The word ontology is of a Greek derivation that generally means, “that which is being,” and is perhaps the best contemporary discussion of gnosis that has been openly considered amongst scholars, especially for the last couple centuries or so (again, generally speaking). However, since gnosis is such an ancient concept, there can hardly be considered a dividing line here between the two, and rather merely an obfuscation.
Actually, the idea of Ontology as a classical scholastic study of “philosophy,” as it’s generally known today, originally stemmed from ancient Greece, and specifically from the ideas of the Plato and Neoplatonism, which had its own clear origins in gnostic initiations. During the original formations of this school of thought, ontology was very much considered as simply a fundamental, contextual analysis of gnosis—ontology perhaps being a slightly more exoteric version of gnosis(although if the case could be made for this, it would not be by much, since ontological philosophy is not exactly easy material to dive into either).
While Neoplatonism (the most commonly survived tradition of Plato’s philosophies) has obviously been cast out by the modern realm of mainstream science and the mindset of materialist “Scientism” that this has created—this article will bear the notions upheld in this school of thought in mind, and turn its attention to a school of ontological study that still survives to this day: the Fortean Society.
Many jaded readers may think this sounds like an ancient esoteric society, but it was actually created by researchers inspired by the pioneer researcher and philosopher, Charles Fort, who was mainly active during the shift into the 20th century. Survived in part today by traditions like the radio show Coast to Coast (while not literally affiliated with the Fortean Society), the most legendary modern Fortean was the late John A. Keel, who tends to be known by the movie based off of his research novel by the same name, The Mothman Prophecies.
It can be said that the mythos of the Mothman stemming from this novel and movie is truly rich, as well inspiring documentaries and generations of diehard fans of the phenomenon, and ultimately some truly withstanding proportions of modern paranormal lore. While the actual story and its Fortean elements are not well known today in common culture, the story still remains active in the channels of certain researchers, and in the Hollywood echo-chamber of modern culture (“oh yeah, you mean that one movie?” is the most common answer to someone bringing up Mothman today).
But before this line of thought really launches here, understanding the definition of “Fortean investigation” is pertinent. Admittedly, it is a little difficult to summarize it in a couple of words, but the legacy of Charles Fort’s career (upheld by his magnum opus, The Book of the Damned) was the postulation that scientific materialism was completely ill-founded, and that non-materialism (metaphysical, paranormal, extrasensory phenomena) and things unexplainable to materialism could still clearly be observed by materialist science—even if they could not be completely explained.
In his work, The Book of the Damned, Fort goes through excruciating and painstaking efforts to detail the observable and documented phenomena that mainstream materialist science has “damned” from their conversation and ontological understandings. The aim of a Fortean is to push the envelope of traditional materialist ontology, and reach back into the roots of understanding—back towards a crucial consideration of the seemingly unexplainable. Fort’s work indiscriminately and non-denominationally documents recorded accounts of occult metaphysics, paranormal haunting and poltergeist-type phenomena, ufology, cryptozoology, and downright outlandish accounts, such as: a long string of documented accounts of all sorts of matter raining from the skies on populations of people; like frogs, fish and a variety of inorganic materials. However, he was also an incredibly scrutinizing researcher, and any look into his work shows the lack of sensationalism present. Fort was genuinely trying to beat the materialists at their own game, and shatter their false paradigms with their own contraptions of thought. This is why Charles Fort inspired a society of followers after he passed away; a society that still remains active on the internet today, if nowhere else.
John Keel, easily the most well-known Fortean, was an investigative journalist that largely investigated extra-terrestrial and UFO phenomena, but did not consider himself a ufologist, and believed that the entities were in fact of this planet. Keel considered himself, by his own account, a modern Fortean demonologist. Interestingly, Keel’s acknowledgement of demonology was not a celebration or condemnation of the idea of the entity, but rather it had the traditional roots of Pagan animism.
To further explain this, Keel considered these phenomena as neither good nor evil by definition, but rather a sort of anomalous electromagnetic phenomena of the Earth’s Platonic ether—and that this EM activity was transmitted by the human brain, in the same way that a radio picks up its station’s frequency. Depending on the conditions of the situation, the entities would be clearly negative or clearly positive in nature; or sometimes they come across just as confused as the human contactee, as if this meeting is sheer chance; other times, the contacts by the entity, although very impactful, seem multi-layered with terror and insight, and the line does not seem well defined.
The Mothman, as it has been documented, falls under this last ambiguous definition. It never outright attacked anyone, but it scared the daylights out of most people it encountered, likely killed some dogs (but this could have been self-defense), and stalked many witnesses during the encounter for hours at a time, and sometimes stalked the contactee for months afterward. As for the intelligence of the Mothman, it did seem to have a sort understanding of its selfhood; a sense of self-contained preservation that seemed a little beyond a common animal, although probably not by much.
Mothman’s reported sentience, in contrast with its contactees from their reports, seems to be like comparing the mental computing faculties of David Banner and the Hulk. It almost appeared that the entity had an intense child-like sense of investigation, mixed with a desperate urge to hide, as if it were metaphysically ensnared in the TNT Plant of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, during those 13 months from 1966 to ’67. While the legend of the Mothman helped stimulate the hysteria of the UFO era in the middle of the 20th century, it seems much more likely that someone could have been performing some ominous, esoteric evocation ritual gone awry. Additionally, it seems that the Mothman, again nodding to the Neo-Pagan animism, could have been a naturally transmitted electromagnetic phenomenon, that was meant as a sort of harbinger for the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1967. A combination of both theories seems to be Keel’s explanation, and is the logic behind the title he chose for the book.
The collapse of the Silver Bridge also marked the end of Mothman’s appearances in the era of the Fortean “Mothman Prophecies,” but accounts of Mothman sightings persist still to this day. However wildly speculative they may be, there are even people who consider Mothman sightings surrounding the events of Chernobyl and 9/11, but this article claims no research into these matters. In terms of a cryptozoological definition of what a “Mothman” could be, Keel enjoyed relating the creature and all traditional man-bird sightings (heavily prevalent today and all throughout history, however surprising it may be) to the Garuda of Vedic mythology.
While the overall topic at hand is not entirely about the Mothman, the creature deserves its due attention here because it serves as the easiest modern phenomenological embodiment of ontological metaphysics. In a sense, Mothman is the wedding of occult phenomenology and mythology with the paranormal and extra-terrestrial. On a deeper level, this provides an allegory to how all these schools of thought have only been separated by time and obfuscation throughout culture. To wrap up this specific consideration of the modern Garuda, here is a link of John Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies. His only interview on Coast to Coast, can be seen here, which was synchronistically recorded on the theatrical release date of the movie, The Mothman Prophecies.
Another Fortean phenomenon that this article would be incomplete without commenting on, is the modern Men In Black. Do away disappointing ideas of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones fighting a giant Cockroach Man, and consider where the origins of this phenomenon stem from—which is Keel’s research done in Point Pleasant, during the time of the Mothman sightings. Of course, Keel had not discovered them, nor does he claim to have done so, but he remains the initial popularization of these strange entities. Right out of the gate, anyone researching the actual accounts quickly realize that these entities are not from any government, and they are almost certainly not human at all—but metaphysical.
A lecture by Keel about his research on the matter can be viewed here. Categorically speaking, to be considered an MIB entity, someone does not have to be wearing a black suit or even all black for that matter—it instead represents a fundamental nature of the entity; a nature that persists in reports to this day, however accurate these reports may or may not be. MIB seem to be, at the root of their nature, omens of sorts, hence the deeper understanding of the title “Mothman Prophecies.” Yes, the Mothman could have been prophesying the collapse of the bridge, theoretically, but one of the overall theses of the book was that this type of extra-dimensional Fortean phenomena seemed to be a reflection of the psyche in the electromagnetic spectrum; this reflection picking up on other self-contained fragments (electromagnetic signals) and projecting them into the physical environment—the attracting element here being human emotional transmission (usually through trance state), thus creating not necessarily a divine quality, but a divinatory quality (in relation to the Divination Arts).
The ontology of extraterrestrials, demons, angels, fairies, and ghosts are electromagnetic phenomena that are self-contained, and creates interference at times with transmitters like televisions, computers, radios, telephones, and especially human brains. Supplementary to this is the history of the television originally being developed from early spiritualist inventions aiming towards a tool of technological séances. If the idea of the archon in Gnostic texts is being understood even somewhat accurately today, then it would ontologically fall under this definition as well. The EM signals (“entities”) tune to specific transmitters (like a brain) that are resonating at likened frequencies. These communicative frequencies can be considered as a faculty of the human symbolic imagination, and are “emotionally resonated” into informational EM spectrums of the Earth’s magnetic field, which is now being understood as what occultists call the “ether.”
An easy way to paint this is the idea of hallucinations under hypnotic, shamanic trance-type states, which are a natural mechanism of the human mind. Sometimes these trance states pick up very informationally dense frequencies that are subsequently projected as phenomenological hallucination. This means that the phenomena is non-physical by nature, but can still be observed physically (oftentimes by hundreds of witnesses) and can even often leave physical marks of its passing existence. For brevity, a deeper understanding of this concept discussed in its entirety can be found in Michael Talbot’s research novel, The Holographic Universe, which can be read here. Although not publicized as Fortean, this book is certainly a testament to Fortean logic.
Ultimately, drawing a culmination of references throughout this series of articles thus far, metaphysical extra-dimensional entity encounters seem to ontologically be an archetypal, divinatory expression of electromagnetic activity. In the specific context of archetypes and divination, this expression of EM activity would, by definition, be projected by a brief fundamental relationship with a human brain. The “sacred geometrical” Pythagorean, mathematic understanding of symbols and archetypes is applied to the self-contained electromagnetic entity (considered in modern physics as a soliton).
In the same way that a radio projects the information of the station by interpreting it into audible frequencies, the human mind projects this through its microcosmic archetypal kaleidoscope of imagination, and can produce the entire gambit of hallucinations common in shamanic/hypnotic/trance state studies that have been documented throughout history. These hallucinations, once reaching a certain point of intensity, are almost guaranteed to produce physical effects onto the surrounding land or contactee, which is common in ufology and ancient mythological superstition alike—whether this be stigmata, or surgical incisions, et cetera.
The “prophetic” nature that researchers like John Keel discuss, is the natural inclination of these manifestations to be direct “answers” of inner thoughts, that subsequently can be interpreted as hertz projections from the human mind into the ether. This could be considered one aspect of traditional divination, understood as numerology, astrology, Tarot, and the Tree of Life, although this would of course remain but one aspect of the knowledge in the Divination Arts. This is also the nature of what people call “synchronicities” today.
A final passerby analysis of the subject are the “shadow entities” that are phenomenologically encountered by people who suffer from sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is the condition of a human becoming lucid during REM sleep, which is becoming understood today as the state of sleep where the tether between consciousness and brain have slackened substantially. The Deepest of dreams occur here; and impactful divinatory/shamanic aspects of sleep can be said to occur here; and reports throughout history up to today of astral projection during this time of sleep are common.
Sleep paralysis seems to characterize a person becoming lucid to their ambient environment around them during their deepest REM cycle, when their body is completely paralyzed, and they are always awoken by a shadowy entity that strikes unbridled demonic terror into them. Presumably, these entities are “contacted” unconsciously during the deepest parts of sleep, where the barriers of the mind are the furthest down, and some troubled people are apt to attract some troubling frequencies. For brevity, suffice it to say that this could interestingly provide an ulterior framework for what is commonly considered “alien abduction” today, as contact with these “shadow entities” often can leave physical marks. Conversely, there have likewise always been reports of equally vivid positive, “angelic” beings encountered during these stages of sleep. A documentary on the subject of these entities during sleep paralysis can be viewed here.
For a final piece of context in this extensive equation, it is important to consider the overwhelming and undeniable attention that government intelligence, especially American Government and German Nazi Intelligence, have put into the investigation of the occult(not to mention the esoteric origins of government, in Babylon, Egypt, and Greece, namely). Even setting aside modern conspiracy theories, there is inarguable documentation for ritualistic pedophilia that is rampant in both Hollywood and politics; the documented list of political and media giants that have affiliations with esoteric occult orders, all the esoteric symbolism that can be found in Western Pop Culture today, et cetera.
As an additional note, it is etymologically undeniable that modern politics has derived its origins from the gnostic notions of the divine god-king ruler, an idea that government could only work insofar as an entirely enlightened, “illuminated” individual could rule. This idea of illumination, unknown to many researchers, is actually the cornerstone of governmental philosophy to begin with, and the idea of the elite being the “Illuminati” is merely a slang term meant to project this notion. The idea of the illuminated ruler was also upheld by Plato and elaborated on in a great deal of his works, primarily The Republic.
As if anyone needed further evidence, it is hardly a stretch to consider that if the government has founded its own conception from ideals upheld by minds like Plato, then they would take the other fundamental principles he taught into consideration as well. As it is documented, this is the case. From the Freemasonic origins of the American revolution, to Project: BLUEBOOK all the way to declassified Project: MKULTRA documents, American government history is intertwined with the occult and the direct study into the understanding of these entities.
With NASA’s own occult origins, it is considered by some researchers that NASA serves a secondary black-budget function of studying the conjunction between “outer space” and the metaphysical extra-dimensions of the occult. Considering all of NASA’s heavy symbolism in their mission statements and badges, the even more disconcerting evidence aside, this seems at least plausible. To what exact extent this is plausible, is harder to say. All in all, governments like the modern American government and the Nazi regime are examples of governmental bodies that have, at the very least, considered the possibility of these entities incredibly plausible.
It seems that what today’s cryptozoologists, ufologists, ghost hunters, and mediums are missing a sense of is Fortean/Platonic investigation in their research. All too often a contactee simply falls into the first slot that fits with their personality, instead of considering all possibilities. This is not exactly a negative trait—as it seems like a fundamental key to the experience for a person to run it through their own personal imagination and interpretation—but it is so very crucial to remember the notion of empirical deduction not only when considering the validity of these claims, but also the categorization of these claims. At this point, what is to stop Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, fairies, goblins, vampires, werewolves, aliens, demons, skinwalkers, birdmen, and reptilians from also falling under this explanation of EM-metaphysical interference phenomena? Nothing, really.
It genuinely seems to be a quintessential piece of the human experience—specifically the human sociocultural experience—to engage with these extra-dimensional phenomena, and the only difference between the varied interpretations throughout time and culture are dictated by the sociocultural mechanisms encapsulated within the mind of the individual. This, ultimately, is why the importance of esoteric philosophy is so deeply impressed in this article series. There is such a thing as illuminated understanding to the objective natures of reality, and things like Bigfoot, Men In Black, aliens, vampires, angels, et cetera, can all be considered cultural interpretations of the metaphysical Macrocosmic interplay with the individual Microcosm. The only real question left is, are these entities just lifeless but animated cosmic informational transmissions, or are there cognitive beings engaging in the human electromagnetic environment at any given time? More to the point, where can the differences between these two explanations be drawn?