Sleep: disorders/paralysis/dreams/brainwaves/paranormal/
Intro:
Like most of us, the world of mystery, the unknown, and the increasing number of technological advances we see each day to help us reach a better understanding of these elements have fascinated me from a very young age. I remember tuning in every weekday morning, while on summer break from school, watching back to back shows: Sightings and Unsolved Mysteries. I also remember watching shows and short documentaries such as A Haunting on the Discovery Channel. I had large books I would tote around, reading cover to cover as quickly as I purchased them without being able to put them down. Yes, the paranormal world was one which both fascinated and frightened me which I assume is true for most of us; a realm of unknown and discomfort. The stories which entertained me during a bright, sunny day would also keep me awake at night when shadows took over and silence was deafening. I find it interesting that the paranormal world which captures most of us from an early age stays with some far into adult life like an imaginary friend and fantasy, yet others push it out of sight and out of mind feeling as though speaking about such ideas would make them appear unhinged and take credibility away from their intelligence. I, however, believe that whatever stage of life, from childhood into adulthood, one constant remains and that is the fascination with the unknown, the desire to delve into a mystery and crack the code; this of course is what humans are meant to do.
So where do we begin this adventure? Let me introduce myself. My name is Danielle, I am thirty years old and I currently work as a registered nurse on an acute neurology/stroke unit at a local community hospital in Massachusetts. I grew up in Lewiston Maine and have spent most of my life residing in the New England area. Shortly after graduating high school, I joined the Air Force and was stationed at Malmstrom AFB in Montana for most of my enlistment working in nuclear security and a small portion doing base patrol/law enforcement. My plan was to finish my time and pursue a career as a police officer hopefully working my way into investigations. I met my husband there who was from Western Massachusetts where we live today. He was also considering a career in law enforcement. As our time came to an end we became passionate about and interested in the healthcare field and both pursued careers as registered nurses; he currently works as a surgical nurse. I still have a passion for law enforcement and am a huge fan of everything true crime; especially with the recent explosion of podcasting and the armchair detective/internet sleuth phenomenon. I am not exactly sure where my career will head; but I am hoping to pursue a graduate degree in forensic nursing and eventually work with patients afflicted by addiction and mental health issues as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. I recently was introduced to the amazing and unbelievable podcast world sort of by accident. Along with Unsolved Mysteries and similar shows such as America’s Most Wanted, I enjoyed short documentary style shows such as Dateline and 48 hours. I am an outdoor enthusiast and spend many long hours walking; hiking; and training for long distance running races and at times music becomes a little boring. Around the time I was training for my first marathon I would often put on YouTube and listen to episodes of Dateline. The problem with this was my large data usage due to the video streaming. I would soon receive a message that 75% of data was used and of course an angry text from my, at the time fiancée wondering what the heck I was doing. I received an IPAD that Christmas which I had never previously owned an apple product and explored an app called podcasts which I had heard occasionally from my husband when he listened to a sports show around football season. What I discovered (which of course was nothing new for most) blew me away, and I couldn’t believe that I had actually thought shows such as Dateline told a complete story and gave the perfect picture (which of course to their defense they cover an immense amount of content and only have a short amount of airtime per story for their audience) An entire world of everyday people creating masterpieces and telling oral stories which inspire, thrill, terrify, and move us; an art that has been around since the beginning of our time. And it wasn’t just the amazing stories; but the passion; diligence; desire to get the facts right, teach, and learn; an entire world of education in thousands of areas all happening in real-time. My first introduction to this world was of course: Serial. This website and blog will be just as it is titled and a vehicle to delve into various mysteries and gray areas of life which both fascinate and terrify us. Please bear with me, as I work full-time currently, third shift and am also still doing school part-time. I have absolutely NO experience in media, journalism, sound engineering, web design, etc. and am taking the learn as I go approach which may be slightly foolish but I hope that my passion and desire to learn and continue on will be my driving force as well as all of you, my incredible audience, all with your own experiences and expertise which I hope you will share with me as we go along. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what this entity is, will be, or will become, as I am writing this I have disorganized ideas and thoughts flooding my mind and too many directions I’d love to jump into and go with this project. For now, my focus is content; stories; participation from you guys hopefully with similar passions and if you made it this far thank you for being here, I am very excited to start! All I know is that I must do this, and I was meant to do this, whatever this is. Just as we all love a good mystery and the unknown sometimes the story evolves into a beautiful masterpiece when the narrator has no idea where he or she was heading in the first place; so, I am going to sit back and let the story happen. So, with all of that said, let us Demand an Exploration.
My focus:
Yes, I am heavily involved in the scientific field, specifically in healthcare and neurology, but I have and attempt to maintain a very open mind and enjoy exploring just about any area of mystery from the paranormal to very real criminal investigations, cold cases, and missing persons. I will delve into various topics which involve mystery and use scientific evidence and fact-based research from both written sources and live interviews with the experts to support my findings. I also want to hear from you the audience, and just maybe with all our minds working together we may just be able to solve a couple mysteries! This blog will also become a weekly podcast in the very near future so stay tuned! Please feel free to email me suggestions; ideas for topics and stories; questions anytime: DGOULET@demandinganexploration.com
Our first area of exploration coming soon: Graveyard shift workers; the brain; and paranormal accounts: what are those shadows sometimes seen in the corner of your eye? Does the brain create stimulus when we are awake at certain abnormal times? Can you train your body to normalize a new Circadian rhythm; what are all these paranormal stories around the world; some similar in nature from those of us who work the third shift….Is there something there or is it all in the mind?
Articles; sources; books; journals; media; etc:
Working The Graveyard Shift, Fighting The Sandman
https://www.npr.org/2011/04/26/135741231/working-the-graveyard-shift-fighting-the-
Works Cited
Adrian R. Morrison, D. P. (2018, Sept 11). The Brain on Night Shift . Retrieved from The Dana Foundation : http://www.dana.org/Cerebrum/Default.aspx?id=39318