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Otherworldly Encounters Archives

 

Haunted Roche Rock

Thursday May 8, 2008 8:20 AM

roche_rock.jpgIn the heart of Cornwall, England lies the Bodmin Moor, a sweep of flat, boggy land treacherous to cross even under the best of conditions. The moor has claimed many lives, and the ghosts of the unhappy dead drift about it at night. One of the most haunted places is Roche Rock, a huge jutting stone pinnacle flanked by two smaller outcroppings near Roche, south of the town of Bodmin.

Roche Rock is haunted by demonic spirits, mine spirits, a phantom monk and the ghost of a leper hermit. Its most famous ghostly resident is Jan Tregeagle, a thieving Cornishman who, according to legend, tried to outsmart the Devil and failed.

The rock is spooky enough in appearance but it is also unusual in composition, a factor that may contribute to its haunted nature. It was formed millions of years ago out of gray quartz and black tourmaline, distinctly different from other granite rocks in the area. Perhaps Roche Rock became a giant magnet for paranormal phenomena and supernatural lore.

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Ghosts in Fort Reno

Friday May 2, 2008 8:20 AM

Our latest reader submission comes from DH.

I belong to a group of paranormal researchers here in Oklahoma and the Fort Reno site is a frequent spot we visit. The fort was begun in 1874 and was a part of the Indian Wars era — it supported cavalry and infantry of the Buffalo Soldiers. It is also a part of the Chisholm Trail and in later years was an internment camp for German POW soldiers. I was with the group, touring the fort, and happened to be attracted to an area beside one of the old barracks. Several of the buildings are original to the fort and have been maintained to some degree. With recorder and camera in hand I asked, "Is there anyone here that would like to speak to me?" In my left ear, as clearly as listening to a friend talk, I heard, "Howard." Thinking it was one of the group playing a joke on me, I turned around quickly and everyone was quite some distance away. Every time I go into that same area I have a very physical reaction, chills and all my hair stands up, plus the sensation of someone standing by me. When I have the same physical reactions I usually get a photo or EMF activity.

I have picked up paranormal vibes for years. During one visit to the old schoolhouse at Ft. Reno we encountered very active EMF response in one room and the sudden smell of strong pipe tobacco. When one of the people said, "That's some cheap tobacco, it smells awful!" the EMF meter went nuts, almost as if someone was agreeing! I also captured a form in the basement of the commissary that has not been explained:

fort reno orb

I also had my last two fingers held by "someone," in the manner of a small child, in the same building. Anyone interested in the paranormal should check out Ft. Reno, a place that delivers the chills!

 
 

The Real "Rose Red"

Wednesday April 30, 2008 8:34 AM

Thornewood%20Castle.jpgThornewood Castle, an elegant bed and breakfast at Lakewood, near Tacoma, Washington, has attracted curiosity seekers ever since it served as the set for the Stephen King miniseries, Rose Red, in 2002. The castle boasts its own long history of ghosts, but a murdering house a la King it is not. Nonetheless, overnight guests often get plenty of frights.

Thornewood is a bona fide castle because of its parapet, but it looks more like an English-style manor house. That's no accident, for its original owner, Chester Thorne, was enamored with England and imported actual pieces of English castles and manor homes for its construction from 1911-14. Thorne, a rags-to-riches entrepreneur, set his majestic home on 100 acres on the shores of American Lake. A Quaker, he was renowned for his generosity.

But his family had a troubled history that left ghostly fingerprints in the castle, long after the original occupants were gone. After several changes of ownership, and a period in which the house was subdivided into apartments, its original glory has been restored. The current owners, Wayne and Deanna Robinson, operate it as a bed-and-breakfast, and are proud of its haunted heritage and its role in Rose Red and the sequel, The Diary of Emily Rimbauer.

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Sister in the Mirror

Friday April 25, 2008 8:15 AM

Our latest reader submission comes from LB.

When I was 8 years old I had a friend named "Julie." The house we lived in was never previously owned and my bedroom had a 6-foot mirror on a wall near my closet that was built in years before. "Julie" would ALWAYS show herself to me through the mirror when I would play near it.

I honestly do not remember the conversations we had except for one. About a year into the "relationship" with my new friend, She decided to "come out" of the mirror. She stood by my bed as I was playing with my dolls and said, as clear as a bell, "Tell my mom I said Goodbye." I was never scared of Julie, although I brought her up on many occasions to my parents. My mom started asking me to explain what she looked like in every detail, down to the clothes she was wearing, and My mom just stared at me. She knew something, and I always knew it. I never saw Julie after this, But she did come into my life again about four years later.

I was doing a project for history class on my family, so I was digging up old pictures and things to use. I came across a photo that looked all too familiar... It was Julie, I knew that instantly, I could never forget her face. I brought the photo to my mom and demanded she tell me who and what this was. She broke down. Julie was her daughter, my SISTER! My mother had been keeping a secret from me. Julie was born before me, she was the twin of the sister I have now... she died in a tragic Freak accident when she was 5 years old. My mother and older sister never brought it up, because they thought It would be too hard on me and since I was so young when I started seeing her, my mother did not want to "feed" my curiosity.

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The Bentwaters UFOs

Tuesday April 22, 2008 8:27 AM

bentwaters.jpgThey say that lightning never strikes in the same place twice, but that is not the case with UFOs. The Royal Air Force base located at Lakenheath-Bentwaters in England was the site of two significant UFO encounters spaced almost exactly 25 years apart. Witnesses at the NATO-affiliated air base reported the first incident in 1956. On the night of August 12th of that year, unidentified objects were spotted in the base's air space. The next night, things got really interesting. A transport pilot flying near the base reported seeing a number of lights in the sky. Controllers in the air tower at the Bentwaters base also observed these unidentified lights as they passed near their location. Base radar confirmed that something was in the skies that night, and it clocked the unidentified objects as flying at an astounding 2,500 miles per hour.

This would have been extraordinary enough, but then a stationary object was sighted hovering just outside of the base. There was enough concern over this object that a Venom night-fighter jet was deployed to investigate. As the fighter jet approached it, the stationary object leapt into motion, rapidly accelerating to supersonic speeds. The UFO seemed to be taking evasive action, zipping here and there in the sky with the fighter jet struggling to keep up. The chase lasted for over 30 minutes, and before it was over, the UFO had turned the tables on the jet, whose pilot had to initiate some evasive maneuvers of his own to get the object off his tail. Running low on fuel, he landed, and a second jet was sent into the skies after the thing. This Venom fighter quickly developed instrument problems, however, and was rapidly grounded. The UFO left shortly afterward, as mysteriously as it had arrived.

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He Just Wanted His Thigh Bone Back

Friday April 18, 2008 8:29 AM

thighbone.jpgIt's said in folklore that the dead will come back to take care of unfinished business. Sometimes that business is very strange. Take the case of a drowned man who would not rest until he got his thigh bone back.

The case, documented in scientific literature, took place between 1937 and 1940 in Iceland. Hafsteinn Bjornsson, one of Iceland's most famous trance mediums, was conducting a series of seances. Suddenly an uninvited ghostly visitor appeared and in a grouchy manner said, "I am looking for my leg. I want to have my leg." The leg, he said, was "in the sea."

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The Curse of Dudleytown, Connecticut

Thursday April 17, 2008 8:25 AM

dudleytown.jpgThere's a very strange place in Connecticut. If you attempt to go there, the State Police will fine you $75 or more. Dudleytown, as it's called, no longer exists as a "town." Instead, you'll find only the foundations of old buildings grown over with foliage and dominated by trees. According to legend, the area inherited a curse from three brothers who brought it with them from England.

A curse was allegedly born in 1510 when Edmund Dudley was beheaded for an attempted overthrow of King Henry VIII. During the beheading, a curse was spoken against the Dudley family and stated that every Dudley in Edmund's lineage would find themselves "surrounded by horrors." Two more generations of Dudleys lost their heads. In 1748 Gideon Dudley, a descendent of Edmund Dudley, settled in the area of Connecticut that would later bear his name. Several years later his two brothers Barzillai and Abiel joined him. In fact, Dudleys came from all over to live in this dark forested land — and the town's name eventually followed. There were about a hundred residents at most. Dudleytown was not an official town, however, but part of the township of Cornwall. The name mostly played on the fact that the area had attracted a lot of Dudleys.

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Hampton Court Haunting: Evidence of a Ghost or Evidence of a Hoax?

Tuesday April 15, 2008 8:23 AM

hampton court ghostIn 2003, security staff at Hampton Court in London, a 16th century palace once home to King Henry VIII, reviewed closed-circuit security footage after fire alarms went off near an exhibition hall with no apparent cause. Upon viewing the tape, guards witnessed two heavy doors open by themselves and then moments later a cloaked figure appeared in the doorway to slam them shut. The camera caught the doors opening on their own at the same time the day before and at the same time the day after but the alleged apparition was only caught once. Security guard James Faukes said that "It was incredibly spooky because the face just didn't look human." Australian tourists claimed to have seen a similar figure in that same area. Palace staff affirmed that tour guides of the Hampton Palace do not enter that area nor do they wear costumes that resemble the clothing worn by the figure. Ever since this footage was released, the content has been a source of extreme debate between skeptics and paranormal enthusiasts. While some paranormal experts dismiss the footage as a hoax, others call it a major paranormal discovery. Common arguments from skeptics of the footage note that the camera seems to move as if someone is holding it and that the person would have been able to push the doors open to give the allusion that they opened on their own. Defenders of the video cite that the fire alarms went off on three separate occasions due to these doors opening and the figure was not seen in the doorway two of the three times.

The Hampton Court, built in 1525, has long been subject to claims of paranormal activity. Some people have even asserted that the figure seen in 2003 resembles King Henry VIII, who married six times and was the father of Queen Elizabeth I. Other stories of haunts in Hampton Palace include the ghost of Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry, who was charged for adultery and placed under house arrest. After escaping the guards and begging Henry for her life, she was executed. There is also the ghost of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife who died in childbirth, who has been seen walking through the courtyard holding a lit candle. Then there is the ghost of a woman in grey who some people connect with Sibell Penn, the nurse of Edward, Henry's only son. Finally, the apparition of a dog has been spotted several times in and around a closet known as the Wolsey closet.

 
 

The Haunted Southeast

Tuesday April 1, 2008 8:19 AM

seghosttours.jpgIf you're like me when traveling, one of the first things you pick up in a welcome center is a ghost tour brochure. Of course, some tours are rather silly and others are just boring — so it's best to do a little research to find the good ones. I have found that some of the best places in the country to partake in a worth-while ghost tour are in the southeastern United States — and the following cities are definitely must-tour zones.

Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina is one of the most gorgeous cities in the country and it's also overflowing with ghost tales. The weight of the city's history feels heavy as you progress down the streets, past the shops and beneath the palmettos toward The Battery. With a very distinct sea-town feel, you half-expect a swarm of pirate ships to appear on the watery horizon.

Charleston was first settled after Charles II of England was restored to the British throne following Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate. Charles granted the chartered Carolina territory to the Lords Proprietor in 1663. The first settlement was Charles Town, seven years later. Charles Town was frequently attacked from sea and from land, receiving assaults from Spain and France, Native Americans and pirates.

• Take this Tour: Bulldog Tours

While there are several good companies for ghost tours in Charleston, you're going to get the best stories on this one. You have your choice of five different tours — not just one. Plus, you'll get access to locations that other tours don't offer such as the haunted dungeon and city jail.

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Ghosts in a New Orleans Bar

Thursday March 27, 2008 8:42 AM

Our latest reader submission comes from PS.

My sister lives out in New Orleans, she's been out there for many years, and if you know New Orleans it's the Witch Craft, voodoo, hoodoo capital of the world. I went out in 1998 to visit her as I hadn't seen her for many years. I booked a flight out with a friend, we get to New Orleans and it was breathtaking. My sister picked us up at the port and drove to a place in Slidell; they live on the island, now taken out by Hurricane Katrina. We pulled up to a bar called Cap'n Ryans, which my new brother-in-law proudly owns. It was a nice little bar, and upstairs was their living quarters, a big four-bedroom suite.

The first night was strange sleeping in a strange place you are awake at every little noise. And there was a lot of noise, first the scraping on the ceiling like something was being dragged. It was soft at first [so] I tried to ignore it, but it kept getting louder, so I got out of bed and flicked in the light. The noise stopped. I looked at the ceiling — nothing. I thought maybe there were mice in the attic.

Turned off the light crawled back into bed, not two minutes later there was scratching at the door. I got out of bed again opened the door to see if my sister's dog wanted in — there was nothing there. OK now I'm up and alert. I went into the living room to check things out: nothing. Went to the bedrooms; everyone was sleeping. The dog was on the deck, sleeping. I got a drink of water and went back to bed; it was about 2:00 am or so.

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Sex With A Ghost!?

Wednesday March 26, 2008 8:15 AM

adam blai succubusSome ghosts want to do more than say "boo!" — they want to cuddle up in bed for a little extra curricular activity. No body? No problem! You can't see them, but you can certainly feel them — and it's not your imagination. Yes, it sounds improbable, even impossible. But spectral sex has been documented for centuries.

Understandably, people are often reluctant to talk about such experiences. It's hard enough to admit seeing a ghost, let alone having an encounter with a randy one.

What happens in a sex-with-a-ghost encounter? Perhaps you stay in a haunted place, go to sleep, and then wake up with a jolt when an invisible weight comes down on the bed. You have a distinct impression that a person is there — someone you may or may not see. Perhaps you realize that the presence is a ghost.

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Catholic Church Prepares to Battle Rising Cases of Possession

Friday March 21, 2008 8:40 AM

pope.jpgOne in every 10 Catholics in the United States has either witnessed or been part of an exorcism. It's not just an American trend — exorcisms are experiencing a revival the world over, particularly in Catholic traditions. A priest in Queensland, Australia disclosed the he currently performs an exorcism at least once every two weeks. The number of trained exorcists has doubled over the past five years in Poland. In Italy, around 400 Catholic exorcisms have taken place over the past two decades, and that's not even counting the people requesting church assistance who did not receive help. According to Father James LeBar, exorcist for the Archdiocese of New York, "Ten years ago I had no cases and now I have three hundred." As recently as last December, Pope Benedict XVI organized "exorcist squads" to tackle the rise of Satanism and demonic possession. The rise of demonic possession has apparently soared over the past 20 years and even more so in recent years. What's behind this dramatic rise in the number of performed exorcisms?

According to Father Thomas Williams, Dean of Theology at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, "There may be two reasons. One is that there's an increased interest in the occult, even in Satanism. Where I live in Italy, Satanic worship is actually on the rise. And this is true for a lot of places in Europe. And the second reason I think is because people are less careful. Honestly, they maybe pray less. They play around with things they shouldn't play with, and then they get into trouble... Anyone can be possessed, but I think you really have to open yourself up to it. You have to be un-careful. And I think the spiritual demons, or bad angels, do exist, and I think it's an extreme thing, but it happens sometimes." Williams also admits that "...many things that in the past that were considered demonic possession or demonic influence were really just diseases or psychological problems." Some of these include Tourette Syndrome, schizophrenia and epilepsy.

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Haunted Hotel Maison de Ville

Monday March 17, 2008 8:27 AM

hotel maison de villeA lot of things in New Orleans are haunted, and the Hotel Maison de Ville is no exception. The Maison de Ville was built in 1800 as a two-story house before it was converted into a hotel. An early resident, apothecary Antoine Amedee Peychaud, is credited with inventing the very first cocktail. Another famous resident was Tennessee Williams, who wrote A Streetcar Named Desire while living at the hotel.

Cottage number four of the Maison de Ville is thought to be haunted. An employee of the hotel once led a guest into the room and saw the ghost of a soldier standing in the corner. She looked again and the ghost was gone, but whenever she leaves classical music playing in the room, she returns to find the volume turned up and the station changed to country music. Guests have also reported seeing wet footprints and mysterious figures dressed in vintage clothing.

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The Reptilians — Extraterrestrials or Subterraneans?

Thursday March 13, 2008 8:16 AM

In the strange world of extraterrestrial experiencers, the short "greys" with big black bug eyes aren't the only game in the universe. The "reptilians", lizard-like creatures with human features, are second to the greys in frequency of reported contact.

Some of the reptilians — also called reptoids — are friendly, some are not so friendly, some are downright hostile — and some are amorous. Many people have reported enjoying intimate relationships with seductive lizard beings.

If that sounds bizarre, it's just one of the many dimensions of the weird in ET contact. Clearly, however, humans seem to be having genuine experiences with otherworldly beings.

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Ghosts of Penn State

Thursday March 13, 2008 8:15 AM

oldbotany.jpgMaybe every old university campus has a collection of ghost stories. The Paranormal Research Society is very proud to call Penn State University home and therefore, has a special relationship with the creepy tales of University Park campus.

Penn State University has long been the land of The Nittany Lion. Before the Nittany Lion, however, was "Old Coaly." Penn State bought this real-life mule for $190 in the 1850s after he proved his excellent work ethic while hauling stones that went to construct the original buildings at University Park campus. Impressed with the mule, Penn State made him an informal mascot for 30 years until he died on January 1st 1893. Students and staff adored him. After the mule's death, his remains were put on display in Old Main, a building that Coaly helped to build. In the early 1900s, the campus caught fire and Coaly was saved and subsequently moved into the basement of Watts Hall. Following the move, students and staff began to report that a mule was standing outside the storage door. Others only heard the braying of a mule. During the 1960s, Coaly's body was moved to the Agricultural building and the same types of reports continued in the new location. Today Coaly can be found in the HUB Robeson Center.

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The Winchester Mystery House

Monday March 10, 2008 8:21 AM

winchester mansionSarah Pardee was a bright and beautiful young woman on the New Haven, Connecticut social scene when she married William Wirt Winchester, the head of the firm that produced quick-loading rifles, in 1862. At the height of the Civil War, the duo had a large fortune at their disposal. In 1866, the couple's newborn daughter died, and in 1881, William died from pulmonary tuberculosis. Sarah inherited $20 million, received 48.9% of the company, and an income of $1,000 a day.

Sarah was rich, but drowning in grief. She sought out a Spiritualist medium, who warned her that a curse had been laid on the family, a result of the deaths attributed to the Winchester family product. She was told to sell her home and head west. Once there, she was to build a home for herself and the angry spirits, a house that could never be finished. If she stopped building the house, she would die.

In 1884, Sarah found a home on a 162-acre plot and for the next 36 years she built. She kept a contingent of carpenters working all day year-round, building and rebuilding, changing and tearing down section after section of the house. Railroads were diverted to stop directly at her house with building materials and furnishings. Rooms, wings, doors, towers, peaks, elevators, fireplaces and more were added, removed and added again. Staircases led nowhere, doors opened to walls, trapdoors expanded, doors opened to steep drops. The number 13 appeared everywhere, in panes of glass, sections, windows, steps and elsewhere. The odd, ever-growing and mysterious home served no practical purposes, but it served Sarah's overarching goal — confuse and block angry spirits.

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The Lady from Heaven

Friday March 7, 2008 8:26 AM

fatima.jpgThe sky was clear near the Cova da Iria on the afternoon of May 13, 1917. The Portugeuse countryside was idyllic. Then there was a flash in the sky and a figure appeared. The figure was a woman robed in white and, in the words of one witness, she was "radiating a light more clear and intense than a crystal cup filled with sparkling water, lit by burning sunlight." Over the next six months, the figure would appear, often just after the sky flashed as if with lightning. She would depart by rising into the sky. That was where she was from, after all.

The lady, witnessed first by three children ranging between the ages of seven and ten, was identified as none other than the Virgin Mary. The apparitions, which took place on the thirteenth day of the month from May to October, were eventually witnessed by thousands. Beyond the rural village of Fatima in Portugal, Europe was torn asunder by the violence and bloodshed of the First World War. And according to the children, the Virgin had appeared to help the world repair its ways and seek peace.

When the Lady of Fatima first appeared to young Lucia dos Santos and her two younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, they already knew that she must be from Heaven. In the spring of the previous year, an angel had appeared to them three times. Like the benevolent Lady, he, too, had been clothed in shining robes and he possessed a dazzling beauty that words could not easily express.

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Haunted OR?

Wednesday March 5, 2008 8:19 AM

Our latest reader submission comes from LM in Nashville.

I am a Surgical Technician and work in a hospital in Nashville TN. I have had several unexplained occurrences in the O.R.s I work in. One room in particular seems to have many things that happen and is the room I am in the most. Usually when these things have happened I have been by myself and had no one to back me up. Items would fall off the tops of carts and off shelves. I have always thought that maybe they were just not sitting up there right and fell out. Sometimes, though, it seems that certain items can sit in the shelves all morning long with no problem and then they just fall out. Well, I discounted most of these things as probably not paranormal.

One day I was scrubbed in for a case and was setting up for it, and the RN and I started counting my sponges I had on my table. As I was counting them, one of the light handle covers that were sitting in the middle of my table just flew up and over off the back end of the table and hit the floor. It is green in color and we both saw it go up in the air and then heard it hit the floor. We both looked at each other stunned! I said to her, "You saw that right?" and she said "YES!" I looked back and could not figure how it had done that. It did not roll off, it had been sitting in the middle of the table no where near the edge, it went up in the air over a stack of towels and a pan of instruments off the back of the table. At the moment, I actually was not scared but thrilled that someone was in the room and witnessed it with me when it happened, and I thought it was an amazing thing to do, whoever did it.

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The Maury Island UFO Incident

Wednesday March 5, 2008 8:08 AM

maury islandMost people consider the Roswell UFO incident in July of 1947 to be the first reported UFO sighting in the United States. What they don't know, however, is that three weeks earlier, a UFO sighting was reported near Maury Island in Washington State. Harold Dahl and his son and dog were on a boat in Puget Sound Harbor looking for floating logs when they saw a formation of six doughnut-shaped objects in the sky. Five of the objects surrounded the sixth, which seemed to be experiencing a mechanical failure. When one of the UFOs swooped in and touched the ailing UFO, there was an explosion. Debris rained down over Dahl's boat, injuring his son and killing his dog. The explosion appeared to have fixed the mechanical failure, and all six UFOs flew away and out of sight.

After taking his son to the emergency room, Dahl told his boss, Fred Crisman, what had happened. The next day Dahl got a visit from a man in black, who told him not to tell anyone what he had seen. Meanwhile, Crisman went out to the site and collected some of the debris as evidence, and he saw one of the UFOs that Dahl had described. Kenneth Arnold, a notable UFO eyewitness himself, flew out to look at the debris and some photos Dahl had taken of the incident, but Dahl claimed that the photos had come out spotted, as though affected by radiation.