Example of a new age "Joke"

When I was "undercover," being available for ministry among New Age sorts, many of whom were clinically depressed, bipolar and so forth, I was communicating via email, chat room, and bulletin board, and had my own web site. So I never met any of these people face to face in consultation. I was keeping my Catholic evangelism tightly under cover because I had received dark attacks for years before. I didn't realize that my cover had actually been blown in a number of places, except for, praise be to God, people cannot resist being clever and giving themselves away. Here is an example.

One of the girls I thought was very nice and sweet was always looking to New Age practices to help her to "get a good exhibition space in Basel." I liked her but felt extreme concern for her because she openly cultivated mental practices to open oneself up sexually to "whatever." I thought that her insistence on a good exhibition space in Basel was odd (she did photography) and a few other things seemed odd, until it clicked. She was making a joke about the Ecumenical Council of Basel, which was convoked by Pope Eugene IV in 1431. Eugene happens to be the name of my neighbor for 22 years, back when I owned a beautiful home and had a job. Get it? Photographer? Neighbor? Catholic Pope? She was posting on the bulletin board one of a number of jokes, thinking it was at my expense, about how I've been photographed and stalked. (I never did get to tell her that I know a very hot exhibition space that she might eventually have permanent space within.)

New Agers think that Catholics are stupid because Catholics don't get their inside jokes and "hints" about karma, past lives, and so forth. What they don't realize is that the reason Catholics don't get those jokes and hints is because a sane person cannot get a hint that alludes to something that is not and cannot be true. I had to do a fair amount of study of astrology and tarot to figure out what insane belief one of my "friends," "clients," or "patients" were engaging in at any given moment. Gosh, who is truly stupid? Not I. And not well formed and faithful Catholics who never touch New Age garbage.