Towns and paranormal activity

[Sgt. Pepper]

There is nothing abnormal about believing in the paranormal. If the supernatural exists then it is logical to assume that paranormal phenomena are real.

Since I already believe that there is a spiritual world beyond this world, paranormal phenomena make perfect sense to me. I believe that the spiritual world is just as real as this world. In fact, according to my Baha'i beliefs, this physical world is just a shadow stretching out, a mere reflection of the spiritual world.

“The spiritual world is like unto the phenomenal world. They are the exact counterpart of each other. Whatever objects appear in this world of existence are the outer pictures of the world of heaven.”
The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 10

It makes perfect sense to me, too, but it didn't always, and I spent most of my life confused and terrified by what I could see, hear, and feel that no one else I knew could. Over the last 15 years, I've met a few other mediums my age, close to my age, or older than me who had similar experiences as mine when they were younger. I'm glad I met them and connected with them, and I'm grateful that one of them has become a close friend and mentor to me. I'm also pleased that, over the last two decades or so, belief in the paranormal has become more acceptable in society (see my post here). I'm especially relieved that my 19-year-old daughter, whose psychic medium abilities almost rival mine, will not have to face the painful obstacles that I faced with my psychic medium abilities when I was younger. My other children have varying degrees of the four Clairs, but their abilities aren't as strong and potent as mine and those of my 19-year-old daughter. I taught them to accept and control their abilities instead of letting their abilities control them.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

You may not hear this often, but I think you're an amazing woman and an inspiration to people.

Thank you very much. That is very thoughtful of you to say, and I truly appreciate it.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

When I was 8, I learned where babies come from, and I would ask my mom "Where do babies come from?" just to make her squirm and give false answers. By 13, I was building robots and programming personal apps. I was quite a positive person and I spent my time collecting action figures. At age 14, my mom and dad started to argue about raising me, where to live, and what food to eat. The arguments became bitter and I would drowned them out with Linkin Park. In one argument, my mom said some things which can be summed up as, "I do not care for him because he's not a Christian. He's your job." My dad was an atheist. What I heard from my mom made me bitter. I hated life after that. I hated everything. I withdrew socially a bit, wouldn't even spend time with my grandma anymore for awhile. At 17 I was recovering from hearing this and I got a job. It was a night job and the boss was the biggest bully you had ever seen. I left after 7 months feeling abused. By 17, my mom had gotten mildly more tolerable. And we even became better friends. And she regretted everything.

By age 20, I had a bit of an awakening. I found a website where I met two Unitarian Universalist Christians who were well-educated and good at debate. Blessed with wonderful educations. They made a huge impact on my life. Another year went by and on my 21st birthday, I had a strong headache. Upon the end of the headache, I started experiencing delusions and was diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia, changing my life. I also suspected I had developed a learning disorder. Now certain areas of my brain didn't function the best. At age 24 my dad experienced a sudden death which was really a side effect of him not getting regular checkups. My dad kept the family sane with his fair views and strong opinions. With him gone, my family slumped into a further form of 700 club style ideas. I was a Christian for just a time at this point, but that didn't make me all that compatible with them still. After my dad died, I had my first gay relationship, even though I figured out by age 18 I was bi. At age 25, I dated a woman who was Christian but also more or less into the occult. I had *kind of* gotten into it too. One night we attempted to meet each other in spirit and I'm not sure we did, but some weird stuff that is hard to describe did happen for the both of us.

When me and her met for a first date, she said "Your voice sounds unintelligent." I said "It's due to my schizophrenia." She said "It's quite unattractive, and too much for me at this time." and she left.

The paranormal:

I've had strange, bizarre occurrences in my life. I once had a spirit seem to keep harrassing me until I bought a book on bringing spirits to the beyond, and followed the instructions of a separate website. I did a spirit deliverance of sorts and either I gained peace on the matter or the spirit did, because it was no more. Upon doing so, I asked my mom, "I'm crazy, aren't I?" She said "Maybe not. I have a confession to make. As a kid, I was into the occult. I got into it after we lived in an old house a year after a murder took place there. And I may have opened a door or two when for some reason, I started practicing witchcraft after that." I'm thinking, "WHAT?" Later on my grandma told me, "Your mom is a Christian who's protective, I know. But as a kid, she was wild."

Now the worst part of it all? My mom wanted to hide all of this from me, but had to tell me as soon as I experienced weird things happen. And based on the stories I've heard about my mom as a teenager - I really feel I act like a young her.

And this spirit connection I felt and the stress of my job at the time, even though I liked the job otherwise, caused me to start overdosing on caffeine. By the time I had like X amount of caffeine in my bloodstream (not telling how much because I don't want others trying to replicate it), I was seeing ghosts, demons, angels. And things were becoming almost cartoon like. So I had a bit of a breakdown back then, a moderate one but one where I was delusional. The headache at age 21. Diagnosis with schizophrenia. Learning disorder.

At age 28 when being mentally reviewed by someone, I found out I could memorize and recite the value of pi to a pretty insane level, yet I couldn't at times remember what I ate the day before for breakfast. I could solve *some* high level math, not all, yet not tie a specific knot that was of an intermediate skill level.
--
Some of this is copied from another post I made, and further clarified.

Edited to attach this:

I wanted to clarify something about this post. When my mom said "I do not care for him", I don't think she really meant it, even if I took it quite harshly. I was quite different than everyone else in my family, and had unique challenges she might not have been ready for, then add to that the constant stress of arguing with my dad about everything, and then add to that she was disappointed that I didn't want to be a Christian, and that I also didn't take much interest in church.

 

[Trailblazer]

Thank you very much. That is very thoughtful of you to say, and I truly appreciate it.

I'll second that. I think you're an amazing woman and an inspiration to people.
You also came into my life at just at the right time.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

To get off the subject of towns for just a second:

In 2020 I was feeling a little spiritually lost. I had a dating profile and I listed on it that I like talking "ancient civilizations". A woman claiming to be a Rikki healer contacted me:

She told me she thought I was a starseed. She knew a great deal about me with me having not told her that much. I told her I liked Krishna, since I considered myself Hindu at the time. She said "You relate more to Shiva" despite my dating profile not listing those details about my personality. I got a little overexcited about how much she knew, and I asked her to be my Spiritual Guide. The problem? She more wanted a date and a romance, basically what she was on a dating site for. She got tired quickly of me asking more on her wealth of knowledge, though she did answer questions for a time. Eventually we broke conversation off.

After that, I was still curious, so I started paying online psychics to tell me more about things in my life, with the hopes of guidance:

Some things, the paid psychics got wrong. And I'm kicking myself now because I spent more money than I probably should have. Even though it still wasn't a whole lot. But a lot of detailed answers were correct in cases where they outlined specifics in my life. I'd say the paid psychics had about a 30-75 percent accuracy.

Anyway, do I believe I'm a starseed? Not necessarily. But the whole experience of meeting the woman was interesting.

 

[Trailblazer]

When I was 8, I learned where babies come from, and I would ask my mom "Where do babies come from?" just to make her squirm and give false answers. By 13, I was building robots and programming personal apps. I was quite a positive person and I spent my time collecting action figures. At age 14, my mom and dad started to argue about raising me, where to live, and what food to eat. The arguments became bitter and I would drowned them out with Linkin Park. In one argument, my mom said some things which can be summed up as, "I do not care for him because he's not a Christian. He's your job." My dad was an atheist. What I heard from my mom made me bitter. I hated life after that. I hated everything. I withdrew socially a bit, wouldn't even spend time with my grandma anymore for awhile. At 17 I was recovering from hearing this and I got a job. It was a night job and the boss was the biggest bully you had ever seen. I left after 7 months feeling abused. By 17, my mom had gotten mildly more tolerable. And we even became better friends. And she regretted everything.

By age 20, I had a bit of an awakening. I found a website where I met two Unitarian Universalist Christians who were well-educated and good at debate. Blessed with wonderful educations. They made a huge impact on my life. Another year went by and on my 21st birthday, I had a strong headache. Upon the end of the headache, I started experiencing delusions and was diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia, changing my life. I also suspected I had developed a learning disorder. Now certain areas of my brain didn't function the best. At age 24 my dad experienced a sudden death which was really a side effect of him not getting regular checkups. My dad kept the family sane with his fair views and strong opinions. With him gone, my family slumped into a further form of 700 club style ideas. I was a Christian for just a time at this point, but that didn't make me all that compatible with them still. After my dad died, I had my first gay relationship, even though I figured out by age 18 I was bi. At age 25, I dated a woman who was Christian but also more or less into the occult. I had *kind of* gotten into it too. One night we attempted to meet each other in spirit and I'm not sure we did, but some weird stuff that is hard to describe did happen for the both of us.

When me and her met for a first date, she said "Your voice sounds unintelligent." I said "It's due to my schizophrenia." She said "It's quite unattractive, and too much for me at this time." and she left.

The paranormal:

I've had strange, bizarre occurrences in my life. I once had a spirit seem to keep harrassing me until I bought a book on bringing spirits to the beyond, and followed the instructions of a separate website. I did a spirit deliverance of sorts and either I gained peace on the matter or the spirit did, because it was no more. Upon doing so, I asked my mom, "I'm crazy, aren't I?" She said "Maybe not. I have a confession to make. As a kid, I was into the occult. I got into it after we lived in an old house a year after a murder took place there. And I may have opened a door or two when for some reason, I started practicing witchcraft after that." I'm thinking, "WHAT?" Later on my grandma told me, "Your mom is a Christian who's protective, I know. But as a kid, she was wild."

Now the worst part of it all? My mom wanted to hide all of this from me, but had to tell me as soon as I experienced weird things happen. And based on the stories I've heard about my mom as a teenager - I really feel I act like a young her.

And this spirit connection I felt and the stress of my job at the time, even though I liked the job otherwise, caused me to start overdosing on caffeine. By the time I had like X amount of caffeine in my bloodstream (not telling how much because I don't want others trying to replicate it), I was seeing ghosts, demons, angels. And things were becoming almost cartoon like. So I had a bit of a breakdown back then, a moderate one but one where I was delusional. The headache at age 21. Diagnosis with schizophrenia. Learning disorder.

At age 28 when being mentally reviewed by someone, I found out I could memorize and recite the value of pi to a pretty insane level, yet I couldn't at times remember what I ate the day before for breakfast. I could solve *some* high level math, not all, yet not tie a specific knot that was of an intermediate skill level.
--
Some of this is copied from another post I made, and further clarified.

Both my parents were raised as Christians but they both dropped out of the Church before their three children were born, so I was not raised in any religion or believing in God. I was not searching for God or a religion when I stumbled upon the Baha'i Faith during my first year of college. That was 52 years ago. My father died when I was 12 but I later found out from my mother that my father had become an atheist. I think my mother retained her Christian beliefs, but never talked about them when we were growing up, maybe because that would have caused conflict with my father.

Five years after I became a Baha'i my mother became a Baha'i, when she was 60 years old. My brother and sister had also become Baha'is, so the whole family were Baha'is. That usually does not happen in families unless they were raised as Baha'is.

I had a lot of emotional problems after I became a Baha'i, not because of the religion but because of my childhood upbringing. That went on for about 12 years before I finally got help from a psychiatrist and various counselors and 12 step programs and homeopathic medicine. I have been in counseling off and on since then for anxiety and depression and grief issues, but my saving grace has been my Baha'i beliefs, especially the belief about the spiritual world that lies beyond this world. I am 100% certain it exists, I have been since 1970. I know it will be much better than this world but I also know I have to remain here until my time comes, and there is much I can still learn.

I have gotten kind of sidetracked off my spiritual path since the death of my late husband, since I have been focusing on dating, but over the last few months I have become much less attached to the idea of finding a man to marry, and I am resigned to remaining single unless I just happen to find the right man and fall in love. If that happens I will consider it God's will, fate.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I forgot to talk about another potential attraction. One really fun thing to do in my town, is drive up to Hannibal Missouri, and see museums, and I would go to the Mark Twain caves, which was a fun time. It even had a gift shop.

Whether or not the caves are still open, I haven't checked. We live in a weirder world now in what you can and can't do for activies as options, since Covid.

 

[Truthseeker]

Two people on this forum already know about this, my friend Duane (@Truthseeker) and @Sgt. Pepper. Duane is not absolutely convinced it was a paranormal experience, although he concedes it might have been. @Sgt. Pepper thinks it was a genuine paranormal experience. I totally trust her judgment so that was enough confirmation for me. What do you do when there is no 'normal' explanation for a phenomenon?

Wrong. I am convinced I saw a ghost.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

One thing I should caution about is if you're accustomed to nice sunny areas living near the coastlines, you won't really find the same beauty (in most places) in my area / town. There's a lot of areas which look dead, and a bit dry, too. Things just feel.... homely..... and some of that environment may lead to being a good area for ghost stories, and belief in ghosts being more wound into the culture.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I haven't watched this, but I should:

Paranormal State

The link mentions an episode about Quincy Illinois.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Wrong. I am convinced I saw a ghost.

You should maybe consider telling us about it some time.

Just be prepared for posts from skeptics.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Here's an old article on some things from the Quincy Illinois newspaper:

Tracking down the paranormal

 

[Trailblazer]

Wrong. I am convinced I saw a ghost.

I was not talking about the ghost you saw. I was talking about the TV in my bedroom.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Story:

When my family was looking at houses to purchase, there was one particular one they were looking at, where, while they were looking at the outside of this "for sale" house, they met a small team of paranormal investigators who told them they had to "clear out". So they snapped a picture of the house for the road, then cleared out.

The picture that we saw, in the window, had a weird reflection. In the house's window. It looked like there were two dark eyes peaking out.

So I was going to save that picture for keeping. But weird things started happening after that. Every device I tried to save that picture on, would somehow, more or less, end up broken. Crashed hard drives, etc.

This is more a story for those who beiieve to begin with, and in case they've experienced similar. Since I can picture the skeptics saying "Suuure.... riiiiight...... the evidence just disappeared."

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Another weird thing I've mentioned before is that after a person passes away in my family, for a few days, glass is prone to shatter for some reason, if handled. Like changing lightbulbs.

One time one of my family members remarked, "Well, someone just passed away. So I'm not going to change the lightbulbs today."

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

When I was 8, I learned where babies come from, and I would ask my mom "Where do babies come from?" just to make her squirm and give false answers. By 13, I was building robots and programming personal apps. I was quite a positive person and I spent my time collecting action figures. At age 14, my mom and dad started to argue about raising me, where to live, and what food to eat. The arguments became bitter and I would drowned them out with Linkin Park. In one argument, my mom said some things which can be summed up as, "I do not care for him because he's not a Christian. He's your job." My dad was an atheist. What I heard from my mom made me bitter. I hated life after that. I hated everything. I withdrew socially a bit, wouldn't even spend time with my grandma anymore for awhile. At 17 I was recovering from hearing this and I got a job. It was a night job and the boss was the biggest bully you had ever seen. I left after 7 months feeling abused. By 17, my mom had gotten mildly more tolerable. And we even became better friends. And she regretted everything.

By age 20, I had a bit of an awakening. I found a website where I met two Unitarian Universalist Christians who were well-educated and good at debate. Blessed with wonderful educations. They made a huge impact on my life. Another year went by and on my 21st birthday, I had a strong headache. Upon the end of the headache, I started experiencing delusions and was diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia, changing my life. I also suspected I had developed a learning disorder. Now certain areas of my brain didn't function the best. At age 24 my dad experienced a sudden death which was really a side effect of him not getting regular checkups. My dad kept the family sane with his fair views and strong opinions. With him gone, my family slumped into a further form of 700 club style ideas. I was a Christian for just a time at this point, but that didn't make me all that compatible with them still. After my dad died, I had my first gay relationship, even though I figured out by age 18 I was bi. At age 25, I dated a woman who was Christian but also more or less into the occult. I had *kind of* gotten into it too. One night we attempted to meet each other in spirit and I'm not sure we did, but some weird stuff that is hard to describe did happen for the both of us.

When me and her met for a first date, she said "Your voice sounds unintelligent." I said "It's due to my schizophrenia." She said "It's quite unattractive, and too much for me at this time." and she left.

The paranormal:

I've had strange, bizarre occurrences in my life. I once had a spirit seem to keep harrassing me until I bought a book on bringing spirits to the beyond, and followed the instructions of a separate website. I did a spirit deliverance of sorts and either I gained peace on the matter or the spirit did, because it was no more. Upon doing so, I asked my mom, "I'm crazy, aren't I?" She said "Maybe not. I have a confession to make. As a kid, I was into the occult. I got into it after we lived in an old house a year after a murder took place there. And I may have opened a door or two when for some reason, I started practicing witchcraft after that." I'm thinking, "WHAT?" Later on my grandma told me, "Your mom is a Christian who's protective, I know. But as a kid, she was wild."

Now the worst part of it all? My mom wanted to hide all of this from me, but had to tell me as soon as I experienced weird things happen. And based on the stories I've heard about my mom as a teenager - I really feel I act like a young her.

And this spirit connection I felt and the stress of my job at the time, even though I liked the job otherwise, caused me to start overdosing on caffeine. By the time I had like X amount of caffeine in my bloodstream (not telling how much because I don't want others trying to replicate it), I was seeing ghosts, demons, angels. And things were becoming almost cartoon like. So I had a bit of a breakdown back then, a moderate one but one where I was delusional. The headache at age 21. Diagnosis with schizophrenia. Learning disorder.

At age 28 when being mentally reviewed by someone, I found out I could memorize and recite the value of pi to a pretty insane level, yet I couldn't at times remember what I ate the day before for breakfast. I could solve *some* high level math, not all, yet not tie a specific knot that was of an intermediate skill level.
--
Some of this is copied from another post I made, and further clarified.

I wanted to clarify something about this post. When my mom said "I do not care for him", I don't think she really meant it, even if I took it quite harshly. I was quite different than everyone else in my family, and had unique challenges she might not have been ready for, then add to that the constant stress of arguing with my dad about everything, and then add to that she was disappointed that I didn't want to be a Christian, and that I also didn't take much interest in church.

 

[John53]

Story:

When my family was looking at houses to purchase, there was one particular one they were looking at, where, while they were looking at the outside of this "for sale" house, they met a small team of paranormal investigators who told them they had to "clear out". So they snapped a picture of the house for the road, then cleared out.

The picture that we saw, in the window, had a weird reflection. In the house's window. It looked like there were two dark eyes peaking out.

So I was going to save that picture for keeping. But weird things started happening after that. Every device I tried to save that picture on, would somehow, more or less, end up broken. Crashed hard drives, etc.

This is more a story for those who beiieve to begin with, and in case they've experienced similar. Since I can picture the skeptics saying "Suuure.... riiiiight...... the evidence just disappeared."

I'm probably the most sceptical sceptic ever, I wouldn't say anything about missing evidence, what I would do is look for a logical explanation. Being a keen amateur photographer I'd be thinking it's a trick of the light or a camera artefact, I've seen it hundreds of times.

I was once convinced a checkout chick was a demon because her eyes turned bright red but I worked out it was the light from the barcode scanner reflecting off her eyes lol

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I'm probably the most sceptical sceptic ever, I wouldn't say anything about missing evidence, what I would do is look for a logical explanation. Being a keen amateur photographer I'd be thinking it's a trick of the light or a camera artefact, I've seen it hundreds of times.

I was once convinced a checkout chick was a demon because her eyes turned bright red but I worked out it was the light from the barcode scanner reflecting off her eyes lol

I do admire your non-confrontational way of approaching this subject, in any case. And it's true that there may be natural explanations for some occurences. Like the light bulb story I posted above - there's always the chance the reason the lightbulbs kept breaking after a family death, was the possibility that people can't handle lightbulbs well and carefully while grieving a family death.

 

[nPeace]

My town has a fairly rich history of ghostly activity. And I know some of the history due to being in my 30's and having lived here most of my life. And I have pictures from one weird thing involving my town which I can show people - now if I show people the pictures, and they reverse image search (or just search in general), they'll know the town where I live. As part of their looking into matters.

My question before I get into the subject is - do you think it's safe to "out" the town where I live? I mean, I'm not exactly telling people my address. But still, people will figure out my town, and while I don't have any problems with it, they'll even be able to travel here and try to look at one particular phenomena for themselves (should they want to), since there's something kind of odd that's pretty much open to the public in my town.

So I've kind of been debating whether to share some history about my town or not, but I've thought about it for some weeks, and I haven't decided one way or the other just yet.

My personal opinion is, no.
It will make no difference to anyone here.
Actually, in Jesus' day no amount of miracles changed the view of those who willingly suppressed the truth.

Don't think that seeing is believing.
Most people see things, but they will ignore what they see... convincing themselves otherwise.
When it comes to the spiritual side, if one does not have a humble heart, and faith, nothing - absolutely nothing... will convince them.

The reason has to do with spirit. Ours, and those that affect it. 1 Corinthians 4:3-4

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

My personal opinion is, no.
It will make no difference to anyone here.
Actually, in Jesus' day no amount of miracles changed the view of those who willingly suppressed the truth.

Don't think that seeing is believing.
Most people see things, but they will ignore what they see... convincing themselves otherwise.
When it comes to the spiritual side, if one does not have a humble heart, and faith, nothing - absolutely nothing... will convince them.

The reason has to do with spirit. Ours, and those that affect it. 1 Corinthians 4:3-4

Thanks for the post. I'm not looking to pressure people to "see" something, though. All I ask from participants in general is look at the board you're posting on & note that it seems to have "Discussion", not "Debate" in title. So so long as people follow that, we're good.