30 July 2012

Do Ghosts Eat?

I've seen ghosts for as long as I can remember.  When I was little they scared the hell out of me.  I was brought up to think that anything metaphysical was evil, and therefore ghosts must be out to get me.  As I got older my experience taught me differently, that ghosts were definitely something "else," but that they weren't generally all that bad.  As I got over the bone-breaking terror I started actually listening to the ghosts instead of covering my head with a pillow and hoping they would go away.  I learned that ghosts are actually pretty interesting and a lot of them are very nice, if a little morose - but hey, I'm a little morose so no harm there.  I've been actively working with ghosts for about fifteen years now and have had a lot of chances to observe and study them. 

One of the great mysteries of metaphysics is why ghosts do what they do.  Some ghosts hang out in the places where they lived, others follow people, yet others drift from place to place, etc.  One of the things I've noticed over the years is that certainly places are a lot more likely to have ghosts than others.  Any place that sees regular intense emotion is more likely to have a ghost in it than a place that doesn't often see people emoting.  Ever notice how places like schools, clubs, arenas, and parks are incredibly eerie when they're deserted?  It's not just that they're so different without people, it's that the energy of thousands of screaming people is soaked into the concrete, literally bouncing off the walls and flying through the air.  That amount of energy is quite palpable to anyone bothering to pay attention and it acts like a beacon to the metaphysical.

Places like that seem to swarm with metaphysical entities, particularly ghosts.  Why should that be?  I've noticed that a lot of the ghosts in places like that don't really seem to belong there.  Yeah, someone murdered right after going to a club might haunt the place, but what about ghosts flitting around an elementary school?  My theory is that places that are that flooded with energy are essentially a free buffet for spirits. 

Ghosts are made of energy.  They are, essentially, big blobs of a finite amount of energy vibrating at a particular frequency.  Just like the living, everything ghosts do expends energy (appearing, speaking, moving objects, etc.).  When people spend enough of their energy they eat food and turn that food into more energy.  Ghosts don't eat they way they we do, but they must replace the energy they spend somehow.  When ghosts are around it's quite common for people to experience a sudden drop in the temperature of the room, feel a bout of vertigo, etc., and it's theorized that this is the ghost feeding on the energy around them in order to manifest in some way.  Feeding on ambient energy in that way is a lot like gleaning for berries in the woods - it takes a fair amount of work to get enough to make a meal.  Places like sports arenas have so much extra energy just hanging around it's a lot more like sitting in a chair while your grandmother heaps your plate with more food than you could ever possibly consume - it's a hell of a lot less work.  If I was a ghost I'd probably make an occasional stop at the local energy smorgasbord when I was getting peckish. 

I think places that have been filled with intense emotions tend to be equally filled with ghosts because it's easy for ghosts to exist there with so much free energy floating around.  Why work for your meal if you don't have to?

17 July 2012

It is wrong...

that I really enjoy blowing peoples expectations?

On the Radio Tonight!

Hey folks, tune in to the Grand Dark Conspiracy tonight at 10pm edt/7pm pdt to hear me talk about shadow work, things that go bump in the night, and the meaning of evil.  I had a fabulous time the last time I was on this show and am really looking forward to it.  I hope you'll join me :)

04 July 2012

Shadow in Nature

There was a wonderful article written a month or so back on the prevalence of Pagans of various flavors to idealize nature as being benign, pure, and good (I cannot find it for the life of me, so if you can please put a link in the comments).  In reality, nature - I'm talking real nature, not your local park - is glorious but brutal.  Nature is not a wholesome sanctuary where we can retreat from our hectic lives to find peace and safety.  Nature is a place of harsh extremes, survival of the fittest, and literally awesome vistas.  There is no better place to explore the balance of light and shadow than in nature.



I spent today steeped in the extremes that nature offers us.  I went to Mount Saint Helens and hiked the South Coldwater Trail to Coldwater Saddle.  For those of you not familiar with this mountain, it blew up rather spectacularly in 1980.  The picture above was taken this afternoon and you can see the acres of trees that are still blasted to this day.  In a place like that you can see both unparalleled beauty and incredible harshness.













To have both the stunning views of Coldwater Lake and its surroundings and views of the twisted metal of construction equipment caught in the blast, Mt. St. Helens is a reminder that nature is not a happy shiny place where people can frolic in edenic bliss.  Nature is awesome and terrible.  She deserves our reverence and respect because she will give until it hurts and then, when we think we've got it all figured out, she'll whollup us but good.