GHOSTVILLAGE.COM NEWSLETTER #99 - November 16, 2009

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Dark Matter: Conspiracies of the Mind
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Dear Ghostvillagers,

Wow… what a month I just had. I haven’t slept much since our last newsletter. The Halloween season always means a lot of talks, conferences, and media, and this month was no different. Each Halloween is an opportunity to reach out to more people who are interested in this subject and get them talking. If you’ve just found your way to Ghostvillage for the first time in the last month, welcome! You’ll find we’re interested in this subject year-round. We just get a little crowded in here come October. But now that it’s November, I’m happy to be home and back to work on new projects and research.

If you’re a fan of ghost theories, you’ve no doubt heard talk of residual hauntings -- the idea that real events can be recorded onto an environment and can replay like an old movie. One explanation for this phenomenon is the "stone tape theory" -- the idea that metallic qualities in the surrounding rocks (or in some cases the building materials themselves) record high energy/profound events just like a metallic cassette tape can record audio or video. For some reason, some people are sensitive to these latent recordings for reasons we can’t explain.

Perhaps a little knowledge of the past helps trigger these events to replay for some witnesses, or maybe big tragedies somehow become a part of our collective consciousness and we can pick up on these events when we’re back in the right location at the right time. Maybe this could explain why so many ghostly legends have a trigger time -- like midnight (it’s almost always midnight, isn’t it?) on the anniversary of the murder; or 3 AM on the victim’s birthday. This month we’re going to dive into the “stone tape theory” a little deeper. Be sure to stop by our message boards and tell us what you think.

November at the Ghostvillage.com world headquarters is also a time to give thanks. We’re thankful for all of you Ghostvillagers who write to us, visit the site, and contribute. We’d be nothing without you folks, so thank you for the job! We’ve made it ten years so far and with your help we’ll go for decades more.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter below!

Supernaturally yours,

Jeff Belanger
Mayor of Ghostvillage.com

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

Events Scheduled:

The Queen City Paranormal Convention - Historic Music Hall - Cincinnati, Ohio - April 9, 2010
Beyond Reality Events - The Mt. Washington Hotel - Bretton Woods, New Hampshire - April 23-26, 2010
Beyond Reality Events - The Stanley Hotel - Estes Park, Colorado - June 13-16, 2010


Monthly Contest
Congratulations to Ernest Dunkel, Jr. of Oil City, Pennsylvania, who was last month's winner of an autographed copy of Jeff Belanger's book, Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Revised Edition, a Ghostvillage.com window sticker, and a Ghostvillage.com t-shirt!

How to win: Entries will be accepted up until 5:00 PM (eastern time) tomorrow (November 17, 2009). 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 today to be eligible to win.

According to Dr. Bob Curran, if zombies from all cultures around the world were to battle, which culture's zombies would likely win?

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 a copy of Dark Matter: Conspiracies of the Mind from Dark Matter Films, a Ghostvillage.com window sticker, and a Ghostvillage.com t-shirt!


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!

November 16: Jeff Belanger on Bridge Between Two Worlds Radio
November 20: Paranormal Unity Charity Event
November 30: Haunted Survivor Tour Orlando
December 9: Jeff Belanger on Night Fright Show
December 19: The Yuletide Fayre



Who's Who in the Village?
Get to know some of your fellow Ghostvillagers.

>>alosa1066<< - member since August 19, 2003

What is your name?
Christopher Lee Balzano

How old are you?
34

Where do you live?
Cape Coral, Florida... but my heart will always be in Massachusetts.

What do you do for a living?
I'm currently teaching English in a high school down here, but I've also been a librarian and a submaker.

What got you interested in the paranormal?
I lived in the haunted Charlesgate hotel when I was in college. I was amazed by the fact that real hauntings, or at least ghosts people said they were experiencing, were living hand in hand with legends and urban legends. That blurring drew me in, and I created Massachusetts Paranormal Crossroads to explore that idea. I've written some tech and how-to books recently, but those questions I first looked at back in the day keeps me interested in the field.

You’ve authored several books on the paranormal now. How have you seen the field of paranormal research evolve in the last five years?
The field has moved from a story, research-based exploration to one that relies too heavily on equipment and investigation. It has started to swing back a bit recently, and I hope the people looking at ghosts in the coming years can find a balance.

Do you give any credence to the "stone tape theory"/residual haunting?
I am a big believer in it. So much of New England, and the Bridgewater Triangle in particular, revolves around the idea of trapped energy. The ghosts at Anawan Rock and Profile Rock are deeply linked with the pain and betrayal that happened in those locations. The Assonet Ledge in Freetown, Massachusetts, has energy trapped there that has been known to influence people at times in such a profound way they entertain thoughts of suicide. I actually tracked some of the rocks from the Assonet Ledge from its days as a quarry, and many of those buildings suffer through their own hauntings.

If you could bring your mad bass-playing abilities to any band (either current or past), which band would it be?
I have to start off by saying this... I was on an investigation with three investigators I highly respect: Matt Moniz, Tom D'Agostino, and Mike Markowicz. The owner of the house (I hate the term client) had a bass in the basement. We all took turns playing it because we all had experience playing bass. There might be a connection between understanding those powerful, low, frequencies and investigating.

That being said, I am waiting for The Perry Normal Band to form, but if that doesn't happen I'll settle for the Allman Brothers after the death of Barry Oakley...but I'll leave it at that because curses were the Ghostvillage theme a few months ago.



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:

Anaimal Spirits with Melissa Sehgal By 30 Odd Minutes November 12, 2009 [VIDCAST]
There's Something About Resurrection Mary by Ray Johnson November 12, 2009
Psychic Recommendations By Tiffany Johnson November 2, 2009 [COLUMN]
Best of Paranormal Journeys By 30 Odd Minutes October 27, 2009 [VIDCAST]
Anniversary Show - Ghost Chronicles October 27, 2009 [PODCAST]
What Are Ghosts? by Rob Conover and Brad Conover October 26, 2009
Ghostvillage.com - 10 Year Anniversary By Lee Prosser October 23, 2009 [COLUMN]



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

Discussion: Happy Halloween!
Library: Witch's Halloween by Gerina Dunwich
Features: What Does Halloween/Samhain Mean to You?
Features: Halloween 2003 - What Scares Us
Features: Ghostvillage.com - 10 Year Anniversary by Lee Prosser
Features: The History of Halloween



Shopping at Ghostvillage.com
Have you checked out our Ghost-Mart and Ghostvillage U.?

Ghostvillage U.: "Professor Paranormal" Loyd Auerbach and the HCH Institute's Distance Learning Certificate Course on Parapsychological Studies is now available through Ghostvillage.com. Ready to take paranormal investigation to the next level? Check out the online courses.

Ghost-Mart:
Digital Voice Recorders: Going for EVP? Think DVR.
Paranormal Books: Ghost-Mart has many of the leading paranormal titles.
EMF Meters: Check out our line of EMF meters from cell sensors to tri-field.
Closed Circuit TV: From inexpensive to the high end, we have them all.


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:

Bridge to the Afterlife by Troy Parkinson
Zombies by Dr. Bob Curran [AUTHOR 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:

The Ghost Who Didn't Like Men - Brook, Indiana
Dad Standing in St. Mary's Cemetery - Tiffin, Ohio
The Hand On My Shoulder - Clinton, Indiana
The Only Yankee - Nicholas County, West Virginia
The House that Disappeared - Winton, California
My Haunted Apartment - Brampton, Ontario, Canada
The Basement Crash - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
A Screaming Ghost - Yorktown Heights, New York
The Crawling Shadow - Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan



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 Christopher Balzano, News Editor
If stones have the ability to trap energy and replay it, the lack of stones may spark paranormal activity just as much. Throughout the United States, Native Americans have been displaced, and the “ancient Indian burial ground” often becomes the default reason for a haunting if no other cause can be found. With Thanksgiving looming at the end of the month, it seems a good time to think about the myth and the reality of the Native Americans’ place in the paranormal landscape.

There have been several stories in the news this month about authors exploring the history of their local areas to find answers for the ghosts they are hearing about. Those American Indians who sat down with the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag, have been linked to much of the paranormal activity throughout New England. In these stories the taking of sacred lands is a mere footnote, a casually glossed-over detail to add character to the story. These writers, both the authors of books and the newspaper writers taking advantage of the Halloween season, are doing Native Americans a disservice, but also missing an opportunity to advance the discussion on the nature of ghosts and the place trapped energy might have in the field.

Lastly, historical research may force people to take a second look at ideas like Stone Tape Theory. Across the country there are places the Native Americans considered tainted or owned by spirits, many of them rock formations. It might be difficult to isolate these locations and experiment like many of the lab experiments seen in the news over the past month, but a further study needs to be done. Why were some places considered sacred before they were even used as ceremonial meeting places or graveyards? Why are the myths and legends of tribes filled with references to these locations?

Sit and enjoy your turkey this Thanksgiving and don’t become consumed with the horrors your country might have committed. You are not responsible for the injustices of the past. The holiday is about looking back, but more often than not we look back across the last year to think about what we may be thankful for. This year look a bit further back and remember.

Ghost Hunters Say Voice Led Them To Bones WTOV Channel 9 Wellsburg, West Virginia- November 11, 2009 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
Fright House: Jenna Bush on the ghostly music playing in the presidential home already haunted by Abraham Lincoln Mail Online Hollywood, California- November 5, 2009 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
NEW GRAVITY MEDIA TEAMS UP WITH JOHN ZAFFIS FOR PARANORMAL MUSEUM PROJECT
Scientifically Haunted House Suggests You’re a Sucker Wired London, England- October 30, 2009 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
Gutted West Village building said to be haunted by restless ghost of Gay St. man is now up for sale The New York Daily News New York, New York- October 14, 2009 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
CONFIRMED HAUNTED PROPERTY IN NEW MEXICO GHOST TOWN FOR SALE ON eBay®

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:

Urban Legends
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29023
If you die in your dream, you die in reality?

Personal Encounters
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29178
Skeptics say the darndest things.

Spirit Communication
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28722
Do Ouija boards really work?

Skeptic Forum
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29177
In some instances do you think skeptics come up with crazier answers than believers?

Spiritography
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28914
"One of the Many Unusual Photos taken in Italy" has generated the most activity throughout the month of October into early November.

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?

General Board
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29218
Are our spirits actually body parasites? Another way of looking at the living body and the soul.

Real Life Occurences
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29292
Werewolves: A writer looking for more information on a specific type of shapeshifting - 'Hexenwolves' or those who shift their shape using a special belt or animal pelt.

The Boiling Point
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=29198
Crazy NaNoWriMo Complaint thread: Participating in NaNoWriMo? Vent here when you hit a block, find your tale going in odd directions, or a character has stopped being nice to you. Not participating? Cheer us on!


Board of the Month -- Stone Tape Theory
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showforum=27
Can the environment record events? Are there residual hauntings? Discuss your theories here!


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:
303,847 Posts in the Town Square Message Boards
26,616 Members in the Town Square
931 "Personal Encounters" published on Ghostvillage.com
1,394 Paranormal Web sites in the Ghost Links directory
30,387 Subscribers to this newsletter
9,604,917 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?, 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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