PSI INHIBITOR

From Chris Melore's 2-28-25 DAILY MAIL article entitled "Scientists Discover All Humans Can Read Minds... and How You Can Tap Into Telepathic Abilities":

Researchers in Canada uncovered that parts of the brain actually act as a 'psi inhibitor' - meaning it suppresses the natural psychic, telepathic, and clairvoyant abilities people have but don't know about.

When scientists turned off this 'filter' - by inducing reversible brain lesions in the frontal lobes of volunteers - it enhanced the patients' psi abilities, allowing them to influence objects with their minds.

'Psi' is a phenomenon that includes telepathy (mind-mind connections), clairvoyance (perception of future events or distant objects), precognition (knowing what will happen before it does), and psychokinesis (moving objects with your mind).

The filter was turned off by a process called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which uses a non-invasive device to send magnetic waves to specific brain regions.

In experiments, volunteers with these brain lesions developed the power to change the outcomes of a Random Event Generator (REG) with their minds - moving the arrow on a computer screen which was choosing 0s and 1s at random.

Lead researcher Morris Freedman of Baycrest Health Sciences said these findings, 'are potentially transformative for the way we view interactions between the brain and seemingly random events.'

The brain filter discovery may, 'significantly advance research in the area of psi, helping to bring this phenomenon into the realm of mainstream science,' Dr. Freedman added.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

The Monroe Institute & the CIA's Gateway Program

From Ellyn Lapointe's 1-14-25 DAILY MAIL article entitled "I Was in Gifted Classes as a Kid in the 90s... Here's Why I Think It Was a Secret CIA Program":

Americans who were part of 'gifted and talented' education programs in the 1980s and 1990s believe they were part of a secret government intelligence program.

The Gifted And Talented Education program (GATE) provides students with advanced curriculum and activities to foster creativity and critical thinking skills.

But many former students believe they were actually part of a secret CIA initiative to test the supernatural abilities of children with above average intelligence.

One woman, who claimed to be part of the program in the 1990s, shared a workbook she purportedly used during class, showing she was cracking codes and learning Russian.

'The stuff I found in there — I'm like, what were you training us for?' she said.

Some former GATE students argued that the program was tied to the CIA's Gateway Program that was developed in the 1980s to explore the limitations of human consciousness using sound, meditation and other techniques.

A document released by the CIA explains that these recordings typically featured a series of 'non-verbal audio patterns' masked by sounds like crashing waves or wind blowing through the trees.

Many alumni of GATE programs recalled being subjected to the same audio 'tests' at school [...].

This audio was developed by the Monroe Institute for the CIA's Gateway Program. Those who claim that it was used on them in schools believe that the agency was 'exploring psychic phenomena in children.'

To read the entire article, click HERE.

A CRYPTO BIRTHDAY MESSAGE!!!

Are those salacious internet rumors true? Yes, according to all available evidence, it is now my BIRTHDAY! Last year, various and sundry admirers sent me such commonplace gifts as a genetically-engineered strain of the Zika virus, a severed clavicle formerly belonging to a leading member of the little-known but ruthless Punta Allen Cartel, and a vintage 1941 Captain Midnight decoder badge. What can one do with such ephemeral objects? Very little! If you want to do something truly special, why not consider voting for me in the 23rd Annual Rondo Awards? Did you know that ANYONE can vote in the Rondo Awards? My first short story collection CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES (seen below, for some strange reason, inside a hallway of the Haunted Mansion) has been nominated in the "BEST FICTION" category.  YOU CAN VOTE FOR CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES IN 3 EASY STEPS...

1. Copy-and-paste the ballot below into an e-mail.
 
2. Choose CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES in the BEST CLASSIC MONSTER FICTION category.
 
3. Then email to David Colton (taraco@aol.com) by midnight on April 20th, 2025.

Don’t forget to include your name in the e-mail!

--START COPYING--

12) BEST CLASSIC MONSTER FICTION:
— CRYPTOPOLIS AND OTHER STORIES, by Robert Guffey (Lethe Press, softcover, 370 pages, $23). Stories of ancient horrors taking new shapes, magics, and religions.

--END COPYING--

A Thousand Thank You's!!!

CRYPTONECROLOGY: Jessica Aber, R.I.P.

From Ronny Reyes' 3-23-25 NEW YORK POST article entitled "Jessica Aber, US Attorney Found Dead at 43, Was in Charge of High-profile Cases Targeting CIA Leaks, Russian Fraud":

The former US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who was found dead Saturday morning had been in charge of some of the biggest cases targeting leaks in the CIA and Russian nationals carrying out fraud in America.

Officials are investigating Jessica Aber’s cause of death after the 43-year-old was discovered unresponsive at her home by Alexandria Police Department officers just before 9:20 a.m. Saturday morning.

Prior to her resignation in January as President Trump took office, the Biden-nominated attorney saw one of her biggest wins in court when ex-CIA analyst Asif Rahman, 34, pleaded guilty to leaking top secret documents about Israel’s plan to strike Iran last year [...].

Aber also led the case against Eleview International Inc., a Virginia-based company whose two senior executives were accused of running “three different schemes to illegally transship sensitive American technology to Russia,” according to the Department of Justice.

Executives Oleg Nayandin, 54, and Vitaliy Borisenko, 39, were accused in November of illegally shipping out more than $6 million worth of goods, including telecommunications equipment, to Russia through ports in Turkey, Finland and Kazakhstan as a means to bypass US sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

The case came just two months after Aber secured indictments against two Russian nationals accused of fraud and money laundering.

Sergey Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov, who had a $10 million reward for their arrests, were allegedly behind one of the largest money laundering operations online that “catered to major cybercrime marketplaces and ransomware groups, and to prolific hackers responsible for some of the largest data breaches targeting critical U.S. financial infrastructure,” according to the Secret Service.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Censorship Corner: 2025 TX SB13

From Christine Sanchez's 3-23-25 SPECTRUM NEWS article entitledTexas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school libraries Texas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school librariesTexas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school librariesTexas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school librariesTexas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school lib"Texas Senate Passes Bill to Control Which Books Are Allowed in School Libraries":

The Texas Senate passed a bill this week that would leave decisions on a school library’s catalog mainly up to parents and board members instead of librarians.

Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, authored Senate Bill 13, which would create school advisory boards made up of parents that are appointed by school board members.

SB 13 would allow school boards to determine the types of books that make it into school libraries. It’s part of a growing movement among Republican politicians to pass control of what is taught in schools to parents.

The bill heads to the Texas House next.

Book bans have gained momentum across the U.S. in recent years. A report from PEN America says Texas ranked third in the nation in book bans, banning 538 books from 12 districts in the 2023-2024 school year. Florida and Iowa followed.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

The White House Faith Office

From Aamer Madhani and Peter Smith's 2-7-25 PBS.org article entitled "Trump Signs Executive Order to Establish a White House Faith Office":

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to establish the White House Faith Office as part of the Domestic Policy Council.

The order renames the existing White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The order says the new office will consult with faith leaders on topics including “defending religious liberty” and the promotion of adoption and foster care programs.

It will advise on policy implementations throughout the federal government and help faith-based organizations procure government grants, among other responsibilities.

Trump said Thursday that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the U.S., announcing that he was forming a task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians [...].

Trump’s new task force drew criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“Rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws,” said Rachel Laser, the group’s president and CEO.

At the Capitol, Trump said he believes people “can’t be happy without religion, without that belief. Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives” [...].

Trump [...] reflected on having a bullet coming within a hair’s breadth of killing him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, telling attendees, “It changed something in me, I feel.”

“I feel even stronger,” he continued. “I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.” Later at the prayer breakfast sponsored by a private group, he remarked, “It was God that saved me.”

He drew laughs at the Capitol event when he expressed gratitude that the episode “didn’t affect my hair.”

To read the entire article, click HERE.

HAPPY EQUINOX!

 "THE INVISIBLE BARRIER BETWEEN GOOD... AND EVIL!"

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MANLY P. HALL!

Yesterday, I posted a brief excerpt from Manly P. Hall's 1946 pamphlet, ATLANTIS: AN INTERPRETATION. Since today marks what would have been Manly P. Hall's 124th birthday, I suggest celebrating the occasion by listening to Hall's 12-6-81 lecture entitled "Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity"...

Manly P. Hall: Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity:

 

ST. PATRICK VS. THE SERPENTS OF ATLANTIS!

"The thought of the serpents is not so far-fetched when we remember that the Arab geographers always referred to Antilla, or Atlantis, as the Dragon’s Isle. Was the dragon the great King Thevetat, the mysterious spirit who ruled Atlantis from the air, unseen at any time, and according to the ancient traditions, whose agents upon the earth were the serpent-kings who carried his feathered scepter as a symbol of their regency? If so, then the natural symbol for this dragon-king, Lord of the Seven Cities or Nations, would be the seven-headed serpent which is perpetuated, as the seven-headed Naga of Cambodia. Similarly, the Atlantean empire is represented by a strange dragon whose heads represent the sources of the race and whose long coils reveal the migrations of the Atlanteans in their serpentine path across the world.

"The account of Atlantis being under the dominion of a great invisible being may have given rise to certain Celtic legends, particularly those dealing with the account of how Ireland was originally peopled by an invisible race and ruled over by an aerial king. These myths may have come to Ireland by way of the 'men from the sea,' accounts of whom have been preserved in their traditions. Their descendants, the Druids, were the 'snakes' whom St. Patrick is supposed to have destroyed."

 --MANLY P. HALL, ATLANTIS: AN INTERPRETATION, 1946 

Photographic Images of DEAD MONKEY RUM Have Been Captured In The Wild!

DEAD MONKEY RUM has been seen in the wild! Yes, indeed, signed first editions of several of my books are currently available at Sunken City Books, a charming used bookstore located in downtown San Pedro. Visit Sunken City Books at 403 W. 6th St., San Pedro, CA 90731! Click HERE to visit their Instagram page.

By the way, if you like Joseph Dunn's fabulous tiki-centric cover art for DEAD MONKEY RUM, you should check out his Etsy shop by clicking HERE.

PRAISE FOR DEAD MONKEY RUM:

"A remarkable rush of entertainment and thrills."

--Alan Moore (V for Vendetta and Watchmen) 

 

"Robert Guffey's fantastic novel, DEAD MONKEY RUM, will at least bring your brain out of a coma, if not get your imagination off the couch. This is a thinly masked tribute/adventure to the late Stanislaw Szukalski and his boundless imagination. This book is a mental gymnasium."

-- Robert Williams (Visual Addiction, Hysteria in Remission, and Through Prehensile Eyes)

 

"A fantastically rich and entertaining piece of work with an original sharp edge."

 -- Jim Woodring (writer/artist of Weathercraft, The Frank Book, and One Beautiful Spring Day)

 

"Stanislaw Szukalski would love DEAD MONKEY RUM. This novel is addictive like a heavy drug. Make space in your calendar to read it all."

-- Irek Dobrowolski (director of the Netflix documentary, Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski)

 

 "Yetis, Tiki Gods, Cryptozoology, and rum-filled adventure! Sign me up and tell me when the ship sails! I'm recommending this Robert Guffey novel to all my friends, family, and foes to take their minds completely off whatever they are thinking about. Wonderful."

-- Loren Coleman (Mysterious America, The Field Guide to Lake Monsters and Sea Serpents, The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Curious Encounters, and 40 other books - Director of the International Cryptozoology Museum)

 
"DEAD MONKEY RUM succeeds at being a pursuit thriller, with suspense and tension as the monkey and Stephanie evade their cryptid enemies, and comedy as the two exchange jabs at each other. It is cinematically fast. DEAD MONKEY RUM should be adapted to a [...] Ralph Bakshiesque animated film where both the zaniness of the narrative and the latent satire would really flourish."

-- Exotica Moderne

 

"One of the weirdest romps you'll ever read."

-- Fortean Times

 

UNBOXING DEAD MONKEY RUM:

THE EXPECTANT MOTHER DISINFORMATION HANDBOOK BRINGS SWEET RELIEF FROM THE RIGORS OF EVERYDAY EXISTENCE!

My loyal familiar, Spooky the Cat, fell asleep while reading my latest book, THE EXPECTANT MOTHER DISINFORMATION HANDBOOK. You too can drift off into the comforting arms of Morpheus while lost in my latest work of literary genius! Of course, in order to experience such sweet relief, you must first buy a copy of the handbook. Fortunately, THE EXPECTANT MOTHER DISINFORMATION HANDBOOK is readily available from Amazon; however, if you don't feel like dealing with an evil multinational corporation, the book is also available directly from the publisher, Madness Heart Press. Your ambrosial slumber is at hand!

 

PRAISE FOR THE EXPECTANT MOTHER DISINFORMATION HANDBOOK...

"Robert Guffey’s The Expectant Mother Disinformation Handbook is weirder than parthenogenesis, weirder than the Republican Party, weirder than the fetishizing of pregnancy that suffuses our culture, weirder than all the back issues of Weird Tales combined. You will laugh, gasp, and scratch your head in pleasurable bemusement. I can’t recommend this tongue-in-cheek tour de force too highly."

—JAMES MORROW, award-winning author of Only Begotten Daughter and Behold the Ape


"Here it is. THE perfect baby-shower/gender reveal party gift. Forget all the binkies, blankies, cute little onesies, and diaper-service subscriptions. Those are so overdone and boring. Want to make a REAL impact? This book. This book right here [...].

"Well-written, lively, engaging, easy to read, and tons of fun. If I were a truly evil imp with plenty of money, I’d sneak copies into every OB/GYN office and ‘Parenting and Family’ bookstore section in the country."

--CHRISTINE MORGAN, award-winning author of Spermjackers from Hell and Lakehouse Infernal 

 

________________________________________________________

The Expectant Mother Disinformation Handbook is part novel, part fabulist encyclopedia. It’s academic research that’s shockingly close to the truth. The Expectant Mother Disinformation Handbook is a cabinet of wonders disguised as an informational guide for expectant mothers. Backed up with scientific-sounding footnotes from imaginary obstetricians, this book threatens to raise the paranoia of postmodern motherhood to a new level of absurdity.

In the pages of this handbook you will learn about such chimerical illnesses as the Quantum Singularity Syndrome, Symmetrical Child Syndrome, Involuntary Dimensional Transits, Spontaneous Infant Combustion Syndrome, Black Hole Syndrome, Polyinfantalia, Shrinking Brain Syndrome, Muppetitis, Midwich Disease, and Oneirokyesis (known to some pediatricians as “Dream Baby Disease”). But fatal diseases are not the only purview of The Expectant Mother Disinformation Handbook. You’ll find out about the dangers of allowing your fetus in utero internet connection, how to use your child as an assassin, the growing problem of terrorism in the womb, in utero phone sex, the high weirdness of Origami Babies, the little known fact that Shakespeare created pregnancy, the mystery of the fetus-abducting Comprachicos, and a rare in-depth interview with Dracula about his attitudes regarding child raising, among many other illuminating tidbits of obscure but vital historical data.

Ultimately, this book is a scathing satire on the unthinking commercialization of motherhood, fatherhood, and procreation in general.

CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES Has Been Nominated For a Rondo Award!

The nominations for the 23rd Annual Rondo Awards have now been announced! I'm honored to be included among the nominees in the Best Fiction category (for my 2024 short story collection, CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES) alongside the likes of such multiple award-winning writers as Lisa Morton & John Palisano (PLACERITA) and Paul Tremblay (HORROR MOVIE)! Please consider voting for CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES...

 

YOU CAN VOTE FOR CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES IN 3 EASY STEPS:

1. Copy-and-paste the ballot below into an e-mail.
 
2. Choose CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES in the BEST CLASSIC MONSTER FICTION category.
 
3. Then email to David Colton (taraco@aol.com) by midnight on April 20th, 2025.

Don’t forget to include your name in the e-mail!

--START COPYING--

12) BEST CLASSIC MONSTER FICTION:
— CRYPTOPOLIS AND OTHER STORIES, by Robert Guffey (Lethe Press, softcover, 370 pages, $23). Stories of ancient horrors taking new shapes, magics, and religions.

--END COPYING--

 

PRAISE FOR CRYPTOPOLIS:

"The stories in Cryptopolis feel like the bloody, star-filled lovechildren of Burroughs and Delany, with each tale ostensibly one part of a greater whole; abstract limbs and organs tethered together by strained flesh. Cryptopolis will take readers on a hallucinogenic journey through worlds fractured by time and place—slipping through liminal dimensions with seamless abandon to unveil unsettling illusions and heartbreaking realities—and totally worth the trip."

--Philip Fracassi, author of Boys in the Valley

 

"If you're tired of the same wines and you're curious about the vintage only just whispered about, have a deep draught of Robert Guffey's Cryptopolis. You don't have to descend with Fortunato to the deepest cellars to find this bottle of Amontillado. Here it is! If Poe collaborated with Robert Anton Wilson...if Borges had a lovechild with Lovecraft, which was subsequently adopted by Kafka...you might get Cryptopolis. I think too that Clark Ashton Smith would admire this collection. Written with the obsessive precision of a mysterious staircase descending into the abyss, Cryptopolis will take you to strange epiphanies..."  

 

--John Shirley, author of The Feverish Stars

 

"Once upon a time, weird and speculative fiction had an underground full of stories that were not written as calling cards or as film treatments or as extended internet memes. Guffey's tales resist genre gentrification; they move into your mind to turn it into a punk house squat!" 

--Nick Mamatas, author of Move Under Ground and The Second Shooter

 

 "In Cryptopolis & Other Stories, Guffey's free-ranging intellect meshes wonderfully with his command of the language."

--John Oakes, author of The Fast

 

"Guffey brings together 25 horror shorts that swing wildly between terrifying mindtrips and gritty realism. Throughout, Guffey’s blunt prose lends a sense of normalcy to the fantastic as his cast of losers from all walks of life face the cruelties of their existence—sexual violence, drugs, war, parenthood, and poverty [...]. Though not for the faint of heart, this bizarre and over-the-top collection is sure to thrill devotees of weird fiction."

--Publishers Weekly

"Cryptopolis may end up being a gateway drug into Robert Guffey’s work. I don’t use that term spuriously. So many of Guffey’s stories in Cryptopolis have a hard-bitten edge and gritty feel to them that I could see him crafting a metatext about an author whose books are physically addictive. Across the collection’s twenty-five stories and vignettes, Guffey displays a range of interests and foci with such depth and heart that I wouldn’t be surprised if he became one of my favorite modern writers [...].

"Affect, the experience of emotional response, seems to be at issue in every one of Guffey’s offerings. From the opening eponymous story (which is the only outright Lovecraftian story in the collection), with its resonances of love as a torturous paralytic, to the last, 'Esthra, Shadows, Glass, Silence,' a parable of alternate lives and lost possibilities, the emotional response drawn from the reader appears to be the crux of every piece. These stories are engines designed to make the reader feel."

--Géza A. G. Reilly, Dead Reckonings

CLOSE TO ZERO REDUX!

In light of the epic gaslighting meltdown that occurred in the Oval Office last Friday, this might be an appropriate time to remind everybody about two particular nonfiction books that turn Donald Trump's Propaganda Machine inside out. The first book, written by journalist Jonathan Vankin, was published by Twilight of the Idols in 2021. The second book, written by Yours Truly, was published by OR Books in 2022. 

Jonathan Vankin’s book, CLOSE TO ZERO: HOW DONALD TRUMP FULFILLED HIS APOCALYPTIC VISION AND PAID HIS DEBT TO PUTIN WITH A DEVASTATING BIOLOGICAL WARFARE ATTACK ON AMERICA, is revelatory on many levels. Despite the flamboyant subtitle, this well-researched book is an extremely thoughtful and perceptive analysis of Trump’s first destructive tenure in the White House. I've heard several of Vankin's recent podcast appearances, all of which have been impressive. Vankin’s sober (and alarming) analysis should not be discounted out of hand. At the very least, you should read the opening chapter of the book before deciding whether or not Vankin is out of his skull. Spoiler alert: He's not.  

I think this book is even more illuminating when read in conjunction with my 2022 nonfiction book, OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP. If read back-to-back, these two books paint a pretty clear picture of what was happening behind the scenes of the MAGA Propaganda Machine during the final months of Trump's initial presidency and how that duplicity led directly to the chaos we find ourselves in today.

Here are links to a couple of Vankin's recent podcast interviews in which he discusses CLOSE TO ZERO at great length...

Conspirinormal 381- Jonathan Vankin (9-1-21)

Binnall of America: The Revival - E21 | Jonathan Vankin (3-13-24)