Dreams and Shadows

BOOK TWO

chapter TWENTY-FIVE

UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF THE SUPERNATURAL

An essay by Dr. Thaddeus Ray, Ph.D., from his book The Everything You Cannot See

All matter is energy. To fully understand the supernatural creature, you must first fully grasp this simple, scientific principle. Every component of the universe is composed of the same basic building blocks. Take apart a person, a tree, a drop of water, and a ray of sunlight and you will find many of the same parts. The differences between them are derived from how they are assembled and how fast they vibrate. Simple concept, complex execution. The same is true with the world of preternatural beings and events.

When scientists sit down to calculate the mass of the universe, their math always comes up with giant holes, empty voids where other numbers should be. So there become required elements that must exist to match their theories. They conjure concepts like dark matter, dark energy, and a dozen other names and phrases yet uncoined. While some might ascribe the error to the theory itself, there is another possibility: that there is a form of currently immeasurable mass or energy out there—a particle or particles that obey their own laws and react in their own, distinct ways to every other particle in the universe. Particles we have no way of detecting or measuring. I call one such particle, and the energy it creates, dreamstuff.

Dreamstuff is the essence of consciousness, the particle of soul. Everything self-aware contains some amount of it. Like any form of energy or mass, it obeys its own rules and can be found in varying degrees throughout the universe. Here on earth it collects and flows in concentrated amounts through what are most commonly referred to as ley lines. Like any free-flowing substance, it often collects in small pools, tributaries, and even lake-size offshoots where it may swirl about indefinitely before it is either absorbed by other elements or returned to the flow. That is not to say that there isn’t dreamstuff all around you even as you read this, but that the concentrations are nowhere near that of ley line intersection points or a pooled collection.

It is thought that the unborn absorb this energy throughout their mother’s pregnancy and on through early childhood until they’ve collected enough to achieve self-awareness, assembling a soul of their own. At some undetermined point before their birth, they accumulate enough to be able to exist free of the womb, but not quite enough to retain memories. Most theories point to a person’s first memory as the moment they achieved true awareness and completed their soul. Those who study this process refer to this variant energy as soulstuff. Thus we mortal creatures are a combination of standard matter and dreamstuff. Just as there are manifestations of matter that contain no consciousness, like rocks, trees, and the lower forms, could it not also be that there are manifestations that are none but consciousness?

So what is a supernatural being? It is a being comprised almost entirely of dreamstuff. Simply put, it is what happens when dreamstuff collects into a form, much like humans are comprised almost entirely of water. Each creature is created by the governing principles under which this form of energy and matter operates.

As dreamstuff collects in an area, that area begins to take on properties governed by the sentient inhabitants of the region. If they are a peaceful, nature-loving population, the odds are good that the dreamstuff will enhance the natural beauty of the area and produce creatures that are as playful, helpful, and as delightful as the locals, ultimately enhancing those emotions in the population and thus feeding off that particular brand of dreamstuff. If, however, they are fearful, warlike, or particularly bloodthirsty, the odds are they will find themselves surrounded by monsters that prey upon those very emotions.

The stronger the concentration of dreamstuff, the more readily creatures can be pulled from it. Particularly rich regions can bring into being a creature from a single nightmare, its traits the product of a single man’s imagination, while starved or blighted areas might require the belief of an entire population to produce a single, weak being. Either way, the powers, abilities, and weaknesses of any such creature lie wholly within the belief in those traits. For example, stories of inside-out clothing warding off certain fairies aren’t so much that fairy’s aversion to the practice as much as a specific population’s aversion, which is then acquired by the spirit in question. However, sometimes only those who believe that wearing their clothing in such a fashion would ward them off actually do so. Things get exponentially trickier when taking into account that these beings possess psyches of their own (one might argue that they are actually nothing but psyche) and their own belief of such things might be able to affect their own form and traits, thus explaining the differing levels of potential manifestation among the more intelligent species.

Just as all flesh must consume flesh, food to live, all beings of dreamstuff must similarly feed upon dreamstuff. Helpful fairies such as brownies or the Heinzelmännchen of Germany appear to feed upon the goodwill and joy of those they help, consuming the positive energy and converting it into the dreamstuff they need. Some feed in a passive way, while others, like the Leanan Sidhe, act more directly to siphon the energy they need to live. Likewise, those creatures that prey upon fear and agony must work in some way to generate those emotions if they cannot find a place populated by those already experiencing them. Particularly clever or lucky creatures often make homes in places where the suffering they feed upon is readily generated, like hospitals, prisons, or (history permitting) death camps.

Primitive creatures, like vampires or the Black Annis, must consume the energy directly from flesh or blood. Lacking the ability to simply feed off ambient energy, they often have to take every drop of blood or consume a body down to the bones to get enough nourishment to last them until their next meal, which tends to be far more often than those creatures operating at higher levels, thus putting them at far greater risk of discovery. These beasts often find themselves destroyed by careful mortals or, sometimes, other supernatural creatures looking to draw as little attention to themselves as possible.

All supernatural creatures are formed in belief. They are shaped by it, they are compelled by it, and they will be forever bound to it. Without belief they would not exist. Once a man not only understands this immutable fact, but embraces it, he will find that all supernatural creatures are but an extension of his own will. The biggest danger to a creature living beyond the veil isn’t being forgotten, rather, it is being discovered by the man who has somehow stumbled upon this rather unfortunate natural law. This makes man a very dangerous species to tangle with, and history is filled with encounters between such witchcraft or wizardry against local supernatural populations, to the detriment of both parties.

Magic and miracles are but the psyche’s manipulation of ambient dreamstuff and the exertion of will upon it to change one thing into another. When a thousand people traipse up a hill that they consider to be a holy place (in fact a dreamstuff-rich environment), and their holy symbols become transmuted from one substance into another (like plastic into gold), just as they believed it would, is it the will of some greater being? Or does their combined sense of will projected upon the surrounding energies cause the transmutation, just as applying fire in just the right manner to a substance can change it from one thing into another?

Men who fully understand these principles, armed with both belief and understanding and backed up by a sufficient amount of ambient dreamstuff, we call magicians, wizards, warlocks, witches, or holy men. The practices of these people, as varied in their rituals and results as are supernatural creatures themselves, are simple concepts with complex execution. Once you grasp that, there is no manner of manipulation that will ever be truly foreign to you and no creature you cannot understand on a basic level.

Of course, this knowledge makes these things no less dangerous, any more than understanding the inner workings of a lion will protect you from the grip of its jaws. Rather, you have endangered yourself just for daring to understand them. There are things that go bump in the night, and many of them prefer to be known as no more than that.

Be wary, be vigilant. For few of us practitioners die of natural causes, and most of us die young.