WHAT NIGHTMARES ARE MADE OF.....

You lay down and take a deep breath....aaawwww your day is done!  Time for a good nights sleep.  Once you FINALLY get your brain to shut down from your thoughts of. ..."got to pick the kids up tomorrow at 10, be at the meeting by noon, pay the bills, pick something up for dinner"...and so on and so on....you dose off to sleep into LALA Land...........................or maybe........... HELL!!!!!!!

CREEPY clowns, unknown echo's down the hall, ghosts, dolls, death, blood and guts, being alone, insane asylums, scary haunted houses....if you FEAR it more than likely Hollywood has made a movie about it, so it's no wonder that THESE visions are stored in our heads just the same way the things we LIKE are.  You can ALWAYS find something disturbing to read about, see a movie about or heck even watching the evening news  is pretty darn disturbing! LOL

So sometimes, during the day we may see something that is frightening to us and once we go to sleep it is a FREE FOR ALL in our mind....random thoughts are thrown all around and sometimes the BAD ONES WINS!!!

Lets talk CLOWNS!!!! Growing up as a young girl I can remember...... to be the "cool kid"....... you had to have a clown at your birthday party!  NOT THESE DAYS!!!!  John Wayne Gacy was a dedicated community volunteer whose persona of "Pogo the Clown" masked a dark secret.  In his career as a serial killer, he murdered at least 33 teenage boys.  Most were sexually assaulted.  Not long afterward, Stephen King's IT and its adaptation starring a chilling Tim Curry kept us even more scared of clowns.   Wait till you see what is coming......Will I be seeing this movie???? HELL NO.....DOUBLE HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

A clown phobia may be the most irrational of the bunch, but the real-life connections to the serial killer culture lend credibility to this fear. 

How about a cute little DOLL?????  Again, growing up as a young girl what did you ask for your birthday???  A doll of course.  The BIGGER THE BETTER!!!  Never for one moment thinking that this DOLL is going to come alive and kill me!!!  Again.....NOT THESE DAYS!!!!

Maybe it's their dead, dark, unblinking eyes that watch us, or their stiff hands that just seem to be wanting to GRAB something or someone.  Whatever it is, dolls just CREEP US OUT!!!!!  Their physical appearance often dwells in what psychologists call the "uncanny valley."  This is an anomaly of human perception where some figures look human enough to be relatable, but inhuman enough to freak us out!!!  This may be a reaction to dead bodies, which both are and aren't human.  And in many cases, there really isn't much of a physical difference between the corpse of a child and a doll.  And with that sensibility in mind, the idea of them getting up and toddling around toward us is horrifying!




And that's not enough for us to have NIGHTMARES about....how about the fear of "loneliness"  like...oh I don't know.....like being abandon in an ASYLUM or HOSPITAL?????

No one likes feeling helpless or feeling abandoned, and nowhere are we more helpless than in the hospital.  The Exorcist even features a scene where the possessed child is subjected to needles and giant machines and ends up bleeding in a hospital exam room.  In a movie where a child's head literally spins, this hospital scene resonates.  Why???  You tell me.  The asylum compounds all of these feelings because the label of mental illness means that no one will ever believe what the person says and they must be going insane.  It is an incomprehensible vulnerability!  And if the asylum is abandoned, then the ghosts of all those that have pasted between its walls are sure to seek revenge. 

Speaking of CHILDREN.....aren't children suppose to love everyone and be fun loving and carefree???  Obviously NOT ALL CHILDREN!!!!  The emotional stakes of a story increase when children are involved.  It's natural to worry about and want to protect children who are in danger.  But if the children themselves are the source of the DANGER, audiences are caught off guard in the movies and we as adults tend to have trouble believing such "innocence can turn DEADLY."

In the movie The Omen, an innocent-looking child looks on as his family goes down in flames around him.  Twins more than double this feeling.  Developmental psychologists have noted that twins share an exceptionally close relationship, sometimes to the point where their intuitive mutual understanding mimics telepathy.  Imagine...what they could DO if they put their MINDS to it!!!!!  And no more are a famous pair of twins than in THE SHINING!!!!

And with Halloween coming up what do we see on TV.......... but tons and tons of scary shows!!!  And guess what???  Pay close attention and I'll bet you 80% of the Halloween movies soon to be released have something to do with MASKS.  What is it about MASKS????  Some masks have great, big smiling faces on them and some have unimaginable features....like creatures crawling out the cheeks, monsters, and some are as plain as can be...just a plain, white mask.  What is it about THE PLAIN WHITE MASK that sends fear running through our vanes?  Mask HIDE something......something that isn't always pleasant.......something dark....something that we fear......something that we NEVER REALLY want to be revealed. 



And don't forget WHO'S AFRAID OF THE DARK????  To me this is the one fear that tops ALL fears!!!  The dark can hold any of the above fears in it.  The dark is the "unknown".....and the "unknown" can sometimes kill you!!!  Many people are so fearful of the dark that they NEVER turn the lights off, they sleep with them on and they are NEVER EVER alone.....in the dark!!! 

The dark is where the monsters live that are in our closets, where the ghosts come out and lurk above us as we sleep.  The dark is where your DEEPEST FEARS become a REALITY!!!!  I get asked all the time "aren't you scared when you go to a haunted location?" Well, the answer is YES!  Of course!  No one ever said being a ghost hunter you had to be brave (but it helps.LOL) Not all the time but sometimes.  The difference is....I deal with fear in a completely different way than someone just going into a haunted house for the first time.  I TRULY BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF!!!  I have been doing this so long that I don't really FEAR the unknown anymore....I am more interested NOW in finding out what is hiding in the DARK.....but just to make you feel better I wasn't always like this.  Here's the perfect example of being in the DARK and not knowing what is in there with me or what the dark holds.  I was on an investigation in a private home where there were stories of the children being scratched, things moving, voices and all kinds of other activity.  So I was in a room that a child had been scratched several times...so I'm already a little leery about the space.  It was pitch black and we had already been having tons of activity.....when all of the SUDDEN.....something grabbed my hair and pulled it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let me tell you....I DID NOT TAKE IT WELL!!!!!!  I screamed "SOMETHING IS GRABBING ME....SOMETHING IS GRABBING MY HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  I was so FREAKED OUT!!!  It was SO REAL TO ME!!!!  Well it was a small room...and my team members were in another room when one came running in and without thinking turned on the light.  My heart was beating soooooo fast........and I could hardly talk.......(and just for the record....I don't act like this all the time. LOL) but I turned around and was pointing to where I was standing and  THERE............THERE THEY WERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  MY GLASSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YEP! My glasses that I had on the top of my head had slide down the back of my neck making me think SOMEONE or SOMETHING was pulling my hair!!!!!!   OK OK....go ahead and laugh.......I did myself once I realized I wasn't being ATTACKED by a HAIR PULLING GHOST!!!!

The whole point of that story was....... I was already on edge being in the dark so........my imagination was able to run wild and I let FEAR take over!!!  I literally tell myself during investigations now.....when I am starting to feel "THAT FEELING" coming on "there is nothing to fear but fear itself" and I REALLY LISTEN TO THOSE WORDS......it really DOES seem to calm my nerves or uneasiness.  

Here's the deal....whatever we fear....whatever makes up jumpy.....or uneasy can HAUNT us in our dreams.  And in today's world....we are not offered a lot of "conditioning shows, news, articles or just whatever as comfort" so what do we do?????  Well.....you should do what I do....if I've watched a SCARY show (which I rarely do) before bed or even during the day.....simple solution........I watch 2 hours of I LOVE LUCY and off to sleep I go.

Now.....Sleep tight everyone and PLEASANT DREAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LIBERTY HALL 1796- WHAT DID YOU SEE???

Senator John Brown built the hauntingly beautiful Liberty Hall in 1796.  It remained in the Brown family for generation before being willed to the Colonial Dames of America in 1955.  This home turned museum has since been a staple of Kentucky's history.  But who this the illustrious "Lady in Gray" that so many visitors to Liberty Hall have witnessed seeing?  Margaretta van Varrick, also known as Margaret, was the aunt of John Brown's wife, whose assistance was requested after a death in the family.  Sadly, only days after her arrival, Margaretta died of a heart attack.  Her remains were buried in a small family plot located on the property.  But later when the plot was relocated, Mararetta's body was lost.

Soon after, the first reports of a ghostly apparition referred to as "The Lady in Gray" began.  The first to report the sighting was Rebecca (great name don't ya think? lol), a visitor to Liberty Hall who stayed the night in Margaretta's old bedroom.  She awoke with a start to find a woman standing next to the fireplace.  She was so terrified she hid beneath her covers.  When she regained her courage, she stole a peek, but the woman was gone.  She's vanished into thin air.  Many visitors who have slept in the haunted bedroom have had similar experiences.  Other visitors to the museum have reported seeing "The Lady in Gray" peering out of the upstairs windows.  A skeptical college professor in search of an explanation for the odd occurrences stayed overnight.  To his surprise he was awakened by a gentle touch upon his shoulder and confronted by the transparent image of a woman smiling down at him.  The professor's perception of the paranormal was changed that night, by "The Lady in Gray".

THE HAUNTED ROOMS OF THE ANCIENT RAM INN-OVER 900 YEARS OLD-THIS PLACE SOUNDS INSANE!!! TERRIFIED BY ALL THAT STAY HERE!

Thought this sounds super scary!!!!  Lets go!!!!!!!!!!

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.