Book Review: Chasing Spirits by Nick Groff

I’ve only watched one episode of Ghost Adventures (which stars paranormal investigators Nick Groff, Zak Bagans, and Aaron Goodwin), but when I saw that the library had a book written by Nick Groff (with Jeff Belanger), I decided to read Chasing Spirits: The Building of the Ghost Adventures Crew to find out more about how the show came into existence.  Nick has had paranormal experiences since childhood; he had a near-death experience when he was eight years old and saw his first ghost at age ten, so it’s not too surprising that he made a documentary about ghost hunting years later and that it led to Nick, Zak, and Aaron getting a show on the Travel Channel.  The book was very interesting, and I enjoyed reading about Nick's life.  My favorite chapters were "Possession in Savannah," where Nick talks about an entity attaching itself to him (causing him to have thoughts that weren't his own about killing Zak and Aaron) when the Ghost Adventures crew was investigating the Moon River Brewery in Savannah, Georgia, and "Linda Vista Hospital: The Game Changer," in which Nick recounts the scariest moment of his life...locking eyes with a woman in a hospital gown, who, of course, was a spirit.  Near the end of the book, Nick said something that I really agree with: "It's always bothered me that when you think the paranormal exists, it's called belief and subject to ridicule and mockery.  But when you buy into religion unabashedly, it's called faith, and that's perfectly acceptable" (page 219).  This has always bothered me too...more people have seen paranormal entities than God, so I've never understood why it's seen as normal to believe in God, but people will act like someone's crazy if they say they've seen a ghost or an alien.

I really enjoyed Chasing Ghosts, and it made me want to watch more episodes of Ghost Adventures.  I'm excited to watch the two that are on my DVR (especially the one that takes place at the old jail in my hometown of Charleston, SC) and I'll definitely watch even more of them!

My rating: 8/10

Cool Website of the Week: Ghost Village

Today's Cool Website of the Week is ghostvillage.com, which is described as "the web's most popular paranormal destination."  Check out the "Encounters" section if you want to be creeped out!

http://ghostvillage.com

UFOs Crashed My Vacation

The 2013 Travel Channel show UFOs Crashed My Vacation tells the stories of "six vacations that didn't go as planned."  The first vacation-gone-wrong is the trip Chuck Rak, Charlie Foltz, and Jack and John Weiner took in Allagash, Maine in 1976.  The Boston art students were planning on a few relaxing days of camping and fishing, but that all changed once Charlie spotted something red glowing in the sky.  A few nights later, the men went fishing in a canoe and saw the object hovering above them, so Charlie signaled the UFO with a light; it started moving toward them, then a beam of light came out of the bottom onto the water.  The men found themselves on the shore with no recollection of how they got there.  Jack had nightmares for the next twelve years, so he underwent hypnosis to try to remember what happened; the other three also did it, and Jack, Jim, and Charlie all recalled being painfully examined by aliens.  Charlie doesn't believe that they were abducted and thinks the UFO left them alone.

In July 1994 in San Francisco Bay, Ruben Uriante was meditating when he heard a voice say "You're going to England."  He went to Wiltshire County to see crop circles with a tour group, and later that night, they heard that a new crop circle had appeared, so they went to check it out.  Ruben attempted to communicate telepathically with whoever told him he was going to England, saying he would be thankful if it appeared to him; a few minutes later, a ball of light appeared and began descending, followed by two more.  They disappeared as soon as someone took out a video camera.

In Denver, Colorado in August 1982, Denise and Ed Stoner were on the road when they spotted two bright red lights moving toward them; she asked Ed to slow down, but he was in a trance.  The next thing they knew, it was three hours later and they had traveled forty miles with no recollection of doing it.  A few years later, Denise underwent hypnosis to remember that night; while under hypnosis, she drew a UFO and remembered two "entities" taking her out of the car and implanting a tracking device in her foot when she was on the UFO.

In July 1975 in Mount Rainer, Washington, newlyweds Bob and Laurel Gilge were looking for a campsite when they saw a sign for a UFO convention.  They decided to go, and when they tried to leave, the conference leader said they couldn't go because the group was about to do a ceremony just for them. Someone began speaking in tongues, and the leader drew crosses on Bob and Laurel's foreheads with oil. Back at their campsite, Bob and Laurel heard a hum that kept getting louder, then saw a UFO and started screaming at it that they wouldn't get on it.  The UFO disappeared.

In southern California in July 1990, supernatural enthusiasts Melinda Leslie and her friends Steve and Mike decided to take a trip to a place in the San Bernadino Mountains that was known for UFO sightings.  On the two-hour drive, Steve stuck his search light out of the window to attract a UFO, and a few minutes later, strange lights appeared in the sky.  The search light died, their police scanner began malfunctioning, their walkie-talkies started making noise, and they saw three flashes of light in the car.  Their next memory was of driving on the road and being extremely thirsty; they looked at the clock and realized that it was three hours later than they thought it would be.  Three days later, Melinda started remembering things, such as the car stopping and being approached by extraterrestrials, walking up a ramp into a UFO, and having needles stuck in her; she thinks that the aliens may have taken eggs from her as well.

In December 2000, Juan Cardenas and his family (wife Patricia and sons Jesus and Jonathan) were on a road trip from Pasco, Washington to Mexico when they spotted a bright light moving in the sky over southwest Texas.  Patricia began filming it, and the kids eventually convinced Juan to pull over so they could get out and look at the object.  The light started changing color, and Juan decided it was time to leave; the light followed them for awhile, then it disappeared.  Juan did not believe in UFOs before that night, but he's convinced that's what his family encountered.

I'm not sure if UFOs Crashed My Vacation is going to be a regular show or if it was just a special, but I hope they do some more of these.  It was a different take on the UFO show since it only focused on people who were on vacation, and I'm sure there are plenty more stories they could share.

My rating: 8.5/10 

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ufos-crashed-my-vacation

Unsealed: Alien Files: Alien Hot Spots

I recently watched the half-hour show Unsealed: Alien Files, which is hosted by John Wells. This episode was called "Alien Hot Spots," and it focused on areas that are known for having a great deal of UFO activity.  These are the four hot spots the show focused on:

-Los Angeles, California:  Hundreds of UFOs were seen in Topanga Canyon on June 14, 1992.  The "Battle Over Los Angeles" occurred on February 24, 1942 when the U.S. Army tried to shoot a UFO down, but it got away...the next day, the Secretary of the Navy said it was a weather balloon.  (You can find more about L.A.'s numerous UFO sightings here:  http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_flyingobjects54.htm.

-Texas: There have been hundreds of UFO sightings here since the 1800s.  It is said that in 1897, an alien was buried in Aurora after its UFO crashed.  Mysterious glowing lights (the Marfa Lights) have been spotted multiple times a year in Marfa since the 1950s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights).  A UFO was once spotted heading toward Corpus Christi at 2500 miles per hour.

-London, England: There have been 12,000 UFO sightings in London in the past sixty years, as well as several reports of airplanes almost colliding with UFOs.  In Rendlesham Forest in late 1980, strange lights came from a triangular UFO that was sitting on the ground
(http://www.therendleshamforestincident.com/Home.htm).

-China: There have been reports of a flaming UFO (http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc476.htm) and a mass UFO sighting.

Unsealed: Alien Files is an interesting show, but I wish it were an hour instead of thirty minutes because I would've liked to hear more details about each of the incidents mentioned on the show.   Despite this, I will definitely watch more episodes.

My rating: 7/10

http://www.unsealedfiles.com/the-alien-files

UFO Bitstrips

Book Review: Messages by Stan Romanek

Messages: The World's Most Documented Extraterrestrial Contact Story by Stan Romanek with J. Allen Danelek tells the story of a man's repeated contact with extraterrestrials, and it's the most fascinating book I've ever read.  In fact, it's so fascinating that I went on Amazon and bought another of Stan's books and one written by his wife Lisa before I was even finished with Messages.  Stan Romanek is a former UFO skeptic who became a believer after catching a UFO on film on the way to Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado in late 2000.  He saw his second UFO seven months later near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border; two passengers in Stan's car also witnessed it, and Stan got this sighting on film as well.  In September 2001, Stan was abducted for the first time, and he would be abducted many more times over the next few years.  In many cases, he would wake up outside his home with no way to get back inside and with no memory of what had happened, but he remembered what happened during the abductions when he underwent hypnosis.

The fact that I run a paranormal blog should make it pretty obvious that I already believe in aliens, but if I didn't, I think this book would've made me a believer.  Stan's story is compelling, and the photographs in the book back up his story.  There are pictures of marks Stan found on his body after his first abduction (which glowed under a black light) and of marks he found next to his knee after a later abduction where he came back with a completely healed ACL and hamstring, which had been hurting him so badly that he'd been planning on having surgery a few days later.  There are also pictures of aliens that look pretty damn real to me; in one part of the book, Stan talks about how his digital camera went missing, and a few days later, Lisa found it hanging from the ceiling fan with a few extra pictures on it.  When I turned the page and saw the picture Stan included, I actually gasped out loud at the extraterrestrial face I saw staring back at me.  I'm sure there are many people out there who think Stan's story is a hoax, just like there are people who think a weather balloon crashed in Roswell in 1947.  Some people wouldn't believe in extraterrestrials even if they met one because they just don't want to believe that they exist, and I don't understand why so many people think Earth is the only planet with life on it.  We live in a huge universe...why would ours be the only planet that gets to have life?  I recommend Messages to anyone who wants to read a fascinating story...if you already believe in aliens, this book will make your belief even stronger, and if you're a skeptic, this book just might turn you into a believer.  Stan Romanek was very brave to share his story, and I'm grateful to him for doing it.

http://www.stanromanek.com/

My rating: 10/10

Haunted Dolls on Ebay

The haunted doll in The Conjuring made me wonder about how many haunted dolls people are trying to sell on Ebay, so I looked it up and was shocked to see more than 800 listings.  Some of them are for dolls that are sold by Halloween stores to use as decorations, but the majority are for dolls that the sellers claim are haunted.  Here's a link to Ebay's haunted doll listings:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR4.TRC1.A0.Xhaunted+doll&_nkw=haunted+doll&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Here are some of the most disturbing descriptions of the haunted dolls:

"She has told us she is 20 years old and lost her life in an accidental shooting. We have witnessed a translucent misty cloud when communicating with her and we believe that she is trying to manifest herself. She has grown stronger and stronger each time."

"From what we have learned in communication sessions, Maureen is a 12 year old girl who died sometime in the early 50's from pertussis . We have heard her making that whooping type cough during our sessions and at other times as well."

"Poe is a 40 year old spoiled brat. She demands attention. Hard to tell when she is being honest. Very immature and feels entitled. Death at her own hand, but was an accident. Meant to get attention. She likes to goad me. She likes bright lights and can sometimes be helpful. Does not like to be in her box. She is going to be upset when I am gone."

"Some of the things Stephanie is capable of doing is singing at night, saying hello,shows energy in the form of a ball, rings telephone and cell phones, levitates, clicks her feet together, says no no no no."

"Whoever or whatever is attached to this thing hates me and hates my house."

"Things we have experienced with this doll are: complete power failure on all circuit breakers to where they have to be flipped several times before they come back on (our electrical has been tested and no issues with it were found), shadow figures not only from the corner of your eyes but full on, spirit orbs have been photographed surrounding her many times as well as light rods of energy. Door handles will turn as if being jiggled along with scratching and knocking sounds on the walls."

"All four dolls have been in my home for two weeks now and are hanging out in my attic. So far I have heard people walking around up there- it's sealed so there is no way an animal could get in there- as well as seen faces looking back at me through the living room window. Very round, very pale faces with black eyes. This is probably the most freaky thing I've seen in awhile and now we have much thicker curtains."

In conclusion, do not buy any of these dolls...they'll kill you in your sleep! ; )