Bruce Duensing Has Died

It is with a sad heart that I have to inform readers and discoverer's of The C Influence - of the passing of co-founder Bruce Duensing, yesterday afternoon, after what apparently was a short and intense hospital stay. The world will miss Bruce's speculations and observations about this world and world structure. I certainly will.

Finally - I wanted to share the link to my blog called The Heavy Stuff (no longer generally available on the internet) that started this blog.... the post generated an intense online discussion the likes seldom seen between Bruce and I and then offline in our e-mails... eventually I said to Bruce that I was starting the blog and within minutes Bruce was on-board as co-founder. The C Influence was our attempt to bring various intellectuals to the table to discuss the anomalous - Bruce put some amazing works on TCI (before removing them about 2 years ago) ... please dig into the labels to read what remains of his thoughts and materials here.

Anyway... and lastly... this was the post (below) that inspired Bruce and I to attempt to bring the concept of a C influence to the world..... Eventually Bruce became disenfranchised with this type of writing and removed his posts from TCI as he did with one of his other main blogs of the period (the one that made BD a known name. Perhaps it was part of the Carlos Castaneda idea of leaving a small footprint and erasing personal history
===========================
Be Here Now(ish)

One of the `esoteric takeaways' of the 1960's and 70's was the `tree-hugging' phrase - "Be Here Now". And, frankly, ultimately, it had a lot of `meanings' - from the non-attachment of Zen, to a `re-connecting' with the environment and spirituality, to a `self-centering' - awareness and meditation connotation - and even more. It was a `hip' thing to say (or - to say that you were `doing').

(This would actually be `not-doing' to those `into' Carlos Castaneda.)

Anyway, that phrase BHN entered my mind again the other week and this post has been brain bubbling since then - so - let's see how my mind treats this today. And, as you might expect - my mind generally has been mauling over the whole Phenomenology aspect of the phrase first - both in relation to `science' and my so called Phillips Phenomenology. (see my categories (labels)  on this page for much more about PP)

The first `science' thing that comes into my mind - is - of course, the shear impossibility to BE HERE NOW - as `all nows' pass and have NO duration; and our actual `here' is moving at an incredible rate of motion. All while being the pinpoint of the time-cone - with that exact balance of the actualized past `picking' the next actualized space (the now) of the `future'.

Indeed, if we just consider THE REAL SPACE - that one (humans) occupied as matter --- the `space' that `was you' - an instant ago ---------- has truly `moved' hugely. 

Do you know the reason?

Well, we are `traveling' on a planet that is `rotating'; we are `traveling' on a planet that is moving in rotation around a star; and we are `traveling' as part of that stars rotation around OUR galaxy; and we are `traveling' as part of the Milky Way's `movement' in a particular direction that all local galaxies are moving in. EVERY SECOND. Every Moment. (Indeed, I once added all this movement up and it is a large portion of 1% of the speed of light - every instant. The `here' of `our last instant' is `miles' from the actual location of the `here' of `this, our current instant'.)

So, that should put to rest in your mind that what we perceive as a permanent local space - is ONLY so - because it (every object within)  ALSO is moving at the same rate. We are matter spiraling thru space points - and have NO claim to a HERE in the human mind sense of the term. Indeed, only the `counting' of the here's of our space/matter - provides us with a `now' or more precisely, a here-now,  at all.

And, before I even get to the `now(ish)' - lets look at how human consciousness might fit into the words of this BHN phrase.

Certainly, the best connection of human consciousness lies in its own `beingness'.Beingness of the actualized past; beingness of the unactualized past; beingness of the actualized future (now); beingness of the `unactualized' (referred to as the) future.

A beingness of `our space' (body/matter) - a beingnessof `our minds' (sense-knowingness of actualized memory, sense-knowingness of actualized now, sense-knowingness of actualized fantasy) - but most of all - a Beingness of Determinism via self-knowingness.

Indeed, we ARE, - our being IS, - because we KNOW the determinism we experience of space-time-and our consciousness - as only a BEING with a Ontological Knowingness can. BEINGS with ontological knowingness determine the `what is not able to not be'. That is, at least concerning their own perception structures of other SPACES (the not able to be) and other TIMES (the able to not be) - internally or externally.

(But spaces ARE NOTHING (not able to be) without duration (time - able to not be(ness) and time IS NOTHING without space to be (time needs to give a space it's able to not be(ness) to MAKE - the determined Not Able To Not Be --------------- that we call reality.

Finally, lets talk about what science has told humans about their consciousness of `our external senses of now'. First and foremost, research indicates that humans `see' about 100 or so `frames' of our external reality each second - YET - our consciousness picks about 8-12 of these and `molds them' into a flowing reality for perception purposes. (Not only that - reality itself - turns on and turns off - trillions of times in that frame of reference.) I won't even mention that what we `see' in our brain is upside-down and the whole process needs to be righted for our senses.

But, even more important than that - at least to me - is that EVERYTHING we see ---- all objects ------- are objects from the PAST --- as the light that bounces off objects - which allows us to sense them -  has taken (time)(or a counted space)  to reach our retina. Time which MAKES that datum a PAST, a determined past that is UN-alterable as to its location or time of its data being sent by the light bounce.

So, if EVERYTHING outside of us is FROM the past (to us)  and is Now(ish) ---- isn't the best a human can do is - Be Here Nowish?
=================================================

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR THOUGHTS AND WORDS BRUCE - MAY SOME ANSWERS AND MEDITATIVE STATES AWAIT YOU.
======================================
Bruce Duensing's Words Are In This Published Book

The BOOK, BLOG, And MagazIne Side Of The C Influence

Yes, I know, it's been pathetic how TCI has been treated. But, the good news is - the archive is FREE - and it has a ton of content to stimulate your mind with some of the best writers on the internet when it comes to anomalous phenomena. 

Indeed, to achieve such levels of thought and writing takes an internal energy one might or might not have at a given interval - we, the bloggers of TCI may have been lucky to produce this much good content in our group effort. Many writers/bloggers of such material often fade in and out of producing content or even at relating the anomalous events that happen to others. Speaking of the `second attention' is draining.

Indeed, I am no longer in contact with all the bloggers who are/were contributors to this blog - only some of them. Can TCI come back in some manner? Time will tell.

Now, all that said, bloggers are figuring out ways to make sure that their best material does not fade away from the digital world. Indeed, they are finding a better method to bring such digital anomaly writing to a wider public - Kindle Books or E Books of any kind - and offering ones blog on Amazon. And, multiple writers and contributors of The C Influence are doing just that - find some of those offerings below:
--------------------------------------
For Example - Erich Kuersten offers his blog on Kindle for 99 cents a month: Acidemic Film Journal which he describes as:

Exploring cinema from today, the psychedelic 1970s, and pre-code 1930s in a style that dissolves academic theory, Jungian archetypal psychology, gonzo memoir/journalism, and pop culture shoot from the hip kinetics into one potent brew.

Kindle blogs are fully downloaded onto your Kindle so you can read them even when you're not wirelessly connected. And unlike RSS readers which often only provide headlines, blogs on Kindle give you full text content and images, and are updated wirelessly throughout the day.

Here's what a review said:

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect antidote for normalcy, complacency and chronic obviousness January 25, 2012

By David Maxwell

Acidemic film journal is not for tenderfooted tire kickers. It is for those who want more from a review than passive affirmation or vapid water cooler sound bites. Now that everyone and their cousin Joey has a film blog, it is imperative to be discerning if you value your position as a qualified cinephile. Erich does not take the easy route when it comes to blogging. His reviews have the uncompromising swagger and fire of an experienced pen fueled by a passion for the subject matter. Too often film blogs reek of artistic frustration and are fraught with distracting tangents and sophomoric stabs at theory. Erich delves beyond the narrative and into Jungian/Lacanian/Neitzschean/Satrean anthro-socio-political deconstructionism blended seamlessly into anecdotal nostalgia of a 70's disaffected youth & his subsequent demon battle lore. Many of his reviews are of obscure films because Acidemic is about the art, not the revenue. Often Erich's writing surpasses the quality of the film, which is kinda weird. To quote one of Erich's latest rants, "He expects no reward or condemnation, he doesn't think ahead or crave validation - he's just a dancer in the Shiva flame."

======================================================

Lon Strickler also offers his blog Phantoms And Monsters too:

It's 99 Cents A Month too. And, here's what one reviewer said:

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best value out there!!! October 2, 2011

By Thomas Vlassis

By far Phantoms and Monsters is the best value out there. Everyday Lon has numerous articles and stories to fill your day. I've subscribed to other blogs and would only get an update every month or so. I have not been updated daily maybe 4 times and each time Lon has posted that there will be no updates. Thanks Lon for the great work you do.

=====================================================

Lon has also just uploaded his first Kindle Book called `Cryptid Encounters' too:

Lon describes the book as such:

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2012

A collection of personal cryptid encounter reports submitted by regular people who felt compelled to find answers about their unexplained experience. I keep an open mind when reading and discussing witness accounts since I truly understand how they feel...because few people believed my extraordinary encounter either.

============================================

And, Erich Kuersten, Bruce Duensing and Myself (Rick Phillips) - all had chapters in the below book released by Robert Cheatham in 2012 on Amazon. A book by the title `Materialization & Manifestation' (subtitle) `UFO Drag Queen'

==================================================
I will be featuring my Kindle books in an upcoming post.
================================
And, it's not all 2012 stuff - Lesley Gunter and Regan Lee had Chapters in the same issue of the UFO Magazine below:
=====================================================
I see that Erich has something in the draft phase in the dashboard - and I will be posting soon with all my new Kindle books too - perhaps a comeback of sorts has started.

The Shaman's Cape

TCI has a bevy of great thinkers and writers - here I present Regan Lee with The Shaman's Cape(Rick Phillips)
--------------------------------------------------

This was originally published on Binnall of America's website on my bi-weekly Trickster's Realm column on 12/26/05 and reposted on my Saucer Sightings blog, which is an archive of my own UFO sightings and encounters. The article has been edited for this post.
------------------------------------

The Shaman's Cape


About twelve years ago I was visiting friends who were house sitting for a mutual friend of ours. The home owner traveled to Mexico frequently on business; he owned a store in Oregon, and brought back folk art, books, and ceramics to sell in his store.


As I was wandering around the home looking at his extensive book collection, I noticed a large cape hanging on the wall. This cape was very unusual. It wasn’t made of any type of cloth, but seemed waxy and stiff, with little “horns” or large thick thorns protruding from it. The cape was a darkish lime green color. While the cape wasn’t made from any cloth like material and didn’t look like it’d be comfortable to wear -- certainly not practical -- it was obvious this was a cape indented to be worn.


I touched the cape,rubbing my fingers on its smooth surface, being careful of course to avoid those white yellowish stud things that were clearly sharp enough to really hurt if touched. I appreciated the cape for its history (whatever that may be, since I didn’t have a clue) and was drawn to it for some reason -- I couldn’t stop running my hands down the cool smooth surface. Even while I was attracted to the cape, I felt uncomfortable around it at the same time; I didn’t like it. It was big and ugly, a sickish green color, and subconsciously, it annoyed me. It just seemed out of place.


I had planned on staying to visit with my friends but suddenly felt extremely tired. It was the middle of the afternoon and a beautiful day, but I had to get home -- I was just so suddenly exhausted. Fortunately I didn’t live far, just a couple of miles. Yet riding my bike home on that beautiful day was so damn exhausting. I was losing focus; as if I were coming down with the flu yet I didn’t feel sick, as in ill, just ... unexplainably tired.


As soon as I got home I headed right for the bed, flopping down and grateful to finally make it home. Almost immediately I began to leave my body; one of those OBE states that happen to me spontaneously and that I haven’t been able to control since I was a child. I wasn’t asleep, but not awake exactly, yet I was consciousness of the bedroom, the open window, the sun coming through the screen and other mundane things. At the same time I was paralyzed but felt myself rapidly leaving my body. I could hear the sound of whistles and flutes coming from a distance away, then getting closer. These musical sounds were not coming from outside (like a neighbors house or stereo) but from whatever place my astral body was going towards...


The next thing I knew I was in a deep sleep. I remember visions of chanting and signing, the flutes and whistles again, the cape draped around someone, a man. I couldn’t see his face. We were somewhere in the desert, or some rural country area. It was night and the stars were numerous and very close to the ground; I could touch them if I just reached out far enough. This was no dream; it was as real as this moment now, sitting here typing this. The memory of the desert ground; so hard, with dusty brown bits of soft dust, the coolish night air, the smells of earth and night, the music of flutes, bells, chanting. I was next to this man in a cape, his cape, face unseen, doing a jerky kind of wheeling, turning movement beneath the stars.


When I woke up, it was dark, and I felt as if I’d been poisoned. Not actually physically sick but I mean, I felt as if someone had given me some kind of sleeping pill or drugged me in some way. It took me a very long time to get back to reality. I felt sluggish and my tongue felt thick. This feeling lasted for a couple of days.


A day or two later I found out that this cape was from Mexico and had belonged to a Shaman. It was used in special ceremonies. I hadn’t mentioned this to my friend; it was the other way around. He had told me, quite spontaneously, that he was told that the cape was used for magical purposes that involved whistles and dancing, and was performed out in the desert, away from towns and especially the Church. How or why our friend managed to get this cape I don’t know, except that was a collector of what we call folk art and folk religious items. To those that participated in these dances and ceremonies, those are just labels used by outsiders.


Desert Visitation: The Green Warty "Man"


This incident happened about twenty-five years ago or so. I was sitting on the bed reading. I wasn’t in bed; it was still early. I was simply on top of the covers, dressed, reading my book. My husband was in the other room. I had what I call a “mind post card,” -- it’s an experience that happens every so often, where the picture, absolutely vivid 3-D full color image, is “inserted” into my mind with a sharp suddenness. It’s as if someone had literally slid a postcard or a slide of an image (and very often a moving image) into my head. I don’t know where it comes from, or why it happens. Usually it’s a telepathic thing: a preview of something that occurs later that day, or within a day or two. This time however, it wasn’t a prediction of something; it was a “visit.”


This “mind post card” was of a dirty lime-green being with warts or bony stubby nubs all over his body. He had two little stubs or buttons at the top of his forehead; not horns or antlers, but the suggestion of such. I just “knew” that this being was male. It wasn’t human, but it wasn’t animal. It was maybe closer to human than not, but definitely not human. He was sitting in profile to me, squatting down actually. We were out in the desert -- or, he was. At this point it doesn’t matter; it was as if I was transported, or his whole world superimposed itself onto mine. I was there with him/it. We had entered each other’s realm of existence. Somehow I had been transported to his desert, and his desert had moved closer to my world.


He “saw” me and turned his head to look at me. He slowly grinned at me, but this was no happy smiley expression! He was a nasty piece of work! It was clear he knew exactly how I was feeling, and thought it very funny in a sadistic way. He was also a little irritated I was there -- or, he was here -- that we were in each other’s worlds.


I was so damn startled that I screamed. With that scream he popped out (or I was snapped back to my own reality.) And again he seemed irritated, it as if he wanted me to stick around so he could toy with me. He was mad I had screamed and ruined the fun. Such a temporary and special event gone in a flash.


To this day I remember that experience with a chill. I don’t associate any UFO experience or connection with this (although, with all the high strangeness that often accompanies UFOs who knows) and I wouldn’t say it was alien. Not alien from another planet; not even alien from this earth. But I had the sense it very much belonged here and was of the earth, and it belonged here, if such judgments can be made on these things, more than humans. I had the feeling it was indigenous to the earth.


Image: Brian Froud

Mande Burung Expedition Video

CryptoZoology - Part of The C Influence Mix - John Carlson on top of it.
----------------------------------


Mande Burung Expedition Video



Posted on: Saturday, December 18, 2010 by John Carlson in the Cryptozoology category






Once again, Adam Davies has been so kind as to share his experiences with the readers of The Paranomalist. For regular readers of our website, I’m sure that you know that Adam was recently searching for the Mande Burung, a large, bipedal hominoid reportedly seen by many of the inhabitants of the Garo Hills region of India.






Adam Davies, Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology Richard Freeman, and a team of additional researchers met with local M-B researcher Dipu Marak, spending approximately three weeks investigating this rugged, heavily forested and mountainous area of northeastern India for evidence of the elusive creature. In addition to collecting physical evidence, the cryptid researchers interviewed many of the native inhabitants who reported to have seen the Mande Burung.






Please enjoy a portion of Adam’s video journal of his most recent cryptozoological investigation:
-------------------------------
Please see the video at John's webpage - http://www.theparanomalist.com/2984/mande-burung-video/










Share/Save— John Carlson

TCI - AED - Phillips Responds To Lee's - Reflections And Tricks

First, like Bruce I want to thank all readers and writers who are responding in these first days of The C Influence. Indeed, the `seed post' of this week by Regan Lee was posted today in The Anomalist. And, that is the purpose of my essay today.

I will first respond to the questions I said on Sunday were suggested by Lee's post (just my gut feel on each) - then, later this week,  I will respond to points raised by other authors already and by comments from our readers.
1) Are paranormal events coming `from' the otherside or are projections made by ourselves? --------- You know, I used to worry-think more about this than I do now - as I think the events `into our reality' come from a non-local area (that may be responding to our intentionality's).
2)Investigated in location with ectoplasm and psychokinesis - ------ I have seen psychokinesis once for sure and had the manisfistion of my grandfathers footsteps in the attic after his sudden death - I would be interested in hearing other authors psychokinesis events too --- I would love to hear Regan tell about ectoplasm - details please?
3)Regan's family history of ghosts ---------- Personally, I think it runs thru humanity and nearly all families to some degree.
4)Electric feeling on stairs -- No comment.
5)the Trickster ----------- To me, it is what I call `beckoning the unknown'. And, since it is wrapped up in intentionality's, the net effect is being a Trickster to events.
6)"I suspect “they” on the other side are more aware of us than we are of them and are better at manipulating energies." -------------- I slightly agree with part one - I slightly disagree with part two.
7)"what we call ghosts, or spirits, exist. It's more complex than just dead people showing themselves occasionally as flimsy, vague shapes" ----------------- Agree, with caveots.

Do other authors have viewpoints on these 7 issues? Do you see other issues in Lee's piece?