Support NeoGAF

[Trojita]

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread where we discussed Mythology, The Occult, and regional folklore we've discovered or wanted to share with others.

I'll start off with an odd one you don't really hear about. The early Pennsylvania Dutch (German) settlers in America developed a Folklore Magic belief.

The belief became to be known as Pow-wow (Yes, they took the word from The Algonquian)

Its name comes from the book Pow-wows, or, The Long Lost Friend, written by John George Hohman and first published in German as Der Lange Verborgene Freund in 1820. Despite the appropriation of "pow-wow", taken from an Algonquian word for a gathering of medicine men,[citation needed] the collection is actually a collection of European magic spells, recipes, and folk remedies of a type familiar to students of folklore. The formulas mix Christian prayers, magic words, and simple rituals to cure simple domestic ailments and rural troubles.

Early Pennsylvania was a melting pot of various religious persuasions, as William Penn's promise of religious freedom opened the doors for many Christian sects: the Anabaptists, Quakers, Lutherans, German Reformed, Catholics, and all manner of religious mystics and free-thinkers. It is from this blending that the Pennsylvania German Pow-wow tradition was born.[1]

The tradition is also called braucherei or Speilwerk in Pennsylvania Dutch; its adepts are sometimes referred to as hexenmeisters or braucher, though this is not common for all practitioners. The tradition of Hex signs painted on Pennsylvania barns in some areas is believed by some to relate to this tradition; the symbols were pentagrams, thought to have talismanic properties, though many current hex signs are made simply for decoration. Many scholars disagree with this claim, however, and generally the hex signs are believed to be the natural progression of German fraktur art.[2]

The Bible is considered the most important book of the Pow-wow, and no practitioner would work without his Bible on hand. In addition, several popular grimoires are also utilized, primarily the Romanus-Buchlein[3] and Egyptian Secrets of Albertus Magnus.[4] Important to some practitioners was the work The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, a magical text attributed to Moses and claimed as an esoteric sequel to the Biblical Five Books of Moses, or Pentateuch. Various versions of the work can be traced to 18th and 19th century German sources, while an English translation was published in New York in 1880 by the German antiquarian, Johann Scheible. However, the majority of practitioners were superstitiously fearful of this work and believed it invoked all manner of evil and devilry, as explained in the academic work The Red Church by author and Braucher Christopher Bilardi.[5]

I found this part particularly interesting

Another characteristic practice of pow-wow magic is the Himmelsbrief or "heaven's letter". Significantly, the Long Lost Friend assures its owner that:

Whoever carries this book with him, is safe from all his enemies, visible or invisible; and whoever has this book with him cannot die without the holy corpse of Jesus Christ, nor drowned in any water, nor burn up in any fire, nor can any unjust sentence be passed upon him. So help me.

To further expound upon this Himmelsbrief

Himmelsbrief ("heaven's letter") is a name for religious documents said to have been written by God or a divine agent.

They are often said to have miraculously "fallen from sky", claim protection for owners of a copy (encouraging memetic replication) and punishment for disbelievers.

Some authors reserve the name for Christian apocryphal documents, but similar pieces are found in Islam, Hinduism and pre-Christian religions.

Hippolytus of Rome mentions one in Refutation of All Heresies (third century), and the earlier full text is a Latin one dated in the 6th century.

Sounds like a pretty awesome thing to have. Apparently there was a problem with people selling these "sacred" documents for high prices.

A book falling from the sky might remind some people of Death Note.

 

[CapitalismSucks DonkeyBalls]

For anyone into the black metal scene or the Norwegian paganism associated with that particular scene, I highly recommend watching Vice's documentary on Norwegian Black Metal. Their main subject, Gaahl, is a practitioner of Norse Shamanism or Heathenry.

Here's a brief excerpt about this particular form of belief:

Heathenry, also termed Heathenism or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan new religious movement, the practitioners of which seek to revive the pre-Christian religions adhered to by the Germanic peoples of Iron Age and Early Medieval Europe. To reconstruct these past belief systems, Heathenry uses surviving historical, archaeological, and folkloric evidence as a basis, although approaches to this material vary considerably.

Heathenry is "movement to revive and/or reinterpret for the present day the practices and worldviews of the pre-Christian cultures of northern Europe (or, more particularly, the Germanic speaking cultures)",[3] and its practitioners seek to revive these past belief systems using surviving historical source materials.[4] Sources used by Heathens include Scandinavian and Icelandic Old Norse texts like the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, as well as texts from continental Europe like the Nibelungenlied and Anglo-Saxon sources like Beowulf.

Wiki

 

[AudioNoir]

I'd be into that!

 

[Laevateinn]

For anyone into the black metal scene or the Norwegian paganism associated with that particular scene, I highly recommend watching Vice's documentary on Norwegian Black Metal. Their main subject, Gaahl, is a practitioner of Norse Shamanism or Heathenry.

Here's a brief excerpt about this particular form of belief:





Wiki

I love that video so much. When Gaahl makes the guy climb up a mountain and the guy is whining the whole time, that's pure art.

 

[Billy_Pilgrim]

My missus has a copy of the satanic bible in her bathroom. Now I've smashed through some particularly difficult toilet reading-my current fix is Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson biographies- but the satanic bible is literally nonsense. Page after page of nonsense.

 

[Neuromancer]

We had a urban myth in my old home town, Fairfax VA, about "the Bunnyman". A local library historian-archivist did some research to find the origin of the story:

There is a story that a man dressed as a bunny haunts the residential neighborhoods around our nation's capital. Silly as this may sound at first, the Bunny Man has been a fixture of local legend for at least 30 years. By 1973 the so-called "Bunny Man" had been reported in Maryland, and the District of Columbia. His infrequent and widespread appearances tended to occur in secluded locations and usually tell of a figure clad in a white bunny suit armed with an ax threatening children or vandalizing property. By the 1980s the Bunny Man had become an even more sinister figure with several gruesome murders to his credit. Although he has been reported as far south as Culpepper, Virginia. his main haunt has been the area surrounding a railroad overpass near Fairfax Station, Virginia frequented by party goers, the now infamous "Bunny Man Bridge."

Having no better leads I began a systematic search of the Washington Post for October of [1970] in hopes of finding the previously cited news article. I was elated (and not a little surprised) to find the following:

Man in Bunny Suit Sought in Fairfax

Fairfax County police said yesterday they are looking for a man who likes to wear "white bunny rabbit costume" and throw hatchets through car windows. Honest.

Air Force Academy Cadet Robert Bennett told police that shortly after midnight last Sunday he and his fiancee were sitting in a car in the 5400 block of Guinea Road when a man "dressed in a white suit with long bunny ears" ran from the nearby bushes and shouted: "You're on private property and I have your tag number."

The "Rabbit" threw a wooden-handled hatchet through the right front car window, the first-year cadet told police. As soon as he threw the hatchet, the "rabbit" skipped off into the night, police said. Bennett and his fiancee were not injured.

Police say they have the hatchet, but no other clues in the case. They say Bennett was visiting an uncle, who lives across the street from the spot where the car was parked. The cadet was in the area to attend last weekend's Air Force-Navy football game.

When I began this project the aspect that puzzled me most was the bunny suit. I expected to find that the legend was spawned by an event that was strange or in some way notable, but I never suspected the Bunny Man really was a "Bunny Man." I was even further surprised to find a second appearance recorded two weeks later:

The "Rabbit" Reappears

A man wearing a furry rabbit suit with two long ears appeared — again — on Guinea Road in Fairfax County Thursday night, police reported, this time wielding an ax and chopping away at a roof support on a new house.

Less than two weeks ago a man wearing what was described as a rabbit suit accused two persons in a parked car of trespassing and heaved a hatchet through a closed window of the car at 5400 Guinea Rd. They were not hurt.

Thursday night's rabbit, wearing a suit described as gray, black and white, was spotted a block away at 5307 Guinea Rd.

Paul Phillips, a private security guard for a construction company, said he saw the "rabbit" standing on the front porch of a new, but unoccupied house.

"I started talking to him," Phillips said, "and that's when he started chopping."
"All you people trespass around here," Phillips said the "Rabbit" told him as he whacked eight gashes in the pole. "If you don't get out of here, I'm going to bust you on the head."

Phillips said he walked back to his car to get to get his handgun, but the "Rabbit", carrying the long-handled ax, ran off into the woods.

The investigation report confirms the basics of the event as told in the October 31 Washington Post article. At 10:30 p.m. on October 29, 1970 six officers responded to 5307 Guinea Road for "a subject dressed as a Rabbit with an Ax." The officers found no rabbit and the case was turned over to Investigator W. L. Johnson of the Criminal Investigation Bureau.

On March 14, 1971 Johnson wrote the following summary:

"After a very extensive investigation into this and all other cases of this same nature,40 it is still unsubstantiated as to whether or not there really is a white rabbit.

The only people who have seen this so-called white rabbit have been children of rather young ages, and the complainant in this case.

Upon interviewing every one in this case that may have had any knowledge of any incidents concerning a white rabbit, that has been no significant information uncovered that would lead to the identity of the person or persons that were posing as a white rabbit.

This case will be marked as inactive."

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/bunny/

 

[wild wild rice]

I love that video so much. When Gaahl makes the guy climb up a mountain and the guy is whining the whole time, that's pure art.

Seriously, those Vice dudes came across as total scrubs.

"Don't you ever get lonely?"
"You have not been listening to what I have said."
"Teach me..."
*gulps wine, thousand yard stare*

 

[XANDER CAGE]

Yes please! I love this sort of thing. Major props to the black metal doc link too. I always giggle at how our of their depth they seem.

 

[Hjod]

Scandinavian folklore, Trolls.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_folklore

Perhaps most abundant are the stories about the race of trolls (Danish: trolde, Swedish/Norwegian: troll). Scandinavian trolls tend to be very big, hairy, stupid, and slow to act. Any human with courage and presence of mind can outwit a troll, and those whose faith is strong can even challenge them to mortal combat.

They are said to have a temperament like a bear—which are, incidentally, their favorite pets—good-natured when they are left in peace, and savage when they are teased. Trolls come in many different shapes and forms, and are generally not fair to behold, as they can have as many as nine heads. Trolls live throughout the land, dwelling in mountains, under bridges, and at the bottom of lakes. While the trolls who live in the mountains are very wealthy, hoarding mounds of gold and silver in their cliff dwellings, the most dangerous trolls live in lonely huts in the forest.

While few trolls have female trolls, trollkoner, as wives, most possess a regrettable tendency to spirit away beautiful maidens, preferably princesses, who are forced to spin by day and scratch the troll's head by night. The trolls have their own king, called Dovregubben, who lives inside the Dovre Mountains with his court. Dovregubben and his court are described in detail in Ibsen's Peer Gynt. After the integration of Christianity into Scandinavian folklore, trolls developed a hatred of church-bells and the smell of Christians.

Trolls are often said to be able to change their appearance and did so in order to trick humans into doing what they wanted. For example, Trolls may present a beautiful appearance in order to trick a character into following them into their mountain home, then hold the character captive for years (bergatagen). (See the similarities with Irish "elven/fiery hills.") In older tales, the word troll/trold (trolla as a verb) may simply mean "to badly harm/hurt someone"; someone who is a troll is someone who may eat human flesh or engage in other socially-unacceptable acts, such as rape. Luckily, trolls are said to turn into stone when exposed to sunlight

And if you've not seen it I would highly recommend the movie Trollhunter from 2010.

 

[Calderc]

I really like the author Gavin Baddelley. He's a member of the Church of Satan and 2 book in particular I'd recommend are Lucifer Rising, which details the history , timeline and changes of the modern Satan archetype.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0859655474/

The other was written in collaboration with Cradle of Filth's Dani Filth, where Dani briefly outlines the theme of a particular album and Gavin goes into great detail. It's great even If you're not a Cradle fan. (Can't really say I am)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1903254515/

 

[cyborgnumberblue]

This was an awesome read (well, listen.) that I recommend to anybody interested in esoteric thought. I am a true skeptic by heart, but I love the mythology surround all of this stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014EAHT0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[The Wall]

I am? It'd be interesting to have people chime in with local, well-known (and not so well-known) folklore from their respective countries and areas.

 

[MaxHouse]

So I been interested in starting a Germanic Pagan Club that focuses on teaching and learning about Norse Mythology, but also some of the lesser known germanic mythologies at my college

but I'm afraid that it would get rejected and I would be accused of being a "white supremacist"..


obviously anyone would be open to join

should I go through with it?

 

[NoblesseOblige]

So I been interested in starting a Germanic Pagan Club that focuses on teaching and learning about Norse Mythology, but also some of the lesser known germanic mythologies at my college

but I'm afraid that it would get rejected and I would be accused of being a "white supremacist"..


obviously anyone would be open to join

should I go through with it?

A club focused on one culture's mythology sounds incredibly boring and likely to last a limited number of sessions before you're out of things to discuss. That's when people begin buying motorcycles and tattooing Mjolnirs on their arms. A club dedicated to mythology in general, or the history of a culture (including its mythologies) seems just vague enough to have longevity.

 

[ph1l0z0ph3r]

Abso fucking lutely. Had an english teacher in 10th grade do a section about Greek Mythology and I loved it.

 

[zeemumu]

Will Mothman and Bloody Mary be involved?

 

[NoRéN]

My second dog I named Atlas. My 3rd dog I names Hades. I named our latest adopted pooch Persephone.

You can guess what I'm into.

Fun fact: Persephone does not like Hades and all he wants is to be with her. I cursed him with the names.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

May I suggest some of the books by Sabine Baring-Gould in this context?
edit: such as:

The Book of Were-Wolves (1865)

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1866)

Curiosities of Olden Times (1896)

A Book of Ghosts (1904)

according to Wikipedia

Baring-Gould wrote many novels including The Broom-Squire set in the Devil's Punch Bowl (1896), Mehalah and Guavas, the Tinner (1897), a collection of ghost stories, a 16-volume The Lives of the Saints, and the biography of the eccentric poet-vicar of Morwenstow, Robert Stephen Hawker. His folkloric studies resulted in The Book of Were-Wolves (1865), one of the most frequently cited studies of lycanthropy. He habitually wrote while standing, and his desk can be seen in the manor.

One of his most enduringly popular works was Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, first published in two parts during 1866 and 1868, and republished in many other editions since then. "Each of the book's twenty-four chapters deals with a particular medieval superstition and its variants and antecedents," writes critic Steven J. Mariconda. H. P. Lovecraft termed it "that curious body of medieval lore which the late Mr. Baring-Gould so effectively assembled in book form."

 

[Ponn]

I would love a thread like that. I like creepy gaf, mythology and occult threads. It would be one of the few threads I subscribe to.

 

[MaxHouse]

A club focused on one culture's mythology sounds incredibly boring and likely to last a limited number of sessions before you're out of things to discuss. That's when people begin buying motorcycles and tattooing Mjolnirs on their arms. A club dedicated to mythology in general, or the history of a culture (including its mythologies) seems just vague enough to have longevity.

why not...there is so much to talk about in Germanic mythology...I don't see why not

I mean there are clubs that deal with African and Greek Mythology...I don't see why Germanic mythology couldn't

 

[SnakeXs]

We already have religion threads, no?

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

Yes! And let's pray all of this surfaces.

HP Lovecraft and Harry Houdini's Manuscript about Superstition and the Occult.

They were both materialists. This collab would have been legendary.

We already have religion threads, no?

Well that isn't helpful. It's more about the interest in these things than the devotion to religion.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

What's the oldest fable known?

 

[Chmpocalypse]

What's the oldest fable known?

God.

 

[HStallion]

Yes! And let's pray all of this surfaces.

HP Lovecraft and Harry Houdini's Manuscript about Superstition and the Occult.

They were both materialists. This collab would have been legendary.



Well that isn't helpful. It's more about the interest in these things than the devotion to religion.

Lovecraft actually wrote a story about Houdini investigating the Great Pyramids.

Imprisoned With the Pharaohs

 

[Trojita]

I really dropped the ball on this.

/baddog

We already have religion threads, no?

Even though you are being facetious, the extra materials in modern religion that are fair game as religious mythology.

Edit: What, why do I have a tag.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

Lovecraft actually wrote a story about Houdini investigating the Great Pyramids.

Imprisoned With the Pharaohs

Thank you, friend! I know he had shadow written for him before and have heard about this, but I forgot to look deeper into it. You are the man, my man.

God.

omg this is the most try-hard thread already with only 27 responses.

Edit: What, why do I have a tag.

because you are a very good boy.

 

[NoRéN]

Edit: What, why do I have a tag.

Because you are a dog and dogs needs tags for proper identification.

 

[Matty77]

Yes, Subscribing. And since I have nothing personal to bring to the table in this thread may I suggest the podcast Lore?

Format of around 20 minutes where the host (writer Aaron Mahnke) picks a subject and spends a third of the time on the subject and legends and "lore" the other two thirds on a specific example.

 

[HStallion]

Thank you, friend! I know he had shadow written for him before and have heard about this, but I forgot to look deeper into it. You are the man, my man.

Lovecraft was pretty widely known despite being a poor pulp writer and was often very well liked by those who knew of him. He also worked with the creator of Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard and the two began using each other's ideas and creations in their respective stories even if the weren't directly corrected.

 

[How About No]

Been reading about Irish folklore the last couple years on and off but more for research. A few interesting bits here and there

 

[Slackbladder]

Certainly. Reading through the English translation of the Kojiki is a bit trying (very actually, nowhere near finished) but I've always been interested in mythology, creation myths etc since I was a kid. Fascinating.
Also a good way to understand essentially primitive thinking and how to spot it in the modern world where bullshit myths and fantasies are being created.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

Lovecraft was pretty widely known despite being a poor pulp writer and was often very well liked by those who knew of him. He also worked with the creator of Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard and the two began using each other's ideas and creations in their respective stories even if the weren't directly corrected.

I've been reading a ton of Howard, Dunsany, Chambers, Machen, and the like. I'm a big enthusiast myself! Now that's a community thread I'd be a part of. I've been throwing around the idea of a Public Domain short story podcast with some friends!

Anyway, I think you and I would have a ton to chat about in a Weird Fiction thread, but probably just as much anywhere else. Good to meet you, pal!

 

[Trojita]

because you are a very good boy.

Thank you

I'm still not sure if I got this tag for making a lot of threads for news or because I dropped the ball in this thread lol.

 

[umop_3pisdn]

I'm less into folklore than I am into mysticism and contemplative training, which I think puts me more into the oddball category. Stories and myths are a little more accessible than the internal logic of like Neoplatonism or Hermeticism or something. But I'm a Buddhist that is interested in meditation, so I see most occult practices as basically another approach to contemplative practice.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

Thank you

I'm still not sure if I got this tag for making a lot of threads for news or because I dropped the ball in this thread lol.

Most definitely this thread. It has to be sarcastic, right? Interest was shown and then *poof*

It happens to the best of us.

Anyway, it's a good idea. I'm into it.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I love Eshu the Nigerian trickster god. One day he walked across a village wearing a hat that was red on one side and black on the other. After his passage, the villagers who saw him from the left and the villagers who saw him from the right began arguing about whether his hat was red or black. They ended up fighting and killing each other and everyone died while Eshu laughed in the distance. Eshu then said "Bringing discord is my greatest joy".

 

[HStallion]

I've been reading a ton of Howard, Dunsany, Chambers, Machen, and the like. I'm a big enthusiast myself! Now that's a community thread I'd be a part of. I've been throwing around the idea of a Public Domain short story podcast with some friends!

Anyway, I think you and I would have a ton to chat about in a Weird Fiction thread, but probably just as much anywhere else. Good to meet you, pal!

Check out Clark Ashton Smith as he was one of the big 3 weird fiction pulp writers of the day with Lovecraft and Howard. Also check out the story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, its the inspiration for John Carpenters The Thing.

Also as far as modern day weird fiction check out Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea as a weird fiction take on the Jules Verne classic with some great art and some great weird fiction.

China Mieville is a modern author who espouses a lot of the beliefs of weird fiction and you'd like him. His prose is purple but he's one of the best at it and his stories are out there in the best ways possible. Dude is super creative.

 

[teruterubozu]

I love Eshu the Nigerian trickster god. One day he walked across a village wearing a hat that was red on one side and black on the other. After his passage, the villagers who saw him from the left and the villagers who saw him from the right began arguing about whether his hat was red or black. They ended up fighting and killing each other and everyone died while Eshu laughed in the distance. Eshu then said "Bringing discord is my greatest joy".

Trickster gods are awesome in every culture. Maui is supposed to be a trickster god but that dumb Moana movie made him into the Incredible Hulk/ Hercules.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

I'm less into folklore than I am into mysticism and contemplative training, which I think puts me more into the oddball category. Stories and myths are a little more accessible than the internal logic of like Neoplatonism or Hermeticism or something. But I'm a Buddhist that is interested in meditation, so I see most occult practices as basically another approach to contemplative practice.

What do you think about Carlos Castaneda? I was getting into mysticism and then I just dropped it all, want to get back into meditation and whatnot.

 

[teruterubozu]

What do you think about Carlos Castaneda? I was getting into mysticism and then I just dropped it all, want to get back into meditation and whatnot.

I read a lot of his Don Juan books, but then he got weird into vivid dreaming. Apparently he was kind of a con artist though.

 

[Billy_Pilgrim]

Required reading.

The Golden Bough

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough

The Hero with a thousand faces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

Check out Clark Ashton Smith as he was one of the big 3 weird fiction pulp writers of the day with Lovecraft and Howard. Also check out the story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, its the inspiration for John Carpenters The Thing.

Also as far as modern day weird fiction check out Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea as a weird fiction take on the Jules Verne classic with some great art and some great weird fiction.

China Mieville is a modern author who espouses a lot of the beliefs of weird fiction and you'd like him. His prose is purple but he's one of the best at it and his stories are out there in the best ways possible. Dude is super creative.

I own Who Goes There but haven't gotten to it yet! I am adding every suggestion to my list. I'll PM you or something and let you know what I think!

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

I read a lot of his Don Juan books, but then he got weird into vivid dreaming. Apparently he was kind of a con artist though.

Yeah that's what I heard too. What was the con about? That Don Juan never existed?

 

[Trojita]

Shadow People are an interesting subject on the occult end. A lot of people have sworn to see them, but I wonder how much of their observance was due to ocular compensation or sleep paralysis.

Didn't know until now that an increase in sightings are coming from people taking methamphetamines. Occult people would say the increase in brain power is uncovering sight of things normally unseen but it's likely that the increased paranoia and the increased brain nervous system activity is causing people to see things that aren't there.

One interviewed subject said that "You don't see shadow dogs or shadow birds or shadow cars. You see shadow people. Standing in doorways, walking behind you, coming at you on the sidewalk."

 

[umop_3pisdn]

What do you think about Carlos Castaneda? I was getting into mysticism and then I just dropped it all, want to get back into meditation and whatnot.

I'm not familiar with his work, I'm mostly familiar with Neo-Platonic stuff, Taoism, Vajrayana Buddhism, and Bardon's Hermetics.

The way I understand most occult systems is that they're essentially ways of hacking your mind through forming very elaborate experiential and conceptual associations. If you look at the Five Dhyani Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism it's basically a conceptual framework for relating colours, tastes, emotions, mental qualities/virtues, cardinal directions, textures, etc, etc, all within a common five part associative scheme. Then you make these associations so extensively that you basically knit all of your experiences together, across all the different registers of experience, until you can make really fine adjustments to your experience.

And the interesting thing is that it's arbitrary, the classic elements work because there aren't too many of them or too few of them, so they're sufficiently simple and complex; and each element (water, fire, etc) has a distinct quality that makes the categories pretty strongly defined. It's not that the world is really made of fire and water and all that, but if we relate water to fluidity, or fire to heat, or whatever, then we can make these categories really permeable and descriptive. And then once you do you can use these associations as points of leverage.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

Shadow People are an interesting subject on the occult end. A lot of people have sworn to see them, but I wonder how much of their observance was due to ocular compensation or sleep paralysis.

Didn't know until now that an increase in sightings are coming from people taking methamphetamines. Occult people would say the increase in brain power is uncovering sight of things normally unseen but it's likely that the increased paranoia and the increased brain nervous system activity is causing people to see things that aren't there.

The only time I heard about shadow monsters are from people who had been up for like a week on meth.

 

[MaxHouse]

is Alistair Crowley still influential among modern occultists?

 

[HStallion]

Shadow People are an interesting subject on the occult end. A lot of people have sworn to see them, but I wonder how much of their observance was due to ocular compensation or sleep paralysis.

Didn't know until now that an increase in sightings are coming from people taking methamphetamines. Occult people would say the increase in brain power is uncovering sight of things normally unseen but it's likely that the increased paranoia and the increased brain nervous system activity is causing people to see things that aren't there.

Our brains are designed to look for "faces" so I'm assuming its something related to that. Also considering other factors such as people being drunk or high or just dumb. Its like the Bloody Mary thread, if you stare at your face for a minute straight or whatever and the look at something else like the wall you'll "see" your face looking back at you till it fades away. I think its a combination of things and it could also be sleep paralysis.

 

[umop_3pisdn]

is Alistair Crowley still influential among modern occultists?

He's really prolific. Consensus seems to be that Franz Bardon's is the best most self-contained training system that is publicly available, but that Crowley also contributed a lot.