Ramblings of a Charismatic Intellectual

2012-02-13T09:29:00.001-08:00

Dear Readers,I am sorry that I have not posted on this blog for some time now. I am in the middle of planning a powwow at the University Of Southern Mississippi. I am also working on an article which will probably cause a lot of controversy among my own people. In my article I talked about how I grew up as any middle class white person would but for some reason in reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin and other writings I started fighting for other races. The two main populations I work with are the Native Americans and those in the Hispanic community. I will be the first to say that is is not a “walk in the park” sort of spak. In my article I talk about how most of my friends are no onger with me because they were deported back to the border. As an academic I keep up with what is going on with the Mexican drug cartels and sometimes the feelings that come over me are a bit much at times. I am not as strong as I sued to be because a lot of my connections are not with me and they will always be in my heart. I have no idea who is illegal or leagle because I do not ask. What concerns me the most is this new cult worshiping St. Muerte. That is the Saint of Death for those of you who do not know and the Catholic Church denounced him because the drug cartels were using him and a lot of churches were being built in his name. There are some things that I will always keep silent but do know that not a day goes by that I do not think about those people. When I see the children at the Hispanic Mass I am reminded about what I do. When I look at the mirror at times I think about the fact that I am an alien in my own country. If you think about it these were the lands of the Native Americans. I wish all of you the best and you will be seeing more out of my blog as my articles are finalized. I wish all of you the best.Tyler

2011-11-01T00:29:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends,Today I was given a rosary by a friend of mine that he just received while he was training in Florida. On Friday he is leaving and following his orders of where he will be stationed in the Navy. This friend has been a friend longer than I can remember. We had the same classes together, we know a lot of the same people, and oddly enough we share a lot of the same interest. I sometimes wished I could have made the same sacrifice my friend made. My dad was in the National Guard and both my Uncle and Cousin were in the Navy. Not to mention my grandfather was in the Navy as well. Due to the fact I am legally blind I will never set foot on a ship. As I took the rosary in my hand I almost cried. You never know I might not see this friend again. Also he is making a sacrifice that no man can comprehend unless he or she has taken up arms. You know with all this fighting in politics I think our men and women have been forgotten. When former solders walk the streets I think there is something majorly wrong with our system. Some of us might not agree with the way but it is our duty to protect those who have sacrificed their lives.Even though this rosary is nothing but beads and plastic, it has been blessed, and meant for men in uniform to carry when they have lost all hope. Remember you might lose hope but our Blessed Mother and God will be right there for you. I think the patron saint of solders is St. Michael the Arch Angel. If you have ever seen a picture of St. Michael he is standing on a demons head and thrusting a sword into the demon because Heaven shall always prevail over evil.

Annabelle the Possessed Doll

2011-10-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

This is a terrifying case of a raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle. The case is from the 1970’s and is highlighted in the book The Demonologist. This is one of the Warrens most asked about cases. The referral came from an Episcopal priest. A somber toned clergyman told Ed Warren of two young nurses who had communicated with what they thought to be a human spirit. One of the girls’ friends had been attacked physically, and the activity was still in progress, so Ed accepted the case. With that the priest gave Ed the phone number of the girls. Ed immediately called the number and upon reaching one of the girls, Ed verified the existence of the problem and told the young women that he and Lorraine were on their way.Ed and Lorraine arrived at the apartment and the case begins. Ok girls, I’d like to hear the whole story, Who here can tell me? I can said Donna. All right, Lou, Angie, please add any details she leaves out, Ed directed. There are two stories, Donna said. One that began earlier in the week with Lou. The other one’s about Annabelle. But I suppose they’re both about Annabelle. Who’s Annabelle? Ed promptly asked. She belongs to Donna, she moves, she acts alive, but no, I don’t think she’s alive. She’s in the living room said Angie, pointing across the table. There, sitting on the sofa. Lorraine looked to her left, into the living room. Are you talking about the doll? That’s right, Angie replied, the big raggedy Ann doll. That’s Annabelle, she moves! Ed got up and walked into the living room to inspect the doll. It was big and heavy, the size of a four-year-old child, sitting with its legs stretched out on the sofa. The black pupil-less eyes stared back at him, while the painted-on smile gave the doll an expression of grim irony.Looking it over without touching the thing, Ed then returned to the kitchen. Where did the doll come from? Ed asked Donna. It was a gift Donna replied, My mother gave it to me on my last birthday. Is there some reason why she bought you a doll? Ed wanted to know. No. It was just something novel-a decoration the young nurse answered. Okay. Ed went on. When did you first start noticing activity occur? About a year ago, replied Donna. The doll started to move around the apartment by itself. I don’t mean it got up and walked around, or any such thing. I mean when we’d come home from work it would never be quite where we left it. Explain that part to me a little more Ed requested. After I got the doll for my birthday, Donna explained, I put it on my bed each morning after the bed was made. The arms would be off to its sides and its legs would be straight out-just like it’s sitting there now. But when we’d come home at night, the arms and legs would be positioned in different gestures. For instance, its legs would be crossed at the ankles, or its arms would be folded in its lap. After a week or so, this made us suspicious. So to test it, I purposely crossed its arms and legs in the morning to see if it really was moving. And sure enough, every night when we’d come back home, the arms and legs would be uncrossed and the thing would be sitting there in any of a dozen different postures. Yeah, but it did more than that, Angie added. The doll also changed rooms by itself. We came home one night and the Annabelle doll was sitting in a chair by the front door. It was kneeling! The funny thing about it was, when we tried to make the doll kneel, it’d just fall over. It couldn’t kneel. Other times we’d find it sitting on the sofa, although when we left the apartment in the morning it’d be in Donna’s room with the door closed! Anything else? Lorraine asked. Yes, said Donna. It would leave us little notes and messages. The handwriting looked to be that of a small child. What’d the note say? questioned Ed. It would say things that meant nothing to us, Donna answered. Things would be written like HELP US or HELP LOU, but Lou wasn’t in any kind of jeopardy at the time. And who us was-we didn’t know. Still, the thing that was weird was that the notes would be written in pencil, but when we tried to find one, there was not one pencil in the apartment! And the paper it wrote on was parchment. I tore the apartment apart, looking for parchment paper, but again neither of us had any such thing.” It sounds like someone had a key to your apartment and was playing a sick joke on you, Ed stated flatly. That’s exactly what we thought, said Donna. So we did little things like put marks on the windows and doors or arrange the rugs so that anyone who came in here would leave a trace that we could see. But never once did it turn out that there was a real outside intruder.While the doll was moving around, and we’d become suspicious of burglars, when something else screwy happened. Angie added next. The Annabelle doll was sitting on Donna’s bed, as was usual. When we came home one night, there was blood on the back of its hand, and there were three drops of blood on its chest! God, that really scared us, Donna said frankly. Did you notice any other kind of phenomena occur in the apartment? Ed asked them. One time around Christmas, we found a little chocolate boot on the stereo that none of us had bought. Presumably it came from Annabelle, said Angie. When did you come to determine there was a spirit associated with the doll? Lorraine questioned. We knew something unusual was going on, Donna answered. The doll did change rooms by itself. It did pose in different gestures, we all saw it, but wanted to know why? Was there maybe some plausible reason why the doll was moving? So Angie and I got in touch with a woman who’s a medium. That was about a month, or maybe six weeks after all this stuff started to happen. We learned that a little girl died on this property, Donna told the Warrens. She was seven years old and her name was Annabelle Higgins. The Annabelle spirit said she played in the fields long ago before these apartments were built. They were happy times for her, she told us. Because everyone around here was grown-up, and only concerned with their jobs, there was no one she could relate to, except us. Annabelle felt that we would be able to understand her. That’s why she began moving the rag doll. All Annabelle wanted was to be loved, and so she asked if she could stay with us and move into the doll. What could we do? So we said yes. Wait a minute here, Ed interjected. What do you mean it wanted to move into the doll? Do you mean it proposed to possess it? Right, that was the understanding, Donna replied. I t seemed harmless enough. We’re nurses, you know, we see suffering every day. We had compassion. Anyway, we called the doll Annabelle from that time on. Did you do anything different with the doll after you learned it was supposedly possessed by a little girl spirit named Annabelle? asked Lorraine. Not really, said Donna. But of course it wasn’t just a doll any more. It was Annabelle. We couldn’t ignore that fact.All right, before you go any further, let’s back up a minute, Ed requested. First you got the doll for you birthday. After a while the doll began to move – or at least change places enough for you to notice it. T his made you curious, so you decided to have a séance, and a spirit came across that called itself Annabelle Higgins. This supposed little girl was seven years old and asked if it could come live with you by possessing the toy doll. You said yes, out of compassion. Then you renamed the doll Annabelle. Right? Right, said Donna and Angie. Have you seen the ghost of a little girl at any time in this apartment? Ed asked. No, both the girls answered. You also said a chocolate item showed up here once, said Ed. Has anything else strange ever happened that you couldn’t explain? One time a statue lifted up across the room, Donna recalled, then it tumbled in the air and fell on the floor. None of us were near the statue-it was on the other side of the room. That incident frightened us totally. Let me ask you something else. Ed went on. Didn’t you think that maybe you shouldn’t have given the doll so much recognition? It wasn’t a doll! Donna corrected him. It was the spirit of Annabelle we cared about! That’s right, said Angie. Ed added I mean, before you knew anything about Annabelle? How were we to know anything? Donna asked. But looking back on it now, maybe we shouldn’t have given the doll so much credence. But really, we saw the thing as being no more than a harmless mascot. I t never hurt anything . . . at least until the other day. Do you still think what’s moving the doll is the spirit of a little girl? Lorraine queried. What else could it be? Angie said in reply. It’s a damn voodoo doll, that’s what it is, Lou blurted out. I told them about that thing a long time ago. The doll was just taking advantage of them.Okay, Lou, I think it’s time you told your side of things, tell them about the dreams, coaxed Angie. Well, Lou picked up, the thing gives me bad dreams. Recurrent ones. But yet what I’m going to tell you is not a dream as far as I’m concerned, because I somehow saw this happen to me. The last time it happened I fell asleep at home, a really deep sleep. While I was lying there, I saw myself wake up. Something seemed wrong to me. I looked around the room, but nothing was out of place. But then when I looked down toward my feet, I saw the rag doll, Annabelle. It was slowly gliding up my body. It moved over my chest and stopped. Than it put its arms out. One arm touched one side of my neck, the other touched the other side like it was making an electrical connection. Then I saw myself being strangled. I might as well have been pushing on a wall, because it wouldn’t move. It was literally strangling me to death, I couldn’t help myself, no matter how hard I tried. Yes, but the priest I spoke with said you’d been attacked? Ed pressed him. No, Lou asserted, that happened here in this apartment when Angie and I were alone together. It was about ten or eleven o’clock at night, and we were reading over maps because I was going off on a trip the next day. Everything was quiet at the time. Suddenly, we both heard sounds in Donna’s room that made us think that someone had broken into the apartment. I quietly got up and tip-toed to the bedroom door, which was closed. I waited until the noises stopped, then I carefully opened the door and reached in and switched on the light. Nobody was in there! Except, the Annabelle doll was tossed on the floor in a corner. I went in alone and walked over to the thing to see if anything unusual had happened. But as I got close to the doll, I got the distinct impression that somebody was behind me. I swung around instantly and, well . . . He won’t talk about that part, Angie said. When Lou turned around there wasn’t anybody there, but he suddenly yelled and grabbed for his chest. He was doubled over, cut and bleeding when I got to him. Blood was all over his shirt. Lou was shaking and scared and we went back out into the living room. We then opened his shirt and there on his chest was what looked to be sort a of claw mark!Can I see the mark? Ed asked. It’s gone now, the young man told him. I saw the cuts on his chest, too, Donna spoke up in support. How many were there? Ed asked. Seven, said Angie. Three were vertical, four were horizontal. Did the cuts have any sensation? Ed queried. All the cuts were hot, like they were burns, Lou told him. Did you ever have cuts or wounds in the same area of your chest before this incident happened? questioned Ed. No, the young man replied. Did you lose consciousness before or after the attack took place? No, again he replied. How long did it take the wounds to heal? Lorraine questioned. They healed up almost immediately, said Lou. They were half-gone the next day, and fully gone the day after. Has anything else happened since that time? asked Ed. No, came the joint reply. Who did you first contact after the incident occurred? I contacted an Episcopal priest named Father Hegan Donna told Ed and Lorraine. Why did you call him instead of a doctor? Lorraine asked. Do you think someone off the street would have believed where that claw mark on Lou’s chest came from? Donna asked rhetorically. Besides, we agreed the cuts weren’t half as important as how Lou got them.We wanted to know if this was going to happen again. Our problem was who to ask. Was there some reason why you specifically called on Father Hegan? Lorraine questioned. Yes. We trust him, said Donna. He teaches nearby here, at a junior college, plus Angie and I both know him. What did you tell the priest? asked Ed. The whole story-about Annabelle and how it moved on its own, and especially about Lou’s cuts, Donna replied. At first we were afraid he might not believe us, but that was no problem, he believed us all right. He said he’d never heard of such a thing happening these days. At the time we were all scared out of our wits, and I asked him what he thought had happened to us. He said he didn’t want to speculate, but he did feel it was a spiritual matter, possibly an important one, and that he was going to contact someone higher up in the Church, a Father Cooke. That’s what he did, Ed told her. Did the name Annabelle, or Annabelle Higgins mean anything to you in real life before this incident occurred? No, they replied. Although we never saw anything in here, Lou said he felt a presence in the room before he got hurt . . . there is something in here, Angie stated firmly. In fact, I can’t stand to be here. We have decided to get a new apartment. We’re moving out! I’m afraid that’s not going to help very much, Ed said dryly. What do you mean? Donna asked, astonished. To put it in a nutshell, you inadvertently brought a spirit into this apartment-and into your lives. You’re not going to be able to walk away from it that easily.After a long minute, Ed spoke again. We’re going to help you, beginning right now. Today. First thing I’d like to do is call Father Cooke and have him come over here. Ed had no trouble getting hold of the Episcopal priest who had been waiting for his call. All right, Ed said when Father Cooke comes here, he’s going to have to perform a sort of blessing, an . . . exorcism of the premises. I knew it! Lou proclaimed. I knew it would lead to this. Yes, I think you did, Ed told him but I’m not sure any of you know the reason why. To begin with, there is no Annabelle! There never was. You were duped. However, we are dealing with a spirit here. The teleportation of the doll while you were out of the apartment, the appearance of notes written on parchment, the manifestation of three symbolic drops of blood, plus the gestures the doll made are all meaningful. They tell me there was intent, which means there was an intelligence behind the activity. But ghosts, human spirits, plain and simply can’t bring on phenomena of this nature and intensity. They don’t have the power. Instead, what has happened is something inhuman has taken over here. Demonic. Ed told them. Ordinarily people aren’t bothered by inhuman demonic spirits, unless they do something to bring the force into their lives. Your first mistake was to give the doll recognition, that is the reason why the spirit moved into the doll to, draw attention to itself. Once it had your attention, it exploited you, it simply brought you fear and even injury. Inhuman spirits, enjoy inflicting pain, it’s negative. Your next mistake was calling in a medium, Ed went on. The demonic has to somehow get your permission to interfere in your life. Unfortunately, through your own free will, you gave it that permission.Then the doll is possessed? questioned Donna. No, the doll is not possessed. Spirits don’t possess things, spirits possess people, Ed informed her. Instead, the spirits simply moved the doll around and gave it the illusion of being alive. Now, what happened to Lou earlier this week Ed proceeded, was bound to occur sooner or later. In fact, you all were in jeopardy of coming under possession by this spirit, this is what the thing was really after. But Lou didn’t believe in the charade, so he was an ongoing threat to the entity. There was bound to be a showdown. Had the spirit been given another week or two, you might have been killed. Ed calmly concluded. There is only one entity involved, but its behavior is completely unpredictable, said Lorraine.When Father Cooke arrived, the interview session ended in the kitchen, Ed was eager to have the house blessed, remove the doll, and return home. Once the preliminary greetings were out of the way, Ed told the priest, that in his judgment, the spirit responsible for the malicious activity was inhuman, and still in the apartment, and the only way it could be made to leave was through the power of the words written in the exorcism-blessing. I’m not totally familiar with demonology, admitted Father Cooke. How do you know such a spirit is behind the disturbance? Well, in this case, it wasn’t all that difficult to determine. Ed said frankly. These spirits work in characteristic ways. What’s going on here is essentially the infestation stage of the phenomenon. A spirit, in this case an inhuman demonic spirit, began moving the doll around the apartment through teleportation and other means. Once it aroused the girls’ curiosity which was the spirit’s purpose in moving the doll-they made the predictable mistake of bringing a medium in here, who took matters a step further. She told them, in the trance state, that a little girl spirit named Annabelle was moving the doll. Communicating through the medium, the entity preyed on the girls’ emotional vulnerabilities, and during the séance managed to extract permission from them to go about its business. Insofar as demonic is a negative spirit, it then set about causing patently negative phenomena to occur; it aroused fear through the weird movements of that doll, it brought about the materialization of disturbing handwritten notes, it left a residue of blood on the doll, and ultimately it even struck the young man, Lou, on the chest leaving a bloody claw mark. Beyond the activity, Lorraine has also discerned that this inhuman spirit is with us now. Lorraine’s an excellent clairvoyant, and she’s never been wrong about the nature of a spirit that’s present. However, if you want to go a step further, we can challenge the entity right now with religious provocation?In this case, the recitation of the exorcism-blessing took the priest about five minutes to perform. The Episcopal blessing of the home is a wordy, seven page document that is distinctly positive in nature. Rather than specifically expelling evil entities from the dwelling, the emphasis is instead directed toward filling the home with the power of the positive and of God. There was no trouble or mishap during the procedure. When he was finished, the priest the blessed the individuals who were present, and after doing so, declared all was well. Lorraine also confirmed that the apartment and people were free from the spirit entity. Ed and Lorraine’s work was done, they then took their leave and started for home. At Donna’s request, and as a further precaution against the phenomena ever occurring in the home again, the Warrens took the big rag doll along with them. Placing Annabelle in the back seat of the car, Ed decided it was safer to avoid traveling on the interstate, in case the entity had not been separated from the rag doll. His hunch was correct. In no time at all, Ed and Lorraine felt themselves the object of vicious hatred. Then, at each dangerous curve in the road, their new car began to stall, causing the power steering and breaks to fail. Repeatedly the car verged on collision. Of course, it would have been easy to stop and throw the doll into the woods. But if the item didn’t simply teleport back to the girls’ apartment, at the least it would place anyone who found it in jeopardy.The third time the car stalled along the road, Ed reached into his black bag, took out a vial, and threw a sprinkling of holy water on the rag doll, making the sign of the cross over it. The disturbance in the car stopped immediately, allowing the Warrens to reach home safely.For the next few days, Ed sat the doll in a chair next to his desk. The doll levitated a number of times in the beginning, then it seemed to fall inert. During the ensuing weeks, however, it began showing up in various rooms of the house. When the Warrens were away and had the doll locked up in the outer office building, they would often return to find it sitting comfortably upstairs in Ed’s easy chair when they opened the main front door.It also turned out that Annabelle came with a friend, a black cat, who would occasionally materialize beside the doll. The cat would stalk once around the floor, taking particular notice of books and other objects in Ed’s office; then return to the doll’s side, and dematerialize from the head down. It also became apparent that Annabelle hated clergymen. During the follow-up process of the case, it was necessary for the Warrens to consult the Episcopal priests associated with the incident in the young nurses’ apartment. Returning home alone one evening, Lorraine was terrified by loud, rolling growls that reverberated throughout the house. Later, when she was listening to the playback of the telephone answering machine, they were back to back calls from Father Hagen. Between his two calls was heard the incredible growling noises she’d heard earlier in the house. One day Father Jason Branford, Catholic exorcist, had been working with Ed and asked about the new addition to the office-Annabelle. Ed told Father Jason about the case and gave him the paperwork for his review. After hearing Ed’s account of want had happened, the priest picked up the rag doll and said You’re just a rag doll, Annabelle. You can’t hurt anything. T he priest then tossed the stuffed figure back on the chair. That’s one thing you better not say again, Ed warned him with a laugh. Yet when Father Jason stopped to say goodbye to Lorraine an hour later, she pleaded that he be especially careful driving, and insisted that he call her just as soon as he arrived at the rectory. I discerned tragedy for that young priest, says Lorraine, but he had to go his way. A few hours later the telephone rang. Lorraine said Father Jason, why did you tell me to be careful driving? Because, she told him, I felt your car would go out of control, you would have an accident. Well, you were right, he stated flatly. The brake system failed. I was almost killed in a traffic accident. My car is a wreck.Later in the year, at a large social gathering at the Warrens’ home, Lorraine and Father Jason went into the den to chat for a few moments. By a strange coincidence, Annabelle had moved into that room the day before. While speaking with Lorraine, the priest saw an ornamental wall decoration make a quick movement. Suddenly, the twenty-four inch long Boar’s tooth necklace above them exploded with percussive force. Hearing this stunning noise, the other guests immediately converged on the room, at which time someone in the crowd had the foresight to snap a photograph. When developed, the print appeared normal, except above the doll were two beacons of bright light, both pointing in the direction of Father Jason Bradford.On another occasion, Ed recounts, I was in my office, working with a police detective on a case that concerned a witchcraft related murder in the area. As a cop he’s seen every kind of crime, he’s definitely not the sort of man who gets scared. While we were talking, Lorraine called me upstairs to take a long distance call. I told the detective he was free to look around my office, but to be careful and not touch any of the objects, because they’d come from cases where the demonic had been invoked. Well, I wasn’t away for five minutes when upstairs came this detective stark white. When I asked him what had happened, he refused to tell me, Ed remembers, breaking into a grin. He just kept mumbling ‘The doll, the rag doll is real….’ He was talking about Annabelle of course. T hat little doll made a believer out of him! In fact, as I think back on it, any meetings I’ve had with the detective from that day on have always been in his office.Profane objects like the Annabelle doll have their own aura. When you touch them, your human aura mingles with theirs. This change attracts spirits, it’s almost like setting off a fire alarm. Therefore, for protection, I bless myself with holy water then ‘bless’ the rag doll with holy water in the sign of the cross. Like I say when we’re doing field work I’ve never met an atheist in a haunted house.It’s difficult for people to accept the existence of something they’ve been conditioned not to believe in. Still, lack of knowledge allowed this negative spirit to wrangle it way into the lives of these three unwary young people. Many, nevertheless, contend that the notion of spirits is irrational or unfounded. They say the phenomenon is an illusion, or a hallucination, or it doesn’t exist at all. At best, the activity can be explained away by science. Or can it?This is a terrifying case of a raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle. The case is from the 1970’s and is highlighted in the book The Demonologist. This is one of the Warrens most asked about cases. The referral came from an Episcopal priest. A somber toned clergyman told Ed Warren of two young nurses who had communicated with what they thought to be a human spirit. One of the girls’ friends had been attacked physically, and the activity was still in progress, so Ed accepted the case. With that the priest gave Ed the phone number of the girls. Ed immediately called the number and upon reaching one of the girls, Ed verified the existence of the problem and told the young women that he and Lorraine were on their way.Ed and Lorraine arrived at the apartment and the case begins. Ok girls, I’d like to hear the whole story, Who here can tell me? I can said Donna. All right, Lou, Angie, please add any details she leaves out, Ed directed. There are two stories, Donna said. One that began earlier in the week with Lou. The other one’s about Annabelle. But I suppose they’re both about Annabelle. Who’s Annabelle? Ed promptly asked. She belongs to Donna, she moves, she acts alive, but no, I don’t think she’s alive. She’s in the living room said Angie, pointing across the table. There, sitting on the sofa. Lorraine looked to her left, into the living room. Are you talking about the doll? That’s right, Angie replied, the big raggedy Ann doll. That’s Annabelle, she moves! Ed got up and walked into the living room to inspect the doll. It was big and heavy, the size of a four-year-old child, sitting with its legs stretched out on the sofa. The black pupil-less eyes stared back at him, while the painted-on smile gave the doll an expression of grim irony.Looking it over without touching the thing, Ed then returned to the kitchen. Where did the doll come from? Ed asked Donna. It was a gift Donna replied, My mother gave it to me on my last birthday. Is there some reason why she bought you a doll? Ed wanted to know. No. It was just something novel-a decoration the young nurse answered. Okay. Ed went on. When did you first start noticing activity occur? About a year ago, replied Donna. The doll started to move around the apartment by itself. I don’t mean it got up and walked around, or any such thing. I mean when we’d come home from work it would never be quite where we left it. Explain that part to me a little more Ed requested. After I got the doll for my birthday, Donna explained, I put it on my bed each morning after the bed was made. The arms would be off to its sides and its legs would be straight out-just like it’s sitting there now. But when we’d come home at night, the arms and legs would be positioned in different gestures. For instance, its legs would be crossed at the ankles, or its arms would be folded in its lap. After a week or so, this made us suspicious. So to test it, I purposely crossed its arms and legs in the morning to see if it really was moving. And sure enough, every night when we’d come back home, the arms and legs would be uncrossed and the thing would be sitting there in any of a dozen different postures. Yeah, but it did more than that, Angie added. The doll also changed rooms by itself. We came home one night and the Annabelle doll was sitting in a chair by the front door. It was kneeling! The funny thing about it was, when we tried to make the doll kneel, it’d just fall over. It couldn’t kneel. Other times we’d find it sitting on the sofa, although when we left the apartment in the morning it’d be in Donna’s room with the door closed! Anything else? Lorraine asked. Yes, said Donna. It would leave us little notes and messages. The handwriting looked to be that of a small child. What’d the note say? questioned Ed. It would say things that meant nothing to us, Donna answered. Things would be written like HELP US or HELP LOU, but Lou wasn’t in any kind of jeopardy at the time. And who us was-we didn’t know. Still, the thing that was weird was that the notes would be written in pencil, but when we tried to find one, there was not one pencil in the apartment! And the paper it wrote on was parchment. I tore the apartment apart, looking for parchment paper, but again neither of us had any such thing.” It sounds like someone had a key to your apartment and was playing a sick joke on you, Ed stated flatly. That’s exactly what we thought, said Donna. So we did little things like put marks on the windows and doors or arrange the rugs so that anyone who came in here would leave a trace that we could see. But never once did it turn out that there was a real outside intruder.While the doll was moving around, and we’d become suspicious of burglars, when something else screwy happened. Angie added next. The Annabelle doll was sitting on Donna’s bed, as was usual. When we came home one night, there was blood on the back of its hand, and there were three drops of blood on its chest! God, that really scared us, Donna said frankly. Did you notice any other kind of phenomena occur in the apartment? Ed asked them. One time around Christmas, we found a little chocolate boot on the stereo that none of us had bought. Presumably it came from Annabelle, said Angie. When did you come to determine there was a spirit associated with the doll? Lorraine questioned. We knew something unusual was going on, Donna answered. The doll did change rooms by itself. It did pose in different gestures, we all saw it, but wanted to know why? Was there maybe some plausible reason why the doll was moving? So Angie and I got in touch with a woman who’s a medium. That was about a month, or maybe six weeks after all this stuff started to happen. We learned that a little girl died on this property, Donna told the Warrens. She was seven years old and her name was Annabelle Higgins. The Annabelle spirit said she played in the fields long ago before these apartments were built. They were happy times for her, she told us. Because everyone around here was grown-up, and only concerned with their jobs, there was no one she could relate to, except us. Annabelle felt that we would be able to understand her. That’s why she began moving the rag doll. All Annabelle wanted was to be loved, and so she asked if she could stay with us and move into the doll. What could we do? So we said yes. Wait a minute here, Ed interjected. What do you mean it wanted to move into the doll? Do you mean it proposed to possess it? Right, that was the understanding, Donna replied. I t seemed harmless enough. We’re nurses, you know, we see suffering every day. We had compassion. Anyway, we called the doll Annabelle from that time on. Did you do anything different with the doll after you learned it was supposedly possessed by a little girl spirit named Annabelle? asked Lorraine. Not really, said Donna. But of course it wasn’t just a doll any more. It was Annabelle. We couldn’t ignore that fact.All right, before you go any further, let’s back up a minute, Ed requested. First you got the doll for you birthday. After a while the doll began to move – or at least change places enough for you to notice it. T his made you curious, so you decided to have a séance, and a spirit came across that called itself Annabelle Higgins. This supposed little girl was seven years old and asked if it could come live with you by possessing the toy doll. You said yes, out of compassion. Then you renamed the doll Annabelle. Right? Right, said Donna and Angie. Have you seen the ghost of a little girl at any time in this apartment? Ed asked. No, both the girls answered. You also said a chocolate item showed up here once, said Ed. Has anything else strange ever happened that you couldn’t explain? One time a statue lifted up across the room, Donna recalled, then it tumbled in the air and fell on the floor. None of us were near the statue-it was on the other side of the room. That incident frightened us totally. Let me ask you something else. Ed went on. Didn’t you think that maybe you shouldn’t have given the doll so much recognition? It wasn’t a doll! Donna corrected him. It was the spirit of Annabelle we cared about! That’s right, said Angie. Ed added I mean, before you knew anything about Annabelle? How were we to know anything? Donna asked. But looking back on it now, maybe we shouldn’t have given the doll so much credence. But really, we saw the thing as being no more than a harmless mascot. I t never hurt anything . . . at least until the other day. Do you still think what’s moving the doll is the spirit of a little girl? Lorraine queried. What else could it be? Angie said in reply. It’s a damn voodoo doll, that’s what it is, Lou blurted out. I told them about that thing a long time ago. The doll was just taking advantage of them.Okay, Lou, I think it’s time you told your side of things, tell them about the dreams, coaxed Angie. Well, Lou picked up, the thing gives me bad dreams. Recurrent ones. But yet what I’m going to tell you is not a dream as far as I’m concerned, because I somehow saw this happen to me. The last time it happened I fell asleep at home, a really deep sleep. While I was lying there, I saw myself wake up. Something seemed wrong to me. I looked around the room, but nothing was out of place. But then when I looked down toward my feet, I saw the rag doll, Annabelle. It was slowly gliding up my body. It moved over my chest and stopped. Than it put its arms out. One arm touched one side of my neck, the other touched the other side like it was making an electrical connection. Then I saw myself being strangled. I might as well have been pushing on a wall, because it wouldn’t move. It was literally strangling me to death, I couldn’t help myself, no matter how hard I tried. Yes, but the priest I spoke with said you’d been attacked? Ed pressed him. No, Lou asserted, that happened here in this apartment when Angie and I were alone together. It was about ten or eleven o’clock at night, and we were reading over maps because I was going off on a trip the next day. Everything was quiet at the time. Suddenly, we both heard sounds in Donna’s room that made us think that someone had broken into the apartment. I quietly got up and tip-toed to the bedroom door, which was closed. I waited until the noises stopped, then I carefully opened the door and reached in and switched on the light. Nobody was in there! Except, the Annabelle doll was tossed on the floor in a corner. I went in alone and walked over to the thing to see if anything unusual had happened. But as I got close to the doll, I got the distinct impression that somebody was behind me. I swung around instantly and, well . . . He won’t talk about that part, Angie said. When Lou turned around there wasn’t anybody there, but he suddenly yelled and grabbed for his chest. He was doubled over, cut and bleeding when I got to him. Blood was all over his shirt. Lou was shaking and scared and we went back out into the living room. We then opened his shirt and there on his chest was what looked to be sort a of claw mark!Can I see the mark? Ed asked. It’s gone now, the young man told him. I saw the cuts on his chest, too, Donna spoke up in support. How many were there? Ed asked. Seven, said Angie. Three were vertical, four were horizontal. Did the cuts have any sensation? Ed queried. All the cuts were hot, like they were burns, Lou told him. Did you ever have cuts or wounds in the same area of your chest before this incident happened? questioned Ed. No, the young man replied. Did you lose consciousness before or after the attack took place? No, again he replied. How long did it take the wounds to heal? Lorraine questioned. They healed up almost immediately, said Lou. They were half-gone the next day, and fully gone the day after. Has anything else happened since that time? asked Ed. No, came the joint reply. Who did you first contact after the incident occurred? I contacted an Episcopal priest named Father Hegan Donna told Ed and Lorraine. Why did you call him instead of a doctor? Lorraine asked. Do you think someone off the street would have believed where that claw mark on Lou’s chest came from? Donna asked rhetorically. Besides, we agreed the cuts weren’t half as important as how Lou got them.We wanted to know if this was going to happen again. Our problem was who to ask. Was there some reason why you specifically called on Father Hegan? Lorraine questioned. Yes. We trust him, said Donna. He teaches nearby here, at a junior college, plus Angie and I both know him. What did you tell the priest? asked Ed. The whole story-about Annabelle and how it moved on its own, and especially about Lou’s cuts, Donna replied. At first we were afraid he might not believe us, but that was no problem, he believed us all right. He said he’d never heard of such a thing happening these days. At the time we were all scared out of our wits, and I asked him what he thought had happened to us. He said he didn’t want to speculate, but he did feel it was a spiritual matter, possibly an important one, and that he was going to contact someone higher up in the Church, a Father Cooke. That’s what he did, Ed told her. Did the name Annabelle, or Annabelle Higgins mean anything to you in real life before this incident occurred? No, they replied. Although we never saw anything in here, Lou said he felt a presence in the room before he got hurt . . . there is something in here, Angie stated firmly. In fact, I can’t stand to be here. We have decided to get a new apartment. We’re moving out! I’m afraid that’s not going to help very much, Ed said dryly. What do you mean? Donna asked, astonished. To put it in a nutshell, you inadvertently brought a spirit into this apartment-and into your lives. You’re not going to be able to walk away from it that easily.After a long minute, Ed spoke again. We’re going to help you, beginning right now. Today. First thing I’d like to do is call Father Cooke and have him come over here. Ed had no trouble getting hold of the Episcopal priest who had been waiting for his call. All right, Ed said when Father Cooke comes here, he’s going to have to perform a sort of blessing, an . . . exorcism of the premises. I knew it! Lou proclaimed. I knew it would lead to this. Yes, I think you did, Ed told him but I’m not sure any of you know the reason why. To begin with, there is no Annabelle! There never was. You were duped. However, we are dealing with a spirit here. The teleportation of the doll while you were out of the apartment, the appearance of notes written on parchment, the manifestation of three symbolic drops of blood, plus the gestures the doll made are all meaningful. They tell me there was intent, which means there was an intelligence behind the activity. But ghosts, human spirits, plain and simply can’t bring on phenomena of this nature and intensity. They don’t have the power. Instead, what has happened is something inhuman has taken over here. Demonic. Ed told them. Ordinarily people aren’t bothered by inhuman demonic spirits, unless they do something to bring the force into their lives. Your first mistake was to give the doll recognition, that is the reason why the spirit moved into the doll to, draw attention to itself. Once it had your attention, it exploited you, it simply brought you fear and even injury. Inhuman spirits, enjoy inflicting pain, it’s negative. Your next mistake was calling in a medium, Ed went on. The demonic has to somehow get your permission to interfere in your life. Unfortunately, through your own free will, you gave it that permission.Then the doll is possessed? questioned Donna. No, the doll is not possessed. Spirits don’t possess things, spirits possess people, Ed informed her. Instead, the spirits simply moved the doll around and gave it the illusion of being alive. Now, what happened to Lou earlier this week Ed proceeded, was bound to occur sooner or later. In fact, you all were in jeopardy of coming under possession by this spirit, this is what the thing was really after. But Lou didn’t believe in the charade, so he was an ongoing threat to the entity. There was bound to be a showdown. Had the spirit been given another week or two, you might have been killed. Ed calmly concluded. There is only one entity involved, but its behavior is completely unpredictable, said Lorraine.When Father Cooke arrived, the interview session ended in the kitchen, Ed was eager to have the house blessed, remove the doll, and return home. Once the preliminary greetings were out of the way, Ed told the priest, that in his judgment, the spirit responsible for the malicious activity was inhuman, and still in the apartment, and the only way it could be made to leave was through the power of the words written in the exorcism-blessing. I’m not totally familiar with demonology, admitted Father Cooke. How do you know such a spirit is behind the disturbance? Well, in this case, it wasn’t all that difficult to determine. Ed said frankly. These spirits work in characteristic ways. What’s going on here is essentially the infestation stage of the phenomenon. A spirit, in this case an inhuman demonic spirit, began moving the doll around the apartment through teleportation and other means. Once it aroused the girls’ curiosity which was the spirit’s purpose in moving the doll-they made the predictable mistake of bringing a medium in here, who took matters a step further. She told them, in the trance state, that a little girl spirit named Annabelle was moving the doll. Communicating through the medium, the entity preyed on the girls’ emotional vulnerabilities, and during the séance managed to extract permission from them to go about its business. Insofar as demonic is a negative spirit, it then set about causing patently negative phenomena to occur; it aroused fear through the weird movements of that doll, it brought about the materialization of disturbing handwritten notes, it left a residue of blood on the doll, and ultimately it even struck the young man, Lou, on the chest leaving a bloody claw mark. Beyond the activity, Lorraine has also discerned that this inhuman spirit is with us now. Lorraine’s an excellent clairvoyant, and she’s never been wrong about the nature of a spirit that’s present. However, if you want to go a step further, we can challenge the entity right now with religious provocation?In this case, the recitation of the exorcism-blessing took the priest about five minutes to perform. The Episcopal blessing of the home is a wordy, seven page document that is distinctly positive in nature. Rather than specifically expelling evil entities from the dwelling, the emphasis is instead directed toward filling the home with the power of the positive and of God. There was no trouble or mishap during the procedure. When he was finished, the priest the blessed the individuals who were present, and after doing so, declared all was well. Lorraine also confirmed that the apartment and people were free from the spirit entity. Ed and Lorraine’s work was done, they then took their leave and started for home. At Donna’s request, and as a further precaution against the phenomena ever occurring in the home again, the Warrens took the big rag doll along with them. Placing Annabelle in the back seat of the car, Ed decided it was safer to avoid traveling on the interstate, in case the entity had not been separated from the rag doll. His hunch was correct. In no time at all, Ed and Lorraine felt themselves the object of vicious hatred. Then, at each dangerous curve in the road, their new car began to stall, causing the power steering and breaks to fail. Repeatedly the car verged on collision. Of course, it would have been easy to stop and throw the doll into the woods. But if the item didn’t simply teleport back to the girls’ apartment, at the least it would place anyone who found it in jeopardy.The third time the car stalled along the road, Ed reached into his black bag, took out a vial, and threw a sprinkling of holy water on the rag doll, making the sign of the cross over it. The disturbance in the car stopped immediately, allowing the Warrens to reach home safely.For the next few days, Ed sat the doll in a chair next to his desk. The doll levitated a number of times in the beginning, then it seemed to fall inert. During the ensuing weeks, however, it began showing up in various rooms of the house. When the Warrens were away and had the doll locked up in the outer office building, they would often return to find it sitting comfortably upstairs in Ed’s easy chair when they opened the main front door.It also turned out that Annabelle came with a friend, a black cat, who would occasionally materialize beside the doll. The cat would stalk once around the floor, taking particular notice of books and other objects in Ed’s office; then return to the doll’s side, and dematerialize from the head down. It also became apparent that Annabelle hated clergymen. During the follow-up process of the case, it was necessary for the Warrens to consult the Episcopal priests associated with the incident in the young nurses’ apartment. Returning home alone one evening, Lorraine was terrified by loud, rolling growls that reverberated throughout the house. Later, when she was listening to the playback of the telephone answering machine, they were back to back calls from Father Hagen. Between his two calls was heard the incredible growling noises she’d heard earlier in the house. One day Father Jason Branford, Catholic exorcist, had been working with Ed and asked about the new addition to the office-Annabelle. Ed told Father Jason about the case and gave him the paperwork for his review. After hearing Ed’s account of want had happened, the priest picked up the rag doll and said You’re just a rag doll, Annabelle. You can’t hurt anything. T he priest then tossed the stuffed figure back on the chair. That’s one thing you better not say again, Ed warned him with a laugh. Yet when Father Jason stopped to say goodbye to Lorraine an hour later, she pleaded that he be especially careful driving, and insisted that he call her just as soon as he arrived at the rectory. I discerned tragedy for that young priest, says Lorraine, but he had to go his way. A few hours later the telephone rang. Lorraine said Father Jason, why did you tell me to be careful driving? Because, she told him, I felt your car would go out of control, you would have an accident. Well, you were right, he stated flatly. The brake system failed. I was almost killed in a traffic accident. My car is a wreck.Later in the year, at a large social gathering at the Warrens’ home, Lorraine and Father Jason went into the den to chat for a few moments. By a strange coincidence, Annabelle had moved into that room the day before. While speaking with Lorraine, the priest saw an ornamental wall decoration make a quick movement. Suddenly, the twenty-four inch long Boar’s tooth necklace above them exploded with percussive force. Hearing this stunning noise, the other guests immediately converged on the room, at which time someone in the crowd had the foresight to snap a photograph. When developed, the print appeared normal, except above the doll were two beacons of bright light, both pointing in the direction of Father Jason Bradford.On another occasion, Ed recounts, I was in my office, working with a police detective on a case that concerned a witchcraft related murder in the area. As a cop he’s seen every kind of crime, he’s definitely not the sort of man who gets scared. While we were talking, Lorraine called me upstairs to take a long distance call. I told the detective he was free to look around my office, but to be careful and not touch any of the objects, because they’d come from cases where the demonic had been invoked. Well, I wasn’t away for five minutes when upstairs came this detective stark white. When I asked him what had happened, he refused to tell me, Ed remembers, breaking into a grin. He just kept mumbling ‘The doll, the rag doll is real….’ He was talking about Annabelle of course. T hat little doll made a believer out of him! In fact, as I think back on it, any meetings I’ve had with the detective from that day on have always been in his office.Profane objects like the Annabelle doll have their own aura. When you touch them, your human aura mingles with theirs. This change attracts spirits, it’s almost like setting off a fire alarm. Therefore, for protection, I bless myself with holy water then ‘bless’ the rag doll with holy water in the sign of the cross. Like I say when we’re doing field work I’ve never met an atheist in a haunted house.It’s difficult for people to accept the existence of something they’ve been conditioned not to believe in. Still, lack of knowledge allowed this negative spirit to wrangle it way into the lives of these three unwary young people. Many, nevertheless, contend that the notion of spirits is irrational or unfounded. They say the phenomenon is an illusion, or a hallucination, or it doesn’t exist at all. At best, the activity can be explained away by science. Or can it?This is a terrifying case of a raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle. The case is from the 1970’s and is highlighted in the book The Demonologist. This is one of the Warrens most asked about cases. The referral came from an Episcopal priest. A somber toned clergyman told Ed Warren of two young nurses who had communicated with what they thought to be a human spirit. One of the girls’ friends had been attacked physically, and the activity was still in progress, so Ed accepted the case. With that the priest gave Ed the phone number of the girls. Ed immediately called the number and upon reaching one of the girls, Ed verified the existence of the problem and told the young women that he and Lorraine were on their way.Ed and Lorraine arrived at the apartment and the case begins. Ok girls, I’d like to hear the whole story, Who here can tell me? I can said Donna. All right, Lou, Angie, please add any details she leaves out, Ed directed. There are two stories, Donna said. One that began earlier in the week with Lou. The other one’s about Annabelle. But I suppose they’re both about Annabelle. Who’s Annabelle? Ed promptly asked. She belongs to Donna, she moves, she acts alive, but no, I don’t think she’s alive. She’s in the living room said Angie, pointing across the table. There, sitting on the sofa. Lorraine looked to her left, into the living room. Are you talking about the doll? That’s right, Angie replied, the big raggedy Ann doll. That’s Annabelle, she moves! Ed got up and walked into the living room to inspect the doll. It was big and heavy, the size of a four-year-old child, sitting with its legs stretched out on the sofa. The black pupil-less eyes stared back at him, while the painted-on smile gave the doll an expression of grim irony.Looking it over without touching the thing, Ed then returned to the kitchen. Where did the doll come from? Ed asked Donna. It was a gift Donna replied, My mother gave it to me on my last birthday. Is there some reason why she bought you a doll? Ed wanted to know. No. It was just something novel-a decoration the young nurse answered. Okay. Ed went on. When did you first start noticing activity occur? About a year ago, replied Donna. The doll started to move around the apartment by itself. I don’t mean it got up and walked around, or any such thing. I mean when we’d come home from work it would never be quite where we left it. Explain that part to me a little more Ed requested. After I got the doll for my birthday, Donna explained, I put it on my bed each morning after the bed was made. The arms would be off to its sides and its legs would be straight out-just like it’s sitting there now. But when we’d come home at night, the arms and legs would be positioned in different gestures. For instance, its legs would be crossed at the ankles, or its arms would be folded in its lap. After a week or so, this made us suspicious. So to test it, I purposely crossed its arms and legs in the morning to see if it really was moving. And sure enough, every night when we’d come back home, the arms and legs would be uncrossed and the thing would be sitting there in any of a dozen different postures. Yeah, but it did more than that, Angie added. The doll also changed rooms by itself. We came home one night and the Annabelle doll was sitting in a chair by the front door. It was kneeling! The funny thing about it was, when we tried to make the doll kneel, it’d just fall over. It couldn’t kneel. Other times we’d find it sitting on the sofa, although when we left the apartment in the morning it’d be in Donna’s room with the door closed! Anything else? Lorraine asked. Yes, said Donna. It would leave us little notes and messages. The handwriting looked to be that of a small child. What’d the note say? questioned Ed. It would say things that meant nothing to us, Donna answered. Things would be written like HELP US or HELP LOU, but Lou wasn’t in any kind of jeopardy at the time. And who us was-we didn’t know. Still, the thing that was weird was that the notes would be written in pencil, but when we tried to find one, there was not one pencil in the apartment! And the paper it wrote on was parchment. I tore the apartment apart, looking for parchment paper, but again neither of us had any such thing.” It sounds like someone had a key to your apartment and was playing a sick joke on you, Ed stated flatly. That’s exactly what we thought, said Donna. So we did little things like put marks on the windows and doors or arrange the rugs so that anyone who came in here would leave a trace that we could see. But never once did it turn out that there was a real outside intruder.While the doll was moving around, and we’d become suspicious of burglars, when something else screwy happened. Angie added next. The Annabelle doll was sitting on Donna’s bed, as was usual. When we came home one night, there was blood on the back of its hand, and there were three drops of blood on its chest! God, that really scared us, Donna said frankly. Did you notice any other kind of phenomena occur in the apartment? Ed asked them. One time around Christmas, we found a little chocolate boot on the stereo that none of us had bought. Presumably it came from Annabelle, said Angie. When did you come to determine there was a spirit associated with the doll? Lorraine questioned. We knew something unusual was going on, Donna answered. The doll did change rooms by itself. It did pose in different gestures, we all saw it, but wanted to know why? Was there maybe some plausible reason why the doll was moving? So Angie and I got in touch with a woman who’s a medium. That was about a month, or maybe six weeks after all this stuff started to happen. We learned that a little girl died on this property, Donna told the Warrens. She was seven years old and her name was Annabelle Higgins. The Annabelle spirit said she played in the fields long ago before these apartments were built. They were happy times for her, she told us. Because everyone around here was grown-up, and only concerned with their jobs, there was no one she could relate to, except us. Annabelle felt that we would be able to understand her. That’s why she began moving the rag doll. All Annabelle wanted was to be loved, and so she asked if she could stay with us and move into the doll. What could we do? So we said yes. Wait a minute here, Ed interjected. What do you mean it wanted to move into the doll? Do you mean it proposed to possess it? Right, that was the understanding, Donna replied. I t seemed harmless enough. We’re nurses, you know, we see suffering every day. We had compassion. Anyway, we called the doll Annabelle from that time on. Did you do anything different with the doll after you learned it was supposedly possessed by a little girl spirit named Annabelle? asked Lorraine. Not really, said Donna. But of course it wasn’t just a doll any more. It was Annabelle. We couldn’t ignore that fact.All right, before you go any further, let’s back up a minute, Ed requested. First you got the doll for you birthday. After a while the doll began to move – or at least change places enough for you to notice it. T his made you curious, so you decided to have a séance, and a spirit came across that called itself Annabelle Higgins. This supposed little girl was seven years old and asked if it could come live with you by possessing the toy doll. You said yes, out of compassion. Then you renamed the doll Annabelle. Right? Right, said Donna and Angie. Have you seen the ghost of a little girl at any time in this apartment? Ed asked. No, both the girls answered. You also said a chocolate item showed up here once, said Ed. Has anything else strange ever happened that you couldn’t explain? One time a statue lifted up across the room, Donna recalled, then it tumbled in the air and fell on the floor. None of us were near the statue-it was on the other side of the room. That incident frightened us totally. Let me ask you something else. Ed went on. Didn’t you think that maybe you shouldn’t have given the doll so much recognition? It wasn’t a doll! Donna corrected him. It was the spirit of Annabelle we cared about! That’s right, said Angie. Ed added I mean, before you knew anything about Annabelle? How were we to know anything? Donna asked. But looking back on it now, maybe we shouldn’t have given the doll so much credence. But really, we saw the thing as being no more than a harmless mascot. I t never hurt anything . . . at least until the other day. Do you still think what’s moving the doll is the spirit of a little girl? Lorraine queried. What else could it be? Angie said in reply. It’s a damn voodoo doll, that’s what it is, Lou blurted out. I told them about that thing a long time ago. The doll was just taking advantage of them.Okay, Lou, I think it’s time you told your side of things, tell them about the dreams, coaxed Angie. Well, Lou picked up, the thing gives me bad dreams. Recurrent ones. But yet what I’m going to tell you is not a dream as far as I’m concerned, because I somehow saw this happen to me. The last time it happened I fell asleep at home, a really deep sleep. While I was lying there, I saw myself wake up. Something seemed wrong to me. I looked around the room, but nothing was out of place. But then when I looked down toward my feet, I saw the rag doll, Annabelle. It was slowly gliding up my body. It moved over my chest and stopped. Than it put its arms out. One arm touched one side of my neck, the other touched the other side like it was making an electrical connection. Then I saw myself being strangled. I might as well have been pushing on a wall, because it wouldn’t move. It was literally strangling me to death, I couldn’t help myself, no matter how hard I tried. Yes, but the priest I spoke with said you’d been attacked? Ed pressed him. No, Lou asserted, that happened here in this apartment when Angie and I were alone together. It was about ten or eleven o’clock at night, and we were reading over maps because I was going off on a trip the next day. Everything was quiet at the time. Suddenly, we both heard sounds in Donna’s room that made us think that someone had broken into the apartment. I quietly got up and tip-toed to the bedroom door, which was closed. I waited until the noises stopped, then I carefully opened the door and reached in and switched on the light. Nobody was in there! Except, the Annabelle doll was tossed on the floor in a corner. I went in alone and walked over to the thing to see if anything unusual had happened. But as I got close to the doll, I got the distinct impression that somebody was behind me. I swung around instantly and, well . . . He won’t talk about that part, Angie said. When Lou turned around there wasn’t anybody there, but he suddenly yelled and grabbed for his chest. He was doubled over, cut and bleeding when I got to him. Blood was all over his shirt. Lou was shaking and scared and we went back out into the living room. We then opened his shirt and there on his chest was what looked to be sort a of claw mark!Can I see the mark? Ed asked. It’s gone now, the young man told him. I saw the cuts on his chest, too, Donna spoke up in support. How many were there? Ed asked. Seven, said Angie. Three were vertical, four were horizontal. Did the cuts have any sensation? Ed queried. All the cuts were hot, like they were burns, Lou told him. Did you ever have cuts or wounds in the same area of your chest before this incident happened? questioned Ed. No, the young man replied. Did you lose consciousness before or after the attack took place? No, again he replied. How long did it take the wounds to heal? Lorraine questioned. They healed up almost immediately, said Lou. They were half-gone the next day, and fully gone the day after. Has anything else happened since that time? asked Ed. No, came the joint reply. Who did you first contact after the incident occurred? I contacted an Episcopal priest named Father Hegan Donna told Ed and Lorraine. Why did you call him instead of a doctor? Lorraine asked. Do you think someone off the street would have believed where that claw mark on Lou’s chest came from? Donna asked rhetorically. Besides, we agreed the cuts weren’t half as important as how Lou got them.We wanted to know if this was going to happen again. Our problem was who to ask. Was there some reason why you specifically called on Father Hegan? Lorraine questioned. Yes. We trust him, said Donna. He teaches nearby here, at a junior college, plus Angie and I both know him. What did you tell the priest? asked Ed. The whole story-about Annabelle and how it moved on its own, and especially about Lou’s cuts, Donna replied. At first we were afraid he might not believe us, but that was no problem, he believed us all right. He said he’d never heard of such a thing happening these days. At the time we were all scared out of our wits, and I asked him what he thought had happened to us. He said he didn’t want to speculate, but he did feel it was a spiritual matter, possibly an important one, and that he was going to contact someone higher up in the Church, a Father Cooke. That’s what he did, Ed told her. Did the name Annabelle, or Annabelle Higgins mean anything to you in real life before this incident occurred? No, they replied. Although we never saw anything in here, Lou said he felt a presence in the room before he got hurt . . . there is something in here, Angie stated firmly. In fact, I can’t stand to be here. We have decided to get a new apartment. We’re moving out! I’m afraid that’s not going to help very much, Ed said dryly. What do you mean? Donna asked, astonished. To put it in a nutshell, you inadvertently brought a spirit into this apartment-and into your lives. You’re not going to be able to walk away from it that easily.After a long minute, Ed spoke again. We’re going to help you, beginning right now. Today. First thing I’d like to do is call Father Cooke and have him come over here. Ed had no trouble getting hold of the Episcopal priest who had been waiting for his call. All right, Ed said when Father Cooke comes here, he’s going to have to perform a sort of blessing, an . . . exorcism of the premises. I knew it! Lou proclaimed. I knew it would lead to this. Yes, I think you did, Ed told him but I’m not sure any of you know the reason why. To begin with, there is no Annabelle! There never was. You were duped. However, we are dealing with a spirit here. The teleportation of the doll while you were out of the apartment, the appearance of notes written on parchment, the manifestation of three symbolic drops of blood, plus the gestures the doll made are all meaningful. They tell me there was intent, which means there was an intelligence behind the activity. But ghosts, human spirits, plain and simply can’t bring on phenomena of this nature and intensity. They don’t have the power. Instead, what has happened is something inhuman has taken over here. Demonic. Ed told them. Ordinarily people aren’t bothered by inhuman demonic spirits, unless they do something to bring the force into their lives. Your first mistake was to give the doll recognition, that is the reason why the spirit moved into the doll to, draw attention to itself. Once it had your attention, it exploited you, it simply brought you fear and even injury. Inhuman spirits, enjoy inflicting pain, it’s negative. Your next mistake was calling in a medium, Ed went on. The demonic has to somehow get your permission to interfere in your life. Unfortunately, through your own free will, you gave it that permission.Then the doll is possessed? questioned Donna. No, the doll is not possessed. Spirits don’t possess things, spirits possess people, Ed informed her. Instead, the spirits simply moved the doll around and gave it the illusion of being alive. Now, what happened to Lou earlier this week Ed proceeded, was bound to occur sooner or later. In fact, you all were in jeopardy of coming under possession by this spirit, this is what the thing was really after. But Lou didn’t believe in the charade, so he was an ongoing threat to the entity. There was bound to be a showdown. Had the spirit been given another week or two, you might have been killed. Ed calmly concluded. There is only one entity involved, but its behavior is completely unpredictable, said Lorraine.When Father Cooke arrived, the interview session ended in the kitchen, Ed was eager to have the house blessed, remove the doll, and return home. Once the preliminary greetings were out of the way, Ed told the priest, that in his judgment, the spirit responsible for the malicious activity was inhuman, and still in the apartment, and the only way it could be made to leave was through the power of the words written in the exorcism-blessing. I’m not totally familiar with demonology, admitted Father Cooke. How do you know such a spirit is behind the disturbance? Well, in this case, it wasn’t all that difficult to determine. Ed said frankly. These spirits work in characteristic ways. What’s going on here is essentially the infestation stage of the phenomenon. A spirit, in this case an inhuman demonic spirit, began moving the doll around the apartment through teleportation and other means. Once it aroused the girls’ curiosity which was the spirit’s purpose in moving the doll-they made the predictable mistake of bringing a medium in here, who took matters a step further. She told them, in the trance state, that a little girl spirit named Annabelle was moving the doll. Communicating through the medium, the entity preyed on the girls’ emotional vulnerabilities, and during the séance managed to extract permission from them to go about its business. Insofar as demonic is a negative spirit, it then set about causing patently negative phenomena to occur; it aroused fear through the weird movements of that doll, it brought about the materialization of disturbing handwritten notes, it left a residue of blood on the doll, and ultimately it even struck the young man, Lou, on the chest leaving a bloody claw mark. Beyond the activity, Lorraine has also discerned that this inhuman spirit is with us now. Lorraine’s an excellent clairvoyant, and she’s never been wrong about the nature of a spirit that’s present. However, if you want to go a step further, we can challenge the entity right now with religious provocation?In this case, the recitation of the exorcism-blessing took the priest about five minutes to perform. The Episcopal blessing of the home is a wordy, seven page document that is distinctly positive in nature. Rather than specifically expelling evil entities from the dwelling, the emphasis is instead directed toward filling the home with the power of the positive and of God. There was no trouble or mishap during the procedure. When he was finished, the priest the blessed the individuals who were present, and after doing so, declared all was well. Lorraine also confirmed that the apartment and people were free from the spirit entity. Ed and Lorraine’s work was done, they then took their leave and started for home. At Donna’s request, and as a further precaution against the phenomena ever occurring in the home again, the Warrens took the big rag doll along with them. Placing Annabelle in the back seat of the car, Ed decided it was safer to avoid traveling on the interstate, in case the entity had not been separated from the rag doll. His hunch was correct. In no time at all, Ed and Lorraine felt themselves the object of vicious hatred. Then, at each dangerous curve in the road, their new car began to stall, causing the power steering and breaks to fail. Repeatedly the car verged on collision. Of course, it would have been easy to stop and throw the doll into the woods. But if the item didn’t simply teleport back to the girls’ apartment, at the least it would place anyone who found it in jeopardy.The third time the car stalled along the road, Ed reached into his black bag, took out a vial, and threw a sprinkling of holy water on the rag doll, making the sign of the cross over it. The disturbance in the car stopped immediately, allowing the Warrens to reach home safely.For the next few days, Ed sat the doll in a chair next to his desk. The doll levitated a number of times in the beginning, then it seemed to fall inert. During the ensuing weeks, however, it began showing up in various rooms of the house. When the Warrens were away and had the doll locked up in the outer office building, they would often return to find it sitting comfortably upstairs in Ed’s easy chair when they opened the main front door.It also turned out that Annabelle came with a friend, a black cat, who would occasionally materialize beside the doll. The cat would stalk once around the floor, taking particular notice of books and other objects in Ed’s office; then return to the doll’s side, and dematerialize from the head down. It also became apparent that Annabelle hated clergymen. During the follow-up process of the case, it was necessary for the Warrens to consult the Episcopal priests associated with the incident in the young nurses’ apartment. Returning home alone one evening, Lorraine was terrified by loud, rolling growls that reverberated throughout the house. Later, when she was listening to the playback of the telephone answering machine, they were back to back calls from Father Hagen. Between his two calls was heard the incredible growling noises she’d heard earlier in the house. One day Father Jason Branford, Catholic exorcist, had been working with Ed and asked about the new addition to the office-Annabelle. Ed told Father Jason about the case and gave him the paperwork for his review. After hearing Ed’s account of want had happened, the priest picked up the rag doll and said You’re just a rag doll, Annabelle. You can’t hurt anything. T he priest then tossed the stuffed figure back on the chair. That’s one thing you better not say again, Ed warned him with a laugh. Yet when Father Jason stopped to say goodbye to Lorraine an hour later, she pleaded that he be especially careful driving, and insisted that he call her just as soon as he arrived at the rectory. I discerned tragedy for that young priest, says Lorraine, but he had to go his way. A few hours later the telephone rang. Lorraine said Father Jason, why did you tell me to be careful driving? Because, she told him, I felt your car would go out of control, you would have an accident. Well, you were right, he stated flatly. The brake system failed. I was almost killed in a traffic accident. My car is a wreck.Later in the year, at a large social gathering at the Warrens’ home, Lorraine and Father Jason went into the den to chat for a few moments. By a strange coincidence, Annabelle had moved into that room the day before. While speaking with Lorraine, the priest saw an ornamental wall decoration make a quick movement. Suddenly, the twenty-four inch long Boar’s tooth necklace above them exploded with percussive force. Hearing this stunning noise, the other guests immediately converged on the room, at which time someone in the crowd had the foresight to snap a photograph. When developed, the print appeared normal, except above the doll were two beacons of bright light, both pointing in the direction of Father Jason Bradford.On another occasion, Ed recounts, I was in my office, working with a police detective on a case that concerned a witchcraft related murder in the area. As a cop he’s seen every kind of crime, he’s definitely not the sort of man who gets scared. While we were talking, Lorraine called me upstairs to take a long distance call. I told the detective he was free to look around my office, but to be careful and not touch any of the objects, because they’d come from cases where the demonic had been invoked. Well, I wasn’t away for five minutes when upstairs came this detective stark white. When I asked him what had happened, he refused to tell me, Ed remembers, breaking into a grin. He just kept mumbling ‘The doll, the rag doll is real….’ He was talking about Annabelle of course. T hat little doll made a believer out of him! In fact, as I think back on it, any meetings I’ve had with the detective from that day on have always been in his office.Profane objects like the Annabelle doll have their own aura. When you touch them, your human aura mingles with theirs. This change attracts spirits, it’s almost like setting off a fire alarm. Therefore, for protection, I bless myself with holy water then ‘bless’ the rag doll with holy water in the sign of the cross. Like I say when we’re doing field work I’ve never met an atheist in a haunted house.It’s difficult for people to accept the existence of something they’ve been conditioned not to believe in. Still, lack of knowledge allowed this negative spirit to wrangle it way into the lives of these three unwary young people. Many, nevertheless, contend that the notion of spirits is irrational or unfounded. They say the phenomenon is an illusion, or a hallucination, or it doesn’t exist at all. At best, the activity can be explained away by science. Or can it?http://edandlorrainewarren.com/6/annabelle-the-possessed-doll/

2011-10-18T19:26:00.001-07:00

SAINT TERESA OF AVILA VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS—1515-1582 A.D.Feast: October 15In the Autobiography which she completed towards the end of her life, Saint Teresa of Avila gives us a description of her parents, along with a disparaging estimate of her own character. "The possession of virtuous parents who lived in the fear of God, together with those favors which I received from his Divine Majesty, might have made me good, if I had not been so very wicked." A heavy consciousness of sin was prevalent in sixteenth-century Spain, and we can readily discount this avowal of guilt. What we are told of Teresa's early life does not sound in the least wicked, but it is plain that she was an unusually active, imaginative, and sensitive child. Her parents, Don Alfonso Sanchez de Capeda and Dona Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, his second wife, were people of position in Avila, a city of Old Castile, where Teresa was born on March 28, 1515. There were nine children of this marriage, of whom Teresa was the third, and three children of her father's first marriage.Piously reared as she was, Teresa became completely fascinated by stories of the saints and martyrs, as was her brother Roderigo, who was near her own age and her partner in youthful adventures. Once, when Teresa was seven, they made a plan to run away to Africa, where they might be beheaded by the infidel Moors and so achieve martyrdom. They set out secretly, expecting to beg their way like the poor friars, but had gone only a short distance from home when they were met by an uncle and brought back to their anxious mother, who had sent servants into the streets to search for them. She and her brother now thought they would like to become hermits, and tried to build themselves little cells from stones they found in the garden. Thus we see that religious thoughts and influences dominated the mind of the future saint in childhood.Teresa was only fourteen when her mother died, and she later wrote of her sorrow in these words: "As soon as I began to understand how great a loss I had sustained by losing her, I was very much afflicted; and so I went before an image of our Blessed Lady and besought her with many tears that she would vouchsafe to be my mother." Visits from a girl cousin were most welcome at this time, but they had the effect of stimulating her interest in superficial things. Reading tales of chivalry was one of their diversions, and Teresa even tried to write romantic stories. "These tales," she says in her Autobiography, "did not fail to cool my good desires, and were the cause of my falling insensibly into other defects. I was so enchanted that I could not be happy without some new tale in my hands. I began to imitate the fashions, to enjoy being well dressed, to take great care of my hands, to use perfumes, and wear all the vain ornaments which my position in the world allowed." Noting this sudden change in his daughter's personality, Teresa's father decided to place her in a convent of Augustinian nuns in Avila, where other young women of her class were being educated. This action made Teresa aware that her danger had been greater than she knew. After a year and a half in the convent she fell ill with what seems to have been a malignant type of malaria, and Don Alfonso brought her home. After recovering, she went to stay with her eldest sister, who had married and gone to live in the country. Then she visited an uncle, Peter Sanchez de Capeda, a very sober and pious man. At home once more, and fearing that an uncongenial marriage would be forced upon her, she began to deliberate whether or not she should undertake the religious life. Reading the ,[1] helped her to reach a decision. St. Jerome's realism and ardor were akin to her own Castilian spirit, with its mixture of the practical and the idealistic. She now announced to her father her desire to become a nun, but he withheld consent, saying that after his death she might do as she pleasedThis reaction caused a new conflict, for Teresa loved her father devotedly. Feeling that delay might weaken her resolve, she went secretly to the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation[2] outside the town of Avila, where her dear friend Sister Jane Suarez was living, and applied for admission. Of this painful step, she wrote: "I remember . . . while I was going out of my father's house—the sharpness of sense will not be greater, I believe, in the very instant of agony of my death, than it was then. It seemed as if all the bones in my body were wrenched asunder.... There was no such love of God in me then as was able to quench the love I felt for my father and my friends." A year later Teresa made her profession, but when there was a recurrence of her illness, Don Alfonso had her removed from the convent, as the rule of enclosure was not then in effect. After a period of intense suffering, during which, on one occasion, at least, her life was despaired of, she gradually began to improve. She was helped by certain prayers she had begun to use. Her devout Uncle Peter had given her a little book called the , by Father Francis de Osuna, which dealt with "prayers of recollection and quiet." Taking this book as her guide, she began to concentrate on mental prayer, and progressed towards the "prayer of quiet," with the soul resting in divine contemplation, all earthly things forgotten. Occasionally, for brief moments, she attained the "prayer of union," in which all the powers of the soul are absorbed in God. She persuaded her father to apply himself to this form of prayer.After three years Teresa went back to the convent. Her intelligence, warmth, and charm made her a favorite, and she found pleasure in being with people. It was the custom in Spain in those days for the young nuns to receive their acquaintances in the convent parlor, and Teresa spent much time there, chatting with friends. She was attracted to one of the visitors whose company was disturbing to her, although she told herself that there could be no question of sin, since she was only doing what so many others, better than she, were doing. During this relaxed period, she gave up her habit of mental prayer, using as a pretext the poor state of her health. "This excuse of bodily weakness," she wrote afterwards, "was not a sufficient reason why I should abandon so good a thing, which required no physical strength, but only love and habit. In the midst of sickness the best prayer may be offered, and it is a mistake to think it can only be offered in solitude." She returned to the practice of mental prayer and never again abandoned it, although she had not yet the courage to follow God completely, or to stop wasting her time and talents. But during these years of apparent wavering, her spirit was being forged. When depressed by her own unworthiness, she turned to those two great penitents, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Augustine, and through them came experiences that helped to steady her will. One was the reading of St. Augustine's ; another was an overpowering impulse to penitence before a picture of the suffering Lord, in which, she writes, "I felt Mary Magdalen come to my assistance.... From that day I have gone on improving in my spiritual life."When finally Teresa withdrew from the pleasures of social intercourse, she found herself able once more to pray the "prayer of quiet," and also the "prayer of union." She began to have intellectual visions of divine things and to hear inner voices. Though she was persuaded these manifestations came from God, she was at times fearful and troubled. She consulted many persons, binding all to secrecy, but her perplexities nevertheless were spread abroad, to her great mortification. Among those she talked to was Father Gaspar Daza, a learned priest, who, after listening, reported that she was deluded, for such divine favors were not consistent with a life as full of imperfections as hers was, as she herself admitted. A friend, Don Francis de Salsedo, suggested that she talk to a priest of the newly formed Society of Jesus. To one of them, accordingly, she made a general Confession, recounting her manner of prayer and extraordinary visions. He assured her that she experienced divine graces, but warned her that she had failed to lay the foundations of a true spiritual life by practices of mortification. He advised her to try to resist the visions and voices for two months; resistance proved useless. Francis Borgia, commissary-general of the Society in Spain, then advised her not to resist further, but also not to seek such experiences.Another Jesuit, Father Balthasar Alvarez, who now became her director, pointed out certain traits that were incompatible with perfect grace. He told her that she would do well to beg God to direct her to what was most pleasing to Him, and to recite daily the hymn of St. Gregory the Great, "!" One day, as she repeated the stanzas, she was seized with a rapture in which she heard the words, "I will not have you hold conversation with men, but with angels." For three years, while Father Balthasar was her director, she suffered from the disapproval of those around her; and for two years, from extreme desolation of soul. She was censured for her austerities and ridiculed as a victim of delusion or a hypocrite. A confessor to whom she went during Father Balthasar's absence said that her very prayer was an illusion, and commanded her, when she saw any vision, to make the sign of the cross and repel it as if it were an evil spirit. But Teresa tells us that the visions now brought with them their own evidence of ,authenticity, so that it was impossible to doubt they were from God. Nevertheless, she obeyed this order of her confessor. Pope Gregory XV, in his bull of canonization, commends her obedience in these words: "She was wont to say that she might be deceived in discerning visions and revelations, but could not be in obeying superiors."In 1557 Peter of Alcantara, a Franciscan of the Observance, came to Avila. Few saints have been more experienced in the inner life, and he found in Teresa unmistakable evidence of the Holy Spirit. He openly expressed compassion for what she endured from slander and predicted that she was not at the end of her tribulations. However, as her mystical experiences continued, the greatness and goodness of God, the sweetness of His service, became more and more manifest to her. She was sometimes lifted from the ground, an experience other saints have known. "God," she says, "seems not content with drawing the soul to Himself, but he must needs draw up the very body too, even while it is mortal and compounded of so unclean a clay as we have made it by our sins."It was at this time, she tells us, that her most singular experience took place, her mystical marriage to Christ, and the piercing of her heart. Of the latter she writes: "I saw an angel very near me, towards my left side, in bodily form, which is not usual with me; for though angels are often represented to me, it is only in my mental vision. This angel appeared rather small than large, and very beautiful. His face was so shining that he seemed to be one of those highest angels called seraphs, who look as if all on fire with divine love. He had in his hands a long golden dart; at the end of the point methought there was a little fire. And I felt him thrust it several times through my heart in such a way that it passed through my very bowels. And when he drew it out, methought it pulled them out with it and left me wholly on fire with a great love of God." The pain in her soul spread to her body, but it was accompanied by great delight too; she was like one transported, caring neither to see nor to speak but only to be consumed with the mingled pain and happiness.[3]Teresa's longing to die that she might be united with God was tempered by her desire to suffer for Him on earth. The account which the gives of her revelations is marked by sincerity, genuine simplicity of style, and scrupulous precision. An unlettered woman, she wrote in the Castilian vernacular, setting down her experiences reluctantly, out of obedience to her confessor, and submitting everything to his judgment and that of the Church, merely complaining that the task kept her from spinning. Teresa wrote of herself without self-love or pride. Towards her persecutors she was respectful, representing them as honest servants of God.Teresa's other literary works came later, during the fifteen years when she was actively engaged in founding new convents of reformed Carmelite nuns. They are proof of her industry and her power of memory, as well as of a real talent for expression. she composed for the special guidance of her nuns, and the for their further edification. was perhaps meant for all Catholics; in it she writes with authority on the spiritual life. One admiring critic says: "She lays bare in her writings the most impenetrable secrets of true wisdom in what we call mystical theology, of which God has given the key to a small number of his favored servants. This thought may somewhat lessen our surprise that an unlearned woman should have expounded what the greatest doctors never attained, for God employs in His works what instruments He wills."We have seen how undisciplined the Carmelite nuns had become, how the convent parlor at Avila was a social gathering place, and how easily nuns might leave their enclosure. Any woman, in fact, who wanted a sheltered life without much responsibility could find it in a convent in sixteenth-century Spain. The religious themselves, for the most part, were not even aware of how far they fell short of what their profession demanded. So when one of the nuns at the House of the Incarnation began talking of the possibility of founding a new and stricter community, the idea struck Teresa as an inspiration from Heaven. She determined to undertake its establishment herself and received a promise of help from a wealthy widow, Dona Guiomar de Ulloa. The project was approved by Peter of Alcantara and Father Angelo de Salazar, provincial of the Carmelite Order. The latter was soon compelled to withdraw his permission, for Teresa's fellow nuns, the local nobility, the magistrates, and others united to thwart the project. Father Ibanez, a Dominican, secretly encouraged Teresa and urged Dona Guiomar to continue to lend her support. One of Teresa's married sisters began with her husband to erect a small convent at Avila in 1561 to shelter the new establishment; outsiders took it for a house intended for the use of her family.An episode famous in Teresa's life occurred at this time. Her little nephew was crushed by a wall of the new structure which fell on him as he was playing, and he was carried, apparently lifeless, to Teresa. She held the child in her arms and prayed. After some minutes she restored him alive and sound to his mother. The miracle was presented at the process for Teresa's canonization. Another seemingly solid wall of the convent collapsed during the night. Teresa's brother-in-law was going to refuse to pay the masons, but Teresa assured him that it was all the work of evil spirits and insisted that the men be paid.A wealthy woman of Toledo, Countess Louise de la Cerda, happened at the time to be mourning the recent death of her husband, and asked the Carmelite provincial to order Teresa, whose goodness she had heard praised, to come to her. Teresa was accordingly sent to the woman, and stayed with her for six months, using a part of the time, at the request of Father Ibanez, to write, and to develop further her ideas for the convent. While at Toledo she met Maria of Jesus, of the Carmelite convent at Granada, who had had revelations concerning a reform of the order, and this meeting strengthened Teresa's own desires. Back in Avila, on the very evening of her arrival, the Pope's letter authorizing the new reformed convent was brought to her. Teresa's adherents now persuaded the bishop of Avila to concur, and the convent, dedicated to St. Joseph, was quietly opened. On St. Bartholomew's day, 1562 the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the little chapel, and four novices took the habit.The news soon spread in the town and opposition flared into the open. The prioress of the Incarnation convent sent for Teresa, who was required to explain her conduct. Detained almost as a prisoner, Teresa did not lose her poise. The prioress was joined in her disapproval by the mayor and magistrates, always fearful that an unendowed convent would be a burden on the townspeople. Some were for demolishing the building forthwith. Meanwhile Don Francis sent a priest to Madrid, to plead for the new establishment before the King's Council. Teresa was allowed to go back to her convent and shortly afterward the bishop officially appointed her prioress. The hubbub now quickly subsided. Teresa was hence. forth known simply as Teresa of Jesus, mother of the reform of Carmel. The nuns were strictly cloistered, under a rule of poverty and almost complete silence; the constant chatter of women's voices was one of the things that Teresa had most deplored at the Incarnation. They were poor, without regular revenues; they wore habits of coarse serge and sandals instead of shoes, and for this reason were called the "discalced" or shoeless Carmelites. Although the prioress was now in her late forties, and frail, her great achievement still lay in the future.Convinced that too many women under one roof made for relaxation of discipline, Teresa limited the number of nuns to thirteen; later, when houses were being founded with endowments and hence were not wholly dependent on alms, the number was increased to twenty-one. The prior general of the Carmelites, John Baptist Rubeo of Ravenna, visiting Avila in 1567, carried away a fine impression of Teresa's sincerity and prudent rule. He gave her full authority to found other convents on the same plan, in spite of the fact that St. Joseph's had been established without his knowledge.Five peaceful years were spent with the thirteen nuns in the little convent of St. Joseph. Teresa trained the sisters in every kind of useful work and in all religious observances, but whether at spinning or at prayer, she herself was always first and most diligent. In August, 1567, she founded a second convent at Medina del Campo. The Countess de la Cerda was anxious to found a similar house in her native town of Malagon, and Teresa went to advise her about it. When this third community had been launched, the intrepid nun moved on to Valladolid, and there founded a fourth; then a fifth at Toledo. On beginning this work, she had no more than four or five ducats (approximately ten dollars), but she said, "Teresa and this money are nothing; but God, Teresa, and these ducats suffice." At Medina del Campo she encountered two friars who had heard of her reform and wished to adopt it: Antony de Heredia, prior of the Carmelite monastery there, and John of the Cross. With their aid, in 1568, and the authority given her by the prior general, she established a reformed house for men at Durelo, and in 1569 a second one at Pastrana, both on a pattern of extreme poverty and austerity. She left to John of the Cross, who at this time was in his late twenties, the direction of these and other reformed communities that might be started for men. Refusing to obey the order of his provincial to return to Medina, he was imprisoned at Toledo for nine months. After his escape he became vicar-general of Andalusia, and strove for papal recognition of the order. John, later to attain fame as a poet, mystic confessor, and finally saint, became Teresa's friend; a close spiritual bond developed between the young friar and the aging prioress, and he was made director and confessor in the mother house at Avila.The hardships and dangers involved in Teresa's labors are indicated by a little episode of the founding of a new convent at Salamanca. She and another nun took over a house which had been occupied by students. It was a large, dirty, desolate place, without furnishings, and when night came the two nuns lay down on their piles of straw, for, Teresa tells us, "the first furniture I provided wherever I founded convents was straw, for, having that, I reckoned I had beds." On this occasion, the other nun seemed very nervous, and Teresa asked her the reason. "I was wondering," was the reply, "what you would do alone with a corpse if I were to die here now." Teresa was startled, but only said, "I shall think of that when it happens, Sister. For the present, let us go to sleep."At about this time Pope Pius V appointed a number of apostolic visitors to inquire into the relaxations of discipline in religious orders everywhere. The visitor to the Carmelites of Castile found great fault with the Incarnation convent and sent for Teresa, bidding her to assume its direction and remedy the abuses there. It was hard to be separated from her own daughters, and even more distasteful to be brought in as head of the old house which had long opposed her with bitterness and jealousy. The nuns at first refused to obey her; some of them fell into hysterics at the very idea. She told them that she came not to coerce or instruct but to serve and to learn from the least among them. By gentleness and tact she won the affection of the community, and was able to reestablish discipline. Frequent callers were forbidden, the finances of the house were set in order, and a more truly religious spirit reigned. At the end of three years, although the nuns wished to keep her longer, she was directed to return to her own convent.Teresa organized a nunnery at Veas and while there met Father Jerome Gratian, a reformed Carmelite, and was persuaded by him to extend her work to Seville. With the exception of her first convent, none proved so hard to establish as this. Among her problems there was a disgruntled novice, who reported the nuns to the Inquisition,[4] charging them with being Illuminati.[5]The Italian Carmelite friars had meanwhile been growing alarmed at the progress of the reform in Spain, lest, as one of their number said, they might one day be compelled to set about reforming themselves, a fear shared by their still unreformed Spanish brothers. At a general chapter at Piacenza several decrees were passed restricting the reform. The new apostolic nuncio dismissed Father Gratian from his office as visitor to the reformed Carmelites. Teresa was told to choose one of her convents and retire to it, and abstain from founding others. At this point she turned to her friends in the world, who were able to interest King Philip II[6] in her behalf, and he personally espoused her cause. He summoned the nuncio to rebuke him for his severity towards the discalced friars and nuns. In 1580 came an order from Rome exempting the reformed from the jurisdiction of the unreformed Carmelites, and giving each party its own provincial. Father Gratian was elected provincial of the reformed branch. The separation, although painful to many, brought an end to dissension.Teresa was a person of great natural gifts. Her ardor and lively wit was balanced by her sound judgment and psychological insight. It was no mere flight of fancy when the English Catholic poet, Richard Crashaw,[7] called her "the eagle" and "the dove." She could stand up boldly and bravely for what she thought was right; she could also be severe with a prioress who by excessive austerity had made herself unfit for her duties. Yet she could be gentle as a dove, as when she writes to an erring, irresponsible nephew, "God's mercy is great in that you have been enabled to make so good a choice and marry so soon, for you began to be dissipated when you were so young that we might have had much sorrow on your account." Love, with Teresa, meant constructive action, and she had the young man's daughter, born out of wedlock, brought to the convent, and took charge of her upbringing and that of his young sister.One of Teresa's charms was a sense of humor. In the early years, when an indiscreet male visitor to the convent once praised the beauty of her bare feet, she laughed and told him to take a good look at them for he would never see them again-implying that in the future he would not be admitted. Her method of selecting novices was characteristic. The first requirement, even before piety, was intelligence. A woman could attain to piety, but scarcely to intelligence, by which she meant common sense as well as brains. "An intelligent mind," she wrote, "is simple and teachable; it sees its faults and allows itself to be guided. A mind that is dull and narrow never sees its faults even when shown them. It is always pleased with itself and never learns to do right." Pretentiousness and pride annoyed her. Once a young woman of high reputation for virtue asked to be admitted to a convent in Teresa's charge, and added, as if to emphasize her intellect, "I shall bring my Bible with me." "What," exclaimed Teresa, "your Bible? Do not come to us. We are only poor women who know nothing but how to spin and do as we are told."In spite of a naturally sturdy constitution, Teresa continued throughout her life to suffer from ailments which physicians found baffling. It would seem that sheer will power kept her alive. At the time of the definitive division of the Carmelite Order she had reached the age of sixty-five and was broken in health. Yet during the last two years of her life she somehow found strength to establish three more convents. They were at Granada, in the far south, at Burgos, in the north, and at Soria, in Portugal. The total was now sixteen. What an astounding achievement this was for one small, enfeebled woman may be better appreciated if we recall the hardships of travel. Most of this extensive journeying was done in a curtained carriage or cart drawn by mules over the extremely poor roads; her trips took her from the northern provinces down to the Mediterranean, and west into Portugal, across mountains, rivers, and arid plateaus. She and the nun who accompanied her endured all the rigors of a harsh climate as well as the steady discomfort of rude lodgings and scanty food.In the autumn of 1582, Teresa, although ill, set out for Alva de Tormez, where an old friend was expecting a visit from her. Her companion of later years, Anne-of-St. Bartholomew, describes the journey. Teresa grew worse on the road, along which there were few habitations. They could get no food save figs, and when they arrived at the convent, Teresa went to bed in a state of exhaustion. She never recovered, and three days later, she remarked to Anne, "At last, my daughter, I have reached the house of death," a reference to her book, . Extreme Unction was administered by Father Antony de Heredia, a friar of the Reform, and when he asked her where she wished to be buried. she plaintively replied, "Will they deny me a little ground for my body here?" She sat up as she received the Sacrament, exclaiming, "O my Lord, now is the time that we shall see each other! " and died in Anne's arms. It was the evening of October 4. The next day, as it happened, the Gregorian calendar came into use. The readjustment made it necessary to drop ten days, so that October 5 was counted as October 15, and this latter date became Teresa's feast day. She was buried at Alva; three years later, following the decree of a. provincial chapter of Reformed Carmelites, the body was secretly removed to Avila. The next year the Duke of Alva procured an order from Rome to return it to Alva de Tormez, and there it has remained.Teresa was canonized in 1662. Shortly after her death, Philip II, keenly aware of the Carmelite nun's contribution to Catholicism, had her manuscripts collected and brought to his great palace of the Escorial, and there placed in a rich case, the key of which he carried on his person. These writings were edited for publication by two Dominican scholars and brought out in 1587. Subsequently her works have appeared in uncounted Spanish editions, and have been translated into many languages. An ever-spreading circle of readers through the centuries have found understanding and courage in the life and works of this nun of Castile, who is one of the glories of Spain and of the Church. Teresa's emblems are a heart, an arrow, and a book. Interior CastleThis body has one fault, that the more people pamper it, the more its wants are made known. It is strange how much it likes to be indulged. How well it finds some good pretext to deceive the poor soul! . . . Oh, you who are free from the great troubles of the world, learn to suffer a little for the love of God without everyone's knowing it! . . .And remember our holy fathers of past times and holy hermits whose life we try to imitate; what pains they endured, what loneliness, what cold, what hunger, what burning suns, without having anyone to complain to except God. Do you think that they were of iron? No, they were as much flesh as we are; and as soon as we begin, daughters, to conquer this little carcass, it will not bother us so much.... If you don't make up your mind to swallow, once and for all, death and loss of health, you will never do anything....God deliver us from anybody who wishes to serve Him and thinks about her own dignity and fears to be disgraced.... No poison in the world so slays perfection as these things do....There are persons, it seems, who are ready to ask God for favors as a matter of justice. A fine sort of humility! Hence He who knows all does well in giving it to them hardly ever; He sees plainly they are not fit to drink the chalice....Sometimes the Devil proposes to us great desires, so that we shall not put our hand to what we have to do, and serve our Lord in possible things, but stay content with having desired impossible ones. Granting that you can help much by prayer, don't try to benefit all the world, but those who are in your company, and so the work will be better for you are much bounden to them.... In short, what I would conclude with is that we must not build towers without foundations; the Lord does not look so much to the grandeur of our works as to the love with which they are done; and if we do all we can, His Majesty will see to it that we are able to do more and more every day, if we do not then grow weary, and during the little that this life lasts—and perhaps it will be shorter than each one thinks—we offer to Christ, inwardly and outwardly, what sacrifice we can, for His Majesty will join it with the one He made to the Father for us on the Cross, that it may have the value which our will would have merited, even though our works may be small.Although, as I told you, I felt reluctant to begin this work, yet now it is finished I am very glad to have written it, and I think my trouble is well spent, though I confess it has cost me but little.Considering your strict enclosure, the little recreation you have, my sisters, and how many conveniences are wanting in some of your convents, I think it may console you to enjoy yourselves in this Interior Castle, where you can enter, and walk about at will, at any hour you please, without asking leave of your superiors.It is true you cannot enter all the mansions by your own power, however great it may appear to you, unless the Lord of the Castle Himself admits you. Therefore I advise you to use no violence if you meet with any obstacle, for that would displease Him so much' that He would never give you admission to them. He dearly loves humility: if you think yourselves unworthy to enter the third mansion, He will grant you all the sooner the favor of entering the fifth. Then if you serve Him well there, and often repair to it, He will draw you into the mansion where He dwells Himself, where you need never depart, unless called away by the Prioress, whose commands the sovereign Master wishes you to obey as if they were His own. If, by her orders, you are often absent from His presence chamber, whenever you return He will hold the door open for you. When once you have learned how to enjoy this Castle, you will always find rest, however painful your trials may be, in the hope of returning to your Lord, which no one can prevent.Although I have only mentioned seven mansions, yet each one contains many more rooms, above, below, and around it, with fair gardens, fountains, and labyrinths, besides other things so delightful that you will wish to consume yourself in praising the great God for them, Who has created the soul in His own image and likeness. If you find anything in the plan of this treatise which helps you to know Him better, be certain that it is sent by His Majesty to encourage you, and whatever you find amiss in it is my own.In return for my strong desire to aid you in serving Him, my God and my Lord, I implore you, whenever you read this, to praise His Majesty fervently in my name, and to beg Him to prosper His Church, to give light to the Lutherans, to pardon my sins, and to free me from purgatory, where perhaps I shall be, by the mercy of God, when you see this book, provided it is given to you after having been examined by the theologians. If these writings contain any error, it is through my ignorance; I submit in all things to the teachings of the Holy Catholic Roman Church, of which I am now a member, as I protest and promise both to live and die. May our Lord God be forever praised and blessed. Amen. Amen.The writing of this was finished in the convent of Saint Joseph of Avila, in the year 1577, on the vigil of Saint Andrew, to the glory of God, Who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen(. London, 1912.)Endnotes:1 For extracts from St. Jerome's letters, see above, p. 93.2 The Carmelites were an order of mendicant friars claiming descent from hermits who lived on Mt. Carmel in Palestine in the sixth century. The order was founded in 1156, when a monastery was built on the mountain; the nuns of the order, which at this time were established in the Netherlands and Spain, were divided into three observances.3 This event is commemorated by the Carmelites on August 27.4 The Spanish Inquisition had been set up a century before by Ferdinand and Isabella. It was less severe in Teresa's day than it had been earlier.5 The Illuminati was a heretical secret society that denied dependence on the Church and claimed that salvation came through the enlightenment of each individual by his own vision of God.6 Philip II, son of the Emperor Charles V and husband of the English Catholic Queen, Mary, was a devout champion of the faith against Protestantism.7 Crashaw left England when Charles I was beheaded, became a Catholic priest, and spent his later years in Italy. One of his most eloquent poems is the "Hymn to the Adorable St. Teresa."Saint Teresa of Avila, Virgin, Foundress. Celebration of Feast Day is October 15. Taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.Provided Courtesy of:Eternal Word Television Network5817 Old Leeds RoadIrondale, AL 35210

2011-10-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

ngels & Demons from the Book to the Movie FAQ – Do the Illuminati Really Exist?by Massimo Introvigne

Again? After The Da Vinci Code another Ron Howard movie against the Catholic Church?The situation is not the same. The Da Vinci Code, both as a book and as a movie, did cause serious damage by attacking the very core of the Christian faith, the historical Jesus Christ and the Christian persuasion that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Angels & Demons was published before The Da Vinci Code, and originally was not very successful. Only after the Code was it republished and went on to become an international bestseller. The novel was quite anti-Catholic. Less so the movie, where some of the crudest anti-Catholic attacks of the novel have been omitted. The movie (a better movie than The Da Vinci Code as a thriller) does include a number of factual mistakes, but confusion about how the Pope is elected is admittedly less threatening for the faith than denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. Repeating old myths about the Illuminati does disturb professional scholars but is not directly against the Christian faith. From a Roman Catholic point of view the most disturbing parts of the movie are those spreading the false myth that the Church organized “purges” and massacres of scientists, and the cavalier way in which the delicate question of the relationship between faith and science is discussed. But there are literally hundreds of books, novels and movies spreading the same myths. Certainly Angels & Demons may be criticized for this, and Christian scholars would do well to set the record straight. But we are not confronted with the same level of anti-Christian attack of The Da Vinci Code. While the strong Christian reaction against the Code was unavoidable, mobilizing Christians in the same way against the movie Angels & Demons would probably amount to overkill. What about the conclave? Does the movie get it right?Not really. There are no “preferiti” (favorites) in a conclave, nor a “great elector” who is not himself eligible. In order to become Pope, contrary to what the movie claims, it is not necessary to be a bishop physically present in the Sistine Chapel (any male Catholic baptized, adult and celibate may be elected). In Angels & Demons a central character is a “camerlengo” who is not a cardinal. In fact, since the 15th century, the “camerlengo”, who manages the Church during the interregnum following the death of a Pope, is indeed a cardinal. Did the “great castration” of the “pagan” statues by the Blessed Pius IX (1792-1878) really happen?No, it didn’t. The legend dates back to English-language anti-clerical pamphlets of the late 19th century. What is true is that certain statues had their prominent genitalia covered by fig leaves. This happened at various stages during the 17th, 18th, and 19th century (not only in Rome) and was certainly not a new idea of Pius IX. The claim in the movie that pagan statues in the center of Rome were destroyed by Pius IX “at the end of the 19th century” is preposterous. At “the end of the 19th century” Pius IX was dead, and the center of Rome was administered by the (quite anti-clerical) Kingdom of Italy. If anything, Pius IX had a keen interest in archeology and in restoring the ancient historical and artistic monuments of Rome. He was even criticized for this by Catholics who believed that supporting Roman archeology was not part of the Church’s mission, or a waste of its resources. In the movie Langdon tells the story of “la Purga” (the Purge) as follows: “1668, the church kidnapped four Illuminati scientists and branded each one of them on the chest with the symbol of the cross, to purge them of their sins. And they executed them, threw their bodies in the street as a warning to others to stop questioning church ruling on scientific matters”. Did this really happen?No, it didn’t. No such execution or killing took place in 1668, nor at any other date. OK. But we all know that the Church was at war with science for centuries…The question of the relationship between religion and science in general, and science and the Catholic Church in particular, is very complicated. Certainly it cannot be solved by a movie in a two-minute speech. Vatican documents have recognized that mistakes were made by men of the Church (as well as by scientists). It is however important to recognize that science was born in the West (and it was not born elsewhere), as sociologist Rodney Stark has illustrated, mostly because of the Church’s teaching about a world created according to reason and about the possibility that human reason can discover the rules of the world. These efforts by human reason, which created science, were born in monasteries and Catholic universities. Several great scientists were pious Christians, not only in the Middle Ages. Other scientists did and do not like that the Church constantly reminds them that science should respect, just as any other fully human enterprise, certain moral limits, a topic which is must debated today. There have been and there are also some scientists who claim to be able to “prove” that God does not exist, a claim whose nature is obviously not scientific but religious in itself. Did Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) write a book known as Diagramma veritatis (Diagram of Truth)?No. In the movie, Langdon enters the Vatican Secret Archives, where inter alia the documents of the Galilei trial are kept. Are these documents really secret?The name “Vatican Secret Archives” is somewhat misleading. It is the historical name of the Vatican Archives but, at least from the end of the 19th century, any scholar with credentials (Catholic or non-Catholic) has no more trouble accessing documents there than in any other major archive throughout the world. The documents of the Galilei trial have been studied by many scholars, both Catholic and non-Catholic, in the last two centuries. Rather than concealing these documents the Vatican Secret Archives themselves started publishing an annotated edition in 1984. In the same Vatican Secret Archives, in a section “Banco Vaticano”, there is according to the movie a full inventory of the Catholic Church’s many possessions, including the works of art. True?False. There is no such inventory, nor does a Vatican bank called “Banco Vaticano” exists. The movie claims that English was forbidden in the 16th and 17th century by the Catholic Church as an “evil” language, and used by international scientists such as the Illuminati. This sounds strange. Is there some truth in it?No. Both the 16th and the 17th century had a sizeable Catholic literature in English. Scientists wrote mostly in Latin. In the novel (and in the movie) this strange theory is used in order to explain why exactly a secret society supposedly active in Rome in the 17th century such as the Illuminati should use word games in English and brand English words on the chest of their enemies (of course, the real answer is that Dan Brown originally wrote his novel in English and having in mind an English-speaking audience). Angels & Demons by Dan Brown is not the first bestselling novel claiming that the Illuminati were, or are, an important and powerful secret society. Is this only a novel?Not according to Dan Brown himself. He claims in his Web site that: “Secret societies like the Illuminati go to enormous lengths to remain covert. Although many classified intelligence reports have been written on the brotherhood, few have been published. Conspiracy theories on the Illuminati include infiltration of the British Parliament and U.S. Treasury, secret involvement with the Masons, affiliation with covert Satanic cults, a plan for a New World Order, and even the resurgence of their ancient pact to destroy Vatican City. Separating Illuminati fact from fiction can be difficult on account of the massive quantities of misinformation that has been generated about the brotherhood. Some theorists claim this plethora of misinformation is actually generated by the Illuminati themselves in an effort to discredit any factual information that may have surfaced. This concealment tactic – known as ‘data-sowing’ – is often employed by U.S. intelligence agencies”. Actually, Dan Brown seems to take the continuing existence of Illuminati even more seriously than his character Robert Langdon. But the existence of the Illuminati is an historical fact, isn’t it?Yes, it is. The Order of the Illuminati was established on May 1, 1776 at the University of Ingolstadt, then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria, in Germany, by a professor of law called Adam Weishaupt (1748-1830). The Illuminati were an interesting organization, with both esoteric rituals and a political aim, based on the Enlightenment philosophy and ultimately aimed at overthrowing the Roman Catholic and politically conservative Kingdom of Bavaria and replacing it with a liberal republic. Were the Illuminati part of Freemasonry?Not originally. Weishaupt was quite critical of Freemasonry and wanted to establish a different order with different rituals. He, however, failed to produce rituals interesting enough to attract a significant number of followers, and in February 1777 decided to be initiated as a Freemason in a Munich Masonic lodge known as Zur Behutsamkeit (“The Prudence”). In 1780, a prominent German Freemason, Baron Adolf Franz Friedrich Ludwig von Knigge (1752-1796), joined the Illuminati and by January 1782 he had rewritten their rituals in a much more Masonic form. Although this ritual was essentially Masonic, and many members were Freemasons, however, the Illuminati as such were not part of Freemasonry. Did these Illuminati succeed in their purposes?In a way, yes. The new ritual was quite successful, and the Illuminati were able to recruit some 2,500 members both in Bavaria and various European countries, not a small number by the standard of esoteric orders in general. On the other hand, the Illuminati’s political aim was not achieved. Between 1784-1787 documents were seized by the Bavarian police proving that theirs was a political plot aimed at overthrowing the government. Some members were arrested, although none was treated too severely by the Bavarian government, and they escaped with fines or a few months in jail, whilst Weishaupt himself fled Bavaria and lived quite peacefully in other parts of Germany until his death in 1830. The Illuminati survived outside Bavaria, thanks to the efforts of one of their leaders, Johann Joachim Christoph Bode (1730-1793), but had ceased any activity by 1790. Wasn’t there something sinister in the Illuminati’s activities?Yes. Their political activities were not confined to legal means. In October 1786 the police raided the home of a prominent member of the Illuminati, the diplomat Franz Xavier von Zwack (1755-1843), and seized documents indicating that the Order was ready to poison several of its political foes, although these plans were never executed. But didn’t the Illuminati claim a much older origin than 1776?Yes, they did. Weishaupt originally claimed that the Illuminati originated with the last King of Persia who was a Zoroastrian by religion, Yadzegerd III (†651 d.C.), although he confused him with Yadzegerd II (†457 d.C., King of Persia from 438 to 457), and built a whole genealogy listing many famous historical characters. When Knigge joined the Order, he asked Weishaupt for evidence of this genealogy. Weishaupt wrote back in January 1781 that the genealogy was an “innocent lie”, in fact needed because not many would have joined a newly established order (see René Le Forestier, Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande, Paris: Hachette 1914, 227 – the book is the doctoral dissertation of a famous French historian, and a key source for the Illuminati). Rather than being offended, Knigge agreed that a mythical genealogy was indeed needed, and proceeded to build one of his own, where the Illuminati were declared as having originally been founded by Noah, and revived after a period of decline by St John the Evangelist. What about the Knights Templar? Weren’t they somewhat involved, too?Yes, according to Knigge’s genealogy. In fact, at that time the Knights Templar were claimed as ancestors by the German Freemasonry as a whole. When modern Freemasonry came from its original United Kingdom to continental Europe, many European nobles were not prepared to join an order whose real origins were in the professional corporations of “free masons”, including architects, building contractors but also common stonemasons. In 1736, André Michel de Ramsay (1686-1743) told in a famous discourse the French nobles he hoped to recruit into Freemasonry that, in fact, the British corporations of “free masons” were the places where persecuted knights went into hiding, thus creating a mythical (but more acceptable) origin for the Masonic lodges. In Germany, were speculations about an alleged secret prosecution of the Roman Catholic Order of the Knights Templar, suppressed by the Catholic Church in 1307, were quite widespread, Ramsay’s “persecuted knights” were quickly identified with the Knights Templar. While it is true that the Knights Templar did survive in some countries for a century after their suppression, legends of a secret prosecution after the XV century are regarded as “hopelessly stupid” (in the words of famous French historian Régine Pernoud [1909-1998]) by academic historians of Templarism. In fact, from the 18th century on, most esoteric orders give to their members mythical genealogies that would include the Knights Templar, Noah, Saint John or King Solomon, as well as famous people of literature and art. Usually, most of their members are aware of the merely symbolic and mythical character of these genealogies. Certainly, both Weishaupt and Knigge were aware that their genealogies were “symbolic” or, more simply, made up by themselves. There were no Illuminati before 1776. But weren’t the Illuminati the driving force behind the French Revolution?Not really. Anti-revolutionary authors, including Protestant John Robison (1739-1805) and Roman Catholic Father Augustin Barruel (1741-1820), claimed that the French Revolution was the result of a Masonic conspiracy, and that the Illuminati were the secret leaders of the French Freemasonry. We do not need to address here the complicate question of the relationship between Freemasonry, Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. What is historically clear, however, is that the Illuminati, who were about to cease their existence in 1789, did not play any crucial role in the preparation of the French Revolution. The links between the Bavarian group and the French Freemasonry were tenuous at best, and in fact many French Freemasons were quite hostile to the Illuminati, and certainly not prepared to accept the leadership of a German order. For a number of political reasons, however, Robison’s theories were particularly successful in the United States, where President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was accused of being a member of the dreaded sect. But wasn’t the back part of the Great Seal of the United States, the one we still see on the dollar bill, a symbol of the Illuminati?No, no matter how many books (and movies) claim it. The pyramid and eye symbol is never found among the Illuminati. Actually it is not even a Masonic symbol, although there are similar symbols in Freemasonry, where a fascination with Egypt was widespread in the 18th and 19th century. The particular pyramid used in the Great Seal was derived from Pyramidographia, a book published in 1646 in London by John Greaves (1602-1652), based on his trip to Egypt. The eye was introduced by Congress Secretary Charles Thomson (1729-1824) – who was not a Freemason – in his 1792 speech prior to the Seal’s Congressional acceptance as a very Christian “eye of the Providence”, presiding over the destiny of the United States. As such, it is featured in a number of Christian churches and symbols, quite apart from, and well before, its use within the frame of Masonic rituals. Didn’t many always accept the theory, however, that the Illuminati were leading the world or, at least, the U.S.A.?Not before 1975. From the mid-19th century to 1975 the theory of the great Illuminati conspiracy remained the province of fringe “conspirationist” authors, not particularly well-known by the general public. In 1975, a trilogy known as Illuminatus was published by Robert Joseph Shea (1933-1994) and Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007). The three novels were written somewhat tongue-in-check, and Shea and Wilson were part of a neo-pagan group known as the Discordians, worshippers of Eris the Great Goddes of Chaos through “cosmic jokes”. Actually, these are libertarian novels, where Weishaupt does not die in Germany but emigrates to the American British Colonies, where he assumes the name of George Washington and establishes the United States. When the U.S. evolve into an authoritarian, repressive state under the secret leadership of the Illuminati, Discordians organize the resistance in the name of liberty, Chaos, and the Great Goddess Eris. It is after Shea and Wilson’s novels that the Illuminati start popping up literally everywhere, from Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault’s Pendulum (1988) to the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), including countless comics, role-playing games, and miscellaneous pieces of fiction. Unfortunately, some did not realize the nature of the Illuminatus novels, or even claimed that Shea and Wilson revealed a real conspiracy under the guise of fiction. This theory achieved a certain degree of success among Protestant fundamentalists. Its leading proponent, Milton William Cooper (1943-2001), died in a confrontation with law enforcement officers on November 5, 2001. He refused to pay taxes to the U.S. government, claiming it was controlled by the Illuminati. What about the Skull and Bones, the famous fraternal society of Yale’s students and alumni? One hears frequently that it is part of the Illuminati…No relation. The Skull and Bones was established in 1832 by William Huntington Russell (1809-1885), when the original Illuminati were long since dead. Some tenuous similarity may be explained by the fact that both Weishaupt’s Illuminati and Russell’s Skull and Bones did take inspiration in the many “secret” student societies which existed in German universities since the 18th century. By the way, many stories told about the Skull and Bones are simply tall tales – they are just another academic fraternity, including famous people because famous people do happen to have studied at Yale –, and in 1986 it was finally ascertained that even their famous skull did not really belong to legendary Indian chief Geronimo (1829-1909). The Apaches, to which The Skull and Bones was prepared to give back the skull, declared it unconnected with Geronimo and refused it. But didn’t an Order of the Illuminati exist in the 20th century, too?Yes. Within the framework of the German occult revival at the end of the 19th century, Leopold Engel (1858-1931) “revived” – in his own words – the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati on March 12, 1901. He and his associate Theodor Reuss (1855-1923) – later to become famous as a sexual magician and an associate of famous British occult master Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) – were spreading the word that the order was being revived since 1896. Later, they claimed that the revival took place in 1880, but this date is certainly false. As usual, Engel and Reuss told the members of their newly founded order that it was both very old and a legitimate continuation of the Bavarian Illuminati, whose succession had been transmitted from father to son within Reuss’ family. It was claimed that the Illuminati originated in India and Egypt, were behind the Italian Renaissance and post-Renaissance art and science (hence the references to Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Galileo Galilei, quite familiar to the readers of Angels & Demons), and included among their members an impressive rooster of historical characters, from Ulysses and Aristoteles (384-322 b.C.) to – yes, indeed – Thomas Jefferson. Once again, however, Engel did admit – in writing – that this genealogy was mythical and symbolic, and should not be taken at face value. As for the story of a family succession connecting Reuss to the Bavarian Illuminati, Engel later declared that it was a figment of Reuss’ imagination. Who was Leopold Engel, exactly?An interesting character. He was a member of the inner circle of the loosely organized movement including the followers of the Austrian Christian visionary and mystic Jakob Lorber (1800-1864). In fact, Engel “received” spiritually (today, the word “channelled” would be used) the missing eleventh volume of Lorber’s masterpiece The Great Gospel of John, a volume still accepted as a legitimate part of the Lorber canon by many (although by no means all) Lorberians. He was also a prolific science fiction and dime novels writer. In fact, he seemed to lead a dual life, keeping his Lorberian and Illuminati activities quite separate, although the Illuminati materials written by Engel do show the influence of Lorber. Do Engel’s Illuminati still exist?Yes. Although persecuted in Nazi Germany, the Illuminati were able to survive in Switzerland, particularly thanks to the efforts of Felix Lazerus Pinkus (1881-1947), a rich left-wing economist. supported in many ways Hermann Joseph Metzger (1919-1990), a baker by trade as well as a stage hypnotist, who maintained alive the Order of the Illuminati until his death in 1990, and created an Illuminati center in the Swiss village of Stein, in the Canton of Outer Appenzell. A small number of his disciples continued the activities there under the leadership of Annemarie Aeschbach (1926-2008). After Aeschbach's death in 2008 their activity is very limited, but they remain the only legitimate heirs of Engel’s Illuminati. Of course one can join a number of other “Orders of the Illuminati”, some of them online by paying a fee, but these do not even have the legitimacy of a succession from Engel’s organization. Can we characterize the Illuminati, as Dan Brown would have it, as a conspiracy to destroy the Vatican and its power in the name of reason and science?As mentioned earlier, the names of famous scientists mentioned as Illuminati are part of mythical genealogies with no historical basis. The Illuminati were mostly recruited among lawyers, governmental officers, and even liberal clergymen, with very few scientists, if any. Weishaupt’s Illuminati taught to their new members a rather tame version of the Enlightenment philosophy, quite close to the ideas of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Weishaupt ostensibly claimed to be against the continuing reactionary influence of the Jesuits (temporarily suppressed in 1773), but not against Roman Catholicism per se. However, those who reached his inner circle discovered a strong anticlericalism and anti-Catholicism, and some documents openly promoted secular humanism and atheism. Anticlericalism was also a feature of Engel’s order, although not a particularly prominent one. No historical Illuminati order ever boasted that it would “destroy the Vatican”, a claim which would seem quite preposterous to anybody who would take into account the real number of their members and the extension of their activities Were, or are, the Illuminati a very powerful order?They certainly aren’t any powerful today. The main aim of the Stein group, reduced to less than a dozen members, is to survive. Engel’s group did not have any particular power. It had a certain cultural influence and initiated two distinguished novelists, Gustav Meyrink (1868-1932) and Franz Spunda (1890-1963), but this was rather limited to the occult subculture itself. The Bavarian Illuminati were a much more important organization, and deserve more than a footnote in German history. They managed to include among their members three ruling princes, Duke Charles August of Saxony-Weimar (1757-1828), Duke Ernst II of Saxony-Gotha (1745-1804), and Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick (1721-1792). In 1783 Duke Charles August persuaded two famous protegés of his, Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) and Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803), at that time the two leading German intellectuals, to join him among the Illuminati, although both, having been initiated, were never particularly active in the Order. Weishaupt and his close associates, unbeknownst to these princes and luminaries, were able to use the Illuminati for a very real political conspiracy, aimed at seizing power in Bavaria, which came close to succeed. Having said so much, it is equally important not to exaggerate the Bavarian Illuminati’s role, which was close to non-existent outside Germany, and to remember that by 1790 they had fully ceased to exist. Those who want to persuade us that a secret Illuminati cabal did lead the world from the Renaissance to the 19th century, and continues to do so today, have a very difficult burden of proof, and never even came close to produce documents or evidence that such is the case.CESNUR reproduces or quotes documents from the media and different sources on a number of religious issues. Unless otherwise indicated, the opinions expressed are those of the document's author(s), not of CESNUR or its directors.

2011-10-13T18:39:00.001-07:00

I want to warn all of you that this post is going to be real controversial. Some of you are going to find it offensive and some of you might agree with what I have to say… All I ask is that the comments about this post be presented in an educated manor. I will give the same respect to you if I post on your wall. Journal Entry10/11/2011As I watch the news I become frightened at what I see. I find myself wondering if free thought has gone through the window in Mississippi. I have no doubt that the prop. 28. Legislation will pass and all abortions be made illegal. In the Roe V. Wade trial it was found that women could legally have an abortion. Mississippi saying that it is going to shut down all clinics is unprecedented. I do not agree with abortions but one must realize that God has nothing to do with the law. In a letter that Benjamin Franklin wrote to a friend, he stated that religion had nothing to do with politics. The law is absent of race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation. People like to twist the law to make it fit their own means. I hope someone takes Mississippi to the Supreme Court.In Pike County people have started to say the Lord’s Prayer at ballgames when the Supreme Court decided that religion should be left off of school grounds. If I were a Jew and my child were made to pray at a ballgame I would be furious. Now let’s turn the tables shall we. Let’s say that Christianity was in the minority of all religions and a child was made to say a Jewish prayer. Would you not as a parent be offended that your child was made to say a Jewish prayer? In schools people who are homosexual have had a hell of a time in Mississippi schools. When I become a social worker I am going to report every instance of school bullying that comes across my desk and prosecute them to the extent that the law will allow. What happened to free thought? People want educated people to come to Mississippi to make it a better place but how is a person of educated through supposed to feel when people are still using the term “homo” “rag head” “sand nigger” and the list goes on. God forbid you were a…. should I dare say it…., Atheist!!!! At this point I can hear the huddled mass cringing as they read this post. At the Monkey Scopes trial the Supreme Court rules that evaluation could be taught in classes. The story about Eve’s rib is scientifically impossible. That is not saying that God did not create women but in that part of the Bible it was a symbolic jester of defining man and women. In closing I have to wonder what my “great state” is going to do next. Mississippi wines and complains because it does not have enough artists or scientist. There is a news flash for you guys; most of your scientists are either Atheists or Muslim. Most of your artists do not follow traditional Christianity and have sought to find their own form of religion to better expand their view on life. Until Mississippi can allow for free thought and let the intellectual community thrive and stop giving into closed minded people and oppression then Mississippi has nowhere to go. I have said my peace and have a nice day.Tyler

No Hate

2011-09-12T13:51:00.001-07:00

People often wonder how I could be so open to many people and many different cultures, it is due to the simple fact that one must see the big picture before one can really measure how much of an impact we make in this life. Many people, who know me, know that I have a “No Hate” policy. When I say “no hate policy” I simply mean that no derogatory terminology should be directed to a single group. As far as Facebook is concerned I think that a person should be able to get on their own PERSONAL Facebook without having to defend their self every time they turn around. This weekend I was subject to messages that were of an anti Muslim subject matter. Those letters have been sent to Facebook staff. Anyone that has been on the receiving end of hate knows where I am coming from. I have been called everything from “nigger lover” to “terrorist” and a lot of other words. I am sorry that me having an open mind offends people. I will stand up against those people who are of a closed mind and speak my peace. I welcome a debate but PLEASE make it an educated one. Don’t just say “all Muslims are terrorists”. At USM I was spit in the face because I stood up for what I believed in and the ACLU and other organizations backed me up. What do you say to that gay person who was beat and dragged at the end of a truck in Texas? What do you say to that soldier who fights for the US that he is going to have to hide his family because the very country he has fought for is turning against him? You should see the faces when I mention the fact that our own Government has committed genocide as far as Native Americans are concerned. This Nation was founded on the Freedom of religion and the freedom of speech. As I stated earlier all I ask is that you come at me with an educated statement. I promise complex sentences are not hard to make. I was asked if racism in the south still existed and I said yes and no. It is not as bad as it used to be but racism still exists in some places. It is time for some people to wake up and realize the world is bigger than they are. I have a friend who is an atheist and we argue all the time but I accept him for who he is because he comes at me with educated material. To those people who hate “rag heads” or “niggers” I really pray for you. I pray that one day that you will find peace and realize that we are all one people with different beliefs. I wish all of you the best and I have listed the site for the ACLU if anyone needs it!Have a Nice Day

2011-09-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

For many, the ten year anniversary of 9/11 will be an emotionally charged time. People lost friends and loved ones on September 11, 2001, and those who didn’t know people who did. President George W. Bush had a great opportunity, as did the American people, to use the events of 9/11 to unite us and work together to make the world a better, safer place for all people. Instead, Bush and his White House team used the 9/11 attacks to make money, create disunity among the people, break international law, attack our fundamental freedoms and increase their political power. Here are some of the ways in which 9/11 was misused by those in power and the people in general and how the events of 9/11 are being exploited to this day.1. We have used the attacks to censor dissenting voices. The terrorist attacks pushed us to censor our media. War friendly voices at the New York Times helped sell the Iraq war for the administration. Meanwhile, the millions of people who protested Bush’s saber rattling were not heard from. Massive anti-war protests got far less media coverage than today’s much smaller Tea Party rallies.2. The attacks were an excuse to create an unprecedented surveillance regime. The United States government has a history of spying on the American people under the guise of security and during a time of perceived national threat. The events of 9/11 are no exception. The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, better known by its acronym, the USA PATRIOT Act, was signed by President Bush on October 26, 2001, barely a month after the 9/11 attacks. This law allows the government to act unconstitutionally in the name of freedom. Constitutional Amendments can be circumvented through the Patriot Act. The protection against unlawful searches and seizures (Amendment IV) is violated by Title III in the PATRIOT Act. The right to a speedy trial (Amendment VI) is circumvented by the Act’s provision for indefinite detentions if a person is deemed a “national security threat.” In fact, all provisions of Amendment VI can be deemed null and void for security purposes according to the PATRIOT Act. Furthermore, the law also eliminates the need for the signing of warrants by judges and almost entirely eliminates the judiciary from decisions in criminal cases regarding terrorism.3. The Bush Doctrine of preemptive war and unilateralism was justified due to the 9/11 attacks. For all of the noise made over Obama’s actions in Libya, no President has gotten a formal Congressional authorization for war since WWII. But President Bush took his war power one step further, introducing the nation to the concept of “preemptive war.” He decided it was okay to attack sovereign nations because of the perceived threat they posed, specifically, the possibility that Iraq might have WMDs, and amazingly, that was enough for most members in Congress. Although many people no longer supports the wars, the wars continue, albeit with some signs of a draw down in the near future.4. Our post 9/11 national security regimen has legitimized torture. Because we were (and are) angry and wanted revenge, we said nothing when the Bush Administration (along with Congress) approved the torture of terrorism suspects, a policy whose opposition seems to consist of nothing more than lip service from the Obama Administration. Sadly, the American people have also expressed support for torture, even when they learn that it does not work as a means of garnering reliable intelligence.. We used 9/11 to justify the rendition terrorist suspects. Rendition means taking a terrorist suspect from the United States, where we will be judicially banned from torturing them, to a nation such as Syria. Syria is the home of President Assad, a known war criminal. And in Syria, they have no qualms about using torture on those who may, or may not, be terrorists.6. People used 9/11 to justify their Xenophobia and Islamophobia. Attacks on Muslims rose in the United States after 9/11, as did the hateful rhetoric. People will argue that this type of behavior is “unAmerican.” I would counter that it is very American…and European, and African, and Asian. In fact, it’s human. The more we fight the tendency to stereotype entire communities based on the actions of a handful of people who just happen to be tied culturally to Islamic terrorists, the better.7. The terrorist attacks were used to increase military budgets and expand our mercenary army. We have spent $208 billion on private contractors for the war effort. Reports estimate that at least $30 billion of that amount consisted of pure waste. People say we can’t afford food stamps, but they look away when it comes to war spending. The misuse of our capital due to the 9/11 attacks is staggering. This spending not only led to larger deficits but was also one of the major causes of our economic collapse.8. We used these attacks and the wars to reelect of George W Bush. George W. Bush was both reviled, and reelected, because of his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ironically, the same President who failed to heed national security warnings prior to 9/11 was praised for “protecting us” since 9/11. Not only did this “protection” lead to further war spending and huge tax cuts to the top 1%, but also to further deregulation of the banking industry which, in turn, had an enormous impact on the recent recession.The 9/11 attacks have been used to justify the heinous behavior by a handful of our troops overseas and continuous attacks on civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The 9/11 attacks have brought out our racism and xenophobia and shown our worst character. Instead of a nationalistic ceremony of puffery followed by hatred and fear, my hope is that the anniversary of 9/11 can be, for some, a somber occasion to remember those lost. It can also be a time to rebuff those who have taken advantage of the attacks for personal gain.Peace, Tex SheltersPhoto credit: http://www.aclu.org/photo Edited By: Sherri YarbroughCopied from:

Still I rise

2011-08-31T13:58:00.000-07:00

Still I rise By Maya Angelou

You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?'Cause I walk like I've got oil wellsPumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,Just like hopes springing high,Still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken?Bowed head and lowered eyes?Shoulders falling down like teardrops.Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you?Don't you take it awful hard'Cause I laugh like I've got gold minesDiggin' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I'll rise. Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surpriseThat I dance like I've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shameI riseUp from a past that's rooted in painI riseI'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that's wondrously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.I riseI riseI rise. Maya Angelou

Update

2011-08-30T14:37:00.001-07:00

I hope this message finds everyone in good spirits. Some people have inquired as to how I am doing these days and I wanted to include everyone in one letter. As I was drinking out of my Harry Potter mug that my sister bought me I looked upon how far I have gotten. First off I have waited and will apply for a degree in clinical social work. As most of you know I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and hit rock bottom. I entered into a treatment program and I decided that I wanted to enter clinical social work because I could interact with clients better if they know I suffer from the same condition as they do. My case manager suffers from bipolar disorder and it has helped me to know that he is going through the same things I feel.
This time last year I was a wreck and generally had lost my faith in God. Not many people know that but now it is in the open. I started praying every time I was feeling down, every time I cried, every time I saw someone in need, and in doing so I have come to know God! I realized that one must work to know God. With my history background I have been researching the nature of the term “God”. It is a natural human emotion to seek the “divine”. In finding God I have opened up to my therapist and I can feel God working with me now to heal. I want everyone to know that one is not “cured” of a psychological disorder or an addiction; one MUST be in “control”. Everyone has their own cross to carry and I have found that it is up to each individual rather you are Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or whatever religion you choose, that you must work to accomplish a connection with the divine.
I did not get to this road alone. Sadly a lot of my friends have left and I do not blame them for some of the things I put them through. However there were some friends who stayed and help me through this process. I want to thank my parents for all that they have done for me. I want to thank my sister no matter what I know you love me and I know that you will always speak the truth. There are other friends out there (you know who you are) who have helped me. Now that I have started what some might call the “blossoming” process I must get a plan in order. Short term goal is to stay in control of my condition. My second goal is to get a degree in clinical social work and work in drug court. I will subject myself to random drug test and continue seeking psychological help just so that my clients see that I am going through the same thing. The third is acquiring a membership with the American Psychological Association and advocate for the need of knowledge of psychological disorders in religion. The Buddhist already has that up and going, it’s called Buddhist Psychology. I am not going to hide my problem I am going to advocate because there are people that need help and I can only pray that God gives me strength to do so. With a warm heart I wish all of you well and may God bless you.
Ps. I want to say a special thanks to my Muslim friends in the UK for helping me as well for the US. To you I say As-Salaam'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakatu..

Freedom at Last!

2011-08-22T16:53:00.001-07:00

Today in Washington the monument was reviled for the late Rev Dr, and Martin Luther King . If it were not for his dedication and hard work many people of color would not have accomplished the goals they worked so hard to accomplish. Both black and white people worked together to abolish the so called “Jim Crow Law”. The “separate but equal” clause was a joke. Even though there were separate facilities, the construction was totally different. For example in the movie the help a bathroom was made for one of the maids who ran the house but it was small and only made out of four pieces of wood. People of color were scared to speak their mind and I personally applaud their efforts to obtain freedom. I think we should all take a moment of our time to talk to people from that time period. I think there is a lot we could learn. My hat goes off to you Dr. King, your legacy lives on today. I thank you for liberating the south from closed minded thought and hatred for people just because of the color of their skin.
“I have a dream that my four little children will not be judged by their color of their skin but by the content of their character”.

Making blog Agian

2011-08-19T20:34:00.001-07:00

I have no clue as to what to say today. I know this is so EMO of me but I feel as though people do not understand me. I also feel that they do not understand my condition and sometimes that is frustrating to me. Psychology has made great stride in recent years. For those of you that do not know I have Bipolar disorder and thankfully I have it under control with the help of my therapist. I guess you could say in a way that it is a blessing to me because it has allowed me to find the existence of God. When I say God I am not just talking about Christianity, I am talking about God in the sence of all relegions. If one looks through the history of religion one will find that it is man’s nature to search for the devine. When you have something like I have you have to reach out to that higher power so that you can obtain the strength to continue. There are a lot of people who turn their nose up at people who have mental disorders and claim that their son or daughter is perfect.
I have no idea where I would be if we had not gotten control of my condition. It is hard living in the place I live because the people are so close minded. If you are not a white person who goes to church you are basically left out of the loop here and referred to as “trash”. As far as the “giving of tides” I give my tides in helping to keep the supply house stocked for the homeless people. People in church write those checks but they never want to see the people they help. I know I just made a lot of people mad with that comment but it is the truth. I find it so funny when potations all of a sudden find God when they want to win an election. God can give just as much as he can take away and that goes for any religion.
The things I want to do before I die is go to a Masque and witness their religion. The religion of Islam is a very beautiful religion. I have taught many people from overseas how to teach English and the nicest people I have ever met have been Muslims. There is a restaurant in Hattiesburg that I go to and the people are so nice there and I can read about Islam without anyone turning their nose up at me. As for the Masque they want to build in Mississippi, I say go for it. I have not heard of its compleation yet but I want to go. Regardless of what people say, we are not at war with Muslims. We are at war with extremists. Christians have killed Muslims; look at the guy in Norway who shot all those people just because they were Muslim. I think the Muslim religion will enhance my knowlage of God and I will have a better understanding of their religion.
I have a friend named Ema who lives in Saudi Arabia who has been so kind to me and has taught me so much about the Muslim religion. I can also tell you that the Muslim relgion is very accepting of those with Mental disorders. I know people who go to church who have mental disorders and people turn their nose up at them the first chance they get. One of the rules of Islam is that all creatures of God are to be treated with respect. In Mecca it is against the law of the Qur’an to kill anything within those walls. The reason some Muslims want American troops out is because of the violence.
Do not get me wrong I love my troops, they are men and women who deserve the utmost respect for doing what they do for their country but now that we have fought for them what is going to happen when we leave. According for some sources the people are not ready for the Americans to leave because they have not been properly trained but we can no longer afford a war. In closing all I ask is that you open up your mind when someone tells you that they have a disorder and be kind and respectful of other people’s religions. I dream of the day when the people of Brookhaven can interact without anyone treating them badly because they are different.

Memories

2010-04-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

Memories

This weekend dad decided to pull out the family photos because our family renunion is around the corner. As I was looking at pictures of myself growing up, I could not help but notice how much I had changed, the lessons I was taught, and how religiously centered I am now. After leaving USM I left a lot of friends behind and I also left a legacy, which to this day lasts in some organizations I helped. It is the “what would Tyler do notion”. My whole life has been dedicated to helping people. The only ting about life is how it shows you the “real world”. Since leaving USm I can count my friends on one hand. It is because of this that I have started a deepening of prayer because I am afraid I am going to loose the thought of “humanity”. I have often considered entering a monastery but some monks decided to fight the battle on the streets and meet their fears head on.

I see the violence of this world and it causes me great pain every time I see it because I have discovered something within me that I wish other people could find. A lot of people have told me that I have touched them in some way and I do not see it. They said I have this uncanny way of showing people that there is hope. I just try to do the right thing. I guess my theological journey is over and the walk in the “real world” begins. I have found a job and will now work on my student loans. Mabye one day I will get a master degree. I was so sad when I left USM. I miss the Choctaw people so much and there are people of other tribes that I miss as well. Most of them have become family. I do not fit in where I am now. I concentrate on philosophy and try to engage in philosophical conversation but I guess the place I live in is not such a place.

I dream of one day going to another country and studying. I want to grab as much knowledge as I can and put it into good use. Some people have taken knowledge and used it for evil. I want to combat that and use it for good. With the knowledge I gain I can go into third world countries and try and make a difference. I am one of those people who want to go into Tibet and save the Tibetan monks who are beaten daily by the Chinese government. I want to go to the Vatican and learn everything I can about my Christian faith. I want to feed the poor, cloth the naked, and teach the faith. I find myself wondering if I would be on the same path knowing the same things in high school as I know now. I Strule on the daily bases, dealing with the fact that I am no longer included in the intellectual spectrum. I write in my journals, I read my books, but what impact am I making. I guess all of this boils down to the fact that my work is not done yet and what road will I be given next. I pray to God that he will pave the way for me to further my education. If it were not for the Catholic Church I do not know where I would be right now. God has been so generous in finding me a job. I hope that he is as generous helping me to further my education.

Tyler Meador
“Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them. “
-Saint Thomas Aquinas-

Why Violence?

2010-04-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

Why Violence?

O Goddess of the Americas I ask you, with your torch burning bright, why must there be violence?
To the man sitting without a home, I reach out to you with open arms.
To those who have nothing to wear, I will cloth you!
In this land of plenty why must we resort to violence?
I see before me fields of dead soldiers and a land that has lost it rights.
The people starve for a greater day, and you only turn your back…
As a land of freedom, why must we resort to violence?
In a land of free religion and free speech why are people fighting for a “Supreme God”.
O Goddess of the Americas you stand tall with your torch in one had and a proclamation to the poor in the other.
You could feed a third world country and yet you want more.
You could help those who could help their selves but you choose not to.
My knees are bleeding from prayer, my eyes are sore from crying, and what else can I offer?
Will I see hope once again?
Will I see freedom once again?
Will I one day resort to violence? Will I as many other loose their humanity?
I stand before you today as a philosopher, a person of prayer, a person of charity and WILL NOT RESORT TO VIOLANCE!

Dear Friends.

2010-03-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

My dear friends I cannot believe in a few weeks that I will be Catholic. I must say that this path is a journey that I will never forget. The bond between God our Father and our ever most Virgin Mary has become stronger. I have found myself being tribute to trials and tribulations on my road into Holy Mother Church. I can say that the church has made me a more pious person and I constantly pray for the utmost humility. I will be taking the name Maxamillian after St. Maximillian Kolbe which was a Saint who harbored artist and other people during WWII in Germany, Soon after St Maxamillian found himself in a concentration camp. Unlike many priests in the camps, he was branded with the purple triangle. Because he harbored artist it was automatically assumed that he was a homosexual under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. During this time it was common for many of the clergy to harbor people because the people during WWII did not want to mess with those in a monastic life. I took at St. Maximillian to always teach me to love all those who society has kicked out and to always be humble in the things I possess.

As I pray my rosary I always ask for prayers of those who are in purgatory, epically those people that have no one to pray for them. I think the fact that I am legally blind was meant to teach me how to endure even when those swell against me. Not only do I have the church to thank for me being who I am today but I was also blessed to have many Native American friends which I believe to be the true people of God. Aba is a name that many Choctaw people use to call the Sun God (this was before the influence of Christianity). Aba is also Aramaic for the term “creator” I see something linking our two religions that many people tend to forget. I also have my friends to thank for giving me the strength to press on. I will always be grateful and know I am always here for you.

Your Humble Servant in Christ,

Tyler Maxamillian Neal Meador.

First and foremost

2010-03-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

First and foremost I would like to address the state of education in Mississippi. My dear fellow citizens of the United States of America … It has come to my attention that government no longer wants to support education. If the lack of funding continues in Mississippi, only those who have money will be able to afford an education. Nationally tuition rates keep increasing and college students are not able to afford a proper college education. I was very fortunate to be able to complete my education at USM. I was also very fortunate to have great teachers in high school who never gave up on me. It was because of those opportunities that were presented to me that paved the way for my education. I am afraid that we are turning back the clock on this nation. I can say that I am afraid that one day people will not be able to purchase religious text with the backing of the “freedom of religion” clause because the constitution is being ripped apart. I have many ideas written in journals but they are my personal ideas, I never force them on anyone. I do tend to lean toward a socialist point of view in some cases. I am not too liberal and I am not too conservative. I do see the need to offer places that give people a free education.
Everyone keeps complaining about the crime rate, but have we really done something about it? Have people thought about exposing those in impoverished communities the chance to listen to classical music or better yet teaching them Latin. I do not have this “let’s keep out niggers in place” mentality that sadly to say, that type of thinking is still alive in Mississippi. Yeah its going to be hard to offer an education to people of lower classes because of the damage that has been done. If you tell someone that they are “ghetto” then they will be nothing more than what you treat them. That is the respoce that gang members give as a response to theier officers. As a Catholic I do not see race and I see the need to educate everyone. If nothing else make sure that kids know how to read and write. I can not tell you how many people I have met that can not read or write.
I was told by my doctor that I would never read and write and here I am a college graduate. With the help of my superiors, I am able to think for myself and provide possible solutions for the hard days ahead. You might be thinking “where is the money going to come from”, ITS CALLED VAULENTEER WORK!!!! We in this nation think too much about ourselves, rather than thinking about the whole. Most of you do not have to worry about getting shot in your own house because you live in a safe neighborhood. Many people I have found are quick to not hire those with a Liberal Arts Degree. We are the people that create the ideas that help this nation, WITHOUT EDUCATED PEOPLE THERE WOULD BE NO NATION!!!! I am not forcing you to read what I have put in this blog, but please consider what I have written so that hopefully someone in cyber space will hear my idea and make it into actual reality.

God Bless.
Tyler

We will miss you Chief Martin

2010-02-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

Dearest Friends

As we grow we learn many life lessons, many lessons teach us how to be strong, some lessons we learn are for the heart and some are the lessons of life. In my few but what feels like long years on this earth, many friends have come in and out of my life. Some friends have stayed and some have traveled onto other places weather that is the heavenly kingdom, or just traveling the separate roads that life gives us. I am thankful for those friends who have stuck with me and I am thankful for those friends who have traveled on. I thank God all the time for their friendship. As I ponder the reasoning of Chief Martin’s death, I come to understand that people come and go, but we always will meet in the afterlife. I posted a poem not too long ago about a person not being in their grave. It’s an old Native American Prayer:

INDIAN PRAYER
Do not stand at my grave & weep,
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you wake in morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave & cry,
I am not there. I did not die.
- Author Unknown

I never got to deal with Chief Martin but I have come to know many people of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians as friends, family, and people who I find are more complex than people give them credit for. These truly are the people of God. Just like my other friends the Native Americans have come in and out of my life, each one has a place in my heart, and their lessons will always remain there. One of the many things that were taught to me, taught to me by my good friend Doc is that we always respect the dead. I look at the earth so differently after working with these people. I went on to stay with the Kiowa Nation in Oklahoma with my good friend Doug and learned even more. Each tribe I meet helps me to grow. Although I am not Native American, I can say that Native Americans have greatly influenced my religion, philosophy, and general outlook on life.

If anything I wish the soul of Chief Martin peace. I know that his people will come together. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Story is one of adversity and so is the story of the Kiowa Nation. I cannot explain the feeling I got meeting the first Gourd Dancers and dancing on the Kiowa reservation, the birth place of the Gourd Dance. Like many Native Americans I have come to know my friend Doug as not only a teacher, but a friend. If when I die I do not want people to grieve for me but rejoice in the fact that I have went home, home to the holy trinity, and home to lost relatives. I come from a third generation immigrant family and I am proud of that and I know I will meet my Celtic ancestors and drink with them as we celebrate a new beginning in the lord’s kingdom. Chief Martin may your soul always be at peace and know that your legacy will never be forgotten.

Post dedicated to Chief Phillip Martin,
Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indains.

Today we observe the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King

2010-01-18T09:34:00.001-08:00

Today we observe the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King. As most of you know I am a strong promoter of non violent protest. I have studied many people, ranging from many different cultures, with one common goal, and that goal is PEACE. The first person I ever studied when it came to non violence was Dr. Martin Luther king and then I went on to study Mahatma Gandhi. Then in 2007 I became a fan of the late Benazir Bhutto who was assonated in the Middle East for her beliefs. I am currently doing a case study of the Muslim religion. I understand that I am Christian, I hold everything that is stated in the Nicene Creed, and I understand I am Catholic, which does not mean I cannot study other cultures and other philosophies of peace. Those of you, who know any moderate Muslims, know they promote peace. I have friends who are Muslim and it has always been my goal not to be ignorant and I think that was the goal of Dr. Martin Luther king. If anything I think Dr. Martin Luther’s king main battle was with “ignorance”. I cannot tell you how much it hurts me when I hear the term “rag head” or the term “nigger”. I am Catholic and I often get called “idol worshiper”.

Most of you who are educated know that this is not the case. I do not fight battles with my fists or with weapons, I use my voice, and we all know the pen is mightier than the sword. Actually the Catholic religion is a big promoter of peace and equality. You will see people from all races and colors in my church. We as Catholics are always educating ourselves on not only the bible but other Christian texts as well, created by the Dr’s of the church so that we can deepen our Christian faith through their knowledge and prayer. My hat goes to everyone mentioned in this post. I can only hope that I can battle ignorance as well as these people. I am a strong promoter of equality. I see neither black nor white! I only see the potential for “humanity”. Those who support racism know that you will not win this fight. Those of us from the new generation will come together and hold hands, red, yellow, black, and white. WE WILL CREATE A BETTER WORLD. I stand on the shoulders of the Woman’s suffrage movement founded by Alice Paul; I stand on the shoulders of Marin Luther King, and on the Shoulders of Benazir Bhutto. May their memory live on in our hearts and may we continue to destroy ignorance and promote education through humanity.

Tyler

2010-01-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

All I ask with this post that everyone is respectful and post intelligent replies. The first order for business is the growing concern that our President is and has always been a terrorist. Barack Husain Obama has not nor ever been a terrorist. The part “Husain Obama” is like saying “John Smith” in our culture. The second item for business in this post is addressing the negative reflections on Obama’s idea to close Guantanamo Bay. For those of you that don’t know, that Prison has been a center for extremist thought. Actually it was a major communications area for the Arabian Peninsula. The next question I pose is why many people who are US Citizens must go through extra screening just because they are Muslim?

I a Christian, embrace people of the Muslim faith, my religion, Catholic, promotes peace, even to people of other races and religions. We do not agree with what the extremists are doing. As citizens of the US constitution, the people of the Muslim faith, along with people of other faiths, are endowed to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In the Devolvement of the Constitution even people who enter this country have automatically GOD GIVEN RIGHTS. For those of you that don’t know the Muslim religion is a combination of Jewish and Christian beliefs. I understand that it came after the establishment of Christianity but it is still a religion.

I don’t care if you believe a Cheese Sandwich came down and created purple people and wated for aliens to take you away! Even if you believe in that cheese sandwich, you still have God Given rights under our constitution. Granted those who are US citizens receive more rights. This war is another “Vietnam”. I do not believe as a historian that this war can be won. This war somehow tuned into a war over oil. This is not a war over terrarium, which that changed when Obama came into office. For those of you that don’t know “Daddy Bush” owns just about all the oil rights in America. With concern to National Security, I believe that we need to improve security, but do it in a human way. Treat everyone the same, do not separate people WHO ARE US CITIZENS and count them as a threat just because they are Muslim. I say we get everyone from the Middle East.

I say we line these Military people at our borders, and close this Nation tighter than a sardine can. That way if someone does commit an act of terbium, we can take care of that on the spot. Not every Muslim is a terrorist! I sponsor a kid in the Middle East whose parents are suppressed by EXTREMIST Muslims. I would like to end this article with a proclamation of faith. I believe in God, THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, I believe in Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, and our most Holy Ever Virgin Mary. I just accept those of other faiths and will always be a shoulder to cry on and vent to. For everything I believe in please refer to the Nicene Creed, which all of Christianity was based.

Gossip!!!

2009-12-30T23:49:00.000-08:00

This is not going to be your ordinary post because there are some things going on in some of my friend’s particular life that I do not particularly agree with. What I am about to post is information that the general public should know ANYWAY!! It’s common since, which I have found to be lacking in most people’s rapture as of late. First off, the thing that pisses me off the most is when people go onto other people’s face book just to find something to gossip about. I believe the Bible says something about casting the first stone if you have not sinned. First of all, NO ONE IS NOT PERFECT, that includes me. 2010 is going to be the year where I step back and check some things out in my life that need to change, that’s just one example of how I am not perfect. Since my conversion I have learned that ultimately it is not our place to talk about people but show them mercy, and let them know that they are loved. I do not care what you have done, except there is something that has been done to a friend of mine, something so sinister that I can only pray that God give me the strength to forgive them, and in a way I already have.

People, I know you have better things to do than to talk. In the small town I live in, that is near impossible to not hear someone talking. Yes I know I have been subject to it but I ask forgiveness and I try to change. I do however have the since not to go onto other people’s stuff and try to find out things about them. That’s how friendships end and it’s just bad manners. I know a lot of you talk about me because I have Muslim friends, and people who are not Christian. I have an educated background and I worked with the international department, so I am going to have friends from all over the world who have different backgrounds. I do not force my particular religion on them, yes we do have EDUCATED discussions but I NEVER TRY TO CONVERT THEM… I feel pity for those of you who are looking though MySpace constantly to try to figure out things. Some things I can understand, but just petty crap in general is no excuse. People get a life! There are better things to do like, charity work, helping your neighbor, and making yourself better in your own business and religion. You know if someone talks about me and it’s not true, I don’t have to do a thing, in my religion (Catholic) my God gives justice to those who deserves it. I do not have to lift a finger. All I have to do is continue to love and do my thing. If you do not agree with what I do or what my friends do, “snub off” as they say in England. May the Creator bless you. See you in church!

Snow in Mississippi 2009

2009-12-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Journal

As I was looking out of my window I was astounded at the sight of snow. We do not see that much snow here in Mississippi. Many people of many ancient cultures think that winter is part of the “circle of life”. Everything that has a beginning has an end, and everything that has an end, has a new beginning. This year has not been the greatest year. Although I did graduate with a history degree, I still find myself struggling to survive because I have not found a job. The snow reminds me that the year is about to end and there are new adventures just waiting for me in the New Year. The snow also reminds me of all the beauty that God has put into the world. For some odd reason I associate snow with angles, something so light, something so white, can only be associated with a creature of God. In the Catholic Church we have a yearly cycle and we just started Advent, one of my favorite times of the year.

Those of us in the Catholic Church welcome winter by placing Advent reefs all over the church and adorning the church with poinsettias flowers all over the chapel. I try to wear things like green sweaters and heavy coats to invoke a feeling of a comfortable nature to all those who sit around me at church. I also do things like make warm tea and drink apple cider. I think a lot of it comes from the Irish blood that runs through my veins. I have always been a winter and fall person. I don’t particularly care for any time of the year. I guess it is all the colors that resonate during the fall and winter. I find myself taking in a deep breath and smelling the baked goods, which people in other houses are baking. Most of you say that winter has nothing to do with color. There are tons of colors that go on during the winter time. The windows of the church illuminate things and bring them more into a 3D perspective. Another thing I do is light candles all over the house. I like to think that it invokes light into the house. As I light the candles I remember those who have passed on before me and those elders who hold the knowlage of ancient times.

Yours Always,

Tyler

This is something great.

2009-11-22T12:53:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

As most of you know I am converting to the Catholic Church and something monumental has been announced while I am a catechumen in the Catholic Church. Last Saturday the pope announced that ALL Christian faiths would be united. The first step was taking in the Episcopal Priest and graciously accepting them into Holy Mother Church. On Saturday the pope announced that Orthodox, and Evangelical Christians should all work together and that we would accept all faiths in the church. Many religious leaders met and three fundamental truths were set out at this meeting along with many religious leaders, INCLUDING PEOPLE OF THE BAPTIST FAITH, I might add:
1. We acknowledge that there is a Holy Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. Embryo sre not to be killed in the making of stem cells.
3. Marriage should only be considered with a man and woman.
If you are a person that follows church history, you know the bad blood between the Orthodox Church, and the Catholic Church. Holy Mother Church does not think there should be a monopoly on Christianity. However we do acknowledge the importance of our Holy Sacrament in the fact that we still believe it to be the true Sacrament (Absolute Body and Blood of Jesus Christ). Finally the document (I posted a link at the bottom of my blog where you can download the document) states the following about religious liberty.
Religious Liberty
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good
news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the
captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1
Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. Matthew 22:21
The struggle for religious liberty across the centuries has been long and arduous, but it is not a
novel idea or recent development. The nature of religious liberty is grounded in the character of
God Himself, the God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ. Determined to
follow Jesus faithfully in life and death, the early Christians appealed to the manner in which the
Incarnation had taken place: “Did God send Christ, as some suppose, as a tyrant brandishing
fear and terror? Not so, but in gentleness and meekness..., for compulsion is no attribute of God”
(Epistle to Diognetus 7.34).
Thus the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the example
of Christ Himself and in the very dignity of the human person created in the image of God—a
dignity, as our founders proclaimed, inherent in every human, and knowable by all in the exercise
of right reason.
Christians confess that God alone is Lord of the conscience. Immunity from religious coercion is
the cornerstone of an unconstrained conscience. No one should be compelled to embrace any
religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the
dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions.
What is true for individuals applies to religious communities as well.
It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled and also a
right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated
around these practices be recognized and blessed by law—such persons claiming these “rights”
are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express
their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the
conjugal union of husband and wife.”
We see this, for example, in the effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, and therefore
to compel prolife
institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and prolife
physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in
certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions. We see it in the use of antidiscrimination
statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various
sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. After the
judicial imposition of “samesex
marriage” in Massachusetts, for example, Catholic Charities
chose with great reluctance to end its centurylong
work of helping to place orphaned children in
good homes rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in samesex
households in violation of Catholic moral teaching. In New Jersey, after the establishment of a
quasimarital
“civil unions” scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax exempt status
when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a facility it owned and operated to
be used for ceremonies blessing homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations,
Christian clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the practice of
homosexuality. New hatecrime
laws in America raise the specter of the same practice here.
In recent decades a growing body of case law has paralleled the decline in respect for religious
values in the media, the academy and political leadership, resulting in restrictions on the free
exercise of religion. We view this as an ominous development, not only because of its threat to
the individual liberty guaranteed to every person, regardless of his or her faith, but because the
trend also threatens the common welfare and the culture of freedom on which our system of
republican government is founded. Restrictions on the freedom of conscience or the ability to
hire people of one’s own faith or conscientious moral convictions for religious institutions, for
example, undermines the viability of the intermediate structures of society, the essential buffer
against the overweening authority of the state, resulting in the soft despotism Tocqueville so
prophetically warned of. 1 Disintegration of civil society is a prelude to tyranny.
As Christians, we take seriously the Biblical admonition to respect and obey those in authority.
We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we
happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to
do something unjust or otherwise immoral. The biblical purpose of law is to preserve order and
serve justice and the common good; yet laws that are unjust—and especially laws that purport to
compel citizens to do what is unjust—undermine the common good, rather than serve it.
Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their
proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their
answer was, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.
For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Through the centuries,
Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required.
There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one
offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly
Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught
that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose
ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim
no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King’s
willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.
Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports
to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryodestructive
research, assisted
suicide and euthanasia, or any other antilife
act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force
us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from
proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family.
We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances
will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”

http://manhattandeclaration.org/index.php

Saint Lucy - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online

2009-11-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

Saint Lucy - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online

2009-11-12T22:55:00.000-08:00

As most of you know I suffer from a rare disease which affects my eyes. Today I had to see a regular Dr because of the headaches I was getting from my condition. Normally when I go to my Dr in Jackson it takes around two hours. My local Dr’s office took four hours! I felt so bad because there was this Asian Kid who looked like he was going to pass out, waited just about the same time I did. I can remember when you enter a Dr’s office, which it took about an hour, at the most! Before all you folks scream “Government Healthcare” I want you to think about something…. I, a liberal Democrat, agree with the fact that we need think this “Government Healthcare” through. We have offered this type of “Health Care’ to the Native American population. I have worked with Native Americans from all over the place. I have danced with the Kiowa Nation in Oklahoma and helped organize the powwows at USM. I am not Native American but I have experienced and seen many things I thought my government would never do. Ladies and Gentlemen we do not want government funded health care. You can ask any Native American and they are going to tell you that “it sucks”. In some of my research I have actually found where the US government has done experiments on all these people under “Government Healthcare”. All I am asking is that we take another year to look at this healthcare bill.
Many Native Americans will tell us “Guess what White Eyes It’s your turn now” and kindly ask us to get in the back of the line. I have to wonder if some of the failure of the United States is due to Karma. I won’t get off on my mistreatment rants but it is something to think about. Many White families, me included, as I am white, are experiencing what many people of other races have felt for years. Native American’s felt oppression when the Spanish came over, the Asians felt it when they helped build California, and so on. All I am asking is a little thought. Yes I supported Obama and I am still a firm believer but… I think he is just trying to get the right shoe on before he makes good changes. He has not found his administrative comfort zone and is trying many avenues. Anyone that deals with administration knows what I am talking about. Not to mention we are only going to make Native American Healthcare worse because of the limited amount of funding and we cannot fund both. All I am asking is to take another year and let’s look at this from all sides, how it can benefit ALL Nations.

This is my opinion, I could be wrong.

Tyler

Messages from Milad

2009-11-08T15:48:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys

I had my first communication with Milad since choosing to sponsor him at his orphanage in Afghanistan. He looks so much happier than his first photo. I almost cried because it touched my heart to see what good things can do in this world. I have always taught religious tolerance, freedom of expression, and charity. I cannot help the fact that I am now an intellectual and now know how to apply my knowledge to befit the world. I am just happy that I was able to help him. There are so many kids in need and I am only one person. There is so much violence in the world and there are times that I cannot handle it. I just bust out in tears and pray that God relieve us of our burdens. AS I said I do all I can to help. I have so many friends of different colors and religions that I taught English to at the ELI institute at USM. I cannot tell you how much that opened my eyes. I just hope that Milad is safe. This kid has to deal with gunfire and bombs daily. I cannot begin to understand the courage this child holds.

Tyler Meador

Good Video of the Buddha

2009-11-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

Children Sponsor

2009-11-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

As I was watching MSNBC today, I was touched to find that there are still great things being done in this world. Today I learned of an orphanage in Afghanistan that takes children who cannot afford a place to stay due to the war in Afghanistan. They are in great need of donations and being the giving person I am, I chose to sponsor a kid today. His name is Milad and he is 9 years old. He is from Afghanistan. The amount of money I send is not that much, its money that would have went to fast food or something. I will include two links bellow if you want to read the story Brian Willams posted on MSNBC and I will be posting a direct link to the orphanage if you choose to join. The money you donate goes towards their food, medical, education, and any other activities they do. I mean these people can not run this orphanage on air folks! I generally practice what I preach. Our family motto under our family shield is "my gift is virtue" and I guess that motto has survived throughout the centuries. If you do not have enough money to give because of the economy, THAT'S OK. My reasoning for publishing this post is to make people aware that if they want to donate money that there is a real good orphanage they can donate to. I wish all of you the best and I will update everyone tomorrow.

http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/11/03/2117976.aspx

Link to Orphanage
https://www.charityhelp.org/sponsor/afceco/index

Tyler

Ill take relegious philosophy for 500 Alex!

2009-11-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

In the production of this blog I hope to open people to the religions of the world. As previously mentioned in my article yesterday, It is hard for someone like me to be so accepting of other religions in the South. I am from Mississippi and I have no clue as to why so many people are close minded. As I observe America as a whole, we thrive on money, so much so that many people have committed suicide because they are so attached to money. I have been called everything from a "faggot" to a "tree hugger" for my beliefs. I believe that there is something beyond us and we must do all that we can as human beings to try and understand what that is. The "catch 22" about trying to find out how a "supreme being" works is that as humans we will never know how it works. Note I said "try" in the last two sentences and as human beings we can "try" but we will never fully understand what is at the center of the university.

I a Catholic, have submitted to the will of God and took up Classicism classes so I can receive the Communion in church. I also accept other philosophies of other religions. I might not follow their deity but I follow their particular philosophy. For example those who are Buddhist will tell you that you do not have to be Buddhist to follow their particular religion. "All life is suffering" and that's just about the basics of what you need to know aside from the Nobel Path. My point for this post today is that we need to stop looking at material things and start looking inward for fulfillment in our life. In my religion it says that "I am the way, the light", that is the word of our Jesus Christ. The same could be said for the Buddhist religion. If we focused on trying to be more like Buddha then this world would be a better place. Buddha never said to worship him people look up to Buddha because of his ability to see the world outside its normal ramifications. We ask the Saints to pray for us because they are closer to the Trinity. I hope I have not stepped on a lot of toes with this particular post. I just want people to recognise that there are some things in America that we need to change.

Namastae'

Tyler

I accept culture.

2009-11-01T14:54:00.000-08:00

This image was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

t is hard for many people like me to be so accepting of culture in the South. There are only an educated few who accept many different cultures in the US. What people fail to recognize that this nation was founded on culture. Not only the Declaration of Independence but the Constitution ensures the happiness of everyone who wants to pursue their own cultural identity. My family came to this country as Irish Immigrants. I can not tell you the times that I have tried to explain to people that the US should be accepting of other cultures, epically in the South. For example New Orleans was one of the most cultural centers of the United States in the 1700s. New Orleans was a mixture of African American, Native American, and French backgrounds. In the 18Th Century we find most of Asian America in California. There are other cultures including Hispanic, Indian(people from India) and Native American cultures that we tend to forget.

I, a white person of middle class, neglected to see culture for what it relay was until I took religion classes at the University of Southern Mississippi. I then started working with many cultures including Native Americans. I hope that when I become a teacher that I will teach my students to be accepting of other cultures. I am legally blind and I do not know how much time I will be able to retain my sight but I vow to always help people and educate people of all the other cultures in this world. I myself have attended Hispanic Masses in the Catholic Church and I have attended an Muslim Masque. I know you do not find that much in the South but I wanted to think outside of the box. I just hope that one day that we all think outside of the box.

Hope all is well.

Tyler

The following is a cool video about Islam. Most people think that its a violent religion when in fact it is a real peaceful religion. Fundamentalist give regular Muslims a bad rep. Modern Day Muslims are very peaceful and I posted this video for people to learn about the religion.