August 25th, 2010 | 
Author: by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine
I’m kind of a geek. Or maybe that’s a dork or a nerd. From what I hear, there are different definitions for each, but I have yet to sort through which is which or know which one applies to me.
Anyhooo….regardless of my classification on the whole geek/dork/nerd spectrum, I really like to contemplate things that just flat out blow. My. Mind. The more trippy, the better as far as I’m concerned. As a kid I would lay awake at night and try to contemplate how big infinity was – and how far that meant the universe went on if, indeed, it was infinite. As my mind would trip outward farther and farther probing the boundaries of infinity, I would get to a point where I’d realize that I had no concept for what it meant. And even if the universe wasn’t infinite, I further reasoned, surely there had to be something outside of the universe. Was it just a huge ball suspended in a vacuum? Pretty heady stuff for a six year old, let me tell you.
Even today as a 44 year old, it is hard to envision – what lies outside of the realms that we understand – the realms of time and space that we know either experientially, experimentally or theoretically. But it doesn’t stop my far less agile brain from still tripping along, just as I did when I was a six year old lying in bed and contemplating something I could barely understand.
That’s why I love articles and news items that really challenge the universe that I know perceptually. Things that make me wonder if we do, indeed, move only forward through time or question the nature of what our mutual perceived reality is as human beings.
An article in the Huffington Post on August 18 caught my eye. In the article, scientist and theoretician Robert Lanza takes a look at experimental findings that seem to indicate that time is not what we perceive it to be. Instead, the findings on experiments with photons indicate that the causal relationship between the past and the present (where the past affects and leads to the present but the present doesn’t affect and lead to the past) may not exactly be what we perceive. Instead, it appears that the present may just affect the past as much as the past affects the present.
I’ll pause a moment to let you ponder that and then use your best Bill and Ted voice to say, “Whoaaaaaa……..”
If the present can – not just theoretically, but experimentally – affect the past, then what does that say about what we believe we know about the nature of time?
Time as we understand it is divided into three distinct parts – past, present, future. What we know of the past is affected by a few factors – including recorded histories and personal memories. Brain science has shown, however, that what we think we remember about our own individual histories is highly subjective and highly flawed, because we filter personal history through our own world-view, education, perceptions, experiences, self-concept and more. It is why several different people can have several different memories of the exact same event in a shared history. What it comes down to is that there is no true shared history, because each of us perceptually filters our experience and memory of history through our own highly subjective filters. Even in the case of recorded history, these subjective filters come into play. That’s because the person recording the history is still subject to the same biases that we all have. Since history is usually written by the victors, the versions of recorded history that become part of the collective consciousness are still, at their very core, incomplete histories based on the biases and filters of the observers who recorded them.
In other words, in a very real sense, history as we know and understand it is a bunch of hogwash.
The future, on the other hand, is the vague unknown. I don’t care how psychic you are, there is no way of projecting a future with 100% certainty. Too many random factors come into play that affect outcomes. The future can’t be real because we just don’t know how each of the millions of random bits will come together.
That leaves us with the present. Something we can surely rely on, right? Unfortunately, we can’t even really rely on the present as much of a yardstick for reality, because those same subjective filters that come into play as we narrate our histories also affect how we experience our current realities. If we could shut our minds up and merely be in the moments of pure experience, we might come closer to approximating an experience of objective reality, but the second that pure moment of experience had past, our individual filters would immediately kick into spin mode once again, and we’re left with an inaccurate memory of that moment of pure experience.
As I think about this stuff, I become the six year old kid again – unable to wrap my mind around what is real, what is perceived and what is purely illusory. And for me, it leaves me in an interesting place. While I elect to buy into my perception of what is real most of the time in order to keep my bearings, the truth is that I have no clue what reality is. For all I know, everything that I am experiencing right now is merely a projection of my mind – this keyboard, this chair in which I am sitting, the noisy ankle-biter dogs who are running rampant through the house playing – it could all just be some huge illusory mind @#$% that I am creating in order to give myself a solid sense of reality.
It’s a concept that not only boggles my mind – it excites it. Because within all of this, I can see endless possibility. What I don’t know can fill up that big, infinite universe I used to try to envision when I was a kid, and I’m pretty sure that you could fit what I do, actually know 100% without hesitation on one of the many angels that fits on the head of a pin.
Enjoy Karen’s blog? Karen’s new book, Avalanche of Spirits: The Ghosts of Wellington> is now available. Click here to buy.
by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine
Movie: Inception
Genre: SciFi
Rating 4-1/2 stars out of 5
If you haven’t seen Inception yet, then get ready to have your mind boggled. While the movie isn’t difficult to follow, it does take a while to sort out, and I’m still sifting through it this morning after seeing it last night.
Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is a man with a dark past which is slowly revealed throughout the movie. He works in dream corporate espionage – obtaining corporate secrets through the experience of shared dreaming. He is also a fugitive expat, unable to return to the United States without facing charges for killing his wife.
Cobb meets Saito (Ken Watanabe), a powerful and wealthy Japanese businessman who wants Cobb to use his gifts in a different way – inception, or the process of implanting an idea through shared dreaming. Saito promises that if Cobb can plant an idea in the subconscious of the son of his chief business rival, he will make sure that all of Cobb’s problems in the US will disappear and Cobb will be able to return home to his children.
Cobb and Saito assemble a team and begin to plan the process of inception by creating a three level dream within a dream within a dream scenario in order to plant Saito’s idea.
At its heart, Inception centers on a theme common in movies – the long con. Where it is brilliant, however, is in its implementation. It weaves together multiple layers into a single, complex story line that will leave you thinking about it long after you’re done watching the movie.
The movie is well acted by a terrific cast – Ellen Page, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe and Dileep Rao play the inception team convincingly, and each moves the action forward well.
Inception isn’t mindless escapism. There is a lot here that will leave you wondering about the nature of dreams and the nature of reality. It is well worth the price of admission, however. Inception will keep your mind spinning, long after you leave the theater.
Enjoy Karen’s reviews? Karen’s new book, Avalanche of Spirits: The Ghosts of Wellington> is now available. Click here to buy.
by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine
This has been posted for a while, but is definitely interesting evidence and I’m feeling lazy today. Take a look.
These two EVPs are both from Wellington. The first was captured in late July on the overlook. We were on the overlook setting up a toy train for the child ghost (that is the clicking you hear in the background). We had a video recorder running at the same time, and it doesn’t show up on the video – only on this audio recorder. We had three other audio recorders running at the same time, and it isn’t on any of those, either.
The song you hear has been around since the 1830s. The avalanche at Wellington was in 1910, and the town disappeared off of the map in 1930.
The next audio anomaly was captured in the parking lot. One of the reports at Wellington is the sound of singing in the parking lot.
And finally, a video clip that sounds like a disembodied laugh from when we were with the kids at Wellington in July. You may need headphones to hear the laugh.
Enjoy the Wellington evidence? Karen’s new book, Avalanche of Spirits: The Ghosts of Wellington> is now available. Click here to buy.
This is an excellent video that our friends at West Coast Ghost Hunters found on YouTube explaining how light rods can show up in night shot pictures. I don’t agree with some of the name calling in the video, but I do think that the explanation is a really good one.
by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine
The world can be a pretty negative place, that’s for sure. While I notice it in the paranormal community, the truth is that it is out there everywhere. It isn’t unique to the paranormal. Heck – there’s a whole bulletin board devoted to trolling and negativity (the infamous /b/ board at 4chan). It’s pretty easy to hide behind an avatar and a bad attitude where you don’t have to look into the eyes of another and see the hurt you may be causing with your words and actions.
And yet, it’s easy to get swept up in the negativity. The minute someone behaves like a total douchebag, I can fully understand the instinct to go into full-on defensive mode. Especially when you notice that others agree with your assessment of the situation – the temptation is there to join up like a gang of playground bullies who band together to pick on the offensive turd who set you off in the first place. There are a few times when I’ve had to pull myself back from the almost overwhelming desire to join the mob with my own pitchfork and torch to chase down a monster.
If it stayed on the Internet, that would be one thing. After all, we all have our choice of the material we look at when we surf the Net. In most forums, if we don’t like a troll we can ignore them. We can choose not to read blogs by people we find offensive. We can choose not to engage in flame wars. We can walk away with the click of a browser button.
The problem that I see is that the trolling and negativity seems to be seeping over into real life. It’s not staying on the interwebz. Maybe it’s just that I’m an adult now and not under the protection of my rather sunny and naive view of the world any longer, but it seems like real-world encounters with hostile jerks are becoming more common. In the past year, I’ve witnessed people screaming at others with no provocation, people hideously mistreating the poor unfortunate saps who are forced to serve them in the course of their jobs, and some of the most vicious backstabbing behaviors I have ever encountered. I personally have been screamed at in a failed attempt at bullying and intimidation, had lies spread about me, and had to step away from people I thought were my friends because of constant negativity and attacking behaviors. It makes it tough for a girl to keep her rose-colored glasses perched firmly on her nose.
I don’t remember that the world was always this unkind. Or maybe I was better at ignoring it and avoiding the negative people out there. It’s hard to know. It is also discouraging. After all, I’m raising a teen-ager who will soon become an adult in a world that seems to be peopled with an awful lot of individuals who have somehow checked their humanity at the door. Or maybe it is just that the planet has gotten smaller with the advent of the Internet, and that we are now in communication with people we would never have met in days gone by.
Whatever the reason, here’s the one thing I do know. I have zero control over all of the negativity that exists in the world. I can’t control the trolls, the douches and the a-pipes. I have no control over what is said on the Internet, and I have no control over how others behave or treat anyone else (including me). There is only one thing in this universe that I control, and that is myself. Therefore, in my world it is entirely up to me to eliminate the negativity.
How? By not participating. By walking away. By trying to do what I learned as a child – treat others the way that I’d like to be treated. I can step away from relationships that are negative. I can not take my bad day out on other people. And when other people decide to take their bad days out on me, I can decide whether or not I let it affect me.
It’s the only thing I can come up with, this humble plan of mine. I can only combat negativity in my own life, in my own attitude and in my own interactions with other people. What everyone else chooses to do is up to them.
Enjoy Karen’s blog? Karen’s new book, Avalanche of Spirits: The Ghosts of Wellington> is now available. Click here to buy.
www.paranormalunderground.net
Listen live on ZTalkRadio.com, Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. Pacific, or visit us at www.paranormalunderground.net.
In this episode, we talk with Stan Romanek about UFO abduction, his infamous “alien in my window” video, and his new book, Messages.
Air Date: July 22, 2010
Topic: UFOs, Alien Abduction, Paranormal Theory
Guest: Stan Romanek
Hosts: Karen Frazier, Rick Hale
Producer: Cheryl Knight
Also on the air: NWPIA’s Bert Coates, who discusses Paranormal Theory
Posted in Podcasts | 
Tags: paranormal theory, paranormal underground radio, Stan Romanek, ufo abduction | 
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www.paranormalunderground.net
Listen live on ZTalkRadio.com, Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. Pacific, or visit us at www.paranormalunderground.net.
In this episode, we talk about all things paranormal with well-known paranormal investigator and parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach.
Air Date: July 15, 2010
Topic: Paranormal Investigation and Theory
Guests: Loyd Auerbach
Hosts: Karen Frazier, Rick Hale
Producer: Cheryl Knight
Also on the air: Jim Frazier, who discusses Quantum Mechanics
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Tags: Loyd Auerbach, paranormal theory, paranormal underground radio, quantum mechanics |
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by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine
I recently came across something in a shout box on a paranormal group’s website. The group is one that has a regular haunted hangout, and they’ve become somewhat associated with the place even though many other groups investigate the location as well. The message in the shout box was along these lines:
“You’re wasting your time there. The souls there have been released.”
And yet – the groups who go there, psychics who visit there and even visitors to the location not seeking out paranormal activity all continue to have experiences that suggest that the spirits haven’t gone anywhere.
It’s actually an experience I’ve had firsthand. I was once following several paranormal groups all involved in a large group investigation of a location. My job was the same one I’ve had many times before – follow people around and ask questions like a perennial three-year-old. It’s my calling in life, really.
Many of the teams had psychics with them, but one psychic in particular was very theatrical. Derek Acorah theatrical, if you know what I’m saying. She swept through the rooms of the location one after the other telling all of the spirits that as soon as she was done talking with them, she would release them. Then she would proceed to have a one-sided conversation (or at least it sounded one-sided to us) before dramatically sweeping her hands out in front of her in a whooshing motion, when she would dramatically declare that the spirits had been RELEASED!
Taa daa!!!!!
Last I checked, that location has just as much haunting activity as it ever did. Either it’s a fresh new batch of spirits, or there may be a glitch in the whole releasing of spirits system.
Do we humans even have the “power” to release spirits? And if we do, is it our job to do so? I’ve mentioned this before, and it is always a controversial subject. There are many who will tell you that it is absolutely, 100% the responsibility of someone who comes across a spirit to try to help that spirit get to the other side because that spirit is trapped. Others take on a more Prime Directive type of approach – observe, report, don’t interfere.
It’s something I struggled with myself when I first started to encounter what I thought were the souls of the dead. What was my responsibility? Did their communication with me mean that they needed me to do something? Was it my responsibility to help them find the Light and get to it like Jennifer Love Hewitt on that ghost show?
I arrived at my own philosophy in this regard, which I am comfortable with, but which I have been told many times is a cop out. For the record, I don’t feel it is. Want to hear about it? Here’s how it goes….
1. When we encounter something paranormal, we’re not entirely certain what it is that we are dealing with. We have theories, certainly. It definitely could be a human soul. It could be residual energy. It could be a piece of residual energy. Bottom line – while we think we have a definition of “ghost,” it is a working definition at best. I’ve yet to see an infallible scientific explanation that proves that what we experience as ghosts are indeed human souls.
2. Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that ghosts are, indeed, human souls. The entire soul – every piece of the human consciousness that once existed in a body is now floating around in soul form as a ghost. Even if we knew that 100%, would we have a responsibility to “release” that soul? I believe that it is the height of arrogance to say that I know what is best for any soul – ever. I believe that each soul has a path that is unique to that soul. I also believe that I can’t know what another soul’s path is. Hell – I barely know what my soul’s path is. I stumble and thrash around in the dark daily trying to figure that out. So how can I say what the path of another soul is? And if I can’t know another’s path, then how do I know what is best for that soul? How do I know that the soul should be released? I can’t insert my beliefs and will on another soul. To do so is a brashly arrogant way of asserting my belief system onto another.
3. Say that, in spite of the above, I still decide to “release” a soul because I’m feeling an insouciant touch of brash arrogance one day. How do I know how to release the spirit? How do I know that if I do a little soul releasing magic, I won’t actually inadvertently send the soul somewhere else (or send it anywhere for that matter?)
4. This one isn’t mine. My friend, Bert Coates of NWPIA talks about it, and it makes sense to me. How do we even know that the Light is good? It could be a trick! We. Have. No. Clue.
And so – clueless as I am, I’m not comfortable in attempting to try and release a soul or even suggesting that a soul needs to find a way to release itself.
Before those of you who regularly assist souls to the Light get your dander up, please understand this. I know that you do what you do with the best of intentions. If you feel that what you are doing is clearly the right thing for you to do, then by all means get to it. We each have to develop our own personal belief systems and philosophies, and you are just as entitled to yours as I am to mine. I’m merely explaining mine, and I feel that FOR ME to attempt to release a soul, it would be irresponsible and ultimately selfish and arrogant. That doesn’t mean that if you do it you are those things. It means you’ve developed your own way of doing things that works for you.
I was having a conversation with a gentleman just this past weekend. He has some psychic intuition, and I asked him about his philosophy of sending spirits to the Light.
“I would never presume to do something like that,” he told me. “Maybe if a spirit asked me to help them in that way, I would try to see what I could do. But in all my years of doing this, I’ve never had one ask.”
If you enjoy Karen’s blogs, then check out her new book, Avalanche of Spirits: The Ghosts of Wellington, which is now available from Amazon.com.
Listen live at ZTalkRadio.com on Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. Pacific.
We talk with new Ghost Hunters International investigator Scott Tepperman, as well as Ghost Gadget Guy Michael Kravchuk. (We had some technical difficulties during this show, but we stuck it out and ended up having wonderful conversations with Scott and Michael.)
Air Date: July 8, 2010
Topic: Ghost Hunters International, Scott Tepperman, and Ghost Hunting iPad Applications
Guests: Scott Tepperman, Michael Kravchuk
Hosts: Rick Hale, Chad Wilson
Producer: Cheryl Knight
by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine
As EVPs go, this one is pretty quiet. It’s a class B at best, most likely a class C. It’s a whisper, and I’m not fond of whispers unless they are very clear. Good headphones are suggested.
So why am I sharing it with you? For starters, I captured it just last night at Wellington. We spent the evening there with NWPIA and a team from West Coast Ghost Hunters. The guys from WCGH had never been to Wellington before, and it is always a joy to watch others discover what an amazing place Wellington is.
In the EVP, you will hear Jayme ask something about a child and then a whisper. The name that I hear in the whisper is one that has been captured more than once at Wellington – often in conjunction with kids. I’ll post my EVP from last night, and then I’ll post the other EVP I have with the name in it – actually the very first EVP I ever captured at Wellington.
So here’s the whisper from last night:
childname
First Wellington EVP I ever captured with the same name in it:
Do you hear the same name in both? Other investigators have also captured the same name in EVP.
Here’s my question. Did I hear that name in the EVP from last night because I’ve heard it before? Am I recognizing a pattern rather than actually hearing the name? Or is there something to it?
I’d love to hear what you guys think. As always, post your thoughts in comments.
Enjoy Karen’s evidence from Wellington? Check out her book Avalanche of Spirits: The Ghosts of Wellington, which is available from Amazon.com.
Posted in Blog, Evidence of the Week |
Tags: electronic voice phenomena, electronic voice phenomenon, EVP, Wellington |
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