Chapter 6 -
Pneumagenic Spirituality

Spirituality generated by spiritual sources.

 

What goes on when a fortune is told with cards or some other tool? A lost article is found through dousing? When a medium speaks in the voice of his/her spirit guide? When a private testimony from a dead loved one is heard? When a miracle takes place? Or, an angel appears or intervenes in the affairs of humanity?

Psychology professionals refer to such events as anomalies. They are typified as Gestalt experiences where each piece gains meaning from the whole. Usually the pieces cannot be proven scientifically but the whole cannot be denied. Consequently, many respected and famous psychologists have supported scientific research of anomalies over the past 100+ years with some success: statistically significant results have been documented, but not as much as is required to remove a certain disreputable stigma from their study, called parapsychology. “To see the world in which anomalous experience happens, we need to temporarily abandon a view of the world in which rational thought happens.” It is like that famous optical illusion of the faces and the vase: you can see either image but not both at the same time.

Several other observations are commonly made about parapsychological anomalies that conform to my own personal experience in spiritual encounters as a youth. The effectiveness of the extrasensory powers (ESP) is not related to God or a particular religion, but it is proportional to the intensity of emotion experienced by the participant. Uninvited telepathic communications or visions often occur during life or death events or in association with sensations of intense anxiety, danger, fear or love. Sensitivity to ESP is enhanced with the depression of normal sensations (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste and time). Anomalies are almost impossible to duplicate and do not lend themselves to neutral scientific testing. Dreamtimes provide good consciousness states for increased sensitivity to ESP. The direct experience of ESP is like knowing and not knowing at the same time. As I express it, being close to the border between life and death enhances sensitivity to the life force at work (ESP).

Current research also focuses on how mind literally affects matter. The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research project is one of the leading ones you can look up. A number of authors have discussed relevance to quantum theory or Albert Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” where subatomic particles exhibit long distance linkage for no current scientific reason. In general, there is a great deal of fuzziness when discussing or researching this area professionally that is due both to the nature of the subject matter as well as the connoted stigmas for seriously considering such material publicly. Nonetheless, multiple millions of dollars have been spent on researching parapsychological phenomena because there is something to it.

Even Sigmund Freud’s theories of sexual repression as revealed through dream interpretation relate to this research. Freud favored dreams because he believed that they reveal the subconscious thoughts of the mind, which are normally suppressed by the self-imposed limits of our active rationality. His research was controversial because of a pervasive sexual theme, yet this should not be a surprise because sex, which presents the strongest forces of creative biological life, is deeply tied to emotions and the life force. Sexual ecstasy even suspends some vital physiological functions for a while.

Sexual behaviors and moral codes have been culturally regarded as sacred since the beginning of time because sexual union is the deepest biological expression of life. I theorize that the biological energies of sexuality are deeply joined to a person’s essential vitality, and hence some how closely aligned with the life force. This is why balanced sexuality within borders is important and why sexual abuse is so damaging. A balanced sexuality evidences an internally balanced life force. A person suffering violated sexuality suffers from a damaged balance of life force. A society exhibiting promiscuously excessive focus on and trade in commodified sexuality is dying from the internal hollowing out of its cultural vitality or collective life force.

My Story

I will begin to explore the realm of answers and explanations to the above questions from the perspective of natural spirituality. To do this, I must depart from the concept driven, essay discussion format I have used so far and share a bit about my own search for spirituality. Honestly, I could not write what I have or have yet to put to paper without the input of my whole life experience, which includes a great many mistakes and much sorrow as well as growth into a level of sufficient understanding to justify writing about these matters. Today, my life is relatively free of material entanglements, yet I still work to feed my family. I also enjoy substantial inner peace and happiness with my immediate family, but that has not always been the case. As a youth growing up in the 60s, I encountered and participated in pneumagenic spirituality, though there is not enough in those experiences to write a separate book about them.

What I have written here comes from reflecting on those experiences. In that process of reflection and some further study, I came to understand better what occurred to me in my early youth to teens, why I experienced those pneumagenic events, and what to do about it. I was born with weak leg muscles and joints that gradually improved through grammar and junior high school. It took a long time to learn to walk, and I can still remember my younger brother by two years being able to outrun me until well into grammar school. By high school, I competed as a member of the cross-country team. Prior to ninth grade, I grew up in the New Hampshire countryside mostly without anyone around my age. I went to public school, and I was regarded by most of my classmates as the iconic, tall skinny weakling, egghead of the class.

My memories of self-awareness and asking questions go back to my crib. I can still remember lying in it on my back and wondering about what this was all about. It was a feeling that asked questions like, “Who am I? What is life?” Please note that I wrote “feeling” as I was not able to speak or use those words at that time in my life. As a child, I had always had a very strong connection to my mother. I was very sensitive to what was going on inside of her, though she did not talk about it much. I seem to remain sensitive to her welfare, though I do so from a distance of over 1,500 miles today.

I also had and have strong emotional attachment to living things in nature. I have never carelessly walked or picked pieces off of plants or injured animals. I am strategically uncompromised when it comes to pests: I kill or remove any mosquitoes or other biting insects from my body. At the same time, I was brought up on the concept that the necessities of survival meant people first, and I learned to fish, hunt and slaughter animals, some of whom I raised. I did not enjoy that part of growing up and have not purposefully eaten meat now for almost 7 years.

So, from my earliest years I seemed to know things, was able to anticipate events, and could douse pretty well. Sundays were spent in one of those huge old granite churches that you often find near the center of New England towns and cities. I am thankful for the teachers who read the Bible stories to us; however, those stories inspired a great many questions because I did not see happening in the church what I heard and read about in the Bible. Where was the power in today’s church that I read about in the Bible? Why did Jesus teach “love your enemies” yet everyone had been building bomb shelters all my life? I believe that there is a definitive relationship between these two questions that I will discuss later.

Although I did not totally give up on the church, I began to search for answers elsewhere. I did a great deal of reading about astrology, UFOs, hypnosis, psychics, prophets, secrets of thinking to bring wealth and success, ancient mysteries and parapsychology, which is bona fide scientific research into psychic phenomena. At the same time, I had become involved in Cub Scouts and then Boy Scouts, which was very good for me physically. Before I started on my Eagle, I earned the God and Country award. The young pastor who led our class was very nice, thorough and attentive, but he did not give satisfying answers to my questions. Later in life, I found some answers that at least partially satisfied my early questions, and I share them in chapters 8 and 9.

Looking for spiritual power outside of the church, I began to experiment with games, cards, dice and other feats of psychic prowess that I had read about. I was successful in my search. Even discounting greatly for youthful enthusiasm and the natural inclination to see what one wants to see and believe what one wants to believe, I participated in valid psychic activity of a variety of kinds. I do not recommend my course of action or much of what I did, but these experiences have materially contributed to what understanding I am able to share on this subject. Let me also state that I am not writing this book so that I can sell my services as an expert in this area, either. I share what I have learned freely so that others may be free spiritually.

The reason I do not recommend that anyone actively just dive into the world of ESP and other psychic events is because it is deceptively dangerous. At some point in my search, I am convinced that I was getting “help” from spirit forces outside any person’s natural capacity for ESP: the level one might experience naturally just being alive with a functioning life force. Activities requiring more intensive concentrations of natural spiritual power usually step over the fuzzy line of balance and open one up to encounters with spirit beings that are mostly unfriendly in purpose – though they may at first seem to be helpful, even solicitous. When I began to withdraw from engaging the psychic world, I encountered considerable resistance, mostly in the form of psychospiritual conflict, depression and externally sent impulses to commit suicide. It took some years to disengage from those issues with residual challenges continuing well into my 20s. I would spare anyone from these negative experiences.

As a result of these psychic trials, I completely avoided anything to do with ESP and naturally psychic capabilities for decades. About 19 years ago, I had gotten to the point of being secure enough to re-explore some of these areas. Truthfully, I went back and forth a bit on some things before coming to my present understanding and approach to the metaphysical dimension of reality. It would have been confusing to an outsider watching what I did or listening to what I said. I was struggling to differentiate between what may be called the normal operations, capabilities or fruits of the life force and what signifies the intervention of a spirit being, like an angel.

But in my 20s and most of my 30s, I did not understand enough nor trust my internal warning system to let me know when I was getting too close to the border. There is a border. The world is full of invitations, gateways and shortcuts to involvement with spirit beings – sort of like an express elevator to high contact with the other side. We are surrounded by their varied appeals interspersed with our own individual mixes of struggles, challenges, vanities and desires, which combine to make each of us more open to one form of spiritual experience or another. We have personal preferences in our flavors and fashions of spirituality. You might think of them as being different doors to spiritual power trips with the techniques used in hypnosis to reduce the time required to put a subject into a hypnotic state or trance. I also believe that my activities indirectly and negatively influenced the spiritual environment of others around me. I was determined not to let that happen again.

Of course, while all of this inner activity was taking place, my life moved on in the external world, too. I learned a great deal. Some of it I learned the easy way from others. Some of the lessons I learned the hard way through painful experience including business failure and divorce. One of the more important lessons, that also applies to the search for spirituality, is that I cannot fix anyone or anything else. I can only make spiritual decisions for myself and bring my path into alignment with the greater spiritual purpose being laid out for me and with me. If I am successful in this personal journey, others will be blessed as an automatic by-product. They will benefit without my knowing, or I will be spiritually enabled to provide some small help materially that blesses us both in a brief gestalt balance of the physical and metaphysical dimensions of ultimate reality’s eternal abundance.

I cannot impart spiritual gifts to others, but they may be inspired by my example to receive their own. I can live a conscientious life of slightly risky kindness, doing my best to exercise social and environmental responsibility, without feeling the necessity to judge others or to try to extricate them from out of their self-imposed bondage of spiritual confusion or ignorance. I teach what I believe to be truth, though incomplete and probably replete with errors because I also know that all human systems are imperfect. So, my expectations are lowered, nor do I entertain thoughts anymore about saving the world from its sociocultural systems’ production of greedy violence, environmental exploitation and human oppression. These matters are beyond the capability of one person or all humanity on its own because the sum total of the life force, regardless of its massive scope, is still the null – the emptiness most often experienced as death.

Some Rationally Inductive Answers

Here I should recap the main points of my proposed synthesis of the universe’s structure and ultimate reality. I believe that the boundary between the physical and metaphysical dimensions of the universe is the speed of light as measured by science. Beyond that speed electromagnetic radiation cannot travel. It is a real border, an absolute. These two realms of the universe are energized by one spirit bifurcated by the temporal reality known as time, which thereby limits its power and efficacy on this side of the speed of light. I believe that the life force, physical energy and matter are created and sustained by God. The entire universe is interrelated mathematically from the highest fullness at the throne of God through various levels of intensity, frequency and wavelength variation to an emptiness beyond absolute zero. While I base this concept on what we can observe and measure in the electromagnetic spectrum, my hypothesis cannot be proved one way or the other scientifically.

However, I find inductive evidence that the natural life force, the spirit power of the material universe, is generated out of the originating spiritual source of the universe. It functions as a fifth dimension of timeless consciousness added to the four testable dimensions of space-time. This makes the life force a material spiritual force that links to eternity because it exists and flows as a radiating spiritual web between the physical and metaphysical dimensions. If you were to draw a very fine line of no width between the physical and metaphysical dimensions, the life force is like a broad fuzzy field or sheet that overlaps this line to extend a bit over the line and into the physical side of reality. This part of it travels parallel to (and I suspect aligned in synch with) light/electromagnetic energy at light speed. It is a moving, flowing transition zone that keeps the metaphysical realm in contact with the physical realm of the universe. Of course, it cannot be measured by science from our side, but sensed clearly from the other side because I suspect that it fills the 11 dimensions of string theory similar to the way time or length characterize the material universe.

If correct, then the life force is the medium by which the metaphysical interacts with the physical. It is the almost timeless ether in which ESP operates by intangibly connecting minds and bodies of people and animals through the life force. The life force is the medium molded by distinctive patterned sets of human thoughts. It is the intangible collective well of human innovation. In it, people decisively create their individual souls (personal characteristics) as wave patterns or spectral signatures impressed in the natural spirit that powers the material universe and is limited by it.

If so, the operational power input that sustains the universe flows “downward” with decreasing levels of power from eternity to temporality through the life force. There is no evidence that the opposite direction is possible. The reason may be as simple as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, where higher energy levels can dissipate or break down to lower ones but the reverse does not happen, just as lead does not become uranium. This is the problem that alchemists faced in trying to make gold out of base metals. They realized that they had to reverse the natural tendency to dissipation of energy. That is why most alchemists became preoccupied with manipulating spiritual power: They studied all kinds of old books on the occult, magic and mysticism in order to find some way to add enough energy to raise a base element like lead to higher, more valuable one like gold. They realized that they had to go outside of the closed system of the physical universe to get the extra energy required to transform lower energy elements to higher ones and still make a profit.

Just as the speed of light is a barrier to measurable electromagnetic energy, there also exists an absolute barrier to the spiritual possibilities of natural humanity. The role of the life force in sustaining the material universe makes it a material spiritual power with temporal limits, though the maximum possible since it operates at the speed of light. This spiritual essence is automatically inherited from the start of biological life. There is no escaping it. We cannot live without it, yet the life force seems to be greatly limited in its potential for resolving large-scale human problems. This is the bottom line lesson from human history. Principally, true love and enduring peace are only created by and sustained in the context of the divine spiritual power of pure unconditional love. Pure unconditional love can be approached, but not attained, through the life force due to its structure as an inseparable admixture of good and evil, light and darkness.

Most humans suspect that another spiritual power exists in the metaphysical realm, which has what it takes to solve these insoluble problems of the human condition – both as individuals and as societies. Humanity realizes this universal truth subconsciously, which is why we seek it out, but success in finding effective eternal spiritual solutions eludes most searchers. Because of our natural limitations, we are easily confused or deceived about spiritual matters, and it is difficult to discern between the good (always beneficial) from the bad (ultimately destructive) spirits.

Human impotence in the face of real problems drives the search for a spirituality beyond our everyday experience of the material universe, and sometimes, we find it. When we actually encounter pneumagenic spirituality, we experience something generated by nonmaterial spiritual powers and beings external of, or alien to, examination by the disciplines of physical science. These encounters invariably involve a concentration of the life force through a spirit being, which acts in an intensifying manner similar to how a lens focuses sunlight to start a fire.

Of course, science can and does study the consequences and outcomes of the spiritual phenomena that humans experience. From this genre of scientific study we know that many “spiritual” experiences are caused by psychotropic hallucinations, mass hysteria, imaginary illusion, sleight of hand or deeply emotional wishful thinking. Such honest revelations do not debunk spirituality. Rather they help us to focus on genuine spiritual matters that cannot be scientifically examined or explained. They reinforce the contention that life-changing spiritual encounters with something or someone from the other side actually take place. Indeed, massive evidence testifies of their existence throughout history and so merit further inquiry.

Pneumagenic Encounters

For the average person, pneumagenic spiritual encounters are a rarity. Because of that, most religions came into being as a result of some kind of pneumagenic encounter. I suspect that the most common causality of religion is some form of interaction with a spirit being – an angel, demon, god or God. Another way religions could be born is through the intersect of human imagination with the material spiritual forces of life - perhaps some fortuitous vortex of the life force being at the right place and time during an important point in a social group’s history.

I also believe that most religious experiences and assemblies do not involve genuine pneumagenic encounters. Strongly felt emotions are interpreted by the participants as spiritual presence. A religious experience may seem otherworldly, divine or even miraculous to those closely involved with it, but that feeling by itself is not proof of a pneumagenic act or spiritual encounter. Intense emotional experiences are similar to spiritual experiences in their external evidences, such as feeling. Intense emotions often accompany genuine pneumagenic encounters, and emotion plays an immense role in most religious or spiritual celebrations.

Emotional experience closely parallels and may be in some way linked to the life force, riding the waves of natural spirituality, perhaps. But emotional intensity is not proof positive of a genuine spiritual experience, nor is it a sign of faith. Absolute faith may be evidenced by deep quiet and calmness rather than by intensely dynamic or catatonic performance. Spiritual worship or the exercise of spiritual gifts does not require strong emotional involvement by humans either. A sovereign deity can choose to act through or to bless someone who is not emotionally worked up. Attitudes of humility and thankfulness seem to be more important than emotionality.

Remember, I distinguish between the phenomena of natural spirituality, which are manifestations of the material life force, and the activity or manifestation of spirit beings. The life force exists throughout the biological, material universe. It is the spiritual balance wheel that powers life and consciousness on this side of eternity. It is the evidence for the existence of the metaphysical reality beyond light speed. Humans may utilize the natural spiritual forces without even being consciously aware of any special technique, such as in the projection of a positive mental attitude or natural confidence in something – even one’s self!

Various cultures have recorded techniques of methods of how to use the life force for health, for seeking spiritual help, and for the practice of positive living in the here and now. Such teaching may also include eternal implications, and this is where discernment issues enter. We cannot naturally or sixth sensually differentiate between the temporally bound life force and any eternal spirit from beyond time’s boundary. As long as these humanly discovered and applied techniques for managing the life force operate within the bounds of restoring balance, they are safe; however, many people do not stop at that hard to distinguish line. They seek spiritual power beyond a natural balance in order to solve problem or acquire some thing according to their own personally determined and desired standards of justice or concepts of what is good.

Whether the motivation for additional spiritual power is altruistic or selfish, at this juncture their spiritual search must engage an intermediary of some sort in order to be successful. The intermediary may be a human professional, such as a shaman, or it may be some willing spirit that reveals itself in some manner directly to the seeker without an intermediary, too. Seekers of spiritual power often experiment with different mediating techniques in order to discover what door or gateway to the supernatural works for them.

When successful, they encounter high concentrations or extreme balance distortions in one direction or another of the natural life force. I term this category of spirituality pneumagenic or “generated by spirit” because the agency of a spirit being is necessary to produce paranormal manifestations or make the miracle happen. It is irrelevant whether the spiritual work done is considered good or evil, white or black. It is the unnatural imbalance or greatly increased focus of spiritual power that is the prime indicator of a spirit being’s intervention and/or presence. Such concentrations are required to suspend or extend the physical laws of the natural universe.

The difficulty comes in accepting the limits of natural spirituality. Modern attitudes especially seek immediate results with minimal effort or changes on the part of the customer. We are an impatient, shallow, hurry-up culture that does not understand spiritual matters, nor does it seem to really want to. We see the problems of this approach to life most obviously in the issue of weight loss. Billions have been spent in research to find the right pill to do what works almost every time for every person – improved diet and increased physical activity over time.

I think that enough scientific work has been done, or testimonies verified, to prove that certain kinds of ESP anomalies are natural capabilities of the life force not requiring the borrowed external power boost or agency provided by “spirit guides” or angels. It is possible to cure certain illnesses caused by imbalances of the life force without the help of spirit beings. In some cases, spiritual imbalances are paralleled by nutrient and/or anatomical imbalances that me be treated with biological enhancements such as herbal supplements, pressure points, bodily massage, skeletal adjustment, acupuncture and some forms of electromagnetic therapy.

In each case, some kind of deficiency is treated by supplying a natural excess utilizing methods that function within the overlapping, fuzzy border that exists between the life force and its biological analogs. For example, science identifies nervous energy as being electromagnetic pulses moving along physical nerve tissue. I suggest that the electromagnetic force field also blurs into the life force a bit even as they exist separately in parallel structure. Similarly, the breath of life finds biological analogs in oxygenated air and blood.

The Role of Spirit Beings

Pneumagenic spiritual encounters often involve spirit beings such as angels, demons, gods or other beings from the realm of eternity beyond death. Manifestations or miracles generated by concentrations of the life force often accompany the appearance or intervention of a spirit guide or angel. Holy angels are sent by God with a specific mission to perform. Most seem to be designed for specified functions with only the highest orders given more general objectives and capabilities such as communicating with humans.

People often initiate contact with spirit beings by using professional intermediaries. The religious professional or medium often establishes contact by calling on the spirits are called on by name to intervene on behalf of the client – especially if the medium is working with more than one spirit entity. Not every experience, perhaps not even most experiences, with these professional intermediaries is genuine because they cannot really control what a spirit being might do. To keep their clients happy and paying, most psychics have become experienced applied psychologists and artists of illusion out of financial necessity. They have learned how to use their clients’ psychological and emotional hot buttons as well as how to contact the other side.

Some mortal intermediaries follow a learned incantation and/or set of rituals to apply the forces of nature to some task, a difficult healing perhaps. If more conventional treatments fail, witches, shamans or sorcerers may call upon the faceless forces of earth, fire, water or air spirits to aid them. If the goal or need requiring spiritual power lies beyond the natural balance of life, then any success will be due to an unnaturally strong concentration of the life force. The human seekers may or may not be aware of the spirit being(s) aiding them.

In these circumstances, it is entirely possible for the humans to think that the spiritual power manifested is controlled by themselves, but in truth the incantation and ritual does not work without the help of an obliging spirit that chooses to “play along” with the illusion that the humans’ formulaic chants and rituals potently influence the spirit being’s actions. If a spirit being does not reveal itself, then humans are sensually blinded enough about spiritual phenomena to facilitate self-deception. Rationally, he or she should know or sense an unnaturally strong spiritual intervention. An objective exercise in logic should lead to the conclusion that some spirit being was at work.

This is where the natural law of spiritual balance between light and dark, life and death, comes to the aid of understanding. The natural balance will not be distorted without some form of supernatural intervention. There are limits of time and energy to what may be accomplished naturally. Improved technique may make the natural life force operate more efficiently or with better focus on the problem, but people will still die. Great good or great evil will eventually be balanced to the null. Dramatic success in miracles of one kind or another come about by temporarily distorting the natural balance in order to attain what is desired or paid for.

The human proclivity to desire or covet some objective beyond what is justly balanced leads to formal or informal “contracts” with real spirit beings willing to oblige such requests for a price. As we will see, there are short-term prices or sacrificial gifts, and there are long-term, ultimate consequences, which may be hidden from those seeking spiritual power – and even from their human intermediaries. Very few make conscious contracts with the devil or some other spirit being. Most assume that they are just accessing and better utilizing natural, impersonal spiritual forces, but they have really gotten in deeper than they think.

These would-be adepts operate under any number of deceiving assumptions blind to the real strings attached. First, they fail to realize that a spirit being is required to accomplish what they desire because that desire lies beyond the bounds of natural balance. Second, they think a particular ritual, spell, offering or behavior will give them control of natural spiritual forces just waiting to be accessed so that they can realize their dreams of power or supply some perceived or real need. Instead, they will one day discover that they have unknowingly engaged a spirit being that is more than willing to make something happen according to a person’s favored manner of incantation. The strategy is to get people hooked on the power and the results so that at some point they do make a more conscious deal. All along it is a self-imposed forging of obligation and psychospiritual addiction until it is time for pay-off, which means the destruction of the addicted, which is the ultimate proof of a demonic spirit being’s involvement.

So people encounter real spirits intentionally and unintentionally. The spirit encountered may be a good spirit or a bad one - an angel from heaven or a demon from hell. My research to date indicates that intentionally seeking to contact an angel only seems to attract demons that masquerade as angels. God seems to send angels when He wants to and not when we ask, thus the universal advice on pneumagenic spiritual encounters is caution. Most cultures leave the realm of spirits to a few professionals who serve their community as needed. The role of professional spiritual leader or go-between is globally prevalent throughout human history because the consequences of dealing with the spirit world can be dangerously life threatening. Most normal people do not want to offend or anger the spirits out of ignorance because the consequences are horrendous. Following certain rules seems to reduce the risks of seeking their help.

Research into the paranormal has exploded over the past 50 years. Bookstores have numerous shelves loaded down with books on magic and the occult. Hollywood makes millions with their dark, often evil and violent movies on this subject. The amount of information is overwhelming and unreliable. One wonders how much of it, or if any of it, is true. It should be obvious to everyone that there seem to be innumerable and varying approaches to harnessing the powers of the spirit world. How could they all be correct?

The difficulty here is that we are dealing with nonmaterial reality, where things work differently than in the world of science. To a very large degree, it does not matter what one believes but that he or she does believe in it. “Faith is the evidence of the unseen,” says the Bible in Hebrews 11:1. It is the proof and the tool of spiritual application, and it works in the psychobiological realm, too. Confidence, belief and attitude have a tremendous impact on human health and performance.

Therefore, when I consider the power of natural faith in conjunction with the testimony of spiritual professionals, it seems that there is significant variety of ways to “master spiritual powers.” The observation of equally effective but contrary systems of spiritual power runs contrary to what we know about the laws of the physical universe. The laws of nature operate very precisely and consistently without regard to one’s educational or social status, belief or faith in whether it works or not. Gravity works whether you know about it or not, properly understand it or not, and so do spiritual laws.

Therefore, I have concluded that spirit beings are required to facilitate access to paranormal powers to fulfill human desires on demand and that they are apparently willing to operate on a variety of terms and formats. It may be that some have preferences, which have been expressed over time, place and culture historically so that the professionals of a people learn them and teach others to conform to them. Thus, it would also appear that long relationships become established between certain tribes or societies and particular spirit beings, which are identified by name(s) as the god(s) of that culture.

Spiritual Doors or Gateways

The general requirement of encountering spirit beings is to push the human envelopes of consciousness and mortality. As one nears death, the barriers between the two dimensions seem to thin by many reports. Likewise, near death experiences usually involve some contact with spirit beings. Objective judgment regarding the validity of these reports is impossible without the use of a third party references. Most of these spiritual authorities are established by custom. They may be professional stewards of tradition (wise woman, shaman, priest, etc.) who examine the evidence from the perspective of an established theology or other psychospiritual standard. The determination can only be taken by faith or by weighing the fruits of the encounter against the universal standards of life and death, good and evil.

The specific styles of how a person pushes the envelope of consciousness and mortality are determined by culture and by individual aspiration or chosen path of study. I will not be able to give you a long list of detailed examples, but I will provide some key principles used by a number of different proponents of seeking spiritual encounters with the ultimate. If you keep these principles in mind while evaluating the various spiritual paths, you will find that they apply and quickly sort things out into predictable patterns.

So how do people push the envelope of mortality and consciousness? Here is a list:

As you can see, there is some overlap in how these how these doors or gateways work. Some of the same concepts or tools of spiritual contact consistently show up in the list, which is not complete. The main underlying themes involve:

  1. The exhibition of human spiritual weakness that attracts demons
  2. A setting aside of one’s identity, personality, rational consciousness, will or power of decision in favor of some kind of spiritual encounter
  3. May be either sought by an individual purposefully or experienced as a result of involvement in some group activity where individuality is weakened. This may be a socially conforming activity such as taking part in a religious tradition or by participation in a mob.

Astrology: Digitized Life Force

The universal presence of the life force throughout the natural world has not been ignored by spirit beings seeking influence over the affairs of humanity. They do this for a number of reasons, but the principle purpose involves an organized rationing and access to the life force, which is important commodity necessary for the spirit world to function. Just as every species of biological life on our planet requires food in order to live, so the creatures of the metaphysical dimension need to be “fed.” I use here a concept borrowed from ancient religions. A metaphysical being’s real food is not visibly edible foods offered but the life force released by the sacrifices traditionally presented by the priests to their gods or idols. I develop this concept further in other chapters.

Participants and priests ate the bodies of the sacrifices, but the worshipped deity absorbed the life force power released at the death of the sacrifice. Many eastern traditions pay attention to the concept of consuming living foods rich in sun power as opposed to dead animal foods, which are considered lower quality foods delivering less efficient nutrients with questionable health and survival benefits.

When ancient peoples worshiped or conformed their thoughts to their gods, the spirit beings were nourished. The more followers a spirit had, the more life force batteries or antenna fields for increased power collection there was for them to draw on. I do not think that matters have basically changed much over the thousands of years. Today, rock concerts are probably higher quality sources of life force “food” for fallen angels than most other public assemblies, for example. Sure, the details of expression and method have changed, but the power needs of the spirit beings have not. Like all parasitical phenomena on earth, there is a constant trade-off of benefits between host and parasite. In the end the parasite always wins.

From the evidence briefly referenced above, I find it useful to think of the life force as operating very similarly to the electromagnetic spectrum. Thus, it has the capacity to carry digital messages like a cell phone and digital signatures like spectral lines. In the last 20 years the hi-tech industry has become very skilled in using light beams to convey multiple data streams through digitized frequency. Information may be carried concurrently on multiple levels at a number of frequencies. The key to control is to have an antenna and receiver set to the proper frequency to receive your data. Of course, it can be stolen, and that theme makes its way into a number of movies.

Electronic transmission on multiple levels models my hypothesis of how astrology describes the spiritual influences of the material world. The classic view assigns astrological power to the heavenly bodies whose influence on people’s lives changes with the movements and positional relationships between the sun, moon, planets and stars. Pagan gods and goddesses are correlated with these various observable lights in the sky as well. I believe that these traditional associations are real and that they refer to fallen angels calling themselves gods or goddesses. The life force they focus like lenses is not their own but borrowed or redirected to them for rebroadcast in the exercise of their nefarious undertakings.

Depending on your zodiac readings at birth, your antenna is set with that first breath of life when the life force is oriented to its birth environment. A digitized signature/record of who you are spiritually begins with this first breath, and you are exposed to the modulating influences of the mighty spirit beings represented by each planet or star. I characterize this influence as but one of many that impact our daily lives as human beings. Our interactions with others, our chosen and habitual character and the divine influence of God through the Holy Spirit are also at work. Ultimately, each person’s power of decision trumps any and all of external influences - spiritual or otherwise. We can never say that he, she or the devil “made me do it.” Nor can we exclaim, “I guess I just can’t change! My zodiac sign and ascendant moon make me that way.” There is no excusable escape from personal responsibility. Each of us is responsible for what we do and believe in life, though we can come to better understand why we succeed or fail in some aspect of life.

The angels of the zodiac are fallen ones. Fallen angels or demons have names, but their real identity is expressed in their behavior patterns. Angels do not have the creative, imaginative, artificial reality forming capacity that humans have. They are behavioral mechanisms with hard-wired intelligence that in irreparable once broken. Angelic righteousness is behavioral in nature and judged by actions or deeds. Demons are similar to robots with corrupted programming or rabid animals: it is impossible for them to do produce net positive or intrinsically good fruits. Each fallen angel had once been designed for a specific purpose, and each rebelled in a specific way. The pattern of their rebellion creates a permanent distortion in their metaphysical body, which operates as a combination lens and re-broadcast device. Since each lens is shaped by the manner in which the fallen angel rebelled, their identity is the specific variations of its deathly dark good and evil mix. The evil they inspire in humans, or are attracted to, is set in the antenna-like pattern of their broken circuits.

Angels are battery-capacitors and agents of focused metaphysical power discharge. No angel – holy or fallen - is a power source; they must get their operational power from outside of their metaphysical bodies. One source is the Creator God, from which the loyal, holy angels receive their power to live and work. The other spiritual power source is the life force. Fallen angels (demons) get it from two sources: by tapping into the natural distribution of the life force used to sustain the universe and all biological life in it, and/or by stealing it from some living being.

Satan, formerly Lucifer (Hebrew, Cheyl ben-Shachar “force and son of the dawn”), is the most powerful fallen angel. He (it really) takes the life force from many sources and redistributes it according to the organizational power of his kingdom. Jesus taught that Satan or fallen Lucifer’s kingdom is organized. (Luke 11:18) The heavens are orderly, too. As the sun moves through the zodiac, Lucifer/Satan’s redirected life force energy flows through and reinforces his chief demons’ powers. The different demonic lieutenants have their own hour(s) of blended dominance. The structure of astrology reflects how the earth’s life force is distributed throughout the natural system. No one astrological system gives the full picture, for there are multiple influences at work at any one time. Certain chief demons or particular behavioral powers are more enhanced at the structured appointment of more favorably positioned or intersecting lines of power as modeling in the moving alignments between the planets and stars.

Each demon-lens has a measured priority access to the life force, which will be distorted and radiated in accordance with their unique signature of rebellion. The broadcast is general, and it can be overcome through the exercise of human choice and character. Astrological influence is real. Perhaps to be aware of its existence is valuable, but to follow the daily, monthly or birth chart readings robs a person of liberty in identity formation. Studying, reading or receiving astrological guidance aligns the tuning fork of our personal life force with the sinful behavior-identity pattern of the demons associated with those planets and stars, and such an alignment can lead to destructive servitude to the consuming spirits of the dark void whose ultimate interest lies solely in feeding off of your destruction.

Spiritual Discernment

The tricky part of this whole discussion is that pneumagenic spirituality does not play by any rules. It is unpredictable. This in itself is a sign of warning. Natural spirituality does seem to follow operational laws that are dependably predictable after they occur. In other words, the life force is impersonal and follows laws incompletely understood at present. Like the rest of the universe, this is due to design. The life force is naturally intertwined with biological physiology. Just as the latter operates according to observable laws of science, so the former operates according to the spiritual laws of the metaphysical realm. Medicinal herbs and acupuncture and prayer work to improve heath because they involve balanced aspects of the physical and metaphysical dimensions of the universe. Their tie to the material makes their operations predictable and safely useful to the limits of natural balance. Going beyond those limits can be problematic. Breaking the natural laws of balance threatens life at all levels from a single person to earth’s entire population.

Discernment is vitally important and not always easy. If a spiritual encounter is spontaneous or not sought out, I believe that it has a better chance of being beneficial. One problem is that a single event is not enough to go on because the evil spirits draw on both good and evil to deceive. Remember, the best lies begin with the truth. Another problem is that we really do not know with certainty what the natural mind of human beings is capable of when working solely with the natural spirit of life without the interference of evil spirits.

There seem to be genuine spiritual connections between people who love each other, such as a mother and a child, spouses, etc. “Cries” for help or “call me” are commonly heard psychically. Short-term premonitions may fall under this category, too. Do remember that humans are naturally inclined to a material self-fulfilled prophecy and/or other encounters of seeing, feeling, interpreting or experiencing what we want or desire to be a genuine spiritual encounter or exercise of power, so we generate and believe in a lot of false positives when it comes to our powers of ESP.

Nonetheless, a search for spiritual encounter with spotty results is as addictive as the lottery. There are just enough payoffs to keep you hooked. Most of the early ones are innocent enough – more of an exciting, “Wow! What do you make of that!” than, “Let’s go sell our souls to the Devil and pay for it with a real blood sacrifice.” While the latter does happen sometimes, mostly people are first hooked on the “innocent fun stuff.” The strategy is to give just enough to keep you coming, but not enough net gain to cure a real problem or to rationally justify the real risks against the addiction that comes from experiencing a temporary surge or induced flow of spiritual power.

The moment of reckoning can only be delayed by ever-increasing sacrifice, for which innocent victims are secured – both willingly and unwillingly for that purpose. Anyone involved with fallen spirits begins to lose his or her unique identity as the patterns of their thinking and behavior conform more completely to that of the spirit guide, demon or god(dess). An increasing portion of a person’s identity structure is lost with each increased level of occult induction with promised higher levels of metaphysical power. Sometimes that power is delivered for a while. In fact, it comes as long as the assisting demon is fed with ever-increasing doses of life force – either from the desiring participant or from his or her animal or human victims. Once this path has started, there is no material escape but death because eventually no amount of devotion or sacrifice can satisfy the yearning demonic maw of life spirit consuming destruction. Under this pressure, the demonic devotee goes methodically destructive himself, insanely preoccupied with filling the demanding voices in his head with the deaths of others until his own is sacrificed, too.

In other words, the life of the victim is stolen to replace what the perpetrator has pledged from his own future. The excessive power used today is robbed from tomorrow or from someone else – a victim. The perpetrator pays for today’s benefits out of tomorrow’s life – his own or another’s: the future is robbed by the unnaturally enhanced consumption of today. All humans can “burn the candle at both ends biologically, but the life force can only be similarly distorted in sufficient amounts to do “miracles” through the intervention of spirit beings. Since they are not power sources themselves, a price ever remains to be paid, which is forcefully taken from anyone vulnerably accessible.

Most pneumagenic spirituality occurs due to the spiritual manipulation of the life force. These manifestations can be very powerful and dramatic, but the spiritual power is not internally sourced by the spirits or the human agents. It must be drawn from the natural environment, and people are the best reservoirs of life force energy to tap into. Therefore, down through the ages appeals are made to the battle of good against evil, light against darkness, but there are no winners in this distracting illusion because the end is always a neutralized null that erodes to death and dissipation of energy. The spirits constantly demand more and so do their human minions.

When humans resort to the use of intermediaries, then what happens is most likely is either a forgery or a genuine pneumagenic encounter with evil. The intermediaries may be sincere professionals (shaman, fortuneteller or medium). If so, then they are tools used to communicate with and expand the influence of the fallen spirit world. Some of these are trance-inducing focus points such as spinning wheels, fire or points of light. Others may be board games, cards, dice, sticks, mirrors or the reflection at the bottom of a well.

Demons have the power to influence the future but not to guarantee it. Sometimes small prophecies do come to pass because the event is within the spirit being’s control or influence. Similarly, if they were familiar with a person who is presently dead, they can imitate him or her voice and transmit “private” matters that other people might not know about, but remember, they watch, are present invisibly throughout history and do not forget details. Their key motivation for affecting a miracle or faking a dead relative is to enrich their human intermediaries and to gain more followers as sources for power draws. The ultimate high for these metaphysical parasites is a tortuous death. The more people and/or animals involved the better. I perceive the dark signature of involvement in a number of horrendous serial killers’ lives and in driving young people to commit such unnatural tragedies like the Columbine high school massacre.

Pneumagenic spiritual experience is not predictable and not balanced. Unless one is truly given over to some spirit being, most attempts to access the spirit world through proven doors or gateways do not succeed. Nonetheless, the search for spiritual encounter is as addictive as the lottery. There are just enough payoffs to keep you hooked, but not enough net gain to cure or even justify the addiction. Those who do experience more consistent results from their spiritual guides, by whatever description or name, are pushing an imbalance in the life force that will come back to equilibrium with a vengeance sooner instead of later.

The moment of reckoning may only be delayed by ever-increasing sacrifice, for which innocent victims are secured. In other words, the life of the victim is stolen to replace what the perpetrator has pledged from his own future. The excessive power used today is robbed from tomorrow or from some one else unwillingly – a victim. The perpetrator pays for today’s benefits out of tomorrow’s life – his own or another’s: the future is robbed by the unnaturally enhanced consumption of today. All humans can “burn the candle at both ends biologically, but the life force can only be similarly distorted in sufficient amounts to do “miracles” through the intervention of spirit beings. Since they are not power sources themselves, a price ever remains to be paid, which is looked for from anyone vulnerably accessible.

Most pneumagenic spirituality occurs due to the spiritual manipulation of the life force. These manifestations can be very powerful and dramatic, but the spiritual power is not internally sourced by the spirits or the human agents. It must be drawn from the natural environment, and people are the best reservoirs of life force energy to tap into. Therefore, down through the ages appeals are made to the battle of good against evil, light against darkness, but there are no winners in this distracting illusion because the end is always a neutralized null that erodes to death and dissipation of energy. The spirits constantly demand more and so do their human minions.

When humans resort to the use of spiritual intermediaries, then what happens is most likely is either a forgery or a genuine pneumagenic encounter with evil. The intermediaries may be sincere professionals (shaman, fortuneteller or medium). Even if they are indeed sincere, they remain mere tools of spirits, agents used to communicate with the uninitiated to expand the influence of the fallen spirit world. Spiritual intermediaries make use of and advertise trance-inducing focus points such as spinning wheels, fire or points of light. Other may feature board games, cards, dice, sticks, mirrors or the reflection at the bottom of a well to get your attention and/or your money. If they correctly predict the future for you, increase your wariness. Don’t be deceived by that apparent success.

Demons have the power to influence the future but not to guarantee it. Sometimes small prophecies do come to pass because the event is within the spirit being’s control or influence. Similarly, if they were familiar with a person who is presently dead, they can imitate him or her voice and transmit “private” matters that other people might not know about, but remember, they watch, are present invisibly throughout history and do not forget details. Their key motivation for affecting a miracle or faking a dead relative is to enrich their human intermediaries and to gain more followers as sources for power draws. The ultimate high for these metaphysical parasites is a tortuous death. The more people and/or animals involved the better. I perceive the dark signature of involvement in a number of horrendous serial killers’ lives and in driving young people to commit such unnatural tragedies like the Columbine high school massacre.

Pneumagenic spiritual experience is not predictable. Unless one is truly given over to some spirit being, most attempts to access the spirit world through proven doors or gateways do not succeed. Those who do experience more consistent results from their spiritual guides, by whatever description or name, are pushing an imbalance in the life force that will come back to equilibrium with a vengeance sooner instead of later. It can happen because the life force is materially and temporally bounded spirituality that can change, being impersonally good and evil in how it is used. The life force is not eternal and absolute; it is a part of the 7 metaphysical dimensions of the universe beyond space-time.

Pneumagenic spiritual energy does not balance out in the natural realm or in regards to humans because the demons remove it from the biological sources (victims). The loss of life force weakens the target resulting in disease, despondency and death. The pneumagenic spiritual rush experienced in the midst of a pneumagenic event is like burning the human candle at both ends: it depletes the participants’ biological and psychospiritual reserves. It depletes a person’s natural spiritual battery quickly. Continued demands eventually exceed the carrying capacity of the life force’s supporting web of spiritual energy.

The desperate choice forced upon a demon devotee facing his or her own destructive spiritual devouring, becomes urgent and inescapable. One can either surrender to the rapacious and demanding demonic void sacrificing one’s own life in an implosive destruction of who you are as an individual and living person or desperately obtain substitute sacrificial sources of biological life force energy to take his or her place in filling the void. This process is similar to the more familiar downward spiral that comes with chemical or drug addiction, but in this case, third party victims are destroyed. They might be willing initiates submitting to occult ritual resulting in spiritual enslavement, or alternately, the unwilling victims of sexual abuse, sadistic violence up to and including mass murder.

Ever-increasing demands, requirements or levels of exaltation are a warning to the honest seeker of spirituality to avoid that spiritual deathtrap. Spiritual balance is a law of natural life and death, and any imbalance is a major indicator of pneumagenic activity, which more often leads to ultimate harm than not. The evidence of spiritual balance combined with phenomenal conformance to biologically tied predictability are the best tools to independently guide the seeker of spirituality. Their use will help you to avoid many of the pitfalls of modern life. They may not directly lead you into eternal life, but they will help you to maintain a rational control of your life. You will be less enslaved by the world and keep considerable spiritual confusion at bay.

As stated above, internal perceptive objectivity is a near impossibility when it comes to a humanly rational analysis of spiritual phenomena without appeal to an accepted or proven standard of reference, such as a holy book or spiritual professional. In either case, the rational seeker must first evaluate the validity and genuine authority of the reference available, desired or chosen. To evaluate religious reference authorities would take us back to an endless meandering down the halls of theology, so I will not do it here.

My own bias leans to an independent reading of the Bible divergent in approach from what most Judeo-Christian theologies consider to be the gospel truth. As part of this perspective, I read in the Bible that God’s presence in this world manifests itself through a Spirit distinctly different from the life force. According to the Bible, God’s true, Holy Spirit is inherently just, good, loving and without limit in spiritual power. God is an incorruptible source of an omnipotent and incorruptible Spirit made accessible to humanity through Jesus. Discussion on these distinctly separate spiritual power choices comes next under the heading of Digital Spirituality.

Mayer, Elizabeth Lloyd, Extraordinary Knowing: science, skepticism, and the inexplicable powers of the human mind, (New York: Bantam Books, 2007), page 140. This book provides a good discussion of the issues and an overview of the scientific research done.

[10-14-2007]

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