Ghost Hunting Canines

12/31/2011

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The new craze in ghost hunting is to bring your pet to the hunt but can a dog really sniff out ghosts?

Maddie the dog, new member of Ghost Hunters is listed as a team member of TAPS on the SyFy website.  If Ghost Hunters thinks their dog is Scooby Doo then we better look into this.  One paranormal pooch, The Captain, even has his own Facebook page!

Law enforcement uses canines to sniff out drugs.  Are they on to something?  Dogs are known to sniff out fear, cancer, a person about to have a seizure, lost kids, cadavers, electricity, insects, and gas lines.  Sniffing out electricity can be handy in ghost hunting.  Spirits are thought to give off an electromagnetic energy which can be detected with various meters used by the paranormal community and as it appears, your dog too. 
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_Dogs have a better sniffer than humans.  Humans have about 5 million scent receptors.  A Bloodhound has about 300 million!  A large part of a dog's brain is devoted to smell making a dog's sniffer about 100,000 times better than a man.  Sometimes there are certain smells around ghosts such as perfume and cigar smoke.  Your dog can sniff them out and make you aware of a smell you may have otherwise overlooked.   
_Dogs have supersonic hearing.  They can hear high pitched sounds man can't hear.  My own dogs can hear the sound of my Jeep blocks away from our house.  They know when I'm coming home.  My kids say the dogs stand by the door waiting for me and then a couple minutes later I pull into the driveway.
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_Dogs can only see in two colors but they can see in the dark.  Your pet is a walking night vision scope.  Dogs have an extra part in their eye called a tapetum that allows them to see in less light.  This is what causes your dog's eyes to glow in a picture.  There's even an app so you can see what a dog sees.  Dogs can also detect motion better than us.

We've all seen our pets growl at something we can't see or stare into space.  They're sensing something we cannot.  They might feel threatened and bark to warn you.  Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.  Think twice the next time your dog acts strange and barks at the wall.
It takes the right tempered dog to be a good ghost hunter.  We have two dogs, both Labradors.  Layla is too high spirited to take on a hunt, not to mention she's as big as a person, but our other dog, Coco, obeys commands well and is calmer.

Can dogs detect the supernatural?  I think Scooby Doo may have a leg up hunting the paranormal.

Hunters of the Unknown has a canine member, Coco.  Coco has yet to provide us with evidence of the paranormal but I am confident she will and who doesn't like bringing their dog on an adventure?

Please leave comments and tell us about your own paranormal pets.
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Coco, the ghost hunting dog
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Are Spirits Really Demons in Disguise?

12/04/2011

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_"For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward,
and even the memory of them is forgotten."  Ecclesiastes 9:5 NIV

"As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return.
He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.” Job 7:9-10 NIV

Are the dead no longer on this earth in body or in spirit?  Are mediums really talking to the devil and not your dead grandmother? 

This subject came up when speaking with a Catholic friend of mine about spirits.  Needless to say, she is not thrilled about my hobby.  We were talking about what ghosts really were.  Her answer was people who passed away but were waiting in purgatory to be cleansed of their sins until they eventually went to heaven.  I said what about children spirits.  There are known cases of the same child spirit being seen for many years.  Such as the spirits of two young girls aboard the Queen Mary.  One of these girls, named Jackie, drowned in the pool and has been seen and heard repeatedly ever since.  I didn't think a child could do something so terrible they would be sentenced to purgatory for a long period of time, especially decades.  That statement made my friend think.  She didn't know the answer but said she would ask her priest.  And that she did. 

I was anxious to receive an answer from my friend.  She informed me that not only did she receive an answer from one source but that immediately thereafter, another source confirmed her suspicions and this message could not have been coincidence but was intended only for me.

My friend contacted a Catholic radio station and asked her question.  She was informed by a priest all ghosts were really demons.  Humans who died could not be spirits.  They were gone from this earth forever.  If that answer wasn't enough, a special speaker came to her church, Zachary King, a former satanist, and also concluded there is no such thing as a ghost, only a demon in disguise.

I was mighty suspicious, after pestering her for months for an answer, she received not one, but two repetitious answers.  So I investigated.

There are many religions and cultures that do believe in ghosts.  The Chinese believe their departed loved ones' souls must be kept happy with offerings and honor.  The seventh month of the Chinese New Year is Ghost Month and is celebrated with the Ghost Festival.  It represents the connection between the living and dead.  During this month they believe spirits come to visit earth.  Buddhism, Judaism, and Hinduism all believe ghosts are deceased people who need our help to move on.  Ullambana is a Buddhist festival celebrated to ease the suffering of ghosts.  In the Latin American culture they celebrate Day of the Dead.  People go to cemeteries, build alters with food, drink, and photos for their deceased loved ones in hopes they will be visited by their soul. 

I spoke with a couple other friends of mine who are Catholic.  They said they do not believe all spirits are demons.  One even believes her mother's spirit visits her occasionally.

According to the Bible "... he who goes down to the grave does not return."  Does that mean the dead cannot come back to life or does that pertain to their spirit as well?  I think it's a matter of interpretation.

I find it hard to believe mediums are speaking with demons.  Why would demons want to comfort you or help you obtain closure of the death of your loved one?  It doesn't make any sense to me.  Demons are out to do bad, not good.  Demons can physically attack humans by scratches or other bodily injury and inflict mental oppression, ghosts cannot.  Don't demons have better things to do than haunt a house?   

I do believe demons can disguise themselves as a child or other spirit and can answer any question you ask them correctly but I am not convinced every spirit is a demon.  I don't think there is strong evidence either way.  For now it is a personal opinion.

I would love to hear what everyone thinks about this topic.  Are all spirits demons?__
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