Want to see something spooky?

[Isabella]

I really miss shows like Unsolved Mysteries, but I do have a great one called Ghost Stories I got on DVD for 20 dollars at Best Buy in the "collections section" of the store. If you like ghost story style shows, it's great!

I think you have to be skeptical, regardless if you believe in ghosts or not, sometimes folks take it all for face value, without investigation.

I've been developing my mediumship skills over the past year. I worked for a while as an intutive healer learning to develope and work with subtle energies over the past six years. These have been really great experiances, and I am facinated with the process. I believe anyone is capable of learning it. It doesn't make anyone speical or better, it's just like learning to ride a bike or work on cars. It's a speicalized skill. Sometimes those of us feel drawn to work with it in the compasity of ghost hunting, or helping others. I, in particular am facinated with ghost hunting, and ghost work of any kind.

Our area is part of the Underground Rail road, and Civil War training camps. It can get pretty hairy at night driving through some of the areas, because you "think" you see folks walking along the road, only to get up on them and there is nobody there.

When I moved from California, which doesn't have as many old buildings as Ohio, it made me gasp sometimes, because sometimes areas would be so intense, angry or bubbly. It was a WHOLE new learning curve living here where history is so litterly alive at every corner.

There is supose to be a night up in Mansfield, OH where you can stay the night at a old prison that is haunted. A friend and mine are going to go, if you are local to us and interested in going, we wouldn't mind going with a group. I'm going to try and get more information, if this seems like something someone would like to do. They only allow people to stay on certain days of the year, but I'd be interested. I'd like to read more about the place, but since it's legal to investigate there, I am more comfterable with going. :)

Oh here we go, it's in October, how fitting. *laughs* They do it every weekend in October. Ah, Mansfield was where Shawshank Redemption was partically filmed to give you an idea.

[tishsparrow]

Unsolved Mysteries is still on, its just on Lifetime now.

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Rumba-

It's possible... As I said, if I see proof, I'll change my mind.

But, just a few points from the heathen unbeliever I've been working in theatres for about a decade and a half now, and, in case you didn't know, pretty much every theatre out there is haunted - and they say sailors were supersticious.

I have yet to see or experience anything that couldn't be explained. And that includes some pretty freaky stuff. Granted, my stories wouldn't be so compelling as some others - "Yes, the tape deck started rewinding on its' own, but that particular model, if set correctly, will automatically rewind if it hits more than three seconds of dead air. Yes, really. Okay, it might have been the ghost, but that model does do that..."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anyone else should believe or disbelieve - especially on my say-so.

But, as one other aside, never go ghost-hunting in a theatre without a techie who knows the space. He or she will save you some embarrassment - we tend to know all the weird noises already.

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

Just for the record... I'm not 100% sure that I WASN'T duped by some local who does it for kicks. But I'm doubtful that was the case, as it was remote, it was in the wee hours, and I really don't think some Smoky Mountain resident just walks down the road in the middle of nowhere waiting on someone to come along and take the bait. It has caused me to keep an open mind though. Finding the story in the book was really a wake up call. The two cops were very lackadaisical about it, so who knows?

Capt. Bo

[Isabella]

sparrow: Aw, I never knew. :/ Right now I'm too cheap for cable we're trying to save for a house. But thanks for telling me, I'll look forward to watching it when I have it again. :)

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Capt. Bo-

Never underestimate the boredom of the locals. I have a cousin that almost got his fool head blown off for a prank not completely unlike your story.

When the story started going about that there was the ghost of a Confederate army officer a-hauntin' the moors, so to speak, he thought it would be really funny to go about on brightly-moonlit nights dressed up as the ghost.

What he didn't consider was how many of the locals keep shotguns on the gunrack in their trucks, and that there had been a run of break-ins around the same time.

Not saying this is what happened to you, of course - I just like to tell stories on my cousin...

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

Absolutely my point. I'm not ready to declare.."yes, I saw a ghost!"... nor am I going to say "no such thing". I just wanted to get the story out there for others to ponder, and MAYBE someone else had the same experience as me. It's "haunted" me for years, trying to decide one way or the other. but until I see more "solid",(or transparent.. ), proof, I remain undecided.

Capt. Bo

[Christine]

There is definitely other things out there, ghosts, angels, demons and even ailens. We are not the only beings in this vast universe. Ghosts are what we become when we die. I have not actually seen a ghost, but I have experienced some freaky stuff! Some things that can't be explained. Remember, ghosts take on all forms, not just the typical almost human like kind.

[gryffin]

Here’s mine:

When I was a lad, about 10 or 11, I was lying in bed just about to fall off to sleep. You know that point where your in-between awake and sleep? Well, it was summer time so I had on a short sleeved shirt and the covers where around my waist. All of a sudden I felt a hand on my arm and it shocked me awake. It didn’t feel cold but more like a shock and I could feel where each finger was. I pulled up my covers to my neck and eventually fell asleep. That was almost 30 years ago it’s just recently that I’ve been able to leave my shoulders uncovered when I’m going to bed.

I also feel that when you think you saw someone out of the corner of your eye and when you turn to look and no one is there, that that could have been a ghost. You might try to play it off as a trick of light or shadow but I think that could have been a glimpse of the other side.

Just a story and a thought.

[The Doctor]

We had a lovely Persian/Angora mix cat named "Boo". She got her name from the way she'd arch her back and hop sideways if something startled her. She was with us for right around 22 years before her kidneys failed.

About 2 weeks after we lost her, I was walking into the living room of the condo my wife and I lived in, and I happened to look over at my recliner. Boo loved to nestle into the top portion of the recliner, where the cushion meets the back. It was a heavy recliner, and there's now way the wind could move it. The chair began rocking as if Boo had jumped down from her favourite perch. We had not yet gotten any cats to fill the heartaching void left by her passing. This happened on more occassions that I can count.

We ended up getting a 2 more cats to dispel the crushing silence of our home. We soon found that Selena and Caleb were playing and romping with the "thin air", as if another cat were in the house. We quickly learned that Boo was still very much with us.

3 years ago, we moved to a new house. Selena and Caleb settled in quite nicely, but they would wander about the house in the middle of the night, crying, as if calling to another cat. We knew what was going on. They missed Boo.

We went back to the condo to complete the cleanup so the new owner could take posession. We were overcome with a feeling of loneliness as we went about our work. So, that night, we invited Boo to come with us to our new home. We used everything we know to entice and encourage her spirit, and it worked.

And follow us, she did. She's taken up residence in the lower two floors of the house, and all three of our cats know she's there and play with her. It's really odd to see a cat wrestle with "nothing", rolling around on the floor as if there are indeed two cats at play. And the same recliner moves even thought it's not been touched.

So, yes. My house is haunted by a very happy little ghost cat named Boo.

[tishsparrow]

That's like my grandma's house. She had an old cat and two old dogs, but they died a few years ago. She now has a young cat and dog, who do very odd things every now and then. They watch like something is walking in front of them, both of their heads moving in sync. Also, the cat (her name is Joy) will go upstairs and play with something. Its not the dog, because she cant climb steps. It seriously sounds like two different cats are up there. Her old cat, Babydoll, had a really odd meow, like a crying meow, and for a while after she died, i would hear it when I walked in. Her old dogs are there sometimes too. Before she got her new dog, we would still see dogs. It hadn't really hit that there should'nt be dogs, and they'd be there, then poof, they're gone. Other things happen alot there too, like we'd see a reflection that was'nt anyone in the room, or hear voices when we're by ourselves. It has happened to my grandma, me, and many other people.

[LongTom]

We remodeled our kitchen a few years ago. There was a period of about 4 months, spanning when the kitchen was completely torn out and when it was just newly finished, where, well, something was going on. I would be in the kitchen looking over some detail or other, I would turn around or look back over my shoulder, and I'd startle and reflex duck, so as to avoid bumping into someone directly behind me. By the time I'd completed the maneuver, there was nobody there, of course. But I had the strongest impression from my eyes (can't actually call it "seeing" him, as it was way too quick) of it being a man, a little taller than me, late 60's in age, dressed in shades of black -- and a distinct impression of him being curious and a bit confused ("what's happened to my kitchen?")

Trick of the light? Who knows? The house was built in 1936, but there is no history that I'm aware of that would indicate a classic haunting.

This happened on about 4 or 5 different occasions. I have had a similar experience once or twice in other parts of the house: glancing through a doorway while passing by it and getting a glimpse of a silhouette. Nobody there when I looked for real, and no indication from the lighting conditions of anything in the room that would have composed a shadow that looked like that.

Most likely it was me being accustomed to the old patterns of light in the space, and having reflexive reactions to the changed lighting. We are creatures of our nervous systems, and they do get programmed by habit. Ever do something like change a doorknob, then spend several weeks accidentally slamming the door, because the new latch works so much more smoothly than the old one?

Still, just the littlest ... tiniest bit ... creepy.

[Black Syren]

Rumba I too pick them up and bring them home so I must be careful where I tread. All my life I have seen things, heard things, water coming on in the middle of the night, a little girl in a long white nightgown wandering from room to room, men fighting and breaking things.

In 1998 My husband and I bought our home in Round Rock, Texas. we are in the historical area and there is a cemetary at the entrance to our neighborhood. In this cemetary the Outlaw Sam Bass is buried along with one of his men. There is also a slave cemetary and it is really sad for they bear no markers of any kind.

Ok I was pregnant. We moved in on Halloween night of all times and we closed on the house on the 26th of Oct. The same day my Grandmother was buried. I could not attend her funeral as I was having complications. Anyhow our house started giving me bad vibes. Normally you see things out of the corner of your eyes and dismiss it, this I had never run across. Because I was having so many probs with my pregnancy i often was awake at night or wandering the house..that soon came to a halt. Now I love ghost stories, I always have and growing up with them I still can spook easily. But this was pure evil. The house would get cold, very cold, and it was like someone was watching you. One night about two weeks before Nora was born *around the first of feb.* I was laying in bed and had fallen asleep, the room got very cold and I woke up. There in the hall standing and looking into our bedroom was a man. He was all shadowed and you could see through him, but the feeling of hate he gave off made me shake my husband awake. I was shaking and told him about the "ghost in our house". Not believing in such he searched the house to no avail. After my daughter was born I was up all night with her feeding her and walking the floor with her because she had colic alot. I would sit in my husbands recliner the back of which was faced to the hall. Everynight I could 'feel' him behind me, made my blood run cold. I could feel him wanting to hurt me, had images of him taking my hair and pulling my head back and slitting my throat. I refused to get up and kept Nora in the bed with me till she was three.

Then came the breaking of glass. You could look for hours and not find it. And it was loud like a window shattering, doors would open and close. we would go away for a weekend and come home and the house would be quiet. But the guest room and Nora's room would sound like music or a tv was on. It all came to a head one night when my husband went to bed. By this time I had decided I was not going to let a ghost scare me from my home and again wandered the house at night. Apparently My husband grew irritated with who he thought was me in the bed with him. I have a tendency to wiggle my feet if I cannot sleep. He felt the bed shift like somene got in, the covers move then "My feet" wiggle. He rolled over to tell me to quit and surprise nothing was there. I have to laugh here because my husband came to me told me what happened and was set on selling the house in a weeks time.

Being Catholic we had a Father come out and bless our home and I received a special blessing as I am a magnet and was told to not pick up anymore spirits or go where they could attach themselves to come home with me. We are still in our home and yes we still have ghosts, Apparently he resides in the guest room because my daughter refuses o sleep without the door closed at night, and will not play in there after dark.

[Rumba Rue]

I don't know what to call myself regarding magic or unknown forces, a magnet perhaps. I can't use dousing rods, they turn right to me everytime. At one point in my life with a whole lot of friends around we had a candle lit on the coffee table, and the flame literally was reaching toward me. So I moved and the flame followed me every where I moved as I moved position around the circle of friends! We were just there talking nothing else. We were all pretty amazed. I have tried to fiddle around with pendulums, they either start swinging around wildly or don't move at all, so I don't touch them.

When I'm in a really great mood and have been now for a while, I've had people tell me they can see and incredible aura around me. I do feel a lot of energy of late.

Hmmmm very interesting...makes me wonder about myself...

[BeaufortsPyrateWench]

Well as a ghost hunter (SAGE Investigations) I can tell you that that one is a fake. When the little girl turned around you could see the light reflected in her eyes. Ghosts dont have lenses where there eyes were. Good try though. Going to send it to my partner he will get a kick out of it!

[Blackfoot]

For you skeptics out there. Here is a test for proof. A few years ago, a local news channel interviewed a "ghost hunter." This guy told the news crew he will prove the existence of ghosts.

In front of the camera, he opened a brand new cassette tape and placed it in a recorder while he was at a graveyard. He played the tape and it was blank. Then he "spoke" to the cemetary and explained in detail, "this is a recorder which can record your voices. This is where you speak (pointing to the microphone) and so on. He pushed "record" and taped for about 30 minutes or so. After, he played it and you could hear clicks and scratching noises. They slowed or sped the noises and you could actually hear audible "EVP" speaking words such as "help, coming here, and go away." The man told the news crew to try it later. The next day, they went to another graveyard, tried it and it worked! The crew said it would work in any graveyard day or night.

Another odd thing this guy taught is to point a video camera at the sun and keep it just out of sight in the camera viewer. Amazingly, you could see hundreds of bright white "specks" flying like little missiles but in a controlled flight.

I have never tried these tests, but if someone does, let us know.

[Rumba Rue]

Many times I have indeed seen what you describe, outside during daylight hours, with the naked eye specks not only white, but mostly rainbow seemingly sort of 'swimming' around like miniture metors on a pre-determined flight path. Interesting theory on the sunlight perhaps that could be true. I always sort of thought it as energy of some sort, but I could see where sunlight could create this. Interesting though, this is the first time I've ever told anybody about this, I just figured I'm weird- so what.

[Christine]

On the subject of all this ghost talk, don't forget tonight at 9pm is the return of Ghost Hunters on Sci Fi channel. All new episodes!

[The Doctor]

As I've mentioned before, I've been through my own bits of wierdness. Rumba helped me through the last one, and I'm eternally greatful.

It's an odd thing, and I never thought it possible given that our house is a new construction; but every now and again I'll catch something out of the corner of my eye. A shape, movement, things like that. Now yes, I know that some of it can be written off to mundane things, such as a trick of the light, imagination, my own hair, things like that. Fortunately, I deal quite a bit with animals. Three cats running about the house, and regular trips to the horse barn. I immediately check the reaction of the animals, since they tend to catch these things better than we do.

Jack Jr. is really perceptive. More so than many other cats I've been around. I'll notice something, and I'll turn and catch him crouched down, staring at whatever it is, spirit person or what have you, with totally dialated pupils. I let them know that they need to keep moving, that this is no place to get "stuck", and check what I'm feeling against the cat's reactions.

The other two cats will notice something, bristle at it, then come running to Momma or Papa to hide. So it's up to me and the kitten to go see who's knocking about.

Kids. What can you do with them?

So, think me wierd if you wish. I am Mad Jack, after all...

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Looks like I may be the "resident skeptic," so here goes...

Electronic Voice Phenomenon

Not my site, by any means, not trying to take credit for someone else's work.

Personally, one of the biggest problems I have with "Ghost Hunters" is that they rely on EVP entirely too much.

If you speed up and/or slow down a tape enough, and listen to basic noise enough, and want to hear a voice, chances are, you will. Not completely different from the "Face on Mars" nonsense of a few years back - the human brain looks for patterns, and will usually find them, even if they're not there.

Again - 'cuz I know this can hurt feelings and cause fights, almost as much as discussing religion or politics - this is just my opinion, for what it's worth.

[The Doctor]

I feel about "orbs" and ITC the same way you feel about EVP, Zephaniah. Way too subjective, given filtration and interpretation.

[LongTom]

to misquote: "I see dead pixels."

[The Doctor]

Years ago, I did quality control on PC-based logic analyzers. My words would have been "I see dead bits."

Not as impactful, but it beats the things I've been seeing as of late.

[Rumba Rue]

Well I know I wasn't seeing things last night.

I was walking into my dining area, and just below the cabinets that are on the wall of my place near the floor, I swear up and down, I saw the dark ghostly figure of a small rat run very fast underneath them and then disappear! I saw it with both eyeballs, none of that out of the corner stuff.

My cats who were nearby didn't see a thing, but then it has to be in front of their faces...

I thought to myself, did I just see that? I looked around, couldn't tell if anything was about, but outloud I said, "Did I miss something?"

[Captain_Jack_Sparrow]

My mom loves the Most Haunted show... or as she calls them, the Scaredy Cat Brits. Now, I believe in ghosts, so the one episode got me. I forget where they were, but the lady was asking the spirit to give them a sign it was there, and they heard a banging sound. She asked it to make the sound again, to make sure it was a ghost. Another bang, louder. She asked it again (which I think was just pushing it) and it started dropping things on their heads.

I also liked the one where the tv went on by itself and all the guys started jumping behind one another and screaming.

Did ye happen t'see the one where...well I daresay I don't remember where they were. But there was a clock tower. they asked the entity to do something, and the clock's pendulum started going off and ringing the bell.

They asked it to stop it, lo and behold it did, they asked it to start doing it again and lo and behold it started goin off by itself.

And a couple of weeks ago they came state side, and I think they're still here, they will be for about 3 weeks, they're staying in California on the Queen Mary, So they did an investigation there, since its supposedly haunted.

They were in the large Pool area on the lower decks but they didn't catch anything until the end of the investigation where they found water and watery foot prints, but therewas no water anywhere..

Oooh spooky.