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The Psychology of Ghost Hunting, by Brandon Alvis

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Death is an inevitable part of life. Reminders of our own mortality surround us everyday. Any time we read a newspaper, turn on the news, or consume media, we are shown heartbreaking stories of a tragic loss of life. As the old saying goes, "If it bleeds, it leads." At some point throughout our lifetime, we will experience the loss of a loved one, a friend, an acquaintance. With each passing, we are faced with a question: What happens when we die? I was first faced with that question on September 8th, 1995, when my oldest brother Eric passed away from cancer at the age of 24.

Learning About Death
I was only eight years old at the time of my brother's passing. The concept of death was a lot for a third grader to take in, let alone understand.

It confused me.

Much of my childhood was spent at the cemetery where my brother was laid to rest. The more time I spent surrounded by tombstones, the more I started to comprehend what death was and how we would all meet the same end. As my mother would visit my brother and grieve, I did what any eight-year-old kid would do: explore. I'd walk around the cemetery. I'd read the grave markers, the names, the dates of birth and death. I'd speak with the groundskeepers and ask them questions about their job. What was it like working in the death industry? I watched as they would prepare the ground for upcoming burials, the funerals taking place close to my brother's gravesite. I would listen to the eulogies and observe how others handled grief. This is macabre, but it helped me begin my own grieving process. As the years passed and I grew older, thinking of our ultimate end became easier for me. In 2002 my grandmother passed away, peacefully in her home at the age of 73. She was ill in the later years of her life. During our final conversation before her passing, I knew her time on earth was coming to an end; and while I fought to cherish the little time she had left, I was prepared to grieve for her once she took her last breath. However tragic death was, I readied myself for this anguish.

I was confident I could properly grieve for my grandmother. Death wouldn't catch me off guard.

But in 2004, my brother Gary took his life. I couldn't see it through the rage I felt at that time, but my way of thinking about our final end would change forever.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
?Howard Phillips Lovecraft, The Nameless City

Paranormal Investigation as Grief Therapy
There are many reasons why people get involved in the search for ghosts and hauntings. Some are looking for an adrenaline rush, some for notoriety. One common reason is the passing of a loved one. In my 17 years of research, I have met hundreds of individuals who are willing to journey into the dark for answers about the afterlife, just as I was after the death of my two brothers. Many paranormal investigators have found a sense of peace in trying to communicate with those that have come before us. After hearing countless stories from those in the field, I realized that the act of paranormal investigation was a form of grief therapy. I only ever made that connection when I read a book titled Corpses, Coffins and Crypts: A History of Burial by Penny Colman, which showed up on my radar for a research project I conducted many years ago. In chapter two of Colman's book, she cites a study performed by psychologist Maria Nagy in 1948:

"The children, who nicknamed Nagy 'Auntie Death,' had discussions with Nagy and drew pictures. In addition the older children followed Nagy's request to 'write down everything that comes to your mind about death.' Nagy studied their responses and concluded that some children go through three stages in understanding death. The youngest children aged three to about five tend to be curious about death and ask matter-of-fact questions about funerals, coffins, and cemeteries. To them, death is a continuation of life but at a lower level: dead people can't see and hear as well as living people, they aren't quite as hungry, and they don't do very much. And they might return.

Younger children appear to think that death is at best not much fun and boring and at the worst lonely and scary. Beginning at about the age of five or six, children tend to realize that death is final and move into what Nagy named Stage 2. Although at this stage, many children realized that death was final, some of them thought that they could escape death if they were clever, careful, or lucky. Christy Ottaviano remembers thinking like that when she was in elementary school. 'I had to walk past a cemetery to get to school,' she recalls. 'I thought that I wouldn't die if I held my breath the whole way. So I did until I was about nine or ten years old.' Christy may have stopped because she moved into what Nagy identified as Stage 3 in understanding death. This is when children tend to realize that in addition to being final, death is also inevitable. Everyone dies, even clever, careful, and lucky people. Or people who hold their breath when they walk past a cemetery. 'Death is destiny,' wrote one ten-year-old child. Another ten-year-old wrote, 'Everyone has to die.' According to Nagy, Stage 3, which starts at about age nine or ten, continues throughout life." (Colman 29, 30, 31)

Death and the Final Frontier
Reading Maria Nagy's The Child's Theories Concerning Death completely transformed my thought process. Having basically grown up in a cemetery and losing someone so close to me at such a young age, I made the jump from Nagy's proclaimed stage 2 to stage 3 in a more advanced timeframe. Other studies have shown that, "children who experienced a parent's death, who are dying themselves, or who have witnessed violent, traumatic death will perceive death in an adultlike manner at much earlier ages than children who have not had such experiences." ("Death—The Development Of A Concept Of Death—Children, Dead, Nagy, and Age - JRank Articles") These experiences of the human condition led me early on in a lifelong pursuit of finding answers about the possibility of retaining consciousness after the brain dies. Like many others in the study of ghosts and hauntings, I have found comfort in journeying into the dark, and I carry this into every investigation I conduct, into every bit of research I perform, and the hours upon hours of footage I review. And I will continue to do so, until I meet my own ultimate end.

References
Colman, Penny. 1997. Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial. N.p.: Henry Holt and Company.
"Death—The Development Of A Concept Of Death—Children, Dead, Nagy, and Age—JRank Articles." n.d. Social Issues Reference. Accessed December 4, 2021. https://social.jrank.org/pages/186/Death-Development-Concept-Death.html#ixzz7E9jWV4N5.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2022. All rights reserved.

I have no kids and I'm not pregnant. Last night I had a very vivid dream that I was in labor. In the dream, I was clearing out a friend's house and got awful cramps, which later I discovered were labor pains. In the dream, I didn't know I was pregnant until I was told. I wanted to push but I had to get to the hospital by sitting in front of the ambulance; they wouldn't pull over. When I got to the hospital, there were no beds and I was anxious because I needed to push. A nurse pointed me into the emergency room, which was covered in blood with a bullet hole in one of the beds. My boyfriend looked for a better place and couldn't find one, but found a room off of that area that was filthy. The nurse reappeared and told me to be patient and rang the labor ward to let them know. It was an American hospital; I am from Ireland. I woke before I gave birth. It was a scary dream and it felt so real my stomach was sore when I woke up. What do you think it means?
Erin

Susyn:

It's not unusual to awaken with physical symptoms after having a very intense dream. Though this dream centered around the idea that you were pregnant and you awoke with soreness in your abdomen, I do not feel it was prophetic in nature.

The subconscious will try to communicate various concerns through our dreams, but it does so symbolically, so the events in our dreams should almost never be taken literally. By looking at each segment of this dream and its meaning from a metaphysical angle, you may be able to connect this experience to something else you are currently going through.

Let's begin with the fact that you were clearing out a friend's house when you went into labor. This transition often represents an ending in one area of your life and the beginning of a new phase you are about to enter. As you cleared out space in one area, a new life began to show itself. Are you in the midst of any transitions? This could include changing jobs, moving from one place to another, or reaching a turning point in your relationship. If you can relate this message to a transitional event currently taking place, the rest of the dream should begin to make sense.

It may be that you are unaware of the changes that are about to take place based on the fact that in the dream, you did not realize you were pregnant until you went into labor. In this case, the dream is revealing that change of some type is on the way. This dream is also a reminder that you can't hurry these changes, for you are not able to push (things forward) or find a proper place in which to make things happen.

In looking for a place to give birth, you came upon a bloody room. When we encounter blood in a dream, whether it's our own or belongs to others, it also suggests that new life is on the way. This theme is repeated when you discover you are in an American hospital, which suggests that the changes coming your way are foreign and unfamiliar you.

It's easy to see why this dream and the transition it portends might cause you worry or concern, for often when we are moving into a period of change, we feel rather powerless over what is going on around us. No matter how we try, we have to surrender to a higher plan and divine timing.

Though the baby in the dream never arrived, this dream is asking you to be prepared to experience a life-changing event. Babies are always blessings in dreams, so this event should prove positive. More is sure to be revealed, so take this dream as a hint of wonderful things to come.

*****

Oceania:

In your dream, the fact that you wanted and needed to push suggests that you need to push something old out of the way in order to make room for something new that is pushing its way into your world! This new baby has been gestating and taking shape for a while now, though you may not have noticed it. That you didn't know you were pregnant in the dream until you were told suggests self-neglect or denial about what's going on within you.

In the dream, you were helping a friend rather than attending to your own needs. You were in pain before your body got your attention. Close your eyes and perform your own ultrasound. Notice any feelings in your body and give them a voice. You might begin with I feel... and see what words come up.

That the hospital was foreign to you, one of the beds was covered with blood and a bullet hole, and neither the nurse nor your boyfriend could find a clean bed for the delivery all mean that you are skeptical about your support system - perhaps rightly so. Don't wait for someone else to do this for you. Be a fierce mama and take care of business. Name the baby by identifying your immediate goal! Don't let your agenda go by the wayside in order to serve someone else's needs or desires.

You were clearing a house in your dream. Similarly, you must make way for your child, whether she turns out to be a project, a change, intense feelings or an emerging aspect of yourself. You may have to let go of some actual stuff to clear space and eliminate distractions so that you can properly attend to this new life. You may have to let go of activities in an overcrowded schedule. You may need to step back from certain people - perhaps the friend in your dream or the boyfriend whose offering of a filthy room was not good enough. Perhaps you just need to assert yourself more with them.

The speeding ambulance heading for the emergency room suggests a sense of urgency with all of this. Part of you wants change right away while another part knows that rushing won't help because the ER won't be ready. Wisdom lies somewhere inbetween: We must patiently honor divine timing, yet be ready to take action when the time is right!

That the nurse finally rang the labor ward to let them know you'd arrived means things are falling into place. Make your final preparations! You are in labor now, so you're close to manifesting your creation. The process may be painful, but you can't stop now. Take some deep breaths and relax; it's time for the final push.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.