Patrick chats in the parlor with Katie Webb and Ty Gowen from Haunt ME, the paranormal web series. Get a sneak peek at Season 4, which drops on May 1st! Plus, hear about the use of tarot and altars in paranormal investigations, and some of the haunts from the great state of Maine!
Uri Geller, one of the world’s most investigated and celebrated mystifiers, in his first interview since the release of secret CIA “Stargate Project” documents which detail and report on the experiments involving his supernatural abilities. Plus being a spy, and his friendship with Michael Jackson.
Pssst… Want to leave voice feedback? Use the SpeakPipe Link!
Extrasensory perception (and its acronym, ESP), Supernatural powers, mind over matter, having “the power”, predicting the future, talking to the spirits, secrets of the universe, psychokinetics, séance, and magic. Sounds like just another Big Séance blog post, right? But it’s not. Well, it is, kind of. But all of those terms and phrases were spoken in an episode of Bewitched, titled “Abner Kadabra“, which originally aired in 1965 in its first season.
It was one of those situations where we turned the TV on, and it was tuned into a channel that I don’t typically watch. I haven’t even seen an episode of Bewitched in many years. We were lucky enough to catch this one from the very beginning, and watched it all the way through, thoroughly entertained for the entire episode! It was such a stress reliever after a really long day.
Gladys Kravitz, a goofy and crazy neighbor, caught Samantha re-arranging pictures on one of her walls… which she was doing with the help of a twitch of her nose. Mrs. Kravitz, who of course is shocked and frightened by what she sees, accuses Sam of being from Venus and having “supernatural powers”, and even throws in a snide remark about her not being like all the other housewives. Samantha thinks she avoids this mess by suggesting that Gladys actually caused the pictures to move herself, with her mind. Gladys seems to enjoy the attention and believes that she suddenly has “the power”, and runs with it, thinking she can guess numbers, read her husband’s mind, talk to spirits, make it rain (a hilarious scene), and even cook with her magic.
Abner, Gladys’ husband, is thoroughly annoyed by all of this, but concerned that his wife is going crazy. Samantha ends up arranging a séance, in which Gladys serves as the stereotypical medium, playing the part very well. Samantha’s intention is to scare Gladys, so that she decides on her own to leave her “powers” behind for good. It worked!
The whole thing was just supernatural candy for my brain, and I couldn’t believe the topics and terms that were thrown around in one episode of a 1965 sitcom. I can’t believe I didn’t know about it. It was truly a cute episode that was worth the watch. I even watched it twice.
And now you can watch it too, because the entire episode is on Hulu! Here’s the link. —> http://www.hulu.com/watch/10998#i0,p28,d0
Enjoy!
The Case of the Cackling Ghost
Konstantinos Séance vs. I Love Lucy Séance
I’d considered getting this book for a few years. It seemed to pop up every time I searched for new books on the topic of spirit communication. I think maybe it was the cover art that kept me from committing to it, but I’m not really sure. But then Lee Allen Howard, a wise new friend from Building the Bridge recommended it to me. That’s all I needed. It was added to my summer reading list, which I have been making my way through quite nicely.
Konstantinos, who is featured in a séance video from a previous post, discusses and gives how-to advice in his book Speak with the Dead: Seven Methods for Spirit Communication. These methods include (in his own words) Microphone Recording, Broadcast Static Recording, White Noise Recording, Video of the Dead, Scrying, Direct Mind Contact, and Séance Made Simple. Basically, in possibly more recognizable and current terms, these are instructions for the different ways of going about recording EVP, using radio sweep (such as a spirit box), recording Video ITC (Instrumental Trans-communication), communicating clairaudiently and clairvoyantly, and of course, séance, which you’ve heard enough about from me. If you’re not aware of what scrying is, Wikipedia tells us “Scrying (also called seeing or peeping) is a magic practice that involves seeing things psychically in a medium, usually for purposes of obtaining spiritual visions and less often for purposes of divination or fortune-telling. The most common media used are reflective, translucent, or luminescent substances such as crystals, stones, glass, mirrors, water, fire, or smoke.” In this book, Konstantinos focuses on scrying using water.
Now as usual, I have to be honest here. Written in 2001, many of the technological information or instructions are already very outdated. Not many EVP researchers stock up on cassette tapes anymore. Also, I’m not sure if many of the feedback loop instructions for video ITC would work in the new HD and digital TV world. But, if you’re not someone who is already very experienced in these topics, there is still much to learn. It is very easy to understand. If, like me, you’ve read a trillion books on EVP and have spent quite a bit of time researching and practicing it, you won’t gain much from it (unless you’re looking to learn about old school techniques). But, video ITC and scrying are two things I haven’t tried, and reading this book may have just given me the inspiration and confidence to give it a try sometime. And trust me, when I do you’ll hear about it here.
Want to know my favorite part? The author shows you how to perform a ritual he calls the “Ancient Rite” to prepare your mind for spirit communication and “summoning” specific spirits. I know from previous comments that summoning is somewhat controversial among my readers. I tend to think it can be done respectfully, and frankly, in this field it seems like it would be very necessary at times. Anyway, if I continue to be honest, like most practices that even mention the word “candle”, this ritual had me at hello and just seems cool and fun. But more importantly, may end up helping to prepare for some of the séances that I’ll be participating in and documenting this fall.
