Seeing ghosts?

I started working on this post Saturday but the more research I did the more stuff I dug up... Pun intended. Most of my long-time readers know I listen to Coast To Coast AM overnights at work a lot mostly for entertainment, sometimes for material for the blog. I poke fun at a lot of it because it's well, ridiculous. Like they guy who is making the "Anti-Alien Abduction Helmets"... I shit you not. This guy believes that aliens are actively using mind-control on all of us, and he designed these goofy leather helmets for all of us to wear to keep Mr. Gray from getting into our minds. Do I believe in UFO's? Yes I do. You live in Arizona and you see some strange things in the night sky. I've seen them myself personally. But do I believe that they're using mind control to take over the world? Hardly.

Anyway...

There are some things they have on the show that I do firmly believe in. Ghosts, for one. I had a Polterghiest in my house growing up so I know they exist. Last week a friend of mine went on a "Spook Hunt" around Raleigh County here in West Virginia with her daughter and mom. What she would do is go to places after dark or at twilight where tragic accidents have occurred in the past and take photographs in the hopes that when the film was developed you might see some things that weren't there when you snapped the picture.

The photos above are a very good example of what I'm talking about. Go here for the full story on those:

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page1169.html

Another strange thing that I've actually heard is "EVP's" or "Electronic Voice Phenomena". It's sounds on audio tape not heard by those recording it. I've heard the examples and it's eerie. There's a group of folks up in New England that do it all the time, and to be honest, I think it's pretty neat.

Go here: http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/evp.html

They even went to a place I've been to a few times, Eastern State Penitentiary which is definitely haunted. Go here:

http://www.easternstate.org/

Anyway, the folks up in New England do it all the time. They have a TV show, and if you go here:

http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/ghosthuntershome.html

And scroll down to "Episode 105" you'll see a really creepy video of something in the old cell blocks of Eastern State.

West Virginia is loaded with ghost stories too, the Greenbrier Ghost is one of the more famous... Testimony from a dead woman's ghost actually helped convict her killer...

Go here: http://www.prairieghosts.com/shue.html

And West Virginia has it's own haunted prison, Moundsville, that my friend went to over Halloween weekend with a group from work.

Go here: http://www.wvpentours.com/main.htm

And here's a local (WV) area EVP investigative group: http://www.wvpri.com/beginning.htm

I just think this stuff is so damn fascinating and fun. My 'son' is going to be staying with me over the Christmas break from college and we plan on going to a lot of the places my friend told me about, an old railroad tunnel that a relative died tragically at several years ago, back to Thurmond, WV where I know I felt ghosts watching me as I worked along the tracks, and also a small graveyard that I found a few miles south of Thurmond hidden amongst trees. It's very overgrown and looks like it hasn't been touched in over forty years. The newest grave is marked 1961... It's really odd that I found it at all, I was working the ballast cleaner and we were shunted onto a siding where we were waiting for a northbound Amtrak to pass and I got off the machine to stretch my legs for a bit, and there it was. I just hope it's not to cold and doesn't snow so we can get to some of these places.

Sometimes I may joke and kid about this stuff, but I really do believe this stuff is real. To be completely honest, I think it would be fun to do this full-time. Just go around the country taking photographs and recordings at spooky places ans see what ghosts and spirits I might see or hear!

Copyright 2005 Thomas J Wolfenden