(This post is the fourth of a series. To begin the series, click here.) Imagine: we're Jewish mystics of the sort that Gershom Scholem called the "merkabah mystics"--fascinated, or maybe obsessed, with the divine Chariot (merkabah) that's described in the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel. … [Read more...]
The Mystery of the Merkabah – Alien Abduction, Shamanic Journey
(This post is the third of a series. For the first two installments, click here and here.) Remember "The Fourth Kind," the pseudo-documentary thriller about UFO abductions in Alaska that came out around the end of 2009? Filmed by Olatunde Osunsanmi? Starring Milla Jovovich as psychiatrist … [Read more...]
The Mystery of the Merkabah – “What Was That Paradise?”
Sometime around the beginning of the 11th century, an Iraqi Jewish academician named Hai Gaon had to field a query from a puzzled reader of the Talmud: "With respect to that which our rabbis taught, 'Four entered Paradise, Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, the "Other One" and Rabbi Akiba'--what was that … [Read more...]
Gershom Scholem – Kabbalah’s Greatest Scholar
I was thinking of calling this post “Gershom Scholem, Jewish Mysticism, and the UFO.” But I don’t want to be accused of false advertising. The UFOlogical relevance of Gershom Scholem, and the domain of learning of which he was undisputed master, will become clear only gradually. I'll need a … [Read more...]
