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April 9, 2024YOUTHJUICE rating: 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐.
HEBE was supposed to give me the heebie-jeebies, but the novel stole its own thunder almost immediately. A slow horror buildup would have been ideal in the gothic horror novel youthjuice by E.K. Sathue (Penguin Random House, June 4, 2024).
Sophia is the new Creative Director for HEBE, a cosmetics company with products that work a bit too well at erasing wrinkles and scars, and a cultish, ageless CEO named Tree who says things like “Call me your True North.” Narcissist much? A motif of Hebe is that looking young and gorgeous and being a good and moral person are one and the same.
Thanks to Edelweiss Plus Above the Treeline and Penguin Random House for sending this book to me for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Besides spoiling its own shocker, the novel suffers from overwriting with tortured metaphors, and a clumsy dual timeline. Would editors please stop insisting upon dual timelines when they are not working and just add to the readers’ confusion?
The novel nevertheless has a certain propulsion as Sophia is lured into the inner circle of the company and changes herself utterly to fit in, Devil-Wears-Prada style.1“The Devil Wears Prada” is both a 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger and a 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway that I’ve probably seen five times. Sophia’s characterization could have been stronger, but I did keep reading.
I was satisfied by the ending, with comeuppance for the baddies and a thought-provoking message. Fashion horror and cosmetic horror have enormous potential as a subgenre, to say nothing of cosmetic surgery horror combined with an age-positive and body-positive message. youthjuice felt relevant personally: while I want to be Jamie Lee Curtis and be cool about aging, I found a crepe-y little fold above my right eye last week and flipped out. Despite my best intentions, I don’t wanna go there.
Reading in context:
STARDUST by Neil Gaiman (1999) is the obvious read-alike, with malicious witches who are determined to stay young.
WOMEN ROWING NORTH: NAVIGATING LIFE’S CURRENTS AND FLOURISHING AS WE AGE by Mary Pipher (Bloomsbury, 2019) is a five-star read.
Pretty much anything by Anne Lamott on aging and what she calls the “third third of life” is stellar; you can start with this essay.
What I’m reading right now:
THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS by Shubhnum Khan (Penguin Random House, January 9, 2024).
#youthjuice #EKSathue #horror #gothic #aging #fashion #TheDevilWearsPrada #LaurenWeisberger #Stardust #NeilGaiman #WomenRowingNorth #MaryPipher #AnneLamott
https://jillsreads.com/youthjuice/
#aging #AnneLamott #EKSathue #fashion #gothic #horror #LaurenWeisberger #MaryPipher #NeilGaiman #Stardust #TheDevilWearsPrada #WomenRowingNorth #youthjuice
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YOUTHJUICE rating: 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐.
HEBE was supposed to give me the heebie-jeebies, but the novel stole its own thunder almost immediately. A slow horror buildup would have been ideal in the gothic horror novel youthjuice by E.K. Sathue (Penguin Random House, June 4, 2024).
Sophia is the new Creative Director for HEBE, a cosmetics company with products that work a bit too well at erasing wrinkles and scars, and a cultish, ageless CEO named Tree who says things like “Call me your True North.” Narcissist much? A motif of Hebe is that looking young and gorgeous and being a good and moral person are one and the same.
Thanks to Edelweiss Plus Above the Treeline and Penguin Random House for sending this book to me for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Besides spoiling its own shocker, the novel suffers from overwriting with tortured metaphors, and a clumsy dual timeline. Would editors please stop insisting upon dual timelines when they are not working and just add to the readers’ confusion?
The novel nevertheless has a certain propulsion as Sophia is lured into the inner circle of the company and changes herself utterly to fit in, Devil-Wears-Prada style.1“The Devil Wears Prada” is both a 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger and a 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway that I’ve probably seen five times. Sophia’s characterization could have been stronger, but I did keep reading.
I was satisfied by the ending, with comeuppance for the baddies and a thought-provoking message. Fashion horror and cosmetic horror have enormous potential as a subgenre, to say nothing of cosmetic surgery horror combined with an age-positive and body-positive message. youthjuice felt relevant personally: while I want to be Jamie Lee Curtis and be cool about aging, I found a crepe-y little fold above my right eye last week and flipped out. Despite my best intentions, I don’t wanna go there.
Reading in context:
STARDUST by Neil Gaiman (1999) is the obvious read-alike, with malicious witches who are determined to stay young.
WOMEN ROWING NORTH: NAVIGATING LIFE’S CURRENTS AND FLOURISHING AS WE AGE by Mary Pipher (Bloomsbury, 2019) is a five-star read.
Pretty much anything by Anne Lamott on aging and what she calls the “third third of life” is stellar; you can start with this essay.
What I’m reading right now:
THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS by Shubhnum Khan (Penguin Random House, January 9, 2024).
#youthjuice #EKSathue #horror #gothic #aging #fashion #TheDevilWearsPrada #LaurenWeisberger #Stardust #NeilGaiman #WomenRowingNorth #MaryPipher #AnneLamott
https://jillsreads.com/youthjuice/
#aging #AnneLamott #EKSathue #fashion #gothic #horror #LaurenWeisberger #MaryPipher #NeilGaiman #Stardust #TheDevilWearsPrada #WomenRowingNorth #youthjuice
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YOUTHJUICE rating: 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐.
HEBE was supposed to give me the heebie-jeebies, but the novel stole its own thunder almost immediately. A slow horror buildup would have been ideal in the gothic horror novel youthjuice by E.K. Sathue (Penguin Random House, June 4, 2024).
Sophia is the new Creative Director for HEBE, a cosmetics company with products that work a bit too well at erasing wrinkles and scars, and a cultish, ageless CEO named Tree who says things like “Call me your True North.” Narcissist much? A motif of Hebe is that looking young and gorgeous and being a good and moral person are one and the same.
Thanks to Edelweiss Plus Above the Treeline and Penguin Random House for sending this book to me for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Besides spoiling its own shocker, the novel suffers from overwriting with tortured metaphors, and a clumsy dual timeline. Would editors please stop insisting upon dual timelines when they are not working and just add to the readers’ confusion?
The novel nevertheless has a certain propulsion as Sophia is lured into the inner circle of the company and changes herself utterly to fit in, Devil-Wears-Prada style.1“The Devil Wears Prada” is both a 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger and a 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway that I’ve probably seen five times. Sophia’s characterization could have been stronger, but I did keep reading.
I was satisfied by the ending, with comeuppance for the baddies and a thought-provoking message. Fashion horror and cosmetic horror have enormous potential as a subgenre, to say nothing of cosmetic surgery horror combined with an age-positive and body-positive message. youthjuice felt relevant personally: while I want to be Jamie Lee Curtis and be cool about aging, I found a crepe-y little fold above my right eye last week and flipped out. Despite my best intentions, I don’t wanna go there.
Reading in context:
STARDUST by Neil Gaiman (1999) is the obvious read-alike, with malicious witches who are determined to stay young.
WOMEN ROWING NORTH: NAVIGATING LIFE’S CURRENTS AND FLOURISHING AS WE AGE by Mary Pipher (Bloomsbury, 2019) is a five-star read.
Pretty much anything by Anne Lamott on aging and what she calls the “third third of life” is stellar; you can start with this essay.
What I’m reading right now:
THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS by Shubhnum Khan (Penguin Random House, January 9, 2024).
#youthjuice #EKSathue #horror #gothic #aging #fashion #TheDevilWearsPrada #LaurenWeisberger #Stardust #NeilGaiman #WomenRowingNorth #MaryPipher #AnneLamott
https://jillsreads.com/youthjuice/
#aging #AnneLamott #EKSathue #fashion #gothic #horror #LaurenWeisberger #MaryPipher #NeilGaiman #Stardust #TheDevilWearsPrada #WomenRowingNorth #youthjuice
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Typos Autocorrected. That's 🦆🦆Going There, init? 💯👍
Literally. Your. Screenshot. Nice.
Scholar? Fine. Here are links FROM THE SEARCH link.
¹ https://books.google.com/books/about/Marxism_and_Leninism.html?id=ICrZDwAAQBAJ
² Britannica, YES, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Marxism³ Marxists
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/foundations-leninism/introduction.htm⁴ YouTube : Marxism : For Visual Learners That Watch Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS2jUjNc5tkYou follow #StateSponsoredMalware ? Cool. I do demonstrations about that on #Android10 to #Android12 and am about to embrace #Android13 with #SSM™ provider from the UK, https://GammaGroup.com, when I get around to it this year. My work, btw, is charity work to the #infosec community since I'm in Silicon Valley and have been here contributing to many industries here over the past 24+ years. See my bio.
Are you against my charity or just want to break down how #CALEA software works or something? Perhaps you are just about to do a GREAT science drop about #NSOGroup's #Pegasus and we are ALL about to learn something from you? No?
Perhaps when you talk about a previous employer of mine, Oracle Systems, sometime someone from Oracle may, shocked I know, just might say something. You know?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation
I did my 9+ years working for Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park, CA also and 1yr into the Oracle Systems acquisition also. You know, the headquarters where #Meta (previously know as #Facebook who bought this property from Oracle.)
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CW: Nonconsent, "@" reader, Naive, Drugging, Needles
The rave was going awesome, your date was stellar through the entire ordeal. You can't believe you met on #### and clicked so quickly.
"Hey, follow me, I want you to check something out~" They tell you, holding your hand and motioning you towards a backroom in the ware house. Their eyes are always so nice, the glint you see in them always making you feel so comfortable.
You smile and nod as you follow along. Maybe it will be a cool perspective of the party, or perhaps a cool slap or mark on the wall to learn about. Regardless, You love learning and following!
They open the door to the room, "Quickly get inside before anyone sees us!~" They hurry, checking around as they hold the door open just enough for you to get in. And get in you do, and they slip in after you.
"So what did you wanna showww?" You ask, looking around the dark room, there is a sturdy table, a few broken chairs and boxes, torn wallpaper, and stamps and marks plenty, any one of them was worth an entire conversation too. And you hear the door click shut, and a small shuffle as they come up behind you.
"I'm going to show you an even better time~" They say, shoving you onto the table chest first, and holding your neck down, their nails digging slightly into your throat.
"W-what are you doing?!" You say, trying to lift your head, but you don't get the time before you feel something cold wipe against your waist, like a wipe? You squeak, the sudden sensation making your skin feel tingly. Sadly the wrong choice to make, as you feel a needle slide in on the spot, and something gets pushed along with it. And you freeze, not daring to move with something so sharp in you.
It slowly gets pulled out and a bandaid slapped on top. "There you go, that will make you much more malleable" They remark, giggling as they leave you on the table. The shock of the needle already causing your mind to fuzz up, "m-allehablem?" You slowly get out, the static still buzzing in your mind.
They slowly flip you over, moving your arms to the sides. "Mhmm! And don't you worry, I'll take good care of you from now on~" They say with a soft smile on their face, slowly mounting ontop of you. "Just relax and stop thinking for me, k?~" They say leaning in for a kiss~
Even in the dark, their eyes are so comfy...
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CW: Nonconsent, "@" reader, Naive, Drugging, Needles
The rave was going awesome, your date was stellar through the entire ordeal. You can't believe you met on #### and clicked so quickly.
"Hey, follow me, I want you to check something out~" They tell you, holding your hand and motioning you towards a backroom in the ware house. Their eyes are always so nice, the glint you see in them always making you feel so comfortable.
You smile and nod as you follow along. Maybe it will be a cool perspective of the party, or perhaps a cool slap or mark on the wall to learn about. Regardless, You love learning and following!
They open the door to the room, "Quickly get inside before anyone sees us!~" They hurry, checking around as they hold the door open just enough for you to get in. And get in you do, and they slip in after you.
"So what did you wanna showww?" You ask, looking around the dark room, there is a sturdy table, a few broken chairs and boxes, torn wallpaper, and stamps and marks plenty, any one of them was worth an entire conversation too. And you hear the door click shut, and a small shuffle as they come up behind you.
"I'm going to show you an even better time~" They say, shoving you onto the table chest first, and holding your neck down, their nails digging slightly into your throat.
"W-what are you doing?!" You say, trying to lift your head, but you don't get the time before you feel something cold wipe against your waist, like a wipe? You squeak, the sudden sensation making your skin feel tingly. Sadly the wrong choice to make, as you feel a needle slide in on the spot, and something gets pushed along with it. And you freeze, not daring to move with something so sharp in you.
It slowly gets pulled out and a bandaid slapped on top. "There you go, that will make you much more malleable" They remark, giggling as they leave you on the table. The shock of the needle already causing your mind to fuzz up, "m-allehablem?" You slowly get out, the static still buzzing in your mind.
They slowly flip you over, moving your arms to the sides. "Mhmm! And don't you worry, I'll take good care of you from now on~" They say with a soft smile on their face, slowly mounting ontop of you. "Just relax and stop thinking for me, k?~" They say leaning in for a kiss~
Even in the dark, their eyes are so comfy...
-
CW: Nonconsent, "@" reader, Naive, Drugging, Needles
The rave was going awesome, your date was stellar through the entire ordeal. You can't believe you met on #### and clicked so quickly.
"Hey, follow me, I want you to check something out~" They tell you, holding your hand and motioning you towards a backroom in the ware house. Their eyes are always so nice, the glint you see in them always making you feel so comfortable.
You smile and nod as you follow along. Maybe it will be a cool perspective of the party, or perhaps a cool slap or mark on the wall to learn about. Regardless, You love learning and following!
They open the door to the room, "Quickly get inside before anyone sees us!~" They hurry, checking around as they hold the door open just enough for you to get in. And get in you do, and they slip in after you.
"So what did you wanna showww?" You ask, looking around the dark room, there is a sturdy table, a few broken chairs and boxes, torn wallpaper, and stamps and marks plenty, any one of them was worth an entire conversation too. And you hear the door click shut, and a small shuffle as they come up behind you.
"I'm going to show you an even better time~" They say, shoving you onto the table chest first, and holding your neck down, their nails digging slightly into your throat.
"W-what are you doing?!" You say, trying to lift your head, but you don't get the time before you feel something cold wipe against your waist, like a wipe? You squeak, the sudden sensation making your skin feel tingly. Sadly the wrong choice to make, as you feel a needle slide in on the spot, and something gets pushed along with it. And you freeze, not daring to move with something so sharp in you.
It slowly gets pulled out and a bandaid slapped on top. "There you go, that will make you much more malleable" They remark, giggling as they leave you on the table. The shock of the needle already causing your mind to fuzz up, "m-allehablem?" You slowly get out, the static still buzzing in your mind.
They slowly flip you over, moving your arms to the sides. "Mhmm! And don't you worry, I'll take good care of you from now on~" They say with a soft smile on their face, slowly mounting ontop of you. "Just relax and stop thinking for me, k?~" They say leaning in for a kiss~
Even in the dark, their eyes are so comfy...
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Okay, so more to this story because it's mastodon, right?
I just have a bunch of shit. Because I am just that way. So I had these tiles (about 1.5" or 4.5cm corner to corner) for a backsplash. I got them from a big box hardware store on clearance. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them, but even considered the possibility of making a kitchen backsplash (shock! using materials for intended purposes instead of #hacking them into something else). Luckily, I was saved from this defeat by another project: a cabinet for my messy living room, which will hold some bins to put stuff in (mostly kid's stuff; they're 12 and holy shit can a creative 12-yo generate messes).
The cabinet will be very low, with a countertop-type top and I didn't know what to do with that. I wanted to discourage stuff stacked on it, so I thought something creative could be cool.
I often show Mary (actual artist, amazing #partner) materials I have hoarded bc she frequently has kickass ideas for stuff.
On #nye2023 she was looking at these tiles and other options for creating a top for the cabinet. Nothing seemed to click. Then we started talking about drawing on the tiles and connecting them. Over the next 10 minutes we hashed out a cool system for making rearrangeable, visually connected art bits. These were the initial rules:
1. Three connecting lines per tile, on alternating sides, in the center of the side (the tiles are small, and this seemed likely to leave some space for designs on the tile; connecting all six seemed too busy).
2. Only black sharpie for the designs.
3. Each connecting line = black and the width of a regular sharpie, entering perpendicular to the side it is on.
This seemed like fun. We decided to work on some tiles independently and then see what we had when we saw each other again (another week or two, sadly, due to schedules; #enm and/or #polyamory and/or #longdistance relationships are sometimes frustrating, even when the distance isn't really /that/ long).
Then, after Mary drove back to her kitties and her cabin in the woods (this is not really a metaphor), my daughter and I broke the rules. We saw that the "only 3" rule left holes in the design. This is cool, but we wanted to fill them, so we made a few "zero-connectors" tiles.
And we figured if we're breaking one rule, we'll break another one: we put colors on some of the zero-connnector or "hole filler" tiles.
Mary has not complained. She has adopted our illegal ways. She is an #anarchist, as well as an artist, so I guess rules are often just suggestions.
Until this point I was thinking of this as a way to generate a neat pattern for a countertop-thing for the cabinet. But I couldn't decide on how to do the borders/edges of the top, and I thought it might take a while to decide on a favorite tile arrangement--
So obviously I went with "keep all the options open as long as possible" (which is a thing for me). It was the tiniest of steps to decide not to attach the tiles permanently at all.
Current plan: cabinet top will have a raised border to keep the tiles contained (maybe conforming to the hexagon pattern, but that might be way too fussy) but no permanent arrangement; the tiles can be rearranged as much as we want. New ones can be made and put in (limits: big box store doesn't seem to have any more of these).
THEN I was thinking the top of the cabinet was looking a bit janky: some uneven wood surfaces had been filled with construction adhesive (bad choice) and now needed sanding (too rubbery) or trimming and then priming, painting, etc. So maybe spend a few bucks and get some masonite for the top.
Wait, maybe I have some out in the garage. I do have a bunch of hoarded materials, after all.
Nope, no masonite, but what's that in the back corner? Holy mother of Cthulu it was a flat, smooth piece of galvanized steel a few mm thick, perfect for a top. And the exact width (18 inches) and long enough--just one cut with the angle grinder.
Now it's being primed in the garage, after having the galvanizing sanded off (I know how it is to try to paint that), then I'll paint it and slap it on the cabinet with some trim to keep it in place.
I feel I'm being rewarded for impulse-buying shit on clearance, hoarding materials I have no plans for, procrastinating my real job, and failing to fully plan out my construction projects. But there it is. I'm being rewarded. I guess this is why these behaviors persist.
*Edit: Added another pic of the tiles arranged on the family workspace (i.e., coffee table in living room)*
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This week I'm thinking a lot about the relationship between propaganda/the media's framing and language around certain events, and how it influences our salience structures.
Philosopher Elizabeth Camp has done some great work on the notion of a "perspective", which is a bundle of dispositions to take on a particular conceptual framing, to see some things as significant and other things as insignificant or outliers, to see certain things as possible and certain things as impossible, all of which reinforce each other.
Philosopher Paulina Sliwa has done some excellent recent work extending the idea of 'perspectives' into the domain of moral inquiry (Here's something forthcoming in PPR: https://philpapers.org/rec/SLIMSO). Jessie Munton has also done work on the role of salience structures in prejudice.But one thing that is interesting about perspectives (in this technical sense) and salience structures is that they are going to be heavily influenced by our social environment and need to communicate, collaborate, and plan with others. That's really cool, but: It means that propaganda and media manipulation are about more than simply getting us to believe things that aren't true. Its about getting us to adopt conceptual frameworks that encourage certain explanations of phenomenon, make certain actions available as solutions, and also make certain problems seem significant in ways that others seem like necessary evils. It also results in unequal distributions of empathy, even where our beliefs would strongly reject such unequal distributions.
None of this is particularly new or shocking, but I think the work by Camp and Sliwa might be providing a direction to think more precisely and analytically about these things than analytic philosophers have been able to before.
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A Guide to Ghost Hunting Guidebooks: NO MORE! Please!
This might come as a shock to the millions of ghost enthusiasts out there: The scientific consensus is that ghosts are NOT spirits, remnants of the dead, recordings of energy, or supernatural entities. Our existing knowledge about nature does not point to a conclusion that ghosts are a single definable thing, paranormal or normal, that you can find, observe, measure, or study. Yet, there are about 200 guides to “ghost hunting” in print or e-book form that lay out ways to obtain evidence of or make contact with ghosts. Therefore, we have a conundrum at step one of any attempt at ghost hunting – we can’t define what a ghost is, and we do not know its properties because we’ve never determined that they exist and measured them. No ghost handbook has ever led anyone to catch and identify ghosts, they can only lead you to interpret something as a ghost.
In that sense, all ghost hunting books are worthless. So why bother with them?
First, it’s an interesting cultural phenomena. Actively investigating reports of ghosts and paranormal activity is mainstream and a popular hobby and tourism draw. In 2010, there were over 1000 paranormal investigation groups in the US, the majority of which researched hauntings. (Hill, 2010) It’s not worthless to examine why people spend their time and money on this hobby and how they go about doing it.
Second, the idea of paranormal investigation contains important aspects of society’s attitudes towards finding out about the world, decided what is meaningful and true, using science to examine questions, cooperation and trust in a community, and taking part in a larger effort beyond one’s own small role in life.
I’m deeply interested in the second point. I’ve found that examining amateur paranormal group behaviors and output highlights concepts about science education and public discourse about belief and reality. This piece mentions 11 books on ghost hunting that I have examined. They have broad similarities and distinct differences. In the main portion, I review 4 books on the basis of the following:
- Readability (language, errors, quality of writing)
- Credibility (sources, supported arguments vs speculation, factual correctness)
- Overall value as a cultural product (Buy it or not?)
I picked these particular books for several reasons. They span a significant spectrum in time over which we can watch the evolution of ghost hunting technique. I think they are generally representative of this narrow niche. There are better and worse ones, I’m sure. In searching for a selection, I realized I could not POSSIBLY read them all, nor would I want to spend money on them. Many appear to be self-published since several ghost investigation group leaders feel the need to have their own personal volume to use.
Please note that when I mention today’s “modern” ghost hunters I am referring to those who have watched Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State and other television shows of this genre. It’s well-established (Hill, 2010) that today’s popular hobby grew from fans of these shows who copied what they saw on TV as their preferred method.
Ghost Hunting: A Practical Guide (UK) – Andrew Green, 1973
Andrew Green was called “the Spectre Inspector” and was a well-educated pursuer of ghosts for sixty years. He felt that there was such an interest in the subject of ghosts that there was a need for a small, non-technical guide for the amateur. This is the “first-ever do-it-yourself guide for the psychic researcher”. Green eschews fanaticism and suggests that those interested in the ghost phenomenon study parapsychology, thus reflecting the thinking at that time that academic parapsychology would unlock the mystery of life after death. Therefore, a good portion of the book describes parapsychological concepts, such as telepathy, which he states can be an important consideration as to the cause of a phenomena. He describes Zener cards experiments, which would later appear as what ghost researchers study in Ghostbusters (1984). This portion of the book will be rather strange to those weaned on 21st century ghost tv shows (if they manage to find and read this book AT ALL).
Green was certain that psychic powers would be soon be recognized (and respected) by science, the church, and society. He remarked that the existence of ghosts can hardly be challenged in the face of all the cases that have been reported – a common justification for investigators to do their thing. As with many paranormal investigators, Green considered serious ghost hunting important and “groundbreaking” work, the researchers as mavericks.
Contrasting Green’s book with modern ghost guides, we can see some striking differences:
- Crisis apparitions were described as “thought pictures”. These types of events were more commonly reported then (as were poltergeists). Both were seen to be manifestation of psychical powers. Today’s ghosts hunters are rarely fluent in these historical parapsychological terms.
- EVPs were called Raudive voices and are not emphasized as evidence. Green thought there were too many potential pitfalls to use them this way.
- The technology was primitive compared with what we have today. Equipment included very basic detective-type materials: level, compass, strain-gage, sand or sugar, powder for fingerprints, thread, maybe a camera. But the idea of measuring environmental variables was already being pursued by the Society of Psychical Research.
- Green mentions exorcism but it was clearly not as common as today and people were less bold about it. Today, the concept pervades pop culture and it is treated as a stunt or a ritual that you can train yourself to do. It’s taken less seriously.
- Green’s advice is that the investigator must be thorough and careful in research and provide a sophisticated investigation. He recommends studying the geology, geography, and past owners. I get the impression that Green’s investigations were not the weekend overnighters of today’s ghost hunters. They were long-term investments in time and effort. The resulting report was to be of print quality!
- The investigator should NEVER get involved in publicity for the case, Green advises. He recognized that some people are in it just for the attention and this was not a proper impetus to do this work. Well, maybe that hasn’t changed. But to restrict all publicity is not what today’s investigators would agree to.
Green judges the client in terms of credentials. Note this curious “test”:
“The production of a caseful of apparatus at the commencement of an investigation in itself constitutes a test, for the witness of a genuine phenomena will be, or should be, impressed with the serious nature of ghost hunting, while the fraudulent will be worried by the prospect of being exposed.”
That’s quaint. Times have changed.
Green states “I believe” this is the process and how it works but, as with all other ghost hunting guides reviewed here, no support is given to these suppositions. For example: Heat extracted from the environment will energize a haunting. Such ideas about ghost manifestations are very old but have yet to be supported or well-argued.
In summary, Green subscribes to ghosts as real, but this guide provides a number of pieces of sound advice and many examples of normal causes that you will not find in any recent book. He is NOT as careless and overtly credulous as modern ghost hunters. Even though he makes some howlers, he knew his history. This book is well-written and properly edited; the language is written at a higher reading level than most. Some sources are cited in the text but not enough.
How to be a Ghost Hunter – Richard Southall, 2003
This book appears to have been written in 2001 from the front information. That was at the start of the massive proliferation of ghost hunting groups in the US. Southall is located in Parkersburg, West Virginia so examples from around that area are included. He calls it a “unique handbook” and it possibly was at the time. It is not now.
The book is of the “Confessions of a Ghost Hunter” type: ghosts are defined, historical aspects are mentioned, prior cases related, procedures and equipment are suggested, collection of data and evidence are described, and advice on forming a team is offered. Southall states he has a degree in journalism and psychology; the book also has a genuine publisher (of New Age books), which brings the quality and readability of this guide above most others. However, it follows the typical outline of information and includes many unsupported claims, assumptions and statements of “fact”.
Here are some examples:
- He assumes that ghosts exists, paranormal activity is ghost activity, and these certain descriptions are characteristics of ghosts. How he “knows” this is never explained. No sources are supplied.
- Various unsourced, un-detailed anecdotes are included. The reader is asked to accept these “just so” without proper justification.
- Undefined, sciencey-sounding terms are used throughout: “highest amount of paranormal energy”, “life force”, “psychic energy”.
- If you investigate enough, you will encounter a “demonic entity”. The Ouija board can invite it in so that device is dangerous to use. “The entity will concentrate on the one with the lowest psyche”.
- You can “recharge” a haunting with an object.
- “It is common knowledge in parapsychology and metaphysics” that every thing has a life force or aura.
- Orbs are indications that an area contains a great deal of psychic energy. They concentrate around a person emanating psychic energy.
Why did Southall do a ghost hunting guide? To promote the topic. He was running a ghost tour at the time. He states his role shifted from investigation to teaching. This book fails to supply us with any sense of the author’s scientific credibility. He refers to fictional movies, such as The Sixth Sense, to suggest the real world is really like this. Southall states that the scientific method is the means to get “tangible, measurable evidence” as opposed to psychic impressions and divination, though the two methods can validate each other. He is not a scientist and it shows.
This book also shows its age. The equipment portion is written for someone who has never owned a camera. It is dull, overly simplistic and sorely out of date with regards to use of digital equipment. He states this howler: “A photograph of a ghost cannot be denied.” This wasn’t even rational advice at the TIME, let alone in the age of phone apps.
He states a good investigator should be unbiased but the language from start to finish is completely biased in the belief that an area is likely haunted. Short shrift is given to examination of mundane causes. But he advises to talk up your own credibility: “Clients love credentials and memberships”. The bibliography contains no journals or scientific sources, just references to other ghost hunters’ books and mass marketed paranormal pablum.
Southall’s writing projects the attitude of a good person who is concerned with people who are having a paranormal problem and want answers that he believes he can provide. He understands that people need reassurance that what they experience is understandable and things will be OK. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple and misinformation like this makes it worse.
Ultimate Ghost Tech – Vince Wilson, 2012
This book was also published with more or less the same content as another one of Wilson’s books, “Ultimate Ghost Hunter”. Wilson informed me that he did not care for the term “Ghost Hunter” and has recently pulled that book from publication. Different title or not, the book follows the typical ghost hunter guide book. In one of the forewords (one is spelled “foreword”, the other “forword”), Vince is described as the “foremost expert in the technological aspects of paranormal investigation.”
In the other foreword, a rather well-respected parapsychologist reveals the blatant truth about ghost hunting technology: “Let’s face it: ghost hunters love their tech – even if they don’t know how to use it or to assess the data from it in light of the reported phenomena”. Indeed. I agree with that.
The rest of this book is an example of sounding sciencey but falling short of representing anything like scientific investigation. Wilson focuses on technology, of course. An earlier book, Ghost Science – which I saw as a must-read since I am deeply interested in ghosts + science – was atrocious. It was sloppy, formatted terribly, and at the very least, desperately needed an editor who could spell and eliminate awful turns of phrase. That book begins with the premise “One of the main purposes of this book is to show that, not only do ghosts exist but also that the laws that govern reality allow them”. Neither that book, nor this one will demonstrate that stated purpose to anyone who understands how science actually works. Wilson’s array of books (3) are essentially self-published. But according to Wilson, he has progressed past that first book, yet he still stands by the work he did in this one. I cringed at many aspects of UGT and how readers will be misinformed by much of its content.
Examples:
- He states “random energy particles may hold the essence of consciousness…” There is no basis for such speculation. Shall we talk homeopathy?
- “Ghosts will be proven to exist one day and so will psychics…” What is the basis of this claim? What will that effort entail? Why after 100 years of trying by actual professionals will things change now with amateur researchers?
- He uses several phrases that are painful to read, such as “just another theory” (where “theory” is used to mean “a guess” instead of the scientific meaning of an evidence-supported overarching model of explanation), “science is absolute” (What does that even mean?), “sorry about the math” (If you have to apologize for the language of science, you should NOT be reading or writing such a book) and “blah blah blah” (I can hardly think of ANY excuse to write that).
- He refers to “stuffy scientists” and takes a disparaging tone towards skeptics. In Ghost Science, he called skepticism a quasi-religion.
Several statements rankle me as revealing a disturbingly superficial and inflated attitude of ghost hunting hobbyists. He says Ghostbusters (the movie) changed paranormal research with its lingo and gadgets, “Paranormal research just became really cool overnight.” He suggests science as way to pump up your credibility – not real science, but faking it – saying you should answer questions from people with sciencey words to sound “professional and cool” and a little “nerdy”. People are too embarrassed to ask what you mean.
Not me. I ask. And science-pretenders skirt the uncomfortable questions.
“Ghostbusters”Wilson relates all the ubiquitous (and wrong) assumptions about ghosts starting with the belief that they exist (thus scuttling any unbiased investigation of what might really be happening to people). The paradigm of today’s ghost investigation is reflected: changes in the environment can be related to ghost behavior and hauntings; technology can provide objective evidence, more and different data, than just human experience. For example, he suggests that a cold spot could be created (through an explanation of energy transfer) from an entity moving through dimensions. This type of rhetoric (apparent in nearly all ghost hunting guides) gives hope but very flimsy justification to other ghost hunters that they will discover something scientifically incredible:
“You can be an amateur parapsychologist and usher in a new era of paranormal research. Wow! That’s pretty deep for me!” (p 160)
Cringe-worthy and specious.
Wilson, like many of these guide writers, seems well-meaning, but also willing to learn new things, expand his horizons, and is fairly literate in science ideas – just enough to sound knowledgable to people who aren’t scientists, which is most of the population. He is not a scientist but a science enthusiast. It’s a widespread trend for ghost hunters to quote scientific buzzwords and namedrop famous scientists. They attempt to apply very complex physics concepts and theories, such as quantum mechanics, Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance”, to inappropriate situations. There are no scientific sources cited or referenced and explained. There are basically NO sources for the various claims or even the quotes. The recommended reading list contains references that repeat these unverified speculative claims and include pop science sources like The Handy Science Answer Book. This is just not acceptable if you claim to be doing science.
Wilson understands that TV ghost hunters are playing a role and that many paranormal investigators are “fooled by an intense need to believe”. Hoaxes are rampant. So, there is a kernel of truth in much of what he writes. However, that is trumped by his own faith that equipment CAN detect anomalous energy of some sort. The processes he suggests leave out critical considerations about confounding factors and alternative explanations. Wilson has lectured as a ghost tech expert in the past. He suggests giving workshops to teach people about this topic is a good way to fundraise for your group. I find this playing pretend professor/scientist to be profoundly distasteful.
I accept that Vince will be unhappy with my take on his publications as an unfortunate consequence. But if anyone attempts to make such extraordinary claims that are so off the mark, unjustified, and can misinform society, you open yourself to such harsh criticism. I will call you on bullshit and hope you will consider ceasing its propagation.
How to Hunt Ghosts – Joshua P. Warren, 2003
This volume was produced by an affiliate of Simon and Schuster publishing so the basic elements of a book – grammar, punctuation, spelling and formatting – is superior to small or self-published efforts. But I can’t say we get better quality in the content. The same unsupported model, built on speculative paranormal assumptions, is applied.
The first words “Ghosts are real” show us this is not about investigation but about finding proof to support a preexisting conclusion. These opening words oddly contrast with the last words of the book, “Never pretend to know all the answers. All the answers are not known”. In between, we get a mish-mash of silly claims and scientific misrepresentation. Warren’s resumé does not include science. He writes fiction and worked in film making. Like many who appear on TV shows as talking heads, he touts these appearances to bolster his credibility. It works for those who get their facts from TV, I imagine.
Warren wins the prize for the most sciencey namedropping in a ghost hunting guide – Descartes, Newton, Einstein, Sagan – none of whom had anything positive to say about spirits. Non-scientist Warren says “Let me tell you what static electricity is…”. No, thanks. I’d rather get my science information from someplace OTHER THAN in a book about entities that have not been demonstrated to exist. If we are to take these ghost hunters seriously, they should explain why physicists aren’t writing books about the paranormal but non-scientists are.
Here are some illustrations of the ideas presented:
- Spiritual manifestations are hidden from us. Our technology is not good enough. There is scientific evidence that ghostly manifestations are real, he says. Warren provides no hint of why physicists can detect subatomic particles and the tiniest releases of energy but our technology is not adequate to identify ghosts. What scientific evidence is he talking about? It’s not in any journals, as is standard with scientific protocol, cited or mentioned.
- Mainstream science is bad because they need to limit their work to activity of a certain category. “Most scientists are busy enough researching the activity they already know about.” This reveals a core ignorance of how knowledge can progress and is a self-evidently dumb claim. From the early days of the scientific endeavor, knowledge became specialized by necessity. To say science is flawed because of this is like saying medicine is bad because too many doctors specialize in distinct areas of health or surgery. Specialization is advantageous for advancing deep knowledge. Astronomers aren’t collecting and evaluating the same data as biologists or sociologists.
- If a person dies young, especially violently, “it is likley that a ghost will remain”.
- Ghosts wrap themselves in ions in order to interact physically. If this is correct, he adds, we can use this to predict and manipulate the phenomena. There is a kernel of science in there but the assumption that ghosts exists, utilize ions, and interact physcially are all grand assumptions.
- “Virtually any location can prove to be haunted.” You should experiment to decide if the Ouija board, automatic writing, pendulums, etc. work for you.
- Warps are areas were the laws of physics seem to be distorted. These may create natural portals. “Warps exemplify the most complicated issues facing science today”. They can be filled with “hundreds or thousands” of entities. The example of a warp is given as the Bermuda Triangle, a myth that was exploded decades ago as sensationalized fiction. Take note that Warren runs a “Bermuda Triangle Research” site in Puerto Rico.
- There is a “correlation between ghost manifestations and standing (acoustical) waves” – it may make the ghost appear. This is in contrast to the well-known research of Vic Tandy who demonstrated that an inadvertently created standing wave was responsible for behavior of materials (metal fencing foil) and possibly the fluid in our eyeballs that could lead to ghost-like reports. Unless I’m missing something (there are no citations to check), Warren has this concept COMPLETELY backwards.
We’re way out on the fringe here. Such incredible claims should have equally incredible documentation provided. Nope. Nothing. It’s practically lying.
Warren knows some science basics, that’s clear, but like many other ghost researchers, he applies them wildly incorrectly. There is an overuse of the term energy without a reasonable definition provided. Warren claims that there is energy of attraction, energy that comes out of our eyes when we look at someone. He says we have auras around us. Dowsing rods that you can make yourself can detect energy fields. His research group (of which he is founder and president) is called the League of Energy Materialization and Unexplained Phenomenon Research (LEMUR). I first heard of Warren through his investigation of the ghost light phenomena. He also thinks this is energy produced by the earth. On the whole, this is one of his lesser outrageous ideas, since such lights are actually documented in several places around the world, but the methods of amateur research are unlikely to produce any results of value. The answer to what causes ghost lights is certainly complex and multivariate.
Warren refers to many fictional movies for examples – he is, after all, a fiction novelist. I question at what level ghost hunters can distinguish scientific facts from PURE fictional license. And, their lack of attention to examination of very normal, reasonable explanations, providing foundationless claims instead that might as well be fiction, dooms them to failure in any effort to advance worthwhile conclusions about ghost experiences. It also leaves them wide open targets for derision by scientists working in legitimate research endeavors. Warren exhibits paranormal pretentiousness. Since he’s moved into the realm of hawking “wishing machines” and lucky charms, he’s lost all credibility. Scientific? Credible? Not in any senses of the words.
Additional Samples
To try to be as thorough as possible, I accessed a sample of several of the dozens of e-books available in the Amazon lenders library. I tried to pick those that ranked high in the search. I did not preview them beforehand so this is nearly a “random” selection off the shelf.
Unsurprisingly, these also fit into the same template and had similar characteristics:
- “Just so” facts and stories
- No references
- Lack of proofing or editing including several typographical errors and incorrect punctuation
- Poor layout and design
- Unsophisticated, overly casual writing style
- Superficial content
I included screen shots of various selections that I highlighted in these books to show I’m not making this stuff up – this is what people really wrote and marketed for sale.
Ultimate Ghost Hunting Guide – Jeff Terrozas, 2011
Subtitled “Everything you need to know for paranormal research”, the content is overly rambling and amateurish. Typos abound, the layout is annoyingly sloppy. The premise is that ghost hunting is “fun”, so have fun. It’s not to be taken seriously unless you want to make money. In that case, you should act “professional”. This book should not be taken seriously.
Ghost Seekers Field Guide, Volume 1 – Frank Potterstone, 2011
No proofreading or editing was apparently done to this manuscript. The language and grammar is poor, typos are abundant and the layout is simply ugly. There is an overuse of ellipses, and random unattributed quotes. Though the author means well, with these factors, the lack of adherence to punctuation conventions, and the unfocused content, this book is unreadable. Yes, there was a Volume 2 as well.
Ultimate Ghost Hunter Field Guide – Brandy Burgess, n.d.
Layout is very poor with line breaks in the middle of a sentence and random capitalization of words. Grammar is poor and the writing is amateurish and unfocused. The author lays out “facts” such as a description of “psychic burns” and “awakenings” without any support for such supernatural claims. She says you will know a spirit is demonic because of the sulfur or rotten flesh smell as well as the growling sounds. They also appear in half-human, half-animal form. These sound like verifiable claims; one wonders why we can’t prove such incredible new findings if they are so obvious.
* * * *
* * * *
Ghost Hunting 101: The Ultimate Resource for Beginner and Experienced Ghost Hunters – Ghostly World, 2015
Ghostly World is a website “dedicated to all things haunted”. The authors say on their site that they are not an investigation team or even “in the paranormal field”. Yet, here they are publishing and charging for an instruction book on ghost hunting. How’s that for zero credibility?
The layout of this book is good and the writing style is generally appropriate to a serious handbook. There are some typos. The content is shallow and lacks development and explanations. Terms and labels are assigned subjectively. For example, readers are told there are three kinds of ghost hunters: a hobbyist, a serious researcher and a home investigator. A random graph is included (because graphs look sciencey) without any source data to show 100% are hobbyists, 50% are serious researchers and only 10% are home investigators. Going into a client’s home is serious stuff where the ghost hunter needs to provide comfort and assistance to the residents while studying spirits. The unnamed author(s) suggest the ghost hunter may need to act in the capacity of a “therapist” – a highly unethical suggestion. Meanwhile, the reader is warned that Ouija boards and other occult dealings will bring about dangerous evil spirits. They seem to think Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes invented ghost hunting.
Some of these books are surprisingly candid, as I found with How to Legally Gain Access to Haunted Locations: A Guide for Paranormal Investigators (n.d.) by Casper Waylin. Waylin makes no apologies for playing pretend and weaseling your way into clients’ homes. He recommends following what you see on TV shows:
Professionalism starts as “pretending” but evolves into something that’s real. If you’re just getting started as a ghost hunting group, you’ll need to pretend that you’re a “professional” and put on a convincing act for the people you talk to in order to gain entry into a particular location. Put together a good costume (some nice clothes) and props (legal documents and contracts) and then tell clients and gatekeepers exactly what you plan to do from beginning to end. In terms of how you greet and speak to new clients, it can help to model other group leaders you’ve seen on TV or read about in books and for crying out loud, make sure that you have a firm handshake and you look them in the eye during your initial contact!
and
Acting professional is okay if you’re not really a professional. Find a character in a movie or watch some of the later episodes of TAPS [Ghost Hunters] or Ghost Adventures and emulate the paranormal investigators that you can relate to best.
So, copy the guys on TV when you enter other people’s houses. This is awful, awful stuff.
Finally, I would like to mention a specialty guide called The Other Side: A Teen’s guide to Ghost Hunting and the Paranormal (2009) by Gibson, Burns, and Schrader. This might be considered one of the least worst books since it was done by a reputable publisher and contains a handful of good advice. There are two overarching and egregious problems with this book. 1. Misinformation directed at teens to take on this topic and “educate the masses” about “what our place is in the universe and what possibilities there are of an afterlife”; and 2. The ignorant and condescending attitude towards science as hard and cumbersome, and skepticism as cynical bullying (p. 67). The logical fallacies and unsupported claims rampant in this book would make it excellent to use as an example for a critical thinking exercise.
Most, perhaps all, of these authors wrote these books because they believed it would be helpful to an audience or to their investigation group as a way to codify what they deemed to be important knowledge and procedures that everyone was expected to follow. With the advent of easy self-publishing, we’ve seen a proliferation of low-quality, previously unpublishable books like never before. Anyone, even someone who never wrote an article or term paper, can publish a book, sell it, and claim to be an author. There is no excuse for publishing a book without having it edited for basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation. If I had a nickel for all the times I read the phrases “First of all”, “First and foremost”, “Suffice (it) to say”, and “Let me be clear” in these books, I would take my few bucks and go buy a drink. There is no justification for the amount of self-serving, misguided misinformation out there that promises the reader that “this book” is the (ultimate) thing you need to set yourself up as a genuine, credible, and successful ghost hunter.
My recommendation: Don’t bother with any of them.
Look up books done by professional science writers or work done by actual parapsychologists to learn the literature of the field before you write a book and say you know what you are talking about.
I’ll end with some suggestions for those who plan to write future guides to the paranormal, if there has to be any…
There are two books you must research. BUY Scientific Paranormal Investigation by Benjamin Radford (2010). If you do any paranormal investigation, this should be your only guide for now.
Secondly, refer to Parapsychology, A Handbook for the 21st Century by Cardena et al., eds. (2015). You can borrow this from a university library or browse it online. While I have disagreements with content in this volume, it is an example of a credible way to construct a sophisticated and useful handbook that will be relevant for decades. It will also give the ghost hunter hobbyists an eye-opener on the insane amount of parapsychological research that has been done by far more qualified people of various disciplines. Written at a college reading level, it is not in the same class of books cited above making all amateur guides look extremely unsophisticated. But if you are going to claim to be doing groundbreaking important research that will enhance our future knowledge about spirits and hauntings, you REALLY need to up your game. Considerably. I call for no more ghost guidebooks.
References:
Hill, Sharon (2010) Being Scientifical: Popularity, Purpose and Promotion of Amateur Research and Investigation Groups in the U.S. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University at Buffalo, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of requirements for Degree of Master of Education EdM [PDF]
Hill, Sharon (2013) Sounds Sciencey Presentation at NECSS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CmgweT0eE0
#ghostHunters #ghostHuntingGuide #paranormalInvestigation #paranormalInvestigators
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A Guide to Ghost Hunting Guidebooks: NO MORE! Please!
This might come as a shock to the millions of ghost enthusiasts out there: The scientific consensus is that ghosts are NOT spirits, remnants of the dead, recordings of energy, or supernatural entities. Our existing knowledge about nature does not point to a conclusion that ghosts are a single definable thing, paranormal or normal, that you can find, observe, measure, or study. Yet, there are about 200 guides to “ghost hunting” in print or e-book form that lay out ways to obtain evidence of or make contact with ghosts. Therefore, we have a conundrum at step one of any attempt at ghost hunting – we can’t define what a ghost is, and we do not know its properties because we’ve never determined that they exist and measured them. No ghost handbook has ever led anyone to catch and identify ghosts, they can only lead you to interpret something as a ghost.
In that sense, all ghost hunting books are worthless. So why bother with them?
First, it’s an interesting cultural phenomena. Actively investigating reports of ghosts and paranormal activity is mainstream and a popular hobby and tourism draw. In 2010, there were over 1000 paranormal investigation groups in the US, the majority of which researched hauntings. (Hill, 2010) It’s not worthless to examine why people spend their time and money on this hobby and how they go about doing it.
Second, the idea of paranormal investigation contains important aspects of society’s attitudes towards finding out about the world, decided what is meaningful and true, using science to examine questions, cooperation and trust in a community, and taking part in a larger effort beyond one’s own small role in life.
I’m deeply interested in the second point. I’ve found that examining amateur paranormal group behaviors and output highlights concepts about science education and public discourse about belief and reality. This piece mentions 11 books on ghost hunting that I have examined. They have broad similarities and distinct differences. In the main portion, I review 4 books on the basis of the following:
- Readability (language, errors, quality of writing)
- Credibility (sources, supported arguments vs speculation, factual correctness)
- Overall value as a cultural product (Buy it or not?)
I picked these particular books for several reasons. They span a significant spectrum in time over which we can watch the evolution of ghost hunting technique. I think they are generally representative of this narrow niche. There are better and worse ones, I’m sure. In searching for a selection, I realized I could not POSSIBLY read them all, nor would I want to spend money on them. Many appear to be self-published since several ghost investigation group leaders feel the need to have their own personal volume to use.
Please note that when I mention today’s “modern” ghost hunters I am referring to those who have watched Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State and other television shows of this genre. It’s well-established (Hill, 2010) that today’s popular hobby grew from fans of these shows who copied what they saw on TV as their preferred method.
Ghost Hunting: A Practical Guide (UK) – Andrew Green, 1973
Andrew Green was called “the Spectre Inspector” and was a well-educated pursuer of ghosts for sixty years. He felt that there was such an interest in the subject of ghosts that there was a need for a small, non-technical guide for the amateur. This is the “first-ever do-it-yourself guide for the psychic researcher”. Green eschews fanaticism and suggests that those interested in the ghost phenomenon study parapsychology, thus reflecting the thinking at that time that academic parapsychology would unlock the mystery of life after death. Therefore, a good portion of the book describes parapsychological concepts, such as telepathy, which he states can be an important consideration as to the cause of a phenomena. He describes Zener cards experiments, which would later appear as what ghost researchers study in Ghostbusters (1984). This portion of the book will be rather strange to those weaned on 21st century ghost tv shows (if they manage to find and read this book AT ALL).
Green was certain that psychic powers would be soon be recognized (and respected) by science, the church, and society. He remarked that the existence of ghosts can hardly be challenged in the face of all the cases that have been reported – a common justification for investigators to do their thing. As with many paranormal investigators, Green considered serious ghost hunting important and “groundbreaking” work, the researchers as mavericks.
Contrasting Green’s book with modern ghost guides, we can see some striking differences:
- Crisis apparitions were described as “thought pictures”. These types of events were more commonly reported then (as were poltergeists). Both were seen to be manifestation of psychical powers. Today’s ghosts hunters are rarely fluent in these historical parapsychological terms.
- EVPs were called Raudive voices and are not emphasized as evidence. Green thought there were too many potential pitfalls to use them this way.
- The technology was primitive compared with what we have today. Equipment included very basic detective-type materials: level, compass, strain-gage, sand or sugar, powder for fingerprints, thread, maybe a camera. But the idea of measuring environmental variables was already being pursued by the Society of Psychical Research.
- Green mentions exorcism but it was clearly not as common as today and people were less bold about it. Today, the concept pervades pop culture and it is treated as a stunt or a ritual that you can train yourself to do. It’s taken less seriously.
- Green’s advice is that the investigator must be thorough and careful in research and provide a sophisticated investigation. He recommends studying the geology, geography, and past owners. I get the impression that Green’s investigations were not the weekend overnighters of today’s ghost hunters. They were long-term investments in time and effort. The resulting report was to be of print quality!
- The investigator should NEVER get involved in publicity for the case, Green advises. He recognized that some people are in it just for the attention and this was not a proper impetus to do this work. Well, maybe that hasn’t changed. But to restrict all publicity is not what today’s investigators would agree to.
Green judges the client in terms of credentials. Note this curious “test”:
“The production of a caseful of apparatus at the commencement of an investigation in itself constitutes a test, for the witness of a genuine phenomena will be, or should be, impressed with the serious nature of ghost hunting, while the fraudulent will be worried by the prospect of being exposed.”
That’s quaint. Times have changed.
Green states “I believe” this is the process and how it works but, as with all other ghost hunting guides reviewed here, no support is given to these suppositions. For example: Heat extracted from the environment will energize a haunting. Such ideas about ghost manifestations are very old but have yet to be supported or well-argued.
In summary, Green subscribes to ghosts as real, but this guide provides a number of pieces of sound advice and many examples of normal causes that you will not find in any recent book. He is NOT as careless and overtly credulous as modern ghost hunters. Even though he makes some howlers, he knew his history. This book is well-written and properly edited; the language is written at a higher reading level than most. Some sources are cited in the text but not enough.
How to be a Ghost Hunter – Richard Southall, 2003
This book appears to have been written in 2001 from the front information. That was at the start of the massive proliferation of ghost hunting groups in the US. Southall is located in Parkersburg, West Virginia so examples from around that area are included. He calls it a “unique handbook” and it possibly was at the time. It is not now.
The book is of the “Confessions of a Ghost Hunter” type: ghosts are defined, historical aspects are mentioned, prior cases related, procedures and equipment are suggested, collection of data and evidence are described, and advice on forming a team is offered. Southall states he has a degree in journalism and psychology; the book also has a genuine publisher (of New Age books), which brings the quality and readability of this guide above most others. However, it follows the typical outline of information and includes many unsupported claims, assumptions and statements of “fact”.
Here are some examples:
- He assumes that ghosts exists, paranormal activity is ghost activity, and these certain descriptions are characteristics of ghosts. How he “knows” this is never explained. No sources are supplied.
- Various unsourced, un-detailed anecdotes are included. The reader is asked to accept these “just so” without proper justification.
- Undefined, sciencey-sounding terms are used throughout: “highest amount of paranormal energy”, “life force”, “psychic energy”.
- If you investigate enough, you will encounter a “demonic entity”. The Ouija board can invite it in so that device is dangerous to use. “The entity will concentrate on the one with the lowest psyche”.
- You can “recharge” a haunting with an object.
- “It is common knowledge in parapsychology and metaphysics” that every thing has a life force or aura.
- Orbs are indications that an area contains a great deal of psychic energy. They concentrate around a person emanating psychic energy.
Why did Southall do a ghost hunting guide? To promote the topic. He was running a ghost tour at the time. He states his role shifted from investigation to teaching. This book fails to supply us with any sense of the author’s scientific credibility. He refers to fictional movies, such as The Sixth Sense, to suggest the real world is really like this. Southall states that the scientific method is the means to get “tangible, measurable evidence” as opposed to psychic impressions and divination, though the two methods can validate each other. He is not a scientist and it shows.
This book also shows its age. The equipment portion is written for someone who has never owned a camera. It is dull, overly simplistic and sorely out of date with regards to use of digital equipment. He states this howler: “A photograph of a ghost cannot be denied.” This wasn’t even rational advice at the TIME, let alone in the age of phone apps.
He states a good investigator should be unbiased but the language from start to finish is completely biased in the belief that an area is likely haunted. Short shrift is given to examination of mundane causes. But he advises to talk up your own credibility: “Clients love credentials and memberships”. The bibliography contains no journals or scientific sources, just references to other ghost hunters’ books and mass marketed paranormal pablum.
Southall’s writing projects the attitude of a good person who is concerned with people who are having a paranormal problem and want answers that he believes he can provide. He understands that people need reassurance that what they experience is understandable and things will be OK. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple and misinformation like this makes it worse.
Ultimate Ghost Tech – Vince Wilson, 2012
This book was also published with more or less the same content as another one of Wilson’s books, “Ultimate Ghost Hunter”. Wilson informed me that he did not care for the term “Ghost Hunter” and has recently pulled that book from publication. Different title or not, the book follows the typical ghost hunter guide book. In one of the forewords (one is spelled “foreword”, the other “forword”), Vince is described as the “foremost expert in the technological aspects of paranormal investigation.”
In the other foreword, a rather well-respected parapsychologist reveals the blatant truth about ghost hunting technology: “Let’s face it: ghost hunters love their tech – even if they don’t know how to use it or to assess the data from it in light of the reported phenomena”. Indeed. I agree with that.
The rest of this book is an example of sounding sciencey but falling short of representing anything like scientific investigation. Wilson focuses on technology, of course. An earlier book, Ghost Science – which I saw as a must-read since I am deeply interested in ghosts + science – was atrocious. It was sloppy, formatted terribly, and at the very least, desperately needed an editor who could spell and eliminate awful turns of phrase. That book begins with the premise “One of the main purposes of this book is to show that, not only do ghosts exist but also that the laws that govern reality allow them”. Neither that book, nor this one will demonstrate that stated purpose to anyone who understands how science actually works. Wilson’s array of books (3) are essentially self-published. But according to Wilson, he has progressed past that first book, yet he still stands by the work he did in this one. I cringed at many aspects of UGT and how readers will be misinformed by much of its content.
Examples:
- He states “random energy particles may hold the essence of consciousness…” There is no basis for such speculation. Shall we talk homeopathy?
- “Ghosts will be proven to exist one day and so will psychics…” What is the basis of this claim? What will that effort entail? Why after 100 years of trying by actual professionals will things change now with amateur researchers?
- He uses several phrases that are painful to read, such as “just another theory” (where “theory” is used to mean “a guess” instead of the scientific meaning of an evidence-supported overarching model of explanation), “science is absolute” (What does that even mean?), “sorry about the math” (If you have to apologize for the language of science, you should NOT be reading or writing such a book) and “blah blah blah” (I can hardly think of ANY excuse to write that).
- He refers to “stuffy scientists” and takes a disparaging tone towards skeptics. In Ghost Science, he called skepticism a quasi-religion.
Several statements rankle me as revealing a disturbingly superficial and inflated attitude of ghost hunting hobbyists. He says Ghostbusters (the movie) changed paranormal research with its lingo and gadgets, “Paranormal research just became really cool overnight.” He suggests science as way to pump up your credibility – not real science, but faking it – saying you should answer questions from people with sciencey words to sound “professional and cool” and a little “nerdy”. People are too embarrassed to ask what you mean.
Not me. I ask. And science-pretenders skirt the uncomfortable questions.
“Ghostbusters”Wilson relates all the ubiquitous (and wrong) assumptions about ghosts starting with the belief that they exist (thus scuttling any unbiased investigation of what might really be happening to people). The paradigm of today’s ghost investigation is reflected: changes in the environment can be related to ghost behavior and hauntings; technology can provide objective evidence, more and different data, than just human experience. For example, he suggests that a cold spot could be created (through an explanation of energy transfer) from an entity moving through dimensions. This type of rhetoric (apparent in nearly all ghost hunting guides) gives hope but very flimsy justification to other ghost hunters that they will discover something scientifically incredible:
“You can be an amateur parapsychologist and usher in a new era of paranormal research. Wow! That’s pretty deep for me!” (p 160)
Cringe-worthy and specious.
Wilson, like many of these guide writers, seems well-meaning, but also willing to learn new things, expand his horizons, and is fairly literate in science ideas – just enough to sound knowledgable to people who aren’t scientists, which is most of the population. He is not a scientist but a science enthusiast. It’s a widespread trend for ghost hunters to quote scientific buzzwords and namedrop famous scientists. They attempt to apply very complex physics concepts and theories, such as quantum mechanics, Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance”, to inappropriate situations. There are no scientific sources cited or referenced and explained. There are basically NO sources for the various claims or even the quotes. The recommended reading list contains references that repeat these unverified speculative claims and include pop science sources like The Handy Science Answer Book. This is just not acceptable if you claim to be doing science.
Wilson understands that TV ghost hunters are playing a role and that many paranormal investigators are “fooled by an intense need to believe”. Hoaxes are rampant. So, there is a kernel of truth in much of what he writes. However, that is trumped by his own faith that equipment CAN detect anomalous energy of some sort. The processes he suggests leave out critical considerations about confounding factors and alternative explanations. Wilson has lectured as a ghost tech expert in the past. He suggests giving workshops to teach people about this topic is a good way to fundraise for your group. I find this playing pretend professor/scientist to be profoundly distasteful.
I accept that Vince will be unhappy with my take on his publications as an unfortunate consequence. But if anyone attempts to make such extraordinary claims that are so off the mark, unjustified, and can misinform society, you open yourself to such harsh criticism. I will call you on bullshit and hope you will consider ceasing its propagation.
How to Hunt Ghosts – Joshua P. Warren, 2003
This volume was produced by an affiliate of Simon and Schuster publishing so the basic elements of a book – grammar, punctuation, spelling and formatting – is superior to small or self-published efforts. But I can’t say we get better quality in the content. The same unsupported model, built on speculative paranormal assumptions, is applied.
The first words “Ghosts are real” show us this is not about investigation but about finding proof to support a preexisting conclusion. These opening words oddly contrast with the last words of the book, “Never pretend to know all the answers. All the answers are not known”. In between, we get a mish-mash of silly claims and scientific misrepresentation. Warren’s resumé does not include science. He writes fiction and worked in film making. Like many who appear on TV shows as talking heads, he touts these appearances to bolster his credibility. It works for those who get their facts from TV, I imagine.
Warren wins the prize for the most sciencey namedropping in a ghost hunting guide – Descartes, Newton, Einstein, Sagan – none of whom had anything positive to say about spirits. Non-scientist Warren says “Let me tell you what static electricity is…”. No, thanks. I’d rather get my science information from someplace OTHER THAN in a book about entities that have not been demonstrated to exist. If we are to take these ghost hunters seriously, they should explain why physicists aren’t writing books about the paranormal but non-scientists are.
Here are some illustrations of the ideas presented:
- Spiritual manifestations are hidden from us. Our technology is not good enough. There is scientific evidence that ghostly manifestations are real, he says. Warren provides no hint of why physicists can detect subatomic particles and the tiniest releases of energy but our technology is not adequate to identify ghosts. What scientific evidence is he talking about? It’s not in any journals, as is standard with scientific protocol, cited or mentioned.
- Mainstream science is bad because they need to limit their work to activity of a certain category. “Most scientists are busy enough researching the activity they already know about.” This reveals a core ignorance of how knowledge can progress and is a self-evidently dumb claim. From the early days of the scientific endeavor, knowledge became specialized by necessity. To say science is flawed because of this is like saying medicine is bad because too many doctors specialize in distinct areas of health or surgery. Specialization is advantageous for advancing deep knowledge. Astronomers aren’t collecting and evaluating the same data as biologists or sociologists.
- If a person dies young, especially violently, “it is likley that a ghost will remain”.
- Ghosts wrap themselves in ions in order to interact physically. If this is correct, he adds, we can use this to predict and manipulate the phenomena. There is a kernel of science in there but the assumption that ghosts exists, utilize ions, and interact physcially are all grand assumptions.
- “Virtually any location can prove to be haunted.” You should experiment to decide if the Ouija board, automatic writing, pendulums, etc. work for you.
- Warps are areas were the laws of physics seem to be distorted. These may create natural portals. “Warps exemplify the most complicated issues facing science today”. They can be filled with “hundreds or thousands” of entities. The example of a warp is given as the Bermuda Triangle, a myth that was exploded decades ago as sensationalized fiction. Take note that Warren runs a “Bermuda Triangle Research” site in Puerto Rico.
- There is a “correlation between ghost manifestations and standing (acoustical) waves” – it may make the ghost appear. This is in contrast to the well-known research of Vic Tandy who demonstrated that an inadvertently created standing wave was responsible for behavior of materials (metal fencing foil) and possibly the fluid in our eyeballs that could lead to ghost-like reports. Unless I’m missing something (there are no citations to check), Warren has this concept COMPLETELY backwards.
We’re way out on the fringe here. Such incredible claims should have equally incredible documentation provided. Nope. Nothing. It’s practically lying.
Warren knows some science basics, that’s clear, but like many other ghost researchers, he applies them wildly incorrectly. There is an overuse of the term energy without a reasonable definition provided. Warren claims that there is energy of attraction, energy that comes out of our eyes when we look at someone. He says we have auras around us. Dowsing rods that you can make yourself can detect energy fields. His research group (of which he is founder and president) is called the League of Energy Materialization and Unexplained Phenomenon Research (LEMUR). I first heard of Warren through his investigation of the ghost light phenomena. He also thinks this is energy produced by the earth. On the whole, this is one of his lesser outrageous ideas, since such lights are actually documented in several places around the world, but the methods of amateur research are unlikely to produce any results of value. The answer to what causes ghost lights is certainly complex and multivariate.
Warren refers to many fictional movies for examples – he is, after all, a fiction novelist. I question at what level ghost hunters can distinguish scientific facts from PURE fictional license. And, their lack of attention to examination of very normal, reasonable explanations, providing foundationless claims instead that might as well be fiction, dooms them to failure in any effort to advance worthwhile conclusions about ghost experiences. It also leaves them wide open targets for derision by scientists working in legitimate research endeavors. Warren exhibits paranormal pretentiousness. Since he’s moved into the realm of hawking “wishing machines” and lucky charms, he’s lost all credibility. Scientific? Credible? Not in any senses of the words.
Additional Samples
To try to be as thorough as possible, I accessed a sample of several of the dozens of e-books available in the Amazon lenders library. I tried to pick those that ranked high in the search. I did not preview them beforehand so this is nearly a “random” selection off the shelf.
Unsurprisingly, these also fit into the same template and had similar characteristics:
- “Just so” facts and stories
- No references
- Lack of proofing or editing including several typographical errors and incorrect punctuation
- Poor layout and design
- Unsophisticated, overly casual writing style
- Superficial content
I included screen shots of various selections that I highlighted in these books to show I’m not making this stuff up – this is what people really wrote and marketed for sale.
Ultimate Ghost Hunting Guide – Jeff Terrozas, 2011
Subtitled “Everything you need to know for paranormal research”, the content is overly rambling and amateurish. Typos abound, the layout is annoyingly sloppy. The premise is that ghost hunting is “fun”, so have fun. It’s not to be taken seriously unless you want to make money. In that case, you should act “professional”. This book should not be taken seriously.
Ghost Seekers Field Guide, Volume 1 – Frank Potterstone, 2011
No proofreading or editing was apparently done to this manuscript. The language and grammar is poor, typos are abundant and the layout is simply ugly. There is an overuse of ellipses, and random unattributed quotes. Though the author means well, with these factors, the lack of adherence to punctuation conventions, and the unfocused content, this book is unreadable. Yes, there was a Volume 2 as well.
Ultimate Ghost Hunter Field Guide – Brandy Burgess, n.d.
Layout is very poor with line breaks in the middle of a sentence and random capitalization of words. Grammar is poor and the writing is amateurish and unfocused. The author lays out “facts” such as a description of “psychic burns” and “awakenings” without any support for such supernatural claims. She says you will know a spirit is demonic because of the sulfur or rotten flesh smell as well as the growling sounds. They also appear in half-human, half-animal form. These sound like verifiable claims; one wonders why we can’t prove such incredible new findings if they are so obvious.
* * * *
* * * *
Ghost Hunting 101: The Ultimate Resource for Beginner and Experienced Ghost Hunters – Ghostly World, 2015
Ghostly World is a website “dedicated to all things haunted”. The authors say on their site that they are not an investigation team or even “in the paranormal field”. Yet, here they are publishing and charging for an instruction book on ghost hunting. How’s that for zero credibility?
The layout of this book is good and the writing style is generally appropriate to a serious handbook. There are some typos. The content is shallow and lacks development and explanations. Terms and labels are assigned subjectively. For example, readers are told there are three kinds of ghost hunters: a hobbyist, a serious researcher and a home investigator. A random graph is included (because graphs look sciencey) without any source data to show 100% are hobbyists, 50% are serious researchers and only 10% are home investigators. Going into a client’s home is serious stuff where the ghost hunter needs to provide comfort and assistance to the residents while studying spirits. The unnamed author(s) suggest the ghost hunter may need to act in the capacity of a “therapist” – a highly unethical suggestion. Meanwhile, the reader is warned that Ouija boards and other occult dealings will bring about dangerous evil spirits. They seem to think Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes invented ghost hunting.
Some of these books are surprisingly candid, as I found with How to Legally Gain Access to Haunted Locations: A Guide for Paranormal Investigators (n.d.) by Casper Waylin. Waylin makes no apologies for playing pretend and weaseling your way into clients’ homes. He recommends following what you see on TV shows:
Professionalism starts as “pretending” but evolves into something that’s real. If you’re just getting started as a ghost hunting group, you’ll need to pretend that you’re a “professional” and put on a convincing act for the people you talk to in order to gain entry into a particular location. Put together a good costume (some nice clothes) and props (legal documents and contracts) and then tell clients and gatekeepers exactly what you plan to do from beginning to end. In terms of how you greet and speak to new clients, it can help to model other group leaders you’ve seen on TV or read about in books and for crying out loud, make sure that you have a firm handshake and you look them in the eye during your initial contact!
and
Acting professional is okay if you’re not really a professional. Find a character in a movie or watch some of the later episodes of TAPS [Ghost Hunters] or Ghost Adventures and emulate the paranormal investigators that you can relate to best.
So, copy the guys on TV when you enter other people’s houses. This is awful, awful stuff.
Finally, I would like to mention a specialty guide called The Other Side: A Teen’s guide to Ghost Hunting and the Paranormal (2009) by Gibson, Burns, and Schrader. This might be considered one of the least worst books since it was done by a reputable publisher and contains a handful of good advice. There are two overarching and egregious problems with this book. 1. Misinformation directed at teens to take on this topic and “educate the masses” about “what our place is in the universe and what possibilities there are of an afterlife”; and 2. The ignorant and condescending attitude towards science as hard and cumbersome, and skepticism as cynical bullying (p. 67). The logical fallacies and unsupported claims rampant in this book would make it excellent to use as an example for a critical thinking exercise.
Most, perhaps all, of these authors wrote these books because they believed it would be helpful to an audience or to their investigation group as a way to codify what they deemed to be important knowledge and procedures that everyone was expected to follow. With the advent of easy self-publishing, we’ve seen a proliferation of low-quality, previously unpublishable books like never before. Anyone, even someone who never wrote an article or term paper, can publish a book, sell it, and claim to be an author. There is no excuse for publishing a book without having it edited for basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation. If I had a nickel for all the times I read the phrases “First of all”, “First and foremost”, “Suffice (it) to say”, and “Let me be clear” in these books, I would take my few bucks and go buy a drink. There is no justification for the amount of self-serving, misguided misinformation out there that promises the reader that “this book” is the (ultimate) thing you need to set yourself up as a genuine, credible, and successful ghost hunter.
My recommendation: Don’t bother with any of them.
Look up books done by professional science writers or work done by actual parapsychologists to learn the literature of the field before you write a book and say you know what you are talking about.
I’ll end with some suggestions for those who plan to write future guides to the paranormal, if there has to be any…
There are two books you must research. BUY Scientific Paranormal Investigation by Benjamin Radford (2010). If you do any paranormal investigation, this should be your only guide for now.
Secondly, refer to Parapsychology, A Handbook for the 21st Century by Cardena et al., eds. (2015). You can borrow this from a university library or browse it online. While I have disagreements with content in this volume, it is an example of a credible way to construct a sophisticated and useful handbook that will be relevant for decades. It will also give the ghost hunter hobbyists an eye-opener on the insane amount of parapsychological research that has been done by far more qualified people of various disciplines. Written at a college reading level, it is not in the same class of books cited above making all amateur guides look extremely unsophisticated. But if you are going to claim to be doing groundbreaking important research that will enhance our future knowledge about spirits and hauntings, you REALLY need to up your game. Considerably. I call for no more ghost guidebooks.
References:
Hill, Sharon (2010) Being Scientifical: Popularity, Purpose and Promotion of Amateur Research and Investigation Groups in the U.S. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University at Buffalo, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of requirements for Degree of Master of Education EdM [PDF]
Hill, Sharon (2013) Sounds Sciencey Presentation at NECSS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CmgweT0eE0
#ghostHunters #ghostHuntingGuide #paranormalInvestigation #paranormalInvestigators
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A Guide to Ghost Hunting Guidebooks: NO MORE! Please!
This might come as a shock to the millions of ghost enthusiasts out there: The scientific consensus is that ghosts are NOT spirits, remnants of the dead, recordings of energy, or supernatural entities. Our existing knowledge about nature does not point to a conclusion that ghosts are a single definable thing, paranormal or normal, that you can find, observe, measure, or study. Yet, there are about 200 guides to “ghost hunting” in print or e-book form that lay out ways to obtain evidence of or make contact with ghosts. Therefore, we have a conundrum at step one of any attempt at ghost hunting – we can’t define what a ghost is, and we do not know its properties because we’ve never determined that they exist and measured them. No ghost handbook has ever led anyone to catch and identify ghosts, they can only lead you to interpret something as a ghost.
In that sense, all ghost hunting books are worthless. So why bother with them?
First, it’s an interesting cultural phenomena. Actively investigating reports of ghosts and paranormal activity is mainstream and a popular hobby and tourism draw. In 2010, there were over 1000 paranormal investigation groups in the US, the majority of which researched hauntings. (Hill, 2010) It’s not worthless to examine why people spend their time and money on this hobby and how they go about doing it.
Second, the idea of paranormal investigation contains important aspects of society’s attitudes towards finding out about the world, decided what is meaningful and true, using science to examine questions, cooperation and trust in a community, and taking part in a larger effort beyond one’s own small role in life.
I’m deeply interested in the second point. I’ve found that examining amateur paranormal group behaviors and output highlights concepts about science education and public discourse about belief and reality. This piece mentions 11 books on ghost hunting that I have examined. They have broad similarities and distinct differences. In the main portion, I review 4 books on the basis of the following:
- Readability (language, errors, quality of writing)
- Credibility (sources, supported arguments vs speculation, factual correctness)
- Overall value as a cultural product (Buy it or not?)
I picked these particular books for several reasons. They span a significant spectrum in time over which we can watch the evolution of ghost hunting technique. I think they are generally representative of this narrow niche. There are better and worse ones, I’m sure. In searching for a selection, I realized I could not POSSIBLY read them all, nor would I want to spend money on them. Many appear to be self-published since several ghost investigation group leaders feel the need to have their own personal volume to use.
Please note that when I mention today’s “modern” ghost hunters I am referring to those who have watched Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State and other television shows of this genre. It’s well-established (Hill, 2010) that today’s popular hobby grew from fans of these shows who copied what they saw on TV as their preferred method.
Ghost Hunting: A Practical Guide (UK) – Andrew Green, 1973
Andrew Green was called “the Spectre Inspector” and was a well-educated pursuer of ghosts for sixty years. He felt that there was such an interest in the subject of ghosts that there was a need for a small, non-technical guide for the amateur. This is the “first-ever do-it-yourself guide for the psychic researcher”. Green eschews fanaticism and suggests that those interested in the ghost phenomenon study parapsychology, thus reflecting the thinking at that time that academic parapsychology would unlock the mystery of life after death. Therefore, a good portion of the book describes parapsychological concepts, such as telepathy, which he states can be an important consideration as to the cause of a phenomena. He describes Zener cards experiments, which would later appear as what ghost researchers study in Ghostbusters (1984). This portion of the book will be rather strange to those weaned on 21st century ghost tv shows (if they manage to find and read this book AT ALL).
Green was certain that psychic powers would be soon be recognized (and respected) by science, the church, and society. He remarked that the existence of ghosts can hardly be challenged in the face of all the cases that have been reported – a common justification for investigators to do their thing. As with many paranormal investigators, Green considered serious ghost hunting important and “groundbreaking” work, the researchers as mavericks.
Contrasting Green’s book with modern ghost guides, we can see some striking differences:
- Crisis apparitions were described as “thought pictures”. These types of events were more commonly reported then (as were poltergeists). Both were seen to be manifestation of psychical powers. Today’s ghosts hunters are rarely fluent in these historical parapsychological terms.
- EVPs were called Raudive voices and are not emphasized as evidence. Green thought there were too many potential pitfalls to use them this way.
- The technology was primitive compared with what we have today. Equipment included very basic detective-type materials: level, compass, strain-gage, sand or sugar, powder for fingerprints, thread, maybe a camera. But the idea of measuring environmental variables was already being pursued by the Society of Psychical Research.
- Green mentions exorcism but it was clearly not as common as today and people were less bold about it. Today, the concept pervades pop culture and it is treated as a stunt or a ritual that you can train yourself to do. It’s taken less seriously.
- Green’s advice is that the investigator must be thorough and careful in research and provide a sophisticated investigation. He recommends studying the geology, geography, and past owners. I get the impression that Green’s investigations were not the weekend overnighters of today’s ghost hunters. They were long-term investments in time and effort. The resulting report was to be of print quality!
- The investigator should NEVER get involved in publicity for the case, Green advises. He recognized that some people are in it just for the attention and this was not a proper impetus to do this work. Well, maybe that hasn’t changed. But to restrict all publicity is not what today’s investigators would agree to.
Green judges the client in terms of credentials. Note this curious “test”:
“The production of a caseful of apparatus at the commencement of an investigation in itself constitutes a test, for the witness of a genuine phenomena will be, or should be, impressed with the serious nature of ghost hunting, while the fraudulent will be worried by the prospect of being exposed.”
That’s quaint. Times have changed.
Green states “I believe” this is the process and how it works but, as with all other ghost hunting guides reviewed here, no support is given to these suppositions. For example: Heat extracted from the environment will energize a haunting. Such ideas about ghost manifestations are very old but have yet to be supported or well-argued.
In summary, Green subscribes to ghosts as real, but this guide provides a number of pieces of sound advice and many examples of normal causes that you will not find in any recent book. He is NOT as careless and overtly credulous as modern ghost hunters. Even though he makes some howlers, he knew his history. This book is well-written and properly edited; the language is written at a higher reading level than most. Some sources are cited in the text but not enough.
How to be a Ghost Hunter – Richard Southall, 2003
This book appears to have been written in 2001 from the front information. That was at the start of the massive proliferation of ghost hunting groups in the US. Southall is located in Parkersburg, West Virginia so examples from around that area are included. He calls it a “unique handbook” and it possibly was at the time. It is not now.
The book is of the “Confessions of a Ghost Hunter” type: ghosts are defined, historical aspects are mentioned, prior cases related, procedures and equipment are suggested, collection of data and evidence are described, and advice on forming a team is offered. Southall states he has a degree in journalism and psychology; the book also has a genuine publisher (of New Age books), which brings the quality and readability of this guide above most others. However, it follows the typical outline of information and includes many unsupported claims, assumptions and statements of “fact”.
Here are some examples:
- He assumes that ghosts exists, paranormal activity is ghost activity, and these certain descriptions are characteristics of ghosts. How he “knows” this is never explained. No sources are supplied.
- Various unsourced, un-detailed anecdotes are included. The reader is asked to accept these “just so” without proper justification.
- Undefined, sciencey-sounding terms are used throughout: “highest amount of paranormal energy”, “life force”, “psychic energy”.
- If you investigate enough, you will encounter a “demonic entity”. The Ouija board can invite it in so that device is dangerous to use. “The entity will concentrate on the one with the lowest psyche”.
- You can “recharge” a haunting with an object.
- “It is common knowledge in parapsychology and metaphysics” that every thing has a life force or aura.
- Orbs are indications that an area contains a great deal of psychic energy. They concentrate around a person emanating psychic energy.
Why did Southall do a ghost hunting guide? To promote the topic. He was running a ghost tour at the time. He states his role shifted from investigation to teaching. This book fails to supply us with any sense of the author’s scientific credibility. He refers to fictional movies, such as The Sixth Sense, to suggest the real world is really like this. Southall states that the scientific method is the means to get “tangible, measurable evidence” as opposed to psychic impressions and divination, though the two methods can validate each other. He is not a scientist and it shows.
This book also shows its age. The equipment portion is written for someone who has never owned a camera. It is dull, overly simplistic and sorely out of date with regards to use of digital equipment. He states this howler: “A photograph of a ghost cannot be denied.” This wasn’t even rational advice at the TIME, let alone in the age of phone apps.
He states a good investigator should be unbiased but the language from start to finish is completely biased in the belief that an area is likely haunted. Short shrift is given to examination of mundane causes. But he advises to talk up your own credibility: “Clients love credentials and memberships”. The bibliography contains no journals or scientific sources, just references to other ghost hunters’ books and mass marketed paranormal pablum.
Southall’s writing projects the attitude of a good person who is concerned with people who are having a paranormal problem and want answers that he believes he can provide. He understands that people need reassurance that what they experience is understandable and things will be OK. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple and misinformation like this makes it worse.
Ultimate Ghost Tech – Vince Wilson, 2012
This book was also published with more or less the same content as another one of Wilson’s books, “Ultimate Ghost Hunter”. Wilson informed me that he did not care for the term “Ghost Hunter” and has recently pulled that book from publication. Different title or not, the book follows the typical ghost hunter guide book. In one of the forewords (one is spelled “foreword”, the other “forword”), Vince is described as the “foremost expert in the technological aspects of paranormal investigation.”
In the other foreword, a rather well-respected parapsychologist reveals the blatant truth about ghost hunting technology: “Let’s face it: ghost hunters love their tech – even if they don’t know how to use it or to assess the data from it in light of the reported phenomena”. Indeed. I agree with that.
The rest of this book is an example of sounding sciencey but falling short of representing anything like scientific investigation. Wilson focuses on technology, of course. An earlier book, Ghost Science – which I saw as a must-read since I am deeply interested in ghosts + science – was atrocious. It was sloppy, formatted terribly, and at the very least, desperately needed an editor who could spell and eliminate awful turns of phrase. That book begins with the premise “One of the main purposes of this book is to show that, not only do ghosts exist but also that the laws that govern reality allow them”. Neither that book, nor this one will demonstrate that stated purpose to anyone who understands how science actually works. Wilson’s array of books (3) are essentially self-published. But according to Wilson, he has progressed past that first book, yet he still stands by the work he did in this one. I cringed at many aspects of UGT and how readers will be misinformed by much of its content.
Examples:
- He states “random energy particles may hold the essence of consciousness…” There is no basis for such speculation. Shall we talk homeopathy?
- “Ghosts will be proven to exist one day and so will psychics…” What is the basis of this claim? What will that effort entail? Why after 100 years of trying by actual professionals will things change now with amateur researchers?
- He uses several phrases that are painful to read, such as “just another theory” (where “theory” is used to mean “a guess” instead of the scientific meaning of an evidence-supported overarching model of explanation), “science is absolute” (What does that even mean?), “sorry about the math” (If you have to apologize for the language of science, you should NOT be reading or writing such a book) and “blah blah blah” (I can hardly think of ANY excuse to write that).
- He refers to “stuffy scientists” and takes a disparaging tone towards skeptics. In Ghost Science, he called skepticism a quasi-religion.
Several statements rankle me as revealing a disturbingly superficial and inflated attitude of ghost hunting hobbyists. He says Ghostbusters (the movie) changed paranormal research with its lingo and gadgets, “Paranormal research just became really cool overnight.” He suggests science as way to pump up your credibility – not real science, but faking it – saying you should answer questions from people with sciencey words to sound “professional and cool” and a little “nerdy”. People are too embarrassed to ask what you mean.
Not me. I ask. And science-pretenders skirt the uncomfortable questions.
“Ghostbusters”Wilson relates all the ubiquitous (and wrong) assumptions about ghosts starting with the belief that they exist (thus scuttling any unbiased investigation of what might really be happening to people). The paradigm of today’s ghost investigation is reflected: changes in the environment can be related to ghost behavior and hauntings; technology can provide objective evidence, more and different data, than just human experience. For example, he suggests that a cold spot could be created (through an explanation of energy transfer) from an entity moving through dimensions. This type of rhetoric (apparent in nearly all ghost hunting guides) gives hope but very flimsy justification to other ghost hunters that they will discover something scientifically incredible:
“You can be an amateur parapsychologist and usher in a new era of paranormal research. Wow! That’s pretty deep for me!” (p 160)
Cringe-worthy and specious.
Wilson, like many of these guide writers, seems well-meaning, but also willing to learn new things, expand his horizons, and is fairly literate in science ideas – just enough to sound knowledgable to people who aren’t scientists, which is most of the population. He is not a scientist but a science enthusiast. It’s a widespread trend for ghost hunters to quote scientific buzzwords and namedrop famous scientists. They attempt to apply very complex physics concepts and theories, such as quantum mechanics, Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance”, to inappropriate situations. There are no scientific sources cited or referenced and explained. There are basically NO sources for the various claims or even the quotes. The recommended reading list contains references that repeat these unverified speculative claims and include pop science sources like The Handy Science Answer Book. This is just not acceptable if you claim to be doing science.
Wilson understands that TV ghost hunters are playing a role and that many paranormal investigators are “fooled by an intense need to believe”. Hoaxes are rampant. So, there is a kernel of truth in much of what he writes. However, that is trumped by his own faith that equipment CAN detect anomalous energy of some sort. The processes he suggests leave out critical considerations about confounding factors and alternative explanations. Wilson has lectured as a ghost tech expert in the past. He suggests giving workshops to teach people about this topic is a good way to fundraise for your group. I find this playing pretend professor/scientist to be profoundly distasteful.
I accept that Vince will be unhappy with my take on his publications as an unfortunate consequence. But if anyone attempts to make such extraordinary claims that are so off the mark, unjustified, and can misinform society, you open yourself to such harsh criticism. I will call you on bullshit and hope you will consider ceasing its propagation.
How to Hunt Ghosts – Joshua P. Warren, 2003
This volume was produced by an affiliate of Simon and Schuster publishing so the basic elements of a book – grammar, punctuation, spelling and formatting – is superior to small or self-published efforts. But I can’t say we get better quality in the content. The same unsupported model, built on speculative paranormal assumptions, is applied.
The first words “Ghosts are real” show us this is not about investigation but about finding proof to support a preexisting conclusion. These opening words oddly contrast with the last words of the book, “Never pretend to know all the answers. All the answers are not known”. In between, we get a mish-mash of silly claims and scientific misrepresentation. Warren’s resumé does not include science. He writes fiction and worked in film making. Like many who appear on TV shows as talking heads, he touts these appearances to bolster his credibility. It works for those who get their facts from TV, I imagine.
Warren wins the prize for the most sciencey namedropping in a ghost hunting guide – Descartes, Newton, Einstein, Sagan – none of whom had anything positive to say about spirits. Non-scientist Warren says “Let me tell you what static electricity is…”. No, thanks. I’d rather get my science information from someplace OTHER THAN in a book about entities that have not been demonstrated to exist. If we are to take these ghost hunters seriously, they should explain why physicists aren’t writing books about the paranormal but non-scientists are.
Here are some illustrations of the ideas presented:
- Spiritual manifestations are hidden from us. Our technology is not good enough. There is scientific evidence that ghostly manifestations are real, he says. Warren provides no hint of why physicists can detect subatomic particles and the tiniest releases of energy but our technology is not adequate to identify ghosts. What scientific evidence is he talking about? It’s not in any journals, as is standard with scientific protocol, cited or mentioned.
- Mainstream science is bad because they need to limit their work to activity of a certain category. “Most scientists are busy enough researching the activity they already know about.” This reveals a core ignorance of how knowledge can progress and is a self-evidently dumb claim. From the early days of the scientific endeavor, knowledge became specialized by necessity. To say science is flawed because of this is like saying medicine is bad because too many doctors specialize in distinct areas of health or surgery. Specialization is advantageous for advancing deep knowledge. Astronomers aren’t collecting and evaluating the same data as biologists or sociologists.
- If a person dies young, especially violently, “it is likley that a ghost will remain”.
- Ghosts wrap themselves in ions in order to interact physically. If this is correct, he adds, we can use this to predict and manipulate the phenomena. There is a kernel of science in there but the assumption that ghosts exists, utilize ions, and interact physcially are all grand assumptions.
- “Virtually any location can prove to be haunted.” You should experiment to decide if the Ouija board, automatic writing, pendulums, etc. work for you.
- Warps are areas were the laws of physics seem to be distorted. These may create natural portals. “Warps exemplify the most complicated issues facing science today”. They can be filled with “hundreds or thousands” of entities. The example of a warp is given as the Bermuda Triangle, a myth that was exploded decades ago as sensationalized fiction. Take note that Warren runs a “Bermuda Triangle Research” site in Puerto Rico.
- There is a “correlation between ghost manifestations and standing (acoustical) waves” – it may make the ghost appear. This is in contrast to the well-known research of Vic Tandy who demonstrated that an inadvertently created standing wave was responsible for behavior of materials (metal fencing foil) and possibly the fluid in our eyeballs that could lead to ghost-like reports. Unless I’m missing something (there are no citations to check), Warren has this concept COMPLETELY backwards.
We’re way out on the fringe here. Such incredible claims should have equally incredible documentation provided. Nope. Nothing. It’s practically lying.
Warren knows some science basics, that’s clear, but like many other ghost researchers, he applies them wildly incorrectly. There is an overuse of the term energy without a reasonable definition provided. Warren claims that there is energy of attraction, energy that comes out of our eyes when we look at someone. He says we have auras around us. Dowsing rods that you can make yourself can detect energy fields. His research group (of which he is founder and president) is called the League of Energy Materialization and Unexplained Phenomenon Research (LEMUR). I first heard of Warren through his investigation of the ghost light phenomena. He also thinks this is energy produced by the earth. On the whole, this is one of his lesser outrageous ideas, since such lights are actually documented in several places around the world, but the methods of amateur research are unlikely to produce any results of value. The answer to what causes ghost lights is certainly complex and multivariate.
Warren refers to many fictional movies for examples – he is, after all, a fiction novelist. I question at what level ghost hunters can distinguish scientific facts from PURE fictional license. And, their lack of attention to examination of very normal, reasonable explanations, providing foundationless claims instead that might as well be fiction, dooms them to failure in any effort to advance worthwhile conclusions about ghost experiences. It also leaves them wide open targets for derision by scientists working in legitimate research endeavors. Warren exhibits paranormal pretentiousness. Since he’s moved into the realm of hawking “wishing machines” and lucky charms, he’s lost all credibility. Scientific? Credible? Not in any senses of the words.
Additional Samples
To try to be as thorough as possible, I accessed a sample of several of the dozens of e-books available in the Amazon lenders library. I tried to pick those that ranked high in the search. I did not preview them beforehand so this is nearly a “random” selection off the shelf.
Unsurprisingly, these also fit into the same template and had similar characteristics:
- “Just so” facts and stories
- No references
- Lack of proofing or editing including several typographical errors and incorrect punctuation
- Poor layout and design
- Unsophisticated, overly casual writing style
- Superficial content
I included screen shots of various selections that I highlighted in these books to show I’m not making this stuff up – this is what people really wrote and marketed for sale.
Ultimate Ghost Hunting Guide – Jeff Terrozas, 2011
Subtitled “Everything you need to know for paranormal research”, the content is overly rambling and amateurish. Typos abound, the layout is annoyingly sloppy. The premise is that ghost hunting is “fun”, so have fun. It’s not to be taken seriously unless you want to make money. In that case, you should act “professional”. This book should not be taken seriously.
Ghost Seekers Field Guide, Volume 1 – Frank Potterstone, 2011
No proofreading or editing was apparently done to this manuscript. The language and grammar is poor, typos are abundant and the layout is simply ugly. There is an overuse of ellipses, and random unattributed quotes. Though the author means well, with these factors, the lack of adherence to punctuation conventions, and the unfocused content, this book is unreadable. Yes, there was a Volume 2 as well.
Ultimate Ghost Hunter Field Guide – Brandy Burgess, n.d.
Layout is very poor with line breaks in the middle of a sentence and random capitalization of words. Grammar is poor and the writing is amateurish and unfocused. The author lays out “facts” such as a description of “psychic burns” and “awakenings” without any support for such supernatural claims. She says you will know a spirit is demonic because of the sulfur or rotten flesh smell as well as the growling sounds. They also appear in half-human, half-animal form. These sound like verifiable claims; one wonders why we can’t prove such incredible new findings if they are so obvious.
* * * *
* * * *
Ghost Hunting 101: The Ultimate Resource for Beginner and Experienced Ghost Hunters – Ghostly World, 2015
Ghostly World is a website “dedicated to all things haunted”. The authors say on their site that they are not an investigation team or even “in the paranormal field”. Yet, here they are publishing and charging for an instruction book on ghost hunting. How’s that for zero credibility?
The layout of this book is good and the writing style is generally appropriate to a serious handbook. There are some typos. The content is shallow and lacks development and explanations. Terms and labels are assigned subjectively. For example, readers are told there are three kinds of ghost hunters: a hobbyist, a serious researcher and a home investigator. A random graph is included (because graphs look sciencey) without any source data to show 100% are hobbyists, 50% are serious researchers and only 10% are home investigators. Going into a client’s home is serious stuff where the ghost hunter needs to provide comfort and assistance to the residents while studying spirits. The unnamed author(s) suggest the ghost hunter may need to act in the capacity of a “therapist” – a highly unethical suggestion. Meanwhile, the reader is warned that Ouija boards and other occult dealings will bring about dangerous evil spirits. They seem to think Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes invented ghost hunting.
Some of these books are surprisingly candid, as I found with How to Legally Gain Access to Haunted Locations: A Guide for Paranormal Investigators (n.d.) by Casper Waylin. Waylin makes no apologies for playing pretend and weaseling your way into clients’ homes. He recommends following what you see on TV shows:
Professionalism starts as “pretending” but evolves into something that’s real. If you’re just getting started as a ghost hunting group, you’ll need to pretend that you’re a “professional” and put on a convincing act for the people you talk to in order to gain entry into a particular location. Put together a good costume (some nice clothes) and props (legal documents and contracts) and then tell clients and gatekeepers exactly what you plan to do from beginning to end. In terms of how you greet and speak to new clients, it can help to model other group leaders you’ve seen on TV or read about in books and for crying out loud, make sure that you have a firm handshake and you look them in the eye during your initial contact!
and
Acting professional is okay if you’re not really a professional. Find a character in a movie or watch some of the later episodes of TAPS [Ghost Hunters] or Ghost Adventures and emulate the paranormal investigators that you can relate to best.
So, copy the guys on TV when you enter other people’s houses. This is awful, awful stuff.
Finally, I would like to mention a specialty guide called The Other Side: A Teen’s guide to Ghost Hunting and the Paranormal (2009) by Gibson, Burns, and Schrader. This might be considered one of the least worst books since it was done by a reputable publisher and contains a handful of good advice. There are two overarching and egregious problems with this book. 1. Misinformation directed at teens to take on this topic and “educate the masses” about “what our place is in the universe and what possibilities there are of an afterlife”; and 2. The ignorant and condescending attitude towards science as hard and cumbersome, and skepticism as cynical bullying (p. 67). The logical fallacies and unsupported claims rampant in this book would make it excellent to use as an example for a critical thinking exercise.
Most, perhaps all, of these authors wrote these books because they believed it would be helpful to an audience or to their investigation group as a way to codify what they deemed to be important knowledge and procedures that everyone was expected to follow. With the advent of easy self-publishing, we’ve seen a proliferation of low-quality, previously unpublishable books like never before. Anyone, even someone who never wrote an article or term paper, can publish a book, sell it, and claim to be an author. There is no excuse for publishing a book without having it edited for basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation. If I had a nickel for all the times I read the phrases “First of all”, “First and foremost”, “Suffice (it) to say”, and “Let me be clear” in these books, I would take my few bucks and go buy a drink. There is no justification for the amount of self-serving, misguided misinformation out there that promises the reader that “this book” is the (ultimate) thing you need to set yourself up as a genuine, credible, and successful ghost hunter.
My recommendation: Don’t bother with any of them.
Look up books done by professional science writers or work done by actual parapsychologists to learn the literature of the field before you write a book and say you know what you are talking about.
I’ll end with some suggestions for those who plan to write future guides to the paranormal, if there has to be any…
There are two books you must research. BUY Scientific Paranormal Investigation by Benjamin Radford (2010). If you do any paranormal investigation, this should be your only guide for now.
Secondly, refer to Parapsychology, A Handbook for the 21st Century by Cardena et al., eds. (2015). You can borrow this from a university library or browse it online. While I have disagreements with content in this volume, it is an example of a credible way to construct a sophisticated and useful handbook that will be relevant for decades. It will also give the ghost hunter hobbyists an eye-opener on the insane amount of parapsychological research that has been done by far more qualified people of various disciplines. Written at a college reading level, it is not in the same class of books cited above making all amateur guides look extremely unsophisticated. But if you are going to claim to be doing groundbreaking important research that will enhance our future knowledge about spirits and hauntings, you REALLY need to up your game. Considerably. I call for no more ghost guidebooks.
References:
Hill, Sharon (2010) Being Scientifical: Popularity, Purpose and Promotion of Amateur Research and Investigation Groups in the U.S. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University at Buffalo, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of requirements for Degree of Master of Education EdM [PDF]
Hill, Sharon (2013) Sounds Sciencey Presentation at NECSS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CmgweT0eE0
#ghostHunters #ghostHuntingGuide #paranormalInvestigation #paranormalInvestigators
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A Guide to Ghost Hunting Guidebooks: NO MORE! Please!
This might come as a shock to the millions of ghost enthusiasts out there: The scientific consensus is that ghosts are NOT spirits, remnants of the dead, recordings of energy, or supernatural entities. Our existing knowledge about nature does not point to a conclusion that ghosts are a single definable thing, paranormal or normal, that you can find, observe, measure, or study. Yet, there are about 200 guides to “ghost hunting” in print or e-book form that lay out ways to obtain evidence of or make contact with ghosts. Therefore, we have a conundrum at step one of any attempt at ghost hunting – we can’t define what a ghost is, and we do not know its properties because we’ve never determined that they exist and measured them. No ghost handbook has ever led anyone to catch and identify ghosts, they can only lead you to interpret something as a ghost.
In that sense, all ghost hunting books are worthless. So why bother with them?
First, it’s an interesting cultural phenomena. Actively investigating reports of ghosts and paranormal activity is mainstream and a popular hobby and tourism draw. In 2010, there were over 1000 paranormal investigation groups in the US, the majority of which researched hauntings. (Hill, 2010) It’s not worthless to examine why people spend their time and money on this hobby and how they go about doing it.
Second, the idea of paranormal investigation contains important aspects of society’s attitudes towards finding out about the world, decided what is meaningful and true, using science to examine questions, cooperation and trust in a community, and taking part in a larger effort beyond one’s own small role in life.
I’m deeply interested in the second point. I’ve found that examining amateur paranormal group behaviors and output highlights concepts about science education and public discourse about belief and reality. This piece mentions 11 books on ghost hunting that I have examined. They have broad similarities and distinct differences. In the main portion, I review 4 books on the basis of the following:
- Readability (language, errors, quality of writing)
- Credibility (sources, supported arguments vs speculation, factual correctness)
- Overall value as a cultural product (Buy it or not?)
I picked these particular books for several reasons. They span a significant spectrum in time over which we can watch the evolution of ghost hunting technique. I think they are generally representative of this narrow niche. There are better and worse ones, I’m sure. In searching for a selection, I realized I could not POSSIBLY read them all, nor would I want to spend money on them. Many appear to be self-published since several ghost investigation group leaders feel the need to have their own personal volume to use.
Please note that when I mention today’s “modern” ghost hunters I am referring to those who have watched Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State and other television shows of this genre. It’s well-established (Hill, 2010) that today’s popular hobby grew from fans of these shows who copied what they saw on TV as their preferred method.
Ghost Hunting: A Practical Guide (UK) – Andrew Green, 1973
Andrew Green was called “the Spectre Inspector” and was a well-educated pursuer of ghosts for sixty years. He felt that there was such an interest in the subject of ghosts that there was a need for a small, non-technical guide for the amateur. This is the “first-ever do-it-yourself guide for the psychic researcher”. Green eschews fanaticism and suggests that those interested in the ghost phenomenon study parapsychology, thus reflecting the thinking at that time that academic parapsychology would unlock the mystery of life after death. Therefore, a good portion of the book describes parapsychological concepts, such as telepathy, which he states can be an important consideration as to the cause of a phenomena. He describes Zener cards experiments, which would later appear as what ghost researchers study in Ghostbusters (1984). This portion of the book will be rather strange to those weaned on 21st century ghost tv shows (if they manage to find and read this book AT ALL).
Green was certain that psychic powers would be soon be recognized (and respected) by science, the church, and society. He remarked that the existence of ghosts can hardly be challenged in the face of all the cases that have been reported – a common justification for investigators to do their thing. As with many paranormal investigators, Green considered serious ghost hunting important and “groundbreaking” work, the researchers as mavericks.
Contrasting Green’s book with modern ghost guides, we can see some striking differences:
- Crisis apparitions were described as “thought pictures”. These types of events were more commonly reported then (as were poltergeists). Both were seen to be manifestation of psychical powers. Today’s ghosts hunters are rarely fluent in these historical parapsychological terms.
- EVPs were called Raudive voices and are not emphasized as evidence. Green thought there were too many potential pitfalls to use them this way.
- The technology was primitive compared with what we have today. Equipment included very basic detective-type materials: level, compass, strain-gage, sand or sugar, powder for fingerprints, thread, maybe a camera. But the idea of measuring environmental variables was already being pursued by the Society of Psychical Research.
- Green mentions exorcism but it was clearly not as common as today and people were less bold about it. Today, the concept pervades pop culture and it is treated as a stunt or a ritual that you can train yourself to do. It’s taken less seriously.
- Green’s advice is that the investigator must be thorough and careful in research and provide a sophisticated investigation. He recommends studying the geology, geography, and past owners. I get the impression that Green’s investigations were not the weekend overnighters of today’s ghost hunters. They were long-term investments in time and effort. The resulting report was to be of print quality!
- The investigator should NEVER get involved in publicity for the case, Green advises. He recognized that some people are in it just for the attention and this was not a proper impetus to do this work. Well, maybe that hasn’t changed. But to restrict all publicity is not what today’s investigators would agree to.
Green judges the client in terms of credentials. Note this curious “test”:
“The production of a caseful of apparatus at the commencement of an investigation in itself constitutes a test, for the witness of a genuine phenomena will be, or should be, impressed with the serious nature of ghost hunting, while the fraudulent will be worried by the prospect of being exposed.”
That’s quaint. Times have changed.
Green states “I believe” this is the process and how it works but, as with all other ghost hunting guides reviewed here, no support is given to these suppositions. For example: Heat extracted from the environment will energize a haunting. Such ideas about ghost manifestations are very old but have yet to be supported or well-argued.
In summary, Green subscribes to ghosts as real, but this guide provides a number of pieces of sound advice and many examples of normal causes that you will not find in any recent book. He is NOT as careless and overtly credulous as modern ghost hunters. Even though he makes some howlers, he knew his history. This book is well-written and properly edited; the language is written at a higher reading level than most. Some sources are cited in the text but not enough.
How to be a Ghost Hunter – Richard Southall, 2003
This book appears to have been written in 2001 from the front information. That was at the start of the massive proliferation of ghost hunting groups in the US. Southall is located in Parkersburg, West Virginia so examples from around that area are included. He calls it a “unique handbook” and it possibly was at the time. It is not now.
The book is of the “Confessions of a Ghost Hunter” type: ghosts are defined, historical aspects are mentioned, prior cases related, procedures and equipment are suggested, collection of data and evidence are described, and advice on forming a team is offered. Southall states he has a degree in journalism and psychology; the book also has a genuine publisher (of New Age books), which brings the quality and readability of this guide above most others. However, it follows the typical outline of information and includes many unsupported claims, assumptions and statements of “fact”.
Here are some examples:
- He assumes that ghosts exists, paranormal activity is ghost activity, and these certain descriptions are characteristics of ghosts. How he “knows” this is never explained. No sources are supplied.
- Various unsourced, un-detailed anecdotes are included. The reader is asked to accept these “just so” without proper justification.
- Undefined, sciencey-sounding terms are used throughout: “highest amount of paranormal energy”, “life force”, “psychic energy”.
- If you investigate enough, you will encounter a “demonic entity”. The Ouija board can invite it in so that device is dangerous to use. “The entity will concentrate on the one with the lowest psyche”.
- You can “recharge” a haunting with an object.
- “It is common knowledge in parapsychology and metaphysics” that every thing has a life force or aura.
- Orbs are indications that an area contains a great deal of psychic energy. They concentrate around a person emanating psychic energy.
Why did Southall do a ghost hunting guide? To promote the topic. He was running a ghost tour at the time. He states his role shifted from investigation to teaching. This book fails to supply us with any sense of the author’s scientific credibility. He refers to fictional movies, such as The Sixth Sense, to suggest the real world is really like this. Southall states that the scientific method is the means to get “tangible, measurable evidence” as opposed to psychic impressions and divination, though the two methods can validate each other. He is not a scientist and it shows.
This book also shows its age. The equipment portion is written for someone who has never owned a camera. It is dull, overly simplistic and sorely out of date with regards to use of digital equipment. He states this howler: “A photograph of a ghost cannot be denied.” This wasn’t even rational advice at the TIME, let alone in the age of phone apps.
He states a good investigator should be unbiased but the language from start to finish is completely biased in the belief that an area is likely haunted. Short shrift is given to examination of mundane causes. But he advises to talk up your own credibility: “Clients love credentials and memberships”. The bibliography contains no journals or scientific sources, just references to other ghost hunters’ books and mass marketed paranormal pablum.
Southall’s writing projects the attitude of a good person who is concerned with people who are having a paranormal problem and want answers that he believes he can provide. He understands that people need reassurance that what they experience is understandable and things will be OK. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple and misinformation like this makes it worse.
Ultimate Ghost Tech – Vince Wilson, 2012
This book was also published with more or less the same content as another one of Wilson’s books, “Ultimate Ghost Hunter”. Wilson informed me that he did not care for the term “Ghost Hunter” and has recently pulled that book from publication. Different title or not, the book follows the typical ghost hunter guide book. In one of the forewords (one is spelled “foreword”, the other “forword”), Vince is described as the “foremost expert in the technological aspects of paranormal investigation.”
In the other foreword, a rather well-respected parapsychologist reveals the blatant truth about ghost hunting technology: “Let’s face it: ghost hunters love their tech – even if they don’t know how to use it or to assess the data from it in light of the reported phenomena”. Indeed. I agree with that.
The rest of this book is an example of sounding sciencey but falling short of representing anything like scientific investigation. Wilson focuses on technology, of course. An earlier book, Ghost Science – which I saw as a must-read since I am deeply interested in ghosts + science – was atrocious. It was sloppy, formatted terribly, and at the very least, desperately needed an editor who could spell and eliminate awful turns of phrase. That book begins with the premise “One of the main purposes of this book is to show that, not only do ghosts exist but also that the laws that govern reality allow them”. Neither that book, nor this one will demonstrate that stated purpose to anyone who understands how science actually works. Wilson’s array of books (3) are essentially self-published. But according to Wilson, he has progressed past that first book, yet he still stands by the work he did in this one. I cringed at many aspects of UGT and how readers will be misinformed by much of its content.
Examples:
- He states “random energy particles may hold the essence of consciousness…” There is no basis for such speculation. Shall we talk homeopathy?
- “Ghosts will be proven to exist one day and so will psychics…” What is the basis of this claim? What will that effort entail? Why after 100 years of trying by actual professionals will things change now with amateur researchers?
- He uses several phrases that are painful to read, such as “just another theory” (where “theory” is used to mean “a guess” instead of the scientific meaning of an evidence-supported overarching model of explanation), “science is absolute” (What does that even mean?), “sorry about the math” (If you have to apologize for the language of science, you should NOT be reading or writing such a book) and “blah blah blah” (I can hardly think of ANY excuse to write that).
- He refers to “stuffy scientists” and takes a disparaging tone towards skeptics. In Ghost Science, he called skepticism a quasi-religion.
Several statements rankle me as revealing a disturbingly superficial and inflated attitude of ghost hunting hobbyists. He says Ghostbusters (the movie) changed paranormal research with its lingo and gadgets, “Paranormal research just became really cool overnight.” He suggests science as way to pump up your credibility – not real science, but faking it – saying you should answer questions from people with sciencey words to sound “professional and cool” and a little “nerdy”. People are too embarrassed to ask what you mean.
Not me. I ask. And science-pretenders skirt the uncomfortable questions.
“Ghostbusters”Wilson relates all the ubiquitous (and wrong) assumptions about ghosts starting with the belief that they exist (thus scuttling any unbiased investigation of what might really be happening to people). The paradigm of today’s ghost investigation is reflected: changes in the environment can be related to ghost behavior and hauntings; technology can provide objective evidence, more and different data, than just human experience. For example, he suggests that a cold spot could be created (through an explanation of energy transfer) from an entity moving through dimensions. This type of rhetoric (apparent in nearly all ghost hunting guides) gives hope but very flimsy justification to other ghost hunters that they will discover something scientifically incredible:
“You can be an amateur parapsychologist and usher in a new era of paranormal research. Wow! That’s pretty deep for me!” (p 160)
Cringe-worthy and specious.
Wilson, like many of these guide writers, seems well-meaning, but also willing to learn new things, expand his horizons, and is fairly literate in science ideas – just enough to sound knowledgable to people who aren’t scientists, which is most of the population. He is not a scientist but a science enthusiast. It’s a widespread trend for ghost hunters to quote scientific buzzwords and namedrop famous scientists. They attempt to apply very complex physics concepts and theories, such as quantum mechanics, Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance”, to inappropriate situations. There are no scientific sources cited or referenced and explained. There are basically NO sources for the various claims or even the quotes. The recommended reading list contains references that repeat these unverified speculative claims and include pop science sources like The Handy Science Answer Book. This is just not acceptable if you claim to be doing science.
Wilson understands that TV ghost hunters are playing a role and that many paranormal investigators are “fooled by an intense need to believe”. Hoaxes are rampant. So, there is a kernel of truth in much of what he writes. However, that is trumped by his own faith that equipment CAN detect anomalous energy of some sort. The processes he suggests leave out critical considerations about confounding factors and alternative explanations. Wilson has lectured as a ghost tech expert in the past. He suggests giving workshops to teach people about this topic is a good way to fundraise for your group. I find this playing pretend professor/scientist to be profoundly distasteful.
I accept that Vince will be unhappy with my take on his publications as an unfortunate consequence. But if anyone attempts to make such extraordinary claims that are so off the mark, unjustified, and can misinform society, you open yourself to such harsh criticism. I will call you on bullshit and hope you will consider ceasing its propagation.
How to Hunt Ghosts – Joshua P. Warren, 2003
This volume was produced by an affiliate of Simon and Schuster publishing so the basic elements of a book – grammar, punctuation, spelling and formatting – is superior to small or self-published efforts. But I can’t say we get better quality in the content. The same unsupported model, built on speculative paranormal assumptions, is applied.
The first words “Ghosts are real” show us this is not about investigation but about finding proof to support a preexisting conclusion. These opening words oddly contrast with the last words of the book, “Never pretend to know all the answers. All the answers are not known”. In between, we get a mish-mash of silly claims and scientific misrepresentation. Warren’s resumé does not include science. He writes fiction and worked in film making. Like many who appear on TV shows as talking heads, he touts these appearances to bolster his credibility. It works for those who get their facts from TV, I imagine.
Warren wins the prize for the most sciencey namedropping in a ghost hunting guide – Descartes, Newton, Einstein, Sagan – none of whom had anything positive to say about spirits. Non-scientist Warren says “Let me tell you what static electricity is…”. No, thanks. I’d rather get my science information from someplace OTHER THAN in a book about entities that have not been demonstrated to exist. If we are to take these ghost hunters seriously, they should explain why physicists aren’t writing books about the paranormal but non-scientists are.
Here are some illustrations of the ideas presented:
- Spiritual manifestations are hidden from us. Our technology is not good enough. There is scientific evidence that ghostly manifestations are real, he says. Warren provides no hint of why physicists can detect subatomic particles and the tiniest releases of energy but our technology is not adequate to identify ghosts. What scientific evidence is he talking about? It’s not in any journals, as is standard with scientific protocol, cited or mentioned.
- Mainstream science is bad because they need to limit their work to activity of a certain category. “Most scientists are busy enough researching the activity they already know about.” This reveals a core ignorance of how knowledge can progress and is a self-evidently dumb claim. From the early days of the scientific endeavor, knowledge became specialized by necessity. To say science is flawed because of this is like saying medicine is bad because too many doctors specialize in distinct areas of health or surgery. Specialization is advantageous for advancing deep knowledge. Astronomers aren’t collecting and evaluating the same data as biologists or sociologists.
- If a person dies young, especially violently, “it is likley that a ghost will remain”.
- Ghosts wrap themselves in ions in order to interact physically. If this is correct, he adds, we can use this to predict and manipulate the phenomena. There is a kernel of science in there but the assumption that ghosts exists, utilize ions, and interact physcially are all grand assumptions.
- “Virtually any location can prove to be haunted.” You should experiment to decide if the Ouija board, automatic writing, pendulums, etc. work for you.
- Warps are areas were the laws of physics seem to be distorted. These may create natural portals. “Warps exemplify the most complicated issues facing science today”. They can be filled with “hundreds or thousands” of entities. The example of a warp is given as the Bermuda Triangle, a myth that was exploded decades ago as sensationalized fiction. Take note that Warren runs a “Bermuda Triangle Research” site in Puerto Rico.
- There is a “correlation between ghost manifestations and standing (acoustical) waves” – it may make the ghost appear. This is in contrast to the well-known research of Vic Tandy who demonstrated that an inadvertently created standing wave was responsible for behavior of materials (metal fencing foil) and possibly the fluid in our eyeballs that could lead to ghost-like reports. Unless I’m missing something (there are no citations to check), Warren has this concept COMPLETELY backwards.
We’re way out on the fringe here. Such incredible claims should have equally incredible documentation provided. Nope. Nothing. It’s practically lying.
Warren knows some science basics, that’s clear, but like many other ghost researchers, he applies them wildly incorrectly. There is an overuse of the term energy without a reasonable definition provided. Warren claims that there is energy of attraction, energy that comes out of our eyes when we look at someone. He says we have auras around us. Dowsing rods that you can make yourself can detect energy fields. His research group (of which he is founder and president) is called the League of Energy Materialization and Unexplained Phenomenon Research (LEMUR). I first heard of Warren through his investigation of the ghost light phenomena. He also thinks this is energy produced by the earth. On the whole, this is one of his lesser outrageous ideas, since such lights are actually documented in several places around the world, but the methods of amateur research are unlikely to produce any results of value. The answer to what causes ghost lights is certainly complex and multivariate.
Warren refers to many fictional movies for examples – he is, after all, a fiction novelist. I question at what level ghost hunters can distinguish scientific facts from PURE fictional license. And, their lack of attention to examination of very normal, reasonable explanations, providing foundationless claims instead that might as well be fiction, dooms them to failure in any effort to advance worthwhile conclusions about ghost experiences. It also leaves them wide open targets for derision by scientists working in legitimate research endeavors. Warren exhibits paranormal pretentiousness. Since he’s moved into the realm of hawking “wishing machines” and lucky charms, he’s lost all credibility. Scientific? Credible? Not in any senses of the words.
Additional Samples
To try to be as thorough as possible, I accessed a sample of several of the dozens of e-books available in the Amazon lenders library. I tried to pick those that ranked high in the search. I did not preview them beforehand so this is nearly a “random” selection off the shelf.
Unsurprisingly, these also fit into the same template and had similar characteristics:
- “Just so” facts and stories
- No references
- Lack of proofing or editing including several typographical errors and incorrect punctuation
- Poor layout and design
- Unsophisticated, overly casual writing style
- Superficial content
I included screen shots of various selections that I highlighted in these books to show I’m not making this stuff up – this is what people really wrote and marketed for sale.
Ultimate Ghost Hunting Guide – Jeff Terrozas, 2011
Subtitled “Everything you need to know for paranormal research”, the content is overly rambling and amateurish. Typos abound, the layout is annoyingly sloppy. The premise is that ghost hunting is “fun”, so have fun. It’s not to be taken seriously unless you want to make money. In that case, you should act “professional”. This book should not be taken seriously.
Ghost Seekers Field Guide, Volume 1 – Frank Potterstone, 2011
No proofreading or editing was apparently done to this manuscript. The language and grammar is poor, typos are abundant and the layout is simply ugly. There is an overuse of ellipses, and random unattributed quotes. Though the author means well, with these factors, the lack of adherence to punctuation conventions, and the unfocused content, this book is unreadable. Yes, there was a Volume 2 as well.
Ultimate Ghost Hunter Field Guide – Brandy Burgess, n.d.
Layout is very poor with line breaks in the middle of a sentence and random capitalization of words. Grammar is poor and the writing is amateurish and unfocused. The author lays out “facts” such as a description of “psychic burns” and “awakenings” without any support for such supernatural claims. She says you will know a spirit is demonic because of the sulfur or rotten flesh smell as well as the growling sounds. They also appear in half-human, half-animal form. These sound like verifiable claims; one wonders why we can’t prove such incredible new findings if they are so obvious.
* * * *
* * * *
Ghost Hunting 101: The Ultimate Resource for Beginner and Experienced Ghost Hunters – Ghostly World, 2015
Ghostly World is a website “dedicated to all things haunted”. The authors say on their site that they are not an investigation team or even “in the paranormal field”. Yet, here they are publishing and charging for an instruction book on ghost hunting. How’s that for zero credibility?
The layout of this book is good and the writing style is generally appropriate to a serious handbook. There are some typos. The content is shallow and lacks development and explanations. Terms and labels are assigned subjectively. For example, readers are told there are three kinds of ghost hunters: a hobbyist, a serious researcher and a home investigator. A random graph is included (because graphs look sciencey) without any source data to show 100% are hobbyists, 50% are serious researchers and only 10% are home investigators. Going into a client’s home is serious stuff where the ghost hunter needs to provide comfort and assistance to the residents while studying spirits. The unnamed author(s) suggest the ghost hunter may need to act in the capacity of a “therapist” – a highly unethical suggestion. Meanwhile, the reader is warned that Ouija boards and other occult dealings will bring about dangerous evil spirits. They seem to think Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes invented ghost hunting.
Some of these books are surprisingly candid, as I found with How to Legally Gain Access to Haunted Locations: A Guide for Paranormal Investigators (n.d.) by Casper Waylin. Waylin makes no apologies for playing pretend and weaseling your way into clients’ homes. He recommends following what you see on TV shows:
Professionalism starts as “pretending” but evolves into something that’s real. If you’re just getting started as a ghost hunting group, you’ll need to pretend that you’re a “professional” and put on a convincing act for the people you talk to in order to gain entry into a particular location. Put together a good costume (some nice clothes) and props (legal documents and contracts) and then tell clients and gatekeepers exactly what you plan to do from beginning to end. In terms of how you greet and speak to new clients, it can help to model other group leaders you’ve seen on TV or read about in books and for crying out loud, make sure that you have a firm handshake and you look them in the eye during your initial contact!
and
Acting professional is okay if you’re not really a professional. Find a character in a movie or watch some of the later episodes of TAPS [Ghost Hunters] or Ghost Adventures and emulate the paranormal investigators that you can relate to best.
So, copy the guys on TV when you enter other people’s houses. This is awful, awful stuff.
Finally, I would like to mention a specialty guide called The Other Side: A Teen’s guide to Ghost Hunting and the Paranormal (2009) by Gibson, Burns, and Schrader. This might be considered one of the least worst books since it was done by a reputable publisher and contains a handful of good advice. There are two overarching and egregious problems with this book. 1. Misinformation directed at teens to take on this topic and “educate the masses” about “what our place is in the universe and what possibilities there are of an afterlife”; and 2. The ignorant and condescending attitude towards science as hard and cumbersome, and skepticism as cynical bullying (p. 67). The logical fallacies and unsupported claims rampant in this book would make it excellent to use as an example for a critical thinking exercise.
Most, perhaps all, of these authors wrote these books because they believed it would be helpful to an audience or to their investigation group as a way to codify what they deemed to be important knowledge and procedures that everyone was expected to follow. With the advent of easy self-publishing, we’ve seen a proliferation of low-quality, previously unpublishable books like never before. Anyone, even someone who never wrote an article or term paper, can publish a book, sell it, and claim to be an author. There is no excuse for publishing a book without having it edited for basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation. If I had a nickel for all the times I read the phrases “First of all”, “First and foremost”, “Suffice (it) to say”, and “Let me be clear” in these books, I would take my few bucks and go buy a drink. There is no justification for the amount of self-serving, misguided misinformation out there that promises the reader that “this book” is the (ultimate) thing you need to set yourself up as a genuine, credible, and successful ghost hunter.
My recommendation: Don’t bother with any of them.
Look up books done by professional science writers or work done by actual parapsychologists to learn the literature of the field before you write a book and say you know what you are talking about.
I’ll end with some suggestions for those who plan to write future guides to the paranormal, if there has to be any…
There are two books you must research. BUY Scientific Paranormal Investigation by Benjamin Radford (2010). If you do any paranormal investigation, this should be your only guide for now.
Secondly, refer to Parapsychology, A Handbook for the 21st Century by Cardena et al., eds. (2015). You can borrow this from a university library or browse it online. While I have disagreements with content in this volume, it is an example of a credible way to construct a sophisticated and useful handbook that will be relevant for decades. It will also give the ghost hunter hobbyists an eye-opener on the insane amount of parapsychological research that has been done by far more qualified people of various disciplines. Written at a college reading level, it is not in the same class of books cited above making all amateur guides look extremely unsophisticated. But if you are going to claim to be doing groundbreaking important research that will enhance our future knowledge about spirits and hauntings, you REALLY need to up your game. Considerably. I call for no more ghost guidebooks.
References:
Hill, Sharon (2010) Being Scientifical: Popularity, Purpose and Promotion of Amateur Research and Investigation Groups in the U.S. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University at Buffalo, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of requirements for Degree of Master of Education EdM [PDF]
Hill, Sharon (2013) Sounds Sciencey Presentation at NECSS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CmgweT0eE0
#ghostHunters #ghostHuntingGuide #paranormalInvestigation #paranormalInvestigators
-
Agony Aunt: “Boyfriend listens to TECHNO music for sleep!” 📻
When one is about to go to sleep, one may choose to listen to relaxing noises such as whale song, rainfall, birds chirping, working class geezers belching, and TECHNO, TECHNO, TECHNO.
As there’s no limit. There’s no limit, we’ll reach for the sky, no valley too deep, no mountain too high. No, no limits etc. Unless of course you’re like today’s human female, who can’t fall asleep due to her human male husband’s noise related sleeping process.
Techno Music as a Sleep Assistant
Dear agony aunt,
I have not slept properly since November 2025. My husband… sorry, boyfriend, we’re not married… my boyfriend got a ghetto blaster for his birthday from his mates. Him and his mates have got into this trend called Techno Sleeping where they go to bed and fall asleep to the pelting sounds of techno music blasting at full volume. My boyfriend has dedicated his bedtime routine to this for six months now. Here’s the problem:
- He does not get any sleep
- I do not get any sleep
- Our neighbours do not get any sleep
- The local council has just issued us with a £5,000 fine for repeated noise disturbances
My boyfriend? He’s so dedicated to this Techno Sleeping thing and blasting out 2 Unlimited’s 1993 techno hit No Limit. He’s worried his mates think he’s “not cool” if he stops. So it’s No Limit on repeat all night from 10pm until 7am and I’m genuinely amazed I haven’t smashed his brains in with a sledgehammer or something.
And I even bought a sledgehammer for that exact purpose! I just also realised it’s murder and all that, so stopped myself. But one more night of this… ONE MORE NIGHT OF NO NO, NO NO NO NO, NO NO THERE’S NO LIMIT. There is a limit FFS and I’m one step away from it!
The submission abruptly ended there, but the women contacted us again this morning with the below update.
Well I went and did it. I got the sledgehammer. In a rage. In a sleep deprivation rage! While I was screaming like that bit in The Exorcist when her head twists around. Then I did it! I went and SMASHED his goddamn ghetto blaster! I smashed the fucker to smithereens in a rage, dragged the debris outside into the street, and BURNED the debris into the ground!!!!!!!
My boyfriend has since entered a state of shock and is now in what’s called a “fugue” dissociative state. His hair has turned white and he then entered a coma. Doctors at the hospital told me it’s acute, horrific trauma caused by me destroying his ghetto blaster in a rage.
If he cops it, they’ve told me I’ll get a manslaughter charge.
Struggling with insomnia, I remembered that bit from the Naked Gun reboot with Liam Neeson and said, “Man’s laughter?! Must have been quite the joke!” The police officers did not appreciate that joke. They all gave me stony stares and my flat is now under 24/7 surveillance to ensure I don’t destroy any other ghetto blasters.
Advice?
Thanks, Abbie
Hi there, Abbie! Well, that’s quite the pickle you’re in there. We can’t say we’ve had to deal with any specific situations like this before, you’re a true one off.
However, our learned agony aunt genius (we’re winners of Worst Agony of the Year Award in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and a projected win for 2029) tells us the obvious answer. And it is this…
Don’t destroy anymore ghetto blasters.
That should do the trick, love! Unless you get his with a manslaughter charge. Maybe then you could try that Naked Gun joke on a judge and hope he has a better sense of humour than those coppers. 👍
#AgonyAunt #Boyfriend #dating #Humor #Lifestyle #relationshipAdvice #Romance #romantic #Satire #satirical #Sleep #sleepAssistant #techno -
Agony Aunt: “Boyfriend listens to TECHNO music for sleep!” 📻
When one is about to go to sleep, one may choose to listen to relaxing noises such as whale song, rainfall, birds chirping, working class geezers belching, and TECHNO, TECHNO, TECHNO.
As there’s no limit. There’s no limit, we’ll reach for the sky, no valley too deep, no mountain too high. No, no limits etc. Unless of course you’re like today’s human female, who can’t fall asleep due to her human male husband’s noise related sleeping process.
Techno Music as a Sleep Assistant
Dear agony aunt,
I have not slept properly since November 2025. My husband… sorry, boyfriend, we’re not married… my boyfriend got a ghetto blaster for his birthday from his mates. Him and his mates have got into this trend called Techno Sleeping where they go to bed and fall asleep to the pelting sounds of techno music blasting at full volume. My boyfriend has dedicated his bedtime routine to this for six months now. Here’s the problem:
- He does not get any sleep
- I do not get any sleep
- Our neighbours do not get any sleep
- The local council has just issued us with a £5,000 fine for repeated noise disturbances
My boyfriend? He’s so dedicated to this Techno Sleeping thing and blasting out 2 Unlimited’s 1993 techno hit No Limit. He’s worried his mates think he’s “not cool” if he stops. So it’s No Limit on repeat all night from 10pm until 7am and I’m genuinely amazed I haven’t smashed his brains in with a sledgehammer or something.
And I even bought a sledgehammer for that exact purpose! I just also realised it’s murder and all that, so stopped myself. But one more night of this… ONE MORE NIGHT OF NO NO, NO NO NO NO, NO NO THERE’S NO LIMIT. There is a limit FFS and I’m one step away from it!
The submission abruptly ended there, but the women contacted us again this morning with the below update.
Well I went and did it. I got the sledgehammer. In a rage. In a sleep deprivation rage! While I was screaming like that bit in The Exorcist when her head twists around. Then I did it! I went and SMASHED his goddamn ghetto blaster! I smashed the fucker to smithereens in a rage, dragged the debris outside into the street, and BURNED the debris into the ground!!!!!!!
My boyfriend has since entered a state of shock and is now in what’s called a “fugue” dissociative state. His hair has turned white and he then entered a coma. Doctors at the hospital told me it’s acute, horrific trauma caused by me destroying his ghetto blaster in a rage.
If he cops it, they’ve told me I’ll get a manslaughter charge.
Struggling with insomnia, I remembered that bit from the Naked Gun reboot with Liam Neeson and said, “Man’s laughter?! Must have been quite the joke!” The police officers did not appreciate that joke. They all gave me stony stares and my flat is now under 24/7 surveillance to ensure I don’t destroy any other ghetto blasters.
Advice?
Thanks, Abbie
Hi there, Abbie! Well, that’s quite the pickle you’re in there. We can’t say we’ve had to deal with any specific situations like this before, you’re a true one off.
However, our learned agony aunt genius (we’re winners of Worst Agony of the Year Award in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and a projected win for 2029) tells us the obvious answer. And it is this…
Don’t destroy anymore ghetto blasters.
That should do the trick, love! Unless you get his with a manslaughter charge. Maybe then you could try that Naked Gun joke on a judge and hope he has a better sense of humour than those coppers. 👍
#AgonyAunt #Boyfriend #dating #Humor #Lifestyle #relationshipAdvice #Romance #romantic #Satire #satirical #Sleep #sleepAssistant #techno -
Atreyu – The End is Not the End Review By KenstrosityThere was a time in my youth when bands like California’s Atreyu, Killswitch Engage and their ilk were all I wanted to listen to. Whether this was due to the novelty of the sound in its era, coinciding with my novice experience with metal as a whole, or perhaps the reflection of my own earnest angst resonating from the common themes of the scene, records like As Daylight Dies or Lead Sails Paper Anchor marked core albums in my metallic upbringing. However, with only two exceptions, I never kept up with any of these bands as time passed. My tastes shifted and evolved. For a time, I forgot entirely about Atreyu, until the itch to sing a few of their songs in the car became too much to bear. And so, when I saw Atreyu were not only still active, but about to release a new record aptly entitled The End is Not the End, I had to know how almost 20 years of time away changed my appreciation for Atreyu.
One thing that 20 years did not change was Atreyu’s style. Since my introduction to them with Lead Sails Paper Anchor, an album I still hold in high regard for better or for worse, they firmly entrenched their metalcore base with poppy beats, addicting choruses, and earnest, if ham-fisted, lyrics. Thankfully, they also boasted one of the better vocalists in a style hell-bent on employing whiny tenors with unrefined technique, both in harsh and clean styles. If anything, Brandon Saller has only gotten better with time and practice. The rest of the lineup shifted and swirled until settling into its current form in 2020,1 but other than a marked uptick in pop-centric songwriting, Atreyu preserved the core of their 2007 sound remarkably well.
This both works in their favor and leaves me cold. On one hand, killer hit-makers that are impossible to resist (“Break Me,” “All for You”) recall the shockingly effective simplicity of post-grunge-pop acts like Daughtry or Shinedown at their peak. On the other hand, a distinct lack of unique ideas or distinct identity for the vast majority of its 45-ish minute runtime (with the exception of “Ego Death” and “Children of the Light”) leaves me starving for something of substance. At times, as in the generic “Death Rattle,” small songwriting choices (the crowd-core “MOTHERFUCKER” shout being one) cause a minor recoil in my spine as it recalls the more embarrassing moments of my teen years. However, album standouts “Children of Light” and “In the Dark” evoke a legitimate callback to classic In Flames-style melodic death metal, rippling with energetic gallops and even a cool tandem guitar/saxophone solo. These songs don’t go so far as to abandon Atreyu’s pop sensibilities or cheesy lyrics, but they are big fun nonetheless and are sure to please crowds mightily.
Yet I struggle to recall anything from The End is Not the End once it… well… ends. As happy as I am pulling my favorite songs like “All for You” or “In the Dark” for playlist duties—which would eventually allow them to find purchase in my memory—I can’t help but stew in disappointment that nothing here sticks with the immediacy of past bangers like “Doomsday,” “When Two Are One” or “Falling Down.” I can appreciate that The End is Not the End is an altogether more hopeful and uplifting record compared to that angsty, bitter predecessor of my youth, but the shift in tone hasn’t helped the songwriting. On that front, The End is Not the End sounds like Atreyu going through the motions, spinning their wheels, and making very little forward momentum. In turn, I found very little here to grab onto and even less that grabbed me first.
I still want to go to bat for these guys. As many times as I’ve heard my comrades and co-conspirators belittle Atreyu, I can’t help but protect the soft spot I have for them. At the same time, The End is Not the End is not going to convince any of the naysayers, and hasn’t won me over either. There are great songs here with choruses that I would have a blast belting out at a drop of a hat. A couple of small sparks of unexpected heft remind me that Atreyu are, indeed, part of the metal landscape, albeit on the poppiest fringe of the core region. All in all, though, I’m not going to think at all about The End is Not the End 20 years from now. Alas.
Rating: Disappointing.
#20 #2026 #AmericanMetal #Apr26 #Atreyu #Daughtry #InFlames #KillswitchEngage #MelodicMetal #MelodicMetalcore #Metalcore #Review #Reviews #Shinedown #SpinefarmRecords #TheEndIsNotTheEnd
DR: Use Your Imagination | Format Reviewed: Streamfarm
Label: Spinefarm Records
Websites: atreyuofficial.com | facebook.com/Atreyu
Releases Worldwide: April 24th, 2026 -
Atreyu – The End is Not the End Review By KenstrosityThere was a time in my youth when bands like California’s Atreyu, Killswitch Engage and their ilk were all I wanted to listen to. Whether this was due to the novelty of the sound in its era, coinciding with my novice experience with metal as a whole, or perhaps the reflection of my own earnest angst resonating from the common themes of the scene, records like As Daylight Dies or Lead Sails Paper Anchor marked core albums in my metallic upbringing. However, with only two exceptions, I never kept up with any of these bands as time passed. My tastes shifted and evolved. For a time, I forgot entirely about Atreyu, until the itch to sing a few of their songs in the car became too much to bear. And so, when I saw Atreyu were not only still active, but about to release a new record aptly entitled The End is Not the End, I had to know how almost 20 years of time away changed my appreciation for Atreyu.
One thing that 20 years did not change was Atreyu’s style. Since my introduction to them with Lead Sails Paper Anchor, an album I still hold in high regard for better or for worse, they firmly entrenched their metalcore base with poppy beats, addicting choruses, and earnest, if ham-fisted, lyrics. Thankfully, they also boasted one of the better vocalists in a style hell-bent on employing whiny tenors with unrefined technique, both in harsh and clean styles. If anything, Brandon Saller has only gotten better with time and practice. The rest of the lineup shifted and swirled until settling into its current form in 2020,1 but other than a marked uptick in pop-centric songwriting, Atreyu preserved the core of their 2007 sound remarkably well.
This both works in their favor and leaves me cold. On one hand, killer hit-makers that are impossible to resist (“Break Me,” “All for You”) recall the shockingly effective simplicity of post-grunge-pop acts like Daughtry or Shinedown at their peak. On the other hand, a distinct lack of unique ideas or distinct identity for the vast majority of its 45-ish minute runtime (with the exception of “Ego Death” and “Children of the Light”) leaves me starving for something of substance. At times, as in the generic “Death Rattle,” small songwriting choices (the crowd-core “MOTHERFUCKER” shout being one) cause a minor recoil in my spine as it recalls the more embarrassing moments of my teen years. However, album standouts “Children of Light” and “In the Dark” evoke a legitimate callback to classic In Flames-style melodic death metal, rippling with energetic gallops and even a cool tandem guitar/saxophone solo. These songs don’t go so far as to abandon Atreyu’s pop sensibilities or cheesy lyrics, but they are big fun nonetheless and are sure to please crowds mightily.
Yet I struggle to recall anything from The End is Not the End once it… well… ends. As happy as I am pulling my favorite songs like “All for You” or “In the Dark” for playlist duties—which would eventually allow them to find purchase in my memory—I can’t help but stew in disappointment that nothing here sticks with the immediacy of past bangers like “Doomsday,” “When Two Are One” or “Falling Down.” I can appreciate that The End is Not the End is an altogether more hopeful and uplifting record compared to that angsty, bitter predecessor of my youth, but the shift in tone hasn’t helped the songwriting. On that front, The End is Not the End sounds like Atreyu going through the motions, spinning their wheels, and making very little forward momentum. In turn, I found very little here to grab onto and even less that grabbed me first.
I still want to go to bat for these guys. As many times as I’ve heard my comrades and co-conspirators belittle Atreyu, I can’t help but protect the soft spot I have for them. At the same time, The End is Not the End is not going to convince any of the naysayers, and hasn’t won me over either. There are great songs here with choruses that I would have a blast belting out at a drop of a hat. A couple of small sparks of unexpected heft remind me that Atreyu are, indeed, part of the metal landscape, albeit on the poppiest fringe of the core region. All in all, though, I’m not going to think at all about The End is Not the End 20 years from now. Alas.
Rating: Disappointing.
#20 #2026 #AmericanMetal #Apr26 #Atreyu #Daughtry #InFlames #KillswitchEngage #MelodicMetal #MelodicMetalcore #Metalcore #Review #Reviews #Shinedown #SpinefarmRecords #TheEndIsNotTheEnd
DR: Use Your Imagination | Format Reviewed: Streamfarm
Label: Spinefarm Records
Websites: atreyuofficial.com | facebook.com/Atreyu
Releases Worldwide: April 24th, 2026 -
Atreyu – The End is Not the End Review By KenstrosityThere was a time in my youth when bands like California’s Atreyu, Killswitch Engage and their ilk were all I wanted to listen to. Whether this was due to the novelty of the sound in its era, coinciding with my novice experience with metal as a whole, or perhaps the reflection of my own earnest angst resonating from the common themes of the scene, records like As Daylight Dies or Lead Sails Paper Anchor marked core albums in my metallic upbringing. However, with only two exceptions, I never kept up with any of these bands as time passed. My tastes shifted and evolved. For a time, I forgot entirely about Atreyu, until the itch to sing a few of their songs in the car became too much to bear. And so, when I saw Atreyu were not only still active, but about to release a new record aptly entitled The End is Not the End, I had to know how almost 20 years of time away changed my appreciation for Atreyu.
One thing that 20 years did not change was Atreyu’s style. Since my introduction to them with Lead Sails Paper Anchor, an album I still hold in high regard for better or for worse, they firmly entrenched their metalcore base with poppy beats, addicting choruses, and earnest, if ham-fisted, lyrics. Thankfully, they also boasted one of the better vocalists in a style hell-bent on employing whiny tenors with unrefined technique, both in harsh and clean styles. If anything, Brandon Saller has only gotten better with time and practice. The rest of the lineup shifted and swirled until settling into its current form in 2020,1 but other than a marked uptick in pop-centric songwriting, Atreyu preserved the core of their 2007 sound remarkably well.
This both works in their favor and leaves me cold. On one hand, killer hit-makers that are impossible to resist (“Break Me,” “All for You”) recall the shockingly effective simplicity of post-grunge-pop acts like Daughtry or Shinedown at their peak. On the other hand, a distinct lack of unique ideas or distinct identity for the vast majority of its 45-ish minute runtime (with the exception of “Ego Death” and “Children of the Light”) leaves me starving for something of substance. At times, as in the generic “Death Rattle,” small songwriting choices (the crowd-core “MOTHERFUCKER” shout being one) cause a minor recoil in my spine as it recalls the more embarrassing moments of my teen years. However, album standouts “Children of Light” and “In the Dark” evoke a legitimate callback to classic In Flames-style melodic death metal, rippling with energetic gallops and even a cool tandem guitar/saxophone solo. These songs don’t go so far as to abandon Atreyu’s pop sensibilities or cheesy lyrics, but they are big fun nonetheless and are sure to please crowds mightily.
Yet I struggle to recall anything from The End is Not the End once it… well… ends. As happy as I am pulling my favorite songs like “All for You” or “In the Dark” for playlist duties—which would eventually allow them to find purchase in my memory—I can’t help but stew in disappointment that nothing here sticks with the immediacy of past bangers like “Doomsday,” “When Two Are One” or “Falling Down.” I can appreciate that The End is Not the End is an altogether more hopeful and uplifting record compared to that angsty, bitter predecessor of my youth, but the shift in tone hasn’t helped the songwriting. On that front, The End is Not the End sounds like Atreyu going through the motions, spinning their wheels, and making very little forward momentum. In turn, I found very little here to grab onto and even less that grabbed me first.
I still want to go to bat for these guys. As many times as I’ve heard my comrades and co-conspirators belittle Atreyu, I can’t help but protect the soft spot I have for them. At the same time, The End is Not the End is not going to convince any of the naysayers, and hasn’t won me over either. There are great songs here with choruses that I would have a blast belting out at a drop of a hat. A couple of small sparks of unexpected heft remind me that Atreyu are, indeed, part of the metal landscape, albeit on the poppiest fringe of the core region. All in all, though, I’m not going to think at all about The End is Not the End 20 years from now. Alas.
Rating: Disappointing.
#20 #2026 #AmericanMetal #Apr26 #Atreyu #Daughtry #InFlames #KillswitchEngage #MelodicMetal #MelodicMetalcore #Metalcore #Review #Reviews #Shinedown #SpinefarmRecords #TheEndIsNotTheEnd
DR: Use Your Imagination | Format Reviewed: Streamfarm
Label: Spinefarm Records
Websites: atreyuofficial.com | facebook.com/Atreyu
Releases Worldwide: April 24th, 2026 -
Atreyu – The End is Not the End Review By KenstrosityThere was a time in my youth when bands like California’s Atreyu, Killswitch Engage and their ilk were all I wanted to listen to. Whether this was due to the novelty of the sound in its era, coinciding with my novice experience with metal as a whole, or perhaps the reflection of my own earnest angst resonating from the common themes of the scene, records like As Daylight Dies or Lead Sails Paper Anchor marked core albums in my metallic upbringing. However, with only two exceptions, I never kept up with any of these bands as time passed. My tastes shifted and evolved. For a time, I forgot entirely about Atreyu, until the itch to sing a few of their songs in the car became too much to bear. And so, when I saw Atreyu were not only still active, but about to release a new record aptly entitled The End is Not the End, I had to know how almost 20 years of time away changed my appreciation for Atreyu.
One thing that 20 years did not change was Atreyu’s style. Since my introduction to them with Lead Sails Paper Anchor, an album I still hold in high regard for better or for worse, they firmly entrenched their metalcore base with poppy beats, addicting choruses, and earnest, if ham-fisted, lyrics. Thankfully, they also boasted one of the better vocalists in a style hell-bent on employing whiny tenors with unrefined technique, both in harsh and clean styles. If anything, Brandon Saller has only gotten better with time and practice. The rest of the lineup shifted and swirled until settling into its current form in 2020,1 but other than a marked uptick in pop-centric songwriting, Atreyu preserved the core of their 2007 sound remarkably well.
This both works in their favor and leaves me cold. On one hand, killer hit-makers that are impossible to resist (“Break Me,” “All for You”) recall the shockingly effective simplicity of post-grunge-pop acts like Daughtry or Shinedown at their peak. On the other hand, a distinct lack of unique ideas or distinct identity for the vast majority of its 45-ish minute runtime (with the exception of “Ego Death” and “Children of the Light”) leaves me starving for something of substance. At times, as in the generic “Death Rattle,” small songwriting choices (the crowd-core “MOTHERFUCKER” shout being one) cause a minor recoil in my spine as it recalls the more embarrassing moments of my teen years. However, album standouts “Children of Light” and “In the Dark” evoke a legitimate callback to classic In Flames-style melodic death metal, rippling with energetic gallops and even a cool tandem guitar/saxophone solo. These songs don’t go so far as to abandon Atreyu’s pop sensibilities or cheesy lyrics, but they are big fun nonetheless and are sure to please crowds mightily.
Yet I struggle to recall anything from The End is Not the End once it… well… ends. As happy as I am pulling my favorite songs like “All for You” or “In the Dark” for playlist duties—which would eventually allow them to find purchase in my memory—I can’t help but stew in disappointment that nothing here sticks with the immediacy of past bangers like “Doomsday,” “When Two Are One” or “Falling Down.” I can appreciate that The End is Not the End is an altogether more hopeful and uplifting record compared to that angsty, bitter predecessor of my youth, but the shift in tone hasn’t helped the songwriting. On that front, The End is Not the End sounds like Atreyu going through the motions, spinning their wheels, and making very little forward momentum. In turn, I found very little here to grab onto and even less that grabbed me first.
I still want to go to bat for these guys. As many times as I’ve heard my comrades and co-conspirators belittle Atreyu, I can’t help but protect the soft spot I have for them. At the same time, The End is Not the End is not going to convince any of the naysayers, and hasn’t won me over either. There are great songs here with choruses that I would have a blast belting out at a drop of a hat. A couple of small sparks of unexpected heft remind me that Atreyu are, indeed, part of the metal landscape, albeit on the poppiest fringe of the core region. All in all, though, I’m not going to think at all about The End is Not the End 20 years from now. Alas.
Rating: Disappointing.
#20 #2026 #AmericanMetal #Apr26 #Atreyu #Daughtry #InFlames #KillswitchEngage #MelodicMetal #MelodicMetalcore #Metalcore #Review #Reviews #Shinedown #SpinefarmRecords #TheEndIsNotTheEnd
DR: Use Your Imagination | Format Reviewed: Streamfarm
Label: Spinefarm Records
Websites: atreyuofficial.com | facebook.com/Atreyu
Releases Worldwide: April 24th, 2026 -
Atreyu – The End is Not the End Review By KenstrosityThere was a time in my youth when bands like California’s Atreyu, Killswitch Engage and their ilk were all I wanted to listen to. Whether this was due to the novelty of the sound in its era, coinciding with my novice experience with metal as a whole, or perhaps the reflection of my own earnest angst resonating from the common themes of the scene, records like As Daylight Dies or Lead Sails Paper Anchor marked core albums in my metallic upbringing. However, with only two exceptions, I never kept up with any of these bands as time passed. My tastes shifted and evolved. For a time, I forgot entirely about Atreyu, until the itch to sing a few of their songs in the car became too much to bear. And so, when I saw Atreyu were not only still active, but about to release a new record aptly entitled The End is Not the End, I had to know how almost 20 years of time away changed my appreciation for Atreyu.
One thing that 20 years did not change was Atreyu’s style. Since my introduction to them with Lead Sails Paper Anchor, an album I still hold in high regard for better or for worse, they firmly entrenched their metalcore base with poppy beats, addicting choruses, and earnest, if ham-fisted, lyrics. Thankfully, they also boasted one of the better vocalists in a style hell-bent on employing whiny tenors with unrefined technique, both in harsh and clean styles. If anything, Brandon Saller has only gotten better with time and practice. The rest of the lineup shifted and swirled until settling into its current form in 2020,1 but other than a marked uptick in pop-centric songwriting, Atreyu preserved the core of their 2007 sound remarkably well.
This both works in their favor and leaves me cold. On one hand, killer hit-makers that are impossible to resist (“Break Me,” “All for You”) recall the shockingly effective simplicity of post-grunge-pop acts like Daughtry or Shinedown at their peak. On the other hand, a distinct lack of unique ideas or distinct identity for the vast majority of its 45-ish minute runtime (with the exception of “Ego Death” and “Children of the Light”) leaves me starving for something of substance. At times, as in the generic “Death Rattle,” small songwriting choices (the crowd-core “MOTHERFUCKER” shout being one) cause a minor recoil in my spine as it recalls the more embarrassing moments of my teen years. However, album standouts “Children of Light” and “In the Dark” evoke a legitimate callback to classic In Flames-style melodic death metal, rippling with energetic gallops and even a cool tandem guitar/saxophone solo. These songs don’t go so far as to abandon Atreyu’s pop sensibilities or cheesy lyrics, but they are big fun nonetheless and are sure to please crowds mightily.
Yet I struggle to recall anything from The End is Not the End once it… well… ends. As happy as I am pulling my favorite songs like “All for You” or “In the Dark” for playlist duties—which would eventually allow them to find purchase in my memory—I can’t help but stew in disappointment that nothing here sticks with the immediacy of past bangers like “Doomsday,” “When Two Are One” or “Falling Down.” I can appreciate that The End is Not the End is an altogether more hopeful and uplifting record compared to that angsty, bitter predecessor of my youth, but the shift in tone hasn’t helped the songwriting. On that front, The End is Not the End sounds like Atreyu going through the motions, spinning their wheels, and making very little forward momentum. In turn, I found very little here to grab onto and even less that grabbed me first.
I still want to go to bat for these guys. As many times as I’ve heard my comrades and co-conspirators belittle Atreyu, I can’t help but protect the soft spot I have for them. At the same time, The End is Not the End is not going to convince any of the naysayers, and hasn’t won me over either. There are great songs here with choruses that I would have a blast belting out at a drop of a hat. A couple of small sparks of unexpected heft remind me that Atreyu are, indeed, part of the metal landscape, albeit on the poppiest fringe of the core region. All in all, though, I’m not going to think at all about The End is Not the End 20 years from now. Alas.
Rating: Disappointing.
#20 #2026 #AmericanMetal #Apr26 #Atreyu #Daughtry #InFlames #KillswitchEngage #MelodicMetal #MelodicMetalcore #Metalcore #Review #Reviews #Shinedown #SpinefarmRecords #TheEndIsNotTheEnd
DR: Use Your Imagination | Format Reviewed: Streamfarm
Label: Spinefarm Records
Websites: atreyuofficial.com | facebook.com/Atreyu
Releases Worldwide: April 24th, 2026 -
Lazy Caturday Reads: A Mixed Bag of Stories
Good Afternoon!!
Artist unknown
There isn’t a lot of urgent news today, which is kind of nice for a change. I’ve got a mixed bag of interesting stories though.
Before I get to the politics news, I want to share a fun story about a woman who had a small but significant part in the movie “Cool Hand Luke.”
Alex Williams at The New York Times (gift link): Joy Harmon, Car-Washing Temptress in ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ Dies at 87.
Joy Harmon, who needed only three minutes, a bucket of soapy water and a housedress held together with a safety pin to sear herself into Hollywood history as a chain-gang prisoner’s fantasy come to life in the classic 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke,” died on April 14 in Los Angeles. She was 87.
She died in hospice care after contracting pneumonia in recent weeks, her daughter Julie Gourson Matthews said.
Ms. Harmon never achieved leading-lady status. Still, she tallied more than 30 screen and television credits, often popping up in an episode or two of popular 1960s and early ’70s TV shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Monkees,” “Batman,” “Bewitched” and “The Odd Couple.”
Onscreen, she was hard to miss, with her pinup figure, platinum hair and ice-blue eyes. “Gosh, you have the bluest eyes!,” she recalled Paul Newman, the star of “Cool Hand Luke,” once saying to her — no small praise coming from an actor known for his own dazzlingly blue eyes….
Ms. Harmon, listed in the credits as the Girl, appears about 23 minutes into the movie and is gone before minute 27. But she makes the most of her screen time.
Emerging from a farmhouse, bucket in hand, she languidly scrubs down a 1941 DeSoto in full view of the sweat-drenched, shirtless prisoners digging a roadside ditch nearby.
“Hey, Lord, whatever I’ve done, don’t strike me blind for another couple of minutes,” Dragline (George Kennedy), the alpha dog of the chain gang, says.
While the prisoners wipe their brows and gawk, the amply endowed Ms. Harmon nearly bursts out of her skintight dress as she bends to scrub hubcaps or sprawls across the hood, occasionally pausing to squeeze her sponge so that the suds cascade down her torso.
“Oh, God, she doesn’t know what she’s doing,” one lustful prisoner says.
“She knows exactly what she’s doing,” Luke responds. “She’s driving us crazy and loving every minute of it.”
A bit about Harmon’s life:
Patricia Joy Harmon was born on May 1, 1938, in Flushing, Queens, the elder of two daughters of Homer Harmon, a promotional director at the Roxy Theater in Manhattan, and Bernice (Hopmann) Harmon. (Many accounts cite her birth year as 1940, but she shaved two years off her age once she was in Hollywood, her daughter said.)
She grew up in Wilton, Conn., and began modeling at an early age. At 17, she was a runner-up in the Miss Connecticut beauty pageant.
By Roxanne Driedger
After graduating in 1956 from Staples High School in Westport, she acted in local theater productions before making her Broadway debut two years later in “Make a Million,” a sendup of TV quiz shows. That led to an appearance on a real quiz show, Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life,” which in turn led to a regular role as Mr. Marx’s on-air assistant on the show’s spinoff, “Tell It to Groucho.”
By the mid-1960s, Ms. Harmon was starting to win big-screen roles in matinee fare like “Village of the Giants,” a sci-fi comedy featuring Beau Bridges, about teenagers who grow to 30 feet tall after consuming a miracle concoction made by a boy genius (Ron Howard).
If nothing else, it was a speaking part. The same could not be said for her role in “Cool Hand Luke,” where the only directive was that she show up for the audition in a bikini, Ms. Harmon recalled in an interview last year with the podcast “Vanguard of Hollywood.”
When she arrived, she was wearing “a coat over a bikini,” she recalled, “and Paul Newman and the director and the producer were there.” She had no lines to read, she added, “so I just talked to them, and then I got the part.”
“Cool Hand Luke” earned four Academy Award nominations, including best actor for Mr. Newman; Mr. Kennedy won the Oscar for best supporting actor.
For Ms. Harmon, the film proved to be a career pinnacle — and she was fine with that.
“I was never one who said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a big star,’” she said in a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I just took whatever came to me.”
I had fun reading that article. I hope you will too. Use the gift link to read the rest.
On to the less enjoyable news…
It doesn’t look like there will be any Iran war negotiations in Pakistan this weekend.
CNN Live Updates: Status of US-Iran peace talks uncertain as Iranian foreign minister leaves Pakistan.
Peace talks: Sources say Iran’s foreign minister has left Pakistan after talks with mediators about the stalled US-Iran peace effort. The US previously said it was sending envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan this weekend, but Tehran denied any plans to meet directly, further clouding the status of negotiations.
Trump awaits an offer: President Donald Trump said he expected Iran to present new terms in response to US demands for ending the war. He did not provide details, however, and has said uncertainty surrounding Iran’s leadership is complicating talks.
CNN: Araghchi leaves Pakistan, Iranian sources tell CNN.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departed Islamabad on Saturday evening local time, according to Iranian sources familiar with the discussions, after meetings in the Pakistani capital to discuss a truce with Washington and consult key allies in the region.
It was not initially clear where Araghchi would travel next, but the Iranian Foreign Ministry previously said he would also visit Oman and Russia during the trip.
Lindsay, by Linda Lee Nelson
Some background: Araghchi landed in Islamabad on Friday evening for a flurry of meetings with Pakistan’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has served as a key mediator between Tehran and Washington.
Pakistani ministers are trying to facilitate a second round of talks between US and Iranian officials, after lengthy discussions in early April failed to alleviate the thorniest diplomatic hurdles between the warring parties.
The White House said Friday that a US delegation would travel to Islamabad this weekend, but Iranian media had denied reports that Araghchi would directly negotiate with Washington during his trip, leaving the status of talks uncertain.
Trump has just called off the trip to Pakistan by Witkoff and Kushner.
The New York Times published a fascinating article about Iran’s leaders this week. It appears that the Revolutionary Guards are actually in control of the government, and it’s not clear if the men doing the negotiating actually have the power to make final decisions.
Farnaz Fassihi at The New York Times (gift link): A New Era and New Leadership: The Generals Who Are Running Iran.
When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran as the supreme leader, he exerted absolute power over all decisions about war, peace and negotiations with the United States. His son and successor does not play the same role.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the son, is an elusive figure who has not been seen and whose voice has not been heard since he was appointed in March. Instead, a battle-hardened collective of commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and those aligned with them are the key decision makers on matters of security, war and diplomacy.
In the Garden, by Thomas Little
“Mojtaba is managing the country as though he is the director of the board,” said Abdolreza Davari, a politician who served as senior adviser to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he was president and knows Mr. Khamenei.
“He relies heavily on the advice and guidance of the board members, and they collectively make all the decisions,” Mr. Davari said in a phone interview from Tehran. “The generals are the board members.” [….]
Mr. Khamenei, who was selected by a council of senior clerics as the new supreme leader, has been in hiding since American and Israeli forces bombed his father’s compound on Feb. 28, where he also lived with his family. His father, wife and son were all killed. Access to him is extremely difficult and limited now. He is surrounded mostly by a team of doctors and medical staff who are treating the injuries he sustained in the airstrikes.
Senior commanders of the Guards and senior government officials do not visit him, fearing that Israel may trace them to him and kill him. President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is also a heart surgeon, and the minister of health have both been involved in his care.
Though Mr. Khamenei was gravely wounded, he is mentally sharp and engaged, according to four senior Iranian officials familiar with his health. One leg was operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic. He had surgery on one hand and is slowly regaining function. His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak, the officials said, adding that, eventually, he will need plastic surgery.
Just a bit more:
Mr. Khamenei has not recorded a video or audio message, the officials said, because he does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak in his first public address. He has issued several written statements that have been posted online and read on state television.
Messages to him are handwritten, sealed in envelopes and relayed via a human chain from one trusted courier to the next, who travel on highways and back roads, in cars and on motorcycles until they reach his hide-out. His guidance on issues snakes back the same way.
The combination of concern for his safety, his injuries and the sheer challenge of reaching him has resulted in Mr. Khamenei’s delegating decision making to the generals, at least for now. Reformist factions, as well as ultra-hard-liners, are still involved in political discussions. But analysts say that Mr. Khamenei’s close ties to the generals, whom he grew up with when he volunteered to fight in the Iran-Iraq war as a teenager, have made them the dominant force.
President Trump has said that the war, along with the killings of layers of Iran’s leaders and security establishment, has ushered in “regime change” and that the new leaders are “much more reasonable.” In reality, the Islamic republic has not been toppled. Power is now in the hands of an entrenched, hard-line military, and the broad influence of the clerics is waning.
“Mojtaba is not yet in full command or control,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa for Chatham House who has contact with people in Iran. “There is, perhaps, deference to him. He signs off or he is part of the decision-making structure in a formal way. But he is presented with fait accompli presentations right now.”
So it appears that the Generals are actually running things in Iran now. You can use the gift link to read the whole article. It’s very interesting.
Back in the USA, the DOJ has withdrawn the charges against Fed chair Jerome Powell, but the damage is done.
The New York Times: The ‘Lasting Damage’ of Pirro’s Abandoned Fed Investigation.
The Justice Department’s criminal investigation of the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome H. Powell, appears to be over. But the ramifications for the central bank are likely to prove much longer lasting.
Nine months after President Trump made a hasty visit to the Fed’s Washington headquarters and promised to “take a look” at a costly renovation, the administration has concluded its inquiry with seemingly nothing to show. Far from the criminal charges that they once pursued, prosecutors left in their wake a dark cloud over the institution and the person Mr. Trump has chosen to next lead the central bank.
The about-face has removed, for now, the immediate threat of a further escalation against the Fed. It has also potentially cleared a path for Mr. Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, Kevin M. Warsh, to succeed Mr. Powell, whose term ends on May 15.
By Richard Williams
What will be far harder to recoup is confidence in the Fed’s ability to operate independently from a White House that has shown little restraint in its efforts to bully the central bank into slashing interest rates.
Even as Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced that the investigation was shutting down, she warned that she would “not hesitate” to reopen the inquiry if warranted. Ms. Pirro added that she had asked the Fed’s inspector general to take over the investigation, even though the internal watchdog had been looking into the matter since July….
Kathryn Judge, a Columbia Law School professor who was a Supreme Court law clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer, said she feared “lasting damage” from the investigation into Mr. Powell — not only for the Fed but for policymakers across government.
Until now, she said, officials did not have to worry about repercussions from “taking a strong stance on policy issues in ways that are inconsistent with the president’s agenda.” But that was the sort of pressure that Mr. Powell faced as Mr. Trump sought to force rates down.
There’s some news about Trump’s corrupt case against the IRS.
NBC News: Judge questions legal basis for Trump’s $10 billion case against IRS.
A federal judge is asking the Justice Department and President Donald Trump’s private attorneys to explain whether his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, an agency he oversees as president, is the type of dispute federal courts can hear.
In a Friday order, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams questioned whether an actual disagreement exists, writing that a case can only stand if there is “adverseness” between the parties.“Typically, adverseness is found in a situation where one party is asserting its right and the other party is resisting,” Williams wrote. “Consequently, if there is no adverseness, there is no case or controversy.”
The Constitution’s “case or controversy” clause says federal courts may only hear actual “controversies.”
The judge ordered both parties to explain “whether a case and controversy exists” by May 20. Williams set a hearing on the matter for May 27 in Miami.
The order comes as both sides seek to resolve the dispute. Attorneys representing Trump and the IRS asked a federal court in a joint filing last week to pause proceedings for 90 days while the parties hold talks to find a resolution.
How the hell can they resolve a “dispute” when Trump is the boss?
Trump sued the IRS and the Treasury Department in January alleging that the agency was at fault for the unauthorized release of his tax documents by a government contractor who shared them with news outlets. Trump argued that the IRS did not take the necessary steps to prevent the actions of the contractor, Charles Littlejohn, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 following a guilty plea.
In her order, Williams did recognize that Trump sued the IRS in “his personal capacity,” rather than as president, but wrote that “he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.”
The corruption in this administration is beyond belief.
Some good news–it looks like Trump’s “SAVE” act is dead.
Al Weaver at NOTUS: Senate Republicans Bench Trump’s Voting Bill.
Senate Republicans have sidelined the SAVE America Act, arguing that it shouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the party’s priority list, especially amid the Iran war and growing economic woes.
Quiet Day by Yuriy Sultanov
Republican leaders this week were forced to remove the proposal as pending business in the chamber as they shifted gears to pass the budget resolution. That effectively benched the bill — which has been championed by President Donald Trump and considered a top agenda item — after an extensive pressure campaign by conservative members and influencers.
The necessary move, however, was greeted with a sigh of relief by a number of Republicans who, while supportive of the measure, believe it’s time to move on to more pressing matters. They also believe the pro-SAVE America Act blitz, led by Sen. Mike Lee and like-minded conservatives, did little to help the case, and may have backfired. Members are ready to bid it adieu as they near the final six months before the midterms.
“They’ve convinced themselves that the longer it hangs around, the more popular it gets. The reality is — I’m quite certain they haven’t gained a single vote, and may have lost a few with time,” one Senate Republican told NOTUS. “There’s some things that aren’t possible, and this is one of them.”
The member noted that while key parts of the bill — which requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote — poll well with wide swaths of Americans, including Democrats, it is hardly considered a leading issue for voters.
“When put in a lineup of the top 100 things people are thinking about every day, it doesn’t get very high on the list,” the senator continued. “We’re spending a lot of the precious resource of time and energy on something that’s not top-of-mind awareness to voters.”
I already had to produce a photo ID and prove my citizenship when I registered to vote. Good riddance to this idiotic bill.
A follow-up to The Atlantic story on Kash Patel:
Joe Sommerlad at The Independent: Atlantic writer sued by Kash Patel says she’s been ‘inundated’ with new sources corroborating her reporting.
Sarah Fitzpatrick, The Atlantic investigative journalist behind last week’s bombshell story about FBI Director Kash Patel, has said she has since been “inundated” with messages from new sources corroborating her reporting.
Fitzpatrick’s story alleged that Patel drinks to excess – so much so that, in one instance, breaching equipment was ordered to break into a locked bedroom when he did not respond to inquiries about his well-being. The profile and also characterized him as deeply paranoid about being fired by President Donald Trump.
Patel claimed the stories were false and has filed a ludicrous lawsuit.
Speaking to the Radio Atlantic podcast one week after the article, Fitzpatrick was asked about the director’s retaliatory moves and said she was undaunted.
“My response is that I stand by every single word of this report,” she said. “We were very diligent. We were very careful. It went through multiple levels of editing, review, care.
“And I think one of the things that has been most gratifying, after – immediately after the story published was, I have been inundated by additional sourcing going up to the highest levels of the government, thanking us for doing the work, providing additional corroborating information.”
Fitzpatrick said that she used more than two dozen sources for her original report, characterizing the officials she spoke to as “people who felt that not only was this conduct embarrassing, unbecoming, but that it was a national security vulnerability, and that Americans were perhaps less safe as a result.”
Asked about some of the more shocking details in her report, she said: “I had never heard anything like this as a reporter, and I think I spent a very long time, a very diligent amount of time checking it out because it was so explosive.
“And I think the fact that this was known throughout the FBI, throughout the Justice Department, that it reached the White House is because it was so alarming. And people were really frightened.”
There’s more at the link.
Those are the stories that caught my attention today. What’s on your mind?
#AyatollahMojtabaKhamenei #CoolHandLuke #DonaldTrump #FedChair #IranRevolutionaryGuards #JeromeHPowell #JoyHarmon #KashPatel #Pakistan #PaulNewman #SarahFitzpatrick #SAVEAmericaAct #TheAtlantic #TrumpIRSLawsuit #USIranPeaceTalks -
Lazy Caturday Reads: A Mixed Bag of Stories
Good Afternoon!!
Artist unknown
There isn’t a lot of urgent news today, which is kind of nice for a change. I’ve got a mixed bag of interesting stories though.
Before I get to the politics news, I want to share a fun story about a woman who had a small but significant part in the movie “Cool Hand Luke.”
Alex Williams at The New York Times (gift link): Joy Harmon, Car-Washing Temptress in ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ Dies at 87.
Joy Harmon, who needed only three minutes, a bucket of soapy water and a housedress held together with a safety pin to sear herself into Hollywood history as a chain-gang prisoner’s fantasy come to life in the classic 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke,” died on April 14 in Los Angeles. She was 87.
She died in hospice care after contracting pneumonia in recent weeks, her daughter Julie Gourson Matthews said.
Ms. Harmon never achieved leading-lady status. Still, she tallied more than 30 screen and television credits, often popping up in an episode or two of popular 1960s and early ’70s TV shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Monkees,” “Batman,” “Bewitched” and “The Odd Couple.”
Onscreen, she was hard to miss, with her pinup figure, platinum hair and ice-blue eyes. “Gosh, you have the bluest eyes!,” she recalled Paul Newman, the star of “Cool Hand Luke,” once saying to her — no small praise coming from an actor known for his own dazzlingly blue eyes….
Ms. Harmon, listed in the credits as the Girl, appears about 23 minutes into the movie and is gone before minute 27. But she makes the most of her screen time.
Emerging from a farmhouse, bucket in hand, she languidly scrubs down a 1941 DeSoto in full view of the sweat-drenched, shirtless prisoners digging a roadside ditch nearby.
“Hey, Lord, whatever I’ve done, don’t strike me blind for another couple of minutes,” Dragline (George Kennedy), the alpha dog of the chain gang, says.
While the prisoners wipe their brows and gawk, the amply endowed Ms. Harmon nearly bursts out of her skintight dress as she bends to scrub hubcaps or sprawls across the hood, occasionally pausing to squeeze her sponge so that the suds cascade down her torso.
“Oh, God, she doesn’t know what she’s doing,” one lustful prisoner says.
“She knows exactly what she’s doing,” Luke responds. “She’s driving us crazy and loving every minute of it.”
A bit about Harmon’s life:
Patricia Joy Harmon was born on May 1, 1938, in Flushing, Queens, the elder of two daughters of Homer Harmon, a promotional director at the Roxy Theater in Manhattan, and Bernice (Hopmann) Harmon. (Many accounts cite her birth year as 1940, but she shaved two years off her age once she was in Hollywood, her daughter said.)
She grew up in Wilton, Conn., and began modeling at an early age. At 17, she was a runner-up in the Miss Connecticut beauty pageant.
By Roxanne Driedger
After graduating in 1956 from Staples High School in Westport, she acted in local theater productions before making her Broadway debut two years later in “Make a Million,” a sendup of TV quiz shows. That led to an appearance on a real quiz show, Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life,” which in turn led to a regular role as Mr. Marx’s on-air assistant on the show’s spinoff, “Tell It to Groucho.”
By the mid-1960s, Ms. Harmon was starting to win big-screen roles in matinee fare like “Village of the Giants,” a sci-fi comedy featuring Beau Bridges, about teenagers who grow to 30 feet tall after consuming a miracle concoction made by a boy genius (Ron Howard).
If nothing else, it was a speaking part. The same could not be said for her role in “Cool Hand Luke,” where the only directive was that she show up for the audition in a bikini, Ms. Harmon recalled in an interview last year with the podcast “Vanguard of Hollywood.”
When she arrived, she was wearing “a coat over a bikini,” she recalled, “and Paul Newman and the director and the producer were there.” She had no lines to read, she added, “so I just talked to them, and then I got the part.”
“Cool Hand Luke” earned four Academy Award nominations, including best actor for Mr. Newman; Mr. Kennedy won the Oscar for best supporting actor.
For Ms. Harmon, the film proved to be a career pinnacle — and she was fine with that.
“I was never one who said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a big star,’” she said in a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I just took whatever came to me.”
I had fun reading that article. I hope you will too. Use the gift link to read the rest.
On to the less enjoyable news…
It doesn’t look like there will be any Iran war negotiations in Pakistan this weekend.
CNN Live Updates: Status of US-Iran peace talks uncertain as Iranian foreign minister leaves Pakistan.
Peace talks: Sources say Iran’s foreign minister has left Pakistan after talks with mediators about the stalled US-Iran peace effort. The US previously said it was sending envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan this weekend, but Tehran denied any plans to meet directly, further clouding the status of negotiations.
Trump awaits an offer: President Donald Trump said he expected Iran to present new terms in response to US demands for ending the war. He did not provide details, however, and has said uncertainty surrounding Iran’s leadership is complicating talks.
CNN: Araghchi leaves Pakistan, Iranian sources tell CNN.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departed Islamabad on Saturday evening local time, according to Iranian sources familiar with the discussions, after meetings in the Pakistani capital to discuss a truce with Washington and consult key allies in the region.
It was not initially clear where Araghchi would travel next, but the Iranian Foreign Ministry previously said he would also visit Oman and Russia during the trip.
Lindsay, by Linda Lee Nelson
Some background: Araghchi landed in Islamabad on Friday evening for a flurry of meetings with Pakistan’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has served as a key mediator between Tehran and Washington.
Pakistani ministers are trying to facilitate a second round of talks between US and Iranian officials, after lengthy discussions in early April failed to alleviate the thorniest diplomatic hurdles between the warring parties.
The White House said Friday that a US delegation would travel to Islamabad this weekend, but Iranian media had denied reports that Araghchi would directly negotiate with Washington during his trip, leaving the status of talks uncertain.
Trump has just called off the trip to Pakistan by Witkoff and Kushner.
The New York Times published a fascinating article about Iran’s leaders this week. It appears that the Revolutionary Guards are actually in control of the government, and it’s not clear if the men doing the negotiating actually have the power to make final decisions.
Farnaz Fassihi at The New York Times (gift link): A New Era and New Leadership: The Generals Who Are Running Iran.
When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran as the supreme leader, he exerted absolute power over all decisions about war, peace and negotiations with the United States. His son and successor does not play the same role.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the son, is an elusive figure who has not been seen and whose voice has not been heard since he was appointed in March. Instead, a battle-hardened collective of commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and those aligned with them are the key decision makers on matters of security, war and diplomacy.
In the Garden, by Thomas Little
“Mojtaba is managing the country as though he is the director of the board,” said Abdolreza Davari, a politician who served as senior adviser to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he was president and knows Mr. Khamenei.
“He relies heavily on the advice and guidance of the board members, and they collectively make all the decisions,” Mr. Davari said in a phone interview from Tehran. “The generals are the board members.” [….]
Mr. Khamenei, who was selected by a council of senior clerics as the new supreme leader, has been in hiding since American and Israeli forces bombed his father’s compound on Feb. 28, where he also lived with his family. His father, wife and son were all killed. Access to him is extremely difficult and limited now. He is surrounded mostly by a team of doctors and medical staff who are treating the injuries he sustained in the airstrikes.
Senior commanders of the Guards and senior government officials do not visit him, fearing that Israel may trace them to him and kill him. President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is also a heart surgeon, and the minister of health have both been involved in his care.
Though Mr. Khamenei was gravely wounded, he is mentally sharp and engaged, according to four senior Iranian officials familiar with his health. One leg was operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic. He had surgery on one hand and is slowly regaining function. His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak, the officials said, adding that, eventually, he will need plastic surgery.
Just a bit more:
Mr. Khamenei has not recorded a video or audio message, the officials said, because he does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak in his first public address. He has issued several written statements that have been posted online and read on state television.
Messages to him are handwritten, sealed in envelopes and relayed via a human chain from one trusted courier to the next, who travel on highways and back roads, in cars and on motorcycles until they reach his hide-out. His guidance on issues snakes back the same way.
The combination of concern for his safety, his injuries and the sheer challenge of reaching him has resulted in Mr. Khamenei’s delegating decision making to the generals, at least for now. Reformist factions, as well as ultra-hard-liners, are still involved in political discussions. But analysts say that Mr. Khamenei’s close ties to the generals, whom he grew up with when he volunteered to fight in the Iran-Iraq war as a teenager, have made them the dominant force.
President Trump has said that the war, along with the killings of layers of Iran’s leaders and security establishment, has ushered in “regime change” and that the new leaders are “much more reasonable.” In reality, the Islamic republic has not been toppled. Power is now in the hands of an entrenched, hard-line military, and the broad influence of the clerics is waning.
“Mojtaba is not yet in full command or control,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa for Chatham House who has contact with people in Iran. “There is, perhaps, deference to him. He signs off or he is part of the decision-making structure in a formal way. But he is presented with fait accompli presentations right now.”
So it appears that the Generals are actually running things in Iran now. You can use the gift link to read the whole article. It’s very interesting.
Back in the USA, the DOJ has withdrawn the charges against Fed chair Jerome Powell, but the damage is done.
The New York Times: The ‘Lasting Damage’ of Pirro’s Abandoned Fed Investigation.
The Justice Department’s criminal investigation of the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome H. Powell, appears to be over. But the ramifications for the central bank are likely to prove much longer lasting.
Nine months after President Trump made a hasty visit to the Fed’s Washington headquarters and promised to “take a look” at a costly renovation, the administration has concluded its inquiry with seemingly nothing to show. Far from the criminal charges that they once pursued, prosecutors left in their wake a dark cloud over the institution and the person Mr. Trump has chosen to next lead the central bank.
The about-face has removed, for now, the immediate threat of a further escalation against the Fed. It has also potentially cleared a path for Mr. Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, Kevin M. Warsh, to succeed Mr. Powell, whose term ends on May 15.
By Richard Williams
What will be far harder to recoup is confidence in the Fed’s ability to operate independently from a White House that has shown little restraint in its efforts to bully the central bank into slashing interest rates.
Even as Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced that the investigation was shutting down, she warned that she would “not hesitate” to reopen the inquiry if warranted. Ms. Pirro added that she had asked the Fed’s inspector general to take over the investigation, even though the internal watchdog had been looking into the matter since July….
Kathryn Judge, a Columbia Law School professor who was a Supreme Court law clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer, said she feared “lasting damage” from the investigation into Mr. Powell — not only for the Fed but for policymakers across government.
Until now, she said, officials did not have to worry about repercussions from “taking a strong stance on policy issues in ways that are inconsistent with the president’s agenda.” But that was the sort of pressure that Mr. Powell faced as Mr. Trump sought to force rates down.
There’s some news about Trump’s corrupt case against the IRS.
NBC News: Judge questions legal basis for Trump’s $10 billion case against IRS.
A federal judge is asking the Justice Department and President Donald Trump’s private attorneys to explain whether his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, an agency he oversees as president, is the type of dispute federal courts can hear.
In a Friday order, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams questioned whether an actual disagreement exists, writing that a case can only stand if there is “adverseness” between the parties.“Typically, adverseness is found in a situation where one party is asserting its right and the other party is resisting,” Williams wrote. “Consequently, if there is no adverseness, there is no case or controversy.”
The Constitution’s “case or controversy” clause says federal courts may only hear actual “controversies.”
The judge ordered both parties to explain “whether a case and controversy exists” by May 20. Williams set a hearing on the matter for May 27 in Miami.
The order comes as both sides seek to resolve the dispute. Attorneys representing Trump and the IRS asked a federal court in a joint filing last week to pause proceedings for 90 days while the parties hold talks to find a resolution.
How the hell can they resolve a “dispute” when Trump is the boss?
Trump sued the IRS and the Treasury Department in January alleging that the agency was at fault for the unauthorized release of his tax documents by a government contractor who shared them with news outlets. Trump argued that the IRS did not take the necessary steps to prevent the actions of the contractor, Charles Littlejohn, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 following a guilty plea.
In her order, Williams did recognize that Trump sued the IRS in “his personal capacity,” rather than as president, but wrote that “he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.”
The corruption in this administration is beyond belief.
Some good news–it looks like Trump’s “SAVE” act is dead.
Al Weaver at NOTUS: Senate Republicans Bench Trump’s Voting Bill.
Senate Republicans have sidelined the SAVE America Act, arguing that it shouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the party’s priority list, especially amid the Iran war and growing economic woes.
Quiet Day by Yuriy Sultanov
Republican leaders this week were forced to remove the proposal as pending business in the chamber as they shifted gears to pass the budget resolution. That effectively benched the bill — which has been championed by President Donald Trump and considered a top agenda item — after an extensive pressure campaign by conservative members and influencers.
The necessary move, however, was greeted with a sigh of relief by a number of Republicans who, while supportive of the measure, believe it’s time to move on to more pressing matters. They also believe the pro-SAVE America Act blitz, led by Sen. Mike Lee and like-minded conservatives, did little to help the case, and may have backfired. Members are ready to bid it adieu as they near the final six months before the midterms.
“They’ve convinced themselves that the longer it hangs around, the more popular it gets. The reality is — I’m quite certain they haven’t gained a single vote, and may have lost a few with time,” one Senate Republican told NOTUS. “There’s some things that aren’t possible, and this is one of them.”
The member noted that while key parts of the bill — which requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote — poll well with wide swaths of Americans, including Democrats, it is hardly considered a leading issue for voters.
“When put in a lineup of the top 100 things people are thinking about every day, it doesn’t get very high on the list,” the senator continued. “We’re spending a lot of the precious resource of time and energy on something that’s not top-of-mind awareness to voters.”
I already had to produce a photo ID and prove my citizenship when I registered to vote. Good riddance to this idiotic bill.
A follow-up to The Atlantic story on Kash Patel:
Joe Sommerlad at The Independent: Atlantic writer sued by Kash Patel says she’s been ‘inundated’ with new sources corroborating her reporting.
Sarah Fitzpatrick, The Atlantic investigative journalist behind last week’s bombshell story about FBI Director Kash Patel, has said she has since been “inundated” with messages from new sources corroborating her reporting.
Fitzpatrick’s story alleged that Patel drinks to excess – so much so that, in one instance, breaching equipment was ordered to break into a locked bedroom when he did not respond to inquiries about his well-being. The profile and also characterized him as deeply paranoid about being fired by President Donald Trump.
Patel claimed the stories were false and has filed a ludicrous lawsuit.
Speaking to the Radio Atlantic podcast one week after the article, Fitzpatrick was asked about the director’s retaliatory moves and said she was undaunted.
“My response is that I stand by every single word of this report,” she said. “We were very diligent. We were very careful. It went through multiple levels of editing, review, care.
“And I think one of the things that has been most gratifying, after – immediately after the story published was, I have been inundated by additional sourcing going up to the highest levels of the government, thanking us for doing the work, providing additional corroborating information.”
Fitzpatrick said that she used more than two dozen sources for her original report, characterizing the officials she spoke to as “people who felt that not only was this conduct embarrassing, unbecoming, but that it was a national security vulnerability, and that Americans were perhaps less safe as a result.”
Asked about some of the more shocking details in her report, she said: “I had never heard anything like this as a reporter, and I think I spent a very long time, a very diligent amount of time checking it out because it was so explosive.
“And I think the fact that this was known throughout the FBI, throughout the Justice Department, that it reached the White House is because it was so alarming. And people were really frightened.”
There’s more at the link.
Those are the stories that caught my attention today. What’s on your mind?
#AyatollahMojtabaKhamenei #CoolHandLuke #DonaldTrump #FedChair #IranRevolutionaryGuards #JeromeHPowell #JoyHarmon #KashPatel #Pakistan #PaulNewman #SarahFitzpatrick #SAVEAmericaAct #TheAtlantic #TrumpIRSLawsuit #USIranPeaceTalks -
In or Out?
Since I stepped back from blogging with the post linked here below I felt I haven’t left it in a great place and as thought matured along to the stream of world events it feels as a capstone that if not published would be sorely missed:
With this post I dispense with any structure, schedule or direction the blog has previously had. I intend to add to it a post at a time, if and when my perspective feels unique or valuable. I think events have now taken their course with sufficient clarity and understanding present in public discourse that I don’t expect to be posting too often.
In this post I include a paragraph on interpersonal relations and draw a line under my professional experience. I’m positive that’s not a lecture you need to hear. But, I must put out there what’s cool and what not just as the info seemed to have come across a well suited place to reside.
While my views and sentiment are fundamentally unchanged I hope you will find the synthesis sufficiently fresh and insightful.
The feature image comes compliments of Gemini, who as well enriched my vocabulary with the word “capstone” above as well as thought of a topic without which this post could hardly be considered complete.
I leave you to it.
The quintessential thesis to the virtue of capitalism, or rather, the freedom of enterprise and accumulation of private property is that it rewards both acting in the interest of society (i.e. fulfilling its needs) and efficiency. The latter is obvious to every child: between two entities, the one that’s more efficient (i.e. earns more against minimal outlays) will retain a greater share of aggregate profits and command the greater investment budget. However, as the offerings to be made available are selected to maximise profits rather than broad utility does that mean that the needs of society are the needs of those with (most) wealth? Do mainstream politics and media serve the exclusive purpose of disguising the will of some as the will of all? Are inequality and social exclusion implicitly embedded in the cognitive framework that so permeates Western culture? Is awareness of such a lacking social contract held back due to vested interests who, in their limited and short-sighted view, believe they benefit from the status quo? What, in fact, are the pillars of our social contract? Are these arbitrary? Outdated or current? Do they contribute to an efficient and prospering society? Why is it that as everyone rushes to please capital holders most all work is done behind closed doors? Does society know what it wants and what is good for it? As well, once it understands this can it afford it? Economics has not yet devised a way for one person to make themselves richer without making someone else poorer; the former’s profits universally come from the latter’s pockets. Is our system failing us, or has it been precisely designed to deliver slow progress at the cost of human sacrifice?
The historical antithesis to capitalism has been communism: exclusive public ownership of the “means of production” and state central planning. However, rationed welfare distorts the earnings incentive and steers competition in the direction of obtaining the greatest portion which usually both directly detract from productivity. Instead of distributing the objects of desire, I observed, a better suited strategy might be to distribute the means of production and so ensure a certain amount of challenges and novelty are circulating in the economy.
Opposite to progress is the tendency to simplify the analysis down to these two historic extremes, often practiced by the machine geared toward maintaining the status quo. In reality – for better or worse what keeps the world running are mechanisms that evolved which are ideologically neutral, e.g. money creation in the banking system, continuous legislation and governance extending across the private and public sectors. Interventions have outcomes and, I argued, we should aim to direct policy by choosing a set of interventions to maximise expected aggregate wellbeing which I took to be synonymous with opportunity.
For both the species and everyone individually to prosper we must cooperate with one another. Diligence and the drive for self-sufficiency erode wasteful bloat and focus resources toward providing the most refined commonly used offerings at scale. The redundancy associated with self-sufficiency, as with competition, is the price society naturally pays to maintain its fitness. However, the excess of such redundancy is harmful since it directs resources away from their optimal use.
The distribution of welfare, i.e. the division of profits remains a central issue.
Overlapping it in part is the question of balance between the material and the “spiritual” (at the two extremes one might call themselves a materialist or a spiritualist; some might even flip-flop depending on how much they crave the good things in life and what they feel those are) that in part dictates the social contract: what standards of material well-being does society provide for “spiritualists” and what burdens does it place on those choosing to focus on the mundane?
Ceasing to care for the state of the world we pass on to the next generation is the ultimate irresponsibility bordering on malevolence.
Personally, I aspire to be a mundane, rational person and find appeal in meditation.
Now come to think of it, living beings adapt to the existence of other living beings in ways that transcend feeding on them, e.g. behaviours that have evolved to punish lack of effort in cooperative tasks as well as reciprocal altruism. This is a central theme in Dr. Sapolsky’s work that I’d come to appreciate by (again) waffling about it.
From a rationalist perspective, very few things, if any, are as low as brute emotional aggression. I mean specifically compensating for lack of approval by going after emotional injury, and in an automatic, reflexive way – kind of like the jelly fish becoming agitated at its reflection in a tilted mirror – the other fish that’s slacking – swimming less aggressively toward the fish in front, not fairly and reciprocally cooperating, putting itself on the line. (You know? Actually, those are sticklebacks.)
Also on that list must be ad hominem attacks looking to exploit the relative obscurity of a subject matter and gain an outsized chunk of credit and social influence for oneself. Think of this the next time your boss, coworkers or (so-called) friends play devil’s advocate. In the meanwhile does anyone keep track of the outcomes and the details? I’ve made my share of mistakes – in software – one that has made history with the root cause never being found while others resolved through agility by correcting assumptions – a process so routine that I can only recall one or two; and – in markets being the more difficult to get right and discussed on this blog – these were more numerous and fall to partition between getting the weights of different factors wrong and missing the time-frame in which certain hypothesis would play out, both of which I like to think would benefit from having spent more time and looked in more depth. But with markets there is also the factor that the correct answer is not the correct answer, instead the correct answer is what most people, most money, will bet on it being. With this in mind considering the markets as a proxy for the truth falls somewhere between naive and delusional. E.g. the efficient market hypothesis can, at best, be correct only if a good amount of market participants stands not to lose from fair valuations… which may come to be only after market makers have secured positions for themselves (as Dr. Burry would say).
Here below I will revisit topics this blog revolves around, of course, but I will start with one I’ve not discussed earlier: AI. First of all, the technology already has surpassed general level human intelligence. It most certainly is smarter than me. Its ability to interpret (complex) metaphors, find emphasis, provide examples and the level of knowledge embedded in the models is astonishing. Having a benevolent and aligned AI companion is in the interest of everyone. The ability to gain deeper knowledge, insight and inspiration, the gift of time is well worth having to deal with the disruption to established practices. As ever, those who come out on top will be those found to have interpreted the moment as an opportunity and made the most of it. In my view, AI is disrupting everything at once through two vectors: client facing and internal. In the former sense it’s an added cost no company can avoid. Everyone must provide an AI interface to customers or risk obsolescence since natural language will be the way we interact with computers. (It took only thirty years.) As well, companies can expose functionality to be used by agents or even make agent templates available to customers. Along the other, firms will be looking for the AI to provide the highest value. Think of it in terms of an antithesis to the suffering of Marvin from the Hitchhiker’s Guide. The quality of existing solutions and the IT will have a chance to claim importance. All business processes already are supported by software and, as Dr. Amodei insightfully proposed a key step will be to develop plugins to expose these nodes to the AI, beit for use by employees or the agentic force. There are many unknowns to play out and the future we hope to be blessed with will be anything but boring. This future has the potential to be more steeply expensive than anticipated as well as bring broad consolidation since absent added value or efficiencies, costs will necessarily need to be passed on to customers. At present, Wall Street finds businesses well enough capitalised and profitable for their spending to drive earnings growth in medium 10’s at companies delivering the AI products. The rapid technological change evokes thoughts of risk. Will anyone be able to talk their agentic database or network administrator that granting them access is a routine task? How many humans will be auto-clicking the approve button? Every plugin exposes a functionality to an attacker, increases the attack surface. Building out these capabilities requires a defence in depth strategy with meticulous testing. In a rush to market scenario while at the same time IT jobs are being eliminated how many organisations will follow that route successfully? On the one hand applying the same standardised solutions more rapidly and at scale will decrease bespoke vulnerabilities and transform the IT function as a differentiating factor between companies (rightly so, the clever among the IT workers will find themselves embedded in business teams), on the other it will potentially make the entire world vulnerable to a single exploit. So the game of cat and mouse shifts to the security teams working on model development. And then the more successful they are – the less they are needed. Ultimately, no revolution has an exact blueprint – and even decentralised computing would be vulnerable to a poisoned pill. Ignorance is bliss, if no one can access the codes, if no one understands them, no one can break them – let computers build themselves? If only it were that simple. Software available to the public can be reverse-engineered and these elements used to drive attacks on presumed enterprises utilising it. Fully open sourced software brings the highest degree of security. As the industry is set to consolidate and converge the present moment presents a crown to those who’ve advocated open source consistently throughout. But, it will remain up to companies to open-source their application portfolios and for others to pass on the cost and the risks to their customers. How about the contrary risk of a model crushing your closed source security architecture? Well, either customers will now pay more for what they thought they had all along – secure software or profits at software houses will fall. The fates of the CRWD’s of the world seem to be set to be entirely rendered obsolete by AI – as bloat virus scanners for containers should be (you’ve either built the correct source or included the correct provided library or you haven’t – their entire business is indicative of waste and business seems to be a booming; I mean who buys into that – right, the same people who pay MSFT, we’ve been over this already and found they’ll have a bright and shiny future – beyond even a question of accountability as CRWD was clearly not for the largest cyber-security incident in history that it caused). Detecting attack patterns in incoming traffick? You secure your endpoints, not put AI agents in a cage. Sure, some limits to reasonable behaviour might make sense but that’s hardly bullet proof security and, well – child’s play. Anyhow, first companies spun-off infrastructure, now infrastructure is spinning-off security, and everyone subscribes to corporate press releases as the source of truth. Be this as it may, Anthropic having the SOTA model and making it available to select closed-source companies means passing the cost while keeping the risk some other model provider might surpass it; though this would be that much more difficult if the source/service layout isn’t open to them to begin with. If you’re not on the list, you might as well wind down which makes the incumbents moats all that much more insurmountable – but what’s all this about anyway – it’s either MSFT or AAPL, AMZN or GOOG? The information technology complex having a ballroom constructed for them at the White House? Companies no one has and never will have any choice but to pay? With this installment of AI and its resource requirements the collective has prevailed over the individual, that much has been clear from the start. We are truly entering a time of universal control that will be close to impossible for any single entity to contest and we shall call this security, freedom and democracy at the same time. To be clear, this installment of AI is not a superhuman general intelligence that is autonomous and benevolent to guide our existence in the direction of enhancing everyone’s quality of life, and breadth of choice. No, it is a tool to be used by those who possess it to further their own interests. The best we can hope for is for the latter of the two factions to emerge: one pursuing control and the other opposing it, for the former has without doubt been pursuing their agenda at pace for a while now already. We’re left to conclude what we’ve always known: a governing entity that can’t secure itself and its constituency will cease to be a governing entity. We might add that among all possible systems sustainable along this axis the best is the one diverging the least from the above stated direction of general wellbeing. In this respect, a superhuman AGI might prove more effective than any human government. What we can say about either one’s benevolence or prospects of peaceful succession is a question I’ll leave to the reader (or might be posed to an LLM). In summary, on the positive side software will become developed by fewer developers, better developers and development will be more closely integrated with and embedded in actual business functions while being supported by the AI capability, including security analysis – which will result in code being more broadly standardised (finally). Contrary, security afforded by the AI service subscription will become a function of ‘how much would a breach cost us’ and with this number being the absolute upper limit on spending for 3rd party security analysis an attacker with improved economics might be able to come out on top. This is especially so at companies that will use inferior models to aid their decimated ranks of developers while relying on security being a service. Last, fewer developers means fewer per developer licenses to pay hence the shaky confidence in the industry seems justified. As MF think, if it doesn’t have an AI model it’s not worth owning, but if it has one that it can successfully sell (and governments are a-buying, out of their shiny brand new five per cent of GDP defense budgets) than that’s just unbeatable at the moment. And then, the moats aside, companies listed above, the digital landlords who’ve snapped up all the NVDA silicon are kind of pressed to keep buying it since their competitive advantage can be somewhat eroded by the next-gen cloud provider running on next-gen silicon and this might very well be CRWV. ORCL? Hence, there can be a little bit of a tug of war developing here, with NVDA implicitly promising to deliver progress still in the ball-park of Moore’s Law for which it depends on TSMC (as everyone else). This has knocked out INTL – before everyone (in America) decided 5 nanometers is good enough. But, should progress stall price pressure will build up from other parts of Asia, so while I’m a huge fan here I am more cautious. Between a business driven by cutting edge tech innovation and one relying on government contracts clearly risk is an order of magnitude less in the latter. Relying on human stupidity takes it a notch lower so MF et al. all make sense, just depends how you spin it.
What is Wall Street telling us about the price action in technology stocks? These are cheap, technology is a buy because – get this – the growth premium, going by the consensus estimate, embedded in their stock prices is now below the market average. Like a good strategist, you should ignore any and all risks and buy those stocks that have fallen more than the market – because, you know, things such as war and technological revolutions don’t change outlooks at all. I suppose their readership already had in mind that what led the way up, where risk was bought also led the way down as risk was being liquidated – and will lead the way back up as the dip is bought (like it turned out). Pitching quantitative analysis for fundamentals, dressing up dip buying in a dotted dress while actually raising concerns about earnings makes for great entertainment that only Yahoo! Finance can convey with seriousness. But then, any serious Wall Street firm should by now have an AI agent that double checks the context in which their research and market commentary is disseminated and might drop any jokers way down on the interviews queue. While you could have read some great advice you also could have walked away thinking AI disruption is limited to the software industry – where, indeed, it is most glaring – instead of jotting it down as ubiquitous.
Alright. Now for the question Gemini motivated: how will the AI disruption affect employment? My own answer is that it will not reduce it in the medium term but companies will need to be flexible with hiring. As we can conclude from the above discussion to deliver the added value companies will need employees. Whether customers will experience a value explosion or a value blip it will be down to everyone working on it. This is somewhat of a big ‘but’ so I leave room for unemployment to marginally edge higher under the effects of the said disruption.
Moving on to the macro picture, the media have managed to paint it so that economists came out wrong to predict a recession due to tariffs in H2 2025. Since, the harmful effects of the levies have gone largely unmentioned. My own rudimentary model estimated the aggregate effect of MAGA economic policy to be detracting anywhere from two to four percentage points from US GDP growth (depending on parameters as they were evolving). In reality it slowed by 0.7%, with the economy having grown 2.1% in 2025 compared to 2.8% in 2024. I believe the economists estimates alongside my own failed to predict the boost in consumer and business spending caused by front-running tariffs complementing the conviction of the MAGA consumer. These two factors turned out to be a major tail-wind for the economy in the previous year. We would be very foolish to misconstrue this idiosyncratic and transitory event as evidence that policy is salutary. Its full effects will become evident this year and will have the ill fate of measuring against an inflated baseline. So far tariffs have had the single effect of reducing importer profitability as consumer prices remained relatively stable. If and when prices ultimately rise and the US trade deficit declines (against its medium term average as I originally modelled) the negative second order effects of a loss of income in the import/merchant sector will proliferate. To the contrary, the economy will continue to derive strength from digitalisation trends (that I previously mysteriously referred to as novel opportunities) and AI investment. With consumer confidence now at an all time low, the economy seems to have some ways to go before convincing everyone it’s not quickly turned into a one trick pony. The timing of the Iran war coincides with the y/y sliding frame of oil prices changing from deflation to stagnation: oil had bottomed at $60 in April of 2025 as OPEC hiked production. While this in and of itself would have eliminated a tail-wind for the Fed to cut rates, the current circumstances are of an outright inflation shock. In this context, the US maintaining the previous year’s growth rate should be seen as a major achievement.
Another aspect of policy that I got wrong was the evolution of the budget deficit. In fact, it had shrunk during the previous year both in absolute terms and, clearly, as a percentage of GDP. The fiscal discipline is amenable (despite the upside down amendments to the social contract in support of it), but the growth projections associated with the OBBB will come under test, which in conjunction with war time spending may necessitate further spending cuts if the deficit is to maintain its downward trajectory. Translated into outlook for US rates this spells increased uncertainty, quite far from the tranquil environment Sec. Bassent and Mr. Musk were eager to paint past summer. They would “work with the markets to bring rates down.”
Professional economists make predictions that can be entirely ungrounded. Take for example the March jobs report that blew past such expectations, as it was interpreted, due to an unwind of a healthcare strike. How can an entire profession miss something as large? So, we can make two claims: the number for the month is a statistical anomaly rather than indicative of strength and the estimates themselves serving to backstop a signal to the markets. A beat of expectations is interpreted by algorithms precisely as an indicator of strength. The prevalence of algorithmic trading places holistic assesment of risk on the back seat.
In this light we can take expectations of corporate profitability to rise through to the end of the year with a pinch of salt.
The economy continues to be seen as strong and equity prices supported, as while investors are more concerned with securing their share rather than the relative efficacy of such investment. We can state that the appetite for risk drives the news cycle rather than the other way around.
Last year I wrote about bank earnings growth hitting a ceiling due to the lower IR on reserves and a presumed top in frothy markets. In addition the capital adequacy ratio (CET1) limits available balance sheet capacity and it has been steadily dropping across the industry since the beginning of the Trump 2 presidency. At the present pace for instance it should take a major US bank bellwether approximately (only) a year to expend the excess buffer it has over the statutory limit, or alternatively a loss of approximately $40B (having accounted for the reservations for credit losses held as Tier 2 capital) for it’s credit growth potential to evaporate. For reference, the geometric average of the said institutions annual balance sheet growth since 2021 was 3.77%. Peculiarly, net income for the full year 2025 is just <i>under</i> that of 2022 though double that of 2023 and at approximately 2/3 that of 2021. Meanwhile, the stock is up 114% since 1 Jan 2022 and 147% since 1 Jan 2023. The Trump 2 era de-regulatory response considered is to reduce the required CET1 ratio and thereby increase lending capacity. More leverage, more risk? Seen this once before? That point is mute, more central is that within the present framework (regardless of its parameters) credit losses – coincidentally in the case of our bellwether equal in scale to the share repurchase budget – constitute a systemic risk to lending activity and hence the economy – a credit freeze 2.0 – this time even entirely not linked to any derivative instruments.
The 2026 funding requirements for big tech AI build-out exceed the balance sheet growth of this major bank more than six times over. Taken in hand with long lingering doubts about the quality of private credit portfolios (which by definition lack transparency), this has the potential to limit growth or even lead to a liquidity crunch that the central bank would need to mitigate.
While the bulk of debt is held off balance sheets, nonetheless it’s the expansion of the money supply that enables its steady growth.
In the world of investment banking the inflation in equity prices means of course a rise in commissions but the slope of the increase can’t reasonably be considered sustainable. The same goes for M&A activity (boosted by deregulation). The easy money has been made. Analysts have caught up. Of note, momentum leaders would have to grow earnings 10x to come in line with market average P/E. Hardly anything to it.
Just as well, relying on dip buying regardless of any risk factors has worked twice now for the Trump administration. Such a reflex has generated a momentum shift and pushed a stalled bull market back towards ATH’s and beyond. But, the current instance still has the capacity to play out as the “Trump put” that bounced: reversing the effects of the war, compounding the economic damage already inflicted by administration policies that caused the market to top at the start of the year in the first place is certainly not in the MAGA chief’s power: he’s not in possession of a magic wand, no matter how deep in the depths of delusion we decide to venture, right? One time or the other it will become clear to the hordes of dip buyers that this dip is not going to bounce and when that happens the effects of the unwind in momentum might be severe.
Economically, if the Iran war were to end tonight it’d take at least months for supply routes and prices to normalise and if you’re drinking the official kool-aid this could easily slip your mind.
Crossing into politics, having myself denounced the present Trump regime as soon as it was elected, I fully blame Europeans and the unified global political right for the complete and final disintegration of the system of international law. The US/Israel war with Iran started with the assassination of the country’s leader amid negotiations. This seems to be becoming somewhat of a specialty of the two country coalition and I wonder what fate awaits the current leader during the ongoing fortnight of ceasefire. Chop heads off until one emerges that agrees to our demands – the good old time-tested strategy. It became shockingly clear right from the onset that the MAGA regime will lead brutish politics and the Allies not having drawn red lines from day 1 is a historic disgrace. “We’ve learned from history and stand up to bullies,” said the moral midgets and lap dogs.
Trumpism can never be considered a legitimate nor democratic policy.
Iran challenged the gorilla that is Trump to an open fight and as it stands at the time of this writing with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz now double-sided the situation might require a military solution despite administration statements. Even as the US is almost certain to prevail in that scenario, tail risks notwithstanding, there would be strategic damage to US posture, in the range from a deficit of munitions to revealed tactics. For what? If Iraq (and Afghanistan) are the blueprints for success it would seem that the US vision for South Asia is a stream of countries having the following characteristics: i) their territory will not be used in support of terrorist attacks on the US or Allies, ii) they will not align with Russia nor China, and iii) if they have oil they will allow US companies access to it. What I am taking aim at is that these spell oddly like conditions we would expect to find in colonies with little to offer to the domestic populations.
Looking back to the root of the hostility is of course the long standing US ‘friendly dictators’ foreign policy: having overthrown the obedient Shah, the present regime in control of significant oil supply found itself instantly targeted as a superpower on principle can not allow its will to stand opposed – beit to control the supply of the fossil fuel or AI technology.
In all, it’s the ‘soft power’ aspect of NATO as a collection of obedient regimes that MAGA seem to have deprecated in understanding, replacing it perhaps with a novel mechanism to deliver colonial obedience – that of the clandestine hierarchy of the global political right.
Thus, the person having chosen to wiggle the biggest carrot, with his staking the “special relationship” is of course fully to blame for the global debacle – this being Keir Starmer (and throw in the cabinet – especially the foreign secretary, current in a long line with only their toes barely sticking out of US’ rear). The UK, along with everyone intended on being part of the free world, need a strategy aimed at opposing the control of the global right rather than delivering themselves into it.
On the contrary, Spanish leadership in opposition to Trump is admirable.
The strong states of the Eastern block – China and Russia – are not the solution but are neither any more the opposite – the EU has just such countries in its ranks – having parted with being secular, where culture and opinion is prescribed – and growing more similar by the hour. Whether it’s the pantone blue or stripes that accompany the stars that folks are wrapped up in, or the Union Jack – say it’s not so: surely we are not hypocrites, fighting wars of expansion and control.
Now, opposition parties in “developing democracies” who are long down the road toward centralised authoritarianism can’t any longer point to the developed world and say – look how liberties and human rights are protected; instead the developed world points at them and says – look how a strong state can be made to work (in an exercise of narrow framing). The elections in Hungary were the victory the Hungarians were looking for. The outcome is that the so-called European People’s Party will grow another tentacle. The right, firmly in control, will push as far as they can get away with. The new leadership, rather than being a direct vassal of Trump and Putin in the global order, will pursue more close integration with the economies of the Balkans under Merz’ scepter and foremost to the benefit of ‘entrepreneurs’ who are properly aligned. I see little that can change. After all, a topic in the elections was who can more effectively suck the straw of EU funds. Nothing in the way of that model is contested, nor will have Hungarians become suddenly less closed.
As well as Trumpism, the policies of the EPP can never be considered legitimate, can never be considered anything more than a foil to deliver their people’s into a form of serfdom.
Alas, people’s minds have become so inert that they happily and continually choose the lesser evil and expect this to change their fortunes for the better. Hungary is owned by a select few “families” as my native Croatia… If you’re there, I hope this catches your attention after the punch leaves your system. But much more likely people hearing this would be baffled with what at all is wrong with two neighboring conservative countries being focused on preserving their national heritage? Just the price they pay for it: social justice and progress; the personal wellbeing and independence of their populations – causes they probably never really prioritised, valued highly or understood.
This being said, congratulations to Hungary – I’m happy to see Orban gone, he’s been irking me since his very start.
For the final political remark, regarding the global geopolitical balance – if the US has expended strategic resources then the opposing side (being Russia) fails to acknowledge they’ve already suffered a major loss. If for them the wars were a way to minimise the long-term strategic disadvantage this has utterly failed. Sure, perhaps NATO is not in Donetsk but many former allies along with Russia itself look like Swiss cheese. It’s way past time to commit to a new strategy. It’s way past time to make peace. The greatest victory both sides can claim would be to save lives not already lost.
With this I approach another topic that I wish I picked at with more calm earlier: TSLA. Seing millions having saluted along Musk’s extended right hand declaring that sales will <i>completely</i> evaporate was nothing short of unhinged. Regardless, in my perspective if it is to merge with SpaceX there will be a valuation gap to bridge. On the one side, business across vehicle deliveries, taxi and Optimus programmes will continue to be <i>slow</i>. On the other, SpaceX may equally so struggle to convince of its earnings potential. Both the IPO and the merger are inviting of scrutiny. Since the public will be aware any valuation the IPO fetches will in part go toward buying out TSLA shareholders there should be a cap on the IPO valuation. Conversely, TSLA price will be supported up to the level the market believes SpaceX can pay. If the underwriters pull this off without collapsing the earnings multipliers then they will have deserved every cent of the fees they’ll be paid. If not, I get to smirk when TSLA becomes “[that] cheap” again. But I mean – a giant space/AI/chips/communication/media/robots/vehicles corporation plugged into the government, what’s not to like? It will be raining money so long as they can deliver on these segments – and in all reality that will come down to whether they can attract the necessary talent. I for one would not like to work there (I see myself firmly in the other factions camp) but I can get if people find this amalgamation intriguing. The stock itself is a proxy for risk so, with the market having recovered to ATH’s on the back of the momentum shift caused by the bounce off the Iran war bottom, it shouldn’t surprise it too popped to catch up.
To wind this post to a close I’ll review the behaviour of bitcoin in the lens of my previous writing. Fistly, since the ATH in October 2025 it’s sold-off that in hindsight we can interpret as a leading indicator for the equity market. It bounced back as the S&P etched out ATH’s in late January but quickly took another major leg down along with sentiment. It’s currently trying to break higher on the momentum mentioned above. As such, its behaviour is entirely consistent with that of a (high) risk asset. Having previously colloquially characterised it as a perpetual far OTM call option, I note the divergence in its price from the equity market at the onset of the war when BTC rallied – seemingly acting as a safe haven. As I wrote before, I believe this may be down to traders using BTC to hedge their equity shorts, so that in general we need to mind whether bitcoin will behave differently to our base expectations around inflection points.
I also interpreted the crypto token as CDS. Having revisited that text I found it somewhat incoherent so definitely a clarification is due. But moreso the confusion extends to my central text (“Bitcoin and the modern economy”), specifically the paragraph concerned with “enumerating the motives to hold currency,” where – intended on aligning the growth of the entirety of the money supply with the movement of interest rates – I entirely parted with logic. In fact, as the text surrounding the paragraph suggests, the two aggregates of liquidity-preference – effective liquidity and liquid savings of the private sector – have an <i>opposite</i> sensitivity to IR. In addition, we must break out financial markets liquidity from the speculative-motive within the liquid savings into its own aggregate alongside the two others. What’s more then, the precautionary-motive (i.e. the residual) while being part of the liquid savings will align its IR sensitivity with the other two top level aggregates. We conclude that as IR rise the speculative-motive and the income-motive will expand in part at the expense of the residual (which three together form the liquid savings) and in the other part due to shrinking effective and financial markets liquidity. This is consistent with rising IR causing bearishness and the liquid savings expanding being an indicator thereof. The converse applies when IR decline. Since our motives are, in fact, misaligned with respect to rates, the only reason we can state for the change in quantity of the aggregate money supply to be inversely correlated with rates is the effect of leverage: people will leverage more intensely and de-leverage less intensely when rates are low and conversely when rates are high.
From here, before we can make sense of our CDS interpretation, we must dispose of the assumption that credit spreads and CDS premia are themselves proportional to interest rates. This simply doesn’t necessarily hold: though they affect each other, credit quality can vary independently of the absolute level of IR – like sentiment itself, that after all we found it drives.
We have the following: the aggregate money supply grows with the economy. While bullish sentiment prevails money is leaving the “sidelines” (the residual component) and flowing into effective liquidity (transactions in the real economy), financial markets or, as interest rates rise, shifts within the liquid savings towards speculative and income motives. (Accounting for the shift is a matter of psychological preference). The price of bitcoin, as risk in general, is supported by money flowing into the markets. While the supply of funds – the liquid savings of the private sector that are available to be lend by the holders themselves or by banks that hold the funds on (idle) deposit – is decreasing relative to demand – the liquidity circulating in the real economy and the markets – it’s the perception of credit quality that supports the expansion of the aggregate money supply and somewhat replenishes the liquid savings relative to effective liquidity.
The price of bitcoin is one part sentiment (the OTM call) and one part CDS.
Alternatively, to consider the price in terms of the demand for the available aggregate quantity of money we state that it will fall/rise as effective liquidity (real economy; demand for funds) grows/shrinks relative to the liquid savings (supply of funds) especially relative to equities. This relationship will be we weighed by apparent credit quality or, rather, the prospective pace of the growth of the money supply directed at speculative purchases in the financial markets. More succinctly we can state that bitcoin trades in proportion to the money residual and the pace of bank (margin) lending.
So, the price of BTC will characteristically peak on two occasions: firstly, after bearishness peaks (i.e. maximum demand for cash – residual) and secondly together with bullishness (in the credit markets). In the first instance the central bank may be conducting QE or otherwise increasing the supply of currency which is in low demand due to a bleak economy and low interest rates. In the second, the peak of the economic cycle (growth) will likely come together with increased inflation and mark the high of demand for money (effective liquidity) while at the same time its supply will have likely been slowing due to rising interest rates. Sentiment peaks after the economy. This is what we saw in Q4/25 and Q1/26.
Subsequently, both the economy and interest rates moderating frees up liquidity and supports markets. We generally don’t go straight into a depression or QE right after or just because a cycle has peaked. Instead, the economy self regulates and in time conditions transpire for a new cycle of growth to begin.
Crypto peaked in Q4 as markets realised that the AI investment cycle will consume great amounts of capital, and that private credit markets are in dubious condition.
At present, the Fed and regulators are attempting to ease monetary conditions and with the economy growing modestly the price of bitcoin is in an up-trend. An ideal scenario for bitcoin, as used to be the case for equities during the Yellen Fed, is precisely such growth supported by easy monetary policy. On the other hand, the risk is a liquidity crunch induced either by inflation or a rush to safety (cash) should the economy deteriorate beyond expectations.
Markets may be experiencing a Tesla moment – if the bulls pull it off, they’ll have earned their laurels.
In yet other terms we can note the fall in price of bitcoin from its highs as a perceived increase in market risk. Following this reasoning, when everything crashes the supply of BTC will increase pari passu with that of “fiat” (or even more in a stagflationary environment which scenario falls far beyond the mental capacity of crypto boosting hot-heads). If we, as we should, express market risk as the coefficient of correlation of the down movement in prices of all stocks we would expect bitcoin to be falling when this value is the greatest and conversely rising on an equivalent move in the opposite direction.
Clearly, the hard limit to the pace of money supply growth in the form of the CET1 ratio mentioned above is a drag on the prices of cryptocurrencies (which, being risk and for as while our current monetary and economic system endures, in the event of a crisis must first liquidate before they can rebound on the back of liquidity provided by the central bank).
It’s also less than fully known, at least by myself, how much of an impact on bank balance sheets would a further drop in crypto assets bring which would make for somewhat of a self-reinforcing effect.
In all, these conditions should put a cap on returns. Bulls can look forward to an Iran deal that lifts sanctions and puts Iranian oil on the market coupled with positive earnings and outlooks enabling the present momentum to continue. Bears look to risk in private credit. A trap door remains under the markets and if they have thus far resisted the pull of gravity this only means there is that much more distance along which to accelerate on the way down.
The setup feels suspiciously like a bear market rally and in my opinion there is an elevated probability that risk will head for the exits some time in the following months. If we break through resistance at ATH’s where the S&P currently sits, this will be a sign to add risk in the near term. (That is, if unlike The Man you haven’t already. I promise caution at inflection points is costing everyone money. It’s the “nothing matters” rally, remember, once it gets rolling – and rolling it is.) In this case we might at first think crypto is poised to deliver the most convexity. However, we will bode well to recall that money will remain in demand, be it due to the presumed resumption of the investment cycle or the government’s efforts to reduce the budget deficit. Hence, while the token will be supported in the bull case I don’t believe it will make a new ATH this year. Of course, should the markets fail to meaningfully break higher this will put bears in control for the summer.
Question is how to best express our outlook. The answer I’ve come across early in this blog but didn’t formally explore. For the financially apt readers it will come naturally as the barbell strategy proposed by Nassim Taleb.
To conclude I will look ahead to some proposals that I hope will become central to Western politics.
From a Keynesian point of view, having explored the modern economy, we can state: inequality is the new unemployment.
And so we have to ask ourselves have mainstream economics once again become orthodox? Is our social contract incomplete and faulty? Can we come to see that repairing it would mean opening entirely new horizons of opportunity? But also that – those who have made the same realisations – the global right are actively working toward the exact opposite: making the world a set of disjunct states ruled by the elites. The status quo is rightly without popular support and the time has come to look for change. To not propose meaningful change is to align with the right. The goal must always be to deliver progress.
Can the US rise to the challenge? Is the constitutional stipulation that direct taxes must be apportioned inherently at odds with the solution? Is progressive taxation inherently un-american? Surely the wealthier should be allowed to keep the same proportion of their income as everyone? The Constitution is a living document in order to stop itself from becoming an obstacle to prosperity of the nation. To the contrary if it’s become its own purpose, the nations laws will ossify. A lesson from IT (shared by Mr. Beck, right?) is that projects that become difficult to change die. So, on the one hand we find the trickle down economics of an investment bubble: the wealthy having no purpose for their money, and having no way to spend it – they invest in increasingly dubious affairs being valued in private markets in increasingly pyramidal ways, protect their status and retain the bulk of the upside for themselves. (This is again a clue that we live in an instance of a nouveau aristocratic system.) A series of risky bets being an optimal investment strategy (Taleb, Kahneman), vast wealth enables it in practice and effectively perpetuates itself – a goal shared with any amount of capital, so that the only inherently unjust aspects that immediately pop to mind are the accessibility (barriers to entry) of the investment landscape to pools of capital of varying scale and disposition as well as the political acumen that brought about the unquestionable fact that the rich pay a lower proportion of their income in taxes than the middle class (perhaps on par with the poor, making for that “k”) – demonstrated by rules such as lower tax rate for long term investment and losses being deductible that perfectly suits the investment strategy and the character of the economy both.
Now, the fix afforded by the Democrats finally is starting to seem as approaching the meaning of the word: they seem to have embraced redistribution of wealth.
The issue I have with Sen. Warren’s plan is that it may end up concentrating more spending power in the hands of the government, in which respect Bernie’s proposal of a de facto universal income is most welcome as it leads to a bottom-up economy, that we would find on the other hand.
A final thought that popped into my mind on the matter is to consider the global political right merely want to preserve capitalism. To this I would respond that capitalism itself doesn’t pose the question of the origin of capital. A regulatory environment that continuously works to restore broad availability of capital (the trail on which we find the democratic faculty of taking loans) simply makes for better capitalism by both widening the range of offerings that are commercially viable thereby increasing their social utility, as well as providing means for entrepreneurship to proliferate and deliver these offerings.
Yet the right would collapse the entire argument and claim, against all reason, that UBI is communism. They would stipulate men must work for their meal and in doing so reduce capitalism to an advanced form of feudalism, of slavery – where men must be forced to work and the mechanism of coercion is poverty. They would make us all out to be silly and not understand that the national product is a result of work and that if we all decide to lay flat on our backs our UBI won’t be worth anything. And even if there would be those who do, society should find ways to organise – through technology and openness – to enable pioneers to step in their place.
The global populist right has been telling lies and playing tricks for far too long. The times are such that not to pursue justice means to be corrupt.
The only way to win the vote is to promise a better, more believable future.
This brings me to a close. While in this post too I may have erred, it has undoubtedly brought us closer to the truth. It is the only thing people truly can believe.
Thanks for reading through!
#AI #AMZN #Bitcoin #BTC #CRWD #CRWV #Economics #Economy #GOOG #Investing #Markets #MSFT #NVDA #ORCL #politics #Tesla #TSLA #UBI -
Savoury Life
I don’t know if my brain is becoming smooth.
Ideally it should be more wrinkly, the wrinklier the better, I am told.
AI usage, mental convenience and delegation and short-form content on the regular are making my attention span shorter.
I feel any information I do consume stays in my short-term memory box, and I am left on a weird intellectual loop. Saying, thinking, planning the same old things month in, month out, year in, year out, with no significant change occurring.
This is where I say it will all stop but I guess I am just fooling myself. At the very least, I am aware. Being aware is one step closer to making a change, is it not?
I am based in the Middle East currently. Since the 11th of May, 2025, actually. The situation here is stable but volatile. People are going about their daily lives while missiles are being intercepted every day – sometimes you hear them and the house shakes, and alerts go off on your phone that you can’t turn off saying to head to a safe space… except there are no safe spaces. No basements or bomb shelters, so you have to think where is the safest place in my house where I won’t get crushed? I am more worried for my kids than myself. If this war escalates to something nuclear I think we are all screwed, no matter where we are in the world. And I think it’s safe so say we all know this is a war fuelled by ego, Epstein file cover up, the US being in Israel’s pocket, Israel furthering it’s Greater Israel agenda and keeping Netanyahu out of jail… the US is ruled currently by an illiterate madman. But hey, are we surprised? No. We just hope to be safe, I think we can all agree on that. I am just really sad and shocked and worried for my kids’ future. The world we seem to be bequeathing to them is chaotic, frightful and full of smoke and mirrors. What is real, in this age of AI and corporate lies?
I shall try my very best here, in this torrid place. Summer is creeping back in, for there is no winter here, no spring and no colourful autumn. Just summer, hot hot burning summer, and gentle summer, or what people here call winter. I used to dream about this place, for it is where I grew up, but I am back now, and I long to escape once more. Just as I did as a child. Rose tinted glasses, folks.
We are at the mercy of electricity here. If it goes out, the cool air goes, and we are left to bake in an aching dryness that feels like death. It is death, it’s death. How can I raise my children in death?
Like I was raised in death?
Taught to fear everything, never to feel secure?
But I see people here and they are so secure. They are secure from the bombs falling, not even gasping or running when the shopping mall booms and shakes from interceptions above. Swishing around in their expensive clothes, heels clicking on polished floors, they feel secure. Their children are secure, no anxiety, nannies running after them, adhering to their every whim. Why then, am I insecure? Why are my children worried, afraid to fall asleep because a plane sounds too loud, afraid to go on a school trip because they may be left behind? Are they swallowing my insecurities? If so, that is very very bad.
I long to be back in a nature that envelops me and does not seek to devour my moist flesh. I long for my children to run in fields again, to climb trees, to fish for frogs in puddles and to collect the sweet scented roses that are abundant in my garden. I long for my little girl to pick up worms again, kiss them fondly and name them, to cherish the ladybirds that infiltrate our house through the seasons, hibernating in the corners of the ceiling for months on end. I miss the old oaks, the spring explosion of magnolia and cherry blossom.
But I don’t know what this future holds. And perhaps seeking financial stability that comes at the cost of health and happiness and a cool breeze is just… not… worth it.
#AI #aiTakeobver #aiTakeover #anxiety #blogging #childhood #family #iranWar #life #love #mentalHealth #middleEast #motherhood #personal #smoothBrain #thoughts #trump #war #worldOfAi #worldWar3 #writing #ww3 -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
#weeklyreview 05/2026
Summary:
Week 05 centred largely around frozen water. First in the form of our frozen lake, then black ice on my way to the office and eventually in beautiful frozen leaves on the weekend.
Sprinkle in some tinkering with flashcards, my new thermal camera and the usual food porn pictures. But there are also some pieces on chronic illness and updates on my reading.
Frozen Water
Sunday
On Sunday the brave winter swimming group gathered on the frozen lake and axed a square hole into the surface. After several weeks of constant below 0º C temperatures the ice thickness was close to 20 cm. With joined forces we managed to get it open with large axes and sledge hammers. A few of us took a refreshing dip in the water. I did not. I’m swimmer… not so much a sitting duck or floater 😀 I must be able to move to try and produce at leaste a little body heat and especially to distract myself from the freakin’ cold.
We left the ice shield right next to the hole and thought thats obvious enough that there is a hole. Unfortunately still a kid later managed to fall into the hole. Fortunately it “just got wet” as the hole isn’t that deep. But still a shock of course. We then tried to mark the hole more clearly with branches and spray paint.
Monday
In the night to Monday, after several days of really cold weather it suddenly started to rain. Instantly a thick layer of black ice formed and made the city really slippery and dangerous. Finally I could put my snow chains for shoes to use. They were sitting in our closet for a decade I think and waiting for their chance. Now it was the time. Strapped them to my boots and happily walked into the office. The trains were not going anyway because of the ice on the tracks and power lines. And biking would have been suicidal (still some people tried… I hope they made it)
Throughout the week it remained really dangerously slippery outside. One day I was brave (or stupid) enough to try the bike. It went OK and I survived. But can’t really recommend.
Saturday
As it continued to be below freezing point all the plants were covered with a visible layer of clear ice. On some plants that lead to beautiful ice sculptures that could be carefully peeled off the leaves. I collected a few of them and took photos graphs. Of course posted it on Mastodon as well and that post really got a lot of attention.
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
Tazzie
Finally my friend is back from Tasmania and brought me some sweet gifts. Among those is this super cool Tasmanian devil oven mitten. How cool is that!?
Food porn
I’m a fan of the “nose to tail” philosophy when it comes to meat. If an animal has to die, then we should use as much as possible of it.
On Sunday we had a classic German dish (I’d say): fried chicken liver with Potatoes and glazed onion rings. That was cheap dish my mother used to cook on Saturdays for us. For whatever reason liver was considered less valuable meat. Maybe for the distinctive taste. That’s why it was on Saturdays (an almost normal working day in the GDR) and not for Sundays.
On Monday is was over at a friends place for dinner. She’s a marvellous cook and fixed us chicken roasted on a bed of (basically) leek, white bean and bacon stew. I brought my famous New York Cheesecake for dessert 🙂
During the week kiddo demanded Schnitzel. Another famous staple of my mother. So it was Schnitzel with potatoes and a classic roux sauce and a side of beans.
New Toy
I’ve got myself a little thermal camera to toy with. I was always fascinated with being able to visualise invisible to the human eye things with tech. A thermal camera reveals infrared heat radiation. Now that we’re building out #project25 attic and do the insulation I thought it was a good time to give in and get such a camera (settled for a Thermal Master P1). It’s simply attached to my phone and the accompanying app produces images with various color themes and can also overlay the image from the phone camera. Really nifty toy 🙂
cooking dinnerShowing the underfloor heatingCronic Illness
My favourite author right now – Kristie De Garis – wrote another brilliant piece last week. This time about her chronic illness and how it’s perceived in society. Again a very on point and reflective post. Honest, concise and easy to read.
It resonates so much with me as my wife is suffering from chronic illness as well and describes the same issue. Chronic illness is not getting better. It’s fighting every day to not get worse. And that fight isn’t usually seen and even less understood by people without chronic illness.
Learning
As complained about last week that I didn’t learn enough I tried to make an explicit effort. Always wanted to learn to use the Linux terminal multiplexer
tmuxproperly. So I looked into it. But quickly my brain veered off into ideas on how to make this into a flashcard. So I started vibe coding a script that would generate printable flashcards from a Markdown file and published it on my Forgejo instance.But … I eventually also learned about tmux by using my flashcards. Also found a flashcard application for my phone and thought it’s a neat idea to build flashcards while I’m reading a book. So I’m now building a set of flashcards for the Vienna Circle
Reading
I’ve finished the “Manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. It was a fun read. Unusual writing style for me and at times a little confusing to follow whether it’s autobiographical chapter or a story about someone else.
I’ve now picked up a book about the Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis) by Karl Sigmund (with the help of Douglas R. Hofstadter … the author of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach). The title is “Exact thinking in demented times” and it’s about that gilded age in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th centuries and the breathtaking discoveries that were made by those famous scientists all at the same time fascism and Nazis rose to power in Germany and other European countries.
Still manage to keep my daily reading streak for this year… but then again it’s just January 🤦🏻♂️
#chronicIllness #enEN #flashcards #food #MECFS #project25 #tmux #Uckermark #weekly #weeklyreview -
I am experiencing myself very differently. Today's breakdown at church about mama trauma reflected in the lyrics was pretty major. In a really good way, lots of good ways.
I did that myself, with observers who were not observing. (Except I forgot that there were. Until just now, I forgot that there were skeptics in the room.) But no shoulder to cry on. No one thought I needed one, and I appreciate that.
But the woman next to me, who has quickly become dear to me in my weeks attending church at The Divine Assembly, and who is quick to offer hugs and would gladly let me weep on her shoulder, did not reach for me. I was not very aware of anyone but myself while I felt those feelings, and I believe she was in her own feelings, too.
I didn't feel on display, or like it was a weird thing to do, to sit on a couch in the middle of a Furniture Store* and just let my whole body weep about my broken connections. It was just me, surrounded by people that I know care about me, melting into a puddle. No explanation needed.
That's the most spiritual thing I can remember experiencing except for maybe the deer. Oh, yes. The deer. I need to think about this a lot. But anyway, I lived through a deer landing in front of my car, so close that as I saw it, I knew I must not have hit it if I was experiencing it, but just how the ever living fuck did I live through that?!? Like Thanksgiving day? I dunno now, might have been the night before. And so yeah, in retrospect that felt spiritual in a way I also couldn't begin to describe. But more like in a shock and awe sort of way. 🤷♂️
But like, the memory of the deer will be like the memory of the bunny rabbit (beans n rice daddy), and my heart will not forget the moment.
It hasn't been like that before at TDA although I've have cried a little at least once. But I brought myself as is, and that is where I was.
Feeling safe in my body changes my entire world, and I am incredibly lucky to have a new community at the same time. A church where I can go** feel safe and calm, on my own terms, without any sort of dogma. Just the basic tenet that there's no legal authority between myself and the divine. I can legally partake of the divine sacrament. 🍄
All of these things are just opening up for me at the right time, since I got back to Utah. Some is because of some force I have yet to understand, like buying Kaya's truck. I wouldn't have wanted or needed it until now, nor had it been offered to me. I am open to all of the possibilities right now. And I appreciate the chance to form intentional community bonds as I prepare myself to be open when the time comes for me to partake next time, as part of an intentional spiritual practice.
That feels pretty cool to say, TBH. It the first time that spiritual really feels like my word, instead of a word I am trying to understand.
Anyway, therapy tomorrow. I don't see myself getting laundry done first. But that's OK. I do not to need to look good for my therapist, I just need to be present and see where he wants to lead me and hope that I am ready to follow.
🦄*not yet open for the day, Walleroo's Furniture SLC
**church is a sober space, for anyone wondering - we do not partake of the sacrament there, that's not what Sunday church is for
#TDA #TheDivineAssembly