The ARGNY Blog

That Darn Kid Keeps Coming Back!

Ian Stevenson, the late rock star of scientific research of reincarnation has documented several cases of children being born with birthmarks that correspond to wounds and scars that were present in the previous life. Read all the about it in my previous blog posting.

Some colleagues of Dr. Stevenson, following in his rather large footsteps, have also found cases of "Experimental Birthmarks." These are marks that are made on a dying person, so that when they reincarnate they can be identified by the family as who they were. Dr. Jurgen Keil and Dr. Jim Tucker found 18 of these cases occurring mainly in Thailand and Burma, with a few in Turkey.

The cases primarily occur within the same family. In a few, the mother actually saw the marking, while in others she had heard about it but did not see it, and in still others, the mother did not know about the expected birthmark. For instance, in Thailand, an older sister died of heart disease and some friends preparing her for burial marked her on the back of the neck with lipstick. They never told the mother until after a child was born with the analogous birthmark.

Most markings are ash or soot, things that do not penetrate the skin, however, a few more serious marking cases occur in Africa. In Nigeria, they believe in what are known as ogbanje spirits, children who are born into a family, live for a while and then die in a repetitive cycle to harass the parents. When this happens a number of times, parents will mutilate the body of the dead child, which is believed to stop this process. They will typically cut off a fingertip or remove part of the ear, acts which are not drastic enough to cause a full deformity but allow recognition of the ogbanje.

Occasionally, the mutilation is more severe. In one case, a father chopped off the fingers and toes of the supposed ogbanje and a subsequent child was born with grossly deformed and missing fingers and toes. An interesting dimension of this story is that the enraged father had cut off the fingers and toes, performed a ceremony, and hung them in a bag in the home to ward off the ogbanje spirit. He married a new wife who cut down the bag without knowing the story. The birth-deformed child arrived shortly thereafter. An alternative explanation to actual reincarnation is the maternal impression hypothesis, in which the psychological impression in a mother's unconscious mind affects the developing fetus.

 Moral of the story: if you see a bag of fingers and toes hanging from a tree, leave it alone.

Video of the Week: Dude, Where's My Car?

Hmm.

Sotto Voce Electronica

This is another post that I've been meaning to do since November, back when The Forever Family Foundation held their Synchronized Universe symposium. Two of the guests of the symposium were Lisa & Tom Butler of the Association of America of Electronic Voice Phenomena. They had some amazing examples of EVPs, which they played for the audience. For an explanation of EVPs, please see my previous post on the subject. They also demonstrated how EVPs are recorded and seemed to make contact with the dead husband of one of the audience members, George. During the demonstration, George is thanked for his time and when the EVP is played back you can distinctly hear a voice reply, "thank you."

During the demonstration I did my own EVP recordings and what I captured is neither great, nor shocking, but I do believe I captured what the Butlers would call a Class C EVP. In both of these, I cannot make out what is being said. But, give it a shot: Download EVP1 and Download EVP2. You will need to use headphones and to crank up the volume of your computer just to hear these, but I do think there is something there. At the time of the recordings, these sounds were not audible to me or the rest of the audience of about 100 people. I would love suggestions, both productive and counter-productively comical.

Video of the Week: Girl on the Stairs

Looks legit, but who knows.

Demons: Paranormal Bad Asses

What demons actually are is anybody's guess, but they certainly aren't very nice. Although I don't think that there is any evidence that a demon has actually killed anyone, I do think they are often (but not always) the catalysts for suicides, homicides and less dramatic but destructive behavior. And they certainly wouldn't give you their seat on the bus or send you a Get Well card when you're not feeling so good.

They say that demons are not ghosts and they are not and never were human; that they are "non-human" negative entities. But I think that there are other types of non-human or negative entities floating around that either get erroneously or lazily labeled "demons". So, let's do a little sorting and labeling:

• Demons: pure evil. Legend (think bible) says that these are the minions of Satan and there is a whole hierarchy to their little nasty organization. Non-religious folk will tell you that these are actually the flotsam and jetsam of negative human emotion all packed up in a tight little ball and ready to pounce on unsuspecting souls; that they come from human negativity and feed off it to keep going. Very much like Dick Cheney.

• Elementals: these are the souls of nature; tree spirits, bush spirits, rock spirits, fungus spirits, etc. The energy of nature spawns these intelligent entities. You'll find them in forests, living under a rock. Possibly, with Dick Cheney.

• Malevolent Ghosts: These are just your run of the mill ghosts, just with a really bad attitude. They are angry, nasty things that will hurt you, if given the chance. I think these are often mistaken for demons. And if they don't "cross-over" they will eventually become demonic. Very much like Dick Cheney.

So, what's the diff between ghosts and demons? I personally believe that demons were once angry human ghosts that, over time, became angrier, stronger and more adept at assorted nastiness. And that their nastiness becomes what they are, eventually erasing whatever human personality traits they once held. (If I mention Dick Cheney again, I think it would be too much, right?)

Video of the Week: Waverly Hills When The Ghosts Were The Living

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is considered by many to be one of the most haunted places in the U.S. But, once, it was a state of the art Tuberculosis hospital.

Now you know why some of the patients never wanted to leave.

Are You Talkin' To Me?

There is what seems to be a pretty interesting device produced by Digital Dowsing, LLC, called the Ovilus. It allows ghosts to "speak" through the device by providing an electronic database of words for the ghost to use to vocalize responses to questions, the environment or whatever may be on its mind. The results I have seen are pretty interesting, especially the instances where the ghost is providing direct answers to questions asked, as seen in this video, taken by the paranormal investigation group, U.N.S.E.E.N. Paranormal Research.

As the creator of the device, Bill Chappelle will openly confess, he has no idea how the thing works as a communicator for ghosts. Nonetheless, the results are sometimes pretty impressive.

Video of the Week: A Ghost Walks Into A Bar...

This looks like it just might be legit.

ARGNY's Inaugural MeetUp

Our first meet up was held at an Italian cafe in the West Village called Pinocchio and it turned out to be a rip-roaring success. We talked all things afterlife while drinking espressos and/or eating paninis. We also talked about our first group investigation, to be held in early March. More on that as we get closer.

If you're reading this and you are not a member of my meetup group, I ask that you become one post-haste. You won't regret it.

ARGNY Paranormal Investigation Experience Survey Results

The only way it could have been more difficult to get these results sent out would be if I swallowed the data and someone removed them from my body with a pen knife. And really, I'm not exaggerating.

But, finally, here they are. Please do comment on the survey and the results. All suggestions and comments are welcome. In a few weeks, when I have further results, I will provide the updated summary.

Download PI Survey Results 020309

Doin' Time At Eastern State

I've been meaning to do this particular post since November when I did an investigation with the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, famous for once imprisoning gangster, Al Capone. If you are a fan of Ghost Hunters, you know that they had some amazing experiences there: cell doors slamming shut, footsteps, voices and a controversial video clip of an entity running toward the camera (see my Video of the Week post) and then back again into the darkness. However, the night I was there the only evidence we could gather was of frost-bite because it was so freaking cold in the middle of that November night.

It was fun to creep around the place in the dark, but as far as an investigation goes, it was a waste of time. This was mainly due to how NJGHS organized the investigation. First, we had to sit in near freezing temperatures (35 degrees, according to my digital thermometer) for 90 minutes listening to a lecture about the basics of ghost hunting and then we were broken up into 3 groups to investigate. I had the unfortunate luck of being in the group that was being recorded by two NYU students for a class project of theirs. So, it was all but impossible to do EVP sessions due to their continual questioning and rattling on. Also, we were being constantly moved on to the next cell block by our guides, so it was not possible to spend any time in any one spot to set up cameras or do any of the experiments I had prepared. So, needless to say, I did not gather any evidence whatsoever. But, it was fun, nonetheless. Although next time I'm going in the summer.

Video of the Week: Ghost Hunters Debunked, Again! (I Think I'm Going to be Sick)

This is a video from one of the many guys that have debunked the video that TAPS recorded at Eastern State Penitentiary. When this episode originally aired, I was very skeptical as to the authenticity of this clip. It looked to me like someone in a cloak running up to the camera and then back again. In fact, I could have sworn that I saw a leg, which this guy clearly points out exists.

I disagree, however, that TAPS staged this. I think it is more likely that ESP staged it themselves, but TAPS turned a blind eye. Something that I think they are doing now more often than not. I also completely disagree with TAPS' claim that it would not be possible for someone to run that fast in the dark on that cat walk. I've been there (see my Eastern State post) and I know that it is perfectly possible. If you want to see the original TAPS footage, check it out, here:

Are You Experienced? Tell Me

I have created a short, but sweet and super-quick survey of people's experience with paranormal investigations. If you can take a minute to answer these questions, it would be greatly appreciated. And I mean that. Really.

Thanks

Larry

Video of the Week: Paranormal State

Sometimes they are warriors. And sometimes they are late to class.

Paranormal State Revisited

When Paranormal State debuted, I didn't like it. They seemed to jump to conclusions when faced with certain events and they seemed to have an unstated religious slant, that really put me off. I don't mind that you have a religious slant to your group, if that's what your group is about, but I think you owe it to your audience to state that outright instead of seemingly going out your way to hide the fact. I say this because of how the group seemed to be praying before an investigation, but that always happened with the camera at a distance and without sound. But, now they seem to be coming clean about who the group is and what they really think and do.

So, what makes the group interesting is that they specialize in demonology. That is, "non-human" negative entities. What demons actually are is anybody's guess, but they certainly aren't very nice. If you've seen the Exorcist you have a highly-exaggerated idea of the kinds of things demons get up to. Although the phenomena rarely manifests itself as a full-on possession of a living person.

So, the team of the Paranormal Research Society, who is the actual paranormal team that the show follows goes around to the houses of people who are not just experiencing weird things like sounds and things moving on their own. It's much more like people who are being smacked around by unseen bullies. PRS goes in, gathers evidence, makes contact and brings in a priest for some demonic ass-kicking.

I still think they could be a little more objective and not see little red beady eyes around EVERY corner, but they do a good professional job and it makes for some interesting TV viewing. Of course, a little more projectile vomiting of pea soup and then they would really be on to something.

I Can See for Miles and Miles and Miles....Oh Yeah.

During my Forever Family Foundation discussion group meeting last week, the topic of remote viewing came up. For the uninitiated, remote viewing is the act of gaining information of a distant and/or unseen target by psychic means. The first experiments were conducted at Stanford in 1972 and quickly caught the attention of, yup you guessed it, the CIA, code named Stargate. Why? Because the Russians had begun their own remote viewing experiments. The Remote Viewing Race was on! That is until the CIA's programs started being scrutinized by a post-Watergate public and they dumped the program so that they wouldn't be considered to be maniacs. Yeah, that worked out for them. So, the Air Force, never afraid of sloppy seconds, picked it up. The program did yield some interesting results that turned out to be correct, like a description of a new class of Soviet subs and the location of a downed Soviet bomber in Africa. Eventually, the program was abandoned by the military, but continued in the private sector. There are now several companies offering courses in remote viewing. My favorite, though for purely comedic reasons, has got to be the Matrix Research Center, that gives as its address and I'm not kidding: East Side of the Volcano, Middle of the Pacific Ocean.

So, what does this all have to do with the afterlife you ask? Well, if you didn't have a physical body, you would be sensing (viewing) all things psychically and would then, theoretically, be able to sense remote objects and people. Moreover, without a physical body, you wouldn't just be sensing, you'd be experiencing remotely. It's a very interesting concept and one worth exploring. The ability to remotely view a women's locker room? You bet it's worth exploring!

Video of the Week: The Inconsiderate Ghost

This is another video that looks like it could be a good example of actual paranormal phenomena, if not rude behavior. Judging by how the ghost just steps in front of the guy, this is obviously the ghost of someone who used the stairs of New York Subways on a regular basis.

I assume that the reason that the people in the video didn't see the entity was due to the darkness. Remember that these videos are usually shot with infrared cameras in near or total darkness.

Of course, I do not know the circumstances under which this was shot nor who is the person that shot it.

By ARGNY Other Name

You might have noticed that the name of this blog has changed from the tortuously difficult to spell LifeAfterLifeAfterLife to the much more catchy, Afterlife Research Group of New York or ARGNY, for short. This new name heralds the beginning of my own paranormal research group and the start of my new paranormal MeetUp group, which I politely ask that you join. But, why, you may ask, am I starting my own group when just a few short blog posts ago I announced that I joined another group by the name of EPIC. Good question. The reason is that I was accepted into EPIC in early June, yet as of this posting, I have yet to have lunch with the group, let alone an investigation. So, tired of waiting, I have taken the paranormal bull by the horns and have created ARGNY.

Video of the Week: Ghost Hunters (Say it Ain't So) Debunked

I know this is a little old, but this is a video clip that, if true, really breaks my heart.

These guys are the rock stars of the paranormal investigation world and seemingly genuinely good guys. I would hate to think that this was all an act. But, it would explain why they never seem to have an off night anymore. Every episode yields amazing evidence, incredible video and "Class A" EVPs. As any real ghost hunter will tell you, the odds of this are, well, paranormal.

That's No Ghost, That's My Father

Recently I attended the Synchronized Universe symposium, sponsored by the Forever Family Foundation, a not for profit dedicated to research in the survival of consciousness. So, at one point I had a reading by one of the seven psychic mediums that were making the rounds during a lovely 3-course lunch. Apparently, my father came by to tell me that he had left some kind of a "gift" for me. I have no idea what he was talking about and told him, via the psychic, exactly that. He laughed at my stupidity for not understanding him. Yup, that's my dad. Obviously, death did not change his character any. In fact, the psychic told me outright that she really didn't care for him and would like to punch him right in the mouth. Yup, that's him. 

But, this underscored an idea I've had for a little while. That is, there is a difference between ghosts and spirits. What I encountered in a banquet hall in Syosset, Long Island was not the "ghost" of my father, but was his "spirit." What does that mean? I am really not sure. But here are some ideas:

• Ghosts are emotionally tied to a person, place or thing, resulting in a "haunting"
• Spirits are emotionally tied to people, but do not "haunt" them.
• Ghosts have the ability to physically (electromagnetically) manifest themselves and/or to manipulate physical objects.
• Spirits do not manifest within the physical plane of existence.
• Ghosts seem to be not quite mentally or emotionally stable.
• Spirits seem to maintain the same mental and emotional state as their living personality.
• Ghosts seem to be trapped within a place or an emotional state, prohibiting them from "crossing over."
• Spirits have crossed.

I once heard a psychic explain that spirits "vibrate" a higher frequency than ghosts. While I know what she is talking about, I do NOT understand what it means. But whatever it means, it is really interesting.

Violins & Random Number Generators

If there's such a thing as ghosts and reincarnation, then there must be such a thing as consciousness, separate from our brains. And the guy that knows more about consciousness than just about anyone is Dean Radin. Violinist from the age of 5, holder of a master's degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in educational psychology, President of the Parapsychological Association and an all around swell guy, Radin has been the go-to guy for all things parapsychological since the 80's. Here's an interesting interview with him from the Santa Barbara Independent newspaper.

Back From The Dead

Although I haven't posted for a couple of months, it is my sincere intention to begin posting on a weekly-basis.

So, for my first resurrection, I'll let you know that I have been accepted into a paranormal investigation group by the name of EPIC Paranormal. And although I've been accepted, I've yet to actually take part in any investigations, or any sort of activity, normal or paranormal. When I do, I will certainly document them here.

Stairway to Heaven

This appears to be actual ghost footage.

And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed.

Let's Get Reaaaddyyy to Rumble!! Or, Just Run Away

What happens when you take a professional wrestler out of the safety of a wrestling ring and put him in a dark, haunted TB hospital?  Well, this is what happens, not when he sees a ghost, mind you, but when he drops his own cell phone.

This is one of my favorite videos ever.

100 Bottles of Ghost on the Wall, 100 Bottles of Ghost...

For $20 you can buy a ghost in a bottle from gen-u-ine ghost hunters. You even get a ghost certificate, so you know it MUST be real. But, be careful, because as the web site clearly warns,

"WE CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MISFORTUNE TO BEFALL YOU SHOULD YOU TAKE POSSESSION OF THIS OBJECT."

But that didn't stop Murray from Apple Valley, California, who wrote,

"Just like your instructions advised, I beleive I have seen all signs of my ghost. I'm thinking of moving out of my apartment, it's now haunted. The Ghost Bottle is a very entertaining novelty!"

Hey Murray, what do you want to do tonight? Bowling? Movie? Move out of your apartment? I don't know, they all sound so entertaining!

Bum Priest or Bum Rap

Someone's getting the bum rap in a priest molestation trial in Boston. But, it's not yet another pedophile priest, it's parapsychology. In 2005, Paul Shanley was convicted of raping a boy 15 years earlier. The 27 year old victim (in 2005) claimed that he began recalling the suppressed memories of the rape after he heard about the other cases of priest pedophilia in the media and from his friends' own accounts. Shanley's lawyers now claim that the evidence presented for suppressed memories was junk science, that came not from scientists, but from PARAPSYCHOLOGISTS! (Group gasp!)  The article states:

"Shaw argued that the scientific communities in which Brown said his theories of memory suppression were widely accepted include people involved with parapsychology and controversial practices, such as the study of apparitions, paranormal activities and "rebirthing" procedures."

Quite frankly, I think that "rebirthing" is a putrid pile of steaming excrement. And it really tans my hide the way parapsychlology is lumped together with UFOs, Bigfoot, crop circles and the existence of Ashton Kutcher's testicles. Like any other field of science, there are good, sound practices that yields good sound scientific results and there's junk science. Just because one is doing research on reincarnation or ghosts doesn't automatically mean it's junk science.

The worst part is that the bias against parapsychologist or scientific paranormal research causes a vicious cycle: respected scientists cannot get research money for paranormal research, so the research is taken up by less respected scientists or lay people, so the results are automatically not respected, so respected scientists distance themselves from the field, etc., etc.

It's enough to make a paranormal researcher want to dig up a body, bring it back to life and teach it to sing "Puttin' On The Ritz.

Gettysburg Re-Address

The footage here looks to me like a true residual haunting. Watch how the movement seems to be repetitious. First from the far left, moving close to the ground to the left. Then, from the middle toward the right. Also, the apparition (if it is that) seems to appear and then fade as it moves.

Of course, it could just be a couple of rednecks hunting possum.

Even More Basic Instinct

Ever wonder how a bird knows to fly south for the winter? Or how a salmon knows to swim upstream to spawn? It’s instinct—duh! Right. But what IS instinct? And if the birds and the bees do it (instinctually), why can’t we do it (instinctually)? Well, we probably do. Ever notice how successful musicians, doctors, carpenters and insurance salesmen often have successful musician, doctor, carpenter and insurance salesmen parents? Scientists are just now beginning to understand how some knowledge is passed down through generations of animals genetically. This is called “genetic memory” or “inherited memory.” The idea is that genes can not only pass down physical traits, but can "remember" conditions from your forebearers' lives (right down to the things they've seen and smelled) and that this memory is passed down from generation to generation.

I mention this because one possible interpretation of reincarnation cases is “inherited” memories of the previous personality. The theory goes that the subject is not remembering events from his own previous life, but events experienced by his parents or grandparents and that these experiences are genetically transferred down the line to the subject. The problem with this theory, however, is that although a spider may know how to spin a web because his parents and his grand-parents and his great-grandparents knew how to spin webs, it is doubtful that the spider is remembering specific webs that his predecessors had spun. More likely he is only remembering the idea of webs and the process for going about making them. So, “inherited memory" would not explain why the subjects of Dr. Ian Stevenson, Dr. Satwant Pasricha and others would remember specific details, such as names, places, occupations and ownership of property.

And there’s another problem with the “inherited memory” theory when applied to reincarnation. In many of the documented cases of the reincarnation type, the subjects remember the means of their death. So, if a person remembers dying then, obviously, they would not be around to procreate and genetically transfer that knowledge to their offspring.

It is going to be interesting to see many of the common beliefs about instinct, innate knowledge and skills and even intuition transform from the mysterious and paranormal to being simple statements of genetic fact. It’s not “instinct”, it’s DNA—DUH!

Orbilicious

For an explanation of orbs, please see my other posts. But take a look at some footage of the best orb phenomena I've seen, captured by the paranormal group, Haunted Earth UK. This truly seems to be the genuine article.

Waiting In A Tree

So, if you're an American and you snuff it, how are you spending those 12 or so years before you reincarnate, anyway? Well, it seems, from the testimony of those children that can remember this interval (as per Dr. Stevenson), that you're a ghost. However, a few also report some kind of short intermediate life between death and reincarnation, which just may just be a mis-communication on the part of the child in his memory of the ghost life. But, some report genuine weirdness. Things like, "I waited in a tree for seven years and and when I saw  my new father I accompanied him home on a bus " or "I was in a strange netherworld where an old man guided me to the new life". Of course, there can be no verification of most of these reports, so they are pretty suspect. Interestingly, Ian Stevenson was actually able to confirm some of the details of the story of the kid who remembered sitting in a tree. His father-to-be, actually did walk by a particular tree each day on his way to and from work and then did board a bus. Again, though, this seems to be a report of a ghost state of the personality prior to reincarnation. But why you would sit in a tree for seven years is another question altogether.