Spirit-WWW: NewsGateway Article <news:talk.religion.misc.261084>
From density4@cts.com.org.net (Blue Resonant Human):
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors, alt.paranet.ufo, alt.magick, alt.mythology, alt.folklore, alt.apocalypse, alt.paranet.psi, alt.paranet.abduct, alt.paranormal, alt.paranet.metaphysics, talk.religion.misc, alt.fan.art-bell, alt.conspiracy.area51,
Subject: ::: Aleister Crowley and the LAM Statement ::: (Repost)
All Follow-Up: Re: ::: Aleister Crowley and the LAM Statement ::: (Repost)
Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 04:31:24 GMT
References: 1,
::: Aleister Crowley and the LAM Statement :::
by Ian Blake
Thus far in my articles on the paranormal I have tried to convey
an impression of pragmatism and common sense, dealing almost
exclusively with the brain, its functions and - more especially -
its dysfunctions. My aim has always been to explain various
types of phenomena without explaining them away. Magic and the
occult have been mentioned on a number of occasions, but only in
passing, as a side issue, as it were. In the main I have
confined myself to "armchair UFOlogy", leaving the wider
implications (magical, spiritual, etc.) to other, possibly
more capable hands. It is a fact however, that one seldom gets
very far in these areas without coming across occult doctrine in
one form or another, usually updated and translated into "new
age" jargon. In this article I intend to examine some of the
more esoteric aspects of UFOlogy, hopefully laying the ground-
work for further investigation.
MAGICK RELIEVES BOREDOM
UFO research, even of the armchair variety, calls for a high
degree of mental flexibility. One can draw up general rules to
assist in analysis, but it is necessary to keep an open mind at
all times, and be prepared for the exception that cuts across
all previous theories. This is especially true of the contactee
syndrome, which serves as a crystallization point for all manner
of complexes and repressed desires. My own, albeit limited
experience has led me to the realization that most contactees
are basically no different from the rest of us. They are in
fact perfectly ordinary human beings suffering from familiar
symptoms, particularly those of boredom, alienation and sheer
lack of purpose. But what of the exceptions to this rule? What,
for instance of the occultist who strives by an effort of will
to establish contact with trans-spatial entities? According to
a recent edition of the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) journal
_Khabs_, "the central concern of magic is communion with
discarnate or extraterrestrial intelligences." It is to this
end that much contemporary occultism is predicated. As long ago
as 1918 Aleister Crowley conducted a series of experiments in
what would today be termed channeling, or "induced contacteeism".
(This is of course a simplification of what actually took
place, employed here for the sake of convenience.) Since then,
several occultists, notably Michael Bertiaux in the 1960s and a
group of OTO initiates in the 1970s, have carried out similar
magical workings. What is more their efforts in many cases have
been crowned with remarkable success - at least if the official
OTO party line is to be believed. This in turn raises serious
implications for the entire field of UFO research. In order to
place these implications in their proper context, it is first of
all necessary to say a few words regarding Aleister Crowley's
Amalantrah Working, a series of visions and trance-
communications received circa January - March 1918 by the oddly-
named Roddie Minor, who was at that time acting as Crowley's
Scarlet Woman.
It is not my intention in writing this article to provide an
introduction to the wider field of occultism, or to Thelemic
doctrine per se. For readers who would prefer a clear and
reasonably objective summary of the Amalantrah Working, Crowley'
s own "Magical Record" is invaluable. So too are Roddie Minor's
own thoughts on the matter. Readers who do not have access to
either of these are best advised to consult John Symond's "The
Great Beast," which gives a well-balanced and coherent account
of what actually took place.
CROWLEY IN NEW YORK
The facts of the matter are briefly as follows: At the outbreak
of WWI, Crowley set sail from his native England aboard the
Lusitania, bound for the USA. Arriving in high spirits, he took
up residence in an apartment on New York's bustling West 36th
street and there divided his time more or less equally between
acts of sex magic and the composition of crackpot pro-German
propaganda for The Fatherland. Following an expedite to
Vancouver via San Francisco and New Orleans he returned to New
York and moved into furnished rooms on Central Park West.
Roddie Minor, a married woman living apart from her husband,
joined him there circa September/ October 1917 and together they
set about exploring the wilder shores of magica sexualis.
Crowley's personal record for October 1, 1917 describes Minor as
"big, muscular, (and) sensual." John Symonds adds that she was
"broad-shouldered and pleasant-faced." In addition to these
homely attributes, she also possessed a well-developed
clairvoyant faculty. Under the influence of hashish and opium
she described to Crowley a series of archetypal visions
involving (among others) a king, a small boy and a wizard who
introduced himself as "Amalantrah" - who delivered exhortations
to "find the egg." The reaction of most people would no doubt
be to view these accounts as nothing more than drug-induced
hallucinations having no wider significance, but Aleister
Crowley was no ordinary man. According to Symonds, he "made no
attempt to interpret this material in terms of unconsciousness.
To him the characters and incidents of mescal visions were more
real than anything reality or the ego could provide. He would
not have been surprised to meet...Amalantrah strolling up Fifth
Avenue. The wizard would have descended onto the plane of
illusion, that is all."
At length, feeling that Amalantrah had nothing further to impart,
Crowley decamped for Europe, leaving Roddie Minor to her own
devices. But the story doesn't end there. It would be beyond
my competence to provide a complete and faithful account of the
Amalantrah Working and its aftermath. The last word on the
subject will probably never be written. For the purpose of this
article I need only observe that Crowley was not interested in
ideas for their own sake, but in results. The details are
unclear, but it seems that at some stage during the proceedings
he underwent a form of contactee experience involving a large-
headed entity now known to occultists as Lam.
Lam, (whose name derives from the Tibetan word for "way" or
"path") later became the subject of a portrait by Crowley, drawn
from life and imbued with a haunting inner quality of its own.
The original was first exhibited in New York in 1919 and has
been reproduced several times since then, most recently in the
third issue of "Starfire" magazine. Although lacking the crude
power of Crowley's more extravagant canvases and murals, it is
nevertheless a remarkable piece of work. The subject is
depicted in extreme close-up and appears somehow dwarfish,
despite the fact that there is no indication of scale in the
overall composition. The head is large, smooth and hairless,
tapering to a pointed chin. The mouth is slitlike; the eyes
extend part-ways around the sides of the face. There is no
suggestion of clothing beyond what appears to be a cloak
buttoned at the neck, nor does the entity have any ears. In
short, Lam resembles nothing so much as a typical UFO occupant
of the "examiner" type (what Americans would call "greys". )
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE
Crowley's portrait of Lam passed into the hands of Kenneth Grant
circa 1945 following an astral working in which he and Crowley
were jointly involved. Grant, who was authorized in the early
'50s to work the first three grades of the OTO, is now widely
perceived as Crowley's natural heir and successor. His interest
in CETI-type phenomena is of long-standing duration. In 1955
for instance, he announced the discovery of a trans-plutonian
planet called Isis, and simultaneously established an order
called the New Isis Lodge OTO for the purpose (among others) of
contacting higher intelligences. A similar situation arose some
30 years later in the late 1980s, when Grant allegedly received
'strong intimations' to the effect that Crowley's portrait of Lam
"is the present focus of an extraterrestrial - and perhaps trans-
plutonic-energy which the OTO is required to communicate at this
critical period..." I have no idea as to the nature of these '
intimations', besides which, writing about magic is a dubious
enterprise at best, fraught with semantic difficulties. Perhaps
the best option in an article as necessarily as brief as this,
is to quote directly from "The Lam Statement", a text circulated
among OTO initiates with a view to "regularizing the mode of
rapport and constructing a magical formula for establishing
communication with Lam." We are told first of all that:
"It has been considered advisable by the Sovereign Sanctuary to
regularize and to examine results achieved by individual members
of the OTO who have established contact with the magical entity
known as Lam. We are therefore founding an Inner Cult of this
dikpala for the purpose of amassing precise accounts of such
contacts...
The portrait of (Lam) which is reproduced in "The Magical
Revival" may be used as the visual focus, and can serve as the
Yantra of the Cult; the name Lam is the Mantra; and the Tantra
is the union with the dikpala by entering the Egg of Spirit
represented by the Head. Entry may be affected by projecting
consciousness through the eyes"...And elsewhere in a section
titled "The Magical Procedure":
The Mode of Entering the Egg may proceed as follows. Each
votary is encouraged to experiment and evolve his own method
from the basic procedure:
1) Sit in silence before the portrait.
2) Invoke mentally my silent repetition the Name.
3) If response is felt to be positive...enter the Egg and merge
with That which is within, and look out through the entity's
eyes on what appears now to the votary an alien world.
4) Seal the Egg, i.e., close the eyes of Lam and await developments.
The Remainder of "The Lam Statement" deals with the
practicalities of invocation and banishing in a ritual context.
Some parts of the text are esoteric, having to do with the
Cabala and other such difficult matters (my knowledge of
occultism is largely theoretical; I have very little practical
experience); others are remarkably straightforward. It is
difficult to assess whether the claims made for "LAMeditation"
have any basis in fact. Certain objections inevitably remain
open. Nevertheless, we should be cautious about assuming that
it is all pure imagination. There is a definite residue of data
here that cannot be dismissed out of hand. The real question
now facing us is simply: what exactly happens at times like this?
What is the basis of these extraordinary accounts? Do we, in
order to explain them need to invoke the concept of 'trans-
plutonian entities', or are we dealing instead with archetypes
dredged up from the collective unconscious? There is pervasive
evidence to support both alternatives. All it takes is a
willingness to look at the facts.
Perhaps the most important point arising from "The Lam Statement"
is simply that contactee type experiences can be induced at
will. There are in fact a number of important parallels between
"LAMeditation" and the broader issue of "contacteeism" in
general. Consider John Keel once remarked that "in most
contactee events the percipient is alone...when the UFO contact
occurs." This observation might equally apply to the abductee
syndrome. Once again the vast majority of all cases are
uncorroborated by hard evidence. Independent witness testimony
is so rare as to be virtually unknown. In short, whatever else
it may be, "alien contact" (I am loath to use the phrase without
quotes) is essentially a solitary experience. And so too is
LAMeditation. "The Lam Statement" makes this point in no
uncertain terms, warning that group working is considered
inadvisable. "Each votary should work in isolation," it
stresses, "or only with his or her magical partner..IX Working
is held to be _extremely dangerous_ (sic emphasis) in this area
even if both partners are officially IX." The precise nature of
this danger is not specified but we are left in no doubt as to
its reality.
Nor do the similarities (with the contactee experience) end
there. In common with most forms of magical procedure, rapport
with Lam requires stern self-discipline and dedication to a
higher purpose. Referring back to "The Lam Statement" we find
that "adumbrations of identity with Lam may be experienced as a
strong sense of the unreality or unfamiliarity of the "objective"
universe. There is a definite parallel here with the curious
sense of dissociation experienced by very many witnesses. In
recent years there has been an increasing acceptance that this
sort of thing is not pure delusion. Jenny Randles for instance,
refers to it as the "Oz Effect". Writing in "The Pennine UFO
Mystery" she describes a typical case in which the witnesses "
said that they were not afraid: indeed they were very strangely
calm and subdued...isolated in time and space as if removed from
the real world and melded with the UFO above them; only they and
it existed..." Having personally experienced this odd sensation
on two separate occasions I am reluctant to dismiss it merely as
the subjective reaction of a highly-strung temperament. On the
other hand, however, I am equally reluctant to interpret it as
some form of rapport with extraterrestrial entities. I suspect
that most investigators would share my reluctance. (There is a
tendency nowadays, particularly among UFO researchers here in
the U. K. , to dismiss the ETH (Extraterrestrial Hypothesis)
as little more than a form of American cultural imperialism,
rather on par with Coca Cola, McDonald's, and Ninja Turtles.)
It is far more likely that we are dealing here with some form of
psychic response, the precise nature of which is at present a
mystery.
THE EGG AND I
In magical terms it is possible to identify Lam with the Dwarf
Self, the Silent Self, Harpocrates, Hadit, and perhaps most
significantly, the Babe In The Egg. Here I quote from Michael
Staley's forward to "The Lam Statement" in "Starfire" vol. 1
no. 3: "The Amalantrah is in many ways a continuation of the
Abuldiz Working of several years previous. In both of these
Workings the symbolism of the egg featured prominently. One of
the earlier versions of the Amalantrah Working ended with the
sentence, "It's all in the egg." During the final surviving
version of this Working, in reference to a question about the
egg, Crowley was told: "Thou art to go this way."
There is a certain danger in constructing theories based on
intuitive or inspired source material. At this point I may be
allowing my knowledge of UFOlogy to influence my interpretation
of the Lam text: (Inevitably some of my assertions may seem to
cross the line into pure fantasy; I can only ask the reader to
bear with me) I can't help seeing in Roddie Minor's channeled
references to "the egg" a parallel with various issues relating
to UFO research in general.
Eggshaped UFOs are of course, by no means uncommon. There are
dozens of examples on file. The famous Soccoro, New Mexico case
(April 24, 1964) springs readily to mind. So too do the Salem,
Massachusetts (July 16, 1952), Saigon, Vietnam (April 17, 1967),
Levelland, Texas (November 3, 1967); and White Sands, New Mexico
(also November 3, 1967) sightings. Space and brevity preclude
going into these cases at length. Besides which, it would be to
little purpose - a tenuous connection at best. Far more
significant are those cases where the witness seemingly enters
what psychologists would term an "altered State of consciousness".
Testimonies abound in this respect. For instance: "The room
is whitish," abductee Stephen Kilburn recalled under hypnosis in
1978; "it's curved on the inside...I don't think there are any
angles in the room. Everything is kind of milky or misty or
something. it doesn't shine, but everything has that metallic
glow to it." Accounts like this are by no means uncommon, and
it is unlikely that all are pure fabrication. But what is the
alternative? We seem to be dealing here with something very
simiIar to the process of LAMeditation which, it will be
recalled, entails "entering the egg and merging with that which
is within." This recognition is important, for it leads us once
again to the suspicion that the abduction syndrome may have
something in common with what is traditionally called "magic".
Before we allow ourselves to be convinced however, it is worth
taking into account John Rimmer's observation that the witness
in this case, "one of a number investigated by Budd Hopkins, had
_no conscious memory_ of an abduction before the investigation."
The phrase I have underlined is important, not least because
the Lam procedure also involves a form of hypnosis, albeit self-
administered and - regulated. Rimmer adds that "the UFO
abduction as a distinct phenomenon exists as a result of the
process of hypnotic regression." And again: "...to a very great
extent the evidence for alien abductions stands or falls on the
reliability of memories recalled through regression, and the
techniques of hypnosis themselves." (Budd Hopkins and others do
report that many abduction events are recalled without the aid
of hypnosis-but bear with Mr. Blake here -ed.)
STEP INTO MY PARLOR...
These comments obviously go to the very heart of the matter. In
real terms most accounts gained under hypnosis are so vague and
imprecise as to be virtually worthless. The sensible reaction
to them must inevitably be that they contain a certain amount of
"confabulated" material, expressing the repressed desires of the
unconscious mind. Hilary Evans seems to be referring to
something of this sort in "Visions * Apparitions * Alien
Visitors" when he asks, "Are we to suppose that, subconsciously,
all the witnesses...were unconsciously seeking their encounter?
And in that case do we have to suppose that every UFO percipient
is also responding to some subconscious motivation?" I suspect
so - at least as a broad percept. I suspect furthermore, just
as the vampires of eighteenth century Hungary were unable to
cross a threshold uninvited, so the UFO entities of contemporary
folklore are bound by a similar constraint. Having given the
matter careful consideration, I am forced reluctantly to
conclude that they too are unable to cross the threshold of
human experience without first being "invited" in some way.
In writing this article I have experienced none of the
satisfaction from seeing a range of facts fall neatly into place.
At the end of it all, I am left feeling just as bewildered as
ever. In order to assess "The Lam Statement" fully, it is
necessary to consider the possibility that there may indeed be
such a thing as genuine alien contact. Is it conceivable that
some students of Thelema have indeed established contact with
non-human entities? I believe that it is. I am not however,
convinced that these entities are necessarily "trans-plutonian".
There is a certain amount of evidence (internal consistency,
cross-correspondences) to support such a contention, but the
matter by its very nature cannot be proved scientifically. No
matter. More than anything else, "The Lam Statement" testifies
to the power of the unconscious mind. Translated out of occult
terminology into the language of conventional psychology, we can
see that it describes a process of self-exploration leading to a
greater realization of inner potential. Perhaps this is the
best way to view it.
** End **
[Reply to alt.conspiracy.area51] --
[Reply to author only] -- Use [back-button] to return.
NewsGateway V0.20beta