Well, Tom, I don't know how to answer this. I really don't, so perhaps it is best to let it be.

You know Swamiji better than I do and I know this because you have made a practice to daily chronicle his very words and you have done this for a long time. The ability for direct perception is given to us for a reason.

BTW, I read Swamiji's letter on your website today.
Who do you think he was referring to when he was talking about "imps"?

I haven't felt like reading too much tonight--it's like that sometimes.

Thanks for talking with me.

Your friend in devotion,
Rosemary

Location: North Carolina

PS.

Still, you have helped me realize something with this discussion. I personally will not accept a source that just leads back to another book. I want to know where the direct quote came from and not just "Isherwood", no, I cannot accept that as a source.

It looks like I am going to be buying a lot of books.

There is something that my old boss (The Tax Collector) used to say to me that keeps coming back into my mind tonight. It was meant by him to be humorous, but it is also so true. He used to say to me, "Just because you are paranoid, Rosemary, doesn't mean that someone isn't after you."

It's an odd way of saying to trust your feelings.

Om Shanti Om

Location: North Carolina

Dear Rosemary,

I appreciate very much your company in Mother's Forum.

Regarding the "imps" mentioned in Swamiji's letter to Mrs. William Sturges;
it seems to me that he was referring to the two ladies from Detroit
harboring superstitions; i.e. a belief in malignant spirits (imps).

He must have been joking about their anxieties.

His mention of their practice of putting a little salt in burning alcohol to
determine the presence of these imagined supernatural beings, reminds me of
my late Indian mother-in-law, who would burn a few chillies in the fire; in
order to remove any instances of Evil Eye.

Just in case you are wondering about Swamiji's opinion about those things,
here is a quote from April 8, 1900:

"It will take thousands of years to have large numbers of truly rational human
beings. It is very hard to show men new things, to give them great ideas. It is harder
still to knock off old superstitions, very hard; they do not die easily. With all his
education, even the learned man becomes frightened in the dark — the nursery tales
come into his mind, and he see ghosts."

That was very funny: "Just because you are paranoid, Rosemary, doesn't mean that
someone isn't after you."

That reminds me of the old saying: "Thank God I'm crazy, because it's the only thing
keeping me from going insane".

Have a good day.

Om Shanthi Om
==============

Dear Tom,

Superstition, ghosts and their effect on the psyche are a fascinating subject to me.

It may sound "crazy" but my first experience on getting strange impressions from my own senses was on a Girl Scout camp-out many, many years ago. We were sleeping in tents in the Croatan Forest and had been awake for hours past my usual time of repose. As we girls were giggling and talking outside of our tents I looked deep into the forest and thought I saw "little people" chasing each other around through the trees. They were fast little creatures. Although I can explain this away by saying it was the figment of an overtired brain (which indeed I think it was) it still left a lasting impression on me and I remember the vision as clearly today as when I was in the forest as a young girl.

I have a very old friend from high school who has a "psychic" ability. When I send him pictures of some of the old houses in New Bern, he gets impressions and tells me about what he "sees". The thing about him is that if I wait a few years and send him a different picture of the same house, he still keeps the story straight. It has been uncanny to hear the things that he tells me.

Since I have had no direct "experience" with an actual "ghost" I still have gotten very strong impressions at times and a couple of times have caught some strange smoky essences on my photographs. Below is a photo taken a few years back at the Civil War campground during a Ghost Walk here in New Bern, near where I live now. I could explain this and say that it was merely "smoke" in front of my lens, and perhaps it is just smoke, but the very next photo shows no evidence of smoke at all. This has happened to me 3 times in photographs and one time it was a photo of Blackbeard's house in
Beaufort, just down the road on the shore across from the Outer Banks.

I once heard a "guru" say that there was no such thing as "ghosts" so I believed him for many years. But then, I had experiences in an apartment here in New Bern and it made me do a double take.

There are mention of ghosts in the books I have read about Sri Ramakrishna recently. In "They Lived With God" there is mention of ghosts living in the temple garden house where Gopala Ma lived. (Poor Gopala Ma, I think of her often.) Until I can find the primary source for these stories I do not want to say what is and what isn't.

I'm on a trail hunt!!

Speaking of which....I hope to get on the Hank trail if and when we get to Alabama. My family will try to hold me back, they always keep a short leash. We shall see. There is here in North Carolina toward the Western mountains in Kannapolis, a route that is clearly marked with many signs, "The Dale Trail" which is a way to follow in the life of race car driver, Dale Earnhart.

Well, I must fly. Have a good day. I am loathe to speak of what I am reading (which was almost nothing last night) without checking for primary sources first.

Your friend in devotion,
Rosemary

Location: North Carolina

Dear Tom,

To make my previous post worthwhile, this is from the web, and here is the resource:

http://www.kathamrita.org/kathamrita4/k4SectionXIII.htm

"His earlier story – visit to the fort – women and the ‘sloping path’

“Men don’t understand how far down they have gone.

“When I went to the fort in a carriage, I thought we’d come by an ordinary path. Later I found out we’d come down four storeys. It was a sloping path. A person possessed by a ghost doesn’t know that he is possessed. He thinks he’s quite all right.”

Vijay (smiling): “If you bring an exorcist, he can get rid of the ghost.”

Sri Ramakrishna does not respond to this. He only says, “It is the Lord’s will.”

He continues to talk about women.

Sri Ramakrishna: “Whoever I ask says that his wife is good. No man has a bad wife. (All laugh.)

“Those who live amidst ‘lust and greed’ aren’t able to understand because of their inebriation. Chess players often don’t know if a move is right until the game has continued for some time. But onlookers from a distance can see and understand the game better.

“Woman is the embodiment of maya. In his hymn in praise of Rama, Narada said, ‘O Rama, all men that are, are parts of you; and all women are parts of Sita, the embodiment of maya. I ask for no other boon: only grant that I may have pure love for Your lotus feet and that I may not be enchanted by Your world-bewitching maya.’”

Location: North Carolina

Dear Rosemary,

Your experience in the Croatan woods appears to me to have been an hallucination,
brought on by fatigue, excitement & the strange surroundings.

I remember some years ago, I was alone in a friend's apartment late at
might...and I saw clearly with my own eyes; a small midget, running across
the room and disappearing behind a sofa. He looked very much like this
picture:



I should mention that I had been smoking some very potent weed...which
could have had something to do with the hallucination.

Regarding ghosts, they certainly exist, if we believe that they do...
similarly, if we don't believe that they exist, then they won't exist for us.
Personally, I don't believe in their existence, outside of human imagination.

Smokey photos could be from various causes...however, I don't know anything
about photography.

The author of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Mahendranath Gupta ("M") said
the following about ghosts:

"A certain person was perfected in pishacha (ghoul). He used to get everything
done through a ghost. The ghost would finish all work ordered by him in no time.
Then he had nothing in hand. The agreement with the ghost was that if he did not
give work to him, he would break his neck and eat him up. The man seeing no way
out took refuge in his guru. The guru said, 'well, go home and fix a bamboo in
the courtyard. Then say to the ghost – climb it up and down.' The ghost went on
doing so day and night. The man was thus saved."

The English are great believers in ghosts. But, happily I have not inherited
that trait from my father's people. The practical side of my nature, comes
from my Franco-American, Massachusetts-born and bred mother..who is still in
great shape, mentally and physically at age 95.

When Sri Ramakrishna mentions 'ghosts' in that quote you so kindly provided,
it is probably for want of a more modern term, like for instance:

"Dissociative identity disorder" is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes
a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities
(known as alter egos or alters), each with its own pattern of perceiving and
interacting with the environment."

Mental health has come a heck of a long way in a hundred years.

RE: "Maya"

My son & his new wife are expecting a baby.
If it's a girl, they plan to name her "Maya"

Sri Ramakrishna also had this to say about "Maya"

"Remember that dayA, compassion, and mAyA, attachment,
are two different things. Attachment means the feeling of
'my-ness' towards one's relatives.
Compassion is the love one feels
for all beings of the world.
It is an attitude of equality. MAyA also comes from God.
Through mAyA, God makes one serve one's relatives.
But one thing should be remembered:
mAyA keeps us in ignorance and entangles
us in the world, whereas dayA
makes our hearts pure and gradually unties our bonds."

Om Shanthi Om

PS1: Methinks it is time to start a new thread again.
this one is also getting 'long in the tooth'. :)

PS2: My kid brother went to visit your blog and he liked it very much.