GHOST HUNTERS

Setting: Pinal County Jail, Globe, Arizona We had this abandoned little prison to ourselves for the night. The place showed promise from a psychic’s point of view, but the chemistry of having 30 bodies in the small building was not conducive. The teams broke off into cells below, but my hunting partner and I decided the attic room was for us. We walked into this cavernous room and knew something was watching us almost immediately. To me, it felt as though it moved the dust with it as it scurried behind the bathroom wall. This was supposedly the room the guards used for their relaxation. How they relaxed in this room surrounded with windows and perpetual chill was unimaginable. We arrived in dead of winter and the night would be icy with no protection from the elements except thin glass panes. It made me wonder what summers must have been like. Hellacious, no doubt. The evening was planned out with the group to take a tour of haunted spots in town, to spend some time wandering the pris...

What a breakthrough it was when TAPS got the gig for the "Ghosthunters" show. No one had taken the field as anything of interest before that. Shows like Britain's "Most Haunted" tended to actually scare people away from the biz. After all, it was all overacting, dramatics, and Derek ( won't even go there ). Since the launch of "Ghosthunters" some folks have really made a name in the field and their techniques are being mimicked by investigators in the field. The shows that most often come to mind are; "Ghosthunters," "Ghosthunters International," "Paranormal State," and "Ghost Adventures." There have been other shows here and there, but these seem to be the ones being picked up again and again for seasons and exposing us to many ways to hunt ghosts. Top of their field as far as being publically viewed are the leaders of TAPS, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. The charming and introspective college student, Ryan ...

Okay, have to let this off my chest. Today, I went with my son and parked at Saver's to try and get some costume stuff for a tour I have to give. We park my car and get out and go inside like we always do and we're just inside the door when I hear "if you have a red car, it's being towed" over the loudspeaker. My son looks outside and goes, "mom, your car is gone!" I go inside Saver's and they're like, "yeah, here's the number for Wendy's, they have a deal with the towing company." As I go back outside, they're towing another car off that just parked. I'm like--what the hell is happening here? I go inside Wendy's and the manager says, "there's nothing we can do." I go, "Lady, my son and I were going to shop and have lunch. We have to do this in a small area, I can't walk far since my Achilles tendon surgery. You just towed your customer's car away." And she's like, "but you w...

I'll admit, ghost hunting is a bit of an adrenalin rush, so sometimes we venture in like Brian from TAPS and bounce around like puppies and get all thrilled, and everything is a ghost, every noise is a sign..., but the truth is there's a real responsiblity in ghost hunting. You only get one chance to have phenomenon occur just like it did that one time it happened. Keeping records is vitally important. It's important to designate someone in the group to be the secretary with a good watch so he/she can time and write out things that occur, but there's also the background you need on the site to make your records helpful not only to the field of ghost hunting but for your future encounters. I've been keeping records looking for anything that ties haunted places together, or timing of phenomenon, good nights from bad nights... Here are some things that are worth noting before you take off to a site. Keep your records and refer to them often. Eventually, you can plot an...

This is off my usual talk of ghosts, but along those lines I also enjoy writing horror. I’m currently working on a manuscript entitled “The Thicket” and I thought I’d share a scene from it. It’s a very rough draft ( no editing yet ), but will give you a sense of spine-tingling potential ( I hope ). The premise is a woman who finds out she was adopted and has inherited the old family home in the hills of West Virginia. She wants to know why her parents gave her up and wants to escape the city, so she packs up and moves to a mountaintop where she finds an intriguing community of pagans who were the founders of the town below. In the community’s origins the her ancestor, the daughter of the founding father of the community, performed black magic in the woods, casting a curse on the females of her lineage. Hence, the reason her mother sent her to her aunt’s to be raised. Since the early 1800s the woods grew to a huge gnarled mass that is impenetrable and the people call “The Thicket.” Eve...

The famous ghost picture of Bachelor's Grove Cemetery (shown) Ghost hunters should always keep open minds to the possible explanations for phenomenon. Everyone is aware of the most popularly accepted theory for ghosts, i.e. the souls of people who have passed on. There are, however, many other concurrent theories in the field that are worth investigating and getting acquainted with. Even if you are resistant to the concepts below, there might be something in these theories that helps aid us all in finding new ways to predict, repeat, document, and prove phenomenon by disproving some of these theories: Hutchison Effect: Let’s begin with one of my favorites I investigated when I first officially started hunting. If you look up in Wikipedia “John Hutchison” you can find the “Hutchison Effect.” He could be a total quack or totally brilliant, and that will be disputed forever, but this inventor claimed to create a machine that created so much electromagnetic fields that it caused objec...

I love this place. I love the drive there down the 60, weaving in and out of hillsides filled with boulders. It’s just a beautiful and surprisingly fast drive. If you stop in Miami along the way, it’s a very abandoned feeling town with tons of bizarre antique shops. They were in the middle or renovating the town when the recession hit. It’s left it with an eerie feel. For a time there, money-burning yuppies were rushing there to buy second homes away from The Valley ( apparently, Queen Creek and Maricopa weren't far enough away ). It has a feel that’s so unsettling that I’m both repelled and attracted to it. You'll really want to see the shops here, take at least an hour stop here just to see. They have shops that sell some of the strangest stuff I've found while antiquing. Continue on to Globe which is very near. I saw my first and only full-body apparition in the top floor of the Gila County Jail which is abandoned and has become a museum and place for tours. ( see sk...

We all fell in love with you the moment we got up from our seats after viewing "Sixth Sense." We were intrigued by you when you came out with something original for the comic book freaks, "Unbreakable." We were in absolute terror during "Signs" when the brother was watching TV and saw the home video a family had taken of the alien just as it would have looked on CNN had it happened here and now to us. It didn't seem like the honeymoon would ever end. But, then like that seven-year itch...we got restless. You brought us "The Village" and we wanted so much to be scared. We tried so hard. We waited for the monster only to find it was not a horror movie but a psychological thriller. We didn't ask for our money back, we walked away trying to defend you still. "But the scenery was lush, the colors poignant, the use of red..." We waited hopefully for you to get back on the path. You were our Hitchcock of the new milenium. You had all ...

I tend to list my horror movie collection in a way that makes it possible to find something depending on my mood; woods, darkness, beasts, devil, witches, haunted houses, stalkers… you name it. Different times of the year, I’m in different moods for horror. In the springtime, for some reason, I pull out my woods-themed ones. Perhaps because the world is starting to get greener again this time of year ( yeah, even in Phoenix ). My top 5 favorites of the most popularly known films about woods are: 1. Blair Witch. 2. The Howling. 3. Friday the 13th. 4. Wrong Turn. 5. The Evil Dead. But, there’s a wide variety in the genre that didn’t get attention, but are worth digging up. If you liked any of those listed above, these might satisfy your need for woodland horror. Listed in order of favorites using my adjectives as always. 1. The Final Terror: stalking, green/lush, “Predator”-feel . This one was made in the 80s with a some well-known stars in it like Adrian Zmed and Rachel Ward an...

I'm so excited that B&Bs and folks with haunted hotels are getting into ghost hunting weekends. Regular folks without access to historic sites but want to learn about hunting ghosts, can use equipment and learn stuff while having a getaway and sleeping amongst ghosts. Here's just some examples of what's out there: Chestnut Hall in New Oxford Pennsylvania offers a ghost hunter's weekend pursuit March 27/28 2009. It includes being taught the equipment, doing a hunt, learning to use your own ESP to help you on the hunt. Learn more at: http://www.bbonline.com/pa/chestnuthall/specials.html Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River Massachusetts. There are tours of the house and on weekdays and on weekends it can be rented out. This is the famous murder site of Lizzie Borden's father and mother. Learn more at: http://www.lizzie-borden.com/ Villisca Ax Murder House in Villisca, Iowa. This house was the site of an entire family and two family friends murdered with ...