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There is a dark, dank, insidiously foreboding side to the paranormal that is not discussed anywhere for good reason. This life threatening aspect of the dystopian paranormal reality is far more dangerous than any theoretical demon, entity, ghost or spirit one could ever imagine. This terrifying side of this crazy field, possesses the ability to stop you dead in your tracks, where the only place before you might be a poorly lit wet alley on a cold winter night, or a pine box the rests six feet beneath the earth.
Before deciding to embark upon a professional career in parapsychology or simply doing paranormal research with friends, you should be aware of what the toxic fallout from such might be if your efforts attract strong media interest. What you are about to read is only the tip of a very large iceberg that is never discussed because of embarrassment and humiliation. But at my age, I am well beyond that point in my life now, so it doesn’t really matter. I will start with the most recent incident and work backwards in time to where it all began.
Several weeks ago, a friend from the mid-1970′s reappeared to allegedly get reacquainted. I knew John, who came from a very wealthy Beverly Hills family when UCLA’s old parapsychology lab was up and running. John is now a multi-millionaire property owner in his own right who suddenly wants to become a movie writer/producer any way he can.
After several lunches and a dinner where I met his wife and children, the real reason for John’s sudden appearance was disclosed. This old “friend”, asked me to sign away my life rights regarding my book, website, patents, etc. for zero dollars, and then actually had the nerve to ask me to help him promote the movies he’s going to make about my life’s work, where I wouldn’t see a penny off the back-end, let alone the front.
He said “If you sign the life rights agreement in front of you, at least your name will be out there supporting what you’ve done and what I’ve made, If not, I’ll just claim that it was all my research and the world will never even know that you did the investigations on these cases that led to these movies.” Wow, and this from a friend, or as some might call him, a sociopathic opportunist, who has total disdain for everyone and everything that isn’t at or above his level of financial success. A flowering example of humanity at its worst. I wonder who put this bug into his head? I have my suspicions about this.
The reason behind John’s insane offer was that he assumes that all of my life’s work is now in the public domain, where anyone can make use of it. Apparently, this poor excuse for a friend or even a human, perceives copyright law and public domain law quite differently than the rest of the legal and entertainment world does.
John erroneously claims that because I’ve been doing so many media appearances over the last four and-a-half decades discussing my work, that it’s rendered everything I own into the public domain, and thus free for anyone to use, especially him. He argues that all the stories contained in my book and on this website, are free for anyone to use in any way they please without compensation and/or credit to me.
The only reason he wanted my life rights signed over to him, was to use my name, background and experience to help promote the films he’s going to make, but I wouldn’t have made a dime off any of that, for all monies I have received would belong to John. This sounds like someone in the industry misinformed John about how such intellectual property laws really work, and that in order for him to make many films based on my life’s work, he’d have to trick me into signing a life rights agreement for no money. Then, and only then, could a production company/studio or distributor give him a contract for a multi-picture deal.
After hearing all this from him the other day I simply said; “Why don’t you just take out a gun shoot me between the eyes right now, it’s much easier?”
You cannot imagine how it felt for an acquaintance to reappear after almost 40 years and then threaten to destroy my life and prevent me from earning a living from it. When I asked him how I was supposed to survive if he steals all my work, his immediate response was; “hey, you’ve got social security, don’t you”, which he kept saying over and over again, “I’m offering you something really great here, why not take advantage of it?” John even bragged about what he intends to do to me right in front of his wife and children I had just met, as if to demonstrate how powerful and detached he is. What kind of monster is this, when in his next breath he asks if I’d like to occasionally get together over lunch or for a barbecue at his massive Hollywood Hills estate? This is a true sociopath with a messianic complex, where because of his extreme wealth that he was born into and maintains, he figures that he can do anything he wants and there’s nothing I can do about it because I’m not rich and cannot afford good attorneys to fight him.
But wait, there’s more.
The last thing John mentioned before I walked out on our lunch meeting of last Wednesday when all this was revealed, was that if I didn’t sign away my life rights for nothing, he would make sure that the people who own my building were made aware of what kind of work I do and what my background is in terms of the paranormal, for he knew exactly how they might react to such knowledge being old and very closed-minded; they’d surely try to evict me if for no other reason than fear, even though such might not be a legally valid cause.
OMG, a direct threat.
My next words to John were; “Do you know what the words “extortion” and “blackmail” mean?” “Those are criminal offenses, not civil ones.” He had now crossed the line between sociopath and criminal.
John just looked into my face without saying a word or budging.
Only time will tell what becomes of this miscreant’s threats, as to whether he actually starts producing out movies based upon my work with his name on them. But I have a sneaking suspicion that his movie deals are in some way contingent of having me under contract, as John has no background in doing such research.
If and when I learn of John’s criminal actions, I will make sure that everyone online and in the industry knows precisely who he is and what he’s done. I’ve already told him in no uncertain terms what I will do if he starts stealing my life’s work to profit from while leaving me in the dust.
Think this first story is just a little upsetting? Wait until you read what follows.
Several years ago, a close friend and colleague, also a parapsychologist, a professor at an east coast university, suddenly found himself unemployed when new administrators took over the facility, reviewing the records of all those working/teaching there. They eventually came across my colleague’s background in parapsychology, and even though he was tenured and never had a single complaint filed against him, they terminated his job of more than twenty years. They told him that they do not believe in the paranormal, and that his very presence at the university was in insult to academia and their institution, especially as such research is nothing other than the devil’s own handiwork (oh please, not this nonsense again?).
Think that this type of reaction is odd or uncommon? Think again.
Several years earlier, I personally ran into a situation that bared a striking resemblance to what you just read. Back in 2011, several of my associates and I submitted our business plan, which dealt with high-tech instrumentation not in any way related to parapsychology, to a European-based, multi-national corporation that specializes in such technology. After the company’s head of development read our plan and was very impressed by it, he immediately forwarded it with his favorable comments to the head of the company. His suggestion was for the company to immediately implement the development of three of our five patented devices. In today’s tech market, one cannot ask for more than that.
After about six months, we were concerned as to why we never heard back from this company. We made some initial inquiries, but never received a reply. After three more months. we again contacted them in search of answers.
I was about to have a direct encounter with what much of the real world, especially the financial one, thinks of people who spend too much time dabbling in, and become publicly linked to anything paranormal, regardless of how scientific their work is or what their academic credentials are. I was about to get a lesson in what cognitive dissonance, ignorance, dogma and religious zealotry can do to even the most educated and successful people. A new form of prejudice, if you will.
Several weeks later I was able to actually speak with the head of this company, and his reaction to our plan was unlike anything I had ever heard before from anyone who had read it. This man told me that our plan showed no evidence whatsoever that any real clinical development work had even been done at all, and that our patents were literally indecipherable. What? What was this man talking about?
Over time, we had heard different comments regarding our business plan, but nothing on the level of what this man had just said to me. It was then quite obvious that this individual was blatantly lying, as he had not read one word of our business plan or of our patents.
My next words to this man on the phone were. “All right, stop lying and just tell me the truth here, as it’s obvious you haven’t read one word of our plan or patents”. There was a brief moment of silence where I thought that the man on the other end of the line had simply hung up, but I was wrong. Then finally came the truth, or at least the truth as he saw it.
“You want the truth, I’ll tell you the truth. I looked you up online and found out why no one has ever invested any money into what you’re doing”. “Your ghosts, UFO’s, aliens, ESP, it’s all bullshit, and so is your plan and patents”. “After learning who and what you really are, I immediately threw your business plan and patents into the garbage, as they’re as real as the paranormal and you are.” “You’re just another con-artist and snake oil salesman.” That was followed by the man immediately hanging up on me. Shortly thereafter, the VP of product development, the one who had initially read our plan and patents and wrote the glowing commentary, suddenly found himself unemployed, as he was supposed to do the kind of due diligence that the head of the company did, which he failed to do.
Well, at least the head of this company finally spoke the truth?
To expose this hideous element to the light of day, we must first journey back some forty years in time to when I finished my education. It was an exciting moment in my life, where I sent out over one hundred applications for employment for assistant professor positions all over the world, portending a wonderful future of research and teaching in the field I was formally educated in (not parapsychology).
As this was long before the advent of the personal computer and the internet, all such applications were done by ordinary mail, what is now referred to as “snail mail”, due to how long it took conventional mail to reach its intended destination. I had the greatest hope that I would find employment at any one of several universities or research facilities around the world. What I didn’t expect, was for the world to come crashing down around me like a massive earthquake.
As weeks and then months went by, I was disappointed by the utter lack of response to my employment applications. I assumed that my applications were simply rejected and that the lack of response was their way of saying no. For the most part, I was correct, but the limited reactions to my queries were even stranger than I could have ever imagined. The few places that did respond were shocked that I even had the nerve to contact them for job. What?
Apparently, my reputation and background in parapsychology were already well established by the mid-’70′s, even without computers and social media. Much of this is discussed in detail within Legacy’s End, elsewhere on this site, and pretty much helped seal my fate when it came to immediate employment based on my education.
The very notion of hiring someone who’s worked in a fringe science and obtained substantial media publicity for it might create a hostile work environment, where they might distract, frighten or even intimidate other employees if ever speaking about such work. I’ve been looked upon as a wave-maker, not a cog in a wheel, as in innovator and free-thinker, as one who challenges the norm in search of scientific progress and technological evolution, opposed to a robot who shows up every weekday to work and leaves everyday only after completing his work. Apparently, I am not what good employees are made of.
Most of what I’ve discussed here is only the tip of a very large iceberg, because the real working world shuns those who dare enter and remain within the wild and crazy paranormal landscape.
To drive home a point, I will close with a very guarded and cryptic account regarding what happened to several, highly educated scientists, who spent considerable time doing funded, clinical, parapsychological research for the government.
Once the program ended and their contracts had expired, these two gentleman suddenly found themselves out of job for the first time in their adult life, where even their multiple doctorate’s in various scientific disciplines and superb employment history was insufficient for gain further work. They were essentially blacklisted by science and expelled from the real-world workforce because they dared to do formal, laboratory based, parapsychological research.
Is there an echo in here, or is this deja vu?