Paranormal Montana

Meme: Weird Sounds In the Earth and Sky Around the World

2012-01-20T07:59:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks I have been noticing a new meme/phenomena being commented on, weird sounds being reported from all around the world. This post is an ongoing collection of comments/vids, along with my own observations and thoughts at the end.

(DL) "...someone else suggested that it might be tectonic plate movement noises due to the release of pressure in the arctic due to the melting ice sheets... interesting..."

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(JH) "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8566281/Tiny-village-is-latest-victim-of-the-The-hum.html
Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum' - Telegraph
www.telegraph.co.uk
It is a mysterious sound on the very edge of perception that has driven thousands of people around the world to distraction."

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(DL) "There's loads more here: http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/what-are-they-mysterious-unexplained-noises-now-being-reported-across-the-globe/"

What are they? Mysterious unexplained noises now being reported across the globe
Posted on January 17, 2012
January 17, 2012 – World – A series of unexplained noises are being reported across the globe and the frequency of these events appear to be increasing. The sounds range in description from “bizarre and creepy” to “industrial and mechanical.” The sounds appear to be omni-directional and seem to have no single traced source of origin or horizontal source of degree graduation- leaving one with the impression they are coming from directly overhead or directly underneath the earth. The videos below are reports of the unexplained acoustic phenomenon. Are these sounds omens of an impending disaster, or the deep-churching in the Earth an indication the lithosphere is becoming unsettled, mistpouffers, or something else? You decide. – The Extinction Protocol

"Mistpouffers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mistpouffers are unexplained reports that sound like a cannon or a sonic boom. They have been heard in many waterfront communities around the world such as the banks of the river Ganges in India, the East Coast and inland Finger Lakes of the United States, as well as areas of the North Sea, Japan and Italy; and sometimes away from water. Names (according to area) are:
Bangladesh: Barisal Guns
Italy: "brontidi" or "marinas"
Japan: "uminari"
Netherlands and Belgium: "mistpoeffers"
Philippines: "retumbos"
United States: "Guns of the Seneca" around Seneca Lake & Cayuga Lake, Seneca guns in the Southeast US, and "Moodus noises" in lower Connecticut valley.
elsewhere: "fog guns"
They have been reported from: on an Adriatic island in 1824; Western Australia & Victoria in Australia; Belgium; frequently on calm summer days in the Bay of Fundy, Canada; Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland; Scotland; Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick & Cedar Keys, Florida & Franklinville, New York in 1896 & in northern Georgia in the United States....Their sound has been described as being like distant but inordinately loud thunder while no clouds are in the sky large enough to generate lightning. Those familiar with the sound of cannon fire say the sound is nearly identical. The booms occasionally cause shock waves that rattle plates. Early white settlers in North America were told by the native Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) that the booms were the sound of the Great Spirit continuing his work of shaping the earth. [emphasis mine] ...One explanation for why they are usually heard near water is that inland communities are often too noisy to hear these booms. Their origin has not been positively identified. They have been explained as:
Meteors entering the atmosphere.
Gas:
Gas escaping from vents in the Earth's surface.
With lakes, natural gas from decaying vegetation trapped beneath the lake bottoms suddenly bursting forth. This is plausible, since Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake are two large and deep lakes.
Explosive release of less volatile gases generated as limestone decays in underwater caves.
Military aircraft (though it cannot explain occurrences of the phenomenon which predate supersonic flight).
In some cases, they have been associated with earthquakes.
In the US state of North Carolina, that they are the sound of pieces of the continental shelf falling off into the Atlantic abyss[citation needed]
A recent explanation is that the noise is very distant thunder which has been focussed anomalously as it travelled through the upper atmosphere: see link #1 below, including for cases of anomalous transmission of sounds of man-made explosions.
Underwater caves collapsing, and the air rapidly rising to the surface.
Some people claim that it might be produced by extraterrestrial activity.[citation needed]
Firearms being discharged. " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistpouffers)

An interesting list of unexplained sounds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unexplained_sounds
An interesting list of unexplained booms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unexplained_booms

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(JH) "Mysterious Universe cover the sounds in their latest episode: http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/01/episode-702-mysterious-universe/ ...Episode 702 – Mysterious Universe (mysteriousuniverse.org) ...Reports of bizarre sky sounds and roars dominate the headlines this week with videos and audio recordings coming in from all over the world. We also"

(LF) "Very weird. Nothing like that here in Montana [yet]. Maybe these are all edited tomfoolery, I haven't heard anything like it, but it's a very interesting meme in that case."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JArPkrS4LYQ

Colorado, USA: "Unexplained noise recorded in Colorado by two hikers in August, 2011 some time before the 5.3 magnitude earthquake struck the state." They sound like drums in the earth to me. (0:37)

Windsor, Ontario: "Mysterious noise and rumbling reported in Windsor, On – compiled August 2011 by The Windsor Star" (4:39)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUCJVwMCV7U

Mexico: "This incident was recorded in Mexico January 12-14, 2012 and is unexplained" (2:45)

Costa Rica: "This incident was reported of a unusual noise heard throughout Costa Rica on January 9, 2012" (2:45)

Cumbria, England:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnPS-_qFHwI&feature=share

Kiev, Ukraine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcUDYBIrWio

South France:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LUxFlRmCy0

Isle of Wight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4_nRNOUPzs

Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSZ3YQ41sUc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRlXNZ7Mtu0

Kota Samarahan, Malaysia: "This incident occurred on January 11, 2012 in Malaysia. The sound is heard for three hours and the noise appears every three seconds from 3 am until dawn. The second incident occurred on the morning of January 12, 2012, the sound is heard for three hours and the noise that appears every three seconds from 3 am until dawn. This audio is successfully captured by one of the people of Kota Samarahan in Malaysia." (0:30) A comment says it is also heard in Samarahan, Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Another comment: "i went to kota samarahan to verify this strange occurance or rather sound a few days ago. Amongst the people i interviewed were old times...middle aged men, and most confirmed having heard the sound , something like some dude snoring...but the sound was real loud....this is real ......not a hoax....."

Worldwide: Various sounds heard worldwide (14:59)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_4Lg7cd5fI

The uploader of the Cumbria sounds, YonOtto, uploaded this video where he says he debunks the Manitoba sound as a ripoff of the Kiev sounds...which are in return a ripoff of a sound from a video game. YonOtto maintains his Cumbria sounds are genuine. He is quite frustrated and uses lots of expletives in his frustration. (5:08)

More sources:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/booms.php

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Anyways, this is what I have synthesized:

I. PHYSICAL SOURCES

1. Weird unexplained noises in the earth and sky have been going on since at least the 1700s, and probably even before, as indigenous people have traditions about them, such as the Iroquois

2. Some of these noises likely are associated with geophysical-tectonic activity, such as earthquakes.

3. Others are atmospheric distortions of distant thunder, air exchanges from caverns and mines, etc.

4. Some might be associated with anthropogenic activity such as subterranean drilling and construction (as for road or rail tunnels, military construction, etc.) or the HAARP technology (an issue that would warrant its own post!)

II. CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

5. These various phenomena, whatever or whichever they may be, are lumped together as one phenomenon-meme by people with umbrella theories of apocalyptic scenarios (Mayan prophecies of 2012, government conspiracies and HAARP, etc.) because this is part of human culture, "the end of the world" (see John Michael Greer's book 'Apocalypse Not' for an exploration of this cultural meme, since at least Biblical times)

6. The final layer of this meme is exploited by the Internet, both by conspiracy-prophecy folks, and more mischievously by folks who use sound-editing software, videos and videogames, actual videos of real mystery sounds, to mix and create their own mystery sound videos for their own locale to "join in the fun" and be practical jokers to fool people for amusement.

Certainly there are BOTH vids of real sounds and certainly there are hoax vids being passed around the Internet. The hoaxsters just confuse the situation. The average person watches a few of these curiously or skeptically, then either becomes a "believer" or a "cynic" according to their own disposition/experience (though I would say a cynic is a believer who got burned too often and too badly!)

The end of the world meme is fundamental to our cultural mythology and so it will return again and again in one form or another. When the world doesn't end in December of 2012, there will soon be another proposed date further down the road. And those hoaxsters are just another daimonic face of the Trickster, who will also always be with us.

The earth is indeed going through physical changes...

but it always has. Such changes are considered either as gradualism or catastrophism...history shows us it is some of both. Sometimes these changes are gradual and even imperceptible in the human lifespan (erosion, climate change, landform change, etc.), but occasionally there are great events or catastrophes (tsunamis, meteor strikes, volcanic eruptions) that affect a region or more rarely even the world. As horrible as this can be (the ends of the Permian and the Cretaceous were quite horrible) this too is part of natural existence.

The weird noise meme along with the catastrophic extinction events, are all summed up in that quote by the native Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) "that the booms were the sound of the Great Spirit continuing his work of shaping the earth." As the Cheyenne say, Creation is ongoing.

Helena Haunted with Ghosts

2011-12-24T23:57:00.001-07:00

Do you have a personal ghost experience at a school/college?

2011-11-03T18:53:00.003-06:00

Forwarded message:

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"The same producers that brought you Celebrity Ghost Stories is producing a new show on SyFy called "School Spirits." Here is the casting call that I am hoping you will be able post, pass along or announce to help me spread the word.

Robert Mazza Casting, Jarrett Creative Group and the Syfy cable TV network are seeking high school and college age students as well as alumni who have come face to face with paranormal activity on their school campuses. If you have witnessed a first hand experience with ghosts, hauntings or other unexplained phenomena in your classrooms... In your dorm... In locker rooms or on athletic fields... We may want to tell your story and recreate it on television. We are interested in hearing stories from students current and past as well as from any parents or faculty.

Submit a brief explanation of your story to: ssherh@aol.com"

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This is a forwarded message only and interested parties should directly contact the email address given above. I will not serve as an intermediary of any kind.

Science in Paranormal Investigations

2011-10-31T06:42:00.002-06:00

Thanks for the feedback you guys...

I guess I am not so much saying tech vs/or intuitive work, as far as the process of gathering data/impressions, but what is your take on how an investigation is approached, that is, the OVERALL field methodology... background research, interview process, debunking/alternative explanations, etc.

Do groups use scientific methodology, or not (not that one needs to)... do people have a clear idea on what scientific methodology is? Or is it a matter of going to a place, and using tech or intuition, "seeing what you find"? (which isn't really science).

I am not trying to promote either approach, either a real scientific investigation, or just a more informal, get some tech and see what happens, I am just trying to see what people do. I think people often confuse simply using electronic technology by definition as scientific, which it is not. Science isn't the tools, it is the method.

There are two basic situations I have noticed. Either:

1. investigators hear of an area that has reports of hauntings, so they go there looking to see what happens (either with intuitives, tech of various types, or a combo) (also includes very casual looks and "legendtripping")

2. a team is approached by a client that either:
2a. wants proof of what is going on with their property (such as a hotel or restaurant/bar, which is ultimately curious and looking to increase patronage)
2b. wants help with things going on in their house/family (generally a private home resident/property owner who wants confidentiality)

Do you vary your approach based on the different situations above? What field methodology do you use?

I personally think science has its place, especially if there is material/empirical evidence, as well as debunking/alternative explanations, whether it is misinterpretation of noises, light reflections, etc., or outright hoaxes.

But science has more limited value when dealing with upset clients, and such investigations become more about counseling the client as to ways to handle such experience, either by calming them and assertion that such things may be eerie but are generally not harmful, ro by helping them find a way to calm or clear the haunting (or suggest a move, or family counseling, etc.)

Thoughts?

Lance Foster

Witchcraft from a Witch's Point of View

2011-10-29T10:23:00.001-06:00

For Halloween: The story of witchcraft...from a witch's point of view.
http://tracksinthewitchwood.blogspot.com/2009/08/weikerie-true-story-of-witchcraft-then.html

Thoughts on Investigations and Hauntings

2011-10-27T22:05:00.002-06:00

I think Helena is one of the most haunted places in Montana, on the level of Butte, Little Bighorn, Bannack, and Virginia City. Some of it may have to do with the geology.

Keeping a distinction between whether a human being is haunted or a place is haunted can be tough.

You know what I do sometimes? I sometimes remember that a human being is a kind of "place" as well. We are loci, 3D forms, but living and moving. Houses can be haunted, mountains and lakes can be haunted, a piece of furniture can be haunted, ...and a person can be haunted (and I don't mean "just in the head" although that is also a consideration).

I am getting further and further from being enchanted with technology in paranormal investigations. Tech can supplement, confirm, etc. but one's investigations should not be directed by technology, what one has or one does not have. It is possible to do good solid investigations -without a single piece of equipment or advanced technology. And it is possible to do lousy investigations even if you have all the high tech stuff one could wish for.

It is the mind, the hand, the investigative process that are the important elements, not the tech.

Wolf Creek

2011-10-16T13:19:00.000-06:00

"I lived in Wolf Creek in the early 80's. I lived in the old ranch house of the now defunct LY ranch. I was in the bedroom and saw an apparition walk by the door. There was a wall there and a laundry chute. Across was the bathroom door. This 'thing' just walked through the wall. It really didn't look like a real person, just a whitish filmy ghost. I said something to my ex and he was not too happy about it. So, I called my mother-in-law, Shirley and asked her about it. She said, 'Oh, you saw it too.' It didn't feel threatening at all. It was just there. Above the ranch there were three graves. They were the original owners of that ranch area and a daughter. Possibly it was the old ranch owner. The one thing that I was extremely curious about was what appeared to be an old grave a few miles from the house. It had an indentation about 5-6 feet long and three feet wide. This was a strong Indian area at one time. What was it? Who was it? Don't know. Would have liked to find out. Maybe that was the ghost." (Submitted by Cherri)

(Source: http://www.ghostsofamerica.com/5/Montana_Wolf_Creek_ghost_sightings.html)

A Few Reports from Helena, including the Old Mountain View School

2011-10-15T19:52:00.000-06:00

A few reports from Helena (edited):

"Everyone was always saying there were ghosts in the house that we lived in on 12th Ave., but I said to myself, 'Oh they're crazy old drunks.' But then I left for a month and when I came back home I went upstairs to the attic and sat on the top stair, and as I stared down, a woman in a long white gown about in her 30s appeared. It scared the he** out of me and from that day on I've been a believer. Several other things happened after that, such as shadows on the walls, a sink turned off and on by itself, and even the washer started on its own." (Submitted by Jolene)

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"While attending the Montana Law Enforcement Academy for 12 weeks, there were many paranormal things that took place. Between classes many of the students would discuss these events. After the first week of class had passed all the students missed their families and wanted to travel home for the weekend. One of the students remained behind as he stated that his wife was not going to be home and he would just stay in his dorm room over the weekend. When we returned Sunday night this student told us that he could hear what sounded like children running up and down the hallway outside his room. He said he could hear them laughing and could hear them running by his room. He stated that he would get up from his bed and open the door to look. He thought perhaps one of us had returned early or had decided not to return home for the weekend and was playing a joke on him. This was not the case as no one had remained at the Academy over the weekend.

Another incident that happened to me directly is as follows. I was in the shower room alone. I had stepped out of the shower and was drying off. I heard the handle on one of the sinks squeak and the water turned on. I remember thinking to myself, 'Wow the stories are true.' I walked over and turned off the sink. I also said out loud, 'Knock it off, I don't have time to play your games.'

Another incident that took place was late one night, before an exam, another student and I were down in the common area studying. It got late so I told him we had better turn in for the night. He explained that he wanted to go over the questions one more time and that he would turn in then. I went to bed. With in 5 minutes he came running up to my room. He was visibly upset. He said that after I had went upstairs that something had sat down in the very chair that I had just been sitting in. I remember the chair was made of wicker and made a lot of noise whenever anyone sat in it. He said that he seen it move and it made noise as if someone had sat down in it.

I have heard many other stories similar to the ones I have just explained. I know of a few other incidents that have happened around Helena. It is my opinion that paranormal activity is very high in Helena." (Submitted by G.T.)

The Montana Law Enforcement Academy is housed in the campus of the old Mountain View School, about 20 acres with nine occupied structures, including offices, classrooms, conference rooms, dormitory rooms, cafeteria, and a maintenance shop. Most of the occupied buildings were built in the 1920s, with the most recently built in 1967. The dorms are Spruce (b. 1920; 24 rooms), Maple (b. 1922; 27 rooms), Aspen (b. 1926; 14 rooms); and Cottonwood (b. 1960; 28 rooms) (source: Montana Law Enforcement Academy Long Range Building Program, pp. 118-119, from http://data.opi.mt.gov/legbills/2007/Minutes/House/Exhibits/jlh26a05.pdf)

The old Mountain View School was built as a correctional facility for girls (reform school). "The Mountain View School, formerly designated as the Vocational School for Girls. was established at its present site, seven miles north of Helena, in 1919 after operating from 1893 as a part of the Boys' and Girls' Industrial School, Miles City." (p. 217, Prisoner Participation in Prison Power, by J.E. Baker. The Scarecrow Press, 1985)

Prisons and homes for troubled youth often have paranormal phenomena associated with them.

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"While laying down in my grandmother's old house on 19 S. Davis in Helena, I felt a really bad presence. I then got up and drank a glass of water and returned to the living room. After this I was lying down and was still awake. I felt the feeling but even stronger. Then I saw some light energy of different colors form into a man's spirit. It jumped on me, hit me through the chest, and I said 'I am not putting up with this anymore.' I had tried to scream for my father and could not get it all out. After shaking off this spirit, I got up ate a banana and went to sleep. People that lived there after me claimed to have had a puppy that would bark all night, and one night about 3 a.m.
a male voice in their bedroom yelled ''SHUT UP,'' like it was right there in the room with her and her husband. I was 19 at the time of my experience and am 34 now. I never believed before that but I definitely do now." (Submitted by Diana)

This is part of the oldest section of Helena, on the corner of Davis and Hillsdale, and not far from the site of the hanging tree, just a half a block away on Blake and Highland (http://www.helenahistory.org/hanging_tree.htm). There were unmarked graves of the tree's victims in this neighborhood.

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"When I was young, my parents took a job as caretakers of a large, elegant estate in Helena. It's a beautiful home, with carriage house, servant's quarters, beautiful rooms in the house and all the furniture to go with it. The owners of the estate were seldom home, they just wanted us to take good care of the house. It was built in the early days of Helena. We are not from Montana, so I didn't know much of the local history. My parents had told me that Montana and Helena have a very colorful history. Part of the yard, or ''garden,'' is walled in, as a courtyard. My younger brother and sister and I could go anywhere we wanted, as long as we were respectful and did not harm anything.
We were in the home for several years. Us kids saw dark, shadowy figures around the house regularly. We called them ghosts. These ghosts did not seem to bother us, and we weren't scared of them. We didn't want to get to close to them, or have them get to close to us, but we saw them in all portions of the estate. At times, we could smell pipe smoke in the parlor and reading room of the house, and a couple times my mother's candles were lit when no one was around. The courtyard was a very regular place to see these ghosts. They never really bothered us, and left us alone when we slept, but it seemed like they wanted to keep an eye on us." (Submitted by Jimmy)

There are several large mansions on Helena's West Side that this report might describe. I am not familiar enough with any of them to know which have walled courtyards.

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(Source: Ghosts of America; http://www.ghostsofamerica.com/5/Montana_Helena_ghost_sightings.html)

The Halloween Tree (1993)

2011-10-15T10:19:00.001-06:00

Based on the original by Ray Bradbury, one of my favorite authors when I was a kid. I never saw this cartoon before this year, but it is a good one, and helps you learn about the origins of Halloween.

part 1: The beginning and our introduction to Moundshroud

part 2: The part with Ancient Egypt and Mummies

part 3: The part with Stonehenge, Druids and Witches

part 4: The part with Notre Dame and the Gargoyles; and Dia de los Muertos

part 5: The end and how they save their friend

Cats

2011-10-15T10:09:00.002-06:00

Halloween is Coming!

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-06:00

"The Little Orphan Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley

Little Orphan Annie’s come to my house to stay.
To wash the cups and saucers up and brush the crumbs away.
To shoo the chickens from the porch and dust the hearth and sweep,
and make the fire and bake the bread to earn her board and keep.
While all us other children, when the supper things is done,
we sit around the kitchen fire and has the mostest fun,
a listening to the witch tales that Annie tells about
and the goblins will get ya if ya don’t watch out!

Once there was a little boy who wouldn’t say his prayers,
and when he went to bed at night away up stairs,
his mammy heard him holler and his daddy heard him bawl,
and when they turned the covers down,
he wasn’t there at all!
They searched for him in the attic room
and cubby hole and press
and even up the chimney flu and every wheres, I guess,
but all they ever found of him was just his pants and round-abouts
and the goblins will get ya if ya don’t watch out!!

Once there was a little girl who always laughed and grinned
and made fun of everyone, of all her blood and kin,
and once when there was company and the old folks was there,
she mocked them and she shocked them and said, she didn’t care.
And just as she turned on her heels and to go and run and hide,
there was two great big black things a standing by her side.
They snatched her through the ceiling fore she knew what shes about,
and the goblins will get ya if ya don’t watch out!!

When the night is dark and scary,
and the moon is full and creatures are a flying and the wind goes Whoooooooooo,
you better mind your parents and your teachers fond and dear,
and cherish them that loves ya, and dry the orphans tears
and help the poor and needy ones that cluster all about,
or the goblins will get ya if ya don’t watch out!!!

Thoughts on Magic

2011-09-26T05:29:00.001-06:00

Magic is a lot of things tossed into one category called "magic", and is defined in many ways and comes out of many roots. To me it is strange that both the Abramelin Operation and spitting three times to avert the Evil Eye is lumped together simply as "magic", when they are as alike as engineering a power plant and building a snare to catch birds.

The same with "dabbling." Certainly dabbling in Goetic evocation (whether one believes the demonic is part of internal or external reality, or concurrent reality) should not be considered in the same category of risk as divining who one is going to marry by throwing apple peels on the floor at New Year's to see what letters are formed.

There is a difference in learning and training for running events in varsity track and field to break world records in the Olympics, versus running cross country in the mountains while escaping enemies or hunting like the Tarahumara. Both are running, both need excellent physical conditioning, and just because one is an excellent runner doesn't mean one is adept at both.

Draja Mickaharic says in "Practice of Magic" (p. vii-viii): "...Magic must have a real physical result to be worthy of the name. ...It is currently popular to define magic as the art of changing consciousness at will. This is not my definition of magic. [But] being able to change consciousness at will is a prerequisite to any real practice of magic. The student of magic must gain control of the mind the magician gains the ability to change the -perception- [emphasis mine] of earthly reality at will. ...Being a magician is [only] a stage in the process of developing spiritually. It is not the height of development. In fact, it is only a step in the first part of the range of real human development."

Different people have different natural gifts, different "knacks." Some people are natural runners, all can improve their running through rigorous training. But it is also true that some people never get off the couch in front of the TV ;-)

Vampires vs. Zombies

2011-09-20T12:17:00.001-06:00

Glenafooka - Glen of the Ghost

2011-09-15T18:33:00.002-06:00

"Glenafooka: Glen of the Ghost" is an excellent and subtle documentary about the faerie, ghost, and magic folklore of Ireland.
Watch more free documentaries

Famous Haunted Dolls

2011-05-28T16:40:00.000-06:00

Science and the Paranormal

2011-05-09T16:08:00.003-06:00

People confuse the use of technology with doing science. This is often the case on "ghosthunter" type shows. The use of infrared, EVPs, etc. may be useful in collecting evidence of one's experiences, but the use of technology is NOT science in itself.

Science is a process, a methodology. Technology, no matter how good, is simply a tool. It may be used in scientific inquiry, it may be created or improved through science. But technology is not science.

Science requires the construction of falsifiable hypotheses, preferably multiple working hypotheses. Nothing can be proved in science, only disproved. This is why the only thing that really approaches real science in most paranormal research is debunking.

I have not yet seen any paranormal groups in my own experience do real science. Sure, a lot of investment in technology, but not real scientific methodology using that technology (repeatable, falsifiable hypotheses).

Science is the best tool for empirical and material existence. It is not meant for the immaterial. I think in paranormal research, science is excellent for debunking, however it will never be able to prove the existence of life after death, unless that life after death is empirical and material.

I respect people's personal abilities in sensing such things. Spiritual people in all times, places and cultures have experiences that cannot be explained, yet can see deeper into the nature of existence. Science isn't always/necessarily the final word on ALL "truth" but it is the most useful tool in understanding the material world. As spirits may not be material, science may have limited applicability.

That being said, if it is a genuine investigation, and the desire is to approach it scientifically, then the scientific method should be used. However, if you are just trying to "see what turns up" or have an experience, then I don't pretend to be scientific :-)

I think that "proof" is in the eyes of the seeker. Some are satisfied with things, while others may not be. I agree, it is ultimately in the hands of the Creator.

I would like to see more open discussion about the place and value of science in investigations. As it is, there are often two "camps": those investigators who use technology and believe that use of technology is by definition a scientific approach, and dogmatic materialists who ridicule all things paranormal. I don't find either approach very useful, just IMHO.

I do think approaches might be best fitted depending on the objectives of the case. Is it a case of looking for evidence at a haunted location and that's all that is aimed for? Or is there a request to "make it stop"? Or are people just fishing, looking for new locations to check out?

Eastern Montana UFO Memories

2011-03-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

UFO sightings in eastern Montana... memories by a resident that were sent in the other day (okayed to post, but I won't post their email here).

"When I was pretty little (probably 5 or 6) my parents and siblings were driving home from visiting friends late at night (probably 1130 or midnight). From Carlyle, Montana to south of Plevna which is a good drive ( 55 miles). My dad always liked to point out things he saw as we drove even in the dark ( usually the northern lights). For years my dad and mom talked about seeing a "giant grasshopper" in the sky that night. I always thought in my mind that they were talking about a flying locust or something but that's not what they said they saw. It was a light formation high in the western sky moving across the heavens. My dad said it must have been 40 or 50 miles away but he couldn't tell really. He said it must have been huge though for how high it was in the sky and visible so far away. He said it was shaped like a giant grasshopper and that the "legs" of the light formation moved and "scooted" across the sky until it disappeared.

The other incident I clearly remember was on a February night in 1976 or 77 sometime. I was like 11 or 12. We were on our way home from a basketball game in Baker to Plevna (a 13 mile drive). It was a very clear and very cold night. I remember the moon showing brightly behind us in the eastern sky as we drove west. We were busy listening to the radio and talking when I looked off to the south from highway 12 near the Butte pipeline station and there was a bright light as bright as the moon behind us shaped like the moon (which I thought was really wierd). I watched it for a few minutes when it suddenly flipped over on its' side and then it became cigar shaped or like a flat edge of a coin. I kept trying to get everyone's attention in the car and finally succeeded and we just watched it. It was about a mile away maybe perhaps more but it seemed to be going the same rate of speed as the car at least it appeared to do so. We drove another 5 or 6 miles when we approached the crest of the hill to descend into the valley home when it like lightening shot down out of sight into the valley. It gives me the chills to remember it. As we came into town we could see "it" bright in a field about a mile or so away outside of town. It would go on and off (the light). I mean it would light up and then go dark and suddenly different colored lights would come on and go round and round it reminded me of a top that kids used to play with. we watched this thing for 20 minutes maybe and then it went dark and my dad drove us home and said he was going to see if he could get a closer look. I never asked him until a few years ago what he saw. He told me he got half way out there and wondered what the hell he was doing driving in the dark to see who knows what and turned around."

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

You better watch out,
You better not cry,
Better not pout,
I'm telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town.

He's making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out
Who's naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

He sees you when you're sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!

Oh, you better watch out!
You better not cry.
Better not pout,
I'm telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Santa Claus is coming to town!

"The Life That I Have"

2010-12-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

A famous poem used for the liberation of earth-bound spirits, that helps them move on; to be read out loud after asking the spirit if it is ready to move on:

"The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.

For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours."

(Leo Marks, 1921-2001)

See http://oeith.co.uk/2010/05/24/the-liberation-of-vithal/

Palimpsests: Holidays and Ghosts

2010-12-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

I know most of our Christian holidays have pagan roots and symbolism. Each holiday is a palimpsest:

Word for the Day: palimpsest (plural, palimpsests)

1. A manuscript or document that has been erased or scraped clean, for reuse of the paper, parchment, vellum, or other medium on which it was written. Many historical texts have been recovered using ultraviolet light and other technologies to read the erased writing.
2. (archaic) Monumental brasses that have been reused by engraving of the blank back side.
3. (astronomy) Circular features believed to be lunar craters that have been obliterated by later volcanic activity.
4. (geology) Geological features thought to be related to features or effects below the surface.
5. (computing) Memory that has been erased and re-written.
6. Something bearing the traces of an earlier, erased form.
(Wiktionary.org)

One thing I found interesting is that Halloween finds its real roots in pagan Celtic worldview, while Christmas finds its real roots in the Germanic (including Dutch, Saxon, Norse) pagan worldview. Halloween is the time of the dead for Celts, while Yuletide is the time of the dead for Germanics. Thus, the English (Anglo-Saxon) ghost story is told at Christmas not at Halloween, such as Dickens' "Christmas Carol."

See more about Christmas ghosts and pagan roots:
http://paranormalmontana.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas

Come to think of it, ghosts and haunted places are also palimpsests :-)

Ahem, My Idea for a New Ghost Hunting Show

2010-11-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

So on one of the paranormal message boards, the question was asked, if we could develop a new show, what would the new show be like?

Ahem, ahem, cough. My idea for a show. That is the idea for a show that is mine. Ahem.

I said, "Each week I would go with a different team located in a different part of the U.S. (and if the budget is there, internationally too). Not the same team in different locations, but LOCAL teams. Like a docudrama following and getting to know a different team each week and going with them to one of their best cases for a follow-up investigation. You would get to see the difference in how people go about doing things, meet different folks, see different parts of the country. One week it might be a team made up of a family in Ohio, mom dad and teens and a case at an elderly couple's home. The next week it might be a group of college students in New Mexico who investigate an archaeological site. The third week it might be a psychic and her sisters at a museum in South Carolina. That sort of thing.

I have a couple other ideas, but that's the one I'd start with."

Someone warned us to not spill ideas or someone would steal them.

I said, "of course they will, if the ideas are any good. that's why they ask these kinds of questions. it's a cutthroat biz LOL...maybe they'll slip me some greenbacks if they use my idea, but i am not holding my breath LMAO!"

Then someone brought up that since I said paranormal stuff, including ghosts, are not dependable when it comes to showing up, how would I sell my show?

I said, "The way to get around that is focus as much on the everyday folks who get into, and enjoy, yes, even OBSESS, over investigations. then every show is a winner. Like Hoarders or Intervention. The HUMANITY of this eternal question-- is there really something after we die?"

That's the Gorilla in the Room-- the main focus for these shows, books and websites is ostensibly on ghosts and life after death-- but the real human interest story is often the people who are driven to spending time and money and developing relationships based on this hobby that often becomes an obsession. Whether you believe in ghosts and the paranormal or not, you must admit, this is a fascinating development in our culture.

At least, that's my theory. The theory that is mine. Ahem. Along with the television show idea. Which is also mine.

"Ghost Train" by Hank Snow

2010-10-25T08:05:00.003-06:00

Virginia City and Bannack Halloween Ghost Events 2010

2010-10-18T23:02:00.000-06:00

Information from the Internet. Be sure and call the phone numbers listed for the most current information.

VIRGINIA CITY
OCT 30, 2010
Living History Weekend: All Hallows Eve
4:30pm-9pm
Activities include face painting, trick-or-treating, gypsy fortune telling, childrens games & much more!
After dark activities, if you dare...Terror Walks begin at dark. Ghost walks 5:30pm-7:30pm
COSTUMES WELCOME!
Admission prices :
Ages 12 to Adult $8
Ages 5-11 $6
Children 4 and under FREE
Groups welcome...please call for details
For more info, please call (406) 843-5247

BANNACK STATE PARK
The Bannack Ghost Walks
Friday and Saturday night the week before Halloween in October [Oct. 29-30]. The Bannack Ghost Walks are live reenactments of significant events throughout the history of Bannack. These spooky reenactments are sure to entertain you.
Beware of things that go bump in the night at Bannack! The ghosts come alive for two shows nightly at the end of October, the first at 7:00pm and the second at 9:00pm. Performances presented by the Bannack Association are based on historical events that occurred at Bannack.
The Bannack Ghost Walks are live reenactments of significant events throughout the history of Bannack. These spooky reenactments are sure to entertain you. Meet the ghosts of Henry Plummer, Joe Pizanthus, Cyrus Skinner, Doctor Glick, Mattie Silks and many more rouges from Bannack's colorful past.
Each show is limited to 100 people, so reservations are required. Dress warm, bring a flashlight and prepare to meet the ghosts of Bannack.
The admission is $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for children 12 years old and under. Walk it if you dare! Not recommended for children under 6 years old.
Volunteers are needed to carry lanterns, tend fires, direct traffic, park cars, etc. on Friday & Saturday, 7:00pm & 9:00pm.
Call (406) 834-3413 for more information, to make reservations, or to volunteer for the Ghost Walks.

Jonathan Coulton "Re: Your Brains" ASL Song

2010-10-18T10:15:00.000-06:00

The hot song for this Halloween!- I love it! And be sure and click the closed captioning option, as the words are interpreted a little differently in ASL, and it is cool to see how that works, not knowing much ASL myself.

Misc. Haunting and Ghost Info

2010-10-17T21:31:00.002-06:00

I've come across some interesting info here and there-

People are at one extreme or the other when it comes to cemeteries. While it is popular to consider cemeteries as haunted, some believe there is nothing in the way of hauntings there, unless it is related to the land itself.

Apparently, when people die, within 48 hours, the "Light" opens for a while, for them to cross over. If they refuse to cross or miss the opportunity for some reason, then they are stuck on this side until such time as it opens again, for someone else who has died, sometimes at funeral homes, or for mediums/psychopomps with that gift (in concert with spirits on the other side).

I have come across some other info that says it is rare for spirits to last longer than about 50 years after their deaths on this side. Their astral/etheric shells begin to deteriorate soon after death, and unless they find another source of energy ( as from the living or a particularly energetic "power spot" -watercourses, mineral deposits, etc.- ) they eventually lose their "shell" and fade away.

The real old "ghosts" in stories, such as Roman soldiers in Britain or Native Americans at Little Bighorn or the Crazy Mountains, either found an energetic source in the land itself (water, minerals), or they are residuals or time slips associated with the geography of a place. Or some sort of dark magic or spiritual practice is involved.

Interesting stuff. It's fun to be an anthropologist and have an excuse to learn about such things. Or people's beliefs about such things anyways.

Last Chance Tour Train Ghost Tours in Helena by Ellen Baumler

2010-10-15T11:39:00.000-06:00

Information on the ghost tours on the Last Chance Tour Train in Helena for this month, October 2010, led by author Ellen Baumler, author of "Spirit Tailings" and other books on Montana's ghost stories:

Haunted Helena Tour, Last Chance Tour Train: "Now taking reservations October 18, 20, 27, 28, 30. The tour departs at 7pm. The fare is $20/person. Reservations are required. Reserve early as these fill up quickly. The Tour Train departs from the Montana Historical Society which is just east of the Capitol Building at the corner of 6th and Roberts, Helena, MT. For more info: Last Chance Tours PO Box 6338 Helena, Montana 59604-6338. Phone: 406-442-1023 Toll free: 888-423-1023 Fax: 406-442-1003"

I've been a paying customer on the Helena tour with Ellen a couple of years back and these are some of the locations I remember the train drove by and Ellen had stories about (with stops at Reeder's Alley and at the Benton Ave. Cemetery):

Capitol Building neighborhood
The neighborhood of the former hanging tree
Myrna Loy Theater
Old Pioneer Graveyard area/Cathedral
Montana Club/tunnels (see also http://helenair.com/lifestyles/article_87be2f8b-a155-5f55-8382-24403bd3aef5.html)
Grandstreet Theater
Downtown Helena/Windbag Saloon
Reeder's Alley (stop and walk)
Tower Hill/Old Hospital neighborhood
Carroll College
Benton Ave. Cemetery (stop and walk)

It's definitely worth it, and lasts about 2 hours if I recall.

Ghost Tours in Billings and Butte with Karen Stevens

2010-10-15T11:20:00.001-06:00

A couple of announcements from Karen Stevens, author of "Haunted Montana" and "More Haunted Montana":

"The 12th annual Wild & Wicked Ghost Tours of downtown Billings begin tonight! One tour tonight at 7 p.m, and 3 tours tomorrow (Saturday) at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. All tours begin at the haunted historic Dude Rancher Lodge. Call Renee Christiansen of Fun Adventures Tours, 406-861-8181 for reservations. These much-anticipated tours always sell out, so don't miss your chance!

On Sunday, Oct. 24, at 2 p.m. I'll be in Butte, Mt. at the Old Butte Historic Adventures building, 117 N. Main, for a book signing. Ghost tours of this very haunted building will be led by the owner, Deb Pierce. She and her employees have had many chilling encounters with the spirits who still linger in the attic and the basement. Everyone welcome!"

Short Film: "The Signal Man," by Charles Dickens

2010-10-14T23:09:00.000-06:00

An apparition keeps appearing to a lonely railroad signalman just before terrible accidents of different kinds. But the signalman cannot figure out what he is supposed to do, in order to avert the tragedies. The underworld is very close in this unpleasant, dark ravine and tunnel cut into a hill by the railroad. The actual location is the Birchen Coppice Cutting and Tunnel Mouth, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England.

1

2

3

4

Short Film: "Number 13," by M.R. James

2010-10-14T22:57:00.000-06:00

A historian uncovers the unsavory past of the Church in a rural area, a bishop involved in witchcraft in the 1600s, and a room that is there, then not there. Things get a bit personal.

1

2

3

4

5

Short Film: "Whistle and I'll Come to You," by M.R. James

2010-10-13T17:58:00.000-06:00

One of the best adaptations of perhaps the most famous ghost story by M.R. James. Pride goeth before a fall. Don't get cocky with ghosts, and leave lonely old graves alone. Certainly don't take engraved whistles you find sticking out of them. And never ever use those whistles.

part 1

part 2

part 3

Short Film: "A Warning to the Curious," by M.R. James

2010-10-13T17:53:00.000-06:00

A classic ghost story by M.R. James includes lost legends, crowns of Saxon kings, protective spirits, and amateur archaeologists too curious for their own good. Leave that burial mound alone you fool! It's protecting your country!

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

Short Film: "Lost Hearts" by M. R. James

2010-10-13T12:39:00.000-06:00

Based on a classic ghost story by M. R. James, "Lost Hearts" is set in England, and explores the evil men do to innocents in their search for immortality. Ceremonial magic, ghosts, and Halloween. I will never look at a hurdy gurdy the same way again!

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

How do you mark October?

2010-10-12T10:10:00.002-06:00

How do you mark October? Do you? I do lots of stuff! This is one of my favorite times of the year!

My Mom was born on Halloween so we usually celebrate her birthday with a cake etc.

Now that I have little nephews and nieces, I go to my sister's house to enjoy watching them have a blast trick-or-treating. Nothing like Halloween through little kids' eyes!

I do paranormal investigation too sometimes and this is a big month for ghost walks and other events. I used to do one too in town, but no more (paranoid property owners, unfriendly local bureaucracy, etc.)

I am reading two of Ray Bradbury's books I loved as a kid. Right now it's "The October Country." Next is "Halloween Tree."

Anything weird and scary I am into this month: watching movies, telling ghost stories, etc. Currently watching some lesser known ghost movies, such as M.R. James' "Lost Hearts" (on YouTube).

On a magical note, might some graveyard work, offerings of whiskey in the graveyard. I don't have relatives buried in this town, but there is a Civil War vet who helped me out with my hoodoo work, and so I want to give him a drink at his grave.

I might try a red meal or silent supper for ancestors this year too. The local store has lots of pomegranates and apples. Making some pumpkin soup. Have had all kinds of squash stews the last couple of weeks.

Might go deer hunting with my brother. My father got his moose last week. Eating lots of wild meat.

I love October!

Old Montana Prison 2010

2010-10-08T09:10:00.001-06:00

I was part of an investigation at the old Montana State Prison (http://www.pcmaf.org/prison.htm) in Deer Lodge in October 2008. This was the video from that investigation, two years ago.

Since then, several new teams have formed in Montana, and some old ones have faded away, or joined with the new ones. In 2008, I returned to being a solo researcher, focusing as an anthropologist on nature spirits/land-related hauntings/folklore, and Native American traditions. I no longer do the Helena Ghost Walks, as of the summer of 2009.

This weekend's investigation is made up of several teams from across the state, including the Montana Paranormal Research Society (http://www.mtprs.org/ and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Montana-Paranormal-Research-Society/114838841792)

I will be part of the Prison investigation at the invitation of Karen Stevens and MPRS. They are holding an event at the Prison tomorrow, at 3 pm, where Karen will also be signing copies of her new book, "More Haunted Montana," which was just published. More on her new book later...a couple of my own personal experiences here in Montana made it into the book! (Karen's site is http://www.hauntedmontana.com/)

While most of the teams will be operating on the ghost hunting paradigm using a spectrum of electronic surveillance equipment/techniques made popular by such shows as "Ghost Hunters" (T.A.P.S.) and others (video cameras, EVPs, etc.), I'm going to be trying something a little different this time, more focused on the land itself. More on that later too.

October Happenings

2010-10-05T06:42:00.002-06:00

Big joint investigation of the old Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge this weekend for several Montana groups! October is the hot month for paranormal stuff.

If you have anything going on here in Montana, let us know about it! Ghost walks, investigations, legend tripping, whatever!

Haunted Railroads in Montana

2010-09-01T21:56:00.000-06:00

A paranormal investigator asked me today if I knew anything about haunted railroads or trains in Montana. I told her to be careful. There was just an accident where a ghost hunter was recently struck and
killed by a train:
http://www.nbcmontana.com/irresistible/24795050/detail.html

There was one story of a ghost train in Montana that I've come across. "Ghostly
Transport" is about a phantom train seen in 1893 in the Bitterroot Valley. In
Beyond Spirit Tailings: Montana's Mysteries, Ghosts, and Haunted Places, by
Ellen Baumler.

I did have one personal story to share though.

When I was a young guy in the early 1980s, I was walking along the tracks near the viaduct in
Helena by the landfill late one night. As I was crunching along, the ballast
underfoot, I seemed to hear an echo. A couple of times I stopped short very fast
to hear a few steps continue fifty or so yards behind me, which then also
stopped. I would turn around but no one was there.

As I got closer to the viaduct, under the bridge, it seemed to get closer so I
turned around real fast. About 20 yards behind me (remember this was at night)
there was a man in a coat I couldn't see very well, but he stopped too. I stood
for a moment to see what he would do. Some of the transients would jump you for
money etc. He just stood there. I said "Hey." And he just stood there.

So I figured he didn't want to encounter me anymore than I did him, so figuring
he wasn't a danger, I turned and started up the trail by the tracks that led up
to the road, and then took a quick look behind me to make sure he wasn't up to
no good. But he was gone. And there was no place he could have gone to, just the
railroad tracks and no bushes or anything.

I knew that path well, as I traveled it hundreds of times over the years,
sometimes a couple of times a day on my way to or from Carroll College. There
was no place he could have gone. I wondered at the time if I might have seen a
ghost. Maybe of some hobo that died under the bridge or got hit by a train many
years ago. It was a creepy place. Still is.

Angry Land: Haunted Powerplants, Reservoirs, and More

2010-08-30T08:14:00.002-06:00

Our modern world is dependent on continual resource development and building things, making reservoirs, roads, power plants and more. Like some haunted houses that become haunted because they were built on land that was already haunted, these places that are part of our infrastructure always have problems. The Denver Airport is one such place, as is the Red Hill (and many others) in Hawaii. There are certain highways and roads that run through troubled areas that have more than their share of accidents. So much attention is focused on haunted houses and legend tripping these days, that these troubled areas, bad campgrounds, etc. don't seem to get as much attention.

Sometimes these lands become "alfreka," land barren of the Powers originally at the site. But sometimes, such Powers are too strong to be driven off, and just get very, very unhappy. Angry land.

I was reading up on Somerset (England) folklore and came across the story of a reservoir that was always having trouble in its construction, and the water always murky, and this was attributed by local people to the fact there had been a murder and the victim had been buried in the location.

"Water that runs where blood be spilled

Do never run clear though a lake be filled."

And here is a bit more from an article in 1963:

"As in the case of the Clatworthy Lake, I received many hints of

disaster in the years preceding the Station's erection, but decided

to remain quiet and listen, until in 1963 I have heard such beliefs

openly voiced in several localities. The elderly, and not so elderly,

find a ghoulish pleasure in recounting the accidents and dangers

attendant on its building. One or two grim watchers have tallied

up deaths and near-deaths at one a year since the beginning of the

desecration. Of these they say, 'Ah! They won't stop till there's

seven.' Are these victims to placate the River Severn or the vengeful

pixy-people? An answer to modern boasting about the triumphs

of science is: 'You and I won't be here come a hundred years time.

But They'll have 'en! Hundred years be nothing to They. They

can bide.'

The same belief in ancient places resenting the rush and racket

of modernity is quite widely held among hill-people. The unparallelled

winter of 1962/3 was attributed by some to the anger

of nature-spirits. At Crowcombe, there was fifteen feet of snow,

and the village was cut off by road for several weeks. Deer, sheep

and ponies were fed by helicopters. One old farmer said to me,

looking out over the western hills, with the rash of holiday camps

and bungalows over their feet, and the curve of the Severn coast

broken by the Hinckley Point Power Station: 'The hills is getting

angry. These may still be about in a hundred years - if that! The

hills, they've been a standing vor thousands, and they don't care

about being disturbed by noisy ways. They'll put up with we so

long as we'm quiet-minded, but they vulish lot as is allus in a girt

hurry-push, they'll all have to go. They hills don't want 'en, and

you'll zee, they won't have 'en.' "

[For those that have trouble making out dialect-writing: The hills are getting angry. These [power stations] may still be about in a hundred years - if that! The hills, they've been standing there for thousands, and they don't care about being disturbed by noisy ways. They'll put up with us so long as we're quiet-minded, but those foolish lot that are always in a big hurry-push, they'll all have to go. They hills don't want them, and you'll see, they won't have them.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

("Watching Folklore Grow," by R. L. Tongue.Folklore, Vol. 75, No. 2, Summer 1964, pp. 110-112.)

Land damaged by such construction and earthmoving is damaged, and for SOME places, no amount of re-seeding or restoration will make the place 'right' again. It will be an angry place, and bad things will happen there.

Look around, think about the idea of Angry Land.

"And what does the land feel after so many decades of abuse? This is not the kind of land that's likely to great human visitors, no matter how well-intentioned, with joy in its heart. It does not say "Welcome home, feral human! We missed you!" This land is suspicious. This land wants nothing to do with us. This land is angry land, and it does not want sympathy and tears." (http://ranprieur.com/land/aug06.html)

The End of August

2010-08-26T07:56:00.000-06:00

Although it has been hitting close to 90 still here in Helena, the mornings have a coolness to them and the light is shifting to autumnal light, although it is still several weeks until Fall Equinox.

Looks like there is going to be a big joint investigation at the prison again in October. I've personally pretty much been hunkering down, enjoying summer, and getting ready to teach classes. I have been working on a book related to the paranormal too.

My own particular interest is in place-spirits,especially what may be either Native American or nonhuman/nature -related. Some call these chthonic entities or genius loci. Most paranormal investigations are focused on structural hauntings (haunted houses etc.) and either imprints or the human deceased.

As a landscape historian and anthropologist with graduate degrees in each discipline, the spirits of the land, mountains,lakes, forests, cliffs, rivers, stones, etc. are more my research interests. What is it that makes a place "haunted"? Even before a house or building is built there? Is it bad feng shui? Did something happen there in the long ago past such as a battle? Or is the land just "weird"? "Sour"?

True Ghost Story from Pennsylvania

2010-08-25T14:45:00.000-06:00

Grandfather's ghost story leads to mysterious mass grave

By Meghan Rafferty, CNN

August 24, 2010 5:28 p.m. EDT

Mass murder in 1832? Maybe

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Former railroad worker told ghost story every Thanksgiving
He left a box of documents to one of his grandsons
Brothers followed clues, discovered mass grave in Philadelphia suburb
Experts are checking remains for signs of foul play

Malvern, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- "This is a mass grave," Bill Watson said as he led the way through the thick Pennsylvania woods in a suburb about 30 miles from Philadelphia.

"Duffy's Cut," as it's now called, is a short walk from a suburban cul-de-sac in Malvern, an affluent town off the fabled Main Line. Twin brothers Bill and Frank Watson believe 57 Irish immigrants met violent deaths there after a cholera epidemic struck in 1832.

They suspect foul play.

"This is a murder mystery from 178 years ago, and it's finally coming to the light of day," Frank Watson said.

The brothers first heard about Duffy's Cut from their grandfather, a railroad worker, who told the ghost story to his family every Thanksgiving. According to local legend, memorialized in a file kept by the Pennsylvania Railroad, a man walking home from a tavern reported seeing blue and green ghosts dancing in the mist on a warm September night in 1909.

"I saw with my own eyes, the ghosts of the Irishmen who died with the cholera a month ago, a-dancing around the big trench where they were buried; it's true, mister, it was awful," the documents quote the unnamed man as saying. "Why, they looked as if they were a kind of green and blue fire and they were a-hopping and bobbing on their graves... I had heard the Irishmen were haunting the place because they were buried without the benefit of clergy."

When Frank inherited the file of his grandfather's old railroad papers, the brothers began to believe the ghost stories were real. They suspected that the files contained clues to the location of a mass grave.

"One of the pieces of correspondence in this file told us 'X marks the spot,'" said Frank. He added that the document suggested that the men "were buried where they were making the fill, which is the original railroad bridge."

In 2002, the brothers began digging and searching. They found forks and remnants of a shanty and, in 2005, what Bill Watson calls the "Holy Grail" -- a pipe with an Irish flag on it.

They knew they were close, but Bill said they knew they needed "hard science" to get them to the next step.

The science came from Tim Bechtel, a geophysicist, who learned about the project from a colleague at the University of Pennsylvania who had heard the Watson brothers speak. The friend knew Bechtel could provide the missing link in the brothers' excavation efforts.

Bechtel's work included earth scans, which can help detect what's underground without digging or drilling.

By shooting electrical current through the slope, Bechtel said he learned there were "oddball areas" or places where the current wouldn't pass through. "We saw areas in the slope that were very electrically resistant," Bechtel recalled.

This was an initial indicator something might lie beneath the surface. After further digging, Bechtel and the Watsons detected "air bubbles above the coffins," he said.

Bechtel helped pinpoint key areas to dig and on March 20, 2009, Bill Watson said the team made a startling discovery.

"One of my students came running over at about 2 in the afternoon with something that was a clearly discernable human bone," Bechtel said.

It was just the beginning of the many puzzle pieces to surface at Duffy's Cut. The pieces led them to suspect that something other than cholera was responsible for the deaths.

A teeny weenie little fragment like that is so chock full of information.
--Janet Monge, anthropologist

"A teeny weenie little fragment like that is so chock full of information," said Janet Monge, holding up a jawbone and teeth found at the Duffy's Cut site. She believes the teeth, because of their irregularities, could someday be linked through DNA to living descendents of the men unearthed at the dig site.

Monge, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, joined the forensics team when Bechtel looked her up in the campus directory and asked for help separating the human bones from any animal bones.

Since then, Monge has collected bones from seven skeletons unearthed at Duffy's Cut, including four skulls. The trays and containers of bones occupy a long, wide table in the back of a lecture room at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.

Poring over the bones with her green spectacles sitting low on her nose, Monge said she has focused her attention on the skulls, adding that they have provided crucial clues to what might have killed the Irishmen at Duffy's Cut.

"This skull has a little divot on what would have been the side bone of the skull," she said, holding it up. "That little divot is something that didn't happen when they excavated it out of the ground."

With just one divot on one skull, she was reluctant to jump to conclusions. But as more skulls surfaced, a pattern started to form. Holding the second skull, Monge said with confidence: "This person was clunked on the head at around the time of death."

Two weeks ago, a new piece of evidence came up from the ground at Duffy's Cut: A skull with a perforation that could be a bullet hole. "In fact, we can see some nice cracked edges that do look very much like a bullet hole," Monge observed.

Monge and the team will soon test the skull for the presence of lead. The source could be a bullet or an ax. Either way, she said, "If they had cholera, it didn't kill them. I would say something else killed them, but they might have had cholera, too."

Why is the mystery so important to the team?

These guys came over here with nothing, looking for the American dream.
--Bill Watson

RELATED TOPICS

"It could have been us," Bill Watson said. "These guys came over here with nothing, looking for the American dream like countless people have done. They thought they were going to make it and within six weeks of arrival they're literally buried in the fill here."

Although they have unearthed seven individual's remains, the Duffy's Cut team labors on to find the 50 more they believe are still underneath the surface.

The brothers said their goal is to preserve the memory of the Irish workers and to put the story in textbooks, to be remembered for years to come.

"It's a story that transcends nations, transcends history in a sense. It's the story you hear of workers that were exploited anywhere in the world," Frank Watson said.

"How do we treat our employees? How do we treat people who immigrate for a new life? Every human being deserves to be remembered."

New Movie: "Son of Ju-On: Grudge of the Dolphin" (2011)

2010-08-22T13:21:00.000-06:00

Now, a shocking new movie, from the Directors of "Ju-On: The Grudge" and "The Cove"...

"Eyes of Fire" (1983) and Japanese Horror ("The Grudge")

2010-08-22T13:18:00.002-06:00

"Eyes of Fire" (1983) was a unique film.

The setting is America in pre-Revolutionary times, around the time of the French and Indian War. An unusual young Irish woman with paranormal powers was raised by a preacher. He has a Scots-Irish flock. She saves him from being hung (he likes to play in others' gardens). The faithful core preacher's flock flee down the Ohio River, past the British line into French territory. The Shawnee whose territory the British settlers have invaded are not real happy about this.

The preacher has taken the wife of a backwoodsman who was always leaving his family to go off and hunt in the wilds. He tracks down his family who is with the preacher fleeing from the Shawnee. The frontiersman saves the settlers, and the Shawnee pursue them until they reach a certain tree. Then the Shawnee begin to laugh, and will not go further, for the settlers have come to a very bad valley, a place haunted by angry nature spirits and the ghosts of French settlers who initially settled there.

It turns out the valley is under the control of a sort of a genius loci made of accumulated deaths of innocent animals, the injustice pooled into a sort of dark rage that seeks revenge on anything human. And the movie continues from there.

The feeling of the movie is like a very dark and bizarre family film from the 70s, based on an authentic folk legend.

In some ways it is also like the Japanese horror films of the 90s, especially "The Grudge."

"The success of the 1998 film Ring brought the image of the yūrei to Western popular culture for the first time, although the image has existed in Japan for centuries. Yūrei are Japanese ghosts, ones who have been bound to the physical world through strong emotions which do not allow them to pass on. Depending on the emotion that binds them, they manifest as a particular type of ghost. Most common to Japanese horror is the onryō, a yūrei bound by a desire for vengeance." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_horror)

"It was said that when one person dies with a deep and burning grudge, a curse is born. The curse gathers in the place where that person has died or where he was frequent at (in the series' case, the house in Nerima) and repeats itself there. The curse manifests on those who encounter the curse by any means, such as entering the house or being in contact with somebody who was already cursed. The curse's manifestation is mainly death, where the victims' bodies may or may not disappear. The following deaths create more curses and spreads the curse in other places." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju-on)

The underlying rationale/mechanism of "Eyes of Fire" is similar. Only instead of the murder of a human being creating this situation, it is the murder of thousands of murdered animals, by human hunters, both white and Indian. This is the source of the title, "Eyes of Fire," for it is the reflection of a campfire in animals' eyes at night.

It's a very interesting film, worth a watch.

(As an aside, it would be an interesting premise to have such a story based on the killing of dolphins and whales by Japanese fishermen, and the animals' vengeful spirits (kami) pooling into some sort of curse at some remote location on the Japanese coast.)

"I've never known quite where to put these experiences"

2010-08-20T22:03:00.000-06:00

Sometimes folks write in to tell me of their experiences that seem possibly paranormal, unsettling, or even frightening. Seeing things that shouldn't be there, odd noises, feelings of something or someone there that you cannot see. It may not even be a ghost or something that can really be described exactly. But they give you a sense of distress, of feeling like you might be slipping or going mental in some way.

I just got a message this evening from someone who described having a few such experiences. They ended by saying:

"As I said, I'm really a pretty practical person in general, though don't close myself off to the possibility that there may be layers of existence we don't understand well. But I've never known quite where to put these experiences. I don't generally have things happening routinely that are like this. And I don't, in general, talk to people about it because many people I know would probably just think it was an over active imagination on my part. But those things felt different, in a way I can't describe, from a dream or a memory or an imaginative flight of fancy."

I replied:

"I think more people than admit it have had a few of these kinds of odd experiences. But because they don't want people to make fun of them or think they are kooky, and because they just don't know, like you said, where to put these experiences.

Who know what these things really are. We call them hauntings or ghosts for convenience.

But people have been having strange experiences like this for as long as we've been human beings, from the beginning. In the western world, these experiences have been marginalized. But in any of the old cultures that are still mostly intact and traditional/rural, whether Native American or rural white folks in the U.S., or in Europe the Irish or eastern Europeans, at least do accept them as part of the human experience.

You have had a couple of things happen that you KNOW happened and can't really explain away. Although they can be upsetting, it's kind of cool to consider what Hamlet said:

'And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' "

The Hidden Folk

2010-08-13T19:16:00.000-06:00

This film is from Iceland, but the Hidden Folk are all about us, in wild places from which they have not been driven, including Montana, and places in the mountains around Helena. Cliffs, odd lonely stones, formations and outcrops. Caves, peaks, glacial lakes, talus slopes, dark ravines and canyon rifts. Meadows and whispering groves. Springs, and rivers, and more.

Up the airy mountains
Down the rushy Glen,
We dare not go a-hunting
For fear of little men.

Is that ghost really who they say they are?

2010-08-12T19:15:00.000-06:00

One of my online acquaintances told us, "It does seem to be quite unusual to me, to find a ghost that is purely itself and is trapped entirely. I do believe the saying 'the dead walk among the living'. I think it quite possible that although a person may move on to another place, perhaps their personality can be left behind, or fragments of them that do not act quite as an 'imprint' might but carry on being independant and aware although co-existing with whatever moment in time they are in. Almost as if the person has shed their skin and moved on, while these pieces act and think like they were in life."

I have run into some interesting ideas in this line of thought.

One is that we are made up of multiple aspects: Physical, life-force/breath, astral, and soul. At death, the physical portion rots in the ground and returns to the elements. The life-force joins the All Life. The soul goes on. That leaves the astral (one name for it). This shatters at death. It is made up of the "personality" of the dead, while the soul is the core essence.

These shattered bits of personality are not necessarily joined, and over long periods of time they eventually dissolve. But until then, they are as you say, just parts of the deceased's personality, and thus are incomplete and focused only on one part. So one person who was an alcoholic musician has astral fragments of alcoholism and musical ability (among other traits, addictions, etc.). This would come across as an odd obsessed, mad "spirit" because it is unidimensional and without real soul intelligence as such. Just a meme, a program, if you will.

The different elements are attracted to similar characters and places in order to survive and perpetuate itself. So the musician portion might attached to another musician, adding to his talents, or to a music hall, theater, etc. The alcoholism portion might go to another family member who has those tendencies and make that person a worse alcoholic. Or it might go to a local "dive"/tavern to seek alcohol and other alcoholic "vibes." (which is why some old bars are so dank with those kinds of vibes and seem haunted). Any addiction/obsession is especially liable to this self-perpetuation: drugs, booze, sex, etc.

These astral fragments are not true, full spirits, but they aren't just place-memories either. They are like viruses or parasites seeking to survive and perpetuate themselves. They go to family and familiar places first (which is why most indigenous cultures have religio-magical ways of protecting family members after a close relative's death).

Another thing that can happen is that these fragments can be gathered and collected by other spirits, human or nonhuman, and assembled and used as a mask or disguise. Sort of like how a hermit crab uses an abandoned shell from another organism, and glues bits and pieces of found objects to that shell. This is why one needs to be wary of spirits who claim to be friends, relatives, or others thought to be friendly or harmless (like a child ghost). This often happens during use of Ouija boards, channeling, or seances. That may not be your favorite grandmother at all, when it seems like her and knows some things only she would know, but on the other hand, your gut seems to feel something "different" about her at the same time.

Hauntings

2010-07-25T12:22:00.002-06:00

"There are haunted places,
But far more haunted minds and haunted hearts."
-A proverb

From Darkness

2010-07-24T12:41:00.002-06:00

Traditional American Song: Skin and Bones

2010-07-23T10:51:00.002-06:00

Necromancy

2010-07-23T09:33:00.000-06:00

Science and Paranormal Investigation

2010-07-03T06:16:00.001-06:00

What about science and paranormal investigations? Can you investigate the paranormal scientifically without having all the thermal cams (FLIR), EMF meters, white noise generators, complex vid-cam set ups tied into computer monitoring systems, etc?

Things to remember:
1. Science is a methodological approach, it is not the use of technology. Technology does not equal science. Technology is derived FROM science. Using technology in an investigation is not necessarily scientific. For an investigation to be scientific, it must use the scientific approach, a particular set of steps (hypothesis, etc.) and it must be TESTABLE, in the sense of being falsifiable.

2. Science is designed to deal with material reality, aka empirical reality. Its effectiveness in dealing with "hauntings" will necessarily be limited to the extent that a "haunting" is empirical (objective) rather than subjective.

3. Hauntings are subjective, that is, not everyone has the same experience of the same haunting.

4. Science is not the entirety of reality, materialism is only one model, and science is probably the best model to approach empirical reality.

Bigfoot Contactees?

2010-06-28T06:32:00.001-06:00

You may have heard of UFO contactees. But did you know there are also Bigfoot contactees? Loren Coleman posted about them over at Cryptomundo and asked what his readers thought of this development in the world of Bigfoot: http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/contact2/

Sure, why not. Something is going on. The world is a mysterious place. This blonde lady looks like an elf, like someone Dion Fortune would say had a direct contact with the elemental world.

I think Sasquatch (and his various related forms) is quasi-biological, a semi-spirit Being. He is seen as an omen and harbinger among most us natives. The Big Man, a guardian of the wilderness, a guardian of the threshhold between worlds. As Patrick Harpur said, he is part of Daimonic Reality, part of the fabric of reality. An expression of Hansen's Trickster. A child of the great god Pan (notice in twilight language "coincidence" that the chimp is Pan troglodytes?)

Yes, biological in many ways, but not like a chimp or okapi. His "evidence" is real..but the same evidence is always shifting in the very act of seeing and witnessing into ambivalence. And these people who are contacted, well, most are marginal themselves. Like Trickster, a little shady and/or a little loopy, walkers on the threshhold meeting a guardian of the threshhold.

It's like water. The tighter you squeeze it, the more it squirts from between your fingers.

Is there such thing as a Christian Witch?

2010-06-27T08:15:00.005-06:00

Can one be both a Christian AND a witch? Different folks say different things, but this is what I have been able to gather on the matter.

There are some folk traditions in Catholic countries, such as Italy and Mexico, where people do magical practices (such as protection against the evil eye, divination, healing, removing curses). They generally would not call themselves "witches" and definitely not "pagan" but instead curandero (curer) etc. They would still consider themselves Catholic/Christian. But others might call some of them bruja (witch) if they are also said to do harmful practices. It can get into shades of gray.

Most Protestant forms of Christianity (including contemporary fundamentalism) revile not only all kinds of magic, but originally considered Catholicism "of the devil" as well (some fundamentalists still do, as in those little Chick comics). But hoodoo is one exception as to this rejection of magical practice, as it is a syncretism of African practices/thought, with American Protestantism, and dollops of Native American herbalism, and bits and pieces of "other" such as candle-burning (as long as it works). Hoodoo actually does have a religious system attached, primarily various forms of Protestantism, such as Baptist and Spiritualist Churches

As far as paganism and "witch" goes, they are two different things. In usages by Catholics, "Pagan" just means you don't follow one of the Abrahamic monotheistic religions. Whereas to Catholics, Catholics who turn from Catholicism entirely are apostates, Catholics who split into other forms of Catholicism are schismatics, and non-Catholic Christians are heretics (as well as in the strict sense any Catholics who practice non-approved spiritual practices).

The pagan Greeks (pagan as in they believed in Zeus etc.) held Circe to be a witch. The pagan Norse in the Havemal talked of defeating the nightflying witches. The Navajo and Hopi traditionalists (pagans) talk of battling witches. The Yoruba specifically apply the term "witch" to malefic magic-users not entirely human, they called "aje." But they had many other classes of magic-users, such as hunters, priests, diviners, Ogboni ("witch-hunters").

So pagans had various magic-using personages they differentiated from other spellcasters; they called these individuals (usually female, usually practicing anitsocial forms of magic) by various terms, translated into English (with the usual problems of translation) as "witches."

The thing is that Christianity (whether Catholic or Protestant) held anything not Christian, including secularism and modernism, to be Satanic, of "The Devil." And anyone that did any kind of magic was practicing "witchcraft."

Then there were/are those individuals and organizations who are really rebellious against Christianity rather than being truly pagan in an indigenous sense. Not as many as some might think, these are the groups who engage in Black Masses (a purposeful blasphemization of Catholic Mass) and then various individuals, from rebellious teens to actual serial killers who take on Satanic symbols and beliefs in their individual lives.

Christians lump all these together as "devil-worshippers" but that is as inaccurate (or as accurate!) as saying fundamentalist "non-denominational" churches are the same thing as traditional Roman Catholics. Yeah, there are some similarities to the outsider, but to the insider, they would deny it vehemently!

I think you'll find there is no defined and set definition accepted by all as to what is a witch or what is witchcraft. Even witches don't all agree. But there are various forms of it that most witches can accept IF it is qualified by the use of an adjective/pronomial: as in Sabbatic Witchcraft, Traditional Witchcraft, etc.

Though even there, you will hit a wall with Wicca, with its own practitioners considering it witchcraft, and others such as most traditional witches seeing Wicca as a hybrid with its essential roots in Western Hermetic/Cabbalistic "ceremonial" magic (which is formed mostly from a syncretic development of Hellenism --itself a syncretic development from Greek and Egyptian culture-- and medieval JudeoChristianity). And that's not even talking to Wiccans, who further divide themselves into various kinds of Wicca.

In the U.S., the foundational ideology of which is derived mostly from secularism (including Deism and the Enlightenment) and Protestantism, anything "magic" is "witchy." So most "seekers" who diverge from their childhood (whether Christian or irreligious) in their searches usually make their first stops in spiritual quests in pop versions of New Agism, self-realization, Wicca, etc.

Some of these folks are still emotionally and culturally attached to their childhood practices, so they do a form of what anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss called "bricolage" --selecting a spiritual "meal" in a sort of spiritual "cafeteria" picking different beliefs and practices "ala carte" --to suit their own needs and wants.

So you will have a seeker who still has family in a church that they still have an identification with, even if they don't agree with everything, buying a Wicca book and athame, making an altar to "The Goddess" (which some even identify with the Virgin Mary), at the same time getting into feng shui and buying sage (Artemisia ludoviciana) to smudge away the bad stuff, Native American-style.

And they will call themselves a "Christian witch" because they still have a belief in Jesus and the Bible, but reject the social mores of the church, and wanting to "try some magic" and "connect to Mother Earth." They want their cake and eat it too. There are lots of such "Christians" who consider themselves "witches" these days in the U.S.

There seems to be a different, older stripe of "Christian witch" in the UK (I defer to the UK folks here) with early medieval roots in the Christianization of the Celts and the Saxons, that formed their own syncretistic approaches (such as healings, offerings at sacred wells and stones, identification/merging of traditional local deities with saints, cursing/hexing and removing the same). The history of these traditions in relation to Catholicism and then the Church of England is fascinating.

Today, most "witches" (trad, Wicca, or other) would say you really can't be both, and in this, most of these "witches" (I put in parentheses because in my understanding Trads don't really consider Wiccans as witches) are in agreement with most Christians, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox: You can't really be a "Christian witch." (So yes, it seems that fundamentalist Christians and hardcore pagan Trads do agree on some things!)

Helena's "Tree of Death"

2010-06-13T05:56:00.001-06:00

"The tree of death," by Martin J. Kidston, Independent Record, Helena, MT. Sunday, June 13, 2010

John Keene stood with trembling knees upon the dry-goods box at the back of the wagon. A rope embraced his neck and his hands and feet were bound. The only thing that stood between him and death was the stillness of the horse.

But the mob of vigilantes slapped the horse and the wagon lurched forward. On that cool June day in 1865, Keene, a wayward desperado, became the first Helena man “lynched into eternity” by the hometown boys who left his body left to hang for days.

“I did not want to know by what name he had gone in life — that dreadful, pitiful object, with bruised head, disarrayed vest and trousers, with boots so stiff, so worn, so wrinkled, so strangely the most poignant of all the gruesome details,” Mary Ronan, a school student at the time, wrote of the man hanging in the distant tree.

“I have tried to forget,” she added, “but I have not forgotten.”

Helena’s hangman’s tree, a pillar of territorial justice, sat on the outskirts of Helena just east of Dry Gulch. There, below the mining camp’s version of “boot hill,” at least 10 men were lynched between 1865 and 1870, the last taking place when the vigilantes hanged Arthur Compton and Joseph Wilson for highway robbery and attempted murder.

While the crimes ranged from killing to simple theft (as was the case with the lynching of Tommy Cook in 1865), their fate was the same — a long rope, the slap of a horse and the inevitable tug of gravity.

The hangman’s tree has long since vanished but even so, its legend continues through wild stories and haunting rumors. Historians place the old ponderosa pine — a dying tangle of branches while used as a hangman’s tool — near the corner of Blake and Highland streets, not far from the mouth of Dry Gulch.

It’s here amid homes both old and new where residents are gripped by past stories and present mysteries. Spurs jingle across hardwood floors, shadows sweep around corners, sounds move in the night and ghostly figures come and go.

Some historians believe the bodies of the condemned still lie beneath the neighborhood’s soil. At least two coffins have been unearthed over the last 100 years and other bodies remain unaccounted for, meaning there’s no telling where they were interred.

“There were several people hanged, but we don’t know where they were buried,” said Ellen Baumler, a research historian with the Montana Historical Society and author of “Spirit Tailings.” “I don’t know who was buried there, but there’s a chance there are others buried there still.

“It’s certainly possible.”

In 1870, Arthur Compton and Joseph Wilson were awaiting trial for the evening robbery and the attempted murder of George Leonard, an inoffensive German who lived near Beaver Creek near the Missouri River.

Leonard had come to Helena to buy supplies. He stopped for drinks at Joe Reed’s Saloon on present-day Rodney Street before setting off for home at 6 p.m. upon his horse.

Compton and Wilson watched and waited. They rented two horses from Pacific Stables and set off in pursuit of Leonard, catching him near Spokane Creek. They fired seven times, hitting him once in the hip. When Leonard fell off his horse they beat him about the head with their pistols and left him for dead.

The problem was, Leonard didn’t die.

Helena resident David Hilger, a boy at the time, noted the actions that played out in the following days. Facing an angered crowd fueled by the vigilantes, attorneys delivered pleas from atop the “old Murphy wagon” while Judge Symmes pleaded for the prisoners.

Ignoring the judge, backed by the mob, Harvey English forwarded the motion, shouting, “All those in favor of taking Joseph Wilson and Arthur Compton and hanging them forthwith will signify by saying aye.”

Hilger remembered that day, writing, “I never in all my life heard a motion carried with such force, and it seemed the ‘ayes’ could have been heard at the top of Mount Helena.”

Compton and Wilson were doomed, their fates sealed. The mob hauled them across town to the dreaded Dry Gulch. They parked the wagon beneath the hangman’s tree and stood the two men upon a dry goods box set at the rear of the wagon. Jessie Armitage bound their hands and feet and adjusted the rope, as Hilger said, “with plenty of assistance.”

When the two men were asked if they had anything to say, Wilson remained silent, “standing defiant, erect and motionless.” Compton, however, said, “Boys, goodbye. Don’t lead the life I have the past few days.”

“He had to be supported on the box, as his knees trembled perceptibly,” Hilger wrote. “The all-ready was given. A quick stroke on the horse’s back and the wagon went forward with a jerk and the bodies of Joseph Wilson and Arthur Compton were swinging in the air.”

Compton’s neck was broken in the fall, but Wilson wasn’t as lucky. The noose apparently “slipped to the back of his neck and he died by strangulation.”

The men were pronounced dead after 15 minutes. An hour later, their bodies were cut down, placed in pine boxes and buried. Only then did the crowd begin to disperse.

Others would follow.

In September 1865, Tommy Cook was hanged for thieving, a sign pinned to his back stating he was a “pick pocket.” In October, Con Kirby swung from the tree without a note stating his crime. A paper in Butte nonetheless praised the act, reporting, “The good people of Helena have a way of doing these matters of necessity with a quiet determination which is very praiseworthy.”

In November, the vigilantes hanged George Sanders for robbing a man of $1,180 “and for other small steelings.” Ah Chow was soon hanged for murder, and John “Frenchy” Crouchet was lynched for robbery. Within five years, more than 10 men, possibly 13, would hang from the tree.

While the lynchings caused Mary Ronan to shudder, David Hilger and his young friends often played marbles below the tree, or climbed its dead branches. They were, Hilger wrote, fascinated by the grooves left by the ropes in the wood.

The vigilantes had the run of the town, appointing the sheriff, court officers and even the jury. The actions troubled the town’s few judges, who struggled to bring a fair and balanced law to the mining camp. Justice Eyman Munson, in particular, argued that he and his fellow justices should stop the hangings, noting that all people deserved the benefit of a jury trial.

At the same time, however, the justices admitted that the vigilantes and their form of “juris prudence” was far cheaper, quicker and better than the legal courts, especially since the territory lacked adequate jails.

Despite the opinions, days in the mining camp inched on. The camp grew into the makings of a city, a new business district rising up from Last Chance Gulch. After Compton and Wilson were hanged, the Helena courts took a more active role in prosecuting the city’s criminals. That put an end to the town’s vigilante habits and cleared the way for more civilized and prosperous times.

The lynchings, however, simply moved from the hangman’s tree to the galloping gallows at the court house. In 1895, Sheriff Henry Jurgen would send out a public invitation, inviting the citizenry “to witness the execution of William Gay and William Biggerstaff” at the county jail.

But that was still years away. Back at Dry Gulch in 1875, a Methodist minister, the Rev. Shippen, considered the hangman’s tree, which sat dying on his property. He had built a brick home (on the corner of Blake and Highland today), along with a nice barn.

Despite the rumors, Shippen didn’t appear to have any qualms about the tree’s history. Rather, he simply feared it would fall onto his barn and kill his horse.

“So this guy is coming down Dry Gulch and he had a saw,” said Anna Jones, who has lived with her husband, John, in the house that Shippen built for the past 30 years. “Shippen paid him $2.50 to cut down the tree.”

Those who wanted the tree left standing dead or alive as a warning to scofflaws were reportedly outraged by Shippen’s act. They marched to his property and began cutting pieces off the felled tree as souvenirs. A few slivers remain in the Montana Historical Society’s archives.

Jump forward 140 years to a new city and a different time. The hangman’s tree is long gone, but Shippen’s house remains, as do the bodies buried nearby, lying, as some historians believe, below the city streets and, perhaps, under the homes surrounding the old “Boot Hill.”

“We have an old friend who grew up in the house one block up, and when he was a young boy and they were digging up the street, he saw them unearth a coffin,” Jones said, naming the year around 1935.

“It had one of the convicts who was buried unmarked and who’d had a party at the hanging tree,” she continued. “The boys clopped off a few of his finger bones, but they knew they shouldn’t have done it, so they went and hid them.”

Even Baumler, relying on historical data, notes the accidental discoveries of coffins and corpses in the area surrounding the hangman’s tree and Boot Hill.

“Around 1900, this guy on Highland Street had been digging a foundation in his back yard and he hit upon a coffin,” Baumler said. “Pieces of the coffin had deteriorated, but the body inside was pretty well preserved.”

The implications seemed clear; the body was that of John Keene, the first man to swing from the hangman’s tree in 1865.

The remains were taken to Ben Brooke Jr., the county coroner at the time. Brooke’s father, Ben Brooke Sr., had been present at Keene’s hanging. As he told it, Keene had died with a broken nose.

Upon inspection, the coroner noted, the corpse now in his possession also had a broken nose. Other details linked the corpse to Keene.

“What we do know for sure is that there was a body found in that backyard, and it was just a few yards up the hill from the location of the hangman’s tree,” Baumler said. “I feel confident there was another burial place back then for people convicted of these crimes, and this area would have been a logical place.”

Jones and her husband don’t believe in ghosts, but when their daughter visits, she hears voices nearby. The former director of the Historic Preservation Office allegedly witnessed a knife fly across the room, even though he was alone. He also found marbles placed about his residence, not unlike those David Hilger and his friend played with under the nearby hangman’s tree so long ago.

Nearby, Judy Littrell and Hector Cano said they, too, have heard and seen things they can’t explain.

“I was lying down in my bed and something woke me up,” Cano said. “Her son was standing in front of me, saying ‘Get away from me! Get away from me!’

“I said, ‘What are you talking about?,’ and when I looked up, I seen this one tall gentleman, bald and all white, with four figures behind him. He was trying to get hold of her son.”

Area resident Jeana White doesn’t believe the stories, but she does believe in the hangman’s tree. Standing on the balcony, she tried to picture it — its dead branches reaching out, its trunk gnarled and worn, the rope-smoothed grooves on its limb.

“I can’t quite picture it because of the way the ground was,” she said. “But I imagine the ground was probably sloped down and the tree came up out of it. It’s kind of weird to think about it.”

Known hangings:

1865
John Keene (murder)
Jake Seachriest (robbery)
Tommy Cooke (picking pockets)
Con Kirby (crime unknown)
George Sanders (robbery)

1866
James Daniels (murder)
John “Frenchy” Crouchet (robbery)
Ah Chow (murder)

1870
Arthur L. Compton (robbery and attempted murder)
Joseph Wilson (robbery and attempted murder)

------------------------------------------------------------

Click for the associated video about the Hanging Tree.

=====================================
See more about Helena's Hanging Tree:
1.An earlier post on this blog, with photo of site
2. "Helena As She Was" with Google map of site

"The Secret of Redgate" Movie

2010-06-09T12:37:00.005-06:00

You may have read the earlier post about the odd events that were reported for the Deer Lodge Valley, Deer Lodge and the Red Gate.

Known for paranormal/ghost investigations at the Old Montana Prison (and with a video here too), the area is also reported to be a hotspot for UFOs, government conspiracies, and general weirdness, and was the subject of a documentary, "The Secret of Redgate" (below). The website for the documentary is at The Secrets of Redgate. The video is about 90 minutes long, broken down here into 9 parts.

2

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9

Fortean Montana

2010-05-22T19:11:00.001-06:00

Montana is the fourth largest state in the United States, and remains close to its frontier roots. However, its mysteries are little known beyond its borders. Several groups continue to investigate the mysteries of Montana, some pointing fingers at satanic cults, hauntings and spiritual sites, space aliens, and government or military conspiracies.

There are dozens of sites and towns across the state that have reputations as haunted locations. Virginia Ciity and Bannack were established as gold mining camps that developed into towns, and are now preserved as heritage sites full of the specters of miners and others who met tragic fates. There are over a dozen reportedly haunted sites in the capital city Helena and the mining city Butte, from former hospitals and brothels to theaters and residences of millionaires who made fortunes from gold. Helena is the site of a regular ghost walk where many of the tales are told, and several other places have ghost tours during the Halloween season. The Little Bighorn was the site of General Custer’s defeat by the Lakota and Cheyenne, and it is one of the most haunted sites in Montana, with many sites of full-bodied apparitions of Indians and white men who fell in the battle. Another famous haunted site is the old Montana Territorial Prison in Deerlodge.

Montana has seven reservations and ten different Native American tribes, from Blackfeet and Crow, to Sioux and Cheyenne. These tribes have many traditions of haunted and sacred places, Bigfoot, ghosts, nature spirits, and the Little People. For example in the Pryor Mountains, there is a cliff where votive offerings are made by the Crow tribe to the Little People who live in the canyons and mountains. There are hundreds of archaeological sites, including stone “tipi rings,” stone effigies, cairns, and rock art sites.

UFOs have been sighted many times in Montana as well, beginning with a miner’s report of a crash of an aerial object near Cadotte Pass in 1865; the miner visited the site and found an immense stone divided into compartments and marked with “hieroglyphics.” One of the most significant UFO films of all time is the “Montana Movie” taken near Great Falls in 1950. UFOs and cattle mutilations were associated with Bigfoot sightings in the 1970s in the book “Mystery Stalks the Prairie.” Crop circles appear too, such as one near Kalispell in 2001, and citizens continue to have concerns about chemtrails and weather control.

Cryptozoology also has a presence in Montana. Bigfoot sightings have been noted all over the state, from remote forested mountains and the windswept high plains, to rural communities, reservations, and outskirts of cities like Missoula. Flathead Lake, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, is reported to be the home of a water monster sighted about one hundred times since 1889. A wolf-like animal with faint stripes called a shunka warak’in was shot in the 1880s by a rancher; it was stuffed by a taxidermist and the mount recently surfaced in a small museum in Ennis.

Montana’s folklore of the Fortean continues to this day.

Lance Foster is an anthropologist and creator of Paranormal Montana (http://paranormalmontana.blogspot.com)

Ghost Chasing in Helena

2010-05-06T06:20:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while, I will get an email from someone interested in chasing ghosts in Helena, as I did the other day. This was my response-

"Our group disbanded a couple of years ago. There were just four of us. The husband and wife part of the team had another baby so had to quit due to time and childcare. The other member ...people were giving him grief because of the ghost chasing, asking him, "Oh so you believe in little green men too?"

Currently I just do writing and research rather than active ghost hunting. If you are interested in joining an active group of hunters, you might contact Ellen Baumler at the Montana Historical Society. [Ellen wrote the Spirit Tailings books and has become a point-of-contact for ghost hunters in Montana; she even serves as a historical consultant for a couple of groups]. She seems to know who is doing stuff these days. I am cc'ing her on this. I think there is at least one other group in Helena that is active, last I heard.

If it doesn't work out, you should really consider creating a group yourself. One way to start is sign up a couple of weeks in advance for a free meeting room at the Helena Public Library, and put a free notice of the meeting in the Queen City news. I did that a couple of times and got half a dozen interested people. But most of them were into New Age stuff more than paranormal investigations.

[Since I returned to Montana in 2006] I did a Ghost Walk for a couple of years [not anymore], and I did three investigations in Helena (2 at the Grand Street Theater and one at the Windbag). Never really got much. Some stray noises and a couple of EMF spikes was all. I also did one just outside Bozeman. [You can read about all four investigations on this blog, just check out the index to the right->]

As far as investigations and the paranormal go, Helena is kind of schizo. Ghosts are like a guilty secret here. A lot of people seem to be interested privately, but this is a very conservative place, so publicly there is professed disbelief and even some antagonism. It can be tough to find a place that will let you investigate, unless you have an "in" (you need to know the owner and/or work at a place).

It is very good to be logical and skeptical in these things. There are too many who think every vague shape or random noise is some kind of ghost."

There is also a lack of sound investigative approaches I have noticed. Mostly people seem to have a tech-fetish ("hey, where's your FLIR?"), due I am sure to all the television shows these days.

Canyon Ferry UFOs

2010-04-29T07:56:00.002-06:00

In the late 1970s I went fishing one night with my father and brothers down at the Canyon Ferry Dam, down on the Missouri, at the edge of the Big Belts. It was quite late and very dark, with no moon in the sky. I liked to watch the night sky. I remember watching various planes and satellites move across the sky. Sometimes a meteorite (shooting star) or two. The stars twinkled, and the planets did not. Some of the stars have a blue or red cast to them.

Then I saw another satellite in its hasty orbit far above the earth. But then it stopped. And then it zigged and zagged two or three times, and sped off almost faster than your eye could follow it. I am not saying it was a space ship or aliens. But it was not a plane, a planet, a star, a weather balloon, or a satellite. That much I know for a fact.

In my current research for anything out of the ordinary in Montana, I came across this old newspaper clipping from the Montana Standard, at the UFO Chronicles site.

Ghosts of America website

2010-04-27T07:43:00.001-06:00

While in the past, the "Ghosts of America" website made up a lot of fake ghost sightings, it seems to have undergone a major change. It now has lots of pretty cool sightings submitted by various visitors. Check out Montana towns and other locales at:

http://www.ghostsofamerica.com/states/mt.html

Of course other states are covered too!

Monster Hunting

2010-04-24T08:17:00.002-06:00

The whole social tourism aspect of cryptozoology has a parallel in the ghost-hunting world. You also get the people who buy all the technology and get into it for a while, or go out on a lark to a graveyard. There is probably even some crossover. I know I have been interested in Bigfoot, UFOs, and ghosts since I was a kid.

My own beliefs have evolved with my worldviews. When I was a kid, I believed in all of it (my "Legend of Boggy Creek" period). Then when I was a teen and into my young adulthood, I learned more from my Native American views of Bigfoot as a spirit, on the one hand, and the Fortean-Keelian world on the other. Clark's "Goblin Universe" and Loren Coleman's books that not only included Bigfoot but also Clowns, Gassers, MIB, etc. When I went to University and majored in Anthropology in my twenties, I had a physical anthropology teacher Charlene Smith in the 1980s who believed in the strong possibility of the biological reality of Bigfoot, and I also heard stories from other Native students, and then through cultural anthropology learned more about folklore and phenomenology.

Finally, I came across the shunka warak'in info in my graduate work, and then the mounted "ringdocus" mystery began. Loren Coleman and I corresponded (I was thrilled to be emailing with the guy who wrote all those books I read), and my info was included in Coleman's Cryptozoology book. The internet took off back around then (mid-90s) and soon I found mentions of the shunka warak'in all over the Internet. It had become part of the ouevre of cryptozoology. Soon it was conflated with all kinds of other reports. Culture and urban legends in the making.

At last the mount resurfaced in the museum in Ennis and I got a look at it. From my time in natural history museums, in the woods, owning dogs and coyotes (my uncle had 2 coyotes) and being around wolves in zoos, I knew this animal as something different. Alas, they refused to let me take a tuft of hair for DNA analysis.

Due to all these different experiences and paradigm shifts, I realized that cryptozoology has multiple meanings for many people. And I still enjoy the hell out of it all!

Earth Day: Bigfoot and the Environment

2010-04-23T08:54:00.000-06:00

Sasquatch and the Spotted Owl have a lot in common. They live in primeval Northwest oldgrowth forests and are an indicator species for that habitat. Sasquatch as an indicator species of healthy NW habitat may be more popular among loggers too :)

I am also reminded of the old Montana Bigfoot sighting in the Bitterroot mountains. A logger was out cutting trees and saw a Bigfoot looking at him. When he started up his chainsaw, the Bigfoot’s neck hair stuck out. When he stopped the chainsaw, the neck hair went down. Message? “No cut Bigfoot’s forest!”

And many tribes such as the Lakota and Blackfeet see the sightings of Bigfoot as a warning that things are getting bad, environmentally and other ways too.

Aokigahara: Death in the Sea of Trees

2010-04-19T07:36:00.000-06:00

People can be pretty spooked about the woods. "The Blair Witch" phenomenon tapped into that. There are parts of some forests that have a "reputation." There are sometimes even entire forests that seem "different," "enchanted," or "haunted."

There is a famous forest near Mount Fuji in Japan, called Aokigahara Jukai. The forest is famous for being a place where people go ever year to commit suicide. It is the second-highest place of suicide in the world. Most often, the reason seems to be economic failure, which is a kind of social damnation in Japan (and also for many people here in America).

The contemporary urban myth is that a 1960 novel "Kuroi Jukai" by Japanese novelist Seichō Matsumoto, in which two lovers commit suicide in this forest, was the inspiration for so many people going off to die there. However, the association of Aokigahara with death is much older than that.

Aokigahara was a place where ubasute was practiced. Ubasute was the practice of taking the elderly and ill off to a remote location, and abandoning them to die from starvation and exposure. Aokigahara also was a place of demons in medieval Japan.

Below is a two-part video on some research for a Swedish documentary about Aokigahara.

Part 1

Part 2

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aokigahara

Science, Thoughtforms, Tulpas, UFOs and Bigfoot

2010-04-16T23:37:00.000-06:00

A tulpa is one type of thoughtform. It is an intentionally-created individual thoughtform, created by one person with the training to do so. One other modern example was when a group created a thoughtform as a fictitious ghost that began to "haunt" the property: http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghosthuntinggeninfo/a/create-a-ghost.htm

Another type of individual thoughtform intentionally created by an individual is a servitor; in this case, it is a thoughtform created by a magician through ritual to accomplish a particular task or guard a location, treasure, etc.

There are also inadvertantly-created thoughtforms. One example is Clive Barker's "Candyman." I would think that many urban legends have become inadvertant thoughtforms. One thing that magicians caution when creating a thoughtform/servitor/etc. is to put a limit on the lifespan of such a thing, say a year, etc. If you don't put a limit on such things, they become unruly and begin to develop a rudimentary independent existence and do things on their own (like "Candyman").

Egregores are group-created thoughtforms, generally made over long periods of time. Egregores can be created intentionally or unintentionally. I wouldn't doubt that the Jersey Devil is a sort of egregore, or evil clowns or madgassers or Men In Black. I wouldn't doubt that the chupacabras (whatever the original source/inspiration) is becoming/has become an egregore. "Curious Encounters" seems to indicate that the Loch Ness monster might be some kind of egregore as well.

It may be possible that certain cryptids are actually thoughtforms- or manifestations of the cryptids. It may also be possible that entities "clothe" themselves in available thoughtforms, the way hermit crabs hide in the shells of other marine creatures.

That is not to say there are no "real" biological Sasquatches or Lake Monsters. My own intuition is that, as with UFOs/mystery lights/etc., that several phenomenon are conflated into one label.

A UFO might be a misidentified plane, star, satellite, earth light (piezoelectricity), ball lightning, meteor, optical illusion...but it may also be some sort of experimental aircraft or technology, or a hoax...or it might be trooping fairies, an extraterrestrial ship, intradimensional entity, thoughtform/shell, or God knows what....ALL lumped together as UFO-- properly, since all UFO means anyways is "Unidentified Flying Object."

It doesn't necessarily HAVE to EITHER be a biological ape-man OR a hoax/delusion etc. There are other options. Maybe 5% of sightings are of some undiscovered biological anthropoid, while 95% can explained in other ways. But it can't be dismissed. Meldrum has made too many good points as far as I can see.

The scientific method can PROVE nothing. It can only eliminate alternative explanations through MULTIPLE working hypotheses. It is not healthy to invest in either Choice A or B; it might be Choice H or Choice R. And while laboratory science with its controlled conditions and repeatable experiments has a higher status and verifiability in the scientific community than field science, field sciences (like geology) are also scientific, IF proper scientific method based on deductive reasoning, etc. is followed.

Science is the best we have to understand material reality. If there are realities that are not material, science may not be the suitable tool. Of course materialists deny anything outside the material is "real." Most phenomena can be explained though conventional means, but not all.

Who knows? The only thing that seems true is the deeper you go into this stuff, the curiouser and curiouser "reality" becomes.

No More Helena Ghost Walks

2010-03-27T18:47:00.005-06:00

I got sick last October (2009) from a month-long bout of the flu.
I was unable to do any ghost walks because of that, during the month most people are into ghosts.

I haven't done any ghost walks since then, and I don't have any plans to do any more.

Mainly I am not comfortable with the commodification of the spirit world.

Book Review: Haunting Experiences: Ghosts in Contemporary Folklore, by Diane Goldstein, Sylvia Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas

2010-03-27T13:19:00.002-06:00

Haunting Experiences: Ghosts in Contemporary Folklore, by Diane Goldstein, Sylvia Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas. Utah State University Press, 2007. 272 pages. $24.95.

This is an outstanding book which looks at how the popular culture of today (television, cartoons, novels, tourism, movies like Harry Potter and The Shining, cellphones, tales on college campuses, ghost hunters) and the ghost folklore of the past inform and influence each other as a continuum. Books on ghosts are rarely produced by folklorists these days. Most books about ghosts seem to be ghost hunter / paranormal investigator guides or regional ghost story collections. This book provides a different perspective.

"Old Spirits in New Bottles" covers the study of ghosts and folklore, and some of the major works, theories, and scholars working in the field.

"The Usefulness of Ghost Stories" asserts ghost stories are ways to explore issues of many kinds in contemporary life, not just ghosts per se.

"Scientific Rationalism and the Structure of Supernatural Experience Narratives" criticizes the idea of ghostlore as antiquated and silly and that scientific materialism will eventually erase it because individual evaluation of personal experience cannot be so easily dismissed and serves definite functions.

"Gender and Ghosts" looks at how ghostlore differs based on gender and perception (including Bloody Mary, and La Llorona).

"Children's Ghost Stories" examines ghost stories among children such as at Halloween, and their function in socialization and growing up.

"Haunted Houses in Tradition and Popular Culture" focuses on the stories about haunted houses rather than the reality of hauntings; the haunted houses function as both setting and opponent (also spook houses and hell houses in today's Halloween).

"The Commodification of Belief" is about the ghost tours, haunted hotels, etc., and how people seek and expect to experience actual ghosts and haunted places through payment.

"The `Spectral Turn'" summarizes the various themes, including how modern media, notably some of the paranormal investigation and other supernatural television shows, as well as the Internet and technology, now inform, shape, and dominate people's ideas about the supernatural.

There are also supplementary sections on chapter notes, a bibliography, a filmography, and index.

The study of the supernatural, including ghosts and folklore, is unfortunately not taken seriously in academics. Whatever you believe about the empirical reality of such things, peoples' -beliefs- about the supernatural and the impacts of those beliefs on contemporary culture -are- irrefutably real, and at that level, if no other, should be taken seriously: "Ghost lore must be taken seriously because it is serious -culturally meaningful, rational, and still very much a part of our modern and technological world" (p. 18).

As the author notes: "Intricately woven together, popular culture uses folklore continuously to tap into traditional cultural values and to satisfy audience expectations. But just as popular culture appropriates folklore, folklore too appropriates popular culture. Children's cartoon characters...movies,...and television talk shows...all feed themes, motifs, and descriptive details back into the small-group intimate transmission of traditional ghost narratives, modernizing the details and incorporating contemporary issues, language, and concerns...." (pp. 4-5).

This fascinating book should definitely be a part of the collection of any serious student of popular culture, folklore, and the paranormal.

Spring is already here say the whirlwinds

2010-03-18T09:52:00.002-06:00

Hope you are doing okay. Spring is springing all around us. At least on the ground. I know it isn't equinox yet, but the land has its own way of doing things too.

The lilacs are building their buds. I looked up at the sky through the window yesterday, and all was yellowish hazy dusty bleary through the naked tree branches.

It became a vision of a hazy sky this summer. Of a much more dire year than last year. Last year we had a lot more snowpack right now. And the other night I walked outside, and it was warm. Already. I am not a prophet. This year, with all those dead pines, little snowpack, and warm already, well, it could be a year for a real "blow-up" in the fire season. I get the feeling it's going to be bad.

The dust was really blowing around yesterday. That's the season change. Lots of little whirlwinds in the streets and by the graveyard which is hidden under a local neighborhood park. Those spirits were really moving around yesterday.

You might like the new look of my Vook. Easier to read. Love that wallpaper. Looks like some of the old houses I have been in when out on the range and in the hills.

http://tommyknocker.tumblr.com/

Little People

2010-03-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day and Love Magic

2010-02-12T10:25:00.001-07:00

I was among those quoted in today's Great Falls Tribune in a Valentine's Day story about folklore, magic and love:
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20100212/LIFESTYLE/2120326/Mystical++magical++Learn+lore+of+love+spells+and+potions

Rooms That Are More Than Haunted

2010-01-31T08:19:00.001-07:00

Animism isn't all sweetness and light. We know houses and rooms in houses can be haunted.

But the form of those hauntings can be so intense that it is as if the room itself has its own form of life. And not a pleasant form either. Here I am not talking about spooky feelings in a room, or seeing a shadow or apparition. Here I am talking about when the room itself comes alive.

The following is excerpted from borky's comment at Loren Coleman's Twilight Language blog. I was reading about a 9-year old kid named Montana Lance (!!??!!) killing himself in a bathroom by hanging himself...

...in the '60s, (in Liverpool, in the UK), when I was 8, my school, Tiber Street Junior's, made this great display of installing what was SUPPOSED to be a brand new cloakroom.

Anyway, not long after this took place, I found myself alone in this cloakroom with a pair of twin boys from the year below, celebrated throughout the school for having extremely trendy Beatle-style haircuts.

Anyway, that day we started playing tick, and ducking out of the reach of one of the "Terrible Twins", (as me and my younger sister'd dubbed them), I inadvertently smacked into one of the coat hooks.

To the amazement of the three of us, the whole section the hook was part of seemed to momentarily come alive with cold fury and loathing - almost as if, if only it could, it would've ripped itself up by its foundations and chased us off down the street - at which point a sort of miniature lightning bolt, about two-and-a-half to three inches long arced out of the hook and shocked my hand.

Then, even as we us stood there, jaws gaping and paralysed on the spot, keeping one eye on the coat hook and glancing back and forth at each other wondering what to do next, the three of us were terrified to hear this coat hook, in the utterly hideous voice of a thoroughly nasty old man snarl, "Ah, now you didn't know we could do that, did y', y'little sh*t!" at which point I ran back to class, shaking like a leaf, and the twins ran straight out the school, their parents subsequently refusing to bring them back.

Now, whatever you make of that story, it's all very well for some people to say oh, people're always seeing and hearing things that aren't there, as if somehow that's both the explanation and the 'cure', but I'm aware of adults who, under the well-intentioned onslaught of "it's all in your head", went on to kill themselves over far milder experiences than that; but - God! - until now, it'd never occurred to me kids might be taking that option, too, (if not something far worse, given other data available to me).

I just don't know what to make of it. A cloakroom coming alive and then talking like that. The world is surely a dark and mysterious place.

This reminded me just now of a story I read in my teens about another animated room, called "The Whistling Room." I read it in a book called "Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural" (see cover, here). It was illustrated by Edward Gorey, that fantastic artist of the macabre. I did a search (thank God I remembered the actual title of the story!) and found it.

Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson. Author of "The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig,'" "The House on the Borderland," "The Ghost Pirates," etc.

No. 3
THE WHISTLING ROOM
From The Idler, March, 1910

(Thomas Carnacki, the famous investigator of "real" ghost stories, tells here the results of his peculiar and weird investigations in The Whistling Room)

Carnacki shook a friendly fist at me, as I entered, late. Then, he opened the door into the dining-room, and ushered the four of us — Jessop, Arkright, Taylor and myself — in to dinner.

We dined well, as usual, and, equally as usual, Carnacki was pretty silent during the meal. At the end, we took our wine and cigars to our usual positions, and Carnacki — having got himself comfortable in his big chair — began without any preliminary:—

"I have just got back from Ireland, again," he said. "And I thought you chaps would be interested to hear my news. Besides, I fancy I shall see the thing clearer, after I have told it all out straight. I must tell you this, though, at the beginning — up to the present moment, I have been utterly and completely 'stumped.' I have tumbled upon one of the most peculiar cases of 'haunting' — or devilment of some sort — that I have come against. Now listen.

"I have been spending the last few weeks at Iastrae Castle, about twenty miles north-east of Galway. I got a letter about a month ago from a Mr. Sid K. Tassoc, who it seemed had bought the place lately, and moved in, only to find that he had bought a very peculiar piece of property.

"When I got there, he met me at the station, driving a jaunting-car, and drove me up to the castle, which, by the way, he called a 'house-shanty.' I found that he was 'pigging it' there with his boy brother and another American, who seemed to be half-servant and half-companion. It seems that all the servants had left the place, in a body, as you might say; and now they were managing among themselves, assisted by some day-help.

"The three of them got together a scratch feed, and Tassoc told me all about the trouble, whilst we were at table. It is most extraordinary, and different from anything that I have had to do with; though that Buzzing Case was very queer, too.

"Tassoc began right in the middle of his story. 'We've got a room in this shanty,' he said, 'which has got a most infernal whistling in it; sort of haunting it. The thing starts any time; you never know when, and it goes on until it frightens you. All the servants have gone, as you know. It's not ordinary whistling, and it isn't the wind. Wait till you hear it.'

" 'We're all carrying guns,' said the boy; and slapped his coat pocket.

" 'As bad as that?' I said; and the older boy nodded. 'It may be soft,' he replied; 'but wait till you've heard it. Sometimes I think it's some infernal thing, and the next moment, I'm just as sure that someone's playing a trick on me.'

" 'Why?' I asked. 'What is to be gained?'

" 'You mean,' he said, 'that people usually have some good reason for playing tricks as elaborate as this. Well, I'll tell you. There's a lady in this province, by the name of Miss Donnehue, who's going to be my wife, this day two months. She's more beautiful than they make them, and so far as I can see, I've just stuck my head into an Irish hornet's nest. There's about a score of hot young Irishmen been courting her these two years gone, and now that I'm come along and cut them out, they feel raw against me. Do you begin to understand the possibilities?'

" 'Yes,' I said. 'Perhaps I do in a vague sort of way; but I don't see how all this affects the room?'

" 'Like this,' he said. 'When I'd fixed it up with Miss Donnehue, I looked out for a place, and bought this little house-shanty. Afterwards, I told her — one evening during dinner, that I'd decided to tie up here. And then she asked me whether I wasn't afraid of the whistling room. I told her it must have been thrown in gratis, as I'd heard nothing about it. There were some of her men friends present, and I saw a smile go round. I found out, after a bit of questioning, that several people have bought this place during the last twenty-odd years. And it was always on the market again, after a trial.

" 'Well, the chaps started to bait me a bit, and offered to take bets after dinner that I'd not stay six months in the place. I looked once or twice to Miss Donnehue, so as to be sure I was "getting the note" of the talkee-talkee; but I could see that she didn't take it as a joke, at all. Partly, I think, because there was a bit of a sneer in the way the men were tackling me, and partly because she really believes there is something in this yarn of the Whistling Room.

" 'However, after dinner, I did what I could to even things up with the others. I nailed all their bets, and screwed them down hard and safe. I guess some of them are going to be hard hit, unless I lose; which I don't mean to. Well, there you have practically the whole yarn.'

" 'Not quite,' I told him. 'All that I know, is that you have bought a castle with a room in it that is in some way "queer," and that you've been doing some betting. Also, I know that your servants have got frightened and run away. Tell me something about the whistling?'

" 'Oh, that!' said Tassoc; 'that started the second night we were in. I'd had a good look round the room, in the daytime, as you can understand; for the talk up at Arlestrae — Miss Donnehue's place — had made me wonder a bit. But it seems just as usual as some of the other rooms in the old wing, only perhaps a bit more lonesome. But that may be only because of the talk about it, you know.

" 'The whistling started about ten o'clock, on the second night, as I said. Tom and I were in the library, when we heard an awfully queer whistling, coming along the East Corridor —— The room is in the East Wing, you know.

" ' "That's that blessed ghost!" I said to Tom, and we collared the lamps off the table, and went up to have a look. I tell you, even as we dug along the corridor, it took me a bit in the throat, it was so beastly queer. It was a sort of tune, in a way; but more as if a devil or some rotten thing were laughing at you, and going to get round at your back. That's how it makes you feel.

" 'When we got to the door, we didn't wait; but rushed it open; and then I tell you the sound of the thing fairly hit me in the face. Tom said he got it the same way — sort of felt stunned and bewildered. We looked all round, and soon got so nervous, we just cleared out, and I locked the door.

" 'We came down here, and had a stiff peg each. Then we got fit again, and began to think we'd been nicely had. So we took sticks, and went out into the grounds, thinking after all it must be some of these confounded Irishmen working the ghost-trick on us. But there was not a leg stirring.

" 'We went back into the house, and walked over it, and then paid another visit to the room. But we simply couldn't stand it. We fairly ran out, and locked the door again. I don't know how to put it into words; but I had a feeling of being up against something that was rottenly dangerous. You know! We've carried our guns ever since.

" 'Of course, we had a real turn-out of the room next day, and the whole house-place; and we even hunted round the grounds; but there was nothing queer. And now I don't know what to think; except that the sensible part of me tells me that it's some plan of these Wild Irishmen to try to take a rise out of me.'

" 'Done anything since?' I asked him.

" 'Yes,' he said — 'watched outside of the door of the room at nights, and chased round the grounds, and sounded the walls and floor of the room. We've done everything we could think of; and it's beginning to get on our nerves; so we sent for you.'

" By this, we had finished eating. As we rose from the table, Tassoc suddenly called out:— 'Ssh! Hark!'

"We were instantly silent, listening. Then I heard it, an extraordinary hooning whistle, monstrous and inhuman, coming from far away through corridors to my right.

" 'By G—d!' said Tassoc; 'and it's scarcely dark yet! Collar those candles, both of you, and come along.'

"In a few moments, we were all out of the door and racing up the stairs. Tassoc turned into a long corridor, and we followed, shielding our candles as we ran. The sound seemed to fill all the passage as we drew near, until I had the feeling that the whole air throbbed under the power of some wanton Immense Force — a sense of an actual taint, as you might say, of monstrosity all about us.

"Tassoc unlocked the door; then, giving it a push with his foot, jumped back, and drew his revolver. As the door flew open, the sound beat out at us, with an effect impossible to explain to one who has not heard it — with a certain, horrible personal note in it; as if in there in the darkness you could picture the room rocking and creaking in a mad, vile glee to its own filthy piping and whistling and hooning. To stand there and listen, was to be stunned by Realisation. It was as if someone showed you the mouth of a vast pit suddenly, and said:— That's Hell. And you knew that they had spoken the truth. Do you get it, even a little bit?

"I stepped back a pace into the room, and held the candle over my head, and looked quickly round. Tassoc and his brother joined me, and the man came up at the back, and we all held our candles high. I was deafened with the shrill, piping hoon of the whistling; and then, clear in my ear, something seemed to be saying to me:— 'Get out of here — quick! Quick! Quick!'

"As you chaps know, I never neglect that sort of thing. Sometimes it may be nothing but nerves; but as you will remember, it was just such a warning that saved me in the 'Grey Dog' Case, and in the 'Yellow Finger' Experiments; as well as other times. Well, I turned sharp round to the others: 'Out!' I said. 'For God's sake, out quick.' And in an instant I had them into the passage.

"There came an extraordinary yelling scream into the hideous whistling, and then, like a clap of thunder, an utter silence. I slammed the door, and locked it. Then, taking the key, I looked round at the others. They were pretty white, and I imagine I must have looked that way too. And there we stood a moment, silent.

" 'Come down out of this, and have some whisky,' said Tassoc, at last, in a voice he tried to make ordinary; and he led the way. I was the back man, and I know we all kept looking over our shoulders. When we got downstairs, Tassoc passed the bottle round. He took a drink, himself, and slapped his glass down on to the table. Then sat down with a thud.

" 'That's a lovely thing to have in the house with you, isn't it!' he said. And directly afterwards:— 'What on earth made you hustle us all out like that, Carnacki?'

" 'Something seemed to be telling me to get out, quick,' I said. 'Sounds a bit silly-superstitious, I know; but when you are meddling with this sort of thing, you've got to take notice of queer fancies, and risk being laughed at.'

"I told him then about the 'Grey Dog' business, and he nodded a lot to that. 'Of course,' I said, 'this may be nothing more than those would-be rivals of yours playing some funny game; but, personally, though I'm going to keep an open mind, I feel that there is something beastly and dangerous about this thing.'

"We talked for a while longer, and then Tassoc suggested billiards, which we played in a pretty half-hearted fashion, and all the time cocking an ear to the door, as you might say, for sounds; but none came, and later, after coffee, he suggested early bed, and a thorough overhaul of the room on the morrow.

"My bedroom was in the newer part of the castle, and the door opened into the picture gallery. At the East end of the gallery was the entrance to the corridor of the East Wing; this was shut off from the gallery by two old and heavy oak doors, which looked rather odd and quaint beside the more modern doors of the various rooms.

"When I reached my room, I did not go to bed; but began to unpack my instrument-trunk, of which I had retained the key. I intended to take one or two preliminary steps at once, in my investigation of the extraordinary whistling.

"Presently, when the castle had settled into quietness, I slipped out of my room, and across to the entrance of the great corridor. I opened one of the low, squat doors, and threw the beam of my pocket searchlight down the passage. It was empty, and I went through the doorway, and pushed-to the oak behind me. Then along the great passage-way, throwing my light before and behind, and keeping my revolver handy.

"I had hung a 'protection belt' of garlic round my neck, and the smell of it seemed to fill the corridor and give me assurance; for, as you all know, it is a wonderful 'protection' against the more usual Aeiirii forms of semi-materialisation, by which I supposed the whistling might be produced; though, at that period of my investigation, I was quite prepared to find it due to some perfectly natural cause; for it is astonishing the enormous number of cases that prove to have nothing abnormal in them.

"In addition to wearing the necklet, I had plugged my ears loosely with garlic, and as I did not intend to stay more than a few minutes in the room, I hoped to be safe.

"When I reached the door, and put my hand into my pocket for the key, I had a sudden feeling of sickening funk. But I was not going to back out, if I could help it. I unlocked the door and turned the handle. Then I gave the door a sharp push with my foot, as Tassoc had done, and drew my revolver, though I did not expect to have any use for it, really.

"I shone the searchlight all round the room, and then stepped inside, with a disgustingly horrible feeling of walking slap into a waiting Danger. I stood a few seconds, waiting, and nothing happened, and the empty room showed bare from corner to corner. And then, you know, I realised that the room was full of an abominable silence; can you understand that? A sort of purposeful silence, just as sickening as any of the filthy noises the Things have power to make. Do you remember what I told you about that 'Silent Garden' business? Well, this room had just that same malevolent silence — the beastly quietness of a thing that is looking at you and not seeable itself, and thinks that it has got you. Oh, I recognised it instantly, and I whipped the top off my lantern, so as to have light over the whole room.

"Then I set-to, working like fury, and keeping my glance all about me. I sealed the two windows with lengths of human hair, right across, and sealed them at every frame. As I worked, a queer, scarcely perceptible tenseness stole into the air of the place, and the silence seemed, if you can understand me, to grow more solid. I knew then that I had no business there without 'full protection'; for I was practically certain that this was no mere Aeiirii development; but one of the worst forms, as the Saiitii; like that 'Grunting Man' case — you know.

"I finished the window, and hurried over to the great fireplace. This is a huge affair, and has a queer gallows-iron, I think they are called, projecting from the back of the arch. I sealed the opening with seven human hairs — the seventh crossing the six others.

"Then, just as I was making an end, a low, mocking whistle grew in the room. A cold, nervous pricking went up my spine, and round my forehead from the back. The hideous sound filled all the room with an extraordinary, grotesque parody of human whistling, too gigantic to be human — as if something gargantuan and monstrous made the sounds softly. As I stood there a last moment, pressing down the final seal, I had no doubt but that I had come across one of those rare and horrible cases of the Inanimate reproducing the functions of the Animate. I made a grab for my lamp, and went quickly to the door, looking over my shoulder, and listening for the thing that I expected. It came, just as I got my hand upon the handle — a squeal of incredible, malevolent anger, piercing through the low hooning of the whistling. I dashed out, slamming the door and locking it. I leant a little against the opposite wall of the corridor, feeling rather funny; for it had been a narrow squeak. . . . 'Theyr be noe sayfetie to be gained bye gayrds of holieness when the monyster hath pow'r to speak throe woode and stoene.' So runs the passage in the Sigsand MS., and I proved it in that 'Nodding Door' business. There is no protection against this particular form of monster, except, possibly, for a fractional period of time; for it can reproduce itself in, or take to its purpose, the very protective material which you may use, and has the power to 'forme wythine the pentycle'; though not immediately. There is, of course, the possibility of the Unknown Last Line of the Saaamaaa Ritual being uttered; but it is too uncertain to count upon, and the danger is too hideous; and even then it has no power to protect for more than 'maybee fyve beats of the harte,' as the Sigsand has it.

"Inside of the room, there was now a constant, meditative, hooning whistling; but presently this ceased, and the silence seemed worse; for there is such a sense of hidden mischief in a silence.

"After a little, I sealed the door with crossed hairs, and then cleared off down the great passage, and so to bed.

"For a long time I lay awake; but managed eventually to get some sleep. Yet, about two o'clock I was waked by the hooning whistling of the room coming to me, even through the closed doors. The sound was tremendous, and seemed to beat through the whole house with a presiding sense of terror. As if (I remember thinking) some monstrous giant had been holding mad carnival with itself at the end of that great passage.

"I got up and sat on the edge of the bed, wondering whether to go along and have a look at the seal; and suddenly there came a thump on my door, and Tassoc walked in, with his dressing-gown over his pyjamas.

" 'I thought it would have waked you, so I came along to have a talk,' he said. 'I can't sleep. Beautiful! Isn't it!'

" 'Extraordinary!' I said, and tossed him my case.

"He lit a cigarette, and we sat and talked for about an hour; and all the time that noise went on, down at the end of the big corridor.

"Suddenly, Tassoc stood up:—

" 'Let's take our guns, and go and examine the brute,' he said, and turned towards the door.

" 'No!' I said. 'By Jove — NO! I can't say anything definite, yet; but I believe that room is about as dangerous as it well can be.'

" 'Haunted — really haunted?' he asked, keenly and without any of his frequent banter.

"I told him, of course, that I could not say a definite yes or no to such a question; but that I hoped to be able to make a statement, soon. Then I gave him a little lecture on the False Re-Materialisation of the Animate-Force through the Inanimate-Inert. He began then to see the particular way in the room might be dangerous, if it were really the subject of a manifestation.

"About an hour later, the whistling ceased quite suddenly, and Tassoc went off again to bed. I went back to mine, also, and eventually got another spell of sleep.

"In the morning, I went along to the room. I found the seals on the door intact. Then I went in. The window seals and the hair were all right; but the seventh hair across the great fireplace was broken. This set me thinking. I knew that it might, very possibly, have snapped, through my having tensioned it too highly; but then, again, it might have been broken by something else. Yet, it was scarcely possible that a man, for instance, could have passed between the six unbroken hairs; for no one would ever have noticed them, entering the room that way, you see; but just walked through them, ignorant of their very existence.

"I removed the other hairs, and the seals. Then I looked up the chimney. It went up straight, and I could see blue sky at the top. It was a big, open flue, and free from any suggestion of hiding places, or corners. Yet, of course, I did not trust to any such casual examination, and after breakfast, I put on my overalls, and climbed to the very top, sounding all the way; but I found nothing.

"Then I came down, and went over the whole of the room — floor, ceiling, and walls, mapping them out in six-inch squares, and sounding with both hammer and probe. But there was nothing abnormal.

"Afterwards, I made a three-weeks search of the whole castle, in the same thorough way; but found nothing. I went even further, then; for at night, when the whistling commenced, I made a microphone test. You see, if the whistling were mechanically produced, this test would have made evident to me the working of the machinery, if there were any such concealed within the walls. It certainly was an up-to-date method of examination, as you must allow.

"Of course, I did not think that any of Tassoc's rivals had fixed up any mechanical contrivance; but I thought it just possible that there had been some such thing for producing the whistling, made away back in the years, perhaps with the intention of giving the room a reputation that would ensure its being free of inquisitive folk. You see what I mean? Well, of course, it was just possible, if this were the case, that someone knew the secret of the machinery, and was utilizing the knowledge to play this devil of a prank on Tassoc. The microphone test of the walls would certainly have made this known to me, as I have said; but there was nothing of the sort in the castle; so that I had practically no doubt at all now, but that it was a genuine case of what is popularly termed 'haunting.'

"All this time, every night, and sometimes most of each night, the hooning whistling of the Room was intolerable. It was as if an intelligence there, knew that steps were being taken against it, and piped and hooned in a sort of mad, mocking contempt. I tell you, it was as extraordinary as it was horrible. Time after time, I went along — tip-toeing noiselessly on stockinged feet — to the sealed door (for I always kept the Room sealed). I went at all hours of the night, and often the whistling, inside, would seem to change to a brutally malignant note, as though the half-animate monster saw me plainly through the shut door. And all the time the shrieking, hooning whistling would fill the whole corridor, so that I used to feel a precious lonely chap, messing about there with one of Hell's mysteries.

"And every morning, I would enter the room, and examine the different hairs and seals. You see, after the first week, I had stretched parallel hairs all along the walls of the room, and along the ceiling; but over the floor, which was of polished stone, I had set out little, colourless wafers, tacky-side uppermost. Each wafer was numbered, and they were arranged after a definite plan, so that I should be able to trace the exact movements of any living thing that went across the floor.

"You will see that no material being or creature could possibly have entered that room, without leaving many signs to tell me about it. But nothing was ever disturbed, and I began to think that I should have to risk an attempt to stay the night in the room, in the Electric Pentacle. Yet, mind you, I knew that it would be a crazy thing to do; but I was getting stumped, and ready to do anything.

"Once, about midnight, I did break the seal on the door, and have a quick look in; but, I tell you, the whole Room gave one mad yell, and seemed to come towards me in a great belly of shadows, as if the walls had bellied in towards me. Of course, that must have been fancy. Anyway, the yell was sufficient, and I slammed the door, and locked it, feeling a bit weak down my spine. You know the feeling.

"And then, when I had got to that state of readiness for anything, I made something of a discovery. It was about one in the morning, and I was walking slowly round the castle, keeping in the soft grass. I had come under the shadow of the East Front, and far above me, I could hear the vile, hooning whistle of the Room, up in the darkness of the unlit wing. Then, suddenly, a little in front of me, I heard a man's voice, speaking low, but evidently in glee:—

" 'By George! You Chaps; but I wouldn't care to bring a wife home in that!' it said, in the tone of the cultured Irish.

"Someone started to reply; but there came a sharp exclamation, and then a rush, and I heard footsteps running in all directions. Evidently, the men had spotted me.

"For a few seconds, I stood there, feeling an awful ass. After all, they were at the bottom of the haunting! Do you see what a big fool it made me seem? I had no doubt but that they were some of Tassoc's rivals; and here I had been feeling in every bone that I had hit a real, bad, genuine Case! And then, you know, there came the memory of hundreds of details, that made me just as much in doubt again. Anyway, whether it was natural, or ab-natural, there was a great deal yet to be cleared up.

"I told Tassoc, next morning, what I had discovered, and through the whole of every night, for five nights, we kept a close watch round the East Wing; but there was never a sign of anyone prowling about; and all the time, almost from evening to dawn, that grotesque whistling would hoon incredibly, far above us in the darkness.

"On the morning after the fifth night, I received a wire from here, which brought me home by the next boat. I explained to Tassoc that I was simply bound to come away for a few days; but told him to keep up the watch round the castle. One thing I was very careful to do, and that was to make him absolutely promise never to go into the Room, between sunset and sunrise. I made it clear to him that we knew nothing definite yet, one way or the other; and if the room were what I had first thought it to be, it might be a lot better for him to die first, than enter it after dark.

"When I got here, and had finished my business, I thought you chaps would be interested; and also I wanted to get it all spread out clear in my mind; so I rung you up. I am going over again to-morrow, and when I get back, I ought to have something pretty extraordinary to tell you. By the way, there is a curious thing I forgot to tell you. I tried to get a phonographic record of the whistling; but it simply produced no impression on the wax at all. That is one of the things that has made me feel queer, I can tell you. Another extraordinary thing is that the microphone will not magnify the sound — will not even transmit it; seems to take no account of it, and acts as if it were non-existent. I am absolutely and utterly stumped, up to the present. I am a wee bit curious to see whether any of your dear clever heads can make dayling of it. I cannot — not yet."

He rose to his feet.

"Good night, all," he said, and began to usher us out abruptly, but without offence, into the night.

A fortnight later, he dropped each of us a card, and you can imagine that I was not late this time. When we arrived, Carnacki took us straight into dinner, and when we had finished, and all made ourselves comfortable, he began again, where he had left off:—

"Now just listen quietly; for I have got something pretty queer to tell you. I got back late at night, and I had to walk up to the castle, as I had not warned them that I was coming. It was bright moonlight; so that the walk was rather a pleasure, than otherwise. When I got there, the whole place was in darkness, and I thought I would take a walk round outside, to see whether Tassoc or his brother was keeping watch. But I could not find them anywhere, and concluded that they had got tired of it, and gone off to bed.

"As I returned across the front of the East Wing, I caught the hooning whistling of the Room, coming down strangely through the stillness of the night. It had a queer note in it, I remember — low and constant, queerly meditative. I looked up at the window, bright in the moonlight, and got a sudden thought to bring a ladder from the stable-yard, and try to get a look into the Room, through the window.

"With this notion, I hunted round at the back of the castle, among the straggle of offices, and presently found a long, fairly light ladder; though it was heavy enough for one, goodness knows! And I thought at first that I should never get it reared. I managed at last, and let the ends rest very quietly against the wall, a little below the sill of the larger window. Then, going silently, I went up the ladder. Presently, I had my face above the sill and was looking in alone with the moonlight.

"Of course, the queer whistling sounded louder up there; but it still conveyed that peculiar sense of something whistling quietly to itself — can you understand? Though, for all the meditative lowness of the note, the horrible, gargantuan quality was distinct — a mighty parody of the human, as if I stood there and listened to the whistling from the lips of a monster with a man's soul.

"And then, you know, I saw something. The floor in the middle of the huge, empty room, was puckered upwards in the centre into a strange soft-looking mound, parted at the top into an ever changing hole, that pulsated to that great, gentle hooning. At times, as I watched, I saw the heaving of the indented mound, gap across with a queer, inward suction, as with the drawing of an enormous breath; then the thing would dilate and pout once more to the incredible melody. And suddenly, as I stared, dumb, it came to me that the thing was living. I was looking at two enormous, blackened lips, blistered and brutal, there in the pale moonlight....

"Abruptly, they bulged out to a vast, pouting mound of force and sound, stiffened and swollen, and hugely massive and clean-cut in the moon-beams. And a great sweat lay heavy on the vast upper-lip. In the same moment of time, the whistling had burst into a mad screaming note, that seemed to stun me, even where I stood, outside of the window. And then, the following moment, I was staring blankly at the solid, undisturbed floor of the room — smooth, polished stone flooring, from wall to wall; and there was an absolute silence.

"You can picture me staring into the quiet Room, and knowing what I knew. I felt like a sick, frightened kid, and wanted to slide quietly down the ladder, and run away. But in that very instant, I heard Tassoc's voice calling to me from within the Room, for help, help. My God! but I got such an awful dazed feeling; and I had a vague, bewildered notion that, after all, it was the Irishmen who had got him in there, and were taking it out of him. And then the call came again, and I burst the window, and jumped in to help him. I had a confused idea that the call had come from within the shadow of the great fireplace, and I raced across to it; but there was no one there.

" 'Tassoc!' I shouted, and my voice went empty-sounding round the great apartment; and then, in a flash, I knew that Tassoc had never called. I whirled round, sick with fear, towards the window, and as I did so, a frightful, exultant whistling scream burst through the Room. On my left, the end wall had bellied-in towards me, in a pair of gargantuan lips, black and utterly monstrous, to within a yard of my face. I fumbled for a mad instant at my revolver; not for it, but myself; for the danger was a thousand times worse than death. And then, suddenly, the Unknown Last Line of the Saaamaaa Ritual was whispered quite audibly in the room. Instantly, the thing happened that I have known once before. There came a sense as of dust falling continually and monotonously, and I knew that my life hung uncertain and suspended for a flash, in a brief, reeling vertigo of unseeable things. Then that ended, and I knew that I might live. My soul and body blended again, and life and power came to me. I dashed furiously at the window, and hurled myself out head-foremost; for I can tell you that I had stopped being afraid of death. I crashed down on to the ladder, and slithered, grabbing and grabbing; and so came some way or other alive to the bottom. And there I sat in the soft, wet grass, with the moonlight all about me; and far above, through the broken window of the Room, there was a low whistling.

"That is the chief of it. I was not hurt, and I went round to the front, and knocked Tassoc up. When they let me in, we had a long yarn, over some good whisky — for I was shaken to pieces —, and I explained things as much as I could, I told Tassoc that the room would have to come down, and every fragment of it burned in a blast-furnace, erected within a pentacle. He nodded. There was nothing to say. Then I went to bed.

"We turned a small army on to the work, and within ten days, that lovely thing had gone up in smoke, and what was left was calcined, and clean.

"It was when the workmen were stripping the panelling, that I got hold of a sound notion of the beginnings of that beastly development. Over the great fireplace, after the great oak panels had been torn down, I found that there was let into the masonry a scrollwork of stone, with on it an old inscription, in ancient Celtic, that here in this room was burned Dian Tiansav, Jester of King Alzof, who made the Song of Foolishness upon King Ernore of the Seventh Castle.

"When I got the translation clear, I gave it to Tassoc. He was tremendously excited; for he knew the old tale, and took me down to the library to look at an old parchment that gave the story in detail. Afterwards, I found that the incident was well-known about the country-side; but always regarded more as a legend, than as history. And no one seemed ever to have dreamt that the old East Wing of Iastrae Castle was the remains of the ancient Seventh Castle.

"From the old parchment, I gathered that there had been a pretty dirty job done, away back in the years. It seems that King Alzof and King Ernore had been enemies by birthright, as you might say truly; but that nothing more than a little raiding had occurred on either side for years, until Dian Tiansay made the Song of Foolishness upon King Ernore, and sang it before King Alzof; and so greatly was it appreciated that King Alzof gave the jester one of his ladies, to wife.

"Presently, all the people of the land had come to know the song, and so it came at last to King Ernore, who was so angered that he made war upon his old enemy, and took and burned him and his castle; but Dian Tiansay, the jester, he brought with him to his own place, and having torn his tongue out because of the song which he had made and sung, he imprisoned him in the Room in the East Wing (which was evidently used for unpleasant purposes), and the jester's wife, he kept for himself, having a fancy for her prettiness.

"But one night, Dian Tiansay's wife was not to be found, and in the morning they discovered her lying dead in her husband's arms, and he sitting, whistling the Song of Foolishness, for he had no longer the power to sing it.

"Then they roasted Dian Tiansay, in the great fireplace — probably from that selfsame 'galley-iron' which I have already mentioned. And until he died, Dian Tiansay ceased not to whistle the Song of Foolishness, which he could no longer sing. But afterwards, 'in that room' there was often heard at night the sound of something whistling; and there 'grew a power in that room,' so that none dared to sleep in it. And presently, it would seem, the King went to another castle; for the whistling troubled him.

"There you have it all. Of course, that is only a rough rendering of the translation of the parchment. But it sounds extraordinarily quaint. Don't you think so?"

"Yes," I said, answering for the lot. "But how did the thing grow to such a tremendous manifestation?"

"One of those cases of continuity of thought producing a positive action upon the immediate surrounding material," replied Carnacki. "The development must have been going forward through centuries, to have produced such a monstrosity. It was a true instance of Saiitii manifestation, which I can best explain by likening it to a living spiritual fungus, which involves the very structure of the aether-fibre itself, and, of course, in so doing, acquires an essential control over the 'material-substance' involved in it. It is impossible to make it plainer in a few words."

"What broke the seventh hair?" asked Taylor.

But Carnacki did not know. He thought it was probably nothing but being too severely tensioned. He also explained that they found out that the men who had run away, had not been up to mischief; but had come over secretly, merely to hear the whistling, which, indeed, had suddenly become the talk of the whole countryside.

"One other thing," said Arkright, "have you any idea what governs the use of the Unknown Last Line of the Saaamaaa Ritual? I know, of course, that it was used by the Ab-human Priests in the Incantation of Raaaee; but what used it on your behalf, and what made it?"

"You had better read Harzan's Monograph, and my Addenda to it, on Astral and Astarral Co-ordination and Interference," said Carnacki. "It is an extraordinary subject, and I can only say here that the human-vibration may not be insulated from the astarral (as is always believed to be the case, in interferences by the Ab-human), without immediate action being taken by those Forces which govern the spinning of the outer circle. In other words, it is being proved, time after time, that there is some inscrutable Protective Force constantly intervening between the human-soul (not the body, mind you,) and the Outer Monstrosities. Am I clear?"

"Yes, I think so," I replied. "And you believe that the Room had become the material expression of the ancient Jester — that his soul, rotten with hatred, had bred into a monster — eh?" I asked.

"Yes," said Carnacki, nodding, "I think you've put my thought rather neatly. It is a queer coincidence that Miss Donnehue is supposed to be descended (so I have heard since) from the same King Ernore. It makes one think some curious thoughts, doesn't it? The marriage coming on, and the Room waking to fresh life. If she had gone into that room, ever .. eh? IT had waited a long time. Sins of the fathers. Yes, I've thought of that. They're to be married next week, and I am to be best man, which is a thing I hate. And he won his bets, rather! Just think, if every she had gone into that room. Pretty horrible, eh?"

He nodded his head, grimly, and we four nodded back. Then he rose and took us collectively to the door, and presently thrust us forth in friendly fashion on the Embankment and into the fresh night air.

"Good night," we all called back, and went to our various homes. If she had, eh? If she had? That is what I kept thinking. (From: http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/carnack3.htm)

And then finally, I recall the movie, "1408," about a room in a hotel that is more than plain old haunted. It is a very bad room.

When I worked doing historic preservation for the National Park Service, I often traveled to various parks, and stayed overnight in some sketchy local motels. Some were definitely creepy. But I in particular remember one motel near Fort Davis in Texas that I stayed in, in about 1998 or 1999.

This motel was one story, and made of several clusters of buildings, separated from each other by parking areas. There were probably 30 or so rooms, and you could park your car just outside the door to your room. The lot was dirt and the buildings were lit by red-orange neon lights under the eaves. I think there might have been one other car in the lot besides mine.

I went in and got a room, no reservation, plenty of vacancies. They grinned and gave me a room way in the back of the furthest cluster. Kind of odd since so many were empty closer up near the road and the office. Now I have stayed in hundreds of motels over the years, from traveling with family as a kid, working as an itinerant archaeologist, periods of nomadism, and finally work for the National Parks. Hundreds of them.

I got in the room. Normal, not fancy, a little TV. A little odd feeling but that's normal for many rooms. I took a shower and got into bed and turned off the light. A feeling of menace and panic overcame me and I jumped up and turned on the light. It was still there. This sinister feeling of threat. It was late, I was tired. I left the room lights on and after, thinking in the heavy silence, turned on the TV as well. I left them on all night, the TV and the lights. I slept, had bad dreams, and left in the morning. That has never happened to me before or since. It was not a spook. It was the room itself.

I wondered if there had perhaps been a murder or something in that room. Drugs? Weird sexual activities? But I read something on the Internet years later that made me wonder.

Apparently, some folks who are into the dark arts like to rent motel rooms for their "workings." Because when you do some kinds of things in a place, the fabric of that place changes, alters, is "stained." So these folks, use motel rooms as disposable places for their activities. And those rooms are marked forever by what happened there. They are no good.

In "American Exorcism" by Michael Cuneo, in which he tells the story of the case that provided the inspiration for the movie "The Exorcist," the two places where the exorcism took place, the residence of the family and the hospital room, were stained by what happened there. Soaked, stained by the darkness. Never usable again.

To be haunted, to be animated so intensely, that cloakroom, the whistling room, 1408, the motel room, the places of exorcism, takes more than the tragedy of a human death.

Book Review: The Trickster and the Paranormal, by George P. Hansen

2010-01-25T15:47:00.005-07:00

The Trickster and the Paranormal, by George P. Hansen. Xlibris Corporation, 2001. 568 pages. $26.99.

When it comes to ghosts, hauntings, and other phenomena described as paranormal, weird, or occult, most people fall into one of two camps. Either people are skeptical and think it's all a load of delusional hogwash and deception...or they believe in it, at least some parts of it. Believers and skeptics.

But there is an alternative that says there is indeed "something" to all this. It may be "real" indeed, but not necessarily the way you think at all.

I am both a Native American, familiar with our Trickster stories, and an anthropologist, familiar with Levi-Strauss, Victor Turner, and structural anthropology. The synthesis of anthropology and folklore achieved in this book by Mr. Hansen is amazing and wonderful!

The chapter topics include:

By its very nature, the paranormal is the area "betwixt-and-between", the grey places, the "neither fish nor fowl"...as the essence of antistructure, it is the place of dreams and frauds, and as soon as you name it, it retreats...it defines boundaries of the acceptable by being unacceptable, of the known by remaining unknown...and try to trap it, it slithers away through the door you forgot to close. If you want to know more about this wonderful book, visit the website for it at http://www.tricksterbook.com (there's a lot of good content there...ideas to chew on) ...or better yet BUY IT! Your world and your view of the paranormal will never be the same.

What To Do If You Are Experiencing Disturbances

2010-01-23T20:49:00.003-07:00

I was hunting through my old files and found this article (ca. 2001) from my friend Amoris, which has very some good advice if you think your house might be haunted. (hey Amoris, if/when you want me to remove this for any reason, let me know). The copyright belongs to Amoris of course (© copyright Amoris 1998).
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Disturbances

This is a rather old document that I haven't had time to update. For some highly practical info, I recommend picking up a copy of Robert Bruce's book on Psychic Self-Defence available through my Books page.

Note: Since this document was first written, I've discovered that certain flower essences may be taken that work extremely well on an energetic level for fighting off psychic attacks and healing up any holes in the aura that might be causing or contributing to the disturbance. Grey Spider (Australian Bush Essence) is very good for calming one's self down, and Fringed Violet (Australian Bush Essence) is surprisingly effective and fast acting when it comes to driving out negative influences and repairing auric damage. Definitely pick up some Fringed Violet! And if anyone tries to tell you this stuff doesn't work, you can laugh very hard at them for me. I've road-tested it, and clairvoyantly observed very fast and intense changes in myself and others. 7 drops morning and night (don't forget to shake/tap the bottle first) for 2 weeks should be sufficient to notice a change in anyone having a problem with negative disturbances affecting their minds/bodies directly.

There are two primary types of spiritual and/or psychic disturbances: Internal and External.

Internal: Disturbances in which the source of the problem is within the individual him/herself. Manifestations can be mental (psychosis, flights of ideas, sounds and voices, visual and other perceptual distortions and hallucinations, etc.) and/or more rarely physical (objects moving, things breaking, cuts and bruises appearing).

External: Disturbances in which the source of the problem is not found within the individual experiencing them, but rather are created by an external catalyst; a spirit/entity. Manifestations can be in many forms including obvious physical sounds, movement of objects, cuts and bruises, voices in one's mind that never seem to go away, psychosis, bad dreams, manipulation of thoughts, etc. External disturbances can create both internal and external effects in or around the person experiencing them and are as widely varied as the types of entities or 'spirits' involved.

Diagnosing and Eliminating Internal Disturbances

These can be either some of the easiest or the most difficult to deal with depending on the circumstances. Internal problems can be difficult to diagnose, especially if they have the appearance of an external source. In the case of mental illness, voices and sounds could be hallucinations created by the person experiencing them. With most people, the most common problem is that the individual is tormenting him/herself with voices, paranoid thoughts, or visual distortions. Only rarely are there physical manifestations. Generally, no one else in the vicinity of the person experiencing the difficulty will be able to perceive these hallucinations (unless they have psychic skills), and if they do, they will see that they originate from within that person.

The best defense against this sort of thing is your own mental discipline. It's very easy to freak yourself out and then blow everything out of proportion. If you believe that something is 'out there' and wants to get you, then you'll be more likely to see some movement or hear some noise when there may be none. Assuming the problem is not severe (i.e. physically or mentally painful), try telling yourself that it's all in your head and that you're probably just freaking yourself out. Don't believe in the problem and you'll stop creating one for yourself. You have the choice to decide what you will experience in your own mind (in most cases). If a thought is unfavorable, then don't go along with it, and NEVER PANIC!!!

Info on External Disturbances

If you've tried to ignore a minor problem and it just keeps getting worse, or continues to be present, then you may have an actual visitor to deal with. An experienced mage or psychic can usually tell if there is another consciousness at work. If you are CERTAIN that the problem is NOT in your head, then ignoring the issue and pretending it doesn't exist can potentially be the worse thing you can do.

If the visitors are the weak variety that thrive on your negative emotions and energy, then they may continue to increase in number unless something is done about them. Before you know it you could have a whole house full of crud to clear out! Not taking action against them allows them to continue to play on your thoughts and emotions and assists to perpetuate the problem; in other words, they'll help you to continue to cause yourself to feel and think negatively so they can feed off it. Some will even provide subconscious suggestions in such a way that you think they are your own thoughts and go along with them as though they were!

If the problem is a much stronger sort who has some personal disagreement with you and doesn't require you for sustenance, then you have a more difficult situation on your hands. Pretending that this sort of spirit doesn't exist will only piss him off or amuse him in most cases. Because it does not need your energy or belief in its existence in order to exist, it will probably beat the shit out of you in some manner if you turn your back and ignorantly pretend it isn't there. Remember that your consciousness is YOU and if it is attacked, there will be some physical effect. The least that can happen might be a bad headache, fear, obsessive thoughts, or nightmares etc. More extreme cases can lead to you having your body fly across the room (don't worry, the wall will stop you), cuts and bruises, a voice that won't leave your head no matter how much you try to convince yourself that it isn't real (this one sucks- get experienced help quickly), psychic torture that feels very real, perceptual distortions and terrifying visual hallucinations, loss of consciousness, possession, coma and brain damage, and even death. The sorts of manifestations that occur will depend on what kind of being you're dealing with and how powerful and skillful it is. When possible, most will try to use your own fears and weaknesses against you, or make use of suggestions that cause you to believe that they are something they are not.

Spirits are usually attracted to an Area or an Individual for a reason. Some feed off the positive or negative energy produced by that location or person(s). Some have personal business with that location or person(s). Others are merely curious, bored, or just annoying and disruptive assholes. Some may not be spirits at all, and the manifestation could be the result of negative events that occurred in that location or larger currents of negative energy flow.

The types of spirits that exist are probably infinite in variety. Most have a Will of their own sometimes as strong as if not stronger than a human. Never underestimate or assume that what you are dealing with is somehow less than you in strength or skill. At the same time, don't make it any easier for them to play on your fears and weaknesses by believing they are something they may not in fact be. Don't forget that YOU TOO are a spirit; if you are reading this on your computer then you are an incarnate conscious entity of present human classification.

Negative disruptive entities can range in form from demonic stuff (small to large and anywhere in between), corrupt elementals, discarnate humans, shells of the dead (energy left behind after death that somehow retains form and develops some consciousness), psychic vampires (broad category of scum including some corrupt incarnate humans), and a whole list of others.

Brief Diagnosis:

If you always feel depressed, angry, tired, or fearful in a particular location, then there may be some external disturbance associated with that place. Or, if you experience a very strong feeling that there is someone else around and you feel fearful or negative in any way, or you have been experiencing nightmares and other problems lately, (e.g. always extremely exhausted, sleep not restful, having nightmares that are hard to wake up from and it feels like someone holding you down etc.) and this is not normal for you, then there may be an external influence. Dreams are usually the first place problems show up when an individual is under psychic attack. Generally, if there is something really terrible going on, you and often several others will know and feel it. Look for obvious normal causes first, but when they don't pan out then start looking for the more unconventional ones. Try not to be too paranoid all the time. Not everything that goes bump in the night is a malevolent spirit!!!

Eliminating the offending spirit:

1. If the unpleasant manifestations are not severe, then try the internal methods of telling yourself it's all in your head and then believing there is nothing wrong. It takes practice to be able to tell the difference between internal and external problems, so if you really aren't sure and the situation isn't too bad try this first.

2. If the situation is obviously strange and not just in your head (i.e. other people see/feel/hear it too), then first calm yourself down. Never panic. Ever.

3. To begin the elimination process, you're going to want to purify yourself and the area. Start with yourself. Go someplace else other than the place the problems usually occur (if the location is the problem) and sit in a quiet, comfortable chair or lie down where you will not be disturbed. You may burn a purifying incense if you wish (frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood, cedar, sage, etc. No musk or jasmine and nothing cheap!). Breathe slowly and deeply, clearing and calming your mind for several minutes and just try to be relaxed. When you feel sufficiently relaxed, close your eyes and imagine (visualize this strongly) Divine white light flowing over and through your body. Try to feel it filling you and removing all impurities from your body and mind. As you inhale, imagine that you are inhaling the pure white light and becoming One with it; you should feel it beginning at your head and flowing clear down to your feet. As you exhale, feel the negative thoughts and energy leaving you and being carried away by the white light (from your feet back out of your head). If there are any negative psychic links on you (i.e. energy links to harmful entities), imagine them burning away at this point. Continue this whole breathing and visualization process for several minutes until you feel cleansed and renewed. Don't rush the process. You may repeat as often as you like.

(What is most important for effectiveness here is that you achieve a real connection to a higher force of Divinity e.g. via your Higher Self or Spiritual Core. Cultivate such a connection as much as possible if you wish to command greater authority over things of less divine origin.)

4. Now is the time to purify the location of the disturbance. Generally, what is necessary is to cleanse the environment, or rather the energy of the environment, and then perform some sort of banishing (an exorcism that works through the force of the Will- yours and/or whomever you ask for assistance). For preliminary cleansing, burn a suitable incense in the affected room(s) or house; it is preferable to work on the entire house rather than just one room.

Frankincense and Myrrh have been used by many traditions over the centuries, and they work very well to purify an area; I usually choose these first because I like the higher vibratory rate they create (frankincense feels fiery/solar to me, and myrrh a bit watery). Cedar and Pine are also a good combination, and may have even been used by the Sumerians. Sandalwood by itself is fine as well (more airy). If you're going to use sage, I recommend real dried Sage (not a cone or a stick) if you can get it. I've seen smudging wands, tied groupings of sage and other dried herbs that you burn and wave around to purify an area, available for around $7-$8. Whatever you decide, choose a combination that suits you and don't skimp on quality. Buy the best you can afford for the purest scent and most effectiveness. Allow the incense to burn for several minutes in each room; don't forget to purify the attics and basements too. Remove all people and pets prior to doing this. While the incense is burning, you and those assisting you should sit outside of the house.

5. After the incense has burned and filled the room(s), an exorcism will have to be performed, and a protective psychic barrier against negativity will need to be created. An exorcism is just an exertion of your force of Will on an area that forces unwanted spirits and thoughtforms out. Some people feel the need to say a speech (like a priest would), but this isn't effective unless you actually exert your force of Will and give the words some real power at the energy level. If you're not a practicing magickian and you don't know such things as the lesser rituals of the pentagram and hexagram, or shamanic and other methods are unknown to you, then the best thing you could do is to call upon higher divine forces to help you cast out the problem. My recommendation for the non-religious and/or non-magickal is this:

While the incense is burning and you are sitting outside of the house (or even off the property), repeat the self-purifying visualization procedure that you did in step #3. When you feel that the white light is flowing through you again and that nothing can touch you, then go into the house (or onto the property). Walk to each room and say in a forceful tone, "May the Source of All cast you out of this house!" You can also add something like "you may not touch my body; you may not touch this house or anyone in it", etc. Chant these things over and over and be firm in your resolution to rid this house of any negative problems. As you do this, strongly imagine that you are a channel for protective and purifying white light to flow through and radiate from in every direction. Believe this and FEEL this occurring. Don't think about anything else while you do this and don't allow feelings of doubt to occur either. Put yourself into the mind-set that failure is impossible beforehand, and then go in there and kick some ass. The more people you have to help you the better, since the force of many is greater than the force of one. Make sure that everyone involved is strong-willed and serious about doing this, or they will just be a hinderance to the operation.

6. Now create protective barriers. These can be in the form of amulets and/or talismans that you place in the room(s) while you perform the exorcism. Here are some ideas you may try:

Herbs- Place protective herbs in each corner of every room affected; every room in the whole house if necessary. You may dedicate them by saying a few words if you wish (e.g. "I place these herbs to protect..."- make the rest up as you go). They're placed to assist by virtue of their own vibratory rates and special qualities. Make sure you acquire them legally and kindly; don't steal them, or pick them irreverently without asking them first or explaining to those plant spirits why you must pick them. Don't worry about feeling silly in doing so. Everything has a consciousness to some degree, even plants. If you're using herbs to assist in your protection then you'll be glad you were respectful of them later. Herbs may be sewn up in sachets for ease of placement, and special ones can even be made and carried for protective purposes.

Some protective herbs: Bay laurel, Ash (leaves and branches), Basil, Clove, Dragon's Blood (a powdered resin), Frankincense, Mugwort, Mullein, Myrrh, Oak, Rue, Sandalwood.

Symbols and Talismans- There are several symbols and talismans that can be drawn, painted, and placed for protective purposes. To keep things simple, try upright pentagrams (3 points up, 2 down) and hexagrams (like the Star of David). When used for this purpose, pentagrams are good against internal problems (microcosmic), and hexagrams are good against external ones (macrocosmic). Crosses can work well too since with energy they tend to establish and represent balanced force. If you're not Christian, then equilateral crosses can be used. Certain Norse runes are also very good, bind runes often being more powerful. I'll try to put a few image examples up here when I get time. When you make these symbols, color can sometimes be important. If you aren't sure then black lettering on white works well enough. You may place these symbols you make in different parts of the room(s), all 4 corners if you wish, after you chant the exorcism for that room. As you put the protective symbols in place, imagine that you are charging them with that pure white energy and making them effective and powerful. Just 'inhale' the white light and 'breathe' it out into the symbol. You have to visualize this strongly as you do it. Believe you can do it! The more you practice this sort of thing, the better you will get at it.

Force Fields- While you're spraying the place down with that white light energy, you can even visualize force fields that are being made with it. Just paint the walls, floors, and ceilings with pure white energy. Pretend your hands are spray-guns for it. As you inhale, the white energy enters you. As you exhale, the white light sprays from your hands. Imagine that nothing negative can penetrate these force fields after you've made them. The more times you reinforce these force fields (every so many weeks/months), the stronger they will become and the longer they will last.

This is NOT your own personal energy or life-force that is being used for this purpose, by the way. When you do this you should be tapping into the universal pool, or life source that all things (including us) are sustained by. If you imagine that you are using your own life force (chi) only, then you could potentially harm yourself. Lack of energy can result in sickness and other negative intrusions.

7. Sit back and feel confident that you have rid the area of negativity. You may perform this exorcism process several days in a row if you wish. The more times you do such things, the more powerful and effective they can sometimes be. To make sure energy fields that you've created stay strong, it may be necessary to recharge them occasionally.

As long as you've tried your best and put a lot of effort into it, this procedure should take care of any common problems, and maybe a few uncommon ones. There are rare instances where I could see that it might not work, but if this is the case then a novice should not be attempting to deal with such a situation. If an experienced mage is unavailable, then you can attempt to catch the attention of one of the various forms of astral 'police' that exist. There are some entities whose function is to maintain peace and order, much like police officers. If you put out a mental distress signal (scream desperately in your head- that should do it) you're sure to attract the attention of someone/something that can help. If you worship a particular god or goddess, call on them. Someone is bound to get the message and relay it to an effective channel somewhere. As far as contacting beings is concerned, your intent has a lot to do with how effective you are. If you strongly intend to contact someone and you imagine that you are paging them mentally, then you have a chance of being successful. Chanting their name or the thought repetitiously can help.

Additional note on External Disturbances:

If you find yourself frequently attacked by harmful spirits, no matter how many times you try to get rid of them, then there may also be internal problems that need to be addressed. Remember that most entities that wish to do you harm are most often attracted by something; usually something negative surrounding you and/or your personal environment. Maybe you happen to be someone who lacks self-confidence, or is depressed a lot, or perhaps you've just lost someone close to you. Whatever it is, if you're having a frequent problem with spiritual disturbances, then chances are you may unknowingly be setting up a hospitable environment for these creatures to take advantage of you by just feeling constantly negative to begin with. To assist to change your internal environment, you may need to reprogram your common thought patterns and internal dialogue. Try meditating and repeating positive present-tense phrases about yourself that you want to be true ("I am confident" etc.). It doesn't matter if you don't believe what you're telling yourself right away. The point is to gradually reprogram the subconscious messages you send yourself everyday. Much can be changed within the self with this method. Be sure to use only positive present-tense phrases. Future-tense phrases could cause the subconscious to put off the change indefinitely, always keeping it in the future.

"Pagans," "Witches," and a Yoruba Town

2010-01-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

"Paganism" was used by Christians to describe people who didn't follow Christianity, or the preChristian practices. "Pagans" had their own terms for what they did or believed in. "Pagan" is only defined as such by Christians. To me, modern day pagans (aka neopagans) use that term in a postmodern sense of reclaiming, such as black folks sometimes use the "N" word among themselves or gay folks use "fag" among themselves in reclaiming a term from an oppressor.

Before Christianity came, "Pagans" considered "witchcraft" a specific practice by "witches", and did not lump it in with everything they did as "pagans."

Here's an example from the Yoruba of Nigeria. This is all stuff I learned in person in 1996 during my time there.

The religious life of traditional Yoruba was centered around the Orisha (the deities). Each deity had a place in the cosmology and a sphere of influence. Ogun was god of iron, Shango god of fire and thunder, Orunmila of divination, wisdom and prophecy, Oshun of beauty and love, etc. Most average folks went to the priest/priestess of one or the other if they had a particular problem. If you were a warrior for example you might go make offering to Shango or Ogun. If you needed counsel you would go to a diviner, a babalawo, under Orunmila. If you wanted fertility you might offer to Yemoja, goddess of the sea and fertility/children.

If you had no luck bearing children, you might next in desperation go to the mami wata, the female spirits that live in the water, and ask her for one of her children. Often this would do the trick, but even though the child came through your womb, it was not really "yours" but only borrowed and you had to treat it a certain way through childhood, or the mami wata would take it back.

Some groups were dedicated to a particular orisha. For example, the traditional hunters (a specific class of woodsmen and hunters who also had special juju-medicines to fight evil in the bush, in some ways like the woodsman in Red Riding Hood) were dedicated to Ogun. The babalawo were dedicated to Orunmila. I was acquainted with priestesses of Osun and Shango.

Now they also had a group called Aje, "witches." These were not entirely human, but humans "possessed" by a special kind of spirit called a witchbird. They were almost always women. Actually I never heard of a male witch. They were not the same as sorcerors. Sorcery/juju was a learned skill but also required imparted power by a deity and/or mentor. But witchcraft was inherent in the soul of a witch, it emanated from their essence, their being. They could shapeshift, usually birds or cats. They performed almost always inimical/hostile juju, but on occasion could also choose do something beneficial. They often lived in certain trees, such as the iroko. The hunters were their natural enemies in the bush. In the towns, the chiefs and kings had actual witchhunting societies, the Ogboni, that used bullroarers and went searching to destroy them. This was LONNGGG before Christianity. A regular human woman could ONLY become Aje if she accepted a witchbird inside her to replace her human soul.

There were interesting group dynamics among these folks. I was in a small village, in a mud house of a hunter we knew. Along comes a Babalawo who was going to do a divination for one of my group. Then, soon, along comes an Aje too, just to observe the proceedings. She and the hunter threatened each other, but the Babalawo was there as a moderating influence. Aje and Babalawo tend to get along ok, and Babalawo are well-regarded by all of traditional Yoruba, so it was like having a priest in a house-- although the other two were also magico-religious practitioners. Anyway, except for the yelling, no one did anything there, and soon the Aje left.

In traditional Yoruba society, the kings and chiefs run the towns and society as a whole. The priests and priestesses of particular orisha are integrated as part of that society. Hunters are somewhat marginal, since they go freely in and out of the fearsome bush (full of ghosts and witches and unspeakable things). And aje are feared by all, except the diviners, who walk freely among all. So even without Christians and Muslims it is very complex.

Now in this small town, there was also a mosque and a christian church. Both Christian and Muslim decried the traditionalists as "pagans." But they also feared the pagan juju, whether of the priests of orisha like Shango or the Aje. Christians wore crosses and Muslims wore tiny little Korans. Most also had jewelry or other medicines to protect against bad juju, even if they were devout.

Because western society is so Christianized (although it is more secular than anything else anymore-- and secularists think ANY kind of traditional religion is suspect) it lumps "pagan" and "witch" together. But functional traditional societies do not do this. There is no "pagan" and "witches" are a specific kind of person.

Book Review: The UFO Phenomenon

2010-01-14T11:40:00.007-07:00

I read an interesting post today in John Michael Greer's The Archdruid Report (I read it regularly) where he makes some interesting connections between the UFO phenomenon and the possibilities of social change:

"A few years back, I researched and wrote a book on the UFO phenomenon, somewhat unimaginatively titled The UFO Phenomenon. It was an intriguing project, not least because the acronym "UFO" has all but lost its original meaning – something seen in the sky that the witnesses don't happen to be able to identify – and become a strange attractor for exotic belief systems that fuse the modern myth of infinite progress with archaic religious visions of immanent evil and apocalyptic renewal.

Behind the myths, though, I noted the intriguing fact that the "alien spacecraft" of each decade had quite a bit in common with whatever secret aerospace projects the US military was testing at that time. From the round silver shapes of the late 1940s, when high-altitude balloons were the last word in strategic reconnaissance, to the black triangles of the early 1980s, when stealth planes were new and highly secret, the parallels were remarkable, as was the involvement of the US military in fostering the UFO furore. While plenty of things fed into the emergence of the UFO mythology, it seems pretty clear that this mythology was used repeatedly for the kind of strategic deception the Allies used to bamboozle the Germans before D-Day, to provide cover for secret aerospace projects in the US and elsewhere, not to mention plenty of less exotic situations where it was inconvenient to talk about who was flying what in whose airspace."(http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2010/01/costs-of-community.html)

Read the rest of Greer's intriguing post about trying to change what's broken in society here: http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2010/01/costs-of-community.html

It reminded me that I did a book review of Greer's The UFO Phenomenon:

... Greer's book is not the usual book on UFOs, instead focusing on "epistemology, logic, Jungian archetypes, occultism, pop culture and the politics of deception." Most books on UFOs generally fall into one of three paradigms:

1. UFOs are all easily explained away as hoaxes, delusions, or misperceived natural phenomena... this is the skeptics' point of view, based on dogmatic scientism.

2. UFOs are part of a government (or intergalactic) (or extradimensional) conspiracy by MIBs, Grays, Reptilians etc etc. to make us into galactic TV dinners or slaves of one kind or another.

3. UFOs are here to save us from ourselves, ET has come home and so have the angels to save us from our dastardly ways and save the planet...or at least take some of us away in an extraterrestrial Rapture.

Few of the popular UFO books fall outside these three formats, although some like Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds by Vallee and Keel's The Mothman Prophecies do bring some interesting alternatives to bear on the interaction of culture, cultural expectations, and the anomalies and unexplainable things we see in the skies...or scratching at our bedroom windows. Although one CAN find much of what Greer discusses in various sources around the Internet (and in old fashioned books!), only Greer has taken a historical view of the phenomenon, then compared the evidence to ALL THREE paradigms, in addition to a helping of sociocultural materials on such allied historical movements as the Spiritualists, and religious apparitions and laid it all right in front of the reader to look at and decide for themselves.

Basically, there is no ONE answer to the mystery of the UFO phenomenon. It is a whole -spectrum- of various phenomena (misperception, disinformation, observer's bias, psychological archetypes, geology, etc.) all lumped together into one box we call "the UFO phenomenon." And that's probably going to be why this book won't sell as well as if it were one of the BIG THREE in UFO circles, because it won't be square-pegged that way, it won't fit into one of the three paradigms, and the people who buy UFO books usually fit into one of those paradigms of skeptic, true believer, or conspiracist.

Greer does take a broad view and approach with an application of scientific methodology in this book, to the point where he even offers several predictions in the forms of Null Hypotheses, that the UFO phenomenon will eventually morph with the changes in military technology, and dwindle with the eventual passing of the "big voices" (UFO celebrities) in the debate and changes in our culture as we begin to deindustrialize (see Greer's The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age)...although some form of the "contactee faith" will be with us for a long time to come.

My final caveat is that, while I give Greer's book five stars, and although 95% of UFO "incidents" are explainable, that leaves 5% that remain mysterious...and I think it is human to need mystery and the unknown, so let's leave that 5% alone, shall we? ;-)

Montana Ghost Towns: Garnet

2010-01-10T05:51:00.015-07:00

Montana has many ghost towns from the old mining days. As the saying goes, "Our towns are full of people you cannot see." Garnet has acquired the reputation of being among the most actively haunted.

Ghostly Garnet
By EVE BYRON Independent Record | Posted: Sunday, January 10, 2010 12:20 am

The full moon illuminates Garnet Ghost Town drawing long shadows, of a time gone by, on the snow in the dead of winter.

GARNET — In this ghost town in the dead of winter, the stillness of the night rarely is broken. It’s a pure silence that makes a person think they heard something, slightly beyond ear’s range. Was it the gentle tinkling of chandelier lights?

On crusty snow, the nearly full moon casts shadows that fall between cabins abandoned a lifetime ago, when golden dreams gave way to reality. Out of the corner of the eye, something moves — or did it? And is that a light on in the old hotel, or merely the moon’s reflection off the windowpane?

It’s hard to believe that this hidden alcove nestled at 6,000 feet between Helena and Missoula was home to 1,000 people in 1895, mainly gold miners and their families. They built stores and bars — 13 of those — a hotel and homes. In the Honeymoon Cabin, newlyweds could live until displaced by another newly married couple who needed a place to stay. Dancers waltzed across Union Hall, whose maple spring board floor was one of the finest in the state. At Frank Davey’s store, you could mail a letter, get your gold assayed and purchase shoes, tools and cuts of meat.

Yet within 10 short years, only 150 people called Garnet home. A fire in 1912 destroyed most of the business section. When Davey died in 1947, walking to one of his mining claims, the town was formally considered abandoned even though some residents, like Marian Dahl, lived there into the 1960s.

During the summer, Garnet comes alive with tourists eager to glimpse into the past. The Bureau of Land Management, along with the Garnet Preservation Association, work together to protect and stabilize about 25 remaining buildings. Interpretive sites are scattered throughout town and a visitor center is open every day.

In the winter, though, the windows are shuttered and the doors locked. Gates are closed at the two roads leading into the ghost town, so the only way in is by foot or by snowmobile. A mining claim is still being worked west of Garnet, but can’t be seen from the ghost town.

It’s only in winter that the public can rent two historic cabins from the BLM. For $30 per night, people can stay in the one-room McDonald Cabin, built in the early 1930s by the Hall brothers; for $40, they can rent the larger Ole and Marian Dahl house, built just down the street from their saloon in 1938.

For the adventurous, a winter visit to Garnet is a chance to better understand the trials and challenges experienced by Montana settlers during the long, dark days.

Oregon natives Steve and Kristina Lehecka brought their 2-year-old son, Lucas, to Garnet recently, along with Kristina’s parents, Cris and Jennie Criswell, and 8-year-old Allie Ocain. As the children sledded down the street — similar to what Garnet children probably did — the adults peeked into store windows and stomped their feet to stay warm, wondering aloud about the hearty souls who eked out a living here.

They entered the Dahl house, where a blazing fire in the small wood-burning stove was taking the chill out of the log structure. Two leather and log loveseats, as well as two similar rocking chairs, flanked the fireplace. A wire above it was lined with clothes pins for drying wet mittens and hats; below it, the wooden floor rises to a peak in the middle. Three propane wall lamps gave off a dim light in the waning winter afternoon.

“I can’t believe someone lived here like this,” Kristina Lehecka says, surprised at the sparseness of the surroundings. “It would be hard.”

And the Dahls were lucky. The smaller, box-like one-room miners’ cabins all have dirt floors and large cracks between the chinked logs. Even in the fancier homes, outhouses were a way of life, with anything from a single-holer for the miners to a four-seater at the hotel.

The vision alone of a bunch of people seated next to one another, especially in single-digit temperatures, isn’t for the weak of stomach.

It was a tough life, and some say that while no one lives in Garnet now, the souls of some of the former residents remain.

Ellen Baumler, the Montana Historical Society’s resident ghost whisperer and author, wrote that at midnight, people have heard ghostly fingers striking piano keys, with the music floating across the empty buildings.

She said that especially during the winter months, Garnet visitors see visions and hear unearthly noises.

“Late at night, the spirits of Garnet come out to play in the moonlight,” Baumler wrote in “Montana Chillers.” “Sometimes, in the deep winter quiet, a piano tinkles in Kelley’s Saloon and the spirits dance to ghostly music. Men’s voices echo in the empty rooms. But the moment a living, human hand touches the building, the noises stop.”

She adds that winter visitors tell of transparent figures, clad in old-fashioned clothing, wandering the streets and footprints in fresh snow leading into buildings but never come out from them.

“They cause no trouble and anyone who visits the deserted town in the dead of winter should be prepared to meet them,” Baumler wrote. “They hide in the shadows, laugh in the wind, and come out when you least expect them.”

A small cabin is seen through the rafters of a second cabin.

A door to nowhere is located on the second floor of a main street building. The Dahl cabin is located across the street and is available for rent in the winter months.

The inside of several buildings have old pieces of a lives gone by that you can see through the windows in the winter.

Check out the related video from the Helena Independent Record, A Winter Trip to Garnet Ghost Town.

Garnet has been written about in several books too.

Dennis William Hauck lists Garnet in his National Directory of Haunted Places (1994/96, p. 255), where he noted ghostly honky tonk piano music coming from the Kelly Saloon, "strange presences" in the adjacent bank building, and the sounds of "ghostly partying" coming from the J.K. Wells Hotel.

Earl Murray was the first to write about it in 1988 in his book Ghosts of the Old West, when he discussed "The Mysteries of Old Garnet." (My copy is the revised 1998 edition, and Garnet is discussed on pages 107-113; there is an even newer edition out now.) The following is from Murray.

As part of its Cultural Resources Management (CRM, which also covers archeology) efforts, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) stabilized Garnet as a historic restoration project in the 1970s. The town had stood vacant for over 50 years. Kerry Moon, a fire-control chief working for the BLM in the 1970s, managed a fire crew during the summer and stayed in Garnet during the winter months to guard against vandalism and theft. Moon described the hauntings:

"You could hear activity in the town almost any time of day... During daylight you could hear the sound of horses and men and wagons, regular activity that would have taken place back then. At nights, especially for some reason on Wednesdays, you could hear the sounds of partying- singing and dancing and laughing, lights in windows, and even honky-tonk music."

The noises were so constant that the fire crew complained they were having a hard time sleeping at night. Moon said, "We decided we were going to have to get used to it...None of us had gone crazy. We just all realized that whatever was here when these people were alive brought them back in death."

In the winter, things got more intense. "I don't know if it was because all the tourists were gone or because winter keeps people indoors up here, but the ghostly activity really increased. Somebody was knocking on my door almost every night, and there was a lot of noise downtown, almost continuous noise. I got so I just had to ignore it and do my work. ...I think the worst thing was the forge in the blacksmith shop...I would hear that heavy pounding and think someone was in there fooling around. Then I would realize there was no one up here but me."

The cabin Moon stayed in was a little ways from the main part of town, and when he would go down to investigate noises to see if anyone was around, the sounds would cease. Sometimes he would pretend to go back to the cabin, then double-back and sit in the trees to listen. "That's when I would hear the most activity going on...It would be like they didn't know I was there and they would be going on with their activities just as if they were alive."

Moon described the first time he investigated piano honky tonk music, which was coming from the Kelly Saloon. Even though there was no piano in the old building any more.

Old ghost towns here were built as mining camps, and that means the geology is probably part of the reason these places are often haunted. One theory (see my post on Geology and the Paranormal) is that certain rocks with crystalline minerals seem to be imprinted with previous activities, minerals like quartz, amethyst, pyrites...and of course GARNET. However the imprint/residual theory doesn't fully explain why the activity seems to react to the presence of living humans by "turning off" when they come near, and resuming activity when the living leave.

Other accounts of Garnet's hauntings can be read about in accounts by Debra Munn (Montana Ghost Stories), Karen Stevens (Haunted Montana), and Ellen Baumler (Montana Chillers).

Baumler's account talks about tourists seeing the apparition of former store owner Frank Davey (see the photo of the Davey store from the Helena IR story below). Davey had a reputation as a grouchy old man, and lived there alone in Garnet in the three story hotel he owned until he died in 1947.

The ghosts sometimes reveal themselves in the summer, too. Park ranger Allan Matthews, who works for the Bureau of Land Management, knows this all too well. According to Ranger Matthews, on a recent summer day a volunteer was working at the visitor center. Three tourists - a woman and her two kids- came in and asked, "Who's that man over there, standing at the door of the icehouse, with his arms spread out funny?"

The volunteer looked in the direction of the icehouse, where old Mr. Davey stored his gold. She did not see anyone. The confused volunteer asked the family to describe him. One of the kids said, "He has white hair, and he's wearing a three-piece suit, and he looks really mean." Their mother nodded in agreement.

The volunteer shrugged and said that it was probably just another visitor. She did not want to scare them. She did not tell them what she knew... (Baumler, pp. 61-63)

Eliza Wiley, Independent Record: Allie Ocain, left, and Jennie Criswel of Oregon peek through the windows Frank Davey's General Store, where in its day you could buy everything from shoes to food.

Eliza Wiley, Independent Record: An advertisement for a mild sweet chew for 10 cents still hangs outside of Frank Davey's General Store.

Eliza Wiley, Independent Record: Marian Dahl lived in this log cabin lit by propane lanterns until the 1960's. The Dahl cabin is available for rent in the winter months through the BLM.

Eliza Wiley, Independent Record: The full moon lights up Garnet from an overview area. The Dahl cabin is for rent in the winter time.

Although part of the haunting is likely a residual imprint (the sounds connected to the geology of the site), it seems likely that Frank Davey may be an intelligent haunting, since the apparition seemed to react to the presence of the mother and her two children and seemed to be trying to scare them away. He had a reputation for being a cranky gent and not liking children in particular.

From the Garnet Ghost Town website:

The exact founding date of Frank A. Davey's store is unknown: however, it was one of the earliest in Garnet, built about 1898. Typical of western general stores of the time, Davey's store sold dry goods and shoes in the front, groceries and canned goods further back, and meat in the rear. The store boasted a hardware section, an office that weighed gold, and in the 1910's also functioned as a post office. The meat and other perishables were stored in an icehouse which also contained three secret compartments built into the back wall. There, gold would safely await shipment down the hill. The annex was added to the east side of the store to keep a supply of essentials such as flour and sugar. These items were only sold in emergency situations, a policy that angered many of the townspeople. ...Davey had received the patent for the Garnet Claim, so a majority of the town was built on his land. But it never made him rich. When he died in 1947 while out walking to one of his mining claims, it was the Elk's organization that buried him because his assets could not cover the cost. His belongings, along with the store items, were auctioned off in July of 1948. This officially marked the passing of Garnet into a ghost town. (http://www.garnetghosttown.net/dav_str.htm)

Learn more about Garnet at the Garnet Ghost Town website. The site has a cool aerial map and you can click on the individual buildings too...there are 21 of them. It's a great site! You can make arrangements to stay at Garnet too, through the BLM Field office in Missoula (406-329-3914) and the Garnet Preservation Association (406-329-3883). Online contact can made at their website: http://www.garnetghosttown.net/ There has also been an event known as "Garnet Day" at the town this last fall (2009), with someone even playing the role of Frank Davey! (see http://www.blm.gov/mt/st/en/info/newsroom/steward/09fall/garnet.html)

While writing this post, I noticed two things I want to remember.

1. Although the entire town has a reputation for odd noises, such as the sounds at the blacksmith shop and general horse and wagon noises, and the knocking at Moon's cabin, there are three buildings which seem to be the hotspots: The Wells Hotel, Davey's Store, and Kelly's Saloon. They are all adjacent and two of them (the hotel and the store) were last owned and used by Frank Davey. He also owned the Adams House, but there are no reports I could find as to whether it is considered haunted as well. His biography is here: http://files.usgwarchives.org/mt/granite/bios/davey.txt

Point to remember: I think it likely that Mr. Davey may be at the heart of the intelligent portion of the haunting of Garnet.

2. The Wells Hotel (one of the hot spots) has a direct connection to the old hotel at Bearmouth: "The J.K. Wells Hotel was erected in the winter of 1897 and was the most impressive building in Garnet. Mrs. Wells designed it after one she owned in Bearmouth" (http://www.garnetghosttown.net/wellshot.htm). It is interesting to note that Bearmouth also is the site of a reported haunting, as noted by Curran, in Hauck (p. 255): "The ghost of a man dressed in an old-fashioned black coat has been seen running from behind the general store here. The phantom runs directly into the hillside and disappears. He is thought to be the ghost of the owner of a hotel that once stood on the property."

Point to remember: Do a post exploring the connection between the Wells Hotel and the hotel at Bearmouth.

A few more sites on Garnet:
-More history- http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/cabinweb/garnet/garnet.html

Ghost Hunting at Garnet

Finally, Garnet has attracted attention from a few ghost hunters too.

For example, details of a ghost investigation in 2004 can be found at http://oldghostshome.com/garnet.html

(This source reports another possible haunting at the Montana Island Lodge at Salmon Lake, site of several legends including one that this place was supposed to be a former hideout for Al Capone (http://oldghostshome.com/lodge.html). One thing that is incorrect though: The famous chief Sitting Bull was not Flathead but Hunkpapa Lakota, and it is highly unlikely that Sitting Bull ever made it out to western Montana.)

"Paranormal Montana Blog" now available in hardcopy

2009-12-18T13:02:00.004-07:00

Given the fact that sometimes blogs have problems and get lost (I recently heard about someone who lost all their blog content) I decided to try the Blogbooker service to export this site's contents as a PDF file and then publish a hardcopy for myself through Lulu.com (I have been curious about POD, Publish On Demand, for a while now). So as an experiment I put together a copy of all the writing and images on this site, from its beginning until today (2007-2009). I just ordered a copy to see what it looks like but won't get it until after Christmas (the shipping was too much otherwise).

If you want a bound hardcopy of the materials on this blog (2007-2009) you can purchase a copy for yourself or for a friend or family member into the paranormal and/or Montana. Be aware, it was an automatically-generated PDF, so it isn't pretty at all, and it doesn't have any of the videos or music of course. But if you want the whole site in a format you can give to someone or keep for yourself, and aren't a design snob ;-), well, check out:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/paranormal-montana-blog/8102306

Un-Wired Week

2009-12-16T07:59:00.002-07:00

I have set the date for the experiment for "No Electronics for One Week in December: No TV, No Computer/Internet, No Music, No Games, No Cellphones." I begin this Saturday (Dec. 19) and continue until the following Sunday (Dec. 27).

The goal is not to be a luddite, but to clear the mental "palate," a mental "fasting" exercise if you will. Technology transforms us, not only our behavior and social interactions, but even how our brains are wired with the development and stunting of various neural pathways.

Not to mention all that constant bombardment from viral memes from mainstream culture...Many forms of meditation indicate part of the process of learning to meditate is recognizing just how many thoughts you have are not really your own!

Beginning Saturday morning, Dec. 19 and ending Sunday morning, Dec. 26, I will not watch any TV (regular, cable, or DVDs), no Internet, no computer, no video games, no cellphones (talking or texting), no bogging/twitter/facebook/red room, and no music (except for my own humming or singing to self as I slowly go mad :-))

As this is Christmas season and family is in town, I will allow regular phone calls from parents or my siblings on the landline, to allow for "hey, the kids are opening presents, come on over," but nothing over a minute or so, no chatting (I hate chatting on the phone for the most part anyways).

Also- no writing using the computer! At All!

Of all the stuff, for me the toughest parts will be no TV and no Internet, and no writing on the computer (!!). But this break is really about giving my media-soaked system a rest from all the nonsense. It'll be good for me. I know it.

So is anyone else up for it? Even a day or two?

I'll check back until Friday evening and then I'll be "running silent" until the following Sunday 27th).

Ghost Tech

2009-11-20T06:11:00.010-07:00

My group doesn't do the "Ghost Tech" approach. But when I told some folks making local commercials, about how I use the cable/Internet services, they wanted to do a commercial about our ghost investigations a couple of years ago. But they had ideas about these things. They supplied us with black caps and black t-shirts (with original logo!) and then taped some flashlights to our caps to make us look hi-tech and also provide lighting on our faces for the commercial (below). We don't dress like this normally, nor do we have lights on our heads. They were nice folks, but I got a peek at how TV and popular culture shapes, and continues to shape the "ghost hunter" phenomenon of the last few years.

Ghost Tech is the current fad for those interested in proving the existence (or not = debunking) of ghosts. Back in the 80s and 90s it was channeling (ala John Edwards, Sylvia Brown, etc.). My own stance as an anthropologist and folklorist is that ghosts and spirits, whatever they are, are a part of the human experience all over the world, and all throughout history.

Perhaps ghosts are indeed the essential soul of a human being, perhaps they are leftover "life-energy," perhaps they are psychological artifacts or misinterpreted sounds and other natural phenomena--- perhaps they are all of those things-- or none of them. But every culture and every era has something they call "ghosts" and "spirits."

Now the big thing is using technology in ghost investigations. This is not too surprising given the modern world's romance with technological doodads and religious belief in the absolute truth of science.

But technology is not the same thing as science. Technology is really a fancy name for a "tool," whether it is a physical tool or a particular way of accomplishing a physical task. A flint arrowhead from 20,000 years ago is technology and the way Indians drove buffalo off cliffs in hunting is a hunting technology. Contemporary technology is a PRODUCT of science, and, used properly, it can be a tool for scientific inquiry. But science is different; science is a particular methodological approach based on materialism and empiricism. What does that mean?

Science operates within the material world. Empiricism applies to things perceptible through our common human senses of the material world, not special abilities such as psychicism. It is possible there is a nonempirical reality, a reality beyond our physical senses but such a reality would not liable to measure using physical technologies as it would be nonempirical and not material.

If the subject is not material, it is not within the realm of science. Are ghosts material? If one believes ghosts are simply a form of energy that can be measured, such as electromagnetism, if that is one's base assumption, then yes, science is a proper avenue, as is using EMF meters -properly- in such investigations. If one believes ghosts are really immaterial, then science may not be the right tool-- although critical thinking may still apply, if one believes ghosts are approachable through the rational mind.

The problem is all these ghost hunter technologies have inherent problems on many levels. They are often used without knowing what exactly they measure (EMF meters are not ghost detectors, they only measure certain fluctuations in electromagnetic fields). Digital thermometers and photographing "orbs" and "vortexes" were all the rage a few years ago...until people found that the digital thermometers did not read the air just in front of you but the surface on the other side of the room...and that 99.99% of orbs were either dust, humidity, or raindrops caught in the flash against a darker background, and "vortexes" were camera straps too close to the camera's lens.

So the technology used by ghost hunters has changed again, from cheap digital photos, digital thermometers and EMF meters, to more expensive versions of the EMF and the new thermal imagers that cost in the thousands of dollars to get.

The thing that is pretty funny is that technology is no substitute for sound reasoning, good training, and critical thought. According to the current ghost hunting fad, let us compare two hobbyist ghost hunting groups (there are NO professional ghost hunters other than maybe a couple of the groups on TV shows- "professional" just means you make a living off doing something, not anything about your competence at doing it).

Group A investigates situations using nothing more than the tools of a detective or an oldschool field scientist: scientific methodology, analytical reasoning, human psychology, careful observation, research, notebook pen and paper, camera, etc. The investigation is long-term, over many months. There are no fancy caps or logo-emblazoned gear. Technology is used when warranted in particular situations to eliminate particular explanations.

Group B has no training in scientific methodology or critical thinking, but they have a big checkbook. They get "the look" with black gothic-looking gear and clothing, FLIR thermal imager, multistation cameras with computer nexus and bigscreen monitor, yards and yards of wiring, etc. There is no training or education in human psychology or scientific methodology. "Investigations" are nothing more than a one night "vigil" of trying to capture "something" on camera or through EVP work, etc.

Using the current cultural paradigm, which of the two groups is perceived as being the REAL, "professional" ghost hunters?

Group B of course. Mainstream culture is much more about the "image" than the "real deal."

Personally, I am not really into lusting after the latest hi-tech stuff because:

1.) it isn't all it is cracked up to be-- the stuff is misused all the time for tasks (ghost hunting) it was never designed for; every tech solution that is the current rage is found a year or two later to be not what it was promised to do. You just watch-- already FLIR and thermal imaging is facing reality checks when it comes to reflections, metal surfaces, etc.

2.) I don't have the money nor inclination to buy the high-dollar tech (thermal cams etc.) that seems to be all the rage just because they are "the lasest thing". Rent and food have higher priorities than trying to look "scientific" to someone who wouldn't know real scientific methodology from "bells and whistles" technophilia.

3.) I really don't think one can actually prove the existence of the spirit world (an immaterial realm) using a materialist paradigm, anymore than one can prove that the music of Beethoven is better than the music of Britney Spears using "science" (look up the word scientism)

4.) the big thing about the ghost hunting tech paradigm seems to be to "prove" the existence of ghosts and/or life after death (see #3)...human beings have been trying to prove or disprove life after death for hundreds if not thousands of years... a FLIR imager isn't going to do the trick either.

On a Desert Highway

2009-11-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

A true story.

When I was a young teen I was going with my parents and siblings down from Montana to California. This would have been in the mid-70s. I remember leaning my head back on the car seat and staring up at the stars through the rear window. We were driving through the Nevada desert after midnight on Highway 93. There was little traffic on the road, and we got lots of radio stations but none of them clearly. They were always fading in and out. The sky was clear straight above, and you could see all the stars, but the surrounding landscape was heavy with mists and clouds.

Ahead we saw a little light. Us kids needed a restroom break, and we saw it was a house-store with gas pump, and it was open. So Dad got some gas, and we went inside.

The older couple inside were very nice. There were lots of groceries and such, but what I remember were the stacks of used comics and shelves of penny candy and goodies. It was kind of poorly lit inside. There were no inside toilets, we had to go to the outbuilding where there was a lavatory. There was nothing you could really say pinned it down as far as date, but it seemed pretty much contemporary, maybe 1950s-1970s, but a very rural and Mom-and-Pop type of establishment. The two pumps were pretty modern type. The candies and comic books were of familiar variety.

We got a bunch of snacks and some comics, chatted pleasantly with the man and his wife, then took off down the road.

A few miles down the road, the mists began to clear. The radio was still the same though. The road was a lonely two-lane highway with not that many other cars. Very few in fact at that time of night. You would drive 5- 10 miles before seeing another in the distant open desert.

After our visit in California (we had relatives there), we drove back the same way, planning on stopping at the same place to get gas and snacks, and see the old folks again. As we came up on it, we saw it was still there as we remembered it. We stopped.

It was all boarded up and looked as if no one had been there for many years. The gas pumps were old and disused. The place was locked and quiet, cobwebs and trash on the porch entrance.

We just scratched our heads and continued home. What could we say?

Cryptozoology

2009-11-18T09:15:00.003-07:00

Everybody has different paradigms they are working with when considering cryptozoology. Many people are fervent adherents to one or another of these schools of thought, to the point of attacking the other schools.

Most people into cryptozoology fall into one of two camps. The majority fall into the “cryptids are all biological organisms that science just hasn’t confirmed yet” or biological school. The great successes of the coelecanth, the okapi, etc. are the poster children for this school. Bigfoot and his kin are just anthropoids we haven’t captured yet.

Then there is the minority of the two schools which is it’s mostly all hokum, deluded people with perception problems, aka the Skeptic school. Most people argue back and forth between these two schools of thought.

Then there are the other/fringe folks who don’t seem to post much here because both the Biology and Skeptic schools jump all over them. These would be the paranormalists, the folklorists, the conspiracy theorists, etc.

I think the “either/or” schools of thought have problems. Some cryptids are definitely either new species of animal or misidentified species of known animals (or “blobsquatches!). Some cryptids are folklore, stories handed down from a friend of a friend, and then touching off “experiences” by all-too-human witnesses in true error or fear or seeking attention. And some cryptids defy rational explanation (some of the Skinwalker Ranch “things” like the giant “wolf” and the “shape that crawled out of some other dimension”).

Now we could all be off our nuts, no doubt. The people who never doubt their sanity are the ones most likely insane. It is a good thing to suspect one’s own perceptions when encountering such anomalies.

But my own personal worldview is that there is a host of experiences, organisms and entities that have been conflated by popular culture and groupthink into something called “cryptozoology.”

Some are indeed biological animals. My own experience seeing what I have tentatively identified as a Shunka Warak’in in the museum in Ennis, Montana assures me of this (although certainly genetic testing would help). Some are misperceptions and misidentifications by the well-meaning. Some are hoaxes and jokes by the funsters and money/attention-hungry. And some are just reminders of the fringes of human knowledge, the kind of thing that Keel and Fort studied.

I enjoy the television show “Destination Truth” because I take it for what it is, rather than what it is not. It is entertainment. It takes me to places I will never go, seeing things I will never personally see. Ghosts, dwarfs, lizardmen, man-eating plants, who knows? It’s freaking -entertainment-, people! It is not science.

People confuse the use/misuse of technology with science all the time, whether it is cryptid hunters or ghost hunters. Technology is a tool but it is not science. Tools can be misused. Science is a way of seeing the world, empirically, with a particular methodological approach. "Ghost Hunters", "Destination Truth" etc. are lots of fun and EDITED experiences, but they are not science. The analysis of video is not a science. The analysis of hair and scat samples USE scientific methodology but are not infallible (Science if it is honest makes no pretensions to infallibility).

I guess I understand some folks' disappointment with "Destination Truth", because the Biology school is committed to that particular avenue of inquiry within their paradigm. Ghosts and sorcery don’t fit their interests.

But people should just take "Destination Truth" for a good time, learning about places and people and beliefs from faraway places. Like Josh Gates the host, I am also a trained anthropologist. I approach everything, including cryptozoology, from an anthropological/cultural paradigm. Some things (cryptids, ghosts, etc.) turn out to be based on physical organisms or empirical reality, but some things do turn out to be psychocultural and folklore. And some things are just mysteries.

After all, with apologies to Scooby Doo, mysteries are not necessarily and always to be solved…mysteries with a capital “M” are to be contemplated. I happen to like "Destination Truth" because it brings both mysteries and Mystery into the convenience of my living room

"The Bewitchin' Pool," Frau Holle, and the Mami Wata

2009-11-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

When I watched "The Hunt" episode from the Twilight Zone (a couple of posts ago), I noticed it had been written by Earl Hamner (of "The Waltons" fame). I also saw he had written a couple of other TZ episodes. The next one that caught my eye was "The Bewitchin' Pool," which was broadcast as the final TZ episode. Reading the comments, I saw people either really loved it or really hated it. Now I always liked the connection provided by Appalachian and Ozark traditions between American culture today and the old ways of Europe, so I watched it...

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After watching it, I thought, dang! That Aunt T... Yeah, she's a witch in a way, but not the Hansel and Gretel type. She's actually a goddess, known variously as Frau Holle, Holda, and Hulda, and others also connect her to Berchte or Perchta...or plain old Momma. She is best known to most in America through the tale "Frau Holle" by the Brothers Grimm. In that tale, she is noted as a spinner of cloth, a fastidious homemaker, and a bringer of the snow (when her feather bed is shaken). She is also a kindly granny who provides refuge to an ill-treated girl who falls into a well and ends up in the realm of Frau Holle.

"Holda (also known as Holle, Huld, and Frau Holle) is a Goddess from Northern Germany. Her name means “friendly, benevolent one” (in Old High German the word “Hold” meant benevolent or faithful) or “hidden one”. She is said to dress in white with keys on her belt. The keys were often worn by women who were head of their household to indicate their status. She is described as having ugly, big teeth, a big nose and a flat foot, which is a result of her love of weaving. The foot can flatten a due to the frequent pressing of the peddle on the loom. Her home is widely accepted to be Hohe Meissner mountain in Westphalia. She is said to dwell there in Kitzkammer cave where her cats live (who may be girls who Holda has turned into cats to live and work with her for a time as a consequence of their laziness) and have a lake known as Frau Holle lake where she keeps the souls of newborns and infants who die." (www.eplagarthrkindred.org/HoldaArticle.doc)

See the connection? The ill-treatment of the children by the parents, the kindly granny whose realm is reached by water and who provides refuge, the focus on chores and that in this case Aunt T works with needlepoint (akin to spinning). But there's more!

Holle Teich

Am Grunde eines kleinen Sees soll der Eingang zu Ihrem unterirdischen Reich liegen. Hier hütete sie die Seelen bis zu Ihrer Wiedergeburt. Aus der Tiefe brachte sie die Kinder in die Welt. Junge Frauen wurden schwanger, wenn sie Blumen in den See warfen oder darin badeten...

Der Frau Holle Teich mit seiner Holzskulptur der Frau Holle ist zum mythischen Mittelpunkt des Meißners geworden.

In jugendlicher Schönheit steht sie am Rande des Teichs. Der Sage nach soll Frau Holle hier ihr unterirdisches Reich gehabt haben. Hier brachte sie die Kinder aus der Tiefe des Wassers ans Licht der Welt, sodass noch bis in jüngster Vergangenheit Frauen mit Kinderwunsch kleine Opfergaben in den Teich warfen, um mit Kindersegen beglückt zu werden. Auch holte Frau Holle gerne spielende Kinder in die Tiefen des Teichs, um sie festlich zu bewirten und dann wieder nach Hause zu schicken.

Das von den Brüdern Grimm aufgezeichnete Märchen Frau Holle hat hier unverkennbar seinen Ursprung. Erstmals genannt wird der Frau Holle Teich 1641 in einer Beschreibung des Niederfürstentums Hessen als „Frauhollenbad“. Zuvor wurden die Geschichten rund um den Teich mündlich weitergegeben.(http://www.frau-holle-tor.de/frau-holle-land/maerchenhaft/holle-teich.html)

My German is pretty rusty but this is an approximate translation, using Babelfish, an old German dictionary, and my 30-year old high school German I learned from Frau Whitney (Danke sehr, meine Lehrerin!):

Frau Holle Teich (pond)

On the bottom of this small lake lies the entrance to her underworld kingdom. Here she guards the souls until your rebirth. Out of the depths she brings the children to the world. Young women would become pregnant if they threw flowers into it or bathed in it...

The Frau Holle pond, with its wood sculpture of Frau Holle, became the mythic center of the Meisners.

In youthful beauty she stands at the edge of the pond. The legend holds that Frau Holle has her underground realm here. Here she brought the children from the depths of the water to the light of the world, so that up until the recent past, women who wished to have children threw little offerings into the pond, in order to be lucky and blessed with children. Also kind Frau Holle gladly played with the children in the depths of the pond, in order to festively entertain them, and then again send them home.

The fairy tale "Frau Holle" noted by the Brothers Grimm has its recognizable origin here. Frau Holle's pond is described for the first time in 1641 in "Niederfürstentums Hessen" [a regional geography of Hesse] as "Frau Holle's Bath." Before that the history was passed on around the pond through oral tradition.

In many traditions, children are brought to our world from wells, ponds, lakes, rivers.

In Yorubaland, Nigeria, Africa, the Mami-Wata has much the same role as Frau Holle in this regard as a guardian and keeper of children's souls in the water. I went to Nigeria in 1996 through the sponsorship of Mike Warren, an American who had been appointed a chief through his marriage during Peace Corps service in Ghana to Mary Warren, a woman of chiefly lineage in Ara, Oyo State. Mary told us her parents had difficulty conceiving, so they made the appropriate prayers and sacrifices to the Mami-Wata ("water-mother," a river goddess), and in return, the Mami-Wata gave them one of her children for their own to raise, in this case, Mary. One recognizes these Mami-Wata children by the fact that until a certain age, one must not cut their hair, unlike other children. So in traditional Yoruba towns, when you see a pampered child with long dredlocks, I was told this is a sign the child is a gift of the Mami-Wata.

There is an additional layer of shamanic worldview here too. When Aunt T mentions the ways children get to her place, they are all liminal places, threshholds, "betwixt-and-between," traditional shamanic routes between the worlds. The swimming hole and the swimming pool are the same as the well and the pool in the Brother Grimm's tales. But she also mentions the other ways: coming down chimneys (passing between the upper and lower worlds), standing on a street corner (the crossroads), opening a door and there they are or on door steps (the threshhold between inside and outside).

"Mother Hulda is one of Germany's most durable female legendary figures and one who without doubt represents a pre-Christian heathen deity who survived in popular belief and in the memory of common people well into the nineteenth century" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Hulda). That included the American South of Earl Hamner's literary world as well...and the reality is it didn't end with the nineteenth century! There are plenty of people who still revere Frau Holle today, both in Europe and in the U.S.
Here is a YahooGroup dedicated to Frau Holle.

"The Bewitchin' Pool" also seems to have been a favorite episode of many kids going through rough times. See this fellow's essay about it.

By the way, to me Aunt T looks a lot like what I remember of my Great-Grandma Head, who died in the 1970s when I was a boy. Her family was from the South and her maiden name was ... HAMNER. She was a professional seamstress too...

Helena Ghost Walk cancelled through Halloween

2009-10-29T06:45:00.003-06:00

Due to my continued illness and tonsillitis, coupled with the cold weather, the Helena Ghost Walk is cancelled for Halloween week. It's not worth going to the hospital.

Due to Illness This Weekend's Helena Ghost Walks Are Cancelled

2009-10-22T22:10:00.002-06:00

Due to illness, this weekend's Helena Ghost Walks on Friday Oct 23 and Saturday Oct 24 are cancelled.

2009 Halloween Ghost Tours in Montana

2009-10-21T17:56:00.008-06:00

Here are some of the ghost-hunting events in Montana this month that I've heard about (if you have any more, please send them in!)-

BILLINGS

Karen Stevens, author of "Haunted Montana", is running tours in Billings. Her "Wild and Wicked Billings" ghost tours have already begun and will run Oct. 22-31, except for Sundays at 7,8,9 and later if needed. They use a minibus that holds 13 people and the tours last 1 hour or slightly longer. Cost is $20. The seats are filling fast, so if anyone will be in Billings this week or next and wants to go on a bus tour, call Renee Christiansen of Fun Adventures Tours at 406-861-8181 for reservations.

The Western Heritage Center in Billings is hosting a "Raising Our Spirits" ghosthunt on Friday Oct. 30 from 7-10 p.m. for $50. Two local ghosthunting groups (including Karen Stevens') will be there to show video and audio clips of eerie things that have happened on past investigations, then the guests will split into groups and take up stations around the building. The lights will go out and only the stairs will be lit by electric candles. It's wonderful spooky fun. This is the link to the information sheet. You can even stay at a haunted motel nearby, the Dude Rancher.

HAMILTON

Hawk Paranormal is teaming up with the Ravalli County Museum for a "Ghost Tour" on Halloween day. Tours will be at 1:00pm, 3:00pm, 5:00pm, and 7:00pm. They will also be conducting an investigation at the museum that night and are offering limited spots for those who want to come with us. The museum site will have all of the information up very soon at
http://brvhsmuseum.org/.

HELENA

Of course I will be doing the regular Helena Ghost Walks on Fridays and Saturdays. This year Halloween falls on a Saturday so that works out well. 8:00 pm on the north/parking lot side of the Lewis and Clark Co. Courthouse, by the Myrna Loy on Warren. $10 for adults, $5 for teens, kids free. Last year I did two tours but this year I am tired and will only do the one. Of course it might be a big crowd on that night, so remember if you prefer a quieter experience I do the walk on every Friday and Saturday night as long as 2 or more show up, even into November as long as the weather holds up. And I can also do a walk for a minimum of 4 people on a night if you want other than Friday or Saturday, but not Tuesday nights. Call me at 422-5911 if you want to set something up.

The Last Chance Tour Train is also partnering again this year with Ellen Baumler (author of "Spirit Tailings," "Beyond Spirit Tailings," and "Montana Chillers" (which I just reviewed in this blog). The dates are Oct. 27 and 28. The 30th is already full. Cost is $20. Call 406-442-1023 or toll free 888-423-1023 for more information. I have done the tour, it's fun, and it is a good loop through town in a heated trolley-bus, including a stop in a graveyard.

BANNACK

Bannack's wild past comes alive at its "Ghost Walks," co-sponsored with the Bannack Association. The ghosts of Henry Plummer, Chief Snag, Dutch John Wagonor and others come to life in this spooky and entertaining Halloween event. Reservations are required. Admission for adults $7.00, children under 12 $3.00. This event is not recommended for children under six years old. Bannack State Park is located 25 miles southwest of Dillon off of Highway 278. 7:00pm and 9:00pm, Friday, October 23, 2009 and Saturday, October 24, 2009. For reservations call 406-834-3413.

VIRGINIA CITY

Head to a place with safe Halloween trick-or-treating, gypsy fortune telling, apple bobbing, face painting, cookie decorating, ghost walk tours and a ride on the spooky train! This event is scheduled for two nights, October 30th - 31st. Costumes welcome. All Hallow Eve event is from 4:30pm - 9:00pm. Admission Prices: Ages 12 to Adult: $8.00, Ages 5-11: $6.00, Children 4 & under: FREE, Groups of 6+ $6.00. Train rides by reservations only. There is the Spooky Train for kids and the Terror Train for adults. Spooky Train (Kid Friendly): 5:30pm Cost: 5 and up $12, 4 and under Free. Terror Trains: 7:00pm and 8:30pm (Inappropriate for small children, no children under 10 on the Terror Train.) Cost: All Ages $18. The train ticket includes admission to the All Hallow's Eve event inside the Nevada City Museum. Ellen Baumler will be there on the 31st to do haunted tours of the Nevada City Hotel and other sites. Phone them at 406-843-5247 or Toll Free: 800-829-2969.

DEERLODGE

The event this year is the 5th Annual “Old Montana Prison Haunted House." All kinds of horrors will await you when they open up the prison cell block from 7 pm to 11 pm on Friday 30th October and Saturday 31st October. Admission is $5.00 per person (Not suitable for children under 10). But they add "Parents, before you have the living daylights scared out of you in the Haunted House, bring your little goblins over to the Pen Convention Center for our Halloween Kids Festival...with games, prizes, treats, fun." This event runs from 7-11pm on the 30th and 31st.

NOTICE: DISCLAIMER

Except for the Helena Ghost Walk, which I run myself, no claims are made about any of this info, which I gathered from off the Internet (Virginia City and Bannack), and from Karen Stevens and Hawk Paranormal. I am just providing the info as a courtesy to other folks interested in the paranormal. I am not associated with any of these events (other than the Helena Ghost Walk of course) and I receive no considerations of any kind (no money, no free tickets or anything).

If you DO go on any of these events, let us know about what you experienced! And if you have any more events, please add them in the comment box below.

Book Review: Montana Chillers: 13 True Tales of Ghosts and Hauntings, by Ellen Baumler

2009-10-19T23:17:00.002-06:00

Montana Chillers: 13 True Tales of Ghosts and Hauntings, by Ellen Baumler (author), Robert Rath (illustrator). Helena: Farcountry Press, 2009. 128 pages. $12.95.

Montana Chillers is Ellen Baumler's third book on hauntings in Montana, but this one is aimed at younger readers (about grade 5 and up). The stories are still true and based upon stories she has encountered during her work as historian for the Montana Historical Society.

Baumler has joined several ghost hunting groups in Montana and as a result offers her observations and thoughts based on her experiences in the introduction, in such sections as "What Are Ghosts?", "Playback, Active Spirits, and Dreams", "Active Spirits", "Dreams", "Ghost Hunters", and "Ghostly Evidence."

The stories and their locations in Montana are:

1 "The Harlem Hotel" (Harlem), where a haunted wheelchair does its own thing

2 "Spirit Horse" (farm just north of Twin Bridges), where a prophesy comes true in a horse named "Spokane" who becomes a legendary champion

3 "The Legend of the Boy Who Drowned" (former Great Falls Central High School, now Paris Gibson Square Art Museum, Great Falls), a story of an urban legend that takes on a life of its own

4 "The Ghost of Elling House" (Virginia City), a house where hospitality never dies

5 "Tommyknockers" (Coloma), about the spirits of a ghost town's restless miners

6 "Garnet Ghost Town" (Garnet), focusing on a store owner who liked to tease kids when he was alive...and after he was dead

7 "Haunted Bannack" (Bannack), focusing on the spooks of the Hotel Meade

8 "Secrets of the Montana Club" (Helena), the many odd incidents that add up to one mysterious building

9 "The Conrad Mansion" (Kalispell), the beloved home of Lettie Conrad, a hostess with the mostest, and now a ghostess (man that was corny!)

10 "The Mansion's Little Ghost" (Original Governor's Mansion, Helena), the "It" that lives in a closet and the little cat ghost that roams the house

11 "The Weeping Woman of Fish Creek" (Fish Creek area, near Missoula), a tragic haunting that began in a cabin that has returned to the elements...but the haunting persists

12 "Man in the Mirror" (Main/University Hall, University of Montana, Missoula), a retelling of the many stories of spooks in old Main Hall, and a mention of some of the other ghosts on campus

13 "Mystery of the Metal Coffin" (Clancy, near Helena)

Younger readers will really enjoy this collection of tales Baumler has collected and documented herself (some of which I have not heard before, such as the Clancy and Fish Creek stories), but older folks will too! The crisp illustrations by Robert Rath provide lots of eerie atmosphere.