Michael Schmicker's Blog - Posts Tagged "supernatural"
Aloha and Glad to Be Here!
Aloha all!
I just recently joined Goodreads as an author, and will begin regular blogging as soon as I can settle in.
I greatly enjoy discussing anything and everything related to the paranormal and scientific anomalies, and welcome questions and emails from all of you. I've spent 20 years investigating and writing about these perplexing phenomena inexplicable by current science, but I'd like to know what YOU think!
I plan to eventually launch and host a paranormal experiences group (PEG) where Goodreads members can share their thoughts and opinions, personal stories and experiences involving anything paranormal-- premonitions, ghost encounters, possible reincarnation memories, out-of-body experiences, near death experiences, or your visit to a psychic or medium. I won't judge or play psychiatrist. I'll simply share with you what I've uncovered in my investigations, and suggest some of the better books I've read on each topic among the 500+ books in my personal library.
If we want, we can perhaps use "Best Evidence" as the common "textbook" to launch the PEG discussion group, but that's up to you.
But I do plan on throwing in a drawing for free copies of my other book, "The Gift: ESP: The Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People.
Could be fun!
More when I get a free moment. I'm juggling a lot of balls in the air right now. I just finished writing an historical novel with a paranormal twist, set in Italy in 1899 (if it were a film, the logline would be "Downton Abbey Meets the Exorcist"). It's now making the rounds of lit agents and keeping that project moving forward demands most of my time at the moment. But I'll be back!
Aloha,
Michael
I just recently joined Goodreads as an author, and will begin regular blogging as soon as I can settle in.
I greatly enjoy discussing anything and everything related to the paranormal and scientific anomalies, and welcome questions and emails from all of you. I've spent 20 years investigating and writing about these perplexing phenomena inexplicable by current science, but I'd like to know what YOU think!
I plan to eventually launch and host a paranormal experiences group (PEG) where Goodreads members can share their thoughts and opinions, personal stories and experiences involving anything paranormal-- premonitions, ghost encounters, possible reincarnation memories, out-of-body experiences, near death experiences, or your visit to a psychic or medium. I won't judge or play psychiatrist. I'll simply share with you what I've uncovered in my investigations, and suggest some of the better books I've read on each topic among the 500+ books in my personal library.
If we want, we can perhaps use "Best Evidence" as the common "textbook" to launch the PEG discussion group, but that's up to you.
But I do plan on throwing in a drawing for free copies of my other book, "The Gift: ESP: The Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People.
Could be fun!
More when I get a free moment. I'm juggling a lot of balls in the air right now. I just finished writing an historical novel with a paranormal twist, set in Italy in 1899 (if it were a film, the logline would be "Downton Abbey Meets the Exorcist"). It's now making the rounds of lit agents and keeping that project moving forward demands most of my time at the moment. But I'll be back!
Aloha,
Michael
SUPERNATURAL HAWAII (Book Review)
Everybody loves a ghost story, science be dammed.
Turn on your television any night (at least in the U.S) and you can shiver along with a half-dozen hit series, live or in rerun – Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International (SciFi); Ghost Adventures (Travel Channel); Ghost Lab, and A Haunting (Discovery Channel); and Paranormal State (A&E).
Today’s investigators descend on a house or graveyard and chase ghosts with a truckload of 21st century toys – hi-def videocams, digital tape recorders, EMF detectors, infrared thermal scanners, thermometers and walkie-talkies.
Judi Thompson’s book “Supernatural Hawaii” features tales from a quainter era when folklorists chased ghosts with a simple notebook and pen. Thompson started collecting her oral histories in 1984 while working as executive editor at the Institute for Polynesian Studies. Her decades-old stories and accompanying black-and-white photos give off a musty, bygone-era scent, but her scholarship is spiced up by a rich, cultural chop suey of ethnic story-tellers.
Native Hawaiians justifiably command center stage in this collection, surprised on a dark road by the volcano goddess Pele and her phantom dog Poki; avoiding danger with the help of ‘aumakua (ancestral spirits) manifesting in the form of a pueo (owl) or mano (shark); averting their eyes as the legendary Night Marchers, ghostly spirits of Hawaiian warriors, tramp their torch-lit, chanting way down the mountains to the ocean along traditional trails – through bedrooms and kitchens of modern buildings unluckily blocking their path. Auntie Harriet Ne of Moloka’i shares with Judi a lifetime of “chicken skin” (pidgin for goose bumps) experiences, including pre-World War II encounters with menehune, survivors of the legendary race of small, elfish stonemasons whom Polynesian voyagers found working fishponds when they first arrived in Hawaii in 500 AD. Kalaupapa leper colony survivors speak cautiously of Moloka’i kahuna (priests) who enjoyed a particular reputation as sorcerers of ana’ana (black magic), able to tell the future or kill people with evil spells. Both animist Hawaiians as well as Buddhist-believing Japanese immigrants working on the sugar plantations recount witnessing mysterious, floating orbs of light playing in the cane fields – fireballs each group regarded as spirits of the dead (the Nisei called them sinotama; the Hawaiians akualele). Back in modern Honolulu, Chinese and Portuguese firefighters in the Nu’uanu and Kaka’ako stations reluctantly admit to being attacked by Chokeneck, an evil spirit who yanks off bed sheets, tosses men bodily out of their bunks, and sits on their chest trying to suffocate them while they sleep. To protect themselves, they stuff ti leaves under their mattresses (ti leaves protect against evil spirits; watch a televised Hawaii football game and you’ll see Hawaii fans waving them to ward off touchdowns by their opponents).
Thompson’s Hawaii stories echo universally reported paranormal experiences – ghosts, orbs, poltergeists, guardian spirits. Chokeneck matches the Old Hag syndrome. Native Hawaiian scholar Rubelite Johnson, professor of Indo-Pacific languages at the University of Hawaii, shares a family story involving her great-grandmother Ekikela who suffered a classic near-death experience right out of Raymond Moody’s Life After Life. The old Hawaiians don’t bury the body right away; they keep it around for several days since they believe the spirit of the deceased can sometimes be persuaded by offerings or incantations to return to the body. Grandma did just that. She described how she felt ill while working in the garden; collapsed and rose out of her body, traveling upwards towards the sunrise (light); came to a partially-opened door (barrier); looked inside to see a beautiful, heavenly place; tried to enter but was stopped by a firm hand and a stern voice which told her “You are not ready yet. You have to go back to your body”; reluctantly returned to her corpse; wiggled back in through the big toe, then blacked out and re-awoke surrounded by her overjoyed family.
For some unexplained reason, Thompson took 25 years to publish her supernatural stories. During that period, two Hawaii writers beat her to market. Journalist and travel writer Rick Carroll put together his breezy, popular, six-book “Spooky Tales” series. The late American studies professor and Honolulu Ghost Walks tour operator Dr. Glen Grant tapped a darker vein with his “Obake Files” series (obake is Japanese for “ghost”). I admit I got so scared reading one particularly graphic murder/spirit possession case that I threw the book unfinished into the garbage.
Thompson’s stories don’t deliver the fright of Grant’s best, or the easy-reads featured in Carroll’s collection, but you’ll learn a lot about a hidden Hawaii infinitely more entertaining than Don Ho and hokey hulas.
Halloween’s coming. Let’s celebrate the truly spooky!
Turn on your television any night (at least in the U.S) and you can shiver along with a half-dozen hit series, live or in rerun – Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International (SciFi); Ghost Adventures (Travel Channel); Ghost Lab, and A Haunting (Discovery Channel); and Paranormal State (A&E).
Today’s investigators descend on a house or graveyard and chase ghosts with a truckload of 21st century toys – hi-def videocams, digital tape recorders, EMF detectors, infrared thermal scanners, thermometers and walkie-talkies.
Judi Thompson’s book “Supernatural Hawaii” features tales from a quainter era when folklorists chased ghosts with a simple notebook and pen. Thompson started collecting her oral histories in 1984 while working as executive editor at the Institute for Polynesian Studies. Her decades-old stories and accompanying black-and-white photos give off a musty, bygone-era scent, but her scholarship is spiced up by a rich, cultural chop suey of ethnic story-tellers.
Native Hawaiians justifiably command center stage in this collection, surprised on a dark road by the volcano goddess Pele and her phantom dog Poki; avoiding danger with the help of ‘aumakua (ancestral spirits) manifesting in the form of a pueo (owl) or mano (shark); averting their eyes as the legendary Night Marchers, ghostly spirits of Hawaiian warriors, tramp their torch-lit, chanting way down the mountains to the ocean along traditional trails – through bedrooms and kitchens of modern buildings unluckily blocking their path. Auntie Harriet Ne of Moloka’i shares with Judi a lifetime of “chicken skin” (pidgin for goose bumps) experiences, including pre-World War II encounters with menehune, survivors of the legendary race of small, elfish stonemasons whom Polynesian voyagers found working fishponds when they first arrived in Hawaii in 500 AD. Kalaupapa leper colony survivors speak cautiously of Moloka’i kahuna (priests) who enjoyed a particular reputation as sorcerers of ana’ana (black magic), able to tell the future or kill people with evil spells. Both animist Hawaiians as well as Buddhist-believing Japanese immigrants working on the sugar plantations recount witnessing mysterious, floating orbs of light playing in the cane fields – fireballs each group regarded as spirits of the dead (the Nisei called them sinotama; the Hawaiians akualele). Back in modern Honolulu, Chinese and Portuguese firefighters in the Nu’uanu and Kaka’ako stations reluctantly admit to being attacked by Chokeneck, an evil spirit who yanks off bed sheets, tosses men bodily out of their bunks, and sits on their chest trying to suffocate them while they sleep. To protect themselves, they stuff ti leaves under their mattresses (ti leaves protect against evil spirits; watch a televised Hawaii football game and you’ll see Hawaii fans waving them to ward off touchdowns by their opponents).
Thompson’s Hawaii stories echo universally reported paranormal experiences – ghosts, orbs, poltergeists, guardian spirits. Chokeneck matches the Old Hag syndrome. Native Hawaiian scholar Rubelite Johnson, professor of Indo-Pacific languages at the University of Hawaii, shares a family story involving her great-grandmother Ekikela who suffered a classic near-death experience right out of Raymond Moody’s Life After Life. The old Hawaiians don’t bury the body right away; they keep it around for several days since they believe the spirit of the deceased can sometimes be persuaded by offerings or incantations to return to the body. Grandma did just that. She described how she felt ill while working in the garden; collapsed and rose out of her body, traveling upwards towards the sunrise (light); came to a partially-opened door (barrier); looked inside to see a beautiful, heavenly place; tried to enter but was stopped by a firm hand and a stern voice which told her “You are not ready yet. You have to go back to your body”; reluctantly returned to her corpse; wiggled back in through the big toe, then blacked out and re-awoke surrounded by her overjoyed family.
For some unexplained reason, Thompson took 25 years to publish her supernatural stories. During that period, two Hawaii writers beat her to market. Journalist and travel writer Rick Carroll put together his breezy, popular, six-book “Spooky Tales” series. The late American studies professor and Honolulu Ghost Walks tour operator Dr. Glen Grant tapped a darker vein with his “Obake Files” series (obake is Japanese for “ghost”). I admit I got so scared reading one particularly graphic murder/spirit possession case that I threw the book unfinished into the garbage.
Thompson’s stories don’t deliver the fright of Grant’s best, or the easy-reads featured in Carroll’s collection, but you’ll learn a lot about a hidden Hawaii infinitely more entertaining than Don Ho and hokey hulas.
Halloween’s coming. Let’s celebrate the truly spooky!
John + Sabina, Forever (BOOK REVIEW)
Admit it. You’re curious about reincarnation.
Who isn’t intrigued by the possibility that we may have lived a past life?
Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism famously enshrine the idea, but reincarnation belief is global. Eskimos, Pacific Islanders, the Yoruba of West Africa, the aborigines of Australia, and the Teutonic and Celtic tribes of Europe all accept the idea of multiple rebirths. The biggest surprise? – a 2013 Harris Poll found one in four Americans believe in reincarnation. That’s 80 million people. Next time you’re standing in line at Starbucks, chances are a “born again” believer is queued up with you, looking for a venti mocha.
Voltaire, that quintessential, French rationalist and philosopher, didn’t find reincarnation intellectually absurd. “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” Neither did Socrates, Napoleon, Balzac, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, Carl Jung, or the Beatles’ George Harrison – just a few of the many famous people who embraced the possibility.
If you’re among their ranks, or simply fascinated with the thought, fire up your Kindle and download M.J. Rose’s "The Reincarnationist" – a time-slip thriller with an inventive, twisting plot that moves back and forth between modern Italy and 391 AD Rome, where a newly triumphant Christianity is brutally eradicating the last vestiges of Rome’s ancient, venerable state religion, the Vestal Virgins.
The time-traveling hero of this two-millennia romance is AP photojournalist Josh Ryder. He’s covering a delegation of peacekeepers visiting the Pope in Rome when a suicide bomber detonates his weapon just steps from him. The explosion lands him in the hospital; it also triggers troubling memory lurches back in time to a past life as the illicit lover of Sabina, a Vestal Virgin buried alive for having sex with him. I’m up on Christianity and the Roman Empire (I was raised Roman Catholic; I read history avidly), but knew almost nothing about Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth, and the unbroken succession of young priestesses who served her for over a thousand years. Author Rose brings the banished religion back to vivid life, expertly weaving its fascinating catechism, rites, rituals, and harsh punishments into her intricately plotted tale.
Ryder, physically recovered but mentally tormented, subsequently returns to Rome seeking answers to his flashbacks. He finds them in a tomb being excavated by the reincarnation-focused Phoenix Foundation, which has hired Josh to photograph the dig. The Foundation is surreptitiously looking for more than pottery, beads and bones; it suspects the Vestal Virgin burial site may also contain the legendary “Memory Stones” –ancient gemstones which reputedly allow people to view their past lives. The Foundation finds its priceless, metaphysical treasure; Josh finds the body of his cruelly suffocated 4th century lover, Sabina; and a vicious struggle ensues for control of the stones, sparking robbery, kidnapping and murder. You’re hooked.
Erudite and entertaining, The Reincarnationist went on to inspire the 2010 Fox TV series "Past Life."
Rose has a fascination with the supernatural, a fervent following, and a suite of best-sellers exploring the metaphysical. If you enjoy historical fiction with paranormal twist, don’t forget to check out her latest novel, "The Witch of Painted Sorrows," a tale of spirit possession set in decadent, 1890s Belle Époque Paris. Who knows: you may have been there – a genial flâneur strolling Boulevard Haussmann in a previous life.
Isn’t that a pleasant thought!
Who isn’t intrigued by the possibility that we may have lived a past life?
Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism famously enshrine the idea, but reincarnation belief is global. Eskimos, Pacific Islanders, the Yoruba of West Africa, the aborigines of Australia, and the Teutonic and Celtic tribes of Europe all accept the idea of multiple rebirths. The biggest surprise? – a 2013 Harris Poll found one in four Americans believe in reincarnation. That’s 80 million people. Next time you’re standing in line at Starbucks, chances are a “born again” believer is queued up with you, looking for a venti mocha.
Voltaire, that quintessential, French rationalist and philosopher, didn’t find reincarnation intellectually absurd. “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” Neither did Socrates, Napoleon, Balzac, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, Carl Jung, or the Beatles’ George Harrison – just a few of the many famous people who embraced the possibility.
If you’re among their ranks, or simply fascinated with the thought, fire up your Kindle and download M.J. Rose’s "The Reincarnationist" – a time-slip thriller with an inventive, twisting plot that moves back and forth between modern Italy and 391 AD Rome, where a newly triumphant Christianity is brutally eradicating the last vestiges of Rome’s ancient, venerable state religion, the Vestal Virgins.
The time-traveling hero of this two-millennia romance is AP photojournalist Josh Ryder. He’s covering a delegation of peacekeepers visiting the Pope in Rome when a suicide bomber detonates his weapon just steps from him. The explosion lands him in the hospital; it also triggers troubling memory lurches back in time to a past life as the illicit lover of Sabina, a Vestal Virgin buried alive for having sex with him. I’m up on Christianity and the Roman Empire (I was raised Roman Catholic; I read history avidly), but knew almost nothing about Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth, and the unbroken succession of young priestesses who served her for over a thousand years. Author Rose brings the banished religion back to vivid life, expertly weaving its fascinating catechism, rites, rituals, and harsh punishments into her intricately plotted tale.
Ryder, physically recovered but mentally tormented, subsequently returns to Rome seeking answers to his flashbacks. He finds them in a tomb being excavated by the reincarnation-focused Phoenix Foundation, which has hired Josh to photograph the dig. The Foundation is surreptitiously looking for more than pottery, beads and bones; it suspects the Vestal Virgin burial site may also contain the legendary “Memory Stones” –ancient gemstones which reputedly allow people to view their past lives. The Foundation finds its priceless, metaphysical treasure; Josh finds the body of his cruelly suffocated 4th century lover, Sabina; and a vicious struggle ensues for control of the stones, sparking robbery, kidnapping and murder. You’re hooked.
Erudite and entertaining, The Reincarnationist went on to inspire the 2010 Fox TV series "Past Life."
Rose has a fascination with the supernatural, a fervent following, and a suite of best-sellers exploring the metaphysical. If you enjoy historical fiction with paranormal twist, don’t forget to check out her latest novel, "The Witch of Painted Sorrows," a tale of spirit possession set in decadent, 1890s Belle Époque Paris. Who knows: you may have been there – a genial flâneur strolling Boulevard Haussmann in a previous life.
Isn’t that a pleasant thought!
Nook broomstick for the Witch
Aloha all:
Better late than never?
Nook aficionados have been emailing me to put Alessandra on an epub broomstick. Happy to announce "The Witch of Napoli" is now available as a Barnes & Noble e-book: http://bit.ly/1MGFcrb . Sorry it took so long. (We authors prefer to write, not wade through the growing swamp of publishing formats).
If Smashwords is you preferred ride, the Witch just got uploaded there as well: http://bit.ly/1KKR34k
Better late than never?
Nook aficionados have been emailing me to put Alessandra on an epub broomstick. Happy to announce "The Witch of Napoli" is now available as a Barnes & Noble e-book: http://bit.ly/1MGFcrb . Sorry it took so long. (We authors prefer to write, not wade through the growing swamp of publishing formats).
If Smashwords is you preferred ride, the Witch just got uploaded there as well: http://bit.ly/1KKR34k
