Poultry Guys

Poltergeists (German for "knocking ghosts") are another class of spirit that seem to be found the world over under a variety of different names, though rather than going into the distinctions between different "types" of poltergeists, I'd like to focus on their shared abilities, as well as one very interesting point about them.

Poltergeists, by their most simplified definition, are entities that have the ability to make noises and move objects around independent of any observable external force. Usually the phenomena manifests quite suddenly, with often with no provocation on the part of the inhabitants of the affected dwelling, and tends to last between the space of a few hours to a few years at sporadic intervals of quiet and activity. While the phenomena can be mischevious-seeming at times, as there have been numerous reports of objects being tossed at individuals residing in a house afflicted with poltergeist activity, it is worth noting that for the most part the activity seems "dumb", that is to say there is no rhyme or reason to the actions it takes, and most objects that impact individuals seem to be projected with only enough force to make contact, and not nearly enough to hurt someone. However, this last point has two major caveats: one, that there have been rare cases of violent poltergeists that actively harmed those in their vicinity with forcefully thrown objects, scratches, beatings, etc (however, while this has been reported, it is in the -wildly- vast minority), and two, that most houses with a poltergeist tend to have a "center" of the activity, not necessarily a focal point or target of the phenomena, but someone who seems to always be present when the activity happens. Usually, this happened to be a child in the midst of adolscence, leading many to claim that poltergeists are actually subconscious manifestations of telekinesis by those "centers", their existence usually reasoned as an outlet for their feelings of agression, alientation, and other teenage angsty-wangsty issues.

Now, the big thing worth noting that I had no idea about until recently...supposedly lending support to the psychokinesis theory, a group of paranormal researchers in the 1970s were able to create an "artificial poltergeist" named Philip. See, what they did was make up a name and backstory for a fictional person, and by collectively meditating and visualizing the spirit, were able to supposedly make a table tilt and knocks to be heard in response to questions, with the questions answered as a person with the given backstory would answer them. Even more curious is that the table movement and rapping was supposedly caught on film, and that other parapsychological groups were able to replicate the same effects with different backstories and therefore different "artifical poltergeists". So the story goes that the original group continued to try and meditate with the intent of getting an actual apparition to appear, but upon finding themselves unable to, the project was abandoned.

A couple of questions pop out at me on hearing this. The biggest, though, is while it's an interesting story, why was the work discontinued? It may be that seeing an apparition would have been much more convincing an effect that just hearing knocks, and maybe I'm just being naive, but if I could reliably cause knocks to sound in response to questions without physical movement on my part, I'd be pretty damn excited with even that. So for me, the whole story should be taken with a Buick-sized grain of salt, but still, an interesting little story all the same...

 

Odds-On Favorite

So, I promised that I'd get into a bit of opinion-tossing on psychic phenomena today, and I plan to. But as a preface, I'd just like to make two things plain; first, that I really have nothing to back up my beliefs (I guess at that point, it wouldn't really be a belief-system so much as just faith) and second, that I don't expect you to agree with me. That all said, let's dig in.

I already mentioned a while back that I'm pretty agnostic about the concept of the afterlife and paranormal phenomena as a whole. Do I believe it's possible that either or both of these things exist? Yeah, why not. Am I sure about those beliefs? No way. But while I may be aggravatingly ambivalent about a couple of the foundation areas of parapsychology, one thing I believe and have always believed in is luck. I simply think luck exists. I know that statistically, it shouldn't. I also know that may determinists/deeply religious would argue that there's no such thing as luck, just divine will. But, human logic and attributions aside, however irrational a belief it may be, I have it. I think that regardless of where you think it comes from or how subjectively constructed it is, every person has a certain level of luck in any given situation, luck being defined as the ability to have larger than normal probabilities of a positive or desired outcome in that given situation. I also think that this level of luck in a specific situation tends to carry over into other similarly-structured situations. Like different areas of aptitude or knowledge, some people are luckier at certain things than others...like one may be luckier at financial gambles, whereas another is better at socio-political risks, where yet another takes on physical chances with a fearless demeanor...

I sort of conceptualize it like this: all actions with multiple outcomes have a certain level of probability associated with each of those outcomes. In certain philosophical and (if I remember correctly) physics frameworks, all of these outcomes occur in parallel universes, leading to the idea of divergent realities, where everything is the same to one point, then the paths diverge around the different resolutions to that situation. So, if every action has multiple outcomes (because let's face it, "meteor to the face" is always a possibility), then those who have luck have the ability to "nudge" a decision in their favor, basically altering reality around them. The stronger the level of luck, the more ridiculous the level of probability shifting they can undertake with a reasonable level of increased odds...some things will always be out of reach, but the luckier you are, the greater the spectrum of possibilities open up to create that "positive outcome", relatively speaking.

So what does this have to do with psychics, magicians, and/or the paranormal? Well, looking at luck as a simple probability-boosting field, then maybe it stands to reason that many of the proclaimed psychics and magicians aren't exercising arcane art so much as just a natural ability of "luck" in a specific area or set of areas. Divinatory oracles may not speak to gods so much as have a higher than statistically reasonable level of luck in predicting events, though they reason their abilities come from divine sources. Magicians that can control the weather and move objects over distances without touching them just have incredible innate powers of probability shifting, sometimes to the extent of flying in the face of the laws of physics.

Now, most of this was just getting some mind-babble on the interwebs, and for the most part, is purely speculatory. The only thing I really believe in is luck as a concept and a part of our reality...and I wouldn't really hold it against anyone else to disbelieve that, though. It was, as I said at the beginning, a sort of leap of faith, and like all faith, some make the jump, others don't. But whether or not you believe in luck, I still wish it in abundance to you all the same :)

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.

Nightmare Fuel, Part 2

Continued from yesterday, to be concluded tomorrow...

-Different guy this time. He claimed to have occurrences of uncanny precognition at odd times, including once when he was five at church. This specific incident involved him walking past an elderly person seated next to the pastor and quietly saying "I'm sorry that you're going to die of a heart attack soon." Indeed, the person died of a heart attack that day or shortly thereafter (that point, while known by the teller of the incident, is somewhat lost in my mind [did I mention beer was involved]), and he wasn't allowed to go to that church anymore after that...I dunno. I personally have precognitive dreams (the architecture of which being the main thing that I remember, so that I can navigate buildings I've never even seen before as if I'd been on the construction crew for them), and know that the feeling of deja vu is quite a common occurrence, though me and this gentleman had a long talk over the differences between precognition and simple deja vu. I think precognition is possible to a limited extent, and while the instance he talked about was incredibly specific, I suppose it's possible. Five out of ten.

-Same guy. "So," he said, "you want to research ghosts and spirits? Well", he continued with a small grin, "go to -blah blah- (again, the specifics evade me) graveyard in Washougal with a tape recorder and just walk around asking yourself questions, then listen to the tape afterwards. I did it once, and I'll never set foot in there again"...possible. I've heard of EVP phenomenon and while I've never watched Paranormal Activity (though funny story, have a friend who did shortly after both a move into a new house and his first child was born, and who also happened to have set up a baby monitor that same night prior to watching Paranormal Activity in the dark, and he swears that it was unknowingly one of the scariest things he's ever put himself through...but at least from now on I have a great idea for a good combo gift to give people throwing baby showers :P), and while I've never had occasion to experience it, I wouldn't mind giving this graveyard tour a try. As far as conceptually, I suppose that -if- spirits are simply a different form of energy that doesn't dissipate after death and -if- that form of energy retains the ability to communicate, then sure, why not this way? Though even with that admission and open-mindedness, I can't help but feel like the most vocal proponents of this method would get along well with the guys who listen to Beatles records backwards to try and hear hidden messages in them. Five out of ten.

-Lastly, the elder brother and other guy (not the other brother). Apparently, while elder brother was staying over at other dude's house, he saw a cookie sheet pick itself up from the dishwasher and slam itself into the sink; the other guy can only attest to the loud bang and the fact that his cookie sheet was inexplicably in his sink (though he didn't see the invisible placement of it). In another situation, the brother was sleeping in the same room as the other guy, and out of nowhere felt (and heard) a large SLAM next to his head in the dark, as if someone punched the ground next to him with full force. Again, other guy heard it and then immediately fell asleep, but didn't see it, while the elder brother sat paralyzed with terror in the dark...hmm, a poltergeist. No reports of it before the elder brother started to stay with him, but the other guy's grandfather passed not long before the incidents as well. And while there's some controversy surrounding the true explanation for what poltergeists are (whether they're restless spirits or mental projections of uniquely psychic individuals), there are widespread reports of them. I give this a six out of ten.