A Lesson in Spiritual Warfare

In this post, I am going to provide an agnostic, yet very powerful lesson in spiritual warfare for people entering haunted locations - especially during the holiday season.

Recently, my sister mentioned that she's going to be attending an overnight at a local haunted house in New Hampshire. It's a yearly event and not exactly easy to get tickets, so she's excited (and I'm jealous) - but, knowing that I research, contemplate and write about this stuff on a daily basis, she asked for my opinion about the sort of things she'd probably be facing inside an allegedly haunted location.

After going over some of the most common events people report at haunted locations such as knocking, moving objects or unexpected smells and apparitions, she asked about something that I couldn't answer immediately, and it's also the basis for this important update because I realized there are likely a lot of people going ghost hunting for the very first time every October, so a lesson in spiritual warfare is certainly in order.

A Lesson in Spiritual Warfare - Protection from Evil Spirits

First of all, as a skeptic regarding most claimed paranormal activities, this is a difficult topic for me to cover. I've always had a strong spiritual belief in unseen forces and energies that are at work in the world around us. With a Catholic upbringing, that translates into something that borders demonology I suppose - although I don't really believe in the modern, commercialized image of the monsters that are used in the movies to portray demons, or Satan.

However, I do believe that in the cases where paranormal activity is authentic and very active, that a metaphorical "demon" may be at work. If you ask me to explain what I mean by that - I can't. It's not the traditional Catholic or Christian version of demons I refer to, but more of an ethereal community of invisible entities who cross over into our physical Universe and play games with us.

So the question is really this - how do you protect yourself from entities that you normally can't see, you don't know their motives or intentions, and in fact you can't be 100% sure that they are even real or have intelligence. After all, the history of physics is filled with discoveries of earth energies that the population, before those discoveries, never knew existed. Still - the big question here is if they are intelligent entities and they are evil, how do you protect yourself?

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Scary as Hell Ghost Stories

There is one major problem that comes along with the hobby (or art) of storytelling, and that is that if you take the time to tell a few scary as hell ghost stories to people - you have to be ready to deal with the consequences. In this update I'd like to share a few of the really scary ghost stories I've told or written through the years.

Telling Scary as Hell Ghost Stories for Fun and Profit

While I am actively working on my first novel, with the hope and dream of early retirement, one of the ways that I supplement my income for our family is by writing online professionally. I know what you're thinking - online "professional" writing? Yes - it's true. Just check out my online writing blog FreeWritingCenter and you'll see how and why it's profitable and worthwhile.

Most of what I write about online has to do with the paranormal, metaphysical and strange or surreal. For example, one of my blogs, TopSecretWriters, deals with the surreal world of government secrecy, secret societies and other "secrets" the larger world community isn't aware of. So, it goes without saying that I have a lot of scary real-world material to draw from. So, today I'm going to share with you the top 5 scary ghost stories that I've written online throughout the past 5 years.

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Five of The Most Powerful Demons Names

In order to understand Demonology, in detailing and describing powerful demons names, it’s important to understand that there are many different aspects of the research. Obviously there’s the religious/Christian side, which focuses on certain entities defined within the Bible as a demonic entity and classified as good vs. evil. There’s also what most people would classify as “satanic,” in other words the group of people who actually worship a deity or deities that many Christians would classify as Satan or Lucifer.

There’s also a third category, I’ll call it the historian category, who searches back through the centuries at all of the religions and would classify any deity seen as ‘evil’ (even only partially) as a potential demonic entity. In some cases the religion itself may consider the “God” as partially a force of good, but the entity had a “trickster” characteristic.

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New Paranormal Site Up and Running!

I'm pleased to report that InvisibleArticles.com is now up, operational, and fully loaded with all of the articles from this blog. Moving forward, I'll be providing updates with news from the paranormal community, scientific research with paranormal leanings, and analysis of the evidence gathered by paranormal groups throughout the country, as well as my own local investigations.

The Goals of Invisible Articles

What you'll find when you visit InvisibleArticles.com is a little bit different than what you'll find at most other paranormal sites on the net. Everywhere you look, there are paranormal websites that rehash the same old ghost stories and information about paranormal locations and homes that the author simply finds through an Internet search, and then rehashes the same old information.

At InvisibleArticles.com - you'll find fresh new angles on paranormal topics, you'll get the latest breaking news within the field of the paranormal, and you'll experience a scientific perspective on paranormal issues and investigations that you'll have difficulty finding at most other websites that focus on things like psychic energies, auras, and floating orbs (also known as camera lens dust).

At InvisibleArticles, you'll learn that hauntings, spiritual activity and ghosts are a very real phenomenon, but they are also phenomenona that should be analyzed and investigated using methods and a perspective where any possibility is accepted, any hypothesis is considered - but only the most probable hypothesis are explored. At InvisibleArticles.com, you won't find yourself wasting time with the same old stuff - it's the latest news, unique perspectives, and very cool interviews. You'll be hard pressed to find this information anywhere else. So bookmark the page and come back often...things are just heating up!

New Invisible Articles News

Wow, I can't believe the last update here was in February. There's been a lot going on - I've just been promoted and trained as a new Group Editor over at the great informational site LovetoKnow. My job is now to direct the content for some very cool channels, not the least of which includes the Sci-Fi channel, which is always fun. I mean, who doesn't like Science Fiction??

At the same time, while I should probably be cutting back on my work, I decided to launch several blogs hosted at my own domain. That means I'm moving all content from Invisible Articles at blogspot (this blog) to the new and improved website over at InvisibleArticles.com. Please check it out and update your bookmarks. Once the content from this blog is migrated over (I'll be leaving posts here with "Read More..." links), I'll also keep this blog active and post synopsis of all updates from that site. So regardless of where you follow along, here or there, you'll stay informed!

Some very cool upcoming stories will hopefully be some collaborative haunting investigations with a friend of mine from Massachusetts, as well as hopefully some progress on getting into the Theater building over at the University of Southern Maine (with the school's permission of course!)

Please stay tuned, and come back often for the latest news, updates, and scientific analysis regarding all things paranormal.

Interview with The Maine Paranormal Society

This month I'm very honored to announce the publication of an excellent interview I had with Jim Blanche of the Maine Paranormal Society (formerly Central Maine Paranormal). Jim Blanche is the Tech Manager and Lead Investigator with the group. I spent about 30 minutes or so with Jim on the phone, and we covered the history of the paranormal research group, the type of investigations they've done, and the sort of findings they've uncovered. We also talked a bit about the sort of equipment they use and how they classify "evidence." It's very positive to note that they are strict when classifying a location as "haunted," versus having "paranormal activity." In particular we discussed EVP evidence and how those can often be explained through normal RF signal interference. Read the full interview at LoveToKnow Paranormal. Due to word count limits, I had to really edit down the interview for LoveToKnow to keep the most important and relevant parts, but there are additional comments Jim made that I'd like to discuss a bit in this post.

The Maine Paranormal Society Team

Most importantly, I'd like to give credit to the full team at the Maine Paranormal society for the fantastic scientific endeavor that they work at for absolutely no pay or even for very little credit. If more folks in our society had these kind of inquisitive minds and professional attitude toward the paranormal, I think we'd go a long way toward finally finding some of those elusive answers. The team listed at the Central Maine Paranormal website includes:

Jason Porter - Original Founder (no longer with the group)
Adam Wright - Founder and Director
James Blanche - Tech Manager and Lead Investigator
Holly Densmore - Co-Founder and Case Manager
Jennifer Moreau - Medium and Investigator

Other Investigators and researchers with the group include:

Will Gillway, Patti Gillway, Dwight Thurlow, Allison L. Ryall, Kelli Richards and Joshua Thurlow

All of the investigators and lead staff represent a significant level of expertise in their own individual fields. For example, Jim is an EMT and is attending school for Computer Technology, Jennifer Moreau is also an EMT and photography is listed as her hobby, Will Gillway has an B.A. in History and is working toward a Masters in Criminal Justice, and Allison Ryall Allison also has a B.A. in History and an M.A. in American and New England Studies. Overall, this group represents some great talent.

Interview Excerpts

Below are a few select excerpts from the interview. One of the most significant topics of the interview was related to the most recent investigation that the group is currently conducting in Biddeford, Maine, which was covered by the Sun Journal. Jim provided a littel bit more insight about that investigation during our interview (check out the LoveToKnow link above for more info on that.)

Excerpts from the phonecall:

"A young woman had a two year old son who was seeing an apparition in the closet, and they also experienced burning sensations on their legs, and a dripping sensation coming from the feeling. So, we obviously try to go in and debunk things. The burning and dripping we had a hard time debunking, because there was nothing there that would obviously create that. It was a clean ceiling, there was nothing hanging down and there was nothing there to create that."

"And then one of my investigators, she had a personal experience outside of the investigation when she got home. She woke up in the middle of the night and smelled smoke, and could hear water being sprayed on the side of the building. It actually woke her out of her sleep and she thought the building was on fire."

"It varies, I mean it's either feast or famine most of the time. Right now we have a couple of cases, next month I think we're going to a case four hours away. I mean those are a few of the cases we have right now. There's definitely more during October, that's when a lot of cases really pick up."

"I've never actually had a personal experience. Actually most of the people in the group have not had a personal experience yet. Adam hasn't, Holly the case manager hasn't. A couple of people, Jen and Kelly, are pretty much the only people who've had personal experiences."

"The coolest house we investigated was the house in Waterboro that was featured on Paranormal State. It was an awesome experience. We were able to debunk things, and we didn't have any personal experiences, but it was just awesome to experiencing being in the house that they eventually featured on TV."

"They're tough, I think a lot of them aren't EVp's, I mean you can have voices from across the hall. There's some theories that radio waves can get picked up on things like baby monitors. They can really be contaminated from other sources. We had a case where a client experienced stuff going on on a baby monitor, and we were able to debunk that because you can make it pick up stuff on a radio like other handheld cb radios."

"We cover the entire state of maine and even New Hampshire. We had a couple of cases in Salem, NH, and almost had a couple of cases in northern maine. We kind of share New Hampshire with the New Hampshire Paranormal Society as part of the TAPS family."

Final Words

I would like to thank Jim for taking the time to talk with me for this insightful interview, and I'd like to thank the entire team at Maine Paranormal for the excellent public service they provide for families in Maine who suffer through the emotional and psychological suffering and trauma related to hauntings and other paranormal activity. Keep up the great work.

New Ghost and Spirit News On the Way!

First, I'd like to offer thanks to loyal readers who've been visiting this blog since it first started. I've been overwhelmed with the traffic and the great response to these observations of paranormal events and happenings throughout the world. I have some good news related to where this blog is headed.

This month I've decided to invest a bit into this endeavor and I've established a domain by the same name as this blog. So, by the end of the month (hopefully), InvisibleArticles.com is going to be fully designed and stocked with the same sort of articles that you've become accustomed to reading here - with a bit fewer ads and a bit more content and research. I'm planning a few trips this year to some local haunted locations, and there will also be several interviews with ghost hunters and other researchers along the way. There are a many great things in store, so please stay tuned and follow along.

I'll be updating this blog with updates along the way, even as the new site is getting designed and loaded. There's a lot going on with other writing and research - I'll be interviewing folks over at Central Maine Paranormal this week, and I'll make sure to publish an update on that.

Thanks again to supporters and readers for following along - the future is looking great for InvisibleArticles, and I'm glad to have all of you following along.

The Secret World of Ghosts and Spirits

This week I'm a bit buried with some major writing projects, so I'm going to share an article with my loyal readers from an Irish writer named David Sloan. David has his own perspective about what constitutes ghosts and spirits, and his personal experience in a small hotel just west of Ireland is fascinating. Enjoy the tale...


A True Ghost Story From Ireland

I want to tell you about a ghost experience that was shared with me by a friend from Ireland, but first a few words in general about ghosts:

A ghost is the spirit of a dead person, or sometimes an animal, and sometimes manifests looking very much as they did in life, and is usually encountered in places the person spent a lot of time while they were corporeal. The word "ghost" is also used to reference any spirit or demon. Ghosts are usually found haunting the area in which they died.

According to parapsychological circles a ghost haunting is the nearly steady occurrence of supernatural phenomena associated with a particular area, like a house or a stretch of highway, and is attributed to the activities of a disembodied entity, or ghost. The haunting may include the physical appearance of a ghost, or some poltergeist activity, glowing orbs, disembodied voices, etc.

Ghosts are a strange phenomena that has fascinated mankind for ages. According a 2005 Gallup poll, about 32% of Americans believed ghosts exist. The word apparition is now used in the field of parapsychology, because the word ghost is thought to be too imprecise.

The belief in ghosts as the souls, or spirits of the person who has passed on is tied to the very old concept of animism, which teaches that everything in nature has a soul, including, animals, plants, human beings, rocks, trees, etc.

Ghosts, whether you believe in them or not, are a part of human history. For as long as man has sought for the meaning of his existence and the knowledge of what happens after a person dies, stories of encounters with the ghosts, or spirits, of loved ones have been told. For some, it is a comfort, a confirmation that there is life after death.

Here is a true ghost experience that was shared with me by a friend:

Well I remember when I was about 6 years of age my parents had bought a small hotel in the west of Ireland, I used to get very bad nightmares all the time from the time they moved in, one night I remember waking up in the middle of the night and the curtain on the window of the bedroom was suspended up in the air, and something said my surname, the window was shut and there was no breeze, I knew this was out of the ordinary and started roaring.

Anyway we had a live in barmaid from the country and she used to hear noises in the wardrobe at night, she would hop out of bed and open the wardrobe thinking it was mice or something, there was never anything there when she did open it, things progressed so that sometimes she would see the door knob of her bedroom door turning and she would open the door and there would be nobody there.

One Night she dreamt she was being smothered and woke up with a startle and saw a "habit" (the Robe they bury a dead person in) floating across the room and disappear through the wall. My dad did some enquiries with locals and it turned out that someone had hanged themselves in the barmaids bedroom.

Needless to Say we didn't stay too much longer after that!

There is definitely something out there!

If you like to read real life ghost stories, visit True Ghost Tales, where you will find ghost stories and pictures of werewolves, vampires, monsters and more.

The Ghost In The Closet - Kids Scared of The Dark

When you consider stories about kids scared of the ghost in the dark, it's one of the most difficult things that one has to face as parents. Kids can often have a very vivid imagination, especially teens, kids, and toddlers who have a very creative mind. These are the kids who are always afraid of the ghosts in the closet, the sort that are often described throughout children's literature. The ghosts of our childhood are more often than not simply phantoms created by the shadows that are cast by the nightlight, or the cat rustling around in the closet.

These are the experiences you hear about kids having all the time. However, what happens when real paranormal activity even effects parents? Kids may find themselves scared of the ghost in the room - the strange shadow figure standing at the foot of the bed - but what happens when you, yourself, actually see and experience the spirits and ghosts that you thought were fabrications of the child's overactive imagination? This is a dilemma about kids that you're not likely to see discussed on Dr. Phill.

An Article Comment Raises Concern About Kids Scared of the Ghosts

In the course of my work as an editor and writer over at LoveToKnow Paranormal, I came across the comment at the bottom of the Paranormal State article from one of the parents. Kid's don't often post, so in this case the parent was posting for her child. The reader, Kelley, relayed an experience that she's going through with her 16 year old daughter. In her question, you can feel the confusion and angst she feels from not being able to understand what her daughter is going through.

In her comment, she describes a situation where her daughter has always been able to "see" around her - people who have passed away. This ability is something that she has had ever since her youngest childhood days, but it's something she doesn't discuss with others for fear of ridicule. This is very common - many people who are "sensitive" pull away from society and avoid discussing the abnormal things they see, for fear of being made fun of.

Unfortunately, Kelley describes a situation - a difficult one to read when it's about kids - where the girl's half-brother passed away from an apparent suicide, and the poor girl is now seeing the ghost in her room (she believes) of the half-brother standing at the foot of her bed. This is how the situation was described by her parent. Kids who are going through the grieving process when losing a loved one is hard enough, I can't even imagine what this poor girl must be going through when she experiences these nightly visitations.

How to Deal With Psychic Kids Scared of What They See

When it comes to dealing with teens, kids, or toddlers who are seeing strange things that they don't understand, such as ghosts in their home, it's always important to handle the situation delicately as a parent. Keep in mind that this is about kids, and kids internalize everything. Regardless of your own beliefs about the ghosts, whether you're a believer or a skeptic, you should never convey those beliefs to your own child. The best approach is an agnostic one. There's a standard path every parent should follow in order to rule out the physical explanations as quickly as possible, before assuming paranormal explanations. Jumping to paranormal assumptions right off the bat can cause far more harm than good, especially if a child is suffering from severe psychological impairments and mental health issues.

The stigma of mental health makes many parents avoid exploring this option. Some parents don't even believe in mental illness, especially when it's about kids. But I can tell you that there are health factors that can affect the brain, and do cause hallucinations and very realistic experiences that many people would consider metaphysical. So if your child is describing having visions, sightings, or other experiences like seeing a ghost in their room, just play it safe and cancel out that possibility right away - but always keep an open mind that the experience concerning the ghosts that's keeping your kids scared could very well be paranormal in nature.

Understanding The Ghosts That Haunt Your Child

To determine the true source of what your child is experiencing, carefully go through the following steps.

1. Talk to a physical doctor first (not a psychologist). A medical doctor is likely to request a brain scan just to play it safe. This is a very important first step, because physical growths in the brain can cause very real auditory and oscillatory experiences. It's impossible, in that case, for a child to know the difference between a real object they are seeing, and one that's not really there.

2. If the scan shows nothing, talk to a psychologist. But interview those psychologists carefully as concerned parents. Kids depend on their parents for this kind of support. Find one that is open minded to the possibility of paranormal things, but also one that is carefully critical and doesn't jump to conclusions that *all* claims are paranormal in nature. It's critical to find a balanced and level-headed psychologist, as that's the only kind who will be able to perform a legitimate evaluation of your child. There are countless psychological malfunctions of the brain that can lead to real visions and experiences that a child has difficulty understanding.

3. Accept the truth. If the psychologist determines that the child is relatively healthy psychologically, then accept the fact that your kid's scared state may need to be faced head-on in a manner that takes the reality of paranormal activity into account. It's never a good idea to feed your child with your own paranormal beliefs, so avoid talking to your child about your own theories regarding what they are experiencing. Instead, ask the child what they think they might be seeing, and what they think should be done about it. If your family is spiritual, consider bringing in spiritual guidance in the form of a minister or priest.

The Spiritual Nature of the Phenomenon

Too little is known about why people see these apparitions to just assume certain spiritual conclusions. When dealing with kids, it's best to avoid the whole topic of demonic activities, even if that's what you believe in. From similar experiences that I've seen other families have had with paranormal forces, if your own family is stable and healthy spiritually, such forces will have little power over the family. But it's certainly important to help the child develop their spirit and armor themselves with the spiritual weapons that faith provides against potentially negative forces.

With all of that said, we live in a world where the ghosts of childhood are that much more real, because many more parents than ever before now believe in the reality of spirits and ghosts. I remember the days when I awoke in the middle of the night, terrified from the state of paralysis that I found myself in and the strange and scary sounds I was hearing (humming and even strange voices some nights). I only learned many years later that those experiences were caused by a combination of sleep disorder and the fact that my eustachian tubes were always plugged as a kid, generating pops and rushing-water sounds that my mind "converted" into the sound of voices.

This is why, even though as parents we may accept the reality of spirit and ghost phenomenon, it's critical to explore every human experience, especially that of our children, with a very critical and analytical mind.

The Ghost of Haynesville Woods in Maine

Most people who visit the St. John Valley of Northern Maine are shocked by the remote isolation of the place, and they are usually unaware of the Ghost of Haynesville. When you are driving through Aroostook County, there's a seclusion that's so deep, it creates an uneasy sense of feeling trapped, or worse, abandoned by civilization.

Isolation and The Ghost of Haynesville

To the west, there is the rugged wilderness of Western Maine which, at some point, crosses into Canada. To the East, there's eventually nothing but ocean. To the North, there are sparse towns, large and small - another civilization of french speaking Canadians, many of whom are not very fond of Americans. And finally to the remote and distant south, there's the rest of the world - the malls, cities, and media of America. This sweeping, flowing, hill-filled valley is a physical and metaphysical crossroads the likes of which most people have never experienced before.

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Ghost Hunters Provide The Best Ghost Stories

Within the field of paranormal research, ghost hunters provide the best ghost stories available anywhere. Because these are folks who are out there in the field collecting data and evidence, researchers are able to extract some of the best samples of scientific evidence from their archives.

Why Ghost Hunters Provide the Best Ghost Stories

Paranormal research societies, organization which serve as the home for most ghost hunters, are excellent sources for putting together a database of valid evidence of haunting phenomenon. While searching for ghost stories on the Internet is extremely popular these days, the ideal starting point for anyone interested in true ghost stories should be the archives of those ghost hunters.

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