Dear Papa,

Is It true there is such a thing as Ghost hunter Certification?And what does it do for you as a ghost hunter?

Mary Papa

Certified Ghost Hunter ... yes their are many who offer courses in Ghost hunting. From Patti Starr's Ghost Chasers International Home Study Course to Stacey all Mcgees' Ghost Hunting 101 Workshop. Groups like PsyTech, Kentucky Ghost Hunters sponsor Dinners, Camp outs, Ghost Hunting Weekends & more!

Through these course you can learn the correct protocols and means to gather EVP's paranormal research techniques and possibly Dowsing Lessons , or ghost photography and more.

It's also a good credential to have as it lets people know your being and doing things professionally.

Dear Papa,

Is It true another curse was put on the New Orleans Saints so they would not get into Super Bowl XLI ? I heard on the radio someone is trying to lift the curse then I read someone is cursing them again?

Kevin Milliken In Louisiana

Many say the New Orleans Saints are a cursed football team! But there are many cursed teams or so they say.

Sports-related curses
A number of curses are used to explain the failures or misfortunes of specific sports teams or players. For example, the Curse of the Billy Goat is used to explain the failures of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, who have not won a championship since 1908. Players who appear on the covers of either the Sports Illustrated magazine or the Madden NFL video game have tended to coincidently suffer setbacks or injuries.

The infamous black cat circles Ron Santo in 1969 at Shea Stadium, just before the "Mircale Mets" write another chapter of the Cubs curse.

Focus of cursed teams turns to Cubs, White Sox ... So much for the Curse of the Bambino. Could the billy goat be next?
Some long-suffering Chicago Cubs fans allowed themselves to wonder after watching the Boston Red Sox sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to win the World Series for the first time since 1918. --http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2004-10-28-chicago-curse_x.htm

Many say the New Orleans Saints are one of the most cursed teams in NFL. The curse was said to be placed on the team by a Great New Orleans evil voodoo witch queen during the first year NFL season.

Fans in New Orleans believe that Exorcists and voodoo priestesses have been trying to remove or to dispel the curse. ... The main target of the curse, of course, has been the New Orleans Saints, The New Orleans Saints management called upon Voodoo Yoruba Priestess Ava Kay Jones.

Voodoo was considered by the dominant American culture to be sinful and threatening, and strong repressive measures were taken by the authorities. From the turn of the twentieth century until about the 1960s, the practice was simply seen as a fraud from which the ignorant needed protection. By the latter half of the twentieth century,concerns with both sin and fraud had diminished, and Voodoo was looked upon as entertainment—a tourist commodity and potential gold-mine for commercial exploitation. Finally, at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, there has been a new awareness of Voodoo as a legitimate religion.

Many have tried to break the curse publicly including Witch Queen Mary Onieda Toups in 1978, and recently Reese Smith a psychic Reader from Marie Laveaus' House Of Voodoo has added his name to the list for the 2006-2007 season.

Voodoo has been exploited by promoters of the New Orleans Saints, ... Times-Picayune announcing, “The Curse Is Lifted.”

On Halloween, 1999, a local radio station asked Voodoo - Priestess Miriam Chamani to perform a ceremony outside the Superdome to help the New Orleans Saints win against the Cleveland Browns (which was interrupted by harassment from a Browns fan dressed as a dog).

In 2002, New Orleans own Voodoo Yoruba Priestess Ava Kay Jones poses with her South American Red Tailed Boa during the Saints win against the Rams.

Ava Kay Jones and Voodoo - Priestess Miriam Chamani were voted by readers of Haunted America Tours as one of the Top Ten Voodoo Queens in New Orleans, Visit here to see who else made the list! http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/voodoo/voodooqueens/

The Saints contracted Quint Davis and his company Festival Productions Inc. (the team that produces Jazz Fest and the Essence Festival) to handle entertainment for the Saints' home games. According to Wayne Hodes, director of marketing for the Saints, approximately two weeks before the Saints/Rams game on Dec. 17, 2002, Hodes' office asked Davis to hire Ava Kay Jones, a well-known Voodoo and Yoruba priestess, to do a blessing before the game.

Smith Says, "The New Orleans Saints curse will be lifted but it will haunt some far away desert place and hopefully not another undefeated team." " Banished Curses sometimes can be moved but not broken!" Where this one will end up I do not know."

The 2006- 2007 Saints are no longer a surprise as expectations continue to rise for a team now figured to be in contention for a playoff spot. Is Reese Smiths' Voodoo Hex Breaker actually working?

The New Orleans Saints 2006 season
09/10 at Cleveland W 19-14
09/17 at Green Bay W 34-27
09/25 Atlanta W 23-3
10/01 at Carolina L 18-21
10/08 Tampa Bay W 24-21
10/15 Philadelphia W 27-24
BYE
10/29 Baltimore L 22-35
11/05 at Tampa Bay W 31-14
11/12 at Pittsburgh L 31-38
11/19 Cincinnati L 16-31
11/26 at Atlanta W 31-13
12/03 San Francisco W 34-10
12/10 at Dallas W 42-17
12/17 Washington L 10-16
12/24 at N.Y. Giants W 30-7
12/31 Carolina L 21-31


01/13 NFC Divisional Playoff
Philadelphia W 27-24
01/21 NFC Championship
at Chicago L 14-39

Many say that The Actual Voodoo Hex Breaker by Smith did make a difference! So much that Sonia Choquette wanted Bears fans to take a piece of paper, write ''Freeze New Orleans'' on it, then place it in a freezer. Crazy? Maybe, but as sure as some believe there's voodoo brewing in the cemetery under the Superdome, Bears fans are looking for ways to counter whatever mojo has been fueling the Saints this season.

Voodoo "Freeze" In Upcoming Football Game
Psychic's a freeze spirit

see: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/215577,CST-SPT-vside18.article

Saints have team spirit
Voodoo queen Marie Laveau died 125 years ago, but influence lingers

January 18, 2007
BY NEIL HAYES Staff Reporter www.suntimes.com
NEW ORLEANS -- Everyone seems to agree that the New Orleans Saints have been propelled as if by magic during a worst-to-first season that has them one victory away from the Super Bowl.
But could darker forces be at work? In the voodoo capital of the United States, the question must be asked: Has black magic played a role in the Saints reversing 40 years of futility in the wake of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history?

Are the Bears cursed? Might there be a hex on Rex?

The search for truth through the cobblestone streets and narrow back alleys of the French Quarter on an unseasonably cold, windy, rain-soaked day produced a startling answer.

In voodoo capital New Orleans, the Saints have appeared to have black magic on their side all season. But Chicago has its own answer to counter the mojo.
(Guillermo Munro/Sun-Times)

Legend has it that if you make three X marks on her tomb with red brick, then place your hand over the marks while rubbing your right foot against the base of her tomb three times, she will grant your wish.

People from all around the world flock to this shrine and do just that.

The Bears better hope they're not Saints fans.

nhayes@suntimes.com

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/215577,CST-SPT-vside18.article

Cursed Teams

While not meant in the most literal sense to most fans, there is an overall feeling that both teams' misfortunes began with unfortunate events which some claim have cursed both teams into their poor play. This adds to the overall downtrodden feelings that fans feel for their own teams, making it much easier to revel in the poor play of the other.

The Chicago Cubs won ten National League championships between 1901 and 1945, and also had among the best winning percentages in the NL up to that time (3796-3022 for a 0.557 winning percentage). The Cubs had a 2 games to 1 lead over the Detroit Tigers in the 1945 World Series, when on October 6, 1945, Cubs fan and local tavern owner Billy Sianis was prevented from reaching his seat because he was accompanied by his pet billy goat. Local legend says that he responded by placing a curse on the Cubs to never again win the World Series, which they have not. While few take the idea of a curse with great seriousness, the Cubs, on more than one occasion, have featured a tongue-in-cheek promotion where billy goats are brought into the stadium to be offered as an apology (see: Curse of the Billy Goat). Some historians argue that the genesis of the curse goes back much farther; that the allegededly underhanded way they won the 1908 pennant (leading to their last World Series win) angered the "baseball gods". For lack of a standard term, this could be called the curse of Johnny Evers, since he was at the center of the controversy. Every post-season they have participated in since them seems to have featured a disaster of some kind, from Hack Wilson losing a fly ball in the sun, to Babe Ruth's "called shot", to the "Bartman incident". When they won the division in 1984, their first title since 1945, manager Jim Frey shouted in the champagne-soaked clubhouse, "The monkey's off our back!" Some fans took that as the kiss of death... which it proved to be, as the Padres late-inning rally in the final game in San Diego featured a ground ball slipping under the glove of first baseman Leon Durham... an eerie precursor to a similar and much-more-memorilazed incident with the Red Sox and former Cubs first baseman Bill Buckner that would occur two years later. That requires a quick mention of the "Ex-Cubs Factor", an offshoot of the main Cubs "curse": that any team reaching the post-season since the 1945 Series, and having 3 or more ex-Cubs, was almost certainly doomed to lose in either the playoffs or the Series due to "a critical mass of Cubness". The 1960 Pirates had been the lone exception until 2001, when the Diamondbacks effectively ended talk of that curse by winning the Series in a dramatic finish that featured 2 of the 3 ex-Cubs, one of them (Luis Gonzalez) making the game-winning RBI.

The White Sox had the best winning percentage of any American League team from 1901-1920 (1638-1325 for a 0.553 winning percentage), but quickly slipped to among the worst teams after that. Many point to the Black Sox scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series as the point in history that changed the White Sox fortunes. Eight White Sox players conspired to intentionally lose the World Series, and in 1920 were banned from baseball for life. While the White Sox won 4 AL titles in the first 20 years of their existence, they would win only one more league championship in the twentieth century. The term "curse" has seldom been used as such, since the scandal was perceived to be something the players did to themselves rather than being wrought by the front office conducting ill-advised transactions or committing public relations gaffes. In fact, many White Sox fans take offense to the term "curse." Still, a pall seemed to settle on the franchise (along with a slim budget), and it would be the last years of the Eisenhower administration before they would win the league championship again. When the White Sox clinched the pennant, broadcaster Jack Brickhouse capped his play-by-play with, "A forty year wait has now ended!" The 2005 pennant ended a forty-six-year wait for the next one, while the 2005 World Championship ended an 88-year wait for a World Series victory. This adds a decidedly interesting twist on the rivalry as there are very few fans for either team who were alive to see one side actually claim a title while the other waited.

The 21st century seems to be a time for legendary curses to finally surpass their statutes of limitations, one by one. The Bambino curse was broken by the Red Sox's stunning victory in 2004. And the recent success of the White Sox has pretty well put their distant shady past behind them, leaving the Cubs, the "lovable losers", as the last remaining fully "cursed" team in the major leagues.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sox-Cubs_rivalry"

Dear Papa:

WHAT ARE GHOST? And how do I go about getting ghost photos? And where a should "I go to take them?

D. Gendusa

Ghost

Wikipedia tells us: A ghost is usually defined as the apparition of a deceased person which frequently carries the deceased person's likeness and is experienced in association with the person's former habitats. The word "ghost" may also refer to the spirit or soul of a deceased person, or to any spirit or demon.

Ghosts are often associated with haunting, which is, according to the Parapsychological Association, "The more or less regular occurrence of paranormal phenomena associated with a particular locality (especially a building) and usually attributed to the activities of a discarnate entity; the phenomena may include apparitions, poltergeist disturbances, cold drafts, sounds of steps and voices, and various odors."

Ghosts are controversial phenomena. According to a 2005 poll by the Gallup Organization, about 32% of Americans believe in ghosts.

The term ghost has been replaced by apparition in the scientific field of parapsychology, because the word ghost is deemed insufficiently precise.

Ghost Photos

An interesting book about spirit photos and well worth buying is: A Field Guide to Spirit Photography by Dale D. Kaczmarek. Highly recommended book on spirit photography with excellent, clear pictures and the best way of photographing ghosts and spirits. Dale Kaczmarek is the foremost author and President of the Ghost Research Society and has analyzed ghost pictures for over 20 years.

 

The Ghost Research Society was formed as a clearing house for reports of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeist and life after death encounters. The society members actively research and investigate all reports that come their way including private homes and businesses. The society also analyzes alleged spirit photographs, video and audio tapes that they come across from ordinary people or society members.

GHOST RESEARCH SOCIETY

Investigating the unexplained since 1977...

Ghost Research Society (www.ghostresearch.org)
© 1997/2006 Dale Kaczmarek. All rights reserved.
Web site created by Dale Kaczmarek and Matt Hucke.
Site design and hosting by cynico network consulting http://www.ghostresearch.org/

Dear Papa,

Evp's and transcommunication have become a special intrest to me how should I get started getting my own EVP's. Could you explain more about EVP's also?

Karl Jacomine in Birmingham

EVP was not named or defined until the mid 20th century, although it is reported to have been observed in various forms since early in the century. At times the recording closet was empty, and at times it was occupied by a volunteer. Using this setup, von Szalay and Bayless report having captured many voices on tape that were not not heard through the speaker when the closet was occupied. Records of their experiment were later published in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.

Among the early pioneers of EVP was the self-proclaimed medium, Attila von Szalay (Sealay) who tried various techniques for capturing EVP during the 1930s before joining with Raymond Bayless in the 1950s. Together, they began by experimenting using a 78 RPM Pack Bell record cutter. When the results failed to meet their expectations, Bayless constructed a custom made recording rig consisting of an insulated closet featuring a microphone inside that lead to a remote tape recorder and speaker system in order to to allow the sounds inside the closet to be monitored and recorded.

In 1985, according to Instrumental Contact with the Dead?, German psychic Klaus Schreiber started receiving pictures of deceased family members on his television. Sometimes just voices would come across, telling Schreiber how to tune his TV for better reception. When Schreiber died soon after, his own image began to show up on the TV screens of some European ITC researchers.

Some researchers have claimed success in capturing ghost images with an instrumental transcommunication (ITC) set-up. With this technique, a video camcorder, connected to a television, is pointed at the television screen. In other words, the camera is recording the image it is simultaneously sending to the TV, creating an endless feedback loop. The frames of the video are then examined one by one, and sometimes ver distinct human faces can be seen.

Also a excellent site to visit is http://pjouini.club.fr/menugb.htm

Also check out EVP'S Electronic Voice Phenomena The Dead Do Speak... And Michael Firman listens!

EVP Researcher Michael Firman

EVP'S ON THE INTERNET

AA-EVP Home
The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena public web site offering "how to" help for EVP and ITC. What is EVP and ITC.

http://www.aaevp.com/

electronic voice phenomenon (EVP)
The belief in EVP in the United States seems to have mushroomed thanks to Sarah Estep, president of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena, ...

http://skepdic.com/evp.html

EVP
EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomena. This Phenomena occurs when the ... 1:) Some EVP is extremely hard to hear. We will be posting some of our best ...

http://www.ghostpix.com/gis/E.V.P.html

The Shadowlands Ghost Sounds page
EVP is a way to communicate with spirits. Researchers believe that the voices of ... He obtained a "B" class EVP of a voice saying what sounds like "what's ...

http://theshadowlands.net/ghostwav.htm

Anomalist Feature: This is EVP
I first heard about EVP several years ago, but I never paid much attention ... Later, Jurgenson admitted that he had been trying to record EVP voices for a ...

http://www.anomalist.com/features/evp.html

EVP
We have prepared a list of ghost voices known to ghost hunters as EVP, ... for help in getting these EVP's uploaded properly and functioning correctly. ...

http://www.ghoststudy.com/evp.html

International Ghost Hunters Society Electronic Voice Phenomena Page
Today, many ghost clubs include EVP on their web sites. Electronic Voice Phenomena is a process whereby the voice or voices of the dead are embedded onto ...

http://www.ghostweb.com/evp.html

Real Ghosts - EVP
Real Ghosts has many incredible spooky ghost photographs. Learn how to take Ghost Photos yourself!

http://members.tripod.com/~GSOLTESZ/evp.htm

Dear Papa,

Dear Papa Can you give me some info on JOHN B. KACHUBA ? I saw some info that his new book, Ghosthunting: On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers and Other Investigators of America's Paranormal World, will be published in Spring 2007 by New Page Books.

Barbara in San Diego

John Kachuba will be a featured guest at Ghostock 4, FEBRUARY 1ST - 4TH, 2007
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA. Ghosthunting: On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers and Other Investigators of America's Paranormal World, will be published in Spring 2007 by New Page Books is still slated for it's publication. exact date is not known as of yet.

John B. Kachuba's new book, Ghosthunting: On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers and Other Investigators of America's Paranormal World, will be published in Spring 2007 by New Page Books. He is also the author of Ghosthunting Illinois and Ghosthunting Ohio, How to Write Funny, and Why is this Job Killing Me? (Co-authored with his wife, Mary A. Newman, PhD).

The author of "Ghosthunting Ohio," "Ghosthunting Illinois," and "Ghosthunters," as well as other books unrelated to the paranormal. Certified Ghost Hunter and has investigated over 100 haunted locations throughout the U.S. In addition, He also teaches writing at Ohio University. To learn more, visit his Website at www.JohnKachuba.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1A619BM9SMBZW

John’s short fiction and nonfiction have been widely published in such publications as: Tin House, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Connecticut Review, Dogwood, Savannah Literary Review, Antioch Review, Poets & Writers, America’s Civil War, Cincinnati Magazine, American Profile, and many others. He has received several awards for his fiction, including the 2004 Dogwood Fiction Prize.

He holds advanced degrees in Creative Writing from Antioch University (Yellow Springs, OH) and Ohio University. He has taught writing at both the University of Cincinnati and Ohio University. He is also on the faculty of the Gotham Writers Workshop.

John is a noted conference speaker and presenter and has appeared at Wildacres Writing Workshop, Florida Suncoast Writers Conference, Columbus Writers Conference, Erma Bombeck Humor Writing Workshop, Blooming Grove Writers Conference, West Virginia Ghost Hunters and Spirituality Conference, Haunted America Conference, and Victory of Light Psychic Festival. He has also spoken on many radio and television programs throughout the country and internationally.

John lives in Athens, Ohio, with his wife Mary.

Dear Papa,

Did Romania Buy Dracula's Castle?

Craig in Oklahoma

The state of Romania has made one of its first announcements as a new EU member loud and clear: they want to buy the medieval fortress in Transylvania, Bran Castle (known also as "Dracula's Castle") back from the former royal family of Habsburgs, Reuters reports. The price tag? 60 million Euros.

One of Romania's most popular tourist attractions, Dracula's Castle, has been returned to its ancestral owners 60 years after being seized by communists.
The castle in Transylvania was handed back to the Habsburg family in a special ceremony. Restoration work began on the castle in the 1980s

US architect Dominic von Habsburg, who inherited the castle, was forced to leave with his family in 1948.

The 14th-Century fortress - whose real name is Bran Castle - has appeared in dozens of Hollywood Dracula films.

It was owned by the late Queen Marie who bequeathed it to her daughter, Princess Ileana, in 1938.

When the communists took power in Romania, the castle was confiscated and fell into disrepair.

The castle has since become one of Romania's most popular tourist attractions.

It has always had associations with the prince, Vlad the Impaler, famed for his cruelty and who inspired Irish author Bram Stoker's Dracula character.

Although he did not live there, the prince is thought to have visited the fortress several times.

"Going home"

The Habsburgs, who will now own the castle, ruled Romania in the late 17th Century.

Dominic von Habsburg, now based in New York, was 10 years old when his family was put under house arrest and then made to leave.

He told the BBC he had never given up hope of getting the castle back and said he was finally going home.

"I felt like I was a misplaced person. I felt like I was at home everywhere and at home nowhere," he says.

A new law passed in Romania in 2005 made it possible for former owners to claim property seized during the communist era.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5016898.stm

In 2007, von Habsburg Family put the castle up for sale for a price of £40,000,000

The castle was confiscated from the Habsburgs by the communists after WWII and just last year the former royal family got it back through restitution.

The fortress was never actually part of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula". However, Romania's 15th century ruler Vlad Tepes who visited there, served as an inspiration for the author. The castle has been a tourist attraction ever since.

Bran Castle, situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Brasov, Romania, is a national monument and landmark.

The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on Highway 73. In addition to its unique architecture, the castle is famous because of persistent myths that it was once the home of Vlad the Impaler, a famous or infamous medieval warlord; however, there is no evidence that he ever lived there. According to most accounts, the Impaler spent two days in the Bran dungeon, as the area was occupied by the Ottoman Empire at the time. Because of the (disputed) connections between Vlad and the fictional character Dracula, the castle is marketed to foreign tourists as Dracula's Castle,

FEATURED GHOSTS AND STORIES & MORE REPORTED REAL GHOST PHOTOS, Updated Often!

No one has ever offered irrefutable proof that science and the world consider of an haunting (otherworldly) encounter or ghost manifest ion. There has never been produced substantial evidence of the existence of ghosts, or haunted houses or haunted anything. Yet, enough along these lines has been reported, with sufficient consistency to arouse one's curiosity and perhaps warrant extended investigations. One of the eternally unanswered questions of the living is, "what really happens to us when we die?"

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