When a Boyfriend Brings Dead Baggage...

Nearly everyone I've spoken with over the years has wanted, once they discovered I research the paranormal, to tell me their own personal account of an unexplained encounter from their past. In fact most people have a ghost story to tell but keep it quiet not wanting to be ridiculed by others. Whenever I've given a talk at a library or anywhere else I tend to stay at least an hour after just to field the additional questions and outpouring of tales held within for a very long time. A sympathetic ear can make a huge difference.

One other blogger mentioned many months ago about his own personal experience with ghosts and that he would have to tell me the story some time. Life can get busy for all of us so it kept getting postponed. But Ken (the other blogger) did finally have a chance to share his tale on his own blog, Adventures in Gay Dating. Though it happened 15 years ago, the experience still lives with him.

At the time Ken was living in North Carolina with a new boyfriend named Scott who hailed from California. He was a staunch skeptic of anything supernatural and hardly someone willing to look at ghost stories, UFO sightings, or other strange happenings with anything other than complete disbelief. His boyfriend was a recovering meth addict who had lived a turbulent existence and wasn't very forthcoming about his past. Slowly as the trust developed, he would divulge small windows into his horror story of a life. He has once been involved with (and nearly married) a female, a witch by her own admission, and practiced the occult arts himself though he refused to discuss the matter any further. Ken would soon discover why.

On what seemed to be a normal night, Ken awoke suddenly at 2:20 AM. Before rolling back over to sleep, he caught a glimpse of something dark at the foot of the bed. It was the shadowy form of a man, so black it seemed to radiate the color. He found himself frozen not only by fear but a paralysis rendering him immobile and unable to wake his sleeping boyfriend. There was a choking sensation around his throat. He could feel the anger from the presence who undoubtedly was there because of Scott. He saw a vision in his mind of a hilltop cemetery surrounded by wrought iron fence. The male spirit led him to a gravestone beneath a tree and pointed at it.

Ken struggled to break from the immobilization, murmuring a religious instruction summoned from his Baptist upbringing. “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ Of Nazareth, go!” His eyes followed his outstretched finger toward the window. “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ Of Nazereth, leave through this window now!” He began to recover his movement and looked forward to find the room once again empty. Waking Scott he attempted to explain what had happened in excited gibberish but Scott was too tired and wrapped an arm around him before fading back to sleep.

The following morning, Ken told his boyfriend about his frightening encounter.

"Oh," Scott said nonchalantly, "that's just Steve." Ken was shocked.

“Do you believe a person can be haunted, Ken?”

He was fraught with surprise and bewilderment. “I… I don’t know. Why?”

“I’m haunted, Ken," Scott said in a serious tone. "Just like a house can be haunted a person can be haunted. Trust me on this one, I know.”

Steve's parents were friends of Scott's parents so the two had been occasional friends in Placerville, California before graduation. While Scott was living with the witchy woman in Los Angeles his father called to tell him that Steve had been killed in a car accident the night before. His father sent him the money for a bus ticket to come to the funeral. He was gathered with some old friends on the steps of the funeral home, playing with a deck of tarot cards to show off his psychic abilities when he happened to glance up. There was Steve, plain as day. Horrified, he quickly put away the cards. Steve's specter reappeared that night in his bedroom at his parent's place to terrify him once again. The following morning at the cemetery as they lowered Steve's body six feet under, Scott saw several other ghosts watching him from around the bone yard.

Scott asked Ken to describe in detail exactly what Steve had shown him. He mentioned the cemetery, the fence, the colored marble headstone beneath a tree. Scott clapped his hands with glee and explained that every single detail of where Steve was buried was dead-on.

"Why did he appear to you as himself but I got the whole spooky-figure-cloaked-in-black treatment?"

"He was trying to scare you off," Scott replied.

"So, he 'liked' you?"

"I think he did."

The whole experienced seemed to awaken something inside Ken. Six months after the terrifying night, he saw a little boy in the shop where he worked when he was completely alone. He vanished right before Ken's eyes. It turns out that during construction of the building a large cement drainage pipe crushed a young boy to death at that very site. He was approached by a young, attractive man on a separate occasion several months later asking him for the time at the store. He glanced at his watch and looked back up to find he too had disappeared. But there was something else peculiar about the incident. The man carried a shopping bag for Ivey's--a department store which went out of business in 1985 and formerly occupied the same building he was working in.

Steve made a few more random appearances and seemed to be trying to scare Scott. Ken had enough of the disturbances and researched the paranormal heavily in search of ways to rid their lives of the repeat occurrences. After smudging the house with white sage (while projecting a white light in his mind and singing "Amazing Grace") all activity seemed to stop. Neither of them saw another ghost or had another freaky experience.

What happened to Ken that night is often attributed to sleep paralysis. But how do you explain the vision of a cemetery on the other side of the country? Did he really experience a ghost or was it picking up on Scott's own memories? And best of all, was Steve paying a visit to a past friend or trying to voice his disapproval that  Scott was in bed with another man... and that man wasn't him? We may never know yet the thoughts are certainly intriguing.

Don't Go Into the Light!

There's an old saying that there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. A pessimist generally twists this to say that "the light at the end of the tunnel is usually an oncoming train." And just last week, a band of ghost hunters found themselves face to face with such a calamity in North Carolina.

While investigating Bostian Bridge near Statesville--the site of a railroad disaster over a century ago--a real freight train barreled across the bridge, killing 29-year-old Chris Kaiser and injuring two others. The engineer noticed the group gathered on the last remaining stuccoed brick bridge in the region and blew his whistle while attempting to bring the train to a stop as quickly as possible. Kaiser pushed his girlfriend off the tracks before being struck and thrown into the ravine.

On August 27, 1891 Train No. 9 approached the bridge. Hugh K. Linster, the baggage master, was retiring from his work on the Richmond & Danville Railroad that day and asked a passenger for the time to check the accuracy of his new watch. It was 3:00 AM. At that very moment, the train jumped the tracks, careening into Third Creek far below and killing some 22 people and injuring 26. On the 50th anniversary of the wreck a stranded motorist looked on in horror as she witnessed a train plunge into the creek and erupt into a fiery inferno. Several people who found themselves on the tracks at the time of the accident on the day of that fateful disaster claim to have witnessed a uniformed railroad worker asking them the time.

With the growing popularity in becoming the next Jason Hawes or Zak Bagans, more people than ever are setting out in pursuit of real ghosts. This has also led to an increased number of accidents and arrests for adventurers and trespassers. Too many of these individuals fail to exercise a certain amount of common sense. As the North Carolina case shows, the most important rule is always have an escape plan. When we watch horror movies we always yell at the stupid teenager who runs upstairs and hides in a closet from her attacker. It's like shooting fish in a barrel! Entering a train tunnel or walking onto a bridge that is still in use is just as foolhardy. If you see a light coming down the tracks, never assume it's an ethereal one.

Now I don't discourage people from visiting allegedly haunted sites. In fact, I encourage people to form their own opinions of belief in ghosts and find out for themselves by visiting public places and businesses with rumors of paranormal activity. Seeing is believing, after all! However, what I mean by this is to stay at a haunted inn, take a nighttime ghost tour, or take a hike in a haunted park. Don't stand in the middle of railroad tracks or a haunted stretch of roadway. Odds are you might become the next ghostly tale... and none of us would like that form of experience.

Queer Paranormal Road Trip: WhiteGate Inn & Cottage

With the crisp chill to the Midwest air, thoughts not only drift to ghostly happenings but to warmer climates. The allure of a southern escape is quite tempting and there are many destinations to choose from. North Carolina is often neglected, yet there is a gay-owned bed & breakfast in the city of Asheville worth a glance. And you might find yourself face to face with a specter from the past.

Built in 1889, the WhiteGate Inn and Cottage offers luxurious bed-and-breakfast accommodations in the heart of historic Asheville. Aside from the cozy rooms, there are superb gardens tended by one of the innkeepers. The most impressive room, the Walt Whitman Garden Spa Suite, features French doors which open out into the lush flowered greenery. But if you decide to book a room at the inn, you just might find a few spirits lingering within the walls.

Hauntings at the WhiteGate stem from the days of the tuberculosis epidemic. Two sisters purchased the house in 1928 and converted it into one of the many tubercuosis boarding houses throughout Asheville. One of these women, referred to as "Mrs. B", still makes her presence known to guests and staff members. Opened drawers mysteriousy close on their own accord, lights turn on and off, and doors left open are often found closed. It appears that she remains as a housekeeping presence; much of the activity is centered around the Robert Frost Room where she passed away in 1973. She has also been spotted sitting in the garden, admiring the beautiful view.

Two male spirits also reside in the house and have been seen and felt in various places throughout the building. One may be attached to the basement area and has frightened people by making sounds in the darkness. This presence may be that of a former patient, rumored to have killled himself. The other more friendly phantom could be Charles, the son of Mrs. B who lived here for several years in the mid 20th century.

WhiteGate Inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is lovingly cared for by Ralph Coffey and Frank Salvo. Whether you seek a peaceful retreat of a little spooky fun, this bed & breakfast has a little something for everyone. And if this house doesn't offer enough ghosty happenings, be sure to check out the Asheville Ghost Tour and hear the stories of the many other haunts around the town.

Beyond Late for Class...

Students at Asheville High School in Asheville, North Carolina might feel a bit anxious about returning after summer vacation, but now they have another reason to worry.

They're school might be haunted.

Surveillance footage of the school's rotunda recently captured an anomaly on film. What appears to be a shadowy figure can be seen roaming the room and leaving through the hallway in the early hours of the morning.

While public relations director Charlie Glazener says he doesn't believe in ghosts, he's having a difficult time wrapping his mind around the video. This skeptic is slowly becoming a believer.

Here is the full news story:

Return of the Roaming Gnome...

Did anyone really think the Argentinian gnome story would go away?

Countless people from far and wide have commented about the strange sighting and the mobile phone video. Some say it's a hoax. Others, a clever Travelocity ploy. Our iconic image of the typical gnome dates back only to the 1970s. Before the book, Gnomes, was published, no two people could agree on their appearance.

And the debate still rages on. 90 percent of the residents of General Guemes believe in the small creatures.

Now, more people are coming forward. Apparently, only weeks before the infamous footage was captured near the town cemetery, rail workers reported a strange gnome-like creature on the tracks they were working on during the night. Other Argentinians claim to have witnessed gnomes over the course of their lives.

Could this be real? Or has someone been reading too many of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps books? In fact, is was done by R.L. Stine... There is an episode (ironically) titled "Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes"!

And actually, it all depends on who you ask. Take, for example, Christian von Lähr and Christopher Valentine of Myst of the Oracle: a pair of mediums who communicate with gnomes, elves, leprechauns, and faeries (of course, I didn't realize there was much demand for it in North Carolina). They've written a few books on the subject too... or should I say channeled the wee folk and wrote their words for them? That interesting information is discussed more on their other site, The Gnome's Station.

I pass no judgments...