Ayem Dies

Yesterday I went to the funeral of my dear friend Ayem. I first met Ayem in 2004 at a Neil Hague exhibition in London and we went on to work closely together on Planet X Radio and the Exopolitics Leeds conferences. For example see: https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2014/01/ben-emlyn-jones-on-planet-x-radio-12.html. and: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2011/08/leeds-exopolitics-expo-2011.html. She died on the 12th of December and I only realized exactly how sad I am about it when I was on the way home from the funeral in Liverpool yesterday. This despite the fact that Ayem had been keeping herself to herself lately, and I'd not spoken to her for over a year. This experience was very different from David Boyle's funeral. Although I respected David for his work and I enjoyed his company during the few times I met him, he was not an intimate personal acquaintance, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/10/david-boyle-dies.html. I travelled to Liverpool by train and arrived at the crematorium several hours early. I passed the time by strolling round the huge adjoining cemetery. There were many very elaborate tombs with very moving epitaphs; Liverpudlians are particularly good at that sort of thing. I had my earphones with me and ended up listening to two radio shows which I found very comforting. I didn't choose these shows, they just appeared randomly on shuffle-play; I felt that this was synchronicity, see: https://theunexplained.tv/episodes/edition-419-mark-macnicol and: https://theunexplained.tv/episodes/edition-420-whitley-strieber. I then met up with a good friend of Ayem and myself and we had a long conversation. There were a large number of people at the funeral. Nearly all of them I knew and many I had not seen for a long time. I wish we had been reunited under happier circumstances. I joked that it reminded me of this rather triste German Christmas TV advert:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_B6wQMd2eI. The ceremony was short and simple. It consisted of some music and then a few people did some readings about their relationships with Ayem and some poetry that inspired them. The committal song was Hey Jude by The Beatles. Afterwards we had a wake in a pub near Penny Lane, a place made famous by another Beatles song. Ayem was a bright light in the darkness of the both the blue pilled and red pilled world. In a Truth movement where the only issue that seems to arouse anybody's passion these days is who is, or is not, a shill; Ayem was truly committed to the vision of building a better world. She didn't suffer fools gladly and she was not afraid to put one of the speakers at the Exopolitics conference in his place when he overstepped the mark. However, she was extraordinarily tolerant and easygoing when it came to the human failings and eccentricities of honest people. During one Planet X show, I got into a heated debate with the guest, probably more so than I should have. I was not rude or aggressive, but I still think I exceeded my remit as the interviewer. Ayem didn't mind and the show continued as normal. The guest did not complain and neither did any listener. Ayem had a legendary sense of humour as well. I recall an cringe-worthy episode at Exopol when I was in Ayem's hotel room with her and about half a dozen other people. We all got very drunk and behaved in a manner that I look back on with embarrassment, as I suspect do the others who were there that night; but Ayem did not. For her, it was all part of the fun. RIP Ayem. I'll miss you very much and hope our paths cross again on the other side. This is a very sad way to end the year.