Haunted San Diego

From SyFy:

Eminent paranormal collector John Zaffis returns for a second season in Syfy’s popular series Haunted Collector on Wednesday, June 6 at 9PM (ET/PT). Zaffis and his team of investigators respond to SOS calls from around the country by individuals and businesses who’ve been terrorized by items that have been taken over by paranormal spirits and/or energy.

Through careful research, Zaffis works with the owner to find the best solution to the ghostly problem, either returning the item, burying it on site or bringing it to his paranormal museum in Stratford, Connecticut. There, Zaffis ensures they are specially stored to keep their powers at bay. Zaffis has also buried certain items in the foundation of the museum to neutralize the negative energy that can emanate from these haunted objects.

On the season premiere of Haunted Collector, Jason Gates and Jesslyn Brown join the team as new investigators, heading to Warsaw, Kentucky, where two steamboats crashed in a fiery collision which killed more than 60 people in 1868. A woman whose home is near the site says that her house has suffered hauntings. During the night investigation, Zaffis’s team captures startling footage. 

Next, Haunted Collector travels to Huron, Ohio, where an abandoned grain silo is scheduled to be destroyed in 48 hours, sending the team on a race against the clock to identify and remove any potentially dangerous energy. The crew preparing the demolition has experienced apparitions walking by, objects moving and manholes opening and closing by themselves. 

“Haunted Collector” is one of my new favorite shows. John’s expertise is absolutely amazing, and his compassion helps people every place he and his team visit. – Spooky

Richard Kimmel writes on Asbury Park Press:

I am a paranormal archaeologist, a published author of several books on specific aspects of this topic and have been involved with the paranormal for many years.

Working with haunted artifacts for many years and on many major investigations, I have been able to present conclusive evidence that there exist two common types of haunting: one involving the interactive or intelligent spirit, while the other is residual in nature.

A misconception “floating” around is the failure to differentiate  between spirits and ghosts. A spirit is that of a human who has passed and chooses to interact with the present.

Ghosts are images of the passed, what have been commonly termed as “residual” haunting. This is the latent energy of an event or an action that took place during a previous time period at a specific location, and the imprint has been recorded. When the conditions are amicable, it is played back, similar to a looped video.

The major difference between a spirit and a ghost you see in residual haunting is that you cannot interact with the ghosts. Some interactive spirits choose to remain behind for many reasons, while others have not yet realized they have passed on.

This is a very interesting way of looking at things. Thank you, Richard. – Spooky

Stephen Wagner, About.com Paranormal Guide writes:

People have always wanted to communicate with the dead. We miss the company and the relationships we had with them when they were alive. There are always things that remain to be said, and we long to reach out to them at least one more time. We want to know that they’re okay wherever they are; that they are happy and no longer burdened by the trials of earthly life.

Also, if we can communicate with the dead, it affirms to us that there really is an existence “somewhere” after this life.

So, yes, we can reach out to those who have passed, but can they talk back? We have developed various methods and rituals in hopes of making two-way contact – most recently, using several technology-based methods. But are they effective? We seem to be getting responses… but can they be trusted? Are they truly responses from the dead?

Stephen has some wonderful insights into this topic. These include seances, trance mediums, Ouija boards, automatic writing, EVPs and ghost boxes among others. You can read the entire article here. – Spooky

From Technorati’s Phillip Brunelle:

There’s a paranormal tool that’s been used by ghost hunters for the past couple years, known as the ghost box. A paranormal investigator from Massachusetts has used the ghost box in his own home, and shared a video that reveals some compelling paranormal evidence, with possible proof that ghosts may actually exist.

A ghost box is a hand-held AM/FM radio that is modified to allow continuous scanning of every radio station at a rapid speed. The ghost box allows for tidbits of sound-waves from each station to just barely be heard as it scans through the radio stations. During this scanning, it’s believed that ghosts, or spirits, are able to manipulate the radio frequencies and have their voices heard in real-time.

Read the entire article here. – Spooky

OMG I was reTweeted by Barry Fitzgerald!! Woohoo!!! – Spooky

From Carina Adly MacKenzie at Zap2it:

It’s about time! Zap2it can officially confirm that The CW has finally given “Supernatural”cast and crew the official word that the show has been renewed for Season 8 — and it’s a good thing, too, because we’re hearing that Season 7 will end with an impressive cliffhanger. 

Of course, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles will both return as Sam and Dean Winchester. Additionally, mainstays Jim Beaver and Misha Collins have expressed interest in revisiting the show next season. “I had that conversation with Sera and Bob recently, and told them ‘Hey, just so you know, I would love to keep working on the show,’” Collins told us.  

That said, executive producer and showrunner Sera Gamble has chosen to develop other projects this year, and thus is stepping down from her position. Former “Supernatural” writer Jeremy Carver is returning to the show as a co-showrunner with Robert Singer. Carver will also continue to run SyFy’s “Being Human” remake.

The CW is expected to announce the rest of its 2012-2013 renewals before May 17, when they’ll present their upcoming programming to advertisers at the New York City upfront.

EVERY season of “Supernatural” has ended with a cliffhanger. And it drives me nuts waiting for the next season to start! Congrats to the “Supernatural” team and The CW. A job well done – again! – Spooky

Left to right: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins in an episode from “Supernatural.” Image from The CW.

Caster.com‘s Anneli Rufus wrote about Sheldon Norberg, a “psychic house cleaner,” and his experience with grounding a house…and its resident kitteh. Here’s a quote from the article:

“I sat down and grounded the house, then gave it a good quarter-turn,” said Norberg. “This felt good to me. All the energy felt really cleaned up. My client thought it was good, too. We said, ‘All right.’”

He drove home, thinking it was a job well done. But no. ”The next day, the client called me up and said, ‘You know, the house feels great, but now I’m having a problem with my cat.’”

To find out what happened with Norberg and the cat, read Anneli’s Caster article here. – Spooky

Well I’m a very, very sad Spooky today…finding out “Fringe” is only around for one more season. *sniff sniff* I’m so going to miss Olivia, Peter, Walter, Broyles, Astrid and Lincoln.

You can read details from MSNBC’s Anna Chan here. – Spooky

The lovely Anna Torv as Fringe agent Olivia Dunham.

Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop (** yum-my! **).

Lance Riddick as Agent Philip Broyles. He has the best voice; I’d love to hear him do some voiceover work.

Seth Gabel as Agent Lincoln Lee. I totally have a huge crush on Lincoln!!

Beautiful Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth and John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop.

I really like The Mary Sue. It’s one of my favorite geekage web sites. However I very, very strongly disagree with contributor Jamie Frevele in his article titled,”People can’t figure out why The Cabin in the Woods is so awesome, so here are a few solid reasons for you.” Because I don’t think it was awesome. I think it was awful. And boring. You can read my review here. And here is my response to Frevele’s article, in case it gets deleted:

You have got to be kidding me. This movie was NOT awesome. It is NOTHING like Evil Dead. It did NOT remain faithful to the horror genre. It was NOT an effective horror movie. It was NOT full of surprises. It was NOT scary. It was NOT suspenseful. It was NOT incredibly effective. It is NOT well done. I was not at all into this movie. I was hoping for so much more from Joss Whedon and company. Sure, I had a few laughs, but during the rest of it I was shaking my head in disappointment. The best scene was the bet-taking. Everything else was a snore. I wish I’d waited for pay-per-view. Zzzzz…come on, the original Godzilla was better than this. Are we so desensitized now we think movies like this are HORROR movies? Sheesh.

This is 100% my opinion being a horror fan and having seen the movie “The Cabin in the Woods.” I can’t speak for anyone else, but would love to know what others thought of it. You can email me at info@hauntedsandiego.com. – Spooky

From Yahoo! News:

April 15 marked the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. And while the story of the doomed luxury ship has been in the headlines for the past century, there are also stories of another kind: Ghost stories. Check out these spooky stories about the Titanic.

* In the aftermath of the Titanic tragedy, search and rescue teams recovered 328 Titanic victims and temporarily brought their bodies to the Snow & Co. Funeral Parlour in Halifax, Nova Scotia. According to Encompass Magazine, the funeral home is now the Five Fisherman Restaurant, and the original pulley used to hoist the Titanic cadavers to the building’s upper level still hangs in the wine room ceiling. Today, bizarre occurrences such as glass flying off a shelf and cutlery falling to the floor when no one is near are common occurrences at the restaurant. Manager Gary MacDonald has said of the building’s ghosts: “You must acknowledge them or they will pull stunts.”

* In 2008, the Atlanta Constitution Journal published a story about the Georgia Aquarium after the “Titanic Aquatic” exhibit was featured there. Several aquarium volunteers reported strange encounters as they worked on the exhibit, which featured hundreds of Titanic-related artifacts. The aquarium staff brought in paranormal investigators, who determined that the Titanic exhibit was indeed a spirit dwelling.

* According to the San Francisco Chronicle, in the 1990s a San Francisco man named Jaime Rodriguez claimed that he was being haunted by a ghost, before finding that a Titanic survivor once inhabited his apartment. But former tenant Dr. Henry Washington Dodge was not considered a Titanic hero. While Dr. Dodge claimed that he called out for women and children to take a spot in the lifeboat that housed his wife and son on that fateful night, he inevitably climbed into the boat and endured public scrutiny for the rest of his life. After undergoing a lawsuit and a financial beating, Dodge sunk into a depression and committed suicide in his San Francisco apartment in 1919. His ghost appeared in the apartment every summer for years, and always in the same spot.

* Legendary socialite Margaret “Molly” Brown survived the Titanic sinking, but her former Denver home is said to be the site of some unusual happenings. According to a blog on Mysterious Colorado, paranormal oddities occur regularly at Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, including furniture disturbances and alleged sightings of the ghosts of Molly and her husband James Joseph Brown. Sightings of Molly’s mother in an upstairs window have also been reported, as well as mysterious smells such as Mr. Brown’s tobacco and his wife’s favorite rose-scented perfume.

* According to the Daily Mail, the house in England where the Titanic’s captain was born also has a haunting history. It may come as no surprise that the childhood home of Captain Edward John Smith has been riddled with mysterious floods and unexplained icy chills, as well as ghostly sightings.

If you’re able to see a Titanic traveling exhibit in your city, such as the one currently at the San Diego Natural History Museum in San Diego, California, it’s definitely worth it. It’s eerie being so close to objects that came from the great ship’s wreckage. And there’s more than a few lingering spirits among them. – Spooky