What do Noel Streatfeild and Isaac Asimov have in common?

Many years ago, I read about two very similar incidents in the autobiographies of two very different people.

The first incident was recounted by Noel Streatfeild in her autobiographical work A Vicarage Family. It comes from her school days.

The glamorous, exotic Russian Ballet visited London in the summer of 1911; everyone was talking about them; everyone longed to see them. A teacher took those older girls who could afford it to London for three nights to see some performances. 

Noel (Victoria in the book) was not in the party, despite being obsessed with ballet. She was enthralled by what she heard about the company and was desperate to learn, even if it was only at second hand, all she could about the dancers and the ballets. She listened eagerly when she heard some of the starry-eyed girls discussing the outing with the teacher on their return, trying to catch some of the magic from what they said. 

Noel meant only to listen, but there was so much she wanted to know. She asked some questions that, she later realised, might well have sounded puerile to a teacher who had actually seen the Russians and who was probably tired after the exhausting trip. The teacher reacted strongly and negatively, telling her that if she had nothing more sensible to ask she should say nothing at all. 

Noel felt snubbed and deeply hurt.  Tears came into her eyes. How could anyone be so mean after three lovely days of seeing ballets in London as to refuse to describe them to someone who was too poor to go and see them for herself?

Noel decided that she was not going to forgive her teacher.

Unseen influences: seasonal depression and the autumn equinox

Depression at this time of year is common. I think that there is more to it than the feeling that autumn is here, winter is on the horizon and another year of our lives will soon be gone forever.

The occultist Dion Fortune said that one is on or off one’s contacts: they all break automatically at the equinoxes. That would explain a lot. I think of it in different terms - I would say that one’s personal firewall drops at this time of year and in the spring - but the symptoms are the same.

Charlotte Brontë had a lifelong sensibility to equinoctial changes. She wrote in a letter to Mrs Gaskell that the effects lasted approximately one month to six weeks around both equinoxes; sometimes she got severe headaches, sometimes she had to endure the feeling of being ground down to the dust with deep dejection of spirits.

Feeling tearful and empty and pessimistic about the future is to be expected. The best way to deal with it is to be prepared and ride it out.  Autumn especially is a time for staying in and reading or watching DVDs: children’s fantasy fiction and films are very suitable for this purpose. This is what I do, and it does help.

We may not feel like going out, but I have found that going on expeditions to see the beautiful autumn leaves helps to improve my mood. Sitting quietly near trees and water raises my spirits too. 

The painful feelings will recede – until another equinox comes round again.

An autumn scene from St. James’s Park in central London:

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part V: Conspiracy Theory Humour

I have mentioned how junk food, many TV programmes and junk advertisements on the radio make me feel ill: I just can’t tolerate them.

 

I feel the same way about many of the conspiracy theory discussions to be found online: bad English, unpleasant language, crass juvenile humour and insults, repetition of debunked allegations, presentation of platitudes as original insights, meaningless drivel and incomprehensible posts that add nothing of value to a discussion...they all have a bad effect on me. 

There may be useful information and amusing material here and there, but it is not worth trawling through the dross in the hope of finding an occasional gem: it is too time-consuming and too demoralising.

However, I do sometimes come across something really good by accident. I like conspiracy theory humour, and I recently found some amusing posts that seem worth highlighting. 

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - MBTI

I lived much of my life without ever hearing of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which is a form of personality assessment. 

I had always assumed that personality tests were superficial, generalised and irrelevant and had never taken any interest in them. Someone mentioned the MBTI to me a few years ago: she asked me what my MB type was. I was interested, and decided to give it a go after finding some free tests online. 

In all cases, I came out very strongly as INTJ: introversion, intuition, thinking, judgement.  

I read some good quality material describing the characteristics of this type and listing possible career options:  it all seemed spot on. It explained a hell of a lot.  It confirmed some things I had always known or suspected. I have always said, “Does it work?” and expected things to make sense, and this is exactly what the descriptions say INTJs do! 

Unseen influences: are we sometimes our own worst enemies?

A very recent, very positive experience has inspired me to write an article about transforming our lives by transforming ourselves. In other words, we can change our lives for the better on the outside by changing ourselves for the better on the inside.

Circumstances over which I had no control brought me into contact with a random selection of ordinary members of the public, complete strangers with whom I needed to work closely for several days. 

Everyone in the group I was assigned to was healthy, stable, civilised, intelligent, articulate and very pleasant to work with. 

Everyone took the project seriously and made a useful contribution. They all made good points, sensible suggestions and insightful remarks. They all had open minds and balanced viewpoints.

There were no energy vampires and no negative people. There was no one who was out of touch with reality; there was no one who was irrational, obsessed with something, uncooperative, obnoxious or inflexible;  no one  lowered the tone of the discussions; no one dragged everyone down.

These people had not been assessed or pre-selected in any way: it was just ‘chance’ that brought us all together, and made an experience that I had been dreading into one that I actually enjoyed and benefitted from.

I have heard very different reports from people who have been involved in similar exercises. Is it really just chance and the luck of the draw that determine whether we have good or bad experiences, or are other factors involved? Are unseen influences at work?

Dion Fortune on energy vampires

The occultist Dion Fortune made some interesting statements about energy vampires that are worth discussing.  I can’t remember which of her books they came from; I have paraphrased her words from memory and some scribbled notes.

She likened an energy vampire and victim to a bullfrog and sucked-out orange.

This is a very memorable image. I think it must apply mainly to powerful, driven and glamorous energy vampires, those who need and obtain excessive amounts of extra energy. Many energy vampires are being vampirised themselves - possibly by other people, possibly by some internal parasitic obsession or idea - so they appear shrivelled, diminished and sucked out too.

I am reminded of Petra Kelly, one of the founders of the German Green Party, who is reported to have got through seventeen secretaries in eight years:

“I loved her dearly,” said Heinz Suhr, a Green Party spokesman, “but some hated her. They called her a vampire, sucking the energy out of those around her. She was too big a star.”

Joan Aiken’s witch: Mrs Lubbage

Mrs Lubbage is a character in one of the books from Joan Aiken’s wonderful alternative history series for children, the first of which is The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. 

Mrs Lubbage appears in The Cuckoo Tree. She is not exactly a modern-day witch, but she has some interesting characteristics in common with other fictional witches I have discussed.

Mrs Lubbage is the local nurse and wise woman; she has the gift of healing and knows about herbs. The doctor says that many of his patients would not have recovered without her intervention – and adds under his breath that many of them would not have fallen ill in the first place!

Mrs Lubbage is in many ways a stereotype. She is a large lady and wears grubby clothes. Her manner is hostile, threatening, surly and unpleasant. Her home is filthy and squalid; the chickens she keeps are in bad condition. She has a huge rat living with her who helps her cast spells. She also has a child living with her whom she treats very badly.

She is greatly feared. Some people call her a witch and are reluctant to go near her in case she puts a curse on them. She also has powerful allies: she is lending her powers to various plotters.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part IV: Colin Turner’s Born to Succeed

Some years ago, while poking around in a charity shop I noticed an old paperback book. Something made me pick it up, and I saw one or two things inside that made me decide to buy it despite the fact that it was a book about succeeding in business and was not very clean - it had obviously been read many times.

The book was Born to Succeed: Releasing Your Business Potential by Colin Turner.

I am not interested in building a business, and I am very doubtful about the worth of much of the material available on the subject. However, my radar was quite right: the book did contain some useful information; it also confirmed some of my ideas about unseen influences. The advice given may sometimes be obvious and not always original; I found the book neither illuminating nor life-changing, but well worth reading.

One of the previous readers had highlighted some paragraphs and made comments – in Turkish! Most of the highlighted parts were of no particular interest to me as they were business-related, but I made notes of some of the material that resonated the most.

“Reading more than anything else stimulates the mind: use it or lose it.”

This is telling me exactly what I want to hear! Reading stimulates the imagination too, whereas watching television short circuits the imaginative process.

“Books/others are teachers not masters, agencies not sources.”

I agree with this. “Call No Man Master”, and do not treat any book as a bible.

Linwood Sleigh’s witches: Miss Heckatty, Mother Withershins and Winnie Jago

The Boy in the Ivy by Linwood Sleigh is yet another very good book I remembered as containing modern-day witches and wanted to re-read. It is out of print; when I saw how much was being charged for the few copies available, I decided to forget it. After a long time, I felt a sudden impulse to search once again just in case, and found a copy on Amazon at a very reasonable price. When it arrived, I found that it had been signed by the author!

Three of the witches it contains are of especial interest to me.

Miss Heckatty

When she first appears, Miss Heckatty is presented as a selfish, inconsiderate, annoying character, a ‘horrid old lady’. She moves some items a boy left on a window seat on the train to reserve it, and takes the seat herself. She knits during the journey and keeps jabbing the boy beside her with her elbow. 

Miss Heckatty is a learned lady: she is the scholarly type of witch, like Dr. Melanie Powers in L. M. Boston’s An Enemy at Green Knowe. She too is hunting something – an extremely rare flower with magic properties as opposed to occult papers - and just like Melanie Powers, goes to tea with a family because it provides a pretext to get into a place where she hopes to find what she is looking for. The visit provides opportunities to look around and do some investigating. Witches often have ulterior motives for what they do.

She is greedy: she takes the biggest cakes, but unlike Dr. Powers she does this openly. She is unkind to her worn, miserable, downtrodden students. 

Unseen influences: sugar and factory food are our enemies

Dick Sutphen in his book Unseen Influences lists sugar and the cumulative effects of food additives such as artificial flavourings, colourings and preservatives among the unseen influences that adversely affect our lives. 

I strongly agree with him: cutting down on these things has resulted in an improvement in the way I feel. 

I was made addicted to sweets from an early age: I was not always given enough food, and what I got was mostly not very nutritious, but I was always given plenty of sweets. 

Without realising it, I suffered from low blood sugar for much of my life. 

It is interesting that the astrologer and esoteric philosopher Dr Douglas Baker said something about low blood sugar being an occupational hazard for people who are involved with esoteric subjects.

I have a vague memory of reading something about some people who contacted the spirit world via an Ouija board and were told by discarnate entities to eat a lot of sugar. This sounds sinister; it would lower people’s resistance and make them more open to malign influences.

A time came when I tried to improve my health. I lived for a while on plain, mostly unprocessed, food, partly in an attempt to simplify my life and partly to save money. 

Karen Kingston: De-cluttering as a Defence Against the Dark Parts

I vaguely remember a scene from one of Dennis Wheatley’s occult novels in which some people spend the night inside a protective circle (or perhaps it was a pentacle). They have bathed and are wearing clean pyjamas:  complete cleanliness is an essential part of their psychic defence operation. The evil entities arrive and attack as expected.  One actually manifests inside the circle, which was designed to ward it off. The cause is soon discovered: a member of the group had found some papers and, forgetting the rules, brought them into the circle with him to examine, thus providing the entity with some ‘impurities’ that it could fasten onto and use to materialise.

What are we holding onto that enables destructive influences to invade and sabotage our lives? 

While psychic garbage in our energy fields and psychological garbage in our subconscious minds may attract trouble and victimisers, garbage in our external surroundings may also be responsible for reducing our quality of life. Skeletons in our mental closets may attract energy vampires; such things as never-worn clothes and items in bad states of repair in our physical closets may also be drawing unwanted people and experiences into our lives.

Keeping our home environment clean, tidy, attractive, organised and in a good state of repair is an important aspect of psychic self-defence; cleanliness and orderliness may help to attract good influences and deter ‘astral bacteria’, ‘hungry ghosts’ and other undesirable entities. 

Three fictional modern-day witches

I have always liked reading stories about witches, especially modern-day witches.

I no longer read such fiction just for enjoyment and escape: I am looking for examples of and information about various types of unseen influence.

I remembered some books I read long ago that feature modern-day witches and have been rereading them in the hope of finding relevant material. I already have enough for several articles: there are many connections to be made between some fictional modern-day witches and people I have encountered, and there are scenes in these books that remind me of incidents I have experienced myself. 

It is interesting that some of these witches were created by men, although on the basis of their first names one or two of them are often assumed to be women.

I will start with three very different modern-day witches of interest created by three very different authors. 

John Masefield’s witch: Sylvia Daisy Pouncer
The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, two children’s classic fantasy novels written by John Masefield, contain a character called Sylvia Daisy Pouncer, who is publicly a governess and secretly a witch.

She is said to have been modelled on Masefield's aunt, who raised him and his siblings after their parents died. She disapproved of his love of reading: she sent him as a teenager to live on a naval training ship to cure him of the filthy habit! She is also said to have been inspired by a hated governess who taught Masefield and his siblings.

Obedience and the truth: some illuminating observations

One characteristic often found in energy vampires and manipulators is that they habitually ignore essential points, central issues and fundamental truths. They are out of touch with reality.

Even if someone is able to confront them by telling them some home truths, hell will freeze over before they admit that they have done anything wrong, never mind apologising. 

They are like vampires: they cannot or will not see themselves in mirrors; the truth is like garlic to them; they avoid daylight and operate in the darkness. It is best to leave them behind in the remedial school and move ourselves on by learning some lessons that our victimisers will never learn. 

Anyone who has been controlled or preyed upon by such people may need to spend some time aligning their ideas with reality, which involves learning some new words and concepts along the way and investing some time in mastering the rudiments of critical thinking. 

One of the best ways to start is by getting back to basics. 

There are some people who tell it like it is: their insights are weapons that disperse smokescreens and expose the underlying dynamics of sick relationships. 

The following statements about obedience from Anna Valerious’s blog Narcissists Suck are good examples of what I mean:

A forced obedience is no obedience at all, but rather it is slavery.

A manipulated obedience is no obedience at all, but deception.

A purchased obedience is no obedience at all, but bribery.

An obedience rendered in fear of adverse consequences is no obedience at all, but self-preservation.

I found the above observations very true and very inspiring, so much so that I came up with some similar ones about the truth:

Believing something to be true does not make it true.

Wanting to believe that something is true does not make it true.

Desperately needing to believe that something is true does not make it true.

Loudly and/or repeatedly insisting that something is true does not make it true.

Avoiding, ridiculing, attacking, persecuting or destroying anyone who questions the truth of something does not make it true.

When these sets of observations make sense and we accept that they are correct, the victimiser’s evil spell will start to dissolve.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part III: More from Vernon Howard

If there are any energy vampires and emotional blackmailers in your life, you may find the following defences useful:

• Don’t dump your trash on my desk.

• Who said I had to explain myself to you?

• If you want to fight, find another enemy.

• What if I made the demands on you that you make
        on me?

• I won’t lift a finger to solve the problem you have 
        caused.   

• I was not born to be the ear to your chattering
        mouth.    

• No, I don’t owe you a thing.     

• You are several years too late to play that trick on 
        me.

• How evil of you to try to drag me down to your low 
        level.

I think that nos. 4 and 8 are particularly effective: if only I had been able to say this to the victimisers in my life…it is too late for me but perhaps other people will find this list useful.

White magic and black magic and the books of Stella Gibbons

My first encounter with the books of Stella Gibbons
It was my stepmother who introduced me to many of the works of Stella Gibbons. I have never much liked romance novels nor books that are primarily about personal relationships, but my stepmother was so enthusiastic about the books that I decided to give them a try.  

I felt an attraction that I could not have put into words at the time. I found them civilised, elegant, witty and interesting; I liked the glimpses they gave me into other people’s lives: this expanded my horizons. I liked the descriptions of London and the natural world. I was only ten years old at the time, so I was too young to understand the undercurrents and subtle references to dark topics. This was the stage when a foundation was laid and seeds were sown for the future. 

My second encounter with the books of Stella Gibbons
A time came much later in my life when I decided to return to the past and salvage some good things I remembered. This operation included renewing my acquaintance with books I had enjoyed reading many years earlier.  I re-read many of Stella Gibbons’s novels and short stories. I also found some of her books that I had never read before in second-hand bookshops.

I got much more out of reading them as an adult with some experience of life than I had in the past as a child – the reverse was true for some of the other authors I re-visited. 

Curse or coincidence? Two more cases from real life

A few years ago, I picked up a discarded copy of a free newspaper called Metro just to have something to read while making a short train journey. There was not much of interest to me in it, so I just skimmed the pages until I suddenly came to an article about something that was very much on my mind: putting curses on people.

It was a copy of an interview with a crime writer called James Ellroy. I had never heard of him, perhaps because I am not a fan of most crime novels. This extract speaks for itself:

“James Ellroy, 62, is an American author whose crime novels include The Black Dahlia and LA Confidential, both made into films. His mother was murdered when he was 10 years old, three months after he put a curse on her. It remains an unsolved case.”

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part II: Terry Pratchett’s books

I have found that Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books brighten the atmosphere: they are ideal for driving away black moods and dispersing the dark clouds of depression. 

I particularly like the books that feature his three main witch characters, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. The three witches in Macbeth were the inspiration for these ladies. He said that three is a natural number for witches. It is just a coincidence that when I was at school, someone likened me and my two sisters to the three witches in Macbeth!

Not only do these books entertain, amuse and raise one’s spirits, they also contain material that seems to me to be relevant to some topics on this blog. I have already made a connection between the effects that Terry Pratchett’s illusion-creating elves have on humans and the effects that some glamorous energy vampires have on their victims.

Some of what Pratchett says about magic and how it attracts undesirable entities could apply to unconscious or psychological black magic and how it attracts – or is even caused by - forces that sabotage the lives of the practitioners. 

Kathleen Raine and Gavin Maxwell: curse or coincidence?

The poet Kathleen Raine was involved in an unsatisfactory and tempestuous relationship with Gavin Maxwell, the naturalist who later became famous for his books about otters. She cursed him after he pushed her to the limits of endurance; he suffered a series of misfortunes then he died.

I would like to believe that the misfortunes would have happened anyway, but after learning about the effect that some creative people had on those close to them I think that her ill-wishing actually worked. Poets are closer to the subconscious – or unconscious – and she was pushed right to the edge at the time. 

One difference between this example and others I have written about from personal experience is that both of the people involved were aware that a curse had been launched, and one at least believed that it had been effective.

From articles I found online:

“Their relationship burnt itself out, however. Banished from the house during a raging storm in 1956, a weeping Kathleen Raine cursed Maxwell under a rowan tree: 

‘Let Gavin suffer in this place as I am suffering now.’

Within the next few years his pet otter was killed by a workman, his house was destroyed by fire, and he himself was diagnosed with terminal cancer.”
From an obituary.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part I: Vernon Howard’s booklets

Reading the right words in the right way at the right time can have an effect that is almost magical. Something changes permanently for the better on the inside, and this causes a change for the better on the outside. The illumination caused by reading and understanding the words changes our vibrational rate; lumps in our subconscious minds disappear; we move to a better psychological area; we become different people and thus we attract different types of people and experiences.

This process is not under our conscious control. What works for other people does not always work for us, and vice versa.

I heard very good reports of A Course in Miracles so I got a copy but found that I could not get through it. It did not speak my language nor resonate with my thoughts and experiences. I wanted to get something positive from this book but my subconscious mind refused to co-operate. Not only did it not like the book, it disliked it very much! Other people may have transformed their lives thanks to this book, but it did nothing at all for me.

It was very different when I picked up a little booklet in a New Age bookshop. It was 50 Ways To See Thru People by Vernon Howard. Something about it attracted me, so I bought it and three companion booklets. I got a lot out of reading these little publications, which came into my life at just the right time.  They provide a good introduction to the subject of spiritual development.

Accidents or more sacrificed sons?

Since creating my first post on this subject, I have become aware of many more examples of untimely deaths of sons, toxic legacies and parents who outlive their children.

Alexander Mosley, the elder son of Formula One chief Max Mosley, was found dead in 2009. A drugs overdose - accidental or deliberate - was discovered to be the cause. Alexander Mosley was said to be a maths genius and a fragile person. He inherited the poisonous legacy of British Fascism and had a notorious father and grandfather.

L. Ron Hubbard’s oldest son Quentin died at the age of 22 after being found in a coma in his car. His death is believed to be suicide. He inherited the poisonous legacy of Scientology and had a notorious father.

Robert Maxwell, the notorious media tycoon, died mysteriously. One of his sons died tragically:

 “…his eldest son, Michael, was severely injured in 1961 (at the age of 15), after being driven home from a post-Christmas party when his driver fell asleep at the wheel. Michael never regained consciousness and died seven years later." 
- From Wiki.

Witches and fairy godmothers in real life

In traditional stories, fairy godmothers grant wishes and make dreams come true; witches do the opposite. Fairy godmothers bless people; witches curse them.  Fairy godmothers are helpful and look after people’s interests; witches do whatever harm they can and sabotage people’s lives. Fairy godmothers are nurturing and encourage healthy growth; witches blight and poison everything and everyone around them.

I believe that these stories are founded on fact.

My articles about energy vampires, psychic crime, psychological black magic and curses describe people who might well be called modern day witches.

On the other hand, I myself have been called a fairy godmother a few times!

She wished to meet a certain actor

I remember when one of my colleagues was talking about some actor she had seen on TV: she said that she really liked this man and wished she could meet him. I said I wished that she could too. I had no idea who he was and still don’t know. When she returned to work after the weekend, she was very excited. She told us that she had been walking on the Heath with a few friends and they stopped for a drink in a pub. It was very crowded; someone came up and asked if he could sit with them. It was the actor! She said he was very pleasant and she wasn’t at all disappointed or disillusioned with him. So her wish was granted.

Unseen influences: chemicals in modern cleaning products and positive ions

We need to fight the enemy on all fronts. I have certainly been reduced to a terrible state by energy vampires, but accidentally breathing in the fumes from certain cleaning products has had effects that were just as bad. Modern offices have often made me feel really ill too.

It took a long while for me to realise that the enemy within my home was making me ill. For example, bleach and certain disinfectants aggravated breathing problems and made me feel depressed, poisoned and weak. I have had bad coughs and chest pains as a result of my own ignorance, carelessness and forgetfulness. Even after becoming aware of the dangers, I bought and used more of these products. 

I have certainly been my own worst enemy where my health and general well-being are concerned.

Unseen influences: curses and cursing

I can’t remember when I first made a connection between some disturbing incidents I had experienced in my life and the idea that some people are able to cause misfortune to others by ill-wishing or cursing them.  It was certainly some years after I first read Colin Wilson’s books Mysteries and The Occult, in which there are many examples of curses and cursing.

I would much rather believe in accidents, mere coincidences and chance than the idea that some people do have and use this power, but personal experience has made me believe that the proposition is correct. 

The incidents I have witnessed all involve perpetrators who were unaware of their powers and the effect that they had on the people around them. 

Unconsciously cursing someone is not the same as deliberately using spoken ritual to bring harm to a chosen victim. It often happens automatically; it usually comes from a very deep level in immediate response to what the perpetrator perceives to be an annoyance, a threat, an attack, an injury, a refusal to obey orders or a disappointing and unacceptable rejection. 

It is unwise to raise this subject with most people: they have no experience of incidents such as these and cannot understand or accept the issues involved. Putting information online in the hope that the right people will be drawn to it and find it useful is a better option.

Energy vampires in books: Terry Pratchett and J.K. Rowling

There are many articles about energy vampires (meaning the human kind, not electrical appliances on standby) to be found online. Some have nothing new or original to add to existing knowledge in either the material itself or the presentation and interpretation: they just repeat the basics. 

Some articles are written by people who are trying to sell something: they consist of snippets surrounded by advertisements. 

Many such articles are superficial, positioned at the level of pop psychology; others are all generalisations with nothing coming from personal experiences. Many books on the subject are not much better.

Some of this information may be suitable for people who want an introduction to the subject, or to learn how to deal with a difficult colleague at the office or a negative, self-pitying mother who won’t get off the phone, but some of us want something deeper and more substantial, something that takes metaphysical factors and the very worst examples into account.

In this connection, I have found two examples of fictional energy vampires that resonate very strongly with me. They come from the works of Terry Pratchett and J. K. Rowling.

Unseen influences:should we forget it to get it?

I remember how devastated I felt when first I read somewhere that wanting something very much is likely to activate forces that prevent our getting it. People who can take it or leave it are more likely to get it. This rule seems very unfair, but it explains a lot. I just wish that I had learned it much earlier in life.

I noticed a similar rule operating in my life: one way to get something I want is to forget about it!

Unseen Influences: gratitude and appreciation attract good experiences

This article was created as a counterpoint to the one about distress signals attracting predators. It could be that these phenomena are two sides of the same coin: perhaps it is only people who draw predators to them when they are feeling terrible who get good experiences after expressing gratitude and appreciation and giving out positive signals.

I still remember a time many years ago when I felt delighted with a children’s book I found in a discount bookstore. It was based on the Pinocchio story; it had lovely coloured pictures and simple text; it was a great bargain. I gave the book to someone as a present for her little boy. 

She told me later that it was ideal because he had not been very interested in learning to read, but he loved Pinocchio and this book had inspired him to want to learn to read so that he could understand the text. I didn’t know he couldn’t read very well nor that he liked Pinocchio, but perhaps the universe did! 

Two exploited women: Maria Callas and the Duchess of Windsor

I remember watching a TV programme about the final years of the Duchess of Windsor in Paris. This reminded me of something I had read about the later life of Maria Callas.

Maria Callas’s death
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She died at her home in Paris on September 16th 1977, after living in loneliness and isolation for many years.

A heart attack was given as the official cause of her death, but the following disturbing extracts from two articles I found online suggest a very different story; a colleague believes that she was poisoned.

Unseen Influences: distress signals attract predators

A recent disconcerting experience has reminded me of similar incidents in the past. I would like to pass on the lessons I have learned in the hope that others may benefit from my conclusions and insights.

Our inner state often determines our experiences, and this rule seems to apply very strongly to people who are aware of other dimensions.

Here are some stories of jarring incidents involving strangers, incidents that would probably never have occurred if I had not been under the weather at the time:

The old diary and the secretive Scientologist
Many years ago, I re-read an old diary before throwing it away. I can still see the little book with its red leather cover, and I sometimes wish that I had kept it as a record of a time when I was being emotionally blackmailed and life was an agonising struggle for existence. However, I decided it was best to get rid of  something that was full of bad energy and to cut the link with the past.

Reading the diary caused me to re-live some of the incidents and this had a very bad effect on me: I went right back to the terrible state I had been in at the time.

I felt very distressed and should have stayed at home until the effects wore off, but I went out to a popular local shopping area. 

Astrology and the influence of the moon

There was a time many years ago when I decided to investigate astrology. Although I found the works of the more serious astrologers – Dr. Liz Greene for example – to be worth reading, I was never convinced that the heavenly bodies had much influence on our lives.

I did benefit in that I learned some more history and Greek mythology; I was also introduced to the idea of different personality types based on the presence and balance of the four elements in their birth charts, which gave me some respect for psychological diversity.

My scepticism did dissolve a little when I discovered that many of my favourite childhood authors were fellow Capricorns: Dennis Wheatley; Rudyard Kipling; Ouida; Gerald Durrell; Hugh Lofting; Noel Streatfeild; A. A. Milne; Stella Gibbons; J. R. R. Tolkien … but then I realised that there are other Capricorn authors whose work I don’t like much or at all, and many authors born under other signs whose work I like as much as or more than the work of the best Capricorn writers.

Something that happened many years ago while I was still reading books about astrology made me take the subject a little more seriously:

I was doing some spring cleaning. I was happily washing down a wall while listening to a tape of the song Liverpool Farewell by the Spinners. I felt energised by the song, which seemed cheerful and exciting: new adventures were on the horizon. 

This was in the morning; when I resumed work in the afternoon, I played the tape again. This time, the song sounded unbearably sad because people were parting; I was tearful and did not feel like continuing with the work. 

I had an idea. I investigated some tables and discovered that the moon had actually changed signs during my lunch break: in the morning it had been in the airy-fairy sign of Gemini; in the afternoon it had moved to the cry-baby sign of Cancer!

However, a change from sunshine to dull, grey, wet weather can have a similar effect.

I went into and through astrology and came out the other end. I have found many other areas of investigation to be more relevant and helpful. The jury’s still out.

The Leaving of Liverpool:

Energy vampires: my thoughts and memories Part III

This is the third part of some very old personal memories of and new ideas about energy vampires. It may all seem rather far-fetched but as they say, "You couldn't make it up"! 

My hope is that it will help people who have had similar experiences to understand what causes them, which is the first stage in learning how to reduce the frequency and severity of such incidents. 

The residents’ association meeting and what came of it
I remember having a conversation with a colleague at work at a time when I had just discovered the world of New Age books and wanted to pass on some of the information and anecdotes. He was very interested in my stories about synchronicity and coincidences, and when I had to go and do something else it was obvious that he wanted to continue the conversation. It was a good day for me at work in many ways. 

That same evening, I went to a residents’ association meeting in my block of flats.  Everything went wrong from then on. I came away feeling as though the life had been sucked out of me and that I was being slowly crushed to death by a heavy black cloud. This was only the second time I had attended these meetings. I should have listened to my intuition and not gone, but there were some local developments that I needed to learn more about. It is not always possible to avoid the company of energy vampires. 

Some of these neighbours were people whom I would normally avoid; one in particular was one of the worst energy vampires I have ever encountered. I suspected her of targetting me mentally in the hope of getting various things from me. She seemed very disturbed, unable to build relationships and negotiate in the normal way.

Unseen influences: Washington and other places with sinister associations

The idea that some locations are psychically dangerous and unpleasant to visit or live in is very old. For example, scenes of murders, houses where there was a lot of pain and suffering, former prisons, battlefields, plague pits and places where black magic rituals have been performed are all often full of bad energy and evil vibrations. Sensitive people often avoid pubs and butchers’ shops for similar reasons.

There is another side to this: while some people might avoid such places, others might be drawn to them, consciously or unconsciously, as if following a psychic trail. I have personal experience of this.

I remember thinking to myself, “I might have known!” and, “Why am I not surprised?” when I first read that Sussex, where I lived for some years as a child, is a place with strong black magic connections.

When I read in one of David Icke’s books that Ryde on the Isle of Wight also has bad occult connections, I had the same reaction. I stayed there for a short time as a child; a younger sister was actually born there – perhaps this explains her behaviour.

Unseen Influences: evil operates by the rulebook

Evil is said to operate according to certain rules. For example, anyone who has watched vampire films will know that they can’t come in unless you invite them. Dracula lurks outside the window trying to hypnotise someone into opening it for him. I vaguely remember a horror film with a black magician who tricks someone into inviting him in and offering him a drink of water – this gives him some kind of power over the household. 

The message here is that if you know the rules they operate by, you can defend yourself against and perhaps even defeat the dark forces. 

One of these rules seems very strange:  it says that victims must consent in advance to whatever evil is worked upon them. This seems very unlikely: who would agree to this? No one would knowingly consent to being taken away and tortured. No one would agree to be exploited and destroyed. 

The answer is that naïve and gullible people can be tricked and unprotected and vulnerable people who cannot look after their own interests and have no one to do it for them can be taken advantage of. 

Evil people load the dice against their intended victims and cheat them. They manipulate, manoeuvre and confuse people into doing things that they would never consider if they were in their right minds and a healthy state or had someone suitable to protect and advise them. Evil people – or forces - engineer situations that close off all avenues except the one they want their victims to take.

Unseen Influences: the attack-dog syndrome

The Jimmy Savile case has been discussed in great depth on the David Icke forum. Much of the information and many of the issues are outside my experience but I do remember speaking out about him many years ago, long before any criticisms and accusations were publicised. His eyes, his 'vibes', his irritating mannerisms and that cigar gave me very bad feelings. I think that if he had come into the room, I would have run out of it. 

When I said this to some people, I experienced a lot of hostility and was accused of being snobbish. I ignored them and stood by my views, although at the time they were just the result of a personal antipathy caused by what I sensed about him.

I remember seeing a TV programme made by someone whose father killed himself after losing the money he had invested in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The son spoke to a New York financier who said that when she expressed some doubts after being asked her opinion of Madoff and his scheme in the early days, the negative reactions were such that from then on she just said that she didn't know anything about him. In other words, a potential threat had been silenced.

I have expressed doubts about certain new employees a few times, doubts based on what I sensed was lurking below the surface, only to be met with indifference or accusations of various ‘isms’ and, “How can you say such things about this fine person.” 

In every case I was right: these people did a lot of damage to the company.

This angry reaction is sometimes known as the attack-dog syndrome. “You don’t know what you are talking about” is another one of their favourite automatic weapons.

Sometimes the people who attack have a vested interest in destroying threats to their beliefs - cult members and multi-level marketing supporters are good examples of this - sometimes they have no reason at all to make outbursts intended to flatten someone. Perhaps they have been unconsciously conscripted into the war against whistle-blowers.

I have learned to trust my feelings and intuition. I take such attacks as a dead giveaway that there is something evil lurking in the background that feels threatened. I am wary of anyone who makes inappropriately vehement attacks: I see them as controlled puppets or temporarily possessed random mediums, people who are being used to silence potential enemies.

What does it say about a cause if supporters need to defend it in this way? What does it say about the people who make these attacks? 

They don't understand that they are giving themselves away, at least to those who understand this particular kind of unseen influence.