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Cerebrations
"...nonsense on stilts."
- Jeremy BenthamSince I had to learn all this website stuff from scratch, and because I have to maintain it all by myself, I reserved this page to compensate my ego by writing about me (I'm too lazy to do a MySpace). For thirty years, I have maintained to my students that every person you meet has something to teach you about how to live--either those people are providing examples by living the sort of life you would like to live, or they represent what you wish to avoid. Ultimately, BMGHA is a society of people trying to answer the question "what is a good life?"
I first became interested in the paranormal at eight years old when my mother did her best to explain to me that she was one of a trion of souls who used the white light, and who had spirit guides. It all sounded pretty incredible, but it created a fairly uncommon outlook--I accept that others have certain levels of sensitivity, though I do not have experiences like the ones some others report. Like William James, I accept the incorrigibility of voluntary first person accounts of experience. My wife, Barbara, who is also a certified investigator, and I do have irrefutable evidence that we have spirit guides. I will not tell that lengthy tale here, but it can be found in my autobiographical novel Horses's Hoofs (you didn't think my ego would limit itself to one page on a website, did you?).
After flunking out of college my first year (it was a junior college too), I was sent off to study abroad, courtesy of the US Government--that was in 1967. When I came back, I petitioned to get back into college. Once there, I wondered why I had thought it so hard--it was not nearly as bad as walking through a forest full of land mines. I imagine switching from engineering and physics to psychology had something to do with it, but I made the Dean's List the first semester. I wasn't any smarter, I just knew why I was there.
When I was twelve, my mother explained to me that I would meet people all through my life who would not like me because I would be able to see them for what they are, and ignore what they are pretending to be. She was right about that; I have always had a knack for sizing people up quickly (it is an effective defense mechanism), though I always give them the benefit of the doubt. I am sometimes caught off guard, but only because I have erred on the side of liberality.
I lost my fear of death in June of 1968. There is no need to rehash the story, just to say that like many who have faced life-threatening circumstances, I do not waste a moment of my time on earth. I savor every minute, appreciate what I have, and don't sweat the small stuff. There is nothing I have or will encounter in life that I cannot handle.
I have made a life of satisfying my curiosity. Unfortunately, most people do not seem to be curious, and walk around either with their eyes completely closed or focused on some trivial aspect of life that does not produce any sense of meaning for them. College students in particular have progressively evolved away from curiosity-satisfying endeavors in the past three decades, and approach their studies as undesirable activities to be endured, and even avoided if possible. Why should they be curious? Everything they want to know can be found on the web, and everything they care to imagine is presented to them in video games and movies. I would not wish to live the sort of life the average student lives, and have my identity defined by my sport, cell phone, or lifestyle accessories. It is no wonder that the most highly prized activity on campus is drinking beer. I am glad I am old, and will die soon before they take over. The current economic trouble, despite what certain people claim, was highly predictable, and I have been predicting it in class for over a decade. What I did not know was what would trigger it--I suspected gas prices and the cost of housing. Now we know how high they have to be before the economy collapses. And while we may be able to pull out of the depression this time, we will not resolve the social forces that created it and that will recreate it again in the future. Don't get me started.
I was naturally born for ghost hunting. Besides not fearing death, I am very comfortable in the dark; I have well developed rational, technical, and mechanical skills; I have well developed powers of observation; I have a well developed theoretical and informational background; and, I have what Hemingway called a built-in crap detector.
That's enough. I hope to get to know you as a member of BMGHA. Good hunting!
richard
On February 10, 2009, my mother died expectedly, in a nursing home about five miles from our house, after a long period of physical and mental degeneration. About two weeks before her death, her grandfather clock, which resided in our dining room, began to act up. Immediately following her death, the clock returned to its normal operation. It runs fine today.