AtomaCon Panel: Bigfoot Hunting

On Saturday, November 15th, I attended the Bigfoot Hunting panel at AtomaCon in North Charleston, SC.  It was led by Cheralyn Lambeth and M. Doc Geressy (who are both members of the Carolina Ghostbusters), and it was a fun and entertaining discussion.  Doc stated that just because we haven't found something doesn't mean it's not there and that if Bigfoot doesn't want to be found, it wouldn't be that hard for him to evade everyone.  Cheralyn pointed out that every major civilization has stories about a Bigfoot-like creature.  They talked about the famous 1964 Bigfoot documentary made by David Patterson, and Cheralyn said that a line going down the back of Bigfoot looks like it could be a zipper and that it wouldn't be that difficult to make a fake Bigfoot film.  As for why someone would fake it, she said that professional filmmakers do things all the time to amuse themselves, such as giving Bigfoot breasts in the Patterson film.  Doc said that if the film was a hoax, it was a very good one and wondered why, if it's easy to fake, more people don't make Bigfoot films?  He also noted that generally the people who have claimed to see Bigfoot don't seem like intelligent or credible people and that if someone like Bill Nye claimed to have seen him, then people would probably believe in Bigfoot.  Cheralyn said that you can't prove that something doesn't exist, and I'd never thought of it that way, but it's so true...you can prove that most things do exist, but if no one has proven the existence of something like Bigfoot, it might just mean we haven't found it yet.  And, really, don't we all secretly hope that Bigfoot exists?

I really enjoyed this panel, and I thought about Bigfoot more than I ever have in my entire life.  I even ended up writing about Bigfoot later that night...I've had a lot of fun writing paranormal jokes and haiku for this blog (which are all going into a book I'm publishing next year), so here's a haiku I wrote after the Bigfoot panel:

Bigfoot, how we wish

You’d reveal your existence,

But we understand

Why you stay hidden.

Steer clear of rednecks with guns,

Or you might become

A Bigfoot-skin rug

Or head mounted on a wall.

Stay safe, furry one.

Also, if you're interested in Bigfoot, check out Graham Roumieu's Bigfoot books (Me Write Book and I Not Dead)...they're hilarious!

http://paranormalcrystal.blogspot.com/2014/04/book-spotlight-bigfoot-books-by-graham.html 

Carolina Ghostbusters:
http://carolinaghostbusters.com/

M. Doc Geressy:
https://batdoc.wordpress.com/

Cheralyn Lambeth:
http://www.galleryquest.webs.com/

AtomaCon Panel: Haunted Carolinas

Last year I didn't find out about AtomaCon (All Types of Media Arts Convention) until two days before it began, so I just went the last day and attended one panel (Ghost Hunting Tech); this time I bought a three-day pass as soon as they went on sale last November, so I was prepared to spend all weekend there and learn more about some of the things I'm interested in. On Saturday, November 15th, I attended the Haunted Carolinas panel, so I could hear Tally Johnson, Cheralyn Lambeth, Rebel Sinclair, Pamela Nance, and Ashley Field talk about haunted places in North and South Carolina.

Lavinia Fisher might be Charleston's most notorious ghost, and Rebel Sinclair said that she may have been buried in a potter's field (under what is now The Citadel's football field) since that's where executed prisoners were buried back when Lavinia Fisher was executed.  The panelists talked more about the Old City Jail later; Rebel said that the ghosts of jailers have been seen there, and Pamela Nance and Ashley Field (who make up the paranormal investigation group Spirit Hunters of the South) talked about an investigation they did in 2010.  They said that in a replica of a jail cell, Pamela took pictures while Ashley acted like a jailer, and when they looked at the pictures they took, a ghostly face could be seen between the bars of the cell.  In the morgue area, they heard footsteps running toward Ashley, which then knocked her into Pamela, and when they listened to the recording, they heard a male voice say "That shook 'em" and a female voice say "F**k them."  They believe that the female voice belonged to Lavinia Fisher since it was the voice of a white woman, and she was the only white woman ever held in the jail.  At one point, a cameraman forgot Ashley's name, and a spirit supplied it for him (creepy!).  This story sounded familiar to me, and I was pretty sure I must've seen Pamela and Ashley on a show I wrote about for my blog, and I was right:
http://paranormalcrystal.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-ghost-story-caught-on-camera.html

It's not uncommon to hear about spirits of soldiers killed in battle, especially in the Carolinas.  Cheralyn Lambeth said that at Kings Mountain Battlefield, two soldiers were killed by American troops and have haunted the road they died on ever since.  She also showed us a picture of a flag in the Fort Sumter museum that has a ghostly face in it. The flag was shot down and retrieved by a Confederate soldier, and the Union army was so impressed by his bravery that they saluted him; during the 100-gun salute, a Union soldier was killed, and many believe that his face is the one in the flag.

Other hauntings the panelists discussed include:

-14 Legare Street: The house is said to be cursed, and Rebel believes that she and her now-husband were passed by Ruth Lowndes' coach while walking on Legare Street; they smelled horse-hide, but there were no horses around.  They realized that they had just passed #14, the house where Ruth's husband lived alone during their marriage.

-1914 Chester County Jail: Tally Johnson said that six ghosts haunt the jail, and one of them (the spirit of a man imprisoned for slitting his wife's throat, putting her in a trashcan, and setting it on fire) possessed the leader of the paranormal group Tally was investigating with. Tally and his fellow paranormal investigators did a ghost box session at the jail, and the spirit they communicated with knew the names of all three of the investigators; when they ended the session, the cell door slammed shut.  There is also a Victrola at the jail that plays by itself.

-Southend Brewery: Rebel told us that the building is haunted by a man who hanged himself, and sometimes people walking by can see his ghost.

-Cheralyn said her scariest moment was when she arrived at the hotel she was staying at during a paranormal investigation at Waverly Hills Sanitarium (All former sanitariums are haunted, aren't they?) and discovered that the hotel was hosting a Toddlers and Tiaras convention. (That does sound terrifying...I'd rather run into a ghost than a pageant mom.)

-Rebel said that sometimes the FBI holds EVP sessions after a murder because the sound waves from the event might still be there.

-Pamela and Ashley played an EVP recording where a spirit answered questions and told them his name.  They decided to do an EVP session after Ashley's leg started burning all of a sudden, and they found out that the spirit of a man who had been shot in the leg was present.

-Tally said that the ghost of his great-grandfather appeared in his house the night before his wedding and tipped his hat to him...then Tally realized that he was no longer worried about getting married.

The Haunted Carolinas panel was really interesting, and I'm glad I got to go to it.  The panelists were very knowledgeable about hauntings and paranormal investigations and told some fascinating stories.


AtomaCon:
http://www.atomacon.org/

Tally Johnson:
http://tallyjohnson.wix.com/sc-ghost-talker





Cheralyn Lambeth:
http://www.galleryquest.webs.com/


Rebel Sinclair:
http://www.blackcattours.com/RebelSinclair.html



Pamela Nance and Ashley Field
http://spirithunter.us/

Haunted Theaters of the Carolinas by Cheralyn Lambeth

I met Cheralyn Lambeth when I attended a Ghost Huntiing Tech panel at Atomacon (in North Charleston, SC) last November and was happy to learn that she was the author of a book that had been in my Amazon wish list for a few weeks.  The book is called Haunted Theaters of the Carolinas, and since I'm a playwright/paranormal blogger who majored in theatre in college, it should come as no surprise that I enjoyed this book.  Haunted Theaters of the Carolinas was published  in 2009 and focuses on 21 theaters (16 in North Carolina and 5 in South Carolina).  The book is very informative, as Lambeth includes some history about each of the theaters, and I really liked when she talked about her own paranormal experiences at some of the theaters, such as Roanoke Island's Waterside Theatre, where she heard footsteps pass her, then saw a door open and close when there was no one there.  I enjoyed reading about all of the theaters, but especially Charleston's Dock Street Theatre since I have been there many times and Charlotte's Loonis McGlohon Theatre/Spirit Square because it is part of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, and I saw Shatner's World and The Book of Mormon in their Belk Theater.  I have never seen a ghost at the Dock Street Theatre, but I had heard that it is haunted by a prostitute named Nettie Dickerson, who died when lightning struck the railing on the balcony she was standing on.  Though I already knew that story, I appreciated that Lambeth gave more details about Dickerson's background that what I had heard before.  I also found out that the Dock Street is said to be haunted by Junius Brutus Booth (John Wilkes Booth's father), who stayed there in 1838 when it was the Planter's Hotel.

If you're interested in books about haunted places, check out this book...and if you happen to be an actor, playwright, director, stage manager, etc. or just enjoy going to plays, I bet you'll find it really interesting. Now I know what to look out for if I see a play at any of the places discussed in the book. ; )

My rating: 8.5/10

http://cheralynlambethmedia.webs.com/

So You Want to be a Ghost Hunter...

On Sunday, November 10th, I attended a convention called ATOMACON (All Types of Media Arts Convention), which was a three-day convention in Charleston, SC devoted to sci-fi, fantasy, and science.  I attended the Ghost Hunting Tech panel (led by the Carolina Ghostbusters) because I thought it would be a great thing to write about for the blog; paranormal investigators Chuck Carte, Cheralyn Lambeth, M. Doc Geressy, and Tally Johnson talked about the different types of equipment they use on investigations, so if you want to be a ghost hunter, here are some of the things you'll need:

-EMF detector/K-2 meter: measures electromagnetic fields
-flashlight with 3 settings: regular, blacklight, and laser pointer
-temperature gun: measures the temperature using a laser pointer
-video and audio recording devices
-seismograph: measures vibrations
-laser grid: detects shadows and other visual disturbances
-Geiger counter: measures radiation

The Carolina Ghostbusters also offered some ghost hunting tips:

-Always research the place you're investigating in the daylight, so you can identify environmental factors (animals in the attic, etc.) before you walk into a dark house at night.
-Before you begin investigating, walk around the house/building with the EMF meter to see what sets it off; almost anything electrical can cause the EMF detector to go off, so this will prevent you from getting false readings.
-If you want to use a ghost box in your investigations, you can make one yourself with a radio instead of paying a lot for one you find online (and this website tells you how to do it:
 http://angelsghosts.com/ghost_box_how_to_make)
-A "ghost camera" is the same thing as a regular camera, so don't be fooled by ads for expensive cameras claiming to be specifically for ghost hunting.

Ghost Hunting Tech was a very interesting panel, and though I don't want to do any paranormal investigating myself (I get creeped out enough just watching paranormal TV shows), I'm glad I learned more about it from the very informative and entertaining Carolina Ghostbusters.  If you think your house might be haunted or you just want to know more about the Carolina Ghostbusters, check out their website!

http://carolinaghostbusters.com/