Buy Books by Jeff Belanger | Jeff Belanger's Official Web site | Visit UFOvillage.com | Visit us on MySpace | Paranormal for Kids | Meet the Staff | Advertise with Ghostvillage.com
Be sure to forward this on to your friends who are interested in the supernatural!
Picture Yourself Legend Tripping: Your Complete Guide to Finding UFOs, Monsters, Ghosts, and Urban Legends in Your Own Back Yard -- Jeff Belanger’s new book, DVD, and Web site. Enjoy the trip! http://www.legendtripping.com/
You are receiving this email because you or a friend signed you up at http://www.ghostvillage.com.
If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please see the instructions at the bottom.
View this newsletter online at: http://www.ghostvillage.com/newsletters/Dec16_10.htm
Dear Ghostvillagers,
Spirits are real. I’m convinced. I wish I could prove it to everyone equally, but I can’t. It’s a quest each individual must make (or not make, for that matter) to determine for his or herself. This may sound redundant, but it isn’t. I also believe spirit is real. “Spirit” is made by living people. It’s created by multiple people and brought into existence through a collective consciousness effort. A simple example of this would be “team spirit.” If you’ve ever played on a sports team, you know a mood can be infectious. A good player can fire up those around them and raise the level of play for all. With positive intent and focus, a good team becomes a great team. They’re in the zone, they can do no wrong. The “spirit” is a real entity created by the players with coaches and fans all adding literal input.
Likewise there’s a holiday spirit. And yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He’s based on a real guy, he was Canonized by the Catholic Church, and his legend spread throughout the world. Sure he’s been adapted, adopted, and transformed, but his essence, his spirit is still in there. Each year we add to the spirit of the holiday in positive and negative ways. Even Mr. Scrooge wrote part of the legend with his, “Bah humbug,” and disdain for the whole season. We collectively created the holiday spirit long ago, and each year we add to it and alter it a bit to serve this year’s needs. And what a positive force it can be! We give more to charity this time of year, we spend more time with family, we make resolutions for next year, and many of us find ourselves smiling more to the everyday people in our lives.
This month we’re going to explore the holiday spirit and the seasonal ghosts we bring up during this time of year.
2010 has been an amazing year for me personally and for Ghostvillage.com. I did more speaking engagements this year than ever before, which means I got to meet thousands of you over the last few months, I had two new books come out this year, and new people found their way to our village. Thank you all for the job and the support. I appreciate it! I wish you and yours a great holiday season and a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011!
Enjoy the rest of the newsletter below!
Supernaturally yours,
Jeff Belanger
Mayor of Ghostvillage.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/ghostvillager
Twitter: @THEJeffBelanger
Facebook: Jeff Belanger
| Jeff Belanger's Upcoming Events |
This is the place to find out where author and Ghostvillage.com founder Jeff Belanger will be speaking on the subject of the
paranormal. If you're interested in booking Jeff for a conference or other event, please visit:
http://www.jeffbelanger.com/lectures.shtml for more information.
Events Scheduled:
University of Florida - Gainesville, Florida - January 26, 2011
Ghost Adventures Crew and Darkness Events - The Stanley Hotel - Estes Park, Colorado - March 3-5, 2011
Phenomenology 103 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - March 24-27, 2011
Northern Michigan University - Marquette, Michigan - April 1, 2011
Central Texas Paranormal Conference - Austin, Texas - October 8-9, 2011
Congratulations to Bill Berry, who was last month's winner of an autographed copy of
Jeff Belanger's book and DVD, Picture Yourself Legend Tripping and a Ghostvillage.com window sticker!
How to win: Entries will be accepted up until 5:00 PM (eastern time) tomorrow (December 17, 2010).
At 5:00 PM, we will draw a winner at random from the correct entries that have been received. You no longer have to be the first,
but you only have until 5:00 PM to get your answer in. If you click on this link:
http://www.ghostvillage.com/index.shtml#winner, you see
today's date, and "We have a winner!" that means the contest has ended. Sorry, please try again next month. To submit your entry, simply
reply to this email with the correct answer.
On to this month's question: This question can be answered by reading a page on Ghostvillage.com. Remember, reply by 5:00 PM tomorrow to
be eligible to win.
Where would Lee Prosser haunt after he dies?
At 5:00 PM tomorrow, we will announce the winner on our home page.
Good luck! (Only Ghostvillagers who have not won a prize from us in the last year are eligible.)
This month's prize:
We're giving away an autographed copy of Jeff Belanger's new book and DVD, Picture Yourself Legend Tripping and a Ghostvillage.com window sticker!
Didn't win? Want to buy a copy? Click on the graphic.
The Supernatural Calendar is the place where thousands will learn about your events of interest to the supernatural world. The service is only available to registered members of the message boards, and it's free!
Ghostvillage.com now syndicates our calendar of events so other Web sites can also display these supernatural happenings at no charge! To learn more about
installing our calendar of events RSS feed, please visit our syndication
page. Adding your own local events to our calendar is more important than ever!
December 19: Jeff
Belanger on Dead Time Radio, Jeff
Belanger on Para-X Radio
January 11: Jeff
Belanger on Ghost Chronicles International
January 22: Jeff
Belanger on Paranormal Zone TV
| Who's Who in the Village? |
Get to know some of your fellow Ghostvillagers.
>>kskattebo<< - member since October 4, 2010
What is your name?
My name is Kevin Skattebo.
How old are you?
30
Where do you live?
Manitowoc, Wisconsin
What do you do for a living?
I work in a factory assembling machinery.
What got you interested in the paranormal?
I became interested in the paranormal when I was a kid and I saw a blue orb floating down the hallway toward my bedroom. I have had many experiences since.
What's the most compelling paranormal evidence you've seen?
I guess the most compelling evidence I've seen is I've woken up with scratches and also seen apparitions.
Do you have any holiday family traditions?
As far as holiday traditions, my family usually just made a nice dinner on Christmas Day.
Our "Features" section is a place for editorials, research articles, open letters to our readers, and other content of interest to
Ghostvillagers. If you have a topic on your mind, agree or disagree with something you read
recently, we want to hear from you! For guidelines, click
here.
New features added since our last newsletter:
Lampooning the Paranormal with Scott Gruenwald November 30, 2010
Haunted Objects with John Zaffis November 23, 2010
| Last Month's Theme - Featured Content |
Our last month's theme was mirror gazing. Here's what you missed if you haven't checked in since last month:
Discussion: Gazing Mirror
Features: A Glimpse of the Afterlife: Near-Death Experiences
We receive personal encounters from all over the world. Many are scary, some are touching, but they are always profound. If you would like
to share your own experience, please click >>here<<. Since our last newsletter, we added the following new encounters:
Bloody Mary's Haunting Us - Colorado
Sam's Angry Spirit - Ohio
Screaming for Help - Needles, California
Captain Eli's Lamp - Belleville, Illinois
Blue Apparition by the Tree - Elkhorn, Wisconsin [PIC]
My New Haunted Home - Elmer, Louisiana
Ghostvillage.com's staff and contributors have brought you new book reviews and author interviews since our last newsletter.
This past month's Library additions:
Midwest Hauntings by Lee Prosser [AUTHOR INTERVIEW]
Electronic Voices by Anabela Cardoso
This is the place to find news items on paranormal happenings around the world. If you have a news item you'd like to submit, please see our
guidelines.
From the desk of News Editor, Christopher Balzano
The votes are in.
Winter is an interesting time of the year in the paranormal world, and when looking at the news from across the ghost spectrum, it often means looking at the world. The action slows down, especially in contrast to the crazy autumn season for most of the country. There are still stories coming from obscure villages and cities in Asia and Africa and pubs from the United Kingdom, but this country shuts the doors and settles down for a long winter’s nap. The ghost community looks more toward the world of conferences (more on that next month) making for less people out there doing what they do, and often doing what they are not supposed to do and making the news.
Then an odd storm sets in that I have noticed over the past few years. With the first round of rating sweeps in the books, networks begin deciding what shows they are going to pick up and which ones they are going to let go. Finding the news story that takes the temperature of the community becomes less News and World Report and more Entertainment Weekly because the same searches for stories pick up all of the news worthy to print on television and the movies. These stories rarely make it to our news section, but they come across the desk. Try searching the world papers for the word “supernatural” and not getting who Jared Padalecki is dating.
But back to ratings. The past two years have seen nontraditional stations and angles picking up the reality format and sprinkling in a bit of the ghost. New shows focusing on viral clips of evidence and animals and children’s place within the haunted world have all made waves, although the news seems to be they are only slightly better than their more expensive script-based counterparts. They have been served to us from every angle, but more importantly, they have been renewed. This means more of a need for original stories, and more of a need to reach out to the community.
It would be cliché to attack the paranormal media for its representation of how investigators and enthusiasts are portrayed on screen, and not very newsworthy. Instead I want you to think of them in another way. Often these shows remind me of those old children’s books where you mix and match different animal parts to make a funny-looking new beast. Take the feet of an elephant and the body of a gorilla and the head of a parrot. This is more like taking the evil of the demon world, mix it with your pet cat and add a group of firefighters who look for ghosts. Bam…great show. The beauty of these combinations is that we did not know we were interested until we were shown them.
They will stay on the waves for another season, and if we are defined by what we watch, it says something about who we are as a society. What it says is still confusing to me, so I’ll just make a New Year’s resolution to watch a few, make a few sarcastic remarks, and then quickly get back to making sense of all of those stories out there.
Haunted church ravaged by ghost hunters CBC News Monteal, Canada - December 3, 2010 [External News]
More ghosts after earthquake Stuff.co.nz Canterbury, New Zealand - November 13, 2010 [External News]
WANT THESE HEADLINES ON YOUR SITE FOR FREE? Syndicate our news! If you have a Web site or
blog, you can syndicate our news feeds to your site for free. Join the growing list of Web sites who carry our news by visiting our
syndication page.
| Hot Threads and the Ghostvillage.com Community |
In the past month, hundreds of new people registered for free to join our supernatural discussion! Have you?
If you have registered for our message boards but haven't validated your account yet, it's simple to do! Look for the email
that was automatically sent to you when you registered and click on the account activation link in the email (note:
some bulkmail filters may block this email, so you'll need to check your bulkmail folder if the validation email didn't
immediately come through). There are always great discussions going on in our huge
message board community. We hope you'll get involved. It's free to register if you're not already a member. Here are some of
the hot topics this month:
Paranormal Media
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31625
Join the discussion about AMC's television program The Walking Dead
Evidence Alley
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31523
Fox 8 Exclusive: Video Proof of the Afterlife?
Urban Legends, Myths & Folklore
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31611
Discussion about mysterious hoof prints in the snow in the 1850s in Devon, England.
Religion and Spirituality
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31569
Stones - message from spirit guides?
Spirit Communication
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31361
Tips for spirit communication.
Personal Encounters
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31594
Army ghost.
Skeptics
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31509
New ESP Study - Can science prove we are psychic?
Equipment
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31622
RT-EVP...15hHz?
Board of the Month -- Holiday Spirits
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showforum=27
Have you had a holiday encounter? A paranormal tradition?
| Ghostvillage.com Advertising Opportunities |
Each month Ghostvillage.com reaches tens of thousands of people interested in the paranormal. We offer the most effective and best-valued
advertising and sponsorship packages of any paranormal media outlet. Please visit: http://www.ghostvillage.com/advertising.htm for details.
If you're ready to put Ghostvillage.com to work for your company or organization, send us an
email to get started.
| Ghostvillage.com Quick Stats: |
313,462 Posts in the Town Square Message Boards
29,002 Members in the Town Square
1,007 "Personal Encounters" published on Ghostvillage.com
1,602 Paranormal Web sites in the Ghost Links directory
30,846 Subscribers to this newsletter
3,954,699 Total Web site "hits" for Ghostvillage.com in November
Ghostvillage.com is the Web's largest supernatural community, the central place
where people come to share their experiences, thoughts, and research. Please help us continue to grow
by buying a copy of The World's Most Haunted
Places, Communicating With the
Dead, The Encyclopedia of Haunted Places, The Nightmare Encyclopedia, Our Haunted Lives, Ghosts of War, The Ghost Files, Weird Massachusetts, Who's Haunting the White House?, The Mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, Picture Yourself Legend Tripping or shopping in Ghost-Mart. Every little bit helps run our servers and
helps the site get bigger and better! Please also click on our banner ads and support our advertisers -- when you do business with someone who
advertises with Ghostvillage.com, let them know you saw their ad with us and thank them for the support.
Please email us anytime at info@ghostvillage.com.
Your comments, questions, and feedback are always welcomed.
All material is © 2010 Ghostvillage.com
REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS: To be removed from the mailing list, please go to www.ghostvillage.com/subscribe.shtml or click on the link below.