Ghosts - research, evidence, and discussion.
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Features Archive:

2008 Archive:
Spirits of Christmas and Holidays Past By Edward Shanahan
December 19, 2008


Don't Bark At Me, I'm Not The Dog In The Mirror - by Lee Prosser
December 14, 2008

Column - regular feature

Welcome to Your Psychic Life By Tiffany Johnson
December 1, 2008


Fresh Paths to the Paranormal By Beth Brown
November 26, 2008


The Journals of Willard David Firestone: American Indians - by Lee Prosser
November 21, 2008

Column - regular feature

The Haunted Cemetery - Ghost Chronicles
November 12, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Jeff Belanger and Who's Haunting the White House? - Ghost Chronicles
October 24, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Ectoplasm - by Lee Prosser
October 20, 2008

Column - regular feature

Salem Witch Shawn Poirier - Ghost Chronicles
October 15, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Most Famous Phenomenon by Jeff Belanger
October 8, 2008


Haunted House Diary - Ghost Chronicles
October 1, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Paranormal Journaling: A First Step by Jeff Belanger
September 30, 2008


More Horrific Predictions - by Lee Prosser
September 26, 2008

Column - regular feature

Francis Thompson (1859 - 1907) - by Lee Prosser
September 18, 2008

Column - regular feature

Evolution of an Entity by Danielle Lee
September 12, 2008


Into the Abyss: Ancient Rites of Exorcism by Bishop Daniel Garguillio
September 2, 2008


Lee Prosser and Jill Peacha - by Lee Prosser
September 1, 2008

Column - regular feature

An Open Letter to the Paranormal Community by Peter James Haviland
August 28, 2008


Return to Mystery Hill - Ghost Chronicles
August 20, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

The Ghost of Cameron Mitchell at Branson, Missouri - by Lee Prosser
August 8, 2008

Column - regular feature

Confessions of a Grief Councilor - Ghost Chronicles
August 6, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

The Residual "Jiggle" by Jack Roth
July 31, 2008


Farwell to Chris Balzano - Ghost Chronicles
July 23, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

A Matter of Respect by Patrick Burke
July 21, 2008


Economic Collapse and Depression in the United States - by Lee Prosser
July 14, 2008

Column - regular feature

The Portsmouth Lighthouse - Ghost Chronicles
July 9, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Legends Set in Stone by Beth Brown
July 3, 2008


Investigating the Pukwudgies - Ghost Chronicles
June 25, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Sensitive - by Lee Prosser
June 20, 2008

Column - regular feature

Ghost Hunting Etiquette 102 by Danielle Quinlan Lee
June 13, 2008


Allup, Leiru, Ligil, Uriel, Pulla - by Lee Prosser
May 23, 2008

Column - regular feature

Ohio's Haunted History by Sherri Brake-Recco
May 19, 2008


Weird Massachusetts - Paranormal Journeys
May 9, 2008

Paranormal Journeys - webcast

Water Ghosts: Theory of the Bobbing Heads and Floating Bodies - by Lee Prosser
May 9, 2008

Column - regular feature

The Shadows Know by Edward Shanahan
May 2, 2008


Weird Massachusetts with Jeff Belanger - Ghost Chronicles
April 23, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

American Negro Civil War Ghosts - by Lee Prosser
April 14, 2008

Column - regular feature

Landmark Ghosts By Beth Brown
April 3, 2008


The Lizzy Borden House - Ghost Chronicles
April 2, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Ghosts of Hollywood - Ghost Chronicles
March 19, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

On the Nature of Group Dynamics By Rick Moran
March 19, 2008


Billy The Kid - by Lee Prosser
March 12, 2008

Column - regular feature

Women in the Paranormal: Donna LaCroix
March 5, 2008


Women in the Paranormal: Amy Bruni
March 2, 2008


Women in the Paranormal: Ursula Bielski
February 28, 2008


Women in the Paranormal: L'Aura Hladik
February 25, 2008


Women in the Paranormal: Allison Andrews
February 22, 2008


Haunted Cape Cod and the Islands - Ghost Chronicles
February 20, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Women in the Paranormal: Rosemary Ellen Guiley
February 19, 2008


Women in the Paranormal: Lorraine Warren
February 16, 2008


The Ghosts of Tombstone - Paranormal Journeys
February 14, 2008

Paranormal Journeys - webcast

Valentine's Day Special - Ghost Chronicles
February 13, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Magick and Magic, What is the Difference? - by Lee Prosser
February 13, 2008

Column - regular feature

My Theory on Spirits of the Paranormal by Edward Shanahan
February 1, 2008


Investigating the Sance with U.K. psychic Gavin Cromwell - Ghost Chronicles
January 30, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Electronic Voice Phenomena is affected by Solar Weather by Tom Ginther
January 21, 2008


The Concord Colonial Inn - Ghost Chronicles
January 16, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Ghost Cat - by Lee Prosser
January 15, 2008

Column - regular feature

The Lizzie Borden House - Paranormal Journeys
January 11, 2008

Paranormal Journeys - webcast

Russian Ghosts - Ghost Chronicles
January 9, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Shadows Of Evil by Rick Hayes
January 4, 2008


Haunted Devon, UK - Ghost Chronicles
January 2, 2008

Ghostvillage Radio - podcast

Magickal Rings - by Lee Prosser
January 2, 2008

Column - regular feature



October 10, 2008

Most Famous Phenomenon

By Jeff Belanger

Most Famous PhenomenonThroughout Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the Greater Washington, DC area, there are a myriad of quaint and historic Bed and Breakfast inns that boast a sign reading, "George Washington Slept Here." Some of these old inns also happen to have a ghostly legend attached to them, and, invariably, someone is going to make the connection and give the "George Washington" moniker to those disembodied footfalls, strange knocks, and dark shadows.

So George Washington slept here one night in 1775 and now haunts the place forever, huh?

The B&B is another victim of what I call Most Famous Phenomenon. The good news is there is a cure for MFP. But before we learn the cure, we need to recognize the symptoms and understand why MFP exists in the first place.

As humans, we have a basic, egocentric need to understand the world around us. We want to know how things work, to control our environment (if possible), and sit securely at the top of the food chain wiggling our opposable thumbs for all the animal kingdom to see. We naturally get uncomfortable when presented with situations and environments foreign to us. An example: as anyone who has ever traveled to a foreign country where they don't speak a word of the local language will tell you, it's stressful. If you don't have a guide who can communicate for you, you feel helpless. You know you're going to have trouble meeting your basic human needs of eating, sleeping, etc., because you can't easily express those needs to people around you. As psychologist Abraham Maslow would have told you, if you can't meet the basic needs, everything else (security, love, esteem, and learning) ain't gonna happen.

In a situation where someone believes they are dealing with a haunting, they may feel life is out of control. They may be afraid because they can't understand what is happening around them, and that the world is no longer operating they way they were taught that it should. If we can put a name on the unexplained knocks, bumps, and murmuring voices, we can start to compartmentalize the experience and regain a sense of control (even if it's a false sense of control, it's still a sense of control).

George Washington would never hurt us, right? Plus, what could be a bigger draw than the first President of the United States forever walking the hallways of your B&B? Washington was the most well-known person to ever grace the building, so he must be the ghost!

In other haunts, it's even easier to fall into the MFP trap. What about the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Massachusetts? Most of us know about the brutal double murder that took place there back on August 4, 1892. Both Lizzie's father, Andrew, and her stepmother, Abby, were brutally hacked to death with an axe. All of the circumstantial evidence pointed to Lizzie, but she was acquitted of the murder. The crime went unpunished. Today there is paranormal phenomena reported at the Borden house, and some people jump to the supernatural conclusion that the ghost must be Andrew or Abby searching for eternal justice. Or perhaps the ghost is that of Lizzie who is doomed to remain bound to 92 Second Street in Fall River because of her alleged heinous crime.

The Borden House was built in 1845. Andrew Borden bought the building in 1872 from the original owner and lived there right up until August 4, 1892. Considering the house is over 160 years old, and the Bordens only occupied the building for 20 of those years, we can't assume that any of the unexplained activity has anything to do with the most famous residents and the most infamous event that took place under that roof. Don't get me wrong, the phenomena may be related, but we shouldn't jump to that conclusion.

At the Borden house, there are many accounts of children's footsteps, murmuring voices of young people, and child-like behavior related to some of the phenomena, such as toys in an upstairs toy chest being taken out and set on the carpet. Would the ghost of Lizzie, Andrew, or Abby Borden do this? If one digs a little deeper into history, we learn that there was a murder in the vicinity years before Andrew and Abby. According to the August 5, 1892 Fall River Daily Globe, "Another horrible tragedy had been enacted in the vicinity of the Borden residence. In the yard of the house occupied now by Dr. Kelly Between [18]39 or [18]40 a woman named Borden had thrown her three young children into a cistern to drown and afterward jumped in and died with them."

Investigators must avoid jumping to conclusions for the sake of our own egos. Witnesses, on the other hand, will often jump to conclusions for the sake of their own mental health. "It must be the ghost of my grandmother who died here last year," a witness may proclaim. After all, grandma wouldn't hurt anyone. We must tread carefully when working with families living in active homes. Holding on to a potential delusion may be helping a family deal in the short term. Don't jump to conclusions before you're ready to look at all of the evidence and present your findings. We should always seek the truth (even if the truth turns out to be a rodent loose in the attic), but we should always be considerate of the mental state of witnesses who have to live with the unexplained phenomenon. We're here to help the living, too!


Jeff Belanger is the founder of Ghostvillage.com and the author of numerous books on the paranormal including: The World's Most Haunted Places, Our Haunted Lives, and Who's Haunting the White House?. His Web site is: www.jeffbelanger.com.


2014 Haunted New England Wall Calendar by Jeff Belanger photography by Frank Grace
Check out the 2014 Haunted New England wall calendar by Jeff Belanger and photography by Frank Grace!


Paranormal Conferences and Lectures
Don't miss the following events and lectures:

Jeff Belanger and “The Bridgewater Triangle” at Dedham Community Theatre - April 6, 2014 9:00PM

The Spirits of the Mark Twain House - Hartford, Connecticut - April 12, 2014

Paracon Australia - East Maitland, New South Wales, Australia - May 10-12, 2014