kisma Johnson's blog: "Millions Share Paranormal Beliefs"

This year's halloween decorations may not just spook you, they might turn your stomach. Next to the standard witches, ghosts and black cats, many specialty stores and catalogs are selling creepily realistic corpses, severed limbs and butchered body parts. One catalog advertises an animated ghoul who can vomit into a barrel on cue (special order only, $2,750). An online company sells a Tortured Torso Prop (for $149) you can lean near your front door to welcome trick-or-treaters. Whatever happened to jack-o'-lanterns and Casper the Friendly Ghost? From costumes and props to indoor and outdoor home decorations and table settings, experts and retailers agree that Halloween is turning to the dark side, becoming gorier, more violent and more adult. "This year we are moving away from costumes and more into gory props, because the consumer demand is growing," said Jessica Lutoff, a marketing analyst for Fright Catalog, an online and catalog Halloween retailer. With steady growth in sales, the Halloween home decorating market is huge, coming in second only to Christmas, according to the National Retail Federation. Total consumer spending on Halloween is expected to top $5 billion this year, and a sampling of what's selling says it all. Horchow, the high-end Neiman Marcus affiliate, sells fake buzzards and chocolate coffins. Target sells a 15-piece cemetery kit, a hanging Grim Reaper and an oversize maggot. Spirit Halloween, a Spencer's specialty store, sells the Tortured Torso Prop and a child's costume called Sailor of Death. Fright Catalog, seller of the Vomit Barrel, also serves up John Doe, a latex corpse with a hollow chest cavity for displaying a food buffet inside. Even the ever-tasteful Martha Stewart has given in to ghastly. The October issue of her magazine shows how to make giant spider egg sacks and white taper candles dripping with "blood" (red candle wax). She smiles next to a table centerpiece made of green-glittered skeletal parts. "There has always been a love of the gruesome in American culture," said Lesley Pratt Bannatyne, author of several Halloween books, "and it's found its way to Halloween.

They created extraordinary artifacts for hundreds of years, revealing an aesthetic sensibility that influences Western civilization to this day. Then they simply disappeared. Scholars are seeking answers to one of the great mysteries of the ancient world: What happened to the Minoans of Crete, who controlled a thriving Mediterranean trade network from around 2,200-1,450 BC? Now NOVA senior science editor Evan Hadingham reports on new evidence that a massive tsunami struck the Bronze Age society 3,500 years ago, destabilizing the culture to such a degree that social chaos brought about its ultimate destruction. As part of Massachusetts Archaeology Month, Mr. Hadingham spoke on the topic Oct. 17 at Shrewsbury Public Library. Named after Minos, the mythical king of Crete, the Minoan people were part of a prosperous culture known for its successful sea trade, intricate palaces and fine art. Mr. Hadingham said the palace ruins of Knossos, first excavated by British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in March 1900, provide the most stunning example of Minoan handiwork. “It was an enormous structure, five stories high, decorated with frescoes, ancient statuettes, a throne room, a central courtyard where ceremonies probably took place, and even flushing toilets,” he explained. At the time of its discovery, he said, the palace created a sensation, revealing an entire lost civilization that existed before the classical Greeks. While archaeologists have theorized that a volcanic explosion on the island of Thera, 70 miles north of Crete, was responsible for the Minoan downfall, it wasn’t until recently that evidence of a massive tsunami, brought on by the eruption, was linked to the mystery. Mr. Hadingham described scientific findings at Palaikastro, on the northeast tip of Crete, as instrumental to this discovery. During a recent dig, a team working under Montreal-born scientist Sandy MacGillivray found volcanic ash and strange gravel deposits that looked as if “they had been washed into the site by a violent flood,” Mr. Hadingham said. While the ash’s composition was identical to that found on the island of Thera, there was no river or stream near Palaikastro to deposit the gravel. “It must have been swept in from the ocean,” he explained. More intriguing was a stone building whose wall had been torn off and was missing along “the same side that faced the sea, which was a quarter of a mile away,” Mr. Hadingham said. But the most compelling evidence of a monster tsunami came from a nearby beach. “In the cliff side overlooking the sea was a bizarre layer of broken pottery, gray ash, cattle bones, seashells, animal teeth and rocks that looked as if they’d been smashed with a hammer and then sifted together,” he said. “Carbon dating determined that the age of the cattle bones was the same as the Thera eruption,” Mr. Hadingham continued. “It was clear that after the ash from the Thera volcano had dusted the town, a gigantic tsunami hit Palaikastro Bay.” Mr. Hadingham described the tidal wave as “terrifyingly destructive,” perhaps larger than the Indian Ocean tsunami that hit Banda Aceh in 2004. UCLA scientist Costas Synolakis, whose lab pioneered the computer model used by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, was invited to join Mr. Hadingham and Mr. MacGillivray on Palaikastro in 2006 during a NOVA film shoot. “The team found another layer of possible tsunami debris at 90 feet above sea level,” explained Mr. Hadingham. “Professor Synolakis’ revised computer model now suggests that the wave generated by the Thera eruption was 10 times larger, wider, longer than originally estimated. When it hit Palaikastro, it may have been around 15 meters high.” Despite such massive destruction, a tsunami only partially explains the disappearance of the Minoans. Dated artifacts prove conclusively that the ancient culture survived for at least a generation or two after the Thera eruption. “And the palace at Knossos, an 11-acre complex, was far too inland to be affected by the wave,” Mr. Hadingham said. He theorizes that what happened next was a society struggling with the devastating loss of hundreds or thousands of its own people, shaken to its core and looking for answers. Mr. Hadingham described an intricate ivory sculpture of a male figure, “a stunning masterwork of Minoan art,” that had been reconstructed from hundreds of fragments found outside a burned shrine in Palaikastro. “Because of the exotic material and the exquisite craftsmanship, the statue perhaps represented a deity or cult figure,” he explained. “Careful study of the fire-damaged legs of the sculpture suggests they had been tossed into the shrine while it was a raging inferno, blazing at temperatures of around 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit,” Mr. Hadingham continued. “It seems likely that the fire was deliberately stoked, the figure smashed against the wall and then tossed into the fire. The heat caused the shrine to explode like a bomb, sending the walls tumbling outward.” Some archaeologists believe that a religious crisis after the tsunami may have led to an Egyptian-influenced cult-like worship. “Maybe the Egyptians sent help to the devastated island and influenced a change in religious beliefs,” he said. “The fiery destruction of Palaikastro and other Minoan sites may have been a reaction by the locals rejecting the new cult, or some other kind of social upheaval.” “They are losing their values, and this is a reaction against it. The culture is shattered, and eventually the neighboring Myceneans from mainland Greece exploit this weakness and take over,” he continued. “Their arrival marks the end of this first great European civilization.”

This essay is on Spiritualism, and I doubt if any subject has had so many essays written with the same title. This is because the question is fundamental to the practice. When a medium attempts to contact the dead, she asks a double-edged question. So IS there anybody there? Is the question a general inquiry as to if anyone has come through yet, or is it more fundamental? Or is it a skeptical inquiry, trying to decide whether there could be anyone there in the first place? Gladys Leonard: A typical medium was Gladys Leonard. When her mother died, Gladys opened her eyes one night and found her standing by the bed. It wasn’t a shock to her, for she had been having heaven-like visions since she was a child. But it was the final piece of the jig-saw which turned this Lancashire woman into one of Britain’s most famous Spiritualist mediums. Going on to work for forty years with her spirit guide, Feda, her greatest fame came during World War One, when she would contact the war dead. Amongst those she spoke to was the recently departed Raymond Lodge, son of Society for Psychical Research founder Sir Oliver Lodge. Of course, she was often accused of being a fraud. But despite repeated investigations by private detectives, when she died in 1968, Gladys Leonard’s reputation was intact. Roots of spiritualism: Despite claims to the contrary, the medium is the world’s oldest profession. Identified from the earliest known pre-history he, or she, can be identified as the instigator of hysterical tribal ritual, known throughout history as the shaman, witch-doctor or medicine man. However, in the Spiritualist medium, the talent came into its own. But how did Spiritualism begin? Fundamental to the beginnings of Spiritualism was American clairvoyant Andrew Jackson Davis. During the 1840s he toured America arguing that upon bodily death the spirit remained alive and moved into another existence. Hence, since it was not dead, communication with the living should be possible. Essay by Anthony North

wilight approaches as Regan Vacknitz walks toward the century-old house, her excitement palpable. "It's ideal night for an investigation," she says. On an evening when most people would rather be snuggled up at home, members of Auburn Paranormal Activities Research Team are doing what they love most: searching for ghosts. Area groups that specialize in "paranormal investigations," or ghost hunting, say the Kent-Auburn valley is particularly ripe for ghostly activity. Some say the water beneath the valley floor draws spirits. Others say new buildings and housing developments encourage activity. Like police scoping a crime scene, the group searches for clues and evidence that might prove paranormal activity exists. Recent excursions have included the Meeker Mansion in Puyallup, the Neely Mansion in Auburn and a slew of cemeteries and private homes. Although the team has researched haunted locations throughout Southeast King County, Vacknitz said they have yet to find solid proof of ghosts Tonight, group members are combing through Kent's historic Bereiter House, a city-owned museum originally built as the home for a local lumber tycoon. Norm Turner, president of the Kent Historical Society, which oversees the museum, says rumors of strange things happening at the house are nothing new. Museum volunteers have long reported feelings of unease when working alone at night. One claimed that a display of children's dolls was mysteriously rearranged when the museum was closed overnight. Others have complained of strange voices and footsteps. "I don't know about ghosts, but I feel there must be spirits here," Turner says. Inside the Bereiter House, Vacknitz joins team members armed with the usual gadgets: cameras, audio recorders and a device to measure electrical currents to record unusual activity. On its last visit, the group recorded a man's voice inside the empty attic of the house. A historical-society board member said he had heard the voice before. Inside the house, the team investigates a steep set of steps on which visitors and volunteers often trip.