More Happy Vids From Our Trip

Some vids to hold you over. And, you know we had to run into BF again!

I loved it!

It is a great road trip. I did a lot of video of the ride up to Prescott, cemeteries and Vulture Mine and more. I will be posting that over the next few days. Wait until you see the compilation of Vulture Mines to music. Should be swe-eet.


It snowed here this morning! Yahoo! Video to come! (I know, for most of you that's lame, but I haven't seen snow falling for 24 years!)

Vulture Mine

Vulture Mine, AZ: It was soooooo worth it, totally awesome! Oh my gosh! You can go into almost all the crumbling buildings. Very wicked and amazing! We felt like we were being watched the whole time. Julie got something on film that I could no debunk! We were shocked--not at all expecting it! It will be coming up on her site soon! I have lots of pics from other places we've gone and the stuff from our haunted room we're in right now and videos--lots of videos. Having a blast. Yes, Sucio, it's in the 20s here. Very cold!

Today--Vulture Mine!

There will be more later. Just put this teaser in for y'all. Ready to hit the Brewery for some supper and drinks. Will hopefully have more up for y'all. We're parked in our haunted room now and enjoying some R&R. It was a long exciting day and lots of cool stuff. I can't even imagine the movies I can piece together for y'all. Very cool places! Oh, and it's VERY COLD here! I arrived in shorts--I'm such a dork!

Sit Through the Panic: Observe, Rename

With 20 years of sponsoring folks with anxiety disorders, one thing I learned (learned it firsthand in my 20s) is that when you have a panic attack, you must sit through it, observe it, breathe; know that you won't die or go crazy and that it will come and go in a few minutes as it always does. Once you lose your fear of the physiologic symptoms and the mental thoughts, it loses its ability to be an affective way to get your attention.

We feed the panic by jumping and running and going berserk. I was over panic attacks in a couple months by using good mental hygiene techniques and basically staring the beast in the eye and realizing it couldn't do more than make my heart pump hard, my blood run hot, my body feel tingly, my legs feel weak.

One time on the way to a job interview as I was still in my recovery phase, I felt all these symptoms and I stopped and asked myself, “where else might I get these symptoms?” I realized—an orgasm or perhaps when anticipating opening a really great gift on Christmas. I realized what I was feeling was truly excitement, not anxiety.

It's all in what you tell yourself.

These symptoms are expected in a near-miss on the highway at 65 miles an hour, but when you're sitting and watching TV, it freaks you out. I've never had another one since and boy have I had lots of reasons to have them over the ensuing years. I can't get to a place where that my fight-or-flight is necessary to get me to pull it together. If you keep your thoughts clean and logical, your emotions follow.

I see the same sort of thing in haunted locations, scary houses, dark cemeteries, or any other place that people entertain unrealistic thoughts like, “what if something grabs me?” “what if I'm chased by a ghost?” When you run scenarios through your head, your body prepares.

Just imagine playing with a waxy dimpled lemon and then biting into it. Your mouth waters and you haven't even actually eaten a lemon right now. Yeah, the body does what the mind believes. This is why prayer and envisioning white lights and carrying crystals and all those other protective rituals work; because you believe it works. The mind will move accordingly if you feel protected and able to investigate without harm.

What sorts of thoughts go through my mind to make me never afraid of places and situations I investigate? It goes something like this:

“Man, I hope this place is really spooky and atmospheric. I want to get some cool pictures of that. I want to sit in the dark and listen for things. I sure hope something happens tonight. It feels like a good night for activity. This place has a really awesome history. I hope I get a chance to sit alone and just absorb the spookiness and maybe make contact. I really hope I can get something to respond to me. That would be amazing!”

So, imagine how I feel about encounters, darkness and what I'm entering?

Imagine what this person would feel:

“I hope they don't leave me alone. This place is scary. What if something happens? What if I hear something? What if something touches me? What if I bring it home with me? I don't want to do this! I wish there was a light on. I don't like the idea of not knowing what's out there watching me, waiting for me.”

Your head has to be in the right place for anything in life, whether it's flying in a plane or speaking in front of an audience or dealing with your spouse and kids. You need an internal dialogue that turns things that might be overwhelming into something that you are choosing to engage in, something you are curious about, an adventure.

I pretty much attack everything in life like I'm joining an adventure, witnessing something new, recording an experience in my log of life. To me, I'm a heroine in a romantic comedy and I flub up and I have bad things happen and I smile when it's all good and I pick myself up and realize that over the lifetime of goods and bads, it evens out. I'm allowed to look stupid, do the wrong thing, be scared and unsure, so long as I know my intent is good and I will be rewarded in the end with a life I didn't resist, but that I fell full force into knowing that I'm not in school and am no longer worried about final exams and GPAs.

If you do this, the world brings back to you wonder and excitement because that is what you are looking for. If you approach life as if it's throwing arrows at you, you will be looking to duck everything that comes your way, assuming it is harmful. You will avoid situations and your world and your life will become very small and constricted.

I'm not saying to pump your skirt with sunshine, but be realistic. I grew up in a haunted home, have tackled more “scary” haunted places than can be imagined and yet one thing I know as a logical woman is that the worst things that could happen are to fall through a floorboard, hit my head on a pipe hanging from the ceiling or run into an indigent who is drunk and territorial. I cannot be hurt by the unseen. It will not come home with me. I will not become possessed. I am nothing more than a witness and if I do my job as a witness with a clear head, I might further the industry. I might also be receptive and open should something want to or need to communicate. The last thing I would want to do as a ghost is frighten people away, I would desperately want their company and for them to know I'm there.

So, the next time you tackle anything you don't want to do, try turning it around into a curious adventure. You are about to do something that isn't “good” or “bad,” it is simply “interesting” and “an experience.” See how you take to it as an observer instead of a victim.

As well, I've found when it comes to pain, the same sorts of things can be done by renaming it "hot" or "tight" instead of "painful" or "unbearable." So simple and yet so effective.

Simply taking the negative off of things and turning them into neutral changes your very physiology and emotions.

It works on hunts; it works with anxiety; it works for life.

Prep for Ghost Hunt and Road Trip Adventure

Julie and I are heading up to Vulture Mine tomorrow:



We will be hitting that wonderful site and then another ghost town called Congress, some old west cemeteries, and staying in a haunted room at a haunted inn. I plan to video and take y'all along like backseat passengers on our AZ adventure and our hunt. Wish us luck. With me at the helm, we will need it!

My Childhood Haunts: The Blue Lights

This story takes place at my family's summer home in Newpoint-Comfort, Virginia on a quiet inlet of the Chesapeake. This Victorian home had some strange things about it, but the area around it was much more haunted. The house faced a cemetery.

I grew up hanging out in cemeteries. My mother being and artist and historian loved to study the headstones. I thought of them as boring parks with awesome shade trees. I wasn't spooked by them or uncomfortable. In fact, I paid little attention to what they represented, like most kids do.

I would often go into the little bedroom in the "turret" of our summer house, an odd shaped curved room. My sister had a beautiful little vanity table with a hair brush set I loved to use. It was all romance with sheer curtains and a poster of Romeo and Juliet on the wall and the smell of fresh rosewater penetrating the humid bedspread.

At night, I would curl up on the little bed while my siblings listened to the radio or read in the library downstairs. My parents didn't put a TV in our summer home because we had a cabin cruiser, an outboard motor boat, a dock and tons of the Chesapeake to recreate on. There was little entertainment at night, except for me. I found my own form of distraction.

I would brush out my hair and sit on the bed cross legged and study the cemetery in the tiny sliver of moonlight that penetrated through the mists.

At some point a blue ball of light would show. It was a light blue and looked like it was the size of a baseball. It would move as if the wind interrupted its path, gliding up, down, sideways, darting quickly as it dropped and then rising again, weaving its way in out of headstones and tall grasses.

Sometimes, another light would join it, but usually it was just the one light. It would come from nowhere, just appearing and then leave with no sign it was going to vanish, although upon occasion I noticed it seemed to get brighter just before it disappeared.

In the daytime, I would push down the wild grass and inspect the sparse headstones in search of the magic. I was certain it was fairies. There was no other explanation in my young mind. Yes, I grew up in a haunted house, but this was not like anything at Aspen Grove. This to me was something from a fairy story. The romantic in me saw it as the souls of the dead searching for their loved ones. I found a headstone with no mate and wondered if this might be the culprit. To be buried alone seemed a horrible tragedy.

As I squinted from the grave up to the window of the house, I lined it up in my mind and walked back. That night, it rained. No blue light. Father said we were going home the next day. I was very disappointed and even drew up a map so the next time we came down, I would recall the spot I needed to look. I held the sketch up to the window and made sure it lined up.

The next day, my parents decided to stay and visit their dear friend, Mr. Mills. It was the perfect opportunity. the night was clear. I avoided the board games my siblings had set up and hiked up the curving stairway, went into the little bedroom, closed the door, turned out the light and sat on the bed, hair brush in hand, waiting patiently.

Minutes became an hour before the blue light came out from behind some tall grass. It flickered and went out. I sighed and waited. Minutes later it came back from another place in the graveyard. It was just to the left of the window as I had gauged it as he danced away from the house and then made a sudden curve and dipped down near the lonely headstone and came back towards the house again only to dissolve. I waited until I began to yawn and grow groggy.

We left the next day, but not before I went to the grave and laid out a magnolia flower from the tree near the house. I wasn't sure of cemetery etiquette, but I wished the soul well and left.

I never could explain those blue lights. In retrospect it seemed some kind of natural phenomena created perhaps by the swampy nature of the area or the enormous amounts of sulfur, as the drinking water smelled so awful of it that we often showered as fast as possible and avoided drinking it at all costs. I may not ever know if that lone grave was the culprit, but the blue light really did spend it's time around that one grave.

Seeing Faces Everywhere!

(Are you seeing Jesus? No, you're actually looking at a photo of a couple holding their new baby who is wearing a bonnet)

Grant calls it matrixing, but honestly the technical term is:
Pareidolia

(Wikipedia) It is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse.

How does this apply to ghost hunting? You ever listen to the weird shit Zak comes up with on his EVP replays??? He is so out there in left field with hearing all kinds of language on his garbled recording flubs that he's kind of starting to worry me. How about the tons of orbs with faces people send in?

It is in human nature to either relate things to faces--a reflection of our own reference as humans and the importance of human faces in recognizing our people, but also in words. We often hear our own name spoken when it isn't. We identify with our name and anything sounding like a voice, we assume is calling us. Humans are rather egocentric that way. Let's look at some cool examples...



Some people see faces in orbs....



See a face in this wall?



See a screaming mouth?


I see this old photo of my knees and I see cherub faces with full cheeks, button noses, eyes, and a swath of cherub `fro above...

Now, y'all, tomorrow Julie and I are on a road trip for an overnighter at a haunted locale. We're going by Vulture Mine, tons of cemeteries, a ghost town called Congress and staying in a haunted inn and trying some new experiments. I like to adapt hunting style depending on the place and the legends and come up with new ways to try things out and see what we can instigate. I will be doing lots of videos and pics and you can expect the weird and goofy mixed in with the informative. I do not believe the sharing of information has to be dull. Expect us to go online tomorrow night more than likely and to have loads of interesting posts when we get back on Monday. BTW, we are shooting for putting up our "Abandoned Places: Abandoned Memories (Desert Edition)" about our photographs of abandoned sites and my psychic reads on them on Kindle and Nook Monday--fingers crossed I don't hose it up. My "Was That a Ghost?" book, I'm shooting for early March for it's release. "Abandoned Places: Abandoned Memories (Vanished Cities Edition)" will likely be released the end of March/early April. My book, "From Fledgling to Full-Fledged Psychic" will likely be released in May/June. And, Julie and I's groundbreaking book "Spirit Vessels: Why Some Buildings Are Haunted" will be released October 1st after even more extensive research into the commonalities of haunted locations. Yeah, it's an insane year for writing, but it's my calling and I'm finally answering it.

Lonely on a Friday Night & The Next Few Days of Posts

First, I'm going to do something new. Since I put things in the queue ahead of time, I thought I'd share what to expect in coming days:

Saturday: "Seeing Faces" (about how we see faces in things and it's human nature to matrix), also "My Childhood Haunts: The Blue Lights" (another in my series about my childhood paranormal encounters--this one at my summer home)

Sunday: "Sit Through the Panic: Observe" (all about the mental conversations that can change the way you interpret your entire life, your emotions, your joy and your very physiology and the reason I'm such a happy spaz). Also, expect the unexpected Sunday evening as Julie and I are at a haunted location and I will no doubt share a video or more.

Monday: "Documentary: Invasion of the Dark Stars" (this is a review and it's surprisingly spooky enough to give me nightmares). Also, expect more from Julie and I's crazy trip to haunted ghost towns and a haunted hotel.

Tuesday: "Mind Fuck Tuesday: Dogs Mark Their Territory: Why Can't We" (a concept of how we might actually be picking up where others have been and how they felt there.


Okay, y'all. It's that time again. I'll be here all evening. Come and go as you wish. Call on me and like a genie, I appear. I figured I shouldn't be the only one lonely on a Friday night. Lots of people have nothing planned. Hang out and chit chat, tell jokes, flirt, goof off. The whole lot of you manage to entertain each other even if your hostess isn't around, but strangely she always is. Now, jump on and talk to use any time you wish.

Abandoned Amusement Parks! And What's Up Next on GHT?

There's something just wrong when amusement parks sit still with no noise, children, lights and screams. It's just wrong, kind of like a ventriloquist doll looking human and talking. It just is not natural...



(An old Disney attraction called River Country in the 80s,above)



(Nowadays an abandoned attraction, above)



(Boblo Island, above)



(above-This Six Flags park in New Orleans understandably didn't survive a Category 5. I admit that of all the places to see in America, this is my #1 desire)

I am hitting the road on Sunday with Julie to hit a ton of cemeteries and ghost towns, famous haunted spots too. I will be videotaping and making it feel like y'all are along on the trip with us. If you ever wanted to hit the AZ roads and see its haunts, you will get a backseat view. As well, we hope to try out some ideas in the room for testing out the ghosts. Also, the release of our book should be this coming week on Nook and Kindle and we will let you know. My own book "Was That a Ghost?" should be out in early March. I'm thrilled by this, as it is really based on the help I have been giving clients for years and lets you know if something you experienced was paranormal or not. Expect a few posts by Dale, no doubt. In fact, Dale the Doll is coming along on our road trip. In late February, you will be coming along with Julie and I two two vanished cities for our next book; Salton Sea and Desert Center. This spring and summer will be full of lots of new information in the world of the paranormal, new experiments and theories and hopefully a few surprises you didn't see coming. That's the GHT update!

DO NOT FORGET--tonight is Lonely on a Friday Night. Come on and comment back and forth and hang out. I am your hostess on-call all evening to join in the silliness.

A Ghost In His House

She walked the halls when he slept. Sometimes, he might hear her open a cabinet door. He would roll over in bed and mutter at the gall of an entity to disrupt his sleep.

When he awakened in the morning, there in the refrigerator was a packed lunch. He pulled it out and took it with him to work, not wondering what its origins were or why he had one every work-day morning, but he was pleased that he didn't have to stop and pack one himself. He had no idea how to construct so much as a sandwich.

He worked a long day, overly busy, overly stressed, waited in a long mile after mile of traffic, but when he came home, a hot healthy gourmet meal magically appeared at his place setting along with his vitamins laid out beside it. He did not question his good fortune or the fact that his favorite show was on the television. He enjoyed having the table to himself. There was no one to eat with. He hated conversation during meals.

Occasionally a shadow would pass him as he studied the TV screen and chewed. His plate swept from his spot where he sat and he looked around in horror until a plate of homemade cookies were placed in front of him. He watched his waistline, so only 3 cookies would appear, but they were just what he needed. He appreciated the magic of his home and never stopped to ask the origins of his good fortune.

Upon occasion, a succubus would come to him in the night, pleasure him and then recede to her other world. He was pleased for the physical release and lack of personal face to face time which he never was comfortable with.

Sometimes, the bed would shake and the sounds of a woman's sobs could be heard as if she were hugging the opposite side of his huge king bed and wounded right down to her soul. The man shook his head and went back to sleep, knowing that his schedule was full, his weekend was booked and he had nothing to keep him from all of his tasks ahead.

The family ooh'd and aw'd over all the wonderfully personal gifts they received, the spread of yummy foods on the table, the magical atmosphere and holiday decorations. The man pumped up with pride. Apparently, these gifts with his name on them were good. He hadn't checked to see what was inside the wrapping before giving them.

When he wanted to go and play, buy something new, fill the house up with his man toys, there was no one to say “no.” The man liked it. His house, however, appeared to be haunted. Upon occasion he would see shadows, hear sounds, catch a whiff of perfume, notice something had moved from its place. He would shake his head. He was too practical to believe in such things. Besides, so long as you didn't believe in it, you would not see it.

Late at night, the ghostly wraith would wander the halls, stand at a window, gazing longingly into the night sky, dreaming the man would see her, that she would finally exist for someone, that he would light up when he saw her and miss her when she was gone. Try as much as she did to be visible, the signs that she existed were becoming weaker and weaker as time went on. Now, he barely stopped to wonder if she was in the same room as him. Her powers were waning and it would not be long before her haunting time was over.



In case you're wondering, yes, this is autobiographical.

***Don't forget tonight is Lonely on a Friday night on here. I will be "haunting" the blog all evening if you want to chit chat.***

The answer is "yes" there is somebody!

So, people bug me and wonder--you can't be divorced and never dating and having your Friday nights always open. Well, the truth is, I am in a relationship. I haven't shared it because it's a distance relationship and kind of a weird thing to explain because it's true--I still have not been on a date since high school and my Friday nights are always open, but I am in a relationship.

What caught my attention? Well, my first requirement was a man who was easygoing, could laugh, was affectionate, loved horror, was creative, and shows a track record of putting family first.

So, yeah, my Friday nights are still open and I'm still doing Lonely on a Friday night because there's nothing in the world more lonely than having a Friday night open and knowing it can't be with the one you want.

Mystery solved.

Dropa Stones: Ancient Mystery

This find has intrigued me for years and I thought I’d share the story, in case you haven’t heard of the Dropa Stones.

From the paranormal.about.com site:

In 1938, an archeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture. Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old. The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendants, possibly, were found in the cave.

Dr. Tsum Um Nui felt the smooth face of the disk with the palm of his hand. "What could this disk possibly be?" he wondered. He knew of its recent history; how it was discovered in 1938 by a Chinese archaeologist in a cave high in the Himalayans, along with 715 similar disks; how buried nearby were skeletons of a strange tribe of people averaging only a little over four feet high; how it was found that each disk was inscribed with a tiny groove that spiraled around its face, and that the groove turned out to be an unknown hieroglyphic. He also knew how the disks, as remarkable as they were, had been simply labeled along with other finds of the expedition and stored away at Beijing University for 20 years. During that time, others had attempted to decipher the strange inscriptions, but without success. Perhaps now, in 1962, he could. The professor painstakingly transcribed the characters from the disk to paper. The writing was so small he had to use a magnifying glass to see it clearly. But the stones were old -- perhaps 12,000 years old, it was estimated -- and much of the hieroglyphics were difficult to make out or had been worn away by time and the elements. As he worked, many questions nagged the professor. How did these primitive people fashion these precise stones? How did they manage the almost microscopic writing? Who were they and what was the purpose of these hundreds of stones? Once the characters were transcribed, Dr. Tsum Um Nui began the arduous task of trying to decode its message. Eventually, he began to make progress. A word emerged. Then another. A phrase became understandable, then an entire sentence. He had broken the code. He discerned that the messages on the stones were written by a people who called themselves the Dropa. But what they were saying to him 12,000 years later made no sense. What the Dropa had written must have been one of their cultural myths, or was part of some prehistoric religious ceremony. Or was it? When he had completed the translation as much as he could, the professor sat back in his chair in disbelief. The story the Dropa related was nothing short of astounding. How would his colleagues react? How might the world react if this story was true? The professor wrote up a paper on his findings and presented it to the university for publication. Their reaction was swift and emphatic: the paper would not be published. The Academy of Prehistory expressly forbade him to publish or even speak of his findings. The world, the academy decided, should not know about the Dropa and their fateful journey to Earth.

Dr. Tsum Um Nui's findings were eventually published, however. Just two years later, he published the paper entitled, "The Grooved Script Concerning Spaceships Which, as Recorded on the Discs, Landed on Earth 12,000 Years Ago." By some accounts, the academy relented and gave permission to the professor to publish the paper, and by other accounts he published it despite the official ban. In either case, his translation and his theory were met with ridicule by the archaeology establishment. The translation was just too shattering to be taken at face value or as an historical account. It just could not be true. It would change everything we know about our history and humankind's place in the universe.

What the Stones Reveal

The Dropa disks tell the story of a space probe from a distant planet that crash-landed in the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of the Himalayas. The occupants of the spacecraft -- the Dropa -- found refuge in the caves of the mountains. Despite their peaceful intentions, the Dropa were misunderstood by members of the Ham tribe who were occupying neighboring caves and who hunted down the aliens and even killed some of them. A translation of one of the passages says: "The Dropa came down from the clouds in their aircraft. Our men, women, and children hid in the caves ten times before sunrise. When at last they understood the sign language of the Dropa, they realized that the newcomers had peaceful intentions...."

The stones go on to say how the Dropa were unable to repair their disabled spacecraft and could not return to their home planet, and so were stranded on Earth. If that's true, have their descendents survived?

Today, the isolated area is inhabited by two tribes of people who, in fact, call themselves the Dropa and the Han. Anthropologists have been unable to categorize either tribe into any other known race; they are neither Chinese nor Tibetan. Both tribes are of pygmy stature, adults measuring between 3-foot-6 and 4-foot-7 with an average height of 4-foot-2, and body weights of 38 to 52 pounds. They are yellow-skinned with thin bodies and disproportionately large heads, corresponding to the skeletal remains found in the caves in 1938. They have sparse hair on their bodies and have large eyes that are not Asian in aspect, but have pale blue irises.

Supposedly, there also is an ancient Chinese tale that might bear-out the Dropa's claims. The tale relates the story of a small, slender, yellow-skinned people who descended to the Earth from the clouds, and who were shunned by everyone because of their ugliness.

Strange Properties

In 1968, the Dropa stones came to the attention of W. Saitsew, a Russian scientist who re-published the findings of Tsum Um Nui and conducted tests on the disks that revealed some very peculiar properties. Physically, the granite stones contained high concentrations of cobalt and other metals -- a very hard stone indeed that would have made it difficult for the primitive people to carve the lettering, especially with such minute characters. When testing a disk with an oscillograph, a surprising oscillation rhythm was recorded as if, the scientists said, they had once been electrically charged or had functioned as electrical conductors.

Whatever their true nature, origin, or meaning, the Dropa stones present an intriguing puzzle for archaeologists and anthropologists. Were the Dropa truly visitors from some distant planet, or is their story merely a creation myth imagined by a primitive culture? If the latter is true, it adds one more such "myth" to the large number of stories from ancient cultures that claim their descendents came to Earth from the heavens. And if the former is true, the Dropa stones could represent the first recorded visit of an alien civilization to our planet. For now, the Dropa stones remain unexplained.

Descendants?


Photo above: Dzopas/Dropas Rulers: taken by Dr. Karyl Robin-Evans during his 1947 expedition. Shows the Dzopa ruling couple Hueypah-La (4 ft. tall) and Veez-La (3 ft. 4 in. tall)

Are there descendants of the Dropa still living?

By some stretch of the imagination, if we were able to interbreed with a race of supposed aliens, what are the chances we would genetically be able to procreate? Sure, we can produce a Liger (lion/tiger) but it can’t produce offspring—it’s sterile. But, considering this tribe was reported as 3-foot tall extraterrestrials, then it would be assumed that they interbred amongst themselves. You’d then have to guess there were enough original beings to breed for 12,000 years. Putting aside my skeptical and logical nature, I admit I’m also equally open to lots of explanations and supposition. Here’s what I’ve found out about the supposed descendants:

In November 1995, the Associated Press (AP) stated that some 120 “dwarfish beings” had been discovered in Sichuan Province, in a so-called “Village of the Dwarfs”. (Some skeptics cast doubt on the AP account, though it is easily verifiable. In fact, on 9 November 1995, the German publication Bild ran a report titled “Das Dorf der Zwerge – Umweltgifte schuld?” [“The Village of the Dwarfs – environmental pollution to blame?”] about the discovery.) The tallest adult in this village was three foot 10 inches (1.0 m 15 cm) tall; the smallest was two foot one inch (63.5 cm).

The location of the village is only a few hundred kilometers from the Baian-Kara-Ula mountain range. However, despite China’s becoming more open, this entire area including the village remains off limits to foreigners.

Hartwig Hausdorf, who has been on the track of the Dropa since at least the early 1990s, ponders whether in recent years the Dropa’s descendants might have abandoned the mountains and settled in the nearby lowlands— where they were “discovered” in 1995.

According to a report in Bild on 27 January 1997, a Chinese ethnologist claimed that the tribe’s dwarfism was due to a high concentration of mercury in the soil, which had poisoned their drinking water for several generations. The claim did not go unchallenged, however. Dr Norbert Felgenhauer of the Munich Institute for Toxicology argued that this theory is nonsense. He stated that such poisoning would result in immediate death, not stunted growth, and introduced as evidence the case of the Japanese town of Minamata, where in the 1960s many inhabitants died from mercury poisoning. He also noted that mercury was unable to change human DNA and hence could not be held responsible for causing an hereditary trait—one that was clearly apparent in this tribe.

Also reported: The isolated area is inhabited by two tribes of people who, in fact, call themselves the Dropa and the Han. Anthropologists have been unable to categorize either tribe into any other known race; they are neither Chinese nor Tibetan. Both tribes are of pygmy stature, and body weights of 38 to 52 pounds (14-19 kg). They are yellow-skinned with thin bodies and disproportionately large heads, corresponding to the skeletal remains found in the caves in 1938. They have sparse hair on their bodies and have large eyes that are not Asian in aspect, but have striking pale blue irises."

As if these dramatic reports aren’t enough, around the year 2000, crystal skulls were found in some caves in remote mountains. It took 2-years to retrieve 22 ancient crystal skulls, collectively known as THE BEIJING SKULLS, which possibly are linked to the Dropa. Three small Dropa disks have been recovered from the same cave where the crystal skulls were found.

The discoverer who is anonymous at this date states: "I am of the opinion now that the crystal skulls were used by the Dropa as radio transmitters/receivers to communicate with their home base, which could be many light years away from this planet, as well as to communicate with their mates who had also landed elsewhere on this planet. The stone disks were the ancient computer disks to record and save messages sent or received. The skull and the stone disk must work together to be effective just like our computers today. Without software our computer today is a dead machine. From the spiritual angle the skull and the stone disk will open up a new portal which will enhance the working of spiritualists. This is an insight I have received from my skulls."

Whether these reported crystal skulls were actually found or not is vague. It seems a bit coincidental that crystal skulls, something associated mostly with the Americas, were found there. It is a questionable mix of cultural influences. It’s like throwing everything paranormal into one soup pot. Why not just report a Bigfoot skeleton or skeletal remains of a Loch Ness Monster? This crystal skull report to me does sound like hokum, but I do believe the Dropa stones were found. They’ve been viewed and photographed extensively. What exactly they contained and the context in which they were found is secretive. It’s a shame such an amazing find was done in China. It’s unlikely the secrets of it will be exposed to the world any time soon. For now, we can only suppose what they were and what they meant.

My New Art!

I wanted some new art for my place, things my ex wouldn't want me to hang up but that I love. Michael Myers is an obsession of mine. I find him to be very sexy. I found that Jeremy my favorite "izombie" blogger was a really talented artist and he had an MM piece I really wanted on canvas. He asked for a couple of pics of me to try some new stylizing techniques on. I am always game for new things and I expected him to turn me into something zombie gruesome. How does someone make a zombie look sexy? Well, he did. He did some cool glamor versions of me too that are super hot! Now, that's a talent! So, here's what this guy has been up to. Just imagine what he could do for your profile pic!

Here's what Jeremy did for my pic (two cool versions).




Here's the original he worked from...




Thanks Jeremy from Olivezombies!

Cropsey: Urban Legend or More???

The legend of Cropsey hails from Staten Island. Supposedly he was an escaped mental patient who hid out in the abandoned mental institution. He would supposedly come out of hiding long enough to steal children. A couple of locals were so affected by a missing girl in the area that they were compelled to make a documentary to see if this legend was a cautionary tale, or perhaps very real.

This is not yet on DVD, but it is the top of my “must get's.”

ALSO--Tonight on SyFy...


Yahoo! SyFy's cool new show "Face Off" starts tonight.

SyFy is also running a very cool Face-Off contest with sweet prizes!

I'm Me Again!

Above: My hair color in my seventh grade picture and my hair color today.



It was somehow symbolic I claim my childhood hair color again. I think because my ex liked brunettes and from my 20s onward I was constantly dyeing out the red tones to go for...blah. No offense to brunettes, but when your coloring isn't made for it, it looks weird, just like when red heads like Lindsay Lohan think they can go blond--ick! I think Nooshi at Beauty Brands in Ahwatukee did a great job of getting me back to me! Even though I had gone back to red after the divorce, I didn't quite get the color I had as a kid. She knew just how to tweak it to my skin tones and eye color and got just the color of my youth. I may not be in seventh grade again, but that gal feels like she's more herself than the faker she had been for years. Okay, I promise, no more beauty posts. I just knew y'all might wonder about my comment about doing something insane today. You might have figured I'd held up a bank or jumped from a plane or went toe to toe with a Bigfoot. Sorry, it was my day off so my search was more inward.

My Childhood Haunts: The Angry Poltergeist

Every ghost hunter has a moment when they truly want to run in panic. Mine occurred at the age of 14 when we were preparing to move from our manor home to the big bad awful west--Arizona. I wasn't happy about the move. In fact, I tried to make ghostly sounds to scare away perspective buyers with no luck.

Still, the house sold.

We'd boxed up our things to have them unpacked the next day. We had several plaster ceilings just simply dump onto the floor all at once. Disconcerting events, but not unheard of in that house. We had film crews there who watched the wallpaper peel off the walls as they walked by, so it wasn't off the charts. I had a high tolerance so I found it more or less amusing.

Then, one day when my father and brother were looking for a rental house in Arizona and the reality of the move became real, my mother, oldest sister, and myself were home alone. We sat in the breakfast room on one end of the house having lunch and discussing how we hoped they'd find a house with a pool since swimming pools in Northern Virginia were a rarity in private homes.

A huge crash sent us running through the house to the far side music room where what we saw made absolutely no sense and to this day gives me shivers. In fact, I was so hysterical that I was begging and crying to sleep in a hotel. The house didn't seem to want to let us move and I was taking it's cue after this incident. In all my years there, I never took incidents to be directed at me, but this was so violent and so unexplainable that I no longer felt safe there.

We had set up in the music room a TV tray. Those old-fashioned ones with the folding legs that clip into the tray. On top of it we had a pickle jar filled with pennies and paper rolls. We'd been stacking the pennies into stacks of 10 to put them in the rolls. Across the room, about 12 feet away, an oval painting of my mother's uncle in WWI costume was fastened to the chimney. Well, the picture with its glass cover was now underneath the folding tray face down and unbroken. The tray had come out of its clips which cannot happen without lifting it up and out of them, the legs splaying out, it had fallen atop the picture. On top of the tray, the stacks of 10 pennies were perfectly aligned. Not even slightly shifted from place. We studied it, shaking our heads and looking around us.

I slept in one of the carriage houses that night. I was too scared of the house. After that incident, more happened and escalated and the other haunting features of footsteps and voices were louder and more urgent than usual.

Still, I could handle things that were explainable like history repeating itself in sounds and smells, but I could not get my mind around how this picture flew across the room, knocking a tray up and out of its clips, ending up underneath it face down, the pennies still perfectly neatly stacked. I didn't know of any statistic that could explain that scenario ever occurring under any circumstance.

It was a turning point for me and one of the biggest influences in me later seriously pursuing more such encounters and finding explanations.

*It's my day off and I'm going to do something wild and insane that I've wanted to do ever since I was a kid, something my ex would never let me do, something that might change me forever...Details later and pics*

Back by Popular Demand--Naughty Ghost Tool Shopping

Okay, call me raunchy. Call me dirty-minded. My friends just call me bawdy. These are the sorts of videos I make when I am bored and restless. I made it this past summer but I thought I'd share it with the newer readers. It will keep you wondering...Oh, and yes, I did purchase a piece of equipment on this venture, but you will just have to wonder which item it was and how it betters the ghost hunting field.

Honestly, given how ineffective today's ghost hunting tools are, perhaps these finds might be the way of the future, certainly more entertaining. Wouldn't you like to see Steve and Tango waving these around while Steve pontificates about the haunting in the place in his "I'm serious" tone of voice?

Mind Fuck Tuesday: Global Consciousness

To learn more about this concept of global consciousness check here.

So, do you think we can shift global consciousness with enough people in the world with a positive attitude? It almost has to work because when you approach things with the intent of good, you have a happy attitude. If you feel resentful and angry, you approach it differently. It's nearly a self-fulfilling prophecy that if enough people intend good, good will occur. I'm reminded of after 9-11 when everyone went outside with a candle in memory of all who were lost. I looked up and down my street and realized I had never seen this many of my neighbors before.

My Unusual Crushes

I will guarantee you there are not any man out there ready to offer that they have secret crushes on unattractive, overweight, balding or old ladies. Women are definitely step up on the evolutionary scale. In fact, I am extremely wary of handsome men. It's qualities I fall for and honestly handsome men don't have to work on their qualities.

My first crush ever was Nikola Tesla. He will always be my greatest crush. He was brilliant but his ideas were so left field that people thought he was insane, but he was insanely brilliant. He had those penetrating dark stares and strange OCD ways that made him rather reclusive. He was taken advantage of, never truly profited from his finds. He was a man misunderstood. I find brains to be very sexy.

Mike Rowe is perhaps not a hard crush to imagine. I do like manly men, but I don't like boastful ones or ones that would rather watch sports than take advantage of a willing woman in a bra and panties staring him down. He knows man stuff, is nicely chiseled, but also would drink beer from a bottle and likely open the door for a gal. The guys love him, and the women feel better having him in their home to fix things, lift things, and generally be a dude.

Seth Rogan, yes. But, not the new skinny one. I liked him better with unshaven face, belly and curly hair. He was funnier and less the romantic lead. I adored him in "40-year-old Virgin." Seriously, humor is what women always say they want and they truly do. Women have tough lives because it's not about them, it's always about the others in their life, children, man, friends, family. They don't even know what they want. They sink into bed late at night and worry about the next day and everyone in it. A man who can remind them that nothing is worth being that worried over, is a winner. Every man is gorgeous when he's funny. If he can take a woman from being self conscious about her body during sex and make her laugh--he's a keeper!

Phil Collins. Yes! I love his pointy nose, his pouty face, his blue eyes, his bald head, even his paunchy belly. He's a talent and passionate about it. I love men who have a craft or art they are into and they can focus on it to the point of not wanting to eat or sleep because he's onto something he's creating. I get the feeling from him that he would open doors, kiss knuckles and give a boyish smile. He will never age. Yum!

Brian Dennehy. WTF? Yeah, I'm surprised about that one. This says a lot about a man. He carries himself like he can have any woman he wants. He commands a room when he enters it. He acts like he could give a shit, but then he can growl and intimidate. It's all in his eyes. I cannot stop staring at those eyes. He's comfortable in his own skin, even though it's stretched over a bloated body. Every pore in that man's body exudes sex, sex, sex.

So, why in the world do women have crushes on these odd men? Because we see a man as a series of traits. When you are in love with his guitar playing, you notice his hands. His hands are beautiful. When he smiles, he has a dimple. You don't look him and look for what's wrong, like his extra pounds or his crooked teeth or his lack of hair on his head. You see this man whose voice moves you and gets you juicy, who's naughty grin makes you giggle. He is a personality and when you fall for his personality, you look for those features that attract your eye and he becomes a smile and strong manly eyebrows. You assign those features to the man you love and he becomes gorgeous.

If you ever see an unattractive man with a good looking woman, you might just be seeing that weird female quality at work. You almost never see a handsome man with an ugly woman but if you do, you've found a very mature fellow.

Scariest Ghost Videos Ever!

I saw this a few years ago and I admit that I was riveted to the screen. It had me totally enthralled. Whether it is genuine or not, it was the best ghost documentary I've ever seen. Enjoy this one in the dark!

"Being Human" Tonight on SyFy

Hike Video to Glyphs

I was admittedly highly distracted by the direct sunlight on my camera screen and just caught up in the beauty of this place, but I hope this gives you a feeling of what a distractable and curious gal I am on a hunt for new weirdness. This is the hike through my eyes and with the soundtrack I was hearing in my head the whole time.

South Mountain Glyphs and UFOs

(Yesterday, I had the two weird shots taken of me on the hike on my post)

So, this weekend I went on a nice hearty hike with my buddy Vinnie, guided by Jeff Woolwine. He has become a big name locally in the UFO world, as he has filmed lots of UFOs, studied extensively the glyphs made by ancient tribe of HoHoKam, a tribe that went missing and unaccounted for.

It was a gorgeous day, crystal clear, mild, and the hike took us hugging the mountain range made famous with the Phoenix Lights event. South Mountain Park is known as the world's largest municipal park at 17,000 acres. Yes, it is freaking enormous!

Jeff began to take notice of the sky and photographing what he saw. He searched for answers. When he studied the glyphs in the mountain park and learned from a native expert, he realized there were ties to what was happening in the sky and what ancient men were carving into the granite.

I personally couldn't help noticing that the rock was granite everywhere with bits of quartz all around. In haunted locations, this rock combo is often considered ripe for haunted sites. The nooks inside the mountain with the jagged rock kept it cool and dark. There were even lichens growing on the rocks—in Phoenix!

There were huge peaks, many large pyramid shaped monster-sized hills. The ground was littered with ancient pottery shards. The overall feeling coming from the rock was very safe and protective. As I stood there looking into the distant Phoenix skyline, I realized this was an ideal place to live in Phoenix if you had no air-conditioning. Up at this elevation, you could see if anyone is coming at you. Tucked up in the rocks, you might never see sun all day long. The washes ran with water in more ancient times. You could see where the waterfalls slicked back the rock up above. There were plenty of javelina (wild pigs) and quail. It would have been the nicest home the Valley of the Sun in ancient times.

Jeff was an engaging host and guide. He was able to take us to numerous glyphs and point out the details. Some of them showed symbols of clockwise and counterclockwise pinwheels showing dimensional-like portals opening and closing from the visitors from the other world. He described them being able to come from the rock and shapeshift into man form. Standing there, studying the stones and their location and the surroundings, you could see them portraying circles in the sky that were not their sun symbol which had spokes. You could see man and creatures looking to these things. Sometimes, symbols like serpents showed the territory you were in. Some showed the peaks of the surrounding mountains. I was impressed that the portrayals in stone showed actual linear design, all animals and creatures on the ground, the mountains in the background and these circles spinning in the sky, in the sky above.

One particular glyph caught my eye. It was a long image of a man with his arms down instead of upward. It was the only drawing on the entire rock. It appeared to me to be a kind of grave marker.

All together, we must have looked at over a dozen glyph locations, easily. Each one took my breath away. In the setting of this giant granite playground. It was peaceful, dark, cool and serene. Strangely, for being in the middle of a giant park and the sound of distant coyotes, I saw no signs of animal life in this valley of glyphs.

The concept of UFOs being crafts from other worlds is lost on Jeff. He is of the belief from his extensive studies that the “gods” these ancients saw were of this earth/another dimension sort of scenario and wanted man to worship him and believe in his existence. The lack of worship and bloodletting in His name created the extinction of the HoHoKam tribe when they were taken away by these “gods.” The showing of the Phoenix Lights might just have been their attempt to keep our eyes on the skies and believing.

I'm a theories kind of gal and I'm excited when someone is thinking outside of the box and looking for correlations. I found Jeff to be refreshing and excited about a subject that baffles many. I went into this being safely skeptical and came out of it feeling spiritually moved. It takes a lot to get the spiritual in me ignited but I feel as if I just tapped into a place that was much more than a living room for an ancient tribe, but the site of something a bit more magical.

F@$!, F@$,! F@$!, F@$!, F@$!'er!

Okay, couldn't help it. You probably saw my pictures I just put up of me on the hike. Well, Vin-Meister and I stopped by The Farm for some grub after the long hike. I told him I believe the hens in the coup were yelling at him "fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-er!" Now, once you've heard it, you can't hear anything else, right???

Yeah, you can't take me anywhere.

Ouch! But, worth it!

Just back from 5 hours of hiking. Once we started, my buddy the Vin-Meister wanted to hike the mountain behind my apartment complex. That's another story. Tomorrow I will share videos, pictures and loads of info. We took a hike through South Mountain Park with a man who is the authority on the Indian glyphs and the UFO stories they tell. It was a wicked awesome hike, a gorgeous day, and probably one of the most powerful places I've been outside of Sedona. These pics above kind of surprised me. They were the only 2 of me on the whole hike and the only two with that beam of green light. Should I take that as a sign? We will discuss more about it tomorrow when I cover it extensively. Be ready for aliens, ancient cultures and lots of coolness!

Fringe Lifestyles

(I'm taking a hike tour of South Mountain (the mountain range the Phoenix Lights occurred at and where I live) We're going to be shown ancient Indian petroglyphs that supposedly portray how UFOs visited here long ago. As well, I'm dragging my buddy, Vinnie, to get his aura photo taken and mine too. I should have plenty of interesting video/photos/stories to share).

What do you know about your neighbors? Perhaps not as much as you think. There are so many alternate lifestyles that people enjoy on the side that it makes one wonder, what is normal nowadays?

Swingers: Everyone knows of swingers lifestyle. You're sick of looking at the same face (or other body part) during sex and you want something new. You want that zip you first feel when you're with someone new and you don't know what their touch and technique will be like. It's not terribly shocking nowadays and, in fact, can happen at a really wild party or when couples rent a cabin and enjoy a jacuzzi after a few mojitos. It's about as experimental as two teen girls on a dance floor exchanging saliva and testing the waters.

Perhaps we should turn up the lifestyle edginess button a bit. How about...

LARPers: Live-action role-playing done in parks and fields around the country in full garb and makeup, acting out like dungeons and dragons lots of scenarios in a sort of mock medieval geek fest. There are different levels of LARPers from those who put it on for the weekend fun and others who live it daily and then go online and play World of Warcraft. Their close kin are the “Cosplay” folks (costume play) and some of whom decide to costume themselves based on things like super heroes, cartoons, anime and manga. (I'm sorry, I just giggled).

Okay, so weekend costumers in the park don't shock you? Let's go a bit further...

Vampires: Yes, there are people who want so much to be vampires that they not only live the nocturnal lifestyle and the desire for blood, but even sleep in coffins and shun the sun at all costs. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I thought that if I did my bedroom up like the inside of Jeannie's bottle on “I Dream of Jeannie” and wore the costume and blinked with my arms crossed, I'd somehow become her. We usually outgrow this some time (between fifth and sixth grade, I believe).

Okay, so blood sucking nocturnal dwellers are not giving you shivers. Perhaps we need to take you to a more hardcore alternative lifestyle.

Fetish/BDSM: Bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadism and masochism. This is pretty obvious to most of us. Yes, those happy people who want some role playing on a more hardcore level including lots of pain combined with pleasure and playing out scenarios. Imagine playing “doctors” but on a seedy adult side instead of curious children. It goes further than this, however. This also includes those who enjoy human suspension. You're not quite sure what that is? Sounds horrible? The ones who don't get enough out of leather straps and whips, enjoy sticking hooks into their skin and hanging from it as some kind of ultimate test.

What do we get out of all of this, besides that our neighbors may be into poking anything that moves and perhaps even in a costume with a name like “Lord Gyro” and a whip in hand?

Perhaps pornography easily available online (instead of blushingly bought by only the brave at 7-11's), role-playing online games, television and movies showing people with glamorous and interesting lives has given us poor folks a feeling of mediocre lives and boring existences in which we work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep. Instead of being Harry in Cleveland working as an insurance agent by day, that man can design a character on WoW who is strong, brave and ballsy. Perhaps he can flirt with a secretary in Memphis and begin a little sexting dialogue. He could even escape in his mind to being a medieval blacksmith in a weekend game in the park.

Honestly, I was always bucking the trends when I was younger, so am I not running around enjoying such crazy lifestyles? Perhaps because of this one last horrifying alternative lifestyle that has me wondering about the whole genre...

Furries: Anthropomorphic characters that are part animal/part human. They wear costumes and makeup, ears, tails, and sometimes want to take it to more permanent levels. These people don't just dress up like animal creatures and are attracted to other animal creatures, the ones who take it to a hardcore level are into body modifications to actually become a creature as much as possible.



Okay, now I did something I strive to do on my blog—terrify you from time to time and leave you unsettled.

Georgia Guidestones--What the Bleep?

Y'all know I love a mystery and conjecture. Here's a fun one—the Georgia Guidestones.

Let's look at Wikipedia's description:

The Georgia Guidestones is a large granite monument in Elbert County, Georgia, USA. A message comprising ten guides is inscribed on the structure in eight modern languages, and a shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient languages' scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The structure is sometimes referred to as an "American Stonehenge."[1] The monument is almost 20 feet (6.1 m) tall if the buried support stones are included, exactly 18 feet (5.5 m) otherwise[2], and made from six granite slabs weighing more than 240,000 pounds (110,000 kg) in all.[3] One slab stands in the center, with four arranged around it. A capstone lies on top of the five slabs, which are astronomically aligned. An additional stone tablet, which is set in the ground a short distance to the west of the structure, provides some notes on the history and purpose of the Guidestones. In June 1979, an unknown person or persons under the pseudonym R. C. Christian hired Elberton Granite Finishing Company to build the structure.[3] One popular hypothesis is that the patron's pseudonym may be a tribute to the legendary 17th-century founder of Rosicrucianism, Christian Rosenkreuz.

Here are the directives written upon the guidestones in a variety of languages:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

2. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.

3. Unite humanity with a living new language.

4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.

5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

8. Balance personal rights with social duties.

9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.

10. Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.
 
So, what do you think? Sound like a 60s hippie wrote these guidelines? Do any of them catch your eye and make sense?

Long ago, I swore that I would never die until certain criteria were met in my world:

1. Women made the same amount of money at the same job as men.
2. Zero population growth.
3. No more dependence on fossil fuels.

What would you have put on the directives?

Lonely on a Friday Night? Join Us and Chat Here!

It's time, my friends. Come on and check in, check out, chit chat, ponder the universe, joke around, share your day or your opinions of tonight's GA season finale. I'll be here the whole evening, so just say "howdy" and I'll know you're on. You may begin...

What Are You Packing?

I've said it often and I still mean it. Electricians tools in an uncontrolled space are useless. It would take a good deal of shielding to impress me with an EMF meter or even a thermometer.

I say that since humans are the ones witnessing ghostly encounters, we are the best barometers. I am finding myself less and less utilizing this tool belt I'm wearing the picture above and going for some very basic items like a flashlight and a compass.

Not much else really interests me in the K-II, EMF meter, thermometer, audio recorder--receivers are notoriously corrupted. Even cameras, as desperately as we want to capture something, aren't going to be worth much. Don't even get me started on ghost boxes, Frank's boxes or any other device that runs through frequencies to capture random words.

The truth is, we don't know what the paranormal is comprised of and we have no idea how to go about weighing and measuring it. Electrician's tools are not the answer, unless you want to find out if a house has shitty wiring. Ouija boards and mediums have not proved consistent either. Is it physical? Is it spiritual? Is it mental? We still don't know after centuries of attempts to gain headway.

So, on the next hunt, instead of staring down at a meter all the time, I will actually be present to witness. The EMF meter and thermometer are the cell phone distraction devices of ghost hunting. Be present. Be alert. Be open. Be inviting.

Yes, on the next hunt, I'm going to go bare. Now, don't you want to see that picture?

Ghost Adventures--Drinking Game Time!

("Is There a Ghost?" Band of Horses)

Travel Channel's "Ghost Adventures" is at Bonnie Springs Ranch. A search for ghosts at Nevada's Bonnie Springs Ranch, which was built in 1843 and now serves as a tourist attraction. I saw parts of the episode early to see if it was awesome and it was most awesome. Great locale. Very moody. Very creepy.

Sadly, this is the last episode until this fall. Are you choked up? So am I!

The drinking game?
1. Stay Home.
2. A sip for every "bro," "dude," "man," every time Zak gets touched by a ghost and every time Aaron's mouth drops open in horror.

The drink tonight is ginger ale and vanilla bourbon.

Don't forget tonight from 7 pm EST all through the evening is "Lonely on a Friday Night" so join us. People come and go all evening, make comments, ask questions, chit chat, talk about the show, and just shoot the breeze. I'm here the whole evening as your hostess, so come and go as you wish. I'll know if you arrive. No, not my psychic skills, dears, it's my email notices that comments are made.

The Moment I Decided to Hunt

Sure, I grew up in a notoriously haunted house. I witnessed a lot of phenomena, much of it I assumed as a kid growing up was perfectly normal. Some of it, like poltergeist activity, made me wonder how in the hell such a thing could occur. One time, when I was 10 years old, I stole my father's tape recorder he practiced his speeches on and sat on the stairs all night waiting for those booted footsteps and I captured them on tape only to have the sounds shot down by others saying I simply wore my father's boots and recorded it.

I realized at a young age, you cannot disprove a haunting, but you also can't prove it!

Jump ahead a few decades, living in a modern and not-haunted home, I had left the ghosts behind me, right?

It all changed when my ex was asked to a work friend's girlfriend's party. He wanted to go so he could play drums during the open mic all evening. I went along, but wasn't thrilled. I hated attending parties of people I didn't know, but luckily a few people I knew showed up. I hadn't known it, but the woman (my ex's friend's girlfriend who owned the house) had just bought the home and was having some "haunting" issues. She told someone who told her that I was a psychic.

The woman eagerly grabbed me up and along with her friend, she took me aside and told me of hearing someone in the hallway and a woman crying in the master bath. I did my walk through, touching the place, envisioning another family that had lived there. I told her what I found as I walked but told her not to respond.

I don't like feedback or it distracts me down the wrong path.

I told her about an elderly woman in the first bedroom who was a bit demented in an OCD way and would walk the hall and recheck and recheck the front door several times each night. There was a corner bedroom I didn't like at all. A man did something in there that was shady. The master suite, I saw a man, a woman and about an 5-year-old boy who slept between them, partly to protect his mother from his father and partly to feel safer by being near his mom for protection. In the master shower, a woman sat on the tile floor, bleeding into the drain from her arm.

The friend with the homeowner shook her head in shock. She had lived next door for 25 years. Yes, there was a man, woman, and a boy living there with the grandmother. She was a demented old lady and did sleep in that bedroom. The man sold drugs from the house and the corner room was where he ran his business. The woman did try to kill herself.

Feeling the usual relief that I had followed the right trace of residual information, I was ready to rejoin the party when the neighbor said, "I just don't understand it. They're not ghosts. They live across town. All of them are still alive."

My world tilted on its axis. As a child, I had a sense of residual energy (scenes replaying mindlessly in a space) but having read what haunted this woman's house and realizing that there were no actual ghosts, I wanted answers. Were all hauntings residual?

So, I began avidly ghost hunting in search of answers. Every hunter has different influences but mine were based on an inability to accept blindly and with religious faith the explanations for what a ghost is and how it works. I started this blog several years ago which was several years into my hunting and the premise was to explore theories, test them, search for testing methods, trying to get some answers.

I still search, still theorize, still experiment and hope to have more "aha!" moments where it all makes sense. Right now, it's a marvelous and interesting mystery and I am ever a curious child.

QUIZ: What Horror Movie Do You Want to See That Hasn't Been Made?

It's quiz time, my pretties! You know how I love to make you think about your mental processes. Let's see how mental we are: Count your a's, b's, c'd and d's and see which one you get the most of. Scroll down and find out which horror movie you would like to see that hasn't been made.

1. I sometimes have emotional troubles when it comes to...
a. I can get angry outbursts.
b. I am a bit OCD/obsessive-compulsive about things.
c. I am timid/easily dominated.
d. I depend too much on others saving my ass.

2. My idea of a perfect Saturday is to..
a. Avoid human beings--dealt with them all week.
b. Finish off chores and things I need to get done.
c. Get away to a quiet place.
d. Have friends over and watch something on TV, maybe BBQ.

3. I am really intrigued by...
a. Jack the Ripper.
b. Ancient Egyptians/pyramid construction.
c. Reanimating the dead.
d. Listening for signals from outer space.

4. I like a horror movie to have...
a. Lots of victims/kills.
b. Super badass mindless killers.
c. Creepy stuff from my darkest fears.
d. "Us" versus "them" mentality.

5. Best horror movie locale...
a. The City.
b. Ancient places.
c. Mountain cabin.
d. Caves.

Now, count your a's, b's, c's and d's and scroll down to see which horror movie you would like to see most if it existed...
















a. Vampire goes cold turkey and ends up being a serial killer.
b. Zombies build pyramid and perform sacrificial feasting atop it.
c. Dolls take over a mountain cabin and hold people prisoners and torture them.
d. Post-apocalyptic survivors contact aliens and ask them to come save them.

Dolls, Clowns and Mannequins, Oh My!

What is with the common fear of dolls (both baby and ventriloquist), clowns and mannequins?

My acquisition of both Dale the ventriloquist doll and Skittles the clown doll were to try to unsettle myself and perhaps manage to get over my distaste for these toys. As well, I plan to add a mannequin to my list of acquisitions. Those 1950s female ones that look like June Cleaver most unsettle me.

Human facsimiles are unsettling. We feel the same way about robots that are too human-like. Ventriloquist dolls with their hinged mouths and ability to "talk," are unnatural. Clowns are people in costumes and makeup that look human-like but their expressions are exaggerated in a disturbing manner. Mannequins look nearly identical but stand stiff and stuck in one position. There is a lack of soul to these effigies that gives them a sinister feel.

Have you ever seen a dog react to a stuffed dog? Yeah, humans do the same with these dolls. They approach with apprehension, study it, shake their heads and back off.

Want to get more frightened? Try these movies:
"Clownhouse" Victor Salva made this film rather infamous by having pedophilic encounters with one of the actors. It still remains to me more disturbing than "It." This one has three brothers alone at home and a clown that torments them.

"Dead Silence" This is one of my favs of all time. It's atmospheric, creepy, and includes tons of ventriloquist dolls and even some mannequins thrown in for good measure. The music alone is creepy and the dolls are horrifying.

"Tourist Trap" This is for those who love 80s slasher films and fear mannequins. Are the mannequins in this off the beaten path museum really coming to life? You begin to wonder if you're losing it when the actors appear to be losing it.

"Fear of Clowns" An artist is being stalked by a clown that looks like the one she painted and she has a fear of clowns!

"Trilogy of Terror" That little Zuni hunting doll goes down in history as being the creepiest idol to stab someone.

"Magic" Anthony Hopkins did a brilliant job as a head case ventriloquist who has an unnatural belief that his doll is alive.

"Poltergeist" Single scariest kid versus doll encounter when the boy is pulled under the bed by his clown doll.

"Dolls" People stopping into a mansion where doll makers have a haunted collection of dolls.

"Child's Play." Chucky doll is everyone's nightmare.

So, if you had to be stuck in a dark room all night with one of these, which would be worst?

A room full of clown dolls?
A room full of ventriloquist dolls?
A room full of mannequins?

And, what makes you so frightened of them?