Transcending the Prevailing Journalism about Paranormal Topics

"Haunted Hollywood!" Parade magazine article images

  

Considering the mainstream news media and paranormal subjects along with contemporary people's orientations to entertainment media and self-actualization that may seem largely indiscriminate to one who contemplates metaphysical aspects of society, an example of the typical banality is last weekend's Parade article about "Haunted Hollywood!"
 
What would be a reasonable perspective of 'Hollywood' when one considers the evolution of mankind in relation to the Universal Source/Creator?  Hugo Münsterberg observed in his 1916 book about the early days of cinema The Photoplay; A Psychological Study:

 

But the richest source of the unique satisfaction in the photoplay is probably that esthetic feeling which is significant for the new art and which we have understood from its psychological conditions.  The massive outer world has lost its weight, it has been freed from space, time, and causality, and it has been clothed in the forms of our own consciousness.  The mind has triumphed over matter and the pictures roll on with the ease of musical tones.  It is a superb enjoyment which no other art can furnish us.  No wonder that temples for the new goddess are built in every little hamlet.

It didn't take long for people to become accustomed to movies and acquire a mundane orientation to the film industry along with all the new media technologies that have followed.  Whatever the medium that is the source for the recording of video and audio, something to consider is what is affixing the image and sound to each source.

The "Haunted Hollywood!" article includes the statement: "The master magician and escape artist Harry Houdini vowed to his wife, Bess, before he died—on Halloween in 1926—that he would try to contact her from beyond the grave.  That was apparently never successful."  The artifact shown below is left unmentioned.

 

The letter was followed five years later by a retraction by Beatrice.  The retraction is more revealing about the state of society and denialism than it is about the nature of Beatrice's 1929 experience with the "correct message."  The trance medium Arthur Ford wrote about the events surrounding the receiving of the message in his autobiography Nothing So Strange (1958).  The book leaves no doubt that he is a dependable information source, just as are hundreds of other 'paranormal' authors who've shared the details of their own psychic gifts in autobiographical books and interviews.  People from the ascended realm speaking through channels has become more common since this incident; nonetheless, Beatrice continued to participate in seances without appreciating the blessing already received.  A previous blog article provides a brief summary of the events involving the Harry Houdini message from the Other Side to Beatrice —

When Harry Houdini made his transition from Earth life to the ascended realm in 1926, clairaudient and trance medium Arthur Ford (1897-1971) communicated a code message from him to his widow, Beatrice.  An account of what happened is provided in Ford's 1958 autobiography Nothing So Strange written in collaboration with Margueritte Harmon Bro.

Ford related that when Houdini died after dedicating his life for many years to exposing mediums as fakes, he left behind a widely publicized message that if there was survival after death he would contact his wife with a code message that only she could decipher.  Ford was a medium who would go into a trance to allow his 'control' Fletcher to serve as "interlocutor between the invisible and visible visitors who came to talk together through my intermediacy."

On February 8, 1928, Fletcher communicated a message from Houdini's mother offering the cord word "forgive" and declaring that Beatrice Houdini would declare it to be the true message that had been long awaited. Houdini's widow confirmed that he had waited in vain to hear this message communicated from his mother by a medium during his lifetime.

Beginning in November 1928, the spelling out of Harry Houdini's message to his wife came through during portions of eight sittings of Ford with, on one occasion, five explanatory words being given in French.  After the final code word was delivered, Fletcher said that Houdini instructed that the ten-word code message be taken to his wife.  The first word in the code was the name "ROSABELLE."

At Fletcher’s request, the message was signed by each person present.  Fletcher commented that Houdini stated, "I know that she will be happy, because neither of us believed it would be possible."  Houdini requested through Fletcher that upon receiving the message Beatrice set a time to sit with "this instrument" (Ford) so that Houdini could repeat the message via Fletcher and receive a supplement code from her — "and the two together will spell a word which sums it all up, and that word will be the message which he wants to send back."

When Beatrice was contacted the following day, she read the report and said it was right.  Beatrice arranged a sitting with Ford that occurred one day later.  Ford went into trance and Fletcher relayed Houdini's conversation with his wife, referring to her as 'Bess.'  The code was explained and the message that Houdini wanted to send back to his wife was revealed to be "ROSABELLE BELIEVE!"
 

In conclusion Fletcher repeated Houdini's final words.  "He says, 'Tell the whole world that Harry Houdini still lives and will prove it a thousand times and more.'  He is pretty excited.  He says, I was perfectly honest and sincere in trying to disprove survival, though I resorted to tricks to prove my point for the simple reason that I did not believe communication was true, but I did no more than seemed justifiable.  I am now sincere in sending this through in my desire to undo.  Tell all those who lost faith because of my mistake to lay hold again of hope, and to live with the knowledge that life is continuous.  That is my message to the world, through my wife and through this instrument."

Ford explained that the code had been a handy device employed in Houdini's instructions to his wife during their stage act.  No one except Houdini and herself knew the cipher, or the key, and its application.
 

From the moment that Mrs. Houdini pronounced the message genuine there began a flood of attack ranging from the ludicrous to the vicious.  Mrs. Houdini's veracity was questioned; she was accused of giving the code to someone who then gave it to me—as if there could be any comfort for her in securing a message she already knew from a source she did not believe existed.  She was also scored for selling out her own husband who had so widely publicized his conviction that all mediums were fakes.  Consistently she avowed the genuineness of the messages and defended having made them public.  "It was what he wanted me to do, and I am doing it."

I was likewise accused of fraud, of course, and was once also approached by an ingenious blackmailer.  Then a man impersonating me fabricated a newspaper story, which only one tabloid printed, after which he confessed his hoax under promise of immunity from criminal prosecution.  Three individuals brought charges to the United Spiritualist League of New York City that I had been in cahoots with Mrs. Houdini and the press.  The president of the board of trustees of the First Spiritualist Church redeemed my character, Mrs. Houdini stood her ground, and the respectable press was meticulously fair.

Martin Ebon reported in True Experiences in Communicating with the Dead (1968) about a 1967 Arthur Ford seance that was seen on television from Toronto and "created a worldwide sensation."  Reverend James A. Pike was seen engaged in a dialogue with his son, who had committed suicide in 1966 at age 22.  Ford's control Fletcher related the son's conversation along with messages from others who had made the transition from Earth life.  Ebon wrote that Pike concluded: "Everything matched up.  All the long-forgotten facts and details matched up . . . I feel the whole thing is sufficient for an affirmation that there is continuity with people who have passed on."

Insufferably, the Parade commentary about Houdini was followed by an advertisement for a current magazine publication entitled Haunted Hollywood: Tinseltown's Greatest Ghost Stories available for $12.99.

When I was first considering what projects to do for my writing career as a teenager, one magazine that was considered to offer excellent articles was The New Yorker.  How times have changed.  Compare the magazine's article from last year's Halloween season: "The Photographer Who Claimed to Capture Abraham Lincoln's Ghost" with my article "The Phenomenal Photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln".  (The magazine's version of this photo isn't as clear as the one shown below.)

"The Phenomenal Photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln" (article link)

  

Psychic abilities among other aspects of case studies encompassing 'unexplained phenomena' such as 'synchronicity' make comprehensible the nonlocality of human interconnectedness.  I've previously commented about Hollywood and the paranormal in relation to people today developing their spiritual and metaphysical awareness:

While fictional works are not suitable to provide an introduction to these subjects, it is interesting to note that occasionally Hollywood movies have offered some semblance of ascended masters — perhaps most obviously with the ascended Jedi in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.  As all creative works are made in accordance with humanity's shared 'subconscious' or 'Superconscious' mind, there can be interesting facets of synchronicity.

Although Metaphysical aspects of life are overlooked or trivially considered throughout the mainstream news media; people’s interest in metaphysical subjects is reflected in the popularity of storylines of fictional narrative movies, novels and TV shows. 

'Ascended masters' are one type of categorization for chronicled experiences involving 'visitors from the ascended realm.'  Continuing to be available at this blog without any commercial influences are other educational blog articles about phenomena associated with so-called 'hauntings' and 'ghosts'—the focus of the Parade article that is representative of the way the mainstream media exploits this subject—that include:

"My Search for the Ghost of Flight 401 by Elizabeth Fuller"

"Greenbrier Ghost"

"'Gef': A Modern Sphinx as an Esoteric Lesson about Oneness"

"'Ghost Adventures': 'Bell Witch Cave'"

"Leslie Flint's Life as a Direct Voice Medium"

"Supernormal Phenomena: Distinguishing Serious Research from Commercial Exploitation"

"The Wheel of Eternity: The Purpose Fulfilled"

"Self-Realization in the Aquarian Age - 'The Inner Circle' Through Mark Probert Q&A 1955"

Considering the mentality of people not accustomed to contemplating metaphysical aspects of life in relation to 'paranormal phenomena,' this blogger having mentioned "unusual derivations" of entertainment media in relation to a 'Twilight Zone' TV series-inspired pop music video was an indication of the selection of some of the subjects planned for this blog in 2018.  As a child I watched the TV shows "The Twilight Zone," "The Outer Limits" and "One Step Beyond" — programs presenting rudimentary orientations to developing a perspective of anomalous phenomena in relation to philosophical perspectives relating to 'nonlocality' and scientific studies associated with the quantum mechanics realm of physics.  As I became older, there were documentary TV shows about ‘unexplained phenomena’ such as “Unsolved Mysteries,” “Sightings” and “The Extraordinary.”  My unexpected path of spiritual discovery is a topic of the preceeding blog article "My Paranormal Initiation".  When it comes to investigating books, perspectives, entities and cases involving so-called 'paranormal' or 'unexplained phenomena,' a novice reader must learn to differentiate the commercially sensational with the metaphysically relevant and persevere with the research to develop one's understanding because—quoting a proverb channeled in one documented case—"For as far as you shall look, that is as near as you shall come."

Some other blog articles about Hollywood and Pop Culture include "Excerpts from the Philo T. Farnsworth Biography by Elma Farnsworth" and "Leaving The Mountain: Information Conflicting with Perceived Consensus Beliefs Engenders Expectation of Disapproval".