Whose Mind is it Anyway?

It may seem like a silly question but I'm deadly serious when I ask this question today. Unfortunately more deadly than I'd ever thought I'd need to be during my many explorations into the depths of the human mind.

You see it all started for me a long, long time ago when I was just a little girl. I had no idea then how important this would be for me and my family and hopefully for you too as I read book after book on what made people tick.  I read about serial killers, children who kill, repressed and imagined memories and the Evil that Men Do. I read about the most notorious crimes ever committed, dreaming of being a forensic psychologist while simultaneously wondering if I had the stomach for it and the strength to look at what other's couldn't.

Thankfully, I've never had to discover if I could handle it as three years of University while working more or less full time and the mass debts I'd already accumulated prevented me from taking my Psychology any further than degree level, something I'm profoundly thankful for now as it ensured I never became trapped in a box of someone else's creation.

One thing that didn't  diminish along with my University career though was my studies.  Human behaviour and the connection between Nature and Nurture in determining who we become, the fundamental period of attachment in early child rearing and how it impacted our future lives and why we do what we do, all had me fascinated and I just kept learning and learning.  Had I known where my quest for knowledge would have led me, would I have continued?  I really don't know but step by step I kept going learning and applying as I went until one day I found myself studying a crime scene in Sandy Hook, Connecticut at the tail end of 2012, an article I wrote shortly after the event took place can be found here. 

The events at Sandy Hook weren't the first that I'd watched with my eyes wide open but they were definitely among the most shocking and as they called me to re-examine the events of an earlier school shooting that had taken place here in Scotland when my eyes maybe weren't quite so open, it also turned out to be the most horrifying.

Living in the UK I'd seen clearly how our T.V.'s were being used to manipulate the minds of the population with propaganda from our Government. I'd watched time and time again as only a fraction of a story was delivered usually in a highly emotive way to spin stories towards whichever agenda they wished to fulfill.  I'd seen a nation entranced by celebrity and though I watched and waited as more and more people woke up I also seen how the spell was still strong as enchanted people in their thousands turned out to greet the arrival of Prince George a future "ruler" of our country, no different and no more special than any other newborn born on the planet.

I'd delved into so many different Worlds as my desire to understand human behaviour made me look at thing's that would make others turn away in fear.  So many apparently disconnected Worlds and bits of history, only an eye trained to see connection in everything might notice the golden thread that had run through them all. The thread of control and manipulation of a people by it's ruling class.  Not a short thread by any standards but one that had wrapped us tighter and tighter into the binds of normal, compliant and obedient behaviour.

There are many experiments discussing Obedience and Conformity and how easily people's perceptions are manipulated by their peers and our government has always had access to and control of the best of this information.  For an example of just how susceptible we are to following orders and having our minds manipulated I'd recommend checking out the unethical experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram and Phillip Zimbardo to begin with if you haven't seen them already, where you go from there is entirely up to you but I'd highly recommend checking out Dark Matters a program that discusses many more unethical experiments that probably should never have taken place.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

http://www.prisonexp.org/

I'd seen through Religion at an early age, too early for most people to believe I had but I remember it clear as day. Standing in the playground on a Monday morning where the guilt and fear of having missed mass was beginning to subside as the quiz on the colour of the priest's vestments or topic of the gospel had already been used to determine if we, the children were good little citizens or not.  I'd seen that any God I wished to learn about, who had the power to create such a tremendous planet with all these wonderful people, would not be a judgemental bastard like I was getting taught about.  He'd understand that a woman would not be honouring the life he'd (excuse me, my kid's mind) given her by staying in an abusive relationship that could be potentially dangerous to her child and yet this church the Catholic church that I was being conditioned into was teaching me something else.  That was enough for me, I did what I had to do to get through life in that primary school but I knew from that moment forward that the Catholic church and most likely all other religion would never work for me.

I seen mind-control, even as an 8 year old, I seen it. I seen how this church was burdening people with guilt and shame and fear and how all these emotions were being used against them to control their behaviour.  And all the subsequent studies I'd done instead of distorting the ideas of an eight year old mind, validated them.  Now, the purpose of this article is not to get into a debate about religion either but simply to get readers to look within them, to question their own beliefs, their own ideas of what s true.  To call you to blindly accept nothing and to question everything.  To ask you in fact to beg you, because at this time I feel it is that desperate that you do, that you take time to look beyond the headlines, to see, to chose to see, to at least try to see the truth.  To look at who's agenda is being filled by the stories presented to you.  To look deeper, even when something turns up in the prettiest package you've ever seen, to look through the illusion that is being presented and seek more factual information on the stories you share.

Whose ideas about the World are you really defending when you jump on your friend's posts and tell them they are wrong about something rather than having an open discussion? Is it really yours? Are you willing to question all of your beliefs, to discover when you made the decisions that are shaping your/our lives.  Ask yourself, is just because it's always been that way, really a good enough reason not to change it?

Watch the music industry as it continues it's manipulation of the human psyche, where is it really trying to lead us?  How are the pop (Disney) princesses roles being used to groom a generation?  Is it chance, or is someone else planning this while we're all busy living in the moment or just trying to survive?

There is a consistent theme playing out in front of our eyes with one little Disney Princess after another growing up in the lime-light, showing our kids how cute they are and just as the children are hooked suddenly, just by chance they're all grown up.  What was once bubble-gum pop from lovely innocent Britney becomes a sexualised school-girl image telling us to hit her baby, one more time.  The lines aren't just blurred they are being re-written and from what I can see they aren't being re-written in favour of protecting our children but instead protecting predators who prey on them.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/443623/Anger-at-calls-to-lower-age-of-consent-to-15

There's been Britney then Christina even Justin from that particular batch made it to super stardom, then next came the delightful and cute Rihanna, Who went from standing under her Umbrella to being tied up and swung about in the throes of S and M, but somehow this is acceptable before the watershed. Whatever happened to the watershed, does it still exist today? Judging by last nights Simpsons episode aired at 7pm I think not.  In that one 30 minute slot the potential for our kids to learn about Sex, Satan and all sorts of other things that have no place in a child's minds.

I've not even mentioned the sweet, innocent Hannah Montana yet, someone I've restrained thus far from commenting on publicly as for these people any energy is feeding their already massively inflated and deluded ego's and her line-blurring with Pharrell Williams had already created enough of a frenzy. For the purpose of this article I will break my self-imposed ban though, one of the joys of living with a free mind, you get to burst your own barriers whenever you choose.

A firm favourite from all her time on the Disney channel little Miss Montana had suddenly grown up and boy did she let us know it. I'm no prude but I've got to be honest I've never fellatioed a wrecking ball and I have no plans to, nor can I see the point of this very attractive, talented singer removing all her clothes and doing so. Except to join the other pop princesses who are teaching our children that a woman's value comes from removing her clothes and that we are nothing more than the sex objects that have been dominated and repressed for years. All that and I've not even got to the twerking issue yet!!!

We have though mentioned the blurring of lines and the twerking incident is a perfectly illustrated example of how this is done. It's had more than enough hits already & so rather than share it I'm going to assume you've probably seen it or that you'll look it up if you wish to. Little scantily clad, Miley during the routine rubbed herself more than what could be called suggestively against a man approximately twice her age's groin while holding her teddy bear for a show who's main viewing audience would be made of yep, you guessed it children. Miley's maybe an unsuspecting victim in all this, not that she's likely to view herself as one she's so deluded with her own hype but whether she is or not, she is being used to sexualise our children. .

We've already discussed Rihanna a little but the song Monster just popped into my head as I was about to sign off I think it might be worth mentioning too.  Again the song is as catchy as hell and with the appearance of Eminem seems to be a little rebellious too but hey Gansta Rap's another story! Have you noticed how half his name is now spelled backwards?  It reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a friend who's been learning some new NLP techniques that have a peculiar similarity with techniques presented by Aleister Crowley in his Book of The Law.. I'm not going to comment on Crowley's work for now as I'm not well versed on it but again it called me to ask, who are you learning from really?

Anyway, I digress, sorry.  Back to Rihanna and her song about the monster under her bed and the voices in her head and how they are her friends.  What is this song promoting?  Is it perhaps referring to mind-control or is it telling us Rihanna is in fact a demon worshiping Illuminati Princess as has featured in one of her many videos. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole Illuminati story was just a new form of fear based conditioning to keep us from connecting the dots and taking action, what do you think?

It's not about tin-foil hats, and it's not even about microwave vibrational technologies that the alleged Naval Yard shooter, Aaron Alexis told the the police about a few months before his death, it's much more subtle and much more in your face than that and it's happening all the time. If you are interested in checking out experiments using sound to change emotional states, that Dark Matters programme I mentioned earlier a good place to look. Here's a clip to intrigue you.

I can't change or influence your behaviour, well I could try but I prefer education and empowerment to manipulation so I wouldn't even try. Instead I'll share with you my perspective and hope that you follow up by doing your own research and making your own decisions based on what you find.  My mind is mine, and though my physical body may be constrained by the limits of this World, my mind is free. I hope yours is too and if not that this article has encouraged you to let the un-locking begin. 

Rashelle Reid

Copyright © All rights reserved, Enlightening Times Magazine 2013. (The images reproduced in this article are shared under the terms of the Fair Use agreement for Educational Purposes Only.)

Abrasax by Jeremy Lampkin

Numerous spiritual philosophies ran wild in the Roman Empire during the formation of the orthodox church.  The church was compartmental, divided into different sections that took many different views on the creation.  The formation of the church seemed to reflect the "war in heaven" that ousted many of its rebellious angels into eternal damnation.  When you have a team of disorganized writers whose stories go every direction, you'll never get your point across to the ancient Joe Blow.  The powers that be initiated a religious revolution when they decided to eradicate certain branches of their organization in the name of unity.  It is a recurring theme in history for hatred and ignorance to overpower peaceful philosophies.  During the ancient religious war for political control of the emerging orthodoxy, many ideas were swept under the rug.

In all likelihood, the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine would have been constructed as an allegory of the decline and fall of Roman Empire and the rise of the Church.  To write about such things would undoubtedly have been punishable by torture, so the text obviously had to be written in code.  Yet in the same formations of this early church, there were all kinds of disparate philosophies.  The so-called Gnostic members seemed to be major offenders because the uninitiated could not reconcile many of their scriptures with a lot of others.  There were scriptures about Jesus placing curses on many heads all throughout his youth, scriptures that didn't go with the story they wanted to present as the canon.  Like editing a movie, many scenes had to be eliminated for the sake of story logic.  And like a DVD, out-takes can be some of the best parts. 

During these unstable times, fragmented scriptures and ancient amulets point to the worship of a philosophical deity who represented the unity of all things in one being.  This take on all religions as one seemed to be an offspring of Greek philosophy's interpretation of the then-current religious state of affairs in the Roman Empire.  As intellectuals, the Gnostics were similar to a modern day mystery school and likewise would have been a prime target for ancient conspiracy theorists who were far more brutal in those times, before the invention of gunpowder.  Gnostic religious views were based on the aspects of various religions which were found to be universal.  The highest deity of the Gnostic heaven, which was essentially a map of the mind of God, was known as Abrasax.  

History has only preserved fragments of the memory of this supreme deity, so we only have a few solid pieces of evidence to follow.  Modern and recent mystery schools have presented him as Abraxas, and it has become the name he is now generally known as.  But somehow this would appear to be a typo.  The word ABRASAX, in Greek sums up to the total of 365 as he is a god representing the totality of time.  He is depicted as a being with a man's body, but with 2 cobras for legs and a rooster's head.  He holds a shield in one hand and a whip in the other.  His shield was often depicted with the 3 letters of the secret word of God, I-A-O.  Though Abrasax is the supreme deity of the heavens, it does not suggest that he was created first, but that he has knowledge of the first creation.  His occult name Abraxas has been suggested to mean that he is the union of all polar opposites. 

The problem with being all things to all people in all ways is that it can be hard for ordinary people to comprehend a deity like that.  Most people naturally relate better to a story they can follow, so it is no mystery why the story had to be dumbed down.  There were all kinds of dialects and local languages of ordinary people who just didn't have the time or necessarily the capacity to become as wise as the old Greek philosophers.  When unifying a people under a new religion, it's crucial to hit the lowest common denominator.  Unfortunately this meant that the higher philosophical traits of the early church had to be rooted out (meaning books burnt and people killed) so that there were no traces of the mass "heresies" that happened in the early church.  For this reason we are forced to put the pieces together, the few that remain, to glean any understanding of this deity. 

As an artist I found it shocking that an internet search revealed only a few modern depictions of Abraxas, even though he is historically obscure enough to be almost forgotten.  Even those who have honored his name for the past century have misspelled it, as we see how a mispronunciation by even one credible source can alter a name forever.

Jeremy Lampkin 2012

Magik beyond the edge of perception by Richard Gordon

The belief in and the ability to perform occult based magik has made it one of the most controversial belief systems known to humanity, couple this with the fact that its practitioners are mostly unwilling to share their pinch of knowledge or exactly how they have achieved their results and it becomes clear why there appears to no single defining path to follow. The entire subject is shrouded in myth and hearsay and now encompasses elements from many other belief systems and religions. It is for these very reasons that the belief in magik has become somewhat distrusted and even ridiculed by the media and general public or its results put down to coincidence. That said, it has also become the chosen pursuit and belief system of artists, musicians, writers and intellectuals on a worldwide basis.

The very origins of the belief in magik began way back in the ancestral minds of our pre-history. Theirs was a shamanic connection to natural magik that involved a celebration of the seasons, sun worship, and archaic techniques such as rhythmic chanting and drumming that lead to trance like states of consciousness during which they could enter the realms of the spirits and gods. With the event of recorded history magik took on a myriad of different guises before the belief in it eventually became corrupted or suppressed by the doctrine of religion. Yet from time to time like all elements of truth, the ancient essence of magic would resurface within the open minds of the time and has had several renaissances.

Many people may find it strange to find that in our modern scientific computer driven world that lots of us are now returning to the study and practise of magik in order to improve the quality of our daily lives, but this is increasingly the case. There are many paths available for the student to follow ranging from simple spell work to powerful systems such as creational magic in which the magician becomes a co-creator in harmony with the universe, and is the system that I‘ll be discussing here.

The practice of magik can be best defined as being the ability to cause a willed change within the structure of reality, and that is essentially the case, but enlightenment without understanding and meaning is all but useless, if we are to fully comprehend the inner workings of magik we firstly need to build a visual model of how the reality which we aim to change actually becomes manifest as the world we live in.

The consensus opinion within many esoteric, mystical and occult circles is that the universe manifests from a single source, as such the entire contents of our universe are actually no more than different aspects of the same energy, separation and time being no more than secondary illusions. Creational reality manifests itself in a very distinct order. The first stage of this process begins with what can only be described as total and utter state of nothingness, from “there” it then manifests as an infinite sea of pure living energy, some have described this as the “abyss” a pre-manifest state of being in which all information and possible/probable outcomes are contained.

The final stage of this creational activity manifests as complex multi layered planes of existence, the higher reaches or ethereal planes of this system being the realms of the gods, spirits, demons and multidimensional entities. As the vibrational speed of the energy slows down throughout the lower levels it eventually becomes manifested as higher forms of energy and actual solidified matter, our world and surrounding universe being on the lowest end of the scale, in fact what we see and take as being reality is actually akin to being the outer shell of this creational activity.

I believe that a misunderstanding of these ideologies is where many of the traditional religious or magikal belief systems have gone wrong, they tend to present their spiritual leaders as those in the familiar portraits of haloed saints looking upwards to heaven, or reaching outwards towards the creator, when we should in fact be not searching within our hearts or minds or any actual physical direction, but connecting to the divine spark of the “creator“, by tracing our vital energy back towards it’s pre-manifest source.

So what is the true nature of this reality that we find ourselves within? as there appears to be no logical reason why any of the atoms and particles in our base reality have decided to group together to become base matter like rocks or living things such as plants or animals. The only logical answer can be that the energy is reacting to some kind of undetectable master signal that keeps the entire sum of universal creational energy in order, yet allows an apparent freedom of movement and free will within that ordered system. Or in other words, we find that the universe is no more than a bizarrely elaborate illusion, and at the atomic scale no more than energy circling other systems of energy to a specific order. If we delve a little deeper we find that the consistency of the most solid of objects is no more than a combination of empty space and a sea of particles orbiting in time to a signature vibration.

Conscious life forms have an almost direct secondary link to the divine source, in the human body this link is to be found in the small pea sized pineal gland which is located in the brain directly between and behind the eyes, this is commonly referred to as the third eye and is often associated with psychic and mystical experiences. In the case of this hyperspacial link to higher information, the energy connects to the pineal gland and then manifests as informational signals within the subconscious that are then sorted and filtered before becoming actual conscious thought.

It is important to remember that we are in fact a spirit and soul operating a body via a connective channel, not the other way around; the body is a base manifestation, a vessel that is linked to our true higher self and divine source in the very same way that the universe manifests.

Over the last few years scientific experimentation has found that if we measure the energy contained within a vacuum we would expect it to measure zero, but if the container of the said vacuum is glass they found that they could still project a particle of light through to the other side, so it appeared that there was more going on within the vacuum then meets the eye. On measuring the energetic activity within the container the readings would have been expected to be zero, but on close inspection they found the container to be full of energy, endless particles of matter and anti matter that appeared before instantly annihilating each other, leaving only a signature trace of heat based energy to indicate that they were once there. It would appear that this activity occurs throughout the entirety of universal structure and what we take to be reality a creational aftermath of particles that are allowed to remain without being destroyed.

To the magician or occultist this fact is of great importance, it suggests that all possible energy is already in place, it furthermore implies that if we can alter or interfere with the signal that controls and creates this reality, we can then manifest it to our own design, becoming co-creators within the mainframe, or if you like, akin to a virus that re-writes reality, all possibilities becoming capable of becoming probabilities.

We can of course work magically within our base reality, but my opinion of base magik is that it’s only capable of creating minor changes within our daily lives and environment, higher magik needs to be carried out “behind the scenes“, prior to the energy of this world becoming manifest.

This may at first sound simple, but we then come to several great obstacles, and the main one of these is trying to keep a conscious idea intact whilst entering a state of mystical union via the subconscious. This may sound impossible, but if we can create a second ego and magikal self within the subconscious it then becomes very possible.

Many of you will have heard of how artists, musicians and writers claim to receive direct inspiration from their “holy guardian angel”, well it’s my belief that this guardian angel is actually a working example of the second ego and magikal self that has manifested within the subconscious as a true higher self with a direct link to higher states of informational energy and ethereal knowledge.

Ancient magikal tomes such as “The sacred magik of Abramelin” lay out lengthy purification rituals for both the body and soul which are intended to lead to union with your guardian angel: but after studying the subject over the last thirty years I’ve come to the conclusion that union can happen at any moment during your life. I’ve found it of great interest that many people who achieve this state of second consciousness are often not the least bit interested in magik or mysticism, and being totally unaware and unprepared for this life changing event find the transition hard if not impossible to cope with, they may even mistake the occurrence as being a serious mental health issue.

Once again, it is the consensus opinion amongst many modern occultists that this union with the angel or true higher self (the second ego and magikal self) may occur almost automatically once we have attained a high enough level of understanding of magikal theory and underlying awareness of our universal surroundings.

So, supposing that we have achieved union with the higher self, we come to the question of “how do we then work the magik”, as in all things, knowledge without understanding and experience is useless, the greatest lessons are to be learned in the experimentation and actual practice of magik.

There are some merits to be found in traditional ritual work such as the burning of incense or activities such as the use of percussive sound as they stimulate the senses and create a mind set, but many modern magikians and occultist have all but discarded the trappings and paraphernalia of traditional ritual magik and now work mainly within the mind as a visualized activity, in fact I see this way of working as being essentially the future way for many occult practitioners, don’t get me wrong, I myself love nearly all the aspects of ritual magik such as dressing up in robes and creation of a sacred space, yet in truth, a magikian never steps out of their protective circle/dome of energy and needs no special equipment to achieve results.

Working in this way is relatively simple but requires the acute development of our visualisation skills, if we can’t clearly visualize a desired outcome, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to generate a magikal manifestation.

Beginning within the conscious mind we firstly create a exact visual representation of the desired result, this could be something as simple as an object or the complete recreation of a desired event, this is then reinforced within the subconscious by the second ego and then delivered to a point that exists prior to the actual event of material manifestation within the universal mainframe via the hyperspace link to the energetic source of the pre-manifest universe, the beauty of this system lies in the fact that once the conscious mind has delivered the image to the subconscious mind, the subconscious ego/magikal self does all of the work, it can basically be mostly forgotten about, thus leaving the conscious mind free to get about its daily business whilst waiting for the result to manifest.

Magik may continue to remain a controversial belief system well into the foreseeable future, believing in its power is a personal choice, but there is one thing that is for certain, without total self belief magik never works, self doubt is the most potent of poisons.

Richard Gordon. 2012

Enlightening Times Featured Artist - Peter Yankowski

Peter Yankowski Artists Statement: 

My current body of work examines themes of conflict, technology, religion, symbolism and the inherent history derived from recycled objects. 

Exploring the nature of abstract and figurative forms, combining many mediums, paint, photography, sculpture and assemblages. Particularly interested in revealing the hidden beauty within unwanted or broken artifacts.

Light up the World

The themes of this Icon are religion, war, death, conflict, and human being’s urge to belong to something. My intention is that the themes, symbolism, artifacts and imagery used within the ‘Icon’ have double meanings, which will hopefully engage and challenge the viewer to interpret it on a personal level.

Many religions have a history of persecution, brutality, waging wars and killing many innocent people in the name of their God or religious values.

The stories of Jesus are mainly that he was a good man who fought to save people with non-aggressive means, even if leading to his own death.

The Icon’s painting of Jesus holding a rifle downward, could portray him as a soldier fighting for good, or maybe just using the light to guide his way. Mixed in the myriad of symbols on the inside panel is the Hebrew (תרצח) for ‘Thou shalt not kill’ originally written ‘Thou shalt not murder’ raising the idea that killing is sometimes necessary or good?

  

Light Up The World by Peter Yankowski

False Prophet by Peter Yankowski

Purple Heart by Peter Yankowski

‘Kryžių Kalnas’

Ten kilometres outside Šiauliai, Lithuania is ‘Kryžių Kalnas’ (Hill of Crosses), this is an ancient pagan area that developed into the ‘Hill of Crosses’ after enforced Catholicism around 1386.

My first sighting of Kryžių Kalnas was visually stunning, the vast area is covered with a variety of hand crafted crosses and religious artifacts, from rosary beads to life-size crosses and huge sculptures. Lithuanian people identify the sight as a place of pilgrimage, remembrance and blessing where they leave religious objects as a memorial and testament to their long and troubled history.

During the years 1944 to 1991, when Lithuania was closed to the outside world and officially part of the Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR, Lithuanians used ‘Kryžių Kalnas’ to demonstrate their allegiance to their original identity, religion and heritage by leaving crosses. The Russians tried to stop this by fining people who left crosses if caught a second time they were detained in Gulag camps for up to two years.

Even though the Soviets were ruthless and worked hard to remove new crosses from Kryžių Kalnas almost as soon as they were removed, new ones arrived. The Russians bulldozed the site at least three times, even flooded it with sewerage and put people in prison or fined them for placing crosses, but by 1985 they had given up and the Hill of Crosses flourished.

By 1991 it was estimated that forty thousand crosses and religious artifacts were on the site and by 2011 that number may well have tripled.

From the research and chatting with local people, it is obviously that Kryžių Kalnas is a sacred place, but I also like to think it is a symbol to strength and defiance against Russian oppression.

I made many photographs whilst at ‘Kryžių Kalnas’ but have selected these four images to be photographically printed on quality archive paper and limited to 150 prints

To Contact Peter about exhibitions or commissions please send an Email to vital.media@ntlworld.com