In the first half, artist Shannon Taggart joined George Knapp to discuss her longstanding interest in Spiritualism, and how practices of the séance room influenced a wide array of fields. Spiritualism, which took off in the 19th century, is based on the belief that deceased spirits can communicate with the living. It's been a force in modern culture, though written out or hidden from many histories. Spiritualism was connected with the early women's rights and the suffragette movement, she pointed out, and the first modern abstract art was created by women in a trance state. "The scientist who invented forensic science got the idea from investigating séance rooms," Taggart added. The Spiritualism movement also coincided with the development of photography, and in the beginning, many people were curious whether they could photograph ghosts and the unseen.
Taggart spoke about some of the unusual images she's captured of mediums, odd phenomena, and orbs. Though she started as a straightforward photojournalist documenting the Spiritualist community Lily Dale some 20 years ago, she began experimenting with techniques such as long exposures when photographing mediums in their trance state (view related photos). The process of mediumship involves blurring the line of self and other, she noted, and she's known a number of healers and physical mediums who have suffered from health problems that may be an occupational hazard of their work. For more, check out the Spiritualism Symposium, an online lecture series Taggart is producing that begins March 31st.
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Author and UFO researcher Kathleen Marden is the niece of famed alien abductees Betty and Barney Hill. In the latter half, she talked about growing up in a family of experiencers and the paranormal occurrences that came with that, as well as her multi-year communication experiment in search of why ETs are visiting our planet. Both Marden and her mother underwent hypnosis sessions in the 1970s and learned they'd been taken aboard spaceships and seen a UFO land on her grandparents' farm. She later learned in her communications with aliens that the abductions initially started off as random opportunities, but once someone had been abducted, they became interested in that person's bloodline and would seek out other family members for their intergenerational genetic testing. Marden said she could recall being visited in her bedroom by shadowy hooded figures as a child.
She described a curious episode when she brought her college boyfriend back for a visit to her family home, and while laying in bed, he witnessed clothes hangers suddenly fly out of the closet and land on him. In the course of her research, Marden had typically avoided UFO and alien channelers and communicators, but starting in 2008, she decided to join a covert experiment featuring a man originally from the UK, who channeled scientific information from a Grey ET. At the monthly group meetings, a "Council of 8" revealed themselves via channeling as "5th and 6th-dimensional entities," and explained that they benevolently oversee our quadrant of the galaxy, she recounted. The council included Arcturians, a Blue Avian, an Insectoid Mantis type ET, and eventually a "9th Dimensional," a leader who no longer needs a physical body. As the group went on, Marden discovered she could receive ET telepathic communications herself.
KNAPP'S NEWS:
George Knapp shares recent items of interest, including articles about how 2022 is the year of UFOs on Capitol Hill, and the planet Mercury may contain an abundance of diamonds:
- Mercury Could Be Littered With Diamonds
- 2022 Is The Year Of UFOs On Capitol Hill, As Six Reports And Briefings Are Due This Year
- Former CIA specialist reveals new secrets of Area 51, including real name
- How to Leave Your Photos to Someone When You Die
- Is Consciousness Everywhere?
- Heatwaves at both of Earth’s poles alarm climate scientists