GHOST HUNTERS

I’m always intrigued by legends. When I was a kid, I remember someone telling me briskly that if I didn’t behave, he’d send the Melungeons after me. I quietly asked my brother what a Melungeon was and he told me a horror story of a strange race of people in Appalachia who grew to be giants and ate everything in sight. Other kids I asked told me they were half Indian/half white, half Portuguese/half white, half African/half white, half Turkish/half white and one kid even told me they were three different races. Either way, they didn’t sound that scary to me. After all, I knew a lot of kids who were half this/half that. Of course, their social isolation in a small region of Appalachia made them seem rather mysterious, but if they were a mixed race of people hundreds of years ago, that might have been necessary. America was still in its infancy with regards to mixing races. Being a skeptic about anything others said from an early age, I sought my own answers. Back in the early 70s, there ...

What? No Takers? I thought I'd go ahead and share what I got on my remote viewing when I focused on the "secret" Montauk base. This sketch above shows the basics of what I viewed and the arrows at each “living thing’s” spot shows which direction the characters were facing. Details are sometimes the hardest thing to hone in on, but emotions are very easy when doing remote viewing. Sometimes I sense temperature or scent or light. I usually start with a sense of happiness or joy or curiosity or other appropriate emotion and then am able to see more of the field of vision. In this instance, I feel unescorted and alone and sort of invisible because the players in the environment don’t react to me. I’m walking down a stairway that curves and the walls of this stairway are nondescript, perhaps cave-like and bumpy with some kind of stippled white dotted pattern that looks maybe like natural stone striae. When I reach the bottom, I am facing “something” that is ranting and raving,...

This bit of news hit the press recently and it had me wondering how long it'll be before people proclaim that reverse engineering of alien technology is slowly being leaked into our world by drips and drabs ( so as not to look too obvious by having it all arrive at the same time). Transparent aluminum! Apparently, scientists used a soft x-ray laser on aluminum to discover a new kind of matter that is transparent. The implications are truly amazing, and as a result in the future we can expect them to try this on different kinds of materials to see what other new kinds of matter we can discover. Ain't science grand? I used to say scientists should be treated like football players and rock stars and make money and get attention, but all that worthless partying would take away from lab time, so I say " let's keep them in cloaked nerddom, but just fund them really well."

Interestingly, this subject matter is a followup of my last post on “The Philadelphia Experiment,” as many people believe that the Montauk Project was an extension of that experiment. Thanks Gummerfan for bringing up this subject matter. There’s no easy way to describe “The Montauk Project” but to take it straight from Wikipedia; “The Montauk Project was alleged to be a series of secret United States government projects conducted at Camp Hero or Montauk Air Force Station on Montauk, Long Island for the purpose of developing psychological warfare techniques and exotic research including time travel… No longer used as a military facility, the Montauk Air Force Station has been open to the public for several years, although public access to the old military building is prohibited.” The story goes that the military wished to play around with magnetic fields for the purpose of using it as a potential psychological warfare. By recreating some of what was done during the Philadelphia Experim...

I’m guessing quite a few of you have heard of the Philadelphia Experiment, an urban legend that won’t die. I wanted to bring up the story because I think it’s sort of like technology ideas in Star Trek, not being that off the possibilities in the near future. Fantasy, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s concepts for a helicopter or a robot, becomes tomorrow’s fact. Here’s the concept for the Philadelphia Experiment: The legend revolves around a supposed 1943 experiment led by the Navy at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on a ship called the USS Eldridge. According to the tale, this was an attempt at trying out the unified field theory laid out by Albert Einstein. The idea was to find a way to bend light around an object so it becomes invisible, thus making an ideal warship in dealing with the enemy during WWII. The ship was reported to be rigged with four immense generators along with Tesla coils, electron tubes and many miles of inch-thick cable running throughout the ship’s cables. The ship ...

I often like to cover new finds in the ghost hunting field, but today I came across a few that I absolutely have to add to my collection. Because ghost hunting is often in locations I don’t know and I can wander the grounds and surrounding woods and such, I’d like to know I’m going to get back safely. For this purpose, I found the Bushnell Backtrack. This simple handheld device makes it possible to arrive, mark a spot with GPS, and then travel around all you wish and find your way back to your car, the abandoned building, or group meeting spot with no trouble at all. It also has a compass as well. It even has a loop so it can be hung on a chain around your neck, leaving you hands free. Another cool other is a Highgear Terrapod hand-held weather station . This can give you the wind chill factor, temperature, and barometer. Many people report the sensation of their head crushing and ears popping (signs of a dropping barometric pressure) and temperature drops too are associated with ghos...

There’s a s#$%-load of abandoned mental hospitals around the country. The majority of them built in the late 1800s and early 1900s were considered to be a new and humane way to deal with the mentally ill population, and often times just those who acted up. Enough time has passed that these buildings are no longer safe and have been closed down. They were cold and without utilities and often times downright dangerous and dirty. The newer more antiseptic “day-spa-looking” mental hospitals have taken over the landscape. Some day, they too will be abandoned and picked over by the curious locals who will be amazed at how “barbaric” they were, including still using electroconvulsive therapy. The treatments were even more barbaric before there was an understanding that illnesses of the mind are no different than illnesses of the body. To put someone aside for having a sickness of the gallbladder is as ridiculous as telling someone with dysfunctioning of the brain to please go away. We’ve made...

It was the summer of 1971 and I was all of 8 years old when my brother and his fiancée asked me to be their flower girl. I was thrilled by the gig. After all, I had plans to become a model/actress at the time ( pre-Charlie’s Angel time when I wanted to be a PI and pre-fifth grade when I wanted to be a cartographer, and pre-seventh grade when I wanted to be an archaeologist ). Okay, you get the picture, I was hyped to do a modeling runway job at that time of my life, even if it was in a backwater Baptist church in the hills of West Virginia. My assignment would involve the wearing of a homemade dress ( by the bride ) and stepping before her to toss down rose petals. It sounded like a pretty cushy job and lots of eyes upon me. I just hoped the dress was cool and mod. It ended up being rather “Partridge Family” meets “Brady Bunch” which was ideal for my liking. We arrived in West Virginia to rehearse and prepare for the wedding. The dress was laid out on my hotel room bed and I was taken ...

How many times have you started a “google” search only to be led on other pathways until you have no idea how you started out? Today was one of those days. I went looking for something about vortexes and ended up finding out about a culture of people who believe in a massive underground network of tunnels that link countries around the globe and perhaps are associated with UFOs and reptilian folks. You know where I’m going with this (like a dog with a bone). I’m fascinated with any kind of conjecture, so I began to search for more about this fascinating concept. Chapter four of the book “In Search of Shambhala” by Mary Sutherland tells of places around the world where cave entrances lead to a network of caves that once were all interconnected; however, some supposedly were ruined by subterranean activity over time. The locations are interesting and the Mt. Shasta site is linked to reptilian people and Bigfoot. Honestly, after reading about this stuff, all I can do is imagine the fasc...

I have to admit that my questions and correlations seem to take me to a place that I’m certain others must have visited; the realm of tectonics/geology/paranormal/human minds. I don’t think this is a new observation by man, or else Stonehenge and Machu Pichu might never have been built. The question is, what theories are out there? Here are some theories I’ve found that can perhaps tie together the findings I’ve had on haunted sites in my last post pertaining to paranormal clusters. You can look these theories up in Wikipedia for more info: “Tectonic Strain Theory” The brainchild of Michael Persinger, a researcher in cognitive neuroscience. This hypothesis ties together such phenomenon as UFOs, religious experiences, and other paranormal experiences. Persinger argued that strain within the earth's crust near seismic faults produces intense electromagnetic (EM) fields, creating bodies of light that some interpret as glowing UFOs. Alternatively, he argued that the EM fields generat...

I tell you, some days I feel like a magnet for serendipity and everything weird just falls into my lap. Today was one of those days. I was researching an urban legend of a region of Massachusetts called the “Bridgewater Triangle” when I couldn’t help but notice the same descriptions coming up that other sites around the US also report. I used to think these clusters of sightings and experiences were relegated to just the west, but apparently the east can get them too. I love a puzzle, so my goal here is to write up these places, their reported events, and then check into the geology of the land and the history of it, as well. There are actually more places than these, but I looked for ones that had multiple similar occurrences. I’d really like to get the opinion of my readers on these findings. Speculation is a fun hobby and I know ya’all are super great at that activity, so bring it on. I think we have a real earth mystery on our hands. I’ll put my 2-cents worth in at the end of thi...

This is the beginning of a series I’m doing about local urban legends, those spinetinglers that make you creeped out to be in the dark alone. You know the ones, men with hooks for hands, a flying bat-like jersey devil, and escaped mental patients. They make for great ways to keep the kids under the watchful eye of parents and create cautionary tales that stick with us even as a adults. The story of the Bunnyman is one such tale: I cowered in my tent one summer in1970 when Pat Danaher, a renter of one of the cottages on our property, told my brother and I the story of the Bunnyman. It was our first campout in a tent that we plunked down between the two slave cottages, so that we wouldn’t be entirely alone on the property. What we didn’t expect was that the mulberry tree would sway and cast reaching shadows that resembled crooked arms tugging at the nylon walls. Pat stooped down at our tiny opening and proceeded to tell us there was a 6’ tall man in a bunny suit running around Fairfax ax...

The team is going to the Ancient Ram Inn in England.

Thank you Discovery Channel for a reality show that’s actually intriguing! “ The Colony ” premiered last Tuesday night on Discovery Channel at 10 pm. I highly recommend the show. It’s a great social statement, as well as being something in the back of everyone’s minds; how would we survive ? In brief, this is how Discovery Channel describes it: What would you do in the wake of a global catastrophe? How would you find food? Water? Shelter? The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society. With no electricity from the grid, no running water and no communication with the outside world, all the volunteers have to work with are their skills and whatever tools and supplies they can scavenge from their surr...

Humor me. I enjoy giving ya’all something to think about in the field of ghost hunting. I don’t think any knowledge is ever irrelevant and in the scheme of things, the more knowledge, the wider variety, the more it fits together. Here’s today’s point to ponder ( and don’t be surprised if I leave you up in the air to think about it ): There’s a condition called “phantom limb syndrome” in which an amputee still feels the limb as if it were there, feels as if it’s moving, feels pain in it. This is believed to be the brain still receiving messages from the nerves that would carry impulses from the missing limb. If a person’s body still believes it extends beyond where it actually extends following surgery, it is because the mind and the nerves have not had time to catch up with this change. We use the term “phantom limb” in lots of ways in conversations and the concept is understood even to those who are not amputees. Mothers often report something similar following giving birth. People ev...

It’s probably not a natural thing for a child to like the night, but my love of nighttime had so many influences, it’s hard to tell exactly when I found it a fond companion. At one point, I do recall having the screen porch bedroom. It was upstairs, a newer addition to the ancient house. It never had any haunting activity, but it did have huge wrap-around windows. From there, I had full view of the nighttime property, the beautiful gardens, the orchard, the outbuildings, the swaying walnut, willow, sycamore, and honey locust trees and my lonely tire swing bouncing in the breeze. If I turned off my lights, I could see deer grazing near the creek and the occasional raccoon scurrying up a tree nearby. I became extremely aware of the moonlight and its play on the landscape. I sat there in my room staring out longingly for a world where five kids weren’t fighting for space. A place where I could break into full run and enjoy myself without being seen by prying eyes and family members tell...

If you want a respite from a sizzling summer and to remember what it’s like when the world is darker, cooler, and the crackles of leaves on the ground forewarn coming Samhain, here are some things to put you in the seasonal mood. These will leave the taste of Halloween in your mouth, the hum of it in your body, and the dark spooky parameters just out of your reach… Movies to give you autumnal chills and thrills: Halloween Sleepy Hollow (Johnny Depp) In Dreams The Blair Witch Project Shattered Silence Jack-O Pumpkinhead Music that’s spooky, dark, and kind of witchy: Muse “Absolution” (my cemetery visiting music) Soundtrack from “Highlander: The Source” The soundtrack from “The Craft” The soundtrack from “Twilight” The soundtrack from “Practical Magic” Anything Stevie Nicks Anything Rob Zombie TV shows that release goosebumps at an alarming rate: Kolchak: The Night Stalker Twilight Zone Outer Limits X-Files Night Gallery American Gothic Dark Shadows Buffy the Vampire Slayer Moonlight Tru...

I’ve always been absolutely fascinated with the mind/body connection and how it’s possible for one person to feel immense pain and another one a “nagging bother,” how one person can have an adrenalin rush on a rollercoaster and and feel like he's conquering something and scream with joy, and another can feel scared out of his wits and scream in terror. Some people are very attuned to their body’s signals and notice being short of breath, feeling weak, and not themselves, and others are oblivious and only notice things are wrong when they have a heart attack. The former person is ideal for a ghost hunter; the latter is not. Our relationship with our bodies starts at a young age and is promoted or disregarded depending upon our parents’ attitudes about their physical selves. You begin your trek into listening to body signals; drinking water or ignoring hydration, mindlessly eating in front of the TV or seeing food as a preparation and celebration of earth’s bounty in modest portions,...

Piloerection is the fancy word for goosebumps. This is caused by the muscles at the bases of the hairs on our bodies reacting to cold or fear. The body hairs become erect in a desire to insulate the body better by trapping air within the pores. Static electrical charges cause hairs to stand away from other hairs or repel ( kind of like that magnet trick in elementary school ). Rub a balloon against your shirt and then run it over your hair and it stands on end much the same as what your body hairs do. Encountering static electricity, fear, or cold can cause goosebumps in haunted locations, but can the paranormal do it? I’m studying static electricity a bit further in my ghost hunting theories. I’ve noticed a trend on ghost hunts between electrical storms and dry windy conditions and higher incidence of phenomenon. You’ve had it happen before on a dry day, in a dry environment, you reach for a doorknob and zap! Here in the Arizona desert, you get real scared around metal objects. You ap...

Did you know that studies have shown that at times when there is solar activity and resultant geomagnetic activity on Earth, more people undergo psychiatric issues and hospitalization? The term “lunacy” has always been associated with cycles of the moon affecting a person’s state of mind, but it appears we might need a new term for this phenomenon, how about “geomagneticopathy”? Or “solarcy?” In my studies of the 50 haunted places, I found very strong trends in more well known haunted sites with lots of activity existing in certain geological conditions, along with certain construction materials. I began to wonder if perhaps ( note, I am not a scientist ), geomagnetic changes can be attenuated better through certain types of geology like limestone, shale, sandstone, granite, and quartz as were the geological conditions that had high incidences of haunting. And, what if the human body or the environment reacts with it to make connections with the paranormal more possible? Now, my studie...

You will be getting probably once-a-week reminders that Halloween is coming (I got a three-month jump, but hey, it's my time of the year!) These books by Tom Nardone, "Extreme Pumpkins" are ridiculously fantastic. They make great Halloween gifts, but most of all, they're just so funny you can't put them down. He has tons and tons of crazy Jack-O-Lantern designs that are over the top and easy to do! He goes to great detail to explain the techniques too. He has Jack-O-Lanterns barfing up their insides, baby ones with poopy diapers, aliens, tiki's, Frankenstein, and even one eating a Barbie doll. You'll never look at carving the same way again! They're like $7-8 on Amazon or you can get them used (they way I buy) for a penny and $3.99 shipping ($4 total). Enjoy!

Although no actual scientific evidence exists proving an auric field surrounding all living things, psychics persist that there is, in fact, what appears to be shining lights surrounding us and by examining the colors they are able to discern our moods and well being. I have to admit that yearly since way back in the mid 90s, I’ve gotten one aura photo done a year. I do this up in Sedona at a cute little new age shop across from T’Laquepaque. Depending on the person reading the aura, I get many different responses. One time, the woman proceeded to tell me I was burned as a witch in Salem, to which I responded, “weren’t they hung?” Hmm… So, you never really know what kind of an intuitive will be reading your aura. If you’re lucky, you get a super insightful one. Whether there’s any validity to this Kirlian photography, I’m not sure. I do know, however, that human bodies give off a certain amount of electromagnetic energy. Whether this is what is shown in this photographs, I can’t be cer...

Next time I decide to study 50 places around the US, tell me I'm nuts. The final research excluded waterways, age, and train tracks, but it did come down to this: 1. Most important of all - longest history of trauma/emotional upset/death 2. Second most important, geology (ideally, limestone, shale, sandstone, granite, quartz). 3. Third most important factor, the construction of the building itself (ideally stone, block, brick, least best--frame). Now, when reading these hauntings in their order, remember that I had to consider these three aspects in choosing their order and some had very similar contents in which case time would rule one in as higher on the list or perhaps if they were so equally matched, I had to consider if they were near cemeteries or waterways or the type of death/trauma that existed there. Note that this list has only 50 sites, so if you see #50 and think it's the least haunted in America, it's not. It's least haunted of these 50 sites. Another thi...