Paranormal Study News April, 2019

Paranormal Study Reference Articles

Paranormal Study would like to take a second to acknowledge Lorraine Warren. She passed gently in her sleep on April 18, 2019. She was 92 years old. The Warren’s were very influential upon the founder of Paranormal Study as their publications are some of the first paranormal books he remembers reading as a child. Although the veracity of many investigative claims made by Lorraine and her husband that predeceased her, Ed, have been questioned, what is never in doubt is that they shined a bright light on the paranormal field and helped to bring the field into the mainstream. Rest well in the Light, Lorraine.

“‘Free will’ is one of the most precious gifts we have. To give it over to peer-pressure, psychics, or a dependency on drugs and alcohol is dangerous and an incredible waste.” 

– Lorraine Warren

Read more, always.

This month brought a torrent of UFO news as a result of a Politico article. We made sure to add an additional UFO section just for news that followed up on the Politico article (featured below). In addition to UFO news, a small sampling of what articles we included this month contained information on vampires, reincarnation, NDE’s, ghosts, telepathic dolphins, AI, and even funeral traditions. In our biggest monthly reference article collection to data, there are almost sixty articles and videos listed this month. You can see previous monthly updates by clicking here.

Afterlife Articles

‘Death Isn’t the End:’ Why Reincarnation’s Most Prominent Proponent Was a Scientist (Outer Places): A nice review of the groundbreaking work in reincarnation by Dr. Ian Stevenson. Stevenson traveled the world and documented cases of reincarnation over five decades while at the University of Virginia. This article recounts some of his work and provides a balanced counterpoint from colleagues of Stevenson.

Six in Ten Grieving People ‘See or hear dead loved ones’ (The Telegraph): Researchers in Milan have published in the Journal of Affective Disorders that grieving persons are more likely than not to see or hear from their lost loved one. Rather than ascribing any paranormal relevance to this, the researchers have classified these as Post-Bereavement Hallucinatory Experiences (PBHE). A PBHE is a hallucination invented to explain these types of experiences and the neither the physiological nor pathological processes for these “hallucinations” are known.

The Day I Died – BBC Documentary 5 Feb 2003

Consciousness Articles

Physicists Confirm that we’re not Living in a Computer Simulation (PBS Nova): This article headline is slightly misleading as the physicists in question state that our universe cannot be currently modeled with computers so therefor a simulation reality is very unlikely.

Are We Living in a Simulation? This MIT Scientist says it’s More Likely than Not (Digital Trends): MIT Professor and computer programmer Rizwan Virk has expanded upon the simulation hypothesis and has concluded that we are most likely living in an AI simulation.


“Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain?” by Dr. Bruce Greyson

Psychedelic Drugs Really Do Lead to a Higher State of Consciousness (Tonic): Participants took LSD and Ketamine in a lab environment and had the electricity of their brain monitored. The readings were then compared to the particpants’ standard electrical readings that established a baseline consciousness. The electrical activity during a psychedelic trip was less normalized and flowed non-predictively. Under this specific model, the psychedelic mind can be considered as experiencing a higher level of consciousness.

How do you Know you are Reading This? (Wired): This article delves into Chalmer’s ‘hard problem of consciousness’ through two avenues. First, researchers have introduced magnetic fields in the brain and then measure the results via an EEG in healthy and brain-injured patients. Remarkably, a consistent ‘perturbational complexity index’ (PCI) number was found to be the same in all patients. This number was applied to those in waking, but unresponsive states and the results were stunning. Second, the article digs deep into Integrated Information Theory (IIT) which “posits that consciousness is a feature of the universe, like gravity, and then tries to solve the pretty hard problem of determining which systems are conscious with a mathematical measurement of consciousness represented by the Greek letter phi (Φ).”

On Consciousness (Psychology Today): A great primer on developmental consciousness in infants and on the various conscious states of adulthood.

Cryptozoology Articles

The Five Most Cryptic Creatures in Michigan (WRKR): A short listicle which contains supporting video for various cryptids in Michigan including reports of melonheads, dogmen and lake monsters.

Indian Army Says it Found Yeti Footprints in the Himalayas (NBC News): On the fifth highest peak in the work, close to Mt. Everest, some odd footprints were discovered by the Indian Army Mountaineering Expedition Team. The Indian Army released the finding in a statement saying that the individual prints are 32″ x 15″ and that they belong to a Yeti.

Ghost Hunter Reports Collision with ‘Miniature Mothman’ near Wittenberg, Wisconsin (Singular Fortean): As we have included in previous monthly reference article posts, there have been several Mothman reports around Lake Michigan. This is another such report, but of a much smaller creature.

Older than Dracula: In Search of the English Vampire (The Conversation): The vampire has been a part of English lore long before tales of the vampire were first penned in the 19th century. With reports going back to the twelfth century, this article is a wonderful historical piece on a perennial cryptid favorite.

For the first time ever, the word “Cryptid” was added to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary on 22 April 2019.

Magick Articles

10 Ancient Books that Promise Supernatural Powers (Psyche over Matter): This quick list of ancient grimoires goes into brief detail on ten texts and what these texts promised. From magickal talismans to spells to enlightenment, there is a lot of magickal potential contained in these ancient texts.

William S. Burroughs’ 7 Occult Techniques for Smashing Reality (Ultraculture): A perspective on the various occult lessons of William S. Burroughs through the lens of magical scholar Jason Louv.

A guided meditation

Paranormal Articles

Kids Keep Getting ‘Possessed by Spirits’ During Indonesia’s High School Exams (Vice): There has been an uptick of Indonesian students who are getting possessed. Some occasions will only result in one possession, and at other times, there can be dozens of students who are possessed at once. These cases are treated traditionally, but some are wondering whether the stressors related to schooling is the source of these possessions.

Thrift Store Warns Buyers of ‘Haunted’ Furniture, Reports of ‘Continuous Nightmares’ from Previous Owners (Fox News): Not much content here other than a Goodwill, offering full disclosure, resold a bedroom set that was purportedly haunted. The previous owners offered no evidence for the haunted nature of the bedroom set other than that they had vivid, continuous nightmares after bringing the 1950’s articles into their home and that their dog would not stop barking at one piece of the furniture.

The Strange Possession of Maria Talarico (Mysterious Universe): An interesting case study where a young girl was temporarily possessed by the spirit of a dead individual. The dead individual, speaking through the girl, intimated that he had not committed suicide but had been murdered by friends. This was eventually proven to be the case.

From Time Life’s “Mysteries of the Unknown: Summoning Spirits”

Why Everyone Around the World is Having the Same Nightmare (Quartz): A wonderful look into sleep paralysis, the Hatman shadow-figure phenomenon and SUNDS. If you are involved in paranormal investigation, then this is a must-read article.

Meet the People Selling Haunted Dolls on eBay (Vice): A glimpse into the world of purportedly haunted objects being sold on eBay.

6 Possible Scientific Reasons for Ghosts (Quick and Dirty Tips): In a brief article, the author provides six environmental and psychological reasons why we might believe in ghosts even when a ghost may not be present.

Ever Fancied Being a Paranormal Investigator? Here’s what it is Like (The Versed): A starter guide for those interested in paranormal investigation. If you have never participated in paranormal investigations before, then this article is a great starting place.

Psi Articles

Can You Obtain Psychic Powers Through Training? (Quora): Author and ITC researcher Tom Butler gives a brief overview on this topic and supplies some valuable resources to explore psi further.

The Barnum Effect May Explain Why So Many People Believe in Psychics (Inverse): An article that attempts to analyze the mindset of persons who believe in psychic mediums from an unabashedly skeptic viewpoint.

Russia’s Paranormal Soldiers and Military Dolphin Telepathy Revealed by Defense Ministry Magazine (Newsweek): Select Russian troops have been trained in several areas of psi including remote viewing, interrogation techniques, battlefield assessment and even remote control of dolphins.

Spiritualism Articles

How Victorian Mediums Gave Shy Ghosts a Megaphone (Atlas Obscura): A historical look at Spirit Trumpets and their place in the history of spiritualism.

Spiritual Snobbery: The Dark Side of Lightworkers (Elephant Journal): In this older article, the author recounts the various ways in which those who profess to be lightworkers can come off as being judgmental against those who do not align with their exact thoughts or actions. The author experienced personal growth from realizing she was doing the same things and offers advice to be centered in spirit rather than spiritual pretentiousness.

The Truth About Tarot (Aeon): This is an in-depth article written by a Tarot skeptic that astutely covers the history of Tarot and the creation of the deck’s mystical symbolism. Later in the article, the author examines the psychology of tarot reading on the reader and the querent.

Committed tarot readers divide broadly into two schools: those who think that the cards help them access unconscious wisdom (the ‘soft’ version), and those who believe that the deck channels the supernatural or even incorporates its own spiritual power (the ‘hard’ school).

– James McConnachie

UFO Articles

The Drake Equation: What are the Odds that Aliens Exist? (Discover Magazine): The Drake Equation, courtesy of Dr. Frank Drake, is a famed equation originally presented in 1961 that gives the number of possible intelligent civilizations in our Milky Way Galaxy broadcasting radio signals at this time. The equation is based upon a slew of factors that are briefly touched upon in this article. The article ultimately gives Drake’s answer, somewhere between 20 intelligent civilizations and 100,000,000 in the Milky Way Galaxy alone.

The Drake Equation:
N = R * fp * ne * fl * fi * fc * L

You’re Not Crazy if You Believe in UFOs. Let’s Discuss in Scientific Terms (Futurism): This is an older article, published a couple days after the historical NYT’s article. This article opens with the assertion that believing in the UFO phenomenon is “shorthand for crazy,” in modern culture. It then delves into the portrait of the modern UFO believer as being conspiratorial and possibly schizophrenic. Finally, the article wraps up with a hint of science courtesy of MUFON without profiling the science.

Travel Through Wormholes is Possible, but Slow (American Institute of Physics): A team of physicists have used quantum field theory tools to demonstrate that wormholes could exist, and that wormhole travel is possible — but rather than being a shortcut, it’d be a longer path between two points. While this theory is still at the mathematical conjecture stage as neither wormholes nor black holes can be created at this point, it is interesting to note where theory is directing the experimentation of science.

Hungarian-born Colman von Keviczky, a former United Nations official, right, and Karl L. Viet, the president of the German branch of the UFO study society, are at a news conference on the international conference of UFO-students, Oct. 31, 1967 in Mainz, Germany, propose a World Reception Center for visitors from outer space.

Why is Nikola Tesla Literally Erased from History Books? (Science Vibe): Normally we wouldn’t post anything from Science Vibe as most of their articles are sensationalist, but this article is a little different. It mentions well known events in Tesla’s life including his patents for a space drive; anti-gravitic propulsion and his famed contact with what he believed to be Mars via radio signals.

The Turkish UFO Case: The videos of Kumburgaz (Turkey, 2007-2009), a Trucage and some Lights in the Sky? (Skeptics vs. Flying Saucers): The Kumburgaz sighting has been one of the more storied UFO sightings due to the clarity of the image. This blog posits with convincing evidence that the sighting was merely a lens reflection.

UFO or Ghost Ship? Gigantic Object Captured that Creates a New Mystery (Maritime Herald): A possible large UFO was filmed hovering above Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes in North America.

The Most Credible UFO Sightings and Encounters in Modern History According to Research (Newsweek): Newsweek, in conjunction with the Scientific Coalition for UFOlogy have assigned a point system to UFO sightings based upon criteria laid out by Dr. Hynek in Project Blue Book. Using this novel point rating as a basis of credibility, Newsweek has ranked their top 25 UFO sightings and encounters.

Top-secret government investigation ‘probed health effects of UFO encounters’ (Metro): This article digs into some of the ancillary documents that have been made public as a result of AATIP. These documents, in addition to things stated by former government officials leads to the premise in this article that biological samples have been taken from persons who have had close encounters by government officials.

Stop Thinking About UAP’s in Black and White (To The Stars Academy): Luis Elizondo seeks to challenge the thought process in Ufology that UAP can only be an either/or and outlier theories don’t hold weight. He stresses that ufologists need to break the mold of binary thinking.

America’s First Space Force: A Secret Department of Defense Program had 32 Military Astronauts and its own Mission Control (Fighter Sweep): News of the United States’ efforts to create a Space Force rippled through the news cycle last year. What most people aren’t aware of is that the US had a functioning military presence in space for several years. This article details what this predecessor to Space Force was and what happened to it.

The US Navy Secretly Designed a Super-Fast Futuristic Aircraft Resembling a UFO, Documents Reveal (Metro): The Navy has applied for patents for a vehicle resembling a UFO that can travel at extreme speeds in air, space, and water via the manipulation of gravity waves. The manipulation of gravity waves in the front of a craft, thereby modifying space-time, was how the nine UFO craft at Groom Lake operated according to Bob Lazar.

Exclusive – Documents from FBI Raid of Bob Lazar! (Coyote’s Tail): Former police officer Tim McMillan filed a FOIA with the local jurisdiction that conducted a raid on Bob Lazar’s United Nuclear that was famously detailed in the 2019 film “Bob Lazar: Flying Saucers & Area 51.” This document contains the details of that raid.

UFO Articles Special Section – Military News

April 2019 was a watermark month for military UFO articles because of the Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs. The following articles strictly deal with this huge news headline and they are presented by date, starting with the Politico story that broke this news.

Declassified Tic-Tac UFO Photo from the Department of Defense

U.S. Navy Drafting New Guidelines for Reporting UFOs (Politico): This article unleashed a torrent of follow-up articles in the last week. The Navy reports that “There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years.” As a result, in order to destigmatize the reporting of UAP by military personnel, the Navy is drafting new guidelines for reporting such occurrences.

US Navy Admits that UFOs Have Been Spotted Near Top Secret Military Facilities (Metro): Famed UFO investigator for the British Ministry of Defence, Nick Pope, offers his perspective on the Navy guidelines, including the statement that ‘A new space race is underway, and the US Navy clearly wants to be at the heart of it.’

How Angry Pilots got the Navy to Stop Dismissing UFO Sightings (Washington Post): Taking a government perspective, the Post’s article looks into how there are multiple intrusions into airspace by UAP’s that far surpass our current level of technology and that these have not generally been reported by highly skilled pilots because of the stigma involved in military circles.

Aliens, Ahoy! Navy Developing Guidelines on Reporting UFO Sightings (Navy Times): This covers much of the same material as the Politico article above, but it is interesting to note that the source of this article is a go-to news source for sailors and their families.

What the Hell is Going On With UFOs and The Department Of Defense? (The Drive): Military reporter for The Drive’s War-Zone, Tyler Rogoway, an author who does not shy away from the topic of UFO and the military, digs into the military aspect of the new Navy guidelines. He questions why the military is just now getting interested. He outlines succinctly why the Nimitz encounters were so monumental because of the technology they employed and how the military has been seeking high fidelity data from such encounters, yet it was nearly impossible to report such encounters via the military reporting systems. There is much more in this article and it is highly recommended reading for this topic.

https://youtu.be/H6ox_F0auwM

US Navy wants Pilots to Report UFOs Despite Stigma (The Atlantic): In an interesting perspective on the new Navy guidelines, this particular article has a brief examination of the history of military policy regarding the reporting of UFO/UAP by armed services members versus our post New York Times article age of Ufology.

I-Team Confirms Pentagon Did Release UFO Videos (Las Vegas Now): Ever since the three DOD videos were released by the New York Times and To The Stars Academy, the provenance of the videos has been in question. Luis Elizondo has claimed that he was the onus behind the videos being released. Investigative reporter George Knapp obtained a copy of the official DD-1910 form that was filed by an unnamed Colonel to have the videos released.

How the DD Form 1910 does NOT Prove a Public Pentagon Release; And how it May Harm the Credibility of Mr. Luis Elizondo and TTSA (The Black Vault): John Greenewald has been filing and publicly posting FOIA requests related primarily to Ufology for over two decades. Greenewald points out that as a matter of procedure, per the DD-1910 document, that Section 7 needs to be filled out completely by the requesting government official and that this section of the DD-1910 received by George Knapp is blank.

The DD-1910 form purportedly submitted for UFO video releases by the DOD

Other Articles

Funeralizing: Death Practices of Appalachia (Appalachian Magazine): This offers a first-hand glimpse into the history of funerals in Appalachia and finishes with a personal recounting of how the author’s family continues the old traditions of funeralizing grave sites.

LHC Scientists Reveal New Plan to Trap Dark Matter, Says Higgs Boson May Be “Portal to The Dark World” (Mysterious Universe): Our universe is approximately 15% detectable via our current observation methods. In order to make sense of our world, it is predicted that 85% of the universe consists of something we cannot see or measure, dark matter. This article speaks to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, in Switzerland, currently the best particle accelerator the world has to offer, and its role in upcoming dark matter experimentation once the LHC comes back online in 2021 after upgrades are installed.

Seven Common Myths about Quantum Physics (Phys.org): The words “quantum physics” and “quantum mechanics” are often thrown about in paranormal circles. Here are some common myths in relation to quantum physics that you may want to acquaint yourself with.

A New Study from the Army Research Lab may help AI-Infused Weapons and Tools Better Understand their Human Operators (Defense One): In a chilling glimpse of future warfare, the frank and open discussion of allowing AI to learn based upon warfighter physiology and utilize this learning to become much more effective at battlefield tactics.

The Pentagon’s Push to Program Soldiers’ Brains (The Atlantic): In a wide-ranging article, this piece dives deep into future goals of the US Military. These goals include having physical implants that can give soldiers abilities not possessed by an average human; and also having the ability to control remote objects with the mind for military purposes.

The Human Biofield Defined (Red Spirit Energy Healing): An energy healer speaks about the human biofield and various important influences upon it that need consideration when conducting an energy healing session.

If you found the content in this article to be of any value to your paranormal studies, please let us know in the comments below. Feel free to share this article with your friends as well because if you found it interesting, they might too.

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About Tim Woolworth 74 Articles
Tim has been educating in the paranormal field since 2010 when he launched the site ITCvoices.org. He is the founder of Paranormal Study (2018), the creator of the Walk in the Shadows podcast (2022), a renowned conference lecturer and author of several articles and book sections. When he isn't enmeshed in the paranormal, he enjoys a career as a professional brewer and spending time with family and his pets.

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