A Telepaths Path
By William Dotson

A long time ago, someone had a conversation with me about our thoughts consisting merely of words. I disagreed, knowing that there had to be more than that to our thoughts. What I have come to understand from that conversation is that the thought patterns that we have in our mind are a lot more than human speech. Human speech is actually a perverted form of communication.  I know this because I, along with others I have met, are telepaths, and we seemingly have a deeper understanding of our own minds. While telepathic communication, an evolution of the initial empathic communication, is a purer and more natural form of communication, we seem to have left it behind in the dust of time. Animals and infants still use these forms though, and as we grow older we seem to loose them or bury them in our subconscious. Then, as speech is pressed upon us more often as we grow older, we grow into this speech and learn to forget our em/telepathic roots.

This forgetting of our roots is also why we get that, "oooh," feeling when we see babies and animals. The depths of our subconscious is trying to reach out and embrace the communication that we so deeply long for. Mothers seem to subconsciously reestablish this form of communication between them and there infants.  The mother is able to tap into these abilities for the protection of the child. This is created while the mother and child are united within the pregnancy, instinctually maintaining an empathic connection. This lasts for at least until the child looses its innocence because it finally, and completely, gives into the structured speech that is pressed upon us. Then the telepathic bond seems to separate itself between the two of them, usually almost completely being severed around the teen-age years.

As we commonly know, the most popular thing that is said to a telepath is, "So, what am I thinking?" The answer to that isn‚t as easy as one might think. I have come to the understanding that thought has little, if anything, to do with purely mental speech. Those thoughts people believe they are thinking are all that they notice, therefore that is all that they consider. In actuality, our thoughts are a lot more intricate than that. They are layered like an onion. Along with these thoughts, most people can understand the emotional aspects that are mixed in because they can feel them, whether or not they admit it to themselves sometimes. These emotions can be read as an entire spectrum to an empath. Besides that, our mind is like one large library of videos, or mental images and memories. Since our thoughts aren't merely words representing events; they are composed of mental videos and audio recordings of occurrences that have been taught to us. We sometimes will have many memories related simultaneously to any given idea or thought that we have. Also, as youths we are educated that the symbols that we call words are representations of our thoughts about the people, places, and things that make up our language. Today, we are drawn to believe that these symbols, these words, are responsible for half of the collection of mental thoughts that we have during our day. They are not merely symbols and images that represent these thoughts, they are memories.

Of course there are also many other forms of thoughts, such as a number of our recollections of our senses that may incorporate themselves concurrently at any given moment. As Dr. Hans Holzer says in his book ,Are You Psychic? A sixth sense experience may come through the sense of sight ˆ as a vision, a flash of knowledge or an impression; the sense of hearing ˆ as a voice or sound effect duplicating an event; the sense of smell ˆ as a strange scent associated to another climate, or with certain people or places; the sense of touch ˆ the feeling of a hand on the shoulder, a furtive kiss; and/or the sense of taste ˆ stimulation of the palate not caused by actual food or drink. These senses are layered with these and many other forms of thoughts, making it impossible to say, "What your thinking," because a telepath usually only receives a certain amount of parts of the information being sent.

When we have a conversation, may it be one on one or in a group; we have a tendency to press our opinion on other people. We try to force these opinions, either by talking over another person or pressing these opinions, always trying to change the mind of the other. I had to learn that when I was trying to create a telepathic link, there is a difference between getting in touch with someone and when I was invading their privacy. I also had to learn when it was appropriate to channel and expose others to my own thoughts, being cautious not to impose my negativity when I was having a bad day, or when I was imposing my thoughts on another person for selfish reasons. Though, when we communicate telepathically, may it be receiving or transmitting, we can‚t force our thoughts on another. If my intensions are impure and I start to use my powers for negative reasons, the so called,dark side, then I would be using my given gifts by the Gods for impure reasons, and karma can really suck. I have to pay special attention to my intensions. Either our thoughts are to be allowed to come and go freely, or there is no telepathic link to be had.  If our spirit is to connect to another there can not be any alternative motive. A telepaths thought must be open and must be free from malice.

I learned the hard way about having to filter certain people‚s thoughts out when I was younger and was receiving virtually everybody‚s thoughts that I walked past. I didn‚t realize that I was channeling, so I started to just think that I was going crazy when I would always seem to here things in my mind. I thought that all of the thoughts in my head were mine, even though they didn't seem to be of my nature. I even had a psychologist tell me once that I was suffering from mild schitsophrenia. I was so glad to find out from another telepath that these things were quite natural for telepaths. I had to learn to first realize where these thoughts were coming from, and then learn how to distinguish between them. It was a big relief that the negative voices in my mind weren't even mine. Yet when I began to become consciously aware of how negative other people‚s thoughts were, I began to feal sad that there was so much negativity in this world. It took a lot of keeping in constant contact with the Gods and a lot of praying for the soles of others before I could filter these people's minds out. 

With young people still capable of taping into these natural abilities without even thinking about it, I am sure that they are feeding and learning of others negativity on a constant basis like I did. It's no wonder people begin to sever their instinctual em/telepathic abilities not to long after infancy, when it only leads to the negativity of others in their own mind when it is unchecked. It's also no wonder why people distance themselves from others and learn not to let others in, resulting in loneliness. Thank goodness some people find faith in the Gods and learn to rely upon them to fill in that hole in their hearts so that they can stop the cycle from continuing on to more generations. Hopefully our generation can learn to grow from our former generations' mistakes and become more secure with ourselves so that we can pass on love and guidance to our fellow siblings and friends and allow telepaths and empaths to become comfortable enough to spread the word, or should I say, thoughts, even further.

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Hand of Glory
by Johnathon Tapsell

In the not too distant past, certain criminals facing the British justice system were singled out for a particularly severe and degrading sentence - that of public gibbeting. Not only would the wretched soul suffer a long and painful death of slow strangulation whilst the crowds looked on; but the condemned would undergo further humiliation: his or her body would be left to rot hanging in an iron cage.

In this way the convict would be denied the dignity of a proper Christian burial, something which meant a great deal even to brigands.Imagine now the crowds dispersing, the hangman leading away his horse and cart, the lifeless corpse suspended from the gibbet while birds wait restlessly for this choice offer. What else could befall this unfortunate individual? The answer is simple - The Hand of Glory.

According to ancient sorcery beliefs, the hand of a gibbeted man could work great magic and was possibly one of the most highly prized charms to possess. The sorcerer would approach the hanged man and hack off a hand, either the left or right (which ever was more convenient). Once safely home the hand would be squeezed of all blood and left to dry, then waxed and made into a candle, complete with wicks in each finger. The hand was believed to bestow miraculous health on the bearer, including vitality and great sexual prowess.

Thieves prowling the streets at night could enter a household and light the Hand of Glory which would render the occupants unconscious until the burglary was complete. Those suffering goitre or wens (growths) on the neck would only need to touch the hand on the afflicted area to affect a cure. Indeed this particular belief survived right into the nineteenth century long after the practice of gibbeting. One particularly graphic account is recounted in the Brighton Herald of 1835, when a woman suffering from a neck condition hid under the hangman’s cart in order to touch the dead man’s hand after the execution.

Much mystification, rumour and folklore has sprung up around this most macabre practice and most of our information comes from dubious historical accounts. However a genuine medieval magical text has recently been unearthed and faithfully copied by a leading member of the occult establishment. The little book at last unveils in precise detail the secret of all secrets - the making of the Hand of Glory, complete with barbarous names of power. To describe this work as rare would not do it justice - it is a unique document which provides a valuable insight into the innermost beliefs of our Medieval forbears.

As discussed earlier, the severed hand must be squeezed of congealed blood and then dried. The text recommends that it be placed in an earthen vessel together with pounded saltpetre, common salt and peppercorns. Here the hand must remain for fifteen days and nights. When extracted from the vessel, it must be exposed to the heat of the sun during the time of the Dog Star (July 23rd onwards) until it is extremely desiccated. It seems our intrepid sorcerer who wrote the original tract had thought of every occasion and warns that:

“If the solar warmth be insufficient, a furnace is to be constructed of vervain and bracken.”
At this point the dried hand is to have every bit of grease extracted from it which, when combined with sesame and virgin wax from Lapland, a species of candle may be constructed.
The text then continues in blood curdling rhetoric:
“Wheresoever this frightful object be lighted, the spectators will be deprived of all motion and the sorcerer will do as he will.”

As a reassuring footnote, the author of this black charm gives hope to those who fear the Hand of Glory by saying that an unguent may be made which counteracts the power of the hand. The ingredients include the gall of a black cat, grease from a white fowl and the blood of a screech owl. Again this should be rendered during the Dog Days. The unguent should anoint the threshold to one’s home as well as any other entrances such as windows and side-doors.

The gruesome relic featured in the photograph is a genuine Hand of Glory. It is possible that this hand was collected at a time when the knowledge to alter the object into a candle was forgotten. Perhaps the possessor was content with the potency of a plain old severed hand? Whatever the case, it was displayed for many years in Eastbourne Museum, East Sussex and is an all too grim reminder that magicians would go to any lengths to gain such a piece.

In later years as public executions were abandoned in Britain, with hangings taking place within the confines of prison walls, this strange belief sinisterly transformed one final time . As it became increasingly more difficult to obtain the hand of a hanged man, the magic lore was passed to any corpse, whether hanged or not. By the late nineteenth century, it has been said that people were willing to go to extraordinary lengths to continue this practice.

Today readers of Renaissance will be relieved to know that any vestiges of such sorcery are long since defunct and all that is left is the ancient text. “By the mysteries of the deep, by the flames of Banal, by the power of the East and the silence of the night, by the Holy Rites of Hecate, I conjure and exorcise thee.”

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