The Chinese Menu of Truthiness

Christian and Islamic Endtime prophecies are often so vague that people can interpret them in widely disparate ways. This theme runs throughout the Revelation trilogy . These prophetic seers in effect claim to know the mind of God i.e. Truth with a Capital T. However, scripture also teaches us that human beings are fallible and may just, from time to time, edit the voice of God, Allah, or whomever, to suit their purposes. The characters in the Revelation trilogy , for various reasons, pick prophecies, aphorisms, and truths from a sort of Chinese menu -- the essence of what Steven Colbert labeled truthiness.

This week, the South Carolina government provided a parable of this process. In the state's brief to the Supreme Court opposing same-sex marriage, they have taken an 'originalist' argument that the 14th Amendment clearly allowed discrimination against married women should the states choose to do so. Because the 14th Amendment provided African-American males with the right to own property and contract with whomever they wished, but did not provide the same rights to females of any ancestry, it clearly left to the states the rights to determine marital rights. For the record, the South Carolina Attorney General has made it clear the state does not plan to deprive women of property rights they currently have. He just wants you to know that doing so would not be unconstitutional.

At least one Supreme Court justice has made this argument before. Justice Antonin Scalia, in an interview with California Lawyer made the statement "The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't. Nobody ever thought that that's what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws."

I argue to be consistent with that argument, let's do the same with the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment does not guarantee Freedom of Religion to any religion that did not exist in 1787. Similarly, the Right to Bear Arms enshrined in the Second Amendment does not include any weapon that was manufactured after Constitutional ratification. Under the Seventh Amendment all civil trials involving more than $20 must be held before a jury. The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail, let's use 1787 values for that as well.

Running the Apocalyptic Numbers

Ever since mankind learned to count, it seems, we have asked numbers to tell us more than how many cows we had in a field. We have in many instances asked them to tell us the future, as if the numbers themselves held some insight into future events or even God.

Numbers, like letters, are symbols. Some numeric symbols take on a meaning all their own. Consider the number 666. It is the mark of the beast from Revelation, a symbol of evil, of man trying to be God. Let's forget for the moment that some Revelation translations use the number 616, it's just not as sexy. The number 666 in various forms seems to have a grip on the Christian imagination.

When a South Carolina boater, the aptly named Louis Jordan, recently claimed to have been rescued after 66 days at sea spent largely reading End Times prophecies, it seemed to tick all the apocalyptic boxes. Some skeptics considered it a little too convenient. Newspapers consistently described him as more "robust" than one would expect a person who survived on rain water, fish and kelp for 66 days to be.According to his story, his boat capsized, but remained afloat. He therefore could get into the boat for shelter from the sun, hence his lack of sunburn or even decent tan. Commenters on the story were already taking bets on when the saved sailor would become a "fisher of men."

The number 6, however, does not have an apocalyptic monopoly. According to another article, a mystic Rabbi in Southern Israel is obsessing over the number 4. He has noted the Blood Moon Tetrad where the blood moons in 2014 and 2015 occurred on Sukkoth and Passover in each year with a solar eclipse in between. Blood moons are lunar eclipses. The Rabbi Amran Vaknin, according to the story, claims that the four blood moons with the 2015 Passover lunar eclipse lasting four minutes and 44 seconds on 4/4/15 means that Jews should pray to repent because the 44th President will bring blood upon Israel.

Time for a deep breath. First, the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar. While the lunar eclipses lining up on the holidays is an unusual event, the phase of the moon is not. It's designed that way. Secondly, the 4/4/15 date is taken from a solar calendar known as the Gregorian calendar or civil calendar. Thou shalt not mix calendars for cheap prophetic thrills.

Finally, as in a previous post, the facts seem a little thin. A search for Rabbi Amran Vaknin seems to indicate that the man came fully blown into existence on or about March 25 of this year. All the articles are almost verbatim recountings of blood moon warnings spiced with hints that a coming messiah will undo all the damage that evil Barack Obama has done. The article claims the Rabbi foretold the Gaza Flotilla and other recent events in Israel, but the modern day's excuse for research, Googling, does not reveal any mention of the good Rabbi before last month. Sadly, he has been accurately prophesying in isolation.

Of course all this coincides with the Iranian nuclear deal. Perhaps all the blood moon hype comes from the Book of Netanyahu.

I understand people want to sell books . So do I. But my books are fiction speculating about how people would react if they believed they were in the End Times. If you find a kernel of truth in them, great. That's what novels are supposed to do. Don't look to them for facts.

End Times and the Class Divide

Fitzgerald observed that the “rich are very different”, apparently so are the poor. Of course, one person’s different is another’s normal depending on where you sit on the socio-economic ladder. A recent Upshot Article in the New York Times examined how Google searches vary by geographic location and by extension socio-economic status. The study suggests that the well-off want to know about digital cameras while the poor obsess about the Antichrist.

Specifically, the study looked at what searches correlated with what the researchers deemed the hardest places to live in the country and the easiest. The study employed a six-factor index (education, household income, unemployment, disability, life expectancy, and obesity) to determine the difficulty of life in each county in the country.

The top ten highest correlated searches to the hardest places to live include “antichrist”, “the antichrist”, “rapture”, and “about hell”. Apparently, where life is hard, people like their religion hard as well. Admittedly, a search for “rapture” may indicate an escapist fantasy but it also has a dark side. Those left behind will go through the “tribulation”—an ironic analogy to the divide between rich and poor.

At its heart, tales of the endtimes are ghost stories, albeit “Holy Ghost” stories. Fearing something that is not real, or cannot be proved to be real can be a diversion from a very real life of grinding poverty. It also suggests that fate or “God’s will” plays a part in one’s station in life. In some ways, accepting the “God’s will” argument parallels the final stage of grief, acceptance. But what happens when the hopeless suddenly have hope?

Revelation 11-First in the Revelation Trilogy is set in a small Central Pennsylvania mining town where the coal and iron veins have been exhausted. The people who remain eke out a living by commuting long distances or running marginal small businesses. When a mega-church set up in an old high school broadcasting fire and brimstone to the world via satellite starts pumping money into the local economy, the residents are all too willing to believe their long-awaited salvation is at hand. Whether it is or not is the story’s essential mystery.

Through a Glass Darkly

Many religious texts begin with the assumption that humans and God are separated, that humans feel for and stumble toward God in spiritual darkness. In Judeo-Christian theology light is often a metaphor for God. For example, Jesus proclaimed himself to be “the light of the world.”

The description parallels mental illness or at least deep dysfunction where the individual stumbles somewhat blindly through life. Often those observing can identify the individual’s self-limiting false perceptions, but telling the individual brings about no change. The change must come from within when the individual’s perception changes to accept reality. For example, anyone can tell a person engaging in addictive behavior that things will be better if he or she stops, but the addict will continue the destructive behavior most likely until death or "hitting bottom".

In literature, this irony, where the reader knows what is needed for salvation and character will not acknowledge it, creates tension that propels the story along its narrative arc. Because many of us have observed or experienced self-destructive behavior, the story is at once a mystery and familiar.

I have experimented throughout Revelation 11 and its sequels with characters being a part of something they don’t completely understand (the human condition?). Some characters conclude that we are living in the end times and the events occurring before them are unfolding Biblical prophecy. Others see only the events, not the prophetic context. For them, believing in prophecy requires too large a step of faith. Are they wise or foolish? What are the consequences of guessing wrong?

The apostle Paul said, “We see through a glass darkly and then face to face.” In Revelation 11, everyone sees “through the glass darkly” even if they believe they are seeing “face to face.”

End of Days

The HBO show, The Leftovers, based on Tom Perrotta’s novel, portrays a post-mass disappearance world struggling to understand this rapture-like event’s meaning. In previous decades, we have seen the Antichrist coming of age movies in The Omen series. In the 1970s, Hal Lindsey’s Late, Great Planet Earth and later books cast modern political events against a background of Biblical prophecy. The apocalypse never seems to lose its appeal.

In writing my novel Revelation 11, I’ve come across stories of people believing they were one of the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11 or the Antichrist himself. Of course, this is only the Christian side of the equation. Islamic eschatology also foretells Christ’s return, but with a different twist. Jesus returns to “break the cross”, a term used to mean that Jesus proclaims Islam to be the only true religion and Mohammed the prophet of God. For all I know there are adherents to Islam who believe they will play a role in the end times as well.

I cannot doubt the sincerity of people who believe they are destined to play a role in the Second Coming. My novel examines what happens when these people believe their time has come. My skeptic protagonist, Trog Davis, outwardly wants to have no part of it. When another character, Joe Stoner, asks him, “How would you act if you truly believed we were living the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy?” Trog realizes the people he is dealing with have a totally different view of reality.

So why is the apocalypse so fascinating? First, we know it is possible in some form. We have evidence of mass extinctions throughout the planet’s history and can conceive that humans can go the way of the dodo bird. The baby boom generation grew up knowing that nuclear weapons could easily lay waste to the planet. ‘Doomsday weapons’ was the quaint moniker for them before ‘weapons of mass destruction’ became the fashionable term. Now we face threats of environmental pollution and global warming. Jesus himself claimed divine intervention would be necessary to prevent humans from killing themselves— "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” (Matthew 24:22)

Finally, the apocalypse fascinates because it is the ultimate conspiracy theory. Someone, supernatural or human, knows what is going to happen, and the rest of us are along for the ride. We will need a hero to get to the truth. However, unlikely a hero he may be, Trog Davis may just be the guy for the job.

Building a Character

In my last post, I discussed the use of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. A fascinating video featuring the late Dr. Richard Rockefeller, provides a great background on PTSD, how it affects those who have it and those around them, and how therapists treat the condition.

A key theme in the sequel to Revelation 11, tentatively entitled, Continuing Revelation, is the main character's reaction to the stress-inducing events described in Revelation 11. Dr. Rockefeller's description of PTSD gave me a roadmap for continuing to build the character of Ben "Trog" Davis.

Dr. Rockefeller noted that while many of us experience, post-traumatic stress, it only becomes a disorder when the brain fails to move the traumatic memory out of the amygdala, which largely processes current ongoing events, into the parts of the brain that store memories. He explained that PTSD sufferers continue to experience the trauma as an ongoing event. They literally see and experience the trauma again seeing the people and objects present at the original event as if it were occurring at that moment.

While virtually everyone experiences post-traumatic stress, not everyone develops PTSD. Dr. Rockefeller explained that those who had suppressed memories from childhood stress are more likely to develop PTSD as an adult. So soldiers who survive the same IED attack in battle may have very different reactions to the event based on their prior experiences.

To treat PTSD, therapists must get back to that underlying trauma and allow the individual to process it into memory. LSD, ecstasy, and other medications that break down the walls harboring these suppressed memories allow the PTSD sufferer to explore their painful past in a safe environment.

Of course, to a novelist safe is boring. Trog will not be safe. The drugs the therapists give him may reveal more truth than he can handle. The intervention he needs may come from agents of God, Satan, or humans. Trog will have to judge whether what he sees is real or not. He may suffer from supernaturally induced PTSD.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

I read obituaries. Specifically, I read the New York Times obituaries. These obituaries of famous people either remind me of long forgotten events or introduce me, posthumously, to fascinating people with whom I had been unfamiliar. Dr. Richard Rockefeller, sadly, fell into the latter category.

The famous name grabbed my attention, but his life’s story proved far more interesting than I would have guessed. Dr. Rockefeller was David Rockefeller’s son making him the great-grandson of the family scion John D. Rockefeller. Last week, Dr. Rockefeller took off in his single-engine Piper Meridian in dense fog and crashed into trees not far beyond the Westchester County, New York Airport runway.

In his 65 years, Dr. Rockefeller advised and oversaw many of his family’s philanthropic efforts and was one of the guiding forces behind Doctors Without Borders. Almost as a footnote, the obituary mentioned he spent his later years working on treatments for those suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

A day later I was researching the sequel to Revelation 11. I plan to put Ben “Trog” Davis, the protagonist, through some serious trauma, as if a running gun battle, false imprisonment, and two concussions in Revelation 11 weren’t enough. In particular, I was researching the use of ‘psychedelic’ drugs to treat PTSD.

In the 1950s, Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, claimed that LSD could provide the “ego reduction [that] makes the influx of God’s grace possible”. British psychotherapist, Ronald Sandison coined the term psycholitic therapy, which is the use of low to medium doses of psychedelic drugs, repeatedly at intervals of 1–2 weeks. Psycholitic, Sandison claimed, meant “soul dissolving”. For a novel where the protagonist must determine whether or not his troubles result from human conflict or spiritual warfare, these references were invaluable.

The final piece of the puzzle occurred when I went on the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies website and found a video featuring Dr. Richard Rockefeller discussing the use of MDMA or “ecstasy” for treating PTSD. “Trog” doesn’t know it yet, but he is about to have his consciousness expanded. If any of you are friends with Ben on Facebook , don’t let him know what the future holds. He is blissfully unaware of what God and Satan have in store for him.

Haunted by Kennedy

I was five years-old when President Kennedy was assassinated. Even at that young age, I knew something fundamental had changed. The memories remain very real.

Experts tell us that memories are not really archived in our brains, but rather rebuilt each time we reach for them. We overlay them with other detail enhancing some details, deleting others and ultimately placing the memories in context. So memories from childhood have been reconstructed countless times. I can only wonder how different my current recollections are from their originals.

One such memory of an event occurring just weeks after the assassination served as the basis for a chapter in my upcoming novel, Revelation 11. On a cold December day I played outside on our swing set. Looking up, I saw what looked like a black figure standing on a cloud looking down at me. What began as curiosity, turned to fear as I watched this strange apparition for several minutes. Ultimately, I ran inside, but never told my parents or my brother about the event until years later. To this day, I don't know why.

The event's fictional version appears below to give you a foretaste of the novel. It will be published in time for Easter 2014.

December 1963

Epiphany

“Who is the president now, mommy?” Ben Davis asked.

“President Johnson.” She replied.

He had asked the same question each day for two weeks as if changing presidents could now be a daily occurrence. The five-year-old had come in from playing for lunch two Fridays before to see his mother crying in front of the television. He remembered looking at the screen and seeing a large room filled with people moving back and forth in confusion. The announcer had said the room was the luncheon that President Kennedy was going to address, but he had been assassinated.

“What does assassinated mean, mommy?”

“It’s when someone important is killed.”

A large, black man crossed the screen in a white server’s coat. The tears streamed down his face. Ben had never seen a grown man cry like that.

Over the next days, images of death flooded the TV screen-the President’s body in state, the funeral cortege, the burial at Arlington.

In the gray days that followed, angst fed the nation’s subconscious. Even children like Ben knew something was different as a pall fell over the nation with the first days of winter. He heard stories that psychics had predicted the assassination, that a family received a message on Ouija board reading, “Thank you for praying for me while I was in purgatory.”

“What’s purgatory, mommy?”

“It’s something Catholics believe in. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Was President Kennedy a Catholic?”

“Yes, he was.”

“So he has to worry about purgatory, right?”

Even at this age, he could tell when his mother was uncomfortable with a question. “That’s hard to say. Why don’t you go out and play on the swings until dinner?”

Ben bundled up against the cold, gray day. Dark, low clouds floated by against the lighter gray matte above them. He swung on the swings, watched the sky begin to succumb to the winter evening’s gloom. A small dark spot near one of the low, gray clouds caught his eye for a moment, then disappeared behind in the swirling vapor.

He continued to swing and look around the neighborhood to see if any of his friends were out playing. But this was the Cumberland Valley's appointed dinner hour and they were all crowded into the identical postwar crackerbox rancher eat-in kitchens.

His mother always saw the local custom of eating dinner precisely at five o’clock as peculiar. As a point of pride, and to accommodate his father, Jeff Sr.’s habit of having a few drinks before coming home, Ben’s family ate at 6—6:30, whenever, but never at five. Most likely, it would get dark before dinner and his mother would call him in.

He could just barely make out the sun’s position over the western mountains through the gray. He stood up to push off and swing as high as possible, pointing his toes and throwing his head back to look at the sky above him. The dark spot hovered above him in the clouds. Planting his feet to stop the swing, he stared up. More clearly defined now, the spot had a distinctive shape; a head, shoulders, and body apparently standing on the cloud. Long flowing hair crowned the robed figure. The fading light glinted off the suggestion of an eyebrow. Its face appeared to be looking down directly at him. To Ben, the figure looked like the silhouette of Jesus, the face subsumed in shadow.

The dark Christ moved as the cloud moved. What Ben imagined to be the face continued to gaze at him. He looked around his neighborhood. No one was out. All the dutiful diners safely huddled in their homes.
The more Ben identified the form’s distinct features, the more curiosity gave way to fear. He wanted to tell someone, anyone …or at least not be alone. But the five o’clock suburban dinner communion trumped all, even a heavenly figure standing on a cloud. Ben took one last look across the haunted landscape, saw no one, and ran inside to the light and warmth of home.

The End is Near

Wow! Has it really been since March that I posted something? Well, time flies when you're busy.

Revelation 11, my first novel, is complete and is off to the editor. I would describe it as Deliverance meets the The Da Vinci Code. I've tried to capture the concept of a man who views himself as civilized being thrust into a primitive world and forced to make difficult choices. Deliverance is essentially a retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The main character in Revelation 11 is Trog Davis, a hard-living Harrisburg reporter, who is assigned to cover a gruesome murder in isolated Shade Gap, Pennsylvania. So rather than the navigating Cahulawassee or Congo rivers, Davis traverses the Pennsylvania mountains via the PA turnpike's tunnels, each moving him farther from civilization.

Davis soon discovers that the dead minister was a childhood friend of his who had told him years before that he was one of the two witnesses identified in Chapter 11 of the Book of Revelation. Before he even arrives in Shade Gap, he learns that the minister's megachurch also believes he is one of the witnesses and will rise from the dead in three and a half-days.

Trog tries to sift through Biblical prophecy and present day murder clues to find the truth. But the truth can be elusive, especially when Trog looks inward.