Hiding In Shadows

One paranormal entity that has aways unnerved me is the mysterious "shadow people". I have never seen a human shadow form, but I did however catch a glimpse of an animal shadow form - a cat that was perched upon my desk in my bedroom, that quickly jumped down into thin air when I opened my door to enter. As I have four cats at home, (none of which are allowed in my room) I first supposed that one had managed to sneak in, but upon extensive searching, found no such cat to be hiding anywhere in the room. The ghostly cat was black, and followed the common traits of a shadow form.

Here's a little excerpt from Wikipedia:

Shadow people (also known as shadow figures, shadow beings, shadow men, or shadow folk) are supernatural shadow-like figures of both modern folklore and paranormal popular culturee that believers describe as dark humanoid forms or evasive specters that are seen mostly in peripheral vision.

Hmm, interesting.

You see, shadow people are reportedly the most common of all apparitions seen. They can be men, women, children and animals as I had seen.

Many have actually been reported to be just black masses with red glowing eyes (THAT part scares me). Also it seems that descriptions of seen shadow people have been so consistent in fact that there is actually a belief that the very same shadow entity is responsible for multiple sightings and hauntings, I.E a shadow man with a hat (or "hat man" as he is referred) is described as a very common apparition sighting as well as the "hooded figure". Whether it is the same man with a hat and hooded figure each time is doubtful to me, but many believe it to be so.

So why are they made up of a black mass?

The mass of their form is apparently so dense that flashlights will not even penetrate and unlike many other apparitions seen, they are often not translucent at all.

Popular belief says that the shadow form is due to their spiritual condition. The black shadow represents an absence of light or truth - not necessarily that they are of evil or malevolent intention, but that for some reason or another, the entity is unwilling to go towards the light and move on from this world.

This may be due to continuing attachments to people, objects or places in the physical world, or very often are hiding in fear of moving onto an eternal hell as punishment for something they have committed in their physical life.

Another trait typical in shadow people is fearfulness of being seen. Almost all sightings are reported as a fleeting glimpse as the apparition hastily disappears from sight, or the apparition may be calm and seemingly unaware in the presence of physical people - until the entity realises it can be seen. Shadow people even go so far to remain unseen that another common sighting is of a shadow person peeking around corners while in a manifested state.

Their will to stay in hiding at all costs is somewhat puzzling. Only coming out in darkness, hiding behind objects and perhaps even using a sort of camouflage (the shadow form) is fascinating. What are they hiding from, that even in death in a spiritual form, keeps them running for what could be an eternity?

The picture used is the infamous Moundsville Penitentiary Shadow Man photo, captured by Polly Gear of Mountaineer Ghosts Paranormal Investigators. Read her fascinating account of the shadow man here: http://www.angelsghosts.com/moundsville_penitentiary_shadow_man_ghost_picture.html

Wow, almost a year after that last post promising a return to PP I never quite did make a comeback.... Better late than never I say.

Anyway, lately I have been thinking about my past ghosthunting days. I havent been on an investigation in perhaps almost 2 years.
Why? Because time hasn't permitted, and there's simply no one to go with anymore. All the friends and fellow enthusiasts I used to hunt with have moved away to better places, and alas, I am the only one left. Investigations are never as much fun by yourself.
So it got me thinking... What if I were to form another group, a local paranormal society with people who; although they may be complete strangers at first, share the same love and passion of the unkown?
People who would be willing to donate one or two weekends a month to conducting research and investigations at active locations around the downs?
Yes, That's exactly what I'll do.

If you live in the Darling Downs region of QLD Australia and are interested, send me a comment or email and we may get this thing rolling.

The Postings Return

Long time no see.
Im pleased to announce that PP shall be back up and running with a (more) constant flow of articles running in... In fact I'm working on one right now, expect it within a day or two.

Caesars Nightclub: The last chance

It deeply saddens me to report that Caesars Nightclub, located at 156-160 Streatham Hill, London, is listed to be demolished in March 2009.

Besides being London's largest club of its kind, Caesars is also known for its ghostly occurrences and inhabitants - Most predominately the spirit of Ruth Ellis, who became the last female to be executed in the United Kingdom, after she shot and killed her lover David Blakely.

You can read more about Ruth Ellis here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Ellis

The nightclub was explored and investigated in Series 2 of UK's Living TV Most Haunted.

The nightclubs owner, Fred Batt, is opening his doors to ghost hunters one last time, in a bid to capture solid evidence of the hauntings that he and employees of the famed nightclub have experienced throughout the years. Often a buildings' paranormal activity escalates just before a planned demolition, so perhaps desired results will (this time) be achieved.

If you live in the UK, or are able to make it to London for this one last chance to explore Caesars, a very special night will be held on Friday 13Th February 2009.

Some of the famous faces of the paranormal research world will be attending the event, respected mediums, as well as the media.

Activities will be non stop- from vigils, seance's, table tipping and access to the depths of the nightclub, which have never before been open to the public.

Tickets cost £49, the event will run from 8pm, till 4am.

Tickets can be purchased from here (please note that tickets are limited) :

http://www.hauntedhappenings.co.uk/ghost_hunting_events/event.php?id=225

Do not miss your last chance to experience one of London's great haunts before it's gone forever!

The Seven Gates Of Hell, York PA.

For those of you that don't know the wide spread tale of the seven gates of hell, I will treat you to the delight myself.

The story goes that a long time ago, a mental hospital stood in the area of the "Seven Gates Of Hell".
Seven gates seperated the mental hospital from the road, keeping mental patients securely away from the public.
A fire broke out in the asylum, and depending on which rendition you read, the surviving patients escaped into the surrounding woods only to be later violently shot down and murdered, as they were considered better off dead than to pose a possible threat to society, -
OR were all burned to death when they were trapped behind the seventh gate, thus being unable to flee the engulfing flames.

Apparently these gates lay upon a road called Trout Run, but formally and probably better known as Toad Road. The road is a dirt and gravel track that goes for miles, surrounded by woods and the odd tresspass warning sign. The first gate (to hell) is apparently somewhat visable from the road.
The seven gates are said to be miles apart from each other, and each gate brings on another level of fear. So much fear, that they say no one has made it past the fifth gate.
Youre supposed to hear noises, screaming, seeing figures in the woods, feel ill, electronics start going crazy... just generally feel creeped out.

The remains of the mental hospital is either just beyond or before the seventh gate, and is said to lay in a state of ruin.

Ok well thats how the story goes. Good ghost story to tell round the campfire eh?

I think it's quite obvious to tell that this ghost story is one thats been fabricated by teenagers and people looking for kicks in the middle of the night, by either scaring other people, or scaring themselves. Of course this builds hype and curiosity and causes more rumors and tales to come out of peoples experiences from The Seven Gates Of Hell.

So why am I being so skeptical?
Old mental hospitals are often used in faux ghost stories as they were almost always a place of torture, suffering and violent deaths, and of course the scary thought of crossing paths with the ghost of a possibly violent mental patient would scare the pants off of anyone.

The lack of dates, records or names... or in fact any even half solid evidence pointing to a fire or even the existance of an asylum is indeed very lacking.

The constantly repeated "no one's ever made it past the 5th gate" screams of fiction. How would anyone really know how far everyone's gotten? More importantly...how else do they know what lies beyond it?
Even if you do omit this part of the tale, the entire story seems rather dismissable.

So heres some other points to look at:
Recent reports say that the majority of the gates no longer remain along the path, and that the remains of the "asylum" have been torn down (I guess someone did make it past the 5th gate after all). In fact its been stated that there never even was an asylum, and the so called mental hospital was really just a derelict farm house. This would make sense as the gate seen in the picture looks more for the keeping of livestock rather than "dangerous" humans.


However I can't say this story is completely debunked, as theres seems to be a few somewhat credible paranormal encounters experienced along the Trout Run/Toad Road trail, but I think these are completely unrelated to the existance of a mental asylum and the violent deaths of hundreds of mental patients.

Please be aware that if you are thinking of investigating this area yourself, you will be tresspassing upon private property, and if caught can face heavy charges.
Due to the hype of this ghost story, the area has attracted a lot of unwanted attention and visitations. Frequent patrols of Trout Run are made (especailly at night), and neighbouring residents will not hesitate to report you.

The Start

Hey there supernatural buffs, a big welcome and thankyou for joining me on my very first entry in the all new blog:"The Paranormal Postings".

Get your daily fix of the supernatural, paranormal and just plain strange occurances, places and people. W'ell explore some mythology, decipher some legends and debate upon the evidence (or lack thereof).
Stay tuned if it sounds like something you'd enjoy, as I plan to continuously post more to build a nice little blog here for all of us paranormal loving beings.
You can be a part of it too, by either simply reading my blog, adding your thoughts, telling me what you think, what you'd like to read about, or even by sending in your very own true experiences.
IMPORTANT: Please note that by sending me your experiences, you are consenting to the possible use of them in my postings. Use of your name or email in my posts will not be used unless upon specific request.


Ghosthunters, Haunted house dwellers, Paranormal researchers, horror enthusiasts, scared litte childern - You're all welcome here!