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Weird Entities & Culture-Bound Syndromes
Mysterious Hooded Figures
Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to a strange sensation. Something’s not right. You feel a weird uneasiness. You open your eyes to your darkened bedroom and see a dark hooded figure standing at the foot of your bed. It stares at you motionless. From underneath it’s hood though, you see nothing. You panic, but suddenly the entity fades out of existence.
Whether or not this is just a dream, I thank my lucky stars that this shit has never happened to me. Jeremy has an intriguing post on this subject, and here’s the article he based it on. This article tends to describe these hooded entities as “ghosts” although Jeremy asserts that they in fact share more common characteristics with UFO visitations. Even creepier than that though is that they also share certain elements of Satanic Ritual Abuse memories - namely mysterious horrible figures in robes who perform heinous acts upon people (children especially).
You know, I can’t decide what’s scarier: the possibility that occult ritual abuse is perpetrated by real people, or the possibility that it’s actually perpetrated by interdimensional baddies. I mean, honestly both really freak the shit out of me. And I’m a nice guy, so I like to think people just aren’t that evil, so it *must* be some kind of occult/paranormal phenomenon. Now, I don’t doubt that ritual abuse can and does occur. I’m just not that naive to totally write it off. But I know there are a lot of people who try and discount “recovered memories” of ritual abuse altogether by saying that a cunning (or blundering) hypnotist or therapist can un/knowingly “implant” false memories into a patient. The same explanation is also rather frequently applied to UFO encounters.
But what if there’s something else at play here? Now, I’m going to leave behind for a moment the possibility that ritual abuse is a real thing. In so doing, I don’t mean to discredit people who’ve experienced it, I just want to focus on another aspect of it. And I think it’s a rather interesting one, so bear with me.
Recovered Memories as Retro-Active Occult Initiations
My working hypothesis is this: What if deep level hypnosis and other really intense therapy can sort of trigger or “open the gate” on an experience like this? What I’m saying essentially, is that maybe the therapist unwittingly plays the part of an initiating priest in an occult ritual. We know from many many accounts that psychedelic drug use or shamanic trances can sometimes bring participants in contact with strange entities - whether real or imagined. My post on dwarves in the UFO experience has much greater detail in this direction.
Maybe hypnosis and other deeply probing therapies can have similar effects. Most therapies tend to focus on regression. You move backwards in your mind through your personal history in order to look for the root of your problems, and hopefully come to understand yourself better. If drugs can trigger an otherworldly experience in “the now”, during the present moment, perhaps therapy can trigger one of these events “in your past.” That is, maybe this event didn’t truly happen in your past (although maybe it did), but since you’re delving into your past, the psychic event sort of “takes on the costume” of your past.
If you’ve ever had a psychic dream or premonition of some kind, you might be familiar with this aspect of how your mind functions. Your mind perceives information about a future or distant event (through whatever channel), but then it “explains” or shows you that event using things you are currently more familiar with. As an example, maybe you have a dream that a person you recently met is injured in a car accident, and it upsets you greatly. The next day, you get a call finding out that a long lost friend was injured in a car accident that night. Since the friend had not entered your life or consciousness for some time, your mind - for whatever reason - swapped in the person who most closely matched. This is an extremely common occurence in psychic phenomena, and you can even see it more readily in ordinary dreams. How many times have you dreamt of a place that was really another place, or a friend that was really somebody else? Happens constantly. Your mind plays an extraordinarily clever assemblage game in order to get its point across to you.
Going back to so-called recovered memories, maybe part of it has to do with your mind playing similar tricks on you. It’s smart enough to realize that you’re having trouble with something. But maybe the event is buried in the past, and the details have become hazy. So, it fills in using symbols, costumes and vocabulary which are more current to your life now. Combine this with hypnotherapy and other psychological processes which are notoriously similar to occult practices. And kablammo! You suddenly have your very own occult initiation experience which has been retro-actively placed into your past.
Culture-Bound Syndromes
This of course is just one of many possibilities, and I suspect the “truth” of the matter is a blend of several of them, depending on the case. The other weird possibility I’d like to look in is something called “culture-bound syndromes.” These are patterns of psychological phenomena which are found typically in a particular ethno-social group, and nowhere else. From the Psychiatric Times:
In theory, culture-bound syndromes are those folk illnesses in which alterations of behavior and experience figure prominently. In actuality, however, many are not syndromes at all. Instead, they are local ways of explaining any of a wide assortment of misfortunes.
[…] Unlike objects, people are conscious of the way they are classified, and they alter their behavior and self-conceptions in response to their classification. That is, in a cultural setting in which there is a particular folk illness, both the experience and the behaviors of the ill person will be shaped by that patient’s understanding of that illness.
One of the culture-bound syndromes people are most familiar with nowadays is referred to lovingly as “Old Hag Syndrome.” In an old post of mine on the topic I wrote:
It’s a type of sleep paralysis where the sufferer awakes, but is paralyzed, and they feel the presence of some kind of entity which is sitting on or pressing down on their chest, restricting their ability to breathe. Sometimes people with the condition also see red eyes, and hear the sound of feet or fingers scuffling and the entity breathing.
Psychologically this is grouped into a type of sleeping disorder called “sleep paralysis” and is written off basically as your brain continuing to dream even though you’re “awake.” The idea is that in dreams, the mind-body connection is nullified, so you don’t thrash around in your sleep and act out your dreams. In actuality, many people do experience that still to some degrees - sleep walking, talking, muscles spasming, etc. Just watch a dog sleep, for example. So it stands that people all have slightly different connections between waking and dreaming. And it would also make sense if conditions such as sleep paralysis would run in families or ethnic communities. What doesn’t make sense though is that “hagging” in particular runs across many cultures - especially in Europe:
[…] German mar/mare, nachtmahr, Hexendrücken (witch pressing), Alpdruck (elf pressure), Czech muera, Polish zmora, Russian Kikimora, French cauchmar (trampling ogre), Greek ephialtes (one who leaps upon) and mora (the night “mare” or monster, ogre, spirit, etc.), Roman incubus (one who presses or crushes) ge, (evil spirit or the night-mare–also hegge, haegtesse, haehtisse, haegte); Old Norse mara, Old Irish mar/more.
As far as Europe, an argument could be made for common ancestors, perhaps - but in some cases, you’d have to go extremely far back. Anyway that only solves part of the problem. So it’s a genetic thing, so what? That still doesn’t explain just what the entity experienced in haggings is. Maybe its a brain synapse misfiring. Maybe it’s a shared archetype. Or maybe, it’s a real entity. Even worse, what if it’s all three? Who’s to say that certain genetic bloodlines don’t have strange otherworldly spirits which continually haunt them?
It’s widely reported also that UFO abduction tends to run in families:
An abductee is any person, of any age, any cultural or national background, who is taken or otherwise manipulated by aliens and/or government agents without their consent. The abductions may occur one or more times throughout their lifetime. It runs in families, and is genetically transferred and reinforced. If one family member is affected, there is a 99% chance they all are affected, although to varying degrees.
Looking at stories of alleged Satanic Ritual Abuse, we also find that these tend to run in families. If you’re looking for a mundane explanation, you might call these “compromised, cultic families”. But what if - at least in some cases - stories of ritual abuse by dark hooded figures, and stories of abduction by aliens are actually somehow similar to culture-bound syndromes? Maybe they’re psychological, social, genetic AND occult/paranormal. That to me seems like the freakiest possibility of all.
Inter-Dimensional School of Evil
No, wait! A reader just left me what’s possibly an even creepier possibility: what if the human perpetrators of weird abuse are actually somehow patterning their techniques after these inter-dimensional super-freak-out entities? Like what if they either learned it from them, or somehow subconscious tapped into their “pool of evil” or something like that? Or maybe the entities are subtly using and abusing the bad guys themselves in a cosmic game of one-upsmanship.
Where does all this leave us? If you’re anything like me: probably a little freaked out. I don’t necessarily know that I’d be any better equipped to handle an actual visit from a hooded entity. More than likely it would send me careening over the edge. I guess all I can really hope for is to have a smoother landing when I come out the other side.
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May 10th, 2005 at 2:20 am
Almost anything within the occult uses symbols as its language. Symbols, unlike letters and words, are the language devices of the right brain. This is why artists and writers tend to be more right-brained. They perceive and communicate in symbols, metaphors, etc. What if symbolic language, ironically enough, is a step above traditional language? And what if above that, there’s telepathy?
If the world/dimension of altered, occult-like states of consciousness uses symbols or telepathy as its language, that would explain why many drug trips (and schizophrenics) report seeing geometric shapes and other such symbolic connections.
What if the beings experienced in such rituals/experiences, are just symbols themselves? Makes me think of the movie, Contact with Jodie Foster (based on the book by Carl Sagan). In it, she supposedly travels to the planet Vega, and makes contact with an alien species using a cosmic highway. Anyways, the being takes on the form of her father, a symbolic form that it created by telepathically analyzing her brain and deciding the best way to present itself. Perhaps this is the similar process by which these beings are making contact with us. They take on the form (”grey”, angel, insect, animal spirit, relative, fairy, etc) that they think would be the most accepted. Are they always right? Probably not, but they try.
Also interesting to note. I was watching a program on UFOs, and this scientist was trying to debunk the UFO experience. He noted that a lot of the experiences are similar to certain disorders (like schizophrenia), and did an experience to try to recreate an alien encounter. He took a grad student, hooked him up in a dark room, and stimulated various portions of the student’s right brain. The student, oddly enough, “experienced” contact with an indiscribable being. So, does this mean that hallucinogenic and occult-altered states are merely illusions, or does it mean that stimulating areas of the right-brain open us up to things “beyond the veil” (the world of symbols and telepathy)?
Just a thought.
May 10th, 2005 at 8:50 am
As usual, I like what you are onto.
I wonder if real life ritual abusers are modelling their techniques on the interdimensional beings abuse. Not that they would even know it all the time, the real life ones might be so removed from the source that they dont know they are propogating the DNA of the freaky kreeps.
In Tantric Mantrayana, practices originate from a ’seed syllable’. Or, depending on your experience of it, phenomenon reduce to a seed syllable. Seed syllables are Om, Tam, etc. I guess this is analogous to Logos in Gnostic wisdom.
Makes me wonder that we are creating all the connections. The more we can connect the dots, the real-er it becomes, the more the entities can manifest, the real-er the apolcalypse becomes. . In a way, the internet, right now, is facilitating the connections.
Last night I woke up thinking of the exploding frogs mentioned in Jeremy’s pages, and those creepy crows, and I felt like our current world had created those crows cunning. I’m not over the edge here, just bear with me, cuz I dont think it is as simple as ‘we are creating it all’ new age stuff.
Consider that the facts on the internet keep getting jucier and jucier, the politics keep getting badder and badder, keeping *(at least my* ) attention there. For instance, the national ID card that is likely to get ‘overwhelmingly’ approved today is cloaked in a bill for emergency relief: tsunami, iraq emergency, etc. How could anyone vote against a bill like that? But with it comes the national ID. Kinda reminds me of those crows that go for the frogs liver when they are screwing.
well……somehow this relates to what youre saying it’s just taking me too long.
hope this aint my shit hung out on a shingle.
May 10th, 2005 at 11:09 am
whoa since when are they voting on a national ID card today? i havent been following. you got any links? nevermind, i found links… whoo boy!
May 10th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
this is truly cool.
now the question becomes *why* this kind of stuff is going on. i’m working on a theory & some ideas i’ll toss up later. garrett and i arrived at similar ideas simultaneously (happening a lot), and it has to do with the similarities between classic ultradimensional abduction experiences/ritual abuse experiences/’ghost’ sightings and twin peaks . . . .
May 10th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
yeah man, this whole thing about us all coming up with similar ideas simultaneously seems to be happening more and more. its freaky but great. i cant wait to see what weird theories you put together on it all
May 10th, 2005 at 7:02 pm
Here’s a quick theory for the simultaneous happenings…
Collective Consciousness.
Those who are in tune with more of their right brain activities, are in tune with the SELF of the Collective Consciousness (rather than the left-brain self of the personal ego). Thus, we experience and think similarly because there is an underlying connection that we are in tune with.
Perhaps this what all those New Age 2012 prophecies are all about…
The “rebirth” (a lot of the 2012 prophecies talk about Dec. 21, 2012 opening up an alignment of planets, calling it the cosmic birth canal) or renewed awareness of the collective consciousness, the Force if you’re a Star Wars fan, etc.
May 11th, 2005 at 12:55 am
I’d like to add something about psychic and dreaming phenomena that I think many people overlook. In my experience, EVERY element and detail of any “significant” dream I’ve had was important, meaningful, and “carefully chosen”. In some cases it might take me several years to know the significance of a particular detail or symbol. So, there is a more mysterious process going on than the mind simply creating costumes out of the most convenient psychological detritus. Also, the content of many of these “significant” dreams I have had reveal a level of sophistication or moral development I did not consciously possess at the time I recorded the dream.
My hypothesis is that because time is an illusion (as any self-respecting mystic would tell you) dreams reveal knowledge and wisdom collected over ones entire lifetime, or even from the collective unconscious.
None of this is particularly new or earth-shattering. My point is simply that the details of any dream or vision are as important as the emotional tone and the plot. There is a language there that has a grammar that can be parsed.
May 11th, 2005 at 1:10 am
yeah thats a great point. i agree, although i was just trying to make a more simple point than that. thanks for bringing it up
May 11th, 2005 at 3:05 am
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser movies. Ritual sacrifice to access a different dimension granting extreme powers and not-quite-satisfying deep desires. From Hell featured a magnetic cycling system to stimulate the pineal gland and access a different universe, again for power, lust, perversion, etc. It is a powerful metaphor for the price of power, the price of the lust for power, and the reality that much of life at a certain level is banal and repetitive.
The whole Bush family for four generations, for example, could be Cenobites. Drugs, sex, money, political power, social rank, and yet they are still wankers.
May 11th, 2005 at 8:03 am
I’ve wondered if it’s just fakery trying to convince us it is ‘real’. It’s none of it ‘real’ it’s just part of a cycle of time, and time is an illusion, so, in this sense, it is really a case of cultural unconciousness. What is unconcious is what is seen. What is concious is hidden. Completely hidden.
May 12th, 2005 at 1:31 am
I think, therefore this reality IS the astral plane. There is no real / unreal, alive / dead, conscious / unconscious, hidden / revealed. There is no time. There is not even “no”. The only thing I’m sure of is that dichotomies are, by definition, divisive. But then again, I may be crazy [but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for].
We are ALL wankers dreaming things into existence, whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean, you feel me?
Please don’t construe my tone as negative [tho I guess I don’t care much if u do what thou wilt]. I’m having a lot of fun here! I actually think the archons / cenobites / bushes just need a big hug from mommy.
But if you’re chasing facts [and I know you’re all salivating after those juicy matrix steaks] then consider that there are incredibly profound connections between genetics, immunology, pharmacology, and psychology [university education paying off at last]. However, the part of psychology that overlaps with spiritual experience is called “parapsychology” or “hallucination” and excised from the process of “scientific” examination, and the world is poorer for it.
I think this is a result of those power hungry religious types claiming the “dreaming / hallucinating” part of psychology for themselves. I haven’t read it yet, but I know I’m going to just love Tim’s “Witchcraft as Psychology” post.
I think we all know by now “what’s going on”. The question now appears to be why? [or why not?]. Unless you want to become better at doing it [we all want to be Neo sooo bad] then the question is how?
Until I can pin down some “details” [mmm, juicy] the answer to how is this:
carefully at first, then with reckless abandon
[turn out the lights, don’t try to save me]
peace [whatever the fuck that is] out
May 21st, 2005 at 7:51 pm
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