The Outer Edge

The Paranormal Nature of Numbers – Marie D. Jones’ OUTER EDGE

February 24, 2016 By The Paranormal Braintrust

We usually think of the paranormal as the invisible world of ghosts, entities and otherworldly abilities like remote viewing, ESP and precognition. Paranormal is “beyond normal;” things we cannot yet explain within the confines of modern science. But nature, and reality, holds mysteries equally paranormal, and yet utterly scientific in their origin and explanation. One of those mysteries involves the absolutely wild and wacky world of…wait for it…numbers.

Most of us cannot stand math and hate balancing our checkbooks (although most of us do that online now!). Mention numbers and people cringe, instantly associating them with bad memories of junior high school math quizzes and big, fat F’s at the top of the test. Those strange creatures that do love math, and its associated studies of geometry, algebra, calculus and physics, know that numbers go far beyond their appearance. They harbor a magical power of their own, both creative and destructive. In fact, physicists will tell you that at the heart of reality itself, the language of the universe and the foundational basis for life goes back to…numbers. Math. Mathematical ratios.

Throughout nature, we find grouped number sequences and patterns that form the underlying structures to everything from flowers to seashells to the way tornadic winds develop. Two of the most enigmatic examples of this are the Golden Ratio, and the Fibonacci Spiral, both of which imply a higher order of measurement behind what many of us take for granted, including our own physical bodies.

The Golden Ratio, also known as the Divine Ratio, the Divine Section, the Golden Ration and the Golden Mean, is an irrational number of approximately 1.618033988749. This specific ratio is considered more divinely inspired than any other because it is found throughout nature as the highest expression of balance, symmetry and aesthetics. The fundamental formula behind the Golden Ratio is described as the ratio whereby the ratio of the whole to the larger section equals the ratio of the larger section to the smaller section. It is also referred to as “phi.”

So where do we find this wonderful ratio at work? How about the Great Pyramid of Giza, the structure of a five-pointed star or Pentagram, the outline of the Acropolis near Athens, Greece (a Golden Rectangle), and most famously, our own bodies, as portrayed by Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Vitruvian Man.” Look at the image and you’ll see the Golden Ratio at work in the correspondences between the body and its parts, the greater whole to the lesser limbs.

The Vitruvian Man comes from the ancient Roman architect, Vitruvius, whose “De Architectura” inspired da Vinci’s fascination with the Golden Ratio and his use of the ratio in his paintings The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. In fact, in the Mona Lisa, da Vinci used the Golden Rectangle for her face, presenting the perfectly symmetrical ratio of the width of her forehead compared to the length of the top of her head to her chin. Her face is said to have been considered the perfect face of a woman, at least by standards of the past!

The Last Supper contains three vertical Golden Rectangles, and one decagon, a Golden Ratio shape, for the figure of Jesus. You would never know this upon viewing the painting, and that’s on purpose. It’s an aesthetic that is pleasing to the eye, but without the observer really knowing why.

The use of Golden sections and geometric ratios are often done for their aesthetic value alone, but sometimes it goes beyond the looks of things. Certain Celtic and Indian labyrinths and mandalas used Golden Ratios to create spiritual resonance with symmetry and measurement, affecting the observer perhaps on a subconscious level, where symbolism and pattern reign supreme, as well as a physiological one.

One of the most widely known and most fascinating Golden Ratios is the Fibonacci Sequence or Spiral, originally discovered by Leonardo of Pisa, born in 1170 C.E. Leonardo also went by the name Leonardo Fibonacci, or just simply, Fibonacci, which basically means “son of Bonaccio.” Fibonacci, as we will call him, was the man responsible for the spread of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system into Europe, but he was much more widely known for a sequence of numbers that run as such: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and so on…

Fibonacci wrote a book in the 13th century titled “Liber Abaci,” or the “Book of Calculations,” and in it, he presented his brilliant knowledge of Middle Eastern mathematical systems, and the above sequence of numbers. This particular sequence is a series of numbers designed so that each number after the first two numbers is the sum of the previous two numbers. The higher the numbers in the sequence, the closer the two consecutive numbers divided by each other approach the Golden Ratio of 1:1.618.

In nature, Fibonacci noted that this sequence is present in spiral structural patterns, as well as the way leaves grow on a stem in several species of flora, and the manner by which lightning branches out, the way rivers branch, even the proportions of bodies to wingspans of birds and flying insects. Even snowflakes had a distinct geometric pattern of formation, as well as our own DNA. These ratios and sequences were EVERYWHERE.

One of the best examples of the Fibonacci Spiral is the Chambered Nautilus, a marine cephalopod that actually grows at a rate matching the Fibonacci sequence! Some scientists have posited that this structure could just be a logical outcome of the natural principal of geometric designs and not necessarily some mystical, paranormal aspect of divine intelligence. Although we might argue that whatever created all of nature sure did an intricate job and seemed to enjoy sophisticated patterns and ratios!

And nowhere might this play out on such a massive scale as in the theory that our entire universe can be whittled down to just six numbers – well, mathematical ratios that if tweaked ever so slightly in one direction or another could have prevented biological life from ever evolving on Earth.

The most vocal proponent of the “just six numbers” theory is Sir Martin Rees, Britain’s Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge University, and the Astronomer Royal. In his book “Just Six Numbers,” Rees proposes six sophisticated ratios that allow for the formation of chemicals and gases, planets and solar systems, and…us.

Nu – “N” – with the value of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. This massive number is the ratio of the strength of electrical forces holding atoms together, divided by the force of gravity between them.
Epsilon – 0.007. This ratio is the proportion of energy released when hydrogen fuses into helium. This ratio defines how firmly atomic nuclei bind together and how all atoms on earth were made. The value of Epsilon controls the power of the sun and how stars transmute hydrogen into all the atoms of the periodic table.
Omega – The cosmic number 1. This measures the amount of material in the Universe and refers to the relative importance of gravity and the expansion energy of the Universe.
Lambda – This is the force of cosmic antigravity, discovered in 1998, and is an extremely small number. It controls the expansion of the Universe.
Q = 1/100,000 – This is the basis for all cosmic structures – stars, galaxies, clusters, imprinted in the Big Bang. This is the fabric of our Universe and represents the ratio of two fundamental energies.
Delta – 3 – This is the number of spatial dimensions in our universe.

Rees and his colleagues all agree that if any of the above six ratio/numbers were ever-so-slightly plus or minus in variation, our Universe would be a totally different thing, if it could exist at all, suggesting an incredible sophistication to the design of all of reality. Though many choose to impose a religious connotation to the idea of Intelligent Design, many astrophysicists and astronomers suggest there is indeed an intelligence behind the incredibly intricate ratios and laws of the universe…although that intelligence does by no means imply an anthropomorphic one.

There is another number, called “N,” which dictates just how large our Universe is allowed to get. Beyond that value, or below it, the gravitational force might exceed the electric force, and the Universe would cease to exist. To think that our own existence is based upon such fine-tuned numbers is amazing, but also a bit terrifying, when we think of how one little slip of that tuning could lead to unimaginable catastrophe.

In his book, “The Goldilocks Enigma: Why the Universe is Just Right for Life,” physicist Paul Davies stated that our ancient ancestors were very much aware that beneath the surface complexity of the cosmos was a deeper, hidden code, and that code was written in the language of mathematics. Science, says Davies, “has uncovered the existence of this concealed mathematical domain.” Thus, the most fundamental basis for existence comes down to numbers, and as many scientists have suggested, any alien civilization that may want to communicate with us would do so in the language of mathematics, not words, because mathematics is a true language that goes beyond borders, boundaries, cultures and traditions. Mathematical laws, ratios and rules apply anywhere, anytime, to anyone. Aliens might indeed have their own specific languages on their home planet, as we do, for communicating with each other, but when it comes to speaking with those of another planet or civilization, they would most likely choose the universally understood language of measurement and ratio.

But most of us really don’t want to think about the structure of the cosmos. We are more interested in how numbers play a paranormal role in our day-to-day lives, and they do so via patterns. Whether we are talking about the structure of a flower on a stalk, or our own bodies, or the repetition of number sequences our brain might seek out in the forms of time prompts and number “pokes” from the spirit world, as some call them, there is a part of our subconscious that responds to the true symbolic nature of numbers and number patterns. Perhaps this is why so many of us are drawn to mandalas, labyrinths, and even intricate crop circles, whether manmade or otherwise. We are responding to the symmetry and the aesthetic value of the structure both consciously, and subconsciously.

The brilliant physicist and father of quantum theory, Werner Heisenberg, believed that the most fundamental aspect of nature was particle symmetry. F. David Peat, a physicist and author of a number of books on science and quantum physics, wrote in “Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Mind and Matter,” that “symmetries could be thought of as the archetypes of all matter and the ground of material existence.” But he went one step father, suggesting that it might be possible that archetypal symmetries might manifest themselves in the internal structures of the mind, as well as having the “immanent and formative role that is responsible for the exterior forms of nature.” If this sounds a lot like the ancient Hermetic “as above so below,” or as within, so without, well, that’s because truth is truth and stands the test of time. Our ancestors knew that there was a profound link, or perhaps we might say, symmetry, between what went on in the cosmos and what happened here on the Earthly plane, and our modern scientists seem to be catching up to that understanding.

Symmetries, patterns, ratios that are so magical they are considered “golden,” all of which form the perfectly tuned music of the spheres, the structure of the cosmos, and everything within them. So, does this suggest that some God was responsible, or perhaps a giant cosmic computer spitting out its and bits of information to create a sophisticated blueprint of creation? Is this a matter of “confirmation bias” in the human brain and our desire to seek patterns to fit meanings, or vice versa…or is there a hidden infrastructure of reality that is based entirely on the ratio of one measurement to another?

Either way, it all goes back to numbers.

—

Marie D. Jones is the author of several books about the paranormal, metaphysics, and cutting-edge science (many coauthored with Larry Flaxman), including PSIence, The Déjà vu Enigma, Destiny vs. Choice: The Scientific and Spiritual Evidence Behind Fate and Free Will,11:11 The Time Prompt Phenomenon and Mind Wars. She has appeared on more than 1,000 radio shows worldwide, and on television, most recently on the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series. Her website is mariedjones.com.

FAKELORE – Marie D Jones’ Outer Edge

February 6, 2016 By The Paranormal Braintrust

FAKELORE – Folklore, Urban Legends and the Rise of the Creepypasta (And I Ain’t Talkin’ Linguini!)”

From the dawn of humanity, we’ve told stories. Whether to convey important information, or just entertain each other, we’ve spun tall tales, woven fables and concocted legends, often of real people and events, embellished with fantastical elements layered thick as lasagna. And speaking of pasta, with the advent of the Internet and the ability to spread stories and information all over the world at lightning speed, we’ve become masters at the art of a type of viral storytelling called “fakelore.” Okay, so the pasta reference comes a bit later.

The use of myth, legend, folklore and fairy tales is an important part of our cultural development, both regionally and globally. Through stories, our ancestors give us clues to what their lives and experiences were like, even if those clues were embedded below levels and levels of sheer imagination. Oral tradition allowed for the conveyance of information, often via stories, to carry down through generations, somewhat intact, despite a few alterations here and there. With the advent of the written word, believe it or not, those alterations became more widespread. It may sound counterintuitive to say that oral passing of information is more accurate than getting it in writing, but our ancestors were a lot like we are today. When writing, they altered and embellished, simply because they had the time and the opportunity to do so.

Think about it. If you’re telling a story orally, you better tell it quick and you better tell it well, or you’ll quickly lose your audience. Unless it’s your dog. But with writing, one could take more time to get the story across, and even add in a little personal spin, a little personal style, and a little personal interpretation. A story that might take five minutes to tell via the mouth could end up a fifty-page novella complete with vampires, zombies and aliens. The written word may have allowed us as a species to communicate MORE…but not necessarily BETTER.

So today, we may look at legend, myth, folklore and fairy tales as sheer fiction, and yet, we are doing ourselves a disservice, because often at the heart of these incredulous tales, there is a nugget of truth. The stories may indeed be telling us key elements about a historical person or event, and it’s up to us today to properly interpret them. This is how legends come down to us from generation to generation, even to the point of being taught in schools. Remember the giant lumberjack, Paul Bunyan, and his blue ox, Babe? Blue ox? Really? How about Johnny Appleseed and the pan he wore on his head.

And yet, legends begin with people or events that are, well, legendary. In a thousand years, people will be telling stories about a goofy guy with a bad toupee who ran for president one year…or a grumpy cat that had more fans than Jesus. Oops, did I say that? Legends begin in reality, and morph into a more fictional scenario as they are passed on down the line.

The same might be said for folklore, fairy tales and even myths, which often portray events that history can back up, yet in the context of fiction. Mythology is a form of communication noted for giving us the “science” of our ancestors in a language they understood. Think of the gods and goddesses of planets and the ocean and volcanoes. These deities represented natural events our distant ancestors had no real scientific understanding of, thus their experience of it came out as wild, imaginative myths rampant with magic and strange beasts and ladies with snakes for hair. They didn’t know about seismic waves and fault lines and calderas, or tornadic winds and storm cells. They didn’t even understand how the stars and planets above them formed, but they sure held them in awe, which inspired their stories.

But the truth is, myths hid truths, whether scientific, behavioral or sociological that scholars today now uncover and look at the same way an archeologist digs up a pot and tries to determine its age, its use, and why it has “Made in China” on the bottom. Just kidding. Not everything is made in China. Vulcan working at his forge beneath the volcano was an ancient, albeit uneducated way of trying to figure out how the red-hot lava spewed out of the top of a shaking and shuddering mountain. Surely it had to involved a pissed off deity! The name “volcano” comes the island of Vulcano, located in the Mediterranean Sea near Sicily. Romans believed that Volcano was the chimney to the god Vulcan’s workshop. They also believed that the earthquakes that shook the ground around the island came from Vulcan working in his shop, creating weapons for the gods to make war on one another.

They knew what was happening, i.e. a volcano erupting, but didn’t have the scientific vocabulary or acumen to properly tell us, so they told us in a way that they could.. They told us a myth…a story.

Today, we have this lovely thing called the Internet, and with the advent of lightning speed communication of information, we can post a story on a website or forum and within seconds, someone across the globe will be reading it, and reposting it, and so on and so on. This is how stories today go viral, and yet some of them go viral under the premise they might be true, even as their creators insist they are simply fiction.

I remember the first time my son used the word “creepypasta.” I was offended, thinking he hated my spaghetti, but he explained that there are websites and forums online that allow people to post stories, usually horror, for others to read and take viral. Some of these stories were taken so seriously by readers that they started actually claiming to see the monsters or the entities in the stories, which, please remember, were entirely made up by contributors and not real at all. I wanted to know more, because to me, this was a truly intriguing sociological phenomenon.

A creepypasta is fakelore, usually of the horror genre, or even just a picture or image that gets copied and pasted to online forums and sites, and goes viral. The term “creepypasta” actually comes from “copypasta,” which involves literally copying and pasting information to forums and sites that allow it. One such site, 4chan, is a cross between Pinterest, where people “pin” images they like onto their “page,” and reddit, a hugely popular forums site that younger people flock to with information on just about everything under and over the sun. I asked my son about 4chan and he said, “Mom, you don’t want to go there, trust me.” So I didn’t. According to him, the things people post run the gamut from pure smut to disgusting and gross, and I have enough of that raising a kid and a dog. One very popular meme that came out of the bowels of 4chan is the Rickrolling phenom that took the Internet by storm a few years ago, involving strange and unexpected videos of pop star Rick Astley suddenly appearing on screen singing “Never Gonna Give You Up.” If you’ve never been Rickrolled, you’ve been living under a rock!

Creepypastas can be about urban legends, crimes and gruesome murders that never took place, but the tone of the stories is often so realistic, anyone who didn’t know they were fictional might be easily misled. Some of the stories on the various creepypasta sites and Wikis are downright bone chilling!

But my son was hooked for awhile on the Creepypasta stories, most notably one called “Slender Man,” which became such a huge rage, he even wore a Slender Man costume to Comic Con, and was one of thousands doing likewise. Apparently, this utterly sinister entity, totally fictional mind you, came from the twisted brain of one Eric Knudsen, also known as Victor Surge, for a forum called “Something Awful.” He created the image as a meme, of a very tall, slender man with no face wearing a black suit and white shirt and collar, with tie. This spectral entity was said to lurk near places children played or went to school, and legend had it (there’s that word, legend again!) if you looked at Slender Man, you would die on the spot. Slender Man would abduct children and was eventually linked to the more paranormal “shadow people” entities being reported worldwide. Yet this one was not real…

The frightening figure that is the Slenderman from creepypasta fame. — Slender Man

The stories proliferated, and the legend grew, and soon Slender Man was, as stated earlier, a popular Halloween and Con costume, but also a very scary example of how something totally fake could, well, take on a life of its own, even spawning potential acts of violence. In 2014, two teenage girls were arrested in Waukesha, Wisconsin after they stabbed a classmate and left her for dead, claiming Slender Man told them to commit the crime. The stabbing victim recovered, but will no doubt be scarred physically and emotionally for life, all because two girls believed in something that was nothing more than the brainchild of a creative imagination. IT WASN’T REAL. IT ISN’T REAL. And yet…if you read some of the alleged reports, they sound so authentic. Chalk it up to good writing skills!

Scholars have dubbed things like this “digital folklore,” and they are a real phenomenon worthy of study, combining true elements of folk tales with modern methods of fast communication. The perfect storm for spreading a story to millions of people even before anyone can say, “It’s fake!” The power of mass communication has taken fakelore to a new level. But where oral and written traditions of old have stood the test of time, fakelore suffers from quick burnout and the overwhelming amount of new stories available with a few keystrokes. Slender Man is no longer very popular. Now the “kids” are onto something else, like zombie apocalypses and human/alien hybrids in their schools.

Like folklore, fakelore can sometimes include nuggets of truth or be based on or inspired by a true person or event. One such piece of creepypasta fakelore is called Jeff the Killer, and involves a very sinister looking teenage boy named Jeff whose face was badly burned by a bully, causing him to go insane, and sport a sinister smile much like the Heath Ledger version of the Joker. Jeff the Killer became a serial killer with the M.O. of sneaking into his victims homes, whispering in their ear, “Go to sleep,” then killing them. Jeff the Killer is a feared person, if you read the stories, and it almost sounds like people believe he is real, possibly because of our inherent fear of “copycats,” who might be prone to take this fictional stuff and adopt the identities and characteristics and behaviors. Copycat killers pop up whenever we hear about real serial killers…why not those that aren’t quite real? To a crazy person, the mind doesn’t distinguish much difference.

There is also a humanoid entity called The Rake that has created its own place in the creepypasta Hall of Fame. Like Slender Man, this cyptozoological thing on four legs with glowing red eyes, said to attach people for no reason and cause severe psychological trauma in its victims, has spawned hundreds of eyewitness sightings (dating back to the 1690s!), if you believe the reports on the various sites. Some of them sound terrifyingly genuine, and herein lies the curse of storytelling…it can sound awfully close to the truth, and we are left to figure out what is fact and what is fiction. One glance at The Rake’s own Wiki page and you can see the many drawings and renditions people have made over the years. It’s like fan art and fan fiction!

Perhaps the creepypasta entities and creatures are not all that far removed from stories and reports of Bigfoot, Nessie, Mothman, Thunderbirds, and even Skunk Ape, a Florida cryptid with its own urban legend. And perhaps they are not that far removed from the paranormal entities many people report, such as shadow figures, black-eyed kids, apparitions and demons. Even urban lore such as Bloody Mary, you know, that chick you’re supposed to see when you stand before the bathroom mirror and chant her name three times, fall into the category of fakelore. Has anyone actually proven Bloody Mary exists, outside of bars and Super Bowl parties, that is? Some say she is the image of a woman named Mary Worth burned at the stakes during the witch trials. Another legend suggests she’s a fortune teller who will predict your future husband by making his image appear in a mirror if you follow her ritual. Another still suggests she is the spirit of Mary Tudor of England who had Protestants put to death during her reign, thus giving her the name “Bloody Mary.” Others suggest her popularity with young girls has to do with a connection between their anxiety over beginning menstruation manifesting in a spectral form. Hmmmm. And yet, that piece of lore continues to spawn countless trips to the bathroom at night by groups of giggling teenage girls or gullible boys. Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary. Make mine with a sprig of celery, please!

My son has long since moved on from his fascination with Slender Man and his creepypasta friends, now that he is older and knows that even though Paul Bunyan might have been really, really, really tall, it’s doubtful he had a blue ox. And he knows that Johnny Appleseed was a real person important to the apple industry, but perhaps not quite as eccentric as stories labeled him. As we become more educated, we realize that stories are both a blend of the real and the unreal, the normal and the paranormal, the natural and the supernatural…Okay, I’ll stop. Stories combine fact and fiction in order to influence and affect the right and left brain, the subconscious and the conscious. Often stories contain symbols, motifs and themes that have a deeper meaning only understood by our subconscious minds. Often they contain fairies and elves and beasties and three-headed hydras, which may simply be the creepypasta creations of the subconscious realm.

The bottom line is, folklore and fakelore are almost indistinguishable, unless one has access to the exact origin point of said tall tale. In the case of Slender Man, we know who created the damn thing, and we know where and when. That is where its power should end. With other legendary beasties and entities, we may not have that information at hand, and that is why many legends continue to be passed down to younger generations. Until someone proves it’s true or false, and locates the original perpetrator of said story, we are left to guess. We are left to imagine.

Slender Man may simply be a monster created from the collective mind of humanity, birthed onto a website as a just-for-fun meme that caused real fear in the hearts of many. Whether or not he lurks around the elementary school or parks and takes kids, or is simply a symbol of the perverts that we truly need to fear that do abduct children, is a part of the sociological importance of legend and lore, even fakelore.

What is it trying to tell us about ourselves?

—

You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry: Christmas Legends, Lore and Ghost Stories – Marie D. Jones’ The Outer Edge

December 16, 2015 By The Paranormal Braintrust

As children lay snug in their beds, dreaming of sugarplums, or more likely, Xbox One and the newest Star Wars merchandise, Santa Claus prepares to make his way down the chimney and leave toys wrapped in bright paper under the tree. At least that’s what part of the world believes, for when it comes to Christmas, there are all kinds of traditions and legends, many of which take on a much darker tone than a jolly fat guy in a red and white velvet suit who works only one night a year and loves kids.

Legends are often based upon actual people who existed long ago. Their stories over time are embellished and altered according to whomever is telling the story, which makes it hard to discern fact from fiction. Often in the case of pagan traditions, newer religions tack on their own traditions or obliterate the original pagan symbols, creating a mash-up character such as Santa Claus. We all learned his story in school, but did you know there also exists an “anti-Santa?”

Bum bum BUUUUUUUM!!!

So, many of you may be familiar with Krampus. He’s even got his own Facebook memes, which in this day and age is the hallmark of fame. This German/Alpine legendary figure was said to be an actual companion to St. Nicholas, the gift-giving Greek Saint and Bishop of Myra, who later morphed into Santa Claus with a few modern add-ons (think Rudolph, ho-ho-ho and elves!), and has a distinct pre-Christian origin. This somewhat humanlike creature has a pagan bent, and is more associated with punishing children who don’t behave, than rewarding children who do (even though tradition states he did reward kids as well!). Krampus, which might be an offshoot of the pagan Horned God of the witches, or even a masked devil figure (which later became the Christian devil) is portrayed as hideous and frightening. He sometimes has brown hair, sometimes black, with cloven hooves and goat horns, and a long tongue. Sounds devilish, right? He carries chains, too, which he thrashes about, along with ruten, or bundles of birch branches he swats kids with. Other versions show him carrying a sack or tub that he uses to carry bad children in, and even drown and eat them in. Nice guy for a Saint to be hanging out with, am I right?

Parents would threaten to take bad children in a sack to be dropped off with Krampus (Good Lord, no wonder so many kids end up in therapy!). He even has his own celebratory night, December 5th, one night before the Feast of Saint Nicholas, when he would appear to the public as a hairy devilish creature, sometimes alone, sometimes with his pal, St. Nicholas, visiting homes and businesses. He appeared on Christmas cards in the 1800s and spawned a number of regional celebrations in his honor, featuring pre-Christian rituals and symbols.

Funnily, or maybe not so funnily, the Austrian government actually prohibited Krampus traditions after the Civil War in 1934, and in the 1950s, went so far as to hand out pamphlets stating poor Krampus was an “Evil Man.” It may have suppressed Krampus activities then, but today, Krampus celebrations are once again popular in many European countries, and now in the United States as well. Just this year in 2015, he even got his own movie!

Another German Christmas legend, because Germany cannot have too many twisted traditions, is the story of Belsnickel, a creepy figure in rags and old furs who carries a switch and threatens little children with a whoopin’ if they don’t behave. Belsnickel roams from house to house for weeks before Christmas. If he doesn’t show up at your door, be on the lookout for another crafty German creep named Knecht Ruprecht, which translates to “farmhand Rupert” or “Servant Rupert,” who wears a long beard, brown cloak and holds a staff. He goes around asking little children if they pray. If they do, they get a goodie like some yummy gingerbread. If they don’t pray, well, they can get a punishment in the form of junk, which, if the children refuse, then leads to a beating with a bag of ashes. Tip to the children of Germany – behave and no matter what, say you pray!!!

A similar tradition exists in Sweden and Finland, also involving a goat-like character that visits homes and demands food and alcohol. No, we’re not talking about your ugly drunk Uncle Peter. We’re talking about Nuuttipukki, who wears a leather or birch mask, horns and fur. The tradition has its origins in the life of Canute Lavard, a Danish Duke who was sainted after his death and given January 7th as a holiday. “Knut’s Day” is still celebrated today, albeit with a more positive slant. Apparently, the Swedes and Finns didn’t like anyone taking their food and booze!

In the upper German region of the Alps exists another tradition of a pagan goddess of both good and bad, darkness and light, bodacious beauty and butt-ugly! Her name is Perchta (also known as Berchta) and is often identified with other goddesses such as Holda, Frija, Diana, and Herodias. Perchta appears in two forms, either beautiful and snow white, or as an old hag. Perhaps this is where the Snow White story originated from, for Perchta was indeed a lovely goddess of spinning and weaving, adorned in a white robe, pure as snow. Yet she also led the wild hunt, had one foot bigger than the other, and could shape shift into animals.

Perchta roamed the countryside, going from house to house (a lot of these legendary figures sound like Jehovah’s Witnesses!), leaving a coin in the shoes of good little children who were well behaved. If they weren’t well behaved or hadn’t completed their chores, then she took a whole different tactic. She would gut the children by slitting their stomachs open and take out their guts, replacing them with straw and rocks. She would even do this if someone missed her feast day or ate something she didn’t approve of. Not a very nice lady, which makes you wonder why anyone opened their door to her in the first place!

She was accompanied by an entourage of Perchten, usually men wearing ghoulish animal masks, some of which were beautiful and for good luck, and others, hideous, with horns and fangs. Of interest to the paranormal crowd, men dressed as the ugly Perchten in the 16th century would go from home to home to drive out demons and spirits. Were they the original exorcists, or just celebrants of this highly symbolic goddess of duality?

CLICK HERE to check out The Haunted Housewife’s Holiday Gift Guide For The Paranormal Peeps On Your Shopping List!

Don’t just blame Germany for all the angst in children; Iceland has its own country legend, a terrifying lady ogre named Gryla who feeds on naughty little kids. She has three heads, three eyes per head, ice blue eyes at the back of her head, long fingernails like talons, and goat horns. (There’s that goat symbolism again). She also sports a chin beard. Gryla is said to have trolls called Yule Lads that help her find children to cook and eat. She had as many as three husbands and 70+ kids, some of which were murderous little buggers. Iceland had the good sense in 1746 to prohibit talk of Gryla because it scared children too much. Let’s hope the United States does something similar with Common Core math!

Another Iceland myth involves a cat, Jolakotturinn, or the Yule Cat. The Yule Cat was an evil kitty that ate lazy children, or at least that’s what parents used to tell their children to get them to finish their chores. I’ll take Grumpy Cat any day over this crazy feline.

Italy celebrates the legend of the witch known as La Befana, who flies on her broomstick during the night of January 5 and fills stockings with toys and sweets for good children and lumps of coal for bad ones. According to the legend, the night before the Wise Men arrived at the manger where Christ was born, they stopped at the shack of an old woman to ask directions (men asking for directions? Surely this is a legend and not real?). They invited her to accompany them on their journey, but she was too busy and refused. A shepherd came along and asked her to join him, but again she refused. Later that night, she saw a bright star in the sky and was moved to join the Wise Men and the shepherd, bringing gifts that had belonged to her dead child to offer to the Christ infant.

Two of the more, well, interesting legends come to us from around Spain; the Catatonia legend of The Caganer, and the Spanish Tio de Nadal. Both involve something not usually associated with the holidays, unless you’re talking about Santa’s reindeer and a high fiber intake.

Poop. Yes, you read that right. Poop.

The Caganer is a legend from Catalonia, Portugal and Southern France, involving a rather ancient character, a peasant in a red had and trousers pulled down to his knees, who apparently, as legend has it, had to do a “number two” while the Christ child was being born. He is depicted as being evil, but maybe he just ate too much bran that day. Can you give a guy a break? Rumor has it when the Spanish city of Barcelona tried to ban the festival in his honor, there was enough of an outcry to restore the festival. I cannot even BEGIN to imagine what kind of festival it is, and what people do there. Use your imagination.

Some scholars note that this story is highly symbolic of the act of fertilizing the earth to bring about new life. I can buy that, especially with the belief that the Winter Solstice was symbolic of death and the return to light and the coming of spring. A little fertilizer goes a long way to ensuring new growth! Just ask anyone who lives on a golf course.

Tio de Nadal is actually not a person…but a log. A log that poops out goodies such as nuts and fruits. And if you sing to it and burn it in the fireplace, you might even get better gifts than trail mix. The English translation of part of the song goes as follows:

“Poop Log, poop turron,
Hazelnuts and cottage cheese.
If you don’t poop well,
I’ll hit you with with a stick, Poop Log.”

Look, I don’t make this stuff up, I just write about it.

Here in the United States, we have a much less sinister legend in the making, involving a cute little elf that sits on a shelf. “The Elf on the Shelf” started out as nothing more than a book written by a mother and daughter. They got the idea over a cup of tea and self published the book in 2004, which quickly became a sensation, spawning more holiday memes than Charlie Brown or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The book is about Santa’s team of scout elves who visit homes before Christmas to watch over people’s behaviors before reporting back to the North Pole. Scout elves hide all over the house and it’s up to the family to find them, and name them. Oh, it’s all good fun and games, except for some critics who responded by labeling the elves bullies who spy on kids and invade people’s privacy.

Maybe they work for the NSA?

Perhaps we don’t have as many holiday legends as Europe does, but we do like our Christmas ghosts. The holidays serve as a time when the sun shines less, there is more dark than light, and we often turn our thoughts to those we no longer have around, loved ones who have passed on. Perhaps this in part helps to explain our obsession with one of the most famous ghost stories ever written, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” If you haven’t seen any of the numerous versions on television, in the movies or in book form, well, you are living under a rock. The famous Dickens tale is a part of accepted Christmas tradition for millions, maybe because it tells a story we can all relate to.

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English writer Charles John Huffman Dickens first published his novella, or short novel, “A Christmas Carol” under the shortened name Charles Dickens back in December of 1843. It has since become a true classic ghost story that is both parable and morality tale. It tells the story of one grinchy, grouchy Ebenezer Scrooge, a businessman in London whose partner Jacob Marley had died exactly seven years ago. Marley turns up one cold Christmas eve moaning and dragging chains, as many ghosts do, to tell Scrooge he will be visited by three ghosts that night. The ghosts represent Christmases past, present and future, and all are attempts to teach the selfish grump some humility and charity before it’s too late.

Over the course of the visits, Scrooge looks back at the error of his ways and begins to repent. On Christmas morning, when he awakens, he is a new man with a big heart, ready to make amends for the sins of his past.

Bah humbug.

But this tale is more than just a cool ghost story. It’s a story that reminds us of the importance of humility, love, caring and sharing. And it is certainly not the only old ghost story that sports a holiday setting. No doubt, the legends written about earlier became ghost stories of today that many a German or Nordic child hears at holiday time.

During the Victorian and Elizabethan eras, it was normal to sit around all those dark nights by the fire and spin a ghost tale or two, just as we would do today if we weren’t buried in technology or football games. Other authors such as MR James, Henry James, Washington Irving, William Makepeace Thackeray, and even the likes of HP Lovecraft have all written spooky stories set at Yule time. In his wonderful December 2011 article, “Christmas Spirits: The Origins of Ghost Stories at Christmas,” for Hypnogoria.com, author Jim Moon sums up the proliferation of ghost stories related to the holidays rather succinctly:

“In the long, cold evenings, when the soil had been tilled to the extent that climactic conditions permitted, the still predominantly agricultural community of early modern England would sit and while away the hours of darkness with fireside pastimes, among them old wives’ tales designed to enthrall young and old alike.”

Even Shakespeare understood the connection between the dark nights of winter and a good ghost story. “A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one of Sprits and Goblins.”

For just as we love telling ghost stories over campfires at night, or huddled as children under blanket forts, our ancestors loved a good ghost story during the cold, dark winter nights that went on forever. What better way to pass the time than scaring the living daylights out of one another?

At least until television came along.

So while there may be a lot of ghost stories set during Christmas, and even told during Christmas, it most likely has much more to do with the symbolism of December 21st and the Winter Solstice as the darkest day of the year, than the idea that ghosts exist more abundantly over the holidays. Halloween probably holds that claim to fame.

The stories and legends of Christmas remind us of the past and those we left behind, but also of more ancient, even primitive times, when humans were more focused on nature than technology; when oral and written traditions were handed down from elders to youngsters; and when pagan beliefs were morphing into the Christian holidays we celebrate today.

It is in that “in-between” state, betwixt the old and the new, where spooky stories, like the mighty Evergreen, take root and spread.

—

Is a Haunted House Really Haunted If There’s No One To See the Haunting? – Marie D. Jones’ “The Outer Edge”

September 28, 2015 By The Paranormal Braintrust

Having been involved in paranormal research for decades, the question has always haunted me: Is a haunted house haunted if there is no one there to observe the haunting? I first asked this question of myself after learning about quantum physics and the laws that govern the subatomic world. My father, a geophysicist, loved to have long phone discussions with me about the quantum world and what it might one day imply for the grander scale of existence. We especially liked to go back and forth about how quantum physics might one day explain paranormal phenomena, thus resulting in my first major non-fiction book, “PSIence: How New Discoveries in Quantum Physics and New Science May Explain the Existence of Paranormal Phenomena” in 2005.

The basics of quantum physics starts with the concept of wave-particle duality, a long-held discovery by Louis de Broglie and advanced by the likes of William Duane, Niels Bohr and some gentlemen I’m about to mention, which simply states that particles can behave as both a particle, and as a waveform. Wave-particle duality was demonstrated as far back as 1801 in the famous “double-slit experiments” of Thomas Young, who used photons, light particles, to show that they behaved as both particle, and wave, and that they were also influenced by the presence of a detector or observer. Young’s famous and oft repeated experiment involved a light wave such as a laser beam illuminating a plate with two parallel slits cut into it. The light passes through the slits and is observed on a dark screen behind the plate in the form of a brighter or darker band. The experiment revealed that the light wave passed through the slits and interfered with each other, resulting in a series of bands on the screen. But detectors placed at the slits themselves showed that the light particle passed through ONE slit, and not both, which would be expected of a wave form. The photon only went through one slit just as a classical particle would as soon as the detector was introduced.

Thus, the observation of the experiment concluded whether or not the initial light wave resulted in a wave via both slits, or a particle passing through only one slit. The interference that occurred when light passed through both slits disappears the moment a detector is introduced, implying that the act of measurement of the position of the particles at the point of entry of the slit wiped out any waveform behavior.

In order to accurately measure the position or momentum of a particle, one must engage in the act of observation in order to “collapse the wave function” and fix a particle into a measureable position. Cue the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal, courtesy of German physicist Werner Heisenberg back in the 1920s, which states that with a subatomic particle, there is an “uncertainty” as to its position until this wave function is collapsed via observation. Until then, one cannot accurately know both the momentum AND the position of a particle. Therefore, everything exists in a state of superposition, until something comes along and observes it into a fixed position!

This leads into the famous experiment we all learned about in high school, Schrodinger’s Cat. In case you don’t remember back that far, in the 1920s, certainly a heyday for the evolution of quantum physics, an Austrian physicist named Erwin Schrodinger sought to further understand the concept of “superposition” which states that nothing is really fixed in physical reality until it’s wave function is collapsed via observation or measurement. So he took a cat and put it in a box made out of thick lead with a bit of radioactive substance, cyanide in a flask, a hammer, counter tube, and a Geiger counter. His experiment postulated that if one of the atoms decayed, the counter tube would discharge and release a hammer that would smash the flask and release the cyanide, thus killing the cat. But, it was just as probable to him that the particle would not decay, and thus the cyanide would remain in the flask, and the cat would remain alive. Okay, before you call PETA upset about cat abuse, please know this was a “thought” experiment, which really intelligent people often do to work out theories and concepts in their noggins. His theory suggested the cat could be both dead and alive until we actually open the box and find out. Once again, the observer is the one who fixes the “reality” into place. Cat dead. Cat alive. But until observation occurs, the cat is both dead and alive and possibly a cannibalistic zombie, so be careful opening the box!

Which leads into another tenet of the quantum world, the Copenhagen Interpretation, formulated in 1927 (what were those people smoking then???) by Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. This suggests that the Observer Effect, a scientific term referring to alterations in behavior of a phenomenon being observed by the presence of measuring instruments (or a human observer), influences the outcome at the quantum level of the behavior and actions of particles. The intention or will of the observer has a direct influence on subject reality, thus turning it into objective reality. A simpler way to state this might be that until the point of observation, nothing is real or fixed or solid, it is only a potentiality or a statistical formulation, floating in a state of superposition where it remains both particle and wave and nothing really real…

Confusing? Not really, unless you get into the deeper physics and math. The basics of these tenets are somewhat more graspable, but the question remains…if they really do describe the world at the quantum level, can they be applicable at the grander, cosmic scale? Does quantum physics have any influence at all at what happens in the larger scheme of things, and if so, might it explain some of the spookier experiences people have that seem to fall on the outer edge of known reality?

So back to our original question. Our paranormal research group; let’s call them GITONUP – Ghost Investigators of Texas Observing Nature’s Unusual Phenomena. They’re a funky group, pun intended, devoted to observing, recording and analyzing activity at haunted locations. GITONUP has an investigation tonight at a haunted hotel known for paranormal activity, based upon the allegations of the hotel owners and several groups that have already been there to investigate. Our team goes in, locked and loaded with a van full of equipment, and spends eight hours roaming darkened hallways with gear at the ready, including digital recorders for potential EVP, electronic voice phenomena, and cameras of every size and shape.

They’ve got meters of every kind, to measure fluctuations in the electromagnetic field, changes it temperature and air pressure, seismic activity, heat sensors, ion detectors and more. All of this equipment serves to record and measure any activity that occurs in the course of the investigation and monitor increases and decreases in environmental factors within the haunted hotel. All of this equipment, ALONG WITH THE INVESTIGATORS, act as “observers” moving around the superposition within the haunted hotel, collapsing wave functions at every turn into fixed and measurable activity. Even if our team members all went outside for a break, and left their recording equipment and meters running inside, there would still be active observers within the haunted hotel to collapse wave functions and fix particles into place, thus fixing the reality of the hotel into place in a sense. The recorders and equipment, though not human, still act as observers because they measure the motion and activity of what they are trained upon.

Our team is excited to go home and analyze all the data they’ve captured and try to make sense of what it might mean (good luck on that one, kids!).

But what if the folks at GITONUP all got the flu and had to abandon the investigation and go home? They pack up their gear and clear on out of the supposedly haunted hotel, thus leaving behind no observers, no means of measurement, human or otherwise? Would the activity the hotel is famous for cease to exist? Would it remain in superposition until another human or piece of equipment was introduced to collapse the wave function? Is a haunted house really haunted without anyone or anything there to observe or measure the haunted activity?
If we follow the earlier tenets of quantum physics, the answer would be NO. The interior of the haunted hotel would be nothing more than a virtual sea of quantum particles popping in and out of existence, nothing solid, all vibration, because there would be nothing there to observe anything into solidity. And the problem is, there is no way to prove this because the only way we would know if activity was occurring with a haunted location would be to somehow introduce an observer or measurement method. We just cannot do it. It’s like poor Schrodinger, wondering if his cat was dead or alive, but not able to fully know the truth until he actually opened the box and looked in!

The Observer Effect, as it is called, dictates our reality based upon what we observe. But we all know that observation is based a lot upon our perceptions, which can be skewed by everything from expectation to belief to conditioning. Thus, even what we DO observe may not tell the real story. We’ll save that for another blog.

Is it possible for us Observers to every actually observe that state of superposition? Maybe. In fact, years and years ago, right after my dad and I had a long phone conversation on the nature of reality and light and vibration and that nothing was solid, yadda yadda yadda, I decided to meditate. I was a little depressed because I was living in L.A. and hadn’t yet found a job, so I thought I’d quiet my mind.

During the meditation, I went very deep into pure stillness, something I was rarely capable of because of monkey mind. I don’t know why, but I opened my eyes in the middle of that deep, deep stillness, and saw my room around me had transformed, literally, into a sea of vibration and waveforms…Nothing in my room was solid, although I could see areas of vibration that were more dense than others, possibly indicating where solid furniture was. It only lasted maybe ten seconds before my normal perception returned, and reality solidified everything around me, but the experience was so profound it changed my entire life and led me to write my books! It also led me to pursue classes in New Thought Metaphysics/Science of Mind, which posits that science and spirituality follow the same laws.

Not your normal meditation.

Had I glimpsed that magical state of superposition before collapsing the wave function around me back into my bedroom? Had I seen, just for ten seconds, that sea of vibration in which anything and everything exists until it is observed into a fixed state?

We don’t even have proof yet what ghosts actually are…maybe entities from another reality or Aunt Jane and Uncle Ned still alive in a parallel universe that’s bleeding into ours, or the essence of the dead in our own reality, or something our own powerful minds create and manifest. We haven’t any real proof yet of anything other than the fact that millions of people have seen or experienced a ghostly encounter over the course of human history.

But had they not seen the ghost, would the ghost even exist? Or would it be a potentiality floating in a sea of superposition, just waiting for someone or something to come along and pull it out of that sea and fix it into a physical measurable form? Which then begs the question, what might be out there that exists in that sea of superposition that we have yet to observe into reality?

Anything and everything…maybe.

—

Marie D. Jones is the author of several books about the paranormal, metaphysics, and cutting-edge science (many coauthored with Larry Flaxman), including PSIence, The Déjà vu Enigma, Destiny vs. Choice: The Scientific and Spiritual Evidence Behind Fate and Free Will, 11:11 The Time Prompt Phenomenon and Mind Wars. She has appeared on more than 1,000 radio shows worldwide, and on television, most recently on the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series. Her website is mariedjones.com.

The Outer Edge

FAKELORE – Folklore, Urban Legends and the Rise of the Creepypasta (And I Ain’t Talkin’ Linguini!)”

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