TONY ON BUST, IRON & MORE

Including One Single Impression and Manic Monday.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Monday Magazine post.
As Zoom – another small British budget airline – goes bust, the Chancellor of the Exchequer talks of a profound economic downturn – the worst for 60 years. This comes soon after zero growth was recorded for the UK in the second quarter of the year.

Now that Recession is here, he would say that.

Better, now, to make it sound worse than it is, then they can take the credit when it isn’t that bad. But it WILL be bad. If it follows the normal pattern, unemployment will be raging, and inflation will get out of hand.
It will be worse than the previous two Recessions because we swallowed the lie that ‘boom and bust’ was over. Consequently, we used credit to extend the period of ‘boom’. But the longer you party on, the greater the hangover that follows.
Hopefully we’ll remember this, and not repeat the cycle when good times come again.

Big marches on into prisons now.

A new generation of giant jails have been proposed by the British government. Yet critics, including official watchdogs, have attacked the idea, claiming they are dangerous and do not save any money.
So why go ahead with them, against such opposition? Well, the first thing to realize is it has nothing to do with prisons. Big Biz is getting into the prison game here, and it is all to do with ideology.
We’re told that ideology is dead, but this is a big lie – and you know how I hate big. Big Biz is not an efficient way to run capitalism. Smaller business does a much better job. But smaller businesses cannot deal with ‘big’ systems. Hence, the best way to guarantee Big Biz stays at the top is to think big, and make sure ‘small’ doesn’t get a chance.
Next Magazine post, Wednesday. See you then.

© Anthony North, August 2008

SPECTACLE OF LIFE

Life is full of experience, allowing us to see,
a chain of events for us to feel, never should we flee!
For seeing comes in many ways, the first your vision, true,
but seeing is also wisdom – relating, me to you;
Life is such a spectacle, things we get right and wrong,
decisions form our path, discover where we belong;
This is nature’s duality, the way we know what’s right,
we see our spectacles before us, as life puts up a fight,
to mould us into who we are, so we can see it all,
but strange how our inner sight grows, as our vision begins to fall,
and the greatest of our spectacles end up on our nose,
and we remember those other spectacles; as memories they repose

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

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WAXY AND THE IRON CAULDRON – Horror Fiction

Thank the stars for the black cat, Wane often thought. This was usually after her novice witchery had caused disaster for her fellow sister of the Moon, Waxy. Never quite getting her spells right, the outcome usually resulted in Waxy becoming ectoplasmic goo, saved only by psychic connection with her familiar at the last moment, and pinching one of its lives.
Waxy recalled the metamorphosis as if she’d gone into some celestial shower, and then anything was possible. But Wane’s latest mistake was in danger of making this system irrelevant – not to mention the strange behaviour …
‘Waxy, you’ll destroy the potion,’ Wane would say, but Waxy didn’t care. Whenever the cauldron came out, she dived to her bony knees and began to such iron. After all, she always seemed quite drained nowadays.
It was Wane’s latest thought-form that was the problem. The homunculus had manifested easily, and she was sure it could be a new friend to Waxy. Indeed, to get it just right, she’d used much thought herself, regularly pushing her pointy hat to the back of her head and scratching around a wart.
‘Well you can just wish it away,’ Waxy had said after the first couple of meetings. ‘I can’t take it.’ Indeed, it was beginning to seem like she would never need the black cat to save her again.
‘Ungrateful witch,’ Wane had muttered.
It had gone quite well until she’d realized how much Waxy liked nice glowing white teeth – unlike her own, which she regularly had to put back in. But spells will be spells, and one thing leads to another …
Homunci appeared again. Waxy backed away, but it was no good. And as he pounced once more …
Well, Wane thought Waxy had some neck anyway. And as for Waxy, she thought this ‘undead’ thing was just not for her.

© Anthony North, August 2008

HOW TO EXPLAIN CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFTS

A consciousness shift is an esoteric concept whereby, at times, human consciousness changes significantly and we become a different order of being. At the centre of many New Age philosophies, the idea is usually ridiculed by the ‘rational’.
Indeed, throughout my life I’ve been told by various threads of literature that I’m close to one. It seems that always there is some guru working away at our mind, enforcing the idea that we will soon become more than we were before.

One consciousness shift is said to have happened in 1987.

This is known as Harmonic Convergence, and is based on the idea that many Native American tribes predicted such a shift in this year, way back in the past.
What kind of change would have occurred for this ‘convergence’ to become true? It would contain the knowledge that Earth is a sentient planetary entity, and we will return to the Earth.
Well, guess what, it’s happening. Environmentalism is well advanced, and we are all, now, aware that our future must be in being more eco-friendly. Indeed, many cannot understand the mind-set of the polluter, and even many polluters are beginning to feel guilt.

What are we dealing with here?

Is this a change in consciousness, or just a change in attitude? Is the ‘consciousness shift’ nothing more than a fancy name for a new way of thinking and doing?
Let’s look at the Renaissance. This was a re-discovery of the Classics in the 16th century, fuelling an outpouring of the arts. The outcome of this was a move against Christianity, and the eventual succession of the modern world.

So, big changes there, but again, only in attitude.

Yet consider the discovery of perspective geometry at the same time. This concept identified the existence of distance. Prior to this, paintings were two-dimensional. Afterwards, they were three-dimensional.
This is more than change in attitude. This is change in how we actually see, and represent, the physical world. Of course, I’m not saying that people didn’t ‘see’ in three dimensions beforehand. But they had no way of representing it. So consciousness can be said to have really changed.

There’s an argument concerning Shakespeare that adds to this.

In his plays, human foibles and personality were popularly known for the first time. Some argue that he therefore ‘invented’ the modern emotional personality.
Throughout life we are affected by various outside influences, be they societal or environmental. At various times in our lives, these can fundamentally change who we are. New ideas can also have the same function.
As such, we undergo such consciousness shifts often. However, I’ve argued elsewhere that if a particular idea catches hold of society, it can cause a consensus which radically changes our idea of knowledge, and thus our appreciation of the world.
We actually live in a clash of such consensual understandings. Think religion v science, left v right, etc. And each one sees the world in a radically different way to the point that one cannot understand or identify with the other.
Should any one gain predominance, would a consciousness shift be the result? After all, the only difference between a chaotic world, or one ordained by God, is our appreciation of it. Perhaps consciousness shifts are battling for supremacy all the time, locked in an evolutionary battle for the survival of the fittest.

© Anthony North, August 2008

TONY ON CELEBS, BRITAIN & MORE

Including Sunday Scribblings, Friday 5 and ReadWritePoem.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Friday Magazine post.
Kelly Osbourne – daughter of Ozzie – has been photographed with a bruised face. Gosh! How did she get it? Model Kate Moss has been speaking. She thinks all men are ‘b******s’. Really!!? And Ulrika Jonsson will never let another woman breast feed her baby.

Celebrity trivia. How we love it – or not!

But what do we make of the latest from Jade Goody? Jade is a talentless Brit who made celebrity on Big Brother, lost celebrity due to her vile mouth on another Big Brother, and now …
Well, last week on India’s version of Big Brother she received news that she has cancer. Tragic, yes. But is celebrity trivia going just too far when nothing exists in these people’s lives that cannot be aired as a media brand?
Celebrity for celebrity’s sake – the No 1 proof that our society is mad!!

A satellite picture of the UK shows the light – lots of it.

Britain is the brightest part of Europe in the night sky. Our cities interlink in a swath of humanity. And, according to Eurostat, will have a population greater than France or Germany by 2060.
The population of most European countries is shrinking. Britain is booming. Not only that, but the average age is younger than other European states. And the reason is immigration. But is this a good or bad thing?
It is becoming increasingly clear that this Labour government has allowed a massive rise in immigration. Alongside this, policies seem to have been attuned to damaging the traditional base of Britain, allowing a new unbridled multi-culturalism to reign.
I’ve said before that what seems to be happening is the evolution of a fully globalised nation, the idea of the nation state itself whittled away, and fully open to the global economy and mass consumerism. It now seems the vision also involves a global population base, too.
Maybe we should have been told we were to be part of such an experiment.
Next Magazine post Monday. Have a great weekend and see you then.

© Anthony North, August 2008

INSPIRATION

Did he have to do that? I can but say,
images assault me as she lay,
prone and ready for his way,
acrobatics without delay

Inspiration comes in many forms,
poets write of love, of mind, of storms,
observing life in all its vibes,
how we react in different tribes

Is this possible? I have to ask,
man is surely not up to the task,
she adorned in a tight basque,
he is hidden behind a mask

But more than life a poet needs,
inspiration from which to feed,
words that come from another’s call,
even etched on the toilet wall

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

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SOMEWHERE – A Cass Nova Detective Thriller

I didn’t expect to see Francis when I opened my eyes. At first I thought the mind had gone faulty, but I was a trained detective so it soon cleared. So this was the situation: here was I, sat in a chair in a flat, early morning, Francis to my front and no idea how I’d gotten here.
Facts quickly ascended into consciousness. Francis was one of those subtle villains – loved to use psychology. That’s why we called him Fiendish. So, what did he want and what was I doing here? Indeed, where was ‘here’. Then it hit me. My face going ashen, I remembered going out with one of the girls last night – who was it? – was it Mags? Yes, I think it was Mags.
I heard Fiendish saying Mags over and over again, so I guess that was right. She had been in a mood and stomped about a bit, but I calmed her down and we had more than a few drinks, and then we went to her flat … I think … can’t remem …
Reality hit me hard, then. ‘Where’s Mags?’
‘Somewhere.’
I looked around me. Recognised some of her things – the lay of the flat – a slight hint of her perfume …
Fiendish was speaking. ‘ … and she’ll be alright for an hour. But we have to designate an end to these situations …’ (what situations, I thought, what’s he going to do) ‘… and I can’t see her surviving longer than an hour – where SHE is …’
‘What do you want, Fiendish?’ I asked. And it spilled out. I’d been investigating Big Eddie of late – even managed to break one of his operations. Of course, there’d been a lead – a grass in the system – someone who’d spoken, and I’d …
‘So that’s it,’ I said. I’d left a clear hint that Francis had been behind the information – stir up a bit of trouble with Big Eddie’s opposition.
‘I want the name of the real informant, Nova. Either that, or Mags …’ He left the words hanging.
I noticed the sun rise, its glow momentarily lighting the room, highlighting the determination on Francis’s face. Finally, I made a decision. ‘Get lost,’ I said, got up and walked out.

I found Mags half asleep in her flat. When she saw me, she said: ‘Where did you disappear to last night?’
That was the thing about Fiendish – always the psychology, always the subtlety.
He’d rented the flat on the other side of the block, fitted it out with identical furniture – things that would remind me of Mags – and the rest was trying to tamper with my mind. Infact, I couldn’t even arrest him for anything. He’d merely waylaid me while I was drunk, so there was no kidnap involved, he’d made no threats and he hadn’t even tried to hold me against my will. Very clever indeed. Except for …
‘Where did I go wrong?’ he’d said as I left him. ‘How did you know?’
‘You did a good job, Francis, but you can’t control the Sun. It never shines through Mags’ window.’

© Anthony North, August, 2008

TONY ON OLYMPICS, TT #19 & MORE

Including Thursday Thirteen, Three Word Wednesday and Totally Optional Prompts.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Wednesday Magazine post.
So the Olympics are over, and Team GB arrived back in a gold-tipped plane. With 19 Golds, it was their best performance in a hundred years, ranked fourth, behind the big players.

Of course, we always had the ability.

What we didn’t have was the money for the proper training facilities. And this is what has changed. Through the UK National lottery, our athletes have finally received the funding they deserved.
Mindst you, as Britain takes the Olympic flag, the IOC president has challenged London to match the technical elements of the Beijing games. No chance! We just managed to stop the esteemed major, Boris Johnson, from dropping the flag!

I’m worried about policing again.

When you’re convicted of a crime, your fingerprints go onto police records. This is fair enough. But what about DNA details? Yes, okay. No problem with that, either. But figures released last week showed that 600,000 people are now on the UK DNA database who have never committed a crime – and it’s growing fast.
The Labour government loves this. They openly admit they want everyone on the database, and if a forced ID card gets through, it will become a reality. And if it does so, another big element of freedom will have been taken away.
There is a dual process going on nowadays – western governments who have an almost pathological need to control us, and technology that is allowing it to happen. We think of totalitarianism in terms of the jackboot and the dictator. Today, this is an error. I’ve used the term, ‘jack slipper’, before. It denotes a new form of subtle totalitarianism. And it isn’t something to worry about in the future. It’s here!
Mext Magazine post, Friday. See you then.

© Anthony North, August 2008

TT #19 – WISDOM

For a change I thought I’d try the idea of the thirteen line poem.
Should be fun.

Wisdom is a crafty thing, it cons you that it’s there,
when really those who think they’re wise, you should always beware,
Wisdom isn’t facts or knowledge, like many people think,
it’s placing them in a system of thought every time you blink;
Wisdom isn’t knowing this and that, or winning in a quiz,
it’s knowing what you don’t, not getting in a tiz,
the wisest in the land take knowledge as a plea,
to admit it when they don’t know – look it up in a dictionary;
But wisdom has another life, the route where it comes along,
and it isn’t something learnt in books, or art, or song;
It’s understanding life is full of experience, taboo and rule,
and the wisest person that you know broke them all!
‘Cos he began as a damned fool!

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

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SECRET OF THE TOMBS – Horror Fiction

Professor Arnold sat back in his chair, satisfied. He looked about him – took in the full scope of so many years of research. But now, following a last desperate rush, he had completed it.
‘A shame it will never be published,’ said Carthew, his assistant.
‘We’ll see,’ Arnold replied, knowing he was possibly right.
It had been many decades since the problem came to light. It had begun soon after the Tutenkhamun find. The authorities rubbished the curse, blaming it on a lapse of sanity. But the simple fact was, something had happened when the seal to the tomb was broken.
Some in the know believed it really was the soul of some ancient Egyptian, who had traveled through the millennia in wait, like some avenging angel. But when another untampered tomb was discovered, secrecy of the modern kind descended upon the operation.
Cameras filmed the breaking of the seal, caught the archaeologists mouthing the curse, and then there was the strange aroma, a myriad of flashing lights, the touch of the strange plaster work – the texture. And soon after, one of the archaeologists began to be taken over by some force …
Well, what were thought to be the victim’s of a curse were victims of murder. This became clear – if something from antiquity taking over the mind like that can be thought of as murder ….
Arnold remembered seeing the reports of the change in demeanour of this millennia-old assassin, taking over the mind of an old friend of his, and those eyes …
Of course, he’d have nothing to do with the supernatural theory. Immersing himself in the supernatural Egyptian culture, he began to realize what may be going on. Word magic was the beginning of the solution, for as people mouthed the curse, they created the sound of the words. Then the aroma (smell), flashing lights (sight) and texture of masonry (touch).
It was a sudden disorientating assault on all the senses, as he managed to recreate with Carthew. And that, he realized, was a form of hypnosis. And eventually he even worked out the message delivered subliminally by the act of breaking the seal.
‘We know what happens, now,’ he said to Carthew. ‘We can protect ourselves. We can now go into the dozens of tombs secretly found since then.’
But no protection for Carthew on that first successful experiment.
‘A shame it will never be published,’ he had said. If only Arnold had looked up. Seen the eyes. He might have stood a chance …

© Anthony North, August 2008

ONE WAY

One Way!! One way? You must be mad,
I can think of nothing so sad,
only one way to do a thing,
just one song for all to sing,
just one picture to behold,
just one way to be so bold,
just one story to relate,
that’s a life I’d really hate;
One way is a one way street,
straight to a mirror image to greet,
for it holds a message very plain,
there’s nothing more boring than being the same

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

TONY ON BIDEN, CLUB & MORE

Including Manic Monday and (my first) One Single Impression.
Have you had a go yet?

I’m only an occasional observer of US politics. And coming from the UK, I suppose I can offer a view from the outside. So, young Barack has now disclosed his running mate – one Joe Biden. My first impression was, why didn’t he go for Hillary? Surely that’s the way to mend the wounds in the Democrats.

He obviously has other priorities.

Which could, of course, be a serious mistake. As I see it, he’s gone, first, for the generational thing, which could catch the waverers who might have voted for McCain. So, lose some democrats, win some floaters. A gamble that might just pay off.
But most of all, Biden is a foreign affairs specialist. Which suggests to me that fundamental to Obama’s presidency would be foreign affairs, and repairing the damage caused by the last eight years, which have left the world Bushed.

Over a decade ago there was an almost apocalyptic warning.

It was about the ‘population bomb’ in the west. Because of fewer people being born, and the elderly living longer, the year 2011 was put forward as the time when the retired population would outnumber the workforce, the cost of their care destroying the western economy.
It seems we are fast heading for the deadline. In the UK, it has recently been announced that the elderly now outnumber the under-16s. Yet the whole problem seems to have been buried as far as the news and initiatives are concerned.
This is an error. If we don’t plan correctly for this explosion of elderly soon, the dire warnings may come true. And anyone who thinks private pension schemes can answer the problem is wrong. What is required here is a new look at how we live our lives.

© Anthony North, August 2008

RESOLVE

I sit here in the corner of an undecided mind,
decisions to be made, a path through life to find,
confidence is a stumbling block – do I have the will?
doubt has me surrounded, it’s voice is very shrill;
I try to move with confidence – resolve, that is my name,
but doubt says if I’m wrong, who will be to blame?
Such pessimistic thoughts are alien to my soul,
I must take over this mind – steer it to its goal!
My motive is optimism, I know no other way,
get on with life in all its colours, now, without delay;
Doubt, you are a stubborn fool who keeps this life on hold,
now its time to take this mind
Be gone!
Vanquish!
Be bold!!!

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

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THE DETECTIVE’S CLUB – Fiction

The great detectives entered the club room separately. First came Poe’s great Dupin, followed by the genius that was Sherlock Holmes, and once the small, bespectacled priest had arrived, the other’s bid Father Brown welcome.
Depositing their assorted sticks, umbrella and other devices by the hat stand, they sat and waited for the maid to provide drinks. As to why they were there, they had no idea at that point. But once the maid had opened the door to the ante-room, and dropped her tray as she issued a scream, they knew their purpose was clear.
They stood around the body on the floor – noticed the blood from the deep head wound. Each one took in the whole scene, went through various scenarios in their head, and as they questioned the hysterical maid, only one possible answer came to mind. After all, there was no one else in the building.
They looked at each other suspiciously, hardly daring to think such a thing were possible. But in the end, Holmes could take it no more. ‘It is clear,’ he began, ‘that the culprit is none other than … (all three looked above them as he continued) … Anthony North. He wrote him out!!!’

© Anthony North, August 2008

THE CLUB

We’ve seen it happen all over the world,
people together, no violence hurled,
proud of their nation, one and all,
competing with each other, proud and tall;
The greatest club there ever can be,
a feeling of one amid diversity,
this is the Olympics, a peaceful way,
a global community that doesn’t betray,
oneness of culture, patriotism true,
yet proud of the humanity between me and you

If only our leaders understood this fact,
that people are different in a peaceful pact,
not scheming to always outfox the rest,
continually being a global pest;
Wars and conflict are always the result,
of the actions of a few, a silly insult,
yet they round up the people to fight it out,
their minds knowing its wrong, so much doubt;
Our leaders don’t belong in this global team,
tell them no! We want peace!
Let our planet gleam!

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

HOW TO EXPLAIN THE PARANORMAL

I cover so many areas of the paranormal in my theorizing that it can often seem that it is all un-coordinated. Yet most of my ideas fall clearly into an overall pattern. But trying to grasp the specifics of a ‘holistic’ system gives the impression of chaos.
So I thought it was time to state the basics of my overall ideas on the paranormal. In effect, what follows is a bottom line assessment of what I think the paranormal is, and how it works.

It begins with known effects.

These can be in sociology or psychology, and are well mapped out in themselves. However, I think society, culture and mind work together to produce an emergence that is more than the sum of their parts.
This effect, which I call psycho-sociology, arguably becomes, of itself, a lower level of consciousness that taps a more universal consciousness at the information level of the subatomic, with effects of the subatomic thus affecting the large scale we experience.

The result is a communal database.

We can all tap into this, and when we do, we can access information that is more than our own. Rather, it is a storehouse of universal memory and experience.
It works like a search engine. Key words or thoughts produce like information. But bearing in mind the fact that the subatomic is the building block of reality, emergence means that ‘information’ can actually turn into action in the world.

This gives us the whole array of paranormal experience.

The information element is what we know as extrasensory perception – a form of information transfer. Hauntings and possessions are low level infiltrations causing reality shifts.
Mind over matter abilities become a deeper penetration into changing realities, which may involve physical manipulation, or simply the appearance of it. Premonitions of the future become probability calculations based on the information within the system.

How is this paranormal system accessed?

This is an important question because life appears to be not paranormal. I argue that man became man psychologically because he needed to ‘concentrate’ on a task in hand due to technology, beginning when he first fashioned a branch.
He broke his link with instinct, and his mind evolved into a conscious (for the task in hand), and an unconscious (the memory store). Increasing information in the outside world pushes this store further away. It therefore follows that when information is reduced – the altered state – the store comes closer to the conscious, thus allowing access to the paranormality within.
Of course, much of this is unproveable, and it remains a speculative hypothesis. At the lower level of research, I work with concepts such as cryptomnesia, multiple personality, hysteria, the split brain, hallucination, semiotics and more.
But my methodology argues that these are simply the lower level of understanding – the specifics, if you like – prior to the convergences that lead to emergence. It is their coming together that is yet to be explored.
When they come together, I think we approach states that can be found within the overall theory above. And when this occurs, the difference between the hypothesis, and what we class as ‘supernatural’ influence, is one of language and interpretation alone.

© Anthony North, August 2008

TONY ON SAMENESS, RIGHTS & MORE

Including Rockin’ Chair Writers, Matinee Muse and Sunday Scribblings.
Have you had a go yet?

Prince Charles the Green recently caused controversy by stating that GM farming is the biggest environmental disaster of all time. Of course, there is science from both sides of the debate, so it soon becomes pointless to consider the science at all. Games of ‘my scientist is bigger than yours’ soon become tiresome, and stifle true debate.

To me, GM food is part of a disturbing trend.

Successful crops will be replicated more and more. And the upshot of this is that the gene pool will be depleted. This is counter to diversity, through which nature survives, and a single problem could devastate the lot.
But more than this, it is part of the seemingly unstoppable rise of ‘sameness’. Languages, lifestyles, religions, cars, fashions, even cities, are slowly being depleted to the point of having a few standard models. This is not only counter to nature, but evolution itself.
It appears to me we are devolving. An eco-disaster, indeed.

‘Rights’ have been aired in the Brit Parliament again.

A cross-party committee has suggested we need a new Bill of Rights. What an interesting idea. What new rights do we need? As I see it, we have so many ‘rights’ nowadays that no one can do anything without stepping on someone else’s ‘rights’.
We are awash with ‘rights’. If I didn’t know better I’d be thinking it’s a way of legislating us into a new totalitarianism, where we can’t do anything at all. Oh, I don’t know better. I DO think that. And there is only one ‘right’ of importance – freedom from legislation on ‘rights’.
You see, ‘rights’ are to do with social interaction. And governments should never get involved in this. Behaviour should be the realm of religion, pressure groups – anyone who can influence. But when it moves from influence to legislation, it is wrong.
We need the right to life, liberty, religion, ownership, association, free speech and general protection for minorities – as well as a sensible common law – but other than this, who decides what is ‘right’?

© Anthony North, August 2008

STORM OF SEDUCTION

A fleeting moment, put at ease,
a hand strokes your hair, a gentle breeze,
so calming as the inevitable dawns,
primeval forces, neither mourns;
What follows is a build up of powers,
nothing can stop it, always devours,
any hope of controlling your mind,
as the wind builds and howls, and lovers entwined;
A maelstrom of passion, swirling and true,
intimate moments, life bursting anew,
as everything falls to its seductive force,
and never can there be remorse,
for things will happen as they inevitably will,
riding on a tide of energy, until …
you exist in the eye, a calm, no pain,
as you ready yourself, to begin again

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

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HOW I MET MY …. – Fiction

It is hard to know I’ve got it absolutely right, but looking back over so many years, and with these newly discovered letters to guide me, I’m fairly sure that what follows is accurate.
She had left her previous relationship a while ago – a brooding, sultry relationship. Yet, with so much unresolved, it had taken a long time to be trusting once more. But when HE appeared in her life, it was like a breath of fresh air – at first.
I can imagine her initial delight at meeting someone new and so uncomplicated – so different from the circumstances that led to my temporary incarceration a short time later.
But I digress. They seem to have been happy. But doubt entered her mind about the same time as the man first appeared in the shadows. She would spy him occasionally, undefined, stalking, and she imagined him to be obsessed. And although she feared this unknown element to her life, she seemed to place it alongside the disquiet rising over her relationship.
It must have been a dark place to find herself in – almost as dark and disorientating as the place I was later incarcerated. But just as it was inevitable I would end up there, she inevitably found her life being turned upside down. Indeed, my circumstance inevitably followed from the outcome.
Her new man, you see, was a bore. He had everything a person needed, except that spark of life that offered excitement, passion and more.
Whereas the man in the shadows was of a different order, she was sure. And no matter how much she feared him, she was drawn to him.
Slowly, whenever she caught a glimpse of her stalker, she would encourage, not caring what fire she was playing with. And it was obvious that one day he’d come to her, disclose himself, and …
Well, on the day he did, her shock formed a scream which was soon cut short …

They kissed passionately as she recognized her previous lover, who could never have left her for good. And nine months later I escaped my incarceration, traveled to the light and met my parents.

© Anthony North, August 2008

TONY ON HEALTH, CREDIT & MORE

Including Totally Optional Prompts and Three Word Wednesday.
Have you had a go yet?

The beauty of British healthcare is that it is free at the point of use, and paid fairly by everyone through national insurance contributions. No need for private insurance at all. But it also means there are the occasional problems. And this usually comes regarding expensive drugs required to keep patients alive.

Everyone gets treatment as required.

But it is often a cheaper form of a particular drug, and not as effective. Now, the health watchdog has spoken out against the huge profits of pharmaceutical companies. And I couldn’t agree more. It’s a disgrace.
But there is another problem. Recent social engineering has meant that the health service now funds all forms of treatment to do with ‘lifestyle’ rather than basic health. Which is all very good, IF it can be afforded.
Whilst a person’s choices are his own business prior to illness, for people to die due to others’ lifestyle treatment is wrong.

A report has said that a third of over 55s face financial hardship.

And we’re not talking because of the recession. Rather, encouraged to live an affluent life on credit throughout their youth, they now have thousands of pounds of debt.
Basically, they’ve lived the dream. Now welcome to the nightmare. And whilst those words may seem harsh, reality often is. For the simple fact is, there never was the wealth to live the dream as portrayed by Big Biz. And the situation is bound to get much worse as more and more credit dreamers age.
It is only after the first generation has passed through a new social system that we begin to see its effects. Hopefully it will be enough to pull the younger generations up before they, too, succumb to the delusion.

© Anthony North, August 2008

POE-M

In the gutter he died,
after days on a ride,
drunken stupor his game,
his fame unproclaimed,
his mind in a mess,
forever distressed,
his lover apart,
Oh, his damned tell-tale heart!

He was not very mature,
his burial so premature,
Dupin would have swooned,
he was really a baboon,
for deep in his mind,
William Wilson you’d find,
causing epileptic fit,
a pendulum from the pit!

A genius to enthrall,
as the House of Usher did fall,
during a literary assignation,
no better creation,
of horrors untold,
imagination so bold,
stories never so honed,
as Annabel Lee would have known!

In the gutter he died,
after days on a ride,
where a black cat licked his face,
and the raven
flew his soul
into space

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

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SPIRIT OF THE TIMES – Fiction

It’s a big house. Too big. It’s a big family. Too big. Too busy. Always doing this, always doing that, no time to get bored, no time to settle into anything, their habits always chaotic.
I’m a member of the family. I live in the house. But I move around and no one notices me. I can stand over any one of them, doing something, and no one notices. It’s as if I’m not there.
I’m the quiet one of the family, almost insubstantial, it seems to me. I never do anything interesting, never do anything to be noticed. Never do anything ….
‘Listen to me!!!’ I wail, but not a single head is turned. No one notices me at all. It is as if I am but a ghost, a simple spirit wandering through the rooms.
I pass through the wall to yet another room. Spy another member of the family. ‘Look at me!!!!’ I wail, but not even a twitch of recognition.
I return to my bedroom, see my body lying still. Dead three weeks and undiscovered.
‘Will someone please remember me!!!’

© Anthony North, August 2008

TT #18 – HOW TO EXPLAIN PRAYER

Featuring Thursday Thirteen. Have you had a go yet?

13. This time I’m writing about prayer – how it could possibly work. Of course, many believe it is all to do with God, but many now argue that God works through natural ‘mechanisms’ which can be reasoned. So there is still a place for God in my ideas.
12. We often pray when we don’t know what to do. This is because it can relate to destiny. And by praying, you can open your mind to new realizations about yourself and the world about you. Hence, prayer can open up a path to the future.

11. People can be optimistic or pessimistic in life.

We also see only what we want to see. Known as selective attention, the optimist sees the best, the pessimist the worst. Hence, your mind-set can be the most important element in your perception.
10. Prayer allows the person to connect with an idea of spirituality. This means you are never really alone – there is something within, assisting you. This improves optimism. Hence, selective attention kicks in to your advantage.

9. The true optimist is often thought of as lucky.

This is so for a reason. Tests have shown that he is better at calculating odds. The result is he can intuit obstacles that can arise, and successfully negotiate around them.
8. Synchronicity can be important here. This is the idea that coincidences can be meaningful. Now coincidences always seem to happen, but they are thought to be produced by chance. But chance offers another possibility.

7. The lucky gambler is said to manipulate chance.

He can be seen as lucky for his ability to calculate odds. Can we see this process – and, by implication, prayer – as a means of optimism being a process of manipulating coincidence to your advantage?
6. If we place all these elements together, we have a strong possibility that prayer can actually affect reality to your advantage. And I think a reason why can be found in a rationalization of faith as a social phenomenon.

5. It’s all about belief in God.

If you believe that God exists, and live your life as if He does, could your actions confirm His existence? By yourself, possibly not. But if you belonged to a society where all believed, then that society would be as if He did exist. A consensual idea has produced an actual reality.
4. In praying, you would tap the entire communal belief that it COULD work, thus amplifying the personal mechanisms highlighted above. Basically, psychology has become sociology, and belief moves closer to a reality.
3. This is hinted at in quantum theory. Due to the math involved, an event in the subatomic world is probabilistic, in that any outcome is equally possible. So how does a definite reality form? In the ‘observer effect’ it is argued that the reality we experience is so because a definite outcome has been observed by a consciousness capable of defining it.
2. Such ideas give a real possibility of prayer working. However, it is very much dependent upon the sociology providing a consensual reality to give it power. Hence, it is also arguable that as belief in God wanes, so does the power of prayer.
1. The ability of prayer to work is, I’m convinced, tied in with the consensual realities we create from our beliefs. So, do YOU believe it is possible?

© Anthony North, August 2008

TONY ON BIG, WAX & MORE

Including ReadWritePoem and Manic Monday.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Monday Magazine post.
Regular readers will know I have a thing about ‘big’. The bigger an organization is, the more dictatorial it can become. Well, now it seems BA and AA are to cooperate to grasp the lion’s share of trans-Atlantic air travel.

Good for customers, they say.

Really? I rather think it is good for them, for now they will really squeeze smaller companies out of the market. And that means the death of competition. But ‘big’ is getting bigger in other areas.
A major think tank in the UK has just advised the millions of residents of northern cities to migrate to the south east, ‘cos their cities are beyond revival. Welcome to the Super-Metropolis of London, where everyone will disappear into obscurity!

Just as Russia flexes its muscles in Georgia, a new warning comes.

Moscow reserves the right to attack Poland with nuclear weapons if it hosts the new generation of US rockets. Bluff? Most likely, but bluff can be a dangerous thing.
During the Cold War I supported nuclear deterrence. Indeed, I was in the forces for nine years during the period. But this was a lesser evil due to the way the world was following the end of World War Two.
Today, things are different – or they could be, if we let them. Russia, by its very nature, is paranoid over its defence. This is due to the lack of geographical defences on the way to Moscow. Hence, corner a rat, and it bites.
The west has continued to try to stretch NATO eastwards. This was bound to raise the temperature in Russia. World War Two is a long time over. What is going on today is a game of bluff and counter-bluff more reminiscent of the insanity that led to World War One.
Don’t forget my Tuesday Essay. Next Magazine post, Wednesday. See you soon.

© Anthony North, August 2008

A LITERARY MIND

I sit here, thinking – in my usual space,
my mind’s eye takes me to another place,
where the books about me speak out loud,
of writers, ancient, so very proud,
of characters, creations, denouements great,
of moral dilemmas to relate;
Poe and Hardy and Dickens, too,
Shakespeare, Lawrence, take me through,
stories that come from mighty minds,
as brilliant plots begin to unwind,
genres proliferate as they write,
space trips, detectives, no respite,
as genius is portrayed in glorious prose,
love stories, tragedies, heroes repose,
within the pages until read,
coming alive as your mind is fed;
Inspirartion, one and all,
constantly they do enthrall,
the wannabe writer such as me,
surrounded by literary divinity

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

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WAXY WITCH – Horror Fiction

Waxy and Wane were sisters of the Moon. At least, that’s what they liked to call themselves. But most people would just class them as a couple of eccentric old witches. Complete with long black skirts, pointy hats and craggy, warted faces, they certainly looked the part.
Waxy was definitely the dominant one of the pair, Wane less confident and more the practical joker. Such as the time she added her smalls to the cauldron. At first Waxy thought they had produced ectoplasm, but it turned out to be the addition of washing powder.
‘You really must take it more seriously,’ Waxy used to say. To which Wane would reply, ‘but it’s only in the mind, anyway’ – which was definitely not what Waxy wanted to hear.
The latest commission had come in on the night of the story, and Waxy had worked hard on the effigy. Wane had selected the subject’s nail clipping and lock of hair from the National Witchery Database, and the waxen model was taking shape perfectly around them.
Finally, they were ready. Holding the effigy in one hand, Waxy cast the spell and added the flame. Red hot drops of wax began to plop to the floor.
Suddenly, Wane shouted: ‘Oh, hoot!’
‘What?’ replied Waxy.
‘Wrong samples. They were yours.’
Waxy looked at the dripping effigy, a look of horror on her face. Slowly, green steam seemed to rise from her, beginning with her feet and rising upwards. And as the steam rose upwards, Waxy’s body dissolved downwards, hissing at it fell.
Finally, a distorted, manic face peeped out from the pointy hat on the floor, and in a final fizz, she let out a blood curdling scream and was gone.
Wane looked on in horror. ‘Just kidding,’ she said.
It seems it may well be in the mind, of sorts.

© Anthony North, August 2008