Stephen Wagner: Animals and Ghosts

At About.com, paranormal writer Stephen Wagner has a post about animals and ghosts:Animals and Ghosts. His article reminded me of two animal ghost "dreams" I've had.

Sometimes ghosts and spirits communicate through dreams. I had a dog when I was a teenager -- Hobbit. He was with me until my early twenties, when I had to sadly give him away. A few years later I knew Hobbit had passed. He came to visit me in a "dream." He was running towards me in a swirling tunnel of violet and golden light, and "spoke" to me. Hobbit was very happy, and told me he was grateful for the love I gave him and he was all right; it was just his time to move on.

A couple of years ago I had another dream of a beloved pet. My cat Puck was very old, and we knew he was dying. I sat with him for hours on our front porch, held him in my lap as he let go of life. When I left him on his bed I knew he would pass. He was ill and for years had been in a lot of discomfort. Later that night, I had a dream/vision of Puck being sucked up into a whirling funnel of red and yellow light. Unlike Hobbit's experience, Puck's passing was not easy; he was yowling, angry and in pain, as he went up through the funnel. We buried him in the front yard the next morning.

Ghost in the Hallway - Ghost video

From Paranormal Phenomena on About.com: Ghost in the Hallway - Ghost video

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Trickster's Realm on Binnall of America: Ghost Energies

My latest Trickster's Realm column is now up at Tim Binnall's site:Ghost Energies

I have witnessed voices, manifestations, orbs, and objects moved. Heard sounds (knocks, bangs, etc.) and felt intense cold as well as heat while in haunted locations. I knew during those experiences two things: the experiences were real (of a ghostly origin) and there was a human element. Most of these experiences were benign, but one was very unpleasant. Unhappy and intent on being unwholesome. While creepy and not to be trusted, it was still human in origin. Not a "demon" or some other non-human creature.

However, one incident pretty much literally flipped me out. In a cemetery at night, alone, which was a very stupid thing to do for a number of reasons which should be obvious. I knew the location was a notoriously haunted location, and had been there in the day (with some creepy feelings, felt by others as well as myself.) Why I decided to drive through at night I really have no idea. But I did.

As I came to a stop about the middle of the cemetery, I suddenly felt overwhelmed with negative energies. I didn't see or hear anything, but the feelings were horrible. I felt -- I could "see" the energy even though I couldn't literally see anything, if that makes sense -- as if hundreds of beings were descending on me. It was all so negative, so angry and hateful. This anger and harm was directed towards me, towards anything or one that was in the way. I was being attacked.

Lizzie Borden House and The Dead Files

The Dead Files returned for its new season last Friday; site of the investigation, the Lizzie Borden house. The Lizzie Borden case is fascinating. I've been intrigued by this story for decades. Did she do it? I'm certain she did. And it's a given the place is haunted, that's not debatable. Questions about intent, interactions and overall healthiness of constantly calling up the spirits came to me as I was watching the season opener.

The Borden house is now a bed and breakfast. People come from all over the world to stay there. The owner Lee-ann Wilber seems like an odd duck to me; she was on an episode of Ghost Adventures as well a season or two back. Both times she came across as ... strange. I remarked to someone watching the program with me that it doesn't seem healthy to live in a house like that, or spend a lot of time there. After awhile, I am sure something unwholesome is affecting your psyche. And I wondered about the spirits themselves: it's possible the spirits in that house have been become cranky. (Not to suggest they were ever positive; murder victims, sexual abusers, sadistic and debased individuals, murders, fear, pain, make for oppressive and angry ghosts.) A constant parade of people gawking at the gory supernatural carnival comes through the Borden house.  Who feeds whom? Both no doubt. What is true, what has been fed and created? The owners fuel contact; a ouija board, hidden under a sofa, was found by Amy Allan, the show's medium. Allan told the owners she isn't "anti-ouija" but, in this case, having the board there and making it available to paranormal thrill seekers isn't positive.

As the program pointed out, several years ago it was theorized that Lizzie and her sister were both physically and sexually abused. A very solid theory.

Amy Allan, The Dead Files medium, confirmed my feelings about the spirits in the place. She told the owner of the Borden bed and breakfast that the spirits are "...tired of being contacted" and strongly suggested to the owner she stop being so public. It doesn't look like the owner will; it's a money maker after all. In fact, you can buy a Lizzie Borden bobble head doll and other items from the bed and breakfast/museum site. And soon to come, according to their website, will be ghost cams. Oy.

Difficulties in Spirit Communication Explained | Michael Tymn blog on White Crow Books

Michael Tymn writes about paranormal researchers and mediums in the early 1900s and their experiences with what the spirits had to say about the difficulties of coming through.(Difficulties in Spirit Communication Explained | Michael Tymn blog on White Crow Books) As Tymn points out, skeptics love to use this very difficultly and its aftermath (supposed vague impressions, partial information, etc.) as proof there is no such thing as life after death, ghosts, and psychics. Tymn's article gives shares a few highly interesting offerings from those who have passed on. Tymn relates a few of these messages; here is a sampling:

Myers was just beginning to better appreciate the obstacles that spirits face in their attempts to communicate. “Tell them I am more stupid than some of those I deal with,” he continued as he struggled to remember the last time he had seen Lodge. He mentioned that he could not remember many things, not even his mother’s name. He went on to say that he felt like he was looking at a misty picture and that he could hear himself using Thompson’s voice but that he didn’t feel as if he were actually speaking. “It is funny to hear myself talking when it is not myself talking,” he went on. “It is not my whole self talking. When I am awake I known where I am.”


After Dr. Richard Hodgson, another researcher, died in 1905, he began communicating through the mediumship of Leonora Piper, the Boston medium he had studied for 18 years. “I find now difficulties such as a blind man would experience in trying to find his hat,” the surviving consciousness of Hodgson told Professor William Newbold in a July 23, 1906 sitting. “And I am not wholly conscious of my own utterances because they come out automatically, impressed upon the machine (Piper’s body)…I impress my thoughts on the machine which registers them at random, and which are at times doubtless difficult to understand. I understand so much better the modus operandi than I did when I was in your world.”

"Spirit Intrusion"

While relating the ghost encounters at work, someone referred to the ghost as a "spirit intrusion." I had never heard that term before. I wanted to ask this person about it but the situation wasn't right. "Spirit intrusion." From the brief on-line searching I did, it seems to be a term or concept related to Shamanism and the chakras. Here it's described, not in terms of ghosts, but a physical ill within one's body. 

Here's something (scroll down a bit) concerning some Native American traditions. Like the above, it concerns the physical body and ills, with spirit and souls being the invasive cause.

While I'm unfamiliar with this concept of "spirit intrusion" I'm not so sure the ghost in this case is a case of what a colleague said about spirit intrusion. I think this person meant all ghosts are "spirit intrusions" and I'm not sure really what she meant. I had the feeling she believes all "ghosts" are manifestations of unease that are heavily tied in with the observer. If I get the opportunity I'd like to discuss this and find out more with this person. In the meantime, this is a new and interesting path to explore.

Experts confounded by the 'ghost' of Guildford - News - getsurrey

Apparition, or just fog and light? (Or, intentionally faked image?)Experts confounded by the 'ghost' of Guildford - News - getsurrey It looks too structured, too human or bipedal to be of a natural source. And it did appear in a place where reports of a ghostly figure have been seen from time to time.