Seasonal Reflections

Regular blog readers will recognize these individuals whose life experiences encompassed 'unexplained phenomena.'

Last week, I had intended to present a blog post about the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) but finally decided the information was mostly hypothetical.  There are incomplete and scant surviving records of the event and I noticed that the perspectives of authors include assumptions in their attempts to describe what occurred.  It is known that the first Christian council resulted with the compilation of writings that would become the biblical New Testament.

An English translation of the "The Profession of Faith of the 318 Fathers" may be read online.  This document expresses the opinion of the majority of council members, who elected that Jesus should be decreed to be "the Son of God, the only begotten begotten from the Father."  The perspective of Jesus as "a creature and a work [of God]" was addressed and found "impious" and "blasphemous."  Nonetheless, the "only begotten begotten" declaration seems especially questionable as there are Bible passages that show Jesus to have characteristics and a vulnerability similar to all human beings.    

In 2003 when I was being interviewed on a radio show, I was asked if I believe in Jesus Christ.  Based upon my own unusual experiences and research, I answered: "I believe that Jesus Christ is actually two different entities.  There was Jesus of Nazareth who was a Christed one by the Christ Force."

As many readers know, the case study of my own unexpected and unique spiritual awakening is available in a free Internet edition.  Testament begins with my interviews of a family in Oklahoma who had been reported to be experiencing 'talking poltergeist' phenomena, a subject that I had been researching at the time.  During our conversations, I mentioned some of these cases — including the 19th Century 'Bell Witch' case and Mary Jobson cases (as documented in the book).  Something I told the family about the Mary Jobson case was a speech quoted of a transcendental communicator that included the following declarations.

"I AM THE LORD THY GOD THAT BROUGHT THEE OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT — OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE.  I AM THE PHYSICIAN OF THE SOUL.  I SEND PHYSICIANS AND MEDICAL SURGEONS TO ATTEND TO THE INTERNAL PARTS OF THE BODY.  THERE HAVE BEEN NINE PHYSICIANS AND MEDICAL SURGEONS SEEING MARY JOBSON.  I AM MAKING USE OF HER BODY AS A TRUMPET."

The Mary Jobson case study book is now available at Google Books but the page with this paragraph (p. 5) is missing; also available online is the first published case study of 'The Bell Witch'.

Upon reflecting about our human predicament, what seems to me a prominent fallacy of religion is fostering the belief that people's individual consciousnesses could be in any way subordinate in their relationship with 'God' (Source of All Being) in regard to another person or any conceivable human 'avatar.'  The concept of 'Christ Consciousness' makes this perspective more comprehensible.

Some previous blog articles have reported about patterns involving the words 'Michael' and 'Bell' and the number 9 among cases involving 'paranormal' phenomena.  Following what I wrote earlier this year in the articles "Flying Saucers and 'The Nine Pattern'" and "Beyond 'Talking Poltergeists' and 'The Nine Pattern'", I found myself having an unusual experience involving the number 9 when I reported to a local courthouse for jury service in October.

After my first jury service experience around eight years ago at another part of the San Fernando Valley, I didn't think there could be much of a chance for me to ever be selected as a juror because it had been explained that jurors must let the judge's instructions take precedence over their spiritual beliefs.  I had told the judge then that I thought if everyone responded to that statement honestly, they must say that they would not be willing to follow such an instruction.  I was then excused from the courtroom.  Several years later, I responded to a summons for jury service in another city but was never called to sit in one of the jury seats.  While waiting to see if I might be called if enough people were excused, I was listening for the subject of jurors' spiritual beliefs to be addressed but this question was never raised.  The judge at my most recent jury service experience also made no mention of the issue.

I believe it is one's civic duty to serve as a juror if called and my employer pays an unlimited number of days for jury duty.  At first during my October summons appointment, I felt confident that I would not be one of the people selected to be on the jury for what was a civil case arising from an altercation between apartment complex neighbors that involved a dog bite.  Then the attorneys excused many people from the juror seats and my name was called to sit in one of the alternate chairs.

The main questions that the attorneys wanted me to answer while interviewing me was whether or not I had resided in an apartment and, if so, what problems had I experienced.  I said that I had lived in apartments most of my life without any major problems.  When asked to explain further, I answered that there had been an inconveniencing flood after a pipe blockage and occasionally there have been times when needed repairs weren't made expediently but these were relatively minor inconveniences.  

Throughout the proceedings, it had been noticed and commented upon that many people had sat in seat number nine and each had been dismissed.  Eventually the attorneys finished excusing jurors including another person in the number 9 seat.  As I had not been dismissed, I began wondering if this was where I was going to be for the next two weeks.  Then the judge suddenly asked me to move to seat number nine.  Just as I sat down, an attorney said that I was dismissed.  I can only presume that although he had found it acceptable for me to be an alternate, for some reason he didn't want me to have a more consequential role in the trial.

Following up my September article "Paranormal Radio Shows in 2013", it turned out that Art Bell's Sirius XM Radio program lasted less than a couple months.  As I've commented before, I had once been a regular listener and recurring caller to Art Bell and later George Noory along with some other interim hosts of the radio show "Coast to Coast AM."  These days, in my car I usually listen to the singular local classical music station.

Regarding the lack of metaphysical topics at prominent news websites, it seems sad but true that many people's orientation to these topics may be more influenced by movies, TV shows, novels and pop music than by nonfiction information sources.

Over the years (and perhaps more often before the arts became so highly commercialized), there have been times when I've thought about insightful songs and poems that I had the opportunity to hear or read.  Here are the lyrics of one of these songs — "Ammonia Avenue" (1984) by The Alan Parsons Project.

"Ammonia Avenue"

written by Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons

vocal by Eric Woolfson

Is there no sign of light
as we stand in the darkness
watching the sun arise

Is there no sign of life
as we gaze at the waters
into the stranger's eyes

And who are we
to criticize
or scorn the things that they do

For we shall seek
and we shall find
ammonia avenue

If we call for the proof
and we question the answers
only the doubt will grow

Are we blind to the truth
or a sign to believe in
Only the wise will know

And word by word
they handed down
the light that shines today

And those who came
at first to scoff
remained behind to pray

And those who came
at first to scoff
remained behind to pray

When you can't hear the rhyme
and you can't see the reason
why should the hope remain

For a man will be tired
and his soul will grow weary
living his life in vain

And who are we
to justify
the right in all we do

Until we seek
until we find
ammonia avenue

Through all the doubt
somehow they knew

Stone by stone
they built it high
Until the sun broke through

A ray of hope
a shining light
ammonia avenue

While writing this article, I discovered that the word 'ammonia' correlates with the ancient god-king-priest Amun (or Amun-Ra; sometimes spelled Amon or Amen).  Richard Myers wrote in the 2003 book The Basics of Chemistry:

During ancient times, ammonia was produced by the distillation of animal dung, hooves, and horn.  In fact, the name is derived from the ancient Egyptian deity Amun who was known to the Greeks as Ammon.  Greeks observed the preparation of ammonia from dung in Egypt from sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) near the temple of Amun.  Sal ammoniac or "salt of Ammon" is an ammonium-bearing mineral (ammonium chloride) of volcanic origin.

An article about ancient oracles and a Temple of Amun may be read online: "Egypt: The Temple of the Oracle (Temple of Amun) at the Siwa Oasis in Egypt" by Jimmy Dunn.