by Julie Rieger
Me: I know, and that’s okay. You don’t have to.
Him: Well, I know some people do; I just don’t.
Me: Really, it’s okay. I know this. The beauty of being you is you get to choose. It’s your truth.
The conversation continues as he catches me up about his wife and kids. Fifteen minutes go by. Then . . .
Him: (inquisitive look on his face) Okay, so show me.
Me: (little smirk on my face; I know exactly what he wants to see) Show you what?
Him: Your pictures.
I grab my iPad and first show him The Pirate.
Him: Ah, Jules, that looks like a Rorschach test.
I should have known better. Needed to up my game. So I clicked on Mr. Black Eye.
Me: How about his one?
Him: Oh, I see that. He looks like a ghost for sure. But I still don’t believe in ghosts.
Me: That’s okay. Like I said, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Your belief system, or your truth, doesn’t align with the existence of ghosts. Mine didn’t, either. So I understand.
Him: Let me see another one.
And so it went.
It really didn’t matter that he didn’t believe. We both walked away unscathed because we didn’t try to dismantle each other’s belief system. There isn’t a photograph that could ever convince him of the existence of ghosts, just as there is no argument that could convince me that the physical world is all there is.
Let me repeat that: There is no argument that could convince me that the physical world is all there is.
So here’s my truth: I see ghosts in my photographs. I know they’re ghosts. I also know I’ve spent thousands of hours examining these photographs, and frankly, they are not what I thought ghosts were supposed to look like, either.
I hope you see what I see. It’s magical for me. But I understand if they raise more questions or are simply unimpressive to you. They are here for you to decide.
Because I anticipate and welcome skepticism, I want to provide you with the original photos so you can see what I saw at first, and photos with pointers and descriptors after they’ve been highlighted with filters. (More on filters below.) These pics are in black and white, but you can go to www.julierieger.com to see them in their full-color glory.
Here are eight of my favorites:
This one started it all. I only saw the bird stain at first. Brenda opened my eyes to the lady on the left.
This guy was hiding in a plume of sage smoke. He showed up about twice the size of a human head. I had to flip to negative mode to see his features. (More on what this means below.) I think he had a rough go while being a human.
I love Neil Diamond—and so did my mom—so I was giddy to go to his concert under the big half-shell dome of the Hollywood Bowl. I didn’t think much of the photos I took until a few months later, when a friend liked one that I’d posted earlier on Facebook. I looked more carefully at the shot and there it was: someone or something in the corner of the stage that looks like a stagehand. I’m 100 percent positive that it was not there when I snapped the pic. How had I missed that? Once I adjusted the color scheme on the image I had a “holy shit” moment: The image did not change—this “person” was all one shade, which is a surefire sign of a ghost. I was positively delighted when I discovered this guy hanging out on the stage at the Hollywood Bowl.
You just look at her and feel her sadness. Why this Sad Lady ghost came to see me that night, I honestly do not know for sure. What I can tell you is that she’s a reminder to live a happy life.
Finding Kingfrog in this photo was a bit of an accident. I was searching through sage smoke when I saw him and his flashlight eyes next to the sage pot. His eyes are mesmerizing. Does he belong to the illustrious group that includes fairies and elves? Maybe.
Here is my peeping gray alien. On my website you’ll notice that he actually is gray. I know that he’s not terribly easy to see at first, but damn, when you do see him, he looks like every alien from every alien movie or graphic novel.
I originally called C32 “Little Fucker” because I drove myself nuts trying to figure out what C32 meant. Out of all my ghost photographs, C32 is the most mysterious. It’s also no taller than six or seven inches. I guess that makes it my mini and mysterious alien or ghost alien!
This guy looks like he belongs in a Popeye comic strip. He is one of countless different “heads” that poked out of a plume of smoke. I’d bet his head is roughly the size of a small dog. It’s actually green in the original full-color photo on my website.
APPENDIX THREE
How to Catch a Ghost: Tips and Tricks
Here are some tricks of the trade to get you started if you’re interested in pursuing ghost photography on your own.
In terms of equipment, I simply used my iPhone camera. I tried using a Samsung camera (not the phone camera) and all I got were orbs—little balls of light. If you’re using an iPhone, turn off the HDR function, as it layers three pictures into one, which complicates and clutters your ghost photography. I’ve never used an Android phone, but give it a whirl; it might do the trick.
There are three areas I want to cover:
Naked photographs
Filtered photographs
“Smoke ’em out” photographs (as described in previous chapters)
ABOUT CELL PHONE APPS
I use an app called PicShop that allows me to view my photographs through various filters. Each filter is like a lens that brings out depth and dimension that otherwise might not be apparent with the naked eye. Think of it this way: When you look at a bundle of clouds with your naked eye, you’ll see a lot of white fluff in a sea of blue. Put on your sunglasses, however, and you’ll suddenly see definition in the clouds: their outlines and various contours that actually differentiate each cloud from the other. You haven’t modified the clouds; you’ve simply modified your vision in a way that lets you see them with more intensity and clarity.
Well, that’s exactly what PicShop lets me—and you—do with photographs. And it’s through this process that I was able to start discerning ghosts. So when I use the term “naked,” I’m referring to my first “raw” photographs that haven’t been filtered through PicShop.
GETTING STARTED
When hunting for ghosts, always say a prayer of protection before you snap a single picture. As I’ve said throughout this book, protect your space and know the most important rule of all: You are in charge of spirits that are not having a human experience. Don’t let them scare you.
NAKED PHOTOGRAPHS
1. After you’ve taken your photographs, check every inch of the landscape of your shot to see if there is anything that shouldn’t be there—or wasn’t there when you took the shot.
2. Spirits often present themselves in light or in forms within light, so pay attention to this. (See Kingfrog in appendix two for an example.) When I first saw ghosts in my photos, I also saw colors that didn’t belong in them, specifically purple and green. Fantasticals can present themselves in either one of these colors.
3. Ghosts often show up in mirrors, glass, or windows. You may find something peeking back at you.
4. Look for outlines in your photographs. This can be tough if you don’t know what you’re looking for, but persevere. Outlines are usually a shade darker or lighter than the background in which they appear. They can look like a paint-by-numbers drawing (before it’s painted, of course).
5. If you question anything you see, zoom in—always zoom. Zooming is your friend.
Don’t worry if you can’t find any naked ghosts. We live in a world where we have the most powerful computing devices in the palm of our hand with applications for almost anything you can imagine. Photo apps like PicShop can help you find ghosts that are hiding in plain sight. Which brings us to our next step:
FILTERED PHOTOGRAPHS
1. Upload your photo to PicShop and play around. Put your photo through various filters to look for shapes of fantasticals or spirits. Try the blac
k-and-white function, then try different colored filters. Look carefully at each photo before moving on to a different filter. You can undo changes to get back to the original quite easily.
2. Take it a step further by using the “negative” filter. This is my favorite; no ghost can hide from the “negative” space. Depending on how light or dark your photo is, you may need an extra step of layering with the “spy” filter after you use the negative filter, which will give you additional contrast.
Once I find the ghosts, I sometimes change the colors after the “spy” stage, since some can be crisper than others. Just play around.
SMOKE ’EM OUT
I accidently found ghosts by smoking them out when I thought I’d opened a ghost portal at our house (but ultimately didn’t). I used sage smoke in an attempt to shoo them away, but the joke was on me, because it only made them more visible.
Should you choose to go down this path, please be careful, since you’ll literally be playing with fire, and this can be incredibly dangerous. Take care of yourself, others, and your property. Always completely extinguish your sage or palo santo after your photo session. Use water to do this—you can’t be too careful.
What you’ll need: sage stick, heat-resistant pot or bowl (I prefer heavy metal or even enamel), lighter, and camera. And try to do this outside or everything in your home will smell like smoke.
1. Break apart your sage stick and place a handful in your bowl (depending upon size of bowl; use your good judgment).
2. Light the sage closest to the bottom of your burning pot or bowl. You may need a utility lighter (with a long wand). Palo santo is a much friendlier indoor tool and the smell is divine. Follow the same instructions as you do with sage, sans the pot.
3. There will likely be flames for a minute or so. I like to take photos of the flames to see the images.
4. Once the flames are out, the smoke will begin to billow from your pot. Start snapping.
5. Sometimes I can take upward of a hundred photos in one session, so it takes me a long time to look at each one and decide which group I’d like to put through the photo app filter.
6. In addition to photo app filters, there are a few other filters I find handy for this type of ghost photo hunt.
a) Under the “Edits” section of PicShop: brightness helps to either take it down or crank it up.
b) Play with other filters in PicShop: “high color” shines a light on some ghosts; “red pop” or “dark pop” can help identify a ghost, too; “emboss” is interesting, as it gives your photo another dimension where you can see shapes.
c) Always use the “negative” filter in addition to other filters. It’s one of the most basic ways to see contrast in an image.
You may not always find a ghost, or you may not always see what someone else does. If you struggle with that, you can always e-mail me a photo or two and I’ll try to uncover what may be hiding in your photo. Just submit your pics at www.julierieger.com.
APPENDIX FOUR
Daily Rituals and Spiritual Self-Care
Every culture has rituals. They connect us to our traditions, our sense of self, and more important, to a higher source. Some of us go to church, mosque, or temple for this. Others shy away from any organized form of ritual, seeking alternative ways to connect to something greater than themselves—or not. Either way, rituals are an inescapable part of life.
My daily spiritual rituals are fundamental for me. They’re all about grounding myself and connecting to a higher source by moving and shifting energy around to prepare myself for the day ahead. That involves using visualization to move positive energy into my body, moving stale or negative energy out. Sometimes that energy I’m moving out comes from what happened the previous day—an interaction, emotion, or false idea about myself or others that might cause stress or anxiety. Other times, it’s emotional stuff that’s been sitting inside me for thirty years.
In other words, my daily ritual is a form of perpetual spiritual cleansing. Without it, I get tripped up by whatever triggers me: an asshole at work or an emotional fastball out of left field. This grounding ritual is a variation of what Ima taught me, only instead of connecting me to the Other Side, it connects me to myself and to the Earth. In so doing, I spiritually align myself so I stay centered and act with grace and kindness throughout the day. You could simply say that it’s a way to connect body and spirit. Without this connection, we’re all a little like the title character in Doctor Strange when his astral self leaves his body. We get disconnected from self, which cultivates dis-ease. (And too much dis-ease can lead to disease—just sayin’.) I call my daily ritual the practice of grounding and allowing.
VISUALIZATION
Most of us are familiar with the power of visualization. It’s a meditative process that uses mental imagery to promote change in our lives. Some studies even suggest that physiologically we create neural pathways in our brains when we visualize things, as if we’d actually physically performed or experienced the action. (This explains, for example, why high-performing athletes use visualization on a regular basis.)
Visualization, in short, is a key part of my grounding ritual. Here’s how I do it:
Protecting
Every morning I sit in a chair or sofa with both feet firmly planted on the ground. The contact with my feet to the ground is important, because my feet chakras need to be connected to the Earth, which will later be part of my grounding process. I get quiet and move into a trancelike guided meditation, starting first with Brenda’s prayer of protection.
Grounding
Still quiet and with both feet on the ground, I close my eyes and visualize attaching a grounding cord to the back of my first chakra. Then I visualize sending this grounding cord down through all the rock and sediment under my feet, all the way to the center of the Earth. In my mind, it looks like a molten liquid concoction of yellows and reds, all swirling around and through one another. Once my cord hits this molten liquid, I visualize it being secured there.
This image is like having the security of an insurance policy: It’s a strong visual prompt that I can summon throughout the day to stay grounded whenever anything throws me off: a person, an event, whatever it might be. It’s like an anchor connected to the stable core of the Earth, because every day I go out into the world, and the world is full of fuckers and fastballs. Who doesn’t need the extra protection? Of course, you can use whatever image you want: a cord, an anchor, a surfboard, an industrial chairlift pulley, a swizzle stick—you pick.
Visualizing Golden Light
Once my grounding cord is intact, I now visualize golden light coming in through my seventh chakra, at the crown of my head. (See the list in appendix five, “The Crystal Kingdom,” for a brief overview of chakras.) You can call this the Golden Light of God or the Golden Light of the Cosmic Muffin Top or whatever strikes your fancy. What’s important is to visualize this golden light coming in through the crown of your head and traveling through your body as it clears out any negative or stuck energy from all of your organs and chakras. Slowly let everything turn gold within, visualizing that golden light going through your head and into your brain, eyes, nose, mouth, throat, shoulders, chest, and heart . . . all the way to the tips of your fingers and toes. Everything turns gold, including your skin (because don’t forget: your skin is an organ).
Gold, by the way, is the color of illumination, enlightenment, wisdom, and deep insights into the heart and soul. Countless books dive deep into the incredible universe of colors, which are associated with so many important attributes: love, strength, power, serenity, purity—the list goes on. Colors can soothe or irritate; raise or lower blood pressure. I encourage you to explore the world of color on your own.
I have an intimate connection to certain colors that give me information during my rituals. Pink, the color of love, is always an indication that I need to lead with my heart; purple, the color of royalty, is a sign that I’m going to encounter “royals” in my life. For the purpose of thi
s exercise, let’s stick with the glory of gold.
Once you’ve visualized this powerful color traveling throughout your body, you have effectively purified and fortified yourself. This exercise is as essential to me as my daily swims with Homer that set the groundwork for the entire day. And these effective rituals can support you, too, every day of your life.
NIGHTTIME RITUAL
Of course day turns into night, and night brings with it the restorative power of sleep. Since morning and evening are spiritual bookends to my day, I always practice a night ritual. Before I go to bed (dressed in my favorite Kermit-the-Frog-playing-the-banjo sleep shorts and tank top), I light a stick of sacred palo santo wood. Once the smoke begins to billow from the tip of the stick, I walk in a clockwise circle around the bedroom saying this alternative version of Brenda’s prayer of protection:
I bring down a ray of divine light, filled with love and protection. I draw a circle around the energetic body of my family. Into the circle I place the white light of peace, the blue light of healing, the clear red light of energy, and the golden light of God. And I direct that nothing or no one shall come between my family and its circle. So it is. Amen.
I move clockwise because, to recap, moving clockwise brings energy in; moving counterclockwise moves energy out.
While the palo santo is still lit, I pray. I thank God for giving me another day. I thank the angels for protecting me. I thank Jacob for guiding me. I thank my ancestors for watching over me. And I thank my mother and father for giving me life and teaching me unconditional love. Then I snuff out the palo santo in a brass bowl on my nightstand that sits next to a large chunk of double terminated black tourmaline.
Now guess what? When I wake up, I do it all over again.