Magic (Bonewits), 2:78Reclaiming Collective, 2:88Recollective-analytic level of expanded

consciousness, 3:141–142Red (color), symbolism of, 3:227Red Heifer legend, 2:143Red Planet Mars (film), 3:110Redd, Wilmot, 2:106Reed, William, 2:241Reeser, Mary H., 3:54–55Reeves, George, 3:25Reflective consciousness, 3:141Regardie, Israel, 2:76Regino of Prum, 2:41Regla de Ocha (The Rule of the Orisha). See

SanteriaRegression therapy. See Past-life therapyRegusters, Herman and Kia, 3:86Reiche, Maria, 2:261–262Reincarnation

hypotheses, 1:70Orphic concept of, 1:268tarot and, 2:128–129Wiccan view of, 2:74

Reincarnation, in major religions, 1:41–44,46–49

Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to theEtiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects(Stevenson), 1:69

Relatives, dream symbolism, 3:130Relatives, marriage between, 3:201–202Relaxation, 3:156–157The Relaxation Response (Benson), 3:151Relaxed consciousness, 3:141Religious ecstasy. See EcstasyREM sleep, 3:120, 122

deprivation of, 3:121as nonreflective consciousness, 3:141out-of-body experience and, 3:173sleep paralysis and, 3:127

Remembrance, of the dead. See Mourning andremembrance

Remote viewing. See ClairvoyanceRenier, Noreen, 1:155


Cumulative Index366

“Reptiles in imported carpets” urban legend,3:229–230

Research, out-of-body experiences, 3:170–174Research statistics. See Public opinion and

research statisticsResearchers of clairvoyance, 3:166–170Researchers of ESP (Extrasensory perception),

3:161–184Researchers of precognition, 3:174–178Researchers of psychokinesis, 3:178–179Researchers of spirit contact, 1:74, 84, 90,

154–173Researchers of telepathy, 3:179–184Restoration of the Ten Commandments cult,

1:314The Resurrection. See Jesus Christ, Resurrection

of“Resurrection Mary” urban legend, 3:235Retrocognition, reincarnation and, 1:70Revelation, Book of, 1:183Revenge of the Creature (film), 3:110Revere, Paul, 2:11Reverse engineering at Area 51 (NV), 3:293Rex (dog), 3:6Reyna, V. F., 3:135Reynolds, Jeremiah, 2:240Rhine, J. B., 1:84, 3:161, 162–164, 178, 179Rhine, Louisa, 3:161, 162–163, 164Rhine Research Center (Durham, NC), 3:165Rice, Anne, 3:82Rice throwing, at weddings, 3:214Ricke, Herbert, 2:269–270Rickert, Lewis, 3:261Ricketts, Mary, 3:40–41, 42Ricketts, William Henry, 3:40Rig-Veda (Sanskrit hymn collection), 1:11Right-hand path. See White magickRines, Bob, 3:92Ring, Kenneth, 1:28–29Ring symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:166Rings (jewelry), 2:184, 3:213Rips, Eliyahu, 1:242Ritual murder. See Human sacrifice and ritual

murderRivers, Olivia, 3:180Roanoke Island (NC) mystery (1587), 2:269Robert the Bruce (King of Scotland), 2:24Roberts, Jane, 1:94, 126–129Roberts, Kenneth, 2:136Robinson, Edwin, 1:192Robinson, John A. T., 1:237

Robinson, Yankee Jim, 3:48The Rock (film), 3:289Roden, Benjamin, 1:315Roden, Lois, 1:315Rogers, Ray, 1:233Roggeveen, Jacob, 2:236Role-playing, vampire subculture and, 3:82Roll, W. G., 1:215Rolling Thunder (Native American shaman),

1:75Roman Catholicism

Blessed Virgin depictions, 1:273–274exorcism, 1:179, 207Freemasons, condemnation of, 2:11hell, 1:10miracle authentication, 1:222stigmata authentication, 1:241, 243torture sanctioning, 1:218voodoo, condemnation of, 2:54–55See also Inquisition

Roman Empire, beliefs and customsdays of the week superstitions, 3:191dinner tables, 3:217divination, 2:118, 150drinking toasts, 3:220eating utensils, 3:218, 219garlic, 2:177gem superstitions, 3:195guests, courtesy to, 3:217hand washing and bathing, 3:219horseshoe superstitions, 3:196hospitality, 3:215kissing, 3:207mirror superstitions, 2:183mourning, 3:227Roman Army, religion of, 1:271salt, 2:184, 185silver, 2:185sneezing superstitions, 3:199state religion, 2:40sweetmeats for newlyweds, 3:214wedding dinners, 3:213white, symbolism of, 3:208

Roman Inquisition. See Holy OfficeRoman Nose (Native American warrior), 1:77Romania, hope chest custom, 3:206Romania, regulation of witches (21st c.), 2:101Roosevelt, Franklin D., 1:181, 2:155, 3:198Roosevelt Hotel (Hollywood, CA), 3:25Rooty Hill (Australia), weeping statue of, 1:251Rose, Zia, 2:75


367Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

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ND

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Rosemary’s Baby (film), 1:238Rosenberg, Yoav, 1:242Rosencreutz, Christian, 2:30–31Rosenstock, Harvey, 3:85Roshi, Shodo Harada, 1:214Rosicrucians, 2:2, 4, 30–32, 43Roswell (NM) UFO crash (1947), 3:242, 252,

260–265, 297See also Area 51 (NV); Hangar 18, Wright-

Patterson Air Force Base (Dayton, OH)The Roswell Report—Case Closed (USAF),

3:264, 291–292Roulet, Jacques, 3:84Rowe, Frankie, 3:262–263Rowland, Dan, 3:65–66Royal Air Force gremlin tales, 3:104–105Rubies, 2:186Ruck family, 2:28–29The Rule of the Orisha (Regla de Ocha). See

SanteriaRunes, 2:197Russell, Gerald, 3:67Russell, John, 3:98Russia, beliefs and customs

engagement announcements, 3:208wedding dinners, 3:214

Russia Will be Converted (Haffert), 1:186Ryan, Leo, 1:319Ryerson, Kevin, 1:96, 97Ryzl, Milan, 3:167–168, 169

SSabbah, Hasan ibn, 2:4, 5Sabbat Dance. See Witches’ RoundSabbats, 1:290, 293–294, 2:97–99

See also Black MassSachiel (angel), 2:42Sacred Abbey of Thelema (Sicily), 2:62Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the

Faith (Rome), 1:222Sacred Dying Foundation, 2:89The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2:49–50Sacred objects, power of, 2:199–210

See also specific objectsSacsahuaman (Peru), 2:274, 275Saducismus Triumphaus (Glanvil), 3:47Sagan, Carl, 3:246Sagittarius, the Archer, 2:123, 186Saint-Germain, Count, 2:71–72St. Germain de Pres Church (Paris), 1:274

St. Katherine’s Church (Nuremberg, Germany),2:209

St. Mary’s Church holy apparitions (Zeitoun,Egypt), 1:187, 190

St. Vincent, John Jervis, Earl of, 3:40, 41Saints, liquefied blood of, 1:221Saints, symbols of, 2:95Salem (MA) witchcraft trials (1692), 2:100,

103–106Salinas, José Carlos, 1:245Salt, 2:168, 184–185, 185Saltmarsh, H. F., 3:174, 175Samadhi (Concentration), 3:149Samuel (angel), 2:42Samuel (Hebrew prophet), 1:131–132Sanderson, Ivan T., 3:19, 60Sands, George X., 2:227Santa Lucia feast, 2:172Santeria, 1:286–288Sapphires, 2:186, 3:195Saracens, 2:19Sardonyx, 2:186Saskehavis. See Bigfoot (apelike monster)Sasquatch. See Bigfoot (apelike monster)Satan

Apocalypse and, 1:183, 185as black magick deity, 2:51–52Cathars’ view of, 1:277Satanists’ view of, 1:290, 291

Satanas (pagan deity), 2:51–52The Satanic Bible (LaVey), 1:300–301Satanic cults, 1:288–291The Satanic Rituals (LaVey), 1:302Satanism, in the Middle Ages, 1:291–299Satanism, modern

Christianity, view of, 1:301Church of Satan, 1:299–303Proctor & Gamble sponsorship urban

legend, 3:235–236witchcraft, confusion with, 2:74

Satan’s Satellites (film), 3:112Sathan (spirit entity), 1:290Saul (King of Israel), 1:131–133, 2:150Saunders, David, 3:259Saxon witchcraft. See Seax-WicaScandinavia, beliefs and customs

adultery, 3:202elves, 3:100, 101fairy tales, 2:176maypoles, 2:181nisse, 3:107–108


Cumulative Index368

number superstitions, 3:197runes, 2:197trolls, 3:109Viking funerals, 3:226wedding dinners, 3:214

Scarabs, 2:169Schacter, Daniel, 3:130, 131Schismatic Druids of North America, 2:78Schlater, Phillip L., 2:247–248Schliemann, Heinrich, 2:210Schmeidler, Gertrude R., 3:164Schmitt, Don, 3:259, 261–262, 263Schneider, Rudi, 1:129–131, 130Schneider, Willy, 1:129Schoch, Robert M., 2:270School of Wicca (U.S.), 2:82Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1:156Schrek, Max, 3:80–81, 81Schrenck-Notzing, Albert von, 1:89, 129, 130Schwartz, Gary, 1:84, 155Schweitzer, John Frederick. See Helvetius

(Dutch alchemist)Schwerner, Michael, 3:166Science, religious phenomena and, 1:190–191Science, spirituality and, 1:22–23Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs, 3:256Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects

(Condon). See Condon/University ofColorado Report (1969)

Scientology, 1:315, 320–321The Scoriton Mystery (Buckle), 1:306, 3:272Scorpio, the Scorpion, 2:123, 186Scotland, beliefs and customs

ceasg, 3:107elves, 3:100–101fairies and fairy tales, 2:176–177, 3:101

Scotland, witchcraft trials, 2:106Scotophobia, 3:138, 140Scott, Margaret, 2:106Scott, Sir Walter, 3:102Scottish Knights Templar. See Militi Templi

ScotiaScrying, 2:162, 162–164, 163“Scuba diver in tree” urban legend, 3:236Sea monsters. See Sea serpentsSea serpents, 3:93–97, 3:94Seabury, Captain, 3:96Seances, 1:85, 86–90

See also Mediums and channelersSearch for Grace (film), 1:61Seax-Wica, 2:81

Second Coming, 1:9–10, 182–183, 184–185See also Apocalypse; Armageddon; Final

JudgmentThe Secret Doctrine (Blavatsky), 1:57Secret societies. See Conspiracy theories; specific

societiesSects, 1:270, 272Sedona (AZ), 2:271“Seelie court.” See ElvesSelf, 3:119Self-consciousness. See Reflective consciousnessSeligmann, Kurt, 1:292–293, 2:96Selkies, 3:109Semantic memory, 3:132Semjaza (angel), 2:52Sensory level of expanded consciousness, 3:141“Sensory translation” hypothesis, 1:216September 11 terrorist attacks (2001, U.S.)

hoaxes resulting from, 3:228, 229rise in nightmares since, 3:126

Serbia, wedding dinners, 3:214Serial killers, interest in Satanism, 1:289“Serialism,” 3:176–177Sermo generalis. See Auto-da-feServant (tarot). See Knave (tarot)Set (Egyptian deity), 1:303“Seth” (spirit guide). See Roberts, JaneSeven, symbolism of

luckiness of, 3:198numerology, 2:146playing cards, 2:134, 135tarot, 2:130, 133, 134

Seven Angels, 2:42, 57–58Seven Devas. See Seven Angels“Seven-knot-love-garter,” 2:180–181Seven Seals, 1:183“Seven Secrets for Successful Prayer”

(Sherman), 1:230Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, 2:243Seventeen, tarot symbolism of, 2:132Sexual abuse, memory and, 3:134, 135Sexual intercourse

incubi and, 3:76, 78, 143Inquisition and erotomania, 3:76, 78medieval Church view of, 1:291–292ritual intercourse, Crowley, Aleister, and,

2:62succubi and, 3:76, 79–80, 143witchhunters’ fixation on, 2:110–111

Shadow Ceremony. See Ghost CeremonyShadow of the Vampire (film), 3:81


369Cumulative Index

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MU

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Shafe, Glenn, 3:131Shakespeare, William, 3:102Shaking hands, 3:201Shamanism, 1:74, 76–82, 286, 2:190Shandera, Jamie, 3:297Shapeshifting

Nakh, 3:107Nix, 3:107selkies, 3:109werewolves, 3:83

Shapur I (Emperor of Persia), 1:282Shaw, George Bernard, 3:33SHC. See Spontaneous Human CombustionSheldon, Susanna, 2:104, 105Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, 3:75Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 3:75Sheol, 1:14Shepherds Rod, Branch Seventh-Day

Adventist. See Branch DavidiansSherman, Harold, 1:230, 230, 3:162Shermer, Michael, 3:59, 161Shevrin, Howard, 3:124The Shining (film), 3:112Ship disappearances, Bermuda Triangle, 2:228Shipton, Eric E., 3:66, 67Shipton, Mother. See Mother ShiptonShriners, 2:12Shroud of Turin, 1:232–238, 233, 236, 2:200Shroud of Turin Research Project, 1:233–234“Sidhe.” See FairiesSiegel, Alan, 3:126Siegel, Jerome, 3:131Sierra Leone, Leopard Men activity, 2:24–25Signs (film), 3:296Sikhs, cremation, 3:226Sila (Purification), 3:149“Silent contactees,” 3:268Silver, 2:185Silver Cliff (CO) spooklights, 3:22–23Silver cord (Soul Body connection), 1:27–28,

3:13, 171Silverman, Helaine, 2:262Simmons, Ruth. See Murphy, BrideySimon, Benjamin, 3:275Simon, Carly, 3:138Simon Magus (early Gnostic), 1:278, 2:69–70Simony, 2:69Simos, Miriam. See Starhawk (Wiccan leader)Sinclair, Mrs. Upton, 3:181–182Sinetar, Marsha, 1:195Sirens (Garduna), 2:14

Sitting Bull (Sioux holy man), 1:285“Sitting” shiva, 3:228Sitwell, Sacheverell, 3:19Six, symbolism of


The Six Books of the Republic (Bodin), 2:110666 (Number of the Beast), 1:181, 183,

238–239, 290, 3:198See also The Antichrist

Sixteen, tarot symbolism of, 2:132“Sixth Sense.” See Extrasensory perception

(ESP)The Sixth Sense (film), 3:50, 158Sixtus V, Pope, 2:159Skull candles, 2:172Skulls, crystal, 2:191–193Skunk Ape, 3:65–66Slaughter Stone (England), 2:273Slave adoption of Christianity, 1:282–283,

285–286, 2:52, 54Sleeman, William, 2:33Sleep disorders, 3:121Sleep paralysis, 3:127“Sleeping on a problem.” See Creative and lucid

dreaming“The Sleepless Ones.” See Watchers (angels)Sleepwalking, 3:125Slick, Tom, 3:67Smith, Benjamin, 1:59Smith, G. E., 3:29, 30Smith, Huston, 1:178, 248Smith, Marie Sweet, 1:160Smith, Will, 3:277Smyth, Charles Piazzi, 2:265Smythe, Frank, 3:66Snake handling, 1:239–241, 240Snake symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:166Snakes, mistaken for dragons, 3:88“Snakes in imported carpets” urban legend,

3:229–230“Snakes in the toilet” urban legend, 3:236–237Sneezing superstitions, 3:199Snowden, Wendy, 1:83Soal, S. G., 3:181Social phobias, 3:137Society for Psychical Research (SPR), 1:157,

172–173Society of Novus Spiritus, 1:97–98


Cumulative Index370

Socorro (NM) UFO sighting (1964),3:265–266

Socrates (Greek philosopher), 1:90Soldaro, Antonio Aldo, 1:29Solomon’s seal, 2:144Solon (Greek politician), 2:221Sontheil, Ursula. See Mother ShiptonSoubrious, Bernadette, 1:188, 189, 209–210,

2:248Souers, Sidney W., 3:297–298Soul Body, 1:27–28, 3:171Soul journeys, 1:76Souls

of animals, 3:7in Buddhism, 1:4–5in Christianity, 1:4, 5in Hinduism, 1:4, 11–12immortality of, in traditional religions, 1:2in Islam, 1:4, 5, 13in Judaism, 1:4, 5, 14, 48Origen on, 1:9Orphic concept, 1:35, 268Paul, St. on, 1:8–9Pythagoras on, 1:35Taoist concept, 1:42tribal concepts, 1:36–37, 40, 3:221–222See also Ba and ka; Reincarnation

Source amnesia, 3:131–132Soviet Union, end of communism, 1:186, 2:153,

160Space visitors, in Holy Scripture, 3:249–251Spades (playing cards), 2:135Spain, Garduna activity, 2:13–15Spain, witchcraft trials, 2:106–108

See also Spanish InquisitionSpanish Inquisition, 1:219, 2:13–14, 106–107Spanos, Nicholas, 3:148Speaking in tongues. See GlossolaliaSpear of Destiny, 2:200, 209, 209–210Spear of Longinus. See Spear of DestinySpecial Report Number 14 (1954), 3:256“Specious present,” 3:175The Sphinx (Giza, Egypt), 2:150, 268, 268–272Sphinx (mythological creature), 2:269Spiders, fear of. See Arachnophobia“Spiders in the hairdo” urban legend,

3:237–238Spielberg, Steven, 3:281, 282–283Spilsbury, Bernard, 3:33The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient

Religion of the Great Goddess (Starhawk), 2:89

Spirit cabinets, 1:88Spirit contact, researchers of, 1:74, 84, 90,

1:154–173Spirit controls, 1:90–92

See also Spirit guides; TotemsSpirit guides, 1:79–80, 90–92, 94

guardian angels as, 1:212as intermediaries, 1:159tribal empowerment and, 2:190See also Spirit controls; Totems

Spirit land, 1:38Spirit mediumship, 1:82–93Spirit photography. See Psychic photographySpiritism, 1:143, 144

See also Macumba; SpiritualismThe Spirits’ Book (Le Livre des Esprits) (Kardec),

1:143Spiritual expression, 20th century, 1:313–321Spiritualism, 1:133–134, 133–144

See also SpiritismSpitting superstitions, 3:199–200Spontaneous human combustion (SHC),

3:52–55, 298, 299Spooklights, 3:22–24“Spooksville,” 3:23Spoons, 3:218SPR. See Society for Psychical ResearchSprenger, Jakob, 1:199–200, 219, 2:108Sprinkle, R. Leo, 3:269, 270Spunkies, 3:104Spying, psychics used in, 1:155Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales,

3:146–147Star and quarter moon, as Satanic symbols,

1:290“Star Gospel” (Katter), 2:124Star of Bethlehem, explanation for, 3:249Star Trek: The Motion Picture (film), 3:253Starhawk (Wiccan leader), 2:89–90Starkey, Marion L., 2:104Stars (tarot), 2:132Stawell, Lord and Lady, 3:42Steiner, Rudolf, 1:149–152, 150

as Anthroposophy founder, 1:51–53on cosmic consciousness, 1:194critics of, 1:148on reincarnation, 1:50

Steller’s sea eagles, 3:99Stepanek, Pavel, 3:167–168Sterne, John, 2:111Stevenson, Ian, 1:69–70


371Cumulative Index

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Steward, Patrick, 3:21Stigmata, 1:241, 243–244Stigmata (film), 1:239Stockholm (Sweden) fire (1759), 1:152–153“Stone-dropping,” 3:19Stonehenge Decoded (Hawkins), 2:273–274Stonehenge (England), 2:79, 232–233,

272–275Stones, 2:185–187

See also Gem superstitions; MegalithsStored memories, 3:140Stregeria, 2:93Strict Observance (Masonic group), 2:18Strieber, Whitley, 3:270–271, 279, 279–280,

283–284Stromberg, Gustaf, 2:125Stuart, John H., 3:277Stubbe, Peter, 3:84Stukeley, William, 2:232, 273Stupor, 3:140Sturridge, Charles, 3:103Subconscience, precognition and, 3:175Succubi, 3:76, 79–80, 143Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death

Syndrome (SUNDS), 3:233Sufism, reincarnation and, 1:42, 47–48Suggestion, power of, 1:83, 90Suitcases, dream symbolism, 3:130Sumatra, food kinship custom, 3:216“Sumatran Yeti.” See Orang pendekSumerians

amulets, 2:169astronomers, accuracy of, 3:249cultural evolution, 3:248

Summers, Montague, 3:78Summis Desiderantes Affectibus (Innocent VIII),

2:103, 108Sun, dream symbolism, 3:130Sun Lord Pacal (Mayan figure), 2:253–254Sun (tarot), 2:132SUNDS. See Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal

Death SyndromeThe Superiority of Women (Agrippa), 2:59Superstitions, 3:189–200Supreme Military Order of Temple of Jerusalem

of England, Wales, and Scotland, 2:24Sutherland, Donald, 3:112Sutphen, Richard, 1:59–61Sutton, Billy Ray, 3:243–244Suzuki, D. T., 1:215Swastikas, 2:210

Swastikas, inverted, 1:290Sweden, mistletoe custom, 2:183Sweden, UFO sightings (1946), 3:252Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1:136, 148, 152–154,

153Swift, Jane, 2:106“Swimming” a witch, 2:112Switzerland, werewolf burnings, 3:83–84Switzerland, witch hunts, 2:99Swords (tarot), 2:133–134Swordsmen (Garduna), 2:14Sykes, Brian, 3:64, 68Sylvester, Pope, 1:186Symbolic level of expanded consciousness,

3:142Symbols and symbolism

astrology, 2:121–123, 124black (color), 1:40dreams, 3:128–130horns (head), 2:92, 94Luther, Martin, 2:31saints, 2:95Satanism, 1:290, 301tea leaf reading, 2:165–166See also Amulets; Animal symbolism;

Number symbolismSymmes, John Cleves, 2:240–241

TTable manners, 3:215–216Taboos. See Customs and taboos; specific

countries and culturesTahiti, food kinship, 3:216Talavera, Jorge Luis, 3:71Talismans, 2:168, 194, 197–198, 3:188

See also Amulets; Fetishes; Good luckcharms

Tamblyn, Russ, 3:14Tanganyika, lion men activity, 2:26Tanner, John, 1:283Tantalis (King of Lydia), 2:224–225Tao Teh Ching (Taoist work), 3:150Taoism

burials and funerals, 3:223hospitality and charity, 3:215meditation, 3:150mourning, 3:228soul, 1:42

Taos Pueblo (NM), 2:275–279, 276Tarantula (film), 3:110


Cumulative Index372

Targ, Russell, 3:164Tarot. See Cartomancy and tarotTart, Charles T., 3:121, 122, 164–165, 172–173Tasseography. See Tea leaf readingTatsl, Igor, 3:67Taurus, the Bull, 2:121, 186Taylor, Dan, 3:90, 92Taylor, G. Rattray, 1:291Taylor, John, 2:265Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich, 3:142Te Pito O Te Henua. See Easter IslandTea leaf reading, 2:164–166, 165Tedworth Drummer (Tedworth, England),

3:44–47, 45Teed, Cyrus Read, 2:242Teenagers’ interest in the occult, 1:289Teeth, dream symbolism, 3:130Telekinesis. See PsychokinesisTelepathy, 3:24, 25, 158, 160Telepathy, researchers of, 3:179–184Teleportation, 1:119

See also Philadelphia Experiment (1943)Television programs. See Horror films and TV

programsTemperament, 2:120–121Temperance (tarot), 2:131Temple of Artemis (Ephesus), 2:243Temple of Inscriptons (Mexico), 2:253Temple of Karnak (Egypt), 2:246Temple of Set, 1:303–304Temple of Solomon (Jerusalem), 2:10, 202–203,

210Ten, symbolism of

playing cards, 2:134, 135tarot, 2:133, 134

Teresa, Mother. See Mother TeresaTeresa of Avila, St., 1:190, 203Terhune, Albert Payson, 3:6The Terror (film), 3:112Teudt, Wilhelm, 2:257Them! (film), 3:110Theosophical Society, 1:52, 55–56, 148, 275Theosophy, 1:55–57, 148Thera volcano, 2:224Therianthropes, 3:58, 69, 83The Thing (film), 3:110The Thing from Another World (film), 3:281Thinnes, Roy, 3:289Thirteen, symbolism of

tarot, 2:131unluckiness of, 3:197–198

Thirteenth School, 2:248Thixotropy, 1:221Thomas, Andy, 3:296Thomas Aquinas, St., 2:47Thornton, Billy Bob, 3:136Thoth-Hermes. See Hermes-Toth (Greek deity)Three, symbolism of

numerology, 2:146playing cards, 2:134–135tarot, 2:130, 133, 134

The Thuggee, 2:2, 32–34Thunderbirds, 3:97–99Thurston, Gavin, 3:53Thurston, Herbert, 1:237“Ti.” See Nettles, Bonnie Lu TrousdaleTiahuanaco (Bolivia), 2:277–279Tibetan prayer wheels. See Prayer wheelsTighe, Virginia. See Morrow, Virginia TigheTikal (Guatemala), 2:253, 255, 256Timaeus (Plato), 2:221“Time compression,” 3:292Timor, flower giving, 3:208Titharaja (King of the Holy Cities). See

Allahabad (India)Tituba (17th c. slave), 2:104, 105“Tkys-katsi.” See YetiToasting with drinks, 3:220–221Tolstoy, Leo, 1:112–113Tongs, 2:2, 34, 36–37Tonsmann, José Aste, 1:245–246Topaz, 2:186Topper (film), 3:49Topper (TV program), 3:51Topsell, Edward, 3:88Torquemada, Tomas de, 1:219, 2:107Torture

in England, 2:100–101of Knights Templar, 2:22sanctioning by Roman Catholic Church,

1:218in Scotland, 2:106of witches, 1:199–200, 2:96

Total Overcomers. See Heaven’s Gate cultTotem animals, 1:80–81Totem poles, 2:199Totems, 1:39, 2:198–199

See also Spirit controls; Spirit guidesTower of Destruction (tarot), 2:132Toyanbee, Arnold, 1:156Trances, 1:92–93

consciousness and, 3:141


373Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

Extrasensory Perception and, 3:160of Macumba shamen, 1:286during possession, 1:224during UFO contact, 3:268

Transiency, in consciousness, 1:145Transmigration of souls. See Reincarnation, in

major religionsTravolta, John, 1:320Tree coffins, 3:222Trees, 2:187–188, 3:196Trembles, Mary, 2:101Trenchers, 3:219Triad Tong, 2:34, 36, 37Tribal empowerment, 2:190–199Trivial precognition, 3:176Trolls, 3:109True Church of God. See CatharsTrumpet seances, 1:87–88Tsien, Joe, 3:131Tucker, D. Gordon, 3:92Turck, Sven, 3:178Turkey, alleged Noah’s Ark sightings, 2:219Turkey, horseshoe custom, 2:179Turquoise, 2:186–187Twelve, symbolism of

Pythagoras on, 2:145significance of, 3:198tarot, 2:131

Twenty-two, symbolism of, 2:147“Twilight” communication, 1:89Twining, Nathan, 3:253, 256, 297Twins, telepathic ability of, 3:180Twitchell, Paul, 1:51, 316–317, 317Two, symbolism of

numerology, 2:146playing cards, 2:135Pythagoras on, 2:145tarot, 2:130, 133, 134

Tyrrell, G. N. M., 3:160

UUbasti (Egyptian deity). See Bast (Egyptian

deity)UFO contactees and abductees, 3:245,

3:266–280UFO cults, 1:304–313UFO Enigma Museum (Roswell, NM), 3:291UFOs

in ancient times, 3:246–251in film and TV, 3:281–290

in modern times, 3:251–266recent mysteries, 3:290–301

Ullman, Montague, 3:124, 160, 164Uluru monolith (Australia), 2:196Umbanda. See MacumbaUmberto II (King of Portugal), 1:234Umm al-Qura. See Mecca (Saudi Arabia)Underhill, Evelyn, 1:202Underhill, Leah Fox. See Fox sistersUnderstanding Incorporated, 1:305, 3:273Unidentified flying objects. See UFOsThe Uninvited (film), 3:49United States, beliefs and customs

engagement announcements, 3:208horseshoes, 2:178multiculturalism and, 3:202Santeria, 1:287vampire subculture, 3:81–82

United States, Freemason activity, 2:9–12The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin (Houdini),

1:165“Unseelie court.” See ElvesUpanishads (Hindu text), 1:42, 3:150Urban legends and beliefs, 3:228–238

See also HoaxesU.S. Air Force, UFOs and. See UFOs, in

modern timesU.S. Air Force gremlin tales, 3:105U.S. Navy Flight 19 disappearance (1945),

2:228USS Cyclops disappearance (1918), 2:228USS Eldridge. See Philadelphia Experiment

(1943)“Uvani” (spirit control). See Garrett, EileenUxmal (Mexico), 2:254, 255

VValentino, Rudolph, 3:25Valentinus (Gnostic teacher), 1:278Valhalla sea monster, 3:93–94Valiente, Doreen, 2:90–91“Vampire Chronicles” books (Rice), 3:82Vampires, 3:80–83Van Dusen, Wilson, 1:198, 224Van Praagh, James, 1:124–125Van Tassel, George, 1:305, 3:280Vandenberg, Hoyt S., 3:298Vanished civilizations, 2:214–215Varieties of Anomalous Experiences (Cardena, et

al), 1:216–217


Cumulative Index374

Vasiliev, Leonid L., 3:162, 182–183Vegetarianism, Manichaeans and, 1:282Vela X supernova, 3:248Verity, L. S., 3:12–13La Vie Execrable de Guillemette Babin (Carron),

3:192Vigenere, Blaise, 2:43Viking funerals, 3:226Vincent, Kenneth, 3:85Violence, of poltergeists, 3:19Virgin of Guadalupe, 1:244–246, 245Virgins, as brides of Christ, 1:292Virgo, the Virgin, 2:122, 186Vishnu (Hindu deity), 1:11Vision quests, 1:81–82Visions, 1:246–249

See also Deathbed visionsVivien (fairy queen), 2:226Vodun. See VoodooVogel, Marcel, 2:174Vogel Luminescence, 2:174“La Voisin.” See Montvoison, CatherineVolsungr (Norse deities), 2:197Von Fram, M. L., 3:119Von Knigge, Baron Adolf Francis, 2:18Von Nettesheim, Henry Cornelius Agrippa. See

Agrippa (German philosopher)Von Spee, Friedrich, 2:96Von Tilburg, Jo Ann, 2:127Voodoo, 2:52, 54–56

fetishes, 2:194gris-gris, 2:198religious articles, 2:54See also Laveau, Marie

“Voodoo death,” 2:56Voodoo dolls, 2:188, 188–190, 189, 194Vorilhon, Claude, 1:311, 312Vu Quang oxen, 3:86

WWaco (TX) standoff (1993). See Branch

Davidians“Wailing Wall” (Jerusalem), 2:242, 245Wakes, 3:225Walcott, Mary, 2:104, 105Wales, beliefs and customs

bride capturing, 3:204fairy tales, 2:176

Walker, Grace, 3:53–54Wall, Patrick, 3:133

Wallace, Alfred Russell, 1:134“Walter” (spirit control). See Crandon, Mina

StinsonWandervogel, 2:210War of the Worlds (film and radio broadcast),

3:285–287Warren Commission, 2:35Washington, George, 2:11Washington (DC) UFO sightings (1952), 3:253,

292Wasson, Peter, 3:152–153Wasson, R. Gordon and Mrs., 3:152–153Watchers (angels), 2:52“Watching” a witch, 2:112Water, dream symbolism, 3:129, 130Water acquisition, Nazca Lines and, 2:260–261,

262–263Water divining. See DowsingWaterhouse, Agnes, 2:100Watkins, Alfred, 2:232, 233, 261Watson, Gladys, 3:8–9Wauk-Wauk. See Bigfoot (apelike monster)We Faked the Ghosts of Borley Rectory

(Mayerling), 3:32–33Weaver, Sigourney, 3:282Webb, Clifton, 3:25Webb, David, 3:270Webb, Jim, 3:39Webster, Christopher, 1:84Wedding cakes, 3:214Wedding ceremonies, 3:210–213Wedding dinners, 3:213–214Wedding gowns. See Bridal dressWedding processions, western, 3:209–210Wedding rings, 3:213Wednesday superstitions, 3:191Wee folk, 3:99–109Weeping statues and icons, 1:249–252Weil, Andrew, 3:151Weinberger kidnapping (1956), 2:139Weishaupt, Adam, 2:16, 18Weiss, Brian, 1:67Weiss, Erich. See Houdini, HarryWeiss, Frederick, 3:124Weiss, Theodore, 1:163, 165Weitzenhoffer, Andre M., 3:146, 147Welles, Orson, 3:286, 286–287Were-creatures. See Therianthropes;

WerewolvesWerewolves, 3:83–85Wesley, Samuel, 3:36–38


375Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

West, John Anthony, 2:270, 271West, Mae, 3:25Wester, William C., 3:148Weston, Jesie, 2:205–206Wexford (Ireland) leprechauns, 3:105–106Weyer, Johann, 1:219, 2:109, 110Whaley, Thomas and Anna, 3:47, 48–49Whaley House (San Diego, CA), 3:47–49Wheel of Fortune (tarot), 2:131Wheel symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:166White, John, 2:269White, John W., 1:26, 194White, Rhea, 3:164White, Richard, 3:92White (color), symbolism of, 3:208–209, 227White magick, 2:51, 56–57, 3:188Whitehead, Alfred North, 1:22, 156Whitford, Dorothy, 2:82, 83Wicca, 1:289–290, 291–293, 2:72–74Wiccan leaders, 2:75, 77–91Wiccan Rede, 2:73Wigs. See Hair and wig groomingWilcox, George, 3:262“Wilhelm” (spirit entity), 3:39Wilkes expedition (1838–42), 2:240–241Williams, Abigail, 2:104, 105Williams, Charles, 2:108Willis, Archie, 3:93Willis, Bruce, 3:158Wilson, Ian, 1:234Wilson, Jack, 1:78–79, 283–285Wilson, Terry, 2:25–26Winchester, Simon, 1:45Winged Pharaoh (Grant), 1:58Wings of Deliverance. See People’s TempleWinter, William, 3:43–44Wiseman, James, 1:220Wiseman, Richard, 1:83Wishbones, 2:169The Witch Cult in Western Europe (Murray),

2:75, 87–88Witch of Endor, 1:131–133Witchcraft, 2:91–99

Inquisition and, 1:199–200, 217–218, 219related violence (20th–21st c.), 2:101Satanism and, 1:289, 2:74Seax-Wica, 2:81See also Wicca

Witchcraft Today (Gardner), 2:77, 85Witchcraft trials, 2:99–108The Witches of Eastwick (film), 3:112

Witches’ Round, 1:294–295, 2:98–99Witches’ salve. See “Flying ointment”Witchhunters, 2:108–114Witzman, Doron, 1:242Wolf (film), 3:112The Wolf Man (film), 3:85Wollam, Josie, 1:234Wolves, Native Americans and, 3:193Woman symbols, in tea leaf reading, 2:166Women, status of

Agrippa on, 2:59bride capturing and bride buying, 3:204–205elopement, 3:206Garduna and, 2:14Gnosticism and, 1:279in Middle Ages, 1:292polygamy and polyandry, 3:203

“Woodhenge” (IL), 2:231Woodruffe, Clark, 3:42–43Woodruffe, Sara Matilda, 3:42–43Wordsworth, William, 3:124The World Goodwill Centers, 1:281World leaders, viewed as the Antichrist,

1:181–182World (tarot), 2:132Worrall, Olga, 1:58Wounded Knee (SD) massacre (1890), 1:285Wovoka (Paiute shaman). See Wilson, JackWreaths, for funerals, 3:226Wright, Elsie, 1:138, 139, 3:103Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Hangar 18

(Dayton, OH), 3:259–260, 260Wulff, David M., 1:217Wulff, Wilhelm, 2:125

X

The X-Files (TV program), 3:51, 3:287–288,288

Xenophobia, 3:140

Y

Yama (Hindu deity), 1:5, 7–8Year of the Dragon (film), 2:34Yeats, William Butler, 3:102Yellow Turbans Tong, 2:36“Yeren.” See YetiYeti, 3:66–68, 67Yoga, 3:157


Cumulative Index376

Yogananda, Paramahansa, 1:47“Yossele” (Golem of Prague), 3:76You Were Born Again to Be Together (Sutphen),

1:59Young, Sherry and Terry, 3:180Yule candle, 2:172

ZZachariah (Hebrew prophet), 3:250Zadikel (angel), 2:58Zamora, Lonnie, 3:265–266Zaphkiel (angel), 2:58Zeitoun (Egypt) holy apparitions, 1:187, 190Zell, Oberon, 2:73, 74Zell, Tim. See Zell, OberonZener cards, 3:163, 169Zeta I and II Reticuli, 3:275–276

Zeuglodon, 3:87, 96Zeus, statue of, 2:243Zeus (Greek deity), 1:267Zhengxin, Yuan, 3:68Zinsstag, Lou, 3:272Zodiac, 2:120, 121–123, 124Zohar, 2:142

See also KabbalahZolar (astrologer), 2:123–124Zombi, 2:55–56Zombies of the Stratosphere (film). See Satan’s

Satellites (film)Zoroaster (Persian religious leader), 1:288, 2:70–71Zosimus of Panapolis, 2:42Zulley, Jurgen, 3:121Zulu people, burial customs, 3:226Zuni people, fetishes, 2:193Zuoguian, Feng, 3:68


377Cumulative Index

CU

MU

LA

TI

VE

I

ND

EX

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