On Sunday, I drove down to New Haven with a friend, to visit my brother in Yale-New Haven Hospital. On the way back one of our favorite places to stop is the Travelers Restaurant & Book Store. It’s right off exit 74, on I-84 in Connecticut on the CT-MA border. I’ve been going there for years.

The interior is dimly lit and the decor still largely stuck in the 70′s. There are shelves lined with good quality donated books and wood paneled walls lined with autographed pictures of famous authors who have visited the restaurant. The food is good, and with a meal you are allowed to take up to 3 used books from the main dining area for free. Downstairs is a small library of inexpensively (mostly) priced used books.

On this day the restaurant only had a couple of patrons. After we finished our meal, my friend and I went downstairs to look around. The room is small and well lit with a low ceiling and is crowded with rough hewn bookshelves, crammed with books.

When we found books we wanted to buy we put them on a holding table at the back of the room and continued browsing. Ten minutes later, I came back to the holding table and noticed my friend sitting on a chair looking miserable. He said, “I’m not feeling too well. I feel sick to my stomach. I’m gonna go to the men’s room.” I said, “Sure thing, I’ll watch your stuff.”

He went upstairs as I looked through my selections on the holding table. Alone in the room, I started getting a nervous feeling at my core; like there was an energy in the air. I looked around for any major electrical conduits, but none were readily evident. I moved away from that area and went down an aisle that was at the front of the room. The nervous feeling went away.

I was looking at books by Peter Benchley and Ramsey Campbell, when I heard something clunking on one of the shelves and then the sound of a book hitting the concrete floor with a slap. I stepped into the main corridor by the exit and with a few strides ascertained that there was no one else in the room with me.

I called out, “Hello? Is there anyone down here?” I received no answer. I noticed a book lying on the floor in the center aisle toward the back of the room by the holding table. I walked down the aisle and picked up the brown leatherback book off the floor. I looked it over and set the book securely back on a shelf. This is not an aisle my friend or I had been down before. This aisle shelves Women Studies, Crafts and Parenting.

As I stood there, I got that nervous energy feeling in my chest. The air seemed somehow thicker. I called out, “If there’s someone down here with me that wanted to get my attention, you got it. If you’re still here, I dare you to do the same thing again.”

I stood my ground for a minute, still feeling the energy, but nothing happened.

I cased the place again to be sure no one else was physically there with me. I then moved forward toward the only exit and continued browsing for books to buy. Not a minute later, I heard a sliding sound, and then a clunking of something tumbling followed by a thud as another book hit the floor.

This time it was at an aisle near the very back of the room in the ‘Classic Literature’ section. This book was also at the end of the aisle near where the holding table is. I picked up the book and shelved it saying, “Okay, I hear you, thanks for letting me know you’re here.”

I heard someone creaking on the stairs and went to check it out. It was my friend coming back down. I asked if he saw anyone go up and said he hadn’t. I asked how he was feeling and he said, “It’s funny, I felt a lot better as soon as I got upstairs. When I went to the bathroom I didn’t have to do anything. When I was down here, I felt like I was going to either puke or crap myself. But I’m fine now.”

My friend is not a believer in the paranormal, but he perked up when I told him about my experiences while he was upstairs. He wanted to keep looking around now that he felt better. A few minutes later I saw him retrieving his books off the holding table and pacing around nervously asking if we could go.

We went back upstairs to pay for our purchases. He paid first and went outside to wait for me. When I was paying I asked the lady behind the counter if anybody ever reports “strange” things when they’re downstairs. She opened her mouth to say something then clamped it shut. A blank look came across her face. She would no longer look me in the face and said in a low monotone voice, “No, not that I’m aware of.” That was the end of it. She took my money and wished me a good day.

Back in the car, my friend said, “I had to get out of there. I got that sick-nervous feeling again when I was down there. As soon as I got upstairs I felt absolutely fine again. Do you think what we experienced could be caused by something paranormal?”

I had a huge grin on my face. For the rest of the trip home we had a very intense and interesting conversation.

With that said, I don’t believe in the commonly stylized versions of angels and demons (or the devil), nor do I subscribe to the commonly held beliefs of heaven and hell. I think nature and people provide all the heaven and hell, good and evil that is out there.

Alternatively, there are different planes of existence and there are positive and negative energies. Simply put there are good places and there are bad places. There are good entities and bad entities. There are also evil entities and places – although thankfully rare.

The bad places have long term energies associated with it where bad things have happened or still happen. If a person was an overall a good person in life, they will be the same when they make the transition to an entity. If a person was an angry, nasty bastard in life they’ll exhibit the same energy as an entity.

If a person was actually evil and twisted when alive, they will be the same as an entity and can be not only fearful, but dangerous. These entities are often associated with demons or the devil. I won’t argue that point as they can be that bad. Dealing with such an entity takes specialized handling by people equipped to deal with it.

Outside of the good, bad and ugly in the spirit world, you also have Elementals. Most people will label them as demons, but they aren’t.

It is widely believed Elementals have never walked the earth in bodily form. They are not human or animal in nature, but a collection of intelligent energy that can appear as a small dark mass or even imitate something of a small humanoid form. As they are as wild and unpredictable as lightning they can be scary. They don’t follow any set rules and tend to be curious by nature.

Because we are not used to how Elementals act their curiosity can be scary or even harmful to us. There’s no protocol or pretense to an Elemental. We take their direct and purposeful actions as being very aggressive.

Nobody seems to know what Elementals truly are. It’s thought they are ancient energies that pre-date mankind. They can inhabit an object, a home, a business or an area of land. On EVP’s they don’t form words. Instead you will hear unrecognizable sounds and even ferocious and unsettling growls. They are not bad or good – they just are.

It’s thought their attitude reflects the place or people around it. Most people act in fear of it and it will be scary. It can brush you, bump you, hit you or even scratch you.

Other people are curious when they see an Elemental and it will in turn approach a person in a curious manner and sort of sniff you out like a dog, to gauge your intent. In these cases it has been reported that an Elemental can seem almost playful, mimicking your movements and actions.

Elementals sometimes seem to mirror the emotional energy of a person who sees or experiences them. It’s as if it reflects the energy you are exhibiting – back at you. If you approach one in an interested and curious manner the Elemental will be curious of you. If you act in fear, they will become something to fear.

The biggest problem of having an elemental in a home is that there’s not much that can be done to make them leave. Something, we as investigators have yet to discover, can prompt them to leave or they can remain for a long time.

To encounter one is pretty rare and can be unnerving. But if you’re a busy investigator your chances of meeting one go way up. If you do, be wary of them. Since they’re aggressive and very forward, try and suppress the feeling of fear and become curious of them and see if the attitude of the elemental becomes curious.

And for goodness sake, don’t challenge or provoke an Elemental. It may just follow you home and then who knows how long you’re stuck with it…

A long time ago when I was very healthy, eating clean and getting plenty of exercise, I was able to astral project consistently.

My experiences were very positive, traveling to where I chose, but mostly to places I knew. Then kids, work and night school came along and I didn’t have an experience for years.

As things again changed I had some odd, unplanned astral experiences that were very short in duration. Recently I had the worst astral experience of my life.

Astral adventurers know that when projecting, our body or an image of it does not follow us along. It is just our consciousness, our energy, but we are able to see and hear without the use of physical eyes and ears.

We see and hear in full three-dimensional color and live sound. In my earlier travels, I have met some people or beings that said they had once been people. The encounters were interesting, but benign.

A few years ago, I got into the field of paranormal investigating. I have had some odd and eye-opening experiences, but nothing bad. There’s a place I know of nearby that is supposed to be very haunted and that the entity is supposed to be nasty.

While in bed a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about this place and how, during an investigation, I would appear unafraid and tough toward the entity. I wasn’t going to let it intimidate me. I was going to do the intimidating.

I went into that in-between awake and sleep phase while thinking about this location. Before long, I felt myself lighten and lift up and speed through space and then stop – in the dark.

I noticed a weak light and went to it and then found myself in a kitchen with a low watt light on over the counter. It looked familiar to me, and then I knew where I was. I quickly made my way through the building, but all the other rooms were dark, the only light coming in from the street.

Soon, I sensed a presence and then heard a beckoning hollow whisper. My gut feeling told me this was paranormal in nature, and I went to see. I’m not afraid of the paranormal so I went without hesitation.

To cut to the chase, I found my way into a large attic of bare wood studs and rough cut floor planks. There was light coming in through a small window from a street light. It showed that the space was mostly empty.

I immediately sensed something large and menacing, but I could not see it. Before I could form another thought or react, I was attacked. There was no pain, just pure abject fear. I felt as though I were being thrown, pushed and repressed and repeatedly struck.

It felt like I was getting hit by powerful waves, one after another. Every time I surfaced to take a breath another wave would push me under. I felt I had no control. I didn’t know what to do. I felt panic begin to rise and I began calling out for “Help”, then it became “Help me!”.

I said it over and over, louder and louder, but the attacks still came. I felt like I was on the floor in a dark corner and was being batted around over and over. I could not find any orientation.

As I yelled for help, I felt a tug that turned into a pulling sensation and felt myself whisked away into another, different darkness. There was a sensation of falling and I was still shouting for help as I sat up in bed.

That experience shook me up pretty good – and it made me mad. I want to get back at whatever came at me, but I’m in no hurry to repeat that experience.

Now I really want to investigate that place and see how that entity deals with me – while I’m in corporeal form.

Bring It On!

Why? Because ghosts are eerie and mysterious and most of all they scared the hell out of me.

Ghosts are almost always portrayed as being the bad guy, as being evil. We’re led to believe ghosts are pissed off because they’re dead and attack the living out of jealousy or to claim their souls. Ah–no.

People need to remember ghosts were once living breathing people – just like us. They had families and celebrations; dreams and experiences. They had mortgages, paid their bills and worked jobs they didn’t like. They had pets and friends and full lives.

Are there what could be called evil sprits? Heck yeah. If a person was warm and caring or a good natured prankster when they were alive, that energy is pretty much the same after they transition. If a person was an ornery bastard in life, or worse, a nasty violent person, then that energy will transfer over after they die. Thankfully there are far fewer of them than the more “normal” energies of people.

You can no more change the energy of an entity any more than you can change the personality of a living person. They are who they are. If you come across a dark or evil feeling entity, it’s best not to bother with them at all. Most of us are not able or equipped to deal with such a being.

How do you know when you find a nasty one? Listen to your gut. You will feel a sense of fear and foreboding, even more than normally. You’ll have a real urge to get the hell out of where you are – listen to it.

Despite what mainstream news shoves in our faces every day, there are thankfully comparatively few truly evil people in society and even fewer wandering around as entities.

For the majority of entities you’ll find some of the following:

• Residual: Most investigators aren’t even sure if this is haunting by an entity at all, but more of a wrinkle in the fabric of time where a particular event plays itself out over and over again with no awareness or intelligence about it at all. The most famous place that plays this out – among many other types of haunts – is at the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania.
• Don’t know they are dead. These type of entities often died very suddenly and don’t know or can’t believe they are dead any more than you or I can. Go ahead, try and convince a friend or family member they’re not really alive, that they’re dead. See how far you get.
• Died suddenly, but have an idea they are dead. Some of them will remain in denial, some you will be able to reason with.
• Know they’re dead, but can’t let go. They have a need to look after their family or their home, or didn’t do something before they died or was waiting for someone to return and are afraid they’ll miss them – even decades later.
• Know they’re dead, but don’t want or know how to move on. These entities, these folks, know they’re dead – will even acknowledge it but either don’t know how to move on or don’t want to as they are afraid of what will happen if they do. Just like living people.

 
When you go on an investigation and do come across an entity, just remember these were people just like your brother, sister, mother, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and other family members. There’s little reason to fear them. Don’t treat them like they’re monsters or they’re evil.

Treat them as you would a friend and treat them with respect. Often they are just trying to reach out to you…

W.F. Meyer

I find it interesting when I meet someone with deep religious beliefs, who think believing in ghosts, is nonsense or just dumb.

I say to them, “When you go to church you learn that god is this all knowing all seeing guy with a long beard, wearing flowing robes, sitting on a throne holding a staff and passing down judgments.”

This usually elicits a “Yeah, kinda – sorta” response.

I then say, “Have you ever seen this version of god – ever? Do you know anyone now living who has?” The honest answer inevitably is “No.”

“So how do you believe he exists?” I ask.

They say, “He exists because he does, because we have faith that he does.”

“So, you buy into this version of god because some guy TOLD you it was this way. He doesn’t provide any sort of proof to show that this description is a matter of fact?” I ask.

I get a variety of evasive answers at this point, and then in frustration they essentially label me an Atheist. I tell them, “I can’t be an Atheist. Atheists by definition don’t believe in the paranormal or an afterlife.”

“Well you don’t believe in god.” They say.

I reply, “No, not in the way you do. My belief is more pure than that. I believe everything evolved from Energy. It is the common connecting force of every thought, every living organism and every object in our world and in the universe.”

“What created energy?” They’ll ask.

“Energy always is, always has been and always will be.” I reply.

“Hey, that’s the description of god.” They’ll say.

“Ta-Dah! Mankind’s inability to grasp the vastness of the concept of energy as the creative force of all things caused them to put a human face to it in order to be able to try and understand it better.”

I usually stop there and don’t go much deeper as they put up walls and get a glazed look in their eye. They’re not ready to even glimpse into that concept let alone grasp it.

They often say, “Well, you believe in what you believe and I’ll believe in what I believe…but mine’s right.” I let that go at that to get to my main point.

I tell them, “There’s a lot of audio, film and photographic evidence that ghosts exist.”

Some will say, “Yeah but you can’t prove they exist in a controlled laboratory environment.”

“That’s true. No more than you can prove that your version of god exists in a controlled laboratory environment.” I reply, and this often stops them in their tracks.

I then ask, “Do you know someone personally who died suddenly or you knew they weren’t ready to go?” Most of us have. “You say the existence of ghosts or an afterlife on earth isn’t real or just dumb. Would you be willing to put your opinion to the test?”

Skeptically they ask, “How are you going to do that? Are you going to have a psychic talk to them, or take a picture of a ghost?”

“No,” I tell them. “Even better. I don’t want you to tell me anything about this person other than their first name. You’ll sit with me in the room they died in or where they spent the most time. I’ll ask a series of questions. Since the human ear isn’t designed to hear below certain levels, you won’t hear anything while I ask the questions, but after I’m done asking the questions I will upload the recordings to a computer and boost the low end of the signals to a range we can hear them. When you hear the answers to the questions, I’ll be interested to see what you think then.”

“It’s that easy? Does it work like that every time?” They ask.

“Oh heck no, not at all. Sometimes we get lucky and make contact the very first time. More often it takes a few tries.”

I then ask. “When you’re alone do you ever get a feeling that someone is there with you, perhaps feel like you’re being watched? Or have you ever entered a room that feels like it’s charged with electricity, or the atmosphere feels heavy and oppressive?”

If they answer that they do, I’ll tell them the chances are pretty good that we might make contact. I also tell them that since I’m a stranger there the presence of them being in the room with me may make it easier to get an entity to talk us.

At this point I have the person’s interest and some are open to giving it a try. But a lot of the times, they don’t want to try. They believe their loved one is in heaven now and if I were to capture a familiar voice on a recorder, it might shatter some comforting beliefs.

Some people are ready to learn and evolve mentally, while others prefer to live in the safe cocoon of denial.

He kept on with the “evil spirits” crap throughout the investigation in the factory that has seen its share of tragedies like an explosion in 1942, that killed seven workers (mostly women) and injured another 80. Many of the EVP’s they caught were of women, and others may be related to a couple of men who had been horrifically killed falling into a smelter.

How and why on earth would he ever want to even remotely suggest that any of these poor unfortunate souls were or are evil? Even when he is referring to a moving dark mass or shadow people, why does he think they are always evil? My experience suggests this isn’t the case at all. It’s just another way some entities manifest.

Oh I know that talking excitedly about “evil spirits” and “demons” appeals to younger and uninitiated viewers and may even boost ratings, but doesn’t Zak feel any sense that he’s compromising his integrity?

During the show there was nothing in their evidence that suggested an evil spirit at all – only some poor people whose lives were ended suddenly and violently.

There was one EVP of a woman asking for help, but as it is will all these paranormal shows, such pleas are always ignored and simply seen as a “cool EVP”.

How much longer are paranormal investigators just going to go around, collect evidence and declare a place haunted – instead of looking for ways to help those that so often ask for it?

After over 3-weeks of writing with any free time I could grab, it got to the point where it wasn’t fun anymore – so I decided to stop. The pull of my other interests were greater than the one to write a horror novel.

As I worked on the novel, it didn’t take me away from watching other horrors like Paranormal State sucking worse with every show and the Ghost Lab’s Klinge brothers excitedly jumping to conclusions – but to their credit, they do go back and replicate and usually find out what they thought was exciting was actually nothing.

I have also been watching TAPS and still enjoy watching Jay, Grant and the crew do what they do and despite Zak’s excitable theatrics, I still watch and enjoy Ghost Adventures.

To complete my weekly fill of things Paranormal, I started watching Ghost Hunter’s Academy. Not so sure I like it. It seems like a paranormal version of the early days of Real World. It is, however, fun watching Steve be a hard-ass.

Over the past weekend, I stumbled upon a show on The Animal Planet (Discovery Channel) called The Haunted. It combines the story of a haunted location, how certain animals react or are involved in it along with evidence footage from paranormal groups that did the investigation. I thought it was pretty good. Definitely worth checking out.

First you have the bozo brigade go to the site of some well-marked unmarked graves in a Louisiana swamp.

Then you have Mr. Lightweight who apparently can’t handle his liquor or a strong cigar and does a lousy job of acting catatonic.

Also Mr. Lightweight really wants you to accept he’s a practiced Voodoo Priest. Uh, no. I’d like to see him act the part of an ordained priest and perform an exorcism – and see what the Catholic Church says about it (not that I believe in any of that stuff).

They supposedly see a person in the woods. They’re lucky it isn’t a group with an illegal pot operation – otherwise we’d never see them again…that might not be such a bad thing.

Then they are digging in a graveyard. Oh sure, A&E would sanction that sort of illegal action.

Next they want you to believe that they actually buried Jason “Chunk” in a huge, conveniently available, yet flimsy pine coffin. Again, I’m sure A&E willingly accepts that sort of liability willingly.

The funniest is when they think they see someone in the woods again and then the dude is falling backwards trying to get away – all the while yelling, “Come back here you son-of-a-bitch”.

In the next episode they’re at the Pinehurst State School in Pennsylvania.

They bring in a Shaman for this one. It starts to get stupid when they put Chunk in a straight jacket in the middle of a circle of lighted candles and toys to summon the dead. Jeez.

The heroes are scared of bats and apparently afraid of ghosts too. Chunk sees a music box start-up on its own and sounds like he’s going to crap himself.

Next they re-create electroshock therapy. In my opinion they needed more voltage.

They didn’t get anything I’d call paranormal. The guy on the electroshock bed had the K-II going off, but he hooked up to a unit providing an electric current. I metal bar did fall over, but proves nothing.

R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps is better.

If I do watch again, it’ll be out of sheer morbid curiosity, like passing a bad car wreck on the interstate.

I’ve watched it more than a dozen times, at different sizes, stopping at key points and checking it out. If this is a fake, it is very clever.

People are coming up to me lately to say how much they enjoy playing the new Atari Ghostbusters video game and expressing hope that a third movie might be made.

Sometimes they ask me, an entertainer, if I think ghosts really could exist. Are ghosts real? And if so what are they made of?

Have I personally ever seen a ghost? Not one. Have I ever felt an unseen presence near me? Damn right. In my bed no less when we lived in Mama Cass’s Hollywood estate.

Read the rest of the article at The Huffington Post