Almost from the time we are born we sense it--in the rich odor after rain, in the scent of fresh-turned dirt, even in the aromas of fresh plant growth or even of excrement--all that we are, in a physical sense, is of the Earth.  As we grow older, we come to realize that we are indeed made of dirt and water, of minerals and clay and chemical reactions between all of these things, and sooner or later the realization hits us that to the dust, the clay, the dirt, we must all eventually return.  The leather bag that comprises each of us will eventually wear out and collapse, and the contents will go back to whence they came.

How much more powerful must this realization have been for our ancestors, for whom life was often a true day-to-day struggle for physical survival, who saw friends and loved ones commonly dying at early ages, without benefit of modern medicine, technology, and antibiotics, or even the rule of law to prevent violence as a commonplace occurrence?  This sense of our own mortality, when combined with the factual existence and occurrence of mysterious phenomena, has led mankind to seek solutions to the problem of our own transience in a variety of ways.  Every human culture has traditions of an afterlife, and these ideas did not develop in a vacuum; they are more than wish-fulfillment, they are gropings in the dark for things actually glimpsed, things sensed, and yes, things experienced, which indicate that, like the original Mummy movie stated, "Death is just the beginning."   It is not an end, but a curtain comes down, and all we get are brief glimpses, shadows, bulging shapes, of whatever is happening on the other side of that funerary drape.

The current fascination with the paranormal, with ghosts, spirits, hauntings, zombies and vampires (both revenant or undead forms), is nothing new.  These ideas go back to the tombs of the pharaohs, in which actual resurrection of the deceased, his or her slaves, and even entire households, was fully expected; and even further, to the quest of Gilgamesh, who ventured into the underworld itself in hope of finding a cure for that common bane of humanity: Death.  Gilgamesh, as made clear in both his epic and in the Dead Sea Scroll "The Book of Giants," (4Q203, 1Q23, 2Q26, 4Q530-532, 6Q8) was of nephilim or anunnaki origin--like Hercules (whose quest was the same), he was a half-human, half-divine (fallen-angelic) hybrid being who came to the shocking realization that, in spite of his physical and mental magnificence, he too would end up as nothing more than dust in the end.  And like the other rephaim, nephilim, and anakim, all hybrid beings who were never meant to exist in the grand scheme of things (see the Books of Genesis and Numbers, and the apocryphal books of Enoch, Jubilees, and Jasher for more information on this), his fate was sealed. Indeed, like the rest of ordinary mankind, death would come to all.

The difference, however, was striking.  The fate of the dead nephilim and their kin was not the same as the fate of human beings after death--on this the traditions were clear.  The half-fallen-angelic, half-human beings had no hope of a true resurrection or afterlife; instead they were doomed to become dybbuks, djinn, or "unclean spirits."  The "demons" of Biblical lore are not fallen angels at all; they are the spirits of the dead nephilim, who existed in the millions before a worldwide cataclysm wiped their civilization from the face of the planet, "and also after that" (Genesis 6:4).  Being of partially non-human yet eternal origin, and having "no place to rest," they roamed (and roam) the world in search of flesh to experience, to influence, to inhabit.  Similar beings are the remnants of the "pre-Adamic" world, of which the "fossil record" gives us an indication of an abundance of humanoid but non-human forms, living and dying on this planet for eons before modern humans came on stage (for more information, see G.H. Pember's excellent book "Earth's Earliest Ages," 1884, and R.A. Torrey's translation on the book of Isaiah, which correctly addresses the presence of Lilith--the Sumerian Lilit--and "satyrs," or "sa'ir," both representative types of beings from an earlier age).

With this in mind, the perils of researching and interacting with "spirits" and the paranormal become even more clear, and many reports are put into a new perspective: for instance, the story told again and again about the dangers encountered by ouija-board practitioners, who are led to believe they are conversing with "a little girl," "a little boy," "a suicided lover," and so on, often have led to terrifying, violent, dark assaults by forces or personalities far too powerful to be of human origin.  When "ghost hunters" remark that a "negative entity" is something that "has never walked the Earth in human form" they are both perpetuating a falsehood and exhibiting a dangerous ignorance and arrogance; for such beings indeed did once have a human form, even if they were not fully human, and this is in large part a source of their rage, anguish, jealousy, and vengeful nature.  Not only will they never experience their "own" flesh again, but they face utter dissolution on the Day of Judgement, rather than Resurrection to honor or shame that is traditionally in store for human beings.

As a result, the dangers of deception are very clear. There is a veil in place, and essentially, if we are to pierce that veil or glimpse what is on the other side, we are completely at the mercy of whoever or whatever is waiting there to impart information to us.  Why would one believe the claims of an unknown entity as to who or what they are--or even a visual manifestation of such--when there is, ultimately, no methodology or evidentiary process to determine if we are not in fact being duped, for reasons beyond our realization or understanding?  Of course, one possible reason for such deceptive interaction becomes clear, if one studies the lore of interaction with spirits going back for thousands of years--such beings, posing as human, draw energy from living human beings (and there are numerous texts and accounts from around the world that indicate that this has been known for a very, very long time).  The more attention they receive, and in fact, the more powerful emotions they can invoke in human beings, the stronger they become.  Fear and anger in particular, being the strongest of emotions (this is scientifically measurable, by the way), seem to be the fodder they prefer the most.  When one realizes that the human brain and nervous system complex is in fact a measurable electromagnetic field generator, both capable of sending and receiving energy, the motivation of such encounters, the careful luring of the fascinated, and the stimulation of human attention, becomes quite clear.  The Shumann Fields of the Earth itself are in tune with the alpha and theta states of the human brain; and the brain can even detect and transmit radio waves on certain levels or frequencies.  A "living battery" comprised of a human being--or group of frightened and fascinated human beings--would constitute a much richer and continuous "feeding" for a parasitic spiritual entity than would mere tape recorder, video camera, and flashlight batteries.

So tread carefully out there--if you don't trust a human stranger who is telling you outrageous stories, if you don't trust government or corporations, then transfer that same skepticism to any and all entities that present themselves to you in order to gain your fascination and attention.  Question what the true motivation of such activity and interaction might be, and protect yourselves spiritually before you even think about playing games in the dark with the ghosts of beings who once saw themselves as demigods and giants.

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 PULP WINDS, the long-awaited collecton of short fiction, verse, and Forteana by TGS author Wm. Michael Mott, has been unleashed for mass consumption!   With introductions by Walter Bosley, Brad Steiger, and Gerald W. Page, these tales will take you from the antediluvian world to lost cities beneath the earth, onward to other planets around distant stars, and even to the Dark Ages, the Old West and the High Seas. New twists on mythos and madness are intermeshed and presented in these yarns of terror and adventure!

Profusely illustrated, and reminiscent of pulp fiction and verse of a bygone era, PULP WINDS is a literary adventure of a type scarcely seen today!  These literary gems are not in the modern vein of politically correct, emasculated tales of slow pace and boring introspection so common today, but are fast-paced, pulse-pounding accounts of action, horror, love, hate and gore! Presented in a large-format for easier reading and for viewing of the artwork, the design is reminiscent of the pulp magazines of an earlier, bygone era. 

Those of you familiar with Mott's non-fiction Fortean research will find familiar themes from the realms of the unknown interwoven into, through, and beneath these stories, like the currents of a deep black subterranean river of mystery, glimpsed and occasionally revealed in all its weirdness and terror, before plunging beneath the surface again. Also included is an article on Fortean matters along the lines of the research presented in Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures, Mott's definitive non-fiction opus on high strangeness, hidden beings, and real-life mysteries.

Some of the stories and poems in PULP WINDS have also appeared in Lost Continent Library Magazine, Planetary Stories, and elsewhere, but have never been gathered together into a single collection before now.

If the reader finds occasional hints of the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Book of Skelos, the Eltdown Shards, the Necronomicon, and yes, even the mad musings of the Shaver Mystery in these tales... It is no mere happenstance!

BLOOD AND THUNDER has returned to the literary realm. PULP WINDS will satisfy your cravings for fast-paced, haunting adventures across time and space!

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