America’s Bloodiest Battlefield Becomes Magnet for Ghost Hunters
If ghosts exist anywhere in the United States, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is perhaps the right place to look for them.
The rolling green hills where the armies of the Union and Confederacy clashed still seem haunted by the more than 50,000 soldiers who were killed, wounded or went missing in the Battle of Gettysburg.
On November 19, Americans will commemorate the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered after the decisive Civil War battle. It remains the bloodiest event ever on U.S. soil, and in recent decades the south central Pennsylvania town has become a magnet for people who believe in ghosts.
On a recent night, I joined a group of people there on an “Extreme Ghost Hunt,” venturing inside an old dark mansion that we were told had been a casualty collection center during the fighting.
They were equipped with an arsenal of so-called ghost detection equipment, including thermal imaging cameras and electromagnetic frequency meters.
A guide took out a pen-like device that emitted a matrix of low-intensity laser beams.
“This is for capturing shadow figures,” he explained. “If something crosses in front, you see the shadow figure.”
I went around the house splashing walls with green dots, but did not see a single shadow.
But I was apparently alone in my inability to see ghosts. Tour participant Charlie Souders was convinced the static he picked up on one of the gadgets was what ghost hunters call “electronic voice phenomenon.”
“Wow!” he exclaimed.
A study by Baylor University in Texas estimates that 68 percent of Americans believe in ghosts or other kinds of paranormal manifestations such as UFOs or psychic abilities.
Souders said ghosts don't scare him. On the contrary, he feels comforted.
“It’s kind of curious to know how the afterlife is; maybe know a little bit more before I go,” he said, adding that he plans to communicate with his family after he dies and “let them know what’s going on.”
Ghost tours and paraphernalia may be a boost for a local economy that depends on battlefield tourism. And clients do learn some true history of the sites in and around Gettysburg.
But the paranormal business also offers answers about the hereafter that some people feel traditional religion doesn’t provide, says theologian Pamela Cooper-White of the Columbia Theological Seminary.
“People are in a quest for a kind of certainty, and the more scientific or technological it seems, the better,” she said.
Cooper-White researched the Gettysburg ghost tours and will be presenting her findings at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Baltimore later this month.
In an interview, she said its growth in recent decades can be linked to a reluctance by Americans to confront some of the “harder truths” of their history.
“I think in many ways the ghost that has not been laid to rest here is that in many ways we’re still fighting the Civil War, and the legacy of slavery and racism have by no means been solved.”
On a homestead outside Gettysburg’s center, author and psychic Laine Crosby walked through an empty field and engaged in an elaborate conversation with what she said were Confederate soldiers.
“James and Bartholomew and Bill and all the rest of you?” she called out. “Can you tell me how many soldiers are with you here today?”
She recorded the conversation on an early model digital voice recorder, and when she played it back her question was followed by unintelligible static.
“Did you hear that!?” she said.
Holding a pendulum, she spoke to a battlefield physician. “Doctor Robinson, can you move this in a circle if you are here?”
Crosby claims such spirits from the past appear vividly to her and that the pendulum and recorder are just to convince skeptics.
“It was just to prove to you all that there really was somebody here,” she said, “and that I’m not just some crazy person out here dragging you through a field.”
Clearly, many people don’t think that because her book Investigative Medium - The Awakening
is the No. 1 best seller in Amazon’s Kindle store’s occult supernatural category. - VOANOTE: If you go on the battlefield, please be respectful of your hosts. Lon
Living Gettysburg: A Journey on Hallowed Ground
Last Ghost at Gettysburg
The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War
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Fortuneteller investigated for offering to remove curses
Police are looking into complaints that a fortuneteller in the so-called Witch City is charging customers to lift evil curses placed on them.
Fatima's Psychic Studio is a 20-year fixture in Salem, which was the setting of the 17th century witch trials and is now a popular tourist destination in the weeks leading to Halloween.
Police are looking into complaints involving four customers from out of town, including one filed by a man from New York state who says he paid $16,800 to have a "shield placed over him to protect him" and to "channel angels," according to a report filed with the city's Licensing Board.
The report, filed by Detective Sgt. James Page, said another complaint involved a New Jersey man who went to Fatima’s in August and was told he had a curse that the fortuneteller would remove for $500. The man declined but a few days later received a call from the reader asking again if he wanted the curse removed. The man said he refused a second time.
A city ordinance defines fortunetelling as “the telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures or reading the past," Page noted in his report, but curse removal isn't covered. The Licensing Board will meet Oct. 28 to consider renewing Fatima's license, which police said expired about a year ago.
Fatima's owner Harry Mitchell said he will respond to the questions raised in the report at that meeting. He told the board this week he has always been licensed but forgot to renew last year.
Asked by a reporter about the complaints, Mitchell denied wrongdoing and said he was “in discussions” with one of the customers in question.
Seperately Mitchell told police one complaint was due to a "misunderstanding and that he would speak with the reader to make sure it did not happen again," according to the detective's report.
Of the four complaints against Fatima's, two were recent, one was from last year, and another was a decade old. Page said there are no similar complaints against any other city fortunetellers or psychics. - BDT Online
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Zoologists hunting Tasmanian tiger declare 'no doubt' species still alive
A team from the Centre for Fortean Zoology is in Tasmania hunting for signs of the 'extinct' thylacine.
Investigators including Dr Chris Clarke and Richard Freeman are now one week in to their two-week expedition in search of evidence that the thylacine, a species that was declared officially extinct in the 1980s, still survives in the wilds of Tasmania.
The team has spoken to several "highly credible" witnesses and even claims to have discovered some feces that could be from one of the elusive creatures. Samples of the droppings have been preserved in alcohol and sent away to be DNA tested to see what animal they belong to.
"If we get the DNA from them, that’ll be interesting," said Freeman. "They are far too big for a Tasmanian devil and it can’t be a dog. Why would a dog be so far out there? It’s a very remote area."
Despite nothing conclusive so far, the expedition team is adamant that there is "no doubt" thylacines have survived and that the evidence is just waiting to be found.
"The area is so damn remote, there are so many prey species and we have so many reliable witnesses who know the bush that I’d say there is a reasonable population of them left," said Freeman. "I’d say there are more of them around in the world than Javan rhinos." Read more at The Guardian
Shadow of the Thylacine: One Man's Epic Search for the Tasmanian Tiger
The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine
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Chile: An Invisible Being Photographed in Angol
Date: 11 November 2013
Chile: An Invisible Being Photographed in Angol
By Raul Gajardo Lepold
** Curious photo submitted to the NOUFA Newsroom **
Mrs. Janette Villa Torres, married, with a high school degree and considered a trustworthy person at her place of employment, since she works as a municipal official in downtown Angol (9th Region), never imagined she would manage to photograph what we are showing to our readers.
Her intention was to take a photo of the Moon and the planet Venus, which shone in the heavens on 7 November at 21:30 hours. Mrs. Janette was in the back yard of her home and used her 16.7 pixel Samsung digital camera for this purpose. There was nothing particularly unusual about her surroundings. She even remarked to researcher Raul Gajardo Lepold that there is neither public nor private lighting in this part of her house. She did, however, noticed a sort of spark or noise in the flash at the moment the photo was taken, which we mention for purposes of subsequent analyses. The distance separating her from the shrubs appearing in the photo is some four meters, and their height is also close to four meters.
Upon seeing the image recovered from the device, she rightly astonished to see a transparent entity with light sources in its body over to the right hand side of the photograph. There was no doubt about it: the silhouette of a person with a very clearly defined outline (arms, head and back) could be seen at first sight. All indications are that the being had its back toward the camera and in a diagonal direction (45 degrees)
At this moment we are conducting some inquiries about whether it could be smoke from the other side of the wall that can be seen in the photo, or if a highly peculiar light effect caused this silhouette. It is only logical that there should be a variety of opinions, more so when the effects of digital photography are still little known.
We customarily received a significant number of photos from our readers and we know that photos of "UFOs" and similar subjects are controversial overall. For this reason we have chosen to publish a few that seem curious to us and have a distinct provenance.
We are still following the trail of this story. In the meantime, we attach the photo for our readers' consideration, as they will surely have their own opinions about it.
[Translation (c) 2013, S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Raul Gajardo and NOUFA]
Thanks to Scott Corrales - Inexplicata
Alien Viruses: Crashed UFOs, MJ-12, & Biowarfare
Alien Dawn: A Classic Investigation into the Contact Experience
Grey Aliens and the Harvesting of Souls: The Conspiracy to Genetically Tamper with Humanity
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Fishermens' tales: Hampshire angler reports encounter with crocodile
Fishermen are known for their tall tales – but one doing the rounds among anglers near the New Forest seems a little taller than most.
The area is awash with reports of a crocodile lurking in its waters, after a fisherman reported encountering one as he fished at a popular spot.
Alan Pragnell, 64, was catching fish from the banks of a lake near to Ringwood, Hants, when he believes he came face to face with the creature, lurking in the water only a matter of inches from him.
The creature, which he said was around 2ft in length, had grabbed hold of a small fish as he reeled it in. When it finally let go, it was sitting in the water, right in front of him.
“I was catching some small roach and something attached itself to the line. As I reeled in the fish, something grabbed it on the way. Normally when this happens it is a pike. There was a little bit of resistance. It let go as it got to the edge and I saw it sat there in the water.” Read more at Fishermens' tales: Hampshire angler reports encounter with crocodile
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