This is a formal invitation to come join us at our forums, Death By Posting.

Here you will find discussions and news items on everything from Ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, Weird News  and other strange and paranormal related topics.

Currently I am looking to have a membership drive and would love it if you would stop by, register and come chat with us.

Death By Posting was formed in 2009 after the demise of a website forum on the subject of British television show Doctor Who called Doctor Who America/Worldwide.

The forum stayed in limbo for two years but it’s (somewhat) clever name led it to be perfectly titled for being the forums for this site when it started in 2012.

Our forums have recently been upgraded to a new version of Pro Boards and has a new design as well. This means new features, smileys, graphics and there is even more to come as I explore the new plug ins available.

Death By Posting also has general sections on all manner of subjects and a section for forum games.

We look forward to seeing you in the forums!

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When we talk about ghosts in a factory setting we might be talking about ghost workers, fictional ghosts more terrifying to business leaders and the local government officials then any clanking chains or chilly fingers.

This is not the case however at a garment factory in Bangladesh where one woman claims that a ghost living in the toilet facilitates in the factory made her sick and caused the workers to riot.

It began when the unnamed female factory worker fell ill after being i the factory in the Gazipur District and the ill worker blamed her ailments on a ghost that resided in one of the factory’s toilets and had ‘attacked’ her.

Although it might seem odd to hear of a ghost residing in the toilet area, in Asian and Middle Eastern cultures this type of ghost is much more commonplace.

This started a chain of events that eventually led to fourteen people being injured during a small riot after the nearly four thousand factory workers at the factory became agitated by the possible spirit.

Although a prayer ritual to rid the factory of the ghost, known as a milad mahfil was performed, many workers did not know about it and the riot ensued shortly after.

Factory officials blame this on a wild rumor started by agitators looking to start up trouble at the garment factory over wages and working conditions.

After the riot was ‘calmed down’ by police using batons and tear gas, a day off was declared at the factory to avoid further violence.

This one looks like a case of rumor, inciting people to act via their religious beliefs, working rights and conditions and possibly even mass hysteria.

One thing is for sure, your bathroom break at work might never look the same again.

(Via Dhaka Tribune)

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It seems that at times, marijuana and the paranormal go hand in hand. Although most people might think I’m saying that those seeking Bigfoot or ghosts are smoking some really choice pot, Marijuana has blown it’s smoke in the direction of the paranormal before.

Previously we reported on a pot stealing ghost but now comes a report of a Bigfoot hunter being accused of being a pot grower while searching for the beast just outside Toronto, Canada.

Tim Marczenko claims that after departing from woods in the Durham region  where he was checking up on giant foot prints had been reported in that area that he was pulled over by a police SUV.

From there Tim says he was questioned about a pot growing ring of young men that had been spotted in the area. The group of pot growers would meet up in the same area Tim was in and had been noticed by local residents.

When the young men were questioned by locals about why they were heading into the woods, the men apparently replied that they were in the area to search for the legendary Bigfoot.

So police set up surveillance and waited for more ‘Bigfoot hunters’ to come by. Most likely most of the ones that arrived did not have a connection to the Ontario Wildlife Field Research organization, as tim does, but then so few do.

Tim went on to say that he was placed under arrest for marijuana possession even though none could be found on his person, possessions or his rental car.

The arresting officer was allegedly very rude as well, calling Tim ‘a terrible liar’ for his Bigfoot Hunting alibi and not giving Tim any benefit of the doubt.

So nest time you are hunting for Bigfoot, be aware of the possible drug trade in your area so this mix up does not happen to you as well.

(Via National Post)

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“A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the mast, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief.”

So said a young Royal Navy Midshipman,  later crowned King George V, when his vessel, the HMS Bacchante, was sailing around the cape of Good Hope in 1881. The ship he claimed to have seen was believed to be the Flying Dutchman, a vessel so shrouded in myth and paranormal happenings as to be considered the eponymous ‘ghost ship’. You may not know much about naval history or the paranormal but it is guaranteed that the Dutchman is one vessel you will have heard of, if not from any other source than its appearance in the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Of course, Disney got the myth wrong. They merged several stories  into one with their version of the Dutchman. For a start, they name the captain of that vessel as Davy Jones* and rather than a reference to the 60’s band, the Monkees, this is a link to the sailor’s legend of ‘Davy Jone’s Locker’**. The actual captain of the ‘Dutchman’ was, in fact, a Dutchman, though reports vary on his name – some say he was called Vanderdecken, or possibly Van Der Decken, others Van Diemen and yet more say Van Straaten among others. There are also many versions of the story explaining how the ship came to be cursed and why. The simplest say that the ship was rounding the Cape when an unexpected storm blew up and the Captain, against the wishes of the passengers and crew, sailed on regardless, finally declaring “I WILL round this Cape even if I have to keep sailing until doomsday!” as the vessel sank with all hands, this arrogant declaration being what doomed his ship to perpetually haunt those waters.

More elaborate versions have a ‘shadowy figure’, Satan himself some claim, appear on the deck to pronounce the curse and some talk of a mutiny the Captain crushes before sailing the ship into the storm. Much of this, however, is speculation. We cannot claim any accurate historical evidence of what was said and done in the hours leading up to a naval disaster that resulted in the loss of all hands. All we really know is that there was a ship, captained by a Dutchman, which sank off the Cape of Good Hope in a storm. In fact, we cannot even really be sure of that, since much of the evidence seems to come from second hand sources.

We also know that there have been many supposed sightings of this ship in the same area, with the latest ones being as recent as 1944. Modern scientific explanations attribute this phenomena to Fata Morgana – mirages caused by the way light is refracted by the sea, causing the reflection of a ship to appear as a ‘ghostly image’ even when the ship itself is out of range of normal vision. That was certainly the opinion of Frank Richard Stockton in his 1910 book Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy. The question that does need to be asked here is: Can this simple explanation based on the principles of optics apply to every supposed sighting of the Dutchman through all the time she has been sailing the seas?

Whatever happened to that vessel and regardless of the veracity of the ghost ship sightings, the Flying Dutchman has been elevated from a naval disaster into a cultural phenomenon. It is said to have inspired Coleridge when he wrote Rime of the Ancient Mariner and led to a host of fictional adaptations ranging from novels by Washington Irving (The Flying Dutchman on Tappan Sea, 1855) to episodes of superhero cartoon series (Spiderman Cartoon: ‘Return of the Flying Dutchman’, 1967). There is also a famous Wagner opera. Many of these versions include elements that do appear in the Disney version. For example, the Dutchman is only allowed ashore once every seven years.  There is often also a tale of lost, spurned or dead love to bolster the curse, despite the actual motives of the captain in question more likely to have been linked to the profit inherent in his cargo getting to port on time or even the reports that he was drunk when the incident happened. This cultural phenomenon has gained such power that the term ‘Flying Dutchman’ has a fairly extensive page on Urban Dictionary all to itself (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flying%20dutchman), though you should only look there if you are of an appropriately strong constitution or are unconcerned by the concept of ghost faeces, and is the name of a number of  pubs and restaurants. If you want an appropriately chilling name to give your seafood restaurant, it is certainly better than the image of an empty table with uneaten food that the name Marie Celeste conjures.

Thus, the Dutchman is ranked alongside similar phenomena such as the Marie Celeste as an event that no doubt happened (a ship sank or was abandoned) but where the true facts of the case are obscured in a large amount of mostly fictional accounts that proved more popular than the factual ones they were based upon and even the fictional accounts have become muddled with time and retellings***. The death of the HMS Bacchante’s Lookout soon after seeing the ghost ship has only added to the grim legend – seeing the Dutchman is a prophesy of death, though thankfully the heir to the throne survived his encounter. With so much about it floating around in society, is it really a surprise that when a young midshipman, destined to rule an Empire, or a crewman on a German U Boat in 1944, sail those waters and see an optical illusion they subconsciously insert this into the tales they no doubt heard from other sailors? Or are they really seeing a ghost ship, doomed to sail the Cape until some condition is met?

*Ably played by Bill Nighy, with a strange version of a Scottish accent which does add to the evidence of him not being at all Dutch in this version. Though with a name like Jones a Welsh accent may have been more appropriate.

**Which is possibly derived from either a real life pirate from the 1630s, another sailor of the same name who was known to fall overboard a lot or, more likely, a corruption of Duffy Jonah’s Locker, being a mangled version of the words for a West Indian ghost (a duppy) and the Biblical Prophet Jonah (famous for his whale based adventures). Other theories link it to a pub landlord of that name who was known to throw drunken men into his ‘ale locker’ (his cellar) and give them to the press gangs.  Interestingly, Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean is also interested in  drafting men to crew his ship against their will.

*** For some reason the name Washington Irving is often linked to these cases… he was also responsible for popularising the misconception that sailors before Columbus all believed the world was flat.

D.A Lascelles knows a bit about Pirates as he contributed to the Pirates and Swashbucklers Anthology. He also knows a bit about ghosts due to being the writer of the Paranormal Romance novella, Transitions. His knowledge of romance, fantasy wargames and UK Cult TV have no relevance here… Nor does his own blog, Lurking Musings.

There are countless ghost stories that come from England, which should not come as a surprise as the area is as rich in historical architecture as it is in ghost stories.

Proof is needed however for any story that borders on the unbelievable, like ghosts or other paranormal activity.Using that criteria the Tulip Staircase photograph may count among the very best evidence of ghosts and life after death.

The photo was taken in 1966 by the Reverend Ralph Hardy, who was visiting the Maritime Museum in Greenwhich, England on vacation The staircase in the photo was part of the Queen’s House area of the Museum, which resided in a building over four-hundred years old.

At first the picture may seem very puzzling to look at. You can clearly see the two hands on the staircase, with the electric candelabra lighting a wall somewhere behind the figures.

Taken at an odd angle from the bottom of the unsupported spiral staircase, the camera is pointing up towards the ceiling, a shot Rev. Hardy’s wife decided on after she could not reproduce a shot taken of the staircase in a magazine as the staircase was off limits to all museum guests.

A more modern picture of the Tulip Staircase on the right sheds some much needed (pun intended) light on the picture from 1966 and what vantage point it was taken from.

The Museum itself has been the sight for a few other ghostly tales in it’s long history, such as the woman seen mopping up the blood of a maid who was thrown from the top balcony, guests being ‘pinched’ by unseen hands and voices of ghostly children.

Even the British Ghost Club the picture was investigated by in the sixties reported strange unexplainable footsteps near the staircase when they performed an on site investigation at the time.

However, the really interesting thing about the Tulip Staircase Ghost photograph is how scrutinized it was immediately after it was taken thanks to the Hardy family allowing the photo to be examined by experts in both the paranormal and photography fields.

After noticing the odd apparitions in their vacation photo after returning to Canada, the Hardy’s allowed The Ghost Club back in England to examine the photograph. Later the picture would be examined by the Kodak Film Company.

The Photo In Color

Neither examination could prove the photo away as a fake and in fact the examinations provided this factual data on the photograph:

• The photo did not seem to have suffered from photographic tricks or manipulations.
• Each photo was accounted for in the roll. Neither the shot before nor after the ghost capture contains any image (both were of other architectural features of the Museum; one of  a colonnade and one of a figurehead)  that might have ‘bled’ over to the staircase shot.
• The photograph was taken with a Zeiss Ikon Contina with Kodachrome 35mm color film. The picture was taken in natural daylight with no flash.

Kodak’s conclusion is that someone must have been present on the stairway at the time the photo was taken to have those figures present in the shot.

So is this a simple case of a real live person caught on a stairwell with a weird but honest photographic effect, or is this the picture of the ghosts said to haunt the Maritime Museum out for a stroll?

-Thomas Spychalski

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The Fourth of July is right around the corner and what better way to celebrate the birth of the United States then by talking about some of the more paranormal connections shared by our presidents and those around them.

There are the ghosts connected to former presidents, such as the ghost of the man who sold most of Washington D.C. to the US Government, David Burns. There is also the infamous ghost of slain President Abraham Lincoln, who has been seen by future presidents and first ladies as well as distinguished guests.

Another paranormal connection to Washington D.C. is the mysterious connection between Lincoln and John F Kennedy, another president taken down by an assassins bullet while in office.

Presidential Supporters:

It did not take long for the first ghosts to move into the White House after it was deemed suitable to move the first family from the former capital in Philadelphia to the new one in Washington. In fact, it was the ghost of Abigail Adams, the wife of the second United States president John Adams, who had moved into the White House for the last year of his term in 1801.

Abigail’s ghost is seen hurrying towards the East Room of the White House, which is where Abigail hung her laundry out to dry while construction continued on the new Capital of the young nation due to that room’s warmth.

Mrs. Adams was not the only first lady to appear at the White House after her death. Dorothy “Dollee” Madison was wife to the fourth President of the United States James Madison, and she made and requested a lot of changes to the grounds of the White House which was mostly swamp land at that time.

This included planting the famous White House ‘Rose Garden.’

Mrs. Madison was both a popular and strong first lady demonstrated by acts like bravely attempting to save valuables from the White House during the Burning of Washington in 1814.

Dollee would return in the early twentieth century during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Dollee appeared to gardeners on the White House grounds who had been ordered by Wilson’s second wife to remove the Rose garden at the White House at Mrs. Wilson’s request.

Another famous Washington personality from the past said to haunt the White House is David Burns, who donated the land the White House is built on and had a hand in many of the land deals in and around Washington as it grew.

His ghost has been heard twice in the halls of the White House, one time even calling out: “I’m Mr. Burns.”

Presidents and Queens:

Of course, we are here to talk about dead presidents, and I don’t mean money.

Seventh President Andrew Jackson was the first former commander in chief  to show up for duty after his death, apparently heard by Abraham Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd, who reported hearing yelling containing vulgar behavior and loud footsteps.

By 1945 it would seem that Andrew Jackson was still in residence as then President Harry Truman wrote a letter to his wife Bess concerning the visiting former world leader:

“I sit here in this old house and work on foreign affairs, read reports, and work on speeches–all the while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway and even right in here in the study. The floors pop and the drapes move back and forth–I can just imagine old Andy [Jackson] and Teddy [Roosevelt] having an argument over Franklin [Roosevelt].”

The Lincoln Bedroom

Abraham Lincoln is the president with the most paranormal connections, partially because the nature of his death was violent and he seemed to die before his work in the Oval Office was completely done . It was also the dawn of the age of Spiritualism, which Mary Todd Lincoln favored to reach out to her dead sons from the land of the living.

In fact, Mary Lincoln held a seance in the White House to contact her dead son Willie Lincoln more then once Mary was convinced that this was the right thing to do, inspired in part by the fact that Victoria, Queen of England went to seances to make contact with her dead husband, Prince Albert.

Abraham Lincoln himself attended a seance in the White House on April, 23rd, 1863. The Lincoln’s also accepted gifts and replied to letters from psychics and mediums.

Mary Todd Lincoln’s interest in the Spiritualism movement continued after Lincolin’s assassination in 1865. Spiritualists visited the white House after the tragedy and Mary would continue to visit psychics and the like even after she moved from Washington D.C. to Chicago, Illinois.

The Mumler Photo

It was during this period that the infamous picture to the right was taken by William H. Mumler, a popular spirit photographer.

Mumler began dabbling in spirit photography after he purportedly captured the image of a cousin who had been dead for twelve years in a self portrait in the early 1860′s.  This capture is widely believed to be the first spirit photograph.

While the actual date that the photograph was taken is in doubt, it was taken before 1869, when Mumler was put on trial for fraud. During that trial, no less then famous Circus owner and showman PT Barnum testified against him. He also had a photographer create the image below the Mumler Lincoln photo with himself as a subject.

P.T. Barnum & Friend

Most likely the image of her dead husband that kept Mary Todd Lincoln believing was a very clever double exposure and a case of photographic trickery.

However, where the ghost of Abraham Lincoln goes we have much more reliable wittiness’s then fraudulent mediums and spiritualists.

In the mid to late 1920′s Grace Coolidge, wife of then President Calvin Coolidge, walked into the Oval Office to see the ghost of Lincoln staring out one of the windows.

The windows in question faced the Civil War battlefields near the White House, surely one of Lincolns most troubling issues he faced as President during his times.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands claimed that while visiting the White House she heard a knock at her door. When she opened the door she says she was confronted with Lincoln’s ghost and fainted on the spot.

In the Roosevelt era, a White House clerk claimed he actually saw Lincoln’s ghost sitting on one of the beds, removing his boots.

During the turbulent times of the Great Depression and World War Two, Lincoln’s ghost was seen quite a few times in the White House, most notably by the great British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who came out naked from the bath while staying at the White House.

On seeing the ghost of Abraham Lincoln standing by the fireplace while Winston was only wearing the cigar in his mouth he said: “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage.”

Lyndon Johnson’s wife also claims to have felt Lincoln in the room with her at the White House while watching a television program about Lincoln’s life, but I’m sure we can just chalk that one up to ‘Ladybird’ Johnson’s imagination and being in the location mentioned in the programs numerous times.

The Lincoln-Kennedy Links

Lincoln also is connected in a very odd manner to another former United States President that was also assassinated by a gunman…John F Kennedy.

Shot in late 1963 in Dallas, Texas, Kennedy and Lincoln would share some remarkable similarities both in life and in the act of dying:

• Although it is not odd that both men were members of Congress before becoming President, the years they were each elected to Congress in a bit odd. Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846 and JFK in 1946.
• The dates of their respective Presidential elections are interesting as well. Lincoln was elected on November, 6th 1860 while Kennedy was elected on November, 8th 1960.
• Both Lincoln and Kennedy had psychic premonitions about their deaths and both men received warnings from psychics and mediums before the tragic events.
• Lincoln and Kennedy were both replaced in the Oval Office by men with the surname of Johnson. Additionally, both Johnson’s were born exactly a hundred years apart from each other.
• The cause of death for both men was a gunshot to the head. Both Presidents had their wives sitting next to them when they were shot and both men were killed by men who would be dead themselves before a trial could even begin.

Other White House Ghosts

Although Abraham Lincoln is most likely the most well known ghost to call 1600 Pennsylvania Ave home, there have been others who have had ghostly phenomena happen to them while in the building.

Anna Surrat

Jenna and Barbara Bush, daughters of former President George W Bush, claimed to have both heard “1920′s music” coming out of the fireplace in Jenna’s bedroom at the white House. Her sister Barbara was unconvinced and so spent the next night in Jenna’s room to prove her wrong.

Almost in defiance, music that sounded like something from an opera came from the fireplace that night. Later, White House staff would admit that the phantom music comes out from that fireplace all the time.

There is also the legend of the ghost of Anna Surrat haunting the North Portico of the White House. It is said she revisits to stop the hanging of her mother, Mary Surrat, who was hung as a conspirator in the Lincoln Assassination and is to date the only woman ever to be executed by the United States.

Many other residents and staffers including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and Harry Truman all heard mysterious knocks around the building which at times proved hard to explain.

So what do you think about the ghosts that haunt the White House and some of the legends that surround two of our nation’s greatest leaders?

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The infamous ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’

The Loch Ness Monster has been one of the most enduring myths of the last two centuries. In fact, the legend may be even older if you take into account the supposed sighting by St Columba in the 6th Century Ever since the first modern age sighting of a ‘log like’ object by D MacKenzie in 1871 speculations about what might be lurking in the depths of the 263 thousand million cubic feet of water that constitutes the largest body of water in the whole of the United Kingdom. Attempts to discover the truth of the matter have even extended so far as to an ambitious one million pound (~$1,524,674) project to scan the entire Loch using sonar called Operation Deepscan.

Now it appears that a group of Italian scientists may have a theory to explain the phenomena that have been attributed to a prehistoric creature. According to them, it is all down to geological faults. According to geologist Luigi Piccardi, sightings of the monster have been more frequent during times when the fault that runs under the Loch is known to be at its most active, citing the period between 1920 and 1930 as evidence of a time when seismic activity was high and sightings frequent. Despite not being an area known for its seismic activity (compared to such hard hitters as San Francisco and Japan) earthquakes of magnitude 3-4 have been recorded in Scotland on a number of occasions (yes, we Brits do get them occasionally ). Phenomena such as trembling of the earth and mysterious bubbles which are often associated with sightings of the creature can easily be attributed to minor earthquakes such as these according to Piccardi.

George Edwards’ 2012 Photograph of ‘Nessie’

The evidence here is compelling, though it must be noted that the dates of recorded earthquakes do not seem to quite match up with dates of known sightings. For example, the earthquake recorded in 1888 is the closest to the 1871 sighting referenced above. Which might cast some doubts on the relevance of seismic activity. However, it is possible that the phenomena noted could be linked to even smaller, less detectable tremors. The theory also does not address the alleged visual sightings of the creature, though there is strong evidence that many of the famous photographs of the creature were in fact fakes, including the iconic “Surgeon’s Photograph” from 1934 which was the subject of controversy in the 1970s and 1980s when it was revealed to be a toy submarine bought from Woolworths. The most recent photograph, that by George Edwards taken in 2012, is largely considered to be a log or large fish.

So, is this the death of one of the most enduring paranormal legends? Has Nessie finally been laid to rest? What is your opinion on the evidence presented here? Prehistoric creature or bubbles or something else entirely?

D.A Lascelles is an authority on UK earthquakes because he slept through one in 2008 and only experienced the aftershocks because his wife woke him up to tell him the house was rattling. He contributed a short story to the   Pirates and Swashbucklers Anthology and is also the writer of the Paranormal Romance novella, Transitions. He also writes fantasy wargames and about UK Cult TV  as well as maintaining his own blog, Lurking Musings, in a haphazard fashion.

One of my obsessions is reading non-fiction material on paranormal and spiritual topics, especially those about spirit communication, specifically. When each book is done, I take pride and conduct a shelving ceremony (I’m usually the only one who attends). One of the greatest problems one could have (in my opinion) is to have to buy a new bookshelf to make room for more books. I own every book I’ve read and haven’t caved into the e-book craze yet. It will be a while… and it gets expensive… but I think the loss of physical books is a very sad thing. Look at me being off topic already.

Anyway, reading lots of books allows me to blog about the topic, and blogging about the topic forces me to study and research what I’m reading more. The way I look at it, the more I know and am aware of, the better researcher and blogger I become.

Please enjoy Part 1 of a 2-part recommended reading list for anyone interested in the general topic of spirit communication.

The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death by Grant and Jane Solomon

Anyone interested in spirit communication, especially physical phenomena, should familiarize themselves with this fascinating book. (You may also enjoy the documentary video.) The book follows The Scole Experimental Group and recounts the 5-year experiment of life after death, and many of the simply amazing experiences that few people have ever been lucky enough to see. And it all happened in the “scole hole”, a dark cellar in a Norfolk village in England.

The Scole Experiment was started by two mediums who joined several other spiritual individuals in what most probably know as a spirit circle, which is also similar to a séance group. One thing I didn’t know before reading this book was that the structure of the group and the experiments were pretty much organized and guided by their “spirit team”.

The team was composed of around 6 main entities, but other spirit scientists and technicians were involved in the process. Most of their communications came by using the two mediums in trance, but this was not the case every time. Some of the phenomena were moving spirit lights, manifestations of hands and faces, being touched, surround sound-like voices speaking in the room, levitating objects, faces and pictures showing up on sealed photographic film, and some of the cooler experiences involved many gifts of apports (the manifestation of an object seemingly coming from nowhere).

There were a number of scientists, psychologists, parapsychologists, and other wise and educated professionals who were present and inspected and studied the experiments. Some of these individuals were connected with the highly critical Society for Psychical Research.

Six months ago the authors contacted me and gave me the news that the two mediums from the Scole group were at it again and getting results. They asked that I refer readers to their Facebook page.

House of Spirits and Whispers: The True Story of a Haunted House by Annie Wilder

This is one of my favorite light-hearted non-fiction reads about ghosts. I heard this author being interviewed on Jim Harold’s Paranormal Podcast a few years ago. I really truly could not put this book down once I started it. Annie details how she came upon her old Victorian home in Hastings, Minnesota and the spirits that she was unaware came with it.

She is so detailed, she even includes FLOOR PLANS! Retiring in an old beautiful Victorian home is something I have always kind of wanted to do. By the end of the book I was so jealous that I didn’t own her house… and I wanted to make a visit!

From the back of the book cover:

In 1994, Annie Wilder and her children moved into a 100-year-old house in a historic Mississippi River town. Beautiful but spooky, the house had been on the market for six months with no offers. It felt like – and proved to be – a very haunted house.

Essentially the story of a remarkable old Victorian house that seems to be a threshold to the spirit world and the astral realm, House of Spirits and Whispers has a back story of the Wilder family’s relationship with the ghost of the home’s previous owner, an old man named Leon. 

 Covering a decade’s worth of ghostly activity and supernatural events, from whispering radiators to visits and appearances from all manner of spirits and entities, this unusual story is the true account of Annie Wilder’s experiences living in a haunted house.

You may also be interested in Annie Wilder’s segment on the Biography Channel’s My Ghost Story, season two, episode three.

Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism by Barbara Weisberg

I think you’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know about Kate and Maggie Fox in this book. If you read books on ghosts or paranormal investigation topics you know that most of these books include a small section that usually credits these two sisters for starting the movement known as Spiritualism on accident in the late 1840s.

The two younger sisters (Maggie and Kate) claimed to hear “rapping” and knocks in their home coming from what they eventually decided was the spirit of a murdered peddler from years before. They were one of the first to attempt to communicate with spirits with this system of rapping. They eventually developed a system of “yes” and “no” answers and even spelling out messages. People came from all over to see it and they were an overnight sensation!

The story isn’t that clean and simple though. The Fox sisters had their sketchy and dramatic moments, including admitting to be frauds, then recanting, alcoholism, etc. The author spills the facts for you and in the end lets you decide what you think as far as fraud goes.

There is much history of the Spiritualism movement in general included in the book. These women had leadership roles and started a movement in the days when women weren’t really accepted as leaders and weren’t supposed to be influential and smart. There were times they were definitely in danger.

These were some ballsy girls! In general, I had no idea that they were famous into adulthood and led the movement for such a long period of time. They were full-blown celebrities for a while. The book follows them till death and closes out with a summary of the Spiritualism movement since then.

Grave’s End: A True Ghost Story by Elaine Mercado

True Haunting by Edwin F. Becker

These are two completely different books by different authors. I include them here together because they are similar in that they were both publicized real hauntings that you may not have heard about.

They are also similar because they were written by members of the families who experienced extremely frightening paranormal events firsthand. The family in Grave’s End had their home visited by the famous parapsychologist, Dr. Hans Holzer, in the early 1980s. Some of the events from True Haunting, including an exorcism, were actually the first to be reported on and covered on a television news program in 1970. These non-fiction books read like fiction and are hard to put down.

Voices of Eternity by Sarah Estep

This is a book that I read right before conducting and documenting my first serious 2-week EVP experiment. I used the inspiration throughout the book to help me on my EVP journey.

From the back of the book:

Twelve years ago [1976], Sarah Estep began her dedicated research of the Great Beyond, using a tape recorder and asking questions of anyone on the other side who might listen. After six days of running a blank tape and hoping against hope that she would receive a reply, she asked, “What is your world like?” A clear voice responded to her question with the word “Beauty.”

Sarah has gone on to tape thousands of messages, from dead friends and relatives, a spirit guide named Stythe, and entities she believes come from different parts of the universe. In this provocative book, she shares her messages with us, as the voices of eternity discuss:

• Death and dying
• What it’s really like on the other side
• Precognition and clairvoyance
• Reincarnation
• Worlds other than the one we know, including the origins of UFOs

Sarah Estep started her journey of EVP in 1976 with the intention of recording for just one week at first. Her loved ones thought she was crazy, too. If she didn’t hear any voices by the seventh day she would not continue. As she mentioned above, hearing the word “beauty” on the sixth day was enough to keep her pushing forward and was the beginning of many years of successful EVP research. She would later become known as one of the modern pioneers of EVP from the United States. She founded the American Association for Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP) in 1982. Tom and Lisa Butler (see the next book below) took over leadership of the organization in 2000 and it has since been named Association TransCommunication (ATransC). Sarah died in 2008. You can visit the Association TransCommunication website for more information on Sarah.

Thanks to ATransC, Voices of Eternity is available for free, in its entirety, online via a PDF download.

There is No Death And There Are No Dead: Evidence of Survival And Spirit Communication through the Voices and Images from Those on the Other Side by Tom and Lisa Butler

I am a member of this organization (ATRansC) and encourage anyone serious about supporting or engaging in EVP or ITC research to check it out and get involved.

From the ATransC site:

When the Butlers assumed leadership of the AA-EVP in 2000 [Now Association TransCommunication (ATransC)], they realized there was a need for a text which they could refer people to as a dependable source of information about EVP and other forms of ITC. This book is the result, and remains today an important introduction to these phenomena.

From the back of the book:

Many may be shocked to learn that the so-called dead have been communicating across the veil through electronic devices since the early 1900s.

More than anecdotal evidence exists that we survive physical death and that our loved ones on the “Other Side” continue to communicate with us. Indeed, objective evidence collected from Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and Video Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) reveals that they actively seek ways to contact us and to offer guidance to experimenters on improving these communications.

Obtaining paranormal voices is not difficult and is achieved both by not only respected scientists and investigators, but by anyone following a few simple steps with equipment most already have. This book includes simple instructions for experimentation and explores the body of EVP and other evidence already accumulated by researchers around the world. There are also instructions for experimenting with Video ITC. – Patrick Keller

Patrick is special to News From the Spirit World Family and runs the blog Big Seance!

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A woman in China’s Anhui Province had an experience more scary then most hauntings when she became trapped between a building and a wall.

The woman’s plight was prolonged by the fact that her cries for help were thought to be from a ghost.

Taking a short cut while out for a walk, the unnamed woman got herself trapped in the narrow gap between a wall and a private residence.

The woman screamed all night for help but the owner of the home opposite the wall thought the cries were coming from a ghost inside their house.

Pedestrians the next morning finally saw the woman trapped between the two structures and the fire department was called out to break down part of the wall to rescue her.

She emerged from the narrow passage about twenty minutes after the rescue operations started. The woman was unharmed but her clothes were ruined and she understandably looked embarrassed after being freed.-Thomas Spychalski

(Via Daily Mail)

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I’m excited to share the second and last part of my Haunted Summer Reading recommendations. As with Part One, with the exception of one book, these recommendations fit into the category of the paranormal or spirit communication. Feel free to comment or contact me with other suggestions or additional information. I want to thank Thomas here at News From The Spirit World for inviting me to share. My name is Patrick Keller. You can catch my blog at BigSéance.com. 

Voices From Forever by Randall Keller

After listening to one of his podcasts (The Voices Podcast) and finding his two blogs (The Voices Blog and The Voices Blog Unplugged), I knew I had to have his first book. Randall Keller is such a fresh voice on the subject of EVP and spirit communication. He’s a full-time EVP researcher who also finds time to be involved in some paranormal investigations as well. If you read this book, you’ll learn a little about why someone might start a journey into EVP, but you’ll also learn that this man takes his work seriously.

I am proud to say that Randy is now a friend of mine (and it turns out he may be a long lost cousin too). He has helped inspire me to dig deeper into the world of EVP and I’ve learned a lot since then. In the last year or so I have been fortunate to have been invited by him to work on some larger joint EVP experiments. It has been a great experience.

Speak with the Dead: Seven Methods for Spirit Communication by Konstantinos

I’d considered getting this book for a few years. It seemed to pop up every time I searched for new books on the topic of spirit communication.

I think maybe it was the cover art that kept me from committing to it, but I’m not really sure. I ended up finally tracking down a copy and reading it as part of my research before conducting several séance experiments last fall.

The Seven Methods…

Konstantinos, featured in this séance video, gives how-to advice in this book. The methods include (in his own words) Microphone Recording, Broadcast Static Recording, White Noise Recording, Video of the Dead, Scrying, Direct Mind Contact, and Séance Made Simple. Basically, in possibly more recognizable and current terms, these are instructions for the different ways of going about recording EVP, using radio sweep (such as a spirit box), recording Video ITC (Instrumental Trans-communication),

communicating clairaudiently and clairvoyantly, and of course, séance. If you’re not aware of what scrying is, Wikipedia tells us “Scrying (also called seeing or peeping) is a magic practice that involves seeing things psychically in a medium, usually for purposes of obtaining spiritual visions and less often for purposes of divination or fortune-telling. The most common media used are reflective, translucent, or luminescent substances such as crystals, stones, glass, mirrors, water, fire, or smoke.” In this book, Konstantinos focuses on scrying using water.

Is it for you?

Now as usual, I have to be honest here. Written in 2001, many of the technological information or instructions are already very outdated. Not many EVP researchers stock up on cassette tapes anymore. Also, I’m not sure if many of the feedback loop instructions for video ITC would work in the new HD and digital TV world. But, if you’re not someone who is already very experienced in these topics, there is still much to learn.

It is very easy to understand. If, like me, you’ve read a trillion books on EVP and have spent quite a bit of time researching and practicing it, you won’t gain much from it (unless you’re looking to learn about old school techniques). But, video ITC and scrying are two things I haven’t tried, and reading this book may have just given me the inspiration and confidence to give it a try sometime.

My Favorite Part!

The author shows you how to perform a ritual he calls the “Ancient Rite” to prepare your mind for spirit communication and “summoning” specific spirits. I know from previous comments on my blog that summoning is somewhat controversial among my readers. I tend to think it can be done respectfully, and frankly, in this field it seems like it would be very necessary at times. Anyway, if I continue to be honest, like most practices that even mention the word “candle”, this ritual had me at hello and just seems cool and fun.

The Most Haunted House in England by Harry Price

Introducing Harry Price (1881 – 1948), the British psychic researcher and one of the very first true paranormal investigators. I very much recommend this book about the Borley Rectory to anyone in the paranormal investigation field, new or seasoned. It is like a lesson in taking things back to the basics in an investigation, although Harry was pretty techie for the time period. I think one of the reasons I am so painstakingly detailed and incredibly organized in my investigating and analysis is this book. I highly recommend reading this in the fall… next to a burning candle… in a tub. I’m sorry, is that weird? Well that’s how I did it, anyway. Last time I checked the book was out of print, but there are usually used copies for sale online.

While we’re on the topic of Harry, check out this fascinating video of an interview with Dr. Price. I have not been able to figure out exactly what year it was filmed, but I love it! I love the library and the laboratory. I love that he smokes and uses the ash tray as if it was scripted. I love the eerie chime of the clock. I even love the awkward pauses and the throat clearing.

Ouija Gone Wild by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Before I began doing Ouija experiments of my own, I needed to do some research, and I was looking for a book that would tell me it was safe to get started. This was the book that allowed me to click the “buy now” button for my first Ouija board.

Rosemary (along with Rick Fisher) mentions in the introduction of the book that they’ve had no negative experiences with the Ouija. They are convinced it is a “neutral tool” for spirit communication.

After reading this introduction I was convinced I was ready to give it a try. After all, as a paranormal investigator and the writer of a blog called The Big Séance, it is probably something I should have some experience with.

Then I read on and changed my mind over and over as I read the rest of the book. You see, much of the book is a collection of recounted experiences and true stories of different talking boards going back to 1886.

Much of the earlier experiences with the Ouija board are pretty benign, since it was intended for lighthearted entertainment purposes. But most of the more modern stories are overly dramatic and filled with evil activity. The authors attribute this to Hollywood.

I really really really wanted to come away with full signed permission from the author to give the Ouija a try, but most of the stories made me wonder why I ever wanted to.

At the same time, I understand that in this day and age a book about nice and fluffy, positive experiences with a Ouija board is going to go nowhere. So, after finishing the book I came away with several things.

• Hollywood has turned talking boards into something very different from what they originally were.
• People who have negative experiences with the Ouija were most likely “playing around” or perhaps using the board for the wrong reasons.
• A person with negative energy, or a board being used in a negative atmosphere will have a higher possibility of contacting lower energy entities.
• If you’re looking to try a Ouija board, buy a new board, rather than a used board with an unknown history.
• At the time I bought this book, I hadn’t had a proper Ouija experience, so I was thankful that Rosemary included some basic instructions for those willing to try.

Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

I had to hold back from putting this nerdy book at the top of the list. I get so super excited about fall and Halloween and I got SO MUCH out of this book and loved it. Halloween is coming! Get in the mood!

What we know as “Halloween” comes from so many places, traditions, and cultures that it is very easy to get lost in it all. Just like America itself, Halloween really is a blend of it all.

The earliest roots come from Pagan traditions that were later changed by the Catholic church into what we know as All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. Throw in a little Guy Fawkes Day (which I’d never heard of), the Celtic festival of Samhain, and the Roman festival of Pomona, and hundreds of years later we open our doors on the evening of October 31st to hear “trick or treat” being shouted by masquerading children of all ages.

Some interesting things I learned…

• Interested in a 9th century recipe for “All Souls’ Bread” that the Roman Catholic clergy encouraged the living to offer to spirits of the dead? This book has it.
• For a while the holiday seemed to be more about love than anything spooky. Many early Halloween traditions included young women practicing divination of all kinds to determine their future husbands. If you’d like to try it, you can stare into a candle lit mirror at midnight on Halloween. The face of your future love will show up over your shoulder. Not creepy at all (rrrriiiiiiight). This is also where bobbing for apples came from. Another tradition was for girls to hang their wet blouses to dry above them while they slept. Apparently your future husband will visit and “turn the sleeve”. Good to know.
• Another interesting tradition… the Irish “Dumb Supper”. A young woman was supposed to see the shape and image of her future love if she cooked and served an entire meal backwards. I’m not sure how this works but I’d love to see it.
• Lesley includes a page out of the October 1911 issue of The Delineator, where ideas for entertaining in October are given. Love it! Time machine, please!
• Using pumpkins as lanterns, or carving pumpkins into “jack-o-lanterns” came from the Irish. Before they arrived to America where large pumpkins were available, they used hollowed out turnips. The story of “Jack” (which there are different versions of) is also fascinating.
• The Mexican “Day of the Dead” is something I think is fascinating… and I’d love to experience it.
• I’ve always wanted to experience the Victorian era, but Halloween in those days just seems so interesting and fun! I LOVED this section in the book. Also, one of the main reasons I like the movie Meet Me In St. Louis is the depiction of Halloween in those few scenes.

There is also plenty in this book on the more familiar 20th century Halloween traditions.

It’s not a new book (it was originally published in 1990), but it’s a good one with lots of fun facts and history. If you want to learn about the history of many of our traditions from this season while also getting in the mood for ghosts and goblins, you should check it out.

Ghosthunter’s Survival Guide: Protection Techniques for Encounters with the Paranormal by Michelle Belanger

Most of the time when someone contacts me with paranormal concerns, they’re not so much interested in an investigation immediately.

They just want to be heard and get some feedback and maybe some suggestions or answers. Many times I just encourage people to get this book.

I can’t say I’ve tried all of the techniques that are covered, and I also wouldn’t feel capable of conducting some of them, but you never know what you may need to be prepared for in paranormal situations. And some people may feel comfortable adopting some of the practices on a routine basis. Don’t let the title deceive you, this book could be useful for anyone.

Michelle Belanger has many books on several topics, but I’ve been known to bug her about when another great book like this one was coming out. I just recently found out that The Ghosthunter’s Guide to the Occult is now available!

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The Handprint

As someone born in the North East of England, I am no stranger to either coal mining or the need for Unions to protect the rights of workers. This story therefore has a lot of resonance with me, even if the coal mining in question took place over 130 years ago and several thousand miles away in Pennsylvania state.

The story goes that in the 1870s a group of Irish coal miners, all part of an Irish Pro-Union organisation called the Molly Maguires, were accused of murder. It is such a well known tale that there was even a movie about it starring Sean Connery. Accounts agree that the circumstances of their arrest and trial between 1876 and 1878 were somewhat shady with an investigation carried out by the Pinkerton Detective agency (a private concern) and arrests made by the Coal and Iron Police (a paid militia run by the companies that owned the mines). There were also suspicions of Jury tampering (the composition of the jury was composed of ethnic groups such as German and Welsh immigrants who had a distaste for the Irish) and the judge was reputed to have a heavy anti-Molly bias.

The men protested their innocence until the very end, though with circumstances like those described it is really no surprise that a guilty verdict was delivered and a sentence of death handed down.  One of the men, Alexander Campbell, decided to make a more visual demonstration of his innocence. As he was collected to be taken to the gallows he proclaimed his innocence and slapped his hand against the wall of the cell. This left an impression on the wall and as he was taken away he said “There is proof of my words. That mark of mine will never be wiped out. It will remain forever to shame the county for hanging an innocent man.”

That mark, a black handprint, is still there today despite several efforts to eradicate it that including one warden allegedly knocking down part of the wall and re-plastering it in 1930. The handprint apparently reappeared in the same place. Experts have examined the phenomenon since that time, including a forensic scientist called James Starrs and a police chemist by the name of Jeff Kercheval who did “everything short of painting over the print or literally taking it off the wall,” (James Starrs) . They failed to find anything that could explain why the mark persists after checking for a number of paints, oils and pigments. However, following a study using infrared photography, he did say that there was no sign of the wall ever being painted over and mentioned that the handprint is a left hand print while the anecdotal evidence claims Campbell used his right hand.

Damp mould

So, can this mysterious hand print be explained? There is at least one explanation for dark marks on walls other than inks or pigments – damp mould. I imagine it is fairly common in old prisons where the conditions are perfect for it. As a biologist that was my first thought when I saw the pictures of this handprint and it might explain why it keeps coming back – the mould simply regrows and even knocking the wall down and re-plastering it without doing something about the damp (such as installing a damp proofing layer which I doubt a 1930s prison warder would bother to do) won’t stop that from happening. However, this does not explain everything. It does not, for example, tell us how it formed that particular shape at coincidentally the same time as Campbell hit the wall nor how after more than 100 years that entire wall is not covered in the same mould. I am also guessing that at least one person, maybe James Starrs, would have already thought of that and tested it. There is also a bit of doubt in the evidence linking this to the Molly Maguires too, not least the reversal of the handprint, which may suggest that the shape has nothing to do with Alexander Campbell at all and is merely coincidentally shaped like a hand. The tale of Campbell striking the wall is one that might inspire those who visit the cell so they are primed to see a pattern where there is none, in much the same was as we see patterns in clouds. Certainly the accounts of this phenomenon I have read so far seem to pay attention to the evidence that supports a paranormal explanation while not discussing the results of any tests that may cast doubt on this conclusion. I am, of course, merely speculating here and would be interested in any comments that might add more evidence to that which is discussed here.

Whatever the true cause of this phenomena it certainly presents an intriguing mystery.

You can go to see the handprint for yourself should you happen to be in Pennsylvania. The Prison closed in 1995 and was reopened as a museum. Naturally enough, for a place where executions took place on a regular basis, it does have a reputation for being haunted. You can take a ghost tour for the very reasonable price of $10 and learn about the hand print and all the other strange phenomena seen at the prison. So, if you happen to be near Jim Thorpe in Pennsylvania you can go and see for yourself and maybe come up with your own theories. If you cannot travel all that way, there is a convenient video of the prison on You Tube showing the hand that can be seen below:

D.A Lascelles is a writer, teacher and blogger who knows about damp mould because he is a biologist and also had it crawling up his wall until the house got damp proofed. He contributed a short story to the   Pirates and Swashbucklers Anthology and is also the writer of the Paranormal Romance novella, Transitions. He also writes fantasy wargames and about UK Cult TV  as well as maintaining his own blog, Lurking Musings, in a haphazard fashion.

While illegal recreational drugs might make you see ghosts, this is the first time I have ever heard of them being connected to their sale or manufacture.

Sonny Clay Hyatt called 911 dispatch in Caldwell County, North Carolina on Monday when he got lost in a wooded area off of Goat Farm Road. Hyatt informed police at the time that he was out in the woods with two friends investigating local ghost stories about that particular area.

Later, it would be revealed the only ‘horrors’ in the woods were three methamphetamine addicts cooking the drug out in the woods as they were afraid it might blow up if done indoors.

Police tracked Wyatt to his location via his cell phone and upon deciding that there was more to this then a ghost hunt, decided to check out Wyatt’s apartment on Laurel Ave, where Wyatt had said his two fellow ‘ghost hunters’ had gone after he got separated from them.

Inside, they found evidence of both the equipment and the chemical components used to manufacture methamphetamine.

Eventually they found out that Wyatt, along with Thomas Glenn Imler Jr. and Eric John Schmidt had begun to argue when the ‘cook’ went bad, causing Wyatt to get separated form others and subsequently get lost.

All three men were booked into the Caldwell County Detention Center on fifty-thousand dollars bond on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine precursor chemicals.

No word yet if any ghosts took part in this crime.

-Thomas Spychalski

(Via WCNC)

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Las Vegas, Nevada is home to some pretty amazing spectacles and shows. It is a purely entertainment driven town, providing fun and something interesting around every corner.

The Luxor Hotel is one Las Vegas destination that might have gotten a little more then they bargained for when they opened an exhibit of relics and exhibits from and related to the Titanic.

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition includes recreated first and third class rooms done by the original manufacturers, recreations of the grand staircase and other major areas of the ship and even pats of the Titanic’s hull dragged up from the wreckage site.

But some guests and employees have reported ghostly goings on at the exhibition since it opened in 2008.

The actual naval disaster itself, when the HMS Titanic hit an iceberg in April of 1912, was an amazing event in it’s own right. One of the more extraordinary factors of the tragedy has to be the extraordinary amount of lives lost.  Of two-thousand, two-hundred and eight passengers who left on the mighty ship’s maiden voyage, only seven-hundred and twelve would survive to tell the tale of that fateful night.

Those that did die most likely died in a state of confusion and agony, lost to the Atlantic Ocean forever.

Certainly with such a horrible tale comes the probability of ghost stories and some of the better ones are attached to the artifact’s display at the Luxor Hotel.

Wreckage From The Titanic

Joe Zimmer, an artifacts expert who works at the exhibition claims to have had his name being called out to him followed by playful laughing. He has also  had his hair and clothes pulled and after closing the exhibit down for the night he has heard the strains of a phantom orchestra.

Some could say that Zimmerman might make the worst kind of witness as he has an obvious investment in that exhibit doing well, being employed there. However Zimmerman does address that issue to a degree in the comments he made to the Las Vegas Review Journal:

“I’ll say this a million times and on my deathbed, and maybe come back and say it after my death: I would not lie to you,

What I’m asking you is to keep an open mind. Some of the docents and even guests have had some serious experiences here. Now, is it a trick of the mind or something else?”

It is true that others have experienced paranormal phenomena at the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor as well.

Some patrons and employees have felt like they are being watched and hear footsteps, especially around the mocked up third class bunk area, a replica made to demonstrate what travel on the Titanic was really like.

In addition, actual apparitions have been seen, such as  multiple sightings of an old lady in a bun and a black period dress embellished with a white collar and another woman who was seen waking down the grand staircase replica before the exhibit opened.

This figure was seen by a photographer at the exhibit who asked the woman multiple times if she wanted her picture taken, only to have her disappear a short time later.

Another interesting tale is about the photo of one Bruce Ismay who’s portrait fell off the wall one night after closing.

Ismay

Bruce Ismay was one of the Titanic’s builders and top men who pushed the Titanic project forward. In a infamous interaction right before the accident occurred, Ismay is said to have told a passenger that the ship would be speeding up rather then slowing down after the ship received an ice warning.

Ismay was also one of the survivors, with accounts differing on how exactly he found himself on one of the hard to find rowboats.

He also was one of the main faces in the news concerning the tragedy when he returned to land.

All of this leads to some excellent reasons for why a ghost from the Titanic might want to point out Ismay, but truth be told, I can’t find anything on the surveillance video the staff claims shows the picture sliding down off the wall and then a couple of inches across the floor.

I’d love to see it.

So is  Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition really haunted?

There is too little information to know for sure.

The tragedy surely makes it fodder for a good ghost story but the fact that most of the better accounts of activity taking place at the exhibit are by staff I also have to raise a skeptical eyebrow or two.

No matter what, the exhibit is a great piece of history on display which might also have brought back some of the spirits that died on that April night.

-Thomas Spychalski

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Huang Jianjun decided that he had many skills that he could use in China’s Guangzhou, Guangdong Province to rid the area of paranormal activity.

One of the tools he decided to use to combat ghosts was his penis.

On August 1st of this year, Huang was arrested for charging a young woman a little over three thousand dollars to exercise the ghosts from the woman’s vagina the night before.

The victim, a spice shop worker named A Xin, contacted Huang after others in the area had told her that Huang could help her attract her boss, whom she was in love with.

Huang took Xin to a motel room, asked her to strip naked for an ‘exam’ and then declared that the ghosts in Xin’s vagina were stopping her boss from being attracted to her. He then told her that the only way he could exorcise the ghosts was to have sex with the woman.

The sexually driven ghost-buster also told Xin that he had sacrificed his virginity during the act to solve her problem.

Authorities arrested Huang the next day after Xin reported the incident to the police. Later at the station Huang would tell them that his penis could not get erect due to having diabetes.

Maybe the ghosts he absorbed with his penis were high in sugar?

(Via Global Times)

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Certainly one of the biggest ‘signs’ of a ghost or haunting are strange noises in the middle of the night. Hearing bumps and knocks during usual sleeping hours is classic paranormal fare, and it is one of those factors that can really divide opinion about the existence of ghosts.

Mostly because so many other things can cause creepy noises that make the mind  jump over any rational thoughts and believe their home is haunted.

We have told this tale in this space before, but now another case out of the Middle East, where two teenage lovers were mistaken for a pair of unruly spirits.

It began in the trading post city of Manama, the capital of Bahrain when a woman called in the police to deal with what she believed to be ghosts that had invaded her family home.

For one entire week the woman and other family members had been hearing strange sounds on the roof at night. When they would check to see what was causing the strange sounds, they would find nothing.

Some suggested the woman seek religious advice and help to solve the problem, but the woman turned to the police instead.

When the police came to the house they made a through search of the premises, leading them to find an unused attic room the family had forgotten about. Inside the room was the woman’s teenage son and a girl who had ran away from her own family.

The seventeen year old son admitted that he had hidden the fifteen year old girl in the attic for the last week, as he did not think his family would notice.

Meanwhile the girl informed police that she had indeed run away from home and that her boyfriend had offered to ‘host’ her at his home.

So another case here that really makes you want to really check into something before you decide it is the actions of a ghost or other forms of paranormal activity.

(And be sure to check the attic!)

- Thomas Spychalski

(Via Gulf News)

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Everything is bigger in Texas, including their paranormal tales and urban legends. Why have just one ghost when it could be a whole school bus of children, who tragically got hit by a train while crossing a set of tracks just outside San Antonio?

That is the basis for one of the most interesting tales of paranormal activity in the modern era as well as one of the most captivating photographs of purported ghostly phenomena.

According to legend, at some point in the middle to late 1930′s a school bus tried to cross the rail road tracks at the corners of Shane and  Villamain streets just outside of loop 410 in San Antonio.

The bus got stuck on the tracks for some reason or another and was hit by a freight train using the system. All of the children aboard were killed, including the buses driver.

As the tale persisted with locals of the area down through the decades, the railroad crossing gained a reputation for being haunted.

People could hear ghostly moans or children crying at the site during the afternoon, the time the accident was said to have occurred.

Ghostly hands were said to push cars across the tracks if they were left in neutral just before they got close to the famous crossing. If a person put a powder such as baby powder or talc on their cars, they reportedly saw phantom hand prints on the rear exterior of the vehicle.

Some others have claimed to have had their windows busted out by an unseen force if they try and stop the vehicle after the ‘ghosts’ have it in motion, but there is not too much out there about that aspect of the case.

Others still state that the car will stop on the tracks out of no where.

The railroad crossing has appeared on such popular shows as Unsolved Mysteries and is even promoted as a tourist site by the city of San Antonio itself.

Thousands come to the spot near Halloween each year to see for themselves if the legend is true.

Sure enough, most come away happy and satisfied, finding that their vehicle did indeed roll across the tracks, apparently on it’s own. Some even find the hand prints they seek on the back of their car or truck.

Adding even more fuel to the fire is the photograph above which was taken by the daughter of a woman named Debi Chesney, who sent the photograph in to about.com with this explanation:

“My daughter and some friends went to San Antonio, Texas this last weekend and went to the railroad tracks where they say that a busload of children were killed a long time ago. They took several pictures. They emailed them to me after they got home to show me, and a ghost appeared in this one. They had no idea that it was in the picture until the next day when I printed out the picture and showed them. It was really freaky. It appears to be a little girl carrying a teddy bear.”

So this place has got to be truly haunted right?

We have everything in place; the tragic back story, thousands of eyewitness accounts, physical evidence in the form of that hand prints that appear on people’s cars and we even have a photograph showing what is clearly a human like form near the tracks.

But not so fast.

Jonathan Levit

Both a researcher for Abstract Dreamteching and illusionist  Jonathan Levit, during a segment for his 2004 Discovery Channel pilot called Miracle Hunters, discovered that the road is actually on an slight incline.

The flat appearance of the road to the naked eye is an optical illusion.

This does not explain the reports of cars actually stopping on the tracks, something even the researcher from Abstract Dreamteching experienced first hand during his investigation:

“It was truly startling moment,

There was no reasonable explanation for the occurrence, only the odd thought that the ghosty kids wanted some company.”

The hand prints were also long believed to be explained away by the fact that powders being able to ‘lift’ the oily residue of prints on objects to make them visible is one of the key tools and discoveries of modern forensic science.

This was put to the test by the pilot television show above where they washed a car, wiped it with a towel to make sure no prints were already present on the vehicle, they then doused the back end in powder and let the ‘ghosts’ do their work.

No prints were found on that car during filming, leading one to reason that indeed it is only prints and marks already on the car that people are seeing materialize after being ‘pushed’ over the tracks.

The program also brings on a local historian who says there are no accounts of an accident between a train and a school bus ever occurring in the county where San Antonio resides.

However, there was a case of a similar accident happening in Salt Lake City in the appropriate era. It would seem that the tragic story was adapted into one of nations most famous urban legends.

The photograph itself, which has become popular in recent years, due to the internet in all honesty seems too good to be true.

It is a perfect creepy photo in the middle of a reputed haunted location.

But if the haunting is not real, what does that say about the photo?

If it is not an outright fake, then I would guess this is a very creepy and convincing form of matrixing, with our own eyes seeing shapes in the clouds.

The effect itself could easily be a reflection of some kind, as you can see in the picture itself the ‘X’ sign right by the tracks is heavily reflecting light from one source or another, be it the cameras flash or a paid of headlights.

I’d guess the light shown in the photo reflected off an object, maybe even one out of shot and created this gorgeous picture.

But even in the face of scientific fact and good theorizing, I think this urban legend will just keep on rolling along the tracks for decades to come.

- Thomas Spychalski

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For millennium, people across the globe have been interacting with forces that can’t be explained.  Things science has yet to fully acknowledge. Creatures that are not just part of our present, but our past.  You will never read their tales in an academic history book. However, they have always been part of our cultures.

This is what I call Paranormal History.
You are walking through the forest, heading to your  favorite hunting spot when you start to get the uneasy feeling of being watched.  You think you are being paranoid so you try to  shake the feeling, but there is a movement from the brush. You grab a nearby rock and throw it in an attempt to flush the animal out.  Less than a second later an even bigger rock strikes the tree behind your head.

Full of terror, you take aim with you rifle, demanding for whatever it is to show itself. Suddenly, a blood curdling scream erupts from the brush, causing you to drop your rifle as you run for your life. This isn’t a scene from the newest SyFy original movie, this is what was recounted to me by a Kentucky resident in 2009.

The fear in their eyes as they recounted their tale, led me to be assured that he honestly believed he had an encounter with the seven to nine foot tall hairy creature we know as the Bigfoot or Sasquatch.  This is one of the thousands of reported experiences involving this legendary creature, and if history is any indication many more will be recorded for years to come.
The Sasquatch isn’t a modern invention of the media or juvenile pranksters, it has been part of Native American lore for generations. The Cheyenne reference hairy beings that were created along side man by The Great Spirit. These hairy men wore no clothes and made their home in caves of the hills, because they were afraid of their human brothers.
On the Tule River Reservation in California inside a cave that the tribesmen consider sacred, there is a painting that the elders says depicts a family of four beings that they call the Hairy Man.  Scientist who have visited the cave date the art to approximately 500 A.D.

In 1840, Rev. Elkanah Walker wrote of stories the Spokane Tribe passed on about a race of hairy giants who possibly lived on Mt. Rainier.  These giants would sneak into their village at night and steal the fish villagers had caught that day then throw stones at the houses.  When the tribesmen woke in the morning they would find tracks one and a half feet long.  The indigenous people seemingly have seen something long before Caucasians would come to this land.
The European settlers of North American, set off into unknown wilderness in their quest to explore this  New World.  As they reached never before seen regions they began to see things the couldn’t explain.

David Thompson, an English born surveyor who explored along the Canadian-American border, wrote in his journal what many believe is the first reordered Sasquatch footprint. “January 7th continuing our journey in the afternoon we came on the track of a large animal, the snow about six inches deep on the ice; I measured it; four large toes each of four inches in length, to each a short claw; the ball of the foot sunk three inches lower than the toes. The hinder part of the foot did not mark well, the length fourteen inches, by eight inches in breadth, walking from north to south, and having passed about six hours. We were in no humor to follow him.”

The oldest written record that has been discovered is the 1864 story of Alexander Caulfield Anderson during his exploration of the Harrison Lake area in Canada. Anderson is said to have seem several “wild giants” during his time in the area.  In one account from him, he and his party had to retreat from the area because stones were being thrown at them from a nearby hillside.
The August 1,1883 edition of the Newark Daily Advocate printed the story of two men who traveled to Prettis Island, one hundred miles north of Ottawa in search of Sasquatch.  What they reportedly encountered was an eight foot tall near human covered with fur.  The creature carried a stone tomahawk and a bludgeon. It chased the men back into their canoe and reportedly fractured one of the men in the arm with its tomahawk.  Sightings like these continued well into the twentieth century.
During the twentieth century, many of our forests were cleared out to further develop this nation.  This is said to be the cause of the increase of sightings during this era.  Prospector Albert Osman was camping at Tobla Inlet near Lund, British Columbia when he said he had one of the most extraordinary experiences ever reordered.  His camp site was ransacked three times in his sleep by an unknown assailant.  On the fourth day there, he was woken by something picking him up, while he was still in his sleeping bag.  It carried him for approximately three hours to where it apparently made camp with its mate and two children.  He was their “guest” for six days before he escaped and made his way to Vancouver.

In October hunter William Roe spotted what he at first thought was a bear but ended up being a six foot tall, three hundred pound, dark brown fur covered, apparently female creature.  He was able to witness it eating leaves from a nearby bush until it took off when it spotted him.  After searching the area he concluded that it was most likely strictly vegetarian and may have been incapable of using even simple tools.
In July 1992 an off duty law enforcement officer was driving down Highway 101 in California near Eel River with his wife and two children.  The family reported seeing a seven foot tall reddish brown creature they identified as a Bigfoot. They witnessed the creature for fifteen seconds as it left the river and headed into the woods. Even though they are still seen today, such reports are not considered good enough evidence for such an elusive creature to exist.
Thanks to the advances in technology, reports of sightings seem to have risen and new forms of evidence have become available. The November 7, 2007 episode of History Channel’s Monster Quest entitled “Sasquatch Attack”, DNA evidence was collected in the form of skin and hair from a board with screws used to discourage animal intruders at a Canadian cabin that was said to have been ransacked by Sasquatch.

After tests the samples were said to to belong to a nonhuman primate.

On May 8, 2012 Stacy Brown Jr. captured what is considered some of the best Sasquatch footage ever captured with a FLIR camera.  The FLIR, a camera that uses infrared to sense the heat of the object, picked up an over eight foot tall living creature  move behind the trees.  Several attempts to reproduce the footage with a man in a suit, dressed in winter clothes, and even with a nude person have failed.

In November 2012, veterinarian Kelba S. Ketchum concluded a five year study of one hundred samples of hair, saliva, blood, and urine said to come from Sasquatch.  Her team of independent researchers including geneticists, forensic scientists, and pathologists concluded that it is a relative to the human species that developed fifteen thousand years ago.  These results are currently being debated in the scientific community.
This is just a small glimpse of the long history of the elusive Sasquatch.  While some experiences can be explained by hoaxes or miss-identification, there are enough incidences that can’t be explained yet. This is what fuels more people than ever to take up the hunt for this legend, and to try to make a name for themselves in Paranormal History.

David Dunaway is an independent paranormal researcher and historian of the unexplained based in central Illinois.  He has ten years of experience investigating ghosts and cryptids in the states of Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, and Alabama.

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Clowns are a real psychological fear for some people and although they are not paranormal in the least, I just had to share this story trending currently from the UK.

It seems that someone is dressing up as a clown in Northampton and is stalking the streets at night, just waiting to be ‘spotted.’

He even has his own Facebook page and has invited everything from praise to death threats as the story circulates around the world.

The clown is made up in a similar way to the infamous clown creature Pennywise from Stephen King’s It, has been seen stalking about the Abington and Kingsley areas in Northampton.

A report, later denied by the clown himself, says he even knocked on someone’s door and asked them if they needed anyone to paint their window sills.

It was soon after the story of the Northampton Clown broke in the media that the clown set up his own Facebook page, which as of this writing currently has nearly eighty-eight thousand likes.

The sightings have also given birth to Twitter hash tag for ‘clown reports’: #northamptonclown

Some people have found the clown’s antics to be amusing, with some fans on his Facebook page begging him to come to Brazil or the United States.

Others feel the clown is a nuisance and a possible threat to public safety, as one local resident put it on Facebook:

“You’ve been spotted now get out of the clown suit and start acting like a grown up that you supposing are and stop scaring people as some people do have real fears of clowns and you are terrorizing them despite what you may say.”

One man went as far as to say he would run the clown over in his car if he saw him.

Meanwhile, the man behind the clown has said he is only doing this for fun:

“I don’t terrorize people I just want to be spotted.

For those of you with phobias and fears, you don’t have to like and comment on this page. See you around soon.

Too much hate not enough love . No, I don’t have a knife on me!, that’s just stupid rumors spread by stupid people.”

Looks like another urban legend has sprung up fast around this mysterious clown creeping around Northampton.

Could be one of the greatest pranks of all time, could be a as yet unknown publicity stunt, but whatever it is, it is certainly very cool and also very very creepy.

Beep Beep!!

- Thomas Spychalski

(Via Northampton News)

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Almost half of the population of Canada, The United States and the UK believe in ghosts, according to studies done in the last decade or so.

The reasons behind this rise may not be shocking, but some the results might surprise some people, especially those skeptical of the paranormal.

Starting with the United States, according to a poll conducted by the Huffington Post, forty-five percent of those polled believed in ghosts or life after death.

This is similar to a CBS poll conducted in 2009, where on the subject of life after death, a whopping seventy-eight percent they believed in the concept.

Rising numbers in believers in ghosts is not just limited to the States. Their neighbors to the north in Canada also seemed to favor a belief in the after life and the echoes of the dead.

Besides the raw number of the forty-seven percent of Canada that does indeed believe in spirits, the 2006 survey done by Canada Speaks survey and released by Sympatico / MSN, goes into detail as well.

Some of the more interesting findings are that those with children seemed more likely to believe in ghosts then those without kids and as the household income went up, beliefs in the paranormal seemed to decline.

More interesting data from the 2006 study:

Forty-seven percent of Canadians indicate that they believe in ghosts – 31% say they “think such things are likely” and 16% say they “know such things exist”. Further:
* One in five Canadians (18%) say they have been in the presence of a ghost;
* 12% have had an “out-of-body experience”;
* 9% have “visited with the ghost of a dead relative”; and
* The same proportion (9%) says they have “lived in a haunted house”.

Fortunately, for ghost-believers, more (32%) feel that ghosts are usually “forces of good” rather than “forces of evil” (8%).

They also had a little look see on how Canadians feel about the Halloween holiday:

Approximately one-third of Canadians agree with the statement that “I don’t like Halloween” (31%), while just 29% say they “will likely put on a costume this year for Halloween”. And, 32% agree that they “don’t really understand what we’re celebrating on Halloween”.

Finally, we leave the continent and head East to the UK, where a recently conducted study conducted by the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena found that fifty-two percent of those polled believed in ghosts up from around forty percent from results from similar polls done in 2005 and 2009.

Among the interesting bits from that study were the fact that women were more likely to be believers then men and there was an increase in beliefs in ghosts in people aged eighteen to Twenty-four.

The study also found that the belief in UFOs has declined remarkably.

Many explanations are possible for the sudden recent rise in paranormal beliefs. Shows like Ghost Hunters, Most Haunted and Ghost Adventures are very popular programs in the areas mentioned in the studies.

It would not take much to think that shows like this and popular films like Paranormal Activity and the Conjuring have not ‘ramped up’ our acceptance of the supernatural.

Whatever the reason, it seems that more and more people are willing to believe that there are ghosts among us or at the very least, a possibility of something beyond this lifetime.

-Thomas Spychalski

(Via E-Canada Now)

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