Strange Events

Something very strange happened a few days ago. Those of you who know me are aware that although I am very interested in psychic phenomenon I consider myself a strong rationalist. In other words I seek out proof before simply accepting the claims of others. Over the last year I have travelled the UK doing talks and lectures and I have met many fascinating people - many of whom have rather shaken my cosy, rationalistic, world view. However the last few days have been of earthquake proportions. For the first time in my life I experienced a precognition that I know was true - because it happened to me.

I had met Aloha Gary (esteemed member of this blog) for coffee in Chester. Afterwards we nipped back to his house to pick up some paperwork when I noticed that he had a very peculiar object called a Shambhala Maitreya Solar Cross (image top right). I recognised it because a few weeks before another member of this blog (Ed aka Itscooltocare) had shown me an identical version of this fascinating artifact.

Gary suggested that I hold it, close my eyes and concentrate. I did so and immediately I perceived a detailed hypnogogic image in the centre of my visual field. Now I have experienced hypnogogic imagery for years but without exceptions the images are usually located in my periphery vision. I have to 'turn' my minds-eye to my extreme left (always left, interestingly enough) to 'see' them. As soon as this takes place they disappear. Over the years I have realised that the best way to view them is by 'looking' straight ahead and trying catch what is being presented via my periphery 'vision'. In this way I can hold them for much longer.

But this one was different. It was absolutely vivid, rock solid and detailed. It was a metallic blue star-like image with eight points. What I particularly noticed was that the lower point (at 6 o'clock) was longer than the other seven. I thought this a little strange. It was in plain view for a good 30 seconds then faded. I was stunned.

On opening my eyes I described in some detail to Gary exactly what I had seen. As I recall I think I even drew it for him.

Now I have been suffering from a particularly painful case of adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder) - an old sports injury that has come back to haunt me - the pain had become so extreme that I needed more prescription pain killers. The next day after I met with Gary I made an appointment with my doctor and went up to the local surgery. As I checked in at the reception desk my eye caught a display. It was a box selling charity lapel pins. I couldn't believe it. The pin was exactly, and I mean exactly, what I had seen in my hypnogogic the day before. The picture at the top of this post is of the pin in question. Right colour, correct number of points and even the correct 6 o'clock point being longer. I was so stunned I commented upon it to the receptionist. "Oh", she replied "they were only brought in about an hour ago!"

The lapel pin is to celebrate the 25 year anniversary of St John's Hospice, a care home for the terminally ill, here on Wirral.

I have no idea what this means. Was it some form of 'future memory'? But if so why that particular object?

Applying Itlad to this I can only assume that it was some form of Daemonic message. Could it be that the Solar Cross can, in some way, open up the Eidolon-Daemon communication channels?

I guess only time will clear up this little mystery.

Addition: If you look at the image of my signature on the right (white box with the name 'Anthony Peake' in script you will notice a peculiar cross-like logo to the right. This is my 'symbol' and has been for nearly forty years. Old school and university friends will immediately recognise this. Over the years I have marked my books, albums etc with it. It is so long ago now that I have no idea why I started doing this. looking at my hypnogogic 'star' and my logo I can see a distinct similarity. Odder and odder!

Hypnogogic & Hypnopompic Images - 02

I am so pleased that the topic of Hypnopompia/Hypnogogia has come up.

This curious psychological phenomenon is something that I have experienced ever since I was a child. However it was a series of particularly vivid experiences that took place about twenty years ago that made me look into the subject more deeply.

I was in my office at work and then suddenly I was aware of the sensation of 'double consciousness'. I knew I was in an office in Colchester, England, but I was also somewhere else. It was as if something was taking place in my periphery vision. I focused in on this alternate 'reality' and realised that I was in a tree looking down at a man sitting on a bench reading a newspaper. The language in which the newspaper was written seemed to be Spanish. 'I' (or whatever the creature whose eyes and ears I had hijacked - I suspect it was a bird) looked up and saw a large, very grand grand, urban square. I sensed it was Latin America somewhere - maybe Beunas Aires - when I heard the sound of a siren and I saw an ambulance weave its way through the traffic on the far side of the square. I then realised what was taking place and it all dissolved around me. I have no idea how long the hypnogogic lasted but I would say about thirty seconds. It was so vivid that I can still see it now as clear as day.

A second event happened about three weeks later. I was at home watching TV and suddenly I was looking up through what seemed to be a glass-topped table at a lady who was in the process of putting a cup and saucer down on the surface above me. Again I lost the image as soon as I realised what I was seeing. Again it is still vivid in my mind.

Although not immediately linked to CTF I think that this phenomenon may be related in some way to David Bohm's Implicate Order - the idea that at a very deep level of reality everything is everything else for examples the two particles in the 1980 Aspect Experiment are, in fact, the same particle. Could it be that I had, for a few swconds, linked consciousness with a South American bird and, possibly, a cat?

As I have mentioned in one of my 'comments' the book that may answer these questions is Andreas Mavromatis' Hypnogogia, The Unique State Between Wakefulness And Dreams. This can be read on-line at Google Books:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=dGgOAAAAQAAJ&dq=mavromatis+hypnagogia&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=Y9xbEvKhpZ&sig=myAIPiXIeEVO5QAHvkcQ43Gt2k4#PPR5,M1

What I find particularly interesting in all this is two individuals whose life experiences I believe are central to CTF - Philip K Dick and Georgio Di Chirico - both used hypnogogic images as a source of their respective inspirations.

Hypnopompic & Hypnogogic Images - From SusanMarie

SusanMarie has had problems placing this post so I have placed it on here for her:

In looking at some of the older posts which I had until now not had the time to read, I was struck by one regarding hypnagogic and hpnapomic images. I have had these since my 20s, and some rather prophetic ones in my 30s and 40s. They have been few and far between, however; perhaps occuring once in every 5 years.

They tend to be more hypnagogic than hypnapomic (i.e., occur most often while drifting off to sleep at night, rather than upon awakening in the morning) . They are always brief (lasting several seconds), with vivd, "technicolor" images, which arise suddenly, and seem to loom up, completely unbidden. Sometimes they are accompanied by a voice, which says a word or short sentence pertaining to the picture. ( An example: In Septemeber of 2004, while drifting off to sleep at night, thinking on some daily, mundane matter pertaining to my daily life, a sudden image loomed of President Bush seated at a table in a dreary but official looking room. As a black prisioner is being led to perform some unclear task, Bush's face takes on a childlike and bewildered expression, as a voice says, "It won't be clear". At the time I could make no sense of it. Over 2 months later, however, as there was increasing talk of election fraud with particular emphatic reference to the African American vote in the state of Ohio, I began to see it had been anticipating this: perhaps not the actual event, but the reporting and debating of it in the media. . ,.)

In any case, these experiences certainly seem to indicate Anthony's daemon concept. They issue forth from some unseen guest which is part of, but transcending, the daily self. They seem to occur at times of personal and collective stress, and tend to deal with matters of conscience, in my own experience at least. They seem clearly numinous. The question remains as to whether or not these can be harnessed in the sense that one can really become attune to them, understand them, and use them, rather being merely puzzled or caught by surprise at the phenomenom.

I am curious regarding the experience of others.