Blessings, Cleansings, and Exorcisms

One of the most common methods of resolution in many modern haunting stories is that of a Blessing, Cleansing, or Exorcism. Often this is the end of the story, and the haunting either stops or the people involved feel they can live with what little of it remains. A couple years ago or so, there was a new story about how factory workers were refusing to return to work until the building was blessed, because the woman’s restroom was believed to be haunted.

Lately I find myself reading or watching these stories, and wondering if an exorcism was necessary. Sometimes the activity reported seems so benign, like kid’s toys going off, yet the home owners react with, ‘we were terrified, we needed an exorcism’.

And there’s a dark side to exorcisms too. Some stories don’t end with the exorcism, and after a calm period, there is a relapse haunting which is worse than the initial haunting. Furthermore exorcisms have been increasingly used as an excuse for murder, claiming actions that are in direct conflict with the view that the person themselves is not actually evil and should not be harmed, resulted in ‘accidental’ death.

So, some of you may be wondering by now, what’s the difference between a Blessing, Cleansing, and an Exorcism? How do you know if you need a Blessing or Cleansing, likewise how do you know if you need an Exorcism? And why would an Exorcism fail?

All these rituals are intended to protect, it’s the means of protection that varies. A Blessing is a ceremony in which a deity is asked to protect the location or person from evil (bless means ‘favored by god’), while a Cleansing aims to remove dark energy and encourage spirits to move on (which sometimes involves removing items with negative energy), and an Exorcism is a ritual intended to drive evil spirits out of a person or place, often invoking deities and their servants to do so. Exorcisms are seen as the more extreme, and sometime dangerous option, with religious groups often requiring special permission before priests will perform one. Deaths have even been occasionally attributed to exorcisms (and the occasional murder has been ‘explained’ as an exorcism as I mentioned above).

I do not believe there is any reason to discourage a blessing. If you want to bless, or can get the local priest to bless, your house weekly, I wouldn’t discourage it. A cleansing is much the same. But, exorcisms on the other hand, are harder to get permission to perform for a reason. Go through the proper channels in your church, and don’t assume you can let your guard down afterwards.

Exorcisms are cited to fail for several reasons; pride or other weakness in those performing it, a sinful relapse of those it was preformed for, or a misdiagnosis of a medical condition as a demon attack (feeling sick to your stomach may really be that you are sick in your stomach, and seeing things may just be mental stress or even sounds of certain frequency vibrating the fluid in your eye). There are more possibilities, beyond those, I’m sure, but this gives an idea of just how fragile a pursuit an exorcism is. 

* As a final note, I’d like to encourage you to seek advice from your priest and doctors rather than just taking mine or anyone else’s word for it.

Ominous Black Ring

According to a article on mirror.co.uk, Georgina Heap, while playing tennis with friends at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, saw an ominous black ring in the sky. Ten girls in total are reported to have seen the ring last Friday. And Met Office did not believed it to have been a weather phenomenon (like some sky rings are):

(Above are the images of black ring posted on: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/leamington-spa-schoolgirl-takes-picture-3414787 - and several other sites.)

Of course, you know I love this sort of thing. Is the picture real? If so, what is this thing? If not, what was the motivation for such a hoax?

So, on first look, the images show no obvious signs of tampering. In the first image we see a jet trail, either higher up, or much smaller than the ring. Then in the second photo we can see an insect, looking bigger than the jet from the trail would have been, so it’s reasonable to assume the ring was between the two, and the bug much closer to Georgina, indicating that the ring was probably somewhat smaller than a jet.

So, zooming in for a closer look, I became suspicious that the ring had tighter pixilation than the rest of the sky, however, this pixilation turned out to be consistent with the more detailed trees and buildings, indicating it’s how the details were saved by the phone.

Meanwhile, my web search turns up no indication that the story is a hoax or reproduction, and the same story on several news sources that are more familiar to me. Along with some stories on similar rings, and ones that turn into clouds.

Furthermore, the ring changes between the two images, indicating that it really is smoky, and not just something static (such as being painted on glass, for example).

Conclusion; I don’t know for sure what they saw, but I believe they definitely saw something (at least for the time being).

Chupacabra and Twitter

Chupacabra is making the news again, recently a couple claimed to have caught the creature and had it put to sleep (which PETA had a hand in, sending them a letter, telling them it probably had mange). Clearly though, the creature is a hairless Raccoon.

Now, raccoons are pretty smart (as I’ve already posted on SPCS and Twitter, oh yeah, I’m on Twitter now, I’ll be posting notes on paranormal news and my etsy shop, so if you’re on Twitter, check it out: VPM @CleverKraken ) and they sit up in a pose that chupacabra is often depicted in.

Apparently this isn’t the first time a hairless raccoon has been mistaken for chupacabra either, in 2011, on showed up in Florida, was mistaken for chupacabra, then properly identified as a mutant raccoon, and moved to a wildlife sanctuary (this makes me wonder if PETA got it right or not, so I feel bad for the raccoon, but I assume the vet looked it over first. - This post was not meant to be a smack against PETA).

#Chupacabra yah’ll

I’m still getting the hang of this Twitter thing, got to remember there are hashtags and a way low letter limit.

Mischief Managed

A lot of online entities are doing pranks today. And I’m cool with that, tempted even, but since this blog is about finding the truth… it kind of seems like poor taste. So instead, here’s me rambling about some things that are real, but may sound fake:

First off, there’s a species of bat that has fleshy little suction cups on it’s wings. No joke, they live in colonies inside folded-over slippery leaves, so the suction cups help them grip.

How about another weird animal fact, Koala babies eat their mother’s fecal matter. Yep, poop, it helps them get the bacteria in their gut that they’ll need to digest eucalyptus. Koala are also some of the few non-primates that have fingerprints.

Speaking of fingerprints, really you have a whole unique palm print, and toe/foot print, which is why the hospital takes baby’s footprints. Twins as you know, have different fingerprints, that’s an environmental development factor, but they’re more likely to have the same type or fingerprints (whorls, spirals, arches), which is a genetic developmental factor.

Speaking of twins, sometimes one twin (in identical twins) will develop with situs inversus, a condition in which your internal organs are on the opposite side of the body from normal. No wonder identical twins are also called mirror twins.

Okay, that’s all for now.

Case Files - Demon Photo (Sept 1987) Revisited

My interest has come back around to the most convincing photo anyone has sent me. Having realized the true nature of the ‘care bear’ being an elephant by my last post about it, I wonder if we are actually seeing a demon. Enough to download it and finally analysis it. Perhaps the entity details Darkmoon was seeing were as much an illusion as the doll’s face.

(This photograph was taken on September 1987, in Columbia Boro, Lancaster County, Pa., by Darkmoon, and later scanned.)

(This is the image auto color and contrast enhanced, notice how some of the creepiness instantly vanishes?)

The scan does not appear to be altered, and looking closely the artifact patterns that exist within the demon and the rest of the picture are consistent, so if it was altered, alteration happen prior to scanning, but I see no tattle-tale evidence of this either (such as; seams, cuts, extra blurry areas). The type of artifact patterns seen are typical of those that can result from the use of a cheap scanner.

The details seen in the entity, as I was told; face, arms, body, tail, may result from similar illusions to the care bear’s face. Make no mistake, I’m not saying there isn’t an entity, or that it isn’t a demon, just that the items under the entity are visible, making the entities details nearly impossible to distinguish from it. Of course, knowing nothing of the location, time, or lighting, I also can’t rule out it being a light artifact.

This case remains a mystery. I can’t rule it being real out, but I still have questions.

Are We Alone? - 2014

Next week (the first full week of March), is Science Channel’s (SCI) Are We Alone Week, featuring new episodes of shows like Close Encounters and NASA’s Unexplained Files (with breaks for some of their other shows late night to early morning).

It’s a good question, isn’t it? A lot of religious people will tell you the universe is nothing more than a glorious backdrop for us, devoid of life. However the sacred texts generally do not seem to indicate one way or another. If you want one that does, there’s always Scientology, but… well, here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

“In the OT levels, Hubbard explains how to reverse the effects of past-life trauma patterns that supposedly extend millions of years into the past.[132] Among these advanced teachings is the story of Xenu (sometimes Xemu), introduced as the tyrant ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy". According to this story, 75 million years ago Xenu brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and detonated hydrogen bombs in the volcanoes. The thetans then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to do this today. Scientologists at advanced levels place considerable emphasis on isolating body thetans and neutralizing their ill effects.”

Personally, I find it egotistical to presume that a divine being wouldn’t feel free to create other worlds. Of course, I’ve created a lot of neighborhoods on the SIMs and come to the conclusion that I’d make sucky god. But basing a focused attention theory on that, would be treating god(s) like Schrödinger’s cat.

(If you didn’t get that last reference, the cat goes in a box, look it up.)

For a non-theological look at the question, might I suggest looking at the Drake Equation? Using the equation, you can change different variables to effect the resulting number of interstellar communication ready civilizations. There’s a few calculators for it online, which takes out most of the work, allowing you to focus on your speculative decisions (however it’s not a particularly had equation to solve yourself, there’s just several steps).

Perhaps even the sheer number of UFO reports should be convincing that there’s life somewhere else in the universe? Even if it is unevenly distributed?

(This is a screenshot of MUFON’s UFO Stalker interactive map, taken on 2014 January 17. Note the typical large cluster of UFO sightings over lower Florida. )

Well, what do you think? Is there other life out there, or are we alone?

Clever Kraken

Hey everybody, as you may know, I’m an artist. I make jewelry, paint, sew, and other things, so I’ve recently decided to open a shop on Etsy.

I promise not to constantly bombard you here with this, but rather I do plan to occasionally mention when I’ve added something of paranormal or mythical significance. Currently of interest are items such as the Mythical Unicorn pouch and Evil Eye Guard bracelet.

Anyways, if you’re interested in having a look, here’s the link:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CleverKraken