"SPIRIT PIXELS" FROM ESTATE OF HORROR

Here is an excerpt from my book, Estate of Horror and what lead up to us capturing this incredible and un-explainable photo taken during a heightened state of paranormal activity in Paul's Basement- June 10th 2009.

I make no claims to know what this photo is-just our theories and observations. I have never seen any photo like this in all the vast supernatural related photos I've seen in the paranormal communities online or anywhere. You can look at this photo for hours and see so much in it. Perhaps someone out there has an answer?

EXCERPT:

Chris motioned to the plastic wardrobes that were in his way. 

“Just hold these back,” he said. He moved forward and in the light we could tell that the projector was rusty and in bad shape. I bent down to look at it. 
“Crap, I thought we could use this at Kent’s place,” Chris said in frustration. As he started to stand up a pink cotton hankie fell on his arm. “What the…?”

As I stood up and a blue cotton hankie fell to the floor. I looked around.

“Those two cotton hankies were over here,” I said to Chris. I picked them up and put them back on the same table. “That was weird.”

Chris turned around and a second later – swoosh – the blue hankie flew on top of the wardrobe and he began to laugh. 

“Look, Mom,” he said and pointed it out to me.

“Do you have your cell phone? Get a picture!”

No sooner had he taken a picture of the blue hankie landing, the pink hankie quickly zoomed up right passed us and landed in the rafters in the ceiling. “Whoa!”

“Get some pictures of that!” I said.

Chris kept snapping away. “I don’t know how good the pictures are going to come out,” he said. “But at least we have a record of it.”

“Other people may not believe us, but I know what I just saw,” I said.

Original cell phone photo taken by Chris of the pink handkerchief hanging in the ceiling rafters.

***

June 19^th 2009

I had had a meltdown and was in bed with a fever, coughing and downing Robitussin. However, taking some time off to recuperate gave me a chance to review the one good photo Chris took of the hankie that flew up the basement rafters. It was only a cell phone photo, and it was dark, but the resolution wasn’t bad. The picture showed the hankie wrapped around a thick electric cable in the ceiling. I loaded the photo from Chris’ cell phone into my computer software program, Photoshop.  I took one copy of the original photo and hit a level tool in the software program to see if it would lighten the picture, but it didn’t make it any better.  It showed a slightly pink fuzzy cloth hankie in half shadow against a black background of the wooden ceiling rafters.

I looked at the digital photo closely with my trained eyes and thought I saw a slight whitish smudge in the blackness on the upper right corner of the picture.

What is that? I thought to myself. I decided to crop the picture around the whitish area, which would make the area larger so I could see if there were any details. As I zoomed in close, it looked vaguely like a face. I had almost missed it. I was puzzled. What would have caused this white smudgy face when the whole area around the hankie was dead black? Was it a reflection of Chris’ cell phone flash? No. The wood beams were so old and dirty and they weren’t refinished with any varnish, so there hadn’t been a reflection. I was frustrated because it was difficult to see any more details.

Then, I had a hunch.  I used the level tools in Photoshop again on the cropped picture even though I thought it would be a waste of time. I say this only because once you use levels on a photo as I already had on this photo, it will not change anything further. However, I was in for a shock. I hit the level tool and what happened next is something I’ve never seen before in thirty-four years of working with photos.

The photo completely changed into a riot of bright colors of pixel mosaics and images. The main color was a solid deep yellow green with overlapping repeating blocks of colors: deep blues, turquoise, reds, oranges, purples, pinks, browns and grays scattered in no order. The faint whitish smudge at the center of it all was now an illuminated face with its own light source. Light wasn’t reflecting on it to form an image, it was the light! It was also partially absent of pixels. How could that be? What in the world was I seeing? I didn’t recognize the face, but I could definitely make out eyes, nose, a chin and the top outline of a head in bluish white tones. Unlike a standard 35mm camera that records an image on light sensitive film; digital photography uses light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens and stores it in a digital file ready for processing. You set your digital camera to dpi, which are digital pixels per square inch.

FYI-The pattern of pixels evenly spaced throughout makes up a digital picture surface-like your TV screen. The higher the resolution (like 350 dpi), by using a good digital camera, the better it produces a sharper photo and the less pixilated (or fragmented) the images appear when blown up. The lower digital resolutions (72 dpi) can make an image fuzzy and distorted when enlarged.

As I blew up the photo further, I could see hundreds more tiny colored square pixels that overlapped in multi-layers to create dimension. This was the dark photo of only a moment ago. I could still see the cotton hankie, but the darkness around the hankie had changed into a crazy quilt of color. These weren’t dust spots either, as you could make out designs and patterns.  I had no idea where the color was coming from.

Then, it became incredible. Some of the pixels were blocks of variations of a solid color while others in their squares had what looked like objects in them! The more I looked at the tiny pixel squares, the more I started making out what looked like an ancient Greek shaped vase, some architectural features like doorways and arches, vertical and horizontal crosses, all different colors and sizes. Some of the squares were very bright white and others had shadows in them.

When I showed the photo to my friend Rose, who is an award-winning photographer, she was as baffled as I was. She could also make out designs and see objects as we navigated around the image. 

“Doesn’t that look like part of a vase and that one remind you of some Aztec or Mayan temple below it?” she asked looking at one particularly interesting pattern. 

She had a theory. She pointed out that white light breaks up into a spectrum of color when passing through a prism, and wondered if somehow we digitally shot through some type of spectral prism in the blackness that produced the colorful effect. It was an interesting concept but it didn’t explain the artifacts.

Collage of images-all original photo files are intact -I have copies here for blog. This is the same image throughout and only manipulated by hitting Level's Tool in Photoshop which I never dreamed would change the photo.  Nothing has been included or added to the photo.

Could it be possible that the image we digitally captured was holding fragmented memories of tangible thoughts? Did we accidentally photograph the essence of a spirited intelligence? Or were we looking at another dimension?

 END OF EXCERPT

Your thoughts?

WHERE SPIRITS ENERGIZED BY OUR TV SHOW?

I have mentioned in 2 earlier blogs that reports from witnesses and paranormal investigators that indicate spirits can make sounds: footsteps, screams, bangs, tapping sounds, etc. and in most rare cases, spirits known as poltergeists can move or break objects. Yes, I have witnessed this first hand and written about it.

However there is other unique physical evidence, that I'd like to update here on this newest post, our continued unexplained hand prints and fingerprints on different surfaces.

Can a ghost or entity leave a visible hand print/fingerprint? Have you seen a footprint or a hand print on a window, glass table, or car where an entity could be responsible for the imprint? 

Is this possible?    YES!!!!

One theory is: we know from investigations that spirits cause temperature changes, (watch any ghost hunting show and they are using sensitive meters that can detect environmental changes during an investigation) and in doing so can the change in temperature around one's hand, in theory, discolor or fog up something that was sensitive to temperature (like glass). Then, all it would take is some dust or something to stick to the fog and you have a ghostly hand print. So.If ghosts can manifest some kind of semi-solid matter and manipulate temperature changes- can they do this to leave imprints? That’s one interesting theory.

I first noticed a weird looking finger print on our downstairs bathroom mirror several years ago in 2010.

               
At the time I was writing my book Estate of Horror and we were experiencing paranormal occurrences in our house. At the same time, my son was experiencing very vivid and horrific dreams of recently deceased people visiting him at night during that summer.  His experiences as a psychic medium will be further explored in the sequel, Dark Transference that I am currently writing.

In February 2013 unexplained hand-prints appeared on our glass coffee table in the living room. (I had seen something like this before but only thought them our prints and wiped them off with Windex). After putting baby powder over them we were able to get a good image with our digital camera. We then saw that there were not 2 sets of prints but another smaller set over them!  Possibly a child’s? We also can see actual ridges of the fingerprints in several of the marks.

                 
We photographed and documented them and then erased them from the surfaces. We had Bill Bean over to our house and his prayers and deliverance session seemed to erase much of the negative energy we were experiencing. We heard distinct physical movement: squeaks, pings and bangs as Bill did his demonic confrontation with sacred prayers. He told us he was clearing house and it we heard "them" leave! We were so happy to feel we had finally got rid of these unwanted entities.

Late May 2013 I noticed an odd shape on the vinyl window shade in my bedroom. Directly in the middle of the white shade was an embossed print of something that looked like an elongated hand-print and 2 separate finger imprints near the bottom of the shade. It was impressed from the outside in against the window!  It looked like it was done with heat that actually melted the vinyl to stretch the hand print and finger prints out. It’s permanent on the shade.
               
Months went by and nothing else showed up on any surfaces.

They're Back!!!!  7-14-14

I went into the upstairs bathroom and something on the mirror caught my attention. It wasn't a reflection or my imagination. There they were at the bottom of the mirror. More inhuman looking fingerprints! 

They looked very similar to the prints in the downstairs bathroom mirror from almost 2 years ago. It correlates with strange things happening again while I've started to write the sequel to my book.

We again called Bill Bean and he was very concerned with the ghostly threats since directed at me for revealing the horrific family secret in my book and the resulting research and conformation of evidence I've received that is shocking.
He once again came to our house in September 2014 and was here all day doing an all out assault on the dark forces that stubbornly refuse to leave for good. Peace once again filled my house.

Then December 24th 2014 these hand and finger prints appeared on my upstairs bathroom mirror in the upper right panel of my 3 part paneled mirror.

                  
Ironically this was exactly 5 years to the day, the haunting started in my house after selling Paul's house in Oct. 2009 and our paranormal lives began.
  
                         
More detailed close up of the prints on the right mirror panel
Notice how the prints seems to be overlapped with another elongated set of print above them.Or is it that these prints are dragged downward?


Sunday, December 28th, The national airing of our episode on Destination America's A Haunting TV show called "Portal of Doom".

Here is the youtube link if you missed the episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pUZ_GFnYLM


In the early morning hours (2 AM) after the show aired I awoke and heard noises in my hallway and outside the bathroom. I felt unsettled and uneasy but the noises stopped and I fell back to sleep.
The next morning here is what I found on my bathroom mirror: 3 more sets of hand and fingerprints.

2 Set of hand prints in the middle of the mirror 

                

Another view off side to get the images.

One set in the lower left hand corner of the mirror

So there you have it, a continued line of ghostly manifestations in forms of hand and finger prints. Did the airing of our show somehow energize the atmosphere for the spirits to manifest once again? Possible. We are convinced there is a portal or area of spirit activity, in the upstairs bathroom, that opens from time to time. Those of you who saw the episode on A Haunting know that is where I was scratched across the chest in a vicious manner.

                    
Is this aimed to frighten and deter me from writing the sequel?  This is not the only thing that has been happening here lately. I intend to reveal new horrific discoveries in my upcoming sequel. Yea, like I said, I am truly a "haunted author" but I am not backing down!

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!