Concept "evil" in channeling-discourse

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Concept “evil” in channeling-discourse

Petryk T. V.

The article continues the series of author's scientific insights into the problem of conceptual reconstruction of the picture of the world presented in the channelings of different multidimensional entities. It analyzes the lingual presentation peculiarities of concept EVIL in the channeling-discourses of Seth and Kryon. Concept EVIL is described as having different logical understanding in different cultures but equally meaningful for every of the existing cultures as it belongs to the basic concepts of the mental sphere and enters the systems of other concepts of moral, philosophical, theological and scientific essence. The concept is viewed as a unit of mental lexicon coded in language. On the material of channelings there have been singled out the peculiarities of one of the basic concepts of human civilization - concept EVIL - and its linguistic representation in the texts as well as the shifts occurring within the semantic structure of the concept under analysis. The article provides the evidence of the semantic content broadening of the concept through both the inclusion of new elements and the additional characteristics of the existing ones. Analyzing and systematizing the examples from the text, the article speculates upon the origin and essence of evil as presented in the channelings as well as drives the conclusion that ontologically evil is ascribed to human being and the features of human consciousness to support the human dual perception of the world by “coining” the oppositions: in this very instance - the opposition of good-evil. The role of the above-mentioned concept in the modeling of the cognitive and evaluative pictures of the addressers' worlds is also in the focus of the article. concept evil channeling

Key words: concept EVIL, broadening, notional component, channeling.

Петрик Т. В. Концепт «ЗЛО» у ченнелінг-дискурсі. Стаття продовжує серію публікацій автора, присвячених проблемі коцептуальної картини світу, представленої у ченнелінгах різних сутностей багатовимірного плану існування. Проаналізовано особливості мовної репрезентації концепту ЗЛО у ченнелінг-дискурсах Сета та Крайона. У статті розглянуто концепт як одиницю ментального плану, виділено семантичні одиниці, які розширюють понятійний компонент концепту ЗЛО у ченнелінг-дискурсах Сета та Крайона.

Ключові слова: концепт ЗЛО, розширення, понятійний компонент, ченнелінг.

Defining the problem and argumentation of the topicality of its consideration. The present-day linguistics is characterized by the increasing interest towards the problem of discourse typology and analysis, as linguistic interest has shifted from the abstract language system to the diversity of language realization in speech (and respective discourses). Taking into account the phenomenon of literature changeability and the instability of its boundaries that entail the appearance of some new types of literature, we can state that it is possible to single out new types of discourse as the objects of linguistic research. One of them is channeling-discourse as a subtype of esoteric discourse. Terra incognita in linguistics, channeling-discourse is a promising field of research from the point of view of its structure, mode, participants, the cognitive model of the world and the respective language picture of the world. Modern channelings belonging to mass literature, they appear to be the so-called sacred knowledge for mass audience and are, thence, of great influential power, shifting the consciousness of the readers towards cosmic paradigm of human existence. Therefore the investigation of this type of discourse, as the one endowed with suggestive power, is actual in our modern society where the means of influencing the person's worldview are among the topical in linguistic, socio-linguistic and neuro-linguistic researches.

Analysis of recent research and publications. The topic has been actively discussed in philosophy from the point of view of the essential existential issues discussed in channelings and the very procedure of channeling itself (participants, place, manner, interaction of two consciousnesses etc.). John Klimo was among the first scholars who conducted the study of a very peculiar type of communication when a human being gives his physical body `to let' to an entity (usually termed as spiritual entity or simply spirit) from a different dimension of reality (non-physical level) for this entity to communicate the information to humanity. Such a human being is considered to function as a `channel' (but later there was introduced the term `channeler' and it appeared to dominate in further researches). J. Klimo profiles the channels and their sources from preliterate societies through the epoch of monotheistic religion formation to the present time period. He identifies as channels such well-known in the history figures as Moses and Muhammad (whose teachings were received through channelings from God himself), Solomon, Nostradamus, E. Swedenborg and Edgar Cayce. In the focus of his attention there are also kinds of the information channeled and the mode of channeling: clairvoyance and automatic writing [6]. William H. Kautz and Melanie Branon detail the history of channeling as well as its role in various cultures, testify to the fact that the information received via channeling caused progress both in sciences and art and show the evidence of public's resistance to channeling and the information provided [5].

Among the modern researchers of the phenomenon there should be mentioned the works by Wouter J. Hane- graaff who in his famous work “New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought” [4] speculates upon the problem of New Age and New Age Literature historical background providing their connection with the channeling phenomenon.

Though channelings are not a new phenomenon, the oldest among them dating back to ancient times, the very channeling-discourse has not attracted much attention of linguists yet. Among those very innumerous scientific insights into the problem there should be mentioned the works of the author of this article concerning the models of the addresser [7; 9], the addressee [3], the channeler himself as a mediator of communication [8], frame analysis of some basic concepts as key ones in the given discourse [7] and some other concerning the peculiarities of the American channelings of the 20th and 21st centuries. Russian channelings (both fiction and non-fiction) are in the focus of interest in separate articles by Professor F. S. Batsevich [1; 2] who classifies them under mystic type of literature.

The aim of this study. The article continues the cycle of scientific publications of the author concerning the verbalization particularities of the basic existential concepts in channeling-discourse. The aim of this publication is to profile concept EVIL in the channeling-discourses of Seth (channeled by Jane Roberts) and Kryon (channeled by Lee Carroll).

The outline of the main research material. In monism, characteristic mainly of the Eastern religions, God is perceived as an absolute, embracing good and evil, thus denying an independent existence of the Devil as the personification of Evil. When we look at the term `evil' (in its moral sense) in Western culture, we usually face the traditional religious or theological ideas postulating the duality of our existential frame: the Almighty God, as the source of everything that is good and positive, and his primary opponent Devil, as the personification of what is perceived in society as evil. In the mitigated dualism the Devil is thought as heavenly originated but having fallen apart from his origin a creature who thus gave the origin to evil. Absolute dualistic worldviews perceive good and evil as wholly independent principles, thus treating both God and the Devil ontologically limited to their inner essence: God is good and, therefore, he wants, acts and creates only good; the Devil is evil and, therefore, he wants, acts and creates only evil.

Channelings of various spiritual disembodied entities (Kryon and Seth among them) contradict the religious dogma stating that our perception of the basic principle of existence is distorted by the duality of the three-dimensional world we live in:

Human Beings, you're indoctrinated with the idea that the entities around you are vying for your soul. They want your consciousness. You were brought up with information that said that there are evil entities and divine entities, and depending upon what you decided to do with your free choice, one side or the other wins. It's either the devils or the angels. There you are, riding a seesaw, being pulled between the two of them. Supposedly each has power, and you don't. So you better hook up to one of them so that you'll have some direction. Some have called this situation duality. Dear ones, that is mythology! I'll give you the truth (1).

I am telling you again, therefore, that many of your ideas of good and evil are highly distortive, and shadow all understanding you have of the nature of reality (2, 223).

Our human conceptual picture of the world is to great extend based on the oppositions and beliefs that phenomena of one kind are necessarily balanced by the existence of the contradicting forces, etc: light - dark, bright - dull, white - black, good - evil. Respectively, the major religions are nothing but the systematized theologies of opposites. Seth states that such theologies are “detrimental”:

If you believe, for example, that all good must be balanced by evil, then you bind yourself into a system of reality that is highly limiting, and that contains within it the seeds of great torment.

In such a system, even good becomes suspect, because an equal evil is seen to follow it. The god-ver- sus-devil, angels-versus-demons - the gulf between animals and angels all of these distortions are impediments (2, 219).

Kryon and Seth, as the spiritual creatures whose function in the Universe hierarchy is to serve the humanity in its spiritual advancement, stress that ontologically evil is the `product' of our consciousness, as it is within the power of a human consciousness to `switch' our reality from positive (lighted by the presence of good) to negative (darkened by evil). According to Kryon, we - humans - are responsible for all the suffering in the world, because we send the impulse and the Universe responds to it modelling our reality:

The darkest thing you can imagine on this planet that has ever happened, or is happening, or that ever could ever be conceived, has been co-created and manifested by a Human. The evilest of the evil, the darkest of the dark, is no darker than the darkest place of the Human mind. Evil is what is created by a Human Being, not by another entity sent to Earth to capture you. Human Beings are powerful. They can manifest the dark as well as the light. It explains what you would call black magic. It is within the Human Beings, oddly enough, using the powers of their divinity [this means that the Universe responds no matter what] to create evil. It is the Human's free choice, and it always has been (1).

Our beliefs are the basement on which all our reality is constructed: believing in evil and the necessity of suffering in order to gain a better place after death, we attract the misfortune and evil effects into our life; believing in the evil essence of human being we attract evil people:

If you believe all men are evil, you simply will not experience the goodness in men. You will be completely closed to it. They in turn will always show you their worst side. [...] If you are obsessed with the idea of evil, then you will meet evil conditions. If you believe in devils, then you will encounter these (2, 192).

Still, the true reality is such that evil is just a hallucination; we can speak of evil effects though even they are illusions:

On the one hand, quite simply and in a way that you cannot presently understand, evil does not exist. However, you are obviously confronted with what seem to be quite evil effects (2, 328).

Let me take this moment to state again that there are no devils or demons, except as you create them out of your belief. As mentioned earlier, good and evil effects are basically illusions (2, 428).

According to Seth, the problem arises as a result of the wrong angle we percept the reality from and, instead of choosing love as a starting point, we choose fear. This fear creates a very powerful hallucination that there exists the Devil as the embodiment of all the evil:

They concentrate upon not what they think of as the power of good, but fearfully upon what they think of as the power of evil. The hallucination is created, therefore, out of fear and of restriction. The devil idea is merely the mass projection of certain fears - mass in that it is produced by many people, but also limited in that there have always been those who rejected this principle (2, 331).

Kryon continues this thought and, as it was illustrated in the first example above, says that we consider ourselves as being deprived of any power and having to choose between the patrons - good God or bad Devil - to be directed and protected by him.

A very important message is sent to humanity by both the entities in their channelings: a human is endowed with the creative power, the power to create our own reality and in this aspect we are equal to God because we, as a part of God, are also divine in nature. If our starting point is love, and the whole humanity resides in love, we create the world where there is no place for evil:

Your world has not tried the experiment as yet which would release you. The experiment that would transform your world, would operate upon the basic idea that you create your own reality according to the nature of your beliefs, and that all existence was blessed, and that evil did not exist in it. [...] then the evidence of your physical senses wouldfind no contradiction. They would perceive the world and existence as good [...]. The simple fact is that as long as you believe in the concept of evil, it is a reality in your system, and you will always find it manifested. Your belief in it will, therefore, seem highly justified. If you carry this concept through succeeding generations, through reincarnations, then you add to its reality (2, 225).

Speaking about the Devil as the absolute embodiment of all the evil, Seth stressed that the mental processes going on in our consciousness emanate energy. And this very energy is our divine power of creation.

Having created the image of Devil we feed it with our mental energy, thus projecting him onto the plane of our physical reality. But if we do not believe in his existence and thus deny him our energy, we create the world where there is no place for the Devil, where there is even no such an idea:

You must understand that each mental act is a reality for which you are responsible. [...] As long as you believe in a devil, for example, you will create one that is real enough for you, and for the others who continue to create him.

Because of the energy he is given by others, he will have a certain consciousness of his own, but such a mock devil has no power or reality to those who do not believe in his existence, and who do not give him energy through their belief. He is, in other words, a superlative hallucination (2, 331).

The analysis of the channelings made it possible to single out such essential characteristics of the concept EVIL as presented in Seth's and Kryon's discourses:

evil does not exist;

evil is an illusion, grounded in our beliefs;

evil is created by human consciousness basing on fear;

evil feeds on our mental energy;

evil is eliminated by love.

Conclusions and perspectives of further research in this field. The analysis of the concept EVIL verbalisation in channeling-discourse explicated different characteristics of the object under study, testifying to the fact that in this peculiar type of discourse it undergoes certain modification as compared to the generally accepted viewpoint. The above discussed examples serve as a proof of broadening of the concept's notional counterpart resulting in inclusion of several new meanings into the lexico-semantic field of the concept EVIL verbalisation. The perspectives of the research are as follows: from the standpoint of cognitive-communicative approach further insight into the problem would specify the cognitive spaces of the channeling-discourse actors (the disembodied entities as the addressers and the humans as the addressees) in the channelings of separate entities and in channeling as a peculiar type of discourse in general.

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