Editor’s note: This column contains reference to a drug-related death. 

Minnesota is no stranger to old, decrepit buildings and dingy caves — the preferred hiding places of many of our favorite phantom friends.

So-called haunted areas are all around us, rumored to be filled with ghouls and goblins. With these frightening spots just itching to be explored, who among us is willing to be the one who delves into their depths?

Among those exploring the Earth’s more ethereal inhabitants is Jerry Ayres, who first started investigations into the paranormal in 2010 after the death of his former boss, a bar owner. Ayres described coming across his former boss outside of the bar while on a drive with his ex-wife.

“The owner was wearing a goofy hat, denim cut offs, no shirt, no shoes and drinking a very large bottle of Jagermeister,” Ayres said. “And she said, ‘you know, that guy’s gonna end up killing himself.’”

Ayres said he discovered the next day his former boss had died in the night due to a cocaine-related overdose.

Around six months later, Ayres, his ex-wife and a few others would return to the bar he used to work at to do a paranormal investigation. Ayres said it was clear to him the place was haunted.

In their investigation, Ayres and his crew took a photo of what appears to be a strange woman in the window as well as a recording of a voice of whom Ayres believed to be his former boss saying, “it’s over Jerry.”

This would be the beginning of a long obsession with the paranormal and the birth of Ayres’ group, the Supernatural Investigators of Minnesota. Since then, Ayres has investigated a number of paranormal activities, even in fields like cryptozoology and UFO sightings. He also hosts his own supernatural radio show, “The Calling,” where he talks about all kinds of supernatural occurrences on a weekly basis.

Ayres also said, in recent years, his psychic abilities have increased, a trait he said he shares with his mother. He recounted instances of coming into physical contact with people and seeing visions of their lives or of their lost relatives. He said he no longer likes to indulge in his abilities, however, as it is a very stressful burden to carry.

I certainly don’t blame him.

Ayres said he had up close and personal ethereal interactions, including an attack from what he describes as “shadow people,” which caused him to contract histoplasmosis, an infection that is usually contracted from bat and bird feces.

There are many views on why paranormal investigation can be so appealing to some: two major theories being the appeal of its social nature and the psychological validation that comes with perceived understanding.

“I think going out ghost hunting or going out looking for Bigfoot with your friends could be a very, very interesting way to spend an evening,” Charles Randy Fletcher said.

Fletcher is a professor at the University of Minnesota and has been teaching The Psychology of Paranormal Phenomena course for 14 years.

“It satisfies some need for understanding,” Fletcher said. He also said the feeling of control in situations that seem unexplainable can be an alluring factor.

Supernatural endeavors like ghost, bigfoot and UFO hunting are often considered pseudoscience. Those who partake in such investigations, Fletcher said, are in danger of falling victim to confirmation bias.

“In science, we are taught that the way you try to support your hypothesis is by trying to prove that it’s wrong,” Fletcher said. “That is an unnatural act. What is more natural for us when we believe something is to go out and look for confirming evidence.”

This is the danger. Supernatural investigation becomes pseudoscience when the focus is on confirming evidence rather than attempting to find explanations contrary to what you already believe or are hoping to find.

Investigations into the supernatural can be fun. Going out with your friends to find mysterious entities sounds like a wonderful time. The danger lies in investigating these entities without the proper scientific approach.

If you choose to go out with your EMF reader and a couple of friends to the local haunted house, be sure to follow the scientific method before making any decisive claims.

Also, be kind to the ghosts. You don’t want a run-in with any dangerous entities because you didn’t treat them and their resting place with adequate respect. You never know what spooky sorcery could be placed upon you.

The wilderness in the land of 10,000 lakes seems almost endless, and with that comes a plethora of creatures and cretins. Bears, mountain lions and deer are just a few of the animals that can be found roaming the forests, but could there be more out there than meets the eye?

Rumors of Bigfoot and Sasquatch have always circulated throughout Minnesota and the wider United States. Inexplicably large, humanlike footprints and seven-foot-tall humanoids in the distance seem to be common sightings all over the country, and there are plenty of people looking to find the beings behind them.

“Since the beginning we kind of heard weird noises,” said Brian Rapaway, founder of the Minnesota Bigfoot Society. “And the locals were saying there’s Bigfoot around there.”

Rapaway has 240 acres of land south of Motley, Minnesota. Near the road he displays a large, powder-coated plywood cutout of Bigfoot that he lights up at night for all to see.

Rapaway said while he has never laid eyes upon a Bigfoot or Sasquatch, he has experienced what he refers to as “suspicious Bigfoot activity.” Much of this suspicious activity, he said, occurs in the woods: weird smells, branches being thrown at him or strange feelings that he is not alone while hunting.

Rapaway said he believes that Bigfoot is not necessarily a solid entity like you or me. Rather, he believes it is an otherworldly entity lacking a concrete physical form.

There are many different interpretations of what bigfoot really is. Abe “Elusive1” Del Rio, the director of the Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team, believes Bigfoot is more akin to an advanced species of hominid.

“The footprints that have been found are more comparable to a human being,” Del Rio said. “We want to be scientifically talking about that science.” Del Rio also hypothesized that Bigfoot travel in packs together.

Del Rio takes pride in his and his organization’s scientific approach to Bigfoot. They also try to avoid calling it “hunting,” as it implies they are attempting to capture and kill a Bigfoot, which they are not. Instead, Del Rio prefers to call them Bigfoot “outings” or “expeditions.”

“We will shoot one, absolutely, if we are threatened or our lives are at risk,” Del Rio said. “Otherwise, the only way we will shoot one is with a Canon camera.”

Among their methods of research are vocalization (howling or loudly mumbling to mimic a Bigfoot), tree-knocking (slamming sticks against a tree to communicate with a potential Bigfoot in the area) and video analysis.

Who better to do this analysis than someone who says they have seen Bigfoot on three separate occasions?

“Tall, slender, not fat and covered in hair,” is how Mike “Pops” Hexum, a field researcher for the Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team, described the Bigfoot he has encountered.

Hexum said he has seen a Bigfoot three separate times in his life, the first when he was hunting at the age of 14. He said his father told him to keep his Bigfoot stories to himself as people might find it off-putting.

Over the phone, Hexum also gave examples of the types of vocalizations one might do to try and communicate with or draw out a Bigfoot. He howled and murmured, imitating noises he had heard in the forest and attributed to Bigfoot.

The success of these calls is hard to say. Hexum and Del Rio said while they often hear responses to their vocalizations, they can never quite catch up enough to capture a Bigfoot on camera.

Del Rio described wielding a camera and being just three seconds behind a Bigfoot with his team members, but not quite making it in time. He went on to say his 23 years as a Bigfoot researcher are full of such stories: always just far enough away to miss out on the action.

Hexum said these near misses are not abnormal, though juvenile Bigfoot tend to be more curious and likely to take risks.

So, are there Bigfoot roaming through the forests of Minnesota? Are they the missing link in our evolutionary history, or some ethereal being beyond humanity’s comprehension? Probably not, but the forests of Minnesota certainly have some mysteries within their trees, so who’s to say?

One thing is certain: If you hear howling and tree-knocking the next time you’re in the woods, don’t brandish a weapon in the hopes of slaying Bigfoot; it might just be your local team of Sasquatch searchers.

Even if it isn’t, you don’t want to be the person threatening a seven-foot-tall ape-man with a weapon — do you?

On Nov. 5, boxer Aidos Yerbossynuly was put into a medically induced coma after suffering a knockout loss at The Armory in Minneapolis. This was the first loss of Yerbossynuly’s career, coming in the 12th round of a WBA super-middleweight title fight against David Morrell.

Injuries like this are not uncommon in boxing — a sport in which the primary objective is to hit your opponent in the head harder and more often than they hit you.

According to a study published in the Journal of Combative Sports, 112 boxers died due to injuries sustained from their sport from 2000–2011. That is a little more than nine deaths per year on average. In contrast, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) see far fewer deaths. The UFC, the largest MMA organization in the world, has not seen a single death in its 29 years of operation.

According to Eugene Webster Jr., a former boxer and current ringside inspector in Wisconsin, much of the issue stems from a lack of training of the people around the fight.

“All cornermen should be CPR trained,” he said.

Webster Jr. also said it is important that cornermen know their fighters’ tendencies.

“That’s what we look for is fighter safety, an inspector should know his eyes,” he said — especially considering that fighters won’t always be forthright about their pain. He reminisced on his own boxing career, particularly times when he tried to make his corner think “I’m not hurt, when really I am.”

Webster Jr. would go on to mention the importance of training the neck and head to decrease the likelihood of concussive injury from repeated blows. However, studies on the subject have produced inconclusive results.

In a boxing match, a fighter can receive a damaging, concussive blow without the fight coming to an end. As long as they can stand and put their gloves up within 10 seconds, they can continue fighting. They might receive a hundred more heavy hits to the head after the concussive blow.

Now, compare this to a UFC fight. Punching and kicking are a huge part of the sport, however, not all contact is directed at the head. There is also the added grappling and wrestling element: getting put to sleep in a choke hold, while unpleasant, won’t have the same ramifications as repeated blows to the head.

The key difference is that, in MMA, if a fighter hits the mat, they can be followed there without any break in the fight. If a fighter hits the mat in boxing, however, they are given time to get up, shake it off and get back into the fight. While at first glance, the latter might seem like the safer of the two, it doesn’t stand up to too much analysis.

Giving a fighter time to recover only puts them in a position to injure themselves even further. In MMA, once a fighter receives that concussive blow and falls to the ground, they can continue to be hit until the referee calls a stop to the fight. While this may seem like a barbaric practice, the moment a fighter is unable to protect themselves, the fight is stopped and a winner is declared.

Plenty of MMA fights end with a fighter getting hit in the head and falling to the mat and then the opposing fighter jumping on top of them and hitting them a couple more times before the fight immediately ends.

In boxing, a fighter could receive numerous punches and get knocked to the ground in a manner that would end the typical MMA fight, and yet fight on with more punches being thrown at their heads.

The sweet science isn’t going away anytime soon. With the new wave of influencer boxing bringing younger eyes to the sport, it will surely continue on for decades to come. MMA will surely also continue to be unrightfully labeled as human cock-fighting, even if it is far safer than its predecessor.

Hollywood is out of ideas. The movie industry has been boiled down to a recipe: get a big star or intellectual property that has made money in the past and make 90–180 minutes of relatable jokes and uninspired storytelling.

Okay, so maybe not all of it is completely uninspired garbage made to appeal to the lowest common denominator. In fact, the sheer amount of money poured into most movies coming from Hollywood means they are at least competently assembled. Plus, big-name actors mean big-name acting ability.

With all of this money and talent infused into production, it is unfortunate the creative process has been reduced to little more than an equation to generate box office revenue. Often, the whole adds up to less than the sum of its parts.

The highest grossing movie of 2022 so far — which no film this year has come close to yet — is “Top Gun: Maverick.” It’s a sequel to one of the most popular films of all time and stars one of the most popular actors of all time: Tom Cruise.

“Top Gun: Maverick” was filled with stunning practical effects, relatable characters and unmatched levels of fun and the cool factor. The lack of new intellectual property doesn’t necessitate a drop in production quality, but if you are looking for a fresh, nuanced and groundbreaking story, “Top Gun: Maverick” isn’t the movie for you.

Of the top 10 highest grossing movies this year, all of them are either sequels, reboots or an expansion of existing intellectual property in one way or another. The only questionable one is “Uncharted,” which is not a sequel or reboot, but rather a movie adaptation of one of the most popular video game franchises of all time.

The highest-grossing film this year that wasn’t based off of an existing movie is “Elvis” at number 12. However, this movie does still undoubtedly capitalize on an existing entity — namely one of the most famous musicians of all time. If you really want to nitpick, you could even argue that “Elvis” is just capitalizing on the success of movies like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocket Man,” dramatic tellings of the lives of some of the most prolific musical performers of all time.

On one hand, it is disheartening to see that most of the content coming out of Hollywood lacks originality, but it being so profitable means there is certainly an audience for it.

“There’s a comfort behind that and a kind of reliability that there is an audience for these [movies],” said Emily Roswald, a second-year psychology student and the operator of the University of Minnesota Film Club Instagram account.

Given the rise of streaming services in the last few years and the lull in box office sales, it makes sense that a film studio would want to make sure whatever it is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on would have an audience excited to see it.

“Hollywood is going to continue to regurgitate older ideas for quite some time because that’s what makes money,” Roswald said. “Audiences would rather go with what’s comfortable and what’s reliable to them, rather than not liking something that is completely original.”

Consumers want to be sure if they spend their hard-earned dollars at the cinema, they are going to enjoy what they see. It’s a whole lot easier to pony up $25 for a ticket and some snacks to go watch 120 minutes of characters you already know having new adventures in high definition than to roll the dice on something you’ve never heard of before.

“That’s the way audiences are looking at doing anything post-pandemic: ‘Is it worth my time?’” said Xavier Greene, a second-year social science student and member of the University Film Club.

However, Greene drew attention to movies like “Lightyear,” “Halloween Ends” and “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which all underperformed at the box office. All of these films were sequels or spinoffs of some kind, “Halloween Ends” in particular being the 13th movie of its franchise.

Just as not all spinoffs and sequels are destined to overperform, new intellectual material isn’t necessarily destined to underperform. “There is ‘Smile,’ which is just about to hit 100 million for domestic box office, which is incredibly rare for a horror film overall,” Greene said.

The market is obviously not dead for new intellectual property yet, and it shouldn’t be anytime soon. With studios continually making and remaking the same ideas over and over again, fatigue is inevitable. That opens the door for new stories and ideas to be told.

Until then, however, Hollywood will continue down its path. Sequel to the second highest grossing film of all time, “Avatar: The Way of Water” comes out later this year. Will it be a revelation of fun like “Top Gun: Maverick,” or will it be another in a line of disappointing sequels and story continuations like “Halloween Ends?”

Only time will tell. Until then, take the time to watch some movies with actors and stories you’re unfamiliar with. You might be surprised how entertaining a fresh outlook can be.

Editor’s note: While the culture surrounding drugs like psilocybin and dimethyltryptamine is changing, possession of psychedelic substances is still illegal in the majority of U.S. cities.

We’ve all seen movies where someone slaps what looks like a small stamp on their tongue and suddenly the world around them bursts with color. Pop culture has portrayed psychedelics like this for decades: as typically used by hippies at some festival reminiscent of Burning Man or sitting around a fire listening to someone strum the acoustic guitar.

Despite the portrayal of psychedelics in media, there is more to them than long hair and Grateful Dead t-shirts. In fact, psychedelics like psilocybin – the active chemical in magic mushrooms – could hold the key to greater spiritual connectivity and cognitive awareness.

“Psychedelic means mind manifesting,” said Zane Crabtree, the president of the Psychedelic Education Club of Minnesota. Crabtree will graduate from the University of Minnesota this semester with degrees in neuroscience and psychology.

For Crabtree, psychedelics were an entry point into understanding spirituality.

“When I first used psychedelics, I was not a religious person,” he said. After trying psychedelics, however, things were different.

“I certainly was faced with something that you would call spiritual,” he said. “When I’m thinking about a spiritual experience, I think of experiences people have encountering something that is other than self.”

Psychedelics are hallucinatory in nature, so it makes sense that under these drugs one would perceive something they believe to be other than themselves. However, can you write it off as a hallucination when you learn something you were never previously privy to?

Growing up, Crabtree said he had grown up on fast food, rarely ate vegetables and had limited knowledge of healthy living. But, in one psychedelic experience, he said he was shown in great detail the connection between the body and everything around it and how he should be treating his body.

Was this information from an external source? Or was it pulled from somewhere deeper in the subconscious? The thalamus could hold the answers to these questions.

“The thalamus is a relay hub for information in the brain,” Crabtree said. “The thalamus is saying ‘this information is going to go forward and this information is going to stop here.’ Under the influence of psychedelics, that information is less gated.”

This ease of gating can be seen in the form of synesthesia, the experience of mixing senses, Crabtree said.

If these substances can make someone smell sounds or hear textures, it isn’t far-fetched to think they could connect you to information deep in your subconscious. Things you didn’t even know you knew. Maybe even information that you never learned in the first place – complex understanding of the self hardwired within us. Psychedelics can be the key to unlocking this information.

“The more spiritual board would say this information came from somewhere outside of myself,” Crabtree said. “It feels like that information is from outside of you, this is not necessarily true.”

Another substance that can grant the user these spiritual experiences is dimethyltryptamine (DMT), Crabtree said.

In one DMT experience, Crabtree said he met six creatures, not quite human and seemingly of higher levels of being and intelligence. They had tried to relay some kind of information to him, but he couldn’t quite understand. “This is what I’m principally interested in in my journey through academia,” Crabtree said. “I’m interested in what the heck is going on.”

“I’m not a religious person,” Crabtree continued. “I don’t believe there is a god like people in the western world would claim there to be, but on the other hand, I am having these psychedelic experiences where I am experiencing something other than myself.”

He hypothesizes the simplest way to explain these experiences is that all of the information that guides these trips is from deep within the user’s mind – information they wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

There is a saying that the simplest explanation is often the right one. The brain is a very complex system we are not even close to understanding. However, does that entirely rule out the spiritual element?

Experiences like déjà vu, or dreaming something before it happens are reported all the time. These experiences could hold some advanced, metaphysical properties we have yet to discover in the brain. Psychedelics could help us connect to those properties. Maybe even the universe as a whole.

“It seems like my consciousness is the peak of a wave and under psychedelics, it calms the waters, and I flow back into the sea. Then I can notice how I’m connected to everything else and my conscious experience is, in substance, just like everything else,” Crabtree said.

Psychedelics aren’t all consciousness expansion and higher beings. There is potential for bad experiences. On psychedelics, people can experience terrifying hallucinations that may last for hours.

“People should be very cautious when taking psychedelics, but I would like to reword what is called a bad trip to a difficult trip,” Crabtree said.

Though they can be frightening and uncomfortable experiences, these difficult trips can teach you a lot. Some of the most influential experiences you can have from psychedelics are through difficult trips, Crabtree said.

One shouldn’t actively seek out having a difficult trip on psychedelics, but if you do have one, there is still space to learn from it.

Set and setting are huge in terms of safe psychedelic usage. Your set is your mindset and comfort level, and a safe setting means being in a safe place with a sober friend to ground you if you are having a particularly difficult time. First-timers should also start slow and with a low dosage, Crabtree said.

There are still many phenomena that are difficult to explain concerning psychedelics. While some of their effects on the mind are still a mystery, psychedelics can be a great way to explore yourself and the world around you from a unique perspective.

“It’s a good idea to write the next day about your experience or talk with someone that you trust,” Crabtree said. “So whatever you experienced, good or bad. You could try to take something from that and try to learn.”

The Psychedelics Education Club will be hosting the Steve Rummler HOPE Network on Nov. 19 to educate on the effective use of Naloxone to treat an overdose. For more information, contact the club at psyedclb@umn.edu.

Have you ever laid out in the grass on a cool summer night and gazed at the stars overhead? Maybe you traced the constellations in your mind and pondered who was first to play this cosmic game of connect-the-dots. You start to wonder if there is more to the night sky than the stars. Perhaps there’s some life behind those lights.

UFOs and other strange aerial phenomena have been sighted for centuries. For as long as there have been these strange sightings, there have been people and organizations looking to explain them. One of those organizations is the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), which works to investigate potential extraterrestrial sightings and educate the public about UFOs.

“We’ve been studying these light phenomena for decades,” said Anna Scott, who has been a field investigator with MUFON’s Minnesota chapter for around five years.

Most investigations that MUFON conducts are completely online or over the phone. Sites like Whitepages help verify reports. Otherwise, they try to find aircraft, satellites or any other aerial phenomena that could explain the sightings.

In the event of a UFO sighting, a MUFON investigator will contact anyone involved and verify the validity of the sighting and the identities of those involved. Once the people involved have been identified, they will try to find any explanation from records of satellites, weather balloons or anything else that would’ve been visible from the spot of a sighting. Most investigations are as simple as locating a sighting on a map and finding a record of anything flying in that area at that time.

Only about 10–20% of the sightings MUFON investigates are deemed unidentifiable, said William McNeff, the chief investigator of MUFON’s Minnesota chapter. McNeff primarily oversees the other investigators and their assignments and picks up some cases himself along the way.

So, how does one become a field investigator? First, you need to be a member. Membership dues range from $60–$300, depending on what perks you’re interested in.

“If you want to become a field investigator, you buy a manual, which costs about $100,” Bob Spearing, MUFON’s director of international investigations, said. “Then you take a test online after finishing going through the manual. And then we’ll certify you as a field investigator.” Spearing has been with the organization for about nine years.

“We get a lot of our money from membership. Right now, we have 5,000 members, and approximately 500 of them are field investigators.” Spearing said.

MUFON sells a great deal of merchandise and has a donation page on their website. You can choose your own amount to donate, but they do have pre-set donation amounts. These range from the $150 enthusiast level to the perk-laden $5,000 inner-circle level.

It makes sense that a non-profit, volunteer-based organization would rely heavily on donations, but those numbers seem absurd. Sure, things like their lab in Missouri and yearly symposium need funding. Still, the extent to which their website is monetized seems ridiculous.

MUFON also keeps a lot of their information and records behind a paywall. This includes access to their members-only section.

For an organization claiming to have an interest in educating the public, these monetary barriers seem counterproductive. But, MUFON needs funding to do their research, and they don’t want funding from sources like previous funder and billionaire Robert Bigelow.

Bigelow provided funding for MUFON’s Starteam — first responders to any high-importance UFO sightings or interactions — until he parted ways with MUFON around 15 years ago. This was due to disagreements on funding allocation and Starteams’ less than impressive results, Spearing said.

MUFON is attempting to bring back Starteam by the end of this year. This time, without the funding of a billionaire behind them, investigators will have to supply most tools and materials themselves, Spearing said.

With greater amounts of independence, the Starteam will get a fresh start. Though it is unclear how successful a rag-tag group of investigators will be as a first-responder organization.

Another one of MUFON’s ventures is the Experiencer Resource Team (ERT), which Scott and McNeff are both a part of. The ERT, which helps people who have had encounters like UFO sightings or abductions, holds support groups and vets therapists or other professionals who are open minded to the possibility of unexplainable phenomena, Scott said.

As a registered nurse, Scott said she can tell if someone is showing symptoms of mental illness. Scott said if individuals seem to need help past an abduction support group or an open-minded therapist, they can refer them to their own psychiatrist.

“Most people demonstrating symptoms of severe mental illness already have a psychiatrist,” Scott said. “We can refer them back to their own psychiatrist, but we aren’t a health care provider or a referral system.”

Most people MUFON interacts with are of relatively of sound mind. It is a great minority that demonstrate severe mental illness like schizophrenia, Scott said.

Granting people the ability to talk to others who will listen and believe them can be a huge plus, but it should be done with care. Simply validating extraordinary experiences without care for how sound of mind the experiencer is could be dangerous. Even if it is only a great minority of experiencers who demonstrate mental illness, the fact that any are dealt with at all means great care should be taken to ensure those ideas don’t lead them to harm themselves or anyone else.

It would be unfair to say MUFON is neglecting to help people who need it. The extreme cases are few and far between and are usually handled with care by the ERT. However, care must be taken to prevent those in need from slipping through the cracks.

Unfortunately, there is more to MUFON’s history than Starteam and the ERT.

Former MUFON national director Jan Harzan was arrested in 2020 for soliciting sex from a detective whom Harzan believed to be a 13-year-old girl. He was immediately removed from his position in MUFON. While the organization acted swiftly, this is not the only time they attracted undesirables.

In August, the Minnesota chapter had to cancel a guest speaker last minute when the organization discovered he had Nazi ties. While they quickly removed him as a speaker once they found out, Minnesota Chapter Director Tom Maher said this individual had already spoken at one of their previous meetings.

The question that arises is: does MUFON do enough to prevent these situations?

There is only so much that can be done to prevent the wrong people from gaining a platform. Often, the best thing that can be done is to right a wrong that you were unable to prevent. Historically, MUFON has been quick to do that.

Maher called events like Harzan’s arrest “frustrating and disappointing.”

MUFON is an imperfect organization to say the least. Some of their practices are questionable, and they have been associated with some nefarious characters.

However, the average member just believes there is more in the sky than airplanes and astronauts. Can you blame them?

Often, people who believe they have experienced an otherworldly or unexplainable event are written off as crazy or liars. But, with so much out there we don’t understand, how can we be sure these extraterrestrial experiences are fiction?

“Human history is just a history of being wrong all the time. So I try not to be too attached to being right.” Maher said.

Leaves have turned, and carved pumpkins decorate yards. Halloween is just around the corner, but, for some, this holiday is a little deeper than spooky costumes and free candy.

The origins of Halloween are closely related to that of Samhain (pronounced SAH-win), a Pagan holiday of the Celtic people celebrating the end of harvest season and a transition into the colder season.

Jake Ryan — known as J. Ryan locally — is a tarot card reader and spiritual consultant at The Eye in Minneapolis. The walls of The Eye are filled with assorted crystals, herbs, candles and books to guide the uninitiated through their spiritual journey. After passing through a curtain of beads, you find Ryan’s room. There, at a small table in front of a shelf of crystal balls and other assorted mystical goodies, he performs his readings.

“Samhain is essentially the new year,” Ryan, a practitioner of Slavic Witchcraft, said. “It’s supposed to be very spiritual in that the veil is thinnest in this time of year.”

The veil he referenced is thought of as a barrier between the living and the spirit world. In the fall months, it is said to be at its thinnest, allowing for more crossover between the two. This plays a part in the obsession with ghosts and ghouls during Halloween.

Ryan said the Minneapolis area has one of the biggest Pagan communities outside of Salem, Oregon.

“The Midwest is crawling with Witches,” Ryan said. “What we do here is foster community to come together under the umbrella of Witchcraft or Paganism.”

Often, when discussing Witchcraft or less conventional versions of spirituality, people get very hung up on magic and spellcraft. While that can be a large part of how people express themselves spiritually, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

“There are certainly people who are enchanted by the magic element of things,” Ryan said. “But when you are in a reading, in a session or seeing a ritual, there’s something about community spirituality and coming together that feels innately powerful and impactful.”

Community plays a huge part in everything in life. To have that support in a venture to explore yourself and your spiritual beliefs is truly invaluable.

A huge draw to the Pagan and Witch communities is a disillusionment or a dissatisfaction with religion, Ryan said. “A lot of folks come to Witchcraft or Pagan practices because of religious trauma,” he said. “They are looking for answers that more deeply resonate with themselves.”

Anna Gleason works at Magus Books in Minneapolis, a bookstore and herb shop that specializes in the spiritual. A huge step someone can take to get in touch with their spirituality is meditating on their intentions and working to bring them toward realization, Gleason, who describes herself as an eclectic witch, said.

“Meditation is a part of all religion, even in prayer,” she said.

Finding spirituality outside of organized religion can be individually rewarding. Instead of following your family’s path, you’re finding your own form of spirituality.

Heather Kraemer is the manager at Awakenings, a metaphysical shop in Minneapolis.

“The biggest thing to remember is nobody’s word is law,” Kraemer said. “It’s your job to find what works for you, what resonates. It’s totally in your hands.”

Herbs, candles and crystals are a huge draw to these stores. Even searching for these spiritual supplies can be therapeutic.

“Typically the things that call to you, that you keep going back to … those are typically the ones that have chosen you back,” Kraemer said of the spiritual objects that can be found in her store.

Whether the different candles and crystals found at Awakenings actively choose you and connect with you on a metaphysical level is up for debate. What isn’t up for debate is the connection that can be achieved in these communities, whether it is with those around you or a deeper connection with the self.

Sage leaves under your pillow may not make your dreams come true, and sprinkling cinnamon outside your door may not protect your home, but the magic from the communities of witchcraft and Paganism comes from the connections built within them.

The search for some kind of greater power to connect to is a universal one. Those who can find it within themselves and the people around them are truly lucky.

These hubs of spirituality often hold community events, like Psychic Sunday at The Eye. Psychic Sunday is a community Samhain celebration, complete with shopping and tarot reading. Their next Psychic Sunday will be held Oct. 30.

You don’t have to start brewing potions, burning sage leaves or setting curses to explore your spirituality. The veil is thinning after all, so why not get in touch with your spiritual side?

Get in the holiday spirit, meditate a bit and see what connection you can find within yourself to the world around you. If you’re feeling up to it, maybe even try to find some connection with the world beyond.

Gambling is fun. Whether it is the thrill of doubling down a hand of blackjack or simply winning $20 ripping pull tabs, putting money on the line gets the heart pumping.

With casinos littering Minnesota, and pull tabs in just about every bar you walk into, gambling is everywhere. So, why is the line drawn at sports betting?

Sports are an important part of the lives of many Minnesotans. Sixty-five thousand people occupy the US Bank Stadium every Vikings game and create a sea of purple and gold. Fans young and old line the stadiums for every Gopher game. Not to mention the support for the Minnesota Wild – Minnesota is the state of hockey after all.

Sports have been woven into the fabric of Minnesota culture more deeply than just about anywhere else in the nation, maybe even the world. For a state so connected to sports, the banning of sports betting seems bizarre, particularly when you consider that just about any other form of gambling is completely legal in Minnesota.

According to a poll of Minnesotans by KSTP and SurveyUsa, 64% of Minnesotans are in favor of legalizing sports betting. The Minnesota House of Representatives even passed a bill that would legalize sports betting, but it was never voted on by the Senate.

The Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA) also offered support for the bill in a letter to the senate. In the letter, the MIGA stated the bill “is based on a recognition that tribal gaming has an unblemished reputation and expertise in conducting gambling and thus entrusts tribes to exclusively operate as sports betting license holders.”

Of course, the casinos would be in favor of a bill that is going to legalize another form of gaming at their establishments. It is simply good business. So, why not let them do business? It is far better than the alternative.

For the average Minnesotan sports bettor, you have a couple of options for betting: drive to Wisconsin or some other state where it’s legal, use a shady website like MyBookie.com (which is legal only because it operates out of Curacao) or use an app like PrizePicks (which only gets away with it because it is technically betting on fantasy sports).

As a wise friend once told me, technically correct is the best kind of correct. In this case, however, it just leaves you feeling unsure of your legal standing.

The dubious legality of those sites does beg the question: why? Why is it legal to use offshore betting sites or apps that operate through loopholes of what exactly is allowed to be bet on?

Would it not be better for the state to keep that money in Minnesota rather than Wisconsin, Curacao or god knows where else? With so many ways around it already, and so many other forms of gambling completely legitimate in the eyes of the law, why not go the whole nine yards?

The citizens want it, the casinos want it and even the House of Representatives wants it. Plus, the people who really want it are just finding ways around the current laws.

Legalize sports gambling in Minnesota; let the state reap the benefits of the vice. Most of all, let sports fans have a little more skin in the game on Sunday afternoons.

From Sept. 9–23 there have been three separate incidents of indecent conduct in campus bathrooms. Given the frequency of these occurrences, is there more that should be done to protect students from such horrific invasions of privacy?

Flimsy, cheap partitions make up the stalls of most public bathrooms around campus and around the country. These partitions leave large gaps at the bottom and cracks around the door. It can be difficult to get comfortable enough to do your business with a window for a peeping-tom so readily available.

In the two most recent cases of indecent conduct, these partitions were exploited by perpetrators attempting to catch a glimpse or even take a photo of a student — one who deserves to have their privacy better protected.

These below-par partitions should not be the norm, not for the average restroom and definitely not for the University of Minnesota. The one-person bathroom you can find at the average gas station with one toilet, one sink and one lockable door does a better job of protecting the user’s right to privacy than the barriers we are expected to defecate behind while on campus.

The issue lies directly in the structure of the bathroom. Change must occur, but it will be met by many barriers.

One barrier to change will be building code and regulation. A large regulatory factor in the restroom is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

This was made clear by Hans-Christian Karlberg, an adjunct instructor in architecture at the University who will soon open his own practice.

“The point of this ADA aspects in these sheet partitions is to maximize space,” Karlberg said. “So you need a nine-inch clearance between floor and the partition so that someone in the wheelchair can have that foot sticking out, ease of maneuverability.”

So, the structure of these partitions and a lot of their lapses in privacy protection come from these accessibility regulations. Therefore, we must keep accessibility in mind when we try to improve privacy.

So, why not just make the bathrooms bigger? Then you could meet both accessibility and privacy requirements.

“When you’re laying out a bathroom, you’re looking at squeezing the space, so that you can maximize other, more important spaces, like corridors and other facilities,” Karlberg said.

Karlberg’s point raises yet another complication. How can we make the bathroom a more comfortable place without compromising the area around it? Does the function of other areas even matter when the sanctity of the bathroom is compromised?

In the American Institute of Architects statement of values, they say they work to “advance our nation’s quality of life and protect the public’s health, safety and welfare, as it has done for 160 years.”

When it comes to safety and welfare, it is easy to see that, in the average public bathroom, these standards are not being met.

Amendments to these regulations must be found, but we should be wary of over-correction.
“So, when we find solutions for these issues, there will be a caveat whereby solutions might change spaces that become then like fortified prisons,” Karlberg said. “We don’t want the adverse effects of solutions. It needs to be holistic.”

In solving the issue of the public bathroom, regulation and structure must be addressed in a way that maintains the comfort, security and accessibility of the bathroom. This will not have an easy solution, but what we have now simply isn’t cutting it.

The University will have a long road ahead of them in determining the best course of action. After all, they have many aspects and people to consider.

“There are so many stakeholders at place, you know, issues at place,” Karlberg said. “ I’m sure you know, the police department will have their advice as well.”

“There are measures in place already in these buildings to create the safest possible environment,” Jake Ricker, the University’s public relations director, said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

If this is considered as safe as possible, that says a lot about the imagination of our campus security.

Ricker also referenced President Joan Gabel’s finance request that would increase police presence on campus. If granted, the request would also improve lighting, cameras, building access and other security features around campus.

“Don’t let strangers into buildings, don’t prop doors open and please report suspicious behavior immediately,” Ricker said when asked how people on campus could help.

While this is sound advice, and it is good to hear building security is getting a facelift, does it do much to amend the issue? Will more police on campus really have an impact on the issues faced in maintaining student privacy, or will it further infringe upon it?

An increase in police presence isn’t going to do much to stop a crime that occurs in a bathroom unless there are police inside that bathroom. The problem at hand is one fundamental to the design of campus bathrooms. University police can bring in as many officers and put up as many lights as they please, but the problem is in the partition.

The University and the people in charge of protecting it have a problem in front of them they have yet to fully address. Something more must be done to protect the rights of students, faculty and any other human being who happens to use a public toilet on campus.

As it stands now, they are failing to do so. How many more acts of indecent conduct is it going to take?

An art piece generated by artificial intelligence won an art show at the Colorado State Fair on Aug. 29, leading the art community to question the legitimacy of both the victory and the art itself.

Though the person who submitted the piece acknowledged it was AI-generated when entering the show, is it fair to expect humans to compete against a computer? Does a piece crafted by an AI constitute art, or does it undermine the humanity of the craft?

Sam Fleming is a third-year architecture student at the University of Minnesota and the cartoonist at the Minnesota Daily. He is staunchly against any award for the work of an AI.

“Winning an award I am in 100% opposition to,” Fleming said. “Countless hours spent honing a craft usurped by someone with no skill or ability.”

Fleming’s response raises a question: Is AI art inherently less valuable simply because it requires less work?

Fleming has been drawing all of his life. He started selling his art when he was 19 years old and has appeared in countless fairs and galleries. For someone like him, the idea of an AI-generated image, scraped together in seconds, replacing a piece that has hours or days put into it is a slap in the face.

There are direct, negative implications for the average artist trying to sell their work when an AI like DALL-E mini can pump out pieces thousands of times faster than the average human artist.

As it stands now, the technology isn’t that advanced — yet. Yang Chen, a third-year art student, doesn’t think AI is ready to overtake humanity, artistically or otherwise.

“AI right now is not good enough to do art,” Chen said. “It can make a pretty picture; it can make what people like, but it can’t capture what people can.”

Sure, AI can mathematically combine the works of a thousand different artists into something we have never seen before. But can it express emotion like a human being can? Does the artist’s lack of sentience detract from their art’s beauty?

Grace Dinzeo, a fourth-year art student, thinks something is lacking in the artistic work of a machine.

“There is something special about human creativity and spontaneous creation,” she said. “Nothing beats the act of touching and seeing things in reality.”

If reality is the concern, maybe digital and AI-generated art should be relegated to their own fields entirely, instead of being lumped in with traditional art.

Russ White, an artist who works in the art department at the University, seemed relatively nonchalant when asked about the rise of AI art.

“I’m not worried about it,” White said. “Artists will always make art, and coders will always code.”

He chuckled when asked about AI winning award shows. “No accounting for taste,” he said.

Ultimately, White is unworried.

“I don’t view art as a field made for competition,” he said.

Much criticism of AI art points toward the lack of human craftsmanship and skill. However, what about the code that created such an AI? Should the coder not be considered an artist for the artist they have manufactured?

Toward the end of our conversation in the Regis Center for Art, White pointed toward the Katherine E. Nash Gallery. The space currently houses “A Picture Gallery of the Soul,” a photographic exhibition celebrating Black history.

“The same things were said about photography,” White said. “Now it is accepted as its own art form. It makes sense to be wary, but we will always create new things.”

Sure, in an art show where first place gets a monetary prize, it is unfair to expect the average artist to compete with a computer. Beyond that, to pass off the work of code as your own creation is unethical, to say the least.

Despite this, will we one day see a world where AI-generated art stands on its own as a subsection of the art universe? Perhaps one day we will see galleries dedicated to the works of our AI compatriots.

For now, though, they should probably stay out of the average art show.