Believing in Ghosts

I was reading an article that referenced CICAP, the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims on the Paranormal, and saw an interesting statistic. A 1996 Gallup poll revealed that 33% of Americans believe that houses can be haunted, and 30% believe that ghosts or spirits of dead people come back in certain places and situations.

By 2005 the "haunted house" figure had risen to 37%, but there are many more statistics to look at.

To check out the original article that I saw referencing the 1996 study, go to:
http://www.cicap.org/en_artic/at101013.htm

And if you want to get into some serious stats, check out:
http://home.sandiego.edu/~baber/logic/gallup.html

Can't get TAPS? Call COPS!

I recently found an article that starts out, "When Laura Wacyk of rural Richland County had what she considered to be a close encounter of the supernatural sort on a recent tour of Malabar Farm State Park in Lucas, she felt an investigation of the phenomenon was in order."

The article says that she first thought of one of the most famous ghost-hunting groups operating in America today: The Atlantic Paranormal Society, made famous by the TV show "Ghost Hunters". They're apparently booked solid because of their notoriety.

Instead, Ms. Wacyk was forced to look elsewhere, and settled on a group named COPS. To read about the investigation, just click on the link below

http://libpub.dispatch.com/

Caught on film!

People send me pictures all the time - orbs, ectoplasm, you name it. Some are easily explainable, while others are down-right baffling. One particularly interesting photograph has come up in Gloucester, England - many people are claiming that they've got the real thing. To see the photos, and read the story, go to:

http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=43427

A Haunted Library...

Some places seem to positively attract ghosts: courthouses, jails, and even libraries. I don't know why that is, but it's always the case. For today's post, it concerns a library in Bellevue, Pennsylvania, and you can read all about it at:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/

Although it doesn't explain why all libraries seem to have a ghost story...

Poll Results!

I really didn't know what to expect from this poll, and it was actually up for more than a week because of the Texas Conference and all of the other things that came up to post. I think that I heartily agree with the results, though.

The question was: The ability to encounter spirits is most affected by a person's...

And the answers were:
Open-mindedness 70%
Age 20%
Sex 10%
Socio-Economic Staus 0%
Level of Education 0%

Personally, I think that open-mindedness is the most important thing. I do think that age is a factor, though, only in that children seem to be more open to the supernatural than adults, who have spent their lives being told that such things weren't real. An interesting poll - thanks to everyone who participated! Be sure to check out the new poll on the site.

TV seance claims to have reached John Lennon

In a Reuters article, a pay-per-view television special scheduled to air on the "On Demand" network tomorrow claims to have captured EVP of John Lennon during a seance at one of his favorite New York restaurants, La Fortuna, when he was alive.

Although they're not revealing what he has to say, some people are claiming that it is the genuine article. Others, including friends and associates of John Lennon, are calling it "tacky, exploitative and far removed from the icon's way of life." If you want to read all about it, click on this link to check it out.

http://today.reuters.com/

The end of the day...

Ahhh... I'm finally sitting down to relax after one heck of a day. This was the Texas Paranormal Conference in Jefferson, Texas, and I'd have to put this one in the success column.

I think that over 130 people had pre-registered, and there were a number of walk-ups. There were enough people there to make many veteran conferences proud - and this was a first-time effort. Congrats to the conference organizers.

I enjoyed getting to hear the slate of speakers - it was a varied group, with different ideas and topics. Very well balanced. A good time was had by all... I can hardly wait for next year. Start making your plans to attend!

A Haunted Restaurant In PA

I love finding stories about haunted places, and I was delighted to run across one in Pennsylvania. It's not that long a story, but is interesting because it is told by the owner. Enjoy!

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/LA-GhostlyReader-PA2.html

The ghosts and the dogs...

Someone asked about our bassets, and the things that they've encountered in our house. Our basset Lilly has probably been the focums of most of the activity. The first incident when she joined our family in Spring of 2005 was a Sunday afternoon, and things were very quite at the house. We were in the den, and we saw Lilly trotting up toward the center stairwell. Suddenly, she bolted down the side gallery at lightning speed, like something was running after her. She burst through the doggie-door and ran into the back yard, where she turned around and started barking non-stop. It was so weird that we ran outside and looked to see what was wrong - whatever had spooked her initially really did a number on her. It took us a good five minutes to get her to calm down and come back inside the house. When she did, she stayed huddled at our feet, as if she was a little unsure as to what might be going on. Lilly finally relaxed, and everything went back to normal.

A few months later something happened that we still can't explain. We were in the den watching TV, and the dogs were in their beds asleep. Suddenly Lilly jumped up and ran over to the French doors that look out into the side gallery. Her tail was wagging at half-mast, as if she was looking at something that she wasn't sure about. After a few minutes, I got up to investigate, but I didn't detect anything at all out there. She was riveted to the spot, though, and finally I opened one of the doors and asked if she wanted to go check it out. She cautiously went out into the hall, then dashed back into the den. For the rest of the evening, she sat right beside Tami or I like she was terrified of something. For the next several days, Lilly would not go into that part of the hall, which of course she has to do to go outside. Instead, she began having accidents in the house - she's never done that before, since she was pretty much housebroken from day 1. We tried everything, but the poor little puppy was extremely scared. I even put her on a leash and led her back that way and out the back door, and I've never seen her so frightened. In desperation, I went back there and said, "I don't know who or what has scared my basset hound, but you are not allowed to mess with our dogs. If you keep that up, you are not welcome to visit here - so cut it out!" Soon after that, everything returned to normal. Whether it was my words, or Lilly just getting acclimated to living in a place where spirits walk the halls, we'll probably never know.

The Pastor and the ghosts

It seems that in the last year, I' ve been accosted by more and more people claiming that ghosts are evil, sinister demons sent by Satan himself. Personally, I don't believe that; in my experience, they are simply spirits that have crossed back over from the other realm for a visit.

Still, the Book of Leviticus is quoted to me quite often, especially Leviticus 20:26-27: "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them." While we could debate all day about what is meant by "familiar spirit", the term in that passage is often used to represent a ghost. I've even had people tell me that by writing about spirits, I am breaking the law as set forth in Leviticus.

Well, so be it. Leviticus also teaches that it's okay to own slaves, but it's not all right to wear clothes made of different types of cloths (throw away those blended fabrics, folks). Don't get me wrong - I'm a Christian, and believe that the Bible is the word of God, but I don't know that every word is across-the-board applicable to us. Otherwise, we wouldn't let the handicapped worship God - Leviticus 21 says: 16 The LORD said to Moses, 17 "Say to Aaron: 'For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles."

But I may be rambling at this point. This all came about because I was cruising the 'net, and saw an interesting story about a haunting... this time, though, it was a church pastor who was experiencing the ghosts. If you'd like to read "The Pastor's Tale of Things That Go Bump In The Night", just follow the link below. I think that he has a very healthy take on the situation.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/177/story_17754_1.html

Back Home Again!

All right, after a weekend of stuffing myself, I'm back at the computer. One interesting thing that I noticed is that since people know that I write books about ghosts, they feel comfortable talking to me about the subject. By the time that the weekend was over, the one thing that I found is that a vast majority of the people that I know not only believe in ghosts, but have had a supernatural experience.

Some of the best stories that I've ever heard were from this weekend getaway, so not to worry - you'll be hearing them soon!

On the road again...

It's a weekend full of visiting with family, which also means a lot of food and fun. I'll be posting again in a day or so, meanwhile, have a great weekend!

A Finite Number of Ghosts

In her article "Be Careful What You Wish In A Haunted House", reporter Ronda Rich makes the statement, "I ran across intriguing trivia: There are documented to be around 225 haunted houses in America and almost half of them are in St. Francisville, Louisiana."

Whoa. Hold on just a minute there, Bubba. Only 225 places that are haunted in the good old U.S. of A.? In my book, "A Ghost In My Suitcase: A Guide to Haunted Travel in America" I found fifty places. In my regional Texas books "Ghosts of North Texas" and "Ghosts of East Texas and the Pineywoods" there were at least 50 in each book - that's 150 haunted places right there, leaving only 75 more (according to that reporter's facts). But if half of the 225 were in St. Francisville, that would mean that they have about 113, so the total would be pushed up to 263 at least, not counting all of the other places that I'm sure are out there.

Okay, okay, I'm kidding and being a little harsh. Still, when someone makes a statment like that and is so horrible off-base, I can't resist. Based on the people that I've met, many more places are haunted than are talked about as such, so I don't see any way to calculate that number. I don't want to take away from St. Francisville, though, and if you want to read Ms. Rich's article just go to:

http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=42836

Is the Paranormal Dangerous?

It is, according to Dwayne Claud of Western New York Paranormal of Rochester. He blasts television programs on the subject such as the SciFi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" and others like that, saying that they glamorize ghost-hunting without mentioning the dangers. In fact, he compares it to, "...showing a teen a shiny pistol and not telling him the dangers involved in using it. "

The article is a little hard to read because it is peppered with random question marks, but agree with it or not, it's interesting enough to take a look at:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/20058/0/prweb278039.htm

Poll Results!

The question posed in our last poll was "Spirits can feel emotional pain..."

And the results were:
...At things that they see in the physical world. 10%
...At memories from when they were alive. 50%
...Both of the above. 20%
...None of the above. 20%

Most people said that spirits were most affected by memories from when they were alive, which makes sense to me (one of those votes was mine). However, I have seen the spirit of a man who was very interactive in our world, and he was grinning right at me - I could see him feeling pain from our world.

"Both of the above" and "None of the above" tied at 20% of the participants. As always, every person's opinion is just as vald as the next, it's just interesting to see what everyone thinks. Please check out our next poll!

The Ouija Revisited

There were a couple of interesting comments on the last post about the ouija. In rambling around the web today, I ran across an article on About.com concerning ouija boards that was interesting enough that I thought that I'd share it with everyone.

The author begins by quoting a study that he conducted showing that 65 percent of those who responded felt the Ouija was dangerous, and 35% felt it was harmless. He references several articles, including the one that I'd mentioned a few days ago. It's worth a read - and please post your comments!

Here's the link:
http://paranormal.about.com/od/ouijaboards/a/aa040306.htm

A Potentially Controversial Post

When someone emailed this link to me, my initial thought was to ignore it and just pretend like I'd never received it. After all, it is potentially offensive on many levels. First of all, I believe in both angels and demons, which the author of this article has some things to say about.

I also don't agree with the author that ghosts and demons are the same thing... but I also don't exactly concur with his appraisal of what ghosts are. I don't think that you could move any of the ghosts in my house over to the "other side"... I think that they're just here for a visit.

But I want to be fair, so here's the article that I received:

http://www.paranormalnews.com/article.asp?ArticleID=1120

Hmmm... A Haunted Painting?

I've stayed at many haunted hotels, I live in a haunted house, but I've never heard of a haunted painting - 'til now. I was cruising the 'net to see what paranormal happenings might be out there, and found a story about an artist who did a painting of a ghost photo... and then the fun began.

To read the entire story, follow this link:

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa050701a.htm

To Ouija, Or Not To Ouija

One of my favorite haunted hotels has a ouija board that they keep handy for guests who want to borrow it during their stay. I've always been on the fence about those things. On the one hand, it's nothing more than cardboard and plastic, manufactured by a board-game company. On the other, its use is supposed to open a portal to the "other side". The part about opening the portal has kept me away from the ouija.

I had a guest touring our home last weekend who had used the hotel's ouija board, and it gave them all kinds of things - names, messages, etc. My wife asked if they'd done anything special in the way of opening and closing the session, which they hadn't. Now, I'm certainly no expert on the subject 'cause like I said - as a general rule, I say away from ouija boards. I did run across a not-so-pleasant account using one, though. Check it out at:

http://www.rense.com/general70/ouija.htm

Things that go bump in the Montana night

I just ran across an article about Montana hauntings, which I found to be extremely interesting. Face it, we just don't get a lot of haunted news out of Montana!

I haven't read the book in the article yet ("Beyond Spirit Tailings"), but I'm going to be ordering it. Meanwhile, the article is worth taking a look at. You'll find "Telling Ghost Stories" at:

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/05/21/yourtime/d03052005_01.txt

Selling a house and a "lady in white"

I'm always interested in the buying and selling of haunted properties. A news story from England caught my eye, concerning a castle which the local legend says is haunted, including by a "lady in white" who was starved to death by her husband. Kind of like the "lady in white" that is seen in my house, I guess.

Unlike my house, though, this place was abandoned as a house in the early 18th Century, and later fell into ruin. Sounds like the ultimate fixer-upper. To read more about this haunted location, just go to:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4874334.stm

Poll Results!

This has always been a touchy subject. When someone has a haunting, well-meaning people have tried to "cleanse" the house with an exorcism. Typically, though, the ritual of exorcism is used to cast out a demon, not a ghost (unless you believe that a ghost is, in fact, a demon). The question then becomes...

Can an exorcism affect a ghost?

Here's what everyone thought:

15%: Yes - spirits are subject to such things.
38%: No way - ghosts aren't demonic in nature.
38%: It depends on the individual haunting.
8%: I'm not quite sure.

There was a tie for first place between "No way" and "It depends". 15% said that spirits were subject to exorcisms, and 8% weren't sure. All very interesting, and with all of the ghost-blog polls, there are no certain answers - one answer is just as right as the next. Still, seeing how everyone feels is fascinating.

Thanks so much for participating!

Witch City

I've always wanted to make my way up to Salem, Mass, just for the history of witchcraft in America. So why am I listing it here on ghost-blog.com? Well, it seems that witches aren't the only paranormal entities in Salem... there seems to be quite a bit of haunted history there as well.

I had a great time exploring their website, and you might like to take it for a spin as well: http://www.hauntedsalem.com/

It's April already?

Wow, the year's flying by. Don't forget that if you live anywhere near the Lone Star State, the Texas Paranormal Conference is going to be in Jefferson, Texas on 4/22/06 - that's only about three weeks away!

For a list of speakers, activities, and accomodations, just go to:
http://www.thegrove-jefferson.com/conf/index.htm

There are links to all the info that you need... I hope to see you there!

Three Men and a Baby (and a ghost)

I'm posting this just because I keep having people ask me about it. Sometimes it's an email that says, "Did you see the spirit captured on film in "Three Men and a Baby?" Other times it comes up at conferences where I'm speaking.

Even though the ghost was explained years ago, this story has a life of its own.

So, once and for all, here's the real story of Three Men and a Baby, and a ghost...

(paste these two links together into one long link if they're displayed separately)
http://paranormal.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/article/26030602.php