Maria Duval - Occult Fiction: Novels for Your Private Collection, Part 2

Occult Fiction: Novels for Your Private Collection, Part 2
No contemporary Occult fiction collection would be complete without Jim Butcher’s “Harry Dresden” novels. This series is so popular with dark urban fantasy fans that a television show, “The Dresden Files,” has been created from the concept.

So far Butcher has written eight novels in the series, and I hear he envisions twelve more. Certainly good news for Occult fiction fans!

Harry Dresden is a Wizard, the only one in Chicago who advertises his services, working from a sparsely furnished office, the level of disarray always dependent upon whether his latest visitor was human or not. He scrambles to make the rent every month, since his cases rarely turn out the way he imagines. This is due partly to a steady stream of questionable clients, but mostly to Harry’s heart, which shimmers with gold and never considers the current state of his wallet.

Harry lives in a basement apartment with no electricity. He uses candles for light and suffers through cold showers, since electrical appliances tend to misbehave in the presence of a Wizard’s energy field. Harry’s “lab” sits beneath the apartment, stocked with hundreds of items used for spellcasting. Here you’ll find Bob, an ancient air spirit who inhabits a dusty human skull and is the source for most of Harry’s spells. Besides being a virtual encyclopedia of magick, Bob possesses a wry wit, providing the perfect touch of reality and humor to Harry’s chaotic days.

Butcher has succeeded in creating a cast of delightfully complex characters, yet each scene in these novels flows as smoothly as city water from the tap. I cannot say enough about his talent as a novelist. Butcher wrote the first book in this series while he was still in school. It was awful. But he continued to tweak the story for several years until it reached the high level of craftsmanship fans of Occult fiction demand. And the rest is publishing history.

Any reader who values expertly written dark urban fantasy, dazzling magick, a fast-paced plot, and hilarious characters should definitely consider Jim Butcher’s “Harry Dresden” series as an essential part of their Occult fiction collection. I know I do.

Laura Stamps is an award-winning novelist, as well as a Wiccan and feral cat rescuer. The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize nomination and seven Pushcart Award nominations, she is the author of a popular series of Occult Novels for Women found at www.KittyfeatherPress.blogspot.com

Ten Reasons to Meditate
Meditation is the practice of lowering one’s brain frequency from a waking Beta state to a slower Alpha state. Just as a heart beats a certain number of beats per minute, the brain pulses a certain amount of brainwaves per second. In the Beta waking state, brainwaves vary from 15 to 40 cycles per second. In the Alpha state, brainwaves vary from 9 to 14 cycles per second.

Beta is the normal state for waking thoughts and daily activities including talking, working, and shopping. Beta is the state most people are in when in a working mode. Alpha is the slower state where an individual can reflect, meditate or ponder thoughts.

The following are 10 key benefits to daily meditation:

• Oneness with God and creation

• Stress reduction and decreased anxiety

• Reduces the noise and chatter of our waking minds

• Pain reduction and management

• Supports the immune system

• Reduces blood pressure

• Improved memory and ability to learn

• Feelings of peace, calmness and an awareness of self

• Improves moodiness and irritability

• Feelings of rejuvenation

In his book Getting in the Gap, Dr Wayne Dyer discusses how daily meditation brings us into a closer, more personal relationship with God. By knowing God, our source of being, we can find true meaning for our lives. Dr. Dyer writes, “The paramount reason for making meditation a part of our daily life is to join forces with our sacred energy and regain the power of our Source (God). Through meditation, we can tap in to an abundance of creative energy that resides within us, and a more meaningful experience of life, which enriches us permanently. By meditating, we come to know God rather than knowing about God”.

This deeper, richer, calming experience has a profound effect on body, mind and spirit. Our minds become clearer; the noise and chatter in our minds fades away. In its place come feelings of peace, calmness and a sense of awareness. We feel lighter, younger and rejuvenated. Moods brighten and irritability is eliminated paving the way for clearer thoughts, improved memory, insightfulness and creativity.

The ability to relax and calm our minds has its physical benefits as well.

As our minds our soothed, physical pain and tension are reduced or eliminated. Chronic pain including severe headaches can be completely negated. Our circulatory, cardiovascular and immune systems operate more efficiently.

The benefits of meditation are vast. In a world of daily stress and anxiety, meditation paves the way for a healthy mind, body and spirit. For healthy living, practice meditation daily.

Sharon B. Gilbert, Ph.D. is an avid researcher and writer particularly interested in the areas of women’s health, meditation, metaphysics, organic foods and cooking, and natural health remedies. She is the author of a free weekly ezine on healthy living tips. For further information or to contact the author, please visit www.Healthylifestylesfortoday.com. Copyright 2006.

The Philadelphia Experiment: New Evidence Surfaces 4
It's taken me some time to be able to write this article. That's because I am in awe of the time travel prophecy that came my way just a year and a half ago. I shouldn't be because it's happened before. I clearly remember sitting in a quiet room in the late 1980s when Preston Nichols, Al Bielek and Duncan Cameron spoke of a cataclysmic event that would occur sometime in the future of New York City. As my video camcorder captured their every word, I remember how reluctant they were to talk about it. Their reluctance seemed almost dutiful and preprogrammed. Watching that video today, I know they were describing the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. To recap from previous articles: On February 12, 2004, a woman that I'll refer to as Virginia was joined by her husband and two friends to clean out a small room that existed on the second floor of their newly purchased retirement home in Maryland. The eighty-five year old house needed an interior facelift. With Contractor work set to begin shortly, the four had the task of removing items from a smaller room that was going to become part of a larger open area when everything was completed. As the small group of people prepared the items for removal, they suddenly felt sick to their stomachs. A green mist appeared in the room accompanied by the form of a man and the odor of over-heated circuitry. He looked like a sailor wearing a long out of date naval uniform. Before anyone could react, the sailor looked at the group and said, "2005. Watch out for 2005! They're playing with your future!" After that, the Sailor faded into the wall and the green mist quickly dissipated. All agreed later that they had heard his voice and everyone heard the same thing. They described the Sailor's voice as deep and full, but sounding a bit muffled. Despite the seemingly over-dramatic words and manner of the misty sailor, it would be a mistake to dismiss the incident out of hand. I have carefully researched this event as time and finances have allowed since it first occurred over a year ago. My investigations have leaded me to believe that it's not a work of fiction and likely occurred as reported. Although I have dutifully reported the progress of my investigation through follow-up articles, I have not turned the entire situation into some sort of carnival atmosphere. I knew that this event would somehow play out and now it has. Hurricane Katrina was more then just a weather event; it was a catastrophe of almost unprecedented proportions. Was that the nature of the sailor's warning? It's hard to say because there doesn't seem to be any direct connection between the two events, at least on the surface. Digging deeper has uncovered some disturbing facts that we all may want to consider before drawing any final conclusions. The manipulation of weather has long been a priority for the United States. One need only look at HAARP (High frequency Active Auroral Research Program). The notorious HARRP array in Alaska is said to have the ability to bounce electromagnetic beams off the upper atmosphere and focus them for the purpose of heating the ionosphere. Although touted as the building block for an advanced military communication and tracking system, there can be no doubt that HAARP has the ability to cause some type of weather changes. It may be no accident that HAARP is also a direct descendent of ELF and Radiosonde research. ELF is a special low frequency radio system used to allow for communication with submarines deep under the sea. The Radiosonde is a radio sounding device. These devices are used by the National Weather Service and often placed on weather balloons. HAARP, ELF and Radiosonde devices have long been connected to research that goes hand in hand with the Philadelphia Experiment technologies. The mind control aspect of the Philadelphia Experiment was said to have involved the use of microwave, Radiosonde and other technologies that could have preceded or coincided with the development of ELF and HAARP. The technology used for the invisibility effect achieved during the original P.E. experiments affected the minds of those involved. This left the door wide open to explore the possible use of that technology for mind control. Imagine the military or political benefits that could be derived from the successful deployment of mind control devices? However, those devices would only be as good as their ability to operate over a widespread area. The development of additional technologies to assure that would be possible may have also assisted in the discovery and deployment of things like ELF, HAARP and Radiosondes. However, there can be no doubt that the use of these technologies to control weather would be equally as beneficial from a political or military standpoint. Weather manipulation can provide obvious benefits in terms of record harvests, national revenues and tourism. The danger, however, is the same one that exists with time travel. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You cannot attempt to alter the past or future without the potential of doing serious damage to yourself or others. That's because we do not yet possess the ability to fully manipulate time. To do that, we would have to have a complete database of its ebb and flow. Most would concede the implausibility of being able to create such a concise record. However, that would not stop us and probably has not stopped us from attempting to control weather or time. Our Space Program provides a good model for this. Once we discovered that the technologies to take us out into Space could be developed, we went ahead full throttle. As with Time Travel and Weather Control technologies, the potential political, economic and military benefits derived from diversified missile and rocket projects were just tempting to ignore. No one was concerned about being able to control how many missiles were eventually deployed, the amount of space junk that would end up in orbit or the number of people who might die during space missions. Worrying about all that would come later. Despite the horrendous damage we might due to our planet in trying to control the weather, I have no doubt that such considerations play a secondary role. I am certain that many scientists have convinced themselves that we now know enough about our ecosystem to be able to predict almost any potential problem with weather control. Likewise, the scientists and engineers working on time travel projects have likely adopted the popular theory that says that Time is actually a big circle with no beginning or end. That would allow for movement anywhere within that circle. Any changes would merely become part of the norm, despite the fact that large numbers of people, places or things may be permanently altered or simply cease to exist. Acceptance of the big circle theory when it comes to Time Travel may have opened a Pandora's Box that can never be closed. It might not be unreasonable to suggest that the government would use available weather alteration technologies to cause what seems like a catastrophe to fix or prevent a problem created or detected by their Time Travel program. Such a problem could end up being ten times worse then the disaster they may have caused to fix or prevent it. Most people think in the now. When considering the past, present or future, they do so in relation to the reality they know. Suppose it were possible to consider any number of possible realities, choose one and replace those less desirable? The problem is that accomplishing that switch may come with unforeseen consequences. When it comes to time travel, little problems can quickly become big ones requiring more then just a little tweaking of a desired time line. Because New Orleans is one of America's largest ports, it's not unreasonable to consider the possibility that something terrible may have happened requiring a PE-style time travel fix and subsequent alteration of the present as a preventative measure. There could have been a dirty bomb or biological attack by terrorists bringing something into that port. A hurricane might have been just the distraction needed for U.S. Authorities to deal with the threat in a quiet way. Less then a year ago there was a story on the major cable news networks of a cargo ship carrying something dangerous on board. The ship was headed toward the east coast of the U.S. The last I heard was that the Coast Guard was going to intercept the ship far offshore because they had word of a credible threat. Following those reports, the story and the ship just vanished. Nothing more was said. I went to the CNN and Fox News websites looking for the story that both networks had reported. The story was gone. This is not conjecture or guesswork, it's fact. Hurricane Katrina and the possibilities it has provided as a fulfillment of the time traveling sailor's prophecy is something we should all carefully consider. For me, the shoe fits and fits very well. We can only hope that the next warning we receive will be one that allows us to take some preventative action. The very nature and dramatic accent of the 2004 warning leaves me with the sinking feeling that it was motivated more by desperation, then the hope that anyone had the ability to stop what was coming. NOTE: You can read the previous three articles on this subject at http://www.ufoguy.com

Author: Bill Knell Author's Email: billknell@cox.net Author's Website: http://www.billknell.com Terms To Use Article: Permission is granted to use this article for free online or in print. Please add a link to or print my website address of http://www.billknell.com A native New Yorker now living in Arizona, Bill Knell is a forty-something guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience. He's written hundreds of articles offer advice on a wide variety of subjects. A popular Speaker, Bill Knell presents seminars on a number of topics that entertain, train and teach. A popular radio and television show Guest, you've heard Bill on thousands of top-rated shows in all formats and seen him on local, national and international television programs.