Orbs taken in photography are sometimes thought to be the result of paranormal forces. It is easy to believe in this when we capture orbs at a cemetery or a supposedly haunted house. It confirms our suspicions! But what about when we capture intriguing orbs in the strangest of places? For instance, a strange place to photograph an orb would be a tourist spot. Here are some pictures of orbs that I caught in very public places. If these same orbs were photographed at some mysterious destination, we might be willing to suspend disbelief and think something odd is going on. Take away the mystery and we only have optical effects.
Above is an orb photographed at a balcony in Chicago’s Field Museum of National History. The two images were taken within seconds of each other and you can see the people below walked a few steps. One picture is normal. The next picture…ORBS! Amazing! Astounding! Is the museum haunted? The idea appeals to me since a museum is full of old bones and mummies and ancient artifacts. Sort of like the “Night at the Museum” movies. Nah, I don’t think so. Still, maybe a museum of history is not the best example.
How about the Chicago Auto Show? Below is a pair of photos taken at the McCormick Place convention center where the annual Auto Show is held. Vivid blue orbs! Well, is the Chicago Auto Show haunted? That’s really hard to imagine.
If we look at all our family photos, and look carefully for orbs, we’ll see an orb here and there. They are not overly common, but they are not really rare either. I still believe it is possible for an orb to be a reflection of the paranormal. How do we tell if the rare orb might actually be something more then an optical effect? I think the only way to even guess is the context of the situation. Does something else happen along with the orb being photographed? An example would be if an orb responded to a verbal command.
Otherwise orbs don’t prove anything. For ghost enthusiasts, photographing an orb is fun. To never photography anything would take the steam out of the hobby. Thinking maybe we photographed the real deal keeps the imagination wondering.
What is a curse? Cursing is profanity, usually uttered when something has upset us and we express our dissatisfaction verbally. When someone drives recklessly around us we often spontaneously express our displeasure with an epitaph no one will hear. We all have uttered a curse when something unpleasant surprises us.
The curse also has supernatural significance. The ability to literally bless or curse someone is a cornerstone of occult practice. The curse has a huge role in legend and folklore. The belief in curses also had tragic consequences in real life. There was a time when human beings were burned at the stake because the population believed they could be smitten by a curse. People explained away their misfortune by placing blame on a scapegoat…that person over there. Witch! Misfortune could not possibly be the result of random chance; there must be a cause, a source for their affliction. The idea that life was arbitrary was disconcerting. It was more comforting to believe a witch’s curse was responsible for a tragedy; it gave a sense of order to our lives where none really existed.
Humanity is far better off that the belief in curses has faded away. It was a truly destructive belief driven by ignorance and fear. Today the curse is considered to be only superstition.
However, there still exists a reality behind the supernatural curse. Here is a true story. She would never consider this to be a curse. She does not believe in such things. I interpret it differently.
I know a woman who was betrayed by her business partner a number of years ago. Her relationship with this business partner was informal but they worked together towards the same goal. She gave her partner her trust, sharing with the partner her knowledge, expertise and contacts. This partner eventually took advantage of her trust. When this partner knew everything she needed to know from her, the partner discarded her. The partner locked her out of the business which the partner legally owned. She felt a profound sense of personal betrayal. All her efforts were stolen from her. To say she was upset would be an understatement. She was livid, outraged, but the circumstances left her no recourse.
Deeply disillusioned and upset, she knew she had to move on from this experience. Yet, she held a grudge, a very deep and enduring grudge. Everyday she visualized that this person who betrayed her would slip outside their office and fall on her back…tumbling backwards with a terrible collapse. It occupied her mind. Everyday for months she visualized the same thing happening over and over, seeing this person drop on her back. In her mind’s eye it was as if she were personally witnessing it herself.
As the months went by she began to loose her preoccupation with what transpired. She moved on with her life. Around six months afterwards she met a former business acquaintance of both of them. The business acquaintance asked her if she heard what happened to her former colleague. She said no. He said two months after the partner and she parted company, this partner slipped on some gravel outside the entrance to the office and fell on her back. The partner broke her back. The partner ended up in the hospital for months in a body cast.
This event happened exactly as she visualized. She was shaken by this news. She did not know exactly what to make of it. She did not believe in God or the supernatural. It eventually led her towards a different viewpoint concerning spirituality. It inspired her to look at life in a different light. After this event she became convinced that there was more to life then we imagine, and she sought to find out what it was. It is ironic that this “curse” actually became a positive life-changing event for her. It opened her eyes.
What is a true curse? Examining the event she experienced, what she unknowingly practiced was another ancient practice. The Evil Eye. She had no conscious intent on cursing her former partner. But she wished on her partner a full measure of misfortune in a very intense, focused and personal way. She was exercising the technique of the evil eye without realizing it. The evil eye has as long a history. It was believed that the glare of the evil eye could cause all manner of illness and misfortune. Talismans were used to protect against the evil eye. The evil eye is an internalized curse. That is what makes the evil eye dangerous.
A verbal curse is satisfying and at the same time ineffective. After the act of verbalizing our displeasure, we feel much better and the bitterness goes away. We release our anger. That is the point of the verbal curse. We swear and go on with life.
The evil eye is a different story. The evil eye is inside our head. The evil eye dwells on our grievances. It is unspoken, unreleased visualized imagination and intent. This ties in with the Law of Attraction.
The law of attraction suggests that what we think, what we feel with conviction, feeling, and purpose will become reality. It is accepted that positive thoughts properly visualized will attract positive results in our lives. The law of attraction says the opposite is also true, that negative thoughts and feelings will bring negative consequences.
We can aim the law of attraction at others as well. Most people believe in the power of prayer. Outside of the religious aspect, to pray for someone involves the law of attraction. Prayers and blessings use the power of positive belief not for personal benefit, but for the benefit of others.
It is also possible to aim the power of negativity at another like a weapon. This is rarely practiced. It is the opposite of prayer. It is the curse, the evil eye. I think that is exactly what this betrayed lady unconsciously did. The law of attraction works regardless if we believe in it or not. Focused, intense harmful visualization really is the mind’s evil eye. Some people are more in touch with the law of attraction and can get serious results.
This is a cautionary story. Be careful with whom we mess around with. If we step on people on a regular basis, if we don’t care who we harm, one day we might run into someone who has the evil eye. Perhaps not every one of life’s misfortunes is random chance. I am sure the lady who had the broken back had no clue.
For something as intriguing as tarot cards, I’d imagine the tarot would be more recognized in our popular culture then it is. I can’t think of many films where the tarot was involved. One film is Woody Allen’s “Scoop” where tarot cards played a minor role.
Perhaps the film that stands out using tarot cards as a significant plot device was the 1973 James Bond film “Live and Let Die”. This was Roger Moore’s first time playing James Bond. This is not a movie review, but a look at the use of tarot cards in film.
The deck created for ’Live and Let Die’ is called the “Tarot of the Witches” designed by Fergus Hall. At the time the movie came out it was marketed as the James Bond 007 Tarot. The is not a typical deck. The art is bold, colorful and surrealistic. The characters have tiny little hands and feet.
Otherwise the deck follows the standard tarot format. I understand why the filmmakers would use such a colorful deck. It stood out visually in the movie. If you look carefully at the back of the cards you’ll see a stylized “007” pattern.
How realistic was tarot reading portrayed in the film? The card reading character was a Bond Girl, aptly named Solitaire (played by Jane Seymour) who had the power of clairvoyance. Her power was hereditary, passed down from her mother who had the same abilitiy.
The villain in the film was Kananga and he used Solitaire’s clairvoyance for his own sinister purposes. Implausibly, Solitaire’s clairvoyance was never wrong. Yeah, that is pure fantasy. The process of card reading involved elaborate costumes. Otherwise, notice the Celtic Cross layout in one of the images.
A plot element was her clairvoyance existed only if Solitaire remained a virgin. Her virginity (and her usefulness to the criminals) was obviously in jeopardy with Bond mulling around.
When Bond first encounters Solitaire, she speaks to him while reading her cards. She said, “I know who you are and what you are and why you come. You made a mistake. You will not succeed. The cards have followed you for me.”
Bond seems to believe in Solitaire’s abilities, but he is also uninterested in her power. If I were a secret agent and discovered someone with her amazing abilities, for sure I’d report her to intelligence. Forget the bad guy. Then again, maybe not. Who would believe? He really didn’t appreciate the significance. The villain sure did. In real life there are accounts of governments employing psychics and remote viewers. But no. Bond only wants to chase bad guys and have nookie with the girls.
Bond cleverly uses Solitaire’s belief in the cards to his advantage, seducing her by using a stacked deck. After sex, she tells Bond “The power…I’ve lost it. The High Priestess is wife to the Prince no longer of this world. The spiritual bridge to the secret church. It was my fate. By compelling me to earthly love, the cards themselves have taken away my powers. It makes no difference. The physical violation cannot be undone. When he finds out I’ve lost my power…”
This is an odd statement. Does it have any connection whatsoever with real-life spirituality? What to make of the movie’s association of virginity with clairvoyance? It’s only a plot contrivance. I don’t know any authentic spiritual practice that requires virginity for spiritual development, outside the Catholic Church. If anything, a card reader should have a full life experience. It would aid in card reading, not inhibit it.
The silliness aside, it is nice to see a movie with the tarot in full display, even if it is portrayed fantastically. The presence of tarot imagery in popular culture is uncommon enough, that anytime I see it I think it is worth noting and recording. Also noteworthy is another tarot deck featured in this movie, the famous Rider-Waite deck. Can you spot all of them in the images? There are quite a few. The Rider-Waite deck is the real deal, not movie making.
Bulgarians are fascinating people. Their culture is very old and very deep. This past March I was given a delightful Bulgarian gift…martenitsa! I received a selection of martenitsa. They are only available in Bulgaria before March and disappear until the following year. I’ll have to wait until next March to get more. They are symbolic gifts with a historic background. What is the significance of the Martenitsa?
Ok, what is a martenitsa? A martenitsa is something to be worn. In Bulgaria, they have a tradition of giving a martenitsa as an act of friendship and affection. On the first day of March they give these tiny gifts to people they care for, to wear or put around their wrist. Martenitsa come in a variety of shapes, sizes and formats, but they have this in common. Martenitsa are made of thread, and are composed of two colored threads, white and red. I was told many Bulgarians end up wearing dozens of these tiny decorations. They became similar to walking Christmas trees with red and white ornaments, if only for a day or two. Martenitsa is considered a blessing for the year ahead and a sign of affection.
Martenitsa worn on wrists
In Bulgaria they have a holiday called Baba Marta, which means “Grandmother March”. It is a holiday to celebrate the beginning of spring, and kissing off winter. Baba Marta is a mystical figure of an old lady who symbolizes March, with wild mood swings just like their weather. Some March days might be nice, but on another day Grandmother March could drop a blizzard. Baba Matra symbolized how natue was temperamental and our desire to embrace spring.
March weather in Bulgaria can be rough, like an unending winter. Bulgaria’s climate is similar to my hometown Chicago, and March in Chicago is a desperate hope for winter to end. After a long winter, the need for the snow to stop and summer to start becomes palatable. Maybe a key to understanding the martenitsa is its premature celebration of the end of a long winter and the beginning of spring. It symbolizes hope that better days are soon ahead.
Chicago could use such a holiday. Chicago’s version of the martenitsa is the city parking ticket.
It is said the martenitsa’s white threads symbolize the snow of winter, and the red threads represent the beginning of summer with the reflection of a sunset. Angry Grandmother March finally gives sway to summer. Yet, I think there is more to this symbolism. The shape of the martenitsa often represents male and female figures along with red and white threads. Part of this symbolism is a touching legend in Bulgarian culture about tragedy concerning a brother and sister, with red and white representing blood on white clothing.
The symbolism of red and white is also a powerful fertility symbol representing male and female. Grandmother March departs and summer begins the cycle of life. With spring comes fertility and procreation. Folklore is full of this symbolism. Consider the symbolism of the Easter bunny and Easter eggs. The symbolism of fertility is very old. Looking at the male and female versions of the martenitsa, the fertility symbolism becomes clear to me. A fertility blessing is not only for procreation. It’s also for a healthy family life. and good fortune. And necessarily a healthy society for our children. For civilization. Exchanging martenitsa is an act of shared community.
Friday April 21, 1967 was a bad day for the Chicago area. At 5:30 P.M. a F-4 tornado struck Chicago’s southern suburbs and continued on a 16-mile path thru the south side of Chicago before passing into lake Michigan as a waterspout. This massive tornado’s base was estimated to be a city block in width and traveled at a ground speed of an incredible 65 mph, out racing any vehicle. Thirty-three people died. Over a thousand people were injured. Sixteen of the deaths occurred in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn when the tornado touched down at the intersection of 95th street and Southwest Highway. This intersection was the epicenter of the tornado’s carnage. Buildings were leveled to the ground. Most of the deaths resulting at this fateful intersection involved vehicles at the wrong place at the wrong time. Half of the 33 people killed were motorists waiting in traffic.
A YouTube video sums up the event, titled “Terror in Oak Lawn”.
In 1967 I was six years old. Our famly had a Friday ritual. When dad came home from work on Friday, the family would go out for dinner at a restaurant. It was the only day of the week we dined out. Back then Friday was “payday” when employers actually paid weekly with a paper check. It was a time to celebrate the end a week’s labors.
Every Friday after dad came home we immediately got in the car and drove to the same restaurant. My mom and dad’s favorite restaurant was the Sherwood Forest Restaurant in Oak Lawn. After dinner, we’d drive to the bank so my father could cash his check. Sometimes it took nearly half an hour waiting in line to get that done on a busy Friday. Back then they did not have drive thru tellers. Or direct deposit checking. How primitive!
As usual, Friday April 21 we got in the car and drove off to have dinner. Traveling down Southwest Highway we arrived at the intersection of 95th street where our favorite Sherwood Forest Restaurant was located. I recall the sky was very dark. At the horizon was daylight, but the dark clouds above us were nearly pitch black. Yet oddly, I recall there was no rain.
1967 Sun-Times scan: Tornado's Path
Instead of turning left and entering the restaurant’s parking lot, my dad said, “Let’s go the bank first, then we’ll come back to eat.” It was a spontaneous decision. He never went to the bank before dinning. He made a right turn down 95th street.
In minutes of making the turn, my mother heard something and looked behind. She was startled and yelled at my dad, “There is a tornado behind us!” My father looked in his rear view mirror and saw garbage cars flying around. A huge dark mass was quickly approaching our car! He slammed on the accelerator and took off driving right through a red light. This swirling maelstrom was approaching to his left. My mom jumped in the back seat and pushed me down covering me with her body. I wanted to see what was going on but she yelled at me to stay down. The air was roaring with the sound of a freight train.
Dad did not know if he was driving away from the tornado or actually into it. He saw a brick building with an underground garage. He made a desperate right turn down the embankment. The garage door was closed, but even so he had a brick wall to his right and the car was lower then ground level. He told my mom to open the windows to equalize the pressure.
The car began to shake. My father said it felt like the car was about to be lifted off the ground. He looked out the car’s rear window and in the distance saw full grown trees being plucked out of the ground and vanishing into the sky.
Then it was over. IT had passed us by.
Slowly he pulled out of the drive and saw the street was filled with debris. The wreckage was everywhere. He couldn’t drive back the way he came and had to drive a distance around to return home.
The Sherwood Forest Restaurant was directly hit by this F4 tornado, demolished, leveled to the ground. Had we made that fateful left turn and entered the parking lot of the Sherwood Forest Restaurant, we might have perished. We would have been in the restaurant’s lot preparing to leave the car when the tornado would have overtaken us with a ground speed of 65-miles an hour. 16 people died at Southwest Highway and 95th street, many in cars.
I asked my dad what made him decide at the last minute to go to the bank instead of the restaurant, to turn right instead of left. He said he did not know…it was just a feeling. He could not explain it. He said maybe it was a premonition. Afterwards he kept the newspaper accounts of the event. They are now yellowed and fragile, but he still has them.
We probably would not be here today if he made a fateful left turn. Is there such a thing as fate or destiny? Do we have a date when we are all destined to die? Should we worry about whenever we’ll die, if there is nothing we can do about it?
History is full of convincing premonitions. It is said the Titanic carried far less passengers on its voyage into disaster, with stories of canceled reservations due to premonitions. If we all have a date we are destined to perish, perhaps it is still possible to sometimes cheat death if we listen to our intuition. We should listen to our inner voice. Which road will we take, the left road or the right road?
I will recount a genuine ghost hunt. For ghost enthusiasts the chance to investigate a true haunting is very rare. It really is a privilege. Most famous, publicly known hauntings have ceased being haunted long ago. Nearly every haunting is a private affair and rarely attracts any attention outside of the individuals involved. I got a chance at a combination of both. I think these are important stories and need to be recorded.
It was March of 2002. Jamie was a ghost enthusiast, and he invited me on what we loosely call an investigation. I use the term “enthusiast” instead of “ghost hunter” because ghost hunting suggests a professional enterprise, and there is no such thing. I believe there are no experts concerning the topic of ghosts. We can only hope to be at the right place at the right time.
In Jamie’s words, “Well the tentative ghost hunt I mentioned is on. We have a location. It’s at a private location with the owner’s permission near the former site of Victorian house antique shop. Victorian house is a well known haunted spot with lots of activity. I am going to contact the owners of the Victorian house and see if I can get permission to get in there too. The house now is standing vacant. If anyone is interested in going. I require an rsvp on this one and a debriefing as it is at a private site. Jamie”
This supposedly haunted location was a Victorian style building near downtown Chicago, an antique shop that has long since been closed. It had a reputation for being haunted. The facts are hearsay. It was built around 1880. The story was four people died in an attic fire. Another story concerned a woman murdered at this shop in the late 1800s. Customers have reported hearing strange sounds and witnessed apparitions in this shop.
I met Jamie and Jason (another ghost enthusiast) and two ladies who I did not know outside the closed Victorian Antique shop. We were not entering the actual store. It was closed and the owners had no interest in entertaining visitors. But the apartments opposite to this shop were a different story, and Jamie got an invitation to investigate from one of these renters.
We were invited in. The residents of the apartment were interested in discovering what was happening. They were experiencing a haunting phenomenon. At first they looked at us with some skepticism. But Jamie had a friendly, unpretentious southern demeanor that was disarming. Right away we wanted to know their stories. Why did they invite us here? What was going on?
A young man and woman lived in this apartment. Outside of their stories of odd sounds, footsteps and doors that closed by its self, I vividly recall the young lady’s story. Late one night the lady of the apartment got up from her bed and went into the kitchen, and she was absolutely startled to see a man sitting at her kitchen table. She was stunned. He was smoking a cigarette, and he seemed very depressed, with his head was laid low. He looked up at her sadly…and vanished. She was unnerved by this experience, seeing a stranger in her apartment. Except she had experienced other unseen people existing in this apartment. She called him the “sad one”. There were others. She said that this spirit was not associated with the others…not popular. The other spirits hanged together.
Intrigued, we took out our cameras. Jason had an EMP device. Myself I preferred a film camera figuring a film’s negative offered physical evidence. Jamie had his digital camera and right way he caught orbs. Orbs are frowned on, and properly so. Most orbs are nothing, yet they are not easy to get…random chance. But when we are in a haunting situation and orbs are photographed left and right, it is time for a serious heads up. Jamie showed the tenants the orbs on his digital. The guy started off skeptical, but when he was saw these orbs on Jamie’s camera he became immediately interested in what we were doing. Maybe his girlfriend’s experiences were not only in her imagination?
Above is a photo I took of their entrance door. There are obvious orbs by the door. However, what I think is remarkable about this film photo is the tiny orb by the floor. There is a small glob of light and below it is a ring of light, as if the orb actually reflected the camera’s flash on the shiny floor. I include a picture of their cat for perspective on the reflective nature of the floor, and what I imagine was captured. Could a flash capture the actual physical reflection of an orb?
We wandered around their apartment, with their permission, taking pictures and listening to more stories. I was attentive to the details of our “investigation”. I did not know the two ladies who joined us. They were of the pagan faith and suggested they could talk to the dead. Mediums. I thought to myself…uh-huh. Yeah right, ok whatever. On the other hand I had an open mind.
Jason and myself both experienced cold spots. There was no breeze whatsoever. I looked at him and he looked at he and me said,”did you feel that?” It was truly a physical coldness…as if something cold passed through you. Contact. We were in the real thing…this lady’s story was not only her imagination.
I did my usual tarot card layout as a means to attract the attention of any spirits. In this place it was not necessary. The layout is still interesting. What do the cards say about this haunting? The final card is…Death.
While the mediums were talking to the spirits us guys were doing our “scientific” guy-thing, taking pictures and measurements with EMF meters (electromagnetic radiation detectors) and recordings for EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena). Science? Not really.
Everybody gathered in the living room as the mediums began to talk with the lost haunted souls. I listened carefully. Were they the real deal or only pretenders? The ladies said there was a terrible tragedy in the past. And there were a number of spirits here; it was not a solitary haunting. They also thought that not all the tragedies happened in the antique shop. They just congregated here, and there was an anchor spirit that drew them here.
They said there were maybe five spirits present. Three women and two men. One of the spirits did not associate with the others. He was in the grip of a deep personal darkness and could not move on. Another was a young woman who was deeply in love and died. They spoke of one of the girl ghosts. This ghost thought Jason was cute. They said this ghost was sitting on Jason’s lap at this very minute! As Jason was sitting in a chair both Jamie and I caught these photos.
Orb sitting on Jason's lap
Jamie took a photo of an orb buy Jason’s left leg. Jamie’s photo is remarkable. This orb seems to have physicality, like a blob. My picture taken a few minutes afterwards shows another orb hovering by Jason. Notice that the wall’s shadow is cast on the orb. What the @%#@! An orb photo becomes more then an orb photo depending on the context.
The two ladies said we needed to free these lost souls. They began using smudge sticks. They lit the smudge sticks and let the smoke flow…and spoke to the lost souls…go home…go home and “Be free.” They talked directly to these souls asking them to let go of any hurt or tragedy. Whatever tragedies held them, don’t let any other spirit hold you back. They went room to room with their smudging.
We left, and I considered our ghost investigation as one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had. It really sparked my interest in the paranormal to a new level.
Here is what Jason wrote us afterwards:
“Hi. This is Jason. From the Victorian house. Just wanted to thank all of you for coming out to this place and sharing the knowledge and helping. That picture from the living room is amazing!!! There can be no other explanation for those orbs! And they are exactly where she said they would be. Thanks ladies too, for sending them home.”
We have many other intriguing photos from this visit, but since they include people in them and we need to protect people’s privacy, I can’t post them.
Here is Jamie’s ghost website, Jamie’s Chicago Gangsterland Ghost Page at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/2007/ and he has a Yahoo Group for local Chicago ghost fans, ChicagolandGhostClub
I like stage and street magic, from Harry Houdini to David Blaine. Part of it is intellectual. Can we solve the puzzle how somebody created the illusion? We know it’s a trick. Sometimes we can’t solve the trick with logic. Then it creates an interesting response. If only for a brief second, it feels as if the supernatural actually happened. Like wow!
Carter The Magician
There is a small connection between the stage magician and the mystical ceremonial magician of “Key of Solomon” fame. Old magic posters of great magicians offer some interesting symbolism. They often include motifs of the genuine supernatural, such as infernal spirits conferring with or aiding the magician. The symbolism is obvious…to hint that maybe the magician is something more then only stage magic. That suggestion is only show business. However behind the symbolism is the recognition that stage magic plays off the real thing…ceremonial magic.
Considering the traditions of real magic, in the past people would use magic tricks to pretend they had supernatural powers. Fake spiritualists used seances and “spirit cabinets” to commit fraud and fleece the public. Houdini was famous for his work debunking the frauds. Today we have famous skeptics like the Amazing James Randi doing the same thing. Randi is involved with a magazine devoted to skepticism aptly named…The Skeptic. http://www.skeptic.com/
I blog about the occult and I endorse a magazine dedicated to skepticism? Yes! It really is a great magazine. I understand the importance of hearing all sides of a viewpoint. The Skeptic magazine takes a strictly materialistic, atheist worldview that I personally reject. Are we all only Automatons?
The skeptical viewpoint is important because they are correct more often then not. They debunk a lot of nonsense. Beware they have an agenda, a philosophical opposition to ANYTHING spiritual. To their credit have debates with spiritual types such as Deepak Chopra. The Chopra articles are especially good…they alone worth reading the magazine. Thumbs up!
This magazine offers an eclectic mix of spiritual viewpoints. I really appreciate that their views are not at odds with science but accept scientific reality as a part of spiritually. Again, not everything they write about I would personally agree with. But reading only what we believe in is not the approach to enlightenment. An open mind should not believe in everything, or in nothing.
Below is a video I took at the ‘House On The Rock’ in Wisconsin. It is an Automaton of a Magician. A wonderful mechanism! People who visited House on the Rock said it was awesome. I followed their advice. Did it measure up? It far exceeded my expectations. It is not a tourist trap. It is a real experience, if you like interesting objects. The place is filled with fabulous collections of the real and the imagined. The pictures of the magician posters above were taken in their cafeteria.
Here is a story a good friend told me, and I asked if it would be ok to write about it.Many people have paranormal experiences, but they are rare, perhaps once or twice in lifetime.Which makes each one of these experiences precious and worth recording.They reveal there is more to the universe then we understand.
The year is 1985.My friend Ed was a young man newly married and starting a family.One autumn night he abruptly awoke from his sleep and sat up in his bed.He had a vivid dream.It was a baseball game.
At the time the World Series was playing, the St. Louis Cardinals against the Kansas City Royals.St. Louis was ahead 3 games to 1.St. Louis was one game away from winning the World Series; all they needed was that 4th game out of 7.
Ed sat up in his bed.He dreamt he was watching the winning celebration of the World Series as if he were present in the ballpark.He saw all the players running onto the field.They were ecstatic, winners of the World Series. And the players’ uniforms were blue.Ed spoke to himself out loud in his bed…”Kansas City is going to win.”He understood what the blue uniforms meant.
I asked Ed if it was like watching the game on TV.He said no, in the dream he was actually at the stadium, in the stands right at ground level, as if he were really there.
The next day he told his co-workers that the Kansas City Royals were going to win the World Series.He had a dream.Since the Cardinals were ahead 3 to1 they told him he was full of shit.Ed was so convinced that the Royals were going to win he made a wager.He’d wager anyone a case of beer the Royals would win the World Series. Ed took on any and all co-workers with this wager, and his coworkers were only too happy to take him up on his fool’s bet.Ed said perhaps ten people took his wager.He’d better plan on buying beer.Truly a fool’s bet.
However…the Kansas City Royals won the next three games in a row to win the World Series.It was unprecedented.People at work were shocked. As Ed collected his cases of beer, they would say to each other, “Don’t bet against him when he has a dream.”
I asked Ed about the dream experience hoping to learn something about the nature of dreaming premonitions.He said it was the only time he had such an experience.What was interesting was that he awoke from his sleep startled, and the firsthand nature of the dream.Obviously something about this dream was extraordinary, not a typical dream.
Some famous dreaming premonitions include Abraham Lincolns dreaming about his own death, and premonitions of the Titanic.Even today there are stories of people who stayed away from the Twin Towers before 9/11 because of a premonition.
What are the implications of genuine premonitions?It means we don’t understand the true nature of time and space.These premonitions are real if rare and uncontrolled.They can’t be measured, tested or subject to the scientific method.But they are real nevertheless.Science might develop new insights to the mysteries of the universe if they accepted the possibility of the paranormal into their equations.Einstein created the theory or relativity using his imagination.New insights could use such “outside the box” thinking.
Above is a photo taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. It is a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star. It is creating tremendous energies which are shown in the photo as red having the lowest energy and blue the most powerful X-rays. What caught people’s fancy was it looked like a giant spooky hand.
I read an article in my local newspaper about astrology. I don’t recall seeing astrology mentioned in a “news” newspaper outside of the typical daily horoscope in the classified section. Do you ever check out those daily horoscopes? Anyone who understands anything about astrology knows these little snippets don’t even begin to approximate a genuine horoscope.
I have mixed feelings about astrology. I am a firm believer in free will. I lean towards an existential view of life rather than ideas of destiny. The concept that the stars have a role in governing our lives does not ring true with me.
On the other hand, the universe is a strange place. To quote Shakespeare, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
How can we make sense of astrology? From the bit I know, the most interesting concept linked to astrology are astral tides. The idea behind astral tides suggests an astral realm co-exists with the physical world but is invisible to the five senses. This astral dimension is connected to consciousness; in fact the only way to have knowledge of the astral level is through consciousness. Supposedly this astral world has its own natural ebb and flow in relationship to the earth, sun and moon. These astral tides have an influence on our collective consciousness albeit unknowingly. Astrology is the attempt to measure and understand these tides and their influence on mankind. Through millennium it is assumed measurements of the astral tides were perfected. That is the theory.
I don’t know. Astrology sounds like a metaphor for trying to explain the true mysteries of existence. Ancient man looked into the sky and recognized the stars had profound significance. They didn’t realize how reality far exceeded their imagination. Who guessed outside of view existed more galaxies then we have stars in our own Milky Way?
Astrology was a reflection of man’s awe at the cosmos, and an early attempt to comprehend it. Astrology eventually became the science of astronomy. I see something ironic here. We are all made from the remnants of exploded stars. But where did the stars come from? Where did the Big Bang come from? As modern cosmology probes into the deepest mysteries of the universe, the more cosmology is approaching mysticism, if nobody will admit it. The instincts of ancient man may prove accurate…that there are more things in heaven and earth then we have dreamt of.
For anyone who wonders about paranormal experiences, all they have to do is ask around. Many people have their own personal experiences. Within our circle of family, friends and acquaintances, we’d be surprised by the first-hand stories we hear. I am not a fan of unverified second-hand stories. But when people tell me their own actual experiences, it gets my attention.
I heard such a story this past weekend.
A young lady told me the following experience she had three years ago. She lived in a second floor apartment with her husband. Early one night while she was lying in bed with her husband sleeping next to her, she had not yet gone to sleep, when she noticed something outside the bedroom window. A large disk of light, nearly filling the window, rose up like a giant version of the moon. It became stationary, and she heard a buzzing sound. She became completely paralyzed. Her paralysis was so complete she could not wiggle a finger. She tried to awaken her sleeping husband but she was utterly unable to move. She was terrified. She felt an intense pressure, describing it as if something was inside her head trying to remove a part of her skull. This lasted for a couple of minutes when the disk of light moved away from the window and her paralysis ceased. She was frightened and could not sleep all night.
She then recounted an event that happened the previous day before her nighttime encounter. On occasion her job required her to drive to the bank. Usually it took half an hour. That prior day, after taking care of the banking business, while driving back to the office, she noticed something very strange. The clock in her car was over two hours past the time she left the office. Nearly two hours were missing. She hadn’t gone anywhere else, and had no idea where the time went. When she returned to the office late she didn’t give it much thought afterwards.
After her scary paralysis experience, she investigated what happened to her. Only after reading about other people’s similar experiences did she make the connection between her own missing time and the events that transpired the night afterwards. She was convinced aliens visited her. Missing time, paralysis, the disk of light, the feeling of having something implanted or removed are all common elements of the phenomena.
What should we think of her experience? Sleep paralysis combined with a waking hallucination would be a natural explanation. Sleep paralysis is said to replicate some of the alien abduction sensations. During REM sleep (rapid eye movement), the body is in paralysis. Otherwise the body would fling around during REM sleep repeating the behavior in the dream. When someone awakes from REM sleep, the body might continue this paralysis for a short time while conscious, which would be very disconcerting. Vivid hallucinations often accompany waking from REM sleep.
However, she said she hadn’t gone to sleep yet and was wide-awake. Plus we have the baffling missing time. IF it was not sleep paralysis, was it a paranormal event? Actual aliens? We don’t know. I can see why extraterrestrial intervention seems like the logical explanation for these phenomena. We assume aliens would have almost magical abilities with their technology. Perhaps a bit too magical.
Extraterrestrials seem to be invisible at will. They can enter houses with closed windows and touch an individual while their spouse sleeps undisturbed in the same bed. Can aliens move in and out of time and space? Sounds more like the behavior of spirits to me. Some say that alien abductions are really out-of-body spirit/faeire abductions. A clue is the buzzing sound and paralysis, which are the beginning stages of astral travel. Out-of-body episodes would explain the missing time as well. Was the disk of light a portal to where astral entities dwell?
She was lucky to have this experience. She had a chance, however frightening, to experience something otherworldly. If it was only (still rare) sleep paralysis, such an experience could be a learning experience in the origins of a lot of mythology. If it was a real encounter with aliens or spirits, better yet. THAT would really be a learning experience!
I did my usual tarot card layout as a means to attract the attention of any spirits. In this place it was not necessary. The layout is still interesting. What do the cards say about this haunting? The final card is…Death.
I read an article in my local newspaper about astrology. I don’t recall seeing astrology mentioned in a “news” newspaper outside of the typical daily horoscope in the classified section. Do you ever check out those daily horoscopes? Anyone who understands anything about astrology knows these little snippets don’t even begin to approximate a genuine horoscope. 
After her scary paralysis experience, she investigated what happened to her. Only after reading about other people’s similar experiences did she make the connection between her own missing time and the events that transpired the night afterwards. She was convinced aliens visited her. Missing time, paralysis, the disk of light, the feeling of having something implanted or removed are all common elements of the phenomena.
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