Kidney Thieves: The Urban Legend

It seems like everyone has heard the stories about a businessman waking up in a bathtub full of ice. He then finds a note instructing him to call 911 if he wants to live. When he gets to the hospital, he finds out his kidneys have been stolen. This scenario would be terrifying! What could be scarier than having an organ stolen while you sleep? This tale of warning has been passed along by email and word of mouth for years. The question is, where did this story originate? When surveyed, many Americans believe that there is an active black market for human organs and people are targeted in order to steal their organs. This month we will be looking at organ thieves.

The Kidney Heist

Photographer: julien Tromeur | Source: Unsplash

A man awakens to find himself lying in a bathtub filled with ice. Groggy, he looks down to read a message written on his chest, which advises him to "Call 911 or you will die." He later finds that one of his kidneys had been stolen for sale on the black market.

History Of The Kindney Thieves

This urban legend is most often titled The Kidney Heist and seems like it first surfaced around the late 1980s and early 1990s. The current version can be traced back to chain letter styled emails that were directed towards men who were traveling to large cities for business. The message warned about a woman who lured a man back to their hotel room under the pretenses of sex, only to wake up the next day to find out they had been drugged and their organs stolen.

Research shows that the stories were based in the United States and in a large city. The victim is always male and was lured by a female. It is always suggested that the female has promised sex, and they return to the man’s hotel room. In some versions, the woman is identified as a prostitute. One of the most interesting aspects of the story is that there is always great care taken to preserve the man's life.

The one documented case of organ theft in an industrialized country was debunked shortly after it was reported. In 1989, Ahmet Koc from Turkey reported that he was lured to Britain with a job offer but shortly after he had his kidney stolen. After the kidney was taken, he was paid off and sent home. The story was later debunked when it was found that Kroc posted an ad to sell his kidney. It was discovered that he made up the story about the theft to get more money from the kidney recipient. This incident led to changes in British laws regarding the sale and receipt of organs.

Organ Theft in Culture

Organ theft is represented throughout American culture. Having an organ stolen is an ultimate in personal violation. The thought of someone performing surgery without your knowledge is the thing of nightmares which makes for remarkable stories. Pop culture has capitalized on these types of stories, leading to this theme showing up in many TV shows, movies, and books. In 1991 Law in Order approached this topic with an episode titled Sonata for Solo Organ. Las Vegas followed suit in 2006 with an episode where a man was found in a bathtub full of ice in one of the hotel rooms. Of course, his kidneys had been stolen.

TV are not the only ones who have used this urban legend as inspiration. Scary movies such as The Harvest (1993) and Urban Legend (1998) touch on organ theft in order to elicit fear in their viewers. Bestselling author Riley Sager’s 2019 hit, Lock Every Door, uses the theme of organ theft to create an amazing story where residents of a luxury apartment are part of a black-market organ ring.

Organ Donation and Transplantation

Every year about 6000 people die in the United States every year waiting on an organ transplant and there are about 100,000 people in the US waiting for an organ. There is a fine line for patients on the transplant list. They must be sick enough to qualify for an organ but healthy enough to tolerate transplant. To be placed on the transplant waiting list a patient must meet very specific criteria.

Patients must abstain from drugs, alcohol, tobacco. They are randomly tested and if they test positive, they are removed from the list for a period. People on the organ transplant waiting list must have a diagnosis of end-stage organ failure and have a critical need. While the patient must have organ failure to qualify, they must be healthy enough to tolerate a major surgery. Patients with active cancer do not qualify for organ transplant and there are also age restrictions with those over 70 not being eligible for a non-relative transplant.

Debunking the Kindney Thieves Legend

There has never been a documented, creditable report of someone who had their organ stolen after being lured into a hotel room. To the average person this legend seems possible, but when we dive deeper into the medical requirements of organ transplant this would be near impossible to accomplish in a hotel room.

Organ transplant surgery is a tiny subspecialty of surgery, and each organ has its own expert. For example, a heart transplant surgeon is not necessarily qualified to perform a kidney transplant and vice versa. These specialized surgeons train for years and there are only about 2500 transplant surgeons across all specialties in the US. Transplant surgeons make an average salary of $450,000. With some making over a million dollars every year. This makes them less likely to be motivated by monetary gain.

Organ Donation

There are two different teams in organ donation. One team removes or procures the organs and another team transplants the organ into the receiving patient. It takes a whole team to procure organs for the transplant process. Harvesting surgery is complicated and requires more than just a surgeon and a scalpel to remove the desired organ. Surgery will require someone to administer anesthesia, someone to assist with moving organs out of the way so the surgeon can see, and someone to hand items. A the very minimum this type of surgery will require 4 highly trained people.

Anesthesia will play an important part in not only keeping the patient alive but keeping the patient from waking up while their organs are being stolen. A few roofies in a drink isn’t going knock someone out enough to remove their kidneys. While the average person know anesthesia providers put the person to sleep for surgery what they don’t know is that they also insert the breathing tube, monitor the patient’s vital signs, provide medications to rise and lower blood pressure, and keep you asleep until it is time to wake up. Anesthesia providers keep you alive during surgery. You cannot do this type of surgery without someone who is skilled in anesthesia.

Surgery

Then there is the improbability of performing the surgery alone in a hotel room. Surgery requires a sterile environment and specialized tools and machines. Hotels are far from sterile, and it would take a lot of work to get one ready to perform surgery. The front desk would (hopefully) notice someone wheeling by with an anesthesia machine and sets of sterilized surgical tools. Sterile surgical tools come in large metal crates and would be obvious.

There is also the challenge of scheduling when to steal an organ and matching. Organs must be harvested and transplanted quickly to preserve their function and in almost all retellings of this story care was taken to preserve the life of the victim. It is one thing to kill someone and steal an organ, it is another thing to perform a complicated surgery in a hotel room and keep them alive. By targeting a stranger there is also no guarantee that the patient is going to be a match for the anticipated recipient. Matching goes far beyond just blood type.

There are also many loopholes when it comes to the recipient of the organ. Organs must be transplanted within a few hours of harvesting. The longer the organ is outside the body the less likely it will be functional when transplanted. That leaves many questions unanswered as to where the recipient is having their surgery performed and who is performing that surgery, which is even more complicated than the harvesting. Then there is the post-transplant treatment. Organ recipients have many ongoing medical needs even after a successful transplant. You can’t just pop an organ out of one person and put it in another person. There is a lot of complicated care that goes into that patient, especially in the first month after transplant.

Medications Required

Post-transplant patients require medications to keep their body from rejecting the foreign organ. This medication isn’t something that could just be bought on the street. This medication is also very expensive and unique to the organ the patient received. They wouldn’t be able to fill the medication at the pharmacy. The patient would also require medical records of when and where they had the transplant performed to find continued surgical follow-up. These inconsistencies create even more doubt that this type of illegal activity would have any benefit.

Conclusion

A beautiful woman suggests going back to your hotel, eluding the promises of sex only to drug you and steal your kidneys. On the surface this urban legend seems like a very real risk, but it would be almost impossible to achieve. I have assisted with many surgeries over the years, and preserving life is one of the most difficult things to do in the operating room. The amount of people and equipment this would take is more than would be possible to hide in a hotel room.

However, this urban legend does provide a good warning not to bring strangers back to your room. Just because there is almost no risk of having your kidneys stolen, there is the risk of being robbed or contracting a sexually transmitted disease. Moral of the story: boys and girls please don’t take strange men or women back to your hotel room. Your kidneys are about the only thing that is safe.

References

The Truth About Sensational Kidney Thefts | Live Science

Kidney Theft Medical Urban Legend - Demiworld Podcast

Kidney Theft | Snopes.com

The Truth About Sensational Kidney Thefts | Live Science

The Practical Side of a Conscious Universe

This article is a follow-up to the recently published: Your reality is in fact, a conscious universe

We are used to seeing our universe as something physical, that always behaves in predictable, physical ways which we can describe with math and physics. And we depend on things staying that way, such as with the fundamental physical constants and our morning coffee.

But we have minds, which can throw quite the wrench into our tidy vision of a physical universe. As I described in my previous article, our universe, the one we experience, cannot be physical in the way we understand it. A better explanation is that we seem to have a physical reality scaffolding over a timeless, spaceless reality, which means that separateness isn’t a fundamental property of the universe.

Everything is Entangled

The only explanation that we are left with, when all else has been ruled out, is that our physical reality can best be described as a collective product of consciousness and the most likely explanation of its seeming permanence is that our entangled connectedness with everything is what holds our physical reality together. It’s not something that we individually created, and we cannot easily alter the established rules of our physical reality because it’s bigger than us.

We currently have a kind of ad hoc way of dealing with our reality that mostly works. We tend to act as though we’re in a completely physical world, but with exceptions here and there.

For example, the events of our lives aren’t normally arranged chronologically in our memories, but rather by their importance to us, be it positive or negative. Places that we have visited seem close, those we have never visited seem farther away. Our minds easily soar with imagination, and we regularly deal in concepts utterly foreign to our physical world such as time travel and magic. The mind isn’t as closely tethered to our physical existence as we tend to think.

We Act Like our Universe is Conscious

This leaves us with all sorts of practical inconsistencies and the universe can seem chaotic and nonsensical if we’re not working from a good model. To start with, our minds are not wired for a strictly physical reality. Our eyes get fooled by perspective, by assumptions and expectations and by optical illusions. Our sense of time and space is quite malleable as is our hearing and taste. Sometimes it all just mashes together, such as with synesthesia.

This ability for our senses to be fooled is often used as an argument against the paranormal; the assumption being that “believers” are fooling themselves, (with the rather arrogant assumption that debunkers are somehow immune to this), but it’s actually an indication that everyone’s view of reality is inseparable from their values, attitudes, ideas and beliefs. We can all look at the same things, but they are very colored by our individual perceptions of them, sometimes to the point where people can’t agree on what they are seeing.

This is predicted if reality is consciousness based: we are unable to separate reality from our own consciousness because they are the same thing. It’s not weird, it’s normal.

The Practical Side of a Conscious Universe

This brings me to the point of this article. Assuming that our physical universe is made of consciousness, so what? At first glance this seems about as important as debating the usefulness of lightsabers and whether a non-force user should ever use one. I have strong opinions on this, but are those opinions really worth sharing? I think not.

A conscious universe isn’t an important concept to anyone without an advanced degree in nerdiness unless it comes with practical applications. Does knowing that the universe is conscious change anything? Yes it does.

Different Fundamental Assumptions

In a physical universe, the following assumptions usually come along for the ride:

1. Determinism: Everything, including human action, is ultimately determined by external causes and not free will.
2. Separateness: Our thoughts are completely separate from other people and the physical reality around us.
3. Randomness: Events in our lives are often random and beyond our control. i.e. life happens to us, and we have little control over it.
4. Mechanistic Reality: Only physical reality is real and that the mind is illusory.
5. Life is purposeless: Meaning is illusory and life doesn’t happen for a reason.

In a conscious universe, the assumptions are different:

1. Free Will: We decide our future. It is not predetermined.
2. Entanglement: Everything and everyone is connected.
3. Intent, conscious and subconscious: Our will, both conscious and subconscious, play an important role in what happens in our lives.
4. Information Reality: Reality is information/consciousness and physical reality is part of that.
5. Life has purpose: Life creates its own purpose and meaning.

We live in a universe full of meaning and purpose. We do not live for no reason; we do not experience our lives for no reason, we do not have emotions for no reason. We are constantly learning, growing and changing and to a certain extent, we decide what is meaningful for us. The world is not an inherently cold and sterile place; it’s what we choose to make of it.

Thoughts Have Power

The most important realization of a conscious universe is that our thoughts have a certain amount of power. Our values, attitudes, ideas and beliefs have an impact on our lives and the lives of those around us. The connectedness of everything shields us from the worst of our thoughts, but does not shield us from all of it all the time. Persistent belief and intent will gradually steer us in that direction and keep us there.

We are part of a unified, collective consciousness and our own free will within it isn’t absolute, but more like a negotiation within the connection. The farther we stray from the expected norm, the more difficult the task is to accomplish.

Using this model of reality can help us adjust our expectations with our lives and decide where to put our energy. Instead of seeing the universe as a random, brutal place where we have little agency to change things, or imagining that our every thought brings us fairies and unicorns if we just believe hard enough, we instead find ourselves in a world where change is difficult, but not impossible. Persistence, intent and resolve will move the needle over time.

Positive Thinking Isn’t How It Works

Positive thinking, then, doesn’t automatically lead to fame and riches, but rather we each have our own starting points that go in the direction of our values, attitudes and beliefs, and we need to change those, (a fairly difficult task) in order for things to change for us. A super rich person might become significantly less wealthy through bad decisions or a poor person might work their way up to living comfortably, but the super rich don’t become poor and the poor don’t become super rich except for the extremely rare outlier.

An easier example to perhaps understand is that we get the romantic partners that reflect us. Our values, attitudes, ideas and beliefs lead us to people who match us in those areas. People with a strong sense of self-worth tend to find themselves with partners who share that attribute. Likewise, low self-worth leads to low self-worth partners.

You are generally not going to find any long term pairings of people who are not equal in emotional stability and maturity. There are, of course, outliers. There are always outliers.

We will tend to find ourselves either rising or sinking to our normal state of affairs and changing that will typically be rather slow. Nor are we exempt from the realities of the society in which we live because that is part of our own collective consciousness. Thriving in a society where most people live in a struggle is harder than living in a society where people normally thrive.

Information, Not Physical Objects

In a conscious universe, it’s more accurate to say that we’re dealing with information rather than physical objects, which explains a lot of paranormal phenomena. Telepathy? We’re all connected, so this is to be expected and is probably constant on a subconscious level. Clairvoyance? Precognition? Our minds are timeless and spaceless, so it’s just a matter of accessing that information. Hauntings? Information embedded in physical objects that not everyone is aware of. Ghosts and apparitions? Consciousness that either projects while someone is alive or possibly dead.

Reincarnation? Consciousness is fundamental, so survival of death is assumed, rather than something that “breaks physics.” Synchronicity? Well, we’re all connected, so that sort of thing is to be expected sometimes. The placebo effect? It would be predicted.

A benefit of correctly identifying consciousness as fundamental to reality is that we stop dismissing experiences that don’t match materialism’s expectations. Because information and experience are basically our reality, we no longer question their existence or importance. We move on to the practical application of the knowledge.

It’s All About Connectedness

Connectedness tells us something important about our place in the world. We’re all in the same lifeboat and what we do affects other people just as surely as what they do affects us. Working together will produce the best results over time and working against each other will produce worse results. Society functions better when we recognize the connectedness.

Parawize Talks - Embark on Your Journey to the Truth

An invitation to open your mind to the possibilities.

According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 3 out of 4 Americans believe in the paranormal. Is their belief based upon evidence? Are there any dangers to paranormal belief? Has reality television influenced the public?

On November 12, 2022, Paranormal Daily News (PDN) launched Parawize Talks. These talks were developed to bring open discourse about the paranormal, parapsychology, and Psi to the public. The newly launched Parawize Talks brought together four thought leaders for an impactful and thought-provoking four hours. PDN will bring more thought leaders who are prominent in their fields to deliver more educational content, raise funds for research organizations, and support organizations in the field.

Jock Brocas, is the founder of Paranormal Daily News, an author, and a renowned evidential medium. He explains that these talks were inspired by the PDN team. The idea was to forge a greater relationship between science, academia, and spiritual thought for the public. Together, Jock and Craig created Parawize Talks. The idea is to share an examination of the truth by bringing awareness to various topics in the paranormal, parapsychology, PSI, and the afterlife. This will help bring complicated subjects to the public in easy understandable formats.

This series aims to sow enough seeds in your mind to compel you to keep asking questions. It is so important not just to accept the perceptions proliferated by uninformed voices. It is your invitation to avoid accepting everything at face value. Parawize Talks will offer you different perspectives, even competing ones, that are unified by a commitment to seek knowledge. You will decide the truth for yourself.

Dangers of the Paranormal - Awareness, and Empowerment

Jock Brocas kicked off the sessions. He dove head first into the question: do we need to be cautious when seeking knowledge or becoming involved in the paranormal? In Jock’s opinion, the answer is yes. Through years of experience as an evidential medium. Jock states that many people are driven by curiosity, while others are driven by a need to comfort their fear of death. Despite the underlying motivation. Those who probe into the paranormal are all looking for answers they haven’t been able to find in the material world around them.

During his talk, Jock declared his commitment to serving others and particularly, to helping those in spiritual crisis. Jock also cites cases where the family was left in turmoil and how mediums and investigators have a ‘Paranormal Bias. Jock is the author of the book Deadly Departed. He wrote the book to give awareness and empowerment to anyone working in the paranormal.

He believes that there is a moral and ethical obligation upon all mediums and paranormal investigators. Jock postulates that when they are called in to help those who are in spiritual crisis, the mediums and investigators should operate with the highest of ethics, and integrity. Jock pointed out that often, families who seek help from a medium or a paranormal investigator are sometimes left worse off after an investigation because they have not exercised due diligence nor fulfilled their duty of care. In his opinion; there may be many who are looking only for phenomena to support their next book or television show.

According to Jock, education is the answer to moving safely forward with seekers and practitioners alike.

A Conscious Universe

Craig Weiler, the science editor at Paranormal Daily News, explored the nature of our reality as a conscious universe. Can materialism and idealism coexist? Craig shared his opinion by putting forth an argument that they can’t coexist because the materialism framework has an inherent constraint. In reality, it doesn’t allow for an understanding of the paranormal.

“There is no way at all to prove a truly physical universe without injecting meaning into it… without consciousness.” - Craig Weiler

If we can’t step outside of consciousness to examine the universe. Then it is not possible to prove a material world suggested Craig. He spoke further about a world based on ideas and topped it off with a page out of quantum physics called “entanglement”.

If you want to find out more about the concept of a conscious universe, read Craig’s recent article on PDN: Your reality is in fact, a conscious universe.

Lessons in Humility

Darby Orcutt, professor, and researcher at North Carolina State University is well known for his work where Science meets the Strange.

Professor Orcutt delivered a session that highlighted the need for humility. He encouraged everyone to look at the world through collaborative and alternative lenses, rather than through an egocentric perspective.

“Building our plane as we are flying it.” - Darby Orcutt

Professor Orcutt went on to speak about the current efforts in genomics, parapsychology, and more. These efforts have resulted in key research and development to advance the creation of a microchip that can read and write information to the brain.

If you want to be a citizen scientist and become involved with Professor Orcutt’s work, [find link]

Behind the Scenes - Loyd Auerbach, Keynote Speaker

Professor Loyd Auerbach is known as Professor Paranormal. 40+ years experience in Parapsychology as an investigator, educator, and researcher. He is the author and co-author of 9 paranormal books. Loyd is also the president of the Forever Family Foundation and teaches online for the Rhine Education Center.

Professor Auerbach was born into a life around media, television, radio, and film and spent much of his childhood behind the scenes. This awareness and familiarity stayed with him when he entered the study of parapsychology and into a different type of “behind the scenes.” During his session, he described Parapsychology as studying the experiences of human consciousness inside and outside the laboratory, including ESP, psychokinesis, and other abilities, and evidence for survival of bodily death.

Professor Auerbach describes how apparitions use non-sensory perception to interact with the world while humans connect with apparitions using extra-sensory perception.

“There is a split between what is shown on television and what Parapsychologists know.” - Loyd Auerbach

He directs our attention to how using a piece of technology doesn’t equate to doing a scientific investigation. Further, he reveals that witnesses are the most important part of an investigation, that is, human experiences of whatever is going on.

Reality Television

Professor Auerbach explores how reality television, like ghost-hunting shows, misrepresents how the study of Parapsychology is actually carried out and driven by the desire to entertain and raise ratings. Given the competing objectives between parapsychologists and television shows, he acknowledged that he has turned down and been turned down for shows. Although the shows may be unscripted, they are directed and edited to suit the purposes of television producers and networks.

Professor Auerbach circled back to the need for ethics and a duty of care to the witnesses who are experiencing phenomena. He stresses that there is a risk that a made-for-tv type of investigation could inflict more harm than good on those witnesses. Moreover, these shows may be shaping our beliefs about the paranormal and ourselves. According to Professor Auerbach, “We are a lot more than the media tells us.”

You can watch the Parawize Talks

If you missed the event and would like to watch the talks in your own time, these talks will be available within the new premium para network that will be launching soon. Of course, if you have already purchased the talks, you will be given free access to them, and you can log into the host service to watch the replays.

Join Us For Monthly Parawize Talks

Join us for the next leg of the Parawize journey by signing up for the PDN Newsletter. You’ll be the first to be notified of the next Parawize Talks live and interactive session with an early bird discount.

Urban Legends: The White Dress

My introduction to all that was spooky started with the elementary school book fair and an old cemetery at the back of the playground. Most children that are fascinated with the paranormal have read Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. These dark tales and amazing illustrations were a collection of folk tales, songs, and urban legends. One of the best stories is The White Dress.

A young man invited a young woman to a formal dance. But she was very poor, and she could not afford to buy the evening gown she needed for such an occasion.

"Maybe you can rent a dress," her mother said. So she went to a pawnshop not far from where she lived. There she found a white satin evening gown in her size. She looked lovely in it, and she was able to rent it for very little. When she arrived at the dance with her friend, she was so attractive, everyone wanted to meet her. She danced again and again and was having a wonderful time. But then she began to feel dizzy and faint, and she asked her friend to take her home. "I think I danced too much," she told him.

When she got home, she lay down on her bed. The next morning, her mother found that her daughter had died. The doctor did not understand what caused her death. So he had the coroner perform an autopsy.

The coroner found that she had been poisoned by embalming fluid. It had stopped her blood from flowing. There were traces of the fluid on her dress. He decided it had entered her skin when she perspired while she was dancing. The pawnbroker said he bought the dress from an undertaker's helper. It had been used in a funeral for another young woman, and the helper had stolen it just before she was buried. (The White Gown by Alvin Schwartz)

History

The story always starts with a girl who needs a fancy dress for a special occasion. As one of the earliest US urban legends, it has been told hundreds of times and has many different versions. It has been known may several different titles including, Embalmed Alive, Dressed to Kill, The Wedding Dress, and the poisoned dress.

While the name and some minor facts change throughout the retelling, the premise of the story doesn’t. In all versions, there is a young girl who purchases a dress and then dies from some form of poisoning. Some versions describe this dress as a wedding dress, others say it was a formal dress or a ball gown. Where the dress was purchased varies as well. In many of the versions, the dress is purchased from a secondhand store or a pawn shop. Others say the dress was purchased from a department store and the dress had been returned after the dress was worn for a funeral.

The first printed version of this legend can be found in New York Folk Lore Quarterly and was printed in the Autumn of 1952. Post-WWII in the United States was a pivotal time in history. The country was coming out of a war and a decade-long depression. As rationing ended and the middle class grew, some people were able to spend on small luxuries again.

Deadly Clothing

Urban Legends - The White Dress

Deadly clothing is not a new concept in literature. The Grimm’s Fairy tale of what is today known as Snow White was far from the quaint Disney tale. Snow White was put into a corset that was meant to suffocate her. When that didn’t work there was no poison apple but poisoned hair combs and red-hot iron shoes. The Grimm Brothers often used poisoned or dangerous clothes in their stories and Hercules met his death after donning a poisoned tunic.

Greek mythology warns of other poisoned clothing as well. One of the most famous is the legend of Glauce. Greek poet Euripides tells the story of Medea and Glauce. Medea was in love with Jason, but he is to marry Glauce, daughter of the king, and Medea is banished with her children. In what appears to be a token of good faith, Medea presents Glauce with a wedding gift. The gift is a beautiful crown and a gown, but when Glauce dons the gown it instantly burns her flesh, and she dies instantly.

In the late 1800s they developed a beautiful green clothing dye. It was known as Shelee’s green. This dye contained arsenic, which was the key to giving it a unique green color. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element but in even small levels can be fatal to humans. These dresses became toxic. The wearers rarely had many symptoms due to the limited exposure. Most symptoms ranged from rash to fatigue. However, the seamstresses working with these dresses would cut the fabric, releasing toxins into the air and then breathing them in. Several died of arsenic poisoning.

Urban Legends - Poisoning

Unlike the girl in our story, arsenic poisoning does not cause a quick death and has many symptoms prior to becoming fatal. The first symptoms are mild and include headaches, confusion, diarrhea, and vomiting. Later symptoms can progress into coma and death as the organs shut down.

Social Implications

Why is poisoned clothing so terrifying? It is because a person cannot fight what they cannot see, leaving them defenseless. Clothing is supposed to be protective. It provides warmth, covers nakedness, and provides protection from the elements. Clothing is meant to keep us safe. Being attacked from a point of safety and potential happiness is devastating. In each of these stories, the victim felt safe but shortly succumbed to their own demise.

Clothing can also represent status. Fashion industries paste their logos on their clothing and accessories to show that you can afford the $10,000 purse and shoes. While the homeless are often described as wearing tattered and worn-out clothing. Most versions of this story focus on a girl who cannot afford a new dress to attend and event, so she purchased a secondhand dress instead. This being a representation of social class divide.

These themes are current even in today’s society with events such a homecoming, high school prom, and events such as cotillion. These events require expensive dresses for teens to wear for one night and other expenses such as hair and makeup. This leaves many teens, especially girls being left out.

Medical Science

In all versions of this story, the victim is poisoned by embalming fluid because the dress was once worn by a dead body. As the new wearer’s skin warmed, the embalming fluid seeped through her skin, and died from the poison in the embalming fluid. To your average person, this sounds incredibly scary and possible. Talk of death is taboo in most cultures and not usually discussed, making it scary to most people.

Embalming fluid is made up of many chemicals and is injected into a body after death to preserve the tissues from breaking down while awaiting burial. Over the years the composition of this fluid has changed but the main component has always been formaldehyde. This is the same thing that preserved the frog you dissected in high school. While formaldehyde can be absorbed through the skin, in small doses is not toxic. Formaldehyde is metabolized very quickly in a live human. In order to reach toxic levels, you would have to soak your skin a significantly large quantity of the liquid. Formaldehyde also has a very distinct smell. A dress covered in the embalming fluid would have an odor, especially as the body heats up.

Most urban legends have a grain of truth woven into the fantastic story. While it is possible that a girl died after a social event, especially in the 1950s when medicine was much less sophisticated, but the cause was not due to embalming fluid. Spooky stories such as fables and urban legends use inherent fears to illicit emotion. This story still lives on in both written versions and word of mouth.

References

Alvin Schwartz (2019). Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

The Hairpin.  A Dress to die for.

https://www.thehairpin.com/2015/03/a-dress-to-die-for/

#FolkloreThursday: The Poisoned Dress

https://steampunklibrarian.blog/2022/01/27/folklorethursday-the-poisoned-dress/

The last kiss

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dressed-to-kill/

Vice

The long strange history of women wearing deadly clothing

https://www.vice.com/sv/article/pgwgnv/the-long-strange-history-of-women-wearing-deadly-clothing

Embalmed Alive: A developing Urban Ghost Tale

https://ia804503.us.archive.org/12/items/sim_new-york-folklore-quarterly_autumn-1952_8_3/sim_new-york-folklore-quarterly_autumn-1952_8_3.pdf

Critical First Steps For Psychic Beginners

There are some critical first steps that all beginners need to embrace if they want to expand their psychic abilities. Simply noticing these experiences won’t help someone to cultivate and gain the control they need to put this useful skill-set into action. It takes dedication and direct effort, but where does one begin?

Step One - Exploring The Scientific Foundations

Many budding psychics aren’t even aware of the existence of scientific research regarding psychic-based phenomena. Without this critical knowledge, it can leave them feeling confused and doubtful about the validity of their experiences. By exploring the scientific basics, one can gain a sense of confidence and understanding that will make the developmental process far easier. So where does one find this scientific information?

Despite the lack of mainstream acknowledgement, the academic study of psychic phenomenon is actually considered to have been formally created on February 20th, 1882 when the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded by a group of distinguished scientists, thinkers, and scholars of the time (Irwin & Watt, 2007). In the 1930’s, J.B. Rhine began psychical research in the U.S. while working at Duke University. However, he replaced the use of the phrase ‘psychical research’ with the term parapsychology - meaning above or beyond psychology — and it is this terminology that still defines the field today.

Budding psychics need to know that within the parapsychological field, there is ample research supporting the existence of psi – pronounced as ‘sigh’ and being the scientific term used for psychic functioning. And it is here that the beginner will want to start their pursuit of knowledge. The Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE), The Society for Psychical Research (SPR), The Parapsychological Association (PA), The Institute of Noetic Sciences, and The Windbridge Research Center all provide quality scientific information. They each offer written materials, classes, events, and/or videos - all geared towards the academic understanding of a wide range of psi-based experiences. The Rhine Research Center also regularly offers an excellent course entitled Introduction to Parapsychology. It truly is an outstanding class to help beginners learn the scientific basics.

Step Two - Taking The Initiative

I have encountered countless people who want answers about their psychic experiences, but when asked what they are doing to solve those issues, they admit to having done nothing. This brings us to the second critical step of taking the initiative. There are, however, a variety of good reasons for why someone is not taking the initiative towards their psychic development. For example, fear and confusion are common reasons for not moving forward, as are a lack of time or discipline. In addition, some people are merely curious, putting psychic development far down on their priority list. There’s nothing wrong with this decision. It’s a personal choice. But in reality, without a burning desire along with effort and dedication, one will rarely get far in any area of life unless there is a willingness to truly set aside the time to make things happen.

Psychic Experience Evaluation

In order to evaluate this step, take some time to make a list of all of those issues that are preventing forward momentum in one’s psychic development. And be sure to be brutally honest when making the list. No one else is going to see it. In other words, if ‘lazy’ and ‘unmotivated’ are reasons for not developing, then that’s perfectly ok. This simply indicates, that at least for now, perhaps one’s psychic development needs to go to the wayside.

With a completed list of those issues that are preventing one from taking the initiative, the next step is to tackle one item at a time. For example, let’s look at confusion as this is a commonly reported issue. With confusion as the theme, make a more extensive list of everything that is confusing about psychic development; how to practice, who to trust for assistance, where to find a community, uncertainty about personal skills and experiences, etc. By breaking down the topic of confusion into smaller bites, these then become action steps that can be addressed one at a time. And by doing this, you are now taking the initiative. Yes, perhaps it seems a slow and maybe even irrelevant process, but by getting to the root of any resistance, one starts the path towards resolution.

Step Three - Documenting Psychic Events

The third critical step for psychic beginners is to pull out a pen and paper and to document any and all potential events. No matter how silly they might seem, if there’s something odd, extraordinary, synchronous, or weird that occurred, then just make note of it. It only takes a few minutes each night to jot down anything that took place during the day. Or, document it as soon as it happens. Either way, do this regularly for a few weeks, ideally a month, until there are a fair number of documented experiences.

Use a Psychic Journal

Remember to list as many details as possible for each event. These can be helpful later – indicating patterns and uncovering tendencies towards certain psi-based experiences and/or skills. By its nature, psi is often incomplete, symbolic, and deeply intimate in nature. This means discerning personal meaning and deciphering one’s unique way of psychic functioning. For example, some individuals are very prone to seeing colors with each of those colors having unique meanings just for them. Others may hear song lyrics or movie titles or see animals or designs. These symbolic psi-based impressions will have different meanings for different people, so finding the clues and patterns as they pertain to YOU is all that matters. This involves documenting and making note and discovering insight over time - as well as patience!

In addition, a willingness to embrace psi enhances its frequency! By documenting and journaling, you are not only noticing psi but also encouraging it to take place. This notion is supported by the work of Gertrude Schmeidler who demonstrated through her research that belief in psi created positive results, while disbelief actually discouraged results – even above statistical chance. She coined this variable as ‘the sheep-goat effect.’ So, by embracing psi, even through something as simple as journaling, you can start to pull in more experiences to help hone-in on your particular psychic skill-sets.

Step Four - Learn The Psychic Language

The fourth critical step towards psychic awareness is to learn some basic terminology and language as it relates to psychic functioning – ideally from reliable resources. As previously discussed in step one, parapsychological organizations are a great place to start. There are, however, two drawbacks to these scientific organizations. First, since they are so academically oriented, some of their material can be rather confusing and overwhelming to the general layperson. Secondly, they observe and study psychic experiences from the outside looking in. This means they provide a very important objective look at psychic experiences but may be lacking in actual personal experience. For these reasons, it can also be very helpful to search out reliable paranormal resources as well as qualified psychics and mediums who have an understanding of parapsychology.

A well-trained paranormal group should understand the scientific basics surrounding parapsychology. This allows them to help someone wade through their confusion, offering clarity, resources, and guidance for further education. I won’t address the various aspects of finding a good paranormal group at this time. Just remember to ask them about their experience and training and how they plan to offer assistance. Far too many groups base their techniques and assistance on methods developed from television and know nothing of parapsychology. However, there are also plenty of quality field investigators out there. These folks can be very helpful in providing education and awareness for those having psychic experiences.

The Use Of Psi

In the same way, a well-qualified and experienced psychic or medium can also be extremely helpful. These folks offer personal experience and insights that academics often just can’t provide. Because psychics and mediums have ‘walked-the-walk,’ they can be a great resource for honing-in on what is psi and what isn’t, what it feels and looks like, explaining fears and resistances, discussing spirit visitations from an experiential perspective, as well as offering a basic vocabulary. It is important to explore not just the science, but also from those who are already utilizing the skill themselves.

While the ability to verbalize and speak the psychic language may not seem relevant to development, try to think of it this way. Let’s say that someone goes to school to learn how to work on cars. Before they can succeed they need to learn the various car parts, the way the parts function, and the tools that are required for working with those parts. This means learning the language and tools of the trade in order to become successful. The same applies to the psychic world as well - learning the language and tools of the trade leads to success.

Put it together

Summary: Put together, these four steps are all designed to help individuals get started on exploring, understanding, and expanding on their psychic experiences. Perhaps they don’t seem very glamourous, but learning the science, taking initiative by identifying resistances and finding solutions, documenting personal psi-based events, and then learning the psychic language and tools of the trade from a variety of reputable resources will all go a long way towards making the process unfold.

References

J.B. Rhine History & Background Psi Encylopedia

Gertrude Schmeidler Psi Encylopedia

An Introduction to Parapsychology, 5th Edition, Harvey J Irwin & Caroline Watt, 2007

Photos Courtesy of Unsplash Cover Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4

Your reality is in fact, a conscious universe

There are many theories of reality out there ranging from the religious to the mathematical to elephants on top of turtles. What I’m going to do here is demonstrate that you can break this down into two paths which are incompatible with each other. To chose one is to completely reject the other. It all seems very complicated on the surface, but understanding the basics of reality is actually quite straightforward once you take step back and look at the problem as a whole.

Those two points of view are materialism and idealism. Materialism means that you believe that everything is ultimately made out of material and idealism means that you believe that everything is ultimately made out of ideas.

These two ways of looking at reality are incompatible because a universe that is strictly material cannot create ideas and a universe that is strictly ideas cannot create something material. Yet we seem to be in a universe where both exist. However, one of these two things must be right and the other must be wrong.

Physical vs. Mind

If you’ve never explored this topic, then it can be difficult to follow; particularly in understanding the difference between thought and physical reality since we blend the two together seamlessly.

The short version is This:

1. If it is physical, it can be measured and it has no inherent meaning.
2. If it is an idea, it has inherent meaning, but cannot be measured.

To take a rather mundane example, an actual wooden chair has measurable height, weight, and volume. If you throw it, it has the velocity as well. But if you asked the question: What does this chair mean? That is nonsensical. The wooden chair doesn’t mean anything, (and neither do any other physical objects.)

But suppose I say: “It’s a chair.” “Chair” doesn’t refer to a particular object, so there is no height, weight or volume to measure. And if I ask what does “chair” mean, you could easily reply with “something to sit on.” It’s an idea and therefore contains meaning, (all ideas contain meaning) and is not measurable.

Something can either be measurable or it can have meaning, but it cannot be both.

Is the Universe Material?

If the universe is strictly material, then everything in the universe can be broken down into reducible physical processes, nothing has any meaning at all, and consciousness doesn’t really exist; it is considered an epiphenomenon: A secondary process that occurs as the result of brain activity that can’t affect physical reality. In this scenario, only physical things that happen through purely physical processes are real. Our thoughts and memories are just stored electro-chemical reactions managed by an organic supercomputer.

Life is created out of an enormous multitude of random reactions that eventually get complicated enough to create a self-perpetuating thinking machine.

Everything to do with consciousness, therefore, also doesn’t exist. A physical universe exists without meaning because physical objects have no meaning.

So why would we believe that this is correct?

The Argument for Materialism

We need only look around to be aware of this physical, material world that we live in all our lives. To say that we have to pay attention to it is a massive understatement. We have bodies that must be managed, physical lives that are lived and we interact with the physical even while we’re sleeping. There is never a moment during our lives when we’re not attached to physical reality.

The world we live in behaves in a very physical, mostly predictable way. Most of what happens in our lives can be explained by material processes, whether through biology, chemistry or physics. We use physical processes to think and our thinking is affected by changes in our brains. No brain = no thinking. Our emotions correlate somewhat to physical processes in our bodies.

Different people all see the same thing and interact with it in the same way, and this seems to prove that an objective, physical reality exists.

If reality were based on ideas, you’d think that reality would be a lot more . . . bendy and dreamlike, people would see different things based on their inner worlds and that we wouldn’t ever grow old and die. You’d think that an idea based universe would allow you to change reality just by thinking about it.

But that doesn’t seem to happen. If you want to change physical things, you almost always have to engage in some task in the physical world to make it happen. If your car is making a weird noise, you can’t just wish it away, (although we’ve all tried at some point), you’re going to have to repair it.

There are, in other words, very good reasons to think that physical reality is primary and that consciousness is secondary.

The Problem With Materialism

While this all seems very obvious, there are serious problems with this approach, and it all starts with the fact that our entire experience of our physical reality happens in our minds.

All we will ever know of our physical world, we will know because of our conscious minds. There is absolutely no way around this. We cannot “get behind” consciousness and examine it from the perspective of being outside it. For example, if we are studying a car, we can handle it, take it apart and look at the various pieces. But consciousness doesn’t work that way. There is no way to stand apart from it, take it apart and see how it works. We have to be it, to look at it.

Our minds are what translates our body’s interactions with reality into something comprehensible. You cannot experience our physical reality without it.

Patterns and Meaning Are Not Physical

Here is where things get difficult. Patterns, codes and information are ideas. They have meaning and are not measurable. They are not physical objects. We assign patterns, codes and information to our physical universe, but these are not inherent properties of a physical reality. They are created by consciousness.

And now the hammer comes down: We experience our reality as patterns, codes, meaning and information. (These are all different names for the same thing.) We cannot experience reality any other way. This makes a truly physical universe impossible to prove.

Do you see where I’m going with this? The physical reality that we know is made up of patterns, which are creations of consciousness, and therefore our physical reality, as we know it, is utterly and completely dependent on consciousness to exist.

Another way to say this is that forming patterns is an act of consciousness. Because we can only see our reality in terms of meaning and patterns, we are experiencing a reality that our consciousness has created. If you are talking about a reality that exists without consciousness, you are talking about a reality that is without meaning and is patternless. We have no means of demonstrating such a thing to be real.

We Have to Reject Materialism

And if we can’t demonstrate it to be real, it can’t be our reality. The reality THAT WE HAVE requires consciousness to perceive it. That’s what we have to work with. In the case of materialism, there is no point in pursuing an avenue of investigation where it is impossible to gather any evidence.

Here we are then: A physical world which is impossible to disentangle from the consciousness that recognizes its existence. And with this, the philosophical approach of materialism comes to a dead end.

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” - Sherlock Homes

We know that if materialism is false, then that leaves idealism. The material cannot create the immaterial and the immaterial cannot create the material. So if the universe isn’t material, then it is immaterial. The physical reality that we know must be a creation of consciousness.

Reality is Made of Ideas

This is completely counterintuitive. Our thoughts certainly do not feel as real as the physical world around us, so it’s going to take some effort to explain this. Let’s start with the obvious: our minds can function without input from our bodies, but take away the mind and there’s nothing there. The body can live for a little while, but it can’t even eat.

This leaves a very significant questions about a physical world made of thought, such as “why do we share this reality?” and “How does it hold together?” and “Why does physics work so well?” For the answer, we look to a feature of quantum physics known as entanglement and take the data to its logical conclusion based on the assumption that our physical reality is made of ideas.

The 2022 Nobel prize in physics is relevant here:

Three physicists won the Nobel Prize together for their work on entanglement. We already knew that entanglement was real; what they discovered was that no one has been able to prove the existence of hidden variables, (which would support materialism) and that reality is in an indeterminate state until it’s observed:

This is somewhat simplified, but if you split an electron, sending the two halves in different directions, you can know the spin of one by looking at the other no matter how far apart they are. If the wave function of one collapses, so does the other, apparently instantaneously. You can’t set up any situation where they act independently of one another.

Reality is Actually Timeless and Spaceless

No information can travel between them, so the only other conclusion that fits the data is that they were never separated in the first place. Although the subatomic particles move through time and space, their entanglement behaves as though time and space don’t exist. If you can demonstrate that anything at all ignores time and space, then time and space cannot be fundamental attributes of our reality, which means that our physical 3D reality isn’t fundamental. It is a kind of scaffolding over the top of a fundamental timeless, spaceless reality.

There is stuff there; reality is not an illusion; but because it is fundamentally timeless and spaceless, it’s not physical in any way that we would understand. Our connected consciousness is creating a template to translate it into a scaffolding, which is the physical reality that we understand and experience.

This doesn’t mean that we’re living in an illusion or the matrix, just that we’re dealing with a layered reality. That’s why I use the term “scaffolding.” The scaffolding is real, but the reality that we experience is not strictly physical, but probably better described as representative.

Separateness is Not Fundamental to Reality

The deeper reality, which is timeless and spaceless means that we are fundamentally not separated from each other or the rest of reality. People, and in fact all of life are not really separate. The separateness is just scaffolding. This is a concept that we need to grasp in order to understand what holds it all together. Our connectedness; oneness or whatever you want to call it, is what gives the physical world: (the scaffolding), its “stickiness.” We are not individuals, individually responsible for the creation of our own realities. We’re more like cells in a larger organism and our reality is massively shared.

This physical reality is made “real” by the connectedness of every living thing that shares in the experience. We’re not living in our own little worlds creating our own private physical realities, we’re following a ready made template.

Now, in that light, let’s look at that Nobel prize again:

Here’s a quote from Scientific American:

One of the more unsettling discoveries in the past half century is that the universe is not locally real. “Real,” meaning that objects have definite properties independent of observation—an apple can be red even when no one is looking; “local” means objects can only be influenced by their surroundings, and that any influence cannot travel faster than light. Investigations at the frontiers of quantum physics have found that these things cannot both be true. Instead, the evidence shows objects are not influenced solely by their surroundings and they may also lack definite properties prior to measurement.

In an idea based universe, this describes a quantum level process of creating a local, physical reality scaffolding over the non-local timeless, spaceless, reality of consciousness. A collective, connected consciousness is giving physical form to what is fundamentally timeless and spaceless at the quantum level.

Conscious Universe - Quantum Weirdness Explained?

This might explain the general weirdness of quantum mechanics. It may occupy the liminal space between our physical reality and the underlying timeless, spaceless reality.

Living things physically live within their physical worlds, but our minds are timeless and spaceless. It may help to visualize collective thoughts vs individual thoughts. A collective thought would be what creates the template for our shared physical reality. It is almost entirely subconscious and virtually unchangeable. If I have a spoon in my hand for example, that would be a collective thought; it is unaffected by my conscious thoughts and it reliably and very predictably interacts causally with the rest of the physical world.

Individual thoughts are how we normally use our minds. These are transitory. They don’t have physical form and change rather frequently. We can make them stronger or weaker depending on our level of focus, but it’s extremely rare for them to overcome collective thought. Our individual thoughts don’t normally affect the template. Someone could possibly bend a spoon with their mind under very specific conditions, but it’s not the norm.

Our Minds are Timeless and Spaceless

I know that for many readers, all of this probably seems quite bizarre, but let me ask this question: How do you perceive time and space in your mind? Do you feel the passage of time? What about events, do events long in the past seem long ago? Do places that you know well seem far away in your mind? Chances are, the answer is no to these questions. We tend to perceive things not on their physical or temporal distance, but rather on our familiarity. Our personal experience can be described as a continuous “now”. We can remember the past and imagine the future, but only from a position of experiencing “now.”

My point here is that our mind is experiencing the deeper timeless, spaceless reality all the time. It’s so completely normal that we don’t even think about it. We have to stop and think about how much time has passed and how far away things are. These things are not wired into our thinking.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. What I want to leave you with here is that getting away from a strictly physicalist model of reality doesn’t change much about how we live our lives or even how science is conducted. While our reality might be based in ideas, it’s still very much a robust, measurable physical reality to us and it doesn’t detract from scientific accomplishments.

Reality Is The Conscious Universe

But we need to be aware of the underpinnings of our reality. We’re not working with the details of a physical world, but rather an idea based scaffolding. Learning about the scaffolding is extremely valuable to our well being, but we need to remember that we’re dealing in information when we do that and we are creators of information. It’s not all as separate as it appears to be.

Shaping Humanity’s Future at Skinwalker Ranch

Faith. Hope. Love. Most people would not expect those words to be associated with Skinwalker Ranch which is said to be “the most scientifically studied paranormal hotspot on the planet,” according to the ranch’s official site. When current owner Brandon Fugal first visited the ranch, he observed animal bladders and carcasses posted at its fence perimeters apparently to keep evil entities from escaping outside its boundaries. Despite this graphic sight, the reputation of curses, and stories of paranormal events, Fugal’s motivation for purchasing the property is steeped in faith, hope, and love.

Skinwalker Ranch Changes Name

Previously known as the Sherman Ranch and the UFO ranch, it was rebranded as “Skinwalker Ranch” to align with the location’s indigenous roots. Brandon Fugal describes the landscape as surprisingly beautiful and worthy of an old western movie background. Skinwalker Ranch lies in the centre of the geological depression known as the Uintah Basin in the state of Utah. Spanning 512 acres, it is located south of the Uintah Mountains and southeast of the city of Ballard. It borders the Ute Indian reservation and is surrounded by tribal land. The only access to the ranch is a gated road which Fugal applied to have declared private.

Source: Google Maps

The area is rich in Native American history and folklore and replete with petroglyphs carved into its rock faces and within its caves sometime before 1200 AD. These ancient drawings tell strange and violent stories about the experiences of those who inhabited the land many years ago, including depictions of severed heads, giants, and other mysterious horned figures, portals and pathways. What did the ancient civilizations witness here? Could these be the very first reports of UFO sightings? Was this rock art created to warn future generations?

The ranch gets its name from the malevolent shapeshifting witches of the Navajo people, called skinwalkers. Skinwalkers are believed to be shamans who sold their souls in exchange for the ability to assume different forms and for immortality. It is said that during the American Civil War(1861-1865), the Ute tribe ousted the Navajo people from the area. In revenge, the Navajo placed a curse on the Ute ensuring they would be forever terrorized by skinwalkers.

What Really Scared the Shermans Away?

From 1934 to 1994, the land was owned by Kenneth and Edith Myers. They lived on the property until Kenneth’s death in 1987. Edith stayed on the property until 1992 when she moved to an old age home. After Edith died in 1994, Garth Myers and his sisters inherited the property and sold it to cattle rancher Terry Sherman and his wife Gwen.

According to Fugal The Myers reported several occurrences on the ranch. Retired deputy Sheriff Kris Porritt provided testimony that he responded to several incidents on the ranch in an official capacity involving strange & disturbing events/activity during Myers’ ownership, and considered Kenneth Myers a friend. This was later contested in an interview with Frank B. Salisbury, author of the book, The Utah UFO Display, Garth Myers denied any kind of UFO activity on the property during the sixty years his family lived there. Clearly, the testimony holds more weight than statements made in a media interview.

The subsequent owners, the Shermans, told a different story. The Shermans owned the property from 1994 to 1996. After living on the ranch for less than two years, the Shermans went public with claims that they had been the victims of numerous frightening paranormal incidents since the day they moved in. Investigative journalist George Knapp detailed the Shermans’ accounts in a series of articles published in the Las Vegas Mercury newspaper. The pieces included descriptions of unexplained cattle mutilations and disappearances, strange objects in the sky, crop circles, and encounters with wolf-like creatures.

Skinwalker and George Knapp

Is it a coincidence that George Knapp has a connection to the individual who would eventually buy the property from the Shermans? Knapp worked with the National Institute of Discovery Science (NIDS), which was founded by well-known Nevada billionaire, real-estate developer and owner of Bigelow Aerospace, Robert Bigelow. He is also well-known for his passion to discover an afterlife. Recently, in 2021 he created the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies and offered $1 million in prizes in a competition for essays “for presenting the evidence for survival of human consciousness after bodily death.”

After the Shermans’ claims were publicized in 1996, Bigelow immediately purchased the property from them for $200,000, apparently less than what they paid for it. The Las Vegas Sun confirmed that the Shermans moved to another property only 15 miles away and that Terry Sherman took a caretaker job on the ranch. This raises some questions: If the events they experienced were so frightening and disturbing, why didn’t the Shermans move farther away than a mere 15 miles? Why did Terry Sherman return to the ranch to accept employment from Bigelow as a caretaker?

The year before purchasing the Sherman Ranch, Bigelow formed the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDSci) to enable scientific research of the paranormal. The events reported by the Shermans caught Bigelow’s attention. Twenty-one years later, it would be revealed that those details also caught the attention of the United States government.

The New York Times broke the story in 2017 with details about the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. It was formed in 2007 and dissolved in 2012 after spending over $22 million in funding to study UFOs. According to Fugal, Robert Bigelow became part of the program after former Senator Harry Reid and officials from the U.S. Defense Department visited the ranch.

A Christian Skeptic Buys Skinwalker Ranch

During Bigelow’s twenty years of ownership, Bigelow invested massive resources into the research carried out by NIDSci. At some point, while Bigelow owned the ranch, he participated in discussions with Brandon Fugal. Fugal maintains that although the property was not for sale, this was not just another real estate deal. Bigelow was seeking a successor to its stewardship, and he chose Fugal. Perhaps Bigelow and Fugal bonded over their shared certainty of the existence of an afterlife. Under his company, Adamantium Real Estate LLC, Brandon Fugal anonymously purchased Skinwalker Ranch in 2016.

Brandon’s Story

Brandon Fugal was born on April 1, 1973. He is a successful and prominent businessman, chairman and co-owner of Colliers International in Utah, a top commercial real estate firm, and he was previously named EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Fugal was raised by his parents in the religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Somewhere along the way, Fugal became fascinated with science fiction as evidenced by the name of his company, Adamantium, paying homage to Marvel Comics. Adamantium is a fictional indestructible alloy and that of which Marvel character Wolverine’s claws are made.

Brandon and Skepticism

Despite his keen interest in science fiction, Fugal claims to have been a skeptic when he bought Skinwalker Ranch. However, his skepticism didn’t stop him from reinforcing the existing security systems put in place by the previous owner. He installed additional cameras, motion detectors, and a 24-hour patrol.

Keep Out

His reasons for elevated security include keeping people out for their own protection from unknown dangers. Fugal doesn’t allow his own children to visit the property. He told Utah Business, “I have four kids but they have never been to the ranch,” Fugal says. “The danger is real, and we have to approach the ranch with a degree of reverence and caution.”

Science Steps In

Fugal also put together his own multidisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and military personnel to embark on “the greatest science project of all time” he says in an episode of Jessop’s Journal – ABC4 News. This team includes his friend, Bryant “Dragon” Arnold, installed as the Chief of Security for the ranch. In a 2020 tweet, Fugal reveals that he met Arnold in 1992 while on a missionary assignment in Hawaii.

Source: Twitter, @BrandonFugal

Soon several team members began to experience strange occurrences. They reported acute medical episodes, electromagnetic anomalies, high levels of radiation, and equipment malfunctions. Tom Winteron, the ranch’s maintenance superintendent, suffered three unexplained serious head injuries.

However, Fugal himself hadn’t witnessed nor experienced anything unusual, preserving his skepticism for the first six months of his ownership of the ranch. Then, in the Autumn of 2016, while outside with a group of others, Fugal witnessed his first UFO. He reported that it was a silver object approximately 50 feet long that hovered in the sky before disappearing with inexplicable propulsion movements. “I can’t unsee that.”, Fugal says. He became a believer or as Fugal prefers, “an experiencer.” The event was not caught on any devices due to battery power drainage occurring in the hour prior to this sighting.

“My perception of the world and universe has been forever changed by my experiences. Now, I believe the adventure of owning this "paranormal" property is just beginning.” - Fugal’s article in Newsweek.

A Hit Show Is Born

Following his purchase of the ranch, it was 4 years later that he admitted he owned the ranch. Consequently, after that time Fugal began negotiations with producers at The HISTORY Channel to create a new television series called The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.

In his own words, he stated “I owned the ranch for nearly 4 years before agreeing to go public in conjunction with the docuseries, allowing television cameras for the first time."

Initially, he insisted on keeping his identity as the owner of the ranch anonymous for fear that it might damage his business reputation. Fugal says that he also demanded that the show would only report the truth of the events at the ranch and that his own team would play themselves, rather than a cast of actors. He also insisted on having the final cut on the content that would be broadcast. The wheels for the new show were set into motion and Fugal became a co-executive producer.

Skinwalker’s A Brand

On February 15, 2017, Adamantium Real Estate, LLC filed two trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The trademarks Skinwalker and Skinwalker Ranch were both registered for use in association with “Providing recreation facilities; Entertainment services, namely, creation, development, production, and distribution of multimedia content, internet content, motion pictures, and television shows.” Later, on June 21, 2021, Adamantium filed another trademark application to expand the use of the Skinwalker Ranch trademark to cover its use on products such as “stickers”, “cups and mugs” and “Shirts and short-sleeved shirts; Sports caps and hats”.

The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch first aired on The HISTORY Channel in 2020 and immediately became a hit. The show is now in its third season and has documented numerous strange and mysterious phenomena. In Season 1, after a young cow is found dead, Fugal’s team of investigators view the security camera footage. The footage shows a UFO directly above the cow prior to it dropping dead.

Season 3 Of Skinwalker Ranch

More recently, in Season 3, Fugal and his team gather around a table with journalist George Knapp and former Governor of Utah Gary Herbert (2009-2021), who Fugal says has been an important part of elevating the formality of this research. The group has gathered to review the 3D photogrammetry results of the property. The results reveal solid vertical structures suspended in the sky above the ranch. Fugal states, “It appears we are triggering contact in some way shape or form, and it’s manifesting itself above the ranch in a very profound way.”

Could these structures represent the disappearing portals that have been alleged around the Skinwalker Ranch property? Are they what the ancient petroglyphs were attempting to depict? What is the role of the former Governor of Utah in these investigations? Is the U.S. Government still secretly involved in programs at the ranch? Are military decisions being made as a result of Fugal’s findings?

In Brandon’s Words

“The scientific investigation at Skinwalker Ranch continues 24/7/365 with full-time onsite professionals and is the most significant privately funded research program of its kind on the planet. Now in our 4th season of filming the docuseries, we have brought more 3rd party professionals than ever before, with a diversity of skills, resources & technology platforms being deployed in service to documenting the reality of the phenomenon. Understanding the origin and agenda of what is being observed is a high priority.”

When Science and Religion Live Together in One Mind

Growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Brandon Fugal was raised to believe in the spirit world. “We lived before we came to earth, and we will continue to live after we die,” as stated on a Latter-Day Saints website. When asked by Doug Jessop if he feels a conflict between his religious beliefs and his scientific endeavors at Skinwalker Ranch, he asserts that there isn’t a conflict and that purchasing the ranch is in alignment with his faith. With a perspective that religion and science are complementary, Fugal and his ranch may hold the key to proving the existence of other dimensions. Even before the late Stan Lee of Marvel Comics popularized the concept of a “multiverse" consisting of thousands of separate universes, Christianity and other religions already supported the existence of another dimension: the spirit world. If there’s one, perhaps there are more.

“My goal with Skinwalker Ranch is to bring together a multidisciplinary group of people for the purpose of using science and technology in order to prove that we are not alone in the universe and that there is more to our existence than meets the eye.” - Brandon Fugal in an interview with Joe Murgia of UFO Joe

Fugal admits that he is compelled to find hard evidence of a multidimensional universe. He also told UFO Joe that he was considering expanding his investigations to the study of consciousness. Such studies would reach beyond the materialist view of humans whilst adhering to the third-person perspective of scientific pursuit.

Empirical Evidence

If Fugal can show empirically that other dimensions exist, then it follows that one of those dimensions could be the spirit world. It could also lead to substantive proof of an afterlife and the presence of angels among us. Fugal’s goal is to have data to confirm that we are not alone in the universe and that we are part of an intelligent design. His research findings may unlock unlimited possibilities for the future of mankind and accelerate the evolution of theology. In a time when we are experiencing divisiveness amongst ourselves, Fugal’s research has the potential to unite us as one race, the human race, and to restore our faith, hope, and love for one another.

What do you think is going on at Skinwalker Ranch? Is the U.S. Government operating secret programs again and making contact with extraterrestrial beings? Have both angels and aliens found the doorway into our world? Or has Brandon Fugal found the doorway into theirs?

Correction, (Fri Sept 30, 2022): A previous version of this story was corrected with information gained directly from Brandon Fugal. The editorial team has made the necessary corrections, and thank Brandon for the clarification. We incorrectly stated that Myers never reported phenomena at the ranch when testimony from an officer of the law proved otherwise. Fugal also confirmed the correct timing of his public admission.