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Psi and Psychosis: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

 

 

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WARNING:  What you’re about to read may anger, upset and disturb you.  Please understand, this is NOT a sexist, misogynistic, venting rant. These individuals are NOT, and have NOT been patients of mine.  Nor is it based on women I’ve dated over the years.  This is based on forty-four years of field work, meeting and dealing with many thousands of people for many different reasons throughout my life and career, and while this may not be politically correct in today’s dystopian world, this is what the collective evidence strongly indicates, whether you the reader agree with it or not.  Now before you go postal and respond with a scathing, vitriolic response, please read the last several paragraphs of this article that are highlighted in green, blue and read, as they serve as a qualifier and disclaimer. Remember, I’ve been out there in the field for more than four decades, doing scientific, investigatory research and documentation, YOU have not.  This is MY interpretation, analysis and conclusion regarding a serious mental health problem affecting the paranormal, NOT YOURS.

There is one thing I feel absolutely secure in saying after spending the last forty-four years of my life conducting parapsychological research; that the paranormal attracts more emotionally disturbed people than any other area of human interest or endeavor.  The chronic encounters with such psychotic people never seems to end.  The question is why?

Men or women, tall or short, thin or fat, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, beautiful or ugly, they appear to be everywhere,  and growing in numbers.  Perhaps many such troubled individuals enter this field with the hope of resolving their own emotional demons?  Perhaps others are seeking the greater truth that underlies our presence and reality?  And yet perhaps others, enter it because it requires absolutely no formal education whatsoever to explore, unlike any other discipline of science?

Where to begin?  Let’s start with the most current and then travel backwards in time to see if there’s any obvious pattern to this blatant madness that all-too-frequently accompanies an obsession with the paranormal or ufology.

Several weeks ago I was introduced to a middle-aged woman related to my research work.  This introduction was a professional one, not a social one, at least that’s what I assumed.

In our initial conversations, she seemed to be quite pleasant, but there was a disturbing undercurrent associated with speaking to her.   But as this was supposed to be a business contact, I decided to ignore it.  As you’re about to discover, that was a serious error in judgment on my part.

According to Ellen, much of her young life was tortured by alleged demonic entity attachments, where she was unable to sleep well, if at all, for many years.   As she grew older, her delusional sense of reality was reinforced by friends she made who played into her troubled psyche.  She had major problems keeping boyfriends or friends at all, but was unable to understand why.  I am unaware if these delusional episodes of entity attachment were the result of substance abuse, traumatic brain injury, or growing up in a totally dysfunctional family environment with its concomitant abuse and neglect.

From there, she developed a sense that aliens were watching and pursuing her.  What a surprise?  When I asked Ellen why aliens would want to harass her, her reply was that as she was one of the few people on earth who knew what true love was, and that aliens wanted to learn such from her.  Huh?  What?

Then she supposedly learned how to remote view, but every time someone she knew began thinking about her (even though they weren’t even with her at the time), such an act would cause her to get a severe headache.   In fact, not long after we first spoke on the phone, she asked if I was remote viewing her, as she was getting a terrible headache.

As I didn’t even know her, why would I even want to do such a thing, let alone to her?   But she was sure, that someone, somewhere, must be remote viewing her causing her great mental anguish.  Yeah, right?  By this point, she was starting to give me a headache just by her ridiculous statements.  She also kept asking me if I could sense any entity attachment to her.  I almost said yes, and that it was from her own brain, but that would have been far too cruel for such a demented individual.

She claims to have repeatedly moved over the years, running from both entity attachment and alien capture.  I think what she was really running from here was her own chemically imbalanced brain and her inability to cope with life’s various emotionally difficult moments.

Then she tells me that she’s gone out into certain wilderness areas and actually met Bigfoot, where she had mental conversations with him, via what she calls “mind-speak”.  I almost asked her if Bigfoot told her to see a psychiatrist, but I refrained.  When I asked her what forest she was out in when such occurred, she refused to tell me as it was a secret place.   Yes, I know, the forest is really in that vacuous space between her ears.

This then evolves into her asking me if I’m actually a hybrid and she could tell her friends that she now knew one.  My response to her was that I didn’t drive a hybrid.  No, she meant an alien hybrid.  She then tells me that one of her best friends is an alien hybrid and asks whether I could tell her where he’s actually from.  She showed me his photo, wherein he appeared to look like someone who’s a couple fries short of a happy meal.  I almost told her that he’s probably from Uranus, or is that your anus, or is it her anus?  Please, just leave me alone.

But wait, it gets much worst.

She then asks if I can take her boyfriend back in time to undo/change all the negative, emotional imprinting, conditioning and depression he’s

The time machine held by Rod Taylor from “The Time Machine”, (MGM, 1960)

experienced that prevents him from committing to and marrying her.   Sure, it’s called ECT or psychotherapy with medication.  When I told this space cadet that what she asks is impossible, she got very angry with me.  She starts screaming that she knows people who can really do such things and I should come with her to witness such.  Sure they can, and I can fly without a plane.  Now where did I leave my cape and boots?  I then said that I’ve got Clark Kent, Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne and Hal Jordon (Superman, The Flash, Batman and The Green Lantern) at my door, she started really freaking out on me.  When I told her to stop bothering me about such nonsense, her anger grew even worse.

Then she wanted to know if I desire to accompany her to a cave in Greece to meet some aliens.  My response was that why go all the way around the world when all you have to do is drive through certain areas of Los Angeles to find lots of aliens.  She really flipped out on that one.

Superman, from “Superman/Batman Public Enemies”, Warner Bros, 2010

Perhaps the most telling evidence of her troubled psyche was that she wrote a book on how to win the lottery on a regular basis.  She wanted me to read it, write a review of it, and then endorse it.

My immediate question to her was as to how much money she’s actually won by utilizing her methods, assuming it’d be many millions by now.   Ellen admitted that she hadn’t won a dime, as her method takes lots of practice.  As she does not have a job and has all the time in the world to practice what she preaches or writes, I assume that there’s something terribly wrong with her reasoning, judgment and this picture as a whole.  Why would anyone with even half a brain make such absurd, unsupportable claims, when they themselves have never succeeded at such?   That’s simple, they’re insane or they’re a really stupid scam artist.  What she wanted from me was consensual validation and an endorsement, which would never occur, as I do not work with psychotic people.

Without a doubt, Ellen is totally delusional and dissociative, in that she’s living totally within her own demented mind.  The dissociation is so severe, that reality rarely, if ever, intervenes.

Say goodbye Ellen.

Think that Ellen was a little over the edge, here’s someone who almost makes her appear normal.

Earlier this year I met another interesting, middle-age woman through my work, named Brenda.   Brenda claims to be an ascending, celestial goddess

Brenda’s ultimate paranoid threat source?

who was, and still is, an MK-Ultra and Montauk mind control, super-victim.  She incessantly writes and speaks of this, where she belches forth her hyper-kinetic, vergiberating world salads loaded with psycho-babble neologisms.  Her obsessive-compulsiveness on this matter is truly frightening.  She claims to be a medium, a clairvoyant, a professionally trained remote viewer, a witch, and an alien channel (she might want to change that channel?).  However, Brenda neglected the most important self-description of all; that of a blatant, paranoid schizophrenic who used to live in a bus as she was far too disturbed to live among normal human beings in fear that they would soon discover her secret (that her brain had been abducted long ago).

Brenda claims that all of the major rock groups of the 1960’s and 1970’s were actually assets of  the CIA who were systematically controlling and destroying all of our minds with their psychotronically mediated music.  She even goes so far as to claim that when certain musical groups perform or their music is played on radio, it sends out electronic energy to psychotronically harass her both physically and mentally.

If the group was The Doors, did this compel Brenda to run around opening and closing doors?  If it were the Rolling Stones, did she suddenly have the desire to pick up rocks and push them down the road.  If it were the Grass Roots, did she start madly pulling up blades of grass?  Or what if it was Three Dog Night, did she immediately go out and pick up three stray dogs?  If it were the Beatles, I hope she didn’t chase after and capture live beetles?

Brenda openly speaks about how she’s frequently taken out into deep, interstellar space to witness the ongoing battles between the beings of light and the darker, demonic extraterrestrials who want to destroy her, for she knows the truth.

It’s clearly evident that Brenda is a very disturbed woman who is in desperate need of in-patient psychiatric institutionalization with anti-psychotic medication and therapy.  But given the lack of money and facilities dedicated to such emotional disorders these days, she’s totally ignored by the mental health system as she roams around screaming her version of reality to everyone that listens.  She even shows up on various radio and podcasts that are more than happy to disseminate her delusional insanity to an ignorant world.   This is Brenda’s way of getting attention from everyone.

Say goodbye Brenda.

During the summer of 2011, I met a middle-aged woman on an online dating website.  Robin seemed very pleasant on the phone, but I detected a note of hostility in her voice when we asked each other questions.  She appeared to be somewhat defensive regarding almost anything I asked her about, even though we were trying to simply get to know each other a little before meeting,

While having dinner with her several days later, she talked about the fact that she’s not really looking for a relationship as she’ll be leaving soon.  Assuming that she was moving to another city or state, I asked where she was moving to.  Then came the shocker.  She wasn’t moving in that sense of the word, she was moving out of life and into death, literally.   WHAT?

I asked her what she’s talking about and she said that she’s going to commit suicide very soon as she hates being alive, but she’s waiting for her daughter to turn eighteen before destroying herself.   Then I asked her why she wanted to meet me.  That response was even more disturbing.  Robin thought that I might be able to help her more more efficiently and effectively transition to the other side due to my life’s work.  Oh my god!

I was rendered speechless for one of the few times in my life.  I then asked her if she was at all concerned over the traumatizing effect her suicide would have on her daughter.  Robin’s reply was, “Oh, I’m sure she’ll be fine with it.”  Talk about selfishness?

Before I got up to leave the restaurant, I asked her if she’d been seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist for her depression.  She just looked at me with a blank stare as she said “Why do I need to see a shrink?”.  After that, I asked her if she’d care to give me her new $250,000 AMG Mercedes, as dead people do not need mechanical transportation.  Robin just looked at me with a blank face.  I paid the check and immediately left.  Very nice not to know you Robin.

Goodbye, good luck, good riddance.  Can it get any sicker that this?  You’ll see.

Lest you think these problems only occur with women, let’s take a look at Kurt from early winter of 2000.

I met this man, a full generation my junior, during the shoot for a cable TV paranormal reality show episode.  Kurt claimed to be a psychic medium and a paranormal investigator, whom I never heard of.  He seemed a little odd right from the start, as he kept asking me the same questions over and over again, like; “Why do you call yourself a parapsychologist”, and if a friend of mine was really psychic.

I gave him the same answers over and over again, but that didn’t seem to work for him.  He finally gave up and left me alone for the remainder of the shoot.

Some years later, I discovered that he was telling anyone who would listen that he worked in the old UCLA parapsychology lab where we were studying him as a psychic, then as a medium.  That Dr. Thelma Moss had taken him under her wing as her special subject.   Kurt apparently had/has some serious reality issues, or is just a bald faced liar, figuring that no one would ever challenge him on this matter.   Wrong.

Kurt’s tall tale then evolved into his saying that he was part of a secret, government program that was training him as a psychic medium to work for the military and intelligence community.  What the hell is he talking about?

He seems to have overlooked the fact that when the lab was up and running (1967-1978), he wasn’t even twelve years old, and therefore would not have been allowed to work with us for any reason whatsoever.   The Human Use Committee regulations governing research work at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute and the entire medical center, strictly forbid us from dealing with children under the age of eighteen, even if the parents consented.

Making his assertion even more outlandish is the fact that we never trained anyone to be a medium for any reason whatsoever.  While we did have a psi training group (see my other blog on this site entitled “Learned Psi: Training To Be Psychic”) that ran from 1970 through 1987, he was not a participant in such as we never met him.  I ran this research program and would have certainly remembered meeting someone as  young as him and would have stopped any effort on his part to participate in our work.  Apparently, that wasn’t sufficient to stop Kurt from continuing this diatribe.

After about eleven years of this nonsense, I finally directly confronted Kurt on this matter and warned him that if he persisted with his misinformative effort to falsely establish a background that never existed as related to the lab and myself, there would be severe legal repercussions and consequences for it.

His reason for doing this is quite clear.  By making such a claim, it automatically gives him a level of official credibility that he otherwise did not have.  Being formally associated with our old lab would be a form of consensual validation, objectively verifying his claims of unique paranormal talents.  Kurt is just another of the many opportunists out there trying to take advantage of what the past offered that was beyond his grasp.  Fortunately, Kurt finally ceased his efforts in this regard.  At least I believe he did.

However, the real question about Kurt is as to whether he really believes what he is saying?  If he actually believes it, then he’s psychotic and has lost the ability to differentiate between reality and fantasy?  If he knows that this all a fabrication he’s invented to make himself appear more important than he really is, then he’s no more than a somewhat clever opportunist in a field that is not, at all, monitored or controlled.

About eight years ago I met a man named Harold whom I immediately referred to as “the weasel”, as there was a very negative feeling in his presence. There was something troubling, unnerving and disturbing about this man. Bottom line, his persona wreaked something awful.  It then came as no surprise when several people I already knew and trusted immediately warned me to steer clear of Harold, which supported what I already sensed, that this man was a hurricane Sandy waiting to happen. 

Over the next few years he came across like a manipulative, sniveling, opportunistic weasel, who’s every move was predicated on how he could use others to promote himself by riding on their coattails.  Whenever we had the opportunity to speak over the years, whatever I mentioned I was doing at the time, he immediately told me that he was doing the exact same thing.  Yeah right?  He also began commenting on what others were doing as related to my work, an in each and every instance, it was proven to be a lie. 

This man had tried working as a field producer, but was so fragmented and absentminded, that he left his own, very expensive production gear out in the rain during a shoot on the east coast years ago, where it was stolen. He then had the nerve to demand that the series executive producer reimburse him for the camera his stupidity lost.  Whenever Harold learned of various production companies I was working with over the years, he would use my name in order to gain access to their shows and work with them because he claimed to have worked with me, which he’d never done.  In fact, earlier this year I was about to leave for a meeting with a production company regarding their attempt to launch a new reality series and was foolish enough to mention such to Harold.  He immediately called the production company telling them that we had worked together for years, which of course, we never did.

About six months ago, Harold called to arrange a meeting between me and a television network news anchor here in Los Angeles to discuss a special that a network wanted to do for the 40th anniversary of The Entity case for sweeps week.  While it seemed like an intriguing possibility, I was on guard, knowing that there was something inherently wrong with this picture.  To start with, why did Harold bring his fiancee to this meeting, when she had absolutely nothing to do with that TV network or my research?   She seemed very much out-of-place.  Well, in short order I was about to find out what the real purpose of her being there was.

The meeting seemed to be going very well, until Harold’s fiancee needed to visit the lady’s room.  Within minutes, Harold got a text message from his fiancee to meet her back where the restrooms were located. 

They both returned to the table where the luncheon was immediately interrupted by a staged, false flag event, where Harold’s fiancee suddenly emotionally collapsed claiming that her mother had just passed away.  That’s really odd,  I was told by Harold that his fiancee’s mother actually passed away many weeks earlier, so what was the real story here?  That was simple, Harold and his fiancee suddenly became the focus of the meeting as opposed to what I was told it was arranged for.

After emailing all the relevant Entity case files I had to the new anchor over the next several weeks and months, it was obvious to all, that there were inherent problems with doing a news piece on a 40-year old case.  Some people have passed away, while others have moved beyond the point of desiring to discuss the matter.  But that wasn’t the real problem here at all.  The problem here was that the only reason Harold had set up the meeting between the news anchor and myself, was to make himself seem far more important than he really was/is (to the network news anchor) by claiming that he and I had known each other for decades, where he actually worked on The Entity case, which he never did. 

Once Harold and the news anchor realized that I wouldn’t cooperate and play their little game, they moved on to a different case from 23 years ago, that both Harold and the news anchor sat in judgment of at the end of the piece.  All that Harold wanted me for, was to use my 45 years of research in parapsychology to help promote himself in the eyes of the public on network television.   This man is almost as bad as the “The Creature” who is discussed in two other blogs on this site, “A Demon’s Lair”, and “A Demon’s Lair Part II, From The Frying Pan Into the Blast Furnace”. 

So in the end, Harold certainly lived up to his unsavory and vile reputation of being a disgusting, devious, disinformational opportunist who uses everyone around him to promote himself at their expense.    Does this plethora of cons, scammers and sociopaths never end?  Rhetorical question, not in this field.

A subtle distraction here for a brief moment.  The day that Michael Jackson died several years ago I was talking with one of my colleagues about how long it will take some nut job to pop up claiming they’re communicating with his spirit.

Two days later, I received a call from a woman I barely knew, telling me that she’s already speaking with Jackson’s spirit.  I had but a single response to her comment; “What took you so long?”   I believe that my reply says it all, although she did start receiving death threats for so quickly attempting to financially profit from Jackson’s untimely death.

In 2005, I began investigating a local haunting case.  This case demonstrated some extraordinary geophysical and paranormal events, and offered the possibility of helping to us to clarify many of the poorly understood variables associated with such occurrences.  This case offered such informational potential, that I visited this location a total of sixteen times over the course of one year.

The owner and resident of the property, a middle-aged man named Alan, seemed relatively normal at first glance.  The case produced rather significant instrumental data coupled with personal witness accounts that were truly extraordinary.  However, it also produced a permanent change in Alan’s personality.

It wasn’t long before Alan began talking like he was having a literal conversation with spirits in the room.  There were points where he began screaming at us as he kept saying “They’re telling me to…….” whatever.  I thought Alan was actually talking with real, live people on the other end of the phone, when in reality he was supposedly having direct conversations with several ghosts that were inhabiting his home.

Not long thereafter, Alan, myself and several others were having dinner at a local restaurant, when Alan’s eyes suddenly rolled back in his head and he again began speaking as if he he was having a direct dialog with someone not visible in the booth with us living humans.

It was not surprising to learn that Alan started having seizures not long after he moved into his new haunted house.  However, as Alan was very cryptic about his health when asked specific questions, we had no way of really knowing if these seizures were ever experienced prior to living in his current home.

After this, I decided to walk away from this potentially rewarding case.  If the residents judgment and reasoning suddenly disappears to be replaced by conversations of the dead in any location, I’d say it’s time to walk away.  And that’s exactly what we did.

Back in 1993 I was giving a lecture on theoretical UFO propulsion concepts to a group at a conference center located adjacent to the West Los Angeles Police Department on Santa Monica Blvd slightly westbound of the 405 freeway.   I had no way of suspecting how relevant the proximity of the police was about to be.

During the break, I was approached by an elderly man who I knew of, but had never met before, his name was Alfred.   Alfred told me that he knew how 47725_463800295663_267998_ato open up interdimensional and hyperspatial doorways and wanted to know if I was interested in hearing what he had to say.   Naturally I said yes, which turned out to be a serious error in judgment on my part, as I knew this man to be a rather deceptive, duplicitous, and manipulative individual who’d been making all types of irrational statements and claims for quite some time on a variety of subjects.

Alfred began speaking about how intense sexual molestation of little children released incredible energies that could open up portals which allows one to rapidly travel across interstellar space as well as time traveling.  He went on for a short while, commenting on how he’s repeatedly moved back and forth in time and met many aliens and monsters through this method of sexually abusing children.  WHAT?  OH MY GOD!  I could not believe that a total stranger would walk up to me and openly admit that they were a serial pedophile.

As he continued to utter his horrific tale of sexual perversion, my girlfriend and I looked at each other immediately aware of how disturbed this man was.  Utterly shocked by what we had just heard, neither of us really knew how to respond to this sick individual.  But finally an idea came to me.

I told Alfred that we should take a walk over to the police station next door where he could speak of his sexually molesting children directly to them.   Needless to say, Alfred immediately turned away and didn’t take me up on my suggestion of surrendering himself to the police.   Too bad, as it might have saved some tender young children the torture they might eventually endure at his hands.  Fortunately for all, this monster has recently passed away.

There are numerous other disturbing incidents involving men, but most are so vile and disgusting in many respects that I’ve chosen not to discuss them publicly.  The absolute psychopathology related to these cases makes me sick just thinking about them, as most are linked to violent or even criminal matters that are best left to proper legal and law enforcement professionals.  The purpose of this commentary is to educate and inform, not to sicken or nauseate.

During the summer of 1987, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Los Angeles set up several support groups dealing with the fallout from Whitley Streiber’s new book Communion.  Apparently, Communion touched some nerves in some people, all of whom were seeking help and answers trying to emotionally cope with their alleged UFO abduction experiences.

While there were those individuals who might have had actual abduction experiences, a high percentage of them were either delusional or experiencing some form of psychotic break where they could no longer distinguish between reality and fantasy. This is where this particular story begins.

While attending one of these MUFON support groups, I met with a young lady by the name of Val.  She began relating her account of being repeatedly abducted  over the years,  I listened intently, but the feeling I was left with was that this woman was psychotic and required professional psychiatric assistance as opposed to input from any of us with MUFON.  I told her that her experience was interesting, but it fell outside the purview of our groups work due to its extreme nature.  Fortunately, I never heard of her again, or at least that’s what I thought.

In the late 1990’s, I was online and found a blog she posted regarding our meeting at the MUFON group.  She stated that she instantly knew upon meeting me that I was sneaky and underhanded and could not be trusted.  That I instantly hypnotized her and gained control of her mind.  According to her, I went home and used psychotronic weapons hidden in my basement to direct demonic entities to attack and rape her as she walked around during the course of her daily life.   But wait, there’s much, much more.

She continues on to say that I used her case as the basis for The Entity novel and movie,  What?  There’s something really wrong with this woman’s thinking at many different levels.

Let’s see just how utterly insane this woman really was/is.  The real Entity case occurred in 1974-5.  The novel was published in 1978, and the movie was released by Fox in 1983.   That’s odd, I didn’t have the displeasure of meeting Val until the summer of 1987!  See a little problem here with temporal discontinuity?  Apparently, this inverted temporal reality must have really resonated with Val, as she was never phased by the absurdity and impossibility of what she was saying?

Where is Val now?   I don’t know and I really don’t care or want to know, as long as she stays far away from me.

Let’s now jump ahead eleven years to 1998.  I was giving a lecture for a group in Anaheim.  To my surprise, an old girlfriend named Linda, from the mid-1970’s showed up.  I introduced her to my colleague and we all began talking.  Both my colleague and I were totally caught off guard by what Linda began speaking about.

Out of the blue, Linda starts talking about how she needs my help to assist her and Jesus Christ to defend themselves against demonic aliens who have joined forces with the CIA and FBI to destroy the world, but first they must destroy her because she knows too much about what’s really going on.  Haven’t I heard this one before somewhere?

We just stood there not knowing what to say or how to respond.  My colleague and I looked at each other with confused looks on our faces.  When I originally knew Linda, she never made such insane comments, nor was their any hint of religious zealotry from her.  What happened to her in the last twenty years to induce such a state of paranoid delusions from supernatural persecutors?

On the way back home I told my colleague that if she had behaved like this when I first met her I never would have even asked her out.  She was always a little different, but that kind of goes with the territory when one meets people through their efforts in parapsychological research.

Several weeks later Linda showed up at my door and continued her ranting on the same subject.  I would not let her in, but I talked to her outside.  She sounded very unstable and suicidal.  I sternly suggested that she seek out psychiatric counseling as it appeared that she was unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy, one of the earmarks of psychosis.  She finally left.

Several weeks went by and she called to inform me that something compelled to walk into the path of any oncoming car.  Fortunately, she was only mildly injured, but she was sure what caused her to do what she did was the demonic aliens and the CIA.  Of course they did?  She was kept in a psychiatric facility for several days and then they released her, thinking she was of sound mind and body. They were wrong.

Several weeks after this event Linda once again attempted suicide by again stepping out in front of another oncoming car,  Once again, fate was on her side and she was spared any real physical injury, although her brain was certainly fried by her psychosis at this point.  She was again on a 72-hour hold and then released.

Linda kept calling me every couple of months asking for my help, and I simply told her that she was delusional and needed help I could not give her. Then I did not hear from her for quite a while and I mistakenly thought that perhaps things had calmed down.  I was wrong.

In February of 2008 she again called asking for my help.  However, this time she claimed that the earth was about to explode, of course due to the work of those pesky demonic aliens.  I couldn’t pass up the  opportunity here to throw a zinger at her.   I immediately commented, “Excuse me Lara, I’ve got to send baby Kal-El off to his new world before Krypton explodes!” and I then hung up.  I’m confident that Linda did not understand what I was referring to here.  Do you?

An exploding Earth

Fortunately, Linda has not called back since this particular event in 2008, and that’s fine with me.

Back in 1986 I was set up on a blind date with a girl named Karen.  However, during dinner, it became somewhat clear there we were not attracted to each other.   However,  Karen did not appearing to be operating on all cylinders.

After dinner we went back to her apartment in West Hollywood near the former Bodhi Tree Bookstore just to talk.  Karen kept telling me that her bed was haunted and it would shake and move around on it’s own.  As there was not even a hint of sexual chemistry between us, I assumed that there was some other ulterior motive she had for asking me to sit on her bed to see what I felt.

After lying down on her bed, I felt a sharp sticking pain in my back and instantly jumped off the bed.  When I pulled the mattress up off its box spring mattress below it, I discovered the source of my pain as well as hers.  There were several huge amethyst crystals placed beneath her mattress with their points facing upwards.   I immediately got the point, but I do not believe that she did.

I asked Karen what these crystals were doing under her mattress and she said that it was to heal her, keep her young and enhance her psychic abilities.  All I could say to her was that she take the crystals out and she might then enjoy a restful sleep.  Karen’s reply was, but then I’ll get old and sick.  My comeback was “You’ll get old just like the rest of us do, and for being sick, you already are but don’t know it”.  That was the first, and thankfully the last time I saw Karen.  Although, her aunt called me asking why I wasn’t interested in seeing Karen anymore.  I told Karen’s aunt that her niece was a little over the edge in terms of her sanity as far as I was concerned.

Why are there so many more women discussed here than men you might ask?  Because women are far more open about their feelings, thoughts and emotions, while many men are stoic, far too insecure to divulge such disturbing truths about themselves publicly.  Women tend to be more in touch with their inner selves and are therefore more comfortable talking about such obscure matters.  While men may have such inner beliefs and attitudes, they are not generally voiced in a society where they are better known for their acts and deeds as opposed to verbalizing their deepest thoughts.  These incidents are but the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to dealing with the overwhelming paranormal psychosis that exists out there.

My best guess as to why there seems to be such an obvious linkage between the paranormal and psychopathology is in some ways quite simple, yet in other ways, somewhat convoluted.

As the paranormal, or should I say, parapsychology, is perhaps the only science on earth without any super-hard facts, reliably reproducible events or demonstrable theories, it generally invites any and all to feel very comfortable in claiming anything they please about it, as the world isn’t going to disagree with and jump down their throats with arguments based on hard facts.  And as there aren’t many objective scientists on the earth who have dedicated most of their time to scientifically study it, all the better, few left to challenge them.  In that this field involves body, brain, mind and consciousness (spirit, perhaps?) it once again invites those who are struggling with their own identity crisis, emotional insecurities and problems to seek help from what they believe to a pure science with absolutely no boundaries associated with it.  These people refuse to deal with the fact that their problems are related to chemical imbalance as opposed to paranormal predators.

IMPORTANT QUESTION HERE:  HOW DO YOU, LACKING ANY BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE EDUCATION AND BACKGROUND WHATSOEVER, DESCRIBE OR DEFINE THE MENTAL HEALTH OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INDIVIDUALS?  IF THESE PEOPLE APPEAR NORMAL TO YOU, THEN YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM (NO OFFENSE).

These incidents are but the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to dealing with the extraordinary level of paranormal psychosis that exists out there.  My book is filled with many more accounts of such incredible encounters with the outer limits of emotional sanity.  And yet we wonder why mainstream science tends to ignore and dismiss this entire field of research?

URGENT: PLEASE DO NOT DISREGARD

What you’ve just read is a very serious mental health problem that’s being dramatically amplified by the glut of fraudulent paranormal reality shows.  While I repeatedly poked fun at these very disturbed individuals to get your attention, drive home a point, and prevent you from becoming somewhat depressed yourself over these matters, this is no joke.  The ever increasing problem of mental illness associated with the paranormal must be addressed and soon, or we will all pay the price for it in years to come.  

Many of these people cannot differentiate between reality and fantasy, as they’re paying more attention to what’s going on in their heads as opposed to what’s really transpiring in the real, physical world around them.  Such individuals are dissociative in the extreme. 

If we ignore and neglect this problem, we will have a significant portion of our population who believes the nonsense depicted on paranormal reality shows and they will start blaming the problems they encounter in life on the paranormal as opposed to taking the proper course of action to deal with the situation.  We will have many individuals who will seek the help of totally unqualified people to assist them in their time of need. 

A good analogy here is one comes home and finds that their home has been broken into and robbed of all its furniture, electronics, clothes, jewelry and money.  Do you call the police or actors who play the police on television? You obviously call the police, right?  If you’re at home and get really ill, do you call actors who play doctors on television or do you call a real physician?  Hopefully, you call a real doctor. 

Well, when it comes to who do you call in the paranormal, more and more people are calling the participants who perform on the various paranormal reality shows.  None of these performers are qualified to do anything other than following the scripted direction of their shows.  The content on these shows is not real, it’s all staged for the benefit of their audience. 

People who have serious emotional problems in terms of coping with life in general and/or the paranormal need to seek professional help from qualified, credentialed individuals whose profession it is to do assist others in this regard, not uneducated and untrained paranormal reality show stars.  It’s very common for people who have real serious problems in their life to blame them on supernatural or paranormal causes, as opposed to taking even a small measure of responsibility for themselves.

 And in the end, what we’re left with is an ever increasing portion of our culture that either are mentally ill or are in the process of developing a serious personality disorders who do not know what to do about it other than blame an evil, paranormal presence.   This must change and change very soon.

Will it ever end?  It’s up to us and no one else.  The faces and places may change, but the psychosis is always lurking in the darkness to once again raise up it’s ugly head.

Thank you very much for reading this rather lengthy commentary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Dr. Barry Taff

Dr. Barry Taff, who holds a doctorate in psychophysiology with a minor in biomedical engineering, worked as a research associate at UCLAs former parapsychology laboratory from 1969 through 1978. During his 41-year career, Dr. Taff has investigated more than 4,000 cases of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeists, and he has conducted extensive studies in telepathy and precognition which led to the development of the original protocols and methodologies for what was later coined remote-viewing. He is the author of Aliens Above, Ghosts Below.

29 replies on “Psi and Psychosis: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid”

Hi Barry,

Parapsychology does attract many people for many reasons. The trick is to ‘not get too attached’ to what you’re studying or reading. Unfortunately, many persons don’t do that. The enticement is that ‘the unknown will somehow make them well.’

On the other side of the coin, psychotherapists often make the patient very fucked up too! It’s ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other.’ Psychiatrists usually do not engage in psychotherapy…instead, they will give drugs to patients. This goes along with the ‘medical model’ so they can comfortably do what they’re doing. Unfortunately, the drugs prescribed often are so toxic that ‘no one in their right mind would take them’……. All in all, there really is no answer for the patient.

The whole field of parapsychology is ‘up for grabs.’ There are those, like you…like me…that take what we are interested in seriously, and there are those, (lke the women you described) who do not know how to solve their issues. I’m going back to my spaceship now!

Best,
Bart

Great article Barry.

Having known many people in new age circles, I have to say the examples you posted are quite extreme, (although I have met people like this myself too).

What about people with less extreme delusions such as horoscope or numerology believers? That seems quite common these days. Where do you draw the line between a common cognitive bias and some pathology?

Thank you for appreciated this blog Pier. Your voice is certainly in the minority here unfortunately.

Where I draw the line is when people lose the ability to differentiate between reality and fantasy, where their living mostly in their head and ignore the real, physical world around them.

I’ve received some rather harsh, negative feedback to this particular blog in part due to the way it was written (a comical, tongue-in-cheek bent) as well as my diagnoses of these individuals.

What’s particularly fascinating is the fact almost no one is commenting on what it is I’m actually talking about and why? They’re more concerned with their erroneous belief that my writing is sexist and misogynistic, which it is not.

It also appears that no one has read the last several paragraphs of this blog that are highlighted in different colors, to make the readers aware of why I wrote this post and why it’s so important.

The people complaining have not spent 44 years working in this field, encountering these types of people. Seems that political correctness is in full effect here, as many suggest that we simply pat these folks on their back while telling them that they’re fine, and ignore the whole matter, as opposed to confronting them in the hope of getting these people some real, professional help for their psychopathologies.

Most of the accusatory replies I’ve gotten appear to be an inherent part of this very problem, which is denial. It appears to be far more important as to how you say something rather than what it is you’re actually saying. Had I not added a humorous bent to this material, it might have been more tolerable to many? The fact that I’ve linked these types of psychopathologies to people watching and really believing what they’re seeing on the glut fraudulent paranormal reality shows, is also why I’m receiving such scathing comments.

I agree 100% with your overall message. We need to address mental health issues very badly. Especially in America. I have Borderline Personality Disorder, MDD and I suspect PTSD + OCD + dermataphagia (I think that’s the proper term) I just haven’t been diagnosed because I lack insurance and am using public assistance to get help any way I can. It’s a giant problem and the more we ignore it, the worse it gets.

I get that you were trying to be funny. In fact, I’m with you on how incredulous you feel towards these people and their delusions. But also, if these people truly do have extreme mental illness than they can’t help it. I’m not saying you have to be PC, but perhaps a touch more sensitivity would find a better reception to your ideas. Once again, I think you do have an incredibly important message here and I don’t think your intention was malicious, but there was a modicum of validity in some of the criticisms you received and I think your message is far too important to be bogged down by this petty bickering over nothing meaningful.

Thank you for providing us with such a sorely needed commentary on this ignored issue!

Thank you very much Lisa for providing one of only a few positive commentaries to this blog. I have addressed your concerns and, once again, tweaked/revised the blog in a way that renders it perhaps less misogynistic/sexist.

You made some very positive and significant points here, which I felt were worthy of acting upon. In fact, you’re the only one who’s actually done this out of all the many negative comments I’ve received.

However, the fact that I can appreciate beauty in all it’s forms, whether that of design, art, music, movies or in women, does not automatically label me or anyone else a misogynist. As a writer taught to graphically describe things both in science and in the entertainment industry, this is a common method for describing an event in any situation. Your input on this matter was very helpful.

Thank You.

Regarding all those you infer are suffering from psychosis – I believe we live our lives assuming that our sensory realities are somewhat universal but they are not.

Take Synethesia for example – long dismissed as a product of overactive imaginations or a sign of mental illness, synesthesia was grudgingly accepted by scientists in recent years to be an actual phenomenon with a real neurological basis. Same goes for OBE’s.

As for the pathological liars you mentioned in your article – frankly I think they come from all walks of life and the first group of so called professionals / intellects that comes to mind in a lying pathological context would have to be politicians

At one stage you thought Doris ( The Entity ) was psychotic too but in time realised she was not fabricating any of her story. From what I could glean the house already had a history of being haunted. Do you not think it is possible that there are entities / forces out there that we are just not technologically advanced enough to investigate at this point in time ?

Soon after, an elderly Mexican woman knocked at her door and warned Doris that the house she would moved into was evil. According to journals kept by Javier Ortega, the woman told Doris: “You need to get out! I used to live here in this old house, back when it was just a farm and I was a little girl. There is something very evil here. This place is haunted and you need to get out!”

I listened to one of your radio broadcasts and you mentioned the fact that you believe some individuals can act like biological operational amplifiers that in a sense they become transmitters in high electromagnetic environments is it not possible that some of the people you mentioned in your article could be suffering from the same condition / affliction as Doris ? And would you class that condition a form of psychosis ? or are highly charged electromagnetic fields playing havoc with their minds ? And why are certain locations more prone to these anomalies than others ? Thank you

Thank you very much for your commentary on this blog Leira. Very thoughtful and provocative to say the least. A breath of fresh air for sure. I totally concur with your belief that politicians and pathological liars, that’s obvious to anyone who listens to them. I’ve stopped voting long ago.

When it comes to The Entity case and Doris Bither, we did, at first, erroneously assume that she was psychotic. As to whether her little house was indeed haunted long before her presence, there’s no real evidence one way or the other. The fact that an old Mexican woman came up to Doris shortly after she moved in and told her that the place we evil and to get out, does not necessarily mean that it was haunted. For all we know, people could have died in that little house, or perhaps incredible violence transpired there long ago? We just do not know. One does not speculate with any facts.

It’s very important for everyone to understand that Doris was having paranormal encounters long before she even moved into the Braddock Drive location, like when she lived in Santa Monica. It’s also important for people to know that I never really believed that Doris was sexually assaulted by a ghost. In chapter two of my book, and in several other blogs on this site, you’ll find much more detailed discussions of this incredible case. If only the vast array of instruments we currently use were available back in 1974, the wealth of data supplied by such sensors would have added much to our understanding of these events.

I’m pleased that you remembered my speaking of some people acting as biological operational amplifiers, focal planes and waveguides. This is where these uncommon individuals, being hypersensitive to numerous environmental variables, will absorb, modify, re-emit and re-direct this unknown form of energy producing extraordinary changes in the localized environment (paranormal phenomena). It’s what I refer to as inductive coupling, and it appears to partially be a magnetic mechanism at work. Moreover, that we are the physical agents who process and mediate these forces to produce paranormal events.

Without living human agents acting as the laser in DVD/CD player, inducing an audio-visual reconstruction, nothing seems to occur. This is why these events transpire far more frequently around certain people and yet not others. It’s when these uniquely neurologically wired individuals are irritated by the energy and information present, does phenomena manifest. It’s one asks the right questions and view the case with a wide scope as opposed to a narrow lens, that we actually learn something relevant about these events.

All of this is discussed in great detail in my book and other blogs on this site.

Once again, thank you.

Hey Barry –
I thought I would chime in on this debate.

A few years ago, I believe prior to my meeting you, I tried to put together an investigations team in the Los Angeles area. I had been involved in two previous groups (the first group was prior to the glut of scripted paranormal TV shows), and took Loyd Auerbach’s Parapsychology certificate course. What I felt I brought to the investigative table was a curious, creative mind tempered by a critical eye. My Master’s level education helped forge a view to seek out objectified information, in order to understand what typically are subjective experiences.

In my attempt to create a “team” I discovered that the paranormal field is a magnate for people with a need for validation of their unique gifts, or an insistence a specific investigative (preferred TV show) dogma. A woman was shocked when I did not find the “Paranormal State” show’s team the best thing since toilet paper. Another woman was “sensitive” and what I found her sensitive to was any questions about her skills. The oddest fellow told me he was a “demon magnate.” “Okay, good to know,” I thought. He also explained that he had Asperger’s Syndrome (I am a teacher working with children with autism for 13 years, thus having a good understanding of the condition). After a few meet ups trying put together a coherent group of people, I found I was involved with people that were seeking validation of their POVs. I sadly walked away from my effort. I have an intense interest in the field, but the people I came across were not “reasonable” in character with regards to the field. What’s the point of sharing my story? I am a nobody in the field of Parapsychology and I attracted people of that were not of a “Fair and balanced” (I steal that from Fox Entertainment News Channel) nature.

Barry, you put yourself out there openly. You attract the cream of the crop of the nut-job crowd! If you consider a pyramid. Person’s of typical social/emotional/mental functioning are the huge base. As we move up the pyramid we have typical people suffering the stresses of life, which manifest in anxiety, etc. Let’s jump toward the top of the pyramid. At the very tip are the whack jobs that shoot up schools… the ultimate narcissists. Perhaps, two levels below that we have persons who cannot deal with reality and seek out answers that make sense to them. Their beliefs are absolute. “I’m a demon magnate. I’m a ‘channel, psychic, medium, sensitive, been abducted, mother of hybrid children.'” WHATEVER! Barry, I believe you (and the field in general) attract this level of person with disfunction. I don’t believe there is a societal crisis with a paranormal bent. I feel the field draws that smaller sector out, yes, like a magnate.

Now, how does one discern between a true “sensitive” person? A legitimate paranormal investigative team? Are all the people out there whacked? Barry, I know of at least one person you feel is a genuinely gifted sensitive. You state you are a “medical intuitive,” but to person unfamiliar with your background, you may be their whacko. Loyd Auerbach speaks of several sensitives he has confidence in. “The Forever Family Foundation” tries to address these challenges (Loyd is a founding member – I believe), but what authoritative source declares their approach is correct? The aspect that you, Loyd, The FFF, and other scientifically trained individuals have in common is a measured, educated, and experienced approach.

I would love to be involved in an investigative team that investigates matters concerning the survival of physical death. Unfortunately, my efforts at finding like minded individuals resulted in persons just below the tip of the pyramid I described. Or, whack jobs. So, I sit here barely participating in this field I have intense interest in, and post on your blog.

I am not a trained psychologist, but I believe the paranormal field ATTRACTS the most dysfunctional individuals, and those individuals are not part of a larger, systemic psychological crisis.

A missing aspect in the field of Parapsychological research/investigation is a “baseline” group. This is where the UFO field has an advantage. MUFON provides an organized investigative baseline to work from… it is not perfect. However, there a centralized source to reference.

Thanks for providing a venue for my comments.

Richard: Thank you for your intelligent, thoughtful, balanced and complimentary reply here.

I totally agree with everything you’re saying, but the real matter is how to educate and inform the public about the differences between the mindless entertainment from paranormal “unreality” shows, emotionally disturbed individuals who are drawn to the paranormal & ufology like a moth to flames, and serious, scientific researchers who are trying to better understand the nature of what’s truly going on here?

It’s my opinion that parapsychology, which is an almost obsolete term nowadays (as it’s been replaced by paranormal investigator) and ufology is suffering a major, critical setback in terms of its credibility due to the proliferation of these idiotic reality shows. This setback is perhaps as much as 60-70 years in time, to a point where pure ignorance and ideology ruled the playing field as opposed to science.

What the glut of these shows have done is turned many nut jobs out there into a OCD paranormal investigators. It feels like we’re back in the late 19th century where mysticism and the occult were taken at face value and most people were of the belief that such explained everything.

Given the current state of affairs here, it’s no wonder that mainstream science is totally ignoring this field. The more people believe in what they’re seeing on television, the worst things will become for all of us. Perhaps this lunatic fringe would be better defined as “Dysfunctionals Are Us”? The longer these shows stay on the air, the worst their contamination will be, especially if their audiences remain uneducated and truly believe what they’re hearing and seeing on TV and the movies.

One hurdle is government sanction –

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a field I am affiliated with, because of my work with children with autism. It is the behavioral approach of psychology. CAL-ABA has slowly, over the last 20 years, established criterion for working in the field. Not all of it fair, or good, in execution. The greater point is that it has taken hold as a standard in California, and nationally. California will likely soon codify the criterion and make it law much as for the medical communities. The field led the way in creating baseline criterion, which the governmental bodies have embraced. This will never happen in Parapsychology, because there is no manner to provided scientific repeatable evidence, and a huge number of legal issues that the government/courts would never touch – and perhaps – rightly so.

Pounding on the drum again, I feel that the creation of a “PARAPSYCHOLOGY TEXTBOOK” would go far to the creation of that organizational baseline that the field needs. I strongly believe that the term textbook is key. It indicates a knowledgeable expertise in a given field. Now, I have all the Parapsychology “greatest hits” on my bookshelf as I write. None of them, all by well highly educated researchers/investigators are collaborative. All have different evidence for validity in the field. Imagine if there were the collective courage to get this done? Yes, funding is critical. But, you need to crawl before you can sprint.

This lack of governmental sanction, and codified research, is not a problem the UFO field permanently suffers from. Again, there is MUFON. A recognized organization doing research in the field. Assuming there indeed aliens (I don’t want to delve into the multitude of theories) among us, one day that truth will be out there and there will be governmental recognition… because it will likely be such a huge event that there is no denying it. This event will occur in our 3D world. Issues regarding life after death, well hells-bells, that will never (highly unlikely) be on CNN. So, again, the UFO field has already established an educational baseline, if you will, from which to approach the field. They have a kind of “textbook” in their training for investigations. Not so for Parapsychology.

The internet is powerful. Let’s get going on creating a textbook of Parapsychology. Create a team of researchers, investigators, and academicians. This can all be done via internet and volunteerism. I get that it takes money and the will. I KNOW there are a lot of folks out there, like myself, that would help the true Brainiacs of Parapsychology get this going. We can be negative, and cynical, about the prospects. But, if people want to make a difference, to improve things, they have to strive forward and do so.

Really, Parapsychology deals with the very issues of what human consciousness is! “Is this all I am? Is there nothing more?” And not just through religions, which have done more damage than good in the world, but through scientific inquiry. Hell, religions should be supporting our efforts. It could be evidence for a “God.”

Now, this would not lead to governmental recognition, but it may well lead to a MUFON-like (not implying MUFON is perfect or the end all) organization that is recognized as the definitive resource in the field.

I may be a “Pollyanna” with regard to this idea, but it is a very real possibility with the positive will to do it.

I doubt anyone but Barry will read this, so Barry – Happy New Year!

In theory, a great concept Richard. But there are some major, inherent problems with it.

There are few academicians left in this field, and even among those, there is dissent and conflict regarding evidence, theories and beliefs.

While some paranormal events are occasionally replicable under controlled, laboratory conditions, there are no comprehensive theories to explain their mechanism, which is what’s plagued this field from the start, especially as many of these theories seeming challenge what we know about the physical world we live in.

What’s odd here, is that UFOs have never been, and shall never be, a reproducible event. No one knows where one will next appear and what the result will be when it does. However, with ufology there is considerable disinformation used by our government to confuse, obfuscate and distract the public. And even among serious ufologists, there is much rancor regarding what is and is not. Without access to a real extraterrestrial craft, technology or beings, ufology will forever stay where it is, a fringe science, which is also heavily populated by emotionally disturbed individuals (NOT the ufologists, just the enthusiasts).

What my work and book has tried to do is to present theories based on the accumulated evidence over the last 130 years.

However, much of that is untestable due the lack of any real instrumentation to measure the energy underlying all of this. You cannot measure what you do not know. However, Loyd has been doing much to coordinate, organize and focus the energies of those few remaining academicians left in parapsychology.

With no funding or formal scientific forums, and battling continuous media odds against us, I wouldn’t bet on anything coming out of this in the near term, especially as any scientist with a real job would not risk being unemployed to professionally work in this field and provide it with academic support.

That wouldn’t be a politically correct thing to do nowadays, just as it wasn’t when the old UCLA parapsychology lab existed. What the insipid TV shows have done, is turn all of this into a three-ring-circus, filled with uneducated zealots who want their 15 minutes of fame. In the end, this field will remain more politically incorrect then ever, and perhaps forevermore?

I read it Richard S! Insightful! I have to read much more on this site in order to comment properly myself. You bring up valid points though, about Dr. Taff s intriguing blog. Thanks! And thank you Dr.Taff, this issue has been “niggling” at me for quite some time.

“If we ignore and neglect this problem, we will have a significant portion of our population who believes the nonsense depicted on paranormal reality shows and they will start blaming the problems they encounter in life on the paranormal as opposed to taking the proper course of action to deal with the situation. ”

We already do, but they call it “God” instead of “aliens” or “ghosts”. Seriously – the people identified as “Val” and “Linda” here aren’t any more or less dissociated than the average believer in “spiritual warfare”. Via Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_warfare#Charismatic_movement

At least to me, there’s very little separation between somebody who asks you to help them keep aliens from blowing up the world and somebody who wants you to pray moar so that they can fight demons. Well, except that the latter is far more likely to occupy political office:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/24/139781021/the-evangelicals-engaged-in-spiritual-warfare

Very well stated Matt, and I sincerely appreciate your provocative and intelligent remarks.

I agree with everything you’ve said, as zealotry and dogma appear to be a critical issue here when dealing uneducated people who do not know any better in regards to the paranormal and/or ufology.

I suspect that things will only get worst over time if for no other reason that paranormal “unreality” television.

Thank you for commenting Matt.

It is obvious to me that those who are complaining about this blog did not read it. Since you clearly stated that it was done tongue in cheek for a reason. I had no issues with it because for one, I have a sense of humor, something many people no longer have thanks to political correctness, which I feel has neutered our society. You cannot tell a joke or say much of anything without some ass hat getting offended. Sadly, the paranormal field has always attracted nut jobs and always will. I find most people I talk to are either just plain ignorant, in part thanks to the glut of paranormal BS TV shows, and as stated in other comments, people wanting to promote their self-proclaimed paranormal gifts and powers. I can remember reading about the Amytiville case when it first hit the news and thought this sounds like total BS to Me. And even though it has been proven a hoax beyond any reasonable doubt, there are still tens of thousands who believe its all true. To be honest I don’t ever see things getting any better. There will always be liars, wack jobs, and the truly stupid. I am thankful that you are here to help bring some sanity to the field, I only wish there were many more like you.

Thanks for your comment and support. I could not agree with you more. Like you’ve said, the people complaining are those zealous, nut jobs that I’ve had the misfortune to frequently encounter over the decades. Also, it’s odd the no one’s commented on what it was I was talking about or about why I’ve posted this particular blog. Now that the firestorm has somewhat subsided, the more educated and grounded people are responding in a very positive way. Alas, I must agree with your prognostication here in that things will keep devolving as long as the fraudulent paranormal reality shows rein supreme. It’s about time for audiences to realize that all these shows are carefully orchestrated, much like a play or movie, and have nothing whatsoever to do with real paranormal phenomena. If these types of events were that common, they would NOT be deemed paranormal or phenomena, as we’d already know what’s really going on. And by the way, the evidence clearly demonstrates that the Amytiville case was totally fabricated by those involved to make lots of money, which they did. What else is new?

Thank you Barry for a wonderful and candid article on a subject which gets brushed under the carpet far to often.

My own dealings with the paranormal began in my early 20’s when I began going to “New Age” and metaphysical bookstores. At the same time I began working with a metaphysical church called the Berkeley Psychic Institute/Church of Divine Man. While involved with them, I was hypnotized (unknowingly) and had many dissociative moments and perhaps brief psychotic moments in which which I was convinced, I had experienced “God” or whatever.

Now that has all changed, thanks to a full blown psychosis brought on by medications and finally getting a degree in Clinical Psychology.

Today I am an atheist and a hard core skeptic.

However, in retrospect, I realize that what I was seeking was a means of dealing with the hard core trauma I faced from the domestic violence and other abuse I faced at my families hands. Thankfully that has been and continually dealt with through practical and empirically founded psychological/psychotheraputic means.

And legitimate meditation (Buddhist Traditions) based on sound research and pracices which are more grounded in reality.

I would classify what these people (and myself) as having gone through as a “religious” experience. It is truly a form of psychosis where we become dissociated from reality. It is more common than you might think.

Then I had the other experience which started the process of helping to bring me back to reality, the Spiritual Experience. A quietude which brings me deeper in touch with reality, life and other people. The term for this experiences is called “enlightenment.” In simple terms it is the realization that the ordinary life is the extraordinary life.

I am grateful to be free from the psychological bonds which held me for nearly 20 years of my life. Now that I am free, I am also grateful for those things which I found invaluable which brought me out of the darkness.

Critical Thinking,
Psychotherapy with a qualified and competent individual.
Loving Pets.
Good friends who have also come out of the delusions
A solid education in the psychological sciences
A strong mind and a strong body (Thankfully I have allways been health oriented)

I will never forget my experiences, but I am glad to say that they no longer bind me and I am much more centered here in life and reality.

Jeffrey

While I agree with almost everything you’ve said here Jeff, I cannot concur with your assertion that the individuals discussed herein are acting out and suffering from a religious experience. In my professional opinion, these people are psychotic in the extreme, to the point of being delusional and extremely dissociative. While there certainly are religious zealots who fall into this category, that is but one of many of the problems afflicting such people. However, in the end, all of your points and comments are well taken and certainly significant. Thank you for your time and commentary, it is very much appreciated.

Barry,

I know this is slightly late in the blogging game to post a comment, but I haven’t laughed this hard in months! I was compelled to thank you for that. Absolutely hilarious and brilliant. Is your whole book like this?
Now moving on to the serious side, parapsychology is undoubtedly a science. However how many people (read nut jobs) “interested” in this field of discovery actually know much about the field? How many know that parapsychology was accepted as a discipline of science in AAAS? My point is that many see this as a “home” or a forum where they will actually command attention, whether negative or positive from other people. I would guess that for many of these unfortunates they haven’t received this attention in quite some time from a living person existing in reality. So for them just having someone to take the time to actually look them in the eye, acknowledge their presence and listen to their ravings is most likely a big deal in their undoubtedly small very sad little world. It isn’t fair that parapsychology has to deal with this issue, but the world is full of delusional very sick people. I hardly find it surprising that parapsychologists have to sometimes come into contact (pun intended) with these morons. I could go on and on explaining my point and love of parapsychology but anyone with a brain can infer everything they need from picking up a book.
Your awesome, incredibly funny and thank you for the laughter.

Thank you very much for your comments and compliments. I am happy to hear that you found what I wrote of interest, of relevance and yet hysterically funny at the same time. A true breath of fresh air given some of the vitriolic hate mails I’ve received from the particular blog. I am in total agreement with every word you’ve said here, and it’s very comforting to realize that there are other people out there who really understand what’s going on here with all of this and why. Once again, thank you.

I forgot to mention that my book is indeed peppered with much of this same humor. It’s one way to distract people from the science of all this and to avoid angering or frightening them. The sense of humor you’ve encountered here is the way I now think and perhaps always have. As you can readily see, I have very little tolerance for opportunistic criminals, miscreants and general paranormal psychopaths who litter this field, especially as related to many of the paranormal unreality shows. As the wackos have now proliferated the entire field, I believe that the science of parapsychology has been set back by as much as 60 or more years, when spiritualism, fraud and total skepticism ran amok. Once this trend fades, and it will, most people who still read will automatically assume that what’s left, in not even worth paying attention to, and science will forever close it’s doors to this arena.

Hi Barry – longtime fan writing for the first time. I only made it halfway through the article before the conflict between paranormal interest and genuine psychosis started getting too “real” for me in a personal sense.

I live a sort-of flipside of what you talk about here. Without bogging down into details, several of those important to me are people that seem to be engulfed in a variety of paranormal manifesti are also people I might suspect to have trouble staying connected to reality through a fluctuation of past trauma and disorder. The difference here is that the individuals I’m referencing are far, far more gentile and not possible con artists or dangerous to be around that I’ve ever observed. You’d think that would be a plus, but in my experience it makes it more difficult to discern whether they’re plagued mentally or spiritually and thus more difficult for me to directly help them. We’d tried both medical and holistic solutions with genuinely mixed results either way.

Muddling it further are some of my own half-experiences. I’d have to admit I wouldn’t fairly qualify as mentally sound myself and although I always attempt for an “open-minded” skeptical approach to these things, there have been times that has failed – one time so spectacularly that I was even able to get it published as a book (I won’t plug the book here). I’ve not yet been privileged with a definitive experience like full-body apparitions, but I wonder if that’s just a matter of time or I’m destined to sit squarely on the fence until my time to join those forces.

I’ll come up with a question now so my post here isn’t just semi-relevant life story blather – 4 years later, what are your thoughts on the thin line between PSI and PSY? I hadn’t read any of your more recent blog posts yet, but I would be interested to see any more recent updates you might have to this subject with 2016 knowledge and research into mental disorders and… umm… I guess parapsychology for lack of being able to come up with a more updated/accurate term. Any bonus commentary on the subject when the individuals are more functional, decent and not given to dishonesty in business or personal affairs would be of interest as well, if that request is reasonable.

Thank you, sir! 🙂

You’ve asked a very difficult question here, as the distinction between PSI and PSY might be impossible to objectively define. Both concern some aspect of consciousness that is very poorly understood. However, that being said, when one substitutes psi for psy there is almost always a dear price to pay in terms of cognitive functioning and objective thinking versus a internalized reality. My book sort of gets into this area, but it still not to specific to avoid a vitriolic replies.

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