MORE UFOS IN THE SKIES
December 27, 2009
A reader asks: “I’ve been noticing a lot more reports about UFOs recently. Do you think that maybe more and more UFOs are visiting us? Are they a threat to us?”
Dear Reader: In order to respond to your questions logically, we first have to look at the history of UFOs. UFOs appear to have been around the Earth since Biblical times. A careful reading of the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel” can easily be interpreted as a primitive man’s seeing a UFO and possible space visitors.
But man, today, is a lot more sophisticated than was Ezekiel: Man has been flying in heavier-than-air machines for less than 100 years. In fact until approximately 100 years ago, anything seen in the sky was believed to be a bird or a balloon of sorts, so the term “UFO” was not even a consideration. When airplanes started to fly, they were strange sights, and anything seen in the sky was believed to be an airplane.
Aviation began to become sophisticated in WWII, and it was following WWII, in 1946, that a pilot noticed an object “skipping along in the sky like a saucer”. Thus began the idea of identifying UFOs as “flying saucers”. The reports of “flying saucers” were quickly hushed-up by the Air Force into what is now known as “Project Bluebook” and governments, everywhere, fearing some advanced society’s invasion of the Earth sent out reams of publicity trying to make reports of sightings seem to come from people who were just fantasizing or imagining things. It became a popular concept that if you claimed to have seen a UFO, it meant you were some kind of a nut.
This was helped-along by a bunch of publicity-seeking people creating false pictures of UFO’s (all of which resembled saucers), claiming alien abductions, etc.
But, technology has advanced beyond the expectations of WWII thinking. Now, cameras are not heavy objects that need steadying and focusing. Almost everyone carries around a camera and a VCR in their pocket cell. When they see a strange object in the sky, they don’t have to run back to their house and get a bulky camera…they take out their cell and start taking pictures or VCRs right away. The result is that UFO sightings are no longer from people with loose screws in their heads; they are everyday people who photograph what they have seen.
With the fear of being ridiculed by your friends and neighbors vanishing, senior statesmen, scientists and others are no longer afraid to tell the world what they have seen…and to photograph it. Russian and British scientists and their military have not only recognized the existence of UFOs, they currently have teams of researchers trying to determine what they are, why they are and where they’re from. Only the USA still keeps their Project Bluebook files secret.
So the answer to your question is: There are not more UFOs in our skies…there are now more people everywhere who are no longer afraid to report seeing strange things…and having the pictures and videos to back it up. I’m not suggesting that photos and videos can’t be photo-shopped, but these days, most UFO pictures and videos are checked by experts. Less than 10% of them have been found to be retouched or photo-shopped. Clearly UFOs are very real and the world is slowly acknowledging this.
As for who or what is inside these UFOs (or where they are from) is something still being researched. We’re getting closer to answers. I do not believe they are hostile in any way, shape or form or they would have invaded the Earth centuries ago when it would have been much easier to do.
If you’ve got questions about unexplained things, I’ve got answers. Write me at stebrel@aol.com
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Cruising Along and Paranormal Games
CRUISING ALONG AND PARANORMAL GAMES
December 18, 2009
Before writing, about the paranormal, I want to share with all my readers that I was on vacation last week. My wife and I took a cruise on the Norwegian “Dawn” from Miami to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. A few weeks before our scheduled departure, I called and wrote to the executive staff at NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines) and offered to give passengers aboard the “Dawn” a 60-90 minute lecture (based on my book “Explaining the Unexplained”). I offered to exchange this service to NCL for an upgrade to a better cabin than the one we had paid for. It would have been easy for any of the execs at NCL to simply write or e-mail me and say “yes” or “no”. But none…absolutely none of the NCL execs demonstrated the simple courtesy of even acknowledging any of my three telephone calls and two letters. It seems the execs at NCL just don’t care enough about their paying passengers to acknowledge their communications.
The above having been said, the cruise was an excellent one, and in fact, one of the best I’ve ever taken. My wife and I enjoyed it enormously. The ship was beautiful, the crew (especially a Garden Café maitre de named Fortunato Rebello) was friendly and helpful, the food was worthy of a professional gourmet, and the entertainment was magnificent. It’s unfortunate that the pompous asses in the NCL executive offices don’t learn something from the people they employ.
*************************************
Last week I wrote about Astrology, Palmistry and Phrenology. I promised to follow this up with a look at Tarot Cards, Crystal Balls and Ouija Boards:
Tarot Cards and Crystal Balls have long been the trademarks of Gypsy Fortune Tellers: The theory behind the crystal ball is that, because of its clarity, the fortune teller can see into the future. In actuality, there has never been one single iota of truth attached to crystal ball fortune telling. Normally, the fortune teller is a good “cold-reader” and plays-off of the person whose fortune they are telling.
Similarly, Tarot cards are used in the same way: A good cold-reader uses the 78-card Tarot deck to build a story around the person whose fortune is being told. The Tarot deck was originally designed as a game-playing deck in the early 1500s much like the 52-card deck now in common usage. The Tarot has four suits corresponding to the suits of conventional playing cards. Each of these suits has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of fourteen cards. In addition, the Tarot is distinguished by a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit. There is nothing paranormal about Tarot Cards.
Now let’s look at Ouija Boards: On the surface, there is no more to Ouija Boards than there is to Crystal Balls or Tarot Cards. Yet, I have spoken to and corresponded with numerous people who tell me of life-saving feats and terrible accidents that have been avoided resulting from the use of a Ouija Board.
The theory behind Ouija Boards is that two or three people, by combining their energy and concentrating on the spirit of a deceased friend or family member and placing their fingertips on a wooden marker, the spirit will guide the marker from letter to letter on the board and spell out an important message.
Virtually all ghost-hunting societies agree that spirits rarely talk or make discernable vocal sounds (except immediately after death), so there may be some substance to the concept that spirits try to communicate by guiding the lightly touched marker. Yet, I wonder if those using the Ouija aren’t unconsciously guiding the marker to where they want it to go, and sending themselves messages they want to hear.
People, whose status or reputation is too high to impugn, have told me that Ouija Boards have informed them of a child’s undiagnosed illness and that Ouija has forewarned of planned actions which, if taken, would have proven disastrous.
It’s difficult for me to accept that a marker and a game-board with letters on it can communicate with the spirit world, but those who use them swear by them with the kind of fervor that only comes from having seen the proof. Is it just coincidence? I’d like to hear from you about any experiences you may have had. If you’ve ever had some Ouija Board messages that proved meaningful, please share them with me at stebrel@aol.com.
Stephen Ellis
December 18, 2009
Before writing, about the paranormal, I want to share with all my readers that I was on vacation last week. My wife and I took a cruise on the Norwegian “Dawn” from Miami to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. A few weeks before our scheduled departure, I called and wrote to the executive staff at NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines) and offered to give passengers aboard the “Dawn” a 60-90 minute lecture (based on my book “Explaining the Unexplained”). I offered to exchange this service to NCL for an upgrade to a better cabin than the one we had paid for. It would have been easy for any of the execs at NCL to simply write or e-mail me and say “yes” or “no”. But none…absolutely none of the NCL execs demonstrated the simple courtesy of even acknowledging any of my three telephone calls and two letters. It seems the execs at NCL just don’t care enough about their paying passengers to acknowledge their communications.
The above having been said, the cruise was an excellent one, and in fact, one of the best I’ve ever taken. My wife and I enjoyed it enormously. The ship was beautiful, the crew (especially a Garden Café maitre de named Fortunato Rebello) was friendly and helpful, the food was worthy of a professional gourmet, and the entertainment was magnificent. It’s unfortunate that the pompous asses in the NCL executive offices don’t learn something from the people they employ.
*************************************
Last week I wrote about Astrology, Palmistry and Phrenology. I promised to follow this up with a look at Tarot Cards, Crystal Balls and Ouija Boards:
Tarot Cards and Crystal Balls have long been the trademarks of Gypsy Fortune Tellers: The theory behind the crystal ball is that, because of its clarity, the fortune teller can see into the future. In actuality, there has never been one single iota of truth attached to crystal ball fortune telling. Normally, the fortune teller is a good “cold-reader” and plays-off of the person whose fortune they are telling.
Similarly, Tarot cards are used in the same way: A good cold-reader uses the 78-card Tarot deck to build a story around the person whose fortune is being told. The Tarot deck was originally designed as a game-playing deck in the early 1500s much like the 52-card deck now in common usage. The Tarot has four suits corresponding to the suits of conventional playing cards. Each of these suits has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of fourteen cards. In addition, the Tarot is distinguished by a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit. There is nothing paranormal about Tarot Cards.
Now let’s look at Ouija Boards: On the surface, there is no more to Ouija Boards than there is to Crystal Balls or Tarot Cards. Yet, I have spoken to and corresponded with numerous people who tell me of life-saving feats and terrible accidents that have been avoided resulting from the use of a Ouija Board.
The theory behind Ouija Boards is that two or three people, by combining their energy and concentrating on the spirit of a deceased friend or family member and placing their fingertips on a wooden marker, the spirit will guide the marker from letter to letter on the board and spell out an important message.
Virtually all ghost-hunting societies agree that spirits rarely talk or make discernable vocal sounds (except immediately after death), so there may be some substance to the concept that spirits try to communicate by guiding the lightly touched marker. Yet, I wonder if those using the Ouija aren’t unconsciously guiding the marker to where they want it to go, and sending themselves messages they want to hear.
People, whose status or reputation is too high to impugn, have told me that Ouija Boards have informed them of a child’s undiagnosed illness and that Ouija has forewarned of planned actions which, if taken, would have proven disastrous.
It’s difficult for me to accept that a marker and a game-board with letters on it can communicate with the spirit world, but those who use them swear by them with the kind of fervor that only comes from having seen the proof. Is it just coincidence? I’d like to hear from you about any experiences you may have had. If you’ve ever had some Ouija Board messages that proved meaningful, please share them with me at stebrel@aol.com.
Stephen Ellis
Monday, December 7, 2009
Paranormal Games
PARANORMAL GAMES
December 6, 2009
There has been an increasing amount of mail asking about what I call paranormal “games”. Things like Astrology, Palmistry, Phrenology, Tarot Cards, Ouija Boards, Crystal Balls, etc. I think it’s time to take a moment and look at these things with an objective eye.
Astrology: (“What’s your sign?)
In its simplest terms, “Astrology” refers to the influence of the stars and the cosmos on your life. The date of your birth determines your astrological sign, and there are twelve astrological signs which make up what is called the Zodiac. Over the years, the Zodiac has changed. Originally, there were thirteen (not twelve) signs of the Zodiac. The Zodiac was, originally, based on a lunar month: the time it takes for the Moon to revolve around the Earth. However, it was confusing as to what your astrological sign was because the Moon’s rotation about the Earth was actually slightly different than a calendar month and two people, born on the same day and month, in diffderent years, could actually be under two different astrological signs. So, to keep things organized, the Zodiac was reduced to twelve astrological signs.
People who dedicate themselves to “reading the Zodiac” (and there are many) create a plan for each sign of the Zodiac called a Horoscope. Many people who read the Zodiac try to determine the influence of the Sun the Stars and the Moon at the exact hour and location of a person’s birth.
There are millions and millions of people who believe in Astrology and follow their Horoscope. As long as I have been alive, Horoscope Magazines have sold very well and just about every daily newspaper carries a Horoscope column in which they indicate the good and the bad things associated with your astrological sign for that day.
In the dating scene, one of the most common questions asked in order to start a conversation with someone new is “What’s your sign?”
I have often been asked as to whether I believe in Astrology. Plainly, I do not believe in the magazine or newspaper horoscopes. How can one single set of predictions be good for millions of people? However, I do yield to the possibility of an influence of the cosmos at the time and place of your birth: Simply put, I do not know enough about astrology to know whether the position of the Sun the Stars and the Moon has any material effect on your life.
Palmistry: (Palm Reading)
Probably the oldest form of fortune telling is what is called Palmistry. We often associate Palmistry with Gypsy fortune tellers, but even in the Old Testament, there are references to your hands revealing your life.
The concept is that God (or a Supreme Being) controls the first making of a fist on a newborn’s hand and the creases that result from this are a window into the future life that newborn will have. Palmistry is the art of being able to read those creases on the hand and foretell that person’s future. A life-line; a success-line, etc.
One of the problems facing Palmists is that the creases on the hand change during a person’s lifetime. If you are right-handed, the Palmist will usually want to look at your left hand because it is used less than your right and, logically, will have fewer changes to the creases on the palm.
People who believe in fortune telling (and there are millions) will swear by the accuracy of the Palmist’s statements. I look at Palmistry more pragmatically: If there was even a fair degree of accuracy to a life line, every insurance company would want to see your hand before they sold you a life insurance policy. If there was a fair degree of accuracy to your success line, every College and every employer would want to look at your palm before working with you.
Phrenology: (Bumps and lumps on your head)
Phrenology, very popular in the 19th century, is the pseudo-science of reading the bumps on your head and is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind: that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules. Phrenologists believed that the mind has a set of different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different area of the brain. These areas were believed to be proportional to a person's personality. It was believed that the cranial bone conformed in order to accommodate the different sizes of these particular areas of the brain in different individuals, so that a person's capacity for a given personality trait could be determined simply by measuring the area of the skull that overlies the corresponding area of the brain.
No one, anywhere, has a perfectly smooth head, but today Phrenology is looked upon in most of the world as pure quackery.
Next week I’ll discuss Tarot Cards, Ouija Boards and Crystal Balls. If you have questions, please e-mail me at Stebrel@aol.com
December 6, 2009
There has been an increasing amount of mail asking about what I call paranormal “games”. Things like Astrology, Palmistry, Phrenology, Tarot Cards, Ouija Boards, Crystal Balls, etc. I think it’s time to take a moment and look at these things with an objective eye.
Astrology: (“What’s your sign?)
In its simplest terms, “Astrology” refers to the influence of the stars and the cosmos on your life. The date of your birth determines your astrological sign, and there are twelve astrological signs which make up what is called the Zodiac. Over the years, the Zodiac has changed. Originally, there were thirteen (not twelve) signs of the Zodiac. The Zodiac was, originally, based on a lunar month: the time it takes for the Moon to revolve around the Earth. However, it was confusing as to what your astrological sign was because the Moon’s rotation about the Earth was actually slightly different than a calendar month and two people, born on the same day and month, in diffderent years, could actually be under two different astrological signs. So, to keep things organized, the Zodiac was reduced to twelve astrological signs.
People who dedicate themselves to “reading the Zodiac” (and there are many) create a plan for each sign of the Zodiac called a Horoscope. Many people who read the Zodiac try to determine the influence of the Sun the Stars and the Moon at the exact hour and location of a person’s birth.
There are millions and millions of people who believe in Astrology and follow their Horoscope. As long as I have been alive, Horoscope Magazines have sold very well and just about every daily newspaper carries a Horoscope column in which they indicate the good and the bad things associated with your astrological sign for that day.
In the dating scene, one of the most common questions asked in order to start a conversation with someone new is “What’s your sign?”
I have often been asked as to whether I believe in Astrology. Plainly, I do not believe in the magazine or newspaper horoscopes. How can one single set of predictions be good for millions of people? However, I do yield to the possibility of an influence of the cosmos at the time and place of your birth: Simply put, I do not know enough about astrology to know whether the position of the Sun the Stars and the Moon has any material effect on your life.
Palmistry: (Palm Reading)
Probably the oldest form of fortune telling is what is called Palmistry. We often associate Palmistry with Gypsy fortune tellers, but even in the Old Testament, there are references to your hands revealing your life.
The concept is that God (or a Supreme Being) controls the first making of a fist on a newborn’s hand and the creases that result from this are a window into the future life that newborn will have. Palmistry is the art of being able to read those creases on the hand and foretell that person’s future. A life-line; a success-line, etc.
One of the problems facing Palmists is that the creases on the hand change during a person’s lifetime. If you are right-handed, the Palmist will usually want to look at your left hand because it is used less than your right and, logically, will have fewer changes to the creases on the palm.
People who believe in fortune telling (and there are millions) will swear by the accuracy of the Palmist’s statements. I look at Palmistry more pragmatically: If there was even a fair degree of accuracy to a life line, every insurance company would want to see your hand before they sold you a life insurance policy. If there was a fair degree of accuracy to your success line, every College and every employer would want to look at your palm before working with you.
Phrenology: (Bumps and lumps on your head)
Phrenology, very popular in the 19th century, is the pseudo-science of reading the bumps on your head and is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind: that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules. Phrenologists believed that the mind has a set of different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different area of the brain. These areas were believed to be proportional to a person's personality. It was believed that the cranial bone conformed in order to accommodate the different sizes of these particular areas of the brain in different individuals, so that a person's capacity for a given personality trait could be determined simply by measuring the area of the skull that overlies the corresponding area of the brain.
No one, anywhere, has a perfectly smooth head, but today Phrenology is looked upon in most of the world as pure quackery.
Next week I’ll discuss Tarot Cards, Ouija Boards and Crystal Balls. If you have questions, please e-mail me at Stebrel@aol.com
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Powers Within
POWERS WITHIN
November 29, 2009
A lady friend from the San Francisco Bay Area named Nancy wrote that when she was six years old, she had an accident wherein she fell on her head onto concrete from a 12-foot height. Miraculously, she recovered completely, although a neurologist told her mother that some soft tissue (or “brain buffers”) may have been injured. Some years later, while in college, Nancy decided to have herself tested for psychic ability, in a lab. To the amazement of the scientists administering the test she was able to perform psycho kinesis: the ability to move objects with her mind. Nothing fantastic (or phony) like Yuri Geller’s artificial act of spoon bending, but she was able, at will, to move a wire so that it made an electrical connection and sounded a bell. She was tested repeatedly and succeeded every time.
My family and I had a fabulous Thanksgiving prepared by my son, Craig Ellis and his wife, Bethany Ellis. At the dinner table, the conversation turned to the blogs I’ve been writing. My niece, Laura, an exceptionally beautiful (and unmarried) girl, related a few instances that she felt were precognition and four instances of a “ghostly experience”. They were interesting enough to set forth here:
When she was going to college (in Indiana) sometimes she and a bunch of the girls she roomed with would go off to have a little fun. They would pack themselves in a car and just take-off laughing about everything. Because Laura was the smallest one in the group, they told her to lie down in the back where they usually stored the luggage. Laura had a premonition that she was not safe, so with her girlfriends’ approval, she squeezed into the back seat with the others stating that she had a strong feeling they were going to be in an accident. Minutes later, a car crashed into the rear of their car and crushed the area where Laura was supposed to be lying down.
In another event, Laura had rented a hotel room and all of her friends came over bringing lots of beer. Laura was upset because she was the only one in the room that was legitimately over 21. Laura cautioned everyone to stay quiet as Indiana does not cotton to people under 21 drinking beer. They all had quiet fun until a pizza delivery man knocked at the door. Laura hushed everyone and said she saw an image of a cop standing right behind the pizza delivery man. Everyone laughed. When she opened the door, there was the pizza man…with a cop standing directly behind him. They had not been making any noise and there was no known reason for the cop to be there.
Laura also told of a ghostly experience: She was trying to sleep when she felt someone pushing down and bouncing the foot of her bed. She thought it was her roommate playing a prank, and she was not going to open her eyes to appease her roommate until the bouncing of the bed became too severe. She opened her eyes…and there was no one in the room. She says she was not sure if it had been a half-awake/asleep dream, but the shaking of the bed was very real. No one was there except Laura. Laura told me this happened to her three more times…always when she was alone. She always tried to keep her eyes closed until the shaking of the bed became too severe to ignore it.
The above, unsolicited, stories are examples of how the paranormal affects our lives and existence; often in ways we tend to ignore until we start reflecting back on them and we realize that there are special forces within each of us. If we will only make the effort, we can learn to control them and use them for our own benefit and the benefit of others.
If you’ve had some experiences like these, let me know at stebrel@aol.com
November 29, 2009
A lady friend from the San Francisco Bay Area named Nancy wrote that when she was six years old, she had an accident wherein she fell on her head onto concrete from a 12-foot height. Miraculously, she recovered completely, although a neurologist told her mother that some soft tissue (or “brain buffers”) may have been injured. Some years later, while in college, Nancy decided to have herself tested for psychic ability, in a lab. To the amazement of the scientists administering the test she was able to perform psycho kinesis: the ability to move objects with her mind. Nothing fantastic (or phony) like Yuri Geller’s artificial act of spoon bending, but she was able, at will, to move a wire so that it made an electrical connection and sounded a bell. She was tested repeatedly and succeeded every time.
My family and I had a fabulous Thanksgiving prepared by my son, Craig Ellis and his wife, Bethany Ellis. At the dinner table, the conversation turned to the blogs I’ve been writing. My niece, Laura, an exceptionally beautiful (and unmarried) girl, related a few instances that she felt were precognition and four instances of a “ghostly experience”. They were interesting enough to set forth here:
When she was going to college (in Indiana) sometimes she and a bunch of the girls she roomed with would go off to have a little fun. They would pack themselves in a car and just take-off laughing about everything. Because Laura was the smallest one in the group, they told her to lie down in the back where they usually stored the luggage. Laura had a premonition that she was not safe, so with her girlfriends’ approval, she squeezed into the back seat with the others stating that she had a strong feeling they were going to be in an accident. Minutes later, a car crashed into the rear of their car and crushed the area where Laura was supposed to be lying down.
In another event, Laura had rented a hotel room and all of her friends came over bringing lots of beer. Laura was upset because she was the only one in the room that was legitimately over 21. Laura cautioned everyone to stay quiet as Indiana does not cotton to people under 21 drinking beer. They all had quiet fun until a pizza delivery man knocked at the door. Laura hushed everyone and said she saw an image of a cop standing right behind the pizza delivery man. Everyone laughed. When she opened the door, there was the pizza man…with a cop standing directly behind him. They had not been making any noise and there was no known reason for the cop to be there.
Laura also told of a ghostly experience: She was trying to sleep when she felt someone pushing down and bouncing the foot of her bed. She thought it was her roommate playing a prank, and she was not going to open her eyes to appease her roommate until the bouncing of the bed became too severe. She opened her eyes…and there was no one in the room. She says she was not sure if it had been a half-awake/asleep dream, but the shaking of the bed was very real. No one was there except Laura. Laura told me this happened to her three more times…always when she was alone. She always tried to keep her eyes closed until the shaking of the bed became too severe to ignore it.
The above, unsolicited, stories are examples of how the paranormal affects our lives and existence; often in ways we tend to ignore until we start reflecting back on them and we realize that there are special forces within each of us. If we will only make the effort, we can learn to control them and use them for our own benefit and the benefit of others.
If you’ve had some experiences like these, let me know at stebrel@aol.com
Monday, November 23, 2009
Questions and Answers 4
Questions and Answers-4
November 22, 2009
Dear Mr. Ellis: My uncle belongs to a group that studies UFOs. He tells me that our government knows that UFOs are based on the back side of the Moon, and is keeping the truth from us. What do you think? David in Gallup, NM
Dear David: Theories about where the UFOs come from have been talked about for fifty years, and no one seems to know the answers for sure. Granted, it is far more likely UFOs come from our Moon or from Mars than that UFOs have traversed the vastness of outer space to visit us. There are a lot of “conspiracy theories” out there about our government knowing what (and who) UFOs are and keeping it a secret from us.
The above having been said, there are also conspiracy theories concerning man’s landing on the moon, about so-called concealed photos from Mars and the Moon that show the remnants of life and buildings, etc. These conspiracy theories have just flooded the internet. It’s worth a few moments of our time to look at them closely and see if, perhaps, they answer some questions about UFOs or even about our own origins.
YouTube has at least four or five videos claiming that the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon never happened. They say it was a massive conspiracy to deceive the world into believing that man had actually set foot on the Moon. I’m certain that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins get very upset when they hear these theories.
I am not, particularly, a conspiracy buff. I do believe that our government has intentionally concealed much information about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, but there are important, serious reasons behind our government’s concealing the truth in these instances:
In the case of JFK, there is strong evidence that the assassination was planned and formulated in Cuba. If this was true and could be verified, The USA would probably have bombed and invaded Cuba. This would have brought Russia to Cuba’s defense and probably started World War III. So, our government might have had some strong reasons for not wanting the full facts to be known.
In the case of 9/11. Virtually every knowledgeable structural engineer in the world has agreed that the WTC towers could not have collapsed the way they did due to the crashing of the jets into the towers. Tower #7 showed no signs of weakness when it collapsed with only a minor fire on its roof. So, the conspiracy theory is that our government intentionally or accidentally imploded the towers in order to give us the grounds to start a war in the Middle East. Again, there would be some serious reasons for the government to conceal this information. Thousands of people died.
Now let’s look at Apollo 11: What serious reasons would the government have had to cover–up a failed mission? No lives would have been lost, no wars started. It might’ve been a big slap-in-the-face for NASA, but hardly worth a government cover-up. There would have been another mission attempted after about six months. Britain, Russia, India and others have subsequently sent missions to photograph the moon, so what would have been the big deal?
It is these other subsequent photographic missions circling the Moon that have created even bigger conspiracy theories: YouTube has several videos of our Moon that some believe to show manmade structures on the surface. I’ve seen several of the videos and, I must admit, there are things on the surface that appear like they could have been manmade.
Is this the kind of thing you keep under wraps? I think not! I’m certain all Moon surface photos have been examined thoroughly by NASA and Russian scientists. If they felt there were any indications of life (past or present) on the Moon, there would have been several exploratory missions to check it out. Your uncle has his beliefs, but until there is a lot stronger evidence than unclear photos of the Moon’s surface that can be interpreted in many ways, I’ll have to assume the Moon is not a UFO port.
Thanks for writing. Stephen Ellis
I love your questions. Please keep them coming. Stebrel@aol.com
November 22, 2009
Dear Mr. Ellis: My uncle belongs to a group that studies UFOs. He tells me that our government knows that UFOs are based on the back side of the Moon, and is keeping the truth from us. What do you think? David in Gallup, NM
Dear David: Theories about where the UFOs come from have been talked about for fifty years, and no one seems to know the answers for sure. Granted, it is far more likely UFOs come from our Moon or from Mars than that UFOs have traversed the vastness of outer space to visit us. There are a lot of “conspiracy theories” out there about our government knowing what (and who) UFOs are and keeping it a secret from us.
The above having been said, there are also conspiracy theories concerning man’s landing on the moon, about so-called concealed photos from Mars and the Moon that show the remnants of life and buildings, etc. These conspiracy theories have just flooded the internet. It’s worth a few moments of our time to look at them closely and see if, perhaps, they answer some questions about UFOs or even about our own origins.
YouTube has at least four or five videos claiming that the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon never happened. They say it was a massive conspiracy to deceive the world into believing that man had actually set foot on the Moon. I’m certain that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins get very upset when they hear these theories.
I am not, particularly, a conspiracy buff. I do believe that our government has intentionally concealed much information about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, but there are important, serious reasons behind our government’s concealing the truth in these instances:
In the case of JFK, there is strong evidence that the assassination was planned and formulated in Cuba. If this was true and could be verified, The USA would probably have bombed and invaded Cuba. This would have brought Russia to Cuba’s defense and probably started World War III. So, our government might have had some strong reasons for not wanting the full facts to be known.
In the case of 9/11. Virtually every knowledgeable structural engineer in the world has agreed that the WTC towers could not have collapsed the way they did due to the crashing of the jets into the towers. Tower #7 showed no signs of weakness when it collapsed with only a minor fire on its roof. So, the conspiracy theory is that our government intentionally or accidentally imploded the towers in order to give us the grounds to start a war in the Middle East. Again, there would be some serious reasons for the government to conceal this information. Thousands of people died.
Now let’s look at Apollo 11: What serious reasons would the government have had to cover–up a failed mission? No lives would have been lost, no wars started. It might’ve been a big slap-in-the-face for NASA, but hardly worth a government cover-up. There would have been another mission attempted after about six months. Britain, Russia, India and others have subsequently sent missions to photograph the moon, so what would have been the big deal?
It is these other subsequent photographic missions circling the Moon that have created even bigger conspiracy theories: YouTube has several videos of our Moon that some believe to show manmade structures on the surface. I’ve seen several of the videos and, I must admit, there are things on the surface that appear like they could have been manmade.
Is this the kind of thing you keep under wraps? I think not! I’m certain all Moon surface photos have been examined thoroughly by NASA and Russian scientists. If they felt there were any indications of life (past or present) on the Moon, there would have been several exploratory missions to check it out. Your uncle has his beliefs, but until there is a lot stronger evidence than unclear photos of the Moon’s surface that can be interpreted in many ways, I’ll have to assume the Moon is not a UFO port.
Thanks for writing. Stephen Ellis
I love your questions. Please keep them coming. Stebrel@aol.com
Sunday, November 15, 2009
More on Reincarnation
More on Reincarnation
November 15, 2009
Maybe it’s the holiday season, but this week I did not receive any questions or e-mail. Either that means no one is reading what I write, or that no one is curious about the paranormal. In either case, it gives me the chance to write more about reincarnation:
The only thing about reincarnation that is a great mystery to me is why more people haven’t recognized it as a true fact of life. The evidence that reincarnation is real is absolutely overwhelming! Granted that it is empirical or circumstantial evidence, but what kind of forensic evidence could possibly exist?
In the case of Shanti Devi, a young Indian girl of nine was able to go back to the village in which she lived in her past life which was many miles away from where she now lived and in a village where she had never visited. Accompanied by a group of scientific skeptics, she not only correctly located what she claimed was her former home, but noted the changes in it caused by remodeling. She immediately identified her former husband although he, anticipating her much publicized visit, intentionally,
pretended he was an onlooker and had an actor pretending he was her former husband. In front of numerous witnesses, newspapers and skeptic Shanti related intimate details of their married life that no one could have possibly known. That’s about as close to “forensic” as you can get.
I recently read of an Englishman named Ricky Wills who, when regressed by a hypnotist to a past life remembered being a printer who could never keep his hands clean of printers’ ink. As a printer he was always embarrassed by his ink-stained hands. When he was killed (being run-over by a horse and cart) he remembered watching his own funeral where his widow, as an emotional gesture, threw a decorative dress pin onto the dirt as they were covering the coffin. Ricky went back to the place where his former self was buried, found the grave, and out of curiosity dug down about a foot into the dirt covering the grave…and found the pin! Forensic evidence? Incidentally, Ricky, for some reason, in his present life, had never understood why he had a fetish about keeping his hands clean.
Or what about Bruce Kelly? The young man who, under hypnotic past life regression, remembered being a sailor, James Johnston, who died aboard a submarine that was sunk in WWII. Under hypnosis, he related in detail what it was like dying on the sinking submarine although Bruce had never been on a submarine. This was recent enough so that some of Johnston’s family was still alive and the details of Johnston’s life before enlisting and his Naval career in WWII were verified as told to the hypnotist by Bruce. Kelly had gone to the hypnotherapist because he had an unexplained fear of water. Forensic?
It’s not that these are isolated cases. There are more than one hundred that have been written about, detailed and verified in intricate detail. It does not seem probable…or even possible…that all of these people are lying or making-up stories while they are hypnotized. One of the characteristics of hypnotized people is that they tell the truth.
Hypnotism is, and always has been, a magic key to the paranormal. Hypnotism puts the brain to sleep and allows the mind/aura takes over. It’s the mind/aura that has lived before and will live again. During a waking state, when the brain is active, for some reason, direct communication with the mind/aura is exceedingly difficult. All communications with the mind/aura in a waking state are influenced by the brain.
It is while hypnotized (usually self-hypnosis, but sometimes under artificially produced sleep through anesthetics) that people can experience astral projection (mind-body separation). It is while hypnotized that psychics get their clearest telepathic communications.
As I stated at the outset, the biggest mystery to me is how so many, otherwise intelligent, people can refuse to even accept the possibility that reincarnation is real.
November 15, 2009
Maybe it’s the holiday season, but this week I did not receive any questions or e-mail. Either that means no one is reading what I write, or that no one is curious about the paranormal. In either case, it gives me the chance to write more about reincarnation:
The only thing about reincarnation that is a great mystery to me is why more people haven’t recognized it as a true fact of life. The evidence that reincarnation is real is absolutely overwhelming! Granted that it is empirical or circumstantial evidence, but what kind of forensic evidence could possibly exist?
In the case of Shanti Devi, a young Indian girl of nine was able to go back to the village in which she lived in her past life which was many miles away from where she now lived and in a village where she had never visited. Accompanied by a group of scientific skeptics, she not only correctly located what she claimed was her former home, but noted the changes in it caused by remodeling. She immediately identified her former husband although he, anticipating her much publicized visit, intentionally,
pretended he was an onlooker and had an actor pretending he was her former husband. In front of numerous witnesses, newspapers and skeptic Shanti related intimate details of their married life that no one could have possibly known. That’s about as close to “forensic” as you can get.
I recently read of an Englishman named Ricky Wills who, when regressed by a hypnotist to a past life remembered being a printer who could never keep his hands clean of printers’ ink. As a printer he was always embarrassed by his ink-stained hands. When he was killed (being run-over by a horse and cart) he remembered watching his own funeral where his widow, as an emotional gesture, threw a decorative dress pin onto the dirt as they were covering the coffin. Ricky went back to the place where his former self was buried, found the grave, and out of curiosity dug down about a foot into the dirt covering the grave…and found the pin! Forensic evidence? Incidentally, Ricky, for some reason, in his present life, had never understood why he had a fetish about keeping his hands clean.
Or what about Bruce Kelly? The young man who, under hypnotic past life regression, remembered being a sailor, James Johnston, who died aboard a submarine that was sunk in WWII. Under hypnosis, he related in detail what it was like dying on the sinking submarine although Bruce had never been on a submarine. This was recent enough so that some of Johnston’s family was still alive and the details of Johnston’s life before enlisting and his Naval career in WWII were verified as told to the hypnotist by Bruce. Kelly had gone to the hypnotherapist because he had an unexplained fear of water. Forensic?
It’s not that these are isolated cases. There are more than one hundred that have been written about, detailed and verified in intricate detail. It does not seem probable…or even possible…that all of these people are lying or making-up stories while they are hypnotized. One of the characteristics of hypnotized people is that they tell the truth.
Hypnotism is, and always has been, a magic key to the paranormal. Hypnotism puts the brain to sleep and allows the mind/aura takes over. It’s the mind/aura that has lived before and will live again. During a waking state, when the brain is active, for some reason, direct communication with the mind/aura is exceedingly difficult. All communications with the mind/aura in a waking state are influenced by the brain.
It is while hypnotized (usually self-hypnosis, but sometimes under artificially produced sleep through anesthetics) that people can experience astral projection (mind-body separation). It is while hypnotized that psychics get their clearest telepathic communications.
As I stated at the outset, the biggest mystery to me is how so many, otherwise intelligent, people can refuse to even accept the possibility that reincarnation is real.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Questions and Answers 3
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS -3
November 8, 2009
1. Question: What are “orbs”?
Answer: That’s not an easy question. Orbs are roundish balls ranging in size from pin-points to the size of a volleyball. We do not know what they really are, so, perhaps, a description of them would be best:
These (not always) round balls will appear in photographs and make a photo look like there were rain drops or a lot of dust on the lens of the camera. Of course, these possibilities have been tested and found to be without merit. At first, orbs were thought to be imperfections in the film. But when they started to appear on digital photos, this was also eliminated. If the orbs had been imperfections on digital photos, they would have appeared Square and not round.
A spectro-analysis of orbs has shown them to be surrounded by a coat of energy. Not very high-grade energy, but clearly the markings of energy. Thus, some scientists started to call them balls of energy. They have since retracted that theory.
It is interesting to note that the energy surrounding orbs is electromagnetic in nature and extremely similar to the electromagnetic field that surrounds our bodies… often called our “aura”.
Orbs have been around for a long time, but it seems that their presence has been noticed more in the past ten years than at any previous time.
In Perth, Australia, there is a house that seems to attract orbs. These are not orbs that the camera alone can see. They can be seen with the naked eye! In fact, the internet is replete with U-Tube videos of the orbs that seem to frequent this house. These orbs seem to come and go as per their own fee will. Solid objects do not seem to deter them…they pass right through. This, by the way, obviates someone using a flashlight or laser beam to make these things appear. When a light strikes a solid object, the light bends and goes around the object leaving a shadow on one side. These things clearly pass directly through solid objects.
The thought that these may be ghostly objects has also filled the internet with theories. Many people claim to be able to see faces in these orbs. To me, that takes a bit of imagination, but I can’t deny the “possibility” just because I don’t see them.
As I have often written about, I believe there are cracks in the time and fabric of our Earth and what we call “reality” or the dimension in which we live. Perhaps this house in Perth is near such a crack and some inter-dimensional objects pass through.
One thing is for certain: They have never harmed anyone.
Please keep the questions coming. stebrel@aol.com
Stephen Ellis
November 8, 2009
1. Question: What are “orbs”?
Answer: That’s not an easy question. Orbs are roundish balls ranging in size from pin-points to the size of a volleyball. We do not know what they really are, so, perhaps, a description of them would be best:
These (not always) round balls will appear in photographs and make a photo look like there were rain drops or a lot of dust on the lens of the camera. Of course, these possibilities have been tested and found to be without merit. At first, orbs were thought to be imperfections in the film. But when they started to appear on digital photos, this was also eliminated. If the orbs had been imperfections on digital photos, they would have appeared Square and not round.
A spectro-analysis of orbs has shown them to be surrounded by a coat of energy. Not very high-grade energy, but clearly the markings of energy. Thus, some scientists started to call them balls of energy. They have since retracted that theory.
It is interesting to note that the energy surrounding orbs is electromagnetic in nature and extremely similar to the electromagnetic field that surrounds our bodies… often called our “aura”.
Orbs have been around for a long time, but it seems that their presence has been noticed more in the past ten years than at any previous time.
In Perth, Australia, there is a house that seems to attract orbs. These are not orbs that the camera alone can see. They can be seen with the naked eye! In fact, the internet is replete with U-Tube videos of the orbs that seem to frequent this house. These orbs seem to come and go as per their own fee will. Solid objects do not seem to deter them…they pass right through. This, by the way, obviates someone using a flashlight or laser beam to make these things appear. When a light strikes a solid object, the light bends and goes around the object leaving a shadow on one side. These things clearly pass directly through solid objects.
The thought that these may be ghostly objects has also filled the internet with theories. Many people claim to be able to see faces in these orbs. To me, that takes a bit of imagination, but I can’t deny the “possibility” just because I don’t see them.
As I have often written about, I believe there are cracks in the time and fabric of our Earth and what we call “reality” or the dimension in which we live. Perhaps this house in Perth is near such a crack and some inter-dimensional objects pass through.
One thing is for certain: They have never harmed anyone.
Please keep the questions coming. stebrel@aol.com
Stephen Ellis
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Questions and Answers - 2
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
November 1, 2009
Maybe I’m finally on the right track. Lots of questions have been coming in. Most writers have requested that they not be identified, so I’ll continue the questions and answers and respect the writers’ anonymity:
1. Question: Why do ghosts only seem to make their presence known at night?
Answer: They don’t. There are lots of “daytime” ghosts that have mysteriously appeared in photographs taken while the sun was shining. The reason that most people tend to associate ghosts with nighttime activity is because, at night, everything is usually a lot quieter than in the daytime and strange shadows can be sensed better than in daylight. Ghosts are not very loud. Unlike our human bodies, they do not have vocal chords and, generally, communicate by thought waves…or, as we call it, ESP. If your mind is not preoccupied with other thoughts, frequently you will be able to hear ESP messages. Since verbal communication, without speech, is very difficult, frequently a deceased friend or relative may set your mind to thinking of a song or a scene that you can readily associate only with that person. How many times has a song you haven’t heard for years just popped into your head without rhyme or reason? If you think about “when” and “where” you first heard that song, it might be a communication from a deceased loved one letting you know that they are O.K.
2. Question: This week there were a couple of ghost-chasers and “mediums” on the Larry King Live show. Did you see the show and, if you did, what did you think of it?
Answer: I did see the show. I was away in San Francisco at a Probate Referees’ Conference when my wife called me and told me to check-it-out. The so-called ghost-chasers were very impressive with the equipment they set up. They did acknowledge the existence of ghosts…or rather, “unexplained presences”. Insofar as the mediums, psychics and authors were concerned, I repeat what I have often said: I have never met a genuine medium, or psychic who made their living being a medium or psychic. There are some very fine people who run paranormal centers, but they usually do not claim they have psychic powers.
3. Question: Are the so-called hand-healers or Reiki healers for real?
Answer: First we have to distinguish between Reiki and hand-healers. Reiki is a technique whereby, through massage or other touching of your body, the tensions within the body transfer themselves to the hands of Reiki therapist. Reiki therapists are taught the Reiki technique and apply it to their clients. Those who go for Reiki treatments swear by it. If it helps people, I’m fully in favor of it. Hand-healing is significantly more complex: For thousands of years there have been hand-healers. These are special people with special powers. Throughout history they have been known by different names: witch-doctors, saints, voodoo hands, miracle workers, etc. They have the ability to draw the problems or dysfunctions of the body out of the body like an “Empath”. There are hundreds of thousands of recorded cases where hand-healers have cured such things as appendicitis, brain tumors, smallpox, scoliosis, cancer, etc. Hand-healers do not succeed more than 25% of the time, and even then, sometimes take months to affect a cure. Many physicians now hire supposedly authentic hand-healers to try to help their patients who do not respond to the more traditional treatments.
4. Question: Is there anything to astrology?
Answer: When you say “anything”, you’re asking an extremely broad question. If you mean, “Is there anything to published horoscopes?”, the answer is a definite “no”. Your astrological sign does not determine whether today will be a good day or a bad day, nor does it pre-designate your lucky numbers, nor tell you how, when and where to find love. If you meant “Does your position in the cosmos at the time of your birth have an effect on your life?”, then I would have to respond, “I don’t know.” It’s possible that the position of the sun, the moon and the stars at the time of your birth has some effect on your life, but I have not studied this possibility enough to give you an educated answer.
5. Question (from the same person): Is there anything to palmistry?
Answer: Again, I don’t know enough about palmistry to give you a good answer. It just seems to me that if there was anything to palmistry, every insurance company would want to look at your life-line before selling you a life insurance policy. And, of course, they don’t.
Please keep the questions coming. Stebre@aol.com
Stephen Ellis
November 1, 2009
Maybe I’m finally on the right track. Lots of questions have been coming in. Most writers have requested that they not be identified, so I’ll continue the questions and answers and respect the writers’ anonymity:
1. Question: Why do ghosts only seem to make their presence known at night?
Answer: They don’t. There are lots of “daytime” ghosts that have mysteriously appeared in photographs taken while the sun was shining. The reason that most people tend to associate ghosts with nighttime activity is because, at night, everything is usually a lot quieter than in the daytime and strange shadows can be sensed better than in daylight. Ghosts are not very loud. Unlike our human bodies, they do not have vocal chords and, generally, communicate by thought waves…or, as we call it, ESP. If your mind is not preoccupied with other thoughts, frequently you will be able to hear ESP messages. Since verbal communication, without speech, is very difficult, frequently a deceased friend or relative may set your mind to thinking of a song or a scene that you can readily associate only with that person. How many times has a song you haven’t heard for years just popped into your head without rhyme or reason? If you think about “when” and “where” you first heard that song, it might be a communication from a deceased loved one letting you know that they are O.K.
2. Question: This week there were a couple of ghost-chasers and “mediums” on the Larry King Live show. Did you see the show and, if you did, what did you think of it?
Answer: I did see the show. I was away in San Francisco at a Probate Referees’ Conference when my wife called me and told me to check-it-out. The so-called ghost-chasers were very impressive with the equipment they set up. They did acknowledge the existence of ghosts…or rather, “unexplained presences”. Insofar as the mediums, psychics and authors were concerned, I repeat what I have often said: I have never met a genuine medium, or psychic who made their living being a medium or psychic. There are some very fine people who run paranormal centers, but they usually do not claim they have psychic powers.
3. Question: Are the so-called hand-healers or Reiki healers for real?
Answer: First we have to distinguish between Reiki and hand-healers. Reiki is a technique whereby, through massage or other touching of your body, the tensions within the body transfer themselves to the hands of Reiki therapist. Reiki therapists are taught the Reiki technique and apply it to their clients. Those who go for Reiki treatments swear by it. If it helps people, I’m fully in favor of it. Hand-healing is significantly more complex: For thousands of years there have been hand-healers. These are special people with special powers. Throughout history they have been known by different names: witch-doctors, saints, voodoo hands, miracle workers, etc. They have the ability to draw the problems or dysfunctions of the body out of the body like an “Empath”. There are hundreds of thousands of recorded cases where hand-healers have cured such things as appendicitis, brain tumors, smallpox, scoliosis, cancer, etc. Hand-healers do not succeed more than 25% of the time, and even then, sometimes take months to affect a cure. Many physicians now hire supposedly authentic hand-healers to try to help their patients who do not respond to the more traditional treatments.
4. Question: Is there anything to astrology?
Answer: When you say “anything”, you’re asking an extremely broad question. If you mean, “Is there anything to published horoscopes?”, the answer is a definite “no”. Your astrological sign does not determine whether today will be a good day or a bad day, nor does it pre-designate your lucky numbers, nor tell you how, when and where to find love. If you meant “Does your position in the cosmos at the time of your birth have an effect on your life?”, then I would have to respond, “I don’t know.” It’s possible that the position of the sun, the moon and the stars at the time of your birth has some effect on your life, but I have not studied this possibility enough to give you an educated answer.
5. Question (from the same person): Is there anything to palmistry?
Answer: Again, I don’t know enough about palmistry to give you a good answer. It just seems to me that if there was anything to palmistry, every insurance company would want to look at your life-line before selling you a life insurance policy. And, of course, they don’t.
Please keep the questions coming. Stebre@aol.com
Stephen Ellis
Monday, October 26, 2009
Questions and Answers 1
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
October 24, 2009
Apparently, I’m writing too much. There have been several complaints in the past few weeks that my blogs are getting too long (and boring?), so I’m going to shorten them to make reading them easier. What I’m going to do this week is to set forth the questions I am asked most often and the answers to the best of my ability:
1. Question: Why do you write about the paranormal when most people don’t believe what you write?
Answer: Simply because a belief is popular doesn’t mean it’s true. Not that many years ago (only a few centuries) people believed the sun revolved around the Earth. Not just the uneducated, but the scientists of the day, as well. People like DaVinci were telling anyone who would listen that the Earth was round and that it revolved about the sun…but the “smart” people of that period refused to believe it and made fun of those who thought differently.
2. Question: You’re a very educated man. Have you really researched the paranormal?
Answer: Of course I have and I am constantly researching it. Ever since 1979 when I saw what I believed to be a dream and later discovered it was the ghost or spirit of a girl who had been murdered in the apartment I was renting, I have thoroughly researched the paranormal and continue to do it to this day. What I saw was unexplained by science, and I had to find out what caused it. Some day, the research I’ve done may be recognized as the “truth” about life.
3. Question: Do you have any scientific proof of paranormal things?
Answer: No. There is overwhelming evidence of such things as ghosts, UFOs, mind-body separation, etc., but none of them will meet the criteria of “scientific proof”. Science sets standards that even scientists cannot meet: Fifty years ago science claimed to have proof that our solar system was created by a larger star passing near our sun and pulling gasses from it which became globules, cooled and became planets. Twenty years ago science had “proof” that Pluto was a ninth planet in our solar system (only recently discovered to be untrue). The key aspects of physics: quantum mechanics, nuclear physics and light weren’t even known about less than 100 years ago. In law, when forensic proof is absent, courts rely on circumstantial evidence. There is enormous circumstantial evidence that the paranormal is very real.
4. Question: Why do you believe the brain and the mind are two wholly separate things?
Answer: The brain controls the bodily functions like breathing, feeling pain or pleasure, etc. The mind controls the thought process. Your brain can tell you that something is extremely hot, but your mind can still tell you it’s O.K. to touch it. So, you touch it. People with football or military injuries to their brain may have a tough time with their bodily functions…but such injuries never affect the mind or the clarity with which the mind functions. A body may not respond to an injured brain’s command…while the mind tries to figure out a way to make the body respond.
5. Question: Why are you so certain ghosts and UFOs really exist:
Answer: Because I’m not foolish enough to call millions of people “liars” or “phonies”. There have been millions of UFO and ghost sightings from people who have nothing to gain by lying or seeking publicity. There have been hundreds of thousands of UFO photos and videos. Far fewer, but still quite significant are photos of ghosts that weren’t there when the picture was taken. Granted that photo-shopping can do a lot, but there are so many people (including myself) that have seen these things for themselves. It is foolish and highly egotistical to say that the millions who have experienced paranormal phenomena are all liars or pranksters.
6. Question: Why are you so certain that there is life after death?
Answer: Because there are too many unexplained things that can only be explained by reincarnation. There are cases on record of people who not only knew they had lived before, but remembered details of their previous life which could only have been known to the deceased or the deceased’s family. These things have been checked by scientists, by skeptics and by newspapers and the majority have passed the most intensive scrutiny. But, since science cannot explain them, stories of provable reincarnation are buried except to those of us who research the subject.
I’m keeping it short, but I’ll have more questions and answers next week. Contact me at stebrel@aol.com if you have a question you’d like answered.
October 24, 2009
Apparently, I’m writing too much. There have been several complaints in the past few weeks that my blogs are getting too long (and boring?), so I’m going to shorten them to make reading them easier. What I’m going to do this week is to set forth the questions I am asked most often and the answers to the best of my ability:
1. Question: Why do you write about the paranormal when most people don’t believe what you write?
Answer: Simply because a belief is popular doesn’t mean it’s true. Not that many years ago (only a few centuries) people believed the sun revolved around the Earth. Not just the uneducated, but the scientists of the day, as well. People like DaVinci were telling anyone who would listen that the Earth was round and that it revolved about the sun…but the “smart” people of that period refused to believe it and made fun of those who thought differently.
2. Question: You’re a very educated man. Have you really researched the paranormal?
Answer: Of course I have and I am constantly researching it. Ever since 1979 when I saw what I believed to be a dream and later discovered it was the ghost or spirit of a girl who had been murdered in the apartment I was renting, I have thoroughly researched the paranormal and continue to do it to this day. What I saw was unexplained by science, and I had to find out what caused it. Some day, the research I’ve done may be recognized as the “truth” about life.
3. Question: Do you have any scientific proof of paranormal things?
Answer: No. There is overwhelming evidence of such things as ghosts, UFOs, mind-body separation, etc., but none of them will meet the criteria of “scientific proof”. Science sets standards that even scientists cannot meet: Fifty years ago science claimed to have proof that our solar system was created by a larger star passing near our sun and pulling gasses from it which became globules, cooled and became planets. Twenty years ago science had “proof” that Pluto was a ninth planet in our solar system (only recently discovered to be untrue). The key aspects of physics: quantum mechanics, nuclear physics and light weren’t even known about less than 100 years ago. In law, when forensic proof is absent, courts rely on circumstantial evidence. There is enormous circumstantial evidence that the paranormal is very real.
4. Question: Why do you believe the brain and the mind are two wholly separate things?
Answer: The brain controls the bodily functions like breathing, feeling pain or pleasure, etc. The mind controls the thought process. Your brain can tell you that something is extremely hot, but your mind can still tell you it’s O.K. to touch it. So, you touch it. People with football or military injuries to their brain may have a tough time with their bodily functions…but such injuries never affect the mind or the clarity with which the mind functions. A body may not respond to an injured brain’s command…while the mind tries to figure out a way to make the body respond.
5. Question: Why are you so certain ghosts and UFOs really exist:
Answer: Because I’m not foolish enough to call millions of people “liars” or “phonies”. There have been millions of UFO and ghost sightings from people who have nothing to gain by lying or seeking publicity. There have been hundreds of thousands of UFO photos and videos. Far fewer, but still quite significant are photos of ghosts that weren’t there when the picture was taken. Granted that photo-shopping can do a lot, but there are so many people (including myself) that have seen these things for themselves. It is foolish and highly egotistical to say that the millions who have experienced paranormal phenomena are all liars or pranksters.
6. Question: Why are you so certain that there is life after death?
Answer: Because there are too many unexplained things that can only be explained by reincarnation. There are cases on record of people who not only knew they had lived before, but remembered details of their previous life which could only have been known to the deceased or the deceased’s family. These things have been checked by scientists, by skeptics and by newspapers and the majority have passed the most intensive scrutiny. But, since science cannot explain them, stories of provable reincarnation are buried except to those of us who research the subject.
I’m keeping it short, but I’ll have more questions and answers next week. Contact me at stebrel@aol.com if you have a question you’d like answered.
Monday, October 19, 2009
PARANORMAL PERCEPTION
PARANORMAL PERCEPTION October 18, 2009
Nobody asked me, but…
I’ve spoken with numbers of people who have different beliefs about this world in which we live. Not religious beliefs. By “beliefs”, I’m talking about the people who believe in ghosts…life after death… reincarnation…UFOs: Paranormal beliefs.
My daughter, Debbie Fontaine, approached me the other day and stated her belief that we are simultaneously living in another dimension: that we have a similar (if not identical) existence in a dimension in a world that only offers us glimpses into it. At first glance, this might seem to be a bit “far-out”: By “far-out” I mean that her thoughts or beliefs will never be accepted or even looked at closely by the majority of people who are afraid to look at any possibilities other than those in their comfort-zone. Most people readily deny the existence of ghosts, UFOs, reincarnation, etc. because they are afraid of what they might find out. It’s so much easier to put-down investigative thinking and relax in the knowledge that “I Love Lucy” re-runs are shown on Saturdays.
I don’t know the merits or drawbacks of Debbie’s thinking but, even superficially, her theory (or feeling) would actually tend to answer some of our unanswered questions about things we tend to push-aside and call ‘paranormal’.
Most people in the world do not accept the paranormal as being real because they are afraid to face the truth even when the truth is supported by overwhelming evidence. People deny the existence of UFOs despite millions of sightings and hundreds of thousands of photos and videos because they are ‘afraid’ of the thought that some advanced civilization or beings with greater intelligence than ours will swoop down and conquer the Earth, killing or imprisoning its population.
Similarly, most people are afraid of ghosts because, ever since writing became popular, almost all writers have described ghosts as evil things that are impervious to any efforts to fight them. The Frankenstein monster, the living dead, zombies, etc. It is only recently that writers have begun to picture ghosts as being more human: “The Canterbury Ghost”, “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”, the movie “Ghost”. We describe anyplace we believe a ghost resides as being “haunted”…a term designed to create fear. In actuality, so-called “haunted” places are simply places where dead people who have not recognized the fact that they are dead, still reside. Note that almost 100% of so-called “haunted” places are haunted by the people who used to live there or work there. In the real world, I’ve never heard of a ghost hurting a live human being. Yet people get frightened just walking in a cemetery at night.
Probably one of the reasons organized religion has so many followers is that they promulgate the fear of a Heaven or a Hell. The bad things you do, two by two, will be paid for one at a time in God’s domain. People are frightened of an allegedly omnipotent God whose wrath is written about in all Bibles…but there is safety in numbers. If a lot of people believe as you do…and none of them have led “perfect” lives…maybe God won’t think you’ve been such a bad person when you meet Him face-to-face. Organized religions all have a book of rules If you follow the rules you will be spared His wrath. People feel comfort and safety in this because there are so many others consigned to follow the same sets of rules. All organized religions are based on fear of the unknown and unexplained.
It’s when we put fear aside that we start to use the intelligence God gave us (and “yes”, I do believe in intelligent design) and that we learn to look at things objectively. As I said, unexplained things like ghosts and UFOs have never harmed anyone, so why not look at them closely with an open mind and try and find out if they really exist and what they really are? Debbie’s theory about dimensions should be examined and its strengths and weaknesses explored.
First let’s take a sensible look at what a dimension is: The dimension in which we live is controlled by our ability to sense what is around us. Something exits if we can see it, smell it, taste it, touch it or hear it. But what if there are sounds too high or low pitched for us to hear? Or things not bright enough…or too bright for us to see…or odors we can’t smell, etc.? We know these things exist because in recent years we’ve tested them in laboratories and have developed some instruments to perceive them. Yet, by definition, since they are out of the range of our normal perception, they are not in our dimension.
Now let’s use our imaginations: Is it so far-fetched to believe that there are some living creatures, somewhere in the vast universe, that can hear sounds and see things we can’t? Living creatures who perceive things in their everyday lives that we cannot perceive? Conversely, the sights, sounds, etc. of our world may be imperceptible to them. Thus we say, they (or we) exist in a different dimension where contact with each other is all but impossible.
The question then presents itself , “How do we know that they really do exist somewhere?”
We fall-back on something I’ve been preaching and writing about for years: Our minds! One of the first steps to higher learning is accepting the fact that your mind (or as I sometimes call it, your “aura”) is not in your brain. It may work in conjunction with your brain, but the brain and the mind are not one and the same.
Proof of this is evident every day. People with brains damaged by cerebral palsy, or injured playing football or in a military action, etc. still have minds that function perfectly. Our brain may tell us that a frying pan is hot but we decide to try and lift it anyhow. Your brain “calculates”…your mind “decides”. Our mind and our brain are two totally different things. What we hear in our heads is our own voice reflecting the operation of our mind…not our brain. Our brain told us the frying pan was hot, and we touched it anyhow…then our mind tells us, “Boy, that was a stupid thing to do!”
Our mind cannot be touched, tasted, smelled, seen or heard. Again…what we hear is our own voice, not the functioning of our mind. Therefore, by definition, our mind (or aura) exists in a different dimension. It is capable of temporary separation from your body (astral projection) and it can perceive people, places and things (dreams) that don’t exist when we are awake. If our mind/aura is a part of a different dimension that has learned to communicate with us, is it really so far-fetched to believe that in its dimension it can perceive other things that we, as humans, cannot?
The thought that Debbie expressed may be a little unusual, but it is definitely possible. Over the years I have learned that Debbie is many times more sensitive to things I cannot perceive. She will meet someone for the first time and know immediately that this is a “good” or a “bad” person. And she’s right more than 90% of the time. When she’s alone or sleeping, she can perceive visits from deceased family members far more easily than I.
To me, it is entirely possible that via her more sensitive mind/aura that she can get glimpses of sights, sounds, etc. from a dimension most of us cannot perceive.
Most people can discover a lot of things they never knew existed if only they will stop being afraid to look…afraid of the unknown. Once you rid yourself of the fears that pervade our everyday living, you will be surprised at how much more your mind/aura will reveal to you. “Fear” is now and has always been the greatest enemy of mankind here on Earth. I’m not suggesting you should abandon common-sense, but you should not be afraid to look for people, things and places that are different from those you normally see. It’s not easy to do…but if you make a determined effort I truly believe you will become aware of many things around us...things you may never have believed existed.
Please write me at stebrel@aol.com and let me know if you’ve had perceptions of other dimensions.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Nobody asked me, but…
I’ve spoken with numbers of people who have different beliefs about this world in which we live. Not religious beliefs. By “beliefs”, I’m talking about the people who believe in ghosts…life after death… reincarnation…UFOs: Paranormal beliefs.
My daughter, Debbie Fontaine, approached me the other day and stated her belief that we are simultaneously living in another dimension: that we have a similar (if not identical) existence in a dimension in a world that only offers us glimpses into it. At first glance, this might seem to be a bit “far-out”: By “far-out” I mean that her thoughts or beliefs will never be accepted or even looked at closely by the majority of people who are afraid to look at any possibilities other than those in their comfort-zone. Most people readily deny the existence of ghosts, UFOs, reincarnation, etc. because they are afraid of what they might find out. It’s so much easier to put-down investigative thinking and relax in the knowledge that “I Love Lucy” re-runs are shown on Saturdays.
I don’t know the merits or drawbacks of Debbie’s thinking but, even superficially, her theory (or feeling) would actually tend to answer some of our unanswered questions about things we tend to push-aside and call ‘paranormal’.
Most people in the world do not accept the paranormal as being real because they are afraid to face the truth even when the truth is supported by overwhelming evidence. People deny the existence of UFOs despite millions of sightings and hundreds of thousands of photos and videos because they are ‘afraid’ of the thought that some advanced civilization or beings with greater intelligence than ours will swoop down and conquer the Earth, killing or imprisoning its population.
Similarly, most people are afraid of ghosts because, ever since writing became popular, almost all writers have described ghosts as evil things that are impervious to any efforts to fight them. The Frankenstein monster, the living dead, zombies, etc. It is only recently that writers have begun to picture ghosts as being more human: “The Canterbury Ghost”, “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”, the movie “Ghost”. We describe anyplace we believe a ghost resides as being “haunted”…a term designed to create fear. In actuality, so-called “haunted” places are simply places where dead people who have not recognized the fact that they are dead, still reside. Note that almost 100% of so-called “haunted” places are haunted by the people who used to live there or work there. In the real world, I’ve never heard of a ghost hurting a live human being. Yet people get frightened just walking in a cemetery at night.
Probably one of the reasons organized religion has so many followers is that they promulgate the fear of a Heaven or a Hell. The bad things you do, two by two, will be paid for one at a time in God’s domain. People are frightened of an allegedly omnipotent God whose wrath is written about in all Bibles…but there is safety in numbers. If a lot of people believe as you do…and none of them have led “perfect” lives…maybe God won’t think you’ve been such a bad person when you meet Him face-to-face. Organized religions all have a book of rules If you follow the rules you will be spared His wrath. People feel comfort and safety in this because there are so many others consigned to follow the same sets of rules. All organized religions are based on fear of the unknown and unexplained.
It’s when we put fear aside that we start to use the intelligence God gave us (and “yes”, I do believe in intelligent design) and that we learn to look at things objectively. As I said, unexplained things like ghosts and UFOs have never harmed anyone, so why not look at them closely with an open mind and try and find out if they really exist and what they really are? Debbie’s theory about dimensions should be examined and its strengths and weaknesses explored.
First let’s take a sensible look at what a dimension is: The dimension in which we live is controlled by our ability to sense what is around us. Something exits if we can see it, smell it, taste it, touch it or hear it. But what if there are sounds too high or low pitched for us to hear? Or things not bright enough…or too bright for us to see…or odors we can’t smell, etc.? We know these things exist because in recent years we’ve tested them in laboratories and have developed some instruments to perceive them. Yet, by definition, since they are out of the range of our normal perception, they are not in our dimension.
Now let’s use our imaginations: Is it so far-fetched to believe that there are some living creatures, somewhere in the vast universe, that can hear sounds and see things we can’t? Living creatures who perceive things in their everyday lives that we cannot perceive? Conversely, the sights, sounds, etc. of our world may be imperceptible to them. Thus we say, they (or we) exist in a different dimension where contact with each other is all but impossible.
The question then presents itself , “How do we know that they really do exist somewhere?”
We fall-back on something I’ve been preaching and writing about for years: Our minds! One of the first steps to higher learning is accepting the fact that your mind (or as I sometimes call it, your “aura”) is not in your brain. It may work in conjunction with your brain, but the brain and the mind are not one and the same.
Proof of this is evident every day. People with brains damaged by cerebral palsy, or injured playing football or in a military action, etc. still have minds that function perfectly. Our brain may tell us that a frying pan is hot but we decide to try and lift it anyhow. Your brain “calculates”…your mind “decides”. Our mind and our brain are two totally different things. What we hear in our heads is our own voice reflecting the operation of our mind…not our brain. Our brain told us the frying pan was hot, and we touched it anyhow…then our mind tells us, “Boy, that was a stupid thing to do!”
Our mind cannot be touched, tasted, smelled, seen or heard. Again…what we hear is our own voice, not the functioning of our mind. Therefore, by definition, our mind (or aura) exists in a different dimension. It is capable of temporary separation from your body (astral projection) and it can perceive people, places and things (dreams) that don’t exist when we are awake. If our mind/aura is a part of a different dimension that has learned to communicate with us, is it really so far-fetched to believe that in its dimension it can perceive other things that we, as humans, cannot?
The thought that Debbie expressed may be a little unusual, but it is definitely possible. Over the years I have learned that Debbie is many times more sensitive to things I cannot perceive. She will meet someone for the first time and know immediately that this is a “good” or a “bad” person. And she’s right more than 90% of the time. When she’s alone or sleeping, she can perceive visits from deceased family members far more easily than I.
To me, it is entirely possible that via her more sensitive mind/aura that she can get glimpses of sights, sounds, etc. from a dimension most of us cannot perceive.
Most people can discover a lot of things they never knew existed if only they will stop being afraid to look…afraid of the unknown. Once you rid yourself of the fears that pervade our everyday living, you will be surprised at how much more your mind/aura will reveal to you. “Fear” is now and has always been the greatest enemy of mankind here on Earth. I’m not suggesting you should abandon common-sense, but you should not be afraid to look for people, things and places that are different from those you normally see. It’s not easy to do…but if you make a determined effort I truly believe you will become aware of many things around us...things you may never have believed existed.
Please write me at stebrel@aol.com and let me know if you’ve had perceptions of other dimensions.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
UFO Reports
UFO REPORTS October 11, 2009
This is the third and final blog in a three-part report on paranormal frauds. In the first two we talked about Psychic frauds and Medium frauds. Our topic today is UFO frauds.
When talking about Psychic and Medium frauds, there is one factor in common: It’s a way for someone to dip into your purse and make a profit by pretending to have special powers. This is not so with the UFO frauds: most UFO frauds are perpetrated by people who want to see if they can fool you…or make a fool of you! Maybe what they really want is to try and prove themselves superior to you or get an unearned fifteen minutes of fame.
There have been in excess of two million UFO “sightings” reported; some of them from heads of State, some from the military (including Generals and Admirals), some from the astronomical societies. There have been far too many reports of UFOs for any intelligent person to say that they are all frauds or mistakes. Of course, with so many reported sightings, you may want to ask yourself “How come I’ve never seen one?”
Let's take a real look at the probability: There are approximately 6 billion people on Earth, and 2 million only represents .0003% of the world’s population. In simple terms, that means that only one of every 1,800,000 people have reported a UFO sighting. So the odds are very high that you have never seen one with your own eyes.
However, there are a very substantial number of photos of UFOs. I don’t know exactly how many, but I would estimate more than 100,000 photos exit. So, with more than 2 million sightings reported and more than 100,000 photographs available on the Internet (most of which have been checked for “photo-shopping), it becomes ludicrous to say that UFOs don’t exist.
Yet, there are a significant number of people who will make up stories about UFOs; about UFO crashes; about being abducted by aliens from UFOs; about finding alien skeletons; about crop circles; etc. Some of these frauds go to incredible lengths such as making dummy models of what they believe UFOs look like; photographing the models; creating plastic skeletons; decorating wheat and corn fields with large patterns to try and convince observers that these were done by alien beings. To me, such people are not only frauds, they are psychopaths. At least the Psychic and Medium frauds are trying to make money…but I don’t see how these frauds are trying to do anything but prove that they can fool some people. I guess there will always be people who can be fooled, and there will always be some publishers who will pay people to tell their make-believe stories about having been abducted by UFO aliens.
The sad part is that people like these have made the entire world of UFOs (and, possibly, alien beings) appear to be ridiculous and absurd. Their antics have kept the more scientific institutions from taking UFO reports more seriously and, perhaps, uncovering what they really are. Newspapers seem to delight in exposing some of these frauds and detailing how far they went to fool people. The trouble with this is that the frauds get much more media coverage than the legitimate reports.
I’ve received a very significant number of reported UFO sightings, some of which appear to be quite legitimate and some of which are blatant frauds. I have never met a person who claims to have been abducted or seen alien beings that was believable. I’ve seen a great number of alleged UFO photographs that are clearly fraudulent (I do not believe UFOs pause to pose for photographs) and I’ve seen an even greater number of photographs that have been checked for photo-doctoring that clearly are UFOs.
It’s going to be impossible to ever verify the existence of UFOs unless one lands in a public place and whatever/whomever is inside of it steps out for the world to see. Until that happens, we can make some educated guesses:
UFOs have to emanate from someplace: The three most logical assumptions are (1) they emanate from some world in outer space, (2) they emanate from a different dimension, or (3) they emanate from someplace here on Earth. There seems to be no consistency in the shape of UFOs. I’ve seen many undoctored photos showing them as round, oval, triangular and diamond shape. Of course, none of the photos have ever been crystal clear because the UFO is moving and does not pose for pictures. But there are numerous photos in which their shape is clear. This means that (a) they are from a multitude of different origins or (b) their shape is flexible.
If their shape is flexible, then it is clear that UFOs originate in a different dimension and, somehow, slip through cracks in out fabric of space and time.
If they are craft with different shapes, then the concept of multiple origins is likely to be true. It would also diminish the probability that their origin is someplace here on Earth. It’s difficult to believe that although almost three-quarters of our Earth is still unexplored and our motion-detectors (radar and sonar) are still quite primitive that numerous craft of different shapes exist here on Earth or even under our oceans that have not been isolated as to their origin…unless the craft are so small as to be virtually undetectable. Our eyes often deceive us. Optical illusions are plentiful. It’s entirely possible that what appear to be large objects in the sky are actually much smaller and closer to us than our eyes perceive.
We cannot discount the possibility that these UFO craft are from somewhere in outer space. The likelihood that there are a variety of other places in space that have traversed the enormous distances in space (trillions and trillions of miles) just to observe the Earth is highly unlikely. (A brief aside: If you want to know just how large a "trillion" is, just imagine that you had a counting machine that counted four numbers per second and never stopped, day or night. It would take that machine more than 79 years to reach a "trillion".)
Of course, there is the possibility (as several science-fiction authors have suggested) that there is a twin planet to Earth on the opposite side of the Sun. But if this was true, why would there be so many different shapes of UFOs?
Clearly, UFOs exist. What they are, where they are from, and why they are observing us are all questions still to be answered.
If you have any thoughts on the subject, write me at stebrel@aol.com
This is the third and final blog in a three-part report on paranormal frauds. In the first two we talked about Psychic frauds and Medium frauds. Our topic today is UFO frauds.
When talking about Psychic and Medium frauds, there is one factor in common: It’s a way for someone to dip into your purse and make a profit by pretending to have special powers. This is not so with the UFO frauds: most UFO frauds are perpetrated by people who want to see if they can fool you…or make a fool of you! Maybe what they really want is to try and prove themselves superior to you or get an unearned fifteen minutes of fame.
There have been in excess of two million UFO “sightings” reported; some of them from heads of State, some from the military (including Generals and Admirals), some from the astronomical societies. There have been far too many reports of UFOs for any intelligent person to say that they are all frauds or mistakes. Of course, with so many reported sightings, you may want to ask yourself “How come I’ve never seen one?”
Let's take a real look at the probability: There are approximately 6 billion people on Earth, and 2 million only represents .0003% of the world’s population. In simple terms, that means that only one of every 1,800,000 people have reported a UFO sighting. So the odds are very high that you have never seen one with your own eyes.
However, there are a very substantial number of photos of UFOs. I don’t know exactly how many, but I would estimate more than 100,000 photos exit. So, with more than 2 million sightings reported and more than 100,000 photographs available on the Internet (most of which have been checked for “photo-shopping), it becomes ludicrous to say that UFOs don’t exist.
Yet, there are a significant number of people who will make up stories about UFOs; about UFO crashes; about being abducted by aliens from UFOs; about finding alien skeletons; about crop circles; etc. Some of these frauds go to incredible lengths such as making dummy models of what they believe UFOs look like; photographing the models; creating plastic skeletons; decorating wheat and corn fields with large patterns to try and convince observers that these were done by alien beings. To me, such people are not only frauds, they are psychopaths. At least the Psychic and Medium frauds are trying to make money…but I don’t see how these frauds are trying to do anything but prove that they can fool some people. I guess there will always be people who can be fooled, and there will always be some publishers who will pay people to tell their make-believe stories about having been abducted by UFO aliens.
The sad part is that people like these have made the entire world of UFOs (and, possibly, alien beings) appear to be ridiculous and absurd. Their antics have kept the more scientific institutions from taking UFO reports more seriously and, perhaps, uncovering what they really are. Newspapers seem to delight in exposing some of these frauds and detailing how far they went to fool people. The trouble with this is that the frauds get much more media coverage than the legitimate reports.
I’ve received a very significant number of reported UFO sightings, some of which appear to be quite legitimate and some of which are blatant frauds. I have never met a person who claims to have been abducted or seen alien beings that was believable. I’ve seen a great number of alleged UFO photographs that are clearly fraudulent (I do not believe UFOs pause to pose for photographs) and I’ve seen an even greater number of photographs that have been checked for photo-doctoring that clearly are UFOs.
It’s going to be impossible to ever verify the existence of UFOs unless one lands in a public place and whatever/whomever is inside of it steps out for the world to see. Until that happens, we can make some educated guesses:
UFOs have to emanate from someplace: The three most logical assumptions are (1) they emanate from some world in outer space, (2) they emanate from a different dimension, or (3) they emanate from someplace here on Earth. There seems to be no consistency in the shape of UFOs. I’ve seen many undoctored photos showing them as round, oval, triangular and diamond shape. Of course, none of the photos have ever been crystal clear because the UFO is moving and does not pose for pictures. But there are numerous photos in which their shape is clear. This means that (a) they are from a multitude of different origins or (b) their shape is flexible.
If their shape is flexible, then it is clear that UFOs originate in a different dimension and, somehow, slip through cracks in out fabric of space and time.
If they are craft with different shapes, then the concept of multiple origins is likely to be true. It would also diminish the probability that their origin is someplace here on Earth. It’s difficult to believe that although almost three-quarters of our Earth is still unexplored and our motion-detectors (radar and sonar) are still quite primitive that numerous craft of different shapes exist here on Earth or even under our oceans that have not been isolated as to their origin…unless the craft are so small as to be virtually undetectable. Our eyes often deceive us. Optical illusions are plentiful. It’s entirely possible that what appear to be large objects in the sky are actually much smaller and closer to us than our eyes perceive.
We cannot discount the possibility that these UFO craft are from somewhere in outer space. The likelihood that there are a variety of other places in space that have traversed the enormous distances in space (trillions and trillions of miles) just to observe the Earth is highly unlikely. (A brief aside: If you want to know just how large a "trillion" is, just imagine that you had a counting machine that counted four numbers per second and never stopped, day or night. It would take that machine more than 79 years to reach a "trillion".)
Of course, there is the possibility (as several science-fiction authors have suggested) that there is a twin planet to Earth on the opposite side of the Sun. But if this was true, why would there be so many different shapes of UFOs?
Clearly, UFOs exist. What they are, where they are from, and why they are observing us are all questions still to be answered.
If you have any thoughts on the subject, write me at stebrel@aol.com
Sunday, October 4, 2009
THE SECRETS OF TALKING TO THE DEAD
THE SECRETS OF TALKING TO THE DEAD October 4, 2009
This is the first anniversary of my writing about paranormal phenomena. Judging by the amount of e-mail I get, my blog is becoming quite popular. Although I have exposed a lot of frauds, the primary goal of this blog is to increase the awareness of people that there are a significant number of genuine, seemingly inexplicable, things in our world. My writing is an attempt to separate the genuine from the myths and the fraudulent and, whenever possible, explain them in a way most people will understand.
We live in a world where money reigns supreme. As a result, there are vast numbers of people who will do anything if it brings them a good financial return. Most people have a natural curiosity about such things as life after death, heaven and hell, etc. If someone claims they can “talk with the dead”, there are a lot of people who will pay him/her to talk to one or more of their dead loved ones. Being a Medium can be very financially rewarding. As a result, the number of phony Mediums abound. I have never met a Medium who convinced me of his/her ability to communicate with the dead.
In truth, almost all of the so-called Mediums use the cold-reading techniques I spoke about in my last blog. They are highly skilled actors who can speak in “general” terms, but make it sound like they are taking “specifically”, about your dearly departed. Then, there are some commercial Mediums who use “hot-reading” techniques: information garnered in advance about people who will be in their audience or attending their séance.
Probably the best-known present day Medium is John Edward, a fast-talking former ballroom-dancing instructor who is cleaning up on his proclaimed ability "to connect with energies of people who have crossed over." Died, that is. Indeed, his nightly TV show “Crossing Over with John Edward” was the highest-rated show on the Sci Fi network and is about to go into syndication. He has made appearances on Larry King Live, Dateline, an HBO special, Entertainment Tonight and other TV shows. Between his fees for individual appointments, tickets for his seminars and stage appearances, and sales of his books, audiotapes and videotapes, Edward seems to be one of the few growth industries in an otherwise lackluster economy.
Like other so-called Mediums, Edward relies heavily on the "cold reading" technique. It involves posing a series of questions and suggestions, each shaped by the subject's previous response. Mediums often begin, for example, by uttering a generality: "I sense an older father figure here," eliciting a response that leads him to the next question. "I'm getting that his death resulted from a problem in his chest". This is a statistically sound guess that could cover everything from lung cancer and emphysema to a heart attack. Should the subject answer no, the cold reader will often say, "Well, we'll get back to that," and quickly change tack. It's a sophisticated form of the game Twenty Questions, during which the subject, anxious to hear from the dead, seldom realizes that he, not the Medium or the departed, is supplying the answers.
A Time Magazine article written a few years ago by Leon Jaroff cited the case of Michael O'Neill, a New York City marketing manager, who had no preconceived notions about Edward but experienced what he is convinced was a "hot reading"--a variation on the cold reading in which the Medium takes advantage of information surreptitiously gathered in advance. Given an extra ticket by family members hoping to hear from his deceased grandfather, O'Neill attended a performance and was singled out by Edward, who received what he claimed were communications sent directly from the dead grandfather.
While many of those messages seemed to O'Neill to be clearly off base, Edward made a few correct "hits," mystifying everyone by dropping family names and facts he could not possibly have known.
It was not until weeks after the performance, when O'Neill saw the show on TV, that he began to suspect chicanery. Clips of him nodding yes had been spliced into the videotape after statements with which he remembers disagreeing. In addition, says O'Neill, most of Edward's "misses," both on him and other audience members, had been edited out of the final tape.
With all this fraudulent activity going on, should we assume (like Harry Houdini) that communication with the dead is impossible? In my opinion, all of the so-called showmen who claim to be able to talk to the dead relatives of complete strangers are as phony as a three-dollar-bill. Notwithstanding this, Communication with the dead is not only possible, but has very strong supporting evidence.
The evidence indicates that you can communicate with dead people who were very close to you in life. A brother, a mother…someone very close. Definitely not to strangers. Communication usually happens in dreams when the brain is sleeping and the mind/aura has taken over the body. At such times, the mind/aura approaches what we call an astral plane and the mind’s receptors are capable of telepathic thoughts. I have yet to meet someone who has spoken with the dead in voices that can be recorded. Communications from the dead are telepathic; for the obvious reason that vocal chords are a part of the dead body while the spirit/aura exists without a body. Even ghost-chasers who have tried to record spiritual voices in haunted houses had to admit that the sounds made by spirits are barely audible…much like the sounds of people talking who do not have a voice.
Among the growing number of scientists who believe in psychic phenomena, most seem to agree that the psychic’s mind has moved to an astral level where it is significantly more sensitive to telepathy.
There is a very interesting article by James Donahue: He went to classes where the spiritual part of his body was schooled. Soon he learned to astrally project. While astrally projecting, he saw his dead mother and telepathically communicated, in detail, with her. Donahue was not some religious extremist, but, rather, wrote about the experience objectively and dispassionately. http://100megsfree4.com/farshores/jd0125.htm
To me, this is not only possible, it’s logical. When we learn to project astrally, what we have learned to do is separate our mind/aura from our physical body. Our mind/aura can seek-out and communicate with other mind/auras of those very close to us. While this frequently happens by accident, you can teach yourself to do this:
There is an excellent article, online by Dr. Raymond Moody that tries to teach people how to communicate with dead loved ones. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/paranormal10.html The principal behind Dr. Moody’s instructions are the same principals and techniques that can teach you to astrally project: separate your mind/aura from your body for brief periods of time.
To sum it all up, don’t waste your time (or money) trying to communicate with the dead through a Medium. Communication with the dead is not only possible, but it has significant support by evidence with extremely limited conditions: The only people you can communicate with are direct communications between you and a dead loved one and only on an astral level.
We’ll finish this series next week. In the meantime, if you’ve got questions, I’ve got answers. Stebrel@aol.com
This is the first anniversary of my writing about paranormal phenomena. Judging by the amount of e-mail I get, my blog is becoming quite popular. Although I have exposed a lot of frauds, the primary goal of this blog is to increase the awareness of people that there are a significant number of genuine, seemingly inexplicable, things in our world. My writing is an attempt to separate the genuine from the myths and the fraudulent and, whenever possible, explain them in a way most people will understand.
We live in a world where money reigns supreme. As a result, there are vast numbers of people who will do anything if it brings them a good financial return. Most people have a natural curiosity about such things as life after death, heaven and hell, etc. If someone claims they can “talk with the dead”, there are a lot of people who will pay him/her to talk to one or more of their dead loved ones. Being a Medium can be very financially rewarding. As a result, the number of phony Mediums abound. I have never met a Medium who convinced me of his/her ability to communicate with the dead.
In truth, almost all of the so-called Mediums use the cold-reading techniques I spoke about in my last blog. They are highly skilled actors who can speak in “general” terms, but make it sound like they are taking “specifically”, about your dearly departed. Then, there are some commercial Mediums who use “hot-reading” techniques: information garnered in advance about people who will be in their audience or attending their séance.
Probably the best-known present day Medium is John Edward, a fast-talking former ballroom-dancing instructor who is cleaning up on his proclaimed ability "to connect with energies of people who have crossed over." Died, that is. Indeed, his nightly TV show “Crossing Over with John Edward” was the highest-rated show on the Sci Fi network and is about to go into syndication. He has made appearances on Larry King Live, Dateline, an HBO special, Entertainment Tonight and other TV shows. Between his fees for individual appointments, tickets for his seminars and stage appearances, and sales of his books, audiotapes and videotapes, Edward seems to be one of the few growth industries in an otherwise lackluster economy.
Like other so-called Mediums, Edward relies heavily on the "cold reading" technique. It involves posing a series of questions and suggestions, each shaped by the subject's previous response. Mediums often begin, for example, by uttering a generality: "I sense an older father figure here," eliciting a response that leads him to the next question. "I'm getting that his death resulted from a problem in his chest". This is a statistically sound guess that could cover everything from lung cancer and emphysema to a heart attack. Should the subject answer no, the cold reader will often say, "Well, we'll get back to that," and quickly change tack. It's a sophisticated form of the game Twenty Questions, during which the subject, anxious to hear from the dead, seldom realizes that he, not the Medium or the departed, is supplying the answers.
A Time Magazine article written a few years ago by Leon Jaroff cited the case of Michael O'Neill, a New York City marketing manager, who had no preconceived notions about Edward but experienced what he is convinced was a "hot reading"--a variation on the cold reading in which the Medium takes advantage of information surreptitiously gathered in advance. Given an extra ticket by family members hoping to hear from his deceased grandfather, O'Neill attended a performance and was singled out by Edward, who received what he claimed were communications sent directly from the dead grandfather.
While many of those messages seemed to O'Neill to be clearly off base, Edward made a few correct "hits," mystifying everyone by dropping family names and facts he could not possibly have known.
It was not until weeks after the performance, when O'Neill saw the show on TV, that he began to suspect chicanery. Clips of him nodding yes had been spliced into the videotape after statements with which he remembers disagreeing. In addition, says O'Neill, most of Edward's "misses," both on him and other audience members, had been edited out of the final tape.
With all this fraudulent activity going on, should we assume (like Harry Houdini) that communication with the dead is impossible? In my opinion, all of the so-called showmen who claim to be able to talk to the dead relatives of complete strangers are as phony as a three-dollar-bill. Notwithstanding this, Communication with the dead is not only possible, but has very strong supporting evidence.
The evidence indicates that you can communicate with dead people who were very close to you in life. A brother, a mother…someone very close. Definitely not to strangers. Communication usually happens in dreams when the brain is sleeping and the mind/aura has taken over the body. At such times, the mind/aura approaches what we call an astral plane and the mind’s receptors are capable of telepathic thoughts. I have yet to meet someone who has spoken with the dead in voices that can be recorded. Communications from the dead are telepathic; for the obvious reason that vocal chords are a part of the dead body while the spirit/aura exists without a body. Even ghost-chasers who have tried to record spiritual voices in haunted houses had to admit that the sounds made by spirits are barely audible…much like the sounds of people talking who do not have a voice.
Among the growing number of scientists who believe in psychic phenomena, most seem to agree that the psychic’s mind has moved to an astral level where it is significantly more sensitive to telepathy.
There is a very interesting article by James Donahue: He went to classes where the spiritual part of his body was schooled. Soon he learned to astrally project. While astrally projecting, he saw his dead mother and telepathically communicated, in detail, with her. Donahue was not some religious extremist, but, rather, wrote about the experience objectively and dispassionately. http://100megsfree4.com/farshores/jd0125.htm
To me, this is not only possible, it’s logical. When we learn to project astrally, what we have learned to do is separate our mind/aura from our physical body. Our mind/aura can seek-out and communicate with other mind/auras of those very close to us. While this frequently happens by accident, you can teach yourself to do this:
There is an excellent article, online by Dr. Raymond Moody that tries to teach people how to communicate with dead loved ones. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/paranormal10.html The principal behind Dr. Moody’s instructions are the same principals and techniques that can teach you to astrally project: separate your mind/aura from your body for brief periods of time.
To sum it all up, don’t waste your time (or money) trying to communicate with the dead through a Medium. Communication with the dead is not only possible, but it has significant support by evidence with extremely limited conditions: The only people you can communicate with are direct communications between you and a dead loved one and only on an astral level.
We’ll finish this series next week. In the meantime, if you’ve got questions, I’ve got answers. Stebrel@aol.com
Sunday, September 27, 2009
THE SECRETS OF FRAUDULENT PSYCHICS
THE SECRETS OF FRAUDULENT PSYCHICS September 27, 2009
Nobody asked me, but…
This is going to be a three-part series on frauds who earn their living in the paranormal world by pretending to have Psychic or Medium powers. In truth, there are comparatively few people with genuine Psychic/Medium powers. Yet, it is these few genuine Psychics/Mediums that have given the world a glimpse into things far beyond reasonable and rational thinking. There are a significant number of Psychics/Mediums whose readings consistently defy any scientific explanation and boggle the minds of even the most skeptical people.
One of the reasons a lot of science-oriented people belittle or dismiss everything that appears to be paranormal is because the paranormal world abounds with frauds. People who claim to talk with the dead; people who claim to be psychic: astrologists, tarot card readers, tea leaf, palmists, etc.
In my opinion, the frauds outnumber the genuine by more than a hundred to one. Pretending to be a Psychic or a Medium can be a very good way to make a living: A man tells a so-called Medium that he would like to talk with his deceased mother and the Medium allegedly summons up his mother’s ghost and tells the man (usually) what he wants to hear. Then most Mediums charge a not-so-nominal fee which can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars for their work.
It’s interesting to note that most genuine Psychics do not make their living working as Psychics.
In order to understand what most people believe are psychic readings or communication with the dead, we must take a good look at a very fine art known as “cold reading”.
Cold reading is an art that was practiced by Gypsies in Eastern Europe using crystal balls, tea leaves and cards. As the Gypsies migrated to other countries Gypsy Fortune Tellers began to appear everywhere; usually performing their trade at carnivals and circus side shows. I mention circuses, because the fine art of cold reading is often called the “Barnum Effect”, named after P. T. Barnum: the man who created and ran the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Barnum is credited with the quip, “There’s a sucker born every minute”. The success of Gyspy Fortune Telling soon fostered the big-stage technique of professional magicians (such as William Larsen, Sr.) who billed themselves as “mentalists”.
Modern interest in the Barnum Effect among psychologists dates from Bertram Forer’s classic experiment at the University of California in 1948. A group of 39 undergraduate psychology students were given a Personality Test; supposedly as a means to explore their individual personalities. A week later every student was given a written report on what their personality test revealed. In fact, unknown to the students, they all received the same report. The students were then asked to rate the accuracy of that report on a scale of 0 (poor) to 5 (perfect). Of the 39 students, only 5 rated it below 4, and no one rated it below 2. The average rating was 4.3.
The report they were given was a cold-reading report and had nothing to do with the answers they gave to the personality test questions. As you read it, it is most likely you will feel it applies to you and describes your own personality. The report given to every student went something like this:
“You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Your sexual adjustment has presented some problems for you. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life.”
That’s how cold readings work: Statements that apply to more than 90% of people are used by psychic frauds and astrologists, etc. as if these thoughts emanated from a psychic source. Note that while the report sounds specific, it really has said nothing specific about you.
Magician mentalists or fraudulent Psychics performing cold readings will often add general or semi-specific statements to try and deceive people: “There was, in childhood, a close brush with death “by you or someone close to you.” “There were trials and many changes, the loss of someone close, and an illness or “bad accident.” “You have a streak of stubbornness that is sometimes difficult to control.” There are usually forecasts of financial gain, perhaps having to do with real estate or “property changing hands.”
Or, commonly, the cold reader will tell a woman that she is making a mistake right now trying to reason her way to a decision — she should rely on her intuition and hunches: “If you do, the right course will always be presented to you, and that includes the little problem that’s puzzling you right now.” For a young man, he hears the ringing of a bell — or is it a ring “such as might be worn on the finger? I leave the answer to you.” For another woman, the cold reader sees “blue sky — or blue water?... And somewhere, far in the distance, I hear a voice calling, “Yes, I am here.” I see good fortune in your future.”
People well-practiced the cold reading techniques will also pick-up the subtle reactions of the person being read. A customer’s slight nod of the head or a raised eyebrow may tell the cold reader that he/she is on the right track or, conversely, that an earlier statement needs to be smoothed-over or covered-up. An expert cold reader can convince almost anyone not familiar with cold reading techniques that they have Psychic/Medium abilities and powers; that they are revealing facts about the customer they should have no way of knowing.
Notice how even the written cold readings presented above will fit almost everyone reading them. It’s not that everyone’s life contains the same experiences. It’s that when you remove the specifics from an experience, the general statement fits most people, and little perks and nuances observed by the cold reader tend to make the customer feel that things known only to them have appeared in the mind of a genuine Psychic/Medium.
Next week, we’ll take a close look at cold reading techniques used to convince people that the Psychic/Medium is communicating with the dead.
If you’ve had an experience with a psychic, please tell me about it at stebrel@aol.com. My intent is not to expose the frauds, but, rather, to show the distinct difference between the genuine Psychics and the pretenders in order to give genuine Psychics the credibility society has denied them.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Nobody asked me, but…
This is going to be a three-part series on frauds who earn their living in the paranormal world by pretending to have Psychic or Medium powers. In truth, there are comparatively few people with genuine Psychic/Medium powers. Yet, it is these few genuine Psychics/Mediums that have given the world a glimpse into things far beyond reasonable and rational thinking. There are a significant number of Psychics/Mediums whose readings consistently defy any scientific explanation and boggle the minds of even the most skeptical people.
One of the reasons a lot of science-oriented people belittle or dismiss everything that appears to be paranormal is because the paranormal world abounds with frauds. People who claim to talk with the dead; people who claim to be psychic: astrologists, tarot card readers, tea leaf, palmists, etc.
In my opinion, the frauds outnumber the genuine by more than a hundred to one. Pretending to be a Psychic or a Medium can be a very good way to make a living: A man tells a so-called Medium that he would like to talk with his deceased mother and the Medium allegedly summons up his mother’s ghost and tells the man (usually) what he wants to hear. Then most Mediums charge a not-so-nominal fee which can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars for their work.
It’s interesting to note that most genuine Psychics do not make their living working as Psychics.
In order to understand what most people believe are psychic readings or communication with the dead, we must take a good look at a very fine art known as “cold reading”.
Cold reading is an art that was practiced by Gypsies in Eastern Europe using crystal balls, tea leaves and cards. As the Gypsies migrated to other countries Gypsy Fortune Tellers began to appear everywhere; usually performing their trade at carnivals and circus side shows. I mention circuses, because the fine art of cold reading is often called the “Barnum Effect”, named after P. T. Barnum: the man who created and ran the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Barnum is credited with the quip, “There’s a sucker born every minute”. The success of Gyspy Fortune Telling soon fostered the big-stage technique of professional magicians (such as William Larsen, Sr.) who billed themselves as “mentalists”.
Modern interest in the Barnum Effect among psychologists dates from Bertram Forer’s classic experiment at the University of California in 1948. A group of 39 undergraduate psychology students were given a Personality Test; supposedly as a means to explore their individual personalities. A week later every student was given a written report on what their personality test revealed. In fact, unknown to the students, they all received the same report. The students were then asked to rate the accuracy of that report on a scale of 0 (poor) to 5 (perfect). Of the 39 students, only 5 rated it below 4, and no one rated it below 2. The average rating was 4.3.
The report they were given was a cold-reading report and had nothing to do with the answers they gave to the personality test questions. As you read it, it is most likely you will feel it applies to you and describes your own personality. The report given to every student went something like this:
“You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Your sexual adjustment has presented some problems for you. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life.”
That’s how cold readings work: Statements that apply to more than 90% of people are used by psychic frauds and astrologists, etc. as if these thoughts emanated from a psychic source. Note that while the report sounds specific, it really has said nothing specific about you.
Magician mentalists or fraudulent Psychics performing cold readings will often add general or semi-specific statements to try and deceive people: “There was, in childhood, a close brush with death “by you or someone close to you.” “There were trials and many changes, the loss of someone close, and an illness or “bad accident.” “You have a streak of stubbornness that is sometimes difficult to control.” There are usually forecasts of financial gain, perhaps having to do with real estate or “property changing hands.”
Or, commonly, the cold reader will tell a woman that she is making a mistake right now trying to reason her way to a decision — she should rely on her intuition and hunches: “If you do, the right course will always be presented to you, and that includes the little problem that’s puzzling you right now.” For a young man, he hears the ringing of a bell — or is it a ring “such as might be worn on the finger? I leave the answer to you.” For another woman, the cold reader sees “blue sky — or blue water?... And somewhere, far in the distance, I hear a voice calling, “Yes, I am here.” I see good fortune in your future.”
People well-practiced the cold reading techniques will also pick-up the subtle reactions of the person being read. A customer’s slight nod of the head or a raised eyebrow may tell the cold reader that he/she is on the right track or, conversely, that an earlier statement needs to be smoothed-over or covered-up. An expert cold reader can convince almost anyone not familiar with cold reading techniques that they have Psychic/Medium abilities and powers; that they are revealing facts about the customer they should have no way of knowing.
Notice how even the written cold readings presented above will fit almost everyone reading them. It’s not that everyone’s life contains the same experiences. It’s that when you remove the specifics from an experience, the general statement fits most people, and little perks and nuances observed by the cold reader tend to make the customer feel that things known only to them have appeared in the mind of a genuine Psychic/Medium.
Next week, we’ll take a close look at cold reading techniques used to convince people that the Psychic/Medium is communicating with the dead.
If you’ve had an experience with a psychic, please tell me about it at stebrel@aol.com. My intent is not to expose the frauds, but, rather, to show the distinct difference between the genuine Psychics and the pretenders in order to give genuine Psychics the credibility society has denied them.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
PSYCHIC DETECTIVE ABILITY
PSYCHIC DETECTIVE ABILITY September 20, 2009
My request to have psychic detectives contact me really must’ve struck a responsive chord: I received eleven e-mails from people who told me that they either “are” or “have been” psychic detectives. To me, the most interesting aspect of all the e-mails was that none of them came from the USA. One of them came from Germany, one from France, three from India, two from what is best described as the former Soviet Union, one from Mexico, one from Australia and two from South America.
Apparently, my blog is read world-wide, but not here in the USA.
I responded to all of them asking for more detailed information, but only two have provided the additional information I requested. In each case I wanted to know whether the respondent was currently working as a psychic detective; whether they were working with a particular police department; at what age were they when they first began to recognize their psychic abilities and if they had ever any other psychic experiences such as astral projection or communication with the dead.
The reason I wanted more information is because there are so many people claiming to have psychic abilities that really don’t have them. I felt if they had ever, successfully, worked with a police department or were currently being consulted by the police, it would be a strong indication that they were genuine. And, if they were genuinely psychic, I would like to write about them in my new book giving details on how they learned of their psychic abilities and how they work (my new book, still untitled, should be ready for publication sometime in 2010). Psychic abilities seem to work differently for every psychic with whom I have spoken.
None of the psychics with whom I have spoken has ever been able to use what is called “precognition”: the ability to accurately look into the future and foresee some event. Most of those whom I have met, need to touch something. It can be as simple as a set of keys, a wallet, a piece of jewelry, a toy, a piece of clothing, etc. Somehow, from that touching, images are created in the psychic’s mind.
If we think about it, this gives us a strong clue as to what psychic ability really is; I’m not suggesting that I “know” anything for certain, but it does seem to indicate that inanimate objects can bear memories. I know it sounds absurd to believe that the ring you wear on your finger or the shirt on your back can recall incidents that happened when you were wearing it, yet the evidence strongly suggests that it’s very possible.
The incident I had in San Francisco where a ghost of a murdered girl appeared in my bedroom….could have been that the walls of the room where she was murdered remembered the incident and brought that memory to my mind/aura…and that’s what I saw.
Walls bearing memories? Why not! If personal items can bear memories, why not other inanimate objects? It would go a long way toward explaining why most ghosts seem to prefer to hang around the house where they died. And, there seems to be another factor: inanimate objects seem to prefer to remember very dramatic incidents…things like murder or near tragedies. I remember when the psychic, Peter Hurkos, made my knees wobble while holding my keys, the things he talked about were my brother’s nearly life-ending automobile accident and how he pulled me (as a child) from the railroad tracks as a train approached. He spoke about the tragedy of my son nearly dying. He didn’t talk about my work or my love-life…only the things that would best be described as “dramatic” incidents.
Isn’t it true that most of the “lingering” ghosts…ghosts that have hung around for years and years…were victims of traumatic deaths or an unexpected termination of their life?
I’m not saying that this is the definitive answer…but it certainly does bear further investigation. It may also help to explain how it is that psychic detectives have achieved such a remarkable degree of success in recreating crime scenes, in locating kidnapped persons, etc.
Write me and tell me if any of your experiences with ghosts followed an unexpected, sudden, death of that person. Stebrel@aol.com
My request to have psychic detectives contact me really must’ve struck a responsive chord: I received eleven e-mails from people who told me that they either “are” or “have been” psychic detectives. To me, the most interesting aspect of all the e-mails was that none of them came from the USA. One of them came from Germany, one from France, three from India, two from what is best described as the former Soviet Union, one from Mexico, one from Australia and two from South America.
Apparently, my blog is read world-wide, but not here in the USA.
I responded to all of them asking for more detailed information, but only two have provided the additional information I requested. In each case I wanted to know whether the respondent was currently working as a psychic detective; whether they were working with a particular police department; at what age were they when they first began to recognize their psychic abilities and if they had ever any other psychic experiences such as astral projection or communication with the dead.
The reason I wanted more information is because there are so many people claiming to have psychic abilities that really don’t have them. I felt if they had ever, successfully, worked with a police department or were currently being consulted by the police, it would be a strong indication that they were genuine. And, if they were genuinely psychic, I would like to write about them in my new book giving details on how they learned of their psychic abilities and how they work (my new book, still untitled, should be ready for publication sometime in 2010). Psychic abilities seem to work differently for every psychic with whom I have spoken.
None of the psychics with whom I have spoken has ever been able to use what is called “precognition”: the ability to accurately look into the future and foresee some event. Most of those whom I have met, need to touch something. It can be as simple as a set of keys, a wallet, a piece of jewelry, a toy, a piece of clothing, etc. Somehow, from that touching, images are created in the psychic’s mind.
If we think about it, this gives us a strong clue as to what psychic ability really is; I’m not suggesting that I “know” anything for certain, but it does seem to indicate that inanimate objects can bear memories. I know it sounds absurd to believe that the ring you wear on your finger or the shirt on your back can recall incidents that happened when you were wearing it, yet the evidence strongly suggests that it’s very possible.
The incident I had in San Francisco where a ghost of a murdered girl appeared in my bedroom….could have been that the walls of the room where she was murdered remembered the incident and brought that memory to my mind/aura…and that’s what I saw.
Walls bearing memories? Why not! If personal items can bear memories, why not other inanimate objects? It would go a long way toward explaining why most ghosts seem to prefer to hang around the house where they died. And, there seems to be another factor: inanimate objects seem to prefer to remember very dramatic incidents…things like murder or near tragedies. I remember when the psychic, Peter Hurkos, made my knees wobble while holding my keys, the things he talked about were my brother’s nearly life-ending automobile accident and how he pulled me (as a child) from the railroad tracks as a train approached. He spoke about the tragedy of my son nearly dying. He didn’t talk about my work or my love-life…only the things that would best be described as “dramatic” incidents.
Isn’t it true that most of the “lingering” ghosts…ghosts that have hung around for years and years…were victims of traumatic deaths or an unexpected termination of their life?
I’m not saying that this is the definitive answer…but it certainly does bear further investigation. It may also help to explain how it is that psychic detectives have achieved such a remarkable degree of success in recreating crime scenes, in locating kidnapped persons, etc.
Write me and tell me if any of your experiences with ghosts followed an unexpected, sudden, death of that person. Stebrel@aol.com
Sunday, September 13, 2009
PSYCHIC DETECTIVES
PSYCHIC DETECTIVES
September 13, 2009
Nobody asked me, but…
Anyone who has ever watched “Court TV” or as it has been subsequently known as “Tru TV”, has probably seen one or more shows concerning psychic detective work. The show normally reviews a case that has stumped a local police department and a psychic is called in to help resolve the case. Any of you who have seen the TV show “The Medium” probably have a distorted picture of what a psychic detective can do. Unlike “The Medium”, most psychic detectives do not have dreams that expose a killer, visit a crime scene or have conversations with dead people.
The business of being a psychic detective is expanding, and psychic detectives are used almost five times as often than they were in the past. This is because, in a growing number of instances, psychic detectives have led the police to a crime scene, to a dead body and to a missing person that normal detective work has failed to uncover.
Don’t misunderstand me: More than ninety percent of all crimes that are solved are solved using old-fashioned police detective work. The problem is that less than fifty percent of all crimes are solved. In other words, if you commit a crime, there is less than a fifty percent chance that you will be caught. Of course, the more you repeat that crime, the greater your chances of being caught. The advent of modern DNA science has increased the chances of being caught to almost 90%…provided there is DNA evidence left behind. There will soon be a national DNA computer so that anyone’s DNA can cause immediate identification. Tough luck for criminals!
But there are still thousands of cases, annually, that go unsolved; particularly those of missing children. This is where psychic detectives have played a significant role and are becoming more popular with police departments.
A couple of things need to be understood: (1) Police, generally, relegate psychic detectives to the same category as UFOs, ghosts and other paranormal things. They choose to ignore overwhelming evidence and behave like those living in denial about UFOs or ghosts. Most police tend to believe that all psychics are frauds; that they tend to emasculate detective work, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. (2) Most prosecuting attorneys do not like to work with psychics because they make "weak" witnesses in a trial. Juries usually want hard, forensci evidence, and not the wod of someone who has "visualied" something. (3)Just as is the case in many paranormal reports, the number of frauds claiming psychic ability is very high. Many, who have become practiced and skillful in the art of “cold reading” claim they have psychic powers and tend to discredit those who do possess a sixth sense. (4) People who do possess a sixth sense can rarely turn it on and off like an electric light. As a result, there are times when even a genuine psychic has nothing to offer.
Most of us have heard about the Dutch psychic, Peter Hurkos (deceased), who identified the elusive Boston Strangler and pointed out the spot in Amsterdam where a little girl had fallen and drowned in one of the many canals. But most psychics do not have the abilities of Peter Hurkos.
Almost all cases of using psychic detectives start by a member of the police department visiting the psychic and either giving the psychic a photo of the alleged victim or an article of their clothing or a toy…or something that was close to the victim. All genuine psychics do not want anything more than that. They do not want to know the name, what happened, where it happened….anything! Genuine psychics feel that if you give them too much information it will influence what they visualize. The psychic is then left alone with the photo or article of clothing and tries to summon up his/her ESP.
It is almost beyond amazing the high percentage of times, the psychic will, within a few hours, come up with the name of the victim, what happened to the victim and come up with mental pictures of what the victim has seen…such as street signs, houses, woods, etc. The psychic will then meet with the P.D. agent and discuss what he/she has come up with. The psychic may then travel around the locale with the police until the psychic either sees or feels something. Following his/her ESP instincts, the psychic has then often led the police to a crime scene where the police can search for forensics and other things used during a normal police investigation.
In the case of missing children, the psychic will often be able to describe the place where the child is kept captive as can be seen through the child’s eyes. Usually, such places are very dark but often the child’s eyes sees something that is meaningless to the child, but, as seen through the psychic’s mind, may have important significance in locating a hideaway.
Psychic detectives are playing a larger role is helping to solve crimes that have gone “cold”, but they can never replace the hard day-today of police investigations. But, if they work, even to a small degree, they should be used more frequently.
If you know of someone whom you believe possesses genuine psychic abilities, I’d like to talk with them. E-mail me at stebrel@aol.com.
As I said, nobody asked me.
September 13, 2009
Nobody asked me, but…
Anyone who has ever watched “Court TV” or as it has been subsequently known as “Tru TV”, has probably seen one or more shows concerning psychic detective work. The show normally reviews a case that has stumped a local police department and a psychic is called in to help resolve the case. Any of you who have seen the TV show “The Medium” probably have a distorted picture of what a psychic detective can do. Unlike “The Medium”, most psychic detectives do not have dreams that expose a killer, visit a crime scene or have conversations with dead people.
The business of being a psychic detective is expanding, and psychic detectives are used almost five times as often than they were in the past. This is because, in a growing number of instances, psychic detectives have led the police to a crime scene, to a dead body and to a missing person that normal detective work has failed to uncover.
Don’t misunderstand me: More than ninety percent of all crimes that are solved are solved using old-fashioned police detective work. The problem is that less than fifty percent of all crimes are solved. In other words, if you commit a crime, there is less than a fifty percent chance that you will be caught. Of course, the more you repeat that crime, the greater your chances of being caught. The advent of modern DNA science has increased the chances of being caught to almost 90%…provided there is DNA evidence left behind. There will soon be a national DNA computer so that anyone’s DNA can cause immediate identification. Tough luck for criminals!
But there are still thousands of cases, annually, that go unsolved; particularly those of missing children. This is where psychic detectives have played a significant role and are becoming more popular with police departments.
A couple of things need to be understood: (1) Police, generally, relegate psychic detectives to the same category as UFOs, ghosts and other paranormal things. They choose to ignore overwhelming evidence and behave like those living in denial about UFOs or ghosts. Most police tend to believe that all psychics are frauds; that they tend to emasculate detective work, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. (2) Most prosecuting attorneys do not like to work with psychics because they make "weak" witnesses in a trial. Juries usually want hard, forensci evidence, and not the wod of someone who has "visualied" something. (3)Just as is the case in many paranormal reports, the number of frauds claiming psychic ability is very high. Many, who have become practiced and skillful in the art of “cold reading” claim they have psychic powers and tend to discredit those who do possess a sixth sense. (4) People who do possess a sixth sense can rarely turn it on and off like an electric light. As a result, there are times when even a genuine psychic has nothing to offer.
Most of us have heard about the Dutch psychic, Peter Hurkos (deceased), who identified the elusive Boston Strangler and pointed out the spot in Amsterdam where a little girl had fallen and drowned in one of the many canals. But most psychics do not have the abilities of Peter Hurkos.
Almost all cases of using psychic detectives start by a member of the police department visiting the psychic and either giving the psychic a photo of the alleged victim or an article of their clothing or a toy…or something that was close to the victim. All genuine psychics do not want anything more than that. They do not want to know the name, what happened, where it happened….anything! Genuine psychics feel that if you give them too much information it will influence what they visualize. The psychic is then left alone with the photo or article of clothing and tries to summon up his/her ESP.
It is almost beyond amazing the high percentage of times, the psychic will, within a few hours, come up with the name of the victim, what happened to the victim and come up with mental pictures of what the victim has seen…such as street signs, houses, woods, etc. The psychic will then meet with the P.D. agent and discuss what he/she has come up with. The psychic may then travel around the locale with the police until the psychic either sees or feels something. Following his/her ESP instincts, the psychic has then often led the police to a crime scene where the police can search for forensics and other things used during a normal police investigation.
In the case of missing children, the psychic will often be able to describe the place where the child is kept captive as can be seen through the child’s eyes. Usually, such places are very dark but often the child’s eyes sees something that is meaningless to the child, but, as seen through the psychic’s mind, may have important significance in locating a hideaway.
Psychic detectives are playing a larger role is helping to solve crimes that have gone “cold”, but they can never replace the hard day-today of police investigations. But, if they work, even to a small degree, they should be used more frequently.
If you know of someone whom you believe possesses genuine psychic abilities, I’d like to talk with them. E-mail me at stebrel@aol.com.
As I said, nobody asked me.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Living With Fear
Living With Fear
September 6, 2009
My last Blog on why so many people deny the existence of things like UFOs and other paranormal phenomena really must have struck a chord with a lot of people. I received more responses to this than any other blog I’ve written (and some have gotten a lot of response).
I have a lady cousin who phrased it very simply: Fear is debilitating. It’s the reason we don’t do many of the things we would like to do…like sky-diving or deep-sea scuba diving…or why many teen-age boys and girls are afraid to yield to their burgeoning hormones…fear of pregnancy…fear of entering a forced marriage…fear of being snubbed by your peers…fear of not being accepted, fear of God’s wrath, etc., etc., etc. I could go on endlessly.
I think President Franklin Roosevelt said it all when talking to this nation about the Great Depression: “The only thing we have to fear…is ‘fear’ itself.” And he was so right! Our present economic recession could and should have ended long ago but the fear of things worsening sent many home and business owners into a panic and they started reducing the prices on everything… which, of course, sent prices spiraling further downward, made employers cut back on their staffs and production, etc.
There can be some positive aspects to fear: We don’t steal from someone else because of the fear of being caught and the fear of being sent to prison. There is always a significant amount of fear present when you violate any law.
The simple act of driving a car: Fear is everywhere! We watch other vehicles for fear that they will hit us; when we drive over the speed limit or don’t come to a complete stop at a stop-sign, we look around for fear that a cop will give us a ticket; we watch every other vehicle on the road suspiciously for fear they will take some sudden, unexpected, action. Fear is everywhere.
Probably the singularly biggest fear that people have is “fear of the unknown”. What will really happen when we die? What will life be like if we are permanently injured? What will happen to us in our old age if someone steals our identity and empties our bank accounts? Is there really a Heaven and Hell and which one will I go to when I die? To quote Hamlet, “…thus would we rather bear those ills we have than go to others we know not of…”
It was fear that kept mankind from inventing fire for centuries….and once it was invented, it brought great advancement to civilization…but it also brought with it a whole new set of fears. The same can be said of the invention of the wheel, of nuclear energy or heavier-than-air flying machines.
Certainly the same thing is true about UFOs and other paranormal things. If we get to the point (and it will happen) that the world proclaims the reality of these mysterious things, it will probably bring forth a great advancement to civilization and it will bring with it a whole new set of fears. Only the brave will venture forth to see what they really are, what they want and how they may become an asset to life here on Earth. Most people tend to shoot-first and ask questions later. Just look at how the fear of a free Black man created things like the Ku Klux Klan, the lynching and the unfair treatment of Blacks…until we finally came to the realization that the Black man was the same as the White man with a darker skin color.
If, as so many allege, UFOs are manned by aliens from somewhere else, you can bet that we will treat them the same way: shoot first, ask questions later. We fear the unknown. We have become so smug and accustomed to the little that we know that anything we don’t know looms like a monster and must be feared.
If some astronomer says that a 20-mile wide planetoid is going to collide with the Earth, panic sets in around the world! Not because we know how it will affect the Earth…but because we don’t know. Fear of the unknown!
When it comes to ghosts, some movie-makers and science fiction writers have pictured them as monsters with all sorts of incredible powers to harm us. So we fear ghosts. We enter a cemetery at night with our fears in control of our minds. Every rustle of leaves in the wind sparks an adrenalin rush in our stomachs. Every shadow caused by the movement of a cloud in the sky fills us with panic. So, when you actually come face-to-face with a ghost, you are paralyzed with fear. Of what? Of the unknown, of course. We will often encounter ghosts in our dreams…but in our dreams they are rarely fearful. It’s like they are alive. And, that’s how it would be if you ever did come face-to-face with a ghost.
Of course, the majority of the population still lives in denial. Despite millions upon millions of verified ghost stories (none of which have ever shown themselves to be harmful to the living), people living in denial will be scared-stiff. Those of us who have accepted the reality of ghosts (even if only by the weight of numbers) will have that fear replaced by curiosity…and maybe we can learn something about the “hereafter”. But those that live in denial can never learn…the fear prevents them from learning.
The same thing is true about UFOs, genuine psychics, astral projection, faith healing and a myriad of other paranormal topics. Those in denial will never learn.
Virtually all paranormal things exist. That’s how the study of the paranormal got started. People experienced things they couldn’t explain. Those who were brave began to study these happenings without fear, while the bulk of our population looked down on the brave and sneered… because most people were (and are) living in denial. Much in the same way everyone sneered at Madam Curie when she believed there was an important element called “radium” that had never been seen by anyone. In fact, most paranormal things have been documented thousands (if not millions) of times more than Madam Curie’s “radium”…but they are still sneered at by those in denial.
As my cousin said: “Fear is debilitating”. It prevents learning and prevents civilization from advancing.
There is much, much more to learn about the world of science, the paranormal world and the everyday world in which we live. Using “caution” is always a good thing. But don’t be so cautious that you allow fear to control what you may find. Acting on the basis of “fear” will rarely benefit anyone.
Don’t fear writing to me at stebrel@aol.com. I don’t bite, and I do respond to all e-mails.
September 6, 2009
My last Blog on why so many people deny the existence of things like UFOs and other paranormal phenomena really must have struck a chord with a lot of people. I received more responses to this than any other blog I’ve written (and some have gotten a lot of response).
I have a lady cousin who phrased it very simply: Fear is debilitating. It’s the reason we don’t do many of the things we would like to do…like sky-diving or deep-sea scuba diving…or why many teen-age boys and girls are afraid to yield to their burgeoning hormones…fear of pregnancy…fear of entering a forced marriage…fear of being snubbed by your peers…fear of not being accepted, fear of God’s wrath, etc., etc., etc. I could go on endlessly.
I think President Franklin Roosevelt said it all when talking to this nation about the Great Depression: “The only thing we have to fear…is ‘fear’ itself.” And he was so right! Our present economic recession could and should have ended long ago but the fear of things worsening sent many home and business owners into a panic and they started reducing the prices on everything… which, of course, sent prices spiraling further downward, made employers cut back on their staffs and production, etc.
There can be some positive aspects to fear: We don’t steal from someone else because of the fear of being caught and the fear of being sent to prison. There is always a significant amount of fear present when you violate any law.
The simple act of driving a car: Fear is everywhere! We watch other vehicles for fear that they will hit us; when we drive over the speed limit or don’t come to a complete stop at a stop-sign, we look around for fear that a cop will give us a ticket; we watch every other vehicle on the road suspiciously for fear they will take some sudden, unexpected, action. Fear is everywhere.
Probably the singularly biggest fear that people have is “fear of the unknown”. What will really happen when we die? What will life be like if we are permanently injured? What will happen to us in our old age if someone steals our identity and empties our bank accounts? Is there really a Heaven and Hell and which one will I go to when I die? To quote Hamlet, “…thus would we rather bear those ills we have than go to others we know not of…”
It was fear that kept mankind from inventing fire for centuries….and once it was invented, it brought great advancement to civilization…but it also brought with it a whole new set of fears. The same can be said of the invention of the wheel, of nuclear energy or heavier-than-air flying machines.
Certainly the same thing is true about UFOs and other paranormal things. If we get to the point (and it will happen) that the world proclaims the reality of these mysterious things, it will probably bring forth a great advancement to civilization and it will bring with it a whole new set of fears. Only the brave will venture forth to see what they really are, what they want and how they may become an asset to life here on Earth. Most people tend to shoot-first and ask questions later. Just look at how the fear of a free Black man created things like the Ku Klux Klan, the lynching and the unfair treatment of Blacks…until we finally came to the realization that the Black man was the same as the White man with a darker skin color.
If, as so many allege, UFOs are manned by aliens from somewhere else, you can bet that we will treat them the same way: shoot first, ask questions later. We fear the unknown. We have become so smug and accustomed to the little that we know that anything we don’t know looms like a monster and must be feared.
If some astronomer says that a 20-mile wide planetoid is going to collide with the Earth, panic sets in around the world! Not because we know how it will affect the Earth…but because we don’t know. Fear of the unknown!
When it comes to ghosts, some movie-makers and science fiction writers have pictured them as monsters with all sorts of incredible powers to harm us. So we fear ghosts. We enter a cemetery at night with our fears in control of our minds. Every rustle of leaves in the wind sparks an adrenalin rush in our stomachs. Every shadow caused by the movement of a cloud in the sky fills us with panic. So, when you actually come face-to-face with a ghost, you are paralyzed with fear. Of what? Of the unknown, of course. We will often encounter ghosts in our dreams…but in our dreams they are rarely fearful. It’s like they are alive. And, that’s how it would be if you ever did come face-to-face with a ghost.
Of course, the majority of the population still lives in denial. Despite millions upon millions of verified ghost stories (none of which have ever shown themselves to be harmful to the living), people living in denial will be scared-stiff. Those of us who have accepted the reality of ghosts (even if only by the weight of numbers) will have that fear replaced by curiosity…and maybe we can learn something about the “hereafter”. But those that live in denial can never learn…the fear prevents them from learning.
The same thing is true about UFOs, genuine psychics, astral projection, faith healing and a myriad of other paranormal topics. Those in denial will never learn.
Virtually all paranormal things exist. That’s how the study of the paranormal got started. People experienced things they couldn’t explain. Those who were brave began to study these happenings without fear, while the bulk of our population looked down on the brave and sneered… because most people were (and are) living in denial. Much in the same way everyone sneered at Madam Curie when she believed there was an important element called “radium” that had never been seen by anyone. In fact, most paranormal things have been documented thousands (if not millions) of times more than Madam Curie’s “radium”…but they are still sneered at by those in denial.
As my cousin said: “Fear is debilitating”. It prevents learning and prevents civilization from advancing.
There is much, much more to learn about the world of science, the paranormal world and the everyday world in which we live. Using “caution” is always a good thing. But don’t be so cautious that you allow fear to control what you may find. Acting on the basis of “fear” will rarely benefit anyone.
Don’t fear writing to me at stebrel@aol.com. I don’t bite, and I do respond to all e-mails.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Why Don't We Believe
WHY DON’T WE BELIEVE
Nobody asked me, but… August 30, 2009
Last week, I wrote a blog entitled “ Believe ”. In that blog, I set forth hundreds of sightings of UFOs, of ghosts and other paranormal phenomena that should have removed any doubt, or at least made any thinking person acknowledge the “ possibility ” that things we call paranormal really exist. But it didn’t!
I have twin daughters: both of whom are well-educated and thinking people and whose opinions I respect. One is a lawyer, the other is getting a PhD in nutrition. Both read my blog, and both said that (a) they still do not believe in UFOs and (b) they still do not accept almost any other paranormal phenomena as being genuine!
The first thing I asked myself is, “ Where did I fail? ” How is it that my approach to the paranormal (which, I believe, has always been well-researched, approached in a reasonable manner and intelligently thought-out) is blatantly denied by two members of my own family? And, if it is denied by them, how many others who read my blog, like my daughters, still live in denial?
After doing some extensive soul-searching, I realized that it was not just “ me ”. It is the media, the general tenor of most authors on the subject, human nature, and the frauds perpetrated by those who seek their fifteen minutes of fame at the expense of others.
If you go to the movies to see a show about vampires, the vampires are given such incredible super-powers as to make the concept of vampires laughable. They’re a little scary but they are unreal. The same can be said about books, TV and movies’ approach to ghosts. More than anything else, the movies’ depiction of UFOs has been absurd. The movies, books and TV fill the UFOs with tiny green men wanting to conquer the Earth, with super-powers and intelligence far beyond our own. It’s a little frightening, and creates a laughable reaction.
That’s how human nature starts to play its part: Just about everyone likes to be a “ little ” scared. From people who go on a roller-coaster ride, to sky-divers or those who go to visit a haunted house. That’s why people leave a scary movie or TV show, smiling. It’s nice to be a “ little ” scared and then go home to your warm, comfortable, “ safe ” bed and laugh about the scary show.
This is what people like and this is what the media and the authors give people when they present paranormal stories for our consumption.
Generally, people do not like to face the realities of life. People who are willing to acknowledge the unpleasant facts of life are in a clear minority. To many, the idea that there are other beings in this world is scary; so they deny the possibility. To some the idea that there may be civilizations that have advanced far beyond our present capabilities, is scary; so they deny the possibility. A far greater number believe that if the God they believe in is not omnipotent, that they have wasted their prayers; and to them, that’s scary. Remember, the books and movies always show any advanced civilizations as wanting to conquer the Earth, not merely to help the Earth to emerge from its constantly war-like state.
And so people laugh at you if you tell them you genuinely believe in UFOs, ghosts or other paranormal things. It’s not a “ funny ” laugh; it’s a “ scared ” laugh. Generally, people do not want to face the possibility, especially not the probability, that there are significant factors in this world waiting to be understood. The greatest offenders are people in the field of sciences where they claim to know everything but, in reality, know little or nothing.
Most people use the childish claims of the “ nuts ”, “ frauds ” and “ weirdos ” seeking their fifteen minutes of fame as an example of all paranormal happenings. Genuine, documented, events are thrown into the same boat as ridiculous claims and photo-shopped pictures. The public seems to assume that if there are 100,000 false reports…or made-up stories about UFOs, orbs, ghosts, etc., then that means that all of the more than 5,000,000 documented reports, photos, videos, etc. on file must also be frauds, right? That means that the heads of State of other countries, the Ministers of Defense, the Admirals and General of the Armies and Navies of many nations are all frauds seeking their fifteen minutes of fame....right?
But don’t let the 98% of the reports which have been verified, researched and documented dissuade you from believing that all paranormal reports are nonsense…and to be laughed at. Just accept what our great field of science says is scientifically provable. Of course, science tells us that they are 99.9% accurate. If you really want something to laugh at, look at what science told us was true just a hundred years ago and compare it to what science says about the same things today. A hundred years from now, science will, undoubtedly, have a new set of 99.9% accurate theories.
What a sad state we live in!
We need to stop being scared and look at all unexplained things with a thirst to discover what they are, where they are from, what causes them, what their affect will be on our lives (if any), etc. We need to be able to sit down with all peoples and really look closely at these things…discuss them intelligently and not just “ laugh them off “.
“ If ”, for example, UFOs are really manned by people planning to conquer the Earth…don’t you think we should study them and be prepared?
“ If ”, for example, there are really “ ghosts ” out there or a life after death, don’t you think we should be able to discuss it intelligently and learn what’s in store for all of us?
“ If ”, for example, faith healers have been able to cure diseases and ailments that medical science has not been able to do, don’t you think we should be able to study it intelligently and maybe learn some things our perfect science of medicine doesn’t know?
I could easily go on and on. The important thing for everyone to learn is that the one thing we should not do is “ laugh it off ” because it seems far-fetched. It might not be so far-fetched if thinking people would sit down and discuss these things intelligently without being sneered at by those in denial.
Paranormal happenings are not to be laughed at. Most are better documented than the TV News. There’s really very little to be frightened about. Things that scare us are often shown to be harmless when brought into the light of understanding. If there are some things that are still scary, I assure you they will be less scary when brought into open, intelligent, discussion.
As I said, nobody asked me.
Write me at stebrel@aol.com
Nobody asked me, but… August 30, 2009
Last week, I wrote a blog entitled “ Believe ”. In that blog, I set forth hundreds of sightings of UFOs, of ghosts and other paranormal phenomena that should have removed any doubt, or at least made any thinking person acknowledge the “ possibility ” that things we call paranormal really exist. But it didn’t!
I have twin daughters: both of whom are well-educated and thinking people and whose opinions I respect. One is a lawyer, the other is getting a PhD in nutrition. Both read my blog, and both said that (a) they still do not believe in UFOs and (b) they still do not accept almost any other paranormal phenomena as being genuine!
The first thing I asked myself is, “ Where did I fail? ” How is it that my approach to the paranormal (which, I believe, has always been well-researched, approached in a reasonable manner and intelligently thought-out) is blatantly denied by two members of my own family? And, if it is denied by them, how many others who read my blog, like my daughters, still live in denial?
After doing some extensive soul-searching, I realized that it was not just “ me ”. It is the media, the general tenor of most authors on the subject, human nature, and the frauds perpetrated by those who seek their fifteen minutes of fame at the expense of others.
If you go to the movies to see a show about vampires, the vampires are given such incredible super-powers as to make the concept of vampires laughable. They’re a little scary but they are unreal. The same can be said about books, TV and movies’ approach to ghosts. More than anything else, the movies’ depiction of UFOs has been absurd. The movies, books and TV fill the UFOs with tiny green men wanting to conquer the Earth, with super-powers and intelligence far beyond our own. It’s a little frightening, and creates a laughable reaction.
That’s how human nature starts to play its part: Just about everyone likes to be a “ little ” scared. From people who go on a roller-coaster ride, to sky-divers or those who go to visit a haunted house. That’s why people leave a scary movie or TV show, smiling. It’s nice to be a “ little ” scared and then go home to your warm, comfortable, “ safe ” bed and laugh about the scary show.
This is what people like and this is what the media and the authors give people when they present paranormal stories for our consumption.
Generally, people do not like to face the realities of life. People who are willing to acknowledge the unpleasant facts of life are in a clear minority. To many, the idea that there are other beings in this world is scary; so they deny the possibility. To some the idea that there may be civilizations that have advanced far beyond our present capabilities, is scary; so they deny the possibility. A far greater number believe that if the God they believe in is not omnipotent, that they have wasted their prayers; and to them, that’s scary. Remember, the books and movies always show any advanced civilizations as wanting to conquer the Earth, not merely to help the Earth to emerge from its constantly war-like state.
And so people laugh at you if you tell them you genuinely believe in UFOs, ghosts or other paranormal things. It’s not a “ funny ” laugh; it’s a “ scared ” laugh. Generally, people do not want to face the possibility, especially not the probability, that there are significant factors in this world waiting to be understood. The greatest offenders are people in the field of sciences where they claim to know everything but, in reality, know little or nothing.
Most people use the childish claims of the “ nuts ”, “ frauds ” and “ weirdos ” seeking their fifteen minutes of fame as an example of all paranormal happenings. Genuine, documented, events are thrown into the same boat as ridiculous claims and photo-shopped pictures. The public seems to assume that if there are 100,000 false reports…or made-up stories about UFOs, orbs, ghosts, etc., then that means that all of the more than 5,000,000 documented reports, photos, videos, etc. on file must also be frauds, right? That means that the heads of State of other countries, the Ministers of Defense, the Admirals and General of the Armies and Navies of many nations are all frauds seeking their fifteen minutes of fame....right?
But don’t let the 98% of the reports which have been verified, researched and documented dissuade you from believing that all paranormal reports are nonsense…and to be laughed at. Just accept what our great field of science says is scientifically provable. Of course, science tells us that they are 99.9% accurate. If you really want something to laugh at, look at what science told us was true just a hundred years ago and compare it to what science says about the same things today. A hundred years from now, science will, undoubtedly, have a new set of 99.9% accurate theories.
What a sad state we live in!
We need to stop being scared and look at all unexplained things with a thirst to discover what they are, where they are from, what causes them, what their affect will be on our lives (if any), etc. We need to be able to sit down with all peoples and really look closely at these things…discuss them intelligently and not just “ laugh them off “.
“ If ”, for example, UFOs are really manned by people planning to conquer the Earth…don’t you think we should study them and be prepared?
“ If ”, for example, there are really “ ghosts ” out there or a life after death, don’t you think we should be able to discuss it intelligently and learn what’s in store for all of us?
“ If ”, for example, faith healers have been able to cure diseases and ailments that medical science has not been able to do, don’t you think we should be able to study it intelligently and maybe learn some things our perfect science of medicine doesn’t know?
I could easily go on and on. The important thing for everyone to learn is that the one thing we should not do is “ laugh it off ” because it seems far-fetched. It might not be so far-fetched if thinking people would sit down and discuss these things intelligently without being sneered at by those in denial.
Paranormal happenings are not to be laughed at. Most are better documented than the TV News. There’s really very little to be frightened about. Things that scare us are often shown to be harmless when brought into the light of understanding. If there are some things that are still scary, I assure you they will be less scary when brought into open, intelligent, discussion.
As I said, nobody asked me.
Write me at stebrel@aol.com
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Please take this quiz
TAKE A QUIZ:
I’d like to know how many of my readers really believe in things like ghosts, UFOs and psychic things. Take a couple of minutes and check-off the following and send it to me at stebrel@aol.com. You don’t have to give your name. Only your opinion:
1. I believe that we are “alone in this world. Yes______ No______
2. I believe that there are other forms of intelligent life in outer space. Yes______ No______
3. I believe that UFOs are manned by alien beings. Yes______ No______
4. I believe that all UFO reports are made-up. Yes______ No______
5. I have seen UFO photos that appear genuine. Yes______ No______
6. I believe all UFO photos are the result of photo workshops. Yes______ No______
7. I have seen (or know someone who’s seen) a UFO. Yes_____ No______
8. I have read the British and/or Russian declassified UFO reports. Yes_____ No______
9. I go to church (synagogue, mosque, etc.) regularly. Yes_____ No______
10. I believe in ghosts. Yes_____ No______
11. I have had an experience with a ghost. Yes_____ No______
12. I have had a “near-death” experience Yes_____ No______
13. I have experienced mind/body separation. Yes_____ No______
14. I have had one or more déjà vu experiences. Yes______ No______
15. I know someone who is genuinely psychic. Yes______ No______
16. I believe there is a God as written in the Bible. Yes______ No______
17. I believe that when I die, I will live again. Yes______ No______
18. I believe there is a Biblical Heaven and/or Hell. Yes______ No______
19. I believe that ghost-chasers are all a lot of nonsense. Yes______ No______
20. I believe that good (and bad) karma really exists. Yes______ No______
Send me your answers and I publish the results in about a week. Thanks. Stephen Ellis
I’d like to know how many of my readers really believe in things like ghosts, UFOs and psychic things. Take a couple of minutes and check-off the following and send it to me at stebrel@aol.com. You don’t have to give your name. Only your opinion:
1. I believe that we are “alone in this world. Yes______ No______
2. I believe that there are other forms of intelligent life in outer space. Yes______ No______
3. I believe that UFOs are manned by alien beings. Yes______ No______
4. I believe that all UFO reports are made-up. Yes______ No______
5. I have seen UFO photos that appear genuine. Yes______ No______
6. I believe all UFO photos are the result of photo workshops. Yes______ No______
7. I have seen (or know someone who’s seen) a UFO. Yes_____ No______
8. I have read the British and/or Russian declassified UFO reports. Yes_____ No______
9. I go to church (synagogue, mosque, etc.) regularly. Yes_____ No______
10. I believe in ghosts. Yes_____ No______
11. I have had an experience with a ghost. Yes_____ No______
12. I have had a “near-death” experience Yes_____ No______
13. I have experienced mind/body separation. Yes_____ No______
14. I have had one or more déjà vu experiences. Yes______ No______
15. I know someone who is genuinely psychic. Yes______ No______
16. I believe there is a God as written in the Bible. Yes______ No______
17. I believe that when I die, I will live again. Yes______ No______
18. I believe there is a Biblical Heaven and/or Hell. Yes______ No______
19. I believe that ghost-chasers are all a lot of nonsense. Yes______ No______
20. I believe that good (and bad) karma really exists. Yes______ No______
Send me your answers and I publish the results in about a week. Thanks. Stephen Ellis
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Believe!!!
BELIEVE!
Nobody asked me, but… August 23, 2009
It never fails to amaze me how many people who are, otherwise, intelligent people, continue to deny the existence of UFOs, of ghosts, of virtually anything that touches the paranormal. For the most part, these are not unintelligent people or people without an education. They are doctors, lawyers, engineers…even some rocket scientists. Yet, they live in complete denial of things that that have not only shown us overwhelming evidence of their existence, but in many cases have been accompanied by logical, virtually irrefutable evidence.
To such people there is never enough proof or photographic evidence. It’s as if a ghost came and visited them in their bedroom and they spent the following ten years searching the room for some sort of holographic projector. I have often used the phrase: If you do not believe something, no amount of proof will convince you…if you do believe something, no proof is necessary.
Let’s take a minute and look at some of the proof such people deny: This week I’ll talk about the “proof” of UFOs. Next week, the proof of “ghosts”…and who knows what we’ll discuss after that:
*********************************************************************************************************
UFOs: There have been more than five million UFO sightings throughout the world. There have been more than a hundred thousand photographs taken of UFOs (approximately half of which have been examined by experts for photo-shop alterations and found to be original photos that have not been retouched).
If you look at some of the photos of UFOs, they have different shapes, different lighting, etc. Photos of UFOs, generally, are not “copy-cat” or “me-too” pictures sent by people seeking to fool others. Many of these photos have been taken by military personnel, college professors, airline pilots, etc. Certainly fifteen minutes of fame is not being sought by Heads of State of several countries or by their Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance or Ministers of Defense who claim to have seen UFOs (and some have taken photos).
Here in the USA, there have been several books written by intelligent authors demonstrating that the UFOnick claims of a UFO having crashed near Rosewell, New Mexico, are false and misleading. These books claim to have interviewed people stationed at the nearby Walker Air Force Base who stated that it was simply a weather balloon that crashed. It’s interesting that none of the books alleging that “nothing happened” ever interviewed the military personnel who were sent to investigate the event. It’s interesting that none of the books mention that the metal fragments recovered at the alleged crash site were unknown to our metallurgists…or that an analysis of the recovered metal fragments has led to the creation of new alloys that are now being used by our military in their aircraft. The writers of these books simply say that it was a weather balloon that crashed. No one seems to even want to ask how a weather balloon could have exploded upon impact. It was the explosion upon impact that led the military to investigate what the explosion was. Nor has any author of those “denial” books ever asked why the Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff flew out the Walker Air Force Base the following day.
Is our government or military trying to conceal something from us? It won’t be the first (or last) time our government has tried to cover-up something they felt would “panic” our citizens. Remember that the bulk of our laws and government are based on the church-goers who descended from the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock. Our Government is based on the slogan “In God We Trust”. It would never do to announce that there are such things as alien life forms. It would severely impact the belief that God made us unique in the world…and might cause massive uprisings and wars around the world. Lots of religious fanatics would gladly kill others to prove it isn’t so.
Recently, several previously classified reports from Russia and Great Britain regarding UFOs were declassified and released to the public. Although I’m certain the “Top-Secret” reports have not been (and will probably never be) declassified, it’s most interesting to look at what has been opened to the public:
Hundreds of Britons had 'close encounters' with UFOs, according to previously-classified documents released by Great Britain’s Ministry of Defence.
The sightings were made between 1981 and 1996 from observers including police officers, fighter pilots and school children. They range from lights in the sky to close contact with aliens with 'lemon-shaped heads', and include detailed analysis on some of the UK's most well-known cases.
The British Government 'X- Files', contains 14 files of sightings, letters and Parliamentary Questions - 4,000 pages in total.
The Russian reports were significantly more extensive and strongly suggested that the source of these UFOs was not outer space, but from the depths of our oceans. The declassified Russian reports are over 10,000 pages long. They have reports from their top Naval brass that UFO’s were spotted by Sonar under water and travelled under water at speed normally associated with jet aircraft. They slowed down and stayed close to the Russian ships, sometimes tracking them for hours before accelerating away at high speed. They were often visually seen by entire ship’s crews to burst out from the sea into the sky where they, sometimes, hovered, and sometimes sped off to God- knows-where.
You ought to tell some of your disbelieving friends to investigate these declassified files.
What are they and where are they from? At this moment I do not have those answers…but rest assured I am researching the reports and…maybe…I will have an answer soon.
In the meantime, if you’ve got any ideas, please let me know at stebrel@aol.com
Next week I’ll discuss “proof” of ghosts.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Nobody asked me, but… August 23, 2009
It never fails to amaze me how many people who are, otherwise, intelligent people, continue to deny the existence of UFOs, of ghosts, of virtually anything that touches the paranormal. For the most part, these are not unintelligent people or people without an education. They are doctors, lawyers, engineers…even some rocket scientists. Yet, they live in complete denial of things that that have not only shown us overwhelming evidence of their existence, but in many cases have been accompanied by logical, virtually irrefutable evidence.
To such people there is never enough proof or photographic evidence. It’s as if a ghost came and visited them in their bedroom and they spent the following ten years searching the room for some sort of holographic projector. I have often used the phrase: If you do not believe something, no amount of proof will convince you…if you do believe something, no proof is necessary.
Let’s take a minute and look at some of the proof such people deny: This week I’ll talk about the “proof” of UFOs. Next week, the proof of “ghosts”…and who knows what we’ll discuss after that:
*********************************************************************************************************
UFOs: There have been more than five million UFO sightings throughout the world. There have been more than a hundred thousand photographs taken of UFOs (approximately half of which have been examined by experts for photo-shop alterations and found to be original photos that have not been retouched).
If you look at some of the photos of UFOs, they have different shapes, different lighting, etc. Photos of UFOs, generally, are not “copy-cat” or “me-too” pictures sent by people seeking to fool others. Many of these photos have been taken by military personnel, college professors, airline pilots, etc. Certainly fifteen minutes of fame is not being sought by Heads of State of several countries or by their Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance or Ministers of Defense who claim to have seen UFOs (and some have taken photos).
Here in the USA, there have been several books written by intelligent authors demonstrating that the UFOnick claims of a UFO having crashed near Rosewell, New Mexico, are false and misleading. These books claim to have interviewed people stationed at the nearby Walker Air Force Base who stated that it was simply a weather balloon that crashed. It’s interesting that none of the books alleging that “nothing happened” ever interviewed the military personnel who were sent to investigate the event. It’s interesting that none of the books mention that the metal fragments recovered at the alleged crash site were unknown to our metallurgists…or that an analysis of the recovered metal fragments has led to the creation of new alloys that are now being used by our military in their aircraft. The writers of these books simply say that it was a weather balloon that crashed. No one seems to even want to ask how a weather balloon could have exploded upon impact. It was the explosion upon impact that led the military to investigate what the explosion was. Nor has any author of those “denial” books ever asked why the Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff flew out the Walker Air Force Base the following day.
Is our government or military trying to conceal something from us? It won’t be the first (or last) time our government has tried to cover-up something they felt would “panic” our citizens. Remember that the bulk of our laws and government are based on the church-goers who descended from the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock. Our Government is based on the slogan “In God We Trust”. It would never do to announce that there are such things as alien life forms. It would severely impact the belief that God made us unique in the world…and might cause massive uprisings and wars around the world. Lots of religious fanatics would gladly kill others to prove it isn’t so.
Recently, several previously classified reports from Russia and Great Britain regarding UFOs were declassified and released to the public. Although I’m certain the “Top-Secret” reports have not been (and will probably never be) declassified, it’s most interesting to look at what has been opened to the public:
Hundreds of Britons had 'close encounters' with UFOs, according to previously-classified documents released by Great Britain’s Ministry of Defence.
The sightings were made between 1981 and 1996 from observers including police officers, fighter pilots and school children. They range from lights in the sky to close contact with aliens with 'lemon-shaped heads', and include detailed analysis on some of the UK's most well-known cases.
The British Government 'X- Files', contains 14 files of sightings, letters and Parliamentary Questions - 4,000 pages in total.
The Russian reports were significantly more extensive and strongly suggested that the source of these UFOs was not outer space, but from the depths of our oceans. The declassified Russian reports are over 10,000 pages long. They have reports from their top Naval brass that UFO’s were spotted by Sonar under water and travelled under water at speed normally associated with jet aircraft. They slowed down and stayed close to the Russian ships, sometimes tracking them for hours before accelerating away at high speed. They were often visually seen by entire ship’s crews to burst out from the sea into the sky where they, sometimes, hovered, and sometimes sped off to God- knows-where.
You ought to tell some of your disbelieving friends to investigate these declassified files.
What are they and where are they from? At this moment I do not have those answers…but rest assured I am researching the reports and…maybe…I will have an answer soon.
In the meantime, if you’ve got any ideas, please let me know at stebrel@aol.com
Next week I’ll discuss “proof” of ghosts.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Monday, August 17, 2009
More Dreams
More from my mailbag: August 16, 2009
There is still some mail to answer: If you send a request, I will always respond to it. If I use your letter in one of my blogs, I will change your name so that your privacy is protected. For some reason, there seems to be an unusually high amount of people wanting the meaning of their dreams explained. I’ve said it quit often and I’ll say it again. If I don’t know much about you, my explanation of your dreams is only a “guess” based on the little I do know. There are other interpretations available. If you want a detailed explanation of your dreams, you will have to provide me with as much information about yourself as you feel you can. I don’t charge anything; I don’t try and gain information to steal your identity…and I don’t “bite”.
***************************************************************************************************
Dear Stephen:
“I dream I am on a big ship that is sinking. The lifeboat is full and as I slide into the water a giant octopus wraps its tentacles around me and starts massaging intimate parts of my body. I try to scream but I can’t because I’m under water. My husband shakes me awake and tells me that I am screaming. If you write about this in your blog, please do not use my real name or mention where I am from. Selma”
Dear Selma:
My first reaction to your dream is that it is a reflection from a previous life. I will make the assumption that your marriage is a good one and that you are not having marital problems and that the tentacles wrapping themselves about you are not your husband moving in his sleep.
It’s very possible that, in a previous life, you were on a ship that sunk. Dreams, most often, are a reflection of a previous life in which your death came unexpectedly or prematurely. I don’t know you, but if you have a fear of deep water when you are awake, this would go along with the dream. i.e. You have an unconscious fear of water because, in a previous life, it is associated with the untimely end of that life. If there are any sounds in your dream associated with the sinking boat, such as other voices in panic, ship whistles blowing, etc., this would only tend to confirm my interpretation. As we live out this life, the fears from a previous life tend to become buried. We still may have an unexplained fear of deep water, but it doesn’t stop us from going swimming in the ocean. But if we go out on a sailboat ride, we may feel inexplicably “uneasy”.
Your dream actually goes significantly further: In your dream you seem to feel that you might have escaped to the surface of the water if some giant fish had not held you under. The fact that the giant fish was messaging the intimate parts of your body is indicative that in your previous life, you may have been aboard a sinking ship with an illicit lover and when that ship went down, you felt a lot of guilt about the relationship and, perhaps, were expecting the wrath of your God to not allow you to escape.
The best way to rid yourself of this dream is to do something with your present husband like go on a cruise with him. The extreme safety you would probably feel on one of today’s luxury liners, would tend to overcome the deeply seated fear in your unconscious mind about the ocean. I know they can be expensive, but there are an awful lot of bargains out there right now.
I hope this helps.
Best, Stephen Ellis
*********************************************************************************
Dear Stephen:
“My father died when I was only nine. He worked in an automobile factory in Beijing. I have just graduated college here in Illinois and have been accepted to study medicine in Baltimore. I keep dreaming about my father telling me to quit school and become a farmer. Is there some explanation for this? Loni”
Dear Lori:
The dream you describe is quite unusual. If your father had been a farmer, it might be easier to interpret, but the fact is that he was enmeshed in the manufacture of automobiles, in China.
Still, the dream is so unusual that I believe it must contain a message for you:
If you stop to think about it, why would someone on an assembly line want his child to become a farmer? The answer is that your father, in spite of the fact that he may have spent his entire life in an automobile manufacturing plant, was probably extremely unhappy there and wanted his child to have the benefit of living where the air was clean and automobile manufacturing plants were nowhere in sight. You did not mention the age of your father when he died or the cause of his death, but I strongly suspect he was quite young (you were only nine years old) and that his early death was, somehow, related to his occupation.
Inasmuch as the seeking of higher education for women in China is only a somewhat recent innovation (for many years in China, women were only supposed to have babies). It was when the recent rules limiting a couple to have only one child, that women began to make a bigger impact on the white-collar work force. Even today, like you, many Chinese women come to America to seek a higher education.
If your father was alive, I’m certain he would be very proud of his daughter.
Best, Stephen Ellis
*********************************************************************************************************
Dear Stephen:
“I get this nightmare almost every night: I am swimming n the ocean and a shark is chasing me. When he bites me, all my teeth start to fall out. Does this have any special meaning? Eric”
Dear Eric:
Without knowing some details about you, it is almost impossible to try and explain an unusual dream like this, but here goes:
It seems to me that in your real life, you may be pretending to be somebody you’re not. Someone a lot tougher and with less moral turpitude than most people believe you to be. Your dream of being chased by a shark is almost always a business dream. You are in a position of some power where you work and someone is after your job…or after you to try and bring you down. Because you are in a position of power, you have teeth strong enough to bite the shark right back…but the fact is that you are not as tough as others believe you to be, and when the shark bites you, instead of biting back, your teeth all fall out and you are powerless to defend yourself…because despite the image you have created for yourself, deep inside, you are not the shark others believe you to be. And so, you face the fear of being exposed for what you really are.
The best suggestion I have to rid yourself of this dream is to, slowly but surely, allow the softer side of yourself to be revealed. Maybe you won’t be your company’s “hatchet-man” any more, but I think you’ll sleep better at night. Besides, the people you work for, seeing a more humane side of you, may decide to elevate your position in the company. Good luck.
Best, Stephen Ellis
***********************************************************************************************************
Please feel free to write me. I respond to all e-mails. You can e-mail me at stebrel@aol.com
There is still some mail to answer: If you send a request, I will always respond to it. If I use your letter in one of my blogs, I will change your name so that your privacy is protected. For some reason, there seems to be an unusually high amount of people wanting the meaning of their dreams explained. I’ve said it quit often and I’ll say it again. If I don’t know much about you, my explanation of your dreams is only a “guess” based on the little I do know. There are other interpretations available. If you want a detailed explanation of your dreams, you will have to provide me with as much information about yourself as you feel you can. I don’t charge anything; I don’t try and gain information to steal your identity…and I don’t “bite”.
***************************************************************************************************
Dear Stephen:
“I dream I am on a big ship that is sinking. The lifeboat is full and as I slide into the water a giant octopus wraps its tentacles around me and starts massaging intimate parts of my body. I try to scream but I can’t because I’m under water. My husband shakes me awake and tells me that I am screaming. If you write about this in your blog, please do not use my real name or mention where I am from. Selma”
Dear Selma:
My first reaction to your dream is that it is a reflection from a previous life. I will make the assumption that your marriage is a good one and that you are not having marital problems and that the tentacles wrapping themselves about you are not your husband moving in his sleep.
It’s very possible that, in a previous life, you were on a ship that sunk. Dreams, most often, are a reflection of a previous life in which your death came unexpectedly or prematurely. I don’t know you, but if you have a fear of deep water when you are awake, this would go along with the dream. i.e. You have an unconscious fear of water because, in a previous life, it is associated with the untimely end of that life. If there are any sounds in your dream associated with the sinking boat, such as other voices in panic, ship whistles blowing, etc., this would only tend to confirm my interpretation. As we live out this life, the fears from a previous life tend to become buried. We still may have an unexplained fear of deep water, but it doesn’t stop us from going swimming in the ocean. But if we go out on a sailboat ride, we may feel inexplicably “uneasy”.
Your dream actually goes significantly further: In your dream you seem to feel that you might have escaped to the surface of the water if some giant fish had not held you under. The fact that the giant fish was messaging the intimate parts of your body is indicative that in your previous life, you may have been aboard a sinking ship with an illicit lover and when that ship went down, you felt a lot of guilt about the relationship and, perhaps, were expecting the wrath of your God to not allow you to escape.
The best way to rid yourself of this dream is to do something with your present husband like go on a cruise with him. The extreme safety you would probably feel on one of today’s luxury liners, would tend to overcome the deeply seated fear in your unconscious mind about the ocean. I know they can be expensive, but there are an awful lot of bargains out there right now.
I hope this helps.
Best, Stephen Ellis
*********************************************************************************
Dear Stephen:
“My father died when I was only nine. He worked in an automobile factory in Beijing. I have just graduated college here in Illinois and have been accepted to study medicine in Baltimore. I keep dreaming about my father telling me to quit school and become a farmer. Is there some explanation for this? Loni”
Dear Lori:
The dream you describe is quite unusual. If your father had been a farmer, it might be easier to interpret, but the fact is that he was enmeshed in the manufacture of automobiles, in China.
Still, the dream is so unusual that I believe it must contain a message for you:
If you stop to think about it, why would someone on an assembly line want his child to become a farmer? The answer is that your father, in spite of the fact that he may have spent his entire life in an automobile manufacturing plant, was probably extremely unhappy there and wanted his child to have the benefit of living where the air was clean and automobile manufacturing plants were nowhere in sight. You did not mention the age of your father when he died or the cause of his death, but I strongly suspect he was quite young (you were only nine years old) and that his early death was, somehow, related to his occupation.
Inasmuch as the seeking of higher education for women in China is only a somewhat recent innovation (for many years in China, women were only supposed to have babies). It was when the recent rules limiting a couple to have only one child, that women began to make a bigger impact on the white-collar work force. Even today, like you, many Chinese women come to America to seek a higher education.
If your father was alive, I’m certain he would be very proud of his daughter.
Best, Stephen Ellis
*********************************************************************************************************
Dear Stephen:
“I get this nightmare almost every night: I am swimming n the ocean and a shark is chasing me. When he bites me, all my teeth start to fall out. Does this have any special meaning? Eric”
Dear Eric:
Without knowing some details about you, it is almost impossible to try and explain an unusual dream like this, but here goes:
It seems to me that in your real life, you may be pretending to be somebody you’re not. Someone a lot tougher and with less moral turpitude than most people believe you to be. Your dream of being chased by a shark is almost always a business dream. You are in a position of some power where you work and someone is after your job…or after you to try and bring you down. Because you are in a position of power, you have teeth strong enough to bite the shark right back…but the fact is that you are not as tough as others believe you to be, and when the shark bites you, instead of biting back, your teeth all fall out and you are powerless to defend yourself…because despite the image you have created for yourself, deep inside, you are not the shark others believe you to be. And so, you face the fear of being exposed for what you really are.
The best suggestion I have to rid yourself of this dream is to, slowly but surely, allow the softer side of yourself to be revealed. Maybe you won’t be your company’s “hatchet-man” any more, but I think you’ll sleep better at night. Besides, the people you work for, seeing a more humane side of you, may decide to elevate your position in the company. Good luck.
Best, Stephen Ellis
***********************************************************************************************************
Please feel free to write me. I respond to all e-mails. You can e-mail me at stebrel@aol.com
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