They say we chose our idols when we are very young.
Who didn't have this wonderful childhood fascination with famous sportsmen, actors, astronauts or singers - we collected pictures cut out from the magazines and had our little shrines shared with other kids. In teenage years our interests might have expanded as we discovered tragic writers or people who died young (how romantic and attractive to adolescent, spotty, budding little ourselves) but as we reach certain "grown up" age, we leave this fascinations behind and more or less focus on life around us. The old idols are always kept affectionately in our hearts, thought new ones are somehow hard to find. If you ask me whom I found fascinating today, I would have to think hard because I have no idols right now - film critic Roger Ebert or Jazz music writers (Will Friedwald, Garry Giddins) are my favourite and I follow their work. And than there is British writer/journalist Graham Hancock whom today (as grown up) I look at with starry eyes.
I read his book "Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization" a decade ago, when it blew my mind. It actually disturbed me. Everything I loved about books on the same subject by Erich von Däniken, Hancock improved on and actually wrote so passionately and convincingly that I forgot about Däniken. Later I had good luck to get my hands on two more books by Hancock ("The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant" and "Supernatural: Meeting with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind") and they were equally excellent, in fact I think that "Supernatural" is probably the best of the bunch - his imagination, explanations and ideas are truly mind-boggling. Just thinking about "Supernatural" makes me re-read it again. On the other hand, I didn't care much for his fiction - he uses basically same ideas but it didn't move me as much. Hancock is like modern day, real Indiana Jones who travels the world in search of ancient mysteries and poke his nose under old stones, temples and places we would all go if we have chance.
He actually goes so far that for the last ten years he visits some obscure place in Peru and drinks hallucinogenic drink (made by local shaman) that brings him in contact with beings from different spiritual spheres. I know, this sounds totally weird but if you read his books it makes perfect sense and he is very convincing about it. This drink is called "Ayahuasca" and God knows how locals had discovered it because there are more than 150,000 different plants found in the Amazon jungle - to prepare it, you need to know exactly which one to mix in a right amount (locals claim the secret was told to them by ancient Gods). He is not the only one - usually there is a whole group of people in a search for truth and adventurous enough to risk such inner journeys. The drink itself has a terrible taste and effect lasts around an hour - to find out about this experiences, its better to read Hancock's book "Supernatural" where he explains it properly, but in a nutshell it brings him in contact with our makers and the secret of "Gods" is not outside somewhere in the Universe but hidden in our blood and DNK. (This is very simplified version) Of course "Ayahuasca" is illegal but if you search for meaning, you go to Peru. Not everybody enjoys it - some people cry, others are vomiting, Hancock explains it all. He also explains that these "other" spiritual entities are usually good natured and in his opinion the spirit of "Mother Earth" is protective but there are other, dark and negative forces also around and they can be scary, apparently they feed on our fear and negative energy.
Recently something truly terrifying happened. One guy died from "Ayahuasca" experiment and shaman hid his body somewhere, it was discovered by police and newspapers wrote about it (in their usual, sensationalistic way). When he found out about it, Hancock remembered his last visit to Peru and started to think what actually happened there - looking back, he understands now that negative forces are getting strong and perhaps they can break into our dimension. Again, he was not the only one - the rest of people in his group experienced the same fear. During his "Ayahuasca" session, Hancock again met tender and caring "Mother Earth" spirit but there was another, truly scary spirit in a human form (looking like somebody from the group!) who was dancing and at the same time creating something disturbingly negative and powerful, like his hands were weaving magic that somehow interfered with our "real" world. This dancing spirit (Hancock calls him "The Magician") was very powerful and his movements were threatening, Hancock tried mentally to protect himself from this negative energy but was powerless and the whole session was very scary for him - and for others in a group who experienced same. Just a few months later this guy from newspapers had died from "Ayahuasca" - I read it one night in the late, after midnight hours and totally freaked out, this was really scary to read. We might think we are protected in our reality but who knows, if "the other side" can somehow break into our dimension this might really change our already fragile existence. I only hope Hancock had enough and won't visit Peru anymore (I know he will).
He writes about it far more eloquently himself here:
http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/HancockG4-Letters-from-the-Far-Side.php
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