Good Morning, my Love :
I am gonna go see a matinee of "The Conjuring" with my sister, so I will be going to Pearl's right after the movie is over, and then I will be back this evening. I loved the photos you posted this morn. The first one is very representative of living the physical and spiritual life simultaneously, as we always talk about. There is a famous photograph in a similar vein, called "The Spirit Leaving The Body", a double exposure by a guy named Duane Michals. It could represent death or - I think - astral projection. But I like our idea best, of living both existences in life.
And I love the photo of the lake and driftwood as well. Next time you go to Lake Superior, I am coming with you! I would love to see what I could find along the shore, perhaps a piece of driftwood, maybe hundreds of years old, or perhaps the beginning of a poem, written on the side of a rock by a Beautiful Artist......
Here's to a great start to the week! I Love You, Elizabeth. :):)
(back later....)
7:30pm : I am back, and I am gonna go for my walk before I settle in, but I just wanted to say right away that I saw your posts while I was at Pearl's, and Elizabeth - what wonderful things to say. You (and the man quoted) are exactly right about "what decides the feeling" - "it's who you're with". And that is why I have been feeling so happy ever since I met you. And when we are together, visiting special places or simply "shopping for needles or postage stamps", oh what wonderful times we will have!
Thank you, my Angel. I Love You So. :):)
I will be back later this eve.
10:05pm - Well, "The Conjuring"...........a very effective movie, with an ending that ranks with the scariest movies ever. I was very impressed. I knew of Ed and Lorraine Warren from listening to them on the Art Bell show years ago. Back then, I knew nothing about the case this film is based on, or that the Warrens did things like exorcisms. On the Art Bell show, all they ever talked about was EVP, or electronic voice phenomena, which is the recording - with permission - of spirits on the other side. The Warrens usually did this in a cemetary or haunted house or some other notorious place where troubled spirits were reported. Seeing the film, and getting a more complete idea about the full spectrum of their work, I know now that what they did was to help people indentify and eliminate hauntings. So the spirits they communicated with were all troubled (at least) or far worse, like in the movie. And so, for EVP recordings, they always asked the spirit's permission before recording, so as to promote a feeling of trust and avoid causing problems. Hearing their tapes on Art's show - we are talking about 8 to 10 years ago now - I thought I might one day like to try making an EVP recording. On the show, the Warrens used to give listeners instructions on how to do it (i.e. common sense stuff like "start with a brand new tape"). It sounded pretty easy, but I never did it because I am not a clarvoyant and therefore not in the business of dealing with troubled or evil spirits, and thus it is not something I would want to mess with.
I don't fool around with Ouija boards, either, or anything of the kind. No seances, nothing like that. The Warrens were equipped for that kind of thing because she was a true clarvoyant (and not a sham like so many, who play it like a parlor game), and Ed was a demonologist with an education on the subject. They were also strong Catholics with solid faith, and even with all that to back them up, they still paid quite a price for their work.
So then I thought I'd one day like to try and record, either by sound or photography, the happy side of the spirit world. I was walking through the Orange Grove tonight, and it is an old grove, at least by Northridge standards. Old here, as far as local landmarks, is anything over 75 years old, and the grove is probably pretty close to 100 years old, seeing as how it was planted by the same Norwegian farming families who built the old wooden church in 1911. Anyway, I have heard the grove described before as "haunted". That might be a vibe picked up by someone who doesn't know it well, maybe someone who only lived here a few years and remembers it only in hindsight. I walk past it almost nightly, and it does give off a vibe, but the word I would use is enchanted. I think it is a place of great spiritual energy, but the feeling I get is all positive.
I began to tune in to such things after the earthquake, when I went into the Meadows. As I've said, that building became a photographic and video project for 18 months in 1994-5, and what got me so intrigued about the place was the vibe it gave off. I had never been around death at that point in my life, never had known anyone who had died. But in this building, 16 people had died, and looking at the place, you could just feel it. Because of the force of the quake - the strongest recorded vertical shaking in recent North American history - the building was all smashed and twisted, and in places, the rooms and windows seemed to have developed "expressions", as if they had absorbed the pain inside. I know that sounds weird, but anyone looking for it could plainly see it.
It was in photographing The Meadows - a huge 162 unit complex - and noticing all it's "personalities" and "expressions" that I first came to notice "faces" in inanimate objects. And I came to wonder if an object, a building, say, or a tree, could absorb feeling. That's what they say about haunted houses, that they literally absorb what has taken place inside, usually something unpleasant.
What started the whole Meadows thing was the vibe it gave off, but then something really upped the ante. I had taken rolls and rolls of pics of the outside of the place, and I wanted to see inside, but I couldn't because it was off limits due to city regulations. It was a hazard, for one thing. And, people had died, and for others, their belongings were still in their apartments for months afterward. But I had to see inside, so I finally asked a man who was working there if he would take some photos for me. This man was what is called a Demolition Contractor, and due to a class action lawsuit by some tenants, he was in charge in taking parts of the building apart, piece by piece like a reverse puzzle, to look for faulty construction. One day, in May 1994, four months after the quake, I asked him if he would take some pictures for me of the inside of The Meadows. I didn't ask for anything specific, but I think he knew what I meant.
I wanted to see what "The Rooms" looked like. Rooms where people had died. Many of those rooms had been on the first floor, which was now only about two feet high in most places.
I wanted to see it, not because I am a gruesome person, but because I had been drawn in by the look of the building, and it's seeming "expressions". The only way to photograph the first floor, I later found out, was to get down on your hands and knees in a second floor unit (which was now the ground floor), and reach through a hole in the floor that had been sawed out by the fire department. That was the only way they could get to some of the deceased, by sawing through floors of second floor units.
At any rate, this Demolition Contractor came back that day about an hour later, handed me my camera, and said, "I think I got you some good ones". I was excited to get the roll developed, so I took it right away to the local supermarket (which had a photo service) and they got it back from the Kodak facility a day later.
Looking at the pictures, I could hardly believe my eyes. The rooms in which they had been taken were jumbled and destroyed, but there was also all kinds of what I might call "organic artifacts" visible. Remember that this was in May, four months after the quake, and things had had time to settle, and time to grow.
The vibe of The Meadows, so visible on the outside in it's "faces", had had time to grow throughout the building. Humans - with the exception of a few lawyers and the demolition contractor and his small crew - had not been inside the building for four months. But "The Vibe" had been in there all that time, and it had taken over. And that was visible in the photographs, in what you might call an "organic" way.
The way a shadow can look like a face. The way a blanket that once kept somebody warm can look like a spider web. Things that were inanimate now looked alive.
And in some of the photos, taken by the Demolition Contractor, were ghosts. There more I looked at one photo in particular, the more I was certain. I took that photo back to show to the Demolition man, and I didn't want to prompt him, so I just said, "do you see anything weird in that photo"?
And he pointed at the bottom of the pic - where one of those fire dept. holes had been cut - and he said :
"Oh, you mean down there where all the spirits are"? He had been going in those rooms for weeks, and surely he had gotten the same vibes that had drawn me to the place. Probably stronger, in his case. And so, when I asked him to take pictures for me - even without being specific - he got my drift and took some photos that truly changed the way I look at things.
There was one ghost in that particular picture that I referred to as The Ghost Lady, because her image was so clearly defined. Of course, when I would show her to friends, most would scoff, but I could see her clearly, and with my video camera I isolated her in the photo and videotaped her up close.
This story could fill a book (and I am sorry for rambling!), but what happened later is that in September of that year, it was announced that a local painter had painted a portrait, as a tribute, of all the poor folks who had died inside The Meadows. It was to be unveiled at the Oviatt Library at CSUN, where it was to then hang for a year or so. Well, I went to see the unveiling. I was invited, because of my project at The Meadows. And when the painter took the draping from her portrait, I looked at the portraits of the deceased who had lived at The Meadows. There were 16 in all.
One lady, white haired and smiling, with glasses and a full face that suggested she might have been a bit overweight, stood out to me.
It was The Ghost Lady, there was absolutely no doubt. I took a photo of the painter's portrait and later isolated her individual portrait with my video camera, and I incorporated both images into my video film called "The Meadows". I showed a close up of the "ghost" photo taken by the Demolition Contractor, and then I showed another close up of the white haired lady from the painting.
To this day, the whole thing blows my mind, and not just because of the photographs but because of time spent inside the building for a summer, and the "organic" aspect of things "growing" into something else, when no human involvement is allowed to disrupt the process. Think of ivy growing over an old brick building, or moss, or a spiderweb covered doorway. Only this was different; this was an organic spiritual overgrowth. Things - objects like blankets and lamps - becoming tinged with something else. Something that is different, but you recognize it when you see it.
This is an unusual subject for the blog, I realise, and if it is too dark I apologize, but the film today was very powerful, not only in it's depiction of haunting but also in it's depiction of faith and family.
I saw nothing evil in The Meadows. What I saw was inert, but still alive in that organic way. And I tell you about it because you are an incredibly intelligent woman, and you are a Capital "A" Artist, and most of all because you and I are on the same wavelength.
That's the way Ed and Lorraine Warren are depicted in "The Conjuring". Their lives were about demonology and helping people - living and dead - who were spiritually troubled. But in the movie, it is shown that they are clearly made for each other. They have love, faith, trust and devotion.
You and I are made for each other as well. But I think we are made for Enchantment rather than hauntings. I am interested in both. But I think our energy is suited to the magical.
I Love You my Angel! Thanks for reading all of this. I will see you in the morning.
Sweet dreams until then, and a warm hug and kiss. :):)
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