Famous Paranormal History and Haunted Homesickness...

Being busy has its good and bad points. University has been a lot more work than I had anticipated. I have a few big projects for courses on the horizon (one where I worry I've bit off more than I can chew with the scope and work involved) so often when I write, it's only for class. I've even cut back on social networking, not just due to course load, but because it's a major distraction. There's only so much of Facebook and Twitter I can fit into a day. I need to make time for other things: far more important things.

Lately I've taken some time to get back into reading. My bookshelves are full of books I have every intention to read but never sit down and work into my schedule. My current reading material is a fascinating historical book, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by science journalist Deborah Blum. It appeals to me twofold. For one, it deals with history and early work exploring investigations into the unknown. Secondly, the topic centers around William James, one of the early founders of the science of Psychology. He is best known for writing the first official psychology textbook... his work in founding the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is glossed over by most scholars.

In Ghost Hunters, Blum takes a look at the first (if not only) time in history when some of the greatest minds of the time gathered together to try to scientifically explain and find proof of the paranormal. Since the early days of science, looking into ghosts, ESP, telepathy, and other oddities has been scoffed at and never given the time of day by the scientific community. It was labeled as "superstition" before anyone felt it worthy of being tested. Yet science is an ever-evolving process. Before Darwin formed his theory of evolution, it was common practice for science textbooks to claim that creationism was confirmed science.

A hundred years later, the topic is still largely ignored. Experimenting with "psychical research" is as much career suicide now as it was in James' time. There has always been an underlying understanding among scientists; "If you study these things, you will be blacklisted. Your reputation will be destroyed." It's a sad truth that any research in these fields must be underground with little funding. Even some of the most astonishing scientific research into some phenomena has been ignored and buried; some scientists (including the first president of ASPR) have even labeled it all "hallucinations, mental illness, and fraud" without even reading the reports.

The paranormal has been on my mind a lot lately, mainly because I miss it. I miss the mystery of it all, digging through musty history to find information about those living in the past, trudging through old buildings in search of the fainted hint of something unexplainable. After all these years, it's still exciting to me. And while, like James, I don't believe every story or experience is proof-positive that the dead walk the earth, I still want to understand the phenomena and its causes. I feel that psychology holds some answers, and other answers are still locked away inside the brain and nervous system. Perhaps J. B. Rhine was on to something when he labeled hauntings 'recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis' (or the mind's ability to tap into the past). And there may be some physical interactions happening as well, but I don't believe it's the result of electromagnetic energy. 

There are plenty of things still worthy of exploring in our world. World mysteries have not all been explained. Dismissing things as unworthy of exploration is absurd to me. I have some hope that many things will have definite answers one day. The key is unlocking the past and its discoveries and building upon them in scientific methods instead of constantly reinventing the study of the paranormal. We need to stop with the random gadgets that beep and flash and look into what we know, the function of technology as well as findings in research experiments, and go from there. Modern ghost hunting relies of case studies and naturalistic observation, but it doesn't focus on the role of hypotheses and theories. This doesn't mean everyone needs to conduct laboratory experiments in the field. We simply need some faction of the population to take matters a bit more seriously.

Paid by the Dead...

Every day millions of US citizens see dead people. Perhaps as a statue on the street, a picture or photograph, or the name of a building or bridge we may not take much notice of it. But death is all around us. This is certainly reflected in our currency. With the exception of Benjamin Franklin (who has been 6 feet under for many years) every bank note shows a deceased former president. Are they the only notable people from the past worth recognizing? Hardly. But that is how it has been for over a century. And people tend to hate change.

In Australia, the currency also carries faces of the dead. The only exception is the five-dollar note, which depicts a rather youthful Queen Elizabeth II and sketches of the capital city of Canberra as it was redesigned beginning in 1913. But the remaining faces have all been laid to rest. However, unlike the United States these people are far less political yet more interesting and diverse.

The $10 note pays tribute to writers. There's bush poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Patterson and poet/journalist Dame Mary Gilmore. Two pioneering individuals can be found on the $20 note: convict-turned-shipping-magnate Mary Reibey and Reverend John Flynn who founded the world's first aerial medical agency: the Royal Flying Doctor Service. On the $50 note you can find inventor David Unaipon (first Aboriginal to wrote and publish a book) and the first female representative elected to Parliament (in 1921 just a year after women were given the right to vote in the United States, though in Australia women voted since 1901) Edith Cowan. 

Last we have the highest denomination, the $100 note, which features the likenesses of world-renowned soprano opera singer Dame Nellie Melba as well as engineer and World War II commander General Sir John Monash. Australia's $1 and $2 coins, introduced in 1984 and 1988 respectively, along with the 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent pieces show the more natural, native side of the nation. From kangaroos to emu to a tribal Aborigine the images pay tribute to what was already on the continent before the influx of Europeans. Of course, they all can still be found there.

These iconic people will undoubtedly hold up to wear much better than Lincoln, Washington, and the others on US dollar notes. That's because Australia was the first country to make their notes out of a polymer beginning in 1988 to help curb counterfeiting. Having just received my converted currency from the bank I can see the advantages. It behaves very similarly but since it's a form of plastic it can't be ripped in two. Of course, nothing—even plastic—is infallible. Currency values fluctuate in uncertain times. Right now, the Australian dollar is having a bit of trouble. But nothing lasts forever. 

Haunted by Gender and Phantoms...

Dark spirits can be buried deep inside the darkened corners of our psyche. What we hide within is often more terrifying than shapeless forms in an old spooky house. When you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, or even transsexual there's an invisible reality within your life, only revealed when you intentionally show your true self to other people. Before that moment you're a hidden ghost haunted by your sexual identity. Perhaps, as one author revealed, you can be haunted by real ghosts at the same time.

In Jennifer Finney Boylan's book I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted: A Memoir the transsexual English professor writes about her early life in the Lemuel Coffin House outside Philadelphia. Coffin and his business partner Joseph B. Altemus purchased 400 acres around 1881 to create the town of Devon along the Pennsylvania Railroad route. Lemuel passed away in 1895. Boylan's family moved there in 1972. I'm looking Through You chronicles her early life in the haunted house as well as a 2006 return visit to what remains her mother's home with a paranormal investigator named Shelly from Batty About Ghosts whom she found on Meetup (where, as we know, all knowledgeable ghost busters can be found).

In her youth (then known as "James"), Boylan had experienced several unexplained phenomena in the house. The tower, removed in 1944, had been the sight of the death of "some kid" according to a neighbor. There were footsteps coming from the creepy attic, a woman she dubbed "Mrs. Freeze" who appeared in the bathroom mirror before impending disasters, foggy forms, and doors opening and closing by themselves. As a teenager it proved less frightening than humiliating to explain to friends staying overnight, "Now don't worry if you see a blob come out of that closet. Usually it will go away if you whistle Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. If that doesn't work, try the Ninth."

During the revisit with the ghost hunter they may have discovered the ghost of her father in the bedroom where he passed away. Even with all she has experienced, Boylan does not believe in ghosts. "You don't have to believe in ghosts to know what it means to be 'haunted.' I think we all have ghosts of one kind or another. When we're young we're haunted by the people we may become; when we're old we're haunted by the children we used to be." Her book draws parallels between growing up a gender-confused youth seeking acceptance internally as well as societally and the ghostly glimpses from the past making their presence known to a few people. It's a look at what "haunted" truly means.

I'm Looking Through You is a delightfully humorous and fascinating read. For many of us who know less about transsexuals than we do about hauntings it proves to be very educational as well. Watch a brief video tour from the author here:

You Can Hang Out with All the Boys...

College towns are a hotbed of spooky stories. Cambridge, Massachusetts is no different. But one of these stories is a bit different from what we're used to hearing. Furthermore it could quite possibly be one of the earliest televised mentions of a not-so-straight ghost. Perhaps the greatest irony is the location of the haunting. It's found off of Central Square in a building that houses the local Young Men's Christian Association, better known by its abbreviation: YMCA.

The Cambridge Family YMCA was organized on September 6, 1883 (according to the 1890 book History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts Volume I by Duane Hamilton Hurd (page 77), though their website claims 1867) and the following year they purchased the "beautiful and well-located building on Central Square". Durrell Hall, the Victorian theater housed in the building, opened in 1897 within the building and still is opened today. Property records indicate the building was built in 1905 which would be impossible if the theater existed 8 years before it was built. Although there is some confusion about the structural history, the haunted history is a bit more certain yet still as mysterious.

The basement houses the former locker room where people have reported lights being turned on and off and other pranks said to be caused by a male ghost who enjoys frightening people. His spirit, which sometimes takes the form of a glowing green apparition, has been sighted by employees and visitors at all hours of the day or night. The most popular story revolving around the ghost of the YMCA is that he was either a patron or employee who suffered a heart attack in the 1930s (others believe the 1970s). Some people believe he was gay and hangs around to spy on the young men as they change. Thanks for perpetuating the stereotype, mister ghost.

In Haunting Across America, an hour-long special released in 1996, they discussed the bizarre ghost story and invited Reverend Dr. Erle Myers, a minister with the Spiritualist Church, to uncover more information about the shamrock-colored specter. According to author Arthur Myers (October 24, 1917 - April 8, 2010) who was interviewed in the show regarding a ghostly encounter relayed to him in 1991, the ghost is of a male teacher who abused his male students. A séance was conducted to make contact with the spirit. Dr. Myers picked up on "a tall, thin man... probably in his 50s" dealing with repressed homosexuality. He encouraged the ghost to leave and "go into the light" and stated afterward that he believed the spirit had moved on and left the building for good.

But has he? According to YMCA president Jeff Seifert in the 2005 interview for Cambridge Day it sounds as though the phantom still lurks in the old basement. Many times when psychics, investigators, and paranormal groups go into a haunted place and claim to remove a spirit or "make him/her go to the other side" absolutely nothing changes. An that's understandable; would you leave some place you enjoyed simply because some stranger walks in and tells you to go? Not likely. So it's very likely that the gay green ghost of Cambridge still hides in the shadows of a place the Village People said was "fun to stay at" admiring the scenery and scaring the pants off other men.

Hairy Hominid Homosexuals?

It's the furry "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of which most people balk at the slightest mention. No, I'm not talking about the bears and cubs of the human gay community. Or even sexual behavior among primates. This time it's Bigfoot.

In his book Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America, cryptozoologist Loren Coleman states, "Frankly, the subject of sex and the Sasquatch is avoided. Never mentioned are Bigfoot bestiality, Sasquatch penises, and that more human males than human females have traditionally been kidnapped by Bigfoot." There have been some reports of encounters involving some sexual overtones and he makes some references to Jan Klement's first-hand accounts of his interaction with a Sasquatch in his book The Creature: Personal Experiences with Bigfoot.

According to Klement, on one occasion he noticed "Kong" (as he had named the animal) sporting a difficult-to-conceal erection and being a bit fearful of what he might be capable of he yelled at the Sasquatch to get it away from him. A short while later he noticed something in the distance. "“As I approached the bottom of the hill I could see the cows on the pasture on the other hillside," he wrote. "There was a commotion among the cows and I when I put the water jug down and walked over I could see Kong. He was mounted on a large Holstein cow and was shoving away.” Upon seeing such a sight (obviously it can't be called "beastiality"... perhaps "inter-species relations" is better) his first thought was probably, "Better Bessie than me!"

During an April 7, 2001 lecture at the 13th Annual Bigfoot Conference / Bigfoot EXPO 2001 in Newcomerstown, Ohio Coleman lightheartedly remarked that he wondered if "10 percent of the Bigfoot population, matching the figures we have for Homo sapiens, might be gay." That one statement was blasted out of proportion my the media with claims Loren stated, "Bigfoot is gay." In all fairness, it was an interesting thought. With so many animals in the world showing signs of homosexual interaction and intercourse, why not? If the creature is, in fact, real it's certainly a valid question.

But of course, many people have turned the exaggerated misquote into a point of heckling. Soon after his appearance he received angry mail from people outraged that he could make such remarks... even though many hadn't even been there to know exactly what was said. Some people started calling him a "homo", "gay", and that perennial favorite: "f*g". But in 2007, some people in cryptozoological circles showed a little more ignorance when a few women expressed interest in Bigfoot and unexplained creatures. One female blogger was told that women "don't want to get involved in Bigfoot research because they’re afraid of the woods." A few other comments were made toward a few such women that they "must be lesbians."

Yes, that's right. Ghost hunting isn't the sole domain of sexist and homophobic remarks. While all of this isn't exactly recent news it helps show that in light of some recent events, nothing has really changed. Isn't the point of researching, investigating, and pursuing claims of ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, and other unexplainable phenomena to unite people in a quest for truth and knowledge? Or have we all regressed into caged chimps too busy flinging feces at each other?

What's New and Unusual...

So much has been happening, both in my life and worldwide, and I haven't had much chance to compose a long update here for quite some time. I thought about writing several individual posts on the various things but thought it best to condense it all into another "news in brief" moment for today. As for my own personal life, well... that major upheaval is best likened to the plate tectonic movements in the past several weeks. Major, major changes are happening too quickly at times. But once the dust settles, I'll give a more thorough update on those matters. For now, I'll focus on what's been going on while I've been asleep at the wheel of my blog.

Last week, director Tim Burton made the not-so-shocking admission that he does believe in the paranormal. Burton has had a few brushed with the unexplained and believes many people have had unusual experiences, yet they often don't discuss it or do their best to ignore it. He also mentioned that he finds cemeteries "peaceful" instead of creepy. As for his work, word was also announced concerning his newest venture. Plans are being discussed to turn Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (authored by Seth Grahame-Smith of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies fame) into a feature film. The new book follows the former present into his fictitious secret life pursuing blood drinkers. While the tale is odd it's quite well-crafted, not deviating from real history too far to make it absurd.

There is other book news to report as well. Stacy Horn's wonderful book Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory telling about the history of parapsychology at the Rhine Research Center has been released in paperback. While I still prefer the hard-bound editions of books for my own shelf (when they're actually available) it's nice to have the option of paying less in our current economy.

Some Massachusetts residents are up in arms over maple syrup. In at least three cemeteries both in and around Lancaster, maple trees were found with sap buckets hanging off. The culprits weren't zealous manufacturers but Lancaster Cub Scout Pack 9, who was given permission to tap maples for a special project. The town officials, however, were unaware that cemetery trees would be targeted. Perhaps it sounds a bit creepy, but I would think it a harmless act. People might even pay more for the spooky syrup! It's not the only time anyone realized that a quiet spot such as a cemetery would be superb for undisturbed sap harvesting. In Quebec, a Google Earth view revealed similar sap buckets at a Sutton cemetery.

Finally from the southern hemisphere, selling spooks has once again made the headlines. A woman in Christchurch, New Zealand auctioned off two bottles containing "ghosts" on Trademe. The spirits, said to be those of a little girl and an old man, were "captured" during an exorcism and placed in bottles of holy water, presumably to keep them fresh? After their containment on July 15, 2009 no further activity was reported in the house. The glassed ghosts sold for nearly $2000.

Paranormal Fiction Leads to True Lesbian Love...

Normally, I'm not a major fan of audio books, or even digital books for that matter. But for once, I've actually been looking into listening to my first audio book... and it ended up being a very educational experience.

for years now, I've been a big fan of author Daniel Hecht. And had it not been for his email to me years ago when he was starting his Cree Black thriller series, I probably wouldn't have known his name. But they are wonderful reads, all about a female paranormal investigator with some psychic ability solving interesting mysteries with supernatural ties. His last book, Bones of the Barbary Coast, was excellent (and I still need to get the hardcover to add to my shelf) so I decided to look his books up in the audio listings. There it was... read by one Anna Fields. It turns out she's a well-known name in the world of audio books. And it gets even more interesting.

Barbary Coast was released in the summer of 2006. In December, tragedy struck in Seattle. On the 14th, a flash flood struck the area and an actress by the name of Kate Fleming was trapped in her basement recording studio after part of the foundation collapsed. Fleming also recorded for audio books, under the name--you guessed it--Anna Fields. Her partner of nine years, Charlene Strong, was helpless to stop her death. And even now, she is haunted by the tragedy... and turned her plight into a film.

Strong has become known in the past few years as a champion for same-sex partner rights. It was never her intention, but after the untimely death of her partner Fleming at only 41, she found herself in the public eye. Through her actions, Washington State passed legislation for Domestic Partnership rights. The documentary For My Wife chronicles her story, from grieving widow to activist.

I can't help but wonder if Barbary Coast was one of her final projects. If you've ever read the book, you'll note some interesting irony between these two stories. If not, I highly recommend it. Here I set out simply to glance through an audio version of one of my favorite paranormal-themed fiction books... and ended up learning a lot more than I bargained for.

Like Manna From Heaven...

When I finally let go of the stress... release the reins and said "que sera sera" about the coming month... it happened. I have word, thanks to the goddess Google. Here are the details of my upcoming book:

Queer Hauntings: True Tales of Gay & Lesbian Ghosts

by Ken Summers

196 pages (paperback)

Publisher: Lethe Press

Price: $15.00 (US)

Release Date: September 18, 2009

And apparently, it's already available for pre-order on Amazon.com, though the cover remains to be seen. but at least now you all know!

A Spirit of No Importance...

When the great playwright Oscar Wilde died penniless in a cheap Paris hotel room in 1900, he never would've imagined his posthumous fame. Yet after decades of silence regarding the writer, somewhat humiliated publicly by the trials concerning his sexuality, he is today viewed as one of the greats. In 1962, The Letters of Oscar Wilde was published and accepted by a more open-minded population. That same year, a lesser-known event occurred: Oscar Wilde apparently returned from the grave.

It happened in a séance room belonging to Leslie Flint, often regarded as one of the great British mediums who held up to ridicule and testing. Flint was known to contact both common people and celebrities in his time through an ectoplasmic "voice box", which would appear during mediumship, making the words come not from his own lips but the nearby air. On the 30th of August, a spirit came through in the presence of George Woods and Betty Greene. After much aloofness, it declared itself as Oscar Wilde.

The author spoke of his life and afterlife, and views of many differing topics for quite some time before fading away from "lack of energy". Given Flint's fame as a medium, audio recordings were taken of each session starting in 1955. The recording of "the spirit of Oscar Wilde" has survived and can still be listened to today. Many recordings can be found on this website. The full 30-minute recording of the Wilde séance is available online through this link. A partial excerpt and transcript is provided on "Oscar Wilde Returns". British videographer Jim Clark took an excerpt of the recording and jazzed it up slightly. Here is his computer animation of a photograph of Oscar speaking the words recorded almost 47 years ago:

First in Flight... and Parapsychology?

Another good book has crossed my path and I've spent the past few days reading it. Written by National Public Radio contributor Stacy Horn, Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory traces psi and paranormal research over the past century. Many people may not know much about North Carolina's Duke University and its history of parapsychology, yet one name might ring a bell: J. B. Rhine.

Rhine and the famous Rhine Reseach Center (as it is now referred to as... they even have a blog) forged a path for paranormal phenomena, butting heads with psychology and other sciences since the 1930s. If you're a paranormal investigator and you haven't heard his name before, you certainly should review his work. Skeptics often argue that there is no evidence of paranormal phenomena, yet data collected by Rhine and his colleagues proves otherwise.

I did learn an interesting piece of information from the book. I purchased a deck of ESP cards (a.k.a. Zener cards) on Ebay several years ago for a few dollars, dated 1937. This was, in fact, the very year these cards began released to the public as radio programs hosted telepathy experiments to the public. In effect, I own a piece of parapsychological history. They're a little worse for ware, but after seventy years I would expect that.

The book is filled with interesting bits of history: Alfred Hitchcock's failed attempt to find a haunted house in New York City to host a party, Jackie Gleason's desire to start a paranormal television program, early EVP experiments, Ouija board origins, and so much more. Horn even mentions oen of my favorite paranormal personalities, Loyd Auerbach, on a few pages. For a good overall review of Rhine, his efforts, conflicting opinions, and the historic struggle for acceptance of parapsychology, I highly recommend this good read. Who knows; you just might learn something...

Someone Else Said It Best...

Most modern thoughts are not entirely unique. We borrow from our contemporaries and, occasionally, think up ideas which have already been hatched. Yet some words are timeless. Long after the speaker or writer is dead, we remember them.

As a slight departure from my usual ramblings, here are just a few of my many favorite quotes spoken by great minds. No truer words were ever spoken.

"Logic, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human understanding." — Ambrose Bierce

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." — Lewis Carroll

"It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter." — Marlene Dietrich

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." — Thomas A. Edison

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." — Albert Einstein

"The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits." — Albert Einstein

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." — Benjamin Franklin

"I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or none at all. That is something that you cannot say aloud, or perhaps even think." — Sigmund Freud

"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools." — Ernest Hemingway

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." — Carl Gustav Jung

"The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely." — Carl Gustav Jung

"Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible." — Carl Gustav Jung

"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!" — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity." — Edgar Allan Poe

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." — Socrates

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." — Mark Twain

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." — Mark Twain

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." — Mark Twain

"It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart: the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you." — Mark Twain

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them." — Mark Twain

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." — Mark Twain

"There are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics." — Mark Twain

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." — Mark Twain

"...gratitude is a debt which usually goes on accumulating like blackmail; the more you pay, the more is exacted. In time, you are made to realize that the kindness done you is become a curse and you wish it had not happened." — Mark Twain

"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination." — Mark Twain

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple." — Oscar Wilde

"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." — Oscar Wilde

"A true friend stabs you in the front." — Oscar Wilde

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." — Oscar Wilde

"Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar"...

Let's face it: the paranormal community can be confusing and filled with misinformation. "Ghost hunting" organizations are a dime a dozen, competing for attention, praise, and even cash. For every website offering the "facts", there is another "true" website out there telling you the exact opposite. The only certainty with the paranormal is that nothing is certain. No undeniable scientific proof of ghosts. No one piece of footage or audio verified to be a ghost. No college-degreed expert in the field with a PhD in ghosts, hauntings, and all things paranormal (sure, some people have more experience and there are a few scattered parapsychologists with degrees, but there is no true degree in "ghost hunting").

We hear a lot of things from a lot of people, amateurs and professionals, saying what they believe. Some speak from personal experience, others from books and websites they've read. There are those who claim to make contact with the deceased. Others are more scientifically-minded, carrying around enough electronic equipment to blackout a small Kansas town. The best psychics in the world are never 100% accurate; even the most tech savvy individuals don't always understand their own equipment or what it detects exactly. Yet everyone is an expert in their own mind. Everyone knows the "right way", what's "undeniably true".

And then, you delve into the muddied waters of speculation and faith-based principles. Some people label certain spirits "demons", or even practice "demonology", often needlessly frightening clients and business owners with unverifiable information biased by their religious beliefs. Another small segment of the field promise to evict a ghost or spirit from a property by "sending it to the light" or making it disappear in a puff of smoke. Still more produce "photographic evidence" which, to the trained eye, is nothing but cold breath, glare from lights, or flying dust-bunnies and mosquitoes. They fail to mention that each above-mentioned item is refutable. There's no proof of demonic entities (and using the term implies a Christian view is the only "right" answer). It's impossible to guarantee the removal of a ghost (how do you guarantee something without proof it exists in the first place; furthermore, if you're dealing with a person having a mental illness and they still "see the ghost", you're up a creek without a paddle). Many pieces of evidence can be replicated quite easily using non-supernatural means, making it impossible to prove that orb is a spirit, that misty smoke covering the lens is a phantom.

There is one person out there shedding a bit of light on the latter: Patrick H. T. Doyle. This author and paranormal investigator noticed that his YouTube promotional videos were being misinterpreted as ghosts when they were mere parlor tricks. So, Doyle set out to create a short series showing how "paranormal" footage you might find online can easily be faked or misinterpreted. Does this make him a non-believer? Hardly... just observant. In fact, he does investigate hauntings and believes he has experienced supernatural things. But what we see isn't always what we perceive. It's important to learn the difference between natural occurrences and spooks.

Here's a clip from his series... discussing the one topic that annoys me so: orbs.


Now, understand that I'm not saying there can't be balls of light seen by people or cameras (I witnessed a blue ball of light myself one night drop from the sky and rush through a field; not a likely behavior of swamp gas), but please, for the sake of humanity, people, stop calling every "orb" a ghost! Don't add fuel to the fire of paranormal paranoia. Think. Research. Educate yourself. And if you're serious about wanting to capture photographic "proof" of a ghost, put down the digital and pick up a 35mm camera. At least that was you have some hard copy that can be scrutinized by photographic experts.