Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Can we ALL learn to be psychic?

This is a strange way to spend a Thursday morning. I am sitting in a living room in Watford, Hertfordshire, with my eyes closed, trying to summon up my ‘spirit guide’ with the help of Britain’s most accurate medium.

‘As you breathe in and out, let any thoughts drift away. Now send a thought asking your spirit guide to step into this quiet place and see if you feel any sense of their presence,’ says my teacher.

My mind is spinning because after a few seconds, I do feel something — or rather hear something. Out of nowhere the room has filled with the sound of a ferocious wind, whistling around me, even though outside it is a still, sunny day.

‘I hear wind!’ I exclaim. ‘Really strong wind, like we’re in the middle of a storm.’ I hear a chuckle and open my eyes. ‘That’s a passing train, going through a tunnel. They make that noise all the time — quite handy to have near a medium’s house,’ jokes my psychic leader.

Oh dear, so it turns out I’m not really in tune with the spirit world — at least not yet. But we can all develop psychic, or intuitive skills, according to medium Gordon Smith, who is renowned for his ability to pinpoint exact names of people, places and even streets important to a person’s life.

He’s just written a book called Intuitive Studies: A Complete Course in Mediumshipwhich promises to help people harness their intuitive powers — and despite having all the psychic powers of a dustbin I am here to get a one-to-one lesson.

‘We all have a sixth sense, times when you just know something; say that your mum is going to call, or that someone in your family isn’t well. This is our intuition — and instead of ignoring it, we should hone it and heighten it. People think that the spirit world is full of creepy ghosts and ghouls, but it’s not. It is tapping in to the higher consciousness of spirits of people who have been here before — a kind of collective intelligence.’

Gordon was just a boy when he started to have visions. When he was seven or eight a friend of his mother’s passed him on the street and had a little chat. When he told his mum she got very upset. ‘She freaked out and I didn’t know what I’d done wrong, it turned out that this man had died the week before.

I had several experiences like this. They never bothered me but because of other people’s reactions, I learnt to shut up about it.’ But then in his early 20s a friend’s brother died in a house fire and the night he died, he appeared in Gordon’s bedroom.

‘It was 3am and he just appeared in my room. I was stunned and shocked and before I could say anything he had vanished through the floorboards. I had a horrible sense of foreboding, I knew that I was going to get bad news in the morning — and I did. It turned out he had died at exactly that time.’

FORCE OF NATURE

Since then, Gordon has been communicating with the spirit world on a daily basis. He used to do readings around his job as a barber, which earned him the nickname ‘The Psychic Barber’ — but now he is a full-time medium. His abilities have been tested by scientists at Glasgow University, and his astonishing accuracy has made him the subject of TV several documentaries.
People come to him for all sorts of reasons. Most often he acts as a medium, passing consoling messages from the dead to the bereaved — but he is also a psychic too, performing readings for people. So will he be able to tell me when I will meet the love of my life? Or better still, teach me how to use my intuition to spot him myself?

While Gordon believes that his extreme gift is something he was born with, he says ‘anyone can communicate with the spirit world if they know how to open up’. So could I reach this higher consciousness? The first steps are simple . . .

SIT STILL

‘You cannot tap into your intuition if your head is busy with a million different thoughts,’ says Gordon. ‘We should all sit in silence for at least an hour once a week. Close your eyes, take deep breaths and relax.’

Sitting on Gordon’s sofa, I give it a go. I close my eyes and try to think of nothing but all I can think about is that fact that I forgot to take my washing out of the machine this morning. ‘Thoughts will come into your head but you just let them go. With practice you will start to declutter your mind and see things more clearly,’ he says.

LISTEN TO YOUR INNER VOICE

When you get used to sitting in silence you will start to hear your inner voice that we so often ignore, says Gordon. ‘If I’ve trained to do anything in the past 30 years, it’s to listen to my inner voice,’ he says. ‘One night, years ago, I’d been invited to a party but as soon as I stepped into the entrance of the bar, my tummy went “boom!”. Something felt wrong so I told my friends I wasn’t going in, and we left and went to another bar.

We heard the next day that a guy had walked into the party with a knife that night and stabbed two people.’ This gives me a shiver. ‘This won’t stop everything negative in your life — there are some things you can do nothing about, for example my mum’s dying of cancer at the moment but it can help you avoid certain situations,’ he says.

I ask if he knew that his mother was sick before she was diagnosed. ‘She was a very healthy strong woman but had been complaining of getting tired and having something in her throat. One day I woke up and just knew something was wrong. I phoned home and my brother told me Mum had just got back from the doctor who thought it might be cancer.’

FIND YOUR SPIRIT GUIDE

Once you’ve found your inner voice, the next step is to find your spirit guide, says Gordon. He believes that when we die, our spirits remain floating around and that they are always communicating with us, if we’ll listen. Gordon also thinks that each of us has a spirit guide, like a guardian angel, who is there for us all the time if we need him or her. It sounds nuts, but the way he talks about his spirit guide — an old man, whom he has named Chi — is so matter of fact that it’s like he’s talking about a friend.

I attempt to find mine. Sitting on the chair Gordon tells me to close my eyes and ask for my spirit guide to come to me and to give me a sign. I do. Nothing happens. I wait. Then I see a little sparkling light in the corner of my eye — like a little Tinkerbell — but then I realise that it’s just the sun shining though the window. I feel silly. Gordon, sweetly, tells me this is normal. ‘Believe me, you’ll know when it happens. And don’t worry if it doesn’t, there are no prizes for any of this,’ he says.

READ PEOPLE'S FEELINGS

Even if you don’t find — or believe in — a spirit guide, you can use your intuition to tap into other people’s feelings. ‘We all do this anyway,’ says Gordon. ‘You might be with a loved one and you know that what they are saying is not how they are feeling. People mask their thoughts but you sense their feelings in the atmosphere.’

Gordon asks me to try an exercise in which I read his feelings. The idea is that I stand behind him with my hands hovering over his shoulder while he remembers something that prompts strong emotions. The reason Gordon suggested I hold my hands an inch away from his body is to get in touch with his aura — an energy that comes off all of us.

While some people claim to see auras, Gordon says we should start by feeling their presence. After a minute or so with my hands hovering, I feel nothing at all — except panic that I’m feeling nothing at all. Then the picture of a brown horse flashes into my head, and pops out again. I tell Gordon about the horse and he smiles. ‘I was thinking about the week my father was dying,’ he says. ‘No horses there.’

We swap places and I remember a time when a male friend died and Gordon picks up ‘female healing energy’. Oh well. ‘I’m really tired,’ he says, not remotely embarrassed. Even professionals have off days.

SEEING INTO THE FUTURE

This is all very good but can I look into people’s futures? Or can Gordon look into mine? Can he tell me whether I’m going to meet a tall, handsome stranger and move to the South of France? ‘No,’ he says. ‘Seeing the future is a 50-50 guess based on a feeling that you get from people. You might get it right but you might not.’

So where are fortune tellers and psychics on hotlines getting their information from? ‘I have no idea,’ says Gordon. ‘If you go to a psychic or a medium who asks you lots of questions, walk away. They should be telling you information, not the other way around.’

What Gordon can tell me is that there are no messages from the dead he needs to pass on to me and that actually, ‘everything is OK in your life’. Which indeed it is. ‘When things are good, don’t go poking around, just enjoy what you have,’ he says, before showing me to the door. But Gordon gives me some parting words: ‘Stop looking for Prince Charming, and start looking for Mr Right Here.’ Ooh! I do a mental check of all the men in my life — could he be talking about my postman? An overlooked friend? My grumpy neighbour?

I wonder if Gordon can see something in the future or if he is just using old-fashioned common sense — whatever it is, I think we can all learn a little bit from Gordon, the most down-to-earth psychic in the world. And after an hour with him, I left convinced that not only can Gordon communicate with higher powers — perhaps we all can. -

Developing Mediumship

Spirit Messenger: The Remarkable Story of a Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

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Ab-Fab / Bond Girl Joanna Lumley tells how she does not fear death - and believes she was a WWI boy soldier in a previous life

Joanna Lumley says she does not fear death, thanks to her strong belief in reincarnation.
She has even claimed she 'might have been a boy in the First World War' during a visit to a battle site.

The actress said she 'recognises places' from visits in her previous lives, adding that an 'immense calm' she felt in Ypres, Belgium, led her to believe she may have fought there as a young soldier.

She also said she feels 'tremendous' and 'very positive' about her own death.

She said: 'I don't think anybody should be scared of dying.'

In an interview, Lumley told a Sunday magazine: 'I have been here before.

'I recognise places. When I visited Ypres I felt an immense calm.

'I think I might have been a boy in the First World War.'

The 66-year-old former Bond girl, best known for her portrayal of louche fashion director Patsy in the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, was born and raised in India and the Far East before becoming an actress.

Her opinions on death reflect the philosophy of the regions where she spent her formative years. 'Be no more afraid of dying than you are of going to sleep,' she said.

'Every day is a pattern. You are born in the morning, you live through the day and when you put your head on the pillow that is your death.'

'I'm a despot': Joanna Lumley explains why she doesn’t think democracy is Absolutely Fabulous
Hailed as a 'Nepalese national treasure' for her campaign for immigration rights for Gurkhas who have fought for Britain, Kashmir-born Miss Lumley has enjoyed a glittering four-decade acting career.

The former model turned Bond girl has starred in 30 movies and over 40 television shows, and is the proud recipient of three Baftas and an OBE.

The comments are the latest philosophical pronouncements from the veteran actress, who last week admitted she is a despot who could never stand as an MP as she does not ‘really believe in democracy’.

‘I believe in a benevolent despotism. I’m a despot,' she told Australian media.

'I will say what is good for you and it will be good and it will be kind but I can’t have argue, argue, argue, argue, argue.’ - dailymail

Absolutely Fabulous - Complete Series 1-3

Absolutely Fabulous - Absolutely Special (The Last Shout/In New York)

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Zombie Drug?

By Peter Fotis Kapnistos - The “Miami Zombie,” was a naked man who was killed by police on May 26, 2012, after he was found eating another man’s face along a busy highway. Another zombie apocalypse-type incident took place over that weekend in Hackensack, New Jersey, where a man stabbed himself and threw his intestines at police. A few days later, a student at the Morgan State University in Maryland confessed to eating his roommate’s brains and heart. The Miami attacker Rudy Eugene chewed off more than 75 percent of Ronald Poppo’s face. Before fatally shooting him, police demands to stop were met with growls.

“I knew my son,” Eugene’s mother, Ruth Charles, told ABC affiliate WPLG. “Rudy will never, never do something like that.” “He did not abuse drugs,” she said crying. “I don’t understand. Somebody did something to him… that wasn’t him.”

Press reports said that a dangerous herbal incense street drug known as “bath salts” might have played a role in the attack. There were no drugs found at the Miami scene. According to ABC News, Rudy Eugene in a previous incident was “the first person tasered by North Miami police.”

A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Tasers are non-lethal weapons used by police to subdue dangerous people. According to Wikipedia, “Someone struck by a Taser experiences stimulation of his or her sensory nerves and motor nerves, resulting in strong involuntary muscle contractions.”

Becoming violent, burning up from the inside, tearing off one’s clothes, and other “delusional frenzies” exhibited by the Miami zombie are the experiences of someone struck by a Taser. Did Rudy Eugene suffer a Post-Taser flashback? What triggered it off? What are the potential long-term Taser effects on the brain and body?

In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seized on the idea of a “zombie apocalypse” as a way to get Americans to prepare for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack. To demonstrate the importance of preparedness, they launched a blog, content syndication, and even zombie e-cards.

Had the Office of Public Health already made a connection between Taser strikes and zombie stimulation?

Conspiracy theorists currently suspect that post-taser victims might exhibit zombie-like behavior and that low-income homeless people are targeted for taser attacks. Will vigilante (storm trooper) groups suddenly emerge (as they have in Greece), thus “saving” the government the political shame of asking police to move the homeless to FEMA camps? Were some Neo-cons in fact neo-nazis secretly planting their German “DNA haplogroup K” in high places?

Modern Hoax theorists, on the other hand, appear confident that a “cloud” communications revolution has undeniably commenced. The 99% can peace-lovingly block certain doorways and hang up the iphones until the ill advised once again pack their bags. - myth-os

NOTE: I received the following from a friend who has connections with Miami-Dade County Emergency Response: 'The 'Miami" zombie, Rudy Eugene - 24 or 25 - was of Haitian descent, and had been involved in some minor law breaking incidents before, such as smoking marijuana. (mixed with PCP or other drug would not cause such a violent reaction?) According to witnesses and the police, the officer ordered him to stop. He looked up and growled at him. Officer fired once, striking him, but he continued devouring his victim. Apparently unaffected, the officer then emptied his clip on Eugene finally killing him. His sister was later interviewed and claims that her brother was 'cursed' or bewitched'.

About 25 years ago a man, who lived near me, had just become a proud father. One day he used PCP, attack his newborn son with a knife and decapitated the child. He was walking around the neighborhood with the knife in one hand and the child's head in the other screaming he had killed Satan's offspring. He then threatened the police by throwing the child's head at them and finally lunging at them with the knife. I was told it took eight .357 Magnum rounds to stop him...Lon

Bath Salts: An Inside Look At The Synthetic Drug Phenomenon

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Ghostbusters: is Hollywood a spiritual ‘vortex’?

Mystic healers. UFO hunters. Spirit mediums. People claiming psychic powers turn up everywhere. But in Hollywood, where dreams are made, the spiritual realm meets showbusiness. Watch out.

Drive down a typical boulevard in Los Angeles, and within minutes you will spot a “psychic” sign offering to sort out your problems. Cults and gurus abound, as well as a galaxy of sects and “churches”.

“LA is a total vortex,” says Maja D’Aoust, who calls herself the White Witch of LA, receiving AFP in a white dress, silver high-heeled shoes, white feathers as earrings and long blond hair to her waist.

“You know, (Indian yogi Paramahansa) Yogananda came here, the Evangelical movement started here, the Pentecostal movement, we have all kinds of UFO cults, yoga groups, you name it,” she told AFP.

She describes herself as an expert in exorcism, levitation, demonology, shamanism and astrology, among other subjects. “There is a giant conglomeration of any religion you can think of.”

Mark Edward, member of the Independent Investigations Group(IIG), is skeptical. He presents himself as a magician and psychic, but is transparent about the tricks of the trade.

“It’s not so much LA, it’s Hollywood. Because everybody wants to make it in Hollywood, it attracts a lot of people from all over the world who come here,” he told AFP.

“It’s a known fact that actors and people who are involved in the arts, a lot of them are very superstitious. They carry lucky charms, they believe their luck is going to change… it’s been that way since the ’20s and ’30s.”

Sure enough, of the 50 “haunted” buildings registered by the Los Angeles Paranormal Association, more than half are in fact concentrated in Hollywood (www.losangelesparanormalassociation.wordpress.com/haunted-los-angeles-map/). Farther east, however, in a mostly Hispanic-populated district is the former Linda Vista Community Hospital, reputedly one of LA’s most haunted buildings, and used as the set for countless horror movies.

“It’s a hotspot,” said D’Aoust. “I can feel it in my physical body,” she said in one of the drab hospital rooms, adding that she had cured four men of prostate cancer here.

The hospital was abandoned 21 years ago, but has since then been used as a movie shoot location, as well as for real-life “ghost-busters” like those in the 1984 movie starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.

“We have been lucky one time, when we actually have the maybe 6 to 7 foot (around two meters) tall shadow walking inside the main lobby,” said Richard Berni, head of the Boyle Heights Paranormal Project, a research group in east LA.

“We’ve established that that’s happened a lot,” he added.

The makers of a new horror film, “The Devil Inside”, arranged a tour for the press — almost exactly the same as a $20 dollar tour offered to the public, including a blessing for visitors as they leave, to remove “bad energy.”

Berni said his group had made recordings in the building which, when played back, turned out to include Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), supposedly of paranormal origin, namely voices of the dead.

Again, Edward is skeptical. “If there was a real ghost over there, they wouldn’t have to charge anything (20 dollars), they would have the greatest scientific achievement in history,” he said.

“There’s no evidence of anything. Basically it’s audio pareidolia,” he said, referring to a psychological phenomenon involving a vague sound stimulus being perceived as significant.

“The visual version of pareidolia is when you you look at a cloud and it looks like a dragon or it looks like a face, you see a face in a tree and you think it is Jesus.

“Audio pareidolia is the same thing. In our investigation, if you don’t know what the words being said are, you won’t hear anything.”

If the “ghostbusters” could prove they really have recorded voices from beyond the grave, they could win not only a Nobel medicine or physics prize, but $1 million offered by the James Randi Foundation.

The prize was created in 1964 by Randi, a Canadian stage magician. Several other bodies have offered similar enticements for anyone who can come up with scientific, physical proof of paranormal activity.

Edward’s group, IIG, has a standing offer of $50,000 for anyone can. Hundreds of people have taken up the challenge over the last 20 years, but none has succeeded.

“Of course not. Because what we do is we sit down and we put together a testable protocol with the claimer.

“I mean, the person who’s making the claim sits down with us and we say ‘ok what is your claim’ and we do it mutually so everybody agrees. And so far we haven’t had anybody passed.

“Of course, once you pass, you would change science, you wouldn’t need any money anyway." - rawstory

Bloody Hollywood

Haunted Hollywood: Tinseltown Terrors, Filmdom Phantoms, and Movieland Mayhem

Ghosts of Hollywood II: Talking to Spirits

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Ghost presence was observed in USS North Carolina

Photographing Nature Spirits, Fairies and Trolls

Touch of Claas dips into the ethereal

Dr. Peter Fenwick discusses dying, death and survival

Anthony Peake on Near-Death Experiences Versus Actual Death Experiences

Dr. Melvin Morse On Why Doctors Don’t Listen to Near-Death Experience Accounts

Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

Start Attracting Abundance By Changing The Way You Think

Telepathic Bigfoot Research

Tales of the Ouija

Paranormal tourism compliments so many travel types

Synchromystic Cannibals?

Babies, Bathwater and the New Age

Haunted Earth TV - The Last Witch Trial

Magic in the Age of the Crusades

Date-stamp anomaly on images

Paying a spooky visit to a haunted casino

Saudi ghost-hunters raid "haunted" hospital

Haunted in Adelaide

Gettysburg Ghosts

The Art of Dying

The Truth in the Light

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