“You’re a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay.”
 -George Galloway At the end of 2011, journalist and author Christopher Hitchens crossed over to the Astral Plane after a long illness. As an atheist (or antitheist, as he described himself), the existence of another plane of existence must surely have come as a surprise. Most atheists are Level 10 Thinker types. Hitchens was no exception. From their left-brain vantage point, such intellectual old souls lack a natural awareness of a world beyond. Since religious dogma doesn’t speak to them, and they don’t trust in the existence of anything that can’t be scientifically proven, they tend to throw the spiritual baby out with the religious bathwater. Hitchens began as a leftie and ended up as a vocal supporter of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With a self-assurance bordering on arrogance, he regarded those with contradictory opinions with contempt. In some ways, Hitchen’s arrogance was a result of his soul type and influences. He was a thinker (intellectual) type with a primary educator influence (the journalist) and a secondary leader (authority) influence. Which combined to make him a know-all with a strong sense of his own importance. And also made him fascinating to listen to. His debates with Scottish politician George Galloway are hugely entertaining (even if one does have to fight the urge to give the pompous twit a well-deserved slap from time-to-time). He may have been an atheist, but Hitchens was plagued by demons. Not the Old Testament kind, but unhappy and malevolent souls from the Astral Plane. Alcohol played a significant part in Hitchens’ life and in his shift in politics from left to right. In a near permanent state of inebriation, his protection from malevolent Astral Plane entities was compromised. They could come and go acting to block him from the small still voice of his own soul. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: not everyone who’s in spirit is spiritual. Demons, or malevolent entities, are aspects of damaged souls. These embittered souls have suffered severe damage on the Physical Plane, almost always as a result of injustice and betrayal. They’ll sometimes attach themselves to those whose defenses are down, often as a result of substance abuse. And though there may be emotional or physiological reasons to explain the shift in personality you see in many addicts, demons play the most significant role. For Hitchens, the impact of his demons was not particularly dramatic. They blocked his empathy, but not his intellect. But for some people, demons create radical shifts, causing the life of the pub to go home and beat up his wife, or for two people who’d never give one another a second glance when sober to spend the night together after the office party. You can see demons at work when Grandpa, who never uttered a harsh word in his life, tells the nurses to go @##$%, as the Alzheimer’s causes his defenses to drop. Or when someone with a chemical imbalance hears voices urging him or her to harm another person. I’ll miss Christopher Hitchens very much. The world is suffering a dearth of great debaters, these days, and intellectuals of his caliber are hard to find. Though I disagreed with him on many points (especially his criticism of Cindy Sheehan), his opinions were always thought-provoking, even if they did offer an object lesson in sophistry and self-righteousness. I expect, however, that he’s been learning a little humility in these last few weeks as he gets used to the fact that life doesn’t actually end with the body’s last gasp. Once he’s settled in a bit, I’ll see if he’s up for a debate with me. In the meantime, check out this fantastic battle of wits between Hitchens and Galloway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLKQGwVkczg