ANISSA

So this is the yearbook from Anissa's fifth grade year. And this is what Anissa wrote. It says, "You're like a second dad to me." So that was really sweet. It's kind of tough looking back on it, 'cause if she felt that strong, you know, just... maybe I could have done something else. 

Anissa was definitely one of the biggest outliers I've had just because she had no solid connections with other 4th and 5th-graders. 

Anissa would definitely cry once every couple weeks, I would want to say. Mostly about... kids being mean to her at school. 

She wouldn't be able to contain herself in front of the whole class, and sometimes she would just cry. So other kids were aware of her... emotions, and being upset. 

And there's times she would come in from lunch/recess and cry about not having friends. 

I've guessed that Anissa made a connection with Morgan and was happy that they both were into Slenderman, was happy that she made a new friend, shared a connection, shared interest, and it may have spiraled out of control from there. 

SLENDER

" You couldn't set up a better system to fail, in terms of "No one at school likes you, but here's this open-ended monster who will embrace you." 

The worst time to be socially isolated is the time when your brain and body are begging for camaraderie, for kinship, which is adolescence. 

It's the hardest time to be alone. I think in the absence of social contact, the Internet can sometimes serve as a peer in a way, or a peer group. Those two girls in a tight-knit group of eight friends, I don't think this would've happened, because they wouldn't have only been talking to each other and they wouldn't have been relying so heavily on information from the Internet. "

Slenderman is the modern-day boogeyman. 

Because it's faceless, because it's quiet, because it doesn't speak words, it's open to a lot of interpretation and open to a lot of possibilities and to a lot of projection. 

It varies from person to person as to what Slenderman actually is. 

He's the creature that lives in my closet. 

He's the guy in the windowless white van. 

The faceless stranger who kidnaps kids. 

It encapsulates, symbolically, a lot of these other kind of societal fears that we've had for ages and ages and kind of conveniently wraps them up and makes it really malleable. Because, really, Slenderman can be whomever you want him to be. We can empirically look back and find out where Slenderman was created. It was created in 2009 by Eric Knudsen under the screen name "Victor Surge" as part of a Photoshop contest to try to create something that looked real that really wasn't. Urban legends on the Internet has been a thing for decades. There was already a base audience that was ready for a globalized project to kind of build a myth. It actually began with the games that spun off from Slenderman. It's so heavily Page 12/51

visually oriented that it's replicable without really having to understand too much cultural context. And from there, it spread to every available platform and medium on the web. Tumblr... DeviantArt... YouTube... and also the 4chan's Paranormal Board. All of these websites have a really strong affinity with fan art in general. "Slender is coming"? YouTube was the international hub for non-English speakers to kind of break their way into the myth. Creepypasta is this generic term for horror stories that gets copied then pasted because it's good. As it spreads, people start tweaking some parts of the story or pick up where they left off. These are stories that branched out of the main canon of Slenderman. "Oh, should I travel through the woods," "Or should I not wishing I would?" "For above me lurks within the trees" "No one could hear my deathly screams" "The palest man, the blackest suit" Page 13/51

"Bigger than the tallest brute" "Six black arms will grab you up" "Or stalk you till you just give up" "He'll leave your body not to eat But to staple your corpse upon a tree." "Fear the man, the Slenderman For he can do what no one can." Slenderman kind of represents an opportunity to see where people are nervous about certain things and what excites them and what brings them together, because it changes. It changes based on who's telling the story. Often in the adult world we forget how much it sucks to be a kid. Slenderman can also be seen as a guardian angel. Slenderman is the Grim Reaper but with a heart. These pictures are not so much him showing up on the playground to snatch kids away, but to rescue them. Stories like this can be a powerful aphrodisiac for... for somebody who is lonely or is troubled, or is trying to find their way in the world. Slenderman has this entire community of people online who are feeding into the narrative and creating their own versions of it. It's constantly... Page 14/51

it's exponentially growing. That's the definition of a good meme. In human culture, if it's copied from one brain to another, that's a meme. Hi, my name is Valerie, and I've decided to do the Ice Bucket Challenge. I'm doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I'm here to join the people bringing attention to Lou Gehrig's disease. It can be an idea. It can be a tune. It can be a style of dancing. Tired? What do you think he's doing? - Planking. - Oh, you know? - Yeah, I do. - Yes! I am from the Internet. The Internet provides a very, very fast, efficient, universal, worldwide medium for memes to spread. That'll never catch on. No doubt. 

 

"There may be some Memes that spread like a very rapid epidemic and then die away. 

But others may have strong persistence. 

 

People are captivated by Slenderman and wish to pass on images or to modify images of him. 

This horrifying story of two girls who thought that it was their duty to Slenderman to go and kill someone. 

 

Well, that's what I call Power. 

That's very Substantial Power, very Horrific Power."

 

-Prof. Richard Dawkins, Atheist.

 

"One of the things that just absolutely staggers me about these stories—especially the story of Cain and Abel, which I hope to get to— is that it’s so short. It’s like 10, 11 lines. 

There’s nothing to it at all, and I’ve found that it’s essentially inexhaustible in its capacity to reveal meaning. I don’t exactly know what to make of that. I think it has something to do with this intense process of condensation across a very long period of time. That’s the simplest explanation. The information in there is so densely packed, and it’s not that easy to come up with a fully compelling explanation for that. One of the things that you can be virtually certain about is that everything about the archaic Biblical stories that was memorable was remembered.

This is kinda like Richard Dawkins’ idea of Memes. 

I often thought that Richard Dawkins, if he was a little bit more mystically inclined, would have become Carl Jung. 

Their theories are unbelievable similar. 

 

The idea of Meme and the idea of archetype of the collective unconscious are very, very similar ideas. 

 

The Jungian idea’s far more profound, in my estimation — well, and it just is. 

 

He thought it through so much better. 

 

Dawkins tended to think of Meme as a sort of like a mind-worm that would infest the mind, and maybe multiple minds. 

But I don't think he ever really took the idea with the seriousness it deserved. 

 

I did hear him, actually, make a joke with Sam Harris, the last time they talked, about the fact that there was some possibility that the production of Memes — say, religious memes — could alter evolutionary history. 

 

They both avoided that topic instantly. 

They had a big laugh about it, and then decided they weren't going down that road. 

 

That was quite interesting, to me."

- Prof. Jordan Peterson, Prophet

Unconsciously, Slenderman stems from a tradition that... that goes way, way back. 

To a great extent, the Brothers Grimm collected tales that deal with what I would call universal human struggles that we continue to have today. 

I think that's one of the reasons why people are responding to this tale, and they're telling their own versions, their own horror stories about what is happening in The World today. 

Slenderman is a tale about a character, a strange weird character, who may feed upon children. 

It made me think of a legend that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected called "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." 

Many years ago a town was being devastated by rats... in the gutters... on the streets... in the cellars. 

The Pied Piper comes out of nowhere. 

And he's a very odd, strange-looking person, but he has a flute or some type of pipe that he plays. 

The man said, 

"If you want me to get rid of the rats, you must pay me." 

So they said, 

"Yes, as much as you want if you can get rid of the rats." 

The Piper began blowing on the pipe. 

The Rats began following. 

The Piper had all The Rats jump into The River. 

But The Mayor and The Councilmen cheat him. 

And the Piper said, 

“You know, there are other tunes I can pipe, 

and ways that I can repay you, 

in a way that you will never forget." 

So The Piper took his pipe to his lips again and he began piping. 

The people froze, but the children followed him. 

There was an opening, a sudden opening in The Mountain. 

And all the children headed toward this opening. 

And as the last one entered, the mountain closed, and the Piper went inside as well. 

Depending on the times and the person who is telling their version of "The Pied Piper," he can be many different things. 

So he is a very mysterious figure. 

We don't know whether he's evil or good. 

We don't know whether he's going to do anything to these children. 

The children never return. 

Nobody ever hears about them.

But the Pied Piper does live on.

MORGAN

 

Hi, Morgan. Hi, Morgan. 

 

Morgan was a Surprise. 

And I didn't know how to feel about it at first... 

But I knew that I loved her.

 

Yay! 

 

And she changed our lives drastically and for The Better. Morgan's always been quirky, and she's always marched to The Beat of Her Own Drum. 

 

Even from... from little on... she didn't care what people think about her, which I think is a wonderful trait, especially for... for a girl. 

 

Girls are usually so... so self-conscious and concerned about... about what others think of them, and Morgan was never like that. 

 

You know, she just... 

She always just did her own thing, and if people didn't like it, well, that was Their Problem. 

 

Kitties and puppies aren't wild animals.

 

No, that's right.

They're not. They're pets. 

 

I had a camera in her face for a good portion of her childhood, so I think she got sick of it sometimes. 

 

She got a real miniature baby grand piano for Christmas one year. 

 

And she would sit there for quite a long time, just making up sweet little songs. 

 

And we tried to capture as many of them as we could on video, but usually as soon as she realized that we were paying attention or recording her, she would stop. 

 

They'll stay stray forever — 

 

One thing about Morgan that always struck us... as a little... odd was that she... 

 

She didn't react the way that you would expect her to react... like at the movies. 

 

Like, if something bad happened to the main character, she... she wouldn't have Empathy for them. 

 

Bambi, come here! 

Look. New spring grass. 

 

I remember watching "Bambi" with her for the first time. 

 

We were so worried to watch it with her, because we thought she was gonna be so upset when... when The Mother died. 

 

Bambi, quick! The thicket! 

Faster! Faster, Bambi! 

Don't look back! 

Keep running! Keep running! 

 

But The Mother died, and Morgan just said, 

“Run Bambi, run! 

Get out of there, save yourself!” 

 

You know? 

And she wasn't sad about it. 

 

We made it! 

We made it, Mother! 

We... Mother...?

 

 And I could think of... 

A lot of other examples along those lines where she hasn't reacted in the way that we would expect a Little Girl to react. 

 

We were aware that Morgan was interested in Slenderman. 

She would show us some of the characters and some of the stories. 

 

While I wasn't thrilled about her interest, I didn't really see the harm in it either. 

 

We never thought for a moment that she... 

She could possibly believe that it was Real. 

 

When I was Morgan's age, I... 

 

I remember biking home from the library with Stephen King's "It." 

You know, so I liked that sort of thing too when I was her age, and I think most kids her age do like scary stories and horror movies and... 

Scary stories on the Internet, you know? 

 

So, that's all that we... that's all that we thought that it was. 

 

I just can't imagine her... 

I can't imagine her coming up with that plan on her own. 

 

What, ultimately, was Morgan diagnosed with? The final diagnosis, both in the psychological report and in my report are schizophrenia, unspecified, 295.90... oppositional defiant disorder, 313.81... and bronchial asthma, mild, intermittent, J45.2. What is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is one of the most serious and one of the most studied mental illnesses of human beings. Approximately 1% of the population succumbs to schizophrenia. It is a psychotic illness. It's through a combination of genetic predisposition and then stress placed on the person to begin manifesting symptoms. Patients lose track of reality in a number of ways. One would be hallucinations. One could hear voices, one could see visions one could feel things crawling on them. Delusions, on the other hand, don't have to do with sensing something, they have to do with a thought. So, for example, believing that Slenderman is real is a delusion. Saying that you saw Slenderman is a visual hallucination. Is the pile getting bigger? Ha! Jumping in the leaves. And that's one of my favorites. I raked up a bunch of leaves in the back yard and... she came flying in. Nice action shot. Yeah, it's hard for us to imagine that she was having problems. It's hard to process. None of us... saw this coming. Morgan recalls having hallucinations as early as three. She remembers... seeing ghosts at night, as young as three, that would bite her and pull her hair. But from what I understand, for the most part they were friendly, too. She even said that she... she tried to tell us about it once, and that we just told her to go back to bed, but I don't have any recollection of that. And really, how often do your children tell you at bedtime that 

they're seeing something or hearing something when they're that age?

 

"A monster's in my closet," or "something's under my bed," you know, just because they don't want to go to bed.

 

It's hard because I haven't been able to discuss these things with Morgan, because she's been incarcerated for the entire time that I've...

I've known... that she's... that she's had these symptoms.

 

 

"She expressed the ability to see and hear things that other people are not able to hear or see.

Things like unicorns.

She at one point digressed into fairly rambling discussion about a student in her class being a pegasus.

 

When I saw her last week, a few days before, Snape had come to visit her and kept her up until 3: by Morgan's report."

 

Snape?

 

“Snape."

 

Who is that?

 

"A "Harry Potter" character."

 

"She also will say not just that she's heard things,

but that since as early as three, she's had some sensory-perceptual distortions.

 

She might see a person

change slightly or see colors.

 

She doesn’t have much concern about whether she gets a long prison sentence, because, wherever she is, she will use Vulcan mind control to make herself feel, to make herself believe whatever she likes.

 

And so, even under very stressful circumstances, she doesn't feel the stress because of this...

what she described to be Vulcan mind control.

 

How about her... her cell?

 

I would consider her cell disorganized.

She has papers scattered about the floor.

 

Have you ever suggested picking them up?

 

Yes, I have. And she stated that she liked the papers there because they made it feel less empty.

 

And she is in the room alone?

 

Correct.

 

She said, "Seeing my friends, none of these things are dangerous. These friends can't disappear. They're important to me."

 

Was she referring to real world friends or fictional friends?

 

Fictional, I believe.

 

She's not allowed to hug her family or touch them?

 

Not in our facility.

 

Right.

 

She made clear that her primary concern was with her relationship with Slenderman, 

and she felt like if she says the wrong thing, if she somehow upsets Slenderman, not only hers but her family's lives could be in danger. With childhood schizophrenia, almost everyone develops, eventually, negative symptoms and cognitive symptoms. What's unique about Morgan's circumstance is that a severe course is so predictable. Well, we knew her diagnosis before we went to meet them at the hospital. We had a conference call with two of the doctors, so we were... we were prepared. And the reason that we all went up there, actually, was so that we could tell Morgan what her diagnosis was. And we thought that it would be helpful for her to know that her father also... had the same mental illness, because we had never told her previously that Matt had schizophrenia. We were very worried about the way that she might react to learning that she has schizophrenia because Morgan... Morgan's a very smart girl, and she's been reading... Which makes me think that she knew. Yeah. I think when they told her, she was probably like... Not surprised..."Well, that's what I would've guessed... if I had to diagnose myself."

 

What I think is that Morgan knows that other people don't see her hallucinations, but they're still very real to her.

Like, in her head they are real, and they're there with her. They're there.

But I think that she knows that other people don't see them. Otherwise, why would she make an attempt to...

 

Cover it up.

 

Mm-hmm.

...hide them from us, exactly.

It's because she doesn't want to lose them.

She's afraid they would be taken from her.

 

"This is the doll house, or the components for a doll house, that Morgan made while she was housed at Washington County Juvenile Detention Center. And she just put so much... detail into it, it's amazing. She's not allowed to have scissors, so all of these... all of these tiny little pieces she ripped by hand. This is a television, and these are some of her little cartoon characters that she likes to draw.

 

This actually, I think, is a character that's modeled after Spock. When I watched her do a couple of the dolls Page 39/51

and the... and the clothing, and she said what was surprising is how few times she had to start over. Like, she was able to just be meticulous about... Here's some food. I think this is salad and a piece of pizza. A salad and a piece of pizza. Here's a little laptop computer. See there's even detail on the screen. Look at the cute little heart on the front of the computer. This looks like it's another TV. Oh, and there's... how appropriate. There's a courtroom drama playing in the background. When I ask her what she wants to watch on TV that night... it's one of the things I usually ask her when I talk to her on the phone... she'll say that it depends on whose turn it is to decide. And she's in a cell by herself, so she's the only person there. I do a lot of stuff with running numbers in my head. I do... I try to put up static, almost, is how I describe it. I wish that I could talk to her about... like, I have... right now, there's like patterns of light and geometric shapes that's, like, always racing. Like always, like right now. Pshew, pshew, pshew, pshew, pshew, pshew. I always wanted to know if she sees that stuff, too. Everything seems normal to me, because it's... it's my everything. 

 

This is how I've always seen things.

So, it doesn't seem weird to me that like,

"Oh that's not how you see street lights?"

or

"Oh, that's weird."

I don't know if that was everyone that had like a weird little visual... thing going on...

like the glaring demon, devil.

Like that you're like,

"Okay, this is clearly not real."

 

But it doesn't matter. Like, I've had where... like you... you can see it and you know it's not real...

but it totally doesn't matter, because you're still terrified of it.

 

Like, I know that there's...

I know The Devil's not in the backseat,

but The Devil is in the backseat.

You know?

 

Yeah, sometimes you know it's not real,

but it still smells, tastes, and looks real, so it's real."

 

Could you just describe, in general terms, what you found in the bedroom when you went through it?

 

There were... numerous... notebooks

and pieces of paper with drawings and writings

pertaining to the Slenderman character.

 

Where was all this stuff located?

 

All in Morgan's bedroom.

 

When you ask Morgan...

"What if Slenderman doesn't exist?"

 

She can't tolerate that.

She becomes somewhat oppositional, and says

She Knows it's True,

and it can't be Proven Untrue,

so it's True.

 

Did Morgan use the words

"It had to be done?"

 

Yes.

 

Did you tell her to say that?

 

I did not.

 

She's volunteering this to you?

 

Correct.

 

That seems like an unusual thing to say. It does. Did you ask her what she meant by that? I did. And did you have to ask her multiple times? I did. Okay, after you asked her multiple times what she meant by "It had to be done," what did she offer you or what did she say? She told me that the man ordered it. Yes, I did. She held up three fingers. Like three? Three. What did that... did you try to understand what that meant? I asked her if that meant three years ago, and she said, "No, at age three." She believed that she communicated telepathically with Slenderman, and that... once the communication began, that she had to do 

 

what it was that Slenderman demanded. And if she didn't do what was demanded, her family wouldn't be safe? She wouldn't be safe, her family wouldn't be safe. Dr. Robbins, was Morgan's entry into this particular crime because of her psychosis? I believe so. It bears saying that schizophrenia, in and of itself, is not a dangerous illness. There are many 35-year-olds who have schizophrenia who don't have to be incarcerated, who can be managed in a community. However, there's a second part to that. When your delusion... when your fixed delusion tells you to kill people... and when your... insight doesn't allow you to seek treatment, then schizophrenia becomes dangerous. It is a dangerous illness untreated... and hence... we're here. You are just so lost in your illness that no one knew about... and then for people just to hate her like that, just hate you... "I hate that little girl. I hope she burns." Like, having people call my house and tell me, "You're going to burn in hell and so is your daughter." People don't understand that... she loves Bella. We love Bella... so much, and she still talks about her like they're friends. Oh my god. She loves her like I love her. And like, for people to talk about her the way they do, it's like... Morgan loved Bella. She's... like, how sick are you that you would do that to your best friend? Because you're afraid of something happening, or because you want something happen. You want to become something... because your illness dictated that this is something you need to be. Just blows me away... that people are like that. It just makes me sad. I wish people knew. The regular ones are just the regular cat treats that you're used to. Just to say, "I love you, kitty." Cat Snacks are only 2.99 at your local grocery store. Thank you. Detective, did you have a chance to watch that compilation? I saw the compilation. And would you agree that that's you present in that room with Morgan Geyser?

Those were... pieces of the interview that was me and Morgan together.

 

Did you tell Morgan she could have parents available to talk to before you interrogated her?

 

I did not tell her that, because that wasn't an option.

 

You weren't going to let her parents be present?

 

Correct.

 

Or let her even have a phone call to talk to them?

 

Um, we did not offer her a phone call.

 

At some point were you provided with Anissa's phone?

 

Yes, I was.

 

Did you have a chance to look at any of the messages on that phone?

 

Yes, I did. It says, 

"This is my final wish to those who care..." 

 

Mm-hmm.

Where did you locate the suspects? 

 

They were located right by I-94 in Waukesha County. 

 

Did you notice anything about Anissa's emotional state when you had contact with her? 

 

She said she was scared,

and I asked what was she scared of? 

 

And do you recall what she said to you? 

 

She made mention that if she told me, I would think that she was crazy,

and I told her that I didn't think anybody was crazy. 

 

Okay. 

 

Can you ask the question again please? 

 

One of the first communications before any of the search requests

was found on Anissa's phone that was provided by her parents, correct? 

 

Correct. 

 

It was basically a goodbye letter.

Correct? 

 

Yes.

 

And basically indicated that people should remember who she was, not grieve for her... 

and that she wouldn't do them harm. 

 

Correct.

 

Nothing further,

Your Honor.

 

Aiden?

 

Wrap it up, chief. we got places to go. All right? We have to run over to the school for a mandatory meeting about iPads... setting up their iPad... and using their iPad, and... the disadvantages they'll be at if they're not allowed to use their iPad. You know? I don't think anybody can really, you know, begrudge me for thinking the way I do about... a bunch of fifth graders getting iPads. You know, based on what this family has been through. At the same token... you know, I don't want to hinder his learning. I guess I just need to... get over my own reservations about it. 

 

And about the iPads. 

If I'd had my way, he wouldn't have one.

 

You have a child that is... incarcerated, for lack of a better term...

but your other life still has to go on,

so you still have to be able to support your other children

with the activities that they're in,

and you do your best to support your children

that you can't have access to and have to explain to Anissa that,

"Well, I might not be able to come up on Tuesday,

because Aiden has a pack meeting.

I have to be there for that."

 

I've had conversations with my oldest son. I was out in the backyard. He comes outside, he says to me, "What's wrong?" That's when I told him... it's just stressful as hell...

trying to keep everything as balanced as it can possibly be.

You never get a day off... and it wears on you.

It just really wears the shit outta ya.

 

Because you have to do so much more...

to try to keep everybody in a positive place, including yourself. 

 

It's... It's mentally... and emotionally and physically just draining.

 

I knew it was always a risk, simply because of genetics

that one of our children might develop schizophrenia. 

 

I never thought something like this would happen.

 

Matt is so... He's so high functioning and he's so... stable.

I just know that he's developed an awareness of What's Real and What's Not.

And I think, for Morgan, those lines are still pretty blurry... but it's all still very real to her.

 

In general, Morgan's just becoming more and more lost and involved in

This World of Imaginary Friends that she has.

 

The best possible situation would be that she ends up in an environment where she can receive treatment for her schizophrenia, and that would be a psychiatric facility. Not prison. She can't go to prison. 

 

I think it's kind of cruel of the courts to have a law where you can take two girls who are not troublemakers prior... 

And they did not try to hide what they did. 

 

They did not lie about what they did. 

They were very truthful for it. 

 

And it's like they're being punished extra because of it. 

 

Well, let's hope the judge is gonna have some good news.

Some very good news.

The Brides of Slenderman

Spike :

Tough talk, cowboy...

But you're not gonna catch him napping in a crypt.

No.... The Count has to have

his luxury estate and his bug-eaters and his Special Dirt, don’t he?

I love cheesecake.

I admire it’s Purity.

A Survivor. 

Unclouded by Conscience, Remorse, or Delusions of Morality.

"The more I looked into it, the more I began to see that we have these Mutants living among us, right now. 

The People from The 21st Century; from The END of The 21st Century are Here. 

But there is no CONTEXT for them.

[ Context is For Kings. ] 

In The Same Way That – y’know, if you lived in… Tunguska two hundred years ago, and you were an Epileptic, you would be A Shaman. 

There was A Context for you. 

In This Society, You’re an Epileptic. 

It’s Quite Simple : 

"It’s a Disease, and Nothing You Say is of ANY Worth, because it’s considered Pathology."

If, on the other hand, you look at these people, who are 

The Mutants… 

and what do They call it?

Multiple Personality Disorder.

This is what lies Beyond The Personality; 

The “I”; The Bullshit.

Because if you take “I” to The Limit – and like I said, I’m sure a lot of us here have done this – it becomes… 

All that happens is that Self Questions Self. 

Endlessly; repetitively. 

“Am I doing This Right?" 

"Is this The Right Way?" 

"Should I think about These People like This?"

"Should I approach Them This Way; Should I involve Them This Way?” 

Self Questions Self, endlessly, and it reaches a peak… 

It Goes NOWHERE.

On The National Scale, that same thing – Self Questions Self; Self encounters Not-Self -- Equals Borders, War, Destruction.. 

That’s Where it Goes. That’s Where it Ends. 

That Thing ends in Disaster.

It ends in Neurosis on a Personal Level. 

And it ends in War on The National Level.

So I began to think: 

“What Could We Replace That With?” 

And I was looking at these poor MPD fuckers. 

And I realised, 

They Just Don’t Have a Context.

The Medieval Mind

Bride of Frankenstein (1/10) Movie CLIP - Pretorius Shows Henry His Experiments

 

Dr. Pretorius

[toasting with Henry] 

To a new World of Gods and Monsters. Ha, ha. 

The Creation of Life is enthralling, distinctly enthralling, is it not? 

My experiments did not turn out quite like yours Henry. 

But Science, like love, has her little surprises - as you shall see. 

There is a pleasing variety about my exhibits. 

My first experiment was so lovely that we made her A Queen. 

Charming, don't you think? 

Then of course, we had to have A King. 

Now, he's so madly in love with her that we have to segregate them....

My next production looked so disapprovingly at the other two that they made him An Archbishop...

The next one is The Very Devil - very bizarre, this little chap. 

There's a certain resemblance to me, don't you think? 

Or do I flatter myself? 

I took a great deal of pains with him. 

Sometimes I have wondered whether life wouldn't be much more amusing if we were all devils, and no nonsense about angels and being good.

The Medieval Mind

In the Middle Ages, the work of alchemy was to produce Gold from base metals.  

There were charlatans trying to make actual Gold, but the best alchemists were  those working with The Gold  of The Spirit.  

Alchemy comes from a time when the medieval mind was at its highest flowering.

In Medieval times, people did not divide Reality into Inner and Outer or even acknowledge a difference between the two.

For them, inside and outside were the  same.

To accomplish all that we have today, we’ve had to split the world in two.

We couldn’t be this competitive with a Medieval Mind.

But the price we pay for our  accomplishments is Loneliness and an Inability to Love.

When We’re In Love, We ARE  Our Beloved.

I spent many years trying to help people differentiate between inner  and outer: 

 

You are you, and I am I. 

Your husband is your husband. 

We have not yet  completed the transition to The Modern Mind. 

Many psychological problems are a  failure to differentiate between out there and in here.  

 
According to the teachings of India, The External World is 'maya', illusion.

It is  considered illusory because it is actually WITHIN, not out there.

We see only the “ten  thousand things” that we project.

LIKE SLENDERMAN

Or Count Dracula

Or, IT.

In ancient China, Lao Tzu dreamed of a butterfly,  and for the rest of his life he didn’t know whether he had dreamed the butterfly or  the butterfly had dreamed him.  

 

In the West, gold is the symbol of the Self, while in the East, the symbol of our  inner divinity is The Diamond.

In their interior meanings, they are the same, but the  images are different. Diamonds are the hardest matter on earth—unearthly, celestial, and impersonal.

Gold is much softer, a matter of relationship, the Self as related. I think we’re lucky to have gold to cope with.    

The Glow in Your Eyes    

When we see that we have given our spiritual gold to someone to hold for us, there  are several ways we might respond. We could go to him or her and say, “The mean-  ing of my life has suddenly appeared in the glow in your eyes. May I tell you about  it?” This is another way of saying, “I have given you my inner gold. Will you carry it  for me for a while?” 

But we rarely say and do things that directly. 

Instead, we stand  across the room, turn our back on him, and feel totally frightened, stumbling and carrying on in odd ways. We meet at the coffee pot during the morning break at  work and banter with each other, speaking all kinds of nonsense. We joke and  laugh, and an animated play goes on. Then, when we head back to work, we feel  energized and brightened for the day. It was not the coffee. It was the exchange of  inner, alchemical gold.  The exchange of gold is a mysterious process. It is our gold, but it’s too heavy  for us, so we need someone else to carry it for a time. That person becomes synonymous with meaning. We follow him with an eagle eye wherever he goes. His  smile can raise us to heavenly heights, his frown will hurl us to hellish depths, so  great is the power of meaning.  





At age forty-five or fifty, when you have raised your children and become  accomplished in your work, suddenly you fall into a hole. The more sensitive and  intelligent you are, the deeper the hole might be. A guide in the form of Virgil may  come and list all the things in your life that have gone wrong. These are the nine  levels of Hell. 

 

Your guide, your intelligence, will disillusion you. “ Abandon hope,  all ye who enter here” is a classical beginning to what Jung called the “ individation process,” or the spiritualization of a man. If I could rewrite that sign, it  would say, “Give up all expectations and presently held concepts.”  

 

The job of your intelligence is to catalog Hell for you, to tell you all the things  that don’t work. If your integrity is sufficient, if you go forward, Beatrice will come  in the form of a radiant vision of hope and the feminine to take you the rest of the  way and gently deposit you in Heaven. 

 

This will be one of the most profound experiences of your life.  

 

Modern men and women have forgotten how to take this journey. Even with the  best of motives— trying to find that vision of life that will nourish us and give  meaning to the progression of our days on earth—we do crazy things. We let our  marriage go to pieces and marry someone else, hoping to find the visionary feminine in her. We would do well to learn from Dante. 

 

Most important is to remember  that Virgil, the one who helps us discern what is wrong, and Beatrice, the heavenly  guide, are both interior figures and that this is an interior journey. It has its exterior  dimension. If you are an artist, a poet, a healer, a teacher, or a mystic, you will pro-  duce outer, tangible results of your journey. But the journey is essentially inner.  This is the most important thing to learn.  You will never find a Beatrice to marry, because she is in your imagination, your  art, and your prayers. When you seek her in an interior way, she will come in an in-  stant. But you must be humble enough to ask your feminine side for these rare  qualities of tenderness and beauty, receptivity and love. Without doing so, it can be  difficult to become truly whole. Even if you experience her as a real woman who  has entered your life, the grace that has descended upon you is your inner awak-  ening, catalyzed by this wonderful experience. It is not the other. It is in you.  

Salvation

There are legends and predictions throughout the world of the once and future  king, someone who has brought about a golden age and promises to come back in  the future to restore it. Arthur, the great and noble king who brought England together in the sense we know it now, is one. It is said that Arthur didn’t die at the  end of his reign, but was transported to the isle of Avalon, a place of healing, and  that he offered, when needed, to come back. The magician Merlin, the introverted,  inward-turned aspect of the Arthurian story, also said, as he was leaving, “I will  come back to you again.” 

 

In Mexico, just before his death, the god-king Quetzalcoatl promised to come back if he was needed.  According to Indian mythology, an avatar is sent to the earth every thousand  years and at other times when there are special difficulties. Buddha was one. In  India today, there are rumors that a new avatar has been born who, when he comes  to maturity, will step forth to be the new savior. If we take this literally, we might be  disappointed. They come and they go. But in an interior sense, it’s a real possi-  bility. A point of intersection between our time-bound world and eternity exists for  us, and that’s salvation. I’m fascinated by this promise of a return—the once and  future king. It’s a glorious promise that can give us hope.    

 

Literalism Is Idolatry

 

The British philosopher Owen Barfield said something that reverberates in my  mind every day. He said, “ Literalism is idolatry.” If you take the inner world literally  into our time-space world, you lose it.  Throughout my childhood and adolescence, I was in love with the Church and  devoted to it.

But as I grew older, I became critical and wouldn’t have anything to  do with it. Later, I read a medieval text that made Christianity real for me again. It  said that Christ is constantly being conceived, constantly being born in his stable,  constantly confounding the elders, constantly being tried by Judas, constantly  being crucified, constantly resurrecting, and, most wonderful of all, constantly in
his Second Coming.  

The doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ is, for Christians, the greatest  telling of the story of the once and future king. Early Christians said that on the  eighth day after his Resurrection, Christ will come and usher the world into the  millennium, when time will end, strife and suffering will stop, and the Kingdom of  Heaven will be at hand. Taken literally, this story doesn’t touch me very much. It’s  too abstract, too far out of reach. If we wait for this literally, we’ll wait till dooms-  day.  But when we take this story out of literalism and into the interior world, which  has no time and no space, we have an immediate, living fact. If we take the full  story of Christianity inwardly as a timeless fact, these possibilities are available for  us to touch as soon as we are ready, or perhaps even as soon as we choose.

The  Second Coming of Christ is not just available to us. It is beating on our doors.  

Sabbath

It was expected that Christ would return within the octave, eight days, and put an  end to the cyclic nature of life. The eighth day is Sunday, and so Christians cele-  brate Sunday as their holy day. When we celebrate on Sunday, we celebrate the  ushering into the kingdom, and we relocate ourselves outside of time and in eter-  nity. Since it’s the eighth day of the week, the expectation was that there was only  going to be one of them. If we want to be logical, we could say that it didn’t work,  because Monday turns up. But symbolically, in the depths of our unconscious,  there is only one day of the Second Coming of Christ. There is only one Mass and  one day of worship. It is not a process. Christianity puts an end to process and to  the cyclic nature of man’s sojourn on earth.  According to Jewish custom, the Sabbath is on the seventh day. There are seven  days followed by the first day again. This is the myth of eternal return. Mircea Eli-  ade points out that more people on earth believe in the cyclical nature of time than  in the linear nature of time. Sabbath, Saturn, andSaturdayare all associated with the  number seven. Seventh-Day Adventists celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday. Seven is  the symbol of cycle.  If you deal with numbers in your dreams or in mythology, you’ll get lost if you  take them literally. Numbers have their own symbolism, and at this level of com-  prehension they are about quality, not quantity. A delightful Chinese story illustrates this. 

 

The Chinese army was in a desperate, beleaguered situation, and so the  general met with his advisors to decide what to do. Should they retreat and save  what they could, or make a desperate effort and try to break out? They stayed up all  night discussing the pros and the cons, and at dawn they took a vote. Six said re-  treat, and four wanted to fight it out. So they fought, because four is so much bet-  ter a number than six. This is a non-literal way of thinking. Of course they won. The  story wouldn’t have survived if they hadn’t.    The Heavenly Jerusalem    Envision the Second Coming of Christ as an inner reality that takes place on the  eighth day of the week. Eight is a symbol of infinity, as you can see when you turn  the numeral eight (8) on its side. A baptismal font has eight sides to indicate that  when a child is baptized, he’s initiated into the eight-sided consciousness, eternity.  On this symbolic level, there is nothing past the number eight. You’ve annihilated  the cyclic nature and completed life.  A Brahman friend in India told me, “ Robert, you know all about wrnycC— the  Indian concept that the world is illusory, a construct. “Let me tell you about ma-  hamaya” Mahameans great. “ Mahamaya is the ultimate reality. It means looking at  maya with intelligence.” Looking at illusion in a fresh way is the heavenly  Jerusalem. This is not a promise, but a fact, right now. If you can jump out of time,  which we are capable of doing, we can see any given moment as eternity. We don’t  have to travel anywhere or even to wait in line. This is not a new fact. It’s a fresh  way of looking.  As mentioned, the Second Coming of Christ is available to us as individuals when we are ready, or perhaps even when we choose. This is the Christian way of  speaking about enlightenment, heightened consciousness, the experience that relo-  cates your spiritual center of gravity. We are not bound to history. The Second  Coming of Christ is available to us as individuals, and it will wait for us until we are  able to remain steady in its presence.  This intersection of levels happens to people more than we might realize. They  don’t understand the structure of it, so they just walk off and leave it. But saint-  hood is more common than we think.    The Church and the Mass.    

In the medieval world there was a proverb that the Mass, the communion service, a  point in which we shift from time-bound to eternal consciousness, is the interim  carrier of Christ. 

Mass can happen only once, but it can also happen again and  again. 

The Church was touching on a non-literal fact and teaching it in the abstruse  symbolism of the Second Coming of Christ. If you have the kind of mind that can  think non-literally, there are jewels like this throughout Christianity.  The Church was also said to be the interim carrier of Christ— from his resurrection until his Second Coming eight days later. It was said that Christ is like the  sun, and the Church is like the moon. When the sun is farthest from the moon, the  moon is full. 

 

When Christ is farthest from the Church, the Church is at its greatest  power. When the sun and moon are closest together, the moon has no light at all.  As the Second Coming of Christ approaches, the Church will have fulfilled its duty  and can disband. There is no Church or Mass in Heaven, because they are interim  carriers of the nature of Christ. Christ is present in Heaven, so interim carriers are  not needed.  Many traditions posit that there are two truths: absolute and relative. In Christianity these are expressed as eternity, which is neither spatial nor temporal, and  the Church, which is the human dimension. We need both— the Church as the interim carrier and the insight into a higher order of things.  

Cultural Yearning

As a culture, we hunger for the Second Coming of Christ. A new kind of conscious-  ness is stirring. People sense this. Some call it the New Age— leaving the Age of  Pisces, symbolized by two fishes, and entering the Age of Aquarius, symbolized by  the water bearer, a man with a jug on his shoulders pouring out water. If we take  Aquarius back to his Greek roots, we get Ganymede, who was abducted from earth  by Zeus and appointed his cupbearer. He poured the wine at heavenly celebrations.  This means more to me than Aquarius. The one who fills the cup with wine is a  predecessor of Dionysus and a forerunner of Christ, and is the ruler of the age to  come, with similar expectations to the Second Coming of Christ.  The hippie movement was a somewhat naïve attempt at the Second Coming, a  group of people who wanted something new, the wine of life, exhilaration, motivated by the archetype of the Second Coming of Christ. The drug culture is another  manifestation— although of an extremely poor quality— of the demand for the  Second Coming of Christ, for the ecstatic experience and the cessation of time-  and-space-bound consciousness. When someone comes to me with a drug problem, I can often touch him by saying, “ What you’re doing is right. Your expectations and demands are valid. But you’re doing it in the wrong way.”  Discontent, chaos, and caution-to-the-wind seem to be endemic worldwide. I  think it is the stirring of the Second Coming of Christ. But it needs intelligence be-  hind it. This timeless quality needs time. We’re going to blunder for a while before  a new consciousness, a new grail castle, a new peak experience will find its solidity.  

 

If the Second Coming is always available, why is the world in such a mess? The  best that we are capable of can turn into the worst if we get it on the wrong level.  Some of the world’s worst messes, like Hitlerism, were fueled and motivated by a  sublime archetypal energy. These things can misfire badly. Perhaps they need to  misfire until they are mature enough for their sublime aspects to be realized.  

 

There is great danger that the archetype of the Second Coming of Christ, or the  Once and Future ing, can erupt in a negative form again. Nazism is an example within living memory. There is nothing that human beings cannot literalize into  trouble. Literalism knows no end, and literalism is the death of insight. But that  sublime archetypal structure is always available in its true, interior way, for anyone  who chooses to touch it and is capable of touching it. Sometimes the point of con-  tact becomes accessible only in our deepest, darkest moments.    

Balancing Heaven and Earth    

St. Teresa of Avila was consumed by ecstasy at unpredictable moments. She often  found herself caught in a rapture for minutes at a time, sometimes longer. 

 

But  someone observed that she was never enraptured while she was cooking her breakfast. If she were, she might burn it. 

 

Eternity can dovetail into our practical lives. It’s  possible for us to manage the toast and the rapture.  

 

We need poets to rescue us from the awful contradictions we get into. 

 

Speech  is literal and rational and cannot easily contain the depths of the mystery. For that  we need symbols and symbolic language. 

 

During Mass — a great symbol of the  intersection of time and eternity — we are liberated from space and time. 

 

But after  Mass, we need to go home and cook our breakfast. We can discover within our-  selves the capacity to sustain both the presence of the divine and the holiness of  daily life. 

The two are, in fact, one.  

 [TARDIS]

(Punch cards litter the floor. The Doctor stops pacing and kicks at a pile of them.)

DOCTOR: 

It's no good, K9.

K9: 

Master?

DOCTOR: 

Listen. I'm going to have to go to the rebels for help. 

But will they help, I ask myself.

K9: 

Probability of indigenous dissident group rendering effective assistance, very low.

DOCTOR: 

Shush. I'm thinking. 

I've got to make a very impressive entrance. 

Something that'll win them over entirely. 

Got it! 

Right, K9, we need a slight spatial movement and no temporary displacement. 

Very tricky, these short hops.

K9: 

Information, master.

DOCTOR: 

What is it?

K9: 

The relative smallness of E-space should render fractional increments more stable.

DOCTOR: 

But of course. 

Good boy, K9.

[Rebel's cave]

VEROS: 

We can't let Ivo and the villagers attack alone. 

They'll be slaughtered!

KALMAR: 

Will it help if we're slaughtered with them, just as we're winning back the old knowledge? 

I refuse to throw it all away.

VEROS: 

Ivo was right, then. 

You do prefer these toys to human life.

KALMAR: 

Because they are the slow secret of victory. 

Why do you think they are so afraid of Science?

VEROS: 

The Doctor was A Scientist. 

Like all the rest, he vanished in the Tower.

(The TARDIS materialises and The Doctor comes out.)

DOCTOR: 

Halt! Don't move. 

Look, I'm awfully sorry to drop in on you like this, 

but we do have a bit of a crisis on our hands.

MOTHER SUPERIOR: 

We face Danger, we face Evil, which stands at the

gate of our most holy sanctuary.

God is with us, as we know.

God's Love is Eternal.

This we know too.

Tonight, in our most deadly hour do we think our God will remember us?

Will he reach down and save us from Death's Shadow?

NO.

No, He will not.

Where in Our World is God to be found?

In our prayer?

No.

In our song?

No.

In our Suffering, in our Endurance?

No.

Faith is Not a Transaction.

You do not barter with The Infinite --

You ALIGN With It.

So, then, where do we find Our God?

Sisters, I will tell you.

When you stand in the deepest pit, alone, without hope or help, and yet still know Right from Wrong...

When there is only darkness and despair and yet you feel humming in your blood, the difference between good and

bad...

When you are beyond rescue or reward or judgment...

And you STILL look evil in the

face and say, 

"No!

"This far but no further.”

"No!"

Whose voice is that who is with you in that darkness?

Whose voice keeps you to the path?

Darkness and evil may seem compelling to us all, and I believe it is because,

in THEIR presence, we can FEEL God in our hearts.

No, He will not reach down to Save Us.

We will RISE to meet him.

Let us pray.

PRAYS SOFTLY

MOTHER SUPERIOR: 

Ahem. Ahem.

BLADE SLICES

DRACULA :

She was clearing her throat.

NUNS GASP AND QUIVER

I think it's fine now.

Oh, ladies, who's next? Boo!