It has been a while since I’ve done one of these. Can you match the categories with the correct columns? (Don’t think too hard on this one.)
Find the answers in the comments.
(From the Baylor Religion Survey, 2005, n = 1636)
1.Strongly Agree
2.Agree
3.Undecided
4.Disagree
5.Strongly Disagree
Source: Bader, C., Mencken, F, & Baker, J. (2010). Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture. New York & London: New York University Press.
Since I can’t sleep due to already being on my whacky summer sleeping schedule, please excuse the following rambling. This evening I made a return visit to the old abandoned farmhouse that MOSS investigated a month ago. By the way, can I please have a badge or something for being on my own and investigating in the dark for twenty minutes… in an old house in the middle of nowhere? I’ve certainly overcome some fears working in this field. In the last hour of our original investigation we had what may have been some really intense paranormal activity, but heavy rain crashed the investigation. In any normal situation I would have taken the time to “debunk” (I hate that term) what we were experiencing, but due to our command central being located out in the elements (under a tent) and the condition of the house itself, we had no choice but to pack up quickly and leave. For a whole month my mind has been going crazy, not knowing if what we experienced was real or not.
The activity we were getting at the time seemed amazing, and it is so easy to let your mind run off with what you’re seeing and experiencing… especially when you’re passionate about the paranormal and really truly want to experience it. This home was built in 1901, and though just about all evidence of beauty is gone now, it has so much character. I can’t help wondering what stories the place could tell… the memories, the holidays, the good times and the bad. When people visit the battlefields of Gettysburg, for example, they find it nearly impossible to not imagine themselves in the middle of the time period. Wouldn’t you? You’d stare off into the distance and imagine the thousands of soldiers battling… the sounds… the smell of smoke… the loss of life. You would try to imagine what things happened in the very spot you were standing in, right? My mind just goes there when I’m in a historical location.
Back to that evening a month ago… I was being a DJ for this ghost party, going down my playlist of trigger music from 1901 through to the 1940s. It was very cool to hear the crackling music, some of the very first recordings ever, bouncing and echoing off the walls and imagining a lazy Sunday afternoon in the same house in the early 1900s. Did they listen to music like this? Did they have the means of playing recordings? Did they produce or sing music themselves? My mind raced. If you ask my sister, she’ll tell you how incredibly spooky the whole experience was from outside, hearing the music and staring at the old house.
For those of us inside the house, imagine what was going on in our minds as our K-II meter began flashing (for some songs more than others… favorites?), almost as if someone was singing along. It had to be real, right? I practically saw a family, dressed in period clothing, singing in the room with me.
When I returned this evening I invited the same guests to another party and played the same playlist. Nothing. Were they just not there tonight? It seems that my suspicions about what could have been causing the activity a month ago (my iPhone that I turned on just for the purpose of playing the music) may be accurate. In a way it feels better knowing, and that’s my job, but I’m bummed out.
Lesson learned… AGAIN! In one of our first investigations we learned the hard lesson about walking around with the new and exciting iPhones. Now I get frustrated every time I watch a paranormal investigator on TV, holding or using an iPhone in one of the shots. Since then, all phones are turned off for our investigations. But at the farmhouse I turned on the phone just to play the music… and it was six feet away. What could go wrong? I’d know if it were my phone, right? I still find it hard to believe that my phone caused lights to flash almost perfectly to the rhythm of Amazing Grace. And maybe there really was someone there singing along… and maybe not. Maybe my only guest to this party was the bird flying in the other room… or the raccoon in the attic.
Even when we think we know, we really don’t… do we?
I have purchased WAY TOO MANY books recently, but I’m just about set for summer reading! I’m so very excited! They’ve either arrived this week or they will arrive any day now. Have any of my readers read any of these books already? Do you have any suggestions for other books that are similar?
The Art of Mediumshiup by Elaine Kuzmeskus
The evidence for life after death is overwhelming, and scientists, from Professor William James to Dr. Gary Schwartz, have validated after-life communication. In The Art of Mediumship, discover what really goes on in a séance. Find out how mediums such as Arthur Ford and Edgar Cayce, and psychic detectives such as Noreen Renier receive their information from the Other Side. Learn how to develop clairsentience, clairaudience, and clairvoyance through dreams, meditation, and a Spiritualist circle. Read about today’s ghost hunters who rely on electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and psychic photography as means of communication to solve mysteries. Learn how they capture spirit photos and spooky voices. Find out how to become a professional medium and the best ways to gain credibility with the public. Whether you just have an interest in the Other Side or plan to study the art of mediumship, this book demystifies the process with step-by-step instruction.
Explores the historic and technical development of ITC (instrumental transcommunication), perhaps the most phenomenal field of survival research in history, in which researchers and scientists today receive voices, text, and images from spirit colleagues through computers, TVs, radios, telephones, cameras, and other equipment. Focus is on the work of the Harsch-Fischbachs of Luxembourg; George Meek and Bill O’Neil in the US; Marcello Bacci in Italy; Ernst Senkowski, Manfred Boden, Hans-Otto Koenig, Klaus Schreiber, Adolf Homes, and Friedrich Malkhoff in Germany; and other pioneers in the field.
Conversations Beyond the Light provides the results of ITC’s (Instrumental Transcommunication) research, the first ‘hard’ physical evidence of life after death. Includes photos, line drawings and many spirit world descriptions by active, vibrant people — all of whom were former earth residents.
Lesley Bannatyne’s fascinating book . . . will be widely appealing to anyone who ever wondered where witches, trick-or-treating, and jack-o-lanterns really came from. It is by far the best book on the history of Halloween available today. Alison Guss, senior producer, The Haunted History of Halloween, The History Channel An excellent resource for research into the history of holidays . . . in the United States . . . Highly Recommended. The Book Report Halloween has evolved from the Druids’ celebrations of 2,000 years ago to become today the fastest-growing holiday in the country. This, the only book to completely cover All Hallow’s Eve, examines those ancient origins as well as its traditions and celebrations, from costuming to bobbing for apples. Jack-o-lanterns, black cats, and witches are explained. Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins lurk behind every page. The book traces the contributions of America’s immigrants to the holiday, documenting the beliefs each ethnic group has added to the mix. Related recipes, poems, songs, crafts, and photos perfectly complement the meticulously documented text. The result is the most educational and entertaining examination of Halloween, its myths, and its truths.
America’s leading authority on Halloween presents interviews with spooky rock groups, amateur vampires, haunted house creators, champion pumpkin carvers, and more, all in the quest of explaining the nation’s unique love affair with this holiday. The collection of essays and interviews explores the pop culture phenomenon that is Halloween, and why we celebrate it the way we do today.
Séance 101 explores the physical side of the spirit world and how contact with “the other side” affects you! Read this book to find out : • How spirits communicate with us by tipping tables. Learn the basics from the New England School of Metaphysics. • How spirits manifest on film and the methods for using Electronic Voice Phenomena to contact spirits. • Where to locate and safely open your third eye, that natural intuition that can be developed into a psychic tool. Learn to meditate and set up a seance. • The importance of psychic surgery, medical practices without tools, anesthesia or pain; trumpet mediumship, where spirits speak from megaphones; and percipitated painting, when spirits paint works of art , without the help of mortals. • How magic and mediumship are tied together via the spirit of Harry Houdini! The spirit lives. Will you become a believer?
Using things you probably already own such as a camcorder, computer, or tape recorder you can contact departed loved ones or other spirits, record their images and voices, and establish two-way communications between the worlds. Speak with the Dead also details the more traditional methods of sance, trance, and scrying. This book will guide you to one of the most awe-inspiring experiences youll ever have.
Probably about a year ago I ordered two books on the psychic, Edgar Cayce. I must admit that even though I think he was a fascinating man, I only read one of them, and it was rough for me. His channeled knowledge is a little like reading out of the King James Bible. The second book (that I may never read from front to back) is a bit like a textbook, but is easily referenced by topic.
Edgar Cayce was born in Kentucky in 1877. He is sometimes known as the “sleeping prophet”. This is because he often appeared to be sleeping when he was in trance. In fact, his first clairvoyant experience came after a nap while doing school work. He was also known as the “father of holistic medicine” because from the very beginning he was able to use his clairvoyance to help with medical advice and healing. Since then, most of his readings involved health and healing. Where did all of this knowledge and information come from? Cayce claims it almost never came from an outside source, but from his super conscious (sometimes known as higher consciousness, G0d consciousness, or sometimes just “source”). Fortunately for us, almost every Cayce reading is documented and cataloged.
This evening I decided to see what Mr. Cayce specifically had to say about spirit communication. As I said, sometimes this stuff is over my head, so I’d love to hear your thoughts or interpretation.
Excerpts from Channeled Readings Regarding Spirit Communication
If there is a desire on the part of those in the spirit or fourth dimensional plane to be communicated with, and the same element of desire is attuned from another plane, stratum, sphere or condition, then such may be done; hence, it truly may be said that all factors have their influence, desire the ruling one; and the desire must be attuned to the same vibration of the one in another plane, as the radio.
Q-Does communication further or retard, or not affect, the spiritual progression of those in spirit life? A-It does all!
5756-8
A union of force makes for strength and power. Thus, the communion of saints means that all who have one purpose, whose thoughts and motivative forces are one, may communicate; whether those in the material plane, in the borderland, or those that may be upon the shores of the other side of life.
262-87
Q-Does he (deceased) know of my prayers? A-Do you wish him to? Do you wish to call him back to those disturbing forces, or do you wish the self to be poured out for him that he may be happy? Which is it you disire, –to satisfy self that you are communicating, or that you are holding him in such a way as to retard?
1786-2
Q-What physical thing may an individual do to be able to communicate with those that have passed into the spirit plane? A-Lay aside the carnal or sensuous mind and desire that those who would use that mentality, that soul, for its vehicle of expression, do so in the manner chosen by that soul; for some communicate in act, in sight, in movement, in voice, in writing, in drawing, in speaking, and in the various forces as are manifest–for force is one force.
5756-4
Q-What form do spirits have? A-That within the mental capacities of the medium obtaining such vibration from an aura to create; or to give, such manifestations a form: it assuming then that form… Not that we would belittle such manifestations, but let them be rather the silent voice from within communicating with the individuals themselves, rather than manifesting through other individuals who give them shape, form, and words of their individual development and of their individual environment.
5756-1
Sources:
Mark Thursday, “The Essential Edgar Cayce.” Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 07/08/2004
B. Ernest Frejer, “The Edgar Cayce Companion: A Comprehensive Treatise of the Edgar Cayce Readings.” A.R.E. Press, 12/01/1995
In an EVP session on May 11, 2012, I once again ended up having communication with who I can only refer to as my “rapper” who has been visiting frequently in sessions. There were several responses, but I couldn’t hold back my excitement when a little more than six minutes in I ask “Is there any way you can give me two pretty big knocks just before I leave… just to validate that you were here today? Two loud knocks.” A few seconds later you can hear two significant knocks or taps right in a row.
Later in the same session I decide to go down the alphabet old school like Kate and Maggie Fox. Maybe this rapper would spell out a name to help identify him/her? I went slowly through the alphabet and allowed the rapper to knock after the first letter of their first name. I got a knock after “B”. I asked for a knock to verify that “B” was correct and unfortunately I didn’t get one. Now I made the attempt to identify the second letter of the first name. We went all the way through the alphabet again and I didn’t hear a significant knock. We then tried it again for the initial of the last name, but before we started I asked if they were still with me and asked for a knock. I didn’t receive a response. I started through the alphabet anyway and when I got to “B” again and I got several little taps or crackles in response. I asked if it was accurate that the initial of their last name was “B”… and if they were a “B.B.”… No response. So I decided to try again for a second initial. No “B” this time around. I continued on and got a tap after calling “H”. No other responses or validation. I gave up for the day.
Does my rapper have the initials of B.B.? B.H.? Am I only talking to creaking walls that mysteriously only creak when I ask them to?
A Recent EVP…
In a session on May 17, 2012 around two minutes into the session I asked “Can you tell me how many are here with me?” There is an immediate response that is not picked up in the second recorder (I always use two recorders to help identify natural sounds in the recording environment). I have absolutely no clue what this EVP is saying.
I’ve never been to San Francisco, but I’ve often wanted to visit because it looks so beautiful, plus I’ve always been a HUGE fan of Armistead Maupin and his Tales of the City series of books that take place there.
But… have you seen this video?
I’ve gotten trapped into watching this whole thing many times in the last few years after I found it initially. It is a trip down Market Street. It was apparently originally thought to have been filmed in 1905, but was really filmed four days before the big San Francisco earthquake in 1906.
It isn’t paranormal at all, but it is so haunting to watch for several reasons. First off, who isn’t impressed with footage from 1906? You can learn so much about history just from the video. For instance, these people were reckless and not afraid of getting run over or trampled by a horse! Apparently there weren’t any traffic laws. I am fascinated by the children chasing the cars down the street or running ahead of the camera. I wonder how many kids in 1906 would have even been able to identify a video camera and knew what it was? The heavy coats and dresses are interesting to me, considering it was filmed on April 14th (my birthday… it’s a stretch… but it’s another thing that makes it haunting). Also, maybe it’s just me… but it is strange to see a video from so long ago that shows people strolling, walking, and strutting just like we do today! You mean people didn’t walk differently 100 years ago? 🙂 I wonder if these people imagined we’d be watching and learning from them over 100 years later?
Secondly, imagining the destruction and lost life that happened just four days after the hustle and bustle of a normal day in San Francisco is truly haunting. According to USGS, it is estimated that 3,000 lives were lost and 28,000 buildings were destroyed.
I’m not sure if the same people who filmed the above video filmed the footage after the destruction, but it seems genius that it is filmed in the same manner. Both videos have been paired next to each other so that you can compare.
And lastly, a trip down the same street in 2005. The same hustle and bustle… only different. To me, the neatest things about this version are the cyclists and passersby that seem fascinated with the filming, just like in the original footage. And even cooler, it finishes off with the same historical building at the end of the street that apparently survived. I don’t know enough about San Francisco to tell you anything else about it… but it’s cool.
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t remember many of my dreams. The only time I recall dreams is when I’ve either slept in really late or not nearly enough (usually around 3 to 5 hours). A few nights ago I dreamed about the apocalypse… which is a little weird because it’s not a topic I’m typically interested in. It ranks right up there with aliens for me…. just not interested.
It wasn’t a very long dream, but it ended appropriately for a dream about the end of the world. 🙂 I don’t have to tell you when I woke up.
In the dream I was working at school with some of my usual coworkers, but the school itself resembled the home I grew up in for the first six years of my life (get out your dream books). I was outside of the school with a group of people when I noticed very heavy and dark rolling clouds off in the distance. They moved quite a bit quicker than normal storm clouds. I made a comment to the group I was with about how cool the clouds looked. I’ve always been a big fan of thunder storms. Then a few moments later I came to the realization that something was wrong with what I was seeing. They weren’t storm clouds. These rolling clouds were very dark, a mixture of what was probably earth, smoke, and fire… and they were fast consuming everything in front of us. That’s when Spielberg took over direction of my dream production. From here on out it was in slow motion. Panic started to set in as our secretary dropped an armload of paperwork to the ground with a dropped jaw. She yelled our principal’s name as the group ran for the building. As soon as we got inside, I quickly realized that the flames had caught up with us. They weren’t normal flames, though. They were beautiful. Picture a flame mixed in with The Northern Lights. It was almost as if everything was under water. I feared burning, but instead I felt the warmth you’d feel in a really calming hot tub. I was thinking, “Wow! This isn’t so bad!”
This is where the scene changes. I wasn’t in the next scene, but I watched it as if I had downloaded it on NetFlix. Cut to the office of another teacher friend of mine. As the flames reached him, in panic, the only thing he could think to do was grab a whistle and blow it as a way to warn others (I remember thinking in my dream… “how sad”…). Of course, no one was there to tell him that the flames didn’t really hurt.
Then… it was over. Unfortunately, there was no memory of the other side. GRRR!
www.dreammoods.com says “to dream of the apocalypse signifies an emotional and dramatic change taken place within yourself. The dream may also indicate the end of one kind of lifestyle and the beginning of another.” Hmmmm…
And… that’s the last time I eat chocolate before bed. 🙂
The activity we were getting at the time seemed amazing, and it is so easy to let your mind run off with what you’re seeing and experiencing… especially when you’re passionate about the paranormal and really truly want to experience it. This home was built in 1901, and though just about all evidence of beauty is gone now, it has so much character. I can’t help wondering what stories the place could tell… the memories, the holidays, the good times and the bad. When people visit the battlefields of Gettysburg, for example, they find it nearly impossible to not imagine themselves in the middle of the time period. Wouldn’t you? You’d stare off into the distance and imagine the thousands of soldiers battling… the sounds… the smell of smoke… the loss of life. You would try to imagine what things happened in the very spot you were standing in, right? My mind just goes there when I’m in a historical location.
Back to that evening a month ago… I was being a DJ for this ghost party, 
When I returned this evening I invited the same guests to another party and played the same playlist. Nothing. Were they just not there tonight? It seems that my suspicions about what could have been causing the activity a month ago (my iPhone that I turned on just for the purpose of playing the music) may be accurate. In a way it feels better knowing, and that’s my job, but I’m bummed out.
In the dream I was working at school with some of my usual coworkers, but the school itself resembled the home I grew up in for the first six years of my life (get out your dream books). I was outside of the school with a group of people when I noticed very heavy and dark rolling clouds off in the distance. They moved quite a bit quicker than normal storm clouds. I made a comment to the group I was with about how cool the clouds looked. I’ve always been a big fan of thunder storms. Then a few moments later I came to the realization that something was wrong with what I was seeing. They weren’t storm clouds. These rolling clouds were very dark, a mixture of what was probably earth, smoke, and fire… and they were fast consuming everything in front of us. That’s when Spielberg took over direction of my dream production. From here on out it was in slow motion. Panic started to set in as our secretary dropped an armload of paperwork to the ground with a dropped jaw. She yelled our principal’s name as the group ran for the building. As soon as we got inside, I quickly realized that the flames had caught up with us. They weren’t normal flames, though. They were beautiful. Picture a flame mixed in with 
