The Illuminati revived

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati

Our friend Peter Levenda, author of the mysterious Sinister Forces trilogy, writes us about another trilogy that we read years ago…Illuminatus! by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Admittedly, this post is somewhat obscure,especially if you’ve never heard of this novel about this secret society, but we’ll let Peter explain it.
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In the past few days I have begun re-reading a classic from the 1970s:  the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.  I originally read the trilogy when it came out in 1975, and it made a deep impression on me then, as it did to literally hundreds of people I knew in those days.  The themes of the books are wildly various but involve virtually every spiritual path, political conspiracy, organized crime scenario, rock music reference, etc. that were known at the time.  The plot revolves around the existence — real or imagined — of the Illuminati, which are today once again a focus of attention.  

The Illuminati began in Bavaria in 1776, created by a professor of theology at the University of Ingolstadt, Adam Weishaupt.  They were later suppressed by the Elector of Bavaria, but not before the Illuminati had made inroads into local Masonic groups and — it has been alleged — were instigators of the French Revolution.  In fact, in a letter to a correspondent, President George Washington refers to them by name and states that he is aware they are operating in America, as well.  Churchill later blamed the Illuminati for the Russian Revolution, mentioning them and Weishaupt by name, in an article he wrote for a British newspaper. 

Okay, so I began re-reading the entire trilogy again this past week after thirty-five years.  At the same time, I decided to buy a copy of the New York Times to do the crossword puzzle.  You have to know that I have not bought a copy of the Times in many years.  First, it was because I lived overseas.  Then, after I moved back to the States, living in Florida the very idea of the Times seemed somehow remote.  But here I was, a copy of Illuminatus! on the table before me, as I sat down to do the crossword in a local coffee shop on August 17.
And what do I see?  The clue for 18-down is “Independent, in Ingolstadt.”  The answer, of course, is Frei (the German word for “Free”)  … but Ingolstadt is an obscure reference, and because of my reading it seemed particularly strange to come across it at that time.  I should also mention that in the past month I have been discussing a project for one of the cable channels concerning the Illuminati, which is probably why I began reading Illuminatus! even though it is basically a fantasy novel wrapped in a philosophical treatise inside an occult text … but that’s another story!  The central concern of most of the characters in the novel is the idea of liberty, and what constitutes liberty and freedom (politically, spiritually, emotionally, etc) in modern society, so the clue for 18-down was even more apt.
I highly recommend a re-read of this classic novel.  Wilson and Shea basically predicted our present predicament and the paranoia, the political and economic references, the prophecy concerning how Americans would begin to lose their privacy and liberties due to a series of terrorist acts on US soil, etc. are eerie, considering the novel was published in 1975… 
Imminentize (or, possibly, Immanentize) the Eschaton!
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The Illuminati was revived and popularized by Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, but the Illuminatus trilogy remains the classic novel on the mysterious group that promoted scientific ideas that contradicted church doctrine.
Posted in Illuminatus, Iluminati, Robert Anton Wilson | 14 Comments

Entanglement

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Trish and Rob

                     Entangled  photons

Several scientific experiments conducted in recent years hold intriguing implications about the nature of reality. Specifically, these experiments illustrate what researchers call “observer-dependent effects,” where the minds and knowledge of the experimenters effect the outcome of the experiment.

In 2002, an experiment was carried out that tested the communication between a pair of photons – whether they would be either a particle or a wave. The researchers extended the distance that one of the photons would have to travel to reach its detector, which means the other photon would hit its detector first.”The photons taking this path already finished their journeys – they either collapse into a particle or don’t before their twin encounters a scrambling device,” writes Robert Lanza, author of Biocentrism. “Somehow, the particles acted on this information before it happened, and across distances simultaneously. They decided not to become particles before their twin ever encountered the scrambler.”

To me, non-scientist that I am, this sounds a lot like telepathy and seems to support the contention that everything is connected.

Another experiment conducted in France in 2007 illustrated the effect that researchers have on their own experiments, something scientists call observer-dependent effects. In this experiment, photons were shot into an apparatus. Before they passed a beam splitter, they had to decide whether to behave like particles or like waves. Once the photons passed through the splitter, the experimenter randomly switched a second beam splitter on and off. The experimenter’s choice, his random switching of the splitter, “determined what the particle actually did at the fork in the past,” says Lanza.  “Paradoxically, whether events happened in the past may not be determined until sometimes in your future – and may even depend on actions you haven’t taken yet.”

The parallels between these experiments, the Seth material, and even some of the Hicks/Abraham material is stunning. In Seth Speaks, Seth talks about probable selves, probably realities, probable events. “Your thoughts and emotions go forth from you not only in all physical directions, but in directions that are quite invisible to you…You are also the receiver of other such signals coming from other probabilities that are connected with your own, but you choose which of those probable actions you want to make real or physical in your system…”

Both Seth and Abraham caution against dwelling on negative aspects in your life or negative events that have happened in the past. Abraham advises us to reach for “better feeling thoughts” so that we alter our vibrations, and attract the positive aspects that we desire. Seth says that when we focus on the negative, we set up “negative webs of probabilities” that don’t have to occur. “You can theoretically alter your own past as you have known it.” You do this by changing it first in your mind, in the present and this alters not only the nature of the event, but its effect on yourself and others.  Sounds like those photons, right?

As we’ve talked a lot about in this blog, it’s possible to tune into these future probabilities through dreams – or through synchronicities.Let’s say you have a dream about something in the future that terrifies you so deeply that you make adjustments in your present that actually prevent that event from occurring. “Such a dream is a message from a probable self who did experience the event.”

It’s always illuminating to find correlations between science and mysticism.

Posted in quantum physics | 15 Comments

Ghost Train and the Dark Trickster

Posted on September 5, 2010 by Trish and Rob

                                       (Iredell County photo)

At 2 AM on August 27, 1891, just two miles from Statesville, North Carolina, passenger train number 9 plunged 65 feet through a bridge, killing 20 passengers, seriously injuring 9, and leaving 20 other passengers badly bruised and traumatized. This wreck started the Ghost Train legend, which contends that every year on the anniversary of the wreck, the doomed train returns to haunt the tracks where the wreck occurred.

According to an article on WBTV.com,  “people have reportedly heard grinding metal, screaming passengers, and a watchman’s light.”

Skip ahead 119 years, to August 27, 2010. A dozen amateur ghost hunters were on the tracks around 2: 45 AM, hoping to catch sight of the ghost train. As a train came around a curve on Bostonian’s Bridge, the group didn’t get out of the way. They believed that what they were seeing was the legendary ghost train and couldn’t hurt them.  By the time they realized the train was real, the group started running east, away from the train. All but three people escaped the bridge. A 29-year-old man was killed and two others were injured.

This tragic story has the dark trickster’s fingerprints all over it.

Posted in ghosts, trains | 17 Comments

Sky Bars, Joy, and Mom and Dad

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 We’ve posted several of Janice’s synchronicities. The most recent was  The Loon of Fourth Lake. This one addresses spirit contact and involves a situation that is familiar to many boomers.
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I have been dealing more and more lately with the care of my 92 year old mom, who has been having mild to moderate memory and cognitive impairment. I promised my dad I would take care of her, but it is a difficult promise to keep. I’ve been thinking a lot about my dad and wondering what he would want me to do. I think he has been sending me messages.

Last week when I was driving home from visiting my daughter, I stopped to get some coffee and the man in front of me was buying a Sky Bar. My dad used to love that candy and was always singing the jingle-“Sky Bar, it’s the four in one bar.” I haven’t eaten a Sky Bar in years or thought about him singing the jingle, so of course I bought one too.

Then I got in the car and was thinking about how he always made everything fun, even the worst chores.

How can I make taking care of mom less of a job? As I was pondering this question, a car drove by me with the license plate CK JOY.  Seek joy! I knew he was giving me a message to let more joy in my life even tho’ it is stressful right now.
Posted in janice cutbush, spirit contact | 9 Comments

Alcatraz

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Trish and Rob

The first time we visited San Francisco, as a family, we didn’t make it to the Alcatraz tour. The line went on for several blocks and none of us had the patience to wait around. We had too many other spots we wanted to see. But a few years ago when we returned to San Francisco, we did the Alcatraz tour. Yes, it’s a tourist landmark and an interesting place to visit. But San Francisco is filled with interesting places to visit. I used to work in a prison – as a librarian and Spanish teacher – and they aren’t my favorite spots. So why did I consent to 3 or 4 hours at one of the most depressing prisons on Earth?
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As our ferry draws within viewing distance of the rock, I’m thinking Clint Eastwood. Or was that Matt Damon? And then I realize I’m looking at a chunk of stone in the middle of San Francisco Bay that once housed criminals like Al Capone. It’s jarring. I feel unsettled, troubled, and yet if right that second someone asked what was bothering me, I wouldn’t even think to mention Alcatraz. In this sense, I consider the rock to be one of the ultimate tricksters – if, that is, a place can be a trickster.

 The tour, I recall, was well organized. We were in groups where a guide explained the who, what, and where, then we could wander around the island. This was the most interesting part. We strolled past old, crumbling buildings, rusted fences, the vestiges of lives long gone. I began to feel strange. But it was more than strange. The rolling, but limited landscapes started to feel familiar. 

I immediately distrust these feelings. I’m a fiction writer, I spin dramas in my head that won’t ever see the light of day. But the feeling persisted. It shadowed me. Later, we made our way back into the main building and came to this sign:

Here are  the rules! One visit a month from immediate family. Food and drinks not permitted. Visiting hours spelled out. No smoking. No touching. Keep in mind that Alcatraz functioned as a prison from 1933 to March 21, 1963, nearly 30 years of occupation. Except for the visit restrictions, these rules look like those posted in middle school hallways  when I taught Spanish to hormonal teens.

I wondered, for some reason, about the employees and their families who lived on the island. We passed some of their crumbling homes, their crumbling dancing hall, and I felt increasingly depressed. I just wanted to get the hell away from the island, back into the city.

By the time we returned to the main building, I wandered into the bookstore and gift shop and found a really sketchy history of Alcatraz. But there was a lot of information about the employees and their families who had lived on the island. Scanning the pages, looking at the photos, I suddenly experienced  a kind of resonance I recognized. I had felt this on the streets of Edinburgh, in certain parts of Ecuador. Recognition. I began to piece together my emotions and started to wonder if I had been a young child on this island. I immediately dismissed it as my fiction writing self. Alcatraz and those kids would be a great premise for a story. But I’ve never quite been able to shake the feeling. And here’s why:

It was those three years I spent working in a prison. Life before writing. In retrospect, I have long since realized that those three years felt like an unsettled vestige of some other life, that I had something to repay. I hesitate to use the word karma, I hate the word, but it had that same, heavy and oppressive feeling to it. When we toured Alcatraz, the pieces seemed to slide together.

I’ve never explored this through regression, have no desire to. I’m in this life now and want no further details about that life then. But the unsettled feeling persists. The next time we visit San Francisco, I’m determined to spend more time communing with the seals.

Posted in Alcatraz, reincarnation, travel | 18 Comments

Frankenstein goes ballistic

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Trish and Rob

                                                                                                                                Forrest V. Frankenstein

We just can’t help reporting on these crazy name synchros. We genuinely feel sorry for these people. After all, they’ve  become caricatures of the characters for whom they were named.

We’ve had Johnny B. Goode, who wasn’t, Robin Hood, the thief, Jim Beam arrested for public intoxication, Donald Duck busted for repeatedly bumping his car into another one–\Quack, quack….and now we’ve got Forrest V.  Frankenstein, who was threatening mayhem at a Toby Keith concert last Saturday and in a hospital after he intentionally banged his head over and over, and ended up with a bloody line across the top of his forehead that, we swear, looks like an incision from an operation.

Once again, thanks to Jim Banholzer for the heads up. Jim has a nose for name synchros.
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Now here’s another name synchronicity of a different sort. During the 2008 presidential campaign, we suspect that Democratic candidate John Edwards was somewhat embarrassed by his namesake, John Edwards, the TV medium. When Edwards, the politician, was outed by National Enquirer for keeping a mistress on his staff as a videographer, his political career and personal life tanked. So by late 2009, Edwards, the medium, no doubt was embarrassed by his namesake. In essence, the suspected embarrassment had crossed over from one John Edwards to another.

And that fits well with the name of John Edwards’ television, Crossing Over. We wonder if both Edwards are now hearing voices.

So which one is the best looking John Edwards?

Posted in john edwards, names | 19 Comments

The Magic of 108

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Trish and Rob

September is Yoga Month and later this month, on the fall equinox, yogis around the world with celebrate by doing 108 sun salutations. Known in Sanskrit as surya namaskar, the sun salutation is an energetic flowing series of yoga postures. Typically, teachers lead students in six to eight sets of sun salutations in a yoga class. But the equinox event – featuring 108 sun salutations — is a special event usually done with a large group and  accompanied by offerings such as global peace or unity. It usually takes between an hour and a half and two hours.

So why 108?

The number carries spiritual significance throughout a wide swathe of cultures:

* 108 is the number of “Upanishads” comprising the Vedic texts of Hinduism.
* 108 is the number of names for Shiva (a really important Hindu god).
* 108 is the number of names for Buddha.
* 108 is the Chinese number representing “man”.
* 108 is the number of beads on a Catholic rosary.
* 108 is the number of beads on a Tibetan “mala” (prayer beads, analagous to a rosary).
*108 is the number beads Buddhists use to represent that number of human passions.
*108 is the number of repetitions commonly chanted of a mantra to the celestial healer, Dhanvantre.
*108 is the number of stages that Atman, the human soul, goes through on its journey.
* 108 is twice the number “54”, which is the number of sounds in Sanskrit (sacred Indian langauge).
* 108 is six times the number “18”, which is a Jewish good luck number.
* 108 is twelve times the number 9, which is the number of vinyasas (movements linked to breath) in a Sun Salutation.

And there are more…
* In Vedic astrology, 108 represents the 12 constellations times the 9 arc segments called namshas or chandrakalas.
* The diameter of the sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth.

* There are 108 forms of Indian dance.

Posted in 108, Numbers, yoga | 11 Comments

Leaving Iraq

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Fair warning: this is not a synchronicity.Rob calls these posts my rants. He’s right.

It seems that some mention should be made of the fact that the U.S. combat mission in Iraq has ended.President Obama’s speech tonight should be applauded in that regard. He fulfilled a campaign pledge to pull combat troops out of that country. Never mind that troops are now escalating in Afghanistan; Obama never promised a withdrawal from that country.

We now know, of course, that the Bush administration lied from the beginning about the reasons for invading Iraq. There were no WMDs, no looming mushroom clouds. The war went on for more than seven years,  killed thousands of Americans and Iraquis, and cost a trillion dollars.

Think about that, all those zeros. That money would have been better spent at home. Millions of Americans are still out of work, millions of homeowners have lost their homes or face foreclosure, the cost of health care is still prohibitive,  roads and bridges are crumbling, college is so costly it lies beyond the reach of many in the middle class. With what Iraq cost us, we could have extended Medicare to everyone, so that we had true universal health care. We now know that Paul Wolfowitz’s pronouncement that the war wouldn’t cost us a penny was a big fat lie.

What bothered me most about Obama’s speech was what he didn’t say. The Bush administration, through their fancy manipulation of law through the likes of  John Yoo and Attorney Generals Ashcroft and Gonzalez,  made it okay to torture Gitmo detainees. It gave rendition flights and the shredding of the constitution the green light.  As Rachel Maddow said this evening, Obama is a “forward-looking kind of guy, but….”

It’s a very big but. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Yoo, Gonzalez, the whole slick lot of them, will never be tried for war crimes. If one administration is allowed to slide because we must “look forward,” then somewhere up the line in history, another administration will believe they can get away with it.

And yet, I have slept better since Obama got into office. During the Bush years, I often woke in the middle of the night, panicked that we were sliding into a dictatorship or worse. Even though Obama has kept some of Bush’s policies, even though Gitmo hasn’t been shut down, even though we’re now escalating a war in Afghanistan, even though Obama seems much too concerned about being bipartisan, I no longer feel panicked. At his core,  Obama strikes me as genuine, intelligent, a man whose heart is in the right place. But unless things turn around in this country well before 2012, I don’t know if any of it is enough to get him re-elected. He inherited 8 years of Bush policies. The odds were stacked against him from his first day in office.

The alternatives – a tea party president, a Republican who seeks to privatize Social Security, Medicare, education, police and fire departments, or (I shudder to even write this) someone like Glenn Beck or Sara Palin at the helm  – is too horrific to contemplate. But the possibility can’t be dismissed. The paradigm shift is underway. And like anything that is dying, the old paradigm struggles for its existence. It gasps, writhes, and shakes its long, malformed and arthritic finger at the newest enemy to rally the base – gays, Muslims, blacks, the poor, the disenfranchised.The old paradigm looks to Ronald Reagan for answers, the guy who deregulated everything. The new paradigm hopes for peace, community, tolerance, harmony, true equality.

We live in interesting times. My hope is that we all live to see the dream a reality.

Posted in Iraq, obama | 26 Comments

Time Flies and Happy Birthday, Megger!

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Trish and Rob

                                      Around age 2, discovering the beauty of hibiscus!

She came into the world at 6 pounds and 6 ounces, just a tiny little thing. Even then, her eyes were very blue, her hair very blonde. Yet, the daughter of two dark-haired parents. Sometimes she would stare at us with this penetrating gaze that suggested she was a very old soul who was somewhat annoyed at being a helpless infant. It was like she was saying, “Hey, parents, let’s get the show on the road, shall we?” I think it’s why she didn’t sleep much the first three years of her life.

What’s intriguing in terms of synchros is that a month or so before I got pregnant, Rob remarked that maybe we should have kids, we weren’t getting any younger, and maybe we should rethink the issue about children. The standing family myth is that he invited Megan’s spirit into the physical world. I refer to it as myth, but I honestly think it’s real.

She never really went through the crawling stage. It seems she went from the rolling over and sit up stage directly into a walker, which enabled her to zoom around the house, her laughter a kind of music. Around 7 months, she uttered her first word: kittie. Her second word was dada.Not sure what happened to mama in the language scheme of things – down there on the language list just a bit!

By the time she started preschool, she could make friends with anyone, anywhere, at any time. Human, animal, or flowers, she didn’t discriminate. It was all a wonder to be discovered, a mystery to be probed. She was also utterly fearless.  The first time we took her to a carnival, the roller coaster was the place she wanted most to be, in the front seat of the front car on the roller coaster that moved the fastest, that had the most downhill plunges. That’s true to this day. Here she is, during her first tandem skydive. The face of joy.  We wrote about her second skydive here.

 Just this month, while she was home from college, we asked her if she wished she’d had a brother or a sister. She gave us one of those distinctly Megan looks. “Are you kidding? I love being an only child.” Then she threw her arms around us. “MacGregor group hug!”

So today, Megan is 21. Instead of skydiving, she and a friend went to a Jack Johnson concert. She’s truly the most joyful person I have ever met, quick to smile, to offer a hug if you need it, the most loyal friend to her friends,  a young woman with so many talents – writing, art, a love for animals, psychic in a uniquely Megan way. We are humbled to be her parents.

Have a great 21st, Megger!

Posted in birthday, Megan | 17 Comments

Synchronicity and the Job Hunt

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Trish and Rob

One area where some of us falter in making use of our intuition and paying attention to synchronicities is when we’re looking for a job. Sometimes the need to find a job overrides our better sensibilities and we make poor choices. This story from Janet Stalowski is a case in point.
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I just was laid off unexpectedly from a position which my  intuition was telling me and telling me “not” to take.  No matter how I thought, Oh, it’s my imagination and I’m over exaggerating, something was still telling me not to go.  Because I really needed a job, I took it, against what I was feeling  The guy I interviewed with seemed really weird, he was overly pushy for me to start working for him and I just didn’t have a good “vibe” when I interviewed for the job, even though the interview when extremely well and I was offered the job within hours of my interviewing. 

Once I was there the job turned out  to be nothing that it was supposed to be. My agency told me the job  was one title, the person I was working for told me it was a paralegal position. I ended up creating countless files for him (400 to be exact) plus a database.  The day after the database was completed and put on the company network he told me he didn’t need me anymore.  The entire time that I worked for this guy, he gave me the creeps and I ALWAYS received bad vibes around him. 

So now, I’m out of work again, I’m not sure where I’ll be going in this economy, but I wanted to write to you to tell you about my synchronicity.  Had I listened I would have saved myself from a lot of aggravation, work and I maybe would be in a meaningful work position right now.
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Best of luck, Janet. But maybe it was fortuitous that you got out early. It sounds like you wouldn’t have liked the job very much, and might’ve gotten stuck there.

Occasionally, someone in that position quits a bad job in a very big and bold way. The flight attendant Steven Slater made national news when he went down the chute. The lady in the photos above went out the door in another bold way. Take a look here.  A good warning to all bad bosses, that!

Posted in bad bosses, jobs | 11 Comments