THE PARANORMAL IS ALL QUITE NORMAL

I don’t criss-cross the continent, as some ghost sleuths do, looking for cold spots in old houses, buildings, theatres, government buildings, courthouses, hotels, motels or on golf courses.....where I’m told there are a few hackers (like me in life) who don’t know they’ve expired this mortal coil. They’re still trying to lower their handicap. While I do read the tomes of those who have sought out wee ghosties, on moor or highland, from cemeteries to musty attics in venerable old homes, I just don’t actively hunt them out, and have never tried to do so, as I respect their privacy as they observe mine. Unless of course they have an agenda to resolve. If I happen upon a spirited traveller, beyond the present hard realities of life as we know it, I certainly don’t look away or tremble with fear. If we accidentally run into one another, or it’s a planned visit or lasting occupation of the premises etc., well that’s my kind of ghost sleuthing. Easy access.

Since my father Ed passed away a year ago, it has been pretty quiet on the ghost front. As I do believe in the work of medium John Edward, and his advice to validate those who have “crossed over” as being spiritual qualities and quantities, there isn’t much necessity, I suppose for any spirited intervention. My wife and I are fully cognizant of the spirit-kind, and we aren’t afraid of occasionally tossing our family and friends who have passed, a random “hello.....how are you Dave, or Ed, Merle, Norm, Harriett, Uncles John, Jack, Vince, friends Charlie, Dave, or Randy. We don’t get an “other side” pat on the back or anything but a feeling that they are aware of our acceptance of their existence, in one form or another, in the great beyond. I have always believed in life after death, although never having been particularly religious. My cross-boundary chatting, and it can be in mind if not voice, has come since watching John Edward’s “Crossing Over,” and fully appreciating what it means to validate those who have passed. It’s as simple as believing there is more to existence than what we see in our daily lives. And by giving it all the benefit of the doubt that there’s acceptance and accommodation on both “our plane,”...... and there’s. I validate these spirit-kind, each day, by simply acknowledging that they continue on, and can make contact. I don’t need a seance or a visit to the cemetery to communicate my sentiments.

Two friends in particular, who passed away some years ago now, are always in mind when I’m working on a research project. Dave Brown, my outdoor education chum, (I wrote his biography).....who was my mentor, in both history and vintage book collecting, is on my spiritual speed-dial. As I trusted Dave’s judgement in life, I value his input just as much from “the beyond.” I can’t tell you how many books the man has helped me find since his death. I’m not shy about asking him to help me find an evasive book or file folder in my cluttered archives. Nothing happens immediately. I don’t think those who have passed are on-the-clock if you know what I mean. From a week to three in waiting, nine times out of ten, I will trip, or spill a coffee, topple over a stack of books, and low and behold.....the evasive book is revealed. As for the statistics that it is not a manifestation of spirits at all, just stupid coincidence, well.....call it what you will. It won’t stop me from asking for help in the future. There are other times I will just say hello to my research partner, Charlie Wilson, a dear man and talented writer, who I worked with on a sport’s biography back in the late 1990's. He’d call me several times a week, and we’d talk for an hour about history and research obstacles, and about his life as a front line reporter in an American city, back in the days of widespread civil unrest. I learned so much from these two gentlemen, and I’ll tell you, whey they passed, each was a huge blow to my own writing work. It’s why I simply refused to distance myself just because of death. Heck with that! I needed their inspiration plain and simple. So I started to mindfully greet them whenever I sat at this keyboard, and needed a spark of motivation..... or requireed some strategy for researching something that had or has now become stubborn and unyielding. Both men were doggedly determined to succeed, no matter what they were working on. I can still so clearly hear their friendly voices on the telephone.....while I was sitting, or pondering without luck, at this same desk.....tapping at this worn-out keyboard. While my critics will call me delusional, and that you can not talk to dead people.....well, I guess there’s worse things in life, as long as don’t start clucking like a chicken or chasing vehicles down the road like a wayward dog.

Suzanne and I have both had many encounters with wayward spirits......at least “wayward” to us. They obviously remained in dwellings we have lived and worked, and didn’t move out entirely, you might say, with their respective friends and family. Back through this extensive blog you will find these references, and we attest to the truthfulness of each experience. Yet by far, our encounters generally, are from subtle inspirations and messages from the other side, that are by no means unsettling or unwelcome. Some will say these are “hauntings” none the less. We see it as the result of being “okay” with death, and confident, that in this big, complicated universe, there’s a lot more stuff science has yet figured out. Such as parallel dimensions. Until we find the “other side” by using the investigation of science, we will, in the meantime, continue to acknowledge, out of a sense of good will and kinship, those we wish to include as part of our contemporary existence. We certainly don’t let out a roll call each day, and maybe only once every three or four months, will I make a point of rattling off a larger greeting to include more friends and family......because coincidentally I was thinking of these departed souls at the time, for any number of reasons. If I think about Dave Brown, I will validate the reminiscence with a simple greeting......much as I did when Dave’s canoe-laden truck arrived here for summer weekends, and he ambled up the driveway with an arm load of books for our kids. When I recall a neat moment with my dad, because of some parallel I’ve been exposed to, I don’t worry about any prescribed protocol but rather, exercise what I feel is appropriate.....and if I vocalize it......chances are it will sound like, “Hi Eddy....what’s going on?” Now if you hear me say that, and you notice there’s nobody around me, be polite and let a man have his fun. My dad and I had a lot of memorable “bull sessions” shooting the breeze over a lifetime. And we’re still communicating but he just doesn’t make the coffee any more.

Some people do consult this blog series looking for traditional ghost stories. There are a few of those printed here, and being open to paranormal potential, validating that there is indeed a dimension that allows ghosts to wander about, we expect a full life of future spirit-full encounters. We just don’t get scared about visitations. Rather we look forward to contact and have not had bad experiences.....just a few we didn’t understand at the time......but dealt with after preliminary research and a heaping helping of open-mindedness. It might be the sudden aroma of lilacs in the middle of winter, the wafting scent of fresh cookies from the oven, when nothing is being baked, or the strange thought of a name or word that seems so wildly out of place. One day, as I was shovelling snow, I all of a sudden had a reference to “witch-hazel” repeating in my mind. Now how the heck does that happen? I’m pretty sure I know but do you? I knew nothing about witch-hazel other than my most basic school-day knowledge of it as basic countryside flora and fauna. I knew it had a medicinal use but I couldn’t tell you what it treated.

After about an hour of this, I went and asked Suzanne whether or not her mother could be trying to get us a message by using a reference to “witch-hazel” in order to jog our memories. The short answer is “yes.” It seemed Harriet and family did have something or other to do with this old remedy for infections and skin irritations.....but it also got Suzanne thinking about many other situations and activities that could have had witch-hazel as a guidepost. I had an infection, at this time, on my index finger, and after hearing this said, “Well, why don’t we go out an buy some, and see if it works.” It did. We now use it all the time for a variety of conditions and it has always worked. Now I don’t think Harriet was trying to administer first aid to my injured finger by introducing witch-hazel to my mindset that day. It did spawn some reckoning and parallels for my wife, and so this intrusion was welcome and useful. Some are a little annoying because we can find no legitimate parallel. I get things like this happening all the time. I always apologize to the other side, that if they are indeed trying to communicate some message to me, the should please allow for the fact I’m a little slower on the pick-up these days..... so I suggest they “leave a message and I’ll get back to you!”

In the new year we will be making occasional entries on this blog-site, of experiences we haven’t yet documented and new ones encountered along the way. But these accounts should not chill or frighten you, as they didn’t shock us when they happened. We are all a wee bit wary of the unknown and that’s a good thing. Blind acceptance isn’t good either. I will never chase away a ghost. I will beg of it to stay a while, and let me in on its secrets and aspirations here on earth. But I will, most importantly, validate them.

Thanks for visiting this blog site. I have some more Tom Thomson material in preparation for later this spring. Cheers.