Ireland: Find vampires with hi-tech Halloween ghost hunt in new mobile phone game

From  Heralf, IE : Find vampires with hi-tech Halloween ghost hunt in new mobile phone game

DRACULA fans can have a bloody good time around Dublin this weekend by downloading Bram Stoker's Vampires smartphone game and going on a city ghost hunt.
The game uses GPS to turn players' smartphones into paranormal detection devices to lead then on an hour-long adventure around Stoker's old haunts, including Trinity College and Dublin Castle.
Their mission is to track down evil vampires and eriee ghosts and prove their existence by photographing them. Players can post these frightening images to Twitter and Facebook.
The characters in the game are based on vampires that appear in Bram Stoker's epic horror Dracula novel, including Count Dracula himself and the three vampire sisters Jonathan Harker encounters in Dracula's castle in Transylvania.
The game's creators have hinted that a talented ghost hunter may even be able to track down the wandering soul of old Stoker himself.
This new horror gaming experience is being launched as part of the inaugural Bram Stoker Festival, which celebrates the Dublin author's gothic horror on the centenary of his death.
Louise O'Reilly, project directorl told the Herald: "We are delighted to collaborate with Science Gallery and Haunted Planet Studios to bring this contemporary edge to experience the gothic author's enduring literary legacy in a totally original way."
The game's inventor, Mads Haar -- a computer science lecturer at Trinity College -- described the Haunted Planet gaming platform as "a global mystery adventure game that takes place in the real world". Mr Haar founded the Haunted Planet company in Dublin in 2010.

 

 

29 Oct, Scranton, PA: "Ghost Hunting 101" coming to the Scranton Cultural Center

From GoLackwanna:  "Ghost Hunting 101" coming to the Scranton Cultural Center

Are there ghosts in the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple? Community members are invited to join the Society of Paranormal Research and Investigation (S.P.R.I.) in scouring the Masonic Temple for evidence of paranormal activity as they present "Ghost Hunting 101" Oct. 29 and 30 at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on both evenings.
Participants will get the chance to use state of the art equipment and learn the techniques of paranormal investigators. They’ll learn how to use their equipment as well help the S.P.R.I try to find proof of the paranormal at the Scranton Cultural Center. Anyone who has their own ghost hunting equipment is also welcome to bring it and join in the hunt.
Light fare and a cash bar will be available throughout the evening. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at the SCC Box Office, by calling 570.344.1111, at Ticketmaster.com, by calling 1.800.745.3000 or at select Wal-Mart, Boscov’s or Gallery of Sound locations. Visit the SCC’s website, ScrantonCulturalCenter.org, for more information.

 

Michigan: Saginaw's ghost hunt: 'A Haunting on Potter Street' to premier at the Temple Theatre

From MLive:  Saginaw's ghost hunt: 'A Haunting on Potter Street' to premier at the Temple Theatre

SAGINAW, MI — Over the last few years, a frightening evening at the Temple Theatre in Saginaw has become a Halloween tradition.
The Seekers team, creators of “A Haunting on Hamilton Street” parts one and two, will release their third investigation into the paranormal legends of Saginaw this November.
The new documentary, “A Haunting on Potter Street: The Potter Street Station,” will be shown at 9 p.m. Nov. 2 and 3 and at 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Temple Theatre, 203 N. Washington in Saginaw.
(View the extended trailer for “A Haunting on Potter Street” here.)
“The promoter added at third show because we sold out (two showings) last year and had people literally crying because they couldn’t get in,” said Julie Nunn, executive director of the Temple Theatre.
Tickets are on sale now for $17, and each ticketholder will receive a DVD copy of the film.
Nunn said tickets sell out quickly, and because the tickets are general admission, patrons line up outside the theater early to ensure they will get good seats.
“It’s not just a film or a movie, it’s an event,” Nunn said. “The energy in the theater is just amazing.”
The Seekers and rapper Steve “Prozak” Shippy and his team of paranormal investigators spent several nights at the Potter Street Station, 501 Potter, looking for the best areas to set up their equipment to record evidence of paranormal activity.
The documentary was filmed during the course of a one-night lock-in at the station.
The movie “offers a lot of history and a ton of evidence,” Shippy said. “There’s a lot of elements: history, danger and the paranormal.”
Built in 1881, the Potter Street Station was a bustling hub of activity in Saginaw. It closed in 1985 and was eventually purchased by the nonprofit Saginaw Depot Preservation Corp. in 1989. Leroy Austin, the group’s vice president, said the group hopes to restore it and turn it into a center for the arts.
In 1991, the building was heavily damaged in an unsolved arson.
The building’s history has left its mark in the form of several specters who never left, Shippy said.
“Residents around the station and some police that patrol the area claim to see a man walking up and down in front of the station,” he said. “Then he just vanishes."
Others have reported seeing a woman in white inside the station.
“Some volunteers (from the Saginaw Depot Preservation Corp.) see her while repairing the building,” Shippy said. “She will just appear in front of them and give them a little more of a scare than I think they’d like.”
One volunteer who saw the Woman in White told Austin he will not to return to the station.
Austin said he had one paranormal experience in the station.
“I’ve heard voices, but I haven’t seen anything myself,” he said.
While the crew was filming the documentary, Austin and other members of the Saginaw Depot Preservation Corp. were standing guard to make sure no one would wander in and disrupt the filming when he heard a man’s voice behind him.
“I questioned what it was,” he said. “I thought I didn’t hear it right, but very clearly someone said, ‘Find your place.’”
Other volunteers have reported hearing a murmuring crowd of voices, feeling a touch on their shoulder and feeling cold drafts when there is no wind.
These kinds of apparitions and paranormal activity are probably the result of the station's long and sometimes dark history, Shippy said.
The area surrounding the station was once filled with bars, brothels and gambling houses.
“The brawls and stabbings in that area were plentiful,” Shippy said.
Shippy said several men were injured or killed working in the station’s yard, and bodies of soldiers killed in battle were brought home to Saginaw through the station during World War I and World War II.
“I’m sure that’s where a lot of wives went to say goodbye to their husbands and never saw them again,” Austin said. “Other times, people passed away (in Saginaw) and were shipped to other places. It was a center where (bodies) were brought or received, and that could have caused some (of the activity).”
Austin said most volunteers working on the station haven’t been deterred by the strange things they have seen and heard there.
“The rest of us don’t feel there’s anything that would hurt us or anything really menacing,” he said.
Even without the spooky incidents, the station itself is an interesting piece of Saginaw history.
“It’s a photographer’s dream,” Shippy said. “It’s like going underwater and exploring the Titanic. It has this grand design and decay and a definite dark side.”
The audience will get to see an extended trailer for the team’s fourth film, which will debut in 2013.
“We decided to investigate a private residence, which we don’t usually do,” Shippy said. “This person had contacted us many times, and her claims were so outrageous, we just had to go check it out.”
The Seekers team will film its fifth investigation in February 2013 to debut in 2014.
The team experienced so much paranormal activity in its initial meeting with the woman, a single mother of two, Shippy said the members felt compelled to investigate further.
To buy tickets for “A Haunting on Potter Street,” visit www.templetheatre.com or call the box office at 989-754-7469.

 

Ghosts were object of search at UNO's Paranormal Summit

From Omaha.com: Ghosts were object of search at UNO's Paranormal Summit

JAMES R. BURNETT/THE WORLD-HERALD

Local ghost hunting groups converged this month on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus for the second annual Paranormal Summit, discussing recent findings and leading small ghost hunts around the grounds at night. In front, from left, are Kyle Finley, Ashley Chrism and Jeremy Andersen. In back, from left, are faculty adviser David Pares, Matt Judah, Katrina Arnold, PRISM Director Carl Norgard, Michael Petranick, Larry Kennedy, UNO Paranormal Society President John Powers and Ashley DeBolt.

 

More than a hundred amateur ghost hunters spent a recent Friday night searching the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha for signs of paranormal life.

They used a tool called a ghost box — which resembles a small radio — to “communicate” with the other side. They employed another tool that measures electrical currents to search for hot spots they believe ghosts create.

The ghost hunters videotaped and recorded the hunt to see if the cameras picked up on things that human senses could not. Ghost hunters also look for electronic voice phenomena, more commonly known as EVP — electronic sounds that resemble speech. They believe EVP suggests paranormal activity.

Others, of course, say it's just background noise.
The hunt was the grand finale of UNO's second annual Paranormal Summit, put on by the student-run Paranormal Society and drawing ghost-hunting groups from Omaha and the surrounding area. UNO students and regular people interested in ghost hunting came, too.
The event included presentations of evidence from ghost hunts, discussions of good ghost-hunting spots and a panel discussion in which members of various groups compared notes and took questions from the audience.
But the ghost hunt was the most exciting — and spooky — part of the night.
In past hunts, “we've gotten EVP all over campus,” said Kelley Kennedy, a member of the Omaha ghost-hunting group Paranormal Research and Investigative Studies Midwest — PRISM for short.
PRISM led a tour at the Strauss Performing Arts Center, where for years students and faculty have heard music coming from empty practice rooms. (Kennedy, who studied music at UNO, said she has heard it herself.) The building was locked, so Kennedy and other PRISM members led a group of 20 amateur ghost hunters around the building.
The tool that measures electrical current found evidence only of an underground power line.
But the ghost box talked. Putting it in the simplest possible terms, the box is a modified AM-FM radio that continuously scans radio bands, picking up random sounds and words. Much of the time they sound like gibberish.
When the group reached the back of the building, Kennedy spoke to it.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“Reason, memories,” the ghost box “responded.”
Kennedy said that was meaningful, though skeptics say ghost hunters could find meaning in whatever words it happened to say.
Kim Moy of Omaha was holding the box when it responded. She said she got chills.
She and her husband aren't experienced ghost hunters. But they attended the summit because they'd watched ghost-hunting shows on TV, and they had lost members of their family. They wanted to know that those loved ones were still out there.
“I think it's a comfort thing,” she said.
They also happened to win the summit's door prize — an overnight ghost hunting trip to the Squirrel Cage Jail, a favorite spot among the more experienced ghost hunters.
The jail is so popular it got its own session at the summit.
Carla Borgaila of the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County told summit attendees about some of the jail's more notable residents — a suspect in the still-unsolved 1912 ax murders of the Moore family in Villisca, Iowa; a widely known Council Bluffs madam; and one pregnant woman who gave birth to the jail's only infant inmate.
Borgaila said she has come to believe that at least some of those inmates, as well as other, less memorable ones, still live there.
Borgaila cheerfully talked about the spirit of a former warden who allegedly still patrols the catwalks of the 1885 building. A little girl searches for her mother, she said. Inmates rattle the bars of their cells, and their footsteps echo in empty corridors. An invisible cat yowls and aggravates Borgaila's allergies.
“Apparently, ghost dander is just as bad,” she said.
Sometimes, she said, the ghosts talk to her.
Some have told her to leave them alone, she said, though one asked for homemade cookies. The most menacing: “You're the one I want to terrorize.”
The audience, many clad in black T-shirts or hoodies sporting the names of area ghost-hunting groups, was enraptured, if not surprised. Many have spent the night in the Squirrel Cage Jail (Borgaila generally chaperones such excursions), searching for evidence of paranormal activity.
Kennedy gave a Powerpoint presentation of PRISM's findings during an overnight ghost-hunting trip to the jail. The evidence they accumulated included a grainy photograph of a man in old-fashioned clothing standing in a window, as well as audio recordings of heavy breathing, whispers, snippets of conversations, and one long, mournful yowl.
Eight groups presented their research during the summit. They also discussed tactics they employ to dissuade ghosts from following them home. (Many say a prayer at the end of a hunt or keep a rosary in their car.) They addressed the popularity of ghost hunting shows on television. (Consensus: They're unrealistic.)
To the uninitiated, it's a creepy business. Moy said she was somewhat nervous to spend the night at the jail.
But ghosts often get a bad rap. Many ghosts aren't sinister, Kennedy explained. They don't always haunt the places where they died. Oftentimes, she said, they revisit places they loved when they were alive, which would explain the music coming from the Strauss practice rooms.
And ghost hunters aren't necessarily morbid, she said. They're regular people with regular jobs who happen to believe in ghosts. In their spare time, they visit places like the Squirrel Cage Jail to search for evidence. Occasionally, someone will seek out their services — often a homeowner convinced his house is haunted.
Those clients are interested in the evidence, she said, but they're also often relieved just to talk to someone who believes them.
“A lot of people want to know that they're not crazy, honestly.”
 

UK: Family ghost hunt this half term

From Westerns Wards Gazette: Family ghost hunt this half term
Ever tried hunting for ghosts and ghouls? Well this Halloween in Fareham Town Centre you can.
Ten stores will be hiding ghostly secrets for families to find as part of a Ghost Hunt during the half term week (October 27 to November 3).
Children aged 14 years and under are invited to track them down and record the unique number on an application form in the free event.
First prize is an extra-large Elliott Bear donated by From the Heart, a family meal for four at Domino’s Pizza and a choice of two Pitkin’s Guides donated by Fareham Tourist Information Centre.
Completed application forms should be posted in the Ghost Post Box at the Tourist Information Centre, which is located in Westbury Manor. Closing date is November 6.
Around 84,000 application forms have been delivered to homes in the borough, but additional forms can be picked up from selected town centre venues – including Apollo Cinema, Civic Offices, Crown pub, Fareham Library and all participating outlets.
Look out for the ghoulish surprises in the following businesses: Alterations, Craft Crazy, Dancewear of Fareham, Fareham Tourist Information Centre, From the Heart, High Street Sweets, Jacks Fish & Chips, Pampurred Pets, Traction Kites UK and Whistlers.

Zak Bagans: On the trail with a ghost hunter

From MetroUSny:  Zak Bagans: On the trail with a ghost hunter

When Zak Bagans saw his first ghost  -- a woman at the foot of his bed in Detroit -- he knew he was part of a rare breed of people. But he was disappointed to see how lightly people were taking his experience.

"I was really getting aggravated telling this story to people," the host of "Ghost Adventures" on the Travel Channel says. "I'd tell the story and then we'd go eat a sandwich and that's it. I experienced something that is legit. And that put me on this quest and it changed everything about me after that."
The paranormal expert now seeks out spirits for a living, and he doesn't listen to the naysayers around him.

"The evidence that we are capturing now is not just flickering lights and door knocks," he says. "I want to welcome people that don'tbelieve and talk with them and show them the steps and have them accompany me on investigations."

Bagans says the ghosts that still linger on earth do so for a reason.

"[They] have something to say," he says. "There's something unsolved in their life, whether it's an unsolved murder -- they know who the killer is but the police never found out -- a lost love [who] died suddenly, they're in denial [about their death]. A spirit, I believe, is still trapped here is because they're not ready to move on. They want to keep living. Or they're dead and they're just stuck here, in purgatory, because they know that if they go to hell, it's gonna be worse."

And there's also a reason why they choose your particular home to haunt.

"It's still a fight of who owns the place. There's a living person there but there's a ghost that wants the living person out."

Are you haunted?

If you’re one of the “nine out of 10” who Bagans predicts has experienced some supernatural activity in your home, don’t panic, he advises.

“Just let it be, because I think that if you try and communicate with them, like what I do, then once they realize — like in the movie “Ghost” — that you can hear them, they will just bug you even more. If that’s what you want, get a digital recorder and talk with them. If you directly start communicating with them, they’re gonna know that they’ve gotten your attention. That’s what they’re trying to do — get your attention.”

The basic tools

“The evolution of technology, the engineers that we work with — electrical engineers that have worked at NASA — they are designing this equipment for us,” Bagans says.
   
Mel meter: It may look like a cell phone Zack Morris would have owned, but it’s really used to pick up electromagnetic energy. “Spirits are made up of energy. ... This can detect the energy. It’s like a metal detector.”
   
Digital recorder: Got one of these lying around? You can use it to talk to ghosts. Once you identify some inexplicable energy, record yourself talking to the potential spirit and play it back on a speaker. “These microphones will pick up sounds that we can’t hear,”?Bagans says. “They’ll pick up subfrequencies. And when spirits speak they can speak within these subfrequencies, in the white noise that’s generated by the recorders.”

 

What's that sound? NJ ghost hunters keep listening for signs

From My Central Jersey.com:  What's that sound? NJ ghost hunters keep listening for signs

They may not see dead people — but they certainly can hear or sense them.
As Halloween approaches, several area ghost hunters and paranormal experts will be making appearances to explain their craft and offer proof of what they say are real-life hauntings.
Garden State paranormal experts these days are about as ubiquitous as ghost-hunting television shows, including the long-running “Ghost Adventures” on the Travel Channel and “Ghost Hunters” on Syfy.
“We’re tripping over each other,” said Tom Petuskey, 71, an East Brunswick resident and member of Scope NJ, a paranormal research group founded in 2007.
“We are looking for scientific confirmation of paranormal events,” he said. “One of the things we try to do is see if there are natural causes for what’s happening.”
Scientists might balk at paranormal researchers’ techniques, but these ghost buffs use real equipment and adhere to what could be considered ghost-industry standards.
One of their favorite tools is a device found at any electronics store: an audio recorder.
Serious ghost hunters might shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for complex and highly sensitive microphones and recording hardware. But Charles “Chuck” Lehman, 47, of Monroe makes do with a simple $70 recorder and free audio software Audacity.
The recorders are supposed to pick up what is known as electronic voice phenomena, or EVPs, which cannot be heard by the people in the room.
EVPs may be of ghosts whispering words like “hello,” or phrases like, “get out of here!”
Lehman, an amateur ghost hunter who likes to capture EVPs at historic battlefields and cemeteries, compares them to dogs picking up low frequency sound waves. He has clips of EVPs from cemeteries in Jamesburg and Bound Brook on his website, www.chucksghosts.com.
The ghost hunters say they don’t manipulate the recordings except to enhance the sound.
Petusky, whose group posts its evidence from investigations at www.scopenj.com, said in one instance his team couldn’t make out a garbled EVP from an investigation at a 1919 Manville home.

3 ways to get your spook on in the Truckee Meadows

From RGJ.com:  3 ways to get your spook on in the Truckee Meadows

NIGHT OF SPIRITS

Local paranormal investigators Mark and Debby Constantino will lead a guided ghost hunt through the Wilbur D. May Museum from 7 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday to see if they can make contact with any ghosts in the collection.
The Constantinos are the founders of Spirits-Speak, a Reno-based paranormal research team specializing in electronic voice phenomena.
The Wilbur D. May Museum features exotic relics from around the world, including a human shrunken head and hundreds of taxidermied animals.
Cost: $60, includes wine and hors d’oeuvres. The event is limited to 25 people. Tickets are on sale at the museum.

FRIGHT FEST AT MEADOWOOD MALL

The “Slaughter House” opens Friday inside Meadowood Mall in Reno. The new haunt will be 8,000 square feet and a full redesign from previous years. The Slaughter House Haunt also offers a kid-friendly experience for younger ghouls and goblins on Sunday afternoons.
Cost: General, $13. Bring a donation of canned food to benefit the Food Bank of Northern Nevadsa and receive $2 off. Details: 877-767-2279 or www.RenoFrightFest.com.

DUNGEON COMES TO CARSON

The Dungeon haunted house welcomes visitors to tiptoe through 4,000 square feet of history and horror, as screaming victims, evil clowns and other blood-curdling characters keep you company. Trick or treat your way down to the Old Gottschalks building in the Carson Mall, 1809 North Carson St., on weekends in October. Cost: $13. Details: www.horrorfind.com or 775-691-3945.

 

Hunting Nicholls State's HAUNTED

From the Tri-Parish Times:  Hunting Nicholls State's HAUNTED

It was a dark and stormy night for Nicholls State University’s paranormal class on-campus ghost hunting session.
“This is the best weather,” said Professor Cally Hebert as she, her six students and several other locals set up infrared cameras near the bookstore, food court sitting area and Greek Hall in the Bollinger student union.
“This is the type of weather we hope for,” Hebert said. “The electromagnetic field from the lightning is strong and increases the chance that we will pick up something. This will be a fun night for the investigation.”
Indeed it was.
As the class was setting up for the investigation, a camera fell off its tri-pod.
“We are already having paranormal activity and we haven’t even started,” Hebert said excitedly.
This is the third year Hebert has been teaching the class and, in those years, she and her students have come to find paranormal activity in several buildings at the university.
“Polk, Talbot and the student union are the most active buildings on campus,” Hebert said. “Last time we did an investigation on campus, a shadow passed between a trash can and camera we had set up in Polk. We got it all on video and you can see right through the shadow. A skeptic in the class captured it, no less. We also get a lot of electric voice phenomenon in Polk Hall.”
The last investigation on campus also revealed Electric Voice Phenomenon of a little girl giggling in the student union as well as other laughter, footsteps and humming.
“Talbot Hall, that’s where a lot of people say they get a feeling, a heaviness, when they are in that building,” Hebert said. “We’ve got four or five different, good quality EVPs from the last investigation there. One of them said, ‘Call Katie,’ but there was no Katie in the room.”
According to Hebert, the EVPs in Talbot Hall range from older males and females to younger females and males.
Shamas Belo, senior culinary student from LaPlace, said he has experienced paranormal activity in room 117 of Peltier Hall.
“I was the only one in a classroom and a computer turned on by itself,” Belo said as he checked to make sure all the cameras in the union were properly set up and recording. “You need a key to turn on the server and the professor, who has the key, was not in the classroom.”
Belo had great expectations for his first paranormal investigation.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the paranormal,” Belo said. “This is a favorite class for me. We had a presentation in the last meeting, sort of an introductory into the paranormal about how to identify orbs and EVPs. I’m hoping for some strong signs tonight, maybe a cold breeze on my arm. I can’t wait to listen to the EVP sessions and see what the entities have to say.”
Once the cameras were properly set up, flashes began to appear in front of the camera in Greek Hall.
“It could just be a dust particle,” Hebert said as she headed off to check the area near the camera with a K-II meter that measures electro-magnetic emissions. “Most orbs move faster than a dust particle would move.”
Hebert quickly returned with brief news.
“It was nothing, probably just electrical stuff in the building,” Hebert said. “If there is a steady read on the K-II, it’s something man-made making it do that.”
Students soon broke into three groups and manned themselves with K-II meters, thermal leak detectors, which measure hot and cold spots, digital voice recorders, cameras and flashlights.
“Each group will spend about 45 minutes in each location before moving on to the next one,” Hebert said as the students prepared to leave the building.
“I know I’m going to be crying by the end of the night,” said student Suzanna Cavallo of Raceland as she joined Joseph Hubble of Port Allen, Derek Foret of Houma and Hebert and headed out into the night toward Polk Hall. “I’m so excited.”
The hunt begins
“Janitors have reportedly seen shadows pass through walls in this room,” Hebert said as the group entered a dark computer lab on the first floor. “Janitors are a good source of information for us. They let us know of any commotion they hear in buildings so that we know where to come for future investigations.”
Once the group arrived in the room, everyone turned on their voice recorders and while Hubble and Foret began moving about the room, Hebert began pinpointing cold spots in the room and debunking drafts while Cavallo took a few photographs from different angles in the room.
“A spirit gives off a lot of energy,” Hebert said as she scanned the room with the thermal leak detector. “This device is just one way for them to communicate, to let us know they are there. Blue means a cold spot below room temperature, a good sign of an entity, green signals room temperature and red means an above-room-temperature reading.”
As the group moved around the room, each posed several questions into the air of the dark room: “Why are you here?” “Are you sad?”
“Are you there?” Hebert asked as her thermal leak detector changed from green to blue. “Wow, already getting something!”
Through a series of yes or no questions answered by making the light blink – blink meaning yes – Hebert determined that the entity was female.
“Were you a student here?” Cavallo asked.
“Are you still here?” Hebert posed. “Can you make the light blink again?”
“Why are you here?” Foret questioned as Hebert’s thermal leak detector blinked from green to blue again. “Were you a teacher here? A construction worker on this building? Are you alone?”
Foret’s K-II lit up near a chair.
“Are you a spirit that needs help?” Hebert asked. “Can we help you?”
The spirit responded in the positive by making Hebert’s light blink again and both Foret and Hubble’s K-II readers began to blink.
“I’m getting the chills now,” Cavallo said. “Do you want us to contact your family? What is your name?”
“My temperature gun turned itself off,” Hebert said. “It takes lots of energy for them to turn something off and they sometimes take the energy from our batteries to turn things off.”
The group soon moved further into another corner of the room and Foret rapped on the wall to check for a possible response. If there was one, it was not audible. After spending about 20 minutes in the room, the group traveled to the second floor of the building.
“I feel like nothing is here,” Cavallo said.
It seemed that Cavallo’s premonition was right and neither the K-II readers nor the thermal leak detector picked up any readings as the group walked down one of the building’s hallways before moving toward a staircase to the outside of the building. As the team made its way toward the door, Hebert’s thermal leak detector flickered from red to green to blue.
“Do you want some more company?” Hebert asked as the lights stopped changing color. “We’re leaving but others are coming to visit you.”
From the library, the team made their way to Talbot Hall, the university’s art building.
“If we cross one of the other groups, don’t tell them anything about what we saw,” Hebert said. “We want to know what they see without them knowing where we saw activity.”
After running into several locked doors, the group found one unlocked door that lead to several open doors of the instrument and singing practice rooms.
“Is anyone here?” Hebert asked as Cavallo sat at a piano in the first room and Hebert’s thermal leak detector quickly changed to blue. Foret and Hubble began to check each room with their K-II sensors but turned up nothing as Cavallo and Hebert moved from room to room as the light continued to blink from green to blue.
“It seems to be moving to the bigger pianos,” Hebert said, laughing. “We have heard EVP requests for help in this building in some of our other investigations.”
After 15 minutes of room hopping, the entity seemed to move back to the first room before completely disappearing from the thermal leak detector’s radar. From there, the group began to search for other unlocked doors along the hallway, finally hitting pay-dirt with the door to the building’s theater.
While Foret, Hubble and Hebert worked the room with their ghost hunting devices, Cavallo made her way to the back of the stage to take several photographs of the area.
“I’ve got two possible orbs,” Cavallo said. “In each shot, the orb is in a different place.”
With no readings on K-II readers or the thermal leak detector, the team made its way to a hallway outside of the ceramics room.
“I’ve got something on my K-II,” Foret said as he made his way past shelves of student artwork on display.
“Me, too,” Hubble said as he scanned the far end of the hallway.
“I’ve got blue,” Hebert said. “Can you please make the color go to red? We’ve only got a few minutes left in this building before we have to leave.”
Activity in the area continued for about 10 minutes, but after several minutes with no activity on the K-II readers or the thermal leak detector, the group made its way back to the union for its final session, settling in a hallway in front of the doors to the bookstore.
Hebert’s thermal leak detector immediately began to flip through all three temperature colors and soon the K-II readers also began going off.
“This is a nice entity,” Hebert said. “It has lots of energy and is really interacting with us.
“It really seems to like the guys and their K-II readers.”
For a solid 10 minutes, the K-II readers and the thermal leak detector continued to blink, with the group determining through questioning that the entity was male.
“Do you want us to leave?” Hebert asked after several moments went by with no movement on any of the readers. Foret and Hubble’s K-II readers immediately went off.
“I’m going to leave my tape recorder here in case you have something to tell us,” Hebert said as the group moved on to Greek Hall and upstairs to classrooms on the union’s second floor.
“We’ve had reports of paranormal activity in these classrooms from the janitors,” Hebert said. “On one occasion, the doorknob was jiggling on the room divider door and no one was in the other room.”
After no readings popped up on the K-II readers, the group made their way back downstairs to check in with the returning groups.
“Everybody be in the next class so we can discuss everything from tonight and talk about what we find on our EVPs,” Hebert said. “Class dismissed.”
EVP sessions reveal voices
“We got a bunch of EVPs in response to our questions,” Hebert said following the class’ session to discuss what was seen, heard and felt during the campus investigation. “We got lots of ‘Help me’ requests from each building.”
The majority of the students’ EVPs were from Talbot and Polk halls and very few were heard in the student union.
“When we walked into the computer lab in Polk, you could hear five or six other people whispering in the room,” Hebert said. “None of us were whispering when we walked in. It’s really cool to hear all our voices and the other voices that you know weren’t there.”
Other hotspots for that night’s EVPs were the music practice rooms in Talbot Hall.
“A single note was played on a piano and in another piano room, we got a long, drawn-out ‘No,’” Hebert said. “One teacher asked us not to tell her if anything showed up around the door to her office and as I was saying that in front of her door during the investigation, there was a very sinister voice on my EVP recording saying ‘I’ve got your back. I’m in back of you.’”
Hebert also reported a recording of knock-back when students knocked on the floor of the Talbot Hall auditorium.
“It was a very successful investigation,” Hebert said. “Three students want to take the class again and some students even brought friends and spouses to the EVP listening session.”

 

Scotland: Edinburgh Zoo mansion to host Halloween ghost hunt

From Local Edinburgh: Edinburgh Zoo mansion to host Halloween ghost hunt

Stepping through the depths of darkness while exotic animals howl, scuttle or silently stare with black eyes would be an uneasy experience for anyone but the living creatures will be the least of your worries this Halloween at Edinburgh Zoo.
While the activities of the nocturnal residents may be unnerving, they are harmless and abide securely in their enclosure homes. What is less predictable is what goes on inside the mansion sitting at the heart of the zoo after dusk.
For the first time the doors will be opened after hours for a ghost hunt of a building with a history that stretches back more than 200 years.
It once belonged to the MacMillan family who lend their name to one of the main function rooms in the house and often used for wedding celebrations.
While the Mansion House offers a home for happy occasions, it is also the source of unexplained sights, sounds and experiences.
A woman affectionately known as the Grey Lady appears from time to time on the grant staircase and was most recently spotted by a child last month. Others have heard the wails of a crying baby emitting from the walls while security guards have on occasion spotted figures inside the mansion and given chase and cornered the trespasser to discover there is no-one there.
For those brave enough to embrace the paranormal there is the opportunity to join experienced ghost hunter Jimmy Devlin and spiritualist medium Jackie Drummond as they search the mansion in a bid to find and communicate with spirits.
As a boy Jimmy’s interest in the paranormal was sparked by his father’s stories from days in the RAF. He said: “My dad would tell me ghost stories about haunted camps that he used to stay at and that fuelled it for me. I wanted to investigate things that cannot be explained.”
Jimmy aka the Ghost Finder General has a whole raft of technical equipment to help him capture sight or sound of the paranormal. While on an investigation he will carry a nightvision video camera, an audio recorder, a digital thermometer, a thermal imaging camera and meters that measure electric magnetic field.
He explained: “We emit EMF, the majority of this comes from appliances but it is thought that spikes in EMF also indicate paranormal activity. The meters used act as a modern day Weejie board, it can be a communication tool. We can ask the energy to respond on the count of three and we can see if there is a spike on three that they understand.”
Over the years Jimmy has been in a wide array of situations that would be sure to bring the height of fear to others such as footsteps, heavy breathing and banging of doors but still he is motivated to carry on investigating the unexplained.
He said: “It’s unexpected you just don’t know what’s going to happen. All I ask of people if they want to come is to have an open mind. I’m not going to force my opinions on anyone, I don’t know if its paranormal but there are experiences that cannot be explained and I investigate those.”
Jimmy is particularly excited about going round the Mansion House as he has never been there, he said: “It’s a blank canvas. I don’t know what we will find and I don’t know who will be coming. I hope it is a mixed bag of people as they will have different energies this will be more likely to attract paranormal energies.”
The event takes place from 8pm on Wednesday October 31, more information and booking details can be found online.

 

Wales: Ghost-hunting is all in a good cause

From This is Wales:  Ghost-hunting is all in a good cause

IF you go down to the woods this month, you may be in for a spooky surprise!

A paranormal investigation night has been arranged at Pembrey woods on Saturday, October 27 to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

The Haunted Woods event begins at 8pm and costs £10 per person.

The organisation SPR Cymru will be carrying out the investigation — using special gadgets designed to pick up paranormal activity.

The group is a team of paranormal investigators made up of "sensitives, sceptics and resident mediums" based in Llanelli.

British Heart Foundation fundraiser Jayne Lewis said she was looking forward to the event.

"In our last event, the atmosphere was electric," she said.

"SPR Cymru have been fantastic.

"They do all the investigating.

"This event will go on until about 2am but we don't have problems if people want to leave earlier.

"We ask people to bring coats and flat shoes but it would be excellent if they dress up for Halloween."

The slow-paced walk will cover approximately two miles in the woods.

Jayne said they hope to raise around £500 which will go towards the foundation's Mending Broken Hearts appeal.

The charity is hoping the event is as successful as a similar paranormal investigation at Llanelli's Halfway Hotel in September.

Director of SPR Cymru, Mark Hinder, who organised the night, said: "It was excellent.

"People were taken around different areas of the hotel.

"One lady had a lot of information on the Ouija board about a relative.

"The electronic magnetic field reader was going off which signifies spirits were close.

"We have had fabulous feedback.

"Everyone enjoyed and we are looking forward to the event in Pembrey."

To find out more or to buy tickets contact Jayne on 01554 891500.

Oxford, England: Spooky festival

From Daily Mail: Spooky festival

SOME ghostly and ghastly goings-on are taking over Oxford Castle .
Ghost Fest, which sees paranormal experiments and spooky tours at Oxford Castle – Unlocked, is now in its seventh year.
For adults there will be the chance to visit the 1,000-year-old site in the middle of the night and hunt for ghouls. And for children, there are family-friendly daytime ghost hunts and the chance to trick or treat in the old prison.
Tour guide Lois Sadler, pictured with Tom Wilson, playing a “scary horrible wench”, said: “October is always lots of fun here.
“Children love trick or treating, coming up to the cell doors in the old prison and meeting all the different characters.
“And we have the more sinister tour of the castle for the adults. There are a lot of ghost stories here, so fans of the paranormal can enjoy spending the night in a crypt.”
The castle was used as the city’s prison for more than 800 years, before opening as a tourist attraction in 2006.
For details, contact Oxford Castle – Unlocked on 01865 260666, email info@oxfordcastleunlocked.co.uk or visit www.oxfordcastleunlocked.co.uk

 

NJ: Weekend Guide: Ghost Hunting at Princeton Battlefield and More

From Princeton Patch

This news is from this weekend - but they'll doubtless repeat it next year so put it on your calendar.

Hunt for Ghosts on Princeton Battlefield. This isn't a "jump out and scare you" experience. It's an opportunity on the site of the Battle of Princeton after dark using authentic EMF meters, dowsing rods and therma-meters to investigate. 8 p.m.

Princeton Battlefield State Park, 500 Mercer Rd, Princeton, NJ |
$20.00

People have always told us Princeton Battlefield was haunted... Now, it's time to know the truth.
Be warned this is an unsettling tour.  It's the site of one of the most important battles in the United States and, per usual, our guides are not holding back any of the facts.
This isn't a "jump out and scare you" experience.  This is a once in a lifetime experience to be on the most significant American battlefields after dark using authentic EMF Meters, Dowsing Rods and Therma-Meters to investigate the site.
We walk through Princeton Battlefield where tour guides use state of the art audio systems and iPads to tell the chronological story and descriptions of the horrors of war, including  the shootings, bayonettings, beatings, cannon fire and screams of both men and horses shot during the battle.
At the end of the ghost hunt, we'll go inside a closed cemetery to see the gravestone of Richard Stockton, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and undeniable hero to our nation and the Princeton community.