A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine. May's Theme: "Vision"
Volume 2 Issue 4 ISSN# 1708-3265

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Illuminations Aleesha Stephenson About the Cover Lorraine Malach "So Help Me God" Rev. Cheryl Jewett Looking at Life through Angels' Eyes Deborah Vaughan and Jean Porche Examining "Vision" Magi Frost Vision? Charlene Invisible Air David Suzuki PhD 54/11 What is it and What does it mean for you? Aleesha Stephenson Meditate a Moment Featuring: Tira Brandon-Evans Wiccan Voices Featuring: Anne Ellis Lifetalks Dawn Baumann Brunke Walk Your Talk Aleesha Stephenson Aunty Nasty Nasturtium Blackwitt Tales of a Country Vet Dr. Bruce Burton DVM Technically Tarot Jeannette Roth Awakening to Animal Voices: A Teen Guide to Telepathic Communication with All Life Dawn Baumann-Brunke Tarot of the Origins Sergio Toppi Tarot du Roy Nissanka Maria Mestre The Nefertari Tarot Silvana Alasia The Buckland Romani Tarot: The Gypsy Book of Wisdom Raymond Buckland Madame Endora's Fortune Cards Christine Filipak and Joseph Vargo

Vision. Ah yes, the folks in my particular branch of the business hear a lot about visions. Of course, it might be true (although a tad nasty) to say the majority of them could be more properly classified as 'hallucinations'… but what the hey… they're all very real to the person having them.

Visions come in all shapes and sizes, and have been a part of our heritage since time immemorial. Shamans and medicine-men/women have often utilized their 'visioning' or 'questing' or 'journeying' skills to benefit their people or tribe. And who can argue with the validity of the vision, which brings the animal to the hunter… exactly as foretold by the village shaman?

What about the 'vision' of the village healer who 'sees' the apparition of the cause of the disease or sickness of the patient, and then proceeds to 'exorcise' it, resulting in the complete cure of the ailing person?

Are we dealing with some 'hocus-pocus' and chicanery here? What about the stories of the supposed success of physic surgery, as practised in The Philippines and Mexico? There are people who will swear on a stack of bibles they have been miraculously healed or cured by this method.

And just as many who will tell you this stuff is all pure bunk, lies, and nothing but a money-grabbing swindle perpetrated by con-artists using sleight-of-hand in a big, set up 'dog-and-pony-show' to fleece gullible idiots who had nothing wrong with them in the first place.

Sadly, some of the greatest con artists of all time have masqueraded as religious miracle workers, and I'm sure you truth-seekers have seen the T.V. programs where hidden cameras and other covert means have been used to expose the trickery and deception which goes on by the 'staff' of these tent revival shows - pre-screening and sorting possible 'candidates' for selection by 'the minister' to be the subject of his 'vision' of miraculous healings that day.

So wise cynics will assure you the 'afflicted person' was imagining it all. The clinical term for this is "Psychosomatic Illness". We could wrangle all day about the validity of diagnosing an illness as 'psychosomatic'.

Let me suggest two extremes cases for this argument:

A child falls down and skins their knee. It's not really a serious injury, but the child is jarred into a state of shock. They limp to their mother, who cleans and bandages the scrape and 'kisses it better'… and immediately they feel a cessation of pain and trauma. The nurturing touch and actions by the person they know and trust to make it all better works like a charm. It's almost like a miracle.

At the other end of the spectrum we have the example of 'hysterical paralysis', in which the patient becomes literally paralysed, unable to move their legs, for instance. Make no mistake about it, these legs do not work, but there's no apparent nerve or bone damage to account for the phenomenon. Doctors, specialists too, would have run every test available to attempt to determine the cause of the paralysis, all to no avail. This person may spend the rest of their life unable to use their legs, and the muscles, because of the dis-use, will gradually atrophy, compounding their misery.

BUT - What if one day this wheelchair-bound person hears about a group of children in some out-of-the-way country who are having daily 'visions' of The Virgin Mary? You all know how this type of event gets the press all in an uproar. Word spreads around like wildfire, and pretty soon there are hordes of people flocking to their little village, and the reports of miraculous healings start to surface and to be publicized.

Our patient has their own 'vision' - of going to this place - which has by now attained a magical significance - and being cured! Do we discount his 'vision' as merely the wishful thinking of a person who has exhausted all medical avenues, and now prays for a miracle to get him up and walking again? Is his 'vision' unrealistic? Critics would say so… all his doctors and specialists in the allopathic medical community would say so… but wait…

He manages to make the trip halfway across the world, to the village where the children have their daily 'vision' of The Virgin Mary. It's a long, arduous journey, (yada, yada, yada, say the cynical, get to the point), and our chap joins the throng of people gathered at the end of the day in the tiny church where, up in the choir loft, the children are awaiting the 'visitation'. Sitting among the faithful, he fervently expects to be cured. And guess what? For him, it works! He is able to get up and walk! Now is this a miracle, a manifestation of the 'vision' of the children, or is it the story of a man who believed so very hard he made it happen?

One of the great motivational speakers of our time, Napoleon Hill, summed it up very nicely when he said: "Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements."

So I urge you all, don't be too cynical about 'visions' - because you never know - they might just be real!

Ms. Blackwitt is a noted psychologist who specialises in dysfunctional behavioural and abnormal sociological interaction. Her column features insightful commentaries on familial relationships, as viewed from her unique perspective.

Affectionately known as 'Aunty Nasty', amongst her many honours and awards are a Ph. D in 'Mammalian Excretement Dispersal' and a Degree of Familiarity with The Ministry of Human Remains and Dysfunctional Families.

Ms.Blackwitt also served in the Armed Forces on a 6-year tour of duty as a Diplomatic Peace-Keeper in Washington, D.C., during which time she rose to the top of her team, quickly attaining the exalted rank of Private, and was subsequently transferred to Bikini Atoll, (with undisclosed rank) where she gained extensive hands-on experience in Mammalian Excrement.

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