HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SCHOOL IS HAUNTED?

I have had a couple of teachers and students ask me "How can I tell if my school is haunted"?  So I thought this would be a good week to write about it with school starting.

Have fellow students or even teachers admitted that they have encountered strange activity, such as doors opening and closing on their own, lights going on and off, disembodied footsteps or voices, phantom music, or maybe even an apparition? Perhaps you’ve experienced something unusual yourself. I have had some teachers and students write me on HOW they can tell if there school is haunted so......Here are some ways you can find out:

1. Ask around. Seek school staff and ask them if they have had any experiences with strange activity. Those who work after hours might be the most helpful. Maintenance workers are often at the school in the evening or at night when the place is empty and quiet, and paranormal activity can more easily be noticed. Teachers sometimes stay after hours, too, to grade papers, prepare activities, or oversee a student club. Find out if they've come across anything that could be considered paranormal. Likewise ask fellow students if they've had any weird experiences. Ask them to spread the word that you are seeking this information. (Be cautious, however; some students are likely to make up stories.)

1. Check online listings. There are some good sources on the Internet for information about haunted schools. This site has a gallery of Haunted Colleges and Universities. Another great source is Shadowlands.net, which has listings of haunted places for every state. Find your state and city and see if your school is listed as a place where ghosts have been reported. The listing often provides a brief description of reported activity.

Do a Google search. Use Google, Bing, or some other online search engine and see if there is any additional information online. For example, enter into the search engine:

1. "John Smith High School" ghosts haunted haunting
   Perhaps an article will show up in the results that tells you about haunting experiences.
2. Newspaper articles. An online search might yield newspaper articles, but not all newspapers put their archives online. Go to the newspaper and ask how you might conduct such a search of their archives. The local library might be helpful as well.
3. School newspaper. Does your school have a newspaper? Checking back issues of the paper might yield some ghostly anecdotes.
4. Historical Society. The local historical society is often a good source of information about the area, possibly even the school or the grounds upon which it was built. (Perhaps it was once the location of something creepy.) The society might be a source of records, legends, or stories about the location.
5. Ghost hunting groups. Contact any ghost hunting or paranormal investigation groups in your area. They might have information about haunting activity reported at the school. Perhaps they have been contacted by students or staff about experiences there. They might have even done an investigation.
6. Your Own Hunt. If you uncover some evidence that there has been some paranormal activity at your school, you could seek permission to conduct your own investigation. If they allow it, the school authorities will most likely want to have a faculty member or other school staff present. The local ghost investigation group could be helpful in providing guidance and equipment.

Tips:

1. Be persistent. It might be difficult finding out any information about hauntings or ghost reports at your school. Such research can be hard work.
2. Be skeptical. If there are stories or anecdotes about haunting activity at your school, do not automatically assume that they are true. Legends that are nothing more than made up stories are sometimes manufactured by imaginative students. Try to get the best sources you can.
3. Document your experience. If you have had your own paranormal experience at the school, write it down. Be sure to include where and when it happened, who was with you, and every detail of the experience as best as you can remember it, including every sight, sound, smell, and sensation. It might be a good idea to inform a faculty member of your experience also.
4. Document your research. It's quite possible that no one has ever assembled all of the information about paranormal activity at your school. With all of the research you've done, perhaps you can be the first one to put it all together. You could write an article or even create a small booklet or website about your haunted school. Be careful to label rumors as rumors, legends as legends, etc. You want to be a good journalist. Who knows, your English teacher might even give you extra credit for it. I would also be interested in hearing about what you have discovered.

Hope this helps.....and IF you DO find out your school is HAUNTED.....be sure to let me know....who knows....maybe I can even come and investigate for you. :)

HAUNTED NORTH DALLAS SCHOOL-DOES A LITTLE GIRL THAT DROWNED STILL ROAM THE HALLS LOOKING FOR HELP?-RE-POST

Well it's time of year that ALL parents have been waiting on.........SCHOOL STARTING!!!! Yes.  The kids are back at school and Mom and Dad are soooooo happy.......because that means early bedtime again!!!!!!!!

I thought I would write a quick ghost story about a haunted school here in Dallas in honor of the school season.  I have not personally gotten to investigate a school but I would love to!!!!

First, North Dallas, in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, was one of the city's first high schools.  And part of its history involves ghosts.  More than one spirit reportedly roams its hallways after dark-a little girl in a blue dress who drowned in the old school pool over thirty years ago, a solider who died in
one of the wars, and an assortment of other presences who remain unidentified.

Ok...here is an account by Jason Thomas, an assistant baseball coach several years ago....

The head coach and I were in the team's locker room late in the afternoon, preparing for the upcoming season.  It was about three days shy of Christmas, and we were the only two people in the building.
   The lights were off in the rest of the building, and if we ventured into the main building from the locker room, the alarm would be set off, bringing the Dallas police to the school within minutes.  In addition to the alarm system, the locker-room door was secured with a padlock.  Nobody but us was going to get into that room that day.
   We were moving equipment around and discussing plans for the baseball season when the "secure" locker-room door creaked open.  And it was a way-over-the-top creak, the kind you hear in a scary movie.  But no one was there.  For the life of me, I don't know how a padlocked door could have been opened!
   A few minutes after that, the head coach decided we should go out to the parking lot.  His wife was driving up to meet us for dinner, and we figured it would be nice if we were waiting out back when she got there.
   As we passed the shower room, we heard a very faint yet rapid tapping on something metal-a peculiar sound we'd never there before.  Because the sort of stuff fascinates me, I walked into the shower room to investigate.  When I got to the center of the room, I was hit with the worst smell I've ever smelled in my life!  I turned around to discuss it with the head coach, but he was already hastily making his exit.
   Driven out by the terrible stench, I followed the coach outside.  Before long, his wife came and we headed off to dinner.  As we left the school grounds, we saw a blue light shining through the window of the second floor classroom.  We immediately dismissed it as a computer monitor left on by someone before Christmas break rolled around.  At the restaurant, we spent a while laughing off the whole experience and explaining it away before our conversation turned to baseball.
  On our return to the school, we saw something that left us shocked and confused.  The blue light we'd seen earlier at the back of the school had moved!!!  It was now floating in the third-floor stairwell on the buildings west side.  To our knowledge, there was no light bulb, computer, or even an electrical outlet in the third-floor stairwell.  I went back and confirmed this to be the case the next day.  We had a logical explanation for the blue light we'd seen earlier, but there was no way that a computer or anything else could have been plugged in on that third-floor landing.
  Did the blue light have anything to do with the little girl in the blue dress??? I still wonder, even though we'll never know.


So before you send the kids off to school......don't forget to send the sage!!!!!!!! LOL

 

OLD SLAVE HOUSE MUSEUM, JUNCTION, IL -THE HORROR AND EVIL THAT TOOK PLACE HERE IS UNIMAGINEABLE!!!

 



Exhausted to the point you can barely stand....chained in a dark attic for days with no food or water, wrists dripping in blood because the medal shackles are cutting into your skin, your hands covered in blisters and cuts, burning like they are on fire from weeks and months of hard labor mining for salt..........and your NOT ALONE!!!!

John H Crenshaw made his fortune in the 1830s by mining and refining salt, but because salt mining is horrible work, he had difficulty finding employees for his mines and refinery.  Although Illinois law prohibited slavery, Crenshaw discovered a loophole that allowed for leasing slaves from Southern owners.  He hated having to pay for their use, however, so he hired thugs to kidnap free blackmen and women who were then forced to work in the mines and refinery.  Sequestering his captives in the attic of his Hickory Hill house, he kept them chained and shackled every minute of every day they were not working.  An added bonus came in the form of nearly three hundred infants who were born to his captive women and who Crenshaw raised until they were old enough to be smuggled to the South and sold.  In 1842, Crenshaw was arrested on charges of slaves trading.  His money and power guaranteed that he was never sent to prison, and the full extent of Crenshaw's crimes did not come to light until after he sold the house in the mid-1860s.  By then, it was massively haunted by the spirits of those he had held in captivity.

In the 1920s, Hickory Hills was opened as a private museum, and from the start, visitors reported frightening experiences in the attic.  As they climbed the stairs, guest were overcome with feelings of anxiety and dread and reported screams, moans, whimpers, and the sound of dozens of unintelligible, mumbling voices emanating from the attic walls.  At least 150 people have attempted to spend the night in the attic.  The first was an exorcist named Hickman Wittington, who died only hours later of going into the attic.  Every investigator since then has run terrified from the house within a matter of minutes.  By 1996, the house had deteriorated to the point that it had to be closed, but in 2000 it was purchased by the state of Illinois, which plans to restore it and reopen it as a museum.  Now, called the Old Slave House Museum.  It is heavily protected as it is not officially opened.  Do you dare....go to THE ATTIC?????

If you would like to check on the progress of the Old Slave House Museum go to www.illinoishistory.gov or calling them at (217)758-1511.

 

MAN'S BEST FRIEND. NO GIRL'S BEST FRIEND! OUR BELOVED PETS....THEY STILL REMAIN LOYAL EVEN IN DEATH



My Holly!!

It is with a VERY HEAVY HEART that I write this weeks post.  I loss my sweet little Holly due to an unfortunate  accident two days ago on August 9th so now she is playing in Heaven.  As humans, we grow incredibly attached to our animal friends when they are alive.  When they die, we are often so consumed in grief that we feel like we might never recover.  Still we do, and life goes on.  And ya'll know me....I will try and communicate with my little Holly in everyway I can!!!  I know she is still with me in my heart.  So today's post is a re-post on losing our pets and I want to dedicate it  to my Holly.....may you always sleep with the covers over your head and have "treats" galore!!!  I love you Sis. Rest in Peace.

We have this GREAT power called "Love".  Love gives us the ability to open our hearts and love unconditionally and TO BE loved unconditionally.  The great thing about love is, we can love many different things.  We LOVE ice cream, we LOVE sports, and maybe one of our GREATEST loves, beside the love we have for family and friends.... is our pets!!!  We cherish them and consider them a member of the family in every aspect of the word "family". 

Sometimes, though, there is an occasional visit from our departed friends.  The nudge of a cold noise, the click-click of their nails on a hardwood floor, the jingle of their tags in the night, the squeak of their favorite toy.  The deep bond between animals and humans, make no mistake is REAL and TRUE.  I am just waiting on Holly to curl up next to me in the bed and make her cute little "snoring sounds" she would make.

Now, according to your belief, animals may or may not have a soul.  For me, I believe anything that can feel love, pain and sadness must have a soul.  Just like us, pets have a soul and when the physical body wears out our souls go to heaven. Now, I know you are asking yourself, how can SHE (meaning me.lol) believe you go to heaven and still believe in ghosts?  Well, I do!  I just think sometimes it takes some of us a little longer to get there. :)  And who says God doesn't allow Angels to visit.  He does.

Again, just like a spirit, our pets may not want to leave their loved ones, and we all know how loyal pets can be.  I believe pets have a GREAT six sense....so when you are sad they know it, when you are happy they know it and when you need a hug and a kiss....no problem......up in the lap they go with a big lick on the face!!!

Our pets are still loyal even in the afterlife.  If everyday you feed your pet at 8:00am and 5:00pm then that is what your pet knows.  So, when they die they may continue to come back at 8:00 and 5:00 for breakfast and dinner.  And when they know you are grieving or sad they do what they do best....try and make you feel better by grabbing a toy, jumping in your lap or on the couch to snuggle.  Let's just say "they have unfinished business" the phrase that is soooo often used when describing a departed soul.

I could talk for hours on the subject of pets, but let me offer you these words of encouragement.....if you have lost a beloved pet, and you feel that you hear them or feel them or even see them....know that the LOVE and Loyalty that they had for you always remains with them.  Take ANY signs to heart and know they are still with you making you smile and feel LOVED.  Holly made me feel loved everyday and I will continue to love HER back everyday.

This may be a little off the subject but I want to say it anyway...I lost a beloved pet named Shasta years ago.  At the time, I cried until my eyes ached and there wasn't another tear left in me.  I grieved like I didn't know was possible.  An with the pain that deep, all I could think about was "I will never love another dog LIKE I loved Shasta."  And I couldn't even imagine replacing her.  As any animal lover knows, you can't replace a beloved lost pet.  But let me tell you what you CAN do.....you can ease the pain, by taking the love you had for your beloved pet and share it with another little soul that needs love and wants to give love.  I know it is one of the HARDEST things to cope with, but when you DON'T replace your pet with another....what you notice is the SILENCE and LONELINESS.  You sit in the house and notice that their NOT in your lap, you notice that your house is NOT full of dog toys all over the floor, and you notice no one is there to great you when you open your eyes in the mornings or when you get home from work.  That feeds the pain you feel.  That's when I welcomed this sweet, little, black dog named Holly into my world.

 I know this is just MY OPINION and MY OPINION ALONE....but I feel, from experience that the sooner your replace the LONELINESS with a distraction of another little furry friend jumping in your lap, playing with toys, making a mess and chewing up your favorite shoes and most of all is being LOVED and giving LOVE the sooner your heart will start to heal.  PLEASE don't mistake what I am saying....I am NOT saying you will ever love another pet the way you did when you lost your previous one but I AM saying....you CAN LOVE another in another unique and special way.

Presley, my daughter and Holly.

Sorry, obviously I got a little "preachy" on the subject but it is because I am very passionate about animals and our bond with them.

I am fortunate, I have two other dogs that I love dearly, so through our house will never be the same without Holly, we will go on and enjoy the time we have with Tanner and Presley(my other two dogs) and still think about Holly everyday.



My sleeping buddy.

The video below is Holly trying to get me to cover her up! LOL

 

THE VERY HAUNTED LINCOLN THEATER-YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!!! RE-POST



Well we are right in the mist of summer and that means kids are out of school and parents are trying to find ways to entertain them and that more than likely will include movies, and going to shows so I thought I would do a re-post on the very haunted Lincoln Theater in Decatur, Illinois.   By far, this is one of my FAVORITE places to ghost hunt.  I hate to say it, but I do believe that it was closed last year to the public and yes, even for groups to do ghost hunts. :(

 

This is the blog post I wrote back in 2013 after attending the American Ghost Society Conference in Decatur, Illinois.  I had one of the MOST IMPRESSIVE flashlight communication sessions I have ever experienced down in the basement of the theater.  And yes...I know...many investigators don't put much "stock" in the flashlight communication (having the spirits turn the light on and off in response to your questions) but I do.  Anyway, below is my post and be sure to check out the pictures closely.  And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!  I exceeded my goal last month of having over 10, 000 viewers read my blog!!!!  I ended up with 10,597!!!!!  YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!  I appreciate the support and I LOVE my viewers.  It's because of you that I keep writing all the crazy tails that I experience with the paranormal.  Have a great week. :)

 

Below are photo's that I took during this year's American Ghost Society Conference in Decatur, Illinois and again this year IT did NOT disappoint!!!   The photo's below are inside the Haunted Lincoln Theater around 12:00am.  The photo's are of a staircase that reportedly is haunted by a spirit named Red.  He was a stagehand that fell asleep at the top of the stairs, and fell to his death!  You can read about the tragic history of this Theater at http://haunteddecatur.com/lincoln.html

 

 At the top of the stairs, many people have reported feeling scared....and heard loud voices.  Possibly actors who had preformed at the theater....... maybe talking with Red???  Who knows.  But I can tell you that I watched a couple go up the stairs very calmly and come RUNNING back down just freaking out that they heard voices right by them!!!!!!!!!  And believe me when I tell you they were serious! LOL  The guy was shaking and the girl was ready to leave....and I mean leave the theater.....SHE WAS DONE!!!

 

Below are the photo's I took of them RUNNING back down the stairs screaming!  The girl was in front coming down as fast as she could and she was physically shaking!  She just kept screaming "SOMEONE IS UP THERE.......SOMEONE IS UP THERE............"!!!!!! And the guy was RIGHT behind her carrying a flashlight.  So I just turned around and snapped a few pictures of them not really sure of what was going on but if something was by them, I was hoping to catch it on one of the pictures.  BOY....was I in for a surprise!!!!  The pictures came out pretty blurry because of how fast they were coming back down the stairs.  So, for that sorry...it was the best I could do.

 

None of that is really that out of the ordinary.....right?  When someone is scared...... they run.....they scream....they shake.   But that ISN'T what I found strange!!!!!  Check out the pictures at the bottom.  Photos 1-5 are just pictures of the staircase but there is an Orb in pic 4 that is in the exact spot that something VERY STRANGE was caught on camera.  Also, the other photos 1-5 have a bright Orb at the top of the stairs where Red was to have fallen asleep and fell off.

 

OK.....now I want you to take a GOOD look at photo 6.  This is the original photo of the couple running back down the stairs in fear.  As I was going over the photo's, and I came to this one, and INSTANTLY thought..........WAIT!!!!!!...........What the heck???????????  I was standing there watching these TWO people come down the stairs.......but yet.....there are THREE people in this photo????  Who WAS the third person?????  I can assure you there were only TWO people on those stairs at the time.  Can you see what I see in pic 7?  I was sooooo excited about capturing this figure on camera I couldn't wait to show it to Luke and Adam, two guys who have been in this field for many years and have been involved with Troy Taylor from the very beginning of the AGS conference and I would consider them most definitely  PROFESSIONALS in this field.  They where VERY impressed and wanted me to send them the photo to analysis it further. 

 

Now, as if the photo isn't enough, when you add HEAT IMAGING you can clearly see....there are three area's detected.  Or two people and an unknown.......spirit?????

 

Luke said that the photo was really interesting because it was as if someone was standing BEHIND the stairs because you can see the stairs visibly in front of the figure.   To me......it looks like a sailor uniform.......and one of the main performers at the Lincoln was Bob Hope who did a skit in a sailor suit.  Luke seems to see a man in a shirt with a tie, and in slacks.  What do you see???  Whether a sailor or a man in a shirt and tie, you can't deny that something or someone was on those stairs.

 

This was an awesome time and I can't wait to go back next year!!!  I'll be posting more from the conference......just as exciting as this!!!!!  Stay tuned.....

 

 

Photo 1-The staircase where
Red died.

Photo 2 - Orb in location
of figure.

Photo 3-Staircase



Photo-4-Orb in the EXACT spot
the figure was.

Photo 5-Orb at the top of the staircase.

Photo 6-The original photo of the couple
running down the stairs.




Photo 8-Original photo with Heat Imaging
applied.

Photo 7- First the guy at the top of the
stairs with a flashlight in white, the girl
is coming down in a pink shirt and green
shorts, and the figure in white at the very
bottom of the stairs.



Photo 9-After Heat Imaging is applied.
Cropped and blown up.

Bob Hope preforming at
the Lincoln Theater.