Neptune's Dolphins

 

Since Christian thought permeates modern Western thinking, people have separated themselves from spirits in general, and the Dead in particular. In Christianity, the Dead either go to heaven (reward) or hell (punishment). Meanwhile, modern science has diminished the Dead to mere figments of people’s imaginations. In the West, the culture of disbelief has everything paranormal based on the abnormalities of the brain (such as temporal lobe epilepsy (Note 2)). Meanwhile, deeply religious people who have visions of the Dead are often patronized.

 

Terence McKenna, noted ethnobotanist and mystic, said in 1999, “It’s much easier to believe in meddling extraterrestrials than that Uncle Herman and Aunt Fanny are somehow reaching in from the Great Beyond. The human soul is so alienated from us in our present culture that we treat it as an extraterrestrial. To us, the most alien thing in the cosmos is the human soul.” (Note 3)

 

Later, in a 2020 interview with Mike Clelland (Note 4), Christopher Knowles, pop author and blogger of “The Secret Sun,” said “The paranormal, to me, is essentially, phenomena that wells up around death, and either anticipates death, or is some sort of running commentary during or after death. When real paranormal things happen, it’s almost always connected to death.”

 

In “The Ecology of Souls,” Joshua Cutchin regards people’s beliefs in UFOs and other paranormal activity as an aversion to thinking in terms of the Dead. He notes that it is easier to understand in another kind of reality such as faeries or Bigfoot than to connect with the Dead. In his examination of the paranormal, Cutchin sees it as a great mystery related to the “Greatest Mystery of All: Dying.”

 

One aspect of afterlife belief, “Co-Creation Theory,” (Note 5) says that in a non-dual world, the living and Dead have visions of each other. Carl Jung said that the realm of the psychic and physical meet in “Never -Never Land.” In other words, imagination and reality are closely intertwined, since the imagination can bring the imagined phenomena into reality. Explaining this more, Cutchin stresses that “We must distinguish imaginal from imaginary. Paranormal imagery may be from your head, but the phenomena are not in your head.” (emphasis his)

 

Moreover, Cutchin develops Knowles’ idea of the paranormal and the Dead further. He proposes an ecology with Spirits and Souls as the flora and fauna populating various habitats. Afterlife and metaphysical researcher, James R. Lewis observed that several occult-metaphysical traditions see the ‘souls’ of everything from “rocks to plants to animals” being involved in re-incarnation. Cutchin adds “Perhaps all souls are laundered through humans, animals, mountains, rivers and trees: an ecology of souls, both human and non-human, underpinning our environment.” (emphasis his) (Note 6)

 

In addition, Cutchin observes “Yet, deprived of a framework by Materialism, modern Westerners have no idea how to react when the spirits come calling. Terrified we cram them into preexisting cultural boxes: demonic possession, hauntings, faerie contact… alien abductions. What we perceive as trespassing in the ecology of souls may in fact be an invitation. The Otherworld, filled with our dead, seeks communion with us through diplomats straddling realities.” He says that these diplomats are usually shamans. Author Joe Lewels in discussing alien abductions said, “We need shamans, and if society doesn’t provide it, the universe will.” (emphasis his) (Note 7)

 

Meanwhile, McKenna noted that “ecology” implies the robust variety of entities found in paranormal encounters. To him, ecologies thrived on diversity and the ecology of souls was no different. He believed that the soul was distilled through the living, real and imaginary. For McKenna, altered states of consciousness provided knowledge of the realm of the Dead.

 

McKenna said in an interview in 1989 (Note 8), “My own private opinion about this is: I think that what psychedelics …carry us into is an ecology of souls. This is what we’re seeing. I mean, if that’s not a shocking enough way of putting it, how about this: what we’re seeing is the dead. Those things in that place are our ancestors….The idea that it’s the dead is a little more hackle-raising, a little more peculiar, a little more heartful, a little more hard to assimilate, and probably closer to the mark. That it is an ecology of souls—that’s where we go.”

 

There is an ecology and a cycle of energy that reaches beyond visible life. This is an ecology of many dimensions. Life and death transform into a transcendental realm. Once people understand the ecology of souls, they realize that they are not alone. The Ancestors do reach out to the living.

 

In my instance, my father-in-law came back as a toad. In life, he was called “The Toad,” since he was squat and warty. After his death, a large toad appeared in front of our condo building. This was fall, the time for toads to be preparing for hibernation. However, this huge toad would appear without fail. He would give us his warty stare and hop away. We knew that this Toad was my husband’s father, who was watching over us.

 

Notes:

Note 1: For Romans, it was February and May. For the Mesopotamians, it was July. Most people are familiar with Celtic Samhain also called Halloween.

Note 2. People with temporal lobe epilepsy have seizures that include auras of deja vu, unusual smells, and odd visions.

Note 3. From YouTube: “Deus Ex McKenna,” Terence McKenna Archive.

Note 4. Interview with Mike Clelland at Whitley Strieber’s UnknownCountry.com.

Note 5. “Co-creation Spirituality” – “the spiritual awareness that people are co-creators with God” – was developed by Philip Hefner for Catholics in 1989. Meanwhile, Nathan Daniel Miller has developed “the Cosmic Synthesis Theory” – “every aspect of existence is interconnected and interdependent” – for non-believers in 2024.

Note 6. Polytheist religions have Gods of the landscape such as rivers and mountains. Perhaps what Cutchin is describing is Polytheism in modern form.

Note 7. As reported in Mike Clelland, “The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicity, and the UFO Abductee.” Richard Dolan Press: NY. 2015.

Note 8. Interview, “A Calendar for the Goddess,” June 1989. Found at the Library of Consciousness. https://www.organism.earth/library/document/calendar-for-the-goddess

 

Works Used:

Bourke, Daniel, “Apparitions at the Moment of Death.” Destiny Books: Rochester (VT). 2024.

Cutchin, Joshua, “The Ecology of Souls: A New Mythology of Death and the Paranormal.” Horse and Barrel Press: Athens (GA). 2022.

Lecounteux, Claude, “The Pagan Book of the Dead.” (J.E. Graham, trans.) Inner Traditions: Rochester (VT). 2019.

Lewis, John, “Encyclopedia of Afterlife Beliefs and Phenomena.” Gale Research: Detroit (MI). 1994.