GHOSTVILLAGE.COM NEWSLETTER #114 - April 20, 2011

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Picture Yourself Legend Tripping by Jeff Belanger
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,

Sorry we missed last month's newsletter! I got so busy with travel and projects that I just couldn't get to it. The good news is we're getting back on track and plan to introduce a lot of new content and people. More on that in a second.

Spring sprang (finally) here at the Ghostvillage.com headquarters. We're shaking off the white dust of a very long winter, and I'm turning my sights to warmer days and outdoor legend trips. This past weekend I got to hang out with a few hundred of my closest friends at an event at the old Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio. This place is hecka-creepy, beautiful in a dark way, and paranormally active throughout. During one of the ghost hunts I was up in the former TB Ward on the top floor of the Administration Building when we heard a groan in the floorboard in the corner. I asked if someone was there to step closer. We heard another creak in the floorboards. Then we saw an odd shadow next to the window. I was stoked! Something seemed to be forming… but alas, our volunteer walked in at that moment and told us it was time for the group to switch. The ghost experience isn't usually over-the-top, but these little things keep me going and looking. If you want to see some photos from this amazing building, you can check out my Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150155149529748.293608.283029759747.

With Spring comes renewed interest in outdoor legends: fae folk, strange beasts, and this month's theme: leprechauns. I always liked the legend of the leprechaun because he is a mischief maker (I can relate). He's magical, he may help you, he may even make you rich, or he might trick you out of your own gold. The leprechaun may be best known in Ireland, but creatures of similar descriptions can be found all over the world. This month we're going to dive into the discussion of this possible elemental creature.

In an effort to grow Ghostvillage.com and keep producing top-notch content, I'm pleased to announce the addition of a new editor: Deonna Kelli Sayed! Deonna will be working on new feature content, encounters, and much more. She's a long-time paranormal investigator, an author, and brings a unique perspective to this subject. The first topic she's tackling is called "Spring of Culture" -- a look at how the paranormal has influenced art and culture all over. Please welcome Deonna as she helps expand what we already offer!

I'd also like to welcome all of the new people to our village. It's an honor to work for you -- we appreciate the job. I look forward to running into you folks someplace haunted real soon!

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter below!

Supernaturally yours,

Jeff Belanger
Mayor of Ghostvillage.com

Twitter: @THEJeffBelanger
Facebook: Jeff Belanger MySpace: www.myspace.com/ghostvillager




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:

2nd Annual Michigan Paranormal Convention - Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan - August 12-14, 2011
Chicago Ghost Conference - Chicago, Illinois - September 30 - October 1, 2011
Central Texas Paranormal Conference - Austin, Texas - October 8-9, 2011



Monthly Contest
Congratulations to Harriett C. Parker of Las Vegas, Nevada, who was the February 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 (April 21, 2011). 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.

Who are H.C. Noel's artistic influences?

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!

April 30: 'Rick Hayes - Living Life Supernaturally' Event
May 2: Jeff Belanger on Tenacity Radio
May 12: Jeff Belanger on Para X Radio with Tim Shaw
May 27: Alamo Conference
June 10: Through the Veil, Haunted America Midwest Conference



Who's Who in the Village?
Get to know some of your fellow Ghostvillagers. Meet our new editor!

>>Deonna Kelli Sayed<< - member since March 18, 2008

What is your name?
Deonna Kelli Sayed

How old are you?
You know better than to ask such a question! I am at the age of certain dignified grace (yeah...right)!

Where do you live?
Virginia.

What do you do for a living?
I am a writer. As a wife of a United Nations diplomat, I've moved all over the world. That type of international, nontraditional existence makes writing a suitable endeavor for me.

What first got you interested in ghosts and the paranormal?
When I was a child, I started "seeing" things as they looked in the past. I’m still unsure about how this happens or like so many others, I had my first experiences as a child. The very first events involved some type of presence appearing in my room at night. This happened for years. I grew up in the rural South at the dead end of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The fun part of this story is at the dead end of the dirt road was the county's oldest graveyard, with my family members buried in it! My upbringing was something between a Stephen King novel and a Truman Capote story; creepy, gothic, and redneck.

As a Muslim, have you felt accepted in the paranormal community?
I have experienced only genuine interest in my own personal beliefs, and no one has made any disparaging remarks about my faith. The paranormal community is one of those rare places a Catholic priest can hang out with a pagan, psychic vampire. It is a very tolerant environment when it comes to religious and spiritual diversity.

What mark do you hope to leave on the paranormal community?
I am unsure if I am to leave a mark. The better question is what mark will this paranormal journey leave on me? It has been a profoundly personal intellectual experience. It is one that has allowed me (and others) to question the nature of reality and engage personal experience and story in very intimate ways. I feel it is an honor to be able to "excavate history" through the paranormal.

What is your favorite spring flower?
Anything I don't have to water or garden -- whatever I can buy and put in a vase. I hate yard work.



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:

Future Predictions with Dr. Louis Turi - April 12, 2011 [WEBCAST]
Spring of Culture at Ghostvillage - H.C. Noel, Creator of Tara Normal - April 7, 2011
Pennsylvania Bigfoot with Eric Altman - April 5, 2011 [WEBCAST]
Spontaneous Human Combustion with Larry Arnold - March 29, 2011 [WEBCAST]
Japanese Earthquake Ghosts, 2011 by Lee Prosser - March 28, 2011 [COLUMN]



Last Month's Theme - Featured Content
Our last month's theme was SPIRICOM. Here's what you missed if you haven't checked in since last month:

Features: Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC)



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:

A Protective Presence - Monroe, Michigan
Angel or Ghost? - Silsbee, Texas
Weirded Out in San Francisco - San Francisco, California
Haunted Nightmares - Australia
Ghostly Railroad Greeting - Aiken, South Carolina
Calling the Spirits - Chester, West Virginia
Haunted Bedroom - Boston, Massachusetts
Home Alone - North Berwick, Maine
Spooky School Day - Edinburg, Texas
Mystery in Meerut - India
Phantom Girl in Vietnam-Vietnam
Living Room Orbs and Phantom Voices- Denver, Colorado



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.

Police ghostbuster’s unfair sacking appeal fails Manchester Evening News Manchester, England - April 15, 2011 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
Problems still haunt Belleville cemetery; mayor calls in city workers to help BND.com Belleville, Illinois - April 12, 2011 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
Communicate with Ghosts? There’s an App for That GlossyNews.com Raleigh, North Carolina - March 26, 2011 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
American Idol Mansion Haunted By Ghost Of Bad Singers Future Right TV Hollywood, California - March 24, 2011 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
5 face arrest for fraud over supernatural services company The Mainichi Daily News Yokohana, Japan - March 10, 2011 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
Chuck Zukowski: Reserve deputy fired over paranormal investigations The Denver Westword El Paso County, Colorado - March 4, 2011 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
Cops arrest accomplice in rob-slay of septuagenarian in Tondo Manila Bulletin Manila, Philippines - February 18, 2011 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
Seeking Paranormal Teams Looking for a Challenge


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:

After-Life and Reincarnation
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28286
Is this report a proof for reincarnation?

A Dream of a Black Dog
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=32061
What could this violent and scary dream mean?

General Board
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=32053
Does Critical Thinking affect the paranormal adversely?

Urban Legends, Myths, and Folklore
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=31954
Why do we tell/share urban legends?

Personal Encounters
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=32023
Oven turned off before gingerbread burned.


Board of the Month -- Leprechaun
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showforum=27
Is this creature just myth? What's his name in other cultures? Have you seen one?


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:
315,866 Posts in the Town Square Message Boards
29,453 Members in the Town Square
1,025 "Personal Encounters" published on Ghostvillage.com
1,665 Paranormal Web sites in the Ghost Links directory
32,483 Subscribers to this newsletter
3,610,459 Total Web site "hits" for Ghostvillage.com in March


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.

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