Ghost Stories and Haunted Places

Annabelle, The Cursed Doll

2012-05-26T14:30:00.001-07:00

Dolls scare the hell out of me so this story gave me nightmares. I'm not entirely sure why, but cursed dolls are particularly scary to me. This is the story of an over sized Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle. Annabelle was a gift given to a young nurse named Donna by her mother. It wasn't long after Annabelle was given to Donna that Donna began to notice Annabelle moved about the apartment on her own. Donna and her roommate, Angie, began to notice that they would leave for work and when they came home the doll would be laying on the bed in a different position. The women started arranging the doll purposely in one position and they would find it with its arms crossed or legs moved. This went on for some time and after a while the doll became more active. It would change rooms. Once, they even found the doll kneeling. This is a position that is impossible for a raggedy anne doll on its own.

Over time the doll began to leave messages. The messages were left in pencil on parchment paper. The women had never owned parchment paper so its origin was as mysterious as the messages themselves. The notes usually said "help us" or "help lou". The women began rigging the apartment to check for intruders. They thought that maybe someone was tricking them, but there was no evidence of break ins. One night they came home to find blood on the doll's hand.

Finally, the women contacted a medium to talk to the doll. The doll said that she was a little girl who had died on the property who was lonely. After this, the women contacted paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens believed the story about the little girl was trickery to gain sympathy and that Annabelle was really possessed by a demon. This belief was confirmed when Angie's boyfriend was attacked physically by some unseen spirit in the apartment. The attack left a series of deep marks on Lou's chest.

After this, a priest was called in to do an exorcism. The exorcism seemed to work and the Warren's offered to take Annabelle home with them. On the way home, Annabelle caused the car to veer off the road almost killing the Warrens. The Warrens dosed the doll in Holly Water and the activity stopped for a time. Soon after, Annabelle began to be active in the Warrens' home and they had to move her to their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. They keep a website that documents their experiences with Annabelle at http://www.edandlorrainwarren.com/. The doll has remained active since its placement in the museum and is even thought to be responsible for some deaths since that time.

The Ouija Board

2012-05-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hollywood loves to make adaptations. It loves adaptations of television shows, books, video games, author's lives, etc. The recent rage in adaptations appears to be board games. This summer the first of many board game based movies was released in the form of Battleship. The duo that directed Alvin and the Chipmunks will be directing an adaptation of Candyland. A movie adaption of Monopoly is supposed to be about the sub prime mortgage crisis and finally a low budget adaption of Ouija will round out the board game movies. I could care less about the other movies, but the Ouija Board is always interesting in movies and it has been in many horror movies. It has already been the primary focus of a Filipino horror film called Ouija. From the Exorcist to Paranormal Activity the Ouija Board has brought doom on the masses, but is it really as evil as it is in the movies?

The Ouija Board was first created during the spiritualist movement of the late nineteenth century. It was designed as a tool to help communication with spirits. Elijah Bond and Charles Kennard were the first to patent the device. In 1966, the device's patent was sold to Parker Brother's who still own it. Ever since its creation the Ouija Board has been controversial. The most famous case of demonic activity with Ouija Board was the case that was later the inspiration for a book The Exorcist. I've blogged about this case before. A little boy named Robbie and his aunt attempted to contact a deceased relative and the resulting demon possession was legendary.

I remember my first experience with the Ouija Board was fairly typical. I was at a slumber party and one of the girl's brought out the board. We all took turns asking questions. I can't remember them all. They were mundane girly questions like "will Billy Bob ask me to the dance," or "Will I be a doctor when I grow up." At the end, the girl who brought the board out told the spirit thank you and said that she would give it all her Halloween candy as a way of saying thank you for all its help. She put her bucket of Halloween candy by the board and we went upstairs to play light as a feather stiff as a board. When we returned, all the candy was gone. The wrappers were still there. They were still sealed, but the candy was gone. I'll admit, this could be some kind of slumber party prank, but I don't know how this girl, who was pretty clueless pulled it off.

Almost everyone you talk to has a Ouija board story and almost all of them are bad. Mine was quiet and stupid, but almost everyone I talk to about the board agrees that it opens doors that shouldn't be opened. My grandmother passed away a few years ago, which had lead to much contemplation on her life. She was a woman who always dabbled in the supernatural and believed firmly in ghosts. In fact, she had a relationship with a ghost named Alonk that lasted years via the Ouija Board. She forced my mother and her sister to help her continue this relationship. Alonk told her he loved and sent her love stories. It really creeped my mother out, although my aunt grew fond of Alonk.

There are a million Ouija Board stories. One local story, involves a teen that used the board regularly. One night the sofa he stored the board under burst into flames, burning down the entire apartment complex he lived in. Another story I found in a book, describes a young man's interaction with a spirit via the board. During this interaction, the spirit said the board was specifically designed to communicate with those in hell. Only spirits that had been damned could be contacted using the board.

I have heard a few good stories about the board. One woman at a paranormal meeting I went to said she talked with a playful girl spirit that had lived in her house before her. She said the interaction was positive and helped bring peace to herself and her daughter who had been afraid of the ghost before the conversation via the board. I know that some people must be having positive experiences with the board, because it still sells very well. There is even an online version of the game now that allows you to play alone using your mouse. However, the overwhelming bulk of the stories are terrifying. Which brings me to the question. Is the Ouija Board a gateway only to evil or can it be used for good? Are people being swayed by the abundance of negative stories or are there any possible good uses for this tool?

The Haunted ebay Painting

2012-05-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

Haunted objects have always held particular fascination for me and I found this story particularly creepy.   I have always wondered about the haunted items on eBay, but this haunted item, known as the eBay painting seems to have turned into a legend.   The ebay painting's official name is "The Hands That Resist Him.." The painting  was done by Oakland, California artist Bill Stoneham in 1972.    The painting was made notorious by a ghost story on eBay. The painting was first shown in the Feingarten Gallery in the 1970s and it received a bad review. It was later purchased by actor John Marley of The Godfather. Mr. Marley passed away and the painting was bought by a California couple.   In February of 2000, it was listed on eBay with the following information. This is the original text from the eBay auction:

WHEN WE RECEIVED THIS PAINTING, WE THOUGHT IT WAS REALLY GOOD ART. A " PICKER " HAD FOUND IT ABANDONED BEHIND AN OLD BREWERY. AT THE TIME WE WONDERED A LITTLE WHY A SEEMINGLY PERFECTLY FINE PAINTING WOULD BE DISCARDED LIKE THAT. ( TODAY WE DON'T !!! ) ONE MORNING OUR 4 AND 1/2 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER CLAIMED, THAT THE CHILDREN IN THE PICTURE WERE FIGHTING, AND COMING INTO THE ROOM DURING THE NIGHT. NOW, I DON'T BELIEVE IN UFOS OR ELVIS BEING ALIVE, BUT MY HUSBAND WAS ALARMED. TO MY AMUSEMENT HE SET UP A MOTION TRIGGERED CAMERA FOR THE NIGHTS. AFTER THREE NIGHTS THERE WERE PICTURES.THE LAST TWO PICTURES SHOWN ARE FROM THAT 'STAKEOUT'. AFTER SEEING THE BOY SEEMINGLY EXITING THE PAINTING UNDER THREAT, WE DECIDED, THE PAINTING HAS TO GO.PLEASE JUDGE FOR YOURSELF. --- BEFORE YOU DO, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. ----WARNING: DO NOT BID ON THIS PAINTING IF YOU ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO STRESS RELATED DISEASE, FAINT OF HEART OR ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH SUPERNATURAL EVENTS. BY BIDDING ON THIS PAINTING, YOU AGREE TO RELEASE THE OWNERS OF ALL LIABILITY IN RELATION TO THE SALE OR ANY EVENTS HAPPENING AFTER THE SALE, THAT MIGHT BE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS PAINTING. THIS PAINTING MAY OR MAY NOT POSESS SUPERNATURAL POWERS, THAT COULD IMPACT OR CHANGE YOUR LIFE. HOWEVER, BY BIDDING YOU AGREE TO EXCLUSIVELY BID ON THE VALUE OF THE ARTWORK, WITH DISREGARD TO THE LAST TWO PHOTOS FEATURED IN THIS AUCTION, AND HOLD THE OWNERS HARMLESS IN REGARD TO THEM AND THEIR IMPACT, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.------------ NOW THAT WE GOT THIS OUT OF THE WAY, ONE QUESTION TO YOU EBAYERS. WE WANT OUR HOUSE TO BE BLESSED AFTER THE PAINTING IS GONE, DOES ANYBODY KNOW, WHO IS QUALIFIED TO DO THAT? THE SIZE OF THE PAINTING IS 24 BY 36 INCHES, SO IT IS RATHER LARGE. AS I HAVE HAD SEVERAL QUESTIONS, HERE THE FOLLOWING ANSWERS. THERE WAS NO ODOR LEFT BEHIND IN THE ROOM. THERE WERE NO VOICES, OR THE SMELL OF GUNPOWDER, NO FOODPRINTS OR STRANGE FLUIDS ON THE WALL. TO DETER QUESTIONS IN THIS DIRECTION, THERE ARE NO GHOSTS IN THIS WORLD , NO SUPERNATURAL POWERS, THIS IS JUST A PAINTING, AND MOST THESE THINGS HAVE AN EXPLANATION, IN THIS CASE PROBABLY A FLUKE LIGHT EFFECT. I ENCOURAGE YOU TO BID ON THE ARTWORK, AND CONSIDER THE LAST TWO PHOTOGRAPHS AS PURE ENTERTAINMENT, AND PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THEM INTO CONSIDERATION, WHEN BIDDING. AS WE THINK IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO BLESS ANY HOUSE, WE STILL WELCOME INPUT INTO THAT PROCEDURE.

The first bid on the painting was $199 and it eventually sold for $1025. The buyer was Perception Gallery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The legends that spread around the painting were viral. People who viewed the painting on eBay claimed that just looking at the painting on the eBay listing made them sick and others claimed that terrible things happened to them from viewing the painting on eBay. One Native American medicine man claimed he could feel evil seeping out from the painting and that he needed to cleanse his house with rosemary after his viewing of the painting. It is interesting to note that the first owner of the painting died within a year of purchasing the painting and the reviewer who gave the painting a bad review also met a bad end within a year.   The owner of the Feingarten Gallery also died shortly after showing the painting.

Since the eBay auction that made Stoneham's work famous, he has painted two other paintings in this series which can be viewed on his website at http://www.stonehamstudios.com/ .

Many believe "The Hands That Resist Him" is actually cursed and haunted, but others think that this painting is a classic example of the viral nature of Internet urban legends and the power of mass hysteria. Either way, the painting does have a creepy quality about it that makes you wonder what those scary little children are up to. I certainly wouldn't want this painting in my house.   I'm way to superstitious to put this painting on my blog.   Not to mention the fact that I'm already blaming all the bad things that have happened in my house this morning on those stupid creepy children. Glass broke? Obviously stupid creepy children's fault. Son fell and hurt his arm? Obviously stupid creepy children's fault.   I lost my car keys? Stupid creepy children did that. Clearly, the painting is cursed.

Free Kindle Copy of Death's Dream Kingdom

2012-05-15T09:19:00.001-07:00

I'm working on Haunted South Alabama and the sequel to Circe this week so I will be blogging slowly. I hate to leave my blog completely naked while I work so until I get my lazy rear end blogging again, I'm going to give away free copies of my urban fantasy novel, Death's Dream Kingdom on Kindle. If you would like a copy, just email me your email address at jessica.penot@gmail.com.

Cera is an ordinary wife and mother who enjoys the simple things in life, until the night she is murdered. In death, Cera finds herself trapped in a shadow land somewhere between the land of the living and the land of the dead, where demons, ghosts, and old gods roam the streets preying on the living. It is up to Cera to find out why the line between the living and the dead is fading and how the rift between worlds can be mended. Pulled into a quest that takes her to hell and back and into the arms of an ancient, demon lover, she finds that she is a child of the Fates and that she alone can challenge death himself for dominion over his kingdom.

Haunted South Alabama

2012-05-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

I've been a little slow in blog posting this week because I have been working on my next History Press Book, Haunted South Alabama. The journey I take in writing a collection of ghost stories is always interesting. I begin with an outline I submit with my book proposal package, but as I bury myself in research, I often discover ghost stories are not what I expect them to be. For example, all the internet sites and stories I'd heard about the haunting of Space Camp said there was some kind of explosion there that lead to a haunting. After I went to Space Camp and did my research for Haunted North Alabama, I learned this couldn't have been further from the truth.

With Haunted South Alabama, I thought I would be focusing on the ghost stories in old forts along the beaches and in Montgomery. What I've discovered is that there are enough ghost stories in Selma alone to fill a book. I didn't know much about the history of Selma, Alabama. It was one of those rural Southern towns I could have passed by entirely without noticing, but now that I've heard its history and learned more about it, it is filled with enough ghost lore to keep me there for weeks. I've found the ghosts of Bloody Sunday and a wonderful headless lady ghost. I've found an old mill with dark spirits and the lady who told me these stories is willing to tell me more. I'm thrilled. Hopefully, I will be traveling to Selma to collect more stories and I'll be even more busy over the next month or so. I really can't wait to keep writing, but sadly my book adventures do keep me from the blog. Hopefully, I'll have something else to post here soon too.

Fact or Faked: The History of Ectoplasm Done Wrong

2012-05-08T13:33:00.001-07:00

I don't watch much paranormal television, but I've been housebound lately and my television consumption has increased. I was watching Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files today and something they said made me angry. I wanted to say, "Read a book!" to the hosts of this show, but reading seems to be a lost art. The hosts of this show wanted to investigate the ectoplasm claims from the early 20th century. They said that although tons of research was done on this, no one had shown ectoplasm was a hoax. Ectoplasm was conclusively proven to be a hoax in the 1920s and it was a disgusting and vile hoax at that. Here is a post I did on the revolting history of ectoplasm two years ago.

During the time contemporary to and following World War I there was and explosion in what was then called spiritualism or mentalism. Spiritualism is a religious movement revolving around communicating with the dead via a medium. This explosion was brought on by the massive number of people that died in the war and of sickness during this time period. One of the more bizarre activities that became prevalent in this movement was the explosion of ectoplasm. Ectoplasm is a term used to define a physical manifestation of the supernatural and it usually came out of the medium's nose, mouth, or ears. The term, defined by Charles Richet, meant spiritual energy externalized by psychics. It was for many years used as absolute confirmation that the supernatural was tangible and provable. It was supposed to be the physical remains of a ghostly presence. Ghosts were there and they were real and the medium could prove it by showing ectoplasm.

Ectoplasm was so believed in that it was featured in respectable scientific journals and it's existence was confirmed by the great minds of the time including William Butler Yeats and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was so believed in that Scientific America sought to do a study on it and offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who could demonstrate the release of ectoplasm in front of a scientific panel. This reward lead to the beginning of the end of the scientific validity of ectoplasm.

What was discovered was both revolting and eye opening. Although many techniques and materials have been used by mediums to produce ectoplasm, the medium examined by this panel was found to be storing a sheep gut and fat mixture in a sack in her vagina which she expolsed at the appropriate time to make it appear as if she was expelling ectoplasm. Further research into other psychics revealed many other grotesque techniques for producing this fraudulent material. Some women learned how to regurgitate on demand and swallowed yards of muslin and cheese cloth which they would vomit on command. Others stored materials in their rectum. After careful study, not a single medium that could produce ectoplasm was shown to be doing it by supernatural methods.

Although this story is disgusting. It is more about the disgustingness that is possible within humanity when exploiting the needs of those suffering from the lost of a loved one than the vileness of the actual act. Although I love a good ghost story, it is always amazing to me how much more horrifying live people can be than ghosts. Ghosts have never been shown to leave real ectoplasm, but it is amazing how many mediums were shown to be literally pulling it from there asses.

So, to all those Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files fans out there, the Fact of Faked team did not prove anything that wasn't already shown to be fake in the 1920s by Scientific America. I don't mean to say I don't enjoy Fact or Faked. I obviously do or I wouldn't have watched it enough to do this post. In fact, I really like Fact or Faked quite a bit. I love the skeptical approach to the paranormal. I was just surprised at the lack of research that went into this one particular case.

The Maiden's Ghostly Bell

2012-05-05T04:00:00.000-07:00

Frommer's describes the great bell in Da Zhongsi as a bell so vast and beautiful it could "bring out the hunchback" in anyone. The temple that was once called the Awakened Life Temple is located just outside of Beijing. Since 1743, the temple has taken a new name. It has become know as Da Zhongsi or The Great Bell Temple. The Great Bell that resides in this temple is carved with over 200,000 characters in Chinese and Sanskrit and weighs more than 47 tons. The bell is a huge attraction and is the 2nd largest bell in the world. It is rung only once a year at New Years and is also said to be haunted.

According to Lafcadio Hearn, there is an old story attached to this bell that goes back over 500 years.    During this time the Great Emperor Yongluo who was said to be the son of heaven, from the Ming Dynasty, commissioned the construction of a great bell. He ordered the bell be made of brass, gold, and silver so that when it rang it could be heard for over a hundred miles. He commissioned the work from a master bell maker and the work began. Sadly, the construction of this bell seemed to be an impossible labor.  The bell maker worked night and day and hired all the master molders of the empire to create this goliath creation. Yet despite the most brilliant artisans and the best materials, the metals rebelled against each other and would not mingle. Twice the master bell smith tried to make the great bell and twice he failed.

Yongluo heard of the bell smith's failure and grew angry. He send him a letter that said:

      "From the Mighty Yongluo, the Sublime Taizong, the Celestial and August -whose reign is called "Ming"- to Guanyu the Fuyin: twice thous hast betrayed the trust we have deigned graciously to place in thee. If thous fail a third time in fulfilling our command, thy head shall be severed from thy neck. Tremble, and obey."

The bell maker had a beautiful daughter, Ge-ai, who he loved above all other things in the world and she heard of the words the emperor had sent to her father. She loved her father greatly and set out to save his life.   She went to a fortune teller to see if there was anything she could do to save her father's life.   The fortune teller told her that the gold and brass in the bell would never meet in wedlock unless it was bound by the blood of a virgin. Ge-ai didn't think long on this, but she went straight to her father's foundry. There she found him preparing to cast the third bell. As the metal poured, she leaped into the liquefied metal and vanished. As she fell she cried out to her father that she died for love of him.   Ge-ai's father tried to leap in after his beloved daughter, but he was held back and all stood speechless.   Nothing of Ge-ai remained but a single red slipper.

The bell was cast and never had there been a bell of such beauty and size.   When it rang, it could be heard for more than a hundred miles and people said that in its ring they could hear the sound of Ge-ai crying out. She cried out for her lost life and for her single, lost slipper.

Zombie Repellent for May Monster Madness

2012-05-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

As the May Monster Madness Blog Hop continues, I wanted to remind everyone that protecting yourself from one of my favorite monsters, the zombie, is easy.   I have written about this before, but this is an important safety tip you can't remind people of too often. All you have to do is drink trappist ales.

I have always been deeply concerned about the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. I have also wanted to prepare for this apocalypse. However, I am lazy and cheap and most options for preparation seem difficult and expensive. Buying guns and ammo is expensive.  Fortifying your home is expensive and it just sounds like a lots of work. Cardio is exhausting.

This is my answer to all zombie problems.   Buy or brew trappist ales. Trappist beer is a wonderful thing. There are seven breweries in the world that carry the official Trappist seal, and every single beer they brew is a masterpiece. All of these beers are brewed by actual Trappist Monks in monasteries. They are my favorite beers and if I have to sacrifice something for zombie safety, thank God it is drinking one of these every day. My personal favorite is Chimay Blue Ale. Be careful, this is a high gravity beer with an alcohol content of 11.5% and it may get you tipsy a little quicker than your average beer, but it is a worthwhile sacrifice if that is what is required to save yourself from zombies.

May Monster Madness

2012-05-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

Daph from Daph's Dark Little Corner has won my May Monster Madness Giveaway! You can find her at http://earthdancedaph.blogspot.com/ . Thank you so much for participating and I hope everyone who stopped by enjoyed the hop!

Welcome to the May Monster Madness Blog Hop. May is in bloom and it is six months until Halloween. The wonderful Andrea Walls and Emma from Little Gothic Horrors have put together a fabulous blog hop to celebrate the season. For all those of you hopping to my blog for the first time, welcome to Ghost Stories and Haunted Places, a blog for all things haunted and haunting. For this blog hop I have put together a goodie bag of assorted haunted and monster items. First, I will be giving away copies of my books, Haunted North Alabama and Haunted Chattanooga. To add a little bit of monster to this Monster Madness giveaway, I will also be including a copy of my chilling new horror novel, Circe. Circe features a monster so devious it slowly drive my protagonist insane and will make this Monster Madness that much more mad. Finally, I will be including a lovely handmade pendant made by the brilliant labyrinth creations (http://labyrinthcreations.blogspot.com/). This handmade piece of Halloween monster fun is utterly unique. If you would like to win this goody bag of treats, just comment below and leave your name and email address and follow my blog. For extra chances to win you can go to the two links below and "like" my books. You get one extra entry for each "like".

http://www.amazon.com/Circe-ebook/dp/B0068QDD9U/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1335719865&sr=8-4
http://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Dream-Kingdom-ebook/dp/B004YXMFYS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335719865&sr=8-2

Here is a little bit of information about my novel, Circe, so you know what you might be winning.

Dr. Black is a good man with a few vices. When he goes to an old institution in rural Alabama to complete his internship, he will face his darkest demons and his his worst temptations as the mysteries at the heart of the institution pull him into world of black magic and monster from his darkest nightmares.

There are lots of other blogs participating in May Monster Madness! Travel to them to enter to win a variety of fun goodies and read a lot interesting monster blogs!

The Ghost and His Mullet

2012-04-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Flora-bama sits on the boundary between Alabama and Florida near some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.   It is a unique cultural experience. Stepping into the Flora-bama is stepping into the deep Southern culture that lives along the gulf submerged in bayous and sand.    It lingers in a place where rural Southern culture and massive tourism merge together.   It is a constant party that only stops for the occasional Hurricane. It is also haunted.

The story of the ghost of the Flora-bama is a sad story.   Orville Stickenbacker was a shy boy that lived his entire life in Orange Beach and the surrounding area. He had lost both his parents and didn't have very many friends. Orville worked at a shop in Gulf Shores selling nick nacks to tourists. He took his role in Gulf Coast culture seriously and tried to dress the part. He wore brightly colored tropical shirts and had a pet hermit crab named Jezebel.

When Orville turned twenty-one he did what anyone would do and went to the bar. Of course, Orville didn't drink, but he enjoyed the activities at the Flora-bama.   On Orville's first night at the Flora-bama, it was the night of Flora-bama's famous mullet toss.   On Orville's first night at the Flora-bama he fell in love with the mullet toss and he even won the toss. It was the most fun he had ever had.

The next year was not kind to Orville.   Orville began to get sick.   He found a lump when he was taking a shower and began losing weight.   People noticed Orville's steady decline. They begged him to go to the doctor, but for some reason, Orville refuse.   He grew sicker and sicker and Orville did nothing. He wasted away without medical attention. No one can say why he didn't go to the doctor. Maybe he wanted to die, maybe he couldn't pay the hospital bills, but forever reason he just wouldn't get help.

The next year Orville went to the mullet toss with his pet hermit crab, Jezebel in his pocket.   He participated in the mullet toss but did not win, so he asked if he could toss a fish.   He tossed the fish and with that action began the now famous fish toss at the Flora-bama. When the night ended and all the fish and mullets had been throw, Orville walked out onto the beach.   He walked into the ocean and drown himself.

People say that Orville still haunts the Flora-bama. He sits on the back deck watching people throw mullets and fish. He is often seen wandering the beach and walking towards the waves.

*Story taken from "Alabama Ghosts" by Holly Smith

The Ghost of The Dorsey House

2012-04-28T06:05:00.000-07:00

The Dorsey House is located just outside of Port Huron Michigan. My family has been eating at the Dorsey House since it was a carriage house populated people traveling across Michigan by horseback. The restaurant has a long history and that history is peppered with just enough sorrow to merit a ghost story. You wouldn't know it now. The restaurant is cozy and warm. The food is good and the staff is friendly. The restaurant feels new, because it has been rebuilt. However, a ghost named Ira still hides in the shadows there, waiting to scare children in bathrooms and torment the staff late at night.

According to local legend, Ira was a violent sort of fellow who was prone to fighting. During one of his scraps at the old Dorsey House, he was killed in the parking lot. Since then, his spirit has lingered at the restaurant. The old Dorsey House was pulled down in 1995 but that hasn't stopped Ira from haunting the new eatery and stories of his haunting persist to this day. I asked our waitress about Ira and she indicated that doesn't particularly believe in ghosts. Despite this, she says the restaurant is riddled with things she can't explain. The water turns on and off by itself and lights flicker and go off. Others have reported seeing strange lights and mists in the historic restaurant. I saw nothing there but good food and happy faces, but my son says he saw a strange light in the bathroom. Young eyes are prone to exaggeration, but my son's story reminds me of my favorite part of ghost stories. They stimulate the imagination and spread on the wings of legend keeping them alive long after the living are dead.

Spring Fling Blog Hop Winner Announced

2012-04-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Winner of the Spring Fling Blog Hop Is BookAttict from
http://bookattict.blogspot.com/ . Thanks to All Who Participated and Thank You for Stopping By!

Ms. Book Attict has won a free copy of my haunting paranormal romance Death's Dream Kingdom and a $15 amazon giftcard this week for the blog hop.

Death's Dream Kingdom is the story of a woman who is ordinary in every way. She's an average mother and wife and is happy living every day mired in the ins and outs of the mundane, until she is murdered. After her death, Cera finds herself lost in a nether land somewhere between life and death where demons, ghosts, and old gods roam the streets preying on the living. In this strange world, Cera is told that she is everything but ordinary. In death, she alone can help heal the rift between worlds and help bridge the gap between life and death. Caught somewhere between her desire to live again and the desire to find heaven, Cera fights those that would pull her into the politics of the netherworld. But the will of the Fates is stronger than Cera's will and Cera quickly finds herself pulled into a quest that will drag her to hell and back and into the arms of an ancient demon lover. She will find that she is a child a Fate and that she alone can challenge Death himself for dominion over his kingdom.

The Spring Fling Blog Hop

1.	SER's Awesomness!	43.	Michelle Clay (INT)
2.	Selena Blake	44.	Carly Fall - Where Fantasy Meets Romance (INT)
3.	Josee Renard	45.	Laura Kaye (INT)
4.	Eliza Gayle	46.	Bitten by Paranormal Romance (US)
5.	theJeepDiva (US & Int)	47.	Guilty Pleasures
6.	Dani Harper, PNR author - Way Past Normal (INT)	48.	Book Monster Reviews (INT)
7.	Best Erotica Books (INT)	49.	BookSpark (INT)
8.	Romance Book Junkies (US)	50.	MyBookAddiction
9.	Alice Anderson	51.	Close Encounters with the Night Kind
10.	http://www.inlinkz.com/displayurl.php?id=5398161	52.	http://www.inlinkz.com/displayurl.php?id=5865959
11.	Not Your Momma's Book Blog (US)	53.	Sara Daniel Romance Author
12.	Reading Between the Wines (US/CA)	54.	Dianne Duvall - Paranormal Romance Author (INT)
13.	http://www.inlinkz.com/displayurl.php?id=5400387	55.	H. D. Thomson (INT)
14.	Cocktails and Books (INT)	56.	http://www.inlinkz.com/displayurl.php?id=5894236
15.	Serenity Woods	57.	Xandra James (INT)
16.	Gabrielle Bisset (INT)	58.	Tami Brothers ~ Live, Love, Write! (INT)
17.	Kassanna	59.	Kharisma Rhayne
18.	Jennifer Zane- Author (INT)	60.	LilyElement
19.	Casey Crow (INT)	61.	Mimmi's Musings
20.	Delighted Reader (US/CAN)	62.	Jessica Scott
21.	Ann Cory (US) ebook prize	63.	The Romanceaholic (US/INT)
22.	Book Savvy Babe	64.	Cherie Marks
23.	Sarah Gilman	65.	Mercy Bordeaux (US)
24.	Lissa Matthews	66.	After Dark (INT)
25.	Miss Vain's Paranormal Fantasy (INT)	67.	One Writer - Two Names (INT)
26.	Minding Spot (US)	68.	Malia Mallory (INT)
27.	Riverina Romantics (US & CAN)	69.	Steph (Int)
28.	Sandra Bunino	70.	Shannan Albright
29.	Tiffany Snow	71.	H.B. Pattskyn (US/INT)
30.	Amanda J. Greene (INT)	72.	http://www.inlinkz.com/displayurl.php?id=6088150
31.	Dark Haven Book Reviews (INT)	73.	Froggarita's Bookcase
32.	Romance Book Club Blog (US/CAN)	74.	Terra Harmony
33.	Blackraven's Erotic Cafe (INT)	75.	Nina Whyle
34.	Blackraven's Reviews (INT)	76.	Kat Halstead (US)
35.	AJ's Reading Nook (INT)	77.	June Kramin
36.	The Readers Roundtable Romance Reccers (INT)	78.	http://www.inlinkz.com/displayurl.php?id=6183081
37.	Dark Divas Reviews (INT)	79.	Ghost Stories and Haunted Places
38.	Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy	80.	Telling Tales (US & CA)
39.	Romance At Random US	81.	Reading On The Wild Side (US)
40.	Diane Thorne - Erotic Paranormal Romance Author	82.	The eBook Reviewers (US)
41.	Tina Folsom (INT)	83.	Shawntelle Madison - Author (INT)
42.	Natasha Blackthorne (INT)	84.	Leila Brown

Can Ghosts be Captured?

2012-04-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Nganga was originally a word referring to a spiritual healer in the Bantu culture. It continues to have that meaning in that culture. However, as Nganga has taken on a different meaning in Haitian, Cuban, and Brazilian Voodoo cultures. It refers to an iron pot containing a large number of items such as bones, often a skull, chains, nails, bullets, and feathers bound together with chains and padlocks used to contain spirits.   The spirits can be good or bad and the reason for their containment can vary.   The older the spirit the stronger the power of the nganga.

I learned about the Nganga on a show called Oddities on the Discovery Channel.   Such an object made me wonder if a spirit or ghost could be captured and contained in an object.   There are many circumstances in which objects are said to be haunted. Robert the Doll and the Crying Boy Painting are classic examples of objects that are said to carry malevolent spirits with them.   However, it is an entirely different thing for something to be haunted and something to be created to contain a spirit. Movies seem to love this idea.   Thirteen Ghosts shows a man capturing ghosts for his own malevolent purposes. Ebay certainly loves this idea. Pendants and objects containing ghosts and spirits are prolific there and many of them sell for $666.00.  According to The Black Arts, by Richard Cavendish this is a believed possible by those who practice ritual magic. Apparently many people believe this possible or at least want other people to believe it possible because these items seem to be quite prolific on the Internet.

However, despite my research I haven't found any stories by those who have bought or found Nganga or other man made spirit containing objects with interesting ghost stories. You would think that if ghosts or spirits could be forcibly contained such stories would be more prolific than the number of people selling objects like this. I really have no experience in these things so I can't conclusively comment one way or another, but I have to wonder if the Nganga on the discovery channel really did contain a ghost or spirit.   The stars of the show were certainly creeped out enough by the Nganga that they wouldn't keep it in their shop.   I'm not sure what I think, but I know the idea is very creepy and I certainly wouldn't want such an object anywhere near me.

My Son's Ghostly Encounter

2012-04-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures of my sons using my iphone and these ghostly encounters are entirely fabricated by the new iphone app Ghost Exposure and the older one, Ghost Expose. I compared these apps to see which I liked better, but which look more realistic?

I love my iphone. It is my favorite gizmo. I live with it attached to me. I've used it to play scrabble, blog, check email, take family photos, and remind myself to pick my children up from school. Over the years, I reviewed iphone apps here before, but I thought it might be fun to revisit my favorite and compare it with a newer app that does the same thing. Ghost Capture and Ghost Expose are both very similar apps. They both allow you take pictures and add ghosts, zombies, or goblins to your photographs. I prefer ghost capture because it has a larger selection of ghosts to add to you photograph. It also allows you to adjust the transparency of your ghost to make it more solid and more diaphanous with the touch of the button. However, it is harder to use and for instant photos with quick ghostly additions I would prefer Ghost Expose. I also think Ghost Capture creates more realistic photos by providing more realistic ghost options. For example, the pig demon ghost is just silly. So what do ya'll think? Which photos look better?

Both of these apps are available on itunes and both have free versions. They are both tons of fun that will entertain your children for days and have fooled my coworkers and friends far more times than they should have. One of my friends wouldn't believe the photo below was faked. Both apps have their flaws, but both are a good time waiting to happen.

The Unlucky History of Friday the 13th

2012-04-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday the 13th. I am reposting my origins of Friday the 13th post to help celebrate this wonderful day. I hope your 13th is as luck as mine has been! Friday the 13th is considered the most unlucky day of the year. Most people aren't entirely sure where this bad luck comes from, but fear of Friday the 13th can affect as many as 1 in 4 people. The fear of Friday the 13th is known as triskaidekaphobia.

"It's been estimated that [U.S] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do," said Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina.

So where does this fear that can cripple a nation come from? There really seems to be no consensus on the origin of Friday the 13th. Everyone has a story, but most of them are different. The fear comes from an unknown source. Here's a look at a few of the Friday the 13th origin stories I've found.

One folklorist traces the origins back to Norse mythology. There were 12 gods who had a dinner party in Valhalla. A 13th guest, Loki, was uninvited. Always the trickster, Loki tricked the god of darkness, Hoder, into shooting Balder, the god of joy. Balder died and darkness descended on the earth. Joy was lost to man and from then on 13 was considered unlucky.

In 1307, on October 13, 1307, King Phillip IV of France ordered every member of the order of the Knights Templar executed on charges of high treason and heresy. King Phillip owed the Templar's a good deal of money and they had amassed an enormous amount of wealth on their crusades. It is thought that the order was actually to strip the Templar's of their wealth. The Templar's were tortured horribly and forced to confess to crimes they didn't commit. They all died, but as the grandmaster died he cursed King Phillip and the day making Friday the 13th unlucky for future generations to come.

Many believe the fear comes from the number 13 itself. According to numerologist, the number 12 is associated with completeness. There are 12 months in a year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 apostles, 12 Olympian gods, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 hours in the clock, 12 labors of Hercules. The list goes on and on. The addition of the 13 ruins perfection is utterly bad and unlucky. In many stories, the 13th guest is always a bad sign. Think Judas at the last supper and Loki in the above story. It is the number 13 that lends the curse to Friday the 13th. Combine that with the unlucky Friday, when Jesus was crucifies and Adam tempted Eve and you have a recipe for an unlucky day.

It is clear there are many reasons to fear the dreaded Friday the 13th, but for me Friday the 13ths have always been lucky. So have a happy Friday the 13th, watch one of the 12 million Friday the 13th movies (I like the one in space), and wish me luck on my lucky day.

My Vacation Pick of the Year: A Haunted Cruise

2012-04-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

Haunt Jaunts, run by the fabulous Courtney Mroch, has been one of my favorite blogs since I started writing about ghosts. Her blog and her writing has inspired me from the beginning. Not only is she an amazing writer, but she is an interesting and charismatic person that I have been lucky enough to ghost hunt with, so when I found out that Courtney would be hosting a haunted cruise I was beyond thrilled. If I can, I'll be taking this cruise into the paranormal. This cruise through the Bermuda Triangle will feature haunted destinations and ghost hunting presentations. It will be everything the paranormal enthusiast could ever possibly want. Below you will find the information I gathered on the cruise from a press release:

Haunt Jaunts, Courtney's travel blog for restless spirits, is expanding its reach into the paranormal tourism industry. In addition to covering the best places to take a haunted vacation, it’s now offering a way to experience them, via a cruise into Bermuda Triangle territory during Halloween week 2012.

“We’re really excited about our first ever group event,” Courtney Mroch, Director of Paranormal Tourism for Haunt Jaunts, says. “I love cruising and have long been wanting to branch out into group events. When Tracey Steslow from A Suite Cruise of Cruise Planners contacted me about doing a paranormal theme cruise, I was immediately on board with the idea. Pun intended.”

Mroch and Steslow researched cruises and decided Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas sailing out of Miami on October 29, 2012 was the one for them.

“It was pretty much a no-brainer,” Mroch says. “We’d be on a ship at Halloween. We’d be in the Bermuda Triangle on Halloween. That’s exactly the sort of thing Haunt Jaunts is all about. On top of it all, Key West, one of the cities that’s touted among the most haunted in the nation, was one of the ports. Even the prices were fantastic. It was the perfect cruise for us to offer.”

And that’s how the Haunt Jaunts Halloween in the Bermuda Triangle Cruise with special guest investigators Ghost Eyes Paranormal was born.

“I am excited to be a part of this,” Steve Vaughn, founder of Ghost Eyes Paranormal, says. “How can you say no to being in the Bermuda Triangle for Halloween? It is a true honor to have been asked to speak at this event. I look forward to meeting everyone and sharing what I know throughout the cruise. Halloween cannot get here fast enough.”

Mroch will be conducting a “Bermuda Triangle: Legends and Lore” presentation while aboard ship. Vaughn will be conducting a discussion about all things paranormal investigation, including techniques and equipment.
And as far as the prices Mroch mentioned? They really are reasonable. They start from $400.53 per person double occupancy, or $801.06 per cabin, for an inside cabin. That includes room, all onboard meals, as well as all onboard entertainment, Haunt Jaunts events, gratuities, taxes, and even a $25 per stateroom ($12.50 per person) onboard credit to spend however the cruiser wishes. (Photos, drinks, merchandise, etc.)

Ports of call part of the four-night roundtrip from Miami cruise include Nassau, Bahamas; Coco Cay, Bahamas (Royal Caribbean’s private island); and Key West, Florida. More information can be found on the Haunt Jaunts site, www.hauntjaunts.net, on the Halloween Cruise 2012 page, www.hauntjaunts.net/halloween-cruise-2012.

Ghosts and Dying

2012-04-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

In one of my previous posts, Robin's Egg Bleu of http://robinseggbleu1.blogspot.com/ suggested that I do a post on the deathbed visions of ghosts and spirits that the terminally ill often report seeing. The American Medical Society believes these visions are hallucinations and this is the typical scientific take on such visions. However, many respected doctors and professionals have found holes in the scientific approach to these phenomena. According to Volt, in the book Fringeology, Dr. Kubler-Ross who was most famous for changing the way people looked at Death and Dying with her book On Death and Dying, was one of the first people to address deathbed visions. In her work with the dying, she found that it was common for the dying to have visions of a bright white light and visions of spirits, ghosts, and the other side. She found these visions so common and inexplicable that she dedicated much of the end of her life to exploring them. She couldn't embrace the common belief that they were hallucinations because the patients were often brain dead when they had the hallucinations.

Other physicians have found similar things. My husband once had an encounter with a man on the brink of death who had terrible visions of hell. I've known people on the brink who saw angels and ghosts. At the end of life, visions of the other side are common and remarkably similar. Visits from deceased loved ones are common. There have been cases of those on the brink of death being visited by loved ones and friends they thought were alive, but found out later were dead. According to Steve Wagner of About.com, deathbed visions are very common. He says, "Only about 10 percent of dying people are conscious shortly before their deaths. But of this 10 percent, it is estimated, between 50 and 60 percent of them experience these visions. The visions only seem to last about five minutes and are seen mostly by people who approach death gradually, such as those suffering from life-threatening injuries or terminal illnesses."

Regardless of people's beliefs prior to their deathbed vision, the visions are surprisingly similar. It doesn't matter if you believe in ghosts, God, Allah, or nothing at all, on the path to death your visions will seem much like everyone else's. All of this evidence suggests that at the moment of death, we are granted a brief glimpse of the other side. Often, this vision can take the form of ghosts that come to guide you through the process of death. The dying describe these ghosts as comforting. They are there to help. They are guides, friendly faces in a dark time. Scientifically, these visions can never be confirmed as real, but as someone who believes in ghosts, it is hard for me to believe that the dying are seeing anything but the kind faces who have gone before them, guiding them home.

The Origins of Easter

2012-04-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

I like the idea of Holidays, but in reality they mostly seem like an excuse to work twice as much as you ever would normally and spend more money than you want to spend. Easter yesterday for example, meant that I had to spend my day cleaning for guests and baking.   After a long day, I had neither the time or energy to write. I am not one to be desuaded, however, so I am writing my Easter blog post today.   Happy Easter...... Late Easter. Here is my story about another pagain holiday wrapped in Christian paper and decorated with years of traditions no one understands.

Holiday are off topic, but I love them.   Almost all our modern Christian holidays are just pagan holidays in different paper. So many Christians won't celebrate Halloween because it is pagan, but the Easter bunny has nothing to do with Christ.   Where does the bunny come from? It comes from the goddess Eostre. Eostre was a European fertility goddess. During the Spring, her favorite Holiday, named for her, Easter, was celebrated across Europe. Her totem animal, the bunny, was intrinsic in the celebration of her holiday.   Easter was a fertility holiday and it isn't just a coincidence that estrogen, the hormone often associated with fertility and sex is also named after Eostre.

Ancient Christians were quite brilliant. They knew that if they wanted to convince the old pagans to convert they shouldn't ask them to abandon their old holidays and traditions, so the merely Incorporated their holidays into Christian beliefs. So Easter was absorbed into the early Christian faith and linked to the celebration of the death of Christ.   So the totem animal of Easter became Eostre's totem animal, the bunny and other fertility rituals were also made part of the Christian Holiday.   Eggs, also associated with old fertility rituals, became part of holiday traditions.

By the fifteenth century, in many parts of Europe, it had become normal for children to build nests for the magic bunny to lay eggs in on Easter morning to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Over time, this evolved into the putting out of Easter baskets for a magic bunny to put chocolate eggs and other treats in. So, the resurrection of Christ and the fertility rights of Eostre became one to make the holiday we celebrate today, which is a beautiful fusion of Christian and pagan.

I didn't get to do many of the typical Christian rituals associated with Easter yesterday. I was too busy cleaning to go to church, so I asked my boys what we should do today to remember the Christian elements of Easter. My boys said that the most peaceful, prayerful place they could think of going was the cemetery. I obviously spend too much time at the cemetery with my children. I also think this is an appropriate place to go because the tomb is an important symbol in the Christian celebration of Eater. So today we journey to the cemetery to find the peace we couldn't yesterday. My boys and I celebrated all the pagan rituals yesterday. We had Easter eggs and bunnies galore, but today we examine the other end at our favorite holy place. So we fuse the pagan and Christian and hopefully we'll remember that history is a delicate balance and holidays represent all portions of our history.

Can Children See Ghosts?

2012-04-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

I have often heard it said that children are more in touch with the paranormal than adults. Children are certainly more receptive to the idea of ghosts than adults and ghost stories can spread through a group of children like wildfire.   One could argue, that children are more open to the wanderings of imagination than adults and that they are prone to believe in many fictional things with a fiery passion. They lack the skepticism that has grown in a more mature mind and they are prone to report encounters with the paranormal because of these factors. Yet, my new baby has recently made me revisit the question of children and ghosts.

My little one spends a considerable amount of time staring at nothing and laughing and smiling. He'll stare at a spot on the couch that is empty or a place behind my head where nothing is happening.   I have to ask myself, is it possible he sees things I don't see? I found an interesting study on Ghoststudy.com that evaluated the very questions I have had. The study was done by Nicole Leader who presented several surveys to parents of children of various ages in order to determine if children were in fact more receptive to the paranormal world than adults and if so, at what ages does this ability peak and fade.    The results of the study found that most parents did believe their children were more receptive to the paranormal and that children's encounters with ghosts usually began between the ages of six months and 4 years. Children seem to be naturally born with the ability to see and communicate with ghosts, according to this research. The study also found that over time children cease to communicate with the other side. A few children maintain their abilities into adulthood, but this is rare. The researcher believes that this may be caused not only by a lessening of ability to communicate with the other side but also by parents steady discouragement of such communication.    The research also found that children most commonly have contact with the ghosts of deceased loved ones. If you would like to read the entire study you can at http://ghoststudy.com/new8/studies/children.htm .

Another paper I read discussed a child psychologist who indicated that at least a third of his patients believe they see ghosts (Mark Hall via HubPages.com). This paper focused more on the terror created by children's connection to the other side and ways to banish such terror.   If what it suggests were true, perhaps the reason children have a more profound fear of the dark is because they are more able to sense the unseeable spirits that lurk in the shadows. As adults, we have shed our connections with the other side and have lost our fear of things we can no longer sense.

   When I worked as a child therapist, I certainly found that children are sensitive to many things that adults have learned to tune out. Children are deeply observant on a level adults are not. They lack the inner dialogue that distract adults from being completely present in the now and that opens them up to observations adults, who are lost in their own thoughts, are not able to make. For example, if I saw eight children and their parents in one day, every child would notice and comment on my new tattoo while most adults would just focus on the business that had brought them into my office.   To me, this very trait in children would make them more open to encounters with the paranormal.

I'm not alone in this belief, any kind of review on the topic of children and ghosts seems to show a consensus that if ghosts are real, children see them more frequently and are more open to them than adults. What does this mean? It means that if your child is afraid of the dark or says there's a monster in the closet, maybe next time you shouldn't completely ignore them. Maybe they are just seeing something you can't and hearing whispers you are unable to understand.

A Congressman Talks About the Ghosts of Capitol Hill

2012-03-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Someone sent me this youtube video that I thought was interesting enough to post. I didn't know many of the ghost stories from Capitol Hill and this little blurb sums them up and discusses them. In the video, a Congressman takes a reporter around the United States Capitol to talk about some of the myths, hauntings and scary stories that have been shared over the years. The Congressman is from Livonia, Michigan and is Thaddeus McCotter. I wouldn't comment on his politics because I try to stay as far away from politics as possible these days, but I did like the ghost stories.

Moaning Monks and Other Stupid Ghosts

2012-03-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Looking for ghosts in odd places is one of my favorite pass times. This is even more fun when I am traveling. Before I go anyplace, I do a quick internet search to see what places in the area I am going are haunted. Then I do more research to try to confirm that they are haunted. While travelling to Michigan and Ohio, I noted that according to several internet sites The Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Michigan is haunted. This was curious to me. This is what Shadowlands Haunted Places says:

"At night if you are not in your room at midnight someone comes on the loudspeaker and says LOCKDOWN and the doors and the lights turn off and the TVs shutoff and then the elevators come and monastery figures come out and spikes come out of the wall and ceiling and the ceiling caves in and then its all gone in the morning."

I found a carbon copy of this statement about Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Michigan on several other paranormal sites, but I didn’t find any real information. Several things bothered me about this story. First the story itself seems more than a little unbelievable to me. Surely if someplace this haunted existed, it would be featured on every paranormal television show in existence. Secondly, after I explored the small town of Sandusky, Michigan I found there was nothing resembling a Great Wolf Lodge there. There is a Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Ohio. It was once Bear Lodge before it was bought out by the Great Wolf Lodge chain of resorts. I decided to focus my study on the Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Ohio.

I travelled to the Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati, Ohio as Sandusky was too far out for me to visit. I asked staff about the haunting in Sandusky. They laughed or gave me that I’m too polite to laugh blank stare that you get when you ask a ridiculous question. I also phoned Sandusky and no one there acknowledged any kind of haunting. After exploring a couple of the resorts in the Great Wolf Lodge chain, I have to say that this is a least likely place to be haunting. They all look pretty much the same so the photos I took in Cincinnati might as well be Sandusky or the resort I visited in Charlotte or Traverse City. They are packed with screaming children until 11pm when the magi quest and arcade close down. After this, the grownups sneak out quietly looking for the bar. I got a mudslide. If anything like described above ever happened at a Great Wolf Lodge, the reports would be everywhere. All this to say, I think that the story above is a bunch of crap. This isn’t the first load of crap internet ghost story I’ve found, but it is the most silly. What is the moral of this story? Just because someone has posted a ghost story on the internet doesn’t make it true. Although I love a good ghost story, some ghost stories are utter nonsense.

The Many Ghosts of King's Island

2012-03-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

It is amazing what you can find along the way when you go on a road trip. Ghosts lurk around every corner and phantoms seem to find you when you are looking for fun. In my past travels, I have noted that many places devoted to fun are also haunted by sorrow. Many of the Six Flags are haunted and Disney Land is as much of a ghost land as a wonderland. It is, therefore, no surprise that King's Island in Cincinnati, Ohio is teaming with ghosts. What was a surprise to me, was that I should just happen upon such a haunted place by accident. While staying at Great Wolf Lodge, I thought I would ask the staff about the allegedly haunted Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky. What I found was that the amusement park that I could see from my back patio is notoriously haunted.

There are a plethora of ghosts haunting the various rides at King's Island. A little blond girl in a lovely blue frock is said to wander the Waterworks. Her ghost is said to be linked to a tiny cemetery located just off the grounds of King's Island. The Eiffel Tower ride is haunted by a ghost named Tower Johnny. He is said to have made an unfortunate decision on the night of his graduation. In 1983, he climbed up the elevator shaft of this ride and lost his footing. He fell to his death after being cut in half by the elevator cables. His ghost has been seen wandering the Eiffel Tower ride and tormenting those who are seeking a more earthly thrill. The Octopus Ride is also said to be haunted by an ill fated rider who died on the ride and White Water Canyon is haunted by a ghost named Woody who comes out after dark and throws rocks at those who happen by.

I couldn't go to King's Island during my trip because it was still closed for winter. But peaking through the fence at it in its stark, lonely, winter garb made it seem all the more haunted. The rides were quiet and the air was thick with the last breath of winter. I could imagine ghosts wandering in the shadows of the silent park and as night came I could almost see a lonely girl in blue looking for her way home.

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Strange Photos

2012-03-18T17:07:00.001-07:00

I spent yesterday driving around Detroit. Its beauty still lingers in the shadows. Although much of the city has wilted and decayed, the architecture is still stunning in a way that would invite ghost stories and dark tales. I tried to capture a few photos with my phone, but didn't do a very good job. The last photo I took of one abandoned building was the most interesting. The picture didn't even look like a building. It looked more like an X-ray of someone's spinal cord. It is quite haunting.

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Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Moonshiner's Ghost

2012-03-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

My family is from Michigan. On my grandmother’s side, the family has lived in the farmlands of the thumb of Michigan for many generations. The Washington Township Cemetery is filled with the gravestones of my ancestors going back for many generations. The Vincent name covers the stones that fill the pastoral cemetery. Wandering through the old graveyard is like wandering through my history. In the center of the old cemetery, there is a monument that tells a different story. It tells the story of an old ghost.

The monument is known as the moonshiner’s monument. It is the largest and prettiest marker in the cemetery. Apparently, during prohibition it was used by moonshiners. The moonshiners would hide their moonshine in the old marker. The panels were easily removed and they would place their product within the tombstone. Distributers would then pick up the moonshine and leave their money behind. As was often the case, the distribution of these illegal spirits ended badly. In some kind of skirmish near the stone, one of the moonshiners was shot and died near the monument. His ghost is said to linger in the cemetery. He wanders the shadows looking for a peace that may never come.

The Lady of the Lake

2012-03-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

Huddled up against the shores of Lake Huron and tucked away in the shade of maple trees, there is a small cemetery. The cemetery is called Forester Cemetery and is the home of a lonely white lady ghost. The cemetery sits perfectly positioned to provide a perfect view of the great lake. The tombstones there are old and some have been broken and propped back up. Many of the markers have been so eroded that the names are gone. The wind from the lake has wiped away all traces of those who lie beneath them.

One of the many occupants of this quiet necropolis is named Minnie Quay. When Minnie was only fifteen years old, she fell in love with a sailor. She loved this sailor with a poignancy that only first love can offer. Her parents, however, did not share her passion. They forbade Minnie from ever seeing her beloved and told her that she could never expect to see her young beau again. Minnie was heartbroken. Her young man sailed away and died at sea. Minnie was so overwhelmed by grief she couldn’t bare it. She dressed herself in white and walked down to the shore of Lake Huron. She cast herself into the icy waters and died beneath its frigid surface. Her body washed up on shore and she was buried at Forester Cemetery. Since that time, people have claimed to see Minnie wandering the shores by Forester Cemetery. They’ve seen a tragic figure in white wandering the beaches looking out in hopes of catching on last fading glimpse of her lost love. Some even claim to have seen Minnie walking from the beach and through the grounds of the small cemetery by the lake, her cheeks stained with tears and her eyes desperate with grief.