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THE
PARANORMAL AND THE OCCULT |
Despite the amazing advances made by science, many mysteries of life and death and some strange phenomena remain unexplained. No wonder, the paranormal continues to excite interest—look at the popularity of X-files, and nearer home, horror shows on TV. Life Positive has occasionally delved into the subject |
| By Kajal Basu Damanhur, a spiritual kibbutz in Italy, claims to have devised a system of time-travel with their first 'successful' trip back in time that reportedly took place in 1994. Although they have not made their research public, Damanhurians do claim "it is possible to obtain results that contemporary science declares impossible, if you combine human creativity and will with technology". Oberto Airaudi, Damanhur's chief ideologue, formed the society in 1978. Today he claims to have traveled back in time to meet Planck, Heisenberg, Pauli, Bohr, Einstein... the list goes on. To Airaudi's credit, there is one theory of time travel that makes sense to the layman: "Imagine the universe to be made of directions instead of particles. In the flux of time we are carried to 'future' directions, whereas other particles would be 'past' or 'present' directions. "For a solid body, it is the observer's position that determines the meaning of high, low, long or wide. If we take a wooden cube and define its directions by writing them on its faces, they will change as soon as we rotate it, so that 'high' becomes 'long' and so on, with respect to us. "Similarly, a time cabin is a system to 'turn the cube faces' and to give a different direction to the observer in the time flux of past-future directions." The foundation of Damanhurian creativity rests on the 'Golden Mean', a quadrangular fractal design found in nature. They call it "the spiral", the basis of "selfica, an ancient science". Selfica is also the architectural matrix in Damanhurit helped plan the main hall; it forms the "Temple of Mankind which has 300 tons of circuits and connections hidden inside its walls and floors." The Damanhurians claim this to be a giant capacitor producing the mega-volts required for time-travel. This is good hypnotic stuff in bold neon, but is Damanhur really a glorious marriage between science and art? How permanent and truthful is it? Only time will tell. | |
July 1996 | |
| A WITCH IS A TOTAL WOMAN |
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By
Kum Kum Bhandari Three years short of the 21st century, I am seated opposite a modern day witch. Ipsita Roy Chakraverti is attired in black and silver. "Black," she explains with a sweep of her manicured hands, "is the color of absorption and therefore of inscrutability and mystery, of women and of thunderclouds. Of things said and unsaid," she says in that smoky tone. A witch is one who knows all about the curative properties of certain sounds and uses ancient chants for rituals and therapy. She connects deeply with nature, learns to harness energy from the elements and to project it, knows how to be centered despite her tumultuous environment and develops her intuitive abilities. Being a witch is about ripping away layers of social conditioning and gender limitations. It is, in a sense about moving towards being the complete woman. There is intensity, conviction and passion in the way Ipsita talks about witchcraft, or Wicca-the Craft of the Wise. Ipsita is approached by simple village folk as well as members of society's highest stratum for Wiccan therapy, crystal therapy and energy transmission. However, when she first declared her 'witchness' in 1986, she was vulnerable. "The New Age movement didn't exist then," she says. "I was a pioneer. Remember, call someone a 'witch' and you could be in for slander. Legally." In Montreal, where Ipsita was educated, her passion for reading led to an invitation to participate in a study circle where women met to talk about ancient cultures. They would also experiment with ancient rituals. Practical training in witchcraft followed, which included learning self-development techniques and understanding ancient chants, symbols, gestures and the use of apparatus integral to witchcraft. At the end, each new witch received symbolic gifts from Wiccan goddesses. For many years, Ipsita was involved in Wiccan therapy. Now, she feels neither the inclination nor the necessity to offer therapy or interact with people. There is an occasional workshop on Wicca, though, for women who want to live the Wiccan way. Ipsita is emphatic in her denunciation of society that is motivated by lucre, lust, ambition: "Break away from it as much as possible. Stand alone. To a certain extent, you will have to play certain games that society plays, but beyond that, do your own thing." "Life is free. This is what has given me energy. If I do a ritual, I could formally invoke energy, otherwise it is all round me. Energy flows when you live freely, without letting others define or limit you." "Society does not really understand who a witch is. A witch is a total woman. Jacqueline Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Namita Gokhale, Kiran Bedi-all of them could count as witches," she adds. "A Wiccan knows how to live life. There is no negativity, no dullness, no pulling back. Before drawing energy from the elements for rejuvenation, you have to love nature and attune to it. To bring it to a practical level, you must have an almost sensuous and sensual relation with what is around you. The more you sensitize yourself, the more Nature reveals her secrets." Says Ipsita: "You can make magic happen for yourself in simple ways. If you want to energize your room, float red rose petals in a crystal bowl full of water, leave it in the sun (15 minutes in summer, an hour in winter), let it cool and put it in your room. You can even splash it on your face and pulse points. The energy levels will rise. "Nothing is inanimate. Tap that energy. Use it. Sensitize yourself to Nature's hidden gifts. Sometimes you feel life is one dull day following another. But it's not so if you know how to bring the magic back." | |
May 1997 | |
| THE FORCE WITHIN |
| By Anupama Bhattacharya Is the paranormal a mere fantasy, a creation of self-suggestion? Or is there a deeper truth that can take mankind to the threshold of a higher existence? Dream Voyages What happens when dreams invade reality? In 1959, a New York disc jockey, Peter Tripp, attempted to stay awake for 201 hours. After three days, he began to hallucinate. It was almost as though sleep-deprivation was allowing dream images to break into his waking consciousness. As Bharati Ramachandran, a Bangalore-based journalist discovered, dreams can also open new avenues of experience. "My dreams unfolded a world of ecstasy and beauty. It was not just the images but the feelings-of oneness, of peace-that somehow strengthened my belief in the God within me," says Bharati. "I also had recurring dreams of a group of people, none of whom I consciously recognized, yet they seemed familiar. It was almost as though some people with whom I have a strong mental rapport could reach me across time and space. It made me wonder if there isn't some truth in the theory of soul groups who continue to meet in different lifetimes." For Shamshir Luthra, compere and radio jockey, dreams have another connotation: "Once, I dreamt that a friend fell down from his terrace when the railing broke. In the evening, the same friend told me that he was actually leaning against the railing when, for some reason, he pulled back and the railing broke. Did I send a telepathic warning?" If dreams can be telepathic, what stops them from opening channels to other worlds? After the poet Dante's death, 13 cantos of his epic poem, The Divine Comedy, were located by his son who dreamt of his father guiding him to them. Did Dante himself give the directions or did his son somehow tap his father's memory? The answer is difficult. But dreams certainly act as means of communication between altered modes of consciousness. Artists, poets, scientists often seem to get their inspiration from dreams. Robert Louis Stevenson gave his dreams credit for many of his stories, including Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Back from Death's Door Near-death experiences (NDEs) include out-of-body experiences, rushing through a tunnel that ends in a white light and a free fall as the 'dead person' returns to his body. Says reiki master Priya Agrawal: "I stood beside my own body as the doctors declared me dead. However, intravenous drugs were administered and I was revived. Suddenly, I seemed to become a ray of light and whoosh, I was back in my body." On waking up, she felt immersed in joy. Mind Links Telepathy is the most common form of the paranormal. People often seem to be saying 'exactly' what we are thinking. Or friends drop in just when we think of them. The Koestler Institute at Edinburgh University has been trying to prove this for years through the Ganzfield experiment, in which a subject is made to sit in a room while another person sends telepathic images from a different room. The Ganzfield experiment also rules out the notion that people pick up electrical or magnetic activity generated in the brains since the room where these experiments are held is electromagnetically screened. Yet, people continue to pick up information, not only across all man-made barriers, but also across time and space. Glimpses into the Future Nothing poses as many uncomfortable questions as premonitions. The most important of them is the concept of time. Is time a dimension? Or is everything predetermined? In 1966, an avalanche buried a school in the Welsh mining village of Aberfan. About 140 children were killed. Later, it was found that many people across the world had premonitions of the tragedy two weeks before it actually happened. Dr J.C. Baker, who conducted the post-tragedy survey, felt that if premonitions could be recorded on a computer to detect patterns of a particular kind, then some major tragedies could be averted. A great mystery is the Bhrigu Samhita (an ancient Indian text purported to have one page on every human being on earth). Basudeb Bhattacharya, principal of Hariyana Vidya Mandir, Calcutta, who has been practicing tantra for the past 14 years, also makes predictions, though he doesn't know how. "I meditate before the image of goddess Kali. During that time, I can answer any question. The answers just come to my mind," he says. Or take Edgar Cayce, the famous American 'sleeping prophet', who would go into a trance and make prophecies. Cayce apparently prophesied the two world wars, India's independence and the fall of communism in the Soviet Union. Mind over Matter But wait! What if it's not precognition at all? What if some people manifest what they sense? In other words, isn't there a possibility that what we normally pass off as precognition, is actually its more dangerous counterpart, psychokinesis (willing something to happen) A man dreamt of a plane crash in USA. The next day he saw the report of the plane crash in the newspapers. To all appearances, it seemed like premonition. Except that the previous night, while looking up at the sky, the man had wondered how people would react if a major plane crash were to take place. Harold Sherman, author of How to Make ESP Work For You, says that if we tap our "ability to synchronize our movements in time", we can save a tremendous amount of time and energy. This we can do by desiring a thing and then willing it to happen. The Hologram Explanation How can telepathic messages be received instantly by someone across the globe? In his book, Languages of the Brain, Karl Pribram suggests that the brain operates like a hologram which might have access to a greater hologram—the universe. The separate realms of time and space, things and events might exist in our limited perception but intrinsically, they are all one and part of the same hologram. This also seems to agree with the French philosopher Henri Bergson's concept of time where he talks of time as a row of infinitesimal points that often give glimpses of infinity. Such moments, according to Bergson, are points of intersection when time meets infinity. Experiences of ESP can also be regarded as similar intersections of time when the limited mind suddenly beholds the oneness of things in the magnificent hologram of the universe. | |
December 1997 | |
| THE RELUCTANT SORCERER |
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By Anupama
Bhattacharya Nothing that I have ever done, nothing that I have ever imagined could even compare to the anguish and loneliness of that moment," wrote Carlos Castaneda in his book Tales of Power, describing his feelings as he stood at the edge of an abyss, ready to jump to prove his worth as a sorcerer. He faced death then. But death, for this best selling author, also considered the godfather of America's New Age movement, was as much a part of life as breathing. Born Carlos Cesar Arana Castaneda in Sao Paolo, Brazil, the author migrated to USA in 1951. He studied anthropology at the University of California. It was during one of his research trips to Mexico in 1960 that he came across don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian shaman, practitioner of an ancient system of sorcery. "I began to tell him that my interest was plants, especially peyote (a hallucinogen). He kept on staring at me and that made me uncomfortable because I didn't know anything about peyote, and he seemed to have seen through me," Castaneda recalled in a rare radio interview after the publication of his first book, Teachings of Don Juan: The Yaqui Way of Knowledge in 1968. He began his sorcery apprenticeship in 1961, terminated it in 1965 but returned in 1968 to continue till 1971 when don Juan disappeared into the 'other world'. The universe, sorcerers believe, is made of two principles: the tonal (perceived reality) and the nagual (disintegration, impulse, feeling the source of everything). The aim of sorcerers is to reach a state of total awareness by tapping the nagual within, thus bringing the two aspects of existence into perfect harmony. According to don Juan, the universe is an infinite agglomeration of threadlike energy fields called the Eagle's emanations, which radiate from a source of inconceivable proportions. Human beings are composed of the same energy fields, which form a layer of luminosity the size of the person's body. A small group of energy fields inside this luminous ball is lit up by a point of intense brilliance called the assemblage point. When the assemblage point shifts, new filaments of the universe pass through it, making it possible to perceive a different reality. This shifting is called dreaming which, according to sorcerers, is the gateway to infinity. The idea is to be conscious of it and direct it. This can be attained through what don Juan calls impeccable living. In don Juan's terminology, that is also the warrior's way. In don Juan's terminology, that is also the warrior's way? which is what a sorcerer is inherently. Castaneda's journey into the realms of sorcery was not easy. In his first few books, he comes across as a bumbling fool who couldn't see beyond his limited sphere of rationality. Six books down the line he emerges as the new nagual, don Juan's successor. According to Castaneda, psychotropic plants such as peyote, Jimson weeds and mushrooms are often used in sorcery to enhance awareness. Hallucinations, however, have no place in Castaneda's terminology. "It is not possible to see something that doesn't exist," he writes. Did don Juan exist? All efforts to trace the old Yaqui Indian have been fruitless. The lack of cultural traits in don Juan's conversations as reported by Castaneda have furthered the notion that his bestsellers are fictitious, albeit brilliant, pieces of literary genius. But if a hoax can be as intriguing and illuminating, then there is definitely something to that. Castaneda does create a philosophy that is stark, exacting and mind-boggling. And vastly different from traditional shamanic rituals that involve chants, trances and faith in native gods. From blinding panic to exquisite ecstasy, Castaneda takes his readers on a magical mystery tour through the psyche. "We are all going to face infinity, whether we like it or not. Why do we do it when we are weakest, when we are broken, at the moment of dying? Why not when we are strong? Why not now?" he questions. Castaneda died of liver cancer in 1998 at age 72. Was he prepared for it? Did don Juan really exist? Were the ancient shamanic rituals that Castaneda brought to life real? We would never know. But somewhere along the way, his name would go down in the annals of New Age literature as the man who considered death "the greatest kick of all", Maybe that's why he saved it for the last. | |
October 1998 | |
| INTERVIEW WITH AN ANGEL |
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By Ambica Gulati The Sunflower angel is Prema Rajan's constant companion. The angel replied to our questions through Prema in automatic writing. • Why did you choose to communicate with Prema Rajan? I have been with her for many lives but she has become aware of me only now. • Have you met God? Yes. God is a concentrated form of energy with love for all beings. • Do angels have gender? Do you belong to a particular religion? Angels do have gender. I am male. Two thousand years ago, I was a Buddhist monk. • What do you wear? We are covered with an etheric layer. • How can human beings meet angels? We like to communicate with good souls, mostly with those with whom we are connected by karma. You can reach us by prayers but it must be a pure call. Though we are not visible, you can sense our presence. • Are you not interfering with laws of nature by communicating with humans? We communicate with only those whom God wills us to talk to. | |
August 1999 |
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| LIFE IN ATLANTIS |
| By Ingrid Bennet This article is based on the author's memories of her past life on the fabled island—continent of Atlantis, channeled with the help of her spirit guides, White Cloud and White Eagle. I see a spacious room in a dome where a large crystal used in energizing the city, is kept. I was a 'keeper of the crystal', a priestess. I was strong in myself, I knew myself, and this was an important aspect of my work. The concept of marriage was nonexistent. People were very active sexually. It kept us fit and healthy. I chose my partners by their love, spirituality and magnetism. We did not age physically and often lived to 200 years. Atlantis was a huge civilization and information was often received and sent telepathically by the Wise Ones. Their occupation was considered the highest in Atlantean society. You were designated a Wise One between the age of 60 to 120, depending on your spiritual growth. The Wise Ones watched over the development of children and guided their talents to emerge. Positive thoughts and vibrations were part of this learning. This enabled the soul to reach its highest potential. Crystals, colors, music, aromas and herbs were combined into a complete healing system. There was a healing system where, as you entered, a color would register on the wall. Vibrations were picked up from the body and translated into information. You were made to lie on a granite slab and the room filled with soothing music. Crystals were placed around you and you were asked to meditate to let the healing energy enter your body. Dolphins were our confidantes and advisers. They were intelligent and a source of balance to our society. I would swim with them and understand them telepathically. Their energy vitalized and strengthened me. I could travel by thought. If I wanted to be somewhere, I would close my eyes and concentrate on my destination. There would be a buzz and I would open my eyes to find myself there. There was no system of money in Atlantis, just trading. There was little greed and jealousy, only the power of the mind. There was also no punishment as each individual was responsible for the progress of his soul. This philosophy protected us. I was in Atlantis during its final stages. The technology had become so advanced that we had begun changing the elements. The scientists, who worked in the West Quarter, conceded to their lower selves and cornered control over the elements for power and glory. This was the ultimate downfall. I remember the last day, the last minute. The earth folded and there were earthquakes, eruptions and fires. As the earth gave way, our attitude was one of acceptance. I backed out and the next thing I knew, I was floating in bliss, up to the light. I looked down to see the land sinking. | |||
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Life Positive, March 2001 |
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