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DO LOVED ONES BID FAREWELL FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE?

 

(CNN) — Nina De Santo was about to close her New Jersey hair salon one winter’s night when she saw him standing outside the shop’s glass front door.

It was Michael. He was a soft-spoken customer who’d been going through a brutal patch in his life. His wife had divorced him after having an affair with his stepbrother, and he had lost custody of his boy and girl in the ensuing battle.

He was emotionally shattered, but De Santo had tried to help. She’d listened to his problems, given him pep talks, taken him out for drinks.

When De Santo opened the door that Saturday night, Michael was smiling.

“Nina, I can’t stay long,” he said, pausing in the doorway. “I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for everything.”

They chatted a bit more before Michael left and De Santo went home. On Sunday she received a strange call from a salon employee. Michael’s body had been found the previous morning — at least nine hours before she talked to him at her shop. He had committed suicide.

If Michael was dead, who, or what, did she talk to that night?

“It was very bizarre,” she said of the 2001 encounter. “I went through a period of disbelief. How can you tell someone that you saw this man, solid as ever, walk in and talk to you, but he’s dead?”

Today, De Santo has a name for what happened that night: “crisis apparition.” She stumbled onto the term while reading about paranormal activities after the incident. According to paranormal investigators, a crisis apparition is the spirit of a recently deceased person who visits someone they had a close emotional connection with, usually to say goodbye.

Reports of these eerie encounters are materializing in online discussion groups, books such as “Messages” — which features stories of people making contact with loved ones lost on September 11 — and local ghost hunting groups that have sprung up across the country amid a surge of interest in the paranormal.

Although such encounters are chilling, they can also be comforting, witnesses and paranormal investigators say. These encounters suggest the bond that exists between loved ones is not erased by death.

“We don’t know what to do with these stories. Some people say that they are proof that there’s life after death,” said Steve Volk, author of “Fringe-ology,” a book on paranormal experiences such as telepathy, psychics and house hauntings.

Scientific research on crisis apparitions is scant, but theories abound.

One theory: A person in crisis — someone who is critically ill or dying — telepathically transmits an image of themselves to someone they have a close relationship with, but they’re usually unaware they’re sending a message.

Others suggest crisis apparitions are guardian angels sent to comfort the grieving. Another theory says it’s all a trick of the brain — that people in mourning unconsciously produce apparitions to console themselves after losing a loved one.

A telepathic link between loved ones

Whatever the source for these apparitions, they often leave people shaken.

Nor are apparitions limited to visions. The spirit of a dead person can communicate with a loved one through something as subtle as the sudden whiff of a favorite perfume, Volk says.

“Sometimes you just sense the presence of someone close to you, and it seemingly comes out of nowhere,” Volk said. “And afterward, you find out that person was in some kind of crisis at the time of the vision.”

Many people who don’t even believe in ghosts still experience a mini-version of a crisis-apparition encounter, paranormal investigators say.

Did you ever hear a story of a mother who somehow knows before anyone told her that something awful has happened to her child? Have you ever met a set of twins who seem to be able to read each other’s minds?

People who are extremely close develop a virtual telepathic link that exists in, and beyond, this world, said Jeff Belanger, a journalist who collected ghost stories for his book, “Our Haunted Lives: True Life Ghost Encounters.”

“People have these experiences all the time,” Belanger said. “There’s an interconnectedness between people. Do you know how you’re close to someone, and you just know they’re sick or something is wrong?”

An eerie phone call at night

Simma Lieberman said she’s experienced that ominous feeling and has never forgotten it — though it took place more than 40 years ago.

Today, Lieberman is a workplace diversity consultant based in Albany, California. In the late 1960s though, she was a young woman in love.

Her boyfriend, Johnny, was a mellow hippie “who loved everybody,” a guy so nice that friends called him a pushover, she said. She loved Johnny, and they purchased an apartment together and decided to marry.

Then one night, while Lieberman was at her mother’s home in the Bronx, the phone rang and she answered. Johnny was on the line, sounding rushed and far away. Static crackled.

“I just want you to know that I love you, and I’ll never be mean to anybody again,” he said.

There was more static, and then the line went dead. Lieberman was left with just a dial tone.

She tried to call him back to no avail. When she awoke the next morning, an unsettled feeling came over her. She said it’s hard to put into words, but she could no longer feel Johnny’s presence.

Then she found out why.

“Several hours later, I got a call from his mother that he had been murdered the night before,” she said.

Johnny was shot in the head as he sat in a car that night. Lieberman thinks Johnny somehow contacted her after his death — a crisis apparition reaching out not through a vision or a whiff of perfume, but across telephone lines.

She’s sorted through the alternatives over the years. Could he have called before or during his murder? Lieberman doesn’t think so.

This was the era before cell phones. She said the murderer wasn’t likely to let him use a pay phone, and he couldn’t have called after he was shot because he died instantly.

Only years later, when she read an article about other static-filled calls people claimed to have received from beyond the grave, did it make sense, she said.

Johnny was calling to say goodbye.

“The whole thing was so bizarre,” she said. “I could never understand it.”

 

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/23/living/crisis-apparitions/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2

 

 

 

 

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Join THE SHADOW HOUR for Voice of the Unknown, the Movie

The Shadow Hour

The Shadow Hour

10:00 PM CST, Wednesday, 9/7/2011: It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.

As the interest in paranormal investigation works its way through the media pathway, isn’t it time that we had “Ghost Hunter, the Motion Picture?” Your host might not line up for that one, but he is interested in seeing the outcome of guest, Will Scoville’s film “Voice of the Unknown, A Paranormal Investigation.” Will has been working in films and television for years, but you don’t have to believe us— check out his IMDB page.

When Will encountered friends and family who were involved with paranormal investigation, he saw the opportunity to tell an interesting story. We talked a while back with Robbie Prince about this project from the view of the investigative team. Now we’ll hear about it from the view of the film makers.

As always, you can listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget! You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in tonight.  (Wednesday, September 7, 2011) at 10pm Central for the live broadcast.  Be sure to check out the show notes, too.  See you in the shadows…

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Tonight on THE SHADOW HOUR: Share your stories on the air

The Shadow Hour

 

The Shadow Hour

10:00 PM CST, Wednesday, 8/10/2011: It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.

This week Chris and Mark will open the lines for your stories about the weird.  Have you had a strange encounter?  Gone on your first ghost hunt?   Had dreams that have been coming true?  We want to hear from you.  Everything is on the table.

As always, you can listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget! You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in tonight (Wednesday, August 10th) at 10pm Central for the live broadcast. See you in the shadows…

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REAL PICTURE OF A GRIM REAPER?!?!

Now THIS is intense!

Ozarksfirst.com writes:

(Springfield, MO) — The Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team has explored some of the areas most haunted homes.

Their skeptical team members always take hundreds of pictures in the dark.

But their most recent trip brought back a shocking image that is making believers out of the biggest of skeptics.

“The first thing I want to do is disprove it.” says Robert McCall, skeptic and co-founder of the Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team.*

Robert spends a lot of time disproving apparent haunting in the region.   “A lot of times people think there is a presence in the room and it turns out the room is where the breaker box is.  Or your meters on the outside of the wall and there is a lot of energy there.  Sometimes people think they are hearing things and it turns out they are just hearing things.”

But something that happened during his latest ghost hunt left Robert with no explanation.  A family in north Springfield contacted the group because of some odd things that were happening.

“All the lights were shut off and the doors were locked,” says Robert.  ” I came around to lock up the front door and as soon as I turned the corner I heard a growling disturbance on my EVP and seen something darker then dark move around in the hallway so I just started taking pictures of a completely dark hallway with nobody there.”

There was no one in the hallway but something else showed up on camera.
“When I first seen the picture, I saw a reaper,” says McCall.  “Typical of what you would think.”  Now it almost looks like a mother and child.”

 

Read more at ozarksfirst.com

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Tonight on THE SHADOW HOUR: Talk with paranormal investigators Ripcrew

The Shadow Hour

The Shadow Hour

 

10:00 PM CST, TONIGHT: It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.

Tonight we’ll be talking to Robbie Prince, from the paranormal investigation group, Ripcrew.  We’ll talk about their origins, methods and stories.  We’ll also talk about the work some members have been doing with a filmmaker to create a dramatic recreation of their work.  It will be a live, call-in show, so get your questions ready!

As always, you can listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget! You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in tonight (Wednesday, August 3rd) at 10pm Central for the live broadcast. See you in the shadows…

 

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“AMITYVILLE HORROR” HOUSE UP FOR SALE

For a cool 1.35 million you can live in a super creepy and haunted house! How fun!

Dailymail.co.uk writes:

It is a piece of American cinema history known to horror buffs across the globe.

And now the haunted house from 1978’s ‘The Amityville Horror’ movie is up for sale.

The 10-room colonial-style structure at 18 Brooks road in Toms River was built in the 1920s and is listed for $1.35 million.

For the movie, a superstructure was built around the outside to make it look like the home in Amityville, New York, whose owners claimed was possessed by evil spirits.

 

Read more at dailymail.co.uk

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Ouija or Nonnein?

Old sketch of Doc Ravencraft[Ouija appears to be a combination of the French “oui” and German “ja,” which both mean “yes.”  The French “non” and German “nein” both mean “no.”  You probably already knew that.]

Recently I picked up something nice… well, nice for me anyway.  It’s a 50-year-old talking board, or Ouija® board.  (It’s pronounced “wee-jah” by the way, not “wee-jee.”  Look at the word!)  It’s a William Fuld board, made in the 1960s, before the rights went to Parker Brothers.  It did not come with a planchette (that little triangle thing that they use today).  It’s intended to be used with a overturned glass.  I had my eye on a proper board from around 1920, but I got distracted during the critical final moments on eBay.  Alas!  (Yes, I use eBay.  I’m a mystic, not a Luddite.)

 

Doc Ravencraft's Fuld Ouija board from the 1960s
Doc's new, old Ouija board

There is a lot of fear for people around talking boards, especially the Ouija brand.  (Frankly, I find it difficult to put too much fear into the object itself.  After all, it is now largely plastic, glows in the dark and made in the same factory with Mr. Potato Head!)  If some of the stories people tell are true, Toys R Us would be the most terrifying place in the world.  Perhaps it is!) In truth, people have explored ways of communicating with spirits before you could buy a talking board in a box.  It all really got going in the mid 1800s with spirit knocks and table-tipping and all those wonderfully creative ideas that people have come up with to get around the fact that the spirit world hasn’t caught on to email.

From my own experience, working with a talking board is no more dangerous than using a pendulum or any other method where I wish to interact directly with a spirit.  There is nothing about the Ouija board that makes it especially evil (except, perhaps, that it is plastic and glowy and sold in a toy store).  There is nothing that makes it especially effective (except, perhaps, that people’s belief in the stories allow them to open up enough to let something happen).  You could accomplish the same results with an overturned glass and a circle of Scrabble® tiles.  It’s not the tool, but how you use it.

Let’s talk mechanics here for a moment.  When you use a pendulum, or a talking board — or just about anything that you use to communicate with the spirits by having it move as you hold it — you are dealing with ideo motor responses.  This means that your brain is subconsciously sending signals to your muscles to make something happen.  Because you are not consciously doing this, it feels like it happens with an outside force, all by itself, but you are making it happen.  “Gasp!” I hear some of you say.  “He’s saying it’s all fake.”  No!  I am not!  I am saying that there are natural means involved and that it’s not being pushed by “magic fingers.”  You won’t get anywhere if you wait for the universe to do things without you.

You must understand that you are involved with moving these things in order to appreciate how they can become dangerous.  If you want to sit down with one of these things and make it spell out whatever you wish, then you can do that.  (It can be fun to get some squeally teeny-boppers and just completely punk them with what the board says.  They’re not taking it seriously anyway, so why should I?) However, if you are doing it properly, you are letting go of the answers that you want it to say and letting your subconscious drive things.  In other word, you are letting go of the outcome and allowing something else to drive it.  Now, that may simply be thoughts hidden in your brain that are only available to your subconscious, like the last place you really saw that key.  There are those who believe, though, that our subconscious mind is the one that can connect with outside influences, including spirits.  In other words, you might open the communication line and become a channel for these things to talk to you.  Can you see a potential problem with that?

If you believe that all this is crap, then you’re probably find no matter what.  You’re mind will be closed enough that it’s pretty unlikely anything will get through.  (See!  Finally an advantage to being asleep!) However, if you are legitimately experimenting with these ideas and opening yourself to the possibilities, then there are some things you need to do:

  1. Take responsibility for what you are doing. You are exploring in what may be dangerous territory.  You need to be smart and you need to be attentive.  If you come into contact with bad things you will have to be willing to get you and your fellow participants to safety.  If that idea gives you serious doubts then leave it alone.  If you make a mess, you will need to have the guts and wisdom to see that there is a problem and clean it up.
  2. Ground, clean and clear. If you were going to meet with strangers, would you go to a rat-infested hole that was unfamiliar to you or would you try to go somewhere comfortable and safe?  I guess if you’re buying crack you go wherever it is, but most of us would want to meet someplace that was at least neutral.  So, take some time to make the place spiritually comfortable before you start inviting people in.  I don’t think that there is a particular practice that is superior.  It all depends on your own spirituality.  (If you don’t have any, then this probably isn’t a good idea.  If you just want the thrills, rent a movie instead.) Do what is done before you take on a serious ritual or sacrament.  It may be smudging the site and casting a circle.  It may be joining together and saying a prayer.  If you don’t know, then you should probably work with someone who has more experience in this area before you try to do anything on your own.  From what I have encountered, most of the bad things that happen with things like talking boards happen because people skip this step.  They don’t bring any sort of protective force and place themselves at the mercy of anything that they encounter.
  3. Don’t be an idiot. If something feels wrong to you, stop it.  If you encounter something that feels dangerous, move away from it.  There are old, dark things out there that are looking for opportunities to mess you up.  You will not outsmart them like Captain Kirk giving something a logic puzzle.  Forget the movies and the TV shows.  Pay attention to your instincts.  It would be better for you to lose out on a conversation than to allow something nasty to work through you or your friends.  If something seems like it’s hiding something or the “vibe” you get is inconsistent with the words, let it go.  If someone says that they are uncomfortable or describes something that they are picking up, don’t act as though it can’t be real if it didn’t happen to you.  Don’t bully people into keeping contact with something that may not be nice to them.  I know I’m being a little dramatic here, but you get these things for a reason.  Don’t ignore them and cause unnecessary trouble for yourself.
  4. Set some guidelines for what you are trying to do. Don’t just say “Hey!  Is anyone there?”  That’s like posting something on the Internet that says “Everyone come to my house!  Here’s the address.”  Make some decisions about who you want to contact and why.  Start there and let them introduce you to other entities.  Remember that bad things (or merely mischievous things) will lie to you.  Don’t assume it’s Elvis just because he says so.  Take some time.  Be polite.  An excellent place to start is to try to contact a spirit guide that is already connected to one of the participants.  You may have one and not even know it.  The point is that you want to connect with something that has your interests at heart.  Starting there will save you a lot of trouble down the road.
  5. Take notes. Keep some kind of record of who you contact and what they tell you.  It gives you something to help verify anyone that you contact.  It also helps you watch for inconsistencies, which can be a sign of something that’s messing with you.
  6. Clean up when you’re finished. Just like after a big party you may need to wander through the place and make sure that everyone has actually gone home, you need to close things out after a session like this.  Thank everyone who talked to you and ask them to depart until you invite them again.  Do a closing prayer, or open the circle or whatever makes sense for your path.  Just don’t leave things hanging.

There’s no way that this little list of ideas could cover all the possibilities when working with these tools.  Hopefully, though, I’ve got you thinking.  If you have questions, ask them.  In the mean time, I’m going to see which of these glasses seems to like my Fuld board.

Doc

 

 

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GHOSTLY GUEST CRASHES WEDDING PARTY PHOTO

Something isn't quite right with this picture. What's that floating above the soundboard? (Courtesy Karen Hanlon)

 

People at a wedding reception at the Newman Wine Vaults in St. John’s believe they caught an image of an uninvited and otherworldly guest.

Newlyweds Matt White and Danielle Hann said one of their friends was shocked by the digital image she took at the June 18 event.

“Karen [Hanlon] was staring at this camera and she came running out with the camera saying, ‘Look what I just took! Look what I just took! There’s somebody in the picture,” said White.

On the right-hand side of the photograph, some see a figure that seems to be wearing a white top and floating in the air.

“Somehow it’s not as creepy in the daylight,” said White.

But it still makes Hann uneasy.

“I don’t know, it’s still creepy,” she said.

St. John’s folklorist Dale Jarvis said it might be explained away as a reflection or a light flare, but he added that the Newman Wine Vaults does have a haunting history.

“It is one of those places that continually generates new ghost stories. So, this is part of that tradition for the space,” said Jarvis, who has collected many St. John’s ghost stories.

Jarvis is the organizer of the city’s “haunted hike” – a tour of the downtown area that recounts many of the stories he has been told.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage website said the history of the wine vault is unclear.

It’s believed to have been built in the early 19th century, and was used by the English mercantile firm Newman and Company to age port wine from Portugal in St. John’s – a tradition that began in the late 17th century and continued until the late 19th century.

 

Read more:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2011/06/21/nl-ghost-621.html

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HAUNTED ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ MANSION FOR SALE

 

Season 10’s “American Idol” house is not some Victorian-era mansion or even an abandoned mid-century modern from the 1960s, yet the contestants on Fox’s hit show claim that the place is indeed haunted.

Built in 2008 the home now abandoned by the singers, has hit the Beverly Glen real estate market with a listing price of $12,000,000.

First reported by celebrity site TMZ, reports of paranormal activity began with “bizarre flickering lights” followed by an infestation of spiders. A few of the reality show stars told OK! Magazine that they saw “a hand falling down from the ceiling.” (They also admit to watching a horror movie at the time.)

But apparently the last straw was when several of the cast-mates “claim they watched a bed sheet suddenly take on a life of its own and float down an empty hallway.”

That and the roof leaked a little bit during a torrential Los Angeles rain storm.

 

Read more:  http://entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/05/07/haunted-american-idol-mansion-for-sale-for-12m/

 

 

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Tonight on THE SHADOW HOUR: Sandy Bates Emmons from the haunted Freestone County Historical Museum

The Shadow Hour

The Shadow Hour

Posted by Chris Walden

10:00 PM CST, TONIGHT:  It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.

Sandy Bates Emmons works with the Freestone county Historical Museum in Texas.  In her time with the museum she has encountered a number of haunted events related to the buildings and the artifacts.  She’ll tell us more about her experiences and what she believes they mean.

As always, the lines will be open and we encourage you to call in with your questions. The call in number for tonight’s show is (347) 826-9662 or call toll-free at (877) 867-0829.

Listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget in the sidebar. You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in every Wednesday at 10pm Central for the live broadcast. See you in the shadows…