Orbs?

Pretty much every ghost hunter out there has encountered the phenomenon of orbs, myself and my team included, and have wondered what they were and what they meant. The die hard hunters say they are evidence of ghostly presence or spirit activity and tie them in with high EMF readings. The skeptics say they are nothing more than dust on a lens.
Now at the risk have having a lot of upset readers, I'm going to say that I agree with the latter group. I have noticed that since more and more "orbs" are showing up with the use of digital cameras, I think they must have something to do with that, although the same orbs have been found in disposable cameras as well as 35mm, 110, and even Polaroids. I attribute these to the flashes.
To me, there are just too many photographs with orbs present for them to be "ghosts" that are captured. If they were, there would be millions and millions of ghosts around us and I believe that if there were that many, there wouldn't even be a need for the word "paranormal" as the activity would just be "normal" every day occurrences.
Keep in mind, I am only talking here about the orbs that are captured on film and not the moving balls of light seen with the human eye during investigations or while present in a home or cemetery or any unexpected place. These are another phenomenon altogether. These lights are often referred to as "spirit lights" and have been seen floating towards an energy source they are attracted to such as a human being during an investigation or a haunting. These can be residual energy. If you have a comment to make regarding this post, or photos you would like to share, please do. Any point of view is welcome.

A Recent Personal Experience

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my family and I recently returned home from a vacation in Michigan. This story happened during a stay in Mackinac City. We stayed in a very nice place called the Anchor Inn where we rented a two bedroom family suite (room 208). My husband and I occupied the outside room, which the entry door opens into and our two daughters occupied the second bedroom which can only be accessed through our room. Our room had no window. Our daughters room did.
So, the first night of our stay we went to bed at approximately 11:00pm after a very busy day of sight seeing and shopping. Like most men, my husband sleeps so soundly and snores so loudly, you couldn't wake him up with a jackhammer right next to his bed. Anyway, around 3:00am, I heard a very deep voice in my right ear, speaking in a very slow and clear manner saying "I'm cold" and then I felt the covers being pulled up over me up to about my waist. The voice was very unfamiliar. My husband was sound asleep and the door to my daughters room was still closed and no sound was coming from their room.
Needless to say, that was rather startling and I did not fall right back to sleep, but I was quite tired and did lightly dose on and off. About and hour or so later, I saw a black form walk by my husband's side of the bed, pass the foot of the bed and then leave my vision line. I thought it was my husband getting out of bed to go to the bathroom because I actually FELT the bed move and it felt just like someone getting out of bed. Some time went by, more than 30 minutes (I could tell because the digital clock was on the bedside table by my side of the bed)and I started to worry maybe my husband was ill or something. Mind you now, I was awake this entire time because I felt those bed covers move and something moving out of the bed.
I decided to check my husbands side of the bed to move his CPAP mask and tubing out of the way so it didn't wet his sheets and thinking he wasn't there, slapped my hand down fairly hard on the bed.....and it landed right on his chest! He was there, sound asleep with his CPAP machine in place! He had never gotten out of bed, never had woken up and had been sleeping in the same position that he was when he first went to bed.
I had quite a shiver and goosebumps covered my arms. Some presence with the power to move blankets, speak in my ear and appear in shadow form was in that room #208. Later, I heard the faint sound of old time Gospel music playing, very softly. There was no one in the room under us or next to us so it was not coming from there and by this time it was about 4:00am.
Although I told my husband about these occurrences, We decided not to tell the girls because we didn't want anything to ruin their vacation. After this next day of sightseeing I happened to mention that I hoped I would sleep well that night and wouldn't be awaken by gospel music. At that point, my 15 year old daughter piped up and said "You heard that too? I heard that music playing right in my ear." At that point, the curiosity in me took over and since we do investigations and the whole family helps me with my research, I decided to question my daughter more. I asked Erika if she noticed anything else out of the ordinary, and she replied she was sleepy, but she thought she heard a voice talking in right in her ear, but she couldn't make out what it was saying.
Verification. Another witness. My husband then questioned the owners to see if anyone else ever complained about odd occurrences in room #208. They denied it and actually looked frightened when he explained what we had encountered. We stayed in that room for 2 more nights and nothing else happened, so I have nothing else to report and no explanation yet for what took place, but we are still looking in to that.

The Ouija Board--Is it a Toy or a Portal to the Other Side?

The Ouija board as we know it is a boa rd that is supposed to allow us to communicate with the spirit world, or our "dear departed" ones on the other side. The board has two curved rows of letters and underneath them, a "yes" and a "no". At the bottom of the board is the word "goodbye." The Ouija board has also been known as a talking board or a witch board because of it's reported ability to foretell the future. Along with the board is a pointer, also known as a planchette, which rests on three legs.

To use the Ouija board, you must have a minimum of two people. Each one must place their fingertips very lightly on the pointer and then one person asks a question. If the question requires a yes or no question, the pointer will obviously move to either the word "yes" or "no." If the question requires a more involved answer the pointer will move to the letters on the board to spell it out. Likewise, if a numeric answer is required, the pointer will go through the numbers on the board.
The first Ouija board came out in 1854 with others following on its tails. Although have been other men credited for creating the talking board, but most frequently sources claim it was William Fuld, who named the board "Ouija" by combining the German and French words for "yes"

Ok, so much for the history, now...doest it work? Well, there are many, many stories that you can find right here on the web of people contacting spirits, both good and evil, while using a Ouija board. Some say they have contacted demons and that ever since the first time they used the board they opened themselves and their families up to demonic possession, poltergeist activity and more. If asked, your church leaders will instruct you not to use a talking board for any reason. This being so, one must ask themselves....is this really a toy? Would a toy have Pastors and Priests on watch?

If you want to try one out, you do so at your own risk. Some Ouija Board/Talking Board warnings (or superstitions - depending on how you look at them) are hear for you to ponder. For me, I can't help remembering when I was young and watched the Exorcist when it first came out in theatres. The whole possession thing stated with a Ouija board and the sounds in the attic that little Regan attributed to "Captain Howdy". My own advice.....if the planchette EVER flies out of your hand across the room, run like HELL!!!

1. Never use a Ouija board by yourself.
2. Never ask when you are going to die.
3. If you throw away a Ouija board improperly, the spirits within will come back to haunt you.
4. Never be rude to the spirits.
5. Don't use the board if you feel sick or weak.

That about sums it up. Here are some picture for you to enjoy of some old boards and planchettes, and also a spirit that someone allegedly conjured up from a Ouija board (courtesy of Elvis Santana)

The Legend of Crying Mary - Debunking the myth!

The Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek Michigan was established in 1844 . Somewhere in the cemetery, adorning the grave site of one Johannas Decker is a beautiful statue of a Greek goddess. Through the years the legend has twisted this into a statue of the Virgin Mary, hence the title of the legend. As the legend goes, the statue of Crying Mary tells that at the stroke of midnight on Sundays, this statue cries. Some witnesses claim not only to have seen these tears, but to have felt them as well. The reports state that the statue never cries during the day and this has been occurring since approximately 1940 and continues on until this day. The residents of Battle Creek are quite familiar with Crying Mary, but no one has an explanation of why the statue cries.
Over the years, there have been a lot of stories concerning Johannas Decker, the woman buried under the statue. They range from saying she committed suicide to her killing her children.
After some research, I dug up the real story. Actually, Johannas Decker was a man. He was born in Ulster, New York in 1839. He later moved to Battle Creek and married Ruth A. Whitmore. Two children were born to the couple, but sadly they ied in infancy.
After Johannas death, out of her sorrow, Ruth had a beautiful statue erected on her husbands grave at his burial place. The bronze statue is said to be that of Ruth herself, done in the Grecian style and an actual working model of this same statue won first prize at the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Melonheads" in Michigan

Well, after a long sabatical, I am back now and ready to pick up the task at hand. Writing about the things that are odd, weird, wacky and straigt out paranormal and occult-like. I have recently returned from a trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan and boy do I have good info to share.
While there, I learned about the "Melonheads". Now, other states such as Ohio and Kentucky have their own Melonhead legends that have become quite popular, to the best of my knowledge, this is not a legend. From the research I have done, from talking to people in the area and from reading, these Melonheads are real. This, in realityl, is a sad story. It is not paranormal, but it is "dark" in its own way. Let me know what you think:

The Melon Heads story comes out of Holland, Michigan. It begins with a brood of children born with hydrocephaly (water on the brain). These children were living in the woods in the Saugatuck area. Their medical condition caused them to have huge, swollen heads. In the story, the hospital in the area that was treating the children long ago had to close, and the children having nowhere to go, were released into the w.oods with nowhere else to go and with noone to take care of them. For decades, people have talked about the Melonheads but they tended to stick to themselves, eating what they hunted and grew and because they rarely ventured into populated areas they weren't spotted often and because they weren't privy to medical care, with their condition they most likely died young. Sadly, the story of the Melonheads ended just as lonely as it began.