About time too the c**nts

thus was the comment by the bald headed, cockney gangster standing in the middle of the Carpenter's Arms following English Heretic's unwitting literal invocation of the lines "Silence, silence, the living God beyond decay..." as their amps blew half way through opening the Mithraic Stargate. Undeterred by the disdain of the hackneyed henchman, English Heretic will be venturing North this weekend to play at the wonderful termite festival in Leeds. We will be performing our ritual electronics on Sunday 20th April at the Hyde Park Picture House.

The future furniture of my imagination

For those interested, there is an interview with English Heretic over at Musique Machine conducted by Roger Batty.
Read here


Dr Champagne holds forth from his think tank.

The London Tauroctony

As part of the opening of the "New Dark Age" art show curated by Dean Kenning at Hats Plus, English Heretic will be performing a set of ritual electronics on March 20th at The Carpenter's Arms, Kings Cross Road, Kings Cross London. A celebration of the Mithraic festival of the Taurobolium, the order of service is (provisionally):

*Kings Cross Black Magick Night

*Black Venus In Furs (A setting to ritual electronic rock of The Tuba Veneris)

*The Mystic Art, Anthem of English Heretic

*Prise Open The Mithraic Sarcophagus (A rendering of the Mithraic Liturgy)

*Taurobolium AD 2008

English Heretic for this ceremony will be:

Dr. Alain Champagne - guitar, electronics, gong and vocals

Sebastian Copely-Syle - guitar,flute,singing bowl and vocals

This event is ticket only, and performance will start at 10.30pm. If you are interested in attending contact The English Heretic box office at

mail@english-heretic.org.uk

Channel 23

For interested parties, English Heretic will be guesting on Channel 23 radio show tonight (10pm -11pm).

http://www.nashimiron.co.uk/

Le Délire de Négation

At a recent event called the "Weird Symposium", James Trafford and Dr. Ray Brassier gave an extremely interesting talk on the writer Thomas Ligotti. As Dr. Brassier detailed the mental habitat occupied by the narrator in stories by Ligotti, my immediate thought was that it sounded like Ligotti was either describing incredibly accurately or, is suffering from some kind of recognised psychopathology. Dr. Brassier then went onto discuss Ligotti's diagnosed Anhedonia. However, there is also an unusual psychiatric syndrome called Cotard's Syndrome (Le Délire de Négation) that also seems to be well apprehended by Ligotti. I thought it might be useful to give a few quotes from the book "Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes".

"Cotard's syndrome is a rare condition of which the central symptom is nihilistic delusion which, in its complete form, leads the patient to deny his own existence and that of the external world."

The book goes onto give the following case of a 38yr old woman who exhibited a change of personality after an operation, probably for an ovarian neoplasm...

"She became extremely withdrawn and was admitted into another clinic where she protested that 'all is dead within and outside me'... On rare occasions she would respond to questioning and revert to making spontaneous remarks. Once she pointed to the surrounding countryside and said that all that encircled her 'the sun, earth and the very stars do not exist'. She believed that she alone survived the initial explosion that created the world, and that she wandered in the empty world as 'a carbonized star'. She believed that even time had been consumed and that she was thus condemned to wander eternally in this form."

In another case, that of 67 year old alcoholic man, who was admitted in a severe depressive state with evidence of organic deterioration. "He stated, 'I am already dead','I am finished', 'I am poisoned'. He was preoccupied with his bowels. After 25 days in hospital he asked to be buried because he was 'a corpse which already stinks'. A month later he said that he had no flesh and no legs or trunk. The ideas were unshakable, so that the clinical picture remained unchanged for months."

"[Another] patient who had developed syphilis at 37 years and paranoid ideas at the age of 39 years which then cleared completely. At 62 years years his paranoid ideas recurred and gradually worsened. He was in poor physical health and extremely despondent, 'because people are dead and corpses are on the wall'. He was convinced that he too was dead, that this bowels did not work and that they were calcified. He insisted his toes were dead. He was extremely depressed and although when treated with antidepressants he initially improved, after a few days he relapsed and again stated that he was a 'living corpse with no stomach and bowels; which do not exist'."

Describing other clinical aspects of Cotard's the authors state:

"Accessory symptoms may include analgesia, mutism, self-mutilation urges, suicidal ideas, illusions and, in some cases, hallucinations. The latter may be visual but are much more commonly auditory... one patient 'hears the preparations for his execution, the guillotine being erected.'

Others may have hallucinations of taste and smell, believing that they are rotting away, that their food is completely changed, or that they are being offered filth, faecal matter or human flesh."

Paradoxically, because the sufferers believe themselves to be 'already dead' then there can in some cases be a concommitant delusion of immortality,

"When the patient comes to believe that he is not only dead but also immortal, it means that he will remain in his 'I am dead' state for ever, with no possibility of release through death; in effect a state of 'ever lasting death' and hence everlasting despair..."

More worryingly it has been claimed that,

"In 1968, a study describing 10 cases of Cotard's syndrome drew a distinction between a 'genuine' Cotard Syndrome occurring in depressive states and what he described as a 'pseudo-nihilistic or pseudo-Cotard Syndrome; the latter being a feature of what he termed 'coenaesthetic schizophrenia', which he claimed, had demonstrated as being caused by atrophy of basal ganglia."

A study in 1984 described "a series of patients in whom a sense of being dead or of being close to death was associated with temporal lobe or limbic seizures."

So could a pseudo-Cotard syndrome be experimentally induced? Does this mean that devices like Persinger's Koren Helmet might have the ability to simulate an altogether more unpleasant pleroma?

Worse still might these experiments already be taking place? Is what we perceive as our conscious lifespan, merely the lunch break of some cosmic neuroscientist dabbling with our basal ganglia? Fortean researcher John Keel's concluding paragraph in Disneyland Of The Gods, seems in no doubt:

"We are biochemical robots helplessly controlled by forces that can scramble our brains, destroy our memories and use us in any way they see fit. They have been doing it to us forever. We are caught in a poker game being played with marked cards. Yet, in the closing years of this century[written in 1988] , we are like the inverterate gambler who when informed that the game is crooked, shrugs and says, "I know... but it's the only game in town!""

Put another way by Arthur Machen in the story 'N':

“I believe that there is a perichoresis, an interpenetration. It is possible, indeed, that we three are now sitting among desolate rocks, by bitter streams. And with what companions?”

English Heretic Research proposals for 2008

English Heretic will be carrying out extensive and cavalier research into the neuropsychological bases for Godhead. To this end Dr Champagne will be purchasing the following apparatus from Shakti technology:

One 8 Coil Shakti headset - with the explicit intention of understanding Life after Death, Visions of God, Romantic Love, Enlightenment, Deja Vu, and even Out Of Body Experiences".

http://www.shaktitechnology.com/

http://www.shaktitechnology.com/god_helmet.htm

"Thus far, about 20 or so people have reported feeling the presence of Christ or even seeing him in the chamber (The acoustic chamber where the experimental sessions took place). Most of these people used Christ and God interchangeably. Most of these individuals were older (30 years or more) and religious (Roman Catholic). One male, age about 35 years old (alleged atheist but early childhood RC (Roman Catholic) training), saw a clear apparition (shoulders and head) of Christ staring him in the face. He was quite "shaken" by the experience. I did not complete a follow-up re: his change in behavior. Of course these are all reports. What we did find with one world-class psychic who experiences Christ as a component of his abilities was we could experimentally increase or decrease his numbers of his reported experiences by applying the LTP pattern (derived from the hippocampus) over the right hemisphere (without his awareness). The field on-response delay was about 10 to 20 sec. The optimal pattern, at least for this person, looked very right hippocampal.By far most presences are attributed to dead relatives, the Great Forces, a spirit, or something equivalent. The attribution towards along a devil to angel continuum appears strongly related to the affect (pleasant-terror) associated with the experience. I suspect most people would call the "vague, all-around-me" sensations "God" but they are reluctant to employ the label in a laboratory. The implicit is obvious. If the equipment and the experiment produced the presence that was God, then the extrapersonal, unreachable and independent characteristics of the god definition might be challenged."

We intend to use this device at Rendlesham Forest, at night, at the site of the suspected UFO landing, whilst performing the Mithraic Ritual and listening to George Crumb's Black Angels.

"Please God Fuck My Mind, For Good" - Coil...

Volunteers very much welcome...

The Journal of Death And Dying

Perhaps the strangest most (necessarily though) obsessive science journal I came across a good few years ago was OMEGA: The Journal Of Death And Dying. Aimed at professional thanatologists and the like, there is something immensely sobering yet surreal about the nature of some of the articles. Below is a list of abstracts from the journal. They provide a fascinating gamut of Saturnine studies often from the most oblique of perspectives on a single dominant theme.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 50, Number 4 / 2004-2005
Pages: 267 - 280
URL: Linking Options
DEATH IN DISNEY FILMS: IMPLICATIONS FOR CHILDREN'S UNDERSTANDING OF DEATH
MEREDITH COX A1, ERIN GARRETT A1, JAMES A. GRAHAM A1
A1 The College of New Jersey, Ewing
Abstract:
This study examined the potential influence of Disney films on children's concepts of death. A content analysis was performed on 23 death scenes from 10 selected full-length Disney Classic animated films. The portrayal of death focused on five categories: character status; depiction of death; death status; emotional reaction; and causality. The findings indicate that some animated Disney films present scenes that eclipse the permanence and irreversibility of death and often leave deaths (especially those of villains) emotionally unacknowledged. Previous work has shown that many children tend not to discuss death with their friends or parents for many reasons. More importantly, the films may serve as catalysts to introduce the concept of death into discussions between children, peers, and adults.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 53, Number 1-2 / 2006
Pages: 37 - 49
URL: Linking Options
ARE THEY HALLUCINATIONS OR ARE THEY REAL? THE SPIRITUALITY OF DEATHBED AND NEAR-DEATH VISIONS
L. STAFFORD BETTY A1
A1 California State University, Bakersfield
Abstract:
The focus here is mainly on visions of deceased relatives and friends that persons near death often report. Are they visions of real people who live in an afterlife environment or are they hallucinations? Most social scientists assume they are hallucinations, but a thorough and careful analysis of the evidence does not point to this conclusion. The argument for the reality of such visions is muddied, however, by aspects of the visions that are dependent on the personal histories of the percipients and suggest, in some cases, illusory content. A theory that makes sense of all aspects of these visions is developed and defended, then tied into our theme: the spirituality of death.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 53, Number 3 / 2006
Pages: 249 - 262
URL: Linking Options

DEAD MEN TALKING: EVIDENCE OF POST DEATH CONTACT AND CONTINUING BONDS
CRAIG M. KLUGMAN A1
A1 University of Nevada, Reno
Abstract:
Post Death Contact (PDC) is when a living individual feels that a person who is deceased is reaching out to connect with the living. Such experiences may be part of a model of grieving called Continuing Bonds. In order to further investigate the relationship between PDCs and the grieving process, a random telephone survey was developed to determine the ways in which PDCs are experienced in the United States. Most commonly, subjects reported PDCs that included dreams, sounds, feeling a presence, and having conversations. The results suggest that experiencing PDCs may be a lifelong phenomenon and more widespread than previously thought.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 53, Number 3 / 2006
Pages: 243 - 248
URL: Linking Options
NICKNAMES INCREASE LONGEVITY
ERNEST L. ABEL A1 and MICHAEL L. KRUGER A1
A1 Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
Abstract:
We investigated the effect of having a nickname on the longevity of major league baseball players. Ages of death, birth year, and career lengths of major league baseball players who debuted prior to 1950 were obtained and we compared longevities of players with nicknames with those who did not have a nickname. After controlling for these factors in analysis of covariance, there was a statistically significant increase in longevity of 2.5 years associated with having a nickname. Players with nicknames (N = 2,666; 38.1%) lived an average of 68.6 (±15.1 S.D.) years compared to players without nicknames (N = 4,329; 61.9%) who lived an average of 66.1 (±16.1) years. We attributed this nickname-related effect on longevity to enhanced self-esteem.
OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 49, Number 4 / 2004
Pages: 287 - 297
URL: Linking Options


OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 47, Number 3 / 2003
Pages: 221 - 244
URL: Linking Options
ROADSIDE MEMORIALS
CHARLES O. COLLINS A1 and CHARLES D. RHINE A1
A1 University of Northern Colorado
Abstract:
Roadside memorials or descansos have diffused from a Mexican/ Southwestern regional Hispanic hearth to increasingly draw the attention of motorists and public officials throughout the United States. In the current context, the authors' attention is on privately and spontaneously erected memorials placed at the sites of fatal events. Typically these result from automobile accidents, though not exclusively. The intent of the present article is three-fold: 1) to identify meaning and significance in the precise placement of contemporary markers; 2) to directly investigate the motivation and purposes of memorial/descanso builders; and 3) to survey issues of traffic safety, highway maintenance, landscape or visual blight, and church/state relations arising from the placement and maintenance of these roadside memorials.
This is where I see him best. (Father of traffic victim)
This is holy ground. (Mother of teenage rollover fatality)



OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 39, Number 3 / 1999
Pages: 229 - 232
URL: Linking Options
Suicide among Carpenters: A Multivariate Analysis
Steven Stack
Abstract:
Previous work on broad occupational groups has noted that suicide rates are higher among manual workers than nonmanual workers. However, it is not clear if this is due to occupational strains per se, or the covariates of manual worker status such as gender, and marital strain. The present study explores suicide risk among a group of skilled manual workers: carpenters. Data are taken from the U.S. Public Health Service Annual Mortality Detail File tapes for 1990. A bivariate analysis finds that carpenters are 1.996 times more likely than the rest of the working age population to die of suicide. However, once controls are introduced for gender, race, marital status and other socio-demographic variables, carpenters are only 1.15 times more at risk of suicide than the working age population. The results are consistent with those of an earlier study of laborers. While working class occupations are marked by suicide risk, the risk may be due more to the covariates of these occupations than the occupations themselves.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 37, Number 2 / 1998
URL: Linking Options
The Sympathy Card as Cultural Assessment of American Attitudes Toward Death, Bereavement and Extending Sympathy: A Replicated Study
Charmaine Caldwell, Marsha McGee, and Charles Pryor
Abstract:
In 1980, Marsha McGee conducted a study to evaluate the content of sympathy cards to view the American treatment of death, bereavement, and sympathy. She surveyed eighty-seven college students to determine their use of and attitudes toward sympathy cards. Fifteen years later this study replicates that undertaking in an attempt to determine what attitude changes have occurred, if any. One hundred thirty-seven sympathy cards were analyzed, and ninety-three people competed a questionnaire. Data gathered were compared to the original results with the determination that in fact there have been subtle changes in many respects; however, the reluctance to confront death in our expressions of sympathy and to use "that word" remains as staunch as ever.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 36, Number 1 / 1997-1998
URL: Linking Options
The Death of Jesus, Christian Salvation, and Easter-Week Atrocities Against Jews: A Suicidological Approach
Kalman J. Kaplan
Abstract:
A question ignored by suicidologists is the degree to which major Christian theologians have stressed that Jesus gave up his life voluntarily as an act of salvation for mankind and that it was not taken by another. Indeed His death, in Durkheim's terms, is an "altruistic suicide" and is offered as a standard of love for others. Nevertheless, the Jewish people have been historically blamed for His death with many anti-Jewish persecutions occurring coincidentally with the Christian Holy week. The believing Christian can be seen as a survivor of "altruistic suicide," certain New Testament passages as s suicide note, Easter Week as the anniversary date of Jesus' death, and anti-Jewish persecutions during this period as displacement of survivor guilt into aggression toward Jesus' family of origin.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 34, Number 3 / 1996-1997
URL: Linking Options
Lassie Come Home: A Study of "Lost Pet" Notices
Allan Kellehear and Jan Fook
Abstract:
This is a report of a qualitative, content analysis of 100 "Lost Pet" notices. The aim of the study was to identify what literary techniques people employed to express their loss given a highly diverse public that may, or many not, be sympathetic to expressions of grief over pets. Four notice types were identified: The simple public notice [impersonal] (20%); the simple public notice [personalized] (55%); the personal appeal notice (21%) and; the owner's story notice (4%). The relationship between these styles of writing and public sanctions against open grief are discussed. Directions for future research are identified.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 33, Number 4 / 1996
URL: Linking Options
Graveside Deaths
Bruce L. Danto, Mark L. Taff, and Lauren R. Boglioli
Abstract:
Cemeteries are designed to provide mourners with a semiprivate place to express their grief. The cemetery is symbolic of the reunification of the living with the dead. Deaths, particularly suicides, occurring in cemeteries are a rare phenomena. Graveside suicides represent an exaggerated form of pathological mourning and grief reaction. Graveside suicides are analogous to a death pact between two persons in which the second death occurs as a reaction to the first, in the cemetery where the first is buried, and without the knowledge of the first. Case histories of graveside suicides are presented, as well as a brief discussion of other types of injuries and deaths occurring in cemeteries. A profile of the graveside suicide victim, the psychodynamics of grief reactions, and the medicolegal implications related to a cemetery security are also presented.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 24, Number 2 / 1991-1992
URL: Linking Options
Through a Glass Darkly: Images of the Dead in Dreams
Deirdre Barrett
Abstract:
This study examined dreams about the dead. There were four categories of activities reported in these: the deceased described the state of death, delivered messages to the living, sought to change the circumstances of their death, or gave loved ones a chance to say 'goodbye.' Some of these categories occurred at a particular point in the grief process; others occurred at any time after the death. A remarkably large number of the dead telephoned. These dreams are discussed in terms of what they illuminate about attitudes toward mortality and loss.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 20, Number 3 / 1989
URL: Linking Options
Themes of Death and Violence in Lullabies of Different Countries
Kalle Acht , Ritva Fagerstr m, Juha Pentik inen, and Norman L. Farberow
Abstract:
Lullabies are often divided into mourning songs describing the death or funeral of the child and threat songs which threaten the child with violence if he does not go to sleep. Threat songs are considerably more common then lullabies with death themes; according to results of the present survey, the former were found in many parts of the world. Lullabies with death themes are frequent in Finno-Ugric and Slavic cultures but not in most others. The survey covered twenty-six countries as well as certain ethnic groups.

OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying
Issue: Volume 20, Number 2 / 1989
URL: Linking Options
The Distant Mourner: An Examination of the American Gravedigger
Gay Petrillo
Abstract:
Despite innumerable thanatological research, little has been done concerning the gravedigger and his role in the mourning process. What is known about him, consequently, is based primarily on myths, superstitions, and prejudices. To examine the validity of these myths, a preliminary investigation was undertaken into the gravedigger's function. A mail survey and personal interviews were conducted, which focused on the psychological dimensions of the gravedigger in relation to his job. Of concern were the ways in which he views his job's positive and negative characteristics and the degree to which he is affected by the daily encountered sadness of his job. The findings show that several issues are of concern to the gravedigger; the sadness of his job is multi-faceted; its intensity varies and is managed accordingly. Results indicate that the gravedigger who emerges from this study's profile and the gravedigger of popular myth are incongruous