At one time, lightning was a paranormal event. A figure bigger than life dwelt among the clouds, and his wrath was expressed in the form of rolling thunder mingled with blasts of electricity aimed at the sinful mortals below. Zeus, being the god of gods and the most fearsome of gods, has been reduced. Airplanes fly above the clouds; so far, there is no sign of the one I call Zeus. Today, God permeates the universe, and we suspect this presence goes much further than that. Sure, Homo Sapiens has come a long way – baby!
           Some might say our advance in evolution is the same old story told on an increasingly larger stage. At one time, the clouds were the edge of our universe – now, that edge goes much further out, we are just as sinful as before, only the lightning bolts have been replaced with curses from other galaxies – from beings of other dimensions. We can make this as technical as we want; yet the “rain” of terror still pours down from above. Hence, we remain as mythically and magically minded as the first humans that walked the surface of the Earth.
Some might say we’ve come a long way in certain respects, yet we haven’t changed at all in our general aspects. Some might say we’ve degraded since the first human walked the surface of the Earth. And, the nursing home may be that fertile ground of evidence suggesting we get worse from the point of birth. A woman dressed in lace looks in the mirror at the wrinkles on her face – and a demon speaks through the looking glass saying God’s creation is flawed. The creation is imperfect thus must be the Creator imperfect. And if you buy that, I have a few nice bridges for sale at insane prices!
Demons don’t usually speak through mirrors because they usually don’t have any reason to do that. Demons speak through the voices of the people you meet on the subway. They speak through the voices of your bosses and coworkers. They speak through the voices of your parents and your children. Any voice that says you are worthless is the voice of a demon. Imagine that! It’s you against 10 billion demons all working 24/7 to get you to believe you are no good. You need to imagine this is a fair fight because it is! You are so perfect it takes all that to make you think you are not. In other words, you are awesome!
I have never experienced any problems in performing exorcisms. They all go smoothly and they all go well. If you look at it like this: The body is the temple of God, so what demon in its right mind would choose to dwell in that temple? The kind of demon that’s been tricked into thinking it’s okay to dwell in that temple; that’s the only kind of demon that would do such a thing. The exorcism is a simple reminder that all that dwells in the temple must either vacate or be converted. Demons usually choose to vacate, although I have seen some stick around long enough to be converted.
<Page 2>
We should note that demonic possessions do not occur in many religions, especially in eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. This most certainly depends on how one defines “demon” in the first place. Or we can suppose that a “demon” is what we make it out to be – emphasis being on the word MAKE.          Â
Demons are like cars – they are machines and they will malfunction just as any machine. Demons are assembled like cars and they get scrapped like cars. We – you and I – are the ones that make demons. Since we don’t know what we are doing in the process of making such demons, it must be understood that we will make things that malfunction. Demons can be actual products and machines we see and use every day. Demons can be metaphors – like political machines, or economic systems. Demons can be people that have built a mental machine around them. Demons can look like movies or sound like music CDs; they can be animated and convincingly lifelike, but they are not living things.
We have come a long way in the ability to make demons, but we will never be able to make a “living demon.” It is our fondest desire to create life. We need to follow in the footsteps of our creator, but for now, we may only create life the old-fashioned way, the way it was done since the first humans walked the face of the Earth.
Do you now think that demons are only a subject for the paranormal? Once a definition is laid down and agreed upon, anything that was paranormal yesterday will be normal today. Of course, this doesn’t mean that “normal” is correct. Quacks at one time would sell snake oil, and that was wrong; now the FDA sells snake oil and that makes it all okay – yeah, right! If you think about how dependant society is on lies, cheating, and stealing, you will note that we are as far from normal as we have ever been before – my friends, WE ARE the paranormal!
Aside from all that, nobody is immune to witnessing a miracle or seeing a ghost. It’s not that I equate ghosts to miracles, but many agree these both have supernatural origins, and all agree such things are paranormal. The paranormal is a fact of life while such events in of themselves are routinely called into question. A UFO is something that flies and has yet to be identified – this could be a goose flying north for all we know. There’s no doubt that the object exists, the question remains as to whether it’s a hubcap or visitors from another world. Things that fly are unusual to begin with, then if it can’t be identified it’s beyond normal, and if does something to defy all reasonable explanation, it must be paranormal.
In the context of religion, a miracle is perfectly normal. In the context of physics, it would be perfectly okay for a particle to seemingly appear and disappear at will. And a well-versed lawyer might be burned at the stake for legal trickery in practicing witchcraft with words. The paranormal only applies to the outside observer, and we avoid being such outsiders at the risk of being labeled naïve. In other words, admitting an event as paranormal might be the same as admitting ignorance. There is no doubt that paranormal events take place, but they always happen to those people over there and never to you personally.
<Page 3>
Mark Angelo could have been an ordinary man with an ordinary life, except he was surrounded by extraordinary circumstances. Where it’s true that the apple never falls far from the tree, we have a problem if the apple tree drops pears instead. You have a good idea in your head, but it looks all wrong when you put it on paper; so if your mind were an apple tree, it would be dropping pears instead. Do you see what I mean? When the sum is not equal to its parts, we have to go back to find out where the equation went wrong. A mistake is something you do, and say “oops,” and you don’t do that again. Repeating that mistake is better known as a bad habit. It’s one thing if you are the one making that mistake; it’s a completely different issue when others keep dropping it on your front lawn. When mothers drop their babies off at the back doors of churches, we. could say the churches are occupied with taking on other people’s mistakes – yet when you hold that baby in your arms, how can anyone call that a mistake? At worst, it’s an occupation, or a job. Similarly, cases of paranormal proportions find their way to Mark Angelo’s desk. Investigating these cases is thankless work regarding the skeptics, and the cynics. He comes home weary at the end of the day having done battle with the debunkers, and fending off folks with automatic weapons. He risks taking demons home with him, yet how can one look the other way when a family is being terrorized by what they believe to be a poltergeist?
Most cases of the paranormal are never solved let alone fixed. The best we can do is merely document the events as eye-witness testimony. Sometimes we get trace evidence and photos. Mark is an unusual investigator in this respect: he will fix the problem by putting the pears under the pear trees and putting the apples under the apple trees; and if need be, he will put the babies back with their parents.
Who Should Read This:
Age 18 plus
Although the materials on this CD Data Disk are written from middle to high school level, some concepts (especially in UinFO) are better suited for college level. Recommended readers are age 18 plus.
PG
For younger readers, parental guidance is strongly recommended. In an effort to keep the character’s dialog “real,” some adult situations and language will arise. Some violence is suggestive in the narration and dialog, however no characters actually get hurt in this story.
Of course, events of the paranormal can be unsettling or upsetting to some readers. Although I try to keep the story on the lighter side, some descriptions will be hard to handle for most adult readers, let alone children. Please be advised that such descriptions are designed to promote adult discussion, of which children are not capable. Of course ANYONE who is afraid to discuss such topics as aliens or ghosts probably should not read this material.
Fiction
The names and events in Decade Null and UinFO are fictional to the best of my knowledge unless otherwise indicated in context. Any resemblance to actual names and events are purely coincidental. My conspiracy scenarios are intended solely as “food for thought” and should not be construed as accusatory toward any individuals or groups.
ALL PROPER AND COMMERCIAL NAMES USED HEREIN ARE STRICTLY SELECTED AS EXAMPLES UNDER FAIR PUBLIC USE AND ARE NOT STORY-LINE DEPENDANT. SUCH “FAIR PUBLIC USE” IS BASED ON PRIOR GOVERNMENT CONTRACT WORDINGS.Â
