New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
When people learn that I write books about the paranormal, I usually receive one of three responses. Either they politely change the subject, they look at me as if I might be out of my mind (and then change the subject), or they want to know more. Among those in this latter category, they not only want to know more, but are often anxious to regale me with their own stories, most of which have to do with recently departed loved ones. I happily oblige them, of course, because I know their story is important to them and has had a profound effect upon their life. You see, when someone believes in things like ghosts, it is a sign that they have expanded their world view—often against ...
Image by Wolfgang Liemberger I remember one winter evening from my childhood in Austria more than any other. One December 5th, shortly before I was ten years old, I heard the doorbell to our apartment ring. As I followed my father down the dark hallway to the foyer, the clanking of a chain and some eerie grunts sounded from behind the door. Before my father opened it and a huge, dark figure with mighty horns filled up the whole door frame, I was gone. I don't know how I got from there to under the dining room table that quickly, but before the monster had even made one step into the apartment, I was hidden. I also don't know why I thought that under the dining room table was the ...
If you've read my book, Tattoo Magick, you know there is a lot of magick to be made. But I'll let you in on a little bonus magick: you can put thoughtforms in your tattoos. What's a thoughtform, and why do you care? Excellent questions, imaginary-reader-who's-a-convenient-plot-device! A thoughtform is what its constituent parts suggest: it's a thought, or thoughts, made form. It stands to reason that if we can work magick, we can change reality with our thoughts. And if we can change reality with our thoughts, is it really a leap to believe we can create reality? Or at least, create something? Don't believe me? Meet Philip. In Toronto in 1972, a group of people including a geneticist, ...
My earliest memory of a limpia (a ritual practice of energy clearing) is from when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I was going through susto, a moment in time when my soul was fragmented due to a traumatic experience, and I was having trouble sleeping, eating, and feeling the happiness that a kid at that age should feel. My mother took me to one of my aunts to rebalance my energy. Growing up in Mexico, I got to witness how, despite colonization, we still practice and keep some of our pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican rituals, including the upe of limpias with herbs, eggs, and copal. Although there are some protocols to follow when performing a limpia, and certain energetic spaces in the human ...
