I think I’ve met you, but also know I Haven’t
Episode 6 –
Denier denier pants on fire
What sets us apart from other species is our ability to think and plan for the future, and to remember and hopefully learn from the past. Scholars of early human cognition call this “higher order consciousness”, a term that describes the state of elevated awareness and perception that allows us to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of reality.
When we look at our history as a species, there are milestones that stand out as being big leaps forward in our development. From the invention of the wheel to today’s technological world and everything in between, we continue to evolve.
So why has it taken us so long to realise, and start to accept, that there are other dimensions and universes out there? And why did we not recognise sooner that portals to parallel worlds have possibly existed since the start of time as we know it.
Is our realisation an indicator of another leap in our evolutionary journey? Did Stile 13 just appear when our consciousness was developed enough to allow us to see and experience it?
Perhaps…Or…could it be that long ago we Did once know about portals, but somehow forgot or perhaps even rationalised them out of our accepted perceptions, and thus out of our reality?
Monuments such as Newgrange, Knowth and Stonehenge not only offer a glimpse into how seriously our ancestors took otherworldly things…but also how genuinely good they were at building stuff.
As there are no written records from those days, we rely to a large extent on myth and legend to tell us something about our ancient predecessors lives. Parallel worlds and alternate universes are a common component of these old tales.
In Celtic, Gaelic and Brittonic myth, the Otherworld is described as either a place that exists alongside our own, or as a hidden land beyond the sea or under the earth.
An example of this can be taken from the story of Oisin and Niamh in Irish mythology.
Oisin was the son of the renowned warrior and protector of Ireland, Fionn Mac Chumhaill.
One day, as Oisin was out hunting by a lakeside with his warrior friends, a beautiful girl came riding towards them on a snow white horse. They were all immediately enthralled by her. She introduced herself and told them that she was the daughter of the king of Tir na Nog…the land of eternal youth…and she then went on to issue an invitation.
‘I am Niamh, daughter of Manannan, king of Tir na Nog. I have heard a lot about the great warrior Oisin, and I have come to find him, and invite him to my home.’
The stories don’t say how her declaration and invitation went down with Oisin’s comrades, but we can only assume they were a little miffed that she had singled out the chieftains son for her attentions, and had no apparent interest in them.
Oisin quickly stepped forward, smoothing down his hair and pulling back his shoulders as he pushed past his pals and made himself known.
‘Yes…that’s me. Hello there. I’m Oisin.’
The two immediately got chatting, and although the lakeside interaction between himself and Niamh was short, it seemed to go pretty well, as he quickly agreed to leave everything and everyone he knew, and go with her to her homeland. He had never heard of Tir na Nog, but he probably reasoned that a place name that translated to the land of eternal youth couldn’t be all that bad…and besides, Niamh was Very good looking.
He jumped up behind her and, waving farewell to his comrades, they rode off into a mist that had mysteriously appeared a short distance away. (Good bye)
By all accounts he had a great time in the land of eternal youth. He and his new girlfriend spent blissful days hunting and exploring, and in the evenings they feasted and shared stories by the king and queens fireside.
Three years passed, and Oisin started yearning to return to Ireland for a visit. Niamh didn’t want him to go, but she eventually gave in to his cajoling, lending him her horse and warning him to stay in the saddle and under no circumstances let his foot touch the soil of Ireland, or he would never be able to return to her.
The mist appeared again and he moved towards it, telling her that he would see her soon.
‘I’ll be back before you know it.’
He rode into the mist, arriving back in his homeland almost instantly…but, the place looked quite different. His father’s fortress was overgrown and crumbling and there was no sign of his warrior friends.
He noticed a group of workers struggling to move a large rock and he went to talk with them. He soon discovered that 300 years had in fact passed since he had left, and everyone he knew had died long ago. We can only imagine how he felt about this, but he was a manly man warrior, so he put a brave face on it.
To thank the workers for their kindly interaction he leaned down from his saddle to help them move the boulder, but the saddle strap broke and although he tried his best to hold on, he fell to the ground.
‘Oh dear. This is not good. Niamh will Not be happy with me.’
The horse immediately ran off, and Oisin became a withered old man, ageing 300 years before the worker’s very startled eyes.
Before he died Oisin told them about his life before and after Tir na Nog, and the legend of his adventures was born.
Stories like this one appear in many cultures, and it was not unusual for the tales to include mysterious entrances to different realms and dimensions. From tales of Valhalla, to stories of Mount Olympus, from Tir na Nog to Alice in wonderland, the idea of worlds other than our own has always been with us. Could it be that in our ancestor’s time, portals and gateways to different dimensions were more common place…or at least more widely accepted? Were our predecessors more attuned and open to the possibility of worlds other than our own?
Whatever the case, it is widely agreed that there is an element of truth at the core of many of the old tales. Maybe they’re embellished a bit, but if you can look past that, there are indicators and echoes that perhaps should not be overlooked.
We have always been fascinated by our dreams. The ancient Greeks and Romans thought dreams contained messages that came directly from the Gods, whilst far eastern civilizations tended to believe that they were attempts at communication by our departed ancestors. Oracles, seers and dream walkers were a well respected and integral part of most cultures, where those with the ability to interpret our night time visions were usually treated as revered and much valued members of society.
But in the world of today we tend to be a bit dismissive of our dreams, trivializing them as unimportant and explaining them away as the barrier-less wanderings of our sleeping mind as it tries to unravel our desires and confront our fears.
Of late this indifference has been challenged by a cohort of well respected cognitive psychologists, who have suggested that dreams actually allow us to travel through a type of inner portal to…somewhere different…somewhere, less…one dimensional.
They point to the fact that for most of us, irrespective of our rationalisations, there are occasions when dreams can feel so real, that no matter how extraordinary the circumstances or places they bring us to, we truly believe we are existing in that realm at that time, and we become fully invested in the scenarios unfolding in our minds eye.
So, is it possible that our slumbering consciousness has known all along how to slip through the dimensional barriers and bring us to parallel worlds?
Stile 13 sceptics have been fairly adamant in their refusal to accept dream worlds as a type of alternate reality…with some of the more vehement deniers going so far as to claim that they themselves don’t in fact dream at all.
Their views have in general been dismissed, most publicly of late by grunge artist and celebrity lucid dream instructor Madam Claire Voyant, who very succinctly satirises the sceptics in her latest song,
“Denier, denier…pants on fire,
Denier, denier pants on fire,
Now sing it with the choir…pants on fire,
Denier, denier…pants on fire.”
It can on occasion happen that we come across people who we feel like we recognise and know, even though as far as we’re aware, we haven’t actually met them before. These feelings of familiarity can often be mutual, and we can find ourselves saying things like, Why do I feel like I know you? Or, It’s like…I think I’ve met you, but also know I haven’t.
Some of us put these sensations of recognition down to imagination…maybe the person reminds us of ourselves or someone close to us, whilst others believe that we have met a soul mate, or perhaps even someone from another lifetime.
A new explanation for these encounters has been mooted by pro Stile13 group the Trans-portalists collective. They have put forward the theory that these meetings with familiar strangers could be explained by versions of ourselves and our newly encountered friend, having a relationship of some sort in a parallel world. When asked for her take on this Trans-portalist chairperson Dr. Justine Casey said,
‘Look, I know lots of people…and no doubt, so do my other selves. The way I look at it is, if a person is good enough for another me, then they are good enough for me. Any friend of mine…is a friend of mine.’
She then suggested that this type of cross dimensional mingling has always occurred, and that the portals that facilitate this are not a new phenomena, and have in fact always existed. She went on to say that clues to back up her assertions can be found in our literature and our art…if we care to look for them.
She cited as an example a story called “The door in the wall” by author H.G. Wells that was first published in The Daily Chronicle in 1906. It tells the tale of a young boy, who wanders onto the streets near his London home and discovers a green door set into a white wall. He opens the door and steps through, finding himself in a different world, a sort of child’s paradise. A woman appears and reads to him, and he realises as the tale unfolds that she is narrating the story of his life. When she gets to the point where he enters the garden through the green door, everything around him vanishes and he finds himself once again standing on the London street.
As he grows to manhood he often encounters the mysterious door, but at different locations around London. For one reason or another he passes it by without entering, but the door becomes a preoccupation, and he eventually decides that he will go through the entrance the next time he encounters it. Unfortunately for him his decision leads to his death, when he mistakenly steps through a similar looking door onto a very busy construction site.
Our world, the one we were born into, can sometimes seem an uncomfortable and scary place. There are times in all of our lives, when our days and nights seem filled with adversity and challenge, and it can be easy to lose our perspective. We continue to physically exist and interact with our surroundings, but unconsciously become…somewhat diminished…scattered and out of phase with reality, so to speak.
Advocates for portals to different realities say the gateways emergence has made it easier for us to reconfigure ourselves and our surroundings. The fact that the option is there to find and step through Stile13 and its like, means that even in the midst of turmoil and angst we can with one step, change our outlook, which will in turn affect and alter our circumstances. We just have to believe…and want to enough.
But…irrespective of whether or not you’re a fan of multiple dimensions, the day will come for us all when we have no choice other than to leave this reality and the world we are living in, and depart from this plane of existence.
The transience of ourselves and the things around us can be unsettling, but we can take some comfort from the fact that we are all following in the footsteps of the billions of people and other life forms that have gone this way before us.
If it has done nothing else, Stile13 has shown us that we can exist outside the boundaries of what our reasoning tells us is our limit.
We have freedom of choice, and how we choose to be and what we opt to accept and believe in, shapes the kind of world…or worlds we live in.