An Announcement.

[Anthony Peake]

Guys,
Thanks for your comments of support. This is not a decision I have taken lightly but one that I have considered long and hard.

I had hoped that this Forum would really take off and that each posting would engender a whole series of comments and counter comments. This has simply not happened. Take a look down the list of recent postings. On average there are one or two responses then the thread simply dies. This is not what happens on other Forums with over a thousand members.

What happens is that a person joins, places a few postings expecting responses, and then goes away because nobody has responded to their own comments. I can understand this feeling but if all we expect is responses to our own contributions and never respond to other people's this is what happens.

I guess that in the early days we all knew each other so their was a dynamic of people who know each other personally responding. Over the last year or so the original crew have disappeared leaving a much larger number of members who only know each other by their pseudonyms. We lose in one way and gain in another.

However for me it is a continual slog in that I am always trying to keep this Forum going. Probably 95 percent of the people on here have either attended my lectures or have emailed me. Think about this for a second or two - this is nearly a thousand people who are in direct contact with me. I try to keep in direct contact with each and every one and I try really hard to respond to emails and Forum postings. This involves a huge amount of time, time that I am happy to give. However, as an earlier posting has pointed out

"this is not a true forum, but instead it's a place where a very narcissistic Anthony Peake tries to "wow" people with his prose, whilst trying to peddle a few more of his books. And, whilst doing that, he encourages people to write out their very personal paranormal experiences so he can use them any way he wants to in his next book/s. After that, he seldom talks with the person again. These new people stop posting, whilst new ones are "fished" from Facebook and served up as newbies to his forum buffet".

Here is a classic example of somebody clearly irritated with me because I didn't get back to them quickly enough - "he seldom talks with the person again". I find this a really unfair comment - I spend an inordinate amount of time emailing and responding to emails from people I feel I owe something because they honoured me by spending their time reading my books. I am keen to be in contact and consider them to be my friends. I cannot think of many other writers who do this...indeed I know of none. Remember once somebody has bought my books they will not do so again - why would they? So the time I invest in responding to emails is because I want to, not because I am going to make a few more pence (and believe me, what I earn from each book sale is pence, not pounds). However if I do not respond quickly enough I am accused of being a complete ******.

I Will continue to respond to my readers and I will continue to treat them as friends, however, and lest people forget, I also have a life oust de of my writing. I have concerns and worries like everybody else .... And I simply cannot go on balancing a life of difficulties and emotional issues whilst at the same time having to deal with people who feel they have the right to attack my integrity simply because I failed to respond quickly enough to an email ... Probably one of seventy That appeared in my in-box that day.

It will be noted that many of the sections in this Forum have moderators. However the reality is a simple one; I do all the moderating as well as responding to postings and keeping it ticking over with my own, regular, contributions. This is done between writing books and articles, preparing for and presenting lectures, doing media interviews, responding to scores of emails and that is just book stuff. I then have a pressurised ten hour plus a day job and then have to find time to have a normal family life. Yes, it is great being a writer .... Particularly when after doing all this your work is attacked and sneered at from people who hide behind psuedonyms

[Nagrom]

"Tony...I am stunned at your reaction.".

I myself am not stunned by Tony's reaction. It's the reaction of a coward. He does not want to answer the accusations put to him because he has no defense. He uses people then drops them only so he can make a few quid on his sci-fi type books. This "forum" of his is just one of the tools that he uses to extract personal stories from people so he can use them in his books, and the minute this "forum" has become a hindrance to him, he drops it. He's like a little kid who has the only ball in the neighborhood. If you play by his rules, all is fine. If not, he cries and takes his ball home with him and no one can play anymore.

Tony says, "We have also seen a series of curious postings on here and, even more mysteries, individuals joining the Forum only to make a negative leaving announcement. Clearly something is afoot."

I recently joined your "forum" under the name of Morgan at your invitation and after a few weeks made one "negative" post wherein I asked to be removed from your "forum". How is that "mysterious"? You asked for new members, and some of us find you ludicrous and we say so. How is that "mysterious"? In my mind that's Free Speech.

Whatever the case, I asked for my account to be deleted forthwith, and you did this finally, but quietly, like a mouse. But then you try and imply that there is something mysterious and wrong with me. ONLY BECAUSE I POST SOMETHING NEGATIVE ABOUT YOU. That smacks of cowardliness to me!
Nagrom=Morgan

[Anthony Peake]

My apologies for the weird word structures in the above posting. I am typing this on an iPad and it "helpfully" corrects what one has written with it's own idiosyncratic word-structures. The problem is that it is then virtually impossible to go back and correct the corrections.

I do not wish this Forum to come to an end but I cannot continue moderating it and running it on my own. I also fear that the Trolls have arrived and they are not going to go away. They are simply going to become an ever-increasing number of individuals who are on here not to contribute to open-minded debate and discussion but simply to feed on their own, frankly disturbing, need for anonymous fame. I therefore believe that from now one, even with moderators on each section of the Forum, the trolls will just keep coming back sucking dry everything that is positive and stimulating about this great place.

By the way, I would like to apologise for something I posted above. there are a handful of the original crew who are still involved, for example MAC/CAM, Susan-Marie, Ed, RaFromCa and Hurley Burley to name but a few. your ongoing support is really appreciated .....

[SM Kovalinsky]

Tony: I am sorry I posted so upset to you on Facebook. I just was not expecting you to react like this, but rather, to take action which would uphold you (not diminish you )---The idiot who said you are a narcissist and just use and dump posters cannot have known you. Or maybe he knew you too well, and knew how to bother you ---It is a lie, and you should not let it effect you. The bad people are winning, and of COURSE this is because there are MORE, many more people, than there used to be. Please find a way to navigate this, and do not sell yourself short. We all love and need you.

[MAC]

Tony: Perhaps at this time you could close off access to new account creation.

Nagrom = Morgan's new account could perhaps also be deleted ... as seems was his original wish ... a wish he got, at least initially.

All the best

Cam

NB: - the courage of the brave rests quietly in their hearts ... plenty of that in Tony's heart ... hmmm ... a deja vu ... I wrote that on the other post as well.

[Anthony Peake]

This is exactly the kind of nasty sneering that I know will be the future of this Forum. I have tried to create a place in which people can post whatever they like, and have whatever opinions they like without censorship. A look through the history of this Forum will show that there have been many individuals who have joined because they had issues with my ideas. I can live with this. We had some heated discussions about facts and interpretations of facts but we never became personal. Now it seems we just get nasty and confrontational. If ever I needed evidence for why this Forum is about to turn nasty and negative Morgan's comment is stark evidence.

In suspect the next two weeks are going to be fun .....

[MAC]

Tony: Perhaps at this time you could close off access to new account creation.

Nagrom = Morgan's new account could perhaps also be deleted ... as seems was his original wish ... a wish he got, at least initially.

All the best

Cam

NB: - the courage of the brave rests quietly in their hearts ... plenty of that in Tony's heart ... hmmm ... a deja vu ... I wrote that on the other post as well.

Crikey ... another deja vu ... I find myself repeating myself again ...

Cam

[SM Kovalinsky]

Tony, Cam is right----check IPs. No double identities. No new accounts. OTHER FORUMS DO THIS AS A MATTER OF COURSE, YOU CAN TOO. As your fame increases, so will your POWER to solve problems. You can do it, we believe in you. I will help all I can, I promise.

[SM Kovalinsky]

"Tony...I am stunned at your reaction.".

I myself am not stunned by Tony's reaction. It's the reaction of a coward. He does not want to answer the accusations put to him because he has no defense. He uses people then drops them only so he can make a few quid on his sci-fi type books. This "forum" of his is just one of the tools that he uses to extract personal stories from people so he can use them in his books, and the minute this "forum" has become a hindrance to him, he drops it. He's like a little kid who has the only ball in the neighborhood. If you play by his rules, all is fine. If not, he cries and takes his ball home with him and no one can play anymore.

Tony says, "We have also seen a series of curious postings on here and, even more mysteries, individuals joining the Forum only to make a negative leaving announcement. Clearly something is afoot."

I recently joined your "forum" under the name of Morgan at your invitation and after a few weeks made one "negative" post wherein I asked to be removed from your "forum". How is that "mysterious"? You asked for new members, and some of us find you ludicrous and we say so. How is that "mysterious"? In my mind that's Free Speech.

Whatever the case, I asked for my account to be deleted forthwith, and you did this finally, but quietly, like a mouse. But then you try and imply that there is something mysterious and wrong with me. ONLY BECAUSE I POST SOMETHING NEGATIVE ABOUT YOU. That smacks of cowardliness to me!
Nagrom=Morgan

If what you were saying about Tony were true (your opening remarks above, bolded and red by me), then I could see your feeling this way. But please clearly describe what led you to view him this way? How do you know he has done this to many people? Where could you have gotten that information? Be specific.

Odd, that you barely know Tony - and yet, you speak with passionate resentment about his selfish ways, as though he is a person you once loved, and have come to resent. How odd! How unlike someone who was only recently invited to join his forum.....

Could some of this resentment stem from your own expectations or need for attention? Please be honest with yourself.

I find it peculiar, to say the least, that you have such emotion invested in Peake (scorn is most definitely the flip side of admiration - most readers of theorists are aloof, and would not feel so insulted by his so-called using of their stories.) Your description of Tony as a little boy hogging a ball, makes you sound boyish and sad yourself - perhaps your feelings have been deeply hurt. Did you see him in person, and think he might become a close friend? Because that is not a realistic expectation. He has enough friends. His reading public know this. How can he befriend thousands and thousands? No one can, nor should be expected to.
ALSO: I do NOT think Tony meant YOU in terms of making negative comments. I think he meant the trolls, people who open an account to start trouble, then vanish. He may not have had the time to ponder on your particular dilemma, which is so full of emotional resentment, as to stand out as quite strange....Yes indeed, you sound absolutely star-struck and invested.....Even your view of Tony as having "taken the ball home, so no one can play" resonates as almost deeply disturbing.....

Two more RED FLAGS:
1.You claim that you found Peake ludicrous, and asked him to kindly delete you from his forum. OK, a. why did you not just leave, in a dignified way? Why did you want him to know? and WHY did you continue to lurk here, so that you not only knew about today's development, but chose to comment at length on it? You sound a bit over-invested...
2.It is something the way you say, nagrom = morgan, just like someone once said "l lemarcs" = "scramell". (Cam and Tony: I do not believe in psychological coincidences. Can you see why I am taking aback by this?)
( I would weed this one out, Tony. And if that sounds cruel, so be it.)

[SM Kovalinsky]

This is exactly the kind of nasty sneering that I know will be the future of this Forum. I have tried to create a place in which people can post whatever they like, and have whatever opinions they like without censorship. A look through the history of this Forum will show that there have been many individuals who have joined because they had issues with my ideas. I can live with this. We had some heated discussions about facts and interpretations of facts but we never became personal. Now it seems we just get nasty and confrontational. If ever I needed evidence for why this Forum is about to turn nasty and negative Morgan's comment is stark evidence.

In suspect the next two weeks are going to be fun .....

I would agree, in the past it seemed new joiners were more interested in the facilitation of debate, or people who did not seem to grasp that your "afterlife" theory was not paranormal, but based in brain science and neuroscience - and wanted to see if they could argue you out of your position.

This other DOES sound personal. If I may share with you, Tony, there have been 3 or 4 instances ( 1 online, 3 in New York City, 2 were male, 2 were female, one was in fact my niece, one was a quite prominent New Yorker - if you like, I could give you the names and details ) where people had their feelings hurt, NOT by anything you said or did, but because they craved personal/special attention from you, which was more than you could give. Take it as a compliment, and maybe this is the author -as -charismatic-figure moment? Jealousy, resentment, rancor: And all because you did not make them feel special. The shadow side of charisma and success.

Public figures CAN and DO learn to deal with this. You need an agent, someone to field your readers and those who attend your lectures. DO NOT GIVE UP TONY: Your star is rising, and you CAN and WILL be able to handle this new shift in experience and responsibility. WE who know and love you and your books, and know how profoundly needed are your theories in our world today, have every faith in you.