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View this newsletter online at: http://www.ghostvillage.com/newsletters/Oct15_09.htm

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Dear Ghostvillagers,

Ten years. Can you believe it’s been ten years of Ghostvillage.com already? A decade ago today I was sitting in my apartment tinkering with the six Web pages that would go on to be the start of something big. Back then there weren’t any paranormal investigation television shows, there were no paranormal podcasts, just a few radio programs, and only a few other Web sites who had the audacity to use this relatively new medium of the Internet to publish material implying that ghosts may just be real and that we can document the evidence. What started as six Web pages has exploded into something bigger than I could have ever imagined. I’ll take the credit for starting the tiny snowball that is this Web site down a very big hill, but it was you folks who made it grow. You added your own experiences, research, and opinions. You told others and came back to create a community behind a very simple premise: let’s look at every viewpoint; the believers, nonbelievers, the skeptics, the science, the religiously inclined, and everything in between. That mission hasn’t changed in the last ten years nor will it change in the decades ahead.

This month is more than just our ten-year anniversary. This month we here at the Ghostvillage.com world headquarters have begun to outline the new architecture, design, and content that the current site will evolve into. Big things are in store for the coming year. And we want you involved. In fact, we can’t do it without you. Stay tuned for more on that.

It’s October, Halloween, Samhain, and the time where ghosts and the paranormal stumble squinting into the international spotlight. We’re dressed in black and pale (because we don’t get out much), but like it or not, people want to hear what we have to say right now. Let’s use this as our annual opportunity to say something intelligent. Let’s never be afraid to say the words, “I don’t know,” and let’s welcome the timid to the discussion that we’ve been having the other eleven months of the year.

I’ve learned so much from all of you in the last ten years. I’ve authored eleven books on the subject now, I’ve been invited to speak at conferences and in the media about the topic, and I feel like I’m just getting started. There’s still so much more to explore and learn. I hope you’ll join me on the trip.

This past month has seen some great new content added to Ghostvillage. Fans of all things haunted don’t want to miss Mike Brody’s latest “Confessions of a Novice Ghost Hunter” column on Alcatraz -- an amazing multi-media exploration of “The Rock.” You X-Files fans don’t want to miss the latest episode of 30 Odd Minutes where I had the opportunity to interview Dean Haglund who played the character Langly on nine seasons of the hit TV show (it turns out Dean really knows his paranormal stuff).

...And speaking of Dean Haglund, we just announced that he will be joining me in Weston, West Virginia, at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum because we’ll both be taking part in the live 7-hour ghost investigation there as part of the Ghost Adventures show on the Travel Channel. On Friday, October 30th from 8 PM to 3 AM, tune in to the Travel Channel and to their Web site to watch us explore the history and haunts behind this giant asylum.

One other event happening this month is our ten-year anniversary radio special. I’ll be joining Ron Kolek and Maureen Wood of Ghost Chronicles as a guest on Wednesday, October 21st from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (eastern time) and we want you to call in toll-free at 1-877-864-4869 (during the show time, not now) to talk about your experiences on Ghostvillage.com. You can listen to this audio extravaganza live on the Ghostvillage.com homepage that night!

It's a busy month here in the ghost world… get out there and see it. Also, for you Ghostvillagers in the neighborhood of Massachusetts, be sure to check out the Mass Mystery weekend, October 16-18th. I’ll be there speaking – so come say hello. We’ll see you in November!

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:

MASS Monster Mash - Watertown, Massachusetts - 6:00 PM, October 17, 2009
A Supernatural Evening with Jeff Belanger - Bellingham Library - Bellingham, Massachusetts - 7:00 PM, October 26, 2009
A "Weird" Massachusetts Evening with Jeff Belanger - Belmont Library - Belmont, Massachusetts - 7:00 PM, October 27, 2009
Ghost Adventures Live - Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia - The Travel Channel - October 30, 2009
Beyond Reality Events - The Stanley Hotel - Estes Park, Colorado - November 6-9, 2009
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

Monthly Contest

Congratulations to Leland Hanson of Portland, Oregon, who was last month's winner of an autographed copy of Jeff Belanger's book, Who's Haunting the White House?, 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 (October 16, 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.

If Maureen Wood and Ron Kolek were trapped on a desert island and could only listen to one song for the rest of their lives, what song would it be?

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, Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Revised Edition, 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!

October 16: 2009 Allegan Paranormal Conference, PhantomCon
October 17: Michigan Paranormal Converence, Jeff Belanger on WLOB 95.5 in Portland, ME, MASS Monster Mash - Watertown, MA
October 20: Jeff Belanger on CIBH 88.5 FM in Parksville, BC, Jeff Belanger on KATM FM - Northern California, Jeff Belanger on WFYI in Indianapolis, Indiana
October 21: Jeff Belanger on WBKV in West Bend, WI, Jeff Belanger on 92 KQRS in Minneapolis, MN, Ghostvillage.com 10-Year Anniversary Special!
October 23: Fright at the Fort, Ghostport 2009, Jeff Belanger on KCOL in Loveland, Colorado, A Haunted Evening at Historic Holly Hotel, Holly,
October 25: October's Other Side at the Old Mill
October 26: Jeff Belanger lecture Bellingham Library, MA
October 27: Jeff Belanger on 94.5 FM in Vancouver, Jeff Belanger on WQPO 100.7 FM in Harrisonburg, VA, Weird Massachusetts at Belmont Library, MA, An Inconvenient Ghost
October 30: Fright at the Fort, Jeff Belanger on Ghost Adventures - Travel Channel
October 31: The October 31, 2009 T.Az.P.R.S. Paranormal Confer, Jeff Belanger on Peter Greenberg World Wide, Ghost Hunt Buffalo Central Terminal & Iron Island
November 6: LS Paranormal Investigators Convention
November 16: Jeff Belanger on Bridge Between Two Worlds Radio
November 30: Haunted Survivor Tour Orlando
December 9: Jeff Belanger on Night Fright Show

Who's Who in the Village?

Get to know some of your fellow Ghostvillagers.

>>midnight_ravynhawk<< - member since April 18, 2006

What is your name?
Tracy Marie Branas

How old are you?
I am 37 years old.

Where do you live?
I live in Benton, Pennsylvania, which is a small town in the northeastern part of the state and I've only lived here for about 3 years. I grew up on the other side of the state in Johnstown, home of the infamous 1889 and 1977 floods, which is probably pretty haunted after those natural disasters.

What do you do for a living?
Well, unfortunately at this time, I can't work after being diagnosed with fibromyalgia in early 2000. Due to this disability, which my doctors and I just haven't been able to find an adequate treatment for, I'm not able to hold down a regular job at this time. Right now my job is...wife of (lucky 13) years to my wonderful,loving husband Donald, mother to 3 beautiful boys- Zachary (15), Christian (12) and Ayden (11) and amateur paranormal investigator. Not being employed outside the home has left me with plenty of time to volunteer at the boys' school and spend alot of time researching and studying all things paranormal on the internet (mostly through Ghostvillage.com)!

What got you interested in the paranormal?
I've been interested in the paranormal for as long as I can remember. I would say most of this came from my dad who had me watching all things spooky since I was in diapers and always telling me his personal experiences with the paranormal (one story was his experience with a Ouija board that scared him so bad and in turn his story scared me so bad, that I have never touched one to this day!), urban myths and legends, mysteries like Yeti and Nessy and UFO's, right down the line to vampires, werewolves and you guessed it... ghosts! There was always, since I was little, one place that would be my ultimate paranormal investigating fantasy (it was my dad's also)The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado!!!--due to financial issues (like hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills), I know I'll probably never get there, but hey, that's why they call it a fantasy!

Do you believe everyone is psychic?
I do believe that everyone is psychic to some degree. I believe that every person is born with some sort of psychic abilities. I also think that this is the explanation for the "imaginary friends" that most kids seem to play with. It is my personal opinion that young kids look at the world through "innocent" eyes, with "uninfluenced" brains and with the "purest" of hearts. As we grow older, no matter how much we believe, we start to accept as fact that our "friend" really isn't there, that monsters don't exist and that there is a logical explanation for everything that goes bump in the night. Now that I'm an adult, I would do anything to be able to get that innocence back!

Are all cemeteries haunted?
I believe that most cemeteries are NOT haunted. I think a few may have some ghosts that hang around or that show up there from time to time. To me cemeteries don't hold the dead, they just hold the shells that the dead once inhabited. The spirits or souls of the dead are elsewhere, maybe looking over their families or experiencing whatever the other side has to offer, but I'm pretty sure they're not just hangin' around their dead bodies. I think ghosts visit cemeteries though, for basically the same reasons the living do: to show respect and love to family, friends, etc. . For example, a very devoted husband of many years passes away and maybe his widow now needs to move in with their child due to age or illness. When she visits the her husband's grave, she can talk to him, alone, like they used to and maybe he goes there to listen. So, I would say-- A hauntING, but not hauntED.

What's the first music album you ever bought for yourself?
Well, first of all, I'll date myself again... it was an ALBUM! Luckily, that dad I was telling you all about, he was a musician, so I was blessed by having much music in my life! He had tons of albums -- everything from Abba to Zepplin, Styx, Boston, Air Supply, Foreigner to The Blues Brother's, Yes, Huey Lewis, and The Beatles. I do remember the very first album that I bought with my own money was... Michael Jackson's Thriller.

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:

Investigating Alcatraz By Mike Brody October 14, 2009 [COLUMN]
Conspiracies with Dean Haglund By 30 Odd Minutes October 8, 2009 [VIDCAST]
Investigating Anawan Rock - Ghost Chronicles October 7, 2009 [PODCAST]
Reincarnation By Tiffany Johnson October 6, 2009 [COLUMN]
Tarot with Scotty Roberts By 30 Odd Minutes October 1, 2009 [VIDCAST]
Faeries with Rosemary Ellen Guiley By 30 Odd Minutes September 24, 2009 [VIDCAST]
Crop Circles with Freddy Silva By 30 Odd Minutes September 17, 2009 [VIDCAST]
Myrna the Death Doll - Ghost Chronicles September 16, 2009 [PODCAST]

Last Month's Theme - Featured Content

Our last month's theme was Paranormal and the Media. Here's what you missed if you haven't checked in since last month:

Library: Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends, and Eerie Events
Discussion: Curse of the Bell Witch
Discussion: Top 10 Bizarre Curses
Encounters: The Crystal Curse

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:

Kundalini Rising by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Andfrew Newberg, Sivananda Rhada, Ken Wilber, Whitehawk, and John Selby
EVP: Electronic Voice Phenomenon by Michael Markowicz
The Ghost Chronicles by Maureen Wood and Ron Kolek [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:

Deering Estate Apparition - Miami, Florida [PIC]
Cemetery Ghost at a Sleepover - Laingsburg, Michigan
Ghosts at the Stanley Hotel - Estes Park, Colorado
Apparition Caught on Game Camera - Wayland, New York [PIC]
Knocks in the Attic - Sterling, Virginia
I Had No Idea She Was a Ghost - Bethany, New York
Ghosts of Yonkers - Yonkers, New York
An Evil Shadow Figure - Scott City, Kansas
The Scream in the Night - Yorkshire, England

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
Ten years has made a difference in the paranormal landscape. Since 1999, Ghostvillage has been documenting the fever of the field and working to advance it, but has the way the media covered ghosts changed since the site has been busy making inroads and uniting people of a like mind? I was ready to write a quick editorial on how the trends in coverage are different than they were when the site was launched. To examine what the news has seen actually tells a different story, and if Ghostvillage can be used to see how ideas about spirits and the supernatural have evolved, the news itself is more the story of our rapidly changing world.

There have been slight changes, but that is really a sign of there being more stories. Local haunts have always been covered in newspapers across the country, and if the stories coming across the wire in the past few weeks are any indication, papers have gotten really good at carbon copying the same angle that has been used for decades.

Instead it is the speed at which we get the news and the reach it can have that has grown over the years. Ghostvillage has seen the world shrink, and with it we become more informed and the connection between culture and the paranormal becomes clearer. Instead of just seeing our local news source over a haunted location, we can see them from all across the country.

Ten years ago there were no online gossip sites to tell us about our favorite celebrity seeing a ghost. If there was an exorcism in New Zealand, it went unnoticed by a reader in Sioux City. When a school house full of children in India ran fleeing because of a demon or a crazy wraith, it never reached our screen, and if it made it into a paper in the States it was buried among the fun, wacky stories somewhere near the back and given that much weight.

Technology will continue to hit us upside the head with what it can achieve and shrink our borders to the point where we can reach out from a computer in Massachusetts and touch the coast of Africa. Ghostvillage will be there with it, changing as our minds are changed and offering the framing for the next generation of understanding. The news will continue to bring you the world, but just remember the biggest story this month is that it has already made it this long.

World's Leading Ghost Hunters Return to Chronicle the Globe's Top Haunts
Closet-Dwelling Ghost Haunted Carradine PopEater September 22, 2009 [EXTERNAL NEWS]
Ten Great Places to Sleep With a Ghost Reuters Austin, Texas- September 17, 2009 [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:

Spirit Communication
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28731
Ouija similar to internet? You don't know who you're talking to.

Ghost Hunting Equipment
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28741
Theremin.

Personal Encounters
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=13122
Were they real?

Spiritography
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28977
Aboard the USS North Carolina.

EVP: David
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28758
Preteen boy says "David."

Skeptics
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28449
This is actually turning into a decent discussion.

Religion
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28421
Spiritual athiests.

Paranormal TV
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=23213
Destination Truth tonight!

Paranormal Movies
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=28812
Paranormal Activity.

Haunted Land
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=25525
Maudslay State Park, Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Haunted Water
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=9094
Emily's Bridge.

Haunted Dwellings
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=18398
Haunted Prisons.

Regional Haunts
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=22540
Blood Cemetery, Lansing Michigan.

The World's Most Haunted Places
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=2680
Some updates on the Imperial Hotel Casino.


Board of the Month -- Halloween / 10 Years of Ghostvillage!
http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showforum=27
Tell us about your Halloween/Samhain traditions, and give a shout out to your favorite paranormal Web site!

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:

301,432 Posts in the Town Square Message Boards
26,276 Members in the Town Square
922 "Personal Encounters" published on Ghostvillage.com
1,358 Paranormal Web sites in the Ghost Links directory
30,021 Subscribers to this newsletter
6,271,453 Total Web site "hits" for Ghostvillage.com in September

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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