A MEETING WITH A YOUNG SEER

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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“Many holy persons appeared in my life, and they led me toward my spiritual growth. One of them lived in Kamut. He was a young man, called Mario, around thirty years old.”
“I didn’t know there was a man that looked like an angel in Kamut.”
“There was, indeed. I can testify he was a special man. Every year on July eleventh, something mysterious happened at his home. At noon he fell asleep. All his friends gathered around his bed and watched him while he was sleeping.
“On July eleventh, I went to his house in Kamut. At the entrance of the living room was a statue of the Virgin Mary. There was water around the base of the statue. It had the scent of roses. Mario’s room was in the loft. There was a blue blanket on the bed and a blue ribbon on his belly. It was similar to the ribbon I had seen on the statue of St. Michael the Archangel. At noon Mario slipped into the sheets. His eyes blinked and then he fell  asleep. I sat down on the floor and watched him.
“From time to time, Mario turned his head to the right and then to the left. Sometimes, he smiled. Then, his hands turned reddish. Little by little, red spots appeared on his hands. The spots looked like coagulated blood. Often Mario folded his hands. He tried to say something, but his voice was so low that it was impossible to hear him. One of Mario’s friends sat beside the bed, put a microphone near his lips and recorded his words. I heard Mario utter volcano or volcanoes.
“While I was watching Mario, a picture of Mia Martini on the wall caught my attention. She was an Italian singer who committed suicide. Suddenly, the lady sitting at my side started to tell what she heard from Mario. She turned to me and said, ‘All convicts will be set free. All bonds will break.’ She also uttered a third sentence, but I didn’t keep it in mind even for a short while. It was as if I had a sudden lapse of memory.

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

WHAT AGORAPHOBIA IS

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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“Since I was a child, I had suffered from anxiety. It was so much that I couldn’t stand in crowded places. My disease is called agoraphobia. The etymology of the word agoraphobia is from Greek. Agora means square and phobia means fear. So agoraphobia is fear of open spaces and often of any place outside home. The agoraphobic feel comfortable only within their domestic walls. In more serious cases, they can’t leave their home.
“Agoraphobia includes fear of traveling. The world is seen as a minefield. One often feels faint while one is outside home. The more the agoraphobic strive to be normal and at ease, the more this effort of will turns into tension, cold perspiration, and accelerated heartbeats. Apparently, behind agoraphobia there is something related to the relationship with others. Conditioning by religion, society, and family is buried deep in the mind, and it generates a permanent conflict between repression and expression of emotions and feelings. I felt my conflict was unbearable. Accordingly, I fled the external world and withdrew to my home and the office of my haulage company to feel better. I was tortured by a huge ambivalence. On the one hand, I wanted to live my life fully, going out and walking freely on the streets, squares, and crowded places. On the other hand, I felt dizzy outside my home and my office, as if I were about to faint.
“Uncle Salvatore, I didn’t know about your disease. It looks very serious. How did you overcome your agoraphobia?”
“I was helped by the divinity that sent me persons as healers and teachers. Events don’t happen by chance. Our path of life has already been designed by an invisible entity that leads us along the way. An invisible and subtle thread led me to Osho. ‘Please, St. Michael the Archangel, help me and make it possible for me to walk the streets without anxiety and panic attacks!’ I prayed to St. Michael the Archangel when his statue passed by me during the procession on July second.”
“What happened to you afterwards, Uncle Salvatore? Did St. Michael the Archangel answer your prayer?”
“I can just say that from that day on, my life started to change for the better. I met many masters. Little by little, I could get over my anxiety and panic attacks.”

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

THE BORDER BETWEEN SANITY AND INSANITY

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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“I think, Uncle Salvatore, it is not difficult to behave like a madman, because the boundary between insanity and sanity is like thin paper.”
“Yes. The border between sanity and insanity is not based on the quality of abnormal behavior, but rather on the quantity of behavioral abnormalities. In other words, everyone has a certain amount of garbage inside. Madmen have more garbage than those with a normal mind. Neurotics are halfway between sanity and insanity, for they have a lot of garbage inside, but it is not enough to make them cross over the border to madness.”
“You say, Uncle Salvatore, that the state of the human mind depends on the quantity of garbage inside. Can you give me an example for me to understand better?”
“Yes, of course. For example, fear is an emotion that can be considered garbage. If you don’t have much fear inside, nothing bad happens. But if fear is excessive, it becomes pathological and turns into anxiety or panic attacks.”
“Give me one more example, please. This is really interesting.”
“The same happens with regard to paranoia. It is just a question of quantity. Let’s take a suspicious person as an example. Being distrustful is normal, but when mistrust becomes bigger and bigger, it turns into the belief that others may harm you and, finally, into paranoia. As you know, I love money. I consider it God’s blessing. If love for money is not excessive, it is called thriftiness. If greed for money is excessive, it is called miserliness and it is pathological.”
“I don’t think so, Uncle Salvatore.”
“Go ahead!”
“I think the causes of mental diseases lie not only in the amount of garbage inside but also in the quality of the brain. In fact, mental disease often comes from a sick or damaged brain, regardless of the garbage inside.”
“Yes, you are right, a sound brain as well as the chemical processes inside the human body are important, but, this is the point, body, brain, and mind are connected. Therefore, if you reduce the quantity of garbage inside your mind, also your brain will benefit from it, and the body’s chemical processes will work better.”
“According to you, Uncle Salvatore, what causes fear, anxiety, panic attacks, and paranoia?”
“Sometimes we can’t control those states. It happens because there is a substratum under the mental condition. What is the basis of neurosis? Can you answer, Benedetto?”
“I think the substratum is our past failures, the emotions we have suppressed over the years, trauma, and, above all, our difficult relationships with others.”

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

THE TRUTH ABOUT NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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“Once I felt better, I went back to work. I bought a new gas-fired boiler and stayed in that house a few months longer. In the evening I used to stroll in the street with Giuseppe and Umberto. ‘Have you ever heard about near-death experiences when one comes back to life after a deep coma?’ I asked Umberto. ‘Yes, Carl Gustav Jung told of his own near-death experience.’ ‘Some people have reported that they were in the light and felt bliss while they were dying. It is evidence of life after death.’ ‘No, it isn’t. The experience of a near-death happens inside, not in the external world. In other words, you can’t declare the existence of life after death on the basis of your dreams, reasoning, and thoughts which are confined inside yourself. I’ll give you an example. If you imagine or dream a hippogriff, a mythological creature that is half horse and half griffin, it doesn’t mean that hippogriffs really exist. The whole process of imagining or dreaming a hippogriff happens inside yourself. But that creature doesn’t exist in reality. The same goes for near-death experiences. The whole experience happens inside the dying man, not outside him. The paradise he thinks he sees outside him may not exist in reality,’ Umberto answered coldly.
“I was not convinced about his words and retorted that Descartes, a philosopher, proved the existence of God. But Umberto knew the topic well and answered without getting flustered. ‘Yes, you are right, but another philosopher, Emmanuel Kant, confuted Descartes’s theory. In Descartes’s reasoning, as well as in the reasoning of anyone who wants to prove the existence of God and life after death, there is an inexplicable gap between the logical and the ontological field.’ ‘Could you speak more plainly so that I can understand?’ ‘Yes. You can’t extrapolate the reality from an idea or reasoning. It is not correct to reason that as there is a creature, then there must be a creator. In fact, reasoning can never give existence to a being in reality. If you dream of being a rich and powerful man, you will discover that you don’t have those attributes when you wake up. In your dreams your mind creates objects that will disappear when you awake.’

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TO BE AND TO BEHAVE

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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“Yes, gibberish helped me to clean my mind and meet my authentic being. Not only by doing gibberish, but also by studying, traveling, and attending religious meetings, I realized that what I am and how I act are not the same thing. You can be a good person but sometimes act badly, and vice versa, good actions can come from a wicked person sometimes.
“Therefore, don’t try to change your nature, rather change your actions! Accept whoever you are and don’t suppress your nature. Instead, try to act well. Your shortcomings are a part of yourself. ‘What I am is nothing, what I do is everything,’ someone said. What a person is and what a person does can be likened to the fruits of a tree. It is not important that a tree is good or bad, short or tall, upright or bent. What matters is that it brings forth good fruits.”
“Your opinion, Uncle Salvatore, doesn’t match with Jesus’s teachings. According to Matthew’s Gospel, it seems to be impossible that a bad tree can produce good fruits, and vice versa. Do you agree with Jesus?”
“Not much. Despite the great love I have for Jesus, I want to keep my opinion intact. On the other hand, all good masters set their disciples free to think in their own way. I think Jesus also allows me to express my opinion.”
“So, don’t I need to change myself?”
“Don’t change yourself, Benedetto! You must accept yourself as you are. A human being is like a beautiful painting with a variety of gradations and a myriad of colors. For instance, if you don’t like the color black and cut it off from the painting, it loses its originality and harmony of colors. If you change your nose, teeth, shyness, impulsiveness, and so on, you will be a different person, quite different from the original yourself.”
“I think the same goes for society.”
“Yes, Benedetto! The world is like a gigantic tapestry. Its weaving shows all the figures existing on Earth. There are vicious and meek animals, all kinds of plants, good and wicked people, and so on. Seen from the sky, the tapestry is fantastic. When you cut out what you dislike, for instance, mice, spiders, wild animals, bad people, and so on, many figures will disappear from the tapestry. It will be a different tapestry and will lose its unique beauty and splendor.”

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

AN ESOTERIC MEETING ON THE DAY OF THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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“I hosted the esoteric meeting on the day of the feast of Saint John the Baptist, which falls on the summer solstice. That afternoon my neighbors were at home. Seeing all those cars parked in the yard, they were surprised.
“While the white girdle brethren purified the living room, the others waited on the upper floor. In fact, we were not allowed to see how the purification ritual took place. Rino was one of those who performed the ritual, and later he told me that it was a kind of exorcism. We burned a lot of incense. Moreover, there were intervals of silence,  specially when we did the chain. Surely my neighbors wondered why so many people stayed silent and burned incense. That evening, the grand master talked about solstices, equinoxes, and rites related to those special days.
“He said, ‘Equinox and solstice come from the Latin words aequinoctium and solstitium. Since time immemorial, people have celebrated solstices and equinoxes. The winter solstice is related to Jesus’s birth, the summer solstice is related to St. John the Baptist’s birth. They were second cousins. The former was the son of Mary and the latter the son of her cousin Elisabeth. The birth of John the Baptist preceded that of Jesus by six months. On the summer solstice, herbs have a special energy. There are many practices related to the magic night of St. John. On that day people start bonfires, which are the symbol of purification, and pluck special herbs, above all, the hypericum also called Saint-John’s-wort. Spring equinox is related to Cybele, the goddess mother who symbolizes the earth, and to Attis, her son, who symbolizes the vegetation of the earth.’
“When the meeting was over, everybody left, and I remained alone in the house. That night, when I was about to sleep, I sensed that something was happening downstairs. I felt that there were ghostly presences in the living room. I wanted to go there, but I feared an unpleasant encounter. I got up and headed for the landing of the staircase. I thought I saw a ghostly figure with horns coming toward me. As we met almost face-to-face on the landing, he went back downstairs, and I returned to my bed.

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

THE SOUL OF THE BOOK

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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‘Don’t you mind if your book is unpublished? Giuseppe and Umberto are sad because they can’t succeed in publishing their book.’ ‘No, I don’t. I will leave my manuscript in the bookcase. Maybe someday some of my descendants will read it and remember me. My heart will remain in my manuscript. The vibrations of my words will resound in the heart of those who will stumble upon my story about Helen of Troy that never went to Troy. The vibrations of my words will last for a long time through my manuscript.’
“Giuseppe was a pragmatic person, so he could hardly understand Maria Paola’s words about vibrations. ‘You are a dreamer, Maria Paola. You live in the future. What matters is the here and now. I want to be famous now, not after my death, as happened to Vincent van Gogh,’ he said. ‘We are different, Giuseppe. Sometimes I feel you have no heart,’  replied Maria Paola.’ ‘I just follow my emotions, not my heart. Life is just emotion! If I feel something, I live it, otherwise I don’t live it. There is no heart in humans. We are driven by pleasant emotions or unpleasant emotions.’ ‘Surely, we can’t get along. We have different ideas! Now I have to go to church.

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

 

ANOTHER MYTH ABOUT HELEN OF TROY

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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‘According to an unofficial version of the myth told by Euripides, after Paris and Helen ran away from Menelaus’s house, they both wandered the seas, drifted and tossed here and there by the currents. Finally they landed in Egypt, where Hermes replaced the true Helen with a simulacrum, unbeknown to Paris. Paris took to Troy just a simulacrum, not the real Helen, who remained in Egypt. In other words, the Achaeans and the Trojans fought for an effigy for ten years. Through this myth, I want to say that reality is not what it appears. We are often misled. We think we are leading our lives for something valuable, but from a different perspective, we realize that we fight battles for nothing. Not only wars break out in vain, but also our daily lives are dotted with nothingness. Many times we think we have found our true love, our soul mate. We would fight for the sake of our lover against anything. But often love is an illusion. Like Helen of Troy, Hermes turns our lover into a simulacrum! Hence, the ultimate nature of all phenomena is emptiness. This is my opinion about life!’

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

THE PERSECUTIONS AGAINST THE HEATHEN

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

PAGANS

“If we leaf through the pages of history, we can meet with many cases of persecution, some well-known, like the persecutions against the Jews and the Christians, and some not well-known, like the Christians’ persecution against the pagans or the persecution against the Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
“Uncle Salvatore, it’s the first time that I have heard about Christians who persecuted the heathens. Are you sure about that? I thought the heathens persecuted the Christians under the Roman Empire.”
“Yes, I am. The pagans were persecuted, too. After the Edict of Constantine in 313 AD, all religions were admitted in the Roman Empire. The Christians were not persecuted anymore. And then they started to show intolerance against the pagans. Little by little, they destroyed the pagan temples. Afterward, mainly for economic reasons, they converted the pagan temples into Christian churches. In Syracuse, the hometown of Santa Lucia, the temple dedicated to the goddess Athena was converted into the Catholic Cathedral of that city. It stands on the island of Ortygia. As soon as you enter the church, you can see the former pagan temple with its well-preserved Dorian columns.”
“Also in Isola, Uncle Salvatore, paganism merged with Christianity. In fact, in our town the cult of Demeter was replaced with the worship of Our Lady. Deep down, nothing changes. Religious faith remains unaltered over the eras.”
“Yes, it is as you said. After the Edict of Constantine, many pagans were persecuted and killed by the Christians. Apparently, the Christians lost the spirit of nonviolence and love taught by Jesus. They persecuted the pagans, showed intolerance against the heretics, and burned them at the stake.
“One of the cruelest cases of persecution against the pagans was the murder of Hypatia, a martyr and a symbol of freedom of thought. She was a pagan scientist, philosopher and mathematician from Alexandria in Egypt. The Christians killed her during the persecutions against the pagans.

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

MY MEETING WITH THE INDIAN HOMELESS

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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“Uncle Salvatore, can a homeless person be educated? I can’t understand why a learned person becomes homeless.”
“Sometimes life makes a person fall into the worst situation. Benedetto, you can find a golden ring in the garbage by chance. Although he was homeless, Rajan was smart and extraordinary.”…

… “I felt that I had hurt his pride. He winced and answered quietly, ‘I live my life. I do my regular things.’ ‘What things?’ ‘Eating food and sleeping.’ ‘Just eating and sleeping? I don’t think it is enough in life. There are moments of life that you can’t live, such as traveling, dancing, working, drinking a glass of beer at a pub, loving a woman, and so on.’
“My remark was too obvious, so he couldn’t help agreeing with me. ‘Yes, you are right. But I want to focus on a particular job, a search for God. For the sake of my quest, I gave up certain aspects of life.’ ‘How do you lead your search?’ ‘Mostly, studying and learning from the environment and life itself, not from books. The most important aspect of the environment is people. A person’s behavior is different when he works.’ ‘Rajan, I think if you want to study people when they don’t work, you will always meet people like you. There are some groups of people that you can’t analyze. So there will be something missing in your quest.’
“I didn’t feel like continuing to talk about his private life. So I diverted the discussion to another topic. ‘Rajan, have you ever watched a burning corpse?’ ‘Yes, many times. I came here fourteen years ago. I sleep here in the shed provided for the homeless.’ ‘Have you ever asked yourself what will happen after death while watching a burning corpse?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And what is your conclusion? Does life after death exist?’ I asked him at that time, and still now I ask myself the same question.”
“Uncle Salvatore, still you wonder whether there is life after death or not? You have sifted this topic for a long time! You couldn’t find an answer, and you won’t find it as long as you are alive. After you die, you’ll be able to know the truth!”
“Benedetto, I have to search for an answer while I am alive. When I am dead, I can’t do anything.”
“I hope you can succeed. Now let’s go on.”
“Rajan answered, ‘Man gets many chances to purify his soul during his life. The Christians believe that they will go to heaven. Eastern religions believe that man will become one with God. Does life after death exist? Yes. Life is indestructible from alpha to omega, from beginning to end. No destruction. We are all children of God. He appears in human form to purify himself. He wants to separate good and evil, light and darkness.’
“Uncle Salvatore, God is perfect. He doesn’t need to get purified. It’s the first time that I’ve heard such a completely ridiculous statement. It is absurd what Rajan told you. Don’t you think so?”
“Yes, I do. But Rajan seemed to be sure about his ideas. He said, ‘I believe that God and Satan are the same being. In every man good and evil coexist. The creation was made to separate Satan from God.’ ‘How can you prove this assumption?’ ‘I can’t prove anything. This is just my insight, my intuition. It comes from my inner world.’ ‘How can you know whether your insight is right or not? It may be wrong and lead you astray,’ I said.”
“Uncle Salvatore, only you could lend your ear to that homeless man. Is it possible that God and Satan are the same being? Of course not. They are different.”
“Benedetto, I am open to all ideas. However, I, too, have some doubts about the oneness of God and Satan, or no separation between them. I have read Job’s story in the Bible. God conversed with Satan, as if they were sitting at the same table. They were discussing Job’s destiny!”
“It is interesting! I didn’t know about this passage of the Bible.”
“Rajan kept talking and asked me, ‘In the Bible it is written that God created the stars, the earth, the universe, and everything. Who created Satan? Tell me.’ I answered, ‘Satan was an angel of God. Later he betrayed God.’ ‘There is no mention in the Bible about Satan as an angel that betrayed God.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yes, I am one hundred percent sure! I have read the Bible, and I can assert that there is no mention about Satan as an angel in the Bible.’
“The long conversation with Rajan made me recall the days I had spent in studying the issue of good and evil. Many times, broaching this difficult topic, I had the insight that good and evil may come from the same source. Anyway, having an open mind and respecting others’ ideas are my strong points.

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo