Ecology of the Experiential

Hello friends! Mad Doctor Abdullah is away on some secret expedition that involves polar bears, a magic circle and a ridiculous amount of entheogenic herbs and spices. When I inquired about his present whereabouts there was a long pause followed by "Listen idiot, unless you can recite the alphabet backwards in Swahili while fleeing a barrel of buckshot, I don't really have time for your jabbering. Wise up, the dogs are rabid and hungry." I hesitated. "Does that mean you'll meet the editorial deadline?" There was another pause that was immediately followed by the sound of spitting then dial tone. So as you can surmise, I've been preparing articles and PhD work of the academic nature. This mishmash of thoughts and ideas are the initial attempt at putting something on paper that discusses supernatural folklore narratives with a Latourian methodology and utilizing an experiential and phenomenological foundation. The idea is to show how chains of reference provide meaning to a supernatural experience. Keep in mind that these thoughts are largely incoherent, out of sequence and purely an attempt of organize my craziness. In other words, should be a typical blog entry. :)

......the goal of religious ritual is not a re-presentation in order to create a new message. It is not about a sense of renewal or any kind of new message. Although the character of the experience conjures all these things. Instead, the experience of the awe is realized as the great and terrible apotheosis. It is the awe-some that one undergoes as part of the phenomenon. Because of this, the supernatural narrative cannot be wholly relativistic because although society fixes language to the experience, it is the experiential first-person account that serves as both devotee and great interlocutor.
Folkloric narratives of the supernatural highlight the absurd. Within the stories of UFOs, demons, and otherworldly entities, is a variety of non-humans that defy taxonomic or classificatory systems. But should these non-humans be excluded from creation? Are ghosts any less relevant religiously to the idea of salvation or incarnation? Non-humans had a central place in theology, in spirituality, in rituals, and of course in art which they now have almost totally lost. (Bastaire & Bastaire 2004) It is through supernatural narratives that we can include the numinous non-human in creation as a product of experiential return. No longer a paradox of the fantastic or a piece of science-fiction, accounts of the supernatural can be negotiated in a reference chain that begins with the phenomenon itself and is resolved in clarifying the essence or awe of actual experience.

There's a taste of what is going on in my head a good portion of the time. :)