Doug Dillon's Blog, page 180
July 6, 2012
Oldest Ghosts: St. Augustine Haunts
A Book Review
Author
Karen Harvey
Pineapple Press, 109 p.
In this book, St. Augustine, Florida resident Karen Harvey gives readers a unique look at hauntings in that old city. Besides being a writer about such things, she also serves as a guide for ghost tours in her hometown.
With chapter titles like, “Things that go Bump in the Night”, “Animal Spirits”, and “Frightening Ghosts”, Harvey immediately sets the stage for her spooky tales. But her book isn’t just a string of ghost stories. No, it’s peek behind those stories that looks at why these events happen and how they relate to the history of St. Augustine.
At the end, Harvey offers the reader a good glossary, bibliography and an index.
Click here to find this book online.
Click here for another book on ghosts of St. Augustine.
July 4, 2012
Paranormal Communications: Psychic Couples Counseling
Within the paranormal explorations detailed in our book, An Explosion of Being, a series of channeled messages kept referring to my wife Barbara and me as twin spirits. It also spoke of us as a team helping people to understand the paranormal even before we decided to write our book. As I glanced at some of those old messages, I thought that sharing them in another venue might be of use. So, here they are, listed one after the other as they appeared over a period of about eight months many years ago:—————————————–
August 13
“Take time to reflect upon your own relationship as one which has only begun to unfold. This is the beauty of a twin spirit, as time is its master on earth and each petal will only
open when readied by the soul. You are both now ready to open a new petal. Allow this process to develop in your mind and it will repeat itself many times.”
August 15
“You are both willing to challenge many people and their inborn decisions against accepting us. This will not create as many ‘friendships’ as would appeal to your natures. However, the friends that you will make will help to spread this work as an ocean spreads its waves upon the beach. Allow these friends to perpetrate their desires upon you, as they will grow from their experiences.”
August 16
“Believe yourselves, as the self is crucial to existence. Without belief in self, one cannot function, as he has lessons to learn that are only partial, and have not succeeded in meeting the whole.”
August 18
“You have observed that all of our understanding is not on your level but does pertain partially to your level. This is due to the last embodiment that was discovered by our beliefs, and the effects have not been totally reduced as yet. We are looking toward a day when we can absolve all earthly attachments and place an honor of higher systems in our paths. This will eventually happen to you also, and it will seem that you are constantly plagued by inner revelations. This is a course of study which enables you to maintain the level of desires that must accommodate you before you will turn to us and completely accept our knowledge as your own.”
February 22
“Surviving through a period of turmoil, you have enveloped a multitude of reasoning powers.”
February 27
“Be quick, yet calm to deliver these messages amongst crowds of others who attain a spiritual awareness of self. Your avenue of insight has become a stepping-stone for further attainment. Your power is reached through an insertion system which provides an avenue of linkage to a greater existence than heretofore known. Your possibilities of acquirements in this life are pyramiding toward an open scale.”
April 19
“Be kind to yourselves and wonder not where you are going, but from where you came. Your aptitudes have created your present as they will also create your past.”
May 18,1981
“Following the flow of pages from beyond your current level of sight, you will seek to draw in the publishers (for your books). These individuals have played a part in your efforts for a purpose also. Their accompaniment through time will wait as a pleasurable expectancy. “Your books will indeed play a prominent role in the lives and creative abilities of many others.”
July 19, 1981
“Love yourselves as I will always love you and cherish your ultimate souls as your final beings. They will emit more energy than you are aware of now, but do not rely totally on this, for they are also guides for your physical bodies.”
August 2, 1981
“Wise use of tenderness gives examples to the living that our concrete purpose of being is to love and explore the senses that love shares with others. Should you all become a part of intricate love, your values open themselves unto a sea of possibilities.”
May 26,1982
“The avenues, of which I have spoken before, are now ever clearer as you both are at the entrance to existence in a truer form. The records have been exposed in order for your knowledge of experience to be duly increased. Every particle of sound will permeate your beings, thus creating the base platform for future promotions of thoughts and ideas. Your willingness to receive and transmit our messages is clearly evident. Thank you and good luck.”
June 19, 1982
“You are delving into an unknown reality that actually is known, far better than your own. You are two alone, who emerge into other realities calmly and comfortably.”
July 7, 1982
“Be calm (Doug) and adjust to your loss (business) as a temporary one. Be self-adjusting, as a period will fly through this barrier quickly and softly. A temporary learning pain will therefore adjust itself to farther outcries for help of your own nature on different levels. Be courteous to yourself. Be quick to spew self-evidence into a way of being kind to you. As you love yourself, you will be furthered as a wise person who deplores any further negative constitution to hold down further spiritual attainment.”
August 6, 1982
“As your books are entered into a giant area of interest, be aware that while they are being incorporated, they will serve as a pliable force in your life.”
July 3, 2012
Ghosts of St. Augustine
A Book Review
Author – Dave Lapham
Orlando writer & retired U.S. Marine officer
Definitely believes in ghosts
Pineapple Press, 154 p.
Dave Lapham’s book is an excellent series of ghost stories from America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida. Clearly written in an engaging way, Lapham spins these tales out of his own personal research that includes onsite interviews. Careful descriptions of actual ghostly encounters are brought to life by quotes from people who have had their own personal encounters.
Pinpointing specific haunted locations in the old city like the St. Francis Inn, Flagler College, and the St. Augustine Lighthouse, the author shows how the spookiness there is widespread. Using chapter titles such as “Katie’s Guardian Angel”, “The Gallant Governor”, and “Gateway to Hell”, he immediately captures the reader’s interest.
If you know St. Augustine, this book might well add a fascinating slant to your previous experiences there that will make you wonder what you missed. If you haven’t been to that old city, it just might make you want to pay it a visit.
Click here to find this book online.
July 2, 2012
Cassadaga: The South’s Oldest Spiritualist Community
A Book Review
Edited by: John J. Guthrie, Phillip Charles and Gary Monroe
At the time of publication, all three editors were college professors in Central Florida
Contributors: Bret E. Carroll, Ann Jerome Croce, Paul Jerome Croce, John J. Guthrie, Sidney P. Johnston, Phillip Charles Lucas, Gary Monroe, and Anne Barclay Morgan
University Press of Florida, 241 p.
Part of the Florida History and Culture Series
The editors of this book have collected scholarly writings on the Spiritualist Community of Cassadaga, Florida and presented it in 7 excellent chapters. What they offer the reader is a well balanced and detailed view describing one of the most unique towns in the United States. Research based with chapter notes and 47 photographs, the entire history and functioning of this community comes to life. Having visited Cassadaga and some of its mediums on more than one occasion, I can tell you that the writers and editors have provided a very accurate picture.
In addition to the photographs, it is the quotes from residents and the interviews with mediums that really give insight into the religious beliefs and customs found in Cassadaga. As you read these fascinating words, you soon discover how seriously people in this town take the art of communing with those who have left this life. It also becomes clear how the mediums, psychics and healers sponsored by the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp take their jobs of providing guidance and consolation to the living who seek their help.
If you are interested in spirit contact and the history of Spiritualism in the United States, you will definitely find this book something to savor.
Click here to find this book online.
For further information on Cassadaga, see the links below:
Cassadaga, A Spiritualist Community
Coincidences as Paranormal Events: Cassadaga, FL
July 1, 2012
Paranormal Investigations: Guidance From a Psychic Friend
The following information comes directly from the paranormal nonfiction book my wife Barbara and I wrote a number of years ago titled,
An Explosion of Being
. In the chapter, “Touching the Unknown,” we talk about a friend and gifted psychic by the name of Millie. In those early days of our paranormal explorations, Millie became our trusted guide when we had so many questions. For anyone on a similar journey, our experience might prove beneficial:——————————————————-
Barb and me back in the day
The meeting with Millie couldn’t come soon enough for either of us. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get a baby sitter that evening so over we trooped seeking guidance with kids in tow.
The Stephens family greeted us with their usual warmth and delight at seeing the children. As always, good food and Southern humor abounded as Millie and her husband, Bruce, settled us into their comfortable home. Even with the incredible burden of their two adult handicapped children, they are always cheerful, caring and full of fun.
After exchanging pleasantries and family news, the kids sped off into adjoining rooms, and Bruce decided to ease out of the picture himself. The conversation was beginning to shift toward the psychic and according to Millie, Bruce very definitely puts no stock in that sort of thing. The three of us were left sitting at the dining room table, moving word by word into the true nature of the visit.
Casually, Millie mentioned that two prominent psychics in the Orlando area came to her during the same week we called. This, she claimed, was simply a natural fulfillment of her role as a guide on earth as well as in the world beyond. Another startling assertion was that ever since her childhood, she had been able to see into other realities, as well as actually being able to leave her body at night in order to consciously travel as a spiritual entity. In that supposed spirit body, Millie remembered serving as helper and teacher to the living and to those who have passed on to the next world. In turn, she was a student learning from higher beings during part of these nightly trips.
Millie’s absolute belief in what she was saying was astonishing, especially to an old skeptic like me. No matter how much Millie philosophized or what our writings said, proof and validation had to be much more tangible. Maybe all of us were merely letting our imaginations run wild. Impatiently, I asked Millie if she could give us specific impressions about our channeled writings originally from an entity calling himself Ollie, our lives or anything that might help us get some answers and direction.
Smiling at my need for details, Millie said that all my proof would come about eventually. As she talked, though, her eyelids lowered considerably and she began to rub her forehead. With a softened voice, she began to explain the surging images that evidently were coursing through her mind. “You are truly in touch with those beyond. Don’t doubt Ollie. He is very real and is trying to help you. Ollie is especially trying to open Doug to the possibilities of existence. I can see Ollie here with us. He is very dark, a short man, with black hair and dark skin.
“Barbara, you and Doug are soul mates. Your relationship goes back 1,700 years. The two of you have been together during many reincarnations, and you often were married to each other. You both are old souls and are much more advanced than you know. That is why the Writings and experiences are coming so easily. The work is not new. It is now time to bring back the ancient stored knowledge.
“Doug, you and Barbara attend classes at night in your spirit bodies. One night, I took you both by the hand and led you to one of my own classes. Your friend Ollie also has been a student of mine. You and Barbara go out of your bodies a great deal but are only now becoming aware of it. When you both have felt something on the bed at night, you were out of body, and what you felt was your daughter, also in an out-of-body state.
“Doug, I see you changing jobs. You and Barbara will one day work as a team. I see you, Doug, doing something very enduring with Barbara’s help. Your financial condition will eventually improve, and I see you buying a new house. Doug, you will sell something.
“Doug, have you ever thought of being a writer? You will be a writer one day. You will write children’s books. You and Barbara will begin teaching the children, then the adults. Your psychic writings are a preparation for the writing of books.”
Millie looked so very tired. Giving this information seemed to drain her visibly. Just when we thought the session was over, she continued by saying, “I see something blue in connection with your Writings.” Blue? We couldn’t figure that one out until I suddenly realized that we were keeping the Writings in a blue notebook. Of course!
Looking straight at Barb, Millie then zeroed in with a certain determination that was lacking before. With two or three short sentences, she uncovered something hidden deep within Barb’s mind. An ancient fear unknown to anyone but herself burst into uncontrollable tears and sobs. Still intense but with warmth and consideration, Millie very deliberately assured Barb that her fear was unfounded.
Regaining her composure, Barb rather self-consciously admitted the preciseness of Millie’s observation. The release in that admission seemed to lift a burden of incredible proportions.To Millie and me, the problem seemed insignificant. But as with most of the rest of us very human beings, Barb must have let the issue build inside her until it seemed so terrible that closing it off from the entire world seemed the only alternative. Our reason for not sharing the details of Barb’s fear in this book is that it involves an individual who is still living and who would find that discussion an understandable invasion of privacy.
After that first session with Millie, Barb and I decided to ask Ollie for his thoughts about Millie’s information. Here is the reply from the evening of July 19, 1979:
“Ollie is back. He is a servant again. He was by your side last night as the visions were coming through Millie. Be careful not to expect too much from her as she will tire in her body soon. I will see her (Millie) again tonight as she travels to this level. Her teaching is a much-desired form of existence here. There are many who envy her position but few who are ready to attain it.
“You are now aware more than ever that you and Doug, Barbara, are in communication with me, Ollie. I am here as I told you I was. Until you actually see me to be in your vision, Doug, you will not fully believe. However, I am patient and understanding so be at a will to continue your current lines of progress in my direction.
“I am not lonely any more as I have found the two of you are believing more in my existence. At the right point, you will confirm my existence through your own efforts. We will then form a perfect union
“Are you going to accept what Millie told you as both or will it be weighed as a lot of fresh fruit? We are surprised if you don’t weigh everything, Doug, as you have the ability to decipher many trashy things from the beauty of life. You are not really offended, Doug, as you know me as yourself, don’t you? We are alike in many ways, however, you have abilities which I don’t possess. You are above my level of intellect on the earthly plane. “In regard to last night again, and I will be making many regards, you were very impressed as you should have been.”
June 30, 2012
Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal
A Book Review
Author – Carl Jung
1875-1961
Swiss psychiatrist
Founder of Analytic Psychology
Book Contents Selected and Introduced by Roderick Main
Princeton University Press, 177 pages
Part of the Encountering Jung series
Here we have an excellent selection of Carl Jung’s writings and talks on Synchronicity and the Paranormal. If you are interested in either or both subjects, this book is a valuable source straight from the mind of one of the world’s great thinkers. The first to make the case that coincidences are not just random events, it was Jung who coined the term Syncronicity.
Associate of Albert Einstein, William James and Wolfgang Pauli, Jung makes it very clear how new discoveries in physics during the 20th Century influenced his work. In story after story, he also relates fascinating paranormal experiences of his own, using them to support his theory of Synchronicity. Even more than that, his words offer a wonderful peek into the man’s thought processes by detailing his personal explorations of things such as spiritualism, astrology, I Ching, visions, dreams, life after death, and even UFOs.
In discussing Synchronicity, Jung relies heavily on his views of “archetypes”and “the collective unconscious”. I found those portions of the book a little dense and hard to read. I’m not even sure if having a background in Jungian Psychology would be of help but maybe so. However, when Jung launches into his many personal, paranormal experiences, I found a clarity and authenticity to his words that made them a joy to read.
Although I don’t think Jung made a complete case for his theory of Synchronicity, he did indeed point the way for others.
Click here to find the book online.
Click here for another book on Sychronicity.
June 29, 2012
Carl Jung, Part 1: Paranormal, Coincidences and Synchronicity
I find it fascinating that one of the founders of modern psychiatry was personally and professionally involved in the paranormal. Over the years, I read bits of Carl Jung’s writings and heard stories from others about how strange experiences tended to follow the man. Only recently though, did I actually delve into Jung’s background and philosophy. This came about because increasingly in my life, I’ve observed how “coincidences” at times tend to happen way beyond mere chance. Who better to study on this subject than Jung, the man who coined the term “synchronicity” and promoted the view that certain coincidental events have origins far beyond the physical world we know.
A Swiss citizen, Carl Jung’s life spanned the period between 1875 and 1961. Founder of Analytical Psychology, he developed the ideas of the Complex, the Archetype and the Collective Unconscious. The man’s efforts inspired the Myer’s Briggs Personality Test and Alcoholics Anonymous. In his day, Jung associated with the likes of Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli and William James. Not a bad list of scientific and philosophical connections if you ask me.
Even so, Jung was fascinated by events we would call paranormal today and believed that understanding such things were a natural part of our heritage as human beings. He also believed that using such knowledge in psychotherapy was beneficial to his patients. The man was a pioneer that today’s mental health experts would do well to revisit.
In reading about Jung’s background, I discovered his interest in the paranormal sprang not just from his studies but from his personal experiences as well. In fact, the man had so many such events that it looks to me like they occurred during his entire life. I found the stories of Jung’s experiences so interesting that I have developed a series of blog postings where I retell each one of them. Jung’s own writing is a little intricate and dense so I thought this method would make for easier reading.
Listed below are the titles of those postings with the final paranormal event titled, “The Breakthrough.” That last story is really the beginning for Jung in many ways. Evidently, a severe illness that almost killed him in 1944 led to a life changing near-death experience. After 1944, Jung did some of his finest work.
I hope you enjoy reading about those things that helped shape one of the world’s great thinkers. Over time, as I publish each post, I will create a link to each of the stories below so that new readers will eventually be able to access all the events from this article:
Part 2: The Split Table
Part 3: The Knife
Part 4: The Ghosts
Part 5: The Cottage
Part 6; Jung and Freud
Part 7: The Wedding
Part 8: The Suicide
Part 9: The Scarab Beetle
Part 10: The Flood
Part 11: The Mosaics
Part 12: The Final Breakthrough
The book covers I’ve inserted into this post are from two works that I’ve found especially useful regarding Jung and the topic of synchronicity. Click on the links below to look at them more closely:
Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal
Synchronicity: The Art of Coincidence, Choice and Unlocking the Mind
To read about two events in my own life that Jung would have definitely considered synchronistic, click here and here.
For other such events and discussions, see the blog categories titled, Paranormal Coincidences, and Paranormal and Carl Jung.
Carl Jung, Part 1: The Paranormal, Coincidences and Synchronicity
I find it fascinating that one of the founders of modern psychiatry was personally and professionally involved in the paranormal. Over the years, I read bits of Carl Jung’s writings and heard stories from others about how strange experiences tended to follow the man. Only recently though, did I actually delve into Jung’s background and philosophy. This came about because increasingly in my life, I’ve observed how “coincidences” at times tend to happen way beyond mere chance. Who better to study on this subject than Jung, the man who coined the term “synchronicity” and promoted the view that certain coincidental events have origins far beyond the physical world we know.
A Swiss citizen, Carl Jung’s life spanned the period between 1875 and 1961. Founder of Analytical Psychology, he developed the ideas of the Complex, the Archetype and the Collective Unconscious. The man’s efforts inspired the Myer’s Briggs Personality Test and Alcoholics Anonymous. In his day, Jung associated with the likes of Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli and William James. Not a bad list of scientific and philosophical connections if you ask me.
Even so, Jung was fascinated by events we would call paranormal today and believed that understanding such things were a natural part of our heritage as human beings. He also believed that using such knowledge in psychotherapy was beneficial to his patients. The man was a pioneer that today’s mental health experts would do well to revisit.
In reading about Jung’s background, I discovered his interest in the paranormal sprang not just from his studies but from his personal experiences as well. In fact, the man had so many such events that it looks to me like they occurred during his entire life. I found the stories of Jung’s experiences so interesting that I have developed a series of blog postings where I retell each one of them. Jung’s own writing is a little intricate and dense so I thought this method would make for easier reading.
Listed below are the titles of those postings with the final paranormal event titled, “The Breakthrough.” That last story is really the beginning for Jung in many ways. Evidently, a severe illness that almost killed him in 1944 led to a life changing near-death experience. After 1944, Jung did some of his finest work.
I hope you enjoy reading about those things that helped shape one of the world’s great thinkers. Over time, as I publish each post, I will create a link to each of the stories below so that new readers will eventually be able to access all the events from this article:
Part 2: The Split Table
Part 3: The Knife
Part 4: The Ghosts
Part 5: The Cottage
Part 6; Jung and Freud
Part 7: The Wedding
Part 8: The Suicide
Part 9: The Scarab Beetle
Part 10: The Flood
Part 11: The Mosaics
Part 12: The Final Breakthrough
The book covers I’ve inserted into this post are from two works that I’ve found especially useful regarding Jung and the topic of synchronicity. Click on the links below to look at them more closely:
Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal
Synchronicity: The Art of Coincidence, Choice and Unlocking the Mind
To read about two events in my own life that Jung would have definitely considered synchronistic, click here and here.
For other such events and discussions, see the blog categories titled, Paranormal Coincidences, and Paranormal and Carl Jung.
June 27, 2012
Your Natural Paranormal Heritage: Part 3, Dreams
These are the initial helpful steps you can take right now if you wish to uncover your natural, paranormal birthright. Since you already have innate understandings, abilities, and connections in this arena, what you will read about here is nothing more than initial handholds leading you on a journey of self-rediscovery. In the end, YOU are your best teacher.
This information is adapted from the nonfiction book my wife Barbara and I wrote many years ago titled, An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic. What you have here is just part of a series. The rest of the postings are located under the blog category titled, “Guidance”. Click here, however, if you would like to access ALL of the articles on this subject in one posting.
Hope you find this beneficial.
Everybody dreams but not everybody remembers them. The sleep state is your direct linkage to the paranormal and the world of spirit. You can capitalize on that linkage if you so desire. In the very limited space of this appendix, we can only touch the surface of how to do this, but the following concise list should be of help:
When you wake up in the morning, wait before arising and think about any dreams you might have had. If even bits and pieces filter through, get up and enter that information in your notebook. If you are pushed by time, use whatever cryptic scrawl or abbreviations you wish, but write it down.
If you don’t remember dreams very well or if you wish to remember more than you usually do, give yourself the repeated suggestion, just before going to sleep, that you will increase your dream recall.
If a very vivid dream awakens you, get up and record whatever you can remember, otherwise it could well be lost the next morning. If you’re too groggy to write, use a tape recorder.
Through setting your alarm clock sometime in the middle of the night, you may be able to interrupt a dream artificially and remember its contents.
When recording dreams, see if you can remember these kinds of things:
Ψ Are you actually participating, watching yourself, watching others? Who else is involved? Are they living or dead? Are they known to you?
Ψ Where does the dream take place? Note the physical surroundings such as buildings, landscape and objects. Is it within the present time period as you know it, or some other historical period?
Ψ Are you yourself or someone else?
Ψ What events occur within the dream?
Ψ What is said?
Ψ What kind of emotions are you feeling during the dream?
Ψ Are there any particular sounds or smells that you can recall?
Ψ What kind of clothes are you and others wearing?
After each dream, or each week of dreams, consider what the meanings they may hold for you. All dreams, in our opinion, have a layered set of meanings, and all are valid within certain contexts. Many valuable books have been written about dream interpretation, but they often cast dreams in symbolic concrete that may not always be fully correct or thoroughly useful. What we are saying is that you and only you are the best interpreter of your dreams.
Go to the blog category titled, “Guidance” for additional postings titled Your Natural Paranormal Heritage.
Click here for the ALL of the steps to Your Natural Paranormal Heritage on one posting.
Click on our book, An Explosion of Being, to find it online.
“Packed the Punch of the Paranormal Novels I Tend to Devour”
From a Book Review of’ the young adult, paranormal/historical novel
Sliding Beneath the Surface, by
Erika Stroup of Moonlight Book Reviews book blog
The history of St. Augustine really came to life in Doug Dillon’s writing. I loved that the novel reads like a historical YA but then packed the punch of the paranormal novels I tend to devour. . . the shear amount of research that went into crafting this novel must have been monstrous.
I did absolutely adore [the character] Carla, and it wasn’t because she was a girl. She just felt . . . genuine, in a way that really only one who has read the novel will be able to understand. I love, love, love, that she has spunk and strength all while lending a helping hand to a friend in need.
I think the main thing about this novel I loved was the hidden message inside the pages. It basically says; life is what you make out of it, not what is laid at your feet. Now that might not be something your average teenager will pick up on, but I think in a way after reading it anyone will be able to at some level understand that.
Overall, I did enjoy reading this novel. Sliding Beneath The Surface is a fantastic debut that promises an even better sequel.
To read the complete review, click here.
