The big event this month is Dragon Con over Labor Day weekend in Atlanta! John Zaffis, Marc Tetlow & I make the marathon drive from CT, and hope we live to talk about it! I have a busy schedule on the Paranormal, Dark Fantasy and Writer’s tracks… plus there are quite a few celeb autographs I plan to nab (among them Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, David Hewlett, Michael Shanks, and the incomparable Stan Lee). Can’t wait to see this year’s steampunk costumes! After Dragon Con, I’m in West Virginia for half the month, at the Mothman Festival and beyond.

Meanwhile, I am sifting through piles of data from my research trips into Bigfoot territory in PA and RI with Eric Altman and Carl Johnson, respectively, and the Bridgewater Triangle in MA and stone chambers in NY with Phil Imbrogno. All will go in the interdimensional portals book that Phil and I are working on. We have uncovered some riveting material!

Did you ever see someone’s double? Not a person who strongly resembles another, but an exact duplicate? Check out this month’s feature article: “Doppelgangers: The Shock of Seeing Double.”

News
My new book Fairies is released in trade paperback from Chelsea House this month. Fairies covers history, lore and tips for seeing fairies.

Events
Full details are on my website at http://www.visionaryliving.com/calendar/

Sept. 11 – Mid-Ohio Valley Paranormal Con, Parkersburg, WV
Presentation: Shadow People

Sept. 14 – Sacred Way, Parkersburg, WV
Presentation: Angels Among Us

Sept. 18-19 – Annual Mothman Festival, Point Pleasant, WV
Presentation: Mothman: A Creature Lost in Space and Time

Sept. 22 – TAPS Family Radio
7-8 PM Eastern
Rosemary and host Jeff Leeper talk about Djinn, Shadow People, portals and more.

Dragon Con Schedule of Presentations and Events

Film Premiere of “John Zaffis: The World Within”
Thurs evening (check schedule for time), at the Sheraton
A documentary on the life and work of John. I am pleased to have an appearance in it.

Title: If it’s not a Ghost or Demon what is It?
Description: A panel discussion on other possible explanations for haunting and phenomena
Time: Fri 11:30 am Location: Piedmont. – Sheraton (Length: 1 hour)
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Title: To Tell the Truth
Description: For the non-fiction writer. Blogs, articles and books about the speculative fiction markets, including books, short stories, movies and television.
Time: Fri 02:30 pm Location: Manila / Singapore / Hong Kong – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

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Title: The Wickedest Man In The World
Description: The life, times, and legacy of Aleister Crowley.
Time: Fri 07:00 pm Location: Cairo – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

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Title: Demons, Djinn, Shadow People & Open Forum
Description: The history of Djinn
Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: Capitol Ballroom – Sheraton (Length: 1 Hour)

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Title: Paranormal-Then and Now
Description: Open forum Discussion of evolution of the Paranormal.
Time: Sun 02:30 pm Location: Augusta – Sheraton (Length: 1 Hour)

Feature Article
The following can be reposted provided the byline, copyright line and website information are included. Thank you for your courtesy.

Doppelgangers: The Shock of Seeing Double
By Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Copyright Visionary Living, Inc.
www.visionaryliving.com

One of the most shocking experiences a person can have is meeting your own exact self. Not someone who bears a strong resemblance to you, but an exact duplicate. This eerie double goes by many names, including doppelganger (double-goer), fetch and wraith. Whatever the label, the appearance of a double often bodes ill.

Doppelgangers have been recorded for centuries, and a wealth of folklore exists about them. Seeing your own double, the lore goes, means misfortune is about to descend upon you and your family. In the most extreme, seeing yourself means you will die soon. Shortly before he drowned in a storm off the coast of Italy on July 8, 1822, the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, shown in portrait, had a disturbing vision of seeing his own double, which asked him, AHow long do you mean to be content?@ His double was seen by others as well.

Doppelgangers can appear as solid, flesh-and-blood figures that walk and talk like the real person. Some of them are semi-transparent, or move in odd ways without talking.

No one knows why doubles appear, especially prior to deaths and personal disasters. If doppelgangers are warnings, why do they not appear to everyone?

Not all doppelgangers are bad omens, however, and many cases on record are benign B but also without obvious explanation. Psychical researchers have speculated that some people spontaneously and unwittingly have a bilocation, a projection of a part of themselves that seems real to others. Bilocation is a supernormal ability in mystical traditions, and adepts, such as saints, are said to do it at will.

Some doppelgangers are called Aarrival cases@ by psychical researchers, because the double appears in advance of the arrival of a person at a location. Many accounts of arrival cases were collected by the Society for Psychical Research around the turn of the 20th century. One famous case involved the author Mark Twain, who went to a reception and dinner where he met a woman he knew. However, the real woman was not there B she was on board a train traveling to the event.

Louis Rodgers (b. 1901) was an English medium living in Australia who had the ability to project his realistic double at will to distant locations. He could send his doppelganger to hotels to check in before he got there. Rodgers participated in experiments with psychical researchers to document his ability.

Are doppelgangers evil? There=s nothing in the literature of actual cases to indicate so, but in film and fiction they run amok, wreaking havoc. Perhaps the doppelganger embodies our fears that we have a dark side that lies beyond our control B waiting for an opportunity to take on a life of its own.
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