Losing A Friend To Unreality

THE FIRST TIME I NOTICED my dear friend from high school slipping over the edge of reality and into a world of his own making was when we were about thirty years old. He told me he hs something "special" to share with me, but didn't say what, so, I waited. My wait lasted a few months, which was maybe about the amount of time he thought it would take for me to prepare my mind for anything. What he divulged, what he shared with me was Ramtha the Enlightened One, cohabitating the body of J.Z. Knight, a housewife from Washtngton state. Back then, in 1985, she (and he?) were starting to achieve notoriety, and later went ahead and achieved it full bore, along with what seems to have been a lot of money. J.Z. began giving seminars, for a pretty penny, at which the spirit of the ancient warrior from India would take posssesion of her, and her voice would change, adopting an unusual accent. Her lectures consisted of positive thinking common sense, with a little esoterica thrown in. I liked much of what she/he said. Reading the mind of a member of the audience, Ramtha looked at the person, and said: "You wonder if I think you are bad? No, I do not think you are bad. Do I think you are good? No, I do not think yo are good. I think...YOU ARE GOD!" I liked that. I still do, and I still buy into the notion, and always will. It forms the basis for my religiosity. The thought that I could have, and actually did, figure that out for myself I am also aware. I am alwo keenly aware that a person, with a convincing presentation, can make a whole lot of money by putting on some clothes fit for a guru, changing vocal inflections, and coming across as a disembodied spirir from ancient India. It doesn't matter so much to me who somebody is, but rather, what they say and do. Thus I bear in mind that nothing that the four gospels attribute as words of Jesus Christ were original with him. Confucius, five hundred years prior, spoke the same message, as did others, Buddha, and so forth. My friend did not stop at Ramtha. He continued onward into a universe of his own making, which eventuallyl grew to include various species of intelligent extraterrestiral beings, many of whom had set up opeations on Earth, behind the scenes, disembodied spirits, parallel universe, and other paranormal, alternative cosmic paradigmatical phenomena. Once you depart empirical science and start off down the road of aternative, unproven realities, you can go far. The only proboem I have with all this is when somebody presents it as established, unassailable fact, rather than the fanciful speculation and imaginative fiction that it is. All that didn't bother me. Actually, it amused and entertained me. Its easy to patronize people. The real problem began when my former friend became one of the seventy five million people who claimed, and still claim, that the election was stolen from Trump. That's when the friendship ended, because that's when the delusional thinking became serious, and harmful. Trump's big lie, so strongly supported by his supporters, became an act of treason on January 6, 2021, when five people were killed at the Capitol during Trump's insurrection. On that day, Trump and his lying supporters became more than pathetic sore losers and liars; they became traitors to democracy, and to their country. A few imaginary UFOs and disembodied spirits is one thing; misinformation concerning vaccinations and election outcomes is quite another.