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”