That’s actually a wise piece of advice, Sage. Indeed, as I wrote on that comment, one has to be mindful in trying to keep a balance between the interest of what lies on “the other side”, and what we have right here in front of our very noses.

Of course, you would agree with me that there’s no way to know the limits of what we can comprehend, if we never test those very limits, no?

Michael Prescott wrote about the dangers students of esoteric topics faced, in an essay for the first Darklore anthology. Not only with the obvious social stigmatization that comes with being interested in such “woo-woo” topics as Bigfoot, ghosts or UFOs; but also with how by the danger of losing objective focus in the eagerness of embracing the unknown, after experiencing a few remarkable experiences. Prescott gives the example of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle —how he was so easily fooled by the “fairy photos” hoax later in his life — but I think this can also be viewed in the subculture of contactism.

And also, mind you, there’s another danger: that of actually causing the unknown to react to your interest in it! In the previous blog entry, I discuss a very curious and —I admit it— rather scary experience I had. It is one thing to approach these phenomena from an intelectual interest, but once you get the seeming confirmation that these things might actually be real, it’s another matter entirely. I’m sure that for someone like Nick, who has traveled the world in search of mysterious entities like the Chupacabras, the thought of what he might actually do if he came face to face with this being must have crossed his mind more than once on anxious nights deprived of sleep.

Now, your comment reminds me of a question I’ve asked myself on many occasions: did I choose to be interested in these topics, or did they choose ME instead? I confess I’ve often wondered if I would be so active in the Fortean blogosphere if I were more succesful in my professional career, or in other aspects of my life; but maybe it’s the other way around: maybe my psychological buildup and my curiosity have led me to seek an answer to these things I find so damn interesting, instead of focusing more in how to make money or get a bigger car

Would John Keel have been a happier man if he had never heard of UFOs or Mothman? I don’t think anyone can answer that.

But, like I said, one does need to find a manageable balance —I certainly don’t want to end up like Keel did!— so I thank you again.

If something is a mystery, if it is beyond your capability to comprehend, what is wrong with letting it remain a mystery? The real folly isn’t with religion, but that, “The typical weaknesses of most religious philosophies, lay the unspoken conviction that, by mapping and verbalizing the world of the unconscious, you can somehow gain control over it. Indeed, if it were possible to do so, you certainly could — for the unknown would no longer be unconscious, but conscious. But the whole point about the unconscious is that it lies, by definition, out of reach of words and language. It is our persistent refusal to go beyond words and language which actually cuts us off from it. Its normal mode of communication is a much more flexible, symbolic code such as we experience in dreams. Magic and occultism, however, was little less an attempt on the part of the conscious mind to gain forced entry into the unconscious” (BEYOND ALL BELIEF, by Peter Lemesurier, pg 181).

There is so much to learn and live and enjoy on this side of life, why with all the obsession with “the other side”? Unlike most people, I believe in life before death because, like Carl Jung said, “”From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life. For in the secret hour of life’s midday the parabola is reversed, death is born. The second half of life does not signify ascent, unfolding, increase, exuberance, but death, since the end is its goal. The negation of life’s fulfillment is synonymous with the refusal to accept its ending. Both mean not wanting to live; not wanting to live is identical with not wanting to die. Waxing and waning making one curve.” (Vol 8, para 800).

Learn to start embracing what is known instead of what is unknown, since the known is all we have to own as our own.

This just made my week. Gracias, Nick!