Of course you are going to answer no, not everyone has psychic powers. Only psychics have psychic powers. However, you would be wrong. You, I and everyone else has the inherent ability to tap into the unknown. Just as breathing is both a voluntary and involuntary action, so too is our psychic ability.

Everyone, at some time or another can remember when they thought about something totally unrelated to what they were doing at the moment, like the thought of a person they had not seen in many months or years, and within a short time, either ran into that person someplace or saw their name in the paper, something to remind them that they had “sensed” the future. Or you’re walking past a carnival booth where someone has to guess a color and you yell out “red” and the carnival barker at the same time yells “red.” You have just tapped into your psychic abilities.

And how about all those times where your “gut” tells you to go home a different way from work or to go to a different store than your regular store to pick something up and you find either there was an accident on the road that you would have taken home or you run into an old acquaintance at the store you don’t normally shop at. This is your innate sense showing you the way--your intuition. The more we learn to listen to our intuition, the more coincidences we’ll have.

Here’s an interesting question though. Do we actually have the innate ability to “see” into the future, or, by thinking something, are we drawing that energy to us? For instance, out of the blue, we are thinking of iced donuts at the office, and not minutes afterward, one of our co-workers brings in a box of iced donuts. Did we “see” that event happening, or did we “make” that event happen by throwing that thought out into the universe and accepting that reality?

Creative visualization is the practice of thinking, saying or writing something as if it has already happened and then waiting for whatever was asked to manifest. It is kind of like wishing on a falling star only you don’t wish for something to happen, you “know” it is happening and therefore it happens. For instance, you are low on money for the bills for the month and do not have a clue where the extra money is going to come from. You write on a piece of paper several times something like “extra money for the bills is coming to me now,” you thank the universe, and then you put that piece of paper aside and “know” that you are being taken care of. Then you get a phone call from the boss asking if you can work overtime that weekend. You just effectively changed your future by stating a fact to the universe and the universe or power source or whatever you’d like to call it manifests your reality as stated.

Interesting stuff indeed. Here are two fun exercises to do in your spare time to (1) test your psychic abilities; and (2) see if you can actually make something materialize by tapping into the universal energy and applying the law of attraction.

Exercise 1:
Have a psychic party.

Invite two or three friends over whom you haven’t seen for awhile and would like to catch up with. Tell them that you are testing to see whether you have any psychic abilities and ask them not to tell you what they’ve been up to lately. Be sure not to drink any alcoholic beverages before you test your abilities and do so in a quiet room, without the noise of laughter or music. Try and make it as quiet as you can. In fact having a lit candle and low lighting will help the mood. Now, sit before each person individually and take one of their palms into your hand and look at it. Touch the palm with your fingertips. You are not trying to read the palm as you don’t have that ability, but you are trying to tap into the universal knowledge by connecting with the person, and you should, at this time, start getting random thoughts about the person. Throw the thoughts out there no matter how silly they sound. “I see a new blue car. “I see someone going back to school,” etc. Whatever comes to mind, let it out there. You will be surprised that you will most likely pick up on at least one thing about that person if you clear your mind and just let the thoughts come. And if nothing turns up, it doesn’t mean you don’t have psychic abilities, it just means you need to practice more.

Exercise 2:
Visualizing Something to Manifest.

Take a plain sheet of paper and write an affirmation about something you want to happen. If you are looking for love, you may want to say something like “The perfect partner is now in my life.” If you are unhappy in your job and want to find another, you can say “I now work in a job that utilizes my creative skills,” or something like that. At the end of writing this around 10 or more times, at the end write something to the effect that everything is unfolding perfectly and thank the universe. Then fold the paper and put it away. You may just be surprised at how quickly you get an answer to your request. If you get an answer that isn’t quite what you had in mind, you must remember that wording is everything. Your perfect partner may be the grocery boy at the local supermarket who doesn’t appeal to you at all. It sometimes is all in the way you word it.  

If nothing else, these are fun exercises that will open you up more and more to the unexplained possibilities that the universe has to offer.

Automatic writing is defined as writing that is produced not from the conscious mind. This means that when one is automatically writing, they are channeling the writing from an outer source or one’s own subconscious.

Automatic writing is also sometimes referred to as “trance” writing as many believe that in order to fully be able to channel messages, one must first go into a trance. Therefore, this practice is primarily done by mediums able to go into a deep trance to receive messages from outside themselves.

There are believers who have written of witnessing mediums or psychics going into trances and automatically writing. One such medium by the name of Mabel Collins was believed to have gone into a trance while writing several novels and the information contained in those novels therefore may have been channeled from otherworldly sources. She was witnessed to have started writing and then while “asleep” or uncommunicative, continued to write the books she was working on. Much of her writings were guidelines on how to study mysticism. Today, they would still be a relevant read for those interested in new age topics.

Another well-known writer by the name of Ken Carey, who wrote “The Starseed Transmissions” trilogy, did not know he had the power to “channel” light beings until he became quite ill and, for unknown reasons, got down an old typewriter and began to write what he now says are messages he received from star beings and, later, from an entity who introduced himself as Christ. Although Carey’s writings are decidedly steeped in Christian reference, the fact that some of what he writes goes beyond most people’s casual understanding of spiritual matters might lead one to believe that he was able to channel other-worldly entities in order to automatically pen several books.

And then there are people who believe that Nostradamus had the ability to go into trances and automatically write the visions he saw.

As interesting as these accounts are, perhaps the only way automatic writing could possibly be proven not to be a hoax is by conducting a simple experiment whereby two people are separated either in different rooms, different places, or even different countries and then told to try and channel thoughts from the other person. The person from whom messages are being channeled will be writing the message while the “channeling” medium is allowing himself or herself to receive the message clairvoyantly and is automatically writing it down at the same time.

Is this possible? There have been private, unpublished accounts of this very experiment being successful between a Hungarian minister/spiritualist living in the United States and corresponding regularly with a medium in Hungary. Their writings were so similar when compared as to make one believe that yes, automatic writing is not only possible but probable.

If nothing else, it is always fun to test these things out for ourselves. The next time you find yourself without anything to do, why not get comfortable, go into a meditative state, and have pen and paper handy to write whatever comes to mind. Who knows? You may just be the next great author of a book that is entirely written by someone or something else outside your realm.

Ever wonder why most people who claim they’ve seen an alien describe it almost to a “t” like every other person who claims they’ve seen an alien? At first, I thought, these people haven’t seen aliens at all, they just say they have and instead of having a great imagination and coming up with something no one else has thought up, they just say the same thing, i.e. aliens are short, grey, have big heads, and their most notable feature is their huge black eyes that have no pupils.

Most of the time the people who witness an encounter say that there is no spoken communication but rather, they just “know” what is being said through some sort of telepathy. And there are stories of being abducted for periods of time that are unaccounted for, and sometimes, the abductees claim to have gone through some sort of medical examination and even may have some sort of tracking device implanted within their bodies.

For those of us who have never seen an alien, or don’t remember if they have had an encounter, we can’t really say for sure if these people are telling the truth or fabricating the story to get attention. But after thinking about it and studying it for awhile, I am starting to believe that there may just be something to their stories, especially when you put some of the stories together.

How could that many people see the same beings? I mean, if someone was making a story up, they usually would embellish it to make it sound more real. They’d put their own artistic ideas into the story. If I was making up an alien, it wouldn’t be grey with big eyes; it would most likely have two heads, a dozen eyes, and purple skin. Why not? But the fact that the same type of being is seen by the majority of those telling the stories says to me that maybe there are what is now commonly known as “Greys” among us.

Another thing that keeps me from totally ruling out the fact that Greys could be actually inhabiting our space is how quickly since 1945, the year of the infamous alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, our technology has expanded and continues to expand at rates not previously known in our history. The information age just took off and it seems almost impossible to keep up with all the new technology that is being discovered almost on a daily basis.

So, while there are no definitive answers as to whether these beings described as Grey’s do exist. We all should be asking ourselves some questions, such as:

      (1)    Are we sharing our space with highly intelligent beings that have the ability to be seen when they wish or remain invisible, possibly through the knowledge of a higher vibrational pattern than humans? And if so, 

      (2)    Will there be an awakening or a “coming out” of this knowledge in the near future? 

If you have your own thoughts on this, or have first-hand knowledge of these beings, we ask that you share your stories so that we can all compare and/or take notes.

Ah, the age-old question. Can psychics really “see” into the future? Do they have a gift for predicting future events or have they just honed the craft of stating things in such a generic way or asking just the right questions and getting information from you without you realizing so as to make it appear that they are tapping into the unknown?

For instance, a psychic may say to you, I see someone older around you who has passed, perhaps a parent or a grandparent? 90% of people will say yes, of course, and be astounded that the psychic has just tapped into Aunt Jenny or Grandma Mary. The other 10% who say, no, no one that I know of, will just have the psychic coming back and asking if it is someone close to you, a friend, or a co-worker who has had someone pass? Of course! There you go. Someone old has passed away and a psychic has picked up on it. Incredible stuff.

But seriously, are there people who actually can pick up on events in another person’s life without knowing that person’s background? An acquaintance of mine tells two stories that would have us believe that yes, there are bona fide psychics out there who can actually tap into someone’s future. Here are her stories.

“I went to Memphis quite a few years ago to visit a friend, who had set up an appointment for both of us to go see a local psychic for readings. For $20 each, this lady would sit in a chair and slowly shuffle a deck of cards. She would stop occasionally to give me her ‘impressions.’ Some of the things she told me were generic, like I would meet and marry a man older than me (this did not come to pass), and that I would live in a house with lots of windows (again, this did not come to pass).”

“But there was something more specific that she told me that absolutely did come to pass that I wish hadn’t. She told me that she saw police surrounding me and some sort of trouble but it wasn’t anything too awful. Later that night, my friend and I were involved in a car accident where I drove my car into a deep culvert that I didn’t see on an unlit street. The police came to the scene but didn’t issue a ticket; however, the damage to my car was almost $1,000. The woman called it dead on.”

My friend told me of another encounter years later with a famous psychic over the phone that absolutely sealed her belief in the existence of psychic powers.

“I was listening to the radio one day when the famous NC psychic, Gary Spivey, came on the radio asking people to call in for free readings, and I did. I just asked him if he could tell me a little about my marriage and my husband, general things. I was happily married so I didn’t need any real advice, just wanted to know things about our future.

Mr. Spivey asked me if I was a little self-conscious since I put on weight and he was absolutely right. He said that my husband was someone whom everyone, including animals and insects, was drawn to. My husband was well-liked in the community and was a beekeeper. And Mr. Spivey said he saw an exotic place that surrounded us, either someplace we were moving to or that we were from. My husband is from Brazil and we actually moved to Brazil a few years later to live for a brief period. Mr. Spivey gave me enough correct information to make me a believer.”

This is just one person’s experience with psychics, which doesn’t really prove one way or the other if psychics can tap into the unknown. However, if you are interested in finding out for yourself if psychics are real, it doesn’t hurt to ask around and see if there is someone you know who has visited a psychic who did a decent job of making predictions that came true.

If you don’t know anyone, you can visit the website of notable psychics with a good track record like Gary Spivey and John Edward. Gary Spivey gives private readings as well as seminars and retreats throughout the year around the country. John Edward can only be contacted by attending one of his upcoming live performances, which sell out incredibly fast. However, if you visit his website, he has a list of other psychics that he recommends, so you may be able to find one that way. Also, both Spivey and Edward occasionally do live radio broadcasts where they take calls from listeners and give short readings. Both of these psychics have upcoming broadcasts listed on their websites.

So, back to the question, are psychics for real? That is a question that only your personal experience can answer. Hopefully, though, we’ve given you something to think about.

Just about everyone knows about the “game” of Bloody Mary that is played at pre-teen slumber parties across the nation. There are many variations, some have more than one person playing along at a time, and some have just one person at a time playing the game.

Basically, how Bloody Mary works is one or more persons go into a small darkened room that has a mirror in it. Some use a bathroom, others a closet. They get adjusted to the darkness of the room and then one, or more, of them say the name Bloody Mary at least 3 times. After saying the name Bloody Mary, they supposedly are treated to a “vision” of Bloody Mary in the mirror. Depending on whom you ask, Bloody Mary doesn’t like people doing this so there is a revenge component to the story that has Bloody Mary scratching the mirror or some say even the participants in the game.  

The results are usually the same. Someone “thinks” they saw something, and lets out a terrified scream which leads to yet another scared teen with a Bloody Mary story to tell to the next generation of curious pre-teens.  

However, there is scientific evidence to indicate that a practice known as “sensory deprivation” can actually lead to hallucinations along the same lines as witnessing a scary witch in a mirror. In a scientifically-controlled study, several test students were placed individually in a specially-designed room where all light and sound had been filtered out and the person was left basically alone with his thoughts. According to the study findings, after just 15 minutes in the deprivation chamber, subjects began to experience hallucinations such as objects and faces that were not there, and some even felt an “evil” presence in the room with them.

Upon taking a test after the experience, every study participant reported having had at least some hallucinations or delusions, even those who are not prone to having hallucinations. The hypothesis of the study was this: “hallucinations happen when the brain misidentifies the source of what it is experiencing...,” or what the researchers call “faulty source monitoring.” To simplify, the researchers put it like this “…basically, something that actually is initiated within us gets misidentified as from the outside.”

Read another way, it would appear that when we don’t have light and sound to take the onus off our brains to make stuff up, our brains make up some very weird stuff, like, for instance, Bloody Marys.

A long time ago before the internet was even a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye, chain letters made the rounds among friends through the snail mail or hand-delivery system. You’d get a letter from someone telling you that you had to duplicate the letter by hand and then send it on to usually 7, 10, or even 15 of your friends and if you didn’t well, bad luck would be your reward. However, if you did what the letter said, you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams.

It is interesting to note that nowhere in history is there a story that has been backed up with facts telling of a person who, after answering a chain letter, was ever rewarded with anything other than a feeling of having been had. While everyone wants to believe that chain letters work to bring about good luck, the fact of the matter is they are just another way to make someone look silly for not only believing in them but stupid enough to do what the letter says.

With the advent of the internet, chain letters have taken on a whole new dimension offering gullible readers money for simply forwarding an e-mail on to 10 or more friends, or offering a total stranger a brand new computer or $1000 gift card from any number of retail outlets simply by clicking on the e-mail. And, of course, there is no laptop; there is no $1000 gift card. What there is, by many accounts, is a nasty little virus waiting to attach itself to the first gullible person’s computer with the only message reading “gotcha!”

What are even more insidious than the “forward them on” or “you have just won” e-mails, are what’s called phishing (pronounced fishing) scams that feed off the gullibility of what they hope are people stupid enough to give their most private and personal information over the internet in return for some promised wealth or even just because they’ve been told that their bank or credit card company needs verification of account information in order to serve you better. Phishing scams have parted many a person from their money simply by feeding off the willingness to be helpful.

Here is a word of advice, no legitimate business, be it a bank, a credit union, a credit card company, your employer, your insurance company, the IRS, the Social Security Office, or any other governmental, financial, employment-related, educational or school-related business that you have now or have ever done business with will write you an e-mail requesting that you re-verify your personal information for them. This includes your social security number, your driver’s license number, your banking account or credit card numbers, or any other number that can readily be used to steal your identity.

And for good measure, never, ever use your mother’s maiden name, your favorite pet’s name, or your spouse’s name as a password for anything you sign up for on the internet because, as sure as the sun shines, there are people out there waiting to take advantage of your trustful nature.

Because really, think about it, if Microsoft was giving out money just for forwarding an e-mail, if you could get a $1000 gift card just for clicking on an e-mail, or if all you needed to do to get a new computer in the mail when you weren’t even in the market for a new computer is to give the swell person offering the computer a few private details like your address and banking information, well, what would be the need for anyone having to make their money the old-fashioned way, i.e. working for it?

Out of all the ghost hunting shows on television, Paranormal State seems to be the closest to offering a down-to-earth ghost hunting team that genuinely believes they can help people not only come to grips with what they perceive is haunting them or their homes but also give the audience a peek inside a real haunted dwelling.

So, every week, we tune in because, gosh darn it, their teaser commercials are so convincing. One minute a girl team member is looking into a camera saying something like “you don’t really belong here, but if you are here, please show that you are here,” and then something goes bump, she lets out a startled scream and we (the viewers) are led to believe that something just brushed past her. And, of course, it never shows up on tape and certainly wasn’t witnessed by the viewers at home.

So what can we make of all this? It certainly is entertaining for the first, second and even possibly third time we see this scenario play out on our screens, but at some point in time we have to ask ourselves, “will we ever really see a real live (or dead) ghost on television?” The answer is probably no. In fact, I’d love there to be someone with a lot of money who would put up say $10,000 to the first person who could capture the image of a ghost on live television, not taped and certainly not rigged to look like a ghost, like some vapor or a thin veil flapping in front of an industrial-strength fan that’s been hidden out of sight. Real money for a real ghost, do you think there’d be any takers?

Here’s something to ponder. Maybe what you see or don’t see is all you are ever going to see. Maybe ghosts do exist and maybe they do play little games like pinching someone or making rapping noises or blowing on the closest person’s neck, and maybe they are trying to communicate with the living and maybe it’s just too hard to get those actions on film or tape. What is particularly frustrating is when the ghost hunters on the television screen are telling you that they caught a voice on tape telling them to “get out” but when they play the tape it sounds more like “grrrth mmmpt,” so to make sure you hear it too, they always have the words “get out” printed on the bottom of the screen so you can believe that is what is being said.

Ah well, tell you what, it would be great if, after reading this, you let us know what you think about those shows and if you, personally, have ever had an unseen person brush up against you and whisper “grrrth mmmpt” in your ear. Then maybe we’d have something to talk about.

Forward This to 10 Friends And Win! Modern-Day Chain Letters are the same crock o' crap they were when you got them in the mail.

A long time ago before the internet was even a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye, chain letters made the rounds among friends through the snail mail or hand-delivery system. You’d get a letter from someone telling you that you had to duplicate the letter by hand and then send it on to usually 7, 10, or even 15 of your friends and if you didn’t well, bad luck would be your reward. However, if you did what the letter said, you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams.

It's interesting to note that nowhere in history is there a story that has been backed up with facts telling of a person who, after answering a chain letter, was ever rewarded with anything other than a feeling of having been had. While everyone wants to believe that chain letters work to bring about good luck, the fact of the matter is they are just another way to make someone look silly for not only believing in them but stupid enough to do what the letter says.

It was pure superstition back then, full of vague promises, and it still worked so well it was quickly outlawed.

Now you only have to forward an email with a few quick clicks, which is easy, and instead of incredible wealth, the offer is much smaller, but no less ridiculous.

EXAMPLES:
- Bill Gates is paying $250 if you forward this letter to 30 friends and wait 30-days.
- AOL wants to see how many people will forward this letter, and you'll get $100 for participating.
- Forward this email to 10 people and you'll get a $50 gift card to Best Buy, Applebee's or some other merchant with trillions to waste on worthless marketing.

With the advent of the internet, chain letters have taken on a whole new dimension offering gullible readers money for simply forwarding an e-mail on to 10 or more friends, or offering a total stranger a brand new computer or $1,000 gift card from any number of retail outlets simply by clicking on the e-mail. And, of course, there is no laptop; there is no $1,000 gift card. What there is, by many accounts, is a nasty little virus waiting to attach itself to the first gullible person’s computer with the only message reading “gotcha!”

What are even more insidious than the “forward them on” or “you have just won” e-mails, are what’s called phishing (pronounced fishing) scams that feed off the gullibility of what they hope are people stupid enough to give their most private and personal information over the internet in return for some promised wealth or even just because they’ve been told that their bank or credit card company needs verification of account information in order to serve you better. Phishing scams have parted many a person from their money simply by feeding off the willingness to be helpful.

Here is a word of advice, no legitimate business, be it a bank, a credit union, a credit card company, your employer, your insurance company, the IRS, the Social Security Office, or any other governmental, financial, employment-related, educational or school-related business that you have now or have ever done business with will write you an e-mail requesting that you re-verify your personal information for them. This includes your social security number, your driver’s license number, your banking account or credit card numbers, or any other number that can readily be used to steal your identity.

And for good measure, never, ever use your mother’s maiden name, your favorite pet’s name, or your spouse’s name as a password for anything you sign up for on the internet because, as sure as the sun shines, there are people out there waiting to take advantage of your trustful nature.

Because really, think about it, if Microsoft was giving out money just for forwarding an e-mail, if you could get a $1000 gift card just for clicking on an e-mail, or if all you needed to do to get a new computer in the mail when you weren’t even in the market for a new computer is to give the swell person offering the computer a few private details like your address and banking information, well, what would be the need for anyone having to make their money the old-fashioned way, i.e. working for it?

Step right up folks…prepare to be amazed at what you see…right this way to the greatest show on earth.  Before radio and television, human beings had to depend on live shows for their entertainment and while most people would attend a play or a concert, the more adventurous sought out sideshows at carnivals, where odd, unusual and downright weird people performed behind closed curtains.

The practice exists today, while certainly not as prevalent as in the early 1800’s to the mid-1900’s. Still, we wonder, are those shows real or are they fake. The answer may be a little bit of both. Much of what is touted as real is actually a trick to make it seem so, or it’s worded in such a way that yes, what they say is real is real, but once you get inside, you’ll see that most of the time, you’ve been had. Still, as long as there are curiosity seekers, there will be those who deliver the curiosities.

Bearded Ladies, Wild Man of Borneo, Siamese Twins, and Tom Thumb, the Smallest Man Alive

Although many of the sideshow acts at circuses in the 19 and 20^th Centuries were fakes, some actually were genuine and caused by genetic anomalies. Take the bearded ladies, for instance. Some were just cleverly made up to appear to have beards while others quite likely suffered from a medical condition known as hypertrichosis wherein excess hair grew on certain parts of the body, most notably on the face. There were lion-faced boys and camel girls, but they were just names attached to unfortunate human beings who happened to have been born with atrociously deformed bodies and whose deformities were seen by men like P.T. Barnum  and Samuel Grumpertz as an opportunity to make money.

While P.T. Barnum was known for pulling the wool over his customers’ eyes by doing such things as passing off a regular black man as the Wild Man of Borneo, a lesser-known sideshow manager by the name of Samuel Grumpertz was globetrotting around the world looking for bona fide “freaks” to bring back to America to show at Coney Island.  While Siamese twins were a popular sideshow attraction, they did raise objections from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children who filed several lawsuits to try and prohibit such exhibits from taking place.

And yes, there were lots and lots of little people, the smallest of which was a man named Charles Sherwood Stratton, better known as Tom Thumb, whose height only reached 33 inches. Discovered by P.T. Barnum, Tom Thumb wasn’t just a sideshow exhibit, but rather became a high-paid performer who eventually travelled all over the world and met some of the most famous people of his time.   

Sword Swallowers, Human Blockheads and Fire Eaters

Using the body in scary ways has always been a staple of the carnival and circus sideshows. Most everyone believes when they seen a man swallowing a sword or pounding a long nail up his nostril or even putting a fiery torch in his mouth that it is just a magic trick. In reality, it’s a little of both. Believe it or not, the sword is real, not fake and not collapsible, the nails are real and they really are being pounded into the man’s nasal passageway, and the fire, yes, it is real and it is hot.

So how do they do it? The trick is the performers know a lot about human physiology and they have found ways to put dangerous items in their bodies without causing permanent damage to themselves. In the case of a sword swallower, it takes years of practice and the ability to ignore their body’s automatic reflexes to allow themselves to stick long, unbendable objects down their throats. The same goes for the human blockhead. He really can hammer a nail into his head through the nostril, but it will have taken him years of practice to get to the point of doing it in front of an audience.