Children of the night, what sweet music they make.

Hello again kiddies,
Sorry I've been away. Some pressing matters have kept me from writing anything in my blog. We will share that when the situation has come to a close. Until that time though....lets talk about one of my all time favorite subjects, Vampires.
Lets just say that my fascination with the lore surrounding vampires, the fiction, legends, movies, television programing, as well as nonfiction writing, and documentaries, have been a source of hours, days and years of entertainment. I first read Bram Stokers' Dracula when I was 10, and haven't stopped reading and watching stories on this subject and see no end in sight.
The question posed to me was whether or not I believe in the existences of vampires outside of fiction and legend. Well kiddies the answer to that is yes. Now don't walk away shaking your head. I'm not completely delusional. Don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting that the undead walk among us feeding of the blood of the living, transforming into mist, wolves, or bats. That after dark you should wear a blessed crucifix and a string of garlic wrapped around your neck. What I do believe is that there are people who through one means or another are able to gain strength, sustenance of a sort through the draining of life force, psychic energy, from those around them. I know two personally. These people are "Psychic Vampires". That is to say that through their specific gifts are able to draw psychic energy from those around them. They actually get a boost of energy from leeching off the energy that surrounds us all. Most people with psychic abilities are capable of this phenomenon. Through the transfer of energy we are able to read there emotions, and gain insight into their future. Yet the transfer is usually temporary and only lasts through the reading. The difference with "Psychic Vampires" is that the transfer is permanent and the victim usually feels ill or weakened from the experience.  I have seen documentaries on the subject were as the vampire was filmed under inferred filtered filming captured the transfer of energy. The subject had an immediate increase in body temperature, and heart rate, becoming invigorated. While the victim would become colder and the heart rate would slow, often stating the feeling of be coming weaker, dizzy and light headed.
There are even medically documented persons who have a physical need for blood. Although the jury is out on whether or  not this is a psychological disorder or an actual need of the body to gain sustenance through the consumption of human blood.
The popularity of Vampires through the last 50 years has spawned all sorts of cults, clubs and groups of people just looking to reinvent themselves. Creating an entire subculture of vampire groups, ranging from ultra sheek New York club scenes to groups and their minions in underground clubs drinking the blood of willing downers.
The popularity of the modern vampire scene has also brought about some of the most iconic TV of  the last 20 years. Those that know me well understand my love of all things Buffy. That's Buffy the Vampire Slayer for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last decade. As well as my love of Anne Rices' Vampire Chronicles, and Laurell K Hamiltons' Anita Blake series. My DVD collection starts with vampire movies before going to alphabetical order. And yes I have even read the Twilight Series, shinny vampires...ridiculous.
 The possibility of writing about this subject until the sun comes up and I burst into flames is a very real hazard. So I think for now we will close the lid to this coffin until another time. Plus I need a liquid snack. Any volunteers?

So good night and God bless...who ever that God maybe.

Faith, Friend, and Relationships

Hey Kiddies I'm back. Here we go,
I seem to get into some intense discussions about the importance of Faith and the role it plays in obtaining and maintaining a long term friendship or relationship. Being honest I have been a little gun shy when it comes to this subject.
How does Faith play a role in developing long term relationship? The majority of my friends have at sometime in there life been or are still involved in one religion. But for one reason or another have become inactive or cut all ties with that religion. Being from Utah guess which religion that is? Most of whom are trying to fill that void with some form of spirituality or are trying to decide to return to the flock they have turned from.
Being one of those that has found that I haven't needed to maintain an active membership to a specific religion to find happiness in my life. That my fundamental belief that through kindness to my friends and those around me. Keeping charity and goodwill in my heart, that God or Deity still bless my everyday.
I've never determined that I could not be a friend or in a relationship with someone based on there faith. As long as there is a common passion or interest that I can be friends with just about anyone. Yet I have met people who would have nothing to do with me based on my religion or lack there of. To them I say their loss.
I've had religion made a stipulation to the terms of progressing in a relationship. Only after putting my heart, love and passion into that relationship, to have that faith used as the reason for ending the relationship. Questioning my ability to ever put my heart on the line again. Being angry at God put me in a precarious position. Despair and self loathing dominated my every thought.
Why would God prompt anyone to leave me? What had I done? Does God hate me and wish me to be unhappy?
I know silly, but could you really blame me for these thoughts. It took me a long time to come to terms with that loss.
Many a long night with only my thoughts I came to the understanding that nothing I could have done would have changed the out come of our relationship.Its demise had nothing to do with faith or God. It was trust and timing. Years later we have been able to rekindle a friendship that started back in high school. She is still a compassionate, intelligent, strong woman that I value having back in my life.
Having a common moral foundation and common passions are important to maintaining a friendship. Do I believe that you have to have the same religion to be compatible? Not necessarily. Like all things worth the effort of a long time commitment it takes hard work, understanding, love, compassion, and a flexibility towards one another to progress.

So thats all I have. Take what you need from it. Maybe it will help. Maybe you'll think what does that idiot know. As always I'm open to your thoughts and opinions.
Good night, and God bless...who ever that God maybe

A Reading List: Whats on my Bookshelf

Well here you go David. This is a short list of books currently on my book shelf, that I have read in the last year, or just stay in the rotation when I'm looking for something to read. Obviously this will bean incomplete list. I could go way to long on this subject. At one time I was reading 5 to 8 books, fiction and nonfiction alike, a week. It's my favorite past time, and greatest pleasure.
So here we go,
I love Anne Rice. She maybe my all time favorite authors. I can't go a year without reading at least one of her novels and if I have the time I'll read nothing but Rice novels for months at a time. She may not be every ones cup of tea. Through her attention to detail, character development, and imagery that takes you to the time and place in her stories is superb. Her Christian fiction is full of insight.
Here are my recommends just for her,
Vampire Chronicles (13 books)
Life of the Mayfair Witches (3 books) they actually end intertwined with the Vampire Chronicles in Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle
Anne Rice Christian Fiction:
Christ the Lord: Road to Cana
Angel Time (The song of the Seraphim)
Of Love and Evil (The Song of the Seraphim #2)
Cry to Heaven
Feast of all Saints
Laurell K Hamilton is truly my guilty pleasure. If you don't know her work the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter is the series that I am currently entrenched in. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer with guns and blood, lots and lots of blood. The themes can be occasionally "Cinamax after Dark". So if you read her work, I warned you.
Also the Meridith Gentry P.I. series is very good.
I've been reading Stephen King since I was 12. Don't tell my Dad. These are the books of his that often grace my night stand.
The Stand
Salem's Lot (Vampire Novel, see a theme)
The Dark Tower Saga (8 books)
Insomnia
Four Past Midnight (a collection of short stories)
The Dark Half
Thomas Harris. Lets just say forget the movies read his books,
Red Dragon
Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal
Charles Dickens will always be my favorite classic writer, along with Mark Twain. Just pick one up and read you'll see why.
Gregory Macguires' The wicked years series is a must read if you along with me thought Dorthy was a bitch.
Wicked
Son of a Witch
A Lion among Men
Jasper Ffordes' Jack Sprat Investigates/A Nursery Crimes is a hilarious and just plain fun adaptation of classic nursery rhymes.
I am currently reading these non fiction works.
The God Delusion
-Richard Dawkins
God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
-Christopher Hitchens
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
-Sam Harris
The Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Yes I know those last two seem a little odd considering what I'm reading at the same time. I'm also reading a large quantity of spell books...I'm a Pagan. A good story is still a good story.
Well that's just a small sample of the books I like to read and am currently reading. I could keep going but I need to sleep.

So kiddies have a good night, and a better day and as always,
God Bless...who ever that God maybe

Metaphysics and Shit part 2: Reincarnation

I'ld like to say thank you to Mrs. Walker for commenting on  my last post and suggesting the theme for todays blog. Reincarnation. Do we get the chance to return in a new form after the death of this physical form? So many religions have some form of reincarnation in amongst their Dogma. Even Christianity has the Resurrection. Does this go along as a form of reincarnation? Do past lives mold the form in which you will be reincarnated?
These are just a few of the questions about this subject that I think are important to discuss. So lets delve into my own personal ideas on this subject.
Do I personally believe that reincarnation and past lives are real. Yes. I have no doubt that I have specific memories of at least one life that I have lived through. I have specific memories of being a WWII fighter pilot who was shot down during one of the battles that occurred in the Pacific campaign. Memories of that life being the most vivid, probably since that was the last life I lived before this one I'm currently wandering through.
Fundamentally we are all made up of energy, and that energy doesn't cease to exist because of death. Through death and decay all matter and energy is recycled. Does this energy retain memory? I think so. Our souls for all intent is energy that has retained conceseness and form from the moment of its enitial creation.
I don't, however believe that we will ever come back as a different animal, bug, bird, fish, whatever. That the people of the Hindu faith believe. I personally believe that our soul is ours it dictates the body that we will inhabit from one life to the next and this doesn't change. Basically if your a 6' 5" male in one life odds are that's what you will always be. That's right I don't think you will change gender from one life to the next. I could be wrong I'm not exactly privy to the Grand Scheme. Maybe there is a choice, but I have yet to have memories of a life that I was not male.
From the studies that I have done since becoming a Pagan I think that we go from one life to the next in the attempt to learn something that will be necessary for our progression to the final step. Whether that is heaven, enlightenment, the summerland. Your faith will dictate that answer.
So how about those Christians? Does their Resurrection go along the same lines as reincarnation? I think so. You will die. Your soul will leave your physical body until the day God returns it to your newly resurrected form. That soul will spend time in limbo, paradise, or just pestering some kid who just happens to be able to see you. You will be given previously withheld memories of your time in the pre-existence. Is this not a previous life that you lived? Maybe not the definition of a physical life but it's still existence.
During a reading by on of the most proficient psychic that I have ever known. She told me that I had lived several lives and that I was a tremendously old soul. I am a little leery of past life regressive hypnosis because of the suggestible nature of hypnosis, but would one day like to see just how many life memories I can regain.
Just one more thing that I think is an interesting part of past lives. That would be the possibility of retaining relationships from one life to the next. The possibility of the soul mate. The Greeks believed that during the creation of a soul that it contained a male and female half that created the whole. That the point of that soul being placed into a physical body that the two halves were seperated. Thus the belief of the soulmate, finding the other half of your soul would be the ultimate relationship. I do think that the possibility of maintaining relationships from one life to the next is likely. We are drawn to the lives that influenced the previous ones. They are comfortable. They are familiar, thus drawing us towards them from one life to the next.
So I hope that that has maybe enlightened or just given you a few things to think about. Form your own opinion. Whether you have the same ideas as I do doesn't matter. Just the chance to share my thoughts on the subject and the possibility of hearing yours is always worth the time it takes me to fumble through typing this post.
Until next time Kiddies,
God bless...whoever that God may be. 

Metaphysics and Shit

Hello again Kiddies,
I was trying to think of something interesting to write about this time and a friend of mine who has been picking my brain since he found out that I'm into the whole metaphysics thing, precognition, spirits, Tarot readings and the what not. I thought that this would be a subject that has been near and dear to me since the first spirit came to talk to me when I was but a wee lad.
It just so happens that on my fifth birthday the family had gone into the woods along the Bear River outside Evanston Wy. for a family camping trip. A couple of nights into the trip I was woken up by a bright light and the voice of a woman calling my name. When I opened my eyes I say standing in front of the tent door the figure of my Great Grandmother from my Fathers side of the family. She wanted to let my know that she was thinking of me and wanted me to have a very happy birthday. I said thanks and that I loved her, then went promptly back to sleep. The next day I was excited to tell the entire family that Nanna had come to wish me a happy birthday. There was a bit of "oh that's nice son" and "I hope you thanked her" then nothing much more was said on the subject. Two days later when we returned home we were informed that Nanna had died the very day she had come to see me.
From that time on I would seldom be alone, and would often be visited by what I now refer to as transient spirits. Often the spirits of children who had passed and wanted to have someone to play with or to talk to. I thought nothing of it and would often talk to them until well into the night. For most of my youth I had one or two companions that would stay in the home I grew up in for years at a time. When I reached the age of seven I started to have dreams of events that would transpire days later. My most poignant experience was the dream I had of my second grade teacher falling off a ladder during a snow storm. Two days later while hanging paper snow flakes from the ceiling in class he fell from the ladder breaking his arm. Before you ask, no I have never seen the lotto or Powerball numbers. Do you honestly think I'd still be a janitor if I could. Alas the only things I tend to see of the future are rather mundane.
Later in my preteen years I had begun to really understand the nature of the things I was seeing. Before I didn't understand that the people I was seeing were dead. Then things started to get interesting a small child that I called Dan started to be a regular nightly visitor along with a teenage boy that I didn't really get along with but he hung around anyways. At the time I didn't know how to get rid of the negative spirits that understood that I could see them. Anyways some nights Dan would get really agitated and move things around my room. Toys would stack themselves in the middle of my bed while I was sleeping books would fall off shelves in the night...you get the point. Anyways that's when I realized that Dan wasn't angry he was trying to get my attention. Somewhere along the line a very negative spirit, I dare say evil spirit had taken up residence in the house and was leeching of the energy that Dan and I were giving to each other by our interaction. Soon this entity for want of a better word, today I still don't know if this spirit had been corporeal so I use the term entity for those particular energies, started to use these energies to terrorize me and collect the other two spirits to increase its strength. This would continue on to the day that I moved out of the house and went to live with my Mother. It actually tried to follow me and keep up the harassment, but it seemed unable to make the journey and soon gave up.
When my Father remarried for the third time it was to a woman who would help eventually to guide me through understanding the nature of "my gift". She happened to be a Pagan and practicing witch. When she asked me if I had been aware of the spirits that resided in my Fathers house. I was elated. I told her all about Dan and even the evil spirit that had tormented me for years. That they were still there and were very unhappy about her being there. Donna had a knack for seeing and interacting with spirits as well. She would give me advice on how to guard against the bad ones and interact positively with the good ones. I was even able to share with her my ability to have dreams come true. She would eventually steer me towards learning to read the Tarot to increase these gifts, and eventually help others with this gift.
Still to this day I rarely have a day were there isn't at least one spirit or another wandering through my apartment for a chat. Sometimes they are an unwanted distraction in my life that I have to kick out when they decide to stay and cause trouble, but mostly they are transients in nature and pass by without any fuss.
There have been times when the entitys are of a malicious nature and more then one has tried to enter my physical being. In essence trying to posses me. Nothing is more frightening then having a spirit try to push you out of your own body to take it over. Usually I have a very bad migraine for at least a day after these episodes. Then its back to placing wards around my apartment and myself.

So here is my theory on spirits entities and general bugaboos.
First what most people perceive as spirits usually fall into two categories;
1. Echoes, these are the culmination of  factors such as places that are scenes of great tragedy ie. battlegrounds, hospitals, or just large buildings that see a lot of stress or tension amongst its day to day inhabitants.
2. Actual spirits of the dead that have for some reason or another remained earthbound

Then there are the noncorporeal entities, those that have never been a physical being on this plane of existence. Those tend to be the truly evil ones and if you have the notion of looking for or interacting with these I suggest you get your head examined first.

Well heck I guess I've run on about this subject for about as long as I can tolerate for now. There is more but I think that it will have to wait until my next post.
So thanks for reading if you still are and as always,
God bless...whichever God that may be.

Welcome to the Grand Illusion

Hello friends and welcome to Blaines' Brain. That is to say my brain. Hopefully in the next few days, weeks, maybe possibly years you and I can share the inner workings of my mind. Some of the things I post may be nothing more then the ranting of an angry disallusioned middle aged male. Looking only to vent through todays only viable means of communication. Cause if it isn't on the net no one is going to see it. Print is dead and the talking heads of the American broadcast news only spew forth the sugarcoated watered down facts that Corporate America wishes for you to hear to keep you afraid and buying there consumer goods.

So welcome to the Grand Illusion. Come on in and see whats happening. Pay the price get a ticket for the show.

Forgive me for the next couple of days as I traverse my way through my very first blog. Hopfully I'll be able to muddle my way through and create a site that will be informative and entertaining. My technical skills are nonexisting so this may take longer then I thought.

So lets begin with a bit of a background on the Brain that will be guiding this tour.
My name is Blaine Morton. I'm a 37 yr old custodian working for the Davis School system in Davis Co. Utah. This has been my occupation for 20 yrs. I have no education beyond a High School diploma. I am single, never married. Have no children and for all intents and purposes have no desire to have children. Did I mention that I work for the educational system here in Utah. That alone has made me hope I'm sterile. I'm  opinionated and loud. I have a very eclectic sense of humor. Don't get me wrong like most men I like dick and fart jokes, and if someones going to get hurt I'm in. My favorite comedian is George Carlin. If you haven't read "Silly Putty and Napalm" read it. It's hillarious. My favorite authors, Charles Dickens, and Stephen King. Music tastes Marylin Manson to Mozart. If it pisses me off odds are I'll have something to say about it. Hell who am I kiding, if it peeks my intrest I'll probably have an opinion about it. Most people irritate me. I'm sure I have the same effects on them but I don't care what people think of me. I'll pick a fight about a subject just to see who I can piss off. I like mocking Chritians they take everything way to serious. Being a pagan has opened my eyes to the backwards thinking of most major religions to date. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against God it's just funny as Hell to listen to man fuck-up a perfectly good idea by calling it religion. Watch "Dogma". One of Kevin Smiths best movies from the "Jay and Silent Bob" genre. It took mankind to take a good idea and turn it into a religion which will in the end destroy us all. I have no real affiliation with any political group. So I get to rant about both sides inept attempts to run this country into the ground. I love listening to the Republican party talk about family values and keeping big government out of our homes. These are the very same people who brought you the Patriot act which allows big government right in through your front door. They talk about lowering taxes to help the middle class while the only people who benefit from thier tax cuts are the super rich and corporate America. The war we are currently in should run adds saying "Brought to you by Haliburton". They keep trying to say gay marriage will destroy the American family and its values. Show of hands. How many of you are from a split family. Hell my Dad has been married four times. Why shouldn't Gays be given the right to fuck-up a generation of children just like the straights. Oh and Democrats, they spend so much time trying to seem like they have a better plan that they never really get anything accomplished. Lets not even disscuss the Tea Baggers. Anybody else want to point out how bad a choice for a name that was. Yikes!

Well kiddies thats a start and I'm looking forward to spending more time with you. But I really should try and get some sleep. Hopefully tomorrow or the next day I'll have something to chat with you about or just have something that I need to get off my chest.

So Good Night and God Bless...which ever God that may be.