Informative Ghost Site

I ran across a paranormal site called "HauntedHouses.com", and actually spent quite a bit of time reading it. It has paranormal movie info, haunted places, and even a clickable map of the U.S. with ghost info. Check it out:

http://www.hauntedhouses.com/

A Haunted Hospital...

I've been interested in supernatural activity in hospitals since I stayed at The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Ark a few years ago (it was a hospital for a number of years, and some of the ghostly activity there is attributed to that time). You may remember that a couple of months ago I posted a link to a nursing bulletin board where one thread was about their supernatural experiences over the years. While it's not something that they usually talk about, sharing it with other nurses opened up a lot of their discussion.

Along those lines, I found a report on a haunted hospital in Saskatchewan for all our Canadian visitors to check out. Even if you're not located in the Great White North, it's still interesting to read about:

http://www.unexplainable.net/artman/publish/article_3835.shtml

More Animal Ghosts...

I told my stories about Murphy our basset, but there are many instances of animal ghosts. Here's a link to one such place, with several stories about sprits from animals coming back to visit:

http://www.nzghosts.co.nz/animal_ghosts.htm

Spirits and Basset Hounds

I often get the question, “do you believe that animals are more in tune to the supernatural than humans?”

Well, I hate making generalized statements, but as an overall rule, I actually do believe that animals and children are much more pre-disposed to brushes with the paranormal than adults. Their minds are pure and innocent, free from a lifetime of conditioning to suppress anything out of the realm of the “normal”.

Just think about it – if a child were to say, “Mommy, I see a man standing there,” most mothers would glance over at an empty hallway and reply, “There’s no one there, honey, it’s just your imagination.” No matter how the child insisted, the mother would continue to rein the child back into the “real” world. God forbid that the kid grows up seeing things that “aren’t there”.

In my experience, it’s the same with animals – especially dogs and cats, which become such close companions to their human caretakers. You learn to read their every bark or meow, and can immediately tell the difference between a request for a treat and an alarm that something is going on outside. When a warning bark is given that something abnormal is happening – someone is in the house, for example – the human investigates, and if all is well, goes on about his business. This could leave the little family pet staring at the ghostly figure of a man that everyone else seems to be ignoring... how confusing would that be to their canine or feline mind?
Something like that has happened in our house on several occasions. Our basset hound Murphy would let us know immediately if someone was at the door. At the first sound of a knock, he would jump up, even from a sound sleep, and go running to the front door where he would stand and bark until we answered the door. We often joked that we never needed a doorbell – Murphy did a much better job.

Since we live in a house that is haunted by several spirits, we’ve seen Murphy jump up and run barking on several occasions when there was no one there that we could see. Sometimes at the front door, other times up in the parlor, and at a few other places in the house. Each time, he was alerting us of a visitor with the same fervor that he did when there was physically someone at the door. We are sure that he saw someone in the house that he didn’t think was supposed to be there, but we just couldn’t detect our ghostly visitor.

Sadly, Murphy passed away last year. Now we're keeping our eyes open for him to come back and pay us a visit.

EVP Techniques

A couple of days ago I posted a site that had EVP sounds that you could listen to. I received a few emails asking about EVP technique, but since I'm not an expert, I went looking for some factual info. I found it on Zerotime.com, so click the following link for more info on gathering EVP:

http://www.zerotime.com/ghosts/voices.htm

Paranormal Conferences

A new section has been added to the GhostInMySuitcase.com website - a list of upcoming paranormal conferences. This is just getting started, so if you know of any conferences in your part of the country, please drop an email and let me know! The paranormal conf section, and the email contact info is all on the ghostinmysuitcase.com website.

EVP samples

There's a lot written on the 'net about EVP, or Electronic Voice Phenomena. In my wanderings around the dark, ghostly corners of the web, I ran across a site with lots of EVP samples. Have fun checking them out!

http://www.ghost-investigators.com/evps/evps.php

A Skeptic's View of Haunted Houses...

Being a ghost-blog, I struggled with whether to post this or not. After all, it's a complete denial of the subject, and a rationalization against it. Still, as paranormal researchers (or enthusiasts, or whatever we call ourselves) it's important to hear what our detractors say. And here it is!

The Skeptic's Dictionary: Haunted Houses

Dowsing for Ghosts

I have friends that use dowsing rods to detect supernatural activity - and have quite a bit of success with it. Here's a brief discussion that I found on dowsing and how/why it works, from the International Society of Dowsers:

http://www.dowsingworks.com/

Ghost Magazine

I spent some time on ghostmag.com today, a website for a newsstand magazine called "Ghost!" that bills itself as "a magazine for the ghost hunting enthusiast". It looks interesting, and I thought that I'd pass it on in case you haven't seen it. Here's the link:

http://www.ghostmag.com/

Ghost Sites on Ghost Sites...

"Ghost Sites" is a website that is a repository for information on popular websites that have disappeared (hence the name, "ghost sites"). Apparently they were getting confused with paranormal ghost sites, though, and decided to say a few words on the subject of REAL ghosts. And here's their take on it:

http://www.disobey.com/ghostsites/realghosts.shtml

Not a ghost story, but...

...it's interesting nonetheless. Maybe supernatural, maybe not - the jury's still out. Long story short, there's a tree in San Antonio that water is pouring from like a fountain. Experts have looked at it, but don't have a good explanation yet. Here's a link to the whole story:

This East Side tree does its own watering

Good Poltergeist Description

While doing a little crusing for haunted places this afternoon, I found an interesting discussion of the poltergeist phenomena. I thought that I'd post it here for everyone to peruse... here's the link:

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/poltergeist.html

A Haunted Bank...

We've talked about all kinds of haunted places on this blog: B&B's, restaurants, cemeteries, hotels, you name it. But how about a haunted bank? Yep, here's the story:

http://www.hollowhill.com/tx/ots-haunted-bank-1.htm

Okay, I fell for the advertising hype...

Unlike a couple of years ago, when residents of the "Big Brother" house thought that the place might be haunted, this time it was part of a game for the contestants. I should've known... sigh.

Still, I'm enjoying the show! It just doesn't have any ghostly content. Oh, well.

The Haunted "Big Brother" House

I think that I may be in a minority, because I'm the only one that I know who watches the reality TV Show "Big Brother". I've watched every season (it's on every summer), and the premise is that a group of people are sequestered in a house with no contact from the outside world. Each week, someone is voted out, a'la "Survivor". One year, the people in the house were certain that the Big Brother house was haunted - and understandably so. They are being filmed and recorded 24/7; there are mirrors on most walls with people in control rooms behind them; and the in-house cameras are constantly whirring, turning, and focusing on different things.

Here's the new promo for the next episode: "Is the Big Brother House Haunte???" It airs Thursday night at 7 central time, so we'll see what makes them think that there are supernatural forces at work. If you're a Big Brother fan, be sure to tune in.

Ghosthunting From Your Couch!

Here's a site that has several ghost cams - broadcasting on the web 24/7 so that you can see for yourself what might be going on at these haunted locations. Check'em out!

http://www.hauntedcams.com/

Visiting Baltimore? Visit this haunted B&B!

I ran across a B&B with a few ghost stories that I'd never heard of before. Next time I'm in that neck of the woods, though, I'll definitely be booking a room. Read all about this place at...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/

Hospital Ghosts

Here's a posting that I found from a discussion about ghosts in a particular hospital... enjoy!

http://www.ghosts.org/stories/tales/hospital-ghost.html

Poll Results

Here was the latest question: "Based on the people that I know, I'd guess that the following percentage of people believe in ghosts?". Here are your answers:

7% of you said that "less than 25% of the people I know believe in ghosts". 10% said that about 25% of your acquaintences believe. 37% of you said that half of the people believe (this was the majority of the votes), but closely trailing was a vote of 30% of you saying that a whopping three-quarters believe in ghosts. Finally, 17% of you said that over 75% of the people you know believe in ghosts.

That's pretty much in line with the national average. A Gallup Poll from a few years ago showed that over half of the American public believes in some form of the supernatural. Interesting results - thanks for participating, everyone, and look for the new poll this week!

A Haunted Police Station... in India!

I love ghost stories from around the world, because it shows that the world of the supernatural isn't strictly limited to the USA - in fact, it transcends history, geographical boundaries, religion, and anything else that you can think of.

This story is about a haunted police station in Meenapur, India, and one theory is that it is an English soldier who was killed there during the British occupation of India. Here 'tis...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

A Down-Under Ghost Story, Mate

I've done a ton of postings about haunts in the U.S., but I just ran across a haunted cemetery story from South Brisbane, Australia. The fellow who does the ghost walk there has some wonderful stories to tell. Check it out at:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail

Is the Algoma Theater haunted?

A news story out of Ontario Canada is about a theater with a haunted reputation that is being torn down. In the course of that, someone snapped a photo with a wispy image. To see the photo and read the entire story, just click on the news link below:

http://www.soonews.ca/viewarticle.php?id=7683