Hauntings are bull... right?

[VIII]

"I don't believe in ghosts."

Then I stayed at The Red Lion Inn in Avebury, England, in November of 1995. I know what I saw, during the day, THEN I heard the 'stories' from the manager.

Then there was the night at Louisiana Hall, in Tehuacanah, Texas... but thats where they filmed "Don't Look in the Basement." I looked in the basement, but thats not where I saw what I saw.

Then there was our Honeymoon at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio...

Spout laws and theorem and formulae, deny, point, quote, sneer, and gesticulate all you want, da da da.

I have no photos, no videos, no proof, no evidence, not one single measurement from a single scientific device, nothing but my testimony. I know what I've seen, I don't need your authorisation or your acceptance to believe in the evidence of my eyes.

BTW: My wife Loves those 'Haunting' shows, but I agree they are all boring, laughably, eye-rollingly, cringe-worthy god-awful messes.

[angusmacinnes]

Sounds fun.

[Merlin the Elder]

Well, I do happen to believe in the spirit world, and also have seen manifestations—we both have—in our house. We also have a couple of friends who have visited at different times, who both informed us that there was another presence in the house, without any prior knowledge. So, I do believe in ghosts.

[DonaCatalina]

I've seen three. Two at the Millermore in Dallas' Old City Park and one at the Perry Homestead in Carrollton.
At the Badu house in Llano, we heard disembodied footsteps in the middle of the night.
At Old Fort Clark in Bracketville, the temperature in our room in the officer's barracks dropped nearly 15 degrees in a matter of seconds when the window unit was unplugged.
I am really glad that I haven't heard disembodied voices, really glad.
My personal opinion is that Consciousness exists in more than one dimension. Once the physical body anchoring it in this dimension is gone, we don't understand enough about that level of physics to say why some leave bits of their consciousness behind and others don't.

[Morgan Dreadlocke]

Fire Station #2 at RAF Mildenhall was the base morgue in WW2. Never saw anything personally but had to peel several others off the walls.

[raevyncait]

Oh, I absolutely DO believe.
My younger brother died at 18, soon after we'd discovered my sister-in-law (older brother's wife) was pregnant with her first.  When they learned it was a boy, the debate about names included using little brother's name as the baby's middle name. Weird stuff started happening at their house... dust bunnies moving around when there was no air movement. The cats & dogs started avoiding certain areas of the house.  My s-i-l finally had enough and yelled at LB, telling him if he was going to be there, he WOULD be useful and to get in the antique cuckoo clock (which hadn't run in 15 years) and make it run, and within 2 hours, the clock started ticking.
That same brother used to visit Mom in the house she moved to about 5 years after he passed, often when she was sad or upset, she would get a whiff of his preferred cologne, even though there was none in the house.

A couple of years after Mom died, and 10 years after my grandmother died, I gifted my best friend in the world with my grandmother's bedroom furniture, as I had 2 other complete suites and didn't need a 3rd in the 2 bedroom apartment I was planning on moving to. After we'd loaded the furniture onto the trailer, her boyfriend was in the house alone (she and I were outside talking), when we heard him yell and come rushing out of the house, demanding to know which one of us had snuck up behind him while he was washing his hands in the bathroom.  We both laughed and told him that it was either Mom or Edie (grandmother), and that he'd best be careful with the furniture on the drive home...

[Rowan MacD]

   I have lived in one haunted house (mostly auditory weirdness), and it's not as creepy as you would think.  I was never scared, but trying to find out where those noises were coming from about drove me bats.
   

[Captain Teague]

Been to a few places and heard a few things. I welcome a full encounter.


I am torn on the spook hunter shows. Not sure if I am amused or disgusted. They are clearly hyped or else they would get boring immediately. Amuses me that they only do their hunt at night, lock up the building and turn off all the lights. Irony is, a lot of the places that get sightings happen during full day when a lot of people are around. Makes me feel as if the spirits are attracted to light sound and human presence.

I give myself a grin figuring the spirits are laughing themselves silly watching these fools wander around in the dark. And I also figure if they are strong enough to manifest, they are also cognitive thinking and I certainly would not ever come out and dance for any old fools pleasure.

I saw one ad for this new group which seemed to be trying to make the spirits extremely angry enough to show themselves, but I never have seen it again. Wondering if they called on something they didn't want....   There are more things than simple ghosts out there, sometimes best to leave it alone and not tick it off (my opinion only ).

[Rowan MacD]

Been to a few places and heard a few things. I welcome a full encounter.

I am torn on the spook hunter shows. Not sure if I am amused or disgusted. They are clearly hyped or else they would get boring immediately. Amuses me that they only do their hunt at night, lock up the building and turn off all the lights. Irony is, a lot of the places that get sightings happen during full day when a lot of people are around. Makes me feel as if the spirits are attracted to light sound and human presence.

Ditto on the first statement .

    Hubby and I watch the shows when we can (particularly the UK versions), just because we love to see these people scaring themselves half to death.
   No obvious ghosts so far, but the drama is hilarious, and oh so fake. 
  The following is recounted from memory on one of my favorite UK episodes-A woman purporting to be a medium or sensitive or something is 'scanning' the building for negative energy.  On nearly every show, she grabs her throat and collapses. A sure sign that she has sensed something from Beyond The Veil.
   Once assisted to her feet, she hangs limply in the grasp of her fellow paranormal investigators, obviously drained of all energy (also a common theme).
   "I feel he's killing me! I'm choking to death, I tell you! There was a child murdered here! By a priest, or someone she trusted!".
   Later in the episode the taciturn (and very Scottish) owner of the former Inn said that the building had been in his family for many generations....A murder there was news to him.   
     

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

My family's estates, outside of Inverness (Beaufort Castle) has it's fair share of things that go bump in the night.  Cold spots... stuff moved around... foot steps up & down a certain hallway... pipes playing late at night.  My family was so used to them that they never really took notice of them... other than to point them out to a certain 7 year old Yank kinsman. (They delighted in scaring the crap out of me)  Beaufort was built in the 1890's but it was built on top of the ruins of a half a dozen other castles... all the way back to William I and the first Norman Clans.  The place has a "feel" about it... they call it "lived in".   

[DonaCatalina]

I would say that 99% of the Ghost Hunter Shows are hyped. I am especially leery of anyone who brings a 'medium' along. Not that I don't believe in Extra senses; but the few, very few, people that I've met who demonstrate genuine ability all agree that its not a pleasant experience and they don't purposely seek out opportunities.

[Captain Teague]

I would say that 99% of the Ghost Hunter Shows are hyped. I am especially leery of anyone who brings a 'medium' along. Not that I don't believe in Extra senses; but the few, very few, people that I've met who demonstrate genuine ability all agree that its not a pleasant experience and they don't purposely seek out opportunities.

And a return total agreement 

[Ferret]

Not that I don't believe in Extra senses; but the few, very few, people that I've met who demonstrate genuine ability all agree that its not a pleasant experience and they don't purposely seek out opportunities.

That was my feeling.

I can't say I didn't believe. Or that I doubted others who had super natural experiences.

But when I ran into it on more than one occasion, I felt I could have easily lived without it happening.

Ferret

[Rowan MacD]

  The only public place that I have ever visited that has a verifiable 'cold spot' that never varies is the Whaley house in San Diego.
  If you can get out there, it's a neat sensation.
    No one has been able to explain it, the spot is right under an arch separating two rooms (can't  remember which ones) and only a few folks say they don't feel it.  Like ice.

[William the Braveheart]

Nice thread!

I've been a Paranormal Investigator since the early 80's back in New Orleans, a long time before all this silly staged and scripted TV "Ghost Hunting" foolishness popped up.

I was lucky enough to have met and studied with an authentic Native American Shaman-Psychic-Medium-Witch Doctor all mixed into one. 

I have some Infra-Red Night Vision video footage that I shot at LePetit Theatre in New Orleans of actual spirit/ghost manifestation that is really incredible. I've shown it to very few people. Nobody has been able to debunk it because it's all REAL.

[Stalkwell]

Then I stayed at The Red Lion Inn in Avebury, England, in November of 1995. I know what I saw

Oh yeah... a bit of spirits of another type involved there, my good king  I looked for Florrie myself in 'your' room, no dice.  Must've liked you... maybe she was enamored with your namesake's revenant and confused the two of you?  Regardless, we WERE able to photograph their infamous 'orbs' at will, and can instruct any who wish to do so

Shot orbs here...


Florrie's favorite window...


Besides that, we don't need to travel to see that which isn't there, we have a live-in 'pet' at home to watch.

Stalk well...

[DonaCatalina]

I have seen ball lightning and ground lightning; albeit only once. So I don't put much stock in orbs. Just the natural electricity caused by atmosphere could explain 99.99% of those.

[William the Braveheart]

I have seen ball lightning and ground lightning; albeit only once. So I don't put much stock in orbs. Just the natural electricity caused by atmosphere could explain 99.99% of those.

Most of the Orbs seen on Ghost Hunting sites are nothing more than dust particles that have been illuminated with flash.................

[scarletnyx]

Living in the backwoods of North Carolina, one hears their fair share of haunting stories. From entire tracts of forest being haunted, to one small shack on the outskirts of the town.

One of the most famous, and widespread ( at least in my part of NC - people don't seem to realize that different people settled in different parts of the state, so tempers/stories change with each region ) is that the house of Edward Teach is haunted to the gills. Loud stomping and shouting, the feeling of being watched/that the person is not supposed to be there, have all been reported from tour groups that walk through the house.

Our coastline to the east has seen reports of ghost ships sailing the deep blue waves that crash along our Emerald Coast. With a name of " The Graveyard of the Atlantic", its not hard to see where this reputation comes from. If my memory serves me, in an old book I have of North Carolina ghost stories, at one point a white dolphin was seen that was alleged to guide the ships through the ever-changing sandbars up and down the coast. Something about a dead sailor/dead wife of a sailor, I can't remember the exact details.

Our mountains have a good deal of murder stories associated with them. The dead bodies of people murdered will start to bleed and groan when touched by their killer; apple orchards will fruit apples as red as blood due to blood being split at their roots; the Brown Mountain Lights are ( depending on who you talk to ) either UFOs or "Spirits of the Mountains" spirits who watch over the mountains per Native American legend.

Around where I lived, we had a lot of smallish Civil War battles. With every day of the Civil War seeing at least some sort of skirmish there is sadly an abundance of bloodied ground. So you hear about ghostly soldiers walking their trails through the forest, cannon shots in the middle of cow fields during daylight hours, ect.

I definitely think that people are taking part in some sort of event. Whether it's spirits actively "haunting" a place, or some sort of geological event,or just a combination of old wives tales and rats rustling around in leaves to give a compounded illusion of something else, I really don't know. At this point, I think it's actually kinda moot. Anytime you experience something that gets your feet off the beaten path ( no matter if its of this world, of another world, or whatnot) is to be held in the highest esteem and extolled. Especially when many of these stories are so deeply woven into the history of a place, such as all the examples above.

These shows, who are solely out to gain fanbases and money, only serve to cheapen whatever this event is. I don't care if someone hears about a place, goes to said place, a possum rustles and they promptly freak out thinking it was something else. If that person's life was somehow enriched by it, they shouldn't strip that magic away with glaring TV lights and hungry monetary budgets. True, we should invest true scientific interest in hauntings, but these shows aren't even trying anymore. One night, with twenty jumpy people and glaring lights everywhere? No siree, I wouldn't show myself to those types.


.... Though I do have a tiny crush on Josh Gates from "Destination Truth".