Lord Hanuman the "Monkey King" is an important god among the Hindu. In Sanskrit "Hanuman" means "one having a jaw that is prominent." Interesting, hmm?
(LINK) ...Bhima was also the son of Vayu (the Lord of the Winds). One day, when Bhima was searching for a flower his wife wanted, he saw a monkey sleeping with his tail crossing the path. He asked him to move his tail. But the monkey didn’t do it and asked Bhima to move it. Bhima was very arrogant with his strength. Nevertheless, he couldn’t move or lift the tail. Therefore, he realized that this was not a mere ordinary monkey. It was none other than Hanuman. He lied there just to reduce the arrogance of Bhima. (LINK) Hanuman is extraordinarily strong, one capable of lifting and carrying any burden for a cause. Hanuman is a Vānara. Vānara (Sanskrit: वानर) refers to a group of people living in forests (Vān - forest, nara - human) in the Hindu epic the Ramayana and its various versions. In the Ramayana, the Vanaras help Rama defeat Ravana.
These interesting characteristics come together to make me wonder about the ancients that were here in America long before the Amerindians.
Many early explorers like Marco Polo reported encounters with dog-faced tribes in the Andaman Islands of India, as well as a tribe in Siberia at Lake Baikal. Could ancient texts be telling of regular contact with a tribe of most unusual people? Could explorers have accidentally verified this in later years where they found small tribes of them still in existence? Today, the Hindu go to locations around Asia where they worship the giant footprints of Hanuman -
Hunaman, an interesting anthropomorphic creature with huge feet of lore or based on a real existence of an unusual race alongside Homo sapiens?
When I moved from the east to the west, one of the things I learned over time is that, although many buildings are haunted in the east, the land in the west is very haunted. You feel it especially standing in places like South Mountain Park and Sedona, but even on a recent excursion with Julie to the Congress Pioneer Cemetery in the middle of the high desert, you could feel it in the hills all around, as if eyes were studying you everywhere you go.
There are some awesome ghostly legends involving the land in Arizona. Here's just a few of them:
La Llorona: The most famous haunting in the west is a repeated story of La Llorona, the “weeping woman.” This legend varies depending on where you are in the west, but the premise is the same; a woman drowned her children because her new lover didn't want them. When she killed them, he was repulsed by what she did and she realized she had killed her children for nothing. Now, she is a crying/screaming banshee figure in the washes and basins in the desert. Both the Gila and San Pedro rivers claim her existence. Pretty much most of the washes and rivers of the desert, the Hispanic community whispers of her existence nearby.
Grand Canyon National Park: A worker was putting up railings in the 1930s and fell into the canyon. He is said to be seen at sundown as a black misty figure near the railings and scraping and digging sounds are heard, as well.
Casa Grande Mountain: Here people report that if you are walking near the mountain, a black mist will follow you.
Anthem: In this area just north of Phoenix, people reportedly see and hear Native American warring parties on horseback. Even a man with a lantern is seen. Cochise State Park: A man is said to play the flute on the boulders overlooking campsites.
Kingman: In the canyons a woman supposedly killed some children and is still wandering around the canyon and wailing.
East Mesa Campgrounds: A place here was the site of satanic worshippers where people were supposedly murdered. Folks report demonic laughter, dark figures and strange noises.
Picacho: A ghostly man is seen riding a horse from peak to peak.
Desert: "The Red Ghost" The army corp of engineers at one time long ago used camels in the AZ desert. A smart idea, actually for the 1800s. When the program ended, they released the camels. Some say that a ghostly one called the Red Camel is still wandering the desert with a ghostly rider atop it.
Casa Grande National Monument: Native Americans performing ceremonies have been seen, as well as black mists. This is the site of many astronomical observations and ceremonial rituals by an ancient tribe.
Chinle: A woman's glowing apparition is seen hovering over the rock outcroppings.
Speaking Rock: Hopi legend of an old woman here who tells the giant spider rock who in her tribe is misbehaving.
London Bridge/Lake Havasu: This was reassembled from London to the AZ desert at Lake Havasu. Since then, a woman's ghost and a British Bobby's ghost are seen walking it.
Nearly every mine has had cave-ins and killings and nearly every site of battles during the time of settlers versus Native Americans are reportedly haunted. As well, ancient tribes that came and went extinct left behind sacred rock sites that are filled with amazing energy. Many legends come from our insightful Native People. They have explanations for rock formations and how man might have come from the belly of the Grand Canyon originally as if it were the birthing place for the world. Their beliefs are for a reason and based on observations made while living here in this harsh land. Sometimes, you can hear ancient tribes chanting in the wind.
The very rock here seems to sing to you when you are in the desert. It is a weird thing to stand where you can see 180-degrees of sky and can see mountains 40 or 60 miles away, hear unrelenting winds with nothing to stop them from gathering spirit energy and carrying sounds to your ear that might have originated miles away.
Could it be the geology and the spirituality mixing together to create a kind of magical combination for eternal hauntings? One never knows what is at work here and why the lands seem to be so haunted, but from UFOs in our daytime sky to black mists in the desert at night, it's always an unsettling and curious place.
When researcher James Carroll came across an unusual find in the Nevada desert, I just had to take a gander. Interesting find. The mountain nearby has warnings to not climb or enter - restricted. It is shown to be restricted by Nellis Air Force Base. It's obviously a target shooting area, but wow it's interesting and massive!
It gets more entertaining as in a dry lake bed nearby someone put up a peace symbol (top right) and "UFO." (bottom left)
The Waorani (aka Huaorani) tribe of the Amazon in Ecuador is not related to any other Amerindian Tribes. They were a highly mobile, nomadic, hunter-gatherer, horticulturist group. It was apparent in the studies of them that they had been quite isolated, as their language was unrelated to others and their genetics appear to show isolation. "Waorani" means "the true human people." In fact, their isolationism might be a reflection of their attitude about their type being somehow "pure" or "unaltered. There were only a few times they had contact with outsiders. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a rubber boom that sent workers into their area in search of goods. In the 1940s, there was early oil exploration there. In the 1950s the missionaries had a go at converting people in the region. Another oil boom in the 1970s during the oil crisis sent more people into their territory. Here's where it gets VERY interesting. It was estimated that before the 1950s when missionaries came, 17% of deaths among the Waorani were caused from disputes with "Cohouri" (or Kowodi) who were considered to be "nonhuman predators and cannibals who surrounded them and preyed upon them." These warring Waorani people were intolerant of outsiders. They killed Shell Oil workers and drove the company out of the area and killed a bunch of missionaries too. The government allowed groups, including an oil company, to relocate the Waorani people in the 1970s. There were only several hundred tribe members relegated to a small area of land, no longer nomadic, sedentary, and then to top it off, a polio outbreak. It was believed almost half the deaths among the people were from homicide within and the missionaries intervention. Source:The Waorani identify deeply with the jaguar, an important and majestic predator in the Amazon Rainforest. According to myth, the Huaorani were the descendants of a mating between a jaguar and an eagle. Elders became shamans by metaphorically adopting “jaguar sons” whose spirits communicate medical and spiritual knowledge. In the Huaorani belief system, jaguar shamans are able “to become a jaguar, and so to travel great distances telepathically and communicate with other Huaorani. Plants, especially trees, continue to hold a complex and important interest for the Huaorani. Their store an extensive of botanical knowledge, ranging from materials to poisons, hallucinogens or medicines. They also relate plants to their own experiences, particularly that of growing. Among trees, certain kinds are auspicious. Canopy trees, with their distinctly colored young leaves and striking transformation as they mature to towering giants, are “admired for their solitary character … as well as for their profuse entanglement” with other plants. Other significant trees are the pioneer species of the peach palm (used for making spears and blowguns, as well as for fruit), and fast-growing balsa wood, used for ceremonial purposes. Peach palm trees are associated with past settlements and the ancestors who live there.
It has been popularly assumed that "Cohouri" are any outsiders, as the Waorani believe they were the true people. But, what outsiders surrounded and preyed up and cannibalized their people? That is the most intriguing question. More info: More details about tribe and their enemies
Some plants introduced to America for one purpose turn out to be a huge mistake. Let's have a look at some plants that have taken over landscapes and often times caused huge problems, bigger than the ones they solved -
KUDZU
Spreading at thousands of acres a year in the Southern US, Kudzu is a dreaded infiltration. This vine is native to subtropical Asia.
Innocently, the vine was introduced to the US from Korea in the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia. That might have been the end of it, but a few years later when it was introduced to New Orleans at an expo in 1883, the landowners saw a real potential to use it.
Locals saw it as a way to curtail soil erosion and perhaps a filler for the cattle to eat. It was planted on slopes to prevent erosion and during the dust bowl to protect the land. But, before anyone realized it, it took over with a vengeance.
By 1970, the Department of Agriculture finally relisted it as a "weed" and they stopped suggesting people use it as a ground cover. In 1997, they stepped it up a notch to "noxious weed" list. It is estimated to cover 7.4 million acres. It has even been recorded as far north as New York and Canada.
To add injury to insult, Kudzu grows an inch a day!
TUMBLEWEED
We call it tumbleweeds because when they die, their shallow roots snap off and they roll away in the wind, but the real name of the plant is Russian Thistle. Some call it the salt plant because it can tolerate the salty soils found in the American Desert Southwest.
They look like an innocent happy green plant in the desert when they are alive.
This plant is native to the Ural Mountains of Russia. And it became invasive by the simple act of tumbling. As it tumbles, it disperses seeds.
They arrived in America in South Dakota in 1877 by accident. The seeds were inside flaxseed shipped from Russia. By 1900, it had tumbled its seeds all the way to the Pacific Coast.
Even though we often refer to them in the Southwest as adorable nuisances, they actually are environmental harmful.(LINK) One study showed that a single Russian Thistle can remove up to 167 liters (44 gallons) of water from the soil in competition with a wheat crop in one year. The amount of water removed from fallow land more subject to erosion would be even more damaging.
BAMBOO
Bamboo makes a gorgeous sound when it knocks together in the wind, a tall fast-growing screen, and the wood can be used to make amazing things. The problem with this plant of tropical origins is that, once you plant it, it will spread invasively. Many gardeners have made the mistake of not growing it in pots or with barriers dug into the ground to stop the growth. There are varieties that are noninvasive, but those who planted invasive varieties end up having a battle of the wills and angry neighbors.
This bamboo I photographed along the Salt River in the Greater Phoenix area's East Valley Region. With all the available water there, it had grown up to the extreme, nearly choking an island in the river. It makes an impenetrable fortress, growing to heights of 15 feet tall.
CAT'S CLAW
Cat's Claw or catclaw as it is known, is technically Macfadyena unguis-cati. This vine can grow at the most amazing rate and loves the heat. Here in the Southwest, many of us plant it because it needs not training to cling to a cinderblock wall with its tiny tendrils and cat-like claws. It grows so fast that you can plant one and it can take over an entire wall in two years. The final length of the vines is around 20-30 feet. It was introduced in Florida in the mid 20th century and what was found was that it would pretty much grow over and engulf anything that sat still. And, with the clinging claws, it could pull on and damage things beneath. If you let it grow up a building, it can do some nasty damage to it. For many the advantages are clear, it can cover those cinderblock walls that are used in backyards in the desert and add some trumpeting flowers that might attract hummingbirds and butterflies.
It can also smother anything it engulfs. Sure, none of these varieties are going to eat you alive, but invasive plants left out in the wild have done amazing damage to the landscape. Here in Arizona, we have adopted some Mediterranean plants and Australia, as the climate supports it, but trees such as palm trees were a foreign brought and planted thing. So, when you think of the Old West, don't think palm trees, don't even think tumbleweed (it wasn't here until the 1900s), think Saguaros! (a cactus native to our Sonoran Desert)
We utilize farmer's markets to get freshly grown items to enhance our cooking experience, but many chefs find items grown in the wild to be exotic local tastes to add to their dishes. They consider it a natural enhancement, but the woodlands really were the first growing sources for food.
If you ever worried about Sasquatch's diet, consider this - they live in a wonderland of fab foods! Let's just take some of the things they work with and consider the gourmet properties, medicinal, and nutritional benefits. Wild Boar: (1 pound of raw meat) 544 calories, 262 mg of cholesterol, 96 grams of protein Deer: (1 pound raw): 336 calories, 80 mg of cholesterol, 96 grams of protein Catfish: (1 raw fillet) 215 calories, 75 mg of cholesterol, 25 grams of protein Fresh water mussels: (3 ounces) 70 calories, great source of vitamin B12.
Now, let's wonder into the Sasquatch produce aisle, shall we?
Juniper Berries
Juniper berries grow on juniper shrubs in the wild. Their medicinal properties have been used to alleviate anemia and give stamina, energy, fighting off flus and colds, aches and pains. In general, an anti-inflammatory and energizing effect. They are used to make gin and have that sharp taste, but also can be used to cut through gamey taste in wild meats. Great with game meat, but also in soups, it can be roasted to make a great coffee substitute.
Sasquatch signs: If bushes have been freed of their berries, even up high where deer do not reach, this might be a sign of Sasquatch nibbling.
Recipes
Salmon Rub: Dried juniper berries crushed in a spice grinder with Earl Grey tea. Sounds wild, huh? Well, a very hip Scandinavian chef understands the bergamot and juniper make an amazing taste when curing the salmon and searing it.
Fiddleheads
The unfurled fronds of fern plants, fiddleheads are a gourmet cook's treat. They are harvested very early in the season before the frond unfurls and cut close to the ground. They are served as a cooked vegetable. They are kind of like if asparagus met string beans in taste/texture. They have a short season, so you must harvest in the spring while they are available. They are very high in vitamin A and has about 44% of your vitamin C needs for the day.
Sasquatch signs: If you can't find fiddleheads, there might be a reason. Look around those ferns in the very early spring and see if they've left some prints.
Recipe
Saute the fiddleheads in butter, garlic, red pepper flakes and salt for 10 minutes.
Wild Grapes
Much of today's grapes have been hybridized to be seedless, but sadly the important antioxidants are in those seeds and indigenous people did well eating those for their diet. A diet is the array of foods a being needs to ingest to get proper nutrients for cell turnover, growth, maintenance of weight, and immune system support. Wild grapes are a healthy source, but also need to be carefully looked at. A wild grape has multiple roundish seeds inside, but the poisonous moonseed, has a single crescent-shaped seed. Knowing this you can keep from being sick. Of course, we all know grapes are great for jellies, jams.
Sasquatch signs: These vines/bushes are an easy snag for Sasquatch hair while nibbling on the yummy treats. I'd say, come back when berries and grapes are fermented and see if they might have dropped some inhibitions, left some stumbling marks (see notes at the end of this post)
Recipe
Morels
Morel mushrooms. Lots of folks in woodland areas appreciate foraging for these gems in the woods. It has become a family pass time for many generations. This honeycomb topped fungus is a gourmet delight. They are rich in B-complex, vitamin D and essential amino acids. They also potentially lower the risk of breast and prostate cancer. At a going price of $10 to $20 an ounce, gourmet cooks consider them gold.
Recipe
Slice morels length wise in half. Heat oil over medium heat. Mix 3/4 c milk with 2 eggs. Break up one 4-ounce package of saltines. Drip into milk/egg mix and then saltines and carefully drop into hot oil. Flip when golden brown - they cook fast. Drain on paper towels and then salt and pepper.
Sassafras
Most of us know sassafras for its root beer flavor and the root's tasty tea. The medicinal properties of sassafras are pretty significant. It's effects are far reaching from handling colds and flus, diuretic properties, and topically, it helps poison ivy and eczema. The leaves, roots and shoots are all edible.
Recipe
Wild Leeks
This plant (aka "ramps") has leave and bulb that smell like onion. They surface deep in the forest early in spring before other things pop up. They are high in vitamin A, vitamin C, selenium and chromium.
Recipe
Pizza with fresh leeks and morels is about as good as it gets. Drizzle a trace of truffle oil on top and you have a woodland pizza!
Dandelion
Dandelion might be thought by some as a weed, but all the parts are edible. Some people confuse dandelion with "false dandelion" or "Hawksbeard."
The greens, tops and roots all have medicinal qualities. They have a high amount of vitamin A, tons of vitamin K, and vitamin C. They can be used to make wines, put in soups and salads and more. My mother used to candy them for atop of cakes.
Recipes
1-2 cups of flowers, 1 egg white at room temp, 1 tsp water, 1/2 c. superfine sugar, a drying rack.
Put sugar into blender to grind to a fine texture.
Mix water and egg white and drip flowers in it, let drip and then sprinkle with superfine sugar, set on rack and let dry and harden into shape.
Chickweed
Chickweed is chock full of healthy stuff and tastes sort of like spinach. They can even be grown as a pot herb and used on salads. It can be used to constipation, coughs and colds, a diuretic and expectorant. In fact, when I used to make herbal teas, this was in my head cold mix - with some other goodies that helped alleviate mucus symptoms and boost immunity.
Recipe
Use chickweed for a pesto! 2 cloves garlic, 3 tablespoons of pine nuts (discussing those next), 2 cups chopped fresh chickweed, 1/2 c. olive oil, 1/2 c. parmesan in the blender.
Pine Nuts
These sought after gourmet nuts are harvested from pine cones. They are ready to harvest 10 days before the green cone begins to open. The cones are dried in a burlap bag in the sun for 20 days. Cones are then smashed and seeds are separated by hand from cone fragments. (be sure to check your forest floor for signs of smashing by the Sasquatch - they often do this on tree stumps with a rock). These are calorie packed so great bang for the buck for the Tall Ones. They are also high in vitamin E.
Recipe
How about cooking quinoa with pine nuts, raisins and garlic? Add a little olive oil and some fresh diced parsley.
Fermented berries and grapes
(Is Sasquatch a berry crack whore?)
Raspberries, blackberries, juniper berries and wild grapes all ferment on the vine and then what happens? Well, sometimes it's too good to pass up!
This is only a fraction of what is available in the wild. I didn't even delve into things like various mushrooms, roots, berries, greens, seeds, nuts, and other sources of dense protein.
I believe in backtracking in research. I study who Sasquatch descended from so I can legitimize their very existence. They have to have a lineage, just like we do. Most of us arrived on second or third migration to America (Native American and Europeans). It is my conjecture, they were part of the first migration or what is referred to as the ancient giants. They have the same skull shape and the same size and they are heavily populated not far from ancient giant civilization lands. That is my own take on it thus far, but they had to come from some lineage of man.
In the case of the woods, it's easier to find where they are going by where they have been; which areas they depleted of resources on their circuit. I also believe they show a great amount of restraint in eating things in a grazing manner, leaving adequate resources behind to not draw attention to or lose their food sources in that area, so they mark the spot with perhaps an arch or an X. That lets them know - I've fed here already but some remains. It is kind of like putting out McDonald's signs along their roadway to know where the next rest stop is.
Another thing to consider in their diet is metabolism. The Sherpa people were found to have a gene from Denisovans that allows them to carry more than their body weight on their backs and their metabolism only rises about 50% of what people without that gene would do. If Bigfoot has a common ancestor or adaptation, the may be the same as the Sherpa in that respect. Caloric needs may not the same ratio as ours and their strength to carry a load would be increased. So, a muscular Bigfoot may not be necessarily downing 10,000 calories a day like an athlete whose metabolism needs it for that load.
Don't worry about the Sasquatch, they are well fed. We could learn from their example and do a little foraging as our ancestors had. There are many medicinals and high protein, high nutrient foods in the woods and, as some clever chefs have found, they are gourmet finds!
In the arena of ghosts, there are some popular players that show up over time and location. Some of the more popularly and often reported ghosts are going to be reviewed here today. Chances are your home, your friend's home, your neighbor's home, your neighborhood, your town might have at least a few of these.
Crybaby Bridges
(Anderson, SC)
Cry baby bridges involve legends of or actual events of a child being pushed over the bridge and dying or jumping from the bridge, or some other tragedy associated with the bridge involving a child. The names of just some popular cry baby bridges in Ohio are; Rogue's Hollow, The Screaming Bridge of Maud Hughes Road, Egypt Road in Salem, Wisner Road and Helltown. That's just one state! These are the cry baby bridges just in the state of Oklahoma as reported on Wikipedia:
In Alderson, near McAlester, the bridge is located at the end of Alderson Road and has been known to legends of a woman who was raped by her father several times and would throw her unwanted infants off the bridge. Local residents have reported sounds of babies crying underneath the bridge late at night and also the glowing image of the woman has been seen numerous times floating over the rocky bed of North Boggy Creek.
In Moore, approximately 2 miles east of Sooner Rd. on 134th St. there is a collapsed and abandoned bridge. Legend of a woman and infant in their vehicle falling through the wood of the bridge during late-night hours, a few days later the vehicle and remains were discovered by law enforcement patrolling the area. As for the bridge, it was never repaired and the road was therefore deemed unsafe and was closed off to vehicles, the cry of the baby is rumored to be heard during overnight hours.
In Kellyville, approximately 1.63 miles east of the Slick/Kellyville Road on West 181st street on the north side, there is the original bridge abutments off of the new road. Legend of a woman and her infant child driving down the road trying to escape her husband. The woman's car ran off the bridge and the baby was never found. Legend continues that if the bridge is visited at midnight the baby's cry can be heard and sometimes accompanied by a strange blue light.
La Llorona
The legend of La Llorona is from our legend-filled neighbors to the south of the United States. It is a legend repeated in some form or another in many cultures around the world. There are a lot of explanations for why the La Llorona exists, most having to do with a woman who met a man but he didn't want children, so she drowned her children. She rushed back to tell her lover what she had done and how much she loved him, that she would drown her own children, he was repulsed and rebuked her. She then wandered in search of her children. Some say, she was turned down at Heaven and forced to go back to earth and find her children. Her spirit is said to wander in the desert washes crying out for her babies. She is the equivalent of the lady in white in the United States. In the UK, the equivalent is the banshee. There is a different version in every area. Here is one shared by a woman about the Tucson La Llorona. "The Tucson, Arizona version of La Llarona was a promiscuous lady who didn't like to be bothered with children. Whenever she had a baby, she would take it down to the river and drown it.
When she herself died and tried to get into Heaven, St. Peter told her that she couldn't get in unless she brought all her dead babies with her. So now she wanders along the river, wailing for her lost children. Not surprisingly, they haven't come back to her.
Don't leave your baby alone in the dark or let your little ones wander around at night alone, because La Llarona will take them in hopes of fooling St. Peter. —Maureen
Hitchhiking Ghosts
The most famous (or infamous) of the hitchhiking ghosts comes from Illinois and she was known as Resurrection Mary (named for the cemetery she was associate with). Back in the 1930s, drivers along Archer Avenue were reporting a girl in white was attempting to jump on running boards. More recent drivers claim stopping to give her a ride and one she's in the car, she disappears right at Resurrection Cemetery, before they get to her destination. She is seen to dart in and out around the cemetery and sometimes, right in front of cars, leading drivers to believe they hit someone. One of the legends associated with her is that she went stormed home on foot from a dance after an argument with her boyfriend and got hit by a car and is buried in the cemetery.
Lady in White
This ghost is usually associated with a legend in a rural area of some tragedy. The woman, in a long white gown is still seen wandering. Some are attached to stories of losing a husband, being rebuked by a lover, or even being a harbinger that someone is about to die. The White Lady of Acra (NY) is a legend of a young woman dressed in all white supposedly seen at night along the road she last traveled on or near the cemetery not far from her fatal accident. (Interestingly similar to the legend of Resurrection Mary). It would seem that a great deal of female apparitions seen by people involve a gown, often a light/white gown, giving way to even more reports of white lady ghosts.
Stair-Climbing Ghosts
In terms of Feng Shui, the study of energy "chi" and how it flows, stairways are great raceways for energy. Why do we have so many stairway ghosts? I'd say the likely reason is very logical - stairways easily creak compared to floorboards because of the way they are supported. They have also had people climbing up and down them for decades, sometimes centuries. That common pattern is bound to lay down some memories. In the home I grew up in, we have a very famous stair climbing ghosts. We called him the soldier with no boots. The legend told to us when we moved in and my mother asked the previous owner about the sounds, was that a soldier had been in there during the Civil War and fighting broke out. He rushed outside to give aid with his gun, leaving his precious boots his parents had given him, up in the room. He was killed. He kept going back for those boots. Each night, he climbed the stairs and headed down the hall to the middle bedroom where he would come to rest before the radiator, the board sighing with his weight, as if the fibers of the house recalled this event over and over again.
Bedsheet-Mussing Ghosts
They tuck you in, they pull the sheet off your feet. These playful ghosts are sometimes very unsettling. On Ghost Hunters show, Grant spent a night in an infamously haunted room at the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, Arizona where something moved his bedding as he slept. I had an incident at the Hotel Vendome in Prescott, Arizona that unsettled me greatly. I do not like hospital corners, I feel trapped in the sheets, so I was pulling the sheets out of the corners of the bed before going to sleep. My friend who was staying in the haunted room with me thought it was hilarious that I am scared of tight sheets, but she knew my routine. So, I got ready, climbed into bed, took a few pics of the room to compare in the morning. I woke up at night, hearing something in the closet, and feeling something bumping the bed. I thought someone was in the room. I picked up the camera and took a shot. Then, I realized that my feet were tucked in tightly with a hospital corner, in fact, my toes were pointed it was so tight. I panicked and my friend woke up and saw that I was trapped as I pulled the sheets back out from under the mattress. When the photo was checked later, it showed the closet door was wide open during the night. In the morning, when I took the pictures, it was closed again. The most extraordinary one was in Gettysburg. Julie and I stayed at Federal Pointe Inn (I highly recommend it). We went to bed at night and the air conditioning made the room really cold. I kept pulling the blankets over me and then I would wake up and they weren't there. I found them halfway off the end of the bed one time. The next time, on the floor on the other side of the bed. The next time, a few feet away from the foot of the bed. The last time, they were all the way at the opening to the reading room about 15 feet away! I got really mad, wrapped myself up like a mummy and said out loud, "these are MY blankets."
Other common themes: Widow's walk ghosts that go back and forth awaiting their man who died at sea Pirate ghosts searching for treasure Laughing children One's own deceased relatives "Guardian angels"
