Renaissance Man Learns

The owner of a new-age store I walked into gave me a schedule of events. Now, being in a place that is not my home, away from my 'kids' (4 cats and 1 dog), my wife the one person that I know I can talk to about new-agy things, and in general, being somewhere where I tend to pick up alot of energy of people who don't want me around(I'm in sales thesedays) - It was nice to find a place where I can socialize with people of like mind. So, showed up this tuesday evening and was led to the back-room of the store where we all sat around a small table on folding chairs & couches staring at a pile of twinkies, chips ahoy, and other assorted goodies.

After some brief introductions, people started talking about various childhood problems, like how they had to suppress their visions because they were unacceptable in their family's households. Stories about young, invisible children playing around trees while at a funeral. There were some interesting stories about using tape players that record only background noise picking up strange voices that can only be heard if the tape speed was slowed down(while recording in a place of funky energy). I learned a little bit about the evil catacombs & tunnels of Portland,OR where this one guy had the ability to really know what certain sealed rooms were used for - very scary & evil stuff; hence, I learned where the term "shanghai'd" came from.

Then came more good stuff: All of us shared various experiences from 'cutting cords' with my mom which caused her to freak-out led to a few-months of psychiatric rehabilitation (ultimately a good thing), to anxiety attacks that alot of people felt, to seeing ghosts and apparitions on a daily experience, to theories of transcendentalism, to qigong, cleansing, scrying, and being careful with what you wish for.

I had a great time. Something new I learned about was the scrying topic: That it's normally ok to scry into a black mirror, but you should never scry into a silver mirror, for it opens portals to other dimensions, which may not be easily closed. Even protection may not be good enough since you may just be protecting yourself, but still letting spirits (both good/bad) into our world. Also, you may look into yourself and see sides of you that you're not ready too see - potentially scary stuff, or better- things that I'm not prepared to see. Actually, there was a day that I was staring into the bathroom mirror and I started to cry when I eventually saw an image of myself that I didn't recognize (It looked like me, but on a soul-level it felt empty... very wierd). Overall, a big message that this 'elder' named Melissa told me was that that I should be very careful with what I'm doing, for it can be very overwhelming when all of the doors are unlocked.

One additional tidbit that I found interesting was that when I was getting ready to leave, I walked outside and started talking to a guy who knew everyone but didn't hang out in back with us. It turned out that the guy used to be a warehouse manager and is presently a real-estate investment consultant. He's also 1/2 Jewish. So, we had a whole lot to talk about and I gained a bunch of new friends over the whole night.

Even though I can't wait to leave LA and be back home sometime soon, I will certainly miss the pagan socials. Maybe I'll start looking for similar events back at home.

Till next time...