Thursday, March 28, 2024
What's Readable

It’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up

–by Michael Pierce

EVIL ARCHAEOLOGY: DEMONS, POSSESSIONS, AND SINISTER RELICS by Heather Lynn, PhD. Published April 1, 2019 by Disinformation Books. Photos courtesy of the publisher.

A lot of people don’t realize that archaeologists do a lot more than simply dig up old stuff. An archaeologist also needs to be a historian, an anthropologist and, sometimes, a sociologist.

Archaeologists place artifacts into their historical context. They can tell us when an item was made, what it’s made of, and what it was used for.

Historian and (as she calls herself) renegade archaeologist Heather Lynn brings us the stories of gods, goddesses, and religious practices in EVIL ARCHAEOLOGY. While most of her text deals with demons and possessions, she also writes about the good counterparts of some of the demons and relics she describes.

Lynn takes her readers on a world tour, touching just a bit on well-known sites where people communed with gods and goddesses, both good and evil, while dwelling more on those spiritual places and entities that most of us have probably never heard of. Along the way, she explores the connection between mental illness and demon possession.

Heather begins in ancient Mesopotamia, guides readers through Europe and Asia, to the British Isles, and ends in the Americas. It took me quite a while to read this book, as I gave in to the temptation to read it with my laptop or phone nearby, so that I could search online to learn more about the items, people, and places she describes in her book.

As I read this book I also contemplated my own belief that true evil and good resides in the hearts and minds of humans. I was reminded of the story of the two wolves:

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Whether one does or does not believe in the things Heather Lynn discusses in her book, one thing is certain – it will make you think. Heather has written a very good book about some things that many people will quickly dismiss. She keeps her narrative flowing and interesting and educational, all at the same time.

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