Author Archives: Kier

About Kier

I've been on the web since about 1994. I have a background in a lot of things, including a five year stint as a journalist and over a decade of helping people get their message out to the world. I write on a number of subjects--everything from relationships to personal development to politics and every day life. I hope you get something worthwhile out of it.

Why Aren’t There More Ghosts?

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I still want to hear more of your stories of ghostly (and other odd) encounters.

Yesterday, I talked a bit about different types of ghosts and that lead to the question: Why, if ghosts are dead people, aren’t there a whole lot more ghosts around? In today’s vlog, I propose some ideas on why we’re not constantly running into our deceased relatives.

Really, this whole subject is one of the questions that’s perplexed humans for a really, really long time. Most certainly before people started taking pictures of ghosts (on purpose or accidentally), but the advent of the camera opened up a whole new world for evidence of the afterlife. It also lead to some very creative hoaxes and, eventually, to the expectation of a hoax by default (yay, Photoshop!).

As is the case with UFO research, the plethora of hoaxers and the ease with which some pretty impressive hoax “evidence” can be manufactured is nothing short of a utterly maddening. See, we want to believe… but we know far too well that a lot of people out there just want to make us look foolish. (Even more foolish than some of us are willing to admit we may be.)

It’s really unfortunate.

But, today we just wonder a little about why there aren’t more sightings and pictures of real ghosts. Check it out and let me know what you think.

(Oh, and that picture that’s the background of the promo image today? That’s a shot from the Library of Congress: The Haunted Lane. Photo by Melander & Bro., 1889. I think we can pretty safely say it’s not a real photo of a real ghost.)

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

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Types of Ghosts

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Have you ever seen a ghost? What kind of ghost was it?

What? You didn’t know there were different types of ghosts? In today’s vlog I ramble on about three different types. Nothing quite as detailed or varied as good ol’ Tobin’s Spirit Guide, but a solid enough quick overview.

This builds a little on yesterday’s vlog about the spiritualism movement that lead hordes of people to want to talk to their deceased loved ones and the researchers who dedicated their lives to trying to figure out what, exactly, was up with all that. It’s from those early parapsychologists and everyone who’s built on their research that we know most of what we do.

We have vague ideas of how to detect ghosts. A ton of theories about what they may actually be (and how we can get different types, like the ones I talk about). Unlike certain movies, there’s no way to “catch” a ghost and keep it around. At least not any way that’s been proven to work… though I’m sure there are some practitioners of magical arts that would disagree.

The bottom line is that we still don’t know exactly what it is we’re seeing when we see ghosts. Or why some people can see them better than others. Or why they’re so inconsistently caught on our recording devices. I’ll talk about a lot of those theories in the future.

Check out today’s vlog about ghosts (and let me know if you’ve had any ghostly encounters).

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

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A Fascination With the Afterlife

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First: Still want to hear your stories of strange experiences.

Next: This vlog was a bit of a mess. I’m not feeling on top of my game today and this is a huge topic that’s really kind of important to the whole paranormal research aspect of what I’m interested in. That time period between the 1840s and 1930s was when dozens of research organizations and secret societies were in their heyday… and a lot of them are still around (in some form) today.

I rambled on, with multiple false starts, and ridiculously long pauses for a whole 20 minutes. Editing took… a while. And, after that, I can think of dozens of ways I’d rather have done this.

In short, I’m really running head on against my perfectionist tendencies and they’re clawing at me something fierce. Of course, I can’t even begin to do much different and still hold to my schedule.

Guess that means there’s stuff to work toward eventually. 🙂

The book I mentioned in the vlog is one written by Peter Aykroyd, that’s Dan Aykroyd’s father. I picked it up a couple of years ago and it’s a really good read. So, if the history of ghosts, spiritualism, and the influences Dan Aykroyd grew up with are things that interest you, definitely check out A History of Ghosts: The True Story of Seances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters. Seems it’s only available for Kindle on Amazon right now.

So, check out the vlog.

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

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Those First Weird Books

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Now we’re up to the point where I really want all of you to join in.

In today’s vlog, I talk about a bunch of the weird books that provided me with the framework for my explorations of the strange and unusual. I want to know what books and experiences you’ve read and had that involve the paranormal and supernatural.

Here’s the promised list of books from me:

There are many, many more than this… and then tons of television shows and documentaries. I could go on for hours and still miss bunches whose titles have faded from my memory, even if the stories and knowledge they contained hasn’t.

If I’d had access back then to the volume of information on ghosts, UFOs, and other paranormal things I have now, all sorts of things would have been so much more amazing. Knowing what I had to go through to get the knowledge I have of this stuff is what really makes me sad that a good bunch of the people–some running podcasts on this very same stuff–don’t know about what I consider basic things (like The Philip Experiment).

Oh… and Von Daniken did open a theme park of sorts. Back in 2003. It really didn’t last as a full-time venture.

Here’s today’s vlog, a quick run through some of my books. Let me know if you like it… but more importantly, tell me the stories you know.

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

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Unboxing Blood Rage

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So many games with miniatures coming my way… this is the first one: Blood Rage.

Of course, you don’t get a good look at most of the minis… I’d need a completely different setup for that. And they’re probably best illustrated by stills, anyway. (Maybe still just like what they did on the Kickstarter page.) They are very nice minis, at least compared to what I’m used to in a number of other board games I’ve played over the years. They’re plastic, with enough flexibility to not break and enough hardness to hold their shape and feel good and solid.

I bought into this game because I totally dig the style–the art and the sculpts and the general plot are all fantastic. Since it’s a 60-90 minute game, I may even be able to drag it to Game Night and get people to play it. Or, y’know, hold my own game day again. Either way, it doesn’t seem prohibitively complex rules-wise. (I’ll know more when I do get around to playing it.)

I’ve seen some pics online of painted versions of these Vikings, gods, and monsters and it really tempts me to try to dress them up a little. Over the past few months, I’ve watched a few painting tutorials online (because I have so many games with so many minis coming my way) and I’m not sure I have the patience for it. Guess we’ll see as time goes on. (It’s not like I have any shortage of friends who know more about painting than I do…)

So, yeah, Blood Rage, it showed up on time, looks awesome, and I own it (and all the expansion stuff) now. Cool.

Here’s the vlog where you can get a quick look at things.

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

[jbutton size=”xxlarge” color=”green” link=”http://durosia.com/vlog-questions” newpage=”yes”]Come Ask a Question Here[/jbutton]