Ghost Hunters and Organizations
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Rants
Well, I'm in a mood so be prepared.

As some of you may know, I'm currently forming the Adsagsona Paranormal Society (http://www.apsociety.com) with some friends and fellow paranormal investigators. While I'm having a ball with it, I'm also working my tail off. It's not always easy to do things right, but I'm determined to do that with this organization. And because I'm wanting it done right, I'm being a little picky about who I send out in public to represent the APS. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with wanting someone that knows what they're doing and can behave themselves while they're doing it.

So what's got me on a rant?

Today I received e-mails from two different individuals that both wanted to know what they needed to do in order to go on investigations with us. I told them that we're still working out membership details but one thing I was sure of is that no one will represent the APS on an investigation until we know for sure that they're properly trained, can act professionally, etc. And I even said it nicely!

Here's the thing -- BOTH of them responded to say that was too much work! What in the world?? It's too much WORK to do something properly?

Paranormal investigation isn't widely accepted. There's a certain amount of stigma attached to it because it's not always understood. There's also a certain amount of stigma attached to it because of teenagers (and a few older folks as well) that call themselves investigators and then go out and act like... well, teenagers!

Personally, if you aren't willing to study, train and act professionally then I don't think it's possible for you to do legitimate scientific research on an investigative team, which is what I want to see the APS doing. And another personal note, I don't want you on my team.

Okay, so is that being snobby? Or is that someone that's willing to work hard, produce solid evidence, act professionally, and, hopefully, raise the bar on this issue?

If you'd like to weigh in on the issue, please feel free to join me in the APS Yahoo group. It's free, and we can chat.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adsagsonaparanormal/

Donna

Happy Holidays!
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song"
Topic: Just Because I Can...
The merriest of seasonal greetings to one and all. May each and every one of you have the happiest of holidays.

Peace and Blessings!
Donna

Helpful Spirits
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Ghosts & Spirits
I have no doubt that I share my apartment with a spirit or two, but my husband hasn't been so easy to convince. Until lately.

We lose items. They just disappear. Of course, we aren't very organized, so this isn't that surprising. What is surprising, however, is how these lost items will simply show back up.

When something is lost, we'll turn the house upside down in an attempt to find it -- with absolutely no luck. I'll ask my spirit friends for a little assistance, and we'll walk into another room only to find the item in plain site. It will be right in the middle of the table, on the desk, etc. This can easily be explained by saying that we simply overlooked the item in our frenzied search. It's that old "can't see the forest for the trees" sort of thing, I suppose.

But this one might be just a bit different.

My husband drives a stick shift, so a hands-free set for his cell is a necessity, and he practically keeps it glued to his ear. Hubby was out shopping Saturday, and he, of course, had the hands-free set in use. As he was strolling through a local electronics store, he kept catching the wire from the hands-free set on items as he passed by, so he decided to take it off and place it in his pocket. When he went to retrieve it later, it was gone.

Well, of course, he just couldn't comprehend that he might have lost this important appliance, so he searched high and low for it. He searched in his truck, emptied out his pockets in front of our son, went back to the store and walked through, inquiring if it might have been turned in to one of the sales clerks, etc. According to our son, the search was quite extensive and exhausting.

We just thought it was lost.

I was doing a load of laundry, as it seems I'm always doing, and, as I moved the load from the washer into the dryer, I spied a black wire.

There it was -- in my washing machine -- Hubby's hands-free set to his cell phone!

Yeah, yeah, you're thinking the same thing I am. I just washed the pants Hubby was wearing Saturday. Only I didn't. And he says it wouldn't have mattered if I had because he searched his pants numerous times and that hands-free set just wasn't to be found.

Until now. In my washing machine.

So does this mean my washing machine is haunted?

The Ghosts of Christmas
Mood:  special
Topic: Ghosts & Spirits
I always feel a bit "haunted" at Christmas. I'm not sure if this is because I always take time to recall past Christmases and those who celebrated them with me but are no longer on the Earthly plane, or if it's because this is the time of year when I read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

I grew up in a house that encouraged reading while censoring the material. I loved a good scary story, but they weren't always deemed appropriate, so I frequently turned to the classics for a good "ghost fix." Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" became a favorite of mine at an early age, and I read it annually for many years. I also discovered that Dickens had a thing for ghosts.

Charles Dickens may have grown up in a rather modest home, but his family still employed a caretaker for the children. Mary Weller was a huge influence on Dickens, and her nightly bedtime stories were quite frequently filled with ghosts, spirits, thieves, murders and more. Weller always told her stories with a relish and swore they were true, including the tale of Captain Murderer, who killed his many wives and then made pies of their bodies. Dickens once wrote of Weller,

"The young woman who brought me acquainted with Captain Murderer had a fiendish enjoyment of my terrors, and used to begin, I remember -- as a sort of introductory overture -- by clawing the air with both hands, and uttering a long low hollow groan. So acutely did I suffer from this ceremony in combination with this infernal Captain, that I sometimes used to plead I thought I was hardly strong enough and old enough to hear the story again just yet. -- "The Uncommercial Traveller" - "Nurse's Stories"

Weller made a lasting impression upon young Dickens, and ghosts became a recurring theme in his writing. Most know of "A Christmas Carol," published in December 1843 with the following introduction: "I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."

But many don't realize that this novella was followed the next Christmas by "The Chimes," the tale of poor Trotty Veck, father of the beautiful Meg who is engaged to Richard, a young blacksmith. These downtrodden souls are subjected to the lecture of two government officials who proceed to tell them how horribly wicked they are because they were born poor. Of course, much weeping and despair follows for the trio until Trotty is awakened one night by the sound of bells from a nearby church tower. He's off to the church to investigate, where he climbs into the bell tower, finding it full of phantoms. And just as the Spirits of Christmas showed Scrooge what could be his fate, the Spirit of the Chimes showed Trotty the dismal future that awaited his family and friends if he failed to overcome his low self-esteem.

Dickens' Christmas novella series concluded in 1848 with "The Haunted Man." Mr. Redlaw, who resembles Scrooge, has suffered the betrayal of a woman. The love of his life wed his best friend, and he became a melancholy man, lonely and isolated from the world. The one difference was Redlaw's kindness. Redlaw is visited late one night by his own ghost who not only takes away Redlaw's bad memories but grants Redlaw a strange power - everyone he encounters will also lose their bad memories. Of course, as the local villagers lose their bad memories, they also lose the ability to empathize and so kindness is lost. Redlaw was forced to seek out the ghost in order to return the village to its former kind self, and he regained his own memories when he forgave his former best friend.

The Christmas novellas weren't Dickens only trips to the paranormal. He published ghost stories in "Household Words" and "All the Year Round," as well as using them as a running theme in "The Pickwick Papers." However, "A Christmas Carol" remains far and away Dickens', and Christmas', best-known ghost story.

So there you go. Charles Dickens - paranormal enthusiast.

I'm on a rant!
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Rants
Scenario: You suspect your home is haunted, your entire family is frightened, you research hauntings on the Internet, you find a group that seems to know what they're talking about, and you contact them. They get back with you, they seem reasonable enough, and so you set up an appointment for an investigation. Investigation day arrives, and you spend your time cleaning and making your home presentable. You wonder if you should serve refreshments, but you aren't sure of the protocol for paranormal investigations. Then there's a knock at the door. You open the door to your home to find 30 strangers with cameras, tape recorders and a few things you can't identify.

Question: What do you do?

Answer: You ask them to leave and you look for another group to assist you with your possible haunting.

If you believe you're sharing your home with a spirit, then you're possibly feeling vulnerable, confused, frightened, etc. You have enough going on without having 20 or 30 strangers show up at your door expecting to traipse through your clean home poking into your closets and private areas.

So what do you expect from a paranormal investigation group?

1. They tell you EXACTLY the number of investigators that will be in attendance, and this number should NEVER be more than 5 or 6.
2. They tell you about the equipment they'll be bringing, how it will be set up, how it works, etc.
3. They tell you what to expect from the investigation -- duration, procedures, etc.
4. At the investigation's conclusion, they give you a preliminary report and then tell you when to expect YOUR copy of the final report.

And that's the least you can expect. There's much more, but I'll rant about that later.

Donna

A New Beginning
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Just Because I Can...
As a new month begins so does this blog. While I don't expect to post on a daily basis, I do expect to use this forum to discuss (rant/rave about) current issues surrounding Paranormal Investigation, as well as other topics I deem pertinent to the subject.

I've been interested in the paranormal for as long as I have memories because I've been having paranormal experiences for that amount of time. Once I finally figured out that I wasn't crazy and there was something to all of this, I decided to start investigating. After all, I'm a Gemini, and there are two facets to my personality. On the one side, I'm a firm believer in the the paranormal, the mystical, the "new age." The mind is capable of so much we've yet to understand.

But then that other side kicks in, and I start to look for the reasons why. I find myself having that little back and forth conversation in my mind that goes along the lines of, "Wow! I can't believe that just happened!" "That couldn't have happened. There must be a logical, scientific explanation." "But I saw it. I FELT it!" "But science says..." And it goes on and on.

I do feel that everyone is born with some sort of "psychic" ability. However, we condition our children to doubt it, squash it, overpower it, not trust it, etc. Children tell us of playmates only they can see and hear. We tell them they have overactive imaginations and need to be more mature. We laugh it off, but should we?

I know that my parents taught me those people only I could see were the product of my own mind and didn't truly exist. When I foretold of upcoming events it was written off to coincidence and I was told to quit being silly. Only God was capable of doing such things, and I wasn't God.

So I spent the majority of my formative years squashing a natural ability. I have found that it's not as easy to develop if you wait until you're 30 to give it a try. I don't see the "imaginary" people I once did, but I am aware of their presence, and sometimes, when I'm lucky, I can communicate with them.

That's why I'm a Paranormal Investigator.