Super Crocodiles Revealed!

Galloping crocodiles? Twenty to forty feet long!? Thankfully, no crypto discovery here, these creatures lived millions of years ago. It's true, Squidward, it's true. Not paranormal, of course, but freaking crazy!

Associated Press

Check out the article Three New Ancient Crocodile Species Fossils Found

The Most Haunted Church in the United States?

Many paranormal investigators and enthusiasts will argue that one church within the United States stands out from all others when it comes to paranormal activity. Residing within one of North America’s most haunted cities, St. Augustine, Florida’s Shrine of Our Lady Le Leche has often been named the most haunted religious chapel in the United States.
The first Catholic mass in the United States occurred on the grounds of Our lady Le Leche Shrine. The chapel itself was built later on September 8th 1565. The small, Spanish-style building is surrounded by the buried bodies of various Catholic nuns and brothers and is often called “America’s Most Sacred Acre”.

Women, in particular, frequently make the pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady Le Leche to pray for fertility, healthy pregnancies and to pray for healing and health during and after difficult pregnancies. Every year a number of visitors claim to experience paranormal activity on chapel grounds.

Paranormal investigators theorize that varying kinds of physical disturbance to an area can stir up paranormal activity. Archaelogical work on mission grounds has been ongoing since 1993 and could be responsible for bringing out some of the spirits at the Shrine of Our Lady Le Leche.






Read More: http://ghosts-hauntings.suite101.com/article.cfm/real_photos_of_ghosts_in_churches

Hampton Court Ghost Caught on Tape: Evidence of a Ghost or a Hoax?

The 16th century palace known as Hampton Court, once home to King Henry VIII, was built in 1525 and has long been a hotspot for claims of paranormal activity. In 2003, one of those claims was allegedly verified by closed-circuit security camera footage that shows a cloaked and hooded figure reaching out to slam shut a set of doors after they mysteriously open by themselves. The footage was discovered when security guards reviewed the tape after a fire alarm sounded near an exhibition hall with no apparent cause.

See the VIDEO of the alleged Hampton Court Ghost.

At the same time one day before the Hampton Court ghost appeared to slam shut a set of heavy doors in security camera footage, the same camera caught the same set of doors opening on their own. When the figure appeared the following day, word quickly spread that a ghost had been caught on video at Hampton Court.
Security guard James Faukes said to BBC News that “It was incredibly spooky because the face just didn’t look human”. According to BBC News, an Australian visitor had written in a guest book earlier that day that she’d seen a ghost in that same area.

The fire alarm near the exhibition hall had gone off two previous times without an apparent cause. The alleged apparition only appeared in the doorway during the third fire alarm incident.


Read the rest of my article: http://ghosts-hauntings.suite101.com/article.cfm/hampton_court_ghost_caught_on_tape

Copyright Emily Eppig

Paranormal News of the Week, Nov 7th thru 13th, 2009

In other news...

• Following an astrobiology conference, top Vatican astronomer admitted slightly that extraterrestrials could exist. Nick Pisa of Mail Online writes that "The fact the possibility of other life elsewhere other than Earth was discussed at the Vatican marks a radical shift in its views - 400 years ago it condemned astronomer Galileo Galilei as a heretic for saying the Earth was not the centre of the Universe". Read the rest of Pisa's article.
• What's going on in England lately? Following last weeks UFO sightings over Long Eaton, more alleged UFO sightings occurred this week with dozens of witnesses. The British UFO Research Association passed off the orange-lights witnessed in the sky to Chinese lanterns. So if the UFO Research Association is saying it's nothing, the it really is probably nothing. Read the witness testimonies.
• Canon announced that problems with the EOS 7D camera have been repaired. What was termed as a ghost-image problem, faint traces of a preceding shot showing up in the next, are no longer an issue. The camera costs around $1700 and can shoot eighteen megapixel images while shooting up to eight photos per second. 
• After paranormal investigators claimed to hear a disembodied voice saying, "Help me - I'm stuck inside the wall", a skeleton was discovered in the basement wall of West Virginia's Aspen Manor. According to the authorities called in, the skeletal remains were "chopped up" and there were cut-like marks along the bones. Not fun. Read the article at wt09.com.      

Hunt for the Jersey Devil

** I originally interviewed Laura Leuter of the Jersey Devil Hunters for A&E Television Network's Paranormal Insider. This article has been republished at Suite101.com and here as well **

Laura Leuter is co-founder and president of The Devil Hunters, an organization dedicated to uncovering the truth behind New Jersey’s infamous cryptid.

Q. What is the Jersey Devil?

Leuter: The Jersey Devil is a creature that has been thought to terrorize the Pine Barrens of New Jersey for over 250 years.
The Jersey Devil is often described as having the face of a horse or deer, standing upright on two legs. It has large, bat-like wings, and makes a high-pitched inhuman screeching sound.
The creature was witnessed by the Lenni Lenape Native Americans, as well as original settlers of the state. It gained a large amount of notoriety in January of 1909 when it was sighted over 100 times in a week later dubbed "Phenomenal Week." Hundreds of people throughout the Delaware Valley encountered the creature in some form.
The most popular legend surrounding the Jersey Devil is that it was the 13th child of a woman known as Mother Leeds, who cursed her child during labor by screaming "Let this child be a devil!" The baby was born but quickly morphed into the deformed hideous creature originally known as the Leeds Devil, later to be renamed the Jersey Devil.
Read the rest of this interview: http://cryptozoology.suite101.com/article.cfm/hunt_for_the_jersey_devil

Copyright Emily Eppig

Ghost Hunting Equipment Guide

Paranormal investigators use specific tools and devices to track down evidence of paranormal activity. This guide lists both standard tools and newer, more controversial tools used in the paranormal field today.

Standard Ghost Hunting Equipment

Notebook and Pencil: While these might seem pretty basic and obvious, they're probably the most underused and neglected tools for investigating the paranormal. However, keeping a small notebook and pen or pencil within reach usually proves to be the best way to keep track of small details that investigators might want to remember before, during and after an investigation like historic information, the client's claims of paranormal activity, details or experiences that might go unrecorded, etc.

Flash Light: Unfortunately, most paranormal investigators don't have cameramen following them around a location, so after the power is turned out, investigators are on their own, left in complete darkness. Flash lights are good sources of emergency light and in certain locations that lack any form of natural light (like basements, underground tunnels, etc.) a flashlight could really come in handy. Since flash lights work on battery power, they've also been known to stop working during paranormal investigations. Paranormal investigators theorize that ghosts draw energy from their surroundings to manifest and batteries are a good source of energy.

Batteries: Since battery-operated equipment might stop working during an investigation, it's best to bring plenty of extras.
Read more: http://paranormal.suite101.com/article.cfm/ghost_hunting_equipment_guide

An Interview with Paranormal Investigator/Demonologist Keith Johnson

Paranormal investigator Keith Johnson is a co-founder of New England Anomolies Research and Investigation (N.E.A.R.). Together with co-founder and wife Sandra Johnson, Johnson has over thirty years of experience dealing with paranormal topics and investigations. Johnson also works as a lay demonologist and with his team of paranormal investigators, assists individuals and families with cases of possible malevolent spirits, hauntings and/or possible demonic oppression and possession. N.E.A.R. assists individuals and families in the New England area.

Keith Johnson, G. Eppig, Karl Johnson, Emily Eppig

Univ-Con 2007

Johnson and his wife have also appeared on A&E Television Network's Paranormal State to assist members of the Paranormal Research Society with paranormal investigations involving possible malevolent paranormal activity. The couple also co-host the Ghost R Near television show which broadcasts at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Wednesdays in Rhode Island.
Eppig: As a demonologist, do you believe in a literal Devil? What is demonic energy?

Johnson: Yes, I do believe in the personification of the Devil. Demonic energy stems from the Devil, as well as individual spirits, each with their own distinct personality, yet joined together for their united Satanic purpose.
Eppig: How does demonic energy manifest itself in the human world? What do you think attracts demonic energy?

Johnson: Demonic energy manifests itself globally, in wars and pestilence. However, it can also be more subtle, such as individuals oppressed to commit horrendous, destructive acts... both to themselves and others.
Read the rest of Satan, Demons and Demonic Possession: An Interview with Keith Johnson.

Evidence for the Soul and Reincarnation

The following article was first published in the Centre Daily Times' Blue Weekly in 2005 and republished at Suite101.com in 2008.

During a presentation at Penn State University in 2005, Dr. Jim B. Tucker described how a mother was leaning over the changing table to change her son’s diaper. Her young toddler unexpectedly said, “When I was your age, I used to change your diapers.” Sam Taylor, of Vermont, was born 18 months following his grandfather’s death. When he made this comment, he was only a few years old. When he was four and a half years old, however, Taylor was able to pick out his grandfather from a class picture of about 20 people and identify his grandfather’s first car from a photograph. Tucker, a child psychiatrist, past-life researcher at the University of Virginia and author, studies cases of possible reincarnation in children. Taylor’s case is detailed in Tucker’s book Life Before Life: Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives along with studies of other children who seem to experience past life memory.

By studying children who claim to remember past lives, Tucker has accepted the possibility of the existence of reincarnation. Tucker does not approach the work as if reincarnation exists but does not deny that given the complexity of detail recalled, faking the information through coaching would be nearly impossible. Tucker also insists there’s no motivation for fraud.
Read the rest of Evidence for the Soul & Reincarnation.

Copyright Emily Eppig

An Interview with Ryan Buell of A&E's Paranormal State

Ryan Buell founded the Penn State Paranormal Research Society, now the Paranormal Research Society, in 2001 at the age of 19. The Paranormal Research Society began as a student club and today is made up of Penn State undergraduate and graduate students as well as various Penn State faculty and staff. PRS is comprised of two departments: Field Investigation and Research and Parapsychology and Laboratory Research. PRS is based in State College, Pennsylvania. Buell and his investigative team travel the United States assisting clients who feel they are dealing with disturbing paranormal activity in their homes or businesses. Some of these cases can be seen on the A&E Television Network reality show Paranormal State.

Eppig: What was your first experience with the paranormal field? Was it a personal experience, a book, or a person that influenced you?
Buell: When I was very young, I experienced something that was terrifying. I tried to tell my parents but they were understandably skeptical. For me, I locked it up inside until I entered my teens when I was ready to start looking for answers. Along the way, I learned about paranormal investigators such as Ed and Lorraine Warren and Hans Holzer.
Eppig: How old were you when you became interested in the paranormal field?
Buell: I began pursuing the paranormal when I was fifteen.
...Read the rest of my interview with Ryan Buell.

Copyright Emily Eppig

Ghosts of Fort Delaware

During the Civil War, the Fort was known as the Fort Delaware Death Pen and was also called the most dreaded Union prison. Almost 13,000 Confederate prisoners were housed in an area meant to hold only 10,000 men. Many prisoners attempted to escape and were caught. Over 2,700 men died in the Fort during the Civil War. According to an article by James A. Cox in the Civil War Times for July-August 1993, Fort Delaware “had the highest death rate of any Union prison, and through a combination of dreadful location, official mismanagement, and political malice and vengeance, it managed to develop its own style of shocking, inhuman treatment.”

Apparitions have been spotted during tours, by visitors, park officials and by re-enactors. Alleged paranormal activity that has occurred in recent years includes loud bangs with no known source, disembodied voices, objects moving and full-bodied apparitions. One of Fort Delaware’s most well known specters turns out to be a woman who frequents an officer’s kitchen. No one knows who she is exactly but she seems to think she owns the kitchen and made an appearance to female re-enactors who use the room. She’s also called out names and moved objects.
Others have reported witnessing the spirits of Confederate soldiers in and around the Fort. Paranormal activity associated with prisoners includes moaning and unexplained voices. The ghost of a woman and child supposedly haunt one of the buildings at the Fort. Paranormal activity associated with the mother and child includes tugging on hair and clothing, children’s laughter, a woman’s sobbing, books falling and candlesticks moving. In other areas of the Fort, a harmonica has been heard as well as the sound of a man swearing. People have reported to have been touched, tugged and spoken to by unseen entities.
Read more: http://ghosts-hauntings.suite101.com/article.cfm/ghosts_of_fort_delaware

A Two-Part Interview with Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman has traveled the world to research cryptozoological evidence and folklore since alleged sightings of the Abominable Snowmen caught his attention over four decades ago. Coleman has researched and investigated leading Black Panther sightings and sightings of Napes (North American Apes) in the American Midwest.
His research has also taken him to Canada, Mexico, Scotland, and the Virgin Islands, where he has interviewed witnesses of Lake Monsters, Bigfoot, Giant Snakes, Mystery Felids, Mothman, Thunderbirds, and numerous other cryptid creatures. In the following interview, Coleman talks about the mysterious field of cryptozoology...

Read my interview with cryptozoologist Loren Coleman.

Thank you to Loren Coleman for the shout-out.  :-)