Kindle Matchbook is live!

I was able to pick up the digital version of one of the best metaphysical books that I've ever read:  "Secret Vaults of Time: Psychic Archaeology and the Quest for Man's Beginnings" by Stephan Schwartz. It was pleasant surprise... For weeks, I've been browsing the crappy picking in this subject and wanting to stumble upon something truly good. But "Secret Vaults Of Time" is great, and I didn't even know that it had been e-booked. So, if you happen upon this blog and are even remotely interested in the subject, check out Dr. Schwartz's groundbreaking study.

Will anyone stop the suicide bombers of the American Republic?

I have been around the 'net, looking for some tea leaves to read.  I dropped by my old haunt, "Coast To Coast AM," to see if Evelyn Paglini has done a recent show.  Except for an Art Bell broadcast from 2001, I saw nothing.  Then I dropped by Unknown Country.  There was an interesting article there: John Hogue says that the next 18 months will be "among history's MOST IMPORTANT" (as if this has never been the case).  It's a special subscriber interview; I could download it and hear what he says.  (Perhaps I will, should the government default.)  But no one seems to be concerned about the looming default that's staring us in the face, as I type.

Will anyone stop the suicide bombers of the American Republic?  Do not the Koch Brothers, who financed the tea party movement from whole cloth, not understand that a federal default will impact their bottom line?  Is there no buyer's remorse?  We've always been told that "money" controls the American government.  Where are the money men, then?  Why aren't they pulling their strings?  Financiers, high rollers, leveraged buyers, and your ilk:  Listen up.  You get one chance at this.  Call in your suicide bombers, or there will be no party left to party.

"Chicago: Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch"

I am departing somewhat (and semi-regularly) from the predominant theme of this blog to indulge in another interest of mine, namingly, popular music of the various genres, from all eras. Little-known fact: I almost became music major, but I lacked a critical ingredient: talent.

Question to the universe: does the above-titled show exist as an official medium (DVD)?  I've seen the bootleg copies online, but I doubt that they are any better than the YouTube excerpts that I've already downloaded.

I watched it on my black-and-white television in 1974 and got reacquainted with it again just this year, when I found it on YouTube... Although, truthfully, I've been searching so long for it--almost forty years.  At the time, a newspaper preview indicated that Chicago (the band) did not like doing television presentations because of the resultant poor audio quality--but they relented for this show. And they were proven right... The audio of this broadcast is pristine. It was quite the revelation for my budding audiophile ears at the time, and I was a mega-fan of the group (though this breakthrough might be lost on the digital generation).

Currently reading "The Growth of Truth: A True Story of the Heaven and Hell of a Psychic Medium," by Debbie Raymond-Pinet

I've oft written that I'm a disbeliever in almost all "famous" mediums (you know who they are), and I put no credence in most mediumistic accounts. I've read quite a few of them, and they are all universally boring, rote, and trite. Ms. Raymond-Pinet's book is different. Not only is it an engrossing read, but there is a certain authenticity about her story. The Kindle version is currently only $3.03--in itself an anomaly, since the more famous accounts are priced quite a bit more--and I invite anyone stumbling upon this entry to check it out.  I found myself liking the author quite a bit, and the story of her lifelong experience of seeing "dead people" is both fascinating and spooky.  I plan to write a fuller review of it later, but in the mean time, I wanted to examine one of the many themes that Ms. Raymond-Pinet presents in her peculiarly nuanced way.

Of all of the concepts that Seth expects his readers to accept, the hardest is that "there is no such thing as evil."  I'm oversimplifying--true Seth students recognize that Seth is arguing that "good" and "evil" are essentially dualities that have meaning only on the physical plane. In the grander scheme of "reality," the division that causes us to perceive certain experiences as "good" or "evil" disappears. It's an important distinction, one that I've spent the bulk of my adult life sorting out. How can Seth say that there's no evil, when I've personally been on the receiving end of quite a bit of it?

It is here--the examination of good and evil--that "The Growth Of Truth" excels where other mediumistic accounts fall flat. Ms. Raymond-Pinet's account can be read as a twenty-first century morality tale whereby a gifted but flawed individual wrestles with the burden of her unwanted insight into the non-physical realm, and all the responsibility that comes with it, while attempting to live a life that vacillates between sensual indulgence and spiritual altruism. Throughout, she confronts a number of archetypes that remind me of shamanic initiation rites, as well as the peculiar coupling of a young, benign spirit friend named "Bobby," and the Gentleman--a "man in black" who surfaces regularly to torture the youthful Debbie and, years later, her children. I see a direct analog with the UFO "abduction" experiences of the last century, and I wonder: are these part and parcel of the same thing?  And if so, what is going on?  If these experiences are "real"--and I have no reason to disbelieve them--what are they trying to teach us?

I think that it's important that we find out.  Ms. Raymond-Pinet does not say, but we are tempted to think, that her horrible encounters with true evil are punishment for her various youthful indiscretions. (It's certainly what I often think about myself.)  But "The Growth Of Truth" suggests that reality is more complex than that. The ominous man-in-black is, according to the author, simply doing his job. He is evil, to be sure, and while the angels that surround the author clip his wings on occasion, they never destroy him. He is allowed to do his "job." Intriguing stuff, and worth the effort to understand.