These articles first appeared in "The Grapevine," a newsletter about the paranormal, which I wrote in the early 70's. At that time I tried to make the "point" of each article by using metaphores based on paranormal concepts. However, the metaphores used in these articles are probably familiar to most people.
The intent in each case is to offer alternative viewpoints that might help someone find better ways to "do life."
Updates to this page will add more of these "Grapevine" articles, and introduce freshly written material. In the meantime, take your pick from those listed below.
The Spirits' Sandwich Shop
You can't get something if you don't ask for it correctly!
From Every Mountain Top
The way you view things depends on where you are standing.
Too Many Magnets On The Table
Often things cannot be controlled as easily as we would like to think.
And Whose 25 Is That?
Ahhh, I remember it well! So why don't you remember it too?
Food For Thought
Don't forget to feed *all* of your needs
How often have you heard someone complain about how nothing ever seems to go right for them? They are in the wrong job and somehow can't seem to find the right one. Or, they are lonely and can't meet the right companion. They can't ever find the things to do that will kindle their enthusiasm for life. Sometimes they try to explain their plight in terms of Karma. They feel that somehow their current misfortunes are overdue payments for past misdeeds.
When I meet such people I offer them another viewpoint which you may find useful in similar circumstances. My arguments are based on the acceptance of a "Spirit World." If you can't accept that, I ask you to pretend that the Spirit World is just another way of representing the unconscious abilities of our mind to influence events. The argument then proceeds as follows.
Imagine that you have a host of friends in the Spirit World who operate something like a Sandwich Shop where you can go to order-up the things you want in life. Your Spirit Friends are there to serve you. They will deliver whatever you order. But, just as in any Sandwich Shop, it takes time to deliver the order.
Now, consider what you would get in a regular Sandwich Shop if you approached the counter saying, "I don't want a hamburger, I don't want a lettuce and tomato, I don't want a..." In the same way, many people get nothing from life because all they think about is what they don't want! "Thinking" is the same thing as placing an order in the Spirit Sandwich Shop.
Likewise, you will never get a sandwich from any Sandwich Shop if you keep changing your order before the kitchen has had a chance to make up your last order. Too many self-proclaimed losers don't realize that they keep changing their minds about what they want. Under those circumstances, the Spirits can deliver only partial orders, often neither fish nor fowl. Then too, many losers will remain that way for as long as they think themselves unworthy of ordering the better things from the menu of life.
From this viewpoint, one can see a way out of the loser's pit. First you have to decide on what you really want from life. This is the hardest part because everyone else tells you what *they* think you should be ordering. Focus on what *you* really want. Just imagine that the sandwich is already in front of you. Visualize yourself enjoying it! Don't think about how to make it; leave that to your Spirit Friends.
Another thing; don't order something at someone else's expense. There are also other Spirits in the Sandwich Shop who are looking out for them.
Becoming a winner then is a matter of recognizing that you may indeed be in a Spirit Sandwich Shop; that you order-up with your thoughts; and that you can only get what you order.
From the GRAPEVINE: Vol. 3 - No. 9 :: May 1976
Years ago I became interested in psychology and began reading Sigmund Freud's views on why we act the way we do. It was so clear. I finally understood the mysteries of life! My understanding was reinforced by the frequent exposures to Freud's explanations of life which dominated the movie and story plots of the day.
But nagging doubts began to creep in when I found that these explanations failed to describe my feelings and observations of the real people orbiting through my life. And so I began to read more. Adler's views, which centered on the need for "power," left me cold. But Carl Jung turned me on. He knew where it was at. Was Carl Jung right and Adler wrong? Could Freud be wrong, with so many people swearing by him?
Then it hit me. They were all probably right! Each had a piece of the Truth. It was as though Freud had climbed up a mountain to scan the terrain of life and reported accurately what he saw. But he could only see the terrain that was visible from his mountain top. When Adler and Jung climbed their mountains, they too reported what was visible to them from their separate viewpoints. Some of the terrain was visible to all three. That which was visible to Jung was blocked from Freud's view (or he chose not to see it; and vice versa).
I found this "mountain top" analogy especially useful when I began writing about the paranormal in the early 70's. I realized that people viewed the paranormal from different viewpoints. Some see it from an occult mountain top, reporting their perceptions in the language of the occult. More accurately, there are Eastern and Western occult mountain ranges. Ancient peaks in Tibet reveal vistas of non-physical realities while newer peaks in the west reveal these same "planes" from Rosicrucian and Theosophical perspectives and language.
Parapsychologists, uncomfortable on these occult mountain tops, have begun their own climb for newer perspectives of the paranormal world. From their current position they can make careful observations of telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and healing while blocking out the mirage-like reflections of etheric bodies, thoughtforms, discarnates and reincarnates (although some of these are starting to come into view as they climb higher).
One of the joys of life is in seeing the world(s) from as many mountain tops as you can climb. Some perspectives may not be comfortable, for many different reasons. On some, you may lose your breath in awe; from others, you won't see through the mists. But all have something for someone. To claim yours as the only view is deadening-dogma. Even if you are content with your own view, the important point to remember is that from every mountain top there is a different view.
From the GRAPEVINE Vol. 3 No. 8 Apri l 1976
Several years ago, while waiting for Maureen to do some last minute Christmas shopping in a department store, I strolled over to the books-and-games department to browse around. I was fascinated by a pendulum which was swinging freely in all directions, seemingly self-propelled. Then I noticed that the pendulum had a small magnet at its end which was being pulled and pushed by four other magnets clinging to the supporting base below.
As I watched, I tried to detect some pattern in its motion as it swung around in ever-decreasing arcs. Then I tried to make it swing in one pattern by releasing the pendulum from the same starting point each time. No matter how often I tried, the "life-path" of each swing was different from the one before.
In a way, that didn't surprise me because I knew that I couldn't really start the swing in exactly the same place each time. But I was surprised at how much that pendulum moved around, slowing down, speeding up, and changing direction from one moment to the next. I had expected that the simple pendulum, even with a few small magnets, should have behaved in a more predictable way.
Then I suddenly remembered, from High School Physics, that such prediction becomes very difficult when you have to consider more than two objects that are being influenced by several interacting forces. So I removed all but one magnet from the table, and smiled as the pendulum settled down to a reasonably predictable pattern in its swinging.
In the next few weeks (and often since then) I began to notice how the erratic and unpredictable behavior of people seemed to be so much like that pendulum. It was as though they were being pushed and pulled through life by many invisible interacting "magnets." Sometimes one or two strong magnets seemed to be at work (Greed, Ambition), producing easily predictable behavior. Sometimes several equally-matched "magnets" competed with each other, causing confused thrustings here and there (Cultural teachings, Biological Urgings, Childhood Experiences, etc.). However, unlike the magnets of the pendulum, these "magnets" of life come and go under different circumstances, and often in some cyclic pattern.
How can you gain control of your life with all these hidden "magnets" pushing and pulling at you all day long? The first step is to become aware of them! Try to recall the many forces and circumstances which have strongly driven your life up to now. Only after you become aware of them, can you begin to ignore those less important "magnets," so that you can cope with those you can't ignore.
But even if you can't control them, it often helps in just knowing that your problems arise because there are just too many magnets on the table.
From the GRAPEVINE: Vol. 4 - No. 8 :: April 1977
Twenty four years ago I prepared a gift for Maureen on the occasion of our 25th wedding anniversary. It was a large scrapbook which I had called "Memories To Share, On Our 25th." It was filled with old pictures, love letters (including V-Mail from Europe), and the recollections of things we did together. I even managed to find and include pages from our diaries which recorded our first meeting and our first date together in 1942.
As we sat there turning the pages, tears came to our eyes when we looked at pictures of our babies (now out on their own), or at their grade school Valentine messages to Mother. I even saved the brochure describing our first home, newspaper clippings of Maureen, as a model, in Maryland, and all the things that made up the milestones of our life together.
But then, as we sat looking through the pages on which I had written my fondest memories, Maureen would look up at me and say, "But Honey, that's not what happened at all!" And then she would go on to tell me how that event actually happened. I couldn't believe it! How could she be so wrong about something so dear to the both of us? Before long it became apparent that, although we had spent the past 25 years together, they were a different "25" for each of us. Not THAT different; but different. I just couldn't understand it.
At first I thought that I was dealing with a case of selective amnesia. It seemed that we were both selecting which things to remember and which things to forget. In that way each of us would end up with a comfortable view of the past. But then I had a fresh insight, after reading Jane Robert's "Seth Material." There I discovered that we continually select our experiences, from a menu of probable futures.
Was it possible, then, that I had chosen to experience a probable future that was slightly different from the one Maureen had selected for her experience? I liked that idea. But I couldn't see how so many private probable futures could coexist without collision.
I have to confess that I still haven't figured that out. Each of us must have an infinite set of scripts from which we can choose to act out our daily lives. The only way for two people to interact with each other is if their scripts contain elements from "almost the same" physical reality. However, since there are an infinite number of scripts, that shouldn't be a limitation. The problem for me is in trying to decide when Maureen is in my script, and when I am in her's.
In the meantime, whenever we find ourselves looking back at the same event from our different viewpoints, one of us will smile and ask the other, "And whose 25 is that?"
From the GRAPEVINE: Vol. 5 - No. 7 :: March 1978
Have you ever read something so inspirational that you were sure it would make a permanent change in your life? Only to find that within a few weeks you were back in the same old rut? Why do those wonderful poetic teachings fade away so fast? It reminds you of that joking remark about Chinese dinners; "They fill you up, but you're hungry by the time you get back home from the restaurant"
Perhaps there's a clue in that remark. Our physical bodies need nourishment to provide the energies for daily activities. Hunger is the signal which tells us it is time to eat so we can resupply ourselves with needed energies. Yet we do not expect a single meal to last forever! We set aside regular mealtimes, and, to the extent that we can do so, we try to select different foods that are appealing as well as nourishing. We go through cycles of preference for one kind of food over another; tiring of some, while developing a new taste for others. This happens naturally, all to the purpose of satisfying our physical needs.
So too our mental and spiritual needs cannot be satisfied by one sitting with an exciting new idea, no matter how inspirational it seems to be at the time. It would be unnatural to expect that one feeding of thoughts or new ideas is sufficient to nourish our minds for the rest of our lives. New thoughts provide the energies that sustain our mental life and help in its growth. As our mental stomachs grow, they need to be continually furnished with fresh energies. Dissatisfaction is the signal that tells us it is time to forage for new ideas.
To be spiritually nourishing, a book of inspirational writings or poems has to be read again and again. Religious prayer books were designed with that in mind. When these lose their taste (as they will), it is time to try a fresh diet, returning later to regain the inspirational flavor enjoyed on their first reading. Rather than resent the fading flavor on repeated readings, recognize the similarity of patterns in meeting your "energy" needs, whether physical or spiritual.-
Then too, one has to learn to recognize his/her own tastes. If you are a meat and potatoes person, don't feel overwhelmed by the gourmet who tells you what foods you should be enjoying. You are the only one who can decide what's good for you. Regardless of your tastes, learn to interpret your periodic dissatisfactions as a signal of the need for more (or different) food for thought.
From the GRAPEVINE: Vol. 3 - No.6 :: February 1976
Enter comments or suggestions by clicking on my e-mail address
Mort Gale, mortgale@voicenet.com