F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Metaphysical

Psychic Cover Reveal!

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© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)
© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)

Here is the front cover to my new novel, Psychic.

I decided to do the cover early, this time. I’m still polishing the manuscript, which, I think, still has a couple of months to go. But I’ve had such a hard time visualizing what I wanted for the cover since the very beginning of this manuscript’s creation…and, with the help of Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design, we came up with a great image, huh? I really love it.

Psychic is about a humble and angst-ridden hotline psychic who gets embroiled within a remote viewer government conspiracy, headed up by one shady, evil, Victor NMI Black. It’s an action/adventure that shows the origin of The Man With No Name (MWNN), a character from Sleepwalkers, and interlaces an alternate history storyline with John F. Kennedy. The story takes place in 1994, where JFK is 77 years old. The date is also significant, since the official remote viewer organization the government had used (in our present-day reality) was officially disbanded that year. I use a present day organization, The Monroe Institute and morph it into an alternate location, called the JFK Center, where my story’s remote viewer activities take place. The story is heavy on probabilities…the different roads that actions and people can take…or not. I play around with time…time travel…paradoxes…how scary, nefarious people can come into other people’s lives and simply take them over. How much of what you read in the news is real…or fashioned. Can “facts”…change? This is an intricate story…a gritty story (much grittier than Sleepwalkers…but it is part of the Sleepwalkers “universe”; I expect at least one more novel to come out of this universe)…and gets into the “backgrounds” of our lives and how things may—or may not—come into being in our everyday lives, however nasty those things may be….

Check out my Psychic Pinterest board for images related to this novel!

Many, many thanks go to my “cover girl,” Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design. And I hope you’ll all join me when Psychic is unleashed upon the world, and enjoy what I’m billing as the ultimate conspiracy!

Feel free to freely use the cover graphic in any (legal and tasteful) ways possible, just properly attribute ownership!

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Cemetery Art

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By Robin from Kraków, Poland (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
By Robin from Kraków, Poland (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

You know, one might well ask, what the hell, Frank? Why are you so fascinated with cemeteries?

Fair question.

I’m fascinated with life…and life involves transitions. Part of those transitions…is death.

Death…cemeteries.

I posted my query to myself on this same question, in my post Cemetery Dance, where I attempt to answer this question. But, since I’ve gotten onto Pinterest, I found something else that piques my interest about cemeteries: all the really cool cemetery art. Yes, art. The stuff is incredible. It’s art that rarely seems to get the time of day. Sure, some of it is creepy, but to someone, like myself, who’s interested in the paranormal and supernatural, wow, it’s some of the neatest art out there! A real-life Night Gallery of sculptures! And what they reveal in their composition can be quite stunning. The love and caring that went into their creation, the expression of their love for the dear departed over which they now reign can be downright striking.

So, rather than post all kinds of Pinterest photos here (if that’s even legal…), please take a look at some of my collection. I’ve only recently gotten onto Pinterest, so I don’t have a ton of material, but I do add to it kinda frequently, so please, feel free to stop by off and on, during your travels! Hope you find them as fascinating as I do!

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The Global Consciousness Project

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This guy, “hardware hacker” Adam Michael Curry, has a dream. A global one.

To borrow a little from the article, and Gregory Weinkauf, Mr. Curry sees that the world reads news together…even listens to music together…now, he queries, can the world feel together? And furthermore, can this shared awareness, this collective consciousness, actually impact our physical world?

Can we affect reality?

The basic idea is that there’s all this “new” research out there being done by laboratories, like Princeton University’s PEAR lab and the Institute of Noetic Sciences (among others) to investigate how deeply our collective consciousnesses are connected to “the fabric of physical reality.” It’s called The Global Consciousness Project (GCP; which is, curiously, like my Psychic novel’s, “Global Foundation for Peace,” or “GFP”…), employs random number generators spread around the world, global events that “polarize human attentions,” like 9/11, earthquakes, or Princess Diana’s death, and analyzes the results that manifest the “unexplained ordering affect on chaotic systems.” And, furthermore, this research suggests that the odds that “the combined GCP data” are “due to chance” is less than one in one hundred billion, which implies that there’s a “deep connection” between the mind and physical reality.

That’s one hundred billion.

Wow, lots of cool phrases. And “one hundred billion.”

Oh, and Mr. Curry is pushing a smartphone Consciousness app.

Okay, why does it always have to be about a smartphone?

I applaud Mr. Curry and the others in this area of exploration, but I have to inform them that this line of investigation is nothing new. Not at all. And it’s not even a question…but a fact. I also understand how science always lags in this department, the Department of Mind over Matter. At least in the public displays of research.

There have been many texts written over the history of Humankind about the association of the mind and matter, aka, “reality,” aka what we think affects reality, and it’s largely and roundly been poo-pooed and publically “discredited.” But one set of books have done an incredible job of discussing this reality and has been out since the sixties. This is the work of Jane Roberts and Rob Butts (both deceased). They did this by tapping into their own inner world, through one of Jane’s “entities,” called “Seth.”

Oh, now, see, I hear the eyes rolling!

I talk about it and the eyes roll, but science talks about it—and throws in a frigging smartphone—and you’re all over it.

The basic concept of the Jane, Rob, and Seth view is that we create our own reality. That’s it. No smartphone needed. Just intent and focus. You want a good life, focus on it. Believe in it. Live it. You want wars and poverty or peace and riches, then go ahead, focus on it.

You get what you focus upon, there is no other rule.

But Mr. Curry wants all of us to download an app where we apply our minds to random number generators during life’s great, polarizing events.

Fifty years, it was said, research has been going into all this (not Curry’s work, but others), and this is as far as they’ve come? Random number generators?

One the one hand, quite disappointing. Well, on both, really. What the heck have they been doing all this time, when all this corroborating material has been out there, like Jane, Rob, & Seth’s work? Has it even been looked at, or, again, dismissively poo-pooed? Essentially, what science seems to be doing, is reinventing the wheel. Oh, sure, you could say, they’re just applying the scientific method, and are just duplicating claims in scientific settings. Perhaps, but people are people wherever you go, no matter what they wear, what they do, or languages they speak. Prejudices come into play (yes, even in the scientific community). And, not the least of which, is science itself. Science measures the observable, which seems obvious, but what happens when what you want to observe isn’t, well, observable? What if the targets of your investigation can only be examined by the mind itself, and not under some electron microscope or injection into some CERN collider?

This is the problem with prejudices and attitudes with any so-called “psychic” disciplines, like remote viewing.

It’s not quantifiable.

Sure, we’ll be able to find all the physical links and manifestations, and the like we can using all of our best equipment, but we’ll also be missing out on the best parts that simply cannot be viewed using physical instruments. As much as I’m dismayed at the use of remote viewing for spy-type activities, these Hal Puthoffs, Dale Graffs, Russell Targs, et al (including Stanford Research Institute), made the leap into looking into the mind with the mind. The mind is a nonphysical entity, how the heck are you going to look at that with a microscope of any kind?

Quantum physics comes the closest with all it’s weird micro-behaviors, like entanglement and wave/particle theories, and this has given rise to some really earth-shattering theories…but nothing ever seems to “come of it.” It all just seems to stop short of “going there” by saying we all affect and effect our own realities by the thoughts we think.

But, really, all you only have to do is examine your own life and the lives of those you know. Look at how your beliefs color and mold and form your own life. Do you believe life is hard, unfair, and controlled by others? And has it been? Do you know others who are happy and carefree and seem to have a fun life—and has it been?

How can it be both ways? Either it’s one way or the other. Sure, one can definitely get into circumstances and privileged lives, and whatnot, all kinds of other variables, and, yes, all of this knowledge from entities like Seth come from the “nether regions” of life, the nonphysical, the spiritual, where we mortals wrapped in corporeal form cannot really venture (though we’re told we can…), and what of all the other religions, etc., and yes, it does get rather sticky, here. Billions of rabbit holes. But what I did was look for explanations that didn’t matter what the belief was…just the mechanics that are behind all beliefs. And it is up to each of us to do this. It is part of our growth. But my point to all this is not to preach, but to show that others have already gone there with the whole “our thoughts affect reality” thing, investigations have been ongoing for fifty frigging years, and all we have to show for it is a smartphone app? I really don’t want to slight and dismiss Mr. Curry’s investigations into the mind/matter arena, but, come on, people, so much has already been done on the topic, don’t keep reinventing the damned wheel! Don’t keep starting over from scratch by ignoring already existing work! Build on it! Take it, take its tenants and expand upon them.

Sigh.

Yes, I may have been a bit smug and smarmy over this post, but overall…I am enjoying the scientific entrance (however late) into all this, because it does show a broadening of consciousness on other levels…i.e., that of hard-nosed science. Where this goes will be interesting, but it’s up to each of us to employ this in our everyday lives, like I’ve discussed before. We create our own lives…how we look at life is how we live our lives. It’s that simple. And if you want to change something, you have to begin inside your own head—how else can you effect change? If you don’t believe in the change you seek, then you’re not gonna give it any thought, not gonna write it down, not gonna further “transmit” its concept into the world or tell someone about it, or write that book or movie, not create that patent, not gonna discover that new theory.

It all starts in our minds…and before that damned smartphone…was the concept of that damned smartphone in someone’s mind.

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Inspiration

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A friend of mine and I were discussing writerly inspiration, when I got inspired to “pen” this post.

What is it and where does it come from?

Can you force it?

Hey, maaan, got any techniques to maximize its potential?

I may be a bit too hardline in my way of thinking, but I really feel that each of us are built to do certain things. Sure, we can change our direction[s], and that can get heavy into metaphysics (which I do get into, below), but as to “teaching” others how to be inspired…well, all I got is that you “simply” need to allow yourself to be aware of your own, unique, whispers.

That’s it. No secret handshakes, no intricate nor arcane protocols.

Tell yourself you allow yourself to be inspired. Go on, do it now. Out loud. Mean it.

People—it seems to me—are always looking outside themselves to find themselves. Trying to unnecessarily complicate matters.

All we are is within us.

All you need to know is already within you and me. We simply have to become aware of who we are, and to do that we need to listen to our inner voices (my standard disclaimer of mental aberrations and crazed ax-murderer inclinations NOTwithstanding…).

You already know who you are.

You do, I bet you do.

You may be afraid to admit it, you may be obfuscating it with other issues, but deep down, it’s all there. Sometimes we have to dig through all kinds of other “stuff” first, and that is something some need to do. There’s a reason for that, and you have to find it, discover your own answers—no one else can do that for you. Techniques for that are abundant, but it again comes down to listening to yourself, your thoughts, your dreams, how you deal with the world…ask yourself questions and allow the answers to come in whatever form they choose to reveal themselves to you in. A TV show, a dream, a phrase on a roadside sign.

Now, the flipside to that—for creative types—is, well, okay, I know who I am, yeah, I’m cool with that, but I seem to have issues expressing it. Please, to help me, Kind Sir!

See above there are no secret handshakes, no intricate nor arcane protocols.

We all have daily inspiration. It’s unavoidable. The problem might appear to be that you are not experiencing what you feel inspiration should be.

The problem may be that you got inspired to write a book, paint an acrylic, and now, nothing else is coming forthwith.

This is what I have to say, and you may not like it, and where my hardcore view comes into play.

You may not a writer nor a painter be.

You may have experienced a bout of said, you may have been inspired to do a single or handful of singular creative acts, for whatever reason your inner self needed that expression, but you may not be a writer. May not be a painter.

And there’s nothing wrong with that!

You may be a reader…may be a viewer…an illustrator, a coder, a cover artist. A cop.

And—getting totally metaphysical on your collective asses—I feel this is the case because you may be very well already be said writer or painter in another life…another existence…but in this existence, you’re experiencing the other side of the coin.

Life is far too complex, too rich to be limited to one single, expendable existence. It’s far too limiting a concept, so I believe we have to live other, simultaneous existences…where all our other existences interact…bleeding through talents, and, yes, inspiration…to all of our other existences.

And what is inspiration?

From Merriam-Webster, it’s “something that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create: a force or influence that inspires someone.”

Where does it come from?

It comes from the nonphysical realms of which the mind is a part. And that gets into individual beliefs. But, for me it comes from the playgrounds of the soul. I look at the brain as the medium, the means of intersection between the physical body and the nonphysical mind. I do not see the mind so much as resident within the brain, but Venn diagrammed with it. Accessed through the brain. And as such, our mind has access to a wondrous and neverending array of concepts we simply cannot even begin to imagine…but try to! We have such wondrous access. And since our beliefs drive our lives, and since beliefs are nonphysical, part of our mind, if we don’t believe we can do something or don’t believe we have access to something, anything nonphysical will be so hindered. Our beliefs are the keys to our lives…our thoughts.

So, “forcing” inspiration? See above.

Additionally, what if some inspiration is a thought or a feeling from one of your other selves? One of your other selves’s actual experiences?

Inspiration.

Now, for just a minute, play a little gedankenexperiment. Try to imaging that the life you’re living now is not the prime, only life…but that this life is a probable life to another you, somewhere else…bemoaning their existence and wondering what the hell you’re doing…that they could actually be you.

Wicked freaky, huh?

And, admit it, as belief systems go, wouldn’t you rather that kind of universe exist over one that says you have but one—and only one—life to live? Wouldn’t it take the pressure off having to do one and only one thing? Doesn’t it leave a bit of breathing room, my friends?

Doesn’t it put an entirely different spin on a lot of questions? A lot of angst?

People may use Tarot cards, chicken bones, scrying, handheld pendulums, or whatever to “deliver” inspiration, and that’s fine, it’s okay, it’s part of who they are…and you can go ahead and try them. But, I say, and truly mean this, because I really do care about people, listen to yourselves. Discover what makes you tick and just be yourself. As for writer’s block, that is usually not so much a lack of inspiration, but (in my humble opinion) an obfuscation of inspiration. Something is blocking your methods and I feel it’s usually stress or some other issue that needs resolution before you can move forward. Sometimes you just need to stop and take stock, but I feel the correction to “writer’s block” is as varied as—and directly related to—the causes, rather than just listing out a series of “steps” to follow. Again, listening to your inner self can only help.

And if you’re not a writer, have no more writerly inspiration in you, that’s okay. Write out your one or two books and be good with it, if no more ever comes to you…or doesn’t manifest itself for years to come. Enjoy your life and who you are. Move on.

We need readers, too.

Crackers

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I always talk about my last dog, Mac, but one of the other dogs in my life was one of our family dogs, Crackers. Crackers was a mixed Dalmatian. We’d found her in a Yonkers area (I believe it was, since we’d been visiting our New York City area family at the time) animal shelter, when I was still a kid. I remember this clearly, but we’d walked into this shelter, looking for a new dog, and as we were talking to the person up front, one of us (me?) went into the back and saw this cute little puppy all happy and puppy-y, leashed up by another desk. The person up front said, sure, we could take a look at her, even take her; she was so new, she’d just been brought in and hadn’t even been in-processed.

We took her.

She was such an adorable puppy (what puppy isn’t?), and as we were beginning our long drive north, home, we were all trying to come up with a name for our new critter. I wish I could remember who it was, it might have actually been my dad, now that I think of it, but one of us said “crackers.” We all loved it, so “Crackers” it was!

Crackers actually plays a part in Psychic. I have  a couple scenes where she’s incorporated, but in her first scene, one of my characters, a remote viewer, named, Travis, is reminiscing as he laments about his current position as a government-trained remote viewer (basically, a psychic spy). He’s recently divorced (“I’m not really a loving husband, but I play one in real life“), and hates that his life has become devoted to “…poking his nose around in everyone else’s shithole business….” He goes on to remember that:

“…he [Travis] and Crackers  had gone for a walk on crusty snow in a field of theirs in upstate New York. Crackers had run up ahead and gotten caught in a section of snow where brush had poked up through the crusty surface. She’d fallen through and couldn’t pull her hind legs out. She looked up to him, helpless. Travis, his heart breaking, rushed to her, lifted her out of the hole she’d made for herself, and taken her away to where the snow wouldn’t break from her weight. He knew he wouldn’t see her that next year…and hadn’t. His dad had had to put her down. Her arthritis had been far too advanced, she’d had a loss of bowel control, and there had been all her whining and groaning at night in her sleep. It was too much even for his father, a tough upstate New York State Trooper. Crackers had had one last summer before she’d met her Maker.”

Except for the remote viewer and NYS Trooper part, that’s all real, pulled from my life. I can still see that helpless, pathetic look on our now-long-gone-girl’s face, as she’d gotten stuck in that encrusted snow. It was heartbreaking. It was also the last time I’d seen her (I had to have still been in college and must’ve been home on a Christmas break). She’d been hit several times by cars, over the course of her life, so arthritis had set in. My Dad had to listen to her whine in pain at night. He gave her one last summer, then did the only humane thing he could.

So, to Crackers, I thought, I wanted to somehow immortalize her. She was a good dog and I love her part in this novel, however small. It always puts a smile on my face reading her scenes.

The Unmaking of a Psychic….

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I am back at work hot and heavy in my next novel-for-release, and as I’ve previously alluded, it’s givin’ me a run for my money!

The novel is currently titled Psychic. It’s a follow on to Sleepwalkers (reviewed here, by Marc Schuster, a truly fabulous writer! Catch his novel, The Grievers, and his other work), and details the origins to The Man With No Name (or, “MWNN,” as I call him). It’s more action/adventure than Sleepwalkers, all conspiracy theory, and gritty. Yeah, there’s nasty stuff in it, but when you’re dealing with government conspiracies, it ain’t no ride in the park…unless someone gets offed…and many get offed in this book. I’m billing it as “the ultimate conspiracy,” and you’ll just have to read it to see why. Can such things happen? Stranger things have happened…like the creation of a real government group of psychics, called remote viewers. For real. Years ago, I became aware of the program through the book, Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America’s Psychic Spies. Anyway, more on all that, later.

But, wow, my writing has really improved since I began work on Psychic, back in 2000 (and if you really wanna go back in time, I actually began the groundwork for the novel in 1994…), and that is most likely why the reworking of it has become so time consuming…because I’ve gotten better over all these years, so, I’m naturally gonna find things I can improve, and improve, and, well, rework the hell out of.

But, it’s fun.

Yes, fun!

It’s a great story, a crazy one, and I love the characters. Can’t wait to bring it out into the public…but I seriously think I have at least a couple, maybe several months of work yet to do. Several have already read it, and a couple years ago, a friend of mine, Dave Lirette, even gave me an idea I simply had to incorporate. I did, and it simply caps the entire story—I know I’ve said this to you before, Dave, but thanks a billion for that idea!

Anyway, here are some comments from a couple of people who have already read it.

“Psychic…is a page turner…full of mind-numbing worry and questions….”

Madelon Rose Logue

Editor/Publisher The Black Sheep

F. P. Dorchak, author of Sleepwalkers, has upped the game. His new novel, Psychic, is a ground-breaking, reality bending, mind expanding metaphysical mystery and action thriller that had me hooked from the very beginning. There are passages in the work that describe the nature of existence as beautifully as those in the Seth material, but are uniquely his own. I loved Sleepwalkers…Psychic blew me away.

Joyce Combs

Creator of the Seth Deck