Prime Time Replay:

Peter Tompkins
Author of The Secret Life of Nature


MsgId: *high_strangeness(5)
Date: Tue Aug 26 21:59:13 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Welcome to High Strangeness! My name is Patrick Huyghe and our guest tonight is Peter Tompkins. His new book "The Secret Life of Nature" is his long awaited follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller "The Secret Life of Plants" (with Christopher Bird). His other books include "Secrets of the Great Pyramid," "Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids," "The Magic of Obelisks," and (also with Chris Bird) "Secrets of the Soil".

In the new book Tompkins introduces us to the brilliant and lively world of nature spirits -- animate powers beyond our ordinary perception that profoundly influence our physical reality. Tompkins suggests that these natures spirits -- gnomes, fairies, nymphs, etc. -- are not only real, but that they are crucial transformers and manipulators of primordial energy within the natural world. These spirits, he says, develop growth in plants, assist in the rhythms of nature, and are intermediaries between humans and the world we live in.

Now let's begin: You have found that many ancient forms of knowledge actually mirror what modern quantum physics is discovering today. Can you describe one of the more interesting parallels?

MsgId: *high_strangeness(16)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:07:26 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

I said if theosophists a hundred years ago could accurately describe the number of quarks in all the elements, why not believe what they describe of the world of nature spirits?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(17)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:08:04 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

You are assuming if they were right about one thing they were right about the other.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(18)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:09:10 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

It may be an assumption, but what else could one do?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(19)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:09:33 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

To believe in fairies is one thing, I guess, but to think that they play an essential role in nature seems downright unscientific. How do you reconcile the scientific and occult world views?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(20)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:11:08 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

The occult invariably makes more sense than the so called scientific. vide rudolf steiner.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(21)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:12:13 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

But Steiner is very difficult to understand, is he not?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(22)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:17:02 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Peter, are you still here? Where are you?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(24)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:17:49 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

I said: Steiner is very difficult to understand.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(25)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:17:54 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

Did you not get my answer?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(26)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:18:43 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Next question: You cite the works of Steiner, Hodson and others extensively on the subject of nature spirits. How much have you confirmed through personal experience?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(31)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:24:20 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

Tell who we are where we came from or why we are here. Steiner gives some very interesting clues.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(32)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:25:25 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Let me repeat the last question:You cite the works of Steiner, Hodson and others extensively on the subject of nature spirits. How much have you confirmed through personal experience?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(33)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:25:58 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

In answer to whether I see nature spirits. I don't. But when I look at nature it gives me the same thrill as looking at a naked woman.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(34)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:26:56 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

But you do believe nature spirits exist?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(35)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:26:59 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

Everything is alive, pulsing. and I feel part of it. Do you believe in atoms? On the basis of whose say so?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(37)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:28:10 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

It must be difficult in this day and age to be a believer in fairies. You must take a lot of ribbing on the subject. How do you handle it?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(38)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:28:28 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

where is you question?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(39)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:29:40 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

In MsgID#37.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(40)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:32:50 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

My last question was: It must be difficult in this day and age to be a believer in fairies. You must take a lot of ribbing on the subject. How do you handle it?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(46)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:38:47 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

So far no one who has read the book has had a problem. The days of ribbing about spiritual matters went out with the birth of feminism.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(47)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:39:34 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Many authors familiar with nature spirits equate "thrones" with UFOs. Why? What do they look like? What are they?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(48)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:39:56 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

I said I do not see nature spirits. but now when I look at nature I get the same sort of thrill as looking at a beautiful naked woman.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(49)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:41:02 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Yes, but others have. What do they say about thrones?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(50)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:43:04 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

You have to talk to clairvoyants such as Steiner to get a description of the various members of the angelic hierarchies.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(51)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:43:32 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Is there a short-cut to this other dimension and its beings?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(52)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:44:57 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

Yes, they say. ergot. or soma. or whatever the shamans imbibe, such a yaje.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(53)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:45:37 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

And what was your own experience with this "short cut"?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(54)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:47:02 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

I tried the jake, but chickened out because of fear of the void. maybe next time. But I think the longer initiation is the better route.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(55)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:47:54 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Your timing for a book on faires may be ideal, as there's a new Hollywood film coming out on the subject. Tell us what you know about it.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(56)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:49:29 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

Paramount is bringing out a major feature in October based on the Cottingley girls in England and the fairies they photographed! It is called "Fairy Tale, a true story."
MsgId: *high_strangeness(57)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:50:23 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

You live in West Virginia. Is this a paricularly receptive place to mingle with nature spirits?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(59)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:51:35 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

People who come to my farm say it is teeming with them. All I know is that it feels good just to imagine them there.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(60)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:52:33 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

Any photographs?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(61)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:53:47 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

I was given a dozen prints taken from the original plates in the nineteen teens. But the publisher is stingy and wouldn't include them. I'll put them on the net.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(62)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:54:56 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

I meant photos of the nature spirits on your farm. But anyway, where will the photos be posted?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(63)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:55:36 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

I'm organizing a web site, soon.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(64)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:55:57 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

One last question: Why are fairies usually seen only "out of the corner of the eye"?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(65)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:57:23 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

People say the retina is too used to ordinary sight.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(66)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:57:42 EDT 1997
From: Moderator At: 168.100.204.161

You point out an interesting distinction between the world of perception and the world of manifestation. Manifestation is the physical world. Perception ranges beyond the physical and into the spiritual.

Well, our time is up for this evening. Thank you very much, Peter Tompkins, for being with us tonight. For High Strangeness, this is Patrick Huyghe. Goodnight!

MsgId: *high_strangeness(67)
Date: Tue Aug 26 22:59:24 EDT 1997
From: peter_tompkins At: 206.102.67.162

Thank you. Good night.


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