Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Dark Side of Paranormal State's Ryan Buell



The name Buell has various ancient meanings, and specifically in Dutch, it is an occupational name for a hangman.


Ryan Buell, who founded Penn State's Paranormal Research Society and starred in the reality television series Paranormal State, is again facing legal trouble after an alleged domestic assault in State College [Pennsylvania].
State College Police were called at about 7:15 p.m. on Friday [April 21, 2017] to a Waupelani Drive apartment where Buell's boyfriend told police he and Buell had gotten into a verbal argument, according to a criminal complaint. The man reportedly told police that he and Buell began getting into each other's faces and bumping chests, and that Buell scratched his face.
According to the complaint, the man said he then pushed Buell and that Buell then bit the man's finger. A police officer observed a deep bite that penetrated the fingernail and skin on the tip of the man's finger, as well as scratches on his face. EMS determined the injury to the finger required medical attention.
Buell, who did not have any injuries, allegedly told police that he and the man had a verbal argument, but that he did not remember a physical altercation.
Buell, 35, was charged with simple assault, a second-degree misdemeanor, and summary harassment. He was arraigned before District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker on Saturday morning and bail was set at $25,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
It's the second time in the past year that Buell has faced trouble with the law in State College. In September he was charged with felony and misdemeanor theft after allegedly renting a car in August and never returning it. He was arrested on a warrant in South Carolina after the rental agency and State College Police reportedly made multiple attempts over the course of about six weeks to contact Buell about returning the car.
According to court records, a non-jury trial in that case is scheduled for May 18. State College source.


Last September 22, 2016, the same news source noted that Buell

was arrested in South Carolina on Sunday [September 18, 2016] after State College Police filed felony theft charges against him last week.
Buell, 34, is facing felony charges of theft of leased property and receiving stolen property, as well as a misdemeanor count of theft of services, after he allegedly rented a car in August and never returned it. Charges were filed on Sept. 14 with Centre County District Judge Carmine Prestia. He was arrested on an active warrant in South Carolina, where he was raised.
According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by State College Police, the manager of Eagle Automotive told police he rented a Kia Sportage to Buell on Aug. 1. As a courtesy, the manager said he attempted to extend the rental on Aug. 8, but that the credit card provided would not cover the cost.
The manager then attempted to contact Buell by phone and email, and finally by certified letter giving him a week to return the vehicle, according to court documents. When Buell still did not respond, police attempted to contact him by phone and by Facebook messenger. Police say Buell did not respond, but that Buell's Facebook account showed posts after an officer had sent him a message. Police also found that the residence address Buell provided to the rental company was allegedly not valid.
At 19, Buell founded the Paranormal Research Society at Penn State, and in 2007 that was parlayed into the A&E reality series Paranormal State, which followed the group as they investigated supposed hauntings. Buell graduated from Penn State that same year with degrees in journalism and anthropology.
The show aired until 2011. Aside from criticisms that the show peddled pseudoscience, multiple episodes were criticized even by believers in the paranormal for allegedly staging the "hauntings."
Buell, who also authored the book Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown, maintains a strong fan following. But in 2014, he angered fans when he canceled shows on his "Conversations with the Dead" tour and they didn't receive refunds tickets already purchased.
He also canceled shows in 2012, saying that he was battling pancreatic cancer and later talked about his diagnosis with People magazine.



The following is a current, post-April 2017 arrest photograph. 




American Ghost Hunter (2010; Chad Calek, Writer/Director/Executive Producer; Ryan Buell, Executive Producer). Chad Calek returned to his hometown of Persia, Iowa in hopes of putting to an end the 20 year reign of suffering that his family has endured due to an "overwhelming amount of intense negative paranormal activity," along with Ryan Buell of Paranormal State, and Lorraine Warren, known for her work with the Amityville case.


A Blood Red Sky (2015; Chad Calek, director) explored the concept of the "Mayan Doomsday Prophecy." The team visited the Chillingham Castle (which they claim is the "most haunted in the world"). 



Wikipedia, in part, gives these biographical details.
Ryan Daniel Buell (born July 8, 1982) is an American paranormal investigator, author and producer who founded the Paranormal Research Society when he was a 19-year-old student at Pennsylvania State University.
Buell was born in Corry, Pennsylvania, of Italian, Native American, and Danish ancestry, and raised in Sumter, South Carolina. He earned bachelor degrees in journalism and anthropology from Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania.
Buell's investigations became the core premise of the A&E show Paranormal State, for which Buell is the director. Buell is the Executive Producer for an upcoming feature film, American Ghost Hunter, which was announced to be in production in Spring 2009 and was shot in May 2009. In 2011, Buell and partner Chad Calek announced a 41-city tour for the film. In 2010, Buell served as Co-Executive Producer for Paranormal State and for The Ghost Prophecies, of which he is also the co-creator. Buell and his team decided against continuing Paranormal State after the fifth season to pursue other things. Their final episode aired Monday, May 2, 2011.
Buell's memoir, Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown, was released in September 2010. Among other subjects, Buell discusses his bisexuality and his struggle to reconcile his sexual orientation with Catholicism, the faith with which he was raised. "I've decided to share my sexuality and struggle over faith in hopes that others will no longer feel as though they are alone or that they can't be religious."
In July 2012, Buell announced he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

People deal with Ryan Buell's dark acts in various ways.

On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, Buell's mother, Shelly Bonavita Lundberg, posted on Facebook asking her fans to "stop enabling his situation by sending money, buying tickets to events that may never occur, buying merchandise/phone calls you may never get, paying money to watch him on Twitch, and giving him offers of shelter." Source.

Ryan Buell's former cast member Michelle Belanger, according to one site, used Buell's earlier arrest to sell her book.
"Belanger was supposed to be part of Buell’s tour where he scammed his fans out of nearly $100,000 by cancelling the tour dates and pocketing the money. Belanger claimed that she didn’t get paid or any of the funds from ticket sales," said Eerie Echo.




The name "Calek" means "Fighter; loyal."

Monday, April 24, 2017

Exodus 8:2

In the wake of the re-examination of the phrase "John 3:16" surfacing in the Aaron Hernandez suicide, here's an overview of Exodus 8:2 that was so prominent 18 years ago in Magnolia.

"Exodus 8:2 is alluded to over a hundred times throughout the movie." Magnolia (1999), Trivia, IMDb


Magnolia (1999), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.


Ambrose Heron analyzed the mentions of "82s" credited in the trivia for the film at IMDb, and came up with this list:
The first weather forecast is 82% chance of rain.
The gambler in the prologue needs a 2 in blackjack, but instead gets an 8.
The coil of rope on the roof when Sydney commits suicide.
One of the posters held up in the ‘What Do Kids Know’ audience.
The movie poster at the bus stop on Magnolia Blvd.
The placard on the third hanged convict.
Jim Kurring’s box number at the date hot line.
Sydney Barringer’s mother and father’s apartment number is 682.
The forensic science convention starts at 8:20.
Delmer Darion flips over a stack of cards to reveal the 8 through 2 of diamonds.
Right after Jim Kurring sees Donnie Smith climbing up the building, you can see a flash of a sign on the side of the road that says “Exodus 8:2” (it’s visible again when the frogs fall and hit Kurring’s car)
The number on the fire fighter’s plane.
In Marcy’s mug shots, her criminal record number is 82082082082.
In the Smiling Peanut bar, there is a chalkboard visible with two teams, the frogs and the clouds, and the score is 8 to 2.
Spray painted on the cement as graffiti next to Dixon.
The kids were two days away from entering their eighth week as champions.
The first two numbers of the Seduce and Destroy Hotline (1-877-TAME-HER) are 82.
At the police station in the beginning of the movie, the clock says 8:02.
When Jim Kurring notices Quiz Kid Donnie Smith climbing on the Solomon & Solomon building he drives past a luminous sign saying “Exodus 8:2”.




Miami Herald published many screen captures of "82s" in Magnolia.










































As Rene Rodriguez notes:
If you're unfamiliar with the reason why there are so many 82s in the movie.... The answer is found at the start of the quiz game show sequence, in which an audience member is holding up a sign that is taken away by an usher (played by Anderson himself). You can see the sign on the left hand side of this frame:

































 Later, during the peculiar rainstorm that happens at the climax of the movie, the same Exodus 8:2 reference appears on billboards, store signs and bus stops everywhere:
















The Bible, American King James Version

Exodus 8:2

And if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your borders with frogs.





According to the PTA fansite Cigarettes and Red Vines:
…it became a pasttime on set for Paul and the crew of Magnolia to hide as many references to the numbers 8 and 2 as they could in shots.

Wikipedia straightforwardly addresses this topic in Magnolia, here:
Raining frogs and Exodus (Bible) references
At the end of the film, frogs rain from the sky. Throughout the film, there are references to the Book of Exodus 8:2 "And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs."
The film has an underlying theme of unexplained events, taken from the 1920s and 1930s works of Charles Fort. Fortean author Loren Coleman's 2001 book Mysterious America: The Revised Edition includes a chapter entitled "The Teleporting Animals and Magnolia", addressing the film. The chapter discusses how one of Fort's books is visible on the table in the library and the movie's end credit thanking Charles Fort.
The only character who seems to be unsurprised by the falling frogs is Stanley. He calmly observes the event, saying, "This happens. This is something that happens." This has led to the speculation that Stanley is a prophet, allegorically akin to Moses, and that the "slavery" the film alludes to is the exploitation of children by adults. These "father issues" persist throughout the movie, as seen in the abuse and neglect of Claudia, Frank, Donnie, Stanley, and Dixon. Source.















An authentic falling frog prop from Magnolia seemed an important item for me to preserve for the Museum I founded. 


The actual number of characters in Magnolia reflects the 8:2 numbers.



There are 10 characters, consisting of 8 children/relatives and 2 fathers (Jimmy and Earl), which is possibly significant given that their particular relationship is central to the film. Source.

August 2 (8/2) does not ring a bell, yet, as far as having a fall of frogs.

But August 2nds have had threshold events associated with the date:

1923 – Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes U.S. President upon the death of President Warren G. Harding.

1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.

1939 – Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.

1943 – World War II: The Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.

1964 – Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident: North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox.

1968 – An earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing more than 270 people and wounding 261.

1973 – A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.

1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

1998 – The Second Congo War begins.

1999 – The Gaisal train disaster claims 285 lives in Assam, India.

Eighteen years have passed since the film was shot and released. Perhaps, unconsciously, the 8:2 pattern has been a living sync. Who knows?


Saturday, April 22, 2017

Hernandez: Illuminati and John 3:16






New details are emerging from findings at Aaron Hernandez's suicide scene.

...Hernandez was found just after 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, hanging from bedsheets that were attached to his cell window. 5 Investigates previously reported that he had written "John 3:16" on his forehead in ink.
Hernandez also used his own blood to draw on the walls of his cell.
5 Investigates’ Kathy Curran has learned that one of the drawings was what’s known as the unfinished pyramid and the all-seeing eye of God. The image is similar to what is found on the back of U.S. currency.

5 Investigates learned that Hernandez drew an image on his cell wall depicting what’s known as the unfinished pyramid and all-seeing eye. The symbol is found in religion and on U.S. currency.
Below the pyramid, Hernandez wrote "ILLUMINATI" in capital letters.

The illuminati is a person or group claiming to have religious enlightenment or knowledge. The illuminati has also been the subject of several theories, including one that claims they control of the world.
Above the pyramid, Hernandez drew an oval with rays coming from the edges.
Nearby, rosary beads hung on the wall of his cell.... Source: WCVB-Boston

Old records indicate that Hernandez had been associating with a real or imagined link to the Illuminati for some time.







We are told that John 3:16 was on Aaron Hernandez's forehead...in red marker pen...or in one bizarro rumor, in blood.



In, perhaps, a form of copycat suicide of the Steve Stephens' suicide...


Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez [#81], acquitted of a double murder just days ago, died after hanging himself in his prison cell Wednesday [April 19, 2017] morning, Massachusetts prisons officials said.
Hernandez, 27, was found by guards in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley just after 3 a.m., Department of Correction spokesman Christopher Fallon said in a statement.
...
Hernandez was in a single cell in a general population housing unit in the maximum security state prison. He hanged himself using a bed sheet that he attached to a cell window, Fallon said.
Hernandez tried to block the cell door from the inside by jamming the door with various items, Fallon said. ESPN
According to CBS-Boston and WBZ-TV, the phrase “John 3:16” was written on Hernandez’s forehead, and red marker was on his hands and feet. “John 3:16” is a popular Biblical verse, the 16th verse of the third chapter of the Gospel According to John: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The use of "John 3:16" is tied to sports via a man named Rollen Stewart, a/k/a the Rainbow Man.

Some people (such as the Rainbow Man) display the reference in large letters at sporting events, seeking the attention of fellow fans, the staff controlling the venue's giant video screens and, if the game is televised, the television audience. The Heisman-winning American football player Tim Tebow printed this reference (among other Bible verses) on his eye black, notably during the 2009 BCS championship. Exactly three years later on January 8, 2012, was the game that would become known as "The 3:16 game", where Tebow threw for 316 yards in a playoff upset against the Pittsburgh Steelers; a game in which measurements of 3, 16 and 31.6 were also noted, "John 3 16" became the top Google search in the US. 

Wikipedia already has a note under "John 3:16: Popular Culture," that "Football player Aaron Hernandez wrote John 3:16 on his head in marker before committing suicide in his jail cell."


Rollen Fredrick Stewart (born February 23, 1944), also known as Rock'n Rollen and Rainbow Man, is a man who was a fixture in American sports culture best known for wearing a rainbow-colored afro-style wig and, later, holding up signs reading "John 3:16" at stadium sporting events around the United States and overseas in the 1970s and 1980s. He is serving three life sentences in a California prison after being convicted of multiple kidnapping charges after a 1992 incident.
Stewart became a born-again Christian, and was determined to "get the message out" via television. His first major appearance was at the 1977 NBA Finals; by the time of the 1979 MLB All-Star Game, broadcasters actively tried to avoid showing him. He "appeared behind NFL goal posts, near Olympic medal stands, and even at the Augusta National Golf Club." At the 1982 Indianapolis 500, he was behind the pits of race winner Gordon Johncock. Stewart would strategically position himself for key shots of plays or athletes. Stewart's fame led to a Budweiser beer commercial and a Saturday Night Live parody sketch, where he was portrayed by Christopher Walken.



Stewart was briefly jailed by Moscow police at the 1980 Summer Olympics. In the late 1980s, he began a string of stink bomb attacks. Targets included Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral, the Orange County Register, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and a Christian bookstore. The stated intent of an attempted attack at the American Music Awards was to show the public that "God thinks this stinks."
Stewart was arrested in 1992 after a standoff in a California hotel during which he entered a vacant room with two men he was attempting to kidnap and surprised a maid who then locked herself in the bathroom. Reportedly, Stewart believed that the Rapture was due to arrive in six days. During the standoff, he threatened to shoot at airplanes taking off from nearby Los Angeles International Airport, and covered the hotel room windows with "John 3:16" placards.
Stewart is currently serving three consecutive life sentences in prison on kidnapping charges, having rejected a plea deal of 12 years in order to spread his message in open court. After being sentenced, he began a religious tirade and had to be restrained by bailiffs. He became eligible for parole in 2002, but was denied as recently as March 2010; his next parole review will be in 2017. After this conviction, he was found guilty of four stink bomb attacks.
Stewart ran a blog until the time of his parole denial. He is the subject of the 1997 documentary Rainbow Man, directed by Sam Green.
Aaron Hernandez was a byproduct of modern media culture. He was a spokesperson for Muscle Milk and Puma.


Hernandez's endorsements were dropped quickly when he was charged with murder.

Hernandez had come to the NFL, having had a successful college record in Florida.


Former Gators' teammate, Tim Tebow, is shown wearing "John 3:16" on his eye black.


In high school, Hernandez wore the number 32 as a star basketball player. He had been wearing 81 since college.

In 2011, Hernandez created a stir (making fun of the Red Sox eating chicken in their clubhouse) by partaking of General Tso's Chicken during a post-game interview. Won't it be ironic, like the McNuggets/Steve Stephens' suicide just prior to his own self-death, if Aaron Hernandez's last meal was chicken?





Thursday, April 20, 2017

April 20 Equals Danger


In 2016, the coroner took away Chyna, and TMZ rushed to be the first to publish the photos on April 20th. The date did not live down its reputation.




2016

Joan Marie Laurer (born December 27, 1970), an American professional wrestler, entertainment film actress, and bodybuilder, who changed her name legally to her ring name Chyna, was discovered dead on April 20, at the age of 45.

On April 20, 2016, Laurer was found dead at her home in Redondo Beach, California. Her manager Anthony Anzaldo had grown concerned when Laurer did not post updates or content to her usual social media outlets for several days and subsequently found her body in her apartment. 
Her brain has been donated to science to study the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
A report of her autopsy was released in December 2016. Laurer died on April 17 of an overdose of alcohol, combined with anxiety drugs, painkillers, and sleep aids.

What occurred on Apri 20, 2017 in Paris, Seattle, and St. Louis:



Two police officers were shot in a blotched 7/11 robbery in Seattle. The suspect was killed.

Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Missouri...

http://www.kmov.com/story/35200425/3-men-shot-in-hamilton-heights-neighborhood

A gunman opened fire on two Laclede Gas workers, killing them, and then turned the gun on himself Thursday morning, dying by suicide.

(KMOV)

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Product Placement in Media Mass Violence


McDonald's. McNuggets. Ford Fusion.
Nike. Flavor Aid. Ding Dongs. Ho Hos.
Twinkies. Kool Aid.


What will people recall most about the saga of Steve Stephens? The live broadcast of a murder on Facebook? That he ordered 20 McNuggets at McDonald's before killing himself? And McDonald's held the fries, until the police arrived?

How many people will remember he killed an innocent, random victim named Robert Godwin?

Or the suicide of ex-NFL player Aaron Hernandez may have been a copycat?

And Hernandez once made a spectacle of eating General Tso's Chicken at a post-game news conference?



What products have oozed into urban media legend status?

The Nikes worn by the Heaven Gates' members who died by suicide?


On March 22, 1997, 39 members of Heaven’s Gate (21 women, 19 men) consumed phenobarbitol, some suffocating with plastic bags, and all dying by suicide. All were dressed exactly alike in black clothing, down to their black shoes with their identical white Nike check-mark logo. The 39 had packed tote bags and each had one $5 bill and 75 cents in quarters in their pockets. The deaths occurred in shifts, so those that remained could correctly arrange the bodies and place the purple triangular shrouds on the bodies. The police found the corpses at their Rancho Santa Fe, California compound on March 26, after being alerted by Richard Ford, an ex-member who has received a Federal Express package of two videotapes from [leader Marshall] Applewhite.
© Loren Coleman ~ from The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004). 



And...


Don't drink the Flavor Aid. 

That doesn't sound correct, does it?

The expression is "Don't drink the Kool Aid



But it is wrong.


But people do not remember properly.






The specter of Jonestown filled the newspapers for years and produced a made‑for‑television movie called Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980), starring the then-new and unknown actor Powers Boothe in a highly acclaimed performance as Jones. The Jonestown event had other broad cultural outcomes besides creating a model for mass suicides. For example, despite the actual use of Flavor-aide, the media had quickly mislabeled what was used as “Kool Aid,” and worldwide sales of Kool Aid crashed. Another lasting linguistic legacy of the People’s Temple tragedy is the expression, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.” This has come to mean, “Don’t trust any group you find to be a little on the fanatical side.”
© Loren Coleman ~ from The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).







Product misidentifications become urban myths.


Hear of the "Twinkie defense"?




In the wake of the death of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Board of Supervisor Harvey Milk, former supervisor Dan White was accused of the murder, which he clearly had done.

In 1979 Dan White was found guilty of “manslaughter by diminished capacity,” despite opening arguments by attorney Doug Schmidt that linked Jonestown to the assassinations. Many still believe that the reason White was not convicted of first degree murder was because of what most of the media reported as the “Twinkie defense” – a phrase coined by well-known satirist Paul Krassner - that junk food had made White do it. While it was in reality HoHos and Ding Dongs, White’s defense claimed that his love of junk food was the result of his depression, not the cause of it.
© Loren Coleman ~ from The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004

"America loves labels," said Dr. Alan Dundes, UC Berkeley professor of anthropology and folklore. He compares our belief in the "Twinkie defense" to the conviction that George Washington cut down the cherry tree. He didn't. Folklore trumps history.
"I don't care if the 'Twinkie defense' has any validity or not," he said. "People think it was a factor. And thinking makes it so." Source.