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Mark Stinson

Mark Stinson


Last Updated: 5/8/2009

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Gender: Male
Status: Married
Age: 40
Sign: Virgo

City: Kansas City
State: MISSOURI
Country: US
Signup Date: 1/16/2006

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 

Current mood:  pleased
Category: Friends

A big congrats to Jamie for all of her hard work coming to fruition.  She had to coordinate with World Zombiewalk Day, plan the location, make sure the course would work, ensure the awards were made, and that the event was fully promoted.  And then, at the event...she kept everything on course and on time.  She did a great job. 


Over a 100 zombies showed up and did the walk!  And you would not believe the amount of food that was gathered!


Jennifer and I were there, as well as Lance and Bodhi.  Tracy dropped off her kids, and took ours away to be babysat by Adam (a big thank you!).  Will showed up and took photos, and went out to dinner with us afterwards.  And Dustin and Linda were there, representing for Ghost Vigil.


It was so much fun, and the event fed some hungry people as well.   Making this event happen...and come off so well, is an excellent example of working hard, never giving up, and making things happen.


Mark

Currently reading:
Days in Midgard: A Thousand Years On - Modern Legends Based on Northern Myth
By Steven T Abell
5:27 AM 
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008 

Current mood:  focused
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

They get up in the morning.  Check the weather news...eat a few bites...and head off for work.  They work a job they don't love.  Actually, they have come to hate it in a sense.  Its not an art.  Its not a passion.  It pays the bills.  They have work friends, but they aren't real friends.  They are people they say good morning too, and forward stupid e-mail jokes to.

They drive home, plop down, turn on the television.  They enjoy an evening of reality television, processed snacks, and a form of living death.  They are so used to their spouse, that there is nothing new to say.  A few work stories...perhaps they discuss the latest drama on one of their television shows.  The kids have their own televisions, their own video games, their own phones.  Oh, yes...there's the evening news...with its weather report and the sports highlights.  Can't forget those.  Then off-to-bed.  Sleep.  Wake up.  Repeat steps above.

Politics?  They barely pay attention to those.  What attention they do pay is surface level.  Perhaps they follow the politics they were taught by their parents.  Perhaps they have a favorite commentator, blog site, or someone else that forms most of their political thought. 

Religion?  They are comfortable in their church.  Its a big place.  The people don't cause much trouble, and they have a few friends there they talk to on Sunday.  Or perhaps they just stay home.  Religion takes a little too much thought to really bother with.  One thing is certain, they've never read the Bible...not even large chunks of it.  They believe its the word of their god, but why read it?  That's just pointless.  The preacher tells them all about god, or they learned all they were going to learn as a kid.

Dreams?  Bothersome things that interrupt their sleep.  And if they don't get good sleep, they'll be nodding off at their boring-ass job.  So, no time to bother with remember their dreams.  Thinking about what their dreams might tell them.  Dreams are something they had when they were a kid.

Hopes and goals?  Oh, they had those once.  But they found a spouse.  Got into a house.  They have a stable job that pays the bills...just barely.  And reality television takes up a lot of time.  Its sort of hard to find the energy or the time to work towards any real goals.  Make anything real happen in this world.  Plus, hopes and goals are a luxury of youth.  They have a life now.  And its not like the hopes and dreams could become reality anyway.  So what's the point?

These are the living dead.  The drones.  They lead their small lives.  They don't try to hard at work.  They don't try to hard at home.  And when they die, they are buried and burned, and within a decade or two...they are forgotten.  They have left no mark.  They have not lived.

We get one shot at this.  Whatever religion you are...this is the here and now.  This is the world we have, the life we lead.  Make it count.

Don't like your job?  Bored out of your mind with it?  Move within your company.  Work your ass off to advance and challenge yourself.  If that's not going to work, actively seek a new job.  Something you dream of doing.  Maybe once you get it, it won't live up to those dreams...but at least you will have done it and tried it. 

Television?  Turn that shit off.  Sure watch a movie.  Learn something on the history channel.  Or use television as background noise when you are doing something that actually counts.  But don't sit there for four or five hours a night watching other people accomplish things. What does that do for you?  It "occupies your time" and little else.  Its mental masterbation that numbs your mind to have freakin' bored you really are with your life.

Spouse or family feel disconnected from you?  Time to work your ass off again.  Be honest.  Communicate with your spouse or loved ones what you want.  What you expect.  What you want your life to be like.  Include them in that plan, and ask for their help.  Tell them you love them, and you don't want your life to pass you by without joy, and passion, and energy, and dynamic action.

Hopes and Dreams?  Listen to your dreams.  Work towards your hopes.  You want to belong to a ghost hunting group?  Start your own.  You want to write a novel? It won't write itself. Buy a book on novel writing.  Buy 4 of them.  Read them, and start writing.  Set time aside everyday to write.  Want to be an artist?  Then take classes. Work on your craft.  Meet with other artists.  Talk, watch, and learn. Involve yourself in artistic circles.  Bored to death with religion, or haven't found one that sings to your soul?  Then you haven't bothered looking around.  Read.  Read.  Read.  Explore all the varied approaches to the divine question, and find the one that sings to you.  No followers of that religion around you?  Then start a church, build a website, and start gathering like-minded people.

No one is going to live your life for you.  Everyone around you will sit and watch you fritter away your life...without saying a word.  No one is going to make you chase your dreams.  As a matter of fact, most people will quietly, secretly discourage you.  Break free.  Make something happen.  Live your life so that when you are buried or burned, you will have made something special in this world.

Mark Stinson

12:56 AM 
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008 

Category: Parties and Nightlife

We’re looking at a tentative date of Saturday, May 10th...at 6:00 PM...in Westport. We’ll meet at a specific spot, walk through the streets of Westport, and have an informal pubcrawl afterwards. More definite plans posted soon. Even if you aren’t a big horror fan...or a zombie-person...this is going to be a lot of fun.

Can you help us spread the word about this event and this website?

Zombie Walk Website

Mark

8:32 PM 
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007 

Category: Quiz/Survey

Jamie tagged me on this...

Here's how you play: Once you've been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself , at the end choose 10 people to be tagged, list their names and why you tagged them. Don't forget to leave them a comment saying '(You're It!) and to go read your blog. You can not tag the person that tagged you so since you can't tag me back let me know when you are done so that I can go read YOUR blog answers.

  1. I have three tattoos.  Most people are shocked by that for some reason...but in today's world, I have no idea why!
  2. My middle name is "Ludwig."  It was my great-grandfather's first name...and my middle name...and now my youngest son's middle name. 
  3. Before my current successful 10-year marriage and three kids, I was married once before.  It was a horrible mess! 
  4. I am afraid of feet.  Or more specifically, I have an aversion to feet.  I try not to look at them...and they bother the shit out of me. 
  5. I'm Heathen.  Full-on old-school folkish Heathen. 
  6. I've been a police officer (and sergeant) since 1993.  I've been in tons of fights, taken a lot of guns off of folks, but I've never had to shoot anyone. 
  7. While I love the TAPS Family, TAPS, and Jason and Grant...I didn't watch a full-episode of Ghosthunters his season.  I don't watch COPS, because I do that at work.  And its hard to watch Ghosthunters for the same reason.  Is that crazy?
  8. I secretly hate EVP's.  Hate 'em.  I know for a paranormal investigator, that's sort of weird...but I can't stand them.  I have my reasons, but I think they are almost as distracting as "orbs" to our field...and really get us nowhere.  They are badly collected, badly analyzed, badly presented, and generally completely misunderstood.
  9. I love Guinness.  But also Coors Light.  I have a weakness for Gin and Tonics made with good gin.  Gluhwine is a new passion of mine.  And this summer my wife and I decided to begin a new hobby..."drinking heavily."  So far, we're doing pretty well at it. 
  10. I have sworn an oath of "World Domination" with my best friend.  We may not succeed, but half the fun is just trying.

I know its weak and no fun of me, but I didn't tag anyone on this.  I just answered the challenge without passing it on...

 

:-)

 

Mark

5:11 PM 
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007 
I'm writing an article on pendulums. Here's my thoughts so far. If someone wants to add some material on the history of the use of pendulums to communicate with the dead, I'll list you as co-author of the article...

I'm torn on the topic of Pedulums. I've tried one out, as sort of an experiment. I guess four possibilities come to mind:

1. Perhaps a ghost or spirit is actually moving the pendulum. Directly using some sort of psychic force to move it around and answer the questions.

2. Perhaps a ghost or spirit acts through the pendulum user, causing the pendulum user to subtlely and subconsciously affect the movement of the pendulum. After all, it takes very little movement by the hand, to create great movements of the pendulum.

3. Perhaps the pendulum user is subconsciously moving the pendulum, and answering their own questions without realizing it.

4. Perhaps the pendulum user is misinterpretting random movements of the pendulum, caused by random or unconscious movements of their hand.

The fact the pendulum is actually held by the user's physical hand brings the practice into question, somewhat. I love the idea of it...and I'm not saying its not legitimate, I'm just saying that the use of a pendulum (without some scientific controls) is not conclusive evidence of a haunting or communication with the dead.

The scientific controls I'd like to try sometime, would be suspending the pendulum from a stationary object...rather than a user's hand. Controls would need to be put in place regarding vibrations in the room (a little sensor for this would be fairly cheap) and controls in place regarding breezes in the room (for instance pieces of light cloth hung from stationary objects around the room, both near and far from where the pendulum is hanging.)

And then, if I were able to establish the pendulum was moving independently in reponse to my questions, I would want to see if this form of communication was answering intelligently, consistantly, and was bringing forth answers that could be confirmed as true.

Mark Stinson
4:30 PM 
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007 

Two months ago, I received this notice from Brenda Marble of Miller's Paranormal, a paranormal investigation group here in the Kansas City area....

Quote:

Just letting everyone know that Joyce Morgan passed away early this morning, October 29 (just after midnight). Visitation will be at Browns Funeral Home on Wednesday night (6:00 to 8:00) and the funeral will be held at Mirable Community Church at 2:00 on Thursday in Mirable.

Brenda Marble, Co-founder
Millers Paranormal Research
www.millersparanormalresearch.com



Joyce Morgan was a psychic. She was a member of Miller's Paranormal and the Psychical Research Society of Kansas City. She enjoyed investigating locations with ties to the Civil War, and she worked with several law enforcement agencies over the years on cold-case murders and disappearances. I got the impression she really delighted in her gifts.

For more about Joyce, including some photos and our impressions of her...CLICK HERE.

-Mark

(Though this is a two months old, I had not posted about this on MySpace)

3:44 PM 
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007 



Some would say its a bad idea to encourage young people to become interested in ghosts and the paranormal. But, young people are already interested in ghosts and the paranormal...they don't require any encouragement or pushing from us! Our goal with Ghost Vigil Youths is to provide grounded and credible resources and information to young people who are already interested in the paranormal. If they are going to investigate and dabble in the paranormal anyway, we'd rather they do it right...and in a way that prevents them from getting hurt or in trouble.

Ghost Vigil Youths provides rules for safe investigations, suggestions for the kind of equipment to use, ways to identify natural causes for apparently paranormal events, sources of information for self-study, methods for exploring paranormal locations, ghosts in other cultures, famous hauntings, important ghosthunters in history, ghost jokes, really bad ghost crafts, and much more...

Getting this program together was a lot of work, and took a lot of planning and thought. Please pass on the link to any young people you know who are interested in ghosts!

Mark
Currently reading:
The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology (Penguin Classics)
By Snorri Sturluson
Release date: 31 January, 2006
3:41 PM 
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Monday, December 17, 2007 
(All of the Illustrations in this article are examples of Pareidolia)

Pareidolia

The term pareidolia (pronounced /p??a?--doli?/ or /pæ?a?--d??li?/), referenced in 1994 by Steven Goldstein, describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, and hidden messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para- — beside, with or alongside — and eidolon — image (the diminutive of eidos — image, form, shape).

I think the fact that people see a blue shape on this video and call it an "angel," because the shape is oblong and blue...suggesting a human form...and a blue hazy glow they somehow associate with "angels," is pareidolia. Their mind is taking incomplete date...an indefinite shape...an image they don't fully understand, and creating something completely defined out of it. An "angel." Once they have concluded the blue oblong blob is an "angel," the more times they see it...the more it looks like an angel to them.



Same for the blob of cinnamon on a piece of French Toast that looks like Jesus. Same for the waterstain under a bridge that looks like the Virgin Mary. Same as the bushes and trees in a photo that appear to be a civil war soldier. Same for a cloud bank in the sky that looks like a pirate ship. Same for indistinct shapes in a video that appear briefly in one or two captured frames to be an indian on horseback. Same...well, you get the idea.

In all of these cases, the human mind is taking imcomplete, indistinct, shapes, forms, etc., and turning them into something the mind can define and understand. The mind takes certain visual clues, fills in the blanks, and "sees" something much more than what is there. The more we see the indistinct shape or form, the more the mind becomes convinced that its definition is the correct one.

From Wikipedia: The Rorschach inkblot test uses pareidolia to attempt to gain insight into a person's mental state.

So Pareidolia is exactly the process at work during a Rorschach inkblot test. They have also performed auditory Rorschach tests. And many times, Pareidolia is likely at work when we are analyzing some EVP's. Not all of them...but some of them. The ones where everyone who listens to it hears something a little different. This is likely Pareidolia at work.

And this points out the fact that Pareidolia works on not only the visual level, but also the auditory level. etc. It is a broad definition applying to whenever the mind "fills in the blanks" and creates something very defined from visual input (forms and shapes) or auditory input that are not well defined. It is also not limited to pixelation or random blurriness. That would be Matrixing, not Pareidolia.



Matrixing

A authoritative and legitimate definition for this term is difficult to find.

Matrixing is in many ways a subset of Pareidolia, but has more to do with random patterns of pixels, random elements within a photo, etc. On Ghosthunters, they use matrixing rather than the word Pareidolia all the time, and we has ghosthunters do this as well. But the words do not mean exactly the same thing.

I know we use this word to refer to pixels, blurring in videos and photos, and our interpretation of that pixelation and blurring...but maybe someone else will have better luck finding a definition for this word somewhere other than a ghosthunting website.

Deduction

Now, when a person looks at the blue blob in this video and starts trying to figure out what it actually is. Looking beyond its vague features, and applying everything they know about video images, the movement of bugs, etc. That is deduction. In many ways deduction is the opposite of Pareidolia. Rather than taking in minimal visual clues, and allowing the mind to "fill in the blanks," and jump to a visual conclusion about what the mind is seeing...Deduction involves ignoring those visual clues to some degree, and trying to look beyond them.



Deduction involves all of our knowledge, past experience, and our insight. Pareidolia involves the mind jumping to conclusions, and shortcutting all of these processes our mind is capable of.

When I take a photo of a line of trees with a "civil war soldier" image along the tree line, and I begin to do color comparisons between colors in the "civil war soldier" and the colors of other plants along the tree line...and I show that the civil war soldier is simply a composite of leaves, limbs, and shadow that vaguely looks like a civil war soldier. That is deduction. That is getting beyond the mind's inclination to jump to visual conclusions and really figure the photo out.

When we look at the blue fuzzy shape on the gas station video, and based on our knowledge and experience, conclude that the image may not have been caused by a big fuzzy thing or even something that is blue...that is when we are using deduction. We use our knowledge of out-of-focus shapes on video images, we use our knowledge of all the "bug" video we've ever seen, and we come to a conclusion that is actually counter to what Pareidolia would likely tell us. Yes the first time I see the blue fuzzy shape, my mind says..."wow, that sort of looks like a creepy blue shape floating around the gasstation parking lot." But then you move beyond that Pareidolia conclusion, and move to your reasoning and deduction.

-Mark Stinson
Currently reading:
The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology (Penguin Classics)
By Snorri Sturluson
Release date: 31 January, 2006
5:36 PM 
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Sunday, December 16, 2007 
O.K. I understand the lure of fame, and success. I understand the pull of the ego upon a person, to be well-known for something you love to do. But there are people in the paranormal field right now that do it for one reason, and one reason only...to GET FAMOUS.

And that's the part of the equation I've never figured out. The "I want to be famous" part. Basically, there are only a few shows on television that focus on a team of paranormal investigators.

Most Haunted (which is in England, and already has a team, LOL).

Ghosthunters (which is in the New England area, and already has a team.)

Paranormal State (which is in Penn.? or something...haven't seen it. It already has a team).

A Haunting (rotating cast of teams, overblown, scripted show).

How many paranormal shows do people think there are going to be? I mean seriously? How many shows will this genre support? How many books on ghosthunting will actually do well, and become well known? How many famous people can this little field produce?

And yet there 10,000 plus people out there positioning to be the next famous person. You probably have a better chance of making it as an actor in Los Angelos, than you have to become a known personality in the paranormal field!

Now, I'll admit. We've had our flirtations with television. And we've had our flirtations with trying to get our name out there. Trying to bring attention to ourselves. But I think that's a little different, and I'll explain why.

My personal goal is to be here long enough, in Kansas City...that I am a known person in Kansas City. My goals are very local. Maurice Schwalm was a Kansas City paranormal investigator in the 70's, 80's, and 90's...and when something paranormal happened here, he was the go-to guy.

I want to be that guy in the end. Decades of experience. 1,000's of clients served. My good friends still by my side. And when the gates of hell open up in downtown Kansas City, and the dead are arising from their graves all of the city, the Mayor turns to his advisors and says, "Get me Mark Stinson."

O.K. That last part was a little over-the-top, but you get my point.

Anyhoo...I'm done waxing on poetically...

Do you want to be the next famous paranormal investigator?

Mark
Currently reading:
The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology (Penguin Classics)
By Snorri Sturluson
Release date: 31 January, 2006
3:28 PM 
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Sunday, September 24, 2006 

Many thanks to Midnite-Walkers for doing this orb experiment.  Its worth clicking over to the study and reading it word-for-word, but I reposted their composite orb photos over here for reference.

These are photos of dust, purposefully taken to show what sorts of orbs you can capture on film due to various types of dust. Notice there is every shape and color you can imagine. The textures vary widely, some are clear, some are blurry, some have an "outer-skin," etc. Basically, they cover the full gambit don't they!

These photos are of flying bugs. Some of them look a little too human or fairy like. Last night, at Gaea retreat, while we were taking photos near the fairy gate...a moth landed on the lit display of my camera, drawn to the light. And I wondered if we would get any photos like this... -Mark Stinson

3:10 PM 
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