You have found the Aura Page of Jasperwocky, a digital Paranormal Investigator, coming to you from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Here, we will take a look at spirit journeys -- how, by personal dimensional-shifting, we can journey in parallel realms.

(This website is a class project for the Santa Fe Community College media arts course: "Web Page Construction" taught by Professor Darlene McElroy. Thank you for visiting! If you like what you see, be sure to check out Jasperwocky's demented sister-site, "Jeckyllwocky." If you really like this site and you need website design services, please drop me an e-mail, attn: Jay French, jayswebdesigns@yahoo.com)

Be sure to see the Recommended Page for recommended texts and links to other sites.

"'There is no Excellent Beauty that hath not some strangeness in the Proportion,' wrote Bacon in his days of insight" -- from Loren Eisley's Francis Bacon and the Modern Dilemma.

As discussed on the Home page (you can go there by clicking on the big "J"), the Universe, as an electromagnetic energy-ocean, is a very fluid realm subject to the creative forces of mental energy. Further, this mental energy is also known by other names: spirit, life force, and aura.

In his studious Chaos Magick book Liber Null & Psychonaut, Peter Carroll tells us, "Altered states of consciousness are the key to magical powers" (p.31); (see the Fire Page for the full discussion). He then expands, "It is during these moments of single pointed concentration, or gnosis, that beliefs can be implanted for magic, and the life force induced to manifest."

Gnosis, achieved by inhibition (sensory deprivation) or excitation methods (sensory overload such as tantric ritual) is also the key to dimensional shifting. We can journey to parallel realms by a consciousness shift. Obviously, this shift could be in our own hands -- as in shamanic practices, meditation- and dream-work as well as by psycho-active interactions:

As mentioned on the Air Page, the traditional academic approach would be a serious study of shamanism; (I recommend Holger Kalweit's Dreamtime & Inner Space: The World of the Shaman.) Briefly, we can say that the shaman is a tribe member who has suffered some tormenting experience, bringing him / her to a near death experience (NDE) and to visions seen as a result. The Shaman makes a bridge to the Spirit world and establishes relationships with spirit guides who, ideally, empower the Shaman with healing skills that work to the benefit of the tribe. The Shaman may also be able to banish evil spirits that may pester the tribe.

Through the centuries, religious practice has developed many ways to get closer to the gods. Methods include: fasting, flagellation, vows of silence, yoga and, of course, meditation. The practitioners are attempting to silence the "chatter of the monkey mind," as Tarthang Tulku calls it. To live in the "real" world, we must focus on the mundane; as a natural development we have psychic barriers--which act as an impediment to seeing other realms and trans-dimensional beings. It is these barriers which religious practitioners are attempting to soften. In modern practice, we can see that with proper training we may accomplish widened perceptions without such drastic measures as starvation and/or pain. One such approach would be to gain knowledge of psychic abilities and how to encourage their development; I recommend reading about "Remote Viewing" as described by Joseph McMoneagle in his fascinating book, Mind Trek.

Finally, no discussion of "altered states" would be complete without mentioning use of psychoactive compounds and their resultant psychedelic illuminations. This last method is very intelligently discussed in Jim De Korne's Psychedelic Shamanism as well as in any text by the psycho-nautical pioneer Terrance McKenna. (I particularly recommend McKenna's very thought-provoking survey-book The Archaic Revival.) Legally, I cannot recommend this path of consciousness expansion; and I fully understand that every adult must decide for himself / herself as to how best develop his / her own mind. Given that, I must include the following disclaimer (which is a modified version of Mr. DeKorne's): "Everyone has the existential freedom to do what they choose with what they've read, but that has no connection with what I have written in these pages. My responsibility ends where yours begins; readers who act on any information found in [these pages] do so of their own free choice and volition and must accept all of the consequences of such decisions." So, given the stipulation that you choose the psychedelic path of your own free will, I advise that any psychedelic explorations should be done with proper care and preparation; such details may be found in the above-mentioned books.

All right: so, we know that there are various methods for achieving Gnosis, but we can also say that the experience has been documented to be quite consistent: The Psychonaut's journey to the spirit world (or parallel dimensions or mind-space . . . ) entail going into one's self; a vision of the world emerges as being a central tunnel or portal. This "core-spindle" of the universe opens, allowing the Psychonaut to pass through, either ascending to "heavenly" worlds of light or descending to the "Underworld" depending on his / her disposition, i.e. "mission objectives." In psychedelic terms, if you are in a good mood, you will have a good "trip;" a bad mood results in a bad trip. In ethereal terms, the Psychonaut's mind-body or spirit then actually journeys, shifting through dimensional barriers. I believe that our mundane human enculturation then determines the forms of the vision. We are like differently shaped vessels into which energetic fluid is poured; the shape of the container determines the shape of the fluid. This applies to the apprehension of trans-dimensional beings as well: A Shaman will perceive an animal-spirit-guide; a modern American will see "aliens." And speaking of aliens . . .

We must recognize that altered states and their resultant dimensional shifts can be accomplished without our willing participation; a primary example is, of course, "alien abduction." (By extension, we are also investigating the manipulations of the Fairy World, Demonic possession, Angel encounters, etc.)

Reframing: "brainwashing," penetrating the psychic barriers, getting directly to the subconscious. Jacque Vallee discusses this in Dimensions:

I would submit that individual human beings have been taken to other dimensions and back by their manipulations.

"I propose that there is a spiritual control system for human consciousness and that paranormal phenomena like UFO's are one of its manifestations. . . . I am led to this idea by the fact that, in every instance of the UFO phenomenon I have been able to study in depth, I have found as many rational elements as absurd ones, as many that I could call friendly as I could call hostile. This is what tells me that we are working on the wrong level. . . . There are ways to gain access to the reference level of every control system. . . . It must be possible to gain access to the control of the UFO phenomenon, to forget the spirits and the pranks and the claims of extraterrestrial contract, and do some real science. But it will take a very smart approach--a very daring one. . . .

Drastic modification of the behavior of an animal (including man) can be achieved by selectively reinforcing certain actions, for instance by giving food to a pigeon only when he presses a certain lever. However, certain ways of reinforcing behavior lead to better learning than others. If the training is too even and monotonous, the subject may stop in its development or even return to an earlier state. The best schedule of reinforcement is one that combines periodicity with unpredictability. Learning is then slow but continuous. It leads to the highest level of adaptation. And it is irreversible. It is interesting to observe that the pattern of UFO waves has the same structure as a schedule of reinforcement.

correspondences . . .

Recommended Page