On top of the World!

It was a tough call after the dust settled to see who really was on top of the paranormal food chain and there were decidedly no winners and no losers. Each reigned #1 in their own right.

So attention turned to who had the most amazing story of the paranormal and so the storytelling among the vamps, gargs, weres, ghosts, shapeshifters, and other paranormal beings began.

The marathon went on for days.

Many discussed the conference being held April 18-20. I know you're thinking of the Romantic Times’ Convention, but that's not what these paranormal creatures are attending. (g) They are heading out for the X-Conference being held in Washington, DC.

Any paranormal or X-files buff worth their salt is at least familiar and has read about the past conferences and are taking notes on who will be the key speakers. It’s pretty much the usual suspects of those considered authorities in the field of UFOs.

But this conference is just the tiny tip of a very massive iceberg. To get an idea just how vast the interest in the paranormal and other related fields is, check out a tinee weene list of annual conferences to be held this year:

California Ghost Hunters starts next week.

Ghostock 6 Pennsylvania Paranormal Conference

Haunted America Conference

Michigan Paranormal Expo Ghost Conference

Northern California Paranormal Conference

Taps Con 2008

Univ-Con 2008 Pennsylvania Event

Ghost Hunter's Conference

Gettysburg Ghost Conference

National Ghost Conference

Tombstone Ghost Conference

Michigan Paranormal Conference

Then we branch out into SciFi and Fantasy and probably the biggest convention – OmegaCon – Science Fiction/Fantasy Convention which was held just last month.

And for those who are saying what about the vamps, weres and other spooky heroes? Well, no fear or should I say, have fear - ScareFest Horror and Paranormal Convention will be held in September

So you get the idea when it comes to the paranormal, everyone is in truth on top because of the very mystique of this field defies any kind of classification of who's on first, what's on second and I dunno - third base.

Sex Appeal and the Paranormal

WHO DID IT?

I mean, seriously, who was the first writer who decided to change how vamps had previously been portrayed as fanged blood sucking horrors into the modern day perception of sexy, and ah... darnit, handsome heart-stoppin' hunks of burnin' love?

I racked my brain, did some research and then I had a lightbulb moment - bowing to the mistress of vampires - ANNE RICE! Yes, she is the queen of giving the vampire sex appeal. Oh, others tried in films before her, but none did it quite like she did. Sure Bram Stoker created a most excellent one, too, but I dub Anne Rice forever!

And what makes a modern vamp sexy? Well, he or she has lived long enough to know not just how to do it, but many many ways to do it. (eg)

What about ghosts? Well, the old classic The Ghost and Mrs. Muir comes to mind, but then Patrick Swayze in GHOST wins hands down as sexy in the mist, baby! DITTO!

Other memorable paranormal misfits and star-crossed lovers have filled books and films, but the question remains- What is the mystique of a sexy paranormal lover? The obvious answer is other worldly.

The paranormal lover be it vampire, ghost, werewolf, shapshiter, or whatever -- is intriguing because of its very nature being different from ours. The possibilities of its life being forever and a human as the object of its desires captures the imagination in stark contrasts. The chemistry of opposites attracting sends tingles up and down our spines.

A being who is immortal is awe-inspiring. Our quest to conquer death plays into the fascination of these heroes and heroines with the possibility their ability to cheat death just might rub off on their human lover. Of course, it will to have the perfect HEA.

It's Your Thang, Do What You Wanna Do...

It's your Thang do what you wanna do... so in the paranormal world this can mean a lot of things. (eg)

For the vamp we'd assume it means drinking blood, but not all vamps are created equal. Some are in angst over their new lifestyle while others revel in the pure evilness of it and then there are middle of the road vamps who have adjusted and made it more civilized, but the ultimate shared thang for vamps is hey, they're undead and undead they will stay until someone stakes, garlics, or holy waters them. Sometimes all three.

Another thang is the obvious, no sunlight. Nothing new here, yawn, but there could be. What about a shapeshifting sexy vamp who has a thang for Italian food? The two-legged kind. Enter the connoisseurs of genetics. Yup, vamps who will only drink from certain ethnic groups. Now that's a cool thang to mix up the old and expected. We, including the things bumping in the night, are all creatures of habit and familiarity alas breeds contempt especially in the immortal. What about a vamp who has a thang for vintage cars and knew Michelangelo during the day. Now that is a very cool thang to be able to recount at a vamp dinner party just before the entrees are served up-screaming.

This vid is a hoot! Campy and complete with a kind of Egor! One film I've not seen. Must go buy Dinner With a Vampire. Must...

As for weres and their thang, well, short of howling and ravaging, I can't think of too many. You won't find one with a penchant for silver jewelry and certainly none born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but still, there is a certain bad puppy allure surrounding a were, like he really needs a good home. Er… the real question is once you've brought him home will you be able to house train him? Ah... not on a night with a full moon.

Ghosts have a thang for the dark and creepy. No surprises there unless they are of the demonic variety and then their thang is going to be possession. As for a banshee, the obvious is that deafening spine splitting shriek that pretty much says all you want to know about the she-devil, yet like the succubus, there's more than meets the eye, as in motivation. Because all paranormal creatures have the strongest motivations. Sometimes they might not be obvious, but if you delve deep enough, you discover these are really their thangs and they are going to do whatever they want to do. There's no stopping them. They will risk everything to see that they obtain their thang and sometimes that might just be you! Bwaaahhh!

THE TRUTH ABOUT VAMPIRES, DEMONS, WEREWOLVES, GHOSTS, and ALL THINGS PARANORMAL.

You've read the myths, the stories, the legends, and you've read the books where vampire characters emerge as heroes and heroines. Movies and even TV series have become huge hits in this genre. So what draws us to the dark and spooky?

Is it truly a psychological safe zone to examine our inner demons or is there a group consciousness this genre triggers? Cell memory or even past life recall? I've been studying this field for more years than I care to claim and the one common thread I've seen in the paranormal tapestry is every culture regardless of geography has a similar story of most of these creatures, all with different names, but all with similar characteristics just as most cultures have a story of a great flood.

Have you stopped to wonder how and why most cultures have some form of a vampire, demon possession and disembodied spirits legends? It's understandable when these cultures are on the same continent. But how is this possible when many of these civilizations were on continents across the world, separated by large oceans and their legends predate seafaring to their land? Does it make you wonder if perhaps there is something more going on than human psyche and unfounded fears? Could it be that vampires do exist and these are the stories handed down through centuries?

Since I could write a book about all of these creatures, I'm focusing on my favorite. Those blood-sucking creatures- Vampires. Could it be the continents are not so far apart because the symptoms of disease have been historically misunderstood? When I wrote, All I Need, I used a French vineyard as a backdrop in the story where my vampire king Armondés runs a very successful wine company and also bottles blood for his clan.

In researching this novel, and All I Want, a Scottish Time Travel, I discovered many of the vampiric symptoms could be explained as medical conditions. For instance, Porphyria is a disorder of enzymes found in heme and can make a person sensitive to sunlight. A very severe case of anemia could contribute to the gaunt deathlike paleness associated with a vampire combined with sunlight sensitivity, and the making of a powerful legend begins to emerge. The fear of water as in holy water can be explained by a little understood disease until the 19th century-Rabies. So any person bitten by a rabid animal would become fearful of water and could easily bite anyone trying to help. The spread the disease would imitate the vampire tendencies of biting to spread the disease before the infected would die. Could this have played a part in the creation of the vampire legend? And of course there is vampire bat which would not be in every environment.

The fear of garlic. There are some people who are allergic to garlic. The allergic reactions can vary from skin irritation to stomach problems and in some cases exacerbate asthma symptoms. Such reactions could account for garlic being included in the mythology as well as the long held belief that garlic is a blood purifier. If the vampire's blood has been tainted, made impure, then garlic would be a potential cure or in the extreme, could harm or even kill whatever was living inside the vampire.

And finally, it has not been that long since the practice of bleeding a sick person was believed to help cleanse the person and rid them of the disease. So if all of these are tied together into a nice neat package of a legend, the frightening tale of a creature emerges. That is until modern literature started romanticizing, tall dark and vampire.

I love vampire romances and it is the bad guy trying to be redeemed that entices me. I think the bad boy persona always attracts because he is the forbidden and taboo. When combined with a vampire, it makes for the perfect genre hero. Angst galore and wanting to rescue the broken vamp.

When I wrote All I Need and Last Resort, I wanted my vamps to embrace their immortality. So they don't walk about in the angst and crying, "I wanna be a human". They are beyond all that. In fact, they are taking advantage of immortality. In All I Need, Armondés has created a renaissance for his clan inspired by Chaucer. In Last Resort, Alex is working to make a vampire beach resort for his kind and in All I Want, Jeanne, a scientist, is trying to convince 13th century Scotsmen that vampires can be medically explained.

So these heroes and heroines have adapted and now move through the world enjoying what they are because hey, they no longer have to hunt for their food. And certainly that is true of our modern world where we are free from the task of hunting and dressing our kill in preparation of cooking. When the task of survival is taken away, we, like the vampires are free to explore our lives and enrich ourselves with the arts and other cultural pastimes.

With technology adding more conveniences almost daily, I often wonder how our fictional vamps will survive in the next century. Being immortal, I'm sure they will simply reinvent themselves and become the future's bad boys, too.

Sally

Is it real? When it is, you know.

There have been hoaxes, charlatans, fakes, and frauds in the paranormal field for as long as there have been paranormal encounters. How do you authenticate the paranormal? How can you prove it is real? Disprove it is real?

Modern day ghost hunters have tools they claim measure electromagnetic discharges created by spirit manifesting. I dunno. Maybe. Or maybe it is underground ore or other rock formations or something else we've yet to understand about earth science and the relationship to EMFs. But hey, at least someone is trying with science even if science can't adequately evaluate the paranormal. EVPs are amazing, but open to interpretation as to what is being said. And perhaps they are no more than an imprint recorded in the universe's records and playing over and over.

And then there are those who don't even try and just put it out there for the public to draw their own conclusions. Especially when it comes to television shows. After all, this is TV and the keyword here is entertainment.

For those who are sincere and dedicated in their work in the field of the paranormal, such 'entertainment' can be frustrating and eventually impairs their work. Each success is harder to gain validity because well, we've seen it all hoaxed before and when the real thing appears no one believes.

So how many times can the paranormal cry wolf before the public quits trying to believe? I've watched most of the paranormal reality TV shows and it's clear they are in their medium - entertainment.

So the next time you are watching such a show, just remember this:

Love Beyond the Grave

There are thousands, no millions of ghost stories about star-crossed lovers. Their love is so strong and passionate that it transcends even death.

One such true ghost story began in 1760 during a Cherokee siege on the British Fort Loudon in Athens, Tennessee. One woman pleaded for the life of her young son and Chief Attakulla-Kulla not only took mercy on the woman and child but later married her and had a daughter, Nocatula Cooweena.

Nocatula was a renowned beauty and many men in the village wanted to marry her, including Mocking Crow. Nocatula didn't like him because he was arrogant and vulgar, but he was unrelenting with presents. Still she rejected him.

One day her father and several men of the tribe were out hunting and came upon a dying British soldier. They took the man back to their village and nursed him back to health. Well you can imagine how this story played out. Nocatula and the soldier (now called Connestoga) fell in love and were married. Mocking Crow ambushed Connestoga and stabbed him to death. When Nocatula saw her dead husband, she plunged a knife into her heart.

When they were buried, Chief Attakulla-Kulla put an acorn in Connestoga's hand, and a hackberry seed in Nocatula's hand. Eventually those seeds grew into an oak and hackberry which was considered a very good omen that their love lived on.

In 1857, Tennessee Wesleyan College was founded on the very land where the lovers were buried and special care was given to the two trees until they died in 1940. For165 years those trees marked the lives of these lovers and a marker now takes their place.

Ever since the college was built, there have been reports of ghostly figures moving about the premises, especially where the trees once stood. Voices and even whispers have been heard, but no one has ever reported malevolent spirits, only those of two lovers.



There are many tales of a woman in white who walks the grounds of her home waiting for her lost lover or mourning her lover’s death. Such is the setting of the 16th century Ross Castle set along the shores of Lough Sheelin in Ireland. A lady in white walks the shores searching for her lover.



Another is about an angry bride is the story of the daughter of Michel La Neuf de la Valliere, who was the governor/commandant of Acadia, and changed the Missaguash River's name to Riviere Marguerite, in honor of his daughter. He bethroed his daughter to a stranger as was custom.

The man was of noble birth and a soldier, but unfortunately, Marguerite had fallen in love with someone else and the couple eloped. When her father learned of the secret marriage, he was enraged and swore he'd never speak to her again and even changed the name of the river in retaliation back to its original one, Missaguash.

The tales of a ghostly female figure walking the banks of the Missiguash, swinging a lantern as she defies her father and runs away with her lover have followed the tale of the river for nearly three hundred years.

A famous lovers' ghost story comes from Charleston, SC of a young woman named Annabel Lee (no documentation that Poe every heard of this story, but many like to attribute this story to Poe's inspiration.). Annabel met a sailor from Virginia and fell hopelessly in love.

Her father disapproved of the sailor and his background and forbade Annabel to see the young man. As in all cases when such decrees are made, Annabel was only more determined to be with her lover and they would meet in the Unitarian Cemetery until her father caught her sneaking into the cemetery.

Her punishment was being confined to her room and during the months that passed, the sailor was shipped out as the Navy was returning him to Virginia. As fate would have it, he received the news his beloved had been bitten by a mosquito and died from Yellow Fever.

The poor man returned to Charleston to say goodbye, but Annabel's father's heart was so hard he refused to allow him even that. But her father's spite went further.

He had all of the family graves dug up for three feet and then her grave the typical six feet so when the sailor attempted to visit her grave, he was unable to tell which one was his beloved's final resting place.

Many people have claimed to see her ghost wandering around the Unitarian Cemetery.

So are these truly ghost hauntings or are they what are called residual energy patterns?

What is the difference?

An actual haunting involves some form of interaction with the person witnessing it where as the residual haunting is similar to a video playing over and over. It’s an imprint of energy from typically a tragic event.

Oftentimes this kind of haunting is the scene of a brutal murder. The emotions of the victim were so intense somehow her/his energy imprinted and tied itself to the area. The soul of the victim is long gone, but the residual energy of her/his emotions remains.

The other kind, which is a typical haunting, the ghost is aware of her/his witnesses and will interact with them by touching, making sounds, responding to questions with the answers being caught on EVPs.

We know so little about what a ghost really is or what a haunting is or even why there are such things. The only thing we do know is that nearly every place on earth has stories of ghosts and many of these stories are about love living beyond death.

What do you think?

Ghost Images

Halloween is over, but the paranormal never takes a vacation. (g)

I thought you might enjoy some of the most current ghost images going around the net.



and this one comes from a police car chase.



another you may recall made national news:


I hope that gave you a little post-Halloween spooky fun!

Sally:)

And finally

Paranormal Self-Confidence 101

Growing up without validation that the spooky things I was seeing meant I had to learn self-validation. This seems to be a recurring theme for those involved in the paranormal. When you are chosen, that's it. There's no way out. You may deny it, try to. You may turn a blind eye to it, try to. You may even rebel against it...try to. But in the end, like it or not, you are an active participant.

So there ultimately comes that moment when we are forced to embrace our abilities.

Reconciling personal reality to what I was told was reality proved a must if I wished to have any kind of peace in life. It required self-acceptance and with that embracing of self came confidence. But a different kind of confidence than that already discussed this week. Self-confidence that I could trust myself and understand the images and information I was receiving. And it proved to be one of the biggest tests yet in believing in myself.

Testing seems to be the burden of the initiate and yet, with each new level I reach in understanding there is another test and another. This seems to be the main commonality with all seers, mediums, clairvoyants... whatever tag you wish to put to what the modern world calls "psychic".

Ultimately, there's only one way to gain self and that's to claim it all. Standing up and facing those things that go bump in the night brings freedom. With that freedom is the self-realization of exerting free will, and free will rules all things paranormal. If it is against your free will, then you have the power and the right to reject it and send it away.

This realization was an epiphany for me and the moment I began to deal with all things paranormal on my terms (to a large degree). The frightening role of being victimized by entities and paranormal events ended and fear evaporated. I was now free to forge relationships with those entities of the light.

I'll be discussing more about my personal journey and adventures into the paranormal on Melissa Alvarez's talk radio show today at 11 am EST. You can email or call in with your questions.