Wicca Questions Asked and Answered!

This is part two of my two-part explanation of Wicca for teens who are curious about it. I am fortunate to have attended college with a man who has now become an active leader in the Wicca community of Pennsylvania. Jonathan David White agreed to answer a series of questions for me about his faith. I will present my questions, his answers, and a few comments here and there to help readers to understand Jon's replies. I have removed some of the question-and-answer sets completely, but all Jon's replies below are unedited, just as he wrote them.

SELF-IDENTIFYING QUESTIONS

Matt:  What branch of Wicca do you follow or practice, if any?

Jon:  The Stone Circle Tradition of Wicca, which is based out of the Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary of Earth Religion in Artemas, Pennsylvania.

Matt:  Where do you stand on some of the points of practice in which Wiccans differ?

Jon:  Many Wiccans understand the Divine primarily in terms of the dyadic God and Goddess.  While I don’t disagree, in Stone Circle Wicca we speak of the Divine as “One and Many, Male, Female, Both, and Neither.”  I tend to think of the Goddess as the Living Spirit of the Universe.  I believe the purpose of ritual is to create “needs-focused, psycho-emotive ceremony,” designed to meet concrete emotional, physical, or social needs of those gathered in the circle.  I believe in the Divine as both transcendent and immanent in the physical Universe, and I believe careful observation of and participation in the world is the best form of spiritual teaching.

Commentary:  Jon is closer to being monotheistic than some other Wiccans. He believes in a concept he calls the Divine which is greater than questions of number and gender. He calls it "the Living Spirit of the Universe." For him, the Divine is everywhere and found in everything, and Jon therefore recommends that studying and being active in the world is the best way to be a spiritual person.

Matt:  My sense of knowing you in college is that you probably don't have witches for parents. How did you come to adopt this faith?

Jon:  I was raised atheist, the son of a secular Jew and a hippie Christian. I sought a long time to find a religion that embodied my personal values system and was congruent with my understanding of the world.  That meant one that was pluralistic, accepting of diversity of belief in the world, materialist and empiricist in bent, mystical at its core, pro-feminist, pro-queer, environmentalist, non-ethnocentric, non-anthropocentric, life-celebrating, self-challenging, and world-transforming.  For me, Wicca proved to be that religion.  But it was hard getting to that point.  I tried other religions on for size, but they either didn’t fit, or they chafed.  I fell into Wicca gradually, guardedly.  That’s as it should be. We don’t proselytize, and we accept converts only after setting up challenges to test their seriousness; the Goddess will call Her own to Her no matter what obstacles get set up.

Matt:  What is your title, and what does it mean as far as your level of training and responsibility?

I am a Third Degree Initiate in Stone Circle Wicca.  That is the last initiatory degree for Priests and Priestesses in the Stone Circle Tradition. What that means is that I studied for my First Degree Initiation as part of a group under a teacher, in which I learned how to create and conduct ceremony, and learned the core cosmological and ethical teachings of our brand of Wicca.  Then I chose to pursue the Second Degree under the mentorship of my teacher, which is solitary (in fact, isolating), and involves a confrontation with one’s shadow, a journey into one’s personal underworld.  Then, after that, I studied for the Third Degree, which is kind of like doctoral work: it’s focused on fulfilling a particular assignment from your teacher that only you can do.  That whole process took me about 6 years or so.  Since then, I have taught First Degree

classes, mentored Second and Third Degree candidates (I am mentoring two Second Degree students now), led more rituals than I could count, and taught non-initiatory classes in the broader Pagan community.  But—and this is key—I have no spiritual authority over anyone, take precedence over no one, and am no more likely to be spiritually right than the next character.  The work is its own challenge and reward.  That said, I do share with the other Third Degree Initiates of our Tradition the responsibility for guiding the Tradition as a whole.

Commentary:  While Jon does have responsibility in his community, he doesn't claim to have any sort of religious authority that enables him to command others. He doesn't assume he's more likely to be right about spiritual matters than others. Saying this, I think he is trying to draw a distinction with other forms of religion which have a hierarchy -- some people being considered closer to God than others.

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

Matt:  There are a lot of books in the new age sections of bookstores about witchcraft. Are any of these books sensible, useful, or in some way an accurate reflection of your beliefs?

Jon: There are some useful books about Wicca.  Most, however, are basically crap, from my point of view.  They are selling wish-fulfillment to teenagers and emotionally immature adults.  Wicca is not about freedom from responsibility, but instead the freedom that is responsibility.  The real teachings are rarely passed out in books.  I can recommend some writers for those who would like to know where to start, but there is no substitute for the only real school of Wicca—the natural world—and from what can be gained by experiencing life firsthand and seeking guidance where appropriate from a spiritual mentor or teacher.  Many of our most helpful readings for teaching First Degree students, for example, are not found in the “New Age/Occult/Pagan/Wiccan” section of the bookstore—they are science texts, mythic narratives from antiquity, comparative

mythography, and philosophy.

Commentary:  Mythography is the study of mythology.

Matt: How often do you think a member of your faith practices witchcraft for personal reasons, as opposed to just performing general worship?

Jon: There’s no one-size-fits-all answer.  I am not even sure myself of the complete viability of the distinction between magic, ritual, and religion, although I recognize for teaching purposes the methodological usefulness of teaching them as separate.  Real magic is about engagement with the world as it is, not retreat into an imaginary life, or wish-fulfillment.  Actual empowerment is one goal of Wicca; so is acceptance of the limits of one’s personal power in the world.  The World is the final horizon of the sacred, not my individual capability.  I myself use prayer, meditation, and personal vision work much more often than I use magic of the spell-based variety.  Spells, fundamentally, are a modality of prayer:  prayer with symbolically rich physical objects.  But the idea of “personal reasons” separate from worship in general, if I understand the

question, has no meaning to a Wiccan.  We believe in self-interest, but when I say my “self,” I also mean, my family, my community, the tribe, the nation, humankind, the Earth, the Universe.

Commentary:  Jon's conception of magic is very community-oriented, which fits with his idea of God being in everything. For him magic is more like prayer. He practices witchcraft mainly for spiritual insight. He again states the important of getting involved with the world. In saying this, I believe he is expressing the belief that any action you take in the world is magic.

Matt:  I have heard stories about members of the Wiccan faith suing schools for showing images of fairy tale witches who are old hags and so on. What do you think of that sort of lawsuit?

Jon: I think some people have too much time on their hands.  That’s a ludicrous position for overzealous Wiccans to take, based on fantasies of persecution, and should be ridiculed.  But moreover, it misses the point: many of us rarely or never describe ourselves in public as witches.  In our tradition, we teach that you must be very mindful of your own reasons for using a term that is clearly designed to elicit automatic negative thoughts in others.  To do so without accepting responsibility for the consequences of your own choices in speech violates an ethical life commitment every First Degree (in our tradition and in many others) makes:  “I take responsibility for all the consequences of my actions, intended and unintended, foreseen and unforeseen.”

Commentary:  Jon isn't interested in using his faith for social posturing. His claim that most Wiccans don't call themselves witches in public surprises me. I regret using the term that way in the previous article on this topic, and wonder how much popular culture may have affected my perception.

Matt:  What precisely is the relationship between your religion and Satanism?

Jon:  The only relationship is one of misunderstanding.  Satanism is a variant on the Christian cosmology.  Wicca has no concept of incarnate Evil, is not a morally dualistic religion, and thus could never create a “Satan” to which to pledge allegiance.  Wicca and Satanism are simply incompatible worldviews.

Commentary:  Jon says that Satanism is a reaction to Christianity, which contains the concepts of good and evil, while for Wicca, there is no such thing as dividing good from evil, so in the Wiccan worldview, there can't be an evil being like Satan.

Matt:  How do members of the Wiccan faith view pivotal Judeo-Christian figures such as Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed? What about Hindu gods or the Buddha and his

boddhisatvas?

Jon:  At least for many of us, it seems clear that the Divine appears throughout history in an unimaginable variety of guises and manifestations.  I have to assume that Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are all absolutely true and accurate reflections of their own spiritual Lights.  I may disagree with the social and theological commitments of some variants of these religions—such as rejecting utterly the idea common to many monotheistic religions that only one religion is the One True Way to the One True God—but I have to believe that the Divine is as present in the G-d of Moses and Abraham, in Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu, in Buddha and the many Boddhisatvas, in the Lord Jesus Christ, or in Allah, the Great, the Compassionate, the Merciful as in my own understanding of the Divine as One and Many, Male, Female, Both, and

Neither.  Anything else would be absurd egotism on my part.  

Commentary:  Jon believes that the Divine can be worshipped under many names, and so he accepts the holy figures of other religions as reflections of the same Divine that he worships. His only objection to other religions is that they sometimes claim they are the only way to God.

Matt:  How is life in a Wiccan household different for children than life in a Christian household?

Jon:  Depends.  My wife is Roman Catholic; our son is being raised both Wiccan and Catholic.  He loves Christmas.  He also says “Hello, Lady,” whenever he sees the Moon.  Wiccan children in households where both parents are Wiccan tend to have much in common with our son’s upbringing in that they learn early on that Nature is sacred, that animals, trees, etc. will teach them things if they pay close attention, that the Universe is alive and conscious.  But the biggest differences are in adolescence; Wicca affirms the naturalness, sacredness, and healthfulness of sexuality, teaching responsible, safe fulfillment of sexual desire as a normal aspect of adolescent life; that’s very different from most Christian homes.  Wicca has an initiatory understanding of the sacred Life Cycle, with ceremonies marking the passages of life—into childhood, adolescence,

young adulthood, middle adulthood, older adulthood—with different spiritual and practical expectations of each of us based on our moment in life.  Children need to be respected and treated as children.

Commentary:  In a home with two Wiccan parents, children are raised to respect nature and to believe that the entire universe is one living mind. Jon talks about people who grow up in Wicca passing through transitional periods as they age and mature. He says further that Wiccan children are taught that sexuality is healthy and normal. Saying this, he indicates a difference between Wicca and Christianity, which he feels puts lots of restrictions on sexuality.

Matt:  Under what conditions would it be sensible for a Wiccan priest to try to help with dangerous hauntings or exorcisms? What would be done in such a case?

Jon:  I have never accepted a request to assist with anything of this kind (the more common request that I have refused is for help with “psychic attack”).  Exorcism is not a Wiccan concept, nor can “haunting” be dangerous.  The relationship with the Ancestors can become problematic only through the medium of behavioral health problems in the concerned individual.  By this I do not mean that “if you think you’re being haunted you’re delusional.”  Rather, it should be understood that the relationship to the Ancestors has become disordered through some emotional or psychological process that itself needs to be the focus of change in order to experience change in one’s relationship to the Ancestors.  The power of the Ancestors in this world is potentiated by our memories and thoughts of Them.

Commentary:  Jon uses the term Ancestors instead of terms like "ghost" or "spirit." He says that what is experienced as a dangerous haunting is a reflection of an unhealthy relationship between the haunted person and the Ancestors, and recommends that the haunted person receive psychological treatment.

Matt: If you went to Stonehenge or another stone circle in the British Isles, or perhaps to a Paleolithic circle in Malta or thereabouts, what would you want to

do there from a religious perspective?

Jon:  I have held a ritual circle at Glastonbury Tor, in England, at Ostara (Spring Equinox) 1999.  It was very deeply moving and powerful.  That said, it is more relevant, for Americans, to build our own centers of worship now.  At Four Quarters (www.4qf.org), we have been building a megalithic stone circle over a period of many years, raising multi-ton stones by hand.  I have led many rituals in the center of Stone Circle at Four Quarters, and that is very powerful, too, because I have helped to make it a reality.

Matt:  Are there sites in North America that are particularly sacred to you?

Jon:  Yes.  Stone Circle and the rest of the Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary of Earth Religion.  Also Skyline Caverns in Virginia.  Also this one stone

outcropping by the Pacific Ocean in far Northern California.  Also the woods behind my Mom’s house.  Also my backyard.

Commentary:  Jon likes sacred sites, but since he feels the Divine is everywhere, he can find a sacred space anywhere.

Matt:  Would you please use witchcraft to make Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Christie stop messing with teachers?

Sure.  Watch me:  Find thirteen people who believe as you do about what teachers in New York and New Jersey need, and who share your same level of enthusiasm. Make an agreement with them to meet once a week for thirteen weeks to talk about the issue and what you can do together to change it.  At each meeting, go around a circle saying, “We are going to change things for the better for teachers in our community.”  Here, I’ll give you a very powerful Wiccan teaching, no strings attached:  The best way to do it—is to do it.

Commentary:  I was joking about this, as Jon surely knew, but being a wise man, he took my joke as an opportunity for a lesson. He advises that the best form of magic is just taking action.

Post-interview remarks:  I have known Jon for many years, and I can tell you that he is a generous, well-meaning, kind, and socially conscious person. His intelligence and thoughtfulness and modesty, shown in this interview, are no pose. He has always been like this. As such, he is an excellent representative of his faith who does a good job demonstrating my assertion, starting with the previous article, that Wicca is not a harmful or threatening religion. In fact, I find that it has a great deal in common with Hinduism, the most common religion in my own multi-religious family.

Next time:  I am working on bigfoot and sasquatch. If you have any requests or suggestions, please post comments. Also visit my book website at http://schooloftheages.webs.com/

Witchcraft -- Wicca -- Hey, What is That?

This is part one of a two-part article. Part two will be an interview with a Wicca priest.

WITCHES -- A TERRIBLE THREAT?

Witches are among us. Practitioners of the Wicca faith call themselves witches or Neopagans. Because of the negative associations with witchcraft that have descended to western culture from Europe of the Middle Ages, using this term may seem to be an immediate, aggressive challenge to the faith of many readers. I'm pleased to report to you, however, that Wicca is not a religion that promotes evil-doing or any kind. Unlike Medieval European witchcraft, it has no association with Satanism, but should better be viewed in connection with religious practices that existed before Satanism did. The fact that Wicca is also called Neopaganism is a giveaway. "Pagan" means "part of religious beliefs in Europe before Christianity."

To an uninformed person, Wicca symbols and rituals look frightening. One of their two gods is The Horned God, who has goat horns, as shown in many representations of Satan. Wiccans wear garments like cloaks, robes, and garlands when worshipping, and they use ritual knives called athames, and some of their holidays are called Sabbat, which recalls the Medieval Witches' Sabbath, depicted as evil and unholy in most art and literature. However, the reality is that when they are doing these things, Wiccans don't want to hurt anyone. They do practice magic, and call it Craft or witchcraft, but they don't believe in causing harm by so doing. In fact, their principal code, the Wiccan Rede, begins with these words:

Bide within the Law you must, in perfect Love and perfect Trust.
Live you must and let to live, fairly take and fairly give.

Although the law mentioned is not civil law but divine law, this divine law is more along the lines of the laws of God and the laws of the natural world. Love and trust, live and let live, be fair in what you take -- this is benevolent language.

The founder of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, was even more specific, in these words that are as central to Wiccans as is the Lord's Prayer to Catholics:

An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will.

In translation:  do what you want, but only so long as no one is harmed.

This contrasts sharply with the belief system of a magician who knew Gardner but was not a Wiccan.  Aleister Crowley, known in his time for being wicked and selfish, who said of magic, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" and "ordinary morality is only for ordinary people." People like this you have to be careful around, but not Wiccans.

SO YOU SAY WICCANS AREN'T EVIL. WHAT DO THEY BELIEVE THEN?

Wiccan faith was established (or, some would say, re-established) in the early 20th century in England, when anti-witchcraft laws were repealed there. While a founder cannot be precisely identified, Gerald Gardner is the leading figure, beginning perhaps with the publication of his book Witchcraft Today in 1954.

Wicca mainly resembles pre-Christian Celtic religion in England. It has two deities, the Horned God and the Triple Goddess. The Triple Goddess can be connected with the three phases of the Moon (waxing or growing more visible, full, and waning or losing visibility) and with the concept of the three stages of life as found also in the Greek mythological images of the Fates:  women who are young and virginal, mature and fertile, and aged but wise. The Horned God is associated with nature, sex, the life cycle, the sun, the seasons of spring and summer. Some Wiccans believe they are representatives of a greater single godhead without gender, but this is not universal in the faith. The idea behind this theological system is that male and female are complementary, balancing principles that are both to be honored. As most European and near Eastern faiths focused on worshipping either the male principle (example:  Zeus as king of the Greek gods) or female principle (the Roman/Egyptian cult of Isis), this part of the Wiccan system represents a synthesis of European traditions, and has some distant kinship to the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang, although the Triple Goddess is not passive, as is Yin.

Most Wiccan holidays are tied to seasonal changes. This is one reason why its witches celebrate at Stonehenge in England -- it is an ancient astronomical prediction device. Stonehenge in prime condition enabled the culture that constructed it to predict the equinoxes and solstices. An equinox is a day that happens twice in every calendar year in which day and night are precisely equal length. A solstice is a day that happens twice in every calendar year in which the sun is furthest from the equator. All four days  mark the change of seasons because they are caused by predictable changes in the earth's relation to the sun. In an ancient agricultural culture, such as was practiced by the Neolithic people who built Stonehenge, predicting the change of seasons meant the difference between a good harvest (abundance) and a bad one (starvation). The forces of the earth were pivotal to their lives, so they saw them as coming directly from God.

Wiccans are not specifically farmers; they occupy many professions and come from a variety of social classes. Even without the farm association, however, they believe the solstices and equinoxes are sacred times. They also worship the time of harvest, and honor dead ancestors on Halloween (Samhain).

WHAT KIND OF MAGIC DO WICCANS DO?

Wiccans have religious rituals that celebrate their holidays and that recognize important moments in life such as joining and forming a new coven (a Wiccan religious community) or getting married, or welcoming a new child. Their rituals, often keyed to the phases of the moon, involve magic circles, calling upon elemental forces, and the use of various tools including candles, brooms, incense, and ritual blades. Nudity and sex acts have sometimes been part of Wiccan religious practice, but this is very unusual among modern Wiccans so far as I can determine and has probably been over-emphasized for purposes of sensationalism. A representative Wiccan event is called a Handfast, and involves the practitioners holding hands in a circle while the priests lead in worship on an altar in the center of the circle. A wedding would be done as a Handfast, for example.

Wiccans also practice witchcraft on their own. They use magic for practical purposes, seeking general well-being as well as trying to overcome problems such as illness and day-to-day challenges. Wiccans are not supposed to use witchcraft against others, because they are taught from childhood to believe that there are serious consequences to doing so. The basic belief is that if you harm someone with magic, you will be struck by a backlash and will be harmed three times as badly yourself. The use of the number three may seem arbitrary, but it probably isn't -- remember that the Goddess is a triple entity, and that the number three is sacred in many faiths besides the one I'm describing.

I have asked the Wiccan priest I am interviewing to write to me more about daily magic practices in Wicca, so with luck there will be more on this subject in part two.

WHAT'S PARANORMAL ABOUT WICCANS?

There's nothing paranormal about them that I can determine. They do practice magic, but the distinction between magic and prayer is not very great. Most practicing Wiccans are indistinguishable from non-Wiccans when they are not specially dressed.

DO WICCANS HAVE POWER OVER EVIL SPIRITS OR GHOSTS?

I have seen some cases on TV in which Wiccan priests have gotten involved in magic to deal with negative entities and ghosts. The stories were dramatized for TV, making their truthfulness difficult to evaluate. I think it's fair to say that religious leaders of all faiths have about equivalent levels of effectiveness when dealing with these situations. In other words, it depends on the individual's state of mind and preparation. I've asked my interview subject to comment about this and will pass on to you what he tells me.

ARE WICCANS THE ENEMIES OF CHRISTIANS? SHOULD I BE SCARED OF THEM?

No, I think they prefer to be left to their own business. Wicca is not a religion that actively recruits or seeks a lot of publicity. I don't recommend being scared of a Wiccan subgroup in your community; you can interact with them normally day-to-day. No one can threaten your beliefs if you are serious about them. If an individual Wiccan practitioner menaces you, she or he is acting contrary to the stated beliefs of the faith, and can be dealt with normally, as you would handle any bully.

IS WICCA A WIDESPREAD RELIGION?

Most Wiccans are in North American and Europe and have European ancestry. The only way I can assess the presence of Wicca in the world is its presence on the Internet relative to that of other religions. A Google search for Wicca as I write this article produces 4.6 million hits. Christianity produces 42 million hits; Islam, often viewing as the fastest-growing religion on Earth, over 100 million, although that number may be exaggerated by the actions of the violent fringe groups within that faith. Judaism draws 15 million hits; Hinduism 10 million; Buddhism 17 million; Sikhism 7.5 million. Jainism and Bahai each yield 1 million hits, Zoroastrianism about 600 thousand, Satanism and Santeria each 3.5 million hits. This unscientific test shows that Wicca is definitely a minority religion.

PLEASE TRY TO SELL ME YOUR BOOK

I hope you will go to my website, http://schooloftheages.webs.com, or view this youtube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOc0T5VSbfY, to learn more about School of the Ages:  The Ghost in the Crystal, my novel which can be purchased for Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook. It is about a magic school in New York City and a teen magician who must face the threat of a powerful evil spirit from ancient Egypt. I will be very surprised if you don't think it's one of the best novels about magic and the paranormal that you have ever read.

WHERE CAN I COMMENT?

Please comment here or in the guestbook on my website. You can also "like" my Facebook pages "School of the Ages Series."

TV Ghost Hunting Shows

ARE TV GHOST HUNTING SHOWS AUTHENTIC?

Yes and no. I don’t know if the phenomena they discover are ever genuine, or to what extent, or how often. My argument is going to be that it’s impossible to know how genuine they are without being present during the investigation. I’ll give you lots of reasons for my point of view.

To begin with, my overall view of the ghost hunting shows can be explained by an analogy with professional wrestling. In pro wrestling terminology, a match in which the professional wrestlers work together to put on a good show is called a “work.” If they really competed, it would be a “shoot,” as in the old term “shoot fighting” which is similar to MMA. Pro wrestling matches are always “works,” designed for entertainment purposes, but they are still real in certain aspects, because the wrestlers do things that hurt, sometimes by agreement and sometimes accidentally, and they are almost always banged up and frequently injured.

I think the ghost hunting shows are like this. They aim to provide entertainment and are staged for this purpose. They are open to finding genuine phenomena, but they are still entertaining when they don’t, and they take advantage of the principles of caveat emptor and dramatic license.

PRINCIPLES OF WHAT? AND WHAT?

“Caveat emptor” means “buyer beware” and refers to the consumer’s responsibility to be informed about the products he buys in terms of their quality and proper use. The proper use of a ghost hunting show (by a consumer) is of course entertainment, not scientific enquiry, so the possibility of it being altered for entertainment purposes is implied. If you take it too seriously, that’s your fault, at least under the law.

Dramatic license is the right to invent details in order to create drama for entertainment purposes. It is used in biographical fiction to fill in the gaps where research cannot reveal what people actually said or did. In terms of the ghost hunting shows, it means that the investigators can exaggerate and be very flashy in their reactions. Although this annoys more science-minded viewers like you and me, it isn’t really a misrepresentation, at least under the law. For example, I happen to think Barry Fitzgerald, on Ghost Hunters International, is too much of a showoff, and I don’t trust what he claims to see or hear, but his performance may be defended on the grounds that he is dramatizing what ghost hunting is like for the benefit of audience members who won’t grasp the subtleties. Anyway, who can prove he didn’t see and hear what he says he did? Certainly I can’t.

HOW GOOD IS THE EVIDENCE ON THESE SHOWS?

I’ve seen a lot of evidence that has intrigued and excited me, but absolutely none that convinces me beyond a shadow of a doubt. Let me go over the categories of evidence, starting with the least persuasive.

ORBS are useless as evidence. The ghost hunting teams may give reasons why they aren’t dust, insects, lens flare, or other camera-created objects, generally talking about the way they move, but I don’t buy it. I expect a photography expert not on payroll could dismiss nearly all the orbs.

EVPs, electronic voice phenomena, have a long history, going back to the early 20^th century, when you could record a vinyl disk in your home. The history is described on this page:  http://www.evpuk.com/evp_history.html. As an example of the older stuff, the EVPs Dr. Konstantine Raudive recorded in Germany in the mid-1960’s on vinyl disks were unclear and in multiple languages and sound like snatches of radio broadcasts. (I’ve heard some of them – I found mp3s online a few years ago.) To relate them to what the investigators were discussing or asking requires a very broad and flexible interpretive style.

In recent years, EVPs have become the standard method for ghost investigators to provide evidence of haunting. I think this is unfortunate, as they are unconvincing. Any sound engineer should be able to fabricate these, given that they usually sound electronic, or have the tinny qualities and echoes of an old, degraded recording. Because they can be easily faked, you can only trust EVPs if you trust the investigator or have both made and retained control of the original recording.

These days, on certain shows, EVPs seem to provide direct responses to investigator questions. I would advise being VERY suspicious of this. The last group of “investigators” to provide results that good during ghost communication were Spiritualist mediums of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the overwhelming majority of them were frauds. (Read A Magician Among the Spirits by Harry Houdini for evidence of their fraudulence.) If these nineteenth-century frauds could deceive people of their time with fake raps, knocks, table-lifting, photographic plates, and other tricks of prestidigitation (stage magic), leading people believe they were conversing with and even physically touching the dead, it is fair to suppose that prospective frauds of today could use digital technology and other trickery to deceive you and me.

Let’s say the investigators are sincere. Have they really been diligent enough to exclude environmental factors like radio broadcasts and other ambient waves? Do they have as much knowledge of how sound recordings work as they think they do? I don’t know the answer to either question.

Some of the newer devices for spirit communication, the ones which allow the spirits to select words digitally or speak through radio static, the ones which have been guest-starring on Ghost Adventures, seem to me too good to be true. They work so well on those shows that I feel the need for some independent verification of how they operate. They are very entertaining, of course, and that’s all the show has an obligation to be, but they have diminished my confidence in the quality of investigation being done.

SHADOW PEOPLE, in other words semi-humanoid shadows, sometimes appear in photos or on videotape. I wonder why a spirit would have the ability or motivation to look human. If you were to tell me that the human brain interprets some anomalous information in terms of a familiar images, and so people see spirits in some other form and interpret them as humanoid, I accept that. It’s called pareidolia, the same phenomenon that makes a burn pattern on toast look like the Virgin Mary or the craters on the Moon look like a man’s face. However, we are talking about the spirits looking that way on camera. I would say that the investigators and viewers want to see the shadows as human forms, so they do, but the visuals, while intriguing, are not convincing to me.

What about OBJECTS THAT MOVE JUST OFF-CAMERA? For me to accept a moving object as evidence of haunting, let the camera show the object moving in a way that absolutely excludes human action. For example, the door shuts when you can see both inside and outside the room, or the furniture moves when no one is positioned to pull a string attached to it. Yes, I’ve seen video that convinced me, but not too much of it was on the ghost hunting shows. I was somewhat convinced by the glass that shattered in Jason Hawes’ room at the Stanley Hotel. It could have been faked, but I didn’t think so either time I saw it.

I SAW IT? DID YOU SEE THAT? DID YOU HEAR THAT VOICE? MY HAIR IS STANDING UP ON MY ARM, LOOK!. IT’S REALLY COLD HERE NOW. What investigators say they experience can’t be discounted; no one wants to call an investigator a liar. You can’t disprove it, but, on the other hand, you can’t prove it either. Therefore, the paranormal experience may be convincing if you’re at the location, but it’s worthless to the TV viewer. We all know that when you are in darkness, your brain compensates for lack of sensory information by inventing data. If you’ve ever been in an isolation tank or a psychomanteum, you know that to be true.

EMF DETECTORS AND DIGITAL THERMOMETERS are also common tools. I’m not convinced that I know entirely what natural phenomena can trigger EMF detectors. I know scientific investigators use EMF detectors, but they use them by gathering long-term data for analysis, not momentary data like you see on the TV shows. Long-term data, because they are the result of repeated experiments, are more convincing and valuable than are singular experiences. When you get a result multiple times, it's considered verifiable and merits a higher level of trust. That’s how science works. I’m skeptical of digital thermometers also. On the shows, both devices produce one-time results. They are interesting, but all possible alternate causes for their readings are not consistently eliminated.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You can never be sure of a paranormal experience, even one you have in person. The paranormal events on TV must always be suspicious because there are so many opportunities to fake the results that you either believe or you don’t, based upon your assessment of the investigators’ integrity. There are certain aspects of TV ghost investigation that activate my “crap detector.” I will explain.

First, if you want to be scientific, then why only one night of investigation?  Scientists who are investigating ghost phenomena spend weeks to months observing, gathering data, recording and analyzing. How can one night at a place produce comparable results?

Second, why always in the dark? Ghosts aren’t only active at night. They are active at every time of day, depending on the situation. If you read eyewitness accounts from people who have interacted with ghosts, you will see that the experiences are distributed among various times of day and varied lighting conditions. Investigating in the dark makes for better TV, though, because there is more mystery, things can’t be seen well, the investigators look more interesting (and in some cases, more attractive) with the IR camera, and a general creepy atmosphere ensues.

Third, why do so many shows not acknowledge the camera crew? This is a pet peeve of mine about TAPS. An investigator who is alone on-camera isn’t really alone, but is accompanied by a camera crew or one or two people, but still says “I was alone.” Why pretend there is no cameraman? It might work on Survivor or Hogan Knows Best, but it doesn’t work if you want to appear really scientific. (Look up “Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle” for more on this.)

On Ghost Hunters’ Halloween live show a few years back, the flaws built into ignoring the TV crew became apparent when a TV crewman barged into the kitchen and Jason Hawes told him to get out, distracting from the viewer’s mood and perhaps the quality of the investigation, if it had been sincerely done up to that point. Shortly after that, another blunder took place when the live camera switched to a team of investigators who were just standing around waiting for their cue to begin on-camera activity. On the assumption that TAPS is genuine, rather than just a media phenomenon, they must have been very frustrated with the TV production making them look bad. I presume they are less produced when shooting their regular investigations, but one can certainly feel disillusioned seeing the metaphorical puppet strings being pulled. I have gone on to wonder about some other aspects of their filming schedule. How are the shots set up of the vans traveling on the highway or passing through town? Probably the TAPS teams are not in the vans at the time, right? And when the camera crew goes inside the haunted location to film Jason and Grant’s arrival, how far in advance do they go in? And how many meetings or phone conversations have taken place to orchestrate that situation? These very typical reality-show quibbles do not in any way demonstrate insincerity, or lack of scientific seriousness:  they are just necessities for TV, which provides funding for the work TAPS does. However, they are distracting.

SHOULD I WATCH THE SHOWS IF I DON’T TRUST THEM?

Yes. They are designed as entertainment, and they succeed as entertainment.

SHOULD I INVESTIGATE GHOSTS?

Ghost-hunting should be done only by adults.

WHAT ARE POLTERGEISTS?

ARE POLTERGEISTS REAL?

Yes, poltergeists are real. Why do I say this? Because there are thousands of cases reported throughout history, over hundreds of years. This means there is more consistent evidence for poltergeists than even for UFOs, which began to be a significant phenomenon in the 1950s. Nearly all the evidence for poltergeists is anecdotal, but anecdotal evidence is still convincing in quantity, and in the case of poltergeists, there is a huge amount.

What do I mean? ANECDOTAL evidence is evidence based on trustworthy eyewitness accounts. It does not include the more traditionally persuasive categories of evidence such as scientific records, photographs, videos, and so on. (These things do exist to some extent with poltergeist cases, but they are difficult to locate online and not usually persuasive.) Anecdotal evidence becomes persuasive when it accumulates to a large degree, or when all possible information indicates the eyewitness has no reason to lie and has not been the victim of deception.

In the hundreds of poltergeist cases I have read about, not one has been demonstrated to be a fraud. Some have been shown to be caused psychosomatically (mind over body) by mentally disturbed individuals, but none have ever been shown to be the result of other phenomena, like wind, building subsidence, or other manmade or natural accident.

While individual reported elements of poltergeist cases may be falsified, or rendered inaccurate by recollection, the existence of some errors does not outweigh the amount of anecdotal evidence. So, yes, poltergeists are real.

WHAT DO POLTERGEISTS DO?

A poltergeist case usually starts with raps, knocks, and bangs. The German term "poltergeist" means "noisy spirit" ("geist" is "ghost"). The noises are generally perceived as coming from walls and tables. When recorded and electronically analyzed, the sounds are found to be different than man-made bangs on the same surfaces, meaning that the sounds are generated by the poltergeist's energy, not by physically knocking.

Sometimes -- often -- these noises have been used by the poltergeist-plagued household as a means of communication with the poltergeist. Poltergeists are lousy communicators, however -- they lie and screw with people. I'll explain why shortly.

Many poltergeist cases don't go further than these noises, but poltergeists can make loud noises, too.  One case described by Colin Wilson (a frequent source of mine) featured a noise described as sounding like a piano falling down a staircase.

The noises get on your nerves, but that's not all poltergeists do. They can manipulate physical objects. They can move furniture, throw small objects around, stick and unstick doors, pull covers off of people in bed, lift chairs and beds, break dishes, ring doorbells, dump out food containers, and even injure people. In one case in an office in Germany, a poltergeist made overhead light fixtures swing back and forth and made telephone calls to an automated clock at superhuman speed.

Let me talk about throwing objects to point out the unusual way that these entities operate. When an object is thrown across a room, it doesn't move the way it would if you threw it. Rather, it kind of wobbles and hovers as if it's being carried, not following a typical trajectory. If you saw the episode of Ghost Adventures with the moving brick, that's what it looks like. (I'll write about ghost hunting shows another time.) When a poltergeist-thrown object hits you, it doesn't injure you, and rarely leaves a mark, but it will probably scare you, it may hurt, and it will definitely be a distraction.

Poltergeists can also make objects appear out of nowhere. They can be objects in another room of the home where the poltergeist is, or objects that come out of nowhere. For example, if you are on good terms with your poltergeist, you can say "Would you get me my water bottle from upstairs?" and the poltergeist can drop the water bottle on the floor near you. It can also give you anomalous objects, like old foreign coins, that have no previous association with your household.

CAN POLTERGEISTS TALK?

Yes, some of them do. Others communicate by making a code language with raps, as described above. As I understand from my research, their recorded voices are electronically different from human voices and sound kind of like the EVPs you hear on ghost shows.

CAN POLTERGEISTS HURT YOU?

Most of them don't, but yes, it's possible. Poltergeists can bite you -- leaving what look like human bite marks -- can lift people and throttle them or throw them around, can cause welts and cuts, can choke you. This is not the same as waking up with something pressing on your chest -- "Old Hag Syndrome" -- which isn't a poltergeist thing. There is only one anecdotal report of a poltergeist killing someone, the Bell Witch case, and I don't consider that part of the story persuasive. The overwhelming likelihood is that if you are dealing with a poltergeist, you will not get injured, but yes, it is possible.

WHAT ABOUT THAT POLTERGEIST MOVIE STEVEN SPIELBERG MADE?

Good movie. No relation to real poltergeists at all. Cursed movie, killing off its cast and crew? No, I doubt it.

WHAT ARE POLTERGEISTS?

Of course there isn't solid scientific proof, but the best explanation is that poltergeists are reflections of the psychic energy of disturbed young people. They probably aren't ghosts -- spirits of the dead -- nor are they demonic entities (a term I use here as shorthand, which I will likely reject in a later blog entry). Whenever there is a poltergeist, there is an emotionally upset young girl or young woman. (Maybe, very very occasionally, it's a boy.) Not every emotionally upset young female produces poltergeist phenomena, obviously. She needs to have a strong amount of some kind of indefinable energy, probably electromagnetic energy, which all human bodies generate to varying degrees. She has to be in or near puberty, or growing, or very hormonal. Her level of upset is always very severe, far beyond what most of my readers have experienced. It is usually triggered by severe psychological traumas such as emotional, sexual or physical abuse. We call this young woman the "focus" of the poltergeist disturbance.

Poltergeist events take place only when she is nearby. If anyone is attacked, it is her, or occasionally someone who has upset her. She NEVER has control of the phenomena, so far as I can tell from reading many accounts. Usually she hates the poltergeist and would gladly get rid of it. When researchers appear, the poltergeist may refuse to show itself, depending upon her emotional state.

Because the poltergeist represents the uncontrolled action of the mind of the focus, its communication is not rational or sensible. It makes as much sense as your dreams make. As a result, poltergeists lie, deceive, make stuff up, tease and threaten in a way that, while not random, is not coherent either. As an example, the poltergeist will often create a personality or identity and tell stories about a past life in the house, but they always prove to be fabrications.

Because poltergeist events follow the focus around, they aren't localized to a home unless she is in that home all the time. If she moves, the events may follow her. If they don't, there is a reason they don't, which I am about to explain.

HOW DO YOU GET RID OF A POLTERGEIST?

To get rid of a poltergeist, identify the focus, and then provide that focus with psychological healing. If it is an abused girl, get her away from the abuser and into a supportive, loving environment, and then provide her with counseling and other professional treatment.

The only other way to get rid of a poltergeist is to wait it out. These phenomena always disappear as the focus becomes older and moves further away from puberty. There is no age cut-off for the phenomena; obviously, it varies among individuals. However, it will go away given sufficient time.

WHAT ARE FAMOUS CASES?

The most famous poltergeist case is the Bell Witch, which took place in Tennessee. This was a poltergeist from the 19th century that tormented a family for years, interacted with famous people, and gave extended speeches. The account is old, and by reading between the lines, I've concluded that most of what has been said about it is untrue. Thus, I wouldn't suggest taking the story at face value, but it makes for exciting reading.  This story has its own website and book and has been detailed in various other paranormal books. 

For a more recent case, I recommend you read the book Unleashed! by William Roll. It tells the story of William's investigation of Tina Resch, who was a poltergeist victim he both researched and helped to parent. Roll, who lives in Georgia, is a paranormal investigator you may have seen on TV. Although it was many years ago, I have corresponded with Mr. Roll and believe him to be sincere in his presentation. Tina Resch was later jailed for killing her own child, adding a level of drama to this story that will certainly intrigue you.

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I READ?

Roll wrote a book called The Poltergeist in 1972. Colin Wilson also wrote a book called Poltergeist! in 1980 which I believe to be a very entertaining set of theories and case studies. (He presents an alternate explanation for the phenomenon, involving discarnate entities and a "psychic football," which you will find intriguing.) One of my prized possessions is a first edition copy of Haunted People by Hereward Carrington and Nandor Fodor. This 1951 study features older cases and also talks about Fodor's psychiatric treatment of poltergeist victims. All the books are still in print.

WRITE COMMENTS

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READ MY BOOK

By the time you read this, my novel, School of the Ages:  The Ghost in the Crystal will be for sale for two e-readers, Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook. This is a novel about a magic school in New York City. It features ghosts, elementals, time travel, young love and loss, and ultimate tragedy. Please take a look at this book and buy it if it interests you. I can't afford to buy advertisements as a self-publisher, and I have priced the book very low because I am more interested in getting readership than making money right now. This column is designed to show you that I'm a good writer and I know what I'm talking about. I promise you the book is excellent and you will not regret buying it.

For more information, see the book's website at http://schooloftheages.webs.com and click "like" on my Facebook page for "School of the Ages Series." Please tell people about my book, my website, and this blog. Word of mouth is the only way to get attention in this age where big-media conglomerates have priced advertising out of the range of a small-time author like me.

HAVE YOU EVER EXPERIENCED A POLTERGEIST?

No, I haven't. If I had had such an experience, I would have alerted the media.

Why do teens like the paranormal?

                Welcome to my new blog and article series, Paranormal for Teens.  This series is designed to give teen readers a quick assessment of every paranormal topic I can think of.  I want to guide you through your investigation of paranormal topics using my extensive reading and judgment. There will be a lot of opinion here. I will say things that people don't agree with, or feel they can prove is wrong, or get angry about, or find disappointing. It's an honest perspective, and I hope you enjoy reading my articles whether you wind up on the same page with me or you don't.

                Who am I? I'm a writer and a teacher from New York City. I'm a little over forty. I've been studying the paranormal for as long as I have been able to read. As a result, I've come across nearly all the topics and most of the writers on the subject since the 1970s, and I believe I have an above-average "crap detector" function -- meaning the ability to detect deceptiveness.  I believe in some paranormal phenomena and don't believe in others, and I have resolved in my mind why a lot of these things happen and why they don't.

                WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THE PARANORMAL, ANYWAY?

                The world is a tough and unpleasant place for most people. Most of us, from teenage up, and some of us from even younger ages, face hardships of some kind or other, and feel as if we deserve more out of life than we get. School, work, family obligations, bad news, boredom, frustration... There has to be more out there, right? There have to be wonderful things we don't know about, mysteries worth exploring, forces and powers that, if we understood them, would make life more worthwhile. Intellectual curiosity drives us to know more, as does ennui (a sense of boredom at the sameness of life).

                It's also human nature to crave a spiritual life. Many people believe in God -- certainly I do -- and it is undeniable that people can use faith to make their lives better. The main question of the dissatisfied person -- WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO ME? isn't fully answerable, but we turn to faith to find comfort in the face of that question. Also, we turn to faith as a way of finding beauty in an existence that often doesn't seem to have enough of it. Studying and learning about the paranormal is a form of faith. It's a form of believing that existence is more than just the daily crap we deal with and that reality contains special and crucial truths that human beings can access.

                If you are a fan of the spooky kind of paranormal, maybe you like to be scared. One aspect of human nature is a set of coping mechanisms we have for releasing anxiety. One of these is being scared in a controlled setting. Say you go to see Saw XVIII. You will be scared and possibly upset, but you know that, at the end, unlike the victims in the movie, you will be okay. That means you deal with all your worry about being hurt by watching other people appear to face those threats. Then, at the end, you are safe (and of course, all the actors are safe also). This process, called 'catharsis,' was described by Aristotle in his book Poetics.

                IS STUDYING THE PARANORMAL BAD FOR TEENS?

                It depends upon how you go about it. Anything you do that is unlawful, like searching for ghosts on private property, is bad for you. Similarly, anything that interferes with your responsibilities is bad for you. You shouldn't blow off homework or violate your curfew or skip out on dinner with Grandma  in order to creep around in a graveyard with a digital recorder like those people you saw on TV. (Hint -- they're not completely honest about what they're doing.) If your paranormal studies are giving you nightmares or leaving you so upset about what you've seen or heard that you can't concentrate in school, then you should stop.  (This sort of thing can bother me, too; I don't fill up my head with images or sounds from malicious hauntings or exorcisms, nor will you find that kind of stuff on my IPod.)  If you find that your paranormal studies are making you unusually angry, or giving you the desire to hurt people, then your situation is serious -- something went wrong, and you should tell your parents you need help to feel better. However, obviously, most teens who study the paranormal don't face any of these situations.

                If you study by reading, watching videos, and browsing the Internet for information, and if you are able to recognize that some or even most of the information available is nonsense, then you are the ideal teen paranormal researcher. Teens should probably not investigate the paranormal directly because of various kinds of physical danger they aren't yet ready for, but there are some activities you can attempt that aren't risky. As this blog continues, I'll identify things that I think are safe for you to do. They will NOT include the following BAD IDEAS:  ghost hunting; séances and Ouija board; searching the woods for Sasquatch or other cryptids; paying professional psychics and fortune tellers; magic spells to hurt or curse people or summon demons. I'm over forty, and I won't do those things. You shouldn't either.

                DOES STUDYING THE PARANORMAL INTERFERE WITH MY RELIGION?

                It depends. The key to genuine faith is to organize your life and all your actions around what you believe. It requires daily attention and concentration. If you pray every day, and praying makes your life feel better, then you should continue with it. Social activities involving your religion can also be very rewarding, although they can sometimes expose you to people who come across as shallow and phony. (We adults notice that, too.) Paranormal studies should always be less important to you than this daily observance of your faith.

                There are definitely some versions of religion which allow you no room for anything else in your life. If you belong to one of those, then you will find that studying the paranormal gets in your way. But then, studying anything gets in your way.  When you are independent, you can decide how well the religion works for you and whether to continue in it. Many people benefit from that kind of religion. It's not for me, however.

                Certain types of paranormal studies are in disfavor with specific religions. The primary example is that Christianity is hostile to studying magic and psychic abilities. I will write about this more another time. However, if you believe in a form of Christianity that has strong views on these matters, you should limit your paranormal studies to religion-neutral subjects, such as cryptozoology.

                WHY ARE YOU REALLY WRITING THIS BLOG?

                I am writing this blog as a means of promoting a novel that I am going to self-publish for Amazon Kindle. I can't afford to buy advertising that can reach you, so I am giving away some writing I hope you will like in order to get you interested in reading my novel, which is about teenagers with paranormal lives. As soon as the novel is published, I'll give you more details about the contents of the book and how you can buy it. If you don't want to wait, you can go to my website at http://schooloftheages.webs.com and become a member.

                WHAT ARE SOME UPCOMING TOPICS?

My first few topics, in an order I'm not sure of, will be:  Paranormal TV Shows; What are witchcraft and Wicca?; Does Magic Really work?; and  What are poltergeists? I have a long list of paranormal topics I want to cover, ranging from this kind of stuff to topics like cryptozoology, UFOs, psychic powers, and ancient civilizations. Post requests for topics whenever you like, here or on my other website.

                ARE YOU ON FACEBOOK?

                Sure, you can "like" me at the facebook page for School of the Ages Series.