Ghost hunting at Preston Castle.

From Daily Reptile News: Ghost hunting at Preston Castle.
(visit the original link for lots of photos.

It has been no secret that for weeks now I have been planning to go look for ghosts at Preston Castle. I went with my good friend Bear of Mystic Valley Paranormal, his 2 boys and another friend Edward. I snapped this picture as soon as we pulled in. Preston Castle is no stranger to me as I have a view of it right out my living room window. I have lived close to it for many years and this will be the 2nd trip there to look for the ghosts that are always talked about roaming the halls there. This blog post is to highlight the night. The below picture was taken of the backside of the castle once we reached the parking area.

We all got there oh around 4:30 or so in the afternoon, got set up and just before dark started walking around. Now honestly not being a seasoned ghost hunter I don’t know everything about it, not even half, better yet not even 1/4 of what there is to know but I had my Android Ghost Radar on my tablet and my flashlight so I was set. We traveled fairly light, set up a charging station on the 2nd floor and proceeded to cover every accessible floor stopping quite a bit for EVP work and just to sit, listen and pay attention.

There were several areas where the feeling was just different but being a skeptic made if very hard to try to hone in on anything. When you are a skeptic it is far to easy to pass off strange feelings as just being in your head, after all we hare hanging out in an old castle with creaks, cracks and moans going on all the time. I would have to say all in all the night was uneventful, not to dissimilar from the last time I was there on a ghost hunt. I still can’t help but think with all the stories going around that there must be something there that is not explainable at least by me. I took SEVERAL pictures which I will put in a gallery below.

UK: Ghost-hunting duo called to old hotel in Canterbury

From This is Kent: Ghost-hunting duo called to old hotel in Canterbury
A HEADLESS figure, a farrier with unfinished business and a group of mischievous children are just some of the spectres supposedly uncovered at a former city hotel.

Ghost-hunter John Hippisley called in psychic medium Suzanne Artus after residents thought they heard things going bump in the night in Canterbury's former Pointer Hotel.

Within minutes of arriving at the building at 1, London Road, now converted into flats, Suzanne was deep in gory conversation.

She claimed she was talking to the spirit of a farrier from 1490 who knew the location of a decapitated head.

She also solved the mystery of the self-opening dishwasher that had spilled foam into the kitchen the night before.

The spirits told her four ghosts had been trying to get the machine started but obviously failed to read the instructions.

Mr Hippisley was called in when one of the residents believed he had seen a headless man as his cats started clawing at the wall.

Mr Hippisley had thought it might have been the ghost of Sir Thomas More, whose head is allegedly buried in the vault of St Dunstan's church opposite.

But Suzanne dismissed the theory – after talking to her farrier friend.

She did say the hotel was home to a "very elegant" woman and two housekeepers called Sarah and Emmalene.

The former hotel was once used by guests of Canterbury Cathedral and boasts a well in its centre into which, according to Suzanne, French prisoners of war were thrown and left to die.

John, who leads spook-searching tours around the city every Friday night, says he had detected the ghosts of French soldiers above Revivals and at Cafe St Pierre.

According to the hotel's owner, oranges had been found stabbed with a kitchen knife. Suzanne chatted to the spirits and explained: "One of the ghosts worked on the boats, which brought oranges to this country. They could not face the sight of them any more."

Residents had also complained of a coldness in some rooms. Suzanne told them: "Nothing can be done to remedy this – it is the cold nature of the spirit world."

But to everyone's relief she said there were no nasty ghouls present. She said: "They only linger because they had strong links with the building."

John said afterwards: "I thought there was only one spirit here. I had sensed a presence upstairs and downstairs but thought it was the same ghost. It is surprising Suzanne was able to contact so many in one place."

To contact John Hippisley visit www.canterburyghosttour.com or call 0845 519 0267.

Newport, RI: Explore the Paranormal at Historic Fort Adams

From the Fortress of Nightmares Website: Explore the Paranormal at Historic Fort Adams Summer Ghost Hunts

We are pleased to announce that we will host another series of Summer Ghost Hunts for the 2012 Fortress of Nightmares season! The first ghost hunts will arrive in July. Our summer ghost hunts are an exciting way for the public to get a taste of the October (Halloween) ghost hunts.

Summer Ghost Hunts have sold out year after year, therefore we suggest you plan ahead and purchase your tickets early.

Ghost Hunt:
$15
Ghost Hunts at Historic Fort Adams have been completely redone for 2012! We now offer 90 minute investigations with The Rhode Island Paranormal Research Group available to help you on your investigation, and Fort Adams Tour Guides who will be available to answer your questions about the fort. Ghost Hunts will explore the renovated overnight barracks, officers quarters, powder magazines, and casemates as well as newly restored areas not previously seen on past ghost hunts. Each investigation will be limited to the first 30 participants - tickets sold on a first come, first serve basis.

Ghost Hunting Toolkits are available for rental during your Ghost Hunt and provide you with extra sensory tools such as an Electro-Magnetic Field (EMF) Detector, and an Infrared (IR) Thermometer. Rent a kit for $10.

Ghost Hunts begin at 6:30, 7:30, 8:00, and 8:30. Select nights will offer a special Midnight Ghost Hunt, as well as a Halloween Ghost Hunt. All information listed is subject to change at any time.

Walpole Bay Hotel, Margate ghost hunt

From Ghost Hunt Events: Walpole Bay Hotel, Margate ghost hunt
Walpole Bay Hotel Ghost Hunt in aid of The Children’s Trust – 18th February 2012

This ghost hunt was held on behalf of The Children’s Trust, all proceeds from the event went to the charity.

We started the evening in the alleged most haunted room. Room 310. A male energy stepped forward and gave his name as Edward, he was gentry without a doubt, aged 29 years old and from 1910 he stood about 5’6” in height and wore a pin stripe grey suit with a black top hat and a silver topped cane. Edward proceeded to give a little evidence to the guests by lifting their arms gently.

After this session we decided that we would have a roving ghost hunt, since we had access to several rooms on each floor and therefore let the guests wander from room to room to see what they could sense or pick up with our equipment. Since we did not want to disturb guests of the hotel later in the evening this seemed a good idea and it allowed the guests to investigate on their own.

Later in the evening we were trying a Scrying experiment with some of the guests in the downstairs female toilets, as the energy and the general feeling in this area was not a good one. Many of the female guests and a member of my team did not relish the idea of using these toilets as they had a bad feeling. Many odd noises also emanated from within the toilets, but on every single visit inside the door, whatever the noise was, stopped instantly. During the scrying experiment the guests saw the features change on whoever was sitting in the “hot seat”

Whilst I was in a room on the second floor we came across a female energy who told us via our communicator equipment that she once owned and managed the hotel. Within the same room another female energy was present, a maid, however neither of these energies managed to either make a noise that we could hear nor affect any of the guests.

Some of my team had had sessions in room 310 in the meantime where strange knocks had been heard and at one point they were in response to the taps and raps being asked by the people in the room. Whilst the guests were in another area, myself and a colleague re-visited room 310 to see if we could record these raps and taps on our audio equipment. On entering the room we noticed that there was a strong pungent smell of lavender, which considering we had both been in this room before along with all of the guests at various times throughout the night and at no time prior to this visit had either of us smelled lavender quite so strong.

For our final session we spent this in the ballroom downstairs as when I was in the room alone, there were many strange sounds like whistling coming from the direction of the ladies toilet and when I entered the room I thought I heard a piano playing, however there was no piano in the room.

We had lots of communication with spirit via our communication equipment in the ballroom and spirit were responding to our taps and raps and repeating them more or less on command.

During various EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) experiments, audio anomalies were recorded, some however we have been able to ascertain what exactly has been said in response to our questions, two are easily understandable and are available to hear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg1OYluemMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U3oXMLKUI4

'Ghost Adventures': Drops in on Old Town's haunts

From OregonLive.com: 'Ghost Adventures': Drops in on Old Town's haunts
For the sixth-season premiere of Travel Channel's "Ghost Adventures," the searching-for-spirits series visits Portland's Shanghai Tunnels. It's a homecoming for Portland native Aaron Goodwin, a camera operator who appears in the series alongside investigators Zak Bagans and Nick Groff.

The Portland episode begins as the "Ghost Adventures" crew meets Shanghai Tunnels curator Michael P. Jones at Hobo's Restaurant on Northwest Third Avenue in Old Town where underground tours begin. Jones relates the legend of the tunnels and the program re-creates scenes of transient loggers dropping through trap doors in the floor into the tunnels below, where they would be held until being sold as crewmen for ships headed across the Pacific.

"Ghost Adventures" then detours into "Cops" territory as the paranormal investigators ride along with a Portland police officer for a look at modern human trafficking in the form of prostitution.

"Oh yeah, I watch your show," a prostitute tells Bagans as she's being arrested.

Eventually the series returns to the Portland underground for a "lockdown" as the "Ghost Adventures" trio set up their ghost hunting equipment and try to make contact with the other side.

Ghost Adventures
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Channel: Travel
Website: travelchannel.com

"I don't know if there are ghosts," Jones said. "All I know is some strange things happen down there."

During their time in the tunnels, the "Ghost Adventures" gang encounters unexplained door rattling and a ghostly heat signature captured by one of their instruments. Using a spirit box -- a radio frequency sweeper that emits white noise and what occasionally sounds like vocalizations -- the team hears what Bagans interprets as a male voice saying, "Let's get naked" near a prostitute's cove in the tunnels.

Goodwin, who was born in Eugene and lived in Sisters before graduating from Portland's Franklin High School in 1995, moved to Las Vegas when he was 21 with the intention of enrolling in film school. When he couldn't afford it, he taught himself and landed jobs as a camera operator or production assistant on a variety of gigs, including a Vegas shoot for the 2001-06 ABC spy caper "Alias." His job was to watch over star Jennifer Garner.

"That was the greatest job in the world because I have a huge crush on her," said Goodwin, 35. "We had eye contact a few times, and it was worth it."

He met Groff after sneaking into a college filmmaking class where he asked the professor how to get more involved in film. The instructor introduced Goodwin to Groff, a student. (Goodwin plans to post some of their earliest collaborations on his YouTube channel, agoodwincollections.)

"Eight years later Nick comes to me again and says, 'Help us hunt some ghosts,'" Goodwin recalled. "I'm like, whatever. I'd never thought twice about ghosts. I helped him out and had a huge paranormal experience."

Eerie experiences
During their first ghost hunt with Bagans in Virginia City, Nev., Goodwin said he felt a spirit come through his body. "It didn't go in my body, it came through my body," he said from his Las Vegas home last week. "My awareness was heightened. Now I was spooked."

He's since become a true believer in ghosts ("100 percent," he emphasized) and had been pushing for a "Ghost Adventures" episode in Oregon. He'd never been down in the Shanghai Tunnels before their December visit to shoot this week's episode.

"I'd heard stories," he said. "But Portland likes to keep a lot of stuff quiet. They try to protect it. It's the most amazing city in the world, and you don't want to jeopardize that. That's why we tell people it rains all the time so they're like, 'I don't want to move there.'"

In Portland's Shanghai Tunnels, Goodwin said he had a ghostly encounter.

"You could feel energy coming in and out," he said. "It was pretty cool. I connected hardcore with something down there."

In the future he'd like to return to Oregon to explore Astoria's underground tunnels. Until then, he'll go wherever his compatriots take him. Goodwin prefers not to know too much in advance about the next location they'll explore.

"It's more raw if I'm hearing about it for the first time when we get there," he said, noting he doesn't mind spending so much time on the road. "I'd rather live in a hotel and check in on my house. But my home is Oregon in my heart."

Wednesday!

I know I keep promising that I'm going to get back to a daily schedule of posts, and I know that weeks have gone by and there's been nothing regular about my schedule!

And I apologize! Stuff happens, abetted, I admit, by procrastination. There was a helluva lot of scanning of material I needed to do which I never did, and now I've got to get all that material back where it came from, so I've got 2 days of probably 12 hours a day spending my time scanning, and double checking to make sure I havne't missed any pages, etc.

So I'm going to spend the next 2 days doing that, will be all caught up on Wednesday, and will resume daily posts here.

And will finally have learned my lesson about procrastination - don't do it!

Ghost hunters coming to Marianna

From JCFLoridan: Ghost hunters coming to Marianna
Another team of ghost hunters is coming to take a look at the Russ House in Marianna. Emerald Coast Paranormal Concepts is at least the third such organization to do so since 2008. The group of six from the Panama City area will be here March 3, starting their work around 7 p.m.

Tracy Todd, leader of the team, said he became interested in the Russ House after talking with one of the other ghost-hunting teams who have been to the house, which is said to have been the site of a suicide.

Now the home of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, the house on Lafayette Street was built by Joseph Russ, who is said to have taken his life in a bedroom of the structure. For years, Chamber staff members and others have reported unusual occurrences there. Objects are said to move about on their own, footsteps are heard where no one is walking, and children’s disembodied voices have been heard, for instance.

Todd says his team members researched information about the house, the reported incidents, and talked with other hunters - who have reported some minimal spirit activity in the house - so they will be well prepared when they arrive.

His team’s goal, Todd said, is to find out if they can record any activity and perhaps find out what the spirit wants from the living, if anything. He said they are coming in with an attitude of quiet respect for whatever spirit may haunt the mansion.

They use a number of methods in efforts to communicate, gently asking simple questions that can be answered by the spirit by some means in an indication of “yes” or “no” for instance.

The team uses a suitcase full of meters, lights and other devices in trying to detect the presence of spirits, Todd said.

In an attempt to draw them out, the team is bringing a few children’s books and toys, and recordings of some music from the very late 1800s, the time that Joseph Russ lived.

Todd says he won’t be surprised to hear negative feedback from skeptics, but he doesn’t worry about that.

“If you believe spirits exist, I don’t need to prove it; if you don’t, nothing I can do can prove it,” he said. “So we don’t waste any time on that. Really, our goals are to try and give the living some assistance in dealing with the spirits that they feel they may be encountering, or to try and help them determine what is really going on if it turns out that it’s not a spirit causing the things they’re experiencing.”

Todd, an engineer by profession and a former Air Force security officer, said he does this as a hobby and doesn’t charge public or private entities for the work he does.

Whatever the outcome of next Saturday’s session at the Russ House, Jackson County Chamber of Commerce President Art Kimbrough said the stories that persist about the Russ House draw questions from visitors nearly every week, and the situation presents a unique opportunity.

He said it may be a good idea to package the Russ House legends with similar accounts at other locations in the area in marketing the region as a tourism destination for those interested in the subject matter.

Getting the information to this niche market, he said, may be an idea that the Tourist Development Council’s new executive director could be asked to handle once on board. The position has been advertized and had drawn 22 job-seekers when the application period closed on Monday.