Dream of Doll

My friend from the workplace, Maria Margarita Jennifer Faicol (Mia for short), brought this cool website to my attention, www.dreamofdoll.com ,after she found out that I am an amateur doll collector. I am absolutely fascinated with dolls, I would definitely expand my doll collection and I would be posting pictures of course here in my blog once I have at least 50 in my possession.

Anyway, so she posted the web address at my facebook account (add me up by the way, you can search me by my e-mail add charmedwishes18@yahoo.com) and when I got into the sight, I was almost overwhelmed by the beauty of the dolls featured.

I wanted to buy a doll and have it shipped to me right then and there, however, when I looked at the price, I almost died! $69.00 was the cheapest pair not including the air freight and delivery charges. Sigh. Oh well, maybe I could save up and one day, I'll have even one doll in my hands.

Here's some pictures of the dolls I especially liked.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

The Hour of Unholiness

Perhaps you have heard the legend of the supposed “holy hour” that occurs on certain days of the year: Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, November 1, and the first of both February and August, each day between 7 and 8 am (not including Daylight Savings Time, mind you, because it is a human invention and supernatural entities do not observe it). When you were a kid, this was the hour in which you probably opened Christmas presents and started tearing apart your Easter basket after dragging your parents out of bed, and much to your parents’ chagrin refused to eat anything but leftover Halloween candy from the day before for breakfast; however, more than likely you had never gone into a darkened room in preparation for this ritual. However, perhaps you’ve heard others speak of it.

Go into a room with a mirror, preferably one without windows, between 7 and 8 am on any one of the dates listed above. You do not have to perform this ritual alone; if you have any friends, you may in fact want them to come in with you to help you perform specific tasks outlined that are difficult to do in the dark. (Important: The only light in this ritual must come from either a candle or a lighter - some tiny, flickering flame. Save for this light, you must be in total darkness - otherwise there is a strong possibility that you won’t see anything, hence the suggestion that you perform this in a room without windows. However, it all depends on your own sensitivity to the paranormal; when my friend performed this ritual last November 1, we had to shut all the doors in the hallway first because the light from the doorcrack kept distracting him.) Make sure that you perform this ritual in comfortable clothing - you want to avoid any unnecessary

discomfort.

Once inside this room, close the door and light your candles and/or your lighter. This/these flame(s) must remain lit until the end of the ritual, although I know of people who have chickened out and blown the flames out which instantly ends it and generally leaves them wallowing in their own cowardice for days on end afterwards. You may have your friend(s) hold or light the candles or lighter if desired, as long as the flame is reflected in the mirror. Now begin chanting some Christian prayer - any one will do, even the “Sinner’s Prayer” on the back of those Chick Tracts, as long as it mentions God, Jesus, or the Holy Ghost at least once - as you stare into the mirror. It must be the same prayer and, again, the number of times you need to chant this prayer varies depending on your own sensitivty to the paranormal, but generally twenty times is more than enough. (My friend chose Our Father, and he needed to chant it fifteen or sixteen times.)

When you have chanted for long enough, one of your flames will flare and then change color. (Ours turned red, but I’ve heard of flames turning blue, white, and even green and lavender before.) A few seconds later, an image will appear in the mirror of the archangel Michael - he looks a lot like the usual images of Christian angels, only he has this really nasty burn mark on the left side of his face. Also, he has really deep-set eyes.

Bow to Michael; again, it is important to make sure you don’t accidentally put out your flame(s) unless you wish to end the ritual. After you bow to him, Michael will ask you if you are entirely certain that you want to perform this ritual. I can’t really describe the voice, but it’s not the sort of voice you’d expect an archangel to have: it’s kind of scratchy and overall not very pleasant to listen to, and he has a faint accent of indeterminable origin.

After you answer yes, Michael will explain the conditions of the ritual: he will ask you seven questions, and if you answer at least four of them right, he will either allow or a conversation with a deceased loved one or give a living one immortality; however, if you answer three or fewer of them correctly, he will slit your throat and you will die right then and there. (I’ll admit that I actually do not remember any of the seven riddles from when my friend did this, but I do remember that they were rather arcane - i.e., not the type of riddles you would find in a riddle book - and he seemed to be fully aware of this. Also, if I remember correctly, each one consisted of seven words.) My friend never did well at riddles, so you can imagine that he didn’t get any right, which seemed to amuse the hell out of Michael, as by the end of the ritual he had this big, terrifying Joker-like smile on his face.

After you are finished answering the riddles (you only get one try at each, but he lets you think), Michael gives you the score. Again, if you answer three or fewer right, he smites you. While he smites you, he says something in the angel language - Enochian, I believe it’s called - and you’re left writhing on the floor in agony. My friend was screaming his head off when the ritual was over, and he started speaking in tongues; it was horrible and I’m currently in therapy for this. Really horrifying.

But I digress. Anyway, the candles all went out, and the lighter he had me hold died at the exact same time. I left the room feeling dizzy, and passed out on my bed in my own vomit. Strange thing is I woke up eight hours later and went into the bathroom I performed the ritual in, and found no trace of my dead friend in there. Strange, I live alone and all my doors and windows were locked, there was no sign of anyone having broken into my apartment, the landlady was on vacation, and no matter how hard I looked in the bathroom I could not find a single trace of my friend’s blood anywhere.

A few days later, I got a call from his roommate, asking about my friend. According to his roommate, my friend disappeared on Halloween night and hadn’t been seen at all since. He had called all around, asking my friend’s parents, siblings, aunt, uncle, people like the guy at the convenient store where my friend bought his cigarettes, and even his old teachers from grade school if they knew anything about his whereabouts, only to get a resounding “no.” He decided to call me because apparently I was the only person out of the people both he and my friend knew that he hadn’t called yet. So I told him exactly what happened, down to my friend’s body mysteriously disappearing. He didn’t believe me, and reported me to the police, but, when the police came to investigate, they did not find any trace of my friend either, not even his DNA. It’s almost like he never came over my house and instead chose to fall off the face of the earth and leave his friends

behind.

On a side note, I’ve heard that someone in fact, by some miracle, did get all of the riddles right, and they wished for the immortality of whoever. However, the next day their loved one was not alive. They, much like my friend, were mysteriously spirited away, only this time on the wall of their room there was a message in some mysterious language, written in blood. Perhaps only God and the archangel Michael know what has become of the two of them.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

The Box of Mirrors

Though written about in fiction occasionally, the mirror box is quite an old invention. Being inside of one can be enlightening or traumatizing for the witness who bears its burden. The procedure is simple, though finding and preparing the materials required might take some time.

The materials to construct the box are:

-Six square metal sheets, slightly taller than the witness. The length should never exceed the height of a witness with raised hands. One of them should be larger than the rest by at least the thickness of the sheets themselves. The material should preferably be made of graphite or lead alloy for the most prominent effect.

-Five nearly perfect, aligned mirrors, sealed upon the metal plates. Each of the 5 will form the sides and bottom of the inner box. One larger mirror should be attached to the large metal plate, which will be used for the top.

-A simple light source of pure white or bright yellow. The light source should emit in almost all directions. Candles can be used, but carbon dioxide and monoxide poisoning is a problem. The light source should not be planted upon the mirrors or receive any outside energy. Construction techniques are left up to the witness.

-Two or three alarm clocks. An extra alarm clock of any kind is also needed. Watches are alright, but not suggested due to the small type face and hands.

-Wear simple clothing.

-Do not bring any other objects. Witnesses have often crowded the box, causing it to become either useless or highly dangerous. This includes jewelery, food, weapons, or religious materials such as beads and crucifixes.

-An assistant is required to help the witness in and out of the box and get help in case of emergencies. The assistant should be trusting and as strong willed as the witness.

-Two ladders

-Several Blankets, water, medical remedies, and a first aid kit.

When the box is complete and ready to use, prepare the alarm clocks to ring around ten minutes after the witness’ planned entrance. Depending on the material used for the box itself, the time of day will not matter, but a night during a new moon is suggested. Despite intuition, sound does not play a large role in the event. The witness should use a small unattached ladder to enter the box. The top should already be placed upon the box, with an opening large enough for the witness to enter. Once inside, the witness should be handed the light source and the clocks (one should be kept with the assistant). The outside assistant should ask sincerely whether the witness is alright. Once confirmation is given, the top should be moved to seal the box. The witness may turn on the light source once the box is sealed. At any point should the witness ask to leave the box (if soundproof, tapping should be used), ONLY the top should be opened. The witness may do it themselves, since the top of the box should be easily reachable. Once ten minutes are up, ALWAYS remove the top, regardless of what the witness says. Some witnesses may plead to stay inside the box, even suggesting great danger should it be opened. The assistant should never trust those pleas. Suffocation is only one of many concerns should the witness stay too long in the box. Once the top has been slid opened, place the second ladder in the box to allow the witness to leave. If the witness has any serious wounds, or discoloration, call for medical help.

Should you happen to meet a witness, never trust what they say about their experience, and never ask them for the time or where the antumbra meets.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

The Stairway From Heaven

City of Santa Fé, in New Mexico, USA. A mystery of over 130 years and attracting around 250,000 visitors every year. Point of attention: Loretto Chapel.

What makes this chapel different from all others is that the subject of the supposed miracle that took place in it is a staircase.

A chapel was constructed somewhere in the 19th century. When it was ready, the nuns found that there was no staircase built to take them to the top level.

They spent 9 days praying to St. Joseph, who was a carpenter.

On the last day, a stranger knocked at their door and said that he was a carpenter who could help them build the staircase.

He constructed the staircase, all by himself, which was considered to be the pride of carpentery.

None knew how the staircase could stand by itself as it did not have a central support.

Then the carpenter, who did not use a single nail or glue to construct this staircase, disappeared without even waiting for his payment.

There was a rumour in the city of Santa Fé that the carpenter was St. Joseph himself, sent by Jesus Christ to attend to the nuns' problem. Since then, the staircase was called "miraculous" and the site for pilgrimages.

There are three mysteries about this staircase, says the spokesman of the chapel. The first mystery is that, to this day, the identity of the builder is not known.

The second mystery is that the architects, engineers and scientists say that they cannot understand how this staircase can balance without any central support.

The third mystery is from where did the wood come? They have checked and found out that the type of wood used to build the staircase does not exist in the entire region.

There is another detail that has just increased the belief in the supposed miracle: The staircase has 33 steps, the age of Jesus Christ.

Origins: Fans of made-for-TV movies might recall The Staircase, a film (aired by CBS in 1998) starring Barbara Hershey as Mother Madalyn, a nun whose dying wish to see the construction of her order's chapel completed comes true through the efforts

of a mysterious carpenter known only as "Joad." The movie was based on the legend of the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the site of the "mysterious staircase" referred to above.

The Loretto Academy was a school for women founded in Santa Fe in 1852 by the local Sisters of Loretto. In 1873 construction was begun to add a chapel to the site, a project plagued by some unfortunate incidents (including the shooting death of the main architect). As the builders were finishing up work on the chapel, they found that the plans drawn up by the late architect had not included any means of access to the chapel's choir loft. This was when, according to Alice Bullock's book, Loretto and the Miraculous Staircase, the now-legendary events kicked in.

The notion of constructing an ordinary staircase up to the choir loft was apparently rejected both because it would have limited the available seating in the loft and because it would have been aesthetically unappealing. As Bullock described the nuns' dilemma over how to proceed: "Carpenters and builders were called in, only to shake their heads in despair. When all else had failed, the Sisters determined to pray a novena to the Master Carpenter himself, St. Joseph."

As Bullock's narrative continues, the nuns' prayers were answered on the ninth day by a humble workman leading a burro loaded with a complement of carpentry tools. The workman proclaimed that, with permission, he could resolve the dilemma, needing only a couple of water tubs to complete the task:

Sisters, going in to the Chapel to pray, saw the tubs with wood soaking in them, but the Man always withdrew while they said their prayers, returning to his work when the Chapel was free. Some there are who say the circular stair which stands there today was built very quickly. Others say no, it took quite a little time. But the stair did grow, rising solidly in a double helix without support of any kind and without nail or screw. The floor space used was minimal and the stair adds to, rather than detracts from, the beauty of the Chapel.

The Sisters were overjoyed and planned a fine dinner to honor the Carpenter. Only he could not be found. No one seemed to know him, where he lived, nothing. Lumberyards were checked, but they had no bill for the Sisters of Loretto. They had not sold him the wood. Knowledgeable men went in and inspected the stair and none knew what kind of wood had been used, certainly nothing indigenous to this area. Advertisements for the Carpenter were run in the New Mexican and brought no response.

"Surely," said the devout, "it was St. Joseph himself who built the stair"

However it came to be built, the solution to the problem at the Loretto Chapel was a winding staircase in the shape of a helix (which both takes up less space than a conventional stairway and is much more aesthetically appealing). Although winding staircases are somewhat tricky to build because the form is not well-suited to bearing weight and generally requires additional support, the one at Loretto is not quite the miracle of architecture that subsequent legend has made it out to be.

For starters, the Loretto staircase was apparently not all that fine a piece of work from a safety standpoint. It was originally built without a railing, presenting a steep descent that reportedly so frightened some of the nuns that they came down the stairway on their hands and knees. Not until several years later did another artisan (Phillip August Hesch) finally add a railing to the staircase. Moreover, the helix shape acted like what it resembles, a big spring, with many visitors reporting that the stairs moved up and down as they trod them. The structure has been closed to public access for several decades now, with various reasons (including a lack of suitable fire exits and "preservation") given for the closure at different times, leading investigator Joe Nickell to note that "There is reason to suspect that the staircase may be more unstable and, potentially, unsafe than some realize."

Although the Loretto legend maintains that "engineers and scientists say that they cannot understand how this staircase can balance without any central support" and that by all rights it should have long since collapsed into a pile of rubble, none of that is the case. Wood technologist Forrest N. Easley noted (as reported by the Skeptical Inquirer) that "the staircase does have a central support," an inner wood stringer of such small radius that it "functions as an almost solid pole." As well, Nickell observed when he visited Loretto in 1993 that the structure includes an additional support, "an iron brace or bracket that stabilizes the staircase by rigidly connecting the outer stringer to one of the columns that support the loft." Nickell concluded: "It would thus appear that the Loretto staircase is subject to the laws of physics like any other."

As for the wood used in the stairway's construction, it has been identified as spruce, but not a large enough sample has been made available for wood analysts to determine which of the ten spruce species found in North America (and thus precisely where) it came from. That the structure may have built without the use of glue or nails is hardly remarkable — nails were often an unavailable or precious commodity to builders of earlier eras, who developed a number of techniques for fastening wood without them.

All in all, nothing about Loretto's design or manufacture evidences any sign of the miraculous. The staircase (and the chapel that houses it) is, however, now part of a privately-owned museum operated for profit, a situation that provides its owners with a strong financial motive for promulgating the legend.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

A Regency Romance in 2 minutes

A group of rogues enters to find the heroine looking innocent and sexy.

Rogue 1: We are a group of handsome, rouguish friends!

Rogue 2: Note how disgustingly wealthy we all are!

Rogue 3: We're like a pack of wild, roguish, devastatingly handsome wolves!

Rogue 4: A pack made up entirely of alpha-males!

Rogue 5: This causes no problems in the group dynamic at all, believe it or not.

Rogue 6: We have terrible reputations as rakes and scoundrels!

Heroine: Why?

3: Because…. *suspenseful music plays for a second* we stay out all night gambling, drinking, and sleeping with loose women!

1: Not that we're alcoholics. That would be unattractive. And we don't lose any money at the gambling tables.

4: We do sleep with a lot of women, though.

Heroine: Everyone knows that reformed rakes make the best husbands, because they have the four qualities women desire most in a husband: sexual prowess, commitment issues, promiscuity, and a diverse selection of venereal diseases!

6: Then you'll like us! We're total man-whores!

7:We use our bad-boy charm to seduce women into our grasp, take them deep into the woods, and ravish them!

5: We do this in a completely consensual and ecologically responsible manner, of course.

All: Of course!

2: We're really quite dangerous. You had best stay away from us.

3: If you get too close to us, we may be forced to marry you to preserve your honor and then fall madly in love with you. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

8: It would be very traumatic for you, all those multiple orgasms.

3: Stay away from us. We want you too much for our own good. And if you don't stay away, then how will we be able to stalk you and thus be conveniently ready to come to your rescue at the first threat to your virtue?

1: Because being rescued from a would-be rapist by your stalker is Romantic!

Heroine's Boring Fiance: But isn't it my job to rescue her?

8: But will you rescue her?

HBF: No. I will be elsewhere at the time, and ignorant of the entire situation.

Heroine: Oh, he means well. *pats her fiance on the head* I'm really rather fond of him. We plan to have a nice, boring life together.

HBF: I am so sexually uninterested in the heroine despite her ravishing charms that one almost wonders if I might be gay.

Heroine: (to fiance) Hush, you're supposed to be part of the scenery. (to group) So let me get this straight, you all have terrible reputations because you have consensual and ecologically responsible sex with loose women and indulge fairly mildly in the vices gentlemen of your ranks are expected to indulge in, and despite your insanely strong senses of honor and responsibility?

All: Yes.

Heroine: Terrible reputations?

1: You know, when you put it that way, it seems a bit odd. It must be because I'm so handsome and brooding!

2: Or because I had an unhappy childhood.

3: I had an even more unhappy childhood.

4: I was betrayed by a woman.

5: I have sworn never to marry because of a dark family secret.

6: I am seeking revenge against your family.

7: I am Mr. Darcy, but with a bigger dick

8: I was wounded in the war.

9: I am allergic to milk products.

Heroine: There sure are a lot of you

6: That's for the sequels

HBF: 8 sequels? That's a lot of sequels. Do I get a sequel?

2: No, but it's still not just 8. My handsome younger brother will get a sequel too.

4: And my beautiful and rebellious younger sister!

9: And my tragically widowed neighbor with the obligatory Small Adorable Child Who Will Need A Governess!

HBF: This isn't fair.

Butler: You'll get used to it. (more quietly) Best not to get too upset over it, or you may get turned into the villain. I've seen it happen before.

HBF: Who are you?

Butler: I am the hero's butler and all-purpose manservant. I take care of the uninteresting parts of the plot while the hero and heroine screw, and use my magic butler powers to discover and impart relevant bits of backstory at the right moments.

Heroine: (to butler) You shouldn't reply to him, it only encourages him. Just let him make meaningless comments in the background while the hero overtly seduces me before all of London society.

HBF: (to heroine) You know, it won't be as difficult to understandingly release you so you can follow your heart as I first thought it would be.

Heroine: Don't be silly. My bitchiness makes me irresistably attractive to men! Doesn't it, boys?

ALL: Yes!

Heroine: Let's go get in a compromising situation, shall we?

(pause)

2: Er… which one of us were you talking to?

Heroine: Ooh, I don't know, you're all so dreadfully unsuitable despite the fact that you're all rich, titled, handsome, and unmarried! I shouldn't dare risk my reputation with any of you… but I must, the temptation is too great! Hmm. Do any of you have a menacing feature of nature or a predatory animal in your name? That's always sexy.

All: I do!

1: Duke Ravensmoor!

2: Lord Greycliff!

3: Count Blackthorn!

4: Lord Lionsgate!

5: Viscount Hawkstone!

6: Marquess Stormhaven!

7: Viscount Falconwood!

8: Lord Wolfham!

9: Count Buttweasel!

Everyone: (slowly turns to look at 9)

Heroine: What?

9: What? Weasels are predators!

Heroine: Count Buttweasel is disqualified. Okay, who is bored with the life of a rogue and secretly yearning for something deeper and more meaningful?

1,2,4,5,6,7,8: I am!

3: I am the hottest one, so I cannot marry to early in the series, lest people stop reading, and therefore must remain satisfied with my wicked ways for a while longer.

Heroine: Count Blackthorn is disqualified. Who is capable of maintaining a constant, bulging erection whenever he looks at or thinks about me?

2,4,5,6,7,8: I am!

1: What, you mean seriously, every single time? But you don't sleep with the hero until two-thirds of the way through the book! That's a three-month erection!

Heroine: Duke Ravensmoor is disqualified. Oh, screw this, I'll just take whichever one is named Adrian.

5: That would be me!

Heroine and 5, now the Hero, leave, followed by the rest of the rogues.

HBF: Hello? Anyone still here?

Butler: I am everywhere. Do remember what I warned you about anger, sir. You don't want to suddenly go mad and start trying to ruin the protagonists.

HBF: Oh, I'm not angry anymore. I've decided that I am gay. Want to go out some time?

Butler: (in shock) But… but I'm a minor character over the age of 40! I'm not allowed to have a sexual orientation! Besides, in the midst of all these dangerously attractive young noblemen, why would you want me?

HBF: Hmmm, let's see, because you're the most intelligent, trustworthy, efficient, subtle, and hardworking character in the book, and you have a charming dry sense of humor? And you're neither deeply traumatized nor indiscriminately promiscuous?

Butler: This is true.

HBF: If I were a heroine, I'd be all over you.

Butler: You haven't even seen the butler magic yet.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

Funny Twilight Comics

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

Time to Sleep

I hate it that all I seem to is whine about the problems I am having with my connection. Now its not just my connection that I am upset about, I am also really frustrated that the brand new optical mouse we have is not working like it should. I hope we can still return it or I might blow a fuse.

I hope you guys are enjoying my blog. Please leave comments, I love getting them, good or bad.

Take care!

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

European and Chinese Monsters Weirdly Similar

There's something inside us that loves a good monster. We want them scary. We want them surprising.

But apparently not too surprising. Across time and across cultures, our monsters come in strangely predictable forms.

Take, for example, these guys:

This is a Five Monster Collection from a 2000 year old text. Back in the first century, AD, Pliny the Elder, a great Roman scholar, collected descriptions of creatures who lived at the very edge of the known world. Sailors claimed to have seen them. Travelers too. They'd shown up in folktales. They didn’t look like Europeans because they lived far enough away that it was ok to look — well, like anything one could imagine. So here’s what Europeans imagined way back then (courtesy of Toby Lester, from his enchanting book The Fourth Part of the World):

Toby Lester mentions others: the Panoti, with ears so large they had to hold them in their hands and could use them to fly. Also, the Astomi, mouthless creatures who fed themselves by sniffing apples.

Lester found these illustrations in a book from Roman writer Julius Solinus. Solinus repackaged Pliny’s monsters into a kind of National Enquirer version called the "Gallery of Wonderful Things." For the next thousand years, when Westerners conjured up creatures from distant lands, sort of the medieval version of Star Wars, these are the creatures they imagined.

But here's the surprise.

If we skip to the other side of the world — to China — and ask what did the Chinese think distant creatures looked like, it turns out they also had a monster collection. Their monsters show up in an ancient text called "The Classic of Mountains and Seas." And guess what?

Well, first, take a look at this Chinese sampler, paying particular attention to the headless face-on-my-chests fellow second from the left:

I couldn't help but notice that with every conceivable shape available, the Chinese came up with monsters that look like the West's monsters. Here’s Toby Lester's list:

• The Loppy Ears (who "have such big ears they flop down onto their shoulders")
• The Feathered Folk (who "can fly, but not very far")
• The Hairy Folk (covered in hair "like a pig")
• The Mushroom People (whose aspect was like "a meat fungus")
• The Progenyless Folk (a boneless race who, because they eat only air "are clear-headed and live a long time")

So the Chinese imagined Big-Eared monsters and so did the Europeans. The Chinese have air eaters, the Europeans Apple Sniffers .The Chinese have a face-on-my-chest monsters, ditto the Europeans.

Two thousand plus years ago, Europeans and Chinese had very, very little contact but somehow they imagined a startlingly similar cast of frightening and fantastic creatures.

I don't know why I'm disappointed. I guess it's no big surprise that people from very different cultures and very different places often scare and enchant themselves in much the same way.

P.T. Barnum knew that. Hollywood knows that. The deeper question is: Why do we dream and imagine so similarly? Why did we have to wait 2,500 years to get a truly original monster like The Blob?

Toby Lester's book, The Fourth Part of the World, tells the story of the first map that used the word "America" to describe a land mass east of Europe. His monster collections appear on page 39 (Europe) and page 69 (China).

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

Déjà vu

Déjà vu is French for "already seen." Déjà vu is an uncanny feelingor illusion of having already seen or experienced something that is being experienced for the first time. If we assume that the experience is actually of a remembered event, then déjà vu probably occurs because an original experience was neither fully attended to nor elaborately encoded in memory. If so, then it would seem most likely that the present situation triggers the recollection of a fragmentfrom one's past. The experience may seem uncanny if the memory is so fragmented that no strong connections can be made between the fragment and other memories.

Thus, the feeling that one has been there before is often due to the fact that one has been there before. One has simply forgotten most of the original experience because one was not paying close attention the first time. The original experience may even have occurred only seconds or minutes earlier.

On the other hand, the déjà vu experience may be due to having seen pictures or heard vivid stories many years earlier. The experience may be part of the dim recollections of childhood.

However, it is possible that the déjà vu feeling is triggered by a neurochemical action in the brain that is not connected to any actual experience in the past. One feels strange and identifies the feelingwith a memory, even though the experience is completely new.

The term was applied by Emile Boirac (1851-1917), who had strong interests in psychic phenomena. Boirac's term directs our attention to the past. However, a little reflection reveals that what is unique about déjà vu is not something from the past but something in thepresent, namely, the strange feeling one has. We often have experiences the novelty of which is unclear. In such cases we may have been led to ask such questions as, "Have I read this book before?" "Is this an episode of Inspector Morse I've seen before?" "This place looks familiar; have I been here before?" Yet, these experiences are not accompanied by an uncanny feeling. We may feel a bit confused, but the feeling associated with the déjà vu experience is not one of confusion; it is one of strangeness. There is nothing strange about not remembering whether you've read a book before, especially if you are fifty years old and have read thousands of books over your lifetime. In the déjà vu experience, however, we feel strange because we don't think we should feel familiar with the present perception. That sense of inappropriateness is not present when one is simply unclear whether one has read a book or seen a film before.

Thus, it is possible that the attempt to explain the déjà vu experience in terms of lost memory, past lives, clairvoyance, and so on may be completely misguided. We should be talking about the déjà vufeeling. That feeling may be caused by a brain state, by neurochemical factors during perception that have nothing to do with memory. It is worth noting that the déjà vu feeling is common among psychiatric patients. The déjà vu feeling also frequently precedes temporal lobe epilepsy attacks. When Wilder Penfield did his famous experiment in 1955 in which he electrically stimulated the temporal lobes, he found about 8% of his subjects experienced "memories." He assumed he elicited actual memories. They could well have been hallucinations and the first examples of artificially stimulated déjà vu.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

Time to Sleep

Well, the connection has improved somewhat. Let's see if it remains consistent until next month. Then I will keep the connection. Otherwise its goodbye Wi-tribe.

I hope my shift later will be much better than the one I had earlier. I was so sleepy since there wasn't anything much to do! I do like to slack off once in a while but not for 2 straight weeks. I do want to keep my mind busy.

The mouse we have is driving me crazy. I will see if I could return it to where it was bought from. Sigh, why couldn't it be all good, I have no idea.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

HAUNTED DOLL SOLD ON EBAY!

Ben writes, "This doll was recently for sale on eBay. The auction stated that the doll was given to a young girl in the hospital before she died. After the death of the girl the doll began to take on a life of it's own. Some of the activity was beginning to scare the family until they finally gave it away. The new owner promptly sold it on eBay."

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

Ballad of the Witches

Oh, I have been beyond the town,

Where nightshade black and mandrake grow, and I

have been and I have seen

What righteous folk would fear to know!

For I have heard, at still midnight,

Upon the hilltop far, forlorn, With note that

echoed through the dark, The winding of the heathe horn.

And I have seen the fire aglow,

And glinting from the magic sword, And with the

inner eye beheld The Horned One, the Sabbat's lord.

We drank the wine, and broke the bread,

And ate it in the Old One's name.

We linked our hands to make the ring,

And laughed and leaped the Sabbat game.

Oh, little do the townsfolk reck,

When dull they lie within their bed!

Beyond the streets, beneath the stars,

A merry round the witches tread!

And round and round the circle spun,

Until the gates swung wide ajar,

That bar the boundaries of the earth,

From faery realms that shine afar.

Oh, I have been and I have seen

In magic worlds of Otherwhere.

For all this world

may praise or blame,

For ban or blessing nought I care.

For I have been beyond the town,

Where meadowsweet and roses grow,

And there such music did I hear

As worldly-righteous never know.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

Time to Sleep

I am so happy to be back! Finally, I could update my blog again and just immersed myself in blogworld! I am very excited to post stuff I like (and hopefully you like as well) and to renew the relationship I had with my other blogger friends.

I still have to adjust to the new internet connection we are using. To those who resides in the Philippines like me, does any of you use Wi-tribe? I had my connection put in yesterday and I am sorry to say that as of now, I am not sufficiently impressed. The guys who brought it to our house were great, in fact they went beyond their line of duty to help us. Maybe I will give it a few more days just to see if it will improve.

Well, I will definitely post something again tomorrow. I will just keep this short and expect great things from this blog. Now I have to sleep, I still have a shift later. Take care!

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

The Pink Mist

Ever since I was 3, I would always see pink mist surround my hands and body, which I thought was awesome! I would always (and I still do) see the corners of my wall getting darker and darker to the point where I couldn't see the picture frames on the wall. This is when "the pink mist" would suddenly come out to form a barrier-like structure around my body.
One night, my aunt came over and slept in my room. She was on the bed and I was on the floor. Then it started to happen again, the corners of my room started to get darker then the pink mist came out. But this was different from last time, the darkness gathered up on one side of the wall and made a silhouette of a tall man. My aunt quietly whispered "Can you see him too?" I slowly nodded.
As the figure in the wall slowly completed itself, the pink mist suddenly gathered in the center of my room making a figure of a woman. Strangely I started to get excited, I sat up in my bed staring at the two figures then the pink figure looked back at me and gave me a smile whereas the black figure just invaded my walls making picture frames fall off.
I thought "Oh no, Mum’s gonna hear this," but strangely no one came busting through my door. The pink figure floated towards my aunt and I and gave us a smile then suddenly she threw herself at the wall, erasing the black figure as she completely filled the room with her pink mist. As the mist started to die down my eyelids felt heavy as the pink figure wave at me and suddenly disappeared.
The next day I found my aunt sitting on the side of the bed as she smiled and laughed about the night before.
To this day the Pink Fairy (I made up her nick name) and the black figure still inhabit my room and I enjoy having them around otherwise I would be lonely during most nights.

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

Dreaming of My Fantasy

Butterflies flying

Colors blowing my mind

Green grass

Red roses

A sweet wind in my face..

But How can I hide my fears?

If its part of me...

How can I hide my mistakes?

If its my present..How can I forget my pain?

If my soul is broken..

How can I rest?

If I know that its just a dream..
These colors are not real

My butterflies are ravens

My flowers are tears

My pond is full of blood

And the wind in my face is cold like ice..
I know I dont belong here

Because I dream with nightmares

Because my roses are in my grave'

Cause The darkness is my light..

and I'm almost sure that its is not my world

Its just a fantasy

Charmedwishes...
Blessed be!

Time to Sleep: I'm Back

Hello guys! I am back! I am so sorry that I wasn't able to post anything for the last 2 days. Our computer had to be repaired (again) and I think we need a new hard disk. I am not sure how much a new one would cost though.

However, that's not all. When I went to sleep last Saturday, I was burning up with fever when I woke up. My fever was climbing up and down. It turns out that I had laryngitis. Pooh, I really dislike being sick! You feel so weak and the food you eat tastes like sawdust and your sense of smell is affected too, probably because of the medicine I was taking.

I have to keep this post short, my medicine is starting to make me drowsy again. I still have this dreadful cough, sigh. Take care and enjoy!



Charmedwishes...

Blessed be!