The Incunabula and the Djinn or how I learned to stop worrying and love transdimesional travel...
by Ronald Lange for viewzone
The Past You would not be reading this brochure if you had not already penetrated half-way to the ICS. You have been searching for us without knowing it, following oblique references in crudely Xeroxed marginal 'samizdat' publications, crackpot mystical pamphlets... In any case we know something about you, your interests... (Ong's Hat: Gateway to the Dimensions -- A full color brochure for the Institute of Chaos Studies and the Moorish Science Ashram on Ong's Hat, NJ)
The gateway's home address was listed as Ong's Hat, New Jersey. This was an almost mythical town in southern New Jersey near the Pine Barrens state park. I say almost mythical because it's referenced in a book by Henry Charlton Beck, Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey. I say 'was' because by all accounts, it no longer exists with its heyday being in the 1860's. I grew up in southern New Jersey and can vouch there are many small hamlets, which ceased to exist once they were incorporated into larger towns or when the local economy dried up. Though I never came across the name Ong's Hat, I was familiar enough with the area to know it could have existed at one time. The book catalog listed non-fiction works by Fred Alan Wolf and Nick Herbert as well as fiction by Philip K. Dick and works on Sufism by Henry Corbin. It also included works that, to my knowledge, don't exist. These include works printed by the Incunabula Press like A Vision of Hurqalya by Pak Hardjanto and my favorite, Poetic Journal of a traveler; or, A Heresologist's Guide to Brooklyn believed to be by 'X'. The brochure itself described the antics of a group of castoffs from both occult and academic circles who band together and coalesce into a techno-pharmacological team of inter-dimensional nomads. Exciting stuff because it purported to be true! What's more, the government knew about the existence of these parallel worlds and was trying to control access to them. It was pretty exciting stuff. They described the alternate world they traveled to (banally christened, 'Earth 2') as virtually the same as our world except it never developed human life. The group began to colonize Earth 2 by bringing over airstream trailers and other necessities from this world. Too bad the whole thing is probably an urban legend and 'reality hack' created by Joe Matheny and Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) among others. Wait, did I say probably? Fool's gold exists because there is real gold. --Rumi
My initial exposure was in the early '90s. It was rekindled several times over the years, especially with the release of Matheny's book co written with Peter Moon,
There's enough actual science behind the parallel universe concept that it teases one enough to look into the Ong's Hat story.
I encourage anyone to research the available content on the net by Googling 'The Incunabula' and 'Ong's Hat'.
Though I can't honestly say I believed the story; like Fox Mulder, I
The Present
One of the compelling pieces for me was in reading Dan Eden's The Neverending Story.
It was one of those works like The Morning of the Magicians by Pauwels and Bergier or Our Haunted Planet by John Keel that just opened new worlds for me. (This is not just some shameless plug. I'm not Dan and it is a wonderful, exciting book. Please consider donating to this site and receiving a free copy of the ebook)
At one point in the narrative, Dan finds himself in Yemen and a companion begins encountering 'entities' that are described by the locals as the djinn.
Coupled with another central point of the story regarding 'vortices', my imagination was caught up in the idea of the djinn being interdimensional, entering our world through vortices where the barriers were weaker. This is not an original concept. It's the culmination of the writings of those works listed above along with Jacques Vallee (Passport to Magonia, Confrontations) as well as the fiction of authors too numerous to mention. But for some reason I kept coming back to the concept of the djinn, looking for anecdotal and mythological similarities between the Middle-Eastern concept of the djinn (my understanding is the belief in the djinn predates Islam) and the European folklore surrounding fairies and elves.
A: The djinn have the capacity to take many forms and to change appearance. According to the Imam Ibn Taymiya, they can take a human or animal, form such as a cow, a scorpion, a snake, a bird.... The black dog is the devil of the dogs and the djinn often appear in this form. They can also appear in the form of a black cat.
When a djinn takes a human or animal form, it obeys the physical laws of this form; for example, it will be possible to see it or to kill it with a gunshot or to wound it with a knife. For this reason, djinn remain in these forms for only a short time because they are vulnerable. In fact, they benefit from their invisibility to frighten people.
Q: Are djinn both male and female?
A: Yes, there are males and females among the djinn. According to the Koran, the djinn have the capacity to procreate and can have offspring.
Q: Are djinn responsible for their acts?
A: Just like humans, the djinn are responsible for their acts. Indeed, Allah will take the day of the last Judgement to them.
According to the Imam Ibn Taymiya, the djinn observe obligations in relation to their specific nature. Being different from the human beings, their duties are inevitably different, too.
They have religious beliefs, too. Like human beings, they can be Christian, Jewish, non-believers or Moslems. The Moslems among them are just like the Moslems among men; some are pious, others are evil.
Q: Are djinn afraid of humans?
A: The djinn and men feared each other mutually, but the djinn were able to instil fear more intensely than men. The djinns are more fearful beings by nature, but they can also feel such human emotions as anger or sadness. In fact, the djinn benefit from these states, being better able to cause fear in the heart of man. Like bad dogs, when they sense your fear, they will attack. [from About.Com]
The fascinating works of Evans-Wentz, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries and Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies are invaluable resources for research.
The best way to summarize what I could glean (and my research is by no means exhaustive) is to state the fairies, elves, etc have an existence separate from yet overlapping with humanity. They have their own society, religion and technology.
http://www.thejinn.net/
The creators of this site maintain the jinn or djinn are the progenitors of the current UFO phenomenon which dovetails with John Keel's concept of the 'ultraterrestial', a being residing here on Earth but residing in another dimension.
The Future
Just the other night I was listening to a famous late night radio talk show on the paranormal. The guests were authors Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Philip Imbrogno. There were there to promote their forthcoming book on the djinn. The book is to be titled The Vengeful Djinn. It will outline the two author's research into the djinn. They too noted the similarities with medieval talk of fairies and Mid-East djinn legends.
That brought everything full circle for me. I encourage you to obtain a copy of The Neverending Story and to visit Rosemary Guiley's site below for excerpts and information regarding the forthcoming book.
Remember, you would not have gotten this far if you had not already penetrated half-way to the truth...
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I had come across the above preamble regarding what was described as the Incunabula Conspiracy in a regionally published zine in Columbus, OH called the Trans-Dimensional Times. The zine reproduced the brochure with a catalog of books from the ICS. 
