Truthfully, I'm not a great reader. It's not for a lack of comprehension skills but rather a short attention span exacerbated by social media. However, I did force myself to finish Synchronicities by Allan Combs and Mark Holland recently and I am glad I did. This book opened my eyes to the complex history of both synchronicity and Trickster mythology, both of which I had only a surface level knowledge of previously. With this new information, I have since developed an opinion, or theory, on how this relates to the paranormal community today.
It's mentioned in the book (I am paraphrasing to the best of my ability without the book nearby) that the Trickster makes a fool of, or humbles, anyone who tries to control the chaos or synchronicity that the Trickster presents. That is, if the experiencer is not willing to listen to the lesson being taught. This idea of chaos had me reflecting on the modern day paranormal community, especially with how it exists online. With a rise in discordance in the community of paranormal investigators and researchers, it's started to appear that with every attempt to take control or manipulate paranormal phenomena, an obstacle mirrors it, preventing the person from obtaining proof or deeper understanding of the phenomena. Almost as if...the Trickster is here in our community, but no one can see him for what he is. Mind you, this idea as a whole is not new. It's been realized in recent media, specifically the documentary series Hellier. If you've not watched it (you should), there is an overarching theme related to synchronicity and the Trickster. However, this experience for them was very personal; almost like it existed just in their own ecosystem. I'm now recognizing this Trickster presence on a larger scale, and among a group of people who may not know what they're experiencing. As the paranormal has gained massive popularity in the last two years (and for good reason, with the rise of uncertainty in society and desire to make sense of our human experience and purpose) it feels as if the Trickster is presenting us with lessons, or maybe even breadcrumbs leading to bigger answers or more meaningful journeys. However, as chaos reigns, we're caught in this web of ego - both our own and others - and are then bound in the spiders silk and blind to what is really happening around us. I've yet to flesh out what understanding and seeing the Trickster in my own corner of life, while maintaining a presence online, looks like. My concern for the bastardization of my experiences with strange phenomena by way of social media is ever-present, however, often pushed aside by a desire to accomplish goals that I suppose I'm not quite ready to let go of entirely. And so I am likely blinded by the tricksters web of chaos as well. But I believe the realization of the above is a step in the right direction.
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My sleep paralysis episdoes started in 2009. At the time, I was terrified. I didn’t want to explore it; I didn’t want it to happen. I simply wanted to…sleep. Undisturbed.
However, as the years passed, sleep paralysis happened more frequently. I was in my twenties, tired, stressed, drinking heavily, eating poorly and in an unhealthy relationship which I now recognize as being a huge contributing factor to WHY I was having sleep paralysis to begin with. I was still terrified but I was simultaneously growing a fascination with what exactly was happening in that in-between sleep. I noticed that the sleep paralysis had morphed over time and that often I was no longer paralyzed while having these “hallucinations”. If I wasn’t paralyzed, then what exactly was I experiencing? Not only this but what I was seeing was no longer the standard shadow man or “sleep paralysis demon” either. The figures had become clearer, taking the form of men and women. I could see distinct clothing and expressions on their faces. I could feel the emotion they carried with them – intrigue, sorrow, patience. They were watching me, and I think waiting, to see when I would notice them and if I would finally ask what they wanted. (I should note that I am not diagnosed with any condition that would explain away these “hallucinations”) I never asked though. I continued in my slumber, afraid of what I was seeing. I didn’t understand how to control it and I didn’t feel confident enough in myself to believe that I had any universal duty to them. It was simply something that was happening to me, and I was at Its mercy. Ten years passed of this frequent sleep paralysis until I moved into my new apartment. But this move was different. For the first time, I was moving in with a significant other. My boyfriend and I moved in together and suddenly, every sleep related issue I was having completely stopped. You would think I would be relieved but suddenly I felt an emptiness, a regret. I had lost my opportunity to become closer with the Other, to understand a mystery of the universe. I missed my chance and I wanted it back. And thus began my experiment to make sleep paralysis happen again, but on my terms. I taught myself how to self-induce sleep paralysis with something I call the 4 M’s. Magick, Melatonin, Mugwort and Meditation. I am an occultist and practitioner of magick. Specifically, a blend of Celtic, Iberian and Appalachian practices originating from my family and my ancestors land and practices. An herb I had always felt inexplicably drawn to is mugwort. When I began seeking to induce sleep paralysis, I looked to magick and mugwort first. I knew that mugwort provided sleepy-herbal properties and brought on vivid dreams. I figured, honestly on a good guess, that this would help me if I were to drink a mugwort blended tea before bed. (I am not advising you to do the same. Please consult a doctor before ingesting mugwort.) This proved to be incredibly helpful as I started to have wildly vivid dreams when I would drink my tea. So, I continued on to the next step – incorporating magick. Detailed spell work is not a big part of my practice, admittedly. But I knew that if I wanted to communicate with the Otherside in such a vulnerable state I needed to bring in magickal help. I began incorporating spell work into my practice and centered it around dream work, and protection. I would set intentions and manifest what it was I wanted to be doing. Which was…having sleep paralysis. At this time, I also began experimenting with taking melatonin. Melatonin is a sleep vitamin that I had taken previously to help with insomnia, so I was familiar with how to properly use it. (AGAIN – not advising you to do the same. Please consult a doctor before ingesting Melatonin.) I cycled between this and my mugwort tea, but never took the two at the same time and often took breaks from ingesting any of it at all. Lastly, I started a daily meditation practice. This is something I had always wanted to do for various reasons, but I knew that the discipline from learning how to meditate deeply would help in my goal. After meditating and traveling in my meditations often, I knew I was ready to try to self-induce sleep paralysis. When I would become tired at night, I allowed myself to stay up just slightly past that point of tiredness so that I could feel my eyes be heavy and my body begin to relax. Laying on my back (Tip: If you do NOT want to be having sleep paralysis – do not sleep on your back), I would let myself drift on into a daydream-like state where my eyes would wander and glaze over. Before I knew it a static feeling came over my body from head to toe, which I recognized from my other instances of sleep paralysis (Another tip: if you start to feel this sensation while falling asleep on your back, this is a great time to move your body and get up, if you do not want to have sleep paralysis). This is where the experiment gets interesting and honestly, becomes larger than what my medically and biologically uneducated brain can comprehend. Once the static feeling washed over me, I would begin to sense a presence in the room, almost immediately. Shadows in the room began to come alive and most interestingly– the FEELING of fear would overcome me. I knew what was happening, but my body produced fear anyway. Why does our body create this sensation at this time? In conclusion, I have not yet mastered at this point how to communicate with whatever it is that shows up when I conduct this experience. This is something I’m still working on, as I find that it is too easy to slip out of this state of consciousness before being able to do anything. But even if this is ongoing for me, I believe it’s something I should, and have wanted to, share with others. The deep dive I have done into my sleeping life has magnified both my spiritual and paranormal experiences in the waking as well as taught me valuable lessons about how to manage my fear and regulate my emotions. I have also continued my meditation practice that has helped me greatly in communicating with another side of life that I had always wished to be closer to. And for all these benefits, I hope that sharing this with you may benefit you in some way too. Not to say that you must induce sleep paralysis to grow and expand in your search for the paranormal, but maybe that you might consider exploring your emotions, deconstructing the things that happen in subconscious. And be okay with admitting when you don’t understand something. But try to learn more anyway. Since I began paranormal investigating in 2008, and even earlier, as a young child experiencing strange phenomena, I always felt the underlying presence of something that did not yet have a name. Fast forward to 2019, when I started posting publicly on social media, and began recognizing this unnamed presence once again.
Thanks to a knack for creative writing, my social media presence has become synonymous with sparking conversation and deeper thought on the emotional components of haunted locations, and the act of investigating. And as my unique approach to exploring the paranormal has taken hold with others online, it’s given me the chance to observe this phenomenon on an even larger scale. Doing this has finally led me to where I am today; able to explain to you what that unexplainable presence has been all along. I bring to you, the Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint, anomalistic Odd Emotion and the method of investigating an Emotive Haunting. Establishing Odd Emotions Some places, or moments in time, evoke anomalous strange emotions aka Odd Emotion. In this context, I will describe Odd Emotion as both emotions AND psychological experiences that evoke emotion and are perceived as paranormal in nature. Odd Emotions can be experienced by anyone, regardless of their psychic abilities, however they may be more easily identified by those who are Empathic or Highly Sensitive. Some Odd Emotions include:
Odd Emotion can occur in man-made locations (abandoned malls, empty playgrounds, dim lit staircases, etc.), natural locations (mysterious bodies of water, areas with significant amounts of limestone or quartz, etc.), or during moments of weather phenomena like fog, strong wind, or sun showers. The Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint (PET) I surmise that at the exact moment humans experience an Odd Emotion, regardless of the presence of a traditional haunting, we are being exposed to a moment in time or a physical place, in which the veil to the other side is low. This moment in time or physical place is called the Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint (PET). Upon exploring a Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint, one can investigate: 1. The feeling itself or 2. Any entity in which you feel may be present at this touchpoint (cryptid, alien, ghost, etc.). Upon research of similar phenomenon, I found that the Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint stands apart. The Oz Factor, a term coined by Jenny Randles, is explained as the experience of feeling transported from real life to another similar environment of which is changed just enough to be noticeable and disturbing, often seen in cases of UFO abduction. (Source: Encyclopedia.com) The Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint differs in that it is not an act of transportation to another world but rather the identification of a point in which the veil to the other side is lower and can be further investigated. The Emotive Haunting, explained next, is also different in that it is not as a symptom, but rather paranormal phenomena in itself. The Emotive Haunting The Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint (PET) does not HAVE to be connected to a specific entity. In the case that a PET is not connected to an intelligent, residual or intentional haunting, then it would be considered an Emotive Haunting. An Emotive Haunting is a haunting in which the paranormal phenomenon in a location presents itself in the form of an Odd Emotion, or anomalous strange emotions, and experienced by more than one individual. Investigating the Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint (PET) and the Emotive Haunting When either a Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint or an Emotive Haunting is identified, the method of our paranormal investigating needs to adjust to better fit this unique phenomenon. Record, either by writing or voice recording, the following:
Synopsis By paying close attention to our emotions and identifying the presence of strange, anomalistic emotions aka Odd Emotion, we can identify not only the presence of a haunting but also a touchpoint aka the Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint (PET), which is a moment in time or a place in which the veil to the other side is momentarily lower. Furthermore, we know that the manifestation of an Odd Emotion that is experienced by more than one person is called an Emotive Haunting. An Emotive Haunting is the paranormal manifestation of unexplainable emotion aka Odd Emotion. This phenomenon can be investigated using descriptive question and answer methods and recording psychological, physiological or astrological influences, weather, date, time and any other external influences one finds pertinent to the experience. There are so many gadgets in the paranormal field today, it can be hard to know where to start. I began investigating in 2008 with just a flashlight and a recorder, but I was lucky to be part of team that pooled money together to buy the "hot ticket" tools. Back in 2008 the most popular of our equipment was the k-11 meter and the thermal camera. The k-11 meter I specifically remember not having a permanent "on" feature yet so we would have to shove a quarter in the button to leave it on. Ha. We had other equipment, but I remember these two pieces being the most prevalent at investigations. Today, I have many pieces of my own equipment so I thought I would share with you my favorites (in no particular order) as well as some bones I have to pick with a few popular items. 1. Digital Recorder The digital recorder is a classic. One, of course, can be used to pick up Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) during an EVP session, but I also enjoy using a recorder to help me time stamp different sessions or rooms that I visit during an investigation of a larger location. Especially while using an EDI+ which uploads everything to a graph via SD card, its nice to cross analyze equipment and evidence with simple time stamping via voice recording. I typically do this by saying something like "EVP and EDI session, basement of St. Ignatius, 11 pm PST August 15th, 2021" before any EVP session. Mine: Amazon.com: Zoom H1n Portable Recorder, Onboard Stereo Microphones, Camera Mountable, Records to SD Card, Compact, USB Microphone, Overdubbing, Dictation, For Recording Music, Audio for Video, and Interviews : Musical Instruments 2. EDI + The EDI is a powerhouse in ghost hunting equipment. It has multiple features and can read EMF, temperature, vibration, pressure and humidity. It also logs all of this information into a data-logging, graph software if you inset a SD card. I find this equipment incredibly useful when I am on the go and don't want to have multiple pieces of equipment to carry around. Its also handy to be able to detect different paranormal occurrences at once, for example reading a temperature drop at the same time as an EMF spike. Mine: GhostStop Ghost Hunting Equipment - EDI Meter Plus EMF meter for paranormal investigations 3. Spirit Box (SB7T or SB11) The spirit box has gained a lot of popularity in recent years with the rise of the Estes Method - an ITC sensory deprivation experiment created by Karl Pfieffer and Connor Randall. The box scans radio frequencies at an accelerated rate so that mostly static and some radio interference comes through. However, sometimes words or sentences end up coming through clearly and in response to questions being asked, which in turn is an evolutionary move forward in modern spirit communication. Bone To Pick: Spirit Boxes are largely subject to personal bias and should be used with a good deal of discernment. I would encourage anyone trying to "go under" during the Estes Method to have as little knowledge about who you will be contacting as possible and to research into auditory pareidolia before doing such experiments. Also, after using the popular "Sbox" spirit box, I would not suggest it as it seems to give false positive results. Mine: GhostStop Ghost Hunting Equipment - Spirit Box B-PSB7 EVP for ITC Research 4. Laser Grid I recently picked up a laser grid and did not expect to love it as much as I do. I think it's a great tool to use for detecting small movements or mists and is easy to carry around and set up. I also am inclined to believe that it offers a source for phenomena to draw energy from. Just watch out for false positives from bugs and the like. Mine: GhostStop Ghost Hunting Equipment - Laser Grid GS1 Ghost and Motion Detection System 5. Tarot/Oracle Cards or Pendulum I 100% suggest exploring using spiritual tools while investigating. There is some bias to watch out for when using some spiritual tools (like dowsing rods, which I am not a huge fan of) but overall I think they add a really nice layer of communication style to an investigation and can help one dive deeper into the haunting at hand. I would even *gasp* suggest using a Ouija Board on site, as long as you have a trustworthy partner to do it with! Good investigating deck: A Witchcraft Design Studio – Black and the Moon Honorable Mentions: Go-Pro - HERO9 Black 5K Video 20MP Streaming Camera & Bundles | GoPro Flashlight - Maglite Mini LED 2-Cell AA Flashlight with Holster, Gray - Basic Handheld Flashlights - Amazon.com EVP Wrist Recorder - GhostStop Ghost Hunting Equipment - EVP Band Wrist Recorder Bones to Pick:
Rem Pod. Unless the Rem Pod is going off in direct response to your questions, or is going off in succession to other activity or equipment positives, then it is likely setting off a false positive due to the equipment's high sensitivity to other electronics, including walkie-talkies and phones. K-11 Meter or the like. EMF meters can often give off false positives due to sensitivity to other electronics. Specifically your smartphone, as I have witnessed many false positive spikes due to locking/unlocking a phone or opening/closing the phones camera app. I recently bought some Moldavite, the TikTok trending, magic space glass that is said to completely change your life. I wouldn’t normally be keen on a “rock” having the power to say, cause divorces, job loss or even death. But I’ve had the same 9-5 day job for 11 years and a little more of my soul gets sucked away every single day and I’m not sure how much soul I have left at this point. So I will try anything to help me move forward. I ordered the moldavite from Etsy (a shop called Moth and Flame) and have been awaiting its arrival for about 3 weeks. Something unexpected happened though, the moment it got to my state and began shipping to me…it started working. Rewind to about a week ago, when my internet friend Celeste (@celestemott) in New Orleans had a dream about me. To her knowledge, she had never dreamt about me before. And for some reason, this dream seemed important enough to relay the message. The dream included the following: Celeste and I are driving on a road trip to an old historic house with lots of wood and a staircase. There was something female haunting its halls that was not just a “ghost”. Something about a mirror and communication; myself communicating with the entity more than her. Overall, the dream felt urgent/dangerous/powerful. There was some mention of me accidentally opening a portal. And most importantly the name of something pretending to be someone they were not… “Ginny(ie)”. There were a few other details regarding Kentucky and a piece of parchment paper with Latin written on it. This last bit has not come to fruition yet. I have no doubt though that it might one day. Little did Celeste know, I would be staying in Wallace, Idaho a couple days after her dream. My friend Andrea had booked an Airbnb for us that I knew nothing about. It would be called the “Lux Rooms” and once served as a brothel from the early 1900’s until 1989. As we arrived, our Airbnb appeared to have some of the same characteristics as the dream. A long, skinny staircase leading up to one long hallway, about 4 rooms and shared bathrooms flanking each side. There was a wall in the hallway covered in mirrors, and a large rectangular mirror in our room as well. The most notable feature of the room. I decided to tell my friend Andrea about the dream since I had brought my equipment and discussed investigating previously, but as she began reading a book left by the Airbnb owner about Wallace and its history with prostitution, she looked up at me \ with a shocked look on her face. There was a tiny mention, regarding management of the property we were staying, about a woman. Her name was Ginnie. Without pause, I magickally sealed the windows and mirror with a makeshift potion of kitchen sea salt and bottled water. I warded the room and established boundaries. Whatever it was that Celeste had warned me about, was here. The dream had clearly been a warning and I was not going to wait and find out how much more would come true. This leads me back to the Moldavite. It arrived this Monday afternoon. It had been on its way to me during Celeste’s dream, and during my stay in Wallace, Idaho. Moldavite is known to bring growth, expansion, new beginnings. But another one of its properties helps with dreamwork. It helps removes blockages. It helps with healing. Was the Moldavite already working while it was on its way to me, protecting me from some harmful ghost hunting experience? Was it helping me heal previous blockages regarding trusting others, by forcing me to trust the women in my life who had visions, or provided insight, or kept me company, during that night? It’s hard to say.
I look forward to my upcoming journey with this stone. I don’t even believe that I must believe in it for it to work. If it allows me to see the magic in everyday, like a magickal placebo effect, then I will be as satisfied as if the stone got up and walked itself across the room to me. I spent the night at Lizzie Borden's house...completely alone. On accident. In April 2021, I visited New England. The plan was to meet some internet friends in Salem, Massachusetts, and then travel to Rhode Island with them to investigate the Conjuring House. In planning, I realized I had the last night of my trip open and needed to book a place to stay. In true Aries fashion, I decided that I had to go out with a bang that night instead of choosing a comfortable, relaxing hotel. And so I booked the John Morse room at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast. To be fair, I truly believed I would be able to relax this night. I had previously been disappointed in a lack of haunting experiences at some of the nations more haunted locations so I thought that the Borden house would simply make some good pictures, maybe one indiscernible EVP and then I would get a good nights rest. Little did I know that no one else had booked a room in the house that night. And that the employees were not staying there either. So I stayed in the house alone. And truthfully, lost my mind a little bit. The Borden house is the most haunted location I have ever been to in my life. The activity that I experienced baffles my mind to this day. And since the house has since changed ownership to a company that thinks it is better fit for an ax throwing business and a bar (rolls eyes) I feel lucky to have possibly been the last person to stay alone in the house in its previous state. Watch below to see how the night unfolded and make sure to subscribe to my YouTube while you are at it! This is a big topic. And I happen to have a project coming out in the end of 2021 that will go a lot more in depth. But I wanted to touch on a few of the basics as liminality in relation to paranormal phenomena is something that I have a particular fascination with.
Let's start with the literal definition of liminal. Liminal is an adjective relating to the position at a boundary/threshold or the transitional stage of a process. The term liminality was first adopted by Arnold Van Gennep and used in an anthropological sense, relating to the ambiguous moment in the midst of a rite of passage. It's most basically, the moment in which one stands at a threshold between what is now and what is next. Who they were and who they will be. Again, this is a big topic. Liminality in relation to rites of passage can be seen in religion, psychology, and anthropology however anyone can experience liminal spaces (bathrooms, airports, hallways), liminal beings (teenagers going through puberty, those charged but not yet convicted of a crime, etc.) and liminal events (birth, death, puberty, marriage and divorce). Furthermore, there are also liminoid experiences - transitional moments in time that do not result in any change of status. Any of these instances can be big or small. Remember that uncomfortable and confusing feeling when you were sent home from work for "two weeks" at the beginning of a global pandemic? Yep. A grand liminoid experience. Now lets get in to its relation to paranormal phenomena. What's the first thing that comes to mind now while thinking of liminality and the paranormal... That's right. Death. And I would say to expand further, I also think of magick. Nearly all things supernatural have some kind of transitionary aspect. And so liminality can be experienced often while digging into the world of the paranormal. One of the most well-known instances of connectedness between the paranormal and liminality is poltergeist activity - which is often manifested by puberty. And of course, death. The book The Trickster and the Paranormal by George Hansen delves deeper into this and is a great resource if you want to get in the weeds about this connection. Most importantly, I would encourage you to not let "liminal" encompass too much - one could start to see how life as a whole is a liminal event, at which point the word begins to lose its meaning. I would also encourage you though to pay close attention to the liminality you experience in your life. The moment you are standing in your house before or after you move. The shift in air during the change of seasons. The act of moving from student to teacher on a certain topic. How do you feel? And how can you harness that ambiguity to empower you to move in to your desired state? I personally believe that liminality in particular can beget paranormal phenomena. And that liminal circumstances can even create paranormal archetypes. Furthermore, I believe that if one can harness the energy of liminality, you can experience and even create moments of strangeness - essentially manipulating the paranormal. But I will leave the topic on that note here today. I hope that you ponder and explore and study it for yourself. And that moving forward, you can learn to greet liminality with open arms. I feel like the last time I wrote a blog post was a century ago. In reality, I think it was maybe 8 months, at most. Maybe 10? The point is, as I sit here writing to you today, I am a different person. Or rather the same person, but with a little more or a little less of certain things. A little more self love, a little more confidence. A little less ego and selfishness. A little more skepticism and a lot more compassion, for others and for myself. When I started Pretty Fn Spooky, I thought I was an expert. While time does beget experience, I was quick to learn that although I had a decade under my belt, I had a lot more to learn. I also had more people to meet and more places to see. I came into my journey as a solo female paranormal investigator thinking there were few of us. I was wrong. Last summer, I took a step back from projecting myself as the expert and became a student once again. I traveled, I explored, I studied, I cried and I said goodbye to parts of myself that left holes I had to learn how to fill. I am still a student today. But after all that I've accomplished in the last year, I think I have some valuable things to share with all of you now. Maybe I can help you learn. Maybe I can help you not feel so alone. Or maybe I have nothing to offer you. But I am here now and open to let any of those options become reality.
I feel myself defeating the imposter syndrome I dealt with more than two years ago. So here we go. My name is Amanda and I'm a paranormal investigator in Spokane, Washington. I have some unconventional thoughts on conventional paranormal topics but that unconventionality is growing more popular by the day. We are not alone. The paranormal field is changing. It's up to you if you want to come along for this transition. |
AmandaAmanda is a paranormal investigator with 15 years of experience located in Spokane, Washington. Archives
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