EXPLAINING LIFE’S MYSTERIES
By Stephen Ellis
Nobody asked me, but…
A reader wrote and asked me what “scientific” or “ironclad” proof I had concerning the two blogs I wrote about ghosts. I do understand the reader’s concern or apprehension, but the fact is that science has proven absolutely nothing!
Let’s start with the basics: Where do we live? If you stop to take a moment to think about it, we live on a little ball, floating around, surrounded by nothing. For some reason, this little ball rotates and revolves about a larger ball without any demonstrable scientific explanation…and it does it with amazing accuracy. Our clocks and calendars can predict the exact moment of sunrise in Moscow (or any other location) fifty or one hundred years from now to the exact second. Why?
Astronomers (a division of science that freely admits it knows nothing about “everything”) will tell you it’s because the rotation and revolution of the Earth is precise and predictable. Wow! Isn’t that a great scientific explanation.
When I was kid, almost all the schools in the world taught us that, billions of years ago, another star passed close enough to our sun and the gravitational force of the larger star pulled some gasses from our sun. As the gasses cooled, they formed into round globules and became the planets in our solar system. That theory of creation was accepted virtually everywhere in the world...except by those who believed in the "six days" story.
A hundred or so years later, that scientific explanation was exploded when the “Big Bang” theory of creation came out and became accepted as the story of our creation. The “Big Bang” explanation has lost most of its support because of the “Perpetual State” theory…which is now losing its standing to the “String Theory”.
In other words…science doesn’t know and can’t explain how we got here.
O.K. Maybe science can explain how we stay here? As long as I have been alive, science has explained that we are held in place by “gravity”…the same gravity that Sir Isaac Newton, three hundred years ago, used to explain why an apple from a tree falls down and not up. Scientists expanded this theory to explain that the gravity of the sun is so strong that it holds us in place…year after year…millennium after millennium, etc. But all explanations of gravity tell us that the force of gravity creates an equal force in all directions. But, as we have recently discovered, the rotation of the Earth and other planets is slightly “elliptical” and not equal in all directions. And why doesn’t the friction in space (recently discovered) slow down our rotations and revolutions as friction slows down a spinning top?
Again, science has no explanation.
What about other sciences? Like medicine or physics? The so-called-science of medicine changes their minds every year. A couple of hundred years ago, tomatoes’ were considered a poisonous fruit. The cure for most sickness was to cut your arm and bleed the bad blood out of your body. Things like antibodies, antihistamines, antibiotics, cholesterol, stem cells, etc. were unknown. Medicine is probably the least scientific of all sciences.
Physics? A hundred years ago, no one seemed to know anything about nuclear physics… crystal physics, microwave physics…or quantum physics. The truth is that each and every one of our physical laws defy explanation by physicists. Physicists will tell you that there are no valid scientific explanations for anything…only theories.
So what kind of “scientific” proof are you looking for concerning paranormal phenomina?
When I went to school, the 150-year-old theory of Charles Darwin that man evolved from monkeys was taught as absolute fact. Yet, as we are learning today, the inner physical differences and differences in the DNA between us and the primate apes are so basic, and numerous it now seems almost inconceivable that man evolved from apes.
So, do we turn to the theory of “intelligent design”? That some intelligent being or God designed the whole pattern of our planets and life on them? Why not? It makes every bit as much sense as do the scientific explanations.
As an individual, I do not believe that God created the world in six days and, on the seventh, he rested…as the Book of Genesis tells us. It doesn’t jibe with fossils we’ve found dating back millions of years. All the Bibles (there are more than 100 versions of the Bible in publication today) start with the Book of Genesis. From there, they all head-out in different directions, many of them directly contradicting each other. Yet, they are all supposed to be the word of God. To me, it doesn’t make sense that a God would contradict himself.
I’m not trying to start a new religion or a new cult, and I definitely do not want my readers to think of this blog as religiously induced, but the thought of “intelligent design” makes as much or more sense to me than any of science’s theories concerning how we got here. It’s just that none of the religious dogmas with which I am familiar offer good answers or even follow known historical records.
I guess I’ll keep looking. Maybe, when I die, I’ll find the answer, because I definitely do not believe our journey through life ends here. My research into the paranormal has convinced me that there is more to life and death than most people seem to believe.
Next week I’ll talk about some of the things my research has uncovered.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Please e-mail me at stebrel@aol.com and tell me about your paranormal experiences.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Do Ghosts Talk?
EXPLAINING LIFE'S MYSTERIES
By Stephen Ellis
DO GHOSTS TALK?
Nobody asked me, but…
Years before I became interested in the paranormal, I was told of an incident by a female friend of mine. At the time we were both seventeen years old, and I really didn't give what she told me too much credibility. But now, reflecting back on the story she told me, I can't think of another possible explanation. For purposes of this blog, we'll call the girl Laura Goldberg.
I knew Laura as a part of the crowd I used to hang-out with in New York. She was a member of the B'nai B'rith Girls, and I was the president of the B'nai B'rith Boys. These were social associations connected to a couple of neighborhood synagogues where the kids shared a belief in Judaism. We would sponsor teen-age dances and other outings (such as a trip to Bear Mountain or to Rye Beach, etc.). Dances were always held at one or another synagogue and it was a great way to meet other kids your age who shared your religious beliefs.
I knew Laura only slightly as a member of BBG, but I did hear about the tragic accident that took the lives of both her mother and father. I don't know the details of the accident, but from what I was told, her father and mother were returning from a day at Atlantic Beach, when a car in front of them had a blow-out and careened into their car. They swerved and went into a tree, killing them both instantly.
Possibly the accident (everyone at B'nai B'rith talked about it) made me take greater notice of Laura, and we became quite friendly. One night, after a B'nai B'rith sponsored dance, I asked her if she would like to join me for some dessert and coffee at a restaurant on Broadway and 86th Street called "Tip Toe Inn". She accepted and we went there.
As kids of seventeen will do, our conversation started by talking about mutual friends, but quickly came around to the accident that killed her parents. I had planned to have coffee for about thirty minutes, but two hours later, we were still talking and having more coffee. Laura told me that she didn't talk about an incident with her father much because people usually thought she was crazy, but she decided she was going to tell me about the strangest thing that happened to her after her parents were killed:
The night following the accident, Laura had virtually cried herself to sleep, when she awoke with a start. She opened her eyes and her father was standing over her bed. She bolted upright with a lot of questions pounding in her head when her father spoke to her and said, "Laura, don't talk, just do what I tell you to do. Go to your desk and write down what I tell you to write."
Almost in a trance, she did what her father said.
Her father began to list a number of bank accounts that were in Swiss Banks . They were numbered accounts and he had her write down the numbers. He also told Laura where she would find two keys that were hidden in the apartment. They were, he said, to two safe deposit boxes no one knew about. She wrote everything down, and then her father's voice stopped. She looked around and he was gone.
Needless to say, Laura did not go back to sleep. She tried calling her father's attorney, Irving Roth, but his office did not answer (no answering machines in those days) until 9:30 the following morning. She finally reached Roth and Laura told him what had happened. Roth told Laura that she was probably dreaming and that he didn't know of any Swiss bank accounts or safe deposit boxes her parents had, but if Laura would relate what she thought her father told her, he would check it out for her. She relayed the information.
About a week later, Roth called Laura and wanted to know where she got the banking information. Everything Laura had written down was accurate! Roth refused to believe the story Laura had told him and preferred to believe that Laura had simply come-upon the information when going through her deceased parents' things. Laura told me that following her parents' death, she had not gone into her parents' bedroom because she was afraid to…until after her father spoke with her.
I told Laura that Roth made more sense than the story she told me, but Laura swore to me that every word was true. I have to admit, our mutual friends all believed Laura to be a very honest person.
Knowing what I now know, I can believe Laura's story quite readily. I've run into numbers of people who have been contacted verbally by a deceased parent, spouse or other loved one.
It would have been prudent for me to meet with Laura again and question her thoroughly, but at seventeen you're not always "prudent". She moved away less than a year later and I have completely lost contact with her. I did try to locate an attorney named Irving Roth in New York, but there was more than one lawyer with that name...and some lawyers with that name had already passed away.
As I said, nobody asked me.
Please e-mail me at stebrel@aol.com and tell me about your paranormal experiences.
By Stephen Ellis
DO GHOSTS TALK?
Nobody asked me, but…
Years before I became interested in the paranormal, I was told of an incident by a female friend of mine. At the time we were both seventeen years old, and I really didn't give what she told me too much credibility. But now, reflecting back on the story she told me, I can't think of another possible explanation. For purposes of this blog, we'll call the girl Laura Goldberg.
I knew Laura as a part of the crowd I used to hang-out with in New York. She was a member of the B'nai B'rith Girls, and I was the president of the B'nai B'rith Boys. These were social associations connected to a couple of neighborhood synagogues where the kids shared a belief in Judaism. We would sponsor teen-age dances and other outings (such as a trip to Bear Mountain or to Rye Beach, etc.). Dances were always held at one or another synagogue and it was a great way to meet other kids your age who shared your religious beliefs.
I knew Laura only slightly as a member of BBG, but I did hear about the tragic accident that took the lives of both her mother and father. I don't know the details of the accident, but from what I was told, her father and mother were returning from a day at Atlantic Beach, when a car in front of them had a blow-out and careened into their car. They swerved and went into a tree, killing them both instantly.
Possibly the accident (everyone at B'nai B'rith talked about it) made me take greater notice of Laura, and we became quite friendly. One night, after a B'nai B'rith sponsored dance, I asked her if she would like to join me for some dessert and coffee at a restaurant on Broadway and 86th Street called "Tip Toe Inn". She accepted and we went there.
As kids of seventeen will do, our conversation started by talking about mutual friends, but quickly came around to the accident that killed her parents. I had planned to have coffee for about thirty minutes, but two hours later, we were still talking and having more coffee. Laura told me that she didn't talk about an incident with her father much because people usually thought she was crazy, but she decided she was going to tell me about the strangest thing that happened to her after her parents were killed:
The night following the accident, Laura had virtually cried herself to sleep, when she awoke with a start. She opened her eyes and her father was standing over her bed. She bolted upright with a lot of questions pounding in her head when her father spoke to her and said, "Laura, don't talk, just do what I tell you to do. Go to your desk and write down what I tell you to write."
Almost in a trance, she did what her father said.
Her father began to list a number of bank accounts that were in Swiss Banks . They were numbered accounts and he had her write down the numbers. He also told Laura where she would find two keys that were hidden in the apartment. They were, he said, to two safe deposit boxes no one knew about. She wrote everything down, and then her father's voice stopped. She looked around and he was gone.
Needless to say, Laura did not go back to sleep. She tried calling her father's attorney, Irving Roth, but his office did not answer (no answering machines in those days) until 9:30 the following morning. She finally reached Roth and Laura told him what had happened. Roth told Laura that she was probably dreaming and that he didn't know of any Swiss bank accounts or safe deposit boxes her parents had, but if Laura would relate what she thought her father told her, he would check it out for her. She relayed the information.
About a week later, Roth called Laura and wanted to know where she got the banking information. Everything Laura had written down was accurate! Roth refused to believe the story Laura had told him and preferred to believe that Laura had simply come-upon the information when going through her deceased parents' things. Laura told me that following her parents' death, she had not gone into her parents' bedroom because she was afraid to…until after her father spoke with her.
I told Laura that Roth made more sense than the story she told me, but Laura swore to me that every word was true. I have to admit, our mutual friends all believed Laura to be a very honest person.
Knowing what I now know, I can believe Laura's story quite readily. I've run into numbers of people who have been contacted verbally by a deceased parent, spouse or other loved one.
It would have been prudent for me to meet with Laura again and question her thoroughly, but at seventeen you're not always "prudent". She moved away less than a year later and I have completely lost contact with her. I did try to locate an attorney named Irving Roth in New York, but there was more than one lawyer with that name...and some lawyers with that name had already passed away.
As I said, nobody asked me.
Please e-mail me at stebrel@aol.com and tell me about your paranormal experiences.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Are Ghosts for Real? Volume I
Nobody asked me, but...
With Haloween around the corner and people getting into costume as vampires, ghosts and other imaginary creatures, I'm reminded of an incident that actually changed my life:
Years ago, if I was asked about a life after death, I'd probably have laughed and told the person I was talking to that they go to church too often. When you die...you die! Your body gets cold and either gets buried or cremated...but one way or another, that's it!
When I read about people who claim to have become one with God and/or visited with a dead spouse or parent I used to chuckle to myself and think these people were "weirdos". The whole concept of Heaven and Hell are really very recent innovations first appearing in Dante's "Divine Comedy" in the 1300s. Prior to the publication of the "Divine Comedy" there hade been talk of a Heaven during the early Roman Empire when many people were dissatisfied with having to live the life of a Serf or a Slave, and the concept was created that when you die you will go to a better place and be rewarded for your pain during your lifetime.
Heaven, Pergatory, Hell and the Devil were created in Dante's "Divine Comedy", but the idea that life does not end when we die goes way back to the Old Testament.
As a skeptic, it only makes my own experience more of a puzzlement:
About thirty years ago, I had some business in San Francisco. I knew I would be there for about six months, so rather than confine myself to a hotel room for that length of time, I rented a furnished apartment on Dolores Street. It was a small one-bedroom place in a gigantic complex catering mostly to singles...and being single, that was a "plus".
The first night I was there, I was feeling quite uncomfortable trying to get to sleep in an unfamiliar environment. I opened my eyes and looked around...and there, in the corner of the room, was girl! Not the kind I have fanatisies about, but a blond girl in her early twenties. She was wearing a tan pant-suit; she had her hair in kind of a pageboy hairdo, she was looking at me with her arms folded in front of her...and she was kind of pretty.
Not that I would normally object to finding a pretty girl in my bedroom, but I was both startled and a little scared. I asked her what is she doing there. She didn't respond, so I reached for the lamp next to my bed and turned it on. In doing so, I looked away for less than a second.
She was gone!
Climbing out of bed, I searched the apartment thoroughly...and there was no sign of anyone (but myself) having been there. I relaxed and reasoned that this was one of those cases where you seem to wake up but you're really still half asleep, and because this was a new environment for me, my mind was just playing some tricks on me. I went back to sleep.
Now let's fast-forward to about a month later: San Francisco was having one of those extremely rare days in San Francisco when the skies were clear and the temperature was in the mid-eighties. Just about everyone living in the complex was gathered about and was using the large swimming pool that was, typically, only used three or four days a year.
San Francisco being what it is, I was hit on by a "beautiful" young man. I'm not homosexual, but neither am I homophobic. I didn't know anyone else by the pool, so it was nice to have someone to talk with. I made the comment (innocently) that my "beautiful" friend had a magnificent physique. That was all the encouragement he needed. He ran to his apartment and came back with a stack of photographs of himself striking "Mr. America" type poses. As he was going through the pictures, I bolted upright and said "stop"!
In the background of one of his pitures were two girls...not wearing pant-suits, but wearing bikinis. But there was no doubt, whatsoever, in my mind that one of the girls was the girl I thought I had seen in my room my first night there. I asked my new friend if he knew her name. He said "yes", and told it to me.
Curiosity overcame me and I asked him if he knew where I could contact her.
My friend's expression grew dark. He said, "Didn't they tell you when you rented the apartment? She was murdered by her boyfriend in that apartment about a month before you moved in."
O.K....so what did I see? Is that what they call a "ghost"? Or did the walls and furniture somehow bear the memories of that horrible event and convey some of them to me?
That event changed my life in several respects: From someone who had little interest in the paranormal and other mysteries of life, I became an avid researcher of the subject. My research led me into things like psychic phenomina; astral projection; faith healing, religion...and even into UFOs. I became determined to find reasonable explanations where none seemed to exist. Somewhere in the vastness of our world were things and events that defied explanation. Quite often, there were "scientific" explanations that simply did not hold water.
I made it a quest to try and find some logical or sensible answers. In many cases, I did!
And that's what this blog is about. Sometimes I will be "debunking" claims of experts, sometimes I will explain the "how" and the "why" of religious beliefs...and sometimes I will be relating things that I experienced on my quest for the truth.
The paranormal is always in the news...but it's usually hidden in a small paragraph on page 23 or 24 of a newspaper. I'll invite you to share your experiences with me and see if we can't find the truth behind them. I'll continue to research items about the paranormal and see if some of them don't help us understand life's mysteries.
This blog will be your blog. My name is Stephen Ellis. You can contact me at stebrel@aol.com. Please do.
As I said...nobody asked me.
With Haloween around the corner and people getting into costume as vampires, ghosts and other imaginary creatures, I'm reminded of an incident that actually changed my life:
Years ago, if I was asked about a life after death, I'd probably have laughed and told the person I was talking to that they go to church too often. When you die...you die! Your body gets cold and either gets buried or cremated...but one way or another, that's it!
When I read about people who claim to have become one with God and/or visited with a dead spouse or parent I used to chuckle to myself and think these people were "weirdos". The whole concept of Heaven and Hell are really very recent innovations first appearing in Dante's "Divine Comedy" in the 1300s. Prior to the publication of the "Divine Comedy" there hade been talk of a Heaven during the early Roman Empire when many people were dissatisfied with having to live the life of a Serf or a Slave, and the concept was created that when you die you will go to a better place and be rewarded for your pain during your lifetime.
Heaven, Pergatory, Hell and the Devil were created in Dante's "Divine Comedy", but the idea that life does not end when we die goes way back to the Old Testament.
As a skeptic, it only makes my own experience more of a puzzlement:
About thirty years ago, I had some business in San Francisco. I knew I would be there for about six months, so rather than confine myself to a hotel room for that length of time, I rented a furnished apartment on Dolores Street. It was a small one-bedroom place in a gigantic complex catering mostly to singles...and being single, that was a "plus".
The first night I was there, I was feeling quite uncomfortable trying to get to sleep in an unfamiliar environment. I opened my eyes and looked around...and there, in the corner of the room, was girl! Not the kind I have fanatisies about, but a blond girl in her early twenties. She was wearing a tan pant-suit; she had her hair in kind of a pageboy hairdo, she was looking at me with her arms folded in front of her...and she was kind of pretty.
Not that I would normally object to finding a pretty girl in my bedroom, but I was both startled and a little scared. I asked her what is she doing there. She didn't respond, so I reached for the lamp next to my bed and turned it on. In doing so, I looked away for less than a second.
She was gone!
Climbing out of bed, I searched the apartment thoroughly...and there was no sign of anyone (but myself) having been there. I relaxed and reasoned that this was one of those cases where you seem to wake up but you're really still half asleep, and because this was a new environment for me, my mind was just playing some tricks on me. I went back to sleep.
Now let's fast-forward to about a month later: San Francisco was having one of those extremely rare days in San Francisco when the skies were clear and the temperature was in the mid-eighties. Just about everyone living in the complex was gathered about and was using the large swimming pool that was, typically, only used three or four days a year.
San Francisco being what it is, I was hit on by a "beautiful" young man. I'm not homosexual, but neither am I homophobic. I didn't know anyone else by the pool, so it was nice to have someone to talk with. I made the comment (innocently) that my "beautiful" friend had a magnificent physique. That was all the encouragement he needed. He ran to his apartment and came back with a stack of photographs of himself striking "Mr. America" type poses. As he was going through the pictures, I bolted upright and said "stop"!
In the background of one of his pitures were two girls...not wearing pant-suits, but wearing bikinis. But there was no doubt, whatsoever, in my mind that one of the girls was the girl I thought I had seen in my room my first night there. I asked my new friend if he knew her name. He said "yes", and told it to me.
Curiosity overcame me and I asked him if he knew where I could contact her.
My friend's expression grew dark. He said, "Didn't they tell you when you rented the apartment? She was murdered by her boyfriend in that apartment about a month before you moved in."
O.K....so what did I see? Is that what they call a "ghost"? Or did the walls and furniture somehow bear the memories of that horrible event and convey some of them to me?
That event changed my life in several respects: From someone who had little interest in the paranormal and other mysteries of life, I became an avid researcher of the subject. My research led me into things like psychic phenomina; astral projection; faith healing, religion...and even into UFOs. I became determined to find reasonable explanations where none seemed to exist. Somewhere in the vastness of our world were things and events that defied explanation. Quite often, there were "scientific" explanations that simply did not hold water.
I made it a quest to try and find some logical or sensible answers. In many cases, I did!
And that's what this blog is about. Sometimes I will be "debunking" claims of experts, sometimes I will explain the "how" and the "why" of religious beliefs...and sometimes I will be relating things that I experienced on my quest for the truth.
The paranormal is always in the news...but it's usually hidden in a small paragraph on page 23 or 24 of a newspaper. I'll invite you to share your experiences with me and see if we can't find the truth behind them. I'll continue to research items about the paranormal and see if some of them don't help us understand life's mysteries.
This blog will be your blog. My name is Stephen Ellis. You can contact me at stebrel@aol.com. Please do.
As I said...nobody asked me.
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