Broadband problems

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of posts. Some cables in my house have broken and my internet is useless right now. It should be fixed sometime in the next week so I can resume my Cryptid posts.

Cryptids: Part 1 - A list

Hey everybody sorry about the lack of posting. I've had a busy week and have a cold. Just a short post to confirm that I shall now be researching cryptids. I'll be starting with UK based ones as they are the easiest for me to investigate. After looking into them I'll research the more famous international ones and any that I find more interesting than the rest. Here's a list of cryptids from wikipedia so it's likely that some info is incorrect and that it is possibly an incomplete list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptids

Enjoy :)

Ghosts: Part 7 - Summary

A basic summary of all of the ghost posts so far before I move on to another topic  :)

Part 1: I posted what I knew about ghosts from the top of my head. It was mostly right and not much I can add to it really.

Part 2: I listed some sites with information about ghosts and ghost hunting.

Part 3: I listed some nearby locations I could investigate.

Part 4: I made a note of the equipment I will need.

Part 5: I watched a fairly famous ghost video and pointed out how it is likely fake and how not to investigate. Mainly as a reminder to myself of what I should do when I have a camera.

Part 6a: Ghost mist
Part 6b: Orbs
Part 6c: Vortex
Part 6d: Shadow Ghosts
Part 6e: Apparitions
Part 6f: Poltergeists

I'm gonna be pretty busy with work the next few days but I will try to have time to start the next topic.

What would everyone rather I research next? UFO's, Cryptids, Psychic powers or some other paranormal phenomena?

Personally I'm very interested in cryptids but I will go with the majority vote cuz after all I don't have equipment to investigate them yet :)

Ghosts: Part 6f - Poltergeists

This will be my last section on types of ghost. There are many others which I wont detail as they are more or less the same as the rest but for anyone interested here's a list of them:

• Ghost lights
• Streaming Ghost energy
• Rods/Swimmers
• Energy Rod
• Evil Spirits/Demons (Will be covered in another topic of investigation)
• Crowd Demons
• Residue Haunting
• Spirits
• Angels

Poltergeists are invisible spirits which can make noises and move things. They are traditionally thought to be ghosts although some people believe they are spontaneous telekinesis so the topic will probably be revisited when I investigate psychic powers. Poltergeists are most often violent and have been know to attack people. As poltergeists are all about moving objects and making noises there will be no pictures. So lets see some videos, I suggest watching them before reading my comments :)

Every other video I've seen so far has obviously been fake but this one I'm not so sure about. It could have been faked by three people who had perfect timing and choreography. One person in the cupboard to open and slam the door and with a thin piece of wire to make it move. Another person in the kitchen with a wire to pull the door open. And a third person behind the camera to make sound effects and attract the dogs attention. The flipping roll of tissue could have been faked with a wire being pulled using a pulley off camera, the wire would be attached firmly to the tissue but would become unattached if pulled with enough force. However, the dogs agitation would have to be very well trained. The door opening and closing as if being kicked would need very strong wires which would still have to thin enough to not be seen. And also the speed at which the tissue spins seems unlikely if it were done with a wire and pulley arrangement.

Also there is the possibility of video editing being used.

If it's fake then it is exceptionally well done. But I'm leaning towards this actually being legitimate.

This one is either strong magnets or real not enough to go on really.

This one is insane. Either a very impressive fake or real. This guy has even more videos too. Here's his profile:
http://www.youtube.com/user/mellowb1rd

My next post will be a summary of all the ghost posts so far and then I'm going to move on to UFO's. When I finally can afford some equipment I will return to ghost posts and do some actual investigating.

Ghosts: Part 6e - Apparitions

Sorry for the lack of posts. Been majorly busy the past few days.

Apparitions are ghosts which look exactly like the person they once were except they are transparent. Apparently they are the rarest form of ghost and are almost impossible to catch on film, which to me just sounds like people use that as an excuse to say they've seen a ghost but have no proof even though they had a camera. Logically they should be more visible on film than to the naked eye because camera's take pictures of what can be seen and these days they can pick up details so small that they are invisible to the naked eye. Anyways here's some pictures of apparitions.

As you can see I have gone for older photos this time. Photoshop makes pics so much easier to fakes these days. Even back when camera's were new they could be faked although the process was more difficult. I'm unsure what to make of these pictures so I'll just leave them for your browsing pleasure :) Here's a video

Not much to make of it really but it's definately see-through lol.

Pictures taken from these sites:
http://www.mysupernaturalstories.com
http://www.angelsghosts.com
http://www.scaryforkids.com

Ghosts: Part 6d - Shadow Ghosts

These ghosts are basically shadows. Have you ever seen some sort of shadowy form out of the corner of your eye? It could have been one of these or could just have been your imagination. They can be any shape and can be seen in mirrors too. Here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Not much to say about these really. The first could easily just be someone standing in the background so only the people there at the time would know if it's real or not. The second is just a shadowy staircase with a bit that's more shadowy than the rest and the last could be something behind the pillar casting a shadow. Here's a couple of videos:

Definately creepy but are they real? It's harder to fake a video than an image but it's nowhere near impossible to do.

Images were taken from these sites:
http://www.ghosttheory.com
http://www.assap.org
http://www.ghoststudy.com

Ghosts: Part 6c - Vortex

These are sort of a cross between mist and orbs. They are long streaks of light, essentially a very large orb. Like orbs I think that these can be easily explained as camera defects or as something moving very quickly that the flash reflected off of. Anyway here's some pictures :)

The first picture is clearly a strand of hair up close and the third one is probably the flash reflecting off something. The second image does defy explanation other than a camera defect or a photoshop but I don't want to use that as an explanation because just assuming a camera defect is just that same as assuming it's real. Here's a "video":

I don't believe this is real at all. Not for any particular reason just because its not an actual video but a few still images. It just seems a little bit too coincidental that something that happens that quickly is caught on a camera which must be set up on a tripod as the positioning doesn't change at all.

Images taken from the following sites:
http://www.hauntedtraveler.com
http://www.paranormalunderground.net
http://www.angelsghosts.com

Ghosts: Part 6b - Types of Ghost (Orbs)

Orbs are floating balls of light. Basic description really but I don't see the ghostly aspect of them. In my opinion all photographs of them can be simply explained, the most common cause of them is probably the flash reflecting off a dust particle in front of the lens. Look at these photo's and maybe you'll agree with my thoughts on them.

The first image is probably pollen which the flash reflected off. I'm sure that the majority of "orb" pictures occur when a flash is used. The second picture is clearly the light from the window hitting dust near the lens, notice how none of the orbs are on the right hand side of the picture. The third effect could be faked using a torch aimed at the camera or could easily be made using programs like paint or GIMP.
I don't think orbs are anything paranormal at all. They could easily be any number of non-ghostly things.
Here's a video of ghost orbs in action.

Most of these look like a laser of some sort. Although one does seem to be coming through the room towards the camera. I'm still not entirely convinced about them.

The images used are from these sites:
http://www.hauntedhovel.com
http://orbsandghosts.com
http://www.hauntedamericatours.com

Ghosts: Part 6a - Types of ghost (Ghostly Mist)

There are many reported types of ghost. In this post I aim to learn about these types and any information about how they appearand my thoughts about what they could logically be.

Ectoplasm / Mist

Apparently look exactly like smoke.But the important characteristic that defines it as a "ghost" is that it has "swirls". Not entirely sure what that means. Anyone who smokes knows that the smoke is constantly swirling around. The following are photo's of ghostly mist.

Nothing much to say about these really. The first one just looks like smoke to me. The second one I'll admit does look weird but could easily have been photoshopped. And the third looks like it was taken on a bit of a foggy evening. Pictures can be easily faked these days so I'll also provide a couple of youtube videos to see this type of ghost in action.

I still don't quite see what exactly defines these as ghost mists. Maybe if on my investigations I come across something like this I'll understand but for now I'm just going to class it as overreaching for ghostly explanations.

If you want to see more images. The above three were taken from the following sites:
http://theparanormalguide.com
http://www.clantongang.com
http://www.hauntedamericatours.com

Ghosts: Part 5 - How Not To Ghost Hunt

Today I present you the Smith Building ghost videos. Watch them first and then see my notes below.

Part 1 is a link because it doesn't want to be available for being put on the blog for some reason :s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enVAjZxrD7o

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

I think that the video is a fake and if it isn't then it is very badly done. I understand that they were scared but they could have made more of an effort. Here's some notes I've made on what happens and how the video should have been made.

Part 1

1:42 - Something falls to the ground randomly.on camera. The guy filming reacts by spinning around and commenting about the ghost being there. He doesn't mention the thing falling and doesn't investigate it despite it happening right in front of him. If the video is real then why didn't he go and have a look? If it's fake then obviously he didn't go because whoever made it fall would have been caught on film.

3:20 - Despite the lights turning off and on in the room he decides not to actually look in the room. No matter how scared he was he could have at least held the camera in there to show the room. Same goes for the doors that close as he walks by them earlier in the video.

3:58 - A piece of wood falls to the ground. Two rooms are next to where it fell. He looks in one, ignores the other and then looks in the room down the hall. Just seems a bit choreographed to me.

Part 2

0:14 - Door slams and gets ignored.

0:22 - Ghost girl standing in the corner in the darkness. Things which should be done for authenticity include turning on the light, getting a good camera shot, getting closer, filming to see what happens. What he does is run away almost instantly.

2:30 - Goes to investigate some noises. Light goes on and off and he runs away.

2:48 - Ghost girl in the same room and same corner. Sees her for barely a second screams and runs away.

3:29 - You can clearly see him checking the position of the light switch then taking one step and the light suddenly goes off...

4:50 - The world record for shortest time on camera is held by this view of the ghost girl.

Part 3

1:42 - I'm not sure what happens here it's too dark. He said he was going to talk to her. The girl seems to be gone from the room but then he says something about a big f*cker and then runs away.

2:07 - Big bang and smashing noise. No investigation.

2:42 - Something falls and again the reaction is to turn away.


Part 4


1:36 - Somthing can be seen here but it violently snatches the world record out of the hands of the girl in part 2 and you can't actually tell what it is before he runs away.

2:38 - Some doors on a cupboard(?) slam. This is the only unexplainable bit in the video. Although the camera blur just before it happens and the lack of a good look inside could both be hiding something.


Obviously I haven't noted every incident of doors closing and noises but all of them are uninvestigated and any that are are done in a very unthorough way. It just seems too staged to be real. The few glimpses of the "ghost" that are there just look like a girl standing in the corner and there's nothing to prove that she is a ghost and not just the guys daughter or someone like that.



On a side note. I'm starting a couple of new blogs to showcase my writing incase anyones interested. The stories I write are usually either completely random or horror based so I'm going to start 2 blogs one for each type. I'll put the links up on my the side bar once I've got them up. I've got a few random stories that I can just copy and paste but there aren't any horror stories on my laptop so that blog will probably take a little bit longer to be made.

My Beliefs

Hey everybody I just thought I'd make a post about my personal beliefs when it comes to paranormal things :)

Ghosts

Having never had a ghostly experience I'm not completely convinced they exist although the amount of picture evidence (from before it was easy to fake photo's) is enough to make me wonder. And hopefully when I investigate I will find something :)

UFOs

I am a firm believer in aliens. In a vast universe it is highly unlikely that we are the only life. However I don't believe that aliens fly to earth just to abduct people and probe them. If anything they are merely taking pictures. Like we do with our unmanned missions to the planets in our solar system. In another few decades/centuries we'll be doing the same thing but with other systems so any alien race more advanced than us is probably doing the same thing.

Cryptids

I am completely unsure about these creatures. Thinking about how old Nessie is from the earliest sightings then logically there must be more than one of these creatures for them to breed and still be alive these days. Of course the creature could have a very long life span but you can;t be sure. But Bigfoot is a humanesque creature and it's logical that their life span is similar to ours so there must be a few of them to continually be sighted but still no good evidence for their existance.

Psychic Phenomena

I'm unsure about this too. It seems that anyone with telekinetic powers or something like that would be able to strengthen them through exercising them regularly like with normal muscles and lateral thinking etc. and yet most of them are unable to do anything under proper observation.

Anyway that concludes a look into my beliefes on the subject :) Maybe I'll do another post like this after I've done some investigating and maybe my beliefs will have changed. There are many more paranormal phenomena I could have talked about but as they are pretty rare and I'm unsure about them all I figured I'd stick with the four major topics :)

A site for anyone interested in the paranormal

I've just stumbled across this site while looking for pictures of ghosts for a future post and I thought I'd share it with you all.

http://www.theastralworld.com/

Help

Hey everybody. Seeing as my investigating is pretty much on hold until I can at least get a video camera I thought I'd start looking into the other things I want to investigate. So if anyone knows of some good UK based locations for any of the following let me know. And if you can think of anything else that I could look into let me know about them :)

UFO's - Any hotspots would be appreciated.

Creatures - Any local legends or well known monsters. Except Nessie because everybody has heard of it.

Hmmmm. I was hoping for a longer list lol. But I guess that's all there really is and a quick google search has just confirmed it. I will eventually look into other paranormal things like summoning demons, telekinesis etc. but for now any infromation on those will be helpful :)

Ghosts: Part 4 - Equipment

I just thought I'd make a list of equipment I will require for when I head out investigating places.

Firstly if I'm in an old abandoned building I would obviously need basic provisions of food, drink and warm clothing or a blanket. But they will not produce results so I only list them as a reminder to myself for when I'm getting everything ready.

I intend to buy a good HD video camera to record every moment of my investigations to share with the world via youtube. I would also like to buy a good camera to have some photographic evidence of my investigations.

I will need a sensitive recording device to record any sounds that occur and maybe record some EVP which wouldn't prove anything but would be interesting to hear.

There are some other small things that I think I should bring as potential for proving certain events are occuring.

If a door were to close on it's own then I'd need some way of proving that there is no draft. This can easily be done by simply suspending a piece of paper or a feather on a string.

Obviously I wouldn't be able to prove any strange smells but if I have a quick acting thermometer device then I could show any changes in temperature.

That's all I can think of right now. If anyone can think of anything else let me know :D

Ghosts: Part 3 - Locations

I've been reading up on locations for my first ghost hunting trip. I'm mainly looking at areas that are close to where I live for this first trip. The locations also have to allow for me to spend the night for a full investigation. Here's my shortlist:
http://www.haunted-britain.com/Haunted_Wales.htm#Maes-y-Neuadd. : A hotel with a haunted bedroom that hosts a friendly ghost. Would be a good idea for my first potential first encounter with a ghost to be a good one.

http://hauntedwales.co.uk/locations/black-boy-inn.html : A hotel with a haunted bar. Would have fun drinking there but as I would probably not be allowed to sleep in the bar it's an unfeasible location.

http://hauntedwales.co.uk/locations/white-horse-inn.html : A possibility but the haunting seems to be pretty basic and unlikely to occur frequently.

http://hauntedwales.co.uk/locations/plas-teg-hall.html : While I may not be allowed access to the hall for the night the road nearby is also haunted.

http://hauntedwales.co.uk/locations/castle-hotel-az0-conwy.html : Would be fun to see a ghost cat :)


There's probably more locations nearby. I'm still looking and I've been asking around to see if anyone knows of places.

Camera Update

Hey eveybody just a short update today. Selling things on Amazon is going well so hopefully I'll be able to get a good HD camera with all the needed extras like night vision.

I'll let you all know when I know more.

Ghosts: Part 2 - Some Pages I am using for research

Hey all just thought I'd share some links with you so you know what I'm reading up on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghosts - I know wikipedia isn't the best source of information but it's a starting point.

http://pulynyaleg.neonblade.com/ghosts.html - Found on wikipedia. As I live in Wales this is a potential site for investigating, although access to the castle is hard to get.

http://www.true-ghost-stories.com/GhostInfo.html - I'll probably read some of the stories too to see if there are any places nearby that I could visit.

http://www.angelsghosts.com/ghosts.html - Could be interesting.

http://www.ghost-mysteries.com/ghost-guide-index.php - A guide to ghost hunting for when I go investigating.

http://www.haunted-britain.com/Haunted_Wales.htm - A list of nearby hauntings for me to look at.

http://www.hauntedwales.co.uk/ - And another site about nearby hauntings.

I'm also hunting through the bookshelves in the house as I'm sure there are some books about ghosts around somewhere.

I'll keep you all updated.

Ghosts: Part 1 - General Information

Before I begin I'm just letting you all know that I'm seeling a bunch of old games and stuff on amazon to hopefully earn money to buy a camera to film my explorings :)

Now on to the topic of this post. I'm now beginning my research into ghosts. I'll start off with a short post to share what I know about them off the top of my head, and if anything I post is incorrect or anything like that you can leave me a comment to correct me. Also if you know of any sites/books that provide good information on ghosts or haunted locations let me know and I'll look into them.

Ghosts are the manifestation of a dead person/animal. They can range from invisible forces that can move objects (Poltergeists) to semi-translucent shapes (most commonly the shape of their previous body). They are generally stuck haunting a certain place either because they died there or it was a place that was an important part of their life. Most ghost activity goes unnoticed by people and ghosts can appear in the background of photographs even though nothing was seen at the time. Many people attempt to contact ghosts through seances or necromancy.

I really thought I knew more than that about ghosts lol. I think they are the basic facts that most people know about ghosts. I shall start proper research tomorrow and will hopefully have a more interesting read for you all.

First Post

Hi everyone. I'm Nick and I've been wanting to create a blog for years, so, here it is.

I've always been a paranormal agnostic. I don't want to just put faith in stuff like ghosts etc. without ever actually having seen anything to prove it, but I also don't want to be a skeptic who just outright dismisses everything he sees as fake. So I decided to finally create a blog and to use it as a journal of sorts to chronicle my explorations into the paranormal. This will be an unbiased look into all things paranormal. Anything that happens to me will be documented in these posts. There will be no exaggerations and anything I do find will be looked at in both paranormal and scientific ways.

Before I begin describing how I will go about my investigations I will first tell you a little about myself. I'm 24 and have very recently turned single again (so I have free time to do this stuff now). I work in a supermarket as I can't find a new job since finishing university and find it to be a highly boring job. I live in the UK, North Wales to be more precise. That's all you basically need to know about me. I'm sure that during the rest of my posts you will learn more about me but for now that's it.

So how am I going to go about these investigations?

Firsty when I decide to investigate something I will do as much research as I possibly can. I will scour the net and library for relevant sources and will relay the info back to my readers through these posts.

After that I will look into methods of investigating the phenomena and details of any local places which are of intrest.

Then I will go to these places and do whatevers necesary to investigate it all. I intend to buy a HD camera to record these investigations (most paranormal phenomena are recorded in black and white and are all fuzzy so they instantly look fake) and will be creating a youtube account to post videos of my explorations. It may take me a while to buy one at my rate of pay but I will keep you posted on that.

After investigating an area I will review any evidence I found. And willl investigate more similar areas.

My first research topic will obviously be ghosts. They are possibly the oldest documented of all things paranormal and are a good starting point for me. Other things I will look into are, in no particular order:
UFO's
Demons
Local Legends (most counties have their own legends of some creature or being)
Magic
Psychic phenomena

Anything that I have missed out I will probably learn about during my research. But if anyone who reads this thinks of anything I missed out feel free to let me know.