Monday, October 19, 2020

How's your aura? A window into Hallie's planning...

HALLIE EPHRON: It's What We're Writing week again and at last I have something to report. I'm planning to write... That counts, right? 

I’ve long wanted to write a character based on a family friend, a Hollywood screenwriter at a time when “woman screenwriter” was an oxymoron. A fascinating person, she wrote the 1954 movie ‘Father Brown – Detective” starring Alec Guinness. That same year her husband died of cancer just before she gave birth to their second child. She went into a deep depression. She was treated – saved she would say – by electric shock therapy and LSD.

She went on to get a doctorate, taught parapsychology at UCLA (yes there was a department in the 60s), and wrote extensively about electric force fields in the human body that could be detected through “Kirlian” photography.

I imagine my version of her(I call her Helen) quite elderly, reincarnated (I think she’d have liked that) in modern-day Brooklyn, living on the top floor a brownstone. In the apartment on the floor below lives her daughter, and her granddaughter lives on the parlor floor. Maybe there’s a communal kitchen and family room on the ground floor.

The walls of Helen's sunny apartment are hung with “Kirlian” photographs she’s taken of auras or unseen energy force fields. Shadowy hands with the fingertips and palms glowing with silver, cactus-like spines. A human head with a halo of glowing purple and gold tendrils. A maple leaf outlined in neon green. Some of the pictures she’s taken are so inexplicable that she’s convinced she’s captured energy force fields emanating from the astral plane – perhaps the dead sending messages to the living.

While Helen holds weekly séance-like gatherings in her apartment, her daughter is a scientist and a skeptic. Her granddaughter is a marketing executive for a company that manufactures and sells skin care products made of (ballparking here) natural quartz crystals.

Into their midst walks a woman who claims she’s been in communication with a beloved deceased relative who is desperate to share a secret.

As usual, I’ve got more house than story, but you can see how I’m trying to set up three characters like separate force fields in competition with one another.

So what’s going to happen? What's the secret? Whenever my mother didn't know the answer but wanted to pretend that she did, she’d say Nous verrons (we shall see). She liked to throw in the odd bit of French here and there. I think I’ll give Helen that same annoying habit.

So what do you think: electric force fields in the human body? Does it seem too farfetched, or might a smart but emotionally needy person believe in it?

72 comments:

  1. I think I like Helen, especially with that little odd bit of French.
    As for the electric force fields, why not? It seems to me that it meshes perfectly with auras and astral planes . . . .

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    1. Yes, they would have said it provides a "scientific basis" for auras and astral planes. Well intentioned but utterly wrong.

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  2. Hallie, Helen sounds like a great character, and her daughter is a good contrast in thinking to her. I think there are so many forces we’ve only barely tapped, so electric force fields in the human body sounds plausible to me. I’m fascinated by things such as auras and those who claim to see them. My sister knew a woman in her neighborhood who saw them, and I happened to be at my sister’s one day when the woman stopped by. I admit that I was a bit scared to ask what she saw, but I did ask. It was something that showed I was content, maybe blue. Supposedly, if she didn’t see an aura, it meant the person was going to die soon. I was really glad she saw one for me.

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    1. Blue sounds good. I saw somewhere that the aura of someone about to die is black.

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  3. I like your premise Hallie, even though I'm not much of an aura person. But that doesn't mean I don't like to read about "ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night."

    I do have a friend who sees auras. And another who sees music as color -- PhD musicologist. Both these women are very intelligent, and I don't question them. There are so many things I don't understand. N'est ce pas?

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    1. Music in color (also words in color) is I think a form of synesthesia. An actual thing.

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    2. I have a friend (a professional photographer) who has a form of synesthesia. He sees words--and books--as having colors. He also has a type of epilepsy so I wonder if these things are connected in the brain. There is so much we don't know.

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  4. Electric force fields? Hey, as a long time fan of Star Wars, if I can buy/ believe in "The Force", why not this too?

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    1. Hmmm. "Buying in" and "believing in" ... that's the gap between fiction and fact.

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  5. What Roberta said! I love the setup.

    I think there are many things we don't know. That we don't even know we don't know. Force fields in the body? Why not.

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  6. Not sure if this is relevant or not, but my father (born in 1921) could never wear a wristwatch -- they just wouldn't work when he wore them. Of course, in his day they weren't battery operated things, but wind-up. My sister inherited the trait, though once watches powered by batteries became a thing, she found they would run just fine on her wrist. Our family has done a lot of guessing, over the years, as to what might cause this, and electric force fields is one of our more popular guesses -- that through some kind of electro-magnetic field, they magnetized the moving parts of the wind up-watch, thus stopping it.

    In more general terms, I agree with Kathy above -- there are many forces in the world we do not yet understand, so why not force fields in the body?

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    1. That is a fantastic story! Wow. So thought-provoking!

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    2. My sister had/has the same issue with wrist watches. Makes a person wonder why...

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    3. My father had the same impact on wristwatches, even Timex battery powered ones.

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  7. Edith said it very well, that there are so many things still unknown to us. So who knows and why not? Hallie, your great characters will make for a great book!

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  8. I knew someone with that wristwatch problem! As for electric force fields, who knows? It’s too early to think about it. I’m sitting in the car waiting on my husband who is to have cataract surgery in the next hour or so. The parking lot is the waiting room. Bleah.

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    1. What! Two people have this? Now that… Is really something. I am looking it up.
      And oh gosh, that waiting room is so bleak. Everything is so difficult… We wish him the best, though!

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    2. Pat, take care. Hope all turns out great for your husband. I will need to have that surgery eventually, but not quite yet.

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    3. Make that three people. Warren had the same wristwatch problem. Best wishes for your husband's surgery, Pat!

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    4. Best wishes for your husband's surgery, Pat! I've had both eyes done. I'm sure he will be thrilled with the results.

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  9. I'm with Edith, about the things we don't know that we don't know. Or the things we think we know, but have gotten wrong. Is Pluto a planet? Is there an afterlife? Is there really such a thing as ESP? Up for grabs.

    Thank you, Hallie, for once again conceiving a story around an older woman. Looking forward to read what you come up with, because I know it will be worth waiting for.

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  10. Love the brownstone setting and generational characters! After reading Oliver Sacks's essays, I'm more open to things unexplained. I love music as colors. Write on!

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    1. I’ve read some of his essays - which collection are you referring to, Margaret?

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    2. Maybe The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat? Will think about it.

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  11. Hallie, did you know that in the last year (or so), scientists mapped an entirely new physical system in the human body? From the brain to your toes--kind of like an energy system, although right now my brain is a fuzzy on the exact details. So yeah, there is much we still don't know--even about our own bodies. Write on!

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    1. Seriously?? If you find it send me a link!

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    2. Sounds like that might correspond to the whole chakra theory of bodily energy flow, Flora. How fascinating!

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    3. Hallie, this might have been the link, since I do read Mental Floss periodically: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/538039/scientists-may-have-just-discovered-new-organ-and-it-could-be-biggest-yet

      The interstitium, as it's called, extends throughout the body--I was interested in what it says about electrical currents, acupuncture, and in my own mind--the concept of chi or qi, as Coralee mentions in her comment below.

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    4. Flora, that sounds like the principle behind acupuncture to me, too. Which means that the ancient Chinese had a big headstart in understanding the human body, and they've been maligned without cause by "mainstream" modern medicine.

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  12. Hallie- I'm over here with my finger hovering over the "purchase" key on Amazon. Get it on the page and I'll tap the purchase button.

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  13. Flora, that is so interesting! Looking that up too. And Hallie, of course it’s a good idea! That’s one of those things we just don’t know whether it’s true – – yet. While everyone may not see the force field, there is such a thing as intuition. Which is— sort of the same thing without the colors. We believe in that, right?

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    1. Hmm ... intuition... I need to think about that

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  14. Hallie, I am so in!! I love the three related female characters and their career choices and mind sets, all living in close proximity. Yes, yes, yes. My biggest question is, are we going to be laughing? I do so love comedy. Will we be terrified? There's a time for that, too.

    The other thing I love about your story is the background from your own childhood that you bring to it. You'll have to tell us, when you're ready, how each character came to be. I am excited for you and for us.

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  15. There certainly are forces that we don't know about, electric or otherwise.
    The day I visited Stonehenge , I also visited a village surrendered by standing stones. The guide invited each of us to pass between two stones with parallel rods. On 16 people, only I and an other one saw their rods cross in passing. Also, my father could find underground sources with hazel tree branches.
    There are more things than we can see but I can see that there is an other good story to come and I'm looking forward to it.
    The idea of multigenerational building involving three women is also fabulous.

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    1. That building... it’s my dream

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    2. We had a relative who was a professional water diviner with hazel sticks? I can’t remember the wood

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  16. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". One of my favorite quotes, and I believe it fits in here. It sounds like this person might have connected to the Asian concept of "qi" or chi; i. e. the flow of energy which is part of all flora and fauna. I remember the Kyrilian photos from the '60's. What intriguing images they were; especially because they could capture an image without using a camera (I think)

    Did you know in Japan people believe that a person moving from mental distress towards mental calmness will be able to see auras for a time? Perhaps empaths really can see things in altered states that others can not. So what is the secret? You have so many ways to go forward. Let it flow.

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    1. Kirlian photos are made with a photographic plate and electricity... and didn’t I see somewhere that migraine sufferers see auras? But that’s their own pathology
      Love that quote... writing it down

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  17. Love the concept! People do have auras. I have seen them since I was a child. It took me a while not to talk about them - in the way of childhood, I thought everyone saw them. As I aged, I learned how to control whether or not to see them. It works unless the aura is very strong. That's a good thing because in this age of COVID the auras are a chaotic mess!

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    1. A friend's niece saw auras when she was very young, Kait. She just figured everybody saw them. Her mother came to rely on the little girl's judgement when the girl didn't want to go to her church daycare anymore because the youth minister's aura was "black and ugly." He was later arrested for being a pedophile.

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    2. Gigi: Yikes! What a story and what a smart mum to trust her young daughter's sense of things.

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    3. Anytime, Hallie.

      Gigi, that is so frightening. I wonder if your friend's niece still sees auras and has learned to overlook them. They can be overwhelming if you let them be.

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    4. Kait, that is so interesting. How do you choose which ones to see?

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  18. Well, we know there are electrical impulses in the central nervous system, so why not force-fields in the body? Sounds just science-y enough to be believeable.

    And I love the idea of throwing in the odd French phrase.

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  19. Adding to the list of people who couldn't wear a wristwatch because they stopped. I did outgrow the issue, but have had some episodes during cancer treatment - which I assumed was because the chemotherapy affected my electrical system.

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    1. Have you had an MRI? I wonder if it interacts

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    2. Sorry to take so long to reply, but yes, I've had MRIs without a problem. For me, the issue is intermittent and I never know if it will happen. And by the way, I have the same issue with heart rate monitors, the type you wear a strap on your chest and a wristband display.

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  20. Why not indeed!? The question is what are they telling you

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  21. I love this idea, the whole thing: the multi-generational house (wouldn't we love that now), the auras, the fact that they are all women.
    Nous verrons is a wonderful phrase. I can already see Helen in my mind's eye!

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  22. I think this is a great character and premise, Hallie
    My daughter Anne was really good at reading people through cards—seeing extraordinary things about their pasts which must be picking up the same sort of vibes

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    1. Rhys, I once had my cards read by a woman who started seeing scenes from Andean archaeology in my cards. At the time, I was teaching with someone who had begun a program on green tourism, combining archaeology and travel tourism, in Peru--the highlight of the study tour was a trip to Machu Picchu. The reader didn't know my name before or after the reading--no way she could have known this prior to her reading.

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  23. Oh, wow, Hallie: Your premise is thoroughly intriguing. Write on! The three characters you've sketched will make for an interesting exploration of exactly the question you've posed us this morning. My answer is: Yes, a smart emotionally needy person might well gravitate to body auras and electric fields as a means to understand a difficult loss. And for sure I want to read about it and them!

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  24. I think I'd love this book, Hallie. I'm an old pagan and I write urban fantasy, so I can believe a dozen weird things before breakfast. I don't think that makes me un-intelligent, unsophisticated, or even non-scientific. I'm just open to oddball ideas.

    I think Helen sounds like a great character. Or, considering the French, might she be Helene? It's often the case that children rebel against their parents' weirdness. I can well imagine a young woman who grows up with a mother who sees auras and spouts French turning to rigorous science and strict "normality." And the granddaughter who rebelled against her mother's firm reality might well have found comfort at her "woo-woo" granny's kitchen table.

    Just write it already! Your readers are waiting!

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  25. I lump auras in with astrology, crystals and ghosts - I don't believe in any of them, but they sure are fun to play around with. And fun to read about! It strikes me that if Helen has the same background as your family friend, that is, successful in what was a man's field at the time, she may have had enough positive coincidences to serve as a strong confirmation bias. In other words, if she say an aura around someone who later bought a screenplay a couple of times, that might have been enough "scientific proof" for her to create a rock-solid belief system around all things woo-woo.

    And what of the now-very-valuable Brooklyn brownstone was bought from the proceedings of Helen's mystically-abetted career? I bet that would chafe the daughter, especially if she's living in the second apartment not just to help take care of her mother, but because she couldn't afford to buy closer in to her work.

    I'm also interested in whether the granddaughter believes in crystals, etc. or if she's cynically going along with those beliefs because it can be insanely profitable (a la Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP.)

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    1. Brilliant, Julia - I'm pasting your comments into an email to SELF and stashing them for thinking-about as a flesh out the storyline. THANK YOU!

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  26. Hallie, my brother has a multi-generational house; my mother lives in a beautiful apartment, complete with a full kitchen in the lower level, which also includes a massive family room where everyone gathers. When he first built the house, though, his sons and his second wife's daughter each had their own bedroom on the second floor, with the boys sharing an adjoining the second adjoining bath upstairs. My brother has the master suite on the first floor.

    They're getting ready to build a smaller home now, closer to me and to my sister who moved back to the area for the first time in 40 years. My mother will still have her own suite, but without having to go up and down stairs. It works well for them, especially with my brother's third wife now. She's the keeper of the bunch!

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    1. And THAT could be a novel! Esp the 2 exes and their mother in law... But seriously, how fortunate for her.

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  27. Hallie, I love the idea of Helen, the premise of the auras, and the multi-generational house. And Brooklyn! You've got all the ingredients for a great story, and now I'm wondering where the suspense element comes in. I can't wait to read this!

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  28. Nous verrons - I love it. I think I'm going to say that every time my editor asks for an update. LOL! Seriously, I love the characters and the setting and the quirkiness so much! This is going to be a hot ticket, Hallie!

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  29. Can’t wait to read this, Hallie. Sounds like you’ve got another winner on your hands!

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  30. Hallie, what a wonderful plan for writing. Please continue!

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