Years ago, when I first started reading professionally, I noticed a trend: The number of television shows concerning the paranormal was increasing. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing less -- after all, I spent all day dealing with the paranormal and didn't want to spend my spare time doing so as well.
So, the irony has not escaped me that, as I sit here wondering if I'm going to watch Ghost Lab, Extreme Ghost Stories, or Paranormal State, things have changed. I've changed.
It's not surprising, really. I only do readings on the weekends now. I also accept who I am and what I do much more readily than I used to; I'm comfortable in my own skin.
But all of this self-reflection has not helped me decide what I'm going to watch tonight.
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Gigi learns about ghosts . . . Again
Because she's becoming more curious about what I do and why -- being almost seven -- I decided to try something I've never done: I allowed Gigi to watch Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal with me.
Regular readers will know that Gigi used to see ghosts until about the age of five. Starting around the summer last year, she began to be more curious about what I do. Until then, she had just referred to my readings as my "appointments" or my "ladies".
In the past few months, many times, I tried to have a conversation with her only to get stuck on the concept of intuition. (I worked on that by asking her, "What FEELs true?" in this or that conversation.)
Today was the day that I said, "Would you like to watch this show with me?"
It was fascinating to watch as she began to understand what I meant by "ghost", that some people believe while others do not and, through the show's participants, she also grasped that it wasn't something that she could talk about with everyone. Throuhout the show, this is what she said:
"I don't have a ghost. Do you?"
"I don't want to turn into a ghost. I don't want to scare people and make them run away."
"When I was little, I felt a chill and I think I heard a 'meow'. I think it was a cat ghost." In 2006, I posted about Gigi and a ghost cat.
Wow! Again with the cat ghosts. Scully -- the bewildered scientist -- has spoken increasingly of our resident ghostly pets.
Most interestingly, when she learned that she didn't have to be afraid of ghosts and that this was a decision she could make on her own, she provided commentary to the story of a girl who was very afraid, she said,
"I think she should just get used to it."
Ta-da! There. It wasn't easy but it wasn't as difficult as I feared. But what about my vocation?
Well, she learned that I believe in ghosts, that part of what I do involves interracting with ghosts in some way.
She learned, too, that there are elements of the stories we tell ourselves culturally about ghosts (folklore) that make stories exciting but which aren't necessarily true. One child during the episode was about to see what information (s)he could sense about a ghost, (s)he said: "How come we always have to wait until night to do this?" I looked at Gigi and told her that neither darkness nor night hours were not necessary in order to sense or communicate with ghosts.
I think that's enough for now.
Regular readers will know that Gigi used to see ghosts until about the age of five. Starting around the summer last year, she began to be more curious about what I do. Until then, she had just referred to my readings as my "appointments" or my "ladies".
In the past few months, many times, I tried to have a conversation with her only to get stuck on the concept of intuition. (I worked on that by asking her, "What FEELs true?" in this or that conversation.)
Today was the day that I said, "Would you like to watch this show with me?"
It was fascinating to watch as she began to understand what I meant by "ghost", that some people believe while others do not and, through the show's participants, she also grasped that it wasn't something that she could talk about with everyone. Throuhout the show, this is what she said:
"I don't have a ghost. Do you?"
"I don't want to turn into a ghost. I don't want to scare people and make them run away."
"When I was little, I felt a chill and I think I heard a 'meow'. I think it was a cat ghost." In 2006, I posted about Gigi and a ghost cat.
Wow! Again with the cat ghosts. Scully -- the bewildered scientist -- has spoken increasingly of our resident ghostly pets.
Most interestingly, when she learned that she didn't have to be afraid of ghosts and that this was a decision she could make on her own, she provided commentary to the story of a girl who was very afraid, she said,
"I think she should just get used to it."
Ta-da! There. It wasn't easy but it wasn't as difficult as I feared. But what about my vocation?
Well, she learned that I believe in ghosts, that part of what I do involves interracting with ghosts in some way.
She learned, too, that there are elements of the stories we tell ourselves culturally about ghosts (folklore) that make stories exciting but which aren't necessarily true. One child during the episode was about to see what information (s)he could sense about a ghost, (s)he said: "How come we always have to wait until night to do this?" I looked at Gigi and told her that neither darkness nor night hours were not necessary in order to sense or communicate with ghosts.
I think that's enough for now.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Psychic Kids
This show surprised me. I managed to catch one episode and, so far, I am of two minds about the program.
On the one hand, I'm glad that the psychic sensitivity of children is finally getting some attention. On the other, I'm uncomfortable with children being subjected to such intense media exposure when, clearly, in my opinion, they are not old enough to appreciate the later-in-life consequences of being so open. Certainly, it's entertaining; however, children can learn to be comfortable with themselves without doing so in front of a camera.
But, then again, according to the bio of Dr. Lisa Miller (co-host and psychologist), she works with "psychic kids and their parents to offer support and to clear a path for psychic children in our culture." I can support this idea. Perhaps the later-in-life consequences will be negligible since our culture does seem to be developing an open-mindedness where the paranormal is concerned.
Who knows? Maybe one day, people will put a capital "P" on their blogs or Facebook profiles to indicate that they're "out" as a psychic and proud of it.
Interestingly enough, my sister and I hadn't spoken for a while and today she asked: "Have you seen 'Psychic Kids'? I watched my first episode last night.
At any rate, it makes for capitivating television.
This show surprised me. I managed to catch one episode and, so far, I am of two minds about the program.
On the one hand, I'm glad that the psychic sensitivity of children is finally getting some attention. On the other, I'm uncomfortable with children being subjected to such intense media exposure when, clearly, in my opinion, they are not old enough to appreciate the later-in-life consequences of being so open. Certainly, it's entertaining; however, children can learn to be comfortable with themselves without doing so in front of a camera.
But, then again, according to the bio of Dr. Lisa Miller (co-host and psychologist), she works with "psychic kids and their parents to offer support and to clear a path for psychic children in our culture." I can support this idea. Perhaps the later-in-life consequences will be negligible since our culture does seem to be developing an open-mindedness where the paranormal is concerned.
Who knows? Maybe one day, people will put a capital "P" on their blogs or Facebook profiles to indicate that they're "out" as a psychic and proud of it.
Interestingly enough, my sister and I hadn't spoken for a while and today she asked: "Have you seen 'Psychic Kids'? I watched my first episode last night.
At any rate, it makes for capitivating television.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Dead Television Shows
Dead Like Me lasted only two seasons but it was fantastic. It was created by Bryan Fuller (think Wonderfalls, Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Star Trek: Voyager.)
George, the main character, having been killed in a freak accident, steps out of her body to find that she is, well, that she still IS. She has no choice but to live her dead-life as it becomes pretty ordinary but utterly fascinating.
I've noticed re-runs and you could probably catch an episode pretty easily. Otherwise, both seasons were released on DVD and they are well worth the purchase.
The humour is dry, biting; its timing is impeccable.
Fear and Folklore
Over the past year, until March, I was addicted to the first season of Ghost Whisperer though I hadn't seen an episode until after I'd stopped giving readings. Scully bought me the DVDs. My experiences do not match those of the main character, Melinda, and I think that is why I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the tone of the second season changed and it wasn't interesting to me at that point.
I haven't seen the other shows that involve the paranormal and don't really know their titles. I guess I've always been put off by the fact that televisionland perpetuates certain ideas of the supernatural that I simply have not experienced myself. Also, in the many hundreds of readings that I've done, not a single person had been hurt by a ghost nor knew of anyone who had been but almost everyone feared ghosts and believed that a "haunting" was something that had to be erradicated.
So, in my last post, when I spoke of "folklore-ish" aspects of ghost-filled movies, it is this to which I was referring. It's one thing to enjoy these movies (I loved Poltergeist) and television shows about the paranormal; it is quite another thing to be frightened of the paranormal because of such movies and shows.
Don't get me wrong: I still find some experiences unsettling but it is not due to a fear of harm. At night, when the toys start playing music and wake me up or when books defy gravity by falling and then resting on shelves at impossible angles, my heart starts racing until I've processed that something is happening. To me, the paranormal is very normal, just sometimes unexpected!
Dead Like Me lasted only two seasons but it was fantastic. It was created by Bryan Fuller (think Wonderfalls, Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Star Trek: Voyager.)
George, the main character, having been killed in a freak accident, steps out of her body to find that she is, well, that she still IS. She has no choice but to live her dead-life as it becomes pretty ordinary but utterly fascinating.
I've noticed re-runs and you could probably catch an episode pretty easily. Otherwise, both seasons were released on DVD and they are well worth the purchase.
The humour is dry, biting; its timing is impeccable.
Fear and Folklore
Over the past year, until March, I was addicted to the first season of Ghost Whisperer though I hadn't seen an episode until after I'd stopped giving readings. Scully bought me the DVDs. My experiences do not match those of the main character, Melinda, and I think that is why I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the tone of the second season changed and it wasn't interesting to me at that point.
I haven't seen the other shows that involve the paranormal and don't really know their titles. I guess I've always been put off by the fact that televisionland perpetuates certain ideas of the supernatural that I simply have not experienced myself. Also, in the many hundreds of readings that I've done, not a single person had been hurt by a ghost nor knew of anyone who had been but almost everyone feared ghosts and believed that a "haunting" was something that had to be erradicated.
So, in my last post, when I spoke of "folklore-ish" aspects of ghost-filled movies, it is this to which I was referring. It's one thing to enjoy these movies (I loved Poltergeist) and television shows about the paranormal; it is quite another thing to be frightened of the paranormal because of such movies and shows.
Don't get me wrong: I still find some experiences unsettling but it is not due to a fear of harm. At night, when the toys start playing music and wake me up or when books defy gravity by falling and then resting on shelves at impossible angles, my heart starts racing until I've processed that something is happening. To me, the paranormal is very normal, just sometimes unexpected!
Sunday, October 30, 2005
I See Dead People . . . In A Documentary
Today, the documentary about my life/work begins. I'm more nervous than I thought that I'd be but definitely not as nervous as my first national TV appearance. I'm used to the camera, I guess, but I can't really believe that it's happening.
Gigi had me awake from 3:00 - 5:00 this morning, so I'm not exactly chipper.
Today, the documentary about my life/work begins. I'm more nervous than I thought that I'd be but definitely not as nervous as my first national TV appearance. I'm used to the camera, I guess, but I can't really believe that it's happening.
Gigi had me awake from 3:00 - 5:00 this morning, so I'm not exactly chipper.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Tele-Vision
I did have another TV appearance -- national -- another live question-and-answer. It went well. Lots of calls, then lots of appointments.
The hardest part for me was getting ready: I needed a babysitter to keep Gigi company while I got ready. Wow, it was such a luxury to sit in a bath for more than 3 minutes. I was there to feed her and brush her teeth with her but mostly my mother-in-law cared for her. I'm going to look into this babysitting thing. My husband and I would like to have a date.
My mother comes up to babysit so that I can get my readings done during the week. Yay! It works out.
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