Published by Georgetown University professor and Future of Music Coalition founder Casey Rae, Contrarian Media "examines below-the-radar issues in media, metaphysics, technology, policy and the creative sector" with a mission to "advance critical writing outside the constraints of academic convention."  I focused primarily on the social and historical impact of the paranormal on our culture and ourselves.

Para-Contrarian Interview: TAPS/Ghost Hunters’ Kristyn Gartland

Love it or hate it, the television show "Ghost Hunters" stands as the epicenter of the new paranormal pop culture phenomenon exploding out of cable television. It seems that new ghost-busting shows hit the airwaves on a weekly basis, some with staying power, others fading away and easily forgotten. Through it all, "Ghost Hunters" remains king. The show...

Para-Contrarian Interview: Tiffany Smith Johnson

Today, I would like to begin a new venture with my posts here on The Contrarian — personal interviews. The more contacts I gain in the world of the paranormal, the more I want to spread the wealth to our readers. I have hopes of bringing in interviews with all walks of life in this para-world: television personalities, investigators, forefathers...

First Contact with a Negative Entity

Today, I have chosen to reflect on an investigation that my former paranormal group took part in earlier this year. Granted, my former group was one dedicated to discussing their importance and prominence within the paranormal community versus actually doing something in the field — the three total investigations, not created by my own hand,...

Scams and Con Artists

I am jumping ahead of my usual Thursday posts to discuss something that, to be perfectly honest with you, pisses me off more than anything else in the paranormal world: scams and scam artists. My good friend and colleague Tiffany Smith Johnson, psychic extraordinaire, a person who I admire and respect more than any other, recently posted a warning...

Loyd Auerbach and the Sacred Text

My late grandmother Martin gave me the book. I believe that she bought it as for a birthday gift, perhaps Christmas, I really don’t remember. It changed my life the same way The Bible does for others; each chapter or verse opens a new door of thought previously obfuscated. It’s called ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists: A Parapsychologist’s...

And In This Corner, Weighing in at 105 Words per Minute…

SciFake.com has taken a swing at the folks from The Atlantic Paranormal Society once again — this time going after a supposed staged scene where television’s “ghost plumbers” attempt to fix a sink at a Roto-Rooter client’s bathroom. An anonymous tipster named “Chris” (I am throwing my hands in the air on this one — it's not me, swear...

The Paranormal Investigator: Rock Star of the New Millennium

In the summer between my junior and senior year, my friend Jef bought tickets to Lollapalooza '94. The billing was not the best bill the at-the-time touring juggernaut had ever possessed: L7, Tribe Called Quest, Boredoms, P-Funk, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, all headlining over a little known trio named Green Day who started off the concert. Jef came...

Amityville: The Paranormal Goes Pop

In earlier posts, I have discussed the competitive nature of the paranormal world. Regardless of all the griping, all the University of New Mexico Women’s Soccer-esque hair-pulling and back-punching, it's important to remember where this all started. Let’s take a look at one of the original paranormal pop-culture phenomenon, which likely inspired...

The Hauntings of Auschwitz and Other Concentration Camps

This summer, my wife was transferred to her company’s Munich branch and I, being the dutiful, occupationally-challenged high school teacher on my first summer vacation, followed her. The German people are amazing, their way of life makes sense, social rules and norms are rational and seem designed to decrease conflicts between its people. The food...

The Lack of Science in “Scientific” Investigation

For centuries, the study of the paranormal has been a field of passion and dedication. Today’s modern ghost hunters are the children of a long ancestral line of people focused on proving the validity of all things supernatural. Once upon a time, your investigator spent the night in graveyards, abandoned buildings, or caves searching for evidence...

“Human Sacrifice, Dogs and Cats Living Together… Mass Hysteria!”

It is with a heavy heart that I report that my career as a paranormal investigator has hit a roadblock. Like a brightly lit light bulb, the ethereal glow of ghost hunting blew its top, and its ever-so sensitive wick was extinguished in a bright flash of reluctance, ignorance and desperation. The switch flipped, the bathroom was illuminated with the flare...

Japan’s Suicide Woods: Aokigahara Forest

In almost every culture and religion, the act of suicide is one of the most taboo acts possible. It is a common belief that life is precious — a gift given to us from a higher power, or in a atheistic/mathematical view, a miracle of astronomical possibility. Whether it is the one-trillionth of a chance that you became you, or that God designed...

Chasing Dust: A Memoir of a First-Year Paranormal Investigator – Part II

I sat on the fencepost for over an hour, cursing aloud to the bull penned in the nearby fenceline and the faceless moon hanging above my head. It was a cold autumn Georgia evening, chill even to this New England ex-patriate. With each forced exhale my breath appeared in front of my face like mist on a windshield, disappearing into the night. The bull...

Chasing Dust: A Memoir of a First-Year Paranormal Investigator – Part I

The flag moved. I saw it with my own eyes. It moved. The woman saw it moving as well. Her name is Dana. She claims to be 24-years old, and by Tennessee standards, her home state, she may be considered attractive. To my snooty, suburban, New England expatriate standards, the woman is a damn wreck — used beyond belief. Tired. Her voice is that...

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