February 8, 2002

A Constitutional Question, Chicken Astrology, Miss Cleo's Lumps, Miss Lulova's Tests, and The Case of Human Spontaneous Involuntary Invisibility.......

Reader Dan Bennett of Brentwood, Tennessee, has pertinent comments on an item from last week upon which many of you commented. I repeat here my respect for the American Civil Liberties Union, but admit that Dan has a few good points to make:

The problem I have with the ACLU's intervention in the silliness in Inglis, Florida, is that it's literally making a federal case out of something that is, in and of itself, utterly insignificant. The stretching of the Constitutional prohibition "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" to silence any religious expression at all is symptomatic of the current vogue toward making the law say what we'd like it to say rather than what it actually says.

The mayor of Inglis isn't Congress, and as far as I know she isn't making any laws respecting an establishment of religion, and there isn't, to my knowledge, any federal statute forbidding local governments from doing ridiculous things (else the federal prisons would be standing-room only). By rights, the ACLU should be laughed out of court for bringing such an action. But that isn't what's going to happen, and I find that more than a little alarming.

If the meaning of the Constitution has become that subjective and that elastic, then the end result is that the judiciary gets to rule by decree. There has always been a certain amount of that sort of thing, and will be as long as judges have any leeway for interpretation, but the trend now seems to be to make up "law" out of whole cloth and then rationalize it by twisting actual law out of all recognition. The logical end of that course is despotism. Not a bad thing as long as the despotism is benevolent, but they never stay benevolent for very long.

The Constitution was written from a very Calvinist viewpoint. The Framers assumed that if anyone was given the opportunity to abuse power they would do so, and thus they went to great lengths to prevent anyone from having too much power to abuse. In these post-Christian times we've left behind the idea of the inherent untrustworthiness of humanity as a whole, and we've become comfortable with granting powers to our "leaders" that would have horrified earlier generations. I 'spect we're going to live to regret it.

Thank you, Dan. Essentially, I agree. It appears that the ACLU saw a crack in the security nominally afforded us by "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," and was alarmed. But so long as "In God We Trust" continues to appear on our federally-issued currency, despite the millions of Americans who have no such belief nor trust, I believe the concern of the ACLU could be better directed at more important matters, rather than at a silly, minor, elected official who probably quavers at the thought of a Harry Potter book showing up in a school library....


This was picked up from the Internet, attribution unknown. It reads as well as any horoscopic ramble published for the eager consumption of those who need assurance that they are well represented in the cosmic plan....

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD? According to the Zodiac......

Aries (March 21 to April 19): Chickens born under the sign of Aries are natural leaders, possessing a pioneering determined spirit, who wish to make their mark on the world. They cross the road to assert themselves and seek action, daring and adventure.

Taurus (April 20 to May 20): Taurus chickens are strong-willed and have a down-to-earth attitude toward life. They are overly interested in material things and have a real need for security. They feel unsettled unless comfortable. They will cross only if there is more security on the other side, or to obtain material possessions.

Gemini (May 21 to June 20): They are highly restless and are always seeking a wide variety of contrasting experiences. They cross because they do not know what is on the other side, and to avoid the boredom of their mundane existence.

Cancer (June 21 to July 22): While having a tough shell-like exterior, Cancer chickens are very sensitive and vulnerable. They have very delicate emotions, and are always attuned to their environment and the feelings of those around them. They have a constant and urgent need to feel safe and they always act defensively. They will only cross the road when there is danger to themselves or others on this side.

Leo (July 20 to August 22): Leo chickens are majestic and proud with personalities that need to shine, and greet opportunities with fervor and vitality. They always need to be in charge. They need plenty of drama and color to escape a normal, humdrum existence. They will cross the road with great enthusiasm for the opportunities it provides.

Virgo (August 23 to September 22): Virgos are practical and adaptable. They have a strong desire to succeed, are very discriminating and tend to be critical of others. They strive for perfection. They are very poultriatarian and will usually cross for the good of other chickens and because it is the proper or correct thing to do.

Libra (September 23 to October 22): Libra chickens are thoughtful and sensitive, and are always seeking balance and harmony. They need the respect and love of other chickens more than any other group. They are compelled to think carefully before making any decision. Libra chickens are prone to stop in the middle of the road to try to decide which way to go, making crossing the road always a considerable risk to themselves and others.

Scorpio (October 23 to November 21): Scorpios have a depth and intensity of their emotions that gives them a strong inner power. They are creatures of passion whose focused desires assist them in achieving their aims. They can be ruthlessly self-critical in their quest for truth. They are uncompromising, and stick to any commitment they have made. They cross because they promised to do so.

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21): These chickens are restless and visionary. They love to explore new horizons and see life as a journey full of adventure. They greet every new experience with a warm heart, a ready smile and an open mind. They cross the road because of a passion to see more of the world, and a spirit which longs to be free.

Capricorn (December 22 to January 19): Capricorns are very ambitious and are always striving to reach the top of the coop. They are tenacious in planning every step to achieve their goals, and leave themselves little time to relax before looking for new peaks to climb. They cross because they must to achieve the success they feel should be theirs.

Aquarius (January 20 to February 18): Chickens born under the sign of Aquarius are strong independent spirits longing to break free from traditional conventions and restrictions and the status quo. They are innovative and idealistic, always replacing old outdated thinking with fresh perspectives. They are strongly driven to oppose social injustice and oppression. They are always experimenting to discover their own identity. They will cross because it is forbidden to do so, and by doing so it will be easier for others to do so in the future.

Pisces (February 19 to March 20): Pisces chickens are dreamy and sensitive. They are blessed with deep intuition and a wealth of emotion. Pisces are romantic, creative and full of love with a potential for great happiness and lasting joy. Their imagination is so strong that it frequently merges with fantasy. They usually cross because they had a vision telling them that this is the means to the happiness they are striving to achieve.


Reader James Brooks provides this egregious item for your examination:

Printed in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, a Knight Ridder Newspapers article written by Lisa Fernandez: Three people are in line to share a reward of $90,000 for "providing valuable information or testimony" that helped convict Fremont, California, bomber Rodney Blach, now serving a 37 years-to-life sentence. The three include; a Fremont chemist and former friend of Blach, an unnamed homeless man, and Vicki Hill, a Sacramento astrologer who testified that Blach planned his crimes when Mercury was in retrograde, a time of great confusion and disorder.

A quote from Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Tom Rogers: "I have absolutely no reservations about any of these recommendations. Each are very deserving." It seems that the astrologer testified about astrological charts found in a locker with other evidence against Blach. She testified that Blach was trying to wreak havoc by setting off the bombs when the stars were aligned a certain way.

I wonder how the people who offered up the reward money feel about paying off an "expert" witness like this? Does the District Attorney really feel her testimony was so valuable, and that the jury relied upon it for a conviction? I appears to me to be one whacko testifying against another. One goes to prison and the other gets $22,500.

It's not the first time, I assure you, that astrology has found its way into the courthouse, the Congress, the inside offices of Federal and State governments. And the White House. Remember Ronald Reagan....?


The latest on Miss Cleo.... take a peek at www.courttv.com/news/feature/cleo/script2.html and see how this psychic marvel is doing. But have no fears for her survival. Our wimpy legal system allows her to fleece the innocent and unwary, as she will. No talent required, only a lot of nerve and total disregard for the vulnerable, innocent, victims. Cleo will get fatter and nervier, simply because our system turns a blind eye to such a swindle. It's much more important to regulate dirty talk on the Internet, of course.


Dowsing rods continue to sell well, all over the world. The latest technique for peddling these useless devices is to assign to them highly technical jargon and to attribute aspects of "quantum physics" to their claimed qualities. The US Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management (DOE) has now bypassed the required peer-review process and spent $408,750 of our tax money field-testing a "pollution-detection device" that relies on "the ability of a human operator to sense changes in magnetic fields." That's dowsing, pure and simple. The tests took place in Ohio and at the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

A statement from the DOE states, "The [Passive Magnetic Resonance Anomaly Mapping] technology is unique in that it combines an electronic system and a human operator into a single bio-sensory unit." Yep. That's what the newest dowsing-rod claptrap says, alright, though it's hardly "unique" nonsense. It's very old, and it's very wrong.

Well, we've tested that ability many times, occasionally for the JREF million-dollar prize. It has always failed, need I add? And we were part of the investigation of the "Quadro Locator" and the "DKL" rods. The former are now out of business in the USA, but peddling the same quackery in the UK under the name, "The Mole." The latter — DKL — are still busy selling their useless machine via their web site, www.dklabs.com. Both those investigations were made for the DOE, which has to make us wonder why they didn't call us directly and save that $408,750.... Dowsing is one subject in which we have great expertise, proven and accepted.

Just read what the "inventors" of this system claim:

This research is effected with the use of unique opportunities offered by biological, energetic and information technologies based on neurotechnical complex that allows to regulate a sensor sensitivity and capture an adaptive reaction of neuro-muscular human tissues to variations of amplitude-frequency characteristics of natural electromagnetic field of the Earth (Patent No 94030887 of July, I, 1993, Ukraine).

What total, juvenile, gobbledygook! But they would have little problem getting a US patent, I'm sure, since our Patent Office now issues patents for any crazy notion presented to it.

On January 25th, I wrote to Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman, informing him that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) had conducted a test on behalf of the DOE, of the "Passive Magnetic Resonance Anomaly Mapping" system, and that the ASME concluded that the system

. . . seemed scientifically implausible, provided no useful information during the three field demonstrations, and appeared inadequate as a site-characterization tool.

Translated: "It's a stupid idea, and it doesn't work."

We've not yet heard back from Inspector General Friedman.

In trying to contact the company that produces this device, Pollution Prevention Associates, and in particular, Charles Downs, their founder, we have discovered that apparently neither the company nor the founder, appear to exist. The company does not show up in computer searches, and no phone number is listed for it in the city where it is said to be headquartered! It just may be that the DOE has been deceived, in expending this large sum of our money in the investigation. Could that be?

Gerald Boyd, the deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management's Office of Science and Technology (OST), says that they often perform field tests of off-the-shelf technology but that in most cases, the product has already undergone substantive testing and peer review elsewhere. Just where did Mr. Boyd find this "substantive testing and peer review," pray tell. Who did it, and where? Did the DOE look over that material, and consider it adequate? It's unusual, Boyd says, for the department to field-test such an "immature" technology. How about for "useless" technology, Mr. Boyd? "This is an anomaly," he says. Yes, that's an "anomaly" that squandered more than $400,000 of our money, needlessly and uselessly, when appropriate expertise and previous experience, were available to you, but were ignored!

Charles Downs, the company's founder, is quoted as saying that those government field tests by the ASME, tests that proved totally negative, "were plagued with inadequate calibrations and a lack of pure contaminant samples." Well, Mr. Downs, whose responsibility was it to do the proper "calibrations" of your toy, and provide the samples?

What are we not at all surprised at these flimsy excuses? This is the standard response. When the tests give negative results, it's the tests that are at fault, never the claims! Mr. Downs says that his system "works great for oil and gas," however. Okay, Mr. Downs, the JREF million-dollar prize is available to you as soon as you show us.

Mr. Downs? Hello? Are you there? Oh, visiting with Sylvia Browne, on the Moon....


The tests of Natalia Lulova, the 10-year-old Russian applicant (through her lawyer) for the JREF million-dollar prize, were conducted last week in New York City. I'm preparing a report on this event, and it will appear here next week. The results were as we expected.....


JR: We thank the author, Donna Higbee, for permission to print this piece from her web page, http://members.aol.com/Rapunz1/DH_index.html. I'm sure it will evoke much reaction from our readers.... Enjoy!


HUMAN SPONTANEOUS INVOLUNTARY INVISIBILITY by Donna Higbee, CHT

In the summer of 1994, I became aware of a very strange phenomenon, human spontaneous involuntary invisibility, which was apparently happening to people in the U.S. When I checked with other researchers and discovered that a number of them had also heard of such cases, I decided to place an inquiry letter in several well-known journals, asking other researchers and the general public if they had any experiences of this nature that they would like to share with me. Besides the publication of my inquiry letter, my inquiry was placed on several Internet bulletin boards. The letters began pouring in, giving me a broader picture of this phenomenon. I want to share a few stories with you and pass on some of the information I have come across during this past year.

My inquiry letter told the story of Vera in Ventura, California, who tried to get assistance in a post office, only to be completely ignored by other customers and the postal clerk. I have kept in touch with Vera and she has had other apparent invisibility experiences in stores and other public places. Sheila in Roanoke, Texas, continues to have invisibility experiences, some of which have occurred in restaurants and at the airport. Glenda in Fort Worth, Texas, has had these experiences occur in a cafeteria and a movie theater. Most of the cases that I have researched have been in the U.S., although I do know of cases in England, Europe, Australia, Puerto Rico and Brazil.

In every case I have heard about or personally researched, the person is physically still present, although unable to be seen or heard. From the point of view of the invisible person, the world looks normal and they have no idea that they cannot be seen or heard by people around them. I will address how this might occur a little further along in this article, but first I want to give a few examples below. The quotes are directly from experiencers' letters to me.

Jean in Tucson, Arizona, wrote me of her experiences. She has had them occur in the library when she attempted to check out books and in clothing stores. The following is a quote from her letter, showing the humor with which she deals with these occurrences. "I've had this happen in stores, in restaurants, and many places. I remember joking to a friend of mine one time that I felt like I could walk into a bank, help myself to a pile of bills and no one would ever see me because I was invisible. There is no physical reason why I should be. I'm taller than average for my sex and age group (I'm fifty-five years old and 5'9"), referred to as good-looking, and I've always worn my hair red. You wouldn't think a tall woman with red hair, high heels in a purple dress and dangle earrings would be invisible, would you?"

Or the story from a thirty-seven year old man, Peter in Gloucestershire, England, who was at a private party in 1987. He walked upstairs to use the bathroom and was followed by a woman who also wanted to use the bathroom. The woman motioned for him to go first and she stood outside the door to wait her turn. Peter used the bathroom, opened the door and walked out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. He went on down the stairs and walked over to some friends and started talking to them. They all ignored him completely. He thought they were playing a joke on him, so he walked away and found his girlfriend and asked her for a cigarette. She, too, acted like she didn't see or hear him. Peter was getting angry by this time and thought the joke had gone too far. He decided to walk back upstairs and catch the woman coming out of the bathroom and ask her for a cigarette. "...I walked back up the stairs and, on reaching the bathroom landing, I came across the girl again who was standing outside the bathroom door, clearly still waiting for me to come out. When she saw me, her face dropped in surprise for clearly she thought that I was still in the bathroom." Peter returned to the party downstairs and everything was normal again and he was able to be seen and heard. When he questioned his friends and girlfriend as to why they had ignored him, they all swore that they had never seen or heard him. Obviously the woman upstairs had not seen him come out of the bathroom and go downstairs.

Then there is the case of Melanie in Ventura, California, who became invisible while sitting on her own living room sofa and staring at the wall, lost in her own thoughts. Her husband was walking around the house looking for her but could not see her sitting there, only several feet away from where he was walking. This lasted for approximately ten minutes, then she was suddenly visible again. Her husband was quite upset with her and thought she had been hiding from him. She assured him that she had been sitting there all along, but to this day, he does not believe her.

Or, how about Jannise in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who has had a number of invisibility experiences throughout her life. The one reported here lasted longer than usual. As a teenager, she fell in with a group of friends who decided to see if they could actually steal something from a department store and not get caught. As luck would have it, the entire group was caught and taken into custody, including Jannise. They were taken to the police station and one by one were questioned; all, that is, except Jannise. Although she was standing right there, no one paid the slightest attention to her; not the police, the guards, or the office personnel. She finally just got up and walked out of the police station without ever being questioned or anyone attempting to stop her. When she later talked with her friends about what happened in the police station, "...they didn't even recall me being taken into custody at the department store. Yet I rode in the police car with everyone else, and they thought I was still at the store." No one had seen her from the moment the police had arrived on the scene in the store until some time after she had walked out of the police station unhindered.

What actually is happening? Why is this occurring? We don't have answers for these questions yet. But in trying to learn more about invisibility, I came across some information which I want to share with you.

Human invisibility has been written about for centuries. Indo-European and pre-Aryan shamanistic beliefs accompanied the peoples who eventually migrated into the Indus Valley (approx. 2,500-1,500 BCE). Here, men and women of great spiritual attainment, superior knowledge, and extraordinary powers came to be called rishis. The Vedas, which form the basis of Hinduism, emanated from the teachings of the rishis, starting around 1,000 BCE. In these texts, we find descriptions of the rituals and techniques of the Hindu priests, sounding very much like the magical and shamanistic abilities of the old sorcerers, magicians and shamans. Later in Hinduism, around 700-300 BCE, we find the secret doctrines, called the Upanishads, which were written for students. Within the Upanishads, there is a section called the "Yogatattva," which gives the rich mystical philosophy of the discipline and theory of practice for attaining knowledge of the essence of God. A serious student of raja yoga was taught that certain supernormal powers, called siddhas, were a natural outcome of gaining mastery over one's mind and environment, and were used as valuable indications of the student's spiritual progress. One of these yogic siddhas was human invisibility. Patanjali, author of the Yoga-sutra, which is one of the earliest treatises among the early Indian writings, attempts to describe the process whereby human invisibility occurred. He says that concentration and meditation can make the body imperceptible to other men, and "a direct contact with the light of the eyes no longer existing, the body disappears." The light engendered in the eye of the observer no longer comes into contact with the body that has become invisible, and the observer sees nothing at all. There is not a lot written about how this occurs; the explanation of the process whereby invisibility was brought into being was most likely left up to the teacher to impart to the student directly.

We move ahead in time and find that from the thirteenth century on, numerous texts in Europe refer to similar abilities, performed by sorcerers and magicians who had the power to make themselves invisible, like the shamans (both ancient and modern), and the yoga masters in India. Some other cultures in which shamanism (and the ability to vanish) has played a major role are the Aborigines of Australia, the archaic peoples of North and South America, and the peoples in the polar regions.

Next we look at Rosicrucianism, which started in Europe in the fifteenth century. Among the papers of that time, there are a number of them that talk about invisibility. A brother in the Rosicrucian fraternity wrote a paper on how to walk invisible among men, and there is evidence that this was being taught in those early days. H. Spencer Lewis, the founder of the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis in San Jose, California, stated that one can gain invisibility with the use of clouds. He says that clouds or bodies of mist can be called out of the invisible to surround a person and thus shut him out of the sight of others. According to Lewis, this secret practice is still taught in the mystical schools of today. The written literature on this subject supports the statement that the cloud is the basis of the Rosicrucian invisibility secret.

Interestingly, a man named John Macky, who was an early Masonic leader (the early Masons were believed to be an offshoot of the Rosicrucians) taught a method whereby any man could render himself invisible. Another offshoot of the Rosicrucian fraternity, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, left manuscripts describing the Ritual of Invisibility. These manuscripts talk about surrounding yourself with a shroud, which is described as looking like "a cloud." It is said that Madame Blavatsky, of the Theosophical Society, witnessed this invisibility for herself and was actually given the secret, thereafter accomplishing this for herself on several occasions in front of witnesses. The literature on the Spiritualists in the U.S. shows that there is no doubt they, too, knew about the cloud and its creation.

So, just what is this cloud? We are looking for something that is between empty space and actual physical matter, something unseen by the naked eye but very much in existence. The Rosicrucian manual tells us that the first form into which spirit essence concentrates preparatory to material manifestation is electrons. When spiritual essence gathers into very minute focal points of electrical charge (due to certain conditions), we have the creation of electrons. Science reports that such a cloud of free electrons will absorb all light entering it; it will not reflect nor refract light waves, nor are light waves able to pass through a human being. Consequently the observer's eye sees nothing there and the person surrounded by such a cloud is invisible. Since light is necessary for human sight, when there are no reflected or refracted light waves bouncing off a person and hitting the observer's retina, the person is not able to be seen and is not visible under normal circumstances.

How is this cloud created intentionally? That is difficult to say. There are references to and descriptions of invisibility and its creation in the writings of secret societies, but most people don't have access to these writings. One could go to India and become an apprentice or student of an Indian guru or teacher to learn these techniques, but that probably is not practical in modern life. To the everyday person, the knowledge of how invisibility works is a mystery.

With this being the case, just how are people having experiences of spontaneous involuntary invisibility? I wish I had the answers, but we are still in the midst of our research. If indeed they are forming the light-absorbing, free-electron cloud around themselves, they are doing it unknowingly and without knowledge of the method. Since some kind of focused mental thought process must be employed to make the cloud form around oneself, then it might be that these people are doing this unconsciously.

At the start of my research, I was interested to see if there was a correlation between human invisibility and people who report having experiences with non-human entities. It is known that invisibility is one of the components making up the abduction phenomenon. The first several people who came to me with invisibility experiences were abductees, and I hoped to show a link between abduction and human invisibility. But as I continued to get letters from people having experienced invisibility, I could see no direct link between the two. It seems that just as many non-abductees are having these experiences as are abductees. There is the possibility that those reporting to be non-abductees simply haven't remembered their experiences and are, indeed, actually abductees. If this is the case, it will be difficult to give accurate findings. At this point, I am simply calling for more data and hoping that some patterns become obvious.

I find it interesting that the people having these invisibility experiences seem to be people with higher than average psychic abilities. Possibly they are able to traverse other dimensions and command natural forces, knowingly or unknowingly. Researchers of the paranormal are having a field day as people are reporting experiences with what they term ghosts, angels, extraterrestrials, and interdimensional beings. Spontaneous involuntary invisibility is just another mystery to add to the lot.

In our culture, we have sayings such as "she looked right through me," "they acted like I wasn't even there," etc. There are several reasons why someone might use that kind of phraseology. There has been the supposition that minorities, and to some extent women, are somehow less in our society. Thankfully, this attitude has been undergoing a change in recent years. But a person who falls into a category that society has traditionally considered less in importance might take on the stereotyped role and believe it to be true to the extent he feels so unimportant that, to him, people don't even notice him. He feels invisible. Another reason could be the mental health of the person involved. Severely depressed people can experience what is termed nihilism or the feeling of such uselessness and worthlessness that they feel invisible to people around them. A person with extremely low self-esteem might feel he is unworthy of being noticed, therefore he feels invisible. In these cases, the feeling of invisibility is a subjective one on the part of the experiencer and is not necessarily based in fact. And I think we have all had the experience of a person simply not paying attention to us and not seeing us or what we were doing. But if we were to go up to them, stand directly in front of them and speak to them, their attention would be drawn to us and they would interact with us.

The phenomenon of human spontaneous involuntary invisibility is quite different. My research has shown the people to be well adjusted, well educated and taken totally by surprise at the occurrence of invisibility. Often it takes several such occurrences before they realize that they are truly invisible during certain times to other people. They attempt to interact with those around them and simply can't be seen or heard. This produces frustration and, in many cases, a sense of fear at something which they don't understand. There is a big difference between a person purposely not interacting with you because of some cultural or personal reason versus a person not interacting with you because he can neither see nor hear you. A case in point: I recently had a phone call from Joe L. in Fullerton, California who was very bewildered and needed to talk about what was happening to him. He had just returned from a restaurant where he was seated at a table by himself drinking his tea after having finished his dinner. Joe was sitting forward in his chair and intent upon something happening out the window and did not notice a man pass behind his table and take his jacket from the back of his chair. When he finished his tea, he stood up to get his jacket and found it missing. He reported this to the maitre d' and was told that the man who turned it in had said no one was sitting at the table and he assumed that the party had left, so he turned in the jacket. Joe had had several such invisibility occurrences within the past three months and was quite disturbed over them. As I continue to get letters and phone calls, I realize that there is much more to be learned about this fascinating phenomenon.

For those readers who find human invisibility interesting, I want to recommend a little paperback book entitled Invisibility by Steve Richards (see references below). This book goes into much greater detail about how the electrons absorb light and how you can create this cloud around yourself. Since I've not attempted to do this, I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it seems well researched and is most interesting.

References:

Aranya, Swami Hariharananda, Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, State University of New York Press, Albany, New York, 1983

Eliade, Mircea, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1969

Richards, Steve, Invisibility, The Aquarian Press, 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB, England, (ISBN 1-85538-168-0) 1982

I welcome any comments and personal experiences you may care to share with me regarding invisibility. Also, I am a certified clinical hypnotherapist, working with people who feel they have had non-human abduction experiences. I would be happy to receive any comments or answer any questions you may have regarding the abduction phenomenon. I can be reached at the following address: Post Office Box 6404, Santa Barbara, California 93160, USA

I can also be reached by email. My address is: Goodhigbee@aol.com


JR comments: Okay, a question: How long did it take before you realized that this was not a satire? Before, I hope, you came to the statement that "The light engendered in the eye of the observer no longer comes into contact with the body that has become invisible," a medieval notion that has of course now been resurrected as the latest notion of how we see. The idea is that something (?) goes out of the viewers eye and illuminates the object being viewed. But that discussion on the "cloud of free electrons" just had to be a tip-off, right....?

I admit that I was a certain distance into reading this piece before it dawned on me that this "certified clinical hypnotherapist" is quite serious about "Human Spontaneous Involuntary Invisibility"! Incredible? No, not at all — not when you've been in this business as long as I have. There is no limit to the naivety of people — even well-educated people who are in responsible positions — and we should all be aware of that frightening fact. I can tell you of Ph.D. physicists who believe that they can dowse, and who endorse dowsing rods and free-energy machines. I know of MD.s and R.N.s who embrace "therapeutic touch," homeopathy, and "energy healing." Federal judges sit atop their benches and pontificate on the reality of psychic powers, and to multi-thousands of academics and others who teach our young, mythology is fact, quackery is the new medicine, and mysterious forces like astrology and magnetism rule our lives.

No, I'm not at all surprised that a "certified clinical hypnotherapist" believes that some people can will themselves to be invisible, or become invisible involuntarily. And her interest and belief in "non-human abduction experiences" is hardly to be doubted.....

Of course, hungrily waiting to be attended at Lester's Diner, I often wonder if hunger makes me invisible to waitresses.....