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.
I have recently witnessed something unusual...maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me because I've watched ''Vampire diaries'' before it happened. But after i turned of the TV there was like a knocking on my door and when i looked there was no one there. I asked everyone in the house that night if they where the ones that knocked,..but they said no. And everyone of them was completly honest with me. I didn't think to much of that and continued getting ready for bed when my light suddenly went of. For the first time in my life I was actally scared. I turned the light back on as if nothing ever happend . I was starting to get curious so I looked into a book I had in my room for ages. It was a paranormal activity book. Poltergeist was the first word in the book which had something to do with annoying humans and playing tricks on them. I put the book on the side and it fell down. I didn't even touch it. The book opened on the page with the poltergeist. Scary moment that was:) After that I can't stop thinking about it. I found this webside and I'm writing this comment for more information. I really don't want this to happen again.
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