Overnighter Tonight

We've got an overnight investigation in Elkton, MD tonight. I haven't done an overnighter in months, so I'm excited. Most of our investigations end by midnight, which I've always felt is too early, so being able to be in a haunted location all night is good. It's a private residence with a familly of four. Possibly 2 entities: a male and a little girl.

I'll keep you posted.

Family Support

Someone once asked me what my family thinks about my ghosthunting. Well, they find it pretty interesting. It's kind of funny really, because I would jokingly describe them as "fundamentalist Baptists", LOL, religious enough that they probably should be up-in-arms about it, but they're not. The "interesting" part is that my family has had a history through the generations of "sensitives" and familiarity with ghosts/spirits. It has never been a secret or something spoken about in hushed tones. It's just an accepted fact. It makes it easy for me to talk about investigations or theories with them because of it, especially with my great-aunt.

See, they don't have a problem with ghosts, just the concept of ghosthunting. I know they support me wholeheartedly, but it makes them a little nervous. I can understand that. "Why do you want to look for them when they seem to find you just fine?" my grandmother once asked me. I don't know..why wouldn't I?

Been a While...

It's been a while since my last post.

My group leader got hit by a car and broke his leg. It's safe to say he wasn't able to make our presentation at the Decatur House. It went well though and they told us it was the largest turnout for any public program they've ever had. I enjoyed talking to the groups about the hauntings and how history plays a part in trying to determine what was going on.

We're in the middle of a slow period right now, which is OK for me because I can focus on other things again before it picks up. I have an overnighter in MD coming up which should be pretty interesting. I'll keep you posted.

No You May Not

I don't know about other groups and I'd love their opinion, but I know that our group gets a lot of email from folks asking if they can go on investigation with us. The simple answer is "No." I'd say other serious investigators, maybe. The average person out there wanting adventure and excitement ghost-style. No.

You'd just be surprised how little people pay attention to notices on websites. I'm pretty helpful and don't mind answering questions and helping students with papers and stories. But, when you have a notice saying we're not accepting new members and investigations aren't open, it's always a little like "Whaaa?" when people ask anyway.

Guess it can't hurt to ask, huh?

EMF Meters & Other Gripes

Why why why when you watch ghost shows are they waving EMF meters around like crazy and counting the 0.1 fluctuations? 0.2 to 0.3 to 0.2 doesn't impress anybody. Start talking if it's significant already!

Also, why do most paranormal folks that they interview look well, not to offend anybody, almost crazy? I mean, like weirdo-I-never-leave-my-house-normally crazy? That goes for all of the I-touched-an-electrical-socket-haired psychics waving their arms around in front them too. If you've watched as many ghost shows as I have, you all know exactly the folks that I'm talking about. It's almost becoming a cliche. I mean, it's pretty hard to get people to believe what you're talking about if you look crazy.

OK...I'm done with my rant of the day, LOL. Just had to let all of that out.

GW Hatchet Article

I was glad to do an interview for my alma mater's newspaper--the GW Hatchet--and was impressed by the questions that she asked. Some of them were better than ones I've been asked in the past by the professionals, lol.

Today's That Day

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I was recently asked if there are more ghosts out and about on Halloween. One of the legends of this holiday is that yes, there would be, but in reality--I believe that ghosts are active year-round. If anything, Halloween puts ghosts and the paranormal in the consciousness of the general public. Other than that, you're just as likely to see them at Thanksgiving as you are on Halloween.

That Time of Year

Halloween is like Christmastime for ghosthunters--our busiest time of year in terms of the public eye. In my case, DCMAG is working with the Decatur House Museum, doing investigations there and giving a presentation on Thursday.

To answer my earlier questions, the 3rd floor was once all bedrooms, but there were never very many people in the house at a time as it was primarily a residence for lavish parties. As for the slave pen, still looking for definite evidence. The staff believes there is confusion between Lafayette Square's pens and the Decatur House having one although John Gadsby, a former owner, was a notorious trader. There's a legend about the window being bricked up and supposedly that was part of the original design. The back door he supposedly slips out of is the one that leads to the courtyard. Those motion detectors were off both times, so they wouldn't make any noises on their own and we couldn't move around with them on. Hmm. Tomorrow I get to talk to the maintenance staff--one who's worked there for 25 years--who seem to have had more sightings than anyone else.

Who said being a historian was boring? LOL.

Debunking and Proving

We are returning to the Decatur House Museum for a follow-up investigation. As DCMAG's Historian, what I focused on last time were the staff's experiences and the general lore of the house. I am also looking at the layout and construction of the home, as I also need to ID hotspots. We know, for instance, that the 3rd floor seems to be active. The thing I need to figure out now is why. What did the 3rd floor used to be and who would've been its primary inhabitants?

Here is an interesting thing...there is the story of a maintenance man rushing in from the courtyard saying that he felt as if chased and heard the sound of chains. Last visit, a staffer told us of the possibility of slaves being sold in that area. I did some research recently. Not only were the grounds on Lafayette Square in front of the building notorious for their slave pens, but supposedly there was one located at the Decatur House itself. Did the maintenance man encounter the spirit of a slave? Who knows? If anything, the historic research would actually support the man's claim.

My biggest questions right now are:

1. More about the slaves, courtyard and slave quarters of the house
2. More about the women of the household
3. The legends of the bricked up window & the back door sightings
4. Do the motion detectors make noises on their own?

Back in the States

Yup, I know it's been a while. I've been overseas for 3 weeks roaming all over Spain, London, & Paris. It was a great trip, and pretty cool to see all of these places that are probably haunted as hell. I can only imagine what in the world the yeomen at the Tower of London see from time to time, or priests working at Notre Dame. Notre Dame was the only place that had me lightheaded like crazy. It's just thick there. Wish I had some equipment.

Europe is also a good example of how orbs may not be orbs. Almost every picture I took--especially in Spain where it's dustier and drier--had orbs in them.

When I was in Ireland, staying in those castles, I swear there was some weird stuff going on--but that's a story for another posting...

BOO-b Tube

Ha-HA! Couldn't resist...

The TV world has never been able to resist a good paranormal show, but lately they are everywhere. The paranormal's never been hotter. There are still the great documentary-style shows that come on like Haunted Travels, Haunted History, Unexplained Mysteries, and all those other haunting specials that come on the Discovery channels and A&E during Halloween season. Hit shows Ghost Hunters (SciFi) and Medium (NBC) are returning and will be entering their 2nd seasons. Riding on the popularity of those two shows are a fresh bumper crop of supernatural shows:

1. Supernatural (WB): Two brothers hunting "the thing" that killed their mom as well as their missing "hunter" dad and encountering some strange stuff along the way. Pretty fun show.
2. The Ghost Whisperer (CBS): Jennifer Love Hewitt doing the Medium thing. Hmm...I dunno. Will have to watch and let you know despite the many guys out there who must be saying "Don't you say nothin' about my Jennifer Love Hewitt!"
3. Nightstalker (ABC): A detective starts investigating crimes that seem supernatural in nature
4. Most Haunted (Travel): Relatively new to the U.S., this British import goes to different haunted spots in Europe with a team--the host (who my group members love to imitate) screaming all the way.

These are the ones that deal more with the paranormal as their focus. Speaking of screaming, there's Scariest Places on Earth, which drives me nuts because some female member of the family always ends up having a 5-min. nonstop screaming total meltdown. There are also shows like Psychic Detectives (CourtTV), Lost (ABC) or even Charmed (WB), with paranormal elements and Invasion (ABC) and Threshold (CBS), which are more alien-focused (not my thing at all).

Happy watching, you couch potatoes!

Ghosthunter Chic

Hmm...now there's a topic that's probably not brought up too often. As a ghosthunter, clothes aren't "necessarily" something on your mind during an investigation, yet as a female ghosthunter, it brings up interesting issues--esp. if you're used to being relatively fashionable in your "normal" life. I don't wear khakis or cargos or polo/golf shirts, yet this is my ghosthunting uniform. I'm usually climbing up into attics (although I'm scared of heights), on the floor, and up & down stairs a lot--I'm pretty active on investigations.

There are other weird little considerations too, especially since we'll be filming occasionally for The Haunteds project. Things like wearing makeup out in the country when you're being swarmed by gnats. Makeup or no makeup? I went without and boy, it shows, lol. I always feel a little frumpy on investigations. I have long hair so I wear it ponytailed. No scented products as I pick up on paranormal smells a lot (perfume, cigars, etc.). No dangling earrings or jewelry that would resemble being touched. You often look at investigation photos like, "That's what I looked like?" LOL.

If anything, the biggest things to consider are professionalism, comfort, warmth (or coolness), how dirty you'll get (and I've been in some pretty dirty dusty locations), and pockets. Definitely pockets. Haute couture for the discerning ghost hunter...

Decatur House

We just did an investigation at the Decatur House last night, a famously haunted historical site in D.C. (and one of my favorites) located across from the White House. I've been waiting for years for a chance to investigate it. The dream home of Commodore Stephen Decatur and his wife Susan, their lives together were cut short when he was mortally wounded in a duel. It has had at least 3 main family owners: the Decaturs, the Gadsby family and the Beale family with many illustrious tenants. During the Civil War, it was a Union warehouse and offices. It was the first and last privately owned residence on Lafayette Square.

A beautiful, deceptively large place, and two staff members, the director and her daughter and their two husbands were present. As you know from my last posting, I'm always concerned when there are lots of other folks present, but in contrast to that other investigation, the place is so well soundproofed that you couldn't hear a thing from one floor to the next. The group was very quiet and conscientious about letting us do our thing--which I know I appreciated. They were excited and active participants in the investigation and I found out a lot about staff experiences there. It was pretty active and we got some great EVP. If anything, having the Decatur House staff there helped to serve as validation for the EVPs as they heard and reacted to the noises as well.

Not Really a Spectator Sport

A while ago we did an investigation at a private residence on Capitol Hill. A "subtle" haunting. Shadows, an apparition of a little girl, not active at all. We go in for the prelim, and it's as if the owner's decided to throw a get-together: "Hey, come see the ghosthunters!" Um, OK, I'd understand one person to watch your back just in case, but a party? We did our work anyway, because after all, what else could we do? The biggest problem came when it was time to do an EVP. Super-sensitive flat miked analog setup, as well as a digital recorder. For the most part, everyone stayed downstairs, but once we listened to those EVP's playback you would've thought they were right there upstairs with us. Horrible quality because all the noise just went right upstairs.

I'm just not too big on there being extra people present besides the principals.

National Park Service

Living in the D.C. area, almost everywhere is a historical site, which is often maintained by the National Park Service.

Historical sites and ghosts seem to go hand-in-hand between the familiarity of it with their often unchanged, restored interiors and exteriors, and the long history of the site itself. As the NPS maintains many sites such as Hampton Mansion in Townson, MD and the Old Stone House in Georgetown, they do not have a stance on the hauntings and ghosts within them. As their public affairs rep once told me: "It's not considered scientific, so I suppose it is that we don't believe in them. I got a blank look when I asked that question. I suppose we don't have one!" I think it has a lot to do with it being a government entity. Anyone have any insight into this?

9 to 5

Oh, hey, jerk-a** Post photographer? There's a reason my colleague asked not to have her photo taken and put in the paper that time, OK? If she didn't give you her last name, what made you think she wanted her face published?

Most ghosthunters have full-time jobs. Some of us, like me, don't care if our jobs know because it's OK. In my case, you can Google me and my ghosthunting history runs long, so I'm already screwed that way, lol. As for some other ghosthunters I know, they don't want to be on camera, use their last names or for their jobs to know at all because their jobs do care. I'm all for that because when it really comes down to it, ghosthunting doesn't pay and that 9 to 5 does.

Kids Aren't Stupid, You Know...

Recently, I attended a birthday party for a friend. Other guests knew I was a ghosthunter and it was no big deal. One of the other guest's daughter's was a bright 12-year old who asked me (when I was talking about a location) if there were ghosts there. Without missing a beat I said, "Yes. There were." She just said "Wow" and her mother's face blanched slightly. And that was that. I wondered for a minute afterwards if I should've thought about it before telling her that, but I think that the girl appreciated my being truthful with her. What was I going to do? Lie? I didn't want to do that.

Years ago I did a lecture on haunted D.C. and ghosts and a co-worker brought her 10-year old son, who told me afterwards how much he enjoyed it. I really enjoyed hearing that. A lot of times, kids are the main ones having interactions with ghosts and their genuine feelings and concerns are dismissed or disregarded by the adults in their lives. Kids and teens like to know that they aren't seeing things too, much in the same way that adults do. I've had so many parents express to me the experiences their children have had and sometimes they--like their kids--need that reassurance too. That whole "You/they are not crazy" thing.

I know parents want to shield and protect their kids. That's absolutely understandable. I would too. Sometimes, though, they can take more than you think they can.

Room for Everybody

Sure, you've got bad groups and researchers in this field like anything else, but there are enough good ones that you can weed those out.

One thing I've noticed about the paranormal community is how nice everyone that I've met has been (so far). Enthused, excited, and hyped about what they do. I have always felt that there's room for more groups and researchers. That way info can be shared and eventually we'll have answers.

OK, Enough Already

You know, I've been sitting back reading some stuff out there and in the end, you're just not going to win. Sure, you've got some real hacks and craptacular crackpots out there trust me, but that's with anything. I think that with ghosts and ghost hunting, the very subject matter itself is so up for debate that it's like a field day for crazies on both sides sometimes. Of course, some would say the same thing about me for even venturing to say that "Yeah, this s--t is for real." All I know is what I've experienced first-hand. It's all I can go by. I'm no nutso. I'm no crackpot. Your average Jane. Pretty darn sane and "normal"...

Sorry for the vent. Just how I'm feeling about it all today.

The Theory & Science of Ghosts

There's so much to talk about regarding the science of ghosts themselves, so trust me, it will probably be something I will constantly address. Here are some of the biggest theories:

1. Composition (ex.: that they are composed of or use electromagnetic energy)
2. Time/Space
3. Holographic theory
4. the Mind

Here's a pretty good article in GHOST Magazine about it.