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[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of

Association To Its Last Days


[Section] Chapter Three
What did they want or need,
A utopia for all seasons.
And make members of the human race
Into worshippers without reason.
(~The ballad of Kilmatogh, 1984.)
What was the aim that brought the members of the XUAL
Community together? What was their intended mission? According
to the evidence that remains, Cassin's plan was to make an
experimental utopian society. He had spent the better part of two
decades wandering around the continent as an unemployed
psychologist and came back to Ireland to found an experimental
research community with a strong cultish disposition.
We know from Cassin's bio-affidavit a sort of 'evidence of
character' legal document that just before returning to Ireland he'd
spent time in Freiburg, Germany, working for the IGPP as a lab
assistant. The IGPP or Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and
Mental Health (trans. from the German) concentrated on systematic
and interdisciplinary research of anomalous human phenomena, such
as altered states of consciousness; supernatural experiences; and
mind-matter interactions. It's now a world leader in parapsychological research. (more info here:
http://www.igpp.de/german/welcome_EN.html)
This institution inspired Cassin to form his own version of it in
Ireland. Though not exactly the same as the IGPP and probably
without any knowledge or assistance from them, Cassin formed his
group and advertised its presence in various quasi-scientific
magazines of the time. In his recruitment drive for new members he
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[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of


Association To Its Last Days
looked for people who had a scientific background or who graduated
with a scientific degree (preferably a degree in psychology, which
was very rare at the time, because psychology was only in its infancy
in Ireland).
The application form issued to prospective members was a daunting
eleven pages long, requesting information on the applicant's college
degrees (along with evidence), work experience (along with
evidence), and statements that he or she was not refused membership
of a scientific research group in the past and had no criminal record.
Signatures of the applicant's supervisors and employers on the
application form were also needed for verification purposes. These
measures served to filer out those who were not suitable and those
who were keen on joining and met the criteria or ideals of the new
Community.
Why did Cassin want scientists to join his group and how did they
use their scientific training after joining it? This, actually, is one of
the hardest questions for us to answer. Plenty of rumours abound if
one listens to the locals, but one interview given with a mother of a
member of the XUAL Community stated this:
Well, everything Cassin did was a secret. On the outside he
gathered a few followers to start the community with the aim
of performing scientific experiments. But on the inside he
wasn't, how should I say it? Not a.... grounded person. His
areas of study went beyond anything the rest of his
community had any desire to tamper with: the lower planes,
the underworld, the demonic realm.
(Unpublished interview conducted by Dan Coburn for the
Leitrim Gazette, 1991.)

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[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of


Association To Its Last Days
But we need not rely on gossip and hearsay, when we have written
evidence of the experiments they conducted from Cassin himself. In
an article written in 1975 for Destiny Magazine titled 'Extended
Human Capacities: How does consciousness interact with the
physical world?', Cassin has this to say:
Atomic physicists discovered that atoms are made up of
vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating.
Physical matter, at its tiniest observable level, is energy, and
human consciousness is connected to it, human consciousness
can influence its behaviour and even re-structure it. Some of
the experiments we have conducted have proven this.
I want to make it clear that our intention of conducting these
experiments is to demonstrate that thoughts, intentions, prayer
and other units of consciousness can directly influence our
physical material world. Consciousness can be a big factor in
creating change on the planet. Sending thoughts of love,
healing intent, prayer, good intention, and more can have a
powerful influence on what you are directing those feelings
towards.
Our XUAL Community research program investigates the
'psychophysical interconnectness' of states of consciousness:
including intuition; presentiment; intention and attention's
effects on the physical world, including inanimate and living
organisms; and human capacities extending beyond the
conventional boundaries of space and time.
By studying these phenomena, we seek a more
comprehensive understanding of reality; the relationship
between subjective and objective states; the nature of
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[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of


Association To Its Last Days
consciousness and the self, and the fabric of space and time.
Most of this work is conducted in our community base.
(Destiny Magazine, Spring Issue, 1975.)
It's clear from the extract above that Cassin's plan for his Community
was utopian and to some degree their experiments were meant to be
beneficial.
In a document that has emerged (that was originally encrypted), it
details experiments which became less and less salubrious as time
went on, until the last experiment was positively demonic:
Shaman State: Psychophysiology of Spiritual Transmission
Principal Investigator(s): Malcolm Cassin
Co-investigator(s): Annmarie Cummings
Program Areas: Extended Human Capacities
Project Year Started: 1981
Status: Terminated
Related Topics: States of Consciousness, Transformative
Practises, Parapsychology, Subtle Energies
Keywords: spiritual transmission, parasympathy,
psychotropic drugs, possession
Description: The Shaman experiments were conducted to
objectively test the physiological correlates of spiritual
transmission in both transmitters and recipients, and to
explore the influence of spiritual teacher and susceptibility of
the recipient under controlled laboratory conditions. Our aim
was to find notable similarities in the subjectively reported
instances of spiritual transmission across cultures, across
spiritual traditions, and across reports that have been
documented in occult literature for centuries. Participants
used psychotropic drugs to gain heightened states of
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[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of


Association To Its Last Days
consciousness and its effects reported range in valence and
intensity, but appear to involve arousal of the parasympathetic
nervous system (hyper activation of the limbic system) such
as observed during a manic or psychotic episode. These
effects often occur in the context of several environmental
cues, and therefore could be in large part attributed to a kind
of placebo or expectancy effect, but this explanation is limited
by the fact that there are many subjective reports of this
phenomenon by people with apparently no prior expectancy
or spiritual orientation.
(Encrypted file 'secretexperiment.txt', author unknown,
date unknown.)
However philanthropic the ideals initially were, the outcome of these
experiments would eventually prove to be disastrous for the small
pioneer Community. In another news article printed in the Leitrim
Gazette (but later recalled from circulation) the Community in
Kilmatogh was becoming aggressive voicing anti-authority
sentiments:
From as early as 1980, members of the Kilmatogh community
began to voice anti-government sentiments and had numerous
brushes with the law. It wasn't until May 13th 1981, that a
confrontation finally arose between its members at their
barricaded compound and an armed Garda unit. No shots
were fired but relations continued to deteriorate between
members and the authorities.
(Fiona Doyle, Leitrim Gazette article, Saturday 18th of
September, 1982.)
What was it that turned these people into aggressive, anti-social
pariahs? Was it their experiments or was it something else entirely?
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[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of


Association To Its Last Days
Through the course of our research for this book we have uncovered
a bizarre history of the site chosen by Cassin himself for his
experimental Community: Kilmatogh bog. The bog has been the
source of terrifying legends that inspired fear, madness, death and
possibly murder dating back many thousands of years.
Is the bog haunted? Perhaps there is something wrong with the water
or some disease that still lingers there from ancient times? In any
case, anyone who dares enter the site takes their sanity and lives into
their own hands. In the next chapter we will look at the sinister
legends surrounding Kilmatogh bog, and the archaeological
excavation that discovered a startling structure from prehistory.

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