Horror Short Story Writer Who Has Encountered Some Genuine Paranormal with JC Bratton Episode 23
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What happens when a horror and fiction writer becomes interested in Near Death Experiences and has some genuine paranormal experiences? Does she find these experiences scary? Do they influence any of her fiction writing?
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JC Bratton is a young adult horror/thriller short story writer. In 2020 she released three short stories and one collection (Things That Go Bump in the Night) under her publishing company, Blue Milk Publishing. Her latest short story, “Dollhouse,” peaked at #1 on Amazon’s 45-minute Teen & Young Adult Short Reads. JC’s stories pay homage to the Point Horror novels she would read as a kid, such as Slumber Party by Christopher Pike and Twisted by RL Stine. Some of her biggest influences are Alfred Hitchcock, Lois Duncan, Stephen King, and Richard Matheson. JC lives in the heart of Silicon Valley: San Jose, California.
What we talk about in this Episode:
- JC Bratton has always had an interest in Sci-Fi and horror which made her inclined to think about paranormal, but she's science-minded.
- A college class about NDE's and weird things that happened after her dad died made her consider paranormal as more than fiction.
- JC Bratton and Liz analyze some of her experiences and what they could have meant scientifically and "paranormally."
- Liz and JC Bratton had both only been exposed to the idea of afterlife related to religion when they were little.
- JC Bratton shares an experience she had with her dad while he was in hospice.
- Near Death Experiences (NDE's): They discuss more on NDE's. Some of the most amazing and the work of Dr. Bruce Greyson and Kenneth Ring's research on blind people who see during NDE's
- JC Bratton shares the NDE's she has learned about that amaze her the most.
- Being a horror and thriller writer focused on the "scary" does JC Bratton still see paranormal as "scary" now that she's had amazing experiences
- How does she approach evil in her writing. Is there actually evil in the spirit world?
- The Annabelle Doll horror story. Could aspects of it be real?
- What do NDE's teach us about evil? Are any people actually evil?
What got horror writer J.C. Bratton into Afterlife
She’s a big fan of horror, science fiction, anything kind of macabre. And anything thrilling. From that she already had a baseline interest. She has a very scientific mindset and is very skeptical about things, but also fascinated with the paranormal. She also really appreciates and is curious about what we can’t understand.
She grew up mostly agnostic and her parents were never religious. But when she spent some time in Oklahoma, the Bible Belt, a lot of her friends were pretty strong Christians. And so so for a while, she thought f the afterlife in terms of the traditional Christian viewpoint. She wondered if there was maybe some form of an afterlife, but wasn't thinking that it was something being studied scientifically. She only thought of it as something related to faith.
She then returned to an agnostic mindset, but still was somewhat spiritual and thought there was some form of connectedness among all of us. Now she does think something is happening, but it has nothing to do with religion.
Near Death Experience (NDE)
She took a class in college called advanced personality where they talked about near death experiences. But she didn’t think about it that much until her dad passed in 2017. “Then I started really thinking about energy and in our spirit, and what happens next when we when we pass on.”
This was the first time she ever heard about NDE’s and a non-religious version of an afterlife. And a lot of religious people look down on the concept of NDE’s, they think that afterlife should only be talked about in terms of a traditional Christian biblical interpretation. And she didn't agree with that and not looking air NDE’s in a positive way. “I mean, my goodness, this whole near death experience thing where people were actually seeing a light, people were actually encountering their deceased loved ones, people that maybe they didn't even know passed away. And this this warmth and compassion and just just just genuine love at I would think that that's something that is a good thing, it should be promoted, it should be looked at as a positive and, and for some reason, it just kind of g shunned in that community. "
Liz states that she has really never been a fan of a belief mindset. There is a big difference between belief and faith versus evidence. It was this actual evidence that got her through dark days of grief and the loss of her dad.
JC Bratton also shares one of her favorite NDE stories. She loves Kenneth Ring and mentions his book, “Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind". And he now has a website and YouTube where he shares stories. In one a young and starting out Dr. Bruce Greyson shares that he thinks NDE’s are real, and not a hallucination. It was interesting to see that considering where he is today. A story on the site she loves is from the 1980’s from a woman named Vita. She was a teacher in her late 20’s - early 30’s and she was in an accident. She floated above her body and reported details such as describing a paramedic with a bald head putting a blanket over her. She also shared not to worry about your loved ones when they pass because they are surrounded by so much love. And also that blind people report back being able to see during NDE’s. Many have reported accurate visual information.
She also discusses another video where a person went into the light during an NDE and went further than most people ever have. They came back with some fascinating reports about light and more.
Liz wonders what are these lights people see when they have NDE’s. Could they be portals to other universes? Related on anyway to black holes?
Later in the episode, JC Bratton shares another NDE story. One of Dr. Bruce Greyson’s first experiences which makes him want to investigate NDE’s in the first place. This occurs when he is a new doctor and a patient of his is in a coma due to an attempted suicide. She shares some information with him and things she saw Dr. Greyson do that she could not have known,. He is baffled.
It seems when the body and mind, or mind and brain are separating another level of consciousness gets activated. This seems to be some higher level of consciousness and it seems people can access this consciousness and tap into it even not during an NDE. “ And it's kind of like, maybe it's like, in phases like phase one, your your consciousness and your brain are intact, the phase two is start separating, and then in that, in that time, when it starts separating, weird things can happen, right? And when I say weird, you know, like, like paranormal stuff, like, other worldly things, right?”
Communication from the other side after her dad passed away.
“And, you know, I I had had some unusual experiences after my dad passed away, one of which is actually in a feature than one of my short stories, parasomnia.” As she was going from REM sleep to waking up,”I, all of a sudden, I started seeing all these rapid moving, still images flashing before my eyes, and their crystal clear, sharp just just flashes, a pictures, picture, picture picture, it was very, very odd.” It only started happening after her dad passed away. Such as do we have some sort of collective consciousness? Or is this one was there one cosmic consciousness.
This in between state is called the hypnagogic state and a time when people often seem to “get messages and psychic information.” J.C Bratton explains that these images were very crisp. They were HD-esque color images. They would be of people such as a child at a classroom, a woman smiling. Some trees, just random things that maybe as if it was from another point of view of somebody else looking at that image. And the images went really fast. This was part of what’s he wrote about in her fiction story, but she was able to stop some images.
“So, so it was just go flash, flash, flash picture, picture picture, then all of a sudden, I tell myself stop. And then one time I did it stopped on two women. So there was a still image of two women. And then what happened was, I said, ‘Hello,’ and one of the two women came to life animated and said, ‘hello’ back. This freaked me out. And I still have goosebumps thinking about it. And then I just woke up.” What was interesting was how real this felt. It was so strange and it had a “realer than real” aspect to it that a lot of people state when they report this phenomena. After checking forums, she learned other people had similar experiences. The intensity of these experiences and the realness of them got her thinking how maybe we all do have a universal consciousness. Especially related to the woman who said hi back, she thinks that she was most likely encountering women who are alive today. They seemed like modern, everyday people. Not people from the past or other dimensions.
Recently she encountered some more inexplicable things. She was living by herself when some absolutely inexplicable things occurred. Was this her dad showing he was there? Some weird psychokinesis - mind’s ability to affect matter. Was this a ghost and was it friendly?
Surviving Death - Netflix - Scientists study the afterlife
“And then on Netflix, they had that one series about surviving death. And in that series, they had a whole section about near death experiences, and where they interviewed various people, such as Dr. Bruce Greyson and Jim Tucker. Various leading researchers from the University of Virginia under the Division of Perceptional Studies. So it was very interesting to listen to that. And that's what really got me thinking like, well, you know, there are actual scientists looking into this. And so maybe there really is something about this. So I've done a lot of reading in, in the, in the sort of ramp, watch tons of YouTube videos. And it's been it's been really fascinating. So yeah, that's so I'd say, you know, I, I've gotten really, really into it.”
Horror and the paranormal
So what got her so into horror and the paranormal? And now studying more about afterlife evidence, does she still consider paranormal scary and related to horror? JC Bratton shares a personal story and explains she really does not find possible ghosts scary or “evil.” But she got into horror and the paranormal base don her fascination with the unknown. She also loved watching horror and slasher films and always would think about ways she would outsmart the killer. And she always loved the kind of horror that was spooky and made her skin crawl like the Annabelle doll stories.
Annabelle Doll + Horror Stories
Annabelle doll was actually based on a true story. A group of paranormal investigators investigated the case when a group of nurses claimed that a doll in their apartment came to life. Then movies were made about this, with a lot of fiction attached to it. It was like a spirit had used this doll as a conduit. Then they made more movies and sequels inspired by this horror story. They put an explanation on it that it was taken over by an evil spirt and that a previous owner to the doll had taken it over. JC Bratton does not like that they gave an origin and explanation to the story. She prefers when it is left as more of an unexplained mystery. She likes when evil just is in horror stories because that is much more mysterious. You don't know why it's happening. It's just happening. That is what her stories are like. For example in one of her short stories she made it similar to the Bloody Mary urban legend, but gives no explanation. She’s just evil.
Now does she think there is any truth to the Annabelle story? “there is that possibility that, for example, like, you know, spirits are kind of like, kind of trapped between two realms are looking for ways to communicate, and they use a doll as a conduit, because it looks kind of human. I can see that as a possibility, especially if we look at that, from that whole idea that, you know, there could be soul spirits kind of trapped between worlds, so I can kind of see that potentially happening. So I definitely wouldn't say that it's impossible that this happened.” And something really did happen that scared the nurses. So it’s possible, but there are also a lot of fakes out there.
Liz thinks this could also be PK (psychokinesis), which is mind’s ability to affect matter and may poltergeist cases actually turn out to be unintentional PK.
Science Fiction + Singularity
When all of us read fantasy, Liz explains, she believes we tie in some reality and our own perception of reality. What is interesting is with science fiction. So much of it is coming true, such as getting ready to populate other planets. So there is a line between fantasy and reality that isn’t always so clear or set. Liz poses a theory about the Annabelle doll story. She doesn’t really think it, but it is just a bit of a thought experiment. If you take a lot of the research being done now on consciousness in Silicon Valley, and the concept of singularity - robots or computers attaining consciousness- maybe that could be the Annabelle doll. Non-local consciousness able to take over an object. Dr. Stuart Hammeroff and Sir Roger Penrose are two serious scientists who worked with Stephen. Hawking, studying how consciousness could be nonlocal and downloaded by a brain. So that is a bit tied in with singularity. Now if objects can all download consciousness, could some be evil? That is a topic addressed by sci-fi and horror. But it is also fun to think about in terms of real science - singularity.
Does evil exist?
Since JC Bratton writes about horror and evil, what does she think? Is anyone truly evil? Does she think there are evil spirits or entities? She does think there seem to be lost souls. She finds the Pixar movie “Souls” really interesting because it touches upon this as well as elements of NDE’s and reincarnation. “..they talk a lot about like, these, these people, who are they, these spirits that kind of lose their motivation in their, in their drive, and they get kind of lost they, and they'd become these kind of like, lost spirits.” So maybe that is somewhat true. There is this state of consciousness where you know you can’t go back to your body, but you aren’t ready to cross to the other side. So they aren’t evil but more lost, misunderstood souls.
Liz said that she often thinks most people really aren’t bad. That often they are just in a really bad place. Maybe sometimes they are just even having a bad day. But there are a few people who most likely evil. And what happens with spirits like Hitler?
In NDE’s there is the life review where people see and feel all the harm they have done to others. There is no judgment, just learning. Liz remembers a case like this about a war veteran who felt the pain of killing when he had an NDE and the pain of the people he killed. But this is still very different than someone like Hitler, so she does still wonder what would happen in a case like that. But most “horrible” people have a tragic story. And there seems to be an empathy for that when they have NDE’s.
Notes and Resources:
Dr. Bruce Grayson
DOPS - Division of Perceptual Studies - UVA
Hypnagogic State
Hypnopompic State
J. Steve Miller - Evidence of the After Life: An interview with author & educator J. Steve Miller
Dr. Jim Tucker
Dr. Kenneth Ring
Dr. Jeffrey Long
Jeffrey Mishlove’s Essay for Bigelow
Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind
NDE - Near Death Experience
Netflix - Surviving Death
Parasomnia by J.C. Bratton
Soul - movie by Pixar
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