Is My House Haunted? A General Building Contractor weighs in.

I am the science editor for Paranormal Daily News, and I am also a licensed California General Building Contractor and I’ve done a lot of handyman type work over the years. What I want to address today are some of the normal things that occur with buildings that have to be taken into consideration when examining a potential haunting or ghost.

I’ve run into a quite a few stories of people claiming that something paranormal was happening in their home that were head scratchers for me. “No,” I’d think to myself, “I’ve run into that kind of problem before and I know what causes it and how to fix it.” So I’ve made a little list of stuff that I’m familiar with. There are other things that paranormal investigators should be aware of, of course, but I’m only addressing things that might be related to a haunting that are within my area of expertise.

This is in no way a debunking of paranormal investigations or their findings. However, in any quality paranormal investigation, ordinary causes have to be either completely ruled out or accounted for, otherwise an investigation will leave questions on the table, ripe for criticism. Here, I am going to address the things that someone in construction will run into from time to time.

Haunted Houses Have Personality

Houses are systems and they have their own personalities. They have water, electrical, sewer, heating and often gas and air conditioning. They have a variety of passive mechanical systems, such as door knobs and locks, hinges and drawers, electronic and electromechanical systems, such as ovens, dishwashers, garbage disposals, washers, dryers etc. At any given moment, these parts of the house are in various states of repair and are subject to the vagaries of their initial installation and general wear over time.

In addition to this, houses have consumable items, such as light bulbs and air filters that wear out.

The building may have been remodeled at some point or have various other idiosyncrasies. Every building is different and some of the things that go on in houses can seem paranormal to people who don’t see this stuff happen on a regular basis.

In addition to this, I don’t think it’s enough just to provide a list, but also how to check for these things. Many of these strange things can be tested for relatively easily.

Lights that go on and off or flicker for seemingly no reason:

There are lots of things that can cause this. While it is possible for the house wiring to be the problem, it’s far more likely to be coming from a switch, the light or the light fixture. This kind of thing is on my client’s fix it list often enough that I would be very reluctant to ever ascribe it to anything paranormal.

Electrical Paranormal Quirks

1. If the light is fluorescent, this can be caused by a failing transformer or light. They tend to flicker when they’re failing. Fluorescent lights often have a dark spot near the base when they start to go bad, and they tend to make a buzzing sound and don’t put out much light. It’s all fairly obvious if you take off the light cover and look at them directly.
2. Some light fixtures (very common for recessed lighting) have thermal sensors that shut the light off if the internal temperature is too high. (More common in summer on hot days when the attic temperature is quite high) This occurs where the socket is, high up in the fixture. The most common cause of this problem is recessed lights covered in insulation in the attic. You can test for this problem, but it takes awhile. Leave the lights off for an hour so that they have a chance to cool down, then turn them on. All the lights should come on, and then once they heat up, they will randomly turn off for a while and then come back on again after they have cooled down.
3. It can be loose wiring, which randomly makes contact due to environmental changes. You can’t tell without exposing electrical boxes. Leave that to the electricians. This is pretty rare in comparison to other problems.
4. It can be a failing switch as well. You can test switches by very slowly turning them on and off. They should be either on or off. If you can find a spot where the light flickers, the switch is failing.
5. Any light with electronics (usually LED) is vulnerable to weird failures. Speaking of LED’s, they draw very little power, so it’s possible for them to be on when there is effectively no power in the house. They’re running off a trickle of electricity that’s still running through the line.

Mind and Matter

Having said that, scientific studies into mind/matter interactions, (aka telekinesis, aka psychokinesis), which is what this is, requires lability (unstable or easily changeable). So it is possible that an ordinary failing electrical connection could provide an environment suitable for the paranormal. Context is important.

Weird Knocks, Creaks, Groans:

These do exist as paranormal things and unlike weird lighting issues, I don't see a lot of these things, except for water hammering. It's pretty easy to figure out.

1. This can be nail pops. A nail somewhere nearby is pulled by bending wood, usually warping slightly due to temperature changes until it pops up a little bit. They can be quite loud and are a distinct, short, sharp sound that comes from inside the walls and echos around, making it impossible to determine where they can come from. They can occur at all hours, but more typically, they come during temperature changes outside.
2. Water hammering, which is more of a thump sound. It’s caused by a sudden change in water pressure in a pipe that’s not securely fastened. The most probable cause is water shutting off abruptly somewhere in the house. Usually this is faucets, but can also be washing machines. The cause and effect are fairly obvious, and it’s fairly easy to test for this and rule it out. Usually the occupant will know what this is.
3. Plastic drain pipes can also rub against wood, making noise as they expand or contract, if they’re wedged in a particular way. I’ve seen this happen exactly once in 20+ years, so it’s not likely at all.
4. Floor squeaks: While this is usually screamingly obvious, step here and get a squeak, step there and nothing happens, house settling or temperature changes can cause squeaks as well. We’re all familiar with that sound.
5. Creaking and groaning: This is usually caused by the building settling. This is dependent on the soil that the building sits on. Wood buildings on mostly clay soil will experience soil expansion during wet weather as the ground expands due to moisture, and shrink during summer due to drying out. Changing seasons is what’s relevant here. A building sitting on concrete posts deep in the ground probably won’t have this problem.
6. Scratching Sounds, Movement in attic: You probably guessed this just from the description and I debated with the editor whether to add this at all because it’s fairly obvious what’s happening. It’s rats. Except for the occasional squirrel, and bats, it’s always rats. They need an opening the size of a quarter to get in and if an opening is not big enough, they can chew the rest of the way, even through concrete in some cases. It’s not entirely impossible for a raccoon to get into some attics. Sometimes the roof framing is sloppy and leaves larger gaps where rooflines meet. Rats, squirrels and raccoons commute, meaning that they have certain hours of activity in a home, and they’re away the rest of the time.

Cold air, weird smells

Houses are rarely airtight, so random air from outside can drift through from outside even with windows shut and doors closed. I’m trained by my job to notice this stuff and I can often identify what type of smell I’m picking up, or that cold air is blowing around.

1. Air can drift through leaky air ducting.
2. it can drift through chimneys.
3. and poorly sealed doors and windows with air gaps.

It’s the kind of thing that people don’t normally pay attention to, but people who are actively ghost hunting would be far more aware of these changes and looking for that sort of thing, so they would be more likely to notice.

Things to check for are: Does the house have ducting running through a crawl space or basement? Can you feel cold air blowing through the vent? Are the doors and windows airtight? (This can be really hard to check for.) What time of year is it? How cold is the weather outside? Is a whole area cold? Or is it near the ground? Cold air traveling nearer to the ground is almost definitely an ordinary cause, but a whole cold spot area is less likely to be ordinary.

If a house has a basement or crawlspace then in some situations air can come up from gaps in vent pipes, lending a musty smell to the air. This would be more common in areas where dry rot can occur, such as near exterior doors, bathrooms or near an interior crawlspace access. It tends to be stronger in wet weather.

Doors randomly opening

I say opening and not closing, because most people can think of the ordinary causes for a door closing on its own and it’s not worth discussing. But a door randomly opening is harder to explain. However, it is possible under a very specific condition, so that’s what I’m going to address. This is quite rare.

If the gap between the door and the frame is wide, so that the door barely latches, then temperature and/or humidity changes can affect the door enough to spring the latch. It’s fairly easy to check this and it’s something that should be ruled out as an ordinary cause. So check to see whether the door is barely latching and then see if it naturally swings open when it’s unlatched. If both are true, then there’s your most likely cause.

Carbon monoxide poisoning

You may have read about this already, as this makes it through the news sometimes. Carbon monoxide is caused by fuel burning appliances in your home. This could be an oven, dryer or forced air heater or some other gas burning fixture. At some level in between getting a headache and killing you, it can cause hallucinations. This is quite rare. About 1.4 people in every 10,000 get sick enough from carbon monoxide to go to the hospital in the U.S.

You can test for this with an inexpensive carbon monoxide detector for as little as $20.

Just to sum this up, I do think that hauntings and ghosts exist and that they are explainable. But I’m also so familiar with houses that my go-to explanation for most of the things that go bump in the night is that something probably needs to be fixed.

Can Paranormal Investigators & Psychic Mediums Work Together?

The relationship between a paranormal team and a sensitive (a.k.a. psychic or medium) is often difficult, and sometimes dangerous if not handled well. Some teams won't even consider using sensitives, while those who opt to use them may place too much weight on their contributions or else none at all. But is there perhaps an ideal option where the two parties work hand in hand to serve the greater good?

I believe the answer to this is yes, and I would like to use my personal experience to shed a little light on this potential.

Ghost Society For Paranormal Investigators

In 2010, I was invited to join the Washington State Ghost Society, a rather active group consisting of local individuals interested in exploring the paranormal. I was a newly emerging psychic medium and wanted to join a group to help expand my skills. Although my initial role was to serve in an investigative capacity, after a bit of experience I quickly expanded into the role of a team sensitive. What I quickly realized, however, was just how much further I needed to hone my abilities.

You see, mediums and psychicsYou see, psychics and mediums usually work with sitters - people who reach out for private sessions to connect with departed loved ones or to get personal guidance. But what happens when you thrust a sensitive into a situation where they now must assess situations, locations, buildings, land, spirits (if present), residual energies/imprints, time bands, as well as the energies and issues of the living?

Historical Places

For example, until I had access to historical places, I had no opportunity or need to learn how to use the energy in these spaces differently. Two particular locations had 100-year-old histories that left different imprints from different time bands. Patrons of one of these locations often heard music playing while dining. This particular imprint occurred during a specific time in the location's past, while other experiences occurred as a result of different time frames.

According to parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach, these types of residual energies are also referred to as place memory, psychic imprints, residual haunts, or hauntings. This occurs when the location ‘records’ the activity of the events, memories, emotions, and people who once or currently occupy them. For those who are sensitive, these recordings can be discerned via psi. However, place memory or hauntings do NOT involve consciousness, even though they can be perceived by consciousness. See the following PDN article for more on why Your Reality Is In Fact A Conscious Universe.

Paranormal Investigators and Residual Energy Discernment

While understanding these various imprints may offer an investigative team little more than small details to assist in location research, the team may not be able to find what they are looking for if a sensitive is not careful to properly discern these variations. Paranormal Investigators must understand these variables and also provide opportunities to help promote sensitive development with these variations.

The impact of sensitive discernment becomes even more crucial when dealing with residential cases: Those that involve real people having real issues.

One example is when our group was called in by a family we had previously assisted. They had recently moved into a new home and were concerned that activity had followed them to the new location. While I was not involved in the first investigation, I was the sensitive in the second investigation with other paranormal investigators.

Upon walking into the home and working with the energy of the space, it became clear that one room was full of unique energy patterns. I worked my way through the home, but I kept being pulled back to one particular space. Taking my time, I sat in the room working my way through what I was feeling until I realized that it was coming from the person who occupied it. To understand what was then creating the energy, I sat with it further until I could begin to discern the cause.

Supporting Evidential Data

With a possible cause and source in hand, we sat down with the family and I started to provide evidence to support my research. I first described the person who occupied the room and then described the emotional and physical concerns that I felt this person might be having. Finding that these assessments were correct, I began to suggest that the living child who occupied the space caused the energy in the space. There were clear medical and emotional concerns about the child. Because of this, we explained that the potential events may be based on the child's personality rather than the actual spirit.

Rarely are psychics and mediums given access to these types of scenarios. Certainly, some well-trained energy workers may have quickly been able to discern this issue. Then again, many energy workers are also not mediums. How do we know what will be encountered when working on these types of more intimate cases? It can be a real mixed bag.

As you can see, all of these variables, along with others, can cause an investigative team to simply avoid working with sensitives altogether. Sometimes it just seems easier, but by doing so, we are missing out on what may be going on in many of these cases: psi-based events.

Psi Events

If psi is the foundation for much of what is explored in an investigation, then at the very least, shouldn’t we use psi detectors? Sadly, this will not come in the form of technology. No device we currently have will detect spirits, consciousness, or subtle human energy patterns related to consciousness. This leaves only those tools that do – sensitives!

For those teams that want to use these human detectors, then a set of good standards must be set up, and a process should be followed to make sure the system works well. But this alone may not be enough. Sensitives also need exposure to various environments and scenarios in order to hone their skills. Simply working with sitters in the traditional way just doesn’t compare to the environment surrounding investigations. I am not saying that a well-trained psychic or medium will not be of value, but the more a sensitive is exposed to these things, the more they can learn from them.

Encouragement

I highly encourage psychics and mediums to work with the right investigative team. Doing so was one of the biggest skill-developing experiences of my life. However, be selective about the group and ask questions. They should have standards for how you will work and yet still be open to your needs. They should not discount everything you say, but neither should they worship the ground upon which you walk. Their role is to be objective, not to take your word as gospel.

Sensitives also need to be willing to admit that these scenarios may be new and foreign. Be open to learning and remain humble. The investigation is a collaborative effort for the good of the clients and the advancement of knowledge. It’s not a showcase. Know your limitations, work to discern more, learn some basic parapsychology, and be dedicated to the task for the right reasons.

Paranormal teams and field investigators who are willing to work with psychics and mediums may want to consider a sensitive who meets the right requirements. While this may not be the team's main goal, what can be achieved through this partnership can offer long-term benefits to everyone involved. It can offer opportunity and expansion for the sensitive. It can offer better insights and awareness to the investigators as well as clients. It can also continue to shed light and understanding of the use and applications of psi. After all, we’re all searching for answers. So wouldn’t it make sense to start working together to create better results and opportunities for everyone?

For more on working with psychics and mediums, you can read Loyd Auerbach’s book Ghost Hunting, How To Investigate The Paranormal. You can also take Parapsychological classes with Loyd and other qualified instructors through the Rhine Research Center.

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