Haunted Places and Events
At any given time, there are unexplainable paranormal events taking place all over the earth. Why did the idea of a paranormal event begin? It began because someone either saw or heard something related to a dead person or thought they did. No one knows when this first event occurred, but it had to have happened when humans had enough intelligence to even think this way. Look at the animal kingdom, most of them have no idea what being dead means. I say most because Koko the gorilla the one that knew the sign language, was asked that question and she said it was being buried in a warm hole. She may not have completely knew what death was, but she seemed to know it was the end of all bodily functions.
Things have changed in some people’s understanding of death. I say this because science has made discoveries which could alter the idea of where we go when we die. We are told there are other dimensions we cannot see or feel. Some think when we die our spirit might go into one of these. It has even been thought some or all of these dimensions share our space on earth and we can’t see them. Could it be at certain times these dimensions open a passage to ours and that could be when people claim to hear or see the spirits of their loved ones trying to contact them?
One of the big questions is there a place we go after we die which is like a waiting station where everyone goes while it is being decided what destination they will be routed to. Another question is it like purgatory when some type of punishment is being metered out depending on what type of life they led on earth, or does that come later after judgement? It is said there was no idea about there being a purgatory until the Middle Ages. Before that, many people believed in heaven and hell. Some places seem to violate this idea since so many people have claimed to have seen and heard spirits haunting them. One of these places is the LaLaurie Mansion, in New Orleans, Louisiana. It has quite a horrible history. The owner was Marie Delphine Macarty, and lived from 1787 to 1849. She had been married three times and widowed twice. The story goes this way, she liked to torture and kill her slaves. When a fire broke out and was being put out, tied and tortured slaves who had been there a long time were found. This enraged the town’s people who attacked the house, but LaLaurie managed to escape to France. It is believed LaLaurie was a serial killer. The home is said to be one of the most haunted in this country. An interesting fact is Nicholas Cage had bought it and owned it for a short time. The paranormal activity in the house has been reported for over 200 years.
Some of the places which are said to be haunted the most are asylums. Many of them have become a popular place for ghost investigations. I am talking about abandoned ones and there seems to be plenty of those in the world. There is one which was used from Victorian days and is in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the abandoned Gartioch Hospital. It was called a psychiatric facility for pauper lunatics. The hospital functioned until 1996. The staff had reported many paranormal encounters by that time. Were the staff just imagining the paranormal events? Some believe because of the misery patients encountered in these places, their souls are still there haunting, or getting even with, society.
I don’t think much of ghost walks and such, but every once in a while, something happens which is hard to explain. While people were on a ghost walk at Fredericksburg, Texas something strange happened. It is said the ghost of a young girl was seen and to back that up, was photographed. The ghost was said to be outside the old jail and looked like a teenage girl. Several people claim to have seen it. Was it a real ghost or someone who looked like a ghost hired to increase business? I have no way of knowing the answer, but there have been some ghost sightings in other places which cannot be disproved.
One of the strangest ghost stories I ever heard had to do with Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A man and his wife were taking a tour there at the battlefield when they went into an old building on their own. They said it was a very realistic Civil War Hospital reenactment. As they were in there, they claimed to see soldiers in hospital beds. Nurses in old time uniforms were moving around and doctors in white coats were on the floor. When they came out, they said they went to the tour director and made a comment about how real the hospital looked. The tour directors asked them where they saw it and they pointed to the building and the director said that was just a post office. They went back in with him and it was just a post office. What had they seen?
Every country has a building which is either considered the most haunted or one of the most haunted, and Ireland is no different. It is said Kinnitty Castle in Offaly is the most haunted. To back up this claim some have caught an important ghost on camera. The investigators have said there have been many skeptics who visited the castle and have come out believers.
I am going to tell you about the type of ghost sighting which there seems to be a few of lately. Baby monitors are great things. They allow the parents of tiny children to keep an eye on their children while accomplishing some of their other duties. A dad in England got the scare of his life when he checked the baby monitor and saw a ghostly arm reaching into the crib which contained his baby. The father said this was the first night he used the monitor. He said he had lived in this house since he was a teenager and it wasn’t the first time there was paranormal activity there. The ghost of a woman has appeared several times and has been seen by various family members. There have been other baby monitor events such as this and one even had the baby standing on the railing somehow. It was believed a ghost was holding it there, since it would have been impossible for a baby which couldn’t even walk yet to balance on the side railing which was raised.