Viewing 1 - 6 out of 6 Blogs.

One of the things that Alan brought up during his segment on Ghostly Talk was that of all the squabbling and bickering that goes on in the paranormal community, and how it affected him.  That really struck a sympathetic chord in me, because I still remember very keenly how shocked and appalled and simply hurt I was over a decade ago, coming into the pagan community as a newcomer who fully expected to find a safe haven among kindred spirits--only to find myself in something more closely resembling a pit of vipers.  That's a horrible feeling, like a betrayal made all the worse because you can't pin it on any one person; there was an expectation you had going in, believing yourself to be among friends, among your own kind, and then finding more strife and dissent and contention inside the group than you ever experienced coming from "outsiders!"

It sucks, and it's enough to make you want to say screw it all and give up the idea of "community" as an impossible dream.  Infighting may be the worst kind of fighting there is, because it does carry with it that sense of isolation and betrayal.  You expect problems from people who don't share your beliefs and interests, but not from the ones who do.  The shock of it, especially if you find yourself embroiled in a major flamewar, is hard as hell to get over.  Even pixels on a screen can have lasting impacts, because behind those pixels are people who can be hurt. 

A wise friend of mine, speaking of these types of situations, told me this: "They behave so badly because the stakes are so small."  It's easy to engage in bad behaviour on the internet particularly, because there's so little accountability.  The person you're treating like crap isn't physically there to punch you in the face; and if other people start to gang up on you, it's easy enough to disappear, lay low for a while, then create a sockpuppet to come back and start more trouble.  I at first thought these things were limited to the pagan community, but as I wandered into other types of online communities I found the same things happening there.  I toyed with the idea of becoming a hermit and never posting anything anywhere ever again, but I got over that pretty quickly.  Instead I made a concious vow to never become that kind of person, and to try (online at least) to treat others at least as well as I'd like them to treat me--and to disengage as quickly as possible from those who would try to stir controversy.  It doesn't always work, but it's made things better.

All right, this has turned into a rambling rant apropos of very little, so I'll wrap it up here.  Alan, if you're reading this, know that I heard what you were saying and I understood it.  I'm committed in my small way to making IAH the kind of place you envisioned it to be, if I'm able to contribute to that.  And I don't think I'm the only one who feels that way.  

The season has officially begun at my historic site, so if I hear any new reports (or have any of my own to share), you'll be seeing them here first.  We have construction going on for most of the summer, involving digging in the front and side yards to restore the serpentine sidewalks (hand-carved stone and original to the property), along with repainting the entire house later in the summer.  In the past, an increase in "activity" has almost always come along with any construction or changes to the structure, so I'm hopeful.  This could be an interesting year.

Things were so different when I was growing up back in the 70s.  I have no idea where my fascination with the paranormal came from, but I remember that it was a lot harder to find books and information back then.  I loved it when my parents would take me to yard sales and flea markets, because I could plow through piles of old books and occasionally I would find one on ghosts, or witchcraft, or what-have-you.  My parents didn't censor my reading, so anything that came my way was fair game!

Back in those days, there weren't any paranormal "celebrities."  I don't even think there were many TV shows that dealt with the supernatural until the later 70s, maybe even the early 80s--things like Unsolved Mysteries, for example.  As far as I can tell, things started to change a bit after the Amityville case broke; I can clearly remember finding the story serialised in my grandmother's copy of the National Enquirer, and I ate it up like it had chocolate sauce on top.  I was probably nine or ten years old at the time.  Of course I had to have Jay Anson's book after that, and I still have it to this day.  There are a number of beat up, falling-apart paperbacks lying around my house: Haunted Houses and More Haunted Houses, Haunted Heartland and others of that series, stacks of little dime paperbacks on witchcraft and the supernatural that came out in the late 60s and early 70s...someday when I croak I'll have to leave my occult and paranormal collection to a suitable library or museum. 

Even just a few years ago, back in the 90s, it was different: there weren't seventeen ghost programs on TV every night of the week.  They were typically relegated to the month of October on the History Channel.  Historic areas weren't even offering ghost tours with the frequency that you see them now.  In a way I'm glad that these subjects are more in the open, more almost acceptable in public discourse, but a part of me is a little regretful, as well.  Part of the fun was in the searching, the thrill of hunting down information and feeling as though you had a secret knowledge that not everyone else could access.  Some of the mystery is gone now, you know?

This past weekend, I was invited to be an actor on a "ghost walk" being held in a nearby state park.  There were three of us, performing a reenactment of an 1887 murder that took place very near the trail on which the walk was taking place; in fact, part of the trail is the old wagon track where the incident happened.  It was just past dusk on a clear evening, about 69 degrees and low humidity.  I was hiding near a small rocky outcropping maybe 15-20 feet off the trail, behind a stand of trees and brush.

Nothing happened during the tour itself; but after the tour group had been taken away and we were given the signal that it was safe to come out, I had an odd experience.  As I came out of my hiding place, just as I moved through the tree line and into the brushy area between the trees and the trail, I walked through a patch that was distinctly warmer than the surrounding area, by at least ten degrees; it was very noticeable.  At the same time, it seemed as though there was a bit of haziness or smokiness in the same spot, though that was most likely my eyes adjusting to the change in light level between my shady hiding place and the dusk of the world beyond it.  I immediately turned around and retraced my steps, but the spot was gone, the whole area a uniform temperature.  One of the other actors caught up to me then, and we caught up with the third, and started back up to the head of the trail.  I started to say that I'd just felt "something odd" and one of the other guys cut me off, saying "It was a hot spot.  I felt it too."

I'd never even thought of a hot spot before, though I take it that they do happen, albeit rarely.  Having corroboration from another person was heartening as well!  The only downside to the whole evening is the fact that I must have walked through a nest of chiggers in addition to my hot spot; there are literally hundreds of bites on me, and today I'm about as miserable as one can get!  Tonight's ghost tours should be entertaining; thank all the Gods that I'm at my usual haunt (pun absolutely intended) tonight, a historic home with climate control and no bitey insects!

Back to my Benadryl and calamine,

~~taijiya

St. Augustine is stuffed full of bed and breakfast inns, most of them claiming a haunting; it's a town where you can't swing a dead...tourist...without hitting someone hawking a ghost tour.  (It's gotten better in recent years, with only a handful of reputable companies offering quality tours.  There was one year when you literally couldn't walk 100 feet down St. George Street without someone accosting you like a drug pusher, leaning out of doorways:  "Psst!  Hey!  Wanna take a ghost tour?")  I've stayed in a couple, and most of the time the scariest thing is the credit card bill.  But I've had my moments at the St. Francis Inn.

We stayed there the first time after I'd seen a segment on it on one of the Travel Channel or Discovery Channel ghost shows.  The original section of the building was constructed in 1790, with additions coming post-Civil War, and it's touted as the oldest continually-operating inn, certainly in the city and perhaps in the country as well.  The people that own it and run it are the nicest you'll find anywhere; we stay there every year, and it's more like visiting good friends than staying in a hotel.

We stayed in the infamous "Lily's Room" our first year. I got very little sleep, but more because of the small bed than the presence of Lily herself.  My husband swears he received a kiss on the cheek from the ghost; I was (finally) asleep at that point so I can't corroborate the story.  My ghostly encounter came on a later visit.

We were sitting in the main dining room one evening for the social hour.  There were several other people in the room at the time.  It was probably around 6 in the evening, and we were all drinking wine and discussing ghost tours and the legends surrounding the town and the inn itself.  One of the overhead chandeliers started to flicker, and being a wiseass, I said "Hey, stop that!"  The flickering stopped, and we all laughed.  By the third time it happened, most everyone had stopped laughing and were looking at me very strangely.  It stopped completely after that, and I had to defend my honour--look, I'm not doing anything, do you see any remote controls or wires?    That was a good time.

St. Augustine is a great place for ghost hunting, though it's best accomplished very late at night, after most of the tourists have gone to bed.  And the ghost tours themselves are a great way to get a feel for both the history of the place and the folklore that surrounds it.

(Heh.  I think I'm gonna like it here.)

First off, a shout out to the guys at Ghostly Talk for putting up the lectures from the Mid-South convention (I work like two blocks from where the conference was held and still couldn't make it out this year).  I listened to Alan Rupnik's talk, found out about the site here, and--well, here I am. 

Coming up, true tales of the paranormal, or life as a tour guide at one of Indiana's premiere haunt spots.  See you soon!