FATE magazine

If you are into Spirit Communications You’re Gonna Love This:The P-SB7 Frequency Sweep Radio from DAS

 Several years ago, in what now seems like a whole different world, I sat with a long -time friend and waxed poetic about the possibilities of real time spirit communications in the modern era. At that point Frank Sumption had about four of his hand made boxes in the field and word was filtering down about what users were hearing. Back then, getting a box was almost impossible, but the promise of being able to talk with the departed was tantalizing. Read the rest of this entry »

You Don’t Have to be Psychic to be a Good Paranormal Investigator

Probably the biggest problem found in field investigations involving paranormal activities can be centered on just how reliable the original reports are and the question of witness credibility. This is the keystone to the methodology utilized by the Association for the Study of Unexplained Phenomenon from its inception and the big difference found between us and the other seekers for the truth. Simply stated, the ASUP is grounded in using techniques found in every police training manual and utilized by student journalists around the globe. These techniques are both basic and effective in virtually every case. Read the rest of this entry »

Miracles: Response to Veronica Leuken mail

Blessed_Virgin

Some weeks ago I posted a blog on Miracles and the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which included a short take on Veronica Leuken, a Bayside N.Y. housewife who claimed to have had some 300 miraculous contacts with Mary, many while at meetings at the former Vatican Pavilion at the World’s Fair site in Flushing Meadow Park.  The personal response to this part of the blog was in a word, overwhelming.

It appears that the late Mrs. Leuken still has abundant followers, a website cataloguing her visions and messages received and a defense against anyone who suggests that the paranormal activity surrounding her was anything but a true visitation from Mary.  The bulk of the mail suggested that I had written about Leuken, basing my comments on well documented responses from the Catholic Church, who had specifically cautioned the woman to cease and desist her “ministry.” Read the rest of this entry »

Miracles Revisited: Other Mysteries and Conclusion

Raising of Lazarus by Carl Heinrich Bloch

In our journey through the Western World’s catalogue of what are commonly called miracles, we have turned our back on some rather striking examples of what fits our definition in Eastern culture. We have discussed the creation of the Tulpa in previous papers, as well as other rarely discussed mysteries found largely in the Orient.  But those are topics to be revisited sometime in the future, or by those better versed in those cultures.  For the moment, I would like to take a look at the largest single set of miracles we encounter, a phenomenon we see virtually every day; the miracle of spontaneous healings. Read the rest of this entry »

Miracles: Mass Sightings

Knock Basilica Visitations Ireland

Last time, we discussed Marian visitations such as Lourdes and Fatima, a religious theme that is well known worldwide, but was limited as far as actual viewers. This section on miracles will look at another kind of visitation, those involving mass sightings where multiple witnesses, sometimes in the thousands report seeing the identical apparitions. Please remember, it is our purpose here to investigate such cases with an eye to strictly paranormal explanations. Read the rest of this entry »

Miracles Revisited: Apparitions

Marion Apparition - Fra Bartolomeo 1504

Last time, we discussed bilocation, a religious theme that is common around the world and similarities between that phenomenon and later Out of Body and Remote Viewing projects. The time, we will be looking at another religious phenomenon, the apparition.

Apparitions were a part of the Bible, as well as many other religious texts over the centuries and are not exclusive to Christianity by any means, but the claims of religious apparitions seems to be greatest in Catholic history, the centerpiece of which is what we call Marian apparitions or the visitation of Mary the Mother of Jesus throughout the last 2000 years. While the apparitions of saints and even Jesus himself are recorded, by sheer numbers the Marian apparitions overwhelm all others, spanning the globe to every continent in a more or less constant timeline. Read the rest of this entry »

Miracles Revisited: Bilocation

St. Alphonsus Liguori 1696 - 1787

Some time ago I penned an article on miracles as they relate to the paranormal. This is a topic of great fascination, but it is often sidelined when someone suggests that they have no place in the secular research into the unexplained. As I suggested in that article, nothing could be further from the truth: some “miracles” are indeed topics for our study, but under a different name, while others beg to be researched from our unique prospective. To better illustrate the point, let’s take some time to look at several different kinds of miracles.

Probably the best miracle to begin with is bilocation (or in some cases trilocation); the ability of a person to physically be in more than one location at a time.  The bible is filled with these accounts, but within the Catholic Church we find some of the best research on the topic, simply because bilocation is considered a sign of high religious precept in an individual, and is thus meticulously catalogued in the process of sainthood. Thus we have volumes written about saintly bilocation over a period of a thousand years or more.

What kinds of case studies exist?  Let me give you just one.  On September 22, 1774 Alfonsus de Liguori was meditating and fasting in his cell at the Palace del Goti in Arezzo, Italy. After several hours he left his room and announced to his fellow residents that Pope Clement had died in Rome. But Rome was a day’s journey away back then; the monks only received official work of the Pontiff’s passing late the next evening. Read the rest of this entry »

Some Call It Universal Consciousness

A Look at Ghost Integrity

“Is anyone here?” the intrepid ghost hunter asks while walking into an empty room.  Nothing is heard, but later while listening to audio recordings of the session, there can be heard a faint response. The presence says very clearly, “No, I am not here!”

Some may interpret that answer as a lie; I tend to think of it as a great sense of humor.

If you subscribe to the theory that ghosts are the energy form of a deceased human, then you also have to deal with the reality of individual personality.  The world is full of humans, some happy, some sad, some helpful and some basically nasty.  We can expect nothing less of their earthbound spirits. We all know people who can’t lie, it is not in their nature to tell a fib, while we all also know habitual liars whose very existence depends of the game of misleading those around them. So too with ghosts, we can only assume, with every other variation in between. Read the rest of this entry »

Saying Good-by to 2009 – Paranormal Style!

Rick Moran

Well, 2009 is coming to a close and as in years past, folks expect that I will have some profound words of wisdom, possibly the paranormal investigator’s equivalent to Jean Dixon…sorry it doesn’t work like that! In fact, while preparing to write this blog I considered several year-end topics, but frankly my personality really detests retrospectives, so I will not allude to cheap tricks on Ghostie shows or pompous soothsayers who have to remind us how great they really are. Read the rest of this entry »

TV Ghost Hunting is NOT Reality TV – Rick Moran

 TV Ghost Hunting is NOT Reality TV – Rick Moran

Once upon a time, the objective of doing paranormal research was to seek the answer to one question; “Does the human consciousness survival bodily death?”  The assumption was that throughout recorded time, there have been ghosts, specters and things that go bump in the night which would lead you to believe that the dearly departed can return to this earthly existence.  The “Ghost Hunter” was born; that was several centuries ago! Read the rest of this entry »

No Santa? You have got to be kidding! – Rick Moran

Santa Claus

 ‘Twas the night before Christmas,

when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,

Read the rest of this entry »

There really is a right way to do a field investigation! – Rick Moran

Over the years, hundreds, if not thousands of people have attempted to outline the proper procedures when investigating the paranormal, noteworthy among them Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dr. William James and a plethora of modern “parapsychologists.”  It is only fair to say that while there are many wrong ways to investigate, there is probably no single right way, but it helps to have a game plan when you start out, even if you have to stray from it later on.

At the ASUP we have spent years perfecting our “playbook,” building on the successes of the past, as well as a long gristly line of disasters. The end result is also a work in progress, allowing us to learn new tricks as we proceed from case to case.  Some of our protocols have been copied wholesale by others, while many have modified them to their own use and that is good simply because it brings us all further in the pursuit of knowledge. No one should try to copyright this kind of thing, in its evolution lays the key to all of our success. Read the rest of this entry »

The Fourth Hypothesis Paranormal Mapping System – Rick Moran

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” I give to you the primary test of any good investigator, paranormal or otherwise. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned this phrase in The Sign of Four in 1890, part of the Sherlock Holmes series.  He also wrote, “There is nothing as deceptive as an obvious fact,” which also ties into my topic of the week, namely the scholarly work of Professor Tim Barth at Texas Christian University and his colleague, Don  Dansereau for The Fourth Hypothesis, a virtual map for the paranormal investigator! Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe the Question Should be “What?” – Rick Moran

In my last Blog, I talked about a period of time in the 1970s when, “for one shining moment, the doors were opened between parapsychology and UFOlogy.”  The period did not last all that long, but some interesting thoughts came from that era, including my,  Unified Theory of Everything, which suggested virtually every kind of unexplained phenomena is interrelated.  Of course, that was not a new idea; I just addressed the connections in a new way.  Many great researchers had given thought to this possibility, from Dr. Berthold Schwarz to D. Scott Rogo over the years, simply because the similarities found between haunting cases, and UFO reports contain so many aspects held in common. Read the rest of this entry »

When Paranormal Investigating and UFOlogy Meet, Good Things Happen! – Rick Moran

Once upon a time, not all that long ago, there was one bright moment when paranormal investigators and those involved in the study of unidentified flying objects joined forces in an attempt to tackle one of the great mysteries of our time.  It was the 1980s, when cattle mutilations, strange objects in the skies and a plethora of other worldly creatures were being reported all over the United States and while no single explanation was every successfully put forward, the phenomenon held elements of both disciplines of paranormal investigation and UFOlogy.

Recently, I have been receiving a lot of e-mail revisiting these kinds of “sightings,” but the writers are not asking about historic cases, rather they are raising new questions about things happening once again all over the country.  Some UFOlogists see this as a new “flap” of activity, while others are beginning to question if what the “ghost hunters” are chasing is sometimes the same activity being reported in UFO circles.  Read the rest of this entry »

Trick or Treat — Some Halloween Notes for Safety – Rick Moran

Spooky Halloween

 Tools are only as good as the people who utilize them. Well that sounds obvious enough, but last week I watched a “paranormal TV” program that had their ace adventurer using a standard thermo-coupler incorrectly.  Given how he was manhandling it, he could never really tell you how cold, or hot, a reported cold spot was in front of him.  Of course, the short answer is that these shows are at best recreations and at worst pure entertainment, so it does not matter, but I think it does simply because people are watching and some of them will want to go into the field themselves to experience a taste of the unexplained. Read the rest of this entry »

Demonic Possession – Some Quick Tips and History

Probably due to the number of TV programs that point to the Demonic in paranormal occurrences, I still get loads of mail from folks who want to know more about the true nature of these frightening phenomena. Starting with William Peter Blatty’s novel The Exorcist, America has been fascinated with the topic. Today, there are those among us that see a demon behind every closet door, in every basement or attic, which has been a source of great amusement for me, given the fact that over my entire career I have only had three truly demonic encounters. I tend to lose it however when I hear about movie producers who want to make a film about an “exorcism” at a real case that was never identified as being in any way demonic! Read the rest of this entry »

New FATE Blogger – Rick Moran

Rick Moran the newest FATE blogger

FATE magazine welcomes Rick Moran as a new FATE Blogger

Rick Moran, is the Coordinator of the Association for the Study of Unexplained Phenomenon, (ASUP Inc.) a 501 (c)(3) non-profit research and educational corporation, and has been a contributor to FATE Magazine for more than 40 years, first appearing in its pages in May of 1978 with an article entitled, The Amityville Horror Hoax.

Since then he has authored hundreds of magazine article and several academic “white papers” on the paranormal and been actively involved as a field investigator in well over 900 cases to date. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking Back – Looking Ahead

I was honored to receive a call earlier this week from FATE, asking me if I wanted to be a Blogger for our new website. I have been a contributor to FATE for over 40 years, starting with an article entitled the Amityville Horror Hoax in 1978 and over the years, I was proud of my association with the magazine and its staff. With the creation of a new Blog and Website, FATE is entering a new era and one that I am happy to be part of at a time when the study of the paranormal is on the upswing.

A good deal has changed in the last 40 years. When I began, you had little more than a notepad and pencil and maybe a thermometer borrowed off the back porch at home. I first used a tape recorder to listen for disembodied voices in a haunted building in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1972 using a Wollensak reel-to-reel tape deck that weighed in at almost 40 lbs. Read the rest of this entry »