The Phenomenist: Apports and Asports

So another component of paranormal phenomena which hasn't received a whole lot attention in the blog yet is that of the psychic.  Which really is a damn shame, when you think about it, as some of the richest and most unusual reports fall into that arena, which is why I plan on rectifying that immediately. Next entry I'll talk a little bit more about psychic phenomena in general and a theory I cooked up having to do with it, but for today we'll get our feet wet with a little review of two commonly reported (relative to other psychic phenomena) occurrences that are attributed to psychic mechanisms, the instances of Apports and Asports.

Put simply, an Apport is the appearance of an object or living thing out of thin air and an Asport is the reverse, or its disappearance. Some paranormal researchers reason that the people able to apport and asport objects are in fact mentally disintegrating the object in one place and reintegrating it in another. Others claim that the psychics have no control over the objects they choose to bring to them, while others claim they indeed have the ability to specify exact items that they can target with this ability. Still others believe the psychic is actually constructing the item without the deconstruction of a replica item or vice versa, meaning that they would truly be creating "something from nothing" (thanks to the laws of thermodynamics, this last position has mostly fallen out of style). The ability to "conjure" things into or out of existence without any reasonable explanation has long been a purported power of many different self-proclaimed psychics, magicians, and holy men and reached it's overall peak in reportings in the late 1800's, coinciding with the height of the popularity of mediums and seances. At that time, a series of investigations into the field began, with the vast majority of the claimed psychics being revealed as fraudulent, leading to the decline in popularity of seances and the practitioners/facilitators thereof. However, there are still to this day scattered reportings of the otherwise inexplicable appearance of small objects in situations where such things should not occur.

Case Files: The Cheshire Dog, pt. 2

So, you got to see what I saw. Here's how I responded.

 

---

 

Hey everybody!

 

So...I have a couple more random thoughts in no particular order to toss into the conversation, so here we go...!

 

1. The discomfort associated with the memory by the original/main subject of the phenomena...why? Is this due to how the subject ended up rationalizing the experiences, or possibly the negative feelings she associated from her social support at the time rubbing off enough on her to negatively reinforce the topic as a whole? Or did something bad happen after the dog started to appear? I'd be curious to hear -why- she dislikes talking about it...

 

2. I understand everyone has a different eye for details, and it may just be me, but mentioning a "buried treasure" seems somewhat incongruous, and I'd like to know more whether the mentioning of that particular point was just coincidental or if there was something behind that. Did she get the feeling like the dog was guarding something? Or was it just a flavor detail?

 

3. Large and wavy fur would indicate a large likelihood of a herding or hunting dog, if I recall my dog show assistant experience at all correctly, though probably more likely herding. They're both known for their unusual intelligence, as well as being pretty aces at athletic feats...though if we could get a better ID on the breed we may have more traits to go on. Either way, this probably wasn't a "stupid dog", which leads me to my next point...

 

4. Bachelor lived there. 1930s. Any background on Señor Richy-Britches or a history of his pets (if he had any)? Seems like it'd make sense for him to have one, given the time and social climate, and (BIG jump on this line of logic) if he was a bachelor and died as such, then his only constant, deepest emotional contact would be his faithful hound. Also, a better idea as to the layout of the house and which rooms were which might also give insight into the issue, which I personally see as a toss-up between two off-the-cuff-completely-not-based-on-anything-other-than-an-educated-guess theories (assuming the manifestation of the phenomena was not explainable by conventional means [which seems difficult, as I imagine trying to reconcile a ghostly Cheshire Dog with reality isn't the easiest thing to do]): either a) she resemble(s/d) someone who abused/killed the dog in life, and he always manifests with the terror/hatred he felt towards the original or b) the "master" still dwells there (as a spiritual manifestation) and the dog feels she is getting too close to him and is attempting to protect him from the intruder. I personally lean more towards the second, from the note about her noticing the footsteps when no one else did (at least initially) as well as the fact she saw it often in her room, which I'm thinking may have actually been originally the master's room or possibly the "pet room". So, if that were the case, then it stands to reason that she'd be pretty high on the spectral dog's doo-doo list, so to speak. Keep in mind, that was all based on a -large- number of logical assumptions which are more than likely wrong, so I broker no offense to anyone saying that they think those are ludicrous working theories :P

 

5. Like YYYYY and ZZZZZ said, memory loss or "blanking" after a traumatic or logically irreconcilable event is quite common. I probably wouldn't call it amnesia per say, since I bet you dollars to donuts that she probably could tell you other events that happened in her life at that time, she simply denied the experience at such a basic level that it ceased to be a conscious memory, so as to allow her to put some distance between herself and the worldview-warping memory. There's a wide range of responses, from direct confrontation, to avoidance (as the primary subject appears to be exhibiting), to denial (conscious or subconscious), to amnesia, to fugue, to PTSD, to gosh knows how many different mental aberrances and abnormalities. To make a bad joke/analogy, pretend the mind is a baby...if Patrick Swayze taught us anything, it was to never put it in a corner, which it seems the "dog" forced it into in a manner of speaking. A relatively benign corner, but one all the same. Anyways, million dollar question: why mention it now? Was it the friend's mother's inexplicable experiencing of the basement noises that jogged her memory back to that spot?

 

6. As far as other weird notes and errata about the story as it stands...Ghost Dog: a movie starring Forrest Whittaker, if I remember from my Blockbuster video days. But, lots of occasions in tales for animals to become ghosts that appear with malevolence, both in an abused or protector setting, but also to occasionally warn of ill-fortune yet to come (doubtful, since there was ample time for that to happen and it doesn't seem like it did, and multiple manifestations don't usually occur). Also tales of playful animal spirits (though highly unusual for them to be playful with anyone outside their immediate family at the time of death, and also doubtful due to the palpable malevolence felt during each event). Lastly, in European and Middle Eastern countries, the sacrificing of animals and subsequent haunting of the premises where the ritual was done at is/was quite common, but actually as a form of good luck, if I'm not mistaken...but yeah, none of the other types of spiritual animals seem to match the simultaneously occurring aura of hostility.

 

Anyhoo, fun story, I'd be curious to see what happens next. Take care!

---

And there you have it, a glimpse into my world. Have a good weekend!

 

 

Case Files: The Cheshire Dog, pt. 1

So a week or two ago, everyone in my paranormal research group received an email from one of our member, who received an email from a friend asking if she had any opinions about something that happened to her earlier in her life. I thought it was relatively interesting, so I copied a transcript of the email (it already had the names edited out, but even if it hadn't I would've, and I also removed a couple of specific geographical landmarks as well) with the intent of showing you the sorts of things we get asked to look into. Next entry on the blog will be my analysis of the story...

---

It happened when we were 11 or 12 years old and afterwards we didn't mention it to each other again until we were over 40. At that point I wanted to confirm that it really had happened as I remembered it, so I finally asked XXXXX if she remembered "the dog." She said yes and confirmed that she remembered what I remembered, but the discussion made her very uncomfortable. Out of respect for her feelings, I can't make the story public, but I would like to tell you about it and see if you have any ideas about what it might mean.

XXXXX and I have been best friends since second grade and we grew up on the same street. She lived in a beautiful house that was built by a wealthy bachelor in the 1930s. He supposedly hid a stash of money somewhere in the house, but nobody ever found it. I loved her house. It was much fancier than mine and was surrounded by gardens and a filbert orchard. XXXXX loved the house too, but always said that there was sometimes something scary in it. She was afraid to be home alone and said that when she was alone she heard heavy footsteps on the basement stairs. Her parents laughed off her fears and told her she was imagining it. (Her elderly mother still lives in the house and for decades insisted that nothing was wrong with the house. A few months ago, XXXXX's  mom reported that she had locked herself in the bathroom because she heard banging in the basement and the sound of footsteps on the basement stairs. She assumed somebody had broken in, but later found no evidence of that.) That's the background to my story. XXXXX grew up in a house that frightened her, a house where she heard noises and occasionally saw things.

XXXXX was a believer. I wasn't. I tend to prefer rational, scientific explanations for things. I would entertain the notion of ghosts the way I entertain notions of vampires and werewolves. I love to get a chill up my spine from contemplating other-worldly beings and hearing stories, but I didn't really believe they existed. XXXXX and I brought very different mindsets to our shared experience. 

When we were 11 or 12, XXXXX told me that she had started seeing what she called a ghost dog. The first time she saw him was in the middle of the night. She woke up and in a shaft of moonlight, she saw a dog materialize next to her bed. It was a large dog with wavy black fur. He was sitting on his haunches, leaning forward, looking at her intently. It drew back its lips and exposed its teeth, as if it were snarling, but it was absolutely silent. As she stared at the dog, he disappeared. He frightened her. She said that she saw him many nights and was having trouble sleeping. 

Her house was surrounded by filbert orchards and we spent a lot of time playing among the trees. XXXXX said that the ghost dog had started appearing to her in the orchard. It always happened close to sunset. She insisted that she didn't walk around a corner and see him and he didn't jump out from behind a tree, the way a real dog might. He appeared and disappeared while she was watching. He always was in the same position and he always snarled silently before disappearing.

XXXXX's parents thought she was making it up and didn't want to hear any stories about ghosts. I was the only person she could tell. I listened sympathetically and said it sounded scary, but the truth was that I was just as skeptical about ghosts as her parents were. I didn't think she was making it up. I knew she was really frightened, but I figured she had psyched herself into it. I thought she had a recurring nightmare about the dog showing up in her bedroom at night and that she was so jittery that she was imagining she saw the dog in the orchard. That she jumped and ran at the sight of a stump, or something. I was in no way predisposed to see it myself.

Our mothers had convinced us that if we walked home alone after dark we were likely to be murdered, so whenever XXXXX and I visited each other and had to walk home after dark, we'd split the risk. The host would walk halfway home with the guest, then we'd split up and head home separately. Share the risk. Confuse any homicidal pervert with two targets. One evening I was leaving XXXXX's house and, as per our agreement, she was going to walk halfway home with me. She had a long driveway that was edged by a laurel hedge so dense that nothing could have jumped out of it. (We had tried to build forts in it and couldn't penetrate it.) Exterior lights from the house and the garage illuminated the driveway. We walked out of her back door, came around the corner of the house and started up the driveway. All of a sudden a dog materialized in front of us. It was the dog XXXXX had described: large, with black wavy fur, sitting on his haunches. I remember that it carried a real aura of menace. XXXXX and I grabbed each other. I was too frightened to scream. The dog exposed its teeth in a silent snarl that resembled a grin.  As we were looking at it, it disappeared. It didn't leap away. It faded away. 

This is as much as I remember and over time, I started to question the memory. It defies sense. XXXXX and I didn't tell anybody. I didn't validate her story to her parents. Why not? Somehow I still walked home, but it's hard to believe I wasn't too scared to do so. I can't remember what happened next and XXXXX and I seemed to have an unspoken agreement never to mention the event to each other. It's funny. It still feels like a moral imperative. I am hard-wired not to talk to XXXXX about it, as if it would betray our friendship to do so. For 30 years I mulled over the memory and over time it bothered me more and more. I finally had to ask XXXXX if it really happened. She told me that it did, but she doesn't want to discuss it further and I'm left wondering about my post event amnesia. Maybe amnesia isn't right, but I can't recall any aftermath to the event. It's like it happened in a void and had no logical consequences.

Have you heard of an animal being a ghost?  A ghost who deliberately appears before someone and seems to aim his malevolence toward the person seeing him? And have you ever heard of the kind of amnesia I experienced after the event?

---

END TRANSMISSION.

Lord and Master

Hey guys, quick heads up...while i really want to continue this amazingly prolific streak that I've kept going over the last five weeks, I feel like I need to pull it back a bit, so I'm going to reduce my output to only three a week rather than five. Hopefully that won't break too many hearts, but I'm thinking it's either this or risking burnout between this and "real life". 

Anyways, this entry is going to talk about an odd demon commonly known as Master Leonard, pictured on the right. Master Leonard, while being a demon of relatively little reknown in popular culture is supposedly one of the more influential demons in all of Hell. Specifically, he is the chief-master of ceremonies for all orgies, sabbaths, and black celebrations. In addition, he is the strongest sorcerer of all demonkind, leading to his being worshipped by practitioners of the black arts. His appearance is that of a man with three goat horns coming out of his head, a black face, and very "goatish" features overall. His overall demeanor is apparently very withdrawn and depressed, until a gathering occurs, at which point he becomes incredibly charismatic and outgoing. Outside of that, he specializes in transformation and shapeshifting into a variety of forms, which is fully in line with his capricious and tempestuous nature. As to any historically/religiously memetic reasons for his existence, it is postulated that he is the personification of one of the goats spoken of in Leviticus 16:8.

Faces of Death: Ankou

Somewhat morbid picture notwithstanding, the Ankou is a truly unusual entity in Brittanic folklore that takes the place of the normal death-incarnate of choice for the West, the Grim Reaper. While there are many different legends surrounding their creation (one of which I'll get into in a bit), there are a couple of standard features which are recognized by all who know of him; first, that while he is referred to as a singular entity, supposedly every parrish has their very own Ankou (supposedly the last dead person for each year must become the Ankou until the next year with it's unfortunate last-deceased). Another unique feature is that he rides in a rickety carriage with four gaunt horses and two ghostly attendants at his side. He is never seen without a scythe and dressed in all black, but unlike the Reaper, has a wide-brimmed hat and coat rather than a hooded robe. Also, contrary to the picture, no one has ever seen his face. The reason for this is that he wears his coat with the collar turned up and the hat set low, making it impossible to see within unless he wants you to. If, by some unlucky chance you should happen to see his face, then truly you're S.O.L., because that means you are dead and he's there to load you into his cart to take you away to the land of the dead.

As to his genesis, it is said that one evening a long time ago, a very cruel prince who loved to hunt for sport spotted an amazing specimen of a stag as well as a lone traveller nearby. Wanting sport, he issued a challenge to the traveller, stating that the first one to the stag would not only be recognized as the greater hunter, but also would be allowed to decide the loser's fate. Upon the gaunt stranger's acceptance, they both gave chase to the stag, who was truly the most difficult prey the prince had ever encountered, running for miles and miles. And try as he might, the prince found himself getting further and further behind, until he finally caught up with the stag...as it laid dead at the feet of the gaunt stranger who stood in front of it. Recognizing his defeat, the prince asked what the stranger would have of him, to which the stranger replied: "oh, you may have the stag...and all the world's dead as well", revealing himself as Death, from which none could escape, and thereby cursing the prince to the fate of becoming his chief hunter.

Anyways, it should go without saying, but if you're ever in Europe and see a rickety old wagon with four sickly horses drawing it and it's being driven by some guy dressed head to toe in old black clothing so that you can't see his face, best to play it safe and get the hell out of there :P

Hipster Crystal Guide: The Exciters

Okay pilgrims, last set of three, then onto a creature profile to finish out the week. This set are the wildcards, the ones that mainly just stir things up both for forces within and without the their owners. And unlike the last few days, no introductory messing around, we're gonna just get right down to it :)

Merlinite-I'm assuming that you probably already caught it from the stone's somewhat heavy-on-the-foreshadowing name, but this crystal is -all- about magic in all forms, including shamanistic, priestly, and alchemical sorts. It is supposed to boost any occurrences around it, for better or for ill.

Staurolite-The Fairy Cross! This is a very lucky stone, bringing not only protection and improving communication, it is also supposed to enhance white magic. Not that I plan to be learning anything in that way anytime soon, but my simplified reasoning is thus: if "black magic" is the bad stuff, then it stands to reason that the opposed color magic, "white magic", must be at the very least "not bad". And yes, I'm aware that's probably one of the more asinine statements I could make regarding logic, magic, or paranormal things in general, but hey, who's the one behind the keyboard?

Nebula Stone-Apparently, this one is the ultimate wildcard, as it's too new for anyone to know what it's capable of. Supposedly it is a stone of unification and oneness, allowing for profoundly extensive healing but also is supposed to allow you to "connect with infinity", whatever the hell that means. If nothing else, it is also the most uniformly expensive out of all the stones I researched.

Hipster Crystal Guide: The Revelators

Hey there, fearless kids and cadets! Today we're going to talk about the next set of crystals, the ones that seem a bit more active in their abilities (shielding, deflection, and warding, which are al terms that assume "attacks" in the first place) than the last set, which were mostly passive (healing, communication, and purification). But before we get to that, let me delve into some more general background.

One could very easily ask, why would one use crystals when dealing with paranormal activity over other methods (assuming all had the same efficacy rate)? While everyone else's mileage may vary on it, my personal response would be this: most talismans, amulets, charms, and what-have-you that claim the ability to ward off the dead or spirits from beyond require a pre-requisite faith in whatever religion created/condones them to allow them to be effective. Regardless of what you may see in the movies, if you throw up a couple of sticks in the shape of a cross and you're a Muslim, then the religious power that imbues the object is lacking, and the protective capabilities of the object fall away, leaving you to get eaten by a more-than-likely Nosferatu-looking vampire (because you should be so lucky to get eaten by a hot one). So, if most wards and talismans need faith, does that make crystals any different? Well, not really. But being that I'm relatively heavy on my agnosticism (as of right now, anyways), I find it easier to carry around a couple of passive stones in my pocket than to pledge my faith in a deity. So that's why crystals.

That said, the contestants this evening are...

Aquamarine-Funnily enough, this happens to be my birthstone. Favoritism notwithstanding, this crystal is said to bring courage and calm to the wielder. A known harmonizer, this stone also brings light in times of darkness, in addition to being pretty good at shielding auras against attack. Lastly, it's said to improve focus in stressful situations.

Labradorite (Spectrolite)-Kinda unusual that one of the stones that made my "best of" list was named after a dog, huh? (That was sarcasm, I know it was named after the region of Labrador) This stone is recognized for being quite mystical, protecting it's owners through deflection of attacks on their aura. It is a stone that also brings light, but more in the spirit of enlightenment through initiation, improving the imagination, intuition, and psychic abilities of it's user.

Chiastolite (Andalusite)-Also known as the Cross Stone, this hot rock is a stone of protection through the warding of auras, preventing attacks from even being launched in the first place. It specializes in situations involving a life/death transition, and is also considered pretty awesome at dissolving illusions and preserving sanity. That said, it's also a natural analytical and creative-thinking strengthener.

Hipster Crystal Guide: The Harmonizers

 So, hopefully you feel refreshed after your quick celery break. That said, for day two of Crystal Week, we're going to focus on three stones that primarily deal with the properties of healing and purification. Before that though, a warning: I know crystals and vibrations and New Agey stuff isn't for everyone. That said, I feel this is just as viable a topic to cover as any of the other things I've talked about; I mean, once you're in psuedoscience at all, it really is the final frontier, so in for a penny, in for a pound.

Supposedly, crystals are supposed to have specific vibrational properties that allow them to align and manipulate other vibrations, such as in living beings by affecting their chakra flows and auras. As the logic goes, in the spirit-based world crystals have vast powers since it is theorized by practitioners of the Crystal Way (I don't actually know what it's called, I'm just going to call it that) that most effects that we experience are composed of these same vibrations. One could liken the crystals to fans, and spirits as smoke...being that we are tangible beings, we can feel the effect of the crystals by being near us, but since spirits lack tangibility, the crystals affect them much more. Or at least, that's how my grossly-over simplified analogy will stand, anyways.

Also, as a final note before we get onto the stones, all descriptions are paraphrased from The Crystal Bible, by Judy Hall. That said, let's present them, shall we?

Turquoise-A pretty common gemstone, turquoise is a great healing stone, both in body and spirit. It's been regarded as a protective stone by different civilizations, and is also useful in opening one up for communication with "spirit worlds". It also supposedly had a decent purification effect for "electromagnetic smog" and negative energy.

Angelite-A newish stone (at least to me, I'd never heard of it until researching all of this), Angelite is supposedly a stone of openness and peace. It primarily increases the user's awareness and perception, and helps attune them to other beings' fields. This allows other healing effects to be made much more powerful. It also is a strong bringer of positive energy, in addition to fostering truth and compassion.

Black Tourmaline (Schorl)-This bad boy was, without a doubt, the strongest of the purifying stones in the book. It's absolutely great at cleansing, purifying, and protecting against almost anything you can toss at it, including (and this is a somewhat rare claim for crystals) protection against psychic and spell attacks. Go figure. It also is supposed to promote healing and understanding.

Celery Man

New week, party people, and the theme for this one is going to be crystals and their properties. But because I feel a bit lazy and it's nice to throw a curve ball here and there, I'm going with something a bit different today, and tomorrow will return you to your regularly scheduled loosely-related weirdness. That said, take it away, Paul Rudd...

 

 

 

Food For Thought

Anyways, that's the week, folks. I asked quite a few questions and, regardless of what the original intention was, don't really seem to be any closer to a codification system for the things I may encounter in the field here soon enough. However, I think that even coming up with the right questions to ask at all is the first step to even being able to wrap ones head around something new like this. I remember a linguistics teacher mentioning once how difficult it was to turn people onto the beauty and diversity of language, because if a society doesn't have a word for something it makes it next to impossible for someone within that society to try and conceive of it, which thereby makes trying to open your mind a much more difficult prospect than one would expect. Anyways, I'd like to think that by even trying to think of these paranormal phenomenons as something beyond "ghost story" and instead look at them as something that -can- be classified (or at least attempt to classify them), that in and of itself it the first step to maybe opening up the concept of a "ghost" in a way that hasn't been looked at in such a way. And yes, I don't have so much hubris as to think that I'm the first to ask these questions, but dang it, cut me some slack. o\One has to be able to run to the nearest Circle K before they can run a marathon, right? :P

Chiaroscuro (The Dynamics of Good and Evil)

Now, yesterday I opened up a small can of worms by briefly touching on the topic of possession. I'm going to get a bit further into that today, and if for some reason my reasoning or ultimate conclusions strike you as somewhat blasphemic, I apologize in advance. Anyways, possessions. What about them? Well, for starters, I think that the very concept of them are complete bull. OH SNAP! Yeah, I said it. I believe in the power of human belief and rationalization, and I also believe that the people so "possessed" are completely and utterly under the belief that they have no control over themselves, making the end result virtually identical to what we as a species believe "possession" to be. So how can I believe in the effects but not the concept? Easy. I simply believe that there is the ability to be given a spark of a feeling or idea, and depending on the sort of person you are, your own psyche does the rest. Like hypnosis, if you will. Certain individuals are highly suggestible, and thereby susceptible to hypnosis. And I bet you dollars to donuts that those same people would be (or depending on the situations, are) also more likely to run the risk of being "possessed" if the situation happens to have that as a risk. So, do I believe in human creativity and the occasional "mad lapse"? Sure. Do I believe in possession? No. Do I believe in the possibility of a supernatural phenomena being able to transfer impressions and feelings into other living beings? Maybe, but I find that alot easier to swallow than possession, so lets run with that. That being said, I propose the next major question that we ask in these cases is:

If established as empathic, where does the entity/phenomenon range between highly empathic (possessive) and neutral (doesn't transmit any feelings outside of those normally associated with inexplicable events)?

Next, let's talk morality. Man, we love to romanticize these stories, don't we? The good guy, the bad guy, the doomed guy, the tragic guy, the lover, the fighter, the coward, the blighter. We have so many archetypes present in the legends and tales, to try and help them conform to our sense of order in some way, to make them make sense in at least some small part. And while that attitude is completely understandable, it's inherently flawed. Seriously though, do we even want to try and pretend we know that a spirit by any definition knows/cares about "right" and "wrong" as we know it? They/it would be on a completely different plane of existence, and we want to try and enforce logic on that? I put it to you that there's no such thing as "good" and "evil" when it comes to the paranormal, only the effects of the presence:

Is the paranormal presence negative, positive, or neutral in aspect (is their overall effect on their surroundings one of darkness and decay, improving, or simply maintaining its surroundings)?

Again, these questions are to try and push past the idea of a ghost as a story and instead look at them as a testable, categorical phenomenon.

Something Wicked

So, yesterday I promised to get into the operationalization of what exactly consisted of a "haunting". In this case, I think a two part question is in order, just to try and drill down to the basics of what (general) elements are involved. The first bit is deceptively simple, and again, can be culled from most stories but is almost never stated outright:

What senses/forces are being manipulated in an inexplicable way?

 

This simple question alone allows one to straight up start classifying exactly what one is dealing with. Does it manipulate sound, by banging and slamming things (but never visibly)? Does it manipulate sight, by appearing as a shadowy figure or translucent being? Does it manipulate touch, by causing things to be visibly picked up and moved or by grabbing occupants of the property? That differentiation right there makes a huge difference in the sorts of patterns one sees reoccur throughout stories  and experiences. Also, while we're on the subject, I think that overall, there are five sorts of manipulations that can occur (from what I've read so far, anyways): sound, sight (a.k.a., a spectre), touch (also known as a poltergeist), environmental (including temperature control, taste, smell, and other physical factors), and empathic (those that cause intense feelings and [as I'll argue about tomorrow] possessions). I think that covers most of the bases, especially since each category of manifestation doesn't necessarily preclude any other category, but then we need to have the followup question depending on what categories it falls into:

 

If sound, are they abiotic (obviously created by non-living components, like chains clanking or doors slamming) or biotic sounds (those needing a living organism to cause, like footsteps, or whispering, or screaming)?

 

If touch, is the movement tracked while being in the same room with the moving objects, or is it only noticed after the inhabitants come into the area in question (do they see it happen or does weird stuff occur only when they're not in the room)?

 

If sight, is the shape humanoid or not? And regardless of that answer, is it luminous, shadowed, translucent, or normal-appearing? 

If environmental, is it small-scale or large-scale (in this case, is the experience confined to a restricted area or does the experiencer feel completely transported to another place and time)?

 

If empathic, what is the severity of the feelings felt (does the feeling feel like a vague impression, or is it severe enough to cause the experiencer to actually commit specific acts)?

 

So, with a basic question and a followup question as to specific parameters defining the phenomenon, we've basically summed up three quarters of almost every ghost story out there. Not that the "fluff" is unnecessary, building a comprehensive account of the happenings is important. But honestly, don't you think it would make things so much easier to just be able to discuss these things in more concrete terms rather than "you had to be there, but let me tell you what happened as best I can from beginning to end"...

What's In a Haunting?

In our first installment, let's discuss what the most basic aspects of a haunting are. Namely, the focus of the haunting, and the apparent reactivity of the haunting to outside stimuli.

 

Now, we'll get to the actual operationalization of a "haunting" tomorrow, but for today, let's just assume a haunting is a series of scientifically-inexplicable events that seem to share a common denominator of some sort. And that common denominator should be the first thing every investigator asks themselves:

 

What is the phenomena apparently linked to? Is it object, person, or location-linked?

 

This first descriptor seems highly overlooked as a major classification point, in my opinion. At most, it's a detail or footnote, never warranting an actual, careful classification overall. But I think this detail is quite important, seeing as most hauntings I've ever heard of are location-based, but there are a few that seem to follow objects and even fewer that follow people. That would indicate there are exceptions to the "rule" of location-based haunting, meaning that there exists some discriminating characteristics inherent to the genesis of the haunting itself...why/how would it bond to an ambulatory object or entity, or manifest itself in a stationary or mobile manner? This is a question that any working hypothesis of how ghosts operate should be able to answer. But enough of that, onto question two:

 

Does the phenomena appear to have a measurable stimulus response, in that it's behavior changes upon (independent) changes in the environment?

 

I was originally going to summarize this one as intelligent vs. unintelligent, but I realized this is a misnomer. If we are truly talking about apparitions as a scientific possibility, then we need to also accept that we have no way to gauge their logic, intelligence, morality, or anything of the sort...you could basically argue the same thing of trying to ascribe intelligence to a collection of lichen (if you believe in the non-intelligent "spiritual energy" angle) or an extraterrestrial (if you believe in the "independent visitor from beyond the veil" idea, where they retain shadows of their former feelings and faculties). In either case, they are so far outside of what we could consider a normal life form and the rules that govern one that I think we need to establish sentience before trying to determine intelligence. And the quickest way to determine that is to see if you can influence it. Can you make it more violent by playing a certain kind of music of yelling in an angry manner? Can you calm it by cowering or patting your grandmother's urn? If you can't then it's basically a force of nature, which doesn't mean it's not worth studying, it's just not worth trying to anthropomorphize a damn tornado.  If you can, then maybe we can start trying to treat it as something -possibly- more intelligent.

Parsimonious Blues

So, for this week I figured we could start talking turkey about one of the bigger topics in the paranormal investigation field, the classification of ghosts. Or, as I see it, the lack of classification. See, it seems like every story is just a jumble of experiences all thrown together in such a way that is supposed to make each ghost seem unique, like it's the only one of its kind in the world. Bee Ess. If one is truly trying to prove the existence of ghosts as a scientific fact (like most good little "believers" purport to), then lets start treating them as a real, testable scientific phenomena, such as light or sound. Let's actually construct a working hypothesis rather than trying to make the hypothesis some vague, untestable, nebulous crap that never really gets accepted in the wider body of literature.

 

What does that mean for us, then? Well, all this week we're going to ask a bunch of questions. From the next week on, I'll occasionally splash a little science article or finding in here and there, and what the ramifications of such a development could mean to paranormal investigations as a whole. Sound good? Cool, lets begin.

Mission Accepted!

 Just finished my interview to join PORT (the Paranormal Occult Research Team), and it looks like I've been accepted! I'll keep you guys appraised as I can (keeping in mind that I'm one of those weirdos who takes things like "confidentiality agreements" and "ethics" seriously), but it looks like the first step to actually getting some new material rather than meta-review has just officially been completed. Yee-haw!

Cryptid Synthesis: The Lindwyrm

One of my favorite cryptozoological mysteries is that of the Lindwurm (or Lindworm, or really simply a Wurm/Worm/Wyrm, since this little entry is going to be talking at a general level [I just happen to enjoy the way Lindwyrm sounds {and yeah, I'm aware I'm spelling it differently each time I type it, let me go on my little  homophonic spree}]), a European legend. Granted, there are many different variations of it, but the basic description of a Wyrm is a large, long, snake-like reptilian creature with either no arms or a small pair of front arms only. They are miscellaneously described as having a poisonous bite, breath, claws, and/or having wings, depending on the tale and who's telling it. However, the basic premise of a giant snake terrorizing various parts of Europe (sometimes simultaneously) gives me that "to much a coincidence to not have at least a kernel of truth" tickle that makes me think that it might be plausible a creature like this existed.

Why? Well, call it a hunch, but also keep in mind I'm talking kernels, not the whole shebang. I certainly find the idea of a poison-breathing land-dwelling leviathan completely implausible. However, I just think that the idea that they could've been the last vestiges of a dying species that may have experienced convergent evolution with (or possible was from the same ancestor stock as) anacondas or boa constrictors isn't necessarily too hard to swallow. Poisonous? Probably not, but Europeans in general would be familiar with their smaller, more venomous cousins and could easily have added that feature in each tales' retelling.

Maybe I'm being too naive in assuming that something like that could be possible, but it just strikes me as odd: that while you hear stories of different -wurms- and we are supposed to assume they're all fantastic creatures that are completely fabricated from the basis of a common snake, you never hear tales of anyone fighting a giant spider, or rat, or other animals. Why choose snakes? Sure, they can be poisonous, but there are other things as well; did snakes truly fascinate and terrify our ancestors that badly? Something in my gut tells me that there may be a bit more to it than that...

 

As a little "case study" for you, let me boil down the legend of the Lambton Worm, pictured above...keep in mind, however, that there are almost as many tales of different Worms are there were municipalities in Europe, so this is by no means the only tale of a Wurm out there. Basically, the tale goes like this: a fisherman (the eponymous Lambton), not having the appropriate level of piety as was socially decreed at the time, decides to skip church in favor of getting a jump on the prime fishing that was available to the sinners like him that cut church. Well, sure enough he catches something, but instead of a fish, he catches what looks like a small white eel. Thinking it useless, he gives up, chucks it into the well and promptly gets recruited for the Crusades. Well, while homeboy is gone, rather than expiring, the eel becomes bigger and bigger, eventually growing big enough to not only escape the well, but end up coiling itself around the hill the well was on a total of seven times. As you can imagine, the now fully-grown worm was pretty much it's own boss and didn't take sh-t from anyone, instead terrorizing the countryside, eating livestock and small children, and basically making the already sucky life of a peasant even worse. Well, after seven years, John the Fisherman (yes, his name really was John Lambton, though I did like having the opportunity to slip a Primus reference in there) comes back from the Crusades to find his village wrecked and everyone super-depressed. So, consulting a local witch/wise-woman, the ever-pragmatic Lambton was told to affix speakheads to his armor so that when the Wyrm undoubtedly began to try and crush him to death, the Wurm would instead inflict damage unto itself. The unusually knowledgeable wise-woman also let him know that after he killed the Worm that if he did not kill the first thing he saw afterwards, his family would be cursed with non-peaceful deaths for the next nine generations. So, while the local blacksmith was busy filling what was undoubtedly both the most unusual and bad-ass looking order he'd ever gotten with the spear-armor, John talked with his father and basically had the idea that once he killed the Wurm, they could let his favorite dog out and he would then slay it when it ran to him (pretty d-ck move, guys). So, after the armor is ready, Lambton heads down and defeats the nefarious Worm, and gives the signal for the dog-slaying to commence. However, Lambton's dad, obviously showing a bit of the Jackass Tree that his son's Dumbass Apple fell from, instead completely effs everything up and runs out to meet his son with a warm hug and some more than likely asinine platitude ("A Wyrm in pieces is worth two in the well", or something like that, I'd guess). So, thinking that they can escape a prophecy by faking it, they let the dog out and kill it all the same, but it's too late...the Lambtons are thereby cursed for the next nine generations to violent deaths thanks to animal cruelty and/or the inability to follow directions. And supposedly, the curse really did end up following their bloodline, which I guess sort of makes up for skipping church and killing a perfectly innocent dog, right? Anyways, the end ;)

Boggarts of Beaverton

 Aoo! Somehow it doesn't have the same ring to it as the song I was hoping to emulate does. Oh, and if you mention Kid Rock, then you're dead to me.

ANYways, onto haunted spots of Beaverton! On a cursory search, this is what I've come up with thus far...(all taken from the Shadowlands directory online, which is spotty at best from what I've heard)

• Shiloh Inn - The upstairs sports den and Canyon room are rumored to be haunted. Many employees and guests report here footsteps and a conversation between a man and women but upon further investigation no one is ever there. On occasion things will be moved about on their own, cups, chairs, ect. 
• Valley Theatre - This old discount theatre has had strange poltergist activity for years. In 1994 during renovation work crews were "persued" by a ominous creature that liked to play evil pranks and stalk the workers. Several workers quit due to the strange happenings around them and refused to come back to the location. And to this day strange occurances still happen to workers and visitors at this old theatre. 
• Westgate Cinema - A shadowy figure has been reported lurking in the upstairs projector room that was formerly a living quarters. When chased, the shadowy figure vanishes down a hallway that leads to double-doors that never opened.

So, two theaters and an inn, huh? The first sounds poltergeist-ish, the second sounds almost Fay-like (unseelie) from its description, and the third sounds like some shade or wraith or something. Of course, that's assuming these buildings are even still up...one wonders what could go down in a commercial building like these to cause such activity from then on, and if there really was a great deal of activity, with it being commercial, why would it never gain more scrutiny? Meh, I dunno, but here's hoping I have the time and means to check some of this out soon, I'm getting the itch to actually check some of this out...

Gear Up-Chinese Combat Shovel

I want to make it clear right now that I'm going to try my best, in this post as well as henceforth, to try to stay away from politics. That said, I really wish I could've bought USA-made and still gotten the quality for around the same price as I was able to, but even with a bit of searching, I couldn't so Ol' Big Red it was.

Anyways, combat shovel. You may be asking yourself, why? What possible purpose does a combat shovel have relative to the denizens of the unknown? Well, much like the body is the temple of the mind, the physical world still reigns king when it comes to considerations one should have when stalking around in the dark. And let me tell you, this thing can theoretically do all but vote in the primaries. Check this out...

So, we have the basic survival aspects of the investivgation pretty much all but covered with this thing. But what of the supernatural? Two specific attributes of this device come readily to mind; it has a hollow handle and it has a blade on one edge (albeit very dull). The hollow handle doesn't seem like much, but seriously, I'm finding that you can pack a-lot in there, with matches, fishing line, a small razor and a couple of nails. What I'd like to do is lose all that (well, maybe keep the matches), and toss in a small flashlight and flare. That covers the light angle, which seems to be a major component of the terror experienced while hunting about for bogeys. As well, using the shovel as a weapon, I think I'm going to go ahead and get at least the non-saw side coated in multiple places with different spiritually-significant metals, such as maybe one inch of the blade being silvered, another being cold-iron coated, another being meteoric-iron coated, and maybe the last inch being coppered. To be honest, I have no idea how I'd go about making this mega-weapon happen but...OOOOOH DAAAANG, just came up with it! Electroplating! Simple high school chemistry that's super easy to do, I'd just need to grab a couple of reagents and a decent battery and then wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, we're there.

Well, it looks like I've got a homework assignment. As soon as I've got the base ingredients to make the modifications to the weapon, I'll let you guys know how it goes, and maybe post a how-to.

New Jack City

I always considered the jacks in a deck of cards to be the most fun. As in, on those occasions where I put on my "betting man" hat, I usually support hands with jacks much longer than is considered to be safe or sane. But hey, everyone's got their quirks, I also do the same with pocket deuces, putting myself over my head into all-ins that require a miracle by the river lest I get washed out to sea...but enough of the poker poetry, this is a paranormalists blog, let's get to the weirdness already, right?

Well, no, actually. It's -my- blog, and while I do my best to stay on point, I figure it's worth a bit of time to just riff and let you see a bit more of your narrator other than through the random scraps of legends that he serves up every weekday. For today's entry, that's going to take the form of me talking about New Years and what it meant for me.

I moved away from my hometown about a year and a halfish ago, and thus far, haven't had the opportunity to go back. It was a self-imposed move, as I felt I could learn and grow and even become a little bit more like the people I truly looked up to and respected by taking myself out of my comfort zone and inserting myself somewhere that had no safety net to fall back on. And sure enough, it's made me grow. In most ways it's beneficial, but in a few, it is in what I'd consider a detrimental way. Those few bits of detrimental development are hard to shake when you're constantly immersed in the situation you've constructed for yourself, and it can make even the smallest changes take place at a virtually glacial pace. So there are times I look back at my old life, with my robust social network and support and resources, and I get at least a little bit jealous of the "old me".

Well, while I haven't been able to go back yet (mostly for fiscal reasons since I'm the only one taking care of me up here, and I want to make sure I am -well- squared away before I traipse back to my old stomping grounds), I did get exceedingly lucky with having two of my good friends stop down to visit just before New Years. Ben and Laura, as they are called by the community at large, used to be my roommates and are two of the sweetest people I've ever met. I actually, believe it or not, got to be the presiding religious figure at their wedding (sort of, not-really-long story that I don't feel like getting into here). Anyways, Ben is one of my personal heroes and Laura is one of the most successful academicalish people that I know, and they were here for a bit.

And it awakened a bit of the "old me". Seeing how happy they were to see me, how much they missed me, and how easily we picked back up again from where we left off spiritually rejuvenated me, and the timing was absolutely perfect, making this New Years a happier holiday for me than even Christmas was. And it allowed me to take an objective inventory of myself and what I wanted out of life.

So, to Ben and Laura, you guys are amazing, and I hope you know that even just seeing you for a day made/will make (depending if you consider New Years more of a closing or opening ceremony) my entire year better, and to the readers, I hope you all can find a way to refresh yourselves as well...it does the spirit a world of good.