Down The Rabbit Hole

An adventure into the unreal reality.

©2013 Bishop Benedict-Johns

Have you or someone you love gone down the “Rabbit Hole?”  No, not some burrow of a gigantic bunny but down the proverbial one—which from its use in Lewis Carroll’s novel; “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—is a metaphor for adventure into the unknown or a reality that is different from that which we are familiar with.  In Carroll’s novel, Alice follows a large talking rabbit down a hole into an alternative reality populated by other anthropomorphic creatures.  Thusly; the modern day metaphor is used to describe the situation when someone suddenly realizes that he or she has entered into a peculiar time of their life when reality has shifted into something unexpected, defies logical explanation, or at least seems to be well within the range of the paranormal or supernatural.  Something that is very real to those that experience it; so much so that it usually converts even the most diehard skeptic into a true believer of the supernatural.

To suddenly realize that everything that you thought you knew about the world and scientific logical reality was wrong can be shocking leaving one in a numb state of disbelief.  One of Hollywood’s best attempts at illustrating this sensation can be found in the original movie, Men In Black when Will Smith’s character has just had a “close encounter with aliens,” causing him to suddenly realize that we are not just alone in the universe, but rather that there are aliens living and working among us (according to the fictional story line of course).  In an attempt to console the younger man, Agent “K” (Tommy Lee Jones) tells him;

“A thousand years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, they knew the Earth was flat. Fifteen minutes ago, you knew we humans were alone on it. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”

The writers of this screen play apparently were attempting to convey the idea that we are constantly forced to reexamine what we accepted as fact yesterday, as today that concept has proven to be in error, and what are the possibilities, what we will be forced to reconsider tomorrow?

Exploring the Rabbit Hole.

One commonality of paranormal investigators; those intrepid souls that some people more commonly refer to as Ghost Hunters and those in deliverance ministry or commonly known as Exorcists, is the sudden epiphany or revelation that the demonic does actually exist.

Most of us have been conditioned by postmodern society to completely disregard or rather relegate any such discussion of the spiritual realm as naught but the superstitious ramblings of a fool.  Anyone naïve enough to tell acquaintances or peer group of his or her experience with ghosts or more nastier entities is suddenly classified as an idiot, not fit to ever be taken seriously again.  However those skeptics that suddenly find themselves on the receiving end of a close encounter that totally defies logical explanation usually choose to redefine how they describe reality.

Men or Women of science, educated professionals, are left absolutely speechless when they suddenly discover that they have fallen down the rabbit hole after witnessing a paranormal apparition, an event that absolutely cannot be relegated to the explainable, logical, everyday normal occurrences.  Many choose a path of denial, refusing to admit that what they have witnessed first-hand is real and true.  Like religious fundamentalists they simply cannot let go of the tenets of their religion, the religion of science.  Others choose to stay down the rabbit hole and take part in study of the phenomena or become warriors in the battle to liberate mankind from the destructive forces of some of the most diabolical entities that in some cases defy the most creative imagination.

For Paranormal Investigators the rabbit hole becomes a place of wondrous curiosities.  A place wherein the chase involves collecting evidence which concludes that which goes bump in the night is not due to mechanical or natural occurrence but rather something that is best described as paranormal activity.  They collect hours of Electronic Voice Phenomena, the phenomena of a disembodied voice communicating from the spiritual world.  Photos and videos of unexplainable lights or apparitions moving through our realm.  Or in extreme cases evidence of physical contact wherein material objects are made to move as if by unseen hands, or the most rare actual physical contact between the investigator and the spirit.  The previous is one thing but the latter is a life changing event, to know that you have been touched by something from the other side is an event you will never forget and one that completely changes your previously held convictions about reality.

Likewise, those that take part in deliverance ministries (exorcisms) especially in those most rarest of the rare cases wherein the victim is actually possessed by demonic forces; once having seen the adversary, they are never quite the same.  It is not uncommon for the exorcist to assemble a team, sometimes including a medical or mental professional.  These doctors report that after witnessing the rare event when a person is truly possessed by a demonic entity, they (the doctor) are forever changed.  In essence they have suddenly realized that they have awakened from a slumber in a blissful dream state and found that everything they thought they knew about reality is wrong.  It is as if the fictional story of Men In Black is playing out in their lives; fifteen minutes ago they thought that Satan, the spiritual realm, and the paranormal was something that had been absolutely defined as naught but superstition, nothing more than out dated concepts proved false by modern science, but now empirical evidence and personal experience has taught them that the before described is very real, a life and death struggle, a drama rooted in antiquity that continues to play out in our modern, scientific, technologically advanced world.

Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (1887 to 1968) a Capuchin Priest who was known for his prophecies and other “mystical abilities” (he reportedly told a Polish Bishop that he would someday be Pope, the Bishop years later would become Pope John Paul II) claimed that as many as 85% of those currently being treated for mental illnesses (during his lifetime) were not mentally ill but rather possessed or oppressed by Satan.  Other clergy and a handful of mental health professionals have faithfully submitted that in our rush to rule out spiritual oppression as a cause of psychopathology, we have errantly diagnosed and treated with pharmaceuticals untold thousands of patients that might have more greatly benefited from spiritual ministrations.

The United States Census of 2010 places our population at 311,591,917.  Some in the mental health field estimate that 15 to 20% of the population have undiagnosed mental health issues, even if we take a more conservative estimate of one in three mental health patients as suffering from diabolic oppression or the more rare cases of possession, then we potentially have 15,579,595 to 20,772,794  people in the United States that aren’t just “crazy” but rather suffering from something more diabolical.

Until you have personally witnessed phenomena, that which is referred to as paranormal or supernatural, you will regard such as superstitious nonsense, and rightfully so as our culture strives to indoctrinate our young, leaving them believing in science, almost to the point of that science becoming a religion itself.  Then when suddenly confronted with evidence that everything you had been indoctrinated with, is not so, that the paranormal and or supernatural does actually exist, you find yourself at the bottom of the rabbit hole, wondering if life for you will ever be the same again.  But there is a bright side to this dilemma, many famous people have inadvertently been witness to the paranormal or supernatural and suddenly found themselves in the rabbit hole.  Almost all asking questions like; “If this is true, as it seems to be true, I having just witnessed it with my own two eyes, then what else is true?  What else that I thought was superstition is actually fact?”  Or; “If what I knew yesterday as scientific fact is actually errant, then what will I know to be a truth tomorrow?”