The Night Jimmy Fallon Dissed Me...

It's been an interesting year. Overall, I wouldn't rank it in my top ten best years ever, but there've been a few shining moments and amusing times to keep it from being a complete disaster. The important thing in life is not to lose your sense of humor, because really, life is funny and absurd. But no matter what, the best source of humor is always yourself. If you can't laugh at yourself, I don't think you should feel that good about laughing at other people.

So imagine my surprise this week when I was on Amazon and happened to see a Listmania! book list with my book Queer Hauntings staring back at me under the title "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Now, I watch about as much television as a blind man, but I thought something had to be wrong. There's no way... right? So, I did a little searching and discovered Fallon's ongoing segment of his "Do Not Read List" of funny, weird, and downright strange books. And there it was: on August 29th, Jimmy held up my book.

Now, I know some people might be outraged; nasty emails must be flying around from enraged writers horrified to hear that someone made fun of their work. And there are other books, like this one, that probably could've used just as much (if not more) razzing. For me, it was basically shock... followed by a bit of chuckling as I watched. Why? Because he basically said all the things I've heard, all the jokes passed around, since I wrote the book! Even I had to admit that while writing it, there's a certain level of absurdity that comes along with writing something as bizarre and unexpected as a book about gay ghosts. In fact, I tried as much as I could not to write something too serious. After all, the topic just can't be taken that seriously!

It did help things fall into place for me, though. About a week ago, I was on Amazon and by book sales had suddenly skyrocketed. I just assumed it was with Halloween coming up. Now, I have a better idea. Although really, I didn't think that many people tuned in to Jimmy Fallon or any other late night shows. Let's face it: SNL was his peak. Still, his ratings have rebounded on Late Night... he even earned an Emmy nomination for it.

As they say, "all press is good press." Things like controversy, humor, and absurdity sell. How else could people like Sarah Palin sell any copies at all? And it wasn't even bad press. He never actually attacked the book; he just had a good laugh at the basic idea of it. So, I don't hate you, Jimmy Fallon. You might be on par with Conan O'Brien in the comedy department, but I don't hate you. I'm happy I could provide you with some good joke material just this one time. And in return, in those two short minutes, you probably provided the most publicity my book has received in the past two years.

Divide and Conquer...

For those of you who haven't heard the news, I'm now a regular contributor for Who Forted? Magazine (those people who brought you Ghost Hunters, Inc.). What does that mean about Spooked! and its future? Well, a little bit of changes. But nothing too worrying.

For a long time now, Spooked! has become a jumbled pot of thoughts, odd new stories, supernaturally queer stuff, and whatever else I felt like writing at the moment. This blog has undergone a lot of reincarnations over the years, so it's been tough trying to toss everything I find interesting into it and not make it a chaotic mess. If I had a separate blog for all my interests, I'd probably have over a dozen blogs running at any given time. One is more than enough work, thank you.

Still, writing for WF? is a good opportunity for me to explore true history behind hauntings and those weird news stories I neglect so much these days in a different arena. That leaves the gay-themed paranormal stories and oddities for this blog, along with any other interesting paranormal bits and whatever books I happen to be working on at the moment.I think that'll help me balance things out a bit. I already have one post brewing for here, so apparently this separation of topics might be beneficial.

And I know what some of you might be thinking: He's writing for Who Forted? Great... now he's one of those people! If you mean someone who finds humor in the paranormal... well, that's been me all along. I haven't really changed. I've always done my best to strike a balance between believer and skeptic. And when people say and do stupid things, I don't think pretending it didn't happen is the best attitude. There still are some people in the paranormal field I do admire: Loyd Auerbach, Jeff Belanger, Joshua Warren, and many others. What I don't get it the superstar status we give people who haven't done much other than appeared on television.

I've been called many things over the years. Some of the best mudslinging has come when I've been accused of being a "non-believer" (though I've been attacked by skeptics for having a laugh at some of them as well). If saying many photos are dust or lens flare and not taking psychic claims at face value makes me a horrible person, then I'll gladly claim the honor. I've admitted to my mistakes (like the great "orb color theory" idea of a decade ago), but I won't back down on saying that a lot of paranormal claims have dull, simple explanations. Even so, there are things without logical explanation that do need to be looked into more. I've experienced and witnessed a few things I can't dismiss as illusion, mistaken identity, or psychological fabrication. So, I'm an optimistic skeptic? A skeptical believer? Something like that.

Regardless, I love a good ghost story. And I love digging through history to find the keys to hauntings and legends. Say what you will about the existence of ghosts; I think ghost stories are an important part of our history, culture, and society. I love doing my part to preserve these tales for future generations. How people perceive our world is just as important as how the world works. A little mystery makes even the worst times a little more bearable.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

About a week ago, author Deonna Sayed brought up an interesting and very valid question:

What makes someone a paranormal investigator? Is it active field work (with or without a team)? Watching "the shows"? Going to a few conferences? Just knowing people in "the field"? At what point does someone earn the right to claim the title?

These days, there are people out there who watch a few episodes of Ghost Hunters and BAM! They're "paranormal investigators". It's a word thrown out to describe the thrill-seeker who pays fifty bucks to tramp around a haunted prison with a hundred other people in a black logoed t-shirt as well as the die-hard individuals who've spent decades tirelessly perfecting their methods just the same. And honestly, it's a self-denoted title; there's no college accredited degree for investigating ghosts, no ectoplasmic trophy differentiating the "amateur" from the "expert" in the field (although many people use the word expert to describe themselves).

But we can't just blame it on the explosion of paranormal television. In the past decade--yes, even before cable ghost busters--I have watched people join a group, go on one investigation, quit within a week, start their own "group" a day later, and suddenly say they're "experienced professional paranormal investigators". There might be something psychological at play here: the human need for superiority, recognition, praise, and/or approval. No one likes being low man on the totem pole. We live in a world of instant gratification. Why work toward something when you can jump right to the end goal?

So, let's take a closer look at Deonna's question and break it down. Does active field work make you an investigator? Yes and no. Just like you can't learn proper brain surgery from reading a book and watching a documentary, the best real way to earn the title of investigator is to, well, investigate. A lot of important things can be learned from reading books or observing others do some form or work, but real know-how is a hands-on experience. Not everything works as well as it seems on television, and some methods used by others may be completely unreliable. Trial and error rules out the bogus from the plausible. That's something you can't simply sit back and take notes to learn. Repeated effort (and failure) is a wonderful way to learn and one way true progress is actually made.

Does watching a show make you an investigator? That's a big fat "NO". I've watched building and construction documentaries and shows, but I'm not an architect not do I pretend to be. You can learn some things for television, but it's no substitute for real life. The same applies to online websites. And for the record, no; playing Farmville doesn't make you a farmer. So how about going to a conference? Again, it's the same thing. Does going to a book conference make you a writer? Maybe if you're a hipster...

So what about knowing people in "the field"? Again, that doesn't necessarily make you an investigator. It can, however, better educate you and help you learn skills, bounce ideas off someone more knowledgeable than yourself, or even give you role models who point you in the right direction. Of course, some people like to "collect" popular people as friends as if associating yourself with a para-celebrity will suddenly give you credibility. If you want to befriend someone in the field, ask yourself why you want to know them. If it's for sharing limelight or to show off that you know the "in crowd", it's for the wrong reasons. On the other hand, if it's someone you admire or find fascinating/interesting/good-natured on a human level and wouldn't care if they were a nobody, then I say go for it.

The reality is that there are several true categories of "paranormal investigators" all lumped under the same umbrella term: the beginner curious to find explanations for the unknown, the history buff tickled at the idea of discovering 'living history', the entertainment junkie looking for a good scare or creepy old building to wander around in, the scientific-minded seeker who wants to validate or disprove the phenomena, the writer looking for an interesting story, the social person looking for a different sort of group activity, and the seasoned "professional" archiving and collecting data to try to arrive at a hypothesis. Some people are a combination of these. Others fall somewhere between. We don't have specific terms for each type of ghost hunter; to many, they're all "investigators".

Over the years, I've referred to myself as an "investigator" less and less. It's not due to early retirement or somehow being a sudden complete skeptic. (I've always held a certain level of skepticism; I find it invaluable when dealing with strange occurrences and eye-witness testimonies.) The main reason is that in recent years, I've spent more time writing about locations and researching the historical background of legends and places that I haven't spent enough time actually investigating allegedly haunted places. Do I miss it? Of course I do. And my days of looking for the unexplained are far from over. But it's the history that drives me forward. Having a psychic tell me that a 12-year-old girl died in a hotel room is all fine and dandy, but finding a documented account of that event correlating to a legend of a ghostly girl brings me a level of excitement I can't even describe. More often than not, the real history is much more interesting than the rumor.

Some of us live to find that piece of concrete evidence to prove ghosts aren't all in the mind. Others just live to be scared out of their wits. Is everyone with a flashlight, camera, and EMF meter a "paranormal investigator"? Hardly. There are the inexperienced and experienced, the green and the seasoned, the serious and the carefree. Only you know where you fall on the spectrum; whether you choose to state the truth or bend it is your own choice. But if you're true to yourself, positive things can happen. Only by knowing where you stand can you find the path to where you want to be.

Some Things are Better Buried...

Another long week is drawing to an end and is heading into a bit of a busy weekend. Finally, my library talk on Australian ghost stories and legends went off without too many hitches on Tuesday. I did enjoy the experience and everyone seemed to enjoy both the presentation and prizes, yet for many reasons I'm just glad I can toss everything back in a box and forget about it.

Now that's not to say I suddenly dislike Australia or have anything against the country. That's certainly not the case. But after a few events earlier this year, the last thing I wanted to do was reflect more on my trip and dust off my box of brochures from my various adventures. I guess you could say there were some bittersweet experience in the months following my big trip. Those fun trust issues I can have from time to time were brought forth in the most severe way yet. I would even hazard to say that the events of this year have permanently altered me. Whether it's for the worse or better is still up in the air.

Normally, I'm a very lax person when it comes to getting over petty disagreements or situations, but there are always exceptions to the rule. I'm not one to hold a permanent grudge on most matters and I've gotten over a good many things over the years (and amazed some friends and exes at how forgiving I can be sometimes). That doesn't mean I always make nice, though. Sometimes, a string of events, behaviors, and issues connect into one big ball of bile that taints something so strongly that you have to either lock it all in some trunk to be shoved between empty rafters in the far recesses of the subconscious... or let it make you bitter.

Bitterness can be a tough thing to shake, but I prefer blocking things out over becoming a grumpy old man.

A lot of people who know and have met me have realized I can appear tranquil on the surface while there's a hurricane going on inside me. I can smile and be friendly with just about anyone—even if I can't stand them—and at other times, that extreme shyness I've battled most of my life can downright paralyze me (yes, even lead me to have a cocktail too many in a social situation to calm my nerves, which usually leads to even more shyness since I don't want to sound like an idiot by opening my mouth with liquor in my system). I can be a very complicated and hard-to-understand individual. And with that, there are plenty of faults which come with the territory. But I do believe in giving people benefit of a doubt. I also have come to expect the same in return; it just doesn't always work out like that.

There's a quote that I love, often attributed to Einstein, which seems to pinpoint the source of so much of my disappointment and bad experiences: “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe.” Sometimes, this stupidity can be downright hilarious. At other times, though, it can be the source of anger, frustration, sadness, or any one of a number of negative emotions. Too often lately, it's been the latter instead of the former. I have to work on bringing the balance back in favor of laughing at all things stupid instead of wishing it were some terminal illness.

In a lot of ways, my inner turmoil has been one of my biggest writing blocks this year. In previous years, being busy with adventure has kept me from getting much written. Having an emotional battle raging through my mind and body might be vastly different, but it produces the same effect. Hopefully, I'll tackle some of this baggage and depression and get things sorted out in time to start some new projects. One thing we can't change is the past; but we can stop looking over our shoulder and focus more on the journey ahead. At this pinnacle in time, I honestly can't say where the next ten years of my life will take me or even where I'll be at the end of it. Hopefully, there will be some more interesting books and projects woven in with the madness. I have ideas in my head and a few good people I consider friends still in my life. Hopefully I'll bring those back to the foreground soon, get back to actively writing more, and start back at making my life an eye-opening, awe-inspiring experience instead of something to cringe at.

Paranormal Misdiscoveries...

There is a ton of absolutely mind-boggling ghost hunting out there. And even more, there is an unending wealth of erroneous history, bad investigating, and sheer stupidity. Most of the time, I just breeze by these things and roll my eyes. But yesterday, after watching a half hour video by Discovery Paranormal, I just couldn't bite my tongue any harder. It was begging me to pick it apart... and shed some truth on the reality behind the "Lehigh Valley Train Crash of 1911".

The video starts off with a walk down railroad tracks to the site of the accident, which occurred on August 25, 1911 on a trestle near Manchester, New York, spanning the Canandaigua Outlet. Three passenger cars plunged off the bridge when a faulty steel rail broke apart under the train (which was traveling at excessive speed). According to Michael Angley, the narrator for the show, they also investigated the nearby roundhouse which was "the last place the passengers were before the crash." We'll get back to that major mistake later, but first let's get to the bridge investigation.

It's obvious from the terrible audio that he's using the same full spectrum HD camcorder I have (and didn't feel the need to bother with an external microphone). Heading down the tracks, he says that the train "went down in the ravine," which is a partial truth. Three of the 14 excursion cars went down; that is all. The team's psychic Tammy sensed "it's like fear... it's like 'oh my god, we're going down' kind of feeling... people were scared; I hear children crying and... crash." Really. At a train crash site? But then, Michael goes on: "...back then, those trains they had no safety devices; you know, it was 1911. We're talking about... you're going down 40 feet in a wood and metal coffin; essentially, you're dead."

The first railroad safety improvements (beginning with air brakes) were made in the 1870s. He makes 1911 rail travel sound downright rustic. But if you look at photos of the crashed cars, you will see that they were a far cry from the old wooden cars heated by wood stoves used in the 19th Century. Very little has changed with passenger car design since that time. Today, if you plunge 40 feet off a bridge in an Amtrak car, the only safety feature you can brag about is emergency exit windows. That doesn't help when you're already dead. Michael went on, "...they used that shop back there as the temporary morgue." Actually, the makeshift morgue was in the basement of a country furniture store in nearby Shortsville, just south of the crash site. But I digress.

After many more obvious revelations from the "psychic", the team headed down the ravine to the bottom where the crash happened. And they brought their trusty dowsing rods. Thanks to the wonders of high definition filming, you can watch as the hands of the dowser rock back and forth ever so slightly, causing the rods to cross over and over. And they don't even wait for a question sometimes! While busy talking to a ghostly little girl, the group fails to address an important point: this train carried a number of Civil War veterans and their families returning from Rochester. The brooches worn by unidentified women from the wreck may have been mourning jewelry bearing the initials of dead soldiers. You would think the psychic would have at least picked up on that much, or that someone had bothered to actually read all the newspaper stories about the accident.

But the ghosts were far too busy trying to rush the intrepid ghost seekers to the more important destination: the roundhouse to the west. Ah yes, the roundhouse; that place where passengers wait to board trains. Oh, that's a station... nevermind. For those of you who don't know, a roundhouse is where locomotives are stored and repaired. There is absolutely no reason any passenger would be wandering a roundhouse unless he or she was an employee of the railroad. Still, the team decided this was the most likely spot to look for ghosts (instead of the makeshift morgue, that actually would make any sense whatsoever).

"...if a crash happened here, the victims--or the passengers--would go back to the place that they knew the most, which is the round house [sic]." Inside the old locomotive warehouse (I mean "passenger waiting area/place they turned around trains"), they bring out recorders to capture really vague nonsensical "voices" and sounds. Michael says, "the historian said that the train was still, uh... that the platform was probably still here." Once again, roundhouses did NOT have station platforms. Oops. Just then, the psychic says the first thing that actually makes sense: "...there's a man here... he's really, um, getting people to work..." Finally, something that talks about what the building was really used for--locomotive repair.

The dowsing rods come out yet again and questions fly while the rods swing back and forth a lot. You can really see the hand movements better here (around 15 minutes into the video) when he's asking how many ghosts are inside the building. And the questions keep getting better. "It was a grand building at one time, wasn't it? It was round all the way around?" Both get a 'yes' from the rods. (A roundhouse is commonly a half circle or smaller, otherwise there'd be no place for locomotives to enter. Only a few full circle roundhouses were ever constructed.) There's just one minor problem with this place. The round house was built in 1916, five years after the accident.

The psychic (and by now I use the term loosely) goes on to tell about sensing the passengers. "It's like they were anxious to see their relatives... and they were going on a trip and they couldn't wait to get there. They were almost there..." Thanks for that obvious report. "This is where they changed over, they got a little rest and something to eat..." (This town was NOT a stop for the speeding train in 1911.) Here they bring out "Pete's Ghost Box" to communicate with the spirits. Of course, when using a Ghost Box, you don't actually need to pay any attention to what words are coming out of it (as the team wisely shows us). Never mind that it sounds more like an Ovilus than a "Frank's Box" sweeping radio frequencies. In sure it's just coincidence and they really know what their equipment is called.

After reading off the list of the dead (and getting different answers from the dowsing rods; watch for the hand movements yet again), they announced they "found a bunch of spirits that have not moved on" at the roundhouse. Michael ends it with "Who knows when a train will ever come for them." If they're waiting in the roundhouse, my guess is probably never. And so ends a bafflingly unresearched investigation. Could it have been worse? Absolutely. But this is one video that makes me wonder why some people call themselves serious "paranormal investigators" who, as the website states, are "dedicated" to "collecting hard evidence of paranormal activity."

The End is Nigh, Again...

"The present week is a time of great interest to the believers in the personal reign of Christ, and in the Second Advent as now near. This week, we believe, will conclude the 2,300 years from the going forth of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem, at which time the word of God has been given that the sanctuary shall be cleansed, and there shall be an end of indignation." - Horace Canfield

Sounds familiar, right? Well, perhaps. Some of you might know that May 21, 2011 is Judgement Day (or what you could call "Rapture Day"), according to followers of Howard Camping. Never mind that his 1994 prediction of the end of the world came and went; apparently, his math was wrong and Saturday is the real date. He purports that there will be a catastrophic earthquake in New Zealand (sorry, kiwis) that ripples across the globe causing mass destruction. The saved will go to Heaven, while the rest of us... well, you might as well stock up on marshmallows and ice.

There have been a lot of similar predictions throughout history. Entire religions, sects, and cults have formed over a belief in Armageddon. Which beings me to the above quote. It came from the American Democrat, an Akron, Ohio, newspaper, during the 1840s.

Between 1841 and 1846, a religious craze swept northeast Ohio. Millerism, or Second/Seventh-Day Adventism, was founded by a farmer and war veteran turned pastor named William Miller. While Miller wasn't what you might call educated, he was devoutly religious and read the Bible... well... religiously. You could say Miller was one of the first conspiracy theorists; he had an unhealthy obsession with hidden symbols and prophecies found in biblical texts. It was this work that helped him discover the day when the world would end: April 4, 1843.

It came and went. Luckily, he realized there was an error in calculation. The true date was April 23, 1844.

Again, nothing happened. Well, at least as far as the Rapture is concerned.

Plenty did happen, concerning the thousands of followers (called Millerites). Both times they prepared for the end of the world. Some went so far as to commit suicide. Even after the failed predictions, believers lost their minds. In November 1844, Ira Viets of Cuyahoga Falls chiseled off his own penis, taking the doctrine, "If thy member offends thee, cut it off" far to literally. The final blow (no pun intended) for Akron's Second Adventist movement came when their "Tabernacle" was blown to smithereens with a keg of gunpowder on December 23, 1845.

A few sex scandals over the next year and the Millerites fizzled out. Yet many other doomsday prophets would come between then and now. We seem to be a people obsessed with destruction (or fear-mongering). From Jonestown and the grape FlaVor-Aid® deaths of 1978 to the Apocalypse of 2012, we take the end of the world very seriously. Our fear of death and destruction brings about its own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Life is a journey, not a destination." Unfortunately, in our modern times, we've forgotten this almost entirely. We fear death and the end of the world. We rush from place to place without paying any attention to the trip in between. Life is all about the instant gratification; less cerebral, more limbic. Honestly, death can come at any moment of any day. Why spend life focusing on the end results when there's plenty of living to do? Whether your travels are short or long, enjoy what you have while you have it.

On Wings of Fear...

I'm officially another year older today. It's been quite a chaotic year so far; my free time for blogging has dwindled more than expected. It's not just coursework that takes a chunk of my time away. I've been doing a fair amount of side research for two books and helping with editing a local ghost book due out later this year. Still, I've managed to get out and poke around the Cuyahoga Valley a few times. With the weather improving, I hope to enjoy the fresh air more once the last few weeks of this semester have finished.

The one place I've visited most often lately is Indigo Lake. There is a good reason for that, recalling events which happened several years ago during a late-night investigation of the trail. It was here I had one of my most unexplainable moments. Standing at the top of the hill and peering down the trail into the woods, I saw a distant pair of eyes. They weren't quite normal eyes, more like two glowing embers from a campfire. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, these amber lights suddenly became the eyes of something human-like: a black shadow of a man walking toward me. As he strolled forward, he stretched out his arms horizontally on each side. Yet there was something odd about those arms. Feathers drooped down on both sides, as if he were wearing some sort of bird costume. While I didn't feel any fear, my friends who were there that night did, and they quickly fled down the hill. Not wanting to confront whatever it could be by myself, I turned and followed them. I still regret that in many ways.

Could it have been a Native American dressed as a Thunderbird? Or perhaps something else? I'll never know. But my sighting seems reminiscent of a few of the known reports from Ohio and West Virginia of that enigmatic creature dubbed the "Mothman." Believe it or not, there have been reported sightings as close as Stow, Ohio, in recent years. Does this mean I had an encounter with the creature? Well, probably not... but I can't rule out the possibility.

A few months back, I finally took the time to read the book that started winged-creature hysteria in the Ohio Valley. In The Mothman Prophecies, John Keel told of his personal experiences in and around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, including the collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967. A fictionalized version of his book was adapted to film in 2002. While it touched on some key points, the book is entirely different. Keel came across as a very reasonable, rational man who, after encountering several unexplainable individuals and occurrences, formed several theories of what exactly might be happening. It's much more than glowing eyes and premonitions. He delved into his own conclusions concerning UFO phenomena, men in black, and unexplained circumstances, namely the existence of ultra-terrestrials. He didn't believe in alien visitations, government cover-ups, or spooky specters; he felt that some higher intelligence co-existed with us on this planet, unobservable save for the occasional glimpse.

What is most fascinating about the book is how so many "paranormal phenomena" could be accounted for by these beings. Poltergeist activity. Shadow apparitions. Premonitory dreams. Spook lights. These weren't ghosts, but effects produced by these ultra-terrestrials. Given Keel's explanation of how they attempted to make sane people appear crazy and lead people off course in finding the truth behind the phenomena, it could make a lot of sense that some ghosts are just a cover story. We may never know for sure, though. Keel passed away on July 3, 2009. In over 40 years of research, he never was able to find concrete, absolute answers; in fact, he felt those answers would never be found.

What was the Mothman? Who were the Men in Black? Many of us will never find adequate answers. It's a complex web of incidents and misinformation. So many people hold firm beliefs which explain these and other mysteries in their own mind, but they refuse to allow room for any alternative ideas. That's the greatest problem with the unexplained: not allowing for other possibilities. When people ask us to keep an open mind, too often they suffer from closed-minded viewpoints. As of this moment, no person alive has absolute indisputable proof that any theory of ghosts, monsters, UFOs, etc. is the correct answer for what is happening. Perhaps this is because we look for our own version of proof instead of answering the real question: what is it? We assume we know what these creatures/things/experiences are, then search for answers to coincide with these assumptions. When the results don't add up, we try again instead of re-analyzing the initial idea.

I recommend Keel's book to anyone curious about not only the Mothman, but paranormal activity in general. Just keep an open mind--a really opened mind--as you read it. It just might change how you see everything.

No Bones About It...

Almost every regular person is afraid of something. Spiders or growing old, abandonment or the dark. They range from the rational to the irrational. Some fears can be life saving while others hinder living a normal life. Yet it's something that makes us unique individuals.

You could say that I have a certain level of phasmophobia (fear of ghosts). I've been startled on more than one occasion during an investigation by something I cannot explain as 'of our natural known world.' That doesn't mean I haven't been terrified by mundane, comical reality though. A bat, boom of thunder, or a cat in the right circumstances have all made me jump. Then of course, there are some of you who are quite aware of my fear of heights (batophobia) and bridges (gephyrophobia) which has had some hilarious results.

I've heard that the best way to conquer fears is to face them. For the most part, I have, be it investigating haunted places, crossing high bridges in major cities, or looking out windows from skyscrapers. Yet there's one fear I've had since childhood (which, interestingly enough, is not a named phobia) which I have avoided at all costs... until now.

Skeletons.

In my early years, I experienced a recurring nightmare. I was in a narrow alley, with brick walls on three sides. On the fourth side, blocking my only means of escape, was a gang of several animated, grim, menacing skeletons slowly closing me into a corner before I woke up in a panic. Cartoon skeletons or illustrations don't bother me. It's the real (or at least life-like) skulls and skeletons that give me the creeps. Technically, this should be called "osteophobia" (quite literally 'fear of bones'), but the closest category for it is necrophobia: fear of death and dead things.

It sounds absurd, I know. They're inside all of us, so you would think something as common as a skeleton (while normally covered with flesh) wouldn't be such a big deal. But for me, it can be. But now, I get a chance to face this fear daily. In my effort to gather creepy, odd, and supernatural artifacts I now have a child-sized resin skull sitting on my bookcase.

To be honest, just glancing over at it is a bit unnerving at times. Even though it's not real, I can't bring myself to face those empty eye sockets in my general direction. I'm sure that in time, it will desensitize me enough that I won't be as uncomfortable in the presence of bones. It reminds me of a conversation from the movie Clue between Professor Plum and Mrs. Peacock.

"What are you afraid of? A fate worse than death?"
"No, just death. Isn't that enough?"

What is it about our immortality that is so frightening? Death is inevitable; no one can escape it. Yet it scares us and can become an obsession. Skulls are undoubtedly the strongest symbol of our limited life span. To gaze at a skull is to face your fate. If we know it's coming, why is the knowledge unbearable for many of us? Perhaps the answer is the unknown aspect. Is it a new beginning, the door to an afterlife, or just lights out? Yet the skull will not answer the question...

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.