Craig the Psychic

P.C. Browning

In the novel “Celestine Prophecy” author James Redfield challenges the main character (and by osmosis, the person reading the adventure) to look at both, mother & father in order to find the gifts as well as the challenges they’ve given you.  It’s not some kind of strange New Age idea even though it is a concept that’s been taught by shaman and gurus for more than a millennia or two, it is however a more or less common starting point when it comes to issues of Mental Health, Personal Dysfunction or worse, Disorientation – not being able to define the self well enough to climb out of the hole we may find ourselves in time and time again.

Given my own long list of depression-anxiety issues over the years I seemed to be awashed, set into a massive sea of frequent confusion and frustration that over time managed to break me down, transforming me from that bright-eyed “innocent” kid from the Ohio Valley into a rather grumpy, scared-heart curmudgeon that speaks in very direct matter-of-fact ways, which seems a turn-off to some; especially those seeking a “Psychic” that can thump them on the head with a magic wand and “fix” them.  Such deluded folk refusing to recognize the fact that Magick only happens by way of natural law and part of that law requires self-investment; getting off one’s duff and recognizing our own role in things.  Believe it or not, that is part of what lead me to seeing some of the things this article speaks on but we need to touch on one more key-point before moving deeper into this “theory” I wish to table; the fact that reincarnationists have insinuated these things for eons – the fact that we tend to return to the same familial line(s) and geographic regions time and time again simply due to key karmic factors set around our spiritual DNA – lessons and obligations as well as blessings & gifts that our soul-self needs as part of its own evolution.

I find it saddening the fact that Westernized (rigid) Mental Health science has removed the once known Karmic ideology that those yesteryear Gypsies and Shaman understood when working in the role of counselor and healer.  While I can appreciate the fact that Westernize tradition has removed the more primitive ideas involving the idea of Curses and Hexes being set upon a person or family line, I likewise hold reservation when it comes to their logic or should I say, lack of spiritual perception; its unwillingness to consider ancient tradition that seems to not only apply when one steps back and studies family traits and character, but which have brought about tremendous healing in the lives of those affected by genuine “curses” set onto a family line.

Understand that when I use the term “Curse” here, I’m not inferring some kind of magickle manipulation that’s damned a particular heritage but rather a karmic factor that has become affixed to a particular branch within a given family group and, as with my particular family, seems to dominate one gender over the other; the males in my family for at least the three generations that I’m directly aware of, all suffering from the same set of horrid anxiety-depression and even OCD complexes. For me the most frightening part of this particular situation is that I am the first within this grouping (quite possibly the only) to seek professional help that stems from outside a very narrow religious sense of focus (which most of the women in the family tend to shift towards via close and constant involvement with their church starting at a very young age – a form of escapism).

In old school lore it is said that certain talents tend to skip a generation or not prove as prominent in one generational group as the next.  I believe this is likewise true when it comes to these karmic influences that seem to hover over and around familial groups. My father’s father as well as my mother’s father both suffered from deep depression and the inability to hold-down steady work, typically taking schlep jobs and doing grunt work even though their health was not exactly supportive of such things. When we come to my father and his brothers, all but one were fairly rigid nose-to-the-grindstone types that did quite well for themselves and their families when it came to the role of provider yet, all were likewise a bit anti-social, critically biased and so Republican that they would make Ronald Regan look like an far left Liberal (which is kind of ironic when you look at a family tree that includes the likes of Tipper Gore and Sen. Robert Byrd).  These were men (+ one sister) that could hold horrid, long-term grudges toward one another let alone those outside the family group.  They had a half-brother (one of several siblings that came from their father and a second wife) that was completely rejected and more or less “thrown away” simply because they suspected that he wasn’t their fathers . . . though nothing was ever proven as such

Of the 5 full blooded brothers and one sister + two of 3 half-brothers and one sister, a common element of being outwardly friendly and jovial upon first meeting was typical but behind closed doors tyranny and megalomania seemed to prevail; their idea of an apology or expression of “love” came through money or physical gifts that weren’t necessarily what the receiver would want or be interested in.  Many a time I’d be given hunting and fishing gear when such adventures were the last thing on my mind, but then there were other things that detoured me from said interests, just as such things curbed my ability to comfortably digest certain food stuffs.

While, as I’ve noted, they were all decent providers that overcame serious odds that ranged from substandard educations (my father had a 6^th grade education because he had to work, plowing fields with a horse plow, form the time he was 12, as just one example), to some rather ugly modes of physical and psychological abuse by their father, mother and step-mother. It is important to understand this and how it implanted a peculiar “psychological pledge” within the minds of these individuals; to marry for life, not allowing room for divorce, which happened to include a kind of suffocation when it came to their inability to trusting their spouse. . . after all, mommy left them for another man and they’d seen the wives of others having relations with men other than their husbands ergo, all women are sluts. . . the bible even tells us this so it had to be “the gospel” truth. . .

. . . a lie that allowed religionists, especially in this country, to keep women (and children) suppressed and subjected to outrageous modes of physical abuse well into the mid and latter 1970’s; viewed as live-stock and a possession – a slave for lack of a better term (as were all children except males after turning 13 years old (the age of legal maturity) the female children being used a collateral and even currency for centuries.

Now my personal situation differs a bit from that of my cousins, or maybe I should say my dad’s brother’s kids in that my mother and my father were in fact 2^nd cousins which makes them my 3^rd cousin and my baby brother my 4^th cousin.  Silly me thought everyone had grandparents on both sides with the same last names, never gave it a second thought; nonetheless, my great-grandfather on my mother’s side was Bill Browning while my father’s father was Carl Browning, Sr.

. . . and people wonder why I can relate to Jeff Foxworthy’s comedy so well

Even though I tend to be the “softer” when it comes to attitudes and how to deal with family issues (the raising of kids, etc.) I still have to consciously work at subduing that suspicious Browning mind, it’s paranoia and the hair-triggers that cause us to be “physical” when it comes to how we control situations.  While I was never as physically brutal as my father, the handful of times I’ve lost control and slapped or “wrestled” with one of my step-kids or their mother torture me even now, more than a decade since we’ve been a family. Then again, I lived in fear of perpetuating that particular aspect of the Browning family curse since I was five and six years old.  On some levels I think that fear was part of the catalyst that guided my sexual orientations; granted, the whole idea of sex with a woman has always creeped me out and the closest thing I ever came to such intimacy didn’t happen until I was in my late 40’s and even that was with a lesbian. . . go figure.

I bring out this psychic side of things because it too is a common factor within my family line as is a very intense sense of religious/spiritual dedication that’s almost surreal it is so extreme and yet, highly dubious – duplistic[1]!  The point being that not all family-line karma is negative even though karmic deficits or challenges seem to be the most prevalent at times, even in those lines, such as the Vanderbilt’s when an amazing sense of economic wealth and business acumen seem to prevail so too we find a fair amount of mental health and anxiety issues.  In other words, we always find both sides of the karmic coin in play.  Then again, that is the only way balance can be achieved and the proverbial “curse” ultimately overcome by said family group.

When it comes to the Browning line there is one theory associated with our Karma that one can find reflected in the Winchester family; the “guilt” of being responsible for so many deaths, including the massacre of Native Americans as we lily-white Europeans stole their nation by way of murder and betrayal or, as some refer to it, “Missionary Work”.

Can you imagine how harsh the karma would be for a family line that is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, mostly the death of innocent people? Granted, the American Indian situation was referred to as a “War” but the war aspect didn’t begin until the Europeans proved that they couldn’t be trusted when it came to holding to their word and as time moved on, our reputation seemed to become compounded. On that foundation most of the older American families carry a very distinct, yet ignored sense of burden – guilt – that is not easily addressed, but not impossible either.

While I have personalized much of what’s been said here, I believe that all of us have a kind of familial karmic obligation that extends particular patterns and common traits (good & bad) generation after generation.  I believe that some of us end up with a double-dose when it comes to certain of these traits, just as my brother and I have done by way of two grandfathers that endured the extremes of anxiety, feelings of confoundedness and confusion (not being a part of things – antisocial & trust issues). I also believe that some of this karma manifest physically as well as psychologically through conditions like ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, even forms of dementia in latter life.

So How Do We Heal Such Things?

This is the big question to which I have little in way of answers though I have attempted to use many traditional remedies; prayer, chanting, spell-work as well as medical treatment via which I am able to better balance my own life and curb the intensity of these karmic “possessions”.  I’m a strong believer in working the metaphysical ways of healing in tandem with both western & eastern forms of treatment in that one is dealing with significantly strong barriers – circumstances that have had generations to anchor themselves as part of our etheric and physical DNA. However, we must all take that first rather tough step; to put our family legacy under a magnifying lens so as to find those common threads, most of which can be seen in 3-5 generations.  Unfortunately traditional genealogical research isn’t enough; we need to speak with those that knew these relatives and who are willing to spill the beans when it comes to the darker aspects tied to them, this is the only way of really finding threads in which anxiety, depression, paranoia as well as psychic type sensitivity and other proclivities seem to meander through the generations.

This course of research is quite in-depth and must entail either side of your personal tree even though it seems that some of this karma chases the path of one gender more than the other even though both bring something to the table.

There are clinical grounds to what I’m saying, factors that have been proven though no physical genetic evidence seems extant at the moment.  The fact still remains that psychological, social, emotional and even intellectual patterns can be seen within each family line.  Similarly, distinct divisions within family groups can be seen, where traits suddenly move into and become a part of a patriarchal line as the result of marriage, the spouse bringing in a strain of karma that was not common to the family line in previous generations and yet it becomes a marked factor in short time.

Tradition, when it comes to the soul’s evolution – our preparation to return to that new incarnation, suggests that we consciously select our parentage prior to birth based on the lessons we must learn from in order to both, advance on the spiritual plan but to do so by bringing our karma into balance. This is quite possibly why we remain consistent with the same familial and environmental strata in that some of us must repeat the “class” several times before waking-up to the bigger picture. Sadly, much of this is due to the dogma we are fed in our early life and society’s act of stepping away from the old ways; those times when children were encouraged to remember who they were and what they brought with them into this particular lifetime. But maybe. . . just maybe some of us will begin changing such things, bringing reprise to such valuable traditions and rights of passage so as to allow the mind, body and soul to catch-up with our mechanized and technological advances and cancelling out the horrid trends we are seeing of late, in which total and complete denial of spirit and the divine is encouraged – Man placing itself above the greater aspect of Universal Reality.

It’s a very tall order but I believe we can address it and make wondrous things happen with time.

Like many in my generation I was subjected to a myriad of biblical-based assaults -- guilt-trips imposed by parents based on cherry-picked passages from the "Good Book".  One of my favorite daggers being the whole "Respect and Honor Your Parents" which is well and good with one slight issue that parents tend to forget, the follow-up encouragements made in which "the Parents Are Not to Give Reason for Their Child to Spite Them"

Even as a non-Christian I can see where the Bible as well as the Koran both have some wonderful bits of wisdom along with Lesson Parable, much of which our Westernized and overly Commercialized culture is remiss of; our kids looking down at such things as being primitive and "Illogical" because they have been caught-up in this contrivance that says that "Smart People Don't Have Imaginary Friends They Talk To" or, to put it another way, "God Doesn't Exist and If You are Intelligent You Do Not Believe in Magickle Thinking of Any Sort"

What's frightening about this concept is how the Mental Health industry has come to stigmatize people of faith as being delusional; the acts of prayer & meditation as well as belief in the various "gifts of the spirit" and one's ability to do healings, speak in tongues, have visions, etc. All part and parcel of most all the world's great religions, is officially ruled as a mental health issue because it doesn't fit the invented mold our institutions of "science" and the auspices of "Higher" Education say so. 

And yet we stand in dismay, trying to understand why society has been turned on its ear and our young people seem to have little to no respect for anyone or anything; the "ME" attitudes of the 1980's have been cubed when it comes to the arrogant selfishness and materialism that's taken possession of the top rated "Industrial Nations" infected by Western European attitude and ideologies.  Each generation placing more and more fuel on the pyre, taking us seemingly closer and closer towards oblivion. 

I'm not one to encourage any dogma type "faith" but i do encourage some sense of decorum alongside honor; that sort of integrity that allows us to INTELLIGENTLY as well as INTELLECTUALLY look at the essence of the scriptures regardless which flavor (preferably "all of the above") so that we might learn; learn what "wisdom' is and how to apply it to life and life's woes. To use the essence found in those ancient parables for how they were intended; teaching tools that can aid us in nurturing our children, making them better people than we have been. 

I loathe all facets of Organized Religion; when man takes control of such things we screw it up by trying to place words into the mouths of both, the gods and the prophets (usually so we can Profit). But my view does not mean that this one is right and that one is wrong; they are all just as right as they are wrong; they all have wondrous things to offer as well as a darkness that has proven itself time and again. . . even now as religion is used as an excuse for an unjust, unholy war that's now enveloped the globe with distrust, deception and loathing. 

No, we should toss Religion out of the window with the bath water, while likewise retaining its essence; what the scriptures actually say on the more Universal level -- how they reveal that we are all "God's Children"  or better yet, an aspect of the divine.

There are fine golden threads shared by all of these great traditions.  I believe the time has come for us to collect them all, sewing them into a new canon by which we actually begin to observe the greatest of all commandments found in these texts; the Law of UNCONDITIONAL Love, Forgiveness and Acceptance in ALL things.  It is the most ancient of all wisdom teachings and the most prevalent in all cultures and traditions and yet, in 5,000 years we've yet to make even the slightest effort to live by it and thereby be a part of that promised society in which the "divine" rules.

Think about it