Ghosts - Real or Not?

Ghost Hunting / Paranomal Clubs

2012-01-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

OK so I have been looking over the internet and been finding it kinda hard to find any ghost hunting groups, especially in my local area near Richmond, North Yorkshire. So I thought I would do this post and put a shout out for any ghost hunting or paranormal groups out there.

Now heres what I would like you all to do, if you are part of or know of any ghost hunting or paranormal groups anywhere, not just local to me here in Yorkshire but anywhere at all UK and overseas, please give details in the comments and a link to the website or as much contact info as you can.

Many Thanks and Happy Hunting
Sean

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Ghost Radar and my House

2011-12-02T17:29:00.001-08:00

OK so picture the scene I was out on a photoshoot today with my other half, as one of my jobs is a photographer adn she is a model.

Check out my FaceBook Page and give it a like http://facebook.com/seanjconnollyphotography

When I mentioned to thephotographer about the cool application Ghost Radar, as he mentioned that they hear things in the studio sometimes, doors closing and such. So I fired up Ghost Radar and what do you know it started showing results, so he downloaded it and is having a bit of a play. Now I never thought anything of this and just closed the application (or at least I thought) and got on with stuff.

Now about an hour ago my other half Becky, who is a model by the way check out her on FaceBook http://www.facebook.com/beckymagsonmodelling and whos shoot it was today, shouted upstairs that Ghost Radar just went off and said the name Joseph, now I honestly thought I turned it off, but I guess I never.

now I want to put this out there to my fellow ghosty peeps, our kitchen is really cold and now Ghost Radar shouted the name Joseph. So do you think my kitchen is haunted?

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Ghost Hunters / TAPS Store

2011-11-21T16:13:00.001-08:00

I decided that as I enjoy prefer Ghost Hunters and TAPS to open a store dedicated to everything they do, so after loads of list building I have created an Amazon store dedicated yo my favourite ghost hunters Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson.

Please buy something from the store to allow me to keep on with my ghostly blog and to allow the great team at TAPS on continue their great exploits.

Check out my store and get your loved one something nice http://astore.amazon.co.uk/ghoststore-21

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Ghost Hunt St Cuthberts Forcett

2011-11-20T17:06:00.001-08:00

Ok so there we were my little brother and I sitting in my front room, just waiting around for the other half to finish making the tea on a dark Saturday night, when the subject got on to ghosts and ghost hunting. We are planning a bigger night ghost hunt and my little bro said that we should check out the local church, I had never even been in this church so though hey why not.

Now the only problem is the that this local church St Cuthberts is directly opposite my house, in fact as I write this I can look into the graveyard. So I was kinda hoping that is would be a peaceful and quick hunt, although although my window looks over the graveyard and not being that afraid of ghosts, kinda works both ways for me.

So we headed over the road and into the church grounds, and to be honest there was not really much happening, but we had the camera with us and fired off a few shots, there was nothing on these shots to make us think there was paranormal happenings a foot.

But as always I had my trusty Blackberry Torch with me and on it I always have Ghost Radar, and this started to show a few words, but not much else.

So we headed into the church itself, great think about rural churches is that they are open most of the times, on entering the church it was so dark we could not even tell what we were walking on.

As you can see we were walking on carpet. So we walked around the interior of the church not being able to see. Yes we know we should have brought a torch with us but we didn't :(.

So as we walked around the church, the Ghost Radar on my phone went mad, showing all sorts of things and showing words like Cry, Fall, Job and each time it went off we snapped off a photo.

On one occasion we think we have some nice orbs, pay particular attention to the middle top and left, as we think the others are reflections from objects in the room, but cant see what could be causing these two.

We have counted out the ones to the left and right as simple reflections, but cant see why the two in the middle are there. All thoughts welcome as always.

Now we continued this process, each time Ghost Radar said there was something we took a photo, and sadly nothing else inside the church showed up.

So we headed back outside, and again Ghost Radar showed us the same set of words Cry, Fall, Job, however on one occassion I was checking ghost radar and we took a shot, what looks like an orb showed up near my hand.

We wondering around the graveyard and took some more shots, and we think that it seemed we were getting a bit more activity, more orbs and ghost radar working well.

Check out between the third and fourth headstone in the following shot, we think its an orb, and before you say its a gravestone we checked and there are no headstones behind at all.

Now the next shot we took was when Ghost Radar was going really mad, loads of blips on the screen and the word Cry constantly on the screen. If you check out the gravesstone in teh middle and look to the left of it you can see what we think is an orb.

So as you can see although it was a quick ghost hunt we think we have found some good stuff, and I have a done a little bit of research and there was someone who died when the church was built. Maybe connected maybe not, but interesting all the same.

I do suggest though if you are doing a ghost hunt, don't do it too close to home, kinda thankfully on this time we saw onyl possible orbs, but I think if we saw more I might be included to move house.

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Haunted Magazine

2011-08-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share this great blog and new magazine with my fellow ghosty peeps.

Haunted Magazine is a magazine dedicated to everything paranormal and all things in between.

Enjoy.

Studley Royal / Fountains Abbey Water Gardens North Yorkshire Strange Light

2011-04-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share this photo with you all, I went to Fountains Abbey near Ripon North Yorkshire today and took some picture with my phone.

At the Studley Royal Water Gardens they is a tunnel type thing which you go through to get to the higher path. So when I went through I thought I would take a picture, so I did with no flash.

(please note I have boosted the image contrast to show the light more clearly, nothing else has been done to this image)

As you can see there are clearly two spots of light on the image, I think the lower one is the far entrance to the tunnel as you can see the brick of the wall in it. As for the one at the top right I have no idea what this is.

So I through this question out there, does anyone know of any ghost or tales of ghosts surrounding Fountains Abbey, Studley Royal or the water gardens?

Ghost Radar - Mini Darlington Ghost Hunt

2011-02-22T14:08:00.000-08:00

Ok so I thought I would try to see if this Ghost Radar thing actually works, so I took a mini ghost hunt around Darlington, County Durham.

Afer living in Darlington and the areas for almost 10 years, I am familiar with the ghostly tales in and around the town, and most recently the tale of the poor homeless man murdered in St Cuthberts church yard in the town centre. This sparked my curiosity as I figured that being murdered was one of the most common causes of ghosts and paranormal activity . So I started at St Cuthberts Church.

Here are my findings.

St Cuthberts Church

I walked around the church and concentrated on the areas around the trees. On walking around the Ghost Radar application went nuts, on the screen there were several dots (indicating some kind of activity) and the word FIGHTING appeared on the screen.

Now this may just be coincidence but I have a feeling that this is directly related to the incident that took place here, as the word appear when I approached one of the trees were the incident took place.

Mechanics Yard

Walking along down mechanics Yard, actually one of the lanes from High Row to Skinnergate, the word FIGHTING appeared. Although there were no blips on the screen, so again I can only imagine what may have happened in this alley. If anyone knows of anyone who has been murdered during a fight or similar let me know.

Quakers Graveyard

I then went and investigated the old Quakers Graveyard, behind the friend meeting house on Skinnergate. Again a massive amount of activity on the screen, blips all over the place.

As I walked around the following words appeared on the screen THIN, RAIN, FLOOD. So I dont know if anyone buried in this graveyard died in a flood, but I would love to know. So again if anyone knows of a flood in Darlington at this point let me know.

Bull Wynd

My final street was Bull Wynd, the street just off market square. Again there was quite alot of activity on the screen and the following words appeared VISITOR, LIGHT, EGYPT.

So all in all I found Ghost Radar to be an intersting piece of software, whether or not the information is accurate at this point I don't know. I am hoping to do to a place with known activity and factual evidence of names, dates, events to try it again.

Ghost detecting Tools - Ghost Radar

2011-02-13T11:49:00.000-08:00

I was wondering what everyone out there using to detect ghostly presence. I dont actually have any official ghost equipment, EMF 's, Infrared or any thing else. But I was browsng the web the other day and found a cool piece of software by Spud Pickles called Ghost Radar.

I tried this program and actually got what seemed like results, ghost blips on the radar and words on the screen. What I am planning on doing is trying it in a documented ghost place to see if the results make any facts about any area. So stay tuned to this space.

If you want to try Ghost Radar it is available for most phones and is totally free.

Download it from the Spud Pickles Website

Happy Hunting.

Edinburgh Vaults and Tunnels

2009-12-21T16:39:00.000-08:00

Has ayone been to the Edinburgh Vaults / Tunnels?

I am thinking of paying them a visit and just wondering if they are all they seem?

Your feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Sean

Share Your Stories

2008-05-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

If anyone out there has any ghostly tales to tell, why not drop me an email will your ghostly goings ons, and I will post them on this blog and give oyu a link back to your website.

So dont be shy, share you experiences with the world.

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk

Looking forward yo your ghostly tales.

Kitchen - Haunted or Not?

2008-05-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

Ok so it happened again. I was standing in my kitchen when I heard footsteps in the bathroom above. It is so strange because it sounded ust like someone walking. Strange thing is there was no one in there and te footsteps seemed to stop in mid-walk.

So what does the world thing? has anyone else had a similar experience? am I just imagining it?

TAPS - Trans Atlantice Paranormal Society

2008-05-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

I was watching TAPS last night and as always it was a great show. What seems strange to me is that it appears that they are having problems with staffing, the staff jsut does not seem to be doing the work correctly to find any evidence on the footage caught.

I think its a shame as TAPS is quite a cool program, and has found some cool stuff already.

So what does the world out there think of this? Is TAPS on the way out? I Hope not.

Update

OK huge sigh from me, Thanks fully TAPS is still going strong and getting bigger everyday, Great work by Jason and Grant and teh team, and its now even moved overseas in the form of Ghost Hunters International. GREAT WORK to all invloved.

Not really Ghostly - But Still Good

2008-05-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have been doing stuff on this old internet and kept getting emails about different programs to make money. I just got an email about a website called cashcrate.com , and it claimed you can make money just by doing surveys. Yeah Right.

I took the risk, and what do you know I have just made money just by doing a simply survey online.

So why not spend a few minutes in your day, and make a bit extra cash.

Thanks and back to the ghosts

Seaton Delaval Hall Mausoleum and White/Grey Lady

2008-05-07T06:07:00.000-07:00

I thought I would talk about an experience I had a few years ago, by a few I mean about 15 years back.

Like most teenagers my friends and I were looking for advernture all of the time, and doing typical teenage things, going to the beach, camping and the normal stuff.

We all enjoyed looking around old buildings and we had heard of several tales surrounding Seaton Delaval Hall, which is located just north of Whitley Bay, in Tyne and Wear.

On one of our many bike rides we decided to visit Seaton Delaval Hall, after visiting it with the school and being told the tales of how a young women was suppossed to be seen at one of the upstairs windows, after dying waiting for her lover to return from battle. As you can guess he never returned and she died of heart ache. Sounds strange but this is just the start of it.

Whilst on the same school trip we were told about a Delaval family mausoleum or crypt that was suppossed to be located somewhere within the grounds of the hall, but it was not open for public viewing.

Well as you can guess we had to find out, so we visited Seaton Delaval hall and intended to find this mausoleum, after dark.

On the day we cycled to Seaton Delaval Hall it was a clear crisp night and we got to the hall gates to find them locked, so we were standing around chatting about where the mausoleum could be, and to my shock we all looked at the hall and in one of the upstairs windows we all say what looked like a women, kind of greyish white, and then she just looked like she turned away. She looked weird. Ghost or not?

So whether or not it was the supposessed ghost that haunts the hall I don't know, what I do know is that it set us on edge and we were all really ready to continue our journey.

We cycled along the road, and we spotted the Seaton Delaval Hall Mausoleum in the trees just of the road up to Seaton Delaval, well not just off the road its a bit of a struggle through bushes and nettles, after all it is not open to the public.

We got there and the structure itself is quite scary, after it is a real mausoleum and looks and feels like that.

At this point I will point out that the picture at the top of this post is the actual mausoleum, and a HUGE thanks to Steve Ellwood for this picture, take a look at his pictures of the mausoleum The building itself does not look all that scary, especially in the sun.But if you imagine this at night it is quite scary.

Now when we got to the building and went into the structure that is above ground, we had heard that there was some weird rituals that took place at this location, and that it is possible to go underneath the building into the crypt.

We found a way to get under the structure, and climbed down into a small chamber, and not only was it dark but the walls are all designed to hold coffins or bodies, so there are shelve type things where there are meant to be, if you picture a morgue, its kinda like that buy without the doors on the places for the bodies.

On the flloor and one of the walls we say what looked and pentagram, which is said to be the sign of the devil and used in rituals for devil worship. When we say this we all got really terrified and decided it would be a good idea to leave. So we all climbed back up to ground level.

When we were all back in the building, but above ground, we heard noises coming from the chamber. Its sounded like movement, even though we were all there and none of us were in the underground chamber. We got really scared and got out bikes and headed home.

Now this is where things really got weird, when we were a safe distant away from the building, we looked back, and I swear I could see a figure in the window, it looked like a thin looking man. I saw this in the window you can see in the picture at the top of this post.

So the questions I have are simple. How come we all say what looked like a ghost in the window of the Hall? Was it a ghost or something worse that we heard moving in the mausoleum? Who was the figure standing in the windows of the mausoleum? I guess I will never know. But if anyone else has had any experiences here let me know.

Is my house haunted?

2008-04-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

Now here is a strange tale.

I recently moved into a new house, about 2 months ago.

I was sitting in the lounge jsut watching the TV when I heard what sounded like someone coming down the stairs, this was weird as there was no-one else in the house.

Then another day I was in the kitchen and I heard footsteps upstairs, as if someone was in the bathroom, which is above the kitchen, but again there was no one else in the house.

So the question I everyone out there is, has anyone else had a similar experience and do you think my house is haunted?

Little Drummer Boy - Richmond (North Yorkshire)

2008-04-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

This is another tale that both my brother and I experienced.

If you know the Richmond (North Yorkshire) area then no doubt you have heard the tale of the little drummer boy for this and other ghosts tales in Yorkshire I recommend the following books
The North of England Ghost Trail (Guides)The Supernatural in Yorkshire (Dalesman Heritage)

Now onto the tale.

My brother and I were walking from Richmond along the route that the drummer boy has taken, in short the drummer boy was a military drummer who was tasked with drummer underground in a tunnel to let the soldiers follow the path of the tunnel above ground.

Well my brother and I were walking along the same route, and when we arrived at the memorial that marks the spot where the drumming was meant to have stopped when the boy was underground. We heard what sounded like drumming, it was clear as day. This is not a small statement as the river flows right next to the spot and its hard to hear anything.

So did we hear the drummer boy or was it our imaginations, all I can say is that I know we both thought we heard drums.

So if you happen to be in Richmond, North Yorkshire, take a walk along the river towards Easby Abbey and you will find the memorial to the drummer boy. So whether or not the area is haunted is a matter for you to decide. All I can say is if you do go that way and hear drumming, let me know.

My Dad and I had a weird car journey

2008-04-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

This story is a little bit harder to write as sadly my dad is not around anymore. But this story just fits so well with this blog I can't not tell it.

So hear goes, my dad and I were driving back from Scotland after visiting my dads brother, my uncle. We were driving down the A1 just a bit north of Bamburgh. Anyone who know the A1 in Northumberland will know that it is a single lane on both sides. It was really dark and we were just chatting and enjoying driving back when we say a car in the distance in front of us.

As we got further down the road we could still see the car, and we noticed the car driving straight and then the lights just disappeared. We thought nothing of this as the car was a way in the distance and we jsut thought it had taken a turn off.

Now when we got to the point where the car turned off, or as we thought has turned off. We could not see any signs of a turning, road or anything else where the car could have gone to. In fact all there was was a hedge. There was no where the car could have gone.

The strange thing is that this stretch of road is really bad for accidents and there are signs posted all along warning about the amount of people who have been killed on this road.

So was what we say a re-enactment of a car accident, some kind of phantom car live the last moments over and over. I guess I will never know.

But I can say this if you are driving on the A1 in Northumberland drive safely.

My Personal Experience - Well mine and my brothers

2008-04-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I am still very sceptical when it comes to ghosts and the whole paranormal thing. But I have to tell the world about a weird experience my brother and I had when we visited Edlingham Castle in Northumberland.

There is not much left to this castle now, there is alot of history in northumberland of fighting between England and Scotland, and this castle although never used directly in battles, was a fortified house, this meant that fending off attacks was easier and defences were stronger.

So onto my experience, my brother and I were visiting the castle, you must go it quite remote and a bit weird, it was actual a nice day the weather was dry and it we still day light. we were walking around in the ground of what used to be the main house part of the castle.

I went down into a little hole at one end, and I felt a strange feeling, so I asked my brother to do the same, and he said the same thing as I did as if there was some kind of presence there.

We continued looking around the castle, and then I heard a noise. The sort of noise as if someone was walking on wooden floorboards, when I hear this I looked up to where the noise came from, adn I noticed that there is actually no floor above at all and no roof or anything above me, I could see where the flooring would have once been, and can see from the onsite layout of the castle that, the part of the castle I was in did in fact at one point have an upstairs and was more of a house. I never said anything to my brother at that time.

Now when we were walking away we both said that we heard the same noise, and almost at the same time said that it sounded like someone walking on floorboards. I remember it clear as ever it sounded so clear. I am so glad my brother heard it.

So if anyone out there has any stories of edlingham or any other ghostly experiences to share, let me know and I will glady post them on this blog.

Ghost Hunt - New Zealand

2008-04-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ghost hunt is another one of my ghost shows, I really like this one as it again follow a team of investigators trying to seek out the paranormal.

The team is Michael Hallows, Brad Hills, Carolyn Taylor. This program is really cool as the team always make a pint of having the best gadgets and make a point of have both locked off camera setup in the locaiton as well as having head mounted cameras.

Now this is especially the good bit of this show (pay attention Most Haunted) I know that when stuff is going on it is nice to see how scared the people are, and shots of the faces is always a nice idea. But I watch these programs to see ghosts and not to see peoples faces, this is where Ghost Hunt does the job really well.

The investigators all wear head mounted cameras, that give us two different views, the normal in the face close up, or the blair witch view, and the other lets us see exactly what they see. So if they claim to have see something we get to see. Now why dont we get this on other programs.

What I love about this program is the team are so well organised they know exactly where in the location they are going, and they have lots of gadgets setup so they can monitor the whole place from inside their van. Now thats cool.

I watch this show on Sky as I am in the UK, not exactly sure which channel or what time its on, If anyone out there knows please post a comment and let everyone know.

Ghost Hunters - TAPS

2008-04-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

TAPS or The Atlantic Paranormal Society to give them their full name is another team of investigators who look for ghosts and other paranormal activity that occurs all around us.

The teams appear on the program called Ghost Hunters and is lead by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson both of which are full time plumbers and part time ghost investigators. Now don't let this put you off, this program is really good, the main benefit of this program is that the team are always called in by home owners or similar to investigate what has been happening to them.

The cool thing I find about this show is that the team actively make a point of trying to prove or disprove their finding, and they spend alot of time validating evidence, and don't easily get scared.

For more stuff on ghosts visit Amazon

2008-04-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Most Haunted

2008-04-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

If you have never heard of Most Haunted then where have you been.

Most haunted is a great show presented by ex Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding, in where Yvette and her team traverl the world, well the UK mainly looking for ghosts and other spooky stuff.

At each location they are always accompanied by a medium. (someone who has connections to the afterlife) this medium will try to feel the presence of any entities in the room or location. At each location the structure for the investigation is normally the same.

There is a group vigal looking for ghostly stuff with the medium doing their medium thing.
Then individuals will go off to parts of the location to see if they can see or feel anything on their own. This is normally Carl (the exec producer / Hubby of Yvette) and Stuart (lighting type guy) these 2 will brave the location to find and honestly just get themselves scared. Rather them than me.
There will normally be some kind of direct communication with the other side, normally a seance around a table.
Another vital member of the team is the resident science bod, kieran he keeps everything above board to validates all findings.
The next important member of the team is the historian, this at the moment is lesley. She does a great job of looking up the information the medium comes up with.

Watch out for Most Haunted on LivingTV in the UK, normally Tuesday as 9pm.