“I admire visionaries in all fields who pursue their truth and allow the creative force to flow through them no matter what.” -Rosemary Ellen Guiley

DarkMedia Interviews Rosemary Ellen Guiley:

Rosemary Ellen Guiley is a leading expert on the paranormal and supernatural. She conducts  original field investigations of haunted and mysterious sites. She has written more than 40 books – including 9 encyclopedias – and hundreds of articles in print on a wide range of paranormal, spiritual and mystical topics, and possesses an exceptional knowledge of the field. She has approximately one million copies in print.

Her encyclopedias on ghosts and spirits, angels, vampires and werewolves, magic and alchemy, witchcraft, demons, dreams, mystical and paranormal experience and saints are considered essential sources for authors, researchers, film and documentary producers, and paranormal investigators. Her work has been translated into 14 languages and has been selected by major book clubs around the world. She appears in television programs, documentaries and docudramas with paranormal themes, and makes numerous media and lecture appearances, including colleges and universities.

Guiley is a frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, the leading nighttime syndicated talk radio show, and has co-authored a book with Noory on spirit communications Talking to the Dead (Tor Books).

In particular, she researches interdimensional entity contact experiences involving entities such as shadow people, aliens, mysterious beings and creatures, angels, fairies, Djinn and demons. She also reasearches documentation of interdimensional portals, using innovative photography and real-time spirit communications devices. Guiley has co-authored books on the Djinn and on interdimensional portals with Philip J. Imbrogno.

Having written nine single-volume encyclopedias, and so much more, can you tell us a little about your research process? Do you have a system you’d recommend to others?

My approach to research has evolved over time and varies with every book. In addition, I have multiple projects going at the same time, and overlap my research. For example, a single interview might serve two or three purposes.

For the encyclopedias, I list the obvious entries and usually start with the topics most familiar to me. I consult my own library of about 4000 books, and research online, first the academic sites and then the popular sites. I investigate books to acquire or consult. At the same time, I am interviewing people, reading, attending conferences, and pursuing leads.

For non-encyclopedias, I usually start with chapters that are easiest to write, regardless of where they fall in a book. The finished product seldom resembles the first outline and I keep all the organic reorganization in my head as I go.

Some days/weeks are heavy on writing, some are heavy on research, and some on travel. I have no daily routine.

I think every writer has to find a process that works for them.

You’re a leading expert whose work has been made a reference point for so many subjects, including ghosts, angels, vampires, werewolves, witchcraft and demons. Do you personally favor any of your research subjects over the others? Are there any you’ve found to have more relevance to your own life and experiences?

My experiences are wrapped up in everything that I write about, and it’s hard for me to rank them, as they are all important to me. In terms of material, I’m particularly fascinated by angels, Djinn, vampires, shadow people, fairies, ultraterrestrials (a more accurate name than extraterrestrials), interdimensional portals, spirit communication, and dreams. I have found the lore of vampires to be of special interest, because it is so bizarre.

Who, or what, is your greatest inspiration? What about them, or it, inspires you?

I admire visionaries in all fields who pursue their truth and allow the creative force to flow through them no matter what. I don’t have any one hero or heroine.

What are you reading right now?

The Galanty Show, the autobiography of Montague Summers; biographies of various saints; books on Enochian magic and angel languages; and Stalked by the Tricksters, by Christopher O’Brien. All of them relate to research projects.

You once said, “Everyone is psychic to some degree, and really successful paranormal investigators even if they do not realize it are using their own psychic ability to sense the environment.” If everyone has some degree of psychic ability, how is it accessed? What do you think the difference is between those who master the use of it and those who never realize it’s there?

“Intuition” is a polite term for psychic ability. When people pay attention to their intuition, they are functioning on a psychic level. Meditation, energy healing and other training can sharpen the ability. Each person has to develop their own ways for accessing the ability and using it. People who master their psychic ability are willing to expand their consciousness beyond ordinary reality and pay attention to the subtle cues.

As a walker in two worlds, the living and the dead, once human but now monster, the vampire is unlike any other supernatural horror.Through folklore, mythology, literature and film, mankind’s fascination with the vampire has always existed in some form. Why do you think people are so fascinated? Based on your extensive research, how much is based in truth and how much is just fabrication and fantasy?

Anything that comes out of a grave is bound to fascinate people in a morbid way. The vampire defies death, and steals life from the living in its defiance. Its defiance of death is tantamount to a defiance of God and all things holy and orderly.

As a walker in two worlds, the living and the dead, once human but now monster, the vampire is unlike any other supernatural horror. Our ancestors didn’t need fiction to be fearful – they had vampires among them in real life. Ever since the vampire hit the performing arts in the 18th century, however, fantasy has taken over and created new and glamorous vampires who are quite a bit cleaned up. Bottom line is, the glamorous ones still defy death, and I think that’s ultimately the basis of our interest in them.

What effect do you think fantasy and mythology have had, not only on the public perception of what a vampire is or should be, but the way in which self-identified vampires view themselves?

Fiction has had the biggest effect in our modern-day culture on what people believe about vampires. Fiction has been based on folklore – human anecdotal experience mingled with myth, religion and so on – but has created unique vampires that sometimes bear little resemblance to the vampires that were real to our ancestors. Fictional vampires were a significant influence in the early Anne Rice-inspired vampire subcultures. Even in the late 1980s and early 1990s, most of the self-described vampires I met and interviewed were modeling their behavior on film and fiction vampires. Now, serious self-identified vampires have evolved away from that, creating their own definitions of what it means to be a living vampire. The general public, however, remains conditioned by the media and its fictional creations.

Vampires exist; they are real. If someone chooses not to believe, that’s fine with me. I have never felt I had to prove the paranormal to anyone, and actually, it’s a waste of time to try to do so.What would you say to someone who said that vampires (or any other paranormal phenomenon) don’t exist? Do you think the ‘naysayers’ can be convinced without a personal encounter? Is experience the only real key to understanding?

Vampires exist; they are real. If someone chooses not to believe, that’s fine with me. I have never felt I had to prove the paranormal to anyone, and actually, it’s a waste of time to try to do so. Disbelievers will cling to disbelief until they get knocked over the head by experience. My work assumes the existence of interdimensional realities and beings, and is concerned with their characteristics, behavior, and the how and why of our experiences with them, as well as how we integrate those experiences and are changed by them.

What advice would you give someone who wants to get into the field of paranormal research? What’s the best, or worst, advice someone gave you?

No matter how interested you are in a particular subject or field within the paranormal, do not limit yourself to it, but become as knowledgeable as possible about other parts of the paranormal. Everything in the paranormal is interconnected, and functioning in it requires big-picture vision and a willingness to slide around in undefined, gray areas that never resolve sharply. Also, you can’t cherry pick what to accept or reject, for there are no “rules.” For example, I’m always surprised at the people who believe in angels but not in demons.

Understanding the paranormal beyond superficial “hamster wheel ghost hunting” requires digging into mythology, folklore, history, psychical research, parapsychology, psychology, hard science, anthropology, metaphysics, spirituality and religion.

Understanding the paranormal beyond superficial “hamster wheel ghost hunting” requires digging into mythology, folklore, history, psychical research, parapsychology, psychology, hard science, anthropology, metaphysics, spirituality and religion.And, an over-reliance on gadgets and equipment will cause you to miss out on most of the action, which is subjective and percipient-based. It’s good to have gear, but sometimes your own body is your best instrument.

No one really ever gave me advice about the paranormal. I’ve found my own way through it.

What are you currently working on?

A revision of my Encyclopedia of Saints; and books on angels, the afterlife, the Ouija, shadow people, Djinn, cryptids, Mothman and possession. They are in different stages of development, and have varying time lines that stretch out into the year and beyond.

Finally, what’s got you inspired or excited?

My field research into interdimensional portals. Very cutting edge!

I would like to mention that my Encyclopedia of Vampires and Werewolves will be published in a second edition in June 2011, with numerous color photographs and illustrations. I have two websites: www.visionaryliving.com, which covers the scope of my work and includes a library of articles and my blog, and www.djinnuniverse.com, which I share with Philip J. Imbrogno, and is devoted to our research on the Djinn.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley is currently featured on  DarkMediaCity, a free social network for those who like it Dark.  Whether it be literature or film, music or art, horror or sci-fi, paranormal romance or paranormal investigation, we’ve got something for you.  www.DarkMediaCity.com

She can also be found on www.visionaryliving.com and www.djinnuniverse.com.

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