‘Spirits’ by TNG

What is the relationship between ‘spirits’ (the drinks), and ‘spirits’ (the metaphysical things)?

If the world is not what we used to believe it to be, why would one be averse to reconsidering topics as taboo as ‘possession’?

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MC #18: ‘Spirits’ by Take No Gnosis

An Investigations into Demonic Possession and the Connections to Alcohol

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Overview

In this wide-ranging piece, TNG takes a closer look at:

*The various meanings of the word ‘spirit’

*Alcoholism and alcohol-related mortaility

*’Prohibition’ in the U.S.

And then shares a personal account of something from his own life which is eyebrow-raising to say the least.

He rounds out the article by reconsidering a few things through a Sync lense.

Overall, this contribution from TNG might polarise readers in much the same way as the MDC #09 Normies vs Lizard People.

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‘Spirits’ by TNG

Docx format (right-click and ‘save as’)

PDF format (right-click and ‘save as’)

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JLB’s Editorial

For me personally this is a timely piece, which is why I expedited it to the top of the ‘to be published’ list for the Member Creation pieces.

Like so many people who will read these words, I have had countless good experiences with alcohol. Some of the people I’ve met, some of the things I’ve, thanks at least in part to the ‘demon drink’.

And of course the opposite is also true: I cannot count the number of bad mistakes I have made — some of them rather serious — as a result, direct or indirect, of drinking the sweet poison.

I still maintain that there are plenty of people out there who can drink responsibly, and rarely if ever ‘go too far’. This is why, even if I were to quit alcohol permanently (like my old mate Lindsay the Silverfox), I don’t think I would ever be ‘anti-alcohol’. What no longer suits my life can still suit plenty of others. So I was pleased to see that TNG does not take a strictly anti-alcohol stance in his piece, either.

The issue for me is this: just because there are plenty of other people out there who can drink responsibly most (if not all) of the time, this does not mean that I am one of them, or that I will ever be one of them.

For one reason or another, my nature has long been one of doing things to the extreme. This website is just one more example in a long line of things stretching back to my childhood, where I have become interested in something and then just ‘gone silly’, ‘taken it too far’, kept going when others would have quit a long time ago.

This element of my personality, my nature, is both a blessing and a curse. When my thinking is impaired by a ‘depressant’ (toxin/poison) it can lead to some very poor decisions which only one person is ultimately going to have to pay for, and that person is me. For a long time this has been a price I have been willing to pay, but at various stages I have taken extended absences from alcohol, and as I type these words I’m already seven days into my latest break from alcohol, which began on Tuesday, April 30.

I wish I could say that I made some proactive and circumspect decision to take a break from alcohol at the end of April, to have a Sober May, that this is some scheduled interlude in my alcohol consumption. In truth, I couldn’t have had a drop of alcohol over the past week even if I had wanted to. I’ve been recovering from the most serious and troubling illness I ever remember suffering from.

I can sit here now in this lovely cafe, several days after the worst of the episode appears to be over, most of the symptoms apparently subsided, and say, ‘it was only a fever, and a splitting headache, and a 120bpm ‘resting’ heartrate, and literally no sleep for two consecutive nights, no biggie’, but the truth is, it felt horrendous at the time. I could say a lot more but don’t want it to come across the wrong way. Point is, it was bad.

But here is where a personal Sync starts to kick in. You see, before my symptoms had begun to become apparent to me, for some reason I decided to sit down and watch, for the first time in a long time, The Shining.

I’d forgotten that Jack’s alcoholism is one of the key elements of the film: it had apparently led to the incident in which he dislocated Danny’s arm ‘by accident’, and may have been the cause of his loss of employment as a teacher. Either way, Jack had sworn off alcohol about five months before taking up the position as caretaker at the Overlook Hotel.

Anyhow, I’m currently staying in a building in KL known as ‘DUA Sentral’, but the exterior maintains the branding of ‘Ramada’. Previously the same building was owned and operated by Best Western, whose sudden exit from this part of KL has not been explained to me via anything more substantive than rumours and hearsay.

To cut a very long story short, the building is now comprised of hundreds of former hotel rooms which are now owned privately (i.e. by different individuals), and many of the rooms are rented out for short-term stays similar to a hotel, while others are rented out on longer-term contracts. Agents acting in behalf of owners handle these rentals, and they act independently of ‘DUA Sentral’, so the whole thing is more like an apartment complex than a hotel — but it is still a hotel building, that’s what it was built for.

What this means is that the lobby is still intact, but it is devoid of people (save for a few security guards who man the door 24/7). Behind a rope lay the large entertaining area which to this day is still fully equipped with dining tables, kitchen, and even a grand piano. I’ll try to take some photos/videos before I leave this place, to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

So imagine a large, 33-storey building, once a four-star hotel, hustling and bustling with people, now eerily-empty, with a lobby and large entertaining area down the bottom — grand piano and all — which is no longer in use, everything just sitting there, as though stuck in time. Can you imagine what all of this looks like, especially in the low-lighting which is apparently in use to keep electricity costs down? Eerie is the word I use to describe it.

And that is what I have been living in for the past four weeks. Not that I’m complaining: it has been a cool month, all said and done. But when watching The Shining, I couldn’t help but draw the comparison between the disturbing emptiness of the Overlook Hotel, and my temporary abode. This place is not as isolating or desolate as the Rockies, but when you’re a lone man in a foreign land, it can sure feel that way sometimes…

…especially when it’s 4am in the morning, you haven’t been able to get to sleep for two consecutive nights, your head feels like it was hit with an axe, and your body feels like it is in the process of shutting down.

I write none of this seeking sympathy, by the way. Everybody has fallen ill plenty of times. Especially people with kids, who seems to get sick fairly regularly, apparently from the diseases brought home by their children from school. I’m not special. And the truth is, I brought all of this on myself, by way of certain things I got up to on the weekend immediately prior to coming down with this illness.

I wouldn’t even bring any of this up were it not ‘tangentially’ related to why TNG’s piece resonated with me so much when I read it. In it, TNG mentions The Shining specifically. There’s a scene in The Shining kept going through my mind, over and over, throughout those two nights of temporary, fever-induced insomnia:

The Shining: You’ve always been the caretaker

Watch closely and note that throughout this scene, Jack’s eyes are not looking at Mr Grady. When you realise where his eyes are looking, the whole scene takes on a new significance.

And so to cut a very, very long personal Sync short, I’ll finish section by saying that sometimes, we can take good things from bad things, and since I am already one week into an unintentional abstention from alcohol, I plan to ‘keep it rolling’ and see how long I can remain sober before falling back into the clutches of the Demon Drink.

To that end, I’ve created a new Discord channel entitled Sober House. There I will post updates, hopefully once per day, as a means of keeping myself accountable, and documenting the experience for posterity. If you are a responsible drinker, then the channel isn’t really intended for you. It is for people like me: irresponsible drinkers who can probably benefit from a week/month/year? away from a liquid which can lead to both the best of times and the worst of times.

By the way, I don’t know about other countries, but in Australia, we tend to use a certain word beginning with ‘s’ as a synonym for break. As in, ‘I’m having a s____ from alcohol for a while’.

The relevance of this will become apparent once you realise what that word is. Hint.

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Member Creations

Coming Soon

ShadowTiger – ‘The God of the Bangers’

TNG – ‘Dante, But Not From New York’

And much more!

Huge thanks to TNG and everybody else who have sent their work through over the past few months.

If you’ve ever wanted to express yourself, now’w the time to do it. What are you waiting for?

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MC #18. Productions notes. Published 6-May-2019. Sent to me by TNG 2-May-2019. My editorial: 1,500 words.

Temporarily made available publicly as a reference for Bonversations #81 (22-Jul-2026)

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