A Story to Tell: Memoirs of a Paranormal Investigator

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JBurden
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A Story to Tell: Memoirs of a Paranormal Investigator

Post by JBurden »

Log entry: 01, “A Sacred Story”

Where to begin?

How is it possible to put this into words?

Why is a mythologist interested in researching the paranormal?


The myths are fascinating. They provide us with a connection into the depths of our very being and aid us in making sense of the world, and our place in it. They open us up to the awe inspiring mystery of all that is, all that could be, and through experiencing them we may reacquaint us with a 'center'.

What dose the field of modern day Paranormal Investigation have to do with myth? Its one thing to read a fascinating tale in a book, view a captivating film in the theater, or hear a Biblical story retold to a church congregation. It's another thing all together to listen to someone share their personal story of incredible mystery and reverence, let alone experience it for oneself.

To begin with, first hand accounts of the paranormal are usually not told to just anyone. After all, the teller of the story has much on the line. They may genuinely risk ridicule from friends and family, contempt from co-workers, and being ostracized from their religious community. To share such an experience is potentially a vital threat to one’s security and acceptance in society. When we share these stories we are in peril of a variety of outcomes.

If we confide in a religious member we may hear “you must not be acting as a good enough Christian” or “are you doing something against God, something that would invite these evil forces into your life?” Or we can disclose our experience to a valued friend who may think that we are crazy and pressure us to seek out a therapist and medication. What kind of an effect do these responses have on the individual? The latter scenario can completely discount the human experience. It is as if to say that “your story is a fantasy, nothing happened to you, it’s all in your head. The ghost, alien, big foot, ext, isn’t the problem. You are the problem.” Discounting the human experience is an incredibly dangerous way to treat someone. The effects of such a diagnosis may be far more devastating to the individual than the actual experience they lived through. It’s psychologically hazardous. It’s also quite offensive to the nature of the story, more on that to come. In the former scenario, at least, the story is given validity. However, the cost of such validation is far more outweighed by the judgment and contempt one may receive on part of someone for which we may feel immense honor. Their story may be respected but that may also come with a social stigma and possible out casting.

These are just some of the pit-falls in sharing our strange experiences. It’s interesting to note that the strongest association that this writer can draw from, in regards to the negative reactions and effects of such personal story sharing, comes from the issues dealt with sexual assault, schizophrenia, and family abuse. For instance, many adult survivors of childhood sexual molestation are told that they are experiencing “false memory syndrome”. Indeed many female survivors of rape are told that it was their fault that this horrible thing happened. Moreover, when we tell a person suffering from schizophrenic hallucinations that what they are experiencing can not be real we risk placing ourselves in the center of their break up, causing a further split from that person needing help, and ourselves. Telling someone that their memory isn’t real, that their trauma is their fault, or that what they are seeing and hearing can’t be happening, these are the fastest avenues to further trauma. Such dangers seem to be mirrored in the dealing with paranormal phenomena.

While such things as “false memory syndrome” may be an accurate diagnosis in some instances, it can hardily be the standard answer to the real problem of childhood sexual abuse. A small percentage of rape victims may place themselves in unsafe situations, but this is no reason to blame the survivor for the attack. Furthermore, the hallucinations witnessed by schizophrenics may not be real, but telling them that, well, frankly, that doesn’t do them a whole hell of allot of good. Whether or not what they are seeing is real to us doesn’t matter. They ARE experiencing it, what ever it is that is happening to them IS happening to them. Just because we can’t see or hear it, in the end, just doesn’t matter.

Likewise, when we listen to a story told about some strange paranormal phenomena we would do well to treat the story with respect and attention to their experience, instead of trying to discount the event as fantasy, or as fabrication. Their story must, and this can not be stressed enough, must be valued and validated, without judgment. Otherwise we risk loosing the person altogether and missing out on the healing vitality of the moment.

Through engaging in such a story with another, one may discover a profound sense of reverence, and of the sacred. To speak of these tales requires a certain measure of vulnerability and of human intimacy. Moreover, much like the ancient mystery cults of Greece, to hear these stories told is a true initiation. These are mythic moments.

Indeed, these are sacred stories. For one to open themselves up to share such things with another, this is a numinous task, and nothing to take lightly. What might be told, what might be re-lived, by the teller of these stories is, in many cases, as close as we can ever get to seeing that person's ultimate truth. Such a thing is no mere fantasy, no work of fiction. These stories are the very gateways to the soul.

Something amazing happens in these settings. It’s as if we drop right out of time, into an amorphous mystique. This feeling that may come, as a result of telling the story and hearing it, is paralleled with that of experiencing a myth. However, the myth functions to open us up, through story telling, into the great mystery and aid us in finding a ‘center’. The un-told or ridiculed paranormal event may represent an incomplete myth. For what it does is it serve to through us completely out of our center, to propel us away from and shatter our sense of wholeness. We are not merely ‘open’ to the great mystery; we are attacked and swallowed by it. The finding of the ‘center’, of everything coming together and making sense in a profound awe inspiring way, if indeed this is the final task of myth, may be established through the sharing of the story and the investigation thereof. If we allow for this stage of the paranormal event to unfold we may indeed discover the healing, centering power that is inherent in myth.

The sharing of the event with another in a sacred moment of intimacy, this is essential. What follows is the task of the modern day paranormal investigator, who by taking on the role of detective may serve to bring a measure of closure to the experience. It is a diffluent role to fill. One must have an open mind, and yet an analytical inquisitive eye. These paranormal events may be traumatic and when a researcher or team of investigators makes it their business to look into the matter they are providing the story with validation, with out judgment. It is as if to say “we hear you, we want to help, and we will do what we can to provide evidence of your story. You are not alone.”

Whether they be tales of ghosts, Sasquatch, or the Extra Terrestrial variety, these stories may evoke an authentic psychological phenomena that one feels compelled to describe as 'religious'. They carry a supreme spiritual vitality that has the potential to elicit awe, to encapsulate rapture, and to drown both the listener and teller of the story in the infinite fathoms of life's deep mysteries. They beg to be shared and when they are received with honor, with respect, with attention they heal, and create community.

The paranormal experience may be the story about ouselves that we keep to-ourselves. Out of fear, out of frustration, out of an inability to even begin to describe it; we hide it away waiting for the right person, at the right moment, to open up and break through that barrier. When someone opens up to us, and becomes willing to share this experience with us, please do not be afraid, do not judge, and do not recoil. Please see this as a blessing, as a healing moment, as an initiation. A myth is a sacred story and in today’s world there is nothing more sacred than the story we dare not tell…


WWW.MYTHICMEDITATIONS.COM


Note: this is a reocurring series with updated log entries to follow. Please stay tuned for the next installment



For those in and around the state of Texas, I highly recommend my friends at Paranormal Investigations of North Texas, www.pintexas.com.

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Post by creekmary »

Yes! I believe. I have been there. I have seen things. Everyone I ask has seen things. They will tell you if they know you believe.

There is that sense of wonder. Curiosity of what is more.

Susan

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Post by JBurden »

Yes, I think many, many people hesitate to speak about such things to the uninitiated. I had a very different idea about these things before I started to talk to folks about these matters. Suddenly, I began to discover something. There were far more people who had experienced something than I had ever imagined. Not only that, but they never matched the ‘stereotype’ that much of the media and our culture has painted them to be.

They are often described as just crazy folk. This is just not the case. Not all, but for a great many people who have had a very strange experience, the first step they take is to seek out psychological help. In fact, they may even hope that there is something wrong with them. They frequently hope, hope to god, that that is all it is. They say “I don’t want it to be real, I pray I am schizophrenic, I hope it’s a tumor, I pray that is all it is. That is something I can deal with” and after having seen a number of doctors and therapists who have all given no diagnosis of mental illness or brain abnormality they have to begin to accept what has really happened.

I believe strongly that we have a growing population of our world community that is suffering from these types of events. These people deserve our respect.

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Post by creekmary »

schizophrenic?! Shooooot!!! They should talk to the Indians around here! We're all crazy then! :lol: But that's the difference between accepting it as real and expecting things to happen under certain circumstances. Everyone has a story. Usually lots.

But, my example is my two sides of the family. My father's mother saw things and they gave her electro-shock. My mother's father saw things and it's a kewl Indian thing. It depends on the culture. I'm glad I was raised to expect it. Mom-n-grandma's advice - 1) don't play with it, and 2) "ohhh...sometimes those things just happen!"

Everybody I have asked has a story. I usually have to tell mine first though. People become afraid when accepted reality doesn't work any more. I guess it might be like being lost in the house of mirrors in the dark. No rules. No lines. No safety net. I always feel braver when I feel I am defending someone. St. Michael's sword in hand so to speak. When I am strong in my faith I am also fearless.

Oh, p.s., I am also starting to wonder about what it is that schizophrenics do see and experience because of my grandparents. Just because other people can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there, just that not everyone can see the same things.

I read "when rabbit howls", multiple personality brought on by severe sexual abuse and trauma. The author/psychiatrist mentioned and gave examples of her psychic and telekenetic abilities. Assuming "satanic ritual abuse" is real, I think that is the hoped for result, a development of those abilities via that route.

I used to work for a man who ran an oil company and claimed to have multiple personalities and had certificates on his wall as a "ritual abuse" counselor, I guess in his spare time. I thought it would be interesting, but it was just creepy and he tended to violent reactions and verbal abuse toward me himself. Pretty weird. Not a thing like the people in Seminole Nation accounting who asked help finding files from the lady whose husband shot her at work. She'd usually leave them on a desk somewhere.

Susan

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Post by JBurden »

Oh, p.s., I am also starting to wonder about what it is that schizophrenics do see and experience because of my grandparents. Just because other people can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there, just that not everyone can see the same things.
I can recall that H.P, Lovecraft wrote a short story called "From Byond" that was latter adapted to a film in the 1980's. The movie took the original story and the plot evolved into the idea that schizophrenics actually are seeing something that exists outside of themselves, that they are, for what ever reason, able to see into a dimention that the rest of are usualy not aware of, but does exist outside the invidual.

When I was a kid they tought us that 97% of the universe had been discovered, that we are just nearly there to knowing the whole thing. Now they say that the universe is 97% 'dark energy and dark matter'. They use the word 'dark' becouse they simply have no idea what it is, only that it is.

Real, not real, what is real? I am in love with the mystery of it all.

"the universe itsnt just stranger than we imagine, its stranger than we can imagine"

creekmary
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Post by creekmary »

I think some paranormal people are starting to think the same thing. I would hope so. They should know there are "more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of....etc etc", and usually you can't see them with your eyes. Sometimes you can. Not everyone can. I was surprised to find out my ghost wasn't a real person. I thought she was. Made me wonder about people I do think I see and might not know about.

Our land we live on is very old. Original allottee land from before statehood. Battles were fought, all kinds of things. We used to live up on a hill with an old abandoned railroad track about half a mile below we could see pretty clearly. One time dad called us kids over and pointed out a man walking the track. "Do you see that man?" My little brother and sister didn't. "What man?"

"Do you see that tree?" yea, they saw the tree. "You don't see that man? He's walking right in front of it now!" They didn't see a man, but I did. He was walking down the railroad track with a bundle on a stick over his shoulder like an old-time hobo. I described him to dad. "yea, I see him!" He looked at my brother and sister, looked at me, looked at the man. "you don't see the man?" nope, they didn't see him. I saw him until he was in the woods. He studied the man for a while, studied us for a while, gave one last look at the man, turned around with a "Humm!!" and went back to what he was doing.

"Sometimes these things just happen!"

Susan

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Post by Neoplato »

"Sometimes these things just happen!"
I think this fits here nicely. This is the opening paragraph to Part V of "Mysticism" by Evelyn Underhill.
V. Voices and Visions

We now come to that eternal battle-ground, the detailed discussion of those abnormal psychic phenomena which appear so persistently in the history of the mystics. That is to say, visions, auditions, automatic script, and those dramatic dialogues between the Self and some other factor—the Soul, Love, Reason, of the Voice of God—which seem sometimes to arise from an exalted and uncontrolled imaginative power, sometimes to attain the proportions of auditory hallucination.
Infinite moment, grants freedom of winter death, allows life to dawn.

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Post by CarmelaBear »

creekmary wrote: ...One time dad called us kids over and pointed out a man walking the track. "Do you see that man?" My little brother and sister didn't. "What man?"

"Do you see that tree?" yea, they saw the tree. "You don't see that man? He's walking right in front of it now!" They didn't see a man, but I did. He was walking down the railroad track with a bundle on a stick over his shoulder like an old-time hobo...

Susan
I don't know where I read or heard this, but it is said that when Columbus arrived on the eastern edge of the Americas, the Natives could not see the ships. It was the medicine men who first spotted the ships. When they pointed to the ships, people were unable to see them.

I wonder sometimes whether much that we perceive is what we expect to see and hear. This is particularly true of changing social relationships. Those who report experiences that are otherwise inexplicable, (and this includes presidents, astronauts, pilots, and police), have to have firm ground on which to stand and notice the ships on the ocean.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

creekmary
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Post by creekmary »

I'll tell another little story I'm sure I've told before, about how things just happen.

I was in my new Indian Home, just been in it a few months. Was looking for my little cloth covered padded box I kept a mother's day corsage mom had given me, getting ready for church. It was nowhere! I looked in the nightstand drawer where it always was, under the bathroom sink, all the drawers in the house, inside the refrigerator even! I looked everywhere! Finally I just put on another one I had in another drawer. When I got back home the little box with the corsage was right in the middle of the bedroom floor in the room that had the nightstand where it should have been.

I just said out loud "NOW you find it! But thank you."

Susan

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Re: A Story to Tell: Memoirs of a Paranormal Investigator

Post by lancimouspitt »

JBurden wrote:Log entry: 01, “A Sacred Story”

Where to begin?

How is it possible to put this into words?

Why is a mythologist interested in researching the paranormal?


The myths are fascinating. They provide us with a connection into the depths of our very being and aid us in making sense of the world, and our place in it. They open us up to the awe inspiring mystery of all that is, all that could be, and through experiencing them we may reacquaint us with a 'center'.

What dose the field of modern day Paranormal Investigation have to do with myth? Its one thing to read a fascinating tale in a book, view a captivating film in the theater, or hear a Biblical story retold to a church congregation. It's another thing all together to listen to someone share their personal story of incredible mystery and reverence, let alone experience it for oneself.

To begin with, first hand accounts of the paranormal are usually not told to just anyone. After all, the teller of the story has much on the line. They may genuinely risk ridicule from friends and family, contempt from co-workers, and being ostracized from their religious community. To share such an experience is potentially a vital threat to one’s security and acceptance in society. When we share these stories we are in peril of a variety of outcomes.

If we confide in a religious member we may hear “you must not be acting as a good enough Christian” or “are you doing something against God, something that would invite these evil forces into your life?” Or we can disclose our experience to a valued friend who may think that we are crazy and pressure us to seek out a therapist and medication. What kind of an effect do these responses have on the individual? The latter scenario can completely discount the human experience. It is as if to say that “your story is a fantasy, nothing happened to you, it’s all in your head. The ghost, alien, big foot, ext, isn’t the problem. You are the problem.” Discounting the human experience is an incredibly dangerous way to treat someone. The effects of such a diagnosis may be far more devastating to the individual than the actual experience they lived through. It’s psychologically hazardous. It’s also quite offensive to the nature of the story, more on that to come. In the former scenario, at least, the story is given validity. However, the cost of such validation is far more outweighed by the judgment and contempt one may receive on part of someone for which we may feel immense honor. Their story may be respected but that may also come with a social stigma and possible out casting.

These are just some of the pit-falls in sharing our strange experiences. It’s interesting to note that the strongest association that this writer can draw from, in regards to the negative reactions and effects of such personal story sharing, comes from the issues dealt with sexual assault, schizophrenia, and family abuse. For instance, many adult survivors of childhood sexual molestation are told that they are experiencing “false memory syndrome”. Indeed many female survivors of rape are told that it was their fault that this horrible thing happened. Moreover, when we tell a person suffering from schizophrenic hallucinations that what they are experiencing can not be real we risk placing ourselves in the center of their break up, causing a further split from that person needing help, and ourselves. Telling someone that their memory isn’t real, that their trauma is their fault, or that what they are seeing and hearing can’t be happening, these are the fastest avenues to further trauma. Such dangers seem to be mirrored in the dealing with paranormal phenomena.

While such things as “false memory syndrome” may be an accurate diagnosis in some instances, it can hardily be the standard answer to the real problem of childhood sexual abuse. A small percentage of rape victims may place themselves in unsafe situations, but this is no reason to blame the survivor for the attack. Furthermore, the hallucinations witnessed by schizophrenics may not be real, but telling them that, well, frankly, that doesn’t do them a whole hell of allot of good. Whether or not what they are seeing is real to us doesn’t matter. They ARE experiencing it, what ever it is that is happening to them IS happening to them. Just because we can’t see or hear it, in the end, just doesn’t matter.

Likewise, when we listen to a story told about some strange paranormal phenomena we would do well to treat the story with respect and attention to their experience, instead of trying to discount the event as fantasy, or as fabrication. Their story must, and this can not be stressed enough, must be valued and validated, without judgment. Otherwise we risk loosing the person altogether and missing out on the healing vitality of the moment.

Through engaging in such a story with another, one may discover a profound sense of reverence, and of the sacred. To speak of these tales requires a certain measure of vulnerability and of human intimacy. Moreover, much like the ancient mystery cults of Greece, to hear these stories told is a true initiation. These are mythic moments.

Indeed, these are sacred stories. For one to open themselves up to share such things with another, this is a numinous task, and nothing to take lightly. What might be told, what might be re-lived, by the teller of these stories is, in many cases, as close as we can ever get to seeing that person's ultimate truth. Such a thing is no mere fantasy, no work of fiction. These stories are the very gateways to the soul.

Something amazing happens in these settings. It’s as if we drop right out of time, into an amorphous mystique. This feeling that may come, as a result of telling the story and hearing it, is paralleled with that of experiencing a myth. However, the myth functions to open us up, through story telling, into the great mystery and aid us in finding a ‘center’. The un-told or ridiculed paranormal event may represent an incomplete myth. For what it does is it serve to through us completely out of our center, to propel us away from and shatter our sense of wholeness. We are not merely ‘open’ to the great mystery; we are attacked and swallowed by it. The finding of the ‘center’, of everything coming together and making sense in a profound awe inspiring way, if indeed this is the final task of myth, may be established through the sharing of the story and the investigation thereof. If we allow for this stage of the paranormal event to unfold we may indeed discover the healing, centering power that is inherent in myth.

The sharing of the event with another in a sacred moment of intimacy, this is essential. What follows is the task of the modern day paranormal investigator, who by taking on the role of detective may serve to bring a measure of closure to the experience. It is a diffluent role to fill. One must have an open mind, and yet an analytical inquisitive eye. These paranormal events may be traumatic and when a researcher or team of investigators makes it their business to look into the matter they are providing the story with validation, with out judgment. It is as if to say “we hear you, we want to help, and we will do what we can to provide evidence of your story. You are not alone.”

Whether they be tales of ghosts, Sasquatch, or the Extra Terrestrial variety, these stories may evoke an authentic psychological phenomena that one feels compelled to describe as 'religious'. They carry a supreme spiritual vitality that has the potential to elicit awe, to encapsulate rapture, and to drown both the listener and teller of the story in the infinite fathoms of life's deep mysteries. They beg to be shared and when they are received with honor, with respect, with attention they heal, and create community.

The paranormal experience may be the story about ouselves that we keep to-ourselves. Out of fear, out of frustration, out of an inability to even begin to describe it; we hide it away waiting for the right person, at the right moment, to open up and break through that barrier. When someone opens up to us, and becomes willing to share this experience with us, please do not be afraid, do not judge, and do not recoil. Please see this as a blessing, as a healing moment, as an initiation. A myth is a sacred story and in today’s world there is nothing more sacred than the story we dare not tell…


WWW.MYTHICMEDITATIONS.COM


Note: this is a reocurring series with updated log entries to follow. Please stay tuned for the next installment



For those in and around the state of Texas, I highly recommend my friends at Paranormal Investigations of North Texas, www.pintexas.com.
Burden,If you get the time look over this thread I made about things of this nature here: http://www.jcf.org/new/forum/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0
A ship is safe in harbor,but that's not why a ship is built.

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Post by CarmelaBear »

Where are you, JB? Any developments in your investigations?

:arrow:
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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Post by creekmary »

Oh! the christopher columbus thing! I found it! It's on the cd, "What the bleep""

creekmary
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Post by creekmary »

CarmelaBear wrote:
creekmary wrote: ...One time dad called us kids over and pointed out a man walking the track. "Do you see that man?" My little brother and sister didn't. "What man?"

"Do you see that tree?" yea, they saw the tree. "You don't see that man? He's walking right in front of it now!" They didn't see a man, but I did. He was walking down the railroad track with a bundle on a stick over his shoulder like an old-time hobo...

Susan
I don't know where I read or heard this, but it is said that when Columbus arrived on the eastern edge of the Americas, the Natives could not see the ships. It was the medicine men who first spotted the ships. When they pointed to the ships, people were unable to see them.

I wonder sometimes whether much that we perceive is what we expect to see and hear. This is particularly true of changing social relationships. Those who report experiences that are otherwise inexplicable, (and this includes presidents, astronauts, pilots, and police), have to have firm ground on which to stand and notice the ships on the ocean.

~
Sorry, this is what I meant was on the movie/documentary "What The Bleep Do We Know". The part about not being able to see christopher Columbus' ships.

I was watching it the other night and there was Morgan Freeman talking about it.

Susan

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Post by CarmelaBear »

Yes, that's where I first heard of the invisible Columbus ships.

The second of the two "Bleep" movies was called "Down the Rabbithole". Now Morgan Freeman is on a show that morphs the title into "Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman". It explores many of the topics once relegated to the margins. It turns out that reserarchers are looking at the world in all sorts of new ways, asking questions science tried to ignore for a long time.

The wormhole show is on the Science Channel, a cable favorite.
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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Post by A J »

I've caught that show a few times, CB. It's quite intriguing.

AJ
"Sacred space and sacred time and something joyous to do is all we need. Almost anything then becomes a continuous and increasing joy."

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