Novel excerpts: Supernatural – Part 34

WHAT OTHERS SEE

I looked to be standing alone in my front yard when the young man approached me.

“Hey, what are you guy’s up to?” he questioned.

I must have looked startled because he started to laugh and said ” Yes I can see them. How great are they by the way?”

Quickly deciding not to lie I introduced us. “I’m Mace the one in the army fatigues is Jim, the old man is Ron, and the girl is my sister Maddy.”

If he was going to claim he could see the others than I wanted to see him prove it.

He turned slightly to my left “Jim, Ron, Maddy it’s mice to meet you. I’m Cole, and Maddy I hope you don’t think me to forward but may I just say what a lovely dress that is on you.”

My sister blushed to the roots of her very blond hair and said thank you.

Who knew spirits could blush? trying not to sound rude I asked “What brings you by here?” I have my doubts about anyone who wants to get to know me.

Now he looked awkward and haltingly said ” This is the first time I have run across some one who attracts spirits as much as I do.”

I took a second to contemplate his statement because I had yet to see another being with him. As if reading my mind he said ” Come on out guys she is alright.”

As the last word was out of his mouth three men and a small child appeared. I was not sure if these were ghosts or other apparitions because they were not as solid as my companions.

The oldest one had a ghastly beauty to him in that he was tall and lean with lush dark brown hair, and eyes the husky color of a timber wolf and projected a confidence that made him alive while still carry the air of no longer living on this plain. The other two men mirrored each other in every way right down to their dirty work boots. Both sort of average in color, height, and build if they had not been dead you could forget them in a moment. The child was different. She more ethereal than her companions had straight flowing hair the color of ripe harvest wheat and a night gown suited for a cold winter eve. She was so young the sadness she felt could be shared by all. I had no way of knowing how long these people had been spirits and did not think it the right time to ask.

I had been quiet to long so Cole broke the silence. “Aidan, the twins Mark and David, and their sister Anna. They have been with me as long as I can remember.”

Gathering his courage and putting on a smile he said. “Now that we have introduced ourselves we need your help.”

Novel excerpts: Supernatural – Part 22

(Fun with ghosts)

My home had been invaded by object’s moving, door’s slamming, light’s flickering, footsteps in the hall, ghosts.

We needed help and we needed it fast, I called everyone I could think of and finically went to the internet for help. I found someone to come and visit us, on their first visit they found proof that there was indeed a ghost in our home. So they wanted to hold a ghost hunt on Halloween, and wanted us to empty the inn, but Jack wouldn’t hear of it, after what happened that night, I wished we had listened to them.

Halloween started like any other rainy day, dark, and running late. It was spooky from the start; there was even a dense fog that morning that hung around long after the rain stopped.

We spent the day setting up Halloween decorations.

“Jack, please can’t we talk about what they said, I have this feeling that something’s going to happen, please Jack.” I pleaded.

“NO Cara-Ann, its just a scam, I don’t buy this ghost crap like you do, no its our best paying day at the inn and we are no turning them away for some ghost hunt.” Jack barked back at me.

“Jack we don’t need the money, I have” I started to say but was rudely cut off by Jack.

“That’s it Cara-Ann, your money, your farm, yours, what’s mine, huh, I work hard around here to earn MY way and you want to skip it and live off your money, no. Hell NO!”

“I don’t want to talk about this subject, its closed you understand, now if you’ll EXCUSE me I have work to do, not all of can be daddy’s little girl and live like a princess, la tee daa.” And he stormed off, leaving me standing with my mouth hanging open.

I had never heard Jack talk to anyone, not even his workers, the way he had just talked to me, I really was scared now, it was this house, I just knew it.

I called Carol the medium who had visited the farm to do the tests, I had saved a room for them, just in case I needed it, and I felt I did, so I invited them to come stay the night with us and help us make it thru Halloween night alive.

They set up the stuff around the farm without Jack seeing them until dinner when we all sat down together to eat. I had made turkey with all the fixings, James, Kelly and the girls came over too from there new house up the street, mother and Bob stayed home to go to bed early.

Boy was I glad they had, wish I had.

Before we could even get started on dinner the lights went out

What makes a great ghost story? – Part 22

What makes a great ghost story? First of all, you have to be able to write a story. Have a good plot. You have to be able to capture the reader and keep him.

Next, you need to make sure you have a ghost in your story. Without a ghost, you don’t really have a ghost story.

Now, tell your story. Make sure you have feeling in the story. Make sure that you give good descriptions. Best of all, make sure you have suspense in the story.

If you want to make the story even better, put in real life experiences. If you have experienced real life ghosts us them in your story. What could be scarier than the real thing. This could spook anyone if it was told right. Especially if the scene is set up right. You never know what might happen.

Example: Have you ever seen a ghost? Has something happened in your life that you can’t explain? Have you seen the unbelievable? Has anyone else ever heard or seen what you have? If not, then tell them about it. Make them believe. Make them want to stop ready because it can’t be true, but at the same time, they can’t stop reading because they want to know what will happen. That in of itself can be scary.

Finally the most important part of any story, put your pen to paper, or your fingers to a keyboard and start writing. If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to write the story.

Photographing ghosts – Part 4

To be or not to be, is a question

Are ghosts in existence or are they fallacy? This question will remain a subject of conflict between believers and non-believers. But, ghosts and fear of them will never be erased from human mind.

On the terrace of a five-storey building, there was heard loud stamping, animal like cries, moving shadows were seen by others from neighboring buildings terrace. This continued every night, making flats residents of that building passing sleepless and dreadful nights. The flats started getting vacated, residents of that building started leaving their flats and living in some alternate places, because “life is precious”.

This scenario was being closely watched by the Station House Officer (Police Department) of that locality. He called a meeting of his team and a discussion at length was held. One of his subordinates proposed that they should take the photographs of the moving bodies of that terrace through infra-red camera. If they got the snaps good, they were not ghosts and if there was no body in the pictures, then they might be spirits. The SHO liked this proposal and the same night the pictures were taken from the near terrace of another building. The pictures showed long- haired persons. A raid was planned next night, and all those “ghosts” were apprehended. The investigation revealed that it was the plan of the building owner to get the building vacated, which otherwise was not possible in law as the the help of his “ghosts”. residents of that building were promptly paying their rent. The owner was booked and locked up with

Ghosts and reincarnation: Making sense of the life/death cycle – Part 1

We as paranormal investigators have developed an idea that we like to present as fact. We believe that the human body contains a soul, a spirit or a ghost that is released at the time of the body’s death. This is somewhat well founded in religious beliefs but as we all know religious belief is based on faith not fact. The energy released at the time of death is called many things. A person can call it a ghost, a soul, a spirit or Uncle Fred. Whatever they choose to call it doesn’t change the fact that it is the portion of our physical body that makes us all unique. As stated previously religion is based on faith. Scientists like to believe that science is based on fact. By definition science is based on theory and theorems. Theory and theorems are based on observations, speculations, guesswork and assumptions all based on facts. Scientists have seen the cells that comprise our bodies’ replicate themselves by splitting. That is a fact of nature, so the scientist then assumes, guesses and speculates that that single cell split repeatedly until it flopped out of the water onto the ground, grew legs and started walking. Ladies and gentlemen I give you, the birth of man; as science sees it. I see lots of flaws in this way of thinking so obviously science is not perfect. Paranormal Investigators, particularly our team, has been fortunate enough to gather facts from our investigations. We have gathered pictures of full-bodied apparitions, not one but eight. We even have at least one unexplainable Orb but I have seen more than that. We have gathered electro magnetic phenomenon, electronic voice phenomenon and radical fluctuations in room temperature. By themselves they mean very little but put together and they give us enough fact to speculate, guess or assume that ghost do exist. By definition isn’t that good sound scientific research? If we are to base our ghost hunting existence on scientific laboratory experiments then we may as well give up because we are dealing with entities that scientists say do not exist. Ghosts do not perform on command and they do not schedule rendezvous with their human counterparts. Our factual findings are sporadic at best. They can’t be duplicated on command. Our labs are creepy old buildings that are not climatically controlled. It is not what the scientific community would respect as a lab but it is OUR lab. It is all we have and we have produced indisputable facts demonstrating GHOST DO EXIST. Ultimately, that is why we do what we do. To prove that ghosts do exist.

Reflections: What would you ask a ghost? – Part 2

Ghosts sometimes become members of households and family member describe the ghost traits much as they do family members. If only, we could ask the ghost questions. One family wanted to know the answers to many questions while not feeling threatened.

In the forties, a man built a home by combining three imported structures building and adding a new addition as filler. One of the buildings was a 19th century chicken coop. The family that lived in the home during the 70’s and 80’s felt the presence. The ghost never spoke, but one day the mother walked in and saw the ghost on the telephone. She appeared to be a young woman of the turn of the century and immediately disappeared.

Family members got use to hearing footsteps from one door and through to the living room. The process was so common neighbors who were welcome to freely walk in the door wondered why family members did not come to greet them until seen. The ghost made the same footstep sounds. Most welcomed guests started yelling hello to let the family know they were human. The cupboards in the kitchen would open and close . The ghost took ownership to the counter of the wet bar in the family room. Family members could work on projects on the counter, but not leave anything that might remain permanently. Crackpots, games, decoration, and many other items placed on the counter, sometimes in transit, immediately disappeared while party food could stay. Items remained missing even when the family moved 18 years after moving in.

One of family members had accepted a job in another town. Parents emptied her apartment for moving later. The mother called the young woman and told her she placed her plants on the family room counter so they could get southern sun. She said oh no the plants are gone. Mother said No No! She ended the conversation, but immediately called back to tell her that the plants were gone. Family moved out of town 4 years later. The young members of the family honored the ghost’s territory and the parents rarely stayed in the family room.

The questions the family wanted to know were

1. What building was her original home?

2. Why the counter since it was new?

3. Whom was she calling?

4. Where does she come from when she walks in the door? and

Of course, the main question, where are the missing items. The items never repppear even after the family moved and the home was refurbished by the next occupant.

Some ghosts just reside and if they are no more trouble then the other family members, the ghost just live with the living.

What is a ghost?

Ghosts are very popular subjects these days. About half the American people admit to believing in them, and there are ghost beliefs in nearly every culture in the world. People have told ghost stories and reported ghostly encounters for all of recorded history. Today, paranormal investigators are compiling film and audio evidence, and experimenting with changes in electromagnetic fields and temperature in allegedly haunted places to try to determine if there is objective evidence for the existence of something we might identify as a ghost.

But what, exactly, is a ghost? In folklore, a ghost is the manifestation of a dead person, and many people belief this is so. But here are some other popular theories of what a ghost may be:

1. A recapturing of some violent or deeply emotional event in the past. This is what is called a “residual” haunting, and appears to be the most common kind. The apparitions that are seen in these cases are always in the same place, doing the same thing, and show no awareness of their actual surroundings or of living beings who are present. These ghosts would have no personality or substance, but would be the psychic equivalent of holograms replaying one small bit of history. An example of this might be the well-known ghost of Alice, at the Hermitage near Myrtle Beach, SC.

2. A projection of our own thoughts. We use only a small part of our brains; some people theorize that certain circumstances combined with a certain frame of mind will trigger an extremely vivid vision that appears to be real in every way. Anyone who has ever experienced a hallucinogenic drug will concur that reality can often be a tricky thing. It is not explained how such a manifestation might be caught on film or tape, however.

3 Angels or demons. People of a particular religious background who laugh at the idea of ghosts may be much more willing to believe that something unknown is either supernaturally good or supernaturally evil. In most cases of haunting, there is little evidence of either extreme.

4. Creatures from outer space, though why they would take forms from throughout history or hang about in places that are often empty for most of the time (such as abandoned jails and hospitals) is hard to understand.

5. Glimpses into another dimension. String theory is responsible for the new popularity of this theory. In string theory, one conjecture is that there are many, many dimensions, and not just the ones we are familiar with. Some people theorize that there may be other beings inhabiting parallel dimensions, going about their lives in similar fashion to our own, and once in a while some circumstance will create a break between the dimensions, and we catch sight of one another. This would explain why apparitions who do appear to have intelligence and emotion sometimes seem so surprised to see us.

None of these theories, which do not include the possibility of intelligent interaction between the spirits of the dead and the living, explain why ghosts often seem to be emotionally involved with the place where they are or with people in the place. This is especially true in EVP work (electronic voice phenomena, where voices are captured on tape that could not have come from anyone present in the room.) In EVPs, it is not unknown for unseen entitites to actually address people by name or refer to items in the room or the building.

Of course, it is all just theoretical, and no one can say for sure what causes ghostly phenomena. However, it seems difficult to deny in the face of the evidence that,in a small number of cases, there is intelligence, and at least a shadow of recognition and emotion, attached to what we choose to call ghosts.

Supernatural activity: True or false?

Does the supernatural exist? If it did, how would you know? By virtue of it being “super” natural above nature your senses would be unable to detect it.

But let’s face it. “Supernatural” is an excuse for people to believe in things that no sane person would otherwise believe in. Ghosts are often touted as the greatest bit of evidence for the supernatural. As spun-up as people can get on this topic, why is that there isn’t a single, verifiable source of scientific evidence for their existence? I mean, it’s been a couple thousand years now. You’d think we’d have a tape recording of a conversation, or a video, or an image captured on a scientific instrument. What do we get instead? Globs of light on poorly developed film. Yawn.

So what is “supernatural”? Some people suggest that it can mean anything you like, or that it can mean “whatever is personal to you”. It is this post-modernist nonsense that has made it difficult for us mere mortals to have a regular conversation. In short, you get to make up the meaning of the word as you go along. At the end of it all, nothing has been figured out. Cold-blooded rationalists like myself have to sit at the kid’s table while people congratulate each other on having “metaphysical experiences”. Happily for me, the joke’s on them. Most of them probably don’t even know what “metaphysics” means.

I don’t mean to single out ghosts. The battle between science and superstition is littered with the bodies of stupid ideas, so I suppose I could’ve written this little blurb on anything. But ghosts just seem to perfectly capture the silliness of it all. I mean, why do ghosts wear clothes? Am I supposed to believe that, upon passing into the next world, the ghost retains his or her garments, which are similarly projected in the dark hallway/graveyard/foyer/baseme nt/attic they supposedly died in? Why can’t ghosts talk? Why won’t they stand still for a good picture?

If a word can mean anything at all, it means absolutely nothing. If “supernatural” is merely a catch-all for everything that is unexplained or just plain weird, we’ll have to relegate quantum mechanics and the orbit of Mercury to that same class. Now that we’ve got two scientific notions thusly categorized, school’s out. The beer sitting on my desk is just as supernatural. Which means the word “supernatural” is one huge waste of air. Or in this case, a waste of electrons.

Basic guide for ghost hunting – Part 1

Do I believe in Ghosts?, no but I believe

in God and spirits that are wonderful beings.

I don’t think ghost is the right word,

to use for them. I think they don’t want

to be referred to as a ghost. So I prefer,

to use the the name spirit for them.

However since this article is termed Ghost,

I will use the word Ghost. Ghosts don’t

harm anyone, unlike humans, that go around,

hurting other people, Ghosts are really nice

folks, don’t you think?. In the movies Ghosts,

can be funny, like in the movie Ghost Busters

I thought this movie was hilarious. Or Casper,

the friendly Ghost, I really enjoyed both the

cartoon series and the movie. Ghosts are wonderful,

to have around. If someone tells me they don’t

believe in Ghosts, I have to respect that.

Ghosts are here to stay weather we like it or,

not. I like like to see Ghost movies, if they are,

not based on horror, because I don’t believe a

Ghost can hurt anyone. Basically it’s what you,

believe in. If you believe a Ghost can harm you

then it can, it’s your mind thats into play here,

not a Ghost. It’s amazing what kind of movies

are being created about Ghosts. I liked the the,

Motion Picture GHOST, with Patrick Swayzie and

Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg, This was a great,

movie. Winner of 2 Academy Awards, this movie was

very dramatic and literally left me in tears. It was

so emotional. Whoopi was best Supporting Actress.

Whoopi kept me laughing from beginning to end.

Patrick Swayze played a great Ghost, a Ghost that,

felt the need to help the ones he left behind, those

in danger. A Ghost is a wonderful being that is here,

to help and guide us if we want to believe in them.

Not only in this time of Halloween approaching, but,

in anytime, any season Ghosts can be there for us if

we allow them to exist for us. Ghosts are a take it,

leave them situation. If we allow them to enter into

our minds, then they will take up residence and live,

with us and perhaps guiding us along the way.

Believing in ghosts – Part 19

When I was a young buck I was fascinated by ghost stories and indeed any sort of other-worldly phenomenon that could not easily be explained away by science or reason. I would collect books on ghosts and spend a good portion of the night eagerly flipping pages, knowing that I was trying to scare myself but never really becoming frightened because I could never bring myself to believe that these anecdotal memories of others were fact. I think it was the standard format of a traditional English ghost story that I was most enthralled with. You know, the wet grey stone manor house bestriding a gently sloping, windswept hill, alone on the ancient moors of Yorkshire. A house that had seen generations born and die, had seen violence and depravity, maybe a lovers quarrel that ended in murder – and then, you know, the aggrieved spirits restlessly wandering the halls and grounds, moaning for justice and inadvertantly freaking the bejesus out of the present tenants. There was something in that now all too familiar template that intrigued me when I was younger.

Of course ghost stories stretch farther back than Victorian England, for thousands of years writers have capitalized on the chilling effects that a ripping good ghost yarn has on the public imagination. The ancient Roman writer Plautus used a haunted house motif to build the plot of his imaginatively titled comedic play ‘The Ghost’ around 2,250 years ago. In the present day some of the most popular videos on youtube are ghost sightings on camera, most fake, some a little more intriguing.

I always say if the topic ever comes up that I do not believe in ghosts because I have never seen one. Like any discriminating person I tend to trust my own eyes more than those of others. That being said, I will not completely discount the stories of others if I have trusted them before, although I tend to approach such things skeptically. I have even slept many times in a purportedly haunted house and have never come across anything, even in the depths of a ‘cold and dark winter’s night’. Let me explain.

My mother’s family lived in an older red brick house on a quiet street in the picturesque village of Markdale in Southern Ontario. We would go there on vacation many times and when I was old enough to understand I heard snippets of conversation from my aunt and uncles about some strange happenings when they were younger, growing up. The reason I believed them was that they were and are very good people, never loud-mouthed

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