The recent episode of Taps
got me to thinking again about something that's always been in the back of my
mind. On the last episode they captured an amazing evp.
The evp is clear, and it's
almost like the spirit is living her normal everyday life, and TAPS are the
ghosts.
First the spirit says,
"Hello, is someone there?" after Jason and Grant entered the room and speak.
Then when Jason says, "
Princess, can you let us know you're in here."
The response was, "Of course I'm
in here, where are you?"
That response leads me to
believe that just like they couldn't see her, she couldn't see them either. Two
different dimensions that are overlapping somehow? Or Time overlapping? But what about the spirits
people have encountered who seem to look right at you, and sometimes flee
/vanish when seen? If this person, the princess, was indeed a person who lived
and died at one time and is in spirit form and still living in that room, using
that bed, is she still living in her past, and the members of Taps were the
ghost to her?
What's your opinion? Did
that evp make you think along the same lines as I have?
I'm looking for any groups in the "Rio Rancho NM" area to pass on a request for assistance from a family who contacted my group. We are in Ga. so this is too far for us. Any groups in that area, please contact me.
Trolling can lead to far worse things, including cyberstalking.
~ Mary Brandel, www.computerworld.com ~ ~ ~ April 27, 2007 (Computerworld) ~ ~
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Article summary ... = What to Do = 1. Know the trolls' tactics 2. DFTT -- Don't Feed The Trolls 3. Maintain your privacy 4. Block and ban 5. Keep a log --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------
Anyone who has participated in the blogosphere in the past two months knows the troubling story of Kathy Sierra, a prominent blogger who was the victim of online threats that included violent sexual acts and murder ("Death threats force woman to suspend blog, cancel talk at O'Reilly conference"). When the harassment spread beyond her own blog to two others that were affiliated with other prominent bloggers, Sierra became so terrified that she canceled an upcoming speaking engagement and took a hiatus from blogging.
But Sierra isn't the only one to endure online harassment. In fact, some would argue that she's just the most visible -- if not the most historically egregious -- tip of an iceberg that has been around since Internet discussions began in the early 1980s. "Between now and the early days of Usenet, the level of abusive behavior has been distressingly constant," says Tim Bray, a veteran blogger and director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems Inc.
The difference is, with 70 million blogs in existence today and 1.4 new blogs created every second, according to blog search engine Technorati Inc., there are just more people participating in online discussions, and "the more crazy people you've got reading them, the wilder the whole blogosphere can become," says Richard Silverstein, who advocates for a peaceful approach to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his blog.
And he should know. Like Sierra, Silverstein is the victim of online harassment, in the form of hostile comments on his own blog, in external discussion groups and on blogs created solely for the purpose of maligning him. Given the topic that he blogs about, Silverstein is no stranger to abusive commentary. "It's part of the territory -- if you want to write a blog like this, you're going to deal with unpalatable people," he says.
But when the external blogs -- whose creators were anonymous -- grew increasingly threatening, including what he saw as pornographic photographs, he began to feel personally harassed. "I've felt insecure and under threat," he says. "No one has said, 'I'm going to come and kill you,' but there were some comments that got me concerned. You hate to think of these things, but it's very possible that some wacko will escalate from a threatening comment to actually doing something."
Silverstein has been able to uncover the identities of the bloggers, but he's been unable to force the blogs' removal, despite repeated correspondence with Blogger.com, which cites Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act that shields providers of content creation tools from liability for the content users create. In an e-mail sent to Silverstein, Blogger.com said that the site "does not remove allegedly defamatory, libelous or slanderous material from Blogger.com or BlogSpot.com," pursuant to Section 230, although it did remove the photographs because they were copyrighted images.
While both Silverstein and Sierra are higher-profile bloggers than many of us, it's clear that anyone who enters the blogosphere needs to be aware of the types of people who get satisfaction out of online harassment. According to Derek Wood, vice president of clinical operations at PsychTracker Inc., a journaling site for people with mental illness, the harassment comes in two general forms: trolls and cyberstalkers. It's important for blog participants to understand the psychological makeup of both types so that if they encounter any type of online abuse, they'll have some idea of what they're facing and how to respond to it.
Trolls
Essentially, a troll is a person who posts with the intent to insult and provoke others, Wood explains. The goal is to disrupt the normal traffic of a discussion group beyond repair. "A group is considered to be cohesively destroyed when two-thirds to three-quarters of the messages are a result of [trolls'] comments," Wood explains. They often target new users, who are more likely to take offense, hence the term "troll" (as in "trolling" for newbies).
Many trolls are characterized by having an excess of free time and are probably lonely and seeking attention, Wood says. "They often see their own self-worth in relation to how much reaction they can provoke," he says.
Woods categorizes trolls in the following ways:
- Spamming troll: Posts to many newsgroups with the same verbatim post. - Kooks: A regular member of a forum who habitually drops comments that have no basis on the topic or even in reality. - Flamer: Does not contribute to the group except by making inflammatory comments. - Hit-and-runner: Stops in, make one or two posts and move on. - Psycho trolls: Has a psychological need to feel good by making others feel bad.
The last type, according to another victim of online harassment, who asked to be identified only as Tim to avoid further online trouble, are "sick individuals." At one point, he says, an online hobby community that he led was attacked by such a person. "We learned over time that he wasn't just some schmo having fun -- he seemed to have some formidable computer hacking skills as well as debating skills," he says. Even when site administrators tried to ban him from the system, he found work-arounds, Tim says. "He eventually went away, but he's still out there [on other discussion groups], doing his sick, twisted thing," he says.
Later, Tim was hit at a more personal level when another group of people set up a blog aimed at mocking and attacking prominent members of the hobby community, including himself. Some of the material included photographs depicting their targets being violated, he says. One individual was able to force the bloggers to remove the images, using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the same law that helped Silverstein force the removal of the offensive images from the blog harassing him. Despite that victory, however, the bloggers continue, "and they used the DMCA notices as a way to further malign [the victim] in public," Tim says.
Cyberstalkers
Cyberstalkers can also assume many different forms, according to Wood, although they're basically characterized by a continuing pattern of communication that the recipient considers to be offensive. Other common traits of cyberstalkers are malice, premeditation, repetition, distress to the victim, an obsession on the part of the stalker, seeking of revenge, threats that make victims fear for their physical safety and disregarded warnings to stop.
As with trolls, there are several different types of cyberstalkers, according to Wood:
- Intimate partner: The most common type of stalker, this is usually a man who has a history of controlling and emotional abuse during a relationship. - Delusional stalkers: This type of stalker builds an entire relationship with the victim in his or her mind, whether any prior contact has taken place or not. Such stalkers are likely to have a major mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or erotomania, which means they believe the victim is in love with them. The typical delusional stalker is unmarried, socially immature and a loner who is unable to sustain close relationships with others. - Vengeful stalker: This type of person is angry with the victim due to some real or imagined insult or injury. Some of these stalkers are psychopaths -- a person affected with an antisocial personality disorder -- who have no conscience or remorse. They may have paranoid delusions, often feeling that they themselves are victims and are striving to get even.
What to do
In many cases, victims feel they have very little ammunition -- whether legal, technological or tactical -- to stop the abuse. However, there are some things bloggers and other online contributors can do to try to avoid this kind of harassment or at least keep it from crossing into the physical world.
1. Know the trolls' tactics According to Wood, the first rule for dealing with trolls is to avoid being deceived by them in the first place. Don't trust anything you receive or read without verifying the poster through known, reliable sources, he says. Also, ignore postings or private e-mails that are suspicious, such as those that praise, flatter or evoke a sympathetic response.
2. DFTT -- Don't Feed The Trolls This is one of the more important acronyms in the blog world, meaning, "Don't feed the trolls." "Just like in-person bullies, trolls feed off your reaction," Tim says. "Under no circumstances should you acknowledge the behavior or repay it with anger or defensiveness. If you don't react, they'll get bored and go away."
Even if ignoring the harasser doesn't get him to stop, at least you won't fan his flames, Wood says. "The more a person responds, the more they teach the stalker about themselves or divulge information they shouldn't," he says.
3. Maintain your privacy Don't publish any personal information, such as your address or phone number. If you need to, use a Post Office box number. Wood suggests asking your state's motor vehicles and voter registry to put a block on your address and phone number. "Otherwise, any person may obtain them just for inquiring," he says.
Some longtime bloggers, such as Bray and his wife Lauren Wood, a senior technical program manager at Sun, refrain from posting photos of their children on their blogs.
4. Block and ban If you're experiencing abuse on a moderated blog, you can appeal to the administrator, who can try banning the troll. Be prepared to include a history of the troll's posts, including full headers.
Some blog services offer technologies that enable you to block offensive participants. Using Wordpress, Silverstein can moderate the comments of anyone who hasn't contributed to the site before, which helps eliminate the hit-and-run type of trolls. "That allows me to weed out 90% of the abuse I get," he says.
Another plug-in enables him to ban certain IP addresses. "That's especially good for the really crazy people, if they post one comment that goes beyond the pale," he says.
5. Keep a log Be sure to keep a copy of anything you receive from the harasser, Lauren Wood suggests. If they contact you by phone rather than e-mail, take notes on what they say and how often they call, she says. "You'll need proof rather than, 'I think he was calling three times a day,'" she says. "You'll want a log that says, 'He called at 9:14 p.m."
Above all, when you have an online presence, you need to prepare yourself for the possibility of becoming a target, Wood adds. "Just like in the real world, you need to realize which dark alleys you shouldn't enter at night, and if you do, have protection and know what you should do when," she says.
Adds Silverstein, "you're very vulnerable as a blogger. You're out there hanging on the line, and anyone can take a shot at you."
It's been a very long time since I've heard any evp that sent chills down my spine, but I just listened to one that did just that. It's from a recent case we're working on. It's simple in what it says... but it's what it says... "Holly"
During the case, I kept having an experience of seeing smoke billowing toward me... Think of someone puffing on a cigar and blowing it in your face. It got so bad at one point that I was actually trying to wave it away with my hand.
All within a short period of time, I saw a large pulse of light next to me, then my EMF spike, a shadow was seen on the monitor in the same area. I asked if someone had entered the room with us, then the smoke I had seen earlier appeared again and I became very uncomfortable, and now the evp. So far, everything is matching up.
I think this one really sent chills down my spine because during my childhood, I would hear a male voice call out my name all the time.
Just curious, do many of you hear your name called while doing investigations /evps? And how does it make you feel?
I would like to publicly thank Mr. Nitewing for taking this evp and working on it to enhance it a bit further and for taking what he found and making the video of it.
I keep hearing that the veil is thinning. I have to wonder if it's because
so many are believing in ghost now and are now trying to communicate. I've also
heard it said that the veil thins at certain times of the year. I've also heard
other opinions on the subject. I tend to think it's because of more people
believing and actively searching. But I'm curious to hear others "opinions."
Now this may seem strange to some, but it's just the curiosity sparking in
my mind. In January of this year, my daughter saw what she believed to be a UFO
at our home. I trust her 100%, but as I always do, I immediately began asking
questions as to what she saw, heard, felt, etc. Then I put the word out to see
if others in our area had witnessed anything that night, and the answers I got
back confirmed that some did. I started doing research on the web to see if
there had been any other sightings during that time period from any where else,
and it seems there was through the month.
Now here's where the strangeness comes in. Some may thing I'm about two
sandwich's shy of a picnic, but I haven't lost it, yet. During that month, I
also noticed that there were many, many reports of paranormal activity
increasing, there were several on this site alone. So I began wondering, "is
there any correlation between the two events." I don't know, but it did put the
idea in my head. I know it would take a lot of research, comparison charts, and
so forth, for a considerable amount of time to try and find out. Has anyone
beside me ever thought of something like this?
I'm really interested to know what others think. Remember, debate is good
if done with respect.
A year has passed and a new year has started, and so far, it hasn't started
off great which has prompted me to write this and put it all on the table for
anyone who may want to pick at the leftover pieces of my mind. So be prepared
for a bit of a rant if you continue to read this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've never been one for writing blogs, or ranting, I normally just keep
things to myself because I'm always afraid of saying something that will
hurt someone's feelings, or saying something that will set someone off in the
wrong direction, or a thousand of other reasons. I'm not one of those people
who enjoys confrontation, arguing for the sake of arguing, or trying to destroy
the dignity of another.
I'll start off by saying that this isn't toward any individual or group,
either on here or another site, but for people in general. I've met some great
people and made many friends on the Internet, some that I've come to know and
trust. I've learned a lot from others in their own experiences and opinions
about things.
I know when you put yourself out there, especially on the
internet, it may bring criticism, and that's fine, I'm a writer and I'm use to
constructive criticism, but being rude in any criticism is not the way to go
about anything. That's one thing I've always despised about the Internet. Some
people think they can say or act any way they choose because they're not face to
face with you but hidden behind a computer screen.
Being a paranormal investigator, we open ourselves up to all kinds of
criticism. We need to handle things diplomatically with those who perhaps don't
believe, we have to handle questions with the best of our knowledge or
experience from clients, or those looking for help in some form or another, or
just to the general population. But there are those who need to learn the facts
before they write things on a whim. Please don't judge a person, persons, or
even a group, for something they do, or have done without knowing the facts, or
perhaps trying to learn who that person or group are as human beings first. If
someone feels they just can't go on without saying something, then by all means
do it, but take the time to think about what you're saying first. Think about
how it might make the other person feel, how you're trying to get your point
across to that person. There are those who need to stop adding their altitude
along with their writing, in email, comments, blogs, and so on. No one has to
be mean or nasty when making a point, giving their opinion, or even critiquing
what a person does, or how they do it. Kindness will get a person a lot further and garner them
the respect.
I'm a friendly person, I like to laugh and joke, I love ghost hunting,
talking and learning from others and learning about others, working with the team, who
have all become great friends, working with websites, editing video, doing
graphics, writing novels. I try to help whenever or however I can, if you need
me, then I'm there for you if at all possible. But a person may never know me
or how I am if they come at me with nothing but attitude and meanness, they'll
not get my respect. They will miss out on a potential friend. Maybe they don't
need or want another friend, and that's fine, too. Me, I'll take all the friends
I can get, I don't want to go to the great beyond living a life without
friendships, love, and respect. I'd like to meet up on the other side with the
friends I made and perhaps discuss how wrong we were in our assumptions, or how
right we were. "Hey, remember when we thought orbs were just dust in our photos?
Damn, who knew we'd be considered as dust one day."
I've seen so much going on behind the scenes, especially in the paranormal
community, and it hurts my heart to see it. There are times when I think we're
starting to sound like a bunch of gangs from across the country in one big turf
war. I've heard things about where one group will join another for an
investigation, only to turn around and start bashing them for the way they do
things. I've seen several groups in the same area battle against each other for
their "turf". I've seen groups who fight against each other to be the ones who
end up in the newspaper, or on the news, or whatever. What happen to respect?
What happened to the reasons most of us started doing this in the first
place? And hopefully that reason wasn't to become famous, or get rich, but
if fame and fortune somehow dropped in your lap, then good for you, but I hope
you keep your integrity, I hope you'll remember that you're not only
representing yourself, but the paranormal community as a whole. All groups
should work together, not against one another. Everyone does things differently,
everyone has their own opinions about things, everyone handles their cases in
their own way, so instead of bashing someone for their way of things, learn from
each other. Every one has something they can teach to some one else, and every
one can learn from that other person or group. There's enough war in this world
without adding our own. We should all try and set a better example.
I guess this will be the end of this part of my rant, there's more but I
decided to save it and maybe chew on it awhile. Maybe this will teach me not to
keep so many things bottled up until it explodes all over the page. I hope no
one takes offense at anything said, it was not my intention at all, and if
anyone does take offense, I sincerely apologize.
The Southern Ghost Hunters have been investigating a very old cemetery that has many reported hauntings, and I have to admit, it's one of the creepiest places we've ever investigated. The feelings are intense in the area.
To see the investigation documentary for this case visit:
The cemetery and church has a great story behind it and we’ve been able to verify the story through records supplied to us through the present owners.
The story goes that in the late 1700’s there once stood a meeting house /school on the property of the cemetery. Several of the townspeople’s thought the teacher and some of the students were practicing black magic, so they burned the building down with the teacher and some of the students inside. Reportedly, the teacher and those students burned to death.
In 1825 a church was built in its place. In 1854 that too caught fire and burned to the ground. A new church was built in its place, but this time it survived and is still standing to this day. The church is not in use any longer, it’s just an empty monument to its tragic past.
It is reported that what remained of the teacher and the students are buried in the adjoining cemetery. The church and cemetery are in a rural part of Georgia, and is surrounded by woods.
The reports of the haunting from residents and amateur ghost hunters include; Loud, clear, but unintelligible voices, apparitions, or as called by local residents, walkers, are seen walking the road in front of the cemetery and church, sometimes taking a human-like form, sometimes in the form of animal-like creatures, claims of loosing time are experienced, and people say that they hear horse hoofs galloping past the cemetery.
As we always do, we start out looking for the things that can be explained away by natural occurrences.
On our very first visit, only a few of the team members went to the cemetery just to check things out before we came back to do a full investigation. I had my audio running, and another member had a digital camera. We got out of the car which was parked on the side of the street across from the cemetery, and while we were standing there, I was telling the members with me about the reports of hearing and seeing animal-like creatures coming out of the woods and going after people. At that time, there was a noise in the woods, and one of the team members remarked in a joking manner that the rumor was true and a creature was coming after us, and we laughed. I said, “it’s most likely an animal moving through the brush.” Imagine my surprise when we went through the audio later and heard an evp that said, “you wish” Oh yeah, freaked me out just a bit. Raised my hackles. You can listen to this evp here: You Wish
A week later we went back to do the first of the ongoing investigations. I’m a sensitive myself, and we have a team member who is a clairvoyant. One of the strange things is that in this cemetery, and only in this particular cemetery, when she sees the spirits, they are surrounded by a bluish glow. That’s how she describes it. She doesn’t know why, and she’s never seen this before at any other time or place. I’ve never heard of anyone else who has witness this, so I don’t have a clue.
One of the things we were able to debunk was the sound of horses hoofs galloping past the cemetery. What people were actually hearing was the sound of tires going over a bridge in the distance, which did indeed sound like galloping horses. Now as for the ‘time loss’ we’ve been there many times, and have never experienced this at all. That’s one thing in my career as a ghost hunter that I have never experienced. I experience it all the time while working on my projects, but there’s nothing paranormal about that.
There’s been a few things that have happened during these investigations that we haven’t been able to debunk. One such thing was when myself and Deb were sitting down on a bench and she was seeing an older man standing in front of us. I sensed someone, but I don’t normally get to see. We both remarked at the same time that movement was occurring. She stated that the man was coming toward us and had circled around toward my side of the bench. At the exact same time, I was stating that I just saw a black mist go in the same direction.
In one area of the cemetery, there’s a large moss-covered tree. (If you’ve visited my profile page, that same tree is used as the background on my page.) Myself and two other members were near this tree and the feeling of being watched was intense. All of a sudden, there was what seemed like a loud growl in my left ear. All three of us heard it. I felt the need to leave the area immediately, and did just that. I’m not going to lie, that sound got to me. I was excited to find this sound on my recorder, but instead of a growl, it sounds like speech in a low male voice. I have yet been able to make out what it says, but I hoping I can, or perhaps some of the members here can figure it out. This is one of those evps where I just have to know. The evp is at the beginning. You can listen to this evp here: Growl /Speech
A few of the photos we’ve taken have showed a mist, the first one was while myself, Deb, our clairvoyant, and another team member were walking toward the front of the cemetery. She and I both felt as if someone were walking behind us so we were snapping photos behind us.
Another was taken by the large moss-covered tree when I took a photo of a team member.
There’s been many strange occurrences that we just have not been able to explain away. We are still doing investigations at this cemetery and are filming it all to use in a documentary. In fact, we’ve got so much film to still go through. I plan to update this in the coming future with other things we‘ve experienced and other things we‘ve been able to debunk. Opinions welcomed and appreciated on the evps.
