Lesson 9: Ah, What a Tangled Web We Weave!
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Paranormal
Investigators, like ice cream cones, comes in a variety of flavors, from
plain vanilla to the more exotic Rocky Road.
If you can engage them in a meaningful dialogue, you would likely
find that each holds an often hidden belief on what it is they interact
with in the field, some see Casper while others conjure up Jason from
Friday the 13th. Some
see a straight path to follow from point “A” to point “B” while for others
the “solution” in some cases will take you through the alphabet twice; the
later of course is closer to the truth.
It is always
refreshing to become involved in a case that has just one ghost, the
predictable kind, who lights all the meters and speaks when spoken to, but
to be honest, those are few and far between. Many “ghost hunters,” will
only visit known haunted locations to reconfirm the obvious, to sidestep
the more involved cases.
Revisiting Eastern Correctional is predicable, but it might be noted that
no one has come up with a single verifiable name to be associated with the
experiences so many report there. That is why they are called “Ghost
Hunters” in the first place, they do little investigating, less research
and walk away feeling fulfilled because they were present when something
went bump in the night. Only
the trained paranormal investigator sees the importance of finding names
and tying earthly occurrences to the phenomenon observed. That is why we
tend to shy from the “tourist” destinations, where the waters have been
muddied beyond recognition and chose to focus on the lesser known sites.
The drawback, of course is once we identify an active site and the
spirited participants there, the place will soon be flooded with well
meaning ghost hunters!
In one case,
we recently received a call from a well meaning ghost hunter who asked if
we had ever heard of Old Alton Bridge; he proceeded to explain that
it was a very active site and when asked for more details, his verbal
report was filled with half truths, legends, folklore and pure fiction.
He seemed surprised when, after giving me the lowdown, I told him
we had originated the real investigation of the location many years before
and that we had published several articles in places like FATE, FORTEAN
TIMES and HAUTED TIMES on the location. Finally, I explained the real
nature of the existing phenomenon and our ongoing research there,
including an archeological survey to locate the original homestead.
He was amazed, he asked several times if I was sure that we were
talking about the same place, he honestly thought he was the very first to
visit the bridge, but also admitted that he and his fellow hunters did not
stray more than 50 feet from the bridge itself, thus missing the really
big parts of the location and phenomenon. But he was content with what he
had experienced, an owl crying out on a moonless night and movement near
the bridge, which they did not investigate.
What is my
point? No, I am not bashing
Ghost Hunters, I am simply trying to educate them to understand what it is
that we do and why. We really are different.
The most
mundane haunting is intrinsically complicated. Let me use the ASUP
headquarters as a perfect example.
Yes, the space is haunted but by totally friendly spirits and yes,
we have several on the premises.
Dubbed the “Dog Ranch” because we have adopted so many strays over
the years, the ranch is about 80 acres and has been a homestead for well
over 100 years and home to several interrelated families, including Joy
Maner, the ASUP’s Director of Research.
This is the
kind of place where you commonly see folks sitting in adjacent rooms as
you walk past, knowing you are the only living person there.
Recently, the front door swung open while two members were sitting
in the living room; to paraphrase one, “The door opened with purpose; as
if someone were walking in, it stayed open a moment, then closed, as if
guided by a human hand.” That could be interesting, if it didn’t happen
daily! Dogs see what humans
commonly do not, our smallest dog is in and of itself, a walking piece of
Texas history; he is a true “Cow Dog” who is both fearless and competent
to wrangle any livestock on command.
He also has a
habit of “talking” to mirrors(not barking but talking), watching unseen
movement intently and most recently was found laying in an antique rocker,
cuddling up in unseen arms, as if being stroked and petted. He was laying
on an old blanket, so it was difficult to see where “he” was being
supported from, he looked like he was hovering about an inch off the
blanket. “Spotty” continuously follows unseen folks in and outside the
house. He also has been seen playing “ball” on the side of the house; yes
the ball seems to be thrown to him, but no one is there, except for
someone he alone sees. Ironically, this is a spot where a young boy died
in an accident 50 years ago, he too had a faithful dog he loved to play
ball with, relatives say.
Sometimes our
lives intersect with our housemates.
They seem stronger when you are brewing fresh coffee in the
morning, you will find cabinets opened, cups moved and sometimes a
rattling sound. Again ironically, we know of one former household member
did not care for coffee, she was a tea drinker, but we have noticed the
feeling that she still does not like folks using her cup at the kitchen
table, the center of all social activity here. The spirits come and go in
the house and around the grounds and have been seen out by the barn area.
They seem to warn us when an animal is ill.
Sometimes the
spirits will take us by surprise.
One morning I woke with a start, I was in bed, on my back and
looking up at a female spirit hovering over me, nose to nose. That got my
attention! I was not feeling
well and went to the doctor, then my cardiologist.
He did all the requisite tests and I had suffered a “silent” heart
attack. It was obviously good
enough to arouse one of our ghosts.
In all, there
are at least five ghosts who come and go at the ranch, the dogs recognize
them, but don’t become upset; in fact, one of the best stories about one
ghost, happened last year. Several members were congregated in the living
room, it was late and Joi wanted to call the dogs in for the night.
She called out, and most of the house dogs responded… all but
“Murphy”, who seems not to think of himself as a dog at all, but rather a
human who just looks like a dog. He did not respond to Joi’s calls and she
was beginning to get upset.
The area is infested with feral hogs and they have attacked the dogs late
at night.
Suddenly,
there was a shrill whistle, someone was calling the dog.
The sound was emanating between myself and another ASUP officer,
standing just a foot or so away by the door.
We knew where it came from, but not from whom, nevertheless,
literally in the next moment, Murph was standing at the doorway with a
puzzled look as if to ask, “So which one of you learned how to whistle?”
Obviously, one of our unseen friends had done what she did best…
yes, we were able to confirm a member of Joy’s family who routinely called
in the dogs with a quick whistle!
Sometimes, the
activity is not as obviously explained; when a kitchen implement is there
next to you one moment and gone the next and you are the only one there,
it is easy to accept who might be the culprit.
There is more than one ghost here that seems to enjoy my culinary
efforts, but they have their own tastes, I was trained to pull out all the
spices I will be using in a dish before starting, so they are close at
hand, but I often find spices on the workbench that I would not normally
consider in a recipe, only to later hear that it was a favorite of a
former cook in that kitchen.
Other times,
we have occurrences we can’t hope to explain.
We have a large train type engine bell out on a post at the front
ramp to the house. One night,
at about 3 a.m. that bell rang out clearly, very loudly.
It rang just once; there was no “return” just one loud “Clang.”
I got up, and went to the front door, expecting to find someone
there. But no one was and the dogs all encircled the bell post, staring
intently at the bell, which was now quiet.
I know that the bell rang, I totally understand the mechanism and
how one would ring it; there was no wind and it only rang once, which in
and of itself was odd and obviously the dogs heard it too, but I can offer
no explanation why it happened at the exact moment.
Well, I’ve
waxed poetic enough about the Dog Ranch; it is a great place to live and
offers a good deal of otherworldly activity, but it also sets the stage
for the true purpose of this lesson.
NOTHING is simple!
NOTHING exists in a vacuum!
What may seem simple is almost never so.
If ghosts are the spirits of those who once lived, they lived
complex lives, even in a little whistle stop town in East Texas. The
emotions are still the same and lives are complicated and intertwined.
That is what makes paranormal investigations so complex; even
Casper the friendly ghost had his interrelated troubles.
It is simply
for that reason that background research is as important as it is in every
ASUP investigation. We are not out in the field to prove the existence of
the phenomenon, although that seems to be what the great majority wants.
They want to know if there is a ghost, possibly what is his name
and his history as it relates to his haunt. No one really wants to know
much more and the possibility of doing psychotherapy on a ghost is
virtually unheard of, yet it might only be through such intricate studies
that we can really get to the heart of why certain spirits linger and do
what they do.
All of this
does however take time to master.
First you have to educate the researchers, to discuss overall
goals, and the methods you intend to utilize.
Then you have to do the same with the client, who many times just
wants the troublesome spirit to move on, to a place where they will not
have to deal with them. It’s
all somewhat like a good friend who has a petulant three year old.
If it were your three year old, the antics would be cute, but when
it is anyone else’s, you wish they would just go away.
You may love them, but you don’t want to interact with them 24-7.
It is reasonable to suggest from my years in the field that if you
can’t tolerate kids under foot, you will probably have a hard time cutting
it in paranormal research, unless you decide to sequester yourself in a
nice sterile pod.
For the rest
of us in the trenches, we will be interacting with the widest possible
array of personalities, probably a much wider range than you might in the
living world. You will have the opportunity to deal with the “Great
unwashed” from many generations past, on a regular basis… no you don’t get
to pick your ghosts and no, they probably won’t be anything like the
people you normally exchange niceties with on a regular basis in your
world. In fact, I would
hazard a guess that you will find yourself dealing with exactly the kinds
of personalities you tend to avoid elsewhere.
Does this mean
we should call be psychotherapists to the dead?
Funny you should ask!
My old friend, Scott Rogo believed once upon a time that the only people
truly prepared to do field work in parapsychology would be the “lettered
professionals,” the Ph.D.s who I tend to relegate to the back office labs
today. His theory was simple,
in fact you are involved in the psychotherapy of the departed; to
understand them you first have to understand their minds; therefore the
best field investigator will be a trained therapist.
Of course the problem is that I don’t know too many practicing
psychologists who want to specialize in the analysis of a dead person’s
psyche -- after all, who would you send the billable hours to?
I didn’t know many back then and still have problems finding them,
except for the occasional academic, who dabbles at arms-length from the
safety of a classroom environment and waxes poetic about the “theory” of
hauntings. Thus we must take another direction!
It was once
said that when Mohammad was unable to go to the mountain, the mountain
came to Mohammad. We have to
take the same path. If we
can’t find an adequate number of like-minded researchers with Ph.D.s then
we will have to try to educate the rank and file researcher to do his job;
something like the concept followed when the medical profession came to
realize that they needed doctors out in the field to save lives… that was
not a viable answer, so they created the paramedic, a hybrid medical
professional with a very narrow field of understanding about medicine in
general, but nevertheless a consummate expert in those things that are
most life threatening on the street: trauma,
heart attack, shock, etc. and how to adequately treat them enroute to the
proper medical facility.
Paranormal
investigators are very much like Paramedics, we just deal with departed
spirits and the living who interact with them, rather than cardiac
emergencies and trauma patients.
It takes about as much time to train a good paranormal investigator
as a paramedic, and what they learn is a very highly developed, yet narrow
overview. Clients who are
forced to deal with spirits regularly when they don’t wish to are
certainly in need of paranormal “first aid.” The spirits themselves are
usually very complicated, with no easy fixes and we have to handle them
appropriately. If we are doing the
job right, no one is left out of the initial equation or the final
solution.
Nothing is
simple! Every case is
complex, a layered history that you must unravel to really deal with the
problem at hand. Unlike our ghost hunting friends, it is not enough to
walk into a case, confirm the existence of a spirit and leave.
The job of the paranormal investigator is to study the phenomenon,
untangle the layers, and plot a solution unique to this particular set of
circumstances, just as a psychotherapist would do.
Yes, mankind, dead or alive, weaves a tangled web, but if you
really want to solve the puzzle of an afterlife, you must first address
how that ghostly subject spent his time among us and come to understand
his emotional direction and overall aims while he or she was here.
Yes, some
ghosts just hang out because they are comfortable in a place. The ghosts
of the Dog Ranch show that to be true every day, and if anything they
protect the living who now resides on what was once their property; but
just as in life, all humans are not motivated by the same things, there
are good and bad, positively directed or otherwise.
So if you really want to follow this path, you have to be prepared
to deal with the plethora of otherworldly spirits because, just as in
life, every spirit is different!
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