By Sam Guss In the late 19th century, Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists introduced the West to a concept borrowed from Hindu philosophy: the Akashic Records. They described it as an etheric library—a non-physical plane of existence where every thought, word, and deed of every human being who has ever lived is recorded. It is…
By Sam Guss In 2014, two 12-year-old girls lured their friend into the woods of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and stabbed her 19 times. When asked why, they did not cite hatred, or jealousy, or money. They said they did it to please “Slenderman.” Slenderman does not exist. He is not a mythological demon from the Bronze…
By Sam Guss Imagine a farmer. It is a humid night. He is walking home through a field. Suddenly, he sees a bright, unnatural light. Time seems to stop. The sounds of the crickets vanish (the “Oz Factor”). Small entities appear—humanoid, but not human. They are pale, with large black eyes and spindly limbs. They…
By Sam Guss In April 2022, a Swedish artist known as “Supercomposite” sat down at her computer to explore the edges of a new AI image generation model. She wasn’t trying to summon a demon. She was trying to test a technical parameter called “negative prompting.” She typed a prompt. She asked the AI to…