KING TUT-DOOMED AT BIRTH

Mummies capture our imaginations and our hearts. Full of secrets and magic, they were once people who lived and loved, just as we do today. No other mummy has captured the imagination and been the subject of much controversy than the royal mummy of the 19 year old boy king, Tutankhamun. 

in 1922 in Egypt's the Valley of the Kings by archaeologist, Howard Carter, Tut's tomb and the fabulous riches it held became an overnight worldwide sensation and influenced art, fashion and design for years to come. 

Unique furniture designs and a coffin CD cabinet are just a few items inspired by the discovery of King Tut's tomb.

The drama begins in about 1390 B.C., several decades before Tutankhamun's birth, when the great pharaoh Amenhotep III assumes the throne of Egypt.  This king of the 18th dynasty is rich beyond imagining. Along with his powerful Queen Tiye, Amenhotep III rules for 37 years, worshiping the gods of his ancestors, above all Amun, while his people prosper and vast wealth flows into the royal coffers from Egypt's foreign holdings.

                                      

Amenhotep III

                                     

Queen Tiye

When Amenhotep III dies, he is succeeded by his second son, Amenhotep IV—a bizarre visionary who turns away from Amun and the other gods of the state pantheon and worships instead a single deity known as the Aten, the disk of the sun. In the fifth year of his reign, he changes his name to Akhenaten—"he who is beneficial to the Aten." He elevates himself to the status of a living god and abandons the traditional religious capital at Thebes, building a great ceremonial city 180 miles to the north, at a place now called Amarna. Here he lives with his great wife, the beautiful Nefertiti, and together they serve as the high priests of the Aten, assisted in their duties by their six cherished daughters. 

All power and wealth is stripped from the Amun priesthood, and the Aten reigns supreme. The art of this period is also infused with a revolutionary new naturalism; the pharaoh has himself depicted not with an idealized face and youthful, muscular body as were pharaohs before him, but as strangely effeminate, with a potbelly and a thick-lipped, elongated face.

                                            

     Akhenaten and Nefertiti

The end of Akhenaten's 17 year reign is cloaked in confusion—and one still  open for debate and research. What we know for sure is that the throne is now occupied by a young boy: the nine-year-old Tut­ankhaten ("the living image of the Aten"). Within the first two years of his tenure on the throne, he and his wife, Ankhesenpaaten (a daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti), abandon Amarna and return to Thebes, reopening the temples and restoring their wealth and glory. They change their names to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun, proclaiming their rejection of Akhenaten's heresy and their renewed dedication to the cult of Amun. Ten years after ascending the throne, Tutankhamun is dead, leaving no heirs to succeed him.

When his royal golden sarcophagus was opened and the boy king discovered inside it told a sad tale of a hurried up and sloppy mummification process and a very badly preserved body. Not something you would expect of a royal burial.Upon examination at the time there was no definitive answer for cause of death. There were sensational claims through the years that he must have been murdered due to the hurried burial (there are signs now that show that the tomb paintings were still wet when he was sealed in his tomb that allowed mold to grow) and placed in a usually small and unremarkable tomb designed originally for a private person rather than a king.  

The turmoil surrounding his reign and predecessor, the heretic King  Akhenaten, caused a backlash against Akhenaten's heresy, and his successors manage to delete from history nearly all traces of the Amarna kings, including Tutankhamun. Indeed an x-ray taken 2 decades ago showed a small bone lodged in the back of Tut's skull that fostered  the theory that he had died from a blow to the back of his head. This proved to be a false assumption.  CT scans of King Tutankhamun's mummy, in 2005 to showed that he did not die from a blow to the head, as many people believed. Analysis revealed that a hole in the back of his skull had been made during the mummification process. Now with even more accurate science methods and the leaps of knowledge gained by DNA studies, scientists, doctors and archaeologist are now able to tell a more complete and accurate story of the boy king's short life on Earth. 

So how did he die?

In the new study, discovered something previously unnoticed in the CT images of the mummy: Tutankhamun's left foot was clubbed, one toe was missing a bone, and the bones in part of the foot were destroyed by necrosis—literally, "tissue death." Both the clubbed foot and the bone disease would have impeded his ability to walk. Scholars had already noted that 130 partial or whole walking sticks had been found in Tutankhamun's tomb, some of which show clear signs of use.
Some have argued that such staffs were common symbols of power and that the damage to Tutankhamun's foot may have occurred during the mummification process. But analysis showed that new bone growth had occurred in response to the necrosis, proving the condition was present during his lifetime. And of all the pharaohs, only Tutankhamun is shown seated while performing activities such as shooting an arrow from a bow or using a throw stick. This was not a king who held a staff just as a symbol of power. This was a young man who needed a cane to walk.

What the real King Tut may have looked like. With a distinct overbite and possible cleft palette he looks very different than the idealized portrait on his gold death mask.


Tutankhamun's bone disease was crippling, but on its own would not have been fatal.  Based on the presence of DNA from several strains of a parasite called Plasmodium falciparum, it was evident that Tutankhamun was infected with malaria—indeed, he had contracted the most severe form of the disease multiple times.
Did malaria kill the king? Perhaps. The disease can trigger a fatal immune response in the body, cause circulatory shock, and lead to hemorrhaging, convulsions, coma, and death. As other scientists have pointed out, however, malaria was probably common in the region at the time, and Tutankhamun may have acquired partial immunity to the disease. On the other hand, it may well have weakened his immune system, leaving him more vulnerable to complications that might have followed the unhealed fracture of his leg evaluated in 2005.

So who were his parents?

After an exhausting analysis of 10 royal mummies in the time period of the 18th Dynasty, the Egyptian scientific team in Cairo was able to establish with a probability of better than 99.99 percent that Amenhotep III was the father of the individual in a tomb called KV55, who was in turn the father of Tutankhamun. The person in KV55 tomb has been identified as Akhenaten.  

And what of Tutankhamun's mother? To the team's surprise, the DNA of the so-called Younger Lady (KV35YL), found lying beside Queen Tiye in the alcove of KV35, (another tomb) matched that of the boy king. 

King Tut's mother whose name has not been identified.

More amazing still, her DNA proved that, like Akhenaten, she was the daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye. Akhenaten had conceived a son with his own sister.Their child would be known as Tutankhamun and his health was compromised from the moment he was conceived as mother and father were full brother and sister.

In Egyptian mythology the gods Isis and Osiris were brother and sister, married and had a son Horus. All  Egyptian pharaohs claimed to be direct descendants from this line and in essence were gods themselves.


Pharaonic Egypt was not the only society in history to institutionalize royal incest, which can have political advantages. But there can be a dangerous consequence. Married siblings are more likely to pass on twin copies of harmful genes, leaving their children vulnerable to a variety of genetic defects. Tut­ankhamun's malformed foot may have been one such flaw. We suspect he also had a partially cleft palate, another congenital defect. Perhaps he struggled against others until a severe bout of malaria or a leg broken in an accident added one strain too many to a body that could no longer carry the load.

There may be one other poignant testimony to the legacy of royal incest buried with Tutankhamun in his tomb. While the data are still incomplete, studies suggest that one of the mummified fetuses found there is the daughter of Tutankhamun himself, and the other fetus is probably his child as well with his wife Ankhesenamun. We know from history that she was the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and thus likely her husband's half sister. Another consequence of inbreeding can be children whose genetic defects do not allow them to be brought to term.
                           

One of 2 baby mummies(daughters)  found inside King Tut's Tomb

So perhaps this is where the drama ends, at least for now: with a young king and his queen trying, but failing, to conceive a living heir for the throne of Egypt. Among the many splendid artifacts buried with Tutankhamun is a small ivory-paneled box, carved with a scene of the royal couple. Tutankhamun is leaning on his cane while his wife holds out to him a bunch of flowers. In this and other depictions, they appear serenely in love. 

The failure of that love to bear fruit ended not just a family but also a dynasty.  Horemheb, the commander in chief of Tutankhamun's armies, eventually takes the throne for himself. But Horemheb too dies childless, leaving the throne to a fellow army commander.
The new pharaoh's name was Ramses I. With him begins another dynasty, one which, under the rule of his grandson Ramses the Great, would see Egypt rise to new heights of imperial power. More than anyone else, this great king would work to erase from history all traces of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and the other "heretics" of the Amarna period. Ironically, a little known boy king whose memory was meant to be wiped out forever is instead, by the discovery of his fantastic tomb and treasures, the most famous and iconic Egyptian King of all time!

PERSONAL HAUNTING AND PTSD

Last week's blog was on haunting and PTSD and the possible long term effects it can have on people who are paranormal investigators. This week we explore what a personal haunting can do to a person and it's consequences.

I had an email from a reader last week and she brought up the fact that she was not an paranormal investigator or personally sought out to "ghost hunt". Instead she says she had haunted since she was a little girl and felt that she was able to identify with the varied symptoms of PTSD outlined in my blog. I am glad she brought this up. 

As stated last week, Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common reaction to traumatic events. In researching this topic I found it is (suggested) that PTSD becomes persistent when individuals process the trauma in a way that leads to a sense of serious, current threat.

Indeed, a long term exposure to a haunting situation without a final solution in sight I think can lead to ensuring stress on the physical and mental capacities of the human body can manifest as this recognized disorder. Like for example a personal haunting!

How certain individuals are coping (or not )with their own individual supernatural experiences can lead to either a good resolution or a serious and difficult outcome.  

People who are perhaps experiencing a "personal haunting" are super sensitive to spirit activity and extremes of atmospheric changes in their home environments, of phantom smells and even sensing fleeting shadow people or entities in the homes. They become hyper aware which keeps you on guard all the time and unfortunately keeps you off balance to a ordinary simple routine in daily life. They can even start to doubt themselves "did I just see that?" "I must be going crazy!"

Could the Haunting be caused by an attached spirit?

An attached spirit is when an earthbound spirit is attracted to a living person and then begins to "hang out" with the living person.  After a while, the spirit finds that they become emotionally attached.  Often the spirit will feel safe or even complacent about being with the person. In most cases attached spirits don't have any ill-will and they don't mean to harm the person.  It's almost always just that the spirit had some connection to the person, either emotionally, similar life-experiences, or the spirit could have known the person in life or even a past life (this is an interesting concept).

This is just my take on it but I feel that spirits, like humans are very capable of 'liking' someone and seeking them out for companionship of sorts. 
My own personal experience in my home has been I feel of a positive type of spirit connection. We have a resident |Lady" ghost in my home that possible lived here in the Victorian times. She was a care giver or nanny to children who lived on the property in the 1800's. Several of these ghostly children are present in our home ( and seem to want to stay)and we are aware of their sometimes mischievous child's play they like to do here. Example: I often find one of my sun catchers of a cardinal is taken down off the kitchen window while the larger one above it is never touched.
FYI:The cardinal sun catcher was one I took from my deceased friend's home, who was subject of my book, Estate of Horror.
                             

We call our "lady" Marjorie and her ghost has been seen at inside my front doors. (between the front screen door and solid wood door there is only 8 inches of space so no full grown human could possible fit in that space). She appeared as an older woman who is dressed in a high necked blouse and up swept gray hair- typical style of the Victorian era. 

She has been leaving me presents of woven threads in intricate patterns for the last 4 years now and I have over a dozen pieces in all different colors and sizes. Her handy work is unmistakable and not some frayed threads from the edge from a blanket or sweater (as some have suggested). My good friend has observed that "Marjorie" handy work resembles the delicate technique of "hair weaving" so popular in Victorian times. I usually find her "gifts" when I am in a stressful situation who in a grieving mode.I find comfort in knowing this kind spirit attachment is one that I recognize and learn to co-exist with. I am lucky in this way, but others are not so fortunate. 

So what to do?

There is not enough data in general medical statistics that has been addressed to this problem. Doctors in the rational medical community need to understand and be aware that when someone goes to them that is not sleeping well, feels under unseen pressures and seeing visions, they should not be immediately be considered a candidate for a nervous breakdown, be written a script to go see a psychiatrist, given anti-anxiety drugs or told they need a vacation.They have to be schooled that there can be a much more profound and unusual set of circumstances that is troubling their patient. It seems a bit naive that these days with the proliferation of "ghost shows" on TV and movies and the thousands of believers across the country that say they believe in the paranormal, that doctors could unaware of this phenomena and possible cause.

Maybe the right physician is a Spiritual "doctor", someone who can identify with the person experiencing the haunting or spirit attachment because they themselves have had the same thing happen to them. Psychic mediums suggest that most ghosts are very sorrowful, lonely and 'lost'. It would only make sense for them to feel some sort of comfort with someone who is living.
                             

This is not to be confused with a Spirit Possession where  a spirit is able to either temporarily or permanently take over the thinking and/or body functions of a living person.

Several options and methods are available to the person that is experiencing either a personal "haunting" or "attached spirits".  Most mainstream religions have their own way of dealing with and releasing attached spirits.

A Christian-based form of Spirit Release is known as Deliverance Ministry, which is similar to the Catholic model but without as much formal ritual. It doesn't require the person to be a specific religion only the willingness to be open to the possibility that they are being affected by a spirit attachment and they can be helped.

People can seek help through recommendations by people in the paranormal community. One of the most respected people in this field of Deliverance Ministry is Bill Bean. www.billbeanministries.com 

There are many websites, books and other tools out there to educate yourself.  Be aware of the signs that is impacting your life. That is why people in the paranormal community write articles, share their knowledge and even write blogs to help and spread the message so no one has to feel alone.

CAN YOU GET POST TRAUMATIC STRESS FROM A HAUNTING?

Is there a link between PTS and being in a haunted situation? I thought this was something interesting to bring up given the thousands of people now becoming involved in the popular practice of "ghost hunting" and people reporting haunting in their homes, business; and the many "haunted tours" conducted at historical locations, various battlefields, old prisons and former mental hospitals and institutes.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common reaction to traumatic events. In researching this topic I found it is (suggested) that PTSD becomes persistent when individuals process the trauma in a way that leads to a sense of serious, current threat. The sense of threat arises as a consequence of:
(1) Excessively negative appraisals of the trauma 
Example : possible overcompensating and overreacting to a situation that was a threat or may not be an immediate threat.
(2) A disturbance of autobiographical memory characterized by poor elaboration, strong associative memory and strong perceptual priming.
Example: reacting to something or someone that reminds you of the cause of a traumatic incident-over and over again.

Although we think of PTSD associated with soldiers in combat: Think of the fight or flight reflex to a serious threat or dangerous environment, and originally applying only to extreme experiences that people would not expect to encounter every day, it has come to be associated with a growing list of relatively commonplace events: accidents, muggings, a difficult labor (with healthy baby), verbal sexual harassment, or the shock of receiving (inaccurate) bad news from a doctor even in cases in which the incorrect diagnosis has been rescinded shortly afterwards. 

So, I have been wondering what the effects are building up on people who are long time paranormal investigators? 
Or, long term exposure to a haunting situation without a final solution in sight. These is not listed in the above as a possible causes of PTSD. But I think they should. 

I think the ensuring stress that it has on the physical and mental capacities of the human body manifests as this recognized disorder and how with certain individuals coping with their own individual experience. Like a haunting! So it can't be generalized in too broad a manner.

With the constant pursuit and interaction in possible dangerous places with unknown supernatural encounters, one wonders if this will cause negative impact in their lives in the future. Indeed, they may not even be aware of the cumulative psychological effects until much later, even long after they no longer are involved in paranormal investigations.

There was a scene in the recent "Annabelle" movie that mentioned a horrific encounter that Lorraine Warren had suffered during an exorcism that went terribly wrong. Now she was a trained and experienced person who dealt with the paranormal and demonic entities for years along with her husband, Ed Warren, and yet she saw and confronted something so unspeakable that she would never reveal it even to her husband. Although shaken for months after the exorcism she continued to help others and still does today. But as her husband mentioned in the movie, "it took a piece of her" that could never be regained. 

 Scene from The Conjuring Movie

The real Lorraine Warren (on the left) and actress Vera Farmiga who played her in the movie, The Conjuring.

What about people who are not as trained and able to handle the supernatural? Like people who are foolish to think this is an entertainment venue and fun to "hunt ghosts". So they buy a camera or two, and other equipment and set out to confront ghosts, spirits, entities, demons and whatever at their local cemetery, an abandoned house, hospital or school, etc. 
                          

Do they know what they are doing? How about they get in a situation that leaves them traumatized because of lack of experience, training or even common sense? What are the long term effects?

One of the long-term effects of extreme stress can affect sleep, dreaming and Hyper Awareness! 

Sound familiar Paranormal Investigators? One only has to see current participants in many popular TV shows in this field that exhibit these traits. Whether it's acting or the real act of investigating the unknown there is hyper awareness to sounds, smells, seeing shadows in the peripheral vision or sensing something unnatural behind or even touching you.

Once the show has aired for its contractual 60 minutes what happens to the people on the show when they go home at night? Do they have nightmares? Do they have insomnia?
Do they literally take their work(i.e.ghosts)home with them?
Does long exposure to the paranormal field pose serious 
consequences for the investigators? 
*Can it change the way they approach the field?
By this I mean:
*Can they feel a sense of power by believing they have contacted dead people? And want more! Intentional provoking the dead comes to mind. 

*Delving into more dark areas-like people using Ouija boards- and justifying it by saying it's a good way to communicate with ghosts or spirits? 
Be so very careful!

*Do they overlook basic safety rules because they have had success in dark and damaged buildings without incident? 

*Do they think and feel they"know it all" because of the amount of time spent doing the many investigations and the newcomers looking up to them for guidance? No one knows it all until you cross the veil. Just putting it out there!

I know from my experience what my son and I confronted
in my deceased friend's "haunted house"  truly had a
trans-formative affect on us as people and our lives.We feel we have experienced  some form of PTSD. 
That long term of exposure (we are talking 10 months of constant activity over thousands of hours in his house) to terrifying supernatural events made us almost "numb" to scary things. Yet, we are super sensitive to spirit activity and extremes of atmospheric changes in our home environments, phantom smells and sensing fleeting shadow people or entities in our homes. It keeps you on guard, unbalanced to a ordinary simple routine and always makes you doubt yourself "did I just see that?"

Many of us who have confronted and lived through paranormal encounters and have been subjects of their attacks and attachments can tell you it is very hard to keep grounded in reality. But you have too! You have to fight back! Our weapon of choice is to use a sense of humor and firmly telling our ghostly visitors who is boss! 

Could you be awaken to loud bangs in the middle of the night and investigate the basement at 3 AM,see a shadow figure on the wall and then go back to sleep after that! We do!
Or hear children laughing, or play with your things and make them appear and disappear? We have!

              Artist recreation of the manifestation

Especially my son who has become a psychic medium after the trauma of being at my friend's house that seems to have brought out latent psychic abilities that he always had.
We are lucky to have the support and love of family, friends, fans and the continued blessings of our dear minister friend.

So how can you exorcise your demons?  Both figurative and literally?
Our weapon of choice is to use a sense of humor and firmly telling our ghostly visitors who is boss! We don't show our fear which at times is almost impossible. 
We don't hide our thoughts or feelings. Talk about it to others who have been though the same unique things. 
I write this blog! I wrote a book which was tremendously   cathartic for me and and now the sequel. 

Also we have a deep faith (know that we are protected by divine messengers )and keep the "light on" in our hearts and souls!

                                    

Our lives are not normal, but paranormal!  But, don't be afraid! Don't go it alone! The whole paranormal community is here to help and we are with you! Blessings to all!

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN?

I wrote several blogs last years with the phenomena of dealing with ghosts or spirits leaving gifts for us to find and the response of readers was compelling. So, I wanted to update this particular blog because of my recent experiences and share with everyone on this topic. 
Although I will be talking here about coins/money objects left to people seemingly random and with no explanation can be ribbons, threads, feathers, and jewelry. 

We have all heard the phrase and song, “Pennies from Heaven.” What would you say if that was really true? What if money just materialized from thin air? Is there a connection between coins, the newly deceased and ghosts? What is the connection between coins, the newly deceased and ghosts?

In Greek mythology, Charon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Usually a coin was sometimes placed in or on top of the mouth of a dead person to pay Charon for passage. Some authors say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied had to wander the shores for one hundred years. This ancient tradition continues today as some cultures still place coins on the eyes of the deceased before burial.

                      Caron ferrying souls in Hades

Do spirits leave pennies around for us to find?

In my experience I would have to answer, YES! I have been finding pennies and other loose change on the ground and other places all my life, but never gave it a thought that it could be a loved one who had passed on to the other side and was trying to get my attention. I just thought I was the lucky recipient of some unfortunate person dropping their money. I wasn't that familiar with this phenomenon at all. It really became apparent that this could be something of the supernatural realm after my experience at my friend’s house when we had coins being tossed around the room and against the wall. Although this is unusual occurrence, it seems this is a common sign from spirits. We had a number of objects thrown during the time at my friend’s “haunted house” and pennies were among them.I will never forget the day a crystal pennant that drop on me from the ceiling in his house! 

How about not just coins but paper money! Have you ever found a dollar bill right in front of your path or a $10.00 bill blow in front of you? I have! And I am not alone. I was a guest on a radio show the other night and psychic medium Toby Greynolds was on the show with me and he told me of his experience of finding $20's and $100.00 bills and he feels they are from his deceased father. All I can say is WOW!  


Most recently my son and I have started a business venture and will soon be opening a miniature model hobby and gaming store.  The day we signed the lease for the building, we found a penny, heads up, on the floor and it had not been there before. Then I found a penny in the utility closet on the shelf and I know it was not there the day before. 

We now have started collecting pennies in a jar as every time I get out of my car heading to our store I found a penny!  The other day as I was leaving a "Dollar Tree" store I found a dollar bill in my path to my car.  AND I went to the bank this morning and found a penny, a dime and a nickel on my path to the bank.  

So, if pennies are from Heaven or from a ghost, then what is the spiritual significance of finding dimes? Yes, we have been finding those too. A dime has ten pennies within it. 

After doing some research, apparently some consider the number 10 means, “We reap what we sow.” Ten can also mean fulfillment or completion of something. What dimes and pennies mean to me may not be of significance for you. There’s no right or wrong interpretation. No matter what your interpretation is, finding loose change around is supposedly a sign from the spirit world. 

So is it a deceased loved one leaving the money?

Is it a member of my family trying to communicate with me or just some random coincidence?  I don’t have the answers only my experience to share.I like to think my mom and dad are giving their blessings to our business venture as they were entrepreneurs in their lifetime, and letting us know they approve. My dad especially would have loved the medieval theme to our store. I have an oil painting my dad did when he was a young man before going off to World War II, of a knight on a horse ready to joust. 

By the way something new has been added to the well wishing from our spirits. This morning I found a white feather stuck to my arm when I got up this morning. I was in the bathroom and felt something touch my arm and there it was!
I have no explanation for this!

There are just too many people with the same personal story of receiving “Ghost Money” or other tokens of good fortune for it to be just a freak occurrence. Our failure to recognize or comprehend this is no one’s fault. Only recently do people feel comfortable enough of telling of these unique supernatural experiences and not fear being told they are crazy. We’re not!  Maybe one day science will be able to explain this phenomenon to us but for now if you feel you are being left “Pennies from Heaven” just thank the spirits or a loved one who sent it. They are listening.