Believe in god Quote by Jeffrey J. Kripal
““Shaver’s worldview was a deeply paranoid one in which pretty much everything of importance was traced back to evil deros and sinister machines in the hollow earth. He did not believe in God, an afterlife, a spiritual world, or paranormal powers: all such htings were the purely physical and totally illusory effects of the ray machines of the deros. We have all been duped, and we are constantly being zapped in our dreams, diseases, and disasters. “The unseen world beneath our feet, malignant and horrible, is complete in its mastery of Earth,” he declared with not a doubt or qualification in sight. So, too, there is no such thing as astral travel or spirits. The spirits seen in séances are in fact projections of the machines controlled again by entirely physical creatures seething and scheming below us. Like other hollow earthers before him, Richard Shaver was what Palmer called “an extreme materialist.” He knew nothing of the psychology of projection, and he seemed completely incapable of thinking symbolically or metaphorically, which I take as a fairly clear symptom of whatever psychological condition he suffered.””
About This Quote
The passage critiques Shaver’s extreme materialism, denying any spiritual or paranormal reality and attributing all phenomena to hidden machines.
In simple terms: Shaver dismissed all spiritual ideas, blaming hidden machines for everything.
Question assumptions about unseen forces.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- academic discussion
- debate
- critical analysis
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you differentiate metaphor from literal belief?
- What evidence supports or refutes hidden mechanisms?
His view ignores symbolic meaning and psychological factors.