Beginning Paranormal Exploration

I have never had any paranormal experiences yet have always been intrigued (and somewhat afraid) of the paranormal. While I have never had experiences, a part of me has always wanted some, to explore the unknown and learn more about everything around me. After living with this mixture of curiosity and fear/worry for so long, I feel I now want to experience something and begin to explore.

Yesterday I went and dug out our Ouija board and tried to convince my family to try it out with me (which they all refused). So I was left wondering if I could do this by myself. Today, I stop by ATS to take a quick look only to find this thread www.abovetopsecret.com.... What a coincidence that a thread concerning that exact topic would be on the front page of ATS. Coincidence or something more? Either way, I read through the thread and due to the rather strong feelings against using the Ouija and my complete inexperience with it, I have decided it probably would not be the best place to start.

So now to my question, I was wondering if anybody had any advice as to where I could begin to delve into the world of the paranormal. Where is a good place to start? Remember, I have really no experience with this so it might be best to start slow.

I had considered meditation before as my aunt, who is a Yoga master, had told me about the extreme enlightenment she had received from meditating. She explained to me that she used to teach other people how to, yet had stopped because she said it is not necessarily something one should mess around with unprepared, stating you had to have complete faith otherwise one might be lured into choosing the wrong path and that it is rather difficult to discern sometimes between good and bad (I apologize that I don't recall the entire conversation I had with my aunt as it was quite awhile ago). But alas, I have no experience and have no idea how one would go about meditating to such a level to unlock such revelations and such.

Thus, I am stuck. I don't know where to begin exploring the paranormal. Any and all help would be much appreciated as would any stories you have to share about your own experiences. Thanks in advance.

Try reading a couple of books....

"The Way of The Shaman" M. Harner

"The Morning of the Magicians" L Paowels and J Bergier

Be careful...

Thanks for the reply whaaa. I shall look into these books. From the reviews I read of "The Morning of the Magicians" it sounds like that is a rather deep and interesting book. I hope to get over to the book store soon to pick that one up. I was wondering if you could share any of your experiences (if you don't mind and it isn't too intrusive of me to ask). Did you start exploring the paranormal through those books?

OK,

Once for comparative religion class, sophomore anthro. myself and 3 other friends decided to have a voodoo ceremony, complete with drums, cigars, rum, dancing, "etc"; mainly an excuse to party and write a paper.
We drew a symbol on the floor in chalk, started drumming, drinking, smoking and one of the female attendees started dancing around the symbol. Perhaps 5 min. into the "ceremony" the dancer was really involved, her eyes were rolling back in her head, speaking, almost growling in a strange language and eventually collapsed to the floor.
We other three thought it was just theatrics, but it wasn't. She was in
a trance that resembled some kind of epileptic seizure. We immediately
erased the symbol and tried to comfort the girl. Eventually she snapped
out of it with no recollection of what had just transpired.

Did we connect with "something" was it just some sort of selfindused hypnotism. Regardless is scared the holy **** out of us and that is
why I recommend absolute caution in these matters.
Arm yourself with the sword of knowledge
and the Shield of faith....
A mentor might not be a bad idea either...

My interest started as a young lad reading "Fate" magazine, given to me
by some very strange neighbors.

I have experienced some other high strangeness here...

members.fortunecity.com...



[edit on 28-6-2008 by whaaa]

I am not sure what aspect of the paranormal you wish to study, whether it is more along the lines of metaphysics (meditation, study of the inner mind and spirit,...etc.) or researching paranormal events (i.e. ghost hunting) but either way the first place you should always start is reading. This forum has ALOT of useful info on everything you could possibly want to explore. Alot of beliefs and theories can be found here, and ,hey, if something peaks your intrest and you want to know more then don't hesitate to U2U someone. This forum, apart from others like the ALIENS and POLITICO forums, has people that will help you and generally enjoy enlightening or passing on info. Always start with the mental learning before you do anything, especially when it involves things that even our "smartest cannot define or understand. That is your best bet. After that then branch out at your own pace. I hope that you find the answers or come to them, that you are looking for and happy hunting!

P.S. Meditation is never bad. BTW I enjoy the ghost hunting aspect and reviewing evidence but more on the scientific side (yes people call me a debunker sometimes but I am relaly not) so if you have any questions or just wanna chat it up please feel free to U2U me.