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Faces in the Smoke:
An Eyewitness Experience of Voodoo,
Shamanism, Psychic Healing, and Other Amazing Human Powers
Author: Douchan Gersi
This book does not offer theories about mankind's past, but instead tells stories of amazing feats still going on in remote and little-known parts of our planet.
I found a copy of Gersi's book in my local library and once I started reading, I was hooked. Gersi, documentary film producer who created the PBS series Explore, writes about his experiences in such places as Haiti and Africa seeking out people with strange powers. He refers to the people he studies and filmed as "people of tradition" who simply have a different view of reality than that of so-called civilized people. He tells us about psychic surgeons in the Philipines who pull out organs with their bare hands. One such surgeon has lightening bolts flashing from his chest as he works on a human brain. These doctors worked under primitive conditions, but were frequently effective.
In Haiti, Gersi learned of the "flying men" who could instantly materialize themselves in another place. He was able to actually attend a meeting of these flying men held way out in the jungle where the attendees, members of different lodges, would just appear at the right time, have their meeting, then disappear. He says as he sat in the forest waiting, "all of a sudden hundreds of small luminescent points appeared in the sky and beneath the clouds for a second or two, their mobility contrasting with the motionlessness of the stars..." He saw them all appear and hold colorful ceremonies, with much drinking and dancing.
He heard about something similar in another part of the world, New Guinea, where people known as "cassowary men" could just disappear. It was said that just as they were vanishing, there was a quickly flashed visual that looked like bird feathers, thus the term "cassowary" after a bird with fluffy tail feathers. Could this be the origin of the idea that witches fly on brooms? If they too disappear and leave a feathery blip, wouldn't that look like a broom? In Haiti, Gersi tracked down one of the "flying men" and actually witnessed a disappearance. He followed stories of such men, tracking down leads that took him to places of danger where strange rituals took place. What part of what he saw was just smoke and mirrors and what was a revelation of real powers? His clear and colorful descriptions of all he saw will leave you wondering.
Gersi was not just an investigator. He spent years living among the people he studied. He did not do this as an academic peering objectively at his subject as if they were bugs under a microscope; rather, he was a seeker who burned with a passion to know the truth, who had experienced his own strange powers as a child and was drawn to find others who had experienced a reality unknown to science. Gersi found people in Africa who regularly communicated by mental telepathy, arranging meetings at an oasis in the desert by this method. One tribe was so confident of its telepathic abilities that those at home would begin preparing to cook the meat the hunting party was bringing back. The hunters did not call home on their cell phone, they "called home" with their minds to let the others know they were on their way, bringing dinner. These people were completely comfortable with this, unaware that outsiders did not communicate in this manner.
Is it possible for people to move instantly from one place to another? It would seem that Gersi has shown us that it is. What I found fascinating was that there was no technology involved. It was done totally in the mind, using some unknown power that can move atoms through a subtle shift that lets them reappear in another place. Gersi offered no real explanation, as he had none. If such a power exists, could man have routinely made use of it at one time? Could the same power move huge blocks of stone, such as those used in both the monuments of Egypt and the Andes? Gersi does not make these connections, but as I read the pages, these thoughts crossed my mind. If we can move ourselves, can we move any physical object? Is this one of those powers we as a species have forgotten how to use? Has our very use of technology gotten in the way of our using the power we have inside us? Use of such a power would certainly have a negative impact on the telecommunications industry (just as the ability to move instantly from one location to another would deal a devastating blow to the auto and aviation industries).
This book is out-of-print, but used copies are still available. It presents information not found in any of the other books I've reviewed. Conventional ideas are the ones perpetuated, and experiences -- like Gersi's -- that point in another direction get lost in the sea of information that engulfs us. If the truth is out there, maybe Douchan Gersi has already found it and told us about it, but how soon stories of extraordinary happenings are just forgotten. Discarding these stories is easier than changing our ideas about reality. Each of us must continue the search.
Buy Faces in the Smoke: An Eyewitness Experience of Voodoo, Shamanism, Psychic Healing, and Other Amazing Human Powers at amazon.com.
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