“Let’s go Legend Trippin’!!”

“Let’s go Legend Trippin’!!”

“Let’s go legend tripping!” doesn’t have the same impact as “let’s go ghost hunting!”, but for some ghost hunters, it is exactly what they are doing!

“Whatchoo talkin’ ‘bout Allen?" I hear you say.  What I am talking about is a thing called “ostension”, a term which is explained in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “an act or process of showing, pointing out or exhibiting”. The word comes from the Latin word ‘ostendere’, which means ‘to show’.

 Ostension is the act of making an action to explain a word without saying the word, such as “flippin’ the bird" to say…well you know what it means...

  Way back last century, in 1983, an article was published titled “Does the word 'dog’ bite? Ostensive Action as a Means of Legend Telling” by folklorists, Linda Degh and Andrew Vazsonyi.
  Basically, this article laid out the foundations of what folklorists termed “legend tripping”, the act of engaging in “playacting” involving supernatural elements, of which ghost hunting is the most common, but also of which Bigfoot hunting, werewolf hunting and other aspects of the paranormal fall under.

  In a book published this century, “Aliens, Ghosts and Cult: Legends We Live” by Bill Ellis, Mr Ellis, a folklorist delves further into the world ostension, pointing out that many ghost hunters take themselves quite seriously, and the ‘work’ they do and would never consider that they are, in fact, playacting.

 There are numerous ghost hunting teams that venture out into the dark with their gadgets, try and confront supernatural beings or ghosts with an onslaught of questions, then return to the safety of their home, secure in the knowledge they have taken on the unknown, and won. There is no research into the history of the location, how their equipment actually works, what it is used for in the real world, and its actual capabilities. There is no investigation into natural explanations, weather patterns, psychology or anything else for that matter – it is in essence, exactly what the folklorists state it is “play acting”.

 Bill Ellis wrapped it up rather well in his previously mentioned book with this quote (ghost hunters) "venture out to challenge supernatural beings, confront them in consciously dramatized form, then return to safety. ... The stated purpose of such activities is not entertainment but a sincere effort to test and define boundaries of the 'real' world'." 

  Back to the article by Degh and Vazsonyi. Essentially what the writers are trying to convey is that if a “legend” is widely known and exposed to a wide audience, some members of that audience will engage themselves in actualising or ‘living’ the ‘legend’ or parts of the narrative associated with it. In the paranormal industry, this would be the aspect of ghost hunting that involves persons who want to copy their favourite ghost hunting TV star and live out what they see on TV, for the thrill and for the status.

 There is a distinct difference between the casual ghost hunter and the serious paranormal investigator, but at the end of the day, even the serious paranormal investigator can engage in “legend tripping”, and the casual ghost hunter can become a serious paranormal researcher and investigator, but at the end of the day we have to ask ourselves, are we getting involved in other people’s legends when we investigate the paranormal and living out their expectations of what will happen, or are we going in armed with research, knowledge and no expectations?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ostension

http://www.ostension.org/whats_ostension.html

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EEQVGW2/?&tag=livescience01-20

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2016

Paranormal Investigators: Past & Present: Konstantīns Raudive

Konstantīns Raudive

The man who made EVP research famous, Konstantin Raudive, was already somewhat famous himself at the time of his paranormal research studies, studying philosophy and psychology under Carl Jung and writing numerous philosophical books that were always well received by his peers.


Raudive was born in Latvia but found himself in exile after the Soviets took back Latvia during World War 2. He moved to Sweden and taught at The University of Uppsala.




In 1964 he read Friedrich Jurgenson's book “Voices from Space” and arranged to meet the paranormal investigator.
 Raudive had always had an interest in the paranormal and studied parapsychology and supernatural literature whenever he could.
The meeting with Jurgenson led Raudive into a subject which would become his passion, and for which he would become famous worldwide for, Electronic Voice Phenomena.

For three months he experimented tirelessly with what he had learned and got nothing, then one day, he finally recorded a voice from an unknown source. His elation at finally making contact re-invigorated him and led him to experiment with different ways to record and conduct EVP sessions, thus becoming an EVP pioneer in the process.
As Raudive experimented, he developed new ways of recording spirit voices and tried many different things, including crystal radio sets, which he used in his early work extensively.

Soon he developed his own custom devices to help with clearer recordings, one of which, now known as the “Raudive Diode” uses Germanium in a circuit which acts as a microphone receiver.

Raudive conducted most of his experiments in controlled scientific conditions, using strict protocols. He was monitored by other scientists whilst doing his experiments, which were generally 18 minute EVP sessions.
His equipment had devices on them that would block radio and television signals, essentially a Faraday cage. Like most sessions, no voices were heard during the recording, but on playback, to the amazement of all involved, voices could be heard clearly, including Raudives own deceased sister, who said her name “Tekle” and Raudives nickname, “Kosti”

In the last ten years of his life Raudive collected around 100,00 audiotapes of “spirit” voices, it is claimed over 400 people became involved with his research and each and every one of them heard the voices recorded.
In 1968 Raudive published a book titled “ Unhörbares wird hörbar"- or “What Is Inaudible becomes Audible”, which has also been published in English as “Breakthrough”, He went on to write two more books before his death in 1974.
Raudive was a pioneer of early EVP work and set some of the standards for how the work should be conducted today.

For more on this remarkable man please follow the links below

http://atransc.org/circle/konstantin_raudive.htm

http://hallucinations.enacademic.com/571/electronic_voice_phenomenon

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Paranormal Investigators: Past and Present: Dr. Barry Taff

"Aliens Above, Ghosts Below"

Dr Barry Taff

Coming from Chicago Illinois, U.S.A.,  Barry Taff would grow up to be one of the worlds leading, and most respected parapsychologists, earning himself along the way a doctorate for psychophysiology with a minor in biomedical engineering, an associate position with the esteemed UCLA's Parapsychology Laboratory, and a career in the media, as well as the title of “Author”.

Dr Barry Taff has had an interesting and diverse career in research and investigation, leading investigations into some of the modern era's most notable poltergeist and haunting cases, as well as researching precognition and telepathy, even being the “guinea pig” himself and allowing his own psychic abilities to be laboratory tested.

Dr Taff's work into the study of telepathy and precognition earned him the respect of many of his peers, although often looked over, with his vast amount of other credits, Dr Taff's establishment of protocols and methodologies for investigation and research into these matters would earn him the credit as a forefather of the modern “Remote Viewing” techniques we see today used by spy agencies around the world.

You may never have heard of Dr Barry Taff before reading this profile, his name isn't as well known in Australia as it is overseas, but, you have probably heard of a movie from 1983 titled “The Entity”, starring Barbara Hershey.

This movie is based on the true-life poltergeist investigation case that Dr Taff was the lead investigator on, in 1974, in California, involving a lady named Doris Blithers. Dr Taff worked as a technical advisor to the film, he was also represented in the movie by the character “Gene Kraft”.

Dr Taff also worked as a technical advisor on the following films: “Logan’s Run”, “Demon Seed”, “Altered States” and “Poltergeist”.

Movies are not the only visual media Dr Taff has appeared in or helped with, he has also been seen on “Unsolved Mysteries”, “The Extraordinary”, “A Current Affair”, “Hard Copy”, “The Other Side”, “Haunted History”, “Worlds Scariest Ghosts Caught On Tape” and “An Unknown Encounter” to name a few, add to the mix appearances on radio and podcasts, and Dr Taff has covered just about all forms of media imaginable.

The house on Braddock Drive where Doris Blithers suffered poltergeist activity

The most famous photo from "The Entity" case. Doris sits on a bed in her house while arcs of light are captured free-floating above her

Not only is Dr Taff a sought-after media identity but he has also been a consultant to business and government agencies including the C.I.A., N.S.A., LAPD and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and far too many other agencies to list here.

Many of you may be expecting me to cover some of Dr Taff's investigations, doing so would make this one very long blog indeed, as his investigations are vast, his reports detailed and giving them a brief description does not give Dr Taff, nor his research, as much respect or quality analysis as I feel he truly deserves, instead I will cover some of his investigations in another separate blog.

 Dr Taff  has written some fantastic books and undertaken some groundbreaking investigations and it is well worth reading his books and the vast amount of information on his personal website at:

http://barrytaff.net/

Written

by

Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

© 2012

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