Recently, as I was browsing through my bookcase I was wondering “Who is the author of most of my books?”. Then, without much of contest, the winner was Thanasis Vembos. He’s probably one of the most beloved and esteemed researchers of the paranormal, but at the same time an author that makes you fall in love with reading. Even though we have only met him once, I was impressed by the fact that he was very open open to any question, polite, approachable, direct and self revealing.
As of now, he has published 20 books, written hundreds of articles on a dozen topics (space technology, astronautics astronomy, strange phenomena, research of the paranormal and the unknown, anthropology ethnology folklore, economics, the effects of technology on human society and psychology. He has taken part in dozens of collaborative works and has translated more than 60 books. He has traveled to more than 40 countries, and continues to travel to every corner of the Earth. He travels to witness some of the greatest mysteries of our world, in order to find, as he had mentioned in a previous interview, things he knew existed or had imagined they might. You all know him surely most of you have read at least once one of his articles or interviews, and in the unlikely case that there is even one among you who has not yet encountered this personality, it is now time to be acquainted with a small glimpse of him through this interview, to “bring them to their senses” and encourage them to read all of his works.
More about his work and his books in his personal website,
interview
It is I who should thank you and wish you good luck! Classic questions, classic answers. I am typing on a keyboard, some time ago I was typing on a typewriter, but this was so long ago that I have almost forgotten. To get a little serious, I write freely. What I mean is that after decades of using this process, I have opened a very wide “canal” through which ideas are channeled into written form. As a result, this writing is now “automatic”, and I don’t mean “machine-like”. With experience, everything I have in mind is a lot easier to put in writing. Like a trained athlete who has reached a certain physical condition and keeps performing. Now as for the “ritual”, it naturally exists. One has to achieve a heightened level of awareness in order to write something genuine, original and true to oneself. Otherwise you are merely typing. A specific type of music, mood, and preparation. All this varies, of course, depending on the moment or the need. Having been a professional writer for many years now, I have developed the skill to produce at will, as well as on request. It is a blend of science and art – or magic if you will. Picture a carpenter. He can make a piece of furniture commissioned to follow a design (science), but he can also make a wood sculpture to express what lies within him (art/magic).
(ErENZo) Mr. Vembos I would like to thank you kindly for the interview that you graciously agreed to give us for our new magazine “Unlocking the Truth”. I’d like to start with the usual questions of an interview. How exactly do you write? Is it when you find the time and a quiet place? Or do you follow a specific “ritual”?
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There have been various stimuli at various times. I was always excited by mystery, the enigmatic, the strange and “what lies beyond the limits”. When it comes to influences, it goes without saying that there have been individuals that taught and guided me on this journey. There have been various authors, researchers and thinkers who influenced me both in their thinking and writing as well as their research. I can’t place them into a “hierarchy”. After all, they were different influences, in different stages of my life. For the research aspect among Greeks, there’s Giorgos Baltanos, with whom I’ve had an acquaintance for decades. From researchers from abroad, there’s Charles Ford, John Keel, Jacques Vallée, Ivan T. Sanderson, Colin Wilson, Loren Coleman, Jerome Clark, Patrick Harpur and others. For thinkers/philosophers/teachers, I single out Gurdjieff & Ouspensky, Carlos Castaneda, Carl Jung, Arthur Koestler, Alan Watts, Lyall Watson. Of course there have been more people, who are not famous, that influenced me at times, but there would be no point in mentioning their names
(ErENZo) What was it that made you get involved in the field of the paranormal. Was there a “teacher” or “guide” in all this?
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I wouldn’t want to put any labels on myself, so let’s just say that I am a writer for all seasons! I could say that I am a writer-researcher, even if those two qualities don’t always mix in equal proportions. Besides, I’ve written so much, on so many different subjects that I think it is absurd to use labels.
(ErENZo) Just so I don’t put any labels, how would you describe yourself? What kind of writer are you?
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Many times, yes, but this was a long time ago, when I was still quite young, and interested in everyone’s opinion. After a certain point, I stopped being concerned with what anyone thought, realizing that time is the most valuable thing we have and that wasting it is not only foolish but also criminal. When we are born, we live on borrowed time. This borrowed time will eventually run out, and we’ll reach the end. We owe it to ourselves to make every moment count. This, of course, requires that we know what we want to do, but that’s a different story. As for the various fools, the ignorant, the pretentious and opportunists in the field, I repeat one of my favorite quotes: Just like a cork, they may stay afloat for a while, but eventually they all go under.
(ErENZo) Did you ever feel dismissed by others because of this “incurable disease”, as you have repeatedly described it, dealing with “unorthodox” and “marginal” topics?
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Obviously for a book to be commercially successful, it has to sell. For it to sell it has to appeal to a large number of people. In order to appeal to a large number of people, it has to address issues and situations that relate to many people, their problems and concerns.
(ErENZo) What are the components for a commercially successful book? What separates a good book from a “bad” book and what would you advise a fledgling writer – researcher?
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That is something relevant, and it depends each time on the relation between the old and the new. But this word “competition” is so misunderstood, that it does not evoke what it should. I have written a lot about this so-called “War of the Words” both in my own books and on my website [http://www.vembos.gr/]. We foolishly and criminally (yes, criminally!) confuse the meaning of the word “competition” because its original meaning was “assistance”. For decades, we’ve demonized the only mechanism to evaluate and refine ideas in every field, in the name of a vague pseudo-compassionate “noble rivalry”. A seemingly unrelated example, but in truth, a most relevant one: We wonder what happened to the competitiveness of the Greek Economy? It was simply devoured by the fog of noble rivalry and “friendly competition”. This, in conjunction with other factors – and on this level, the War of the Words is intensifying, not just year after year, month after month, but literally day by day.
(ErENZo) Do the older writer-researchers assist the younger ones? Where does a “noble rivalry” end and the competition begin?
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I believe that the number of book readers in our country is more or less stable. Whoever wants to read will read, regardless of e-books. And I don’t think that the e-book will replace or destroy traditional books. In any case, that’s what the latest numbers show. Reading just like smoking is a multi-sensory process: vision, touch, and smell. E-books are incredibly convenient, but not always.
(ErENZo) The current age is the age of technology and the age of e-books. What is your opinion on this new trend in books? Do you believe that e-books will replace traditional books, destroying traditional reading in the process? Yet at the same time, it is something new perhaps the e-book will motivate young people to come closer to books?
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At times I would admire some authors, and I would have liked to have written their books, but after years I realized that what’s important is to discover what is truly genuine within yourself. Your own truly authentic reflections, as well as the ability to express them with relevance, coherence, and originality
Is there a book you haven’t authored yourself but you wish you had?
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Because mystery and the unknown have always exerted an irresistible charm on the human psyche. Mystery and the unknown have always been what has contributed to the great discoveries, both in outer and inner space.
(ErENZo) Why are people fascinated so much from unexplained and paranormal phenomena?
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Indeed, it was something I was suspecting, but I ascertained and substantiated it in the course of taxing but thrilling research at the Municipal Library and elsewhere. I verified that there had been times when the mass media (and by extension, Greek society at large) weren’t so hostile or indifferent toward the paranormal. For example, during the Interwar years (particularly thanks to the work of Angelos Tanagras), parapsychic phenomena were very popular and accepted. The same was true about UFOs during the 1950s. Now, as for the “time machine” of the newspapers, my book “Genius Tempori”(http://vembos.gr/Genius_Tempori.htm <http://vembos.gr/
Genius_Tempori.htm>) was written thanks to it! And I don’t mean that metaphorically. Leafing through the yellowed pages, reading texts from another time in an old-fashioned language, with different expressions, smelling the characteristic scent of old paper all these formed a particular ritual with truly magical content. It took me many years to realize it – thank goodness for Consensus, which “teaches” you from a very young age that magic and time travel don’t exist in reality. When I did realize it, I took full advantage of it. Completely absorbed in the study and the browsing of old newspapers bound in large volumes, in a state of isolation, one can travel to the past. When I was doing my research for Genius Tempori (but not exclusively), I would stay for four or five hours a day in the quiet of the Municipal Library of the City of Athens and then spend just as many hours in front of my computer sorting, archiving, editing, and often printing the articles or news stories I had photographed with my digital camera. This was happening not only for a few days or weeks, but for two years straight. The visual cues, the constant immersion in this other environment, the constant reading of an old-fashioned language, the smell of the old paper, the coming to life of very old memories all these opened gates to awareness. The old newspaper its news stories, its other texts, its headlines and its photos became a vortex that would transport me to another universe. For whole months I was living in a continuous time slip. (http://vembos.gr/Project_Timeslip_intro.htm
<http://vembos.gr/Project_Timeslip_intro.htm>)
(ErENZo) There used to be a time when newspapers were not hostile or indifferent toward unexplained phenomena. You have an extensive archive yourself, of old newspaper clippings. This research into the papers had a large impact, as you remarked in an older interview, because it was not just collecting material, but also a journey through time. Tell us about this journey through time, but also about the time when the press was flooded with thousands of articles and front pages concerning the paranormal.
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I can’t spot any specific common characteristics. The common trait is mostly the concern and often the fear of the person who lived through a strange story, and a dire need to find out “how it is explained”.
(ErENZo) Due to your research capacity, you come into contact with a lot of people who undoubtedly have a lot of strange stories to tell you. Are there any common traits in the personalities of these people, or do these phenomena occur across all social and economic backgrounds.
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