Mystic Mentor
Weird, Wicked Weird By Kathryn Skelton ,
Ahura Z. Diliiza wants to help make the world a better place and teach others how to fulfill their potential - that's why he started the Unicorn School of Metaphysics
Sun Journal Staff Writer
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Click Here for photos and audio clips from this article.
WESTBROOK - Ahura Z. Diliiza used to stop and tell strangers when he saw something funny in their aura, and he'd get angry if they didn't listen.
Frankly, he came off as loony.
He sees that now.
A teacher taught him impulse control. To keep his head down. Zip his lips.
A year ago Diliiza (pronounced De-LEE-za) set up Maine's first school of metaphysics in an old funeral parlor on Main Street. In the evening, he heads up the Unicorn Rangers Psychic Police Department, a group whose advertised services include spell breaking, malevolent entity removal and eradicating vampirism.
They make house calls anywhere from one to 15 times a month.
He's the unicorn.
"The unicorn is a symbol of Christ and the unicorn is also a dispeller of evil," Diliiza said. "That's what I do. I dispel evil. My whole name means 'Benevolent God's champion, one who destroys evil.'"
The universe gave him the name, he said. He was born with something less exotic that he stopped using 25 years ago and prefers not to share.
Brain Box Entertainment, behind shows like the History Channel's new "The Million Dollar Challenge," is shopping a reality show based on the unorthodox school, its rangers' close encounters with the unusual and Diliiza, a striking Mr. T-like figure with long blond dreadlocks.
In his office, packed with recording equipment, bagpipes and a "life tree" no one's allowed to touch, he's ambivalent about the idea of becoming a star on the small screen.
"I did tell them, look, I'm not interested in some show like 'Ghost Hunters,'" he said. "I'm a real paranormal investigator, I'm not someone who's going to run when a ghost shows up. They show up all the time."
The rules: No drama
Diliiza opened a retail store first, seven years ago, in downtown Portland. He's originally from Los Angeles, where he said he grew up poor, watching people get shot point-blank.
"I was working at Denny's, at the Congress Denny's, then moved to the Brighton Denny's. Then one day I was walking down Congress and decided it was time to just start," he said.
He sold candles, incense and herbs out of the small storefront, and offered classes.
Just over a year ago he moved into the former funeral parlor.
When the next session at Unicorn Cove School of Metaphysics starts Sept. 12, there will be a whole slate of course offerings: tarot, numerology, psychic development, soul travel, meditation, martial arts. Tai chi, belly dance and hula classes, aikido, psychic development and psychic police training and something called Pegascene -a class that once took Diliiza and his students to Indiana for a chili-cheeseburger, just for the experience -are ongoing.
Pegascene's about strength, beauty, exploring culture and learning from the adventure, he said. In another field trip, students dressed like rednecks and went to the Christmas Tree Shop.
Diliiza teaches most classes at the school. Family and other staff, such as a chief prayer warrior, - who Diliiza trained - do the rest.
He interviews all potential students, "reads" them and asks, "What do you want?" He said he turns down more than he accepts.
"If you want to help, I'm interested in you. If you want to master something, I'm interested in you...
"But if you just want to look cool and say that you know magic, I have no interest whatsoever," said Diliiza, 47. "There's a lot of magic to be learned in this world. Magic isn't about saying abracadabra and making a door open."
The school's rules are strict and framed on the wall: No drama. No drugs. No dating. No, this isn't a cult or coven. And leave what others have to say at the door; it doesn't matter.
Classes are by donation only; so are all the rangers' services.
That has some people suspect, he said. "People just don't believe that someone like me even exists, they don't believe it. They think I want something, and I don't, I really don't. I have talent, I have a gift."
Fees for extras, like $15 for a fire bath (drawing out negative energy using fire cups) and $30 for astrological charts, help pay the bills.
Even then, "If you need healing, you don't have the money, the money is irrelevant," Diliiza said.
He, his wife and daughter live upstairs in the former Hay Funeral home. A downstairs room sells statues and tea herbs: Dragon balance, Buddha's clarity, cedar, pine cones and jars marked "girl tea" and "boy tea."
Girl tea is for monthly symptoms, Diliiza said. Boy tea is for "stupid symptoms."
'The impossible happens daily'
Diliiza said he's a telepath; he describes the ability as letting him see further, "my eyes are bigger than yours." A lot of his message gets at the power of positive thinking and energy (don't wish something bad on someone, it'll bounce back onto you).
"I'm very 'what you see is what you get.' No trinkets. No silly waving about of wands," he said.
"Mysticism says that anything is possible. As a matter of fact, the impossible happens daily, all you have to do is take the blinders off. That's what mysticism is."
Diliiza raised the school's profile recently with commercials on the Sci-Fi Channel. One warning about "psychic predators" was inspired, Diliiza said, by a frantic woman who came in complaining that a local psychic "wanted to charge her $900 and told her if she didn't come back to see her that she couldn't help her because her son would die."
That frantic woman is one of many people who have sought out Diliiza. He figures he's helped thousands across the country.
Kristen Theroux of Standish came in seeking guidance. She was referred by her mom's co-worker. Two years later, she's one of the nine Unicorn Rangers psychic policemen.
"I was one of the people that ended up there, I would say by coincidence, but there's really no such thing," she said.
Rangers' services include everything from removing hexes - "You would be amazed at how many people hex each other, not even meaning to," according to Diliiza - to offering a sort of psychic muscle at weddings.
He stations rangers to keep "negative vibrations" off the bride and groom. An ordained minister, he performs the ceremony.
More common are house calls to people experiencing paranormal activity. They can't sleep, have visions.
"I have to go out and determine whether there's an actual paranormal event taking place or does that person just drink too much cough syrup," Diliiza said.
If it's legit, to his mind, there's a cleansing ceremony with Bible verses, holy water and an exorcism.
Once rangers leave, Diliiza tells homeowners to cool it with the arguing, fussing, drugs or drinking - or risk inviting the bad energy back. (See sidebar for one encounter with an ugly phantom, in his own words.)
Despite the standing offer, no Maine police have approached him for help with open cases.
Diliiza's started a $100,000 building fund on the school's Web site, asking for donations toward a bigger space. The eventual goal: Have 12 schools of metaphysics around the world. Theroux, down in Florida now with two other rangers, hopes to open the first satellite Unicorn Cove store in a year.
Diliiza grins at the idea of rangers running each of those schools. "I'll just get to flit around then and look mystical."
He sent in tapes to Brain Box of two recent home cleansings. In one, family members reported being pushed and hurt. He performed an exorcism and destroyed their Ouija board.
Genevieve Croteau, development manager at Brain Box, said it's a "notoriously slow" process to pitch and sell a show, and they're approaching everybody.
Diliiza's "sparkling personality, his dedication and his conviction" would make for a great reality show, she said. "We think this one has a lot of potential, especially because of Ahura. He's the 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' of the psychic world."
A Unicorn Rangers' house call, in Ahura Z.'s words
Saturday, September 1, 2007
A young couple came in for help, because they were experiencing nightmares, loss of energy and a constant feeling of fear in their home. They had a 3-year-old daughter who seemed terrified to be left alone.
The mother who was a practitioner of Wicca herself and a very positive woman, was experiencing chronic mood swings, and "nothing was going right," as she put it. "It's my home, and I'm afraid to be there. I feel as if something horrible is watching me, and it's always so cold, but not a cold that I can get away from."
I'd been acquainted with her before, and she always seemed cheerful and vital, but now she was pale and looked exhausted. I asked her if anything bad happened on her property, and she said that she didn't know. I got an impression of a man, and began drawing a picture of the person that I saw in my vision. She saw the picture and reacted violently as if she recognized the picture. I made arrangements to meet her and her husband at their home. He was a musician and had a mini studio in the home, and other than the constant "creepy feeling" and the occasional nightmare, had very nominal experiences.
Upon arriving with my team, I noticed that there was indeed a very thick energy emanation. The air around the house looked dim, and almost liquid. I immediately instructed my prayer warriors to begin reciting prayers of protection for the family, and the team.
I dispatched two of my agents to stay with the family and one to take photographs.
As we entered the home I stopped because my attention was drawn upwards. I looked up to see what looked like footprints, actual footprints on the ceiling leading into the house. It was as if someone had taken their shoes and walked them on the ceiling. It was then that I felt the cold, my whole team did. Normally what people call a "cold spot" is not a cold spot but just a "nothing spot." In other words, energy is energy, and needs energy in order to be. So just like we, who have a body, need energy in the form of food to survive, those that are without a body need energy in the form of electromagnetic or kinetic energy in order to be. Therefore the result is what is called by the psychic policemen a "nothing spot," which feels cold because the energy has been temporarily drained (or eaten) in order to sustain the paranormality in that particular space.
The place was very cold, and I wondered at the state of the house, and asked why there was so much still incomplete in their decoration. The wife said that they just can't get it done. Every time they try to complete one thing something breaks, and there is no explanation for it. I got the impression of cats being under the porch, or floor boards, and asked if there are cats. She said that they found the skeletons of a bunch of cats under the house after they purchased it.
I knew at that time that we were dealing with a phantom, and without going into another rant on what a phantom is, lets just say that it can hurt you or even cause you to hurt yourself. I concluded that the house needed to be cleaned, and began setting up my tools. Immediately a toy that belonged to the child began to spontaneously talk, LOUDLY. Now the fact that the toy talked wasn't abnormal - as it was a toy that talked when you pulled its string - but the fact that it talked at that time, when no one was near it, was abnormal, and it even stuttered. "Would you count with me, count with me, would you count with me one, two, three, would you count with me..." I finally said sternly "Knock it off!" and it stopped. The family jumped when the toy spoke, and almost comically drew close to me. I calmed them down and assured them that the policemen that were assigned to them would allow nothing to happen to them. That seemed to work, until a stove in the room clicked to life.
I looked at the husband, who looked as pale as a ghost, which prompted me to move over to the stove. I saw what the husband was reacting to. It looked as if the stove had been disconnected, as the wires were actually severed. One fell to the floor as if on cue. The husband said the stove had been disconnected for six months, and there was no WAY that should be happening. At that time something else began to occur. On the chimney, a face began to appear as an impression on the bricks. I recognized the face and asked "Kelly," my chief, to bring me the drawing that I did during our first meeting with the family. I compared them, and there he was, almost identical to the drawing. We now knew who the culprit was and what had to be done. I took the family to a high energy room, which happened to be the husband's mini studio, and instructed them to stay there. I had two of my officers with prayers put holy water in strategic places around the home.
And I began the exorcism. All of a sudden the place grew warm, and the stove again clicked as if trying to ignite itself, the toy talked and a very angry presence filled the air. I proceeded. The ceremony that I perform employs white candles, and the key element of this ritual is to not be distracted, no matter what. The air thickened around my hand that was holding the candle, and I saw what looked like a hand trying to bat the candle from my hands. Someone was screaming aimless words at me that really had no form and were meant solely to distract me. I proceeded.
Finally there was a pop, and the thickness in the air went away. The house felt lighter. I called the family out and left them with instructions to follow, which they did, and last I heard they were doing fine. They have since completed the work on the house, the husband, who was ill, has recovered, the wife is back to her bright self, and the child is fine. As I understand it, they sold the house and live somewhere in Portland.