Ghosts and Haunted Places

 

Known today as “Ghost hunting”. This field as gained popularity due to numerous television shows. It is an easy legend trip to go and there are a lot of places to go ghost hunting. The hard part is finding one that hasn’t had a paranormal investigation done on it. Here a few places that continue to have paranormal incidents happen but you will have to pay to go in and do an investigation. On a side note, not every abandon house or building is haunted and as I have stated before, you can be charged with trespassing if you go into them, without permission.

Most lighthouses like the St Augustine lighthouse have a history of Hauntings and you can go there, especially during Halloween, and do at night time visit of the facility. These are neat to visit and the whole family will enjoy the experience. I will caution you, it is a long way up some the stairs of the lighthouses and you need to be in pretty good shape to make it to the top. Most lighthouses have museums right next to them so you can visit them as well.

A lot of old prisons and penitentiary have seen resurgence in popularity as haunted places. The Eastern State penitentiary is located right outside Philadelphia and is neat place to visit. It is open year round and does offer night time tours for paranormal investigators. It has been featured on numerous television shows and movies.

The old prison at St Augustine is considered one of the oldest jails in the United States and offers both day time and night time tours of the building. The building has long been known to be haunted by former inmates and prison guards. The only thing is it is not a large building like the Eastern State penitentiary.

Some haunted houses have been reopened as bed and breakfast homes. For those who don’t know what a bed and breakfast is, it’s an old home, converted into a mini hotel which features an awesome breakfast in the morning. They are usually a little more expensive than a hotel, but they are a lot quieter and peaceful.  They are quite popular in the New England area of the United States. These places offer not only a really nice atmosphere to stay but also offer an opportunity to conduct a paranormal investigation. Tracy and I, when we visit Pennsylvania, will stay in a bed and breakfast. One time we stayed at the Bucksville Inn, a Bed and Breakfast in Ottsville, Pennsylvania. This place has been featured a number of times on television for its paranormal activity. We set up our cameras at night when we went to sleep. We didn’t get any apparitions, but Tracy stated she felt something pull on her hair that night.  Recently we stated at Indian Rock at Upper Black Eddie, which is located right next to the Delaware River. It is my favorite place to stay when we are in the area. The owners told us that while they both do not believe in ghosts, they have allowed some local paranormal groups to conduct investigations on the premises. To date they have not found any evidence.

            There are some cemetery and graveyards that are none for their paranormal activities, but as I said before check and get permission before to go out there at night. The cemetery at St Augustine will not allow anybody out there at night and if caught will receive a hefty fine. When you go ghost hunting, only go where you are aloud. Trespassing is not a good example to set for your family. It can also turn your legend trip into an expensive lesson.

            I highly recommend that for first timers, go with someone who is experienced and has done it numerous times. Tracy and I go with Bonnie Korniak and the AURA organization. They go where they are allowed and have some of the most up to date equipment available for ghost hunting. We always have a great time when we go with them. These groups do not charge for you to go along with them, but they will ask that you keep the investigation private until they can review all the evidence. Most paranormal groups will look at the evidence and then relate everything to the owners of the supposed haunted faculty.

There are also places where incidents occur that are believed to be paranormal in nature. An example of this is ghost lights. These are places in the United States where you can go watch these mysterious lights that only appear at night and to date cannot be explained.

Angelsghosts.com web site states that “Ghost lights are also known as spook lights, earth lights and will-o'-the-wisps, being luminous balls of light seen moving about. Typically seen outdoors, ghost lights are reported around the world and are likely caused by natural phenomena. Ghost lights are not the typical orbs people photograph with cameras. They are only found outdoors, and are usually at a greater distance from the viewer. A ghost light can be witnessed in various colors, shapes and sizes, and are almost always seen at night. Often, many a ghost light is described as being orange in hue. Some locations seem to produce the ghost light phenomena more than others and this has allowed for their study in recent decades. Legends exist around the globe that ghost lights are the spirits of the departed, while others describe them as UFOs due to their ability to move. Ghost lights, by the way, have been reported moving at various speeds, from barely moving to being extremely quick”. The most famous ghost lights in the United States are the Maco Station Light (North Carolina), Brown Mountain Light (North Carolina), Hornet Spook light (Missouri), Marfa Lights (Texas), the Yakima Lights (Washington), Anson Light (Texas), Dover Light (Arkansas), and the Hebron Light (Maryland). As you can see there are a lot of places to see this oddity. I got to see the Hornet Spook Lights in Missouri, thanks to Loren’s book; I traveled with my friends to see them. We were not disappointed.

Another oddity of paranormal origins is the mystery of the gravity hills. There are places where unseen forces will move vehicles up hill. Though most are believed to be optical illusions, they are fun to visit. Stephen Wagner of About.com writes: There are dozens of mystery spots to be found around the U.S., and many more gravity hills - places where gravity itself seems to be warped. Our perceptions of up, down, straight and crooked are confused by what some say are powerful gravitational anomalies and dizzying magnetic vortexes. Is that the case, or are our senses being fooled by clever man-made and natural optical illusions? We have Spook Hill at Lake Wales, Florida which is located not more than three miles from where we live. My family and I have visited it numerous times. Unfortunately with the refurbishing of the road, the gravity effect is not a prominent as it use to be when I was a kid.