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/

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Dear Ghostvillagers,

Another Halloween season has come and gone, and I'm dead tired. I've been on the road the last three weeks straight. In the last month, I had the opportunity to meet many of you Ghostvillagers at various lectures and talks. What a great experience! Thank you to everyone who said hello -- it's great to have you as a part of the new legend tripping movement.

I've come to view October as the time of year to get the word out about what we do. Folks like us pay attention to the paranormal year-round, but the rest of the world gazes into our abyss during the Halloween season when the mainstream media reminds everyone of the very occult world that lurks under all of our noses. We all become ambassadors to this big discussion. Now that it's November, it's time to get back to work!

A few years ago I wrote a book called Communicating With the Dead. One of my chapters focused on the ancient practice of mirror gazing. The concept has been around since at least the ancient Greeks, but likely it goes back to when the earliest humans peered into a puddle of still water and saw their own reflection stare back. We have long believed there's magic in mirrors. Maybe they offer us a glimpse inside ourselves, or perhaps even a doorway to another dimension. If we can get ourselves into a quiet, meditative state, can we look across the veil? Maybe even communicate? Some people believe so.

Think of other aspects of the mirror. It speaks to vanity, to our appearance of ourselves. Who can forget the story of "Bloody Mary" who lives in the realm of the reflection waiting to be summoned and seek her revenge? Think of the Jewish custom of covering all of the mirrors in one's house after a loved one has passed on -- the original belief being that the spirit of the deceased could get trapped in the reflection. Mirrors have many magic qualities, and this month we're going to gaze inside and see what gazes back.

For you 30 Odd Minutes fans, our paranormal talk show is back in regular production. We now have a new studio with HD cameras and all kinds of new bells and whistles that we'll do our best not to break. Be sure to click on over and watch some of our recent episodes or download them from iTunes for free.

In the United States, November marks a period of thanks. So thank you to all of you Ghostvillagers for all of the support over the years. And thanks for being brave enough to share your own ideas and experiences in our village. I look forward to bumping into all of you someplace dark and haunted real soon.

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:

Ghost Adventures Crew and Darkness Events - The Queen Mary - Long Beach, California - December 2-5, 2010
Ghost Adventures Crew and Darkness Events - The Stanley Hotel - Estes Park, Colorado - March 3-5, 2011
Phenomenology 103 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - March 24-27, 2011
Central Texas Paranormal Conference - Austin, Texas - October 8-9, 2011

Monthly Contest

Congratulations to Sandy Reed of Taunton, Florida, 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 (November 19, 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 does Amy Bruni want to haunt after she 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.

Supernatural Calendar

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 2: Queen Mary Voyage of the Damned - Long Beach, CA

Who's Who in the Village?

Get to know some of your fellow Ghostvillagers.

>>lulaboo<< - member since September 28, 2004

What is your name?
Heather Conner

How old are you?
31

Where do you live?
Muncie, Indiana

What do you do for a living?
Housewife and mother of four spoiled kitties.

Have you ever seen a ghost?
Yes. My husband and I had an urge to do some sky watching earlier this year and we ended up going to my favorite cemetery to do so. About half an hour or so after we arrived and settled ourselves to watch the stars, my husband cursed for some reason and I suggested he apologize to the residents for his rudeness. He apologized, resumed his stargazing, and I decided to have a quick once-over at the cemetery to make sure all was well. It was then that I witnessed a vague grayish human torso-shaped figure moving toward the direction of some nearby trees. The sighting lasted for a few seconds until the ghost hid behind the trees. (And for once -- me without my camera!) But it was a neat experience -- I wasn't scared at all. The ghost was probably wondering why I wasn't running around trying to take pictures as usual.

What's your favorite TV show?
Honestly... I forgot what TV is since I've become a villager! But otherwise Mythbusters.

Finish this sentence: In all my life I've never seen a poem as lovely as a...
sunrise over the Smokey Mountains in Autumn.

Features

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:

History of Ghost Hunting with Amy Bruni from Ghost Hunters November 15, 2010 [VIDCAST]
The Ghosts of the Stanley Hotel November 9, 2010 [VIDCAST]

Last Month's Theme - Featured Content

Our last month's theme was Halloween/Samhain 2010. Here's what you missed if you haven't checked in since last month:

Features: Halloween is for Everybody
Features: Halloween 2003 - What Scares Us
Features: What Does Halloween/Samhain Mean to You?
Features: The History of Halloween

Recent Encounters

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:

Smelling Grandmother's Perfume - Greenwich, Connecticut
Ghostvillage.com's 1000th Encounter - Paris, France
Grandmother's Warning in the Cottage - St. Helens, Merseyside, UK
Gore Orphanage Remains - Vermillion, Ohio
The Man at the Foot of My Bed - Ponoka, Alberta, Canada
My Ghostly Handyman - Sarasota, Florida

News

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
I was hit by one thing in particular during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and the inevitable Halloween hangover, which lasted until the second week of November. Finding a good paranormal news story in late October is much like trying to find a real haunting, or at least a real ghostly experience, among the dozens of stories people send me every month they would like me to follow up on. If paranormal research is about trying to find the truth while sidestepping frauds, rusty pipes, and people with overactive imaginations, sifting through local papers drunk on pumpkin and poltergeist fever requires the same skills. A keen eye can help, and a swift and critical mind can put you in the right place at the right time, but sometimes it comes down to appreciation and remembering why you first like to be scared.

As a rule, we don't publish local ghost stories in the Ghostvillage News unless there is some angle that provides a fresh breath of air. It's not snobbery; there are just too many, and that number explodes to epic proportion during the Halloween season. How can one haunted inn be more newsworthy than another haunted inn? What makes one local paranormal group's trek through an old asylum a headline and another an automatic delete? Then of course you have to sort through stories written by frustrated food critics called upon to be horror writers or music reviewers asked to add their distinct voice to a story best left to just the facts. It's often about finding the needle in a stack of needles, and can be as exhaustive and difficult (and as rewarding) as hearing from the one family that has something genuine knocking on their bedroom closet door.

In these hard economic times then, Ghostvillage offers you an early Christmas present. Don't buy any paranormal books for a few months. Instead, start your own news search on your favorite engine and read some of the stories written about these little hidden gems that spring up on a local level. Make sure to narrow your keywords. Requesting every story about ghosts will result in endless details of picnics and marriage retreats from every church with "Holy Ghost" in the title. Maybe "local, haunting" will do the trick, and you can sit back and read field guides to the haunted spots across the world without having to pay the $12.99 for a regional ghost book. Plus you don't just get one area or one writer, and hitting the close button can become your personal book review.

This month, find those neighborhood stories that may thrill or scare or bore. We'll be here to give you the big ones and put them all into perspective.


Murder Trial Begins For Man Who Claimed Ghosts Made Him Kill The Hartford Courant Hartford Connecticut - November 3, 2010 [External News]
Fleeing From The Devil:10 People Jump Out A Window, Baby Dies The Post Chronicle La Verrière, Yvelines, France - October 24, 2010 [External News]
Paranormal expert claims ghosts are using cell phones to contact friends SiFy News London, England - October 23, 2010 [External News]
Corrupt judge blames it on jinn Emerites 24/7 News Madina, Saudi Aradia - October 21, 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:

Religion and Spirituality
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=22932
2012 - What could happen?

Skeptics
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31050
Study disproves ghosts?

General Board
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31380
Cats as messengers -- what's the significance?

EVPs
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29048
"My Favorite EVP."

Spirit Videos
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29225
"Our First Investigation."

Digital Recorder Suggestions
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29189
What works best for you?

Beginner's Basics
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28384
How young is too young to start ghost hunting?

Haunted Dwellings
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29212
Every town has a house or building reputed to be haunted, but it may be no more than a good tale. Share the ones from your town!

Haunted Land
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=27188
Top 3 Most Haunted in Connecticut: What are your votes for the most haunted locations in CT?

Haunted Water
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=27227
Haunted Lighthouses: Know of any haunted lighthouses on the West Coast? Or in your area? Share!

Regional Hauntings
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29179
Canada's Most Haunted City: An article about the most haunted city in Canada. Do you agree? Disagree? What's the most haunted city in your country?


Board of the Month -- Mirror Gazing
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showforum=27
What secrets lie within the reflection of the mirror?

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:

312,587 Posts in the Town Square Message Boards
28,868 Members in the Town Square
1,001 "Personal Encounters" published on Ghostvillage.com
1,569 Paranormal Web sites in the Ghost Links directory
30,754 Subscribers to this newsletter
7,225,826 Total Web site "hits" for Ghostvillage.com in October

Support Ghostvillage.com

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.

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