My Catholic Epiphanic Vision Quest in Copperopolis

First off, I'm not sure if it took place in Copperopolis, CA but I'm pretty sure it was in that region. 

When I was 14 years old, my Mother was persistent as ever to get me to become more involved in our parish. St. Anthony's to be exact. She somehow convinced me to go on a teen retreat into the mountains in order to solidify my mushy, unreliable faith. Normally I'd flat out refuse and lock myself in a closet and swallow the key, but since my cousin of the same age was going, I thought, "Fine. Let's get it over with." 

On a Friday morning in the summer (I think), the kids signed up for the teen retreat gather with their families in the parking lot of the church. Our bags are packed and we're ready to roll. I remember participating in a group prayer before we hit the road. 

Once we get to the campground, my memories get hazy. I remember sleeping on the top bunk, eating eggs for Saturday morning's breakfast, and being discouraged when the girl I decided was the prettiest and most attainable decided to cling to the handsome, athletic Hispanic guy with the infatuation with FUBU and golf visors. 

One night at the retreat, we were brought into a dimly lit room where noise was permitted. One by one, we participated in a mass hypnotism of some sort. i remember it being my turn and being surrounded by three women. One behind me, one in front and one on the side. The lady in front recited a prayer (chant) while the palm of her hand pressed against my forehead. Eventually, she would gently press my head back and the two other women would safely guide me to the ground. Now normally when this kind of thing happens, the victims involved are so overwhelmed with emotion and God knows what else, that they really do pass out for a few seconds. I, however did not pass out and decided to act like I did (years later I did the same exact thing when participating in a hypnotism show at the County Fair). 

The next day at camp we were split into groups of 5 or 6 and had a conversation with one of the counselors. One of the objectives was to get every teen to admit something they feel bad about at the moment. It was basically a communal confession. When it got to me, I reached for something bad. Honestly, I wasn't that bad of a kid at the time. I didn't do anything too crazy. I mean, I had tried pot and alcohol but that was something I wasn't willing to share with a bunch of goody goodies. I ended up discussing a girl named Missy I briefly dated for three days but ended up deciding to just be friends with. I felt bad about the way I treated her and the situation but chalked it up to, "This is what a high school relationship is." 

Fast forward to Sunday when we returned to St. Anthony's, just in time for evening mass. It's a bit embarrassing to admit but I was "awakened". Whatever it was that those spellcasters did to me, it worked (albeit briefly). I embraced my Mother and cried into her shoulder. I had seen the light. Finally, my Mother got the good ol' religious boy she always dreamed of.

After church, my Mother and I, along with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins went out to eat at Foster Freeze (A restaurant we never go to). Sure enough, who do I see at the joint? Missy. I remember being very disoriented when this happened. How could it be possible that the one person I mention on a religious retreat is now standing in front of me. Also, making it more than a coincidence was the fact that she and I both lived in the town over from where we were eating. I took this as a definitive sign from God that not only was he real, he was watching over me. I took this unprecedented moment as an opportunity to apologize to Missy for being such a bonehead. My conscious was clear and I felt lighter than I ever had before.

How amazing, right? I naively mistook synchronicity for God. But maybe there's more of a connection between the two than previously thought. Synchronicity is a reminder from the ethereal realm that there is something at work that is greater than you, I, and everyone else combined. It was truly a momentous occasion.

Anyways, Catholicism did not stick and I eventually went back to my normal ways of thinking. I have my older brothers to thank for that. They wasted no time in explaining to me logically how the religion doesn't quite work for certain minds.

Either way, what a gas!

-Dom

The Shadow Man Cometh

I'll be the first one to admit that I'm a scaredy-cat. It's never taken much to startle me. Walk around the corner at the right moment and you'll most likely jolt me. I've always been afraid of things. Even to this day, I battle with a moderate fear of the dark. This all started about 2 months ago that one night when I was on mushrooms, I walked out the front door and saw a figure on the sidewalk. All black. It didn't even look like this "person" was wearing clothes necessarily. It looked like the cut out of a human, but with no dimensions. He was all black. Like a walking abyss of nothingness. Basically, this figure acted like he noticed me standing there. It's head turned at me abruptly and then quickly started shuffling its feet and began running toward me. To say the least, I freaked the fuck out and slammed the door shut. Breathing heavy and being scared as shit, I panicked and tried locking the door as quickly as possible. I was actually in such a state of fear, that I really couldn't get the lock to turn over. I stood there, with my hands on the door, holding it shut, breathing hard, my heart pumping rapidly, just hoping this being/figure/man/meth head, whatever it was, didn't try and get in the house. After about 15 seconds, I realized no one was there. I opened the door and saw no one. Not even someone walking down the street. Hands down, one of the scariest things I've ever experienced. The whole situation reminded me of a nightmare. In my dreams, I've always escaped scary situations by curling up in to a ball, which to this day, still wakes me up. A defense mechanism I suppose. But this wasn't a dream. This was reality. This was something occurring in front of my waking eyes.

By the by, I refer to this being as The Shadow Man. It makes the most sense to me. "Shadow Man" also conjures memories of Mega Man. Who fought a master robot with the same name. It just so happens that this character appears in Mega Man 3. Which also was my favorite of the Mega Man series. If that wasn't enough, before I began writing this article, I looked up Shadow Man's level on MM3, on youtube. The video for it is 3:30 minutes long.

So now,  let's talk about Monday, August 20th 2012. Around 6 am, I was dreaming. I was sleeping over at a friend's house, in his brother's room, since he was out and about at the time. Basically, the part of the dream I remembered is when I was standing on grass, looking at a street, with houses behind it. I assumed I was just in a front yard. In front of me, I see someone riding a bicycle. It's the Shadow Man! I shit you not. All black. No clothes. He turned to me, quickly, jumped off the bike and started sprinting toward me. He got so close that I saw him 2 inches away from my face. I was terrified and did what I do best, and curled up in to a ball. I jolted back in to reality. Breathing hard, sweating, thanking the Gods that I got to wake up.

The next day, I told the owner of the room about it. He said, non nonchalantly, "Oh, so you saw the shadow man, huh?" I was confused. I hadn't told him about my past experiences with this shadow being. He explains to me that his room has some weird shit going on in it.  He constantly has strange dreams and even sees shadow beings in his mirror sometimes. Pretty fucking bizarre if you ask me. Even though it was a terrifying dream, the possibility of a room with an invisible power like that intrigued me. I decided to sleep in the room again the next night so I could potentially call upon the shadow man in order to extinguish my fears and confront the demon, so to speak. The second night didn't attract the shadow man, but I did still dream. In fact, I became somewhat lucid in said dream.  Which in itself was rewarding seeing as how I've been attempting to harness the power of lucidity for about 2 decades. Very detailed and very auditory. I heard voices and sounds and I usually don't recall sounds in dreams.

So why is this happening? What is the potential cause of this flux of weird energy? It can't all be in my head, right? Others see shadow men too. Not just my friend.  After this dream, I simply googled, "Shadow Man". The wikipedia page being the first site. The way that people describe their encounters with these beings, is almost word for word how I felt. So no, this is not just in my head. This is not a coincidence.  My main theory is that this figure is either a manifestation of internal fear OR an inter dimensional being that preys on fear.  Whenever this Shadow Man turns and looks at me, it feels like I might be somewhere I'm not supposed to be and this being knows it. Running after me may simply be to chase me out of "his or her" world. I also think that maybe in whatever dimension this figure resides in, perhaps, I appear to him as a shadow man. It's all very intriguing. Only time will tell, but I feel like I haven't seen the last of the Shadow Man.

-Dom

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

I mentioned briefly in my February 7 post, a theoretical delay between human thought and material manipulation.  I've felt for the past week that this delay not only exists, but is getting exponentially shorter.
I don't even know if I can make it to December 21 before materializing a dinosaur in to existence. But I digress. Here's a few examples of my recent syncs.

Last night, I'm watching a clip of Andrew Garfield (The New Spider-Man) on 'Ellen'. In the background, I'm listening to Red Ice Radio's recent interview with J.J. & Desiree Hurtak. It was when Andrew said Ellen's name that no more than 2 seconds later, Desiree had mentioned Comet Elenin. I know, Elenin and Ellen are not the same words. But they're pretty damn close.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I'm listening to The Band's performance of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

While doing this, I'm reading Grant Morrison's bio on wikipedia. I'm skimming the words, when 1:08 in to the song approaches. It's at this point that the next words on the bio are these:

-Dom

Happy Solstice Ya'all

http://youtu.be/4tqoWwIDCCw