Calliope (the main character in my series) grew up among a special group of entertainers in unusual venues such as local State Fairs or Renaissance Faires. In North Carolina the State Fair can have over a million people attend during the week it’s open in October and the Carolina Ren Faire can have even more. Clair, Callie’s mother, is like the Carnival Medium in a semi-darkened tent surrounded by symbols of the mystical. She might have a small table with two or three small chairs or stools surrounding it. If she were a Tarot reader, her deck of cards would be arrayed over the surface of a tie-dyed cloth in a pattern well known to Tarot experts everywhere. There might even be the smoke of patchouli incense wafting through the close quarters as you sit in rapt attention awaiting news of your fate. The question in your mind is whether this Carnival Medium, Palmist or Tarot card reader truly has the Second Sight or if they are just really good at observing human behavior. Continue reading “Mentalism versus Telepathy”
Poltergeists: Psychic or Something Else?
If you’re a fan of the so-called Ghost Hunter shows that are all over cable television, please move on. There isn’t anything for you to see here. I require a lot of evidence before I will agree there is a possible haunting. This blog article is based on information from established Parapsychologists who have researched the phenomena known as Poltergeist hauntings. Many of them would tell you that there is not a discarnate entity involved in a majority of them, the rest simply may shrug their shoulders and respond “Could be anything.” That’s the fun part of Parapsychology: it’s open to possibilities. Continue reading “Poltergeists: Psychic or Something Else?”
Mediums
Mediums are considered to be the conduits for those spirits that have “shuffled on from this mortal coil” and Hamlet, who had a lengthy conversation with his deceased father, might have been one. I talked with Dr. Julie Beischel of the Windbridge Research Center about her experiences with Mediums. She is a Parapsychologist who has written several books on the subject. ” Among Mediums: A Scientist’s Quest for Answers” has a concise description of her quintuple blind study confirming that “certain Mediums can make accurate statements about dead people that they couldn’t reasonably know”. Dr. Beischel discusses the experiences of thirteen of the certified Mediums she has worked with in her book “From the Mouths of Mediums”asking how they experience information from the “other side”. Basically, each Medium experiences this phenomenon differently. Continue reading “Mediums”
Precognition
“Well, if you can see into the future, why haven’t you won the lottery?” Gosh, if only it worked like that. Imagine a world where psychic ability was an on-demand, accurate and clear sense: we’d all be millionaires and never make mistakes! That being said, precognition is all about seeing possible futures. J.B. Rhine tried to study precognition using the famous Zener cards. The test subject would write down what order the cards would eventually be in once the tester shuffled the deck. Then the tester would shuffle the deck and turn the cards over from the top of the deck comparing them to the predicted order of the cards. If the test subject guessed correctly higher than statistical average through a series of runs, they would be considered a Precog. As with telepathy, there are levels of ability and accuracy depending on how skilled the Precog is.
What are Zener Cards?
When J.B. Rhine was developing the precognitive card test, he was originally using playing cards. Magicians have long known how to identify playing cards and so did some of the test subjects. As a result, J.B. created the Zener card deck which has five of each geometrical shape. Some decks also have the shapes colored to include one more possible variable. This prevented most of the cheating that had occurred with playing cards. Continue reading “Precognition”
Psychokinesis
If you’re anything like me, you have probably focused all your attention on the T.V. remote control willing it to move into your hand so you wouldn’t have to get up off the couch. If you’ve succeeded in making that happen, congratulations, you’re a Psychokinetic. One of the most famous Psychokinetics in fiction today is Eleven from “Stranger Things”. It’s a great show with compelling characters and a creepy storyline, but it isn’t precisely accurate. Eleven is a pre-pubescent girl who was taken in by a shadow organization because of her incredible and innate ability to move objects simply through concentration. In one scene, Eleven is able to move a soda can a short distance across a table, something that hyper-talented Psychokinetics might make happen. Later in the show, Eleven wrecks her room with the sheer power of her mind. That’s never been proven to happen anywhere in Parapsychological research. However, the prevalent theory of Poltergeist hauntings is the acute psychokinetic activity of a young person living there. Continue reading “Psychokinesis”
The Clairs
No, I’m not talking about a group of Millennials that share the name “Clair” and happen to finish each other’s sentences or manage to wear the same color clothing on the same day. This term is parapsychological shorthand for the psychic senses. As you know, there are the five main senses: touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste, but there are also the psychic equivalents of these each with their own “Clairs”. There are three main types of Clairs: clairvoyant, clairaudient and clairsentient as well as other Clairs that I will refer to later in this post. Continue reading “The Clairs”
What is Telepathy and is it Paranormal?
Parapsychologists who study psychic ability say that telepathy is gaining information from someone else without using one’s senses. If you see a picture without viewing it with your eyes or you hear something in your head without your ears picking it up, that is the definition of telepathy. The question that creates a rift between the parapsychology community and the skeptical anomalistic psychologists is whether the source of telepathy is paranormal or if it’s due to some subconscious awareness or other psychological phenomena. Continue reading “What is Telepathy and is it Paranormal?”
What’s it called when…
I have witnessed people come to a meeting at the Rhine called the Psychic Experiencers Group (PEG) struggling with a single frightening experience or a lifetime of odd things happening. I sit in the corner and scribble in my bright pink notebook at these meetings because their stories are truly fascinating. However, the true nature of these meetings is more therapeutic. If the general public or psychology experts cannot apply a word for what they may be going through then they come to the Rhine for help to get support and an identity of their special abilities. In this section of my blog, I will discuss more each of the psychic abilities and how they’ve been classified by parapsychological researchers.
Getting Started: A Brief History
How does one ever get started on a journey? You think about where you want to go, about how to get there and then plan your itinerary. Once you’ve arrived, maybe you hadn’t planned well for the weather or you find one of your destinations isn’t open that day. This is the best metaphor for writing my series of books about Calliope O’Callahan, the telepathic teenager. The novel I intended to write had its origins from a dream. It was to be a thriller about a mother in her forties having to deal with a newly acquired psychic skill called “Psychometry” or the ability to touch an object and know its history. I will be the very first person to tell you that I’m neither a psychic nor did I know much about psychic ability when I started beyond what popular culture had to offer me. I knew my destination (or so I thought) and now came the method for getting there. Continue reading “Getting Started: A Brief History”