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,

Thank you to everyone who picked up my new book/DVD Picture Yourself Legend Tripping! I appreciate all of the amazing feedback I’ve heard so far. I’m glad to have you as a part of this paranormal movement. If you haven’t seen the book yet, please do check this one out, Ghostvillagers. I’m really proud of it and would love to hear your thoughts.

I don’t have to tell you that the paranormal is out of the closet. Every television network has paranormal offerings now, there are millions of Web sites, hundreds of books, a slew of magazines, and hundreds of radio and podcast shows devoted to this subject. Unlike a decade ago when you had to be careful where, when, and how you mentioned ghosts, today it’s not only okay to discuss the topic by the office water cooler, it’s actually cool to do so!

What happened? The paranormal has never been cool. I think I can speak for most of us when I say that we have never been cool, but here we are… the paranormal has gone pop culture. I was speaking with a paranormal investigator recently who told me a story about an investigation. I’ve since heard two others tell me similar tales. It goes something like this: The investigator receives a phone call or email from a person who believes their house may be haunted. Follow-up phone calls and emails occur in order to vet the haunting and verify it’s worth gathering the team for an investigation. The potential client says all of the right things, the team assembles, and heads out to the client’s address to investigate.

The team pulls into the driveway and finds there are several other cars already there. The team knocks on the door to find the potential client surrounded by friends, cocktails in hand. “The ghost busters are here!” the client says with glassy eyes. It’s a party, and our team of investigators are the entertainment. Is the building actually haunted? Maybe. But the point is this client watches all of the shows and reads about this stuff online so they know all of the right things to say. The disappointed team knows there will be no investigation, and they’ve wasted their time… but still… for a few minutes the investigators were stars: real life ghost hunters on a case. They were cool!

Today culture is responding to the fad. Fashion, television, music, movies—all have felt the influence of the paranormal. As with all fads, it won’t last forever, but it is here now. Sure we liked it before it was cool, but no matter, we’re out in the open now. Does this make real research more difficult? Certainly. But I’m a silver-lining kind-of-guy. We can use this pop culture equity to further the discussion about life, death, and spiritual matters. And we can push the envelope of human understanding.

It’s August, which means our busy Halloween season is just around the corner. I have many events and lectures coming up all over the place. If you’re around, I hope you’ll come out and say hello and learn the secret Ghostvillager handshake.

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 supernatural. If you're interested in booking Jeff for a conference or other event, please email us for more information.

Events Scheduled:

2010 Haunted America East Coast Conference - Cape Cod Community College - West Barnstable, Massachusetts - August 28, 2010
Ghost Adventures Crew and Darkness Events - Mansfield Reformatory - Mansfield, Ohio - September 9-12, 2010
Legend Tripping with Jeff Belanger - Bellingham Library - Bellingham, Massachusetts - September 27, 2010, 7 PM
A Paranormal Retreat: Virginia City - Virginia City, Nevada - October 1-4, 2010
A Supernatural Evening with Jeff Belanger - Memorial Hall Library - Andover, Massachusetts - October 6, 2010, 7 PM
A "Weird" Massachusetts Evening - Bolton Public Library - Bolton, Massachusetts - October 7, 2010, 7 PM
A Supernatural Evening with Jeff Belanger - Bancroft Memorial Library - Hopedale, Massachusetts - October 13, 2010, 7 PM
A "Weird" Massachusetts Evening - Dighton Public Library - Dighton, Massachusetts - October 14, 2010, 6:30 PM
A "Weird" Massachusetts Evening - Fiske Public Library - Wrentham, Massachusetts - October 19, 2010, 7 PM
A Supernatural Evening with Jeff Belanger - Beaman Memorial Library - West Boylston, Massachusetts - October 26, 2010, 7 PM
A Supernatural Evening with Jeff Belanger - Tewksbury Public Library - Tewksbury, Massachusetts - October 27, 2010, 7 PM
Beyond Reality Events - The Stanley Hotel - Estes Park, Colorado - November 5-8, 2010
Ghost Adventures Crew and Darkness Events - The Queen Mary - Long Beach, California - December 2-5, 2010
Phenomenology 103 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - March 24-27, 2011

Monthly Contest

Congratulations to Howard Schwartz of New Kensignton, Pennsylvania, 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 (August 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.

According to Mike Brody, who founded the town of Zion, Illinois?

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!

August 16: Jeff Belanger on Liveparanormal.com
August 19: Jeff Belanger on MUFON Radio with Rick Wood
August 20: Women's Paranormal Retreat at Parastudy
August 21: Ohio Paranormal Convention, Weird 10, Jeff Belanger on UKPN RADIO
August 22: Jeff Belanger on Strange Frequencies Radio
August 28: Haunted America East Coast Conference - MA
September 9: Darkness Radio and Ghost Adventures at Mansfield
September 18: Pensacola Paracon 2010
October 1: Virginia City, Nevada Paranormal Retreat
October 6: Jeff Belanger at the Memorial Library- Andover, MA
October 7: Jeff Belanger - Bolton Public Library - MA
October 13: Jeff Belanger Bancroft Library - Hopedale, MA
October 14: Jeff Belanger at Dighton Public Library - MA

Who's Who in the Village?

Get to know some of your fellow Ghostvillagers.

>>Cryscat<< - Ghostvillager since February 24, 2009

What is your name?
Michele Ito

How old are you?
45


Where do you live?
In Redondo Beach, California, right now, but moving to Lakewood, California, very soon.

What do you do for a living?
Trying to get a career in graphic design off the ground.

What got you interested in the paranormal?
I have had experiences off and on since I was 4 and a half. When I was that age, I had a visit from my recently-deceased Grandfather. He appeared at the foot of the bed I was sleeping in at my grandparent’s house the day after his funeral. He looked pretty solid on top and kind of got transparent the further down my eyes went, and he glowed. He told me to tell everyone that he was fine. All the living adults in my life insisted that I was dreaming. I knew I was not. You don't dream when you're wide awake. That started the interest.

What’s your favorite local legend?
There are lots of haunts in Los Angeles County including all of the Hollywood haunts, but my favorite one is of the Vanderlips Mansion in Palos Verdes. One of the stories about this is that Frank Vanderlip (one of the founders of Palos Verdes) had a daughter who fell in love with an African American man, which was a big no-no back then, and Frank did not approve. The daughter had the relationship anyway and became pregnant with her lover's child. Allegedly, Frank murdered her lover and child and put her in an insane asylum that he built right across the street from the house. She allegedly committed suicide there and the mansion has been haunted since. Probably not true, but a good story. Stories of the hauntings include screams, phantom parties from the 1920s, and other stuff. It's now in a gated community so it’s very difficult to try a legend trip.

What’s your favorite sports team?
I don't follow sports, so no favorite team!

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:

Fire in the Sky Author Travis Walton By 30 Odd Minutes August 10, 2010 [VIDCAST]
Shave and a Haircut... There's Ghosts! By Mike Brody August 9, 2010 [COLUMN]
Tara Normal Comic Book Artist H.C. Noel By 30 Odd Minutes July 27, 2010 [VIDCAST]

Last Month's Theme - Featured Content

Our last month's theme was legend tripping. Here's what you missed if you haven't checked in since last month:

Features: Investigating Alcatraz
Library: Picture Yourself Legend Tripping
Features: The Ghosts and Legends of Juneau's Alaskan Hotel

Supernatural Library

Ghostvillage.com's book reviewer, Lee Prosser and the staff have brought you new book reviews and author interviews since our last newsletter.

This past month's Library additions:

Picture Yourself Legend Tripping by Jeff Belanger [INTERVIEW]

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:

Dark Figures Over the Bassinet - Queens, New York
Hitting a Ghost on Hwy 1942 - Crosby, Texas
The Haunted Reading Chair - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wedding Visitors and Joplin Spook Light - Joplin, Missouri
Dad's Doppelganger - Oslo, Norway
This is My Ghost Story - Milton, Florida [PIC]

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:
The paranormal is big business. We understand when we stroll down the book aisles and now know it when we flip through the DVDs at chain and video stores. Click on the main page of your favorite paranormal group, and you’re likely to see Google advertisements and links to products. Throw in the high number of conferences out there where you can further your knowledge of the unknown, and even become certified in it, and think about the haunted tours in your area, and you have a regular haunted collage industry. Let’s not forget buying equipment, for some the true line between hobby and obsession.

All that is a bit abstract though. You think about it, and it makes sense, but how would you really start to measure it? With so many different mediums to consume, how could we ever figure out how much we are actually eating?

Two news articles this month were able to get a tighter grasp of that abstract. In the Taipei Times, the impact of ghosts is seen in the housing industry, and the news is not always good. The seventh month of the lunar cycle has long been known as the ghost month, and buying a house during that time was the equivalent of rolling out the red carpet for a haunting. Traditionally, people avoided it. The trend has changed with the younger generation, and the real estate industry has speculated there are two reasons. The first is much more practical. Bad month, better deals. The experts also point to the popularity of the paranormal, saying the younger generation is not only not afraid of a potential encounter with a spirit, they buy a house hoping to have one.

In Derbyshire the numbers say the same thing. Haunted ghost tours, famously active locations, and an embrace of all things spooky have encouraged people to come to the region. Many then stay longer and make plans for other times in the year. Tourism numbers rose from 320,000 to 141.7 million, mainly due to the new paranormal focus, and brought in an additional 68 million pounds. While many of the activities are supernaturally theme based, the heart of the attractions are the real ghosts. The other events are used to frame the real and offer an extension of the genuine thing. Think of it as going to Disney’s Haunted Mansion after spending a night in a real haunted house.

The argument still remains: does the fact that something makes money elevate it to legitimacy? As we spend this month thinking of the impact of the paranormal on pop culture, it is important to realize the difference between relevance and respectability. It could be argued that in a rush to strap a bar code on a ghost, we have moved further away from seeking actual knowledge, and the more common hauntings become the lower the opinion we have of them is. Remember, no matter how many people visit the flea circus, no insect has ever tamed a lion.

Edgar Mitchell to speak at Carlisle Palm Beach on paranormal phenomena Palm Beach Daily News Palm Beach, Florida- August 15, 2010 [External News]
Haunted Fire Station 55 KHSLTV, CBS Affiliate Bangor, California- August 9, 2010 [External News]
Driver spooked by haunted car The Sun Sutton, England- August 6, 2010 [External News]
Amityville Horror house goes into contract Newsday.com Amityville, New York- August 5, 2010 [External News]
Conn. headstone linked to haunting stories stolen Hartford Courant Burlington, Connecticut- July 28, 2010 [External News]
Wanted - ghost hunters for a haunting new TV show Herald.ie Dublin, Ireland- July 24, 2010 [External News]
Mystery as ghost appears in two photos from Edinburgh tours STV Edinburgh, Scotland- July 23, 2010 [External News]
Paranormal group finds ghostly activity at historical village Argus Press Corruna, Michigan- July 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:

Evidence Alley
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=30875
Skeptics and believers have weighed in on this one, the discussion continues.

Paranormal Equipment
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29960
Thermal imaging cameras.

Spirit Communication
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=30925
Using quartz.

Personal Encounters
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=30918
Night terrors, reccurring nightmare feels real.

Skeptics
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=30644
How to create a ghost: What are these manifestations? Are they truly the ghosts of departed people? Or are they creations of the minds of the people who see them?

Religion and Spirituality
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28421
How important is religion to spirituality?

Thanatology
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29616
The study of everything that has to do with dying, death, and grief.


Board of the Month -- Paranormal in Pop Culture
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showforum=27
Where have you seen the paranormal in popular culture?

Ghostvillage.com Advertising Opportunities

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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:

310,476 Posts in the Town Square Message Boards
28,242 Members in the Town Square
979 "Personal Encounters" published on Ghostvillage.com
1,535 Paranormal Web sites in the Ghost Links directory
30,361 Subscribers to this newsletter
4,426,126 Total Web site "hits" for Ghostvillage.com in July

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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