James
I developed an enduring fascination in the paranormal from a young age, with an early memory of buying a Scholastic book on “real ghosts” in the third grade. My curiosity expanded, reading about Amityville, and the books of Ed and Lorraine Warren while in middle school. And being instantly enamored with the TV series Ghost Hunters when it first appeared.
Not everyone with an interest in the paranormal finds their way to the occult, but I sure did. Becoming a Wiccan and a pagan for a short time in college, but my true awakening came in my mid-thirties. Call it a mid-life crisis, call it an initiation, but I came to the conclusion that things were not entirely as they seemed, so I looked for answers. I found them in what I can only accurately describe as the Western Esoteric Tradition, a current of underground spirituality that, if you go looking for it, comes to us from antiquity up through the modern age. My deep and abiding relationship with the Egyptian deity Thoth – god of writing, the moon, and magic – has led me to a level of expertise in Ancient Egyptian magical practice and later descendants of that tradition.
Some may make the mistake thinking I practice Kabbalah and Hermeticism. While I have knowledge and interest in those practices, my own magic comes from an animist point of view. What I do is based on my relationship with the spirits, which I classify into three different types. Spirits of the dead, which includes the spirits of dead humans and animals. Spirits of place, which inhabit our world and are tied to a specific area or object. And “alien” spirits. Entities not of this world who sometimes cross over and attempt to communicate with us.
I shy away from classifications like “demons” and “angels.” So often I find these entities are much more complex and difficult to understand than many “experts” care to admit. Like people, spirits can only be judged by what they do, and I have encountered some who are malevolent, but more often those who are benevolent.
It was the TV show Hellier and the writings of John Keel that brought me to a new understanding of how the paranormal and the occult are interrelated. Keel often just referred to everything he encountered as, “The Phenomenon,” and through meticulous research found many correlations between the reports of ghosts, UFOs, and cryptids. What if the lights in the sky, Bigfoot, Mothman, and the hauntings people continually claim to encounter are but modern manifestations of what the ancients simply considered the spirits?
Now, I have found that the next step in my spiritual development requires that I go out and encounter the spirits where they live. That’s how Midwest Spirits was born.
You can learn more about me and my occult musings at the website scrollofthoth.com and the Youtube Channel Scroll of Thoth.
Mari
I’m a sceptic. Its not that I don’t want to believe, but I remain hesitant to define personal experience as facts. The truth is, without being able to share brain spaces and completely understand other people’s thought processes, we’re never going to be able to say for certain that anything paranormal is “real.” There are things in the universe people have seen, heard, and touched that rely solely on the idea that there are things we do not understand nor can define. People, billions of them, have faith in religion. Religion and faith are not seen, not proven by science. Most of the time, people of a faith are not considered insane, but often, although this is also changing, people who believe in aliens and ghosts are considered whacky, conspiracy-ridden, nut-jobs. Documenting personal experiences of phenomena seems the best way to bridge a gap about what is perceived as real and what can be quantified as real.
If imaginary people could have had a child, then I would be the love product of Liz Lemon and Homer Simpson. Neither are perfect, and like them, I jump to conclusions, make bad choices, and have a relatively unhealthy relationship with donuts. Also like them, I try to be a good person and put other people’s emotions and claims as true. I still have my doubts. About my own experiences and theirs.
As a child, my parents read to me about wonderous places and spectacular journeys. My mother used to say her family had a “touch of the Fae” about them. My father was the seventh son of the seventh son (no, really). Our household wasn’t wholly Christian. We believed in magic. We weren’t witches, and nobody turned toads into princes, but Santa existed. Even after I learned it was my parents leaving the presents Santa was still there in spirit. Still is. It was strange to me as I grew up how many religious people claimed to not believe in magic. How does faith not include magic when the nature of those myths are deeply rooted in it? But the world is a strange place, and not everything makes sense. Thus, the spiritual dilemma began for me.
I’m a sensitive, an empath (I hear the groaning already), a channeler, medium, whatever you want to call it; I’m it. I don’t see it as a kindness, or some great burden, but it is a gift. Not the kind you can return. Because of my logic-leaning brain, I question whether what I feel is real or just in my head. Is there a difference? I mean, truly, everything is really just in our heads. I’m a nerd, a role-player, a storyteller. I define myself as a witch, or dumpster fire hag if you prefer. I pursued the Wicca lifestyle in my twenties, but those paths didn’t fit. Nothing exactly fits, but I keep looking.
As I aged, and paranormal investigation reality TV shows became a thing, I saw the raw beauty of it. All kinds of people from different faiths, or no faith, believed in something else. They were trying to document it using modern technology. And to end as we began, that unto itself is a phenomenon. Obviously, because TV is what it is, those folks follow a formula. I’m fascinated by the notion you can capture an image or sound from across the Veil. We’re all here for the Ride, lets hop on.