Friday 26 September 2014

GHOST CAPTURED IN YARD OF NEW MEXICO POLICE STATION?

Officers at a police station in New Mexico believe they are dealing with more than just criminals.

One cop at the post in Espanola believes he came in contact with a ghost on Saturday night - and has video evidence to prove it.

Officer Karl Romero was stationed in the surveillance room monitoring the CCTV cameras when he noticed something moving in the gated area.

Romero claims that a spirit-like creature could be seen moving across a sally port, which is a controlled entryway completely sealed off.

Detectives say there is no way in or out of the secured area without the gates opening and an alarm sounding.
'I do believe in ghosts,' Ramero said.
'I don't know (what it was on the video), but we've had some unsolved murders in the area.'

The CCTV footage shows a murky image moving across the sally port.
Ramero believes it clearly shows something with legs.
Other officers say they have witnessed unexplained occurrences and sometimes felt as if someone was breathing on them.

Wednesday 24 September 2014

HAUNTED 16th CENTURY MOAT HOUSE IN TAMWORTH FOR SALE

The famous Moat House in Tamworth - comes with resident ghost!

A haunted West Midlands pub that once served as a lunatic asylum for local women is up for sale.

The famous Moat House in Tamworth was built by the noble Comberford family in 1572.

The family entertained Charles I at the Tudor-built property in August 1619 while he was Prince of Wales.

Since then the building has served as an asylum’ for women, a restaurant and it is now available on a new lease with vacant possession.

Legend has it that the Moat House has a resident ghost called Emily, a young girl who has spooked many staff and customers over the years.

The pub offers a spacious bar and restaurant, library, separate function room, extensive gardens and car parking for over 80 cars.

It is being sold by specialist agent Christie & Co from its Birmingham office for an undisclosed sum.

Below are two videos which illustrates the internal parts of the structure together with interviews of staff and others who have experienced paranormal activity.

Videos (c) Chris Ward and S.P.I (Serious Paranormal Investigations)





Story source: BirminghamMail


Friday 19 September 2014

THE HAUNTED SENATOR JOHN HUMPHREY HOUSE

The Senator John Humphrey House in Orland Park, Illinois is not only a historic location, but also a rare haunted location in Illinois for the fact in all this time, only one family has lived in the home. The John Humphrey family.

A historic family at that and one that kept the home in the family until it was turned over to the Orland Historical Society in 1987 with the death of the youngest Humphrey family member, John. That is why this haunted historic home is more special, as some location owners claim to have what they call 'a haunted house family' with out the true knowledge of who the family consists of in the home as there were more then one family that occupied the other homes.

The home was built in 1881 by John Humphrey and was the 2nd house built in Orland Park. I was drawn to the Humphrey House in 2007 and until then it was not know to the public as a haunted location. Walking in to the home I knew it was active, how active, I did not know. I did learn one thing that no one in the paranormal field knew at the time or until I made it public, is that Senator John Humphrey House has a major tie to Bachelor's Grove Cemetery.

The Senator John Humphrey Family consisted of: John Humphrey and first wife Amelia and children: Libby (died within 11 months), Wilt (oldest child and lawyer), Lillian (died as a child), Thomas (died as a child), Clara, Mable (died as a child), and Maude. Amelia (1st wife) died in 1894.

Senator Humphrey then married in the same year the secretary and assistant in his law office, her name was Ida. Senator John Humphrey and Ida had one child, his name is John and he is the one that willed the Senator Humphrey House to the Historical Society.

The house has paranormal activity.  I have had three paranormal teams and another Spirit Feeler with one team at the location and they confirmed what I already knew, that spirits are there and active. A couple of other teams have done their own investigations at the location and the paranormal activity held up without any questions about it.



There was one team of three men I was told about by the Historical Society President. The three guys making up the team came running down from the second floor screaming like young teenage girls seeing a mouse. That was kind of the last of the investigation teams being allowed to investigate the home on their own. It has been proven to have activity by investigation teams in the past and the hundreds of experiences by individuals during my Supernatural and Paranormal Nights held during all these years at the location.

The Senator John Humphrey Family consisted of: John Humphrey and first wife Amelia and children: Libby (died within 11 months), Wilt (oldest son and lawyer), Lillian (died as a child), Thomas (died as a child), Clara, Mable (died as a child), and Maude. Amelia (1st wife) died in 1894. Senator Humphrey then married in the same year the secretary and assistant in his law office, her name was Ida. Senator John Humphrey and Ida had one child, his name is John and he is the one that willed the Senator Humphrey House to the Historical Society.

Senator John Humphrey died in 1914, Ida lived until the 1950's and something rare for that time frame was done when she died. John the youngest child had her waked at the home. Being waked in the home was a practice of the past and a few of the Humphrey family members were waked in the house, in the location that I have always held my 'Circle of Energy' Spirit Communication Sessions. Ida being waked in the home in the 1950's was something that was very rare.

But baby John as I call him, do to the fact he was the youngest child, he had a practice of his own that was a bit on the unusual. He owned the coffin he was going to be buried in when he died and kept it at the Humphrey House when he moved back there after his mother's death.

Baby John while alive, found comfort in sleeping in the coffin that one day would be his final resting place. Also as one explores the home, they will come across an old rocking horse in the children's bed room, that was baby John's horse. There is a photo of John on it when he was a child in the book 'The Orland Story'.

I will get in to the Bachelor's Grove in a moment, as I want to say that the house is the one most active 'private residence homes' that I have been in. I been in one that was a farm up in North West IL and a couple others out of state that are open to the public. As I stated earlier, there is no doubts of who the family is providing the activity in the Senator John Humphrey House.

At one time I was holding paranormal nights at the location, this year (2014), I have been holding what I call 'Supernatural Nights, Workshops and Spirit Communications all done on

the same night. In 2014 I have been allowed access to an empty room known as the playroom, a room that was a storage area in the past. This has become the most active room at the location and is the room I now use to help open individuals open up to feeling the emotions of the spirits or those emotions that have remained in the room by the children of the past.

The only access to this playroom it is during my Supernatural Nights there. It will also be the room that on November 1st 2014, a Special Spirit Communication Night (is All Saints Day), will be held in that room.

The Senator John Humphrey family has a couple major ties to the haunted Bachelor's Grove Cemetery and I was happy to be the able to let the Chicago paranormal field know of the connection and at times I wonder if it was a mistake do to the behavior of some individuals.

John Humphrey and first wife Amelia first child 'Libby' died at 11 months old. Mrs. Humphrey's family (Patrick), had a family plot and family buried at Bachelor's Grove Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey had Libby buried with Mrs. Humphrey's family members at Bachelor's Grove, as the Humphrey family did not own a family plot.



The question even asked by some of the officials of the Historical Society, is Mrs. Amelia Humphrey who was found dead in the house in March of 1898 and buried at a different cemetery then her first child Libby and is buried at Bachelor's Grove Cemetery. Could Mrs. Humphrey be the woman and child seen at Bachelor's Grove?

There is almost no doubt that she is, as I and others have used a specific paranormal tool for communication that has stated the fact that Amelia is the Madonna of Bachelor's Grove Cemetery.

There has been some very bizarre claims made about the 11 month old infant Libby running, talking, following a new adult old male friend to his home from Bachelor's Grove.. Let me say I have been tied to the Senator John Humphrey House since 2007 and with the historical society. I have also been in the eye since the year 2000 doing what I do and even wandering around Bachelor's Grove Cemetery in 1974.

Libby was 11 months old, most likely just learning to walk and hardly talking if at all and all depending on the child's health, considering the young age she died.

It is of no one's belief of those who are part of the Orland Historical Society or any working connection with the Historic Site including my self (Edward Shanahan), that there is any possibility of any spirit (be it from a cemetery or this family home), following any individual(s), to their home so that the spirit be it a child or an adult can have a relationship with the individual. Nor is it recommended to publish such claims about the Senator John Humphrey family.

The next open house for the Senator John Humphrey House is Sunday Oct. 12th, 2014 2pm - 4pm and I will be present to assist the Historical Society and talk about the paranormal history of the location.

Story: Edward Shanahan

Source: ChicagoNow

Further Reading:

Bachelor’s Grove: The Most Haunted Graveyard in North America


Wednesday 17 September 2014

HAUNTED SCOTTISH CASTLE SOLD FOR ONE MILLION POUNDS



Kevin Maley, a partner with Strutt & Parker, Inverness, tells OPP Connect, “Castle Grant was launched to the market in the spring and generated a significant amount of interest from buyers across the globe including America, Australia, Russia and Singapore.

“Those who did view the castle were fascinated by the history of it and the fact that it was purportedly haunted by the ghost of Lady Barbara Grant, not to mention the misfortune of many of the previous owners.

“The new owner is already planning on spending a significant amount on refurbishing the castle and grounds and it is reassuring to know that the ancient, ancestral seat of the Chiefs of the Grant Clan is in safe hands.”

Castle Grant was repossessed by the Bank of Scotland last year and was bought by Mr Whyte and his then wife Kim or £720,000 in 2006, media reports say.

The 35-acre Castle Grant grounds include a landscaped loch. It is the former seat of the Clan Grant chiefs of Strathspey in Highlands, and was originally named Freuchie Castle, but was renamed Castle Grant in 1694.

Lady Barbara Grant was the daughter of a 16th-century laird. She is said to have died of a broken heart after being imprisoned in a hidden closet for falling in love with the wrong man and legend has it that she died there of a broken heart.

Witnesses later claimed to have seen her ghost coming through the door of the closet, stopping and appearing to wash her hands, before disappearing through the door of the tower.

Story: opp-connect


GHOSTLY ACTIVITY CAUGHT ON CCTV AT BARNSLEY ANTIQUES CENTRE?

 Business partners Danny Parker, 42, and Rachel Archer 38, noticed splinters of glass all around the floor.

Danny, 42, of Arthur Street, Pogmoor, checked the cctv establish who or what had smashed a large display cabinet,

And he was left freaked out by what he saw. He said: "I spent hours that night freezing the footage frame by frame on my laptop and suddenly two ghostly faces appeared.

"A split second later the glass exploded."

The unexplained activity happens from around 20 seconds in to the video.

Story: BarnsleyChronicle

Saturday 13 September 2014

HAUNTED & NOTORIOUS MOSCOW AND ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Here is a compilation from various sources of two very haunted Russian cities.
Without doubt, Russia has a fascinating if not bloody history that is the stuff of legends connected to the paranormal.

MOSCOW




Little remained from ancient Moscow, except for the Kremlin. Ghosts love the Kremlin.  From time to time, a red spot appears on the walls of Konstantino-Eleninskaya tower where a torture chamber was located in XVII century. A pale uncombed lady holding a gun in her hands, lives in Komendantskaya tower. This is famous Fanny Kaplan who attempted to kill Lenin and who was executed by shooting by Kremlin’s superintendent Malkov.

A terrifying shadow of Ivan the Terrible is walking on the bell tower named after Ivan the Great. Czar Dmitry Pretender appears on the Kremlin’s wall. Last time he was seen there in August 1991. The might-have-been czar was gesticulating and giving some signs to people. The prophecy was understood only in the morning, after a coup happened and the plotters read their address on the radio.

And the ghost of Stalin’s special services chief Ezhov is not interested in politics. He just walks around the Patriarch Chambers where his apartments were located before. Even in the corridors of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses one can encounter semi-transparent figures dressed in shrouds.  Don’t think that they are deputies who were exhausted to death at the boring Congresses! At one point, there was a cemetery here, and the souls of the dead people are indignant about the sacrilege.

Lenin is also thought to be a frequent ‘guest’ in the Kremlin. According to some historians, Lenin’s ghost was first seen by a security chief in October 1923, even though he was still alive at that time (he died three months later). The official wondered why Lenin came with no guards accompanying him, but he was told on the phone that in fact Vladimir Ilich was in Gorky at that moment.

Later, other witnesses came forward who saw Lenin in the Kremlin that night. And discrepancies in their accounts have only added to the mystery. Lenin was very ill at the time and couldn’t walk without a stick and moved very slowly, but those who claimed they saw him in the Kremlin that night said he had no stick and was walking very quickly.



But Joseph Stalin remains the most frequently seen Kremlin ‘shade’. Some say his ghost wants to ‘establish order’ in the country, and thus usually appears when Russia is hit by deepest crises. One of the signs that Stalin is stalking the Kremlin, legend has it, is when the room suddenly gets cold.


The Mysterious Black Cat on Tverskaya

Moscow’s central street, Tverskaya, where a black cat is said to appear at midnight. Sceptics say that it is not a ghost but an ordinary stray cat, of which there are a great many in Moscow, and it is only natural that the animal chooses night-time for its promenade: The street is not so busy at night. Critics also say there must be several black cats, not just one.

Local residents claim that the cat does, indeed, exist, appearing at midnight, walking around and then disappearing into thin air. This ghostly inhabitant of Tverskaya Street is known not just in Moscow, but also far beyond Russia’s borders: it is mentioned in Britain’s Encyclopaedia of Ghosts and Spirits. According to another story, this ghost was the prototype for Begemot, a character in Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Reportedly, the writer was once returning home late at night and saw a big black cat strolling along the street and then disappearing in front of his very eyes.

This is just one of many cat stories. One resident of Tverskaya Street told us that a whole family of ghost cats haunts the area near the Novokuznetskaya metro station. Once, late at night, he saw several semi-transparent cats and kittens emerge from the wall of a building, cross the street and disappear into the wall of the building opposite. We decided to check this information on the Internet and did, indeed, find stories about the same cats. According to one posting, those cats were harmless even for dogs, but if you get in their way, you will certainly lose consciousness.

The Polite Headless Ghosts of Golygino

                                Prince Ivan Khovansky was a rich and powerful courtier in the late 17th century.
He planned a coup to bring down the Romanov dynasty and take the throne himself. But the conspiracy failed, and Khovansky was executed together with his eldest son, Andrei. They were beheaded and their bodies thrown onto the log road crossing the swampy forest near the Vorya River close to the village of Golygino. This was a way to show extreme contempt: buried in unconsecrated land, their souls were doomed to eternal suffering. So the restless, maltreated souls of father and son rise from the swamps at night and ask passers-by to bury their remains as befits Christians, insisting they were just innocent victims of malignant libel. If an unlucky man so approached cannot utter an intelligible response, the princes grow even more pressing, coming closer and removing their own heads, to be polite!

The Ghostly Coach 

In the 19th century, Kuznetsky Most Street was a thriving centre of fashion and nightlife with many boutiques
and gambling houses. Gamblers often played all night long, losing all their cash. As the legend goes, those hit particularly hard might even be considering suicide when they suddenly saw a grey coach with wonderful horses stopping in front of them. The coachman, hiding his face, was ready to take them “wherever your soul wishes” for very little money. Few were able to grasp the covert sense of the phrase, indeed, they had just considered taking their own lives. Those who got into the mysterious coach were never seen again.

The Ghostly Old Man of Myasnitskaya Street

Another strange place is Myasnitskaya Street, where, before the revolution, there stood a small house inhabited by an elderly couple called the Kysovnikovys. They were known for their wealth and incredible greed. They were extremely thrifty, never visiting anyone and never receiving guests, never going out and not even giving alms to the poor. The pair guarded their money with great vigil. Fearing robbers at night, they would put their money trunk into a coach and drive around Moscow until dawn.

Once they had to leave their home for a while. The couple hid all their treasures in the caretaker’s house, deciding that the thieves would not look there. When they came back, they peeped into the caretaker’s room and saw a fire in the stove, which the servant, unaware, had lit at the site of their cache. All the banknotes and securities in which the Kusovnikovys kept their capital were gone.

Unable to withstand this blow, the old woman died on the spot and her husband went mad, roaming along Myasnitskaya Street, muttering: “Oh, my money, my money…” According to some eyewitnesses, the ghost still haunts the same street at night, stopping passers-by and telling them his sad story.

The Ghostly Cemetery Flautist 

There are even older ghosts in Moscow. On Gospitalny Val Street, near Baumanskaya metro station, there
is an old cemetery dating from the 18th century. In 1771, the city suffered an outbreak of the plague, which took its toll on Muscovites, forcing them to expand their cemeteries: there was not enough land even for locals, but the city also had a German Quarter, which had to bury its dead, too. A special cemetery for foreigners was laid out on the steep banks of the Sinichka River, which flowed through the city. This is where many German, French and Polish soldiers were laid to rest. People say melancholy flute music is sometimes heard from the dark cemetery park on spring nights and, when it rains, an invisible musician plays his sad music until dawn, accompanied by the rattling of iron shackles heard from the tomb of Dr. Fedor Gaaz. Locals call this cemetery “Infidels’ crypts.”

Another sinister place is the house at 28/1 Malaya Nikitskaya Street, near Barrikadnaya metro station, which belonged to Stalin’s henchman Lavrenty Beria, the notorious General Commissioner of State Security.

A unique phantom inhabits the corner of Malaya Nikitskaya Street and Vspolny Alley: No one has ever seen it; it can only be heard. On a quiet night, if you listen carefully, you will hear the sound of an approaching car. It differs from the sound of modern cars and it is like that of the old ZIL limousine that Lavrenty Beria used to drive. The car stops outside the porch, the door slams, steps are heard, and the passenger discusses something with his driver in a low voice. Some also say they have heard groans from tortured “enemies of the people,” but such reports seem to be a product of the imagination: Beria never interrogated or tortured anyone at his home. As for women’s voices, they can well be heard, as many women visited his apartment, some against their will.

`Death Road` from  Lyubertsy to Lytarkino

Another haunted place is the road between Lyubertsy and Lytkarino. This road has a bad reputation among drivers and for good reason: it crosses an ancient cemetery dating from the 10-11th centuries. According to one theory, images of the dead appear before passing cars, causing serious accidents. From 1990 to 2002 alone, nine wreaths were laid along the 1.5 km road to commemorate those who had died in accidents there. The road was dubbed “Death Road” owing to the high number of accidents. There are several “death roads,” but it is this road from Lyubertsy to Lytarkino that is considered to be the worst.

ST PETERSBURG



One of the most ominous palaces in the centre of St. Petersburg is without question Mikhailovsky Castle, also known as Inzhenerny Castle.

Paul I built it for himself as an impenetrable sanctuary, but from the moment in was built it was doomed to become the place he would spend his final moments. Subsequent modifications to the space in front of the castle make it difficult to conceive just how serious the fortifications once were. Back in the reign of Paul I, Connetable Square, the area where the monument of Peter I now stands, was completely surrounded by a moat and bailey with cannons standing sentinel on drawbridges.

Despite the moats, ramparts and guards, there was never any doubt about Paul’s fate – even the castle guards were in on the plot. The chief guard, a man called Argamakov, led the conspirators directly to Paul’s bedroom. The conspirators claimed they merely acting out of concern for the country’s fate, given that the emperor was insane, and they were in fact a group of high dignitaries: among them were general governor of St. Petersburg Peter Pahlen, Vice-Chancellor Nikita Panin, the Zubov brothers (one of whom was Platon Zubov - the last favourite of Catherine II), commanders of four guard troops, and a number of high ranking officers. It is generally thought that the son of the victim, future emperor Alexander I, knew of the plot and had given his approval, either voluntary or under duress. Alexander’s part in his father’s murder was something that haunted him for the rest of his life.

It was never the plotters intention to kill the tsar, they just wanted to remove him from power. But, as historians recall, “the fateful catastrophe happened unexpectedly”. Paul hid himself, but the perpetrators found him and tried to arrest him. A struggle ensued before Nikolai Zubov issued the first blow with a golden tobacco box. One version claims Pavel was immediately killed by this blow to the temple, but others say he was beaten to a pulp before being strangled with a silk scarf. Officially it was announced that the tsar had “died of a stroke”.

Paul only managed to live forty days in Mikhailovsky Castle. Several times before he died he claimed he saw himself reflected in a mirror, strangled with a collapsed neck, and in these moments he would experience an unexplainable shortness of breath.

Ever since his grisly murder, Pavel’s ghost has haunted the halls of the castle. Sometimes he is seen playing a flute and at others wandering around in his night clothes trying to find the people who betrayed him. Most museum workers refuse to stay in the palace at night, while even security guards and the police are not very keen on the idea either. If you’re passing by the castle at night, look carefully at the windows, you might see the city’s most popular ghost staring right back at you.

Cathedral of the Spilt Blood. 1881. Murder of Alexander II

The grand, elegant structure of the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood - built in traditional Russian style to emulate Vasily Blazhenny Cathedral at Red Square –stands in sharp contrast to the sad event it was built to commemorate.

There were no obvious motives for the tsar’s assassination. Alexander II was neither a tyrant, like his father and his grandfather, nor was he a weak ruler, like his son and grandson. His official title as ‘the giver of freedom’ was well deserved – he was the ruler who finally abolished serfdom in Russia. But the assassins were brutally determined; first they attempted shooting him while he was out walking, then they attempted to blow him up in his own palace and on a train, without a seconds thought about the collateral victims.

On 1 March Alexander II was on his way back to the Winter Palace. The first explosion did nothing more than damage his carriage. When the tsar got out to confront Nikolai Rusakov, who had thrown the bomb, a second terrorist, Ignaty Grinevetsky, hurled another bomb at the tsar’s feet.

The exact place where the tsar was mortally wounded – part of the railings and the cobble stone pavement – has been preserved inside the cathedral, under the western cupola. For a long time the neighbouring streets (now Malaya and Bolshaya Konyushennaya Streets) were named after the main participants in the plot - Sofia Perovskaya and Andrei Zhelyabov.

The Hermitage 

The Winter Palace not only houses some of the world’s most treasured artworks, it’s also rumoured to be
the home of a number of ghosts. The reputedly very polite spirit of Emperor Nikolai I is said to be looking after the collection of the Tyomny (dark) Corridor, while some people claim that one of the mummies in the Egyptian collection likes to wink at museum workers. The director of the museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky  vehemently denies the stories.




Yusupov Palace. 1916. The murder of Rasputin

This infamous Petersburg crime happened on 17 (29) December 1916 at the Yusupov residence on the Moika river . It actually began inside the historic palace in the lavish rooms of Felix Yusupov. The conspirators acted to save the country and protect the tsar and his family from the influence of this mysterious peasant-monk.





The circumstances surrounding his death are well known: Rasputin was invited to the Yusupovs’ house on the pretext of meeting Felix’s wife. Here he was fed almond cakes laced with potassium cyanide. When this didn’t work the plotters sprayed him with dozens of bullets, but the seemingly invincible Grigory Rasputin still managed to run across the yard and climb over the fence. After this he was finally caught, seized and drowned in the icy Malaya Nevka River near Kamenny Island.

When the body was recovered water was said to be found his lungs, suggesting that even when in the river he was still alive. His body was eventually buried in the grounds of Catherine’s palace at Pushkin but following the October revolution his corpse was dug up and burned. Rasputin got his last revenge though. As the body was being cremated, bystanders were horrified as Rasputin appeared to sit up in the fire - further cementing the legend that the mad monk was completely indestructible.

The Russian Academy of Arts - the depressed artist

This beautiful building reportedly has two ghosts, that of the building’s architect and of the academy’s first
director.

The young architect Kokorinov was commissioned by Catherine the Great to build one of the greatest art academies in the world and he did exactly as directed. However, when Catherine came round to look at the completed building, she became incredibly angry with the architect as her dress got soiled by some wet paint from the walls. Kokorinov was so upset about the incident that he hung himself in the attic of the building the same night. His ghost is said to be seen wandering the halls in a hurry with his drawing tools.

Sculptor Kozlovsky, the first director of the academy, is also said to occasionally turn up. Workers say that on stormy nights, he comes and bangs on the entrance demanding to be let in. Apparently he can even be heard shouting; “It’s me, sculptor Kozlovsky from Smolenskoye cemetery, I got wet and frozen in my grave…open the door!” No one has yet been reported to have opened up for him.

Peter and Paul Fortress - the weeping woman


There’s all number of gruesome events that have taken place inside St. Petersburg’s oldest fortress-cum-prison, everything from torture and public hangings to drownings and suicides. However, there’s only one ghost that is said to haunt the cells of the old prison - that of Countess Tarakanova. Arrested in Italy under the orders of Catherine II, for pretending to be of royal descent, she was imprisoned and later died here of tuberculosis. Many people have reported hearing her sobbing quietly into her silk handkerchief - especially around the Neva curtain walls, where prisoners were sometimes allowed to walk.

The Kunstkamera - Guyduk the Giant

Brought from France to live in the court of Peter the Great, Guyduk the giant was the largest of the many
men who had gigantism that were part of the Tsar’s retinue. When he died his skeleton was saved for the freaky anatomical collection of the Kunstkamera, rather than being buried.


In the late 19th Century someone stole his massive skull and from that day on the ghost of the giant was seen wandering around the halls of the museum looking for the thief. The museum workers began to find this so irritating that they found another skull and put that with the skeleton. Strangely enough, this seemed to actually work and the ghost hasn’t been seen in the last 80 years.


Friday 12 September 2014

KOM ASH-SHUQQAFA. A ROMAN NECROPOLIS TRAPPED IN TIME

The Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa in Alexandria, Egypt, are an incredible set of subterranean Ancient Roman tombs.



When a donkey accidentally fell through the ground with his cart, no one expected the discovery that was about to be made.

These ancient catacombs date back to 2AD and are underground burial crypts of upper class Romans, and comprise of a maze of rooms and passageways, including the triclinium, a banqueting hall for the relatives of the deceased and the main tomb. The ornate decorations inside the catacombs are an eclectic blend of Roman, Greek and Egyptian.



The details of this subterranean zone defy comprehensible description- the walls are all engraved and designed with intricate patterns and the tunnels are complex and well laid out- it is said they have as much technological expertise as that of our modern day subway systems but are far more detailed and aesthetically pleasing.



Made up of three levels containing 300 bodies, the Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa represent the true sophistication of ancient Roman engineering.



The question is, are the burial areas haunted?

Certainly some visitors have reported strange ethereal sounds, and a pervasive atmosphere inside certain areas of the burial chambers.

Worth a visit if you should be in Alexandria, and despite the civil unrest which is afflicting this most ancient country.




Thursday 11 September 2014

RADAR SCANNING REVEALS A MUCH LARGER COMPLEX AT STONEHENGE























Its enigmatic circle of giant stones are always thought to have stood in splendid isolation on the edge of Salisbury Plain.

But archaeologists now believe that Stonehenge  was at the centre of a vast network of religious monuments.

The latest radar scanning technology has allowed experts to unearth a large but hidden complex of shrines, burial mounds and buildings used in gruesome rituals involving the dead.
Looking just below the surface, their extensive finds include evidence of 17 previously unknown wooden or stone structures.



Scientists from Birmingham University spent four years mapping an area of five square miles in minute detail as part of the largest geophysical survey ever undertaken. Unveiling their findings yesterday at the British Science Festival in Birmingham, they described how advanced radar scanners were developed especially for the project to build up a digital map ten feet underground.

Among the discoveries is a 100ft-long wooden building, or long barrow, around two miles from Stonehenge, built in 2400BC. Experts think it was the site of complex rituals, including the removal of flesh and limbs from dead bodies.

The building is thought to have been used for seven generations by a single family before it was buried in chalk and forgotten for thousands of years.

Also unearthed were massive prehistoric pits, some of which appear to form astronomical and solar links with Stonehenge – confirming the belief that it was positioned to reflect the Sun’s movement.
And the Durrington Walls ‘super-henge’ three miles away was revealed to have once been flanked by as many as 60 posts or stones up to ten feet high – suggesting a very similar structure to Stonehenge itself.



Project leader Professor Vincent Gaffney said archaeologists had previously thought most of the site was just ‘green grass’. He added: ‘What we’re seeing is this unconscious elaboration of the Stonehenge landscape.

‘You’ve got Stonehenge which is clearly a very large ritual structure which is attracting people from large parts of the country. But around it people are creating their own shrines and temples. We can see the whole landscape is being used in very complex ways.’

The way Stonehenge and its surroundings were laid out was a ‘highly theatrical arrangement,’ he said. As people approached the monument via an ancient procession route, it gradually emerged from the landscape.

The structures cannot be accurately dated until they are excavated – and any decision over digging lies with English Heritage.

Source: DailyMail

`GOD` PARTICLE - MAY DESTROY UNIVERSE - WARNS STEPHEN HAWKING

The elusive 'God particle' discovered by scientists in 2012 has the potential to destroy the universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.


At very high energy levels, the Higgs boson could cause space and time suddenly collapse - and 'we wouldn't see it coming', the former Cambridge professor of mathematics says.
The God particle, which gives shape and size to everything that exists, could cause a 'catastrophic vacuum delay' if scientists were to put it under extreme stress.

A disaster like this is very unlikely for the time being as physicists do not have a particle accelerator large enough create such an experiment, but Prof Hawking's comments have excited scientists, the Sunday Times reported.

The theoretical physicist wrote his thoughts on the Higgs boson in the preface to a new book, Starmus, a collection of lectures by scientists and astronomers including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Queen guitarist Brian May.


Prof Hawking wrote: 'The Higgs potential has the worrisome feature that it might become megastable at energies above 100bn giga-electron-volts (GeV).

'This could mean that the universe could undergo catastrophic vacuum decay, with a bubble of the true vacuum expanding at the speed of light.
'This could happen at any time and we wouldn't see it coming.'

The professor did add sarcastically, however, that such an event is unlikely in the near future.
He said: 'A particle accelerator that reaches 100bn GeV would be larger than Earth, and is unlikely to be funded in the present economic climate.'

Professor John Ellis, a theoretical physicist at Cern, said: 'One thing should be made clear. The discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) did not cause this problem, and collisions at the LHC could not trigger the instability, because their energies are far too low.'
Particle accelerators make subatomic particles travel at greater and greater speeds as they are pumped with more energy before smashing them together.

Scientists do this to try and spot tiny fragments of particles which fly off, and it is how the Higgs boson was discovered at the Cern LHC in Switzerland in 2012.
In that experiment, physicists noticed unexpected debris from the collisions that fitted with what British scientist Peter Higgs had predicted in the early 1960s.

The Higgs boson particle is thought to be part of the mechanism that gives matter its mass, but scientists do not fully understand it yet.

Source: DailyMail

Tuesday 9 September 2014

NOTORIOUS UTAH HOUSE FORCES FAMILY TO FLEE


A family that briefly stayed in this Utah home claims it is haunted. This is the same home where Susan Powell went missing in 2009, in a high-profile case 
A family recently moved out of a Utah home where a woman mysteriously disappeared six years ago, claiming the house is haunted.

The home in West Valley City has been the backdrop of one of Utah's most notorious missing persons cases.

Susan Powell lived in the home with her husband Josh and their two young sons when she disappeared without a trace in  December 2009. Her husband Josh later moved out of the home, and committed suicide in February 2012, killing their two young sons as well in a house fire.

Powell is pictured above with her two young sons. The boys were later killed by their father in a tragic murder-suicide three years after their mother's disappearance 
But mother Joanna Aeosana wasn't familiar with the story when she agreed to lease the home from American Homes 4 Rent two months ago.

She says she also saw her 1-year-old son talking to an empty swing in the front yard, saying: 'Go away, leave me alone'.

Aeosana and her family recently moved out and now they are fighting with the rental company to let them off their lease, and help them find a new place to live.

Real estate companies aren't required to disclose details like these to potential renters, but Aeosana believes she should have been informed.

'I believe they should of, they should have told me,' she said. 'I just don't want to be in there.'

Source: DailyMail


Saturday 6 September 2014

WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?

In June, Sheila Sillery-Walsh, a British tourist visiting the historic island-prison of Alcatraz in San Francisco, claimed that she captured an image of a ghost in a picture she snapped on her iPhone. In the frame of what was otherwise supposed to be a picture of an empty prison cell was a blurry black and white image of a woman. The story, which was printed in the British tabloid the Daily Mail, featured on the Bay Area's local KRON4 TV station and mocked by SFist, isn't the first time the Daily Mail has claimed that strange images have come up on smart devices.

Normally, a paranormal story wouldn’t catch my attention, but a few months before the story came out, a Spanish friend of mine named Laura showed me a weird image she found on her phone while I was traveling in Madrid. The photo, taken on her iPhone while on a trip to Ethiopia, shows a boy looking down at leaves he is holding in his hands. Seemingly superimposed onto the boy is another image of the boy, hands in a different position and eyes looking straight at the camera.

Laura was convinced she captured an image of a ghost.

The photo, taken on an iPhone in Ethiopia, shows a boy looking down at leaves he is holding in his hands. Seemingly superimposed onto the boy is another image of the boy, hands in a different position and eyes looking straight at the camera.


The same image enlarged and cropped
Then a few weeks later I discovered an image of a man in the background of a photo I took with my own iPhone. The picture was taken in my apartment and the man, whom I can’t identify, was not actually in the apartment at the time. I’ve been using the photo to scare my friends, and myself, ever since.

The picture was taken in the author`s apartment and the man, (according to the author) who cannot be identified, was not actually in the apartment at the time. 

The man in the corner of the photograph enlarged.

Recent surveys have shown that a significant portion of the population believes in ghosts, leading some scholars to conclude that we are witnessing a revival of paranormal beliefs in Western society. A Harris poll from last year found that 42 percent of Americans say they believe in ghosts. The percentage is similar in the U.K., where 52 percent of respondents indicated that they believed in ghosts in a recent poll. Though it’s tough to estimate how large the paranormal tourism industry is—tours of sites that are supposedly haunted (rather than staged haunted houses)—there are 10,000 haunted locations in the U.K. according to the country’s tourist board, and sites like HauntedRooms.co.uk list dozens of allegedly haunted hotels where curious visitors can stay. In the U.S., residents of places like Ellicott City in Howard County, Maryland pride themselves on their haunted heritage.

While the terms "spirit" and "ghost" are related and even interchangeable in some languages, the word "ghost" in English tends to refer to the soul or spirit of a deceased person that can appear to the living. In A Natural History of Ghosts, Roger Clarke discusses nine varieties of ghosts identified by Peter Underwood, who has studied ghost stories for decades. Underwood’s classification of ghosts includes elementals, poltergeists, historical ghosts, mental imprint manifestations, death-survival ghosts, apparitions, time slips, ghosts of the living, and haunted inanimate objects.

It seems that belief in ghosts is even more widespread in much of Asia, where ghosts are characterized as neutral and can be appeased through rituals or angered if provoked (as opposed to our scarier depictions of ghosts in the West), according to Justin McDaniel, a professor of religious studies and director of the Penn Ghost Project at the University of Pennsylvania. “[Ghosts in Asia] can be asked for help in healing humans, winning the lottery and protecting one while traveling or while pregnant,” he said. “Like American ghosts, they have an attachment to the human realm which keeps them haunting and helping humans.”
In China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand, the seventh month of the lunar calendar (which falls in August this year) ushers in the Hungry Ghost Festival, when it is believed that ghosts of the deceased are temporarily released from the lower realm to visit the living. In Taiwan, some people believe that the presence of wandering ghosts during Ghost Month can cause accidents to the living. At least one study has shown that people avoid risky behaviors during this time, including those in bodies of water, reducing the number of deaths by drowning.

“Like in the West,” McDaniel says, “people in Asia have kept their belief in ghosts despite the rise of science, skepticism, secularism, and public education. In places like Japan where secularism is very strong, the belief in ghosts is still high. Even hyper-modern and liberal Scandinavia has a high percentage of people believing in ghosts.”

It turns out that a significant amount of people report having personally experienced paranormal activity. In a study published in 2011, 28.5 percent of undergraduate students surveyed at a southern university reported having had a paranormal experience. In a 2006 Reader's Digest poll, 20 percent of respondents (21 percent of women and 16 percent of men) reported that they had seen a ghost at some time in their lives.

But it’s also true that if you already believe in ghosts, or are told a place is haunted, you are more likely to interpret events as paranormal. A 2002 study found that believers in ghosts were more likely than non-believers to report unusual phenomena while touring a site in Britain with a reputation for being haunted. Visitors who were told that there was a recent increase in unusual phenomena occurring at the site also reported a higher number of unusual experiences on the tour.
Another study demonstrated that hearing or reading about paranormal narratives, especially when the story came from a credible source, was enough to increase paranormal beliefs among participants. With the abundance of ghost-hunting shows in the U.S. and the UK, like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures and Most Haunted, which is returning to screens this fall, it’s probably not surprising that studies have also linked belief in ghosts with exposure to paranormal-related TV shows.

“What we have is people trying to make sense of something that, to them, seems inexplicable,” says Christopher French, a professor of psychology and head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, “So you get the misinterpretation of noises or visual effects that do have a normal explanation, but not one that people can think of. People assume that if they cannot explain something in natural terms, then it must be something paranormal.”

According to French, hallucinations are more common among the general population than most people realize, and are sometimes wrongly interpreted as ghosts. He points to sleep paralysis—a phenomenon that occurs when someone wakes up while still in the dream-inducing REM stage of sleep, in which your body is paralyzed— as one example. Studies have shown that around 30 to 40 percent of people have experienced sleep paralysis at least once in their lives, with about five percent of participants reporting visual and audio hallucinations, including the presence of monstrous figures, and difficulty breathing.

The experience has been interpreted as paranormal in several cultures. In a study done in Hong Kong, for example, 37 percent of students reported at least one instance of what they refer to as “ghost oppression.” In Thailand, the term for sleep paralysis–phi um—translates to “ghost covered.” In Newfoundland, Canada, it is known as a visit from the “Old Hag.” The woman in Swiss artist Henry Fuseli’s famous 18th century painting, “The Nightmare,” is said by French and other researchers to be suffering an episode of sleep paralysis.

Michael Shermer, author of The Believing Brain, argues that we see causal, intentional relationships—even when they don’t exist—because it is evolutionarily advantageous to do so and because humans have the tendency to look at patterns and see them as deliberate. In a column for Scientific American, Shermer writes, “We believe that these intentional agents control the world, sometimes invisibly from the top down (as opposed to bottom-up causal randomness). Together patternicity and agent­icity form the cognitive basis of shamanism, paganism, animism, polytheism, monotheism, and all modes of Old and New Age spiritualisms.”

One example of this is our tendency to see faces in random images, a phenomenon called pareidolia. In a study conducted at the University of British Columbia, researchers Aiyana Willard and Ara Norenzayan found that participants with a higher tendency to anthropomorphize—meaning those that are more likely to assign human qualities to non-human things—were also more likely to have paranormal beliefs.

“There is also the emotional motivation for these beliefs,” French says. “The vast majority of us don’t like the idea of our own mortality. Even though we find the idea of ghosts and spirits scary, in a wider context, they provide evidence for the survival of the soul.”

With that in mind, I reached out to Apple Inc. for a comment on the images at the start of this article. A representative for the company was kind enough to check out the images, but didn’t have a comment for the story. And though a few independent analysts had a good look at the photos and suggested that Laura’s could be something related to high-dynamic range photography, no one was able to come up with a definitive explanation for the man in my apartment.

Maybe more images like mine will surface and someone will come up with a technical explanation for these spectral iPhone photos.

Or maybe, it’s just a ghost.

Story: Tiffanie Wen

Source: TheAtlantic