Gone to the Dogs

Checked in on my blogs today. I didn't mean to let a couple of years go by. What happened to the me that used to check on my blogs almost daily? Twitter, Facebook and dogs.

My life experienced a paradigm shift when I retired. I not only retired, I moved back to the States after 30+ years living overseas to a state and city where I knew two whole people other than my husband and son. I was no longer going in to teach daily, with the intellectual jolt and interaction with students and colleagues. I experienced culture shock. Eek. As great as it was not having to go to work each day, I also lost my reason for getting up and getting moving. I had health issues that needed to be addressed. I could have written posts about my difficult assimilation and my gall bladder issues, but I decided to spare you my misery. Are you bored with this paragraph of my life? I am. Bleach.

Moving on. I continued tweeting on Twitter. Compared to blogging, which takes hours, tweeting 140 characters is easy and fast. Feedback is quick, and plucking out interesting news, links and points of view out of the Twitter feed kept my attention much better than looking at a blank writing field and trying to fill it. But, too much Twitter made me twitch, so I even stopped doing that. Facebook kept me in touch with friends I had left behind, and it still does.

But, what mostly happened to me is that my life went to the dogs: young dogs, old dogs, puppies, shy dogs, happy-go-lucky dogs, well-behaved dogs, dogs who needed basic training.

Bogart on our deck, trying to hide under a chair.

It all started with a blurry photo posted by a new acquaintance on Facebook of a depressed young dog named Bogart curled up in the fetal position at the Blount County Animal Center where volunteers' efforts had not managed to get him to adjust to life at the shelter. He was about 7 months old and had spent his life living in the wild with his mother and brother. He wasn't eating and was skin and bones under his long hair. He was unadoptable and the outcome for him was not promising. I looked at that photo and thought, I think I can help him.

And that is a tale in itself, how I went to the shelter and registered as a foster, how Bogart would not walk on a leash and pooped and peed in fear when my son picked him up to carry him to our car, how he almost immediately escaped our fenced yard, how we tempted him back (salmon snacks), how each day for a month we focused on finding ways to help him make the small, gradual progress that eventually lead to him trusting us and us adopting him and renaming him Mr. Guster (AKA Gus, AKA Guster Longfellow).

George and Guinness, therapy pups.

Part of our therapy included bringing home a couple of bull mastiff puppies (George and Guinness) who found Guster fascinating. If he ran away, they ran after him. If he hunkered down, they climbed on top of him or hunkered down next to him. They helped him make a big leap forward into learning how to be a dog who loves humans.

After they left to be adopted through a rescue in Pennsylvania, other dogs and puppies came and went. In one year we fostered 34 dogs and puppies. Some stayed a few days, others a few months, depending on the need. Two sick little puppies did not survive. It has been an adventure that has introduced us into the world of animal shelters, rescues and dedicated volunteers who try to save as many lives as they can.

Guster, formerly Bogart, playing tug of war with shy Maxwell as Jadzia watches. Guster has moved from being the dog who needs help adjusting to the dog who helps other dogs adjust.

My screen saver shows me images of the much-loved doggy souls who have passed through our door, pooped in our yard or (in the case of puppies) on newspapers in our kitchen floor, curled up next to us on our couch and given us lots and lots of doggy kisses.

They told me when I retired, I would find something to do. It's more a case of they found me.

I occasionally watch an episode of a ghost hunting show, and my belief that the dead try to communicate with us from time to time has not changed, but I have long since lost interest in looking at picture and videos with which people try to prove the existence of ghosts. Boring and mostly bogus.

My life is focused on the living now, on those who need my help to stay alive and not become doggy ghosts before their time.

From left, son's dog Jadzia, rescued from an abusive airman who planned to dump her on a country road because he had orders for England and his attempts to house train her by beating her were not getting him the results he wanted; former foster dog Maxwell, another abuse victim who came to us a very shy dog, foster failure Guster who spent early life struggling to survive in the wild and has progressed from being depressed and afraid of all humans to my new BFF, Gidget, the only one in this image we acquired from a breeder, who acts as a therapy dog for many of our fosters, and current foster dog Precious who came to us looking like a plucked chicken suffering the effects of extreme neglect. She has her own Facebook page: Saving Precious

Ghost Hunting and Reality TV

Reality TV costs much less to produce than scripted television, about 1/4 as much, but it is still costly, and so when a crew goes out to a site, they need to come back with footage that can be turned into an entertaining show. No company is going to just hope that happens. They are going to have a plan to be sure that it happens. The objective of the ghost hunters may be to find proof of a haunting, but the goal of the producers is entertainment. After all, without viewers, they are out of business.

The participants are cast members, just like cast members of any other show. They have rolls they play and their rolls are partially scripted, which is most obvious at the beginning and end of the shows, and some places in the middle, too. Make no mistake, there's a lot of direction going on. You can still enjoy the shows, but don't have to believe everything they say is true, like Donna has done all this great research . . . right, Donna went out and "found" this stuff all on her own, NOT! The research is done by the production staff before they ever decide to film the episode, and whoever is wearing the researcher hat that week gets to take credit for it on the show. (P.S. I really like Donna Lacroix. She's on Ghost Hunters International where the only problem is she's once again being bossed around by the men who always seem get to be the leaders . . . Hmm, I sense a blog on sexism in ghost hunting. MUAH, Donna!)

This shouldn't stop you from enjoying the actual ghost hunting segments, during which the cast sometimes have freaky experiences, collect video or EVP evidence, or not. It's still the next best thing to being there. My only complaint, you can't always tell what is actually going on with the spooky music and sound effects added to the footage later. Latest personal peeve? The fake heartbeat added by Ghost Hunters. Cut it out!

The first of these shows I was exposed to was Most Haunted, the British show, but I quickly found the star, Yvette Fielding, to be extremely irritating. That and the obvious fakeness of the medium, Derek Acorah, provided a quick turn-off for me. There have also been accusations of fakery, such as Yvette sighing and then saying, "Did you hear that?" DUH! Yvette and her husband are the producers of the show.

Ghost Hunters is a very popular show, starring the very likable Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes, who supposedly work as plumbers during the day and hunt ghosts at night. They are also the producers of the show, which is built around The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), which they founded, but is now a marketing bonanza with a spinoff series, Ghost Hunters International and other certified TAPS teams. They have built a huge following in large part due to the fact that they act from a skeptical position, trying to determine what is actually causing observed phenomenon and looking for natural causes that will rule out the paranormal. They only accept a paranormal explanation if they are able to gather physical evidence to support the observed phenomenon. They also come across as very sincere with their clients and as very comfortable in their relationship with each other. Trustworthy is the word for these guys.

That said, the show is still highly scripted and stiff during the segments that set up the beginning, the ride to the site, and the end. If they are sitting at a table or riding in a vehicle, you can almost see the cue cards. There's a lot of repetitiveness here, the same kind of information given over and over and over again ad nauseum show after show about what they do and what an EVP is. It eats up air time, but doesn't provide any new information for old viewers. My most unfavorite thing they do is compliment someone on how well they did during an EVP session, as though it is hard to learn to say, "Is there anyone here who would like to talk to us?" or "Could you please do something to prove to us you are here?" How hard is that? Can I have my diploma now? The tech stuff . . . that takes some knowhow, but still, we aren't talking rocket science here.

You also need to be aware that there is a great deal of editing being done and it isn't being done by the cast, but by the production staff, who decide what it is that you and I, the audience, will get to see. It includes highlighting personality quirks of the cast members or whose wife is having a baby, who is scared of spiders, etc. Connecting the viewers to the cast members is key to maintaining interest in the show, since you can't always count on the ghosts to manifest themselves. Sometimes these machinations are so obvious that I can't imagine the audience doesn't know what is going on, such as when Kris Williams, the pretty one who is often used as "bait," was supposedly trapped inside a room she'd had to use a chair to get into and couldn't get herself out of. She called on the walkie talkie for Jason and Grant to come help her . . . only she was being filmed by a cameraman who was clearly in the same room with her. He couldn't give her a leg up? Grant "had" to crawl in and lift her up and then was filmed by the same cameraman jumping up and squirming out. So, who helped the cameraman out? They are never truly alone. There is always a sound guy and a cameraman, who seem remarkably calm. I wonder where they find these guys?

The final show that I have watched is a new one, Paranormal State. At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like this show, because right off the bat they were talking about demons and exorcisms. They also threw around a lot of holy water. It's basically a one-man show, built around student, Ryan Buell, with a couple of doe-eyed coeds, one Wiccan, and a tech guy. But, the focus is on Ryan (who comes across as steady, mature and experienced) and whichever medium they decide to call in. But, it's almost laughable when Ryan says something like, "I decided to call in so-and-so" to come help us and POOF they appear. It's all been planned ahead of time. Nobody's too busy to come, and even if they live across the country, they are there johnny-on-the-spot shortly after he declares they are needed.

I'm not knocking this little series. Remember, they are all scripted to some extent and the story line has been determined by the producers ahead of time. But, what the producers cannot script on any of these shows, and what keeps the viewers coming back again and again is the actual experiences they have . . . the unscripted parts of the show. You cannot fake the emotions of a scared teenager who is seeing the ghost of a murdered girl in her room, or the reluctance of a dog to enter a room, or how one of the investigators squeals like a girl and runs when touched by something that isn't there. They also occasionally capture a video or EVP that is compelling and some sounds that are unexplained may be heard audibly by the audience, as well as the investigators. 

What I like about Paranormal State, assuming that it is true, is that Ryan claims on several occasions that he and his team are there to help the family with whatever the problem is. That may include counseling and medical interventions. They stick around a site for a whole weekend, not just one night, and don't leave until they have determined whether it is safe for the family. Whether you or I believe that holy water, rosary beads or saint's medals will keep a bad spirit away is probably irrelevant. I think it is the energy generated by the people present and their belief that matters. The rituals probably help them focus that energy.

To sum up, each of these shows has a hook, a gimmick, which the viewers can expect.
Ghost Hunters is science-based. Their goal is to look for proof (period). Their gimmicks are to go "Lights Out" and spend exactly one night at the site, which more and more seem to be famous historical sites, and have "The Reveal" at the end (sitting around a table, of course). Whether they find anything or not, they leave. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. We had a good time. Good luck with your situation. They say they can be called on again, but we have no idea if anyone actually goes to them for more help with their problems. There's no follow-up.

Paranormal State is medium-based. They set up some instruments to gather evidence, and use them to verify paranormal activity, but their focus is on communicating with whatever spirits linger and helping them either to pass on or live harmoniously with the current residents of the home. Their gimmicks are "Dead Time" and the "Director's Log" which narratively carries us from scene to scene. They seek to resolve the problem of the haunting at the end. They stay for at least a couple of days, a couple of nights, and include psychological assessment of the people involved, as well as research including interviewing former residents of property. The places they investigate are often the homes of regular people. And the help they provide seeks to heal the whole family and provide some resolution to the problems they are having. They provide some follow-up information at the end of the show.

As long as they can keep their sincerity intact and be honest with their audiences, both of these shows may continue to experience success. I know I'll be watching.

Ghost Hunters
Ghost Hunters International
Paranormal State
Ryan Buell's Blog
Most Haunted

Spirited Ghosts or Ghostly Spirits?

What is the difference between a ghost and a spirit? You can click on the title above to go to the Wikipedia entry for a formal discussion of the terms and the languages and traditions, the etymology of the words, but what really matters is how people use them today.

For most people a ghost is something you see. According to Wikipedia, "the term ghost has been replaced by apparition in parapsychology, because the word ghost is deemed insufficiently precise." This makes sense to me as well. Apparition, from the same root as appear. A ghost, then is what someone might see, an apparition, an image.

So, what is a spirit? Are all ghosts spirits? I don't think so. As I have mentioned in the previous post (New Year, Time Slipping), some ghosts are apparitions seen as part of a residual haunting, but incapable of interaction. They are just images of what once was. They do not possess a spirit. The spirits of the persons involved have passed on.

But sometimes the spirit is present and capable of appearing or speaking or even manipulating objects and energies. This is also referred to as an intelligent haunting. Some people may experience a visit from a loved one who has passed, but others may wander into the territory of a hostile spirit, and this can be unsettling and even harmful. The spirit may or may not be visible (a ghost), but these spirits are just as real as that which animates each of us. As you think and therefore you are, so it goes for the disembodied spirit. It is from these spirits that investigators are occasionally able to get answers to questions in the form of EVP's (Electronic Voice Phenonmenon). (*Note: it's also possible that an EVP may be part of a residual haunting.) Some spirits may also interact with investigators by lowering or raising room temperature or causing a higher energy reading on an EMF (ElectroMagnetic Field) meter.

So, we call upon the friendly spirits to be with us, hope that the spirit of a loved one may join us from time to time, but after seeing an apparition on the stairs, we will likely turn pale and declare, "I think I saw a ghost!"

Let Nothing Disturb You

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing frighten you.
All things pass.
God does not change.
Patience achieves everything.
Whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone suffices.
St. Teresa of Avila

I share this now because there is a lot of evil in the world, and I assume that what exists in our world, exists also in the spiritual world. Whoever and whatever we become during this life, whether we become loving and caring individuals or become spiteful, petty and selfish, we will carry with us when we pass. So, assuming that there is life after death, and that is my assumption, there may be spirits out there that would like nothing better than to mess with people's minds.

Hopefully, you will never find yourself in a situation where you are confronted with an evil presence, but if you do, start by believing in the power of God. I strongly believe that nothing can harm me as long as I believe that I am his (Or hers, if you prefer, but I think that the loving power that unites the universe is way past having sex organs. I shall use the male gender to refer to this great intelligence, because his or her just sounds silly and I'm not about to refer to God as it.). I always go back to that scene in the first Star Wars movie, when Darth Vader is flying down the trench behind the three Rebel pilots. In each case, he is only able to shoot them when they start to panic and let their mental guard down. They start feeling vulnerable. Luke, our hero, of course is strong in the force (and saved by Han Solo, but that's another story . . . ).

The point is not to let your guard down. Do not go messing about with spirits unless you have a strong sense of self and a strong central personal core. Ghost hunting is not for the emotionally unstable. Here's another movie metaphor: remember that scene in Independence Day when the big space ship is hovering over Los Angeles and the nutters go up to the top of a big building right under the ship to WELCOME THE ALIENS? I hope you remember what happened to them. They were the first ones turned into toast when the ship opened fire. Do not open yourself up to the spirits and invite them to come in. There are some people who are born mediums that learn how to do this without losing themselves in the process, but you might not be so gifted.

Ghost hunting may be de rigeur today and popular on TV, but Buffy the vampire slayer won't around to kick the butt of whatever evil spirit you might awaken, so don't step into the unknown on a lark. If you are serious about ghost hunting, do research. Try to find a serious group in your area. (BTW, if their website has a bunch of photos of "orbs" and smoky-looking mist, look for a different group.) Do not go ghost hunting on your own, or with anyone who's been drinking. Heck, use some common sense!

Be sure that you surround yourself with the white light of love that is the universe's gift to you and believe in its power to protect you. You should do that every day, anyway.

T.A.P.S. on the air

I was just getting ready to write a post lamenting the wooden, stilted, filtered and sanitized dialogue on Ghost Hunters, when I discovered that Jason and Grant are going on the radio in an uncensored format. I hope they are allowed to show more personality than they are permitted on the show. They seem like very nice guys, but those fake plumbing scenes and the conversations around the table are so canned, it's annoying. It's like watching the Stepford Wives do ghosthunting. Again, don't get me wrong. I like them. I like the show, but why oh why, do they have all those artificual conversations, like the ones on walkie-talkies just before they arrive at the investigation site about what they expect, as though this hasn't been discussed prior to their setting out (sometimes across the whole country)?

So, what was I saying? They are going on the radio. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say in a less structured environment. They have done a lot for bringing a level of professionality and objectivity to the field. I bet they know more than they are saying (on the TV show).

Click on the title of this post to take you to the T.A.P.S. website and information about the new radio show.

Our Fascination with Ghosts

Whether an episode of TAPS, a haunted tour of a city in a trolley bus with a tour guide, or an overnight investigation in a haunted location, ghost hunting is big business. Suddenly businesses and historic buildings, instead of hiding their ghosts in the closet, are bringing them out of hiding and broadcasting their existence on network television in an effort to bring in more customers, bring in the tourists. You don't have to wait till Halloween to enjoy the "fun" of being scared under controlled conditions.

Everyone wants to catch a ghost on film (speaking metaphorically) and provide the ultimate proof to convince the skeptics. Fuzzy photos, blown up so much the individual pixels can be seen are all over the net, usually with the ghostly figure circled and with an arrow pointing to it. This is necessary, since the images are not really visible and once pointed out, generate wildly different opinions as to what is being seen. Orbs were popular for a while, but people are finally catching on to the fact that they are just dust and moisture caught in the camera flash while flying too close to the lens. Similarly, camera straps and long hair create brightly lit examples of alleged ectoplasm. Does this mean there aren't any real captures of real ghosts on the net?. No, I believe there are some good examples out there, but one has to filter through a lot of dubious claims to find them.

The good thing is that more people are talking about their experiences and sharing them with a wider audience. When you consider that many of their experiences involve a loved one who has passed on and is attempting to communicate, this is a positive development. Some ghosts stick around a place they loved and end up being the unexpected co-resident who thinks of everyone else as house guests. Some stories bring a tear to the eye and a warm feeling to the heart. Others are incredibly sad, when you realize their ghosts are wayward spirits who have been unable to escape reliving terrifying events. Others are harrowing, since there are unhappy spirits who may wish to harm those still living. The house ghost, the visit from grandpa or your favorite aunt, or a child who died before his time - these are usually nothing to be afraid of, and if approached calmly can be good for everyone involved. The malignant or nuisance spirits, these need to be dealt with or avoided.

Halloween is about wearing costumes. Ghost hunting is about interacting with real persons whose bodies are gone, but whose spirits and personalities linger. If you are interested, there is plenty of information on the net on the different kinds of hauntings, how to go about trying to spot a ghost or contact a spirit and how to get rid of one; how to protect yourself; what kind of equipment is helpful. Watch for posts on these various topics . . . as I grow this blog, I will be adding helpful information on every topic I can think of related to ghosts, ghost hunting and all things ghost-related.