Bumps in the night...
Me and my buddy Eric went to see The Ring Two at the local dollar theater. I barely remember the first one. Neither were that scary... That is, some parts were freaky, but not scary. Ghosts and ghouls and monsters and such don't really scare me... Movies like Silence of the Lambs, Taking Lives, Hannibal, etc... now those movies freak the living crap out of me... Because they're real. Or almost real. Based on real life. I mean, there very well could be some dude lounging around in his apartment right now, eating potato chips and watching Trading Spaces while severed heads sit in his fridge. It very well could be your neighbor. Spooky.
But watching the movie sparked some interesting conversation. Eric and I spent the rest of the evening swapping scary stories. His were a little bit cooler than mine (I only have two). Eventually we delved into demonology, spiritual warfare... I believe explicitly in demons, demonic activity... as well as angels and angelic activity... both are mutually inclusive, one requires the other.
I also believe in Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP. I first read about it in a book of essays by Beat author William S. Burroughs. It's a scientific fact: audible voices have been recorded in unoccupied rooms. There is scientific evidence to support this. I have my own theory, and it ties in to Burroughs' view: when we speak, our voice box creates electromagnetic vibrations in air molecules, which transfer the electromagnetic vibrations to our ear-drums; our brains then re-interpret those ear-drum vibrations as sound. That's why you wouldn't hear anything in outer space, or in a vacuum: there's no air molecules to carry the vibrations to our ear-drums. Sound needs a medium in which to travel. My theory is this: since matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only changed from one form to another*... and the electromagnetic waves we create when we speak can be considered a form of energy... Well, every word we've ever spoken, every tonal utterance we've ever delivered, from the moment of our birth to the time of our death, lives on in some form or other... electromagnetically speaking, that is (no pun intended). Theoretically, every word spoken by man, since the dawn of creation, could still be "floating around" in our atmosphere, or orbiting the planet. Yes, sound waves decay and break apart over time, losing coherence, but they still exist in some form. Perhaps... perhaps those EVP recordings are merely the residual vibrations of decaying electromagnetic energy in the form of sound waves? Sounds a bit far-fetched, I know, and it's the plot of the latest Michael Keaton movie (I'm Batman!). Still, it's an interesting phenomena worth bearing investigation. A couple of years ago, I remember seeing a segment on EVP on a reputable news show... and they played back a recording... It was a conversation between two people who weren't in the room with the recorder. Upon pumping up the volume to over 200%, you could hear it clearly. One voice was asking who the other was. The second voice responded (in a Cockney accent, no less): "I'm Jack... I'm a ghost."
But I've gone off on a tangent. Getting back to spooky movies... I was a little disappointed with The Ring Two because I saw the ending coming a mile away. (SPOILER WARNING!!!! SKIP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE END!!!) The little boy gets possessed, because Samorra (the ghost-girl) wants his body. The mother figures it out and offers herself to Samorra, instead. And then she "kills" herself by jumping off the cliff (the cliff in the video). I think I pissed off Eric, because I pointed out what was going to happen about half-way into the movie. He didn't believe me at first when I said I hadn't seen it (the sequel). I told him, as a writer, I pick up on formulas very quickly, especially formula-films; and horror movies are notorious for being formulaic. I mean, come on, I'd seen almost the same thing in The Exorcist. (END SPOILER WARNING!!!!).
But the movie got me thinking. When I got home last night, I found my copy of The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson. I'm sure everyone's familiar with the Amityville Horror story... the DeFeo slayings, the haunted house with walls that bleed, the flies on the window, etc., etc. The more I read, the more I was convinced hauntings were real. But then I got online and did some research and found out that Jay Anson, the author, embellished a few things, and George and Kathy Lutz, the owners of the house after the DeFeo slayings, later recanted some of their statements. Still, some of that stuff did happen. And it made me wonder just how much influence demons can have over the real world, the world of our physical reality.
At the risk of sounding like a crackpot, I do believe in psychic phenomena. Remote viewing, ESP, telekinesis. Some of this stuff has been recorded by scientists who have a strong, clear bias against these things. How can they refute their own evidence? Just because they can't explain it away with their science doesn't make it any less real. In my opinion, science and religion cannot exist one without the other. Both are irrevocably intertwined. Each needs the other. And hence, the presence of inexplicable psychic activity. The government has released documents in which the U.S. military used Remote Viewers (RVs) to "spy" on enemies thousands of miles away. They sit the RV's down in a room, give them a pencil and a piece of paper, and the RV sketches the object in their mind. The object tends to be a place, a location, or a person, or whatever, that actually exists. The majority of the time, it's a place the RV has never been to, nor seen in real life or even in photographs. Hidden enemy bases have been located this way. So have missile silos, weapons caches, drug labs, etc. This is fact, people. You can get access to this information thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. After so many years, the government HAS to make the information available to the General Public. Of course, you may have to wade through hundreds of miles of red tape, but the info is there.
The point of all this: I want to write a scary story. I want to scare people. Is that bad? There's more than just the motivation of scaring people, though: there's loads of money involved. Just ask Stephen King or Dean Koontz (I love his name). People like to be scared, and they like scary stories. Getting paid to freak people out would be awesome. And I can tell some pretty scary stories (you don't want me around your campfire at night). I know I could do this, because there's always a formula attached to a scary story. There's always some reoccuring theme in every urban legend or ghost story. There are only so many mysteries to solve...
If anyone has any of their own real-life ghost stories (and not some tale you heard during camp when you were a kid), then tell me. I may want to rip it off. Course, I'll give you proper credit.
...
The no-smoking thing is working out. It's not as bad as I thought. I've been chewing Nicorette gum and it quells the cravings. Now I just have to fight the hand-to-mouth oral fixation, the muscle memory of packing, lighting, and smoking the actual cigarette. Five years of repetitive hand movements and gestures and actions are kinda difficult to overcome... but I have, thank you. And I will. In the words of Bartles & James: "Thank you for your support".
...
* The first law of thermodynamics. Come on, people, weren't you paying attention in Physics class?
But watching the movie sparked some interesting conversation. Eric and I spent the rest of the evening swapping scary stories. His were a little bit cooler than mine (I only have two). Eventually we delved into demonology, spiritual warfare... I believe explicitly in demons, demonic activity... as well as angels and angelic activity... both are mutually inclusive, one requires the other.
I also believe in Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP. I first read about it in a book of essays by Beat author William S. Burroughs. It's a scientific fact: audible voices have been recorded in unoccupied rooms. There is scientific evidence to support this. I have my own theory, and it ties in to Burroughs' view: when we speak, our voice box creates electromagnetic vibrations in air molecules, which transfer the electromagnetic vibrations to our ear-drums; our brains then re-interpret those ear-drum vibrations as sound. That's why you wouldn't hear anything in outer space, or in a vacuum: there's no air molecules to carry the vibrations to our ear-drums. Sound needs a medium in which to travel. My theory is this: since matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only changed from one form to another*... and the electromagnetic waves we create when we speak can be considered a form of energy... Well, every word we've ever spoken, every tonal utterance we've ever delivered, from the moment of our birth to the time of our death, lives on in some form or other... electromagnetically speaking, that is (no pun intended). Theoretically, every word spoken by man, since the dawn of creation, could still be "floating around" in our atmosphere, or orbiting the planet. Yes, sound waves decay and break apart over time, losing coherence, but they still exist in some form. Perhaps... perhaps those EVP recordings are merely the residual vibrations of decaying electromagnetic energy in the form of sound waves? Sounds a bit far-fetched, I know, and it's the plot of the latest Michael Keaton movie (I'm Batman!). Still, it's an interesting phenomena worth bearing investigation. A couple of years ago, I remember seeing a segment on EVP on a reputable news show... and they played back a recording... It was a conversation between two people who weren't in the room with the recorder. Upon pumping up the volume to over 200%, you could hear it clearly. One voice was asking who the other was. The second voice responded (in a Cockney accent, no less): "I'm Jack... I'm a ghost."
But I've gone off on a tangent. Getting back to spooky movies... I was a little disappointed with The Ring Two because I saw the ending coming a mile away. (SPOILER WARNING!!!! SKIP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE END!!!) The little boy gets possessed, because Samorra (the ghost-girl) wants his body. The mother figures it out and offers herself to Samorra, instead. And then she "kills" herself by jumping off the cliff (the cliff in the video). I think I pissed off Eric, because I pointed out what was going to happen about half-way into the movie. He didn't believe me at first when I said I hadn't seen it (the sequel). I told him, as a writer, I pick up on formulas very quickly, especially formula-films; and horror movies are notorious for being formulaic. I mean, come on, I'd seen almost the same thing in The Exorcist. (END SPOILER WARNING!!!!).
But the movie got me thinking. When I got home last night, I found my copy of The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson. I'm sure everyone's familiar with the Amityville Horror story... the DeFeo slayings, the haunted house with walls that bleed, the flies on the window, etc., etc. The more I read, the more I was convinced hauntings were real. But then I got online and did some research and found out that Jay Anson, the author, embellished a few things, and George and Kathy Lutz, the owners of the house after the DeFeo slayings, later recanted some of their statements. Still, some of that stuff did happen. And it made me wonder just how much influence demons can have over the real world, the world of our physical reality.
At the risk of sounding like a crackpot, I do believe in psychic phenomena. Remote viewing, ESP, telekinesis. Some of this stuff has been recorded by scientists who have a strong, clear bias against these things. How can they refute their own evidence? Just because they can't explain it away with their science doesn't make it any less real. In my opinion, science and religion cannot exist one without the other. Both are irrevocably intertwined. Each needs the other. And hence, the presence of inexplicable psychic activity. The government has released documents in which the U.S. military used Remote Viewers (RVs) to "spy" on enemies thousands of miles away. They sit the RV's down in a room, give them a pencil and a piece of paper, and the RV sketches the object in their mind. The object tends to be a place, a location, or a person, or whatever, that actually exists. The majority of the time, it's a place the RV has never been to, nor seen in real life or even in photographs. Hidden enemy bases have been located this way. So have missile silos, weapons caches, drug labs, etc. This is fact, people. You can get access to this information thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. After so many years, the government HAS to make the information available to the General Public. Of course, you may have to wade through hundreds of miles of red tape, but the info is there.
The point of all this: I want to write a scary story. I want to scare people. Is that bad? There's more than just the motivation of scaring people, though: there's loads of money involved. Just ask Stephen King or Dean Koontz (I love his name). People like to be scared, and they like scary stories. Getting paid to freak people out would be awesome. And I can tell some pretty scary stories (you don't want me around your campfire at night). I know I could do this, because there's always a formula attached to a scary story. There's always some reoccuring theme in every urban legend or ghost story. There are only so many mysteries to solve...
If anyone has any of their own real-life ghost stories (and not some tale you heard during camp when you were a kid), then tell me. I may want to rip it off. Course, I'll give you proper credit.
...
The no-smoking thing is working out. It's not as bad as I thought. I've been chewing Nicorette gum and it quells the cravings. Now I just have to fight the hand-to-mouth oral fixation, the muscle memory of packing, lighting, and smoking the actual cigarette. Five years of repetitive hand movements and gestures and actions are kinda difficult to overcome... but I have, thank you. And I will. In the words of Bartles & James: "Thank you for your support".
...
* The first law of thermodynamics. Come on, people, weren't you paying attention in Physics class?
posted by Billy at 1:14 PM
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