Women and the Paranormal

As a woman with great interest in the paranormal and someone who has spent her life dabbling in it, I felt the need to point out and question a very valid point that only relate to women. I use the term "paranormal" in the thread to cover a broad spectrum of fields, such as OOBE's, Physic, Clairvoyance, seeing spirits/ghosts, etc. I also bring up this topic to see if any other females also experience or share similiar feelings on this matter.

The affects of menstruation and the practice of the paranormal:

Once a month every woman goes thru their "unclean" phase and though we may not think that it affects our spirituality and paranormal efforts, since most of us function quite normally in regular life, I would like to state that thru careful documention of my own experiences I have found that being on the rag is not the best time to achieve, practice or experiment with the paranormal.

OOBES:
I experience OOBE's on a regular basis and though I cannot fully control my experiences of where I go and what I see, I am always able to get myself into the state necessary to do so, EXCEPT when I am menstruating. During that time, no amount of meditation or practice can help and I am basically shut down and will simply fall asleep instead of experiencing an OOBE

Visions, Dreams, Physic Abilities:
When I am not on my period, I have very clear distincts visions/dreams and can pick up on things quite easily. While I may not understand what the visions/dreams may mean to me or others, I am still able to connect on a higher level. However when menstruating, dreams and visions become blurry, dark and almost always of a negative nature. The same applies to when seeing or feeling spirits/ghosts/entities, (whatever you wanna call them) during menstruation, the experience is always negative.

Meditating/Seeking God or the Higher Consciousness:
Meditating for me is second nature, and while I do it on a daily basis, period or not, I have again noticed that there are major differences to the type of experience I achieve which again directly correlate to the time of month that it is for me.


Now I have done much reading and just recently I came across a Vedic text which stated that during the "unclean" phase that women experience, any efforts to seek enlightenment is significantly hampered and instead of attracting "light", it is "darkness" that is attracted. Also in Hindu culture, it is forbidden for menstruating women to partake in certain rituals, because of "unclean" nature. For example; a menstruating women shouldn't perform puja, or attend wake or funeral services of dead relatives.

I am also familiar with various cultural practices, Africa, etc, in which women are isolated from the family when menstruating. Now my question is to my fellow female members and any brave male willing to touch this subject, In your opinion Does Menstruation affect the Paranormal Abilities of Women?

sorry I forget how to spell sometimes

[edit on 9-20-2004 by worldwatcher]

In your opinion Does Menstruation affect the Paranormal Abilities of Women?

Ancient wisdom and your own experiences would seem to indicate a resounding YES to your question.

As to WHAT effect that is (i.e. such as inviting darkness), I can't really say with as much certainty. However, if one believes in reincarnation, than menstration could be "cracking the door open" in the soul vault so to speak. It makes sense then, that this may be an opportunity for other, not so nice entities, to try and creep through...

This may even be the origin of the idea of "unclean". Personally, I envy the woman's ability to birth a life, and find the term "unclean" (often used) to be demeaning to a rather miraculous process.

BTW, Poltergeist activity is most often associated with little girls going through puberty. This certainly ties into your assumption, and again, may have been what led to the terming of "unclean"....

[edit on 20-9-2004 by Gazrok]

thanks for your insight and response Gaz

I agree with you that the term "unclean" in demeaning to women, but it seems to be be the most commonly used term to describe a menstruating women in cultures all around the world.

I wasn't familiar with the poltergeist aspect of it, but this is beginning to make more sense to me now.

Of course, I'm a woman too, and I agree that women are, not only more ''paranormal'' but they also are more open to that kind of subjects than men. We are more sensitive, more open minded, more intuitional...Women will start the revolution!

Amelia
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nah.. if anything I would expect the opposite to be true in terms of mental stregnth and clarity due to the connection with reproduction and fertility and 'femaleness' if just having a period was all that was involved, but I suspect there is more of a real reason for it.

First, I want to mention and dismiss the reason of "unclean" or "dark energy" : Why unclean? Because women bleed and that can be a little scary for those who don't. It wasn't understood so keenly thousands of years ago. If you don't understand something, insult it, and blame the devil. Women were unclean and needed to be banished? Puhlease. This blood often has a strong odor, and that is undesirable and makes it easy to exclude these women from society when menstruation occurs. When women all menstruate together, they all leave together. Time alone and time away can be welcome. The book "The Red Tent," while fiction, described the practice of the women leaving the usual roles and places and spending days alone together. The traditions were strong and powerful and the knowledge shared with younger women probably did a lot to advance those cultures and keep them going. Human advancement didn't really start to kick in until we had lots of old women around to carry the traditions from one generation to the next. The women had the power.

So why might one feel or believe they had less power or ability while menstruating?

How about pain. Just menstruating doesn't do it for me in terms of explaining why women might feel or be less in tune. However, a lot of women just plain HURT when they menstruate. Crippling pain from cramps, or just nagging annoying pain, having a period can hurt. That can do a lot to distract one from things they are normally aware of mentally or spiritually.

Another possibility is anemia. Having a period for some women takes losing blood. For many, its a lot of blood. Birth control pills often come with one week of Iron tablets to help prevent anemia. Symptoms of anemia include weakness and lethargy. Definitely physical, but mental too? A weak woman physically can lead to a weak woman mentally.

Distraction can play a small part also. Being taken away from your usual role and place to be outside of the community can be a little trying, but mostly relaxing in some communities. I don't think for a minute all those women off together having a bleed were solemn and brooding. They were probably having some good talks and sharing many intimate details about their lives with their sisters and mothers. Why work so hard at mental tasks and effort? Take a break and enjoy those around you.

Worldwatcher: anything on pregnancy having an effect? menopause?

[edit on 20-9-2004 by RedBalloon]

agreed amelia but do you think that "menstruation negatively affects how we percieve and interact with the paranormal?"

Originally posted by worldwatcher
do you think that "menstruation negatively affects how we percieve and interact with the paranormal?"

I'll answer along with amelia and go along with my post above and say "yes" but only in the sense of how we perceive and interact. I don't think the paranormal gives a rat's a$s but it's more a function of the mind of the woman and distractions and physical events that could take the front seat to anything else.

I will have to agree that women in general seem to be more in-touch with things like knowing when a family member is in need. Perhaps it has something to do with the mother-child bond.

Yes for one magisien you have 1000 sorsieres

I'm more sensitive to the paranormal and find that OOBEs and metaphysical/psychic function are easier to achieve during my periods. Other witches, pagan & psychic women I know are the same, so I know I'm not alone. Most patrifocal religions are repressive in regard to female power and paranormal receptivity, and it's no coincidence that menstruation is the target of excessive regulation and control in such systems.

Remember the old joke, "They aren't hot flashes, they're power surges!" Hormonal peaks definitely affect magical/psychic/empathic/paranormal functioning, and it's worthwhile to discover which ones work best for you.

fascinating!!! i really do appreciate the replies.

redballoon, never heard about menopause having an effect, but I have heard that women are and can be more suspectible to the paranormal during pregnancy.

hecate100, you say you have had better paranormal during menstruation, no disrepect meant, but is the nature of your paranormal experiments on the dark or light side? I don't want to assume, so I ask.

now i am curious as why my experiences are always negative, it not like I have horrible periods with excruciating pain or anything, I've always thought myself blessed compared to my other female friends when we've compared notes and they've always said I had it easy, so I am not sure if the negative aspect of just having a period is the reason why my experiences are negative. I'm going to review my notes and see what else what else was going on in my life that was negative and could have influenced my experiences during that time.

btw, thanks for the great discussion gals.
oops and guys too

[edit on 9-20-2004 by worldwatcher]

Originally posted by worldwatcher
redballoon, never heard about menopause having an effect, but I have heard that women are and can be more suspectible to the paranormal during pregnancy.

In my case, it depended on the pregnancy. When I was pregnant with the firstborn, he blocked me altogether. It was awful, as being used to empathic & psychic receptivity, etc. my entire life, I felt like I was blind or something. However, I did have a series of horrible dreams about dead women -- who I later saw on TV as being victims of the Yellowstone serial killer -- and the why of that still mystifies me. My second pregnancy enhanced my abilities, and for some reason, that of the hubby as well.

hecate100, you say you have had better paranormal during menstruation, no disrepect meant, but is the nature of your paranormal experiments on the dark or light side? I don't want to assume, so I ask.

I don't do negative or harmful magics/workings if I can help it, if that's your question. There are ethical & moral shades of grey, of course, but that's another topic.

now i am curious as why my experiences are always negative, it not like I have horrible periods with excruciating pain or anything, I've always thought myself blessed compared to my other female friends when we've compared notes and they've always said I had it easy, so I am not sure if the negative aspect of just having a period is the reason why my experiences are negative. I'm going to review my notes and see what else what else was going on in my life that was negative and could have influenced my experiences during that time.

Well, I was struck by your use of the word "unclean" in your initial post, and wondered if it was your perception of menstruation that may be affecting your experiences. Body image effects spiritual & metaphysical views more than most people realize. Do you consider yourself "unclean" in the spiritual sense when you have your period? Do you consider your body to be separate and inferior to your mind and spirit? I've noticed the greater the mind/spirit/body divide, the greater the possibility of having negative experiences. "As above, so below," etc.

ahhhh....so my perception of having a period could be the cause...very interesting... and yes I do personally consider having a period "unclean", of course you are familiar with the details of having one, so you might understand where I get the "unclean" feeling from and no this isn't one for massengil

as i ponder this, i am reminded that thru out my upbringing, I have been fed the line about "uncleanliness" so perhaps I am the influence of the negative experiences...but i am not quite sure it explains everything to me as to why I have these periods of blindness to the paranormal. I'll check into lunar and planetary cycles and see if any of them correlate with my negative times, perhaps I am looking at this all wrong and blaming the wrong thing.

so because i think of it as being "unclean" I allow myself to percieve the experiences as negative???? very interesting, I'll have to wait till next month to test this theory.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and offer a science based answer.

Please note while reading this, that I am not attacking anyone or saying anyone's ideas are wrong, just offering the scientific point of view.

The sexes evolved with two differnt roles in society. Men were primarily hunters and manual laborers who were prone to navigation, cataloging of agricultural techniques, and functioned on logic in developing new methods of resouce utilization. Women were the center of social structure providing nurturing of the mind, education of children, and manufacturing techniques.

Over time men became more and more logic and engineering based as hunting turned to see navigation and simple construction turned to mass building projects. Similarly women went from emapthy to the ability to read emotions and feelings in the fine detail of a face or the movement of the body.

This is why men are the majority in fields like engineering and technology and women are the majority in fields like medicine and counciling.

NOW, add into these predispositions the concept of the paranormal. Women, with a hieghtened sense of detail and mood will see things where men do not. If you believe in the paranormal then this can be explained by things such as ghost or astral travel, if not than its simply misinterpretation of the senses.

Now, the last ingredient is hormones. Women flux in hormone levels more than men do. Hormones peak and dip durring events like pregnancy and menstration. Certain hormones can make women more sensative to their enviroment and internal thoughts. Some women suffer from PMS. Some simply become more sensative to stimuli.

This is the foundation of women and the paranormal.

Weather the paranormal is real or a mental effect is for another discussion, but this is the scientific explination of female ties to sensing more than men.

When I'm about to have my periods, I cry like a baby for days, it's like I can feel all the negativity in the air. I watch the news and I cry...then I get mad..really mad! Maybe because I feel I can't do anything about it!

I think periods is a time when a woman feels everything more than usual, that's it!!!

Ameliaxxxxx

Originally posted by worldwatcher
The affects of menstruation and the practice of the paranormal:
Now my question is to my fellow female members and any brave male willing to touch this subject, In your opinion Does Menstruation affect the Paranormal Abilities of Women?

No. It does not interfere at all.

Worldwatcher, I'm surprised too that you think your psychic abilities are dimmed by the menstrual cycle. Mine are always heightened about a week in advance. Sometimes I can read people so well about that time and know what they're thinking that it scares my family sometimes.
Maybe Hecate is on the right track thinking that maybe it's your attitude about it being "uclean" that is affecting you. It's all in the mind and your beliefs.
I thought Hecate's post about her unborn child "blocking" her was interesting. With my first child I felt that he and I had a psychic connection right away. I dreamed about him when I was about 6 months pregnant! One night I went to sleep and dreamed of this blonde haired, blue-eyed, little boy looking at me and smileing over a fence. He looked to be about 3 years old. He waved at me giggled and ran away. When I woke up I thought it was an odd dream and did'nt really think anything of it anymore. But later after he was born I realized the little boy in the dream was the same as my son. When he became three he was the exact same image of the little boy in my dream. Amazing!