LUDIC LOG

The legacy of the Capricorn Killer may be long in settling. Surely the 21st century's -- if not all of history's -- most talked-about criminal, the recent judgment of history cannot even decide on a name for him, let alone a place in the annals of murder; some claim the name was a reflection of Richard Cole's star sign, while others claim it came from his habit of leaving "Capricorn" scented air fresheners at the scene of the crime. Still others call him by his original moniker, the New Age Killer, while his defenders will not even tolerate the use of "killer" to describe him, referring to him as a "spirit guide" and his deeds not as murder, but as the facilitation of spiritual progress. An interpretation of his long and (many would say) notorious career is stillborn when even his name is at issue.

And I am hardly one to deliver such an interpretation, for my bias is clear: I am one of the few people who had the experience (I could call it both a pleasure and a horror and be right on both counts) of meeting the man before his leaving the human shell at the age of 38, and it is an experience that casts a giant shadow on my life. (Since I know the question will be asked, I may as well get it out of the way now: yes, I think he is truly "dead", as we foolishly term the cessation of the physical self, and no, I do not think it was a suicide or an accident. Even in the structured and difficult regimen of daily prison life, Richard took only the purest herbal ecstasy, and he knew his limits.) As the crime beat reporter for The Daily Aspectarian, I met him soon after his capture by the Sedona police in 2004 and began what would become more than a series of interviews and became a profound merging of soul-facets until he left us in late 2008. I have been asked to write the introduction to Mr. Reid's "true crime" book, Negative Vibrations: The Crimes And Times of Richard Cole, and I have agreed, not because I am in concurrence with its typically shrill and short-sighted conclusions, but because I am one who knew its subject well and am ever willing to advance Cole scholarship, in however imperfect its form. Guiding the flawed towards unity and truth is something that I, along with Richard, understand all too well.

Much has been said and written about this wandering, restless spirit with a dozen names over the last 10 years, and much more will be said and written before I join him in chasing that silver cord to wherever it leads us. I can add little other than what I have already said in my own books, Lover Father Usher Healer and An End To Pain: Richard Cole and Metaphysical Consciousness, but I would like to address a pair of cavils that have dogged this remarkable and controversial man, and which the current book, I fear, has only perpetuated. I must, however, thank Mr. Reid for allowing me the opportunity to correct them here.

First, there is the constant and inaccurate referral to those who came to be ushered into a life without fear and hurt as Richard's "victims". This is wholly incorrect and, I fear, further fuel to those who claim (with, alas, some justification) that ours is a "victim society". All those who came to Richard Cole did so of their own true will, guided by their own free desires, and deliberately sought out his counsel as a spirit healer and naturapathic metaphysician. They came to him; he did not hunt them, like some thug or assassin. Can the fact that they did not actually intend to be "poisoned", as the yellow press so bluntly puts it, alter the fact that they intentionally solicited his help in healing, treatment, and the elimination of pain and terror -- a help he unselfishly gave to the utmost degree? He has already been handed the utmost human punishment for the high crime of success; must we now slander his memory by referring to those who asked for help, and were helped, as "victims"? As to the charge that this shows insensitivity to these people's families, I can only say that if they do not realize that their loved ones have gone to a better place, a place they always needed to be, where they are free from all that would weigh down their spirits, then they are the insensitive ones.

Second, and this is perhaps a personal peeve of mine, the music selected by Richard to usher his patients into the peace of the beyond was deliberately chosen in order to provide an atmosphere conducive to healing, calm and placidity, conditions that were needed for a transition that had a maximum of tranquility and a minimum of trauma. It was not selected, as most sources (the current work included) would have it, to "bore his victims to sleep". The music -- much of which was created by artists who are personal friends of mine -- is peaceful, healing and pacific, not "boring". Sleep was already brought on by the combination of organic herbs and specially formulated nutriceuticals that Richard used to trigger the transition, so no external soporific was needed. Only someone of shallow character and near-zero spiritual fulfillment would perpetuate such a slander, and I hope this puts an end to it.

That said, I hope you enjoy the current work, and find in it enough to interest you in the path of wisdom and truth regarding Richard Cole, which can be had by visiting the "Modern Spirituality" section of your local bookplace or writing to my editors care of Villard Books. Shanti.