Farah's Tarot

Gambling on Love

2006-01-27T03:43:00.000-08:00

After giving hundreds of Tarot readings about love, relationships and marriage, I've come to the conclusion that love is a gamble. Lucky ones win the game. The rest try it again and again until they are satisfied with what they get or they just give it up. And it's even more addictive than gambling because the rewards along the way are so pleasant and the big jackpot is such a dream come true.

Since Saint Valentine’s day is for many people about sharing the love and creating happiness with your partner, spouse or family, it’s also a day where the lonely feel lonelier. As February approaches I usually get emails and phone calls from my friends and clients saying:

“One more Saint Valentine’s day, and I still didn’t find my other half...”

“I'm the only one who’s single... I’ll never find somebody...”

“I read all the books about finding the soulmate, went to the workshops and nothing happened yet...”

Millions of women and men are looking for their soulmates. They are ready to do anything to find him or her. They spend their time, mental and spiritual energy and money. Most of the time the search brings only disappointment and more loneliness. Why doesn’t it work? Are you endlessly searching? Do you think that you’re looking for your soulmate in the wrong places? Or that you’re not clever or pretty enough, or have made too many mistakes?

Don't be so hard on yourself. Let me tell you... in general the lovelorn are smarter than they think. They seldom make mistakes in their lives when it comes to professional decisions. They don’t necessarily have social or psychological problems. But yes, they are looking in the wrong place for their soulmate if they are hanging out in bars or spending hours on dating services. It’s because your soulmate is not on the outside, but within. But as long as you look for your soulmate in somebody else you’ll stay on this endless quest, looking, searching, failing...

I know, you want to find your soulmate. But as long as you look for it in other women’s and men’s eyes you are going to lose yourself. Because you are your real soulmate. Nobody else is. First you have to find yourself in your own soul. Later you can decide who will be your girl/boyfriend, spouse or life partner.

Simply put, how can you know who is right for you... if you don’t know who You are. I think this is the biggest mistake of millions... searching for something outside that you already have inside.

Nothing is forever in life... family, job, marriage, relatives, feelings, ideas have an end. Love has an end too. Human body has an end. But there is only one thing which is forever and endless.. your soul. When you die, you leave everything behind, your physical body, your home, cars, furniture, bank accounts and credit cards... you can't take them to the other side with you. You only have your soul. And your soul is your forever.

Yes of course we have a soulmate, which is us, not anybody else outside of our body. That’s why the more you look for a miracle person, the more you find frustrations in your love life.

Look in the mirror: there is your miracle person.

If you are alone this Valentine’s Day, don’t punish yourself. Take the day as a day for you. Give your soul the attention it deserves from you. It’s your soul. It wants you to acknowledge it. Don’t punish it by making it wait to be healed by the touch of a stranger. Your healing power is in your heart.

And let’s say that you found what you have been looking for, and you’re in love. Congratulations! But remember love is a gamble. You can win or you can lose. Just like in life, there are no guarantees in this gamble. Maybe you are lucky, maybe not. But you will ensure your luck if you love yourself first. Find yourself first. Protect your body and home, build in them a healthy place for your soul and you’ll have less frustrations in your love life with your partner. This is not to be interpreted as selfish attention for yourself, but as nurturing, healthy things for home, body, and spirit.

If you already have a life partner, enjoy it... enjoy Valentine’s Day together in the best way. But remember, nobody can love you more than you love yourself—and nobody should, either.

PS: Please visit the Readings page at my site, http://www.farahstarot.com/farahstarot7_004.htm to listen to Valentine's Day love and relationship Tarot readings for the astrological signs closest to Feb. 14: Capricorn and Aquarius. And there's also a relationship for a porweful businessperson from each sign: Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern! Similar readings for other astrological signs are in the works.

Turkey's Most Famous Son: SANTA CLAUS!

2005-12-18T15:42:00.000-08:00

Hello dear friends and DEAD TENANTS lovers. Are you busy with holiday activities? I am. Lately I am very busy getting ready to welcome a very famous personality to my home. Guess who is coming... Santa Claus of course! I want everything to be perfect and just like in our childhood days when he comes to visit us, so I’m preparing a wondeful Turkish dish that dates back to Old Testament times to give to him whe he arrives.

As we know, Santa Claus is the embodiment of the spirit of Christmas. Not in the most simple meaning of bringing presents down the chimney, but in the deeper one of selfless generosity. Santa Claus has a very big meaning for me because the real Santa Claus, “Saint Nicolas” was from Turkey, my native country.

Most people think Saint Nick comes from a cold, snowy place like the North Pole. But would you believe the historical Saint Nicolas was a beach boy from a place called Antalya. Antalya is next to the Mediterranean sea and is one of the most beautiful places in a country full of beautiful places. And today Santa Claus/Saint Nicolas is a very important symbol of the city, a kind of mascot.

But how did a local boy born in the year 255 become an immortal symbol of not only a city and a season, but of a way of thought? According to history Nicolas came from a very rich family. His parents died when he was very young, leaving him alone with their fortune. An orphan himself, he felt for the poor people around him and used the fortune to take care of them, giving food, clothes and money to anyone who came to his door for help. He loved everyone from every race and religion, building hospitals and public kitchens for the poor. His generosity and warm heart gave birth to the enduring legend that we now associate with this season of giving.

So this holiday, when he visits my home, I thought it would be nice to give him something that would remind him of his own. So I am making Saint Nick (and my guests) one of the dishes he undoubtedly enjoyed himself and served to the poor from his kitchens.

What is it? That’s usually the first thing people ask when they see it.

Is it pudding?
Well, no…

Is it soup?
Hmm.. not really.

Is it good?
Definitely!

Put a bowl of Turkish asure (pronounced ah-shu-reh) on your holiday board and you’re bound to get questions and comments—and people asking for more. It’s an unusual dessert that is a traditional treat in Turkey, and it dates back to Old Testamant times, which makes it an interesting “theme” dessert for the holiday season. In fact, it’s called Noah’s Pudding, because when the Ark landed on Turtkey’s Mount Ararat after the Great Flood, Noah wanted to create a feast in celebration. But he didn’t have many ingredients on his Ark so he had to use what he had—plus a generous pinch of imagination. And asure is what he ended up with.

When you see it, it looks like a little of everything has been stirred in. And maybe that’s true. But when you taste it, you get a wonderful sensation because it is sweet without being cloying, and its variety of natural ingredients makes an unusual mix of flavors and textures that’s very different from western puddings and desserts.

Read the ingredients and you’ll see what I mean…

1 cup barley or wheat1 cup canned white kidney beans (washed/drained)

1 cup canned chickpeas (washed/drained)
1 ½ tbsp rice (before cooking)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

10 dry apricots, chopped

10 dry figs, chopped

½ cup raisins
1 tbsp chopped orange peel
1 small orange, cut into small pieces

1 ½ tablespoons rose water

¼ cup pistachios
¼ cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup pistachios, chopped

Barley? Beans? Chickpeas? In dessert?

Yes! Because like many traditional treats, asure was meant not just to reward, but to nourish. And like many traditions, making asure requires some work—but it’s fun work.

Start the night before. Soak the apricots and figs overnight in water to soften them.

The next day, boil the beans, rice and barley (or wheat) separately until they are good and soft. Drain the water you boiled them in, then combine them with the barley/wheat with 6 cups of hot water. Put the mixture on a medium heat and stir in the apricots, raisins, figs, vanilla, orange peel and pistachios. Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, then stir in the sugar and orange. Cook for another 10 minutes. Stir in the orange pieces and rose water, continue heating for just another couple of minutes…

Remove from heat and let it cool for a few minutes, then put it into small dishes or custard cups and chill it. When it comes time to serve it, sprinkle the walnuts/pistachios on top.

I don’t know if Noah or Nicolas drank Turkish coffee, but it makes a nice followup to this exotic dessert. Oh, and in the spirit of the holidays, it is considered good luck to give some to your guests to take home with them-as Saint Nicolas would have done.

I hope the spirit of the holiday fills your home, and I hope that it continues to brighten your days in the months to come. Remember, Nicolas did not just open his heart and door on December 25th, but every day.

There are more pictures of Nicolas and his beautiful homeland at http://www.noelbaba.net/ (that’s Turkish for Father Christmas)

Devil in the Details: About My First Tarot Reading MP3's

2005-12-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone! I hope you’re enjoying a wonderful, magical holiday season.

Yesterday some new additions appeared on my site http://www.farahstarot.com/farahstarot6_004.htm : a page of readings with links to mp3’s so you can listen to a full analysis of my cards talking about the former and current First Families, as well as the future of another celebrity couple, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. My cards do not gossip or play politics because they are tools for good. But they can help us to take a look at celebrities as human beings. I think it’s such a shame that the human side of public figures is usually ignored in favor of scandal and misery.

Here I show you a selection of the cards that made up these actual readings, with some comments about what they said about the subjects. (My scanner won’t hold the whole spreads, so I’ve included pictures of some of their important individual cards.)

The CLINTONS
It is interesting that Hollywood makes us think that the most negative-looking cards represent the most negative things. This is not always the case. It is their relationship to each other in the spread that betrays their true meaning. The Clintons’ spread has some heavy cards such as Devil, Death and the 9 of Swords. But also there are very positive and inspiring ones such as The Star or 10 of Cups. And as in any spread, they work together—just as in life the negative and positive interact to define and hopefully illuminate our past, present and future.

The spread for Bill and Hillary Clinton and their daughter Chelsea shows love, tremendous strength and important, dynamic futures, currently clouded and stifled by guilt and shame. The 9 of Swords represents the base of this couple’s problem, a deep and bitter feeling and discomfort. The Devil is the past problems in their marriage. Death is a new path for a new beginning, meaning that something will be reborn in this relationship. See, though Death can be interpreted as an ending, it should be remembered that in the balance of the spirit every ending is also the reflection of a new beginning.

Here The Star represents Hillary’s future victory and her ability to master her mood even in the worst situations. When Bill fully embraces her forgiveness, which will facilitate his forgiving of himself, he will be greatly empowered and well on the road to his greater destiny.

The 10 of the Cupc and the Hierpohant together give the message of a happy marriage and family life of Chelsea. This will also empower the former First Couple.

The BUSHES
This reading is a pure reflection of personality and emotion. This is a family with a very close bond of love and affection, a secure love that empowers the President and gives him some of the strength he needs to pursue his policies. Good family news is awaiting Laura in 2006. The 3 of Cups represents this good news for the First Lady.

King of Swords is President Bush. The 8 of Wands shows good developments for the President. These are very fast coming, good and positive developments for him personally and politically, bringing a feeling of relief within his spirit. The Justice card and the 3 of Coins together shows a new important legal agreement or pact.

This is a very positive spread for the Bushes; it shows a bright future for them as a couple in which their marriage will remain strong, and both individuals will remain influential long after their stay in the White House has ended.

JESSICA SIMPSON and NICK LACHEY
Even though there is an obvious sadness in the general layout of this Tarot reading, most of the cards are showing a better future for Jessica and Nick.

Here Jessica is represented with Queen of the Wands. She is strong, loving, caring and passionate. Her feelings are very deep and she has a very developed sense of protection for her loved ones. King of the Swords is the potential boyfriend that Jessica has to avoid. His horoscope sign is an Air element such as Gemini, Libra or Acquarius. On the other hand, King of the Wands is a nice, warm hearted gentleman who has a big admiration for Jessica. And he is waiting for her.

Nick is Knight of Cups. A very romantic and sensitive guy! But he has been longing for a new adventure, and adventure of life that can only happen without the bond of this marriage. Death and The Tower cards mark the end of this marriage as definite.
Now here is the sad part: the Sun card shows the baby who was going to be their son. This baby was coming with a touch of luck into his parent’s life. But now he must wait. It will take another reading to gain some insight as to where this baby will be born. Maybe he will be Jessica’s after all.

The TAROT as a RELFECTION of LIFE
These spreads, particularly the Clintons’, show how the cards are a microcosm of our universe. You could look at one card outside of the context of the reading, just as you could look at one incident outside of the context of a whole life, and form a narrow and unfair picture. And isn’t this what happens all the time, every day, in the world around us? We are frequently fed only one side of a story. We sometimes can see only one facet of an incident, or an individual’s personality. But it is our ability to look at as many facets of a person or situation as possible, that gives us the chance to live in a state of forgiveness, safety and harmony with the universe.

Please visit my site to hear the readings (they are posted in Spanish also if that is your first language). More readings and their mp3’s will be posted regularly. Please let me know what you think, and feel free to email me at farahstarot@yahoo.com to suggest other hearts you’d like the cards to shed some light on.

Oh, and please visit my new forum, http://pub11.bravenet.com/forum/884395952 and invite your friends over to chat about the Tarot, spirituality, ghosts, Dead Tenants, and whatever topic brightens yourt mystical world.

By the way, for the investigations on Dead Tenants on TLC, I use the Tarot as a tool to give me a better, fuller picture of the family members, the home, and the unwanted guests. Maybe one of the readings will be included in a future episode.

Simple Magic For Your Kitchen

2005-11-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

As we enter the holiday season I thought I'd share an excerpt from my latest book...

The holidays are a time for food. I believe that culture starts in the kitchen. In some ways we define different cultures according to their foods. Mention the word “Italian” and pasta, tomato sauce, and parmesan cheese pop into our minds. “Spanish” summons paella, “Japanese” sushi, “Turkish” thick coffee and shish kebabs. In my culture fixing food is a delightful ritual shared by many generations. We love food—cooking it, serving it, eating it. Of course we do! Good food makes you happy and healthy.

In the past, and not only in my country, kitchens often occupied a bigger area in the house than they do in today’s fast food take-out world. Now when I see a condo or an apartment sometimes I’m not sure if there is a kitchen at all.

Even though many of the world’s great chefs are men, the kitchen is a very female place. Yes, the kitchen is female. It represents fertility. A woman is the ruler of the kitchen in many ways. In a Turkish family, the wife is a production manager organizing everything from her kitchen headquarters. Just as in the corporate boardroom, important issues are discussed at the dinner table when the family gets together.

Television shows us how to be happy in a shiny perfect modern kitchen that few of us have in our own homes. On popular cooking shows you learn the “secrets” of the kitchen, secrets revolving around sumptuous ingredients and miraculous recipes. But what if your kitchen consists of only a small sink, a narrow counter and a tiny cupboard? Can you be happy? Believe me you can be very happy with the humblest of kitchens, and you can make your loved ones and guests happy too. Your kitchen can be a magical place without new appliances, big spaces and expensive foods. You can create personal harmony in the kitchen with some very simple steps, and as food feeds the body, this harmony feeds the soul.

As I have entered homes plagued by negative spiritual activity, one thing has struck me time and again: many of them need a good cleaning. Not spiritual but physical. The kitchen represents Health. And health comes from hygiene. A good kitchen is a clean one. Always remember that clean spaces invite positive spiritual beings and energy, and dirty, cluttered spaces attract badness and give it a place to live. And we need those good spirits in our kitchen, where we prepare the food that nourishes our bodies. Believe me, a kitchen filled with dirty dishes and greasy shelves can’t be a place where spiritual change happens—at least change for the better.

With or without a dishwasher, take care of the dirty dishes immediately. Doing this helps keep your kitchen a positive healthy place that welcomes you every time you walk into it, rather than burdens you with a nasty task always waiting. It’s a cleanliness you take with you into your daily life.

Another important thing that you’ll need to make your kitchen a magically harmonious place is Plenty. This is simple magic. Try to keep your food shelves or refrigerator full. Don’t wait until your pantry is empty before you go shopping. Fullness invites plenty. Check your sugar, salt, try to add more whenever you see them getting low. An empty refrigerator invites poverty. Don’t let it be this way. Even if you can’t afford haute cuisine, stock up on the basics to keep your kitchen full.

If you are a believer keep some object, or any picture related to your religion in your kitchen. It protects your home and brings good luck. You need angels in your life. Feed them their favorite foods: cleanliness, abundance and positive energy, and they’ll be sure to visit your kitchen and your home, and they’ll help you stir in the love and light that will make the fruits of your kitchen that much more joyful.

The Mirror Has Two Faces: "Night Stalker" on TLC's DEAD TENANTS

2005-11-14T05:23:00.000-08:00

We have an expression in Turkey: “misery loves company.”

That expression came to mind while I watched last week’s Dead Tenants, “Night Stalker.” Did you see it? As you remember I wasn’t in that particular episode, but I liked it a lot and it represented another case where terrible negativity was filling a house. The home’s owner, Toni Love, is a young woman with a 13-year-old-daughter. Not only Toni, but her daughter and her friend also had some ghost experiences in the house.

Toni had primarily 3 visitors in her house: a killer named Herman, another killer named Baldy and a young girl who was the victim of a horrible murder. With those circumstances it’s not surprising that in her house the paranormal should become normal. I see Toni as a very strong and brave woman. And like many people do whether they are aware of it or not, she has psychic talents. Toni was very clear in her descriptions and experiences. As Toni is a psychic she easily attracts ghosts / spiritual energies, nice ones and bad ones.

We have suffering souls here. They feel extremely guilty, they still feel and live again and again their most bitter memories. They are stuck in this negative wavelength and they can’t move on. The young girl, who was killed in a most horrible way, has been running and hiding from her killer since her death. She feels drawn to Toni and seeks protection in her psychic energy. Because ghosts know very well whose spiritual channels are open and whose are not. (You remember “Fred” from the previous episode; his open channels attracted a negative entity.)

We always talk about spiritual energy and the souls. But there is another thing which is very important in hauntings: blood. Blood represents Life but at the same time it represents Death. And when it is spilled by killers, blood creates and carries a very intense low energy. Toni lives in the scene of bloody deaths. That heavy and intense energy logically creates a very suitable nest for ghostly activity. In that house blood represents fear, tragedy and constant negativity.

Ghostly behavior can reflect the emotions of the living. And as such ghostly misery loves company. Just as in the living dimension of everyday relationships, negativity seeks to increase itself by exposing itself to others. But also like the pain of the living, it can hate company too and will seek to drive others away so it can brood and grow in private. We generally try to understand the ghostly world from our own dimension. But maybe we must try to see the things from the other side, just like the movie “The Others” with Nicole Kidman. In some cases ghosts or constant spirits reject help from mediums. Ghosts believe that they are the real owners of the place or the house. They can see the living as intruders--the mirror of how the living see them. And sometimes they try to scare or make uncomfortable the real human owners of the house to get rid of them. They don’t want to move to the light because they don’t see the need to do so, of can't, or are afraid. And others, like the little girl, trapped in the wrong dimension, run to a medium as a cry for help.

Every mirror has two faces. We are on this side of the mirror and they are on the other side. Who knows which side is better? To both of us, our side is the real one.

A special note to anyone leaving comments: I've been getting lots of advertising spam disguised as "comments," so I've enabled a moderation feature that will slightly delay your comments appearing on the blog after you leave them. The airwaves are sufficiently clogged with unsolicited advertising so we may as well avoid it when we talk about ghosts. Thanks for your understanding and I look forward to hearing from everyone.

Comments About Your Comments

2005-11-08T16:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, thanks to everyone who's visited my site and left comments on the blog.

The fourth episode of Dead Tenants, "The Last Resort," caused a stir, didn't it? Almost everyone who watched it was very affected by how sincerely Fred was suffering, and was unnerved by how the spirit seemed to be getting hold of him again at the end of the episode. When PRS does a procedure to release a spirit, we always tell the haunted people that it is a beginning, a step in the process. The ghost that had been attacking Fred had been victimizing him for four years and could not be expected to go without a fight. If we were to visit with Fred today (to my knowledge he has not been contacted) we might get a very different picture. Fred is a very strong person even though he appeared to be broken down, and this will help him and Kathleen as they conquer their fears and banish the spirit for good.

Some people have posted on web chat sites that they thought Fred was "crazy" for opening his home and his problem to the public through appearing on Dead Tenants. I say he he is in fact a very brave man to be able to talk honestly about his fears into a camera and into many thousands of living rooms. It is this kind of courage that even a bad spirit will have a hard time with.

About the crucifix... ( UPDATE: TwiZtidX, I know you weren't offended... many thanks)

I don't want anyone to think that I criticized it as a symbol. It was this particular cross that I received a bad impression from, that it had been used in an improper way some time in its history. I doubt that Kathleen destroyed it because it is a family heirloom--but she did take it down and put a cheerful subsitute in its place. I haven't had a chance to review the episode for a closer look at the crucifix's details, but I imagine there are as many variations on crucifixes as there are craftspeople who make them.

Also, of course there are people claiming that we psychics on Dead Tenants are fake. This is only natural. All I can say to this is, we might all tell you that at times in our lives as psychics it would be easier for us if it were not real. It's a "gift" you can't return to the store even when you don't like it! But as a Dead Tenants cast member I can tell you that there is no trickery, with the exceptions of course being sound effects put on the voices sometimes. You couldn't see it clearly because of the camera angle, for example, but that clipboard was sitting securely all alone, and really did slide off and fall to the floor "all by itself." Paranormal activity? Maybe. Earthquake? No. String pulled by a production assistant? No. So far the maybe's are winning.

If I get any updates about Fred and his family I'll let everyone know.

In the meantime, I invite everyone to join in the Dead Tenants discussion forum at TLC's website, http://community.discovery.com/groupee/forums/a/cfrm/f/4481926908 , where you can share your views about the show, its cases, and your own paranormal experiences.

A Magical Turkish Tradition: Coffee

2005-11-07T04:54:00.000-08:00

The realm of the mystical has always been an accepted part of everyday life in Turkey. Here in America as in many parts of the world, people have a special mystical ritual for their mornings. They stagger from bed, half asleep, and wander to the kitchen to make a magic beverage that breathes the first life into their day. Yes of course I’m talking about coffee.

Turkish coffee is one of the most famous traditions of my country. It’s thick, strong, aromatic and like my people, it’s very sweet! (well mostly) Here’s how you make it, you’ll see it’s very different from western style coffees.

Use medium-roast coffee that's ground finer than espresso, as fine as you can make it. If you have a coffee mill you can probably do this at home, or your coffee store can probably grind the beans Turkish style.

You’ll need a small stovetop pitcher like the kind shown here (the real thing is called an ibrik) . Put 1 tsp of the ground coffee and 1 tsp of sugar to every 2 oz of water. Bring the mixture to a boil. As the rich light brown foam rises to the top, just before it boils over, pour the foam. To be extra traditional, repeat this twice for a total of three boilings. (You may want to stir it just a little so the coffee doesn’t get cooked to the bottom.)

Serve it in small cups, like espresso cups, it’s very strong!! When you sip it the grounds will sink to the bottom. Don’t stir it; traditionally there is magic in these coffee grounds and this is where some eastern seers read the future. So you see, the magic is not just in the aroma. It’s very different from western style where the physical coffee gets filtered away. In fact, in another reversal from the western way, in Turkey it’s traditional for the head of the household or the most important guest to be served the “dregs” from the bottom of the ibrik—because that’s where the strongest brew is found, and the most mystical power.

Or is it just caffeine?

The Last Resort: This Week's "Dead Tenants" on TLC

2005-11-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

Imagine a beautiful family... a young couple with 3 pretty children... a great house in a lovely garden... and behind this peaceful picture a life which is threatened by paranormal activities night and day. Imagine that happy young couple sharing their bed with a malevolent ghost. This was the story of Fred and Kathleen, whose marriage was being eroded by a spirit that started targeting Fred almost as soon as they moved into their dream house. Fred and Kathleen were the host family of this week’s “Dead Tenants” on TLC, and as is our practice the PRS team spent a long weekend with them, beginning on Friday night and lasting long into Sunday night. And a startling weekend it was.

Fred’s story is remarkable in many ways. He never had this kind of problem in his life until he and his family moved into this house. So we can say that paranormal activity or the ghosts are more attached to this location and did not come with him from somewhere else. But on the other hand I really believe that Fred has a psychic power even though he is not aware of it. The entity-ghost-spirit preferred to show the manifestations to him. In a way he was chosen because he was the most available conduit. And his natural reaction of fear opened the door for the entity or entities to step through.

Although because of the limitations of Dead Tenants’ hour-long format we are sometimes forced to limit our coverage to a single spirit, this house, like many other haunted places, seemed to have multiple ghosts. When I started my walk-through I immediately picked up the death of a young child. The misery and depression related with the loss of a child was everywhere. And later in the basement I started to see the image of a tired-looking old man. He gave me the feeling that he didn’t like our presence there at all. He felt as if he was being invaded.

One of the most important moments of this investigation was a poltergeist activity. Just after we went to our beds in the basement a clipboard moved by itself and dropped on the floor. It was filmed by our cameras. That specific place is where Kathleen always used to experience the child ghost. Ghost energy tried to give us a signal moving the clipboard. What was it trying to tell us? To get out? To listen and acknolwedge it? Strangely when I was downstairs I started to see hands, and hands were banging the walls. Personally I didn’t feel attacked by any negative entity but later when we were in the kid’s bedroom suddenly I saw the old man getting very angry with Jane and he tried to choke her.

But it was not the kids’ bedroom that was the focus of the malevolent spirit, but the parents’. Fred had his visions in many different places of the house. But the most harsh experiences happened to him in his own bed. Fred and Kathleen were sharing their bed with this negative energy every night. As I said on the show it wasn’t a bedroom, it was a kind of grave to me as I got very negative impressions in the master bedroom. The target was their marriage, their family. The negativity was trying to separate them using Fred. That’s why most of the things happened in the master bedroom. What better place to come between a couple. Fred said that when he would be attacked in his sleep he would be awake but unable to move or scream. Also sometimes the experience would start with a humming sound in his ears. What he describes is very close to sleep paralysis.

Fred also heard fists pounding, and this is another thing I experienced in the basement. You will remember there was another “hot spot” in the basement where they had the water pump. Most of the negative energy was getting fed by that water. As I stated in the show water is a perfect spiritual conductor and carrier. That’s why especially in my country, Turkey, some psychics read the past and the future in a bowl of water. And in Fred’s home that water entrance was an open door to the spirits.

Well, we can’t live without water in our homes. But there is another element that attracts negative energy that we should try hard to banish: Fear. We attract what we fear. Fear is the food, drink and happiness of negative entities. As long as you keep fear in your mind or in your soul, what you are afraid of can easily find you. As you may have detected, by the time PRS was called to that house, Fred had been living in fear for a very long time, and was growing more and more defenseless in a terrible cycle of attacks and weakened reaction. He feared for himself, for his family, and he feared losing his family as well--making the marriage bed the perfect place to focus the attacks. FDR’s famous statement “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” can be LITERALLY true.

It is not Fred’s fault that we live in a society where our first reaction to this kind of thing is frequently to attack ourselves: “Am I crazy?” “What’s the matter with me?” And when we attack ourselves we send the signal that it is OK for others, people and things, to attack us too. I believe that Fred—as all of us do—has the strength to conquer these fears and close the door to his tormentors. And once he embraces this fact he will be free.

Because he is luckier than he thinks. Yes Fred is lucky. You see, he has friends, home, and a loving family. The very things the spirits are trying to rob from him, are the reasons they must fail.

Thoughts on the latest DEAD TENANTS on TLC : The Unknown Soldier

2005-10-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

A SCEPTIC BECOMES A BELIEVER

Hi everybody, ghost hunters or ghost lovers (or ghosts!!) Last Thursday I had a wonderful time watching the 3rd episode of DEAD TENANTS at home. I wasn’t in this one and had no idea about the story until I saw it on the screen. It was a very emotional and interesting experience even though I wasn’t there.

The McDonough family’s 200-year-old house was haunted by several ghosts. Each of the ghosts reflected their memories sometimes as sounds inside of the house, or by moving objects like the clock on the wall of the porch, and other times by showing themselves to the current owners of the place and their visitors. Jane and Noelle picked up the presence of a young woman named Jenny who showed a particular interest in watching women do their hair and makeup (I wonder what she thinks of modern styles?) And the ghost of the wife of a former owner was also detected, along with a resident of the place when it was used as a boarding house, who may have been a gangster. But the primary spirit was the title character, a Civil War soldier. As you will see in various episodes of DEAD TENANTS on TLC, some places have a particular attraction for ghosts, and where there is one spirit present there can be several others also.

PRS is always open to working with sceptics and there was a sceptic in this episode too. In fact I have to say he used to be a sceptic, because after having all the spiritual sensations in and out of his body during the seance he changed his point of view, as they say in Turkey, “he did a 180.” Spiritual seances are important because in many cases sceptics start to experience ghost activity, or some spirits single them out to convey a message to the living ones. In a way sceptics can be good psychics too.

That’s what happened in this episode. The sceptic and a family friend, Mark, were contacted by the ghosts in a very unexpected way. During the seance they experienced the pain and fever of the dying soldier. Mark is a former Marine and combat veteran of Viet Nam, which could be one of the reasons the spirit reached out (and reached through) him, because of their shared bond of soldierhood. Without a doubt this changed their lives. The sceptic’s eyes are now open to a different dimension. And Mark, who is a fearless man who faced death many times, has been awakened to a new spirtuality and found a new focus for his life. Sometimes the bravest thing a person can do is realize there is something larger that can’t be seen every day.

Deryl's scientific equipment didn't turn up anything substantial, you will remember he had hours of recording without any EVP's. But in this case the sceptics themselves offered some of the best evidence of all: they changed their minds. And we all know that changing a person's mind can be a lot harder to do than to see a ghost!

The Spirit in the Basement: What You Didn't See on Dead Tenants on TLC Last Week

2005-10-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Behind The Lindenmeier Case

The general concept of The Learning Channel's DEAD TENANTS is to get to the root of a haunting in the course of 3 days. As you know the PRS team spends a weekend together with each family at their house. We go there without having any information about the case itself and we are not allowed to ask questions about it to the family members. And step by step we find out the real reasons of the haunting.

The Lindenmeier house was occupied by several ghosts. When I first got there I had to wait a couple of hours outside in the back yard as I wasn’t allowed to go into the house until the rest of the PRS team had arrived and production was ready to begin. While I was sitting by the pool and looking around I suddenly saw the first ghost, which was the teenage boy, was looking at me from one of the bedroom windows. Most of the time ghosts decide which psychic to contact. And this was what happened to me with the young boy. I saw him very clearly in front of my eyes, as if he was a real person. His long dark hair done in ‘70s fashion, his very pale skin, big dark eyes were the first aspect that he showed me. He looked calm but unhappy.

We were at the begining of the investigation and I said: “Ok, I guess we are starting early... he wants to give me a message.”

Ghosts are frequently tied to living people. In fact they need living energy to express themselves in our dimension. Later I sensed the boy’s existence in the same bedroom very heavily. When I was lying down in the bed, as you saw in the show, he came and touched my hand. And remember that the Lindenmeier house is a nonsmoking place... When I was still in that room I started to experience a very heavy smell as if somebody was smoking next to me. Larry Lindenmeier came and I started to explain to him what I was seeing, that the ghost was there and trying to communicate with us.The young boy’s spirit was floating around in the room, and in the moment I pointed out that he was getting closer to the door, the door opened by itself! You can see this happen in the show-- Mr. Lindenmeier, a sceptic, was quite surprised to say the least.

Larry Lindenmeier owns a very big collection of board games, old toys, playing cards and some other collectibles. He doesn’t know how many pieces he has but it has be hundreds. Like most collectibles, most of the pieces of his collection are used, second-third hand toys or games. Old and used objects can carry the energy of their ex-owners. Objects carry this energy and keep it alive. When you get a used object you also get the memories related to its former owners. Imagine hundreds of toys and collectibles all around, and each piece is coming from another life experience. Especially playing cards. How do you play with them? With your hands... and you leave on them your spiritual finger prints. And games, cards... more than just fun surrounds them. They can carry the tensions, the competitions, the hunger for money and gambling, the disappointments. Many peeople have lost their homes because of simple deck of cards. A house full of collectibles, like this one we visited in Dead Tenants, creates a very suitable environment for ghost activity to grow.

Remember at the end of the investigation water sprang from the ceiling? There was not enough time to show it, but they checked the pipes and the air conditioning and couldn’t find any mundane reason for it. Because there was another reason... water and spirit energy are always very much connected. Water is a perfect conductor to communicate with the spirits. That’s why some mediums see the past and the future in a bowl of water. The Lindenmeier house was under a very heavy blanket of ghost activity. After our investigations and seance the conditions changed there. Some of the ghost knew that they weren’t allowed there anymore. And the mysterious water leak was a response, a reaction, a farewell from the invisible tenants of the house—and perhaps a “parting shot” by the one of them, as the lady of the house observed. What a mess!

Farah's Tarot

2005-10-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Thanks for visiting my Predictions site. Here you'll find my own detailed readings on celebrities, entertainment scandal, current events, Dead Tenants news and all kinds of things. Let's see what the cards have to say--(but my cards don't want to talk religion and politics!) I will also post some tips for a happy home and a more rewarding and balanced spiritual life. And maybe some of my favorite Turkish recipes too!

I'll be doing a spread to inaugurate this site soon so please check back, and please leave your comments, questions and views. It's always a pleasure to hear from everyone.

FARAH