Haunted – Page 2 – Museum of the Weird

Posted on December 21, 2012 by MOTW Admin

TONIGHT: AN EVENING OF CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES WITH RICHARD WHITTAKER!

Friday, December 21th, 2012 @8:00pm

The Museum of the Weird presents its 2nd Annual:

An Evening of Christmas Ghost Stories
with your host Richard Whittaker

Come warm your bones with some hot chocolate as we gather for an age-old Christmas tradition– listening to spooky tales of days of yore! Featuring two terrifying tales by British master of the macabre, M.R. James, as read by resident Englishman Richard Whittaker.

The event is $5 and hot cocoa will be served. Seating is extremely limited, so we recommend buying your tickets now!

You can order your tickets online now at LuckyLizard.net or, call the Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts shop @ (512) 476-5493 to reserve your seats early.

Posted on December 20, 2012 by MOTW Admin

COLLECTION OF CREEPY PHOTOS

The fine folks over at Daily Mail Online have collected a fantastic set of extraordinarily creepy photos from cemeteries, abandoned houses, in the woods, and even a few normal photos that were taken during the daytime, all with an unexpected guest!

The Daily mail writes:

These are the things that go bump in the night.

From murdered slaves to tortured hospital patients to forgotten sailors, ghost stories will send a shiver down most people’s spines.

But this collection of images will call into question everything you think you know about the spirit world… and how easy it may be to cross back over from the ‘other side’.

Paranormal investigators have spent decades painstakingly researching each photograph, debunking some and failing to disprove others.

Take the tale of the white lady of the Philippines.

Locals of Quezon City steer clear of Balete Drive at night as they say that a woman in white with long black tresses, face covered in blood, stands in the centre of the road, staring at oncoming vehicles.

Drivers try to avoid the street at all costs – but if they must pass, they pack their backseat with passengers because if there is one empty seat, an uninvited guest just might take it. In photographs, she appears as a bright, white light in the road, legs barely visible.

Or consider the story of Chloe the inquisitive slave.

Chloe lived at the house of Myrtle’s Plantation in St Francisville, Louisiana. She would often listen in on conversations she wasn’t supposed to, snooping in on her master’s private talks.

One afternoon, Chloe was caught. According to legend, her master cut off her ear as punishment.

For revenge, Chloe baked a cake out of oleander leaves, which are poisonous. She wanted her cruel master to taste it, but his wife and daughters beat him to it.

She fled the house, but was lynched by her fellow slaves. She still haunts the plantation to this day, listening in on the conversations of its visitors. Chloe can sometimes be seen hiding behind the doors, columns, or bushes on the residence.

But not all ghosts have been scorned.

An Australian woman named Mrs Andrews was visiting the grave of her daughter in a cemetery in Queensland, in the 1940s when she took a photo. Her daughter Joyce had died the year before at the age of 17. She was shocked to find a child in the photo that she did not recognise sitting on top of the grave.

Australian paranormal researcher Tony Healy visited the cemetery in the late 1990s to find out what had happened. He found that near Joyce’s grave, two infant girls were buried.

Read more and check out all the spooky specters caught on film over at dailymail.co.uk/news

Posted on December 15, 2012 by MOTW Admin

CONSTRUCTION CREW FRIGHTENED BY APPARITION OF HEADLESS MONK

Most construction sites don’t end up on top of a ancient burial ground, but this one did.

While building a new water side addition to the Thorpe Park in Chertsey, Surrey, England, construction crews were haunted by a rather frightening apparition of a headless monk. When inspectors came to see what all the fuss was about, they realized the new water slide was possibly being built on an old burial ground. After some consideration and discussing whether or not a headless monk ghost was something they wanted as part of their theme park, they decided against scaring the heck out of people and rather, letting them slide to the pool in peace.

Daily Mail Online writes:

A headless monk, a sudden chill, objects moving of own accord.

A new ride at an amusement park? No, the strange, seemingly paranormal, behaviour was experienced by workmen building a water ride at Thorpe Park, one of the country’s biggest theme parks.

There were reports of workers feeling like someone was watching over their shoulder and sudden cold feelings being experienced.

As a result of the ghostly sightings, and fears that an ancient burial ground has been disturbed, the project was moved to another site.

A paranormal detection agency was then called in to the park in Chertsey, Surrey, to carry out tests and found that a burial ground or settlement could have been disturbed.

Managers at the park decided to relocate the ride to another area of the park and also called in a forensic team to carry out further investigations.

The 64ft-tall water ride, Storm Surge, was originally planned for an area known as Monk’s Walk, an old footpath that has linked the ruins of nearby Chertsey Abbey to Thorpe Church since AD666.

The ride’s foundations would have been over an area of the park where stone coffins have previously been excavated.

Mike Vallis, divisional director of Thorpe Park, said: ‘It became apparent that something strange was going on when teams started clearing Storm Surge’s initial site.

‘Staff reports of eerie goings-on shot up and the only physical change in the park, at that time, was the beginning of ground preparation work for the new ride.

‘As employees were getting freaked out, we decided to call on an expert to see whether there was anything to report but had no idea of the dramatic effects.’

Jim Arnold, of South West London Paranormal, said: ‘We carry out these kinds of investigations quite regularly, with medium to weak results being reported on a weekly basis.

‘Thorpe Park, however, was more striking as results were picked up immediately, with orbs, ghostly images in photography and ouija reaction results being strongest around the site where they were proposing to build Storm Surge.

‘The results were so strong, we felt the only explanation could be that an ancient burial ground or settlement was being disturbed, prompting the extra paranormal activity.’

Read more and check out some pictures at dailymail.co.uk/news

Posted on November 30, 2012 by MOTW Admin

WORLDS SCARIEST PRANK USES A ‘GHOSTLY’ LITTLE GIRL!

I love a good prank just as much as the next guy but, I really hate when a good prank is pulled on me… as I’m sure we all do.

Unfortunately for these folks in Brazil, who think they’re headed to whatever appointment it was they made for the day and are just getting onto just any old elevator. Boy, were they wrong!

Watch the video below and see what one of our favorite sights has to say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7N5OhNplEd4

Ghost Theory reports:

Talk about a prank! This is likely one of the most extreme gags of all time.

This stunt was done for a Brazilian variety show, Programa Silvio Santos. The shtick involves unwitting elevator passengers who are riding along when the lights start to flicker. What happens next is something that these people will never forget and may have nightmares about for a long time.

pparently the shenanigans are based on the horror film ‘The Ring’. The little girl is enough to send someone over the edge and many are up in arms as this over the top escapade may be just a little too over the top. Complaints are coming in as some were concerned that exposing the right person could trigger a heart attack. I don’t know about that, but the people exposed to the prank were certainly terrified out of their minds.

I have to say, it is one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen as I could feel the fear enveloping the unsuspecting passengers.

NEW BOOK DELVES INTO THE SCIENCE OF MONSTERS

We all know, love, and have our favorite of the classic monsters from our childhood but, what was the original inspiration for these creepy creatures of the shadows? A new book being published called “Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters” delves into what fears and real dangers the people of the time were living with that would have created them. From disease to war, times have most certainly been tough in the past and everyone had plenty to worry about.

Reuters reports:

Nov 8 (Reuters) – The suave and sensitive Edward Cullen of “Twilight” may be the norm for vampires these days, but fictional monsters such as Dracula originally sprang from the fear of inexplicable diseases and the mysteries of death in the natural world.

So argues science journalist Matt Kaplan in “Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters,” an examination of monsters around the world and throughout history – the science behind their origins, and why they matter to us even now.

“When our kids ask for monster stories around the campfire, they are behaving in a way that is not dissimilar to lion cubs,” Kaplan said in an email.

“Lion cubs play fight so they can test out their skills in a safe place where nobody is going to get maimed or killed. Monster stories serve a similar purpose, they allow us to face our worst fears without the risks that are normally associated with them.”

Some are simple. The Kraken tales of mammoth monster squid, along with the Leviathan of the Bible, are most likely based upon the existence of real creatures such as whales.

The terrifying Medusa of Greek myths, with her hair made of snakes and a gaze that could turn things to stone, may have been distantly connected to the idea of fossils for ancient people, with the snakes in her hair an example of pure fear.

Though mentions of vampire-like creatures exist as early as ancient Greece, it took hundreds of years for tales of the creatures to gradually evolve into the haunting undead of more recent history.

Accounts of people found in their graves with blood on their lips and their stomachs seemingly full, as if they had just eaten, may be explained by simple decay, with gas buildup throughout the body sometimes pushing blood up from the lungs. Elongated canine teeth and fingernails was due to skin shrinking after death and pulling away, making both more prominent.

Later, greater awareness of contagious diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis – which could cause people who came in contact with the ill person to also sicken and die – further contributed to the myth. This was especially true due to incubation periods that weren’t understood at the time, making it unclear how the diseases were being spread.

“One death would follow another in a dominolike progression,” writes Kaplan. “In a morbid sense, these patients were literally killing their friends and relatives, but from their deathbeds rather than the hereafter.”

But vampires have now undergone a radical transformation, a process that began with the publication of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” but has speeded up in recent years.

“If tuberculosis, influenza, rabies and bloated bodies are the human experiences from which Dracula came, how have we now ended up with the kind, honorable and handsome Edward Cullen?” Kaplan said.

DOCTOR SAYS HEAVEN IS REAL, HE’S BEEN THERE!

Does the proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel' actually lead somewhere?

Here’s some news that seems to be shaking up the science world as of late. After a neurosurgeon had a near-death experience, he claims to have been to Heaven and returned and is now explaining how it’s possible, scientifically.

The Daily Beast writes:

As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon. I followed my father’s path and became an academic neurosurgeon, teaching at Harvard Medical School and other universities. I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death.

The brain is an astonishingly sophisticated but extremely delicate mechanism. Reduce the amount of oxygen it receives by the smallest amount and it will react. It was no big surprise that people who had undergone severe trauma would return from their experiences with strange stories. But that didn’t mean they had journeyed anywhere real.

Although I considered myself a faithful Christian, I was so more in name than in actual belief. I didn’t begrudge those who wanted to believe that Jesus was more than simply a good man who had suffered at the hands of the world. I sympathized deeply with those who wanted to believe that there was a God somewhere out there who loved us unconditionally. In fact, I envied such people the security that those beliefs no doubt provided. But as a scientist, I simply knew better than to believe them myself.

In the fall of 2008, however, after seven days in a coma during which the human part of my brain, the neocortex, was inactivated, I experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.

I know how pronouncements like mine sound to skeptics, so I will tell my story with the logic and language of the scientist I am.

APPARITION FILMED IN A 120 YEAR OLD BUILDING

Has an investigative team caught a full-bodied appartition on film, or is it just a shadow?

Ghost Theory writes:

Strange. The Anomalist recently posted a link to an interesting YouTube video in which is said to show a “full bodied apparition”.

“My paranormal team investigated a 120 year old building (now a deli) and while investigating in the raised ceiling area (now a walk-in attic) we caught one of the most amazing pieces of evidence we’ve ever seen.
This evidence has been seen and analyzed by Paul Bradford of “GHI”, Bill Murphey of “Fact or Faked”, Micah Hanks & Scotty Roberts the Founders of “Intrepid Magazine”, Founders of “Mufon”, Dr. Rita Louise, UFO expert Anthony Sanchez and others from around the Paranormal community.”

An interesting list of well-known investigators are listed as having reviewed the video. No mention as to what their conclusions were, but it’s an impressive list. (shout outs to my friend the famous Mr. Hanks)

The video shows an interesting dark shadow moving in an erratic manner in some dark attic. Nothing more, nothing less.

GHOST HUNTING ON HAUNTED SHIPS?

Ghost ships seem to be the next 'hotspot' for paranormal activity.

With all the recent ghost ‘investigation’ tv shows and just the overall popularity of the looking into the paranormal right now, it seems all the good spots on land have been taken or debunked. Now, it’s time to go off shore!

The Huffington Post writes:

Trying to make contact with a ghost? The key to getting them to respond may be pie — or at least a question about it.

That’s the surprising claim made by paranormal researcher Matt Schulz, a San Diego-based art director when he’s not exploring old houses, hotels or ships.

“It sounds strange, but a question like ‘What kind of pie do you like? Cherry or Apple?’ actually seems to get a response from spirits,” Schulz told a group of wannabe paranormal researchers during a midnight expedition on the Star Of India, a 149-year-old ship that is harbored down in San Diego.

It’s a technique Schulz learned a few years back from another investigator.

“Asking questions like ”Do you like cherry or apple pie?’ or ‘Do you prefer lemons or oranges?’ seems innocuous,” he told The Huffington Post a few days after the expedition. “But, for some strange reason, the spirits will answer them. Once, we were investigating an adobe house and trying to contact the ghost of a girl and we asked her if she liked chocolate or vanilla better and she said clearly, as if she was in the room, ‘Vanilla.'”

Besides being the second oldest ship still sailing regularly and the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still floating, the Star of India is also allegedly harboring a lot of ghosts, hence the late night expedition, which was part of the Maritime Ghost Conference, a recent event in San Diego that explored the connection between ghosts and ships.

FAMILY IN NEW MEXICO TERRORIZED BY NIGHT STALKER

A family in New Mexico is plagued by a creature of the night.

A video posted on Youtube by user JC Jhonson shows a small family in New Mexico seemingly plagued by a beast that comes in the night. Some have even compared it to the demon-man of the hollywood movie ‘Jeepers Creepers’.

Ghost Theory writes:

When I do my rounds I usually stop by Youtube and throw in some keywords to see what’s current. Today, I found a new video that seems somewhat interesting, so I thought our readers would enjoy debating about it.

Recently a family in the Four Corners area of New Mexico contacted JC Johnson of Crypto Four Corners with quite a story.

Allegedly the family has been visited by some sort of large creature that torments them at night. The beast is described as resembling the Creeper from the film series Jeepers Creepers and apparently claws at the exterior walls of family home. Other activity includes damage to the family automobile and claw marks on the daughters back while she sleeps.

IS THIS REALLY ‘THE BEST EVIDENCE OF THE PARANORMAL IN THE PAST 10 YEARS’

Dubbed 'The Ghost In The Tearoom' the apparition is shown circled in red.

Some pretty bold claims are being made about recent cctv footage released from a local teamroom, Curiositeaz Vintage,
in Perth. He’s called in some specialists of the Paranormal Investigation Scotland team to take a look at it and they are very excited by what they’ve seen. So excited that they’re saying that this mans footage may, in fact, be the best evidence of paranormal activity that we’ve seen in the past 10 years.

How incredible!

But, we’ve looked long and hard but can’t seem to find the footage anywhere online. Well, we look forward to the day he releases the video to the public, since… you know, that is the evidence.

Daily Record of Scotland writes:

A CAFE owner has called in the ghost-hunters after claiming to have seen a spirit on his security camera.

Chills went down Dan Clifford’s spine when he checked his CCTV and saw what he’s convinced was a ghostly apparition hovering over a table set for two.

He summoned a team of ghost specialists, who said the sighting – said to be a figure of a woman – was the most striking evidence they had come across in almost 10 years.

Dan, 35, said yesterday: “The first time I saw the shadow moving on the camera my heart went nuts. I thought there was an intruder in the shop.

“But when I looked closer I realised it couldn’t be a live human being – I could see right through it.”

The CCTV image was taken in the dead of night after something set off a motion sensor. And Dan claims it’s not the only evidence of ghostly goings-on at his Curiositeaz Vintage Tea Room in Perth.

He said: “Over the past few months, all the staff have experienced something.

“Some have heard voices. Others have witnessed chairs moving and one was pushed forwards and felt a chill right down their spine.

“We’ve also had a number of mediums stopping in because they felt something when they walked by.

“Some have told of feeling the presence of a woman, which fits with our newest image.

“I have always believed in the spirit world but I’d never experienced anything like this until we opened Curiositeaz less than a year ago. It’s all been very exciting.”