Sunset Sightings - It's the aliens, It's the government, It's a military cover-up! Oh my!

With the recent sighting of an alleged missile fired off near the coast of Los Angeles at sunset, yesterday's similar sighting in New York City - at sunset, might I add - caused quite a stir. CBS 2 Chopper caught a red hot streak moving behind the Empire State Building.

The Pentagon finally came to the decision that the Los Angeles incident was nothing more than the condensation trail of a commercial airliner. In New York, they're offering similar explanations. Ironically enough, a CBS 2 News anchor stated on air she doesn't buy either story.

CBS 2 News Video - Alleged Aircraft Contrail Whizzing in New York City SkyLine

The video speaks for itself, I think. I don't buy it either. Before anyone chastizes me for thinking the aliens are here, that's not what I'm saying. Former Secretary of Defense Ellsworth thinks the Los Angeles incident involved a missile. So do I. What is an aircraft doing in New York flying at a speed like that, hmm!? It looks like something out of the movie Ghost Busters! What's the Pentagon have to say about that - that's what I want to know.

Mystery Missile Soars Over Pacific Waters, Caught on Video

Yay! More stuff for me to panic about...

Missile Launched Off of Pacific Coast. Government says mums the word. Since President Obama is currently touring Asia, this could be a show of military strength aimed at - Asia? We did the same thing over the Atlantic before, only we were sending a message to the Soviets then. Makes sense. Navy, Air Force, Pentagon offer no explanation. Since no one's talking, it remains an unidentified missile.

Fire Balls Over Canada - panic!

So I'm one of those people that watches a horror movie or a sci-fi "thriller" such as Tom Cruise's War of the Worlds and then tries to figure out ways in which I'd handle the same situation - in my present situation. With four kids five and under, basically. Who would I pick up first, where would we hide and where would we go? Would I be able to handle the emotinal trauma of it all? This is nuts! Maybe. But I have some serious game plans if aliens ever do shoot themselves down in lightning bolts and awaken their long-buried machines that lazer-fy people into dust or whatever that was supposed to be. Game plans only. Nothing packed... yet.

Just kidding! Sort of. This is why I stopped watching horror movies and disaster movies in the first place because my thoughts just go bonkers until it invades my dreams (ie: Paranormal Activity) and I start fearing things like the sheets will be ripped off the bed at some ungodly hour. Ridiculous, I know.

How would I escape all that with four kids? I wouldn't. End of story. Earlier today I explained to my father that if gravity suddenly gave way, we'd all just float to our ceilings with all our stuff, then everything else would pop off the ground and we'd just go up, up, up without any choice in the matter. That would totally suck!

I'm only bringing this up because for Halloween, we watched The Crazies (the remake) and of course, I began constructing my game plan. This dumb habit is partly for fun and partly that I'm just odd (and maybe also that I have four kids and have been programmed to constantly worry for them). I'm sure we've all thought "What would I do in this situation?" and I'm the kind of person that wants to know exactly what I'd do ahead of time, no matter how ridiculous, just in case. In the case of The Crazies, I came up with nothing obviously.

So when I read stories like "Great balls of fire over Canada: NASA investigates" some part of me inwardly panics. What the!? Canada is exactly where I'd go if anything crazy ever happened! Right into the center of Canada, where there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Crime is basically nonexistent and yet everyone owns a shot gun. Canada never did anything to anyone. It's the perfect escape from almost anything and there are so many places to hide. Apparently not from fire balls however, as even NASA can't figure this out yet.

New game plan. :-)  

Debunking Ghosts: Hypnagogia and Hypnopompia

Hypnagogia and hypnopompia are two terms that avid viewers of paranormal reality shows rarely hear. A home owner might describe how she woke up in the middle of the night and saw a dark figure standing at the foot of her bed. Another victim of alleged paranormal activity might claim to hear someone speaking in the bedroom. With the paranormal field at a peak of popularity in the media, investigators of the paranormal many times overlook this fascinating explanation for nighttime visions and alleged paranormal attacks on unsuspecting individuals.

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

The History of Hypnagogic Consciousness

French psychologist LF Alfred Maury coined the term hypnagogic during the 19th century. A psychical researcher FWH Myers created the complimenting term hypnopompic. However, neither man discovered either state of consciousness. In fact, descriptions of what some call The Borderland State, exist in the work of Aristotle, who wrote of "the affections we experience when sinking into slumber" and Iamblichus, who believed the voices and visions he perceived in-between awake and asleep were god-sent. Seventeenth century astrologer Simon Forman described apocalyptic visions while dosing off to sleep.
Interpretations of hypnagogia exist largely in literature. Edgar Allen Poe's Marginalia makes clear a belief that the visions and sensations that occur before sleep are a look into the spirit's "outer world". Robert Desnos experimented with writing while in this trance-like state.

Although the attempt to understand and document hypnogogic consciousness proves vast, scientific conclusions are sparse. Scientific explanations of the pre-dream state describe the period between awake and sleep and the complimenting period between sleep and awake as a time when the brain cleans itself out. Dorland's "Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers" states the definition of hypnagogia: "occuring just before sleep; applied to hallucinations sometimes perceived during this state".

Sensory Experiences During Hypnagogia

According to existing research, differentiating the sensory phenomenon that occurs during hypnagogia and hypnopompia is pointless. The visions, sounds and places reported seen during either state of consciousness prove too similar. Therefore, the phrase hypnogogic state often collectively refers to both.
During both times, people report seeing geometric shapes and lines, figures, people they know and don't know, hearing sounds like bangs and crashes, voices, conversations and the list goes on. The more extreme claims include out-of-body experiences, attacks by invisible forces, visions of landscapes and heaven or hell-like places. Similarly extreme reports include the presence of body paralysis, where people can see and hear normally while "awake" but lack any ability to move for seconds or even minutes, as though they are pinned down by something unseen.

Hypnagogia May Explain Paranormal Phenomenon
The symptoms of the hypnagogic state parallel many reports of alleged apparitions and phantom sounds that paranormal investigators frequently document. Many reports of ghost activity occur at night, when the individual involved might very easily confuse the hallucinations of their near-sleep or near-awake consciousness with ghosts. Hypnagogia might reveal what our brains are thinking subconsciously, providing insight to our hopes, worries and fears.

One could easily argue the opposite opinion and believe hypnagogic consciousness is a portal to another plane of reality, where the dead can talk and show themselves more easily than when the living are fully awake. Perhaps Poe was on to something. The period of hypnagogia may allow us to view visions and signs from a spirit world or for others, heaven. Interpretations like these differ between cultures.

Sources:

Lachman, Gary. "Hypnagagia". Fourtean Times. October 2002.

Poe, Edgar Allen. "Marginalia". 1-50. The Works of the Late Edgar Allen Poe. 1950.

Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers. Saunders. 2007.

Read more at Suite101: Debunking Ghosts: Hypnagogia and Hypnopompia http://paranormal.suite101.com/article.cfm/debunking-ghosts-hypnagogia-and-hypnopompia#ixzz0wKeEDjBw

In Paranormal News: August 5th 2010

I'm getting a little tired of posting UFO related stuff as that's really not my thing - but this article proved worth sharing:

Winston Churchill Accussed of World War II Flying Saucer Cover-Up

Cape May, New Jersey hosts a paranormal-themed weekend featuring ghost tours, storytelling and haunting trolley rides this upcoming Friday the 13th and weekend.

Cape May Paranormal Weekend

Aliens Target Bosnian Man By Chucking Space Rocks?

Really?

No, I don't believe this for a second. Although, I am thoroughly amused and sort of impressed with Radivoje Lajic's creativity. Scientists at Belgrade University confirmed that Lajic has handed over five authentic meteorites since 2007. Each space rock, according to Lajic, came plummeting from the sky during rainstorms.

Lajic's explanation: 'I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials. I don't know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense. The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit six times has to be deliberate... I have no doubt I am being targeted by aliens,' he adds. 'They are playing games with me. I don't know why they are doing this. When it rains I can't sleep for worrying about another strike.'



Apparently Belgrade University buys this guy's story though (not the alien part, but rather the space rocks hitting his house part) and they are currently trying to figure out what makes his home a hotspot for falling meteorites.

Lajic, who is fifty years old and lives in the village of Gornji Lajici, installed a steel girder reinforcement roof oon the house to protect from those pesky alien pranksters - which he funded by selling one of his rocks to a university in the Netherlands.

Rumors, Rumors... Staging Sy-Fy's Ghost Hunters?

There was a time when I'd dutifully tune in each Wednesday to Sy-Fy's Ghost Hunters. These days, I might catch two or three episodes out of a season. Why? Because I just don't buy it anymore and I'm flipping through channels.

When I interviewed Grant Wilson back in 2006, he seemed completely genuine - both Wilson and Jason Hawes were really, really nice guys! I got the chance to speak with them three years in a row and was a loyal fan of the show until 2008 when rumors of staging started to take root, with actual mistakes caught on camera. So when I finally decided I didn't buy the show anymore, I was a little heartbroken.

... But I'm over it!

Ghost Hunters, as Donna LaCroix recently put it, is purely an "entertainment show". First of all, as the TAPS reputation has grown with the popularity of the show, more and more evidence seems to come out each season. Too much, if you ask me, compared with the first two seasons. Secondly, the 2008 live show was "a total disaster" as Grant Wilson said to a fan. Really? You got your jacket pulled! You heard voices! How is THAT a distaster?

Heres' why... the 2008 live show marks the beginning of the end of the "reality" of Ghost Hunters.

The video that sealed the deal for me, keeping in mind the whole thing is filled with suggestive comments that could go either way - it's the "You're not supposed to be here" stuff and coat pull sections of the video that really upset me. Video, Ghost Hunters: Staged

As a once loyal fan of the show, this obvious staging really upsets me - it's hard to take the paranormal field seriously with this kind of nonsense going on -- yet another step backward for a field that's always resting precariously on the backs of people that either may or may not be serious about finding "the truth".

Paranormal News for February 8th thru 14th 2010

In other news...

Home Buyers... Beware? Get Your Paranormal Inspection!

Home buyers now have the option of bringing in a team of "paranormal inspectors" before buying a home. OPHIR, Occult and Paranormal House of Investigational Research), based in Salem, Oregon provide this new kind of home inspection. There is a charge - based on fuel costs, research time and hours required to provide a complete 'inspection'. 

No Bumps in the Night Thanks to the Ghost Hunters Night Light

 

Yes. A Ghost Hunters night light is now for sale... I kid you not. In honor of...  *wait for it....*

Ghost Hunters' 100th Episode Live Alcatraz Event!!!

Josh Gates. Jason. Grant. Barry. Dustin. LIVE at Alcatraz for the 100th episode celebration... ahem... I mean, investigation. The Alcatraz episode will air LIVE on March 3rd, 2 hours long. No all-nighter, thank Gawd!

Contacting the Dead: EVP Basics

In the 1920s, Thomas Edison attempted to create a machine that would allow him to contact the dead. He was never able to succeed at building this machine but remained a believer in the existence of ghosts and the supernatural. Edison's attempts were the first of many throughout the twentieth century to make contact with the other side.

Read more at Suite101: How to Contact the Dead: The Basics of Electronic Voice Phenomena http://paranormal.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_contact_the_dead#ixzz0fjgpXreE