Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Ghost Busters
Well, I got nuthin’!
Last night’s foray into the paranormal was interesting, but I got nothing on video or digital camera at all. We do have to take the 35mm film in to get processed to be absolutely sure, but I’m guessing it will be much like everything else we got. Just pictures.
However, there were probably 12 of us wandering around the house, and several others say they got digital photos of “something”, as well as several people said that they felt “a presence”, or felt nauseous in certain parts of the house, or felt as if their breathing was constricted and other things.
My own thoughts on the experience are many. First, there were just too many people wandering around aimlessly, with no organization really of who should be where doing what at any given time. Camera flashes were going off as the guys with the EMF meters were getting readings, and as the video cameras with night vision were taping. Both inside and outside the house. All, in my admitted inexperienced opinion, kind of work counter productive to each other. There were 3 or 4 people with pendulums that would alternately be completely still, and then go nuts whenever another pendulum got near. As far as I know, this wouldn’t be unusual, as the “energies” from each pendulum, and pendulum’s owner, could/would interfere with the other. Some people felt “things” in certain spots in each room, some felt it was malevolent, others felt it was harmless.
Me, I felt nothing more than utter confusion and frustration at just how many “investigators” were there, and at the lack of organization, as well as courtesy toward what each person was attempting to investigate.
Each and every “feeling” or “odd occurrence” I tried to find a mundane reason for. Such as, a couple of the men said they all of a sudden caught a whiff of some scent. I started looking for a hidden room freshener, scented candle, open bottle of perfume etc etc etc…which was eventually found.
Creaking floors that the inhabitants of the house spoke of, are easily explained that the basement/crawlspace of the house had recently been flooded, so the foundations likely shifted a bit; the a/c going on and off will expand and contract the floor boards; the dryer’s vent runs from the middle of the house outward to the rear exterior wall, also likely to cause the floorboards to expand and contract with heating and cooling. The burn on the bathroom counter, attributed to the “ghosts” turning on the curling iron, I highly doubt, and will say it is more likely that the girl herself left it on and just forgot. Then, because her roommates believe the house is haunted, just blamed it on the ghost. This happened quite often in my house when I was growing up. If something got broken or lost or misplaced, it was blamed on Joe, our ghost. Later it usually was revealed that someone other than Joe was the culprit.
As for quite a lot of the inhabitants, their friends, and the investigators feeling “something” there, it is entirely possible. I will not say “no way, I didn’t see/feel/hear anything, so it can’t be”, but I honestly do believe that the power of suggestion is greater than most people understand, or will admit to. I believe that some went in there, having read the ladies’ account of their haunting, predisposed to “feel” something. And then as soon as someone “felt” something, others immediately piped up “wow, I did too”. This in itself is a phenomenon that deserves investigation, along the lines of “is a yawn contagious?”.
There are things in the house that bothered me. Such as the light under the house/crawl space being turned on and no one can figure out where the switch is. The ladies of the house had no idea there was even a light under there, and they’ve lived there for 10 months. I find it hard to believe that a light has no switch, or pull chain and can just turn itself on at dusk, and the people who live there have never noticed it before. The landlord had been there months ago to drain the flood (which the ladies in the house also had not noticed), if he had left the light on all that time, I’m sure they would have seen it before I noticed it last night! They claim to never have noticed it.
One of our investigators came to the conclusion that the haunting is being caused by a family of Native Americans who died on the spot generations ago, and they are ready and willing to move on, they just don’t know how to. They’re also angry with what has been done to the land there, and the house, and cul-de-sac is relatively new, so that is understandable. A lot of locals were also angry with the developer for carving up another piece of the mountain.
I don’t find it too much of a stretch to think that a family who may have lived and died on that spot generations ago would be angry with the current state of things. Nor do I find it a stretch to think that they would still be around, haunting the hill. I just personally found no evidence to back it up. I would be interested to go back there, with A LOT fewer people around, to see what I get. But for now, I will defer to what other’s saw, felt and heard. Cuz I got nuthin’. ¶ 2:01 PM
Last night’s foray into the paranormal was interesting, but I got nothing on video or digital camera at all. We do have to take the 35mm film in to get processed to be absolutely sure, but I’m guessing it will be much like everything else we got. Just pictures.
However, there were probably 12 of us wandering around the house, and several others say they got digital photos of “something”, as well as several people said that they felt “a presence”, or felt nauseous in certain parts of the house, or felt as if their breathing was constricted and other things.
My own thoughts on the experience are many. First, there were just too many people wandering around aimlessly, with no organization really of who should be where doing what at any given time. Camera flashes were going off as the guys with the EMF meters were getting readings, and as the video cameras with night vision were taping. Both inside and outside the house. All, in my admitted inexperienced opinion, kind of work counter productive to each other. There were 3 or 4 people with pendulums that would alternately be completely still, and then go nuts whenever another pendulum got near. As far as I know, this wouldn’t be unusual, as the “energies” from each pendulum, and pendulum’s owner, could/would interfere with the other. Some people felt “things” in certain spots in each room, some felt it was malevolent, others felt it was harmless.
Me, I felt nothing more than utter confusion and frustration at just how many “investigators” were there, and at the lack of organization, as well as courtesy toward what each person was attempting to investigate.
Each and every “feeling” or “odd occurrence” I tried to find a mundane reason for. Such as, a couple of the men said they all of a sudden caught a whiff of some scent. I started looking for a hidden room freshener, scented candle, open bottle of perfume etc etc etc…which was eventually found.
Creaking floors that the inhabitants of the house spoke of, are easily explained that the basement/crawlspace of the house had recently been flooded, so the foundations likely shifted a bit; the a/c going on and off will expand and contract the floor boards; the dryer’s vent runs from the middle of the house outward to the rear exterior wall, also likely to cause the floorboards to expand and contract with heating and cooling. The burn on the bathroom counter, attributed to the “ghosts” turning on the curling iron, I highly doubt, and will say it is more likely that the girl herself left it on and just forgot. Then, because her roommates believe the house is haunted, just blamed it on the ghost. This happened quite often in my house when I was growing up. If something got broken or lost or misplaced, it was blamed on Joe, our ghost. Later it usually was revealed that someone other than Joe was the culprit.
As for quite a lot of the inhabitants, their friends, and the investigators feeling “something” there, it is entirely possible. I will not say “no way, I didn’t see/feel/hear anything, so it can’t be”, but I honestly do believe that the power of suggestion is greater than most people understand, or will admit to. I believe that some went in there, having read the ladies’ account of their haunting, predisposed to “feel” something. And then as soon as someone “felt” something, others immediately piped up “wow, I did too”. This in itself is a phenomenon that deserves investigation, along the lines of “is a yawn contagious?”.
There are things in the house that bothered me. Such as the light under the house/crawl space being turned on and no one can figure out where the switch is. The ladies of the house had no idea there was even a light under there, and they’ve lived there for 10 months. I find it hard to believe that a light has no switch, or pull chain and can just turn itself on at dusk, and the people who live there have never noticed it before. The landlord had been there months ago to drain the flood (which the ladies in the house also had not noticed), if he had left the light on all that time, I’m sure they would have seen it before I noticed it last night! They claim to never have noticed it.
One of our investigators came to the conclusion that the haunting is being caused by a family of Native Americans who died on the spot generations ago, and they are ready and willing to move on, they just don’t know how to. They’re also angry with what has been done to the land there, and the house, and cul-de-sac is relatively new, so that is understandable. A lot of locals were also angry with the developer for carving up another piece of the mountain.
I don’t find it too much of a stretch to think that a family who may have lived and died on that spot generations ago would be angry with the current state of things. Nor do I find it a stretch to think that they would still be around, haunting the hill. I just personally found no evidence to back it up. I would be interested to go back there, with A LOT fewer people around, to see what I get. But for now, I will defer to what other’s saw, felt and heard. Cuz I got nuthin’. ¶ 2:01 PM
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Wow....how interesting! Occasionally there are similar happenings around here, especially in some of the older lighthouses. I've yet to go to any of them, but would really love to. This time of year I usually make a few trips down to Salem, MA and trapse around down there just due to the atmosphere more than anything. But last fall my sister and I did go and visit some of the historic older mansions/colonial homes that date back to the very early settlers from England.
And can I just say.....SPOOOOKY. I wish we'd had more time but we didn't, and I know they have other tours that delve deeper into the paranormal during the "off season" and am hoping I can make one or two of those before I get to big to handle the 2 hour drive down into Salem. The homes aren't so crowded and they limit people going through the homes to 5 at a time.
There is also a house up here, not far from where I am, it's in Kennebunkport and it's an old sea captain's residence and it puported to be "haunted". I know they've had teams go through the house before and have gotten measurable readings and some weird images on both digital and "film" cameras. For a time it was converted to a B&B but people would be too scared to stay and the owners, no matter how hard they tried, couldn't maintain even temperatures in all the rooms and in the two guest rooms on the top floor, never could be maintained above 40F degrees.
I've gotten 9 or 10 books over the last year about the alleged haunted lighthouses and various other "spooks and spectres" around New England and it mentions the above home in Kennebunkport. I sure wish they'd open it up for small tours though!
Oh well.
Are you gonna go on anymore outings? Would love to read your experiences!
Auds
And can I just say.....SPOOOOKY. I wish we'd had more time but we didn't, and I know they have other tours that delve deeper into the paranormal during the "off season" and am hoping I can make one or two of those before I get to big to handle the 2 hour drive down into Salem. The homes aren't so crowded and they limit people going through the homes to 5 at a time.
There is also a house up here, not far from where I am, it's in Kennebunkport and it's an old sea captain's residence and it puported to be "haunted". I know they've had teams go through the house before and have gotten measurable readings and some weird images on both digital and "film" cameras. For a time it was converted to a B&B but people would be too scared to stay and the owners, no matter how hard they tried, couldn't maintain even temperatures in all the rooms and in the two guest rooms on the top floor, never could be maintained above 40F degrees.
I've gotten 9 or 10 books over the last year about the alleged haunted lighthouses and various other "spooks and spectres" around New England and it mentions the above home in Kennebunkport. I sure wish they'd open it up for small tours though!
Oh well.
Are you gonna go on anymore outings? Would love to read your experiences!
Auds
I would like to go on other investigations, but only if its a much much smaller group! There was just waaaaaaaay too many people getting in the way and no organization. I watched our video tape all the way thru, and all I can see is camera flashes going off all the time.
I love a good ghost story, and we're also planning on going up to Asheville for their "Ghost Walk" sometime in October. We haven't got a date yet, but I will certainly post our experiences when we go :)
I love a good ghost story, and we're also planning on going up to Asheville for their "Ghost Walk" sometime in October. We haven't got a date yet, but I will certainly post our experiences when we go :)
Ghost Walk! That's what they call some of the "tours" around here.
I think I may go on one or two next month around Ipswich, MA and one in Salem. I thought my little sis was going to be here in mid-October but she's put her trip off till Thanksgiving, so it looks like I'm going solo. Oh well, it will be fun to waddle around New England and see what there's to see, if there's anything to see indeed.
There used to be one down in New Orleans, when I used to go every year, at the orphanage Anne Rice used to own when she still lived down there, that I have been on. It was at St. Elizabeth's and I've been through there about 4 times, one of those was a "Ghost Walk"....it was eerie, but no camera's or equipment were allowed by those talking the walk, only professionals from TLC, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel were allowed to bring anything like that in.
There was one particular room, the attic where they used to keep the ill children who were not expected to recover that seemed very depressing and cold. But that's all I ever experienced while there. That's also where it's alleged that one of the paranormal teams that's been through has gotten the most readings.
So sad, Anne decided to sell it and now it's going to be turned into "luxury" residences.
Oh well, tis nothing forever I guess.
*sigh*
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I think I may go on one or two next month around Ipswich, MA and one in Salem. I thought my little sis was going to be here in mid-October but she's put her trip off till Thanksgiving, so it looks like I'm going solo. Oh well, it will be fun to waddle around New England and see what there's to see, if there's anything to see indeed.
There used to be one down in New Orleans, when I used to go every year, at the orphanage Anne Rice used to own when she still lived down there, that I have been on. It was at St. Elizabeth's and I've been through there about 4 times, one of those was a "Ghost Walk"....it was eerie, but no camera's or equipment were allowed by those talking the walk, only professionals from TLC, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel were allowed to bring anything like that in.
There was one particular room, the attic where they used to keep the ill children who were not expected to recover that seemed very depressing and cold. But that's all I ever experienced while there. That's also where it's alleged that one of the paranormal teams that's been through has gotten the most readings.
So sad, Anne decided to sell it and now it's going to be turned into "luxury" residences.
Oh well, tis nothing forever I guess.
*sigh*
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