And for the record, Ouija boards started out as “talking boards” and were NOT originally marketed as communications devices to talk to the “dead” - they were considered “psychic novelties” - only after Fuld bought the rights to and remarketed these boards did they gain the reputation as being spirit communication boards.

J. Patterson of Unexplained Mysteries wrote an excellent article about his experience with an ouija board and how it can generate a local mass hysteria from the group who is using it.

What are Ouija Board Experiences?

I’ve never used an ouija board in my life and have no idea if they can summon the dead. However, I’ve had friends that used them. One of them was a teenager who was at a party with other girls. She claimed that one of their suitcases crashed to the ground for no apparent reason. The other was a staunch Catholic in her late 30s, who said that they summoned a demon.

I didn’t believe them, but I kept my opinion to myself. I agree with Patterson about how people approach ouija boards with the intent on “seeing” or “feeling” a ghost or entity. The manifestations that occur are brought on by their anxiety and not the netherworld.

Many people who have been present at the death of someone (including doctors and nurses) have reported seeing the person’s essence leave the body. This happened to one of my uncles, who was working at a diner at the time of his experience. He said that a homeless man had staggered through the door and headed towards the bathroom.

My uncle was very busy with other customers, and homeless people often wandered into the restaurant. So he didn’t give it much thought until he heard a customer say that someone had collapsed in front of the bathroom. When he went to check, he found the homeless man lying face down in front of the bathroom and started to rush toward him to check his vitals.

He stopped short when he heard the man’s death rattle. Then he saw a smoke-like light blue essence leave the corpse’s body and float up to the ceiling, where it dissipated. He called 9-1-1, finished his shift, and went home. It was a long time before he went to sleep.

How would you feel if a friend or relative came up to you and said, “I just saw you in line at Target five minutes ago! How did you get here so fast?”

Imagine the confused look on their face and the adbject surprise in their tone as they continue to do a double-take. You know that you weren’t anywhere near Target, but they insist that they saw you talking with a fellow customer as they left the store to go to your house. Did they see your double or someone who looked and acted remarkably like you?

Let’s try this scenario. Suppose you were the one who saw yourself sitting several rows away in a dimly lit movie theater. How would you react? Would you sit there in numb shock, walk up to the person and introduce yourself, or run out of the theater?

What you or your friends may have seen is a Doppelganger, a shadow (or wraith) of yourself that is walking around and interacting with people just as you normally would. Superstition has it that if you see your doppleganger, you may die soon.

Famous Dopplegangers

• Guy de Maupassant claimed to have been haunted by his doppelganger near the end of his life.
• John Donne was visited by his wife’s doppelganger while he was in Paris. She held a newborn baby in her arms and was very sad. At the same moment that the doppelganger appeared, his wife had given birth to a stillborn child.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley encountered his doppelganger in Italy in 1822, shortly before his 30th birthday. The phantom silently pointed toward the Mediterranean Sea. Shelley died in a sailing accident in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Queen Elizabeth I of England was shocked to see her doppelganger laid out on her bed. The queen died shortly thereafter.

In some cases, doppelgangers may appear as a result of a time or dimensional shift. One such case involved the 18th century German poet, Johann Wolgang von Goethe, who confronted his doppelganger while riding on the road to Drusenheim. Suddenly, he saw his exact double riding in the opposite direction, wearing a gray suit trimmed in gold.

Eight years later, von Goethe found himself traveling on the same road, this time coming from Drusenheim and wearing the exact same suit his doppelganger had been wearing.

Synposis

The book begins by describing why the paranormal is worthy of scientific investigation and why belief in the paranormal has increased over the last 10 years. Next it reviews the areas of neuroscience, neurotheology, and quantum physics. These are relatively new areas to mainstream science and therefore can be unfamiliar even to the veteran paranormal investigator. The brief overview of each topic provides one with a general understanding of the topic and explains why they are important to paranormal research and how they may someday make the paranormal very normal.

About the Author

Bobbie Atristain founded CPRI in the Spring of 2000 with Matt Didier of The Toronto Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society. She currently writes for the print edition of Ghost! Magazine, the UK’s Mystery Mag and T.A.P.S. Para Magazine.

Available at Lulu!