Diverse Aspects of my 'Paranormal Initiation' in 1995

Considering the autobiographical series of articles published at this blog since August 25, 2019, new or occasional readers should keep in mind that what occurred is reported precisely as the events unfolded.  No names of the people mentioned have been altered.  I've always considered myself a journalist first with the case study chronology of all that has taken place.  The objective has been to be candid with the documentary-style nonfiction book Testament (1997) and these articles.  A reader can vicariously put oneself in my position while learning about how the understanding of metaphysical aspects of life was gained through a sequence of events unlike anything ever reported by someone else.
 
It seems apparent that some new readers upon first being confronted with a description of one of the startling occurrences in my personal case chronology may find this to be something completely unfamiliar.  This blogger would ask this manner of reader to be patient while reading this particular article in the entirety before considering formulating any particular conclusion or judgment.
 
More than 11 years ago after I first started blogging about metaphysical and paranormal subjects in addition to my own case chronology, there came the discovery that by my assigning meanings to certain number codes such as '123' and '777' this would allow my unseen omnipresent Collaborator to give me editorial suggestions on a daily basis through my observing license plate numbers in traffic.  This phenomenal aspect of the natural universe is known categorically as 'synchronicity'.
 
As one example of how this phenomena has manifested while driving in traffic, once when I kept seeing the number sequence expressing 'a needed correction' and couldn't figure out what was wrong with the article I was currently writing, the sequence pattern was followed by a license plate number with the new sequence pattern of 222 and I realized the mistake was in the preceding article.  Upon rereading the article, I recognized a questionable sentence and made the correction.  The observed license plate number patterns were all favorable the next time when I was driving.
 
When this blogger relates information such as this, it is understandable that a new or occasional blog reader will not be prepared to consider how my circumstances in life could be different from how they presently experience 'reality.'  That is the reason for these autobiographical articles that explain each step of my 'paranormal initiation' that began to unfold after my 39th birthday.  During my first 39 years, my perceptions of life were probably highly similar to that of most people, whom I don't consider to be mentally inferior or superior to me in any way.
 
It was in the summer 25 years ago when many aspects of my life changed as my 'paranormal initiation' proceded upon arriving home in Los Angeles after my research trip to Oklahoma to investigate what had been called a 'talking poltergeist' haunting involving an entity named 'Michael.'  As a variety of phenomenal incidents continued to occur before my eyes, omnipresence was a lesson of my 'unseen guide'/'guardian angel.'  During the first months of this discovered involvement, occurrences included witnessing the materialization of coins, technological phenomena such as my television turning on and off, and Electronic Voice Phenomena heard when I was transcribing tape recordings.  As mentioned previously — I found that there was no other conclusion possible than a Loving and unlimited creative Superconsciousness had found a way of revealing participation in my life through an ongoing paranormal initiation.
 
I now was able to distinguish the relevance of the term Holy Ghost/Holy Spirit in signifying the omnipresent Spiritual Force (or Christ Force) manifesting the Divine Will of God. I decided that the mysterious 'Michael' could only be an aspect of the enigmatic Archangel Whose manifestations had inspired diverse cultural permutations throughout the ages.  For decades, psychical researchers had estimated the diverse ‘poltergeist’ phenomena as somehow tying-in with the subconscious mind yet they hadn’t defined a Superconscious element.  I felt joyful at the realization that all living beings from Earth, other planets or ascended realms are each a single aspect of the spiritual Source finding expression on physical planes of existence.
 
I began pondering if my predicament could have something to do with a previous life.  I’d never been inclined to believe in reincarnation and yet this seemed the best apparent explanation.  I couldn't help thinking, ‘What if this means I’m the reincarnation of Jesus?’
 
After continuing to reflect about this while there were further occurrences of anomalous phenomena, I now understood the context of some enigmatic occurrences from earlier in life.  The first person I told about my shocking realization was my mother with a telephone call —

Hi.  This is Mark.  Everything's fine.  Have you figured it out yet?  You'll never guess.  It's so freaky.  Remember those burning bushes outside my condo a while ago?  On the hill right outside?  The only way I can express it is sort of like hitting bingo on a cosmic lottery game.

I mentioned how it seemed to be about genetics, something not literally correct.  I continued:

I've been — uhh — are you sitting down?

She answered, "Well, you can tell me, honey.  I'm sitting down."

I'm the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

She responded, "We all are."

No, we aren't.  Think — just think about it. . . . 

(The original book transcript also includes Electronic Voice Phenomena word and unattributed sound notations.)

Then followed in my life a period of contemplation and retrospection that included feelings of selfishness concerning attention given to helping the less fortunate in society.  I realized that all that had happened must be reported to people with complete honesty.

Upon beginning to transcribe the Oklahoma interview and journal transcripts from audiotapes, I decided to keep on maintaining a record of all that happened using the tape recorder.  The sustaining influence was the continuous moments of encouragement and new insights gained through an ever-expanding diversity of anomalous manifestations.

Twenty-five years later, there remains the challenge of making comprehensible to others the progression of so many unusual conditions and incidents during my unexpected path of spiritual discovery.  Evidently, my present predicament in existence is due to a previous incarnation as an ancient god-king-priest known as 'Bel-Marduk.'  At an antique store near my home I was able to obtain an Egyptian medallion bearing the countenance in profile of an ancient figure who greatly resembled the way I appeared during my younger years.  I've described in some previous autobiographical articles the unfolding of these otherwise inconceivable 'normal things' that formerly would have been inconceivable and with this article some new details are being divulged.

Concerning the conspicuous manifestations of 'synchronicity' that I began noticing in 1995, at first I deduced that such a phenomenon could be recognized by anyone upon becoming aware of the omnipresence of what could only be conceived by myself as constituting 'the God Force'; however, my unseen 'guide in Oneness' at that moment manifested the 'no' tap as is sporadically experienced by me.  When felt on the other leg the tap signifies 'yes.'  These moments only occur according to the will of my unseen Collaborator and not when there is some particular question in my mind that I would like answered.

Another discovery involved the word patterns 'bell' and 'Michael' being noticed to recur throughout case chronologies involving 'paranormal phenomena.'  The patterns have a definite context when the symbolic and metaphorical aspects of my predicament become known to the reader.  Considering how the patterns culminated in my life, it was astonishing to consider that a person such as myself—with a vague and nebulous personality due to having been 'single' throughout adult life—could find myself a focal point in relation to placing them in perspective.

Continuously throughout the years while writing these metaphysical articles, when typing I've occasionally noticed my fingers hitting certain keys that have come to be associated with a specific meaning or 'suggestion' from my unseen Collaborator.  When I notice one of my fingers suddenly hit the comma key unintentionally, this is the symbol to delete the current sentence as there is something about it that must be incorrect or not necessary.  Some symbols that occasionally recur should be easy for anyone to interpret, such as the semicolon.  Once every now and then one of my fingers will suddenly type the M key without any conscious intention.  These occasions seem to be simple reminders of the unlimited nature of my unseen Collaborator.  

This Testament photo of a message left in bird gravel at the 'haunted' home in Oklahoma I'd visited shows the first time I noticed instances of the letter 'M' manifested in a portentous way.

The below images offer some Pop culture examples of  'The M Pattern.'  

In 2019 Meg Myers performed a new version of the Kate Bush song "Running Up That Hill."  

Pop culture creative expressions are part of the lives of contemporary people and this is one of the aspects of life and society that evolves based on conditions influenced by technology and social traditions, including commercialism.  During my younger years my favorite Pop singers were Nina Hagen and Laurie Anderson.  Nina sang about such subjects as flying saucers and the "the golden age of Aquarius" while Laurie's songs happened to be about angels and ironic aspects of modern life.

One author who has written about having received transcendental communication through a number of human channels is Andrjia Puharich, author of the nonfiction book Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller (1974).  The first contact channeled through Dr. D. G. Vinod was: "M calling: We are Nine Principles and Forces, personalities if you will, working in complete mutual implication."  Chronicled in the book is how Andrija and Uri found themselves interacting with "some representative or extension of the Nine Principles."  Andrija wrote:

In addition to the confused record with respect to God and gods, I now felt that the role of prophets and sages in human affairs became more understandable.  In biblical times an Uri Geller would eventually be honored as a prophet in local religious lore.  Today he was a show freak and a guinea pig for science. 

Andrija participated in channeling sessions conducted by medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer in the case chronicled in the book The Only Planet of Choice (1993) that presents transcripts of communication from 'Tom' of 'The Council of Nine' (or 'the Nine').  Andrija Puharich is a subject of many previous blog articles.  (incl. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)  His books include Beyond Telepathy (1962) and his research of the Brazilian healer Arigo is reported in Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty Knife (1974) by John G. Fuller.  Below is shown a diagram of one of the documented manifestations in his case study Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller (1974).  

Reported in a previous blog article about the paranormal 'Mahatma Letters' of the 1880s phenomenally received by members of the Theosophical Society, it was Madame H. P. Blavatsky's master 'Morya' who signed his letters with the initial 'M.'  In Puharich's Uri, the channeled voice designated as ‘M’ was quoted: “We propose to work with you in some essential respects of contradiction and contrariety.”  In Mahatma Letter No. IX by K.H., there is mentioned the “apparently contradictory phases” of “the manifestations of occult philosophy.”  In contrast to all that Madame Blavatsky did or didn't reveal as a self-professed "occultist," nothing has been left vague or concealed about my 'paranormal initiation' with Testament.
 
Something that I share in common with most people is seeking meaningful new discoveries or perspectives of life even during Presidential election years (and beyond the plethora or coronavirus updates, celebrity news and whatever new acts of violence are being promulgated among news media).  More than a decade ago, I noticed an 'M' formation in a deciphered representation of the 1974 message sent in binary code from the Arecibo radio-telescope by SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and asked John—a computer language expert who'd written about interstellar communication—for an explanation via an Email.  John replied: "The M shape is the radio transmission being reflected off the dish into outer space.  It is essentially part of the lowest section, which depicts the Arecibo telescope with its encoded dimensions."  It seems appropriate that the significance of 'M' would encompass the intuitive and the cosmic as my research into my personally guided 'M Theory' or, more precisely, 'M knowledge'—not to be confused with the Edward Witten "M-Theory"—would bring me further insights about the worlds beyond our earthly realm.

One early morning in March 2007 I was at the gym and happened to notice that one of the television monitors was presenting a segment showing thousands of migrating Monarch butterflies converging among trees.  Scenes of a talking Muppet was juxtaposed with the footage of the butterflies with intricate wing designs in orange, black and white.  Then the letter M was shown.  These insects and their migration remind one how amazing can be the behavior of even small organisms.  The Monarchs begin life as caterpillars to eventually undergo their astonishing metamorphosis and then their migration can cover as many as 2,000 miles.  We humans also undertake a journey throughout our lives and evolve spiritually.
 
As an example of some of the bizarre and unique manifestations that I personally experienced, while I was residing in Echo Park there were two occasions on separate Sundays when I observed astonishing sights in the sky.  One Sunday afternoon after attending the Philosophical Research Society lecture, I was driving on Sunset Boulevard toward home and noticed in the sky what looked like a black patch.  The black area had a perfectly rectangular shape that reminded me of a door.  Since I was driving, I had to occasionally look away and each time that I returned my gaze to the sky, the black space appeared smaller although no motion was seen while I watched it.  And then it was gone.  On another weekend, I was driving on the Harbor Freeway when I noticed the clouds overhead had opened to form the perfect shape of a heart and streams of sunlight were cascading through the aperture.  I kept a record of the surprising occurrences with my 'audio journal.'

One of the things related by many channeled entities is that everyone has a lifelong 'spirit guide'/'guardian angel.'  Something that I began to notice was people around me successively voicing spontaneous ideas (without knowing other people had discussed the same subject with me during preceding moments) in what became distinguishable as thematic patterns suggestive of an interactive Source of their ideas.  The 'yes' or 'no' taps on my legs give me something in common with Socrates, who became aware of a communicating 'Spirit' (or expressed in Greece as 'daemon').  Potentially, every person could develop such a rapport with your 'guardian angel' and receive information in this manner.  The rare 'no' tap while I'm driving will compel me to immediately alter the driving route I'd previously planned.  When my car was struck from behind in 2017 by another vehicle, there was the realization that apparently not all adverse occurrences may be avoided with help or intervention from the guides.
 
The events chronicled in Testament include a friend's psychic incident that brought me my 'Mark Russell Bell' pen name.  (My birth name is Mark Gordon Russell.)  Prior to my Oklahoma research expedition, there had been two occurrences of hearing disembodied voices, including once as a child when my name was repeatedly called; two 'religious ecstasies' (for lack of a better description) and two separate occasions of my witnessing clumps of bushes go up in flames outside my condo.  In Oklahoma, one of the strange occurrences was a nail materializing and bouncing off my head before falling to the floor.

As recalled in Testament, soon after returning home from Oklahoma I decided to search through my books for elucidating information about the life of Jesus Christ.  I found nothing compelling until I scanned the index of Zecharia Sitchin’s The Wars of Gods and Men (1985) and found that after the name Jesus, page 224 was listed.  I turned to that page and found the paragraph mentioning Jesus.  I read the sentence and was astonished at what was found.

. . . When Stephen Langdon included an English translation in his 1923 volume on the Mesopotamian New Year Mystery Texts, he titled the text The Death and Resurrection of Bel-Marduk and highlighted its parallels to the New Testament tale of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Bel-Marduk?  There was a similarity with my new Mark Russell Bell pen name.  I read further.

But, as the text relates, Marduk or Bel (“The Lord”) did not die; he was indeed incarcerated inside The Mountain as in a tomb; but he was entombed alive.

Here was a correlation with Paramount Pictures, the corporate principality I'd been affiliated with during the last seven and a half years as a publicity writer.  The studio's logo was The Mountain.

I then read the information prior to the mention of Jesus.

The record of Marduk’s entombment, alive, within the Great Pyramid has been preserved on clay tablets found in the ruins of Ashur and Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capitals.  The Ashur text suggests that it had served as a script for a New Year’s mystery play in Babylon that reenacted the god’s suffering and reprieve.  But neither the original Babylonian version, nor the Sumerian historical text on which the script was based, have so far been found.

Heinrich Zimmern, who transcribed and translated the Ashur text from clay tablets in the Berlin Museum, created quite a stir in theological circles when he announced its interpretation at a lecture in September 1921. The reason was that he interpreted it as a pre-Christian Mysterium dealing with the death and resurrection of a god, and thus an earlier Christ tale.

I skimmed through the mentions of Marduk throughout the book yet many of the details about his life seemed vague or hypothetical.  One tablet mentioned a 24-year exile for Marduk that concluded in 'Hatti-land' (or Hittite lands).  I had first discovered the books of Sitchin many years ago.  The book cover of his first book The 12th Planet (1976) presented the description: "For the first time, proof that establishes where, when, how, and why astronauts from another planet settled the earth and created Homo sapiens."

Sitchin’s The Earth Chronicles book series had the objective of providing evidence for the premise described on the inside front cover of a 1992 edition of The Wars of Gods and Men:

The Earth Chronicles series is based on the premise that mythology is not fanciful but the repository of ancient memories; that the Bible ought to be read literally as a historic/scientific document; and that ancient civilizations—older and greater than assumed—were the product of knowledge brought to Earth by the Anunnaki, “Those Who from Heaven to Earth Came.”

Since the eventful year of 1995, I would occasionally refer to Sitchin’s work and don't know if there are any other scholars who correlate Bel-Marduk—‘Bel’ signifying “The Lord”—with Egypt’s Amen-Ra/Amon-Ra/Amun-Ra.

And what of the rescued Prisoner of the pyramid?

Mesopotamian texts relate that he went into exile; in Egypt Ra acquired the epithet Amen, “The Hidden One.”

In Sitchin’s The Stairway to Heaven, the Egyptian lore includes ‘the Amen-Ta ’ (‘the Hidden Place’). After reading about Bel-Marduk and Amen-Ra, my conclusion became that if I was the physical reincarnation of someone, it was probably this 'Bel-Marduk.'  A mysterious occurrence during my Oklahoma expedition had been observing a beetle that looked like a scarab flinging itself against my hotel door for a considerable period late one night when I was trying to sleep.

A previous blog article is about parallels between life narratives of Jesus and Bel as chronicled by author and metaphysical researcher J. Arthur Findlay (1883-1964) in The Book of Truth (1933) and Looking Back (1955).  Although many of his perspectives are merely hypothetical, he cites correlations between Christianity and other religions.  Here are some excerpts from the earlier of these two books.

The coming of Christianity under State control [with the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD] preserved it as a religion and as an organization, and this event was the death knell of all other Roman cults and sects.

The Emperor Julian, who followed Constantine, went back to Mithraism, but his short reign of less than two years, from 361 to 363, could not change what the strong mind of Constantine had decreed.  Besides this, his defeat and death in battle in Persia, the home of Mithraism, was used by the Christians as an argument against the old and in favour of the new, and was looked on as an omen that Christianity had divine approval.  Had Julian been successful and had a long reign, the entire religious history of Europe would have been different.

Sir Henry Rawlinson was responsible for the decipherment of the old Babylonian language which was forgotten.  In 1835 he took from the Behistun Rock near Babylon a copy of what turned out to be a decree of King Darius written in Babylonian, Scythian, and Persian.  He made paper casts of this inscription, and it was possible, owing to the fact that the Persian was known, to translate the Babylonian and the Scythian.  In consequence of this discovery, the numerous Babylonian tablets since found have been translated, and much of what is found in the Old and New Testaments can now be traced to Babylon.  The stories of Adam and Eve, the flood, the Tower of Babel, and other events, were all current in Babylonia long before a book of our Bible was written.  They were copied there by the Jews when in captivity.  

Something disconcerting to me was how Zecharia Sitchin wrote about Marduk's relationship with Inanna (or Ishtar with Sitchin describing a warlike mythology involving her).  Having read this later brought about what I considered an important realization and decision.

In 1997 after the publication of Testament and with no source of income, it became necessary for me to find employment again.  There was a brief interim when I agreed to work part-time for my brother as a publicity writer when he was a vice-president at Rogers & Cowan Public Relations.   I'd decided not to work at any shareholder companies and didn't think that this firm could be defined that way.  (It can be.)  Beginning on February 24 for a few weeks while simultaneously engaged in publicizing Testament, I worked on press releases and other information materials for clients and for movies such as "The Game," "The Borrowers," "187" and "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Baby Burn" (the latter considered one of Hollywood's all-time artistic and commercial disasters).  Eventually I would come to the conclusion that by contributing to movie publicity campaigns I was contributing to people's entertainment focus that was distracting them from the spiritual development possible through reading Testament. 

Ironically, I felt the ideal person to suggest what the positioning paragraph for the movie press kit of "The Game" should be although there probably were the usual filmmaker and executive revisions after the draft I'd completed; for example, I notice the word 'forever' is redundant.  This is how the movie is described in the final production information handbook distributed to the news and entertainment media: 

A game?

Tailored specifically to each participant.

Think of it as a great vacation,

except you don't go to it, it comes to you . . . 

We've never had an unsatisfied customer.

There are no rules in The Game.

Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is a shrewdly successful businessman who is accustomed to being in control of each facet of his investments and relationships.  His well-ordered life undergoes a profound change, however, when his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) gives him an unexpected birthday gift that soon has devastating consequences.  As Nicholas begins playing the game, he discovers that it has very high stakes, although he isn't certain of the rules or even the objective.  Nicholas soon finds that he is being monitored in his own home by unknown conspirators that seem intent on dismantling his very existence.  The Game becomes an enigmatic life-or-death contest that will change his life forever.

The title of the movie reminds me of something that unnerved me upon reading about it in one of the final chapters of The Gods of Eden (1990) by William Bramley.  The author conceived of a "game" involving a "Supreme Being" and "awareness units" in some way.  The game would conceivably involve "a different marker on a game board" and the game would be "played as well as possible . . . so that everyone may start moving into a new phase . . ."

Concerning the metaphor of 'the game,' I recall seeing a horror movie about twins where so many deadly events occurred among the characters that it was impossible to know what was going on most of the time while viewing the narrative.  The movie was "The Other" (1972) and the names of the twin characters were Niles and Holland Perry.  Niles is taught by his grandmother to play "The Game."  Young people watch movies because they crave experiences involving novelty and excitement yet one learns that there are more positive and productive alternatives to expand the mind and one's consciousness.  (All the books profiled in blog articles provide some indication of this.)  Decades later, I can still vividly recall watching this grim movie at the age of 15.  My mother had brought me and my brother to view the film on opening night because there was a publicity campaign that allowed people who were twins to see the movie without any charge.  The Perry surname of the main characters also happen to be a lineage in my own family tree pedigree chart.

During the interim in 1997 while I worked at Rogers & Cowan, I met a book publicist who happened to closely resemble in appearance and personality the actress Diane Keaton.  When she soon thereafter left the firm to form her own company, I agreed to work with her and help her begin her new enterprise with some writing assignments; however, I could never overcome the feeling that working in the publicity field was not an appropriate occupation for me.  After a sleepless night I would realize that working as a publicist couldn't continue as there was a conflict with the marketing of my own book.  My relationship with the woman would only last for a couple of weeks.

I can still recall what happened when the publicist and I shared a business meal at the nearby restaurant Dive!  After hearing about my guide 'Michael,' a demonstration was provided with a French fry dropping on the table between us — an unusually blatant anomalous manifestation when another person was with me.  Apparently 'the guides' wanted this to be a memorable evening.  During my stint helping the publicist with her new enterprise, I was privileged to have the chance of interviewing spiritual healing facilitator/author Gene Egidio (1933-2009), among several other illustrious author clients.  One of my realizations was that her name was similar to that of 'Inanna.'  An archaic text is entitled Inanna's Descent to the Lower World — to give an example of how troubling thinking about this all became for me.  I'd previously heard and read that one of the helpful aspects of learning about previous incarnations (including metaphorical associations made by psychics) is so that one won't repeat the same mistakes in one's current life.

As one of my insights to be shared with the world was that the original Jesus Christ was God in the way that every human is and not different from everyone else, I wondered if perhaps I might too be perceived in a scandalous way.  Previous blog articles mention how prior to working at Paramount, I'd been a talent agent.  In 1980 my employment search resulted with talent agent Ruth Webb and actor Mickey Rooney becoming a part of my life.  In 1995 after witnessing many unexpected events, another strange development was learning the extent that Ruth and her new sub-agent Sherri Spillane becoming what an LA weekly magazine called "Scandal Queens."  (1, 2, 3)  I contacted Ruth and Sherri to see if they would be interested in working with me as I planned the publication of my case study book Testament.  They didn’t seem to be.  I realized that not everyone understands or values events or people that might seem overtly pious or esoteric.  Perhaps their subconscious Mind was a factor in Ruth and Sherri's decision about this.

In The Wars of Gods and Men Zecharia Sitchin included his perspective of a "great Disaster" that Marduk wasn't able to prevent.  Admittedly, this has been one of the motivations while devoting myself to sharing my experiences with others.  Something else that aroused considerable introspection was the realization that the name 'Mabus' found in a Nostradamus quatrain is an anagram found in my 'Mark Russell Bell' pen name.  The predicament has been a topic of two previous blog articles.  (1, 2)

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The movie trailers shown below provide some idea of storylines, reminding me of some reasons I stopped allocating time to watching movies in early 1997 — lack of sophistication; inanity; negativity; and suspense generated in ways that Manly P. Hall on one occasion equated with "a pernicious effect."  One should be thoughtful about enhancing ways of expanding one's mind.  There are more important things for one to do.  The main motivation for many movies that are produced is simply to make as much money as possible.  While a viewer who is spiritually and metaphysically aware may be aware of esoteric orientations to Pop culture expressions, most people are unaware of these and there is little advantage usually to a moviegoing experience among the knowledgeable.    

Some longtime readers of Testament and this blog may be aware that no aspects of what I've ever reported have ever been redacted or altered in any way to make myself more 'acceptable' or 'fashionable' for nonbelievers.  The following is a scanned copy of an example news release distributed at the 2003 Conscious Living Expo in Los Angeles. 

This is Article 38 in the blog series "My Unexpected Path of Spiritual Discovery."

Update: Below is shown another highly prominent logo currently in use.  Also see: “The Twins Who Shocked Hollywood & The Twins Who Shocked Rome”.