Saturday March 31, 2012
Barbara Duncan: Ceiling Cat
With my being unavailable due to my attending the Life Celebration of the passing of the paranormal community's dearest friend Donn Shy aboard the Queen Mary tonight, and the what with the recent sudden departure of Craig from the show as co-host, Henry enrolled previous guest co-host Barbara Duncan (aka Ceiling Cat/CC) as a guest.
Henry pointed out how active in the para-x chat room CC is, and let her speak about herself. Despite claiming to be "a boring person," CC indicated she has para-x playing "in the background" even while/when at work. She listens and re-listens to podcasted episodes as during playback she's not focused on typing in the chat room, and sometimes such as an episode of Dave's shows in which the topic was quantum physics and with such understandably that takes a time or two to get all of the nuances.
Always having been into the paranormal, CC grew up in "corn country" Iowa, where there's a lot of paranormal activity back there as well. Henry confessed that originally CC would be guest co-hosting but the actaul guest guest came down with strep throat, and Henry had been unable to snag anyone else at the last-minute.
Getting back to his co-host/now-guest, Henry asked if there was a "Mister" Cat, to which CC replied that she's single... "and feral."
Henry got into CC's photography: cemetaries and statues therein and such, but CC admitted not yet to having an actual website for her work, though she does post them on her Facebook page, which she thought few people might find due to their being "several Barbara Duncan" profiles, neglecting to take into account She Has A Badger (able to provide her information in reports such as this)...
She likes to photograph statues as "they don't move" [sic], and one can photograph them at different angles, exposure, light, et al, and good practice.
Henry got a question from Nyla in the chat room, asking if CC obtained any paranormal phenomena in any of her photos, to which CC reported of the thousands of photographs she's taken, she not caught so much as an orb. Even taking photos on the she's got nothing. She did convey that investigating there after an event has taken plcae is when the ship is usually the most active.
She has wanted to create an modern, Urban Tarot deck, using photographs of modernized location and actions and tarot symbolism.
CC asked Henry how he got into the paranormal. Henry regaled how as a child he had been afraid of the dark, or ghosts, and wanted nothing to with anything spooky. He would not even enter a place with the faintest hint that it might be haunted; essentially he was a big scaredy-cat. In 2008, his wife Patsy (Nyla), had been watching Ghost Hunters on TV, and finally she insisted he come and watch the program. Yielding, Henry saw the K2 Meter on an episode, as they used it to ask questions of ghosts and getting a response. This fascinated Henry and he felt if he could communicate, that could be interesting. He searched for any TAPS groups in the area to no avail, KAPS (Kentucky Area Paranormal Society), on the site of which was a link to Para-X Radio, on which he was amazed at all the shows, and eventually Henry was invited by Dave and Tom to come attend a convention in Louisville, and an investigation in Henry's house. He agreed, inwardly relieved he'd be within two feet of somebody at any given time, and he went on his first investigation, had a great time and met a lot of para-x folks, and it was that night he was asked to do a Para-X Radio Show. Since then he's been on seven or eight private domicile investigations, he's been to Fort Mifflin, Waverly twice, the Morrison Lodge thrice, and Hillview Manor. Of those he felt Hillview was the most active, though he likes the history of Fort Mifflin, where he got some of his first EVPs. At Hillview he was investigating and with a few people and a girl named Cary they were checking out a bathroom. They had some Feelings there was Something There, and two feet between them, all of a sudden something just stomped twice.
Henry turned it about and asked CC how she found herself immersed in the paranormal. For her as long as she could remember such was always Natural; over her bed as a child would be little white lights, which she thought was completely normal. Uncertain as to whether it could be past-life bleeding though into this one, ghosts, the paranormal in general and the occult have always fascinated and simply never scared her. At a young age she even experimented with Ouija boards with no negative results.
Henry clarified that his mother and grandmother lived in Kentucky hills; where his grandmother had lived had been off the road, living in a Pretty Active house. His grandfather stored a bottle of whisky in a hole in the bedroom ceiling; he and his cousins were in there talking, and heard the bottle turning over and the audible swallowing sound of the drink being gulped down. They leaped up to rescue the bottle, only to find it still standing safely upright, without a drop spilled.
There'd been a old porch swing, and the first night in the house, as they went to bed as the swing suddenly began to swing. She asked the grandfather to check in it, but he believed it was the dog having jumped up onto it. The next night it began swinging again, and when the grandfather deferred again, the grandmother threatened to not return if she went outside to check. So the grandfather confessed there was Nothing out there; she checked and the swing was motionless.
Having heard all these stories, when he was young Henry could visit the building but refused to set foot in it.
CC brought up the fact that much of Kentucky was founded by Scottish immigrants, and referred to the funeral practice of Sin Eating, of which Henry had not heard (not being there that night, I could not convey that and how I was aware of the ancient practice).
Henry spoke of how in Kentucky traveling salesmen would ask for accomodations and in payment would perform Raising The Table, akin to table tipping, the downside being if it's done often enough at one location, ghosts often attach themselves to the house, and knock on the walls at night.
CC has investigated various homes, and some hotels though often such businesses try to downplay that angle, though it doesn't keep them from sometimes charging a lot so as to do an investigation.
Henry and CC began a lively discussion as to various and different types of hauntings, the distinctions between nightime and daytime investigating, residual hauntings and interactive ghosts, and how they perceive time or their own environment; spiritual influence of electronic devices, etc. CC also reported the only EVP she ever captured was a Class A, asking "Can you hear me?" CC also uses a Jensen SAB55, which doesn't click as it scans the airwaves.
Henry asked her thoughts on Shadow People. She finds the concept really interesting, and she's not sure it's any different than a "regular ghost," although she added she's not yet come across one.
They also discussed UFOs, extraterrestrial concepts and other scientific aspects to the Universe.
Coming back from the second break, they joked about with my absence my Not Knowing What I was missing, though my attending the event being a Good Cause. Henry and CC reflected on Donn Shy being such a good friend, running a cat sanctuary, et al.
As occasionally he is wont to do, Henry randomly asked on CC's thoughts on the creepy Black-Eyed Kids phenomenon (their discussion unware of at least two Brad Steiger books mentioning Black-Eyed Kids: Out Of The Dark: The Complete Guide to Beings from Beyond and Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside). They also discuss various urban legends in general. Also discussing the "swamp gas explanation" as to debunked various paranormal activity, despite it being a well-known J. Allen Hynek misquote in which swamp gas was mentioned in passing as barely even a possibility, but the idiot press picked up on that and ignored the context in which it was used.
CC has felt being touched, but beyond the white lights at the end of the bed, she's not seen a ghost; she spoke of visiting the since-closed Brookdale Lodge, and experiencing cold spots, during which she envisioned the little girl being murdered in the natural creek that ran through the dining hall. Henry relayed his own Being Touched experience during an investigation.
They discussed various aspects of hauntings, provoking, [demonic] possession, etc. They had a "question collision:" CC wanted to know what equipment Henry uses on investigation just as he was preparing to ask her the same thing. Henry generally uses a recorder and a flashlight being the main important things, a regular camera, and occasionally dowsing rods. CC uses a camera with an IR eliminator, a recorder, a K2 meter, a geiger counter, a MEL meter, a light meter, and generally what equipment is permitted where investigating (the USS Hornet disallows some electronic equipment).
Henry asked her (again) what places she's investigated, which she replied the USS Hornet, the Brookdale Lodge, author Jack London's house (a ranch up in the north bay), Alcatraz, the Hotel Utah, a place on California street in San Francisco literally called the haunted mansion (Atherton Mansion?), the Presidio (one of the main haunted buildings since having been torn down). Where she's like to investigate include Sam's Castle (as well as the fact it's recently been opened to the public), and the cellar of the Presidio Theatre which is said to contain several rather negative entities.
Referring to thee previous show in which she appeared, Henry asked if CC had done any research on Mount Shasta. She had, albeit a little. Henry misremembered my thinking it was in Washington state (when I was mentioning the only northern mount of which I could think at the time was Mount Rainier, and that I brought up information while on the air about Mount Shasta being in California but way farther north than Henry believed it to have been).
Henry mentioned being the host of The Paranormal View since 2008, having had so many guest he has boxes of folders about them; his first guest being the supreme expert on every single cryptid lake monster in the world, down to recent known activity of each one, and that it was not revealed until the end of the show this fascinating guest who spoke for two hours... was at the time fifteen years old.
(Failing to take into account This Is Why She Has a Badger), CC tried to give out her Facebook information, but that being there are so many Barbara Duncans, she suggested that the best way would be to ask her to friend one via the para-x chat room when she's in there.
Henry managed to add at the last minute that tonight's show had listerers from the US, UK, Canada, Switzerland, and six in "Other." He pointed out that the next week the guest would be author Kat Klockow, author of Haunted Hoosier Halls: Indiana University.
Amusingly, after Henry gave out The Paranormal View site, he closed out the show as though Ceiling Cat was a regular co-host, pausing until she hastily added her name after Henry had outroduced himself.