How Can I Remember My Birth?

Dear Doc Paranormal:

I am not a celebrity. However, I am about to embark on writing my autobiography so that future generations of my family can learn all about me. I'm a bit of a stickler and want this to be the most complete possible record of my life. Is there a way for me to remember the circumstances of my birth?
Seventy-Six Wonderful Years

Dear Seventy-Six:

Incredibly, some individuals placed under hypnosis can recall their birth down to the smallest detail. The memories often come out spontaneously while the patients are hypnotized to solve a different problem. In one case, "Joseph" described his journey through the birth canal. His body felt pressured and he heard gurgling sounds like a stomach makes. Then, all at once, he saw the light and felt his arms and shoulders coming free. Next he heard angry words and recalled his jaw being squeezed. Finally, the turmoil ended and he experienced the comfort of resting on his mother's breast. Later, when the adult Joseph emerged from his hypnotized state, he spoke with his mother. She confirmed that it had been a difficult birth. The doctor had, indeed, gripped him by the jaw. Remarkably, it was the first time Joseph's mom had discussed the painful experience with him.

Did Obama's Post-Hypnotic Suggestion Make Hillary Blow Primaries?

Everyone know knows that Barack Obama is a mesmerizing speaker. But few are aware--according to this Election 2008 conspiracy theory--that he is a highly skilled hypnotist. Spread by fanatical Hillary supporters, the theory claims that Obama hypnotized Hillary--utilizing a method employed by his Kenyan ancestors--while seated next to her during their early debates. Subsequently--as has been widely noted--Hillary's behavior has turned uncharacteristically erratic in a fashion more than one pundit has termed "bizarre." Conspiracy proponents believe that certain words and phrases used by Obama in his speeches trigger Hillary's weird behavior.

Is Las Vegas Chorus Girl Plagued by Demons?

"Jolene" doesn't know if the demon is real. Or if it is a recurring, sweat-drenched nightmare. But she's certain it's the most horrifying vision she's ever seen.

I met with Jolene in a Las Vegas deli, a place where they make a good New York-style Reuben sandwich, a guilty pleasure of mine. Jolene ordered a Chinese chicken salad, which she didn't touch.

I usually try to keep emotion out of my work, but Jolene's case pulled on my heartstrings. A chorus girl of some twenty years standing, Jolene had lapsed into a deep depression as the dreams (or true demonic attacks) had grown more vivid with each passing night. In the six weeks since they started, the former exercise nut had gained and incredible twenty pounds, causing her to be laid off from her job until she regained her former svelte figure. Truth be told, I dated Jolene many years back. Which is perhaps why she was so open with me.

"I read your story about the telephone psychic and how a caller told her of a demon so horrifying that she vomited on the spot," Jolene confided, "After that I knew I had to reach you about my case."

I nodded. In situations like this, I play the psychiatrist, allowing the "patient" to pour her heart out.

Jolene continued, "I don't become sick to my stomach when my own demon materializes. But I almost wish I could vomit out the horror that wells up inside me." She then described the demon's appearance. "The demon that plagues me at night is hideously inhuman with fierce yellow, lidless eyes. It has a pig-like snout instead of a nose and hundreds of horribly uneven teeth. It appears to be over seven feet tall, with a misshapen body and talons instead of hands or feet. And it won't go away."

Our conversation continued much longer than this space allows me to relate. I am an investigative reporter, not a spiritual advisor. Professional ethics don't allow me to interfere in events as they unfold. But because Jolene was a former lover, I gave her the general advice that such entities can be driven away with positive spiritual thoughts and activities.

Six days have gone by since my lunch with Jolene. I awaken and worry about her every night at 3 a.m., the time when she says the demonic visitation begins. Is Jolene's nightmare vision for real? Or the product of too many years burning the candle at both ends, Las Vegas-style? For her sake, I hope she's "only" suffering from a complete nervous breakdown.

Open Letter to Skeptics

Almost anyone intrigued by the paranormal has a story to tell about their own encounter with the strange and unknown. Why? Because most people are skeptics until the unbelievable transforms their lives--a flash across the sky, a voice from beyond, an impenetrable fog at the foot of the bed.

Why does it take a cataclysmic event to create an open mind? Probably the incredible pressure on all of us to retain the five senses as our sole frame of reference. Because when we step beyond the Big Five, we open ourselves to ridicule and even crippling self-doubt. As in "I must have been crazy to think that was my dead grandmother's voice."

Furthermore, most paranormal events are not repeatable in the scientist's laboratory, which makes them "not real" to the scientific mind. In other words, if we can't make that ghost we saw reappear right now, we never saw it at all.

A young woman may have a single, powerful ESP experience in her entire life. A farmer may see just one UFO. A boy may be able to lift a milk carton with mind power only once. But just because the extraordinary doesn't happen twice doesn't mean it didn't take place the first time. Which is a good sentence to remember when you catch yourself saying "No way!" Which is why this blog features stories based on interviews and research. And e-mail. Because that's all we can depend on in this fledgling area of human endeavor: someone's gut feeling that this really happened to me. And their bravery in coming forward.

So I say this to those skeptical of what appears on this blog. Please allow us to share our little tales of faith, mystery, hope and--yes--even terror as we try to make sense of a universe that scientists say expands every day. And is perhaps unknowable to anyone so humble as man.

The Healing Power of UFO Aliens

Dear Doc Paranormal:

As an M.D., are you aware of any positive health effects on people who have had an UFO encounter?
Curious

Dear Curious:

First off, the "Doc" comes from a stint I served in the journalism department at Edgar Allen Poe Community College, a paranormal trade school. I'm no M.D. and subsist on the good graces of a a few editors and lady luck. However, there are reports that outer space aliens have used their otherworldly abilities to heal humans with physical problems. Here are two intriguing cases:
*In 1997, a toothless 80-year-old Argentinian man grew new teeth two months after being examined by aliens.
*A St. Paul, Minnesota woman had crippling arthritis in her hand healed by a laser-like light beamed over the area by an alien "doctor." Whether he was an M.D. is open to question.