G. Michael Vasey's Blog: The Wacky World of Dr. Vasey, page 96

Pushing Books and Chasing Royalties

Over the holidays I managed to add a chapter and a half to The Lord of the Elements (the prequel to The Last Observer). To be honest, I am still trying to plan the story a bit….. I mean, I know what the plot is but it needs a few twists, turns and subplots and I am still ironing it all out so progress is slow. Meanwhile, I am starting a new business book with my colleague Patrick Reames that we hope will be out later this year. I am also preparing a new version of Poems for the Little Room that will be better suited for Amazon and Kindle…..

Of course, books need to find a market too. It would be great if my books occupied a particular niche but they don’t. I have books on hedge funds, commodity trading software, fantasy novels, poetry, esoteric philosophy, magic and so on…. That means that each book more or less has to be independently marketed. So I do apologize if you are sick of reading about my damn books…. but give me a break and a bit of leeway, I obviously want to sell them after writing them… At least, that’s the general idea I believe.

If writing and promoting wasn’t enough when you do sell a few books it seems that you have to chase the damn royalties. I realized today that I have never received a dime from Kindle so I wrote a couple of ‘where is my money’ letters to Amazon this evening. I have a publisher who is slow to report and I need to send him an email reminding him to let me know where we stand. Meanwhile, the two books on software that sell quite well, well, Amazon pays royalties every month – just not to me! (to my former employer!). Oh well. Shouldn’t moan especially so early in the new year.

The Last Observer continues to sell but more slowly than I really hoped. I keep imagining that it might take off a bit and suddenly accelerate in sales.

I read a story today on the Internet. I would link to it but I don’t think I could find it again. It was about Sting earning 2,000GBP per day in royalties! Apparently, a good proportion of this is for one song and apparently, he actually wrote it with the rest of the band but they didn’t insist on putting their names to it while he did so it is credited simply to Sting……… now, those are the kind of royalties you can only dream about (or imagine).

2014 – It’s a ’7′ Year

If you add together the numbers in 2014 they will sum to seven. Seven is a highly significant number and one that gets a lot of attention in our book The Mystical hexagram. It is the number of spiritual perfection.

Think about the number seven a bit….

- There are seven days in a week

- There are seven original planets and seven metals

- Seven seals and seven trumpets in Revelation

- We have a ‘seven year itch’

- the Torah begins with a verse containing 7 words and 28 letters (divisible by 7)

- Kabbalah teaches that 7 represents wholeness and completion

- A hexagram has 6 points (there are six directions too) and a central point of balance making seven

- Seven veils of Isis

- Seven fates

- Seven wonders of the ancient world

- Seven dwarfs in Snow White

- Seven senses

- Seven key chakras

I could go on almost ad infinitum….

Seven is completion and perfection. God created the world in 6 days and rested on the seventh. The seventh day of the week is the Sabbath – a day of rest. The seventh sense is equilibrium or balance. The seventh point in the hexagram is also equilibrium – it is the point of total balance.

2014 may be a significant year. A year of completion, perfection and balance….

Let’s see.

Beyond Reason

A pretty good documentary movie….

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

The Season’s Greetings to you!

I’m one of those people that every year think Christmas is still miles away only to discover its the next day and I am unprepared. Not sure why I am like this but I am. I can say I don’t much enjoy Christmas and I detest New Year’s Eve – why start the year with a hangover and sleep derivation I have to ask and don’t get me started on that stupid Auld Lang Syne song that turns my stomach every time I hear it. I sound a bit like Scrooge I am sure. It’s not that I don’t enjoy some fun and giving gifts, I do. It’s the commercialization I cannot stand. There is really no point in complaining about Christmas decorations in stores by October 31st I know but that is the sort of thing that ruins the season for me. It’s nice to see family and give thanks for a good year (hopefully) and look forward to better times perhaps in the coming year but you can keep the crowds, Jingle Bells played incessantly in the supermarket, the card sending and the reruns of old Bond movies.

Having gotten all of that off my chest let me also wish you all the very best of season’s greetings. I understand that many of my readers (yes – that’s you Bob….my one and only loyal reader…) may not be Christians at all so it is very much a season’s greeting whether that be yuletide (possibly my favorite) or whatever. I hope that it was a reasonable year with something to give thanks for and that the coming year offers you the opportunities to be happy and secure.

Me, I’m visualizing a nice year in 2014 and just to bore you all, yes, lot’s of new readers for The Last Observer and more book sales – If you didn’t buy five as Christmas gifts for your unloved relatives – there is still time and if you get Amazon gift certificates do spend them on a good magical novel!

Cheers – especially to Bob – my one and only loyal reader.

(Please note that I know I have more than one reader of this blog…. Bob’s sister, Muriel also visits infrequently!)

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People Are Just strange

I often find myself thinking that people are really just strange. Perhaps it would be better to say self-centered and thoughtless as opposed to strange for that is what I really mean. I observe this every day and all around me. Here are a few examples:-

1. Yesterday there was an event at the school my daughter goes to. It’s essentially and infants and junior school so the kids and the majority of the parents are young. Of course, as hoards of parents descend on the school, parking becomes a nightmare and the strange behaviour starts. First, I observe two cars ‘battling’ it out for a vacant parking space. Despite one car being there, hazard warning lights flashing and obviously waiting to enter the parking space as soon as the current occupant left it, another car pulls up determined to take the same spot. What followed was a game of chicken between the two car owners. Meanwhile, all the traffic is held up while these weird people fight over a parking space.

2. Next, with cars parked on both sides of the street, there is now only room for one car but as this is a two-way street, you can guess what happened right? The vast majority of the traffic is going in one direction but one lone car going in the opposite direction seems to believe that he/she is a superior human being and that all the others should reverse for them. So, I was treated to another stand off – one that last almost 5-minutes – as one selfish driver believed they were more important than fifteen others and fully apparently expected every single on of them to reverse down the street……

3. Another example is when the car in the outside lane is doing the speed limit and doesn’t quiet move into the other lane fast enough for the person who believes themselves far more important than anyone else and therefore passes on the inside. Its stupid, dangerous and illegal but you know, the law nor safety concerns apply to our superior human being.

That is three driving examples I know but look around and observe your fellow humans behaving badly, discourteously, rudely, dangerously at any moment in time. People really do seem to believe that they are more important or that laws apply only to others. Me? you know I like walking. It bothers me not a jot to park a bit further away and walk. Furthermore, not having to compete with these people for a parking space keeps my blood pressure down. I’m not in a rush so if you sit in the outside lane going too slow, I will sit a safe distance behind and wait for you to move. I think laws do apply to me and furthermore I know for sure, if I break one, there will be a police car right there to catch me.

It’s not hard to be courteous. It may take a minute or two more to find a parking space, line up in a queue or whatever. It may involve walking to where you were going from where you parked your car. But does it really matter? Being nice to people, being courteous and respecting people’s safety makes you feel so much better anyway.

People are strange. They really are.

The Power of Imagination (from Weird Tales)

A fall into the ocean

A swim across the sea

Vivid imagination

Scheming silently

But can’t you see it?

Can’t you see it?

Can’t you see it too?

A flight into space

An atomic spark

Particle to particle

Like a walk in the park

But can’t you see it?

Can’t you see it?

Can’t you see it too?

Imagination

Imagination

Just deprivation

Sleep deprivation

A word is forming

Some translation

Form and meaning of

Imagination

From Weird Tales (Booksurge, 2006)

Just words?

There is the saying ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’. It’s wrong. I heard a variation on the theme just recently where I was told that someone thought that words don’t have consequences, only actions. That’s wrong too.

Words are sounds. Sounds are vibrations. Sounds are waves that when they hit the eardrum of a conscious observer turn into sound and are interpreted by the brain. Sounds are a part of the fabric of creation. Not for nothing does the Bible say ‘In the beginning was the Word’ or insinuate that the first words spoken were “Let there be light.’ Kabbalah, the form of it practiced by people like Franz Bardon anyway, is the use of sacred sounds to create, to make magic. In a sense, this echoes the language of God that uttered those first words that created the Universe. Sounds are used to influence our thinking and thought patterns. Meditation sounds, spoken sounds like ‘Om’ have the same effect.

Sounds create ripples and those ripples pass through creation whether you are aware of them or not. We are surrounded by thought and speech ripples. Sounds have also been use to levitate objects and even move objects around in science. Sounds and words have immense power to move people, destroy people and make them behave in certain ways.

Beyond all of this, words have a psychological impact too. If you tell someone they are an idiot often enough they may in the end believe it. Words can be the basis of torture and mind control at one extreme and a powerful confidence booster on the other. Words create. They create reality.

Words probably cause more damage than sticks and stones if we really think about it and they can have terrible and horrifying consequences. It is words that are used to poison minds to make terror, to persecute, to abuse and in some instances, engage in the annihilation of an entire race. Words can be used to express hatred and also love.

The problem with words as opposed to ‘sticks and stones’ is that they are easy to use. It’s easy to tell someone something demeaning. Much easier for most of us than beating them with a stick. Jesus tells us “I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter;” The words that emanate from our mouths actually come from our heart……

Words are not just words.

Visualizing the Future

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about a new way to pray in which I highlight a youtube video that says the way to pray isn’t to ask for something but to imagine you already have it. Then yesterday, I came across this article that talks about using the power of imagination to rehearse an outcome. Apparently, it is used particularly by sports people. Magic, is creeping into everything these days it seems.

Yes, this is magic – the old wicked, evil occult stuff……

The basis of magic is to empower and enflame the imagination to visualize something that we would like to see happen in our reality. We do this by using symbols that focus our imaginings on what it is we want. We can use a particular incense to focus our imagination via sense of smell, we can use colors representative of a specific sephiroth on the Tree of Life because that Sephiroth is equated to particular things or properties, we can invoke Gods or Goddesses, planets or metals in the same manner, we can dress and act in a way that reinforces our imaginings. All the trappings of magic, circles, swords, candles, incense etc. – just all ways to focus the mind and the senses on visualizing more strongly on what it is we are seeking.

We are using the power of imagination assisted by some tools designed to focus that imagination even more powerfully in an act of prayer or rehearsal of our future. This is magic or a form of magic.

The Answer is One

In the book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the Universe and Everything is 42. Actually, the book, though marvelous entertainment, is wrong – the answer is ONE.

There is only one thing and it is everything.

Yes, I know you think that you and I are different people – some of you likely hope that you are different people to me anyway! But, while your ego thinks you are the truth is we are ONE. What drugs have I been smoking? I hear you legitimately ask? None. I have been meditating.

In fact, I have been meditating for a decade or so. And I can tell you with absolute certainty that everything, from the ant you squished laying in the sun by the pool to the biggest bastard you ever met, the mountains that you love to look at and the vast ocean you like to bathe in…. all one thing.

Its a common experience. When in that state in meditation it suddenly becomes apparent. Apparent in the sense that you understand it and it is the Divine TRUTH. Everything is connected and everything is in fact one thing.

The next time you are having a fight with someone. Stop. Pause. Withdraw your ego. Picture the two of you as one thing. Step back into the real you. You will be amazed at what happens. Give it a try.

The answer to your question is ONE.

There is only ONE and we are it.

How to Waste a Morning in Prague

So today I had to send a letter to the IRS. Since I need it to arrive before December 23rd, I thought I would send it by courier – DHL in fact. Around 10am, I duly set out and drove the 10-minute drive to the airport where DHL have an office. I walk in to the DHL office armed with my reading glasses (their air bills use such small typeface its unreadable) and a pen…. yes, last time I was there they had no pens available! This is the Czech Republic people after all where customer service cannot be translated into the local language because it simply does not exist as a concept…..

Entering the office there was what looked like a 15-year old behind the desk and on the phone. OK – so I start looking for the air bills after all this is a DHL office and either sending or picking up packages is what you would expect here right? A quick scan and a further slow search revealed that no air bills were available. OK, so I wait yet to be even acknowledged by the 15-year old…..

Ten minutes later phone call is over and he immediately starts serving the guy in front of me who is there to pick up a package. No eye contact made yet. He leaves to get said package. About five minutes later he reappears with package and finally I say “Can I please have an air bill?” He looks at me like I just transported myself in from the USS Enterprise. I repeat “May I please have an air bill?”. He reaches under the counter and lobs me an air bill. No pen. That’s fine, I brought one.

I struggle to read the thing even with my reading glasses on and determine to bring a magnifying glass next time. I fill it out and place it on the counter with my parking ticket to be validated. Five more minutes go by while our 15-year old shows me that he is busy reading something on his screen. Eventually, he takes the thing, reads it and then gets a package out in which to place my letter. “I need to open it” he tells me brusquely. Why he would need to open my letter to the IRS is beyond me but I have no objection and so he opens it, inspects the contents and then shoves it back in the envelope and then into the bag for shipping. Finally, progress is being made…..

He then reads the air bill again, scratches his head and disappears to return several minutes later with a handbook that he then proceeds to thumb through.

Suddenly, he smiles. “We can’t send anything to a PO box,” he says.

What? I say surprised, “since when?”

“We can’t send it,” he says still smiling and shoving his book into my face to prove it.

“Look, I was here just two-months ago sending my tax return to that same address and you accepted it,”

“No, we didn’t,” he says defiantly.

“Yes you fucking did!,” says I feeling the heat of anger rising rapidly and my hands beginning to shake. I pull out my wallet and pull out the receipt and air bill copy from two-months previous…. “See.” says I.

“Mistake. We shouldn’t have sent it. You will have to leave.”

“Go get your bloody boss now,” I say.

He disappears for another 5-minutes and reappears with his ‘boss’. This one looks about 45 and he is annoyed. I probably disturbed him from surfing the internet.

“Its like he says. We can’t send anything to a PO Box,” says the boss while the 15-year old noods vigorously flashing his crooked teeth in a smile of satisfaction of pissing off another customer.

“But, its the IRS, their address is a PO box. It is the US Government for goodness sake,” says I sensing defeat.

“Yes,” pipes in a sympathetic customer from behind me who had been patiently waiting through most of this. “Its the US Government and the PO Box is their address.”

“I don’t care who it is. No PO Box addresses and that’s that,” says boss man gradually moving back towards the door and the peace and security of his browsing fun.

I have an idea and I call my accountant in between finally letting rip with a good dose of several fucks and comments about customer service. I mean, wouldn’t customer service oriented people say something like…

“I am sorry sir but it is now company policy not to accept shipments to a PO Box, even in the case of the IRS itself. However, if you would just wait a moment, I will go and look on the Internet to see if I can find a usable address for the IRS.”

Wouldn’t that be the right approach? Don’t you think? DHL is an American company isn’t it???? maybe I am wrong there but surely they would know where the IRS are located?

Luckily my accountant emails me an address for the IRS.

I wait while the 15-year old slowly serves another customer. “Can I have an air bill please?”

“You have one!”

“Yes, but you won’t accept the address and I need a new one now,”

He lobs me another. No pen. I fill it out. and wait a little more. He finally processes my air bill and then asks for the 70USD it apparently costs to send a small flat almost weightless letter from Prague to Austin, TX.

Finally, I am done. I put my parking ticket on the counter… and wait again.

“what’s that?, says 15-year old.

“My parking ticket,” says I.

“Its free for the first 15-minutes,” says he….

At this point, I jumped over the counter, grabbed him by his hair, rammed his face repeatedly into the wall while kneeing him viciously in the balls until he dropped unconscious to the floor where I kicked his lifeless body until sure he was completely dead… in my imagination.

“I have been here almost an hour,” I said calmly.

Reluctantly, he takes the ticket and runs it through the machine.

I leave.

One morning wasted. In Prague where customer service isn’t something that actually exists in the lexicon of the country.

Do me all a favor – boycot DHL please until they invest in some customer service training for their Prague-based 15-year olds….

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