Month: May 2018

“Through me the way into the suffering city,

Through me the way to the eternal pain,

Through me the way that runs among the lost,

Justice urged on my high artificer,

My maker was divine authority,

The highest wisdom, and the primal love,

Before me nothing but eternal things were made,

And I endure eternally,

Abandon every hope, who enter here.”

The above is the opening verse of Canto III in the Divine Comedy, Vol I – Inferno.[1] Written by the 13^th century Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Inferno is oft confused and translated differently, the above verse is the reading of an inscription located high upon the infamous gate to hell from the third Canto or chapterof inferno.  It signified Dante Alighieri’s entrance to the city of woe, which was the first level of hell in the epic poem, and the point of no return in his journey to paradise.  The final line is perhaps the most famous line of poetry to ever come out of Italy, and it has inspired much artful attention.

One famous example of Dante inspired art, though not readily thought of as inspired by Inferno, is a piece by Auguste Rodin.  Most people have seen incarnations of this piece in museums, in movies and on TV, but few are aware of its connection to the Divine Comedy.  Commonly known as The Thinking Man, its proper name is The Poet[2], so named as it was originally to be a representation of Dante himself.  Some scholars disagree with that identity, citing the fact that the figure is posed naked as an indication a more allegorical interpretation.

Auguste Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a classical French sculptor, largely inspired by Michelangelo.  He is most famous for his carving of Poet, but most people don’t know the whole story. In 1880 Rodin was commissioned to sculpt portal for Paris’ planned Museum of Decorative Arts.  It was to be a depiction of the famed Gates of Hell (as described above) used as an actual doorway in the museum, and the figure of Dante was intended to be the center piece for the portal.  Unfortunately, Rodin never completed the entire sculpture. The Gates of Hell comprised 186 figures in its final form. Many of Rodin’s best-known sculptures started as designs of figures for this composition, such as The Thinker, The Three Shades, and The Kiss, and were only later presented as separate and independent works. Other well-known works derived from The Gates are Ugolino, Fugit Amor, The Falling Man, and The Prodigal Son.

As mentioned, few people outside of those explicitly interested in art-history are aware of the connection between Rodin and Dante, and it is my opinion that the Divine Comedy should be read by everyone.  It’s always amazed me the depth of the contemporary references to, not only Inferno, but to all three volumes of the comedy in popular culture.  Aside from this, both Dante and Rodin deserve their fame and should be regarded as denizens of art-history.

So, boys…..they have a way of distracting a young girl, and making her forget even the most intrusive visitor and disembodied voice.  I had boyfriends, but innocently enough in grade school.  Now that socializing was becoming important, so was fitting in.  Ignoring the guy standing on the corner, with half his head missing and continually looking for a place to sit down, as I walked home from school, became much more important.  People were starting to watch to see if I was “cool” or not, though in the 6^th grade nobody was actually cool; I mean…it was the 80’s.

I started doing what the other kids did; I had boyfriends, I pretended to care about fashion and makeup, started a diary, and bought magazines full of teen idols.  Say whatever you want, Ralph Macchio was cute.

Anyway, my home life was a little rocky as my parents headed towards divorce.  My Great Grampa (who had passed away years before) kept speaking into my Dad’s ear, which influenced his behaviour quite a bit.  I think my Dad may have a bit of what I have, but I’ve never asked; my Mom once told me that my Dad drank to quiet the voices, and it scared her (as if I needed another entry on the list of reasons not to discuss this with my parents).

My Mom also said that my Nan, my Dad’s Mom, agreed with her, which makes me wonder yet again if my gift is a paternal inheritance.

My Great Grampa saw me, and he seemed to know that I could see him, but I was not who he came to see; he was a force when he was alive, and even more so in spirit.  He now appeared able bodied and younger than my eyes had seen him in life.

I wanted to intercede, to speak up and put an end to his destructive influence, but how do you argue with or tell off someone you are brought up to respect?  There was the healthy fear of your elders that was instilled and common back then, not like the disrespect that seems to run rampant with kids now.  This was a man who survived WWI, coming home with one lung because of grenade shrapnel.  I could do nothing to dissuade this man from doing anything he wanted to do.

In life he told me I was his favourite, and I loved him; this situation caused a great deal of conflict in my heart, and so I began to ignore him, and I put forward an earnest effort shut out the rest of them too.  I very badly wanted to fit in and be the same as the kids around me, the kids who seemed to have no real cares in the world, except what to wear the next day and if their hair was “right”.

The divorce of my parents arrived as we all knew it would; sometimes love is not enough and it comes to a point when two people change too much to live together any longer.  At 12, I knew this and it aged me.  I had gotten very good at blocking out the visitors by the time my Mom, sister and I moved out of our old home, into a new townhouse that had never had any other people living it.

It was…quiet; to me it was eerily quiet.

By this point I had already had a serious boyfriend (at least it seemed serious to my 13 year old sense of romance), and apparently I was one of the “cool” girls, which meant that by the end of the 8^th grade I had a few boys looking for my attention.  I had achieved my social goals and I was happy; I had lots of friends, but unfortunately when I was by myself I didn’t feel quite like me.

I whiled away the summer before high school in relatively careless bliss, though my nerves grew raw in the days before my 9^th grade school year began.  High school meant a whole new world for me, a time of unfamiliar surroundings and people, and the possibility of new “visitors” too.

The world began to have that urgency to it that only your teen years carry, and I was ripe with new thoughts and concerns for the coming year.  I had always felt older than the friends around me, but still had the naiveté that 13 and 14 year olds intermittently have.

My concerns were sometimes valid, as the term “gummer” was applied to all grade 9 students, but I got a lot of attention from the boys as well…and it all balanced out in the end.  My steady boyfriend from middle school turned out to be a jerk once we got to high school, and we broke up.  That was alright by me though; I had turned a corner and had nearly a full year in high school under my belt.  I hung out with a few other “suitors” and was pursued by one or two others, but that all ended one day in April.

I had been struck dumb, when I walked down the Math wing and there stood the ONE.  My life from this point on would be guided by my growing love for someone whom the fates had been pushing me to since before my “gift” was realised.

Over the years, many a sci-fi television show has professed exclusive ownership of the ever sought after correct method of identifying and documenting the elusive Ghost.

Each of these shows comes equipped with it’s own version of an overly dramatic front-man (or often front-woman), who’s seriously diluted monologues often connect or compare the possibility of ghosts with both an afterlife of some kind, and a latent religiosity woven into the very nature of the so-called haunting.

My purpose here is to examine the logic of what is essentially the anthropomorphising of the “Ghost”.

First we should define the word Ghost.  Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines ‘Ghost’ (noun) as:

1: The seat of life or intelligence: soul

2: A disembodied soul; especially: the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness

This is interesting in and of itself, and it’s important to note that there are several other definitions, relating to photographic and other social issues which are not relevant here.

While most people would immediately associate the word with the appearance of a dearly departed loved one, the unexplained effects of apparitions, and the spooky after hauntings of the evil dead.

Does anyone see a pattern here?  Is it coincidental that the very mention of the word ghost, elicits a response that produces any variety of mental images based on one’s own experiences?

It seems even more interesting that the more etymological definition of the word relates to that internal person, that entity of consciousness and awareness that lies behind your eyes.  (You describe your body as “my body”, ask yourself, who is “my”?).  Religiously speaking, one labels that entity as one’s soul; that precious energy to be saved through redemption and eventually communicated to heaven upon the eventual death of the outer body.

Are you lost yet?

Well, personal beliefs about religion aside, the argument at hand is one of removing the Hand of God from this discussion, and short of entering into the forum of quantum physics, epigenetics and transcendence, we need not debate the overall validity of religious belief to continue.

Let’s consider logically, what ghosts could be in terms of our physical world.  The emerging science of epigenetics has produced some interesting theories revolving around the central idea of “knowing the knower”.  That’s really a fancy existential way of saying, how do we define the energy that makes up our consciousness, as examined on the subatomic level.

This isn’t as complicated as it might seem.  As long as you can accept two presuppositions: 1. everything in the universe reduces, ultimately, to pure energy (this means that if you focus in at a powerful enough magnification, there is no matter, only energy) 2. That energy is the fundamental component of thought.

If we accept those presuppositions, which are quite a leap to be sure, we are faced with the possibility that a ghost could be a residual field of energy, left over by the intensity of a particular emotion, which could be tied to an event at a particular location.

In simpler terms, there is a widely held belief that ghosts are essentially displays of a person, now passed on, who is reliving some traumatic or intensely emotional event from their previous life.

As we move about through our world, we leave traces of that energy, everywhere we go.  Our thoughts, emotions, instincts and reactions are all functions of the intricate and delicate frequency (vibration) of that energy.  Biologically, as we are highly complex communities of specialised cells, which are, at their most basic functioning, designed to sense, receive and react to energy fields; one could assert that we are essentially walking antennae, capable of sensing the energies of other people or creatures in our immediate environment.

Following this line of thinking, we can theorise that ghosts can be the incidental reception of and partial awareness of residual energies, left in our environment by people who have previously passed on.

If you accept this theory as true, or even partly true, it can be said that this explanation works relatively well, without inserting religiosity.  It seems reasonable to assert that what people do in life, they do in death; and this assertion holds a layered meeting.  One could believe that a soul (as defined above) might behave in a way that is relative to the life they led.  What this means is that a religious person, who has passed on and is represented as a ghost, would likely behave in a similarly religious manner, as they had in life.

Secondarily, in a world where humans have the unique ability, among all other global species, to project our own emotions, fears and ideals onto other creatures, and even inanimate objects; it also seems reasonable to assert that we would be prone to do the same things with the phenomenon of ghosts.  In fact, what phenomenon could be more open to anthropomorphism, than the appearance of an entity, human in form and behaviour that is, generally speaking, entirely unexplained?

If you’re unfamiliar with anthropomorphism, think of the way you attribute emotions and personality to inanimate objects, such as your car.  You label it with a name, with a gender; you assign its operating anomalies emotional identities (i.e. claim that it’s angry with you, when it doesn’t work properly).  It is more than possible, and even likely, that we are predisposed to assign similar explanations to the mysterious and spooky happenings within ghostly encounters.

As for physical and apparently interactive phenomenon, it’s important to understand the basic physics of energy, especially energy field theories.  A field of energy, represented as a wave, interacts with the objects in its path, whether through deflection, absorption, propagation or cancellation.  A residual energy field would behave much the same way, but would be affected by our own energy field as well.

Our own thought patterns would affect the manifestation of the ghost within our perception of the event.  In essence, it’s possible that the act of observing the ghost, serves to energise the apparition and enhance the encounter.

This is not to say that all paranormal encounters are the result of random convergence of energy fields and residual emotion.  There are documented (though questionable) accounts of encounters that offer seemingly irrefutable evidence of highly complex, independent intelligence, manifested in the outward behaviours of the entity(s), and their impact on “real” objects and measurement devices.

It should be of paramount importance to employ Occam’s razor in all cases of paranormal investigation.  Wherein, when faced with multiple possibilities for the explanation of a phenomenon, one must accept as true, which ever explanation satisfies the simplest reason.  In other words, if there is a way to explain an unknown event, which does not rely on a belief in paranormal influence, then one must accept that explanation, however boring and counterintuitive, as the truth.

While none of this theorising speaks to the validity of ghostly encounters on the whole, wherein, the vast majority of them can be explained in real world terms, as functions of environmental interference, mechanical malfunction or simple misunderstood physics; it does provide for a possible explanation of ghostly phenomenon, without the need to bow our heads in reverence to God’s influence.

The very idea of demonising the energy that makes up everything in the universe is counterintuitive and contradictory.  As is typically the case in our culture of pious moderation, many feel that those things, which cannot be readily explained by science, must be attributed to any variety of miracle or satanic debauchery.  This is a highly paranoid and limiting mind set and one that virtually eliminates the possibility of ever truly revealing the scientific nature behind ghostly paranormal phenomenon.

While historically, the church has offered the only answers (believable only through a lack of other options) for this type of event, one need not see demons, where only a reflection of their own fears exists.

Take for example, the popular movie The Sixth Sense.  Obviously intended to be a dramatic thriller, this film serves to reinforce the latent fear we as a society hold for not only the unexplained phenomenon of ghosts, but it also speaks to us about the demonising of those with the gift of being able to detect them, as illustrated through the popularisation of that one famous line from the film…”I see dead people”.

What if we were to consider for a moment, that the continued reappearance of the ghost played by Brue Willis, is attributed not to his personal need to find resolution to his own failures in life, but is actually caused by the grief of his wife?  Obviously this doesn’t fit with the overall story line, but it does present an interesting alternative to the typical view of the tortured soul of a ghost; again, behaving in death, as in life.

Is there room in our paranormal sub-culture for a scientific approach to a phenomenon typically viewed as either the pursuit of strange sci-fi enthusiasts or the fanciful muse of some Hollywood screenwriter?  There must be, and while these ideas may not engender the same drama or controversy, they warrant further exploration as one of the many possible avenues for finally answering the age old question; what are ghosts?

One of the oldest buildings in Cambridge Ontario, the Preston Springs Gardens Hotel was once the very idea of opulence for many important and even aristocratic Canadians.  Just after the turn of the century this historic and regal hotel was a drawing point for some of Canada’s richest and most famous high-lifers.  They would come in droves to experience the sulphur spring baths offered by the hotel as a healing spa service, possibly the first spa of its kind.  The Sulphur Springs Gardens, given its name for the immense sulphur water spring flowing beneath it, boasted lush gardens and lavish accommodations with a world class dining lounge.  They offered both indoor and outdoor sitz baths with full service attendants, five floors and 130 rooms, a beautifully elaborate elevator and ornate carpentry; it really was the epitome of luxury in its day.

In approximately 1940 the hotel closed its doors, unable to keep up with the ever growing demands of the fine hotel industry.  As general medicine advanced and a new understanding of health practices became known, the vast majority of the patrons shied away from the so-called healing properties of the sulphur baths, leaving ownership with a grand but empty hotel.

Several years later the property was renovated into a retirement villa, maintaining much of the luxury of the old hotel.  It was updated to meet more modern codes of operation and enjoyed many years of success, until finally the expense of running such an antiquated building became prohibitive and the doors were once again closed.

Since that final failure of business the hotel has sat empty, brooding and waiting for an influx of new energy.  Several times the property was purchased by eager and industrious developers with grand plans to either restore the building to its former glory or to reinvent its hallowed walls and sweeping stairways.  Each and every attempt to renovate this property has since failed, and not through a lack of effort, financial fortitude or vision.  Each renovation had been met with perilous accidents, unexplained technical issues and insurmountable personnel problems.

I was given opportunity to experience the mood of this neglected and overrun establishment over more than two years as the general caretaker during a period of complete vacancy.  I was tasked with security, minor maintenance and just an overall responsibility for the property.  Living on the grounds in a small service residence located just next to the massive hotel, I had sole access to the building and took it upon myself to patrol the grounds at least once a day.

That patrol normally took me through the bowels of the old building and on a casual room-by-room search to check for trespassers, damage and just generally have a look around.  Since I had taken over, my wife and I had experienced several strange and unexplained events both inside and outside the hotel.  These experiences were largely undefined but I still held an uneasy hesitation for certain areas of the building.  At first I chalked it up to a typical fear of the unknown, of dark and dingy old basements with huge boilers and piles of refuse hiding who-knows-what, but soon came to realize there was a little more to it.

Each area of the hotel engendered a different feeling…trepidation, loneliness, anger and fear.  Walking about the hallways and service corridors, exploring through rooms and climbing the three main stairwells, I would experience both an urge to run screaming from the building and a need to press on.  It became clear to me that I was not alone on my patrols, though I was not accompanied by another living soul.

On the few occasions that I needed to enter the hotel after dark, I walked quickly and armed with a heavy flashlight.  Most of the buildings power had been turned off due to the risk of fire and only the lower service areas had any working lights, so a night time incursion had me wandering the pitch black hotel with my eyes wide and my breath as shallow as I could make it.

Despite the lack of power, I would regularly field complaints and comments from neighbours and friends about the upper floor lights being on during the night.  Many people remarked about my standing in the windows, looking out over the busy street below.  To which I would have to reveal that I rarely enter the building at night, certainly not if I can avoid it.

Stories began to spread about the hotel, adding to rumours and urban legends about the old property and soon teenagers and sightseers would be found breaking in for a look around.  The damage they caused was my responsibility to fix, which in turn demanded that I spend more and more time inside the building, boarding broken windows, securing doors and removing graffiti.  As time went on I became more comfortable with the hotel during daylight hours, spending hour upon hour working away.  I soon forgot the feeling of being watched and no longer hesitated to walk into the areas that had previously held fear for me.

Nearing the end of my term as caretaker on one particularly dark evening, I returned home from a dinner out and noticed lights in the windows on the fourth floor.  This floor boasted the largest suites, and was generally in good condition, except for the deliberate lack of electricity.  My first thought was of trespassing kids with flashlights, vandalising and destroying the rooms, and without a thought to what else it could be, I quickly stormed into the back entrance of the building.  As I climbed the rear stairs I stepped quietly and turned off my own light, hoping to catch whoever was there by surprise, intending to scare them badly and teach them a lesson.

Now struggling to control my breath from the climb and excitement, I rounded the landing below the fourth floor service area and wasn’t surprised to be in pitch blackness.  I listened intently in the dark for hushed whispers and muffled footsteps on the lush carpet. The hairs on my neck stood tall as adrenaline rushed through my head, and all I could hear was my own heartbeat echoing in my ears as slowly I stepped into the hallway.

The building was silent and my ears rang with the struggle to hear whatever might be waiting for me.  I walked carefully, my hand touching the familiar wall of the hallway as a guide in the darkness and I held my heavy steel flashlight tightly as a weapon in the other.  Stealthily, I searched the floor, checking every room as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, all the while feeling that someone was watching my every move.  My excitement began to dwindle as I completed my search of the fourth floor; several doors were now opened that had been securely shut earlier that day, and in my mind this was evidence that trespassers had heard my steps up the stairs and quickly fled by one of the other stairwells.

Shaking my head with frustration I made my way down the main stair, a huge and wide presentation stairway adorned with dark carved wood railings and lush red carpet from top to bottom.  My irritation with whatever teenagers had ruined an otherwise nice evening distracted me from the growing feeling of being watched, and as I stepped down from the final landing above the ground floor lobby, I was snapped back from thoughts of retribution by the flickering of light on the large empty landing behind me.  Startled in mid step I wanted to turn and face the light but I was frozen with fear, and as I struggled with my synapses I felt two hands press firmly on my back and shove me down the stairs with shocking force.

Being a young man and in fair shape, I fell and rolled to the bottom of the stair with little injury and came to rest on my back, facing the stairs and looking for the culprit.  I was ready to dish out my own justice for such an unwarranted attack, but in the dim light of the street lamps as they shone through the picture windows of the lobby I was horrified to see the hollow image of an old man standing at the top step, grinning with a look of sick satisfaction on his face.  I struggled to see clearly and swore out loud at the realisation that I could still see the back wall of the stairwell through his torso.

I don’t know how long I laid there in the darkness, staring at my ghostly attacker, but in memory it seems like forever.  I didn’t try to move or get up.  I didn’t think; I couldn’t think.  I just laid there, sprawled on the lobby floor with my mouth hanging open and watched as this apparition turned and walked back up the stairs.

A few minutes passed by before I gathered enough of my wits to pick myself up off the floor and get out of the building as fast as I could.  I didn’t mention it to my wife, but she knew something was wrong by the paleness of my face and the look in my eyes as I sat at our kitchen table.  The next morning I called for a friend to help me do a sweep of the building, to look for damage or signs of trespassers. I didn’t mention my experience to him either, out of a fear of mockery, and tried to act as casual as possible when I found my flashlight lying at the foot of the stairs, next to the huge oak attendant’s station.  We found no signs of break in, no vandalism and still no electricity on the fourth floor.  On our way down the main stair well, I tensed as we rounded the railing of the bottom landing and realised with silent shock that the stairwell used to be lit from high above by a huge crystal chandelier, which was sold at auction many years ago…there never was a light fixture on that landing.

From that night forward, I never again went into the hotel at night and unless unavoidable I never went in alone.  Three months later my wife and I gladly moved from the grounds as I took a factory job in another city.  Since my time at the old Sulphur Springs Hotel another developer has tried his hand at renovating the landmark, only to have the job stall when a worker had an unfortunate accident on the main lobby stairway.

So, you’ve decided to hunt ghosts have you? You’ve found a place to start, maybe based on local urban legends, you got a group of like-minded friends together and you’re planning to head out at sun-down for an evening of ghostly frights!?

Well, I suppose if all you’re looking for is a story to tell around the water cooler in the morning, be my guest. I’d venture to say that’s about all you’re going to get anyway.  That is unless you refine your approach a bit and actually think about what it is you’re trying to do.

What follows are some simple rules for a basic ghost hunting investigation, these are the fundamentals of observation and evidence gathering and can almost be transferred to the investigation of pretty much anything.

These are; the 5 simple rules for investigating the paranormal.

Rule # 1

Have a purpose.

This is the foundation of any investigative exercise. If you have no purpose then you should be doing something else. Your purpose is also called your objective and this is a popular word among private and public sector investigators. Assigning an objective to your efforts helps you focus the process, it allows you to better understand what, where and how you will gather your evidence.

Let’s face it, this is exactly what we’re doing out here, right? Our ultimate goal is to obtain evidence, in some form, of the paranormal. Again, if all you’re looking for is a cool story to tell your friends the next day, feel free to skip ahead, but for the rest of you, lets look at what an objective does for our project.

At the very least, our objective lets us verbalize and put into writing our intentions (which is always a good thing), but that’s a pretty general way of looking at it. ‘I want to catch evidence of a ghost’, well duh! How’s about we be a little more specific than that?

‘I want to get a picture of a ghost’; that’s a bit better, it refines it enough to allow us to start the planning process. We now know a bit about the equipment we’ll need, a camera, and something about the environment we need, a place where photography is, first, allowed, and second, possible. This is great, now we can go ghost hunting! Right?

No, sorry to disappoint, but there’s a little more to consider.

Your objective should provide focus to every aspect of your hunt; think of the elementary school English lesson covering: who, what, when, where, why and how. Craft an objective to answer all of those simple questions and you’ll already be one step ahead of the guy who’s just looking for a cool story.

Rule #2

Know Your Subject

You might think we already covered this, but you’d be wrong. Knowing your subject is quite accurately, the second most important rule I paranormal investigation. Ultimately, this means, do your research, but it does have broader strokes involved.

Hand in hand with your objective, you should always be aware of what, specifically, you’re looking for. Now, there is a trap here, one that’s easy to fall into, but we’ll discuss that a little later. For the most part, successful paranormal investigators are people with a broad, general knowledge of many subjects, and a specific and vast knowledge of paranormal history, science and technology, as well as the specific lore or history of the places and people and things that they investigate.

This is not child’s play by any means; it can, and should be, serious business. Knowledge is power, and in this case, it’s the power to achieve your objective. Anyone who is serious about capturing evidence of paranormal activity, should understand that luck has very little to do with it. Planning, research and well focused execution are the keys to successful ghost hunting.

The degree to which you take your investigation serious will depend on you, and this by no means says that you can’t have fun while doing it. But which would be more fun? Goofing off and spending a night in a place that may or may not have energy attached to it, ultimately achieving nothing through your efforts, or a planned and careful approach, which ultimately bring the reward of an experience that you’ll never forget?

That’s a decision for you to make.

What’s involved in knowing your subject? Quite a bit actually. It means reading, and usually lots of it. On the most basic level, you need to know the history of the area you’re in (where you’ll be conducting the investigation), you need to know the lay of the land, and you need to know typically how different energies behave and react to outside influences.

Depending on the scope of your investigation, you’ll need to have a basic understanding of common physics, a familiarity with construction processes, a working knowledge (and certain amount of proficiency with) your equipment, specifically your camera equipment. You should have an understanding of photographic film processing and digital photo manipulation.

You should have a solid understanding and preferably some experience with hiking, camping and outdoor survival (you really never know where an investigation will take you). Some aptitude with human psychology would be an asset as well; after all, what is it you’re chasing but the essence of a person, complete with their own psyche.

A wise man once said (me actually); ‘There is no greater purpose in life than the continual and dogged pursuit of knowledge, for in learning is held the passion and capacity for all other endeavours;’ meaning of course, that as you learn about your craft, you will become more impassioned about the subject and ultimately more capable of achieving your objective.

The trap that was mentioned above, a very easy one to be caught in, comes from narrowing your focus too far, by becoming blinded to any other idea beside what it is you hope to achieve. In policing circles this is known as tunnel vision, and constitutes a major problem for inexperienced investigators. It happens when an investigator locks onto an idea, whether that idea is that a particular person is guilty of a crime, or that there is a specific entity, with an independent intelligence, that is responsible for the physical phenomena presented.

Coming with the knowledge you’ll gain through research, can come tunnel vision for the characters you find in that history, but reality may be throwing you a curve ball and you may end up interpreting events to fit the history, rather than being objective about the circumstances. Too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing, but erring on the side of overindulgence, in this case, is the safer bet.

Rule #3

Choose Your Team Wisely

It really is not enough to assemble a group of well meaning friends to assist you. What you will end up with is a group of dissenting, argumentative and uncooperative former-friends.

Maybe that’s a bit extreme, and maybe your friends are just as passionate and driven about paranormal investigation as you are, but likely, they share an interest, not a passion.  You might choose to go it alone, and while that may be an easier task logistically, it won’t help your evidence any. Having someone, preferably a few someone’s, to back you up and corroborate your testimony and evidence is important; as is choosing the right someone’s.

Without overstating the obvious, choosing a team with the same goals as you is pretty much the first step, but beyond that, when recruiting for your ghost hunting crew, try to think of your own weaknesses, look for people who compliment your own capabilities by filling in gaps of knowledge, expertise, and other necessities.

Leadership is often a touchy point for most amateur ghost hunting teams, while there’s usually one person who stands out as the leader, there often are several who think that person is them. If you’ve chosen well, you likely have a group of people who know how to use their strengths, so a natural leader will likely become apparent. It is always best, however, to be open and up front with your team, so if conflicts arise, you can deal with them openly and quickly, thereby getting down to the business of hunting ghosts that much faster and more effectively.

Rule #4

Cultivate your writing skills

Let’s face it, the chances of you becoming the next host of Paranormal State are slim to none, so lacking the face friendly medium of television to get your evidence and ideas across, you’ll likely be limited to the internet for showing off your paranormal wares.

Becoming a better writer will serve to make your evidence more believable and acceptable by the mainstream public.

This is not going to be a rehashing of the teacher’s lecture from 11^th grade English, but there are a few things you should keep in mind.

• Don’t embellish; making things, especially evidence, seem more fantastic than they really are, will eventually make you seem less credible than you really are. Where details are concerned, report the facts, leave your opinion out of it and accurately describe what you saw, experienced and captured on film or any other recording medium. Always let you reader make the conclusion…sometimes you’ll have to draw them a picture, but it is ultimately up to them to decide if what you present is true, false or very strange indeed.

• Spell check, spell check, spell check…and then spell check again. Nothing will reduce your credibility as a paranormal investigator faster, than poorly constructed, misspelled and unreadable articles. Take your time and do it right; after all, this is the point, to pass along what you’ve found in the field, make it count.

• Present your findings and let the chips fall where they may. Don’t bend to popular opinion, if you believe your results were caused by a particular phenomenon, say so, and stick to your guns. The naysayer’s and hard line sceptics will never be satisfied, so don’t let them dictate how or what you report.

Follow this advice and stay true to your objective and you really can’t go wrong. It all depends on you and your passion.

Rule #5

Don’t Give Up

There is no greater disappointment in life, then reaching your golden years with a regret, especially a regret about something that you had the power to change for the better. If you decide that ghost hunting is something you want to do, only you can decide the degree of your involvement, but if you truly want to find the truth, there’s nothing standing in your way.

Someday, some amateur ghost hunter will find proof of the existence of life after death, either that or they’ll prove a scientific explanation for the phenomenon, but either way you slice it, it’s people like you, with a passion for the business of ghosts, who are dong the real work and reporting the facts who will get that job done. Stay on your path and persevere, it’ll pay off in the end.

Roswell, New Mexico, July 7, 1947; without even the slightest explanation, you know precisely what happened in that rural area on that day.  It would be hard to find a person who doesn’t.

Of course, it’s the famed site of the original UFO crash site / government cover-up conspiracy.  It’s the true origin of the ultra-popular Area 51 urban legend(s), it sparked the imagination of every school boy, house wife and creative minded charlatan from one side of the continent to the other.

To follow suit with the now coined ‘Roswell Incident’, the equally famous and viral alien autopsy video served to stir up even more fervour for the close encounter experience.  Everyone has an opinion about aliens and UFO’s, some are more educated than others, some are outright ridiculous and some are so uncannily believable that just hearing the story makes your skin crawl.

Hollywood has done its share of harm and its share of good for the case of both UFO believers and sceptics.  Blockbuster movies, dramatic television miniseries and paranormal reality shows have saturated our popular media with conflicting ideas about whether there really could be life outside of earths little bubble.  So much so that the question itself has become blurred in the mind of the layman.

If you were to casually ask any person on the street if they believe there could be life on other planets, I bet you’d get a response in the affirmative more than 80% of the time.  The same question asked a different way; ‘do you believe in aliens and UFO’s?’, I’m betting would bring you ridicule and a wide variety of answers in both the negative and nonsensical!

Herein lies the real conspiracy; what’s the difference between an alien and life on another planet?  Not much in my mind, but the governments and media of North America have been waging a PR campaign against two words for nearly 50 years.  Those words, of course, are ‘alien’ and ‘UFO’ (Yes, I realise UFO is not a word, it’s an acronym, but you get the picture).

Even NASA has gotten in on the group riot, by removing programs such as S.E.T.I. and replacing them with such endeavours as high powered think tanks, with the grand purpose of determining the probable locations for microbial life on other planets.  Did they make these changes for any logical reason? Not that I can see; it seems they made them to appease the agenda United States Government.

The government, through the mass media outlets it uses to pull the strings of the public, has effectively made it taboo to even discuss such topics in, shall we say, mixed company.  But, in spite of their efforts, the underground movement of UFOlogists has flourished in the shadows for half a century, and is now a burgeoning industry with a cult following greater than Britney Spears fan club.

In the face of directed efforts to quell this 21^st century subculture, the cooperative conspiracies of the world’s powers have succeeded in reinforcing our collective belief in intelligent life on other planets.

The question of whether they’ve been here, whether they are known to our governments, and even whether they are interacting with our populations in some way, is largely irrelevant to most people who hold a belief in their existence, since our leader’s have shown an exaggerated and capable propensity for lying to us when it matters most.  No, the question on the mind of the average believer is not if, but why.

Why do they keep this information from us?  Why do they hide and work within the shadow of black ops and secret bases and unlimited government power?  These are the questions we may never have answers for, and these may be the questions that are most important to our survival.

El Chupacabra (The “Goat Sucker”) is, by many accounts, either a three foot tall, green, scaly missing link arthropod, or the unchained pet of alien visitors to Central America.

This small but ferocious mythical creature is relatively new to the ABE (Anomalous Biological Entities) scene, but it has garnered its share of the spotlight in recent years.

Initial sightings were reported in Puerto Rico in the early part of 1990 and the first reported Chupacabra attack was in March of 1995. Since then this power packed weirdo has been spooking Latin American populations from Columbia, to Mexico and even as far north as Maine and as far south as Chile. El Chupacabra gets around apparently.

The trademark signature of a Chupacabra attack is well known to UFOlogists and paranormal investigators across the America’s. Two small puncture wounds, often on the neck of smaller livestock such as chickens and goats, and the blood of the animal drained completely, usually without a trace.

Small village farmers will often claim damage to their chicken coops that seems to small and precise for wild animals such as dogs.

Many eye witness accounts have described El Chupacabra as having glowing red eyes, slanted and pupil-less, much like the description of the popular grey aliens. They often describe a long fork tongue, typically resembling a tube or straw and spines running the length of the creatures back. A majority of accounts attribute a sulphuric stench to the creature and a general feeling of nausea in eyewitnesses.

What brings credibility to the legend of El Chupacabra is the abundance of seemingly credible eye witness accounts from law enforcement officials, government officers and local politicians (as if they should be taken at their word), though the vast majority of reports come from farmers who claim to have lost livestock at the hands (or claws) of the Chupacabra.

Like any other paranormal phenomena, some have tried to profit from the legend by embellishing accounts and even so far as merchandising the creature. A Mexican company now offers an El Chupacabra doll, which comes complete with a goat skull and a vial of blood for Mr. “Goat-Sucker” to quench his thirst on.

Where the accounts fall short is, as usually is the case, in the area of evidence. A large number of alleged Chupacabra attacks have been conclusively attributed to coyote and wild dog attacks. In cases where a strange carcass has been found and labelled El Chupacabra by the press, have more often than not been confirmed to be the remains of mange ridden coyotes and foxes.

There have been several instances of supposed Chupacabras being struck by vehicles on rural roads, almost all of which have been destroyed by local scavenging animals before researchers could get to them, which is somewhat suspicious in-and-of-itself.

So what exactly is El Chupacabra? By witness accounts the being is too strange to be considered a member of our planet’s animal population, a widely held belief is that they are the product of American Military genetic experiments gone bad. This is likely the result of large American Military installations in and around the area’s of the first sightings in the mid 1990’s.

Of course, the most popular explanation is that El Chupacabra is in fact an extra-terrestrial version of a loyal pet gone off the leash. Fido, if you will, may have been left behind by alien visitors from that era, while they were on an interplanetary picnic to Central America. One wonders if they had his name and address inscribed on his collar, like my dog.

All in all, the legend of El Chupacabra is far from credible, though its sensational publicity is a testament to the steadfast belief of witnesses. Much like the North American Bigfoot, it seems unlikely that an animal such as The “Goat Sucker” could have eluded the scrutiny of science for so long without capture or study; but whatever it is that’s mutilating small livestock on farms along equator in Central America, El Chupacabra is as neat an explanation as any other.

Shadowmen, Shadow People, Schattenwesen…whatever you call them, they are becoming the scourge of many an innocent mind.

Shadow people, under this name, are a relatively new phenomenon.  This is likely due to the fact that Shadowmen sightings and encounters are often very similar to ghost encounters and hauntings, and are therefore often mistaken for simple apparitions or poltergeist.  There are a few qualitative differences though some more drastic than others.

The vast majority of Shadowmen encounters occur in much the same way as ghosts are encountered, with the major difference being their appearance.  Shadowmen are said to be nearly solid black and featureless.  Witnesses often describe on the silhouette of a person, with no detail whatsoever.  Most accounts offer an image of almost amorphous black fluid, only without a sense of substance and certainly no depth.  The entity allows n light to pass through it, but doesn’t typically interact with the physical location or environment.

There have typically been two distinct varieties of Shadowmen; the Hooded Figure, and the Hat Man.  In cases of Hat Man sightings, witnesses often exclaim the distinct visual outline of the hat, which apparently looks much like the silhouette of a mid 19th century bowler hat, and are convinced that the entity meant them harm or malice.

Another defining characteristic is the Shadowman’s propensity for departing through walls.  Most accounts of Shadow People sightings have the entities quickly departing once noticed, and virtually all instances have them departing through walls and other solid surfaces.

In rare cases people have reported brief and sometimes violent interactions with Shadow People; some have gone so far as to report being attacked by the creature, though the majority of encounters last for no more than a few seconds.

Regardless of the duration of the event, all Shadowmen witnesses report the same feelings of dread, malice and evil emanating from the entity, and most are left with long lasting fear and trauma following the event.  At the time of writing, there are no official reports of injury or imminent danger associated with these encounters, outside of the obvious psychological stress.

Science has done its part in attempting to explain these accounts, mostly through wordy psychological diagnosis, or through sleep disorders such as sleep paralysis (Hypnagogia).  A commonly offered explanation is a combination of sleep paralysis (which is common in children) and night terrors (also common in children).

Some other scientific explanations have been: peridolia (the effect of the brain incorrectly interpreting visual patterns observed within the peripheral field of view), narcotic induced hallucination, and the effects of electromagnetic fields on brainwaves and specific neurological traumas and/or conditions.

Suffice it to say, most Shadowmen witnesses are less than satisfied with these answers and many UFOlogists and paranormal researchers have offered some other-worldly explanations.

A widely accepted theory is one of inter-dimensional beings, another is simply that the Shadowmen are extraterrestrial beings, and some yet believe that they are some form of ghost or spectre that is rarer than say, poltergeist.

Whatever they are, many witnesses report having repeated encounters, sometimes frequent and all are plagued by the universal sense of fear.  If the Shadowmen are other worldly beings, what are they doing here?  What do they want?

Some have speculated that the theory of inter-dimensional beings leaves room for supposition about their purpose.  They may be examining our reality, testing and experimenting with the properties of this universe and as a consequence of those proceedings, occasionally become visible within our spectrum light.

Until some lucky investigator, scientist or researcher is able to capture evidence of the Shadowmen on film, we will likely not come any closer to a respectable answer, and until that time comes, we are doomed to encounter and report, and ultimately guess at their true nature.

While I was caretaker of the Sulphur Springs Garden Hotel in Cambridge, and still with my ex wife, I experienced a few unusual things, to say the least.

For instance, shortly upon moving in, my first order of business was to assess the property, including the hotel’s interior for security and maintenance needs.  We hadn’t even gotten the moving truck completely empty before I stepped inside the creepy old building, followed by my brother and best friend at the time.

We were walking into a foreign world; paint peeling, water damaged, musty smelling and definitely not empty.  We entered the building via the rear service entrance (the one door with a fully functioning lock at the time), which brought us into the kitchens and servers area off of the main ballroom.

This whole area was piled high with broken furniture, old dishes, scattered documents and books, and just general rubbish from the previous renovation attempts.

We quickly perused the pile of junk and set side some gems for further inspection once we completed our initial exploration.

Once back on tour, our first stop was the basement; damp and cold and smelling of the sulphur water spring that flowed under the building and to the nearby river.  If you’re having trouble with the visual, picture the endless basement of the weaver in Stephen King’s famous novel, Night Shift.  Not a pleasant place at all.  There were some old tools and work materials left over and some dilapidated bed frames from the retirement home days.

The boiler room took the cake though; this was straight out of Freddy Kruger’s worst fantasy.  Huge iron boilers rusted and covered in some unidentifiable grime.  Two inches of brown, rust coloured water covered the floor and the smell was so bad you had to cover your face with your sleeve just to breath.

We slowly continued our tour, quietly travelling the creaky stairwells and narrow hallways until we found our way to the main lobby.  This was the centre piece of the hotel in its hay day, adorned with huge carved wooden beams and an enormous wood burning fireplace with a marble mantle right out of some gothic comic book series.

There were some small offices right off the lobby, a concierge desk and the most ornately carved stairwell I’ve ever seen.  Thick wooden banisters weaved up through the core of the building, as the stair case rose off of the grand red carpet floor of the lobby.  The wallpaper in this area seemed like it might once have looked nice, though it certainly didn’t when I was there.  This whole area had the unfortunate odour of urine and dead something and a quick search through the small debris piles revealed a dead skunk, which I wish we hadn’t disturbed, because the smell just got worse after that.

Succumbing to the draw of the huge stairwell, we climbed to the second of the old hotel’s seven floors and began exploring room-to-room.  Each room we entered held the same eerie presence, a personality, a watchful set of eyes, examining our every move.

Some of this building’s worst secrets are held on its upper floors, the vast majority of them based in the bases human realities.  Old and stained mattresses laid out by local prostitutes, piles of what you and I would call junk, though to the homeless people who once found shelter here it may have been their every worldly possession.

As we walked the silent hallways, I remembered all of the old stories we were told about this building.  The ones about kids falling down the elevator shaft, the ones about the homeless guy burning to death in a bathtub, the gruesome stories of once famous hotel guests leaping from the tin roof to the street below.

When you enter such an old building, if you’re quiet enough, if you pay attention, you can feel it breathing, and this was no exception.  The higher we climbed the heavier the feeling became; once on the top floor we were nearly overwhelmed by the feelings of despair and anguish.

We finished our first tour of the hotel in just more than two hours, ending back at the service entrance doors, where we collected the items we had set aside earlier.  Two of those items were beautiful blown glass flower vases.  12 inches tall and made of the most spectacular thick glass you might ever find.  I couldn’t believe no one had found and taken these before, but to my pleasure, they were ripe for the taking.

Had I known what was going to happen, I would happily have left them for the next passer-by.

Stay tuned for the next entry in the Sulphur Spring Hotel Chronicles.