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Vo l .

I s s u e

Virginia Carraway Stark is editor in chief of StarkLight Press and

Director at the National Paranormal Society. She has written
extensively on the paranormal and injects her considerable
knowledge on the subject into her speculative fiction and
screenplays. You can find Virginia's work through StarkLight Press.
She works with other writers, artists and poets to hone her talents
and to offer encouragement and insight to others. She has been an
honorable mention at Canne Film Festival for her screenplay, Blind Eye and
was nominated for an Aurora Award.
www.starklightpress.com
www.ihavememory.wordpress.com
www.virginiastark.wordpress.com
Jenn Spaulding is a self-published author of two poetry books; Book of
Sorrows and The Broken
Ones, both as a Kindle version or as a trade paperback and can be purchased
on Amazon.com.
Ms. Estes has also been recognized by the Library of Congress for her mastery
of poetry and her poem Shattered is published in their edition the
International Whos Who in Poetry 2012. She is currently slaving over her first
fiction novel Insanity, look for it soon. She is earning her
Bachelors Degree in Forensic Psychology, with hopes of running her own crime lab one day.
She is also an honorary member of the elite National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Bravely,
she has chosen to be an advocate for Victims of Violence, so they no longer have to suffer in
silence. Please join her fight, check out her website; Victims of Violence
http://toddandjenn02.wix.com/sufferinginsilence. Contact her anytime she will answer any and
all questions; sweetjeni74@stu.argosy.edu. You can also follow her on Twitter, J.L. Estes
@sweetjeni74.
L,E, Caine is a staff writer for Starklight Press as well as an artist
in her own right. She started off her career in writing as a ghost
writer and later ventured into the world of science fiction and
fantasy with the occasional horrendous horror story that she claims
helps her to 'vent murderous urges'.
She is a frequent contributor both here and to various wiccan,
empath and magical bulletin boards.

William Norton is a roughneck and professional welder who

spends most of his time in the Great White North of Western
Canada. When not busy on the rig site, William writes chilling
speculative fiction and investigating the rumors, myths and
legends he hears in the shack. You can find his fiction in
StarkLight Press publications such as StarkLight Volume 2,
Hearts Asunder and Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones ,
available at www.starklightpress.com/starklight-press-bookstore/

Anthony Stark is a writer and editor with a background in

engineering, science and medicine. Growing up in the wilds of the
far north he had a lot of time to hone his skills both in research
and in communications. With a wealth of experiences and travel he
has a practical approach to writing and to life. He has taught
classes in art, first aid and tutored university students as has
polished his knack for explaining nearly any subject in a relatable
way. He has always been a writer, practicing as a youth on essays
'for fun' and moving on to writing technical manuals, articles, novels and short
stories. His array of talents is useful in nearly any field lends itself especially
to the diverse world of writing, to which he adds his own innate diverse
pragmatism.

Aliens versus Demons

by Virginia Carraway Stark
You've all seen shows on television like
'Ancient Aliens' that explain the
'evidence' of how aliens have been
amongst us since humanity's earliest
roots. You've likely heard of the
'Nephilim', ancient alien overlords that
created humans as a science experiment
or perhaps as a source of cheap labor.
There are many things that would seem
to prove that aliens have been in our
midst for a very long time, but such
concepts as ancient aliens would never
have been the premise for a television
show twenty years ago. It would have
been deemed too outrageous, too
absurd and most of all, by the majority of
viewers: too demonic.
Along with an increase in UFO sitings
there has come a deep-seated belief in
the population of earth that aliens are
here and that it is likely they even walk
amongst us. Poll after poll shows that no
matter what demographic is used, the
belief in UFOs, especially in the Western
world is becoming a fact in the minds of
many.
But what do conservative Christians think about this change in humanity's belief in aliens? I
did some research into it and the results were surprising. The problem with all the beliefs that
I am going to discuss is that none of them have been proven in a controlled environment.
They are based on extremely strong opinions without any real citations of proof except their
own faith and passion. I don't bring up the beliefs as either my own beliefs in aliens or as any
sort of proof, only as a different perspective that deserves to be considered as much as any
other unproven theory.

Have you ever hung out with really fundamentalist

Christians? If you have, or if you were raised in that
sort of atmosphere, you'll know that to hard-core
protestants there is a demonic explanation for
everything. There are also surprising things that can
cause demonic influence that give demons (in the
minds of these Christians) such phenomenal
strength and power over the natural world that it
makes you wonder how they even think that their
own God and not demons created the place. I've
heard Christians say that something as small as
carrying a rock inside the house can cause demonic
oppression. Since I was under the impression that
their belief was that God made the entire earth you'd
think the things he'd made would be safe and good
and pure and not demon riddled to the extent that
carrying a stone into the house could wreck you and
your family forever.
I bring this up to show the fear and fragility of fundamentalism because this shows how living
in fear can make us slide down a crumbling slope (likely made of demon-filled rocks) and into
a land where the entire natural world is set out against them. This brings the credibility of the
hard-baked Christian into question. Protestants seem to solely be the ones who make these
claims about aliens. Unlike their Catholic counterparts who seek to deal with anything do with
demons with extreme caution, Protestants are quick to point the finger and scream, 'demon'.
To this I can strongly recommend to the people who share these convictions that they work on
a more scientific attitude towards demonic possession including documentation and recording
any and all said activity and exorcisms. Rule out all possible physical or psychological
reasons for an event before concluding demon and it would be much easier to take your
points more seriously.
On the other hand, I've never tried to abjure an alien in the name of Jesus, so at the same
time I have no immediate means of debunking these claims either. I would be curious to hear
if anyone has ever tried this successfully and if so, if it was at all documented.

There are some extremely interesting points made and ones

that I think should be addressed.
1. Early reports from the first alien contacts during the mid
20th century almost exclusively claimed from being from
a planet inside the solar system. At the start most aliens
claimed that they were from the moon. After the moon
landing the aliens claimed to be from Venus or Mars and
then, when we realized that those places couldn't
support life, the claims went further afield. The aliens
would now claim to be from Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto...

Our technology advanced and we realized that none of the planets or even their moons were
capable of the sorts of high civilizations that the aliens claimed to come from. Suddenly, the
aliens claimed to be from the Pleiades or Andromeda. Now, as we get further afield we start
to hear claims that the aliens are actually from another dimension. I do have a problem with
any being whose story keeps changing.
2. The aliens are alleged to be 'helping' the governments of earth by giving them
advanced technology in exchange for something (possibly probing). None of this
technology is beneficial to humanity. It is polluting, distracting and harmful to our
physical and mental health. If they have any good intentions towards us, why not give
us something useful to clean up the air? Why does everything they give us make it
more and more hell on earth?
3. The biggest argument against aliens being the same as demons is that aliens are
physical and that demons are purely spiritual beings. Well, wrong. Demons fight daily
(according to the sources I examined) to enter into the physical realm. There is a
constant war between the forces of good, ie: angels fueled by the prayers of the
faithful, to keep the demons out of the physical world. With fewer and fewer people
being faithful to God, the demons are able to manifest physically more and more.
They point out the rise in alien sightings in every civilization shortly before it falls. This
is why they claim that it becomes more and more easy to record the alien space craft
and the aliens themselves: Humanity's lack of accord with their creator has caused the
forces of good to falter and the result is that evil protrudes more and more into our
reality.
4. The descriptions of 'alien' strongholds closely resemble hell. Dulce is the most famous
of these with its infamous 'level 7' that is reported by reliable sources of former military
men who worked there to be 'hell on earth'. That phrase comes up a lot in the
argument that demons and aliens are closely connected or the same thing.
Dulce is described as being filled with vats of human blood with limbs and fetuses
floating in them. Half rotten, it's said that the aliens feed and even bathe in these vats.
Level 7 is filled with human-hybrid monstrosities and humans in cages that plead for
help. The personnel are told that the people being held in cages are insane criminals
and under no circumstances should they ever speak to them or listen to a word they
say. The few people who dared to listen to the caged individuals found out that there
were people looking for these often prominent people who had gone missing and had
never be criminals or insane. Besides, even if they were insane criminals, there is no
excuse for anyone anywhere to be treated the way those in level 7 of Dulce are
allegedly treated.
5. The interbreeding and alien hybrids thing. This is a big one. It has been a matter of
biblical record that fallen angels really like to have sex with human women. This is
allegedly why God decided to have the great flood that destroyed all but Noah's family,
for they were the only ones without the taint of alien blood in them.
The Christians allege that the demons learned a valuable lesson from this: Subtlety.
Once humans started to look into scientific reasons for paranormal activity the demons
realized that being on the other side of the veil this could be their open door into
humanity's heart. If demons said they were actually aliens and even better at science

than humans, why, the humans would have to listen to them and be grateful for all the
alien help they were getting. In fact, humans were so desperate for technology that the
governments of the 50s and 60s would have agreed to any terms at all for an edge
over their enemies. Any terms at all. It is alleged that this is the source of the literal
deal with the devil that the earth governments, in particularly America, made with the
aliens. The aliens weren't loyal to America however, they sold weapons and technology
to Russia and to Britain and to anyone else who met their criteria. Or maybe just
anyone willing to pay the price that was demanded of them.
What was this price? That depends on who you ask. Some people say that it is
unlimited access to certain bloodlines. That there are in fact lists of people that aliens
can interfere with whenever they want without 'breaking the law'. Anyone on these lists
essentially loses all their rights and all their freedom as a sacrifice made without their
consent or knowledge. Some people say the price that the aliens asked was more
subtle, just to be present and 'help' with the big decision. This bit of influence
eventually gave them more power than the humans and now run the government.
6. The Mark of the Beast. This continues the point with the hybridization of humans. The
argument here is that if a human is part demonic then they are no longer part of the
deal that Jesus made on the cross. Jesus himself was human at the time and his offer
to enter the kingdom of God was a limited time, human only offer. Anyone with the
blood of demons running through them need not apply.
By injecting their blood and DNA into humans they were no longer the same as Jesus
and even if he wanted to help them, he couldn't. The taint put on them has made them
innately evil. They are evil incarnate and it is this mark inside the actual blood that
makes people marked by 'the beast' and unable to ever commune with God or go to
heaven.

There are quite a few more arguments as well but I'm not here to make the case that aliens
ARE demons. The only reason I am sharing this as this month's UFO report is to bring
another perspective to things and make sure that we are thinking all the angles. We cannot let
ourselves fall trustingly into the arms of 'aliens' or 'demons' because they are not our species.
We are all one family and they have motives and agendas that are perhaps not as innocent
as many new age people in contact with aliens from the Pleiades would have us believe. The
New Age slant to aliens is as narrow minded and unthinking as the Christian side and if we
value our status as a rational, self-determining species then we had better keep our eyes
open, our brains thinking and be constantly on the lookout for new information and
viewpoints.
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/UFOs/demons_aliens_clothes.htm 7
http://hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/10-reasons-why-aliens-are-actually-fallen-angelsdem
ons
http://www.thepropheticyears.com/reasons/aliens.HTM
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/aliensinbible.htm

Paranormal Questions and Answers

by Leanne Caine
I get a lot of questions of witches and satanism and demons. There has been a strong belief
in the uneducated public that witches worship Satan which is simply not true.
Instead of answering several questions from my in-box I've decided to discuss Satanism, its
roots, its connections to witchcraft, devil worship and a dash of where summoning demons
comes into both witchcraft and satanism.
Firstly, I would like to address the concept of Satan itself. The word 'Satan' simply mean
'adversary'. It can be concluded then that to be a Satanist is to be adversarial. Satanism was
regulated into a 'religion' by Anton LeVey in 1966, the year he declared to be 'the first year of
Satan'. LeVey had quite a few ideas and he wasn't shy about sharing them no matter how
antithetical they are to human nature itself. They do, however, fit the definition of Satanism in
reference to it being adversarial.
LeVey believed that there was no being called 'Satan'. He
rather believed that the whole concept was that everyone
should do what they like and that they should follow an
'eye for an eye' system of justice. He preached that
humans were just another type of animal. He said that
humanity is fundamentally amoral, soulless and should 'do
as thou wilt', caring little who he harmed with that will.
The church broke into a second sect that called itself 'The
Church of Set'. It was founded by a disgruntled member of
LeVey's organization who was a former military personnel
who specialized is psychological warfare. This second
church believed that there was an actual being who was
'Satan' who they called 'Set'. They believed in many of the
same things as LeVey except that they believed in the spiritual and the soul and not just the
carnal aspect of LeVey's Satanism.
Now let me say that all of this is completely and utterly NOT witchcraft. Witch comes from an
ancient word that means 'one who knows'. It was usually applied with reverence with women,
often older women, who had learned the ways of nature and plants, how to heal and how to
help with birthing. They were the first doctors and perhaps more profoundly, the first doctors
of the mind. When people had a problem they couldn't figure out they would go to a witch to
help them figure out what to do. The answer was often a simple, practical solution rather than
magic and brews and tinctures.

Witchcraft is fundamentally being aligned with the universe

and the forces that act within it whereas Satanism believes
that all of life is entropy. It believes that at a molecular level
things are breaking down and mutating and it is by
permutations of entropy that they propose to do miracles, work
magic and enact their will in the world. In contrast, witches
strive for beauty, peace and above all, balance and harmony.
Satanists seek to set everything increasingly out of balance so
that while things are in movement they can take what they
want. They're like cheap magicians using slight of hand and
distractions to make their tricks work.
Much of LeVey and the Church of Set get their teachings from Aleister Crowley. Both groups
claim that Crowley was right but misunderstood much of his own writings. They claim the
writings for their own and translate them to suit their purposes.
Modern Satanism is a distillation of the Thelemic teachings that
were taught by John Dee, Eliphas Levi and other magicians. The
interesting thing about Satanism is that it's a man's game. Most
of the teachings of these brotherhoods and mages taught that
women (especially virgins or for sexual magical practices) were
only tools to be used. Several books come right out and say that
women could by no means understand such complex matters
and should never be permitted to read any of the books that were
the basis of Satanism as we now know it.
Satanism teaches fundamentally that since we are all animals and men are physically
stronger than women that they are also mentally and spiritually their betters. Women are used
for breeding while the men do the high magic for the most part. Adversarial indeed. Satanism
declares war on half of humanity by denigrating it!
Demonic summonings are often considered to be part of Satanism. This seems to be true to
some degree, but nothing like what it was in the old days of the O.T.O. True Satanists believe
that they are all god and that they are all powerful as well. What need do they have for
summoning spirits?
It was certainly something that Levi, Crowley, Dee and many other wrote
about in their writings but oddly it seems to be something that is more the
territory of rebellious teens than any other group to summon up spirits of
darkness. There are a lot of people out there who want to be 'dark'. They
don't know what they are doing or what anything they say or do means,
they want power and to look good and think summoning up a demon is
the way to do it. Does it work for them?
I don't know. I don't want to know. I know that their intentions are such
that their actions are likely to call bad energies and perhaps evil spirits to them. I don't know
how this manifests but there are spirits in the other world who are mean and hungry and
looking for open doorways.

Again, this is not the way of the witch. Witches follow the cycles of life and death and are in
communion with this world and the next. They may have spirit guides or a union with
elementals that is mutually beneficial to both parties. But again, summoning dark spirits is
pointless to someone who wants to keep their balance. The only thing that summoning a
demon is going to accomplish is to scare a bunch of people and if you're very unlucky, to call
bad energies to you or even open a doorway that isn't easily closed.
Devil worship is a more complex term. The
Devil as we know him is a concept concocted
by the Judaic religions to permute the heathens
connections to ancient masculine green
energies. Call him the Green Man or call him
Pan, he is the spirit of growing things from the
aspect of the spark that causes a seed to come
to life. He was known as the Lord of the Forest
and was said to be friends with every animal
who would never threaten each other in his
presence.
Devil and Satan have been co-mingled into one malevolent force that is difficult to extricate
the concept of the Green Man or Pan from. Witches do not worship malevolent forces, but
they do show respect to both the masculine and feminine aspects of nature. It takes a twisted
mind to think that nature in any form is evil and that is all a witch ever does, show respect to
the nature of the universe.
The answer to the question, do witches worship Satan. is a resounding NO. Satanism is as
antithetical to witchcraft as it is to christianity. The worship of 'might makes right' is not
anything any witch would condone.
There are more ways to be evil than to not follow the church's teachings. Teachings that have
been imposed, beaten, raped and endlessly murderous of anyone who resists those
teachings. Not believing in your conqueror's beliefs is not evil and that is all that a witch, a
wiccan or anyone who loves nature and balance is doing. Witches and other pagans are
holdovers from the past. The last blood who hasn't broken to the abuse and loss of our
culture. What was done to our forebears is in itself is a type of Adversary, to come into lands
and force your beliefs on the people who live there.
Satanism starts by simply deciding that
you can force someone to do what you
want through tricks and brute strength and
that's the truth. Starting a fight, forcing
change, causing mayhem, all of these
things are Satanic, they are adversarial
and support LeVey in his belief that
humans are just animals and that might
makes right after all.

In This Month's Edition:

Hello Kitty is Revealed in Satanic Glory
William Norton
Hello Kitty is evil. Haven't you heard?
Yeah, the truth behind the cute little
ears... actually devil's horns. And
why exactly doesn't she have a
mouth? It's all a little mysterious and
there are quite a few conspiracy
theories out there that talk about
Hello Kitty and her evil origins.
Lets set one lie straight right off. Her
name isn't actually 'Hello Kitty'. Her
name is 'Kitty White'. The first item
she was put on had her face on a
change purse and underneath it said,
'Hello'. She made her debut in the
early 70's' in Japan at the start of the
'cutesy' phase. All the youths, but
especially the girls, were into 'cute' then. It was a new and disturbing trend for the adults who
were steeped in tradition and ranted about 'kids these days'. Their disapproval of such cute
items did nothing to stop Kitty White transforming into the ubiquitous cat we see today.
The girls would make little 'baby talk' languages and they began the little school girl look that
developed into the full blown hot to trot Sailor Moon and all the other 'adorbs' as my girlfriend
used to call them that are usually made by Sanrio and almost always originate in Japan.
Hello Kitty's popularity was a bit more intense than the other cutesies of the era and this has
given rise to several origin stories.
The first and most common origin story is that the first Hello Kitty was made by a woman (or
in some variations a couple) whose only daughter was dying of cancer. The woman tried
everything to heal her daughter. She prayed to every god and goddess, she did 'all the things'
like acupuncture, diet... whatever they said might work she tried. She was a desperate lady
and it's usually the desperate ones who resort to desperate measures.

What did she turn to? What any sane mother would turn to: Satanism. Here is where the
stories can get colorful but the bottom line was that Satan wanted children to worship an idol
of him and so he helped the mother to design the perfect likeness of him (I guess he wears a
bow) and promoted the hell out of Hello Kitty.
This rumor is 'proven' by the assurances of whoever is telling you the story that 'Kitty' is
Chinese for 'Satan'.
Hello Satan! Oh, Hello Satan is soooo Cute! I want the Hello Satan toaster!!!
That's not true even a little bit. I mean, maybe I'd still
be with my girlfriend if I had bought her the toaster so
I probably should have wanted it. The part that isn't
true is that Kitty=Satan in Chinese. It's just not true.
Another fact to shock and delight the audience of the
story teller.
None of this story is true. The only thing that is true
about this story is that there is a Hello Kitty toaster
and that even I have to admit, it's cute.
The idea that Hello Kitty is a satanic totem doesn't stand up very well. She doesn't have the
fangs (or even a mouth). Her ears look like, well, cat ears and her blank stare is less than
diabolical. Even after this story is disproved there is another one that comes up. This one is
more sad and slightly closer to the truth.
Why doesn't Hello Kitty have a mouth?
The story says that Hello Kitty was made by a little girl who barely survived her childhood
because her abuse was so bad. She made the kitty without a mouth as a way to let everyone
know that she could never talk about the abuse she had suffered.
This story also is not true. The cutesy phase in Japan brought about more than just Hello Kitty
without a mouth. The Japanese are a retiring race of people who tend to keep their emotions
bottled up inside. The mouthless stuffed animals were made so that the child (or adult) who
had them could project any emotions they wanted on their stuffed animals. It was instant
empathy.
How are you feeling today?
I'm okay.
Are you sure? Your kitty looks a little sad. Is your kitty
sad? Child nods, Are you sad too? Child nods
again.
Hello Kitty is in whatever mood you're in when you

look at her thanks to her blankness and I think that especially for repressed children, this
could be very soothing.
There are a few other rumors that seem more like rumors than even stories. One story says
that Hello Kitty was made as a way to charm people into liking a controversial nuclear agency
but I haven't been able to find what that company might be or any records of her ever
representing nukes.
The other one is the one true rumor about the cat, Japan went through a brief
stint where police and military were forced to wear a pink Hello Kitty armband
as punishment for minor infractions. Perhaps the armbands were more popular
than they had hoped. Whatever the case, it was a short lived punishment and
other things are used instead. What those other things are I wasn't able to find
out, but I think I would prefer the Hello Kitty armband in any case.

Parapsychology Files: Science or Spirit?

by Virginia Carraway Stark
Parapsychology is essentially
the science of proving
whether something is real or
make believe. There isn't any
room is this 'science' for
questions of the spirit the
whole idea of
parapsychology was to
remove the spiritual aspect
from paranormal events.
Parapsychology can be
thought of as doing constant
battle with superstition in an
attempt to move unproven theories into either the 'science fact' or 'science fiction' camp.
In the past, most phenomenon that occurred was regularly believed to be the work of spirits. If
the phenomenon was deemed 'holy' than that person would be said to be possessed by God
or aided by angels. More often than not, however, the person was deemed to be under the
influence of demons or Satanism and was punished, killed or exorcised in an attempt to purify
the body. Parapsychology was the first efforts in the 19 th century to fly in the face of the idea
that all things originate from angels or demons. Parapsychology is essentially the science of
proof.
Anything that doesn't fit into the realm of accepted science can fall under the umbrella of
parapsychology. In fact, that's the whole point of it. 'Para' means 'other' or 'alongside of'. It
also uses the letter 'P' or 'Psi' which is where much of the naming of the 'science' end of
phenomenon comes from, this early usage of the prefix 'psi'. From pyschokinesis to plain old
psychics, we owe the words we use to define these talents that humans may possess to the
'P' in 'para'.
Many of the early tests of parapsychology focused on ESP (Extra Sensory Perception). These
tests, done in the early days of the 1800's, were deemed failures by later scientists who
rightfully pointed out that the tests didn't meet with modern criteria for proving a theorem in
scientific communities. The tests lacked control groups, they lacked proper documentation,

they lacked large enough numbers of test subjects, they often lacked a proper laboratory
atmosphere and were often biased towards the theory they wished to prove.
These tests were improved on and continue to be practiced by countries around the world.
Almost all the results are classified and as a result it is difficult for the lay person to determine
what is science and what is spirit. The 'facts' of the matter are that people have strange things
occur that can't be explained by what we know now. The question is: Do these events stem
from the mind of humans, the presence and/or energies of spiritual entities or, a third
possibility of the answers laying somewhere in between the two?
Even the existence of demonic possession has
been attempted to be 'proven' by doctors and
scientists with excellent credentials. Where there
has been such proof it is too isolated or unknown
of an event to convince the public at large of its
reality and so questions like these remain in the
wings of reality. To the skeptics they are obviously
false to the spiritualist they are obviously reality
(See the case of 'Julia' in the next article).
Once something is proven it is generally moved
out of parapsychology and into the realm of
reality. Few people will argue now that hypnotism
is a real and powerful force. It can be a tool used
for good or evil, however in the past it was in the
realm of fantasy and/or Parapsychology. It was
parapsychologists who proved that hypnotism was real.
Much like the field of Cryptozoology that strives to discover the reality or
allegorical nature of beasts long since thought extinct or completely made up,
Parapsychology strives to define the bounds of human potential and human
reality. Are paranormal events caused by latent human emotion, demonic
possession, or something else entirely? That's what paranormal investigators
in parapsychology are trying to find out. Unfortunately, until the results of many
military and privately conducted but government funded studies are made
available to the general public many of these answers will be hidden as they
always have been from humanity at large. Like seeing something shrouded
under a piece of cloth we can make out the edges, try to make some educated
guesses, try to deduce from a rational mindset what is actually under the cloth,
we won't know for certain until we are allowed to remove the cloth and see
what lay beneath.
References:
http://www.supernaturalworldview.com/tag/parapsychology-2/ https://en.m.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology

The Nine Circles of Hell

by Virginia Carraway Stark
The Nine Circles of Hell seem to come exclusively from Dante's Inferno. If there is an earlier
source or references and legends they seem to be largely lost in the mists of time.
Hell doesn't start with circles, it starts with a dark forest. Being lost is
one of the most terrifying things that we can experience. From the
first time we have been lost as children we have all at some point
experienced that heart-sinking moment when we realize that we
aren't just 'a little turned around', that we are in fact lost. That's how
hell starts, being endlessly lost in a dark forest, running and pursued
by wild animals. The man has been traveling for some time, that
much is clear and he is pursued by a jaguar, a she-wolf and a lion. All
the animals look a little wrong and they are clearly hemming him in
and guiding him into more danger.
The Cantos clearly are started as an allegory as from the very start.
Dante refers to this as being something that happened 'towards the middle of my life'. Virgil,
who is a prophet and emissary of God comes to aid the man but the news isn't good. The
beasts that he's facing will never let him pass, they will force him into the lowlands where
more danger lies and ultimately the only way to escape the voracious beasts is to go through
each of the circles of hell until he can get to the other side to be with his love once more.
Much of Inferno reads like the Revelations of John of Patmos. A lot of high language and
metaphor are used to establish some sort of order to what was at the time, still a relatively
new religion (especially in John of Patmos' case). Before Christianity there wasn't a real
equivalent to the modern idea of Hell. Inferno seeks to establish an order to Hell and to put
down Pagan figures every chance he gets.
Before we were taught that hell was a place of
ever-burning lakes of fire that any non-christian
would obviously be subjected to, the idea of an
'underworld' was a much more universal concept.
It was a place of many things, sometimes of
punishment, often of riddles and always of
introspection and change. The land of the dead
wasn't heaven, but it wasn't a place of everlasting
torment either.

The idea of ever-lasting torment isn't one that's easy for human beings to understand. As
living organisms there comes a point where pain ceases to matter. We become numb,
enured, pass out, lapse into a coma or die. Pain doesn't last forever for mortals. Even the
most talented Inquisitor was soon frustrated as the body's natural defenses to pain kicked in
and it was for this reason that the Spanish Inquisition become so terrifyingly creative. It is also
for this reason that humans found it hard to understand how they could be tormented forever
without any rest or recourse. The Inferno seeks to lock that down and make it something that
can be explained in a rational, if allegorical way.
Virgil warns the protagonist of all he will see and it is here described how the pain of the fires
of hell can lead a soul to transcend that pain. He describes spirits that are standing in the
flames and are content. They have accepted their punishment and will one day ascend out of
the fires. This is how Dante seeks to explain the unexplainable concept of how torture and
pain can last forever.
What follows is a classic jouney/adventure that is seeped in religious admonitions and
warnings. To say it is preachy is an understatement, it would be far more apt to say that it
defined 'preachy'. If the concepts of Hell had adhered to Dante's teachings of it I think it would
be a lot more credible. The concept of 'eternity' is hard enough for someone who is trapped
within the mortal coil to grasp. Adding eternal pain and damnation to that is enough to drive
people into insanity as they try to both contemplate and avoid such a scenario.
The resulting concepts of Puritan Hell have lead to more fear and oppression than one can
comprehend, it has a similarity to 'eternal hell and damnation' of its own. Its own fears
manifest as hell on earth. We all try to bend our brains around the idea that a loving God
could send his own children into eternal pain for misbehaving in ways that are contrary to all
concepts of love and the result, if managed, is insanity. Humans struggled for over a thousand
years to perfect the concept of 'goodness' into something so constrictive that it would either
deform the human nature or force the spirit of freedom to burst forth from its constraints.
I think it was to prevent this ever-widening definition of Hell that Dante wrote Inferno. Both to
try to cap off how bad hell could get and to specify that it wasn't necessarily eternal. He wrote
it to be more of an alchemical purification process than anything else. A formula that could be
followed to move through Hell even if beasts chased you there.
The first ring of Hell is Limbo. This is similar to the Underworld that was familiar to the people
of the time. Unbaptized babies and the souls of good people who were simply not christian
were sent here. It was a gray place. Quiet and a place to be educated and learn so that they
could ascend sooner. The souls in limbo had done no wrong, they were simply ignorant. This
cleverly lines up with the Judaic idea of an Underworld as well. It explains why the concept of
hell wasn't meted out in the Torah or Old Testament books. It was much like Christ's death
polarized humanity, forcing it to be actively seeking to learn and accept Christ's death and ask
for forgiveness. It was a clever way to blend the ways of the past with the new ways of
suffering and pain.
The second ring of hell is for those who were sent to Hell for the deadly sin Lust. This ring is
characterized by an endless wind that buffets the souls around. It's a metaphor for the
wanderings of the lustful. They couldn't stay true in life and so are forced to be tossed around
in the afterlife until they learn their lesson. Anyone who commits adultery is subject to this ring

of hell and he sees quite a few famous persons there including Cleopatra and Helen of Troy.
It's interesting to note that it seems most of the souls seen in this ring are female.
The third ring of hell is for gluttons. This one is a little confusing and gets into the politics of
the time with that edge of prophecy that is reminiscent once more of the Revelations. At the
same time, it dates the work to the 14 th century ad is
confusing for the modern reader when it talks about
factions and uprisings that are ancient and forgotten
history except to the die-hard scholars.
I'm not sure why, but gluttons are subjected to lying face
down in a gross, icy slush. They are watched over by a
very unattractive version of Cerberus who makes sure that
they all stay down. The whole point seems to be that they
are bound into their own worlds of cold and pain. They
aren't ever allowed to stand up and they aren't allowed to
connect or communicate with the other gluttons they are surrounded by.
This is where my idea of gluttony differs from Dante's. Dante seems to be saying that gluttony
is so inward turning that the best punishment for them is to really rub their noses in it and
make them so inward turning that they go mad for companionship. This is an opposite
approach to lust but that isn't the only thing that strikes me as funny about this ring of hell
(and not 'ha-ha' funny). I've met a lot of perfectly social gluttons. In fact, being in a group is as
good a way to bring out the glutton in a person as sitting by yourself in the dark and watching
late-night TV endlessly can bring out gluttony.
The face-down icy-slush punishment goes over my head a bit for gluttony. I think I prefer the
machine in 'The Simpsons' that punishes Homer by endlessly feeding him donuts. That
makes more sense to me. Maybe Cerberus ate all the donuts?
The God Pluto has been demoted in the Christian hell into the watcher of
the fourth ring of hell which is populated with 'men of the cloth'
predominantly, especially those of high rank in the church. Again, to my
modern mind, the punishment of the fourth ring which is for Greed. The
greedy people are separated into two groups: Those who spent a lot and
the hoarders. The two groups are pitted against each other in endless
jousting matches that Pluto oversees. I have to ask what happens to
people who lavishly spend on their hoarding addictions.

The people in this ring of hell are very busy so they don't stop to talk but have more of a little
aside about the corruptions of the higher levels of the church as Dante firmly shakes his finger
at Cardinals and Bishops. The Greedy aren't given horses for jousting, instead their lances
spring out of their chests and they have weights attached to them to ram at those fecking
hoarders.

The fifth ring of hell is the River Styx itself.

It's for the angry people and for the sullen
people too which is apparently a
sub-category to anger. The sullen people are
forced to stay under the water and
perpetually drown while the angry people run
around on top of the water and fight each
other. The second part sounds a little like
something Alice in Wonderland would
experience and I half expected them to be
riding flamingos.
Dante takes a couple of jibes at someone he had a personal falling out with who ended up in
this ring of hell and contributes very little to the modern reader.
I don't know how much of a punishment this would be for the angry people in the world who
seem to include pugnacious as part of their characterizations. It seems to me to be more of a
reward to most angry people. Think about the guys who stand around behind shop class and
pick on anyone who walks by them. Fighting is part and parcel with anger and being able to
do it without worrying about actually dying would, to my mind, be the angry-person's idea of
heaven rather than hell.
In the sixth circle we see heretics condemned to flame filled tombs. This part gets pretty
historical and unless you're up on who was condemned for heresy and where, when and why,
it gets pretty obscure. There are also some comments that indicate that if Dante had written
this as a Wikipedia article that it would come up with one of those disclaimers that say, 'this
article is under review'. He does a lot of name-dropping that means nothing to our modern
parlance but I'm sure seemed very profound at the time.
The seventh circle of hell is actually divided into three rings. This is why there is often
contention about whether there are nine rings or seven. Technically both arguments are right
but I'm pretty sure at this point in my reading that arguing about it is probably a sin. There are
still two more circles of fun to come!
Violence is the seventh circle, or seven-A circle. It counts as all sorts of violence (angry
people fighting people doesn't count as violence? Must be a difference in mindset?). Anything
from murder to doing violence against someone's piece of property will get someone put into
this ring. This is getting into the hardcore, modern ideas of torture and violent offenders are
put into boiling lakes of blood.
Quick question: Wouldn't the blood cook? Wouldn't they be kind of baked into a blood
pudding? Must be 'magic' blood. It's like when you're watching a show about vampires and
they're all drinking blood from a goblet and it takes ages and you're like, OK, why isn't that
clotting? Was the victim on anti-clotting medication?
Seven-B is for suicides. These circles must be a little disturbing to write about or quite narrow
because he pretty much just sees a bunch of people hanging from trees. They are perpetually
attacked and eaten by harpies and to me this seems pretty hardcore for someone so

miserable they killed themselves. I guess they aren't kidding when they talk about that being
one of the really bad sins.
Seven-C is probably the most important one, being for anyone who has ever had anal sex.
Yes, sodomy will get you put into the ninth ring of hell. Sticking stuff up your butt or anyone
elses is the equivalent to blasphemy so if you do anything blasphemous you end up in the
ninth ring as well and it's a burning hot desert and burning rains fall on you all the time making
it difficult to find time to put anything up anyone's butt. This teaches us that everyone poops
but you better not ever think about it or you'll never have time to poop again.
The Eighth and Ninth circles get even
more complex and I think at this point
Dante had wished he had plotted out the
thirty circles of hell in his original premise
because the subsections just keep
coming!
Eight is for Fraud. This is fraud in great
detail. I'll simplify, there's this dragon-type
guy named Geryon who drops everyone who does every time of fraud. He drops them into a
whole bunch of different ditches and the people who committed fraud just sit in these rocky
ditches or canyons while Geryon crawls and/or flies around adding to his collection. I'm not
sure what this teaches people who commit fraud except that death's a ditch. This seems to be
a lot easier on people than those who put things in bums. Again, different times, different
perspectives (I hope).
There are a total of ten of these that are called 'Brogias' and Geryon has one for everyone
from false-sorcerers to seducers. Geryon has bridges and a whole system for organizing the
fraudsters and it's a good thing too because it's quite the mess from the outside looking in.
Nine is for people who are treacherous and it's
divided up once more. This time it's a lake and
each ring gets more frozen and deeper
depending on the level of treachery
committed. The rings are quaintly named after
various treacherous fellows starting with Cain
and ending in Judas Iscariot. I think Cain is
the least of the rings which seems a little odd.
You'd think he'd be in there with the angry or
the violent but then, a lot of this whole 'circles
of hell' business doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
I think that's why it's referenced but nobody can ever tell you what each of them does and the
subdivisions of circles just makes it more confusing. He seems to have a lot of overlap and
hairsplitting and that makes it hard to use in everyday life. He also misses some serious areas
of sinning and you just don't know what happens then. Are you sent to limbo? Do you just get
into a ring with a vacancy?
This would have been a more useful text of Dante could have separated his personal life even

a little bit from his writing. Including people he was angry with or who had betrayed him adds
a vindictiveness to the writing that we're all tempted to go to from time to time but I think we
also try to avoid. Even though there isn't a ring of hell listed for this sort of petty behavior it
seems like there ought to be.
After Treachery they come to the center of hell itself and there they find Lucifer very colorfully
depicted and sobbing so that he is waist deep in freezing tears.
he had three faces: one in front blood red;
and then another two that, just above
the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the first;
and at the crown, all three were reattached;
the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat white;
the left in its appearance was like those
who come from where the Nile, descending, flows.
Weird, huh?
The faces on Lucifer are brutally torturing people who Dante felt were the worst criminals in
history. Most pointedly and horribly brutalized is Brutus. Dante believed Caesar's
assassination was one of the worst crimes ever. He felt that Julius Caesar had been
appointed by God and that Brutus should get it worst of all, probably worse than Lucifer
himself.
I'm sure Julius would agree.
At this point the earth has turned and they seem to head back the way that they came
causing the protagonist to pretty much freak out. It's just a trick of how the earth turns and this
is another part that doesn't hold up. If they are rings, then why does it matter which way the
earth is turned? Should they have had to hit each ring going out as well as in?
They don't though. The emerge at dawn on Easter Morning and it's spiritually uplifting and
reminiscent of the resurrection because if there's one thing that Dante doesn't get tired of, it's
hammering those metaphors home. Thank goodness those nine rings are actually nine
semi-circles or the book would have been much, much longer and there would be more name
dropping than a casual reader from the future could ever follow!
References:
Inferno By Dante
http://historylists.org/art/9-circles-of-hell-dantes-inferno.html

Julia and Scientific Proof of Demon Possession

by Virginia Carraway Stark

What would it take to scientifically prove that demonic possession is

a real phenomenon? Certainly, the concept has stood the test of
time as cultures throughout the ages have consistently believed in
some form of demonic or spirit possession. It is geographically
ubiquitous appearing nearly everywhere that there are humans to be
possessed. But with terms like, crazy out there, how do we
distinguish between people simply believing themselves to be
possessed by spirits versus a verified demonic possession?
It would have to be highly documented and have various
professional in both the field of demonology as well as the field of
medicine present. The people would have to have good credentials and be willing to take a scientific approach to all aspects
of both treatment for the patient as well as for the exorcism.
In 2008, that is exactly what happened.
Richard E. Gallagher is a medical doctor and a board certified psychiatrist with a
private practice in Hawthorne, New York. He is an Associate Professor of Clinical
Psychiatry at New York Medical College. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of
Princeton University, Magna Cum Laude in Classics and trained in psychiatry at
Yale University School of Medicine. He is also a consistent delegate to the
International Association of Exorcists.
The medical article that he wrote about a patient called, Julia was written after
witnessing what he calls a clear-cut case of demonic possession. Certainly his
credentials are impeccable and he has a lot of witnesses and documentation to
concur with his medical diagnosis of demonic possession. This is a
groundbreaking case if it is true. His paper is entitled, Among the many
counterfeits: A Case of Demonic Possession. and I suggest you give it a read.
Julia had a history of being involved in Satanic groups. She would enter a trance
and mutter threats that she wouldnt recall afterwards. Things would fly around
the room and at times she would levitate off of the ground by six inches.
Numerous witnesses claim to have seen these events occur as well as Julias
eerie ability to know about things that she had no way of knowing. She knew details about the team who treated her that no
one had told her and details that were known to no one else. She even knew about events in other cities without any
apparent physical connection to the outside world. She commented casually about an event in another city where cats all
went berserk.
Dr. Gallagher said, Sometimes objects around her would fly off the shelves, the rare phenomenon of psychokinesis known to
parapsychologists. Julia was also in possession of knowledge of facts and occurrences beyond any possibility of their natural
acquisition.

Julia requested a Catholic exorcism be performed on her and so one warm June
day in 2008, The Roman Ritual was performed in the hospital on the girl. Despite
the warmth of the day, the participants reported becoming very cold as soon as
they began the ritual. Later on, however, as the demon began to spew vitriol, they
all reported becoming very hot and sweating more than was normal. After awhile
they said that the heat was oppressive and unbearable.

Julia at first had gone into a quiet trance-like state. After the prayers and
invocations of the Roman Ritual had been going on for awhile, however, multiple
voices and sounds came out of her. One set consisted of growls and animal-like
noises, which seemed to the group impossible for any human to mimic. At one
point, the voice spoke in foreign languages, including recognizable Latin and
Spanish. (Julia herself only speaks English, she later verified to us.)

The voices were noticeably attacking in nature, and often insolent, blasphemous
and highly scatological. They curesed and insulted the participants in the crudest
way. They were frequently threatening- trying, it appeared to fight back- Leave
her alone, Stop, you whores (to the nuns), Youll be sorry, and the like.
Certainly this sounds like a typical exorcism, what is most odd about it is simply the credibility of the witnesses and the fact
that they approached it with a rationality that is generally unusual as people get wrapped up in cases of alleged demonic
possession.

Julia also exhibited enormous strength, Despite the religious sisters

and three others holding her down with all their might, they struggled
to restrain her. Remarkably, for about 30 minutes, she actually
levitated about half a foot in the air.
Dr. Gallagher seems to have a strong interest in the occult and
although it is difficult to find out if there are other cases of exorcisms
that he may have been involved with, his education on the matter is
evident. Possession is only one and not the most common type of
demonic attack. Possession is very rare, though not as exceedingly
so as many imagine. So called oppression, or infestation, is less rare, though hardly frequent either and sometimes more
difficult to discern accurately.
It is a tantalizing look into what may be evidence, strong evidence of demonic possession. I wasnt able to find out if the
exorcism was successful or any other details, but I have contacted Dr. Gallagher and am awaiting a reply. Watch here for
updates.

Peculiar Legend of the Ouija Board

Urban Legends Archives
by Jenn Spaulding

Peculiar Legend of the Ouija Board

We share our physical lives with those in the spirit; for life, like love, never
dies.-James VanPraagh

Everywhere I looked I discovered odd happenstances with the Ouija Board. Ive also
discovered that there are a plethora of sites on the internet claiming to be Ouija boards. I was
astonished to learn theres even an app for an Ouija Board. Are people really that foolish to
believe a website application can connect them with what lies beneath the Veil? Do I

personally believe that one can connect with a spirit via an Ouija board? Yes I do, but not the
Hasbro version you can purchase in the stores. Real wooden Ouijas made of oak with the
letters and numbers seared in with a planchette made of clear glass. Ah but Im getting ahead
of myself here dear reader, lets first take a look at how the Ouija board was born.
In February of 1891 the initial advertisements for the Ouija board promised hours of fun with
the wonderful talking board that answered your questions about the future, present, and past.
The first Ouija boards were wooden flat boards and the planchette was wooden too with clear
glass in the center. Nowadays the Ouija Board is cardboard and the planchette is made of
plastic. So where did the idea for the Ouija board come from? Even Ouija historian Robert
Murch was stumped by the origins of the Ouija and in 1992 notably queried, For such an
iconic thing that strikes both fear and wonder in American culture, how can no one know
where it came from?
The Ouija board was born in American in the 19 th century when people were beset with
spiritualism and yearned to communicate with lost loved ones. Even though the ideas of
spiritualism had existed for years and years in Europe it didnt smack America across the face
until 1848 when the Fox sisters in upstate New York divulged that they could chat with ghosts
by asking them questions and the ghosts would rap on the walls in response. This created an
uproar of communities holding sances on a Saturday night and then going to church on
Sunday morning as if they had not just reached out to the devil, because whomever is on the
other end of a real Ouija board is surely not God. Do any of you, dear reader, find it strange
that it was acceptable to participate in sances, automatic writing sessions, and table turning
parties in which all members place their hands just above the table until it begins to rattle
violently?
As peculiar as I find this behavior it can be explained by the fact that the average lifespan of
men and women was 50 years. Quite honestly people drew solace from the hope of saying
goodbye to those they lost. Frequently women didnt make it through childbirth, children died
from various diseases, and the men went away to die in the war that was raging at the time.
Hell, even Mary Todd Lincoln orchestrated sances at the White House following the death of
her son from fever in 1862. This mania to communicate with the dead progressed and gained
ground as the Civil War vehemently rampaged and left bloodied bodies in its wake.
In 1886 the Kennard Novelty Company with Elijah Bond created the Ouija board. It is said that
upon its creation Bonds sister-in-law Helen Peters, a medium, professed that when she sat
down with the board and inquired what they should call the new board game it answered with
Ouija which the board purported meant Good Luck. Now you must understand during this
time for a patent to be awarded one must prove that their product worked and would do
exactly what the advertisement claimed it could do; which in this case was to prove the board
could communicate with what lies behind the Veil. The story goes like this; supposedly Elijah
Bond didnt know the name of the patent attorney and if the Ouija board could tell him his
name then Bond would be awarded the patent. Somehow it worked whether it be spirits or
Bond simply knowing the mans name. Ill leave you to answer that.

By 1892 the Kennard Novelty Company built two factories in Baltimore, two in New York, two
in Chicago, and one in London. In 1898 Colonel Bowie bought the rights to the Ouija board
but oddly sold it in 1919 to a man named Fuld for only a dollar. In 1967 the Ouija board was
sold to Parker Brothers where sales thrived until the movie The Exorcist came out. That
movie literally ruined life for the Ouija Board and changed the very fabric of American culture.
Before that happenstance there is a whole timeline of documented events that are blamed on
the Ouija Board. Beginning in 1920 when wannabe crime solvers conferred with the Ouija to
unravel a crime. In 1921 a woman was sent to the mental institution because the Ouija board
told her to leave her moms rotting corpse in the living room for fifteen days prior to her
burying her in the back yard. In 1930 two women from Buffalo, New York viciously murdered
another woman just because the Ouija board told them to do it. In 1941 a 23 year old man
enlisted into the army after talking with the Ouija board. In 1958 a judge in Connecticut
wouldnt honor the Ouija will of a woman who left one thousand dollars to her servants and
$152,000 to Mr. John Gale Forbes a ghost she had been parleying with via the Ouija.

In 1916 Poet Pearl Curran purported that her poems were orated through the Ouija by 17 th
century English woman Patience Worth. In 1917 Currans friend Emily Grant Hutchings
alleged that her book Jap Herron was recited to her via the Ouija by Samuel Clemens or as
he is better known as Mark Twain. Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Merril avowed that in
1982 his epic poem The Changing Light at Sandover was a Ouija inspired and conferred
poem which won the National Book Critics Circle award. Maybe all this time thats what Ive
been doing wrong while writing poetry, maybe I need to talk to the Ouija. No way, never ever
will I ever touch a Ouija board again and after you hear the tale of one of my frightening
encounter with the Ouija board you may never want to touch one either.
You can choose to believe this story or you can choose not to, but its true nonetheless. In
1987 the utilization of the Ouija board was at its peak and as a lost, rebellious teenager it
seemed the perfect tool to find out if Id ever make it out of the vicious life circle I was
ensnared in. Not only that my best friend at the time Kayla, whom Im still friends with and will
attest to this story upon request, had an old oak Ouija board with the letters, numbers, and
symbols seared in. It was her great grandmothers and she found it in her mothers closet. We
were both on the cusp of being teens, we both lived in the same community surrounding
Oneida Lake, and we both loved babysitting. So we took on babysitting as a team. On one of
these nights we decided at 3am, after drinking too many bottles of Boones, to ask her
newfound Ouija who are future husbands would be. Big mistake.
For that whole hour Kayla and I were locked in the room with a Ouija board with the
planchette violently flying from letter to letter, yet neither of our hands were nowhere near it.
Id rather not say the spirits name that we called that night, but while we were locked in that
room it assaulted Kayla, myself, and the one year old little girl we were watching. It was the
most awful experience Ive endured; I still hear her crying. If wed only shared our plans with
Wannita, the babys mother, she wouldve told us not to fool around that shed experienced
someone touching her and bruises on the baby that looked like someone pinched her. Well
gee isnt common courtesy to forewarn your babysitter if your house is haunted? When the
door finally unlocked and let us out Kayla grabbed the Ouija board and I ran to the other room
to get the baby who had fresh red marks all over her arms. We ran down the stairs and threw
the Ouija board into the fire stove which was roaring because we had just stoked it prior to
going upstairs. That damn thing didnt burn, it was unscathed, and everything it told us would
happen happened.
After being a pariah since 1973 a newfound thrill is found with the utilization of the Ouija
board. I mean come on theres an app for it. Even though scientists vehemently proclaim that
there is nothing mysterious about the Ouija board and isnt powered by demons or spirits.
That in fact we make the planchette move even when we swear that we arent doing it. This is
called the ideometer effect which is what happens when we start bawling at a sad film. Its
also involuntary miniscule muscle movement that were unaware were making. Ill let you be
the judge are the answers one gets from the Ouija communicated from a spirit or a demon or
is it ourselves subconsciously making the device skirt across the board to spell out what we
want to hear? Personally Ive never had a good experience with one, being as such take this
as a warning to just forget the Ouija board exists.

If you or anyone you know have had odd occurrences with a Ouija board the staff at
Outermost would love to hear your twisted tales. Do not hesitate to contact us as we are
discrete and if youd like can remain anonymous.
References: McRobbie, L. (2013). Smithsonian Magazine. The Strange
Mysterious History of the Ouija Board. Retrieved from:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-strange-and-mysterious-histo
ry-of-the-ouija-board-5860627/?no-ist

Our Freakish Fascination with Annihilation

By Jenn Spaulding

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.- T.S. Elliot

Can someone please tell me why everyone, since the dawn of time, is so damn infatuated
with our own doom? As I combed through history I found there are numerous amounts of
cults and followers of the apocalypse dating back to ancient times. I personally dont want an
apocalypse to happen during my lifetime. Although my writers intuition is honing in on the
scenario causing my imagination to go buck wild with the endless possibilities of storylines I
could create. Now lets see if we can analyze exactly why people are so freakishly fascinated
with annihilation.

Not only do normal citizens have a freakish obsession with the apocalypse, but scientists,
astronomers, and psychologists find themselves prying into the impending doom of Earth;
trying to pinpoint exactly when the end of days will be upon us. Take for example
neuroscientist Shumel Lissek of the University of Michigan, he asserts that the belief of the
apocalypse kindles an intrinsic and primordial distortion within nearly all mammals.
Throughout evolution any living thing that has taken the strategy of better-safe-than-sorry
seem to persevere. Why you may ask does it appear as if we relish inthis frightened reaction?
Do we like to be scared out of our wits? Evidence proves that yes we do like to get the pants
scared off of us.
For starters fear enacts adrenaline to course through us at an alarming rate, causing our
heart to beat erratically. This elicits a flight or fight reaction within us. Not only that to those
who fancy the notion of an apocalypse find it vindicating. Others that have endured trauma in
their life become misanthropic and wish the world would just end. Some derive tranquility that
the apocalypse is associated to an astronomical extraterrestrial classification. This folklore
eliminates feelings of sole liability. The concept of annihilation is a catalyst to the terror of our
own deaths; apprehension brought on by doubt disappears.

Throughout the centuries individuals have utilized annihilation to stupefy everyone from
catastrophes, such as warfare and impoverishment. The idea of an apocalypse and the fear it
elicits has even been used by ruthless political leaders to espouse bureaucratic programs;
also to encourage hostility of specific racial and religious factions. Especially in the Medieval
Era when illustrations of the annihilation were teeming with antisemitism. Even ancient Norse
folk tales tell of Gods bloodily feuding with one another which would end Ragnarok;
supposedly destroying Earth in 2014. The bible prophesized our doom and ancient texts have
as well, but none of these things happened. Dear Gods, God, Apostles, and Great
Philosophers, sorry to disappoint you but were still here; Yours truly every living organism on
Earth.
Paradoxically scientists continue wrangling among themselves to foresee the end of Earth
and profess that theyre on the precipice of ascertaining when the Earth will meet its demise.

There are numerous ways they theorize that the Earth will be terminated. For example, a
sluggish stammering standstill to star fabrication and an increase in the amount of black
holes; also our demise may come via a Big Rip which is the exertion of dark energy that
trounces gravity and tears everything and everyone to shreds. Also doom may come upon us
in the infrequent incident of the emergence of diminutive black holes. In other words,
annihilation would be free of pain and us mere miniscule human beings wouldnt even catch a
glimpse of it or know what the hell was happening.

The supposed prophetic Mayan calendar envisioned the extinction of existence on December
21, 2012, you bet were still here Mayans. Or how about the Mayan calendars incoherent
idiotic phrase, the neutrinos have mutated. It truly is laughable. After we survived this
foretold doom, the geniuses at NASA wrote a book entitled; Beyond 2012: Why the World
Wont End. Do we feel more alive, does our skin tingle, does our fear induced adrenaline
make us come to life, as we stare up at the sky and watch for extraterrestrial space ships and
huge asteroids to come down and destroy us?
In addition to black holes swallowing us and the universe being ripped to shreds, there are
other theories of what form the apocalypse will come in. Some of these theories are; Mother
Nature spanking us with colossal worldwide catastrophe, abnormal extraterrestrial
occupation, worldwide warfare, and lone psychotic evil scientists. I hope whichever way it
ends its not the method of universal destruction then were for sure doomed. Because my
theory is, which I will one day prove, that we dont really die our souls only leave the vessels
that couldnt sustain them anymore and we move on to another realm of existence. I say this
because we are made up miniscule atoms that have been dispersed and recycled since the
beginning of time; we can never really die our atoms have to go somewhere, dont they?
Most of our apprehension originates from our comprehensible complication of perceiving the
minor role each of us has among the straggling immensity of inexplicable periods of time. This
is because its complicated and difficult to wrap round our brains the notion that the planet
Earth and the universe have existed for billions of years and it will probably go on existing for
millions, maybe even billions more and our mere human lives in juxtaposition, no matter how
extensive or valuable, are moot. Being well-nigh microscopic inconsequential in the center of
a vast and unending universe. Our time is so ephemeral and so far away from the climax of
the tale that a lot of us act like solo black holes, cognitively distorting time to pen ourselves
into the epilogue.
1 out of 4 Americans believe the apocalypse will happen within their lifetime. Whereas 1 out
of 7 people around the world believe the world will end during their lifetime. Sadly, Earth
cannot live forever. As a matter of fact, astronomers predict Earth has only 7.5bn years of
existence left before its swallowed by the sun. They proffer that humans will be gone long
before that happenstance occurs. Being that we only have a fleeting vignette in a superficially
never-ending fable, should we not luxuriate and lavish ourselves whilst we are on center
stage?
Will we die burning in a fiery pit of hell on earth? Will asteroids crash into us and rain fiery
chunks of space stone on our heads? Do you suppose the sun will gulp us up as if we were a
midnight snack? Perhaps elusive aliens will attack us and make us their slaves. No one truly

has the answers of how annihilation will befall us, but everyone sure does have a ton of
theories to toss around. Maybe there is a God Almighty who became sick of the Pharaohs of
Egypt enslaving his people and when they began hardening their tyrants heart against Him,
he unleashed ten viciously deadly plagues upon their black hearts. Lets hope that if the Lord
is upset with the evil tyrants of this world he doesnt unleash the plagues upon the good to
wash out the bad.

10 DEADLY PLAGUES
1. Plague of Blood
2. Plague of frogs
3. Plague of gnats
4. Plague of flies
5. Plague of livestock
6. Plague of boils
7. Plague of hail
8. Plague of locusts
9. Plague of darkness
10. Plague of the first born
References
Cooper, Q. (2014). BBC. Our Never Ending Obsession with Apocalypse. Retrieved
from:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121205-our-endless-apocalypse-obses
sion
Fessenden, M. (2015). Smithsonian. People Have Always Been Obsessed with the
End of the World. Retrieved from:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/people-have-always-been-ob
sessed-end-world-180956525/?no-ist
Photos Courtesy of Shutterstock.com

To Hell and Back

By Virginia Carraway Stark
This is how it happened. This is how I saw Hell.
It was a normal day like any other, I woke up, had breakfast, kissed my girlfriend and checked
my email on the way out the door.
I went to work, talked to clients, flirted with my secretary and filled out the miles of paperwork
that made up most of my business life. I want to be clear with you on this. I never once in my
life considered myself to be a bad person. I didn't kill anyone, I didn't molest children, I never
raped anyone, in fact, in my own personal ledger, I counted myself as one of the good guys.
My law firm was a small one, Stylus and Firth. I being Richard 'Rich' Firth and an expert on
property law, I did my job day to day in a way that was within the confines of the law. I bent
the rules from time to time, but no more than anyone does and I never did it to harm
someone. Even the phrase 'bending the rules' is a little extreme. I was good at finding
loopholes in the law and if a small time farmer was being pushed out by a big corporate
company, I might be extra diligent in finding these loopholes and helping out. It was the
livelihoods of entire families on the line. Often these sorts of cases would determine the fate
of a farm that had been hacked out of the forest from nothing and turned into thriving
concerns that had been maintained for generations.
I did pro-bono work on more than one occasion. A recently widowed woman whose son tried
to take all she had from her and leave his own mom a pauper was the most recent case. Why
am I telling you all this? Why am I giving you my justification for all this?
Because we all have a set of scales in our heads, or at least, all the good people out there
have them. Sometimes our scales get a little skewed. I think that's what happened to me. I
saw a lot of bad people doing a lot of bad things.
It started when I was a kid. My parents were do-nothing rejects who would screw over their
friends or their own son at the drop of a hat. They disgusted me. They were slime balls. They
thought they were good people because they didn't beat their kids, they didn't screw around
on each other unless they were sure the other one wouldn't find out. I still remember my Dad,
a man who evaded things like taxes and fines like the plague, hollering out, 'I pay my taxes,
you work for me!' to a meter maid who had left a ticket on his windshield.
But go ahead, ask my Dad or Mom if they think they're good people and they will answer an
undeniable, 'Yes. Always'.

Their scales were screwed up. They were weighted and I thought that because I helped
people once in awhile, when it didn't put me out too much, and that I was by and large a good
citizen that I was also balanced on my inner scales. I was better than my parents. I went to
school, I paid my taxes, I got a good job, drove a nice car and gave money to veterns and
donated my used suits to the Salvation Army.
In university I was one of the good ones. I had a couple of girlfriends, screwed around, did a
bit of coke, got a lot drunk (especially when I found out I had passed my finals and again
when I passed my bar exam). I didn't do anything bad. I wasn't one of the guys I saw 'slip a
little something' into a girls drink. I wasn't one of the guys who made fun of the ones who
didn't fit in, not very often.
I got married in my last year of University and then divorced eight years later and two kids in. I
paid my alimony until she remarried and paid my child support and spent weekends with the
kids and I still do the last two. My kids are in their teens now and I've put aside money for their
college fund. I know my ex and her new husband have done the same and we had regular
meetings together the four of us, my girlfriend Tracy and my ex and her new husband to talk
about the kids. Chantelle, my ex, is the one who handles the PTA shit and once in awhile I
have a hard talk with my son or daughter about 'choices' and where their current path may
lead them.
I get to be the good guy in their lives most of the time. I get to sweep in and take them on a
trip to Europe for the summer. Tracy was great with them and I would have married her in a
minute if I thought it would have changed anything between us, but it wouldn't have. And after
everything, I'm glad I didn't, it would have been hard to have two divorces instead of just the
one. There were plenty of missed weekends and once or twice a missed holiday with the kids,
I always told them about it. It was always work. I never meant to let them down but sometimes
it was someone else's entire life on the line.
This is how I am trying to justify to you, with a full confession of the good and the bad what I
had done and not done. How I felt ok when I shaved every morning meeting my own gaze in
the mirror. This is why when I finished work at the end of that beautiful day in May and was
driving through the heavy traffic, that I thought my scales were balanced and that I was right
with the universe.
I was driving through an intersection. I had my phone on speaker and was talking to my
assistant when it happened. I know that because she told me about it afterward but I don't
remember that part. I had left some files on my desk and she was finishing up a few things.
My phone had rung and I used my voice activated app to answer it. Gloria had noticed the
files on my desk and wanted to know what to do with them, they didn't belong on my desk but
I had obviously intended to do something with them.
Shit, that was the Johnson report. I meant to take it home with me, I cursed again under my
breath, debating turning around. I was only ten minutes from home.
I figured it was something like that, She replied. I remember that I could hear her crunching
something between her teeth. She was eating something, probably a carrot. It was right at
that point that for a few moments, everything becomes crystal clear and the sound of
someone eating a carrot to this day drives me around the bend. I start to wonder all over

again how my scales are doing and if they're rigged even a little bit after all.
I started to tell her to put them in my desk and that I would deal with them tomorrow, I
remember the word, Just leaving my lips and then, blackout.
That should read BLACKOUT. I haven't been able to remember a single thing about the
accident. It wasn't my fault, I was going through a green light, someone ran the red and that
someone drove a big Hummer that decimated my convertible. I don't remember still being
alive and being cut out of my car with the jaws of life, I don't remember the medics or the trip
to the hospital.
What I do remember was that there was a pressure pushing down on me. It was so dark and
the pressure was like I had been steamrolled flat. I didn't have any pain despite the extent of
my injuries, none that I can remember at any rate. It was just that pressure and everything
was black.
Slowly my eyes adjusted in the dark and I could feel that I was flying. A wind pushed back at
me and far ahead I could see a sullen, glowing red. I was filled with terror and I wanted to do
what the wind urged, to go back the way I had come but my flight propelled me forward with
so much momentum that I had no way to stop. No knowledge of how to stop. I was without a
physical body and I couldn't control my spirit from flying through what I could gradually see
was a large tunnel. Beneath me I could hear the sounds of a raging river and in those
moments I didn't know who I was or where I had come from, I only knew that where I was
being propelled was bad. I didn't want to go there.
I emerged from the mouth of the tunnel. The raging flood of water formed a deep pool of black
water where it connected with the molten lava that was the source of red light.
No voice spoke to me. No one told me why I was there but I knew I was in hell and I knew
beyond a doubt that I deserved to be there. How did I know?
My scales had been fixed and I knew that I wasn't right with the universe at all.

My soul flew around a large underground chamber. I shouldn't have had senses but I could
smell the reek of sulfur and brimstone and I could see ahead of me a lake of fire. I was like a

paper airplane. The heat thermals gusting me around the cavern. I had no engine and I slowly
spiraled downward until I could see up close that inside the lake of fire there were people. I
suppose I should say the souls of people, but they looked like regular people to me.
Their faces were filled with anguish beyond anything I had previously comprehended and I
knew as I spiraled downward that I would shortly feel what was causing them such pain.
Some of them were screaming, some were weeping, some were calling out, confessing their
crimes endlessly. I saw my Father and my Mother and they saw me. They had been sobbing,
weeping together, their arms around each other. In their pain they were closer to each other
than I had ever seen them be in life. Together the two of them started to blow and wave their
hands at me, trying to steer me away from my descent. Whether it was their meager but
utterly loving and heartfelt efforts or the doctors that were frantically saving my life and
pumping my physical body with air and blood and mending me, or a combination of that and
my own will to live, something lifted me up and back into the wind that had pushed against
me.
It pushed me back along the tunnel I had come through and then into darkness once more.
I was exhausted and the darkness was my inability to open my eyes. They had been taped
down to keep them protected while I was in surgery, they kept flying open was what Tracy
said.
The doctors said I had been dead for five minutes. Five minutes, long enough to float around
like a paper airplane over a lake of fire. Long enough to see my own parents in hell.
It was, and still is, a long road to recovery. I'll never be the same as before the accident and
walking is still painful. Often, I will resort to my much despised walker or wheelchair when it
gets to be too much. It takes time to heal when you've been smashed into itty-bitty pieces.
It's not just walking though, it's a change in my heart after my near-death experience. I look at
everything now from how it feels in my heart and I don't do things when they're convenient for
me anymore, I do things because they are right to do. Sometimes I'll see a homeless person
and know, just know, that I have to do something for them. I'll take them out for coffee and talk
to them. Homeless people aren't all drug addicts and drunks without any chance at
redemption, lots of them have had a streak of bad luck and just need a hand.
Sometimes I take them home and let them stay for a few days or a few months until they can
get back on their feet. Have a bathtub, have a phone, have clean clothes and a way to get a
job and get out of the hole they fell into.
Tracy left me. She couldn't handle my recovery from the accident, my trauma or me bringing
home random strangers. I think it was the last one that really did it. She said she didn't need
this shit and one day packed up and moved out. It didn't matter to me, my heart didn't cry out
when she left and I think until I get myself straightened out, it's best for me to be alone, except
for when I need to help someone in someway. It's always different.
They say I'm an angel but I think I'm a long ways away from having wings. I'll be happy if I can
just avoid ever being a paper airplane ever again and I don't think anything will do that except
to do the right thing.