An Almost Average, But Sometimes, Paranormal Life By: Carol J. Farrell Contents *** Please note: the content of this book is in its original, unedited format as Carol had it during her final iteration on January 11,2016. Printed for sharing during her Celebration of Life event. *** • Dedications and Gratitude • Foreword • Chapter 1 – Pg. 9 My Beginnings - My Family • Chapter 2 – Pg. 17 First Contact • Chapter 3 – Pg. 28 Going Forward into Adulthood - The Domovoi • Chapter 4 – Pg. 32 Return to Paragon and the Family Farm • Chapter 5 – Pg. 34 Bob's Beginnings • Chapter 6 – Pg. 38 Teaming Up for the Paranormal • Chapter 7 – Pg. 52 Closer to Home • Chapter 8 – Pg. 58 Everyday Happenings • Chapter 9 – Pg. 69 Seeing Specters • Chapter 10 – Pg. 73 Cats See Things • Chapter 11 – Pg. 81 Grandma Ruth Makes an Appearance • Chapter 12 – Pg. 85 Paragon Paranormal Gets Organized • Chapter 13 – Pg. 88 Prayers of Protection • Chapter 14 – Pg. 90 Indiana Investigations • Chapter 15 – Pg. 144 Our Favorite Investigation-The Thomas House Inn • Chapter 16 – Pg. 155 Not Just Ghosts! • Biography 2 Dedications and Gratitude I must start my dedication of this book to a true devotee of the spirit realm, my father, Thomas Rohland, who passed into that dimension in 1986. Dad was a man who believed in the spirits and the Almighty Spirit above all. He challenged me throughout my life and believed in me by never doubting and accepting my spiritual capabilities as real when the weird events in my young life needed explaining. Dad permitted and encouraged me to read and explore the paranormal world to help me know that I wasn’t alone in my abilities. One of my greatest wishes is that my Dad still be with me on our human plane and be able to enjoy the excitement I now have with Bob and our paranormal undertakings. I also think Dad would be surprised by the new openness and curiosity of the general population toward accepting supernatural sciences, quite unlike his in era. I must also include my beloved cousin, Sonny (Carl) Hess, who loved to narrate his ghost experiences to his much younger cousins and even today, encourages my interests in the paranormal. (Sonny also allowed me to read his “FATE” magazines – also much to my Mother’s chagrin.) I would also like to thank one of my most trustworthy enthusiasts, Roberta Marshall, who has always been a sounding board for my personal stories and philosophies about the weird incidents which have surrounded me. Roberta, who we fondly call “BB”, is an individual who is extremely honest and uses her straightforwardness to appraise my paranormal events and evidence, and sometimes it’s not always what I want to hear. But most of all, this book is dedicated with love and adoration to my true soul mate, my remarkable husband, Robert Farrell. I see him as man of great dedication toward me because without his devotion and encouragement I would not have been able to retire earlier than most people do and at whose persistence I can now share with others some of my life experiences through my writing. Bob was willing to let me recount his assorted personal paranormal experiences in my manuscript and even now, enthusiastically assists me and my paranormal team, Paragon Paranormal – Shadow Chasers, in our many ghost-hunting and other paranormal explorations. 3 But, it must also be acknowledged, I just as optimistically support Bob during his exciting, sometimes all night, Big Foot expeditions! (I’m still wondering what he will do with a Sasquatch if he ever catches one!) Bob and I make a great team! 4 Foreword Greek philosopher Socrates is famous for his quote “The unexamined life is not worth living.” When he said it, this wise man was on trial for heresy because he encouraged his students and followers to challenge the accepted principles and beliefs of the time and to think freely. Because he had been found guilty of such heretical doctrine, Socrates was informed he must make a choice between solitary incarceration for the rest of his life as an exile to a prison island where he would live by himself with no one to teach or interact with, or select the ultimate seclusion of all living humans, death. The renowned theoretician’s decision was made with courage and gallantry; the Greek philosopher is now remembered as the casualty of ancient history’s most notorious cup of poison hemlock. I accept the challenge of Socrates. I have decided to examine my life, past and present, to determine if I am on a path that encourages and challenges my beliefs for the future. No one’s life is free from problems and strife and sometimes the answers to these situations come from unusual places and people. Socrates chose death as his path to a new challenge. Ironically, I’ve chosen the living world as my path to examine what lies between and beyond death. The challenges will be as they come, and I intend to confront them with modern science and the courage to accept changes if the path demands it. The world’s beliefs in the science of physics, motion, time and gravity is rapidly changing. Almost a century ago Albert Einstein presented his “Theory of Relativity” to the world and redefined time and space as dimensions which are flexible and yet woven together to create a four-dimensional fabric. Einstein’s “fabric” pervades the universe and is the basis for his premise that time and space is the source of gravity which is created when the fabric bends and warps around large objects, such as the sun, thus drawing smaller objects toward them, for example, the planets of our solar system. Einstein’s theory has its shortcomings because it doesn’t account for an expanding universe or the motions of galaxies. It also doesn’t explain some of the motions and behaviors of the sub-atomic world, called quantum mechanics or quantum physics. 5 Scientists today have started to rethink Einstein’s theory of time and space by dismissing the “fabric” and thus time, as a fundamental dimension. The rethinking of Einstein’s theories brings me back to the paranormal sciences; there are those individuals who believe and those who disbelieve, and the difference is based mainly on their comprehension within their learned limitations of human existence and their level of understanding of our world of math, physics and biology. We use our five senses to examine our universe and our brains force us to comprehend within the boundaries of those measurable senses, because without them, the world would not have a perception of stability. Even our most sophisticated computers and machines are within the boundaries of the human brain’s grasp of reality because we, as biological entities, are the programmers. Most humans struggle with themselves asking at what point and with what proof the unfathomable, in this case the paranormal, will be accepted by them without a need for a justification or explanation. Some people never find the point or the proof for personal acceptance of such occurrences. Currently, Einstein’s theories are being unraveled because some of the most gifted of our scientists are not satisfied with his theories analysis. There are many well known scientists pursuing with challenging research, reasonable justifications of Einstein’s old theories and how they affect our universe. There are just as many of us who are not well known also seeking answers to the mysteries of the so named paranormal sciences. So I ask – Do the failures of our most elite quantum physicists and theorists to confirm without a doubt the nature of their sciences now make the subject matter of Einstein’s theories and quantum mechanics both “paranormal sciences” because their field of study “cannot be proven”? Even Einstein had doubts about his work. Sir Charles Darwin is not to be left out of the conversation when asserting a commentary concerning the paranormal viewpoint of life and most notably the “soul”. The soul, according to my old Oxford Dictionary, is described as “The immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life”. The best way to state my conviction in an immortal soul is best explained through the non-scientific side of me as an article of my Christian faith in an Almighty Creator. 6 Personally, I prefer to consider my soul as the “breath of God” as contained in all humans, or, as a life-force beyond mortal existence. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution distances man from God by declaring humans are just more evolutionarily advanced hairless apes. The paranormal consideration in this case is the need to explain the human soul and its existence outside the living body; uncontained human or inhuman souls are considered to be ghosts or spirit apparitions in paranormal nomenclature. So, I ask, can this fundamental ingredient of life be seen or photographed, and does it have actual mass that can be measured in some way? And, is it possible for the soul to exist outside the biological body? Duncan McDougal, from 1901 through 1907, investigated the possibility that the human soul was measurable by human methods. Wanting to understand more about what happens after we die, he sought to determine if the soul continued to exist as a separate entity or personality after the demise of the brain and body. After six years of study and facing many obstacles including a lack of proper equipment and dying humans willing to be his subjects, McDougal published his analysis in which he declared the human soul was measurable, it had mass, and weighed approximately 21 grams.