The El Method

What if I told you that Stranger Things was on to something when they wrote about Eleven's psychic abilities...

I've been paranormal investigating since 2008 but intrigued by paranormal phenomena long before that. And although my slew of paranormal experiences should have indicated to me that there was something inherently PARA-normal about my perception of the Other, many times over the last decade and a half you could catch me saying that I wasn't psychic and was definitely not a medium. Why I would say this, I'm not sure. Maybe it was my Baptist upbringing or comments made by peers or just my fear of taking up space. However, you can always count on me to tell you when I am wrong and in this case...I was very wrong.

Over the years using the Estes Method, a method used in paranormal investigating created by Karl Pfeiffer, Connor Randall and Michelle Tate, that uses sensory isolation techniques with the spirit box in order to remove bias from Q&A style investigations of paranormal entities, I started recognizing that I was actually seeing more than I was hearing answers through the spirit box. Not only that, but I was also entering a state of trance very quickly, something I realized later would be a talent of mine. The messages coming through weren't from the dead though...instead, I was seeing, hearing and smelling things coming from the subconscious of the living or in connection to the land. This didn't look like how I'd expected paranormal investigating to look, and I was admittedly disappointed in my inability to communicate with the dead. But I pushed forward and kept exercising this muscle to see how accurate I could be with this new kind of "channeling." ability.

As I did this more often, I developed a methodology that would produce the best results for me. Using a blind fold and noise isolating headphones with the spirit box (much like the Estes Method), I incorporated automatic drawing to help get my thoughts out on something tangible. The white noise from the spirit box is used l then to assist me in entering a trance state quickly (the primary focus no longer being communicating through the box but just a tool to "zone out"). I'll sometimes state aloud the words that I hear come through the spirit box however what is most important is that I allow my mind to drift. I then start to journey visually into the subconscious of who or what I'm reading, including myself if need be. At the end of a session, which typically takes around 15 minutes, I then review my drawing looking for what images stick out and write or speak about the general message that came through, similar to the style of a tarot message. This is what I have named, The El Method.

Now back to Eleven from Stranger Things. I've always been a fan of fantasy and sci-fi television, but I first developed the above method without any inspiration from Stranger Things. That is, until long after I had been practicing my new method, when I decided to rewatch Stranger Things and started Season Three. Suddenly, I realized - Eleven was using nearly the exact same method that I was! I pondered the absurdity of the Duffer Brothers writing an element of fantasy that I had come to learn actually worked in real life. But...I had read that they drew some inspiration from The Montauk Project. And so, I decided that I was on to something. And they were on to something. I then decided to work on coining a term for this method and bring it public for everyone to use. And thus the El Method came to be. 

An exercise of our psychic abilities. An opportunity to touch the Otherside in a unique and extremely empathetic way. A peak into the dreams and lives of each other; and a way to understand the living condition beyond what is normal.​