The Truth About Witches Part 1

I am not a Wiccan anymore but I seriously get fed up with narrow-minded fools (usually Christians or other religious zealots) who consider Witchcraft 'evil', 'perversive', and 'demonic'.

First of all, Wiccans do not believe in the Devil.  Only Christians (especially), Jews, and Muslims do.  I currently reading a fantastically unbelievable book about a supposed demonic possession, The Day Satan Called by Bill Scott (no relation to Jill).

Typical of Christians, Mr. Scott refers throughout the book to witches and covens and Satanism.  Oh, he does admit that since his experience with the allegedly possessed person, he has learned that there are witches and covens that do not worship Satan but nature.  But the stereotypes persist.

The only people on earth one could confess to worshiping the Devil are Christians.  They spend so much time and effort and though on demons and their master Satan, that I often wonder when they find the time to expend on anything else.

Wiccans are not devil worshipers.  They are not perverts.  They are not freaks.  Wiccans worship nature and the Feminine - and this aspect of Wicca is the main reason they are so prosecuted.  Worshiping a female deity?  WTF...?!?

I will delve into this more fully in Part 2.

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The Myrtles Plantation

Is the Myrtles Plantation really haunted?  There is no scientific evidence to support ghosts and hauntings and all, and with the Myrtles, it is the hearsay of those who claim to have experienced the Myrtles spirits.  

Are these people experiencing so-called haunts because that is what they expect?  I watched an episode of Ghost Lab where those big, burly guys were just about freaking out because they supposedly were being touched, catching EVPs, and seeing or feeling things watching them that were not there.

When you expect something to be a certain way, it generally turns out to be like that.  There is a widespread, long-believed-to-be-Gospel that the French are rude.  Well, I have never had that experience in all my time spent in France (and I have visited the country four times since 1999).  I would have to state that the Spanish and the Italians are far ruder than the French.  My experience has been that the most gracious and polite of the Europeans I've encountered are the Germans, the Austrians, and to a slightly lesser extent, the British.  If you go to France expecting the French to be rude, you're going to have a noticeable attitude about you and the French people you deal with will notice this and react accordingly.  

Back to the Myrtles...

Okay, so people claim to have taken photos of ghosts there.  I have shot photos of dozens of places that could be haunted: Notre Dame (exterior & interior) , Hohensalzburg Castle that overlooks the quaint town of Salzburg, Versailles Palace, Schloss Neuschwanstein, the Bone Chapel at Kutna Hora (as well as the adjacent cemetery), Old Salem here in Winston Salem...and not one ghost has shown up in any of my hundreds of photos!  (And Old Salem is reputed to be haunted.  There is even a local historian who does a Ghost Walk of the area!)

I don't believe that the Myrtles is haunted.  I don't believe that people come back.  Once you're dead, you're dead.  I dare anyone who truly believes that this place is haunted to pay my expenses to spend a weekend in the old plantation.  If I experience anything supernatural, I will rewrite this blog post and apologize to all who have gone through a paranormal experience there.

Why are White people haunted?

 
Why does it seem as if White people are the only people who get possessed, haunted, and are victims of demonic activity?  (That is, if you believe people can become possessed, haunted, or victims of demonic activity in the first place.)

One almost never sees non-White people on paranormal shows.  I've seen one Black woman (married to a White man), perhaps four Black guys, two Asian fellows - and one of them was Daniel Hooven of The Paranormal Syndicate, and a Native American or two.  Usually, when you see Native Americans, they are there to cleanse the places of these hauntings and whatnot.  All the rest of the people have been White. 

Some might say that it is because there are far more White people in the United States than any other race.  I have spoken about this with others and their reasoning was that because of all the evil, barbaric, and hateful things that the Caucasian race has done to others over the centuries, they are under attack by demons more.  I am not certain I totally agree with this but the White people I've known over the years have been the type I wouldn't trust with my life if it came down to that.

Black people, at least Black Americans as I don't know anything about Blacks in other countries, tend to be far more religious than any other ethnic group.  I think Black Americans turned to religion during the times of slavery, Black Codes, Jim Crow, and otherwise being treated worse than dogs.  They looked to God, Jesus, and that mythical place called Heaven because their lives on earth were Hell.  Blacks today still believe wholly in the myth of religion and being treated fairly and loved in an afterlife, whereas on earth they are nearly universally disliked and mistrusted.

Whites, on the other hand, are almost globally loved and held up as the saviors of the world even though they practically destroyed it (and other races as well).  One could say that, because of all the terror perpetrated by the White race, running about the Southland dressed in white sheets scaring the superstitious, newly freed slaves, and lynching mainly innocent Black men for imagined crimes against White women while picnicking or just out of church (some traveled miles to view these spectacles; even children watched them, as one can see by examining the dozens of photos that exist from these evil times). 

Perhaps being haunted, attacked by demons, and possessed is the price White people must pay for the sins of their fathers. 

Voodoo is a religion Part 2

Hollywood enjoys making fun of Voodoo.  Movies like 'The Serpent and The Rainbow', 'The Skeleton Key' (though this one was more Hoodoo than Voodoo), 'Angel Heart', and 'Voodoo Academy' either poke fun at the religion of Voodoo, or make it out to seem like something evil...dark...and extremely dangerous.

If people did the same with Christianity or Judaism, there would be an international outcry.  However, it is okay to belittle the adherents of Voodoo just because they don't believe in the same mythical beings that Christians and Jews do.  (Why did I not add Muslims?  They are made fun of in films just as other non-Christians and non-Jews are.)

There are practices associated with Voodoo that simply are not true.  Under 'Myths and misconceptions' on the Wikipedia site, this entry does a better job than I could of explaining this:

Vodou is often associated with the lore of Satanism, zombies and "voodoo dolls". Zombie creation has been referenced within rural Haitian culture,^[33] but is not a part of the Vodou religion. Such manifestations fall under the auspices of the bokor or sorcerer rather than the priest of the Loa.

The practice of sticking pins in voodoo dolls has history in folk magic. "Voodoo dolls" are often associated with New Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo (folk magic) as well the magical devices of the poppet and the nkisi or bocio of West and Central Africa.

The dark side of Vodou is often a dramatic device of modern horror and action-adventure movies such as The Serpent and the Rainbow and Live and Let Die (part of the Ian Fleming James Bond series).

If anyone would study Voodoo, they would learn that practitioners of black magick within Voodoo are shunned by followers of this religion. An excellent site to learn more of the truth about Voodoo is True Voodoo.  So what if practitioners conduct rituals, spells, and such?  Do not the followers of Christianity and Judaism do the same within their belief systems?

To me, Voodoo is more of a natural religion for American Blacks than is Christianity, which our ancestors were forced into accepting as their religion during the Slavery Holocaust.  In Africa before the coming of the White Man, the natives did not practice Christianity.  They had no knowledge of this religion until the Europeans unfortunately arrived.  Before Christianity made its way to Europe, even Europeans did not follow Jesus Christ.  They adhered to pagan practices, the worshiping of gods and (especially) goddesses.

I hope that my posts on Voodoo open the minds of visitors to this site. 

Voodoo is a religion Part 1

I find it irksome that people readily believe in the 'sky god' of Christianity & Judaism & Islam, yet are much too eager to dismiss Voodoo as 'black magic', 'negative', 'evil', and 'demonic', not a religion at all.  Is this a result of racism, bigotry, because Voodoo's adherents are largely African and Black American?

How come most American Blacks are repulsed by the very idea of Voodoo, a religion that was practiced by our ancestors hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years before the White man came along, helped to enslave us and then forced his own belief system upon us?  What is so despicable about Voodoo, why is it considered 'dark' or 'sinister'?

Stereotypes of Voodoo include the belief that followers use 'Voodoo dolls', are able to turn enemies into 'zombies', and that there must something 'wrong' with the followers of this belief system.  For instance, here is what Pat Robertson, a White supremacist/Christian Majority/Religious Right fanatic, stated about Haiti after the devastating earthquake of a few years ago, which underlines the feeling of many concerning this island nation:

Shortly after the earthquake, televangelist and religious-based bigot, Pat Robertson took the opportunity to do one of the things he does best and boasted his biased and uneducated prejudices concerning the spiritual reasons behind the earthquake. He rudely and ignorantly claimed that Haiti's suffering was due to a pact that was made between its founders and the devil more than 200 years ago, in order to liberate themselves from the French slave owners.
Robertson also called the quake in Haiti a "blessing in disguise."
This raving lunatic not only displays his own ignorance as to what Vodou actually is, but that any religion which is not his own is simply devil worship.
Was a pact between the Haitians and the devil made in order to gain their freedom? Absolutely not. The truth is that Haitian Vodou has nothing to do with the concept of the Christian devil or Satan.
The only pact that WAS made was between the leaders of the revolt and that pact was that they would fight till the death and wouldn't give up no matter what. They agreed that they would rather die than live another day without freedom.
Voudo Roots

What I would like to say to Pat Robertson is: what makes Christianity, with its rituals, magic, supposed miracles, spiritualism, and belief in the Devil, so damned special, what makes it right, what makes its zealot followers The Chosen Few?  Of course, let's forget all the thousands tortured & killed as the early leaders of this religion forced it upon the masses in the Europe of old.

The fact that most of the adherents of Voodoo are dark-skinned people is the main reason it is so despised and looked down at by those who follow the blue-eyed Christ.  Voodoo has ONE GOD just like Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.  Its 'saints', borrowed from Roman Catholicism that was forced upon the slaves of Haiti and other Caribbean islands, became the 'loas' of this religion.  It is merely ancestor worship, something all of us are 'guilty' of. 

Voodoo

The Dead Files

One paranormal show that I have watched lately via YouTube is The Dead Files.  OMG, what a gaggle of giggles!  Steve the retired police detective does his thing whilst Amy the so-called psychic does her thing; then they get together to compare notes, such as it is.  Steve appears to be the more professional of the two.  Any is definitely more childish.  Even while she is going through a property supposedly chatting with these dead people, she makes inappropriate faces, snickers, uses foul language, and goofy gestures.  

The entire show seems scripted, even the people who are allegedly experiencing the activity seem to be following some sort of script.  They have a stern-faced guy with a camera filming Amy at the same time a camera team does, which hardly makes any sense.  Sometimes, the guy will ask Amy questions,  But hey, why do they need him AND another camera crew?  She's a psychic, why does she need anyone leading her with questions?

Steve's annoying New York accent aside, The Dead Files is pretty entertaining.  Amy's theatrics alone - not only does she often smile during her readings, but she gasps and curses and even laughs - can be funnier than watching an old Richard Pryor comedy (The Toy comes to mind).  Not only does Amy lack professionalism, but she doesn't come across - to me anyway - as a convincing psychic any more than Chip Coffey does.

Her statement that she 'talks to dead people' and 'they talk to her' sounds like something straight out of the Sixth Sense.  Hell, a lot of people talk to the dead - how many of you have spoken to deceased family members or friends when visiting their burial places?  Even those who speak to Jesus are speaking to a dead person!  I doubt very seriously that the dead are responding to Amy.  I don't believe in psychics and never will, and I can always spot their phoniness.  Trying to convince die-hard believers of this is an uphill battle, however, as I learned when I tried to convince my mother of Sylvia Browne's fakery on the Montel Williams Show. 

Steve seems more sincere but his facial expressions sometimes tell a different story.  Maybe he's the skeptic of this Dynamic Duo, I don't know.  But there are times when the people are telling their stories, that he gets a look on his face that shouts, I don't effing believe this!  Of course, he usually soothes the person as if he actually does fall for whatever tale they are telling...

In conclusion, I find The Dead Files to be as credible as any other paranormal show.  That is to state, that it is just as believable as an interview with Peter Cottontail, a mug shot of the Abominable Snowman, or a major slug-fest between King Kong and Big Foot caught on film. 

Haunted Encounters: Face to Face?

The Paranormal Syndicate has got to be one of the lamest paranormal research groups I have ever seen on television.  The quality of this show, or lack of, simply goes to prove the desperation TV producers exude in seeking the latest band of publicity-crazed ghost hunters.

How many shows I have seen where ghost hunters have investigated Eastern State Penitentiary, I can't even recall.  I do remember that the infamous Ghost Hunters was the first show I ever saw that investigated this supposedly haunted former prison.  Nothing happened during their visit there - if it did, they faked it (as usual).  I also know that Ghost Adventures went there, and I think either Paranormal State (the Paranormal Research Society) or Ghost Lab (Everyday Paranormal), but I know some other group with their own show visited that ex-prison.

At any rate, I don't believe that Eastern State is haunted.  I don't believe that any prison, mental institution, or hospital is haunted.  Cemeteries, either.

Watch this show.  It may be canceled by now - and if it's not, it should be - but this episode is worth a look.  Laugh aloud.  These ghost hunting shows are funnier than any sitcom or comedy film.  Grown people getting overly excited over EVPs that they claim are the voices of long-dead spirits...gasping at shadows...cringing at this noise...jumping at that noise.

Renowned psychic Chelsea.  Oh, really?  I have never heard of this woman - I never heard of Chip Coffey either, until I saw him on Paranormal State.  And they guy is simply a gay phony, a fake like all psychics.  If these people had any special powers that were real, one of them would have walked away with James Randi's million dollars by now.

A 'ripple in time'?  'Pandora's Box'?  Give me a freakin' break!  These people need to grow up and find real jobs...!!!

Paranormal Syndicate even has a dog they use for their investigations!  Can you imagine?!?  Come on, folks.  Let's give up on the ghost hunting and concentrate on something that is useful and can help mankind, such as defeating poverty, fighting to eradicate hunger, and bringing technology to the Third World.

But oh no, these ghost hunters are out seeking spirits...not to mention fame and fortune.  If not, they would stay off TV or better yet, go learn something rather than travel around the country visiting 'haunted' places that are just old buildings with maximum 'creep' appeal.

Haunted Encounters is lame.  Truly.  Watch this episode and giggle, but don't bother watching any others, if there are any.  Hell, Finding Big Foot is pretty lame too, but at least there's a chance such a creature could possibly exist.

Eastern State Penitentiary