Lucid Dreams and Saturn Skies The Life and Writing of Andrew Kincaid

Tag Archives: Abnormal Psychology

Proof of Hell Under the Siberian Tundra? …or Not.

May 10, 2013 2:02 pm / Leave a Comment /
The Kola Superdeep Borehole, putative site of the gateway to hell, now welded shut due to lack of funding. Image Credit: Rakot13

The Kola Superdeep Borehole, putative site of the gateway to hell, now welded shut due to lack of funding. Image Credit: Rakot13

It was the mid-1980′s, and the Cold War was still going strong. America had won the Space Race with the triumphant moon landings of the sixties and seventies. Now the superpowers  competed to pioneer a new space — the one beneath our feet.

To achieve those ends, the Soviet Union commissioned a deep drilling project in the icy wastes of Siberia. A team of geologists drilled about 14.4 kilometers (about 9 miles) beneath the Earth’s surface, when something strange happened — the bit started to spin wildly, and temperature sensors recorded temperatures over 2,000 degrees. No doubt baffled, the scientists lowered a mic down the well shaft to get a better idea of what they were dealing with. What they heard horrified them (the sounds start at about the 2:00 mark) and confirmed people’s worst fears for centuries; that Hell was real, and it lay right beneath our feet!

…er, except not.

This one is pretty classic in terms of urban legends. It isn’t exactly certain where the story began, and it has been elaborated on extensively over time. I remember seeing lurid headlines in the Weekly World News as a kid in the 90′s talking about the Devil coming screaming out of a well to hell drilled in Alaska, incinerating all the unfortunate scientists at the site and spreading doom and gloom all around. The story freaked me out as a kid, as the one-two punch of being A) a kid and B) a Bible literalist tends to make one a bit credulous. Even as a teen, hearing the clip featured in the above video scared the crap out of me.

Evidently a lot of people feel the same way, because this one still makes the rounds on paranormal and religious sites of all kinds. And why not? If Hell really did exist in a real, physical place, that would be a really scary thing. It would confirm many people’s worst anxieties about the after life and their potential place in it. It would also raise some pretty uncomfortable moral and theological implications, which we won’t get into here. The point is that Hell is scary, and that fear is what gives this urban legend (and most others while we’re at it) its staying power.

Needless to say, it isn’t true. The recording is believed to be a looped recording of a scene from the B-grade horror flick Baron Blood. To me it almost sounds like it could be a doctored recording of any public space, looped and made to sound all sinister. There is a small kernel of truth behind this sordid tale, as is the case with most good urban legends. There really was a deep drilling well that reached close to 9 miles underground in Soviet Russia. It was located on the Kola Peninsula, not in Siberia. The drill did hit an empty pocket, but there were no hellish sounds from within. Temperatures reached a toasty 180 degrees, and the geologists found water and natural gas, among other things of scientific interest.

The truth is a whole lot less exciting than a literal gateway to hell, but being the compassionate sort I’d rather that be the fact than to have millions of people suffering and burning forever.

Posted in: Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World, Visions of Hell / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Forays into Flash Fiction: The Black-Eyed Kids

April 11, 2013 3:44 pm / 2 Comments /

Once again, Angela Goff has inspired a bit of microfiction with her Visual Dares. She said that she was looking forward to seeing my entry this week, and I hope it doesn’t disappoint. I modified the theme a bit (you can see the photo that inspired this at Angela’s blog, Anonymous Legacy) to include one of my favorite modern urban legends — the Black Eyed Kids. Enjoy!

***

Night had fallen, and I had just slipped into my easy chair after a long day’s work.

Someone knocked on my door.

“Who could that be?” I grumbled, wondering at the same time why a feeling of cold dread had settled in my gut. It grew as I approached the door and opened it.

Two children, a boy and a girl, dressed in clothing from another century stood on my doorstep.

“Can I help you?” I said, voice quivering.

“May we use your telephone?” the boy said. The girl stared at me, silent.

I nearly said yes, despite my fear. They’re just kids, I thought.

Then I noticed their eyes.

They were completely black.

Needless to say, I didn’t let them in.

Now every knock gives me a panic attack. I can’t step outside without wondering if those black-eyed kids are nearby. Watching…

Posted in: Flash Fiction, Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bizarre Buddhism– The Tulpa

March 21, 2013 2:02 pm / Leave a Comment /
Friar Tuck, carrying Robin Hood on his back. Alexandra David-Neel claimed to manifest a tulpa in the image of Friar Tuck

Friar Tuck, carrying Robin Hood on his back. Alexandra David-Neel claimed to manifest a tulpa in the image of Friar Tuck

Imagine being able to create a being or object with only your thoughts. No, not in the way that writers do when they conjure a story; rather, an actual physical manifestation that others can see. Does it sound far fetched? Maybe, but adherents of traditional Tibetan Buddhism believe it is possible to do so, if a person can attain enough sustained concentration. The resulting beings are called tulpa, or thought-forms as we in the West might call them.

It was said that the practice of manifesting tulpas was a feat that could be performed by bhodisattvas, or practitioners who have attained a level of spiritual enlightenment just below that of the Buddha. The goal of doing this was to project phantom versions of themselves into many worlds, all at once, to shine the light of the Dharma there. However, one did not have to be the Buddhist equivalent of a demi-god to perform the feat; really, anyone with the right knowledge and practice could do so. Precisely what practices are performed aren’t clear, but allegedly some of them could be found in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a tome full of cryptic Tibetan practices and religious rights.

However, like many things, just because you can do them doesn’t mean you should. Accounts from Tibetan mystics of all stripes claim that manifesting a tulpa is not a process to be undertaken lightly, that the process can be dangerous or even deadly for those who lack deep spiritual discipline. After a certain point, when the tulpa has manifested and grown strong, it will outgrow its master, and begin to slip the leash. It can become a menace at that point, even killing its master.

A woman by the name of Alexandra David-Neel gives an eerie account of her own attempt at making a tulpa. She is credited with introducing the tulpa to the West, where it later became folded into extant occult traditions as a ‘thought-form’. David-Neel was one of the first Westerners allowed into Tibet to study their traditions and culture. She became fascinated with the various mystical practices among the Tibetans, particularly the tulpa. She decided to try the practice for herself, and claimed she manifested a tulpa who looked like a jolly Friar Tuck.

However, the monk began to take on a life of its own. She claimed it appeared when she was not thinking of it, and that others in the camp began to ask her who the robed stranger was. Over time, she noticed the once jolly monk creature began to slim down and grow malevolent in appearance. She decided it was time to do away with it at that point, and after a six month struggle she was able to absorb it back into her own mind.

Does it sound like something out of a fantasy novel? Certainly. But then, we know the capacity for the human mind to deceive itself. Cryptids of all stripes live on in the conscience of society at large, taking on a life apart from their dubious biological existence. You could consider beings like Bigfoot, the Beast of Bray Road, and otherstulpa, who exist only because the human imagination gives them life. In that way, tulpa are very real.

Posted in: Abnormal Psychology, Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Phantom Barber of Pascagoula

February 28, 2013 8:22 am / 2 Comments /
Credit: Smithsonian National Museum of American History

A barber’s kit. Somehow I doubt the Phantom Barber used standard hair cutting procedure…

Last year in and around Bergholz, Ohio, a breakaway sect of Amish went on a hair clipping, beard cutting rampage that resulted in hate crime charges for the groups ringleader, Sam Mullet Sr., and thirteen others. The attacks came as a result of disagreements over religious matters; apparently, Mr. Mullet is the leader of a cult who rebels against Amish custom. Predictably, an uncomfortable amount of old man sex was supposedly involved.

Why mention it? Well, hair cutting attacks aren’t a strictly Amish phenomena. As weird as that sounds, about seventy years ago there was a series of attacks in Pascagoula, Mississippi by an unknown assailant who became known as “The Phantom Barber of Pascagoula”.

The year was 1942. America was at war. As her men and boys went off to fight in foreign fields, her towns geared themselves up to produce the materiel the troops would need to win the war. The small town of Pascagoula was no exception. Indeed, the war was a boom time for the town–its population increased by 15,000 in just two years. Pascagoula was involved in the manufacture of war ships, a crucial industry for a nation involved in a two front war on two oceans.

However, the influx of so many people into what was once such a small town lead to tensions. It was the perfect recipe for a panic, what with the social upheaval and the phantom of warfare hanging overhead. Soon enough, there was indeed a panic, one that seems similar in many ways to the Mad Gasser of Mattoon episode, which has become a textbook case of mass hysteria. However there are some crucial differences between the cases: the first being that there was actual physical evidence, in the form of missing locks of hair, in the Phantom Barber case, and that police apprehended a suspect.

The attacks began in early June 1942, when the Phantom Barber cut the hair of Mary Evelyn Briggs and Edna Marie Hydel in their bedroom at the convent of Our Lady of Victories. By the end of that week, three people received unwanted hair cuts at the shears of the Phantom Barber. None saw their attacker. The town was understandably in a panic. It got to the point where the Army even modified its blackout regulations (blackouts were procedures to defend against air raids) in order to help police hunt the Barber. The Phantom Barber primarily struck on Monday and Friday evenings, and entered through a slit in window screens.

Credit: archives.gov

Welders who worked at Shipbuilding Corp in Pascagoula. Women filled many jobs previously only occupied by men, as able bodied men shipped off to fight.

A week after the first attack, the Phantom Barber struck the home of David G. Peattie, shearing his daughter Carol’s hair. The parents found a bare footprint near the window. The following Friday, the attacks became violent: the Phantom allegedly entered the house of Mr. and Mrs. ST Heidelberg, and proceeded to beat them with an iron bar.  The final attack happened on a Sunday, two weeks later. The Phantom clipped a two inch lock of hair from the head of Mrs. RR Taylor. Mrs. Taylor reported a sickening smell and something being pressed to her face, which authorities assumed to be a chloroform rag. All told, about ten homes were broken into during the Phantom Barber’s reign of terror.

In August, the police apprehended a suspect that they concluded was the Phantom Barber. His name was William Dolan, a 57 year old German chemist with reported German sympathies and a grudge against the Heidelbergs. Mr. Heidelberg’s father was a local judge who had refused to lower Dolan’s bail on a trespassing charge several months before. Dolan was charged with the attempted murder of the Heidelbergs, but curiously he was never charged with one of the Phantom Barber attacks, despite the FBI finding a bundle of human hair behind his house, some of which belonged to Carol Peattrie, who you will remember was the Barber’s fourth victim. Dolan denied being the phantom barber. He received ten years for the attempted murder charge. After his arrest, the Phantom Barber attacks ceased.

It isn’t clear whether Dolan really was the Barber though. His attack was uncharacteristically violent compared to the Barber’s attacks. One could argue that the Barber attacks were practice runs leading up to the assault on the Heidelberg’s, but if that were the case, why do another Barber-style attack after the Heidelberg assault? Also, if they were practice runs, why cut hair? It sounds like something sexually motivated, like the person had a fetish involving hair. If that were the case and Dolan were the assailant, why keep his prizes in the back yard? Also, it doesn’t seem that the footprint in Carol Peattrie’s room was ever analyzed, a definite oversight on the part of the police.

As is often the case, there are no definitive answers in this case. The fact that the events occurred about seventy years ago doesn’t help matters. Likely, we will never know the true identity of the Phantom Barber of Pascagoula.

Posted in: Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve Seen Jesus! …In a Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

February 21, 2013 7:17 am / 2 Comments /

The famous ‘Mars face’. This strange formation was first sighted in a photograph taken by the Viking I orbiter and released by NASA in 1976. The apparent face caused quite a stir amongst UFO buffs. Subsequent photos showed the face was nothing more than a mountain.

…well, okay I personally haven’t seen Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich, but there have been those who claim they did. Reports of people seeing religious figures in random, mundane objects are pretty common–there’s even a cottage industry of shilling such objects to believers on EBay. Now the rest of us might snicker and shake our heads, thinking to ourselves that people are nuts and going on about our business. But hold on! This phenomena isn’t confined to a few who let wishful thinking and/or strong religious beliefs cloud what would otherwise be a functional rational capacity. Tell me: did you ever lay on the cool grass as a kid and stare at the clouds? What did you see? Perhaps a cloud that looked like a horse? How about a face? Have you ever been sitting in a doctor’s office, bored, staring at the chintzy wallpaper when all of a sudden you find a face staring back at you?

I know I have. I’ve seen faces in all sorts of random things. It turns out that this phenomena isn’t the result of some sort of mental misfiring, but rather it is part of our wiring. It is a phenomena called pareidolia, which is characterized by people perceiving random stimulus as significant, when really they aren’t. Basically, our brain is a categorizing machine. It despises random crap, and tries to assert order over the deluge of data constantly coming into it. Now this can lead to some odd associations; for example, baseball players are famously superstitious. Many have good luck charms or rituals that they swear by. This is a case of faulty correlation; a player happens to wear pink socks the day he hits five homers, and in his mind he associates the success with the pink socks. Really, we all know the hue of his socks has nothing to do with how well he hit, but the correlation is there nevertheless.

Now we know how the sometimes bizarre superstitions arise, but what does that have to do with an old lady seeing the Virgin Mary in her morning toast? Well, as I said, humans are pattern seeking animals. There is one pattern whose daily discernment is most crucial to our survival, even today–other people. Think about it. You can see a person’s face and instantly know whether they’re angry, happy, sad, or anything in between. Sure there is room for error there, but most people aren’t that great at controlling their facial expressions. Besides, when making a snap decision as to whether someone is going to smack you in the face with a brick and take your wallet, you’re probably not going to stop and ask how they’re feeling. Point being, for the last 2 million years of hominid existence, humans and their ancestors have had to be good at reading others. Which has made us good at picking out faces, even where there may not actually be any.

So, the next time someone sees the Pope in a fried ham and cheese sandwich, don’t be too quick to judge. They’re only being tricked by 2 million years of evolution.

Posted in: Abnormal Psychology, Our Weird World, Weird Science / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The New Jersey Ghost Sniper

January 31, 2013 11:32 am / 1 Comment /
Credit: New York State Museum

Could boys shooting marbles with sling shots be responsible for the wave of terror that swept Camden, NJ in 1928?

Nowadays you don’t have to look too hard to find a headline about a shooting here, there, or anywhere really in this country.  Usually such stories are pretty cut and dry–an argument got out of hand, and someone turned to a gun (the bulk of homicides are spur of the moment, despite popular perception).  That is not meant to trivialize it of course–any death is a tragedy. All of that being said, it isn’t likely these days you’ll come across a gun related crime quite as weird as the Camden Ghost Sniper, the name given to the perpetrator of a very odd set of crimes between 1927 and 1928 in Camden, New Jersey.

The Ghost Sniper’s reign of terror began January 25, 1928 when a bus windshield and the wind shields of four other vehicles were ‘strangely shattered’ by an unknown projectile.  In just about every case attributed to the Ghost Sniper, windows appeared to be shot through with a bullet, although usually no fragments or shell casings were found.  So it was with the first five shootings.  Also, a police officer was struck and knocked to the ground by a blue marble.

After these first strange occurrences, reports of the ‘phantom sniper’ began to flood into Camden police stations.  Reports of similar attacks came in from Collingswood and Lindenwood, New Jersey as well.  Police suspected the culprit or culprits might be using a high powered air gun or a low caliber hand gun with a silencer, or some combination of the two.  Indeed, in later incidents bullets were found, one matching a .38 slug and the other a .22. In another case, a prominent local jeweler had a nickel-plated screw shot through his windshield, which was promptly recovered.

What was strange was that, in most cases, no one reported hearing gun fire during any of the incidents.  There was only one case where a possible shooter was identified; he’d apparently shot through a bedroom window, and when the occupants looked outside to see where the projectile had come from, they saw a man running a away shouting: “It’s all right now, Louie.”  The mystery man was never caught.

Luckily, no one was seriously injured throughout the ordeal, other than some severe cases of jangled nerves and a couple of officers who suffered nasty bruises after being struck by blue marbles.  That is not to say that Camden and the surrounding area were not in a borderline panic over the ‘phantom shooter’.  Police actually outfitted themselves with tommy guns and pursuit vehicles to aid in the hunt for the shooter, and throughout the course of the investigation they operated under a “shoot on sight” order.  People were genuinely terrified of the Ghost Sniper, and with good reason.  After all, no one could catch him, so who was to say when he would get bold and begin to kill, thinking he could do so with impunity?

The strange story concluded when police arrested two youths for shooting a hole in a windshield with a slingshot.  So far as I can see, after that point there were no more incidents reported.  This story reminds me strongly of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon; meaning, it is probably an incidence of mass hysteria.  Was there an initial attack?  Probably.  Then for whatever reason, possibly because of the public nature of the attack and the fact a police officer was injured, the story blew up.  Every pebble shot through a window by a passing car and every prank by bored school boys became a sign of a mad man on the loose.  Copy cats probably came out of the woodwork and fueled the flames, for reasons of their own.  Like such things do, it eventually peaked, and probably by the time the two youths were arrested, interest in the whole business had waned anyway.  It was a phantom shooter indeed, as it only existed in the collective minds of the residents of Camden, New Jersey.

Posted in: Ghost Stories, Killers and Serial Killers, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Strange Story of James Worson

January 24, 2013 8:24 am / Leave a Comment /
A portrait of Ambrose Bierce. ...this will have more context as you read on.

A portrait of Ambrose Bierce. …this will have more context as you read on.

Long time readers know that I like me a good weird story now and again.  So when I ran across the story of James Worson, it truly fit the bill.  It goes that Worson, who was a shoe maker from Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, England, was in his cups one day when he took a bet that he could run from his hometown to neighboring Coventry, a distance of about nine miles, without stopping once.  There aren’t any details as to how exactly this bet came about, but every account I’ve come across said Worson was drunk, which for something as silly as an impromptu nine mile run is reason enough.

So Worson began his run with his fellow better, a fellow named Barnham Wise, and a photographer named Hamerson Burns, who all followed him in a wagon.  It seems things were going pretty well for awhile there, with Worson plodding along resolutely, no doubt sobering up from the exertion and wondering what exactly he’d gotten himself into, when things became plain weird.  Worson stumbled over something on the road and pitched forward.  He let out a scream, and promptly disappeared.  Nobody ever heard from him again.  The disappearance happened in front of three no doubt startled witnesses, who were acquitted of any wrong doing.  Worson was never seen again.

Now most times this is where the story ends.  Worson’s story has long been reported among the ranks of mysterious disappearances, and taken at face value it is indeed very strange and not a bit unnerving.  But this is where the story gets interesting: it never happened, as it is quite literally a story of the fictitious variety.

It turns out what I dubbed “The Strange Story of James Worson” is in reality called “An Unfinished Race” by Ambrose Bierce.  The story itself is brief, only about three paragraphs long, and was included in the collection Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories.  You can read the actual story here.  You’ll notice some details differ from the version I presented–the version above is the one I found floating around the net.

The style of the story itself explains part of why it became the subject of urban legend.  It is presented almost in a perfunctory manner, like something you might read in a newspaper.  My guess is that people back in that time some people read the story and, later, misremembered where they heard the story and reported it as fact.  It sounds silly but think about it–how many times in a day do you repeat something as fact when you aren’t entirely sure of the source?  Sometimes things enter the canon of our personal knowledge without us really being able to remember where we heard it or from whom.  That’s one way stories of dubious veracity get circulated around, and eventually become urban legends and fodder for bloggers such as myself.

In any case, the story of Ambrose Bierce is at least as strange as the fictional story that overshadowed his own mysterious end.  The author of what has become an infamous disappearance himself disappeared without a trace.  Bierce was in Mexico covering the punitive expedition against Pancho Villa in 1913 when he just vanished.  Or maybe he wasn’t–there are some who don’t believe he ever went to Mexico.  All parties agree that he just up and disappeared in 1913 and was never seen again.  As for why Bierce’s very really mysterious disappearance has been overshadowed by the fictional one he created, well, that too is a mystery that won’t be answered any time soon.

Posted in: Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Visions of Hell–Thus Spake Zarathustra

January 3, 2013 11:32 am / 2 Comments /
The fate of the worst sinners in the Zoroastrian world view--to be left in utter darkness, suffering unspeakable torments.

The fate of the worst sinners in the Zoroastrian world view–to be left in utter darkness, suffering unspeakable torments.

We started this series with Dante’s vision of Hell, one of the more elaborate and famous hell-scape in all history.  Today, though, we go back to what was quite possibly the grandaddy of all hells–the hell warned of by the prophet Zarathustra (better known in the West as Zoroaster).  Zarathustra founded Zoroastrianism in Persia (modern day Iran) in approximately the sixth century BC (the dates are a bit fuzzy but I feel comfortable with that one).  His message had many facets that were revolutionary for their time, but that to a modern listener would sound very familiar.  He saw the great god Ahura Mazda, the one true God and creator of all things.  From an angel sent by Ahura Mazda, Zarathustra also learned of Angra Manyu, the force of evil and corrupter of all things good.  The great demon and his hordes were confined to our world, locked in constant battle with the forces of good.  Human’s place in this cosmic battle was a central one, as our very thoughts and actions could sway it one way or another.  By doing and being good, humans could weaken Angra Manyu’s grip on our world.  In Zarathustra’s vision, the eternal war would eventually conclude with Ahura Mazda’s victory, when a savior came and eventually brought about the destruction of our old, corrupt world, making way for a new one where all would be pure…

…sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?  Scholars more knowledgeable about this kind of thing than me seem pretty convinced Christianity, Judaism, and Islam  all got facets of their theology from Zoroastrianism.  Which given how large and long lived the Persian Empire was, that makes a lot of sense.  But that’s not the focus here.  We want to get to the gory details about Zoroastrian hell.  And boy, old Zarathustra and the folks who came after had quite the morbid imagination.  Now there were a lot of contradicting and fragmentary accounts in my sources, so I am going to try to simplify things a bit.  Really, it’s hard to find out a lot about Zoroastrianism because though it is extant, only 200,000 people practice it, and the version they practice differs from the original version (sort of like how modern Christianity would be almost unrecognizable to early practitioners).

Anyway, in the Zoroastrian belief system, the soul of a dead person sorta hovered around the body it formerly occupied for three days, praying for a good afterlife.  Then it started its journey to the land of the dead.  It first had to cross a river that swelled with the tears of its grieving relatives.  Once it did that, it made it to a great bridge over a yawning chasm.  Here it was confronted with its earthly deeds in the guise of a woman, either a fair maiden if the deeds were mostly good or an ugly old hag if the balance of deeds were mostly bad.  This spirit guide would lead the soul across the bridge.  For good souls, the bridge widened and the walk across was pleasant, while for bad the bridge became narrow as a razor’s edge as they tried to cross.  Inevitably, the bad souls would fall into the chasm, to be with Angra Manyu and his demons, damning them until the end of days to suffer in torment until the world was purified by Ahura Mazda with molten metal.

As for hell itself, there were some mentions of different realms, but no discernible geography that I could see.  So, unlike Dante’s hell, if there was a definite structure to Zoroaster’s vision, it hasn’t survived so far as I know.  As for the punishments themselves, there are dozens upon dozens of gruesome fates awaiting the damned.  You have the usual dismemberment, burning (with hot metal as fire is sacred to the Zoroastrians), whipping, and various other tortures.  Then things get weird.  I guess the damned were said to continually eat gruesome things such as brains, menstrual blood, semen, feces, and dead bodies.  Some also continually masturbated and/or defecated.  These torments were done of the damned’ soul’s own volition, apparently representing their lack of ability to control themselves?  Or something–it just sounds entirely unpleasant.  Others were subjected to visions of their children, who the mistreated in life, while they are being tortured.  There are no children tormented in Zoroastrian hell–they only appear as phantasms, as I understood it, to torment their parents.  Oh and some people had hedgehogs thrown at them, which seems weird to me but hey, must have been bad to ancient Persians, right?

The deepest realm of hell, where Angra Manyu sat on his dark throne, was the reservoir for the worst torments.  I didn’t see any details of what was said specifically to go on down there, but I did read one account of a translator who, when translating a list of sins in their attendant torments, gave up about halfway and said in effect that from there on things got too gross to write about.  So, whatever was said to be done in the lowest level must have been really, really gruesome.  Good thing the lowest level was so dark that those there were “as if blind”.  Not sure how the demons saw to do any tormenting, but logic doesn’t really enter into these scenarios, does it?

Posted in: Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Visions of Hell–The Nine Circles of Dante’s Inferno

December 6, 2012 6:28 am / Leave a Comment /
Dante's Hell, as illustrated by Botticelli.

Dante’s Hell, as illustrated by Botticelli.

Hell.  The word conjures forth images of flames and red skinned imps with pitch forks chasing after panicking souls of the damned.  At least, it does here in the West.  You see, Hell is not a fixed concept; it changes from culture to culture and from myth system to myth system.  Even the commonly held image of Hell here in the West bears little resemblance to what the Bible has to say about the place.  The Scriptures describes the Bible as a “lake” that burns with “fire and brimstone”.  It is the place where “the worm dieth not, and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth”.  It is also described as “outer darkness”.  No demons or pitch forks in this place–the Hell of the Bible is not a place where Satan reigns, but rather a place where he is bound in torment with all the other damned souls.  No mention of Satan being a king in hell, or of demons being responsible for tormenting people is made in the Bible.  Point of fact, while hell is mentioned a fair bit in the Bible, descriptions of the place were limited to those I outlined above.

This lack of description gave room for the human imagination to run wild, which brings us to the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.  In his epic poem of sin and redemption, Dante took a fearsome place of torment and fire and gave it structure.  His Hell is divided into nine concentric levels of punishment.  Rather than a place of indiscriminate torment, Dante’s hell metes out specific punishments to specific sinners, according to the sins that predominated in their earthly life.  The sins are ranked according to severity, with the worst sinners being punished the most severely in the Ninth Circle, where Satan reigns in his unholy glory.

Now Dante goes into an almost neurotic level of detail about the specific punishments and who suffers them.  While this horrific imagery has penetrated the popular consciousness for centuries now, I think the actual point he was trying to make has been lost.  Dante’s motivation was less a religious one and more political.  He used his poem as both an allegorical way to represent the corrupt politics working in his beloved Florence and as a satire of said politics.  No one, from Popes to politicians to kings, was safe from Dante’s pen and his sense of divine justice.  However, it seems ole Dante really struck a chord with is vivid depiction of pain and suffering, so without further ado let us take a walk down the paths of anguish into the deepest realms of hell:

"Abandon all Hope, All ye who enter here."

“Abandon all Hope, All ye who enter here.”

Circle 1–Limbo

The first circle of Hell was reserved for the unbaptized and virtuous pagans.  These were folks who led good lives, but did not accept Christ.  This was not so much a place of suffering as a holding place for those who Dante felt didn’t deserve hellfire but who, at the same time, couldn’t justifiably make it into Heaven.  Limbo is depicted as essentially Heaven Lite; a place of green, rolling meadows and a castle where the greatest minds of antiquity (Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle among others) dwelt.  Essentially, it’s Heaven without the joy of being close to God, which is really not heaven at all.  All in all, it’s a pretty light punishment compared to the next circles, reserved for those who deliberately broke God’s Law.  The real suffering begins with…

The Lustful, driven by eternal storm winds.

The Lustful, driven by eternal storm winds.

Circle 2–Lust

Lustful folks are those who let their carnal desires overcome their reason.  They are also the least punished denizens of hell.  To Dante, the most fitting punishment for these folks was to have them blown about by a violent hurricane, buffeted by wind, rain, and hail, for all eternity.  This outer weather represented the inner weather that dominated their lives.  These were people dominated by the tempests of passions, who allowed said lust to control their lives and lead them to ruin.  I don’t know about you, but being blown around by a hurricane for all eternity would suck, but compared to some of these other folks, the lustful got off easy.  Notable sufferers include Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, and Tristan.

The Gluttons, in eternal slush and rain.

The Gluttons, in eternal slush and rain.

Circle 3–Gluttony

Guarded by the three headed dog, Cerberus, the next circle contains the gluttonous, those who overindulged in sensual things in their earthly lives.  While today we tend to think of gluttony as overeating to the point of bursting on Thanksgiving, the ancients had a little different take.  It certainly could include food and drink, but it could be other addictions as well.  These gluttons are condemned to sit in cold slush under a constant driving rain for all eternity.  If that sounds a bit tame, well, they also can’t see or hear one another.  So they get to sit cold and alone, forever.  Sounds pretty bad to me, if not quite as elaborate as the next circle…

The Greedy, pushing giant money bags forever.

The Greedy, pushing giant money bags forever.

Circle 4–Greed

So this one struck me as kind of odd.  Pretty sure I don’t have to explain exactly what greed is, especially given that Black Friday was only about a week ago.  The greedy were divided into two groups: those who hoarded possessions, and those who squandered them.  These two teams of sinners were forced to go head to head in a kind of huge, eternal jousting match, but instead of spears they used massive weights which they pushed with their chests.  While the constant exertion and all that sounds unpleasant, this seems to me like an odd punishment.  They’re essentially condemned to being living bumper cars for all eternity.  Points to Dante for creativity.

Overcome by rage, the wrathful fight forever while the sullen burble and gurgle below.

Overcome by rage, the wrathful fight forever while the sullen burble and gurgle below.

Circle 5–Anger

Now we reach the last of the first five circles where the so called “self indulgent” sins are punished.  The sins in the previous circles were not so much motivated by malice as a lack of self control.  So it is pretty easy to see how Anger fits into this.  Actually both the angry and the sullen are punished here in the River Styx.  Those full of wrath ceaselessly fight one another on the water’s surface, while the sullen lie beneath the surface in cold and darkness, constantly drowning in their depression (remember, this was written before we recognized mental illness as, well, an illness.  Depression was seen as a moral failing).  From here on out, things get a lot worse as Dante and his guide Virgil approach the city of Dis, where folks who actively broke God’s laws are punished.  The worst of the worst start to be punished in…

Heretics, burning in their tombs.

Heretics, burning in their tombs.

Circle 6–Heresy

Heretics are those who spoke against God’s will (as outlined by the Church, of course).  These folks are condemned to burn forever, trapped in flaming tombs.  Apparently Dante had a hate-on for the followers of Epicurus, as he condemned many of them to hell-fire.  By the by, Epicureans back then weren’t what they are now.  Today, Epicurean societies are typically foodies who indulge in expensive and tasty meals.  That isn’t quite the case with the real Epicureans, who were materialists who believed that pleasure was the greatest good.  But they didn’t mean that in the way we would think now (which would involve a great deal of partying and drinking, more likely than not).  Instead, they believed in moderation and learning as much as you can.  Doesn’t sound too bad, except they also discounted superstition, divine intervention, and the after-life.  So you can see why in a very superstitious age they would be considered heretics.  If these guy’s lot was bad, the malicious sinners in circle seven have things much, much worse…

The violent, kept in the boiling blood by centaurs.

The violent, kept in the boiling blood by centaurs.

Circle 7–Violence

The three rings containing the violent are guarded by the minotaur.  The outer ring of the seventh circle contains those violent against people and property.  The damned here are immersed in a river of boiling fire and blood.  Centaurs patrol the banks of the river, shooting arrows into anyone who tries to climb out.  Suicides and profligates suffer in the middle circle (profligates being people who destroyed their lives by the misuse of property).  Suicides have probably the most unique torment in all of Hell.  They have been transformed into gnarled, thorny trees and bushes from which their dead bodies hang.  They are continually fed on by Harpies.  The profligates are constantly chased by rabid dogs.  They are constantly crashing through the living wood around them, bringing even more suffering to the suicides.  Not much sympathy for the dead in the 1300′s eh?  Moving on to the inner ring, we have those who did violence against God and nature (blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers, or people who charged interest).  Bankers beware, for this is your eternal fate!  They live in a desert of flaming sand with fire raining from the sky.  Some lay in the sand (blasphemers), others sit (usurers), and still others wander in groups (sodomites).  Looks like the guys who tanked the economy back in 2008 might get their just desserts at some point, at least if Dante has his way!

The Sowers of Discord and their sword-wielding tormentor.

The Sowers of Discord and their sword-wielding tormentor.

Circle 8–Fraud

The eighth circle is divided into ten “bolgia” or pockets.  The first contains panderers and seducers, who march in lines in opposite directions, constantly whipped and driven by demons.  The second bolgia contains flatterers, who are condemned to sit forever in human excrement.  No doubt many a used car salesman and lawyer ends up in this particular pocket.  Bolgia 3 is home of people who committed simony, a sin named after Simon Magus, who offered  money in exchange for the holy powers Saint Peter wielded in Acts.  These folks are stuffed head first into holes in the rock, with flames continually burning the soles of their feet. Next come sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets, who walk around with their heads twisted around backwards.  That really sounds more inconvenient than anything else, especially after the last couple, but whatever.  In bolgia 5, corrupt politicians are finally punished by being immersed in a pit of boiling pitch, whose shore is patrolled by devils called Malabranche’s who like to fish out a sinner now and then and “toy” with them.  Moving on, next we find the hypocrites, who have a comparatively mild punishment of being forced to walk around in gilded lead cloaks.  As if he realized how lame the last one was, Dante devised a particularly gruesome fate for thieves, who are constantly attacked by snakes and lizards.  The animal’s venom makes them undergo various transformations; sometimes they merge with other sinners, while others take on aspects of the monsters that bit them.  Fraudulent advisers in the next bolgia burn in individual flames, while in bolgia 9 a sword wielding demon hacks the sowers of discord to bits.  Their bodies heal, only to have the process begin again.  Finally, the falsifiers are beset by disease even as they were diseases on society.  Moving on, we reach some of the most famous imagery in the entire Inferno…

Satan, encased in ice.

Satan, encased in ice.

Circle 9–The Traitors.

The greatest traitors in history lay encased in ice in the earth’s core.  Satan himself reigns here.  He is encased up to the waist in ice.  He weeps constantly in the cold, and struggles in vain to be free from his prison, his great wings blowing cold winds across the icy lake, simultaneously trapping himself worse by accumulating more ice and increasing the torment of those encased with the Fallen One.  There are four levels to this particular prison, but there isn’t as much variety here–just people frozen in various positions. Oh and one part where a guy is munching on another guy’s head, zombie style.  But anyway, the worst torments in hell lay with Satan himself.  The Great Betrayer is portrayed as a monstrous, three faced demon.  Each face gnaws continually on history’s greatest traitors–Brutus and Cassius, who betrayed Caesar, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Christ himself.  Judas’ torment is the worst in hell, as his head is gnawed on by Satan’s central mouth and his body is continually ripped to shreds by the Devil’s claws.

…still with me?  I know, that one was sort of long.  I didn’t originally want it to run this long, but with the level of detail involved here, I couldn’t really help it.  Future posts in this series will hopefully come in at a bit more reasonable length.  Stick around, as we’re going to look at Hell from various cultures and time periods.  People are endlessly inventive when it comes to conceiving imaginary punishments for society’s ne’er-do-wells, so be ready for a wild, at times disturbing, ride!

Posted in: Abnormal Psychology, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World, Visions of Hell / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why I Write Horror and Fantasy

November 6, 2012 6:56 am / 6 Comments /
PET image of a brain

Today you get to peek inside my brain! …okay this isn’t a picture of MY brain, just A brain. I don’t have a photo of my brain laying around.

As long time readers of this blog may know, it is a bit of a strange mash up.  I go from writing about spirituality to brutal serial killers to strange psychological diseases.  The genres that chose me might seem no less strange to an outsider looking in.  In college I majored in biology, and I love all the sciences; they  have a huge influence on how I think, and I believe they are very important to our collective welfare as a species.  While I am open to the paranormal, and enjoy writing about it, I do not actively believe in it.  Put short, I’m a very rational person (sometimes too much so!).  On the other side of the coin, I am a very spiritual person.  I am a practicing Buddhist, and I believe in peace, love, and kindness.  While I do have a temper, I have never been in a physical fight and I would never deliberately harm someone with my words or actions.  But yet I turn around and write about gruesome killers and monsters and battles.

Now, all of that might seem contradictory.  And it is, to some extent.  At the very least, it is unconventional.  I was musing over this topic the other day and came to a couple of conclusions.  One reason I write what I do is because I’ve always had morbid fascinations.  Ever since I was a kid I’ve been into this stuff.  A second is that it acts as kind of a release valve, a way to express more negative emotions in a safe way.  But the primary reason I write what I do is the personal quality that led me to both science and Buddhism: curiosity.

I am an avid learner.  I want to know as much as I can about this crazy world before I leave it.  How we got here, why we are here, and why things are the way they are.  Spirituality and science are two ways of knowing that, contrary to popular belief, do not have to be mutually exclusive.  One explains why, the other how.  You can do both at once–I am living proof of that.

But while that might explain the content of my blog, you might be asking how curiosity has anything to do with writing horror and fantasy.  That is because curiosity comes hand in hand with another quality: imagination.  The two are inseparable because curiosity inevitably leads you to ask questions about the world around you, and to question in the first place takes imagination.  But eventually it takes you further than that–you begin to ask not about what is, but what could be.  Could there really be a world where humans can fling fireballs and dragons take wing?  If so, what would that be like?  Or, what if ghosts were really real?  What would be the implications?  What if corpses could walk again?

With a head full of questions like that, the next natural progression is to go about answering them.  For me that was a combination of reading stories in the fantasy and horror genres, and of course writing my own stories.  Really, writing fiction is an act of discovery, another way that the human mind strives to understand both the world without and the world within.  Careful though.  This way, there be monsters.

Posted in: Life & Writing, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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