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EDIE OVERTURF

Easier Said Than Done

Relief

12'' x 12''

2016

Much to my dismay, I have never seen Sasquatch, nor any of his relatives. My experience with Cryptids is also very limited. But I HAVE had a spirit latched to my back...apparently.

In 2006, I began experiencing crippling panic attacks. I had not been a particularly anxious person prior, and I was understandably confused by this experience. I approached western medicine first and had unfortunate results from anti­anxiety medications. At this point of my life I was good friends with a Buddhist monk, Albert, known as Lom-­pi (how that came about is another story for another time). I briefly mentioned to him my troubles, and he became concerned. He knew where I worked and had previously been asked to bless the building.

Let us pause and give a little back history on Lom-­pi. Since Lom-­pi was a child, he was able to see spirits. They would often seek him out, looking for assistance or just bewildered and confused. One quote I remember vividly from one of my conversations with Lom-pi, regarding what I would call an unseen world: “They are literally everywhere, on top of one another, you are breathing them into your lungs.”

Lom­-pi had a lot of experience with spirits, the ones that wander in a confused state. He knew that the building I was working in had bad entities. He knew exactly what had latched itself to me, but he refused to ever tell me details. Lom-­pi worked with me, providing me with talismans for protection, meditations, and having one of his assistants perform acupuncture on my back with tiger oil. Whether all of this was a psychosomatic cure, an actual result to an intangible problem, or simply coincidence, I will never know. But the panic attacks stopped.

Lom-­pi is no longer a monk. He disrobed in 2009; he is now just Albert. I reached out to him while working on this project, and he still refuses to give me the details of the entity. So in my rendering of that experience, I envision undulating fields of light trying to engulf a figure that is desperately climbing a limited form of escape.