I am listening to Memories, Dreams, Reflections as an audiobook, and was struck by this segment. Jung was addressing the mythic and how it is dismissed as futile by the intellect, yet he sees it as something valid. This excerpt comes from Chapter 11, titled: On Life after Death. He is wondering, as an old man, what the reality of life after death might mean. I feel his statement above would ring just as true if it were addressing UFOs—or mystical owl experiences.
Last week Dakota graduated from high school, and because of all the virus stuff the students were let in one by one along with their parents. They did a little videotaping on the stage where the principal handed each kid their diploma. At some point soon they’ll edit it all together as one big graduation production. I was with Andrea and Dakota and we had some time so we walked around the halls of the empty school. There was a sheet of paper taped to all the senior lockers, and these were labeled with the student’s names. Dakota was walking along and signing all the pages; this was happening because there was no way to pass around yearbooks with the school closed.
While I was walking around I thought about my own high school and my own locker. I thought to myself, “I wonder if I can remember my locker combination from my senior year.”
The numbers 36 - 15 - 38 immediately popped into my mind. I walked up to a locker and spun those numbers on the little dial—and it opened!
In a weird way I wasn't surprised, but at the same time, I was astounded! I sort of announced to Andrea and Dakota what I'd just done. They were both like, "Holy crap! really?”
I closed the locker, spun the dial around, re-did the combination, and it opened again. I stood for a moment and then I spun the dial but didn't do the combination, and the locker opened right up. Then I checked the lockers on both sides of it and they were locked and wouldn't open up. I rechecked the locker I’d first opened, and it was unlocked. It seemed like the lock itself was broken so it couldn’t be locked. Then I started checking all the lockers in the row and they all were locked. I didn't check all the lockers in all the halls but it seemed that I had picked the one unlocked locker to try that combination that had popped into my head.
So it wasn't any kind of psychic knowing of the combination, yet it was a weird coincidence that I would pick that one unlocked locker as a way to test my own synchro-weirdness.
I Googled the numbers 36 - 15 - 38, and it read it as a math problem with a sum of -17. I removed the little minus signs (or hypens) and tried again. This time a Bible passage came up at the top of the search, everything below that was just gobbledygook code from other sites online. Here's the Bible quote:
1 Corinthians 15:36-38 New International Version (NIV)
36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
This is very curious, especially the line: "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.”
High school is a very important chapter of one's life, I know it was for me, and it certainly was for Dakota too. The way I read it is that you would need to let that chapter of your life die way in order to begin the next chapter, the new chapter—to grow from a new seed.
I read this book aloud, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I had to re-live so much doubt and denial. Reading my own words meant playing the role of actor, performing as myself, and quite literally re-living a profoundly challenging chapter of my life.
I am proud of this book, and my own courage for following through with such an introspective project.
Eight minutes and thirty seconds
And, long time reader Red Pill Junkie read the foreword, and he has a much better voice than I do! Listen int he player below.
15 minutes and 34 seconds
Also, I need to thank Suzanne Chancellor for her role as both editor and therapist. Without her listening ear, this book could never have happened.
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I have 25 coupons for a FREE version of the Hidden Experience audiobook. This offer requires a membership with Audible, and unfortunately, it only applies in the US. All I ask is to add a review on either the Audible site, or on Amazon.
Please get ahold of me thru my contact info in the right sidebar, or thru Facebook Messenger.
Yesterday morning I woke with my heart pounding after a weirdly vivid dream.
There must have been more leading up to this, but the first thing I remember is being in the house where I grew up. Everything seemed to exactly match my old home, and that’s unusual, places in my dreamscapes are almost always distorted somehow.
It was nighttime and I was in the front foyer looking out a window facing the front yard and street. I could see that there was a bright light shining out of the garage and lighting up the driveway. This seemed odd and I wondered what was in the garage. The light made me really nervous. I needed to know what it was, and walked through the house so I could open the the door to the garage.
I got to the kitchen, turned on the light and realized I was floating. There was this familiar feeling, like I had done this many times and it was normal. I could concentrate in a way that kept myself up off the floor, and sort of willed myself toward the back hallway. I turned the corner and smoothly floated to the inside garage door.
I knew I had to open the door to see what was in the garage, but I was scared. I didn’t hesitate, I opened the door and the garage was empty. Then I woke up. I lay there in bed with an oppressive sense of dread, and it took a long time to shake the feeling.
Yesterday I listened to an audio interview with Kim Krans, the artist and author that created THE WILD UNKNOWN tarot deck. It was a beautiful interview (on the Fierce Womxn Writing podcast) where she spoke about her work habits and creative insights. Near the end of the interview the host asked if Kim had a writing prompt, and she shared a simple motivational exercise. Here’s a transcript from the end the interview. Kim said:
Write a thank you letter to an author or artist—let them just come to mind. Like, what would I do without this person? Where would I be if I hadn’t had those books when I was younger, or now? So let them come to mind, and don’t second guess it. So once you have an author in mind, don’t change it. Stick with the first one that comes to mind, and you are going to write them a one page letter, handwritten, not on the computer. You get a piece of paper and simply thank them for not giving up. You can talk about how their work has helped you, but mostly you’re thanking them for not giving up. And then you sign it with the date. If you just write the letter, that’s wonderful. If you do the next thing, I promise you—you are entering into magical territory.
You put the letter in an envelope, you stamp it, and you address it to yourself. That way the letter becomes certified, they stamp it at the post office, and it goes through the mail and circulate in its own magical way. When it comes back to you, you open the envelope, and you read it again. So you are engaging in the letter both as a writer and as a receiver of the letter. And this will remind us of the bigger arc, the bigger picture—why it’s important to not give up on this much deeper call…
While I was listening to her, I thought I should do this. The very first person that came to mind was Mort Drucker. He’s an illustrator at MAD magazine with a remarkably lively pen and ink technique. He was the one artist who inspired me more than anyone else, and this admiration began when I was about eight years old, and has only gotten stronger in the last fifty years.
Yesterday afternoon I went for a walk on a winding trail behind my home, and spent this quiet time composing the letter in my mind.
Just a few minutes ago, I saw a facebook post from comic illustrator Drew Friedman, and he wrote:
So sad to hear about the passing of the great Mort Drucker.
He died yesterday at the age of 91, the day I composed a letter in my head, thanking him for not giving up.
The day before yesterday I sat on a log on the same winding trail, and quietly asked the universe for help. It was raining lightly as I spoke out loud:
Hello Universe, I am asking for help. I feel adrift. I need to get back in touch with the creative part of myself. I know I have more to offer, and I know I can still do good work. I am asking for some sign. I am open and responsive to whatever you have to offer. I thank you in advance.
Seems I got my sign.
More about Mort Drucker. He drew hands and wrinkles so beautifully. His drawings were meant to be funny (and they are) but, but beyond his humor—there is genius in his work. As a boy I would carefully copy his drawings using crummy office pens. He was a traditional “dipper” (dipping a brass nib into India ink). In my 20s I read an article where he spoke about the pen he used, the Gillott 404. I got a box of ‘em and I tired my best to mimic his glorious lines.
Mort Drucker image from the parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey
Caricature of jazz pianist Bill Evans drawn by me with a Gillott 404
Image of my neighbor's home, the dream was is the summer, but the only good photo I found was in winter (with a moose)
This morning I awoke from a haunting dream. I was standing on very top of a tall ladder positioned my old next door neighbors roof, it seemed like I was trying to help with something on a the peak of the roof, maybe the chimney of some sort of tall antenna. This was a two story house and I was way up there, maybe forty feet or more above the ground.
There came a point when I looked down and saw one of the legs of the ladder had moved a little bit, and it was just enough that it slipped off the edge of the metal roof. In that moment I felt the ladder tipping and there was nothing I could do about it. I was slowly falling out away from the edge of the house, and looking down at the the rocky yard.
I knew I was about to die, and there was nothing I could do. Everything was happening in this eerie slow motion. There was no fear, just a feeling of inevitability, and I thought to myself, “Oh, this is what people mean when they say time slows down.”
I’d pitched off the ladder and was dropping toward my neighbor’s yard. I made a calm declaration to myself, “There is still so much more I can do here, if I live I will do more.”
I watched the ground rushing up, but there was no impact. I calmly opened my eyes and was lying in bed, looking at the dark window next to me.
The Courtship by the surrealist painter, Gertrude Abercrombie. It is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. What's interesting is that there is a flying saucer over the man's head and an owl in the lower left. Was this "courtship" a sort of alien abduction? The man is wearing a villain's mask and he is "miming" a gun with his thumb and index finger. The woman is holding up her arms in apparent surrender. The painting was done in 1949, two years after Roswell, when flying saucers were a hot topic. Saucerian-looking, lenticular clouds appear in most of her other works.
I received this image in an email this morning from a reader named John. I immediately started searching out her paintings. Click on any image for a HIrez view.
title unknown
Gertrude Abercrombie (February 17, 1909 – July 3, 1977) was an American painter based in Chicago. Called "the queen of the bohemian artists." She was involved in the Chicago jazz scene and was friends with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, whose music inspired her own creative work.
Owl and the Moon
Many compositions feature a lone woman in a flowing gown, often depicted with attributes of sorcery: an owl, a black cat, a crystal ball, or a broomstick. These works were often self-portraits, as she stated in an interview with Studs Terkel shortly before her death: "it is always myself that I paint." Tall and sharp-featured, she considered herself ugly; in life she sometimes wore a pointed velvet hat to accentuate her witch-like appearance, she enjoyed the power this artifice gave her over others who would fear or recoil from her.
(text from Wikipedia)
title unknown
for more examples of her work, click HERE
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Confessions of a Spooky Mindby Walter Bosley is a short little book and a memoir of sorts, describing some of the strange events in his life. He has written a lot of other books too, both fiction and non-fiction. These includingThe Empire of the Wheel trilogy and The Esoteric Napoleon. Plus, a handful of thrillers in the classic pulp style.
Walter describes some of his very strange personal experiences and how those lead to his equally strange research. His life has followed a wandering path, crisscrossing with the unknown. This interviews covers UFOs, owls, synchronicity, occult practices and espionage.
The audio segments were heavily illustrated when they first appeared on the blog back in 2010. The images posted below are meant to accompany my spoken words on the audio book excerpts. These photos and illustrations should help the listener visualize the verbal stories.
My good friend Christopher Bledsoe interviews with Richard Dolan on his radio show. There is over four hours of audio, and this should be considered required listening.
Richard wrote:
What has always stood out regarding Chris Bledsoe is the combination of remarkable events around him combined with high credibility of the man himself. Along with this are the numerous witnesses who vouch for what has been going on his property.
I can vouch for Chris, I've had several remarkable experiences with Chris at his home. Here is one event that I've written about, it's my account of seeing something odd in the night sky.
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An audio reading of two chapters from my recent book Hidden Experience will be featured on THE UNSEEN. This weekly podcast is hosted by Whitley Strieber on his site, Unknown Country.
The two chapters were both heavily illustrated when they first appeared on the blog back in 2010. The images posted below are meant to accompany my spoken words on the audio book excerpts. These photos and illustrations should help the listener visualize the verbal stories.
_______________________________________ (the first audio excerpt) CHAPTER 6 - The Map
It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
― Philip K. Dick
Lotsa owls in Missouri
Tuesday March 9, 2010
Mac Tonnies' book, The Cryptoterrestrials (above) arrives in the mail. On the same day an series of amazing owl image (below) arrive in my email inbox.
14 owls in one photo
28 owls (doubled from above) in one photo
Photos by FarenFite, over 200 owls he saw in rural Missouri.
Video footage of the owls
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Byron North Dakota and Anya Briggs
Friday, March 12, 2010
The yellow line passes between Lockwood and Greenfield along US-Highway 160 in Missouri. This is the approximate location of those amazing owl photos.
Low tech tools incorporated in the detective work.
Without really thinking about it, I took a plastic ruler and set it against my computer monitor, and the three push pins line up EXACTLY in a straight line. I gotta say, this partially freaked me out, and at the same time, I sorta knew they were gonna line up before I even started.
A weird line, connecting the three dots across a BIG section of the US map. Byron in RED, Kansas City in YELLOW and those owls in BLUE.
I used some of the google-map tools to create a straight line on the map. There are 820 miles between the red push pin up North in Byron and blue push pin down in Greenfield Missouri, on the road where the owl pictures were taken, with that straight yellow line plainly bisecting Kansas City
The hometown of my pal Mac, and the yellow line passes right through the city.
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audio download / 19 minutes long / posted March 12, 2010
The push pin making Byron North Dakota also aligns with another line
Okay, even more weirdness. A straight line (690 miles long) passes directly through BYRON ND and BYRON WY and goes straight though my house in Idaho, and I mean EXACTLY!
This pink push pin marks my cabin in rural Idaho. The blue line ends right at my home after passing (in a razor straight line) from both BYRON's.
My gut reaction to that razor sharp blue line was that it was somehow pointing directly at me! It felt like the floor dropped out from under where I sat.
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Update on the yellow line on the map
Friday, March 26, 2010
Pink Pin: My cute house in Idaho
Green Pin: Byron Wyoming
Red Pin: Byron North Dakota
Yellow Pin: Kansas City Missouri
Blue Pin: The site where the guy saw over 200 owls!
Yellow Line: 835 miles long
Blue Line: 690 miles long
White Line: 995 miles long
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Mysterious star map?
Friday, April 9, 2010
coffee spilled on some map notes nearly drove me insane!
_______________________________________ Three days in the Pryor Mountains
December 2018
15 mils north of Byron Wyoming is the Montana border, 15 miles north of the border is the Pryor Range
The traditional home to the Little People
The lonely sagebrush landscape of the Pryor Mountains
The closest owl I have ever been to in the wild, close enough to touch. (this is a found photo, but closely matches what I saw)
_______________________________________ Dream image with a raven
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
tidy art direction from the 1970's
I had a vivid dream just before I awoke, this happened on the morning of August 18th. I clearly saw a graphic poster with Helvetica bold text.
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CHAPTER 8
- The Night in the Tent
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
—H. P. Lovecraft
Irrational fear inside our tent
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Image drawn a few days after the event
image from my sketchbook, made the morning after the event
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(the second audio excerpt)
Sweat lodge and a curious scratch
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Sketch book image of the very humble sweat lodge in Arizona. A simple structure made from arching re-bar, old blankets and canvas. In the foreground is a fire pit with collection of VERY hot rocks.
An odd this scratch made of tiny blisters
Natascha, Howard and me (with a cat) early in the morning at the Spider Rock campground
