Monday Musings
My weekly editorial, interesting thoughts on interesting things.
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Possession, Part III–Riding with the Loa: Voudou’s Benign Possession
In western religion, the concept of possession is nearly always a bad thing—an innocent person is possessed by a demon and forced to do and say terrible things, while the demon attacks them in the battle for their soul. This has been seared into our minds by some religious texts, by news stories, by ghost-hunting TV shows, as well as novels and film. Possession, to us, is Linda Blair levitating and saying rude things about someone’s mom. It’s a ghost hunter walking around blank-eyed and saying strange, unintelligible things. It’s even at the heart of a handful of dark comedies, like Ava’s Possessions. However, just because western culture says something,…
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EDITORIAL: A Brief Word on the Exploitation of Annaliese Michelle
I’m taking a break from my research into possession to write about something that’s been bothering me for awhile now. As most Forteans and/or horror fans know, the film The Exorcism of Emily Rose was based on the real-life case of the exorcisms suffered by a young German woman in the 1970’s named Annaliese Michelle. I won’t go deeply into the case here, because you can literally find her story just about everywhere. In a nutshell, she was a religious girl who may or may not have been possessed. A series of exorcisms was performed on her for several months, culminating in her death and the conviction of her parents…
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Monday Musings #7: Possession, Part II–Alien Hand Syndrome, Hidden Knowledge, and Speaking in Tongues
Friends, Forteans, and Citizens of the World, I come to examine possession, not debunk it. In this, the second part of my series on the phenomenon that is possession, I examine a few things that could explain away some cases of perceived or acknowledged demonic possession. Cases of possession appear to be on the rise these past few years. Some have proposed the idea that possession is purely psychological and that the current rise in cases is due to a form of mass hysteria as much as anything else. While that’s certainly a possibility, there are also certain physical conditions that can result in a ‘diagnosis’ of possession. Everyone knows…
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Monday Musings #6–Possession, Part 1: What is it, anyway?
What do you think of when you hear the term ‘possession’? Those not paranormally inclined would probably go straight to the phrase ‘possession is nine-tenths of the law’. Which, from a Fortean viewpoint, is very interesting in itself. However, most of us hear the term and find ourselves heading to the concept of demonic possession, with evil spirits taking over the body of a (usually) young, innocent person. We think of Linda Blair’s head spinning ‘round, or of cursing, spitting, biting feral young men and women, tied down to beds, gnashing and gnawing, cursing and howling at well-meaning family members and priests, who are frantically trying to rescue their souls.…
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Monday Musings #5–They CAN Stop All of Us
Greetings and salutations! Before I begin, I just want to apologize for missing this column last week. I was driving the 425 miles between my family and my home. After seven hours, I really wasn’t fit to write anything remotely thoughtful. Therefore, I do apologize to all and sundry. Now, down to business! The news over the past week or so has been filled with stories on the ‘Raid on Area 51.’ While the original poster started the event (‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us’) as a joke, over a million people have RSVP’d to attend. Hotels and motels in the area are all fully booked in…
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Monday Musings #4–A Brief, Hopefully Entertaining, Rant
Like so many other Armchair Forteans, I enjoy a handful of YouTube channels, and will often play something from one of the creepier ones when it’s getting towards bedtime. You know the ones I mean–the channels that narrate ‘True Scary Stories of the ______________.” At their best, these stories and their slightly ominous storytellers evoke a nice sense of uneasy dread as they spin their tales of possession, Ouija boards, black-eyed kids, stalkers, and psycho-killers. (Qu’est-ce que c’est). However, too often these channels are not at their best, because of one simple thing–story logic. Now, I hear you saying to me, “but AF, these are just spooky stories! They don’t…
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Monday Musings #3–Automatic Writing, Part 2
So, last week we discussed how automatic writing has fallen out of favor, and a bit of thought about the reasons why. I had planned to leave it at that, but then something came up that made me think even more deeply about the subject. As you know, my mother used to indulge in automatic writing when I was much, much younger than I am today. I called her to ask permission to use her as an example in my post, and she surprised me by going into detail on how she heard of it, how she practiced it, and why she decided to stop. It’s Tom Snyder’s fault. Tom…
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Monday Musings #2–Automatic Writing, Part I
So, today I find myself intrigued by a psychic practice that’s really fallen by the wayside in recent decades—Automatic Writing. Automatic Writing is a psychical practice that first became popular during the Spiritualist Movement of the latter half of the 19th Century. In fact, it was so popular, the much-lauded Encyclopedia Britannica even honored it with an entry. From their 1911 Edition: The writing generally resembles the ordinary handwriting of the agent, but there are sometimes marked differences, and the same automatist may employ two or three distinct handwritings. Occasionally imitations are produced of the handwriting of other persons, living or dead. Not infrequently the writing is reversed, so that…
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Monday Musings #1– Tricksters
So, lately I’ve been thinking about the concept of what John Keel referred to as ‘Ultraterrestrials.’ To those unfamiliar with the concept, Ultraterrestrials are beings that either live in another dimension (the Universe Next Door?), or who share our planet unbeknownst to us. These Ultras, in Keel’s view, are responsible for the vast majority of UFO sighting and alien encounters, as well as the Men in Black, and other mysterious figures scattered throughout history. For the most part, Keel sees them as sinister entities, bent on messing with us poor humans to suit their own, indefinable needs. But, presuming these beings exist, or co-exist with us, why would they want…