Welcome, thanks for writing.

[[I really do not think Jach would have the intellect, ability or capability to communicate or perpetrate so great a fraud. To insinuate this to me would be almost a backhanded compliment that I do not feel Jach has the capability to merit.]]

This is a source of mystery for me as well, because I share your observation about Jach. I wrote in another post something similar to this. I do think Jach is intelligent but his thought patterns and humor seem on a much different level than when he speaks as Lazaris.

I don't know who or what Lazaris is anymore. I do not believe that Lazaris is what Concept Synergy believes him to be or sells him to be.

I am now looking at the material and seeing if there are other possiblities that explain Lazaris, other than the one that Jach and Concept Synergy offer.

It is intriguing. I have no conclusions yet. I have determined that the material holds many traps, perhaps intentionally laid, perhaps not.

I am working now with the observation I have had for years but always dismissed and that a great number of people who work devotedly with the Lazaris material do seem to be developing a dependancy on the material that borders on addiction.

I believe now that this dependancy is encouraged by Concept Synergy and cultivated by Lazaris.

Prior to my willingness to examine the credibility of this teaching I dismissed that observation as the result of my own creation [which I still believe it to be]

I dismissed it as showing me something about myself that needed to be changed, rather than an association I had to end.

That is how CS would like us to see it I believe, for it permits them to function in any self serving way they choose with no responsibility.

Now I am looking at it from the angle that perhaps there is something intrinsic in the material, in its presentation that encourages and creates dependancy.

I have written some of my thoughts about that on the Negative Ego thread and as I think more about what I believe to be mixed and disempowering messages in the Lazaris material I will write more.

[[hough this does not mean Jach is entirely out of the picture at all times when Lazaris is suppose to be coming through. I believe we have some very human individuals with big ego's; that like to be stroked; which blind people to the point of becoming insensitive.]]

Personally, I think it goes beyond insensitivity and garden variety ego behavior.

I think there is hostility in these people which borders on the pathological and a narrow mindedness which would be startling in any group, but more strikingly so in a group that purports to exist to offer spiritual teaching.

[[The folly of it is that when a channel and his associates, drift to far out of line from the concepts taught, credibility issues often arise. ]]

They certainly do raise issues of credibility. If Lazaris is who he says he is, there is no doubt in my mind that he would not shrink from any close inspection.

Lazaris would want to be responsible for the mess the people he works through have created USING him as a platform.

[[To the degree we feel hurt and betrayed, it is often difficult to do anything but lashout. I have learned the folly of giving away my power to negative situations. Though, I still catch myself doing it at times. ]]

There are all kinds of ways to give away your power. I think its a matter of personal style.

Getting stuck in anger is always a danger, if that is what you are addressing here.

I think most of us here are about getting unstuck and allow that we all have our ways of becoming untethered.

Again, its all in the intention. The style will vary.

I think its about balance and that is a personal thing.

[[In metaphysics we learn that we create our own reality. What is the lesson here, the teacher? If we do not learn to own our power and to release the negativity we have associated with a situation, will not our anger draw us into another like situation until we are finally able to release and forgive/ so we can cleanse, own and take back our energy. I relate this from my own personal experience, not in judgement, knowing how easy it is for this kind of thing to eat at me.]]

I think Larry, alot of things have already been eating away at us and we have perhaps been sitting in judgement of ourselves already as a result of our involvement with Concept Synergy.

I think what is happening here is about learning how we were manipulated and there is going to be some anger.

[[I believe the Lazaris material to contain some best and most clearly articulated material that have heard coming from any source. I have found in my experience that I can put my trust in myself and God and never feel let down. At this point I feel great confidence still in Lazaris, but this does not mean I would translate that to great trust in all the people at CS.]]

As for trust, I dont see how you can distinguish between trusting CS and trusting Lazaris.. In many ways, they are the same thing.

Lazaris has allowed himself to be associated with an ugly business swindle [Tradevest]

Lazaris has never publicly addressed the hideous treatment that earnest people have endured in the forum BEARING HIS NAME.

Lazaris has elevated one of the crudest most vindictive women I have ever seen to a completely unearned status that she has abused relentlessly for years.

Lazaris has told a daughter to stop associating with her mother because the mothers "thinking is wrong"

Lazaris IS a part of Concept Synergy.

Lazaris is responsible for how HIS business and his associates conduct themselves in his name.

Thats how I see it anyway.

Cheers,

In the thread entitled "Separating Lazaris from Jach and Peny," I posted some quotes from my currently favorite reference book The Columbia University College of Physician's and Surgeons Complete Home Guide To Mental Health, 1992 edition. In that post, I speculated whether or not a loving, multi-dimensional, all-knowing entity would take advantage of two damaged people, caught in an unhealthy codependent relationship, in order to make an appearance on this planet.

I began to further speculate...

What kinds of beings might be so self-involved that they wouldn't care that two people to whom many have willingly given authority, are themselves not nearly as healthy, in any sense of the word, as they claim to be able to guide everyone else to becoming? And what type of beings would USE the fact that there are many clustered around these two (hoping to get consciousness-expanding truths tossed to them), AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MANIFEST THE MONSTERS THAT URGE THEM TO PLAY OUT THEIR INNER DRAMAS ON INNOCENT PEOPLE?

Well, in continuing to thumb through the chapter on Personality Disorders in The Columbia University College of Physician's and Surgeons Complete Home Guide To Mental Health, I came upon two more profiles that I thought might logically fit the bill. The first one, on page 189, reads...

quote:

---

The essential characteristic of the sadistic personality disorder is a pattern of cruel and aggressive behavior directed at others. Often individuals use sadistic behavior to achieve dominance through tactics that range from verbal intimidation to physical abuse.

Often such people take pleasure in hurting or demeaning their victims. They frequently restrict the freedom of those close to them——such as the husband who refuses to let his wife leave the house unaccompanied by him, or who makes her sleep on the floor while he sleeps on the bed, or who forbids her from eating. Further, these individuals may well be fascinated with instruments of violence or torture.

The portrayal of Joan Crawford in the 1981 film "Mommie Dearest" illustrates sadistic personality disorder at work. In order to assert her dominance over her young daughter, Christina, the Crawford character screamed at the girl, beat her with a wire coat hanger, and banged the child's head against the floor.

---

...and another one I found on page 187...

quote:

---

The men and women who suffer from histrionic personality disorder tend to be overly emotional, often seeming more angry, happy, sad or pleased than a situation seems to warrant. Such persons lean toward rapid shifts of emotional expression.

They are happiest when they are at the center of attention, and they constantly seek approval and praise. Often they are excessively concerned about appearance, and they may be inappropriately seductive or sexual. They are self-centered and demand immediate gratification. They adopt a speaking style that is effusive but lacking in detail. For instance if asked "How was your vacation?" the individual with histrionic personality disorder can offer no more information than "Fabulous!"

A classic literary example of someone with this disorder is Scarlett O'Hara of "Gone With the Wind". Scarlett demanded to be the center of attention and was overly concerned about her appearance, boasting about her "18-inch waist." She was shallow and self-centered, vain and temperamental. She had tantrums when she did not get her way, and she became excessively frustrated and petulant when her needs were not immediately gratified. As is always the case with people with histrionic personality disorder, things did not work out so well in her relationships. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"

---

So, I think, maybe beings described in the first profile. Or maybe beings fitting the second description. Or maybe beings with some of the characteristics found in either profile or a mixture of characteristics found in both.

Thinking about these profiles, and the fact that they are clinical classifications of personality DISORDERS helps me come to terms with my very unpleasant experiences in the forum.

Take care!
Karolina

The more distance I put between myself and the ghouls of Concept Synergy, the less real the whole experience seems.

My first reaction to the idea that Lazaris is a conscious fraud was that it is an absolutely ridiculous notion.

Currently, I have no definitive answer that rests easy in my mind. Conscious or unconscious fraud.. combination of both.. a once present Lazaris who vacated the premisis.. who can say? Does it ultimately matter?

A few things I do know matter:

I know that Lazaris [whoever he, it, is] simply cannot be who he has claimed to be.

Whoever he is, the application of his own teachings reveal him to be either deeply flawed or a malicious conceit concocted to create dependancy and cash flow.

Both arguments have evidence and merit. Maybe somewhere in the middle lives the truth.

Some seem desperate to seperate Jach and Peny from Lazaris. It really isn't possible, though I understand the need to try to make that scenario work.

It especially isn't possible if you apply Lazaris' own teachings to Lazaris himself.

Lazaris teaches that we are responsible for our impact. Lazaris also teaches that in dealing with impact, it is important to remember our INTENTION is not the issue.

If we hurt someone but didn't intend to, [according to Lazaris] that is irrelevant to admiting that the hurt exists and needs to be responded to.

Whatever Lazaris intentions, he has hurt alot of people.

Lazaris has hurt people by creating and fostering dependancy in his "friends" and has turned them into followers.

It is not important[according to Lazaris own teachings] whether Lazaris intended to do this or not, this is his impact and Lazaris must know that people are addicted to his every word and workshop out of a dwindling sense of self.

Why doesn't Lazaris address this impact?

Lazaris has hurt people by being the sole export of a [in my opinion] terribly corrupt and greedy company that insults its customers, gossips about them ruthlessly behind their backs, charges them outrageous amounts of money for questionable products and services.

Whether or not Lazaris intended for people to go bankrupt, loose significant amounts of cash and self esteem, place their financial trust in mutli level marketing scams, abase themselves in public... is not germane.

Lazaris may not have intended to hurt people in these ways, but he has hurt them in these ways, repeatedly, for years.

How can anyone defend Lazaris on that level?

You might argue that people made their own choices about trust, their own choices about how to spend their money and time.. and ya know what? I would agree with that..

BUT...

We are applying Lazaris teachings to Lazaris.. that is the standard ... and while it is consistent with the Lazaris material to say that people chose how to spend their time, trust and money it is also consistent to say that the hurt that they made those decisions out of is the impact that Lazaris had.

It seems that the majority of people who have been exposed to Peny, Jach and Lazaris have been hurt.

Cannot really dismiss that.

Also to consider:

For the price of a library card you can get most of the valuable information that makes up the body of the Lazaris material.

No, you wont get promises of everlasting love and "guidance"

But then on the upside you wont get embarassing flyers in your mailbox that are written in such a revulsive romantic style you have to question your sanity every time you see one.

Iguess the bottom line here is that if you follow the basics of metaphysics, you wont NEED anyone to promise you everlasting love and guidance..because it will be there for you as a result of your own metaphysical path.. FREE OF FUCKING CHARGES TERRIFS AND TAXES.

So I hope anyone who is feeling on the fence or needing to defend Jach and Peny or Lazaris really thinks about these things

I hope that if they have intelligent thoughts that contradict, they share them freely here.

Jeremiah

LOL..here we are back on the topic of whether or not Jach is faking it. I suppose this question will always remain at the top of our lists.

For me it isn't hard to imagine Jach pulling this one off. I've been to enough seminars to notice that a lot of rambling goes on so I don't agree that it's all so incredibly brilliant. I think it's smoke and mirrors.

Marilyn wrote a beautiful post on another thread in which she describes many awesome and beautiful experiences which were sparked by the Lazaris materials, yet she is fully able to now separate them and herself from the Lazaris materials.

I've written about this here before, but maybe it bears repeating for those who haven't read back that far.

Before our Lazaris years Ted and I were involved in quite a few experiments with consciousness. We were collecting crystals,
reading all the books on chakras, channels,
sound and vibrational healing, you name it.

Out of our curiousity, and I believe the desire of some to forge new careers for themselves, we began to develop techniques which created altered or "out of body" experiences. They were named "Transformational Journies" by the person who originally began the experiments.

What we learned is that it is possible to put an individual or group of people into a trance state in which the senses are heightened, and seemingly able to clearly hone in on significant life issues. We had people attending these "journeys" who never heard of metaphysics, yet everyone who ever participated found the imageries needed to provide for a major healing experience. What happened during those sessions was no joke, they were extremely powerful and emotional for everyone who participated. For some who were originally doubters, they were mind shattering.

We stopped doing those techniques for a number of reasons, but for me the prime one was that people were starting to attribute the power of them to me and others, we were implored by some to take the show on the road so to speak, and in all good conscience, I was not in any way willing to be responsible for what was happening during those sessions. I could clearly see that most people could not just allow that the experiences were there own, of their own effort, but that many needed someone to pin that experience on.

The fact is that even to this day, I don't exactly know why the techniques worked. I have my theories, but I'm not willing to hang my hat on those, and I'm certainly not willing to charge money, or be responsible for the experiences of others.

I believe that Jach and the Gang had similar experiences while working with the Silva Mind Control methods, and they did decide to take the show on the road. I believe that just like us, they found that they were on to something, and exploited it, creating the side show bit by bit as they went along.

Our early experiments were very similar to the Lazaris "meditations", although in ours we did not provide the images, we simply allowed for the participants to provide their own. One amazing result was that most of the time, all participants could clearly join in the images provided by another. In our sessions we intereacted verbally, each person sharing what they were experiencing, and without fail, one person's imagery would capture the group, and call us all into it.
Usually the person who sparked the image was in for one serious big whallop of insight, and along the way, so were the other participants. Sometimes we would move from the images of one person into those of others, sometimes we would stay with just one
but regardless, everyone participating would later report a huge shift of understanding and emotion.

During those sessions we were often visited by the "unseen". Participants were finding spirit guides, healing energies, friends, it was really profound.

Anyway, since I've had these experiences pre-Lazaris, and since I've personally facilitated a room full of people having incredible, intense insights and communications, I'm not as impressed with the Lazaris experience as some are.

As to the organization of the material, I don't find it that hard to understand how Jach can do that. Not after trying to keep my eyes opened through many of the long Lazaris seminars in which the wise entity repeats themselves 100 times over.

I'm a great note taker, I learned in school how to organize material into notes, highlighting the key topics. In the early seminars I used to come home with pages of notes. As time went by, my pages of notes got shorter and shorter. At the last evening I attended I couldn't even fill a page, and I was just about ready to jump out of my seat and yell at Lazaris to spit something out. It was a 2 and a half hour exercise in trying to control my boredom.

I think Jach writes up an outline prior to each seminar, and then free wheels it through with a lot of supportive dialogue, some interesting, some repetitive, and some just a pile of hogwash.

I'm sure you've all noticed how many personal anecdotes he provides, about the "channel", Peny, Michaell, etc. Besides filling time, they are always geared toward training us in the greatness and wisdom of Peny and Michaell, and often little deprecations about Jach.

As we have also learned, he uses stories about others to punish, insult, degrade, humiliate, manipulate and control. We may not recognize the significance of these little anecdotes, but we've had many reports from those who were the subject of them as to what the function of those little ditties really is.

As we've discussed at length here, Jach clearly has drawn on an established body of information, research, and philosophy to provide the foundation of the materials. Maybe some of the more "unique" concepts came from discussions over the dinner table under the influence of those funny cigarettes Lazaris told us they all used to smoke. Who knows?

I know that I would not have a problem doing what Jach does, maybe you can tell by my long posts here, I have no problem finding lots of words to fill up space.

All I can say, is that if someone told me that all I had to do to make a quarter of a million dollars was to sit in a hotel meeting room and say a lot of stuff that made people feel good, I'd have no problem coming up with material. I sure as hell would have a problem taking people's money under fals pretenses and making myself and my closest friends really really important and powerful over others because I happen to have the gift of gab.

As to the "realness" of Lazaris...well, who knows, maybe Jach has teamed up with some scoundrel from beyond who helps him along the way, or maybe even he believes that he has.

Maybe that was happening too, when we did our Transformation Journeys. I know we could have easily claimed that it was, and we could have just as easily given a name to that energy we all felt.

Where I am right now about all this is that I feel we should all be responsible for our own entities and leave the minds, hearts, souls, and checkbooks of others out of it.

Whatever Jach has found, he uses it to control and manipulate others. So screw him.
I hope he goes to jail for it some day.

quote:

---

I know that I would not have a problem doing what Jach does, maybe you can tell by my long posts here, I have no problem finding lots of words to fill up space.

---

IMO if Jach were posting here, his posts would be even longer than yours. Last night I took a look at the C:S home web page which has changed quite a bit since I last visited. My goodness, does Jach go on and on and on(and in yellow print whcih is hard on the eyes). Reminds me of those very long emails he used to send out too regularly to forum members. So you have an excellent point about some people's,ability, specifically Jach's, to always have more than enough to say.

Your story about "Transformational Journeys" illustrates that given the right circumstances, groups will have metaphysical experiences. Like you, Ted and many others here, I had them before, during and after L -- actually most intensely during the period before. I'm certain that during the years I worked with the L material, I'd have been having those experiences anyway. So I can't even give it much credit for the experiences that occurred during that time.

[quote]What we learned is that it is possible to put an individual or group of people into a trance state in which the senses are heightened, and seemingly able to clearly hone in on significant life issues. We had people attending these "journeys" who never heard of metaphysics, yet everyone who ever participated found the imageries needed to provide for a major healing experience. What happened during those sessions was no joke, they were extremely powerful and emotional for everyone who participated. For some who were originally doubters, they were mind shattering.[quote]

I had a wild metaphysical experience at my younger daughter's twelfth birthday slumber party. At twilight, the girls decided to play a spooky game. They lit candles in the bathroom, then went inside in separate pairs. While looking into the candle lit mirror, each pair chanted "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary" as part of a refrain. I suddenly realised that I had eight young girls who had put themselves into a group alterred state of consciousness, on my hands. A kind of spontaneous rite of passage ritual. They drew pictures of hermaphrodites, danced, had powerful, emotional insights, one wrote a poem called "The Zone" which I still have. The trance-like state went on for several hours. Two of the girls didn't come from metaphysically oriented families -- less open to this kind of experience. Their consciousness was alterred too, but both were very frightened, one intently pacing in a circle, the other in terrified to tears, so I put a lot of my energy into calming them and trying to get them grounded.

It was quite a memorable night, that started out with what was supposed to be a spooky game. My point being to give another example that is doesn't take a "Lazaris" for a group of people to have powerful metaphysical experiences.

Love,
Jade

There were some very interesting points that Lazaris raised:

Paraphrasing (for legal reasons) a paragraph on p47, Lazaris states that some entities are tricksters. He states how they come through offering some wonderful initial insights. One gets hooked to the entity. Then the entity starts screwing up your life.

Look at the life of Peny. Look at the degradation of the material of late (Orion, etc). Sounds pretty familiar to me.

In the last paragraph on p41, when discussing "Channeling & Discernment", he asks us to question whether the channeled material is applicable and useful or whether it is useless "mind-babble". He states that while it is curious and interesting to talk about ancient civilizations such as Lemuria and Atlantis, we must ask how this is going to help me become more of who am.

I have attended a number of intensives on such topics: Lemuria, Atlantis, and Sirius. I fortunately have missed the newer ones.

He warns in the prior paragraph about teachings that give you a sense of being less than who you are.

Oh, the hours and hours spent on the negative ego. What a marvelous club (as in "instrument of hurt") that turned out to be! How often have we hurt another by claiming they are in negative ego? How the hell can you respond to such a statement? Like the statement "you are being defensive", the only response that will shut the questioner up is "you're right". How often have we hurt ourselves claiming we are in negative ego? I think this is one of the most destructive teachings of Lazaris. While I think there are some valid concepts, I think it has turned into nothing more than a twisted, brutal tool.

Later on p42, he gives further guidelines relating to the discernment of channeled material. One of them is whether the material is consistent.

There have been many inconsistencies pointed out on this site.

On p57, he states how some say "meditation is meditation is meditation" and that it doesn't matter. He states that the method of meditation does matter.

Sounds like he is forewarning about the difference between meditation and hypnosis that others have speculated about on this site. Personally, I have never understood the distinction that Lazaris makes between the two. On a couple of times during the longer workshops, he has taken us into hypnotic trance. He dwelt at length about how what he was about to take us on was hypnosis and how important it is for us to know this. For the life of me, I couldn't discern the difference between those sessions compared to the traditional Lazaris "meditations". I also think the "red label meditation" series are blatant hypnotic sessions.

Also on p57, he talks about people wanting the channeling to be a panacea. He talks about them saying they have found someone from other levels who is giving them all of the answers and will make their life work. He talks about them saying that they feel all they have to do is listen to all of the wisdom and have faith in it.

Sound familiar to anyone?

Oh, Lazaris, you little trickster! You even warned us. God, you are good!

While re-reading, I also came accross something relevant in LAZARIS - The Sacred Journey: You and Your Higher Self (Concept: Synergy Publication - 1987).

On page "i" of the introduction in the last paragraph, Jach talks about how Peny dragged him to a course in meditation.

There has been discussion on this site about why Jach did not mention that he attended the Silva Mind Control course before channeling Lazaris. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that this is what he is referring to in the above reference paragraph. Why did not he not show the respect of mentioning the producers of the course? Is this reference to Silva or to something else? What I do not appreciate is the overall impression given in this introduction and elsewhere that he was a metaphysical ignoramus. How could one hang around Peny for any length of time and not pick up on at least some metaphysical concepts?

Food for thought.

I'm glad to see you are doing such exhaustive questioning.

Your post causes me to rethink my own view of who the hell Lazaris really is.

I briefly raised the question in another post whether Jach has Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Bear with me, this gets a little dry if you aren't intrigued by psychology.

There has been much scientific research done on people with this disorder. It is known that different personalities can have remarkable physical differences that change just as quickly as the new personality flips into play. For example, one personality may have diabetes and the other doesn't. One personality may be nearsighted and the other has normal vision. One may be allergic to one substance and the other is fine. All of these can be measured objectively using standard medical tests. The psychological differences between the multiples can be more profound, but obviously much harder to measure with any objectivity. There is always the lurking question of whether they are faking it. Obviously, they can't fake the physical reactions.

My understanding is that it is generally the case that one personality may have little if any conscious knowledge of the other. Also, it is common that these alternate multiples develop as a coping mechanism to deal with some (usually childhood) abuse or pain.

I have no idea what Jach's past is. For the sake of argument, let's assume there were some very traumatic incidents. Lets assume he was head over heals in love with Peny. I know from observing various relationships around me, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason sometimes when someone falls in love with another person. No matter how abusive or mean that other person is, no matter how vehemently friends and family try to point this out, the person just doesn't see it.

Now let's further assume that no matter what Jach did, Peny did not demonstrate the intensity of love that Jach gave to Peny (doesn't take too much imagination for this one).

Given these assumptions, I can see how a multiple could develop with the intent of trying to gain the love of Peny that the normal Jach could not gain. Given Peny's known interest in metaphysics, all it takes is a little creativity to come up with the concept of pretending to chanel an entity that would show absolute, unconditional love to Peny and that Peny would indeed love in return. To be able to impress Peny, this personality/"entity" would have to come through in a deep trance state so that it could tap into universal truths and have certain psychic abilities.

We know Peny knew about channeling before Lazaris. I'm sure Jach was aware of many details of this from having hung out with Peny since high school. Then a brilliant idea emerges. Have the entity claim that he is an objective channel eliminating the question in Peny's mind that the love being expressed was just from a spillover of that old dreadful Jach's subconscious mind. Let's call the entity Lazaris and refer to ourselves using the plural form just as a little joke or hint about our true origin within the multiples of Jach's mind. Let's refer to Jach as the "unit" or "channel" so as not to revolt Peny by the mention of Jach's name.

As time passes, Jach realizes that while Peny does indeed fall in love with Lazaris, she still has contempt for Jach. But as this is the only love that Jach can receive from Peny, he will settle. Then, the Lazaris personality gets a little feisty, and decides to invite Michaell down so that Peny can fall in love with a real human. Hell, what's wrong with a little friendly matchmaking? We know Peny will ask Lazaris for advice, so we can spin things so that they fall in love. Why would a part of Jach do that to himself? Many motives, none of them healthy, could explain this.

I am in no way saying (nor do I but remotely believe) that Jach did any of this consciously. This may have all been done either subconsciously, unconsciously, or by his multiple.

I realize this all sounds pretty far-fetched. But is it really any more far-fetched than what we've been lead to believe the past 30 years?

I think there are many explanations that describe the phenomena that we have witnessed. I offer two challenges as a tool as we all form our own opinion of who the hell is Lazaris:

1) Present evidence of any behavior, fact or observation that can not be explained the model I have just offered.

2) Offer an alternative model that we will also subject to challenge #1.

Please do not accept what I have offered. Poke holes in it. I love a good challenge!

You wrote:

"I realize this all sounds pretty far-fetched. But is it really any more far-fetched than what we've been lead to believe the past 30 years?"

Doesn't sound farfetched to me--probably because it's very close to my own thoughts on the subject. :)

From the flowery tone in Peny's letter about her spiritual journey (invoking images of Bedouin tents and dancing goddesses--it reads like a New Age Harlequin Romance)I'm betting she invested her seeker status with a lot of glamour--and being married to a stolid insurance agent climbing the corporate ladder doesn't quite jibe with Isis whirling round your tent of an evening.

Enter Jach (having known her since they were fourteen) as hubby, having spent years in an environment saturated with mysticism. Forever and a day of listening to Peny blather on about Blavatsky and channeling and magick, all of it seeping into his subconscious, taking root--then magically, an entity appears who plucks Peny out of her Mrs. Allstate life, an entity that informs her that she is the spark of light holding the New Age together and suddenly she's no longer just a young married with a bunch of Atlantis books on her night stand, she's one half of a spiritual movement--with a very special kind of non-corporate husband in tow.

I've lived for years with someone who has a devotion to a topic that doesn't natively interest me; given the right set of combustible emotional circumstances, I could disappear into a trance and spew forth all the information I've absorbed subconsciously over the years and appear to be a past master in the subject--throw in a measure of psi power, an unconscious near-commandment to please the loved one and suddenly, I'm channeling Fuji Wang Tu, sixteenth century orientalist, fully believing it to be real (due in no small part to my loved one being lit up with pleasure and excitement.)

I think a mixture of circumstances and psychic talent created the personality of Lazaris, not conscious fraud on Jach's part. I have no idea what psychological niche that would fit in (delusion leaps to mind) but the idea that he's been consciously faking has never struck me as the answer.

Some husbands give their wives flowers and chocolates--Jach gave his Lazaris.