Paranormalnews.com Update - 10/4/2002
OCTOBER 3RD CHAT TRANSCRIPT WITH ROGER CHIOCCHI, AUTHOR OF MEAN SPIRITS
Sleep Paralysis, ghosts, psychic abilities, and more! All in Mean Spirits,
Roger Chiocchi's new book available now through Paranormal News! You can
buy an autographed copy by clicking here.
Here is the transcript from our chat:
ParanormalNews: So tell us a little bit about yourself and what made you
decide to write Mean Spirits.
Roger Chiocchi: Well, I was an advertising executive at Young & Rubicam in
NY for many years, well since the late 1970s. I sort've got bored with
just doing that so I took up writing. I was always fascinated with ghosts.
Began reading about them with the Hans Holzer ghost hunter books as a kid.
So when I decided to write it was only natural that I would write a ghost
story.
ParanormalNews: And did you have any paranormal experiences when you were
a child?
Roger Chiocchi: Not really as a child, later as an adult. But, maybe as a
child, I might've had dreams that would qualify as an OBE. I had very
vivid memories of traveling during dreams as a child, but only as I was
researching this book, did those experiences become meaningful to me.
ParanormalNews: How did you research Mean Spirits?
Roger Chiocchi: Well, I need to step back to answer that one. I was very
impressed with the book "Contact" by Carl Sagan. His premise behind the
book was, "what would it really be like -- from a scientific standpoint --
if we ever made contact with at extraterrestrial. The idea for Mean
Spirits was similar -- what would it REALLY BE LIKE if a person or people
had ghosts. So, basically, I spent every Saturday for about a year in the
NY library researching ghosts, apparitions, synchronicity, paranormal and
parapsychology.
ParanormalNews: What overlapping, if any, do you feel exist between
extraterrestrials and apparitions and ghosts? How are they similar, in
other words?
Roger Chiocchi: Well, I can't say I'm as up on extraterrestrials as I am
on the paranormal, but there is a very interesting commonality that has to
do with sleep paralysis -- which is something I experienced as an adult. I
don't know if you ever experienced it, but at first it's frightening. You
wake up in the middle of the night but can't move a muscle. I had several
episodes about fifteen years ago. Now, if you talk to the
parapsychologists they'll tell you that in such a state -- being half
asleep and half awake -- you're psychic sensitivities are more attuned and
you are more likely to sense psychic imprints in the area. But, amazingly,
many of the so called "alien abductions" have occurred during episodes of
sleep paralysis from what I've read.
ParanormalNews: And how do you personally interpret your own sleep
paralysis?
Roger Chiocchi: Well, at first it was terribly frightening. I was only in
my early thirties, very healthy, but I thought I might've had a
mini-stroke or something. I even went so far as to see a neurologist who
told me I was nuts. Years later, thank God the Science Times in the NY
Times had a feature on sleep paralysis. Basically, it's merely the state
of being half asleep and half awake and it's experienced by many
people.You don't know how many people have contacted me on my website
telling me of similar experiences.
ParanormalNews: The neurologist told you that you were nuts...how did he
go about doing that? Say the phenomena didn't exist?
Roger Chiocchi: It was funny. He gave me all these tests. Made me close my
eyes and pricked me with pins to see if I could feel them, and of course I
could, and then told me everything was fine and not to worry about it. The
term sleep paralysis never came up. Sort of weird, don't you think?
ParanormalNews: I'd say so. So, he pretty much said there was no
neurological basis for your experience. Did you seek help elsewhere, or
merely remained puzzled until the NY Times article?
Roger Chiocchi: Actually, even before the NY Times article in my research
for Mean Spirits I came across similar experiences, but they weren't
referred to as sleep paralysis. Jung refers to an episode when he was
spending a night at a friends house, experienced this feeling of "rigidity
and paralysis" and saw the apparition of the head of a woman!!
ParanormalNews: Have you found a satisfactory answer for what these
'apparitions' truly are, or do you stick to the idea that they are in fact
apparitions? Ghosts?
Roger Chiocchi: Well, I have a very definite conception of what "ghosts"
are -- based upon much of the research that I did for the book. I believe
that ghosts are really excessive "brainwave activity" that certain people
generated during times of high emotional significance in their lives. I
believe that today, people with latent psychic abilities can sense these
brainwaves or psychic imprints under the right conditions. Sleep paralysis
makes it easier for people with latent psychic abilities to perceive these
brainwaves.
ParanormalNews: In other cases of hauntings, how are the victim's own
nightly visitations described? Are they also accompanied by bouts of
paralysis?
Roger Chiocchi: I think a lot of it has to do with the intensity of the
"victim's" psychic abilities. People with high level of psychic
abilities -- what we would call a "psychic" -- can perceive these
visitations constantly. But, most people's psychic abilities are more
latent and they need to have a certain set of conditions to make a
connection.
ParanormalNews: What types of psychic abilities are necessary to perceive
these visitations, and how can one develop them?
Roger Chiocchi: It's been theorized that before humankind developed the
ability to talk, that people's psychic abilities were much more highly
developed. Basically, they communicated through telepathy. As humans
developed the ability to communicate more explicitly, this ability evolved
away through natural selection, although like many traits some people
still have had them passed on.
ParanormalNews: How have you incorporated the theme of sleep paralysis
into your book? How is it explored? Morchiant was just telling us he
experiences sleep paralysis as well.
Roger Chiocchi: One of the two main characters has constant bouts with
sleep paralysis in the family's "cottage" in Newport Rhode Island during
which he sees the figure of two large men approaching his bed, one
brandishing a knife.
ParanormalNews: How does he come to grips with his paralysis?
Roger Chiocchi: He doesn't. He's the type of person that
compartmentalizes. Ignores things that he doesn't want to get in the way
of his life.
ParanormalNews: what advice would you have to people experiencing the same
symptoms?
Roger Chiocchi: Well, it's never bad advice to tell your doctor. But, odds
are, it's sleep paralysis and harmless. Merely the state of being half
asleep and half awake.
ParanormalNews: What would you say the central theme to this book would
be?
Roger Chiocchi: Mean Spirits is about things not being what they appear to
be. Here we have this great American family, revered in many circles, but
over the generations we find out they achieved their wealth and privileged
status by cheating and exploiting innocent people. Luckily, the "ghosts"
or "psychic imprints" of these innocent people stay around to remind them.
*Morchiant rejoins chat
Roger Chiocchi: Hi Morchaint. I was interested to hear about your bouts
with sleep paralysis?
Morchiant: Well, since my early teens I would say... not sure exactly
when, I have had a reoccurring "dream" where I see a shadowy figure in the
doorway to wherever I am sleeping. I can perceive the figure, but I am
unable to move or act.
Roger Chiocchi: Exactly what I experienced. So you couldn't move a muscle?
Morchiant: I struggle to make whatever sounds I can, so I can wake myself
up, because I know if I wake up fully I will then be able to move. I can't
move at all. The only thing I can do is make very basic sounds.
Roger Chiocchi: You should read chapter two to my book. I'd be interested
to hear your reactions to the episode in the book. It sounds a lot like
yours.
ParanormalNews: You say that sleep paralysis is harmless. I've heard that
it can even be a form of protection. Would you agree?
Roger Chiocchi: Well the experts say it's harmless. Don't think I agree
with it being a form of protection. I think it's a physical state that
sensitizes ones latent psychic abilities.
ParanormalNews: So what are you working on in the near future? Any more
books planned?
Roger Chiocchi: Right now I'm working on a science fiction fantasy
children's book. It's a lot of fun. Whenever I'm done with a chapter, I
read it to my daughters fourth grade class. I also have an adult novella
half done and am beginning to put together an outline for a sequel to Mean
Spirits.
ParanormalNews: That about wraps this chat up. Thank you for coming,
Roger.
Morchiant: Thanks.
Roger Chiocchi: Well, thank you, too. It was a lot of fun.
