When Ghosts Attack: Beasts From the Beyond

I haven't watched When Ghosts Attack in awhile, so I decided it was time to scare the crap out of myself again.  This time I watched an episode called " Beasts From the Beyond," which aired on Destination America.  Katharine Driver moved to Flat Rock, Indiana to help her parents renovate their house.  When she was a teenager, strange things happened in the house, such as a Quija board spelling out "BEAST" and "DEATH"  when Katharine's friends decided to try to contact the ghost that haunted the house.  When Katharine arrived to help her parents, she noticed a bad smell and several dead mice in the house, so she called cleaning specialists Cassi Bowman and Vicki White on August 3, 2011.  Cassi said she felt like she was being watched when she was cleaning, and Vicki saw a figure pass by a doorway; she thought it was Cassi (the only other person in the house), but it wasn't.  The next time they went to the house, Cassi saw footprints on the floor, even though she knew no one had been there since the last time they cleaned, and she heard a voice whisper "Get out." Vicki and Cassi did not return after that. (Smart move.)  On October 8th,  Katharine slept in the house and had dreams about a man in a gray suit running through the woods; he looked like he was from the 1800s and kept saying "What have I done?" and "How do I fix it?"  She began having the dream regularly, and one night she awoke to a freezing room and saw the man from the dream standing next to the bed.  Katharine later saw this man in the woods; she followed him, and he disappeared.  She decided to research the area and found out that two people had died in an explosion at the sulfur springs not far from the woods, and she wondered if the man she saw might be one of the men who died in the explosion.  On September 17th, 2012, Katharine woke up feeling like something bad was going to happen, and she was correct; her cat didn't appear when Katharine called her to eat, and she found her dead in the yard.  That night she kept hearing someone repeating the word "cat" over and over again, and then she felt something grip her throat; she said her neck felt cold and like it was being shocked.  She repeated a mantra that her grandmother had taught her ("White light, bright light, please protect me both day and night."), and then she could breathe again.  Katharine has not experienced any paranormal activity in the house since that night.

On June 9, 2007 in Manahawkin, New Jersey, Cam Sammartano and Lindsey Monaco decided to stop sitting around the house and visit a pet cemetery that was said to be haunted. (Sounds like a great idea...what could possibly go wrong?) Soon after arriving at the foggy cemetery, they began hearing barking and growling dogs, so they decided to get back in the car.  Once in the car, Cam tried to drive to the main road, but just kept driving past the cemetery; he tried to do a three-point turn, but the car wouldn't move.  Cam thought he saw something in the woods, and then the car was attacked by something that looked like a dog; Cam and Lindsey were terrified, but the attack stopped when the creature disappeared.  They eventually found the main road and made their way back to Cam's house; he worried about the damage to his mother's car, but when he got out of the car, there wasn't even a scratch on it.  They knew that it would be impossible for the car to not show any signs of damage after an attack from a real dog, so Cam and Lindsey concluded that the animal they saw must  have been a ghost.  They learned their lesson and never returned to the pet cemetery.

Katie Gammage thought it would be fun to work at Eastern State Penitentiary's "Terror Behind the Walls" Halloween attraction, but she was soon proven wrong.  On October 13, 2012,  Katie was locking up and felt like she wasn't alone.  She then saw a male figure wearing prison gear from the 1920s and felt cold air rush past her, and the figure vanished.  She then heard chains rattling and was shoved to the floor by "an unseen force."  An EMT heard Katie screaming and came to help her; she told Katie that the night before, she had seen an orb in the area where Katie was attacked.  Katie continued to work at the penitentiary, and though paranormal activity is still reported in the building, she has not had any more experiences like the one from October 13th.

This episode of When Ghosts Attack wasn't quite as scary as some of the other episodes I've seen, but I still enjoyed it. : )

My rating: 8/10

Ghost Intervention: Pennsylvania Poltergeists

Ghost Intervention aired on TLC in 2009 and stars case manager Raiya Davidson, intuitive medium Sierra Campbell, and clairvoyant medium channeler Dawn Clare.  I'd never seen it before, so I recorded an episode called "Pennsylvania Poltergeists."  The episode begins with Raiya, Sierra, and Dawn going to Concordville, PA to investigate the home of Jack and Carolyn Hanlon, who have lived in the house for forty-two years; some of their children (who are now grown) have heard footsteps on the stairs, smelled smoke, and seen a “dark figure pacing up and down,” and daughter Anne Marie says that the paranormal activity increases whenever they makes changes in the house.  The house used to belong to Alexander Scott, a Union soldier who bought the house in 1847 and died there in 1898.  Jack says that one time when he was in his office, the door kept opening by itself when he was home alone; the third time it happened, he said, “Mr. Scott, get in or get out,” and the door stayed closed after that.  Two of Jack and Carolyn’s daughters have seen the ghost of a young girl standing by the dresser in their parents’ bedroom.

Raiya, Sierra, and Dawn visit the house while the family isn’t home, so they won’t have any preconceptions about the case.  Dawn senses two young girls in the backyard, and the younger one is afraid of the well.  When Sierra enters the living room, she senses someone political who was associated with the Civil War and guns; she also senses the name Alexander.  She senses a nanny and the names Katherine and Anne Marie associated with the house.

The women meet with Jack, Carolyn and theirs daughters…Katherine and Anne Marie!  Dawn says that she sensed men with guns at the edge of the Hanlon’s property and that she feels that they were associated with the Civil War; Anne Marie tells her that both she and Katherine had recurring dreams about men coming out of the woods with guns.  Sierra tells them that she thinks the nanny gets annoyed every time they remodel the kitchen.  Anne Marie asks why the spirits are there, and Dawn says she thinks it’s because it’s a loving home.  Sierra tells the family that she doesn’t think they have anything to fear from the spirits.

On the drive to the Hannum House in Glen Mills, Sierra talks about a dream she had the night before where a little girl came to her and said she needed protecting and showed her some stuffed animals.  The Hannum House is one of the oldest homes in the country (built in 1695), and Kim and Eric, who have lived there for nine years, realized they had ghosts the day they moved in when Kim heard a scream and saw a man who was “dressed in full colonial war attire” come down the stairs and disappear into the fireplace.  Most of the paranormal activity takes place in the attic; Kim and Eric have seen a black figure up there, and Kim says that if they try to talk to the spirits, they start “thumping stuff and knocking on things.”  Kim and Eric’s tenant once went into the basement and saw two men, but when Kim checked, no one was there.  In the master bedroom, Kim and Eric heard footsteps and a voice saying “Mommy?;” they thought it was their daughter Emma, but when they looked in the hallway, she wasn’t there, so Eric walked down the hall to her bedroom, where he found her asleep in her bed.  In Emma’s room, toys and other objects would fall on the floor and wake her up, and spirits sometimes came up to her and tried to talk into her ear.

When Raiya, Sierra, and Dawn arrive, Sierra feels the spirit of a little girl around a tree and a “sense of neglect.”  Dawn says that she had a dream about the house, and there was a brothel and a bar in it; she also senses that the house was used for prayer at one point.  Dawn feels male spirits in the basement who were colonial soldiers.  In Emma’s bedroom, Raiya and Sierra see several stuffed animals, including one that Sierra saw in her dream.  Sierra senses the little girl that she sensed outside in the room, but does not think that Emma tries to communicate with the spirits, she just is aware of them and scared.  Sierra feels like the attic was used to hide people, possibly Native American women “who have been sold for prostitution and work,” and that many of them were killed or got pregnant and were sent away.  In the basement, she senses a spirit named Samuel who lived there in the 1700s after he was shot and needed a place to recover; she says that he warned her that the basement will flood within the next few weeks and that he’s been trying to get Kim and Eric’s attention to tell them to move everything out of there.

Dawn and Sierra meet with Kim and Eric, and Dawn tells them about her dream; they tell her that the house has been a church, courthouse, tavern, and brothel.  Sierra tells Kim and Eric about what she sensed in the attic, and Kim says there were women held in the attic in the past; Sierra asks if the name Samuel means anything to them, and Kim says that she has seen the name when researching the Hannum genealogy.  Sierra says that Samuel was in charge of the home’s maintenance and wants to stay in the house and help them.

I enjoyed Ghost Intervention, but not as much as most of the other paranormal shows I've written about on the blog.  However, it wasn't scary at all, which was nice since I watched it while I was alone. ; )

My rating: 7/10

100th post: Haunted House for Sale

Have you always wanted to live in a haunted house?  Well, now's your chance...if you're willing to live in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, this "slightly haunted" house can be yours for only $144,000! You'll experience phantom footsteps, knocking sounds, and "hardly noticeable" screams at 3:13 in the morning.  If all of that doesn't sell you, this should seal the deal: you'll get your very own creepy ghost who will stare at you from the bathroom mirror!  Hurry before this amazing, terrifying house gets snapped up!

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1217-Marion-St-Dunmore-PA-18509/9559446_zpid/?z&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=emo-savedsearch-address

Ghost Bait: Farm House

I discovered the Bio channel show Ghost Bait a few weeks ago and wrote about the first episode on the blog, so now it’s time to write about another episode, which is entitled “Farm House.”  I really wish there were more episodes of this, but so far there are only three, and my DVR would never let me download the second one. : (  “Farm House” aired in September and focuses on a 250-year-old farm house in eastern Pennsylvania.  The ParaCORE team (team leader Bob Magill, lead investigator Aimee, tech supervisor Mallie, and researcher Bill) meets with Lindsey and Chris, the residents of the farm house, and Lindsey tells them that a “dark shadowy figure” has been seen there ever since she was a child.  She also says that she has heard voices upstairs and that she saw a “black shadow man coming down the steps” of the basement  with red eyes and an axe or knife.  Lindsey's brother says that when playing outside as children, they could see "glowing red eyes" in the upstairs windows.

In the third floor bedroom, the cameraman feels something touch him; Bill and Amy check out the room, and when they ask if there's a shadow man there, something hits Bill on the side of his face and leaves a scratch. The team calls in psychic medium Karyn Reece (and her psychic cat Rosie...how exactly would you know that a cat is psychic?), who says that there is an evil male presence there, that she sees him in the doorway, and that he says he's coming for Bob and her.  In the basement, Karyn senses witchcraft and a manuscript. A historian tells Bob that in the 1920s a man named Nelson Ryemeyer was murdered by John Rhymer, who wanted his Book of Shadows because he thought Nelson was hexing him; the book has never been found, but it's rumored to be on the property.

Now it's time to reel the ghost in with some human bait!  Bob puts a hood over Lindsey's head and sends her to the third floor after telling her to ask the spirit questions.  After Lindsey asks why the spirit is there, she hears a noise and thinks something is there; she hears another noise, so she follows it.  Bob asks her to go to the basement, so Lindsey does and asks the spirit if it wants the book, and something jumps at her.  On the thermal video, a figure appears behind Lindsey when she asks about the book (creepy!).  Karyn senses that the Book of Shadows is still on the property, but isn't sure where, so Bob decides to try to find another copy.  He succeeds and has Lindsey place the book in a circle of stones; the Shadow Man has not been seen on the property since that day.

My rating: 8.5/10

http://www.biography.com/tv/ghost-bait