the timboucher experience

I’ve been getting a lot of email through my site - especially over the past week with the huge influx of visitors thanks to the new pope. It’s sort of challenging to get that many emails from visitors, fans and “haters.”

Part of the difficulty stems from the fact that sometimes the people with negative opinions of you have the loudest voice. They don’t mind screaming at you. I tend to think of it not having to do so much with their disagreeing with me, as the fact that they are merely trying to neutralize any cognitive dissonance which I may have induced in them. They feel personally attacked, and want to do a little attacking of their own. I actually really like it when their arguments are at all good, or at least involved - but they almost never are.

It’s funny too how no matter how many people tell me I’m doing the devil’s work, there are just as many who applaud me for doing Jesus/God’s work. It’s really weird and it makes my head spin sometimes. I’m really just doing what I’m interested in and what I’m driven to explore.

There’s one other email phenomenon that I really like. Somebody will send me a letter telling me about a weird experience they had, or a bizarre theory they concocted. I’ll write back to them saying thanks, and trying to give them more ideas, info and resources on how to expand it. Then, they’ll write back to me, admitting that they’ve been worrying ever since they emailed me. Worrying that I was going to think they were crazy. I pretty much almost never think people are crazy. Or if they’re crazy, it doesn’t really bother me. Sometimes crazy people have the most interesting things to say. Or, if nothing else, a really crazy way of saying the same old shit.

The other thing I think that’s going on here is validation. In our rationalist and literalist culture nowadays, people are pretty scared of voicing opinions on things that are out of the ordinary, for fear of being made fun of by their friends, family or peers. So they just shut up and don’t tell anybody. That is, until they happen across me, and then spill the beans. A lot of times I don’t know how to necessarily respond. But I think the best thing you can do in that situation is to validate somebody. It’s like what Jacques Vallee says about your duty is to the people you encounter first, and not the weird phenomena they may have experienced. You’d be amazed the kind of stuff you can get out of people with some gentle support and encouragement.

Good, bad, otherwise - I enjoy all the emails, even if it takes me a little while to get back to them. Keep em coming! Thanks!

• If I was an inventor…
• Hakim Bey
• Fan fiction
• Canon + Fan-Fiction = Fanon
• College Light Opera Company Seeks Summer Theatre Technicians