CHATEAU DE BRISSAC: HAUNTED HOUSE OF THE WEEK

Chateau de Brissac (Brissac Castle) in Loire Valley, France is said to be highly-haunted due to a grisly double murder. It's said that the castle's original owner, Jacques de Breze found his wife Charlotte and her lover one evening together in the castle and stabbed them both to death.


Legend says the two have haunted the castle ever since. Jacques is said to have sold the castle soon after their deaths, as he was so scared of their ghosts, he could no longer live there alone.

Charlotte, or "The Green Lady" as she is called (I can't find out why?), is said to wander the halls in search of something. Rebuilt in the 17th century, the castle has over 200 rooms and is now open to the public.

MARYLAND MAN GIVES TALK TO LOCAL GHOST HUNTERS

Last week, Maryland's Gazette published a story about a local ghost hunting group based in Odenton, MD who hosted Bill Bean Jr. as a guest speaker to an audience of over 90 people.

Bean's story of the haunted house he grew up in in Glen Burnie, MD has been made into a DVD which has been shown on Discovery Channel's "A Haunting." The same DVD was shown to the group, coupled with a lecture given by Bean.

Bean told the group that he moved into the house when he was just 4 years old.

"We left that home in 1980," he said. "I didn't discuss our experiences until I was approached to talk about it on a local radio station in 2002. . .Our childhood was robbed. There were no slumber parties at our home, no friends to come over and play for fear of what the evil entities would do."

Bean described the house as eerie, with dark paneling and a narrow hall. After his family moved in, a bedroom door began opening and slamming repeatedly. Soon after sinks would overflow, beds would be stripped after his mother made them, and heavy footsteps could be heard in the attic. He also said that he and his mother were attacked by an invisible entity.

Finally, the family called in a priest who blessed the house and gave the family holy water.

"It got to a point where the priest told us to call him anytime day or night. He would bring holy water to our home in large Mason jars on numerous occasions," Bean said.

You can read more of the article, written by Donna Fellows, here.

Bean has also written a book about his experience titled "Dark Force." Check it out on Bean's own website here.

"HAUNTED HOUSES" RIVALING HORROR FLICKS?

On ABC News today there's a story about how "haunted houses" are rivaling scary movies this Halloween:

"Big-budget special effects, elaborate sets, and exotic locations are turning what once were neighborhood haunts into weekend destinations for those who love to scream."

Read more here.

On a personal side note, I used to work at one of these places-- a low-budget setup called the "Haunted Hayride" in Tucson, AZ. This was probably the most fun job I've ever had despite being decapitated dozens of times each night! I have yet to enjoy myself that much as a patron of these kinds of places, but then again, I'm still trying to get to Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary.

Me and Curt, "The Executioner", at the Haunted Hayride in Tucson.

DUDLEY TOWN: CURSED TOWN

Ghost Village has a feature today on Dudley Town - a deserted town in Cornwall, CT that is said to have been cursed. I've actually been to this place many years ago with some friends on a ghost tour given by Ed and Lorraine Warren. I can say first hand that this place is weird.

It was the middle of spring and not a bird, insect, or wild animal could be heard despite the lush forest. When we were set to leave, the Warren's car mysteriously refused to start and we had to bring them to a nearby gas station to get things running again.

While I can honestly say that while I was there, I didn't feel anything was truly amiss, I do feel that something "followed" me home. Strange things (So strange I'm not even going to try to explain them here) happened after I returned and didn't leave until about two weeks later.

You can read the testimonials of others here.

AREA 51:OREN PELI'S NEXT PROJECT?

On MTV Movie Blogs it has been mentioned that Oren Peli, director of Paranormal Activity could have a new project in the works, this time "an original, found-video thriller called 'Area 51.'" MTV reports this was mentioned almost offhandedly in a Los Angeles Times profile.

NEW TV: GHOST LAB

The latest in big-dudes-busting-ghosts reality shows will air on October 6 at 10 pm on the Discovery Channel. "Ghost Lab" follows two brothers from Texas, Brad and Barry Klinge, who want to get to the scientific root of why ghosts act the way they do.

Their team, titled "Everyday Paranormal" travels in a mobile lab that is capable of providing 200,000 watts of electricity to power audio, video and photo analysis stations; flat-screen televisions and an interactive touch-screen smartboard. The lab also contains surveillance video cameras; temperature, humidity and dew point data loggers; thermal imaging cameras; and audio recorders.

Some of the locations the Klinge brothers and their team investigate on the 13-episode-show include Tombstone, Arizona; Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, where Elvis got his start; and Granbury Opera House, where legend says that John Wilkes Booth changed his name and performed Shakespeare after assassinating Abraham Lincoln. Apparently the Klinge brothers also manage to get Civil War soldiers talking on audio.

Sounds worth checking out, especially in time for Halloween.

The team (with Klinge brothers looking on ominiously in the back)

GHOST EXPERIENCE FOR SALE: EBAY LISTING OF THE WEEK

This week a guy was selling his ghost "experience" on Ebay. He visited an abandoned mental asylum in Marlboro, NJ and recorded 30 minutes of audio in the hospital graveyard. The auction closed with 0 bids, but it's still worth checking out. There are a lot of photos of the buildings and some orb pictures around the headstones.

Here's a little bit about the place from his listing:

"Even its beginnings were tainted w death and suffering. The land the hospital sits on was originally a slaughterhouse/cattle farm. The owner was referred to as Old Man Sam. He was said to live in a house painted with blood, and used to hang slaughtered carcasses on the property to warn people away. The State wanted his land so they could build the hospital complex, but he refused their offers. They eventually just seized the land. Old Man Sam swore revenge. He eventually was driven insane and wound up as an inmate in the hospital. Years later he escaped and was never found. There have been many reports of a "Watcher" in these woods by the staff and patients, and many people believe this to be Old Man Sam. He doesn't move or make a sound, he just stands there, watching. If you turn for a second he disappears. It is said whenever someone would report seeing this Watcher in the woods, someone would turn up missing or dead within a short time of the sighting."

SPIELBERG GETS SPOOKED BY "PARANORMAL ACTIVITY"

This week, it was reported in the LA Times that director and Dream Works studio head, Stephen Spielberg was convinced that his copy of the anxiously awaited "Paranormal Activity" was haunted.

In 2008 when Spielberg was still making a decision about whether or not to be a part of the small budget ghost thriller, he got spooked. According to reports, Spielberg had taken his copy of the film to his Pacific Palisades estate and after watching it, the door to his bedroom was mysteriously locked from the inside, forcing him to call a locksmith to get him out.

Not wanting the copy of PA anywhere near his home, Spielberg apparently brought the movie back to Dream Works in a garbage bag, but was so excited about the creepy film that he decided to back it. This is the producer of Poltergeist, after all.

The film is set to open tomorrow in the following towns:

Austin, TX
Baton Rouge, LA
Orlando, FL
State College, PA
Ann Arbor, MI
Boulder, CO
Madison, WI
Tucson, AZ (to my Tucson friends: Go to EL CON, then email me a review!)
Santa Cruz, CA
Durham, NC
Columbus, OH
Seattle, WA
Lincoln, NE

For the rest of us who want to see it, we need to DEMAND IT to get it into our towns.

THE "TREE MAN" MAKES FULL RECOVERY

A 38-year-old man nicknamed "The Tree Man" and "The Human Coral Reef" has recently recovered from a rare skin condition he's suffered from for the last 25 years. The condition, which caused his whole body to be covered in shell-like growths, started when Lin Tianzhuan of Shuimen, China was only 13:

"It started with a few hard bumps so I tried to apply antibiotics and creams but it didn't get better," he explained. "Instead it just got worse. They grew and grew and soon they were all over my arms and legs, my back and even my head. Ii was as if I was turning to stone and it was terrifying," he says.

Fuzhou Dermatosis Prevention Hospital vice president Dr Liu Yinghong said: "His hands, forearms, feet and calf were covered with these dark brown hard shells, looking like dry branches. The seriousness and long-lasting nature of the disease shocked us."

Fortunately, there's a happy ending to this awful story. Now after a year of treatment and surgery, Tianzhuan has made a full recovery with "just a few discoloured skin patches to show for his horrific condition."

To read more about "The Tree Man," go here.

BOOK PICK OF THE WEEK

I first started reading Laura Kasischke when I only knew her as a poet (one of my favorites). I then moved on to read her dark novels, charged with the gripping language of her poetry. So I was intrigued to recently learn that she has since traveled into Young Adult territory and has published two YA novels. I finished the first one last night.

Boy Heaven is the story of three girls who go to cheerleading camp and run into a couple of boys from the "wrong side of the tracks." Kasischke is so good at capturing a mood and engaging her reader, someone would have had to wrench the book from my hands if they wanted to take a peak. Pages turned in front of my face so fast, I nearly got a breeze. Oh, all right, not really, but the book is immediately gripping and creepy. It's also indicative of what I love in light reading - a wicked, lusty, death-fueled joyride taken by teenage girls camping out in the wilds of some unamed state on a body of water called Lovers' Lake.

Boy Heaven plays on urban legends, ghost stories told around camp fires, and blossoming womenhood juxtaposed with death. That reedy dude, the Grim Reaper, is hiding behind every peeling birch tree.

If you like juicy, fun reads peppered with eerie and beautiful language, Boy Heaven is for you.

Here's are a couple small excerpts from the book:

She looked terrible. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail that looked painful. It was just a fat red rubber band, I could see that, and I winced when I thought of how much it was going to hurt to pull that thing out before she went to bed -- or, worse, in the morning, after all the little strands had worked their way around the rubber. She had no makeup on at all, and, without it, I could see that her eyelashes were not black, after all, put pale red, lighter than her hair. Her lips looked chapped. And she smelled like sweat. "Those boys," she said. "They're watching us from over there."

*******************************************************************************

The sun had all but set, just a deep pink glow over the other end of Lovers' Lake, and it lit up the pine trees like arrows. Only the other Kristi was looking in my direction, and she seemed to be gazing far across the lake, not noticing me at all, looking for those boys. So I stepped up to the edge of the water, and although I'd been warned a million times not to, I knelt down and cupped my right hand under the surface of it and drank from it -- the coolest and freshest water I'd ever tasted, or would ever taste again. I stood up just then the first blast exploded from the other side of the lake, and looked. It was like a huge slippery rose in the sky, shimmering before being ripped into a million pieces, being turned into burning tears and earrings, and drifting down from the darkness onto the surface of the lake, where it sizzled and writhed for a moment, then disappeared.

HAUNTED HOUSE OF THE WEEK

This is the first post in a series I've entitled "Haunted House of the Week." What better place to start than here in MD? And what better place to start than in MD than in highly-haunted Ellicott City?

Lilburn Mansion is probably the most famous haunted house in Ellicott City. According to its history, Lilburn's ghosts have made themselves known since the 1920s when the mansion was rebuilt after a fire in 1923. After the new owners, The Hazelhursts, bought it, a string of bad luck seemed to follow them. They lost several children while living in the house and Henry Hazelhurst lost several members of his family before his own time came.

The rumor is Henry still lives in the house along with several other ghosts including the apparition of a little girl and a man. Cigar smoke is said to manifest in the library and float across the room, heavy footsteps can be heard on the stairs, and the windows absolutely refuse to stay shut despite being tied closed.

GOOGLE'S BIRTHDAY SALUTE TO H.G. WELLS

Google's mysterious UFO-themed graphics have finally been explained. Site designer Michael Lopez has said the three different extraterrestrial motifs on Google's main page this month were a tribute to science fiction author H.G. Wells. His 143rd birthday would have been September 20.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

The much-anticipated film "Paranormal Activity" has a website with a new trailer I haven't seen yet. This makes me want to see it even more now, especially that thing that gets into the bed!
The movie is playing in a handful of cities. You can DEMAND IT in a city near you.

HISS BOO!

Can your pet see ghosts? Animal Planet wants to find out. They are launching a new show called "Haunted Animals" that looks at the animal kingdom's ability to interact with the supernatural.

To get everyone in the spirit, they are inviting people to bring their pets to the notoriously haunted Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder, KY where they are shooting their first episode. This is the place where, on Ghost Adventures, Zak Bagans taunted the spirit world with his famous line: "If this is the portal 'a hell, then why don't you come up out of that ground and git us!" Maybe pets that visit can solve the puzzle of Bobby Mackey's.

Animal Planet is now casting for the show. To find out how you and your pet can be a part of the experience, go here.

On a side note, I wish my dearly departed dog Chico were still with us. He used to growl at the stairs in our old house. Later when I got my cat, Murphy, he used to hiss at the same place!

LANTERNS OR GHOSTS?

Stephen's Paranormal Phenomenon Blog over at About.com posted the photo below from a reader named Kathy.

"This picture was snapped while driving down a country road in East Texas," says Kathy. "Look at the figures standing by the road through the car window. They seem to be dressed in black and their faces and hands are white...."

Stephen said it looked like three paper lanterns hanging from trees. Kathy's response?

"Hmmm...paper lanterns? I will have to disagree. That blowup is extremely blurry. When I zoom in on it with the original version, it looks much clearer, and you can actually make out hands and clothing... you can tell two of the figures seem to be dressed in pants and the third figure seems to be wearing a long dress. Also, the bottom half of the figures looks transparent through the fence. Anyway, that looks like an abandoned homestead; I don't think anyone would be hanging paper lanterns there."

What do you think?

IF THIS IS THE PORTAL OF HELL. . .

Good new for fans of Ghost Adventures: A new season starts in November, and to get everyone in the Halloween spirit, they are doing a live show on October 30th. Attention all spirits: Get ready for chucklehead high jinx!!

According to the website:

The Ghost Adventures crew -- Zak, Nick and Aaron -- will lock themselves in one of America's most haunted locations for the most ambitious LIVE paranormal investigation ever attempted.Built during the Civil War, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV, is the second largest, hand-cut stone building in the US, second only to the Kremlin in the world. For decades its massive walls housed the insane, the neglected and the unwanted. Patient-on-patient violence was common. Inmates were subjected to brutal medical procedures. The asylum was finally shut down in 1994 and stands empty today.

Sounds like a good time. I would watch the full seven hours just to watch Zak and his doily pants get all up in the supernatural spirit of the place.

Zak and Nik taunt spirits in the "portal 'a hell."

EARTH-LIKE PLANET

Details about the smallest planet just outside of our solar system were released Wednesday. Turns out CoRoT-7b, as it's called, is a lot like earth in both density and surface, but is unlivable by our standards. At a temperature of between 1,000 and 1,500 Celsius, it's not probable that life could be sustained there. This is big news, however. How many other planets are out there that are somewhat like our own?

GOOGLE AND CROP CIRCLES??

Crop circles have once again "cropped up" overnight (September 14) all over the world, according to National Geographic News. What makes this outbreak so odd and suspicious is that the Google logo on Google's homepage also turned into crop circle artwork that featured a UFO on the same night. Hmmmmm.

MOTHMAN FESTIVAL

The Eighth Annual Mothman Festival will be held this weekend in Point Pleasant, WV. The Mothman Festival, which was created around the supernatural legend of the Mothman, will be dedicated this year to the memory of B.R. DeWeese, an event worker who helped make it successful. To find out more about the festivities, visit the official site here.

BLINDED BY SCIENCE AND SPOOKS

Since Halloween is on its way and I'm a fan of all things spooky, I've decided to start a blog devoted to creepy places, urban exploration, and unexplained phenomenon -- basically anything that gives me a chill.

Since childhood, I've been attracted to and repelled by dark places and weird things. Anything unexplained has made me sit up and take notice while also trying to figure it out. While I'm not a believer in all things "haunted", I'm also not a strict skeptic either (I've had too many "weird" experiences) I tend to fall somewhere in between, believing there are things that we can explain through science and things that are far beyond our comprehension that can't be explained with science alone.

In any case, I'm fascinated by all things eerie. So what better way to celebrate that fascination than to blog about it? Whether this blog will just be seasonal or not, only time will tell. . .

A photo I took of my friends in front of our local "haunted house."
A mist my photography teacher couldn't explain turned up in
the photo around the tops of my friends' heads.