Variations on Psi
Zip Dobyns
Psychic phenomena continue to fascinate me. I have seen ample evidence of their reality but I am often skeptical of individual claims. My normal reaction to a claim is to ask “can you test this claim? And if it is demonstrably true, is the information or the demonstrated talent useful? If it is, then let’s use it.” From time to time, I discuss the charts of individuals who have claimed personal psychic ability or I write about predictions made by self-proclaimed psychics. In a previous issue of The Mutable Dilemma I reviewed a book describing new interpretations of Nostradamus which were based on rearranging the letters in his quatrains to produce totally different sentences. When I discussed the book, I mentioned that the predictions made for the time immediately after the book’s publication had all failed to occur. The December 1993 issue of Omni magazine had an article on Nostradamus which included a whole page of some of the rewritten quatrains by English author Hewitt. Omni lists another failed prediction which should have occurred since I wrote my review of Hewitt’s misses. A Russian spacecraft did not crash in America on August 4, 1994, killing two people.
One of the many current projects in my over-extended life is an attempt to collect data on individuals who believe that they have experienced abductions by aliens—presumably, by occupants of UFOs or “unidentified flying objects.” I have the birth data of 20 people so far, and have been promised more in time. I also have a growing collection of books and magazines dealing with abduction experiences. Someday when I have read more of the books and gathered more horoscopes, I hope to do a more serious study of the issue. In the meantime, this article will start with the chart of one self-defined abductee—a young woman we will call Meg.
Some readers will wonder why a person abducted by an alien (defined by many if not most UFO buffs as a physical being who has come here from another star system) is included in an article about psychic phenomena. As Meg’s story will illustrate, there is considerable evidence that many (not necessarily all) of the “abductions” are partly or totally psychic experiences even though some produce lasting “physical” consequences such as body scars.
I met Meg at a conference which included lectures on a variety of “borderland” subjects, including UFOs. She shared her experiences, many of which were quite typical of the abductions described by recent books such as the one by Psychiatrist John Mack of Harvard University. (An excellent summary of Mack’s work with abductees is available in the summer 1993 issue of the magazine Revision.) Meg said she had been repeatedly taken on board UFOs (spaceships), had been examined physically, and her eggs had been fertilized by the aliens. Some months after each fertilization, the embryos had been removed during another visit to the spacecraft, and the hybrid children (from her egg and an alien sperm) were then cared for by the aliens. The children later were brought to interact with her on subsequent visits to the spacecraft. Unlike the cases described in Jacob’s book on abductions and many of the cases described by Mack, Meg was not afraid or angry. She felt honored to be participating in the production of a new race which would, presumably, incorporate the best features of the humans of earth and the aliens. Meg’s “temporary pregnancies” never developed to the point where she showed any visible effects and she has never told her husband about the experiences. She knows that the experiences are at least partly “psychic” and her husband is not open to such things. She hopes in time to have physical children with her husband.
Meg said that during the conference she psychically “saw” aliens present in the meeting room. She said that sometimes they just appeared as “little lights,” and at one time during our conversation, she “saw” one just behind me. I turned quickly but did not see anything but another conference attendant who was sharing in our conversation “saw” the little light.
Meg’s horoscope is strongly idealistic with an emphasis on the Virgo-Pisces polarity. She has four factors in the house of Pisces and three in the sign of Pisces. The keys to procreation, the different forms of letter five, involve both idealism and willingness to go beyond the conventional with their transpersonal emphasis on Aquarius and Pisces. The Sun in Pisces is closely conjunct Chiron and there are five factors in the fifth house in Aquarius including Jupiter. Uranus is in Leo in the Pisces house.
Meg’s fifth house also offers two more themes. She is identified with its drive toward creativity, toward doing more than she has done so far, with both Mercury (Ascendant ruler) and Mars (natural ruler of the first house) placed in the fifth house. It is also a lesson area for her with both Saturn and the south lunar node placed there. Remember, after we learn whatever we need to, Saturn and the south node become areas where we have something to give to the world. Meg is clearly identifying with that concept though she knows nothing about astrology other than popular sun sign ideas.
Ceres, the Moon, and fourth house occupants and/or rulers are connected to raising children after we procreate them with letter five. It is interesting that Meg has Ceres in the ninth house (beliefs and ideals and more superficially long trips and foreign countries) and Ceres is quincunx her Moon but trine her Ascendant. The quincunx is often a key to separations but the trine is reassuring. The patterns would fit Meg being separated from the raising of some of her children due to their travel to a distant area and/or their being partly “foreign” by birth. Both planetary rulers of the fourth house, Saturn and Jupiter, are in the fifth house, putting far more emphasis on the procreation of children than on the action of continuing to care for them. Jupiter trines the Moon but is quincunx Meg’s Ascendant—repeating the message of Ceres that her children might be separated from her but still protected. Demeter, the Greek name for Ceres, was exactly on Meg’s north lunar node and opposite Mars, repeating the potential for separation. But I was most curious to see where Aletheia would be—the asteroid named for the goddess of truth. She was retrograding in 4 Cancer 1 when Meg was born, with a close trine to Meg’s natal Sun and a sextile to her Antivertex.
I think that Meg’s chart supports her belief in her experiences. Whether others believe that her experiences are “real” depends on our own definitions of the nature of reality. A staunch materialist would certainly classify her as an ambulatory schizophrenic or someone with a vivid imagination.
The second chart to be considered in this article is of a well-known professional psychic who often works in the western U.S. I am not including his name since his data comes from a relative and I have not been able to ask his permission to publish his chart. We will call him Carl.
Carl is one of several psychics who have predicted major earth changes during the balance of this decade, but all of them differ on the details. Carl cooperates with Gordon Scallion, the New England psychic I have mentioned in the past, but unlike Scallion, Carl says Los Angeles will be preserved since it is the fifth chakra of the earth—its throat chakra. He says he is confident that Los Angeles will still be here in 100 years, but his predictions seem somewhat contradictory or confused since he also says that there will be many more big earthquakes in the west, that the ground is liquefying under California as far as San Bernardino, and that only the middle part of the state will be safe. San Diego is supposed to go under water. (As I have written in the past, the elevation of San Diego and the way the ground slopes into the ocean makes this extremely unlikely.) Some of Carl’s predictions made in the spring of 1994 have already failed; for example, that Mount Ranier in Washington would erupt by May 6, 1994. His “summer of blood” in 1994 with revolutions all over the world including in Greece and Italy also failed to materialize. It is risky to make predictions for the immediate future.
Carl agrees with Scallion that the U.S. will break up into 13 countries by 2005. He mixes predictions like weather changes—the end of spring so winter shifts abruptly into summer which is supposed to bankrupt the U.S.—with saying that the worldwide shortages of food will be less severe in the U.S. He claims that all of his predictions will happen but says that it is a miracle due to prayer that California is still intact. Obviously, I am highly skeptical of most of his predictions. As I have written before, I think that psychics create their scenarios on the psychic (astral) level and can’t tell what is psychic and what might materialize on the physical level.
For readers who would like to know Carl’s ideas on the location of the rest of the chakras of earth, he says: The first or root chakra is in Llassa, Tibet which is where Noah landed the ark. Since the Chinese destroyed Llassa, the earth lost control of sex during the years following 1955. Of the three and a half to four million Tibetans killed by the Chinese, Carl says that many have reincarnated in the U.S. Two new sacral chakras are said to be in process of being formed but Carl did not give their locations on earth. He locates the second chakra at the Great Pyramid, the third at Stonehenge, the fourth on Easter Island, the fifth at Olivera Street in Los Angeles, the sixth at Nara near Osaka, Japan where the Tenrikyo religion was founded, and humans are the seventh chakra. Carl says others are being formed to eventually produce twelve. Since there is no way to test this kind of material for accuracy, true believers will love it and skeptics like me will class it as personally created fantasy, though “guides” on the astral level could be helping to produce it.
The primary feature in Carl’s chart is his loaded seventh house, with three factors there in Virgo and four in Libra. The importance of other people gets additional support with the two planets which symbolize our search for the Absolute in Scorpio in the eighth house. Readers will remember that when keys to letter one, our personal identity, our right and power to do what we want, are placed in the seventh or eighth houses and to a lesser extent in the seventh or eighth signs, the individual tends to feel that his personal power is vulnerable to other people. Carl has Pisces rising, making Neptune and Jupiter forms of letter one. We can react to this vulnerability to others by giving in to them, by fighting them, or by retreating from them. On the positive side, we can compromise and cooperate to have teamwork, can engage in healthy competition, and can help people. Becoming a guru can be very reassuring, putting an individual in a one-up position as well as the center of the stage. Rajneesh was another guru with a heavy emphasis on the seventh and eighth houses though his stellium in Capricorn tilted toward paranoia and power struggles.
I look to a water emphasis, from planets, houses, or signs, as an indication of psychic receptivity while a six-eight-ten emphasis can mark psychokinetic ability, the capacity to directly influence the physical world with the mind. Carl’s chart certainly highlights letters 6, 8, and 10. Saturn, the planetary and therefore most important form of letter ten, is in its own house just over one degree from the MC. The combination shows a tendency to seek power, and in Sagittarius a career as a Guru is an appropriate way to do that. A prominent Vesta as a form of letter six is a sign of the potential for an intense focus, for a tunnel-vision that can be directed into any selected purpose. Carl’s Vesta opposes the midpoint of his Ascendant/MC which carries the same meaning as a conjunction with the major angles. His Descendant is closely conjunct the midpoint of Pluto and Juno, with the latter asteroid representing the same principle as Pluto. If I had not known that Carl was functioning as a “prophet,” I would have guessed that he might be a consultant and healer. His Pallas exactly on the Descendant in addition to the tremendous letter seven emphasis from the sign and the house certainly fit a role as counselor.
There are also aspects involving water factors in Carl’s chart which can indicate psychic receptivity. There are factors in all three water signs and in two of the water houses. The Moon aspects its own nodes and P Pluto holds a very long sextile to Neptune. An emphasis on air and water marks an individual who lives a lot in the head, going back and forth between the conscious and the subconscious sides of the mind. The combination is good for psychics and psychotherapists, but earth is needed to guard against too much gullibility. Carl may be projecting much of his Virgo, which is mostly connected to others in his chart. Pluto as one of our keys to partners is in the sign and house of Virgo and the other three factors that are keys to partners, Juno, Pallas, and Venus, are in the sign of Virgo but in the house of Libra. At present, Carl’s star is shining as an increasingly famous psychic. It will be interesting to see how he handles the failure of his predictions in the coming years.
The data for our third case comes from the October 1994 issue of Fate magazine. Richard Webster’s article presents the full birth data for Hillary Flora, the “Albuquerque powerhouse”. Her parents discovered her talents in June 1990 at a psychic convention in Scottsdale, Arizona. A physician from India and an Afro-American psychic noticed that her physical presence was stronger than is normal for a five-year-old child. Her parents allowed them to test Hillary and they found that she had the ability to channel energy away from other people. She also demonstrated psychokinetic ability, including healing talent. A very visible and spectacular demonstration is presented when trained weight lifters are unable to lift Hillary. In a recent demonstration, she was able to prevent a grown man from getting out of his chair with a single finger.
Another attendant at the Scottsdale convention mentioned Hillary’s talent to a Japanese TV producer on the same weekend and she was immediately signed up to appear in Japan. In addition to the Japanese trip in 1990, Hillary has since demonstrated her ability in several European countries: Germany, Spain, Italy and Hungary. She is currently better known in Europe than in her own country. Despite her unusual abilities, Webster reports that Hillary remains a natural, modest, and charming little girl being raised by a loving family.
Among the interesting features in Hillary’s chart is an exact Mars-Chiron conjunction close to the MC and square the Ascendant. Though Mars in the tenth house connects personal will and power with the power of the Law, it is unusual for children, especially females, to discover or manifest their power when they are young. They commonly project their personal power into early authority figures and only reclaim it in later years, often with immense effort. Both of Hillary’s parents are connected to idealism with Chiron in the tenth house (probably mother since Ceres is there as well as part of the sign of Cancer) and Neptune in the fourth house (probably father since Capricorn is there). Her parents’ openness to the psychic area permitted Hillary to discover and develop her talents very early.
The potentially psychokinetic letters six, eight, and ten are present in Hillary’s chart with three factors in the tenth house and one in Capricorn, the Ascendant and Juno (like Pluto) in Virgo and Jupiter in the Virgo house, four factors in Scorpio including Pluto and Saturn, and three factors in the Scorpio house. A major part of this power is in Hillary’s third house, which symbolizes the conscious mind and siblings. Hillary’s older brother is also reported to be gifted as a renowned memory expert at the age of ten.
Hillary’s local house cusps in Scottsdale where her talents were discovered include an MC in 27 Taurus 2 and an Ascendant in 0 Virgo 19. Note that her IC in Scottsdale is on the midpoint of Saturn and the Moon, reinforcing the power of this conjunction. This aspect is usually considered very negative in traditional astrology, especially in the sign of Scorpio. Hillary is demonstrating its positive potential. The asteroid P Arizona was conjunct Hillary’s local Antivertex when she was discovered, and P Makover was on her local Ascendant. Her experiences in Arizona certainly “made over” her life. Her P local Ascendant and P local East Point were conjunct the birthplace positions of the respective angles; a key to starting over on a higher rung of the spiral. At the same time, her P MC was conjunct natal Mars-Chiron as she embarked on a new career which included foreign countries and healing (interpreting Chiron as similar to Jupiter). Her P Moon had entered the sixth house and was trine P Mars in the tenth house and sextile P Venus in the eighth house as she began her career at the young age of 5.
Some of the other asteroids included natal Nipponia (Japan) on her ninth house Sun, fitting her first foreign performance in that country. Pythia was on her MC at birth—the title of the priestesses at Delphi, along with Dunant which was named for the founder of the Red Cross which fits Hillary’s healing potential. All of the asteroids in my collection which were named for healers had aspects. P Venus was on Hygiea and natal Venus on Fama for her early fame. P Panacea was on her P Moon in aspect to P Venus and P Mars. P Pallas, our counseling asteroid, was on Podalirius and coming to Aesculapia. P Makover was trine both Podalirius and Aesculapia within the one-degree orb I use. P Paracelsus was on her P MC and natal Mars-Chiron. The other two asteroids named for healers which I have in my collection did not have conjunctions but Makhaon was sextile Ceres and Jupiter, on their midpoint, while P Arizona was sextile Avicenna in Virgo in the first house. The ability to take energy from people produces a dramatic demonstration and materialists may need that kind of evidence, but I hope that Hillary will be able to focus more on her healing potential in the future.