Other Incidents of My Unusual Spiritual Awakening

Having profiled many documented cases of people experiencing happenings often categorized as so-called 'paranormal' or 'unexplained phenomena,' I realized that it would be informative for new readers to have an outline of significant occurrences of this type in my own life that I attempted to place in perspective soon after investigating the phenomena of a contemporary 'talking poltergeist' case in rural Oklahoma in 1995.  My understanding has been enhanced through comparing my own experiences with other case studies encompassing phenomenal events.

1990s

After researching the case of Julia Pastrana for a 'spec' screenplay, I decided to find another interesting offbeat true story and selected the Bell Witch talking poltergeist case.  Below is the somewhat frightful cover of the first book I found about the 19th Century Bell Witch case.  This 1972 publication presented facsimile editions of books published in 1930 and 1934.  Also shown is an 1855 advertisement showing how Julia apparently appeared before grooming for public exhibition in the United States after leaving her native Mexico.

To develop a perspective of the events of the Bell Witch case, I researched other famous poltergeist cases.  At this time I was employed as a movie publicity writer for Paramount Pictures.  One afternoon I was having lunch with a publicity department secretary, Michelle, at a restaurant near the studio and upon mentioning the Bell Witch case, there was a power failure.  (Some details of the Bell Witch case are described in comparison with the Gef Isle of Man case in an article from earlier this year.)  I was residing in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles at the time.  My condo overlooked the lake and Angelus Temple where Aimee Semple McPherson preached in the 1920s.  There were a variety of strange incidents that occurred during this period in my life. 

Ever since some mysterious childhood events, I've been interested in unexplained phenomena.  I would watch telefilms purportedly based on 'poltergeist' cases to see how the subject was being depicted.  While watching one of these programs, I witnessed an outline of a man take form on the screen and then recede.  It was obviously not a part of the storyline and I even wondered momentarily if the telefilm producers had staged the special effect as a publicity stunt.  Years later, I learned that this phenomena is known categorically as Instrumental Transcommunication.

One night I experienced a vivid dream where my dream 'self' was inside what could only be associated with some manner of spaceship.  In some of my dreams, 'my' behavior and thoughts are different from what rationally I would expect of myself.  This 'alien' dream was a fearful experience for me as it occurred.  When somebody was about to come into the spaceship room, 'my' actions were to slam a door against the mysterious being and at this moment I immediately woke up.  Looking back, it seems that either this 'test' produced negative results as in the Maureen Puddy case or the 'dream' was an example of how not to respond upon finding oneself in such a strange situation.

One night, I was preparing to go to sleep when I suddenly heard an emphatic male voice say, "Father, I have waited so long."  I was extremely startled — what was that?!  However, there was nothing that I could do but shrug off the odd occurrence as it didn't seem to have any meaning in relation to my life.  When I was around five years old, there had been another instance of 'voice hearing' when I was living in Pasadena.  One morning, I awoke to a male voice calling my name.  While my twin brother and our mother were asleep, I searched through the apartment to see who was calling me but nobody was there.

Another person I'd researched was Catherine Cadiere, a figure of the early 18th Century chronicled as being abused by a priest and having rapturous visions or dreams.  While living in Echo Park, I also had experienced two visionary interludes unlike any previous dream state experiences.  I wrote a description of these two 'rapture of Christ' events after each one occurred but didn't give much thought to them because I didn't know how to interpret them in relation to my life.  (The descriptions were published in the nonfiction case study Testament published in 1997.)

In the summer of 1994, on two occasions bushes went up in flames on the hillside directly below and across from my condo.

Not long before my trip to Oklahoma in 1995 there was a strange series of events that occurred involving a draft of my production information for the movie "Clueless."  After being promoted to Senior Publicist and then being laid off during a corporate restructuring to become an 'independent contractor' working from home, there was a problem uploading the file of the "Clueless" production information draft I'd been asked to write.  The diskette file was corrupt and my attempt to retype and transfer the file on another diskette to the publicity department computer also wasn't successful.

Oklahoma Trip (August 10-14, 1995)

I had arranged my Oklahoma research trip after reading the Fortean Times magazine article "The Stone-Throwing Spook of Little Dixie" about "America's Talking Poltergeist."  I had completed a draft of a book about 'talking poltergeist' cases when I learned about this contemporary case and realized this was a rare research opportunity.  When I first spoke to Maxine McWethy on the telephone, she revealed that her first husband's last name had also been Bell and this was also the name of her children.  The visit to Oklahoma occurred the same week I reached the age of 39 on August 8, 1995.

As chronicled in many 'poltergeist' cases, I witnessed the materialization and movement of small objects and one large object (a heavy wooden table).  When I held a stone that had just fallen on the floor, it was still warm to the touch.  When a family member, Twyla, accompanied me on a drive through the vicinity, there were two occasions when I heard utterances of unseen entities: first, the giggle of a little boy and then later, a deep groaning that sounded like it was coming from the back seat.  Family members told me about hearing and conversing with many different voices over the years with the entities sometimes mentioning their own names.  Names of manifesting entities included Rachel, 'E.T.,' Ricky and Nicky, 'Trouble' and 'Leader.'  The most prominent manifesting was 'Michael,' who was said to have conversed with the family and house visitors.  The family indicated that Michael's mysterious manifestations encompassed adult conversations along with apparent communication from a murdered child and also from extraterrestrial aliens.  At the time of my visit, the family was experiencing a minor infestation of wasps.

Even while I was inside my hotel room in nearby Ada, there were phenomenal occurrences.  On the night following the first day of interviews, I telephoned my twin brother Mike in Los Angeles.  After he sleepily answered the phone, he suddenly stated, "My bed is shaking."  The next night, I heard a knocking against the door.  Upon eventually looking out the window, there was a large beetle that looked like an Egyptian scarab repeatedly throwing itself against the door of my room.

On the third night of interviews during a long conversation with Maxine, we went to a diner.  We successively felt what I can only describe as a fluctuation of the physical density of our chairs.  Back at the house, there was a moment while we were talking when suddenly a water spot the size of a silver dollar permeated the fabric of my pants.

For me, the most jarring moment during the interviews had occurred when one of the materializing objects, a nail, hit my head and then fell to the floor.  It had felt as if the sharp end had hit my scalp yet no blood was drawn.

Incidents Witnessed upon my Return to Los Angeles in August 1995

Coins continued to be found and once I even saw and heard one (a "swoosh" of air) when it materialized and dropped on the carpeting during the visit of my brother and a friend.  My one request for 'Michael' was that he not speak to me because I didn't want people to think that I was hearing voices.  I decided to continue interviewing people and keep an audio tape journal of my experiences.

The family in Oklahoma had complained about Michael taking money from them.  When I conversed on the telephone with my friend Marie about the trip, I learned about a disturbing occurrence in her own life at the same time as my trip.  Her bank account had been cleaned out under mysterious circumstances.  There were other unexpected incidents during telephone conversations.  While I was speaking to my friend Fiona, she reported seeing a magnet fly off her refrigerator.  When I was speaking to my mother, I asked Michael to give me another sign.  My mother said there was no sign but the next moment she put the telephone down and when she picked up the receiver explained that a wasp had suddenly acted strangely.

After turning on my television one night to watch a reality series, the TV set turned off as the youth being filmed was complaining about the telephone having stopped working.  I understood that the entity 'Michael' didn't want me watching television although there were times when it would come on just long enough to present a 'message' and then go off again.  These incidents included a commercial aphorism or proverb: "Love is the only religion"; a scene from an old movie of the "Topper" series involving ghosts; a Rose Parade float with an environmental message; and a few moments of a newscast showing Colin Powell.  At my brother's house, I watched the documentary about the Oklahoma family on the NBC special "Ghosts, Mediums, Psychics: Put To The Test" that included footage of several anomalous occurrences. 

Once when I was talking to my mother she began ranting so I put the telephone down.  When I picked up the receiver a few minutes later and told her what I'd done, she said she'd heard my breathing during the interim.  I told her "Oh, well, that was Michael."  On another occasion while I was tape recording a phone call with a listening device, the telephone receiver was tossed to the floor. 

At night while in my bed, I felt an unseen hand grab my knee.  I recalled this had happened before my trip to Oklahoma and I'd thought it had been a muscle contraction but now it was evident Michael was again confirming his omnipresence — he'd also been with me before my trip.  I realized that my Centrahoma research and my own experiences presented evidence of an interactive spiritual Force unrestricted by space and time.

As I transcribed the microcassette interview tapes recorded in Oklahoma, I heard numerous 'spirit messages' and diverse examples of what later I would learn to be known as 'Electronic Voice Phenomena' (EVP). 

The only time I tried editing an audio tape by recording over a portion that I thought was unnecessary, the following morning I found the microcassette had been destroyed — the tape of the cassette severed and left on the table.  I understood that Michael didn't want me altering any of my interviews or journals.  The case study Testament consists of verbatim interview and audio journal transcripts. 

When I attended a party where a slide show was being presented, the projector light bulb burned out just after the word "leader" had been mentioned.  I didn't know if I was joking when I told the partygoers "Michael touched it."

I experienced an actual visionary moment upon glimpsing through the sliding glass door leading to the condo balcony something bright in the sky ascending into the air over Dodger Stadium.  As I studied the object, I distinguished that it was a military missile.  Nobody else reported seeing the missile and the incident left me convinced that this type of experience could have happened to famous clairvoyants.

Once when I was in a happy mood feeling inspired and creative, I was telling people during telephone conversations about their previous reincarnations (metaphorically) and it suddenly felt like someone or something stepped out of my body.  I realized that what I had been saying was something atypical for myself and considered the possibility of 'possession.'  Feeling upset and bewildered, I telephoned my brother and mentioned "I want to die" although I didn't really mean it.  The next day, my brother and two friends convinced me that I needed a vacation.  I thought that they meant a stay at a resort hotel but what had been arranged was a sojourn at a community psychiatric clinic. 

While I was at the clinic for a few days, Michael manifested a spectacular display of unlimitedness as occasionally there were brief instances of channeling through several of the other patients near me.  For example: one of the other patients suddenly began telling me about a crop harvest on another planet.  When one person was channeling morose comments about being rejected, I angrily left the room only to immediately be confronted by channeling through someone else.

Upon leaving the hospital, Michael continued to express himself in surprising new ways.  My hasty consideration of so-called 'demonic possession' had been a momentary fear about conditions that have an obvious basis in 'channeling' and mediumship phenomena.

One afternoon my front door key to the condo suddenly wouldn't work and I ended up pursuing a hunch and visiting the library downtown to research my family tree.  I discovered the 1833 book published in London Historical Memoir of the First Race of Ancestry, Whence the House of Russell Had Its Origin: from the Subjugation of Norway to the Norman Conquest by J. J. Wiffen.



 

One Sunday afternoon I was driving home after attending a metaphysical lecture at the Philosophical Research Society and I saw a big black rectangle in the sky above Echo Park that reminded me of the movie "Time Bandits."  Each time I took my eyes away from the 'door' in the sky, it became smaller and then was gone.

 

Another momentous event for me occurred when I was driving on the Harbor Freeway among hundreds of other vehicles after doing the grocery shopping for my ill mother.  In the sky above was an opening in a large cloud that looked precisely like a valentine heart. 

 

I don't think anyone could be adequately prepared to read about some of my experiences.  The interaction between the entity and myself encompassed human sexuality.  For example: while listening to the tape of myself asking Brenda Bell about what the poltergeist would think about someone being gay, there were EVP messages: "YEAH" "IT'S YOU AND ME" and there was an abrupt physical response that came over me.  By this time, I felt so comfortable being 'with Michael' that I understood the purpose of the incident was to make me aware of a symbiotic aspect of our mentalities.

 

There were fascinating correlations between my spiritual and paranormal experiences and my work as a publicist for Paramount Pictures.  The mountain logo that appeared at the beginning of each movie was an obvious symbol of spiritual evolution as Moses and Muhammad had experienced revelations associated with a mountain.  I recalled metaphysical elements in the storylines of some of the films I'd helped to publicize while working as a staff writer for the Paramount publicity department, including such movies as "Ghost," the "Star Trek" series, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Scrooged," "Dead Again," "The Butcher's Wife," "Leap of Faith," and "Fire In The Sky."

 

My previous career in the Hollywood entertainment industry provided lessons and insights into many conditions of consciousness and creativity as well as about the influences of wealth and fame on the individual ego and egoism/egotism.  Accounts of unexplained phenomena and chronicles of events fostering spiritual discovery also encourage reflection about the nature of one's identity and metaphysical reality.

 

Since August 1995

 

The interviews and audio journal that I recorded for a few years following my trip to Oklahoma show many surprises.  For example: I began an impromptu interview with an antique store owner and learned that he'd been a stunt man who played the roles of all the alien monsters in the original "Outer Limits" TV series. 

 

I found that it was possible for me to call in to the national radio show "Coast to Coast AM" whenever I had a comment to share as chronicled in a previous blog article.  Soon after my calls started being screened, I stopped listening.

 

Some of my continuing experiences have been described and documented at the testament.org website and this blog.  The manifestations of the spiritual Force associated with the name 'Michael' in Oklahoma have progressed to uncomplicated forms of symbolic communication for me.  When one realizes that we live in a spiritually interactive universe, the experiences of every day can be an adventure in problem solving, co-incidence and synchronicity.

 

Looking back at the diversity of the things that I witnessed—from the bizarre to the spectacular—I am not surprised by a response of disbelief when someone first learns about my case.  The reader who makes use of the information that I share and reads Testament will hopefully gain a better understanding.  As an individual who knows how important it is to always be honest, I can only ask a skeptical person to consider the circumstances of my case and of other documented cases involving 'unexplained phenomena' before reaching any conclusions. 

 

A fortunate aspect of my life is that since the publication of Testament in 1997 I've been able to live a lifestyle unencumbered by the uncomfortable realities of life among those who attract media interest and publicity.  Living a quiet and routine daily life has afforded me ample time to learn about other documented cases categorized as 'paranormal' and share my perspective through articles of this blog.  My objective is to help other people expand their spiritual and metaphysical awareness.  The Thanksgiving holiday is a time of the year for counting one's blessings and considering how one can share them.

This photo from Testament shows my Oklahoma trip 'souvenirs' — these objects materialized in my presence while I was researching a contemporary 'talking poltergeist' haunting in 1995.  The objects are three coins, two pebbles, a nail, a piece of costume jewelry and an amusement park token.  (photo by Timothy Fielding)

The Making of the Bluebell Chainmaille Flower Bracelet

I know that some of you enjoy seeing the process that goes into making my jewelry. This is a not-really-tutorial that shows how I made the Bluebell Chainmaille Flower bracelet! It is inspired by the purple-blue "bluebell" flower, also known as harebells and fairy thimbles.

"When dim and dewy twilight falls, 
Then comes the time 
When harebells chime 
For fairy feasts and, fairy balls. 
They tinkle while the fairies play, 
With dance and song, 
The whole night long, 
Till daybreak wakens, cold and grey, 
And elfin music fades away."
~Cicley Mary Baker, artist of the flower fairy paintings

Also, as of this month my Artfire shop is officially closed. I am now selling only on my Etsy store, Shealynn's Faerie-- please check it out as I am adding more items! 

 Next week is Thanksgiving, and with it comes Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Stay tuned for some flash sales!

One last announcement: My queue for custom orders is nearly full, so if you have anything custom that you would like me to make for Christmas, please email me straight away. Thank you!

Zechariah Sitchin and Bel-Marduk

Marduk or 'Bel-Marduk' is a subject of ancient Near East texts that have been translated by scholars.  The narrative account of Bel-Marduk that appears throughout the books of Zecharia Sitchin is largely hypothetical; however, some of the reported data was familiar to me at the time in my life when I felt compelled to ponder the life of Bel-Marduk — as mentioned in previous blog articles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ) and chronicled in the 1997 case study Testament. 

The third book of Sitchin's series The Earth Chronicles is The Wars of Gods and Men (1985).  As one begins reading, before there is any mention of Marduk, a god named Amon-Ra is mentioned as being the inspiration of vicious warfare instigated by pharaohs Thothmes III and Pi-Ankhy.  Sitchin presents a paragraph interpreting an amalgamation of obviously ethnocentric mythology:

The god Amon, to whose battle orders the Egyptians attributed their viciousness, found his match in the God of Israel.  In the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, "Thus sayeth the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: 'I will punish Amon, god of Thebes, and those who trust in him, and shall bring retribution upon Egypt and its gods, its Pharaoh and its kings.'"  This, we learn from the Bible, was an ongoing confrontation; nearly a thousand years earlier, in the days of the Exodus, Yahweh, the God of Israel, smote Egypt with a series of afflictions intended not only to soften the heart of its ruler but also as "judgments against all the gods of Egypt."

This paragraph reminds how the diverse records of recalled events categorically known as 'history' is comprised of manifold sources, each filtered through an individual perspective or interpretation (or a succession of sources/perspectives).  Among the translated texts mentioning 'Amon-Re' in the 1950 book edited by James R. Pritchard Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (1950) is a hymn "from the Nineteenth Dynasty, subsequent to the Amarna Revolution."  The hymn is among "extracts from a long document in praise of the imperial god Amon-Re of Thebes and treat that deity as the sole god, or, perhaps, as the first principle and the sole god of immediate attention."  This selection of four stanzas includes what is identified as the three-hundredth stanza mentioning  "All gods are three: Amon, Re, and Ptah, and there is no second to them."  A footnote explains: "This is a statement of trinity, the three chief gods of Egypt subsumed into one of them, Amon."

Sitchin presented his own perceptions in attempting to make sense of ancient texts.  In the prologue of his first book of The Earth Chronicles, The 12th Planet (1976), Sitchin explained:

Using the Old Testament as our anchor, and submitting as evidence nothing but the texts, drawings, and artifacts left us by the ancient peoples of the Near East, we will go beyond the intriguing questions and the provocative suggestions.  We will prove that Earth was indeed visited in its past by astronauts from another planet.

At the beginning of the chapter "Mankind Emerges" of The Wars of Gods and Men, Sitchin reported:

Ever since George Smith found and reported in 1876 (The Chaldean Account of Genesis) detailed Mesopotamian tales of Creation, followed by L. W. King's The Seven Tablets of Creation, scholars and theologians alike have come to recognize that the Creation Tales of the Old Testament (Genesis Chapters 1 through 3) are condensed and edited versions of original Sumerian texts.

Sitchin viewed "primitive myths" as "depositories of advanced scientific knowledge with which modern scholars are only now beginning to catch up."  He turned his attention to Marduk after appraising that "Sumerian records, linking Enki with the African lands of the Nile, assume a double significance: they corroborate the Egyptian tales with Mesopotamian tales and link Sumerian gods—especially the Enki-gods—with the gods of Egypt . . ."  Sitchin found similarities between the Babylonian Marduk and the Egyptian god Ra, explaining "the former was the son of Enki, the latter of Ptah, the two, Enki-Ptah, being in our view one and the same . . ."

Thus, a self-laudatory hymn to Marduk (tablet Ashur/4125) declares that one of his epithets was "The god IM.KUR.GAR RA"—"Ra Who Beside the Mountainland Abides."

Moreover, there is textual evidence that the Sumerians were of the deity's Egyptian name, Ra.  There were Sumerians whose personal names incorporated the divine name RA; and tablets from the time of the Ur III Dynasty mention "Dingir Ra" and his temple E.Dingir.Ra.

In the chapter "The Prisoner in the Pyramid," Sitchin reported that clay tablets found in the ruins of the ancient Assyrian capitals Ashur and Ninevah had apparently "served as a script for a new Year's mystery play in Babylon . . ."  In the ancient script, Bel ("The Lord") is the first character introduced: ". . . Bel, who was confined in The Mountain."  The incidents in the play are described as including the sister-wife of Marduk, Sarpanit, appealing to her father Sin and her brother Utu/Shamash: "Give life to Bel!"  The high priest appeals to the Supreme God, to Sin and to Shamash: "Restore Bel to Life!"  The drama takes a new turn when the actor representing Marduk, "clothed with shrouds which 'with blood are dyed,' speaks out: 'I am not a sinner!  I shall not be smitten!'  He announces that the supreme god has reviewed his case and found him not guilty."  The audience learns the guilty god has been captured and the evildoer is slain.  Sitchin suggested that Marduk's rescuers succeeded in freeing him from 'The Mountain,' which Sitchin believed to signify the Great Pyramid.

Adding to the complexity is that Sitchin in his books also offers commentary about a planet with the name 'Marduk.'  One damaged tablet with incomplete text is identified by Sitchin as offering Marduk's autobiography, relating "his return to Babylon after the twenty-four years of sojourn in the Land of Hatti."  Marduk referred to his "everlasting abode."

His wish, Marduk continued, was to bring peace and prosperity to the land, "chase away evil and bad luck . . . bring motherly love to Mankind."  But it all came to naught: Against his city, Babylon, an adversary god "his wrath had brought."  The name of this adversary god is stated at the very beginning of a new column of the text; but all that has remained of it is the first syllable: "Divine NIN-."  The reference could have been only to Ninurta.

While Sitchin's books suggest occasions when the name Marduk is synonymous with 'God' in ancient texts ("the king of the gods, the ruler of Heaven and Earth"), specific passages show a different orientation.  For example, Sitchin wrote in Divine Encounters (1995):

The Babylonian king Hammurabi recorded thus the legitimization of Marduk's supremacy on Earth:

Lofty Anu,

Lord of the Anunnaki,

and Enlil,

Lord of Heaven and Earth

who determines the destinies of the land,

Determined for Marduk, the first born of Enki,

the Enlil-functions over all mankind

and made him great among the Igigi.

Sitchin presented an overview of his hypothetical conceptions of the life of Bel-Marduk in The Cosmic Code (1998), Book VI of The Earth Chronicles.

Deified in Mesopotamia, Ra/Marduk returned to Egypt to reassert his supremacy there, as the Great God of the new civilization.  The time was 3100 B.C.  There was, of course, the small problem of what to do with Thoth, who had been the reigning deity in Egypt and Nubia while Ra/Marduk was gone.  Unceremoniously, he was sent away . . . In The Lost Realms we have suggested that, taking along a group of his African followers, he went all the way to the New World, to become Quetzalcoatl, the Winged Serpent god.  The first calendar instituted by him in Mesoamerica (the Long Count calendar) began in the year 3113 B.C.; it was, we believe, the precise date of the arrival in the New World of Thoth/Quetzalcoatl.

Still seething from his failure in Mesopotamia, the bitter Marduk turned to settling other scores.  During his absence a divine "Romeo and Juliet"—his brother Dumuzi and Inanna/Ishtar, the granddaughter of Enlil—fell in love and were to be betrothed.  The union was anathema to Ra/Marduk; he was especially alarmed by Inanna's hopes to become Mistress of Egypt through the marriage.  When Marduk's emissaries tried to seize Dumuzi, he accidentally died as he tried to escape.  His death was blamed on Marduk.

Texts that have been discovered in several copies and versions provide details of the trial of Marduk and his punishment: to be buried alive in the Great Pyramid, which was sealed tight to create a divine prison.  With only air to breathe but no food or water, Marduk was sentenced to die in that colossal tomb.  But his spouse and mother successfully appealed to Anu to commute the death sentence into one of exile.  Using the original construction plans, an escape shaft was dug and blasted into the passages above the massive plugs.  The return of Marduk from certain death, his emergence from his tomb, were aspects of the view that the texts—titled by early translators "The Death and Resurrection of the Lord"—were precursors of the New Testament tale of the death, entombment, and resurrection of Jesus.

Sentenced to exile, Ra/Marduk became Amen/Ra, the unseen god.  This time, however, he roamed the Earth.  In an autobiographical text in which his return was prophesied, Marduk described his wanderings thus:

     I am the Divine Marduk, a great god.

     I was cast off for my sins.

     To the mountains I have gone,

     in many lands I have been a wanderer.

     From where the sun rises

     to where it sets I went.

And wherever he roamed, he kept asking the Gods of Fate: "Until when?"

The answer regarding his Fate, he realized, came from the heavens.  The Age of the Bull, the age zodiacally belonging to Enlil and his clan, was ending.  The dawn was nearing when the Sun would rise on the first day of spring, the day of the New Year in Mesopotamia, in the zodiacal constellation of the Ram (Aries)—his constellation.  The celestial cycle of Fates augers his, Marduk's, supremacy!

Not everyone agreed.  Was it just so because of time calculations, or an observable celestial phenomenon?  Marduk could not care less; he launched a march on Mesopotamia while his son, Nabu, organized followers to invade the Sinai and seize the spaceport.  The escalating conflict is described in a text known as the Erra Epos; it tells how, seeing no other choice, the gods opposing Marduk used nuclear weapons to obliterate the spaceport (and, as a sideshow, the unfaithful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah).

But Fate intervened on the side of Marduk.  The prevailing western winds carried the deathly nuclear cloud eastward, toward Sumer.  Babylon, farther north, was spared.  But in southern Mesopotamia the Evil Wind caused sudden death and lasting desolation.  Sumer's great capital, Ur, was a place where wild dogs roamed.

Sitchin's overview seems farcical considered from the standpoint of spiritual awareness.  Such egotism and grandiosity associated with 'Bel-Marduk' or any individual or mortal 'god' is absurd.  Anyone who has worked in the Hollywood entertainment industry (myself having been employed as a talent agent and movie publicist) know the illusory nature of human celebrity and fame or infamy.

As those who have read Testament might understand, I thought my life was 'normal' until it suddenly was not — if working in the entertainment industry can be considered normal.  I was living in the vicinity of the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, working as a movie publicity writer for Paramount Pictures and planning a career as screenwriter and author.  One of my research projects was the Bell Witch and other 'talking poltergeist' cases for a planned book.  In 1995 I traveled to rural Oklahoma to investigate a contemporary case centering on the enigmatic 'Michael.'

When I returned home to LA only to find the paranormal manifestations continuing to occur in my presence, I began reflecting about my life and remembered a few very odd incidents.  The things that continued to happen were so unusual and occurred in such a quick succession that I decided to publish a journal of my experiences.  After I discussed with my friend Marie the possibility of having an author pseudonym, she heard a disembodied voice say "Mark Russell Bell."  When she told me about the occurrence, I knew this would be the appropriate pen name.

In January 1996 I purchased a "round silver pin" from a nearby antique store that showed the profile of an Egyptian pharaonic figure that looked like me when I was in my late teens/early 20s.  As a child and teenager, it had bothered me to have such distinct 'bags' under my eyes and this was a trait shared by the ancient person depicted on the 'round silver pin.'  I've never found any other object that elicited such a response.  For comparison, the "round silver pin" is shown below as an inset of a photo of me taken by my twin brother Mike during a London vacation when I was in my 20s.

 



Matthew Manning and Spiritual Healing

This photo is from One Foot in the Stars: "Doctors told the parents of brain-damaged Anja Kowalska that she would never speak or walk.  After six healing sessions she did."  In Germany there were media reports about Anja's case of spiritual healing facilitated by Matthew Manning.  (photographer: Eberhard Fuchs)

 
 

In the fourth among seven chapters of his 1999 autobiography One Foot in the Stars written with Tessa Rose, Matthew Manning described an evolutionary incident in his life that occurred while he was living in the English village of Linton.  A stranger visited and introduced himself as an Italian doctor whose mother was seriously ill with cancer.  He had heard about the cancer cell experiment Matthew had done with John Kmetz in Texas.  Matthew agreed to go and treat the woman in a nearby hospital.  Matthew recalled: "I let my intuition guide me and did what I felt what was right, very gently placing my hands on her . . ."  Returning to the woman's hospital room in the evening, Matthew was gratified by signs of improvement.  The next morning, however, he received a phone call from her son who said she had died during the night.  Matthew later was able to place what happened in perspective.

My first 'failure' had taught me not to get carried away with the idea that I could make healing work every time.  That power is simply not in my gift.  It has not always been easy telling people that I cannot be sure how the healing will go.

Matthew began to introduce healing demonstrations into his public appearances and eventually began to give healing on a one-to-one basis in Leicestershire, Britain.  One of his first successes was with a woman suffering from bone cancer.  Matthew commented about a series of lectures and healing demonstrations around Britain during this period in his life:

For the first half of the evening I would talk about what I called one-ness and its relevance to our lives.  The second half of the evening would be taken up with my giving direct healing to people in the audience.  This idea of connectedness, and our responsibilities to each other and the planet as a whole, remains a central theme of my work.

 

Matthew contemplated protests about his work and commented during a radio interview: ". . . merely to condemn without paying me the courtesy of listening to my ideas and experiencing one of my demonstrations is neither intelligent or sensible."

In 1980 Matthew continued to participate in scientific testing and after working with eight patients at a pain clinic commented:

I expect the people I treat to be active partners.  When I first began to give healing, this was a novel idea that took some grasping.  Many people who came to me were used to being the passive recipients of 'health care.'  One of my earliest 'messages' was, 'You are your own best healer,' and this was the theme of many of my talks and demonstrations.  I would teach simple meditation and visualization techniques to get people used to this way of working.

Matthew's new healing occupation was reported in a 1982 program entitled "The Healers": "I was presented with two people and asked to give them both healing.  The first, a publishing executive with a painful knee, did not benefit from my treatment.  The second was a woman with an infection of the hip joint . . . At the end of about 20 minutes of healing the woman (who insisted on remaining anonymous) said that the pain — which had been with her constantly for two years — had gone.  A year later, the pain had still not returned.  The woman, who professed to being completely skeptical about 'faith healing,' said: 'It can't happen — but it has!'"

Throughout One Foot in the Stars, details are provided about many cases where Matthew successfully facilitated healing and there are reflections about his life.  He married Christine in 1982 and they would eventually have two children, Henrietta born in 1984 and Jethro born in 1991.  In 1983, Matthew began using his office in Bury St Edmunds as a healing center to accommodate the increasing number of people wanting to receive one-to-one treatment.

The philosophy I projected in my workshops and demonstrations, and in the tapes, underpinned the principles of the practice.  Anyone who came to me, I decided, must be prepared to work at mental and physical exercises to help their illness.  This was spelt out to people enquiring about treatment — and put quite a number of them off!

In 1985 and 1986, a half-hour BBC television documentary publicized Matthew's spiritual healing.  Matthew described what happened during the making of the program.

When the film was eventually viewed by producer Mike Purton's superiors, it was rejected for being 'too pro-Matthew Manning,' and a further day's filming was insisted upon to redress the perceived imbalance.  I suspect that many television executives regard controversy as being synonymous with interesting viewing.  The counter-balancing the studio bosses had in mind consisted of trying to make something out of the fact that I charge for treatment.

Matthew explained that he devised "a system which ensures that those who can afford to pay for treatment are supporting those who can not."  Matthew recalled that when the documentary was broadcast nationally his "fortunes had dipped to their lowest point."  Then there was an "avalanche of interest."

One of the benefits of this exposure was that it finally imprinted on people's minds my identity as a healer.  Several people were confused by my evolution from teenage psychic, believing that my father had been the centre of the poltergeist activity and that I had taken up healing independently.  Explaining was a small price to pay for the shift of consciousness I had been trying so hard to bring about.  The 'Poltergeist Boy' image was happily laid to rest by the media, too, now that they had an exciting 'new' label for me, and they began reporting in my healing work with refreshing seriousness.

Healing techniques used by Matthew were said to have "evolved through trial and error, and leaps of imagination."  'Healing circles' became a part of his work during the 1990s as he "used this idea of connecting energies" during workshops.

It is almost impossible to tell who will benefit from my healing.  When I choose someone for a demonstration, I go purely on intuition — that little inner voice.  The set-up with healing circles is different.  I will give my energy to each person in the circle and rely on each of them to tune in as best they can.  The energy generated by 50 or more people can be immensely powerful.

Matthew divulged how he continuously facilitated healing although he engaged in unhealthy consumption of alcoholic beverages and occasionally even illegal drugs.  He mentioned an unpleasant experience with an illegal downer called Mandrax and acknowledged that he had been introduced to cannabis.  He explained: 

For years I had been trying to elude the straitjacket people were trying to wedge me into.  I was a healer, therefore I was expected to wear open-toed sandals, flowing robes and live as an ascetic.  The longer this image had persisted the more ways I had found of tarnishing it: stylish clothes, fast cars, attractive women, cigarettes, and latterly alcohol and dope.  I wanted to make it clear that the excesses binding me were not those of the archetypal holy man.

Increasingly the material I was presenting in my workshops was reflecting my situation with myself.  The healing of relationships and the emotional self became the focus of my workshops.

Matthew discovered that he was "not invulnerable" on the night of his thirty-eighth birthday.  He had been drinking for hours and suddenly keeled over and was violently sick.  He could not stop vomiting and lost consciousness.  He awakened at two in the morning in the pub and six hours later went home.  He remembered: "When I stripped off to shower I found bruises, some of them the size of dinner plates, all over my body, signs that my much put upon liver had started to fail."

After separating from his first wife in 1994, a new relationship with Gig—the woman who he later married—helped motivate him to begin a new lifestyle of sobriety.

David Frost—who had interviewed Matthew on an episode of his television show "The David Frost Interview" in 1974—collaborated with him and Uri Geller on the UK television special "Beyond Belief" in 1995.  Matthew presented a mind/body exercise and healing demonstration on the telecast.  In the mind/body exercise he wanted to show "how different kinds of thought can affect the body and, most importantly, our ability to resist" and "anyone can be humbled by negative thoughts — even somebody who has a body that is in peak physical condition . . ."

The exercise was one I had used many times in public demonstrations, as a 'step one' of healing.  The impressively bronzed and muscled Panther, from the television show "Gladiators," was there to assist me.  After ascertaining that the right side of her body was stronger than the left, I asked her to think  for about 15 seconds of something that made her feel very happy, inspired and positive.  When she felt she had absorbed this idea, she was to put out her left arm and when I said the word 'Resist,' she as to use every ounce of her strength to prevent me pushing her arm down.  I was virtually jumping on her arm, but could not bring it down to the side of her body.  We repeated the exercise on her right side, only this time I asked her to change her frame of mind and think of something that made her feel angry, hostile, jealous and negative.  Being on her stronger side, her right arm looked even more formidable than her left, and yet it collapsed as soon as I exerted pressure on it.

The healing demonstration involved four people with immobility.  He took them to a room near the studio and arranged them in a circle, linking hands.

I had ten minutes to make a difference, or not, half the time I usually allow for a demonstration.  At the end of it we returned to the main studio.

I did not hold out much hope for the healing helping the disability of one of the women, whose neck bones had been fused by surgery.  Her immobility was as fixed as before, although she did report feeling more relaxed and being free of the headache she had had before the session.  The other woman also said she felt more relaxed.  The most striking result was with the two men.  Peter was suffering with an arthritic shoulder which prevented him making lateral or vertical movements with his arm.  He said he had felt the energy passing round the circle and could now demonstrate considerably more mobility than previously.

But the most striking improvement was seen in Keith.  He described the healing as an "incredible experience" and said he had felt the pain leaving his body.  He could now raise his arms above his head, and his ability to bend over at the waist was much improved because the pain in his lower spine had lessened.

There were two more "Beyond Belief" specials in following years with Matthew appraising after the final telecast, ". . . for all its shortcomings, 'Beyond Belief' did not succeed in trivializing what I do.  The awareness it raised in the majority may have been temporary, but if there is a significant minority in whom the idea of healing remains, the experience will have been worthwhile."

While the second "Beyond Belief" was in production, Matthew was asked to do a half-hour video diary of his work for BBC telecast.  The resulting "Order from Chaos" was part of the BBC series "Secrets of the Paranormal."  Matthew wrote that the film attracted some criticism and in his book he responded to what he viewed to be a "misconceived diatribe" by Professor Lewis Wolpert, chairman of COPUS (the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science), in a piece published in a column of the Independent on Sunday.

It seemed to miss the point entirely, deliberately I suspect, for how many men of Wolpert's undoubted intellect  can bear to admit that they are at a loss to explain something?  They have an argument which the facts have to be made to fit, and will even resort to distorting the truth to ensure it prevails.  Wolpert stated that I claimed to be able to make medical diagnoses.  I have never used this ability in my professional work as a healer and indeed will not accept patients for one-to-one healing if their condition had not been identified by a qualified medical practitioner.

Some of the cases profiled by Matthew in the book reminded me of how relative are individual perceptions of health and healing.  As is known from other case studies of spiritual healers, there are some bodily conditions that cannot be repaired.  In other cases, healing may not be immediate.  Effects of spiritual healing may be difficult to ascertain in relation to rates of disease progression and alleviation.  Matthew commented about 'Thomas Penn' automatic writing diagnoses in "Beyond Belief 3": "Both diagnoses fell flat, although I sensed that one of them was accurate and the person concerned was not telling the truth."

Matthew and Gig married in 1998 and soon thereafter Gig was diagnosed as having a rare cancer.  Matthew wrote about the course of the illness following the "bombshell" that hit him when the diagnosis was given.  Gig received treatment at the Hammersmith Hospital.

There are about 200 kinds of cancer, all of them different.  Like most people for whom cancer becomes a reality, the word does not reflect such distinctions, and so one goes through a nightmare phase of being prey to one's worst fears.

In addition to the conventional treatment, Gig took full advantage of the complementary therapies on offer at the hospital, especially reflexology, which she found very effective in helping her to relax. 

One of my patients passed on a vital piece of knowledge concerning a product called bromelin, a pineapple extract whose positive benefits in the treatment of cancer — especially in conjunction with the drug 5FU — have been reported in over 200 medical journals around the world.

Healing does not cure every ill and when I began to give Gig treatment — shortly after the appearance of the mystery lesion — I could no more guarantee her a successful outcome — on whatever level that might take place — than I could any of my other patients.

My efforts intensified once cancer was diagnosed.  I gave her healing every day until she began to experience the side-effects of the radiotherapy treatment.

Matthew described at times reaching an ecstatic state while giving healing.

 

On the numerous occasions I have reached this ecstatic state, I have seen a figure.  He has the build and look of a gigantic Sumo wrestler, although one that is stark naked, covered with hair and  — perhaps rather incongruously — exudes joy, love and freedom.  He came as a blinding vision on the first occasion, executing back flips, somersaults and other amazing acrobatics.  I wondered how anyone so fat and unathletic could perform such movements.  He said, as if to answer my unspoken question, "The only reason I am so fat is because I am so full of love."  He does not always speak, and when he does he limits himself to one, usually cryptic, phrase.

 
Matthew reported two appearances of this figure while he was facilitating healing to Gig.  On the first occasion, Matthew saw him dancing with what looked like a Samurai sword and heard him say, "When you are strong you don't need the sword."  On the second occasion —

This time he was standing on a rock at the mouth of a huge subterranean cave which opened into a vast shimmering lake.  He was in contemplative mood, the object of his attention the sword he held in his hand, point upwards, the same sword which previously he had shown off as a plaything.

The next day in April 1999, Gig was told by an oncologist that she was now an ex-cancer patient.  In 2003 the cancer returned and she made her transition on February 2, 2004 at age 47 with some details provided by an East Anglican Daily Times article: "Healer pays tribute to his brave wife".

In the final chapter of One Foot in the Stars, Matthew offered concluding observations, among them —

I regard healing energy as an unconditional universal force for good.

Wherever the energy which I use comes from, it is not from me directly.

Matthew Manning is also the author of The Healing Journey (2001).  His website is matthewmanning.net.

Matthew Manning and Reincarnation

Diagram of a Coin of King Olav Tryggvason's time

The Prologue of the autobiography One Foot in the Stars (1999) presents Matthew Manning's reflections about reincarnation.  He recounted intuitive and synchronistic occurrences that suggest his current life is influenced by previous incarnations during earlier centuries.  He wrote: "One of the periods of history which has always had a strong fascination for me is the Restoration, when the monarchy in England was established with the ascension of Charles II."  Matthew did not realize that his attraction to the 17th Century could be significant in relation to a previous incarnation until he was conducting a workshop in the United States in 1977 and noticed a woman staring at him intently.

Afterwards she came up to me and explained that she was a clairvoyant and that she also did past-life readings.  She said to me, "While you were doing the workshop I was picking things up from you.  I sense very strongly that you have always, through many lives, chosen to be in a position where you have gained power over other people.  I pick up one where I suspect you were very high up in the Church.  I can see another one where you appear to have been a general or very high up in the military in England, probably in the mid-17th century.  Every time you've chosen a life with a position of power, you've abused it and you've turned it to your advantage.  This time, in this life, you've done exactly the same thing.  You've chosen a path where you've got power.  In this lifetime you are going to have to learn which route you take: whether you use it positively to help others, or whether you use it in a negative way, to overpower them."

Although at this point in his life he didn't believe in reincarnation, Matthew remembered his response to what the woman told him.  "Her words sent a tingle up my spine and lodged in my head, because they tied in with aspects of myself that I felt and knew to be true."  Matthew recalled an evening a few months previously when he dined with Mervyn Stockwood, who was then Bishop of Southpark, and Prince Charles.  Talking with the Prince after dinner, Matthew thought: "'I have been in this situation, or one similar to it, before.'  There I was sitting next to him on a wooden bench, following wherever he led the conversation . . . I felt like an advisor to a king."

The "next piece in this jigsaw" was a 1994 incident that took place when he was conducting a workshop in Sydney, Australia.  He told the workshop group about a recurring dream that he first experienced as a child.

In the dream I am standing on a block of what appears to be stone, about the size of a seat.  I am surrounded by very dark, almost black, deep water, and in it I can see fish.  I know that I have to get off this rock and reach what appears to be a harbor or quay some distance away, but I am frightened of the fish and the water has a very strong current.  As I look out to the horizon I see an enormous wave coming towards me.  I know that if I do not leave the rock I will be swept into the water.  At this point I always wake up.

Matthew regarded the dream as a warning signal.  After the morning session with the workshop group, a participant spoke to him.  Explaining that he was a hypnotherapist involved with past-life readings, the man said that information would come through to him without the use of hypnosis.

He said, "When you told the story of being stuck on the rock, I got an immediate flash for you.  I sensed that in a previous life you had been very high up in Viking society.  I'm going back probably 900 years or so.  You were responsible for a great many people, but something you did led to many of them dying, and you could've prevented it.  You were then sentenced to death by the Vikings.  They rowed you in a boat to an outcrop of rocks and left you there to drown.  What you think you're seeing as fish are not fish but seals."

Matthew had visited Norway as a child and worked regularly in the country.  He commented, "I was struck by the fact that he should describe a setting that was so alien and so distant from his own environment." 

In 1998 he was in Oslo to present a healing demonstration when someone brought him something in a large box to show him.

I opened the box and there inside was a Viking sword, which had been dredged up from a Norwegian fjord.  Strangely, the man who had brought the sword had no idea why he had to show it to me.  He just knew he had to bring it.  Once again I felt a shiver shoot up my spine.

Matthew's manager in Norway on this occasion was Walter Kraus, who flew with him to Bergen on the coast of Norway after this incident.  Matthew found himself in an irritable mood: "I do not often get into a black mood but something was getting to me."  There was an unexpected development as they were having dinner in a restaurant.

I started getting vivid flashbacks which suggested that Walter and I had been connected in a previous life.  Out of the blue, I said to him, "I am Olav.  You are Ethelred."  Then, "I used to drink a great deal."  I was not thinking about what I was saying. The words came out by themselves."

Matthew found a letter from Oslo among his mail when he returned home to England with his wife.

The correspondent explained that she had attended one of my healing circles eighteen months previously and was pleased that I was coming to Oslo because she would be enabled to take further the healing process started on that earlier occasion.  She recalled my telling her group about a dream in which I was on a rock in the sea and drowned as the tide came in.  She thought I would be interested in the illustration she had photocopied onto the reverse of the letter.

Entitled 'Seidmennene på Skratteskjaer' — "The Medicine Man on the Rock of Trolls" — the image comes from Olav Tryggvason Saga by the Icelandic historian Snorre Sturluson.  The story tells how these men came to be executed by drowning on a rock in the sea off Karmøy, an island near Stavanger.  One of the medicine men, Øyvind Kelda, had incurred the displeasure of his king, Olav, who had spent years as a Viking marauder before becoming ruler of Norway at the end of the tenth century.  Olav had recently been converted to Christianity by his erstwhile enemy, the English king Ethelred, and was putting the brutal methods he had employed to build his empire into the service of his new god.  Øyvind was one of the many who were resisting Olav's demand that they give up their old beliefs and accept Christianity.  In Snorre's version of events, Øyvind had made a "a great darkness come over the king and his men," and for this Olav had first tried to murder him by setting fire to his cottage while the medicine man was drunk in bed.  Øyvind had escaped this attempt only to be caught and sentenced to death on the rocks, where he drowned.  Before his capture, Øyvind was said to have arranged matters so that he and his fellow medicine men were rendered invisible to Olav, but somehow the spell was reversed and in the end it was the medicine men who could not see their pursuers.

It would make sense for me to believe that I was Øyvind Kelda in a previous life.  He was a healer, a medicine man and the way he met his death fits my dream.  But in the grotty restaurant in Norway I knew I was Olav.  There was no hint of Øyvind, although I feel that his memory may have haunted Olav for the rest of his violent life and after death become part of his soul's journey.

I see Olav as the first of several past lives I have connected to over the year.  The themes of power abused and hedonism are constants in those brief flashes of recognition which have echoed through my present life.  Through these flashes I have gradually come to understand the purpose of the journey I am embarked upon in this life, and hope that maybe this time I will get it right.

  

As with Matthew Manning's case, my witnessing occurrences categorically associated with ‘poltergeist’ phenomena expanded my awareness about life and necessitated making sense of what was signified by the variety of events.  This is chronicled in the case study Testament (1997).  I also became aware of apparently having lived a previous life when I was in a position of authority.

In my case, the lore of ancient Sumer and Egypt has always interested me.  In the 1980s I read books by Zecharia Sitchin, who presented his analysis of what could be learned from artifacts of ancient civilizations.  In 1995 when my 'Mark Russell Bell' pseudonym was channeled to me through a surprised friend, soon thereafter I again considered some of Sitchen's information about the individual who is today known as 'Bel-Marduk.'  Clay tablets about Bel-Marduk found in the ruins of Ashur and Ninevah had been transcribed and translated by Heinrich Zimmern.  Sitchin wrote in The Wars of Gods and Men (1985) about "Marduk or Bel . . . being confined in The Mountain . . ."  I noticed parallels with events in my own life as I had been employed by Paramount Pictures—the corporate entertainment company with the Mountain logo—prior to realizing the necessity of becoming a metaphysical author.  The possibility of having lived a previous life as Bel-Marduk seemed to be confirmed when I found an Egyptian-style pendant presenting a profile view of someone who looked just like me.  Sitchin reported about Marduk: "Mesopotamian texts relate that he went into exile; in Egypt Ra acquired the epithet Amen, 'The Hidden One.'"  Similar to this epithet, the publication of Testament was not reported throughout the mainstream news media.