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Shadowmen, Shadow People, Schattenwesen…whatever you call them, they are becoming the scourge of many an innocent mind.

Shadow people, under this name, are a relatively new phenomenon.  This is likely due to the fact that Shadowmen sightings and encounters are often very similar to ghost encounters and hauntings, and are therefore often mistaken for simple apparitions or poltergeist.  There are a few qualitative differences though some more drastic than others.

The vast majority of Shadowmen encounters occur in much the same way as ghosts are encountered, with the major difference being their appearance.  Shadowmen are said to be nearly solid black and featureless.  Witnesses often describe on the silhouette of a person, with no detail whatsoever.  Most accounts offer an image of almost amorphous black fluid, only without a sense of substance and certainly no depth.  The entity allows n light to pass through it, but doesn’t typically interact with the physical location or environment.

There have typically been two distinct varieties of Shadowmen; the Hooded Figure, and the Hat Man.  In cases of Hat Man sightings, witnesses often exclaim the distinct visual outline of the hat, which apparently looks much like the silhouette of a mid 19th century bowler hat, and are convinced that the entity meant them harm or malice.

Another defining characteristic is the Shadowman’s propensity for departing through walls.  Most accounts of Shadow People sightings have the entities quickly departing once noticed, and virtually all instances have them departing through walls and other solid surfaces.

In rare cases people have reported brief and sometimes violent interactions with Shadow People; some have gone so far as to report being attacked by the creature, though the majority of encounters last for no more than a few seconds.

Regardless of the duration of the event, all Shadowmen witnesses report the same feelings of dread, malice and evil emanating from the entity, and most are left with long lasting fear and trauma following the event.  At the time of writing, there are no official reports of injury or imminent danger associated with these encounters, outside of the obvious psychological stress.

Science has done its part in attempting to explain these accounts, mostly through wordy psychological diagnosis, or through sleep disorders such as sleep paralysis (Hypnagogia).  A commonly offered explanation is a combination of sleep paralysis (which is common in children) and night terrors (also common in children).

Some other scientific explanations have been: peridolia (the effect of the brain incorrectly interpreting visual patterns observed within the peripheral field of view), narcotic induced hallucination, and the effects of electromagnetic fields on brainwaves and specific neurological traumas and/or conditions.

Suffice it to say, most Shadowmen witnesses are less than satisfied with these answers and many UFOlogists and paranormal researchers have offered some other-worldly explanations.

A widely accepted theory is one of inter-dimensional beings, another is simply that the Shadowmen are extraterrestrial beings, and some yet believe that they are some form of ghost or spectre that is rarer than say, poltergeist.

Whatever they are, many witnesses report having repeated encounters, sometimes frequent and all are plagued by the universal sense of fear.  If the Shadowmen are other worldly beings, what are they doing here?  What do they want?

Some have speculated that the theory of inter-dimensional beings leaves room for supposition about their purpose.  They may be examining our reality, testing and experimenting with the properties of this universe and as a consequence of those proceedings, occasionally become visible within our spectrum light.

Until some lucky investigator, scientist or researcher is able to capture evidence of the Shadowmen on film, we will likely not come any closer to a respectable answer, and until that time comes, we are doomed to encounter and report, and ultimately guess at their true nature.

While I was caretaker of the Sulphur Springs Garden Hotel in Cambridge, and still with my ex wife, I experienced a few unusual things, to say the least.

For instance, shortly upon moving in, my first order of business was to assess the property, including the hotel’s interior for security and maintenance needs.  We hadn’t even gotten the moving truck completely empty before I stepped inside the creepy old building, followed by my brother and best friend at the time.

We were walking into a foreign world; paint peeling, water damaged, musty smelling and definitely not empty.  We entered the building via the rear service entrance (the one door with a fully functioning lock at the time), which brought us into the kitchens and servers area off of the main ballroom.

This whole area was piled high with broken furniture, old dishes, scattered documents and books, and just general rubbish from the previous renovation attempts.

We quickly perused the pile of junk and set side some gems for further inspection once we completed our initial exploration.

Once back on tour, our first stop was the basement; damp and cold and smelling of the sulphur water spring that flowed under the building and to the nearby river.  If you’re having trouble with the visual, picture the endless basement of the weaver in Stephen King’s famous novel, Night Shift.  Not a pleasant place at all.  There were some old tools and work materials left over and some dilapidated bed frames from the retirement home days.

The boiler room took the cake though; this was straight out of Freddy Kruger’s worst fantasy.  Huge iron boilers rusted and covered in some unidentifiable grime.  Two inches of brown, rust coloured water covered the floor and the smell was so bad you had to cover your face with your sleeve just to breath.

We slowly continued our tour, quietly travelling the creaky stairwells and narrow hallways until we found our way to the main lobby.  This was the centre piece of the hotel in its hay day, adorned with huge carved wooden beams and an enormous wood burning fireplace with a marble mantle right out of some gothic comic book series.

There were some small offices right off the lobby, a concierge desk and the most ornately carved stairwell I’ve ever seen.  Thick wooden banisters weaved up through the core of the building, as the stair case rose off of the grand red carpet floor of the lobby.  The wallpaper in this area seemed like it might once have looked nice, though it certainly didn’t when I was there.  This whole area had the unfortunate odour of urine and dead something and a quick search through the small debris piles revealed a dead skunk, which I wish we hadn’t disturbed, because the smell just got worse after that.

Succumbing to the draw of the huge stairwell, we climbed to the second of the old hotel’s seven floors and began exploring room-to-room.  Each room we entered held the same eerie presence, a personality, a watchful set of eyes, examining our every move.

Some of this building’s worst secrets are held on its upper floors, the vast majority of them based in the bases human realities.  Old and stained mattresses laid out by local prostitutes, piles of what you and I would call junk, though to the homeless people who once found shelter here it may have been their every worldly possession.

As we walked the silent hallways, I remembered all of the old stories we were told about this building.  The ones about kids falling down the elevator shaft, the ones about the homeless guy burning to death in a bathtub, the gruesome stories of once famous hotel guests leaping from the tin roof to the street below.

When you enter such an old building, if you’re quiet enough, if you pay attention, you can feel it breathing, and this was no exception.  The higher we climbed the heavier the feeling became; once on the top floor we were nearly overwhelmed by the feelings of despair and anguish.

We finished our first tour of the hotel in just more than two hours, ending back at the service entrance doors, where we collected the items we had set aside earlier.  Two of those items were beautiful blown glass flower vases.  12 inches tall and made of the most spectacular thick glass you might ever find.  I couldn’t believe no one had found and taken these before, but to my pleasure, they were ripe for the taking.

Had I known what was going to happen, I would happily have left them for the next passer-by.

Stay tuned for the next entry in the Sulphur Spring Hotel Chronicles.

Crop circles are a cultural phenomenon that has taken over areas of Europe by storm at several different times throughout recent history, though they take form in many areas of the world, with visual effects ranging from irregular shapes to amazing geometric patterns.  The source of their formation and origin is surrounded by controversy, some say they are the product of UFO propulsion interference, others lay claim to the idea that they are naturally created phenomena, at the mercy of magnetic fault lines deep beneath the earths crust, but, as sure as there are many reasons for unexplained crop circles, there are some out there that have much more humane origins.  Here’s a simple how to list for creating your own crop circle, and of course, adding to the mystery of strange patterns appearing in farmers fields overnight.

Steps

1- Use your head! In both Canada and the United States, it’s illegal to even enter a cultivated field, let alone to damage the crops.  If you plan to make a crop circle, you best get permission from whomever owns the land first, lest you be enjoying the after glow from an 8×6 cell.  An ideal choice is a field with a sloped hill that rises from a public vantage point (i.e. a road).

To ensure your circle can be seen from public areas (and has any chance of being noticed), plan your design according to the local gradient using a large scale elevation map.

2- Plot your straight-line or circular design. Mark on the map the directions you will be flattening, to avoid visible signs of passage (inexperienced circle makers can spoil a design by leaving stripes like a lawnmower would).

Initial access is normally found through existing farm tracks and trails, so note the position of them before you start.  The basic gist is to avoid leaving any mark or evidence of your comings and goings from the site.  Google Earth is an effective utility for scoping out the right location, and for understanding the run of any trails or traffic paths in the area.

3- It’s a smart idea to create your design entirely on computer, make amendments until you have the design you can be proud of and plan out the event according to that design.  You will only have one shot at this, so put extra effort into planning and design. Unfortunately, practicing your design in the real world will ruin the surprise.

Start simple: consider making your first crop circle from an arrangement of discs in a geometric formation. More advanced curved lines can be created by overlapping partial circular arcs.

4- Equip each member with the equipment listed under Things You’ll Need.

5- Once in the field, use measurements to place markers exactly. Your friends can help you place markers, make line-of-sight calculations, and lay the rope to mark areas for flattening.

6- Make construction lines by laying rope outlines to shapes. Then flatten circles at the intersection points. To make the shown example formation, create a rope outline of an equilateral triangle, and create flattened circles at the triangle corners. Avoid flattening over the rope, to create an implied triangle.

7- There are two methods commonly used to flatten:

• Plank Flattening – use a roped plank to flatten by holding the rope or looping it over your shoulders. Press forwards and down by keeping one foot on the plank. Advance using a shuffling gait.
• Using a roller – some circle makers prefer using a light lawn roller (available from garden centers) to speed up flattening.

8- Keep on flattening until you have completed your design and have a really nice, well-made complex formation.

9- Wait for the media to spot the new formation. This may take several days, or you can speed the process by making an anonymous call. A good design will provide local newspapers with many column-inches of speculation.

Tips

• For best results you should probably spend more time planning the crop circle than actually making it. By carefully planning the design, working out what equipment is needed and discarding ideas that will be difficult or impossible to achieve, you can reduce the opportunity for embarrassing errors.
• Flatten during a dry period, to avoid churning up mud.
• Try to use the cover of night. Remember that ideally you should be finished by dawn, when you can take a picture of the pristine design before swarms of “croppies” come and trample all over it.
• To leave a ‘weird’ crop circle of cosmic origins:
  • Bend some stalks around by exposing them to a blue light source for a few hours. Applying small amounts of natural gum or plaster will lock their new shape. Sadly this approach may not satisfy a detailed or scientific inspection
  • Create swirled nests in the flattened areas by your clever weaving of stalks.Also, melt some iron filings into droplets on site and sprinkle them around the flattened area to leave ‘meteorite particles’ and magnetized stalks.

Warnings

• We are not suggesting, nor requesting or advocating in any way, that anyone should trespass on private property for the purposes of creating crop circles or for any other reason.  Should you undertake to create a crop circle on property that is not your own, or for which you do not have permission to access, you do so of your own accord and consequence.
• Crop circle art is like graffiti for ‘cerealogists’, often undertaken without permission. Be careful, as not surprisingly, farmers do NOT want damage done to their property. Always operate within the law.
• The amount of crop flattened need not be excessive to make a strong impression of shape and form. In fact, you should not plan to flatten a larger area destructively, and it had better be beautiful or you can expect criticism and opposition.
• Remember to take away everything you brought to the site, including the soft drink bottles which are so easy to discard in the outlying field. These are a good way to distract onlookers from the beauty of your otherwise mysterious formation.

Things You’ll Need

1. A light plank (4-6 feet in length) with a rope (10-12 feet) knotted through holes in each end. Alternatively, you may prefer to buy a light garden roller from a garden centre.
2. A big ball of rope or nylon string (pre-stretched)
3. Marking pole
4. Protractor for measuring angles
5. Measuring tape (100 ft)
6. Night-vision goggles (optional)
7. Laser-pointer to assist placing markers (optional)

Stephen King has done well to ignite the imaginations of people the world over, his books and movies have become the stuff of nightmares for so many people, and one of his most popular titles brings undue credibility to a potentially dangerous phenomenon; Firestarter introduced pyrokinesis to popular culture.

The term pyrokinesis had never been used prior to the release of his film, though there were antecedents to Drew Barrymore’s character, none had been as glamorous and believable as the pretty young Charlie McGee.

In spite of what may seem possible with the special effects of Hollywood’s great film makers, mainstream science has declared pyrokinesis to be a physical impossibility.  Even well respected parapsychologists (who might be prone to believe in some fairly weird stuff) have claimed the mental manipulation of fuels sources to create ignition, flame and/or explosion is far fetched at best.

Nevertheless, many people hold a steadfast belief in their own ability to create flame with the power of their mind.  As with any other subject, doing a quick internet search, one can find simple meditative instructions for pyrokinetic abilities.  These instructions are eerily similar to one another, and typically call for one to learn the art of dousing flame with one’s mind prior to learning to ignite (a safe bet to be sure).

Below we will dissect these instructions, and try to provide either a basis for continued study, or sufficient reason to call pyrokinesis a “debunked myth”.

Pyrokinesis has been accused of being responsible for many reported cases of spontaneous human combustion(SHC), though, as with so many other unexplained phenomenon, the truth is often much more bland and believable, which is why so many continue to believe in both pyrokinesis and SHC.

Essentially what we’re talking about in pyrokinesis, is the excitement of molecules within the matter of whatever object we intend to ignite, through the use of mental intention only.  No other fuel sources, dousing sources or ignition sources are used to create heat, spark and flame, and subsequently to extinguish the flame.  Unfortunately, any purported Pyrokinetic (a person with this ability), must be able to prove that it is in fact their mental ability causing a reaction, and not some ancillary resource or element.

A.W. Underwood, a 19^th century African-American who achieved some fame for his alleged pyrokinetic abilities and the only person with this ability to submit to scientific testing (which was admittedly low in standard at the time), was eventually discredited, as it was believed he used a small amount of phosphorus to ignite the objects he focused on. (Phosphorus ignites at a much lower temperature than other material, approximately 30◦ Celsius or just above normal body temperature)

In spite of this kind of scrutiny, the practise continues within pagan and Wiccan circles, as well as in other mystical religious sects, and is usually associated with some form of ritual meditation.

The ability to control flame is considered an advanced mental ability in the category of psiosis, and those who are interested in learning pyrokinesis techniques are urged to do so in stages, beginning with flame dancing and dousing.  As mentioned, here are the instructions for testing your own pyrokinetic abilities:

Copied from Wingmakers.co.nz (atrocious spelling and all)

“Pyrokinesis The Ability Over Fire Pyrokinesis is one of my favorite abilities. It is the ablity over fire. This is an advanced skill, and can be dangerouse to others around you if you don’t have controll over it. The key to Pyrokinesis is focusing on what you want the flame or fire to do, and willing it to happen. Here I have listed a few ways to develope and increase you pyrokinesis skills.

The best way to develope and train your Pyrokinesis skills is a technique called the dancing flame. Get in a relaxed position, and grab a match. Light the match on fire and focus on the flame. Create a “tunnel” between you and the flame. Now visualize the flame going out. You must be focusing on only the flame. With enough will power, and hard concentration, the flame will go out. Putting a flame or fire out is the easiest part of Pyrokinesis. Making the flame or fire relight is the hard part. Once you can make the flame burn out, Focus on the flame relighting. After a few weeks of doing this, you will notice that once the flame is out, you will be able to see the ember start to turn red again as though it wanted to relight. Once you practice enough, it will relight. This is the easiest way to develope and train Pyrokinesis. This techique DOES WORK!! I started out a year ago by practicing the dancing flame, and now I can make a decent sized fire dim down and go out just by a wave of the hand. Then I can relight small parts of it.”

It doesn’t take an expert in statement analysis to recognise that there is a slight bit of information lacking in this instruction.  I have yet to try this, and likely never will, but I invite anyone who has tried it, whether successfully or not, to contact me.  I’d very much like to know if anyone has had any verifiable success in creating, controlling or dousing a flame with their mind.

I suspect I will be waiting a while.

In any event, the lack of credibility that so often goes along with this sort of meditative exercise in quackery, does so much damage to the mainstream scientific investigation of real psychokinetic or PK phenomenon; and even if that weren’t true, the potential danger involved in this one warrants telling anyone who might try it, to go find something better to do.

Despite my obvious slant toward the sceptical side of this argument, I do believe there are mental abilities available to us, as a species, that we haven’t yet accessed on any large scale, though I doubt pyrokinesis is one of them.

Now please excuse me while I take a moment to check my smoke detectors and fire extinguishers…just in case.

There has been some controversy in the world of paranormal investigation in recent years.  With the advent of the reality TV show, up have popped more paranormal investigation shows than you can shake an ectoplasm covered stick at; and with this rise in popular acceptance, has also come a rise in the number of amateur ghost hunters and groups.

 One thing is inevitable within this diverse subculture, and that is disagreement. Ghost hunters and paranormal investigators disagree on pretty much everything. From observation techniques, to technology, to ghost theories, and even to locations for investigations; but one thing that polarizes the paranormal community right down the middle, is the concept of charging for investigation services.

 Coming from a private sector investigative background myself, I’m more than familiar with the idea of making a living off of other people’s misfortune, and immoral as it is, I can easily draw an convincing argument for its necessity within our society and culture.  Though for the most part, the things I investigate are the product of human-to-human wrong doing.

 In the case of a paranormal incident or haunting (as is the usual name for the cause of an investigation), there is no easily marked path between one person to the next, and the unfortunate families involved in these scenarios are typically at the mercy of their experience.  Not to mention, there is no “we have a poltergeist” insurance that I’m aware of.

 Many paranormal investigators and teams see their task as one of exploration and adventure.  They pursue the unknown as a means unto itself and in doing so are happy and often enthusiastic at the idea of learning more about their quarry, in the form of a new haunting.  These types of investigators wouldn’t likely dream of charging any type of fee for their services, they are driven by a thirst for knowledge and understanding, and payment comes to them in the form of interesting bits of data and potential evidence.

 At odds with the above, is the investigator who sees their service as akin to that of an exterminator; they are driven by a desire to earn financial reward for a job, often, not done.  These types of so-called investigators, often hold no affinity for the science and history of the paranormal, nor any other subject for that matter, and typically seek reward for their adventures before anything else.

 It should be said that often there is a distinction between the second type of paranormal investigator and the valuable Medium (often wrongly called a psychic), who’s services can be contracted to assist in allaying the potential dangers involved in more serious hauntings.  Though that distinction is less visible where the Medium charges amounts that are obviously in excess of their expenses.

 The gaping hole of a problem that arises in the case of the paranormal investigator or Medium who charges for their services, comes in the form of prestidigitation. Slight of hand is so easily used to convince the victim of a traumatic haunting that further measures need be taken to quell the “spirits”, where no justification truly exists; and as a result, an entire sector of academic pursuit is tainted by the reputation of a relatively small number of old school flim-flam artists.

 As mentioned previously, there are two opposing camps of though on this issue, but I suggest that anyone who enters the world of paranormal investigation with an eye toward making a living on ghosts hunts alone, is chasing the wrong dream.  As with any other scientific pursuit, paranormal investigation should be, and for the most part is, an academic exercise in increased understanding.  The two underlying goals of any investigation should be, forever, first and foremost, to increase your individual knowledge of the paranormal, and to obtain credible evidence of the event or experience.

 We are not treasure hunters, carnival side shows, or back alley deal makers.  We are a maverick breed of scientist and it’s time for the spotlight to be taken off of those who believe otherwise.

 If there were any doubt, my vote would be cast in the “To Not [charge” category, though I suspect there may be more in opposition to me than I realise; and in that spirit, let this serve as a callout to the paranormal world, speak your mind and form ranks, lets put this issue to bed, once and for all.

Just prior to July 23, 2008, four young East Hampton (NY) women, Jenna Hewitt and three friends, happened upon what must have seemed a completely alien scene.

A local news paper, The Independent, ran a story about their experience, citing that the “Hound of Bonacville” had been found, and its lifeless carcass had washed up on the shores of Montauk beach.

 What they found that summer day has confounded scientists the nation over.

 Identification theories abound, some say this creature is merely a racoon, in an advanced state of decomposition caused by extended exposure to the water.  Others claim it to be a dog or other small canine, and others yet claim it to be a rodent of some kind.

 Eye witness reports, few as they are, suggest that the creature was approximately the size of a house cat, but seemed like nothing they had ever seen before.  Initial photographs of the creature were run by the newspaper in conjunction with the story, but this scoop was soon to find syndication and was quickly being covered by media giants like CNN.

 Additional pictures became available soon after and did little to shed more light on the creatures identity, and as a result of the media coverage, experts in zoology, anthropology and veterinary medicine were called in to make an identification of the remains.

  

 Some such efforts concluded (prematurely some might say) and reinforced the idea that the creature was simply an unfortunate racoon.  Jeff Corwin of Fox News concluded and maintains (via his blog) the same theory.

 Nay Sayers have made their voices heard however, and they declare with confidence that this must be either an extraterrestrial corpse, or the body of some as yet unidentified sea creature.  Though most reputable sources attribute a wholly earthly origin and allow little credibility to the missing link theories.

 It is interesting to note that the actual remains were never recovered, and this itself is the cause of some speculative conspiracy theorising.  One of the women who was thoughtful enough to snap the first pictures of the creature is widely accused of knowing precisely where the remains currently lay, though she denies any involvement in the conspiracy.

 Once the media furor began to build, the four women were reported to have returned to the site, though accounts of what they found vary greatly.  Some say they found only a badly decomposed skeleton, which would seem fairly logical, but for the amount of time that had passed between initial reports and their supposed date of their return.  Other’s suggest that they returned to find the creature as originally reported, but decided to bury the remains in an undisclosed location, in an effort to fuel the controversy for financial gain.

 Whatever their motives or actual involvement, the photographs are typically accepted as real (or unaltered), and most people who view the images will attest to the apparent authenticity of the creature, though none so far have been able to positively identify the creature.

 To this day, no one has come forward with an explanation, and the case remains officially unsolved.

The study of animal graveyards?  A fancy word for fake zoo’s?  Maybe a made up pseudo-science, used by wanna-be UFOlogists to legitimize the study of weird things?

How about none of the above…

Officially, Cryptozoology is the study of make believe animals, which could put the definition squarely in the pseudo-science category, but that dictionary definition does little credit to the scope of study.  The word, taken from the Greek word kryptos, meaning “hidden” and the modern word zoology, literally means the study of hidden animals; and through this definition opens minds to the possible existence of some very weird creatures.

In paranormal circles, Cryptozoology is a growing scientific pursuit, akin to mainstream zoology and even anthropology.  Much work is being done to identify, catalogue and classify strange creatures from around the globe.  But we aren’t just talking about Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

Mainstream scientists have long believed that our vast oceans conceal a near complete branch of Darwin’s tree of life.  Every year new species of large fish and even sea faring mammal are added to the lists of known animals, and there is no reason to think that these discoveries will stop any time soon.

Cryptozoologists take on the sometimes undesirable task of hunting for mythical creatures, only believed to exist by some few laymen.  They often have little choice but to rely on anecdotal evidence and folk lore, though in spite of their short comings, they typically provide us with detailed and usually accurate characterizations of some of the strangest things on our planet.

Where Cryptozoology falls short, is often the very place where it meets with popular culture.  Since certain mysterious megafauna cryptids, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster are technically hidden species of animal life, they quite nicely fall into the scientific purview of Cryptozoology, though the many logic barriers which stand in the way of standard scientific study of such creatures, tends to drain away the credibility of any who pursue them.

Most Cryptozoology supporters deny the possibility of the existence of such megafauna cryptids, citing that it is extremely unlikely that these animals could remain unexposed without holding population numbers large enough to support their continued survival.

Nonetheless, the popularity of the overall subject in mainstream and sub-stream media is largely due to public attraction to such fantastic stories as the many hundreds of Bigfoot sightings across North America each year.  It seems these scientists must suffer a love-hate relationship with their so-called megafauna cryptids.

With the rapid expansion of technological capabilities, such as high resolution satellite photography, ultra-sensitive sonar and radar, and advances in normal zoological understanding, Cryptozoology is poised to become a burgeoning field of study, potentially backed by Hollywood and dot com funding sources.

Weird science is good business, and as the sudden influx of paranormal blogs, video sites and investigation teams in the US and Canada would suggest, the average persons is willing to get in on the chase.  There is an informal race to find the next great and strange creature, to obtain concrete proof of existence for some beast of folk lore and to capture a story worth shouting from the heights of the popular media outlets.

Cryptozoology is everyman’s science, it is a field of stud that remains open to anyone willing to learn and to look; to look beyond what is accepted as real and to find new answers for what seems too incredible to exist.

Here’s an easy and amusing way to have a conversation with your inner self, or depending on what you believe, the spirits around you with a gift of the gab and a penchant for literary influence.

Automatic writing, also known as free association writing, is the process or production of written material that does not come from the conscious mind of the writer. While not exactly like Thing from the Adam’s Family, it is a little like your hand having a mind of its own.

The practise gained popularity through the Surrealist movement of the early 20^th century, though its true origins are cloaked in 18^th and 19^thcentury occultism and witchcraft. It likely holds some relationship with scrying techniques known throughout the Earth’s long standing mystic cultures.

Sigmund Freud did his share to legitimise the practise, renaming is as Free Association writing, as he began using the technique in conjunction with other psychotherapy measures. Freud believed, as do most psychologists, that automatic writing provides an outlet for subconscious thought streams to be released and heard. Much like dream states are believed to be our subconscious minds attempt to reconcile the vast amounts of information that our brains process in the course of a day, free association writing is believed a physical manifestation of that process.

Successful automatic writing sessions are said to induce a meditative or trance like state in the writer, though many believe that results can be achieved in varying states of cognition. One needn’t be a meditative guru in order to achieve measurable results; it is enough, apparently, to simply not pay attention to your writing hand while you write (much like I’m doing now ;))

As with any other subject connected to paranormal circles, this one has people forming camps of belief. There are two specific thoughts regarding where the written words come from; the first being, as Freud and his contemporaries suggest, that the subconscious mind is speaking through the pen, much like in a dream-state; and the second, being favoured by occultists, Wiccan practitioners and paranormal enthusiasts, is that the words are those of ghosts or spirits who channel their will through the writer and onto the paper.

Many in the second camp purport that the disjointed and often incoherent ramblings achieved through automatic writing are the result of the difficulties experienced by the spirits in manipulating the energies of the living; though a similar argument could be made for the subconscious dream-state position as well.

Regardless of the origin of the information, the practise is fairly easy to master, and the results can be more than a little unnerving. But as the experts will attest, this is one of those mystical endeavours that can’t come back to bite you…in other words, feel free to try free association writing as much as you want.

Below are instructions and some tips for learning the art of automatic writing and becoming reasonably proficient at tuning into the other side, where ever that other side might be.

Here’s How:

1. Find a quiet spot that will allow you to concentrate without distractions
2. Sit at a table or desk where you’ll be comfortable with paper and pen (or pencil)
3. Take a few moments to clear your mind
4. Touch the pen or pencil to the paper
5. Try not to consciously write anything
6. While keeping your mind as clear as possible, let your hand write whatever comes across
7. Avoid looking at the paper; you might even keep your eyes closed
8. Give it time to happen (nothing might happen for quite a while)
9. When it seems to be done, if and when automatic writing does occur, look over what your hand has produced carefully; the writing may appear to be nonsense or just scribbling, but try to decipher it as best as possible
10. In addition to letters and numbers, look for pictures or symbols in the writing as well
11. Keep trying; you may not experience results on your first few attempts
12. If you start to achieve success, you can try asking questions to see if you can receive responses

Tips:

• There is no guarantee that automatic writing will work for you, but don’t give up if it doesn’t work the first few times; give it a chance
• Be aware of psychological dangers: some messages that come across might be disturbing

White light meditation is a visualisation technique that’s been used for centuries, for the protection of persons and places against spirits, ghosts and so-called demons.

Typically this is done by an experienced Psychic or Medium, as their meditative skills tend to be more developed, but the practise can be used by anyone.

The idea behind is it quite simple; so simple some may find it silly or difficult to believe in, but those who use the technique proclaim consistent and effective results.  Visualisation, as has long been touted by the metaphysical science community, as an effective way to manipulate the energies and flows of energies around us, by (and some argument can be found on this) adjusting the frequencies of your aura.

We needn’t get into a metaphysical debate over the dynamics of auras and energy flow, as I’m neither qualified nor interested at the moment.  The important thing to remember is that through visualisation you can achieve a protected state and remain safe from potentially harmful energies.

I realise how that sounds, and trust me, I no more like sounding like an incense burning guru than you like reading about it, so lets get down to the nitty gritty.

While we try to ignore how it works, let’s focus on a step-by-step guide to getting it done.  This too can be the source for some argument, but generally, the following guided meditation will help you to find your minds eye and to use White Light Meditation to avoid conflicts with spirits and/or ghosts in your surroundings.

Use the following White Light Meditation Script to build a barrier of protection around yourself and your family:

• Find a comfortable position, preferably lying down, in a quiet room with no distraction.
• Lay flat on your back, relax and close your eyes (I would suggest reading the rest of the meditation script first though)
• While you lay there, use your imagination (your minds eye) to look around the room; be aware of the space, the air, the sounds and the smells in the room
• Slowly bring your awareness inward, envision yourself laying on the bed (or wherever you are), see the position you’re lying in, see your face and hair, and body, and begin to focus on your own image
• Now let your awareness explore your arms, hands, legs and feet, be aware of where they are and what position they’re in
• Bring your focus inside now, become aware of your breathing and your heart rate, and move your focus up into your head

Now that you are relaxed and in a meditative state, you will begin using white light.

• Using your minds eye, visualise bright flowing white light streaming from the centre of your forehead, slowly at first
• As you gain control over the light, where it goes and how quickly, you will begin to wrap the light around your body.  Let it envelope you and cover you like a warm blanket
• Let the light flow and surround you for a few moments, enjoy the peaceful feeling and using your inner voice, declare that your white light is a barrier that cannot be crossed by anything or anyone who is not welcome
• Make your declaration with confidence and strength, you control the light and you control your mind
• As you lay there, wrapped in your protective white light, visualise the light expanding away from your body, filling the room.  Every corner, and crevice, let it expand to leave no empty space in the area
• Push beyond the boundaries of the room and allow your white light to spill into the rest of your home, let it encompass your family and your property; providing a protective blanket over your entire life
• Maintain your expanded white light blanket for several minutes and make your declaration a few more times.  Always be confident and strong in your declaration, believe what you are saying and mean it

Now that you’ve achieved a protective white light blanket, it’s time to set it in place and bring your focus back to yourself.

• Slowly pull your focus back toward your body, consciously visualising the white light blanket remaining in place
• Visualise your body, lying on the bed, where you arms, hands, legs and feet are
• Draw in a deep breath through your nose, and slowly let it out through your mouth
• Open your eyes and rest a moment, and enjoy the calm

That’s it, you just completed your first white light meditation, and you’ve provided an effective spiritual protection barrier around you and your family.

Get into the habit of doing this on a regular basis, maybe once every month or so, and you’ll find it easier and easier to visualise.  You may also find that you’re able to enter a deeper state of meditation after a while, which is a good opportunity for you to begin some more advanced meditative techniques.  Do a Google search for meditative scripts for many different functions.

Of the various forms of psiosis out there, clairvoyant prophet seems to be one of the worst, at least looking back through history it looks that way; those famous for their prophetic visions have suffered greatly for their gifts.

Nostradamus, born Michel de Nostradame (December 14 or 21, 1503 – June 2, 1556, records of his birth are difficult to validate) and Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945) to name two.

Though their experiences were drastically different, both men suffered in their own way, seemingly at the weight of their own prophecies.  Nostradamus lived in difficult times; religious turmoil surrounded him, as it was as much a part of life then, as taxes and pop music are for us.  Edgar Cayce’s life was more comfortable than Nostradamus; he had the comforts of the industrial revolution, not to mention the benefits of advanced germ theory medicine to protect him from disease.

While Nostradamus worked feverishly to hide his gifts, concealing his predictions into more than 1000 quatrain poems, the contents of which are so difficult to translate that they cannot be agreed upon by the best linguists in the world to this day, Cayce propped his gift up under stage lights and on séance tables.

Edgar Cayce

Both men were infamous for their austere eccentricities, and both men were criticized for their apparently misplaced loyalties.  One thing runs true for most psychics, and that is the call of the sceptic.  To be called a fraud, to be criticized for simply revealing your thoughts, that is a prison from which a person cannot escape.  Cayce found refuge in glorifying everything that was wrong with the Surrealist movement of the late 19^th and early 20^thcenturies, he no doubt swindled a great many widows of their last few pennies, all for the service of allowing them to commune with their late husbands.

Nostradamus, however, internalised his struggle, he hid away from the world and made every effort to keep his ability a secret; though a man who makes accurate predictions of the unknown future, scarcely remains on the sidelines.  By the time Nostradamus lost his family to the black plague, he had already been accused of heresy by the church and was facing a threat to his life by religious fundamentalists (though who in those days wasn’t a fundamentalist).  His surviving the plague, even though he stood beside as his family passed on, fed fuel to the already kindled holy fire, and he sought to remove the witches mark from his forehead.

It might seem that these two men wore completely different cloaks, but below the surface they suffered the same affliction, to know the future, and to be ill-equipped to interpret their visions in the terms of the historical world in which they lived.

Imagine for a moment, that you are a 14^th century doctor turned spiritual healer, you live in a time of technological infancy, electricity is unheard of, indoor plumbing is a luxury for the super-wealthy and superstition, based on religious dogma is the single motivator for nearly all public and private behaviour.  Now imagine that, in that environment, you’re plagued with visions of a time when buildings grow as tall as mountains – shining mountains of steel and glass (a material used mainly in the windows of churches in your time), mountains that sparkle with a million candle lights across their face – a time when wars and famine and disease run rampant across half the globe.  A time when religious persecution has reached its pinnacle of malevolence and the atrocities committed in the name of the one true God are brutal and completely bereft of mercy.

Consider the contrast between those two worlds, between that antiquated era of Victorian principle and simplicity, and the complex, subjective and alien profile of the modern global culture.  If you were that 14^th century faith healer, struck by images and visions of a world so drastically different than anything your wildest dreams could have concocted, how would you interpret what lay before your minds eye?

Would you see apocalypse?  Would you see Armageddon? Would you see a technological utopia for some and a hellish nightmare of existence for others?  Or do you think that your pre-industrial revolution mind could comprehend the strangeness that is our world, compared to that of Nostradamus?

The mere fact that this man was able to translate even a portion of what his gift showed him, is a testament to his advanced cognitive abilities, and the fact that his quatrains were encrypted suggests that even though he feared persecution from the superstitious mobs, he did understand the meaning behind the visions.

Edgar Cayce was no stranger to superstitious persecution either, though his Hollywood-esque spotlight gave him the unlikely cover of popularity to shield him from accusation (for the most part).  His time was much closer to the ecumenical melting pot of today, the industrial revolution was at hand, and the daily trials of his time were more like our alien lives than that of Nostradamus.

Cayce though, suffered for his gifts in a more physical manner. Some have suggested that his act was pure prestidigitation and nothing more than the snake oil of a travelling quack.  Cayce’s global popularity didn’t reach acceptance until after his death, but through his “readings, he was known to suffer serious headaches and what could be described as neural trauma.  He became known as the “Sleeping Prophet” as his readings became so draining that he began to adopt a trance-like state, and would dictate his prophecies to a personal assistant / secretary while he lay prostrate on a nearby couch.

So the question is begged, was the hardship of each man the fruit of their psychic labour, or were they victim to their place in history and their own eccentricities?

Both men are now renowned in paranormal circles, each is revered by his respective camp of fans and followers, some believing so forcefully as to create political pressure in Western Governments over the nature and detail of their predictions.

Edgar Cayce and Michel de Nostradame were pioneers, each in their own right, and none since made such an impact on popular culture. Each man held his own demons and eventually succumbed to the one event that needs no prediction.  It still seems to me that both were prisoners of their gifts, and I’ll declare that, given the choice, I would rather do without their particular gift.