New and Events at Claranormal.com

11-27-10
More changes! The roster has been improved further still. Steve has stepped out of this group to pursue his own interests, and leaves behind a great crew! Steve hand chose this crew along with Justin, and has every confidence in them as they roll into the future.

11-07-2010
As we cruise towards bigger and better things, there have been a lot of changes at Claranormal, for the better.
There's huge and exciting news around the corner, and although that might not pan out (hope for the best plan for the worst) even without it there are big things coming.
We've been busy too, and not just with the radio show and investigations, but gearing up for even more things we can't talk about yet, as well as adding some new members. And as with all things like growth, there are growing pains. You come to expect it, even relish it.
On that note I'll end. I encourage you to check out our radio show, Claranormal Talk Radio, Psychic Angela out there in NYC, TheSTU.info, and XtremeHauntingsLive.

10-04-2010
Was on a different radio show tonight, and had a blast! Dave from Granada Theater was on too, and Scott Gruenwald  made an appearance.

10-03-2010
I've been remiss in reporting here about the SoCalParaCon, as well as anything else the last few months on the site, and for that I apologize.  It's not that I haven't wanted to report anything here, it's just that I've been too busy to do any web editing, so all reports of new stuff and news in general has been posted on our FaceBook page, and reported on our radio show, (http://blogtalkradio.com/claranormal) a quick and simple way to do this, and perfect for saving time. The radio show is currently on three days a week at 9:00 PM Pacific time, Tuesdays with an open format, Thursdays, Ask Ovilus, and Fridays which is Ghosts in History day.

Most recent news:
Yesterday was the SoCalParaCon, the very first one, and the largest paranormal convention ever in Southern California.  There were well over 200 attendees from what I'm told, and I was able to meet many really great people, and meet up with a some people I had met before. I did not snap any pictures of either the paracon, nor of the participants, as there were good photographers doing just that.

On the SoCalParacon, we were sort of junior members of the team that put it together, and really didn't do much to make it happen. We got in in the early stages, but not the very beginning, and our financial contribution towards the ParaCon was almost nil, this due to the fact that I and my business got into poor financial situation, and my energies and finances were needed to put towards saving my business. Yes, we promoted the Paracon, we made the suggestion and initial inquiry  into the L.A. Convention Center as a location for the event when the 2nd of three candidates fell through. I worked with the Museum of Death to secure that location as a second location for the AfterCon ghost hunt, but that was at Jessica's urging after the other three hunt locations fell though, one of which I worked fruitlessly on, that one holding the key to the other two. By and large, our contribution was miniscule, especially compared to the efforts of the others involved in the committee who put this on. And heading the committee was Jessica, who was, simply put, a rock star!

One of the funnier things I witnessed, funny to me at least, was the great number of people having pictures taken of themselves with the various personalities at the event, which to me is a rather odd custom. Although I certainly understand it, it really isn't my bag, as to me it slides perilously close to sycophantism. Don't get me wrong, I like and respect these people, I'm simply more comfortable meeting and conversing with the 'stars' in the paranormal field as colleagues rather than as 'heroes.' People are people, not 'photo-ops' as far as I'm concerned, but I don't begrudge people with the opposing view.
I saw Rex Williams, but he never got close enough to me to 'meet and greet,' and I've never seen his show anyway, so what would be the common ground in which to warrant shaking his hand and conversing with him? Same with Christopher Booth, he never approached close enough to meet, although I have seen some of the productions he and his brother have put together.

On that note, "The Haunted Boy: The Secret Diary of the Exorcist," based on the true story behind the movie "The Exorcist" looks like it's going to be great! Mr. Booth was there to give a preview of the film, and folks, this is a must see! I can't add any flowery descriptive to that, it's simply a must see.

 I have no pictures to prove I met Douglas Carnahan, Mark Nelson, Don Staggs (finally) Scott Gruenwald, et al, however I am none the less pleased with having done so. Don, Doug, and Scott are extraordinary individuals, in and out of this field. and each of whom I was greatly impressed with. A+ people. I only got to speak with Mark Nelson briefly when he was on his way out of the convention, and from the little bit of conversation I had with him, I'd say that he too is an A+ person.

On Mark Nelson, he gave a demonstration of psychometry, and although it seemed scintillating, from my vantage point I couldn't hear a thing, so my hope is that next year they'll have the personalities hooked to wireless microphones.

On Scott Gruenwald, and not to the detriment of any one else I met at the SoCalParaCon, he was by far was the most impressive. He's a super cool guy, a bundle of enormous energy, and he lets it all hang out. Simply put, he himself is a force of nature, an extraordinary individual.

To be sure, our group is sort of the "Odd Duck" in the local field. We were not "trained" or mentored by any of the local "stalwarts" in the field, nor were we trained by, or imitate televisions shows. We have learned the field from the ground up by studying the field in text books, and by experience in the field. Nor would we ever deign ourselves to be the end all, be all authorities in this field, as I have a conscious aversion to people who posture and position themselves as the greatest thing since sliced bread in any field. This, however, has left us a bit isolated from the local groups, something that hopefully my presence at the ParaCon helped resolve.

What's  amazing to me though, is that nearly every speaker I heard at the ParaCon thinks, believes, and works almost exactly as we do. One in fact trumpeted the work of late, great Hans Holzer PhD, a personal hero of mine, (which you would know if you've listen to my radio show over the last month or two) and someone who, if he were still alive, I'd be MORE than thrilled to have my photo taken with! That would be a picture worthy the undertaking of a tiny bit of sycophant behavior.

We have always promoted groups working together in this field and stopping the ego driven drivel which permeates this field EVERYWHERE, something we have harped on quite heavily on our radio show since inception, and have stated publicly many, many times, long before the radio show came into being. The good news is that most of the people and groups I spoke with at the paranormal convention were extremely forthcoming, open, polite and friendly, yet, and this just floors me, a few people were none of the above. No names, and that's how it'll stay.

The AfterCon P.I.E.
This is my term for it, a tongue in cheek poke in the eye at the use of acronyms in the paranormal field, and it stands for the After Paranormal Convention Paranormal Investigation Event.
The P.I.E. was originally set to go to 3 locations on Hollywood Blvd, but we just couldn't seem to hammer out an agreement with any of these places through no fault of our own. I'm not going to mention names, but one particular person in this fiasco refused to return calls, and we were sort of stuck without a P.I.E. location until almost the last minute. Luckily the folks from Boyle Heights Paranormal Project came though for the SoCalParaCon with Linda Vista Hospital.
This was the primary location for the P.I.E., Linda Vista Hospital, as seen on Ghost Adventures, You Tube and Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood (with yours truly). Even though the tickets for this were event were $75.00 each, all of the available slots sold out fast, as one would expect of an uber-haunted location which has been televised. Due to the sell out of tickets, I, along with a great number of others, were not able to attend the Linda Vista Hospital Investigation, as only so many people could be allowed in there at a time.
I was asked by Jessica, who was the primary force behind the ParaCon, to secure a secondary location for a paranormal investigation, and her suggestion was the Museum of Death on Hollywood Blvd., a business she'd been to before, and she thought was an "awesome place."
Well, as it turned out, I got designated as the lead for the Museum of Death, a place I have never before visited and knew nothing about, "leading" a group of people I had never met before that day, so "leading an investigation" was quite out of the question, as I had no idea of the investigators' techniques nor capabilities, nor what to expect of the Museum itself. I decided the best course of action would be to allow those who came to just "do what they will" rather than try and focus them in any particular area. Let face it folks, the people who went on the investigations are veteran ghost hunters in their own right, and really didn't need me telling them what to do. That would have been pretentious.
The Museum of Death is owned and operated by Cathee and J.D., in order of my introduction to each, and is managed by Eric. I spoke to Eric on the phone, a pleasure to be sure, and I met Cathee and J.D. for the first time the night of the investigation. As one would expect of owners of a Museum of Death, they are characters, but in a good way. Both being very lively and upbeat, they run the place in a lively and upbeat manner. A bit odd considering the  subject matter, death and the manner of deaths presented,  is anything but "lively." It was very much a pleasure to visit despite this apparent dichotomy.
Funny sight: I saw a lady and her husband enter the Museum of Death when I first arrived, and saw them leave a short time later, the lady obviously unsettled. Nevertheless I gobbled a foot long meatball sandwich from Subway before going in to see the exhibits, although I wasn't sure that was such a great idea. However, I had not eaten anything all day, was on the verge of passing out, so when I was told there was a Subway next door to the museum, I was off like a shot. Surprisingly I had no regurgitation issues at all despite the gore displayed. My grub stayed right where it needed to be.

The Investigation
I can't write on the Linda Vista Hospital investigation, because I was not permitted to attend, even after the Museum of Death investigation ended at 1:00 AM, so I'll leave that to those fortunate enough to have attended. Jess texted me at 1:12 AM from Linda Vista while I was on my long drive home asking if we were done with the Museum of Death investigation, (Scott and most of the people with him left somewhere around midnight) which was of course was answered with an affirmative, and texted back that we had in fact caught some EVP's, and had a sighting of an apparent spirit. Later she texted me that there was "awesome lots of activity" at LVH.

Back at the Museum of Death
This was the first ever investigation of the Hollywood Museum of Death according to the proprietors,
The ladies with a group from Stockton, California had both witnessed a ghost of a woman standing directly behind me, and I mean RIGHT behind me. My first instinct was the same as if they had told me there was a rattlesnake behind me, but I quelled that knee jerk reaction and held my ground. I don't run from ghosts or spirits, but usually head towards them. Still, it's a bit unsettling to have two people tell you, and confirm for each other that there's a spirit they can SEE behind you, almost breathing down your neck. I checked both of their eyes (not easy in the dark) to ensure they were both looking in exactly the same direction, at the same exact thing, and yes, they were. I wanted to be positive they were not engaging in an elaborate ruse, you know, a clever game of  "Scare the Ghost Hunter." Even though I didn't think they would ever do such a thing, I still wanted to be able to document for myself that this was an honest sighting. I believe it was.

The area that I feel was the most active in this building was the area with the Sharon Tate, and Elizabeth Short (black Dahlia) crime scene photos in it. We caught EVP's in this area, felt something moving around like a charged energy, and logged a 6 degree temperature drop in an area which had no openings in it at all, and which a short time later resumed it's baseline temperature. The Stockton investigators also had this stuff I have never used called "Ghost Powder," which is sprinkled on ones clothing, and which in theory 'lights up' or gives off visible light when said area of clothing is touched by a spirit in complete darkness. One of the lady's present said she was being touched by something unseen, and sure enough, the powder glowed, affirming this.

The second most I feel was the area with the severed head of a serial killer on display. This is an actual head of a man who killed over 200 women in France, and was executed by Guillotine in 1923. This is where the spirit of the woman behind me manifested.

We also experience 11 or 12 seemingly random hits on the K2 meter in various spots of the museum, from outside the front door, to almost every room.  These measured up to 10 milligauss, but what's odd is the the other EMF meter, our Ghost Meter, never sounded off once.

Lastly, I took a photo of the proprietors before I left to display with the written account and the evidence collected, but it did not turn out. Something odd happened to it, like a double exposure, but what's curious is that something moved in the photo which is not part and parcel of a double exposure. Further strange is that I examined the photo before leaving the premises, and there was nothing odd about it at all. It was clear, but when I downloaded the photo is was full of artifacts.

7-22-2010
I'm a bit slow posting this, but better late...

In addition to our regular stuff, living, working, doing investigations, parsing evidence and creating videos, we've also created a radio show! We've been hosting Claranormal Talk Radio since July 2nd, and though there's a learning curve, and it's not as easy to babble for an hour straight as one might think, at least for us, we're going to keep doing it for the time being. In fact we've expanded the show to two night a week, both at 9:00 PM pacific time on Tuesday and Fridays. You can find our show at http://blogtalkradio.com/claranormal.

6-11-2010
Ok, I've been keeping quiet on this for a long while, but I think the time has come to do some "debunking." We don't like to trash talk people or groups, and we don't like to bring negative discourse into play, but sometimes one must stand up and bring attention to that which is not right. Debunking is a term that we seldom use, because of the negative connotations that accompany that word. Reference.com's definition of "debunk" is: "to expose or excoriate (a claim, assertion, sentiment, etc.) as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated: to debunk advertising slogans." Synonyms include: "disparage, ridicule, lampoon."
Well, I'm not going to disparage anyone, nor lampoon anyone, but some ridicule is definitely called for and appropriate.
Straight to the heart of the matter: There is no such thing as actual, real paranormal certification, nor are there any degrees or certifications at accredited colleges or universities in this field. They simply don't exist, except as attachments to other courses, such as psychology degrees.
I cite this article from Yahoo answers,
and this from the same source,
and lastly, and I think the most important one from oddempire.org.
I'm not saying in any way that instruction, or learning from established people in the paranormal field is wrong, bad, or fraudulent, but if somebody asks you for money for a "certification," run. Run fast, run far. Don't look back. The same applies to "investigators" and ghost hunters who want payment for their investigative and ghost hunting services. In fact, many are likely the same exact people!
On that note, if a group, say, the hypothetical "Paranormal Reasearch and Investgations of Central Kentucky," or P.R.I.C.K. (what's with all the acronyms in this field anyway? Just because T.A.P.S. is an acronym doesn't mean you have to be too! Think for yourselves!!!) wants to offer a course which would then lead to a certification marking you as a holder and follower in their beliefs, in THEIR practices, (wouldn't that make you a P.R.I.C.K. Holder?) fine. Let it be marked as such. But realistically, you would then have to identify yourself as such, a P.R.I.C.K. certified group or investigator, or a P.R.I.C.K. Ghost Hunter, not simply a CERTIFIED investigator, lest you mislead the general public into believing you are something you're not.
Now for those of you who insist on being certified, we have just the ticket for you! For the low, low price of just $10, we'll be happy to send you this!

Click to enlarge

Receiver of Certificate

Date

6-07-2010
 Well, we got a little more time at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, found Valentino's crypt, said hi, and walked the mausoleum he's interred in. We also found Peter Finch, which was a surprise. Still, we had just under an hour there, really not even close to enough time to do even the most basic set up, but one does what one can.
 We also spent some time in the "gone too soon" section, the children's section, which just makes me sad. At least it's a little lifting to see the care people put into these plots, but not lifting enough to get over the sadness.
 After HFC, we ambled over for a day trip to Suicide Bridge in Pasadena, and by the time we got done we discovered a few things. One is that there are homeless people living in the bushes there, though they don't seem to bother the park users. Another is that the area under the 110 freeway bridge is awesome, like a huge, gray, concrete cathedral. I don't mean it's ornate, but just awe inspiring. There's about 3 acres of dirt beneath this overpass, which is a good 150 feet above your head, and that which is above you is graceful curving concrete arches. It was worth the trip just to experience that. The last thing learned was a lesson I have already learned, but didn't follow, and that is to dress appropriately. By the time we got done climbing around the underside of the bridge, we were soaked through with sweat, and I, the idiot I am, am in semi-dress clothes, and didn't bring a change.
Suicide Bridge is the only place where we've ever been blanked. Ok, not entirely blanked, in that we did get the picture of the thing we call "Satchel" last time, but that picture is so open to interpretation. So going there was part investigation, part mission. I dislike it when we spend time and get nothing, so hopefully we caught something this time. We won't review the evidence from this day trip for a couple of days, but when we do we will be thorough.
 After that we cruised up to Lucky Baldwin's Pub in old town Pasadena to meet up with the Yussi Paranormal group. Justin and Steve got there early and had a bite to eat (and coffee), and by the time they were done Yussi had shown up, and his group began to arrive. If you're in the SoCal area and want to go on a ghost hunt, or are just curious, we're always open to visitors, and I also recommend you check out Yussi's group. We enjoyed meeting everybody in Yussi's group, each being really great people, and are thankful for the opportunity to hang with them.
 From the pub we went, of all places, back to Suicide Bridge with Yussi Paranormal, this time focusing on the upper deck, something we've never done. There are a couple of particular places on this bridge where I was literally overcome with emotion, from desperation to extreme sadness. This should come as no surprise, as there have to be scores of imprinted emotions on this aptly named bridge, there having been well over a hundred people ending their lives there.
 We'll review our evidence over the next couple of days and see if we caught anything, and if so, it'll be posted on the appropriate pages. Hopefully the ladies and gents with Yussi's group caught stuff as well, especially this being their gig.

5-29-2010
Did a quick (10 minute) run through of Hollywood Forever Cemetery, stopped by Linda Vista Hospital, and did a quick revisit of  Oak Park Cemetery today. I'm tired!

5-24-10
Yes folks, two of our members, Scott and Steve, were on Tori and Dean May 24th, so you can stop asking! A great place, Linda Vista Hospital, and it was a lot of fun. We would do it again in a minute.

5-15-2010
Some huge news coming, most of which we're not permitted to talk about yet, and some of which we can never talk about, but we'll give that which we can, but only if it does not violate contract terms as well as our own code of ethics.

I'll start with the most benign stuff first.

We have submitted the story treatment and partial script I mentioned in an earlier post to a production company, but since they haven't  gotten back in touch or sent a release to be signed, I'm assuming that either they didn't get it (unlikely), didn't like it (likely), or deleted it after having been driven stark raving mad by the story (yeah, that's the ticket).
To be fair, we didn't send it in the exact format they called for, so they likely just deleted it, which is fine. I'll continue working on it in my spare time. So look for it in about 120 years.

Justin recently did an investigation with his girlfriend Sam at his girlfriends house, which apparently has a ton of activity.  Toilets flushing on their own, strange noises, doors slamming and ice cold rooms. The data hasn't made it in yet, but I'm told there's at least one great EVP, and a really creepy picture. Can't wait to see / post these!

We just received a brand new K2 meter, as well as a new "Ghost Meter" EMF detector this week, and in initial testing we have found that on some objects and areas each mirrors the other's resulting readings, but at times either is more sensitive and responsive to Electo-Magnetic energy than the other.  We're still working on a reason for this. We're also looking for a new Tri-Field meter at a good price, so if know of one, please drop us a line!

Those of you who have been constantly watching us, you'll note that you rarely see us using EMF meters, because basically, we really don't need to depend on them. Most if not all of our members are weirdly gifted to sensing the paranormal, so these meters are redundant, but you will see us filming our use of them more and more. As a documenting tool they are unparalleled, leaving that which we find a little less subjective.

Speaking of subjective, we also have a brand new Paranormal PX coming (it was shipped today, as a matter of fact) which will  probably arrive Wednesday. The PPX (Paranormal PX) is built by the same people who built the discontinued (and highly prized) Ovilus and the Paranormal Puck, and coincidently is like a melding of the two. Unlike the original Ovilus, it has a built in speaker, and like the puck it can be hooked up to a computer. It also doubles the original Ovilus's 1024 word vocabulary to 2048 words. This being a feature rich item, we can hardly wait to put it to good use.

Ok, on the thing I can't talk about, just be sure to check in here often so we can give you more information on the mysterious thing of which I write. That is once we're given the green light to do so. On this mystery item, we were told we could bring a couple people at most, which is ok because we only had a couple people available. I was one of them, and despite my discomfort when on the wrong end of cameras (that being the lens side...I've been working on overcoming this) there was no way I was going to miss this. I would have rather had Justin and / or Amber do this, either together or with Scott (who was spectacular, by the way), but that isn't the way the universe wanted it.
That's all for now.

Steve

4-18-10

3-13-2010
Since the below entry, we've been getting ready for some hunts, and have completed the first phase of one.  See  SJV Cemetery
Another thing we have in the works is our own film, which is currently in the story treatment / scripting stage. Now don't misunderstand: all of our videos are unscripted, all of our hunts / investigations are unscripted, nothing is pre planned, and it's all real. The project I'm referencing will be a fictional account based on real footage from our real investigations. As Gump would say, that's all I have to say about that...