The Haunting (1963)

Most of us have heard of the 1999 re-make of The Haunting, and even more so what an utter flop it was. So what about the original? Read on.

The Haunting’s tagline, “You may not believe in ghosts but you cannot deny terror”, is surprisingly accurate to my own experience of this film. While I like a good ghostly yarn about headless knights, poltergeists, and scorned lovers back from the grave, I tend to consider anyone that seriously believes it all to be somewhat unhinged. Their hallucinations are obviously stress related or caused by sunspots. That makes sense. This is one of the few films that really sends a shiver down my spine, and I know I’ll be looking up ‘Ghostbusters’ in the phone directory by five in the morning.

As with most haunted house tales, the story is simple, and mostly set up in a fairly gruesome and quick introduction. Hill House was born bad. It is a deranged and leprous mansion miles from any other dwellings in New England. Ever since Hugh Crane had it built over 90 years ago, its history has been riddled with mysterious deaths and incidents. For years it has been left empty, and remains largely the source of gossip and morbid curiosity. Dr John Markway is fascinated by Hill House as a subject for his investigations into the supernatural world. He believes that its turbulent reputation could be proven true, and allow him to record groundbreaking evidence of the existence of ghosts or something more. He convinces the landlady to allow him and a team of researchers to stay in the house for a couple of weeks.

The design of Hill House is as much a part of the success of this film as anything else. It is a very foreboding building from the outside and the sets inside compliment it marvelously. It is grand in every sense and yet full of quirks. One of the most interesting being the concept that it was built with all the door and corridor angles just a few degrees off at every junction, leading to an overall distorted feeling of being lost in the house. Director Robert Wise (The Day The Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Andromeda Strain) uses a number of lingering shots to gradually build up the atmosphere. He makes even the most static image come alive, transforming shadows into hideous figures, pitting your own imagination against yourself.

The team of researchers is an interesting mix of characters designed to be identification figures for the audience. Dr Markway (Richard Johnson) serves to feed our

Many people think that we actually only use about 10% of our mind’s total mind power. 10%. Can you think about what it would be like if you could actually access the 90% that remains dormant? That might produce incredible results, indeed.

Scientists agree that people who exhibit psychic and extra sensory abilities must be able to use these abilities due to somehow using that 90% of the human mind which usually lies idle. Some people appear to have these abilities from birth but others develop their mindpower and start using these latent talents later on in life.

We’re not sure yet how it works, but there is ongoing research into how our own mind power can influence the world we live in.

Studies show that our minds may be able to change the world more than the world can change our minds!

Recently popular films like ‘The Secret’ explain what is called the Law of Attraction; the theory behind the Law of Attraction is that ‘as you think, so shall you be.’ Change the way you see things and use your mind’s innate power, and you can literally attract anything you want into your life, whether it be monetary abundance or other positive plenty.

The law of attraction is all about cause and effect. The principle holds that our thoughts have no less of an effect than our physical actions and that focused thoughts can attract outcomes to us.

Through our subconscious minds, we can use our mindpower to channel the universe’s energy and tap into our natural psychic abilities; the subconscious is a very powerful thing.

The way to build your mindpower is to start communicating between your conscious and subconscious mind. There are a number of methods which you can mean to build this link and develop mindpower through allowing access to the subconscious.

Use affirmations:- Affirmations simply mean that you repeat a positive phrase several times a day to yourself, and eventually, your subconscious mind picks up on this and integrates the message into a fully formed belief.

For example, you could increase your self esteem with affirmation such as ‘I am a confident, successful person’. You can also use affirmations to break bad habits, using sayings like ‘I do not smoke and have no desire to have a cigarette’.

Affirmations eventually sink into the subconscious mind when repeated. Your subconscious then influences your behavior to bring about the desired result.

If you follow this logic, it�s possible to change more than your behavior � you can change the world itself by using affirmations to tap into your mindpower.

Visualization:- Visualization is something which is very effective in increasing your mindpower. You need to focus your mind, eyes closed and see the things which you want to happen in your mind. When you keep focusing on the image of what you want, your mindpower will be built up and you’ll eventually be able to make it a reality through your efforts.

Visualization is a powerful technique for building up mindpower and bringing latent psychic abilities to the surface. When you visualize being able to use your psychic abilities, they will be strengthened and your mindpower will be developed so that you’ll have access to your natural abilities.

Using hypnosis:- Hypnosis is another way you can communicate with your subconscious and therefore develop your mind power. If you visit a hypnotherapist or professional hypnotist, he or she will help you achieve complete relaxation and will then suggest positive changes to your subconscious mind that you will actually remember once you come out of your hypnotic state.

You can also try a sort of ’self hypnosis’ by listening to a recorded a hypnotherapist guide you through a session on the tape. This is somewhat advantageous to a live session, because it’s less expensive than a live session and you can also listen to the hypnotherapist again and again.

Brainwave entrainment:- Brainwave entrainment uses new breakthroughs in audio technology. Certain frequencies attune your brainwaves resulting in many different benefits such as pain relief and improved memory.

Some frequencies attune your mind to the trance state where it becomes easy to speak directly to the subconscious and thus increase mindpower.

You can also listen to frequencies which are designed to build mindpower by stimulating the chakras � the energy centers located throughout the human body. The ‘third eye’ chakra located in the forehead is especially important, since this is the chakra which is responsible for psychic powers.

It should be noted, however, that you don’t actually need to develop these powers. You have them already. Some think that many thousands of years ago, humans had the ability to use enhanced mind power very easily, but that it’s become repressed as a skill in the centuries since.

Therefore, if we talk about developing our mind power, we really mean that we want to unlock all of our innate powers and fullest potential of every person.

Astral projection is also known as an out-of-body experience and it is a phenomenon that can occur virtually any time to any individual on earth. However, it is during a major trauma that an out-of-body experience is most commonly known to occur. Yet, there are also those that have experienced such a process solely through the presence of absolute will power.

This is the more commonly known astral projection. Many people have claimed to have out of body experiences and many more people have claimed to be able to perform astral projection. While the basic techniques for these abilities are the same, they can differ slightly depending on the person. However, some question the validity of the claims of these abilities.

For centuries, there have been people who have experienced the phenomenon of out of body experiences. Some of them have experienced them during sleep and ignored it, believing that what they saw was a dream. However, most out-of-body experiences are experienced during major trauma such as surgeries.

There have also been scores of accounts of out-of-body experiences occurring during frightful near-death situations. In all of these cases of out-of-body experiences, the person experiencing them notes that he/she is able to see and hear everything occurring in the real world even though they were not conscious at the time.

Out-of-body experiences are also known to occur as the result of taking psychedelic drugs or those drugs known to deliver a dissociative effect. Yet, there are also a great many techniques needed to induce an out-of-body experience. A common example of this would be the use of visualization while in a highly relaxed and meditative state. Many studies have shown that there can be similar experiences to out-of-body experience that can be brought about through the direct stimulation of the brain.

One of the most common forms of out-of-body experiences is called astral projection. During astral projection, the person is able to leave their bodies and visit other places, as well as, astral planes, or higher planes of existence.

In the renaissance Neoplatonist and Rosicrucian philosophy, there is the belief that an astral body in body is created by light that links the “rational soul” and the physical body together. Such philosophy also professes the notion that the astral plane is a world created of the exact light and exists between Heaven and Earth. This metaphysical light is comprised of the spheres of stars and planets that are commonly believed to be the home of angels, demons, and spirits.

According to many ancient Egyptian beliefs, the soul presents the common ability to hover, or float, outside the body in the “Ka” which is also referred to the subtle body. This has also been known as the astral body. In most common beliefs in astral projection, the astral body is associated with a “silver cord” of psychic energy that is linked to the physical body.

The classical Chinese Taoists took part in an alchemical practice that centered on creating a body of energy via the employment of breathing meditations, pulling energy into an internal section dubbed a “pearl” and then circulating the mysterious pearl through the body to create a powerful base of energy.

During out-of-body experiences, many people have accounted that they willed themselves to leave their bodies. Others have reported that they had found themselves coming out of their bodies as if being pulled, while others state that they didn’t realize that they had left their bodies until after they were already out. Several people have even stated that they wanted to get out of bed and when they tried to reach for the door, they could not touch it. Upon this sensation, they looked in the direction of their bed and realized that they were still lying down, apparently asleep.

Neurologists commonly try to explain such events as being due to a mismatch of the visual and tactile signals of the brain. A great many out-of-body experiences will occur during the time that exists in between the REM sleep and the actual time prior to waking. During the great many instances of out-of-body experiences, the subject will venture into a state known as sleep paralysis. During this time that exists in between being sleep and awake, sleep paralysis can continue onwards as dream imagery intermingles with input deriving from the senses.

However, there have been many scientific studies in the field of astral projection and out-of-body experiences which have shown that out of body experiences are in fact very real.There are also several research facilities in several different countries, including the Monroe Institute in Virginia, as well as the Projectarium at the International Academy of Consciousness in Portugal and the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience in Switzerland.