Your Dark Passenger

Hello dark passengers.  Welcome to the first official WTF Wednesday post and the last scheduled post for 2008.

Now, I feel I need to set the stage for this particular bit of news I’ll be sharing with you so you can appreciate the full WTF-ness I experienced.

If you remember from yesterday, I was never able to get to sleep so I was still awake when hubby got up for work. It was dark in the bedroom, one of cats had just jumped up to be loved on and we were chatting about how I hadn’t been able to sleep the night before, how many days he’d be off for New Year’s, what we’d be doing the following night, etc.  All your normal mundane married people conversations.

Then I turned the television on when his first alarm went off so we could watch the weather and traffic - not that there should be any of the latter at five in the morning.  The room lights up bright as the sun because someone at the news station thinks that’s just what bleary-eyed commuters want to see when they first awake and we’re informed of some breaking news by the all-too-peppy morning anchor.  Here it is:

A North Dallas man arrived home shortly after midnight and was met by a man with a gun in his driveway.  He swatted the gun away because he believed it to be one of his friends playing a joke.  The man was shot in the chest after a short struggle and was taken to a Dallas hospital where he is in serious condition.

 So…here’s my question: What kind of people are you hanging out with to think they’d pretend to hold you up in your driveway at gunpoint? Now this was just a regular Tuesday so what must this man’s friends do to him on April Fool’s Day? Do they…

• …set his house on fire?
• …bomb his car?
• …slip him a mickey and drop him off naked in the middle of the desert with no food, water, or cash?

Sure, my friends and I have had our share of silly fun, but I have to say, the first time one of them shows up in my driveway with a gun…game over.

But I digress…

Obviously, since the police have not yet caught the shooter and the man was in serious condition when taken to the hospital, this really isn’t a laughing matter.  But at five o’clock yesterday morning?  It was hilarious in that special WTF kind of way.

Have y’all had any special WTF moments you’d like to share?  Tell me about ‘em.  I know we’re all bound to have at least a few after midnight tonight.

Happy New Year and Be Safe!

Jen

“Let your dark passenger come out to play…Be your own nemesis!”

Hello dark passengers.  What can I say?  Y’all have been talking to me so today’s Talk to Me Tuesday subject comes to us directly from reader questions.  See…I told you I was listening!

Laura : “I am deathly afraid of sleeping alone in the dark. I feel as though I have given energy to an idea of an entity to it’s ultimate frutition. Any advice on conquering what I only hope is a psychosis?”

Star : “What about feeling things? Like having a sense of something being there?”

Ladies, I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is way more common than anyone wants to admit.  I’ve experienced both of the things of which you write firsthand.  I’ve known what it’s like to feel as though you’re losing your mind just because the lights are out.

But there’s good news!  Unless you actually believe your house to be haunted then this is totally in your mind.  Every time hubby would go out of town on business I used to leave on the light just outside my bedroom or the master bathroom light.  (Even worse was leaving the television on mute while I attempted sleep.)  I’m happy to report that I conquered this while he was away for an extended period of time.

Here are my tips:

•  Check things out.  For your own peace of mind, inspect the usual suspects. Look under the bed, in the closet and make sure the doors/windows are locked.  This will help you to know the Boogie Man isn’t waiting for lights out.
• Cut out the horror.  If you know you’re going to be alone at night and you have an active imagination, why would you read that new Stephen King novel or watch the late night horror flick?  Use common sense on that one.
• Kill the creaks and groans.  Houses and apartment buildings are known for settling in some of the most unsettling ways.  Try playing some soft, soothing music while you’re falling asleep so you won’t be so jumpy over ever little thing.  I recommend the Vitamin String Quartet for this.
• Face your fears.  At some point, you need to identify what it is that’s freaking you out about being alone in the night.  Stop hiding under the covers from it and deal with the root issue head on.  Once you’ve cut off your fear at the source, you’ll find less goes bump in the night at bedtime.

As for that feeling that someone is watching you, I don’t know.  Maybe the mind is conjuring that feeling because - on a subconscious level - being watched is what you fear.  Or maybe you’ve got a guardian angel watching over your dreams.  Or maybe there’s a fly on the wall who’s interested in your nocturnal habits.  Who knows?

Have you ever tried simply saying, “I know you’re there and I’m not in the mood for this tonight.  You may go now” and then ignoring it?  Chances are, just the act of empowering yourself will help make the heebie-jeebies hit the road.

Were these tips at all useful?  Let me know.  Ooh…and if you’ve got any fear-busting tips of your own, send ‘em in.  Talk to me, peeps!

Jen

“Let your dark passenger come out to play…Be your own nemesis!”

Why am I magically a vampire, you ask?  Well, let’s see.  It’s currently seven minutes past seven in the morning and I haven’t been to sleep yet.

Why?

Oh…I tried to sleep.  I stared at the inside of my eyelids.  I stared at the ceiling.  I looked at the wall.  I looked at hubby while he was blissfully sleeping.  I watched my cats sleep.  At one point I tried telling myself I was asleep and this was just the worst dream EVER, but let’s face it, I wasn’t asleep and I knew I wasn’t asleep.  *big sigh*

To make matter worse, I’m not even remotely tired now.

So, I must be a vampire.  Not one of the Southern drawlin’ True Blood vampires, not a real vampire because they’d eventually need sleep…

Nope.  I’m apparently a Twilight vampire.  You’d think that would be okay, but I have not mystically become the most beautifull creature made of stone on the planet so I feel cheated here.  And as for the never sleeping for all of eternity thing? Yeah…FYI, that sucks.

And to make matters worse, my frickin’ bananas aren’t ripe yet so I can’t even have cereal.  (Yeah, I NEED them in the fiber twig cereal to make it taste more like food.)  *exaggerated sigh*

Whatever.  I’ll be back later on, probably still without any sleep, for Talk to Me Tuesday.  This wasn’t it, but we can talk about insomnia if you want…not that I have any awesome tips on that front. 

Hello fellow dark passengers.  For this Mental Monday I thought we would delve into the depths of fear and uncover a shiny new phobia.  And I do mean shiny…like a mirror aka eisoptrophobia.  Sound silly?  Consider this:

• There are those who believe a mirror is a connection to the supernatural…
• Mirrors are used by those trying to view themselves in past lives…
• In Feng Shui, mirrors can reflect energy as well as images…
• Narcissus was so enamored by his own image in the water, he pined away for what he thought to be a water nymph until he was eventually turned into a flower…

Ask yourself:

• Have you ever seen something move in the mirror from the corner in your eye?
• Have you ever gotten the feeling of being watched in an empty room?
• Have you ever felt off when standing between two mirrors?

So let’s jump into PhobiaLand, shall we?

While I don’t suffer from this particular phobia, I can see how this could happen.  Nope, I’m not dangerously in love with my reflection - though I have scrutinized my features in the mirror until they no longer made sense on my face - and I’m not using mirrors to channel the dark side.  But I have to say, I have gotten the feeling of being watched when nothing except a mirror is in the room with me.  I have experienced this jittery, edgy feeling from time to time when getting ready in my bathroom.  (That makes more sense if you know that across from the bathroom door stands the dresser and mirror on the opposing wall so I’m caught between the two mirrors.)

So, no, I don’t consider myself to be one who is afraid of mirrors; however, it makes sense to me.  From an energy perspective, I learned in a workshop a few years back how in Feng Shui mirrors in opposition of each other are a big no-no because anyone between them would be caught in the path of the energy ping-ponging back and forth.  And who among us hasn’t seen a horror flick where some evil spirit has been in the mirror, only to make the lead characters think they’ve lost their minds when their reflection suddenly morphs to something terrifying?

Whether because of superstition, mythology or pop culture, eisoptrophobia is here to stay and, chances are, you’ll eventually run into someone with this phobia.  How will you know?  Erm…they’ll be the person who looks like they got without a mirror.  Duh.

Anyone out there have any experience with the fear of mirrors or with any supernatural happenings around one?  Let me know.  Y’all know I love to hear from you!  (And aren’t you proud of me? I finally wrote something that’s not a gazillion paragraphs long.  Yay!)

Jen

“Let your dark passenger come out to play…Be your own nemesis!”

Resources: Panphobia , Medical Dictionary , Ghoststudy Community

Hello fellow dark passengers.  Welcome to our first Spiritual Sampling Sunday.  I sincerely hope I still have a few readers around for the second one after this. While I intend absolutely no disrespect to anyone, y’all know I might be a tad sarcastic so…

…yeah

Okay, a few ground rules before we get started.  I encourage all comments and respect all points of view; however, I will not allow antagonistic or flaming comments on my blog - be it against me or against others.  The purpose of this weekly series is to inform everyone as to what other people around the world believe or have believed at one point in history without prejudice or bias.

This is not a forum for evangelism.  Disagreeing with the views of others is totally fine; screaming about how their soul is going to be damned into the fiery pits of hell…not so cool.  It’s my blog and if I’m not going to use it to go around saving the immortal souls of readers then you can’t either

Sorry to be such a downer…I’ve seen a lot of religious and spiritual discussions go down the tubes because individuals, while well-meaning, showed an utter lack of respect for others.

So here we go…

To give us a framework to work within, I thought I’d start out with something fun: A quiz.  Nope, I’m not going to make you take a quiz.  I went to BeliefNet and took their 20 question quiz about things I believe and find important.  They then rated my top 27 matches.  Now (in no particular order) I would like to begin discussing these.

Please note: The views of any faith/religion discussed do not necessarily reflect those of the writer, Your Dark Passenger or Today.com.

On my list is a faith known as Jainism.  Despite the fact the name reminds me of my husband’s aunt, Jinas - followers of Jainism - believe that everyone gets to be God.  (I am so using my awesome power to create an endless waterfall of chocolate that makes people healthier and helps them lose weight…and it will be the best tasting chocolate ever.) 

Jinas accomplish this hefty feat through the process of reincarnation until they finally reach a state of karmic balance - meaning they no longer have any remaining karma, good or bad, to carry forward into their next incarnation.  Because the total number of individuals who can achieve this goal is limited only on the human ability to attain balance, the number of possible gods is unlimited.

Does that mean I might have to one day bow down and worship Sydney Cat if she figures it out first?

In Jainism, reincarnation can drop a soul into any of the three planes of existence: earth, heaven, hell.  Where a person ends up is solely based on their karmic debt at death. (Something tells me Hitler is the driest blade of grass in hell.)  Yep, that’s right…we can be reincarnated into any plane of existence as any number of forms.   The basic accepted rules of morality seem to apply to Jinas; however, if you’re too good of a person then you’d end up with a surplus of good karma and would have to start over, possibly on a better plane of existence than you started.

While some things seem pretty rational to me, there are a few…erm…quirks.  First, the universe is just as it always was.  This means no one created it.  Heaven, earth and hell have always just existed.  (But was Starbucks already there before always began?)

Another belief in Jainism is that a person must do no harm to any living creature.  Vegetarians, you can wipe the smirk off your faces because, unless you hung out in the growing field and waited for those yummy celery stalks to die of natural causes, you just ended up with some bad karma for killing someone’s reincarnated cousin for food.  Now, if anyone wants to follow a cow around and wait for it to die of old age, well…you could eat that without remorse.  I’m still unclear what Jinas actually do get to eat.

I’m going to assume all my chocolate bars sacrificed themselves so that I might enjoy their delicious-ness.

I think I know how I ended up matching with Jainism.  You see, Jains believe that there is evil and suffering in the world because of people.  People are selfish.  People are self-serving.  People as a whole care more about their own happiness and comfort than anything else.  Without caring for others, what point is there to curb those baser human impulses?  The id (Freud may have been sex-obsessed but I do like that word) comes out to play and the world goes to hell in a hand-basket, symbolically speaking, of course.  As I’ve always believed mankind to be capable of great evil, even without supernatural assistance, it makes sense to me that I’d fall into line with that one.

But that’s it.  I refuse to suffer without chocolate just to eat up some of my naughty bad karma points.  Y’all hear that?

So, for anyone still reading at this point, I’d like to invite you to find out more about Jainism as I’ve not gone into the detail I possibly could have.  Also, if any Jinas are reading, please feel free to throw in your 2 cents!

Jen

“Let your dark passenger come out to play…Be your own nemesis!”