culture / philosophy / Reblogged / TBT

TBT: Things That Go Bump in the Night

The Portly Politico66 Comments

Despite my griping about South Carolina weather in yesterday’s post, the first day of September was surprisingly cool and overcast, giving the slightest taste of the crisp autumnality to come.  This time of year always gets me thinking about Halloween and spooky stuff, especially as everything feels more magical.

Our modern minds have diminished and dismissed the supernatural as mere superstition, often accompanied with attempts to explain away supernatural phenomena with explanations that themselves require faith to believe.  That “faith” is in scientism, a counterfeit “religion” built purely on a material understanding of the world.

We see but through a glass darkly.  There is more to our world than meets the eye—more to it than what we can observe.  God tells us much of what is there—at least, what we need to know—and Scripture seems to suggest we shouldn’t go looking for things beyond Him and His Son.

Seems prudent to me.  With that, here is 2 September 2021’s “Things That Go Bump in the Night“:

Audre Myers over at Nebraska Energy Observer always has some interesting observations about the world around us (indeed, once a week she writes a post called “Random Observations“—check it out).  Her latest post—the whimsically titled “ooOOoo – BOO!“—explores the world beyond our observation, the world of ghosts, spirits, demons, and “haints.”  It’s also the world of angels, and of God.

Myers makes a point that that really hit me when I was in college taking a senior seminar history course called “Society and the Supernatural”:  that as Christians, if we believe in the Holy Trinity, we also have to believe in a broader supernatural world.  For Christians, there is ample scriptural evidence of not just the presence of the Holy Spirit, but also of angels—with their own hierarchy and roles—and demons, those fallen angels that joined Lucifer in his prideful rebellion against God.  The Bible speaks often of “principalities” and spirits that rule over ungodly nations.

How far beyond Scripture such supernatural creatures extend is a source of speculation and debate, and I suspect we won’t truly know until we’re on the other side.  There is a danger in exploring the non-godly supernatural, as it opens spiritual doors within us that could make us susceptible to demonic influence—or, at the extremes, possession.  Compulsive sinning can have the same effect, but messing with the occult—even out of an innocent curiosity to understand that world better—seems far likelier to result in catastrophic unintended consequences.

What I did learn in that college course, though, was that at least one member of the Scottish Enlightenment (whose name and work I cannot locate—blast!) expended a great deal of energy trying to discover fairies (apparently, people are still looking for them).  He reasoned that if fairies, giants, and other mythical creatures of Scottish folklore existed, that would prove the existence of the supernatural.  If the supernatural is real, God is real; if God is real, then fairies can exist.

Our groping, grasping attempts to understand the supernatural are, well, natural—it’s certainly a fascinating subject.  But the Bible makes it clear what fate awaits us if we accept Christ—and what awaits us if we reject Him.

Still, I do not discount out-of-hand the possibility of supernatural presences beyond what we know from Scripture.  I don’t want to go poking around in their domains for the reasons stated above, but it’s intellectually arrogant and shortsighted to assume we know everything.  That’s the folly of our modern age—we applaud ourselves for demystifying the world, yet we’re more lost and in the dark than ever.

And what of those Scottish fairies?  Surely their existence is more than the feeble attempts of ancient minds to explain the natural world, as the priests of scientism and materialism would argue.  No, there is too much anecdotal evidence—across thousands of years and cultures—to discount the existence of such things.

All I know is that Jesus is alive—and all this talk of ghosts has me excited for Halloween.

66 thoughts on “TBT: Things That Go Bump in the Night”

  1. Me too. Tina and I love Halloween. Every year, we do a horror fest, starting with the original Carpenter classic (heavily featuring Audre’s namesake, Michael Myers) and then go from there. This year, we’ll be rewatching the original Japanese Ring movies, much scarier than the American remakes.

    We pop up decorations – glow in the dark balloons, carved pumpkins (or jack ‘o’ lanterns, as you are prone to calling them) – curl up on the couch with snacks and booze (white wine last year, red wine this time) and prepare to be terrified. We usually get the odd trick or treaters and whatever is left from the sweet bucket ends up in my tummy! 🙂

    Regarding the Christian element, I couldn’t possibly comment. As Audre knows, I’m recent to that particular club (Tina has been a Christian her whole life and knows far more than I do) and my knowledge is woefully lacking. Maybe my better half might pop on here to give you her own observations…

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    • That’s amazing! What a great way to celebrate Halloween. My girlfriend and I started the tradition of watching the _Halloween_ movies in October last year, and it’s quite fun. She carved her first pumpkins with me last year, and hers were way better than mine. I also host my annual Halloween Spooktacular concert, which started two years ago in a coffee shop, but which I hosted from my front porch last year. I’m looking forward to another one this year!

      I’d love to hear from your better half, 39PD. The more comments, the merrier!

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  2. Very interesting post PP. The supernatural world is something that has always gripped me. What irks me are the alternative tyoes who have no trouble in believing in poltergeists, ley lines, pendulums, ouija, fairies and other such apparently inexplicable phenomena but scoff at the idea of the Holy Spirit and God. Happens all the time.

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    • Great point, Alys. It never ceases to amaze me how folks will buy into all the “dark” and occult side of mysticism, but reject God. It suggests to me that there is a brokenness that acknowledges the supernatural and wants a connection with it, but which can’t bring itself to trust God, so it indulges in alternative spiritualities. That goes down some dark corridors. Sad, scary stuff.

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  3. Talking of creepy, what with you being a gamer, PP, have you played Little Nightmares? Tina and I completed it yesterday and have been playing the DLC’s for it, which is just as unnerving.

    If you haven’t, the trailer for it should wet your appetite. We’re looking to get the second one soon.

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  4. Outstanding article, Port!

    The Bible relates stories, such as the witch of Endor (who, as requested by Saul, brought back Samuel in spirit) and tells us that witches were put outside of the camps (and villages and towns), implying being thrust into ‘outer darkness’ – that place that is far away from God.

    We grow up being told that there’s no such things as ghosts; when we become Christian, and accept that the Holy Spirit and angels are real, we also have to accept that other spirits are possible. The Bible is explicit in regard to the ‘gulf’ between the living and the dead – we can’t go to them and they can’t come to us. Period. But we also have to accept the idea of Satan and of evil spirits. And therein lies the rub. If we spend too much time investigating ‘things that go bump in the night’, we’re apt to open ourselves to believing in such things and so opening a door for evil spirits to come in. Like Dracula had to be ‘invited in’, so too those things better left alone.

    That being said, there’s a young man (lol – to me, anyone of less years than my own is a ‘young’ person, lol) who does ‘reaction’ videos and his very best are the ones relating to ghosts. OH, my word! He gets me laughing so hard!- and quite literally, out loud! How this man ever leaves his closet is beyond me, lol. His reactions are priceless. I watch all of them. But I don’t investigate, I don’t research, I don’t invest time in finding out more about them. I accept that there are things that cannot be explained and that’s just fine with me. I have the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and that’s all I need.

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  7. You’d love them. This game is so refreshing. Too many sports and FPS’s so it’s nice to see an imaginative horror that is puzzle based. Creepy, really creepy too. The controls can be a bit fiddly but when you get used to them, it’s full immersion into a brilliant and beautiful nightmare.

    If you ever get the chance to play it, download the DLC’s (downloadable content) for it too. The Depths, one of its features, is harrowing. Great to play and will tingle your spine.

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  8. How lovely to see Alys’s usual excellent comment here. Bet PP is surprised to note that Audre has a bunch of fans amongst the cousins, or maybe not.

    He also managed to remind me of a poem, but I think I’ll make it a quiz since so many intelligent and cultured people have gathered here. to. wit. Who wrote this not spectacularly excellent but serviceable poem?

    “Through a Glass, Darkly”

    “Through the travail of the ages,
    Midst the pomp and toil of war,
    I have fought and strove and perished
    Countless times upon this star.

    In the form of many people
    In all panoplies of time
    Have I seen the luring vision
    Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

    I have battled for fresh mammoth,
    I have warred for pastures new,
    I have listened to the whispers
    When the race trek instinct grew.

    I have known the call to battle
    In each changeless changing shape
    From the high souled voice of conscience
    To the beastly lust for rape.

    I have sinned and I have suffered,
    Played the hero and the knave;
    Fought for belly, shame, or country,
    And for each have found a grave.

    I cannot name my battles
    For the visions are not clear,
    Yet, I see the twisted faces
    And I feel the rending spear.

    Perhaps I stabbed our Savior
    In His sacred helpless side.
    Yet, I’ve called His name in blessing
    When in after times I died.

    In the dimness of the shadows
    Where we hairy heathens warred,
    I can taste in thought the lifeblood;
    We used teeth before the sword.

    While in later clearer vision
    I can sense the coppery sweat,
    Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery
    When our Phalanx, Cyrus met.

    Hear the rattle of the harness
    Where the Persian darts bounced clear,
    See their chariots wheel in panic
    From the Hoplite’s leveled spear.

    See the goal grow monthly longer,
    Reaching for the walls of Tyre.
    Hear the crash of tons of granite,
    Smell the quenchless eastern fire.

    Still more clearly as a Roman,
    Can I see the Legion close,
    As our third rank moved in forward
    And the short sword found our foes.

    Once again I feel the anguish
    Of that blistering treeless plain
    When the Parthian showered death bolts,
    And our discipline was in vain.

    I remember all the suffering
    Of those arrows in my neck.
    Yet, I stabbed a grinning savage
    As I died upon my back.

    Once again I smell the heat sparks
    When my Flemish plate gave way
    And the lance ripped through my entrails
    As on Crecy’s field I lay.

    In the windless, blinding stillness
    Of the glittering tropic sea
    I can see the bubbles rising
    Where we set the captives free.

    Midst the spume of half a tempest
    I have heard the bulwarks go
    When the crashing, point blank round shot
    Sent destruction to our foe.

    I have fought with gun and cutlass
    On the red and slippery deck
    With all Hell aflame within me
    And a rope around my neck.

    And still later as a General
    Have I galloped with Murat
    When we laughed at death and numbers
    Trusting in the Emperor’s Star.

    Till at last our star faded,
    And we shouted to our doom
    Where the sunken road of Ohein
    Closed us in its quivering gloom.

    So but now with Tanks a’clatter
    Have I waddled on the foe
    Belching death at twenty paces,
    By the star shell’s ghastly glow.

    So as through a glass, and darkly
    The age long strife I see
    Where I fought in many guises,
    Many names, but always me.

    And I see not in my blindness
    What the objects were I wrought,
    But as God rules o’er our bickerings
    It was through His will I fought.

    So forever in the future,
    Shall I battle as of yore,
    Dying to be born a fighter,
    But to die again, once more.”

    Have fun! The answer, if needed, later.

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    • this scarecrow road, as naped in ghosts as slaughter,
      heeds a chilly pumpkin Escariot,
      o this midnight halloween-writ raises dolls from water.

      as we tread for swinging ghouls, a devil under us
      bangs in scarred hands where a puller’s night crush
      carries a sister’s tricky treater of topped carry-cut
      snakers of bobbing apple-corpses.

      this scarecrow road, as popped in head as stormers,
      walks a midnight row…..& crowed devil-dawners
      share deadened lips with a bleeded lucifuge…

      a winch of fallen gallows tree-hangs old hosts,
      a witch of falons mallows a sea-hag’s ropes,
      & we dig for turniped scissor-wine when bodies

      bag mess up in a wasted teasing house of voices.

      all-hallows-weave strides this scarecrow road
      all-killers-weeds strangle a bruised insect lobe
      & toads go down

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  10. Thanks very much, Tyler, for the links. It looks like an awful lot of fun and if we ever get the opportunity to come to America (near impossible because of the checks linked to Covid), it’d be fun to stop by and check out this event.

    Strangely, I was thinking of dusting off my guitar. Tina and I watched the beautiful A Quiet Place and AQP 2 last night and watched, with a gulp in our throats and tears in our souls, that gorgeous scene where the two main characters are dancing to Harvest Moon, flat out one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard in my life. I haven’t played in an awful long time and both of my guitars need a restring and a damn good clean but I’m going to learn how to play that song for Tina. My voice isn’t too bad when I have the additional harmonies of the strings and I hope I can do it justice.

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    • “Harvest Moon” is a gorgeous song. My niece used to watch the music video with my dad (her “Papa”) when she was really little, and she’d call it “Har Moo!” when she’d request it. AQP and AQP2 were both great films—very intriguing premise.

      You should definitely give your guitars (and your vocal cords!) some TLC. Get those suckers restrung and start playing!

      As for coming to America, you and your wife are always welcome in Lamar, SC. I have a guest bedroom with a twin bed; if y’all come, Murphy (my dog) and I will sleep in there, and I’ll have fresh linens on the master bed (a queen size) for you and the missus.

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    • I sung Your Face to her a while ago (The Frames) and she started to cry. I haven’t yet learned how to play that song but when I piece the two together, I hope she likes it. I put up that gorgeous scene from A Quiet Place on today’s thread and I will learn how to play it. Old songs on my guitar and Tina’s late fathers poetry on his guitar. It’s been a while since I picked it up. It’ll take me a while to get to grips with it again.

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  13. Port – woke up thinking about this. You would be greatly remiss in your ‘education’ if you haven’t watched the 1958 movie Bell, Book, and Candle with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novac. For some reason beyond fathoming, YT had pulled it. ! However, you can catch it on … HOLY SMOKES!!! You can’t even watch it on Amazon Prime! It’s been pulled from there, too! What in the world is going on????

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