The voices in my head made me do it.

Every now and then, a name will pop into my head, unbidden. The names are mostly uncommon, and within a day or two I usually see the name (or a close variant of it) written somewhere, or on TV.

A good example of this is the name "Arbogast", which popped into my head sometime in late June or early July 2001. I know this because it was followed a few days later by the incident in which then-8-year-old Jesse Arbogast had his arm bitten off in a shark attack. I later found out there's also a local tree and lawn-care service in this part of the world called Arbogast (Arbogast the Arborist?)

A few weeks ago, the name was "Inamorata". A day or two later, I spotted an article about someone whose surname was "Enamorada". I'll take a Spanish version of an Italian name as a "hit".

Today, the name was "Sutphen". Sutphen, it turns out, make various pieces of fire-fighting equipment.

More interesting, though, is one David Sutphen, hypnotist, who wrote a widely plagiarized piece on mind-control and brainwashing.

While following up on one of the terms he used (specifically "voice roll"), I came across this review of a book called "Trance Formation of America". Given the overall non-believing tone of the review, I assumed it was a site run by skeptics, until I came across this little aside:

I'm not suggesting False Memory Syndrome but rather that she may be 

accessing, via her imagination, the lower astral plane which is rife

with ethereal perversions, the very plane that attempts to control 

us through low vibrational thoughts

Ahem.

Anyway, the review also contained an interesing term I hadn't seen before - NLP, which stands for "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" which turns out to be yet another pseudo-scientific area of study, of "techniques for mind, body and spirit [...] applicable in business for sales, management, communication, and coaching, as well as teaching, sports, therapy, and personal growth". The site goes on to say that "These techniques really work, producing tangible results" which, to me means precisely the opposite.

Still, all in all, a nice little diversion thanks to the incredible neuro-linguistic feat I achieved by tapping into the, uh, lower vibrational modes of the astral plane. Well, either that or complete coincidence.