Weekly News Round-up 6/27/12

Neighbors claim to be seeing Michael Jackson's ghost roaming his old home. Phantoms and Monsters has the full story here.

A man claiming to be a psychic was found guilty after convincing young women to perform sexual acts under the claim that it would help them contact dead relatives and increase their own psychic abilities. You can read about it here.

Divers experience electrical failure after attempting to get close to a UFO shaped object at the bottom of the Baltic sea. There article is here.

A Few Things to Know About Ghost Hunting

As much as I love ghost hunting, it isn’t all fun and games. A lot of it involves hard work, patience, and a real passion for the paranormal. If you are thinking about starting to ghost hunt, there are a few things you should be aware of before you start.

1. Ghost hunting involves staying up all night. Investigations often run till four or five in the morning, and then everyone has to pack up and drive home. If you aren’t a night person, you might want to reconsider.
2. It’s physically demanding going on investigations. Everyone is expected to haul heavy equipment in and out of buildings as well as walk through old structures that can have massive numbers of rooms and stairs. Sometimes you can stand for hours without having an opportunity to sit and rest.
3. People aren’t always reliable. We’ve had cases where we’ve set up an investigation and the property owners changed their minds at the last minute. Ghost hunters need to learn a certain amount of flexibility.
4. Ghost hunting frequently involves getting dirty. A lot of haunted buildings are old and dusty. We try to wear clothes that hide the dirt as much as possible. If getting dirty bothers you, better find another hobby.
5. There are health risks involved in ghost hunting. Along with all the dirt and debris, old buildings sometimes contain things like asbestos. Floors can also be weak and rotted and walking through an unfamiliar room in the dark can always have problems. It’s a risk we all take whenever we enter an old building.

Despite all the bad, it’s still fun and rewarding every time we experience something we can’t explain. So we keep going out and keep searching. If the things on the list don’t bother you, then maybe you should give it a try!

Weekly News Round-up 6/20/12

Researchers are headed on a search for the Yowie, a Bigfoot-like creature found in the bush. You can read about it here.

The Alaska Dispatch posted an article on five Alaskan Cryptids.

Examiner.com posted an interview with a Bigfoot expert. You can read it here.

The Most Haunted Places

People often ask me “what’s the most haunted place you’ve ever been to?” Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer to that question. Most of the time, I end up rattling off the names of a couple of interesting places, but the truth is, there’s no real way to measure how haunted a building is.

When I go into haunted locations, I frequently have experiences that are hard to explain. My group works hard to capture some of those experiences on video or audio but even then we are only there for a few hours. It’s just not enough time to accurately measure or study what is happening at that location. And it’s incredibly difficult to measure something you can’t see. We do the best we can with the time and resources we have.

Most of the property owners we work with believe their place is more active than others simply because they are there everyday. They see things happen over and over and sometimes have hundreds of personal experiences with the spirits that live there. Many of them even work to learn about their ghosts, giving them names and personalities.

So if you want to know which places are the most haunted, just ask the people living in that spooky house down the street. They will probably have some good stories to tell you.

Weekly News Round-up 6/13/12

A Canadian farmer is blaming alien death rays for the death of hundreds of cattle. You can read about it here.

A man with 'vampire teeth' was arrested for attacking another man. The article is here. There's also a video about a woman who believes she's a vampire at the bottom of the article.

Following a severe head injury, a man discovered he had a sudden new ability to create music. He started playing the piano and has released an album. Read about it here.

Can Ghosts Steal Things?

While I was ghost hunting this weekend, the owner of the property mentioned that a toy ball had gone missing. They believed the ghost of a little girl had either moved it somewhere, or taken it into some other dimension. The day after our investigation, the ball showed up mysteriously outside the house.

I had never heard the idea that ghosts might be able to take things into their own physical space, but I think it’s an interesting theory. We once had a piece of equipment on a hunt move outside to the porch without any explanation (we had placed it in the attic.)

 I’ve seen plenty of objects move on their own, but I’ve never seen anything vanish. The theory would explain where all those random missing objects might be going.

Do you think it’s possible that ghosts might be able to move and take things in our world?

Weekly News Round-up 6/6/12

ACB News posted a video taken in Idaho that some believe may be of a bigfoot. You can see it here.

Scientists have discovered a sea creature shaped like the Batman symbol-and have no idea what it is. The video is here.

A zombie race is being held in  Lincolnshire. Might be a good idea to practice with all the weird zombie-related news stories popping up lately.

10 Reasons Being a Ghost Would Be Awesome

1. Unlimited free movies. Just walk into the theater and take a seat.

2. You could attend any exclusive party or event you felt like. No one can see you anyways. Hollywood red carpet events, late night after parties, anywhere you want to be is no problem. Want front row seats to see your favorite sports team? Just be a ghost. Who is going to stop you if they can’t see you?

3. Spying on people. You could see what old lovers are up to, or find out what celebrities, politicians and world leaders do in their spare time.

4. Scaring people. Come on, you can’t deny it would be a little fun giving people and occasional startle. Or just creeping them out if it’s someone you don’t like.

5. Having all the time in the world to do whatever you want.

6. You wouldn’t have to worry about dying.

7. Not being tied to the laws of physics. Who doesn’t want to be able to float?

8. You wouldn’t have to worry about doing, or saying something embarrassing. No one can see you anyways.

9. Not having to bother with that whole sleeping thing.

10. You could travel all over the planet and see things you wanted to see while you were alive. I’d definitely want to see what’s really inside Area 51.

Feel free to add your own reasons to the list!