The 'invisibility' trick. Clearly the Fridge Dude had mastered it, and while he meant no harm, I had to remind him (once he became visible again) that the intentional manipulation of another being's mind is a no-no, and that sorcery might be the proper term for what he'd been doing to me for all these years, toying with me for his own amusement. I'll give away his trick and how he did it, because I didn't appreciate his spying on me without my knowledge, but also because this becomes a chance for us to talk about ethics, morals, and free will.
Everybody is Telepathic
The Fridge Dude. He made himself invisible in my house, and the premise for his little trick was the fact that we all read each other's minds constantly, we generally tend to tune most of it out along with all of the other mental chatter. It's our automatic filtering system that helps us as we attempt to forge a simple thought of our own in between robotic, habitual tasks throughout any given day. When we all think with the same mind, such filtering is required so that individual sanity can find a way through the cacophony of voices and feelings which are constantly permeating our fields of awareness.
Eyes on the Backs of our Heads
Did you ever feel like someone was staring at you, and it turned out that you were right? We can feel it, and when the starer's thoughts are felt, we 'hear' their presence, as they are already communicating with us-- we are all communicating here-- but they have their attention on you, and you get the message through our universal telecom system of mind.
Add Some Self-Hypnosis
Did you ever lose your keys, or a bottle of soap, or any object that has vanished, as if pixies had whisked it off into the ether, only to find the object in plain sight a while later? Was it pixies?
Mostly, it's a sort of self-hypnosis that we induce, based on some initial presumption that the object is not where we thought it should be, a brief fear, or just a mental glitch that lets us believe wholly that the object is not there, and from there the reality perception apps are disabled temporarily while the hypnosis lasts, and we can see behind the object, while we've decided that it isn't there.
Fridge Dude's Mental Dialogue
Using such tools, the Fridge Dude had begun his invisibility trick around my little house. The Fridge Dude hasn't really made himself invisible, he'd just created a dialogue in his own head, for me to hear and misinterpret as my own thoughts, and this is how he lured me into my own hypnosis, to convince myself that I was alone in my house, and that nobody was there, watching.
I walk into my home, and he starts the dialogue in his head, "There's nobody here except me", and "I'm alone." Then perhaps "It's relaxing to be alone." So that I will hear them as my own thoughts, he might throw in a "It's nice to have the house to myself." As I saunter into the kitchen, I may not have directly heard the phrases, but I heard them nonetheless, and I believed them, and then I filtered and ignored them as more mental chatter. Fridge Dude thereby made himself invisible to my sight, continuing to aim the 'by myself' mental chatter at me.
I explained as well as I could to Fridge Dude how it was wrong to interfere with another's free will, and that even though he was innocently playing a little hide-and-seek game with me, that such a game was really only fun for one player, and that such a trick had few beneficial uses. It is time for reality and truth, and his 'chatter' was not truth.
Who's This Fridge Dude Already
Fridge Dude, without letting him hide any longer, is here :
Fridge Dude is a 2003 India ink on paper that has been stuck on the side of my refrigerator for about 8 years, and had become so much a part of the room, I'd not seen the illustration in many years. It was when I took all of the magnets off for cleaning that his trick ended, and when the spell was broken I saw him again. He looked as surprised as I was.
I think we both learned a thing or two.
thanks for reading along, remember to clean around and behind the refrigerator from time to time, things can disappear easily in a messy house!
image by me, 'Fridge Dude' 2003 India Ink on paper
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today,
Oh how I wish he'd go away!
From Antigonish by William Hughes Mearns.
My grandmother used to sing this to me. I'm not sure if she made up the tune for it, or if someone else turned it into a song long ago, but I've never forgotten it.
Nice! I know I've heard that before somewhere long ago.
Very interesting story, I think I know that fridge dude from somewhere ;)
And I should not be surprised by this stuff with you and me anymore, but yesterday my step-son's youngest was doing his utmost to shut himself in the fridge. The link is strong, I think I even see it now, a glowing cord reaching out and out.
I was apparently busy making some art in 2003, I don't remember thinking much of this one, or how I ended up in India ink to make it in the first place. But yeah he's been on the fridge, and the other day when I moved it, I saw him and thought he'd make a good art post.
love it!
Thank you! I appreciate the input, glad you like.
Wow...this was helpful! I actually heard my 'fridge person' ... by that I mean, I heard the 'i' tell myself something (that wasn't 'me') and I don't know if I would have realized it on my own... after I had read and was later contemplating this article. It was pretty amazing. Thanks.
I think that this kind of telepathy could be considered 'sorcery', and ultimately involves lies and deception. I read about this 'invisibility' trick somewhere a long time ago, and always felt like it was wrong, like it violated the free will of another. I just can't really think of many good uses for such deception.
Taking this further. Now the subject has been opened. I used to be a paranormal researcher, in cahoots with my husband. I guess I still am. We used to release lost spirits and clean houses and other places. I'm thinking of Fridge Guy as a discarnate entity. Early in my 'work' in this field, I read a book called 'The Unquiet Dead' by Dr. Edith Fiore. Fascinating read. This woman was a psychiatrist and she learned to treat many patients after having identified 'entities' that would attach themselves and plague the person. She treated them with hypnosis where she would actually speak with the entity directly and help it move on and leave the person it was attached to. With great success in her treatment of her patients!
Anyway, we used to do similar work, opening what we thought of as 'the light of God's Love' for them to go into. We would connect and talk them through it. Well, mostly me. Hubby helped with grounding. I thought of it from near death experiences I had read about, where people die and go into 'the light' and often connect to their departed loved ones and wind up getting sent back. But the thing I realized about most of them is that they were trapped somewhere on the Earth plane and needed help to escape. I felt sorry for them. People are always so afraid of ghosts and hauntings but to me, I always thought they wouldn't stay if they didn't have to, and also they were attached to familiar places from their lives, when they were alive. Some of them were stuck because of the negative circumstances of their deaths. Yes I think you are right about lies and deception but I think it helps to understand why they might resort to it.
Now I need to look for a face! Spooky kindof, the idea that our artwork might actually contain enough consciousness to reach out in mysterious and myschievous (even dark) ways! I've had quite a bit of experience with the paranormal. My husband and I were ghostbusters! Real life ones. Before it got 'cool.' lol. I've seen a lot of images that can show up in light and color but I hadn't quite thought of it this way.
Oh this drawing isn't empowered in any way that I know of, I just found it interesting that I hadn't noticed it in about 7 years, right there in front of me, and it reminded me of something I'd read long ago.
Do you think that they become ...'naughty,' as in, trying to take over our personnas because they are trapped and bored and unhappy? Maybe we can free them somehow. :)
I've heard of some tribal art traditions where they always leave a mistake in the pattern somewhere, so that the spirit of the work can 'escape'. My art always has plenty of escape routes!
Its kindof similar to that idea of Native Americans not liking their pictures to be taken for fear of their spirits being trapped! What an interesting theory...about mistakes letting them out. Not that I noticed any mistakes in your art...for the most part your style I noticed tends to be very ...perfect. From your band posters, etc. Perspective and lines are all very careful and exact. Also when its art it can be hard to tell the difference between mistakes and just the art expressing itself in its own way. I would never judge it as a mistake.
Have you heard of the theory of the 'sacred flaw'? I think it originates in Oriental/Asian culture. Its the idea that something is more precious for being flawed and also subjective, like people. But I've seen where a broken object, say, a cup...where they fill the break or crack with gold in order to bring out the flaw and to them it becomes more valuable.