Hey everyone, hope you all have a great day. We have all heard of Urban Legends, today I am going to talk about phantom travelers or hitchhikers.

They are ghosts of humans or sometimes animals that haunt a specific location, usually roads or rest areas. Sometimes even vehicles!! They place that they haunt usually has to due with a tragedy that occured there or some other strong emotional connection. Some are doomed to walk that particular route forever because of a sin that they committed.

Some of the earliest recorded sightings of phantom travelers date back to the 1600’s in Europe and Russia. By the time Washington Irving wrote his famous tale about the headless horseman in 1819 and 1820. Phantom travelers seem solid, substantial & real.

Some of the best known ghostly urban legends involve phantom hitchhikers. Most of the time the phantom hitchhiker is a girl or a young woman, the damsel in distress. She is seen, by a male driver. Dressed in white, she will suddenly appear in the car’s headlights. Most times she is soaking wet, although its not raining or there is no water in the area.

Once the driver stops and offers her a ride to where she is going, she will accept and quietly climb into the back seat. She is usually going to the next town, or whatever direction the driver is heading. On occasion she will give the driver her name, but this happens rarely.

The driver will sometimes give her his coat to warm her up. He also constantly checks the rearview mirror, noticing how beautiful she is. When the driver reaches the destination the girl gave him, she is gone when he stops the car & turns to her. If her clothes were wet then there is a wet spot on the seat of the car, or maybe a puddle of water on the floor. Sometimes she will leave behind a scarf or book.

The driver will go to the house that the girl indicated, he is greeted by a woman or sometimes a man & wife. They tell him that this happens every year. It is the anniversary of thier daughter’s death. She was either murdered or died in an accident in the location that she was first seen. She tries every year to make it home, but fails. The parents show the driver a photograph of the girl, and it is indeed the girl he picked up. She is wearing the same outfit too.

Now, here’s the the unexpected part, the driver will later go to the girl’s grave, and if he gave her his jacket in the car, then he will find it draped over her stone.

Come back tomorrow to find out about Resurrection Mary, one of the most famous phantom hitchhikers.

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Hello everyone, sorry I haven’t posted in a few days, I been really sick. I still don’t feel good, but at least I am out of bed today. I decided to continue on with the paranormal today.

Have you ever wonder what happens when you die? Well your not alone peole have been wondering this since the beginning of time & probably long before. Any answer to this question is theoretical at best. Why you ask? Because no one has ever died and returned to the mortal world with the memory of what it was like on the other side. There has however been a lot of conjecture as to what happens when we die.

Just about ever culture believes in some form of life after death. This varies greatly from one society to the next, here are just a few of the different beliefs:

   * The spirit continues continues an existence, only in another realm.

    * The spirit is judged and the sent to heaven or hell based on how you lead you life.

    * The spirit undergoes a series of rebirths/reincarnations, it’s goal is to improve toward a higher plane.

    * The spirit waits to eventually be reborn or resurrected.

There has been a group of people from alomst every society that has the ability to communicate with the spirits of those that have passed on. These people are called mediums. The word medium suggests that this person is a midway point, between the two worlds; the living & the dead. Some tribal societies call the medium a shaman. A shaman is considered to be a wizard of sorts. He/she act as a healer and an intermediary for messages between, the living, the dead and the gods.

Oracles and priests related messages and warning from the dead to the living, in classical times. Necromancers were seers andprophets that used magical spells & rituals to contact the dead. They would also call up the spirits of the dead to get infomation about the future.

Still others believe that, priests can accepts peance or alms for you will you are alive & that this will lighten you punsihment when you die. In spiritualism, a medium acted as a go-between to the worlds of the living and the dead. They are most known for contacting your loved ones at seances.

Another thing that varies from one society to the next is where we go once we die. The ancient Greeks believed in an underworld found in the bowels of the earth. They believed that caves, crevices, and cracks in the surface of the Earth where doorways to Hades.

Those from Animistic societies believe that the spirits of their loved ones exist side-by-side with them, just  unseen. Occultists and cabalists believe that there are ethereal concentric layers or plateaus around the world that are inhabited by different types of spirits.

Christians believe that if you are good you will go skyward to heaven & that if you are bad you will go downward, though not necessarily underground, to hell. Still other cultures, believe that the dead are put on hold, so to speak. They believe that that go to a netherworld where the await rebirth or judgement.

How the spirits actually get to the Other World is yet another problem. During the time of the Pharaohs, in Egypt, the walls of the tombs and the sarcophagi were filled with hieroglyphs. These hieroglyphs instructed the dead on how to proceed to be judged, then reborn into Eternity. The wizard-priests would also help to ease this passage through ritual prayers & mummification.

They believed that the soul had a spirit double. The double had two parts, called the ba & the ka. The ba held characteristics, traits & personality of the person and the ka was the life force. Both the ba & the ka remained in the burial chamber, while the soul moved on after death. The ba & the ka were able to leave the chamber & walk the cemetery at night. If the body was broken apart or if it was corrupted, the ba was unable to return to the chamber, this is why the used mummification. If the priest failed to make the proper offerings then the ka had to travel among the living to find food & drink.

There was a myth that began during the time of the Pharaohs, that the soul had to travel over a river to judgement. Classical Greece expanded this belief. The taught that the soul had to cross the River Styx into Hades on a small boat. This boat was driven by the ferryman Charon.  The legend was then adopted & adapted into Roman mythology.

Well that’s all for today. I am heading back to bed, been up too long. Take care all. If you have any questions feel free to email me at lisa.page@comcast.net

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Hello, I am so glad that today is almost over. It was the longest day. I am so looking forward to curling up & watching American Idol. As promised, today’s post is my friend’s encounter with a ghost.

Hey girl, I would be honored to tell my story for your blog. Hopefully it makes some believers out of your readers. We both know that it made one out of me. That’s right until my encounter I was a non-believer. Back in 1971, I went to New Orleans with my family, I was about 18 at the time. My father took us on a walk through all the historical houses, it was a great time. Anyway, we were touring the Destrehan Plantation, it’s located just outside of New Orleans. It is the oldest documented plantation home in the lower Mississippi Valley. While we were walking though the house I noticed a small key lying on the floor, I thought that someone may have dropped it. So, I picked it up and went to stick it in my pocket to return to the front desk, just in case the person came back. I took my hand out of my pocket & was just about to catch up to the tour when I felt a cold hand grab mine. I looked around thinking that my older brother was playing a joke on me. Noone was there. The hand would not let go of mine. Then I remember the key in my pocket. Now I have never believed in ghosts before but I sudden realized that this key in fact did belong to someone. The ghost holding on to my hand. Slowly I reached back into my pocket and took out the key. I bent down & put it back exactly where I found it. As soon as I did this, the ghost let go of my hand & was gone. I continued on my way & never told anyone for a long time. But I was a believer ever since that day.

Hope you all enjoyed this real life encounter. Everyone in a while I will post one of these. I even have one of my own that will scare the pants off you. Have a good night. If you have any questions feel free to email me at lisa.page@comcast.net

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Hi everyone, hope your day was good. Mine didn’t start off to good but it got better. I was talking with one of my co-workers today about ghosts & she is not a believe. In fact she got pretty mad at me when I told her that ghosts do exist. Do you believe?

One out of three people surveyed, in the October 1999 Gallup Poll, said that they believed in ghosts. This is 3 times more then in the 1970’s. But do they really exist? Or even can they exist? For all of you that are like my co-worker & say absolutely not, to both of these questions, think for a minute a few other things that people have belived to be true.

The world was flat, which we now know is wrong but people actually used to believe this before someone proved them wrong. Here’s another one that people actually thought to be true, the sun & the stars revolve around the earth. Now, I know that most of you are probably laughing right now, but people believed that it was true before they discovered otherwise. I know most of you heard this one before & got a good laugh, but again people actually believed it, the moon is made of green cheese.

One of my teachers once told me that “a good researcher carries a healthy dose of skepticism, but not cynicism.” I thought this to be very good advice & have used it to keep my mind open to all possibilities, including the possibility of ghosts, which yes I am a believer.

People who believe in ghosts don’t need evidence to prove their existence, yet no amount of proof will convience a non believer. But, it’s not a black & white issue. It’s not easy to seperate the believers from the non believers. It’s a question of whether you believe if there’s life, or any type of survial, after death.

For exapmle there are people that don’t believe in survival after death, therefore when you die there is no way you can return as a ghost. There are others who believe in life atfer death but don’t believe that you can return to the world as ghosts, once you have died. And then there are the people who believe in life after death & the possiblity of the dead returning as ghosts.

It’s actually not even that simple, many people that may or may not believe in life or survival after death believe in other spirits, such as angels & demons, that are able to appear to be human even though they are not ghosts of humans.

There are also apprations of living people, people who are curently alive just not physically there. In simpler terms, a person could be alive and in one place, while their “ghost double” will appear somewhere else.

Of course you are going to come across those literal people, who don’t believe in, life after death, ghosts, & heavenly spirits or demons. They are the ones that see of hear something paranormal & will try to find a logical reason behind it.

Well that’s all for today, hopefully I was able to shed a little light on the paranormal and made changed a few minds. Come back tomorrow for a true story that happened to one of my friends.

If you have a any questions please feel free to email me at lisa.page@comcast.net

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Hi all, hope you are all having a good day. Toady I am going to talk about the paranormal. Most people don’t believe in ghosts, but they are amoung us. At least that’s what people have thought since the beginning of time. Long before written word ghosts stories have been passed along. Memebers of societies bleiveing in spirits cliamed to have seen the spirits of their dead ancestors. Many ancient seers would call upon spirits or the dead to foretell the future. It wasn’t until the first centurt A.D. that these ghostly tales & legends were written done.

Two thousand years later, people still believe in ghosts. Too many people are reporting seeing spectres and ghostly phenomena for us to ingore the possiblity that something must be out there! But, what is everyone hearing, seeing, or experiencing?

Before I go any furthur, I want to clarify a few things, make sure we are all on the same page. Not everyone means the same thing when they say the word ghost. There are many simple yet misunderstood words that are specific to the study of ghostly phenomena.

The majority of people use the word “ghost” to mean any phantom object. What they really mean is a spirit of a being that has passed on. In my posts when I refer to a “ghosts” I am referring to the latter. I bet some of you are wondering what the difference is? Most reports of ghostly phenomena throughout the centuries, have been of things that were never human. People have reported seeing spectral animals or phantom trains. These objects were never human, and the obviously never had a soul or spirit.

Paranormals reseachers use the word “apparition” to describe a visual appearance of a disembodied entity. This describes all types of phantoms, wheter they are human or not. An example of a apprition would be seeing an angel beside your bed, you wouldn’t call it a ghost, right? I know most of you would never make this distinction when talking to your friends on the street but, investgators feel that’s its best to stick with the word apparition unless of course you actully mean a ghost. An easy way to look at it is all ghosts are apparitions but not all appatitions are ghosts.

Here is a list of other words that are used to describe a ghost or apparition:

Essence

Manifestion

Nightshade

Phantasm

Phantom

Presence

Shade

Shadow

Soul

Spectre or specter

Spirit

Spook

Vision

Wraith

Then of course there are poltergeists which, is a completely different thing. (I will discuss them in a later post.)

There are many different kinds of apparitions . Did you know that some keep to a schedule? There are some that are only seen once. An example of this would be the case of a luminous ghost of a boy that appeared in Corby Castle in Cumberland, England, one night only, September 8, 1824. Some appear at a certain date or time. Yet others will appear on the anniversary of a certain date. Phantom hitchhikers are know to appear on the anniversary of their death. Then of course there are the ones that take up residence at a place that they were someone connected to when they were alive. These ghosts are seen more frequently.

The person who sees the apparition is called the percipient and the apparition is called the agent. Agent is used especially when you refer to an apparition that intentionally makes itself visible. It wants to be seen, usually because it has a message to give.

Hope this clears up some of the confusion about ghosts. Be sure to come back for more on ghosts. If you have any questions feel free to email me at lisa.page@comcast.net

Have a great day!!

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