Tag: Paranormal

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Paranormal Series – responsibility or with great power comes…

Image-1 (9)I have to admit that I’m a big fan of skeptic and debunking sites. This might seem odd, especially considering that I would almost certainly be a target for them, especially with my pseudoscience and belief in the Bach Flower Remedies.  (Which are just plants soaked in water to capture their vibrations, and yet… they work!)

But I believe they not only serve a valuable service, but are very educational.

I feel we need them.

Knowledge and understanding of how things work goes a long way to not being scammed by others.

There are just so many charlatans’ out there. I’m not talking about those who claim to have genuine psychic abilities, but those who scam people and they know they are doing it.

They prey on the vulnerability and desperation of others who are desperate for a sign of lost loved ones or are feeling alone and lonely.

I, personally, would rather such scammers be exposed, and people like myself also called into question if it helped even one person to avoid being pulled in by false hope and losing their money.

And while skeptics tend to target things that are not scientific, I also notice that they seem to somehow avoid things that can’t quite be explained.  Maybe that’s because they can’t be really explained so it’s better to focus on those things that can be.

Fact is, things that are faked are easy targets. They can, and should be debunked.  They need to be exposed.

The main problem is that most don’t want to hear it. The only ones who seem to be interested in such things are those who are already convinced it’s all fake.

It’s just astounding how people will jump to a psychic’s defense, even when said psychic is clearly shown to be wrong over and over again.

People will defend them by saying that they are just passing on messages from beyond, and they shouldn’t and can’t be held responsible for the information they are given.

Well, I beg to differ.

Let’s say, just for a moment, that these are not cold hearted and calculating phoneys that don’t have a psychic bone in their body.

Let’s say that it’s a genuine medium. (I’m going to be generous and give them the benefit of the doubt.)

Let’s assume that they really are hearing messages from beyond. Are they running them though any type of filter or do they just blurt them out and pass them on like people who pass on gossip or urban legends by e-mail without checking to see if there is any truth to them first?

If not, why not?

Do you repeat everything you hear someone say as fact? I’d certainly hope not. You might not have all the answers, but I’d hope you’d spend a little time doing some research, or even looking at if the information received is even plausible or not.

You might then say, well, when they’re talking to an audience, they’re under pressure to perform and they don’t have time to go and check things out.

And I say in response that they have a truth filter. Their feelings and their ‘gut’ tell them when something is right. They may have learned to ignore it, but everyone certainly has that ability. (And most tend to ignore it!)

In the end, these people are responsible for what they tell others. And while I’m not saying that the person who is receiving the information has no responsibility (and they certainly do) they do listen in good faith and trust that what is being said is really being passed on from the other side.

You would not tolerate this kind of service from someone in a real profession. If you hire an electrician to fix your wiring, and he just stands there and waves his hands around for a few moments, then claim it’s all fixed and charges you $300.00, you’d kick him out of the house.

Of course, as I said, I’m being generous here and giving psychics  the benefit of the doubt  that they are genuine.

Most of the time they aren’t and are just giving what is termed a cold reading, which is a reading that has generic information that could pretty much fit anyone and more often than not, the one receiving the reading will help them clarify what is right. (This is why street psychics insist you take of your sunglasses, so they can see your eyes and reactions.)

Anyone can give a cold reading and have a very high chance of getting things right.  What’s more, these so called psychics know it.

Everyone has a responsibility for what they do and say. No one can sit back and say they don’t. A person who tells your fortune is just as responsible for what they say as the person who is receiving the information and has to decide how true it is for them.

However, it’s still heartbreaking and frustrating to watch people being duped.

Next:  There was this one time I predicted a winner…

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Personal experiences: Part 4 – The Lord’s Prayer or Reyarp s’droL ehT

Nokia N8 - Haunted...

This is a six part story about a paranormal event that occurred in January 1980. As usual, it’s told without any embellishments and according to a document that I had written after the event.

It was later that day, after Shawn claimed he suddenly felt weak and dizzy on the staircase, that I heard a story that he and another friend of his were in the dorm.

Shawn had a tennis ball and racket in his hands and he claimed to have heard a voice tell him to throw the ball at his friend, Terry. He hesitated for a moment, and then served the ball right at him with all his might. Fortunately, it just missed him. He excused his actions by claiming that he couldn’t control himself. Terry, himself, was stunned.

At dinner that evening, he was looking flushed and his hands were shaking. Whenever he looked at him, he would just shake his head. During practice, I noticed that he was looking at everyone in a strange way, and his face was white. Many there also noticed this, and made comments about it. Even for Shawn, this was odd behaviour.

After dinner, he came up to me and said there was going to be another séance that night and I had to come to it. I knew this would be a bad idea, so I told him no.

I believed in demons and possession back then, and I was now starting to feel like I was in over my head.

So I discussed what was happening with, I believe two of the boys, David and Terry and David (who was a student there) suggested we should go visit one of the resident Christian brothers in the hope that they could help or at least tell us what to do. 

So, during a break, we went to visit one of them, and ended up having a long talk with him. To his credit, he didn’t just disbelieve us, and let us tell our story. In the end, he suggested that it could be some sort of mental telepathy and said that you should assume that there are no evil spirits around until you proved that there were.

It does sound strange that he pretty much dismissed any spirits but spoke about telepathy in the same breath. In any case, he did give some advise that we were able to use.

He said that if I really felt the need for protection, I could make an imaginary cross and call for God’s help by saying The Lord’s Prayer. So we decided to do  just that.

We went to the stairs and we all felt the presence  there, though it was not as strong as it had previously been.

We made the imaginary cross, said The Lord’s Prayer together and asked for help.  The presence then left and did not return until the final days of the camp, only then very weakly.

You would have thought this would be the end of it all, and really, it should have been, but you’d be wrong there.

The next day, we went swimming to a local pool as it was a hot summer’s day. Everyone was throwing a tennis ball around to each other. Shawn got hold of it and threw it right at me. He managed to hit the side of my face, though, being a tennis ball, it didn’t actually do any damage. I was still shocked, though. Later he told me that he didn’t want to throw it at me, and that he couldn’t even throw straight. He said that every time he looked at me, he would hear a voice saying ‘get him!’ and he was being instructed to stay close to me.

Later on, he told me that he was going to have the séance that night, and that I must come to it. I said I wouldn’t, but he seemed confident that I would come.

Then  someone mentioned that if you said The Lord’s Prayer backwards while looking in a mirror, you would see the Devil.  Well, this was too much for Shawn to resist doing, and so, before he planned to have the séance, he took a group of people down to the shower area and he had someone read the words while he repeated them back while looking in the mirror.

I stayed away, no longer wishing to be part of it. If I had gone, I might have witnessed what many others said they saw happen.  He said the first five words, then his cheeks went white and his eyelids went red, taking on a glow. I did note, however, that when everyone came up the stairs, they all had bloodshot eyes, and looked exhausted.

However, once, apparently wasn’t enough for they went downstairs and did it a second time, and this time, he had his friend, Terry, join him.

Shawn told me that he saw his hair, which was blond, go dark and his eyes appeared to glow and Terry said that a shadow passed over his face.  They both claimed to have stuttered one a word at one point, and then went into a trance. They said they could hear themselves speaking, but they couldn’t feel themselves doing it.

Interestingly enough, Shawn chose to not have the séance. He said he felt it was too dangerous.

That night, we were once again swarmed by the flying black beetles, entering into the dorm in plague proportions.

Interestingly enough, all the bugs fell on Shawn and Terry’s bed, but missed mine. They even bit Terry three times and they were also crawling towards Shawn and biting him. These bugs do not bite to the best of my knowledge.

A voice in my mind said: They won’t get you because you didn’t attend the Lord’s Prayer in the mirror business.

This time the bugs were also swarming in the shower area where they had said the prayer and soon there was a carpet of crunchy black beetles lying dead on the floor.

At that point, I found that one of the teens named Glenn had a cross necklace so I asked if I could borrow it. He agreed. Back in those days, I still believed in the Devil, and that was what I was starting to fear we were dealing with.  I hoped the cross would help protect me. 

Well, fear would be too strong a word, really. I can’t say I ever was scared or fearful. I was continually fascinated, though.

The bugs kept on crawling toward Shawn, so I decided to give the cross to him to see if it would help. The bugs stopped crawling towards him and attacking him.

Shawn told me he was hearing a voice saying that it was going to get me. I denied that it would but he insisted that it would.

In the morning, he took off the cross and said he didn’t need it any more. When it touched me, I felt a jolt, as though something had left me. I put it back on and it as though it did give me some protection. Indeed it was a quiet day and I hoped that whatever it was that was happening was over.

Once again, the timing of events is interesting. While I don’t believe in a Biblical Devil, I have seen evidence to suggest that there are demon type entities out there and most certainly, doing something like what they did in the mirror was just foolhardy.

Next: Q&A with the devil!

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Paranormal series: Being adaptable or Swinging like a pendulum.

English: The seconds pendulum, a pendulum with...

One thing I have done several times in the course of my lifetime was change what I actually believe in.

In fact, like a pendulum, I’ve swung back and forth on several subjects as new or compelling experiences or evidence comes up.

Each time I seem to get a bit further, and each time more of the missing puzzle pieces seem to fall into place. What is important is that I need to acknowledge when I am wrong and believe me, it is a blow to the ego because you doubt yourself and call your entire reality, and your own credulity, into question.

Also, when you’re trying to be a credible source, anything that is shown to be wrong can hurt your reputation.

But that is the illusion.

Personally, I’d trust someone who is willing to admit they had it wrong and will take new evidence into account. At least you know they are doing their best to be honest and trying to find out what is really going on.

Of course, there is also the hope and excitement that something really is happening.

What if all those phenomenon are real? What if the house you live in really was haunted or what if we were really being visited by aliens from other worlds?

And the same goes for things such as past lives and the like. Part of us wants it to be real, even if we can’t prove it.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that they are not and I’m not suggesting they are fake either. I’m saying that making things fit to try and prove our case will, in the end, discredit it.

We need to try and remain as objective as possible, and not become attached to results which actually end up proving nothing, or hurting our case.

For instance, for myself, I have either remembered or created past life memories of things that may or may not have happened. I honestly can’t tell you which. I have no way of proving it, and only other psychic people seem to validate them or claim to share certain memories.

But are they making it up, too? Are they fitting their own created thoughts to match mine? There are no easy answers.

I can only go on my feelings, and if something feels right, then I’ll trust in that. However, I should also point out that something can feel mostly right, but you still feel you’re missing part of the story, or you don’t have all the facts.

And that’s where you need to look deeper, and continue researching the answers.

Thankfully, from time to time, I do get validation of certain things I have done and happily they occur before I mention them to anyone.

When I get confirmation of events or memories before I mention them, it helps a lot. I’ve had various people arrive at the same conclusions about who I was without me telling them a thing.

And it helps, yes, but it certainly doesn’t make it sound any saner or believable.

As always, I try to remain critical about things, but accept the evidence as it comes and see how likely other explanations are and hope people aren’t making it up or telling me what they think I want to hear. (Fortunately, there are cases where I know they were not.)

However, one thing I had learned is you should be careful what you wish for, and messing around with the paranormal  can really spiral out of control very quickly and end up becoming a nightmare.

This is the case with people who mess around with Ouija boards, and end up feeling there is something following them around.

The Ouija board is actually a game, however when used as a device to contact spirits, it may produce undesirable results. To date, I don’t think anyone has been able to use one under scientific conditions, making their validity debatable for getting answers, however that does not mean they don’t leave people open for mischievous entities or spirits to cause trouble.

When I was a preteen, I remember we tried to hold a couple of séances. We cut out the letters and numbers, lit candles and messed about with that once or twice. Nothing happened. Nothing ever came of it and it certainly had no impact on my life.

There was one other séance I took part in, though and that in 1980. I was fifteen and got caught up in the excitement of what appeared to be a haunted staircase.  Certainly very odd things happened during a two week period, and no doubt we, as teens, gave it the energy to do so.

As some may find it an interesting story, I’m going to retell it in full over the next week or so and make some observations about those events.

Next: The haunted stairway. 

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Paranormal series: Being a skeptic or let me just ignore that fact.

Image-1There’s a balance to being Empath who has psychic experiences and yet tries to be remain objective to what is going on.

To say that I’ve had more than my share of interesting experiences would not be an exaggeration. To say that many of these could not be explained away somehow would also be correct.

Some of them can’t. Some things that happened would require either a shared delusion, or timing and circumstances so contrives that it would make the most blatant Hollywood blockbuster script look disjointed by comparison.

I suppose it would be easy to ignore everything that doesn’t fit, but I also feel that would be doing myself a great disservice.

For instance, if someone tells me about having the same types of experiences as me, I need to consider if they had them before they met me or read any of my works, or if they arrived at the same types of conclusions independently.

Fact is: We, as humans, have a tendency to make stuff up, or change the facts ever so slightly to make it fit our stories.

I noticed this in my mother from a young age. She would adapt her stories and just put a small little twist into things to completely change the meaning.

She would tell you about her own psychic experiences, but only after she got your version. Then, mysteriously, it would match.

Or she would have the answers to puzzles that she claimed she already knew, but only after she was told the answers.

I never called her on these things, and really, I didn’t see the point to doing so, but it did make me very much aware of just how easy it was to make something into whatever you wanted it to be.

I do a lot of research and listen to sceptical podcasts because I learn a lot from them. (Plus, I find their observations hysterical at times because they are true.)

Problem is that it’s at the other extreme of the spectrum.

Where the true believer seems to accept everything they are told, the sceptic seems to refute anything they are told.

There just doesn’t seem to be a balance.

We need to be able to think critically about things. If something doesn’t seem to fit, look closer at it. It may not appear to fit because it does not fit.

Next: Fact or Fiction.

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Should we charge for our services or make room for my ego. (part 4)

English: Storefront Psychic fortuneteller in D...

Now, the original question I posed in the previous entry was: Does accepting money for using our psychic gifts deplete them?

I was taught that yes, it certainly does, however after many years of observation, I believe that no, it doesn’t.

As mentioned, money is a tool and there is nothing wrong with being paid for a service you provide.

But, you may ask, what about all those stories about people who lose their power once they start charging?

In my own case, in the mid 90s, in my attempt to grow and heal myself, I saw a couple of psychic healers.

At the time, it was $60.00 a session, which was a fair amount for me back then and I saw them at least once a week. (Though one was in 1995 and the other in 1996.)

Both were very impressive when I started going to them, but by the end, they made me feel like I was just a cash cow. (Though the second one I only saw her for three months.)

Nothing really got resolved and their system was set up so that no matter what you did, it could be taken as a negative or a problem to be fixed.

For instance, the first one I saw had this system where at the beginning of each session, I had to pick four cards from the Californian Flower Essence range. She used that as what needed to be done for that session.

However, as I made progress, she did not stop using it, and I realized that no matter what happened, being forced to choose four cards was always going to suggest I had problems that needed to be fixed.

She also become more invalidating and egotistical as the year went on, and in the end, my intuition screamed at me to get out and stop going.

Being an Empath, I found this very hard to do at the time as part of me felt guilty about it, and didn’t want to offend, , but one day she told me that I wasn’t a spiritual person on a spiritual path, and I knew that was my last session. After all, I had pretty much dedicated my life to the pursuit of knowledge and helping everyone I could.

As it was, I had another psychic healer who I was going to see, who happened to be an old family acquaintance who told me she could help me, and so I agreed.

In fact, while I know this lady was very psychic, it turned out that she  was after my powers. She told me I was powerful and and she made several attempts to try and convince me to board with her in her house and become her student.

My intuition also gave a very strong ‘no’ to this, and she became angry and offended.

As negative as those experiences ended being, though, they were critical to my path, and timing was everything  so certainly no regrets.

What it did teach me was that the more success these people seemed to have, the more their ego appeared to take over.

They could admit no wrong. They could not be told that something might not be right. They certainly weren’t happy to listen to anything I might have to say, and both would attempt to invalidate what I was feeling.

I’ve seen plenty of good psychics and healers  who do charge, and they are genuine and while they certainly don’t always get it right, they are sincere, and do provide the information they need to when they need to. (On an interesting note, those people offered their readings to me for free, which was appreciated at the time.)

Being humble (not falsely humble, which is irritating), trying to help and lift others, and not separating yourself out as special and better will prevent losing any gifts and abilities you have.

If you don’t know the answer to a question, then just say so. It might not be what they want to hear, but it will be what they need to hear.

If you were wrong and they tell you, then accept it. You can justify your reading six ways from Sunday, but all that does it hurt your powers and bring such things into disrepute.

There are already too many scammers out there on the market and they already do more harm to our credibility than you can imagine.

Sceptics are having a field day and dismissing us all as frauds, charlatans and self-deluded kooks. And I don’t blame them.

Stay true to yourself. It doesn’t matter if you charge or not. What matter is that you’re honest and you don’t let your ego take over.

Next: What if nobody took anything for anything?

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Empath Series – Psychic attacks. More ways to ward off attacks or should I pay for help?

This picture depicts the seven major Chakras w...

Psychic defense. Final thoughts.

Chakras.

One of the things I’ve noticed with people who are under psychic attack is that their chakras (the body’s energy centres) are way too open.

When a chakra is in that state, too much energy flows in and it can be overwhelming. The high level empath will often be vulnerable because their third eye will be over active and I believe our empathic powers come from that chakra.

You can balance your chakras, and adjust them by visualizing a lotus flower turning anti-clockwise with the petals closing.

I won’t get into the details here, but there are website that are dedicated to how to do this, complete with what colours to use, and what sounds resonate with the chakras.

Smudging.

Burning white sage is said to be very effective at clearing negative energies. This is called smudging, and can be used to clear a house or your aura.

Paying psychics for protection.

I’m sure there are plenty of people and so called psychics that will tell you that you are under a curse or under attack, and they will happily remove it… for a price.  Beware of those people. They will happily milk you of your hard earned money without producing any real results.

Never pay anyone to protect you from a psychic attack or remove an evil spell from you!. Those who do it for money are unlikely to have the power to help in the first place and more likely than not, have not even picked up on if you really are under attack. It may be just a lucky guess!

I remember once I visited L.A. and out of interest, I visited this psychic lady who advertised on the street. She told me people at work were plotting against me, and if I had faith and trust in her, we could work together and overcome it. I nodded in agreement while thinking, if she’s that good, you’d think she’d know I’m only here for the day. She was clearly a con artist trying to draw me in by methods of fear. In all probability, the work place will contain people who give you trouble so it’s a high chance of success of them guessing right.

Even if they are genuine, I believe that it’s not actually the money that reduces your vibrations or ability to heal, but your intentions and ego. If your intention is to make money, then so shall it be, but normally at the cost of your ability to heal. If your intention is to heal, then so you shall, but you might not automatically make money. It very much depends on what your attitude is towards money. Is it something ‘bad’ or is it simply a tool to help get what you desire? (check your belief system on that subject.)

There are also psychics who are actually very good at what they do, but then, ego takes over, especially when they have great success to start with. They make the mistake of believing they are somehow better than others, and jealousy, and elitism may also come into play. They may also become vulnerable to negative entities, who then can mess with their results.

I don’t have a lot of good things to say about psychic healers. Yes, there are some out there which can indeed heal, and there are some out there who are very psychic and do have powers. My experience has been that despite their obvious powers, many of them forget they are just a channel for healing and ego and false humility sets in. Also be wary of those who call themselves ‘Master’. ‘Master is a term of separation and I believe a true Master will be humble and will not refer to himself as such, or let others call him that title.

The same goes for those who are self-proclaimed prophets. (And yet, seem to have turned that into a business.)

Finally.

There is a school of thought (which I subscribe to) that says that nothing can happen to us unless we agree to participate on some level. If you believe in this, then this means that you have agreed to the attack. The reasons why may be as simple as that these attacks make your stronger, help you to experience who you are and to grow as a person and soul.

More importantly, they can help reveal your weak points, and lead you down paths that you would never have gone down without those attacks.

I know, I certainly wouldn’t be where I am if my life had been attack free.

Psychic attacks can be a real pain, and can really bring a life to a complete stop, and perhaps even destroy it. Never give into the temptation to fight back, and try and avoid being a victim, as that just adds to the problems.

Remember, there are many ways to deal with them that are gentle and safe.

Ask for help. It will come. And when it does, make sure you listen, and take it. 

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