17 Practical Tips for Would-Be Ghost Hunters

If you watching ghost hunting shows has inspired you to try ghost hunting yourself, Elsa Cook gives would-be ghost hunters seventeen practical tips.

Whether or not you believe in ghosts, these are some common sense ideas to remember in the pursuit of spirits. One thing I would add is to recite a prayer of protection before hunting for ghosts in the event you encounter an entity that is evil or harmful.

Ghosts are thought by some to…

…hurt you (rare but possible!)
…move at the speed of thought
…mess with your equipment
…speak to you through thought
…follow you home!

For the first-time ghost hunter, the excitement of being in the moment can sometimes cause lapses in common sense. Sometimes, a last minute decision to visit a cemetery late at night can end badly. Recall the school teacher in Tennessee who held a group of teens at gunpoint, believing them to be trespassing.

In fact, this relates to the number one rule: Read more

How to Make a Voodoo Doll

Planet Voodoo conjured up this video showing how to make your very own New Orleans-style Voodoo Hoodoo doll. My post How to Make a Poppet explains how to make magical dolls, but I really like the method shown in this video.

The Army's Plan to Turn Soldiers into Telepaths

The U.S. Army wants to allow soldiers to communicate just by thinking. 
The new science of synthetic telepathy could soon make that happen.

On a cold, blustery afternoon the week before Halloween, an assortment of spiritual mediums, animal communicators, and astrologists have set up tables in the concourse beneath the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York. The cavernous hall of shops that 
connects the buildings in this 98-acre complex is a popular venue for autumnal events: Oktoberfest, the Maple Harvest Festival, and today’s “Mystic Fair.”

Traffic is heavy as bureaucrats with ID badges dangling from their necks stroll by during their lunch breaks. Next to the Albany Paranormal Research Society table, a middle-aged woman is solemnly explaining the workings of an electromagnetic sensor that can, she asserts, detect the presence of ghosts. Nearby, a “clairvoyant” ushers a government worker in a suit into her canvas tent. A line has formed at the table of a popular tarot card reader.

Amid all the bustle and transparent hustles, few of the dabblers at the Mystic Fair are aware that there is a genuine mind reader in the building, sitting in an office several floors below the concourse. This mind reader is not able to pluck a childhood memory or the name of a loved one out of your head, at least not yet. But give him time. He is applying hard science to an aspiration that was once relegated to clairvoyants, and unlike his predecessors, he can point to some hard results. Read more

Saudi Arabia's "Anti-Witchcraft Unit" Breaks Another Spell

An anti-witchcraft unit, established in 2009, is charged with apprehending sorcerers and reversing the detrimental effects of their spells in Saudi Arabia.

When the severed head of a wolf wrapped in women's lingerie turned up near the city of Tabouk in northern Saudi Arabia this week, authorities knew they had another case of witchcraft on their hands, a capital offence in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom.

Agents of the country’s Anti-Witchcraft Unit were quickly dispatched and set about trying to break the spell that used the beast’s head.

Saudi Arabia takes witchcraft so seriously that it has banned the Harry Potter series by British writer J.K. Rowling, rife with tales of sorcery and magic. It set up the Anti-Witchcraft Unit in May 2009 and placed it under the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPV), Saudi Arabia's religious police. Read more

Loch Ness-Like Monster Filmed in Alaska?

The alleged sea serpent has a long neck, a horse-like head, large eyes and back bumps that stick out of the water.

A video from 2009 shows something mysterious moving across the surface of the sea that resembles an Alaskan version of the Loch Ness monster.

Some are claiming that the animal is a "Cadborosaurus," a type of reptile or lizard that got its name from Cadboro Bay, in British Columbia. They say that what's in the video is a sea serpent that dwells in the North Pacific and possibly other regions.

Accounts generally describe it as having a long neck, a horse-like head, large eyes, and back bumps that stick out of the water. Read more

Huge Crop Circle Discovered within Yards of Stonehenge

A huge crop circle appeared in a field of wheat alongside Stonehenge on July 14, 2011.

Who built Stonehenge has long been the subject of debate among scholars.

But now the ancient site has offered up another conundrum - in the form of a giant crop circle.

This impressive 200ft design appeared within sight of the ancient monument yesterday.

And as ever the debate will rise as to who is responsible.

Some believe they are manmade, others that they are caused by earth's magnetic field. And there are a number who are convinced they are the work of extra-terrestrials

The ancient site is widely considered the most important prehistoric monument in Britain and is proving to be a hot spot for the phenomena this season. Read more

Did UFO Cause Power Failure at Nuclear Missle Base?

Did a UFO cause a power failure at a nuclear missile base? Missile technicians claim UFO sightings coincided with an October power outage at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.

When Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming lost control of 50 nuclear, inter-continental missiles last October, officials said a communication failure between the control centre and the weapons was to blame.

However, three missile technicians stationed at the base have raised fresh questions in the case, amid reports UFO sightings coincided with the incident.

UFO researcher Robert Hastings says eyewitnesses claim the interruption to the power supply also lasted much longer than the Air Force admits. Read more

Was That a Real Chupacabra in Texas?

Did a retired wildlife biologist and his wife see a real chupacabra in Texas? He doesn't think so, but he apparently doesn't know what it was either. Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Don't resign yourself to chupacabra nightmares just yet. Even Jack Crabtree, the supplier of photos to The Facts, his local Texas paper, doesn't think that he witnessed a real chupacabra, or "The Bigfoot of Latin Culture," as dubbed by CNN during a previous chupacabra sighting.

According to a report by ABC News, the retired wildlife biologist and his wife Linda saw the slow-moving, hairless creature wandering by a creek at the back of their house on the Fourth of July. They took photos, and Crabtree sent them to the newspaper, jokingly calling it a Chupacabra. Read more

Roswell Debris Proven to Be Extraterrestrial

No one knows how much debris was picked up and kept by the first people to stumble upon the 1947 crash of a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico, but debris from the crash continues to be discovered. Frank Kimbler, a New Mexico high school geology teacher, found some pieces of debris and had them tested. He says the test proved that the debris was extraterrestrial.

A teacher at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell may have discovered the first scientific evidence of manufactured debris made on another planet. Furthermore, this debris was found near the location where pieces from an alleged flying saucer were discovered outside of Roswell in 1947.

Frank Kimbler teaches high school level Earth Sciences and college level Geology at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. He says he has always had an interest in UFOs, and actually had his own unusual sighting in his twenties. So when he moved to Roswell, he decided to put his expertise to the test and take a shot at investigating the most famous UFO incident of all time, the crash at Roswell. Read more

The Art of Arts: Principles and Lore of Working Magic

Here are a few of the principles and lore of working magic in Traditional Witchcraft and British folk magic, most of which have strong connections from Celtic lore and mythology. Most of these principles are common to magical traditions throughout the world.

Nottinghamshire Police Witchcraft, Ghost and UFO Reports

The Nottinghamshire (UK) police released figures on the number of paranormal reports they have received over the past six years. Apparently, people are still accusing their neighbors of witchcraft across the pond. Witchcraft  reports outnumbered ghosts and UFO reports put together by a wide margin.

Nottinghamshire Police received more than 80 reports of ghosts, witchcraft and UFO sightings in the last six years.

The force revealed there were 46 reports of witchcraft, three UFO sightings and 34 incidents involving ghosts.

Ch Insp Ted Antill said there were calls where officers did attend the scene of "ghost sightings".

He confirmed the UFO sightings were "exclusively" Chinese lanterns. Read more

Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul Haunted Hotel Stay

Simon Cowell and paula Abdul had a spooky stay at the Stoneleigh Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

Someone call the Ghostbusters! Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul spent a night in a haunted hotel in Dallas. Judge L.A. Reid checked out the same day he checked in because he reportedly got "spooked out." Wimp!

The judges were to stay at the Stoneleigh Hotel & Spa while they filmed auditions for the US version of 'The X Factor.' However, they had no idea that creepy ghosts live in the walls of the hotel. Read more