{"id":13889,"date":"2024-12-21T20:53:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-22T03:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13889"},"modified":"2024-12-22T09:53:29","modified_gmt":"2024-12-22T16:53:29","slug":"a-waking-dream-the-new-age-salvation-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13889","title":{"rendered":"A Waking Dream: The New Age Salvation Army"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is what a background in religious studies plus sleep-deprivation will do to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday I was in Manitou Springs, the old spa town on the west side of Colorado Springs, where I spent most of my twenties and had various formative experiences, such as meeting my wife, forming a coven, running a business, deciding to go to grad school \u2014 everyday stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

See, for instance, “The Witches of Manitou — More than an Urban Legend<\/a>” and “One Night During the Cold War<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manitou has always been a tourist town, first peddling mineral springs, then a sort of generic “rubber tomahawks” Western tourism during the 1950s\u20131970s, with digressions into low-end art galleries, head shops, mountain-man paraphernalia, natural food stores, and of late New Agey stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having bought something at a shop selling Southwestern Indian jewelry, I went to Red Dog Coffee<\/a> for a burrito, then crossed Manitou Avenue from the shady side (left of photo) toward the sunny side, where I had parked. I was tired, Foggy-brained. Needed coffee. I was so tired that I left my purchase there on the coffee house counter, and one of the baristas brought to my table. Duh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the crosswalk, I heard a resonant, ringing sound. I saw a man in a red coat holding a large red bowl, one of those “singing bowls<\/a>” that played by running a wooden rod around inside the rim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It made perfect sense! Adapting to the New Agey vibe in Manitou, the Salvation Army, collecting for its Christmas charity work, had switched to a singing bowl instead of the usual sidewalk bell-ringer with a kettle on a tripod.<\/a> It was a “begging bowl,” like those used by some Buddhist monks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started feeling in my jeans pocket to see how much post-coffee change I had \u2014 or should i pull out some bills? (It’s a Christian denomination, but I still support the SA’s efforts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I stepped up onto the sidewalk and turned toward the bowl-player. He was talking, trying to pull people into a gift shop. If I had dropped coins into his singing bowl, he might not have been pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked a few yards to my parking spot, shaken to realize that I had been half in a dream-state. And I still had to drive through a hour and a half of high-speed multi-lane freeway traffic to Denver to visit a sick friend, which was Part 2 of my trip. Wake up! Be here now! No dreaming!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we are always dreaming, just as the stars are always shining even when the Sun’s light over-powers them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is what a background in religious studies plus sleep-deprivation will do to you. On Friday I was in Manitou Springs, the old spa town on the west side of Colorado Springs, where I spent most of my twenties and had various formative experiences, such as meeting my wife, forming a coven, running a business, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,178,308],"class_list":["post-13889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado","tag-dreaming","tag-manitou-springs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3C1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11292,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11292","url_meta":{"origin":13889,"position":0},"title":"“The Witches of Manitou”\u2014More than an Urban Legend","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The old spa town of Manitou Springs, located in the foothills west of Colorado Springs. Photo by Mark Reis, ( a former newspaper co-worker of mine) from the Colorado Sun. Click to embiggen. The Colorado Sun, an online news site, dropped this into my inbox yesterday, giving M. and me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"The old spa town of Manitou Springs, west of Colorado Springs","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1273,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1273","url_meta":{"origin":13889,"position":1},"title":"One Night during the Cold War","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I was walking around today in Manitou Springs, once a spa-resort town, located in the foothills west of Colorado Springs. You should know that there are no springs in Colorado Springs--real-estate developers lied in the 1870s too. The springs are in Manitou. But Colorado Springs has several important military installations:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5999,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5999","url_meta":{"origin":13889,"position":2},"title":"Iron Mountain Ritual Site To Be Restored","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When M. and I read this item in the Colorado Springs Gazette, our hearts soared. When we were newlyweds and bought our first house (a barely winterized 1920s cottage, 740 sq. ft.), it was just outside the lower left boundary of this photo of Iron Mountain in Manitou Springs, Colorado.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"Iron Mtn., Manitou Springs","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/McGees-house.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":595,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=595","url_meta":{"origin":13889,"position":3},"title":"The Demons Downtown","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Colorado Springs Independent is out with its annual \"You're Sooo Colorado Springs\" round-up.To fulfill my obligation to be a religion blog, I'll list a few observations that readers from outside the \"Protestant Vatican\" might enjoy.You're sooo Colorado Springs if . . .10. You plan to meet friends for coffee\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8839,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8839","url_meta":{"origin":13889,"position":4},"title":"Pentagram Pizza: The Second Generation","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"1. I like to point out Pagan writers who are doing more than \"how-to\" writing, so click over and read Kallisti's piece on \"Some Reflections on Being Second Gen Pagan\/Polytheist.\" Most of the issues boil down to how different it is to grow up within something versus convert to it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/pentagrampizza.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1124,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1124","url_meta":{"origin":13889,"position":5},"title":"Gallimaufry with Ink","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 Kitty Burns Florey advocates teaching handwriting in schools: \"Educators I talked to claim that kids master reading more easily when they write a word as they learn it: the writing process keeps their attention focused as they match symbol to sound.\"\u00b6 In my former home of Manitou Springs, Colo.,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13889"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13898,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889\/revisions\/13898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}