Church of Spock--Illogical?
I'm a big Star Trek fan, and into
anything to do with Trek, but one thing taking me aback, is this church called
“The Spock.” It is a few miles south of Lynchburg in Campbell County,
in the state of Virginia.
Founded in 1977, it was in a large
and attractive octagonal building. It is said to be the world's
only church of Star Trek, a religion centered on the
popular 1960's television series, featuring the adventures of a crew of
interstellar explorers. It promotes beliefs associated with one of the popular
characters in the TV series, Mr. Spock. The ideology of the church is centered
on so-called Vulcan philosophy which includes the belief in pure
"logic" and which emphasizes a lifestyle devoid of emotion.
A huge stained-glass likeness of Mr.
Spock is featured in the sanctuary. Churchgoers recite sequences of dialogue
from the series and participate in what they call a "Holy Mind Meld."
It is said that many of the members wear stick-on pointed ears like Spock has
during services and at other church functions. Supposedly, in one case of
excessive dedication to the "faith," one member attempted to have his
ears surgically altered. There were disastrous results, requiring extensive
corrective surgery.
"The
Spock" is not without controversy, as reportedly in the late 1980's,
disagreement arose within the church. This due to the lengths in which
members should go in emulating the purely logical and emotionless Vulcan
approach to life. Some of them advocated a reasonable degree of emotion, due to
Spock’s half-human part. Though a core group of hard-line members were
adamant to stick to the Vulcan ideology. The stricter view
won. Several members left the church, condemning the practices. One
former member went so far as to publish a science fiction story based on his
rigid and stifling upbringing in the faith, a story which concludes with the
destruction of the Campbell County sanctuary by a "phaser" blast from
an orbiting "starship" at his command.
Troll in Lynchburg?
A question
residents of that neighborhood have been asking for over two decades in the
Windsor Hills subdivision of Lynchburg, "Is there something out
there...some kind of presence," in their area. One person interviewed said
they witnessed an "amorphous black specter that stirred up small
whirlwinds of leaves...like a dark vortex." It has also been described as
a scampering, mischievous small creature of some sort, sometimes venturing out of the woods to tap on windows, tip over trash cans,
while others claimed it has threatened them. One encounter tells of
hearing a rustle, then in front of them was something that looked like a
troll. Now it was hard to see, but they said it wore dark leather clothes and
maybe even a leather cap, had a bare human-like face, and muttered to itself,
breaking out occasionally with sounded like a laugh. It turned on them and
brandished a small knife. The people bolted. More than one witness has
reported sensing a presence before actually encountering the creature, and they
began to wonder if it possessed some form of telepathic powers. Legend of the
mysterious resident of the woods has grown over the years, and neighborhood
kids called it, "Rufus." As one former Windsor Hills resident summed
it up "I never believed in that kind of thing until I saw it with my own
eyes."
A Sort of Area 51 in Virginia?
Supposedly in the Shenandoah Valley
is "Valleyville," considered by those as Virginia's own twist on the
legendary "Area 51." Like its famous counterpart, Valleyville is an
off-limits region where only access roads are gated and guarded, the perimeter
is electronically sealed and monitored, and its existence is denied by the
government. Unlike Area 51, Valleyville serves an entirely different purpose.
There are no runways at Valleyville and no top-secret aircraft being tested in
the middle of the night. No pieces of UFO wreckage or frozen alien corpses
hidden there. Valleyville is by all outward appearances a town tucked away in a
nook-and-cranny of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley. There is no
vantage point in Valleyville from which another town or even a road can be
seen.
What is the purpose of Valleyville?
No one really can say. A Charlottesville newspaper in 1994 hired former Navy
Seal Peter McGowan to infiltrate Valleyville and uncover its secrets, but after
acknowledging initial entry, radio contact was broken and McGowan was never
heard from again. Efforts are ongoing to bring down the shroud of secrecy
surrounding the town.
My thoughts on this? Obviously,
someone should be putting their talents to writing a novel about this—sounds
like fiction to me.
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