Ghost in the Machine

So.... what do you do when you hear someone telling about this amazing haunting they witnessed/experienced and you know for a fact it didn't occur?  I've seen someone, I'll call him Lou, going around con to con telling people about this extreme haunting he experienced.  He's very specific about the dates and place the haunting occurred.  He's come up with a name that supposedly everyone called him when "word got out" about the haunting.  He's shopping a book deal.   But the thing is, I lived in the same house as him when this supposedly occurred.  We were in college together.  None of the stuff he said happened really happened.  And I don't feel I can call him out on this because he's MonsterMan.

Triggers

Been triggered all over the place today.  One of my patients is in a relationship similar to the one I had in college with MonsterMan.  I'm not sure if I should continue with this patient or pass her on to another therapist.  Honestly, I feel fragile and small when I hear her.  I thought I put MonsterMan in the past, but do you ever really get past the small micro aggressions that grow into larger verbal aggression, and culminate in hitting and that horrible night where a knife was held to my neck while he strangled KellyCat with his free hand?  I still have a small physical scar on my throat from that night.  But the emotional scars go so much deeper.  I have to give this serious thought.  When does the therapist walk away from a case that stirs the emotions?

The more I learn about people on the internet, the more I like my dog....

I always fancied myself an intellectual.  As said intellectual, I ignored the subculture of internet celebrity gossip blogs.  Thanks to my friend Liana, however, I am now more than aware of them.  In fact, I got my first threat on a celeb gossip blog just today.  Liana is so proud of me.  God, she's a bitch.

What I have noticed is that there are people who are into certain celebs.  I mean REALLY into them.  So into them that they feel compelled to threaten anyone who doesn't share their worship. I responded to one of the more vitriolic users with a comment that she certainly seemed a bit obsessed by what other users said and she responded with a threat and a comment that she hoped I didn't analyze my "patience" the way I analyzed her posts.  WTF?  I didn't analyze her posts.  It was pretty clear from the vile things she said about other people and the fact that she appeared to follow certain users from post to post to state such nasty things that she was rather personally obsessed.  And of course, I don't analyze my patience, as I have none.  I do, however, have patients. And it's not my job to analyze them. I assist them to analyze themselves.  Another one "put me in my place" by telling me to shove my opinion up my ass.  Such lovely women. And that is only a cross section of the crazy that posts on celeb gossip blogs.

So.... why are people so invested in the lives of celebrities?  Why do they care?  Anyone have any ideas?  Do they live vicariously through these posts, hoping that someday, the objects of their "affections" will contact them and thank them for their staunch defense?  I would think it more likely that they would be greeted with a restraining order if their idols ever read the crap they posted.

The Search for Beauty

Beauty is everywhere.  It is in the small things.  It is in a child's eyes.  It is in the mirror.  It is in the eyes of a lover.  We spend so much time seeking beauty that we never think to look within us.  And that is where beauty truly lies.  Within all of us.  It is just up to us to let it come out and play every now and again.

"Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep." 

~John Milton, Paradise Lost (Book. IV, l. 678)~

Brenna’s personal notes on P-101 case 2012.01.01.PHI

Just completed case 2012.01.01.PHI with the P101 team.  This was a private home on Long Island.  The clients wish to keep their identities and address private.

This was an interesting case in that we gathered next to no “evidence,” whatever evidence we gathered really failed to pass the P101 standard of evidenciary acceptance, and it was in both my opinion and that of the rest of the team that there was no spiritual activity.

So, did I consider my New Year’s Day night and last night wasted time?  Not really.  My interviews and the correlating interviews from Laura showed that there was something more interesting than ghosts happening, at least more interesting for us as mental health professionals.

Grief.  Such a small simple word for such a deep all consuming emotion.  I could go on about the stages of grief, but that’s not what this post is about.  It’s about the inability to let go due to grief.  In my opinion, our client was unable to let go.  She was unable to face that her loved one wasn’t coming back.  So her mind created a way for him to come back.  Her mind created his scent, his sounds, the feeling of his presence.  In a sense, her mind created a haunting.  And that haunting will remain until she can finally say “goodbye.”  Is this unhealthy?  Not in the short run.  But in the long run, yes, it can become unhealthy.  The fact that she called in a paranormal team and expressed an interest in helping the “spirit” move on could mean that she herself is ready to move on. Time will tell.