As I began choosing a message for August, I caught the newscast about the hurricane and devastation left in its wake. Although this essay was written from inspiration and a shamanic ritual at the Temple of Khnum (Elephantine Island, Aswan, Egypt), the imagery can be applied to each individual as appropriate for their current life experiences. The basis for this comes from the mythological neter Khnum, as the one responsible for physical creation. The myth tells us that the neter creates all living forms from the muck at the bottom of the life-giving Nile, mixed with the sandy soil of Egypt and then he shapes each being like a clay pot upon his potter’s wheel. When satisfied with the form, he breathes upon or into it, which imbues it with LIFE. Thus, the idea here is that we can use this imagery to “Make or RECREATE our personal VESSEL/Body/personality as needed. It doesn’t matter whether life has treated us badly or things are sailing along beautifully; as the seasons slowly change around us, so one may address the changes positive or negative needed, imagine this recreation of what is needed to enhance or correct and then imagine having the ability of Khnum to pretend breathing life into our vessel--thus, creating or recreating our life vessel -- AS IT MOST RELATES TO THE NEEDS OF YOUR SPIRIT PURPOSE/LIFE PATH.
The imagery can be varied to work with the individual belief or sensibility; thereby, personalizing it to you and your situation or experiences. While I have chosen this example from Egyptian Mythology, the vividness of the concept is truly one that equates to what people describe nowadays as -- REINVENTING themselves. The changing chaotic things we all experience come at us from every direction some days and the next, experiences are positively rewarding and wonderfully progressive. I thus thought this essay might be helpful as inspiration for those times of OMG just as well as the AHA moments as we learn to walk our own walk, speaking our truth and most of all learning to respect others to do the same as befitting their truths.
And so . . . whether one is in the process of tearing asunder what is negative in their life or celebrating accomplishments and moving on with positive experiences, my hope is that this will inspire the making or remaking of your vessel--the physical body in which your DIVINE ESSENCE resides.

                                                                             THE MAKING OF A VESSEL

It was certainly a difficult struggle from the slime and mud as the lotus, yet it was a journey in measurable increments. Khnum demands so much more. He displays the symbolic horns, which remind us that our journey is upon the waters of the Nile and within the spiral of the DNA wherein lay the cellular memory of all our lifetimes across all time.

Step by painful step and each asthmatic gasp in the intense heat of the day, I climb the mud brick and stone steps leading through four or five layers of history. Hundreds of years of living and working represented by each level of homes stacked one on top of the other and unaware of those who dwelled below and before or would build upon theirs in the future. It occurs to me that climbing up through these ruins I was furiously ripping away the sheets of a calendar but by the year rather than the day. The eons blurred together until only now existed.
In the heat, I could only imagine the ghostly faces peering from the windowless houses to watch the strangely dressed people who were walking past oblivious of their residual existence. Did anyone care that the memories had been recorded in the fabric of time and played repeatedly, unknown, unheard and unseen by visitors and archeologists who come.

Atop all that invisible living, we find all that remains of Khnum’s temple. Broken pieces of granite blocks and fragmented stone floors. Only two pylons still stand joined at the top with a lovely lintel. Many fragmented spells or messages remain on many of the blocks and a few picture images as well. The presence of these pylons still give the sense that it was once and always shall be a sacred place of Khnum, the ram who sees, hears and decides the plight of the people who live along his great river, Nile. He has cared for them for thousands of years. He will continue to do so for as long as he is remembered with the speaking of his name by all who come here.

We walk reverently through the pylons and circle around a gigantic round altar stone, reminiscent of a pottery wheel, which can no longer spine for its size, weight and lack of turning mechanism. Yet as co-creators with the Neteru, we have earned the right to work here. We have the power to visualize our desire, our own potential or destiny and the great wheel spins. We will form a new vessel to contain all that we hope for and our greatest possibilities. We breathe the heart breath, exhale and suck it in again. We make a connection deep into the earth’s core and up into the stars, to stand here: As above, so below. Our visualizing energizes the wheel spinning it faster, blurring with the speed. Khephera, the great black dung beetle, works his pincers and mandible to push and roll the clay from its origin as fertile mud at the bottom of the Nile up to be the clay we drop onto the spinning wheel. Water from a cistern poured over the clay, moistening and shaping the once fertile sludge coagulated as clay and it is malleable in our hands.
Centrifugal force such as the cataract whirlpools roiling rapidly in the great river below, the vessel begins to take a shape coaxed by creative hands. Each container varies by the dreamer and is hardened by baking in the fires within each belly, which contains the flames and embers ignited by the Egyptian Mystery rites that have come before this moment.

There on the stone, I see my vessel/desire. Even though the visualization was to create the vessel from formlessness, mine appeared instantly and in finished form as if I had poured a mold rather than manipulated clay. There exact in every minute detail, I saw a statue of the scribe, which I remembered from the Egyptian Museum. In fact, the paint was also old and chipped as if I had copied the ancient statue exactly in my mind in order to be the vessel for my dream to become the writer or scribe.
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Feel free to reinvent the imagery to suit YOU, but remember that the journey itself is a universal metaphor applicable to ????? whatever culture, individual ideals or whim! We are learning to become the creator. Therefore, I wrote of the experience just as it flowed and without any actual plan or prompt.

Original Channeling March 2011 @ 2:00 AM in Mena House, Giza, Egypt; then, during an early morning meditation today, Thoth/Tehuti appeared in my mind and, among some other things, reminded me of this profound message, telling me it was very pertinent for US all NOW... During that mental meandering along the path of remembering my time in Egypt (each of the 4 previous journeys holding their own brand of enlightenment, soul development and remembering and inspiration, so it occurred to me that I should share this message with the idea that Thoth intends it to "fit" with your current situation in some way or many ways. Ahlem to those who have and are awake to the mysteriesl and wonders of the Neteru as their name is the source word of "NATURE" in every way for a message from the Keeper of Time/Akasha Records, Thoth (ancient name: Tehuti) and one of my most significant Egyptian guides through which I find personal truth within his words -- I hope the same for my readers. (Ahlen means Hello, it may be the welcome to and from any location that suits your personal heart and soul.)  (PS, the reference to "returning again" that caught attention is that I am planning to return to Egypt with Indigo Renlov and Normandi Ellis next March (Mysteries of Egypt, Tours)
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Thoth/Tehuti spoke today, reminding and bringing peace to my heart:   "Ahlen to the wanderer – You have found your way home, Egypt and soon will return to us again."
Let me answer the question I have seen adrift in your mind . . . The Neteru are the ancient ones; oh, not gods in the way of something to be feared or used for dark purposes of manipulation of others. We are ethereal beings – untouchable, ineffable, unknowable and Divine – but our light/energy is not too bright to look upon for we are archetypal energy-beings, you may find us to be as others know to be gods/goddesses and if you wish to seek to know us again, look with equally kind eyes and heart and we shall be found. In the time of the Beginning, we walked the earth with humankind, but you shall also evolve spiritually and be/become . . . Some know us as the Ascended Masters and by many other cultural diverse names, but anyone who wills it may still walk with us among the mists in trance/meditation or dreams. You can hear our whispering if you listen carefully with an open mind and heart for we reside within the dark places in our ruined temples yet; the stone was infused with our worship and essence and may yet be reawakened by those who will it so for the stone remembers our heka/magic as it does our essence and purity of spirit.

There is but a few dimensional layers of separating you from us – as the erotic dance of seven veils, the layers are as silk but etheric shifts of energy; each more elegantly beautiful than the one before. As a dancer stripped each veil away from her body writhing with music, so you may strip away layers of supernatural mystery for knowledge is but a form of unchangeable energy that allows eventual access to my Akashic Records and therein lies the nakedness of your life/story in the greatest detail and open to a human heart – but only if you are willing to share your heartbeats to create the drumbeat rhythm of the dance with the gods/Neteru for then you shall know us as we know you; as you once knew us in the purity of spirit and understanding, acceptance and . . . AS ABOVE; SO BELOG  AS WITHIN; SO WITHOUT.

We wish to share with humankind who have forgotten what we remember and ignore how we reach with golden bones for the hands of flesh. Come dance with us, the dance of the Neteru through time, space and even your science for truth cannot exist without the balance of all three – better known as Ma’at goddess of Cosmic Balance. When we both pull closer to the other, equally eager for the rejoining, remerging and reconnection . . . then, you shall have re-membered as an energy being (as Isis re-membered the precious pieces of Osirus) . . . therefore, it has already been done.
Each person who embarks on this spiritual journey stands at a place of timelessness – in the NOW – no matter the moment they decide to inquire that which bides within, they need only remember that by that knowing, it is already answered. Each shall find their answer or truth – likely not at that moment when asked, but rather at the correct timing for them to remember. Fear is but a passing fancy of the ego, which is within god/goddess/Neteru or human, alike. We share that need to balance aspects such as light/dark, yin/yang, good/evil and truth/deception as these are natural or nature, a word derived from our collective title – Neteru.

I close with this imagery of the Neteru – as goddess/gods, we shall forever paint our existence in watercolor hues, born from pure vibrations as the colors in a rainbow . . . each being but smoke to the mind, an essence so subtle and gentle within, yet with a raging strength that flows from the brush of time . . . thus, as analogous entities, we may walk upon the earth seen or unseen, fly across the skies, swim in the waters or brave the fires ignited by spirit, emotion and things of the physical realm. Alas, we shall walk hand-in-hand with you if you desire it so and take you along the pathway into a future not-yet-determined and that shall be born from thought, will and deed of those who remember/re-member us. We are always nearby, willingly we shall respond if invoked or evoked, but only by those who seek truth or dare to ask the ancient mysteries. No matter the name you call out, a heart open for communion with the gods/goddesses, whether by ancient or new names, may know us as beings wishing only to be truly understood and trustworthy only to those who seek nothing more than . . . TRUE WISDOM.

Sah Sekhem Sahu,
Thoth/Tehuti

Anyone drawn to the metaphysical topics, will have already found information on the Chakra System—especially its “care and feeding” and how a healthy one is important to continue maintaining a well-balanced life. But, few (if any) have heard of the work in that field by Dr. Igor M. Wickedly, once a professor at the University of All Practical Practitioners of Metaphysical Studies. Unfortunately, his research was not published in its entirety; the reason is reportedly due to his eventual loss of doctorate and subsequent banishment from the University after a series of unfair reports appeared anonymously (but suspected to be from his supposedly more serious and less intuitive colleagues due to their outright jealousy over his extraordinary discoveries)—no one seems to have the whole story. Regardless, Dr. Wickedly had compiled copious notes and journals during his work and these were recently rediscovered by one of his past students, said to have kept the faith and was now eager to tell the world the truth behind the extraordinary discovery of the insightful method for channeling the Inner Self.
The story began when Igor M. Wickedly yearned to tag “Dr.” onto his name. In pursuit of that dream, he inadvertently realized the significance of the energy vortex (which he later referred to as “hand chakras”) at the center of both palms. Of course, he was aware of the body’s energy vortices aligned to the spinal column and scattered in other areas, as well—although, he had never wondered “why” before that fateful night pulling an all-nighter to finish his senior thesis. After several hours of hand-writing the long thesis (doing so because he was a horrid typist) and so nearly finished with the final essay, his right hand suddenly became cursed by a case of severe writer’s cramping. Intent only to restart the circulation and relax tendons in the hand, he began vigorously shaking it at the wrist while alternately stretching and fisting his fingers. In mere moments of doing this, he happened to glance across at the opposite wall and gasped—the desk lamp was casting his antics as grotesque shadow-animals in an oddly entertaining display of what he later described as “Shadow Puppetry”. Unfortunately, he could not afford to allow this to keep his attention for long; day was breaking outside the window and his thesis deadline looming merely two hours away.
Hurriedly, making a note of discovering an actual “hand chakra” and then promising to revisit it and further explore its possibilities, Igor dashed off to get ready to present his thesis; its topic far removed from such alternative healing or metaphysical interests. Perhaps, the incidental discovery of the “hand chakra” simply slipped his career-oriented mind or became dismissed when he later deemed it unworthy of his attention, but three years passed before Dr. I. M. Wickedly literally tripped over the box containing that dusty notebook that included the scraps of his forgotten but a potential for an intriguing study. Luckily, he remained a curious, easily intrigued man and began reading, soon realizing there might be a “book in it for him”. The dream of publication was enough to compel him forward and, with his permission after a lot of begging, Dr. Wickedly agreed for me to share his work with the public—although his dream for formal publication has not died. Therefore, this article contains highlights of that research and descriptions of how it progressed; ideally the intention is to allow practitioners of alternative healing to use the insightful methodology; thus, getting a jump on their competition.
When Dr. I. M. Wickedly stumbled across the forgotten notebook, was soon busily compiling material, led along solely by curiosity and an almost childlike innocence, which was most important when he returned to the rather silliness of recreating the shadow puppetry that started it all on that fateful night. The lamp was soon casting the shadow animals and Igor laughing along, noticing how they almost seemed alive and even acting independently—or was it the action of idle hands or a tired mind; he never could decide. However, soon he had a mish-mash of notations and some disjointed concepts made from his experiments, which eventually led to using the “hand chakra” to carry on conversations, pretending they were presenting various aspects of his personality or even displayed characteristics independent of what his mind gave them. It was then that he noticed heat radiating from his hand and prickling sensations all related to this so-title, “hand chakra” center. Elation was soon painting his face as an idea took shape in his mind when his slightly blurred vision revealed a rainbow swirling where he imagined the vortex to extend through the center of his hand. Alas, he knew he had not only revisited his experience of shadow puppetry of years earlier – sands the cramping curse – but, also the idea was expanding with every experiment.
Soon, Dr. Wickedly, lifted his head from scribbling notes on seeing evidence of his auric field and exclaimed: “Hallah, I see a greenish-yellow glow, which does not glove the whole hand but looks to be swirling, an energy vortex extending all the way through the palm/center of each hand, in both directions. Oh, this research shall become like having a tiger by the tail; one I cannot let go or become the blue-plate special.”
Convinced that he had discovered an unknown or simply forgotten vortex of the hand (chakra), Dr. Wickedly was frantically compiling pages of research; racing ahead on the premise that no one could dispute his descriptions of the extraordinary effects, which seemed to vary depending upon a person’s temperament, health and/or degree of fatigue, hunger or moodiness; all factored in as they related to the inner senses and outside influences. He continued this observation process with his on-and-off experimentation, regardless of knowing that anyone in the professional and scientific field would assuredly dismiss his work as nothing but foolish shadow play and give no credence to any of it other than to pooh-pooh its researcher as a ridiculous time-wasting fool—even some remarks were worse. Still, Dr. Wickedly stubbornly clung to the hope of getting a book deal out of his unique research, but no offers came from scoffing publishers and that idea fell flat. Eventually, a deeply discouraged Dr. Wickedly found it necessary to move on to more serious endeavors—yet, he never completely dropped his interest in continuing his study of the hand-phenomena.
Because his expertise (doctorate) was in History of Ancient Civilizations, one might logically assume he would choose a career in teaching in that field, but that was not the case. Instead, he quickly became bored with teaching and soon gravitated toward metaphysical areas; eventually becoming skilled with alternative healing modalities, past lives and reincarnation. This led him back to his former study on the “hand Chakra” as it linked to his alternative study. He realized this energy vortex (chakra) affected everything he tried with magic, healing, energy work and even extended into wishing or setting of intentions for a desired outcome. There seemed to be an emotional energy flowing between the head and heart already known and now he decided there was a constant flow of physical, emotion and spiritual energy that extended through a sort of tunnel of the arms and entering and leaving via the hand or as he called it, a “hand chakra”.
As an expert in hypno-therapy and past life regression, when offered a chance to teach a class in his “Pet area”, Dr. Wickedly jumped at the chance. He started right off, challenging his students with the theoretical conduit of energy as a method to make the soul remember its past lives and then transmit those feelings, images and related sensations into the present mind, heart and consciousness. His classes became in high demand, selling out the day it was announced. This allowed him to totally ignore his past critics and any current doubters. By his 45th birthday, he was again working on the manuscript for a book, basing it on the former research of the simple “hand chakra” – yes, the same one that had been declined at every turn in the past – and adding copious notes on the work that followed with his students.
Being the light-hearted person that he is, Dr. Wickedly started his class with an introduction of the theoretical chakra in the hand; as it is located at the thinnest layer of the astral bodies/auric field where the hectic motion of arms, hands and fingers makes it possible for the energy to have a 95% faster access to the heart and ultimately the mind’s alternative states of consciousness. He believed that anyone who became awakened to this would instantly become more susceptible to hypnotism, meditation, dreaming and scrying, as well as able to use their inherent psychic abilities. Then, in closing he would grin as wickedly as his name and ask if the class would like to partake in a group channeling to test his theory. Of course, everyone began wriggling in their chair while excitedly jabbing their hand in the air, clearly showing they were very willing volunteers – well, except for a pair in the back who scowled, quite uncertain if they should trust their brains to a teacher who had just gone insane before their very eyes. However, once things got underway and the rest of the class were embarking on this journey, they hopped on board. At this time, Dr. Wickedly decided his “hand chakra” needed a more professional-sounding name. After listing ideas on a long sheet of paper, he finally chose:  THE WIDGET CHAKRA (Later, he admitted snagging the name from the experimental test-marketing of a whimsical, non-gadget, in the late 1950’s).
Having earlier experienced a deep meditation in which he was brought face-to-face with his own alter ego (a person of dubious character, even evil vibes, that he realized was no one he wanted to meet in broad daylight, let alone a dark alley), Dr. Wickedly reluctantly decided to allow the class to discover their alter ego, but also gain insight and understanding of the “id” under somewhat controlled conditions. All his students were eager to explore this part of themselves, including all its ramifications—which, to his surprise, became an expansion of the intuition of his more openly psychic students. As a result of this on the class channeling work was an overall expansion of individual giftedness; some by leaps and bounds and when their solitary exploration was melded into the classroom, Dr. Wickedly saw noticeable grown in their collective variations of giftedness—an expansion of the psyche paying dividends of a sort for intuition, psychic knowing, clairvoyance, clarity in channeling, etc. He was ecstatic at the changes and felt better about pushing the students into groups for channeling with their various “widget chakra” shadow puppetry exploration as it related to the ego, alter ego and eventually dipping into the inner alter ego of each student. Every student, regardless of their psychic ability level at the start of class, were now easily channeling directly from the spirit realms, as if they had done so from birth.
It was thus an open door for Dr. Wickedly to ask more of the students without fearing that he would sound foolish or insane. For the nest development, he required each to sign a waiver before learning to enter a deep meditation and allow his guidance to enter a full and ultimate “TRANCE” or altered state of consciousness. After all, he worried that this step could cause controversy, even cause his doctorate to be rescinded and his name or teaching status to become besmirched by the nay-sayers or former jealous colleagues—not again!
One weekend, Dr. Wickedly was channeling alone in his room, testing a new idea for using the “widget chakra”, which essentially had him reverting to creating his former favorite shadow puppet. It had been the easiest to make appear alive and talking, as well as earning a name – Gooseberry (did you guess it was a shadow goose?). He had secretly used Gooseberry when working out a class experiment of channeling or even pretending their shadow shapes were from the ego or alter ego, certain that his practical tryout necessary before entrusting the idea to inexperienced students—if being honest, he knew they could easily mess up the research otherwise. As he was experimenting with entrance methods into the “trance state”, Dr. Wickedly noticed he was delving into memories that surely must be buried in the subconscious instead of the fresher ones floating on the surface before sinking into forgetfulness. During this trial, he took Gooseberry “in hand” and soon found himself accessing a scene of traumatic sexual abuse as a child, perpetrated by a neighbor—PET? Oh, no, he snapped out of the scene, at the realization that had just entered something belonging to Gooseberry’s gosling-hood; not from Igor’s childhood. The next day, he decided to try that entrance method again when he noticed Gooseberry was exhibiting symptoms of bird flu—then, understood this was merely symbolic of Igor in a past life where he had a gruesome death by the Black Plague. Shocked, Dr. Wickedly, realized he had stumbled upon an ironic connection with the ego, seemingly as the shadow puppet aspect of the “widget chakra” was able to channel past lives or suggestions from other times, places and even other beings as it was an open tunnel of energy to and from the heart via the mind/consciousness/subconsciousness. He sat stunned for an hour.
Now, Dr. Wickedly, knew that to be taken seriously, he needed loads of documentation and so, began designing a questionnaire for each student to document everything about their former knowledge and experiences with alternative sciences, areas, astrological characterizations and personal and family information. He reformatted the class preparation, channeling as individuals and in groups and recorded each student’s progress as a degree of proficiency with “hand puppetry using the widget chakra” and the chosen animal shadow stand-in representing their inner self, alter-ego or other aspect of their psyche. Eventually, this research work of delving into the mysterious realms was changed to collectively include everything with a new term--“widgetry”
Indeed, the variety of student “hand widgets” was simply amazing. Only one student chose the goose, several were puppies, dogs or cats, a couple snub-nosed snakes and one diamond head, two horses, a cow, a pig, a kangaroo, half dozen elephants, 3 tigers/lions and a whole bunch of monkeys and several winged things that might be birds or bats, and several other things that seemed unrelated to known animals.  There was no surprise in the chosen creatures when Dr. Wickedly compared them to the personalities in each file, especially when he noted that widgetry was intended to draw out individual characteristics of all kinds. There were a few oddly negative aspects displayed: a few angry farm animals, an unhappy bear, a rabid fox and a couple ravenous prey animals, as well as one demonic rabbit-like thing. The idea for controlling these darker forms was to slip an old but clean sock over it, which surprisingly took the study to a new level, right off. That need for containment, inadvertently brought the students to wonder what would happen if the added sock muffled or completely hid their character. However, the irony was that it freed up the student to show traits unhindered by the ego or fear and sometimes enhanced them because it gave opportunity for the “hand puppet” to have independent expression in its sock-covered version from that of its owner. This newly socked puppet began showing aspects of individualization and quaint idiosyncrasies, as if they had their own ego from their owner, which seemed mostly a good thing. This part of the study seemed to emphasize the importance of understanding themselves and the interconnectedness with their INNER CHILD as represented in the actions of their hand puppet during the act of widgetry.
During the final few months of class, Dr. Wickedly asked the class to explore with “double channeling”, which he explained as the yin/yang for their “widgetry”. They were to make the same shapes as before and show the difference in their character animal in both a positive and a negative aspect, expressing the difference in the shadow cast onto the wall by their “widget hand”. Once this was achieved well enough, they were to use two socks, covering both “hand chakras” and creating a scene of interaction between a male and a female version of their animal. This was called, “Two-Handed” channeling. The resulting conversation between the boy and girl animal proved enlightening, but also brought on sorrowful tears in some students while others became blinded by tears from hysterical laughter. There were a few who discovered a happy animal on one hand and a rather contrary one on the other, but all were led deeper into psychological issues and unusual interests that expected.
The most significant occurrence in the research happened late one day as the class sat together focused in a deep meditation. It was unusual for Dr. Wickedly to enter the meditation rather than remain an outside observer, but for some unexplained reason, he decided to do just that. Immediately, he was swept along on their collective energy and transported way back into a past life of his own. Deeper than he usually allowed himself during a class, he noticed he was wearing brown, woolen robes – the sort worn in Biblical stories – and he found himself busy working on building a huge wooden vessel. He could see storm clouds gathering ominously overhead and felt the desperate urging that he must hurry and finish his work for a God-inspired reason. He could also see people nearby, sensing they were filled with frustration and pointed at him in the manner of scoffing at what he was doing, yet he never slowed his hammering nails and hoisting huge wooden planks into place. There was a strange feeling of being watched as in ghost stories, but NOT by the eyes of the dead or humans, but it was animal eyes pinned to his back. Then, through trance-blurred eyes, he became aware that he was NOT alone in this meditative place—other than the envisioned characters passing by, he could feel unseen others somewhere behind . . . then as he realized this was a sort of hypnotic regression into which he had slipped, to realize he was no longer alone, that began to pull his consciousness out again. Thus, he turned slowly waking from the trance state and gasped as he discovered the entire class had apparently joined into it with him for there they were . . .
Every student sat there, double channeling their personal hand puppet inner child version, but the irony was each one presented both their female and male “widget”—no question this was the completion of Dr. Wickedly inadvertent past life regression. In the present awareness, once again, all he could exclaim was: “Oh my God, I was the real NOAH and built the ARK just before the deluge. And look . . . you have all channeled the animal pairs as they wait to get aboard.”
In conclusion, I must say:  If the alternative healers or metaphysical students have phones handy and are ready to dial and pre-order Dr. Wickedly’s book – or if students plan to rush into class tomorrow to demand to know why their spiritual class curriculum doesn’t include his extraordinary methodology for accessing the inner child--STOP! There is no book on “widgetry”. Alas, merely another kind of “Tin Foil Hat” (a metaphysical bit of foolishness), the marketing of a Non-Gadget Widget.
                                                       No!   GOTCHA       ---     APRIL FOOL’S