Do you see what I see?
I had a hallucination this week, something that I THOUGHT was fairly typical and that most people experienced.
What happened was this:
I was sleeping, and then I heard a male voice in the room say very clearly and quite loud:
”MATTHEW.”
Which is, of course, my name. So I woke up and sat up only to discover that there was no man in the room but me.
This is called a hypnopompic hallucination (they are more commonly visual, but can be auditory like mine or even tactile… a feeling that someone or something is touching you. And, in fact, this last summer I had olfactory hallucinations strong enough to wake me TWICE… I thought someone was popping popcorn downstairs). A hypnopompic hallucination is one that happens as you’re waking up.
For me, these hallucinations also come with a deep certainty that what just happened IS IMPORTANT and should be examined closely, which apparently is also a common side effect (if you’ve not experienced this, maybe you’ve experienced it in a dream… when you wake up and just feel like it was deeply profound even if the content of the dream didn’t seem particularly so).
Anyway, being a good Christian boy who is deeply devout, I (of course), sat straight up in my bed and when I realized no one was there, said, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” And then I prayed for a while.
There is can be an unsettling piece to these sorts of occurrences, but I have them every once in a while and have had them since I was a kid. I was surprised when talking to some friends about it and they told me they had never had a hallucination of any kind (and seemed a little concerned that I was nonchalant about it).
Which made me wonder if it’s very uncommon?
So how about it:
There’s probably a long and interesting conversation to be had here, especially about how to tell the difference between hallucinations and mystical experiences, but I’ve had both and I’m not sure I know the answer! Interested in your thoughts on this!
LOVING DISAGREEMENT is a finalist
for the Christian Book Award!
This is actually happening.
Kathy Khang and I are both pleased to announce that our book LOVING DISAGREEMENT is up for the Christian Book Award. It’s a huge honor to be nominated, of course, and a huge honor to have made it onto the short list. It’s also really fun that a whole bunch of books written by people one or both of know are on the list as well!
Our beloved editor Caitlyn was at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing this week and sent us a picture of a bookmark she’s handing out over there:
Note that it mentions how our award-winning book won Book of the Year from the Englewood Review of Books, as well as being a finalist for the ECPA Christian Book Award.
And, as always you can buy from our friends at Hearts and Minds Bookstore or the stranger who we’ve never met over at Amazon.
And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for:
Now we know which bird is the worst
Last week I asked you which bird is JUST THE WORST
and the winner is —
SEAGULLS
Seagulls can drink salt water! It’s true. They have tiny glands near their eyes that filters out the salt. Pretty convenient, and lets the gulls survive far out to sea.
Seagulls in the wild, depending on the breed, live on average from 8-30 years old, with the oldest living gull we know of living to 49 years old!
A seagull may travel as far 7,500 miles in a year. While gulls are found pretty much everywhere, including arctic and subarctic regions, a lot of them enjoy the more toasty ocean life and follow the warm weather.
Many gulls are perennially monogamous (in other words, they pick one mate and stick with them for life).
But also — scientists in the 1970s discovered many female-to-female paired gulls, which led to a LOT of surprising theories, thoughts, and even impacted how we talk about human sexuality! Check out this podcast from RadioLab:
This is what a baby seagull looks like:
To be fair, they also look like this:
And lastly, I should mention the outpouring of comments I received saying, “I think it’s pretty clear that Canadian geese are the actual worst and why are they not on the list?!”
Which I have to admit is a fair point, and I am sorry to all those Canadian geese haters out there. But there’s a very good reason I didn’t include them in this newsletter.A seagull might steal your food, but a goose will take your dignity. I’m not about to cross them.
I hope you enjoyed those #BIRDFACTS or as seagulls call them #SQUAWKSQUAWK
Rethinking the Police
This week on the Fascinating Podcast we welcomed Dr. Daniel Reinhardt to talk about his book “Rethinking the Police.” And I know what you’re thinking: Mikalatos is a reactionary who lives in Portland and we know exactly what this interview will be about. And that’s where you’re wrong, me hearties.
Dr. Reinhardt was a police officer for 20+ years, and he’s not only pro-police, he’s also a conservative Christian theologian (he’s at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). But his book was really fascinating. It’s full of harrowing first-person experiences in the trenches of policing as well as confessional moments where he admits his own deep entrenchment in the Blue culture and the problems and issues that caused.
Which is only to say, this is a guy who loves the police talking about the problems with the police and a possible way forward to reforming police culture and authority.
Anyway, it was an interesting but challenging read for me. I’d be interested in your thoughts.
Advice from Bruce
Girl, wash your face.
Kick back and relax.
Soak in some of that sweet morning sun.
See you next week!
Matt
Have I ever told you about what I heard and saw when working in a centery years ago? One thing I'm not hallucinating is how great this week's newsletter is, only we didn't come here to learn how to have living disagreements with seagulls MATTHEW. That was a dirty trick, and now I'll have to go to Google to find someone else to drag Gulls. Oh I also rewatched The Crow this week which is 87% because of you.
A seagull once landed on my head, stole half a churro out of my hand, then used me as a launchpad to fly away in less than two seconds. They’re a menace, but also I kind of respect the audacity