OCCULT VIEW

Wildcat Canyon

Above is a friend’s picture from a winter visit to Starved Rock State Park in Utica, Illinois.  He knew of my interest in anomalies and showed me this photo with a strange pink glow at the bottom of the Wildcat Canyon.   He mentioned he’d heard that someone had died falling into this canyon.  I thought it might only be an optical effect, but because he mentioned someone died there, I thought I’d look into it.

Starved Rock Park is a beautiful destination, but as it’s name suggests, it had a grim beginning.  Its name comes from a story from the 1700s.  In a conflict between Indian tribes, a band of the Illinwek fled to this rock after being pursued by another tribe. Trapped on top they were held under siege, and eventually starved to death.

Orb at Starved Rock Park

I visited Starved Rock Park last summer myeslf.  I even got an orb photo.  One thing I noticed was how precarious the paths were.  There are few railings, and some very narrow walkways along the canyons and precipices.  We had to really pay attention to where we were walking.  We stayed there late, almost too late as the sun was started to go down.  Deep into the park, I realized we’d better get out of there fast.  To be trapped in the park at night would be putting our lives at genuine risk.  One misstep could lead to disaster.

Over the years Starved Rock has been the scene of terrible tragedies.  Most infamous was the brutal 1960 murder of three vacationing women at St. Louis Canyon.  Here is a Time Magazine article that describes the terrible story.   http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826120,00.html

Every year at Starved Rock someone falls after wandering from the trail and suffers injury or death.  Most recent was a 21-year-old graduate student who leaned against a branch, which broke, and he plunged to his death 80 feet below down the Pontiac Canyon.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/sep/03/local/chi-starved-rock-death_03_websep03

In 1991 a 13-year-old boy died after falling 30 feet down the Aurora Canyon while playing with other children.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4059683.html

In 2006 a 14-year-old boy fell 65 feet to his death down Wildcat Canyon after climbing too close to the edge.
http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/print_display.php?id=259279

In 1999 an 8-year-old girl fell to her death down Wildcat Canyon.  The sad story is at this link: http://www.geocities.com/starved_rock/warning.html (Geocities no longer hosts websites, so this link as gone away.  It had some really interesting information and I will try to contact the individual who owned the site and ask if I can post some of their information.)

Update: There has been a new tragedy at Starved Rock State Park.  The body of a 53 year old woman was found at the park’s river trail at an area known as Eagle Cliff.  A curious quote: “Investigators do not believe the woman was a victim of foul play and do not believe she had an accident that led to her death.” This story is below:
Starved Rock body identified as missing Evanston woman
February 7, 2010

Update: Another death at Starved Rock Park.  Here is the news story, from July 15 2010. Hiker Dies After Fall At Starved Rock

Update: In our blog comments Terri gave us an important link to a resource connecting to long lost Geocities. Now we have a link to previously unavailable content concerning Starved Rock.

http://www.oocities.org/starved_rock/warning.html

Is Starved Rock haunted?  Is this picture above a reflection of the tragedies at Wildcat Canyon?  Does something still linger there?   When young people die it creates a powerful influence on our surroundings.   It’s awfulness creates a residue.  Lets hope it really is only a trick of lighting.   Otherwise Wildcat Canyon might be a well of souls.

I was at a restaurant/bar located in an old hotel one Saturday night.  It was late and the restaurant itself was empty, and the patrons were slowly drifting away as the last call approached.  On my way to the restroom, I looked down an empty section of the restaurant.  I had a camera with me to take some pictures and I decided to take a picture of the empty seating area.  The right side of the wall had a mural on it, and all the tables were all empty.

Days later when I checked out the pictures, I noticed one picture I took at the restaurant.  It was the one taken of the empty area and it had something strange in it, like a vapor.  I thought that odd, there was nobody around.  Then I looked at this picture again more carefully…and I was startled. This apparent smoke did not follow a random pattern of what would seem to be mere smoke.   The smoke seemed concentrated in the center with tendrils of vapor emanating from it. 

I looked even more carefully, and I was almost shocked.  Suddenly I saw in the mist… a face.  Not a caricature or grotesque, but with a symmetry to it.  Closed eyes opposite each other…a nose, a chin, a mouth with lips.  And the face even had an expression to it…as if someone were drifting asleep, in a dream state, with a hint of a smile.  If you can’t see this, I traced out what I saw to make it more visible, side-by-side without the tracing.

I was determined to return to the restaurant and to take more pictures around the same time, hoping to capture something else.  Again I took pictures in the same area (with the same mural on the right wall), and I got a picture with orbs.  There are several orbs, and an orb by the mural had the same pale blue color similar to the color of my previous photo.  It seemed like the orbs were stationed over the tables, as if a congregation of ghosts were seated at the tables when everybody else had left. 

What to make of this?  Maybe they were former, now deceased patrons of the bar, or just wandering souls, gathered here when people left to experience something like being alive?  And maybe my picture of the vapor was a close-up of an orb taken by accident, showing details normally invisible.   Perhaps I was at the right place at the right time, and this orb apparition was right in front of my camera. 

Are ghosts real?  Throughout history people have had countless experiences with ghosts.  I’ve known people who had their own personal experiences.  These stories are true; the ghost experience is real.  The real question is…what exactly are ghosts?  Are they only a common type of hallucination? 

The occult view has its own theory of death.  According to occult theory, all living things have an ethereal body double that matches our physical body.  The ancient Egyptians called it the Ka.  Today we’d call it our aura, or chi, or life force.  This ethereal double is not our mind or soul, but seems to be the conduit or interface between the soul and physical reality.  Maybe it’s the pathway wherein the spirit and brain connect; where spirit, matter and the quantum force of electro-magnetism interact inside our neurons.

When we die, this ethereal double is separated from our physical body.  During near death experiences, this is the experience of observing one’s body and surroundings.  It does not have to be a death experience; there are stories of crisis apparitions, someone in deep distress can suddenly appear to loved ones far away.  Since the ethereal double (or ghost) exists inside of time and space, it is able to observe and interact (in a limited way) with physicality.  It is interesting that ghost phenomena can be largely interpreted as manipulation of the electromagnetic force, albeit with a purpose.

However, when separated from the physical body, the ethereal double cannot long survive and the double/ghost itself will “die”.  What follows is the part of the near-death experience where the deceased enters the tunnel of light.  This is the passage from our world of time and space and matter, into the endless world of Spirit beyond.  Shedding of our double, the soul forever departs our universe for whatever is after. 

ORB

Sometimes, after death, a person does not want to move on.  It could be because of some turmoil or tragedy, tasks left undone, regrets, or entrenched attachment to this world.  In their ethereal state, they might even think they’re still alive, but in a somnolent dream-like state.  Ghosts seem to attach themselves to a place, replacing their attachment to their body.  Their degree of self awareness will affect if and how they interact with our world.  Many ghosts are invisibly sleepwalking around us right now and we’d never know it. 

FENCE ORB

In my Jan. 14 ’09 blog, I wrote about a friend’s true near-death experience.  He did not get to the point of seeing a tunnel of light.  But he did encounter other ghosts in the hospital.  By examining these near-death experiences, we get valuable clues about how the “other side” works.  For instance, it seems ghosts can communicate with each other.  I’ve been to a haunting investigation where it seemed that multiple entities inhabited a location.  I suspect that ghosts might be drawn to others of their own kind.  Who wants to wander bodiless alone?  And a more powerful ghost might attract a following of other lost souls, even dominate them.  As time goes by, the ghost will lose its original human shape and eventually end up as a circle of ethereal energy…an orb.  

In my opinion, once a soul leaves it’s “ghost” behind, it leaves earth for good.  Can a medium contact the dead?  Maybe a medium can whisper to earthbound ghosts, but not the ghostless dead.   However…it just might be possible for our loved ones, outside of the circles of time/space, to contact us.  Someone with mediumistic abilities once told me that a man and a woman were watching over me.  She described my grandmother, but as a beautiful young woman, and deceased friend with uncanny accuracy.  I like the idea.  Maybe, just maybe, our loved ones do watch over us.  When the dead enter their tunnel of light…their loved ones are there waiting to greet them.  How did they know to show up in the first place?  They must know what we are doing!