The Forest Dark – Page 24 – The Forest Dark Com Project

2015/10/212018/05/04

Paranormal Forest

Is a “paranormal forest” the same as a “haunted forest”? Isn’t that splitting hairs? Yes, but if we think about this further there is a slight distinction. Even if we believe in a “real haunted forest” the word haunted insinuates often a fictional element like the good old story. If we look what’s maybe paranormal about a forest we might get closer to some real phenomena. There are even many things yet to discover which sound fantastic but which are not necessarily supernatural. We are far away from knowing anything about nature and our forests.Over the last years scientists discovered more and more real wonders of nature in our forests. We already know that trees and plants can emit chemicals into the air which help them to communicate with other trees. They warn others about dangers for example. They’re also taking care of their offspring and their neighbors. On old beech tree controls the way his offspring grows up.

But trees and other plants are also linked underground. In a BBC article, „Plants talk to each other using an internet of fungus“ we learn some fantastic insights about the „wood wide web“. It says, that „most of mushroom bodies are made up of a mass of thin threads, known as a mycelium. These threads act as a kind of underground internet, linking the roots of different plants. The mycelial connections help plants to exchange nutrients and information but even to commit „cyber crime“.

Trees help each other out. A German ranger, Peter Wohlleben, who wrote a book about „The secret life of trees“, showed a reporter the overgrown remnants of a tree which was cut a long time ago. He is still alive because he gets supported by the trees in his neighborhood.

There is not only friendliness among the trees in the forest. The wood wide web is also used by plants which produce a biological phenomenon called „Allelopathy“. “Allelopathy” means that an organism produces biochemicals which influence the growth, survival and reproduction of other organisms. Simplified there are hostile plants in nature which could send something like a „computer virus“ through the underground web of mycelial connections.

It’s well known that they can do this with some odors but „these fungal network make communication between plants, including those of different species faster and more efficient“, said Kathryn Morris, a chemical ecologist.

These are fascinating facts but that doesn’t make a forest „paranormal“.

It’s interesting that the idea that „all organisms are connected and that they can communicate collectively manage resources” occurred 2009 in James Cameron’s blockbuster „Avatar“ (BBC). In the movie lead character Dr. Grace Augustine says: Цhat we think we know – is that there’s some kind of electrochemical communication between the roots of the trees. Like the synapses between neurons. Each tree has ten to the fourth connections to the trees around it, and there are ten to the twelfth trees on Pandora…

It seems, there is some truth to this. A lot of the mechanisms are still not understood. But if we take this further there are many possibilities which even link to some paranormal phenomena attributed to forests around the world.

Maybe certain smells and gases which are emitted by trees have an influence on animals and humans.

There is no evidence to this, but in some cases “lightheadedness” was reported in forests among other phenomena. What if there are biochemicals in the air which hasn’t been discovered yet?

And we know for example that so-called „magic mushrooms“ have tremendous hallucinogenic potential. Where does that potential come from?

If we think of the internet, the wood wide web could also work as a data storage.

Another question would be if plants and tree could form some sort of collective consciousness.

Some thoughts might be highly speculative, and we don’t know if we’ll discover any kind of wonders in the future but one thing is sure: the intelligent infrastructure of our forests is a striking argument to protect our forests and stop their destruction.

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2015/10/092018/08/03

Highway To the Otherworld

Shamans are supposed to travel on the fast lane into the Otherworld and back. Obviously they don’t need decades of meditation or living as an eremite deep into the forest to get any spiritual insights. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do the same? Throughout history people tried to access the Otherworld through rituals and tribal dances. Today’s psy trance events and sweat hut workshops seem to be a modern reverberation of old rituals promising quick access into supernatural realms.

Since the 60ties we’ve seen a lot of attempts to adapt shamanic traditions or using techniques to reach other dimension of consciousness – regression, hypnotherapy, sweat huts and tribal dances. Not everything is really “shamanic”. The term is often misunderstood.

It’s good to be careful since we have to distinct between real research about indigenous culture and a romanticizing concept of Shamanism developed by Westeners. According to wikipedia there is no single agreed upon definition for the word “shamanism” among anthropologists. The general meaning is “Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.” A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing” (WIKIPEDIA).

The important thing here is that the shaman is somebody voluntarily attempting to reach altered stats of consciousness in opposition to people who got overwhelmed by an abduction, NDE or paranormal experience.

Obviously, not anybody can become a shaman or has the ability of a shaman. Initiation is the key. Shamans are “called” by dreams or signs which require training. The Yedi in Star Wars give you a good idea what the call to adventure and initiation is about.

The initiation of the shaman is often described as dangerous and as a painstaking ordeal. It takes time, therefore there is also for these gifted people no quick access or “highway to the Otherworld”. It can be also a problem to know if somebody has the gift or not, which is called “Fire In The Head”.

In my movie project I deal also with the problem of having the gift but being not aware about it.

Despite the obstacles shamanic flight isn’t impossible at all. Shamanic flight basically means it is believed that part of the soul is free to leave the body, an idea common to any culture but impossible to proof. It seems that also ordinary people can travel through certain practices into other realms. Stimulation through rhythmic music plays an important role. However the difference might be that the non-initiate or normal traveller might be more like an Otherworld-tourist who can’t really understand a lot or distinct between deception and truth. Perhaps, only the gifted one can really communicate and may have the healing powers which are the most important quality of the shaman.

However, Tom Cowan, an expert in Shamanism, says that “If the shamanic archetype is a natural part of the human psyche, then it should not be unusual to discover certain power animals repeated across cultures and through the centuries (Imagination and the Imaginal in Fire in the Head, Tom Cowan).

Particularly the creative artist is required to look out for “highways into the otherworld” from time to time:

“Certainly the oldest tales and legends about the origins of a people and their culture heroes had to have been first articulated by someone who today would be said to have a “creative imagination.” I use this term to refer to a person’s ability to describe and impart shape and structure to visionary experiences, not to imply that the products of the imagination are fantasy, mere speculation, or raving hallucinations that have no basis in ordinary or non ordinary reality”(Tom Cowan).

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Maybe imagination is the key, imagination is the highway to the otherworld.

2015/09/282016/01/01

Horror As A Quest For The Otherworld

Jonathan Black writes in his outstanding book, The Sacred History, “I look, too, at the work of the great storytellers of modern times, writers who can ask if there is a mystical dimension to our lives, if the world is shot through with meanings we did not put there, if we really are engaged in interaction with unembodied intelligence”.

Black writes, “In the age of scientific materialism this is perhaps the greatest philosophical question, and novelists, from Dostoyevsky and George Eliot to David Foster Wallace, have looked for mysterious patterns, mystic traces and otherworldly influences not in the epic lives of heroes, but in ordinary, everyday lives” (Sacred History, Preface).

In the best of all cases we find a deeper reality embedded in a novel or a movie. It’s something which cannot be forced by the writer. In some cases it seems the otherworld itself is the invisible guiding force giving the writer, artist or filmmaker hints from time to time.

And, maybe, through art, music, literature and movies something is communicated to the listener, the reader or the viewer. Is it possible that the writer is used as a “device”?

Asked where ideas come from David Lynch answered in an interview 2014 that ” “It comes, like, on a TV in your mind.”

And what is a TV? A TV is like a radio, a receiver connected with an antenna or in our days to the internet. It seems that our minds sometimes connect with the otherworld and receive important messages.

Of course its impossible to distinct between the works and fabrications of our own brain and these subtle guiding influences which happen only from time to time.

One little clue might be that it might be more images rather than complex thoughts which are transmitted directly into our consciousness.

However, identifying “mysterious pattern, mystic traces and otherwordly influences in our ordinary, everyday lives” is a demanding task.

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Perhaps, the so-called-synchronistic-events come to mind as the book which opens on the right side or falls from the shelf. However we can’t say for sure what that means. “Otherworldy influence” seems to be executed usually more like a very weak current of electricity, which is difficult to measure.

The larger patterns of mysterious influence on our history is also a question of interpretation. Humans have a natural tendency to find some meaningful pattern everywhere which creates sometimes the weirdest conspiracy theories, and any interpretation should be done very carefully since we could easily deceive ourselves.

Nevertheless there are moments in life where we think it’s not a coincidence that we ended up in a certain situation or met somebody at a certain time which changed the course of our life. Even more, we might have seen a movie or read a novel which changed the course of our life. Is there a real otherworldly influence?

Yes, but I think “mystic traces in everyday reality” might usually not appear as spectacular alien encounters but in the weirdness of our everyday reality itself.

Often, we watch out for strange apparitions but miss to see the obvious.

Today we’re not any longer “trained” to see strange things or mysterious turning points in history or in our lives.

In the old Greek tragedies or in Odysseus fateful journey divine intervention was responsible for many things. In our days we are on our own (officially).

But from time to time we feel different. Even very rational people often believe in astrology, which seems to work like a modern replacement for the interventions of the Elder Gods.

The artist however often wishes he could adjust the “TV set in the mind”, looking for different channels and get a better picture. It’s like seeing a strange light somewhere deep in the forest, and we wish to take a closer look.

Writing a (supernatural) story or developing a supernatural thriller is in some cases a quest for the otherworld or a kind of field research. We have seen the mysterious light and hope a good story might reveal a bit more of it. We want to find some sense here, or find a sufficient reason or explanation for something which either happened in the real world or the sometimes weird and disturbing scenarios in our own imagination. Naturally here are many fears involved:

Disenfranchised from any idea of “interventions from the otherworld” any experience of an intrusion of the supernatural is experienced as horror, since we fear to lose control.

Since the rise of the epoch of science we have been told that we’re in control. We’re not allowed to lose control of our lives. If we lose control there will we punishment. And this is the moment where the horror begins.

Horror as a quest for the otherworld is therefore an attempt to do better, to understand the “mysterious traces in our ordinary lives ” and remember a way how to deal with them.

Subsequently the best horror stories may frighten us because of their journey into darkness, but in the end they have also a healing quality as we have found a way to integrate the otherworld in our normal life.