Despite my focus on ghosts and hauntings in previous newsletters, my interest in the paranormal is broad. I’ve attended bigfoot conferences (and enjoy cryptid lore of all kinds), and I went through a big UFO phase in the 1990s. (We all did. Um, have you seen “The X-Files”? Mulder and Scully are responsible for more than just making an entire generation bisexual.) I’ve also been interested in psychical research since I was literally a child. Sure, you can blame some of that on “Ghostbusters,” but not all of it.

I first read ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists: A Parapsychologist’s Handbook by Loyd Auerbach when I was eleven or twelve. Knowing that real scientists were systematically studying this stuff – not just fictional Ghostbusters, but real ones – set my brain on fire. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of those parapsychologists.

So I did.

Shortly after reading the book, I conducted a full battery of ESP tests on every student in my gifted and talented program. This sounds impressive until you realize I attended a tiny rural school, and there were only eight of us in G&T. My sample size was not large! I began with Zener-style cards I’d made with index cards and markers, but soon abandoned those for a deck of standard playing cards.

Our test results were startling, though: Seven out of eight students consistently scored above chance.

I tightened the testing parameters after the first round to ensure that no one was cheating, including placing each receiver in the hallway for their turn. I mean, I was a child, so I wasn’t operating with the same protocols as the Duke Parapsychology Lab, but I did my best to keep everything aboveboard. I had a blast working on that project, and I’m still grateful to the open-minded teacher who allowed me to experiment on my classmates.

I’m fairly skeptical, believe it or not – in the classic Fortean sense, not in the dismissive, hard-nosed way. I can’t dismiss every supernatural occurrence out of hand because I’ve experienced so many unusual things myself. But I don’t instantly believe every account that comes my way. Many, many things that look supernatural on the surface have rational explanations. Some weird things simply don’t, and that’s where it gets interesting. I do think these childhood experiments helped to keep me grounded, as bizarre as that sounds. I had documented proof that people could sense things they couldn’t physically see, and even if those results would never end up in a scientific journal, I knew without a doubt that they were real.

Life moved on, as it tends to do. I went into homeschooling, then on to college, where I was more concerned with theatre and music than psychical research. I still read about the paranormal (I subscribed to both Fate Magazine and Fortean Times for many years), but I didn’t have the opportunity to participate in hands-on psychic experiments for a long time.

Then I joined the Patreon for the Newkirk Museum of the Paranormal.

Don’t worry. This isn’t an ad. I’m just a big fan! Besides the camaraderie in the Discord chat among members and all the behind-the-scenes stuff (“Hellier” season three is coming soon, as we are repeatedly reminded), what I really love are the hands-on experiments.

Earlier this year, the museum ran a remote viewing experiment. In case you’re unfamiliar, remote viewing techniques were developed by the CIA during the Cold War to train so-called psychic spies. There are specific protocols to follow and a detailed way of describing what you’re seeing or sensing about a pre-selected target. In the museum experiment, instead of geographic coordinates, we were given a code number for a file box containing an object.

I’ve had plenty of “psychic” experiences beyond those childhood ESP tests. I’ve had precognitive dreams, I’ve told tarot clients things I couldn’t possibly have known, and I’ve communicated with spirits in haunted places. But I’d never tried remote viewing, so I was excited to give it a go.

(Please note: The following section contains spoilers for the remote viewing livestream held by the Newkirk Museum of the Paranormal on 07/24/2025, so please skip ahead if you haven’t seen it and you plan to watch at some point in the future. It is behind a paywall, so only club members have access.)

We were instructed to write down any initial images we saw when we focused on a new target, then to ignore them and describe the target’s characteristics. That’s the wild thing about remote viewing – no nouns are allowed. This is to keep the viewer from becoming fixated on a preconceived notion. You can’t say, “I see a jet ski.” You need to describe its properties. You might describe it as mechanical, having a sense of motion, involving water. Maybe you have a strong impression of specific colors or textures, or a sense of the materials involved. Those characteristics may be accurate, but they may describe an object other than a jet ski. Keep that in mind.

On the first test item, I had an initial image of a snow globe. I went on to describe it as being round with a flat base, containing water, cool to the touch, and very smooth. I was surprised when the object was revealed, though it wasn’t a snow globe. It was a Magic 8 Ball, the classic divination toy. It did have all of those characteristics, though the initial image was wrong. I experienced a classic remote-viewing “hit.”

The second test item was even more striking. My initial image was perplexing but very clear. I wrote down “disembodied plastic hand.” I went on to describe it as having an organic, branching shape and a pinky-beige or tan color. I described it as cool, smooth, and hard. I almost fell out of my chair when this object was revealed. It was actually a disembodied hand! I had literally seen an object hidden in a file box hundreds of miles away. To be fair, I did get the material wrong, as it was plaster instead of plastic. But I absolutely saw that hand.

The clear and unequivocal result on that object startled me so badly that I didn’t do as well viewing the remaining items, at least until the final box.

I had a persistent, clear image while viewing the next-to-last box. I kept seeing a Mogwai from “Gremlins” or possibly a Furby. I even sketched out a rough outline on my worksheet. I was completely wrong on that object; it was the clearest “miss” I had all evening. When viewing the object in the final box, I got the general shape correct, along with the colors and the item’s material. The wildest detail was that my persistent Mogwai shape from the previous worksheet was clearly the goblin painted on the side of this final object. I had viewed the detail prematurely, or possibly even precognitively.

My mind was truly blown that evening. Even with my history, I didn’t expect to see such clear and dramatic results. I obviously didn’t maintain consistent hits with every single object in the experiment (even seasoned remote viewers fail), but I can’t deny that I was successful.

I wasn’t alone, either. There were widespread, startling hits among the livestream viewers. Admittedly, museum members are a self-selected group who generally already have an interest in the paranormal, and research has shown that people who believe tend to get better results than skeptics. But anybody can learn remote viewing, and I think this experiment provided ample proof.

Everyone’s a little bit psychic. ESP research has been going on for over a hundred years. It’s easy to prove that people have a measurable sixth sense. Many legitimate experiments have produced results above chance again and again – in replicable and repeated studies. And though the results are rarely as dramatic in a lab as portrayed in fiction, even minor statistical variations that occur with consistency can be eye-opening.

My personal psychic experiences are out of the ordinary, I know. But they’re not that unusual. And if you want to put your own abilities to the test, I have a pack of Zener cards and an open mind.

Just hit me up.

• Apologies for the delay! This should have gone out yesterday, but I’ve had a series of technical difficulties this week. Better late than never, right?
• If you have any interest in legitimate paranormal or psychical research, I highly recommend the book Real Magic by Dr. Dean Radin.
• Thumper Forge’s new book is officially out next week! I’ve already read The Chaos Apple, and it’s fantastic. I’m so excited and proud – and I only helped proofread it. Seriously, this is a great addition to your library if you have any interest in chaos magic, Discordianism, or general spellcraft. It’s the most entertaining book on witchcraft I’ve ever read. Buy it! I want to be able to brag that my BFF’s a best-selling author.
• Although this essay isn’t really about goblin sightings at its core, it’s a great piece of writing. (And it’s also true that reports of supernatural activity increase after traumatic events.)

This is it, folks. Tomorrow is Halloween. The veil is thin and excitement is high! I have one last story to send before we bid adieu to Spooky Season. OKAY, BYE! 🖤