Summer Harvest

Since fantastic planet so unceremoniously disappeared from the Internets, I will occasionally be posting “Greatest Hits” from the old site here on Summer Harvest. The first in our series, “Ultradimensional Terror and You,” has been requested by Emperor over on Cabinet of Wonders. Although I do intend to eventually post most of my personal faves over here, I’m happy to take specific requests. If you were a reader of fantastic planet and have any requests for reposts, please let me know and I’ll do what I can to make it happen. Due to the nature of the beast, some of the reposts may contain broken links and references to pages which no longer exist. I apologize in advance for any little burps like this that you might come across.

Originally a two part series, “Ultradimensional Terror and You” was never actually completed. Whether it will eventually see completion is still up in the air. Maybe, maybe not. The series is posted here in its entirety; enjoy!

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PART ONE:

Imagine the following hypothetical scenario: you’re a native hunter in a traditional society. You and some pals head out at night for a regular hunting session, despite rumours of odd lights in the sky within the village. The typical hunting tactic is to string a hammock in a tree and wait for one of the many nocturnal animals to walk down below, so you stake out a tree and your companions do the same. As you’re sitting in your hammock, you hear an odd noise, something like a swarm of wasps. Suddenly, you’re bathed in an uncomfortably warm light. As you stare in horror, a refrigerator-shaped object with various multicolored lights hovers into view ten feet above you. You duck down in terror as your friends scream in the distance. More of the objects appear around the first one. Panicking, you shoot the object, at which it only intensifies its beam. Leaping from your hammock, you flee into the dense jungle that surrounds you, evading the scanning demons that search through the air all night until light breaks. Making your way back to the village, you discover that your friends have returned, all with similar experiences. One of your friends suffered terrible burns. Seven days later, he dies. Still, you have to hunt to stay alive; you must return to the jungle the next night, or your family could starve.

Here’s the thing: this nightmarish “hypothetical” situation actually happened.

Researcher Dr Jacques Vallee went to South America to investigate the numerous reports of UFO close encounters that have resulted in the death or injury of witnesses. The results of his extensive field investigations are detailed in his book Confrontations: A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact, which is recommended to anyone interested in pursuing this matter. For example, in Parnarama in central Brazil, Vallee reports that at least five people are reported to have died “following close encounters with what were described as boxlike UFOs equipped with powerful light beams.” Many victims were hunters who, following the local tradition, had climbed into jungle trees at night to wait for passing animals that they could spotlight and shoot. In an ironic twist, the hunters had themselves been hunted by UFO craft which injured or killed them using light beams of their own. As Vallee reports, these chupas (UFOs) “are said to make a humming sound like a refrigerator or a transformer, and this sound does not change when the object accelerates. The object does not seem large enough to contain a human pilot.” (p.118) In one case a victim called Dionizio General “was atop a hill when an object hovered above him and shot a beam in his direction; it was described as ‘a big ray of fire.’ The witness, José dos Santos, testified that Dionizio seemed to receive a shock and came rolling down the hill. For the following three days he was insane with terror, then he died.” (p.119) Witnesses describe the light beams as being blinding, like electrical arcs, with pulsating colours inside and smelling unpleasant, which Vallee suspects may be ozone. (p.120)
*****

In describing their experiences with these light beams, most victims claimed that “They were immediately immobilised, as if a heavy weight pushed against their chest. The beam was about [seven or eight centimetres] in diameter and white in colour. It never hunted for them but hit them suddenly. When they tried to scream no sound would come out, but their eyes remained open. The beam felt hot, ‘almost as hot as a cigarette burn,’ barely tolerable. After a few minutes the column of light would slowly retract and disappear.” (Vallee, 1990, p.200) Apart from those who had been killed by these beams, most people’s symptoms usually disappeared after seven days.

I’m always put-off by people who buy into the “All Aliens are our Sky Brothers Who Want To Help Us” theories. These folks obviously haven’t read the reports from Brazil. I doubt helpful Sky Brothers would spend five years terrorizing Brazilian villagers in the middle of nowhere. Instead, it almost seems as though these “boxes” deliberately intended to frighten their victims.

I want all my garmonbozia

Taking a cue from Jeff Wells, and riffing on some thoughts he posited, I’d like to dip into the mythos of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks for a moment. Jeff has done such an excellent job pointing out the dwarves and giants; I’d like to go a little deeper and with a different slant.

Whether or not Lynch was “onto something” or “knew more than he admits,” the mythology within the series draws upon many different mythological structures, and provides an excellent symbolic context within which to discuss the nature of Things That Go “Bzzz” In the Night. Twin Peaks centers upon the interplay between our “Reality” and “Another Place,” a world in which good and evil entities interact with humans and one another within the White and Black Lodges, placeless places where dreams come true and people are utterly destroyed.

The spirits in Twin Peaks feed on a substance they refer to as “garmonbozia.” Garmonbozia, often translated as “pain and suffering,” encompasses any intense emotional output: pain, suffering, sadness, ecstacy and especially fear. Nothing is more delicious to the residents of the Black Lodge than sweet, sweet terror. The mayhem and destruction they cause in the world of humans is almost entirely designed to produce the feeling of fear, the porterhouse steak of garmonbozia. The inhabitants of the White Lodge, on the other hand, “feed” on the production of Love.

Now here’s where things can get confusing: it’s often incredibly difficult to tell the difference between the two. Each Spirit within the Lodge has a doppleganger counterpart in the other Lodge– after all, the entities that feed on Love are still feeding! Spirits from the Black Lodge can appear as spirits from the White Lodge and manipulate those who are prone to control. The things these entities do are very confusing to us (believe me, Twin Peaks is one confusing image after another), but ultimately they lead to the depths of nightmare.

Let It Bleed

The Peaks mythology gives us a ready-made semiotic set within which to discuss the possibility of ultradimensional entities invading our “Reality” and essentially having their way with us. Why do they do it? What are their intentions? How concerned should we be? And, very importantly, are these entities “Real” in our sense of the word, or just aspects of overactive imaginations of Guys With Websites?

To begin to address these questions, let’s take a look at a few common “paranormal”-type experiences. In Part Two, I’m going to play around with categorization and grouping some experiences and classifying others, and drawing connections from odd angles. Then we can take these clues and try to piece together some “answers.”

PART TWO:

What’s My Type?

When investigating paranormal activity, most amateur researchers have historically focused on the wrong thing.

Typically, someone will encounter, say, a freaky hooded figure standing at the foot of their bed that scares the person out of their wits before slowly fading into the mists. The amateur researcher will then get out all of the camera and recording equipment, research the history of the house and the bedroom in particular, check for drafts, hire a medium to walk through the room, etc. etc. etc. This is all well and good, and, of course, not without value. However, the researcher in this case is missing out on the single most important question arising from this encounter: How did this experience affect the individual who saw the ghost?

Encountering the paranormal can be, and is more often than not, utterly life-changing– just ask the poor Brazilian hunters who had to dodge UFO beams just to eat, or the residents in a house plagued by poltergeists who have to pick up broken vases every night. Where these phenomena come from is indeed interesting and fascinating and valuable, but what they’re doing to people in the long term is even more important. Professional researchers like Vallee and, to a lesser extent, John Keel, Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs are better at focusing on this aspect of paranormal encounters, and their research is generally better grounded (although all admit to their own agendas and come to often radically different conclusions).

While keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at some common “paranormal” experiences and see what we can find out about what they do to the individuals who experience them. I’m not going to laboriously reference individual cases, here; the literature is out there at the other end of a websearch. I’m also only touching on a few specific paranormal-type events that are pertinent to this discussion. These are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I’m going to analyse them using a system of “types,” similar to the first, second, third and fourth kind used in UFO literature. These “types” generally follow the path of the Sephira on the Tree of Life, from Malkuth to Kether. I’m also open to suggestions for alterations to this typing system.

I’ve created a table that lineates the Types and their correspondences, for easy reference during the series (opens in a new window).

The main reason I decided to base the system on the Tree of Life is because it’s an excellent mnemonic “filing cabinet” that often reveals otherwise inscrutable connexions.

For those interested parties, the Types follow the Lightning Flash from Malkuth through to Kether. The main justification for this arrangement is that the Lightning Path represents the transit of consciousness from “lower” to “higher” realms of abstraction and experience, with the lower sephira generally being more “illusory” than the higher. Thus, for example, Malkuth or “Kingdom” being the lowest, most material sphere, naturally corresponds to the lowest, most material paranormal experiences of Type 1, those available to everyone– common knowledge of the Material Plane of existence.

I encourage readers familiar with the Qabalah to play with the Types as Sephira, and even the Paths between the Sephira which connect them, keeping in mind that there is no “wrong” way to do it. For instance, one might look at Type 3 (Second-hand direct experience) as corresponding to Hod, or Splendour, and Type 5 (Direct but distant experience of definitely unusual evidence) as corresponding to Tiphareth, or Beauty, and see that the Path connecting them is number 26, which corresponds to the Devil card in the Tarot. The Devil card may represent a medium by which one who has had a Type 3 experience can attain a Type 5 experience, or it may illustrate unlisted connexions between the two Types to the individual seeker. Heck, why not use The Pop Culture Tarot cards that correspond to traditional Tarot cards as a basis for exploring the Types?

Another reason I decided to use this particular classification system will become more apparent as I get further into describing paranormal events such as ritual magick and religious experiences within the Experience Types. If you’re not familiar with the Tree of Life, don’t worry about it. You can find an excellent overview with clickable Tree of Life here, but knowing the ins and outs of an ofttimes complex mystical classification system is by no means necessary for the comprehension of this series.

TYPE ONE: Indirect experience of phenomena, be it cultural or personal. Most likely we’ll all have had Level One experiences in the form of stories, folklore, etc. EXAMPLES: Folktales, ghost stories, UFO movies, etc. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Nothing too substantial. A “joyful” fear, like amusement park rides provide.

TYPE TWO: Indirect experience of phenomena through potential evidence, EXAMPLES: Media accounts, photos in books, stories in the newspaper or on websites, etc. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Still nothing too substantial. Perhaps a quickening in heart rate, dilation of eyes. Joyful fear.

TYPE THREE: Second-hand direct experience. This will be direct accounts of higher experience types given by trusted sources such as friends or family members. EXAMPLES: Your trusted friend has a photo of
an odd series of light in the sky. Your mother recounts a visitation by a spooky creature when she was a child. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: A quickening in heart rate. Fear, either joyful or real, begins to surface. If joyful fear, then stimulated interest and desire for further investigation.

TYPE FOUR: Direct experience of questionable evidence. EXAMPLES: Seeing something that might be weird from afar, hearing an odd noise in the woods at night, finding odd debris after a sighting, etc. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Definite fear effects, but still joyful for many. Beginnings of fight or flight response (adreneline production, increased heart rate, etc.).

TYPE FIVE: Direct but distant experience of definitely unusual evidence. EXAMPLES: Hearing weird recorded voices, seeing what is definitely a floating disc in the sky, seeing a UFO on radar. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Definite fear effects. Fight or flight response (adreneline production, increased heart rate, etc.).

TYPE SIX: Direct personal experience of an unusual but singular event. EXAMPLES: Seeing a craft in a field, seeing a spectral figure in your hallway one night. Seeing Bigfoot. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL
EFFECTS: Fight or flight response (adreneline production, increased heart rate, etc.). Panic may be induced. If no panic, then stimulated interest and desire for further investigation.

TYPE SEVEN: Indirect participation in an unusual event. EXAMPLES: You visit your friend’s haunted house and experience paranormal events. Your sister has been abducted while you’re present in the room. Ouija boards/divination/etc. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Slightly varied. Fight or flight response (adreneline production, increased heart rate, etc.). Definite fear. Concern. Intensified emotional output. Behavioural alterations. Lifestyle affected.

TYPE EIGHT: Direct participation in an unusual but describable repeating event. EXAMPLES: Abduction scenarios. Full-on hauntings. Ritual magick/summonings. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Extremely varied. Fight or flight response (adreneline production, increased heart rate, etc.). Panic. Memory loss. Behavioural alterations. Lifestyle affected to the point of interruption. Possible injury/pain & sorrow.

TYPE NINE: You are the paranormal event. EXAMPLES: Shamanic journeys. Certain religious and psychedelic experiences. PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Variable.

TYPE TEN: Direct participation in an unusual and indescribable repeating event. EXAMPLES: It’s indescribable! PHYSICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Unrecordable.

Based on my conjecture, a hypothetical graph of a sample of people who have had these experiences would be a rapidly descending curve. Most people never have experiences past Type Four or so, with almost everyone having experienced Types One and Two and almost nobody having experienced Types Nine and Ten. Vallee also reminds us pretty consistently that there’s a sort of Bell Curve of Reportage that happens in situations like this. Types 1 - 3 are almost never reported to anyone; they’re far too common. Types 4 - 7 typically get reported to friends, family members, media and authorities when merited. Types 8 - 10 almost never get reported because they’re far too uncommon, or because the participants don’t have any memory of the events in question.

Also, notice the distinct Tipping Points at levels three and six. 1-3 are all indirect experience, 4-6 are all direct experiences, and 7-10 are all direct and personal participation. They’re also not hierarchical. Although I based the categories on the Sephira, someone might have, say, a Type 7 experience without ever having had 1-6. Oh, one other thing– the lines between Types are intentionally blurry. Some experiences sit on the borders between Types, and some fit into more than one. We need some flexibility, here.

Now that I’ve provided a basic outline of the Typing System I’ve come up with, let’s dive right in, shall we?

Spooky Spooks

The recent FATE article about Hooded figures reminded me that most of our investigations into the nature of “entites” has thus far neglected the incredibly common encounter with the standard ghost or spirit. An overview of the literature shows that this is a far more common occurance for everyday people than UFO abduction scenarios, and likely always has been. In my opinion, this is due to the common mythology that ghosts are the remnants of dead people, an assertion that seems backed up by evidence but upon investigation actually makes as much sense as the assertion that all UFOs are from outer space.

A problem with looking into so-called spectral manifestations is the great variety they can take. They can be visible or invisible, appear humanoid or without form, communicate with speech or by tossing things around. They can emenate “good” or “evil” vibes, heat or cold, can “possess” people or enter mediums by invite, or can simply follow a set pattern like a repeating filmstrip. According to tradition, they can be “summoned” via complicated rituals or via something as simple as a ouija board. In fact, one could separate these beasties into a gazillion different categories, but there is one thing they all have in common for our purposes: most people think they’re all ghosts.

Remember that we’re looking more at what happens to the experiencer than why these things appear. Regardless of whether the entity in question is speaking through a medium or appears as a vague “orb” in a cemetary, common mythology holds that it’s a ghost, spirit, etc. You and I and Puddin’ Pie might know enough about these phenomena to say, “oh, it tosses stuff around so it’s a poltergeist,” or “oh, it’s green and food-obsessed, so it’s Slimer,” but to the average experiencer, a spook’s a spook.

Let’s take a look at some hypothetical Spectral Types and the effects they’ve had on people. Remember, this is the first overview in a series, so I’m basically jotting down some basics and ideas before I get to conclusions. These example scenarios are all based on actual things that have happened to people (making this, of course, a Type Two or Three Experience, depending on whether you know & trust me or not).

SPOOK EXPERIENCE TYPES:

TYPES 1-3: INDIRECT EXPERIENCE

Type One: Traditional ghost stories, like Japan’s long tradition of Fox mythology. Movies like “Poltergeist” and “The Exorcist.” TV shows like Medium and that silly John Edwards guy.

Typal Effects: This stuff’s pretty much cross-culturally omnipresent. Everybody’s got a good campfire yarn, and most of us have read Edgar Allen Poe. Type One doesn’t have any inherent danger involved; some people might not like ghost stories and movies, but it’s generally not because such things actually damage people. We like the occasional thrill that thinking about fear can give us, as long as we know it’s made-up.

Type Two: TV shows like Unexplained Mysteries. Those ominpresent Reader’s Digest collections of “True Happenings and Weird Events.” Websites featuring “true” ghost stories, photos, etc.

Typal Effects: Yet again, spooky “true stories” are also cross-culturally omnipresent. Some old US cities like Williamsburg or St. Augustine have burgeoning “Ghost tour” businesses, where guides dressed like colonists take people around town telling “true” ghost stories. The Scifi Channel’s excellent show “Ghost Hunters,” which follows a group of amatuer parapsychologists around New England as they look for ghosts, guarantees a chill. These are a bit more freaky to people looking for a thrill because the supposition is that these things actually happen. They happen to other people, sure, but they still happen.

Type Three: A relative or trusted friend tells you she’s seen a spook in the old abandoned hospital and has some weird pictures she took of odd lights in a hallway.

Typal Effects: This time it’s happened to someone you know and trust. For this reason, Type Three is generally a tipping point for those interested in the subject. They either transfer the account back to Type One or Two and share it with others, or they decide to take a trip to the Old Hospital. We’ll find that Type Three is this initial tipping point within all of the phenomena we investigate in this fashion which moves the experiencer from indirect to direct experience.

TYPES 4-6: DIRECT EXPERIENCE

Type Four: You and your friend take a trip to that Old Hospital. While there, you hear strange creaking noises that frighten you and could be described as freaky, but might just be rats or wind. You feel a bizarre coldness in a hallway that could be a ghost, or it could be a draft coming from an open window.

Typal Effects: You’ve directly experienced something creepy! Many times, these experiences are nothing, but this is where most of our Type Two and Three experiences come from. Since we like to be scared and are fascinated with the unknown, we take experiences like this and build little story-systems around them. We’ve been initiated into that rare group of people who may have seen a ghost, and by the third or fourth telling of the tale, we *have* seen that ghost, by gum! And, whether it was indeed a ghost is moot. It becomes one in the story. Type Four events are generally the final ones we use to deliberately frighten ourselves and our friends.

Type Five: You and your friend go back to that Old Hospital, this time with a tape recorder and some infrared camera equipment. Upon reviewing your tapes, you hear a tinny but distinguishable child’s voice whisper “Help me!” The camera picks up a dark, shadowy humanoid form slowly ambling through a corridor.

Typal Effects: Type Five experiences create believers out of skeptics. Not only do you have direct experience of something freaky, but you’ve got actual, recorded evidence of something unusual. This can often become a Type Two event, because one always thinks that with such excellent evidence, one has “Proof,” although one quickly realizes that even a picture of someone with her arm around Casper won’t get most people to believe in ghosts.

Type Six: You’re walking through the Old Hospital with your friend, stepping over rubble-covered floors and ducking broken pipes that descend from the ceiling. Down the hall, you very distinctly see a man in an old-style green hospital gown, staring at you. You freeze. He begins walking towards you, mouthing something unintelligible, and slowly fades from view. You feel a sudden cold chill and pressure on your chest. You return to the Hospital many times, but never see anything like this again.

Typal Effects: Type Six encounters are the first that might make some people run screaming in terror. They’re the last of the impersonal Experience Types, experiences that, if they happen to someone, generally happen only one time (per location, of course). This is another Tipping Point. At Type Six, faced with such a direct experience, someone either backs off or goes deeper and attempts to participate in an event. One goes from someone to which things happen, to someone who tries to make things happen, or one quits the whole damned thing and chalks it off as some crazy phase, using Type 1-4 stories to excuse the phenomenon.

TYPES 7-10: PARTICIPATION

Type Seven: A. You and some friends are sitting around one night at a friend’s house, using a Ouija board. You contact an entity that calls itself “WILLIAM.” Your friend asks William for proof of its existence. A vase crashes from the mantle, shattering into pieces on the floor. Over the next few weeks, your friend is plagued by terrifying experiences. Things go missing, shadowy figures appear over a series of evenings, your friend
wakes up with scratch marks on her chest. She finally has to move from the house in order to stop these things from happening.

B. You visit a Medium, who goes into a trance. She tells you that your long-dead Cousin Susan wants to speak to you from beyond the grave. Speaking in a deep voice as “Susan,” she tells you things about yourself that only your Cousin would have known. You return to her frequently and contact various other entities through her.

Typal Effects: Here’s where it really gets personal. Your friend’s house is haunted, and you experience the side-effects of that haunting, even participating in the events as they occur. You may suffer the loss of a friend, or the pain of watching someone close to you go through a traumatic ordeal. You may attempt to assist your friend by contacting investigators, clergy members, etc.

In the case of the Medium, less fear is likely involved, though it still counts as a Type Seven experience. This time, instead of fear, the overarching emotion is whatever you felt for the person or people being contacted. For instance, perhaps you feel overwhelming sadness about your cousin’s absence, or maybe you feel anger at contacting the Uncle who used to betray you. Type Seven experiences are invariably life-changing. Phil Dick’s friend Episcopal Priest James Pike, for instance, essentially remade himself entirely after having contacted his dead son through supernatural means. The Spiritualist Movement of the Nineteenth Century attracted hundreds of thousands of adherents, and continues to this day. And, we don’t need to be reminded of all of those Type Two experiences we’ve had about how lives are wrecked by monstrous hauntings. Still, although it’s participation, there’s a feeling of otherness; the *actual* experience is happening to someone else (your friend, the medium), but in your presence and with definite and substantial effects on your psyche.

Type Eight: A. You awaken one night at 3 AM to find yourself staring at a translucent, hooded figure that stands at the end of your bed. You are so overwhelmed by intense fear that you want to get away, but you’re frozen. As you watch in terror, five smaller figures surround the first one, and you can audibly hear their footsteps on the floor. The fear becomes overwhelming, when suddenly a beautiful light fills the room. A glowing spectre hovers above you; you fill with something like ecstacy and you black out. The next thing you know, the sun is shining on your face– it’s morning. You struggle to remember what happened last night, but can’t.

B. Your house is plagued by frightening events. Ghostly moans echo through the attic in the evening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Your children report playing with “nice ladies,” but tremble in fear when they also mention “the bad man.” You’re awakened one night by a loud voice screaming “GET OUT” directly in your ear. You’re eating breakfast and feel an intense grip on your arm that won’t let go. As you watch in horror, red marks in the shape of fingers begin to spread across your wrist. You lose sleep and your work and social lives suffer as a result. You decide you either have to move, or go insane. Either way, there’s only a chance that the experiences will end.

Type Eight experiences can drive people crazy or make them start new religions (same thing, some could say). These experiences can run the emotional gamut, producing everything from ecstacy to severe depression to complete collapse. It can also create intense feelings of dislike or hatred towards other individuals within the family or social group of the experiencer. Type Eight experiences alter the experiencer’s life to such an extent that it often must either drastically change or end completely.

Type Nine: A. You’re a shaman in a small Siberian village in 10,000 B.C. Upon ingesting the sacred herbs and performing the proper rites, your vision extends via the holy ecstacy of the dance, and you enter the land of the ancestors. You see all of the dead members of your tribe hunting among the stars for the Great Bear spirit. The spirit of your grandfather warns you of an upcoming famine. You return from your journey to the land of the ancestors in one of their sky chariots and warn the members of your tribe, who begin to prepare extra stores based on the message from your grandfather.

B. You’re praying in a field, when suddenly St. Peter appears to you and tells you that he has a message for you. Everything fades, and you’re plunged into the fires of Hell, where you experience first-hand the suffering of the unrepentant sinners. You emerge unscathed in the pasture, and St. Peter fills you with divine ecstacy, telling you to spread this message of damnation to the heathens.

Typal Effects: Type 9 experiences are so powerful that they necessitate a religious context. The emotions and physiological effects that result from these experiences tend towards terror or ecstacy. They often include a feeling that a warning needs to go out. They differ from Type Eight experiences inasmuch as Type Nine includes a separation from Self, an identification of the individual with the experience.

Type Ten: Type Ten experiences cannot be described.

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