Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
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"On Reason, Morality and the would-be gods" (rough draft) continued from earlier.
If the question is asked where are or would spirit people be found if it were possible to locate them, once more I for one could not presume to answer this sort of question with demonstrative certainty (other then, as a practical matter, to assume it is a "place" and that has time and space coordinates.) This frankly admitted, they might, for instance, be thought of as occupying a to us "unseen" parallel realm, or else dimension, separate from our own; from which they can come and go to enter places where we are. Sometimes they are or have been traditionally spoken of as somehow being from "above" or "down below," that is in the sky or under the earth, but in a manner is is (or else hitherto) invisible to us. Again, such might be the in some sort of conjunction with the suggestion of a parallel plane and or dimension. All of which above is offered as hypothesis, not as an irrefutable conclusion.
These various points having been touched on briefly here, in general terms we know criminal spirit people, empirically speaking and otherwise from their effects; very much like how other scientific phenomena is known, not by our seeing it directly necessarily and or readily summoning it to be seen, but by the effect it has; an obvious and common example of this, for instance, is warmth from a machine that produces heat. We don't see the heat, but we feel it, and by feeling it we identify and come up with ways of measuring its intensity. Now it is possible to see spirit people, but (and as of this date) only when they themselves permit it; though there are or may instances where they might be seen by accident or unintentionally by them. To this can be added or included accounts or testimonies of people who claim to have encountered a spirit person, with, needless to say, the reliability or credibility of such claims measured or ascertained on a person to person, case by case basis.
If, as I posit here to be the case, there are criminal spirit people, they by definition CAN BE discerned and detected by their criminal activity or criminal activity stemming directly or indirectly from them. That is, if there is a crime, and the crime cannot be reasonably ascribed to regular persons or a circumstance created by unintended accident (e.g., an "accidental" or seemingly unaccountable death), it is not unreasonable to consider the possibility of criminal spirit people being the cause of that crime or regrettable event. That understood, a crime is by no means the only way a criminal spirit person might be detected, but is one criterion that, again given our definition, stands out most prominently and or else prompts a possible inquiry as to such being in some way or not present and involved with some ostensibly criminal event. To put it another way, that we do or might have evidence of the existence of spirit people outside this context (of a crime having occurred), and if that evidence is reasonably credible or verifiable (actually or potentially), this does and will enhance and conceivably add to our knowledge of the subject of spirit people generally.
Prior to the 18th century that devils, demons, ghosts and witches actually existed was, more often than not, taken as a given, and the possibility of such preternatural entities was not thought necessary to dispute or dismiss. A ready example of this can be found in Shakespeare and who speaks of and describes them with an uncanny liveliness and realism. When for example Macbeth, upon seeing what appears to be Banquo's ghost, cries out "never shake thy gory locks at me..." one is hard put to take something so vividly specific as the workings of imagination prompted by feelings of guilt or remorse. In addition to Macbeth, other plays where witches, ghosts, or other spirit persons act conspicuous roles: King Henry VI, part 2; Julius Caesar; Hamlet; A Midsummer's Night Dream; The Tempest.
Yet with scientific advancement, the rise of the Enlightenment and free masonry, and outside perhaps of religion, there was radical shift away from common acceptance of the assumed actual existence of spirit people; indeed away from religion generally. The only exception that stands out from this trend is the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, yet which are understandably treated more as a work of religion than science; though in fairness Swedenborg is (relatively speaking) often quite scientifically minded and realistically precise in his descriptions and explanations. [Note. We might also include William Blake here.]
What exactly caused the shift away from acknowledging the reality of spirit people is perhaps more involved then anyone as yet (to my knowledge at least) has closely or adequately considered. If, for instance, we assume (as I myself do) that there are criminal spirit people working an agenda, such themselves may have played a key part in encouraging and enacting such a major shift. Moreover, and given the high expertise and technical sophistication of some or certain types of veteran spirit persons, it is perhaps even possible that some advances in science and technology were contributed to by them -- but if so, presumably at a "devil's" bargain and huge price to honesty and morality. When Goethe took up Faust and Mephistopheles as his theme, was he perhaps, whether consciously or consciously, portraying poetically what was conceivably the most relevant and central character or type of his era and whom perhaps best represented Western culture and humanity at that time?
Sir Walter Scott's "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" (1830) William Godwin's "Lives of the Necromancers" (1834) are remarkable for their adamant and strident stance in denying the reality of the preternatural. Why, for instance, do they do they allow not the least latitude for even the empirical possibility of ghosts and spirit persons? (Note. Witches we can here leave aside as only regular persons being used by or under the influence of criminal spirit people, and therefore all can agree that, and in that sense, they do not exist as preternatural or supernatural entities.) They prefer instead the word "supernatural," but only because this term of itself implies something irrational; which by practical definition implies something humanly incomprehensible; thus winning the argument without really having to make one. They essentially take the view that supernatural sightings or experience are a result of ignorant superstition, excited passions, or other medical infirmity.
"The Victim of Magical Delusion" (1795) by Cajetan Tschink (1763-1813, evidently a German speaking citizen of Austria as well as I could determine) is a most curious and unusual work. It defies casual description, otherwise and suffice to say here for brevity's sake, it is ostensibly a romance, in part gothic, that tells the story of a protagonist who is led from one adventure to another by two strange conjurers, Heirmansor and Alumbrado, the former seemingly good the latter bad in character. Both describe themselves as acting on behalf of "God." The protagonist, while alternatively admiring and loathing them, is ever in awe and in reverence of their powers of legerdemain, and their undeniable superiority over the rest of humanity. Like Schiller in "The Ghost-Seer"(1787-1789), Tschink goes to great pains and lengths maintaining that "apparitions" (i.e., seemingly real spirit persons) are in truth only elaborate hoaxes concocted by adept tricksters; the purpose of which is to form and or manipulate the character of individuals at whom they are specifically targeted. Taken in all, Tschink's would-be alternative and "rational" explanation is even more strange, incredible and harder to swallow than traditional "superstition." Yet perhaps most significant is his vehemence in asserting that other worldly beings are not to be discussed, or that what we take to be them is invariably only human in origin.
[To be continued]
And if any one believes not that death is abolished, that Hades is trodden under foot, that the chains thereof are broken, that the tyrant is bound, let him look on the martyrs disporting themselves in the presence of death, and taking up the jubilant strain of the victory of Christ. O the marvel! Since the hour when Christ despoiled Hades, men have danced in triumph over death. “O death, where is your sting! O grave, where is your victory? ” [1 Corinthians 15:55] Hades and the devil have been despoiled, and stripped of their ancient armour, and cast out of their peculiar power. And even as Goliath had his head cut off with his own sword, so also is the devil, who has been the father of death, put to rout through death; and he finds that the selfsame thing which he was wont to use as the ready weapon of his deceit, has become the mighty instrument of his own destruction. Yea, if we may so speak, casting his hook at the Godhead, and seizing the wonted enjoyment of the baited pleasure, he is himself manifestly caught while he deems himself the captor, and discovers that in place of the man he has touched the God. By reason thereof do the martyrs leap upon the head of the dragon, and despise every species of torment. For since the second Adam has brought up the first Adam out of the deeps of Hades, as Jonah was delivered out of the whale, and has set forth him who was deceived as a citizen of heaven to the shame of the deceiver, the gates of Hades have been shut, and the gates of heaven have been opened, so as to offer an unimpeded entrance to those who rise there in faith.
~Gregory Thaumaturgus (213-270), On All the Saints
As much as I DO NOT especially relish or enjoy doing so, I am at the moment trying to put together a second, formal writing on criminal spirit people, tentatively title "On Reason, Morality and the would-be gods." Quite how long or how much I will put into it I am not yet set upon, but have decided to piece it together in segments over time. While doing so, I will post what I have written here at this website; in effect first presenting it in this way in ongoing, ROUGH DRAFT (i.e., warts and all), installments. That there is or might be interest and or an audience for what I write, helps me to continue on what ostensibly will be (as it seems it will be at present) a protracted process and endeavor; at the same time, if (and worse come to worse) I never actually get around to completely it properly, there will at least be this rough draft of it extant. The following then is what I have of it, with hopefully more to appear as time gets on.
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In my earlier "A New Treatise on Hell" (200?), along with its accompanying "Narrative," the primary intent was to address the subject of "criminal spirit people," and this from an objective and empirical viewpoint. I made clear at that time mine endeavor was rather a preliminary dissertation and investigation to serve as as an introduction to the subject, and that much of what I had to say was conjectural and on a given point perhaps (and as it might turn out) flat out in error. Yet the phenomena of criminal spirit people, and the "regular" (or flesh and blood) persons involved in their machinations, are, without question, real enough; only that which is known is to a large extent sketchy and there is much still that needs to be looked into, examined and further explored. But one must start somewhere, and this is what I tried and set out to do. I cannot claim that in every instance my observations or conclusions are one hundred percent accurate: I may be only partly right or even flat out wrong in what is my surmise or interpretation. But if so, I can at least acknowledge at the outset the possibility, and my willingness to be corrected by others who know or who can explain the given matter better than I have.
By "criminal spirit people" I mean "other worldly" persons whom we vulgarly and traditionally identify as "demons," "ghosts," and or else "gods." One could or might address the question of non-criminal spirit people, yet inasmuch as the criminal ones are a serious problem and thus call for their being addressed as a topic, the other category of non-criminal has no such practical mandate here.
According to my view, a spirit person is by definition criminal if they or those under their orders engage in behavior that can be identified as criminal if done by a regular person: for example, murder, torture, robbery, physical assault and battery, vandalism. And just as with "regular" people, a spirit person may be more or less guilty: so that a given one might be classed as a misdemeanor sort another a hard core offender; this other a dumb slave coerced into wrong doing; this yet other a veteran and career criminal, etc. In my experience and speaking in very general terms, most criminal spirit people would seem to be males, but there are female criminal spirit on occasion as well.
It is of course and as you know out of hand assumed or asserted by some that criminal spirit people do not exist. It is by contrast my contention that they most certainly do, but while stating emphatically the task, for a number of different reasons, not least of which long standing dogma and childish prejudice on the subject, is far from being an easy one. For one thing the contest becomes one of: what will determine what is truth and by what authority is such established? Sheer violence and worldly, physical might, or honest and right reason and science? For if, at least for the sake of argument, we posit criminal spirit people, and such who would dress themselves on occasion with the mantle of would-be "gods," who then will people listen to as authority? Such "gods" or an honest, rational person? For many, perhaps even most, the answer would seem to be the former. That is, if what I claim about there actually being criminal spirit person is true, there are or will be those who, given the dishonest and criminal character of such preternatural persons, will do what they can to gainsay and refute the honest rational thinker on the question and subject proposed. And this, let it be understood, at least as I understand it, is what someone like myself is up against in attempting to make my case. But whether or not you are prepared to accept the key premise, I respectfully request you my reader might at least entertain it tentatively, and in short keep an open, dispassionate and objective mind; suspending judgment as need be till what we have of something like the full story can be told and on (at present) a rudimentary basis be explored and considered.
Owing to the many and challenging complications involved in discussing the subject of criminal spirit people, the work now before you is one addressed to lovers of honest, rational, scientific truth, and less so offered as persuasive and plausible rhetoric to exhort the masses to the validity of what I claim. More wise, intelligent and courageous people must first take up the question in order to properly ascertain the factual viability and correctness of what I am proposing. Otherwise, the subject too easily lends itself to distortion and gross misunderstanding; something, naturally, we would want to avoid.
This said, I have no desire here to start anew what I already tried to do in my "New Treatise." Instead, what I will attempt at present is to expand on, and as need be qualify and correct, what is stated there and in my "Narrative." Though occasionally I will re-state or reintroduce something from them, a proper and more fully adequate grasp and understanding of this present work therefore requires that you be familiar with those two earlier writings before proceeding; and both the "New Treatise" and the "Narrative" are here included as appendices. If at no time, I have not for some sufficiently proven the existence of criminal spirit people, or accurately described them, it is hoped that the topic might at least be considered, with others subsequently perhaps taking up and more successfully where I have failed or come up short. Furthermore, that there are gaps or only scarce coverage of a given aspect of the phenomenon, I hope is to some extent pardonable given its novelty, newness, peculiarity, and the vast scope of its aspects and implications, both potential and obvious, on various areas and departments of both scientific study and practical endeavor.
For if what I argue and maintain is, as it turns out and I myself know to be, true, no subject within our comprehension has greater implications on the nature and quality of our lives. That sentient, calculating persons, not identified as human according to the common acceptance and understanding of that term, can surreptitiously invade, plant themselves in our midst and act as criminals, or as persons of authority to be obeyed no less, has had and does have an enormous impact on and huge ramifications affecting the character of life: whether the life of an individual, a family, and or a society. But more on this particular point later.
That I would write on this subject for fun, career, personal profit, or ambition could only be true in a very small and incidental sense. I only wish someone else or others would take it up in my place, and I could get on with other projects of greater personal interest. But circumstances are and have been such, including my having ongoing and direct contact with criminal spirit people for over three decades, that have rendered and turned this task into an obligation: an obligation, again, it would be far more easy to pass on to others were it feasible to do so. While it is true I have since my adolescence been interested in and read about "real life" ghosts as a leisurely pastime, say for instance by way of the books of Peter Underwood, the subject as I consider it here came to me -- not me to it -- and quite violently and in a protracted way, as recounted in my Narrative.
Aside from the "New Treatise" and "Narrative" and what they contain, I have written about criminal spirit people on and off and sporadically for the past two decades online at my website www.gunjones.com, and have until now postponed the thought of again putting together something more formal in character. What then that follows here is exactly that.
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From a scientific viewpoint, from whence and exactly what criminal spirit people are is not so surprisingly open to question. Based on tradition, they might be thought of as some kind of "human like" and rationally empowered person that preceded man, such as for example angels or in the case of criminal spirit people "fallen" angels, and or they may be "regular" persons who have died but who somehow go on or resume living on a different plane or dimension. My own guess on the subject, and it is only a guess, is the notion of "criminal spirit people" refers to BOTH of these types working under a common leadership and toward a common goal or end; though it is conceivable that leadership and goal may change (just as it does with human governments and societies.)
Although in my "New Treatise" I spend some time in an attempt to describe their physicality, here again there is simply much that isn't known. I refer to them as "spirit people," but does this merely mean a person with a tenuous, albeit palpable and real, materiality? Off hand this is my impression, yet again it is not inconceivable their bodies (or the bodies of some of them) are more substantial than that and in a manner not known to us. However, for practical purposes we will think of them here as being in appearance like what we commonly think of as a spirit or ghost but a spirit or ghost that can move light and not very heavy physical objects. Some are capable of holding you down for a time, say if you are lying in bed, or strike you a blow to the head. Yet such powers are apparently and most of the time of only a relatively brief duration.
Just as with regular people they can vary in their attractiveness or unattractiveness of their appearance. Though in my own experience I have never seen an oriental Asian, Middle Eastern Arab, or Black negroid spirit person, what exactly should be read into this is at present unclear.
On an unusual occasion they can materialize or seem to become embodied like a regular person, but whether this is just a trick or illusion created for the eye, or whether they can materialize into something more substantial, again like a regular person is substantial in the matter of his or her physical constitution, maybe possible, but it would seem to me best for the time being to think of this as unlikely.