I grew up reading comic books. Specifically, Marvel comics. You may be familiar with one of their flagship characters, since he’s one of the most famous characters in the whole world: Spider Man.

There’s a lesson that was put into print very early on in the pages of Spider Man comics. It was the idea that “With great power comes great responsibility.”

It’s not the first place an idea like that came up, but it’s the first place I saw it… and probably the first place a whole lot of people think of when they hear those words.

For everyone who knows that saying, you’d think more people would live by it. But, looking around at the world we live in, that’s obviously not quite the case.

The fact is, humans are really good at figuring out ways to dodge responsibility. One of the more common–and, to me, frustrating–ways it gets done is by leaning on labels as excuses.

Here’s a video that lays out the “7 Signs You Are a Heyoka, The Most Powerful Empath”… from a YouTube channel that’s full of similar videos.

Labels Are Explanations, Not Excuses

If you just took a few minutes to watch that video, you’ll notice a few things. First, it’s made well enough and has what I’d consider “good enough” information as a starting point. I’m not here to knock the video or the people who made it… it’s just an example of something I see a lot.

Another thing you may have noticed is that a lot of those things mentioned are kind of… not good. Interrupting people, thinking you’re better and more powerful than others (and acting like it), dealing with others in harsh ways… those aren’t aspirational things.

The video kind of waves away the issue with a lot of what it mentions by basically saying “it’s because they’re working on a different level”… and others would say “Those things aren’t their problem… it’s the problem of the culture that doesn’t recognize these abilities!“

Here’s the thing: If you do have these amazing empathic abilities, but you can’t actually get along with the people around you who you’re ostensibly trying to help, you’re doing it wrong.

And, if when the problematic things you’re doing are pointed out to you, your answer is “Well, I’m a Heyoka, what do you expect?” you’re abdicating the responsibility that comes with the power you have.

This happens in all sorts of arenas. It’s particularly bad in the metaphysical/magical/psychic world, but it’s the same in pop-psychology. “Well, I’m a Gemini, what do you expect?” “Oh, sorry about that, INTJ… that’s just how we are.” That’s using labels as excuses for your behavior.

That’s not what labels are for.

Labels help us explain and understand groups of innate behaviors and pre-dispositions. If you’ve been labeled as something–either by yourself or by some other system–that doesn’t mean you have to adhere to all the things on the checklist that define that label.

You still have agency in how you behave.

Hazard List vs Road Map

With any labels you have a choice: Use it as a hazard list or a road map.

If you use it as a hazard list, you can go down the defining characteristics and say “Oh! I do this, but neither I nor the people around me like it. Now I know I’m predisposed to this because of these other factors. How can I use some of the other things I’m predisposed to to make myself better?

If you use it as a road map, you’re saying “Well, this is where we’re going and it’s the only way to get there, so… guess we’re kind of stuck with this.” (And then usually start exhibiting other bad behaviors associated with the label.)

The Hazard List way puts things in motion for you to be better, to get along better with those around you, and, overall, make the world a better place. The Road Map way is you abdicating your responsibility to be a better person… and, more often than not, makes you and those around you (and the world) a bit worse (or, at least, not better).

Every label has good an bad things in its definition. In the case of this video, yes, a Heyoka is predisposed to interrupt people because they have a lot going on in their head or they’ve already intuited what the actual problem is. But, well, interrupting people alienates them and makes them less prone to listening to you. If you really want to help them, maybe make use of one of your other abilities–like the one that allows you to listen and act on multiple levels–and actually just jot down a note in a notebook (which, if you’re the kind of person that’s described in the video, you should always have at least one nearby) instead of interrupting the person who’s talking to you.

Having power fantasies of being better than everyone else? Learn to not act on them. Dedicate time to meditating on humility and patience. Pay attention to the feelings that shoot out of people when you present yourself as superior–in most cases, those won’t be pleasant ones.

Power Is A Responsibility

There’s no denying that any kind of power brings with it a lot of privilege. It doesn’t make a difference if you’ve earned that power through hard work or been born with it, people will likely notice at some point and you’ll be able to get things from them because of it.

And it’s easy to get caught up in that privilege. You may feel that you deserve what you’re getting and more. You may forget that there’s a flip side to all the benefits you gain by having power and privilege. You may not even care (until something goes horribly wrong, of course).

Power and privilege without responsibility–without an acceptance and willingness to do for others–leads down a very dark (though gilded) path. You lose things like compassion without even realizing it. You cause harm without even realizing it. You set yourself up for a precipitous fall without realizing it.

Power is a responsibility. How you use it matters. And there’s no label in the world that doesn’t give you some choice in how you interpret it and put the information it provides into your personal context.

Choose wisely, and you can change the world for the better.

Choose poorly and you will cause more suffering and harm in the long run than good.

I was raised Catholic. Because of that, there are some stories I know really well.

Mostly because they got repeated year after year in Church.

Sometimes, the stories were even *about* stories. (Things can get a little meta in religions sometimes.)

After I left The Church to explore other faith options, I found a lot more stories, some with a bit of overlap and some that spoke more directly to my own experience of the world.

One thing became quite clear: Stories are important. Especially when it comes to the propagation of a faith.

Narrative Lessons to Learn

We’re at the time of year right now where I always return to one of the big-deal Christian stories from my youth: the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. You know: Easter.

It’s definitely one of the less fun stories connected with the religion. Most of it is what would be considered a bit of a downer: friends deny they know him, one of them sells him out, he’s taken prisoner, his own people choose a literal murder over him to be set free, he gets executed in one of the most gruesome ways the Romans did people in.

Definitely not a good few days.

But after a weekend of laying low, it’s all okay and he’s back. Kind of. It’s a big deal and the real foundation of the faith.

But those “not so good few days” are even more important when it comes to what that new faith was supposed to be all about.

See, in those days, Jesus was pretty explicit in laying down what he thought was important (and what his dad, you know: God, also thought was important) at the time.

And that’s why I return to those stories every year around this time. That narrative has a lot of good lessons in it. It’s all about service, sacrifice, and salvation. I’ve already talked a bit about those before, so I’m not going to rehash them here.

Stories Matter

Humans really dig narratives. We get drawn in by a story. And really good stories stick with us for a long time. (We don’t always remember them quite right–more often than not, we remember what we wanted them to be… but that gets into a whole ‘nother discussion.)

Really good stories get retold.

They also changed with time. At least they did for most of human history. Even in cultures where writing was a thing when certain stories were created, the modern perception of a story being immutable wasn’t exactly a big concern in a lot of places. This is one of the reasons history is kind of a mess of fact and fantasy.

Some stories, though, were set in stone (literally) so we can tell how they’ve changed. When we look at those changes, we can often see how they were altered to fit the needs of the time they were being retold within. Sometimes, they changes were so extreme, they were barely the same story at all and just had some of the same characters in them.

A good tale can change someone’s day–or their life. A good storyteller can move mountains–by convincing those listening that the mountain needs to move. Lives and kingdoms rise and fall because of stories told. They become stories themselves, sometimes… cautionary tales or aspirational messages of hope.

Stories matter. Which stories we choose to re-tell, and which versions of those stories we re-tell, are important choices.

Choose wisely.

Over the years, I’ve written a lot about the concept of balance. It’s a key part of my personal metaphysical framework and one that’s common among many.

The past year has been difficult for a whole lot people for a whole lot of reasons. It’s been hard to find balance, let alone feel it.

Feeling balance is important. Because if you have it, but you don’t feel it, you will lose it. And you’ll probably lose it without realizing you have. And without realizing you have, you’ll have more trouble finding it again.

Not Feeling It

No matter how well we cultivate balance in our lives, numerous things can throw off that balance, that rhythm.

Sometimes we’ll see them coming–like knowing the progression of the seasons, you can prepare for the changes you know are coming, adjusting your planting and harvesting to be in sync. Knowing there’s a big work project coming up that will take up extra time that you normally use for other things. Knowing you have a medical procedure scheduled and having the change plans for it and the recovery. Knowing that company is coming in from out of town and you’ll be acting as a host. All very common things that can force us to alter the patterns we know work for us.

Sometimes the changes will be unexpected. The same way a drought or early snow can have serious impacts on a farm, having a work project suddenly take a bad turn, suddenly having a medical issue come up, suddenly finding having someone show up at your doorstep for an extended stay can all throw your balance off something fierce. But, even though the event was unexpected, you know you were okay before and that you can adjust and, eventually, the situation will change and you can (probably) go back to how things were before.

But what if one of those unexpected events hits when you were already feeling off balance? Or when multiple events hit at the same time–an unexpected event piggybacking on an expected on, like a family emergency cropping up the same time you’re working on that huge project for work, or while you’re having your own medical issues dealt with. What if there have been a series of unexpected events that have kept you off balance for a while? What if, for whatever reason, even when things have been going smoothly, you still feel off balance… and are then hit by something else?

When you start from a point of feeling off-balance, every new complication feels bigger than it probably is. Every move you make feels like it’s going to be a disaster. Huge amounts of negativity and anxiety creep in. Deeper fears can be triggered. Things can look like they’re about to all fall apart. Sometimes they are falling apart.

Without that centered, balanced point of reference–without a clear horizon line to orient yourself by–regaining your footing is yet another herculean effort that needs your attention, just like everything that’s throwing you around.

It is, in a word, exhausting.

Float or Sink

This is the point where you need, without question, to put your own well-being first. At least for a moment or two.

Rough waters and chaotic events can’t be navigated without an idea of where you are or which way is up. There is an absolute need to find your orientation if you seek any control over anything.

In the water, bubbles always head for the surface. Heavier things always sink to the bottom. In desperate times, either direction is acceptable, at least until you can feel the sea floor below you or the fresh air on your face. As usual, heading for the air is always preferable, but it’s not always possible… you may need to hold your breath for a bit.

Float or sink, the trick is to accept a direction until you know which is which. This requires a moment of calm, a point in time where you’ve quieted your mind and pushed back the panic that was overtaking you. Grounding and awareness training are key parts of both personal development and metaphysical frameworks for just this reason.

Metaphors aside, this may mean literally locking yourself in the bathroom for 5 minutes just to get away from people. Or going for a walk around the neighborhood. Or calling a night early, even if that will probably mean more work in the morning. Orientation requires space and time to yourself.

Once you’re sure whether you’re sinking or floating, you can take some measure of control to go in the direction you want. Or, at least, be better prepared for the direction you’re going. It’s never preferable to have to hit bottom before change happens, but sometimes it’s inevitable. Knowing and accepting that takes some of the sting out of the experience.

There is Always a Balance Point

No matter how chaotic things are, no matter how overwhelmed you feel, no matter how many more things go “wrong”… there is always a place of calm to be found amid the turmoil.

You may already be there and just not realize it.

When a lot is going on, when our attention is pulled in a million different ways at once, when your emotions are raw and our mind exhausted, there may appear to be no anchor to grab for.

Once you’ve carved out that moment to orient yourself, though, you stand a better chance of seeing it.

Even if you can’t feel it yet, even if it is miles away, finding the balance point provides context for everything else. An object on the horizon you can move toward however slowly that movement may be. You may not be able to get to the point on the opposite shore of the fast-moving river that you want to, but that shore itself is dry and solid ground where you can regroup.

There’s always a balance point. If you can’t see it, perhaps you’re already standing on it. If you are, you have more leverage and control than you think.

Sometime you can’t see that you’re already there because of all the chaos spinning around and within you. Perception can be clouded by so many things, which is why perspective checks–purposeful moments of calm–are important.

If there is nothing else that you do in your personal practice, no matter the path you walk, seek those moments of calm. Cultivate them. Insist on them, even during the most trying of times. You need to feel balance, even if it is fleeting.

When you find that calm point, that balance point, navigating through the chaos is more like surfing on the waves of the Universe. You may get wet, you may wipe out every now and then, but you’re there with a purpose and you’re present for whatever happens… able to react with intent.

If you’ve even vaguely dipped your toe into the world of the paranormal or cryptozoology (or, really, a lot of corners of general pop culture), you’ve heard of the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virgina.

Last time around, I talked about how a lot of people have taken the Mothman to be some sort of harbinger of disaster (or some benevolent force trying to warn us?)… and how that glossed over a lot of facts that make that take kind of unlikely.

There’s another major point of view about the Mothman, one put forward by John Keel in his book The Mothman Prophecies (which is kind of what really cemented the Mothman craze–and a few others–in the public mind). It’s a take that’s alternately amusing and terrifying. It’s also likely closer to the truth.

Big Birds and Rural Skies

Keel was a journalist with a particular interest in weird things. His articles appeared in numerous UFO and Fortean-flavored magazines. He came to Point Pleasant and got involved with the Mothman phenomenon while he was chasing reports of odd lights in the sky.

In the book, he lays out a brief history of sightings of odd things in the sky. Mysterious lights, impossible airships, flying saucers, giant birds. Sightings and stories going back thousands of years. Many of them, he says, happen in rural areas. Not just because they skies tend to be clearer, but because there’s something unique about areas on the “edge”–the transition point from civilization to nature, from forest to plains, from mountain to forest–not too terribly far removed from the paranormal idea of crossroads as places where the veil between worlds can be a bit thin.

(For a fantastic exploration of this idea, definitely check out the Hellier series.)

So, Keel wasn’t really surprised that people had seen some sort of large winged thing around the same time they were seeing strange lights in the skies. Or that it all happened during a swath of sightings all across the country.

What did surprise him a little, was just how much weird stuff started going on directly connected to him and people he knew.

Men in Black and Beeping Phones

As many involved in looking into paranormal occurrences will tell you, once you start looking, things just keep turning up. Even when you’re not actively looking, you kind of stumble into events, stories come up with random people in random conversations, or any other bunch of synchronicity takes place.

Keel’s life was no different, but once Point Pleasant was on his map, things got a bit extra strange for him.

You’ve probably heard of the Men in Black (MIB). Not the Will Smith movie version, though. Somehow, pop culture warped the original reports of these strange individuals into actual government agents and action heroes. No, the real MIB were oddly dressed, oddly accented, and oddly behaving “men” that would sometimes show up during spates of UFO sightings.

One of the most famous just happened to come into the picture at the same time as the Mothman sightings and strange lights in the sky around Point Pleasant. His name was Indrid Cold. But Cold wasn’t the only strange person coming through town. There was a veritable parade of MIB asking pointed questions around town about experiences people had. Some claimed to be from the Air Force (but could/would never answer any questions that verify that), and most were reported to behave in very awkward ways–as if they weren’t entirely sure how humans should behave.

Aside from the weird visits from the MIB, people also started to get weird phone calls. The phone would ring at odd hours–early morning, the middle of the night–and there would either be some unintelligible mechanical sounding voice or just electronic beeps and squeals.

This happened to Keel so much he had his home number changed to an unlisted one. That didn’t even slow down the strange calls. It got so bad, he actually talked his way into getting a full look at the main switching office his Manhattan number was connected to, convinced that there must be some sort of wiretap on it. (There wasn’t.)

What Does That Have to Do with Mothman?

There’s a lot of ground covered in Keel’s Mothman book (including actual prophecies he was given through a few different sources, some of which came true, many of which did not). It can feel really random and unconnected in any way other than temporally.

(For a good rundown of the Mothman lore that leans a bit more toward Keel’s investigations, I’d recommend The Mothman of Point Pleasant and The Mothman Legacy. Between the two of them you can get a real feel for how these events impacted the town and its people, beyond just the sensational stories and bizarre theories.)

The “truth” that Keel puts forward, though, is that all of it comes from the same source: some group of effectively unknowable beings that exist outside of space and time. At least space and time as we understand it. Not aliens, not as many in the UFO community claimed.

In his own words:

I abandoned the extraterrestrial hypothesis in 1967 when my own field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychic phenomena and UFOs… The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter. It is more likely that we see what we want to see and interpret such visions according to our contemporary beliefs.

John Keel, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse

Coincidentally, that idea came about while he was investigating things in Point Pleasant.

In the concluding chapter of The Mothman Prophecies it kind of feels like he throws up his arms and says “There’s no real reason to try to make sense of it, because any sense it makes is beyond what we can comprehend.” He even half-jokingly calls the whole swath of paranormal experiences–ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, everything–part of some ongoing practical joke on humanity by beings far beyond us in perception and technology.

Needless to say, I don’t care much for the thought that these things just can’t be explained. So, Keel and I part ways there. But up to that point–the claim that there’s some sort of connection among all of these things and that it’s not exactly a connection you can package up nicely–I really do think he’s on to something.

In this view, Mothman isn’t some creature snooping around for tragedy (or causing it), it’s a manifestation of something else. Something that our own minds adjust and craft an image of that kind of makes sense to our brains. Just like many UFO sightings (especially the bulk of those that have no physical evidence of a craft, but do present physiological reactions in the witnesses).

So on the one hand, it’s oddly amusing that there may well be some superior beings out there poking fun at our habit of finding patterns in unconnected things by just randomly creating a bunch of unconnected phenomenon. But on the other hand, what happens when those being tire of that game? Or of us? Do they want us to figure them out? Or would any real successful attempt we make to do so be viewed as we would view a swarm of insects suddenly taking notice of us?

There remain an infinite number of questions in this world. All the information we have is imperfect because it has to filter through our own perceptions. We’ve managed to get good enough at removing those biases in most of our hard science. But on the fringes–especially in the real of the paranormal–all we may have are those biases. Until, at least, we figure a few more things out.

You can’t be into the “weird stuff” in the world for long before you come across mention of the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

It’s a standard cryptid if you’re in those circles. It’s part of a vast conspiracy if you lean that way. It’s connected with UFOs if space if your thing.

Pretty much no matter what angle you come at the paranormal from, Mothman is eventually part of it.

And if you start watching shows about these things, every one of them will eventually have an episode about it. Maybe more than one.

So how does one weird thing from a small West Virginia town end up so important to everyone?

Two Main Schools of Thought

A friend of mine pointed me toward a Mothman episode of the National Geographic series Atlas of Cursed Places. It was pretty clear right off the top the angle they were going for with their coverage of it.

(I’ll note that I wasn’t actually able to finish watching this, as the NatGeo web player just kind of… stopped… about halfway through. If I didn’t work in website development, I’d be tempted to make the case that there’s some sort of conspiracy at play. But, well, I know crappy technology when I see it.)

Mothman as the Villain

This show had decided to go with one of the two main schools of thought about telling the Mothman story: Make Mothman the main character. Everything that goes on, it’s connected to Mothman. Mothman is the boogey man. Mothman gets all up in your house and stares at you when you sleep. Mothman stole your dog. Old Native American curse? That’s how you got Mothman bothering you.

It’s not hard to pull that narrative together. Really, it’s the first one I was introduced to decades ago, so it’s got staying power, too.

This Mothman-centric view of things makes for some good stories. You can still pull interviews with people who say amazing things that will terrify and titillate the audience. It makes everything make a bit of sense, too. Because even if it doesn’t explain anything about the Mothman itself, it certainly explains why so much weird stuff happens in rural areas.

Right?

Well… yes and no.

A Good Story Isn’t Always True

The thing is that a lot of the connections drawn kind of fall apart if you actually poke at them with any force of sensibility.

West Virginia, in general, has long been a coal mining state. Coal mining is, historically, really kind of dangerous. So if you’re trying to tie Mothman to a decades-long series of mining disasters and tragic accidents… you’re probably wasting your time.

Because there are dozens of much more practical explanations for what’s gone on. Key among them is basic human greed. The mine owners often put profit above the lives and well-being of their workers. There’s no need for anything paranormal to be involved.

Some of the other stories can be explained easily by things like night terrors (in the NatGeo show, there was an interview with a guy who very clearly described what anyone with a passing knowledge of night terrors could tell was just that… except, because it was big news at the time, instead of the standard shadowy figure staring threateningly at you, this one was overlayed with the image of Mothman that was popular at the time).

The biggest disaster Mothman is connected with is the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant. You’ll hear it told that people spotted Mothman on the bridge right before it collapsed.

Thing is… those stories all started circulating long after the bridge collapse. At the time, no one–even the people who’d been chasing Mothman and other sightings for months–had any reports of sightings on the Silver Bridge. It would seem that the direct connection happened either through imaginative memories or by completely mis-reading John Keel’s book, The Mothman Prophecies (more on that in a minute).

So, while it may make for a good story to connect Mothman to some sort of curse or as some sort of harbinger of ill tidings, it seems to be just that: a story. The idea falls apart when you pull all the known facts together.

Still, as dark as it may be, it’s a bit more comforting than the other option.

Mothman as Part of the Cosmic Gestalt

While the papers in West Virginia and surrounding areas were running stories about the Mothman and the other strange lights in the sky around Point Pleasant back in 1967, John Keel was running back and forth between New York and West Virginia (and elsewhere) chasing down a string of weirdness.

He wrote about all of it in his 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies.

If Mothman hadn’t already been part of a couple of sub-cultures at that point, the book certainly ensured that it would be from that point forward.

But Keel didn’t tell a story that revolved around Mothman so much as he pieced together a larger, much more strange and disturbing picture of things afoot, of which the Mothman of Point Pleasant was only one small piece of strangeness among many.

We’ll talk about that more next time around…

Once upon a time, you couldn’t just pull out your phone, do a quick search for “Ghosts” or “Weird Mysteries” and get thousands of results.

You either had to catch a program on TV (when it was on, which meant always checking the TV Guide) or head to a bookstore, library, or news stand and hope to find some book or magazine that talked about such things (once you found a good magazine, you could subscribe, of course… then you’d just have to wait for it show up every month).

Back in the 1980s, for a more permanent “weird” fix than I could get from TV, my choice was the mass-market paperback books from the local bookstore (when there was one of those). A lot of those books still hold prominent places on my shelves.

One of them is The Encyclopedia of the Strange, by Daniel Cohen.

A One Stop Shop

Cohen put out a bunch of these “encyclopedias” over the years. I have a few of them and they are all pretty well read through. The Encyclopedia of the Strange is definitely one I returned to more than a few times.

It’s got a plethora of subjects it covers, breaking its “Strange” subject matter into a number of topics.

• Ancient Mysteries
• Unknown Places
• Strange People
• Weird Talents
• Natural Mysteries
• Mysteries of Magic
• Classic Mysteries

Each of those topics contained a dozen or so entries, none of which ran for more than a couple of pages–just long enough to give you a taste of the weirdness. Some were a little longer than others. All of them were utterly fascinating to 1980s me.

Now, when I picked this book up, I already had a number of other books that had some more in-depth information about one or two of these topics, but this was a book that had it all in one place. There wasn’t any narrative connecting them (it was, after all, an encyclopedia, not a novel or some conspiracy tome), but that didn’t stop not-quite-teenage me from imagining the wild connections that could exist among them.

This book was a one stop shop not only for my interest in weird stuff, but also for my imagination as a whole. It spoke of possibilities that normally weren’t talked about. Strange things in the sky! People with amazing abilities! Shadowy figures in history that showed up and vanished, leaving behind more questions than answers (and sometimes a bunch of dead bodies)!

More in Heaven and Earth…

Most of all, though, it was a reminder that there are always mysteries out there to be solved. Always new things to be discovered. Always more questions to be asked.

Cohen was a skeptic and researcher. He had a love for science, but also a way with words that could in a single sentence both point out the ridiculousness of a thing and the wonderfulness of it as well. The entries in the encyclopedia are sometimes cutting, but only because the facts are… and even then, it doesn’t come across as being done with any malice.

That kind of open-minded dedication to the truth and honesty had more than a little impact on me when it comes to the paranormal and metaphysical things in my life. I always try to remember that a story my, indeed, sound ridiculous to others but also be deadly serious to the person telling it. Instead of assuming they’re lying, I always try to assume they’re telling the truth, at least as they know it.

And that’s what a lot of the entries in this book do: they present the truth that’s been passed down, at times for hundreds of years (if not longer) and then provides a few sound checks about what can be proved and what cannot. Being short–just a few pages long at most–there’s not even time to dwell on a lot of the “why” behind the stories, just an overview of what and when, with a dash of who and a through-line of it all just being the tip of the iceberg.

The world is–and always has been–full of strange things. More than anyone could imagine. Like many before him. Cohen set out to document bunches of them in bite-sized form.

And people like me ate that up by the handful.

Time Changes All Things

Some of the mysteries in Cohen’s Encyclopedia of the Strange have been solved over the decades since it was first published. Advances in science and discoveries in various archived filled in spaces that were just conjecture and speculation. More and better observations and investigations have uncovered answers that were previously only guessed at. And, as with all things, some of the strange things have just faded from public consciousness as new weirdness has cropped up.

It seems that the Encyclopedia is out of print these days. Available on Amazon for ridiculously high prices for pristine collectors’ copies–or ridiculously low prices for tattered copies.

It would be a true shame if it weren’t quite so easy to pull up more up-to-date information about any of the things mentioned in the book. What you find may not have the same flair as Cohen’s work, but it will likely be more current. (Though, the Internet being what it is, it may very well be full of the same speculation that Cohen set straight in his work.)

At his heart, Cohen seems to have been deeply interested in the search for the truth about things. Sadly, this included a search for real answers about the death of his only daughter–and the more than 200 other people who died–just a few years after this book came out. She was one of the passengers on Flight 103 that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. He and his wife spent years fighting with various governments and organizations to get straight answers and some amount of justice for what happened.

Cohen himself passed away just a few years ago, in 2018.

His words live on, though. Both in more traditional science-focused books that bear his name and in the handful of books like this one that reminded us all that while time changes all things, there’s always an enduring mystery or two to spark the imagination.

There are a propensity of books and other products out there that claim to tell you how to manifest things into your life.

The first one I ever picked up was The Celestine Prophecy, back in the 90s. I’ve looked into more than a few since then. They all come down to the same basic core principle, but dress it up in different ways–adding some extra rules or flourishes here and there, giving it a spin toward one belief system or another, and generally just riffing on everything that comes from a very basic idea.

That idea? When we’re primed and looking to find something, we will.

Or, as Aeschylus is often quoted: “When man’s willing and eager, the gods join in.”

It’s really not a new idea.

We Create Our Own Luck

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of serendipity (or synchronicity, if you want to be extra fancy about the same thing, like James Redfield was in The Celestine Prophecy). I regularly tell people that things happen for a reason… but note that it’s kind of up to us to determine that reason.

If we’re being positive, we’ll see signs leading us toward success at every step. If we’re skewing negative, all the portents will be declaring our ultimate doom and failure.

Call it luck, if you will, but the fact is that (at least most of the time) we create it ourselves.

That’s the gist of this recent article by Christian Busch, “How to be Lucky”. In it, Busch says:

You might think of serendipity as passive luck that just happens to you, when actually it’s an active process of spotting and connecting the dots. It is about seeing bridges where others see gaps, and then taking initiative and action(s) to create smart luck. Serendipity is a guiding force in great scientific discoveries but it’s also present in our everyday lives, in the smallest of moments as well as the greatest life-changing events. It’s how we often ‘unexpectedly’ find love, a co-founder, a new job, or a business partner – and it’s how inventions such as Post-it Notes, X-rays, penicillin, microwaves and many other innovations came about.

He goes on to lay out his theory’s structure, which isn’t that much different from a number of more metaphysically leaning writings on the idea.

Luck is an Active Pursuit

Whether you’re living by Bush’s, Redfield’s, or Aeschylus’ ideas, the key component–and one that’s glossed over or removed entirely from a number of other iterations of the idea–is that you have to actually be doing something for this to all work.

You can’t just sit back in your chair, visualize your desired things, and have it suddenly appear in front you. There’s still work to be put in. You have to leave the house (physically or at least virtually) and interact with the world at large.

You have to be in a position to stumble across things–chance meetings, new ideas, really any kind of actual experience or observation–that will provide some sort of nudge toward what you’re looking to achieve. And if you run into that thing with an open mind, willing and eager to follow where you think it leads, you’re more likely to make some progress.

If you don’t actually ask for what you want, you probably won’t get it. And if you just expect things to come to you, without lifting a finger, well… you’re definitely going to be in for a “bad luck” experience because very rarely will anything good show up like that.

Dream Big, Fail Well

There is no world where you’re going to get what you’re looking for 100% of the time. That’s for the best. Because a good hunk of the time you don’t get what you want, you’ll get something better: you’ll get what you actually need to get something you want more (even if you don’t know it at the time).

A lot of that, of course, is retroactive narrative building. “If this bad thing hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have been in this place, at this time, to have this awesome thing happen!” That’s how we’re built, though. We’re pattern finding machines that happily and regularly string together unrelated correlations and built a causative narrative.

There’s nothing wrong with that in our personal lives. (Just, y’know, don’t go foisting your personal narrative on others. They have their own Truth, and consensus reality has a bit of say on things, too.)

“Everything happens the way it should” is a narrative choice you have to make all the time. You can be crushed by a failure, or you can learn from it and use that knowledge to do better next time. Or you can take it as a sign that maybe what you think you want isn’t really worth it… that’s okay, too! You’re always free to want something new or different.

Dream big. There’s no other way to increase your chances of doing or experiencing amazing things if you don’t.

At the absolute least, you have to be open to big dreams–yours or those of others. If everyone around you is primed for synchronistic experiences, always looking for the next bit of good luck, you’re all going to benefit from it.

So, have you chosen to feel lucky today? Are you eager and willing and ready for the gods to join in? Keep your eyes open and your mind ready to make leap. Adventure awaits.

A long time ago, when I started this site, I had some pretty fancy ideas about what it might end up being.

A lot of those have “aged out”–either no longer being relevant or other places do it better (often because they’re not just “one person who often gets distracted by other things” operations)–but one idea is always near the forefront and never goes out of style.

The Searcher Journal here, while predominantly “about” my own search for meaning, is also about all the other “weird” things that I’m into. If you look back through the past posts, you’ll find stuff on psychic research, ghosts, demons, and all sorts of other little tidbits mixed in among the talk of spirituality and self-discovery. It’s kind of a grab-bag of strange and unusual in a lot of ways. Just like life in general.

In short, this is a place to talk about experiences and interests.

It’s easy enough for me to go on at length about mine (just ask anyone who’s gotten “trapped” in an hours long conversation with me about various bits of esoterica), but I already know all of my own stories.

I want to hear yours.

Talk to Me, People

I’m a month and a half back into the swing of things here and it’s time to really get a conversation going. Maybe start setting the groundwork for a bit of a community.

Everyone I’ve ever met has had something strange or unusual happen to them in their lives. Sure, sometimes it’s easily explainable, but that doesn’t change the impact it may have had on them. And sometimes it’s an experience far beyond what most people would consider “normal” and, just to exist in “polite society”, it doesn’t get brought up very often.

Either way, I’m always up for hearing about your experiences, no matter how silly you think they may be. I assure you, mine can seem pretty ridiculous, too (and sometimes they most certainly are).

Have you ever seen a ghost? (A lot of people think they have.) A UFO? (The government have video of a lot of strange things in the sky, so, you’re definitely not alone there.) On your spiritual path, did you ever have a chat with a higher being of any sort? (Be it an “angel” a “spirit guide”… there’s a lot of different ways our idea of the Divine can communicate with us.)

Don’t want to talk about that time you thought you saw a ghost or Bigfoot or whatever? No problem. What kind of things are you curious about? Ask some questions. Tell me what you’d like to see show up here in the future.

We Create This Together

As humans, we have an amazing ability to create things out of nothing other than ideas in our heads and a little bit of work. Since I’m putting this site out into the world, I don’t think it should be a fully solo deal. I want anyone who stumbles across it to feel like they can take part in the creation, too.

We create this together, or it’s just me talking to myself.

Which is all good and fine, but I already know all my own stories. (And the punchlines to all my jokes.) There’s more chance to learn new things when there are other people involved.

You can pop a comment down below or hit me up via the contact form on the site.

Humans are creatures of habit.

In general, once we establish a pattern, we get really uncomfortable when that pattern gets disrupted.

Whether it’s stopping off at the coffee shop every morning or sitting down on the couch to enjoy a favorite show every week, those bits of regularity provide structure for our lives. And that structure insulates us from the rest of the things in our lives that we don’t have control over.

But sometimes, those patterns wear thin. Maybe they’re detrimental to our well-being (kicking back with a few drinks every night may be a bad thing) or maybe you’ve changed enough as a person that those old bits of comfort stop feeling comfortable (that old 80s comedy you love doesn’t quite feel the same now that you know just how offensive some of the humor is to people you care about). Regardless of the reason, the comfort of the pattern turns to tedium or outright discomfort.

Stuck in a Rut

Repeating the same patter for too long can dig us deep into that pattern. So deep that we can lose sight of any other way of being. When we forget that there are other ways to be, we begin to lose our ability to deal well with those other ways.

If you’ve spent years in a high-stress environment (work, relationship, war zone, whatever), you may get very anxious when that stress lessens even slightly.

If you’ve spent years insulated from the hardships of the world due to financial stability and a solid social network, losing your job or the death of a key friend could throw all sorts of things into disarray.

When you’re stuck in a rut, whether it seems good or bad while you’re there, any deviation from the groove you’re in literally runs you into a wall. If it hits hard enough, it drives you up the wall, to the point where you can once again see the world outside of the trench you’ve been in (or, if you prefer, below the cloud line of the mountain you’ve been living on).

You become aware once more of the possibilities that are out there. For better or worse, you get thrust back into a reality that you don’t have full control over.

That can be terrifying.

Or it can be freeing.

The Choice is Yours

Your patterns are always going to be disrupted at some point. That’s just a basic truth of life. Life is Chaos. There is balance, but it is a dynamic equilibrium, always in motion.

Extremes may not last, but the low point of the swing–where everything feels most familiar, that rut you’re in–is just as transient, if not more so. It may be comfortable there, but you’re always going to be pushed up or down one side or the other by forces outside of your control.

The only thing you can control is how you deal with those changes.

That does not mean you can outright control how you feel about those changes. Feelings are going to happen whether you want them to or not, but you can can control how you deal with those feelings.

You can choose to see failure, or to see opportunity to change direction.

You can choose to see destruction, or to see cleared space where something new can be built.

You can choose to fight to stay in your rut, or you can make use of the momentum behind you and fling yourself out of it into the wider world.

None of This is Easy

Few things that are easy are worth the effort.

When you feel like you’re stuck in a rut, it takes effort to break out of it. You have to find the rhythm of the forces around you and tap into it to help you along. If you don’t, you’re going to be at the mercy of the world around, trapped in a constant state of reaction and likely feeling powerless.

It’s scary to acknowledge the power you have to change things. Even scarier–and often genuinely risky–to assert that power once you discover it. But it can be done. People do it all the time. (Some of them are those external forces pushing or pulling you one way or the other.)

You may feel doomed to always be on the bottom, being tread upon and used. You may seek to always be on top, king or queen of the world, carefree and happy. Neither of those is going to be the way things always are.

Life is what happens between the highs and the lows. It is motion and change and, in general, a kind of beautiful chaos.

You can either be buffeted by those chaotic forces, or you can recognize the reality of it and choose which currents you’re going to fight, and which you’re going to use to help you fight–or push through–the “bad” ones.

Doing this will teach you a lot about yourself. Not all of it will be pleasant, but, if you let it, it will all be for the best.

Things always change. The high points and the low points are transitory, it is the movement–rising and falling–is where most of your life, and your power, exists.

You should take what control you can of the experience. It’s a much better use of energy than trying to accomplish the impossible task of always keeping them the same.

Our minds are powerful engines of creation.

For most people, just seeing letters arranged in a certain way (say, “tree”) can conjure and entire vivid scene. Perhaps it’s a memory, perhaps just a feeling, maybe it’s something different every time, but it’s almost always more than just the letters.

We’re constantly interpreting the world around us. Filtered through our senses–expansive or limited as they may be–our reality is never exactly the same as that of someone else. A situation that brings us joy could bring someone else anxiety due to a difference in past experiences. Various things can cause colors to be perceived differently. Even our moods at any given time can color how we understand what’s right in front of us.

So saying that we create our own reality is, quite literally true.

Consensus Reality

Of course there are things that we all generally share agreement on. The concepts of day and night, the weather we’re walking through, things that multitudes of people in close proximity can all perceive in close enough parity that there’s littler disagreement to be found.

This is “Consensus Reality”… the baseline that we all generally accept as true. This is the reality based on facts that can generally be proven in various ways (notably science).

People in altered states can break from consensus reality.

Various substances and disorders can lead to a break from consensus reality. People see and hear things that others do not. Sometimes, there is a severe disconnect and life becomes difficult in very immediate ways. Other times, it may be a more “soft” break and normal function can continue, with little friction between the “consensus reality” and the “personal reality.”

Those who walk a spiritual path often exists at the tipping point between a soft and hard break from consensus reality. This is why it’s always important to know how to ground yourself in the physical and have a plan to be brought back to the consensus reality where you’ll likely need to function regularly.

If you spend all your time in an altered state, there’s not a lot you can do to positively impact the regular world. You can’t change something if you can’t properly interact with it.

In most cases, though, the break is comparatively minor and mostly internal. Our perception and inner narrative gets colored in one way or another and that creates a cycle. This often happens on a subconscious level.

Illusions and Delusions

Illusions are things a person perceives based on interactions with consensus reality that don’t match with the consensus. They differ from hallucinations in that they are, however tenuously, connected to actual things that others are also experiencing.

Delusions are firmly based in ideas and thought processes that diverge from fact. They are something a person believes, regardless of any other information. These may be based on illusions or other aspects of a separation from consensus reality.

Illusions can lead to delusions. Together these can trap us into very harmful ways of thinking and acting.

If we believe someone is out to get us, every action of that person we interpret will be viewed from that baseline. This will, without question, reinforce the idea that they are out to get us. Every word will have a double-meaning. Every action some consequence that has a negative impact on our lives.

If we believe someone is has out best interests at heart, we will allow them to do all sorts of things that we may otherwise not allow. We will brush off any negative connotations or results as either inconsequential or necessary to the greater, good, goal.

Delusions and illusions feed into one another, escalating incontrovertibly to one extreme or another. Because extremes cannot be sustained, this will lead to a breaking point… a disillusionment.

Being Disillusioned is Good

When our personal reality breaks and we’re thrust back into consensus reality, it can be painful.

Our “perfect” world suddenly comes crashing down. Everything that made so much sense no longer does. And what we believed to be true turns out to be lies. This is the sort of thing that happens often when relationships fall apart–quickly or slowly–over time.

It’s also the young idealist coming into their first real confrontation with the real forces of the world.

It can also be a tremendously freeing–yet terrifying–experience.

Learning that you do have choice, that you do have power and worth, after years of believing you do not, is like stepping into a completely different reality. Many forces in the world have spent a lot of time and effort convincing people (individuals and groups) that they don’t have a place or power. The breaking of that illusion is what leads to revolutions and escapes from bad relationships.

Regardless of the reason or immediate result, becoming disillusioned–literally getting the illusions that have probably been supporting and supported by delusional thought patterns removed–is what everyone should strive for.

Choose Wisely

Anyone on a spiritual path, or any path of self-discovery and growth, needs to be aware of the trap that illusions can be. Comfort-based or avoidance-based or just grown out of ignorance or dreams, illusions and the delusions they support are obstacles that will hold you back.

Illusions may be pleasant, comforting, balms to harsh reality or they may be self-harming, detrimental constructs… but either way they aren’t conducive to long-term proper growth as a person.

Becoming more consciously aware of your own thought patterns and root causes for your own thoughts and actions is the key to proper disillusionment. Once you have removed the illusions (whether or not your personal reality matches perfectly with the consensus reality), you have agency and can choose what cycles and patterns you engage with.

You have the power of choice. Choose wisely.