Dani Harper's Blog, page 24

Dani Harper on BLOGTALKRADIO Nov 29!

Really excited that I've been invited to visit with author Linda Mooney on her blogtalkradio program, "Other Worlds of Romance" I'll be reading an excerpt from my Celtic paranormal novella, A Leap of Knowing. ..................
NOTE - The show was recorded and is now available to listen to at the same website ---   http://www.blogtalkradio.com/other_worlds_of_romance

Dani Harper
http://www.daniharper.com/

Tales from the Psychic Toolbox - TAROT Part 2

Tarot cards are not Magic 8-Balls. "You will meet a tall, handsome stranger..." is more the stuff of fortune cookies than tarot. The purpose of a reading isn't to tell you what to do – it's to engage your own intuition. The pictures on the cards are powerful psychological archetypes which can help you gain insight about yourself and your circumstances by tapping into your subconscious.

About the Tarot Deck
The traditional tarot deck has 78 cards, although modern variations may have fewer. Like ordinary playing cards, fifty-six of them are divided into four suits.

Instead of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs, you have Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles.
Each suit has 14 cards, with numbers 1 through 10 plus four royal cards – Page, Knight, Queen and King.


What most people think of when they hear the word tarot are the archetypal cards, like "The Tower", "The Star", "Justice", "The Fool", "The Lovers", and "The Sun". There are 22 of these trump cards, called "The Major Arcana". The 56 suit cards are "The Minor Arcana". Arcana means mystery in Latin, and the term wasn't applied to tarot cards until later in their history, about 1870.


A Sampling of the Major Arcana 
STRENGTH
THE FOOL – Often the appearance of this card signifies a beginning of a journey, although not necessarily a physical one. It may be mental, emotional or spiritual in nature. Happiness and optimism abound.


THE LOVERS – This card often indicates harmony and union, but is not necessarily about love at all. It may represent choices to be made or a decision between two paths.


STRENGTH – This card typically shows a woman with a lion. She may be holding the lion's mouth open or just standing beside it. The image represents not just strength, but courage, self-control and determination.


THE CHARIOT – This card often represents triumph over adversity, some obstacle overcome, a well-deserved victory.


THE EMPORER – As might be expected, this card signifies authority, corporate structure or government. It may stand for someone in a position of authority in your life, like a boss or a parent.


THE HANGED MAN – The picture is usually of a man dangling by his foot, and as such, often means a temporary suspension of progress. Circumstances may actually be turned on their head and a waiting period may be in the works.


OMG, I've drawn the Death Card!

DEATH CARDWith its skeletal figure, the Death card has been often been used in stories, movies and even video games to scare the bejeebers out of people. First and foremost, it's not about literal death (whew!).

In fact, the Death card can be a very positive card. It's usually the symbol for CHANGE, signifying either the end of one thing or the beginning of another. It can mean transformation and regeneration, hope and rebirth. In fact, psychologist Carl Jung attributed the Death card in tarot with a new standpoint or perspective.

Think of the Chinese word for crisis – the glyph contains the symbols for both danger and opportunity, and opportunity is stronger. Drawing the Death card can indicate that despair can now give way to hope – a very good change!

Choosing your Tarot Deck
HELLO KITTY TAROT - with the least
scary Death card imaginable!
You need to use a deck of cards that appeals to you and there are thousands of decks out there to choose from. Many people collect tarot decks for their gorgeous artwork (I own a Celtic deck called the Sacred Circle Tarot, simply because it's beautiful).

Two popular decks have a Native American theme, the Sacred Path Cards: The Discovery of Self Through Native Teachings and Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals.

If you have a particular passion, someone is sure to have designed a deck around it. For instance, the Tarot of White Cats (yes, all of the characters depicted in the cards are cats), Mystic Faerie Tarot, Salvador Dali Tarot and Golden Dragon Tarot. There's even Hello Kitty Tarot! Shapes and sizes vary too. There are even decks with round cards, hexagonal and triangular cards!

It's important to find cards that you feel good working with. It's an intensely personal choice – what feels right to one person may feel very differently to someone else. The very first deck I purchased was the traditional Rider-Waite design. When I opened the box and touched the cards, I was repelled. It's not that I didn't know what they were going to look like, it's that they didn't feel good to me. I got a headache every time I tried to use them and I soon gave them away. Other people swear by the Rider-Waite and use nothing else. Through trial and error, I eventually found a deck called The Gilded Tarot. It's a beautiful deck, but more importantly, the cards resonate with me and I can work with them easily.


Be Energy-Conscious

FENG SHUI TAROTOwning your own deck of tarot cards and handling them regularly is very important. This is so the cards pick up your energy and hold it. For this reason, they shouldn't be handled by anyone else. (This is also why buying a used deck of tarot cards isn't advised – they're saturated with energy from strangers.) In fact, most people who do tarot readings keep a separate deck only for that purpose or ask you to bring one of your own.

The more familiar you become with your personal deck and the more you develop a close working relationship with them, the more your natural intuition will be enhanced and the better your readings will become.

Some people believe that it's bad karma or bad luck to buy your own tarot cards, that your first deck must be gifted to you by someone else. Most tarot readers agree that this is a myth. There's nothing wrong with getting your own set of cards – in fact, it's desirable to do this so you can select the deck that appeals most to you. Note: it might not be the deck you think. You might love all things Victorian, but a Victorian-themed deck of tarot cards may not work for you. Who knows, you might respond better to Feng Shui Tarot or even the brightly colored Hawaiian Tarot!


Books to Help You

There isn't room in a blog to discuss all there is to know about tarot. You're going to need a good book (or more than one) to use as a resource. As I said before, I mostly use Josephine Ellershaw's "Learning to Use the Tarot Once and For All", but you need to find the one that resonates best with you. Many tarot decks come with their own books, which is a good place to start.

You might want to look at books specifically designed for beginners such as Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners by Joan Bunning, Tarot for Beginners: An Easy Guide to Understanding and Interpreting the Tarot by P. Scott Hollander. There's even an Idiot's Guide and a For Dummies book on Tarot! (I didn't like the For Dummies book myself, but someone else might.) 


For someone who wants a deeper understanding of Tarot, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack or Mary K. Greer's 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card may be for you.

Most of all, don't forget that no matter what a book says, the meanings of the cards are fluid and adaptable. What a card means is what you feel it means. Intuition trumps all!Happy Reading!


Dani Harper
www.daniharper.com

YOUR TURN – Have you ever worked with Tarot before, or had a reading done for you? Is there a particular deck that you enjoy working with or a book that you've found helpful?

HALLOWEEN'S SCARIEST CANDY

The trick or treaters will be out in force in just a few days, and the only defense against the invasion is to lay in a generous supply of Halloween treats. To defend against the danger of eating the candy myself, however, I start off the month of October with a two-fold plan:

1. Wait until the day before Halloween so I have less time to be tempted by the treats.

2. Don't buy candy that contains chocolate so I won't hear it calling my name in the middle of the afternoon.

By the time the 31st approaches, I have an attack of remorse because I remember what it was like to be a kid and I want to be one of those houses that give out "The Good Stuff". Regardless of my earlier plans to the contrary, I end up buying chocolate and lots of it. The kids might get some too…

Despite my personal addiction, chocolate isn't the only Halloween treat. I've polled enough people to know there's lots of favorites --- plus ONE candy that would probably repel even a zombie invasion!

UNIVERSALLY HATED?

That chewy molasses candy that looked so cute in its bright Halloween paper wrapper was good for exactly that – looking. (In fact, you can look at it now in the photo, LOL) When I was a kid, my treat bag felt like a sack of gravel by the end of the night. That's because a third of it was made up by these petrified molasses kisses. No filling, no coating – what you saw on the outside was what it looked like all the way through. The exact color of wet cardboard, the candy tasted like pureed tongue depressors with a little scorched sugar mixed in. In fact, I'm fairly sure a secret deal had been struck between candy manufacturers and the pulp and paper industry.

Why these were called "kisses" I can't imagine. A kiss is something gentle, soft and pleasant. A molasses kiss usually had the consistency of hardened Gorilla Glue to begin with and only toughened with age. And speaking of age, I'm sure that some of the kisses I collected were old enough to be carbon-dated. If the trick or treaters didn't take it all, I personally knew neighbors and relatives who used to keep the candy for the next year. And the next... This candy would have made an excellent emergency storage item – it lived forever and it would take an emergency to make you desperate enough to try to eat the stuff. It might be more useful as kindling in a crisis.

However hard a molasses kiss became, however, you never had to worry about breaking your teeth on it. That's because it eventually reacted to saliva by suddenly cementing itself around your teeth like some sort of sedimentary mouthguard. You could box or play football in perfect safety, but it might be days before you could pry your jaws apart.

People talk about how things were built to last in the good old days – cars, appliances, furniture, etc. Believe me, some of those Halloween kisses outlived Buicks. In fact, there are likely thousands of the fossilized things still lurking in china cabinets, upper kitchen cupboards, dusty candy jars on mantels and boxes in the attic all over the country. Lying in wait like the Undead...

I ran across an ancient handful in a relative's house a while back. The sight of the happy little Halloween wrappers gave me a wonderful burst of nostalgia – then I recovered myself and shook off the spell. Acting quickly, I took the kisses outside and threw them into the burn pile.

"Hey, is that candy?" called a cousin.

"That's exactly what it wants you to think," I said, watching to make sure the flames consumed every last one of the Halloween kisses. "I'm saving us."

He shrugged. "You gals take your dieting way too seriously."

Damn right. I'm going to go and buy some nice, safe mini chocolate bars now.

Dani Harper
www.daniharper.com/

YOUR TURN -- What were your favorite Halloween treats as a kid? What do you like now? What do you give out on Halloween night? Did the infamous molasses kiss play a role in your childhood trick or treating? (And is there anyone out there who actually likes them?)

Tales from the Psychic Toolbox -- TAROT

"The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs. Given the inward meaning of the emblems, they do become a kind of alphabet which is capable of indefinite combinations and makes true sense in all." – Arthur Edward Waite
I came to my appreciation of tarot late. Like most people, I grew up thinking of tarot as those fortune-telling cards used by gypsies in old movies. Despite my interest in the paranormal, I didn't even see a real tarot deck until I was ... okay, nevermind how old I was. Then a friend of mine told me how she used these cards as tools for personal growth and insight. That really got my attention. I started studying up on the subject of tarot and have found it both fascinating and useful. I'm still learning of course – and while I'm not sure if anyone ever finishes learning about tarot, I can share some of what I've learned so far.

Brief History of Tarot

The word tarot rhymes with "arrow" and refers to a deck of vividly illustrated cards, traditionally 78 in number with 56 of them divided into four suits and 22 trump cards that are not associated with any suit at all. Originating somewhere around the fifteenth century in Europe, these cards were used to play Tarocchi, an Italian game which still exists.

Since their invention, playing cards of all kinds were occasionally used for divining the future, and tarot was no exception. The Church in Europe didn't take issue with tarot specifically; rather, it condemned all playing cards due to their association with gambling and other vices.

Why Use Tarot?

Today, the Tarot is more popular than ever, but not for playing games. And while some people treat them like fortune cookies or Magic 8-Balls, tarot cards are most often used as a method of obtaining self-knowledge and an intuitive understanding of circumstances. Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, studied the Tarot and described its symbols as "primitive or archaic thought-forms", and that "the unconscious is revealed in symbols". He noted that, like dreams, Tarot symbols generally have some universal meaning but their interpretation could also be intensely personal. In other words, it doesn't matter what a picture is supposed to mean, what really matters is what it means to YOU.

An effective tarot reading involves asking one clear and specific question. The tarot doesn't lend itself to yes/no questions, but more to who, what, when, why and how. The tarot can help you sort out your own thoughts and feelings on a situation, can bring your intuition and subconscious to the forefront to help bring clarity. If there's a situation I'm confused about or when I can't decide on a course of action to take, a reading can sometimes help me think outside the box. And yes, I've even used it to help with writing. If I get well and truly mired in a plot, a tarot reading can sometimes help me see how I might work my way out of it. Notice that the tarot doesn't tell me what to do. Rather, it helps me help myself.

Tarot Readings

The person who desires a reading shuffles the deck while thinking of his question, then draws cards. The number of cards drawn can vary widely. Some people choose a single card, some three, for a "quickie" reading. A more detailed and in-depth reading uses many cards, laid out in a precise order and pattern (called a spread). The Celtic Cross spread is one of the most popular (I use this one myself), and requires ten cards. Sometimes an additional fan of three is added to it.

Another way of obtaining a tarot reading is to use an online computer program, such as the one at http://www.newagestore.com/Divination/Tarot.aspx . (This is a site I've used often and my anti-virus program has declared it safe) You can choose from a number of spreads and get a free personal reading. There is no human on the other end to skew the results. Yes, the computer program is designed to offer random cards, but some people believe our personal energies are stronger and we draw to us the same cards that we would if the deck was physically in front of us. You can also buy your own software for this purpose and personalize it.

You can go to someone else to have your reading done, but you need to find someone who is skilled, ethical and that you can communicate well with (just like choosing a doctor). As mentioned before, the symbols of the Tarot can be more useful for what they mean to you personally than what they are accepted to mean universally. A human reader needs to help you assign meaning to the cards you draw, rather than tell you "this card means this, this one means that". While reading tarot requires no psychic powers, there IS an art to it. Some readers are wonderfully gifted. Some aren't. And no, I've never tried any of the spammy-looking "Live Psychic Reading" sites that appear in ads all over the internet – it just doesn't seem to me like a productive way to connect with someone with the traits I'm looking for.

You Don't Have To Be Psychic

What about reading the tarot for yourself? Anyone can learn to read tarot but how to learn depends on the individual. There are courses to be found, depending on where you live, but the easiest method has to be to pick up a book. There are many good ones on the subject, yet you may have to read several before you find one that "speaks" to you. I've run across a few that were more confusing than helpful, but when I found the deck that was right for me, The Guilded Tarot, it happened to come with the "Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All!" by Josephine Ellershaw. http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Tarot-Learn-Read-Cards/dp/0738711500/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287940891&sr=8-2   This lovely set proved to be the perfect resource for a beginner. Ellershaw has a very laidback and easy to understand approach and I continue to use both book and deck to this day. There's a review of her book at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLZ17MLJx60 .  YouTube, by the way, is the source of MANY videos on "How To Read Tarot", some good, some not so much. My personal rule of thumb is that a book or a course or a website was worth my time if I learned just one or two things from it.

More about Tarot in an upcoming blog!

Dani Harper
www.daniharper.com

YOUR TURN - Have you ever used tarot cards or had a reading done?

Can Dreams Predict the Future?

"A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read."
- The Talmud
Humans have been fascinated by dreams for thousands of years. In many ancient cultures,  dreams were accorded great respect and actively used in decision-making. The Bible, the Talmud and the Koran contain hundreds of passages about dreams and dream interpretation. Today, not much has changed. A study published in the February 2009 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that most people believe that their dreams are sources of meaningful insight, revealing hidden truths about themselves and their world.
 
DREAM SYMBOLS
Most psychologists agree that dreams are often filled with symbols, subconscious indicators of what you really think and feel. A dream of being lost for instance, of being unable to find your way, can mean that you feel unprepared for something in your waking life. A dream of drowning can show that you feel overwhelmed. However, a dream dictionary is of limited use because symbols can mean different things to different people – dreaming about being naked in public can point to a fear of ridicule or a fear of having secrets exposed. But it can also mean an effort on your part to present your authentic self.

Dreaming about spiders can be positive for some. They're often a symbol of creativity or good fortune. Psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote that spider webs were like mandalas, a symbol of wholeness because of their circular shape and complexity. For me, if I'm dreaming about spiders (which I freely admit scare the bejeebers out of me), I know that my stress levels in my waking life are off the charts and I need to do something about it.

INSPIRATION THROUGH DREAMS
Many scientists and inventors have experienced inspiration through their dreams. Albert Einstein was inspired by a dream whereby he was sledding down a mountainside ever faster, watching the appearance of the stars change as he approached the speed of light. The result? The theory of relativity. Frederich Kekule discovered the chemical structure of benzene in a dream. He later said: "Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, and then we may perhaps find the truth."

Countless artists and writers have also been inspired by dreams. Edgar Allan Poe based many of his works on dreams (or perhaps nightmares). In her 'Introduction' to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley revealed that the story was inspired by a dream. Best-selling author Stephen King says that dreams have been the source for many of his unique plots. Former Beatle Paul McCartney reported that the tune for Yesterday came to him in a dream in 1965. Even legendary golfer, Jack Nicklaus, discovered a new way to hold his golf club in a dream!

CAN DREAMS PREDICT THE FUTURE?
It's possible that in some cases the subconscious mind has observed and pieced together clues that the conscious mind hasn't noticed. But that only works with things you've seen. What if you dream about something you've never seen or heard of before?

This is something that has happened for me since I was a small child. Many of my most vivid and memorable dreams have been about places. Eventually I go there – sometimes days, sometimes years later – and see it in real life. I really wish I'd dream about Hawaii or Africa or some exotic locale like that, but usually it's fairly pedestrian. For instance I dreamed of a restaurant/bar that was painted forest green. It had an odd stairway leading inside, and the doorway was cramped. Inside, the décor and furnishings were very distinct, right down to the chalkboard with the day's specials. Within a month, I went to visit one of my older daughters in another part of the country and we went on a road trip to an area I'd never been. She took me to a restaurant that she wanted me to try – and it was the one from my dream.

My youngest daughter also lives a long way from me. She has very dark hair, and just this week I dreamed that I had "her" hair (I'm blonde). I was sitting in a beauty shop and an unseen hairdresser was putting vivid red streaks through the dark brown hair. I thought it was a pretty peculiar dream – until I phoned my daughter and told her about it. It turns out that she had just had red highlights put into her hair.

Precognitive dreams don't necessarily mean anything – there was no action that needed to be taken in the above two cases for example. Sometimes, however, they have a purpose. I remember one incident in particular where a friend had taken me to the mountains where we were going to spend a day on horseback. I was excited about it – I love horses – but also terrified because of some riding accidents I'd experienced. I hadn't been on a horse in a few years. That night I dreamed about a tall bay horse with white socks. He was on the thin side and had a very unusual blue and white checkered halter. In my dream, this horse was gentle and responsive, and I had a wonderful ride. The next morning I told my friend about the dream as we traveled to the ranch. When the ranch hand assigned us our horses, he brought me the horse from my dream – and his bridle had been buckled on over a blue and white checkered halter! I will never forget the look on my friend's face when she saw that. And yes, I was able to completely relax and enjoy one of the best rides ever because of my dream.

Are all of my dreams precognitive? Not at all. In fact, most of them aren't. But I've had enough of the predictive ones to recognize, as do many people, that precognitive dreams tend to feel different. In fact, I usually experience them as dreams within dreams – where I'm already dreaming and then have a period of heightened awareness in which I know that what I'm seeing is different from the rest of the dream.

FAMOUS CASES
Many famous people have seen the future in their dreams. One of the most notable was Abraham Lincoln, who experienced a number of such visions. The most well-known occurred in 1865, just two weeks before he was assassinated. In his dream, Lincoln saw a funeral at the White House. He asked someone who was in the casket and they replied, "the president of the United States".

American novelist Mark Twain had a dream in which he saw the body of his brother, Henry, in a metal coffin in his sister's living room. There was a single bright red flower on the casket. Soon afterwards, his brother was killed in a riverboat accident. Most people were buried in wooden coffins, but a stranger raised the money to furnish a metal one for Henry. Mark Twain was shocked to enter his sister's home and see everything as it had been in his dream. As he watched, a woman placed a bouquet of flowers containing a single bright red rose on the coffin.

After the Titanic sunk in 1912, hundreds of people came forward to report their dreams of disaster. In some cases, the dream had kept them from booking passage on the ill-fated ship. Likewise with 9/11. Many people reported experiencing dreams up to four years in advance of the tragic event.

SCIENCE AND DREAMS
Mainstream science doesn't yet accept the concept of precognition. But some people are now theorizing that psychic abilities could have a sound basis. During sleep, when our minds are less cluttered, perhaps we can sense things that elude us when we're awake. We may be able to tune into a subtle frequency or a resonance when our minds are quiet. After all, according to Einstein, the future already exists. Perhaps, accidently or intentionally, some people can plug into it.

Maybe all of us can, if we just knew how.



Dani Harper
http://www.daniharper.com/

YOUR TURN - Have you ever had a dream that turned out to be true?

Night of the Living Dread – Zombies

"Sometimes they come back…"

This is true of both trends and the living impaired. Zombies have been enjoying a renewed popularity at the movie theater. And now they've gone where no corpse has gone before – romance novels. No kidding, check out Amazon for titles like My Zombie Valentine, Zombie Moon, Hungry for Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I totally enjoyed the movie Zombieland last year – yet still experienced a kind of creeping unease as I did so. Maybe it's because I was introduced to zombies when I was very young and I've never quite recovered. There was a TV station that showed old black and white horror movies (double feature, no less) every Saturday afternoon. Classic or campy, I watched them all. (Those were the good old days when nobody worried about scarring little kids for life…)

At the tender age of seven, Night of the Living Dead really should have been called "Nightmares for the Rest of Your Life". Even Plan 9 from Outer Space , arguably one of the worst movies of all time, had enough zombie action to scare me silly. When I was older, I saw Omega Man . What a tagline -- Pray for the last man alive. Because he's not alone. I was totally terrified of the light-sensitive flesh-eating psychopathic zombies.

Incidently, I Am Legend in 2007 also featured light-sensitive flesh-eating psychopathic zombies. They scared me too.

In 2002, 28 Days Later nearly made me swear off the living impaired forever. My teenagers teased me mercilessly because I had to sleep with the light on for the next three nights. (I'm still trying to work up the courage to watch the sequel, 28 Weeks Later .)

But I loved Zombieland . Like Shaun of the Dead , it made me laugh, a nice distraction (like whistling in the dark) from the lurching, rotting, reanimated corpses that still creep me out big time. I'm even looking forward to Zombieland II, in 3-D.

Would I have had to sleep with the lights on if 28 Days Later had been shot with comic lines and sight gags? I'll never know…

"Are zombies real?"

Yes, no and maybe. Yes, some days a hangover or a headcold can make you feel like one. Yes, many people will testify that some of their coworkers are living impaired. No, nobody is crawling out of the cemetery in search of brains.

Have living human beings ever been turned into zombies? Maybe.

Zombies have their origin in the voodoo or vodoun religion of the Caribbean (esp. Haiti) and New Orleans, Louisiana. Practitioners have immense knowledge of plant- and animal-based pharmaceuticals. In the hands of houngons and mambas (good priests and priestesses), they are used to help and heal people. But a bokor (a sorcerer of black magic) may employ this knowledge for his own gain.

It's been suggested (though never proven) that zombies might be created using a mixture that includes neurotoxins from puffer fish (those things that'll kill you in a Japanese restaurant if not prepared properly) and chemicals from a certain type of toad. The story goes that the right proportions of these and other ingredients will induce a coma where life signs are not detectable. After stealing the "body", the bokor wakes the person and administers a hallucinogenic plant. Now an obedient "zombie", the disoriented and confused victim is said to provide cheap labor for the bokor.

Whether chemically induced or psychologically suggested, so great is the fear of zombification in Haiti that allegedly there's been a law against it since 1835. Administering a substance that produces a prolonged period of lethargy without causing death so as to result in the burial of the victim is classed as murder – even if the victim survives. By the way, Haitians aren't afraid of zombies per se – the fear is that they or someone they love will become one.

And in this country? A teenager's t-shirt spotted yesterday says it all:
VOTE YES FOR THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE !

Dani Harper
http://www.daniharper.com/

YOUR TURN – Are you a zombie movie fan? Do you think zombies could exist?

Do you see shadow people?

"Where there is much light, the shadow is deep." --Goethe


You're sitting in front of your television at night and a sudden movement in the room makes you look up. Nothing's there. A few moments later, you again spot rapid movement out of the corner of your eye. And again, nothing. This might happen several more times. And every time, you brush it off … Well, your mother always warned you you'd ruin your eyes with too much TV. And you know you should be getting more sleep but you've been worried about your dog's upcoming dental surgery. Or maybe it's that new compact fluorescent bulb in the lamp, the one that produces a different-colored light than the others and no way will you buy that brand again…

The last thing you'd consider is that you've just seen a SHADOW BEING.

A what? This is definitely the paranormal phenomenon voted most likely to be chalked up to imagination. After all, most encounters are fleeting and seem to take place only in our peripheral vision. But reports of much more intense encounters worldwide have paranormal investigators wondering.

Are they ghosts?

Is there a difference between Shadow Beings and ghosts? Those who have witnessed the departed agree that most ghosts look like human beings. They may be pale, even transparent, but ghosts generally have facial features and expressions, they have distinct clothing, and they may even attempt to communicate.

Shadow Beings on the other hand reportedly have no discernable face or features, almost like a silhouette. Occasionally, only the upper part of the human form is visible. They're silent. And they're dark, often described as "blacker than black". Sometimes they're transparent, even wispy and smoke-like and other times they appear very dense and impossible to see through. They may be tall and extremely thin or shaped as if they're wearing a long coat. In many cases witnesses report that the being seems to be wearing a wide-brimmed hat (which is why shadow beings are often nicknamed "hat men"). Rarely, these beings are perceived to have red glowing eyes, like the Mothman.

Just to be confusing, Shadow Beings are not necessarily people-shaped. Along with reports of moving blobs, amoeba-like or even geometric shapes, there have been sightings of shadow animals large and small. Shadow Beings are not restricted to the indoors or the night either – they've been observed outside and in broad daylight as well.

One quality that all of the shadow entities appear to share is movement – rapid, even unnatural speed. The movement is often jerky and disjointed, and they can appear and disappear quickly. The laws of physics don't seem to apply to them – Shadow Beings have been observed walking through walls and solid objects. And typically, they appear in places where no shadow would naturally fall. Sometimes they're seen in mirrors and other reflective surfaces.

Shadow Beings in Legend


Shadowy, human-like figures appear in Native American stories (eg. Nez Perce, Cherokee, Choctaw) and some of these shadow beings are said to be shapeshifters. Similar beings, called djinn or jinn (where we get the word "genie"), date back to pre-Islamic mythology. They too are able to change their shape and are said to inhabit a parallel world to humans. Many people still believe in their existence.

Natural Explanations?

So what's going on? Let's allow that some of these reports really ARE imagination, or more likely, mistaken identity. After all, the human mind is hardwired to find patterns and form in whatever is being viewed (such as seeing faces in inanimate objects like woodgrain, moonscapes or clouds). And the phenomenon of waking sleep, called hypnogogia, is more common than previously thought. It's a state of semi-consciousness where the person can be thinking clearly and believe that they are awake, yet they are actually dreaming. This is almost always accompanied by a sensation of dread. Since many encounters with shadow beings are reported as occurring when the witness had just awakened, hypnogogia could probably account for a lot of them.

Plus, it's recently been discovered that electromagnetic impulses can interfere with the human brain, causing altered perception. Recent experiments at Laurentian University in Canada showed that people unknowingly exposed to a magnetic field often felt an unseen presence. Since such fields are now everywhere, this may account for a rise in the number of shadow beings and other phenomena being reported.

But what about accounts of shadow beings turning up in photographs? Or being seen by more than one witness at a time? Here's a few of the theories:

Other dimensions

Science now tells us that 95 percent of the universe is composed of dark matter, which we're unable to see plus many dimensions that are invisible to us. Of this, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking says "There could be shadow galaxies, shadow stars, and even shadow people." In other words, entire populated realms could exist that we don't know about because we can't perceive them. The shadow being phenomena might be caused by other dimensions that overlap our own and occasionally intersect.

Time travel

If you watch the Science Channel, you've heard there's no law of physics that prevents time travel. Some paranormal investigators have proposed that Shadow Beings could actually be visitors from the future passing through. In the movies, when time travelers arrive at their destination, they're perfectly visible – handy for the audience but what if it didn't really work like that? What if travelers would actually appear as shadows in the time they're visiting? (After all, they technically don't exist there!)

Thought Entities 

The 1956 sci-fi movie, Forbidden Planet, featured the concept of subconscious thought being brought to life. This correlates with a number of legends from different cultures. Egregores or Watchers were powerful psychic entities created by the collective thought of a group of people. This concept is said to appear in the Septuagint translations of the Old Testament, and in the writings of the Rosicrucians.

Shadow entities can allegedly be created by powerful emotions and negative psychic energy, particularly in a place where something traumatic has occurred.

Extra-terrestrials or Twilight Travelers

Some people feel that there's a connection between some types of aliens and shadow beings. The shadow beings are said to be the aliens themselves or a telepathic projection. Abductees claim that a type of alien known as The Grays have the ability to pass through walls and closed doors with ease, or appear and disappear without warning.

Some people claim they can leave their body at will through meditation (called astral projection). Other theories claim that we all travel out of body when we sleep. Are shadow people merely the fleeting images of dreamers or twilight travelers passing through?

Encounters with Shadow Beings

Witness accounts vary widely. Many report that the shadow being seems completely unaware of them. Sometimes the shadow being appears frightened or confused when it perceives a human watching them (almost like we don't belong in their reality any more than they belong in ours). Others seem curious and deliberately watch humans (shadow voyeurs?), but vanish when detected. A few seem to enjoy scaring the bejeebers out of people.

Shadow beings seem to occur more frequently in certain locations, perhaps because of intensive magnetic fields in those areas, or perhaps because the dimensions intersect in specific spots. Several places in the US which are said to be haunted have been found to have shadow people rather than ghosts (Boothill Cemetery in Tombstone Arizona), or sometimes both (Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky and Civil War sites such as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania).

Want more to read actual experiences of Shadow Beings? Try these sites:

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/03/personal-experiences-with-shadow-people.html

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-personal-experiences-shadow-people.html

Have YOU ever encountered a Shadow Being, or something like it?

Dani Harper
http://www.daniharper.com/

Who's afraid of Friday the 13th?

Are you a triskaidekaphobe? Blame it on the Vikings.

That ten-dollar word refers to someone who is afraid of the number 13. And the Vikings apparently regarded 13 as a sinister number because their trickster god, Loki, once crashed a party for 12 at Valhalla and caused the death of beloved Baldur, god of joy and light. (No doubt this is also the origin of the term "party-pooper")

The number 13 is bad enough, but add it to a Friday and the bad luck just gets worse. For one thing, you'll have more big words to deal with – if you're afraid of Friday the 13th, then you have friggatriskaidekaphobia, also called paraskevidekatriaphobia.

Think about it. Even if you don't believe in luck or bad karma or cosmic forces, do you still hesitate before buying a lottery ticket on Friday the 13th? Or starting an important project? Or traveling? You might brush it off and carry on with your plans, but the day is so ingrained in our culture that few of us are immune. Fear of Friday the 13th is considered the most common phobia in America. But it's not just us – one in four Europeans suffer from it too.

A calendar year may have 1 to 3 "thirteenths" occurring on a Friday, and those years with the maximum number are considered to be particularly calamitous. Fortunately for the fearful, the triple threat years don't happen very often. 2009 was the first year this century to have a trio of Friday the 13ths. Before that, 1998 and 1987 were the unlucky years.

2010 is a relatively mild year for the superstitious, with only one Friday the 13th, which occurs in August. The year 2012 is another story – unsurprisingly, it will have THREE! (Is this what the Mayans were warning us about?)

Superstitions about the number 13 and/or Friday the 13th

• If you cut your hair on Friday the 13th, someone in your family will die. (Does it depend on how good the haircut is?)

• A clock striking 13 portends a death in the family. (Again with the family!) Or it may signal paranormal activity.

• If you're born on Friday the 13th, you'll be unlucky for life. Not to worry, apparently it'll also be a short life!

• It's bad luck to marry on this day. (In Middleton, New York, in 1913, a pastor offered to marry couples for free on Friday the 13th to counteract the superstition.)

• If you're passed by a funeral procession on Friday the 13th, you'll be the next to die. (So is everyone the procession passes doomed? You could wipe out most of a town in one fell swoop!)

• Leaving on vacation? Bad karma to do it on the 13th. Historically, mariners have declined to set sail on that day.

• It's unlucky to have 13 coins in your pocket. (Given the current financial crisis, however, you're fortunate to have any…)

• Wearing black on Friday the 13th will cause you to have to wear it to a funeral soon.

• Thirteen stairs? Bad news. (My knees think so too.) In British history, tradition held that a gallows had 13 steps, and Friday was known as "the hangman's day". Literally.

• Numbers that add up to 13 are unlucky as well, like 76 or 409. And you don't want the number 13 in your street address. (In Florence, Italy, a house next to number 12 will be named 12 ½ , followed by 14!)

• Never have 13 place settings at the dinner table; it's said that one guest may die within a year. Since the 1700s, Christian tradition has held that there were 13 people in attendance at The Last Supper. In France, you can still hire a professional quatorzieme, or 14th guest to balance your dinner party and avoid calamity.

Many airports still don't have a Gate 13. Ronald Reagan National in Washington is on that list. So is Chicago's Midway. Tall buildings and even hospitals still sometimes skip having a 13th floor (in name at least – the floor is still there of course). Hotels have known for years that customers dislike rooms with the number 13 in them.

Even Wall Street has been a little apprehensive about the day since the early 1900s. And of course, October 13, 1989 was the day of the Friday the 13th mini-crash, the second largest drop of the Dow in its history. (Mind you, it was a slide of a whopping 190.58 points. After the events of the past couple of years, it barely merits a raised eyebrow.)

Famous people with phobias

If you're fearful of the number 13 or Friday the 13th, you're not alone. Here's just a few of the famous:

Stephen King

PT Barnum

Franklin Roosevelt

J. Paul Getty

Mark Twain

Herbert Hoover

Napoleon

Can you escape Friday the 13th?

No matter how enlightened we think we are, a lot of us exercise caution on this calendar day. In fact, it's estimated that the US loses almost a billion dollars in business on Friday the 13th, because so many people postpone major purchases and reschedule trips. And that doesn't count the number of workers who call in sick.

The Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics published a study a couple years back, comparing accident, fire and theft rates on Fridays. Interestingly, there were fewer incidents on each Friday the 13th . It's thought that people were naturally being more careful due to the superstition. The day will have its due however – the monetary losses for Friday the 13th were slightly higher!

The town fathers of French Lick, Indiana, tried to be proactive in October, 1939. They decreed that all black cats in town wear bells on Friday the 13th so that people could avoid them. This practice stayed on the books through 1941. After a particularly bad Friday the 13th (no mention of what happened), the law was reinstated for 1942. The person with the worst luck in all of this was probably the town marshal, whose job it was to bell all those cats.

Of course, you can always fight superstition with superstition. To counteract Friday the 13th, folklore says you can climb to a high place (mountain or skyscraper, whatever's handiest) and burn all of your socks that have holes in them. Or you can walk around your house 13 times on Friday the 13th and hang your shoes out the window.

It goes without saying you should avoid anyone wearing a hockey mask.

Dani Harper

http://www.daniharper.com/ (Facebook and Twitter links are on my website)
Sign up for my email newsletter by clicking here:
http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?m=1103589248762&p=oi

Your turn – How do YOU feel about the number 13 or Friday the 13th?

Are You Psychic?

Many people believe in the existence of ESP – extra-sensory perception – or psychic ability. But have you ever considered that YOU might have one or more of these talents? In fact, some believe that all human beings are psychic (although, as with music, art and sports, some may be more gifted than others). It has been suggested that all psychic abilities are examples of tapping into our shared or collective human consciousness, and recent discoveries in quantum physics may one day explain it.

Meanwhile, do you have psychic talent? Sometimes it's just a matter of definition. You might be doing something routinely that you never thought of as ESP-related before. Looking at the following list of psychic abilities, common and uncommon, you might be surprised to find something that resonates with your own experience.

Déjà vu – been there, done that, doing it again!

Baseball legend Yogi Berra said it best: "This is like déjà vu all over again." Déjà vu (French for already seen) is the feeling that you've experienced something before and is the most common of the ESP repertoire. In fact, most people don't even think of it as a psychic ability. Over 60 percent of those quizzed in reputable polls not only believe in the phenomenon but feel they have experienced it.

Retrocognition - knowledge of the past

Sometimes called postcognition, this is knowledge after the fact. Most people experience this as a sudden flash or a vision of an event. You'd suddenly "see" what actually happened, perhaps even through someone else's eyes. You'd be acutely aware of details, things you couldn't know by ordinary means. You might feel or sense the emotions or vibes of the past. Sometimes retrocognition includes past life regression, although it's possible you might be picking up on a powerful impression (traumatic and emotional events like battles, murders, etc. can leave their psychic stamp behind) rather than one of your own previous lives.

Precognition - knowledge of the future

Ever think of a song you haven't heard in years and years and soon afterwards you hear it being played? Foretelling the future is the talent we associate most with the term "psychic". It conjures up images of crystal balls and tarot cards, palm reading and rune casting. For most of us, though, it's the premonition that tells us something is about to happen, or the dream that has us wondering if we should change our plans. At least a third of the population believes that some dreams can convey information about the future. Intuition, premonitions and "gut feelings" fall under this category, and precognition often goes hand in hand with clairsentience (see section on this).

Telepathy

This is the ability to communicate mind to mind without the use of verbal speech. (The Changelings in my new paranormal romance series do this when they're in wolfen form) Sometimes the information is sent by mental speech, sometimes by images. Medium John Edward says he gets images of pink roses when a spirit is trying to convey love. There are many documented cases of a telepathic connection between twins that science still doesn't understand. By the way, there's a movie called Telepathy coming out next year -- Russian scientists experiment with twins to see if telepathy can be used in earth-space communication.

Psychometry

Psychometry is based on the principle that all objects absorb energy from their surroundings. Some people are said to be able to pick up an item of clothing or a piece of jewelry and be able to tell something about its owner. Or they may be able to touch a piece of furniture and tell its history, or simply pick up uncomfortable vibes from it. This may manifest as a phobia. Actor Billy Bob Thornton (whose mother is a psychic) is quite open about his fear of antique furniture and says it "creeps him out". When in Europe he shuns historical hotels and seeks out the most modern accommodations possible.

Clairsensing – beyond the sixth sense

There isn't just a sixth sense, there's a seventh, eighth, ninth, etc., all under the umbrella of clairsensing or "the clairs". The words are taken from the French. Clair can mean light, bright or clear – think of the word "clarity". Clairvoyant then means clear-sighted, clairaudience means clear-hearing and clairsentience means clear-knowing. The following is a list of the more common clairsenses:

CLAIRVOYANCE – This one is often confused with the ability to predict the future (precognition), but it actually refers more to visions or something called remote viewing. This psychic ability might allow a person to describe a place they have never been, or a hidden object, or even an activity which is a considerable distance away. Remote viewing has even been used to try to locate archeological sites, and governments around the world (including the US) have invested in programs to study the potential of remote viewing for gathering intelligence. The 2009 George Clooney movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats, was a comedic treatment of the topic - with more truth than you might think.

CLAIRSENTIENCE – Sometimes called claircognizance, this is clear knowing. Ever hear the phone ring and you know who it is before you answer it? Clairsentience is knowledge that comes to you without an apparent source. You might have a strong gut feeling or a hunch that you should keep your distance from someone you just met, even though they've given you no reason not to trust them. Most people chalk experiences like this up to intuition. Oddly, intuition is seldom thought of as a psychic gift!

CLAIRAUDIENCE – This is hearing sounds or voices that others can't. They may be physically heard with the ears or perceived "inside one's head" like telepathy or even channeling. Some mediums say this is how they get their information from the spirits they connect with. Probably a little scarier than other psychic gifts because it's easily mistaken for schizophrenia!

CLAIRALIENCE – Sometimes called clairaroma, this is the ability to perceive a smell where one doesn't exist. Sometimes visiting spirits are accompanied by a distinctive scent, and I'd have to put my hand up on this one. One winter day as I was putting laundry away, the room was suddenly thick with the smell of lilacs. At the same time, I heard my Welsh grandmother's distinctive chuckle in my mind. She'd passed away some years before, but her signature scent had been lilac – I well remember the bottles of lilac perfume, jars of lilac body powder and other lilac-smelling cosmetics on her dresser. So clairaroma and clairaudience combined to give me a brief connection to a family member on the other side.

Sometimes this gift is said to offer warnings, such as if you smell gas in the house when no one else does (although you might just have a keener nose than your friends and family and you really DO smell gas!) And it should be mentioned that terrible odors have often been reported as part of a haunting, or in a place where something dreadful has happened and the energy is particularly dark.

CLAIRGUSTANCE – Sometimes called clairgustus, this is the odd ability to taste something without having put anything into your mouth. It's generally associated with a spirit, perhaps the favorite food of that person or a food they prepared a certain way. Or it might be a substance associated with the spirit in some way – reports have listed the taste of alcohol, medication, metal, tobacco or sometimes even blood.

How do you find and strengthen your psychic abilities?

Many times it's a matter of increasing your awareness of what's already going on. We're in such a hurry most of the time that we could be having all sorts of psychic experiences and not know it. Slowing down can make a huge difference. Pay attention. Focus. Pause a few seconds before you do things like open the mail, answer the door or pick up the phone. Here's a fun exercise - Take a moment before you turn the page in a magazine. Is there already an impression or a picture in your head? Maybe it's red lipstick or Brad Pitt, maybe a new car or a hamburger. Look and see if you were right. (This is a great game to play with friends too.)

Be sure to write down your experiences, no matter how small. Keeping a journal will help to build your awareness. It's like trying to remember your dreams – keeping a pad and pencil by your bed and making a habit of writing things down when you awaken actually trains your brain to recall things.

Just for fun or to seriously test how psychic you are, you might want to try out some online ESP quizzes (look for reputable ones, and pages that your browser says are safe). This one posted by Stephen Wagner on About.com is a good one http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa050800a.htm

Dani Harper
http://www.daniharper.com/

YOUR TURN – Do you feel that psychic ability exists? Have you had an experience with déjà vu, precognition, or clairsensing of some kind? If you could have one of these abilities, which would you choose?

Séances – Connecting with the Dead

Ask twenty people what a séance is and you'll no doubt get very similar answers. The concept is so ingrained in popular culture that it immediately conjures an image of a group of people seated around a table in the dark as a medium attempts to contact the spirit of a deceased person. However, it was history rather than Hollywood that first gave us that picture.
The séance became extremely popular during the Victorian era on both sides of the Atlantic, with the emergence of the Spiritualist movement* in America. Some séances were frivolous, of course, and entered into purely for entertainment. Some were fraudulent, with fake mediums determined to capitalize on the trend (and often people's grief) by implementing what we would now call special effects. But there were many séance holders who were sincere in their purpose, seeking some sort of harmony between religion and rationality.

Séances in the White House?

Many notable individuals made use of séances. It's well documented that Mary Todd Lincoln held several at the White House, which were attended by her husband Abraham Lincoln, as well as high-ranking members of Washington society. Calvin Coolidge and his wife were rumored to have also held seances, although they denied it when the press got hold of it.

Author Charles Dickens, poet W.B. Yeats and physicist Sir Oliver Lodge attended séances regularly as members of The Ghost Club – a British organization devoted to paranormal investigation. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle attended his first séance in 1887, the same year his first Sherlock Holmes novel was published. He viewed spiritualism as a natural extension of rapidly-emerging science.

Séances (also called "sittings") and "demonstrations of mediumship" still form a regular part of church services for many practicing Spiritualists today. They believe that existence and personal identity continues after the change called death. To them, contact with those who have moved on to the next life is not only possible, but desirable in order to gain knowledge. Actor Dan Ackroyd's great grandfather was a Spiritualist, who practiced regular communications with ghosts in his home. (Read about Dan's unusual family life in History of Ghosts: The True Story of Séances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters )

Origins of the séance

The term Séance comes to the English language from an Old French word meaning "a sitting" or "session", as in a meeting of a legislative body. In the mid-1800s, séance began to be used to describe a gathering where people sought messages and advice from the unseen world. The concept of contacting the dead, however, is far, far older than the words we use to describe it now.

In ancient Greece and Italy, the practice of necromancy – summoning the dead and asking them questions about the future – was called nekyia. There were a number of Greek and Roman temples devoted to this rite, although the ceremony could be performed in other places such as gravesites. The ancient Persians, Arabians, Chaldeans, Etruscans and Babylonians also contacted the dead for information.

Facilitators for the dead

Nearly all séances depend on someone with psychic ability or sensitivity to act as a medium, "facilitating" the proceedings. Spirits may make use of a wide variety of communication methods; as the character, Dean Winchester, aptly said in Supernatural, "…communicating across the vale, it ain't easy." The medium may gain impressions of the spirit in question, see the spirit in their mind or with their eyes, hear the spirit's words or channel the spirit's words through the psychic's own mouth, or channel their ideas through automatic writing. The spirit may be skilled enough to able to make itself audible or even visible to more than one person in the room or it may have to utilize rapping and other physical manifestation to communicate at all.

By the way, in recent years a new type of séance has emerged called "stage mediumship". One of the best examples of this is psychic John Edward, who receives impressions and messages from ghosts associated with audience members. Rather than focus on a specific spirit, he works with whichever spirit would like to communicate at the time.

When to hold a séance

There are two times a year when the veil between worlds is said to be at its thinnest. One is Beltane, about the 1st day of May, and the other is Samhain, which is October 31 or November 1. Communicating with spirits is said to be easier at these times.

It has been claimed by some that connecting with the ghosts of the recently deceased is easier than trying to talk to those who've been away from the mortal plane a long time. This is because the spirits of the newly dead are more likely to still be around. The more time that passes, the more likely that the spirit has moved on.

Most mediums prefer to hold séances after dark. Some séances are held on dates that are significant to a particular spirit – a birthday, an anniversary of an event, etc.

Tools for séances

Some mediums do not require tools; others are more comfortable using them. Candles, tarot cards, even crystals and gazing balls may be helpful to the medium, but there are no hard rules about them. So it won't matter much if you have seven candles or three, a blue tablecloth for your table or no table at all. It's whatever works best for you and creates an atmosphere where you are receptive and relaxed.

The best tool of all may be your attitude. Not enough is said about respect when dealing with the paranormal. On a number of TV shows, investigators are often shown challenging spirits, even yelling at them to provoke them into manifesting themselves. The spirits you're seeking are people, and it's tough to gain anyone's cooperation on either side of the veil with a belligerent attitude. Any spirit that does respond to this kind of treatment may not be pleasant.

Why perform a séance?

One of the cardinal rules of séances is that there should be a purpose. The group needs to be focused on a goal, either a specific question and/or a specific person. Desiring comfort or closure after a loved one has passed is a common goal. Seeking to know what happened to an individual who has disappeared or lost their life is also common. Often times the living seek counsel and advice for their own lives. By the way, the deceased person is not necessarily privy to the secrets of the universe just because they're dead. Have realistic expectations.

Calling up spirits "just for the fun of it" is not recommended. This is a good way to get into trouble. Anyone who thinks spirit entities can't hurt you should read these articles: http://www.examiner.com/x-1001-Ghost-Hunting-Examiner~y2009m2d2-Dangers-of-the-paranormal-a-cautionary-tale-for-ghost-hunters  and http://robjo.wordpress.com/2006/12/04/tips-and-tricks-for-your-next-seance/

If you're genuinely interested in making contact, it's always a better idea to utilize an experienced and reputable medium than to have your college roommate "wing it" after a few beers. If you want to try mediumship yourself, study up on it until you find a method that feels comfortable to you, know how to protect yourself and your home, and be sure to select sincere people to participate with you. Here's a place to start – http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/wiccanandpaganrituals/ht/Hold_Seance.htm

Dani Harper
http://www.daniharper.com/
Facebook and Twitter links are on my website.


Your turn – Have you ever attended a séance? If you could contact someone from the other side, who would it be?