Spam From a Dead Payday Loan Store Employee

Hi Doc:

Just a heads-up. I have been receiving unsolicited e-mail from an individual a payday loan store. So have several of my friends. I have subsequently found the individual is deceased and the business went bankrupt six months ago. If anyone else is receiving dunning notices from a creditor who has move on to the Other Side, please let them know they don't have to repay the entire loan. In my case, I brought a lawyer to a seance, who haggled with the deceased spirit, allowing me to fulfill my obligation with a small donation to a local charity.
Debt-Free

Alien Space Toilets?

A new and somewhat humorous (to me) theory has emerged recently in the UFO community. Some are saying that the first tangible evidence of alien space travel will come from the aliens' toilets. You know how ocean-going ships and even passenger planes jettison their--uh--"refuse" while in transit? Well, the theory goes that alien space craft eliminate waste in a similar manner and that astronauts will come face-to-face with this flotsam long before the aliens otherwise reveal their presence.

You Can Catch Someone Else's Mental Problems

You can catch someone else's mental problems just as you can catch a cold. But rest assured. It's not the result of an evil spell. Experts say you can catch an individual's emotional disorder if you identify with that person--on an unconscious level you imitate his or her symptoms. Among the problems that can be contagious are panic attacks, depression and anxiety. Bottom line advice: find a cheerful person to be with or something fun to do.

Isn't It Ironic?

Isn't it ironic that this year's skeptics convention takes place in a city upon which millions of people descend every year, believing in the divine power of good luck?

Beat High Gas Prices with Astral Travel?

Dear Doc Paranormal:

I'm a self-employed traveling salesman and have done pretty well over the years. But the high price of gas is eating into my profits. I've heard of astral travel to visit loved ones. Is there any way I can learn how to travel via the astral plane to make sales calls?
Willy Loman

Dear Willy:

According to famed psychic researcher Brad Steiger, everyone travels out of their bodies during sleep. So I imagine those trips could include sales calls. The trouble is, says Steiger, only 25 to 30 percent of astral travelers remember the experience. However, Steiger maintains that you can learn to remember your out-of-body travels with these few simple techniques:

*Take a shower before sleep to relax.
*Keep a diary beside your bed. Enter a log of the places you went to in your sleep.
*Double check your recollections with the individuals you visited astrally to confirm that you were really there. Once you've confirmed two or three out-of-body trips, it will be easier for you to have them.

Skeptic Watch

"The James Randi Educational Foundation has privately chartered the Celebrity Cruise Liner Xpedition, and will be hosting an adventurous 90 passengers on this exclusive and once in a lifetime voyage to the land where Charles Darwin made his influential discoveries. Pricing starts at $5400 per person double occupancy."

Note from Doc Paranormal: Sorry kids, the August 8-18 cruise is already sold out. Too bad...10 days on a boat watching some old guy perform card tricks would've been so much...er...fun?

Million Ghost March To Haunt Skeptic Convention

For Immediate Release:

Contact: e-mail: askdocparanormal@gmail.com

Million Ghost March To Haunt Skeptic Convention.

Clairvoyants, mediums and psychics worldwide have been invited to contact spirits in a major nonviolent protest of an annual convention of skeptics taking place at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas June 19-22, 2008. "For too long, paranormal skeptics have mocked people with a curiosity about ghosts, spirits and the afterlife. The Million Ghost March was conceived as an opportunity to turn the tables on these unimaginative naysayers," said the organizer of the massive effort, whose screen name is Doc Paranormal. He operates the blog Ask Doc Paranormal.

The skeptics convention is being held at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas June 19-22. Called the Amazing Meeting 6, it is organized by magician The Amazing Randi and will feature guest speakers including a cast member of the Mythbusters, magicians Penn & Teller and cable news pundit Christopher Hitchens.

To protest this glum gathering of professional debunkers, volunteer clairvoyants and psychic mediums are inviting deceased spirits and ghosts to haunt Las Vegas in an unprecedented Million Ghost March.

Many celebrity spirits have been asked to join the march. "Las Vegas is rich in history stretching back from the Old West to its re-birth as the world center for gambling and entertainment," continued Doc Paranormal. "Invited celebrity ghosts include gangster Bugsy Siegel, entertainers George Raft, Liberace and George Jessel, the Rat Pack and journalist Hunter S. Thompson, author of the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

Added Doc Paranormal, "The beauty of this event is that even during the height of the march, traffic will not be interrupted and Las Vegas police will not have to restrain crowds. The spirits and ghosts will be invisible, although their presence will be sensed by psychically-sensitive tourists and autograph hounds. If we can open the mind of even one skeptic--while entertaining the public and provoking discussion--we will consider the protest a huge success!"

How Can I Attend Edgar Allen Poe Community College?

Dear Doctor Paranormal:

You mention Edgar Allen Poe Community College in you personal profile. What is it? I've googled the name and looked it up at the library but find nothing. I live in Henderson, Nevada and the name alone makes it sound like a place I'd like to attend. I'm an unemployed construction worker looking to retrain.
A Reader

Dear Reader:

I'm limited by current circumstances in what I can reveal. E.A.P.C.C. was a paranormal trade school. It was planned that graduates of the school would earn an associates degree in the Applied Psychic Arts across a variety of disciplines. I served as an adjunct professor in the journalism department until the institution was shuttered by government decree. It is true that there is no record of E.A.P.C.C.'s existence. And that's about all I can tell you for now--probably too much for my own health, but what the heck!

Incredible NASCAR Premonition

Dear Doc:

I have not told this to anyone since it happened out of respect for the man's family. But now enough time has passed that I can reveal it. I am not psychic but I dreamed about NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt's fatal wreck at the 2001 Daytona 500 the night before it happened. I was jarred awake sometime before midnight with a crushing acute headache. I told my husband that one of our kids had been in a car accident--then I thought, no, that's not right, this wreck happened on the curve of a race track--a car had hit the wall at a high rate of speed. In my dream I felt like I was a moving car that veered to the right and then wham! I instantly developed my terrible headache. I also saw a black car (the color of Dale Earnhardt's racer). The next day I saw photos of Mr. Earnhardt's wreck and it was just like I'd experienced it in my dream. I didn't know Dale Earnhardt and wasn't a big time NASCAR fan, so I don't know why I had this dream.
Driver 88