The Essential Science of Ghost Hunting: Two Sleep Anomalies Investigators Should Understand

By Robin M. Strom-Mackey
“What I came across were two completely normal occurrences of sleep that could explain a great number of the strange reports, and at the very least calm the nerves of quite a few clients along the way.“
She knew that the dark man was in the house. She could hear the front door opening and the quiet footsteps on the stairs. Any moment now the intruder would be in her room. She needed to get up, she needed to get the bat from under the bed or the phone off the dresser. She needed to hide. She could hear those footsteps getting closer and closer. Her heart was racing, her hands shaking, and then she saw the dark form in the doorway….

The next moment she was awake and still sure the intruder was there. The dream had felt so real. However, in a panic she found that she could not move, not one inch. What was wrong with her? Was there something or someone holding her down?

As fearful as this scenario was for me, I realized later that the experience I had was actually a very normal function of dreaming. I’ve come across numerous reports from people claiming they had experienced paranormal phenomenon during the night while they were asleep, and have actually experienced some strange phenomenon I myself couldn‘t account for, until doing some research into the science of sleep. What I came across were two completely normal occurrences of sleep that could explain a great number of the strange reports, and at the very least might calm the nerves a few clients along the way.
Hypnagogic Hallucinations

You’re settling in for the night, just drifting off to sleep and then suddenly you hear your name called. Realizing you’re all alone you wake up frenzied. You swear you just had a visitor from beyond call your name. However, it’s more likely you experienced a hypnagogic hallucination. These strange little “dream” sequences occur in the first stage of sleep (NREM 1). In other words, a sleeper is likely to experience them within the first 20 minutes of settling in for the night, which can cause the illusion that they are that much more real.

Indeed in the first stage of NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement sleep) a subject isn’t even technically asleep. At this point they also are not technically dreaming, according to sleep researchers. Dreaming is a function of REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep). Sleepers don’t actually enter the REM state until 70-120 minutes after falling asleep. Whether technically asleep and dreaming or not, however, sleepers can experience these odd little dream states called hypnagogic hallucinations. These are in effect, “odd, but vividly realistic sensations,” or strange little hallucinations that can feel quite real to the sleeper (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2010). For example, a sleeper might hear someone call their name, or have a sensation of falling, floating or flying, according to the authors. These can feel shockingly real, and can even cause the sleeper to jerk awake. While strange, these hallucinations are quite normal to the sleep cycle.
Sleep Paralysis

Another quite normal experience is sleep paralysis. This usually occurs later in the sleep cycle, normally during a REM period of sleep. As stated earlier REM (rapid eye movement sleep) is when a sleeper is technically dreaming. During this period the brain waves of sleepers accelerate to that of a waking person. The eyes of the sleeper move back and froth rapidly behind closed lids. Blood pressure and heart rate can fluctuate rapidly. Muscles often twitch uncontrollably. We are in effect locked effectively in the dream state actively participating in our own little fantasies. It is during REM while our minds are so actively engaged that our bodies go into a state of sleep paralysis. In other words, our bodies become immobile to the demands of our brains. There is undoubtedly a very sound physiological reason behind this phenomenon. If our bodies reacted to our brains while soundly asleep and dreaming we might end up flailing or falling, or otherwise hurting ourselves or others. Our brains therefore impose this paralysis on our bodies to protect us from ourselves. If, however, the sleeper is startled awake, as in the first scenario, she will awake to find herself quite unable to move. They will most likely remain paralyzed for a half a minute or more, before normal movement again becomes possible. It should be noted, too, that some subjects can experience sleep paralysis when first awakening in the morning. Again, this is a perfectly normal function of sleep, that can however, cause distress to the unaware.
References
Hockenbury, D.H., Hockenbury, S.E. (2010) Psychology; 5^th Edition. Worth Publishers: New York, NY.

Part III: The Current Debate - The Electro Chemical Impulses of the Body

See Part I: The Current Debate: AC/DC Current under May 2010 heading
See Part II: The Current Debate: How Electricity Works at the Atomic Level under July 2010 heading

Part III The Current Debate: The Electro-Chemical Impulses of the Body

By Robin M. Strom-Mackey

"Thus the body utilizes DC power, electro-magnetic energy that moves in a straight line and not in waves – like AC power. "

Electricity in our bodies is different from the household current you use when you run your television or charge your cell phone. Electrical impulses in the body are a much more complicated electro-chemical reaction which utilizes ions versus electrons in order to send its signals.

Neural Impulses in our body run along our millions of nerve cells directing everything from digestion to muscle movement. The gray matter in your skull (and the white matter, for that matter) is clusters of nerve cells which send electro-chemical impulses from one part of the brain to another. Other nerve cells run down our spinal column and nerve cells run all the way out to our feet and hands, (the nerve cell that runs to your big toe is literally around 4 feet long) creating a two-way communication system from all parts of our body to our brain and back. As you do your Algebra homework, or try to figure out this article you’re using your nerve cells, also called neurons, which are processing information and sending out directions constantly.

Unlike the electrical current that is running through your computer, which utilizes electrons to do its dirty work, the body uses ions to send its signals from neuron to neuron. Ions, as you recall are the entire atom of an element that has either gained or lost an electron. Because of this loss or gain of an electron, or two, the entire atom is either positively or negatively charged. In the case of our bodies these ions are what creates the electrical-chemical impulses that keep our brain functioning and our bodies moving. These ions move about in and out of nerve cells, also called a neuron. As these ions move in and out of the cell they change the electrical charge of the cell. If you recall from your time as a youngster playing with magnets, the positive end of the magnet will attract the negative end of another. But try to put two positives together, or two negatives, and they repulse or push away from one another. This concept is essential to the way electricity functions both in your body and out. Essentially the body uses the positive ions (mainly sodium and potassium ions) to generate its electric charge. When at rest, the neuron body is slightly negative due to the large amounts of potassium (K-) ions in the cell – which are negatively charged. The space outside the neuron cell body is surrounded by sodium ions (Na+)  and the space is positively charged. When the nerve cell is stimulated enough, channels open along the outer walls of the cell. The sodium ions, which are positive, rush into the cell because they’re attracted to the negative charge of the potassium ions (K-).

A nerve impulse depends on an electro-chemical reaction to occur to actually start a nerve impulse. If a stimulus is strong enough at the receiving end of a neuron, called a dendrite, a neuron will send a neural impulse called an action potential. When the stimulus reaches the threshold, (i.e. when it’s a strong enough stimulus to warrant action) channels, in effect doorways, along the neuron cell body open up and sodium ions begin to flood into the cell body. During an action potential the cell body becomes positively charged and the area outside the cell body becomes negatively charged. The action potential moves along the neuron cell body to the end. Once the impulse has passed, the neuron resets itself, essentially pushing the sodium ions back out and pulling potassium ions back into the cell until it reaches its initial resting state. Once a neuron fires it cannot fire again until it has reset itself –which is known as the refractory period. An action potential runs in a straight line and in only one direction – it does not double back on itself. Once started it does not stop until it reaches the end of the neuron at the axon terminal. Thus the body utilizes DC power, electro-magnetic energy that moves in a straight line and not in waves – like AC power.

A neuron - The branches off the green neuran body are the dendrites, the receiving end of the neuron. A stimulus detected here generates an action potential which moves through the cell body and down the long axon (shown in red) out the axon terminals at the bottom.

Now neuron cells don’t actually connect to one another. At the end of the neuron – the axon terminal - the action potential stops because it’s hit the end of the road. Between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of the next neuron cell is a small empty fluid filled area that must be breached in order for the action potential to continue on its merry way to the next neuron cell. This fluid filled cleft is called a synapse or synaptic cleft. As the action potential hits the end of the axon, small pouches which hold chemicals, referred to as neurotransmitters, are motivated to spill their chemicals out of the neuron cell body and into the synaptic cleft. As these chemical atoms spill out they drift through the cleft over to the dendrite of the next neuron, where they attach to docking stations – called receptor sites - on the dendrite, causing this neuron to begin the action potential in the new neuron.

Neurotransmitters, by the way are very much like keys and receptor sites on the dendrite of the next neuron like a locked door. You need the correct key (chemical) to open the door. Remember the last time you forgot which key was to which lock, so you had to try all the different keys. Some may seem to fit as they slip them into the lock, but try to turn the knob and it just won’t work. Neurotransmitters work exactly the same way. Just the right chemical key and the dendrite is excited, sodium ions begin to flood in and an action potential is generated in the next neuron. Try the wrong key (neurotransmitter) and the neuron doesn’t fire. As complicated a process as this appears to be, a neuron can do all this in a fraction of a second.
 

You may be asking at this point why our neurons don’t use electricity versus this complicated electro-chemical process. The answer is that we do actually have some neurons that fire with electrical impulses – and yes it sends impulses faster. But 99% of our neurons use the action potential impulse, and movement of ions in and out of the neuron cell bodies to move impulses along.

References

Hockenbury,D.H., Hockenbury, S.E., (2010) Psychology 5^th Edition. Worth Publishers: NY, New York.

Malone, L.J, Dolter, T.O. (2010). Basic Concepts of Chemistry; Eighth Edition. Wiley and Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ

Marieb, E.N., Hoehn, K. (2009) Human Anatomy and Physiology; Eighth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.: San Francisco, CA.

Physics: Electric Current Through Various Media Downloaded July 2, 2010 from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_current

2010 heading

Part II: The Current Debate

See Part I: The Current Debate under the May 2010 heading

See Part III: The Current Debate -The Electro Chemical Impulses of the Body under the July 2010 heading

Part II: The Current Debate

How Electricity Works at the Atomic LevelBy Robin Strom-Mackey

I started this project with a couple of different, seemingly simple goals in mind. To figure out how electricity works so that I could figure out what EMF detector to buy; so that I could more effectively hunt ghosts! Oh sure, it sounds simple. Little did I know that my simple premise would take me on a monumental quest through the pursuit of so many disciplines in order, only now, to start being able to connect the dots. The obvious place to start this search was in Ghost Hunting manuals, but while they offered a recommendation or two about models, not one of my fellow, yellow-bellied authors provided any real explanation as to how they worked, or why one model might be preferable over another. Since then I’ve perused chemistry textbooks to figure out how the atom works; Anatomy and Physiology texts to find out how electrical impulses worked in the body; Psychology texts, where I learned for the first time about how closely related all electro-magnetic energy really was; technology sites where I studied how household current works and why it’s different from DC current, which is the current in your cell phone battery or flashlight.

In this second article in my series I’ll explain the composition of the atom, how the atom works to create electricity, and how electricity actually works in the human body. In other words, this article is likely not only to excite your inner geek, but to have her braying Handel’s Messiah. So strap on the thinking caps, ghost hunters, because we’re goin in!

Ah, the Atom

I know, at this point you’re wondering, "if I’m not a chemist or biologist, why would I possibly care about the makeup of the atom?" (Or maybe you’re wondering, what in the bloody, blue blazes an atom even is?) The reason I discuss the atom at all, is because it all  starts from here. I will be brief and make this as painless as possible. So here goes. A working definition of an atom is that an atom is the smallest unit of an element that displays the properties of that element. So, for example, an atom of aluminum would be the smallest unit of aluminum you could have that would still display the properties of aluminum.

All matter is composed of atoms, and until recently, they were believed to be the smallest particles of matter. (Quantum physicists now believe the atom can be broken down further, but that’s a discussion for a different day.) Atoms are so tiny that you really can’t see them even with the strongest microscope. The atom itself is comprised of three particles, protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons are fairly large, (by atomic standards – which is to say that they’re really tiny) and fairly heavy and all protons have a positive charge. Neutrons are also rather heavy and all neutrons have a neutral charge – or no charge at all. Now the protons and the neutrons are fond of one another, and they reside in close proximity at the center of the atom which is called the nucleus.

Think of a baseball in the center of a football field. That baseball is the nucleus of the atom, residing in the center of the atom with all that space around it. And that space is inhabited by another type of particle, the electron. Electrons are small, light weight particles with a negative charge. They literally whir around the rest of the football field, pinging and poinging all over. Remember how magnets work, the positive end of the magnet is attracted to the negative end of another. Atoms work like magnets. The positive protons at the nucleus are what attract and hold the negative electrons which otherwise would just dance off into space.

Atoms prefer having a balanced charge. In order to be balanced the protons and the electrons are equal in number. For example, hydrogen, the lightest element, has one proton and therefore one electron; the positive proton being balanced by the negative electron. But, if everything were this simple and balanced we wouldn’t have electro-magnetic energy at all, nor would life be possible. So what happens to disturb the balance?

 

Well, it comes down to those pesky electrons. The electrons dancing around in the football field of our atom reside in what are called electron shells. The shells hold a certain number of atoms only, and according to how many electrons are in the electron shell (or cloud) determines how balanced an element truly is. Think of an apartment building with floors as an example of shells. The first floor (shell) has only one apartment and can house only two residents (electrons). Thus the first electron shell, the one closest to the nucleus, can hold up to 2 electrons. The second shell (or second floor of our atomic apartment building) can hold up to, and no more than 8 electrons.

Atoms are balanced when they have the maximum number of electrons in their electron shells, 2 in their innermost shell, 8 in their second shell or third shell. Therefore, hydrogen is extremely unbalanced because it only has one electron in its electron shell, instead of two. But helium, which has 2 protons and therefore 2 electrons, is extremely stable. In fact helium with its outer shell of 2 electrons won’t react with any other type of element – period. It’s one stable dude.

This carbon atom has 2 electrons in its innermost shell (first floor), but only 4 in its outer shell (second floor), thus it isn't stable (i.e. the super is looking to rent those other four apartments).

So what happens to atoms of elements that aren’t quite  stable? Well, those electrons whirring about their football field in an unbalanced number can do a couple of different things. If the electrons of an unbalanced element, such as hydrogen, meets up with another element that is unbalanced such as oxygen with its outer rings of 2 and 6, (remember oxygen really wants 8 electrons in its second shell, so it’s looking for two more electrons) they might agree to share an electron between them.

Now oxygen would have 7 electrons in its outer ring, so it’s still not happy - until it finds yet another hydrogen atom with whom to share an electron. Voila, we have a water molecule, where the oxygen atom is balanced with 8 in its second shell and the two hydrogen atoms are happy and balanced as well with 2 electrons a piece in their first shells. This is what is referred to as a covalent bond. Covalent bonds are very strong bonds, because the elements involved are all completely balanced. Water is an extremely balanced compound, those hydrogen and oxygen atoms just love to hang around together in the form of H2O. - which is short hand for saying 1 oxygen and 2 hydrogen atoms.

 

But sometimes this balancing act doesn’t go as well as that. Sometimes an atom with a positive charge will seduce an electron completely away from its nucleus. An ion, by the way, is an atom that has lost or gained an electron or electrons. It can go both ways. An atom can lose an electron or two in which case the atom takes on a positive charge – because now the protons outnumber the electrons.

Atoms can also acquire more electrons, so that the electrons outnumber the protons, in which case an atom would take on a negative charge. Atoms that are positively or negatively charged tend to be attracted to one another. They will hang in close proximity forming an ionic bond. But just like the dating couple that just can’t quite make it work, ionic bonds are loose bonds that can be dissolved pretty easily under the right circumstances.

 

Electrons are flighty creatures and can be induced to flit from one atom to another, to another to another. This is what we refer to as electricity. Electricity is defined as “the flow of electrons through a conductor (Malone & Dolter, 2010).” Metals make terrific conductors, in other words it’s not too difficult to get the electrons to move along from atom to atom via a metal element. Think of the wires in your house, encased by the outer plastic layer (plastic does not conduct electricity) is a metal wire.

 

“As George Gamow put in his science-popularizing book, One, Two, Three...Infinity (1947), "The metallic substances differ from all other materials by the fact that the outer shells of their atoms are bound rather loosely, and often let one of their electrons go free. Thus the interior of a metal is filled up with a large number of unattached electrons that travel aimlessly around like a crowd of displaced persons. When a metal wire is subjected to electric force applied on its opposite ends, these free electrons rush in the direction of the force, thus forming what we call an electric current (Wikipedia, 2010)."

 

So when these wandering, feckless electrons are given a push they move from one metal atom to another, to another…down the wire. At the end of their journey into whatever device the wire runs, these tiny electrons expend their energy by lighting a light bulb or running the dryer. In order for electricity to work there needs to be a non-interrupted track (circuit) through which the electrons flow and they need a push to get going. If you for instance break the flow, say you flip off the light switch, the circuit is interrupted.

Electrons will stop flowing when an interruption occurs. In the case of a battery, the push comes from electrons moving away from the negative pole of the battery toward the positive pole of the battery. When all the electrons have been pushed through, the battery is dead. In the case of the electricity in your house, the push comes through by way of the electric generator – which was discussed in Article I. Your household electricity is running along the circuit to the ground wire, which is its positive pole. Remember our negative electrons are always seeking out more positive company with whom to hang.

Now a word to the wise. I've grossly condensed and simplified my atomic explanation of how electrons flow to create electricity because most of us are ghost hunters, not electrical engineers (although I ghost hunted for awhile with an electrical engineer (who would in all honestly probably break out in hives at my simplistic explanations). But there it is in an atomic shell, electricity is nothing but feckless electrons movin on down the road.

References

 

Hockenbury,D.H., Hockenbury, S.E., (2010) Psychology 5^th Edition. Worth Publishers: NY, New York.

Malone, L.J, Dolter, T.O. (2010). Basic Concepts of Chemistry; Eighth Edition. Wiley and Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ

Marieb, E.N., Hoehn, K. (2009) Human Anatomy and Physiology; Eighth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.: San Francisco, CA.

Physics: Electric Current Through Various Media Downloaded July 2, 2010 from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_current

After Death Communications

Tea Party for Two; Why It's important to Commune with the Dead

By Robin M. Strom-Mackey

"1 in 6 people experience some type of ADC (After Death Communication) during their lives, making the study of ADC experiences seem all that more important by sheer numerical volume."

It was at my father’s funeral that a long-time friend gave me what turned out to be a truly touching present, a used, somewhat dog-eared book about After Death Communications (ADC). Having been in the paranormal field for a couple of years, I’ve greedily read and spoken to anyone I could that might feed me information about the paranormal. But this book about After Death Communications - or ADC’s - was truly different from the paranormal researcher’s point of view, because it wasn’t written from a paranormal investigator’s point of view.

I can admit that I had never heard the term ADC used before in the paranormal field. I was rather astounded therefore to find that this is a field of study being undertaken, not by parapsychologists but a rogue few in the field of grief counseling, who are using the emerging evidence not to prove or disprove the after death experience, but to use the ADC to help the grieving cope with the hard work of building a new life after loss.

The Society for Psychical Research had spent an insurmountable amount of time in the 1880’s, studying what they labeled Crisis Apparitions. One of the founding fathers of the SPR, Edward Gurney, wrote a two volume set on Crisis Apparitions, entitled Phantasms of the Living. F.W.H. Myers author of the classic book Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death, felt that Crisis Apparitions, apparitions of the deceased that were witnessed  twelve hours before or after bodily death, were the release of the human consciousness from the body.  Myers decided, however, that such events did not necessarily indicate the survival of the soul after death. Other of his associates thought that telepathy or ESP was involved, the living being invoked to have a telepathic experience with the dying with the crisis as instigator. 

But what about an experience among the living and the dead that occurs weeks, months or sometimes years after death? These are much harder to explain as telepathic messages floating about in the ether. Skeptics quite obviously explain them as imaginary constructs. There are reported occurrences, however, where ADC’s have been witnessed or experienced by more than one person at the same time, making fabrication or imagination harder yet to dismiss.

Louis LaGrand in Messages and Miracles was one of the first to research and write on the subject of ADC’s which encompasses Crisis Apparitions, but also experiences that occur a quite some time after death - sometimes several years after death. The experiences range from strong evidence such as the sighting of a full body apparition to rather weaker evidence of interpreting a “sign.” What makes this subject significant are the great number of people who claim to have had an experience. LaGrand cites one study that suggests 1 in 6 people experience some type of ADC during their lives, making the study of ADC experiences seem all that much more important by sheer numerical volume.

The most often reported ADC was the dream visitation, where the grieving party dreamt of the deceased. The ADC dream is usually unlike dreams people normally report in the fact that the ADC dream is usually extremely vivid in the recall. While everyone dreams, few of us can recall in any detail what we dreamt. Adversely the ADC is usually relatable by the dreamer, often down to what the participants were wearing in the dream and what was said. The author suggests that the dream state makes a natural palette for the ADC experience, speculating that in sleep a dreamer is more conducive to psi phenomenon (ESP) as the mind is being directed by the unconscious.

Experiences involving symbols are a common occurrence. The person will report an experience, often with nature, that doesn’t seem to fit with the normal. For example a certain flower will grow in the garden that was the favorite flower of the deceased, and hadn’t been planted there on purpose. In other cases an object will be found that was of significance to the deceased, often just as the grieving party is asking for just such a sign. In other cases something will suddenly start to work that hadn’t operated before, and therefore shouldn’t be working. Clocks and music boxes fall into this category quite often. More markedly they will often work for a short while and then never run again. The symbolic experience is interpreted as being a sign from the deceased.

Olfactory experiences, where people report smelling an odor distinct to the deceased are also reported. It should be pointed out that our sense of smell is actually based in our reptilian brain stems, the most ancient and primitive portion of our brains. The sense of smell evokes instant and deep-seated emotions, often under the radar of our conscious minds. Take the painter I met in Beaufort, South Carolina who told me the story about her ADC that occurred to her when she was alone. Sitting in a chair in her living room suddenly she began to smell her Grandmother’s perfume. Her grandmother had of course been dead for quite a few years at the time, but she was distinctly smelling her Grandmother‘s scent in the room. The ordeal unnerved the painter so much that she literally fled the house, though she admitted that Grandmother had probably only been pay a visit. The woman also told me that her sister had reported a similar experience where she too had smelled the deceased’s perfume.

The why of ADC is variable as well. Some seem to occur to help with the grieving process, I.e. Dad stopping by to tell Mom he’s OK. According to other accounts, sometimes they seem to happen to appease the desires of the departed, like Grandma stopping by to see the new baby, born after she passed. Still others happen during a crisis moment in the life of the living, where the departed makes an appearance in order to be of assistance - as in the story below. In other words the experiences, their time table and the messages behind them are extremely unpredictable and individual. These experiences are different from the traditional haunting in the fact that they occur once or perhaps a couple of times, but then stop.

Bill a troubled youth was doing poorly at school and strung out on drugs. At one point he decided to commit suicide. At the time he was living with his mother and grandfather. Bill’s grandmother had died a couple of years earlier. On the day Bill decided to end his own life he reports that he went down in his grandparent’s basement where he intended to hang himself from a rafter. He started to string up the rope, when he looked at the basement steps where he saw his grandmother motioning to him. Using hand gestures, Bill didn’t report actually hearing her say anything to him, she indicated that he shouldn’t do this. He took the rope down.

Recalling the stories I had collected over the years from family, friends and acquaintances I started to realize that, actually the vast majority of “ghost stories” I had gathered were actually ADC’s. They’re simple and rather homespun in the telling, and I’m guessing most families have their own share of strange stories. It’s the time my Dad knew the phone call was to tell us that Grandmother had died. Or the time my husband reports feeling very down and just knowing suddenly that his departed sister was with him. A former student recalled the morning after her father’s funeral, waking up on the couch in the family room and seeing her dad making up the fire - just as he had always done. They are what they are, stories, unverifiable for the most part., intriguing but not reliable. Indeed, many, if not most, are based merely on gut feelings.

The value of the ADC is that it is personally gratifying to the person left behind. Directly after the ADC most report feeling relieved, happy…even euphoric For many, ADC experiences can literally shorten the grieving process and make loss easier. The ADC is often the springboard into a new relationship between the living and the dead. According to Alexandra Kennedy, Psychotherapist, in her book Your Loved One Lives on Within You, many people develop an internal relationship with their departed loved ones. Kennedy reports that “’many people are surprised to discover the deceased takes for granted that the relationship [with the living] is ongoing.’ That is a powerful force in the coping process. The pivotal factor in structuring the ongoing relationship is the imagination. Reaching the presence within demands a commitment to express deep feelings, to listen, be open and to use dreams as a springboard to inner communication. Developing the inner relationship is not difficult to manage and often results in the belief that direct contact has been made.”

While there is no evidence that contact has occurred, those who have made a practice of internal, imaginative communication feel the new relationship is, “real [my emphasis] and comforting.” At the very least, LaGrange admits, “internal communications ‘attests to the fact that our loved one lives on within us.’”

Paranormal investigators who are in the field because they’re skeptical should tread lightly in the area of ADC’s. For those thirsting for scientific evidence, the ADC can seem the worst of the “touchy-feelies.” However, the real value of the ADC experience is not in the advancement of the paranormal field, but rather in the good it does for the grieving. To be specific, you may interpret the dream your Mom had about your Dad as a fabrication of her unconscious mind under duress. Criticizing her dream, however, is to undo all the potential good it did her in the dreaming. In the case of ADC’s, the significance lies not in the verifying, but in the fact that those who experienced it believe it, and very often the believing is a delicate construct which will not stand up to scrutiny.

I had my own ADC a couple of months after my father died. We were a close family and the separation for all of us was excruciating. It had been a particularly grim day, but no grimmer than others I had had in the recent past. I dreamt that night of my father, but it was vivid. If I’d dreamt of my father since his death I have no recollection. But this dream was clear as if we were two people sitting in a room together. My father was showing me his new stereo system in the dream. My father had custom built stereos and television systems as a career, so it was just like him to be showing off a new system. And the fact that I got the receiver stuck on the Cubs game fit as well. Dad had been an avid baseball fan, though I personally have no interest in the sport. I woke up feeling better than I had in many months…euphoric even…as if Dad had actually come for a visit. I couldn’t wait to share my experience with my loved ones.

My husband took a different approach. He made a joke of it, after which I felt both devastated and embarrassed. Luckily, having read fairly heavily in the area I was able to recognize the experience for what it was, and to explain to my husband that his criticism was out of place.

So, do I really think my father had returned from the grave to visit me in my dreams? I don’t know. Did I feel like he was there visiting me in my dreams? Yes, and it had made me feel happier than I had in a long time. Did it make our separation easier to bear? Unequivocally, yes. Whether it was a construct of my unconscious or an actual visit from my father, the pain was lessened by the experience, and in the consequent memory of the event…after I told my husband not to steal my thunder. And therein lies the real value of the ADC.

Resources
La Grand, Louis Messages and Miracles: Extraordinary Experiences of the Bereaved.

Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul Minnesota. 1999

Other Readings in the Area of ADC’s

Devers, Edie. Goodbye Again

Guggenheim, Bill, Judy. Hello From Heaven

Kastenbaum, Patricia Romanski-. Is There Life After Death: A Scholarly Approach
Kennedy, Alexandra Your Loved One Lives On Within You

Martin, Joel Love Beyond Life

Morse, Melvin. Parting Visions

The Politics of Evidence Review

The Politics of Evidence Review:

Some Ideas as to how to make Evidence Review More Equitable For All But the Owls

By Robin M. Strom-Mackey

"Tom presented the clients with what he thought might be an EVP. The sound on the tape was eerie to be sure. But the clients insisted, that while eerie, the sound was really an owl that had apparently made it’s home there. Tom hedged. He didn’t want to admit that the sound was natural. After all, he had a vested interest in that owl…that owl was his evidence."

Scenario: You investigate with your group in an eerie building. The floors creak, strange noises occur overhead. Squeaky floors and pipes? Probably. Maybe you even get a couple of light anomalies on your photograph. During evidence review you find with a couple of faint noises on the voice recorders. They’re quiet and indistinguishable, and leave you scratching your head as to whether they might be valid, or if one of the investigators was actually whispering near the voice recorder?

In other words, it’s the usual ghost hunt, the vast majority of which leaves the group with evidence so ambiguous it undoubtedly makes you wonder why you bother with all the hours you put in, and what you’re going to tell the client who, fed by too many television programs boasting amazing results, is salaciously awaiting your every shred of evidence.

Who decides that an owl is an owl is an owl?

In my own group, evidence review became somewhat of a power struggle. When our second director (in a year) stepped down a new director, we’ll call him Tom for anonymity’s sake, was chosen from the among the ranks. Tom volunteered his services because he was single and had the time to commit. He, sadly, had no more expertise than anyone else in the group. Put in a rather unenviable position he quickly learned to overcome his lack of expertise with what I took to be a blustery, false bravado.

Almost immediately, I started to feel that the evidence that I gathered, sometimes extremely strong evidence, was downplayed or dismissed out of hand. Evidence that he collected or was involved with, however, seemed to be taken for gospel.

During one investigation, two female investigators and I were doing a session in a kitchen when suddenly a large bang resounded through the room. Once we had managed to pull our hearts out of our throats, we investigated the source of the noise. Because it had sounded like a door slamming, we went across the hall, where upon entering the kitchen we had noticed three doors standing open. Thinking one of these doors had slammed shut in a breeze, we were all rather astounded to find all three doors still open.

It should be noted that Tom, directly after the bang, insisted on a thorough search of the grounds. He was convinced that the investigation had been compromised. A search of the area did not however, turn up any evidence of tampering. Tom also made it a point to question the park rangers on duty, very nearly accusing them outright of false play. At the time I was mortified by what I felt was a terrible breach of etiquette. Later, I began to think that it was probably best to check and double check the authenticity of the event to the best of our abilities, and to do so while the gun was still smoking, as it were.

What was really interesting about the bang was that two other investigation groups on previous investigations (one being TAPS) a similar big bang, leading me to postulate that the sound was residual and occurred rather frequently. I thought it was an astounding piece of evidence, especially as two other groups had noted the same phenomenon. Sadly, the rest of the group, or Tom at least, disagreed with my summation.

Months afterwards I heard the incident referred to by Tom and his assistant as, “the time the door slammed shut.” They had not only discounted my findings, and ignored the evidence, but they’d managed to fabricate an explanation in the intervening time. To add insult to injury, Tom later said in a newspaper interview, that the evidence we’d gotten on the investigation was not strong, and he was still waiting for his “smoking gun.”

At the reveal for this same investigation, Tom presented the clients with what he thought might be an EVP. The sound on the tape was eerie to be sure. But the clients insisted, that while eerie, the sound was really an owl that had apparently made it’s home there. Tom hedged. He didn’t want to admit that the sound was natural. After all, he had a vested interest in that owl…that owl was his evidence.

What is Revealed and Who Should Decide?

After all the evidence is gathered, someone or perhaps a vaunted group of elite someone’s will have to make the final decision as to what is presented to the client. It’s that razor’s edge between presenting something evidential and not wanting to look like a pack of superstitious fools. Obviously what you reveal, and who makes those decisions are questions of some importance to both the reputation of the group and the desires of the client.

When I started writing this article the two questions I wanted to address was the 1) who decides and the 2) what should be presented. I quickly decided that the what of evidence review was too vast for just one short article, and was strongly dependent on the personality of the group itself. For example, certain groups on the scientific end of the spectrum would probably contend that anything not completely scientific be thrown out. American Association of Parapsychology member and avid ghost hunter, Dr. Clinton L. Vick suggested in an interview that no EVP’s other than Class A’s should ever be presented to a client. While investigators may collect any number of Class C or even B EVP’s, the Class A is a rather rare event, and therefore the presentation to clients of an EVP of that category is rare as well. This may be an approach for only the most serious of groups. Other groups take a markedly softer approach to investigating. I realized that what I was really interested in discussing was not what was presented, but who decided what was presented and how they came to that decision.

In my perusal of the literature of ghost hunting, I found shockingly little written on this topic. In the book Investigating the Haunted: Ghost Hunting Taken to the Next Level by Jennifer Lauer and Dave Schumacher of the SWPRG the authors say rather ambiguously that the reveal process should be handled with care. The authors admit that “you want to reveal everything you find, but that the important part is making sure they understand everything you are telling them.” Troy Taylor in the Ghosthunter’s Guidebook speaks at length about how to collect evidence, tools to use for collection, how to conduct historical research property, but makes no mention as to what should be revealed. I found similar non-commitment from the other handbooks I considered; a growing mound of discarded books collecting on my desk.

My personal philosophy, honed by experience and the literature is that each group should determine beforehand what type of evidence they will consider evidence and what of the evidence is considered strong enough to present to the client. Certainly, I have found that clients are often rabidly interested in collecting any evidence they can, fueled perhaps by the over zealous amount of evidence presented on television to an audience ever eager for anything paranormal. Hence, what we may withhold from a client may make for bad feelings on the part of the client, which can lead to non-cooperation in the future.

In the interest of consistency, if not fairness, the guidelines a paranormal investigation group follows should probably be written and explained so as to be clearly understood by the members of the group and the client. For example, if the group decides that certain personal experiences should never be expressed as evidence, that would probably be best explained to the client and the investigators up front. Again, in the interest of diplomacy, these guidelines should probably be written to be firmly in line with the mission or purpose of the group, and should probably be voted upon by the senior members and clearly understood by the investigators. I realize that this is starting to sound a bit more formal and structured than a lot of groups choose to be. It’s my background as a teacher dealing with teenagers that has taught me that fairness most often starts by having clear, concise and easily understood guidelines, and then following them. Without as much you have evidence collection, review and reveals that are ragged across the board, and members that start to feel that favoritism is occurring.

Second, I’m a firm believer in the evidence review committee. This was the brain child, of DGH’s former director, Domenic Calvetti. He decided on convening a small group, led by a lead investigator, that did evidence review at the same time - consider it the Steve and Tango approach only on a slightly bigger scale. Also the evidence review committee was a sliding committee, meaning one could serve the committee by choice when and if they had the time. Likewise, they could discuss the evidence as they found it versus trying to do it via email or phone calls.

This approach seems to me far more diplomatic than having only one person or one small group make all the decisions all the time, based on what they alone feel is evidence. It is also far more efficient than attempting to throw the evidence out to the discussion of the entire group - which can muddy the waters beyond all recall - as anyone who has ever opened their inbox to find 20 emails regarding the three possible EVP’s from the last investigation can contend. Having a small group, led by a Lead Investigator or possibly two, seems a much more organized environment for true, and unbiased discussion of possible evidence. I should point out, it is also a terrific learning environment for new investigators.

Third, I’m a firm believer that some type of logging form be adopted by the group and used by individuals. These logs (which are available at the back of most ghost hunting handbooks) can be written or adapted to the group should be filled and handed in with the evidence so that the review committee can take this under consideration at the time of review. This alleviates the need for second guessing. Who hasn’t played the Where Was XXXXX (fill in the name most appropriate here) Game, after all? It starts with, “where was Anthony at the time when this creaking board occurred? Was he with Gina’s group?” One look at the log would probably tell the committee exactly what they needed to know - in this case that Anthony was creeping down the stairs to get to sneak a bite of his $5.00 foot-long.

So there it is, my three recommendations. First decide up front the mission of the group and write guidelines for the collection and determination of evidence in line with those goals. Second, determine an evidential review committee, which would consist of at least one senior member of the group and volunteers. In our own group we used a rotating evidence review committee of volunteers, which was an extremely diplomatic approach and allowed for training opportunities for new recruits. Third, have investigators or small groups of investigators adopt a logging system. Have the logs on hand at the review committee if possible. I’d also suggest the group adopt some type of filing system for all the logs and any evidence collected could be kept in one place for posterity.
　
　

Lazybones EVP's

While ghosthunting itself is thrilling, the actual evidence review is most often, unbelievably, undeniably, hair-pullingly dull. Sitting for hours watching videos of empty rooms or listening to audio of mundane conversations and silence is sleep inducing at the very least. In fact, I usually choose that quiet hour before bedtime to review evidence, because it often proves better than a sleeping pill to keep me snoring all night long. I awake in the morning still wearing my headphones and drooling on my investigation log.

And often, when something that might be evidence is found, it's weeks after the investigation and my memory of those long hours is a bit rusty. I once found what I thought was an EVP. I proudly, and excitedly played it for everyone I could find who would indulge a beginning investigator by listening to what sounded like an unknown male voice whispering in the dark. I was so proud!

It was all well and good, until I got confirmation from several sources that the whisper was saying, "flash." Now why would a ghost from an 1800's farmhouse be whispering that? Grudgingly, I had to admit, that it just might be, possibly could be, alright it had to be far more likely that my EVP was actually my friend, who, being respectful of the quiet, had whispered the word "flash" right before he took a picture. Busted.

There has to be a better, and far less humiliating way to review evidence, right? Reading another paranormal blog recently, I came across a bit of advice that might help with these late night hours of harrowing boredom, and might help clear up these, admittedly embarassing, misunderstandings. The suggestion, by a professedly lazy ghost hunter was this. He had long ago decided that he would do EVP recordings in short 2-minute segments. After the 2 minutes are up he hits the stop record button, and right there on the spot reviews his audio.

This of course has a couple of advantages. The first I've mentioned already, no long hours of evidence review after the fact. The second is that he knows, immediately, if there's some activity going on in the location, after which he can decide to stay in the location or move on to another perhaps hotter spot. And the third reason is that everything that had happened in the last two minutes is still fresh in his mind. So he knows when a possible EVP is real, or his compassionate cohort whispering "flash."

History and Theory Behind Divining Rods

By Robin Strom-Mackey

Dowsing rods, also called, divining rods, Y-rods or L-rods are an ancient tool, and one that has had as many proponents as skeptics. Without a doubt the tools have a vast history and have been employed for many uses. Most people, when they think of divining rods, probably envision someone walking a property with a forked stick in their hands looking for water. But finding water tables are only one of the uses for dowsing rods, they also have a long history of being employed to find mineral lodes, metallic ores and even petroleum. They have also a long history as a divination tool by fortune telling tellers. They have been used to foretell the future, find lost items and even commune with the dead, or so dowsers claim.

In their oldest and crudest form, the a dowsing rod is a single forked twig usually of hazel wood. The forked ends of the twig were held in either hand by the dowser, who then walks about looking for water or minerals,. When a vein is crossed the end of the twig is said to bend down, or in some cases snap down decisively, indicating where to dig. Diviners claim that under the effect of "rhabdic force," the rod twists or revolves by its own force, called “rhabdic force;” the term rhabdic deriving from the Greek for rod. The ability to dowse, is supposedly an innate ability held by only the chosen few, a talent much like (or perhaps is the same as) ESP or psi.

 

The history of dowsing rods is both rich and long. They appear in the literature as far back as ancient Egypt. The Roman Statesmen Cicero and Tacitus both wrote about the “virgula divina” during the first century B.C. The Germans used the Wunschelrute or “wishing rod,” eventually teaching the art to the English sometime around the era of Queen Elizabeth.

 

According to the Occult and Parapsychology Encyclopedia, the rods are written of in, “Agricola's De Re Metallica, published at Basle at the beginning of the sixteenth century.” Agricula distinguished the forked mechanism as the “virgula furcata” distinguishing it from the “virgula divina”. The “virgula furcata’ were a tool used specifically by miners to discover mineral lodes.

 

Use of the rods hasn’t always been an accepted practice. In fact , during the sixteenth century it was downright bad for one’s health. The Church included the use of diving rods under their list of magics and witchcraft, declaring dowsers demons in disguise. The penalty for witchcraft being torture and death - most often by burning.

Fact or Fiction

It is indisputable that the rods have a long and interesting history. What is disputable is whether there is anything to this ancient art. It is interesting that in the age of modern science a device as crude and mysterious as the diving rod is still in use. But then even science as been divided on the rods.

The Society of Psychical Research did some study on the rods, thinking to discount their use, and found instead that there appeared to be something to the ancient tools. Albert Einstein apparently did some analysis of the devices and concluded, “I know very well that many scientists consider dowsing as they do astrology, as a type of ancient superstition. According to my conviction this is, however, unjustified. The dowsing rod is a simple instrument which shows the reaction of the human nervous system to certain factors which are unknown to us at this time”.

Author Christopher Balzano in the book Picture Yourself Ghost Hunting, grouped dowsing rods with pendulums, postulating that the actual power of the rods lay not with the rods themselves, but suggesting that they acted as a tool that helped direct the psi ability of the user. (Psi is the more modern, umbrella ,term for abilities such as ESP or telepathy)

Other literature has suggested a similar conclusion, which is perhaps why the rods have come under such attack over the years. Held in the hands of a skeptic it becomes fathomable that that the rods can be a method for cheating. A quick and hardly perceptible twist of the wrist can set a rod to spinning making the devices appear to be working when they are not, which fuels the fire for skeptics. Another reason skeptics might remain skeptical is the “Sheep-Goat Effect” suggested by Dr. Gertrude Schmeidler.

Basically put, Dr. Schmeidler found a difference in scoring between those who believed in psi (sheep) and those who did not (goats). Basically put, when goats were tested, they not only did not demonstrate an ability in psi, but they often scored below chance. Sheep on the other hand, those who either believed in psi or were at least open to the idea of the existence of psi (ESP) did much better on the tests, scoring at the chance level, if not above. It seems that subjects who discount the very possibility of psi somehow or another act as a barrier to having a psi experience - which Loyd Auerbach believes is an innate ability of some magnitude in all of us.

 

Those who have studied dowsing rods seem to believe, like Einstein suggests, that the power to move the rods lie not with the rods but within the user herself. According to the article, Dowsing: Subconscious and the Paranormal; How Does Dowsing Work? Stephen Wagner interviewed the Director of the Western New Rock Paranormal [Group] of Rochester, Dwayne Claud, who suggested, “It’s not psychic ability, its biomechanics. The rods move through unconscious micro-muscular movements. The subconscious is in control of the responses the dowsing instrument provides.” Claud seems to affirm Einstein’s reaction that the rods react to the user, and the user to his/her subconscious.

 

 But if that is true then are the rods merely picking up information from the mind of the person holding them? If one believes the subconscious houses only the thoughts, history, memory and imagination of the user than it would seem true that the rods act from the direction of the user and could go no further in divining information than that which was stored in the mind of the user.

However, there has been a debate for some time as to the possible vastness of the human subconscious. The famous Swiss Psychiatrist, Carl Jung suggested that the human subconscious encompassed more, much more, than just the memories of a single human brain, but the collective memories of the entire species. In the book, Messages and Miracles: Extraordinary Experiences of the Bereaved, Dr. Louis LaGrand explains, that if we go “one step further into the collective unconscious, where Jung suggested we are all connected, then we have to entertain the belief there are non-local characteristics as well. Or as Jungians are wont to say, ‘in the collective unconscious there is no space or time.’ [And] if there is no space or time, then whatever occurs in it can occur everywhere and at the same time.”

 

It’s as if the subconscious were a giant river, to the banks of which we all come occasionally. This river holds all species memories, emotions, dreams and creativity, and is not barred by time or space restrictions. Those that can tap into the river of the subconscious then are able to glean whatever happens to be floating by at the time. And like a river, it’s vastness makes it impossible to see anything but a small portion at any one time. Think of a river going around a bend.

Granted the jury is still out on Jung’s theory of a collective unconscious. However, if he was correct, and if dowsing rods allowed a user a tool for expressing what she/he had tapped into by delving the subconscious, then the dousing rods might actually be a legitimate tool. Certainly many of the greatest minds in the world have not been able to discount these fascinating tools entirely.